The phone in the old woman's hand was still connected, and Ponzu's voice echoed from it. Clearly, this was Ponzu's grandmother. Yet from what they could see on-screen, she looked very much dead.
Ron spoke through Sasuke's camera feed. "Check if that person's alive."
Sasuke approached, letting a flare of aura probe the old woman's body. A moment later, he shook his head at the camera.
She was already dead.
Which meant Ponzu's grandmother had been gone for some time. But if that was so, who was on the other end of Ponzu's call?
Ruco and Hanzo exchanged glances, both a little creeped out.
"What's going on?"
"So this is the kind of thing that happens in the Nen world?"
Even Ron wasn't sure what to make of the scene. Ponzu simply stared at the monitor, eyes reddening as tears rolled down her cheeks. "Grandma…"
From the phone, her grandmother's voice kept speaking.
"Ponzu, what's wrong?"
But on the screen, the old woman's mouth never moved.
"This is complicated," Ron said, turning to Ponzu. "I've never encountered anything like this, so I'll have to ask around. Even though my overall ability has reached A-rank, my experience can't match that of truly veteran Nen users"
Especially with phenomena that never appeared in the original storyline. He kept that thought to himself.
He took out his own phone and called Zeno. A moment later, the line connected.
"Ron."
"Grandfather Zeno, I have a question for you…"
Ron explained the situation in detail: how they'd come to Ponzu's village, what they'd seen, and the old woman's corpse that appeared somehow still "alive" on the phone. Zeno went silent for a bit.
"Is it post-mortem nen?" he finally asked.
"No," Ron replied. "I've seen plenty of post-mortem nen before—if that was all it was, I'd just grab my Rotten Life Blade and mow down everything from one end of the village to the other. Any ordinary Death Nen would be absorbed by my ability."
"How does the aura look to you?"
"Calm, deathly still, and…just unsettling."
"I see," Zeno said. "Send me a video clip."
"Alright."
Ron had Chii record a short video of Sasuke's feed, then sent it to Zeno's phone. Moments later, Zeno called back.
"Grandfather?"
"I've never seen Nen like this either, so I can't give any solid advice. The one thing I can tell you is: stay away. Getting close would be very dangerous."
"Is there nothing we can do?"
"Does that place matter so much to you?"
"One of my teammates lived here, and that corpse is her grandmother."
Zeno paused. "I know someone who might have come across something like this. But he's very temperamental. If I contact him for you, it may backfire. I'll give you his number, and you can handle it yourself. His name is Gogus."
Zeno recited a string of digits.
"Thanks, Grandfather Zeno," Ron said.
"Until you figure this out, don't go near that place."
"Understood."
They hung up. Ron dialed Gogus's number right away. The first time, no answer. The second time, still nothing. The third time, the call picked up only to be cut off. On the fourth attempt, he found himself blocked.
"Chii!" Ron prompted.
Chii placed the call instead, bypassing any blocking. It was rude, but since the man wouldn't answer otherwise, there was no choice. The phone rang a long time before a raspy voice finally came through:
"Who are you?"
He sounded downright hostile.
"Are you Gogus? I've got a job for you. Please look at the images I'm sending—whatever fee you name, I'll pay it if you can help solve this."
The response was immediate: the line went dead again. All Ron could do was wait, hoping Gogus would at least check the message.
Ponzu had finally calmed down, no longer trying to charge into the village.
"Captain, thank you. I'm sorry for losing my cool back there."
"It's fine," Ron answered with a small wave. "I understand."
Two hours passed. Then Ron's phone rang.
"Where is that place?" a voice demanded.
"Gogus?"
"Tell me the exact location. I'm on my way."
Ron gave him the coordinates, and on the other end, there was a clamor of hurried noise.
"Someone get me an airship ticket—right now! If there's no flight, charter one, quick!"
Then the call ended with a click. Ron arched an eyebrow.
"Seems like Gogus knows something about whatever's there. If so, we might get answers. But what in the world could it be?"
A sudden thought crossed Ron's mind:
"Could this be connected to the Dark Continent?"
He remembered the horrifying sight at the Kurta Clan's hidden sanctuary—an old man covered halfway in eyes, well beyond normal human comprehension. That elder had claimed the Scarlet Eyes themselves were tied to some existence from the Dark Continent. It was like a disease of sorts.
Human Nen in all its negative or positive forms was still just spiritual energy plus physical energy. Yet the aura in this village stood outside that familiar spectrum, more like…something else.
Two days later, Ron and the others spotted a black dot in the sky drawing rapidly closer, eventually revealing itself to be an airship. The passengers aboard must have noticed Ron's group, too, because a figure leapt from the craft midair.
Boom!
The ground shook as he landed—a wiry old man whose gaze swept over Hanzo, Ponzu, and Ruco before settling on Ron.
"You the one who called me?"
"Gogus?"
He nodded. "That's me. Where are the bugs? Hurry up and take me there."
Gogus was clearly impatient, more than his tone alone conveyed. He hadn't bothered to change clothes, still wearing rumpled loungewear. But for a skilled Nen user, outfit hardly mattered.