After what happened to Miniso, no one else tried to challenge Ronin's decision.
He sent out a Shadow Clone to head back to the surface and update Muir on the situation. Contacting Kurapika would take longer, though. A Shadow Clone couldn't exactly walk into Greed Island and deliver a message.
They had already set up a weekly check-in schedule before Ronin left for the ruins. At the time, he hadn't wanted to get Kurapika's hopes up, so he hadn't mentioned the possible second Kurta branch. Now that he needed a deeper, more careful exploration of this place, Kurapika's presence mattered.
Kurapika was the real thing. A pure-blooded Kurta. Ronin only had inherited memories. If anyone could pick up on details he was missing, it would be him.
Ronin's own recollections still felt hazy, like trying to see through fog.
Day five of the ruin exploration.
Ronin finally got through to Kurapika and told him everything. He asked him to gather people and get here as fast as possible. Clearing Greed Island could wait.
Kurapika's voice actually shook over the line. Even if these ruins belonged to a completely separate branch of the Kurta with no connection to their slaughtered village, the news still hit him hard. Ronin understood.
Meanwhile, the Hunter Association had sent in more specialists. V5's Dangerous Biologicals Division had people in full protective gear moving through the underground city.
The V5 officials weren't happy about Ronin blocking off the other section, but he kept it simple. If they wanted to explore it, they could dig their own way in. He wouldn't stop actual experts from entering if they managed it.
The V5 representative left with a sour expression, but he didn't push the issue. Instead, he led his team into the underground city to begin their own work.
Maschur showed up not long after.
"You're not worried that guy's going to make trouble for you later?" he asked. "V5 officials still carry real weight."
Maschur had come down after the giant spiders had been cleared out. Modern weapons had turned the blood-and-flesh monsters into easy targets once the mercenary group and kingdom soldiers worked together.
Ronin shrugged. "He's just some mid-level guy from the isolation bureau. He doesn't have the pull to touch me."
V5 had too many departments, and power was spread thin. The Dangerous Biologicals Division dealt with special species from the Dark Continent, dangerous sea creatures, mutations, and artificial monsters. It wasn't exactly a high-influence office.
Maschur nodded, but his eyes stayed cold as he watched the official walk away.
Exploration of the ruins never stopped.
Most of the time, only Ronin's Shadow Clones entered the spiral Kurta section. Ronin himself stayed with Vanessa in the more "normal" areas. The constant vortex patterns in the other section were too unsettling.
Over the past few days, the clones had checked every tent in the Kurta living area. They found more skeletons and several stone tablets carved with text.
The writing wasn't modern, but Ronin recognized it instantly.
It was a traditional Kurta prayer.
Sun above, green trees below.
Our bodies were born from the earth, our souls came from the sky.
Sunlight and moonlight touch our limbs, the green land nourishes our flesh.
We offer this body to the wind that blows across the land and give thanks to the heavens for the miracle of Kurta soil.
May our hearts remain forever safe. I wish to share joy with all my kin and bear their sorrows with them.
Please continue to bless the Kurta people. Let our scarlet eyes stand as proof.
Reading the familiar words stirred new questions in Ronin's mind—mainly about where this ancient script had originally come from.
He paid to dig through the Hunter website archives. The script was over a thousand years old and had been found in ruins across multiple locations.
He cross-referenced and found two other ruins that contained nearly identical text. Both times, the content matched what he had discovered here.
He marked the locations on a map.
Including the slaughtered branch he already knew about, Kurta traces now appeared across four of the six continents.
"Ronin, I found something wrong."
Vanessa's voice cut through his thoughts as she rushed into the stone house. Her face was pale. In her hand was a dagger that had twisted into a dramatic spiral, the blade curling in on itself like it was trying to become part of the vortex pattern that dominated everything here.
Ronin took the weapon carefully, his expression hardening.
"When did this happen? Did you bring this in from outside?"
Vanessa nodded. "Maschur gave it to me as a gift. Yesterday it already felt… off. I thought I was imagining it. But today it's this bad."
"We're leaving," Ronin said immediately. He stood up and pulled her toward the exit.
If metal was starting to twist like this, what about people?
The image of Junji Ito's Uzumaki flashed through his mind again—bodies warping and curling into grotesque spirals. But this wasn't a horror manga. This was the Hunter world.
So the vortex effect had to be connected to Nen.
Yet his Shadow Clones had spent days inside that section and found no trace of aura or Nen activity. Only the glowing spiral plants. No other living things at all.
Something wasn't adding up.