Kill, Save, or the second option? (Hunter x Hunter)

Chapter 36 - Left Behind

The box of donuts fell onto the floor with a soft thud before Illumi carefully picked it up again, checked the contents, and placed it on the table.

He turned around to face Rai, who was wearing a distressed expression. "What do you mean my brother is gone?" Illumi's face was emotionless as usual, but his eyes were like flaming daggers as he stared at the butler.

"My apologies Young Master Illumi. I was careless and got distracted. Before I knew it, I couldn't feel Young Master Milluki's aura. I was about to search the vicinity when you arrived, Young Master." Rai kneeled and lowered his head, "I will accept any punishment."

"Glad that you understand, Rai." Illumi took out a small dagger from his side pocket. "My brother is quite fond of you, so I won't kill you." Illumi's sight landed on the phone in Rai's hand. "How about I cut off your tongue? You seemed busy talking to someone on the phone than paying attention to my brother. Who was it?"

"It was Master Maha, Young Master Illumi."

"Grandpa Maha?" After knowing the identity of the caller, Illumi grimaced. He fished out his own phone from his pocket and hurriedly called the old man. As the phone rang, Illumi ordered Rai to step out of the room. Illumi faintly heard the butler sighed in relief because his tongue's execution was postponed.

When the call connected, Illumi went directly onto the point. "Grandpa Maha, my brother?" Illumi spoke to the old man in a flat and cold tone as he played with his dagger that reflected his image in his hand. Knowing that this old man is usually informed about his brother's plans, Illumi assumed that Maha knew something about his brother's disappearance. It makes him feel bitter to think that his brother doesn't share those plans with him.

To Illumi's annoyance, the old man didn't answer his question right away. "Lulu, could you cut off Rai's tongue for me? That butler is a mega simp, I tell you. After I brought Silva up, that butler rattled on about him for thirty minutes straight that I thought my old ears would fall off! This is all your little brother's fault. You know the first thing I'll do when your brother comes home? I'll tie him in a chair and lock him in a room with Rai. I'll order that butler to pour his heart out for Silva as long as he wants. I'll record the whole thing, then play it on loop once Rai runs out of things to say. Great plan, huh?" Illumi heard the old man's annoying laughter before stopping mid chuckle due to realization. "Oh, that means you can't cut off Rai's tongue right now."

"...So this is all part of my brother's plan... Distracting Rai and running away." Disregarding the second half of Maha's talk, Illumi sighed and returned the dagger into his pocket. "Grandpa Maha, do you know where he is going?"

"This old man has no clue. All this old man knows is that kiddo won't be back till six months." Maha regained his calmness and spoke seriously to Illumi this time around. "Lulu, I know what you're thinking, but Milky doesn't want you to find him. You're worried that weakling would die out there? He'll be fine. He can manage by himself, probably...Just don't look for him and come home. I can stop the family from crazily searching for one missing Zoldyck child, but two? Probably not."

"...Alright. I'll come home." Gotten the information he needed, Illumi didn't want to converse any longer with the eccentric old man and hang up the phone.

The young lad glanced over the box of donuts before walking towards the window to gaze at the stars. As an assassin, Illumi has many hidden items in his clothing. He took out the most precious objects among them: A doll and needles.

The doll, a size of a hand, is a little boy with hair dark as the night and black eyes deep like an abyss, a striking resemblance to Milluki. The figure even has a tiny mischievous smirk on the corner of its lips like his little brother usually has.

Illumi held the doll preciously, "Brother. You're always hiding things from me...Why didn't you tell me anything about your plan? You didn't want me to ruin it, is that it? Or is it because I let you down at Heaven's Arena? I wish you could depend on me more. Trust me more." Illumi gently rubbed the doll's cheeks with his thumb. "Just this once, I'll let you go... Brother...Brother, I really don't want you to disappear from my sight..." After speaking quietly to himself, Illumi poked the Milluki doll with a needle, then another until all of them pierced the Milluki doll.

Illumi was about to give the doll a kiss on the cheek, but a voice interrupted him. "...I didn't know the Young Master would have such weird hobby..." The male voice yawned after the comment. Val nodded her head, agreeing with her brother.

Illumi doesn't need to turn around to know it was the twins who brazenly teleported into the room. He calmly hid the doll again and turned around to face the blue-eyed twins.

Illumi, "You obtained what I asked for?"

"We got it. Easy peasy. That Martial Arts Fighter wasn't that strong from the start to prevent us from stealing it." Val confidently answered Illumi as she handed the assassin a small folded piece of paper. "As Young Master ordered, we didn't injure the martial artist during the job, nor did we look inside, we promise."

"Where's Young Master Milluki, by the way?" Not feeling a trace of Milluki's aura, Lav scratched his head, confused.

"Rai could explain the situation to you. As you head out, also bring the luggage with you. We'll return to the mansion tonight. There's no reason to stay here any longer."

"Roger that..." Lav picked up the heavy luggage that teleported with them, leaving the light ones to his sister. Both are smart enough not to linger in the room any further nor ask Illumi about the paper's contents.

Once the twins exited the room, Illumi unfolded the paper with anticipation. He was curious about the paper from the very beginning. What made my brother stop me from breaking that martial artist's bones? The reason my brother lost in the first place.

When Illumi opened the paper, the horrible handwriting made him paused for a moment. It was the handwriting of a child. It was as incomprehensible as his brother's handwriting. However, having some experience reading his brother's penmanship, Illumi managed to read and grasp the letter's meaning.

The grammar mistake-filled message wasn't too long: Your the strengest man I've known! You will win and come home with lots of food and evieryone will be happy. No more eating yucky food! Yay! Don't get injured or eveyrone in the orphunage is ganna be sad. You're heilth is much more impurtant then food! Come home son!

At the bottom of the letter, the kid drew stick figures and wiggly shapes of what Illumi assumed are people from the orphanage and food. After reading, Illumi folded the paper and sighed, feeling complex emotions.

Looking at the stars twinkling against the dark sky, the same sky his brother might be looking at right now, Illumi mumbled something underneath his breath.

"Because of a child's wish? Brother, you've always been like this..."

Author's Note:    

Oh well. What a melancholic long chapter. I haven't updated for two months lol. Miss me~? 

I've been hook on Genshin Impact lately. Wanna know a fun fact? The ENG VA of Milluki Zoldyck voices Xiao. Also, Bennett and Xingqiu's  ENG VA voices Killua. Venti's VA voices Kurapika. Katherine's VA voices Gon (unconfirmed)! HISOKA?? IT'S ZHONGLI! Hahaha!

BTW, I feel like Illumi took a lot of things out of his pocket this chapter. Phone, Dagger, Doll, Needles...Lol. 

Thanks for reading and all the support!