Hisoka was a genius, but Abaki was not weak either.
Her ability had been developed very well. If she raised her strength a bit more and gained more combat experience, then in Ronin's view, she would have the power to fight Hisoka.
He only hoped Hisoka would not be too surprised when the time came.
Being surpassed by a childhood friend was not exactly a pleasant experience.
It seemed Abaki's arrival had stolen Ronin's luck. For a while now, his bucket had not gained a single fish. Abaki's bucket, on the other hand, was almost too full to hold any more.
Ronin simply got up and went to cook noodles.
Time passed slowly. When the bright moon hung high overhead, a figure came striding across the sea.
It was as if he could shrink the ground beneath his feet. With every step he took, his figure seemed to appear far in the distance. But on closer inspection, he had not used any special ability at all. Beneath his feet was a strange fish swimming at incredible speed.
Every step he took landed directly on the back of that strange fish.
And the man who had come riding across the fish was none other than the person who had made an agreement with Ronin—Ging.
Ging had short, spiky hair like a hedgehog, with unkempt stubble on his face. He wore a sleeveless shirt on his upper body, with camouflage pants and military boots below.
A small pack hung on his back. It seemed to be everything he had brought with him.
When he saw the ship floating on the sea, a smile appeared on his face. His speed did not slow at all, and the strange fish beneath him rushed straight toward the ship.
Judging from its behavior, it was clearly trying to crash into the ship and throw off the hateful human on its back.
In other words, this bizarre fish probably could not dive underwater. It could only move while floating along the surface.
But before the strange fish could get close, sharks began appearing in the waters around the distant ship.
Under the moonlight, those sharks shone with a cold,幽幽 gleam. But once Ging gathered Nen into his eyes, he could clearly see through their internal structure.
They did not have normal organs.
They were filled with water.
All the sharks that had suddenly appeared were made entirely of water.
There was no surprise in Ging's expression. Before coming here, he had already investigated Ronin's information. He knew that Ronin was extremely skilled at transforming Nen into the five attributes of lightning, water, fire, wind, and earth.
The appearance of these sharks was clearly a sign that Ronin had sensed his presence.
He should still be about three hundred meters away from the ship.
At such a distance, was Ronin using En?
Ging quickly rejected that guess and instead looked up at the sky.
A light drizzle was falling from the gloomy sky. Before the sharks appeared, Ging would not have suspected anything about the rain. But now…
He raised his hand and touched the falling raindrops. Upon sensing carefully, he could detect a faint trace of aura within them.
Interesting, Ging thought.
But his feet did not stop moving at all. Carried forward by the strange fish beneath him, he entered the sharks' encirclement.
The strange fish seemed completely indifferent to the sharks, but the sharks were very curious about Ging standing on its back.
A violent shark leapt out of the water, as if calculating the lead perfectly, and lunged toward Ging atop the strange fish.
But Nen bullets appeared around Ging one step ahead of time.
Those Nen bullets had no intention of attacking. They simply hovered around him.
Yet whenever a shark lunged at him, it would inevitably touch one of the Nen bullets. The instant they made contact, an explosion would occur, and the shark formed entirely from chakra would burst apart in midair.
By the time it splashed onto Ging, it had no power left at all.
The whole process looked like shark-shaped water balloons striking spikes one after another, bursting into torrents of water that fell behind Ging and returned to the sea.
Ging's movements were incredibly graceful. He stepped onto the strange fish again, then suddenly jumped.
Just as the strange fish was swallowed whole by a giant mouth that suddenly emerged from beneath the water, Ging landed steadily on the ship's deck.
The sound of applause came from nearby.
It was Ronin, who had just used the Water Release: Water Shark Bullet Technique to swallow the strange fish.
Ging smiled freely. Clearly, a test of this level posed no difficulty for him at all.
For Ronin, this had also been an experiment.
After speaking to Ging on the phone, he had been curious about what method Ging would use to appear out on the sea and find them.
In order to detect Ging's possible arrival in advance, Ronin had directly activated the Rain Tiger at Will Technique, a ninjutsu Nagato used to monitor the entire Hidden Rain Village.
The raindrops falling from the sky were the key Ronin used to sense everything.
When Ging's figure entered the range of the falling rain, Ronin sensed his presence. He was quite surprised by the way Ging had arrived.
That strange fish charging across the surface of the water especially felt novel to him.
The Water Release: Water Shark Bullet Technique he used afterward was purely a test. After all, the power of that ninjutsu should have been nothing special to Ging.
"You got here fast," Neon said from the side, carefully sizing Ging up.
She was also very curious about this legendary Hunter. Now that she had seen him, he did indeed seem to have something special about him. She just did not know who would be stronger if he and Ronin actually fought.
Neon trusted Ronin more.
After all, ever since she had met Ronin, she had never seen him lose.
"So, did I pass the trial?" Ging's gaze swept across the ship before finally landing on Ronin.
"Tell me what you can contribute," Ronin said, repeating the question he had asked over the phone.
But the fact that he asked this question meant Ging had passed his initial assessment.
Even without fighting, simply standing in front of Ging allowed Ronin to feel how powerful he was. It was a completely different feeling from the one Netero gave off.
Netero was like a high monk. He did not seem especially strong at first glance, but when he truly grew angry and erupted, he could make people experience the depth and violence of a wrathful guardian deity.
Ging's strength, on the other hand, was overt.
It was a kind of arrogant presence that made anyone who saw him immediately realize how powerful he was.
If Ronin had not known anything about Ging, he might really have thought Ging was extremely arrogant and cocky. But he had seen Ging in the manga, so he understood even better that Ging was deliberately showing himself off.
It seemed Ging really wanted to take part in this illegal voyage.
However, looking into Ging's eyes, Ronin felt that perhaps what Ging looked forward to even more was finding like-minded companions.
"Combat, experience, and survival."
Ging raised one finger after another.
"I'm an expert in all of those areas. I can say with certainty that I understand wilderness survival and expeditions into dangerous places better than all of you."
Ronin nodded. He had to admit that much.
"There is one more crucial question."
In truth, from the moment Ging managed to arrive, Ronin already had no real reason to reject him.
The aura around Ging began to settle, and his expression became serious.
"Can you trust us, and can you acknowledge me as the leader of this team?" Ronin asked earnestly.