Episode 39

Fluctuations, Part 2 (揺蕩－弐－) is the thirty-ninth episode of the Jujutsu Kaisen anime adaptation and the fifteenth episode of the second season.

Summary
Nanami, Maki, and Naobito are driven to the edge after the Special-Grade Cursed Spirit, Dagon, activates his Domain Expansion, Horizon of the Captivating Skandha. Fushiguro gives them a glimpse of a way to escape death, then Toji intrudes upon the fight.

Plot Details
Reaching his limit, Megumi reveals to Nanami that he's actually trying to open a hole in the domain's barrier rather than engaging in a domain battle. Believing that Dagon likely can't cast domain expansion twice in the same day, if the jujutsu sorcerers can escape they can win. Nanami makes sure Megumi doesn't plan on staying behind and the student clarifies that he has no intention of throwing his life away.

Nanami calls out to the Zenins and tells them to assemble in a roundabout way. They put their trust in Nanami's words and rush toward him immediately. Dagon is confused for a moment but he quickly figures out his adversaries' plan. He panics and rushes to stop them. Nanami believes it's too late as a hole appears in the ground below Megumi that leads outside the barrier.

Everyone assembles in time to escape, but something unexpected happens. Before the sorcerers can exit the domain, Toji Fushiguro suddenly enters through the hole. Surprised, Megumi looks up at the man floating in the air and wonders who this person could be. Maki notices the intruder is a human and wonders if he is a jujutsu sorcerer while Dagon wonders why his adversaries would let someone in rather than escape.

Toji disappears from mid-air before suddenly grabbing onto Playful Cloud with blinding speed. Maki notices his immense strength while she's also holding on to the weapon. Toji easily snatches the cursed tool from Maki, throwing her aside to arm himself with Playful Cloud. Maki didn't notice any cursed energy coming from him, and is shocked that she actually lost a contest of pure strength. Megumi reveals to Nanami that the hole he opened in the barrier has been closed and it won't be easy to open another, especially since Dagon has figured out their plan. Naobito is the only one among them who recognizes Toji, uttering his name upon recognizing him. Toji then walks off of Megumi's shadows and into the water, slowly approaching Dagon with Playful Cloud in hand.

It is explained that while Granny Ogami's Séance Technique had the capability to continue after death, it was never meant to last forever. The technique is supposed to end when the host's cursed energy runs out. However, Ogami's grandson's soul did not possess cursed energy, and Toji's body that overwrote it does not consume cursed energy. Therefore, there is no signal for the séance to end and now it has run rampant, causing Toji to fight completely on instinct until his vessel breaks, transforming him into a puppet of carnage.

Toji takes a fighting stance to fight Dagon with Playful Cloud. The cursed spirit notices that Toji has no cursed energy and believes he is not worth his attention. He summons an eel-like shikigami to attack but Toji obliterates it in a single swing. With incredible speed, Toji charges Dagon and strikes him in the head with the three-section-staff, sending him flying into the water.

The two continue their battle on the surface of the water, which Toji runs on effortlessly. Dagon tries to attack Toji with three fish shikigami, but he blocks them with Playful Cloud and even catches one with his mouth. Knocked away once more, Dagon summons a swarm of numerous smaller shikigami to attack, but Toji effortlessly rushes through all the fish, striking them apart with the cursed tool on his way to attack Dagon. Dagon attempts to summon an eel shikigami out of his stomach but it is struck by Toji using Playful Cloud. However, the shikigami transforms two smaller eels, wrapping around the cursed tool and ensnaring Toji.

As Toji falls deep into the ocean, Dagon summons countless piranha shikigami that swarm Toji along with two giant isopod shikigami. However, they're dispatched by Toji just as easily as the rest. The waves caused by the fallen giant shikigami push Dagon to shore, where Toji also lands safely before continuing their fight on the sand. Dagon tries to protect himself with his water shield, but Toji annihilates it in a single blow before slamming the staff on the curse twice, injuring it.

Dumbfounded by the newcomer's abilities, Maki can asks Naobito who that man is, who responds that he is just a ghost. Meanwhile, Toji continues to dominate Dagon in their fight, dodging his wave of shikigami before wrapping Playful Cloud around his head and using it to heavily stomp the curse in his face. Nanami asks Megumi to hold onto his domain for just a little longer because they're going to need to bet on Toji. Rubbing Playful Cloud together to sharpen its shape, Toji creates a loud noise that irritates everyone.

Injured, Dagon barely stands back up and comes to the realization that he might lose to a human without cursed energy. However, if he were to regain his domain's guaranteed-hit effect, he would have the advantage again. Noticing that Megumi's domain is weakening, Dagon attempts to buy time until Megumi's domain runs out by levitating in the air. However, Naobito anticipated this and leaps behind Dagon's head to stop his progress. As Toji stacks Playful Cloud's three sections on top of each other to vault himself into the air, Naobito kicks Dagon towards the murder machine. The curse puts his guard up but Toji stabs Playful Cloud clean straight through his face.

Dagon attempts to struggle, but Toji brutally threads the other sharpened end of Playful Cloud through Dagon's head and stabs him in the eye as well. He then breaks the chain connecting the three-section staff together and uses the middle staff and the sharpened staff in Dagon's eye to rapidly bludgeon and pierce Dagon's head, obliterating the curse.

The domain is dispelled and Maki is shocked that the lone fighter was able to exorcise such a powerful cursed spirit singlehandedly. Coughing up blood, Megumi is exhausted from holding his domain for so long and takes the moment to catch his breath. Nanami knows that if Megumi hadn't appeared, they would have all been killed. But now they have a new problem, they can't be sure if Toji is on their side or not.

Toji slowly approaches the four sorcerers. Suddenly, the corridor window breaks and Megumi finds himself falling onto the road outside, unable to remember how he got there. Megumi lands safely but he looks across the street at his opponent with a surprised expression. He claims this ridiculous level of speed even surpasses Sukuna's from back when they fought.

Maki yells out of concern for Megumi, but she's interrupted by a new presence behind her. Jogo arrives to mourn Dagon, picking up his exorcised ashes and bids farewell to his friend. Heavily injured, Naobito and Nanami find it unbelievable that immediately after fighting Dagon they're faced with a new curse that far surpasses him. Jogo tells Dagon to leave the rest to him and that he looks forward to their reunion in the wastelands a hundred years in the future.

Within a second, Jogo has his palm placed on Nanami's waist before blasting him with an explosive wave of cursed flames. Before Maki can even yell out Nanami's name in concern, Jogo lights her aflame as well. Jogo then moves to claim his third victim. However, Naobito quickly dashes around Jogo, surprising the curse with his speed. He then rushes towards Jogo by enhancing his speed with his innate technique: Projection Sorcery. However, two small volcanoes suddenly appear on the pillars behind Naobito, firing crossing blasts of fire that he was unable to avoid, heavily burning him. Jogo prepares to finish Naobito off but is abruptly alerted to Sukuna's strong presence, grabbing his attention. He surmises a finger has been released somewhere nearby and goes off to search for it.

Meanwhile, Nanako Hasaba and Mimiko Hasaba find Yuji's unconscious body in the aftermath of his fight with Choso and force feed him one of Sukuna's fingers, hoping to bring out Sukuna. Jogo finds them soon after and demands to know how many fingers they fed him. The girls refuse to tell him, prompting him to blast them with cursed flames, seemingly burning them alive.

While Sukuna's marks still remain on Yuji's face, Jogo decides to make the best of the situation. Remembering Pseudo-Geto's information that if Yuji ate a finger a day for twenty days he probably wouldn't lose control of his body to Sukuna despite devouring all twenty of his fingers, but eating ten fingers at once might temporarily force him to lose control, Jogo takes out a small scroll of ten Sukuna fingers and tells the King of Curses that it's time to wake up.

Some time later, Jogo finishes force-feeding all ten of Sukuna's fingers in his possession to Yuji. He believes Yuji has consumed fifteen fingers overall but his train of thought is interrupted by the sound of a cough. Jogo looks over to see Mimiko and Nanako, who miraculously survived Jogo's flames and are currently enveloped in smoke. Jogo surmises that they survived due to one of the two's cursed technique, but they likely can't use it to survive more times. The cursed spirit raises his hand in an attempt to burn the curse users before realizing that his left hand is gone, with only a bleeding stump left in its place.

Sukuna, having taken control over Yuji's body, heals the wounds on his body and demands Jogo move within one second. Jogo darts away to position himself next to the Hasaba sisters. They're all nervous and sweating from the King of Curses' overwhelming presence. Jogo notices that in comparison to Satoru Gojo, Sukuna's aura is filled with overpowering malice. Nanako believes even one movement will result in instant death. She tells herself to just breathe, but she's unsure if even that is safe.

Sukuna walks up to them and says they're all holding their heads a little too high to be standing before him. The girls prostrate themselves and Jogo gets down on one knee. Sukuna's technique creates a giant gash in the wall behind the trio that cuts off the top of Jogo's head due to him not being low enough. The cursed spirit begins to bleed profusely across his face and Sukuna mocks him for not valuing his life highly, as the boughs that bear most hang lowest.

Sukuna walks up to the girls and asks them if there is anything he'd like to ask them. Nanako uses the chance to ask Sukuna if he can free Suguru Geto by killing the person inhabiting his body. Nanako and Mimiko loved Suguru and even though Satoru Gojo killed him, they were still best friends. They're fine with allowing Satoru to exist but they want Pseudo-Geto to die and regret what he's done. Nanako claims to know where another finger is and will tell Sukuna in exchange for helping them.

Sukuna tells the girls to raise their heads and gives them a smirk. Suddenly, Mimiko's head is severed in a very violent fashion. Displeased, Sukuna asks if Nanako thought she could order him around just for a few fingers. Nanako's sister's blood splatters all over his face and she desperately calls out to her in anguish. Desperate for revenge, Nanako aims her cellphone camera at Sukuna and attempts to activate her innate technique. Sukuna activates his faster and slices the top half of Nanako's head clean off. He follows up by dismantling her entire body into tiny cubes, slicing her into nothing but a gruesome spray of blood.

Sukuna catches Nanako's phone and surmises that the camera is connected to her cursed technique. He guesses it must be related to manipulating whatever is photographed and judges it as a boring technique. Sukuna says Jogo is next and asks what he needs. However, Jogo doesn't claim to need anything. This confuses Sukuna and Jogo clarifies his objective is simply to fully revive him. Jogo implores Sukuna to make a binding vow that will let him take over Yuji's body permanently. Sukuna refuses and reveals he has his own plans, surprising Jogo.

Amused by the cursed spirit's desperation, Sukuna offers a token of his appreciation for the ten fingers. He challenges Jogo to land even one hit on him in a fight. If Jogo can achieve this, Sukuna agrees to work with his group for now and kill every human in Shibuya except for one. Jogo willingly accepts the deal and prepares for a jujutsu battle.

Characters in Order of Appearance

 * Megumi Fushiguro
 * Kento Nanami
 * Naobito Zenin
 * Dagon
 * Maki Zenin
 * Toji Fushiguro (Seánced)
 * Jogo
 * Sukuna
 * Mimiko Hasaba
 * Nanako Hasaba
 * Yuji Itadori
 * Pseudo-Geto (Flashback)
 * Suguru Geto (Flashback)

Locations

 * Shibuya
 * Shibuya Station
 * Inokashira Line Gate

Battles & Events

 * The Shibuya Incident
 * Toji Fushiguro vs. Dagon