Nobunaga's bones had already begun crumbling within the black flames. Even the post-mortem Nen clinging to his body couldn't stop Amaterasu from burning him away.
Nobunaga's movements grew slower and slower.
Ronin didn't need to counterattack at all. All he had to do was keep stalling, and Amaterasu would reduce Nobunaga completely to ash.
As Nobunaga's movements slowed, Ronin could finally shift part of his attention away from him.
And the moment he did, Ronin noticed something abnormal.
Franklin had approached at some point, and on that stiff-looking face of his, Ronin saw a strange fanaticism.
Ronin didn't know what he was planning.
But at the same time, he also noticed that the three giant monkeys that had been swept away by the fire dragon earlier had somehow reappeared. They had also taken advantage of the moment when Ronin was fully focused on Nobunaga to sneak closer.
The situation seemed to have turned somewhat unfavorable for him.
Nobunaga's transformation had been a little unexpected.
But if Chrollo thought he could deal with Ronin using only these three monkeys that could rob people of their senses, wasn't he underestimating him too much?
As for what Franklin was trying to do, Ronin had a rough idea.
That man seemed to want to die.
Or more accurately, he wanted to take Ronin down with him.
The method Ronin could imagine Franklin using to kill himself was self-detonation—like Android 16 from Dragon Ball, or Deidara from Naruto, turning his death into one final artful explosion.
But he was a little too slow.
As Ronin thought that, his ocular power was consumed. The red Susanoo appeared once more, and its skeletal hand reached forward, grabbing Nobunaga in its grasp.
After fighting this long—especially now that Nobunaga's movements were no longer as fast as they had been at the start, nor as explosive as that instant when he unleashed his quick-draw slash—Ronin's Sharingan insight and mental calculations were already enough to predict Nobunaga's movements.
So the hand Susanoo extended wasn't grabbing at where Nobunaga was.
It was grabbing at the position where Nobunaga was certain to appear.
And the moment Ronin's Susanoo caught Nobunaga, Franklin's eyes lit up. His body slammed straight toward Susanoo.
He was confident he could blow away Susanoo along with Ronin inside it.
The fuse on his chest had already been lit. His Nen and his life were both burning, pouring into his heart.
This was his most powerful explosion.
It was the greatest force he could obtain by using his life as a restriction—a power that, in his mind, was enough to destroy everything.
But he had only taken one step when another red skeletal hand closed around him.
Franklin's eyes widened at that moment.
Wrong.
Hadn't that "absolute defense" Ronin released only been a half-bodied skeleton with a single arm?
Why had it now become an armored monster with two arms?
The second stage of Susanoo.
Ronin had possessed Susanoo for almost a year now. How could he have kept it stuck in the first stage forever?
Using Susanoo was a matter of familiarity.
As long as one controlled their ocular power and continuously used it, Susanoo would become more complete as mastery increased.
What Franklin saw wasn't true armor yet. It was merely the chakra cloak Ronin had wrapped around Susanoo.
Above that was Susanoo's third form.
Now, as Ronin continued pouring in ocular power, real armor gradually began forming over the giant hand that held Franklin.
And that meant Susanoo's defense was becoming even stronger.
Since he knew what Franklin intended to do, Ronin's response was simple: crush Franklin directly with Susanoo.
Whether that counted as detonating Franklin early or not, Ronin didn't believe Franklin's explosion could break through the defense of Susanoo's third stage.
Especially since he had also prepared Ame-no-tokotachi.
Franklin felt the pressure closing in around him. The fuse on his chest was almost burned down to the end.
His own Nen had already gathered toward his heart, greatly weakening his defense.
As Susanoo clenched its massive hand tighter, blood and a fluid like engine oil began seeping out of Franklin's body.
The creaking sounds that followed were not the sounds of bones being crushed, but of the metal inside Franklin's modified body being warped out of shape.
Franklin's eyes turned bloodshot.
At that moment, the fuse finally reached its end.
Boom!
The explosion erupted from within Susanoo's palm in an instant, and a terrifying surge of ability burst outward.
The armor forming over Susanoo's arm began cracking rapidly under the impact of that violent explosive energy, looking as though it might shatter apart at any moment.
But at that same instant, Ronin activated Ame-no-tokotachi.
Susanoo's hand clutching Franklin, as well as Franklin himself in the middle of detonating, seemed to have their pause button pressed all at once.
Ronin could even clearly see the fragments of Franklin's body flying apart from the inside after he exploded.
His ocular power consumption rose sharply at that moment, but Ronin's gaze shifted slightly—
and the space sealed by Ame-no-tokotachi actually began to move.
Moving along with that sealed space were Susanoo's frozen hand and Franklin, still caught within it in a state of explosion.
The explosion was still advancing. The cracks in the armor over Susanoo's hand were still spreading.
But everything seemed to have been slowed by more than ten or twenty times.
Meanwhile, the sealed space created by Ame-no-tokotachi began moving faster.
And once it reached a certain speed, everyone present finally realized Ronin's intention.
He was going to throw the exploding Franklin away.
Chrollo, whose bookmark had already turned to another page, and Machi, whose Nen threads had already approached Susanoo and were wrapping around it, glanced at each other.
Both saw the shock in the other's eyes.
The direction Ronin was throwing him was clearly toward them.
Franklin had already exploded. If Ronin really completed that throw, could the two of them actually block Franklin's explosion with their abilities?
And even if they did block it, what were they supposed to do about Ronin's follow-up attack?
Just as that thought appeared, thick pillars suddenly smashed through the villa's ceiling and crashed down toward Susanoo.
The hidden Kortopi had finally made his move.
The instant the first massive stone pillar approached, Susanoo's throwing motion erupted.
Franklin, still exploding inside its palm, was hurled out in that same instant.
But the Franklin thrown out didn't fly toward Chrollo and the others as Ronin had intended.
Instead, he slammed into the massive stone pillar falling from above.
The explosion burst out with a thunderous roar.
The stone pillar was swallowed in an instant, and a ring of savage energy erupted outward, blasting in every direction.
At that moment, however, both Ronin and Chrollo and Machi behind the stone pillar were caught within the explosion's range.