Frieren: — Chapter 85 - That Is to Say, Jogo Wins!
Hakari's Domain effect is derived from [Pachinko], a game also known as little steel balls.
Simply put, players exchange for items called little steel balls, then pull a lever on the machine. Land three matching patterns, and that's a prize.
The grand prize effects aside for now. The real issue is that this technique clearly has several distinct steps.
[1. Cutscene Animation, the dazzling animations real-life pachinko players see on the machine screen, designed to heighten their anticipation]
[2. Prize Draw]
[3. Effect Activation]
Setting aside steps two and three for a moment, reaching step one alone was enough to stun both Okkotsu and Jogo simultaneously.
"My technique! It links to the manga Private Railway Pure Love Train!"
At some point, Hakari had already launched himself down the slope toward Jogo at a dead sprint. Revealing One's Hand pushed his speed even higher, and in the blink of an eye he was right in Jogo's face.
(So fast!)
BANG!
A straight punch to the face. Jogo barely got a sideways hand up at the last instant, but he hadn't had time to brace, the back of his own hand slammed into his face, and his entire body was sent flying.
Jogo flew backward. Hakari charged forward in pursuit.
"During the prize draw phase, the animation performance begins!"
The words were barely out of his mouth before a fully constructed train platform materialized, a station, complete, waiting for its train.
"And then, different animations play out depending on the result."
"The [Suspected Consecutive] in the preview animation can also use one draw to trigger multiple animation entry effects~ refreshing the state each time!~"
Hakari pressed the assault. Fists blurred against fists, dozens of exchanges in mere seconds. The visual field around them kept shifting, and then, without warning, a romance anime BGM materialized inside Jogo's head, playing from nowhere.
It made his eye twitch.
"~"
BANG!
Humming the theme song, Hakari launched an upward kick with wild enthusiasm and sent Jogo flying. The rhythm had been completely stolen. Jogo hadn't even seen it coming.
Hakari landed and stayed put. He placed one hand near his crotch, thrust his hips forward slightly, and struck the most obnoxious provocative pose imaginable.
"Riichi."
Riichi,
The phenomenon where two identical symbols line up on a pachinko machine. In other words: the player's anticipation for the grand prize is cranked as high as it can go.
Thanks to the Domain effect, Hakari's Riichi was virtually one hundred percent guaranteed.
Which meant, Infinite Riichi!
His power was climbing without a ceiling.
"After the animation performance begins, balls that enter the prize zone are called hold balls, and then —"
"SO NOISY, YOU DAMN BRAT!"
He was cut off.
Jogo had been launched into the air, and his face was now pure fury.
BOOM! BOOM!
Flames erupted from his entire body. A wide, splashing area-of-effect attack engulfed Hakari's upper body.
"Tsk!"
Hakari took a face full of fire. His upper half was lightly charred. He still seemed perfectly conscious, just deeply annoyed.
"You have zero patience!"
"Obviously! Your technique is way too damn complicated!"
Jogo roared back at him. Apparently he was capable of conversation after all.
It was like having garbage forcibly pumped directly into his brain. Jogo found the sensation nauseating. But... he'd gotten the gist.
Forget the brat's long-winded explanation. Bottom line: it's a [Prize Draw].
The animation plays out. The result tells you whether there's a grand prize or not.
Jogo glanced at the scene.
The current story had progressed to a meek-looking black-haired boy waiting at a train platform, hoping the girl on the opposite side wouldn't board her train, that she'd stay. For him.
[Yes or No]
That would determine the result.
What garbage.
Fine. As long as the result gets decided, that's all that matters, right?
So this wasn't one of those guaranteed-kill Domains. Damn it. He'd wasted the worry.
Jogo grimaced.
[Ding Ding Ding]
[Line Two Departing]
And then the animation ended.
The train pulled away. The girl on the opposite platform disappeared.
Draw failed?
Jogo felt a flicker of relief, then something told him it wasn't that simple.
Wait...
The girl had disappeared from the platform, yes. But only because she'd spotted the boy, rushed down the stairs below, and circled around to his side.
The two leads. Together at last.
"— LIKE I SAID, WHAT GARBAGE PLOT IS THIS! Making the woman run back and forth — what is that supposed to be! Go fight for it yourself, you useless brat!"
Jogo roared!
BOOM!,!.
And at that exact moment.
The surrounding animations shattered and vanished. The scenery change caught Jogo completely off guard. His footing disappeared from under him. Then, riding a wave of manic laughter, Hakari drove a kick into him and launched him through the air like a ball.
Hakari's speed jumped again.
This is...
"IT'S COMING IT'S COMING IT'S COMING IT'S COMING IT'S COMING IT'S COMING IT'S COMING!"
[GRAND PRIZE, JACKPOT]
Hakari stood bare-chested, feet planted wide.
Both arms shot overhead. The muscles packed along his frame pulled taut and snapped back, a wild, rhythmic motion that somehow looked both absurd and terrifying.
"Ha!"
He raised both hands and curled his fingers in a slow, taunting beckoning gesture.
The effect of Hakari Kinji's grand prize,
[Endlessly gushing infinite Cursed Energy, and the passive Reverse Cursed Technique driven by that infinite Cursed Energy]!
The black scorch marks across his face peeled away in an instant.
His body seemed to expand outward by half a size from nothing.
This feeling...
"Is a hundred times better than OO!"
"WATCH YOUR MOUTH! DAMN BRAT!"
They moved at the same time.
In the battles of Jujutsu Sorcerers, beyond fundamental skill, there is one quality that matters above everything else.
[Madness.]
As a rule, the crazier someone fights, the stronger they become. "Negative emotions", or more precisely, the quality of Cursed Energy, rises and falls with the fighter's emotional state.
Right now, Hakari Kinji was exhilarated past the point of reason.
Both of them closed to point-blank range in an instant. Hakari got there first.
Shoulder into chest. Jogo lost his breath. He coughed blood and slapped at Hakari's face, Hakari tilted his head and let it sail past.
"Tsk!"
Jogo locked their arms and twisted at the wrist, going for a counter, but Hakari didn't even flinch. He wrenched his own arm backward at a grotesque one-hundred-and-twenty-degree angle, used it to load the swing, and met Jogo's stunned and disbelieving face with a hook that had his whole body behind it.
The knuckles caught the jaw. Jogo's head snapped up, and he sprayed blood.
Jogo's Cursed Energy was enormous, but his raw defensive durability wasn't exceptional. Fortunately, as a Cursed Spirit, losing an arm or getting an eye punched out didn't take him out of the fight.
Teeth grinding, he pushed through it. Their arms tangled furiously in the space between them, a blur of exchanges.
Flame energy seethed and scattered. Afterimages of limbs strobed in the air.
(I can't keep up.)
Across the battlefield, Okkotsu's pupils shook.
He wanted desperately to help. But watching them move, he knew the truth, jumping in would only get in the way.
Hakari-senpai... had he always been this strong?
CLANG!
Bone-deep thuds, grinding impacts. Both of them stacked damage and healed through it, over and over.
Jogo's speed was clearly the higher of the two.
But...
BOOM! —!,
Splurt.
A knife-hand drove into Hakari's chest cavity and punched clean through his heart.
"Haha!"
Hakari swung a fist anyway.
BANG!
The backhand elbow caved through Jogo's skull and snapped his neck to a ninety-degree angle.
"Ugh."
Jogo's body smashed through the hotel's outer wall. He hit the [Curtain] Kenjaku had carefully prepared and rebounded back.
Fragments of flame drifted down like embers.
Jogo clawed himself back to his feet.
He was in worse shape than he'd thought he'd be. Even he hadn't expected it, a Special Grade Cursed Spirit, losing a pure close-quarters brawl to a kid from Jujutsu High.
Though of course.
That didn't mean Jogo was weaker than Hakari.
Choosing to brawl had been his biggest mistake.
Speed and ranged attacks were his advantages. Leaning into them, he wouldn't be looking this rough right now. The cramped [Curtain] had boxed in the Curse Queen Orimoto Rika, and in doing so, it had boxed in Jogo as well.
Still.
This ends here.
"...Fine. I'll admit it, brat. In close quarters, right now, you're stronger."
The music's rhythm was closing in on its final measures.
[Four Minutes and Eleven Seconds.]
Hakari Kinji's window of invincibility.
But,
"Oh, thanks a lot~"
Hakari kept his smile. Underneath it, he was turning a problem over in his head.
He had no more cards.
[Infinite Reversal] was genuinely absurd, but he couldn't beat someone to death with his fists alone. Not unless Jogo planned to stay inside the barrier and trade blows with him for a full day and night.
That was never happening.
So Hakari had come into this fight telling himself: beat the opponent up badly enough, keep Okkotsu safe. That was enough.
The thing was... he knew full well,
Jogo still hadn't actually used his technique.
After this, what was he going to,
"Domain Expansion."
What!?
This guy too,
Hakari's expression shifted. His eyes snapped sideways to Okkotsu, who hadn't caught up to what was happening yet.
His hands were already moving.
"Domain Expansion!"
This time.
Cursed Spirit and Jujutsu Sorcerer expanded their Domains at the same moment.
[Domain Expansion: Coffin of the Iron Mountain]
[Domain Expansion: Idle Death Gamble]
Pitch-black boundaries began weaving into existence, swallowing every target in the space in an instant.
Including Okkotsu.
Hakari's face twisted. Jogo's expression settled into something else entirely, the unhurried contempt of a man who already knew he'd won.
"Your technique, the technique itself is a Domain, and through the Domain's effect you can recoup the Cursed Energy spent to deploy it. Repeatable use. That's genuinely excellent."
"But..."
"If you have to protect that brat behind you, you'll leave yourself open. Won't you?"
The Domain clash was underway.
On one side: a train animation, playing out in real time. On the other: a crimson hellscape.
"Your Domain is unusual. The sure-hit within the Domain is the [Cutscene Animation]. The [Invincibility Duration] only comes after the Domain ends."
"So it isn't hard to see, when you're forced to clash with a proper Domain, you have two choices."
[Option 1. Cancel the Domain clash. Complete the technique process normally. Obtain the Invincible Body. Then consider beating the opponent to death within four minutes and eleven seconds.]
This is the correct move. Hakari's immortal body means he won't die inside an opponent's Domain. After four minutes and eleven seconds, he can expand his Domain again.
Meanwhile, the opponent's Domain Expansion can't run forever.
Conclusion,
[Drag it into a Domain war. Get lucky enough. It's almost a guaranteed win.]
But.
What if... Hakari can't complete the technique effect?
Jogo stood at the hellscape's center, hand gesture still held.
"My Domain incinerates ordinary sorcerers the moment they step inside. When the effect ends, you can survive on your own, [Four Minutes and Eleven Seconds] sees to that. But what about your friend?"
The surrounding rock walls blazed a uniform, blinding red. Jagged crags jutted like teeth from every angle. It was like being swallowed by the throat of a volcano.
The sight hit Okkotsu like a fist. And then the logic followed.
It seemed like an illusion.
But Hakari's Domain taking shape...
[Had been a step slower.]
"In a Domain clash, you can choose what the barrier encompasses. So when you were generating yours, you tried to exclude that brat over there."
"In a space this small, that's nearly impossible. You didn't just fail, you formed your Domain a full step behind mine."
"And more importantly: to keep Okkotsu Yuta from being killed by my Domain, you have no choice but to hold the [Domain Clash]. You can't complete your technique. You can't obtain your immortal body."
Yes.
That was Hakari's second option.
[Option 2. Expand the Domain, but stall deliberately. Don't complete the technique effect. Because the moment the [Prize Draw] finishes, the Domain dissolves. And every ally caught inside the Domain clash's range dies without exception.]
[It is... the worst possible choice.]
Heat rolled forward in waves. Lava heaved and seethed. Sparks and burning cinders filled the air, streaking down the rock walls in rivers of blinding fire.
The Special Grade Cursed Spirit grinned.
"A pointless sacrifice. You should have just left the brat."
"And while I'm at it — let me show you something."
"Domains from sorcerers at different levels..."
Crack.
This is bad.
Hakari looked up at the dome of his barrier, expression grim.
The train station was coming apart.
Because in a Domain clash, when there's a gap in barrier technique and technique level between both sides, the collision doesn't stay even for long,
[The strong crush the weak.]
One half was a platform ringing with train whistles. The other was a volcano hemorrhaging lava. The boundary between them trembled and sizzled in the heat, eating itself alive.
CRACK!
The stalemate broke.
[Due to the subconscious desire to protect Okkotsu Yuta, Hakari Kinji, in the Domain battle...]
Crimson lava surged down the railway tracks. In less than a breath, it crushed through the train station's boundary. Platform, tracks, cutscene animation, most of it, swallowed whole into the hellscape.
[Defeat.]
BOOM!
Hakari's body caught fire instantly.
Jogo watched with cold eyes.
"I win."
.................................
.............
"That is to say — Jogo won."
Outside the [Curtain].
A pitch-black sphere had swallowed a vast stretch of the area beyond it.
And inside that sphere, the scene was this:
Every trace of human construction had been erased from the world. Ancient trees towered until they blotted out the sky. Blossoms covered the hillsides with no order, no restraint. A clear stream threaded its way around the stones, quiet and unhurried.
[Domain Expansion: Sea of Radiant Light]
The Domain landscape of Hanami's making.
Warm light fell across the whole of it, softly, like the world had been walked back to the very first morning.
At the center of that Domain stood Himmel, one hand resting on his hip.
And before him...
The branch embedded in its eye socket had snapped in two. One leg severed at the root. Gashes from a blade's edge covered its body from end to end. Hanami knelt collapsed against the ground, and spoke in a low, even voice.
[I told you,]
[I will pin you down right here.]
What!?
Domains expanded simultaneously!
The [Strongest] held in place!
And the one who ultimately claimed victory, was it the Cursed Spirits!?
The suspense tears open.
Next episode:
The Death of Hanami.
➤ Next: Limitless Cursed Spirit