Killua Zoldyck

Killua Zoldyck (キルア゠ゾルディック, Kirua Zorudikku) is the third child of Kikyo and Silva Zoldyck and was the heir of the Zoldyck Family until he ran away from home and became a Rookie Hunter.

Background
Killua was born as the middle child of a family of famous assassins, the Zoldycks. He was quickly recognized as a prodigy and managed to master many killing techniques at a young age, and then set to become one of the best assassins the family ever produced. Killua followed the traditional Zoldyck training since birth, being supervised by his father Silva and his older brother Illumi. At the tender age of three, he began a training that routinely put his life at risk.

Around the age of six, he fulfilled three of Alluka's requests, causing Nanika to take over, and asked her to revert the transformation, and learned about the general nature of her abilities. Even though he tried to keep it a secret from the rest of his family, they discovered it anyway by Mitsuba and Killua had to tell them everything he knew. At this same age, he was forced by Silva to battle in the martial arts tournament at the Heavens Arena until he reached the 200th floor, after which he was allowed to return home. It took him two months to reach the 150th floor, and a total of two years to get to the 200th.

When he was six or seven, he mastered the game of darts as part of basic training. Around the age of nine, he met and attempted to befriend the newly hired Canary. She thanked him for the thought, but, due to their different status, she declined his offer to be friends.

At an unknown point in his life, his family determined he lacked the mindset of a real assassin and had Illumi implant a special needle in his head to subliminally remodel his character through fear, as well as to prevent him from freeing Alluka from her playroom.

Sick of killing, at the age of 11 he rebelled against his family, injuring his mother and older brother Milluki, and ran away from home to take the Hunter Exam for fun. By that time, he had already assassinated more people than the Bombers combined.

Personality
Initially, Killua is introduced as cheeky, cheerful, and full of mischievous ideas. However, he can be quite rude to others, mostly strangers and older people. He is most commonly known for having a sweet tooth; he loves everything sweet and spent almost 200 million Jenny on snacks when he was at the Heavens Arena. His favorite snack is chocolate, specifically Chocolate Balls.

He is also one of the quickest-thinking characters and often analyzes a situation with great ease and accuracy. In spite of his young age, his way of thinking, knowledge, and pragmatism give him the attitude of an adult. He is initially very confident about his own abilities, going as far as questioning Gon's capability during the Hunter Exam, and compares his strength with other people. As time passed, Killua became humble about it; but when somebody compliments him, especially Gon, he becomes easily embarrassed. However, his ruthlessness and aptitude in killing show the other side of him—deadly, violent, and bloodthirsty. Conflicting with Killua's predisposal to kill is his unyielding loyalty to his friends and natural kindness. He claims Gon was his first friend, and he grows progressively more attached to him as time passes. Killua often suffers immensely in his attempts to help his friends without a single complaint. He puts others before himself without being concerned about his own health or even his life.

Until recently, Killua's greatest flaw was his fear of those seemingly more powerful than him (one of whom being his elder brother, Illumi). Killua had been trained as an assassin by his brother to be extremely cautious and that he only engages in combat provided that victory is absolutely certain. This impeded him as a Hunter, as Biscuit stated more than once that victory is never certain, and that depending on the circumstances, a person has the potential to defeat a stronger opponent. Killua especially struggles with these dueling ideologies during the latter half of the series, as he begins to encounter stronger opponents. His brother's teachings remained firmly entrenched in his mind, to a point at which Biscuit prophesied that he would one day abandon Gon because of this. Finally, he had to face Biscuit's prophecy when he encountered a Chimera Ant while Gon (who could not use Nen at the time) was not far off and had no way to defend himself. At the last moment, Killua realized that Illumi had implanted a needle in his brain way back in the first Hunter Exam. This needle was responsible for forcing Killua to retreat and jailing himself in his comfort zone whenever any situation would potentially endanger his life. Upon extracting the needle, Killua was freed from this restraint and gained full control of his subconscious to make his own decision whether or not to flee whenever there is a need to fight stronger opponents.

During the events of Greed Island, Killua has shown to be highly susceptible to gambling. Going as far to be willing to gamble with his life to get big reward in the slot machine and seem to show heavy gambling rush in his eyes causing Biscuit to neck chop him to make him stop.

A stark contrast to his best friend Gon, Killua is highly mature in both thinking and emotion in which he can keep his anger in check and maintain rationality better than Gon even when facing a terrifying experience like the death of Kite, while Gon gives in to his rage and loses his logical thinking.

Appearance
Killua has spiky silver hair, very pale skin, and blue eyes. His eyes change shape depending on the mood that he's in, narrowing and sharpening when he goes into assassination mode. Killua is fairly lean at the start of the series, due to constant physical conditioning and torture training he received when he was young. As time passes, he becomes more muscular and toned. In the Nippon Animation anime adaptation, Killua's eye color is changed to green during the OVAs. He is also often seen holding a green skateboard (turned yellow in the 2011 series). Killua typically wears baggy clothing, with his usual attire consisting of long-sleeved and dark-colored shirts. Most of his clothes have a turtleneck. Killua wears long, baggy shorts in the manga and Madhouse animated adaptation, but Nippon Animation's character design shortened them to reach above his knees. Killua also wears blue boots, recolored brown and black in the Nippon Animation adaptation.

As a child, Killua's hair is longer, almost cascading to his shoulders. He wore a hoodie with his trademark blue coloring, grey pants, and shoes.

Trivia

 * His name can also be spelled as "Kilua Zaoldyeck".
 * His name is probably derived from the English verb "to kill".
 * Killua is nicknamed "Kil" or "Killu" by his family.Killua is the 3rd Transmuter in the Zoldyck family, after Zeno and Silva. All have silver hair as well, a trait found in all known Transmuters in the Zoldyck family.
 * His favorite food are ChocoRobo-kun chocolate balls.

Quotes

 * (To Illumi) "I'm so tired of killing... I just want to be a kid. Hanging out, doing stuff with Gon. That's it."


 * (To Gon) "Assassination—It's the family trade. We all take it up. My folks see me as an exceptional prospect. But I don't see that I should have to live up to their expectations."
 * (To Sadaso) "Move, and you die. Use Nen, or utter one word, and you die. Now close you eyes... You see what happens when you break promises? Open your eyes again and look at me in the mirror. Listen. Don't you ever show your scummy face to us ever again. This is a promise you will keep."
 * "Gon, I'm the one. I'm the one. I'm glad to have you as a friend."
 * "We were complacent. Too confident of our powers. Both of us combined were worth less than a one-armed Kite. That was his assessment... That's the reality. If Kite was by himself, this wouldn't have happened. We were fools."
 * "Gon... you are light itself. Sometimes you're too bright and I can't look at you... But can I still stay by your side...?"
 * (To Palm) "Gon's suffering right now!!! Someone who meant a lot to him was ruthlessly altered!! Even his mind was changed. As we speak, Gon's facing against the person responsible!! If you up without warning, looking like that, he won't be able to hold it together. So you have to promise to call him by his name first!! That's my one condition! Let him know you're okay. He was so worried about you, up to the minute we came in here. Give him some peace of mind. Please. Put his mind at ease. Only you, Palm, can do that right now. Nobody else can reach him. Not me... I can't help him anymore!!"
 * (To Gon) "In the end you took care of it all by yourself. I know the deal... Kite saved your life. It wasn't my fight. But... still... I wish you'd said, 'Let's get him together.' Was that as a team? For the mission? Or... as friends? I know... I'm just sulking. It's the same every time!! You keep running ahead and I clean up your mess!! Same as ever... And I'll do it again!! But I won't let you off the hook this time. You'd better make it up to me, Gon. That's why I've got to make you better. I swear!!! I'll make you apologize!!!!"
 * (To Illumi) "The one who's cursed is the one making wishes!!"