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Illumi's calculations were spot on.
The wall suddenly exploded outward. A massive skeletal hand wrapped in crimson chakra smashed through the debris, reaching straight for Illumi.
At the exact same moment, the Shadow Clone, cloaked in Lightning Style Chakra Mode, materialized less than two meters in front of him. The Chidori in its hand screamed.
Riding the momentum of its insane speed, the clone adjusted its aim dead center for Illumi's heart. Zero hesitation. Zero intention of holding back.
The sudden double-team actually forced a flicker of genuine surprise onto Illumi's deadpan face.
But his reaction was instantaneous. A fresh storm of silver needles erupted from his body, flying straight at the clone. At the same time, his feet shifted, and a dozen afterimages split off from his original position.
Susanoo's massive hand swept forward, crushing the phantoms one by one as it grabbed at empty air.
Meanwhile, the Shadow Clone was forced to a grinding halt amidst a cacophony of metallic clinks. Nearly a hundred needles slammed into it, but not a single one could pierce the dense armor of the Lightning Style chakra.
The moment the clone stopped, it whipped its head around, instantly locking onto Illumi's true position.
Rhythm Echo. It was a solid assassination technique, using varying walking speeds to create afterimages and confuse the target.
But against Ronin, it was completely useless.
The Sharingan didn't just lock onto Illumi's real body instantly—it analyzed the bizarre assassination footwork. Having seen it once, Ronin could naturally replicate it.
The clone exploded forward again, chasing Illumi down at a speed even faster than the assassin's.
Susanoo's arm extended to its absolute limit before stopping, rapidly dissolving into nothing.
Ronin's original body casually stepped out of the adjacent room.
By then, Illumi had already vaulted through the window, landing lightly in the villa's courtyard.
The Shadow Clone was right on his heels. The Chidori had vanished from its hand, replaced by four tightly pressed fingers—the opening stance for the Four-Finger Pierce.
Ronin strode to the broken window. Chakra flooded his left eye as he locked his gaze onto Illumi.
In a single heartbeat, he triggered it: Amenotokotachi.
Illumi felt the killing intent spike, but he couldn't pinpoint the source.
He knew the immediate threat wasn't the lightning-clad clone chasing him down. So it had to be coming from somewhere else... Turning his head, Illumi caught sight of Ronin standing at the window. In the dark night, the dense aura concentrated around Ronin's eyes made them impossible to miss.
Those scarlet eyes looked like a demon staring down at him under the moonlight.
Instinct took over. Illumi tilted his body a fraction of an inch.
The very next second, he felt his shoulder completely lock up. It was as if that piece of his body had been bolted to the fabric of reality.
His momentum instantly snapped, tethering him to the spot by his shoulder.
But a cold wave of relief washed over him. He knew with absolute certainty: if his instincts hadn't screamed at him to tilt his head just then, the thing locked in place wouldn't have been his shoulder. It would have been his skull.
Missed?
Ronin narrowed his eyes. He didn't miss. Illumi dodged it.
Was it top-tier prediction, or just the freakish instinct of a master assassin?
Ronin leaned toward the latter. Through the Sharingan, Illumi's micro-movements hadn't followed any logical pattern. It was pure gut reaction.
But so what if he dodged the headshot?
The Shadow Clone had already closed the gap. The Four-Finger Pierce thrust viciously toward Illumi's back.
Blood sprayed. The fingers tore right through Illumi's body.
But the placement was wrong. Instead of piercing the heart, the strike had drifted to his side abdomen.
It wasn't that the clone had bad aim. It was that in the microsecond before impact, Illumi's body fundamentally altered its shape.
The shift didn't just happen at his stomach—it happened at his trapped shoulder, too.
Illumi ruthlessly tore his own flesh away, ripping his shoulder free from the spatial lock. Ignoring the gaping hole in his side, he clamped his free hand over the clone's wrist.
Lightning instantly surged from the clone into his body, but Illumi didn't even flinch. His other hand lashed out, slapping directly onto the clone's chest.
A single, incredibly thin needle slipped straight through the clone's defense and sank into its flesh.
Poof.
The Shadow Clone instantly detonated into a cloud of white smoke.
Illumi's dark eyes shifted, catching a glimpse of Ronin's main body just as it leapt from the second-floor window. Without a second of hesitation, Illumi's feet blurred, and he vanished over the compound wall.
All that remained was a splash of fresh blood on the grass and a twisted, severed chunk of a shoulder hovering bizarrely in mid-air.
"Interesting." Ronin had seen exactly what happened.
In the split second before the clone's strike landed, Illumi had driven needles into his own body, forcing his bone structure and flesh to warp and shift just enough to avoid a lethal blow.
As for literally tearing his own shoulder off? That was just raw, psychotic willpower.
Judging by the lack of a massive blood trail, Illumi had probably manipulated his muscles to instantly seal the wound, too.
The fact that the lightning didn't faze him wasn't a huge shock.
Growing up in the elite Zoldyck assassin family, the guy had probably been tortured with high-voltage electricity since he was in diapers, just like Killua.
Maybe I should hit him with the Water Prison Jutsu next time, Ronin mused.
If it was strong enough to trap Kakashi, it would probably do wonders in a one-on-one fight here.
Would Illumi come back for round two after botching this hit?
Ronin was genuinely curious.
Also, was Illumi actually contracted to kill him, or the fake Ryan?
"Looks like Chrollo made his move," Kurapika said, stepping out from the shadows behind him. The entire fight had started and ended so fast he hadn't even found an opening to intervene.
"What makes you say that?" Ronin asked, though he already knew the answer.
If Chrollo hadn't pulled the strings, there was absolutely zero reason for Illumi to show up in Meteor City right now to assassinate Ryan—especially since Ryan had just tried to cut a deal with them.
Kurapika's logic lined up perfectly with Ronin's. "But Illumi clearly got played. There's no way Chrollo didn't see this coming. He knows you have clone abilities, and he knows exactly how you used them to replace Raymond. He set Illumi up."
"If we kill Illumi right here, do you think the rest of the Zoldyck family will come after me in full force?" Ronin asked, genuinely curious about the mechanics of the assassin underworld.
"No idea. There's zero precedent for it," Kurapika shrugged. "At least, nothing like that showed up in any of the intel I've dug up."
The Zoldycks lived openly on Kukuroo Mountain, treating it like a tourist trap, but the actual inner workings of the family were completely black-boxed.
The only solid fact anyone knew was that the family had controlled that mountain for centuries.
God only knew how many dark secrets were buried inside that estate.
"You actually want to fight the heavy hitters in the Zoldyck family?" Kurapika asked, easily reading Ronin's expression.
"Yeah, kind of. But I'm not in a rush, and I don't really want it to turn into a blood feud," Ronin admitted.
Silva and Zeno were true monsters.
Just from trading blows with Illumi, Ronin could instantly tell there was a massive gap between the son and his father.
Illumi was absolutely Phantom Troupe tier.
But if Silva squared off against a Troupe member one-on-one? He probably had the raw power to one-shot them.
Ronin knew his own total aura pool still fell way short of Silva's. But he had a massive arsenal of abilities. If Silva actually tried to kill him, the old man would find it a hell of a lot harder than he thought.
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