𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘𝐃𝐀𝐘 𝐏𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐔𝐑𝐄𝐒

𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝟏𝟓 | 𝐙𝐎𝐋𝐃𝐘𝐂𝐊 𝐅𝐀𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐘

Everyday Pleasures

HISOKA sauntered closer to the Testing Gates, confidence emitting in waves from his form that let Reaper know that he thought he was going to win. In hindsight, most everything Hisoka did he did with a type of arrogance as if he could. Now, as he gazed up at all the gates, seeming to ponder how much force he'd have to exert, he then pressed his hands against the doors whilst wielding his Nen in correspondence with his strength. He didn't stop until the sixth door was opened, his form straining to open the seventh one but falling back when realizing he couldn't, entering the gates as they slowly closed behind him.

When seeing that Hisoka was done, Reaper approached the gates as well, her boots crunching against the rocky terrain beneath her as she followed the twos' approach. Placing her hands on the first door, her strength and Nen flowing to her arms, she then began to push. Hisoka and Illumi watched from the other side as all doors opened in an easy process, Hisoka's smile stretching across his face in eerie proportions while Illumi's dead eyes flickered with an unknown emotion.

"It seems I have won once again, Hisoka," Reaper proclaimed as she stalked towards him.

"It seems you have," Hisoka replied, stroking his chin. "A shame... but then again, I'm quite satisfied with the results either way."

Reaper merely hummed at that.

"How intriguing..." Illumi muttered as he circled Reaper's hooded figure. "It's only natural that someone as strong as the 'Reaper' from legends could open all seven gates. Yet, do you still deny what we already all know to be true?"

"Then tell me..." Reaper lifted her chin, her (E/C) eyes chilling. "...if I were that 'Reaper,' how would I still be alive after a thousand years?"

"I wouldn't know," Illumi tilted his head. "Perhaps you could enlighten me... Reaper?"

"...I see no need to answer a question that has already been proven to be impossible to answer," she stated in a rigid tone, turning away from the two of them to continue onwards towards the Zoldyck manor. "Whoever you think I am, know that I am not that person."

Her eyes narrowed.

Not anymore, at least.

Continuing along the path towards the mansion, she left them speechless.

"I've seen his type before," Illumi mentioned to Hisoka as both of them trailed after her dark figure, his dark eyes pinned to her form.

"Oh?" Hisoka smirked.

"The type who turns their back on everyone after they've lost everything."

"How amusing~"

"Very much so."

After a few minutes of walking, soon enough, the Zoldyck mansion came into view, the building looming almost ominously against the twilight sky. Reaper stopped when spotting several people standing near the entrance, all uniquely different save for one commonality: they all possessed the aura of a killer, much like Killua and Illumi. The more she observed, the more she could tell that they were the family members of said brothers."

"Illumi, I see that you have returned," a deep voice pronounced, Reaper turning her head to spot a tall, heavily muscled man with piercing blue eyes and what seemed like a permanent frown resting on his lips. "Welcome back."

"Yes, Father," Illumi nodded, brushing a strand of his black hair out of his face before gesturing to Reaper beside him who side-eyed him. "And, I've brought someone I would like you to meet."

"Oh?" A woman who stood next to Illumi's father, hummed, Reaper noticing how both bandages and a visor covered half her face, making it difficult to see her true appearance, watching as a hand reached out to delicately brush imaginary dust off her highly ruffled gown. "Illumi, who is this?"

"Reaper," Illumi uttered coldly.

Immediately, visible disturbance wrote itself amongst many of his family members faces as they stared down the hooded figure. There was nothing they could see that signaled that the person before her was the Reaper from legends, but the longer they stared, the more they felt their blood chilling in their veins. The pure, malevolent energy around Reaper looked to be almost oppressed, but she couldn't fully hide what she possessed. A dark shadow seemed to appear behind her in a swarming, shifting mass that held only morbid promises, as if death itself had appeared before them.

It was enough to leave them completely and utterly afraid, an emotion that they had thought they had long since lost the ability to feel.

"The legend known as Reaper would be at least a thousand years old," an older man announced as he stepped forward, his eyes sharp and stinging. "An abnormally long lifespan, wouldn't you agree? So... how is it that you are still alive?"

"I am not that person," Reaper looked down at the man, the glow of her (E/C) eyes visible from underneath her shadow. "The only reason I am here is to see Killua. The vile manipulation he has been placed under must be corrected, and I will only stay until that is done. Then, I will leave. I trust you have no problem with this?"

"Is that so?" The older man's lips quirked upward in an almost invisible smirk.

"The abuse of the weak is nothing but an obscenity that must be erased," she continued, the air around her only growing colder. "That is all."

"Very well," the man turned. "Follow me."

The family, all holding high respect for the old man, parted without any hesitation as he lead Reaper, Illumi, and Hisoka inside the mansion. Walking down the dim-lighted halls, traveling deeper and deeper into the underbelly of the earth, Reaper could tell at once that this was where the Zoldyck family trained—and where they were punished. Whip cracks were audible from the room the farthest away from them, grunts of frustration leaking through the heavy wood. After the old man pushed the door open, Reaper was met with a gruesome sight: Killua strung to the wall, deep cuts lined with his blood dripping from his battered body.

None flinched from the sight, all hardened to the worst of cruelty.

Reaper's malevolence only grew, though.

The torturing of a child...

How disgusting.

Killua's blue eyes then met the dark shadow of her face, surprise momentarily flashing across his expression before his lips curled in disgust. Turning his head so as not to look at her, he instead focused on his family.

"Grandfather... Brother... what are you doing here?" Another voice asked.

Reaper's attention was then on Killua's tormenter, another of his brothers. He was bigger in weight than the rest of his family, his face full of fat where his dark eyes sat. Reaper left the response to Killua's grandfather, instead approaching Killua to stand right in front of him, grabbing his face and forcing his eyes to meet hers.

"What do you want, fraud?" He spat, his jaw tightening as his gaze filled with disdain.

"Nothing you can give me," she uttered, staring at him so intently he felt chills crawl up and down his spine. "Just hold still..."

With that, she reached out her hand.

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To be continued...