The closer Kurapika got, the more he hesitated.
He was afraid of hearing something he didn't want to hear from Brother Ronin. Even more than that, the smile on Ronin's face in the posters felt painfully glaring to him.
After reaching the fiftieth floor, Kurapika heard the news that Ronin had once again crushed his opponent with overwhelming strength.
Yet despite possessing such terrifying power, Ronin hadn't been able to stop the Phantom Troupe from slaughtering the Kurta Clan. That fact inevitably stirred a bit of resentment in Kurapika's heart.
Still, reason told him that Brother Ronin might not have been in the village at the time either—just like Kurapika himself.
Scenes of the village's brutal massacre kept flashing through Kurapika's mind. At the same time, he couldn't help but feel a twisted sense of relief that Ronin hadn't been there. Otherwise, the death toll he'd memorized might have been 128 bodies instead.
Maybe Brother Ronin had been too focused on battles at Heaven's Arena and didn't even know about the Kurta Clan's destruction yet?
If that were the case, then him being the one to bring such cruel news…
Kurapika fell completely into a spiral of inner turmoil. Tears quietly streamed from his eyes.
Could Brother Ronin really become someone he could rely on?
No. He had to grow stronger on his own. He had to avenge his people and personally kill every last one of those monsters who butchered his clan.
…
Ronin, meanwhile, had no idea that Kurapika had arrived.
At that moment, he and Millia were seated in a private room at a restaurant they'd reserved ahead of time. The server had already brought out all the dishes.
The two of them ate while chatting.
"So you want to boost your combat power to fight the Phantom Troupe?" Millia asked as she skillfully cut her steak.
"Yes," Ronin said bluntly. "With my current aura capacity and my level of Nen control, it's not enough to defeat a Phantom Troupe member in the arena."
He had a clear plan for his Nen training.
At present, he was still working on the fundamentals. Among the Four Major Principles, Ronin was only practicing Ten, Zetsu, and Ren. The most crucial part—Hatsu, his ultimate technique—he hadn't begun developing yet.
As an Enhancer, he had some excellent examples to learn from.
Chairman Netero and an older Gon.
Netero pursued the absolute pinnacle of martial arts, combining gratitude with each punch and pushing that concept to its extreme, eventually creating his unique ability: 100-Type Guanyin Bodhisattva.
Gon, on the other hand, took a simple charge-and-release attack like Rock–Paper–Scissors and strengthened it to the extreme, achieving terrifying one-hit-kill power.
There were also people like Uvogin, who pushed physical enhancement to the limit, and Komugi, who devoted everything to perfecting her board game skills.
In the end, all true powerhouses shared one common trait: extreme specialization.
Ronin was still in the phase of accumulating experience and thinking carefully about what his own path of specialization should be.
He wasn't in a hurry. He'd only just awakened Nen, and he still had plenty of time to broaden his horizons, understand himself better, and choose his future direction wisely.
Especially since he still had ninjutsu and the Sharingan as his ultimate safety net, he had even more reason to be cautious about the road he chose.
That was why, if he wanted to fight Uvogin in the arena without using ninjutsu, Millia—the external support who had practically walked right up to him—was the best possible option.
Millia gracefully took another bite of steak, then looked at Ronin seriously.
"I can rent my Nen to you."
"On what terms?" Ronin asked calmly.
Behind Millia, a small jet-black demon with bat-like wings appeared soundlessly.
The demon looked extremely abstract, almost like a crude doodle. When it appeared, Millia's face flushed slightly, as if she felt a bit embarrassed.
Still, she explained, "This is the Rental Demon. How much aura you need and when you'll use it will all be written into the rental contract. Once both sides sign, the Rental Demon will follow you until you return all the aura you borrowed from me. Only then will it disappear.
"If the repayment deadline arrives and you still haven't returned the borrowed aura, the Rental Demon will forcibly drain your aura to repay me."
As she spoke, a contract appeared in Millia's hand.
"There's interest during the rental period," she continued, sliding the contract toward Ronin. "For every minute you use my Nen, you'll pay 5% of the total borrowed aura as interest. If the Rental Demon determines you can't repay, it will immediately drain whatever aura you have left and prioritize returning it to me."
Ronin reached out and took the contract, then asked the question that had been bothering him.
"By your explanation, you can lend me more than three times—maybe even five times—my own aura?"
"Yes," Millia nodded seriously. "That was based on a numerical evaluation of your aura capacity at the time. But after you came back from the Oukima Federation, the amount I can lend you dropped to less than three times your own. I can still manage about double, though.
"But if you borrow double your aura and can't end the fight within ten minutes, there's a very real chance the Rental Demon will judge you unable to repay and drain you down to barely sustaining life—before you even win."
"So you're actually stronger than me?" Ronin said, surprised.
Usually, Millia didn't give him much pressure at all. Hearing this now, it turned out she'd been hiding her true depth.
"You could say that," Millia replied with a proud smile. "Oh, right—I forgot to mention. I used to be a Floor Master for a while."
"After lending me your Nen, would you enter Zetsu?" Ronin asked curiously.
Millia adjusted her glasses. "If you borrow too much, I probably will. That's why I'm worried you won't be able to pay me back. So—interested in renting?"
Ronin nodded in agreement.
If safety couldn't be guaranteed, lending Nen would obviously be risky.
At the same time, Ronin was considering another question: if he borrowed Nen from Millia and then killed her, would the Rental Demon keep collecting interest? Or would something else happen?
Until he fully understood how the Rental Demon worked, attacking Millia would be an unwise move. In fact, protecting her might actually be the smarter choice.
"I want to ask one more thing," Ronin said thoughtfully, not returning the contract yet. "Numerically speaking, how much aura do I actually have?"
Borrowing Nen from Millia came with risks.
But compared to the potential gains, those risks were still within an acceptable range.
Besides, looking at things now, Millia had probably sought him out in the first place because of the Enhancer-type abilities he'd displayed.
This method of renting aura was clearly far more tempting to Enhancers.
Only Enhancers could truly unleash the explosive power of such massive borrowed Nen.
As for what Millia gained from lending her Nen, the answer was simple.
Interest.