Perfect Preparation, Part 3

The clan learns Ogi has fallen and rushes its finest fighters to capture Maki, but the grieving twin refuses to let her sister go unavenged. Bent on keeping the promise she made to Mai, Maki unleashes her newfound power to destroy everything.

An alarm bell rings across the Zenin estate, drawing Jinichi and Naoya into the hall, where young Ranta reports that Maki has snapped and slain Ogi. Both are stunned he lost to her. The Kukuru Unit, captained by Nobuaki, is sent to subdue her; Nobuaki still underrates Maki, guessing she caught Ogi off guard, and orders a quick kill. Made up of Zenin men without innate techniques, the unit ranks beneath the Hei as a lesser offshoot, drilled relentlessly in hand-to-hand combat.

They corner Maki, roughly twenty strong, as she stands alone with Dragon-Bone clutched in a single fist while the other holds the Split Soul Katana bequeathed by Mai, her thoughts fixed on her sister. Wondering if she should have abandoned the sorcerer's path beside Mai, she apologizes, then opens her eyes as a katana swings at her. She severs the attacker's hands, vaults over him, cuts down several others, and beheads him. The unit is butchered one after another, and Nobuaki arrives horrified to find his men reduced to corpses by the unscathed girl who once served among them.

Sensing cursed energy from Chojuro down the hall, Maki is hurled skyward by giant stone hands that clap to crush her; Nobuaki names it Chojuro's technique and realizes the Hei, the clan's strongest sorcerers ranked semi-grade 1 and above, have come. Maki bursts free and rams her hands through Nobuaki's and Chojuro's throats before they react. Ranta then paralyzes her and calls for Jinichi to finish her, but Maki breaks the hold, and the backlash savages Ranta's eyes. Bleeding, he warns Jinichi that Maki now resembles Toji himself and will raze the clan unless they kill her now. Jinichi rains cursed-energy fists from the sky, flattening the area; Ranta dies of his injuries believing they won, just as Maki strides from the smoke carrying Jinichi's severed head, which she tosses into the pond without remorse. On a bridge over the water, Naoya, head of the Hei, faces her, marveling at her power and wondering aloud whether any human heart beats in her. Maki answers no, since hers was stripped away from her.

Set within the Culling Game Arc at the Zenin Clan household, the chapter stages two clashes: Maki against the Kukuru Unit, then Maki against the Hei. Ranta Zenin, Nobuaki Zenin, and Chojuro Zenin debut, alongside Maki, Jinichi, and Naoya, with Ogi and Mai also appearing. Featured jujutsu includes Dragon-Bone, the Split Soul Katana, and the unnamed innate techniques of Chojuro, Ranta, and Jinichi. The events adapt into Episode 51.