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Not long after Hisoka left, Miria arrived at the manor.
The fight had brought her another huge payout, but the amount of Nen she could lend out hadn't grown much at all. That was starting to frustrate her.
Anyone who became an ability user—unless they were a total newbie—tended to be extremely cautious.
Her method of lending Nen always left people suspicious of her motives.
It was especially bad with Transmuters, Conjurers, and Manipulators. Distrust seemed baked into their personalities.
That was exactly why Miria preferred working with Enhancers and Emitters.
"By the way, that Huashi Doulang guy you asked me to contact—he watched your fight with Hisoka and reached out himself. He wants to meet you." Miria handed over a slip of paper with the address of a dojo. It was where Huashi trained.
Ronin pocketed the note. He'd stop by and see the guy before they left town.
"Are you planning to just stay here forever, raking in cash?" Ronin asked, looking at her seriously.
From what he'd seen of her ability's potential, Miria definitely had ambition.
But in his eyes, holing up at Heaven's Arena gave her great connections and plenty of money. The problem was that waiting for people to agree to borrow Nen was way too slow for building up her aura reserves.
"You want to invite me to join your team?" Miria caught on immediately.
She currently held the title of logistics support, but she knew their relationship was still just a partnership. She wasn't actually a member of Ronin's crew.
"Yeah, that's the idea," Ronin admitted openly.
If he could massively boost her aura capacity, the amount she could lend would skyrocket too.
Lending Nen didn't increase a user's current aura output, but it did expand their potential aura—their stamina and endurance.
When Ronin used ninjutsu, the power wasn't limited by his active aura. His potential aura mattered far more.
The more potential aura he had, the more chakra he could convert. The more chakra he could output, the stronger his techniques became.
To him, Miria was the perfect support.
"But I'm not really interested in what you guys are doing right now," Miria said. She had her own life plans.
Hunting down the Phantom Troupe for revenge, collecting Scarlet Eyes, or trying to rebuild the Kurta Clan—none of that was on her radar.
Ronin's team just didn't offer her enough appeal.
Staying at Heaven's Arena and slowly finding suitable targets to lend Nen to was slow, but it was steady and safe.
As long as she kept at it, her strength would keep growing without too much risk.
Ronin didn't push further. She was right—their current goals didn't line up with what she wanted.
If she joined, she'd basically become his support tool, helping boost his power. That wouldn't be very attractive to her.
But how could he change that?
The only way would be to give her access to a ton of ability users who actually needed to borrow Nen. That might convince her to travel with them.
Even then, it would feel more like an investment in Miria than something that directly benefited him right now.
After thinking it through, Ronin realized the best setup was still her holding down the fort at Heaven's Arena and handling their logistics. It was the biggest help she could give him, and it was the cleanest partnership.
With that settled, he dropped the invitation.
If he was honest with himself, part of him had wanted her to join for reasons that weren't purely practical.
But stuff like that was better left to happen naturally.
"Alright, my bad," Ronin said, clearing his head.
Kurapika and Neon had been watching the whole exchange. Neon especially looked anxious—she was rooting hard for something to happen between Ronin and Miria.
Ronin could be a total hothead most of the time, but Miria was calm and collected. They complemented each other perfectly.
Plus, she could tell from the way he invited her that he had some personal feelings mixed in. She hated seeing him back down so easily.
But she couldn't think of a good reason to butt in and push things along.
And had her divination mentioned any of this?
Kurapika stayed completely quiet. It wasn't that he didn't have an opinion—he just knew this was something Ronin had to handle himself.
He'd be happy if it worked out, but the divination poem had made it pretty clear the timing wasn't right yet.
The atmosphere turned a little awkward. Ronin picked up on it and cleared his throat.
"I'll probably push my next Arena match back a bit. We've got a lot to take care of first. But I'll be back before the three-month deadline."
"No problem," Miria replied, acting like she hadn't noticed the weird vibe. She sat down right next to Ronin.
The group chatted while digging into the fried chicken and fries on the table, slowly easing the strange tension.
Shizuku wasn't super talkative, but when she did speak, her comments were usually spot-on. The only issue was that she could be pretty blunt.
Ronin's advice to her was simple: talk less and play the quiet, artistic-type girl. It suited her better.
Neon and Miria hit it off immediately. They went deep on collections, jewelry, fashion—Neon knew her stuff.
Miria was even more knowledgeable. Every outfit she wore—which Ronin just thought looked good—came from major designer brands.
She was a total fashion icon.
Kurapika wasn't interested in any of that, so he mostly talked training and technique with Ronin.
In the evening, Ronin slipped out alone and met Huashi Doulang at the agreed-upon dojo. The guy was there in his training clothes, working hard.
They didn't waste time on small talk. They started with a spar, and it ended with Ronin easily overwhelming Huashi in close combat.
During the fight, Ronin explained the different Nen categories and demonstrated them.
Sweaty and sprawled out on the training room floor, Huashi looked up and asked the question that had been bugging him:
"Why are you helping me?"
"I want to see whether you, walking the right path, can beat Hisoka on the arena floor three years from now," Ronin answered simply.
Huashi was a stubborn guy—just like him.
Once someone like that made a promise to fight Hisoka, nothing would make him back down.
So as long as Hisoka stayed alive, there would definitely be a rematch.
Ronin didn't think Huashi would win, but he wanted to watch a real, high-level fight.
Whether Huashi survived it… that would be up to him.