"Who knows?" Damian stopped the car. "Can't drive any further. You'll have to walk from here."
Ahead of them, a blockade had already formed.
Unlike the Cleaning Squad, these men were rushing toward them on motorcycles, each gripping a gun.
"Alright. This is far enough," Ronin said, pushing the car door open. A thought struck him, and he turned back to Damian. "These guys work for Spence?"
"Yeah."
With Damian's confirmation, the stones Ronin hadn't had a chance to throw earlier finally found a purpose.
"I know where Spence's manor is," Shizuku said, stepping out of the car as well.
"I won't be joining you, but feel free to contact me when you want to leave. I'll do my best to arrange a boat," Damian said, making no move to get out. "By the way, tickets out of here aren't cheap. I suggest you don't forget to loot whatever gold and treasure Spence has stashed in his manor after you kill him."
"Thanks for the tip. We will," Kurapika responded politely.
Damian smiled and flicked his cigarette butt away. "Good luck. Teach these high-and-mighty types a lesson."
With that, he stomped on the gas, whipped the car around, and sped off before the approaching motorcycles could close the distance.
Ronin took a step forward.
His mind flashed to Gotoh, the Zoldyck family butler from the manga. Gotoh's ability involved infusing coins with Nen, turning them into deadly projectiles with incredible destructive power.
It was an ability that sat somewhere between Enhancement and Emission.
He enhanced the coins to increase impact, but the infusion of aura also utilized Emission for projection and range.
Overall, it wasn't a hard ability to mimic.
Although Ronin hadn't observed Gotoh's specific technique with his Sharingan, he knew the principles. He positioned his arms at his sides near his waist. Two stones appeared on the pads of his index fingers, held in place by his thumbs.
He poured aura into the stones, reinforcing them so they wouldn't crumble under the explosive force he was about to apply. Then, he focused aura into his thumbs. The moment the riders on the lead motorcycle raised their guns, Ronin flicked.
Swish!
Thud!
Two holes appeared simultaneously in the heads of the two riders on the bike!
It was proof of the piercing power of Ronin's thrown stones. He didn't stop there. More stones shifted from his palm to his thumb, firing off in rapid succession.
The motorcycles came fast, and they went down just as quickly.
In less than twenty seconds, not a single gunman was left standing in the woods.
---
Shizuku summoned Blinky. Like a diligent cleaner, she quickly vacuumed up the corpses and the motorcycles, not even sparing the blood splattered on the ground.
In just over two minutes, the outskirts of the forest were spotless. aside from a lingering scent of iron in the air, there was no trace of the violence that had just occurred.
With Shizuku leading the way, the group pressed forward.
Deeper in the forest sat a massive estate.
A large number of armed guards were gathered at the perimeter, while staff hurried about inside.
In a lavishly decorated room deep within the manor, Spence, an Elder of the Meteor City Council with a bandaged arm, glared at a bloodied man lying on the floor.
The man's name was Hiroki Murasaki.
"Useless trash! I told you to just pretend to kill me! You couldn't even handle a simple job like that? And you let your daughter find out? Useless! Useless! Useless!" Spence screamed, cursing violently.
Hiroki had been his man from the start.
Recently, Spence had offended the Phantom Troupe over some business. He was terrified that Chrollo would come for him once he found out.
He wanted nothing to do with that freak show of monsters.
So, faking his death was his exit strategy. He had even planned to flee Meteor City the moment Hiroki "succeeded."
But the plan fell apart.
First, Hiroki had actually tried to kill him for real.
He failed, of course.
Up to that point, things were still manageable. Spence could have salvaged the plan.
But then Hiroki's daughter had to go and discover everything, and worse, she leaked the plan to his arch-rival, Ryan.
That was when Spence realized that his most trusted subordinate, Hiroki, had defected to Ryan's faction right under his nose.
"Damn it! Damn it all! Both of you deserve to die!" Spence gritted his teeth.
"Don't worry. I'll drag your brain-damaged daughter here so your whole family can be reunited in hell!" Spence stood up.
He might be afraid of a monster organization like the Troupe, but that didn't mean he'd run from just anyone—especially some random idiot dragging along a girl whose brain he'd personally damaged.
So what if the guy took out a Cleaning Squad captain and a tank?
Spence couldn't replicate that feat with brute force, sure, but he could achieve the same result in other ways.
Against a brute-force Enhancer, as long as you avoided a head-on collision, a cerebral Conjurer like him had the advantage!
"Hah! Just wait and die, all of you!" Spence laughed maniacally as he left the room, leaving Hiroki Murasaki curled up on the floor, twitching occasionally.
"Don't die, Shizuku..." A low murmur escaped Hiroki's lips.
He regretted everything.
But a bottom-feeder like him never really had a choice. Once Ryan found out who he was, his family became his greatest weakness.
He had no options.
He only hoped his daughter could escape this nightmare.
Darkness began to claim Hiroki. Before he closed his eyes, he thought he saw his gentle wife waving to him.
And his daughter, all grown up now, stood there watching them drift away, her face devoid of her old smile.
Ronin kicked the manor gates open.
He was immediately greeted by ranks of private soldiers, locked and loaded.
Only Shizuku stood behind him. Kurapika and Neon had slipped back into the shadows.
Kurapika's abilities had some utility in a group fight, but Neon was completely unsuited for this.
Especially since guns weren't useless against all Nen users. An average user facing a firing squad like this would still get hurt.
---
Not everyone had the raw aura output of an Enhancer or the freakishly durable body Ronin had built through his unique training.
Lightning Style Chakra Mode, Earth Style: Added Weight Rock Jutsu, standard physical conditioning, and Enhancement aura reinforcement—combining all these factors, Ronin's physical durability was skyrocketing. Give him another month or so, and his base durability might surpass Uvogin's.
After that, his next benchmark would probably be Netero.
Beyond Netero, the only things left on the ladder would be the Chimera Ants, specifically the King, Meruem.
But that was a long way off.
Netero's body was the result of decades of tempering. Even with Ronin's cultivation speed, catching up to the Chairman would likely take a few years.
As for reaching Meruem's level of durability? Under normal circumstances, that would be incredibly difficult.
But for now, facing the gunmen in front of the manor, Ronin's current strength was more than enough.