Frieren: — Chapter 92 - When High Schoolers Get Together, It’s Time for a Test of Courage

"I didn't expect to run into someone I know like this... Wait, Okkotsu-senpai, you actually handle paranormal cases?!"

"Uh... well... how should I put this..."

Have you ever heard this saying?

[Stand users are drawn to one another.]

Okkotsu and Itadori Yuji met at a pachinko parlor. Two minors, in a place like that, who got acquainted specifically because they helped each other out of a jam, that alone was already a low-probability event.

But barely a week had passed, and now they'd run into each other again. And this time the reason was...

"Ah, but having someone I know here is reassuring!~"

Itadori's smile spread soft and easy, hands resting behind his head. "Honestly, I thought telling this kind of thing to a total stranger would be pretty embarrassing~"

"No, 'I suddenly started seeing my dead mother one day' is actually more awkward to tell someone you know, isn't it?"

"Oh. Yeah, you're right."

Beside them, Zenin Maki couldn't hold back the comment, and Itadori clapped his hands together with the look of a man who had just seen the light.

"Maki-san..." Okkotsu leaned close to Ijichi and murmured, "In the first place, is it really okay to tell Itadori-kun about all this outright? Shouldn't cursed spirits be kept secret from civilians..."

"Generally, yes."

Ijichi was very patient.

"But if we don't give the victim a rough idea of the situation, that would be frightening in its own way, wouldn't it?"

"And in this particular case, Itadori Yuji-kun has already directly witnessed the effects of a cursed technique. Keeping it hidden is probably pointless at this point. It's better to make him aware that he has been cursed."

(More to the point, how did Itadori even find Jujutsu High?! Are we some kind of odd-jobs agency?!)

Okkotsu complained internally.

"Oh, we have a department that specifically monitors online forums and promotes our organization's services through underground channels."

"Huh?! Did I say that out loud?" Okkotsu startled.

"No, but your expression made it obvious."

(...What an impressive person. I heard he's Gojo-sensei and Himmel-sensei's junior... as expected....)

"No, compared to those two, I'm really nothing at all."

He read me again?!

Click.

Ijichi offered a weary corporate smile.

"Anyway, I'll leave the rest to all of you. There don't appear to be signs of the cursed spirit manifesting directly, so I won't deploy a curtain for now, don't want to tip it off. Please investigate on your own. I'll be standing by nearby for word at any time."

With that, Ijichi drove away.

The remaining group stared at each other.

A long moment passed.

Itadori spoke first.

"Anyway, want to come in for some tea?"

"Let's do that."

"Please, by all means."

"Great, great."

"Salmon."

And so the group followed Itadori to the front entrance. The boy was naturally good with people, as he pulled his keys from his pocket and unlocked the door, he picked up a conversational thread without missing a beat.

"By the way, I've been wanting to ask since earlier."

"Mm."

Click.

The door swung open. Itadori turned and pointed at one corner of the four-'person' group.

"Why is there a panda just walking around outside?"

(Ah... right, that...)

All four first-year students of Jujutsu High thought in unison.

(We should've brought that up ages ago!)

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

..........

"Come in."

Itadori stepped aside from the doorway, gesturing with one hand at the frame in a practiced "please enter."

The genkan was narrower than expected. As Okkotsu took off his shoes, he noticed an old photograph on the shoe cabinet, the old man behind the glass had a stern expression.

Zenin Maki didn't bother with her shoes and stepped straight onto the floor. The panda squeezed through the doorframe with effort, hunching low. Inumaki scurried in behind him with quick little steps.

Okkotsu, representing Jujutsu High's manners, murmured quietly, "Sorry to intrude."

Once inside, everyone began looking around.

The living room was a little over ten tatami mats in size, with wooden flooring that had some years on it. In the center sat a low table, a weekly manga magazine spread open halfway across it.

The TV was one of those old thick-backed models. It was currently playing a variety show featuring swimsuit idols.

"Hey, so Itadori's into this kind of thing," the panda said cheerfully.

"Oh, crap — I forgot to turn it off!"

Zenin Maki looked disgusted. Inumaki gave a thumbs-up. Okkotsu didn't know where to look.

Itadori was a bit mortified at first, but after switching it off he shrugged it off almost immediately and kept showing everyone around.

Against the far wall of the living room sat a rattan chair, its armrests worn pale from years of use, the cushion sagging crookedly inward. Clearly the spot where the household's elderly member usually sat.

"Over here's the kitchen."

"Bathroom's this way."

"The master bedroom is the room at the very end."

After a rough circuit of the place, the group drifted back to the living room.

"Your mother, when she was alive..."

"She probably stayed in the master bedroom with my father. But my mother passed away a few years back, and my father went missing."

Yeah. That was a slide nobody dared to keep going down.

Everyone glossed over the topic.

A brief silence followed.

That wasn't strange. They were Jujutsu High students, not Sherlock Holmes. They didn't walk into rooms with floating text descriptions announcing their specialties.

And Inumaki couldn't speak. Zenin Maki was a Heavenly Restriction case who couldn't perceive cursed energy residue. Okkotsu was a super-rookie with terrible sensory ability.

So all eyes turned to the panda, who stood out completely from everything around him.

"Mmm."

The panda made a good-natured sound.

"I have indeed found something."

His stocky body moved to the genkan, and he pointed at a floor plan diagram.

"This is the blueprint for this house, right? Look carefully."

The panda's voice dropped low.

"At first glance it looks like a perfectly ordinary residence."

"But look carefully."

"The genkan is narrow. The shoe cabinet sits flush against the wall. Further in is the living room. The hallway runs straight all the way through, with one room branching off each side. On the right is Itadori's grandfather's bedroom. On the left is the bathroom. The master bedroom at the end sits in the southeast corner, windows facing south. The kitchen is tucked into the north side."

"So. Have you figured it out?"

Following the panda's serious tone, everyone mentally reviewed the layout of the house once more, turning over the meaning behind why he'd recited all of it. Nobody found an answer.

Outside, the sun slipped behind a drifting cloud. The light inside the house slowly dimmed.

The panda spoke again, voice dropping lower still.

"This house—"

Tick. Tock.

The old clock's second hand turned in the silence.

"This hallway... leads nowhere."

Everyone held their breath. A sharp collective intake. Faces went pale, rattled by the horrifying conclusion.

Except,

"Huh?"

Itadori scratched his head.

"Isn't Grandpa's room right next to the hallway? Panda-senpai, didn't you literally just say that?"

"Oh, right."

The panda scratched his head.

"'Oh, right' my ass!" Zenin Maki smacked him, face red. "You built it up like some big horror story!"

"Ohhh, I'm reporting you to the animal protection society! Violence is wrong!" The panda clutched his head. "It's only because none of you were saying anything, I was just trying to lighten the mood!"

"Lighten what?! Knock it off, you damn panda!" Zenin Maki kicked him square in the back, fuming, got in several more kicks before Okkotsu managed to drag her away.

The cloud drifted past. Sunlight returned to the living room. Every trace of the horror atmosphere evaporated.

After that interlude, the panda settled in and gave his actual conclusions.

"Mm... the cursed energy residue is consistent with the specialist assessment. Roughly a Grade 2 cursed spirit, medium-range effect type. Anything beyond that, unless you have something like Gojo's Six Eyes, an ordinary person can't tell."

"Tch. Useless." Zenin Maki clicked her tongue.

"Um, I have a question —" Itadori raised his hand. "What's a cursed spirit?"

"You don't need to know."

A victim knowing that paranormal phenomena existed was already the limit. The specifics of what a cursed spirit was could stay under wraps.

"Ah... I don't really get it, but what do we do now?"

"Wait. Wait for the cursed spirit to show up."

Having said that, Zenin Maki dropped herself unceremoniously onto the sofa and turned the TV back on.

The old television resumed the swimsuit-idol variety show. The premise, as best as anyone could tell, was a challenge where contestants tried to climb a production-team-built slide coated in lubricant and press a button at the top. Various obstacles slid down to stop them along the way, buckets, stuffed dolls, balloons, and a thirty-four-year-old unemployed man.

"Why is a middle-aged man sliding down?!"

"It's one of those shows where you heckle it and there's fanservice," Itadori said, settling in beside her. Any remaining embarrassment had long since vacated the premises. He'd even set out snacks on the low table for everyone. "I have Uno. Want to play?"

"Yes, yes~"

The panda trotted over eagerly.

Everyone warmed up fast. They even started talking.

"Wait, Itadori, you can run fifty meters in three seconds? Seriously?"

"Ah, my body's just a little better than average?"

"No, no, no, that's basically First Grade sorcerer stats! Maki, do you actually have a little brother?"

"I'll kill you, you damn panda."

Sigh...

Watching the easy warmth of the scene, Okkotsu felt something tug at him.

Weren't they here on a mission?

[Beep beep beep beep]

Just then.

Okkotsu's phone buzzed.

He picked it up. It was a call from Himmel-sensei.

Okkotsu stepped away to answer. A moment later, the teacher's warm, unhurried voice came through the line.

[Hey, Okkotsu. Are you giving it your best?]

"...I think so...? Probably." Okkotsu answered, uncertain.

[Mm.]

[I can't really offer much in the way of advice... but these are unusual times, so be extra careful, okay.]

"Yes."

Okkotsu didn't know the specific details about the Special Grade cursed spirits. But he knew Himmel-sensei had been run ragged lately. Nanako-senpai and Mimiko-senpai complained about it constantly.

But it would be fine.

With everything Himmel-sensei and Gojo-sensei had given him... it would definitely be fine.

[Mm.]

He could almost picture the expression on Himmel-sensei's face on the other end of the line. Warm and easy as a breeze, exactly the way it always was.

[You're there, so I'm not worried.]

"Huh? Sensei, what does that mean..."

"Okkotsu, your turn."

Someone called from the other side of the room, and Himmel gave no sign of continuing.

[What I wanted to say was,...You'll be fine, Okkotsu. I'd bet on it. Do your best.]

"Oh — oh?"

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

[Click]

Himmel hung up and took stock of his surroundings.

He was deep inside Shibuya's sewer system, tracking the movements of Mahito's group.

Their barrier techniques kept them well-hidden. But Mahito needed large volumes of 'human soul manipulation' practice to grow stronger, and that kind of work left traces. You couldn't avoid it.

Himmel had followed those traces all the way here.

Or rather.

He'd been lured.

That was just how it was with a Hero, all that ability, and still spending every waking moment running toward people who needed saving.

Himmel had no complaints about that.

"Well then."

"Time to get to work."

➤ Next: Haibara-san! How Did You Turn Into a Woman?!