Blood

**Blood** (血液, *Ketsueki*?, alt. 血, *Chi*) is a bodily fluid within humans and other vertebrates, which is circulated throughout the body, delivering necessary substances to the cells and transporting metabolic waste products away from them.

As well as being crucial for many forms of life, there are various parts of magic and science which involve blood in some way.

## Principles

### General

#### Composition

Blood consists of blood cells (red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets) suspended in blood plasma. The plasma is mostly water, with varying amounts of proteins, glucose, mineral ions and carbon dioxide, with the plasma being the main medium for transporting excretory waste products.

The **red blood cells** (赤血球, *Sekkekkyū*?) are the most abundant and use the iron-containing protein haemoglobin (responsible for the red) to facilitate the transportation of oxygen from the lungs to the cells, reversibly binding with the respiratory gas and increasing solubility. The **white blood cells** (白血球, *Hakkekkyū*?) (also known as leukocytes) are cells of the body's immune system which protect the body against infectious diseases and foreign invaders. **Platelets** (血小板, *Kesshōban*?) are involved in clotting when bloods vessels are damaged and bleeding occurs.

There are multiple human blood types, with several systems of classification. An important example is the ABO blood group system, which classifies blood based on antigens present on red blood cells and antibodies present in blood plasma, into A, B, AB, and O.

#### Circulation and Functions

The blood is transported at pressure through the body's circulatory system, consisting of a network of blood vessels throughout the body and the heart, which pumps blood around the system. Of these blood vessels, arteries typically carry oxygenated blood, carried away from the heart and delivered to the rest of the body via arterioles and capillaries, with venules and veins carrying deoxygenated blood back to the heart. The flow of blood through the body is also referred to as the bloodstream.

Blood performs many important functions in the body. One of the most important is supplying oxygen and nutrients (e.g. glucose, amino acids, fatty acids etc, dissolved in blood or bound to proteins such as blood lipids) to the cells, and removing metabolic waste products (carbon dioxide, urea, lactic acid etc). Others include immunological functions through the circulation of white blood cells and antibodies, the regulation of core body temperature, coagulation, messenger functions through the transportation of hormones, and hydraulic functions.

Bleeding (also known as haemorrhaging or blood loss) is when blood escapes from the circulatory system, due to damage to the blood vessels, which can occur as a result of injury, infection or other factors. Bleeding can occur both internally and externally. A considerable loss of blood can cause the body's blood pressure to drop and with a large loss of blood (in addition to the loss from the functions it would have been serving), this can cause a person to go into shock, potentially fatally. Under the right circumstances, a blood transfusion can be used to make up for a lack of blood, with donated blood transferred to a recipient intravenously.

Knowledge of a person's blood type is necessary if a blood transfusion is being performed - if the wrong blood type is used in a transfusion, the recipient's body will reject it and they will experience a potentially life-threatening reaction. It is possible for a person's blood type to change through a bone marrow transplant.

#### Other

Blood is found within most vertebrates, humans included, while invertebrates, including insects, arthropods and certain molluscs have a fluid called haemolymph instead. Additionally, certain blood-related terms are used informally for an animal's thermophysiological characteristics, with animals that can regulate their own body temperature through metabolic processes, such as birds and mammals, being referred to as warm-blooded, and animals that rely on external sources to maintain their temperature, such as fish and reptiles, being referred to as cold-blooded (with a noted susceptibility to cold).

Shed blood and its patterns, including blood stains, trails and spatter, are often utilized in the field of forensics to discover what happened at the scene of a crime and identify the parties involved. There are various methods, both scientific and magical, to detect blood at a scene. Blood trails and scent are often used by animals and sometimes by human trackers to track their prey.

There are various forms of artificial blood, fake blood and blood substitutes, which have been created on both the science and magic sides for various purposes, including transfusion, films, training, deception, and the pre-cleaning obfuscation of residual information from bloodstains, among others.

Blood, its circulation and other aspects, have been used for analogies in describing certain subjects, such as the activity of a city and the transportation of resources along its routes, or the flow of power across the world. Its color has led to certain shades of red being described in terms relating to blood, such as blood-red or pigeon blood (the brightest and most valuable shade of red in rubies). The term bloodline is often used with regards to heredity, and the term blue blood has been used to refer to nobility (as well as a certain group with bloodline delusions).

### Magic

Given the typical color of blood in humans and most other creatures, blood is symbolically associated with the color red (which also represents the element of fire), and also symbolizes the activity of the heart.

Around the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, 'true' magicians started to set down rules for themselves in research and experimentation, among which was prohibiting the usage of live creatures as ingredients, which included the use of human or animal blood in magic circles. Although technically banned, this did not mean that such actions were not performed, with some magicians deeming it necessary to break these rules.

One such magician was Aleister Crowley, who is experienced in the use of blood sacrifices in magic, a sacrifice which he has also referred to as his **Blood Sign** (血の供儀, *Chi no Kyōgi*?). Such a blood sacrifice was used to empower the curse which he used to destroy the Golden Dawn, and the death of Crowley's Hazards were used as a planet-wide blood sacrifice to optimize the prime Aleister's magical power. While in a female body, Aleister made use of a blood sacrifice and 'scarlet power' derived from Babalon. Perhaps most notably, he used the blood of three doves/pigeons in the magic circle used to summon Choronzon in Africa in 1909.

In Christianity, the blood of the Son of God (said to have healed the eyes of the blind Longinus) and Saints are commonly ascribed potent healing qualities. One story involving it is utilized in the anti-air defense system protecting Canterbury Cathedral, magic based on the miracle of Thomas Becket's blood. In Mass, bread and wine symbolically represent flesh and blood respectively, and this symbolism has been utilized in magic involving the body of the Son of God or the regular human body.

In Norse mythology, the oceans were said to be created from the blood of the primordial giant Ymir. This story formed the basis of the spell Ymir's Ocean, which allowed its user to control water and salt in the ocean by changing her blood's salt concentration (concentrating the salty blood in her hand and preventing it from flowing to prevent it from damaging her organs, the restriction of blood flow meaning she couldn't use it for long durations). As well as runes potentially being drawn in blood, the Teiwaz rune, a representative example of runes carved on weapons, can have its effects increased by a slain foe's blood running through the rune's grooves and dying it red. The sword Hrunting is said to become tougher and sharper from the blood of slain enemies (with the Knight Leader's version using Telesma in its place).

Some forms of fortune telling are based on peoples' blood types. The corpse wax used in the Necessarius Underground Labyrinth makes use of a target's blood to form a connection to them. The stereotypical curse involving a wax doll with a piece of the target implanted, utilized by witches and others, can be used with blood just as well as hair.

The legendary immortal creatures known as Vampires are said to consume blood. Certain flesh-and-blood demons such as the Bologna Succubus are capable of providing a blood transfusion to human, but cannot receive one from a human. A drop of Anna Sprengel's blood can apparently produce unknown miracles.

The Rosenthal Family have a custom where when a student pledges themselves to a teacher, they present a piece of red clothing or gear in their possession, representing an offering of flesh and blood to their master. There have been a number of beliefs and legends regarding the properties of animal blood in the past, such as one of mole, newt and snake blood being able to put people to sleep.

One notable complication occurring in several cases where healing magic needed to be used on Kamijou Touma in a life-or-death emergency is that his right arm or right hand needed to be severed to prevent Imagine Breaker from negating the magic, which resulted in an additional loss of blood beyond what he might have already lost, to a life-threatening degree. In the Edinburgh Castle case, his severed Imagine Breaker did not return to him as in previous cases, meaning the blood loss continued until halted by other means. In the Shibuya cases, Good Old Mary's resurrection technique did not restore lost blood, necessitating a transplant from the Bologna Succubus.

### Science

One method used in medical research involving artificial blood involves synthetic preservative derived from the structure of egg white, which has also been applied in other ways in several other fields of medical research, such as collagen for treating burns and a catalyst for cold sleep.

There are a number of esper abilities which involve blood, including Deep Blood, possessed by Gemstone Himegami Aisa, which makes her blood attractive and lethal to vampires, Amahebi Saeka's Scorpion Tail, which allows her to infuse images in her mind into her color variable blood and transmit them into the minds of those who touch it to recreate the effects of deadly poison, and Yugure Tsumebakei's Macro Dying, a very rare ability which allows her to greatly enlarge and control her own blood components (e.g. red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, plasma, macrophages, cholesterol, amino acids etc).

As blood samples are a potential way of acquiring DNA, there have been attempts to illicitly obtain the genetic information of espers in Academy City through blood, as well as measures taken to prevent such attempts.