hxh kurta 272-273 (Patreon)

Chapter 272: Caged Bird

Odo and Veronica came up in time to watch Ronin put the gorilla into the ground.

It hit them hard.

The last time they had seen that beast, it had driven their captain into the dirt until what came out was mud. That day had taught them the scale of it. Odo had grown since. He put himself even with the man who had died. Facing the gorilla still put a cold line through the gut. Special Hatsu, a crooked approach, and maybe you lived.

Now the same monster had been beaten straight in and hammered into the earth.

Was that what Legson’s group had walked into?

No wonder they were dead.

Against a human like this, both of them knew the answer. They would die.

“You actually caught up.”

Ging’s voice landed behind them.

Ronin’s finish had taken too much of their heads. Neither of them had felt Ging close the gap.

They did not think about it. Hands went up. Nen pulled all the way in.

“We surrender.”

Surrender might leave them breathing. A fight would not. The thought arrived the instant Ronin’s eyes passed over them.

Ging read the faces and left it there. He pulled rope from his pack—already cut, already waiting—and tossed it. They tied each other without being asked.

He did not worry about a trick. He walked them back to the column.

The fight was not finished.

An arm hooked the rim of the crater. Blood ran off it. The Nen coming with it said the gorilla in the pit was still alive.

“Tough,” Ronin said.

He had already dropped the Gate of View. Even as an Enhancer he could not live in the sixth gate. Once it closed, the climb back started fast. Enhancement healing, pushed the way he had pushed it, came on hard. A few minutes and he would be back at the top.

That was the point of putting the work into recovery.

Zetsu would take the same healing up another step.

The gorilla dragging itself out of the hole had a repair rate of its own. Next to his, it was nothing. The wounds had had time and still showed no close. Burned, split hide was a bad thing to ask a body to fix.

“You. Strong.”

The words came out clumsy. The brutal eyes on Ronin had something new in them. Caution.

A talking beast did not surprise him. The moment it used Nen he had filed it where Hunter × Hunter filed the rest: a Magical Beast. Speech sat inside that definition.

“You’re not bad. Going to run now that you’ve lost?”

The smile on him was not kind.

It had come looking for a fight. The fight had gone wrong. Flight was the next thought. The world did not work that clean.

“What do you want?”

The gorilla did not deny it.

“Kneel or die.”

Anger moved through the bloody face. Then it felt the aura on Ronin climbing again. The knees went. It hit the ground.

It could bend. He marked that.

He vanished and came up on it, hand already dropping toward the hide. Instinct tried to answer. Muscle locked. Will crushed the counter before it left the shoulder.

Pain bit the neck. The gorilla had no idea what he had done.

Ronin was already stepping off.

Seal work had been a side study. While he picked through the rest of it he had taken the curse marks apart: Root’s Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal, Orochimaru’s curse mark, the Hyūga Caged Bird Seal.

Two of those were worth keeping. The tongue seal shut a mouth on information. Caged Bird put a hand on the life of whoever wore it.

Orochimaru’s mark was different. It wanted a sliver of soul peeled off and seated in the target. Planting that on someone else was a worse use than putting it on himself. The mark’s root was Jūgo—sensing natural energy, swallowing it without meaning to. The body change under the mark looked like the same warp you got from taking in too much of it.

So the idea was simple. Use the mark to learn natural energy. If that landed, the jump would not be small. It might double him.

Sage Mode.

What he put on the gorilla was the Hyūga seal.

It was not locked to the clan. It took on an outsider the same way. The effect did not drop.

He had a guess for why. Plenty of branch-house Hyūga never opened the Byakugan. That did not mean they never would. If you wanted to keep those eyes from walking off, you marked the ones who had not awakened yet. Before the eyes opened, a Hyūga was just a person.

Guesswork. Then the Caged Bird sat on the gorilla’s forehead, and the guess stopped being a guess.

He formed the seals so the beast would understand it.

Its life was already in his hand.

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Chapter 273: The Guide

One second Lance was still trying to name what Ronin had done to him. The next, pain split his skull. He went down screaming.

Ronin did not run it long. He cut it off.

The gorilla that crawled back up looked at him differently. Fear sat in the eyes now.

Pain like that, down in the soul—Lance did not know how it worked. He knew he could not fight it.

It was over. That was the only thought left in him.

Odo and Veronica, who had watched the whole thing, were thinking the same.

“What’s your name?” Ronin did not look at the two humans. He asked the beast.

Lance sat on the dirt. “Lance. That’s my name.”

“How long have you lived here? Any advice for reaching the far coast?” Ronin pointed.

Lance’s eyes went wide. The gesture and the question lined up.

“You’re going outside?”

“You know there’s an outside?”

“Of course. I washed out here.” No shame in it. “The Gatekeeper didn’t want me. Said I was too weak. Send me out and I’d just be meat.”

Ging had brought the others in while Lance talked. Everyone looked at him after that.

“Don’t stare. This place you people named the hypothetical continent isn’t far from where the Gatekeeper sits. Strong Magical Beasts born here go to him now and then. Try their luck. If he takes you on as a guide, that’s the best seat. If he doesn’t, a little instruction from him still pays. Careful after that and you eat for the rest of your life.”

Lance sighed.

He had pushed too many things around. Caution had gone thin. He had even started to like the work. New faces showed and he jumped out to meet them.

If he had stayed quiet, he would not be wearing a collar.

He lifted a hand and slapped himself across the face.

Mouths twitched down the line. Some Magical Beasts ran high. Lance was not that kind.

Strength like his still made a usable fist.

“I’m going outside. You take me. You take me to the Gatekeeper.”

Lance’s face said he hated the order. He nodded anyway.

Ronin did not press for more on the Gatekeeper. The manga had already said it: the Gatekeeper was not human. Another Magical Beast. What kind, he did not know.

He turned to Odo and Veronica.

“How do you two want to die?”

Veronica had a speech ready. The question knocked it out of her. Sweat came up cold.

“We don’t want to die.” Odo’s voice held. Size helped.

“Tell me everything you know and I’ll let you walk. You know I’m not a man who likes killing.”

The smile was mild. To the two of them it sat worse than killing intent.

“Ask. We’ll answer.”

Odo had already run the numbers. V5 was not stopping this crew on the hypothetical continent. Talk. He did not have secrets worth dying over.

“You with V5?”

“Yes. Veronica, me, and Legson—the one you killed—all came out of Sahelta.”

“And the fourth?”

“New,” Veronica said. “We didn’t know him.”

“So you chased us to even it for Legson.”

Odo’s mouth went bitter. “Yes. That’s gone.”

Ronin spread his hands. “How is that different from the gorilla?”

Same choice. Same price.

“Do we have another option?” Veronica tried.

The words were still in the air when chains wrapped her. Kurapika.

“I didn’t say no.” Color left her face. She talked before the links tightened, fear standing in her eyes wet.

“Your Hatsu,” Kurapika said. The chains did not ease.

“I’m a Conjurer. I interrogate people until they vomit their organs. Each organ gives one true answer.” The sweet face did not match the work.

“Mine is Ancient War Tree,” Odo said. “I put Nen into trees and wake them. They fight.”

It did not fit the helm and the axe. Manipulation with Emission under it.

Both Hatsus had a future.

“I’m putting the same Caged Bird Seal on you,” Ronin said. “Don’t test it. Once it’s in, one thought and you’re dead.”

They did not move. Lance, listening, looked finished.

The column gained three.

On the road Ging and Kurapika stayed on the two humans and the beast, asking the questions Ronin had skipped. He let them run it. He knew his seat. When a call had to be final, he would make it. The rest of the board belonged to the two minds in the group. Kurapika’s thinking came in tight lines. Ging was already steering him, and at the points that mattered his years put a better answer on the table. Ronin wanted that.

Neon, Abachi, and Shizuku kept their eyes on the trees, same as he did.

If Lance was telling the truth, the far shore was not the problem. Avoid a handful of special monsters and the walk was clean.

The real door was the Gatekeeper’s trial.

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