"Don't even think about running, you bastard!"
The furious, impotent roar had zero effect on Ronin.
Hidden within the thick fog, Ronin immediately cast a transformation spell.
The young man with short light-gold hair and refined, handsome features instantly turned into a pot-bellied middle-aged man.
His footsteps became just as frantic and panicked as everyone else moving through the fog.
Ronin knew very well that his control over Nen still wasn't subtle enough. He couldn't freely suppress it to the point of perfectly disguising himself as an ordinary civilian.
That's why the transformation spell was his best option.
Under the spell, he looked completely normal—just another average person, with a faint aura naturally leaking out like anyone else.
Which made the situation simple.
Unless the Phantom Troupe decided to slaughter everyone in the airship terminal, they had no chance of finding him.
And even if they did start killing, he could still use the cover of the fog to escape underground with his Headhunter Jutsu technique and relocate quickly.
From the moment he realized Shalnark was controlling someone, Ronin's escape had already been all but guaranteed.
As he neared the entrance of the terminal, the fog began to thin. That's when Ronin finally spotted a familiar figure.
The man stood at the entrance—tall and lean, dressed like a wandering samurai, a katana hanging at his waist. His dead, fish-like eyes swept over everyone approaching the exit, clearly searching for someone.
It was Nobunaga.
Uvogin's best partner.
Ronin behaved just like the panicked people around him.
But before he could even get close, he saw it—
Everyone who ran past Nobunaga was instantly cut in half at the waist.
So this really was the Phantom Troupe… a bunch of lawless lunatics.
There had to be forty or fifty people fleeing the terminal, and Nobunaga slaughtered them without so much as a change in expression.
That wasn't just cruel—it was outright sociopathic.
The fog was already thin in this area, and the stench of blood, along with the screams of people who'd been sliced in half but hadn't died yet, sent the panic into overdrive.
In that instant, Ronin felt like he'd been locked onto by a predator.
Was it because his expression didn't quite match the others' panic?
Sharp bastard.
Ronin raised his hands and formed seals, inhaling deeply.
The next second, a massive fireball erupted from his mouth.
Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!
At the same time, his Sharingan already reflected Nobunaga's figure charging straight at him.
The fireball was split cleanly down the middle in midair.
Nobunaga didn't slow down at all—his draw became a sheathing motion instead.
But when he passed through the flames, Ronin was gone.
Nobunaga's expression shifted. Nen surged violently into his legs as he stomped hard onto the ground.
A battered figure struggled up from beneath the ground not far away.
A cold smile tugged at Nobunaga's lips as he vanished in a blur, rushing toward the target.
The moment he closed in, his draw slash exploded outward—
But what he cut apart wasn't flesh.
It was a massive burst of water.
"A clone?"
As that thought crossed his mind, Nobunaga twisted sideways. Several coins were already flying toward him.
Clink, clink, clink.
Every coin was sliced cleanly in half.
But through the thin fog, Nobunaga only caught a glimpse of a rapidly disappearing silhouette.
The direction of escape—
The terminal entrance.
His eyebrow twitched. Nobunaga immediately gave chase, but the moment he burst into the hall, all he saw were armed police pouring in from outside and a terrified crowd surging toward the exits.
Ronin was long gone.
He couldn't tell whether the man had blended into the crowd or vanished back into the shadows.
But that brief exchange had already made one thing clear—
Ronin's abilities were dangerously versatile.
Nobunaga sheathed his katana, briefly considering whether it would be faster to just kill everyone in the hall and flush Ronin out.
Before he could act, a blond teenage boy appeared behind him.
"Let it go, Nobunaga."
It was Shalnark, who had been lying in wait, hoping to ambush Ronin from the shadows.
When the fog rolled in, he'd rushed toward the spot where Ronin vanished, but he was still a step too late. He didn't know how Ronin had noticed the police acting strangely, but his escape methods were undeniably troublesome.
This guy was a professional escape artist.
Nobunaga's dead eyes drooped as he glanced unwillingly toward the exit.
"How's Uvogin?"
"He's fine. Let's get out of here," Shalnark said, already turning and walking out of the terminal.
By now, the fog outside had nearly dissipated. And as it cleared, the scene it revealed was horrifying.
There were almost no living people left in the airship yard.
Some had been riddled with bullets. Many more had been cleanly cut in half at the waist.
Uvogin had already stood back up and was striding toward them, his face still filled with rage and killing intent.
But even he knew that catching Ronin now would be difficult, so he didn't press the chase.
Police officers inside the terminal were rapidly closing in. Without another word, the three of them left from the opposite side of the airship port.
---
By then, Ronin had already blended into the crowd.
His face was pale, and one of his arms bent at an unnatural angle.
It was broken.
Nobunaga hadn't been wrong.
When Ronin used the Great Fireball to block his line of sight, he'd immediately burrowed underground using the Headhunter Jutsu technique.
What he hadn't anticipated was Nobunaga's sudden burst of power.
That massive surge of Nen slammed into the ground, threatening him even underground. Forcing his way back out had cost him dearly—his arm had been crushed and fractured by the pressure of the earth.
And he knew that the instant he surfaced, he'd become Nobunaga's target.
So the moment he emerged, he used Water Style: Water Clone Jutsu.
Compared to basic clones, the water clone was far more lifelike—a C-rank technique, a full tier above the D-rank clone jutsu.
With the mist created by the Hidden Mist Technique, forming the water clone was easier than ever. Using the clone and the fog as cover, Ronin quickly concealed his real body and sprinted toward the terminal.
Nobunaga was absurdly fast. The water clone didn't even have time to react before it was instantly cut down.
But Ronin had expected that.
The moment the clone burst apart, he hurled the coins in his pocket like shuriken.
That brief pause—Nobunaga blocking the coins—was all he needed to rush into the terminal.
After that, blending into the crowd was easy.
He'd been worried Nobunaga might go completely berserk and slaughter everyone.
But when he saw Shalnark step in and stop him, Ronin finally let out a quiet sigh of relief.
Following the crowd out of the terminal and breathing in air that was hardly clean, he still felt like he'd just cheated death.
He didn't dare linger.
Crossing the street, Ronin jumped into a taxi and quickly left the airship port behind.
First, he went to a small clinic to have his broken arm and the injuries to his waist and abdomen treated.
Then, using his transformation spell, he checked into a hotel.
Now, he planned to wait.
He didn't believe the Phantom Troupe would stay here forever just to hunt him down.
And more importantly—
His injuries really did need time to heal.