As chakra flowed back into Ronin's main body, the shadow clone was blown to pieces the instant it touched Theodore.
At the same time, explosions erupted across the street again.
It was the fanatics.
Ronin only glanced at them. Seeing Kurapika and the others could still handle it, he turned his attention back to Theodore's corpse.
Theodore's postmortem Nen had clearly mutated into something different from the anime.
In the anime, when Chrollo obtained this Nen, the postmortem effect enhanced "Sun and Moon" so that once the marks were applied, they would no longer vanish on their own.
But now Theodore's postmortem Nen had become: anyone who touched his corpse would instantly explode.
And those who had previously been marked would also have the marks reappear on their bodies.
Ronin even suspected that touching a marked person might cause the toucher to gain a mark as well.
This corpse… might actually be a pretty good weapon.
Ronin tugged a chakra thread lightly, and Owl was released from the Fun Fun Cloth.
Owl's eyes were already dull and lifeless, but he still stared at Ronin like he was looking at a devil.
Ronin didn't care. With a tiny flick of the puppet strings, Owl's body unwillingly conjured the Fun Fun Cloth again.
The Fun Fun Cloth dropped over Theodore's corpse. The body rapidly shrank, then vanished completely, leaving only a small cloth bundle on the ground.
Ronin stepped forward, picked up the bundle, and casually stuffed it into his pocket.
Then he looked at Owl again—and in Owl's terrified expression, Ronin stuffed him back into another Fun Fun Cloth.
Even with Shizuku joining the team, Ronin had no intention of letting Owl go.
Owl had given him a lot of information Ronin hadn't known before.
For example: the Ten Dons looked like they were incredibly powerful, with the underworld of the six continents and ten regions all "belonging" to them—
but in reality, places like the Five Great Nations, or even Kakin, weren't territories the so-called Ten Mafia Families could truly dominate.
He'd also learned that the Shadow Beasts varied wildly in strength and specialties, and that some of them were demi-human subtypes.
Most of those demi-humans came from Meteor City—people who'd been discarded by the world.
In other words, the Ten Dons and Meteor City were deeply intertwined.
The Ten Dons provided connections and resources; Meteor City provided manpower.
And those demi-humans tended to be brutal, aggressive, and often preferred torture and interrogation over simply killing their prey.
Ronin thought of Rabid Dog and Leech—but among the Shadow Beasts he'd personally encountered, those two hadn't appeared.
Still, from Owl's mouth, Ronin learned that beneath the Shadow Beasts there were also "reserve" candidates—people like the Mole who'd been at Raymond's side.
Maybe the Rabid Dog and Leech types Ronin remembered hadn't joined yet.
If so, the Shadow Beasts' turnover was pretty fast.
Meanwhile, the ones who attacked Ronin before—Owl, Bat, Worm, and Slug—were all familiar faces. If they could survive another three years, they'd count as veterans.
They'd likely be stronger than when Ronin first met them—meaning Kurapika and Neon wouldn't be able to deal with them so easily.
But that wasn't the point.
What Ronin really wanted to know was whether these demi-humans were concentrated under one faction in Meteor City—or scattered across different powers.
At least so far, from the moment he arrived in Meteor City until now, he hadn't seen that type again.
Kurapika's trio's fight also reached its end quickly.
Even though Theodore's postmortem Nen re-triggered Sun and Moon on the fanatics, once they realized those people could explode, Kurapika's group's strategy became simple:
Don't let them get close.
No matter how vicious they looked, they were still just ordinary people.
And ordinary people against Nen users—even a rock thrown with Shu-reinforced aura could kill them with ease.
Not to mention Kurapika using chains to keep every rushing fanatic several meters away.
The only unpleasant part for Kurapika and Neon was that some of the ones they didn't kill in time exploded and splattered them with blood and flesh.
Fortunately, Shizuku was there.
Once all the fanatics were dealt with, Blinky came out again.
Blood, minced flesh, and all the other disgusting debris—under Shizuku's command—was vacuumed off their bodies.
By the time they regrouped, the three were back to looking clean and dry.
The car had been blown up, but with that gone, the four of them—guided by Shizuku—could move more discreetly.
And while Ronin's group was heading for Ryan's villa, one of Meteor City's elders contacted Chrollo.
Chrollo had already left Nostrade City.
But the more he investigated the Kurta clan, the more he felt that this reclusive tribe wasn't simple at all.
Especially because it wasn't just Nostrade City that circulated rumors of the "red-eyed devil's apostles"—other cities had similar stories too.
In many of those rumors, red eyes were linked directly to demons.
Chrollo couldn't confirm the "artifact" theory, but he did find claims that the Kurta possessed demonic relics from the demon realm.
The "demon realm" idea existed everywhere. Even in Meteor City, Chrollo had heard stories of people selling their souls to demons in exchange for unrivaled power.
Chrollo had tracked down one such person before. The abilities that person displayed were indeed somewhat different from ordinary Nen users—
though still explainable through Nen.
More precisely: people "favored" by demons gained an additional ability beyond their own, but they paid a price most couldn't imagine.
In that person's case—
the cost of receiving the demon's power was losing any resemblance to a human.
After using the demon's ability, he became a grotesque, flesh-worm monster.
And that was just the surface-level change. The real core was that his soul no longer belonged to him.
A demon bargain meant: become a devil while alive, be devoured by a devil after death.
That was the nature of the deal.
Most people either couldn't see it clearly—or they simply craved the brief rush of revenge, achievement, and satisfaction that the demon's power could bring.
So… had Ronin made a deal with a demon?
Chrollo couldn't tell.
But he could be certain of one thing: whether Ronin gained power through an artifact or a demon, the price he paid would be enormous.
As for Meteor City reaching out to him, Chrollo initially wasn't interested.
But when he saw the report's description of Shizuku Murasaki, his heart stirred.
~~~
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