read full story inpatreon
belamy20
Perhaps the richer and more powerful someone got, the more terrified they became of dying.
Ronin wasn't wasting a single second on small talk. He slammed Mind Reading straight into Ryan's skull and narrowed the search to one thing only—the Scarlet Eyes. Simple. Clean. A few minutes later he let go, already knowing exactly where they were.
Right here in the hotel.
"What do we do with him?" Kurapika asked, keeping pace.
"Shizuku and Neon are on their way. They'll handle it." Ronin knew Kurapika still had lines he wouldn't cross. Better to let the others do the ugly work.
"No value," Neon said, staring down at Ryan like he was already trash.
"Oh."
The reply came just as Shizuku swung Blinky. One clean motion and Ryan was gone.
"Violent much?" Neon muttered. "Move it. Before Ronin packs up every shiny thing in this place."
She knew him too well. Given the chance, Ronin would never stop at the Scarlet Eyes. He'd strip Ryan's entire collection clean.
Shizuku glanced at the body but left it alone and hurried after Neon.
A handful of black-suited guards still lingered outside the vault door. Regular guys. The moment Ryan started teleporting all over the hotel, every real ability user had cut and run.
They dropped the guards without breaking stride and stepped inside.
Gold. Cash. Art. The place was stacked. But the real show was the roped-off section at the back—human organs everywhere. Eyes, hearts, severed limbs, heads, even infants and grown men and women twisted into grotesque poses.
"This guy makes you look tame, Neon," Ronin said.
"And way trashier," Neon answered, voice tight with disgust as she came up beside him.
She was long past this kind of collecting. These days she hunted organs she actually wanted and turned them into proper specimens herself, complete with stories. Perfect pieces were rare, though. She only took from enemies now, and even that felt too slow.
"You picking through this?" Ronin asked.
Kurapika was already moving. He reached the Scarlet Eyes first, hands shaking as he lifted them. No matter how many pairs they'd found, the sight still hit him like a gut punch.
Ronin turned toward the jewelry and high-value pieces. Too late. Shizuku's Blinky was already vacuuming everything in sight. By the time he pulled out his Fun Fun Cloth, the vault was nearly empty.
The alarm had been screaming since they breached the door. Grasse family security would be here any minute, and the family had plenty more than just Ryan.
Ronin tucked the cloth away. No point. He led the others straight for the roof instead of the elevators.
The Super Lightened Boulder Jutsu worked on groups too. They lifted off into the night sky without a single witness.
Ronin's shadow clone had stayed with the freak-show troupe. After slipping Abachi a contact number, the clone vanished. The performers slipped out through the service corridors while security focused entirely on the vault robbers.
Exactly like they'd expected, once the group left Gramglaslan the story broke: the freak-show troupe had teamed up with thieves to loot the Grasse hotel. No photos of the actual thieves existed, so every finger pointed at the performers.
Ronin found Abachi again after the troupe had already fallen apart.
"The Grasse family put a bounty on all of us," she said, voice flat. "Round and round it goes—the troupe's finished again. I can dodge it easy enough with a little makeup. The others? Not so much.
Norman said splitting up gives everyone the best odds. So I had to drop the idea of helping them stick together."
Ronin and Kurapika traded a look. They both understood. Norman didn't want Abachi chained to the troupe anymore. Smart move, too. The only Nen users left were him and Abachi. They were the real targets now.
"What's your plan?" Ronin asked.
He wasn't ready to invite her into the crew yet. He still didn't know her ability or her character well enough. That kind of decision needed more than one conversation.
"I'm taking the Hunter Exam," Abachi said. "Gonna become a Hunter."
Ronin blinked, genuinely surprised by the answer.
