unwaver [illumi zoldyck]

Chapter 1 - Illumi Zoldyck x And x Emiko Portor

After all the losses she has faced, there was no more sentimentality for the dead. It was easier if she didn't think of them as people at all. Indeed, not everyone could do that. Their senses of humour would become some warped and darkly macabre.

She forced herself to laugh at their silly expressions. She thought about how she and her brother would toss them into mass graves with the others and gave them rude names. They would steal from them without guilt.

But this was not one of those jobs.

Feeling a set of eyes on her, she questioned, "What are you looking at?" She tilted her head to the side to meet darker eyes than hers. Darker in colour, void of emotions.

"Illumi?" She asked again when he did not respond. She let her grip loosen on her weapon, a double-bladed scythe, and it perished into thin air.

"Nothing at all," he responded nonchalantly, moving his gaze towards the pile of corpses, "Job well done. Shall we go?"

She nodded, and pulled out her cellphone, punching in some numbers before lifting the dial to her ear, "Hello? Yes, this is Emiko Portor and Illumi Zoldyck. We've completed our mission."

Emiko nodded a couple times. Then she hung up and said, "They'll transfer you the money."

Glancing once more at the corpses, Emiko could barely keep the tears from brimming in her eyes. If her brother saw her, he would most likely poke fun at how sensitive she was in that strange inverted language he devised.

Killing was hard. No, killing was hard when she didn't have a reason.

She felt a lump in her throat and let out a muffled sob. Although it sounded nothing like a sob, but more like a mixture of a cough and a grunt.

Somehow, she always manged to stop the little droplets of tears from tinkling down her face.

Killing was harder when it literally hurt her.

Emiko's scythe had two main uses. The first, to wound her opponent, or perhaps directly kill them.

The second, was trickier. This was mainly used for the purpose of torture, or on more difficult opponents. Once an opponent has been cut, all she had to do was consume it - may it be a small drop or otherwise. A symbol in a shape of a 'x' would engrave itself on her forehead then, which created the link between herself and her opponent. In this stage, she was essentially a living voodoo doll for her opponent - any damage that she inflicted on her self would also be inflicted on her opponents. There was only one rule - The person she chose to impose this curse on had to die at the end of it all or her injuries would never heal. The symbol on her forehead would be present until the opponent was dead. It was from years and years of experience and learning about the human body that she knew of all the places to inflict pain, enough to cause agony but not enough to kill. When this was activated, she's immortal, however the pain she inflicted on herself would be ten times more painful than what she would normally experience.

After this ritual, her body tissues would regenerate at speed that is dependent upon her aura utilisation.

This was called "Blood Linkage".

Emiko clutched her right arm, a deep wound was sliced in the flesh. It was heavily oozing out blood and there was a bluish-purple bruise forming around it. She clamped her eyes shut, lightly pressed her index finger against the centre of the cut and sucked in a sharp breath as the pain spiraled across her body. In a few seconds though, the colourful spots that had contoured the sides of her eyes had disappeared, replaced by a feeling of bliss.

She caught Illumi looking at her.

In this moment, she wanted nothing more than for him to wrap his arms around her.

Almost twenty years of knowing one another, ten years of working together, they have barely exchanged a moment of profound affection. He had once uttered an "Are you okay?" and "Why are you crying again? We succeeded." during their missions, but that was all there is to it.

Illumi stared at her and blinked, keeping his eyes shut for just a moment more. In this brief moment, he was thinking.

He couldn't recall many moments where this did not happen.

When they were little, she had crushed a butterfly with an accidental arm swing and nursed it back to health with tears in her eyes. On her first mission with Illumi and his father, she had defeated their opponents with ease, yet she looked so, so sad.

Even so, he never had a clue regarding the course of action to take when this happened. What would a normal person do? It was not like he didn't know that comfort was the one thing that one must give when another was sad. He was just having trouble doing that.

He had once seen his groundskeeper, Zebro, put his arms around an unfamiliar woman whom appeared to hold a large amount of compassion for him. They seemed quite happy. He hadn't reported them for some reason, a part of him refusing to do so, and so Zebro was alive and well, unexecuted.

Should he do the same at this moment? He wasn't sure. After all, he has not received anything like that in the past. The closest was perhaps a pat on the shoulder. All he knew right now is that when he looked at her, he had an urge to say something. Anything. He hated it when she used "Blood Linkage".

How could a person be so ferocious in battle yet so fragile afterwards? The thought puzzled him. These episodes of hers usually lasted around four minutes, if not three and a half. Usually, by the time Illumi has decided on the best course of action, she had already regained her composure.

All of a sudden, Emiko's alarm went out like an ear-splitting wail. She jumped in surprise before furiously smashing the 'Stop' button.

"Alright. Time to go," she reminded, rubbing her eyes dry of any waterworks, "Come on."

"Go? Where?" He asked.

"The Hunter Exam, of course. Have you forgotten? Come on!" She urged, tugging at Illumi's pointer finger. He eyed their hands before following her out.