Ronin's gaze swept across the ring, not missing a single trace of Nen still connected to Hisoka.
With the Sharingan's incredible perception combined with the effect of Gyo, Ronin was confident he wouldn't overlook even the slightest strand of Nen that belonged to Hisoka.
And he was absolutely certain of one thing: if Hisoka wanted to break the Water Prison, he had to do it from the outside.
The shuriken had already cut every Nen thread connecting Hisoka to the outside world, so where was the hidden backup Hisoka still had?
A strange disturbance on the stage was quickly caught by Ronin.
It was the referee.
The referee's body stumbled uncontrollably toward the Water Prison.
But from Ronin's perspective, there was no Bungee Gum attached to him. In fact, Ronin couldn't see a single trace of Nen on the referee at all. So how was Hisoka controlling him?
A thought flickered through his mind, but his hands didn't slow. He raised a fist and punched in the referee's direction.
The explosive force of the punch created a blast of wind that shoved the referee much farther away. And in that moment, the Sharingan finally caught sight of the Nen on the referee.
It was only exposed because the referee's body had been blown backward, revealing it. But that Nen was covered by another layer of Nen used as camouflage.
Texture Surprise.
Ronin identified it instantly.
At Semetari, Hisoka had used the same ability to conceal the damage on his fist.
Ronin had noticed it back then, but hadn't examined it too closely. Now it was clear that this ability could even fool the Sharingan's perception and hide Hisoka's Nen completely.
That kind of concealment clearly surpassed In, because ordinary hidden Nen could still be exposed by Gyo.
But Hisoka's disguise remained unreadable even though Ronin was already using Gyo through the Sharingan.
Using Bungee Gum to control the referee was also a very elegant move.
Still, judging by the way the referee moved, Hisoka clearly wasn't truly skilled at controlling people. It would be more accurate to say he was just crudely restricting the referee's movements, forcing him to stagger forward under Bungee Gum's pull.
So what was the point of doing that?
Unless—
A thought rose in Ronin's mind, and the Sharingan's piercing vision immediately let him see that many of the stones scattered across the ring were connected by pink strands of Nen.
And now, because of the gust from his earlier punch, those stones had rolled farther away, pulling the pink threads taut.
The next second, the tightened stones shot out at high speed, aimed at roughly the same area where Hisoka was trapped—covering Ronin as well.
Which meant that from the very first moment the two of them clashed, Hisoka had already been laying the groundwork.
That hidden attack was probably meant to catch Ronin off guard and create more openings for Hisoka to strike.
Instead, by sheer coincidence, it had become the key to breaking the Water Prison.
Susanoo rose around Ronin, blocking every stone that came shooting at him. At the same time, the crimson skeletal hand reached toward Hisoka inside the now-pierced Water Prison.
But the moment Hisoka landed, he immediately began retreating.
Ronin also noticed that every time Hisoka's hands or feet touched the ground during that retreat, they left behind traces of pink Nen.
That was Bungee Gum.
But using it this way, detached from his body, meant the threads probably wouldn't last long, and their power would be greatly reduced.
Still, it was undeniably an excellent harassment method in battle.
Ronin's left eye activated Ame-no-Tokotachi at the spot Hisoka was retreating toward, and Susanoo's hand followed right behind it.
Chunks of stone sprang up from the ground and smashed into Susanoo's arm, but they posed absolutely no threat to it.
Hisoka, on the other hand, suddenly felt sharp pain in his arm. Blood sprayed out, and yet he hadn't seen any attack at all.
"What the hell?"
That flash of shock ran through his mind, and his movement instantly stopped. He threw a punch straight at Susanoo's hand.
All that came back was a crack.
His arm broke on impact. Even with everything he had, he could only barely stop the strange hand's motion, not actually damage it.
His body stayed still, but his other hand had already produced a black magician's cloth.
He tossed it toward the space around his wounded arm, and the cloth actually hung in midair.
And beneath it, the space itself took on a flat, blade-like shape.
The cloth then dropped, the invisible "space blade" vanished, and Hisoka flicked the cloth back into his hand before draping it over his broken arm.
The next second, something unbelievable happened.
The arm that had just shattered against Susanoo was restored as if by magic.
The entire arena had fallen into stunned silence the moment Susanoo appeared. Only after Hisoka's arm was miraculously reattached did the audience finally exhale.
At the same time, the commentator's voice rang out at just the right moment, and a wave of frenzied cheers and disbelieving gasps swept through the entire arena.
Ronin didn't immediately press the attack with Susanoo.
His control over Amenotokotachi was growing more refined by the second. First, he had used it to freeze the space around a target. Then he had reduced it to locking only part of a space. And now, instead of freezing the target directly, he could shape the frozen space itself into invisible attacks.
It was fair to say that Ronin's understanding and use of Amenotokotachi had become increasingly sophisticated.
The only real flaw left was accuracy.
Although in this case, part of that was because he hadn't actually intended to kill Hisoka.
Still, his goal had been to cut off Hisoka's arm entirely, and instead he had only sliced it. The gap between those two outcomes was huge.
Clearly, he still needed a lot more practice.
And that practice wasn't just about shaping the frozen space, but also about precisely placing it where he wanted.
This space-time ability might well be the strongest trump card he had.
Hisoka, meanwhile, showed no fear at all after being injured.
If anything, he looked more excited than ever.
Even though he was clearly the one being suppressed in the fight, this was exactly the kind of battle he wanted.
Ronin was even more intoxicating than Chrollo.
The only question was—how did he win?
Ronin had too many abilities, and every one of them was too strange. There was no way to predict how he would attack next.
At Hisoka's current level, no matter what he tried, it felt almost impossible to defeat Ronin.
And that left him with a delicious sort of frustration.
~~~
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