"I heard you went to see that Haseki Dorou?"
November 17th, overcast, transitioning from autumn to winter, and getting colder by the day. It seems like people's luck also takes a sudden turn for the worse.
In the corridor leading to the training room, Roy, with Yubashiri hanging from his waist, strolled as usual in the morning light, accompanied by Illumi with his hands in his pockets, wearing his usual deadpan expression.
The Zoldyck brothers each took a side of the path, never touching, from a distance looking like two parallel lines that would never intersect, always maintaining a distance.
"Does it have anything to do with you?"
"Yes," Illumi replied, expressionless: "He's not worth your effort."
Roy continued walking, his eyes fixed on the front, "Are you worth it then?"
Illumi,
momentarily at a loss for words, watched Roy's departing figure, seeing him blend into the morning light, then silently chased after him... "Fourth Gate, if you can do it, I can too."
'Anyway, don't think about losing me!' The young man silently added another phrase in his heart, using the "Dark Step" technique as he hurried down the path, not only catching up but reaching the training room door ahead of Roy, pushing it open and entering.
He lifted his chin and said, "I came in first."
How childish...
Roy entered just behind, brushing past his shoulder without bothering to respond, looking ahead... Luke was already waiting, but this time, instead of an electric stick, he held two vials of poison.
"Lethal dose" neurotoxin LD50 and "Median lethal dose" LC50...
"Master said, while electric shock training is necessary, poison resistance training cannot be neglected," Luke divided and handed the "lethal dose" and "median lethal dose" poisons to Roy and Illumi, respectfully saying, "Young master, please."
Illumi moved like lightning, suddenly grabbing the "lethal dose" and swallowing it in one gulp.
He then wiped his small mouth, glaring at Roy... his eyes rolled upward as he collapsed straight to the ground.
"I'm not weaker than him," Roy could faintly hear his inner voice.
"Young Master Illumi!"
Luke was shocked, hastily holding him in his arms. In that brief moment, the naive Mamen Beans turned visibly purple.
"What's going on... Young Master Roy, you have to bear witness, it was Young Master Illumi himself who acted."
"There's a camera in the corner, someone's watching." Roy said calmly.
Just as expected,
"Sizzle~" A flash of red light flickered from the electronic eye in the corner, and within three minutes, two more test tubes were delivered, one containing poison, still at a lethal dose, the other an antidote.
The poison went into Roy's mouth, and the antidote went into Illumi's mouth.
Once Luke calmed down and examined Illumi's condition, he noted his breathing transition from erratic to steady, and a few minutes later, he even opened his eyes, which greatly relieved him.
"Young master, you were reckless." Luke acted as a shield, trying to make Illumi as comfortable as possible.
Yet the young man just stared at him with empty eyes, quietly watching Roy digest the poison with his eyes closed. His older brother leaned on Yubashiri, standing firm, appearing... much better than his own state.
"Bury me in the pit." In November, the mountain wind had switched to cold mode, coursing through the training room, chilling Illumi to the bone, leaving him in urgent need of the earth's comfort.
Following his instructions, Luke buried him in the pit, leaving only his head exposed toward the training room, reluctantly closing his eyes.
In the training room, with Roy being the only one left, he meticulously savored the paralysis and intense pain caused by the poison's invasion of his body. After adapting for a while, he drew Yubashiri with a clang and began practicing "Sun Breathing."
Just when Illumi was barely dealt with, turning to see this scene, Luke had never felt as if his life was this hard, advising anxiously, "Young master, you shouldn't move, it will expedite the spread of poison."
However, the more it spread, the more paralyzed, the more painful, the more he needed to train, the more he needed to move!
"The enemy won't let you go just because you're poisoned."
Dance... Clear Blue Sky... Raging Sun... Fire Wheel... As the final strike, the Sun Halo Dragon roared, igniting a blaze, and the young man pointed the slanted blade at the camera, silently smiling, "Am I right, Father?"
In the master bedroom on the second floor, ever since Killua's pregnancy, Silva had swapped his medicinal teas back to red wine.
He swirled the wine in his goblet, watched the boy through the TV, his lips curling slightly, and called over Tsubone, "Double it!"
Good, full of spirit, which means the poison is not enough... "I don't want him to be standing."
Tsubone: "Then I'll ensure he's lying down."
A few minutes later, a larger dose of poison was delivered to the training room.
As a result... in the afternoon, when sunlight slanted through the bare willow branches and spilled over the garden, Roy gradually awoke, finding Illumi likewise opening his eyes.
Illumi looked at him quietly, "I thought you were something special?"
Roy said nothing.
At his side, ever-attentive Luke played spokesman, informing the naive Mamen Beans that the young master had downed three more lethal doses of poison.
Thus he fell...
Illumi: "..."
Simply withdrew his head back into the pit.
The fresh soil lacked Milluki's scent; it was said that this kid had also started poison resistance training and hadn't emerged since being attached to the toilet... Roy finally regained the feeling in his limbs, emerged from the pit, shook off the dirt, and left with his back turned.
"Step... step..." Footsteps faded further away, Illumi eventually raising his head again, silently watching Roy's back, his shadow cast down diagonally in the sunlight, reluctant to close his eyes for a long moment.
....
"Young master."
"Young master."
Grandpa Jager's "brain repository," as usual, had welcomed a young man.
He appeared calm, nodding slightly to Scarface, the one-eyed guard at the door, who bowed as he opened the security door.
A deep and solitary passage stretched before him, Roy stepped in with one foot, paused, turned back to face the two and said, "I thank you both on behalf of Grandpa Jager for your years of service."
The boy's tone was sincerely appreciative: "If conditions allow, I will inform him of the deeds you have done."
Scarface and the one-eyed guard exchanged a glance, placing a hand over his chest, kneeling on one knee, "That would be our honor."
"Please be sure to tell the master that all is well at home."
Roy remained silent for a moment, recalling that phrase "Whose child are you?"
Taking a deep breath, "I will."
Once more, passing through the passage,
he saw well-kept chrysanthemums before the airtight door, saw writhing tendrils, saw kind eyes, then suddenly blacked out, entering the "Game of the Dead"....
"Get down!" Before the familiar shout was even finished, having experienced this many times before, Roy immediately dropped to the ground as soon as he heard the first syllable, deploying [Ren] to form a "Nen Shield," blocking the Sand Worm's [Ren], and debris from the surface it lifted!
Ten seconds, thirty seconds, fifty seconds, one minute, finally... at one minute and five seconds, a silver-haired hedgehog head poked over, curious, scrutinizing him, and asked, "Whose child are you, how did you sneaked on board?"