Tilted Axis

Chapter:10

       Killua POV

    "I asked you to come train him so he can be fully combat ready. Not knock him out on his first lesson!" I hear a voice with an angered tone. It seems...distant. As though I'm hearing through a long tunnel. "You know me Silva. I'm not a teacher. I'm a swordsman. He seemed more like the type to learn on the fly anyway." Says a second voice.

    "I don't care. You will teach him with melee weapons. And you will do it properly. If you knock him out after he's trained that's fine. But now is just wasting time."

   "Okay okay. Don't bite my head off."

   I hear the sound of footsteps going farther away and a door closing before I loose consciousness again.
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    When I wake again I groan feeling a dull ache in my jaw. I open my eyes and shield them with my hand from the light coming in the window. I look around to find myself in my room.

    "How did I get here?" I think confused before remembering training with Nobunaga. "Well that explains one thing. How long was I out?" I slowly get out of bed and find my legs unsteady beneath me.

   I wobble my way to the door and open it looking out into the hall. "Hello? Anybody around?" I call out into the empty space.

   "Master Killua?" I look behind the door to find Gotoh with his cart. "What are you doing up? You shouldn't be out of bed yet." He says to me. "What do you mean? Why not?"

    "You have been unconscious for the past day. You haven't had anything to eat!" He exclaims worriedly. "Please go lay back down sir and I will prepare a meal for you. As well as let Master Silva know you are awake. Is there anything in particular you would like?"

    "Can I just have a couple Käsekrainers? You know they are one of my favorites." I ask hopeful with my stomach growling at the thought of them. "At once sir." He bows deeply and pushes his cart the way he came to head to the kitchen.

    I return into my room and lay back down in bed. "Guess that hit to the jaw got me good. Need to be more careful with Nobunaga from now on." I think.

   A few moments later of sitting in silence a knock comes from my door. "Come in!" The door opens and my father steps in. "Good to see you awake Killua. You missed a day of training and Illumi isn't too happy about it." He laughs.

    "Am I in trouble for missing training sir?" I ask anxiously. "What? No no no. It's not your fault you are like this. Will I work you harder tomorrow? Probably. But can't be mad at something you couldn't control." I let out a sigh of relief.

"Thanks dad. I promise this won't happen again."

"Don't worry. I already had a talk with Nobunaga. You will have a lesson with him in two days. So the rest of the day relax. However, I did ask Uvogin to give you some training when you woke up." He says filling me in.

"Lesson with the guns expert? I can't exactly shoot a gun in the house." I joke. "Can it wait till after I eat? I asked Gotoh to get me some food."

"Of course. Just let somebody know and Uvo will come later." I nod and he turns to leave. "Ah one more thing. You have a new person to train on with your torture training. Feitan got a bit carried away and killed the man on accident. I'm in the process of getting a new one for you."

Before I can respond he leaves. "Feitan killed him?" I think with a mixture of disappointment and disgust. It's like two sides of me are fighting. I'm upset that I wasn't there, but I'm also disgusted that I would want to be there. I only had one lesson.

I lay back on my bed and rub my eyes. "That guy is rubbing off on me really quickly." I say aloud. "Feitan has that creepy effect on people. The people who like him start to relate and those who don't well...they typically run." A voice says from the doorway. I look up to see a tall light blonde male standing there. His clothes matching those of a tank driver. "Oh my bad! Didn't mean to barge in like this. I heard the name Killua and remembered Illumi said that name. I'm Shalnark."

He smiles happily at me. "Are you part of the Phantom Troupe?" I ask raising an eyebrow at the cheery man. "Yes I am! I'm the vehicles expert. Tanks, Cars, aircrafts. I'm your guy."

   "Your accent. I don't recognize it. Where are you from?" I ask curiously. "I'm originally from London. When the military turned me down because of my age at the time I went looking into the mercenary work. After a while the troupe found my skills to be invaluable. So here I am. Teaching your brother with those."

   "I see. Well your German is amazing! Not so much as a stutter!" I compliment. "That's one of the benefits of being a mercenary group. You become fluent in several languages. At this point I'd be surprised if I can still speak English." He says laughing.

"Pardon me sir." Gotoh says behind him. I can smell the food emanating from the hall. "Oh my bad!" Shalnark excuses himself and let's Gotoh and while he leaves. "Nice meeting you Killua!" He says before leaving.

Gotoh wheels the cart by the bed and takes the cover off the platter showing two hot fresh Käsekrainers. "Thank you Gotoh!" I exclaim happily my stomach growling more. "Enjoy sir." He bows and exits the room leaving me to eat in peace.

    I cut into one of the sausages and hot cheese spills out. "Cooked to perfection as always Gotoh." I say quietly. I dip it in the mustard on the plate and eat happily. The melted cheese and smoked sausage dancing a beautiful ballet on my tongue with the mustard as the accompanying orchestra.

    After some minutes I have finished my meal satisfied. I start to reorganize the platter so Gotoh has less to clean later when I hear large thumps in the hall growing closer.

   Within seconds Uvogin barges into my room with a wide grin on his face. "Privyet Killua!" He roars out his voice like a bear. "Hello Uvo! How did you know I was awake? Or ready at that?" I ask him rubbing my sore ear from his loudness.

   "Silva told me you were awake but to wait about an hour till coming to see you for your lesson." He says tossing a unloaded pistol onto my lap. "That is a Tokarev TT-33. One of the most recent hand guns made by the Soviet Union." He says proudly.

    "Since you are in bed what better way to spend it than learning to disassemble and clean guns?"  I pick up the pistol and examine its structure and design. "I'll tell you the specifications of ammo and muzzle velocity later. Today I will first show you how to take it apart."

   "You really enjoy guns don't you Uvo?" I ask him. "What's not to love? Cold heavy steel capable of detonating gunpowder to kill a man 30 meters away. It's beautiful!" His voice is almost childlike with enthusiasm. "If that's the case don't you think you would like the bigger firepower like artillery or tanks?"

   He raises an eyebrow in question. "Do you have any idea how long it takes to reload and fire those? While extremely useful on the battlefield, the guns are more versatile. Close quarters, long range they will never let you down. That's as long as you take care of them."

   I nod understanding. "Makes sense." He pushes away the cart holding the platter I was eating from making space. He sits next to me on my bed causing it to creak from his massive build. "You watch and observe for now. Take it apart wrong or put it together wrong could cost you your life." He says with his tone serious as he begins on the gun.

(Authors note: AHHH IM SORRY! Please don't kill me for my slowness or lack of updates. Life keeps me busy since getting back to work. Life causes a couple issues but not here to talk about that. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter and I hope to have some more out for Tilted Axis out soon. I love you all and thank you so much for being patient and sticking around!