Confusion flickered through Chrollo's eyes.
Underwater combat had never been part of his calculations—certainly not when facing Ronin alone. If Kortopi had still been present, contingency plans would have existed either to restrict Ronin in the water or to extract him quickly. Relying solely on the abilities stored inside Bandit's Secret left him with nothing that could assist in this environment.
Was he simply going to wait for death?
He watched the Water Shark Bullets tearing toward him. The page finally stopped on a new ability.
Pale swimming fish materialized out of empty water. The Shark Bullets shattered the moment they struck the fish, and the fish themselves darted forward in a dense school aimed straight at Ronin.
Closed Room Fish.
An ability he had obtained long ago. Its activation required a sealed space. Both the Great Waterfall and the Four Violet Flames Formation had created exactly that condition.
The Water Shark Bullets ruptured. Ronin's forward momentum halted.
He recognized the technique immediately; Chrollo had used it in the original timeline. Breaking it was simple: dismiss the Four Violet Flames Formation and the Great Waterfall. Doing so, however, would restore Chrollo's freedom to teleport. Leaving the fish alone meant allowing constructs that ignored ordinary physical resistance to close the distance and inflict real damage.
Ronin's hands moved through seals at high speed.
The previously severed wrist had long since been restored under Creation Rebirth. There was no stiffness, no hesitation—only a faint scar remained as evidence that the limb had ever been lost.
The Great Waterfall vanished first.
The Four Violet Flames Formation followed a heartbeat later. By the time the barrier dissolved, Ronin's palms were already pressed flat against the ground.
Chrollo stared at the vanished sealed environment and the broken ability, doubt rising. If Ronin had not known about Closed Room Fish, there would have been no reason to dismiss both techniques. How could he possibly know that particular ability?
The only people who had ever known he possessed it were Kortopi and Pakunoda. Neither of them would ever betray him.
A flood of thoughts filled his mind, yet the sudden sinking sensation beneath his feet forced him to turn the page again.
Earth Style: Yellow Spring Quagmire.
After removing the two techniques that had created the closed space, Ronin turned the entire ground into a deep, clinging swamp. Chakra let him move across it as though walking on solid earth. A Nen user had no such training; mastering movement on a quagmire in the middle of combat was far from simple.
Chrollo had known Ronin was troublesome. The degree of that trouble still exceeded every prior estimate.
Super Fortress reappeared.
It did not travel far before releasing its payload. Bombs dropped between them, slamming into the swamp and erupting in simultaneous heat and force.
Chrollo teleported clear. Ronin, standing directly in the blast path, ignored both the shockwave and the temperature. The moment the ground registered the contact, it surged upward and buried the entire explosion underground.
Earth Style: Earth Core.
As the heat was sealed beneath the surface, the swamp itself began to harden rapidly.
Ronin's brow lifted a fraction. A kunai shot from his hand, flying toward Chrollo's back faster than his own pursuit. At the same time new seals locked into place. Chakra condensed in his palm, forming a Rasengan.
Chrollo sensed the kunai. Super Fortress had already vanished after the drop. Instead of teleporting again he fired a strand of spider silk, wrapped it around a nearby pillar, and yanked himself sideways.
He had only just cleared the kunai's trajectory when Ronin's figure appeared exactly where the kunai had been.
Flying Thunder God Technique.
The Rasengan drove straight into Chrollo's back.
The impact was completely outside his predictions—an Emission-type application that did not match any ability Ronin had previously displayed. The spinning sphere of chakra slammed him into the ground. Mud that had not yet dried sprayed outward. No blood followed. At that exact moment the mouth on Chrollo's face vanished.
Three monkeys materialized around Ronin. The Mute Monkey yanked its zipper open the instant it appeared.
"Stop!"
A single word.
Ronin's body locked in place. Only his eyes continued to track Chrollo.
The Vision Monkey's fist finally closed the distance. One clean strike would strip his sight.
The punch never landed.
Scarlet Nen erupted outside Ronin's body. A massive skeletal hand seized the Vision Monkey and crushed it in a single motion.
Susanoo—first form only.
Blood finally trickled from the corners of Ronin's eyes. Chakra reserves remained plentiful, but ocular power had reached its limit. The incomplete Susanoo was still enough.
The Mute Monkey's immobilization lasted only three seconds. Even the Chrollo still half-buried in the mud had not managed to rise before the effect expired.
Wrapped in the skeletal armor, Ronin stepped forward and planted a foot on Chrollo's back, driving the man's raised head back into the mire. The moment his hand touched Chrollo's body, a sealing formula activated.
Four Symbols Seal—targeting Chrollo's own Nen.
Bandit's Secret vanished from the hand that had never released it. The remaining two monkeys disappeared at the same instant.
When Ronin hauled Chrollo up from the mud, he saw the dagger already buried in the man's heart.
It was the poison-coated blade Chrollo had always carried. At some unknown moment he had driven it into himself.