The arrangement with Lippo was already in place. Ronin's group left the port, boarded an airship, and flew for the continent that held Trick Tower.
Nothing ran a direct line to the tower itself. They put down in the nearest city, bought a used car, and drove straight at it.
January 1, 1997.
Two years before the story was supposed to start. Ronin figured he had already kicked that story to pieces.
The Phantom Troupe had been the big villain piece. He had all but erased them. The few who were still breathing would not raise a wave worth watching.
When Gon and Killua finally showed, they might only get Leorio out of the Hunter Exam. Ronin would not be there to bump into them. He was not waiting until '99 to sit the test a second time. He was not even sure the Chimera Ants would still make landfall in NGL in 2000.
Lippo wore round glasses and had the face of a man you would not buy a drink from.
He was already waiting when the car rolled up to Trick Tower, two people at his back. One was an ugly man who looked like a witch. The other was a young man in a fur vest.
The ugly one meant nothing to Ronin. The vest he knew on sight. Next year's Hunter Exam, Hisoka would cut him. The year after that, Hisoka would take his head.
Strength-wise, the three of them sat low. Two-hundredth-floor Heavens Arena types. The kind who would not rack up wins even there.
"Welcome." Lippo smiled. The smile carried a slice of fox in it. Most of that was the face.
"I'll leave the rest to you," Ronin said.
Two billion jenny. That was the buy-in. Lippo was supposed to kick up enough noise at Trick Tower to pull the Association Chairman onto the grounds. Lippo had sworn he could do it.
Once they were inside, Lippo started briefing the tower like Ronin was an investor touring a site.
"I don't actually have to do much," he said, after he had parked them in a rest room. "By the arrangement, the Chairman flies the candidates in and sets down on the roof. As long as the first two stages don't wipe the whole field, you wait on the top platform for the airship. When it docks, you walk on and you have him."
Ronin nodded.
That was why he had come to Lippo in the first place. He had already counted on Netero's ship hitting this roof. Candidates entered Trick Tower from above, down dark shafts, and every shaft was a test. Paying Lippo let him sit inside and wait for the ship without rattling the wrong cage.
It ran the way Lippo had sold it.
On the third day Lippo came back and told him the airship was inbound.
Ronin took the elevator to the crown of the tower and stood at the edge. Over the forest a huge airship slid into view, shark-shaped against the sky. Man-faced birds lifted out of the trees to meet it.
They stood several meters tall. The wings stretched past ten. The heads looked like big-nosed men until the beaks opened and showed a saw of yellow teeth. The cry they threw at the ship was nails on a board.
Warning first. Then the short, fleshy wings beat and the flock committed.
They never reached the hull. Thick iron spears dropped from the ship and pinned them in midair. In under ten seconds the swagger went out of the flock. What was left of it broke and dove for the canopy.
The airship eased in and settled on the roof.
Ronin was already off the outer platform and at the hatch before the landing finished.
The door opened. Candidates filed out. One of them was an old acquaintance. Tonpa.
Tonpa saw him and, for a second, decided Ronin had been made head examiner. That could not be right. He had run Trick Tower before. Nobody had told him the examiner had changed.
Last year's test had left a mark anyway. Tonpa ducked Ronin's eyes and scuttled wide, like a bird that had already been stepped on once.
Ronin did not bother with him. He waited until Beans came down the ramp, then started up it.
"Hello. And you are?" Beans asked, thrown by the direction of travel.
The candidates behind him looked just as lost. If Beans was asking, Ronin's group were not staff.
"Is the Chairman on the ship?" Ronin did not give a name. He asked his own question instead.
"You have business with the Chairman?" A bad feeling pricked at Beans. He was no longer sure Lippo was still the examiner this site had been assigned.
"Yes."
Ronin flicked a hand and walked past him onto the ship.
No guards. Attendants only, and none of them wanted the question. That was fine.
The pleasant surprise was waiting in the cabin. Chairman Netero, already there, already smiling. He had flown the candidates in and had not bothered to hide in the back.
"Ronin?" Netero's eyes worked over him while the name came out.
"That's me, Chairman." Ronin smiled. "I needed to see you. This was the clean way to do it."
"About what?" Netero's gaze went past him, outside.
Beans was already rattling the exam rules at the candidates, talking fast, eyes cutting back toward the ship. The briefing was the job. What Ronin was saying to the Chairman was the thing he actually wanted.
"First," Ronin said, "your son. Beyond Netero."
"Oh? You've met him?" Surprise, honest enough.
"I have."
"Come with me. This is not the place."
Netero turned and led him in.