Chapter 167

In the end Higuruma commits his 100 points to Yuji's goal, making point transfers between players possible. Things go smoothly for Yuji, yet the bargaining Megumi attempts with a rival band of Culling Game competitors falls apart entirely.

Higuruma instructs his Kogane to add a Culling Game rule letting players transfer points to one another, taking care that it also covers the scoring around cursed technique removal. Yuji waits anxiously while Kogane relays the request to the game master, and moments later the rule is approved. Relieved, Yuji watches Higuruma transfer a single point to him, which spares both of them from cursed technique removal over the next nineteen days. When Higuruma starts toward the way out of the theater and bids farewell, Yuji asks his plans. Yuji wants the lawyer's strength against the Culling Game, but the man admits that, prior to arriving in Tokyo, he took the lives of both a prosecutor and a judge, and he feels bound to answer for it, intending to surrender once the barrier lifts; for now he will weigh his options and would rather not linger near Yuji, since it only deepens his self-loathing. He leaves, and Yuji stands alone lamenting even in success.

Meanwhile Reggie compliments Megumi, sensing the young man's strength from his shikigami alone. Without Remi knowing it, Reggie had been exploiting her to draw in possible recruits, prepared to kill off anyone whose value fell short of the points they carried. He invites Megumi into the group, then wants to know how much understanding he has of the Culling Game. Leaving out Master Tengen, Megumi describes it as a rite meant to carry the Japanese across to the far side until they stop being human. Reggie laughs and, to Megumi's surprise, asks whether the name Kenjaku means anything to him, which only confirms Megumi's expectation that he would sooner or later run into a sorcerer tied to Kenjaku. Reggie argues the ritual story is likely cover for Kenjaku's real aim, citing three reasons: the player count, the skill gaps among players, and the rules. If a thousand players split evenly across ten colonies, each colony of a hundred is top-heavy in skill, with the likes of Hajime Kashimo and Higuruma far outclassing the rest; between them they have removed roughly sixty players in twelve days.

This logic tracks for Megumi, since the Tokyo No. 1 Colony has stayed quiet since he entered, so he asks whether the strong culled the weak early and whether the game will soon stall. Reggie confirms this has happened in both Tokyo colonies and reveals the transfer process is not merely a way to disperse players but a means to spark a second awakening of modern sorcerers' cursed techniques, even if some die in transfer, which serves the ritual less than a prolonged melee would. Kenjaku is abroad in China meeting government officials, and Reggie is sure he will drop a metaphorical bomb once only the strongest survive, at which point the Culling Game will have fulfilled its purpose; unsure what that revelation is, Reggie focuses on amassing allies and points. Megumi asks how Remi, a valueless weakling, fits in; Reggie says she lures people who lower their guard around a woman. Asked whether he will kill her for points once done, Reggie denies it and Remi calls him her true knight, which Megumi mostly ignores. He asks if the group's combined points reach a hundred; Reggie confirms over a hundred total, and Megumi reveals the new rule allowing point gifts, demanding they hand over everything before he will consider joining. Reggie declares the negotiation broken, and a player named Chizuru Hari appears behind Megumi to strike with his claws. Megumi slips into Hari's shadow, sends Divine Dog: Totality at Reggie, hurls Hari off the building, and orders Nue to divebomb him into the ground. Remi realizes Nue had been patrolling the whole time, and the student warns her that she had better never show up before him again. Without warning, a pair of kitchen knives are driven into Divine Dog's mouth, disabling it; Megumi turns to find Reggie unscathed and his shikigami whimpering. Reggie, knowing Megumi holds back to claim their points, warns he will die unless he fights for real, just as a detached eye drops beside Megumi and detonates.

Marked as installment 167 in the Gege Akutami manga, this nineteen-page Culling Game Arc entry sits in Volume 19, debuts Chizuru Hari, and adapts across anime Episodes 55, 56, and 57. It opens the Megumi Fushiguro versus Reggie Star's Group battle and lays out Reggie's theory about Kenjaku's true plan.