Ryokun wakes up, still snuggly wrapped up in the arms of Chiyo Gojo.
He's spent the week being a bit spoiled, eating homecooked meals, singing songs and playing music on whatever instruments he could navigate at his small size, finger painting, playing on the playground, fighting with the babies from the Gojo clan, looking at picture books, and splashing around in the pool.
Ryokun is peaceful for a minute or so, basking in the warmth of a morning snuggle, but then when he rolls over, he sees that man is there again.
Gojo is peacefully asleep, a bit sore from the operation the day before, and minding his own business in his own bed in his own house. Now that he's discovered he really likes his wife, he warps home every night and finds Ryokun in his bed every night.
When the toddler sits up, he yawns and stretches, considering laying back down in the comfy spot between the grownups, but he doesn't really like Mr. Gojo just hanging out. He's jealous for Ms. Chiyo's attention and wants all the songs and snuggles to himself. Perhaps he would share with Yuji, but not with Mr. Gojo.
Satoru is sleeping with his mouth open and his thick sleeping blindfold, and Ryokun wonders, what can he do?
Put something weird in his mouth? But what?
He decides he'll crawl out of the bed by making his way to the end, but when he starts to move around, Chiyo mumbles and half-asleep, pulls him close to her again.
It takes some effort to untangle himself without waking her and deciding he can't get off the bed without waking one of the grownups, he tries to think of what he can do to Gojo.
Ryokun thinks about spitting in his open mouth but thinks Chiyo will get mad at him for that. It's the kind of bad thing he will get in trouble for, and not a bad thing he can get away with.
Small hands fish around under Satoru's pillow and find the harmonica the toddler brought to bed.
The toddler puts it directly next to Gojo's ear, takes the deepest breath possible, and awakens Satoru Gojo to a sound like a dozen demons all screaming into his ear at one single moment.
Rolling off the bed in surprise, Gojo pulls the blindfold off and places a hand over his ringing ear.
Ryokun is sitting up on the bed, holding the harmonica with a grin that is almost demonic.
Chiyo groggily asks, "What was that?"
"That little jerk made a horrible sound."
In an instant, the toddler changes his affect and innocently says, "I was playing a song for you."
"That wasn't a song. It sucked," Satoru replies, although he wonders why he is arguing with this little vessel of terror.
Chiyo hugs him from behind and says, "Don't be like that, Satoru. Let this beautiful baby make his music."
Ryokun turns to grab onto her and cranes his head, looks Gojo in the eyes, and says, "I'm a beautiful baby," before puffing on the harmonica again.
Gojo rolls his eyes. The moment he argues and accuses this very small person of being a liar and a manipulator, he becomes a man having an argument with a toddler. As Satoru Gojo, the strongest living creature on earth, he feels this is below him.
Satisfied with his victory, Ryokun turns back to Chiyo. "Can we do a song?"
"Of course we can."
"But just you and me. Not him."
Satoru doesn't even know the words to the children's song they start singing, but he looks them up on his phone and starts singing loudly, which makes Ryokun yell more loudly, until they are just yelling the words at each other while Gojo's wife plays the guitar on the bed.
The fact that this is all happening at 5:51 am leaves Chiyo a little unamused. "I guess it's time to go down and get started on breakfast since I have two children to feed."
There's a lot going on in the Jujutsu Society right now, but as Gojo spends a few hours that morning at home, he starts to ponder all sorts of things going on in his life.
There's a room where the door has been closed, and he slides it open and finds a nursery almost ready for a baby.
A blue and white wonderland with little gold accents here and there, it's very princessy to him. It's hard to imagine that there's going to be a whole new person in their family soon.
There's a big harp in one corner, and he drags his fingers across the strings.
How extravagant, he thinks, to be born a sorcerer princess who naps to the sound of a harp.
Satoru hopes the baby can have this life and not the one that Yuji sees in his visions.
The more he starts to make room in his heart for the baby, the more his heart hurts at the idea that she might have a difficult and short life spent carrying the same burdens that he does.
There's a big soft rug in the middle of the room, and he lays down on his back just to think about all of it, wincing a little at his sore back.
He hears the literal pitter-patter of feet in the hallway, and Ryokun enters the nursery.
"Hey, little man, come here."
Ryokun is holding his orange kitty stuffie and discovers the grownup is fully on the floor, his territory.
Satoru rolls over and says, "I need you to do me a favor. Can you stand on my back?"
"Yea."
There are no questions about why he would want this or if it's okay to do; he just walks over and steps onto Gojo's back after giving him the toy to hold. Gojo rests his head on the cat stuffy and sighs in relief at the pressure.
"Okay, now walk around."
Ryokun holds onto the crib rail as he steps all over Gojo's back.
"A little more. Stomp a little."
The child is perplexed that he's been given permission to stomp on this adult, because he can't imagine the wear and tear a life of sorcery combined with tall stature and occasional bad posture have on the back of a grownup.
Ryokun enjoys his duty so much that he abruptly jumps as high as he is able at his clumsy little age and lands on the lumbar region of Gojo's back, causing an incredibly loud CRACK to resonate through the room.
He sits on Gojo's back and asks, "You okay?"
"Very okay. Thank you! You cured me!"
He feels little hands easing into one of his pockets, the one where he typically has a few pieces of candy, and Ryokun takes out a soft caramel.
"Can I have?"
"Of course. You're way cheaper than a professional masseuse."
"What's moosoosoo?"
"It's basically a person whose job is giving backrubs."
"Am I moosoosoo?"
"Yes, the best moosoosoo ever."
Gojo thinks this kid is quite cute when he wants to be, and while Ryokun sits on Gojo's back and eats all the candy out of his pocket, Satoru contemplates what it's going to be like when the baby comes.
"Do you know what this room is?"
"Baby's room."
"That's right. There's going to be a baby in our family soon. What do you think about that?"
Ryokun has lots of opinions about everything, so he asks, "You be the Daddy?"
"That's right. You think I'll be a good Daddy?"
"Yea. You have candy."
Gojo finds this child's thoughtful determination that he will be a good father because he has a candy pocket to be quite funny, and he wonders if their baby will be like this too, possessing a mind filled with delightful absurdities.
Since Gojo is in reach, the toddler pets his undercut because he's curious about what it feels like, and then after a rather lengthy conversation about all the various things on Ryokun's mind, Satoru considers who this kid actually might be.
Ryokun remains a very puzzling character in the overall story.
They know Yuji's soul came from the future; that seems like a reasonable assumption that has been proven likely correct.
But what about this little guy? Where did he come from?
Just to try his luck, Gojo flips through his phone in a folder of various things on the evidence board he works on with Yuji.
He shows Ryokun a picture of Tore Reksten, and the boy stares at the photo for a while.
"Do you know his name?"
"Imbecile."
This child occasionally using extremely proper and ancient words is one of the oddest things about him. This specific ancient world, with its correct kanji, implies the person is not only foolish, but that this foolishness causes them harm.
The fact that Ryokun knows Tore Reksten's face is interesting, and implies that he played some sort of role in the future that Yuji came from, even though Yuji has never seen him in a vision. Gojo wonders if he stumbled into similar misfortune in this other future and became possessed by Kenjaku then too.
"Is this Kenjaku?"
"Who?"
He flips to a sketch of Alghera, or as well as he could make one according to Yuji's description.
Ryokun frowns as he stares at the phone.
His mouth stumbles on the name three times because it doesn't flow particularly well off a tongue that has only spoken syllabic Japanese.
"Alghera. The monster! She hurt Blueberry!"
"Blueberry?"
"Took her head off!"
Gojo realizes that Ryokun has recalled an actual memory, or something like a memory, or maybe a vision like Yuji has, and it's of a human decapitation.
He starts crying hysterically, half-screaming, half sobbing, although Gojo can't tell if it's because he's sad about 'Blueberry' or if it's because he's scared of the monster. He's not sure if Ryokun understands what it means, but he clearly has a graphic image of this monster removing someone's head from their body.
The Six Eyes user Yuji saw in his vision died by decapitation.
Blueberry was not too odd a nickname for someone with very blue eyes.
Ryokun was originally supposed to go back with Yuji today, but his situation is complicated. Now that they know that his attempted kidnaper was definitely a thousand-year-old curse user who is famous for doing absolutely fucked stuff to babies and small children and setting complex traps, Ryokun can't just be out in the world.
The kid probably isn't going to be safe while Kenjaku is alive.
They could keep him at the Tokyo campus under constant guard, but he's still a little kid. There's no playground there or kids for him to play with. It's probably safest for him to stay where he is, but he assumes the higher ups are going to bitch about it because they don't want him to become another Megumi Fushiguro.
They're more concerned with the politics than Ryokun's wellbeing, which is precisely why they shouldn't be allowed to make choices about his fate in the first place.
It's the same problem that affects the students, except Ryokun is extremely vulnerable.
Once Ryokun calms down, Gojo helps him blow his nose which he evidently can't do unless someone else holds the tissue and coaches him.
"You make a lot of snot for a little dude."
"I'm scared of the monster," he says, pulling on Gojo's pants.
Gojo answers, "Don't worry. The monster isn't real. It can't hurt you."
After talking with his wife and calling Yuji, they decide it's best to keep Ryokun there for the time being, although Gojo wonders if that's really enough.
Tengen said the attempted kidnapping, which deviated from other carefully-laid plans, indicates that Kenjaku really wants Ryokun, and that if Kenjaku really wants to do something, he'll find a way to do it. It's only a matter of time and circumstance. She also said that Ryokun is similar to a lightning rod in that he presents a hazard to those around him, but on the other hand, they know lightning will probably strike that exact spot.
Keeping Ryokun around his wife and unborn child and clan probably endangers them, but Gojo thinks Kenjaku will be more hesitant to strike the Gojo estate than either of the locations because Kotaru the demon tree presents a plethora of strategic disadvantages.
It might be possible to sneak onto one of the campuses using sophisticated enough concealment, but Kotaru is a living thing that is ever-present and aware. The instant a hostile slips over the fence, no matter what they do to hide themselves, Kotaru will wake up.
Kotaru waking up is a big deal, and he's very noisy and causes the earth to shake when he moves his roots around. Since the Kyoto campus is immediately adjacent to the Gojo clan estate, if Kotaru awakens, the Jujutsu Society will immediately be aware.
It's a lot to think about, and ultimately, Gojo doesn't have a better plan.
He goes out to the cemetery before he heads to work, to the grave for Suguru Geto that now contains the right remains.
He doesn't have the bandwidth to have emotions about this right now, so he postpones his grief.
When he warps to Tokyo, it's to meetings about what happened.
He passes Yuji in the hallway, coming out of the Council of Elders.
Yuji has never had to talk to the 'higher-ups' directly like that before, and he felt quite intimidated by it. They wanted to know everything about everything, and Yuji was honest about the fact that he knew the operation at the ryokan wasn't sanctioned by the Jujutsu Society.
They were flabbergasted that he understood that Gojo's primary goal was to save two girls who were already murderers, and he is flabbergasted that it surprises them that he would do that.
Nobara told him she'd had this grand realization that the way she sees a person in her mind isn't actually the person, but just a version of them that she made up according to herself. This is kind of a lot to take in, but she pointed out that this is true for everyone. Understanding someone is just the process of making that imaginary person a little more accurate, although it's impossible to ever fully know another person.
She said there's a version of Yuji Itadori in the minds of all the people who know him, and if they all came to life, all of them would be different and none of them would be him.
Yuji can't help but think that the Satoru Gojo that the elders believe in isn't like the real Gojo, or maybe that's what they hate about him.
Maybe Mimiko and Nanako Hasaba are rude, wild, did horrible things, whatever, but now that Yuji has learned about their lives, he's glad that they were helped.
The Council of Elders secondarily wanted to interrogate him about his relationship with the Gojo clan and why Ryokun was staying at their clan estate despite the fact that the Elders didn't approve this arrangement.
Yuji stood up to them and told them that he would do whatever was best for his family no matter what it was, and perhaps because he ate a special grade curse and had nothing to show for it but some heartburn, they didn't press him further even though this caused audible anger in their voices.
This discussion with them causes Yuji to realize that the people who are in charge of them don't care about the fact that they are human beings or that they're going through human experiences.
Ryokun could have been killed during his attempted kidnapping, but he's safe, healthy, and doing well in a safe place and none of that matters to them. What they care about is the politics and the power that he might have someday.
Mimiko and Nanako were abused as little girls, and even though Suguru Geto did everything he did, he lovingly raised them. When he died, they had to face the reality that his body had been stolen and out of some very sadly misplaced hope, they stayed with a monster hoping maybe Geto could come back to them someday.
It's the saddest thing, really?
Yuji knows those girls participated in the attempted kidnapping, and they did put Ryokun's life in danger, but those were the lengths they were willing to go to because they thought they could have their dad back and be with the only person who had ever loved them.
Gojo choosing to help them above everything else is the compassionate, merciful, and human thing to do.
To him, even though sorcerers go through scary stuff and it seems like the whole world is trying to break them down until they don't feel human anymore, they have one person who is always telling them without words to never give up on their own humanity, on their human hearts, on their hope and compassion and the things that are important to them.
That probably seemed really sappy to someone living out in the world, but to young sorcerers, it almost feels like the world is trying to erode their humanity away, bit by bit.
The Elders don't understand any of that, or maybe they do, and they don't believe that Yuji should be allowed to be a human being and make human decisions for himself, for his friends, for his little brother, for others too.
As Yuji begins to understand his own power more, and the power of others, he is struck both by how precious human life actually is and how urgently it has to be defended.
Ryokun is this huge person living in this tiny body, filled with love and hope. He is fragile, in his body, in his mind, in his spirit. It takes so little to break his heart or disappoint him, and despite his surprising recklessness, he gets injured easily. It would take so little for him to die.
Yuji didn't want to be tasked with taking care of a child when he met Ryokun and at that moment, it would have been so easy to just deny him and let fate chart whatever course it would for him. He assumed someone would probably have taken him in. After all, he's very valuable.
But Ryokun is precious, and he is part of Yuji's heart now and Yuji can't imagine not getting to see this mischievous little human grow up. He is a part of Yuji, and Yuji is a part of him, and they're all just…being human together, souls drifting through a world that's kind of scary sometimes, but it's better because they have each other.
His future self, ultimately, lost everyone, and so instinctively, he wants to do everything he can to protect and care for as many people as possible.
The deepest parts of him feel so much joy just being able to see Nanami pass by in the hall.
Yuji feels resentment toward the Elders when he leaves and as Gojo passes him in the hallway, on his way to probably be lectured and punished or threatened or whatever.
He regroups with the others, who are feeling similar anger and frustration toward the leadership for criticizing their actions.
Panda reminds him that this isn't a regular school. They can't just expel the students for misbehaving. Between their age and Gojo's, there are very few powerful sorcerers, and the higher-ups already alienated the ones who would be third years. With special grades and an ancient curse user on the prowl, the Elders can't exactly punish all of them. One student, maybe, but this operation was all the first and second years in Tokyo, the most powerful clan, and the most powerful sorcerer.
"As much as they hate what happened and as mad about it as they are, they can't really do much to us. We're too valuable. When a sorcerer is forced outside of the Jujutsu Society, it not only means that they can't rely on the sorcerer's strength, but it also increases the chances that sorcerer will turn against the Jujutsu Society."
Yuji trusts Panda's opinion, but he is still really unhappy about everything, and he's worried about Ryokun.
There's just no escaping from the fact that the scariest guy in Japan wants to take him, and Yuji doesn't even know what to do. He is grateful to Gojo and his wife for continuing to extend their hospitality to him, but as far as Yuji knows, Gojo's wife is pregnant he doesn't want to endanger someone else's child.
Back in their dorm, the poster is still stuck up on the wall with Ryokun's little golden apple stickers.
One more and he was supposed to get a kitty. He'd been doing his best, and while his best wasn't actually very good, Yuji could tell that he was really trying to do better and make Yuji happy.
Their little life was happy.
Yuji had gotten used to having Ryokun around. He wanted to hear his voice and talk to him about everything and have meals together with him in the cafeteria and hear about all his daycare drama.
Apparently, the only way they can get back to that is to take down a thousand-year-old criminal who has evaded centuries of Jujutsu Society sorcerers.
Yuji wonders if exorcising Mahito meant that Kugisaki and Nanami would get to survive now? In the back of his mind, he's afraid that people are assigned a day to die and nothing they do will matter.
Will Yuko get to stay with him, if Mahito is gone?
What about those little pink-haired babies?
The part of Yuji that is still very fifteen blushes every time he thinks of Yuko as being the future mother of his children, and yet his mind comes back to the idea because the part of him that is not fifteen finds the idea so comforting.
Even though things in his life are kind of chaotic, texting with her calms him down and reminds him that everything can probably be okay if he's brave and if they are able to prevent the other future.
After Gojo gets out of his meetings, Yuji meets him in their secret room in Gojo's apartment, where all their clues are.
Gojo writes a word on a piece of paper and sticks it onto a sketch. "Her name is Alghera."
"The big bad?"
"Mhmm."
Gojo says, "I learned by asking Ryokun, who had an episode and started crying when he remembered her. Sorry about that—I didn't realize he'd respond so poorly, and didn't think there was much of a chance we'd get lucky. But he remembered something more than her name."
"What did he remember?"
"That Alghera hurt a mysterious person named Blueberry."
Yuji says, "Ryokun seems to go back to talking about Blueberry. Keep in mind that he has imaginary friends that include a giraffe and a four-armed giant."
Gojo answers, "I think that Blueberry is the other Six Eyes user. Ryokun remembers seeing her have her head removed by Alghera. That's how the Six Eyes user dies, and Blueberry isn't a nonsensical nickname for someone with blue eyes.
"He also knows Reksten's face, but it was like when we showed him the sketch of the pigtailed sorcerer and he kept insisting his name was 'Trash.'"
Yuji and Gojo tentatively assume the other Six Eyes user is probably the baby Gojo is expecting, and if Ryokun knew her and saw her die, it would be proof that he was definitely from the future.
There is an amount of evidence piling up that Ryokun possesses a lot of information he would not have if he was actually a toddler in the future.
He's identified by sight half of the sorcerers at the Jujutsu Society, as well as a bunch of enemies including Mahito, Alghera, Reksten, and Kenjaku.
Yuji says, "It seems like he was there, doesn't it?"
Gojo answers, "It really does. But I can't imagine he could have participated in those events as a toddler. He knows the bad guys by sight. Remembers their names when he sees their faces. Feels apparent disgust at some of them. If he saw the other Six Eyes user get her head ripped off by Alghera, that means he was at the Later Shinjuku Event."
The problem with this is that Yuji has dozens of snapshots of Later Shinjuku and everyone else appears multiple times.
Yuji says, "I haven't seen Ryokun in any of my visions."
"What if you've seen Ryokun and he just looks like something else? Maybe he also traveled through time with you and somehow his form got distorted or substituted with yours somehow."
The teenager shrugs. "I don't think that's it. Sometimes I feel like…maybe Ryokun is a part of me?"
"A part of you?"
"I don't know how to describe it, but I feel like there are things that I am not allowed to remember. Sometimes when I'm with Ryokun, I get this impression that I've known him for a very long time. It's all very confusing. I've never seen him in any of my visions, and yet it is increasingly clear that he was there for all of it somehow. But obviously, we can't stand around and pretend that as a baby, he was just around when all this was happening."
It's such an odd mystery; Yuji traveling back in time to prevent the apocalypse makes sense, but why send a child? The idea that Ryokun probably wasn't a child before arriving in their time perhaps explains some things, but if he was really an adult in a child's body, there would be signs.
Ryokun is a baby to his core with a few little moments where he's maybe just peculiar.
Yet the kid knows the players even if he doesn't remember the game, and that's probably only possible if he was a player himself.
Yuji's accounts of Later Shinjuku seem to suggest that he was perhaps the sole survivor of the battle, and they basically know that Shoko is perhaps the only other sorcerer they know that is still alive after Later Shinjuku.
Yuta's fate is still unknown, but he appears at the Earlier Shinjuku event. By Later Shinjuku, Megumi is seen controlling Rika as a shadow, and the only plausible explanation for that is that Yuta dies somewhere in the middle.
There are young people at the Later Shinjuku event that are not known to them because they probably haven't been born or are currently small children out in the world, like the other Six Eyes user, a kid who looks like Megumi and may have an evolved variant of Ten Shadows, and a handful of others.
The identity of this Megumi lookalike has been the point of some discussion. Both in terms of his looks and the similarity of his technique to Ten Shadows, he appears to be descended from the Zenin clan, but they don't know who he is. On the board, his name is simply Shadows, and he and Yuji quietly speculate about his identity.
When Yuji first started sorting through his visions of Later Shinjuku, they discussed the possibility that Shadows might be Megumi's son and they both die in battle together, but if the other Six Eyes user is Gojo's daughter that will be born around the new year, Shadows is probably going to arrive in the world soon too.
It doesn't seem plausible that Megumi might become a parent in the next year or so.
Gojo has considered the possibility that in the other timeline, his wife was forced to marry Naoya Zenin and Shadows might be her kid. The idea makes him feel kind of sour, but based on when the kid would need to be born and all the ages of the Zenin clan members, Naoya seems like the person most likely to spawn in the near future.
Yuji in some ways finds the investigation of his fragmented look into the future to be incredibly frustrating, because he's sure there's so much that he's supposed to know.
Actually, everything is frustrating.
Yuji feels fortunate that maybe he can help everyone not see the dark future, but the fact that he has seen it, even in bits and pieces, weighs on him so heavily.
When confronted by Gojo, Kenjaku didn't deny that 'most sorcerers dying' was on Kenjaku's to-do list, but Yuji and Gojo don't realize that Kenjaku plans for them all to be killed during the execution of the Culling Game, and what Yuji actually sees is all of them dying at the hands of Alghera, an accidental outcome of the Culling Game.
As Sukuna watches his reincarnation from the spirit world, he is not particularly concerned with what's going on in the mortal world.
He has two reasons for this:
First, the easiest way to avoid Alghera's birth is for Kenjaku to find out about her at any point before she is born. Evolving cursed spirits is the exact opposite of what Kenjaku is trying to do, and if Yuji and Kenjaku just had one single honest conversation, Kenjaku would realize his experiment is going to result in sorcerers becoming 'lesser beings' to curses.
Kenjaku will either adjust his experiment, or not do it at all.
That is all it will take.
People can die, and the Culling Games and other catastrophes can still happen, but if Kenjaku finds out about Alghera at any point before December 24, Alghera will never exist.
The second reason is that there is a very clear barrier to Alghera being born in the same form and with the same powers.
The requirement for Alghera to spawn with the anti-infinity barrier, is that not only does Satoru Gojo have to die, but he has to have a reason to create an anti-infinity barrier in the first place. Since that technique was an answer to Sukuna evolving the World Cutting slash, there's no reason for him to create it if there's no Sukuna.
And more importantly, without Sukuna there, the possibility that Gojo will actually die is astronomically small in the first place. If Gojo doesn't die, the power necessary to cause Alghera's birth probably won't exist, and even if she is born, she won't have her cheat armor.
Sukuna believes that his mere removal from the events will prevent Alghera from destroying the world. Despite being convinced that his absence will prevent the apocalypse from happening, he remains unwilling even in the afterlife to admit that he was part of the problem.
Unfortunately for the sorcerers, none of this is known to anyone in the mortal world.
Yuji is left with his apocalyptic visions, Gojo is trying to scheme a way out of them, and Kenjaku is quietly trying to figure out how he got busted.
A few weeks pass, and October arrives with slightly chillier weather.
Behind the scenes, tension between the Elders and Gojo continues to escalate, to the point that they're left with the reality that they will have to acknowledge Gojo's vision for the future or he will remove them from it. The ryokan incident was a watershed moment, where the two sides have to find some way past the fact that Gojo ignored the existence of the Jujutsu Society in its entirety and went off on his own on a mission that expansive.
In that chamber, Gojo and the Elders ponder how they can live with each other. Gojo doesn't want to kill them until the moment where they don't give him any other choice, but he also feels like this conflict is weighing the Jujutsu Society down, maybe sinking it toward the dark abyss that Yuji sees.
The Elders don't want to mess too much with Gojo because even if they had a button to launch Satoru Gojo into the sun, he had three kids under the age of seventeen that could slay a special grade. His vision had already passed on to them, and even if he was gone, they would still be there.
But, they joke even in his presence, it would be nice to have a button like that.
The showdown at the ryokan forces action; if they don't do something about Gojo, they'll seem weak and pointless. If they attempt to do what they want with Satoru Gojo, he'll splash them all over the walls, which would also ironically also make them seem weak and pointless.
How can they contain him?
In historic times, the Jujutsu Society was headquartered in Kyoto. The Kyoto campus is actually immediately next to the Gojo clan estate since Michizane Sugawara helped Tengen create it. The only thing separating them is a wall that the Gojos will rudely call the Jujutsu Society's umbilical cord, a thin line that separates mother from child.
Moving headquarters, Tengen, and many operations to Tokyo over the past century wasn't really just about adjusting to the changing population. It was also about trying to curb the Gojo clan's seemingly endless political interference in everything.
At age fifteen, Gojo was sent to Tokyo by his meddling grandfather to set up roots and spread like cancer, a job very well done. They had to adapt to the strongest Gojo presence being there instead of Kyoto, thus causing the Kyoto campus to become more anti-Gojo.
They discuss if they can offer Gojo some sort of consolation to make him leave Tokyo because the button to launch him into the sun continues to not manifest for them despite their most fervent wishes.
But eventually, they make Gojo an offer and he decides to accept.
The Tokyo students all receive a text on October 10 at eight in the morning telling them that they've been transferred to the Kyoto campus effective immediately, and at first, Yuji is left wondering if maybe they really did fire Gojo.
Yuji goes to Gojo's apartment to check on the secret basement room, only to find that all the investigation stuff has been moved and there are boxes of manga spilled all over the place instead.
The students are all confused about what is going on, but when Yuji texts Gojo, he tells him that everything is fine and that he'll be waiting for them in Kyoto.
After packing his and Ryokun's things in boxes that were brought by an assistant, he carefully writes his name on each in a marker so it will be delivered to the right place.
With an overnight bag and a plethora of questions, he meets up with the other students, and they take the train to Kyoto, where assistants pick them up and take them to the campus.
They are greeted by Satoru Gojo, who is waiting for them on the steps to give them a tour.
Yuji realizes right away that he can see Kotaru, the Gojo clan's demon tree, very clearly, and had no idea the Gojo clan estate and the Kyoto campus were immediately next to each other.
The Kyoto campus is much older, and in many ways, more interesting. There are all kinds of places to explore and things to look at. At the end of the tour, Gojo takes them to the dorms, where the Kyoto group is really quite chilly about having the schools combined.
Yuji doesn't have a room in the dorms, and while everyone else is settling in, the two head next door, where Gojo shows him into an apartment that's part of the sprawling main residence of the Gojo clan.
"You're an ally of our clan, so this isn't weird or anything," Gojo answers as he slides the door open.
It's nice; there are two bedrooms, a big living area, and a proper kitchen and bath. There's already furniture and necessities set up, and Yuji looks around and says, "This is really nice. A lot bigger than our room back in Tokyo."
Gojo answers, "After having that little guy running around in my house, I realize it's probably no good to try to keep him in a single room. He needs to be able to run around. Plus, we're right across the tea garden. Chiyo and the aunties of the clan will keep watching him while you work and go to class. Plus, I heard you promised him a cat."
Gojo holds out a golden apple sticker.
"How'd you get this?"
"I thought about enrolling Ijichi in daycare to see if he can behave himself and earn it, but instead he just went there and asked if he could have it."
Yuji asks, "Are the higher ups going to have a problem with this?"
Gojo answers, "Yuji, the thing about the higher ups is that people who live to be old sorcerers are either crazy as all hell like my great uncle or they're cowards. You can tell the difference if you look at them. All the old men in that room have all their limbs, they're not covered in scars. People who spent their lives amassing political power instead of realizing their own potential as sorcerers aren't going to do anything to you. You know why?"
"Why?"
"Because they are afraid you will eat them. Being dangerous is very powerful in our community."
Yuji thinks it's odd that someone like Gojo, the most powerful human being on earth, would be interested in Ryokun's dream of earning enough golden apple stickers to get a cat as a reward, but Gojo is also just a human doing human things out in the world.
They go on to Gojo's wing of the estate, which is just a short walk across a tiny tea garden from the apartment, and Ryokun practically tackles him at the door because he hasn't been by in almost a week.
After Yuji helps pack up Ryokun's things, they make the very short walk to their new place and spend the evening alone together for the first time in a really long time.
Even though he's been spoiled to death by Gojo's wife for weeks, Ryokun is so excited to be back alone with Yuji in their new little home.
It's another change and so much change probably isn't good for him, but he's a tough kid.
Sometimes Yuji forgets that he really only met this kid in June and even though the blood tests say otherwise, he doesn't think they're actually related.
Yet, he's family.
It doesn't matter what anyone else says, they're bros.
If Ryokun really came from that dark future, Yuji is glad that they made this journey together somehow, and that he'll get to live a better life.
And, he's glad that they're together.
Yuji is somehow acutely aware of the fact that every time he turns around, Ryokun is a little bit bigger than the last time he noticed. Even in the short time they've been together, his mental abilities are quickly sharpening. He's learning more and more about himself, the world, and other people. He expresses himself better, and his tantrums are a little less intense than at first.
He knows more numbers, a few hiragana, all his basic colors, and tons of animals; he is getting better about please and thank you, and now and then, he'll even apologize without being forced.
Chiyo helped him memorize Yuji's phone number, and taught him how to write his name, which he does in a way that's not really legible, but the effort is there. He even brushes his teeth well on his own, he's doing better dressing himself, and he can navigate zippers and Velcro his shoes.
Ryokun is increasingly interested in Yuji as a person too.
What's his favorite color? Favorite song? Favorite thing to eat? Has he gotten any hugs from Yuko lately?
Since Yuko lives in Tokyo and Yuji and Ryokun are now in Kyoto, the logistics of that relationship have become more difficult, but Yuji texts Yuko approximately two hundred times her day, so it's fine.
While Ryokun is working on his Big Cats Coloring Book after a simple dinner Yuji whipped up for them, Yuko calls to Facetime him while he sits on the sofa and not even two minutes into the call, Ryokun climbs over the back of the sofa onto Yuji's head and inserts himself into the conversation.
Ryokun needs to know how she's been doing, if she wants to see him play his harmonica or his little drums—he can do both at the same time, by the way, if she likes tigers or lions more, if she knows how to make fish with crispy skins, if she wants to hear a joke he learned, all while wrestling with Yuji, who is trying to remove him from his head while still holding the phone.
What Yuko sees is two happy pink-haired boys having a little moment.
It's cute.
"You should get married with Yuji," Ryokun suggests.
Yuko blushes a little. "You think so?"
"Yea! Then you can be with us! Like Mr. Gojo and Ms. Chiyo."
Yuji is embarrassed and lifts Ryokun up with one hand on his belly. "Sorry! He doesn't know what he's talking about."
"I do too! When you get married with someone, you become a mommy and daddy."
Yuji cringes—ah yes, the facts of life from a toddler.
Taking a deep breath, Yuji looks up at Ryokun as he is suspended above him and says, "You're really a very jealous little dude. I think if we did marry and had a baby, you'd be mad as hell. Just imagine, me and Yuko, paying attention to Baby."
Ryokun's limbs suddenly go limp as he considers this, and he says, "I'm Baby."
Yuko can't help but laugh, even though she'd wanted to have a private conversation with Yuji.
Ryokun rocks his body to slide of Yuji's hand and lands his feet directly on top of Yuji's head. Then, he lunges forward, grabbing the phone as he tumbles forward, onto a coffee table and then the floor.
Both of them freeze for a minute because it seems like this must have resulted in some sort of injury. Ryokun hit the coffee table and then the floor, after all, but the toddler waits a few second and nothing hurts. Emboldened, he sprints down the hall toward the bedroom. Yuji chases, and Yuko sees the camera jumping around until Ryokun slides under the bed.
Ryokun whispers, "He can't get me under here, he's too big."
Yuji's hand grabs him by one ankle, and he squeals as he's dragged out from under the bed.
The teenager holds him upside down by one foot with one hand and takes the phone with the other, and he hears Yuko laughing.
"Sorry about that."
Ryokun yells as he flails upside down, "Put me down!"
"Are you going to be good?"
"No! Badder!"
Yuji says, "Let me call you back after I get the monster to bed."
Ryokun is in a mood and wants to play wrestle, which is fine with Yuji since at some point, he'll reach zero percent on his internal battery and just fall asleep.
A bath and some wrestling wear him out as expected, and Yuji tucks Ryokun in before retiring to his own room to call Yuko back.
She's wearing pajamas with thin straps when he calls back and he can see her shoulders and arms, and this leaves him with the strange compulsion to bite. Not hard. Just lightly press his teeth in.
She looks so warm.
Her voice makes him feel a certain way too.
They spend an hour on the phone before his door slides open, and a drowsy Ryokun climbs onto Yuji's bed and snuggles in.
After less than fifteen seconds, he says, "I can't sleep cause you're talking."
Yuji answers, "You got out of your bed, came in here, got in my bed, and now you're complaining?"
"Yea."
"Go back to your own bed."
"I wanna be with you, Yuji."
When he was apart from Ryokun, he missed him constantly, but now they're back together, he is reminded that this precious little soul is also kind of a pain in the ass.
Oh well, Yuji decides, Ryokun is his pain in the ass, and nothing feels right when he's not around.
The boys tell Yuko goodnight and go to sleep.
When morning comes, he leaves Ryokun with Chiyo in the morning after breakfast, and then heads to class.
Gojo is in a visibly good mood both because he scored a political victory and because the little goaltender that was keeping him from scoring was no longer on duty at his house. He had the best, most wholesome marital evening ever, with the kind of sex that could properly be called lovemaking, and snuggling, and positive discussions about their upcoming baby, and he just felt like a very happy and good boy.
The second years got into a fight at six in the morning and knocked down one of the first floor walls at the dorm, but that wasn't his problem. He decided to leave that to Gakuganji or Yaga—despite being one of three 'leaders' at the school, Gojo had no intention of doing too many administrative duties.
The kids would work it out.
Noritoshi Kamo told the students before class that the Elders had given Gojo basic control over all the students in exchange for him moving them away from Tokyo. It's a compromise designed to give Gojo what he wants and keep him close to home, which in theory will result in him meddling in other things less.
The other clans are upset about the agreement because of the power teachers have over the students, but the Elders are just tired of Gojo and have accepted that if they just let him have the kids, he'll grow dragonslayers for them.
Yuji had a very busy first day in Kyoto, first going to class, and then going home in the afternoon to unpack his and Ryokun's things after they were delivered. He saw Ryokun playing in the garden with the little Gojo kids under the watchful eye of the clan aunties and decided it would be easier to do the work before reclaiming the kid.
Since sorcery has a remarkably high fatality rate, widows are one of the Gojo clan's most underrated and valuable resources, doing all sorts of work. There are women that look after the little ones who married into the Gojo clan in their twenties, were widowed by thirty, and are now sixty, having lived most of their lives as widows within a family they married into.
He finds out Souta Gojo lives in the apartment next to theirs, and when Yuji realizes they were probably way too loud the night before, the old man told him to let Ryokun make as much noise as he wanted, that he didn't mind being reminded that there are young people in the world who are having a good time.
Yuji mentions that he is about to go into town, and the old man offers to drive, at which point Yuji realizes maybe every Gojo is a hazard behind the wheel.
As he speeds down the road, he tells Yuji how he tried to teach Nobara how to use her technique in a broader and more meaningful way and even though she seemed to have understood, she went after Hanami with her hammer instead.
It's funny to Yuji, because when he heard this exact same story from Nobara, she spoke of the old man like he was a wise sage guiding her on a journey of self-realization that she could accomplish great things if she was more direct with her attacks.
But Souta tells it like Nobara is a madwoman who has realized that a truly mad person with a hammer would not require nails in order to be dangerous.
They make two stops, and Yuji returns to his apartment, sneaking around a bit to make sure Ryokun doesn't see him.
Once he's ready, he collects his child from the garden and Ryokun holds onto his hand and tells him all about his day as they navigate the stone paths back to the apartment.
Inside, the cat poster for their grand project has been hung up on the wall and Yuji presents Ryokun with the last golden apple sticker.
"I know you've been really brave and good all this time, so you've earned it."
The boy looks up at the poster, and when Yuji lifts him up, he puts the sticker on the poster.
Ryokun is clearly incredibly proud of himself and is cheering and jumping around when Yuji opens the bathroom door.
A big ball of orange and white fur walks out.
Yuji says, "This is Mikan. He's three years old, like you."
Mikan is the chilliest of cats, and when Ryokun screams and runs over to embrace him, he just lays down on top of the boy and starts licking his hair and purring. Mikan is an absolutely enormous adult cat, not at all the kitten Yuji thought he would bring home, but he has a good personality.
Ryokun is practically weeping from joy when he says, "Mikan, I love you more than anyone in the world!"
Yuji asks, "…really?"
The toddler has a lot in common with a cat: he's a mischievous bed intruder that alternates between naptime and running around like he's possessed. He loves food and attention if he's in the mood for it. He purposefully ignores anything that doesn't interest him and gives laser focus to the things that do. He is food motivated, unpredictable, petty, enjoys climbing, and requires a lot of play time.
Both the cat and Ryokun primarily occupy the floor and places they must climb to, so they even share the same domain.
Ryokun speaks to Mikan like he is actually a person, and is even polite, saying 'excuse me' when the cat walks in front of him, something that he will usually refuse to do with other humans.
He introduces Mikan to his toys, to Gany, the cat stuffy that has gone everywhere with him since his first night, and Mikan sticks with him because Ryokun pets him nicely and talks to him.
Yuji was worried he'd have to show Ryokun not to pull Mikan's fur or be rough with him, but he can tell right away that the toddler understands how to treat his new friend well. Yuji suspects that Mikan likewise understands that Ryokun is a baby human.
At bedtime, Mikan jumps up on the bed to sleep with his new human friend, and Yuji is relieved when he seems to be staying in his own room. Eventually, the door slides open after a while and Ryokun climbs onto his bed and is joined by the huge cat as well.
XXX
Kenjaku knew sometimes the simplest decisions that didn't seem to matter could have the most severe consequences. When a person is considering a major decision, they are thoughtful and typically cautious. But when they're making a decision that seems menial, their thoughts simply aren't that deep.
Now that he has Tore Reksten's memories, he knows all about the game that his sister ran on Satoru Gojo.
Gojo, being a promiscuous lover of sweets, was presented at a bakery that he frequents the possibility to Ingrid. She had no cursed energy, so he had no reason to suspect she might be from their world. She was a foreign girl living abroad, which meant she was here for experiences and not anything permanent. She was beautiful.
Gojo didn't step on that landmine once.
He did it twenty-eight times, and didn't even know when it finally exploded. They didn't have to trap him one time; they had to create a trap he would continually enter until they finally got what they wanted.
It was good work, and it really seems like they should have gotten away with it. Even reviewing Tore's memories, Kenjaku can't figure out how they got busted.
But Gojo learned from that experience and calculated that perhaps if he planted a landmine at the ryokan, his enemy might come and step on it. Maybe it would happen, maybe it would not. Even a five percent chance to reduce an enemy's power by half is worth one hundred percent of a person's effort.
All that being said, it really does seem like Gojo has found an avenue for information acquisition that is revealing things to him that he shouldn't be able to know.
Being born all-powerful is ridiculous enough; does Gojo need to be all-knowing too?
What absolute bullshit that is!
Kenjaku was surprised to find out that even though Gojo knew he was in Geto's body, Gojo was still hesitant to mess up Geto's body, which is probably the only reason he was able to activate his escape plan.
There were complications on top of complications now; Shibuya Station Plan seemed like a silly little dream that could never work now.
While he could possibly use Temporal Distortion to solve the 'one minute' rule and get Gojo into the Prison Realm, there is a larger problem.
The fact that he has been properly identified changes everything. Based on the facts Gojo had about him, he's sure that Gojo has started talking to Tengen, which means everything.
Kenjaku planned to rely on Gojo making the kinds of choices a wildly arrogant and comparatively young man would make. If Gojo strategizes alongside a very wise old woman who knows him, that changes everything.
What he thinks probably happened is that Tengen told Gojo about the Prison Realm, and that she had a piece of it. Then she told him if he did end up sealed, she could let him out if she had the ability to nullify the technique of the Prison Realm.
And then Gojo said, 'What a fun coincidence, let me tell you where the Inverted Spear of Heaven is.'
In other words, the mere act of Gojo learning about Kenjaku before being put in it has messed things up. Even if Kenjaku gets him in there, he'll probably just get out right away, and then he'll be mad about it. This makes the Prison Realm about as useful as a soggy cardboard box.
Besides, Temporal Distortion bends time in a small radius around the user. If he runs up on Gojo in a body that's not Suguru Geto's, he'll probably spend his last moment staring into the pretty purple light, and then what?
Kenjaku believes he can steal the techniques of the Culling Game players at the expense of killing them, so they can be used to help him get over his problem.
He could consume Angel's technique and attempt to use it to nullify Gojo's infinity.
He could consume Yorozu's technique and replicate the Inverted Spear of Heaven.
That maybe gets him in the door, but he'd still need a technique to actually kill the monster. Reksten has an ice technique, but it's very generic—a disappointment for someone who knows Uraume, with the bespoke Gojo clan technique Hellfrost.
Even if he consumed Kashimo's technique, it wouldn't get him there.
Reksten's body can't hold an infinite number of techniques, so he has to choose wisely, and unfortunately, he can't make a hand from the Culling Game players that might be able to do the deed. That's the whole reason that Gojo wasn't supposed to participate in the game in the first place.
If he could get to Tengen to consume her technique and cursed energy, the mass of cursed energy she commands combined with Kashimo would probably put him over, but without Tengen, there's no reason to even do the Culling Game.
Kenjaku considers living sorcerers:
Yuji is still a black box to him; he can't remember why he made him. But he was last seen punching Mahito's soul out of his body and according to a rumor that even made it to Kenjaku's ears, Yuji ate Mahito.
What the fuck? But okay.
Kenjaku wonders if eating served any purpose. One assumes if he ate a curse, he would get something from the curse as a result.
That girl Kugisaki Nobara has an interesting technique, but not for Gojo.
There's Megumi Fushiguro.
That's right—the last person like Gojo born into this world died at the hands of someone like Megumi.
Could he kill Satoru Gojo with Ten Shadows?
The capability seems to be there, but that would require him to tame the tenth shadow, Mahoraga, and since no one has ever been able to do that, it seems risky. Since shikigami have some sentience, Kenjaku wonders if they would even serve another master.
Kenjaku isn't sure if he wants to take the risk. Overpowering Megumi in order to take his technique, an act that would result in Megumi's death, would almost inevitably result in Mahoraga being summoned on him, and it would be difficult to even find the opportunity. If he fucks up, even if he avoids Gojo's wrath, Yuji might eat him.
Maybe the Rekstens were right, and babies were the way to go. It really was a neat and simple solution.
Reksten's memories have confirmed that Ingrid Reksten, wherever she is, is definitely carrying a Gojo. There are a number of incredible techniques running in their family, and it would be surprising if the kid didn't have one of them.
Just doing the math, the kid has been incubating for a while. If he cut it out right now, it would live long enough for him to lift the technique out of its body.
It's most likely that she's on the Gojo clan estate, and unfortunately, there's an incredibly steep fee for trespassing there.
That's probably where that little boy, Ryo Itadori, is too.
If Gojo has a way to obtain information that's not accessible to him through natural channels, all the plans Kenjaku might try to make would be pointless. At the same time, he clearly can't obtain all information, as if he did have that ability, Kenjaku wouldn't be able to hide anywhere, and yet he is.
Kenjaku remains full of questions, because it really seems like the week or maybe even the day that Ryo Itadori appeared, there was some sort of enormous shift in everything.
Up to that point, he thought that everything was going according to his plan.
But a hole was blown in his plan when the Forgetting happened. Whatever was wiped out of their minds, it was critically important to what he was trying to do, and it definitely involved Yuji.
From that moment on, things had been going strangely.
Unpredictable.
So he'd just have to be unpredictable too.
What's more unpredictable than taking Ten Shadows and using it to kill Satoru Gojo?
The answer to that question depends on how many arms the respondent has.