Chapter 206

Hoping to finally end the curse user, Yuki Tsukumo and Tengen put their counter to Kenjaku's domain into motion. Their scheme rests on a flawed reading of his power, and once it falls apart, Yuki has only her sheer durability left to lean on while she scrambles for a final gambit.

Before the fight, Yuki had walked Tengen through the plan. Choso lured Kenjaku into the maze of empty barriers above the Tombs of the Star Corridor, where a barrier expert like Kenjaku can bend his surroundings to his liking. That suited Yuki, since keeping him relaxed kept him inside. Tengen felt sure that, given ten seconds and Yuki coaxing it open, he could wipe out the empty barrier and the domain together. Yuki proposed using her own Domain Expansion over Simple Domain, but Tengen rejected it: her domain would form the outer layer, so wiping the empty barrier would dispel hers first, and Kenjaku could resist with anti-domain methods. They settled on baiting his domain open, leaving Tengen to wipe it away and Yuki to land the finishing blow once techniques went dark.

The plan broke down, because Kenjaku expanded his domain without sealing the barrier. With nothing left on the outside for Tengen to strip away, his erasure had no target. Yuki's Simple Domain was peeled apart by the superior barrier, and Kenjaku, boasting of a thousand years of war and pacts, foiled Tengen's attempt to erase the sure-hit edge. A blastwave from Womb Profusion tore through Yuki's defenses, and both fighters dropped to the room below, Yuki left horribly wounded. Kenjaku told her trusting Tengen had been the mistake and began to hint at a Culling Game secret, only to spot that a shikigami stood in her place. Turning, he was struck at by Garuda, then chose to refill his techniques while she healed. Instead, Yuki attacked with her battered body alone, hammering him with rapid close-range strikes; Garuda coiled around him before her injuries dropped her. Believing the bout won, Kenjaku asked if she had a better play. She reminded him she likes a rough man, the cue for Choso to smash through the wall behind him, compressed blood already loaded.

Published under the name Stars and Oil (Part 2), this Culling Game Arc chapter appeared in issue 1 of 2023, released on December 5, 2022, and sits in Volume 23. Tengen, Kenjaku, Yuki Tsukumo, and Choso fill the cover. The contest pitting Yuki Tsukumo and Choso against Kenjaku continues. Techniques shown include Choso's Blood Manipulation with Convergence, Kenjaku's Cursed Spirit Manipulation as Suguru Geto driving the Womb Profusion Domain Expansion, the shikigami Garuda, and Yuki's Simple Domain.