Hello lovelies! Here's the newest chapter! Sorry that it's somewhat late; It was supposed to be finished Friday but I found this really good anime... and well, you can guess where that went. Shout out to breather, my beta reader for being fabulous as always. Anyways, enjoy!
A moment passed before the auras calmed down, but they were still there, just strong enough to stay near the front of Akumi's mind. They're expecting me. She knew that if they had wanted to hide their strength or numbers, they were definitely skilled enough to control their auras when they came into contact with another's.
It's probably the gatekeeper that told. Oh well! More fun for me. Her customary smirk appeared on her face, before she started walking at a normal person's rate. The aura she had released was just a small amount of what she was capable of. The Zoldycks knew that too.
I wonder who's going to come greet me. Maybe I'll get to do a bit of fighting. Right at that moment, she felt one of the strong nen presences disappear. To an outside observer, she gave no indication that she had noticed it, but if one looked closely, they could see a twinkle appear in her eyes. She was excited.
She continued walking, although her senses were on high alert. Moments later, she felt the missing presence re-appear, around 100 feet in front of her. Walking towards it, she emerged in a small clearing. Her eyes immediately focused on the figure standing in front of her. To the figure's left and right, there were short stone pillars followed by a wrought iron fence. The figure itself was someone who looked to be around 18, older than Akumi herself was. Staring for a moment, Akumi wasn't sure whether they were a boy or a girl, but then she remembered remembered reading that all the Zoldyck children were boys. This person was obviously not a butler, he was too strong for that. He had long black hair that reached mid-back and the biggest eyes Akumi had ever seen.
'It'd be fun to stab those,' the voice in her head whispered. Obviously, she couldn't do that, as she wanted to stay on the Zoldycks' good side at the moment. Her eyes zoomed in on yellow pins that he had placed in his shirt, counting twenty in all. Obviously a weapon. Most likely manipulation based nen, as it would otherwise be a bad choice in weapon. Oh dear, those are filled to the brim with his nen. It won't do if I get manipulated.
A smirk appeared on Akumi's face before she began to speak.
"Hello there Zoldyck child! I am overjoyed to be graced with such an important person's presence!" She then curtsied dramatically, allowing her hair to fall forward and cover parts of her face. Her eyes focused on his face, searching for any change in his facial expression. His face gave no indication that he had even heard her, only giant eyes staring at her in a look that could only be described as sheer boredom.
'Let's tease him a bit,' the voice said. Akumi decided to follow it this time. Maybe she would be able to observe something about the person.
"I was wondering if a girl like you c-" Akumi's voice was cut off quickly as a pair of needles were thrown straight towards both of her eyes. Excitement quickly bubbled up on her features as she saw the opponent before her. He was definitely strong. And apparently didn't like being called a girl.
Her head jerked to the side, the needle on the left slicing a small cut into the flesh just below her right eye before burying itself into the tree behind her. She felt his nen seeping into her, trying to seize control. She guessed that she would probably be fine as long as she didn't have multiple pins placed directly into a single vein. The smirk on her face grew as she felt the blood dripping down her cheek.
"I am a boy," the figure beside her stated, his body in exactly the same position as before, only now there were two pins in his right hand.
"Well dear boy, what is your name?" Akumi replied, a slight mocking tone in her voice.
"Illumi."
"Someone doesn't like talking. Anyways, I was wondering if I could talk to your parents for a while." Another pin flew towards her, this time aimed for her left shoulder. She swayed to the right, the needle barely missing her bicep. "I'll take that as a no. Anything I could do to convince you otherwise?"
This time, five of the yellow projectiles cut through the air, all aimed at different pressure points on her head and neck. Raising one hand, she allowed two of them to scrape the back of her hand that wasn't covered by her glove before snatching them out of the air. The other three flew past her neck and gouged three long gashes into the side of her neck. Blood almost immediately started flowing from all five wounds. The injuries weren't enough to really worry Akumi, but she knew that she had lost enough blood.
Illumi's eyes narrowed as he watched the girl dodge all the needles he sent at her. He knew that she was letting them hit her on purpose. He just didn't know why yet. The nen that was spreading through her system wasn't enough to take her out. He needed to get some securely lodged in her to take control. His mind wandered to the communicator in his pocket. Just how long did it take for his father to judge the intruder?
Laughter threatened to spill out of Akumi's mouth as she observed the two needles in her hands. Focusing her vision into gyo, she saw that the spherical heads contained a concentrated amount of nen while the needle itself was only sparsely coated. She threw them into the the stone pillar beside Illumi, reinforcing them with a small amount of shu so that they would take out a chunk of the granite before lodging themselves in the cracks.
Another wave of pins barreled towards her, this time much faster than before. She quickly jumped out of reach, subtly moving closer to Illumi.
"Apparently someone doesn't like sharing their toys." His facial expression still didn't change, still showing no signs of interest even though she knew he was carefully observing every movement. He's been trained well, she thought before speaking again. "Now I get to show off a little."
Her eyes darkened, going from a dark red to near black. The blood flowing from the wounds on her throat stopped dripping, raising off of her skin and into the air like whips. The blood dripping from her right wrist quickly spread out into a thin layer covering her entire hand. As another needle flew towards her, she jerked her head to the side, letting it rip out two of the piercings in the cartilage of her right ear. GODDAMMIT THAT HURT! she thought. Tearing one out hurt pretty badly, but damn, those felt like a bitch getting ripped out. Immediately, the blood flowing from her ear floated up, stretching into two more whips.
Akumi charged towards him, eyes full of excitement as her whips flew around her. Illumi jumped to the right, getting cut on the arm by one of the whips from her ear. He threw pins towards her feet attempting to pin her feet to the ground. Two of them connected, holding her right foot down as she moved her other foot out of the way.
"Fuck, you're going to pay for that." She felt the his nen quickly course through her bloodstream. Concentrating on her foot, she forced the blood flowing in it to stop. Three minutes before my foot becomes useless. Stopping blood circulation was no small feat, and Akumi let the blood covering her hand fall to the ground so that she could concentrate more on her foot.
Illumi waited for the nen to take effect. Seeing the blood on her hand return to normal, he threw a dozen needles straight towards her, wanting to end the battle and impatient for the call. He assumed that he wasn't going to get one, so it was time to get serious.
Akumi was able to catch six of the needles with her five whips, moving her body around to avoid to avoid the other five. Her foot protested, sending painful spasms that warned her to not move it again if she wanted to keep her tendons intact.
RIIIIIIINNNNGGGGG! A shrill noise cut through the forest, shattering the atmosphere of the fight. Immediately, Illumi straightened from his fighting position and answered the call. Akumi, seeing that the fight was over, stooped down over her foot and yanked the needles out. She knew that she had lost as soon as the pins had been stuck in her foot, preventing her from moving. Three minutes would have been more than enough time for Illumi to stick more pins in her, completely incapacitating her. Letting her control on her blood go, the whips fell to the ground, back to normal blood. She sat down, turning her attention towards the leg that had the assassin's nen in it. Concentrating, she closed her eyes and focused on the nen-infused blood from the needles. She knew that Illumi wouldn't kill her, as he threw no fatal blows that were difficult to avoid. Sure, some of those needles could have killed her, but she could see that he had pulled his throws.
The blood contaminated with Illumi's nen was pulled towards the holes that the needles had left behind while the rest was held in place. Seventy long seconds passed as Akumi separated the blood, finally drawing all of it out of her foot and letting it drop to the ground. Blood loss of 10%, nothing to worry about. She felt slightly colder from the blood loss, but nothing that required immediate attention.
"I'll take you to my father." Illumi's words pulled Akumi's attention from her wound to him. "My father and grandfather will talk to you. A word of advice: they do not have the patience that I do. They will smash you like a bug without hesitation. Follow me." Without pausing to see if she would follow, Illumi disappeared into the forest, bounding over trees and rocks at full speed.
Wordlessly, Akumi got up and followed him, wounds forgotten at the challenge of a race.
A few seconds passed as Akumi raced to catch up with Illumi. She guessed that she had thirty seconds to pass him before they got to the estate. Green and brown passed by her in a flash, her vision narrowing to the long hair of Illumi in front of her. They flew over the terrain, focused only on the mansion that loomed in the distance. A snarl grew on Akumi's face as she saw that the gap between her and Illumi stayed at a constant two meter distance.
'Come on, just put a little nen in your feet. Beat that expressionless bastard,' the voice in her head whispered. Secrecy be damned, I'm not going to lose to him. Nen flowed through Akumi's legs, enabling her to jump in leaps and bounds. It was somewhat reckless to show this much nen, but she knew that they had already seen enough with her fight with Illumi. A little bit more wouldn't kill her. Hopefully…
Two seconds to destination. They were now side by side, neither one showing the physical strain that they were putting on their bodies.
One sec-
"FUUCK!" Akumi's running was abruptly halted as she felt a single pin ram itself into her foot, causing her to fall face first into the ground. Ripping it out, she threw it at the closest living thing, in this case being Illumi, eyes full of murder. Illumi deftly caught it, his expression still one of absolute boredom.
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT YOU GODDAMNED BASTARD?! I WAS ABOUT TO BEAT YOU!" Akumi looked down at her foot, waiting for blood to flow so that she could throw it at the smug bastard's face.
"Racing? How childish is that?" Akumi gaped at Illumi, ready to rip his head off. "Your foot isn't going to start bleeding. I didn't hit any main blood vessels."
Knowing that he was right, Akumi stood and raised her hand, ready to rip out all of the piercings she had left so she could 'rip the eyes out of the smug bastard's face.' Before she could follow the wonderful advice given to her, two figures approached.
Slow clapping could be heard from the older of the two, who was slightly stooped over and had a sign that read, 'a kill a day'. The man beside him stood in silence, stoically staring at Akumi. She immediately slipped back into a state of ten, aura moving silently across her body.
"You put on quite the show Illumi," the older one stated, a small smile appearing on his face.
"But you need to be more careful with those pins. Throwing them at such a noticeable place was not the smartest choice. It was obvious that those were there for a reason." The taller one said, his eyes never leaving Akumi's. "The girl did well holding up against you. Though she could work on paying attention to her surroundings. Getting hit in the feet was a careless error on her part."
Akumi's eyes narrowed slightly at the comment, annoyed at the fact that she was being lectured, even though she knew he was right. She knew that there was no point in showing hostility, so she relaxed her stance, putting on a slight bored expression.
"I assume you are the father and grandfather of Illumi," she stated.
"You are correct," The older man said, pointing at her. "I'm Zeno Zoldyck and this is Silva, Illumi's father. I must say, when Gotoh came and told me we were having a visitor, I was quite excited. It had been a while since we'd had someone come, so I sent Illumi to welcome you."
Welcome me? That bastard tried to skewer my eyes out.
"So," Zeno continued, "why are you here? I do hope it isn't to kill us because it would be a shame to waste such good talent."
Akumi paused, not expecting such a calm welcoming in comparison to her meeting with Illumi. "I was wondering if I could stay with you guys for a while."
Silva's eyes widened slightly at that, and Illumi had to prevent himself from raising his eyebrows. Meanwhile, Zeno stared at her for a moment before letting out a chuckle, his expression showing how entertained he was.
"Well girl, you certainly would make this place more interesting." Zeno replied, turning around to walk inside the manor. "Follow me. We can talk in the house." Silva followed, walking side by side with Zeno as Illumi trailed slightly behind. After a pause, Akumi followed too.
"So, tell us what your name is." The four of them were seated around a room. Illumi stood by the window, leaning against the wall. Silva had taken the giant armchair in the center of the room and Zeno, who had just spoken, was sitting in the large sofa to the right, leaving Akumi to stand awkwardly in the middle of the room. Sighing, she sat down on the coffee table beside her, praying that it wasn't anything important..
"Akumi Chisio." She stated, trying to play it cool despite the fact that they had just seen her fall on her face and cuss Illumi out.
"Ah, quite a fitting name for you, considering your nen," Zeno said. "A name that means graceful killer and the word blood. How nice. What about telling us a bit about yourself?"
"Well, I'm sixteen. I learned nen two years ago, and finished my basic training around a year ago."
"Hmm, tell us more about your nen. It seems interesting."
"As you could see, I am a manipulator who controls the physical properties of blood. I assume that gatekeeper told you, but I have different forms of control. I can change my blood into blades, whips, and shields, as well as projectiles, though that's dangerous because I lose blood quickly that way."
"I have a question," Silva said, interrupting Zeno just as he was about to speak. "We were told you killed one of the tour guides, yet we did not feel your presence until you slipped out of zetsu when you entered our property. Why did we not feel the killing intent?"
A small smirk appeared on Akumi's face. "Well normally, you know, you release killing intent whenever you're about to kill someone, warning that person. You release it because you go in with the mindset that you're about to kill them, but what if you don't think of it as killing them? To me, that girl's death was simply me tying up loose ends as well as making things easier for me."
Silva saw the logic behind it, annoyed that he had never thought to try it before. "Is that how you normally kill people?"
"No, but this time I wanted to hide my presence for a little bit longer, so I killed her with no killing intent. Usually I just let them feel my killing intent. It's somewhat difficult to not send it out."
A lapse of silence followed in which Zeno regarded the girl that had come to visit them. Her sudden appearance had surprised them, and Silva had thought about telling Illumi to just kill the her before Zeno had intervened. The fight had been interesting. The whole family had been gathered around Milluki's monitors, watching the clash between the two. Though the girl was three years younger than Illumi, they were almost equally matched.
Zeno knew it was a risk to let the girl stay, but he was sure that he would be able to overpower her if needed. A quick glance at Silva showed that the same though process was going through his head. Another look, this time aimed at Illumi, revealed a barely perceptible nod, showing that he was also okay with her, though Zeno knew that it was mainly because he wanted to spar with her again.
"I assume that you don't have a problem with killing people," Zeno began. "If you want to stay with us, you will kill many people. We don't usually do this, but I have a feeling that you would liven up this place. Illumi is too serious and Kikyo needs another female in the household besides the butlers. You will go through the same training as our children, and you will be treated as one. You may leave at any point, but if you betray us in any way, we will hunt you down and kill you."
Akumi nodded, expecting the conditions that Zeno had said. "Yes, I understand. Anything else?"
"One more thing," Zeno said. "You said you learned nen two years ago. Who was it that taught you? Your parents? A master? We cannot have anyone coming here in search of you."
Akumi let out a laugh, one where anyone would hear the madness that was embedded in it. "Oh, that's quite simple. They're dead. I killed them."
Fight scene! WOOHOO! I'd love to hear any criticisms you guys have about that. This chapter took forever because I kept re-wording stuff with the fight scene. I want my chapters to average at around 3,000 words, so I might take a little bit longer per chapter!
Favorites, follows, and reviews are appreciated as always! Thank you to those that have. Did anyone guess her nen? It goes off of Deadman Wonderland mechanics. Next chapter will be backstory and the start of the first arc! The introduction is almost done!
Question for you readers! Who wants to guess what her limitation and vows are? Anyone that guesses correctly will get bragging rights!
Thank again for reading! Feedback is welcome!