September 1 was the day the Yorknew auction began.
Ronin's target was the underground auction that night. If the Troupe followed their usual style, then everyone attending that auction tonight would die.
But Ronin wasn't someone who killed indiscriminately. His target was the merchandise—nothing else.
To Ronin, the Uvogin group he'd seen yesterday was the perfect "look" to use as camouflage.
He didn't know what was going on with Uvogin's reattached arm, but he could mimic Uvogin's Big Bang Impact perfectly.
"Too bad we don't have a spatial-type ability. Otherwise we could carry off everything much more cleanly," Kurapika said while planning, thinking about how to take all the lots tonight.
Ronin thought of Shizuku.
At this point in time, Shizuku probably hadn't joined the Phantom Troupe yet, and her ability really was incredibly useful.
The problem was—where would they even find her? And if Shizuku was from Meteor City, Ronin felt there was basically no chance to recruit her.
Her personality was… workable. Ronin remembered her as forgetful and emotionally flat, with little sense of right and wrong, not especially bothered by killing. She looked cute, but her words could be brutally sharp—and because she forgot things so quickly, she'd forget what she said almost immediately.
The one thing she didn't forget was the Troupe's rules. When the Troupe argued internally, she would always choose the side that matched the rules.
She also trusted Chrollo deeply, for reasons Ronin didn't know.
If that loyalty came from being a Meteor City native, then there was nothing to be done.
If it wasn't tied to Meteor City—if it was a bond formed later when Chrollo recruited her—then maybe there was still a chance.
But Ronin had no real desire to go looking for people in a place like Meteor City.
So whether he'd ever cross paths with Shizuku was, to Ronin, pure fate.
And if Shizuku really did join the Troupe, then even if she hadn't participated in the Kurta massacre, Ronin wouldn't hesitate when the time came—he would kill her.
No spatial ability?
Then they'd use a method that didn't require one.
A little after 8 p.m., Ronin opened the car door and got out. Using Transformation Jutsu, he disguised himself as a mafia security member and calmly walked into the building hosting the auction.
Meanwhile, the car continued forward a bit and parked in front of a hotel across from the Cemetery Building.
The underground auction held at Cemetery was entirely run by the mafia.
Buyers could attend only in groups of up to three. Security inside the venue was handled completely by the mafia organizers.
In Yorknew, that was considered top-tier protection—because anyone who dared start trouble here was effectively declaring war on the entire world's mafia.
By the time Ronin blended into the venue, it was already packed.
Everyone wore lavish, expensive clothing, like an upper-class ballroom gathering. There were plenty of bodyguards too—but Nen users were extremely rare.
Ronin didn't stop. He headed straight for the underground storage area where the lots were kept.
At first, things went smoothly.
But the moment he was asked to prove his identity, Ronin stopped pretending.
His "security guard" disguise instantly shifted into a scarred, burned, almost-demonic version of Uvogin.
And the killing began.
The mafia guards watching the lots were armed to the teeth. But whether pistol bullets or rifle rounds, they only made ting ting ting sounds when they hit Ronin.
Bullets clattered across the floor behind him, shocking countless mafia members.
Ronin's physical toughness might not match the Uvogin of years later, but blocking bullets was already effortless.
Blocking rockets would still need work—but he couldn't be far off.
The Added-Weight Rock training had worked far better than expected.
Ronin casually caught a bullet that was about to fall from his body, flicked it with his finger—
A sonic crack rang out, and a gunman dropped dead, a bullet hole punched cleanly through his forehead.
Ronin moved like a war god.
By the time he stood before the massive steel vault door, not a single mafia guard nearby was still standing.
Ronin hadn't killed every last one—he needed witnesses.
He gathered powerful aura onto his fist. Using the same explosive compression principle as Big Bang Impact, he drove a punch into the vault door with a deep subterranean boom.
A huge fist imprint appeared, and the entire door caved inward.
No ninjutsu—just raw Big Bang Impact.
By the time Ronin threw the tenth punch, the vault door itself still held… but the surrounding wall couldn't. It tore apart completely.
Even though the wall was metal too, it was ripped open.
Some of the mafia men lying there, not yet dead, stared with wide eyes—utterly stunned.
Was this something a human could do?
What was that towering figure?
Ronin kicked the fallen door aside and walked into the vault.
He pulled out two backpacks he'd prepared in advance and rapidly stuffed in one valuable item after another.
The ones he cared about most, of course, were the Scarlet Eyes—the strongest pull among the treasures.
Unfortunately, there was only one pair here.
Based on all the information they'd gathered, the underground auction was supposed to sell three pairs—just auctioned separately.
And at Yorknew's largest auction house, Numpis, there would be another pair—but only one.
Meaning: in the best case, Ronin could collect four pairs in Yorknew.
Absorbing Scarlet Eyes took time. Outside, the moment enough mafia security died, a piercing alarm began to scream.
After packing most of what he needed, Ronin left the vault.
He didn't go upstairs immediately. In a spot no one could observe, he activated a jutsu:
Shadow Clone Jutsu.
The clone took one backpack and headed for the front route, while Ronin's real body grabbed the backpack containing the Scarlet Eyes and sprinted upstairs.
Most mafia members were drawn to the clone. Ronin's real body reached the fifth floor unnoticed, opened a window, and cast a jutsu on himself:
Earth Style: Super Light-Weight Rock Jutsu.
Chakra erupted with the technique and continued draining as long as it remained active.
But Ronin rose smoothly and flew out through the window.
Meanwhile, from another direction, gunfire and explosions blended into a single continuous roar.
The mafia had fully surrounded Ronin's shadow clone.
But the group being surrounded wasn't just the clone.
There were also three others—Uvogin, Nobunaga, and Machi—who had arrived in suits to attend the underground auction.
With a huge pack on his back, Ronin's shadow clone had already shifted its disguise again—now it looked exactly like Franklin.
Some people noticed something was off, but with wounded mafia security identifying them, everyone assumed Ronin's clone and Uvogin's group were working together.
~~~
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