Machi had been using her own ability the entire time.
That meant the "Nen threads" Chrollo was employing had nothing to do with her. Could two identical abilities truly exist in the same world?
Ronin did not believe so.
The creation of a Hatsu was bound to a person's experiences and thought patterns. No two lives were identical, so the abilities they produced could never be the same.
What, then, was this thread-like power?
And the Nen beast currently pulling open the zipper across its mouth—could it strip his ability to speak simply by giving a command?
Even if it could, so what?
A flood of calculations raced through his mind. When his gaze swept across Chrollo, however, he paused for a fraction of a second.
The mouth on Chrollo's face had already vanished.
Before he could process the implication, the Mute Monkey finished yanking its zipper open.
"Don't move!"
The three words locked Ronin's body in place the instant they left the beast's mouth.
So that was it.
His limbs refused to respond, yet understanding arrived at once. Chrollo's eyes remained intact. That meant the Vision Monkey could only threaten him during the brief window the Mute Monkey froze him. The ability was not true eye-theft like certain other techniques; it was pure visual sealing.
Exactly as he had suspected.
The moment the command took hold, the Vision Monkey that had been waiting in the rear exploded forward. It closed the distance at high speed and drove a kick straight at him. The red cloth still covering its eyes gave the brief, absurd impression of a certain blind monk.
The kick slowed the instant it entered the two-meter mark.
Immobility did not mean helplessness.
Amenotokotachi required no movement from him. The Mangekyō spun. Black flames of Amaterasu bloomed across both the Vision Monkey and the Mute Monkey at the same time.
Ronin already knew the two beasts were almost certainly feints.
The true killing move was the Nen thread that had been sliding in behind the Vision Monkey the entire time.
Even so, the spherical seal of Amenotokotachi had already closed around him. Unless a spatial-transfer ability was in play, no thread should be able to—
He froze for a heartbeat.
Chrollo did possess a spatial ability.
The realization arrived at the same instant the two monkeys vanished. The approaching Nen thread disappeared from its original position and reappeared inside the sealed zone, already past the boundary of Amenotokotachi.
With the Mute Monkey gone, control of his body returned.
The thread was already against his skin. Both hands snapped together in front of his chest while a dense layer of Nen erupted across his body as emergency defense.
The thread made contact without causing damage. Ronin watched it continue to move, attempting to complete a perfect circle across his torso.
It could not be allowed to finish.
The hands that had been coming together abruptly split apart. The Flying Thunder God seals he had begun forming were abandoned. One hand shot out and seized the thread before the circle could close.
If the thread were a conventional attack he would not have cared. Even an ability capable of piercing straight through his body and locking onto his heart would have been acceptable. The Yin Seal had already been released; under the continuous regeneration of Creation Rebirth a destroyed heart would not kill him.
This thread was different. It carried rules.
His fingers closed around it an instant before the circle completed. The moment contact was made he felt an intense adhesive quality. Simple removal was impossible.
He did not try.
Instead he drove the hand holding the thread straight into his own left abdomen. Power erupted. Ignoring the white-hot pain, he tore free an entire section of flesh—thread and all.
Even as the chunk of his own body left him, he saw the circle finish closing on the remaining end of the thread.
His head snapped up.
A short blowgun had appeared at the empty space where Chrollo's mouth should have been. The phone used for True Form was already gone.
Ronin's remaining hand clamped onto the wrist that still held the bloody flesh and thread. Raw strength detonated. He ripped his own right hand off at the wrist and hurled the severed limb away with everything he had.
The moment the right hand had touched the adhesive thread, the thread had transferred to its palm. Simply discarding the flesh would never have been enough.
While the severed, still-bleeding hand was still in mid-air, a thin antenna materialized on it.
Hisoka's antenna.
Ronin recognized it at once. Cold residual fear slid down his spine. A fraction of a second slower and that antenna would have been buried in his living body. After that, no amount of power would have mattered—he would have become nothing more than Hisoka's puppet.
Chrollo.
Pain pulsed from the stump of his left wrist. The look he leveled at the man across the ruined courtyard had changed completely.
Chrollo was far too dangerous.
From a distance Chrollo watched the one-handed figure and felt a flicker of something unfamiliar.
This had been a perfect killing opportunity.
The Mute Monkey's command had been designed to make Ronin underestimate the Vision Monkey. If the vision seal had landed, the resulting disadvantage would have been absolute. Even if Ronin carefully blocked the Vision Monkey and kept it at bay, the opening still created enough time for the spider thread to reach him.
Once the thread adhered and completed its circle, the Guaranteed-Hit Circle Blowgun would have driven Hisoka's remaining antenna into the target and ended the fight.
Everything had unfolded according to calculation.
He had simply never expected Ronin to be so decisive—tearing free an entire section of his own abdomen and hand without the slightest hesitation.
Enhancer intuition? Or had the man actually understood the threat in that instant?
Chrollo's eyes narrowed. Bandit's Secret turned to a new page. The blowgun vanished.
In those few critical seconds he had pushed the bookmark to its absolute limit. The linkage between abilities had been seamless—so seamless it had almost looked as though he were using four techniques at once.
Even that had not been enough to complete the kill.
A thin edge of frustration settled in his chest.