"Who knows?" Damian stopped the car. "If we keep going, the car won't make it. We'll have to walk from here."
As he spoke, people were already moving in to block them.
Unlike the cleanup squad, these riders came fast on motorcycles, each gripping a gun.
"Alright. Getting us here is enough." Ronin opened the door, then seemed to think of something and turned back to Damian. "These guys—Spence's men?"
"Yes."
With Damian's confirmation, the stones Ronin still hadn't used finally had a purpose.
"I know where Spence's manor is," Shizuku said as she stepped out of the car too.
"I'm not going in," Damian said, staying in the driver's seat. "But if you want to leave later, contact me. I'll do my best to arrange a ship. Oh—ship tickets aren't cheap, so when you kill Spence, don't forget to loot his manor's gold and valuables."
"Thanks for the reminder. We will," Kurapika replied politely.
Damian flicked away his cigarette butt with a grin. "Good luck. Give those high-and-mighty bastards a lesson."
He stepped on the gas, swung the car around, and drove off before the motorcycles got close.
Ronin stepped forward instead.
He remembered Gotoh, the Zoldyck butler—his trick of infusing Nen into coins so they hit like bullets.
It was a style between Enhancement and Emission.
The object was reinforced for impact, but the Nen also had projection properties.
Overall, it wasn't hard to imitate.
Ronin hadn't used the Sharingan to study Gotoh's exact method, but he positioned both arms at his sides near his abdomen. Two stones slid to the pads of his index fingers, pinned by his thumbs.
Nen flowed into the stones to reinforce them—so they wouldn't be crushed by the force of his own flick before they even launched. Then his thumbs gathered Nen.
The instant the first motorcycle rider raised his gun toward Ronin, Ronin snapped his thumb.
Whoosh!
Thud!
Two riders—both—now had holes punched through their heads.
Ronin didn't stop. More stones rolled into place and were flicked out in rapid succession.
The bikes came fast.
They fell faster.
In barely ten seconds, not a single armed man was still standing in the woods.
Shizuku conjured Blinky again. Like a janitor, she quickly vacuumed up the corpses and motorcycles, even refusing to leave behind the splattered blood.
In just over two minutes, the forest edge was cleaned spotless. Aside from a faint lingering metallic stink, it looked like nothing had happened.
Then, guided by Shizuku, they moved deeper into the woods.
…
Farther in stood a massive manor.
Outside it were many armed guards, and inside, people were moving frantically.
In a richly decorated room deeper within, the Meteor City council elder Spence, his arm wrapped in bandages, stared grimly at a man lying on the floor drenched in blood.
The man's name was Hiroki Murasaki.
"Useless trash! I only told you to pretend to kill me—such a simple job—and you still botched it! And you even let your daughter find out! Trash, trash, trash!" Spence screamed.
Hiroki had been Spence's man from the start.
But lately Spence had offended the Phantom Troupe. In Spence's view, once Chrollo learned what Spence had done, the Troupe would come for him.
A freak organization full of monsters—Spence wanted nothing to do with them.
So he arranged a fake death as his escape route. He even planned to flee Meteor City once Hiroki "succeeded."
But the plan leaked.
First, Hiroki almost turned the act into reality and tried to actually kill Spence.
He failed.
Up to that point, things were still manageable—Spence could have continued.
But then, Hiroki's daughter discovered everything and told Spence's rival, Ryan.
In that moment Spence understood: the Hiroki he trusted most had secretly joined Ryan's camp.
Damn it—damn it—damn it. That father and daughter both deserve to die!
Spence ground his teeth.
"Don't worry. I'll drag your brainless daughter here so you can have a family reunion!" Spence stood up.
He feared the Troupe, yes—but that didn't mean any random punk could show up with some half-baked strength and make him back down.
So what if they killed a cleanup squad captain and smashed a tank?
Spence couldn't do it that easily—but he could achieve the same result another way.
Against Enhancers, as long as you avoided direct head-on clashes, the winner was usually someone like him—an analytical Conjurer.
"Hahaha! Just wait to die!" Spence laughed wildly as he left the room, leaving only Hiroki curled on the floor, twitching occasionally.
"Please… don't die, Shizuku…" Hiroki murmured.
He regretted everything now.
But what choices did a bottom-rung man like him have? Once Ryan learned his identity, family became the biggest weakness.
He had no choice.
He could only hope his daughter escaped.
Darkness swallowed Hiroki. Before his eyes closed, he seemed to see his gentle wife waving to him.
And his now-grown daughter—no longer smiling—only watched calmly as they left.
…
Ronin kicked the manor's front gate open.
What greeted him was a line of private soldiers—fully armed and ready.
Only Shizuku followed directly behind Ronin.
Kurapika and Neon had already slipped into the shadows again.
Kurapika's abilities could still matter in group fights. Neon's couldn't.
And bullets weren't harmless to every Nen user—most ability users would still get hurt under mass gunfire.
Not everyone had Enhancer-grade toughness, nor Ronin's abnormal body.
Lightning Chakra Mode, Added-Weight Rock, regular training, Enhancement reinforcement—stacked together, they'd made Ronin's physique stronger and stronger. Give him another month, and he might surpass Uvogin's body.
After Uvogin, Ronin's next target would probably be the Chairman.
After the Chairman… the only thing left in his mind was the Ants—especially the Ant King.
But that was still far away.
A body like the Chairman's—something built through long accumulation—would likely take Ronin years to reach even at his speed.
As for the Ant King's level, catching up by "normal means" would be extremely hard.
But right now, against these gunmen at the manor gates—
Ronin was already strong enough.
~~~
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