Fever

Cornered by Gakuganji over corpses that sustain their own cursed energy, Yaga learns the higher-ups intend to brand him a special grade threat and lock him away. He says a quiet goodbye to Takeru, a corpse he shaped from his late nephew's soul to ease his grieving sister, then slips out of his hideaway within Tengen's barrier with Kusakabe's help. A flashback shows the sister recognizing her son's mannerisms in Takeru and pulling him into an embrace.

Heading toward Panda, Yaga is intercepted by an assassin carrying his death warrant. Distracted by Gakuganji's distant guitar, he is left badly wounded with two deep gashes across his chest. Before he dies, he confides to Gakuganji the secret behind his autonomous corpses: three highly compatible souls fused into one body, gaining self-awareness and producing their own cursed energy after three months. Panda arrives to find his maker slumped and dying, and breaks down wailing.

Panda tells Gakuganji he holds no grudge and casts himself as nothing more than the blade chosen to end Yaga, reminding the principal that even pandas weep. Having unloaded his last secret as a curse on Gakuganji, Yaga passes. Later, intelligence from Tengen reaches Yuji and Megumi about Hakari, who operates an illicit fighting club drawing both sorcerers and ordinary onlookers. The venue sits within a derelict, long-empty parking structure somewhere in Tochigi Prefecture, and the two set out to find him. The trail pulls Yuji into a clash with Panda and the opening rounds of his bout against Hakari.

The episode pulls from chapters 147 and 153 plus portions of 154 and 155, and introduces Kinji Hakari, Kirara Hoshi, and Takeru. The closing conversation between Yuji and Hakari was produced entirely through rotoscoping, with test footage acted out by the episode director playing Hakari and the series director playing Yuji.