Gojo's Past Arc

The Gojo's Past Arc is the fifth arc in Gege Akutami's Jujutsu Kaisen. In the anime adaptation, the arc is referred as Hidden Inventory / Premature Death Arc (懐玉・玉折編). It follows Satoru Gojo during the year 2006 back when he was a second-year student at Tokyo Jujutsu High. Together with Suguru Geto, Satoru must escort the Star Plasma Vessel to Master Tengen as curse user groups conspire against them.

The Two Strongest Sorcerers
In August 2006, Mei Mei and Utahime go off on a mission and disappear for longer than they were meant to. Tokyo jujutsu second-years, Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto are sent to retrieve them. They're able to help them escape a haunted mansion that had trapped them inside with a time manipulating barrier. However, Satoru forgets to use a curtain and the event ends up on the news.

Following their return to school, Satoru is disciplined by their teacher, Masamichi Yaga. Satoru doesn't understand why it's important to hide jujutsu from commoners but Suguru claims it's to protect them. Their disagreement nearly leads to a fight but Yaga breaks it up. He has to force the two boys to focus because they've been given a mission from Master Tengen. Tengen has a perfect match so the boys are tasked with escorting the Star Plasma Vessel to them.

Yaga explains that Master Tengen's cursed technique tries to force its user to change bodies. Every five hundred years, Master Tengen must merge with a compatible Star Plasma Vessel. The mission is to escort the girl to Master Tengen so they do not ascend to a new state and become an enemy to humanity. Master Tengen's barrier techniques are crucial to protecting the pillars of the jujutsu world. Only the strongest, Satoru and Suguru can handle such an important task.

Two groups are targeting the Star Plasma Vessel. The curse user group Q and the Star Religious Group the Time Vessel Association. The boys are too late to find the girl and Q attempts to assassinate her. Suguru is able to save the girl and both jujutsu students are able to deal with the Q soldiers without any trouble at all.

Escorting the Star Plasma Vessel
The vessel, Riko Amanai and her caretaker, Misato Kuroi are taken to safety by Satoru and Suguru. As per orders from Tengen, Riko can't be taken straight back to Tokyo Jujutsu High because she needs to enjoy the final days of her young life. This allows Riko to return to school and spend time with her friends.

Meanwhile, the Time Vessel Association begins their own scheme to assassinate the girl. The infamous Sorcerer Killer: Toji Zenin is hired by the Star Religious Group for thirty million yen to kill the vessel and prevent an impure merger. Toji is well aware of Satoru's prowess, so he takes a unique approach to completing the job. He posts Riko's picture on a dark website for curse users with a thirty million dollar bounty. This is a ploy to wear down the vessel's escorts. Since none of them will be able to defeat Satoru or Suguru, it's free labor.

Two curse users, an older gentlemen and a muscular man wearing a paper bag mask over his face attempt to collect the bounty. They both invade the school but are quickly detected by Suguru's surveillance curses. Satoru and Misato move to find Riko and take her off campus while Suguru goes to confront the sorcerers.

Suguru makes short work of the old man and Satoru manages to find Riko and leaves the area with her. Misato gets in a scuffle with the bag masked man but he learns of Riko's location and surrounds her and Satoru using clones. Using the powers of the Limitless, Satoru easily dispatches the curse user and all his clones.

While Satoru and Suguru are occupied, Kuroi gets kidnapped by the Time Vessel Association and taken to Okinawa. Riko, Suguru, and Satoru make it to Naha and rescue her. For the remainder of the time before the last day of the escort, the group relaxes on the beach and enjoys other activities Okinawa has to offer. When they finally return to Tokyo Jujutsu High and enter the barrier, Satoru believes the mission is over and deactivates his cursed technique.

The Invisible Assassin
Suddenly, Toji appears and stabs Satoru from behind, shocking everyone. Satoru isn't grievously injured and puts his guard back up, allowing Suguru to finish the escort. However, Toji is actually able to defeat Satoru using the Inverted Spear of Heaven, a cursed tool that can forcibly stop the Limitless and any other technique. Suguru nearly takes Riko back to Tengen's area, but he gives her the choice to forgo the merger and enjoy her life. Thinking of all the time she's gotten spend with others, Riko cries and decides she wants to live her own life. Tragically however, Toji shoots her in the head just moments later.

Suguru doesn't understand how Toji is capable of all this and learns that the Sorcerer Killer has zero cursed energy, making him an invisible enemy. He was able to sneak up on Suguru and easily infiltrate Jujutsu High's barrier thanks to his heavenly restriction, which gives Toji superhuman physical prowess in turn for eliminating all cursed energy from his body. Utilizing this he's able to make short work of Suguru as well. Despite all their blessings, the escort team, including the two strongest sorcerers, was completely destroyed by a man who can't even use jujutsu.

Toji delivers Riko's corpse to the Time Vessel Association Headquarters: The House of the Child of the Star to complete the job. He learns about the history of Tengen and their role in the Star Religious Group but Toji isn't interested. He finishes up the job but is shocked to be confronted by a rejuvenated Satoru outside right afterward.

On the verge of death, Satoru understood the core of cursed energy, allowing him to use a reverse cursed technique to heal all of his wounds. In the face of the awakened limitless, the former member of the Zenin Family attempts to take out the awakened limitless. This goes against Toji's natural instincts and he's defeated by a technique of the Limitless not even certain members of the Gojo Family know off. Using Hollow Technique: Purple, Satoru hits Toji with an imaginary mass that erases his entire arm and a piece of his torso, dealing a fatal blow.

In his last moments, Toji tells Satoru that his son Megumi will be sold to the Zenin Family in a few years. Satoru retrieves Riko's body from the religious followers and Suguru arrives shortly after, surprised to see how Satoru has developed. As the children of the star clap for Riko's corpse, Satoru offers Suguru the chance to kill them all but he turns it down because it's pointless and there needs to be a reason for a sorcerer to take a life.

Suguru Geto's Decision
A year later in August 2007, Satoru makes even more strides with his ability and stands alone as the strongest sorcerer. As Suguru is isolated, he finds himself struggling with the constant cycle of exorcism and consumption as well as understanding what his purpose is as a sorcerer. He can't help but stray from his duty as a jujutsu sorcerer by thinking of non-sorcerers as lesser humans. He doesn't want to lose his way, but Suguru can't come to terms with fighting for people like the children of the star.

While trying to clear his head with fellow student Yu Haibara, they're visited by special grade sorcerer, Yuki Tsukumo. Yu leaves as Yuki talks to Suguru about how she wants to go about getting rid of curses completely. While Jujutsu High wants to fight the symptoms, Yuki desires to kill the root cause. Non-sorcerers leak cursed energy at a much higher rate than sorcerers, so she wants to educate them on how to use jujutsu or find a way to eliminate cursed energy from their bodies. However, Toji Zenin is the only case in the world Yuki found where someone had no cursed energy at all. In a moment of realization, Suguru asks why they don't just kill every non-sorcerer.

Yuki claims she isn't that crazy and tells Suguru he needs to decide what his true feelings are. He must pick between looking down on non-sorcerers and following his duty as a sorcerer. Yuki leaves shortly after and reveals that Master Tengen has stabilized despite Riko's death.

Yu Haibara dies while out on a mission with Kento Nanami, furthering the darkness in Suguru's mind. He compares being a sorcerer to running a marathon, but the finish line is nothing but a hill of his fellow sorcerers corpses. While out on a mission to stop a curse haunting a village, Suguru exorcises the curse but finds two little girl sorcerers being kept in a cage and blamed for the curse's actions. Reaching the breaking point, Suguru murders all one hundred and twelve villagers, frees the girls, and makes his decision to become a curse user.

Satoru and Yaga are both disheartened by the news. Suguru is confronted by Satoru in Shinjuku and explains that he wants to create a world without curses by eliminating non-sorcerers without exception, even killing his own parents. Satoru repeats Suguru's notion about pointless killing without a purpose but Suguru argues that there is a reason. Satoru claims the sentiment is impossible but Suguru knows it's possible because Satoru himself could do it. He walks off but Satoru can't bring himself to kill his best friend.

While Suguru takes over the remnants of the Time Vessel Association, Satoru tracks down Toji's young son Megumi. He finds the first grader walking home and tells him a story about his father to inform him about his situation with the Zenin Family. In order to make sure Megumi grows up to be a fine sorcerer unlike his father or Suguru, Satoru takes him under his wing and promises to take care of everything.

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