Chapter 98: Blinky
Ronin stepped forward, approaching the small clinic. A bold idea had taken root in his mind.
The building was roughly 20 meters long, 15 meters wide, and 8 meters high—a two-story structure.
He pressed his palms against the exterior wall and closed his eyes to focus. He allowed his Nen to bleed into the masonry, flowing down into the foundation. He attempted to wrap the entire footprint of the building in a layer of Shu.
After a moment, Ronin withdrew his hands and stopped.
Expanding his aura over the first five meters was effortless. However, as the Nen spread further, the consumption spiked exponentially, and the effectiveness of the Shu reinforcement began to drop.
It seemed that five meters was the current limit for his effective range when reinforcing static objects. Beyond that, the aura leaked too quickly, losing the density required to "bind" the object as an extension of himself.
Ronin let go of the wall.
He had a workaround. He formed a cross-shaped seal with his hands.
Poof. Poof. Poof.
In three distinct clouds of smoke, three identical copies of Ronin appeared.
Simultaneously, he wove a different set of seals, activating the Earth Style: Ultralight-Weight Rock Technique on the building.
Once the three Shadow Clones were in position, the four Ronins stood at each corner of the clinic. They pressed their hands to the walls simultaneously, releasing a coordinated surge of aura. Their individual fields of Shu overlapped, connecting into a single, unified shroud of Nen.
With the building's gravity negated by the Jutsu and its structural integrity reinforced by the overlapping Shu, Ronin gave a slight grunt of effort.
With a sound like tearing silk, the entire clinic was ripped clean out of its foundation and lifted several inches off the ground.
"Your turn!" Ronin called out.
Shizuku stared at the four Ronins, rubbing her eyes behind her large glasses. For a second, she genuinely wondered if she was hallucinating.
Ronin's fighting style was pure Enhancer. He was a brawler, a tank.
Yet here he was, using a sophisticated physical cloning ability that should belong to a Conjurer.
Seeing him lift an entire house as if it were a cardboard box added a whole new layer of shock.
Despite her confusion, her reflexes were sharp. The moment the house went airborne, a vacuum cleaner materialized in her hands.
Blinky.
"Starting now. Inhaling the clinic," Shizuku said in her flat, monotone voice as she thumbed the power switch.
The vacuum roared to life. A terrifying suction force erupted from Blinky's wide, toothy mouth. Facing the massive building, the suction worked its magic; the clinic began to warp and shrink, accelerating toward the vacuum's maw.
In less than a heartbeat, the two-story building vanished entirely into the small machine.
The vacuum fell silent. Shizuku dispelled it with a faint, satisfied smile.
Ronin dispelled his Shadow Clones, the remaining Chakra returning to his body.
Kurapika and Neon approached from the alleyway. Before they could get within five meters, Shizuku had already dropped into a low, defensive crouch.
To her, anyone approaching in Meteor City was a member of the Cleaning Squad until proven otherwise.
"Easy. They're with me," Ronin said, raising a hand.
Shizuku looked at the masks on Kurapika and Neon, then back at Ronin's mask. She tilted her head, processed the information, and stood up.
"Right. I see," she said, her suspicion vanishing as quickly as it had appeared.
"We need to move. The Cleaning Squad isn't going to let this go," Kurapika said, his tone matching Shizuku's urgency.
"The target is Spence's estate," Ronin summarized. "Once he's dead, Shizuku leaves with us."
"Wait, isn't Spence already dead?" Damian asked, leaning out of the car window as he pulled up. "I know where the estate is. Get in. This lead is on the house."
The group piled into Damian's battered old sedan.
Damian drove aggressively, threading the needle between irregularly parked cars and heaps of scrap metal. When the path was blocked by abandoned wrecks, he didn't hesitate to use his car as a ram, shoving obstacles aside with a screech of grinding metal.
As they cleared the residential block, they saw squads of Cleaning Squad members stationed at the intersections, rifles at the ready.
However, when they spotted Ronin in the passenger seat, the guards froze. Instead of opening fire, they lowered their weapons and stood aside, allowing the car to pass.
Ronin looked at the stones he had gathered in his lap. He had been looking forward to using them.
If they had been foolish enough to shoot, I would have shown them what happens when an Enhancer treats gravel like a sniper rifle.
"That's the Meteor City way," Damian noted, a trace of mockery in his voice. "But I assume you've heard the creed?"
"'We reject no one. So take nothing from us,'" Kurapika recited softly.
"Exactly," Damian glanced at Ronin. "You're an outsider. You can't hide that here. If you stay, the hunt will never end. It will follow you even after you leave this city."
"It doesn't matter," Ronin said indifferently.
He knew Shizuku would act as a beacon, drawing killers to him like moths to a flame.
But Ronin wasn't afraid.
Meteor City was filled with dangerous people, but they weren't all lunatics. And for those who were insane, Ronin intended to be even more terrifying.
He had already dismantled the Phantom Troupe's morale. He had replaced a Don. What was an Elder to him?
The car sped deeper into the city. Contrary to the outside world's perception, Meteor City wasn't just a desolate wasteland.
They passed functional storefronts, schools, hospitals, and even a central "Sanitation Bureau."
"Meteor City has been evolving for over a thousand years. It's not the dump the history books claim it to be, even if the world still treats us like garbage," Damian said, lighting another cigarette. He blew a plume of smoke out the window. "Once, the world chose this place to be a landfill. Now, we've made the world choose to keep us this way."
Ronin sensed a hidden weight in Damian's words, but he didn't press for details.
The buildings began to thin out as they reached the inner sanctum. The garbage heaps remained, but large, sturdy trees began to appear—a rarity in this environment.
They turned off the main road onto a dirt path.
"Spence's estate is deep within this wooded area. After living in trash for so long, the people at the top always want to distance themselves from the smell. This forest is the most prestigious hideout in the city," Damian explained.
"The air is certainly better than the garbage mountains," Neon noted, looking out the window.
She hadn't taken her mask off once since they arrived. She wasn't taking any chances.
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