"Kenjaku."
Choso's voice was hoarse and cold, like a chill seeping through the cracks of a gravestone. He slowly turned his Blood Blade and pulled it from Kenjaku's chest, then slashed sideways. The blade cut through the air, but struck only an afterimage.
Kenjaku had already darted several steps away. The hole through his chest rapidly healed under his Reverse Cursed Technique, fresh skin showing faintly pink beneath the tear in his robes.
Freed from gravity's restraint, Yuki Tsukumo charged forward again, her fists wrapped in the mass of Star Rage. Every punch carried enough weight to shatter rock.
Kenjaku dodged the Piercing Blood Choso fired from his flank while repeatedly using gravity to disrupt Yuki Tsukumo's approach. The three raced through the ruins, their figures crossing, afterimages overlapping.
Choso seized an opening while Kenjaku was dealing with Yuki Tsukumo and rushed into close range again.
Kenjaku did not dodge. He drove a fist into Choso's abdomen. Still suffering from his earlier severe injuries, Choso vomited a mouthful of blood, his body folding like a kite with its string cut. Catching sight of Yuki Tsukumo's fist already upon him, Kenjaku had no time to think. He grabbed Choso by the back of his collar and held him sideways between himself and Yuki Tsukumo.
Yuki Tsukumo could no longer stop her punch.
Packed with all her killing intent and cursed energy, it slammed into Choso's skull.
Flesh flew and brain matter splattered. Shattered bone and chunks of meat scattered like fragments of a smashed clay pot. Yuki Tsukumo's eyelid twitched violently. Choso's flesh and blood still clung to her knuckles, but she had no time to grieve. Her second punch followed immediately.
Kenjaku turned sideways to evade it, the wind from her fist brushing past his robes. Just as Yuki Tsukumo