The same playbook they'd used to replace Ten Don Raymond was recreated again.
Only this time, there was an extra piece on the board: a butler.
After watching Ryan get erased with such ease, the old butler had the good sense to immediately cooperate—answering everything he knew, holding nothing back, only begging to be allowed to live.
As for Meteor City's "rules," the biggest rule here was simple:
Survival of the fittest.
"You're outsiders," the butler said earnestly. "And extreme types like Theodore… there are plenty of them in Meteor City. So the best move is to create the illusion that you've already left Meteor City."
He continued, doing his utmost to be useful. "Ryan has a group under him for exactly this. They specialize in 'sending' people who want to escape Meteor City to underworld channels outside."
"Which mafia did you contact before?" Kurapika and Ronin exchanged a look—both of them visibly pleased.
"Niko," the butler answered smoothly, like he'd been waiting for the question.
"Can we swap that to Raymond?" Kurapika asked immediately.
"As long as there's a channel, of course." The butler looked surprised. He'd expected the name "Niko" to prompt more questions, but instead it sounded like these outsiders already knew all about the ten underworld "emperors" lurking in the shadows.
Just who were they?
"Good. I'll give you a contact later," Kurapika decided on the spot.
Ronin agreed with the butler's earlier point too: they needed to "leave" Meteor City—whether for real or as a performance.
And Kurapika's plan matched Ronin's thinking perfectly.
"Ronin—please disguise us leaving openly," Kurapika said. He didn't claim to know every detail of Ronin's abilities, but he understood enough to build his plan around them.
They'd just taken down Ryan; leaving immediately wasn't ideal. They still needed to secure their footing inside Meteor City.
And having Ronin's shadow clones "depart loudly" would also draw out unfriendly eyes.
Two birds, one stone.
As for getting exposed—Ronin could keep the disguise airtight at least until the clones boarded a ship and sailed away.
The butler started working according to Kurapika's instructions. Ronin created four shadow clones and sent them with the butler to handle the arrangements, leaving Ryan's villa.
Shizuku, meanwhile, was extremely adaptable.
Once Ronin's group moved into the villa, she settled in as if it were normal.
Spence and Ryan were both dead, and Shizuku had no real plans for the future. Eating, sleeping, and following Ronin around became basically her entire life over the next few days.
That surprised Ronin a little.
After thinking about it, he simply had Shizuku train alongside Kurapika and Neon.
Shizuku's aura capacity was clearly higher than theirs—though not by a ridiculous amount. By Ronin's estimate, her potential aura was over ten thousand, roughly double Kurapika's and Neon's.
Using her as a training benchmark for Kurapika and Neon was perfect.
Shizuku didn't resist the "new assignment." She was still getting used to the group and learning their rules.
Once Kurapika realized Shizuku could be forgetful about everyday things yet oddly strict about "rules," he slowly found the right way to deal with her.
At first Kurapika assumed he and Shizuku would clash in values—because Shizuku's indifference when killing was honestly chilling.
To Kurapika, that felt like a lack of respect for life.
But once he understood her better, he found a simple solution: add "no killing indiscriminately" to the team's operating rules, and Shizuku's behavior could be cleanly restricted.
Unfortunately, that vague word "indiscriminately" made Shizuku cling to him nonstop, repeatedly asking what counted as "indiscriminate."
Kurapika had endless patience. Every time Shizuku suggested a scenario, he gave a precise ruling.
As for Shizuku and Neon, they got along shockingly well.
Unlike Neon's interest in collecting human organs, Shizuku had more of a "pack rat" tendency—she'd vacuum up anything she liked into Blinky for storage.
But most of the time, she'd forget what she'd even stored.
So every so often, she'd have Blinky spit out a mountain of stuff and do a satisfying, meticulous sorting session.
Shizuku genuinely loved those moments.
Neon, meanwhile, envied Shizuku's ability. She wanted to carry everything good with her too—
instead of having to stash most valuables inside Ronin's controlled Fun Fun Cloth.
So after thinking it over, Neon moved all her collections—everything except Uvogin's and Omokage's specimens—from Ronin's storage into Shizuku's "house" instead.
The two girls ended up redesigning the clinic's layout together.
Ronin was perfectly happy to let them.
On September 23rd, the butler made contact—through the channel Kurapika provided—with someone in Raymond's mafia network.
Ronin's "loud" shadow clones boarded a garbage ship and "left" Meteor City.
Less than three hours after the ship entered open water, it exploded—everyone on board, including Ronin's clones, "dying" in the blast.
Illumi, who had just arrived in Meteor City and stepped off his own ship, stared at the intel in his hand, his catlike eyes full of confusion.
He'd come, and the target had already "left"—and the ship had blown up.
Where was he supposed to find the man now?
So Illumi simply called Chrollo.
"The target went missing at sea. Assassination postponed. Next I'll go to Heaven's Arena."
"Understood," Chrollo replied tersely.
He didn't care where Ronin died—only that Ronin was dead.
"Also," Chrollo added, "if you have time, go to Ryan's villa. I'll pay ten billion to have you kill him."
"Always happy to serve. Send the money," Illumi said, accepting without hesitation.
"Be careful," Chrollo warned. "Ryan may have made some kind of deal with Ronin. Otherwise he wouldn't have survived contact."
The request itself was a probe.
Chrollo had been watching Ryan for a long time—an elder who enjoyed torturing Meteor City residents.
Even without the Ronin issue, Chrollo would've wanted to remove that tumor eventually. Now that Ryan had likely met Ronin and made a deal, he deserved to die even more.
Then Chrollo suddenly asked, "By the way, any interest in joining the Phantom Troupe?"
"No," Illumi answered instantly.
"What a shame," Chrollo said evenly, and hung up.
Minutes later, Illumi looked at the payment confirmation and began reviewing Ryan's intel.
Assassinating a Meteor City elder wasn't an easy job, and he'd need to avoid exposing the Zoldyck name—otherwise those Meteor City lunatics would create who-knew-what kind of trouble.
~~~
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