Shizuku tilted her head in confusion. "Who?"
"The Phantom Troupe."
"I know them." Shizuku nodded. "So, what's your offer if you want me to join?"
"What kind of offer do you need?" Ronin asked.
"Bring me Spence's head, and I'll join your team," Shizuku stated her condition. She even added, "If the Phantom Troupe actually comes to recruit me, I'll give them the same condition."
"Didn't your father already kill Spence?" Ronin asked.
Shizuku shook her head. "No, he's not dead. The whole thing was just a trap he set up."
"Alright." Ronin agreed. From Shizuku's words, it was clear that the intel Damian provided was incomplete.
There were still many hidden details regarding her father's situation.
"Okay." Shizuku pushed up her glasses. "Since you agreed, tell me your name. If you succeed, we can meet here again. I'll go with you then and follow your arrangements."
"Ronin. And I already told you my name once. Also, no need for the hassle. We can just fight our way through right now." Ronin frowned slightly.
"Okay, I'll remember you, Ronin." As Shizuku said this, she turned her gaze toward the window. Surprisingly, she didn't seem to be in a rush to leave.
Outside, the tank was closing in!
"Let me handle this." Ronin stood up, ignoring the remaining snacks on the table. He simply put his manga back into the cloth, pulled his mask back on, and walked out of the house.
Shizuku muttered softly to herself, "Ronin, Ronin... seems like a good person, but the things he does aren't very nice."
With that, she followed Ronin out, expressionless.
Whatever happened, she didn't want this house—which still held memories of happier times—to be destroyed.
Shizuku touched her head. She felt like she'd been forgetting a lot of things lately, but maybe they just weren't important.
Stepping out of the house, Ronin saw the Nen user on top of the tank immediately enter a combat stance upon spotting him. Ronin couldn't help but think: The density of Nen users in Meteor City is really high!
The root cause was probably the harsh, aggressive culture of the place.
Thinking this, Ronin glanced at the car parked not far away—Damian's car.
The investigator hadn't left yet. He had driven into a small alley to avoid being crushed by the tank.
I might still need him to investigate Spence, or help us leave once this is over, Ronin thought.
If Damian left now, Ronin would have to contact Hisoka again, which would be a hassle.
He retracted his gaze as the man on the tank looked down at him and demanded, "Who are you?"
Ronin scanned the man. Tall and thin, calloused hands, a pistol at his waist, and a vicious look in his eyes. Combined with his hooked nose, he looked like a sinister vulture.
"Idiotic question." Ronin had zero interest in answering. He crouched down, aura surging into his fist.
The next second, he vanished from his spot.
Boom!
Without waiting for orders from above, the gunner inside the tank reacted instantly the moment Ronin disappeared from his sights.
Smoke billowed from the main cannon, but a large foot appeared on the flying shell.
Explosive force erupted from that foot, intercepting the shell in mid-air and stomping it straight into the ground.
In that instant, Shizuku, standing behind Ronin, conjured a vacuum cleaner with a mouth.
That was her Nen ability, Blinky (Deme-chan). It was a vacuum cleaner that could store items at one end and had eyes, a mouth, and teeth at the other.
Shizuku could command Blinky to inhale anything she considered non-living and spit it back out at will.
Boom!
The explosion detonated the moment the shell hit the ground. But Ronin, who had stomped it down, was unharmed. Instead, riding the shockwave of the blast, he shot toward the tank with even greater speed!
Enhancers were supposed to defy logic.
That was Ronin's understanding of the category. His current physical durability, combined with his Nen defense, was more than enough to tank the shockwave of an artillery shell.
Dong!
His fist slammed into the tank's barrel. The steel beast's cannon bent instantly under the impact.
The hook-nosed man on the tank didn't retreat. As Ronin leaped onto the tank and threw a punch at him, the man raised his arm simultaneously to counterattack.
Ronin's vision blurred for a split second. The man's arm seemed to vanish into thin air.
But this trick couldn't fool the Mangekyō Sharingan's dynamic vision. It wasn't a spatial teleportation ability; it was just a burst of extreme speed, leaning towards Enhancement.
Ronin could see the trajectory of the arm and the aura wrapped around it.
This strike, striking like a venomous snake, must be his Hatsu!
Ronin didn't change the path of his punch. Instead, he adjusted his aura flow, concentrating more Ren at the point where the enemy's attack would land.
The exchange happened in an instant.
The hook-nosed man's strike—shaped like a striking snake with bared fangs—landed on Ronin's arm. Simultaneously, Ronin's fist smashed into the man's other arm, which was raised to block.
Both abilities flared.
Ronin felt a sharp peck on his arm, like a woodpecker's strike. But the arm the man used to block bent at a gruesome angle under the force of Ronin's heavy punch.
Yet, Ronin didn't hear the sound of breaking bone.
The hook-nosed man shifted his feet, retreating rapidly to put distance between them.
Ronin watched as the man's arm hung limp and boneless for a moment. Then, aura flowed through it, and it snapped back up, lashing out like a whip toward the pursuing Ronin.
Snake? Whip?
Ronin was puzzled but didn't slow down. He unclenched his fist into a claw, grabbing straight at the incoming arm.
If a strike can't break it, I'll just crush it with grip strength.
The hook-nosed man sensed Ronin's intent.
He flared his aura, and the limp arm instantly stiffened again. His fingers formed a snake-head shape, bypassing Ronin's grasping hand to strike at Ronin's chest.
But every move was within Ronin's observation. Before the hand could land, Ronin shifted his stance, turning his claw into a knife-hand chop that slashed horizontally across the man's arm.
However, upon contact, Ronin sensed something wrong again.
The arm softened once more. The chop landed, weakening the force of the strike against his chest, but failing to sever the limb or even draw blood.
In that exchange, Ronin figured out the principle behind the ability.
Transmutation combined with Enhancement to alter the physical properties of specific body parts!
The man could instantly switch his arm between being as soft as a boneless whip and as hard as steel.