Chapter 195: Origins and Investigations
Abaki did not leave Ronin's team after the Hunter Exam concluded.
Whether it was a genuine interest in ruin exploration or a sudden distaste for the stage, she officially joined the roster as a temporary member.
Ronin had mentioned Abaki during one of his rare encrypted calls with Hisoka. He received nothing but silence in return.
He couldn't tell if Hisoka wanted to see his "senior disciple" again or if he was simply indifferent. Abaki, on the other hand, seemed to be looking forward to a reunion.
Ronin sensed that Abaki might harbor deeper feelings for the Magician, though he suspected that path would likely end in a dead end. If Hisoka were ever to feel anything for another human, Ronin's first thought was Machi.
The two of them had a strange, friction-filled chemistry that felt more like a partnership of equals than a romance—their auras simply "fit."
And if you want to go the dark route, Ronin mused, there's always Illumi and Chrollo.
Shaking off his idle thoughts, Ronin focused on the data being brought up from the depths of the Mahavi Ruins. He received news that he had been anticipating for weeks.
A team of excavators had unearthed a massive stone monolith in the Kurta sector. The engravings were a chronicle of the clan's history. According to the text, the Kurta Clan originated from the Dark Continent.
Technically, this wasn't a unique revelation—nearly every human ethnic group within the Lake Mobius region shared that same prehistoric lineage.
However, the monolith described a critical schism.
A thousand years ago, the migrating Kurta Clan reached a crossroads. One faction followed the path of their ancestors, crossing the ocean to settle within the safe, enclosed waters of Lake Mobius.
The other faction turned back. They ventured deeper into the "True" Dark Continent, seeking a homeland where they wouldn't have to hide from the sun.
The ruins Ronin was currently standing in were the legacy of the branch that entered the Lake Mobius region.
The migration had been a gauntlet. Many Kurtas were lost at sea; others abandoned the convoy to settle in different continents. Only the largest contingent reached the Kingdom of Aitli—which at the time was a lawless wasteland—and built the Mahavi settlement underground.
The final section of the monolith detailed the local environment.
Before the Kingdom of Aitli was founded, the land was infested with high-tier biological threats. The Kurta were forced underground not out of choice, but out of survival. Among the predators they faced were the Chimera Ants.
The Kurta had sealed the ants in the hollow to act as a biological deterrent. They maintained a delicate balance between the Great Trees, the Serpents, the Ants, and the Spiders. Simultaneously, they used the "Den" as a training ground, attempting to find a weakness that would allow them to reclaim the surface.
Every year, "Chosen Heroes" from the clan would descend into the hive, releasing swarms of "Fire-Phobic" monsters to conduct a cull.
But the war was a stalemate. Even when the Kurta diaspora here finally vanished, the terrestrial Chimera Ant population remained entrenched.
Kurapika spent weeks researching the archives of the Aitli Kingdom to cross-reference this history. He discovered that the modern Kingdom had only been founded three hundred years ago.
Records of the land prior to the 1700s were virtually non-existent.
However, he found a lead in the archives of the Kakin Empire. Five hundred years ago, the land that is now Aitli was designated as a Forbidden Zone. It was described as a battleground between Chimera Ants and a second, rival species capable of neutralizing them.
Then, at some point in history, both dominant species seemingly vanished. The land became habitable, and modern nations began to take root.
Ronin, knowing the biological aggression of the ants, found this deeply suspicious. Aitli shared a border with Kakin. Kakin had been a superpower for over a millennium.
Why didn't the ants ever expand into Kakin territory? Why did they stay bottled up in this one corner of the continent?
All the riddles pointed toward the Empire.
As more data surfaced, Ronin grew increasingly wary of the ancient nation. What was Beyond Netero really doing there? Was his decades-long setup truly just for a voyage, or was Kakin itself a piece of the Dark Continent brought into the light?
March.
"The investigation into Kakin has hit a wall," Kurapika announced, finding Ronin in the team's command tent.
Since the turn of the year, Kurapika had been focusing his intellect on the Empire's secrets. After all, the Fourth Prince held the largest single collection of Scarlet Eyes.
The scope of his search had expanded to the neighboring territories. As he mapped the history of the region, he found an unsettling pattern.
Over the last thousand years, every minor nation surrounding Kakin had suffered a total collapse or systematic genocide—except for those founded recently, like Aitli.
Many of these neighboring lands were once "Danger Zones" or "Uncharted Territories."
Yet, no matter how chaotic the borderlands became, the danger never crossed into Kakin. The Empire maintained its borders with surgical precision for a millennium, never expanding, never receding.
Kakin's map has been frozen for a thousand years, Kurapika noted.
When Kurapika tried to dig into the "How" or "Why," his logic always looped back to the start.
"It's like there's an invisible force directing my research," Kurapika explained, looking frustrated. "I find a lead, I follow it, and then I encounter a piece of data that feels like a 'Trigger.' The moment I process it, my mind refuses to go further."
"My investigators report the same thing. No matter how much money we spend or how many contacts we leverage, we can only confirm that there is a problem, but we can't define what it is."
Ronin listened, and only one explanation made sense in this world.
Nen.
A systemic, nation-wide Hatsu was filtering information. A "Cognitive Lock."
"It's Nen," Ronin stated.
"Exactly," Kurapika sighed. "If we can't find a way to bypass or exorcise this mental filter, Kakin's core secrets will remain a closed book to us forever."
"Then we stop looking from the outside," Ronin decided, cracking his knuckles. "We go in. We find the truth on the ground."
"I've already sent teams in," Kurapika countered. "A third of them simply vanished. The ones who came back... they couldn't remember anything useful. It was as if their time inside was erased."
The message was clear: Remote surveillance was a dead end.
"It looks like if we want to secure those eyes and understand our history," Ronin summarized, "we have to infiltrate Kakin ourselves. And it's not going to be a simple tourist trip."
"No," Kurapika agreed. "It's a suicide run. And I suspect the Phantom Troupe is already making the same move."
"When do we leave?" Ronin asked. He had been waiting for a reason to go all-out.
The "Farming Phase" was over. It was time for the final hunt.
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