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Kurapika knew exactly where his strengths and weaknesses sat.
The Nen users inside the theater weren't all of Ryan's forces. That much was obvious. Even if he found the man, charging in blind would be suicide.
The smart move was to wait for the perfect opening and hit him with a clean ambush. At the same time he had to stay ready for Ryan's escape trick—the second the attack landed, the bastard would swap with a dummy and bolt.
That "escape" was really just him hunting for his next safe teleport point.
But once the chain wrapped around Ryan, the little finger's tracking chain would point straight at wherever he ran. Finding him again would be effortless after that.
Kurapika was betting Ryan was in the monitoring room. The sudden spike in security as he got close confirmed it.
Ryan had gotten cocky.
If he hadn't gone to watch the show in person and exposed his ability when Abachi attacked, Kurapika might never have been able to lock him down.
Ryan's power was built for running. Pure escape.
Kurapika could already guess the exact moment Ryan would make his move. The second he realized Ronin was a real threat inside the theater, he'd try to teleport out.
Kurapika was confident Ryan wouldn't just trigger the ability and vanish on the spot. Either there was a limit on how many times he could use it, or a hard distance cap.
Everything played out exactly like he expected. The moment the monitoring room door opened, Kurapika knew his chance had arrived.
The middle finger's binding chain—hidden with In—along with the little finger's tracking chain, slid silently toward the doorway. The instant Ryan stepped out, both chains snapped forward and coiled tight around his body.
The second the binding chain activated, Ryan's whole frame locked up for a split second. Then the chains became visible and his body started to crumple under the crushing pressure.
Kurapika was squeezing hard.
The guards had failed to spot the In-hidden chains right away. That was on them.
When they saw their boss about to go down, panic hit fast. No thinking. Two Nen users charged straight at Kurapika.
Kurapika kept his ears open. Somewhere not too far off, a piercing scream rang out.
Had Ryan's sudden appearance spooked someone?
The tracking chain on his little finger shifted direction at the same moment—pointing straight toward the scream.
The binding chain whipped around like a snake and lashed out at the two charging men.
They'd been ready for a fight, but everything went sideways in an instant. Stones came flying in from a distance at insane speed, slamming into their groins right as the chains struck.
While the two Nen users doubled over in agony, Kurapika spotted who had thrown the rocks.
Ronin.
"Follow me." No extra words. Kurapika yanked his chains back without finishing them off and sprinted toward the scream.
Ronin's eyes flicked over the downed men, then he took off after Kurapika.
The moment Ryan's ability activated, a bad feeling hit him hard.
He'd walked right into an ambush.
And that sharp scream right after he teleported made him wince.
The guest he'd swapped with had deep ligature marks all over his body, blood squeezing out. The gruesome sight made the woman who saw it let out a terrified scream.
Ryan pulled a gun from his waist without hesitation. While the woman kept screaming, he put a bullet straight through her head and shut her up for good.
Then he picked up the pace, heading for the hotel exit.
That scream would probably bring the enemy running again. He'd chosen the direction that gave him the best shot—three other marked guests were still farther away.
Even if another scream like this one happened, he was confident the enemy wouldn't find him again.
Ryan's plan was solid.
But he'd missed one critical detail. From the second Kurapika's chain touched him, his location was locked. There was no shaking the tracker now.
Kurapika catching up was exactly what Ryan had expected.
When he saw the chain still slithering toward him, Ryan's face twisted with vicious anger.
His whole ability was built for escape. It barely helped in a straight fight. Against weaker opponents he could stall and look for a swap opportunity. But against someone at his level or stronger, attacking would just waste the escape trigger.
So Ryan just tried to dodge while asking the question burning in his head: "Who the hell are you people?"
Ronin had caught up right behind Kurapika. He didn't bother answering Ryan's question—at least not until they had him dead to rights.
Kurapika felt the same way. The chain lunged forward. Ryan's dodge looked pathetic to him. Only when the chain finally coiled around the man did Kurapika allow himself a small, satisfied smirk.
Ryan vanished again.
All that remained where the chain had been was another dummy. From the corpse they'd passed earlier, it was obvious someone had taken the real hit when Ryan swapped.
"Emission and Manipulation working together," Ronin analyzed.
Judging Nen categories wasn't an exact science. Some people maxed out one type at 100%. Others split their training between two at around 90% each.
Ryan clearly sat right in that Emission-Manipulation sweet spot.
His Emission side just happened to show up as spatial teleportation, which was why Ronin's earlier observation had missed it and pegged him as pure Manipulation.
Close enough.
Kurapika raised his little finger.
The chain would lead them. Ryan wasn't getting away.
When Ronin appeared in front of Ryan again, the man's face was pure shock.
How the hell had they found him?
If he didn't figure that out, every teleport would just lead to another capture.
But with the overwhelming gap in power and ability, Ryan never got the chance.
Once he'd burned through every last teleport, Ryan didn't show any fight left in him. He dropped straight to his knees and begged for mercy, looking as pathetic as humanly possible.