Vengeance

In a flashback, a dying Kanae begs Shinobu to leave the Corps and live a normal life, but Shinobu refuses, vowing to avenge her. Kanae recalls her killer as a demon with blood on his head who spoke in a calm, kind voice, the memory replaying Doma's introduction. When one of his victims cries out, Doma scolds her for interrupting and swings his Blood Demon Art at her; the woman crumbles to pieces in Shinobu's arms.

In the present, Shinobu recognizes Doma by the fans he wields and realizes he killed Kanae. He presents himself as the head of a cult, the Eternal Paradise Faith, claiming he saves his followers by devouring them. Shinobu, sickened, grabs her sister's haori and demands he remember it; Doma recalls Kanae as a Flower Breathing user he regretted not eating, just as Shinobu attacks.

Using a Bee Sting strike, she stabs Doma's left eye, and he retaliates with a freezing Frozen Lotus that ices part of her face. He mocks the attack for failing to behead him, but Shinobu reveals her poison. Pain wracks Doma and his skin decays, yet he soon decomposes the toxin entirely, noting it is stronger than the one used on Mount Natagumo. Excited to face a poison user, he asks what else she has planned, and Shinobu draws her blade against the Upper Rank.

The chapter sets up the duel between Shinobu and Doma, grounding it in her long quest to avenge Kanae. It establishes Doma's twisted philosophy and his ability to neutralize poison, the very weapon Shinobu has built her entire fighting style around, raising the stakes for their confrontation.