Kurapika's guess was correct.
The ones truly in trouble now were the Phantom Troupe.
Chrollo shared his theory with the members, and the one who agreed with him most was Shalnark.
When Machi also nodded in agreement, everyone's mind settled on the same conclusion: Chrollo's theory was very likely the biggest secret behind Ronin's explosive growth.
Because ever since she was young, Machi's intuition had almost never been wrong.
But that was exactly the problem.
They had sold the Scarlet Eyes, yet they didn't actually know who most of the buyers were.
After all, the Scarlet Eyes themselves were just a tool Chrollo used to open a special information channel—
a channel connected to the people who killed Sarasa back in Meteor City. By now, Chrollo could roughly locate the core: a special website.
It seemed to be a network built entirely by ability users combined with special tools—so-called "artifacts." It stored huge amounts of valuable information, including the video of Sarasa's death.
If Ronin hadn't appeared, Chrollo's next major investigation would have focused on that website.
Now, with Ronin involved—and possibly another artifact in play—Chrollo decided to reorder his priorities.
If Ronin truly possessed an artifact, obtaining it might help him break through the constraints of that special website.
"Up to now, Ronin should've collected five pairs of Scarlet Eyes, right?" Shalnark tapped his phone, calculating rapidly. "Ronin's father's pair, the pair Ronin bought while at Heavens Arena, the pair from killing Omokage, and the pair from Kakin's underground auction."
"Yeah." Chrollo agreed. "The mafia auction house should still have two pairs, and Numpis' auction on the 5th has one. We have to take those three before Ronin does."
"I'll go to Numpis and negotiate first," Shalnark said confidently. "As long as the price is high enough, I should be able to secure the Scarlet Eyes ahead of the auction."
And his bank account really could support that.
If negotiation failed, robbing them was also an option.
Chrollo nodded. "Take Machi, Nobunaga, Feitan, and Phinks with you. The remaining five will stay with me here, ready to respond."
"You think Ronin will ambush us at Numpis?" Shalnark asked, uncertain.
"Better safe than sorry." Chrollo's gaze sharpened. "And Isri needs to be careful too—the two Zoldycks are after you."
Chrollo continued, "Try to figure out who's paying to have you assassinated. If you can't pinpoint the person, write down everyone you suspect and give me the list."
Chrollo knew the Zoldycks' "business rules" to some extent.
If Isri could provide a list, Chrollo would pay to hire other Zoldyck family members to assassinate the names on it.
If they killed the employer who hired the Zoldycks to target Isri, then the crisis on Isri would dissolve on its own.
Isri's gaunt face twisted into a bitter smile. "I'll try. You know I've offended too many people."
"I think you should start with your unhappy mistresses," Machi snorted. "You'll have better odds identifying who wants you dead."
"Uh…" Isri hesitated. "But they're all my true love."
Machi answered with a huge eye-roll.
Chrollo was still thinking about something else.
Even if he couldn't remember most Scarlet Eyes buyers, he did know the biggest buyer:
Kakin's Fourth Prince, the organ-collecting enthusiast Tserriednich Hui Guo Rou.
But Kakin's waters seemed deep.
Taking Scarlet Eyes back from him might not be simple.
Kakin was somewhere Chrollo would eventually go—just not now.
By calculation, including Ronin's father's pair, the total remaining Scarlet Eyes should be 35 pairs.
Ronin already had 5 pairs. Yorknew publicly had 3 pairs. Chrollo had sold 11 pairs to Tserriednich.
That meant there were 16 pairs still out there beyond all of that.
If they left Tserriednich for last, those 16 pairs would become the key battleground next.
Chrollo also needed deeper investigation into the Kurta.
And he couldn't ignore the possibility that while they hunted those 16 pairs, Ronin would flip the hunt—becoming the one actively hunting the Troupe.
Prey and hunter… were starting to swap places.
Chrollo pulled out his phone.
It seemed he would need outside help as well.
…
September 4.
Yorknew's biggest news wasn't "the Phantom Troupe got wiped out."
It was "this item sold for a sky-high price," or "that person struck gold at an auction."
In Yorknew's seven-day auction season, money stories were what people loved talking about most.
Ronin had nothing urgent to do today.
Yesterday, after absorbing his 8th pair of Scarlet Eyes, his strength rose again—but aura capacity increases alone were no longer enough to satisfy him.
The key problem was still awakening Mangekyō.
He was stuck at the Mangekyō bottleneck. Until he found a method, continuing to absorb Scarlet Eyes would still boost his aura and make him feel like the power inside his eyes was increasing—but it wouldn't trigger the qualitative shift.
Maybe once Mangekyō finally awakened, there'd be a "surprise" waiting.
Back when he fought Uvogin, Ronin had also noticed something: the Third Raikage's strongest Lightning Release technique wasn't performing ideally in his hands.
At least, the power he showed was nowhere near the Third Raikage's.
If it were the real Third Raikage, Ronin suspected Uvogin would've turned into minced meat in a single exchange.
The key reason was Ronin's physical body—still far weaker than the Raikage's.
The "fragile ninja" stereotype might've just been Ronin's bias.
The bodies of high-tier taijutsu ninjas were far beyond what he'd imagined.
No wonder the Third Raikage, paired with Lightning Chakra Mode, could face the Eight-Tails head-on without losing.
That body was monster-tier.
Ronin still needed to train. The stronger his body became, the more his Lightning Chakra Mode would scale.
Then there was aura capacity.
Enhancement's greatest benefit for him was extreme recovery.
On September 1, he fought two battles with little downtime. After using both shadow clones and multi shadow clones, he still managed to restore his main body to about 80% in a short period—thanks to Kurapika's support and his own Zetsu.
That was proof.
After doing some disguising together with Neon, Ronin took her out of the hotel.
Since they were here anyway, he planned to attend some auctions and "feel" Yorknew's atmosphere.
"Just so we're clear—this isn't a date," Neon declared righteously.
"Dream on," Ronin rolled his eyes hard. "I'm not interested in an underdeveloped kid."
"Oh! I get it," Neon said with a knowing face. "You like Milia-nee."
"When did you get familiar with her?" Ronin asked, confused.
Neon wore an "I knew it" look and didn't deny it—basically admitting it. "Heh. Don't worry about it."