Kurapika knew very clearly what his strengths and weaknesses were.
If his guess was right—and the Nen users in the theater were not all of the Nen users surrounding Ryan—then even if he found Ryan, he absolutely could not act rashly.
The best option was to wait for an opening and launch a sneak attack on Ryan.
And he also had to be prepared for the possibility that, if capturing Ryan was judged as an attack, Ryan would use a substitute to take his place and escape.
Calling it "escape" wasn't quite accurate—it was more about locating the second point Ryan would transfer to.
But as long as the chains could hit Ryan, then the Dowsing Chain on Kurapika's little finger would be able to point out the direction of Ryan's location, making it incredibly easy to find him.
As for whether Ryan was in the surveillance room, the obvious increase in security around the area as Kurapika approached was enough to confirm that his judgment had been completely correct.
Ryan was too confident.
If Ryan hadn't personally gone to watch the performance and thereby exposed his ability through Abaki's attack, then even for Kurapika, locking onto him would have been nearly impossible.
Ryan's ability was absolutely first-rate when it came to escaping.
And it was also easy to judge when Ryan would come out of the surveillance room: the moment he realized that Ronin was a threat capable of endangering him, he would begin a new round of transfer.
Kurapika was certain that Ryan would not choose to leave by openly activating his ability on the spot.
That was tied to his earlier judgment that Ryan's ability either had a limit on the number of times it could be used, or a limit on its range.
Kurapika had complete confidence in that judgment.
And everything unfolded exactly as he predicted.
The moment the door to the surveillance room opened, he knew his chance had come.
The Chain Jail from his middle finger, hidden with In, together with the Dowsing Chain from his little finger, had already extended to the doorway. The instant Ryan stepped out of the room, both chains burst forward and wrapped themselves around his body.
And the moment the Chain Jail activated, Ryan's body stiffened for an instant. Then, just as Kurapika's chains became visible, Ryan's body began to cave inward.
That was the result of Kurapika tightening the Chain Jail with force.
The security personnel had already failed in their duty by not noticing the chains hidden with In in time.
Now that they saw their boss about to go down, their hearts skipped a beat.
Without needing to think, two Nen users launched themselves at Kurapika at the same time.
But Kurapika turned his ear slightly, because he heard a sharp, piercing scream not too far away.
Had Ryan's sudden appearance been discovered by someone?
At the same moment, the chain on his little finger changed direction, pointing straight toward where the scream had come from.
The Chain Jail on his middle finger reversed direction as well, striking at the two incoming attackers like a pair of serpents.
The two men had already been fully prepared for battle.
But the instant the fight began, something sudden and completely unexpected happened—
stones shot through the air from afar at incredible speed, and just as the chains attacked beneath their waists, the stones struck them right in the groin.
As the two Nen users doubled over in pain, Kurapika saw who had made the attack.
It was Ronin.
"Come with me."
There was no extra explanation.
Kurapika's chains recoiled at once. Instead of finishing the two men off, he accelerated toward the direction the scream had come from.
Ronin's gaze swept over the two men on the ground, then he quickly caught up to Kurapika.
The moment his ability was triggered, Ryan had already felt a bad premonition.
He had been ambushed.
And after transferring, the shrill scream that rang out made him frown deeply.
The guest who had fallen to the floor was covered in heavy strangulation marks, with blood being squeezed out from the wounds. It was precisely that horrifying sight that made the woman who saw it let out a terrified scream.
Ryan casually pulled a pistol from his waist, and before the woman's screaming could stop on its own, he shot her straight through the head, cutting it off instantly.
Then he quickened his pace toward the outside of the hotel.
That woman's scream would likely bring his enemies again, and the direction he had chosen was the most favorable one for him. It was quite far from the other three guests he had marked as transfer points.
Even if another shocked scream like this one happened after his next transfer, he was confident the enemy wouldn't find him again.
Ryan's plan was good.
But he had overlooked one thing.
The moment Kurapika's chain touched him, his location was no longer beyond Kurapika's ability to track.
Kurapika's pursuit was something Ryan had expected.
When he saw the chain continuing to extend toward him, a savage look appeared on Ryan's face.
His ability tree was invested entirely into escape. It offered him almost no help in direct combat.
Against people weaker than himself, he could still deal with them head-on and look for an opportunity to turn them into substitutes.
But against opponents who were about as strong as he was—or even stronger—attacking them would only cause his passively triggered escape ability to lose its usefulness.
So Ryan merely tried to dodge, and while dodging, he asked the question that puzzled him the most:
"Who exactly are you people?"
Ronin arrived just behind Kurapika. As for Ryan's question, there was really nothing for him to answer.
At least, until they had truly caught the man, Ronin had no intention of giving him any answer.
Kurapika felt the same way.
The chains closed in.
In Kurapika's eyes, Ryan's evasive moves were barely worth mentioning.
And only when the chains wrapped around him did Kurapika reveal an expression that said, Just as I thought.
Ryan vanished again.
What was left in the chains was just another substitute body.
And judging by the corpse they had come across earlier, it was clear that every time Ryan transferred, a real person truly was taking the damage in his place.
"An ability jointly developed from Emission and Manipulation," Ronin concluded.
Judging Nen categories was never absolute. Some people might be able to train one category to 100%, while others could bring two categories to around 90% each.
Ryan was clearly the latter type, someone straddling Emission and Manipulation.
It was just that the way his Emission showed itself was entirely through spatial transfer, so Ronin's earlier close observation hadn't picked up the clue, and he had instead classified Ryan as a Manipulator.
That wasn't exactly wrong.
"Yeah," Kurapika said, already raising his little finger.
The chain would guide them.
Ryan wasn't getting away.
When Ronin appeared in front of Ryan once again, shock was written all over Ryan's face.
How had they found him?
If he couldn't figure that out, then even if he transferred again, he would just be caught again.
But under the double pressure of overwhelming strength and overwhelming ability, Ryan no longer had a chance.
When all his transfer uses were finally exhausted, Ryan didn't show any last bit of backbone.
Instead, he dropped straight to his knees and begged for mercy, looking as pathetic and miserable as possible.
~~~
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