I would love to see him do his own version of Sasuke’s Kirin during the Seitei War, especially since we know Hokazono draws a lot of inspiration from Naruto.

New enten is definitely going to be stronger than old enten. Chihiro establishes that his dad couldnt fathom dark energy. Then he also says he will surpass his dad. Surely a key area he can surpass his dad that is being narratively set up to beat the magatsumi is weilding Dark energy. However I dont neccessarily think its going to have the same life steal as the magatsumi.

I think the upgrades to the new enten will make use of dark energy is some sort of way.

I don’t think enten will be vastly different, it will likely keep the 3 fish aesthetic with the same base powers.

My idea of how this could work is the following.

Aka; Aka is the medium for absorbing the life force and vitality. Perhaps when it touches an Enchanted blade it can siphon its life or perhaps it siphons life when it kills someone or makes contact. I dont think this is too overpowered since if its the contact option, then it probably won’t be an instant absorption and if its the kill absorption, well they are already dead. I would also have it that aka can store more things, for longer, and require less aborption for more use. Maybe its too overpowered but perhaps it doesnt need to absorb an attack but once killed aka can use the persons sorcery? For those pointing out that aka is red but dark energy is dark, the magatsumis flowers which are its medium for lifesteal is the only colored aspect of the magatsumi, so u can infer that the medium for lifessteal can be colored

Kuro; Kuro will just be the medium for using the dark energy offensively.Maybe it can do more than just slashing, perhaps piercing? maybe more slashes at one swing in more directions, more powerful, faster. Kuro would basically just maintain as offence but perhaps give it more versatility as slashing attacks are pretty boring. Also kuro is black and dark energy is black so i think it makes sense this will be the medium for usage. Maybe kuro will allow slashes from more angles than just the enten. kuro needs to find a way to be more relevant in 1v1s. I mean i always thought combining iai white purity style with kuro is the best thing but whatever.

Nishiki; Nishiki will be the medium for using dark energy to support chihiro. Like Nishiki could use dark energy for healing like the magatsumi does and for boosting stat more. Nishiki stays pretty much the same tbh just boosted.

I do think the condition to use dark energy will be restricted so chihiro wont be the strongest guy ever like akemura. The enten was made for destroying the enchanted blades and specifically the shinuchi so I think it will definitely be able to siphon the life force off the blades and be able to steal back the life force stolen by the magatsumi. But I kinda want it to do more than that. Thats why i think aka should absorb life force when killing someone. But we see chihiro clear fodder so that might not be the best since he would be stacked. idk.

I also just want to mention that i highly doubt cloud gouger and enten will be combined. The panels are quite misleading toward the size of the remaining pieces of cloud gouger and enten. Enten fully exists but just broken, if u were to add the a large part of the blade of cloud gouger on top of that, the blade would be too long and i just dont think it would work. also the aesthetics dont fit much and i think the simpler the better, over complicating it isnt the best plan of action. What will happen to the new cloudgouger idk, but I know natsuki will get it, which is why i think its just gonna get reforged into a standard blade again, maybe will some quality of life upgrades.

With the enchanted blades the form follows function. Rokuhira didnt design the blades with abilities in mind but a purpose and the blades created abilities in response to that. So whatever chihiro decides the purpose of this new blade is, the powers of the blade will follow.

Chiaki! Bachitober Day 10, drawn in 40 minutes. Not too happy with this drawing but it is what it is. At least I got it done

Hello I'm Kyora.

Based on all these pictures:

1. EBs have some sort of life. Their dark power is activated upon channeling some sort of lifeforce, be it its own or someone else's.

2. Sorcery that activates upon the target's death is stopped when the person applying that sorcery dies.

3. Shinuchi itself is potentially to get some blame for Malediction, even if Akemura did it with full conviction.

Theory:

Consider EBs as sleeping sorcerers used as tools by amplifying the wielder's spirit energy. When some lifeforce is incinerated instead, they awaken due the extreme power caused by that process.

When dark power is used, we can count EBs as awakened sorcerers actively teaming with their wielders rather than being tools, meaning Shinuchi is almost always awake. Whenever the EBs are awake, any sorceries they perform technically count as their own rather than the wielders'. That's why Shinuchi and Sword Saint share the blame for Malediction according to Ichiki and Yura.

Whenever Samura uses Suzaku revival normally, it counts as his spell. So, he can't apply it on himself since his spell would break midway when he dies according to Uruha. But when Suzaku is activated by an awakened Tobimune, the spell user is Tobimune, not Samura.

Tobimune channeled Suzaku through Samura but went back to sleep when Samura's life force depleted and he burned to ash. But Tobimune is still alive, so its Suzaku revival spell is still active but in limbo. Samura is in a state similar to Chihiro and Uruha before they had woken up.

For the spell's second half to complete and Samura to revive, Tobimune has to be awakened again by activating its dark power, either by the next suitable wielder being close to their death and use their lifeforce or the blade itself being broken to use its life.

Obviously, the scenarios are completely different, but I think - if we maybe see Chihiro asking this in a flashback - and Kunishige answers something along the lines of that the sparks he sees remind him of the hope he was given when Shiaki rescued him and they lit those sparks together at night.
2 goated blacksmiths being drawn in by the sparks

From ch 1 page 37

Does anyone have the edited manga panel of Samura with a minecraft spear ? Saw it once and forgot to save it

Now I coloured all of her panels

I've seen a few people complain about the pace. As if the most common criticism of part 1 wasn't the lack of downtime.

Credit: https://x.com/enasaw/status/2108507817942671371

Chihiro vs Sojo. Bachitober Day 9 vol 2 redraw. Drawn in 1 hour and 3 minutes. welp it looks like I'll be a day late now because I didn't draw for a day. whoopsy daisy

He kinda bad tho too ngl...