Chapter 104

Yuji barely keeps Choso at bay before Mechamaru resurfaces with advice. Wagering on the puppeteer's plan to even the odds, Yuji aims to collapse the duel into a straight fistfight. He kicks off his counterattack, and it spirals badly out of control.

Quiet ever since the group parted from Nanami, Mechamaru's communication device sparks back to life partway through the battle. Asked where he has been, he replies that he was hoarding energy for a task that still lies ahead. Studying the fight, he identifies Choso as a Death Painting wielding Blood Manipulation, a technique he knows through Noritoshi Kamo, though its weak point eludes him. Within the Kamo Clan, the inherited technique is prized for its all-around combat balance. As Yuji narrowly slips another Piercing Blood, Mechamaru directs him to retreat into the bathroom, conceding the plan's success rate is low yet preferable to bleeding out in the open.

Darting into a cramped corridor, Yuji startles Choso, who expects a dead end and a skewering. Wary because Yuji felled his brothers, Choso pauses until Mechamaru's voice jeers that he is no braver than the siblings he lost. Incensed, he charges into the bathroom and discovers Mechamaru's puppet fixed to the far wall. Mechamaru sneers that the three Death Painting brothers brim with love for one another, which makes them simple to handle. The puppet is torn apart by Piercing Blood, but in the same moment every fixture in the room gushes water from all directions.

Concealed in a stall, Yuji ambushes Choso from behind. Choso slides clear and readies the condensed blood around him for a kill, only for the splashing water to scatter Convergence. Since Blood Manipulation prevents clotting, the blood dissolves easily in water, stripping Choso of the power to control any blood outside his body. He pivots to Flowing Red Scale: Stack, governing the blood within himself, while Yuji grasps that the fight has slid into the close quarters he prefers. With water shattering fixtures and flooding the room, the two trade swift physical blows and Yuji edges ahead, until Choso uses his boosted strength to flick a concealed Blood Meteorite straight into Yuji's liver. The chapter belongs to the Shibuya Incident Arc and was adapted as Episode 37.