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Chapter 8 - Chapter 7 – Mother's Eyes, Father's Silence

By the time I turned two, I knew seven different ways to kill a man with household items.

That wasn't a joke.

It was part of Kallin's new "practical logic immersion" curriculum. Which, for a normal two-year-old, might mean sorting colors or identifying shapes.

For us?

It meant being handed a fork and a list of vulnerabilities, then asked to "solve a puzzle" involving a doll shaped like a security officer.

Killua used the blunt end.

I used the tines.

We both passed.

---

That same day, they let us play in a courtyard for the first time.

It was a small, walled-off rectangle of concrete and shadow-stretched stone, designed to look like an outdoor space but sterilized of all actual nature. The sky was real. The air smelled like distant trees.

But there were no birds.

No bugs.

No noise at all.

Just space. And stone. And the feeling that someone was watching with a hand on a switch labeled "tranquilizer gas."

Killua immediately sprinted in a circle and tried to scale the left wall.

I sat cross-legged and soaked in the sun.

First warmth I'd felt in days.

---

The gate opened twenty minutes in.

Two figures entered.

One in red and black. Elegant. Poised. With a parasol made of dark velvet and a smile too wide for polite society.

The other, a mountain of white hair and sleeveless muscle. Expression unreadable.

Mother. Father.

Silva and Kikyo.

---

I didn't stand.

Neither did Killua.

We both watched.

Kikyo's heels clicked as she approached. She leaned down and cupped Killua's face like it was a porcelain mask she planned to repaint.

"My darling little heir," she cooed. "Look at you."

Killua blinked at her like she was a mildly interesting museum exhibit.

She turned to me next.

Expression shifting just slightly. Less affection. More calculation.

"My little... shadow," she said.

I didn't blink.

Just tilted my head, baby-cute, and smiled wide enough to show all my teeth.

She froze for a fraction of a second.

Then smiled back.

Thinner. Colder.

Silva said nothing.

Didn't even move.

Just stood there, arms crossed, aura pulled in so tightly you wouldn't even know he existed unless you looked directly at him.

I did.

He stared at me.

Not with judgment.

Not with anger.

Just...

Measuring.

I didn't look away.

---

📿 Zodiac Core System

📌 Core Reaction: Goat – Influence Detected

📈 SE: 3.8

📌 Emotion: Reverence Triggered

🔒 All Cores Still Sealed

Goat?

That was new.

I anaylzed what happened. Revence, worship?

So that's what it had felt.

Her.

The way Kikyo had looked at Killua. Like he was prophecy, a myth. Like he'd already conquered something.

Me?

She looked at like a backup plan she didn't fully understand.

Or control.

---

Later, Kikyo asked for a "private moment" with me.

Silva nodded once and vanished, like fog pulled backward.

Killua tried to follow. A butler stopped him with a single finger and a slight head shake.

Kikyo leaned close.

Her voice dropped into a tone only I could hear.

"You're very clever, aren't you?"

I didn't answer.

She smiled.

"My little secret. You're not as empty as they think. I see it. In your eyes."

Still didn't answer.

She reached out and stroked my cheek with one gloved finger.

"You're not him. But you could be."

Then she stood, straightened her parasol, and walked away.

---

Killua looked at me that night while we lay in our cribs and asked, softly:

"What did she say?"

I paused.

Then whispered back:

"She likes your teeth."

He stared at me for a long time.

Then grinned.

---

Training changed after that.

Less physical.

More mental.

They started giving us riddles. Memory traps. Psychological games dressed up like counting drills.

One involved a storybook where one page was missing. We were supposed to "infer the missing scene."

Killua drew a man stabbing himself and wrote "loyalty" beneath it.

I drew a blank page and wrote "censorship."

They laminated mine.

---

📿 Zodiac Core System

📌 Core Ping: Monkey – Identity Flex Active (Minor)

📌 Goat – Passive Narrative Shift: Triggered

📈 SE: 4.4

📌 Core Status: Stable Dormancy

Monkey and Goat.

Mimicry. Myth.

The system liked what I was doing.

Or it was warning me.

Sometimes it was hard to tell.

---

Killua and I didn't talk often, not with words. But we had a rhythm now. A quiet code.

Three taps: danger.

Two blinks: question.

A single finger trace on a crib bar? Change the subject.

We didn't plan it. We didn't need to. It just happened.

And through it all, we were slowly building a world where they couldn't hear everything.

At least, not in the way that mattered.

---

Month ten of immersion training brought our first combat simulation.

Yes, they called it that.

"Simulation."

Like it wasn't just two toddlers locked in a sandpit with foam knives and a pressure-triggered floor that made loud clicking noises when you stepped on certain tiles.

Killua won the first round by wrapping a length of cord around my ankle and tripping me into a wall.

I won the second by fake-limping until he lunged, then dropping flat and jabbing the side of his foot with the plastic blade.

We both lost the third to a gas sprayer we didn't realize had been tracking our movement speed.

After that, we agreed to never move faster than a walk in training again unless the floor smelled weird.

---

That night, I had another dream.

Different this time.

Less vision.

More... interface.

A dark hallway.

Twelve doors.

Again.

But this time, none of them were glowing.

Instead, a cursor hovered over each.

Waiting.

No pressure.

No timer.

Just... options.

I woke up sweating and hungry for something I couldn't name.

---

📿 Zodiac Core System

📌 Threshold Approaching: Core Unlock Opportunity Available

📈 SE: 5.0

📌 Host Action Required: Irreversible Catalyst Event Needed

There it was.

The line.

The moment.

It was up to me now.

Pick a door.

Make a move.

Pay a price.

And become... something more.

Or wait.

Wait for what?

The world?

A test?

Killua?

---

The next day, Kallin called it "Behavioral Contrast Day."

He brought in three strangers.

Children. Normal ones. Laughing. Loud. Soft-handed. Nervous.

We were told to "socialize."

Killua stood still like a tree waiting for lightning.

I approached.

One kid offered a block.

I took it.

Smiled.

Said, "Thank you."

He blinked.

I blinked.

Then I dropped the block.

Very gently.

And whispered:

"You should go."

He didn't understand.

He just laughed and offered another one.

So I took it.

And threw it at the mirror.

---

📿 Zodiac Core System

📌 Core Ping: Dog – Warning Response Triggered

📌 Core Ping: Snake – Behavioral Contact Matched

📈 SE: 5.2

📌 Core Status: Accelerating

It was getting harder to hide the ripples.

The system didn't care about morality.

Just change.

Trauma. Shock. Betrayal. Action.

Whatever shaped me.

That's what it fed on.

---

Later that night, I looked at Killua.

He looked at me.

And said:

"You first."

"First for what?"

He didn't answer.

But I knew.

The system knew.

And somewhere in the back of my mind...

Something stirred.

Something waiting.

Something that had my smile.

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