Chrollo had indeed mastered the bookmark.
With only a single ability available at a time, his power still had quite a few limitations. But with the bookmark added, he could link together all the abilities inside Skill Hunter, even combining them into stronger effects.
Ronin wasn't surprised by that.
Normally, this was an ability Chrollo should only have mastered two years later.
But Ronin's appearance had clearly stimulated Chrollo. In that case, it wasn't strange that Chrollo had been pushed into developing this ability ahead of schedule.
What Ronin was curious about was what ability Chrollo would use next.
Monkeys.
As Chrollo inserted the bookmark and flipped the pages, three large monkeys appeared out of thin air at a spot not far from Ronin.
Ronin's pupils narrowed slightly.
He had imagined that Chrollo might use some ability to support Nobunaga's attack.
He had also considered that Chrollo might have found an ability that could help him insert Shalnark's antenna into Ronin more effectively.
But the one thing he had never expected was for Chrollo to suddenly summon three monkeys.
And the key point was, Ronin knew whose ability those three monkeys belonged to.
Especially after seeing their distinctive traits, he became even more certain.
Saiyu.
One of the Hunter Association's Zodiacs, a bounty hunter, a martial artist, and also an ally of Beyond.
His Nen ability had also been revealed in the manga: three monkeys capable of taking away a person's hearing, sight, and speech through their attacks.
The ability Chrollo had just activated by flipping to that page was exactly those iconic three monkeys.
How could it be anything other than Saiyu's ability?
Had Beyond chosen to support Chrollo?
Or had Chrollo investigated Saiyu's ability, found Saiyu, and stolen it from him?
Ronin leaned more toward the former.
Saiyu was a pure combat type, and his fighting strength definitely could not be underestimated.
Even for the Troupe, defeating him might be possible, but capturing him and stealing his ability was, in Ronin's eyes, almost impossible.
But if it was the former, then how had Beyond persuaded Saiyu?
Ronin didn't believe Saiyu would obediently lend his ability to Chrollo.
And he believed even less that Chrollo would return Saiyu's ability after obtaining it.
But no matter what, there were two reasons why Saiyu's ability had appeared in Chrollo's hands.
One was that Ronin had revealed Chrollo's ability online.
The other was that Beyond must have seen some kind of opportunity in Chrollo's power.
In other words, the key to all of this should lie with Beyond.
The only question was what Beyond's goal was.
But now wasn't the time to think about that.
The important thing was not getting hit by the sight-stealing monkey.
Nobunaga's attack power was unknown, but in Ronin's eyes, it was the least threatening part of this assault.
Because even though Nobunaga had exploded forward with extreme speed, he still hadn't managed to get close to Ronin. When he was still about four meters away, he suddenly fell into a sluggish, slow-moving state.
It was Ame-no-Tokotachi.
The moment Ronin dismissed Susanoo, he had already activated Ame-no-Tokotachi.
Only, he hadn't activated it against the enemy.
Instead, he had frozen a spherical area of space around himself.
This frozen spherical space was now his strongest defense. And since Ronin stood at the very center of that hollow sphere, he was not restricted by the spatial freeze and could still form hand seals to use ninjutsu.
Ronin brought his hands together in front of him.
No matter what arrangements the Troupe had made, he only had one goal:
wipe them out.
So when Nobunaga's body sank into the mire of frozen space, Ronin completed his hand seals and unleashed his ninjutsu.
Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet.
The instant Ame-no-Tokotachi vanished, a massive dragon head slammed into Nobunaga and carried him flying backward.
But in that same instant, an explosion suddenly erupted.
The dragon head was torn apart midair. Scorched marks appeared across Nobunaga's body, but his hand remained firmly pressed on the hilt of his sword.
And with the force of that explosion propelling him forward, Nobunaga shot toward Ronin at high speed.
His four-meter En was almost about to cover Ronin.
But just then, another enormous dragon head lunged out from the side and swallowed Nobunaga in one bite.
After all, Fire Dragon Flame Bullet originally released three fire dragons.
With the way Nobunaga had appeared, how could Ronin possibly not be prepared?
His sealed hands had never loosened.
The chakra he released controlled the remaining two fire dragons: one bit down on Nobunaga, while the other charged toward the approaching giant monkeys.
At the same time, Ronin noticed Nen threads silently creeping toward him along the ground.
It was Machi.
She had used In on the threads, trying to repeat the same trick and bind Ronin with them.
Although Chrollo's Nen was not present in these threads right now, there was still an antenna attached to one of them.
And that antenna was the key.
In the distance, Franklin's face hardened when Nobunaga was swallowed by the fire dragon for the second time.
The human-shaped bomb in his chest was a cooperative ability he had specially created.
Nobunaga, launched out from inside it, carried Franklin's Nen and would explode like a missile once he touched the target.
At the same time, that explosion would not harm Nobunaga. Instead, it would create an opening for him to deliver a lethal strike.
Because from the moment Franklin and Nobunaga created this ability, both of them had expected Ronin to use some ability to block him.
Franklin's aura was there to ensure that Nobunaga's attack would reach Ronin with absolute certainty.
But now, it seemed their combined technique was still lacking.
Franklin lowered his gaze toward his own chest as the openings in his wrists unfolded.
He hadn't placed too much hope in this hastily developed ability to begin with.
After Nobunaga left his chest, the upper half of Franklin's body was no longer pitch-black. Instead, a skull emblem was revealed there.
Ordinary moves really wouldn't work if they wanted to kill Ronin, huh?
Franklin looked at the three giant monkeys that were about to be attacked.
He didn't know what kind of preparations Chrollo had made.
But before coming here, he had already made up his mind.
The missiles in his wrists did not fire. Instead, his hands returned to normal.
Those ordinary missiles, even if launched, would probably just be swatted away by Ronin like flies.
So—
Franklin reached out and pressed the center of his chest.
There was a hidden hatch there.
With his press, the square hatch popped open, revealing a fuse inside.
If ordinary missiles couldn't destroy Ronin, then what about this human missile, one formed from all of Franklin's Nen and his very life?
Ronin did not notice Franklin's abnormal movement.
He suddenly jumped, bringing both feet together in midair in a clapping motion.
When he landed again, a massive amount of water erupted from the ground around him.
The rising water formed a barrier, protecting Ronin at the center while also washing up the Nen threads that had been silently creeping toward him along the floor.
It was Water Release: Water Formation Wall.