Chapter Text
Killua trotted calmly through the night, late August chill prompted the young assassin to wear a light jacket. He looked up, the dark sky was covered in stars, the milky way could be seen clearly against the black backdrop, Killua could easily pick out a handful of constellations, mostly the basic ones, such as the little dipper and its larger counterpart. The silverette continued his lazy jog, sneakers making no sound on the wet grass, It had rained an hour or two before, and the scent still hung in the air. Killua, personally, enjoyed the smell of rain- and rain in general really- it made everything seem peaceful, it made it seem like he wasn't about to be murdering some poor unsuspecting person.
Killua remembered the meeting with his father, Silva Zoldyck, quite clearly.
The snowy haired child walked quietly into his fathers room, he was use to being called into these meetings, most were about new targets, or certain news, but no matter how many times his presence was requested by his father, he couldn't help but feel nervous. Silva had that effect on people, with narrowed, intelligent, blue eyes that he shared with his third son, and a permanent scowl, one could easily feel intimidated by the large man.
The best you could do was pretend you were calm, and that's exactly what Killua did.
His father sat on a large cushion at the far end of the room, eyes closed, wearing what looked to be a purple robe, although it was hard to tell due to the blue tint that covered everything in the room. In the middle of the room, was a large pillow, and to the right of that was one of the many freakishly large guard dogs the family of assassins owned, gazing lazily ahead. Killua walked to the middle of the room and sat down on the pillow, cross legged, and waited patiently for his father to speak.
Silva kept his eyes closed when he spoke to his son, "Killua," he said slowly, "I have a very important mission for you."
Killua's heartbeat quickened ever so slightly.
His father continued, eyes still closed, expression still neutral, his emotions impossible to read, "I feel you're ready for an important mission, so I've come to the decision to give you this target," he paused, then opened his eyes, "there isn't much information we have on your target, all we know is that it's very important that we have him dead, at least to our employer."
Killua was clenching his fist in nervousness, his father seemed to be beating around the bush, and Killua didn't like it.
Silva didn't seem to notice Killua's movement, "He's located near the Long Island Sound, in New York. There should be a large pine tree that signifies the start of a field of strawberries. Our employer told us it would be better to go at night, and sneak into his house then. It was described as the largest house in the area, and the first building after the fields," his father paused, and blinked then met Killua's blue eyes with his own piercing ones, "I'm counting on you, Killua."
In the distance he spotted a large pine tree, he stared at it for a moment, there was some other thing that was on that tree, he swore it was some large bulky creature, as it had moved slightly, but before he could be sure, the tree seemed to waver, and whatever he saw was gone. Deciding not to investigate further, he ducked between the different strawberry bushes. Now that he was near the target, he had become more aware of his surroundings, scenting the air to see if there were any odd changes, listening every so often for footsteps, breathing that was not his own, and any other sounds that could even hint that there was another living being near him. His eyes darted around wildly and he ducked into every shadow, hid in every crevice, and twisted his body in ways he should never have to, just to make sure there was no way anyone, anyone, could see him.
Then, he came to the edge of the strawberry field.
In the distance he spotted several different small buildings, they looked all about the same size, eliminating the possibility that they could be the house harboring his target: Chiron.
Eyes slowly scanning the area, he could see different buildings, all too far away to be the house he needed. He looked far to the left, there was a two story house, with a large porch. In the gloom it looked like it was some light shade of blue, although he couldn't be sure. Before he could creep stealthily through the strawberry field once again, he glanced around every which way, looking for different ways he'd be able to escape. This was all part of his brother, Illumi's, training.
Always know how to escape, Kil. His brothers words echoed through the nine year old child's ears. He scanned the area once more, before sprinting behind hundreds of strawberries, he stopped again at the edge of the field.
The house had a large front door, as well as several windows, which could all serve as exits, there were windows on the second floor as well, he nodded to himself. Glancing toward the small cabins once more, he dashed towards the porch, to an outsider it would look like a blur of white and blue, but Killua inwardly cringed at how slow he was going.
When he was standing on the wooden porch, in front of the screen door, he suddenly felt extremely vulnerable. There was no where to hide on this porch, it was just him in the open air. He looked over his shoulder and gazed at the land that lay before him. In the distance there was movement, it looked to be a flutter of…wings? Too large to be a native bird. Killua’s heart jumped into his throat and he raced inside the house as quietly as possible, Blood roaring in his ears.
What… what the hell was that?
Killua didn’t want to find out.
The young boy stared at the room ahead of him, there was a ping-pong table with a bowl of chip crumbs and several chairs spread along the sides. Empty cans and wrappers lay across the table.
Yeesh, Chiron is messy.
On the wall was an animal head, What is that? A leopard? Jaguar? Cheetah, maybe? Oh well, doesn’t matter.
He turned and headed up some stairs, before entering a room with several beds. The first thing Killua noticed was that there were people on the beds, teenagers in orange T-shirts sprawled out on several cot-like beds. Most had bandages covering various parts of there bodies, others had no obvious signs of ill-being.
Oh, an Infirmary.
As he briskly walked towards the second set of stairs, one of the teens shifted. Killua immediately dove behind an empty bed and curled up in its shadow, mentally cursing his white hair for being so damn noticeable.
He waited, pulse racing. The teen didn’t move anymore, and his breathing was deep and steady, so Killua decided to move on. He jogged towards the stairs, shoes making little to no sound against the wooden floor. He turned sharply and ran up the stairs. This room had a large TV with a gaming console attached to it, the room after that had no door, and when investigated just held a boombox with Italian music CD’s. Killua almost snorted.
The closed door on the opposite side of the room made Killua hesitant, he didn’t know what lay ahead and the suspense was killing him. He walked forward, and put a shaky hand on the doorknob. The boy opened it slowly, so it wouldn’t creak and peered inside.
Killua’s nine-year-old mind expected a powerful looking man, when his target was described as, “Important to kill.”
He did not, however, expect his target to be an old cripple.