The audience's nerves tightened at that sudden roar.
And then, right in the middle of that tense moment, a huge foot stepped out of the wind and snow, followed by a towering figure covered in white fur.
It was a man—over four meters tall, looking more like some kind of abominable snowman than a human.
The snow-beast man spotted the two-headed girl in the blizzard immediately.
He rubbed his eyes.
That little gesture added an unexpected touch of humor to the tension, and Ronin heard quite a bit of laughter in the theater.
But even more people were still worried sick over what would happen to the girl next.
The snow-beast man didn't hold back just because of her strange appearance. His enormous hand, covered in thick white hair, reached straight for her.
Her slim, delicate waist looked like it could snap at any moment in that giant hand, and gasps rang out across the theater.
A second later, the snow-beast man lifted his hand, as if he were about to toss the girl into his mouth.
Right then, a fishing line shot in from afar, wrapping itself precisely around his arm. It suddenly went taut, and the pain forced the snow-beast man to release the two-headed girl from his grip.
One of the girl's heads stayed calm, while the other let out a scream as she tumbled into the snow.
Then a woman in mountaineering gear stepped out of the blizzard, a fishing rod in her hand.
The fishing line on the rod pulled tight at once—the injured snow-beast had grabbed hold of it, trying to drag the woman in along the line.
Just when the audience was at their most anxious, a sharp snap echoed across the stage.
The fishing line had broken.
The snow-beast man stumbled forward and crashed down.
His massive body sent snow and ice flying everywhere, but by the time he hit the ground, the two-headed girl was no longer there.
A full demi-human centaur had appeared on the stage, and before the snow-beast man could crush her beneath his body, the centaur had swept in with breathtaking elegance and speed, rescuing the girl from underneath him.
A pink heart popped up above one of the two-headed girl's heads, while the expression on the other turned rather ugly, even carrying a trace of disgust.
But Ronin's attention was fixed on the woman with the fishing rod and the centaur who had appeared later.
Because with Nen gathered in his eyes, he could tell for certain that both of them were Nen users.
The woman with the fishing rod looked completely normal, but as for the centaur, Ronin suspected that the lower half of their body had been entirely conjured.
That impression came mainly from the fact that the Nen covering the centaur's lower body was much stronger, and it didn't feel awkward or unnatural at all. On the contrary, it had a kind of structured quality to it.
Especially in the covered areas—there were no signs in the aura outline of any unusual protrusions there at all.
Interesting, Ronin thought to himself.
He really hadn't seen this kind of use of Conjuration much before—using it to recreate a missing part of the body.
There were plenty of fighters in Heaven's Arena who had lost body parts after being initiated into Nen, but those people usually preferred to make up for their injuries with external tools and then develop their Nen in a completely different direction.
The stage play continued.
In the middle of the tension, there were always moments that made the audience burst out laughing. One by one, performers with unusual bodies appeared on stage. Every one of them had a vivid, distinct trait, and all of them blended seamlessly into the story.
The only person on stage with no visible deformity at all was the woman with the fishing rod, Abaki.
Her fishing rod became one of the most eye-catching props in the entire performance, because once she found a suitable fishing line again, she gained the ability to catch absolutely anything.
From helping the snow-beast man fish back his lost companion, the miniature woman—
to fishing out the true thoughts hidden deep in the two-headed girl's heart—
the entire play completely turned that fishing rod into a conceptual force.
By the later part of the performance, it was even able to fish out people's prejudice, hostility, and ill will toward those labeled as "freaks."
But the way all of it was woven into the story was clearly the result of painstaking refinement by the troupe. Even though the fishing rod had practically been mythologized, not a single audience member found it jarring. They were simply moved by the sincerity and emotion of the performance.
It was an incredibly good show.
Even Ronin gradually forgot that the centaur and Abaki were Nen users and became fully immersed in the story.
"From now on, I'm officially a fan of the Freak Show Troupe," Neon said with a warm smile still on her face, though there were sparkling tears at the corners of her eyes.
"Let's worry about whether this troupe survives first," Shizuku said in her usual flat tone. The performance seemed unable to stir her emotions in the slightest.
Neon scratched her head helplessly.
The stage lights slowly shifted again. When Abaki used her fishing rod to catch a new headless body and gave it to the two-headed girl, the play finally entered its ending.
The moment Ronin saw the two heads actually separate and take over two different bodies, he was completely dumbfounded.
How the hell did they do that?
The audience was utterly stunned by what they saw on stage. They all leaped to their feet, crying out in shock, then immediately broke into thunderous applause.
The performers began coming out one by one to take their curtain call.
The lights came up, the cast withdrew, the clown reappeared, and staff members started guiding the audience out of the theater.
Ronin was still deeply shocked, because even he hadn't been able to see through how that final two-headed split had been pulled off.
Could Abaki's fishing rod really do something that outrageous?
Or had the two-headed girl been a Nen user from the very start, just disguising herself so perfectly as an ordinary person that even someone as experienced as him couldn't see through it?
Ronin honestly wanted to get in touch with her and find out.
But if he uncovered every last detail, then the surprise this performance had brought might lose some of its magic.
Maybe it was better to let the mystery of that final split remain unsolved—and leave it as an unforgettable memory.
As the crowd got to its feet, Ronin already guessed Ryan would make a move, but this still wasn't the right time to go after him.
The timing was off.
Still, before leaving, Ronin had already slipped a kunai beneath his seat.
At the same time, a crystal ball appeared in his hand. While watching the show, he had already memorized the aura signatures of Abaki and the centaur on stage.
That meant that once he left the theater, he could monitor them at any time with the Telescope Technique.
And the moment anything unusual happened, the kunai left under the seat would become his marker for Flying Thunder God.
As long as the cleaning staff didn't bother sweeping under the seats themselves, there was no way anyone would notice the kunai.
Especially since Ronin hadn't seen a single cleaner enter while people were leaving. From the look of it, Ryan was already too impatient to wait before making a move against the Freak Show Troupe.
Turning to look toward the stage, he saw that many of the actors who had already left were now appearing again, and the way they looked toward the VIP section was full of expectation and nervousness.
It was obvious they had never once imagined that Ryan Glam Gas meant them harm.