"Don't think you can run, you bastard!"
Uvogin's furious, impotent roar didn't affect Ronin in the slightest.
Hidden in the fog, Ronin cast the Transformation Jutsu immediately.
In an instant, the refined, handsome young man with short pale-gold hair became a pot-bellied middle-aged man.
His footsteps turned just as frantic as everyone else's in the mist.
Ronin knew his control over Nen still wasn't fine enough—he couldn't perfectly suppress and release it at will to blend in like a normal person.
So the Transformation Jutsu was his best option.
With the transformation, he looked like an ordinary civilian, with the same faint aura naturally leaking out into the air.
So the situation was simple now.
Unless the Troupe members slaughtered everyone at the airship terminal, they weren't going to find him.
And even if they did start killing, he could use the fog as cover and slip away underground with Earth Style: Headhunter Jutsu.
From the moment he realized the "policeman" was being controlled by Shalnark, his escape had already become inevitable.
By the time he neared the terminal hall entrance, the fog had thinned—and Ronin finally saw a familiar figure.
The man stood at the entrance: tall and lean, dressed like a wandering rōnin, a katana hanging at his waist. With dead-fish eyes, he scanned every person approaching the entrance, as if searching for someone.
Nobunaga.
Uvogin's best partner.
Ronin acted like everyone else—panicked and scrambling.
But before he could even get close to Nobunaga, he saw it:
Everyone who ran past Nobunaga was cut in half at the waist, one after another.
So this was the Phantom Troupe.
A pack of lawless, deranged monsters.
There were at least forty or fifty people fleeing the terminal, yet Nobunaga slaughtered them without even blinking.
It was the behavior of a rabid, antisocial beast.
The fog was already thin here. The stench of blood—and the screams of people severed in two who hadn't died yet—triggered even greater panic.
Ronin felt, in an instant, like a predator had locked onto him.
Was it because his expression differed from the others' fear, just a little?
Sharp bastard.
Ronin threw up hand seals fast, sucked in a deep breath, and in the next second, a massive fireball erupted from his mouth.
Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!
At the same time, his Sharingan already reflected Nobunaga's figure rushing in to kill him.
The huge fireball was split cleanly down the middle mid-flight.
Nobunaga's speed didn't slow at all—only his motion changed from drawing the blade to sheathing it, smooth and casual.
But as he passed through the parted flames, Ronin was gone.
Nobunaga's eyes flicked. Aura surged toward his legs. He lifted a foot and stomped hard on the ground.
A battered figure struggled up from the earth not far away. A cold smile touched Nobunaga's lips as he blurred forward.
His draw-slash exploded the moment he closed in.
But what he cut wasn't flesh.
It was a sudden burst of water.
A clone?
As that thought flashed through him, Nobunaga twisted sideways—
Several coins were already at his flank. Clink clink clink—each coin was sliced neatly in half.
But through the thin mist, all Nobunaga saw was a fleeting silhouette disappearing fast.
And it vanished in the direction of the terminal hall entrance.
Nobunaga's brow lifted. He gave chase immediately.
But when he burst into the hall, what he saw was only a flood of armed police rushing in from outside—and terrified crowds surging the other way.
Ronin was already gone.
Nobunaga didn't know whether Ronin had blended into the crowd or slipped back into hiding to strike again.
But in that brief exchange, the sheer versatility of Ronin's abilities made Nobunaga cautious.
He slid his katana back into its sheath, considering whether he should just cut down everyone in the hall and dig Ronin out that way.
Before he could act, a blond teenager appeared behind him.
"Let it go, Nobunaga."
It was Shalnark—the one who'd been hiding, planning to ambush Ronin from the shadows.
When the fog spread, Shalnark had rushed toward the spot where Ronin vanished, but he was still a step late. He didn't know how Ronin had noticed something was wrong with the policeman, but Ronin's methods were genuinely troublesome.
It was escape-specialist level.
Nobunaga's dead-fish eyes drooped with frustration as he glanced toward the exit. "How's Uvogin?"
"He's fine. Let's leave." Shalnark turned and walked straight out of the terminal hall.
Outside, the fog had almost completely dissipated. And as it cleared, it became obvious—
There were almost no living people left in the terminal.
Some had been riddled with bullets. Many more had been cut cleanly in half.
Uvogin was already back on his feet. He strode toward the two of them, his face still heavy with rage and killing intent.
But even from his expression, it was clear he knew catching Ronin right now would be difficult—so he didn't chase immediately.
Inside the hall, more police were sprinting toward them.
The three didn't waste words. They slipped out of the terminal from another direction and left fast.
Meanwhile, Ronin had already blended into the crowd.
His face was pale, and one of his arms bent at an unnatural angle.
Broken.
Nobunaga had guessed correctly. When Ronin used Great Fireball to block Nobunaga's sightline, he'd burrowed underground with the Headhunter Jutsu.
Nobunaga's sudden burst had been beyond what Ronin expected.
That powerful Nen surged into the ground and threatened him even underground. The price Ronin paid to crawl back out was having his arm crushed and fractured by the pressure of the earth.
And Ronin knew the moment he surfaced, he'd become Nobunaga's immediate target.
So the instant he emerged, he used Water Style: Water Clone Jutsu.
A clone technique far more lifelike than the basic Clone Technique—also a tier higher, a C-rank jutsu.
The mist from Hiding in Mist made creating a water clone easier. And with the water clone and fog as cover, Ronin's real body slipped away and sprinted toward the hall.
Nobunaga was absurdly fast. The water clone didn't even have time to resist—one slash and it was gone.
But Ronin had expected that. The moment the water clone shattered, he flicked the coins from his pocket like shuriken.
Using the brief instant Nobunaga spent cutting down the coins, Ronin dashed into the hall.
After that, blending into the crowd was easy.
He'd been afraid Nobunaga might go insane and butcher everyone.
But when he saw Shalnark appear and stop Nobunaga, Ronin finally let out a small breath of relief.
Following the crowd out of the terminal hall, breathing air that wasn't exactly clean, he still felt like he'd survived a disaster.
He didn't dare linger.
Ronin crossed the street, got into a taxi, and quickly left the terminal.
He went to a small clinic first to treat his broken arm and the injuries around his waist and abdomen. Then he used the Transformation Jutsu again, found a hotel, and checked in.
Now he planned to wait.
He didn't believe the Phantom Troupe would stay here forever just to ambush him.
And his injuries really did need time to heal.
~~~
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