Frieren: — Chapter 106 - Mahoraga Launcher — The Fight Begins
The sudden intrusion of the Modern Era's Strongest flipped the battlefield in an instant.
Unlike Sukuna, who was watching the two of them with calm, curious interest, Okkotsu felt something closer to relief. Release. And just a trace of humiliation he couldn't quite swallow.
In the end, he still needed his teacher to bail him out.
"You alright, Yuta?" Whether or not Gojo had read that on his face, he spoke first, then tapped his own chest. "The wound."
Okkotsu snapped out of his daze. He pressed a hand to his chest. No gaping slash, no split ribcage, just a shallow line of blood where he'd been sure he was dead.
It wasn't hard to piece together. Gojo Satoru had shattered the barrier, and in the precise instant Sukuna completed Cleave, he had crossed the distance between them — moving faster than the technique could activate — and thrown Okkotsu Yuta behind him.
What Okkotsu understood, Sukuna had already worked out.
Cleave wasn't cut-on-contact. No technique was. Every technique was just Cursed Energy in motion, and when it landed on another person, it had to punch through their own Cursed Energy first.
With Okkotsu's current output, even a direct hit to a non-vital spot wouldn't be immediately fatal. And even a vital spot had a damage delay of roughly...
Zero-point-zero-zero-something seconds.
(But this guy... not only saved the brat. He moved so fast I didn't even react.)
Sukuna's fingers twitched.
Fear. Hesitation. Not even a second of either.
The King of Curses bared his teeth and threw his question at the main course in front of him.
"Who are you?"
"Shh."
Gojo Satoru raised one finger to his lips. No mercy. No hesitation.
Sukuna went still for a moment. It had been a long time since anyone had dared to treat him that way.
Gojo didn't bother pressing the advantage. He turned his attention back to Okkotsu.
"Dummy Yuta~ When you can't win, you're supposed to call for a parent. Didn't your mom and dad teach you that back in elementary school?"
They really hadn't. Okkotsu's family was the hands-off type.
"Teacher... I..." Okkotsu made a halfhearted attempt at a defense.
"Yeah, yeah, I know what happened — but you idiot, what was with the death charge?"
Gojo's attitude toward Yuta had always been a little harsher than with his other students. Maybe that was its own kind of favoritism, coming from a man who wore a rabbit on his head.
"You didn't actually think the teachers just abandoned you, did you?"
Huh?
Okkotsu very much wanted to say, "Isn't that exactly what happened?"
"Idiot."
Gojo let out a low, theatrical groan.
"I've been watching this whole time."
He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.
In fact, the man had been messaging someone ever since he arrived in Sendai.
The name on the contact screen read:
[My Lovely Filial Strong Good Son Megumi-chan]
"I told you not to use weird contact names."
Rustle.
A voice came from somewhere inside Rika's shadow. Someone Okkotsu didn't recognize.
"Huh?!"
Black spiky hair, similar to Okkotsu's, but the expression was colder. More defiant. His whole face read as impatient and out of place.
"Hey! That's Megumi-chan! The adopted kid I mentioned!" Gojo announced cheerfully, reaching out to pull the boy into a one-armed hug. The boy sidestepped him without a word.
And with that, all of Gojo Satoru's preparations were on the table.
On the surface, he looked exactly like one of those invincible characters who walks straight into the enemy's trap, gets ganked, can't use a fraction of his real power, and then smiles at his students and says "Haha, I believe in you all~" before checking out entirely.
But it had been 9 years.
9 years of watching, listening, absorbing. And however reluctantly, Gojo Satoru had picked up something from a certain Hero who preferred not to be named.
First: regarding this Curtain, the one that blocked two-way passage for everyone except himself, Gojo had made a clear-eyed judgment. Rather than pouring reinforcements in here for a grinding war of attrition, better to move everyone to Shibuya.
But that didn't mean he'd written off intelligence from inside the Curtain entirely.
The Curtain was designed to cage Gojo Satoru. To do that, it had completely dropped its jamming effect on electronic communications. Which meant...
Rather than sending in a fighter, send in someone who could disappear.
And Gojo Satoru happened to have exactly that person.
[Fushiguro Megumi]
A piece placed on the board 9 years ago. He was the boy Gojo had stumbled into during the Amanai Riko incident, through no particular intention of his own.
Through a chain of coincidences, Gojo had ended up as the financial backer for Megumi and his sister. Under the influence of what could only be described as a very Japanese parental psychology, Gojo had started the boy on Jujutsu training years before he ever enrolled at Jujutsu High.
His technique was called,
[Ten Shadows Technique]
The Zen'in clan's inherited art. A summoning technique that, at its peak, could rival Gojo's own Limitless.
And because it operated through shadows, Fushiguro Megumi could conceal himself inside them.
One phone call from Gojo had been enough. Throughout the entire previous battle, Megumi had been stationed inside Rika's shadow, observing and sending intelligence reports to Gojo via text. The shadow blocked all external observation completely. No oxygen inside, no signal, but surfacing periodically took care of both.
While Gojo monitored the situation from outside, he had also been engaging Miguel.
During that time, Fushiguro Megumi had watched from a distance as Kenjaku turned on Manami and Larue. He didn't get close. He just pulled Manami out of the barrier immediately.
Manami got the essential information to Miguel as fast as she could.
[Kenjaku betrayed us]
Miguel froze. Maybe it was something about the mental wiring, his brain just wouldn't process it.
And even once the fury hit, he found himself boxed in. The terms of their Binding Vow were clear: Kenjaku would not harm them, and in exchange, they would assist Kenjaku. How Kenjaku had found a way around his own end of the deal, Miguel couldn't say. But Miguel had no way out of his.
None of that was the point, though.
The point was that Gojo Satoru had gotten serious.
The moment Ryomen Sukuna appeared, Gojo had crushed Miguel, a Miguel with no will left to fight, with absolute, unambiguous dominance. Then he had turned to the barrier and started tearing it apart. He had arrived at the one moment that mattered.
This time, he wasn't late.
Just...
(The method was a little reckless.)
"Megumi, fall back."
Gojo called it out casually.
"Say hi to Tsumiki for me~"
"........"
Fushiguro Megumi looked like he wanted to say something. But he knew what would happen if he asked whether Gojo needed help. Gojo would laugh and tell him he was too weak and would only get in the way.
So Megumi said nothing. His task was done.
But before he turned to leave, he couldn't stop himself from glancing at Okkotsu's back.
...This upperclassman... Gojo hadn't told him to leave?
.....................
.........
Click.
"Hmm~~~~... This is a bit troublesome."
Back to business. Gojo rubbed his chin and looked at Sukuna.
"Ryomen Sukuna~ Wow. How does it feel, riding around in someone else's body?"
"What — this brat's another one of your acquaintances?"
Gojo needled him on reflex, and Sukuna's response shifted. Facing a powerhouse he couldn't get a read on, the King of Curses went quieter than before, but the edge in his voice sharpened.
The logic was simple, and it was the logic of every top-tier fighter:
Someone I know I can beat? I talk down to them from on high.
Someone I'm not sure about? I start running my mouth.
Sukuna lifted a hand, black ring tattoos tracing his skin, and flexed his fingers in front of his face.
"Usable enough."
"Tch. Shameless." Gojo cupped a hand around his mouth, tone dripping with mockery. "You come back from the dead and immediately go to work for that Kenjaku guy. Doesn't sound like the legendary King of Curses has much freedom to me~ What, you owe him money?"
"Heh. You like to talk." Sukuna tilted his chin up slightly, looking Gojo over with open contempt. "Is that because you're afraid to move?"
"........"
Right on cue, Itadori Kaori slipped out from the rubble behind Sukuna. Silent. Most of the damage she'd taken was already healed. But her eyes were locked on Gojo, wary and sharp, and she didn't look steady.
Gojo Satoru.
Ryomen Sukuna.
Two powerhouses from different eras stared each other down, each with someone behind them who needed protecting.
And as if the minds of the strong simply ran on the same frequency,
(What a pain.) x2
Both of them thought it at the exact same moment.
(Cursed Energy precision I can't get a ceiling on. No Six Eyes, but enough to match me. I don't know how many fingers he's running on right now, but his raw Cursed Energy has already passed mine...)
Gojo Satoru hooked a finger under his blindfold and lifted it. Azure eyes moved over Sukuna from top to bottom.
First time seeing a guy like this.
Sukuna's assessment was the same.
(Not bad.)
Ryomen Sukuna could see it clearly with his own eyes, the man's technique application was beyond human.
(His reserves are lower than mine. But precision at this level means raw quantity barely matters anymore. What counts is Output.)
(If I were at full strength, that would be a different conversation. But right now...)
Sukuna checked the Cursed Energy inside his body.
(Fingers accounted for,)
[Ten]
Kenjaku had gathered almost every scattered finger for him. Six had originally been collected by Geto. The remaining four were still unaccounted for.
The Modern Era's Strongest stood in front of him. To Sukuna's eye, the man's power was not in question.
So then,
(Can I win?)
"Heh."
Sukuna didn't flinch. Didn't falter.
Victory in a real fight came down to too many things.
(Besides, the way this guy destroyed the Curtain just now...)
"You — can you still fight?"
His Cursed Energy was already condensed and ready. Sukuna raised his hand, moving to seize the first strike,
BOOM!
Gojo Satoru moved first.
Before the King of Curses could get another word in.
"Come and try!"
(Fast!)
Sukuna's grin split wide and feral as he watched Gojo's hands come together.
Clap.
One crisp sound. The moment his palms locked, the white-haired man blinked out of existence.
"A spatial technique!"
Sukuna's fighting spirit didn't waver, but his eyes went wide all the same.
(Direction,)
He spun hard, one hand chopping backward like a blade.
WHOOSH!
[Dismantle] tore out at expanded range. Enemy had changed; Sukuna adjusted the Cursed Energy output to match.
An attack that started as a cut through a single school building cleaved the atmosphere itself, and kept going. The blade's scar extended 500 meters out.
The Curtain was already gone. The outside world lay completely exposed.
A modern building, 25 stories tall.
In the King of Curses' hands...
CRACK!
It tilted. Then split into two.
And yet.
The pressure wave rolled outward. Dust scattered and billowed.
The two supreme fighters slid past each other. Sukuna's head turned, the chop already swinging, and Gojo, who had arrived behind him first...
Tap.
His hand came to rest on the middle of Sukuna's forearm.
"Too bad~"
Easy. Unhurried.
"Looks like Gojo-sensei is faster right now."
He raised his other hand. Fingers extended into a gun. The tip aimed straight at "Kenjaku," whose expression had gone very still.
Sukuna's face tightened: "!"
"Technique Reversal: Red."
Simple words. Then light tore through shadow.
A stream of brilliant, razor-sharp radiance spiraled around the edges of Gojo's face and Sukuna's in the same motion, light and dark chasing each other across their features.
"Bang~"
HUM!
From the rubble, Itadori Kaori had already been edging toward escape. She watched the halo in front of her bloom and bloom and bloom.
Blinding light. It swallowed everything.
BOOM!
The explosion was enormous.
The ruined shell of the school building ceased to exist. The structures behind it were carved hollow by the blast, a massive void burned into the city block. White smoke crawled upward, hissing into the sky.
[Modern Era's Strongest, Gojo Satoru] versus [History's Strongest, Ryomen Sukuna]
In this exchange of protection and attack.
In the very first round, with absolute and overwhelming superiority,
[Gojo Satoru achieved victory]
➤ Next: Kenjaku: Watch My Moves