A thin layer of Kokushibo's ashes settled beneath his feet.
Fine and light, they lay as gray-white powder across the cold stone once all the moonlight had faded.
Yaha crouched down.
Instead of using his bandaged right hand, he casually dipped two fingers of his left into the ashes.
Dark red cursed energy seeped from his fingertips. Not much, just enough.
Something was stripped from the ashes.
Dark red and viscous, like a coagulated blood clot forcibly shaped into solid form by an overbearing law, it rose from the gray-white dust, compressed into the shape of a Cursed Object Finger, and finally landed in his palm.
It was warm and heavy, and the energy pulsing within it was more violent than that of any finger he had swallowed before.
The System Panel automatically opened across his vision.
[Origin concentration detected: residual core of Upper Rank One. Concentration is 2.3 times the previously recorded peak.] [Consumption effect: temporarily raises vessel capacity to 120% of the current theoretical limit.] [Risk warning: over 70% of the right arm's energy pathways are currently severed. After consumption, the origin surge will first rupture already damaged tissue, with a probability of permanent destruction of the right arm. Assessment advised before proceeding.]
Yaha glanced at his right hand.
The left loop of the bow Shinobu Kocho had tied earlier had come undone during the battle, exposing the white bandages beneath.
The bandages were completely soaked in blood, their color now darker than the ashes on the ground.
He curled his lip and closed the five fingers of his left hand, about to tuck the finger into his clothes.
Someone beat him to it.
A hand reached over from beside him.
Its fingers were slender and clean.
A tenth of a second before Yaha's left hand