The Kamo clan’s inherited technique, Crimson Blood Manipulation, has two doping forms.
Crimson Scale Dance, which strengthens the body by controlling metabolism such as the blood’s components and heart rate.
When used, blood-red patterns appear around the eyes, true to the name [red scales].
And there is an upgraded version that pushes that effect one step further.
Scarlet Scale Dance - Set.
The principle is the same as Crimson Scale Dance, but because the entire body’s blood has to match the caster’s violent movements, its power is on a completely different level.
It requires extreme concentration, and the strain on the user’s body is so severe that no one but a highly trained expert would ever use it.
"Still no problem. Maximum duration is... ten minutes, huh."
Even Choso, who had trained Crimson Blood Manipulation through 150 years of image training, was under heavy strain, but in a situation like this, who had time to worry about the details?
The enemy in front of him was unquestionably strong.
This was not an opponent he could beat by carefully preserving his body and weighing every little thing.
Crack!
The supercooled cursed energy Uraume fired clung to Choso’s arm and turned to ice.
He had already expected that. He had been hit by it once before, so he could prepare for it—a powerful but obvious attack.
Blood spun rapidly in the arm trapped by the cold, body heat generated by metabolism melted the ice away.
Ssssssss!
Heat high enough to melt ice and evaporate water in an instant.
Free of the restraint, Choso charged at Uraume with steam trailing behind him.
Before he could close the distance, Uraume cooled the cursed energy in both hands and fired a barrage that covered every angle.
Whoosh!
Being caught lasted only an instant.
The moment it touched his body, which was boiling like lava, the ice melted and turned into puddles of water.
The attack failed to even hinder his movement, let alone bind his legs, and Choso’s now-unimpeded fist smashed into Uraume’s jaw.
Thud!
"!"
Even as Uraume’s head snapped to the side, he did not give up on counterattacking.
Ice spread rapidly from the hand that had seized Choso’s outstretched arm, engulfing his right side.
But when Uraume lifted a foot to smash the body frozen like a statue, he was thrown off by the dull impact that felt different from what he expected.
"Already melted it?"
With Scarlet Scale Dance activated, Choso’s physical ability was enough to go toe-to-toe with Itadori Yuji.
And now, with maximum output drawn out to subdue Uraume, his heart was beating faster than ever before.
"Huff, huff!"
His heart pounded, his blood circulation sped up, and the sweat pouring down like rain evaporated from his body heat.
The current Choso had reached—
A heart rate of over 200 and a body temperature of over 50 degrees.
Thud!
This was a trump card that would not be strange at all if it killed a normal human long ago, but he was betting on the recovery power of the cursed spirit half that made up half his body.
The reckless gamble of testing his limits to overcome Uraume’s freezing had succeeded.
Feeling his body burn, Choso kicked Uraume hard in the stomach.
"Gah!"
"Aaaah!"
The furious follow-up attacks did not stop.
Choso grabbed Uraume by the nape and slammed him into the ground, then delivered merciless pounding blows to the back of his head.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Every time his fist came down with enough force to crush a skull, the ground caved in.
Uraume’s blood, just as hot, splattered across Choso’s face and made the heat even worse.
His own body heat was already high, and now the heat of battle had mixed in, turning the world before his eyes red.
Thump!
Too worked up, his movements grew too large, leaving an opening.
Uraume, who had been face-down on the ground screaming incoherently, drove an ice pillar up from his back and shoved Choso away.
Small ice fragments rained down from Choso’s upper body, which had been blown back by the impact.
"Cold. But... hot."
His head felt hazy, and he could no longer tell whether this was reality.
He could barely even feel the chill of the ice from the beginning.
It was proof that his senses were starting to go bad, but for some reason Choso grinned ferociously.
The hot surge of exhilaration he felt now seemed to tell him that he still had value.
His body was hot.
So hot it felt like he would burn to ash right there.
He needed somewhere to vent this unbearable heat, this rage.
"Filth...!"
"Shut up."
Choso and Uraume, both staggering to their feet, collided again.
When direct body-freezing attacks no longer worked, Uraume began pulling out ice with substance.
The cold mass in his hand turned into an ice spear and shot toward Choso like an arrow.
Whoosh!
With the enhanced eyesight and reaction speed of Scarlet Scale Dance, something like this was easy to dodge.
Lowering his stance and letting the spear pass over his head, Choso kicked off his bent leg and charged at Uraume.
Uraume, who had drawn an ice dagger and gripped it reverse-handed, did not retreat either, and the two crashed together in close combat.
"You’re not used to close-quarters combat, are you?"
"That has nothing to do with you!"
It was not Uraume’s specialty, but the combat experience he had built up while operating alongside Sukuna was nothing to scoff at.
In the turbulent age a thousand years ago, there had been plenty of opponents who charged in as recklessly as Choso, and that had hardened him in his own way.
Uraume’s flashing dagger bent like a snake and stabbed toward a vital point.
Tap!
Choso caught his wrist to stop it and shoved his body in.
The hand that wasn’t holding the dagger struck at his eye, but it didn’t hurt.
His body was already burning; getting hit wasn’t going to stop him.
"You bastard...!"
"Hup!"
Once Choso began pressing in seriously, Uraume started to be pushed back helplessly.
No matter how much he knew about close combat, beating Choso’s physical ability while he had Scarlet Scale Dance active was impossible.
With the balance of power stolen from him, Uraume’s legs dragged along the ground, and in the end he was lifted clean off his feet.
Bang!
Choso drove Uraume into a wall, sealed the dagger with one hand, and hammered Uraume’s abdomen with the other.
Every time his fist slammed in again and again, he could feel the organs and muscles being crushed.
Just as he was about to press harder into that not-so-unpleasant sensation, the dagger in Uraume’s hand stretched out and burst through Choso’s back.
"..!"
"I’ll crack your skull open!"
The frightening thing about ice manipulation was that cursed energy could be used in whatever form the caster wanted, whenever and wherever.
A skilled sorcerer could even spit out cursed energy rolled around in the mouth. Uraume did not like using such a filthy trick, but with his eyes turned red by rage, there was no room to care about that now.
Uraume spat the blood he had gathered in his mouth into Choso’s face, and red ice instantly spread over Choso’s head.
"No matter how much of a monster you are, you won’t be able to make your head hot too! If your brain gets cooked, you won’t be able to keep doing this!"
As he said, Choso had been suppressing the circulation of blood to his brain as much as possible.
There was a risk of capillaries bursting and causing a cerebral hemorrhage, and even if he had inherited a cursed spirit’s constitution, if his brain got cooked by the heat, recovery would be difficult.
The ice melted more slowly than on other parts of his body, and while it was still there, Uraume pulled his arm free and swung a fist at Choso’s head.
Clang!
Even with his vision blocked, Choso instinctively twisted his head aside and dodged.
He couldn’t avoid it completely, so one ear was shattered, but that was better than having his whole head blown apart.
The red ice melted away, revealing his face, and Choso and Uraume locked eyes—Choso drenched in blood and radiating a terrifying killing intent.
"Thanks. You helped cool my head a little."
"You...!"
Choso and Uraume moved almost at the same time, and their attacks crossed.
As Uraume twisted the blade and spread the ice, Choso’s side burst open and part of his innards spilled through the gap, while Choso, ignoring the grave injury, stomped down on Uraume’s instep.
Slash!
Bang!
And then, a headbutt.
Smack!
Uraume’s head, struck in the nose, snapped backward and flew after smashing through several stone pillars.
As Choso moved to pursue him, he suddenly felt a dizzying pain and looked down.
"Ghk..."
Creak... creak...
The wound Uraume had left was a mess.
Not only had it been pierced straight through the abdomen, but ice had grown sharply inside his body and was stabbing into his organs.
He must have clenched his teeth and increased its density, because it was not melting easily, and if left alone it would interfere with his movement.
Crack...
"Graaah!!"
Choso let out a beastlike roar and pulled the ice blade out.
It melted easily thanks to his body heat, but the sharp pain made the world flash white.
Through the torn opening, all sorts of ugly red masses were spilling out in streams, and he hurriedly moved the blood to seal it, but at this rate...
"You won’t be able to clot it easily. You’d be afraid of embolism."
"You...!"
"Did you think I wouldn’t know the weakness of Crimson Blood Manipulation?"
If blood inside and outside the body were controlled at the same time, side effects would occur.
Especially when clotting blood outside the body, if he made a mistake and the blood inside the body synchronized and hardened too, there was a risk of death by shock.
Even if he could do both at once, it was impossible to maintain concentration while dealing with Uraume.
"Once you let it go, maintaining that doping state again will be a burden, won’t it? What will you do...!"
Recovery, or maintaining Scarlet Scale Dance.
Choso would have to choose.
And his choice was—
Shrrrk
Recovery.
The red pattern around his eyes returned to normal, and the steam rising from his body faded away.
Seeing things go exactly as planned, Uraume smiled with a faintly fishy look.
"That’s the problem with you sorcerers. You’re too precious about your own lives to burn away your humanity to the very end."
"......."
"Are you so afraid of dying and being left alone? That humanity of yours is weakness—weakness that fears loneliness."
"Yeah... maybe."
Looking down at his hand, Choso clenched his fist tightly.
In truth, he had been nearing his limit for a while now. The opponent’s conversion speed was so fast that he hadn’t been able to cool down enough.
Probably, if he had kept maintaining both the seal and Scarlet Scale Dance, his body would have collapsed from the strain first.
"But there’s one thing you’re mistaken about."
I already gave up on living as a human.
The cursed life I chose.
I’m prepared to pay the price for that wrong choice, the choice that shoved my younger brothers forward and killed innocent people.
"There’s only one place to use my life. It’s just that I can’t allow myself to burn out before I bring you down."
"What are you thinking?"
"I’m not the one who’s going to bring you down."
The thing I’m really afraid of isn’t my own loneliness.
It’s the loneliness of the younger brother who will be left behind after I die.
"‘We’ are."
He worried, but even without a useless older brother like me, he would probably manage just fine.
So then.
Lend me your strength one last time.
Maximum Technique—
Wing King
Blood wings sprouted from Choso’s back.
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