Chapter Text
Concealed in shadow, I prowl down the dark corridors of an underground base operated by a group of criminals I had been hired to eliminate.
This isn’t my first solo assassination job, but I had finally proven myself skilled enough to be trusted with a higher-ranking client’s contract.
With high-profile, high-paying clients, no job is off the table. From more personal, intimate hits, to political assassinations, as long money was involved, we were bound.
So, wanting to prove myself worthy of claiming my birthright as a member in the Zoldyck family business, I pulled together all of the rigorous training I had endured to rightfully gain the respect and notoriety that would come with my success.
Like a lethal, life snuffing vapour, rolling silently and unseen, I clear each room without the next knowing what was heading their way.
I close my eyes and focus on the different voices coming from the next room down the darkened hallway. I determine, by the varying voices and heartbeats, that there have to be about five or six unsuspecting men laying wait inside
I creep through the shadows towards the room, making sure my Aura is completely concealed, and stop just before my feet cross the light spilling into the hall.
Without making a sound, I pull six poison tipped needles from my belt and indue them with my Nen as I ready them between my fingers.
With empty lungs and a silenced heart, I peer around the corner.
It’s exactly as I’d thought.
There are five men inside the room. All of which have no idea that death is stalking just outside of view.
Boxes upon boxes of weapons and ammunition are stacked high around the room. This must be the makeshift armoury of smuggled weapons that I’d been warned about.
Unlike any of the lives I had already taken tonight, these men are heavily armed. I don’t yet have a lot of experience with guns, but it doesn’t really matter. As long as I am concealed, one flick of my wrist, and they’ll all be dead before they know what’s happening.
I raise my hand, readying the throw, and exhale-
“Oy, kid. Whattya ya think yer doin’?” a deep voice booms from behind me.
Flinching in fright, my needles slip from my hands and scatter onto the floor around me. I quickly turn in the direction of the voice and am met by a man with short blond hair and piercing wild eyes glaring down at me.
How the hell did he sneak up on me?
“That was some pretty good Zetsu you were usin’ kid, but yer not quite on my level yet."
The man laughs and grabs me around the shoulders before roughly shoving me through the opened door and into the room. I fall to my hands and knees. The five heavily armed men stare at me, and all I can do is stare right back.
Before I have time to think of a plan, I grab the needles that had fallen beneath me and throw.
I kill three men instantly, cleanly piercing their frontal lobes. The other two I miss by mere inches.
Damnnit! This wasn't supposed to happen!
The man with the wild eyes points his gun at me as he steps into the room with a heavy boot. I’m able to hear as the heartbeats of the remaining criminals simultaneously pick up speed. Their fear billows from their bodies like an aura. They are truly terrified of this man.
“What's a kid like you, doing in a place like this?" the man asks, a crazed grin twitching at his lips as he chambers a round.
My father told me never to give up information, even if it meant certain death. So despite the trembling I can no longer suppress, I stay silent.
The man sighs and his lips press into a firm line. I watch as his eyes flit to the two remaining men standing behind me before he sets his sights back onto me. I barely have time to register the motion as his index finger shifts from the slide to the trigger.
BANG
“Aauhhh!"
A searing, white hot pain tears through my left thigh as a bullet burrows deep into my flesh.
The man laughs hysterically at my anguish. “You better tell me why yer here, kid. Who sent you!?" he threatens, gesturing with the gun still pointed in my direction.
Through blurring tears, I spot one of my dropped needles out of the corner of my eye. I try subtly inching my hand towards it, never taking my eyes off of the man, but he sees through me.
BANG
The bullet ricochets off of the floor only a few inches from my outstretched hand and I quickly pull it back, feeling panic start to rise.
What the hell am I going to do?
I wasn't strong enough to fight him in one-on-one combat with a gun in the mix. Not even mentioning the other two men cowering in the corner.
I wasn't supposed to be spotted. Damnit! I should’ve anticipated someone familiar with Nen.
The man starts towards me, pressing the scalding barrel of his gun to my forehead. He looks into my eyes for a moment, seemingly thinking, and then he strikes me with it.
My mind blanks from the blow. Muffled laughter is all I can hear though the deafening ringing in my ears. Bloodied saliva drips from my slacked jaw as I’ve bitten hard through my tongue.
The man squats down in front of me and grips a handful of my hair as he forces my head up to look at him.
“Listen, I don't wanna have’ta kill ya. Yer just a kid, after all. But you've taken out an unreasonable amount of my men. And that don’t make me too happy,” he says calmly, looking me directly in the eye.
When I’m unable to respond, the wild eyed man brings his hand down to my leg and jams his finger into the bullet wound.
My father told me that even moreso than giving up information, reacting and showing signs of pain was a death sentence. He said that even in nature, prey animals evolved to hide their pain and weakness. Because if they didn’t, the predators would know to pick them off first. And even though we spent many excruciating hours trying to train it out of me, right now, I couldn’t do as my father asked.
“Awww, don’t cry, lil’ one, yer gonna make me feel bad,” the man mocks.
With a bored sigh, he stands back up with my hair still in his grasp, and hits me again. He continues to hit me and hit me until I can no longer feel it.
He hits me again, fracturing my cheekbone.
I feel nothing.
He hits me again, breaking my nose.
Still nothing.
I watch as he lifts his arm once more, and wonder what it is he’ll break next. As I clench my eyes shut in anticipation of another blow, something warm splatters across my face. I already know what it is. I’ve smelled that same, sickly metallic odour countless times before. But is it mine?
When I’m not hit again, I carefully open my swollen eyes. On the floor in front me lies a cleanly sliced, severed arm, with the gun just out of its reach. Blood drips onto the floor, and my gaze moves up as the once taut grip on my hair loosens.
Where the man’s distinct, wild eyes had once been, are now gushing, empty sockets. Blood pours from his wounds, running down his body and spattering at his feet. My head turns to the men who had once been cowering in the corner. However, all that remains of them is their headless bodies splayed out on top of one another.
An exasperated laugh escapes me. I don’t know how, but the job is done. However, I am done with it.
I hope my family will be at least a little proud of what I was able to accomplish here. My baby brother Killua will be born soon. I hope they’ll tell him all about my biggest contract when he’s old enough to start going on jobs. I hope he can learn from my mistakes and be even better than I ever was.
As my consciousness begins to slip, I hear what sounds like the clicking of heels headed in my direction.
Maybe whoever it is will finish me off. I really wouldn't mind. I can’t feel anything anymore. My own blood has begun to mix with the pool around me. It’s really warm. Maybe I can just take a nap and they’ll deal with me while I sleep. I don’t care, I’m just so tired all of a sudden.
My vision fades as my adrenaline slowly runs thin. However, in stark contrast to the crimson puddle surrounding me, I spot a white playing card floating on the dark surface.
It’s the Joker card.
As my eyes flutter shut, the sound of wet footsteps is the last thing I can comprehend before everything goes back.