It was no longer a scattered attack, but a powerful strike focused entirely into one explosive blow.
Wind Release: Vacuum Great Sphere was, after all, a powerful ninjutsu said to be like firing a rocket launcher from one's mouth.
Without the Nen beast blocking it, the massive high-pressure sphere of wind swept toward the luxury car carrying the Third Prince with nothing in its way.
But right at that moment, a faint ripple appeared around the car.
Another hidden Nen user had activated an ability, seemingly trying to transfer the Third Prince away just like they had done with the Fourth Prince.
But the last time, Ronin had been caught off guard because he hadn't known someone with teleportation ability was near the Fourth Prince. This time was different.
Above the shadow clone, Ronin's real body was still hidden.
His Sharingan had already shifted into its Mangekyō state, and the instant the other party acted, he detected the aura fluctuation among the crowd of bodyguards.
So Amenotokotachi activated instantly, directly sealing the space around the car carrying the Third Prince.
All teleportation abilities were connected to space, and Amenotokotachi was the natural counter to spatial abilities.
The Vacuum Great Sphere descended at high speed.
The roof of the car caved in instantly, but the speed of that collapse began to slow.
However, that slowdown lasted only a moment before it became terrifyingly fast again.
The floor of the car was torn apart directly, and the interior was instantly transformed into a bloody, gruesome scene.
A scream filled with disbelief and terror came from nearby.
"No!"
It came from the hidden Nen user who had tried to transfer the Third Prince away at the crucial moment.
And the instant his voice fell, his body rapidly began to change. He collapsed backward stiffly.
But before he even hit the ground, he vanished.
The shadow clone raised an eyebrow and suddenly accelerated toward the car where the Third Prince's corpse was located.
His gaze swept over the bloody interior, and confusion rose in his heart.
Could they transfer not only space, but even a certain-death state?
If that was really the case, then this batch of mass-produced specialists Kakin had raised specifically to protect the princes was genuinely impressive.
Gunfire rang out nearby.
The bodyguards finally remembered to shoot.
A man could fly. He could fire "qi" attacks. A huge monster like the head of a wild hound had suddenly appeared.
Everything had been far too shocking.
Even these well-trained bodyguards had failed to adapt immediately to such an abnormal development.
The shadow clone didn't waste time dealing with the bullets. The instant they struck him, he burst into smoke and vanished from the spot.
"Hurry! Save the prince!"
Someone shouted that, but the bodyguards who approached could only look at one another.
The Third Prince inside the car had already been turned into meat paste. How were they supposed to save him?
Police sirens came from not far away.
The Kakin police had finally arrived.
The attack site was quickly sealed off, and all relevant personnel were taken away. Even pedestrians on the nearby streets failed to escape being investigated.
But by then, Ronin was no longer on the street where the attack had taken place.
"You guessed right," Ronin said once the phone connected.
"Any other gains?" Kurapika asked, showing no emotional fluctuation at all, as if everything had gone exactly as expected.
"Yes." Ronin sorted through his thoughts, then began telling Kurapika everything that had happened. Only after that did he explain his own guesses.
The former was so Kurapika could make his own judgment.
The latter was so they could refine their understanding of the enemy's ability through discussion.
"More or less what I expected," Kurapika said in agreement. "But people of this specific type should all be taking extreme routes, and even with the same training method, there will still be differences.
"But no matter what, the next time we launch an attack, we'll have to eliminate those two types of personnel first. Otherwise, assassination seems basically impossible."
"You mean the Third Prince should really still be alive?" Ronin had that suspicion too, but he wasn't completely certain.
If it was a transfer prepared in advance, that was something certain abilities could achieve in his view.
But transferring someone after they had already died—wasn't that just shutting the stable door after the horse had bolted?
"Do you know about souls?" Kurapika asked.
Ronin fell silent.
His mind quickly began turning.
Did souls truly exist in this world?
The answer was yes.
And there was evidence.
That evidence was in Greed Island. Among the many designated cards in Greed Island, there was a card called Soul Pillow.
Its effect was that if you slept with that pillow, your soul could leave your body. But if your soul failed to return within twenty-four hours, you would become a real ghost.
And if that wasn't enough, there was another card: Return Postcard to the Dead.
If you wrote a letter on a postcard addressed to a deceased person and sent it, a reply would appear on the return postcard the next day.
Even the Chimera Ant arc had room for discussion around things like souls and fate.
In short, the moment Kurapika mentioned the word "soul," Ronin understood what he meant.
When a person died, their soul did not immediately disperse.
At least, none of their current attacks directly targeted the soul.
So as long as the enemy designed an ability aimed at the soul, they could trigger it after the target's death and transfer the dead person's soul.
As for the body, that was comparatively simple.
There were plenty of ways to alter a body with Nen.
In other words, as long as the ability only triggered after the prince's death, and once triggered, directly transferred the prince's soul into the user's body while the user's own soul died in place of the prince—
then, if the body changed along with the soul, the dead prince could be revived.
That was basically a life-for-a-life exchange.
However, there had to be some other price involved. Otherwise, it couldn't be considered equivalent exchange.
So the person using the transfer ability must have set harsh vows and restrictions on themselves long ago.
Only that would make such an ability possible.
It really was targeted cultivation.
Just like the Untouchables under the Second Prince, it was probably an ability that had to be trained from shortly after birth.
That, too, was the foundation of a major nation.
Ronin sighed inwardly.
In that case, Kurapika was right. Before killing a prince, they had to eliminate the guardians around that prince in advance.
However, those guardians probably only protected them until the Succession War. During the Succession War itself, the death of a prince should carry a different meaning.
"After two assassination attempts in a row, Kakin should probably have noticed something by now. Keep a low profile for the moment," Kurapika said.
"Do you have any intel on the Troupe?" Ronin asked.
Since they couldn't be too aggressive with the princes for now, they might as well shift their attention to another target.
Who knew how many pairs of eyes the Troupe had collected by now?