Back in the early part of the manga, during the Hunter Exam, Kurapika had clearly said that among newcomers, only one person passed every three years.
With Abaki being a Nen user, passing the Hunter Exam wouldn't be hard for her. As long as the examiner wasn't someone bizarre like Menchi, and the other candidates weren't freaks like Hisoka, she should be able to clear it in one go.
Even if she did run into Hisoka, she still wouldn't need to worry.
After all, the two of them already knew each other well.
Could the person Kurapika had mentioned—the one who passed the exam—actually be Abaki?
Ronin found himself wondering that. He had already signed up for the Hunter Exam as well, so he and Abaki would probably meet again there.
"Sorry for the blunt question, but with your ability, can you only fish up things you're familiar with or can see? Or can you also cast randomly and pull up whatever happens to bite?" Kurapika asked, voicing what he was really curious about.
It was admittedly a pretty intrusive question. A Nen user's personal ability details were practically top-secret.
But Abaki answered very calmly. "All of the above. I can fish up things from positions I've already set in advance, or I can cast randomly and wait for something willing to take the bait."
"Then what kind of things do you get when it's random?" Ronin asked, curious now too.
"No idea. Anything from garbage bags to diamonds, jewelry, gold, even private collections, buried skeletons, coffins, and all kinds of other stuff. As long as it exists, there's a chance I can hook it," Abaki said with a smile. "At any rate, I never come up empty. And I like the surprise."
"And what about the range of what you can fish up?" Kurapika continued.
By now, Ronin had more or less guessed what Kurapika wanted to use Abaki's ability for.
"Two kilometers," Abaki said, giving an exact number. "That's three times farther than the furthest distance I can physically cast right now."
"So that range can still be expanded?" Kurapika pressed.
Abaki nodded. "Yes, but it's difficult. There are two main issues: equipment, and my own strength."
Kurapika nodded as well, then asked the most important question. "If you were placed at a fixed location, would there be a chance of fishing up a specific item?"
Abaki didn't answer right away. Instead, she asked, "So what exactly do you want me to fish up? I need to know what the target is before I can figure out what kind of bait would work."
"The Scarlet Eyes," Kurapika said, without hiding it.
"Not something alive?" Abaki frowned slightly. "I've never tried that. I don't know."
She'd assumed he wanted to fish for something alive. She hadn't expected him to want to fish up something that wouldn't bite at all. What kind of bait were you even supposed to use for that?
"If bait won't work, what about changing the hook?" Kurapika asked. He knew using bait on an inanimate object was a ridiculous idea, but he still wanted to test the possibility.
The answer, unsurprisingly, was no.
"I've never tried," Abaki said, shaking her head. She looked a little lost.
Ronin, standing to the side, could already tell: Abaki really did fit the classic Emitter stereotype perfectly—careless and broad-brush.
She had obviously developed her own signature technique, but it was the kind of ability she had created mostly by feel, without doing any deep analysis or long-term planning around it.
Which was why she couldn't answer a lot of Kurapika's questions.
But oddly enough, that made Kurapika's eyes light up.
The more he asked, the clearer it became that Abaki had only scratched the surface of her ability's development.
And that meant she had enormous room to grow.
If properly trained, her ability might really be able to help them quietly fish the Scarlet Eyes away from collectors.
And in Kurapika's view, the most fitting use for such a method would be in Kakin—stealthily taking all the excess Scarlet Eyes from the Fourth Prince without anyone noticing.
"So, are you going to keep traveling with us?" Kurapika asked, extending an invitation to Abaki. "We've all signed up for the Hunter Exam anyway."
He wasn't asking her to become a team member immediately. But traveling together would at least give them a chance to get to know her better.
If she really was a good person, and if her ability could prove genuinely useful, then inviting her into the group later would be a very good option.
Ronin, naturally, had no objection.
At this point, it all depended on Abaki's choice.
Abaki hesitated a little. "I've got a bounty on me right now. If I travel with you, won't that just cause trouble for you?"
This time, Ronin answered first.
"You don't need to worry about that. What you should be thinking about is that traveling with us might drag you into even bigger danger. I'm a lot stronger than you, and the people I've offended are stronger than anyone the Glam Gas family's bounty could attract."
Abaki froze for a second. She clearly hadn't thought about it from that angle.
After a brief pause, she looked conflicted. All this time, the only thing she'd worried about was becoming dead weight for someone else. She'd never considered the possibility of becoming dead weight among dead weight.
"This…"
"You don't need to feel pressured," Kurapika said, offering a hint. "The place we're going next will keep most pursuers locked out anyway."
From the look of it, he clearly still wanted to keep Abaki nearby.
Abaki didn't hesitate much longer. Her gaze lingered on Ronin's face for a few extra moments before she said, "As long as you don't mind the trouble, then I can travel with you."
"Then it's settled," Ronin said, making the call on the spot.
But as they were leaving the café, Ronin happened to catch sight of a crumpled poster sticking out of Abaki's pocket. He only saw one corner of it, but that was enough for him to recognize what it was.
It was probably the Heaven's Arena poster promoting his fight with Hisoka.
Which meant Abaki had most likely recognized him from the very beginning.
And if that was the case, did it also mean her decision to join them was influenced, at least in part, by Hisoka?
As for what exactly she was thinking, Ronin couldn't say.
But with Abaki temporarily joining the group, and with Ronin having already completed the integration of the Scarlet Eyes, the team didn't linger in Glam Gas Land any longer.
They slipped away from the city without a sound.
~~~
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