Silva Zoldyck

"He'll come home one day because he is my son."

- Silva Zoldyck, referring to Killua

Silva Zoldyck (シルバ＝ゾルディック, Shiruba Zorudikku) is Killua's father and the patriarch of the Zoldyck Family. He is an extremely capable fighter and Nen user.

Appearance
Silva is a tall, muscular man in extremely good physical condition. He has long, silver-blond hair with blue cat-like eyes, and is always dressed in a sleeveless or short-sleeved shinobi shōzoku outfit and wears a pair of wristbands.

Personality
Silva is a very silent, calm, and pensive person. He has very little interaction with his son Killua, but he does have high hopes for him and has made Killua the heir to the family. Because of that, he raised his son to believe that the only thing sustaining them was darkness, and that the only pleasure in the world came from causing the deaths of others. Silva later allowed Killua to go with Gon on their journey to find his father, but only because he saw it as a crucial step in Killua's development as the heir to the Zoldyck Family.

Background


Silva is Zeno's only son, and was born from an unnamed mother. He's also the only great-grandson of Maha. Not much is known about his childhood, but he was trained since a very young age in the art of assassination, which gave him such abilities such as strong resistance to almost all types of poisons and a high tolerance to electricity. Later on in his life, he married his wife Kikyō, a fellow assassin, and fathered five children with her. At some point prior to the start of the series, he killed an unknown member of the Phantom Troupe and fought their leader, Chrollo Lucilfer.

Zoldyck Family arc


Silva makes his first appearance having a father and son conversation with Killua. He asks Killua about the new friends that he met during the Hunter Exam and what he thinks of the Hunter Exam. Killua says that he never really wanted to be a Hunter, but he really enjoyed the exam and the company of his new-found friends. Silva claims that since he himself was raised to be an assassin by his parents, so he has raised Killua the same way. He admits to Killua he has failed to realize how different they are, and says he wants Killua to be happy by doing whatever he pleases because Killua is first and foremost a person in his own right, and not just Silva's son.

Silva allows Killua to be reunited with his friends but not before having Killua take a blood oath not to betray any of them. After Killua has left, Silva is seen arguing with his wife, Kikyo. She disapproves of his decision to allow Killua to leave them again, so soon, with his friends, saying that Illumi tried so hard to bring Killua back home and that this is the decisive and critical moment to find out if he deserves to be their successor. But he tells her to stop talking and claims that he knows Killua would return home one day because he is his son.

Yorknew City arc


Several months later, Silva appears again in Yorknew City together with Zeno as two of the hired assassins for the Mafia community. They are paid to assassinate the Phantom Troupe's members. While the assassins are meeting some members of the Mafia in the auction building to learn what their task will be, Kurapika notices that Silva and Zeno are at a different level than the rest. Silva says he and Zeno are going to work in their own way without accepting orders from others. Not long afterwards, a large number of Mafia gangsters are killed in a short time by the Phantom Troupe, causing panic among the Mafia leaders in the building. Silva throws a punch at the wall, making a big noise and a hole, to calm them down and Zeno warns them of the danger posed by the enemies.

The two Zoldycks immediately start to search for the enemies inside the building using Zeno's En. They find Chrollo in the basement. Silva tells his father that Chrollo can steal others' abilities then they attack him together. At first they quickly gain the upper hand, but Chrollo suddenly draws a knife and makes a small cut on Silva's left arm. Realizing that it is a poisonous knife, he ties a strand of hair around his left upper arm to stop the poison from spreading throughout the body and assures Zeno that there is no problem. Chrollo is somewhat surprised because he does not seem to be affected by the poison, as only 0.1 gram of the poison is needed to paralyze a whale. Zeno decides to attack Chrollo alone and he tells Silva to back him up and kill Chrollo as soon as Zeno has him blocked without paying attention to Zeno's safety.

As the fight goes on, Silva notices that Chrollo has gotten stronger than the last time he fought him and thinks they would not be able to kill him without risking their lives due to the unknown powers Chrollo has stolen since their last fight. Suddenly, Chrollo is distracted by Silva for a moment and Zeno is able to pin him against the wall. Silva immediately throws two huge balls of aura at them, causing a large explosion. Before the Zoldycks could finish Chrollo off, Illumi calls and tells Silva that the Ten Mafia Dons have been killed in a job carried out by himself, Maha, and Kalluto and asks if his client, Chrollo, is still alive, to which Silva answers that he is almost dead. Silva and Zeno then decide to withdraw from the job, sparing Chrollo's life in order to collect on the fee Chrollo owes Illumi, Maha, and Kalluto, because the Dons are now dead, they cannot collect on the fee for Chrollo's life anyway.

Chimera Ant arc


Silva later appears amid the extermination team of Hunters' assault on the palace of the Republic of East Gorteau to pick up his father. Seeing that Zeno is being followed by a division commander ant, Cheetu, he dives from a dragon in the sky and crushes Cheetu's head with a single punch, creating a large crater on the ground. As they are leaving East Gorteau on the dragon, Zeno tells him that he met Killua in the palace, that he has grown up, and that he may have removed Illumi's needle, but Silva stays silent.

13th Hunter Chairman Election arc
Silva appears again when his son Killua comes home. He wants to see Alluka in order to help Gon restore his normal-self. However, Silva disagrees because Alluka is an uncontrollable child and even refers to him as an 'it'. After Killua convinces him, he finally agrees and leads Killua into a dark tunnel where Alluka's room is. He has been locked up in a vault, behind four 10-digit-keypad password-protected security doors. Before Killua goes in, Silva reminds him the rules about Alluka's power, and is very worried about him.

After Alluka's three requests to Killua, he is supposed to make a wish. However, Killua insisted that he and Alluka should leave. Silva disagrees, saying that he has to make a wish inside Alluka's room. Killua asks Alluka that if they can't leave the mountain within 30 minutes, their mother Kikyo will be killed. Alluka agrees and Silva has no other choice. When Killua decided to take Alluka with him, he ordered two female servants, Tsubone and Amane along with Gotoh to accompany them.

The moment Illumi is teleported back to the Zoldyck mansion, Silva orders Tsubone that the lookout order on Killua has been cancelled.

Abilities & Powers
Being the head assassin from the infamous Zoldyck family, Silva is extremely skilled in unarmed combat, as he was trained in the art of assassination from a very young age. He also defeated and killed an unknown member of the Phantom Troupe three years prior to the start of the main story, name="chap802">Hunter × Hunter - Volume 9, Chapter 80 and dueled against Chrollo to an unknown result (both of them survived, though, and in the anime Silva was shown coming back with no visible injury). Silva's body is also more durable than that of a normal human: his skin cannot be pierced by normal blades, and his hair is strong enough to act as a tourniquet.

Immense strength: He also has tremendous physical strength, as demonstrated when he fell from the sky crushing Cheetu's head with a single punch and creating a large crater (the purple explosion indicates he used Nen possibly a variation of his Transmuted purple balls). During his fight with Chrollo his punch, although blocked, retained enough power to cause the Phantom troupe leader to lose his balance.

Immense speed: Killua mentioned that he could rip out somebody's heart so fast that it would not even bleed. He matched Zeno and Chrollo in speed during their confrontation.

Immunity to poison: Poison is ineffective against Silva: when Chrollo attempted to poison him by cutting him with his Benz knife, Silva popped the poison out of the cut and resumed fighting with apparently no consequence, although he deemed necessary the application of a tourniquet. Chrollo himself was surprised, because 0.1 milligrams of the toxin he used are enough to paralyze a whale.

Proficient in hand-to-hand combat: Silva is a masterful brawler. He is capable of gauging out a man's heart at impressive speed. He fights using both his arms and legs. When in tandem with Zeno, he concentrates mainly on power, knowing that even if he leaves himself open his father will cover him.

Nen
Silva can Transmute his aura in two large balls that retain ridiculous explosive power even after being Emitted, showing he is a top user of this category as well as his own. Since he used a considerable amount of Nen to smash Cheetu, he might either be extremely fast in summoning his aura or extremely skilled in In, most likely both.

Trivia

 * Silva keeps gigantic dogs inside his room, only a bit smaller than Mike.
 * According to Killua, he likes Benny Delon and his works.
 * His name is derived from his hair color, which is silver.
 * His name is also the Latin word for forest.

Quotes

 * (Silva, warning his sons) "Don't ever touch the Ryodan."
 * (To Killua) "As a father, you're more precious to me than is the promise I made with you."

Navigation
Silva Zoldik Silva Zoldyck