The man with the dangerous aura didn't feel connected to the king's people at all.
Ronin dug through his memories. He'd seen someone like that before—someone covered in tattoos, standing near the Fourth Prince after one of the prince's private slaughter sessions. The man's job seemed to be skinning the bodies, preparing the hides, and leaving his own distinctive marks across the finished leather.
An old analysis post came back to him. Someone had pointed out that a man with both arms covered in tattoos had also been present during Sarasa's murder. A few readers had already started connecting that figure to the one who later appeared at Tserriednich's side.
Do the math. When the Meteor City incident happened, the Fourth Prince would have been in his early twenties.
If that tattooed man had any real link to Tserriednich, then the Fourth Prince couldn't wash his hands of Sarasa's death.
A new idea formed.
If the Phantom Troupe learned that the people behind Sarasa's murder answered to the Fourth Prince of Kakin, what would they do? Team up with Tserriednich to go after Ronin? Turn on the prince the same way Ronin had? Or simply go after the prince on their own and leave everything else aside?
Unraveling the old case wouldn't be simple. Right now the only solid lead pointed toward the internet. Chrollo had once speculated that the killers uploaded the videos of their work. Tracking those videos back to the people who made them had never been easy—otherwise the Troupe would have settled the score years ago.
But the tattooed man was a fresh opening. Ronin felt he was finally a step ahead. As long as he kept that lead, Kurapika's skills would keep them in front. And once Ronin held something the Troupe actually wanted, they wouldn't be able to ignore the bait.
Getting Kurapika to dig into the tattooed man was almost too easy. Ronin didn't even need to mention Sarasa. All he had to do was say the man looked suspicious. Kurapika would start pulling threads on his own. Whether those threads led all the way back to the old massacre would depend on how deep Kurapika could go. When the moment called for it, Ronin could always feed him a little more.
Given that Kurapika already knew the Troupe's real objective, any odd detail around the tattooed man would lock the case into place fast.
They owed that much to Hila, the contact who'd fed them information back in Meteor City. Looking for Shizuku there had been the right call after all.
Everything unfolded exactly the way Ronin had calculated. The moment he mentioned the tattooed man, Kurapika started investigating.
What Ronin didn't know was that Chrollo had already begun looking at the same man with equal suspicion.
Yes.
Chrollo was in Kakin too.
He still wasn't completely certain he could beat Ronin in a straight fight. Waiting for a perfect, one-hundred-percent chance felt impossible. Even after losing several members, the Troupe still hadn't forced Ronin to show every card he held. In a real clash, the next second could bring any technique. That made planning around him a nightmare.
The cleanest answer was still the eyes. Blind him and the rest became manageable.
Chrollo had actually found someone whose ability could strip another person of their sight. Getting that ability into his own hands, though, was a different problem. Luckily the user had also come to Kakin. Whatever reason brought the man here, the timing worked in Chrollo's favor.
The assassination attempts were the other reason Chrollo had moved so quickly. The moment the first attack hit the news, he and Hisoka both knew Ronin was the one behind it. They had expected trouble retrieving the Scarlet Eyes from the Fourth Prince. What they hadn't expected was Ronin turning around and going after the Third Prince next.
Once the Troupe arrived in Kakin, every member went underground. Disguises. Fake names. Quiet movement. For a group that had walked openly through every city since leaving Meteor City, the sudden need to hide from Ronin's eyes sat poorly with all of them.
Assassinating the Fourth Prince meant nothing to the Spider. Finding where the Scarlet Eyes were hidden was the only real objective. But Chrollo and Hisoka both understood the truth: if the collection had been easy to locate, Kurapika would never have let Ronin start with assassination attempts in the first place.
Unless those attempts had always been meant to flush the Troupe out.
"Everywhere we turn, another trap," Nobunaga said. The question in his voice was only surface-level. The certainty underneath it was absolute. "He really wants us dead that badly?"
The Spider was down to a head and six legs. Chrollo still hadn't brought in new members. It looked like he planned to wait until Ronin was dealt with before rebuilding the full thirteen. That left the combat strength painfully thin—only Nobunaga and Franklin still counted as pure fighters. Chrollo and Hisoka handled the thinking. Pakunoda and Kortopi handled logistics. Machi handled the medical side and could step in as a half-fighter when needed.
"If someone wiped out your whole clan," Franklin said, "you'd chase them harder than this."
Nobunaga's hand settled on the hilt of his sword. He forced himself not to draw it.
"I never gave him a clan to wipe out," Nobunaga muttered, shooting Franklin a hard look. Then he turned to Hisoka. "So what now?"
If the full Spider charged Ronin together they might still have a chance. Split them up, though, and Nobunaga had a bad feeling Kakin would become their grave.
"We settle Sarasa's matter first."
Chrollo spoke before Hisoka could answer.
When he lacked a perfect winning plan against Ronin, Chrollo preferred to map every path toward the worst possible outcome.
And for him, the worst case wasn't dying at Ronin's hands.
It was dying without ever making the people who killed Sarasa pay.
That was why the Troupe existed. That was the one wish every remaining member still shared. No matter what else happened, Chrollo would not fail them on that.