Chapter 82: A Corpse? No, a Miniature!
BOOM!
The sphere of water encasing the entire hotel building groaned as a pillar of spray erupted from its crown, shooting toward the night sky.
Inside the aquatic dome, the temperature began to skyrocket.
Fortunately, the thermal bloom was localized; it didn't last long enough to boil the entire mass of water before the reaction stabilized.
The cause was the bomb dropped from the Super Fortress toy plane.
On the 18th floor, Chrollo Lucilfer had realized the danger the moment the tidal wave manifested.
He tried to command the Super Fortress to cease the bombardment, but it was too late. In a crisis, he grabbed Kortopi—who was near the window—and barked an order at Pakunoda as they sprinted toward the rear of the suite.
The water shattered the remaining glass and surged into the room, but that wasn't the primary threat.
Chrollo knew exactly what would happen when his "Fortress" bombs interacted with a high-pressure aquatic environment.
Even closing his book, Skill Hunter, wouldn't stop the chain reaction. The bombs were programmed to detonate upon high-velocity impact—and the crushing force of Ronin's Great Explosive Water Colliding Wave provided exactly that.
"Wall it off!" Chrollo shouted.
He flipped the pages of his book to a new entry.
Kortopi's left hand touched the suite's interior wall, while his right hand blurred in a flurry of creation. Gallery Fake went into overdrive. Wall after wall materialized behind the retreating trio, acting as a series of dams to slow the incoming flood.
But these were replicas of standard drywall and masonry; they were riddled with gaps and couldn't withstand the hydraulic pressure. Water began to spray through every crack and seam.
Chrollo finally released his grip on Kortopi. He extended his hand, and his aura shot toward the gaps in the copied walls.
As his Nen left his fingertips, it underwent a rapid Transmutation, turning into a sticky, silken thread.
This was the ability he had stolen from the Shadow Beast known as The Spider.
The Nen silk plugged the leaks, sealing the room tight. The flood subsided outside their makeshift bunker. In the sudden silence, Pakunoda knelt down and touched a puddle on the floor.
"It's warm," she whispered, her face pale. She finally understood why Chrollo had been so desperate to seal the room. He wasn't just hiding from the water; he was shielding them from the thermal shock of the underwater explosion.
Outside the hotel, the massive water pillar began to collapse. The internal pressure of the "Water Prison" had been released by the explosion, and the dome began to burst outward.
It was like a punctured water balloon. Millions of gallons of water cascaded into the surrounding streets, sweeping away anything—and anyone—caught in its path.
Ronin moved through the deluge encased in a shark-shaped shroud of high-pressure water.
Water Style: Water Shark Bullet Jutsu.
This was a signature technique of Kisame Hoshigaki. By encasing himself in the shark bullet, Ronin could navigate the flood at high speeds and even glide short distances through the air.
Amaterasu and Susanoo were massive Chakra drains. More importantly, they consumed his Ocular Power (Dojutsu).
Currently, his eyes remained in the Mangekyō state.
While his vision would eventually recover, Ronin knew he couldn't keep spamming Amaterasu with his right eye. Overuse would cause structural damage to the retina.
If I push it too hard, I'll go blind.
Everything matched the mechanics of the Uchiha clan from his memories. He wondered if continuing to fuse Scarlet Eyes would heal the damage or eventually unlock the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.
According to the lore, the Eternal Mangekyō required transplanting the eyes of a close relative—usually a brother.
But I can keep fusing eyes indefinitely. Among the remaining twenty-odd pairs, surely there's a biological match.
And if there isn't... I'll just create a match.
Ronin pushed the thought aside. He wasn't just carrying himself through the water; he was holding the body of Kurapika.
But as he moved, he noticed something odd.
The weight was wrong.
Ronin felt the body in his arms shifting as they burst out of the main current.
A faint layer of Nen flickered over the "corpse." As the aura appeared, the body began to shrink rapidly.
Ronin's heart skipped a beat. He flared his own aura into Ken.
Did someone rig the body? A trap from the Troupe?
The thought had barely formed when his hands became empty. But within the swirling water of his Shark Bullet, a small object remained.
It was a detailed, exquisitely crafted miniature figure.
It looked exactly like the "dead" Kurapika Ronin had seen on the pavement.
Ronin froze. In an instant, his grief was replaced by a surging mix of relief and boiling irritation.
That little brat.
The "death of Kurapika" had been a performance.
A staged execution designed specifically for Ronin to witness.
Ronin remembered telling Kurapika that his eyes had hit a "bottleneck." He had explained that while fusing eyes increased his capacity, a qualitative leap (the Mangekyō) likely required a massive emotional trauma—a spike of intense despair or rage.
At the time, he was just sharing information, thinking Kurapika might help him brainstorm a training method.
He hadn't expected Kurapika to actually have the balls to fake his own death to trigger it.
He recalled Kurapika's question from the night before: "If you recalled that day, would it help you break the bottleneck?"
He was planning this since the moment he heard the theory!
Ronin didn't have an answer then, but he had one now.
It wasn't the memory of the massacre that did it. It was the sight of Kurapika—his only family in this world—lying broken on the ground. That was the trauma Ronin couldn't accept.
And that was the catalyst that pushed his Three-Tomoe into the Mangekyō Sharingan.
Three months of living together had turned the "investment" into a real bond.
I'm going to kill him when I find him.
Swish!
Ronin burst from the water, landing on a street that hadn't been fully submerged yet.
The Shark Bullet dissipated. He gripped the tiny Kurapika figurine tightly. He looked toward the hotel, then wove a seal.
Shadow Clone Jutsu.
He sent the clone racing toward the safehouse where Neon was hidden.
Then, he turned his gaze toward a figure being swept toward him by the receding flood.
It was Isley.
But Ronin wasn't the only one who spotted the straggler. From the top of a nearby building, a massive silhouette plummeted downward.
Silva Zoldyck was making his move.
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