Frieren: — Chapter 81 - Just as You're Ready to Enter the Dungeon, You're Told the Strongest Party Me...

Okkotsu Yuta. Contractor of the Queen of Curses. Student of the Hero Himmel. Direct disciple of the Strongest Sorcerer of the Modern Age. Special Grade Jujutsu Sorcerer.

Both Curse Users and Jujutsu Sorcerers had pinned enormous hopes on him. He was young, his practical experience still thin, but he remained a vital piece, one whose future would reshape the balance of power between both sides.

And this critical individual, at this very moment.

"Um, sensei... maybe I should just forget about it."

"Why!?"

Was trying to request a leave of absence.

Jujutsu High. The faculty office.

Yuta stood beside Gojo Satoru's desk. The screen on Gojo's computer was open to YouTube, a Korean mukbang, someone demolishing fire chicken noodles and fried chicken, saturation cranked all the way up.

On the desk sat a lunch box assembled with almost ceremonial care. Red-and-black lacquerwork, clearly expensive.

The Strongest Sorcerer of the Modern Age wore his inexplicable black blindfold even while eating. He held his chopsticks in one hand and wore the expression of a man desperately trying to eat but forced to pause for a student's conversation.

"So Yuta thinks he can't work with his senior?"

"Yeah..."

Yuta stood to the side like a student who'd broken a window, his face a portrait of misery.

"Hakari-senpai and I just don't mesh. Count it as my failure — please assign the mission to someone else."

"Ehhhh~~~ don't give up so easily."

Gojo poked the steamed egg custard in his lunch box with the tips of his chopsticks, picked it up, set it back down. "Personally, I think you two will absolutely get along."

"Where on earth are you getting that from?!"

"Hmm... intuition?"

Utterly unreliable, as always.

"...Sensei, it's a little strange for me to say this myself, but aren't I a high-priority surveillance target?"

Yuta looked genuinely puzzled.

"Aren't you worried Curse Users might take me?"

"Hahaha, no chance, no chance~ someone's watching."

He cupped his chin in one white-gloved hand.

"Huh, I thought you two would've noticed by now. Guess your Cursed Energy detection is pretty terrible, Yuta. Actually, Hakari's is bad in that department too. Extra training for both of you."

Yuta:?

A brief treatise on how he had clearly come here to complain about changing assignments, only to be handed a non-answer and somehow end up getting criticized in return.

"It's fine, Okkotsu-kun."

Nanami was eating lunch at a nearby desk, as it happened. Unlike Gojo's elaborate bento, Nanami's lunch was a simple sandwich.

He adjusted his glasses and spoke with crisp precision.

"While Gojo Satoru lacks patience, possesses no capacity for systematic instruction, and has a genuinely poor personality — he at least won't gamble with a student's life. You are safe."

"Hold on, Nanamin. I could've sworn I heard something off-key buried inside all that praise." Gojo frowned.

"I apologize if it came across that way. I meant no ill will. I simply think Gojo Satoru is a terrible teacher."

"That's entirely ill will!"

Gojo abandoned his lunch, planted his feet on the floor, and shoved his rolling chair backward with full force, straight into Nanami's chair at the neighboring desk.

The impact drove Nanami's face directly into his sandwich.

"...Only an objective assessment."

Nanami pulled out a tissue, wiped the mayonnaise from his face without changing expression, and completely ignored Gojo Satoru's half-hearted apology. He looked up at Yuta.

"Though Gojo has apparently told you and Hakari that you'll grow into sorcerers as accomplished as he is — Hakari aside — when you grow up, don't become Gojo Satoru. Aim to become Himmel, at minimum."

Gojo feigned offense. "What's that supposed to mean! The whole 'Himmel is more reliable than Gojo Satoru' narrative!"

Nanami said nothing.

He finished his sandwich, opened his Excel spreadsheet again, and began grading the students' recent test scores.

"Say something! At least give me a retort!"

Insults, Gojo could handle. Silence was another matter entirely.

Nanami clearly knew this and had already shifted into practiced mode. The newcomer Yuta, however, reacted with the naivety of someone who hadn't learned the routine yet, and quietly said.

"...I don't actually think Gojo-sensei is that bad."

Not a lie.

Yuta was taking sides again.

Toward Gojo Satoru, the man who had forcibly pulled him out of his shell and shoved him toward the rest of the world, Yuta genuinely held no dislike.

His words landed.

Nanami: Huh?

Gojo: Eh?

Both men looked at him with the exact same expression: is this kid alright?

"Nanami-san reacting that way I can almost understand, but why are you looking at me like that too, Gojo-sensei?!"

"Ah, sorry. I'll play along next time."

Gojo made a conciliatory gesture.

Was there seriously not a single person in this entire school who thought well of Gojo-sensei?

..................

.........

In the end, the complaint achieved exactly nothing.

Yuta had also meant to seek some advice from Teacher Himmel, but Himmel had been impossible to find since yesterday.

Where did he even go?

At the school gate, he found Hakari.

Hakari was leaning against the wall, dark circles bruising his eyes, his whole body like a dishrag someone had wrung out and left to dry.

Hair disheveled. Uniform not properly worn, zipper pulled only halfway up his chest.

"Hakari-senpai?"

"Oh." Hakari lifted his eyelids. His voice was rough. "Morning."

Yuta had assumed today would be another day of getting dragged somewhere strange and was already mentally rehearsing how to say no, when Hakari spoke first.

"Ran into Teacher Himmel last night."

"Huh?"

"He pulled me aside for a 'chat'." Hakari made air quotes. His expression was complicated. "Relax."

He straightened up and brushed the dust off his sleeve.

"I get what you were trying to say. I won't drag you around recklessly today."

"Ah... thanks, senpai."

Yuta exhaled.

He was genuinely, pleasantly surprised.

Sorry, Gojo-sensei.

Teacher Himmel really is more reliable.

Whatever Yuta was thinking, Hakari didn't press it. He turned and headed for the gate.

"Mission files are in my bag. We'll talk while we walk."

.

They stood side by side on the platform, waiting for the train.

Hakari scrolled through his phone and tilted it toward Yuta.

A charred corpse filled the screen. Limbs curled inward, skin split open.

"Seven similar cases in the past three weeks." Hakari swiped through the photos. "All spontaneous human combustion. Police have no explanation. High command thinks it's a Curse User."

"The perpetrator is sending the photos themselves?"

"After every incident, photos get sent to a temporary email address. We traced the IPs, all public networks." Hakari pocketed his phone. "The method is clean. The objective is unclear."

The train pulled in.

They boarded into an almost empty car and sat facing each other.

9 years ago, Teacher Himmel joined the Jujutsu world. His ability can track Cursed Energy itself to a certain degree, but more importantly, he can materialize those findings and transmit them directly to other sorcerers. Cursed Spirit elimination efficiency has gone up enormously because of him.

"As long as you have the fundamentals down and work through the textbook logic, even field operatives like us can track down an enemy without too much trouble."

Hakari ran through the list of remaining locations in sequence. Clear logic, methodical. Yuta almost had to double-check he was looking at the same person.

The train reached the station. Hakari didn't say another word, just shoved his hands in his pockets and walked out. Yuta kept up behind him.

From afternoon into evening, they covered four locations.

An abandoned cram school. A shuttered arcade. A shopping mall basement still under construction. An apartment building that had caught fire the month before.

At each site, Hakari checked the traces on the ground.

Cursed Energy residue.

Signs of human activity.

Nothing.

By the time they were done, the sky had gone fully dark.

"No leads."

"Better that way. If we turned up a Curse User every single time, nobody could keep up this job, they'd burn out inside a year. Himmel and Gojo excluded. Those two will never run out of juice." Hakari's tone was easy, borderline smug. "Think about it, Yuta. What's the thing Jujutsu Sorcerers fear most?"

"...A powerful enemy?"

"Wrong. An unexpected enemy. That's why our missions always break down into three stages: Intelligence Gathering, Target Confirmation, then Extermination. Students just need to handle the first two. That's enough."

"I see..."

Yuta followed a step behind. He wasn't tired. But something else had been snagging his attention.

Hakari's attitude toward him.

Yesterday's Hakari had been annoying, but he'd been interested. Genuinely curious about Yuta, in a way that had an edge to it. Now he was all business. Professional, clipped.

The interest was gone.

If it had stopped there, Yuta probably would've left it alone. But there was something he felt he needed to say. He opened his mouth.

And said nothing.

"Last one."

They arrived at the final location.

An abandoned hotel.

It rose from the street corner, massive enough to swallow nearly half a block. 15 stories of European-style architecture wrapped in faded grandeur, off-white walls layered with intricate relief carvings, Romanesque columns still holding up the eaves.

But time had done its work. The building wore its decay plainly now.

More than half of the floor-to-ceiling windows had shattered. Through the gaps, curtains hung limp in the dark, mildewed to a deep brown, drifting feebly in the draft that pushed through the halls.

Hakari checked the notes on his phone. "Condemned hotel. Failed fire safety inspections, sealed up last month..." He let out a low sound. "Heh. Didn't know places like this still existed. Might bring a girlfriend here sometime."

This guy, did he just casually say something impossible to ignore?

Yuta bit it back.

But then,,

"Kinji."

That voice. Gentle. Familiar.

Yuta recognized it immediately.

So did Hakari.

He went rigid the instant he heard it.

The voice drew closer.

"I have no intention of getting in the way of young people's affairs, but please, at least choose somewhere with decent hygiene. And do watch your safety."

A flash of water-blue cut through the black-uniformed crowd, completely out of place. Yuta and Hakari turned around at the same time, each with a very different expression.

"Himmel..."

"Teacher Himmel!"

"Mm. Hello, you two."

Himmel smiled and waved.

"I'll be joining the mission today as your Auxiliary Supervisor. I'm in your hands."

➤ Next: Jogo: Solo-Killing a Special Grade, Record Verifiable