My first memory of Illumi was a shadow moving before it had the right to.
I was in the hallway outside the training chamber, sitting on the cold marble floor and pretending to struggle with tying a shoe I wasn't allowed to wear yet. Killua was inside, being tested. I wasn't scheduled.
Then the shadow passed.
Too slow for an adult. Too tall for a servant. Too silent for anyone but family.
He stopped ten paces away.
Didn't look at me. Didn't blink. Just said, "You're watching."
It wasn't a question.
I tied an imaginary knot and replied without looking up, "You're late."
He smiled.
Only a little.
Then he turned and walked inside.
---
📿 Zodiac Core System
📌 Core Resonance: Snake (Unstable), Dog (Monitoring)
📈 SE: 5.9
📌 Observation: Surveillance Detected
---
The days grew quieter after that.
Not peaceful. Just... quieter. Like the house itself knew Illumi was back and didn't want to make noise around him. Even the servants moved slower.
Killua acted like nothing had changed, but he was watching more. Tracking Illumi with the same casual intensity he used to count needles thrown by the butlers during reflex tests.
And I...
I stayed still.
Still enough to see everything.
Still enough to listen when others forgot I could understand.
Still enough to hear Kikyo say, "We'll test both. But I want the clever one for contingency."
---
Illumi didn't speak to me for a week.
When he finally did, it was during a hallway game. The one with the glass tiles. Some tiles cracked when stepped on. Others buzzed. One sent a shock so sharp it made your vision white for half a second.
We weren't allowed to skip tiles.
Killua hopped like a dancer. I shuffled like a chess piece.
Then Illumi appeared.
"You hesitate," he said to me.
I didn't respond.
He knelt.
Eye-level now.
His gaze was flat. Curious, in that clinical way biologists study insects.
"You're not scared," he said. "You're calculating."
A pause.
"That's worse."
Then he stood and walked away.
He'd never looked more like a Zoldyck.
---
📿 Zodiac Core System
📌 Passive Trigger Detected: Monkey (Neutral), Snake (Low)
📈 SE: 6.2
📌 Status: Dormant
---
My first private session with Illumi took place two days later.
We were taken to a different room. Not a cell. Not a dojo. A quiet library filled with sealed books and empty chairs.
He said nothing for ten minutes.
Then he asked, "Do you like stories?"
I blinked.
He tossed a book at my feet. Old. Leather-bound. No title.
"Pick a page."
I did.
He nodded.
"Now tell me what comes next."
"What if I don't know the story?" I asked.
He smiled again. Still small. Still cold.
"Then write your own."
---
I did.
Every night, after that.
And every morning, he'd ask, "Did the hero win?"
And I'd say, "No. He became a different story."
He never corrected me.
Just nodded.
And sometimes... just sometimes...
I thought he looked almost proud.
---
Killua wasn't happy about the sessions.
He didn't say it.
But he sat closer to me at meals. Walked closer. Shadowed my steps like he was waiting for a trap I hadn't seen yet.
"Don't trust him," he said one night while we both pretended to sleep.
"I don't," I whispered.
"He's like mother."
"No," I said.
"He's worse."
---
📿 Zodiac Core System
📌 Core Alignment: Dog (High), Goat (Stirring)
📈 SE: 6.9
📌 Status: Dormant
---
I learned more from Illumi in one month than from every butler combined.
But not because he taught.
Because he expected.
Expected me to observe. To anticipate. To strategize against his expectations.
It was like being inside a game of chess where the pieces whispered warnings and the board flipped upside down every time you thought you understood the rules.
And through it all, the system watched.
Silently.
Patiently.
Until the day I broke the rules.
---
The test was simple.
A box.
A blade.
An order:
"Kill what's inside."
I opened it.
A mouse.
Shivering. Small. Looking up at me like I was a god or a monster.
I reached for the blade.
Paused.
Then said, "I can't."
Illumi blinked.
"Why?"
"Because it trusts me."
He stared.
Longer this time.
Then reached forward—
—and crushed the mouse in one slow grip.
"Then you failed."
"No," I said.
"I just chose not to succeed."
He didn't smile.
Didn't nod.
But his aura shifted.
Slightly.
Respect, maybe.
Or disappointment.
Hard to tell with Zoldycks.
---
📿 Zodiac Core System
📌 Core Reaction: Snake – Trigger Fragment Logged
📌 Core Reaction: Horse – Emotional Anchor Contacted
📈 SE: 7.5
📌 Core Status: Approaching Unseal Threshold
---
I didn't sleep that night.
Not because of guilt.
Because I felt something waiting.
Not a door.
A pulse.
A whisper in the back of my thoughts:
You were seen.
It counted.
The system never explained. Never guided.
But I could feel its gaze.
And the closer I got to unlocking it… the more I realized:
This wasn't a gift.
It was a mirror.
And it only reflected what I was willing to lose.