Frieren: — Chapter 94 - Yuji! How Can You Talk to Your Mother Like That!

Go back?

First came shock. Then, after a moment to gather himself and actually think, Okkotsu stood mentally offline for at least several seconds before everything clicked.

Question one: why had he looked at Itadori Yuji's mother, Itadori Kaori, and seen Haibara Yu?

Intuition.

Okkotsu's observational instincts were, by any measure, freakishly sharp. The instant he laid eyes on Itadori Kaori, he'd clocked the scar on her forehead.

His cursed energy perception was another story, notoriously bad, practically a running joke, but once in a while it would spike out of nowhere, like a radio randomly catching a signal.

His gut said: that's Haibara.

Question two was why Haibara Yu was here at all.

But hadn't he already known? That Haibara and the others would eventually find a way to come get him?

Nothing to be surprised about. So the shock, the hesitation he'd felt upon seeing Haibara, that probably came from the uncomfortable realization that he wasn't sure how he felt about it.

He'd been forcing himself not to think about it.

He thought of Manami and the others as his people, his real comrades. But somewhere in the time he'd spent at Jujutsu High, he'd started feeling the same way about Panda and the rest...

Panda.

"Wait — where's Panda?"

"Oh. That."

Still wearing Itadori Kaori's face, Kenjaku glanced to one side without much interest.

Okkotsu followed the look and immediately found Panda crumpled on the ground, a heap of black and white.

"!"

His expression went flat and dark.

"I just put it to sleep for a bit." Kenjaku answered before Okkotsu could demand anything. "Cursed Corpses don't die that easily. Honestly, don't they teach basic facts like that at Jujutsu High?"

A light sigh. A hand drifted up to tuck a strand of hair behind the ear.

The gesture was so naturally feminine that Okkotsu momentarily forgot what he was angry about.

Kenjaku offered a faint smile.

"Let's go. I worked hard to create this opening. If Himmel or Gojo Satoru figure out what's happening, things get complicated."

"...Um..."

A wall of words pressed against Okkotsu's chest and refused to come out.

"What's wrong? You don't want to leave?"

"No, I do!"

He shook his head.

Haibara Yu had been the first person to save him. Okkotsu hadn't forgotten that, and he wouldn't refuse him. And Manami and the others, they'd been out of contact for so long, worried enough to risk something like this just to find him. He didn't want to make them suffer any further.

It was just...

"Can't I at least say a proper goodbye? And..."

He let his head drop.

He knew Manami and the others genuinely cared about him. But he could feel, clearly, unmistakably, that the people at Jujutsu High were sincere too.

Gojo-sensei, who had seemed terrifying at first. Himmel-sensei, who never seemed to run out of energy. Both of them had turned out to be something far steadier than they appeared.

If he just vanished, what would they think?

Nothing had been made official yet. But if, if there was still a chance they could become something like friends, Okkotsu didn't want to leave in a way that looked like he was running.

He'd even been bracing himself for this.

Getting ready to...

"Haibara-san."

"Hm?"

"I'm going to become a Special Grade Jujutsu Sorcerer."

"Oh? Aren't you already one?"

Kenjaku's shoulders dropped a fraction. The smile held.

"I mean a real Special Grade." Okkotsu lifted his head, voice firm. "Like Gojo-sensei and Himmel-sensei. Someone who can actually influence how this organization makes its decisions."

"Once I get there — I'll protect everyone myself. Nobody will have to hide anymore."

"...Okkotsu-kun." Kenjaku tilted forward slightly, voice softening. "Have you forgotten something?"

"We are traitors to Jujutsu High. We rebelled because this jujutsu world is rotten." She spread her arms wide. "They hoard resources and crush anyone weaker than them. An organization like that deserves nothing, not loyalty, not a peace agreement, nothing!"

"What we want is power. And power demands strength to match, and that strength is you, Okkotsu-kun. You're the only one who can change any of this!"

"...But... something like that..."

The rhetoric swept over him, loud and forceful. The boy still didn't move. After a moment, he looked up and met Kenjaku's gaze directly.

"Couldn't I do all of that after I become a Special Grade? Why does it have to mean going up against Jujutsu High?"

There was no reason for it.

Kenjaku's argument had been wrong from the very start.

An answer anyone could reach, if they actually stopped to think it through.

It was just...

Once said out loud,

"...Ha——~"

The composed smile faded from Kenjaku's lips. Something lighter and more amused surfaced in its place.

"Well."

The corner of the mouth curved up. Kenjaku tilted her head back, wrapped in quiet pleasure, and let out a long, easy breath.

"So Okkotsu-kun has already made himself right at home at Jujutsu High."

"No! That's not,!"

Okkotsu wanted to argue. The words wouldn't come.

It did look like that, didn't it. Standing here saying just talk it out, there has to be a way, anyone who'd watched a single movie knew what label that got you. Traitor. Defector. Even Okkotsu knew that much.

But even knowing it, he still wanted to try,

"Alright. I hear you. We'll do it your way, Okkotsu-kun."

"...What?"

Beyond all expectations,

Kenjaku wasn't angry.

She smiled.

"It's fine. I understand." She even stepped forward and patted his shoulder. "The children at Jujutsu High were simply deceived. They bear no guilt themselves. Of course you'd waver after forming real bonds with them, that's only natural."

"So stay here for now. I'll handle things with Manami and the others."

"Haibara-san..."

Okkotsu's eyes went faintly red at the corners. His throat moved.

"I'm so glad you understand."

"Haha, of course."

Kenjaku waved a dismissive hand, strolled past Okkotsu, and waved again without looking back.

Okkotsu exhaled. Then he remembered Panda, turned to help him up, and stopped.

The spot was empty.

All that remained on the ground was Itadori, still sound asleep.

"...Huh?"

And in that instant, a sharp, splitting sound erupted directly behind his head.

Himmel's hellish training had built reflex into Okkotsu's bones. He spun before conscious thought kicked in.

He was still too slow.

No,!

[.]

Frame freeze.

A full spread: Okkotsu half-crouched, mid-turn, his head barely rotated. Behind him, Kenjaku's entire frame had dropped low, one arm wrenched back to its maximum reach.

Next frame.

Okkotsu's head angle barely changed. Kenjaku's hand-blade had already snapped forward at full release.

And then, a blurry smear of black and white appeared at Okkotsu's side.

BANG!,!,!.

Raging cursed energy detonated outward. Two forces slammed head-on, cracking the ground open in an instant. Dust erupted in every direction. At that range, the shockwave drove a ringing straight through Okkotsu's skull.

He slapped both hands over his ears, spun low against the ground, and retreated several steps until he could see clearly.

"Haibara-san! Panda!"

"You're still too green, Yuta!"

Panda's unhurried, steady voice, back turned to Okkotsu.

He'd shifted forms. The round, fluffy ball of fur was gone, replaced by muscle coiled tight across a frame that now moved like a gorilla's, both palms swollen out to twice their size, wedged flush against the side of Kenjaku's hand-blade.

"Didn't your dad ever tell you?" Panda showed his teeth. "This kind of person, one look and you know they're dangerous. You never show them your back."

"Speaking of which, your instincts are quite well-developed." Kenjaku said from close range, lightly amused. "As expected of a fully autonomous mutant Cursed Corpse."

"Stop classifying Panda like some official category. Panda is just Panda!"

BANG!

Panda drove forward with everything he had and launched Kenjaku into the air.

"Here's the thing, Yuta might fall for your act, but I won't! You've got a suture line on your forehead and you're walking around in Itadori's mom's face, this isn't a disguise. You outright stole her corpse!"

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Plumes of dirt erupted across the ground one after another, each one blooming and dissipating.

Panda kept pressing, kept swinging, kept talking.

"I'm not handing Yuta over to someone like you!"

"Is that so? I don't think you can actually stop me."

The words were barely out before Kenjaku caught Panda's next swing from the side. Slipped inside. Drove an uppercut straight into Panda's jaw.

"Urgh!"

Teeth snapped together with a sound like cracking wood.

The massive body lurched upward. A palm strike followed, then an elbow driven hard into the chest.

WHAM! BANG!

Panda hit the wall and kept going, into it.

Kenjaku assessed: "Not bad. That's about your ceiling, though."

"Panda!"

Okkotsu's shout came raw. The anger on his face was open and unguarded now.

"Haibara-san, even you,!"

He yanked out his blade, thought for half a second, then flipped it to lead with the spine and charged.

"Ho~."

Fast.

Kenjaku's eyes lifted slightly, still smiling.

Figured. If Kenjaku's own domain was jujutsu instruction, Himmel's was physical combat, no contest, no equal. Okkotsu had spent barely any time under his training and was already moving at a level that genuinely turned heads.

But.

Still raw.

"And you're still pulling your punches in a situation like this... Okkotsu, that soft heart of yours really does make my job easier."

CLANG!,!,

One hand shot out and caught the spine of the blade barehanded.

Then, without ceremony: a kick. Okkotsu had no time to react. He went airborne in the opposite direction.

"That should keep things quiet for now. Oh, and don't even think about calling Rika out, or I'll kill them both."

Kenjaku rolled her wrist and turned back toward Panda.

"What a waste. You really shouldn't have attacked me directly. Too reckless~"

CRUNCH!

Pebbles spilled down.

"Well, sure..." Panda's breath hissed through his teeth, but his voice came out in that same grumbling, unhurried rumble.

"But you know what? Pandas are creatures that know exactly when to seek advantage and avoid harm!"

What?

Through the round black bead of Panda's eye, Kenjaku caught the shape that had appeared directly behind her.

That was,

"THE HELL ARE YOU DOING WITH SOMEONE ELSE'S MOM'S BODY?!"

Itadori Yuji.

A completely ordinary person with zero connection to jujutsu had, somehow, without making a single sound, landed directly behind Kenjaku.

Hips sunk. Center of gravity dropped. Shoulders and back wound tight as wire, fist drawn back.

Pure kinetic potential, coiled into a single arm.

Then, before Kenjaku could react,

He swung.

BANG!,!.

Pure force. Nothing else. Brute strength that rivaled a Grade 1 Sorcerer's slammed into the side of Kenjaku's face.

"BWAGH!"

Air punched out of her lungs without permission.

WHOOSH, WHOOSH, WHOOSH, WHOOSH, WHOOSH, WHOOSH!

Kenjaku.

An ancient curse user. Alive for a thousand years.

Struck once by Itadori Yuji, a boy with no jujutsu whatsoever.

Spun ten full rotations in the air.

➤ Next: Shut Up! You Damn Hag!