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The variable was Hisoka.
Kurapika carefully reviewed every piece of the plan he'd laid out and zeroed in on the problem.
Normally, after Hisoka helped Ronin track down Shizuku, he should've called to talk about Chrollo.
But Hisoka hadn't reached out at all. If anything, he seemed impatient for October 1st to get here already.
Which meant the bastard had actually developed a real interest in Ronin.
That made using the fight as leverage way more complicated. Turning Meteor City into another trap suddenly looked a lot less realistic.
Chrollo would probably figure that out too. So starting October 1st, if he decided to deal with the "Ryan" problem, he'd definitely start testing the villa.
Without Ronin there to hold it down, fending off that kind of probing would be a serious headache.
The smartest play now was to use Ryan as a stepping stone—take out another Elder and keep building their presence in Meteor City under that new identity.
Before leaving Meteor City, though, Kurapika had one last stop he wanted to make.
The church in Meteor City.
According to Ronin, that was where the Phantom Troupe had originally formed. Kurapika wasn't planning to kill anyone. He just wanted to take a look around.
Even that, he figured, should be enough to make Chrollo lose his mind.
Unless Chrollo really had zero attachment left to that place. But the way he'd gone after revenge for Uvogin and how seriously he'd dug into Sarasa's story made it pretty clear he wasn't some emotionless monster.
Ronin went with him to the church.
But the moment they arrived, Kurapika stopped dead at the entrance.
Because inside the churchyard, he spotted a very familiar figure.
She was tall and graceful, wearing a white dress and a hairpin with a little heart design. She sat with a book in her hands, surrounded by a bunch of dirty kids.
The scruffy little children listened with rapt attention while she read them an adventure story. Their thin, hungry faces were filled with dreams of the outside world.
Even the girl telling the story had that same look of longing in her eyes.
Hearing footsteps, the girl glanced up curiously toward the church gate.
One look and she recognized the boy who had traded his traditional clothes for something new—it was Kurapika!
Her eyes lit up with pure joy.
"Kurapika!" She stood up, closed the book, and called his name excitedly. She stepped past the kids and started running toward him.
But she was clearly the clumsy cute type. She'd only gone a few steps before she tripped over her own feet right in front of Ronin and the others.
Before she could fall, a chain had already shot out and wrapped around her body, catching her mid-stumble.
"Why?"
Since this church visit was meant for Chrollo's eyes, Kurapika hadn't bothered hiding his face.
His voice carried something heavy and unreadable. When Ronin glanced over, he saw Kurapika's eyes had already turned blood-red. Even the contacts couldn't fully hide that scarlet glow.
It was clear just how shaken he was at seeing her.
"Sheila. Why are you here? Answer me!"
The girl's name was Sheila—the traveler who'd once gotten close to the hidden Kurta village.
She was also the one who'd given the adventure book to Kurapika and Pairo, the person who'd made Kurapika dead set on leaving the village to see the world.
Kurapika had suspected her once. After all, she was basically the only outsider who'd approached the village recently.
But her scatterbrained, always-getting-lost personality and her simple dream of becoming a Hunter had convinced him the massacre couldn't possibly involve this girl.
Yet here she was—the person who least belonged in Meteor City—not only in the city but right in the church where the Phantom Troupe was born.
And from the way she looked, she wasn't new here. She seemed very familiar with the place.
Sheila looked genuinely confused.
"I don't know what you're talking about. I grew up in Meteor City, so it's totally normal for me to be here! What about you, Kurapika? Weren't you coming to find me? And where's Pairo?" Sheila asked, puzzled.
She didn't seem to care at all about the chain wrapped around her.
Ronin could see a faint layer of aura around her—Ten. So Sheila was an ability user too.
The question was whether she trusted that Kurapika wouldn't hurt her… or whether she was confident enough in herself to let his ability hit without worry.
Ronin was curious about this mysterious girl as well.
Curious whether she really had any connection to what happened to the Kurta clan.
"So you're saying you know Phantom Troupe members too?" Kurapika kept pressing.
Sheila's expression slowly grew more serious. Even someone as airheaded as her could tell something was very wrong. "Yeah, I do."
"Was it you who leaked the Kurta clan's location to the Phantom Troupe?" Kurapika asked directly.
The second the question left his mouth, Ronin noticed Kurapika's knuckles turning white from how hard he was gripping his fist.
"What?" Sheila said, completely bewildered. "How could I? I don't even remember how to get back to the Kurta village. Otherwise I was planning to take the Hunter Exam this year, officially become a Hunter, and then come tell you and Pairo the good news."
As she explained, Sheila suddenly seemed to realize something.
"Chrollo and the others went to your village? What happened?" Her face tightened with worry, like she already sensed something terrible.
Ronin watched her carefully. He didn't think she was lying.
But some truths didn't need to be volunteered. There were other ways to get them.
Pakunoda's face flashed through Ronin's mind. If Sheila was telling the truth, had she come into physical contact with Pakunoda?
Besides her, Ronin couldn't think of anyone else who could've given away the Kurta clan's location.
The timing lined up pretty much perfectly—Sheila leaving and the Troupe finding the village.
Ronin noticed the chain hanging from Kurapika's ring finger. The Judgment Chain.
While Sheila spoke, it hadn't reacted at all. She was telling the truth.
That left only one possibility.
Ronin stepped forward and asked, "After you came back to Meteor City, did you have any contact with Pakunoda? The kind that involved actual physical touch?"