Chapter 135: Kurapika's Ambush
The Shadow Clone had refrained from using Nen as a final layer of precaution.
Ronin wasn't worried about failing to kill his target; he was worried about what
happened after the target died. In the world of Nen, if a user dies with a
powerful grudge, their aura can transform into Post-Mortem Nen, becoming
infinitely more potent and dangerous. Even if the probability was low, Ronin
refused to leave a thread of fate loose.
How... could this happen?
That was the final thought of the Nen user hiding among the black-suited guards.
Thud.
The body hit the floor, blood blooming across the carpet. No Post-Mortem Nen
flared up. The auras of the surrounding guards flickered and died, proving that
Ronin had successfully terminated the source of the "static" disguise.
This was the harsh reality of a tier-jump. When an Enhancer manages to close the
distance and land a clean hit on a non-combat-specialized user, the result is a
total execution. The complex mechanics of the victim's Hatsu never even had the
chance to trigger.
As for the ordinary guards? Ronin didn't waste his time on them.
He knew the performers of the Macabre Menagerie could handle themselves. These
outcasts had survived a lifetime of persecution; every single one of them was a
hardened survivor. Against common thugs and security guards, they were apex
predators.
The battle in the theater ended so quickly that the remaining Glas Clan Nen
users looked at Ronin's clone with pure dread.
A frontal assault had been crushed in seconds. Their hidden comrade—the one
tasked with kiting the intruders—had been assassinated in his own "crowd." Two
strikes were enough to prove that Ronin was a monster they couldn't contain.
The remaining experts made the professional choice: they ignored the clone and
retreated to the perimeter.
Preserving their own lives took priority over Ryan's "collection."
With the experts gone, the ordinary guards were left to act as a desperate
rearguard.
Gunfire was the only sound left in the theater.
But once Norman and Abaki—now armed with a literal rocket launcher—began their
counter-offensive, the tide turned into a slaughter.
Ronin's Shadow Clone stepped back, no longer needing to intervene.
The center of the conflict was shifting. Anyone with eyes could see that the
intruders weren't here for the circus; they were here for the man in the
balcony: Ryan Glas.
The retreating Nen users didn't chase Ronin, nor did they flee the building.
They lingered in the outer corridors, careful not to lead the intruder directly
to Ryan's true location.
In the hallway outside the theater, the floor was littered with bodies—a mix of
unfortunate spectators and dead enforcers.
Ronin's main body had already vanished. Shizuku and Neon remained behind,
forming a defensive line to ensure the performers could evacuate safely.
While Ronin was clearing the path, Kurapika had been monitoring the building
through the crystal ball. He had known Ryan was in the theater; the man's eyes
hadn't lied.
But when Abaki's hook connected, Ryan had turned into a mannequin.
Kurapika analyzed the potential mechanics:
1. A pre-planned swap. The Ryan in the balcony was real during the show but was
replaced the moment the curtain fell. (Rejected: Ryan's final speech was too
specific, too personal to be a recording or a double).
2. A forced teleportation. Ryan was tagged with a condition that triggered a
swap when he was attacked.
3. A Counter-Hatsu.
Kurapika leaned toward the third option.
Abaki's hook possessed a spatial property. It should have followed the target
regardless of distance. The fact that it hit a fake suggested that the "Ryan"
being targeted was the fake the entire time, or the swap happened within the
micro-second of the hook's spatial jump.
He deduced the Hatsu: Emergency Exit.
Ryan likely created a biological decoy to receive a lethal blow, while his
"true" self was shifted to a safe coordinate.
From the way the decoy shriveled to feed the tracking curse, Kurapika inferred
that the fake inherited the host's physiological state.
This led to two critical questions: How many times could he do it? And how far
was the range?
Teleportation abilities usually came with fixed conditions. Either the
destination was random (too risky) or it was a set of pre-determined anchors.
Kurapika bet on the latter. To maintain control over the theater lockdown, Ryan
needed to be close. He needed to see the feed.
The security room.
Kurapika had memorized the hotel's blueprints. He moved before the smoke even
cleared.
Inside the monitoring room, Ryan Glas was hyperventilating.
His face was pale as he watched the monitors. He saw Ronin's clone dismantle his
best enforcers. He saw the " Fire God" negate his entire strategy.
He didn't know who this intruder was, but he knew he was the target.
Ryan stood up from the console. He had to leave. His strength wasn't in
brawling; it was in the rules he set.
But he was running out of "lives."
His Hatsu required anchors—hotel guests he had secretly marked with a "contract"
through his "charity" meals. He only had five such anchors left in the building.
Every time he swapped, one of them died.
He looked at the corpse in the corner of the security room. The man's arm was
torn open—the exact injury the "decoy" sustained from Abaki's hook.
The man had also shriveled into a husk, his fluids drained to fuel the
counter-attack.
Ryan opened the door, intending to flee to the roof where a helicopter was
waiting.
He didn't see the thin, silver line waiting for him in the shadows of the
doorframe.
As he stepped out, the chain rose from the floor, coiling around his limbs with
the speed of a striking viper.
Chain Jail.
"Going somewhere, Lord Ryan?" Kurapika asked, stepping into the light.
☆☆☆
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