Frieren: — Chapter 82 - Jogo: Solo-Killing a Special Grade, Record Verifiable

Himmel's arrival caught both of them completely off guard.

But thinking about it carefully,

"Teacher Himmel, you've been here since yesterday, haven't you?"

The moment Togari said it, Okkotsu whipped his head around, completely lost.

Huh?

Really?!

"You seriously didn't notice at all?... You're honestly terrifying sometimes, you know that?" Togari shot him a sidelong glance, unable to hold back yet another sigh.

"Haha, you two get along so well."

Himmel said it with a smile.

The moment the words left his mouth, both Togari and Okkotsu made the exact same subtly awkward face.

Togari's disgust was on full display. Okkotsu just looked embarrassed.

Clearly not that well.

"...Mm, well, these things happen. Still — you should try to get along properly."

Himmel said it with a resigned air.

People do need time to adjust to each other, though.

Back in the day, he and Frieren hadn't gotten along at the very start either. And as for Okkotsu and Togari...

On the surface, the two of them seemed terribly incompatible. But Himmel actually agreed with Gojo Satoru's read on this.

These two had surprisingly good chemistry.

Still...

"Yuta, come here a moment."

"Ah — yes."

Himmel rarely called anyone by name. When he did, it was always with the mentality of a grandfather doting on his grandson.

Okkotsu hadn't noticed this, or maybe he had and just didn't mind. Either way, he obediently walked over.

Pat. Pat.

Himmel patted him on the shoulder.

Taking a cue from Gojo Satoru, Himmel knew kids this age hated having their heads patted. He'd switched to the shoulder.

"You're the type who bottles everything up inside. But when it comes to Togari, you don't need to overthink it. Just say what's on your mind."

"...Yes."

"And one more thing, don't worry. If you run into a dangerous situation, just escape together."

"...Teacher, honestly, what I'm more worried about is Togari-senpai kicking me to the ground while we're running."

"Hahahaha!"

Himmel laughed openly, without a shred of restraint.

"Don't worry. With Cursed Energy reinforcement, your running speed won't be slow either."

"So I'm supposed to make the first move?! I thought you were going to say something reassuring! Jujutsu High is so dark!"

"Hahahahaha, just kidding... When the time comes, you'll understand." Himmel said cheerfully. "At Jujutsu High, no one abandons their comrades."

He let those words land with meaning, then stepped back half a pace without waiting for Okkotsu's reaction.

"Alright — I'll put up a Veil outside and wait for you to come out."

Himmel waved his hand. His smile was bright.

"Do your best, okay?"

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

.........

The revolving glass door of the hotel entrance was shattered on one side, the surviving half hanging crookedly off its axis. The lobby was pitch black. Only the streetlight outside seeped in through the broken windows.

Okkotsu followed behind Togari, stepping over a floor full of shattered glass.

The hotel was small. The elevator ran slow. They reached the second floor and stepped out into a narrow corridor, its floor lined with red carpet, though after years of neglect it had packed thick with dust, and the smell was awful.

The yellow wallpaper, the red carpet, the boxy and impossibly cramped hallway. Everything about it pressed in on you, instinctively stirring something like fear.

BANG!

Fortunately, Togari raised his elbow and smashed open the rotting wooden door of a guest room. The door panel crashed flat. A dense cloud of dust billowed up. The violent noise shattered the horror-movie atmosphere clean through.

Inside: a double bed knocked askew, the bedding moldy and stained a murky yellow.

"Not this one either."

They kept moving. The silence was oppressive, or maybe it was what Himmel had said earlier, but Okkotsu found himself trying to start a conversation anyway.

"Togari-senpai."

"Hm?"

"That thing you mentioned before. About passion. I still don't really get it."

"What are you suddenly on about?" Togari replied, dismissive, quickening his pace.

"But everything I said was true." Okkotsu hurried to keep up. "Whether it was being taken by Curse Users, or coming to Jujutsu High after that... I really don't want to be alone. So, if it's possible, I'd like to get along better with Togari-senpai, "

"Sorry. No."

Tap.

Togari stopped.

"Huh?" Okkotsu blinked.

Togari had already guessed where this was going. He cut Okkotsu off, then let out a long, rough sigh.

He turned back around, face loaded with contempt.

"You're way too boring."

"Huh?"

"No — let me put it more harshly. I kind of hate you."

"Huh?!"

That is genuinely too much!

This guy! Isn't he Japanese?! Doesn't he know that Japanese people don't say things like that to someone's face?! You national-traitor!

"That's way too quick to judge!" Okkotsu said.

"No, no — you just don't cut it~" Togari spread his hands.

Hah?

"Passion. You don't have enough passion."

And what does passion have to do with anything! Isn't this literally about gambling?! What's wrong with being law-abiding?!

"I've never once in my life met someone who genuinely, from the bottom of their heart, wanted a quiet, peaceful existence."

Wanting to climb higher, that's human instinct.

But most people, not long after they're born, have that instinct crushed during some setback or another. They realize it clearly:

I am not special.

Academics.

Athletics.

Unless you're born with a silver spoon, no matter how hard you work, you will never reach the very top.

Once people understand that, they run from the desire inside them.

They start putting in plain, boring effort. Or they give up on effort entirely.

Togari couldn't accept either of those choices.

"Listen up, Okkotsu. Passion is love. A guy with no passion can't even fall in love, and I can't connect with someone like that."

Togari said it lazily, offhandedly. "Anyway, that's exactly what you are, right? The type who's never held a girl's hand since birth except during some mandatory class activity. Timid, shrinking back, never daring to bet on your own life, forget falling in love. No good, no good~"

Right. This had escalated from not getting along to outright personal attacks.

You bastard. Samurai duel. Now. (Semi-annoyed)

Just printing Togari's words on a banner and hanging it across a main street would cause a public incident.

"......"

Faced with slander like that, a normal person would've already closed the distance and unleashed a full combo on him.

But,

"..."

If Okkotsu Yuta could do something like that, he wouldn't be Okkotsu Yuta.

Yuta had a very good temper. Eerily good, even.

Even when someone pointed a finger in his face and told him off, he wouldn't get angry. He'd just scratch his head and laugh it off.

"Ha... haha..."

Just like right now.

Okkotsu Yuta, the boy who had effectively been married since kindergarten, faced with all that slander, didn't get heated or flustered. He just laughed awkwardly and tried to let it slide.

And faced with that reaction,

Togari, who had been all lazy indifference a second ago, felt his brow twitch.

"Tsk!"

Red flooded up his face. His whole expression twisted into a knot.

He was the one who got angry.

"You're not even going to talk back?!"

Togari grabbed Okkotsu by the collar.

"Okkotsu, you bastard!."

Togari Kinji didn't make a habit of interfering with other people's way of living.

But Okkotsu was a student both Gojo Satoru and Himmel had personally vouched for, "highly compatible with you," they'd said.

Togari had, against his will, felt a small flicker of expectation.

Yeah, sure, he was a delinquent. But at the end of the day, Togari was still a teenager. He still wanted someone who got it.

But this guy?

Hesitant. Vague. Wishy-washy at every turn.

Just where exactly are we supposed to be compatible? Are Gojo-sensei's Six Eyes averaging 500 degrees of nearsightedness?!

The frustration was becoming impossible to swallow. Togari was about to push further when,

[.!]

Wait.

His movements stopped. His expression went serious, and his voice dropped.

HISS!

Hiss, hiss, hiss.

A sudden sharp sting, like touching the lit end of a cigarette by accident.

A bad feeling.

I'll be serving as auxiliary manager for this mission. Please take care of me.

Could it be... that person!,

"Tch! Okkotsu, run!"

"Huh?"

BOOM!,!.

A massive pillar of white-red light punched through the space above them. The ceiling caved in violently, then exploded apart!

"Tch."

Togari covered his face, expression dark.

"Too late..."

Crash...

Flame scoured the air, heat so thick it choked the throat!

A figure dropped through the shattered ceiling and looked at the two young Jujutsu Sorcerers.

"Gah-gah, gah-gah... so damn noisy!"

"Stop all that racket in someone else's home! Brat!"

Volcano-shaped head. Single eye. Green-spotted cloak.

At this proximity, it clicked for Okkotsu.

He stared at the enemy's dense Cursed Energy and remembered his conversation with Togari from earlier today.

Listen up, Okkotsu. What kind of situation do you think a Jujutsu Sorcerer fears most?

...Encountering a powerful enemy?

Idiot. It's encountering an unexpected enemy.

BOOM!

Rubble hung suspended in the air. His thoughts snapped into overdrive.

(This Cursed Energy, it's so dense.)

(Human spontaneous combustion... We assumed Curse User because the perpetrator acted with obvious rational intent. But that's wrong, it's a Cursed Spirit. A highly intelligent one?!)

Togari's eyes went wide, the corner of his mouth pulling hard.

(I thought if it was a Curse User, we could throw Himmel and Gojo Satoru's names around as a deterrent, nobody wants to openly clash with Jujutsu High students. But if it's a Cursed Spirit... Did this thing deliberately lure us up here?)

(This is... bad...!)

Right then, the entire corridor seemed to fold in half. The walls snapped down the middle. The red carpet tangled with shattered wooden boards and collapsed downward, dust erupting into a dense fog.

The floor under Okkotsu's feet tilted. He grabbed the doorframe beside him. The sharp shriek of rebar snapping tore in from every direction.

And Togari took a falling crossbeam straight across the back. His whole body punched through the floor and vanished into the smoke and wreckage below.

"Togari-senpai?!"

He'd barely steadied himself, and his senpai was already gone. Okkotsu shouted before he could think.

But in the same instant, the small Cursed Spirit was already charging him in his peripheral vision.

Fast!

Okkotsu yanked his sword out. Cursed Energy poured from his wrist almost on instinct, flooding the blade.

RIIP!.

No time to unwrap the cloth. The blade tore straight through the carrying strap and carved a wide arc, meeting the palm strike from the volcano-headed Cursed Spirit head-on.

"Hm?!"

"Ugh!"

Both of them exclaimed at once.

The volcano spirit's voice carried unmistakable surprise. Okkotsu's wrist screamed with pain from the impact.

BANG!.

The collision of Cursed Energy erupted in pitch-black sparks. Both sides disengaged.

The volcano spirit retreated less than half a step before it stabilized and lunged forward again. Okkotsu stumbled back all the way down the corridor, off-balance and ragged, nearly going down.

"Rika!"

No time to think. The weeks of training with Himmel kicked in immediately.

[Yu... ta!]

The Cursed Spirit Queen, who spent most of her time in slumber, was awakened. A torrent of immense Cursed Energy flooded the corridor in every direction. Even the volcano Cursed Spirit seemed to lock up for just an instant.

Crack, crack, crack...

The air behind Okkotsu tore open like a rift.

The Cursed Spirit Queen emerged from the fissure. Her palm alone was wider than 5 Okkotsus side by side. Her claws spread, fingertips nearly touching the walls on both sides of the corridor, digging in. Plaster and splintered wood rained down.

In an instant, the ceiling fractured into radiating cracks. The entire floor slab let out a groan of protest.

Okkotsu's expression shifted.

"Rika! Don't fully manifest! It'll collapse!"

That hand paused. A moment of hesitation.

But that was all Jogo needed. He was already in Okkotsu's face.

Pressing forward, five fingers on his right hand clamped together and stabbed straight at Okkotsu's face.

"!"

Okkotsu jerked his head aside. His blade slashed diagonally, bottom-left to top-right.

Jogo swatted it aside with a sweep of his arm. His forearm slammed into the flat of the blade, sparks scattering.

Okkotsu's blade knocked off course. Step by step, he was driven back.

Clang! Clash! Shing!

Five, six exchanges in the narrow corridor. The shadows of the Cursed Tool and the hand-blade crossed and recrossed, leaving scorch marks and slash lines all over the walls.

If this kept up, Okkotsu would hit his limit first. No question.

But,

That stretch of time was enough for Rika to control her size and shift back to a humanoid form.

[Yuta!]

CLANG!

The Cursed Spirit Rika could reshape her body freely. At her smallest, she could shrink down to the size of Okkotsu's palm.

Now, she compressed herself to roughly half Okkotsu's height for mobility and threw herself at Jogo.

With Rika's overwhelming stats added to the equation, the pressure on Okkotsu dropped sharply.

That's how it should have gone.

BOOM!

"Is that all?! Human!"

The scene froze.

Jogo hung suspended in midair. His left arm snapped back, elbow hammering straight into Rika's face. His right leg shot forward in a brutal kick, slamming into the swinging blade.

Taking them both on simultaneously, steel and Cursed Energy crashed together with a roar, sparks of flame bursting in every direction!

[Ugh!]

Rika was sent flying by the elbow strike. The force ripped through Okkotsu too, both arms flung upward, completely out of his control. His guard blew wide open.

"I was wondering if there was something special, "

A sinister grin spread across that volcano head.

"Special Grade?"

"That's all it amounts to."

➤ Next: Hanami: Children, I Will Survive