Chapter 102: Shizuku Joins
"I will fulfill my promise," Shizuku said, her face speckled with blood from Spence's demise.
The crimson droplets added a haunting, macabre beauty to her otherwise placid expression.
Ronin looked past Spence's remains toward the staircase leading down. That faint, flickering aura hadn't vanished yet.
"Let's check the basement first."
Without giving Shizuku a chance to respond, Ronin turned and headed for the stairs.
Shizuku opened her mouth to speak, glanced at the mangled corpse on the floor, and decided against it. She silently dispelled Blinky and followed him.
The basement wasn't empty.
The moment Shizuku saw the man lying on the floor, her composure wavered. She rushed to his side.
He was in his final moments.
There was no grand display of grief on Shizuku's face; instead, Ronin saw a flicker of profound confusion.
But on the face of the dying man, Ronin saw a trace of peace.
Ronin knelt and activated the Mystical Palm Technique. His hands glowed with green Chakra as he pressed them against the man's chest, trying to stabilize him. It was a futile effort. The internal damage was catastrophic; the man had been hanging on by a thread, waiting for someone to arrive.
Opening his eyes one last time, the man fixed his gaze on Shizuku. A moment later, his eyes clouded over, and his breath hitched and stopped.
Ronin noticed that, despite her blank expression, tears had begun to track through the blood on Shizuku's cheeks.
Shizuku summoned Blinky and used its storage dimension to carefully put her father's body away.
As they walked out of the basement, she tapped her temple hard with her knuckles.
"I suffered a head injury once," Shizuku said softly from behind him, her voice returning to its characteristic detached tone. "I forgot many things. My memory... it doesn't work right anymore."
"I see," Ronin nodded.
The fact that she could tell him her name one minute and forget it the next was proof enough of her cognitive issues.
Looking at her now, Ronin recalled the photos Damian had provided. There had been a significant amount of blood on Shizuku's head in those shots. Ronin had wondered if it was her blood; now he knew it was.
Damian had captured the aftermath, but he hadn't been able to piece together the full story.
Something had happened before the private investigator found her. Something that broke her memory and, perhaps, forged her into the girl she was now.
"Do you want to keep investigating?" Ronin asked. "There might be more to this."
Shizuku shook her head. "There might be another Elder behind everything, but it doesn't matter anymore."
"I know it was Spence's men who hurt me. It was Spence's men who killed my mother. And my father..." she paused. "Spence is dead. This is where it ends for me."
"Continuing would just mean killing more people in Meteor City. I have a feeling the 'masterminds' never truly end anyway."
"Fair enough," Ronin agreed. He had no desire to wage a one-man war against the entire Council of Elders unless necessary.
Securing Shizuku was the priority. Leaving this wasteland was the next step.
But before they could exit the estate, Ronin's phone buzzed.
It was Kurapika.
"Hello?"
"I've captured a few scouts. I think you'll find their employer interesting. Come to the forest on the west side of the estate," Kurapika said quickly.
Ronin and Shizuku exchanged a glance and accelerated, blurring through the trees.
Minutes later, they reached the clearing. Kurapika and Neon were waiting. In front of them, two young men dressed like common thugs were kneeling, their hands bound by Nen-infused chains.
"They work for Ryan," Kurapika identified the captives. "He's another Elder with significant influence in the city. According to them, they've been monitoring this estate for days."
Ronin scanned the two scouts. They were ordinary humans, no Nen.
"So Ryan is our next target?" Ronin asked. He began connecting the dots, formulating a theory about the internal power struggle within the Council.
He wasn't a master of complex investigation, but with the culprits' identities revealed and two physical leads in front of him, the path forward was clear.
"You want to pay Ryan a visit?" Ronin asked, looking at Shizuku.
"You're the leader now. I'll follow your lead," Shizuku replied. "We had an agreement: you kill Spence, I join you. I don't go back on my word."
Ronin thought for a moment. Let's see if Ryan is who I think he is.
In the lore of Meteor City, aside from the Troupe, there was one particular Elder Ronin remembered. An Elder who possessed a devastating Nen ability—one so powerful it remained active even after death. Chrollo would eventually steal it for his Skill Hunter.
The Sun and Moon.
Was Ryan that Elder?
Ronin formed a seal and placed his hand on one of the scout's heads.
Ninja Art: Mind Reading Technique.
Chakra surged into the man's brain. Ronin's vision flooded with the scout's memories, playing back at high speed.
He found the confirmation he was looking for regarding Ryan's location. But he also saw something else.
A memory from two weeks ago.
The scout had been tracking Shizuku through the woods after she escaped Spence's first ambush. He had watched from the shadows as the conflict at the clinic erupted and saw Shizuku flee again.
The background of the scout's memory matched Damian's photos perfectly.
Ronin withdrew his hand. Beads of sweat stood out on his forehead. Reading a human mind wasn't a matter of Chakra; it was a massive drain on spiritual energy and mental focus.
"Let's go."
He didn't share the full details of the memory. He simply gave the command and efficiently neutralized the two scouts to ensure they couldn't raise an alarm.
Elder Ryan's villa wasn't hidden in the forest. He seemed to relish the feeling of being a "God among men." He had built his opulent mansion right in the middle of the city's most destitute district.
He wanted the "trash" of Meteor City to look up at his walls every day and realize he was the King of the slums—a status they could never hope to achieve.
Ronin found the logic bizarre, but typical of a certain type of petty tyrant.
Damian had already left, but Spence's garage was full of high-end vehicles.
Ronin took the wheel of a fresh SUV. The new "Team Ronin"—four members in total—piled in.
Kurapika and Neon removed their masks and introduced themselves to Shizuku.
They showed no hostility toward the newcomer. Shizuku's personality made it easy to accept her; despite her cold efficiency, she looked like a reliable older sister. She was the type of person who was naturally easy to get along with, as long as you weren't on her "to-be-cleaned" list.
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