The materials for Impure World Reincarnation had been prepared in advance—bodies of enemies captured earlier. Cruelty toward enemies had never been a problem for Ronin.
This was the first time he had used the technique. Even the people closest to him looked at him with more complicated eyes when the dark jutsu took shape. Kurapika's gaze in particular carried a weight Ronin understood too well. The younger man was already overthinking it, assuming the ability had been developed for the purpose of bringing the clan back.
There was no clean way to explain. Ronin simply activated it.
A coffin rose from the floor. When the lid opened, Tserriednich Hui Guo Rou stepped out. Cracks covered his face—the unmistakable mark of the dead. A sealed kunai inscribed with control seals had already been driven into the base of his skull.
"He's really dead."
The body was only dust and ash, yet the soul inside was unmistakably Tserriednich's. Only the dead could be brought back this way. Every previous step had succeeded.
Ronin allowed himself a quiet breath of relief.
One more conclusion settled into place. The prince who most closely resembled the Netero bloodline and who carried the most outrageous talent was not Beyond Netero's child. The final change that had appeared on Tserriednich's body at the moment of death carried none of the ominous weight of Beyond's curses. Ronin knew those curses well. The sensation had been closer to the failed transfer that had tried to save the Third Prince.
Someone had attempted to replace Tserriednich at the instant of death. The Four Symbols Seal had stopped it.
"Let's go." Ronin glanced at Kurapika.
There was no reason to linger. The sooner they recovered the Scarlet Eyes, the fewer chances for complications.
Kurapika understood. Still, watching the reincarnated prince walk ahead of them left a residual shock. If they could obtain cell samples from clan members, could the same method bring them back for even a single meeting?
"I'd advise you to drop that kind of fantasy," Ronin said. He had read the thought immediately. "This isn't true resurrection. Even if it worked, they would only exist as something neither living nor dead."
Rinne Tensei could restore the dead completely, but the price sat far beyond anything Ronin could currently pay. As a transmigrator he had never carried a deep personal need to revive the clan in the first place.
"Just seeing them once would be enough," Kurapika said quietly.
Ronin was silent for a moment. He knew exactly how much the remaining Kurta meant to Kurapika. Summoning those who had left Scarlet Eyes behind would not be difficult.
"After we have the eyes," he said at last. "Then you decide."
The clansmen who had left no eyes would never return to the living world. Those who had left eyes could be called back through Impure World Reincarnation and allowed to meet Kurapika. If Pairo's head was among the collection, Kurapika might see him more than once. Under the right conditions, even a true revival was not completely impossible.
Ronin offered no further hope. Greater hope only produced greater disappointment when it failed.
Kurapika nodded once.
"Thank you."
The reincarnated Tserriednich walked ahead, carrying only the partial memories Ronin had chosen to leave intact. Full control remained locked.
At the same time, on the thirteenth floor of a hotel some distance away, a waiter pushed a meal cart toward Xiyou's room. The doorbell rang.
Xiyou looked up, puzzled.
"Who is it?"
"Your meal, sir."
Xiyou was certain he had ordered nothing. The person outside was immediately suspicious. He picked up the Ruyi Staff while his mind turned. Beyond had said the next instructions would arrive tomorrow morning. Only Beyond knew this location.
Was this Beyond's doing? And if so, why?
The identity of the actual attackers required almost no thought.
Phantom Troupe.
"Your meal, sir."
The same mechanical reply came again. The doorbell rang a second time, as if the speaker had been wound up and set in motion.
A Manipulation user, then. What was the point of such an obvious alarm?
Xiyou's eyes flicked toward the window.
The ceiling above him exploded. At the same instant a long blade thrust upward through the floorboards at his feet. The Ruyi Staff was already descending. The force drove the blade straight back into the floor.
Nen bullets rained from the shattered ceiling. Xiyou spun the staff into a blurred disc. The projectiles, each strong enough to tear a human body apart, burst against the spinning wood like water balloons.
The window shattered. Two figures came through it. The doorbell stopped. Gunfire replaced it—bullets punching through the door in a sweeping arc.
Xiyou took everything in with a single glance.
One hand kept the staff spinning against the descending Nen bullets. The other reached to the back of his head and plucked exactly three hairs. His feet shifted, avoiding the blades that continued to stab up through the floor while the same movement carried him clear of the incoming gunfire.
He blew once across the three hairs. Nen flooded them. In the space of a breath the hairs expanded and solidified into three full-sized monkeys, each roughly his own height, each radiating solid combat presence.