Choso immediately raised his hand and shattered the hand soap bottle with a shot of Piercing Blood. The plastic bottle burst in midair, scattering fragments everywhere. Tiny beads of blood lingered in the air, mingling with the mist like a pale red veil.
Using that cover, Itadori ducked low and slid toward Choso's legs. He moved incredibly fast, the water on the floor helping propel him forward as he swept a leg straight at Choso's ankles.
Unfortunately, he missed.
Choso leaped high, evading the sweep, and landed behind Itadori. But the instant his feet touched down, he stumbled on the slippery floor, his body swaying slightly.
"What a shame." Choso steadied himself, his voice flat, as though pronouncing a sentence. "That was your last chance."
He prepared to activate Convergence.
But the beads of blood in midair did not follow the course he commanded. They hung there, motionless for an instant, then burst like tiny red fireworks.
What? Choso's pupils contracted sharply.
"Convergence... came undone?"
To improve the effectiveness of their Cursed Technique, users of Blood Manipulation usually disabled their blood's ability to clot. As a result, Choso's blood dissolved in water more readily than an ordinary person's.
Now, the mist in the air and the water pooled on the floor were rushing into those beads of blood. The change in osmotic pressure caused the red blood cells to swell rapidly, their membranes rupturing one after another. More than forty-five percent of the blood cells had already slipped out of his control.
Naturally, Convergence came undone as well.
In this environment, he could no longer use his Cursed Technique freely.
But Choso did not panic. He might have lacked combat experience, but his composure was innate. He simply drew all the blood remaining outside back into his body, leaving not