Chapter 9 – Shadows Don't Cry
After Illumi left, the silence lingered longer than he did.
Not just in the room. In me.
I couldn't stop replaying his last words: "Then you failed."
And mine: "I just chose not to succeed."
He didn't argue. That was the worst part. He didn't punish me, didn't even stay angry. He simply nodded, walked out, and I wasn't summoned again the next day. Or the next.
By the fourth day, I understood.
The sessions were over.
I'd failed some unspoken metric, or passed a different one he didn't like. Either way, I was shelved.
Which, in the Zoldyck household, was a sentence unto itself.
---
Killua didn't ask what happened. He didn't need to. But he sat a little closer during meals again. Shadowed me in the training rooms. Watched my expression like he thought it might fall off and reveal something else.
The house got colder.
Not physically—just… colder.
I stopped being called to the upper floors.
My puzzles were replaced with manuals.
My instructors changed.
No more butlers. No more riddles.
Now it was Merin.
A thin, pale man with perfectly round glasses, gloved hands, and a voice like water dripping into a bucket.
"You are David," he said the first day, not even looking at me. "You will listen."
That was all the introduction I got.
That, and a cracked knuckle when I answered too slowly.
---
📿 Zodiac Core System
📌 Core Resonance: Snake (Passive)
📌 Core Tracking: Dog (Active)
📈 SE: 6.2 → 6.8
📌 Observation: Instructor Change = Psychological Gradient Shift Logged
Dog Core... tracking?
It wasn't like the others. Not just a ping or a shift. It said active.
As if it wasn't watching me, but something around me.
Or someone.
Merin?
---
Merin's lessons weren't about thinking. They were about reacting.
He didn't give lectures. He gave commands.
"Disarm me."
"Break line of sight."
"Recite the five major arteries from memory while dodging a baton."
Mistakes earned silence.
Too many mistakes earned repetition.
There was no praise. No failure. Just compliance.
That was the goal.
---
I adapted.
Not because I agreed.
Because I was tired of playing checkers in a minefield.
So I became quiet. Efficient. Clean.
I turned lessons into patterns. I turned pain into signals. I turned bruises into maps of the house's logic.
Every inch of hurt became a coordinate in a game no one told me I was playing.
---
The system didn't respond much at first.
It watched.
Like it was waiting for something deeper. Not pain. Not discipline.
Choice.
So I gave it one.
---
One day, Merin left a knife on the table during a break. Just for a second. Probably an oversight. Or maybe a test.
I picked it up.
Light. Balanced. Not for show.
I held it. Looked at the reflection. Not my face—my posture.
And I thought: This is who I'd be if I wanted to win.
Then I placed it back.
Quietly.
I didn't need to use it.
I just needed to know that I could.
---
📿 Zodiac Core System
📌 Core Ping: Goat – Narrative Self-Control Detected
📌 Core Ping: Monkey – Identity Boundary Reinforced
📈 SE: 7.4
📌 Status: Dormant
---
Merin didn't react. But I saw it.
A flicker.
A twitch in the corner of his eye like static crossing a wire.
He knew.
I'd passed some test.
Or maybe just written my own.
---
A week later, Killua and I were paired in a reflex simulation.
The room had motion-sensitive darts.
We were given two words: "Avoid. Observe."
That was it.
Killua sprinted. Vaulted. Moved like a whisper.
I stood still.
Didn't even blink.
And then, at the last second, stepped sideways—just once—and avoided all six darts.
Killua stared at me after.
"You were counting," he said.
I nodded.
He grinned.
And then he flicked one of the darts back at the wall, perfectly on beat.
We walked out together.
Said nothing.
But in that moment, I felt it:
We were still on the same side.
---
📿 Zodiac Core System
📌 Core Ping: Dog – Synced Tracking Detected
📌 Goat – Narrative Thread Preserved
📈 SE: 8.0
📌 Status: Dormant – Emotional Cohesion Locked
---
The next day, I was summoned.
By name.
To Silva's private chamber.
No explanation.
Just a butler at my door, nodding once.
No emotion.
I followed.
Every step up the spiral hall felt like ascending into a quieter storm.
When I entered the chamber, it was empty—except for him.
Silva Zoldyck. Father. Statue.
He stood behind a desk, holding a small folder. My name was on the tab.
He looked at me.
Longer than usual.
Then he said: "You are aware."
Not a question.
I nodded.
He opened the folder. Flipped a few pages. Closed it again.
"Then you understand why you were chosen."
I blinked.
My breath caught.
But I didn't speak.
He continued.
"It is not ours. It is not theirs. But it recognizes us. That makes it a tool. Nothing more."
Still, I said nothing.
Then he walked around the desk and stood directly in front of me.
"You are not its host. You are its leash."
A pause.
He placed the folder in my hands.
"You may read it. Once."
Then he turned and faced the window.
Dismissed.
---
I didn't read it right away.
I held it.
Carried it.
Waited until I was alone again.
In my room. Under the low light. Sitting on the floor.
Then I opened it.
There were files. Logs. Charts. Emotional spike recordings. Aura resonance curves.
Silva had been watching me. Not the System—he couldn't. No one could.
But he'd seen something.
Maybe in the way my aura warped under pressure. Or how my emotions bent light, just slightly, in moments of choice.
There was a note near the back. Typed in short, clinical lines:
> "Subject exhibits non-Nen harmonics. Possible intrusion vector."
> "Unnatural synchronization patterns. Reassess containment protocols."
> "Entity-class potential: comparable to the youngest."
They didn't know what I was.
But they knew I wasn't just a Zoldyck.
Which Core responded to which behavior.
When I had hesitated.
When I had acted.
He knew everything.
---
📿 Zodiac Core System
📌 Core Reaction: Dragon – Sovereign Field Breach
📌 Core Reaction: Goat – Identity Echo Activated
📈 SE: 9.3
📌 Comment: Host Consciousness Shift Logged
---
I closed the file.
Then I tore it in half.
And flushed it piece by piece down the bathroom sink.
Let them watch.
Let them track.
This was still my story.
And I would write it with a pen made of secrets.
---
The next sparring match came sooner than I expected.
Killua again.
But this time we weren't given rules.
No prompts. No fake limits.
Just a bell.
And a timer.
And two brothers standing across from each other on a floor made of polished steel.
We didn't attack.
We just... stared.
Five seconds.
Ten.
Then he grinned.
I grinned back.
We moved.
One step.
Then froze.
And let the timer run out.
Refusal.
We both failed.
And walked away.
Smiling.
---
📿 Zodiac Core System
📌 Core Ping: Dog – Mutual Protection Flagged
📌 Core Ping: Tiger – Conditional Trigger Deferred
📈 SE: 10.0
📌 Level Up Available – Requires Voluntary Action
---
That night, I didn't dream.
I waited.
And something inside me... waited back.
The next move was mine.