The Origin of Obedience, Part 6

Back at the dormitory, Akari Nitta finds every bed empty, fails to reach the students by phone, and drives off to hunt them down. Out in the field, Eso unfurls his Maximum: Wing King, insect wings spun from his poisonous blood, and promises his foes a death by wasp. As lines of toxic blood hunt the two sorcerers, Nobara cannot outrun them on her own, so Yuji scoops her up and tears through the trees at blistering speed, weaving until the curse loses sight of them. Eso shows no fear of the chase. The moment Nobara thanks Yuji for the save, Kechizu ambushes them, having taken a direct route while Yuji circled around, and Wing King clips Nobara from behind.

Eso catches up and explains that his acidic blood is less about killing outright and more about agony. He activates Rot Technique: Decay, which blooms floral marks across the wounds his blood has touched. Yuji assumes it is poison, but Eso clarifies the real effect is decomposition, the bodies of his targets breaking down where they were struck. A long memory then unspools across the era. In the Meiji period a woman carried a child mixing cursed spirit and human blood, was cast out by her family, and took shelter at a temple run by Noritoshi Kamo, history's most wicked sorcerer. Nine pregnancies ended in nine abortions, every record wiped clean. The resulting Death Painting Wombs never knew their mother and bear no grudge against sorcerers.

For roughly a century and a half the three wombs existed sealed away with only one another for company, and when they were finally given flesh they chose to stand with Mahito. Their eldest, Choso, urged them to live for each other and to fight for the future the cursed spirits had imagined. Eso offers to end his opponents' suffering, but Nobara only laughs, granting that the brothers are powerful while insisting she is the worst possible matchup for them. She triggers Straw Doll Technique: Resonance and drives a nail into her own wrist, the wound echoing into both Eso and Kechizu. Grinning as her blood runs, she invites them to play a game of chicken. This chapter introduces Choso in flashback and the ancestral Noritoshi Kamo, and ties to the anime's twenty-fourth episode.