at last. [illumi x oc]

prologue.

"Harder! And aim for the parts I showed you earlier!" yelled Sanaku. She was training her younger brother, Sonmiku, the art of assassination. An unconscious man was chained up to a pole in the middle of the dark training room, serving as the punching bag for Sonmiku's lesson.

It was a night unlike any other up in Kisei Tower, where a family of world-renowned bounty hunters lived. They were a family dedicated to the art of killing criminals. Two parents. Three children. Trained from birth to fulfill their purpose of bringing justice.

"I said harder!" shouted Sanaku, she approached the chained up man and held a finger under his nostrils, "you're holding back. He's still breathing." she looked up at her brother with a deadly glare, "Finish him."

Sonmiku's eyes widened. Kill him?

"But, Sana, I've never killed before." he said, feebly. Sanaku almost laughed.

"Well then, let this be your first kill. We need to break you in and get you comfortable with the idea of killing." said Sanaku, "Miku, you're not much younger than I am. You'll be 18 in less than 2 years, and you'll be sent on real missions, not just watching what I do while standing on the sidelines with Shikoku. At your age, I was already eliminating clean targets left and right." she jutted her chin out at the chained up man in the room, " So, finish him."

Miku took a deep breath, then picked up a small dagger from the table against the wall.

He walked up to the man, and with one swoop, slit his throat.

Sanaku nodded.

"Not bad for your first time, but it could be cleaner. See this blood on the floor? That's not-"

The sound of the heavy metal door opening cut Sanaku off, "How's the training going?" it was Hanka, their father.

"Miku just made his first kill." reported Sanaku.

"Wonderful! You'll be ready in no time." Hanka smiled, "Sanaku, come with me. Dekiai and I would like to talk to you about a new job. Sonmiku, go find Shikoku, your brother's upstairs in his room."

Hanka led Sanaku to the elevator.

"Is Shikoku not joining us for the mission briefing?" asked Sanaku. They always worked together, she has never been sent on a mission without the eldest Kisei brother coming with her.

"No, he's not coming on this mission." Hanka smiled wickedly, "The target is a Zoldyck." The air in the elevator seemed to solidify around them.

The Zoldycks.

The Kisei family had been planning on eliminating them for a long, long time. They knew of their power, and of the fortune that they would make by killing them off.

The elevator doors opened. The father and the daughter both stepped out, and walked through the hallway into a conference room, where mother Dekiai was waiting for them. They took their seats around the conference table.

Hanka broke the silence. "The target is 11 year old Alluka Zoldyck," he pushed a small grainy picture into the center of the table, it was a family portrait of the Zoldycks. Hanka pointed at a little black-haired child in the picture, "We know that she's with her brother, Killua." his finger moved an inch and now pointed to another white-haired boy on the picture, "Apparently they ran away from home, this is probably the only chance we will ever catch Zoldycks outside of Kukuroo mountain. The plan is for you to tail them both and eliminate Alluka and hopefully Killua too."

"Got it. Are you sure that Shikoku and Sonmiku won't be coming? This is an important mission, after all." said Sanaku.

"As much as I want them to come and watch you work your magic, they can't. Zoldycks are too dangerous for them to face in person." said Dekiai, her mother, "So yes, this is going to be your very first completely solo mission." she confirmed.

"Since this target is nothing like all the other criminals you've encountered so far, your job will not be a simple assassination. You have to get as much information from the targets about their family before you can make the kill, so that it'll be easier for you to eventually eliminate all Zoldycks in the foreseeable future. Considering how these children have probably gone under heavy torture-enduring training before, you're best shot would be to manipulate them into handing info to you voluntarily." said Hanka.

"So you're saying..."

"Befriend the kids and get them to talk. Then make the kill." instructed Dekiai.

Sanaku's eyes widened.

She didn't have any friends, not that she had the chance to spend more than 5 minutes in a room with anyone other than her family without killing them. Although she would never admit it, deep down, she didn't want to be a bounty hunter. She didn't want to do these missions. A very small part of her had been telling her to just run away and try to live a relatively normal life.

Her first solo mission. Her brothers won't be there to watch her.

This was her chance to run away. And yet she felt guilty.

She had responsibilities, she had to train Miku, she had to run missions and keep her family's wealth flowing. Without her, her family would quite literally collapse. She thought it was selfish and cowardly of her for wanting to escape at the expense of her family.

But was it her fault for wanting to be free?

"We are aware that there are big risks sending you out against Zoldycks alone, but we have no other option. It's too dangerous for the boys to go and Hanka just got a big investment opportunity, he needs the pay from this job to take it." said Dekiai.

"This is very important to us." said Hanka, solemnly, "And it is essential, treasure, that you do not mess this up. I know we're asking for a lot, but the future of the Kisei rests on your shoulders. To prevent things from going awry, Dekiai will insert a chip that will serve as a tracking device. We will know of your location in case you get lost or in trouble."

All hope that Sanaku had mustered up in the last few minutes had vanished. A tracking device? There goes her escape plan.

Dekiai pulled out a metal briefcase from underneath her chair. Opening the briefcase, it contained a little glass vial containing a square microchip the size of a pea and a metal gun, probably for the insertion of the chip. Dekiai slid the vial inside a cavity of the gun and charged it with her Nen. She then stood up and walked right behind Sanaku.

She felt the cold metal tip of the gun against her skin, and in a fraction of a second, Dekiai had shot the chip into the nape of her neck.

"You will leave tomorrow morning. Pack your bags tonight."