Frieren — Chapter 196

August 15th.

The whole world was watching. Fixated on the battle of the century about to unfold on that island nation.

[The Strongest in History] vs [The Strongest of the Modern Era]?

No. That battle had perhaps already been decided at the Tombs of the Star.

It could barely be called a victory for Gojo Satoru. But at this very moment, Sukuna had become something even his past self could not hope to match.

What was about to unfold now...

[The Strongest in History]

[King of Curses · Ryomen Sukuna] vs [All Modern Jujutsu Sorcerers]

.

Meanwhile, inside Jujutsu High,

The first to appear was Panda, noticeably smaller than before.

"So. How do we cheer them on?"

"With a line?" Hakari Kinji stood off to the side. "Isn't 'good luck' way too plain?"

"Recite a poem?"

"That's bizarre. Is there any Jump manga we can reference?"

"Shonen final battles always just erupt out of nowhere. Since when do they have a pre-arranged send-off scene like this?"

"Hisoka vs. Chrollo?"

"The Final Valley counts too, right?"

Inumaki, Zenin Maki, Miwa, Nishimiya, Mai... the students broke into overlapping chatter all at once.

Among them was Fushiguro, his head wrapped in bandages.

He'd been targeted by Sukuna as the 'victim' in the final moments of the Culling Game, and Fushiguro had made the best call available to him at the time.

If Sukuna had controlled the body housing seven fingers, reclaimed the fingers inside Itadori, and then tracked down Tengen,

The fallout would have been unthinkable.

Even so, Fushiguro still believed he bore significant responsibility for all of it. He'd spent these weeks grinding himself down with guilt, staying ready to head to the front lines at any moment and blow himself up alongside Sukuna if it came to that.

And now, at the final moment before the battle, everyone was still debating how to send off the 'strongest' heading into the fight.

"Why are we even worried?" Nobara's expression soured from somewhere in the middle of the crowd. "That guy Gojo has never lost, right? And even if he does, Teacher Himmel will definitely bail him out."

"But still." The voice came from the very back. "Anyone would want to hear some encouragement."

The Haibara Sisters. They hadn't shown up in a while.

The two had been almost constantly deployed away from school since entering their third year, and during the Culling Game, they'd both been supporting the Kyoto side.

"Gojo-nii and Himmel-nii aren't going to lose," Nanako said with an air of total authority, phone clutched lovingly in both hands. "But a battle against the King of Curses is still going to be something you talk about for the rest of your life."

"Make sure to get it all on camera," Mimiko added.

"Well, I guess that's fair~"

Beside the group, a tall blonde woman sat on the sofa with her legs crossed.

Her striking face, with its faint Western undertones, wore an expression of absolute calm.

[Yuki Tsukumo]

[One of the Modern Era's Five Special Grades]

She waved a hand and said, easy as breathing, "Worst case, I'll take Sukuna out one-for-one myself. Don't worry, don't worry~"

"She's bragging again," Zenin Maki clicked her tongue.

"Hey hey hey, I can't let that slide. A teacher doesn't brag... only brags occasionally," Todo said, cutting a sideways glance.

"...I'll leave the subtlety of that statement alone for now, Todo." Yuki raised a finger and rubbed the knuckle slowly across her lips. "The point is, just like that girl over there said — you're all being way too serious. Those guys are far stronger than you think. I'm a Special Grade. I can tell."

During the provisional month they'd all been crammed together, the Special Grades had naturally ended up spending time around each other.

Through her exchanges with them, Yuki had come to recognize one clear fact.

Specifically,

"I'm actually a desk-job Special Grade, you know." Yuki flashed a breezy grin.

"She actually said it."

"That's what you get for running around the whole world every day without doing any real work."

A round of complaints. Volleys from every direction.

But even as everyone was piling on,

Kashimo, who had been leaning against the wall the entire time, suddenly lifted his gaze upward.

Half a beat after he moved, the others felt it too. The presence of them, approaching.

The first thing that arrived was Gojo Satoru's voice.

His gaze was cast low. With the black blindfold removed, his profile looked sharper, harder.

The usual easy mockery was gone entirely. His brow was faintly creased, carrying a quiet weight. His whole presence had gone still and silent.

Yeah.

Today's Strongest looked considerably more serious than usual.

That tension moved through the room and landed on everyone at once.

Until,

"Teacher!"

Itadori called out.

"Your technique is really in the way!"

Gojo Satoru got it immediately and broke into a grin.

"Ha! Bring it on!"

He laughed and shrugged off his jacket, revealing the broad expanse of his back.

Excluding people like Higuruma and Kashimo, the Jujutsu High students who knew Gojo Satoru well all went up smiling and smacked his back with open palms.

The feeling that passed through that contact was a warmth Gojo Satoru didn't get to feel very often. He didn't mind it.

Also,

"Yuki, don't you start. That actually hurts."

"Oh."

Yuki Tsukumo pulled her hand back, looking faintly put out.

Just then,

"Quite popular, aren't you."

"Teacher Himmel!"

"Teacher! When Gojo proves useless, you have to step in!"

"We're counting on you!"

A new wave of voices from behind. But this time, unlike the send-off for the Modern Strongest, nobody chose a back-slapping, peer-to-peer gesture to express their support.

The Haibara Sisters raised their paddles high, the words [Himmel Love] written across them in large letters, little hearts drawn on either side, and launched into a full cheer.

"Hey hey hey, is this a concert? Where's my merch?" Gojo Satoru laughed.

The ones who walked out after him were, largely, no surprise to anyone.

Okkotsu Yuta and Geto Suguru.

Geto Suguru was an established veteran Special Grade, carrying numerous Special Grade Cursed Spirits and possessing the foundational tools to counter a Domain. He might not be the one to decide the outcome, but he could absolutely play havoc with the battlefield.

Okkotsu Yuta was the strongest of the new generation and the sorcerer who had defeated Sukuna half a year ago. Nobody objected to him going.

Okkotsu moved out first, stepping quickly, seemingly wanting to avoid a big public send-off like the ones Gojo Satoru and Himmel were getting. Knowing him, the attention would make him shy.

"Hey! Yuta! Little Shin is getting old! This one's on you!"

Panda, with absolutely zero tact.

"Salmon!"

The Jujutsu High students close to Okkotsu piled on with their own encouragements, and the tone was distinctly different from how they'd treated Gojo Satoru. Okkotsu, who had always felt things deeply, was visibly moved.

"Everyone..."

"Don't go and lose on us."

And unexpectedly, it wasn't only the Jujutsu High students. Even Kashimo, grudgingly, said his piece.

Meanwhile, Geto Suguru was surrounded by students from the Kyoto school, all of them rallying around him. Especially Kokichi.

"Teacher, if things get really bad, please put your own safety first. We'll be there too. If we all go together, we'll make it work."

"Yeah."

Ignoring Miwa muttering at his elbow — "Eh? I have to go too?" — Geto Suguru smiled. Genuine and quiet and warm.

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

......

"Well?"

"Well what?"

The group walked the long corridor toward the rooftop. Midway through, Himmel spoke to the person beside him, warmth in his voice.

"Being a teacher. Being the one everyone worries about. Not bad, right?"

Gojo Satoru made a sound low in his throat and didn't answer.

They pushed open the door.

On the rooftop, Ieiri Shoko was already there, waiting.

"Yo."

She greeted them all with a lollipop in her mouth.

"What's this, Shoko? You had to wait up here of all places?" Gojo Satoru slid in close, grinning. "Afraid you'll be lonely when we're gone?"

"Shut up."

Shoko worked the lollipop against her cheek, voice flat.

"What's wrong with that? With how long we've known each other, a send-off deserves at least VIP placement."

"...Oh."

Said to his face that plainly, Gojo Satoru immediately dropped the act.

He deactivated his Limitless and turned to press his back toward her. Shoko shoved him away with open distaste.

"I'm not your student. Nobody said I'd play along with you."

"Right then. It's you lot."

She paused. A brief hesitation, something flickering across her face. Then it settled. Her expression went quiet, her voice low and completely sincere.

"Come back alive. All of you."

.

"Ho~"

"It's coming?"

Several kilometers from where Gojo Satoru's group stood.

Ryomen Sukuna had properly donned the familiar women's kimono, one knee propped up before her, long legs spread wide, the fabric draping in soft folds over the raised knee.

Uraume had considered, briefly, going over personally to deal with these people who had dared to move against Lord Sukuna.

But Sukuna had said: Don't come. Stay here. So Uraume stayed.

Sensing the unmistakable surge of Cursed Energy in the distance, Sukuna slowly rose.

This was an [Invitation].

Understood.

(What will it be?)

(Gojo Satoru's [Hollow Purple]?)

After their clash, Sukuna had come away with a deep impression of Gojo's Purple.

They were opponents of equivalent caliber. But in terms of what each could actually do, Gojo Satoru held an overwhelming advantage.

Take Cleave, for instance. Even pressing it directly against Gojo Satoru's face, Sukuna couldn't kill him. Dozens of times. Hundreds of times. It still wouldn't work.

But if Gojo Satoru fired dozens or hundreds of Purples simultaneously, Sukuna would have genuine regrets.

And Purple's charge time was only marginally longer than [Blue] or [Red]. It couldn't really be called slow. Sukuna's own [Cleave], by contrast, had the hard constraint of requiring direct contact, hand to target.

Gojo Satoru's technique was one even Sukuna found troublesome.

But at the same time,

(None of that matters.)

Sukuna looked ahead with anticipation.

Crush them. Absolute [Cursed Energy Volume]. Absolute [Cursed Energy Output]. Just pour it through them.

Like Ishigori Ryu against other sorcerers, just let loose, hold nothing back, show yourself completely.

The current Sukuna had every right to that arrogance.

But when the Cursed Energy actually reached him, bearing down without the slightest attempt at concealment, Sukuna felt something wrong.

No.

This wasn't [Purple].

"Is that the technique of the one with Cursed Spirit Manipulation?"

Sukuna's eyes narrowed.

He had some impression of Geto Suguru. Not a particularly powerful sorcerer. No real innate talent to speak of. If he hadn't happened to be born in the same era as Gojo Satoru, hadn't happened to become his partner, Sukuna wouldn't have looked at Geto twice.

"But... what is this Cursed Energy?"

Sukuna's expression changed. He rose sharply.

I need to be on my feet for this.

The sheer volume of it had reached a level that even Sukuna, as he was now, could not look away from.

This was...

At the far edge of his vision, a pillar of black light erupted straight into the sky.

The Cursed Energy expanding outward was too fast. Far too immense.

Not [Purple].

This had already surpassed that entirely.

Jet-black despair tore across the full expanse of the grey, haze-blurred sky, wrapped in churning purple-black vortexes. It came with ferocious speed, bearing straight down on Sukuna's face, filling his vision and expanding, expanding, expanding,

"This is—!"

In an instant, the black pillar swallowed him whole.

And on the other shore of that vision, standing where the strike had been thrown from, was the sorcerer who had thrown it.

"[Maximum: Uzumaki]"

Geto Suguru flicked a finger.

"[Cursed Spirit Manipulation: One Hundred Thousand Units]"

➤ Next: Righteous Gang Beatdown