Nobunaga's bones were already crumbling inside the black flames. Even post-mortem Nen could not halt Amaterasu's relentless burn.
His movements grew slower with every second.
Ronin did not need to counter. He only needed to wait. Given enough time, the flames would reduce the swordsman to ash on their own.
As the attacks lost their earlier ferocity, Ronin finally allowed his attention to expand.
That single shift was enough to register the anomalies.
Franklin had closed the distance without him noticing. On that stiff, expressionless face Ronin saw something close to fanaticism.
He did not yet know the man's exact intention.
At the same time he noticed that the three large monkeys previously scattered by the fire dragons had reformed and were now approaching while his full focus had been locked on Nobunaga.
The situation was tipping against him.
Nobunaga's transformation into post-mortem Nen had been somewhat unexpected. Still, if Chrollo believed three sensory-deprivation monkeys would be enough to handle him, the man was underestimating him badly.
Franklin's plan was clearer.
The man wanted to die.
More precisely, he wanted mutual destruction.
The method was obvious: self-detonation. The same desperate art practiced by Android 16 or Deidara—an explosion fueled by everything he had left.
His timing, however, was a fraction too slow.
Ocular power drained. The red skeletal form of Susanoo erupted around Ronin once more. A massive armored hand shot forward and closed around Nobunaga with perfect precision.
After the prolonged exchange, and with the swordsman's speed already far below its initial peak, the Sharingan's predictive calculation was more than sufficient. The hand simply closed on the exact point where Nobunaga was certain to appear.
The moment Susanoo seized him, Franklin's eyes lit up. His body slammed forward in a straight-line charge aimed at the skeletal warrior.
He was confident he could take the external Susanoo down together with its user.
The fuse on his chest was already burning. Both Nen and life force poured inward toward his heart. This would be the most powerful explosion he had ever produced—power purchased with his own existence as the ultimate restriction, a force he believed could destroy anything.
He managed only a single step before a second red skeletal hand clamped around his torso.
Franklin's eyes widened.
Wrong.
The absolute-defense construct Ronin had released should have been nothing more than a half-body skeleton with a single arm. Why had it become an armored monster with two complete arms?
Second-stage Susanoo.
Ronin had controlled the technique for nearly a year. There was no reason to leave it permanently locked at the first stage. Mastery of Susanoo was simply a matter of continuous, controlled use. As ocular power was refined through repeated practice, the form naturally grew more complete.
What Franklin saw was not true armor yet—only a dense coat of chakra layered over the skeleton. True third-stage armor still waited above that level.
As Ronin continued to pour ocular power outward, genuine plating began to condense across the hand gripping Franklin. Defense climbed higher with every second.
Knowing the man's intention, Ronin's answer was simple: crush him before the fuse finished its work. Whether the pressure triggered an early detonation or not, he did not believe even Franklin's full-life explosion could break third-stage Susanoo—especially with Amenotokotachi already prepared.
Franklin felt the crushing force intensify. The fuse had almost reached its end. Because the majority of his Nen had already been drawn into his heart, his external defense was critically weakened.
Blood mixed with oily fluid began to seep from his body as the skeletal fingers tightened. Continuous metallic creaking filled the air—not the sound of bones breaking, but of the reinforced metal components inside his modified frame warping under the pressure.
His eyes turned blood-red. The fuse burned through the final inch.
Boom.
The explosion erupted from the exact center of Susanoo's palm. Violent force slammed outward in every direction.
The newly formed armor plating along the arm cracked under the surge, fissures racing across its surface as though the entire limb might shatter.
In that same instant Ronin activated Amenotokotachi.
The Susanoo hand holding Franklin—and the exploding body inside it—froze as though someone had pressed a universal pause button. Ronin could still see every fragment of flesh and metal tearing free from the rupturing torso, yet the motion itself had been slowed to a crawl.
Ocular power consumption spiked. Then the sealed space itself began to move.
The suspended Susanoo hand and the still-detonating Franklin moved with it.
The explosion continued its internal progression. Cracks spread further across the armor. Everything, however, advanced at one-tenth or one-twentieth normal speed.
The sealed space accelerated. When its velocity crossed a certain threshold, the intent became obvious to everyone watching.
Ronin intended to throw the exploding Franklin.
Chrollo, bookmark already turned to a new page, and Machi, whose Nen threads had already begun coiling around Susanoo, locked eyes for a single heartbeat. Shock registered in both gazes at once.
The throw's trajectory was aimed directly at them.
Franklin had already detonated. If the throw completed, could their combined abilities truly contain the blast? And even if they survived the explosion, what about the follow-up attacks that would inevitably come from Ronin?
The thought had barely formed when thick stone pillars smashed through the villa ceiling and plummeted toward Susanoo.
Kortopi had finally entered the fight.
The instant the first pillar closed in, Susanoo's throwing motion exploded into full speed. The still-detonating Franklin was hurled outward.
It never reached Chrollo's position.
Instead the body slammed into the descending stone pillar.
The explosion detonated in a thunderous roar. The pillar was instantly consumed. A concentric ring of annihilating force expanded in every direction.
At that moment both Ronin and the pair of Chrollo and Machi standing behind the remaining pillars were inside the blast radius.