Frieren — Chapter 216 - Parting

The Culling Game was over.

A barrier that should have been impossible to terminate was forcibly dismantled through sheer overwhelming power, the Purification Arts of Himmel's [Priest] mode at full capacity.

The fall of the King of Curses was broadcast live to the entire nation.

The ten million people who had vanished were returned. Using the massive reserves of cursed energy stockpiled in advance, combined with [Priest] and Mahito's Idle Transfiguration, the effects of [Assimilation] were finally, completely erased.

Inside the livestream, the sorcerers who had been bracing to fight all breathed out at once.

.Thank goodness. We don't have to fight Sukuna.

Just as expected. Exactly as the teacher said.

Leave it to them.

Everything... is over.

.

A long time later, Okkotsu Yuta opened his eyes.

A soft bed. Gentle sunlight.

He hadn't slept this deeply in a very long time.

He struggled to sit up, piecing together his memories.

Overtime. The Culling Game. The Merger with Tengen. The battle against Sukuna.

The last thing he remembered was his own fight with Sukuna.

The white-haired woman's silhouette was burned into his mind.

Even after exhausting every method he had, he'd lost to an unexpected technique in the end. And more than that, Okkotsu Yuta felt fairly certain Sukuna hadn't even been fighting at full strength.

Their victory conditions had never been the same. Himmel and the others only needed to defeat the King of Curses. But the King of Curses had to get through several of the strongest fighters alive and then keep going, facing whatever Jujutsu High had left.

Sukuna had been holding cards back the entire time. Okkotsu Yuta knew that.

His kind heart left him with a faint, genuine regret that he hadn't been able to make the King of Curses empty her hand.

But more than regret toward Sukuna, what he felt was disappointment in himself.

In the end, he hadn't been able to stop Sukuna alone.

That had been the plan. His plan. He would be the one to take Sukuna down by himself, proof, for Gojo Satoru and Himmel both, that even without them watching over him, he was strong enough to protect the Jujutsu Society. So they wouldn't have to work so hard anymore.

"Sigh..."

He couldn't stop himself.

"Who sighs the second they get out of a hospital bed? Someone who didn't know any better would think you hadn't been cured."

A voice from beside him.

Kashimo Hajime. Arms folded, back against the wall, every inch the seasoned fighter at rest.

"Mr. Kashimo?" Okkotsu Yuta said, surprised and pleased. "You came to visit me?"

"Don't make it sound like we're close! I came to confirm you weren't going to die in a ditch somewhere and leave no one to turn me back to normal!"

Kashimo turned away.

"You're up. Follow me. That bunch is still waiting for you."

Everyone from Jujutsu High?

Okkotsu Yuta scrambled to his feet.

He was in Jujutsu High's medical office. Given how often people came in injured, it had long since stopped resembling any ordinary school infirmary, it was closer to a proper hospital. It also sat near the training grounds, and with a Special Grade sorcerer's stride, he reached the door in moments.

He heard them before he even got inside.

"Ahhh, what a shame!"

The first voice was unmistakably Yuki Tsukumo's, loud and carrying.

"I was really looking forward to fighting Sukuna!"

She was leaning back in a wooden chair, thoroughly enjoying a shoulder massage from her disciple Todo Aoi, speaking without a care in the world.

"After watching the battle inside Yuta's domain, I knew it — just as I always said. My [Star Rage] isn't something even Sukuna could've withstood."

Very smug.

"Such a waste. Todo should've used [Boogie Woogie] to drop me right in front of Sukuna. One punch. Done."

"If we're going there, what about Higuruma?" someone else cut in. "Use his Domain Expansion to confiscate Sukuna's Cursed Technique directly. If he could've stripped [Immortality], the whole fight might've ended right there."

"No."

Higuruma refuted it himself.

"Based on my testing afterward, my domain appears to prioritize confiscating Cursed Tools when an opponent is carrying one."

"My domain prohibits acts of violence, but it doesn't completely forbid Cursed Techniques. Sukuna would have seen that. She could have deployed a Simple Domain and then used Construction to cancel out my domain's effect."

"Then what about Inumaki's Cursed Speech?"

"Cursed Speech's backlash scales with the gap in cursed energy. Even Yuta's Cursed Speech left his throat raw, Inumaki wouldn't have fared better."

"Nobara's Straw Doll Technique would've been useful, though."

"Straw Doll Technique... with a Binding Vow, maybe, if Sukuna were sufficiently weakened. There might have been a chance."

The room was going at full speed.

Panda and the others noticed Okkotsu Yuta first.

"Oh, Yuta-senpai!"

Itadori was already heading over, cheerful as ever.

"Injuries all healed up?"

"Yeah."

Okkotsu Yuta nodded.

"What are you all..."

"Post-battle review."

Maki said, without looking up.

She always claimed to hate Gojo Satoru the most, but at her core she was exactly the same, the same rabbit-brained need to tear apart every fight the second it was over, or she couldn't settle down.

"While we're at it, Yuta, same goes for you," Maki went on. "Since you have that cheat-level Technique Fusion ability, why didn't you try fusing more techniques? Copying Himmel-sensei's technique, for instance."

"Well..."

Okkotsu Yuta scratched the back of his head and laughed it off.

He hadn't told them everything.

From the outside, his sequence of moves during the fight had looked seamless. But only he and Sukuna knew the truth: it wasn't nearly that simple.

Infinite cursed energy, yes, he had that. But he wasn't equipped with anything like the Six Eyes as an external processing unit. His cursed energy precision was far below Gojo Satoru's or Sukuna's, which meant his precision with his own techniques was low as well.

And Technique Fusion demanded extreme precision.

Different techniques felt different when engraved on the brain. There was a compatibility problem on top of that. He had considered, at one point, whether he could copy Fushiguro Megumi's [Ten Shadows] technique, tame Mahoraga, and use it to adapt to Sukuna's attacks mid-battle.

What he found was that the Ten Shadows technique alone consumed an abnormal amount of mental load just sitting in his brain. Add Mahoraga on top of that, and he likely wouldn't have even gotten Mahoraga deployed before Sukuna carved him apart.

"None of that matters — I'm the most put out here, aren't I!"

Ryu Ishigori rubbed his shaved topknot, face tight with dissatisfaction.

Not getting to clash with Sukuna was genuinely killing him.

Though somewhere in the back of his mind, he had a vague sense that if it had been Sukuna at full strength, he would have been cut into pieces the moment he stepped forward. But Sukuna after being ground down in turns by four of the strongest, that version, he might have had a real shot against.

"It couldn't be helped."

Kokichi Muta had a trace of regret on his face too.

The Super Ultimate Mechamaru he had prepared was a colossal robot, dozens of meters tall. He had genuinely been hoping to recreate that iconic Evangelion scene.

Okkotsu Yuta watched all of them with a quiet smile.

This is nice.

That they can still sit around like this... and talk about things that don't matter.

Ah, speaking of which,

"Where's Gojo-sensei?"

He asked Itadori.

"Uh..."

Itadori's expression shifted.

The lively room went quiet for a beat, then,

"Over there."

Maki pointed.

Shoko was sprawled on a recliner in the corner, wearing the sunglasses Gojo Satoru had left behind, a lollipop in her mouth. One hand held a coffee, loose and easy. The other hand gripped a square box, tossing it up and catching it, tossing it up and catching it.

"Oh, Yuta."

She pushed the sunglasses down slightly and glanced at him.

"Good timing. Let's play soccer in a bit, call it a victory party. The last Sister-School Exchange Event never got a proper ending anyway."

"Soccer? Where would we even find a socc, " He watched the [Prison Realm] arc through the air and land neatly in her palm. He decided not to finish that sentence.

"Where's Himmel-sensei?" Okkotsu Yuta asked, turning to someone else.

Itadori looked like he was about to personally ride out to find him, but it was the Hasaba sisters, still hanging back, who answered.

"Oh, Himmel-nii is—"

.

The setting sun was a rusty, murky red. The whole building wore it like a skin, gone hazy at the edges.

The empty hallway held a thin drift of dust. In raw terms it was just grime, but with the light coming through at that angle, it looked almost like scattered starlight.

Okkotsu Yuta pushed open the classroom door and found Himmel immediately.

Half the Hero's face was steeped in that blood-red glow. It didn't feel ominous. It felt warm.

Himmel had already sensed him. He tilted his head slightly toward the door.

Eyes crinkling.

"You're up. No serious damage?"

"Yeah."

Okkotsu Yuta answered quietly.

Then he moved closer, restless, already forming the self-reproach in his mind, but Himmel raised a hand and stopped him before he could start.

"You did well enough."

"Don't put too much on yourself."

"You might have wanted to defeat Sukuna alone. But that person was a cheat code from the beginning."

"And... I've thought about it carefully."

"Without me there, Gojo wouldn't have fought Sukuna so loosely. And even if Gojo had lost, your injuries would have already been recovering by then. Sukuna's condition had been dropping the whole time. Everyone else, taking turns, you would have won anyway."

Okkotsu Yuta didn't argue.

He still had a few techniques he could have used, the kind with no floor, no limit, but thanks to Himmel, none of them had been necessary.

Set that aside.

He had heard something else inside those words.

"So—"

"This place... it's fine to leave it to you now."

The time for parting had come.

➤ Next: An Isekai Life That Doesn't Start From Zero