The year Dean turned sixteen, everything changed. His Nen had fully awakened, and with it came a clarity that he hadn't experienced before. It was as if a new sense had been added to his perception, one that showed him the world in a completely different way.
He could sense the aura of everyone around him now. He could feel the flow of Nen through the mansion, through the servants, through his family members. It was like suddenly gaining the ability to see infrared light or hear ultrasonic frequencies. It was like his consciousness had been expanded to perceive dimensions of reality that had always been there but had been invisible to him before.
And with this clarity came understanding.
He understood now what he was supposed to become. Not just a Zoldyck assassin, not just a skilled fighter, but something more. Something that his past-life knowledge had been preparing him for all along. A Hunter. Someone who pursued their own goals, who didn't blindly follow orders, who used their power to shape the world according to their own vision rather than accepting the limitations imposed by others.
"I'm going to take the Hunter Exam," Dean announced at dinner one evening, his voice calm and certain.
The table went completely silent. Killua, who was now thirteen and had grown significantly since Dean had begun protecting him, looked at Dean with surprise and something that might have been hope. Illumi's expression didn't change, but Dean could feel the spike of Nen that indicated his twin's sudden anger and alarm at this declaration.
"Absolutely not," Silva said, his voice carrying the weight of absolute authority. The tone was the same one he used when pronouncing death sentences on targets. "Hunters are unreliable. They follow their own code, not the code of a family. A Zoldyck does not become a Hunter. You are a Zoldyck first and foremost. Your loyalty is to this family, not to some independent pursuit of personal goals."
"Millionaires and nobles hire Hunters to do work they won't trust to assassins," Kikyo added, her tone thoughtful and analytical. "Becoming a Hunter would only complicate your position in the family. It would create conflicts of interest. It would make you unreliable as a family asset."
"I don't care," Dean said calmly, meeting his parents' gazes without flinching. "I'm taking the exam. I'm going to become a Hunter. And I'm going to use that position to forge my own path. I appreciate everything the family has taught me, but I'm not going to spend my life following orders that I didn't choose to accept."
"You're defying the family," Illumi said, and there was something almost like satisfaction in his tone, as if he had been waiting for Dean to make this mistake. "Father will punish you for this. You're throwing away everything you've been given. You're rejecting the family's way."
"Let him try," Dean said, and he let a bit of his Nen flare outward, just enough for everyone at the table to feel it. Just enough for them to understand that Dean was no longer the weak, defective twin. He was something else now. Something powerful. Something that couldn't be easily controlled or intimidated.
The Nen that erupted from Dean was different from what they had expected. It wasn't the cold, precise power that Illumi radiated. It wasn't the overwhelming, crushing force that Silva could generate. It was something else entirely. It was adaptive, responsive, almost alive in the way it moved and changed. It was the power of someone who had learned to synthesize knowledge from multiple sources, who had learned to adapt to any challenge, who had learned to become something greater than what they started as.
Silva's eyes narrowed, and for a moment, Dean thought his father might attack him right there at the dinner table. The tension stretched out, a knife's edge of potential violence hanging over the room. But then Silva smiled, a thin, cold smile that showed no warmth or humor.
"Very well," Silva said. "Take the exam. Become a Hunter if you wish. But know this: if you fail, if you prove yourself to be weak, you will be cast out from this family. You will have no one to protect you. You will have no resources to fall back on. And you will have to face the consequences of your defiance alone."
"I understand," Dean said, and he meant it with absolute certainty. He understood that this was a test. That Silva was using the Hunter Exam as a way to determine whether Dean was worthy of remaining a Zoldyck. And Dean was confident that he would pass. More than confident. He was certain.
Because unlike Illumi, who had been trained his entire life to follow the family's way, to accept the family's philosophy, to become the perfect assassin according to the family's specifications, Dean had something else. He had the knowledge from his past life. He had an understanding of how the world worked that went beyond what any normal person could achieve. And he had Nen, a power that was still growing, still developing, still becoming stronger with each passing day.
By the time the Hunter Exam came around, Dean was ready. More than ready. He was prepared not just to pass the exam, but to excel at it. To show the world what it meant to be strong. To prove that there were paths to power beyond the narrow confines of the Zoldyck family's philosophy.
The family's reaction to his announcement had been mixed. Killua had looked at him with something that might have been admiration, as if he was finally seeing his older brother do what Killua himself had always wanted to do: break free from the family's control and forge his own path. Illumi had become even colder, if that was possible, treating Dean with a distance and formality that suggested he was already writing off his twin as a lost cause.
But Silva and Kikyo watched with expressions that were difficult to read. They were calculating, analyzing, trying to determine whether Dean's defiance was a sign of strength or weakness. Whether he would succeed or fail. Whether he would return to the family humbled and broken, or whether he would become something that the family couldn't control.
And Dean understood that his next moves would determine everything. The Hunter Exam would be a test not just of his power, but of his character, his determination, his ability to survive in a world that was far larger and more complex than the Zoldyck mansion. It would be the moment when the defective twin finally proved whether he had the strength to become something great.
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