Chapter 204

A timely nudge from his siblings pulls Choso back into the duel. Carrying their inspiration, the eldest brother fights with renewed fire, showing off techniques nobody has seen from him and a hardened resolve to act as the family's protector against Kenjaku.

Imagined versions of his younger brothers crowd around Choso and spur him on. Buoyed by their cheers, he shouts that he has this and looses another Piercing Blood at his father. Kenjaku ducks beneath it, noting the beam is fastest the moment it fires and harmless after. Choso drags the stream across the floor and rips it open. Kenjaku dodges and pulls back, only for a trio of fresh beams to surface at his back. He pegs the move as a knockoff of Eso's Wing King and rides flying cursed spirits clear of it.

The two close in and swap blows up close, with Choso loosing extra beams off the wings riding his spine. Kenjaku flips away, screens himself with curses, and slips in a charge through their fading smoke, but Choso shreds them with blood as his father lounges on a tree. Told that Wing King is too slow and immune to poison, Choso answers that he must move with grace like Eso, then loosely like Kechizu, splitting his hand off his left arm on a long thread of blood. He grabs Kenjaku from afar, whirls him about, and slams his skull down with a right hook, declaring he must strike with power like Yuji. A cursed spirit guards the face, and Kenjaku coolly asks if he is finished. Choso retorts, fires Wing King again, and rides its tracking to ferry compressed blood, peppering Kenjaku with beads that surprise even the veteran. He triggers Supernova from all sides, yet his father walks away clean. Choso first thinks he misfired, then deduces a technique beyond Cursed Spirit Manipulation is at work. Delighted, Yuki steps inside the barrier and, though she grew up with no siblings of her own, praises the big brother for a job well done.

Titled Blood and Oil, Part 3, this Culling Game Arc installment ran in issue 50 of 2022, debuted on November 14, 2022, and appears in Volume 23. Choso, Eso, Yuji, and Kechizu share the cover. The clash between the team of Yuki Tsukumo and Choso against Kenjaku carries on here. Powers on display cover Choso's Blood Manipulation, spanning Convergence, Piercing Blood, Supernova, and a borrowed Wing King, plus Kenjaku's Antigravity System via Cursed Technique Reversal and his Cursed Spirit Manipulation worn as Suguru Geto. The three deceased brothers feature only as imaginary figures.