Frieren: — Chapter 83 - Hanami: Children, I Will Survive
Even after summoning Rika, Okkotsu was shocked to find he was still no match for Jogo.
Two against one, and he was being countered. Wait, this reaction, the way Jogo moved, had the opponent known about Rika from the start?
Then that means,
He didn't get the chance to finish the thought.
Jogo leaned back, body going horizontal, parallel to the ground.
The next instant,
BOOM!.!,,
The mound-shaped volcano atop his head erupted like a thruster, spewing a column of fire!
The crimson pillar swallowed Rika whole and drove her back. In the same instant, Jogo used the recoil to launch himself airborne, a human missile.
Fire streaking behind him, figure a flicker of heat and motion, and then he was right there, inches from Okkotsu,
One kick. Straight into his chest.
CRACK!
His chest caved. A rapid, dense chorus of snapping sounds.
"Cough—ah!"
Scorching heat surged up from his throat, uncontrollable. Blood came up with it. Blood and something worse.
Outside the hotel.
BOOM-CRACK!,
Blinding white light. The mid-floor windows exploded outward.
A thick pillar of fire erupted through the breach, its body rolling and churning as it climbed. At its apex it burst apart, raining outward in every direction.
But,
Every shard of glass, every tongue of flame: all of it struck the pitch-black outer layer of the [Veil] and fell.
"Cough... bleaargh..."
Back pressed against the crumbling wall, brick dust wedged into the cracks all around him, Okkotsu Yuta clutched his chest with both hands.
The sickly-sweet taste was rising and he couldn't hold it down. With each ragged cough, blood foam spilled from the corner of his mouth, ran down his jaw in thin rivulets, soaking everything from his chin to his chest a deep, wet red.
(Bad...)
(Breathe... regulate breathing... use Cursed Energy...)
This was the first time in Okkotsu's life he'd taken a hit like this.
Himmel hit hard, anyone who'd trained with him knew that, but he had never actually gone for Okkotsu. Every seemingly terrifying attack during their sessions had been calculated down to the millimeter, always leaving Okkotsu just barely enough room to escape.
This was different.
The Cursed Spirit in front of him wanted him dead.
If he hadn't instinctively reinforced his chest with Cursed Energy at the last second, that kick would have demolished his lungs. The pressure alone might have burst his heart.
Even now, he was pouring Cursed Energy into the wounds trying to keep himself functional. It wasn't helping much.
And at the same time, he had to split his focus to keep Rika from spiraling out of control. An uncontrolled Rika would bring the whole building down, and bury him with it.
Step.
Jogo drew closer. Okkotsu's breathing shattered.
THUMP!
He drove his blood-stained fist into his own knee, forcing his trembling muscles to obey.
Get up get up get up get up!
Jogo raised his hand. Flames gathered in his palm,
Whoosh,
Slap.
Grabbing broken beams. Stomping through floorboards. Tearing through the haze of dust.
From the floor below, a figure burst upward through the rubble, flipped mid-air, and landed at Jogo's flank in the span of a single blink.
Jogo:!
He spun. The flame in his palm had just begun to reorient,
"Ha!"
A foot came down hard on the shattered floor, kicking up a ring of dust from the carpet.
One hand grabbed Jogo's wrist, wrenching it downward. The body dropped with it. A thigh came up,
BAM!
Knee straight into Jogo's face.
A dull crack. Something like a cheekbone caved inward. Blood erupted from the impact. The flame condensed in his palm snuffed out.
One frozen frame. Then Jogo's body whipped outward like a sandbag cut loose from its rope, slammed into a crumbling wall, rebounded before he could fall, and careened off the opposite wall. He ricocheted away like a pinball and disappeared into the wreckage.
"Haha! This guy's really springy!"
"Kin... senpai?"
Okkotsu stared.
"Oh, Okkotsu!"
The sanctimonious facade Kin had maintained all day was gone.
Shirtless. The muscle lines across his shoulders and back were stark and clean. His slicked-back hair had come loose, slightly disheveled. His whole body radiated the exhilaration and raw wildness of someone who had just finished a brawl.
This might actually be who Kin really was.
"Okkotsu. Get yourself sorted — there's more coming."
"Eh?"
He was listening, obediently working to stabilize his injuries, but he was confused.
From where he was sitting... wasn't the fight basically over?
Because, Himmel-sensei was right outside, wasn't he?
He'd been counting on stalling just long enough to slip out and get reinforcements.
"Idiot!" Kin raised an arm and pointed outside. "If Himmel-sensei could've come in, he'd have charged in the second they made their move. You know how fast that man is."
...That was fair.
Okkotsu remembered their training sessions. Half the time he was still stuck in that state, confused, afraid, mind not caught up, when Himmel was already right in his face.
Theoretically, the [Veil] was a low-level barrier. Its job was to isolate civilians: block electrical signals, keep ordinary people from observing the fight inside. But if the commotion got loud enough, sorcerers on the outside should still be able to react.
Unless...
Sensei was being held up somewhere. Or the Veil itself had been tampered with.
"Stop thinking!"
He'd started trembling without noticing. Kin's shout snapped him back.
"No matter what tricks they pulled, there's no way Himmel-sensei got fooled. Even if they're just buying time, with his strength, unless Gojo Satoru himself switches sides, they can't hold him for long."
Shirtless, Kin rolled his shoulders and stood tall, chest out. One arm extended straight forward. The other pulled back. Every muscle across his body tensed into clean, hard lines.
He stared straight ahead. Exactly the kind of pose that belonged in a JoJo panel.
"All we have to do is hold on."
CRUNCH!
Something had gotten angry.
"Damn brats..."
The apex of Cursed Spirits.
Crackle.
Even the dust floating in the air caught fire. Jogo advanced step by heavy step, murderous intent plain across his face.
"I'm going to turn you all into—urk!"
BOOM!.
He didn't get to finish. His expression changed. He shot both arms up to block,
The floor beneath him cracked open. Shards of concrete erupted upward along the fissures.
[You dare! How dare you!]
The true apex of Cursed Spirits.
The Queen of Curses had fallen into a blind fury over the blood of her beloved. Cursed Energy burst outward in all directions like a white fog. Long, hose-like strands of hair thrashed and coiled wildly alongside the cascading Cursed Energy. Her single eye held nothing but pure ferocity.
Cursed Energy flooded the entire ruined floor.
[The Queen of Curses] was about to tear this battlefield apart.
And outside, in the world sealed away by the [Veil].
..................
.......
"Hm?"
Himmel had been leaning against the wall, phone out, scrolling through a video site, when the battle erupted on the other side.
The Veil's blackness blocked his line of sight.
Not so much as a trace of Cursed Energy had leaked through.
But the Hero felt it anyway. Something wrong, caught on nothing but instinct.
"A double-layered Veil?"
Someone set up another Veil inside the one I set up... for Okkotsu?
If that's the case,
Himmel turned his gaze toward the approaching figure.
[Хлаได้ӗҫเวตื่мешӑк.....]
A voice appeared inside his mind, out of nowhere.
The visitor seemed incapable of normal speech, it possessed no corresponding organ for it, yet it placed its voice directly into another person's head, carrying meaning a human could understand.
[Human.]
[Stand down. I will hold you here.....]
Immense Cursed Energy. A condensed, crushing presence.
"How unexpected. I thought Kenjaku would come himself."
A hulking body. Black markings crawling across every inch of it. A white giant, two thick tree trunks protruding from where its eyes should have been.
[Special Grade Cursed Spirit: Hanami.]
"Here to stall for time?"
"You..."
Himmel pushed off the wall, stood steady, and tilted his head, curious.
"Can you do it?"
➤ Next: All My People~All My People~