As if a thousand voices were screaming inside Ronin's head, telling him this was impossible.
And yet the body on the ground was horrifyingly real.
Kurapika lay there silently, blood still seeping out—most likely from ruptured organs caused by the fall.
Ronin shoved past the police tape and walked toward the body, one step at a time.
The nearby officers noticed immediately and rushed to stop him—but before they could even get close, their faces twisted into fear.
A crushing killing intent, carried on Ronin's Nen, exploded outward and flooded the area.
It was naked malice, completely undisguised.
He had only known Kurapika for a few months, but he had truly started to see him as a younger brother.
He could feel Kurapika's reliance on him, and he could see everything Kurapika had poured into developing abilities for him.
Kurapika had been giving his whole heart.
He had treated Ronin—his "nii-san Ronin"—as the last Kurta, the last companion, the last family he had left.
And now—
the person Kurapika trusted most had failed to protect him.
Kurapika died right in front of him.
A poisonous thought even flashed through Ronin's mind: if Ronin had never appeared in this world at all, Kurapika might have lived a better life.
At the very least… he wouldn't have died today.
Ronin cast Mystical Palm Technique, pressing his hand to Kurapika's body, trying again and again to bring him back.
But… no.
The moment chakra entered Kurapika's body, Ronin knew.
Kurapika was dead.
And when Ronin saw Kurapika's missing eyes, he knew exactly who had done it.
The Phantom Troupe.
It had to be them.
As if sensing something, Ronin snapped his head up—and in the same instant, someone fell from the sky toward him.
At the same time, intense battle music rang out across the night as the falling figure descended.
A massive "Jupiter" formed in the air—
but what met it was a sinister, crimson skeletal hand!
Ronin's eyes—no longer hidden by contacts—had changed without anyone noticing.
The tails of the three tomoe stretched longer, the tomoe spread and expanded into a black ring.
Those new eyes felt like a bottomless abyss.
Three black orbs seemed to radiate from the central pupil, and along the tomoe-tails connecting them were bumps—like tiny figures embedded along the tail itself.
And outside Ronin's body, crimson chakra had already formed a ribcage and arm—
the Mangekyō Sharingan's ultimate ocular technique:
Susanoo.
The huge skeletal arm instantly braced the falling "Jupiter," and the collision detonated with violent force.
The blast shattered nearby windows, cracked the ground in spiderweb fractures, and sent cars—and people—flying.
But Ronin, protected inside Susanoo, only stared at the "Jupiter" overhead. Energy surged in his eyes, and black flames erupted across the sphere.
Bonolenov was standing on "Jupiter" as he descended.
But before he could add weight to it, the black flames were already crawling toward him.
Bonolenov's instincts screamed that those black flames were deadly.
And then—three fire dragons burst out of the hotel behind him, lunging down toward him.
It was a shadow clone that had reached the hotel before Ronin's main body.
The clone hadn't gone all the way up to the 18th floor; it had attacked from around the 15th, blasting through windows with Fire Style and ambushing Bonolenov.
But at the exact moment the fire dragons appeared, a storm of tables flew out from the shattered windows on the 18th floor and smashed down toward the dragons.
And below, an endless stream of Nen bullets—fired by a towering figure—rained toward Ronin inside Susanoo.
On the 18th floor were Kortopi, Chrollo, and Pakunoda.
On the ground floor were Franklin and Isri.
Franklin laid down suppressive fire on Ronin, "pinned" under Jupiter. Isri slipped behind Ronin and fired his revolver.
A large-caliber round shot out, and the instant it reached Ronin, it detonated.
Boom—boom—boom. Nen bullets blanketed Ronin in explosions, and smoke and dust burst everywhere.
Above, Chrollo opened Bandit's Secret. As the pages flipped and stopped, a toy airplane appeared in his other hand.
A Conjuration ability: Super Fortress.
The toy plane lifted into the air, its bottom hatch opening. A round bomb dropped out and flew straight toward the 15th floor.
Boom!
The bomb exploded right as the fire dragons were about to reach Bonolenov.
A small mushroom cloud rose from the 15th-floor window. Below, Ronin felt a sudden surge in his chakra flow—meaning the Fire Style shadow clone had been destroyed.
As for the barrage hitting him, it didn't affect him at all behind Susanoo.
As the Uchiha clan's ultimate ocular technique, even in its early stage, Susanoo's defense was terrifying.
The crimson skeletal arm flexed—and the black-flame-covered "Jupiter" shattered in midair.
Flames sprayed outward. Ronin's Mangekyō locked onto Bonolenov's position instantly.
The ocular technique surged again—black fire ignited where Bonolenov was about to land and spread into a wide patch of burning hell.
Bonolenov—his body full of "sound holes" that sang as he moved—wore conjured battle armor and held a conjured double-headed spear.
He drove the spear into the ground, then balanced on the spear tip with one foot.
Directly beneath him was a pool of Amaterasu's black fire.
The flames licked the spear; within moments it began to melt. And a tiny wisp of black fire caught on Bonolenov's fluttering clothes.
The fire spread from the fabric—about to climb onto his body in an instant.
Above, the falling tables smashed through the fire dragons, which were already fading as the clone dispersed.
Bang-bang-bang—tables punched through and crashed into Susanoo's arm and ribs.
Ronin didn't care about the tables.
What he cared about was the toy airplane overhead—its hatch opening again.
He sensed danger from it.
And he noticed something else: Bonolenov wasn't charging Ronin. He leapt off his spear and rushed toward Franklin instead.
But Ronin also saw the black fire already spreading across Bonolenov's body.
Burn. Burn alive, you trash.
Ronin pulled his gaze back, glanced at the 15th-floor window where the bomb had exploded—now warped and melted—and a thought clicked into place.
A conjured airplane. A transmuted high-temperature explosion.
While identifying the nature of Chrollo's stolen ability, Ronin's chakra surged violently into his mouth. He formed seals with both hands—
and then unleashed a jutsu.
A colossal torrent of water erupted from Ronin's mouth and, in a single instant, swallowed everything within dozens of meters—including the Adan Hotel itself—in a massive "water prison."
Water Style: Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave!
~~~
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