First Mission

Once I turned six, our family experienced a period of sudden growth. In the span of three years, there was Killua, Alluka, then Kalluto, back to back to back. Despite the changes to the family, everything around me stayed the same. Every day, I would wake up and train all day until I was physically and mentally exhausted before doing it all over again. Luckily, while it was tough, day by day, I could feel myself getting noticeably stronger and faster.

Plus, I gradually gained more freedom as our parents' attention turned toward Killua as he grew. Their desire to groom him into the next head of the family had already started, giving me more time to train and meditate how I wanted to. The reason I had been pushed so long for a while was that Maha had pushed for me to be the successor after the "break-in" incident.

The old geezer had seemingly never dropped the suspicion that I had been the one to use aura during that event. In spite of his age, the man's mind remained as sharp as ever. Any time we passed each other in the hallway, I could feel his gaze settle on me as if he were analyzing every component part of my being, all to judge my worth to the family. He was the only family member that I still constantly trod carefully around.

An unexpected consequence of easing up my training was that I saw Milluki more. I hadn't seen much of him growing up because our father had put him on a different training course from the rest of us. While reading the manga and watching the anime, I had always wondered how an elite assassin could be so fat, but I found the answer by exploring more places in the house I had never visited.

One day, I stumbled upon a room in the training hallway that I had never been in before. So, in the spur of the moment, I walked in. Unlike the room I trained in, this one was much warmer. No frost clung to the door or crept along the stone floors of this room. Instead of a treadmill, there was a large wall of monitors, each one displaying a different assortment of data. The hum of electronics filled the room with a low, persistent buzzing.

Milluki frantically typed away at the adjoined keyboards as a large clock beside him counted down. It seemed that from all the sets of data, there was a hidden message or code that he had to input into the software on the central monitor to decrypt the message. I watched as he worked briefly. As the clock approached 0, he grew more and more frantic until he finally rose, grabbed the keyboards, and snapped them over his knee.

Right as he did so, the countdown hit 0, and a loud buzzer sounded. Electricity surged from outputs on either side of Milluki's chair that I couldn't spot. He screamed as his hair stood on end, and then he fell back, spasming and trying to scream more through unresponsive muscles. All that came out was little more than a whimper as the electricity persisted for a few seconds.

Eventually, he flopped back as the stream of electricity faded, taking deep breaths through his obese frame. From his spot on the ground, he turned his head upward and finally spotted me leaning against the doorframe. His eyes opened comically as he spotted me, hoping to get to his feet right away.

"Yopi!" he called out, rushing over to me. 

"Yo," I replied casually.

While we had never interacted too much, it seemed like I had entered the echelon of people Milluki respected within the family. He had clearly witnessed my training over the years and had seemingly grown to admire my talent. I had no doubts that his impression of me was also higher because we were twins. 

I might have expected him to be jealous of me, but it seemed that just as Killua's arrival had taken the pressure off of me, I had taken more of the pressure off of Milluki's training. Just for that fact alone, he seemed to view me in a positive light.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, gesturing around the room with the blank monitors.

"Maybe I just wanted to check in on my brother?" I said.

As I spoke, I wondered if he had already guessed what I had been wanting to talk to him about for a while. 

"Nobody ever just checks in on any of us. Not our parents or our siblings, me included." he said, eyeing me, "You're wondering about our upcoming mission, aren't you?"

"Why don't you tell me?" I asked, taking a seat on the floor.

"That's the only thing that makes sense. I doubt you care about my manga collection. Plus, our eighth birthday is right around the corner, and Papa has been hyping the fact that our skills would be tested soon." he said.

"Well, have you heard anything from Dad? I doubt we have a duo mission just because we were born together. Do you know what Illumi's mission was?" I asked.

While Milluki was not the most physically fit assassin, it was clear that his training leaned a lot more toward information gathering, both digitally and physically. I was willing to bet that part of his challenge would be figuring out our missions in advance. If he knew what Illumi had done, it would either confirm to me that we would be going to Heaven's Area or put me back at square one. 

"I haven't heard anything from Papa, but I know where Big Brother Illumi's mission was," he said, settling his considerable bulk into the chair and moving it closer to me, "He undertook his mission at seven, so it has been a while since it happened and it was hard to get the information from h-"

"So what was it?" I interrupted

"He had to go to Meteor City, but I couldn't find out exactly what he had to do there. From my research I think it had something to do with..."

Milluki continued to talk, but I zoned him out. He had already given me the information that I wanted. It seemed that dropping the kids off at Heaven's Arena was not the standard practice and that was Killua's individual mission. That ment I would just have to roll with the punches which was a little disappointed, but fine by me.

"Any reason Dad waited so long to give us our missions?" I asked once he finished his spiel.

"I would guess that he has been busy with the whole new host of siblings we have, but can anyone guess what Papa is thinking?" he said with a shrug.

"Do you have any more intel for me?" I asked.

"Yes," he said, leaning in and whispering, "I recently found out that it's not Papa that decided your mission."

I blinked in surprise at that information, but waited for him to continue. If it had been Zeno to assign me a mission I truly wasn't worried. The old man wouldn't go easy on me in the slightest, but he is the most leanant member of the family by far. Despite being an assassin he has a strict moral compass that he never compromises on.

"From what I learned old man Maha was the one to propose your mission. I tried to figure out what it was, but the added complications made it difficult to find anything." Milluki said apologetically.

What have put in store for me you old geezer I thought as I considered why the old man may have interfered with my mission. I hadn't anticipate that his interest in me had reached the level where he would intervene this directly. It also made me question what his intentions with this are. Would he make it harder, easier, neither? It was impossible to tell at this junction and I doubted I would ever understand the man's motives.

"Thanks for the info Milluki," I said, getting up.

"You can count on me." he said with a mock salute.

. . .

After that a few weeks passed and the eve of our eight birthday approached quickly. I made sure to train twice as heard since I was going into my mission blind and with more questions than answers. One of the days I was training I exited the door only for something unexpected to happen when I entered the hallway.

There I bumped into a little person. I looked down to find a little boy with spiky silver hair looking up at me. Despite the age difference between now and the time that the show/manga would start I could still easily recognise Killua. He stared at me with wide blue expressive eyes, the opposite of Illumi's. He looked very chibi, which caused me to take drastic action.

I paused and looked at him for a moment before scooping him up and placing him up on my shoulder like a parrot. He looked at me curiously, but didn't question my sudden action. He only pointed off in the direction of the main living room. I wasn't sure if it was a directive for me to go there or because he wanted to go there, but I complied anyway. I got some strange looks as I walked, but I ignored them. In the living room I found both my parents and Maha waiting for me.

"What are you doing with your brother Yopi?" Kikyo questioned, rushing over and plucking Killua off my shoulder.

"I thought he made a good accessory, like a parrot." I said dryly.

Silva raised a brow slightly, but shook his head and gestured for me to follow Maha.

"Your first mission starts now Yopi. It's been delayed long enough," he said, giving an odd look to Maha who shrugged, "Maha will give you the details of your mission when your arrive at the starting point." 

I complied and followed after the old man, looking back to see my mother trying to put Killua on her own shoulder to little success as I left the room. There was a deep silence between us as we walked along the hallways and out toward the front of the estate. It wasn't uncomfortable silence, but it wasn't comfortable either. Finally we reached the coat room where a nondiscript pair of clothes sat.

"Change." Maha commanded, gesturing to the clothes with his cane.

I quickly replaced my current outfit, expecting a new crushing weight, but instead I felt only the weight and texture of a material that felt like kevlar. My body immediately felt 100x lighter than before. After my change of clothes we exited the estate and moved outside the Testing Gate. Despite his age Maha was still able to move the 5th gate, which weighed 64 tons, with ease. Once we were outside the Zoldyck compound he opened his mouth to speak, but I spoke first.

"Why did you intervene with my mission?" I asked directly.

The old man paused to look me over for a moment before speaking. His sunken eyes still held a type of pressure that it seemed only came with decades of experience. Everything about the man, other than his fail body, still seemed powerful in spite of his age.

"I believe you are the best candidate for the next family head. Thus I think you should be given a more rigorous test than your siblings. Your father and grandfather disagree, but I made them see my perspective for this at least." Maha said.

"Why?" I said, shocked.

"Call it an old man's intuition." he said with a shrug.

Then he took a deep breath and gave me the details of my mission.

"Your mission is to pass the Hunter Exam while no killing any living being before, during, or after the exam. Don't return until you finish. Begin." The old man said, turning back through the gate without another word.

I watched him go, then turned away from the gate and the mountain. I looked down and turned both my pockets out to find them empty. No wallet, no credit cards, no map. Not only that, but it was my first time outside of the Zoldyck estate at all. Well isn't this just wonderful I thought sarcastically as I moved in the only direction I could. Forward.