Kyoto Goodwill Event Arc

The Kyoto Goodwill Event Arc is the fifth arc in Gege Akutami's Jujutsu Kaisen series. It follows the 30th Annual Kyoto Sister-School Goodwill Event, a fierce competition that pits the teams of Tokyo and Kyoto students against each other in a series of intense jujutsu battles.

Team Battle: Tokyo vs. Kyoto!
In the aftermath of his battles, Mahito recovers at a hot spring with his allied curses. He tells them of his adventures and how he has built a rivalry with Sukuna's vessel. At the same time, Gojo learns about what happened from Nanami. He says he wanted Yuji to go on missions, but nothing quite that tough. They decide to use the Goodwill Event as a way to cheer Yuji up with good competition and reuniting him with his friends.

On the day of the event, the Kyoto students, lead by Aoi and Mai, arrive on the Tokyo campus. Shortly after, Gojo joins the group and surprises them by revealing Yuji is alive. While the teacher and student duo had planned on it being a happy surprise, Megumi and Nobara are simply horrified. while the Kyoto students ignore him entirely, busy with the souvenirs Gojo gave them. However, the Kyoto Tech principal, Yoshinobu Gakuganji, is enraged by this reveal.

Each team converges for a strategy meeting. The Tokyo Team focuses on how to integrate Yuji into their game plan while the Kyoto Team are given orders to kill Yuji. Megumi believes Yuji could be essential in a hand to hand combat situation. On the other side, Aoi refuses to take part in the principal's assassination attempt.

The Team Battle begins with Aoi immediately going after the Tokyo Team. Yuji is tasked with holding him off while the others split into two groups and continuing to search for the target grade 2 curse. However, Yuji is quickly overpowered and pummeled by Aoi's insane skill and strength. Surprising Aoi, Yuji is able to weather the storm and recovers which impresses Aoi. He decides to ask Yuji what kind of girls he likes.

Yuji surprises Aoi again by revealing he likes the same type of girls he does; tall with big butts. This generates a false memory within Aoi's mind where he and Yuji are best friends who attended the same middle school together, the strongest in their town. Their moment is interrupted when Yuji is suddenly ambushed by the other members of the Kyoto Team. Using his cursed technique, Aoi foils his own team's plan and forces them to retreat.

During this time, Kyoto third-year Momo Nishimiya, acts as Kyoto's eye in the sky by riding on her broom. She's taken down by Megumi's shikigami, Nue, forcing third-year Noritoshi Kamo to split the team into two groups. Mai and Mechamaru are sent to make sure Momo is ok while Noritoshi and Kasumi Miwa move on. However, both groups are confronted by members of the rival team. Megumi and Maki take on Kasumi and Noritoshi and demand to know if the Kyoto Team is trying to kill Yuji while Nobara and Panda confront Momo after she crashes into a tree.

During this time, Yuji resumes fighting Aoi. The Kyoto third-year is impressed by Yuji's raw strength and speed but feels that Yuji's jujutsu requires refinement. Elsewhere, Maki clashes with Kasumi Miwa where they hear Aoi's loud complaining. Kasumi doesn't agree with her teams actions but still fights to impress the sorcerers watching nonetheless.

Aoi challenges Yuji to grow stronger and the first-year agrees to never accept being weak. As they continue fighting, Yuji starts to grow as a fighter. Aoi helps him focus on growing as a sorcerer. He teaches him about the basis of cursed energy and how it must be allowed to flow throughout all parts of his body. Taking in every word of Aoi's wisdom, Yuji decides to follow him down the path of the mighty.

While Aoi continues to fight and guide Yuji, Mechamaru arrives to rescue Momo from Panda and Nobara. Momo wants to take Nobara on herself, which leaves the two cursed corpses to fight one on one as well.

During the two cursed corpse's fight, Mechamaru is revealed to be a cursed corpse being controlled remotely by a very ill sorcerer whereas Panda is a mutated cursed corpse created by Tokyo Tech Principal Yaga. Mechamaru resents Panda for being able to live care free while he suffers alone. He then unleashes every move in his arsenal on Panda to try and destroy him, but Panda resists. When faced with Mechamaru's Ultimate Cannon, Panda is forced to switch his cursed energy core to Gorilla Mode.

Utilizing his brother's added strength, Panda is able to defeat Mechamaru. Despite the fight, Panda harbors no ill will and hopes to meet the rival sorcerer one day. Back at Maki's fight with Miwa, the latter is quickly learning that Maki's grade 4 ranking does not reflect her skills. Maki easily overpowers her and takes her sword while Nobara duels with Momo.

By staying high in the air, Momo is able to keep out of Nobara's range. The third-year takes this opportunity to try to teach Nobara a lesson about how women in the jujutsu community are mistreated. However, Nobara simply sees this as an excuse for Mai's poor behavior and rejects Momo completely. Using her Straw Doll Technique, Nobara gains the upper hand and forces Momo to crash. She nearly wins the fight until Mai interrupts with a rubber bullet to Nobara's temple. After confirming the shot, Mai is abruptly confronted by her big sister.

Maki duels with her twin sister as they reminiscence growing up together. Maki had originally promised never to leave her sister behind, as they were both mistreated by the Zenin family. Despite this, Maki eventually left in order to explore her own desires, forcing Mai to leave as well and become a sorcerer against her will which causes Mai to resent Maki and hides her cursed technique from her. She tries to use it to win but Maki's skills are too far beyond hers. Mai is defeated and eliminated from the event, but worse, she feels even greater hate toward her own twin.

The last one on one between that occurs Megumi and Noritoshi, is a clash of ideologies. Megumi believes in saving everyone regardless of who they are. He then states that he has left the Zenin family and now acts of his own accord. Noritoshi on the other hand, was raised as the unfitting heir to the Kamo family and strives to try and follow their ideals in order to fulfil that role. That is why he worked together with Principal Gakuganji to sneak a semi-grade 1 cursed spirit onto the battlefield. Noritoshi was meant to use it to kill Yuji, but Toge Inumaki encounters it instead.

Enemies Invade the Event
However, the curse is suddenly beheaded and usurped by the appearance of the special grade curse, Hanami. Mahito's group then begins a sinister plot to invade the school. Refuting Noritoshi's way of life, Megumi swears to always try to save people like Yuji. He states that they can only agree to curse one another and forces the battle to reach its climax.

Their duel is interrupted by the explosive appearance of giant spiked roots. Toge flees from the roots nearby and spots both students, ordering them to run with his cursed speech. Just outside the area, the curse user, Juzo, casts a curtain over the Tokyo campus. The curtain allows anyone to pass through at the cost of blocking out Satoru Gojo. Gakuganji and Utahime Iori head inside to rescue the students from danger.

Megumi, Noritoshi, and Toge hold off Hanami as long as they can by utilizing cursed speech and Blood Manipulation. When Toge reaches his limit, Hanami incapacitates Noritoshi and prepares to finish them all. Toge uses the last of his strength to blast Hanami away. His last ditch effort buys them enough time for Maki to join the fight. Summoning weapons from his shadow, Megumi passes Maki the special grade cursed tool: Playful Cloud.

Megumi and Maki fight together against Hanami and are able to figure out his weakness using clues from the earlier battle. Even so, Hanami is too powerful and his armor too tough for them to deal enough damage. Megumi's jujutsu is nullified by Hanami's Cursed Bud growing in his stomach and Maki is left open to attack from the shock. Hanami believes its easy to disrupt the rhythm of sorcerers once one has been injured. Megumi tries to push himself to save them, but Maki tells him its time for them to tag out of this battle right as Yuji and Aoi arrive on the scene to rescue their peers and confront the special grade curse as a tandem.

Panda arrives in time to help take Megumi and Maki to safety. Aoi tasks Yuji with using Black Flash before he joins the fray. Yuji accepts and fights Hanami, but his first attempt at unleashing the sparks of black fails due to his anger. Aoi slaps Yuji and helps him regain focus, asking him to suppress that rage for now. After regaining his focus, Yuji rushes Hanami and hits him within 0.00001 seconds of applying his cursed energy, causing it to flash black and square his overall striking power.

Having cleared his senpai's condition, Yuji is joined by Aoi in the fight. He's gained even greater strength and control thanks to unlocking the power of Black Flash. Together, Hanami sees them as a plausible threat and reveals his left arm. Unlike his past experiences, Hanami begins to enjoy the thrill of the fight against his powerful opponents and uses it to fuel his strength as he gains the upper hand. In order to win this fight for sure, Aoi decides its time to unveil his cursed technique.

Boogie Woogie, Aoi's cursed technique, allows him to switch places with anyone by clapping. Doing so splits Hanami's judgement and makes him easy prey for the duo's barrage of attacks. Thanks to Aoi's genius application of his technique and thorough analysis of Hanami's abilities, he's able to create openings for Yuji to land four consecutive Black Flash attacks.

The fight continues to rage on as Hanami begins to adapt to Aoi's strategies. At the same time, jujutsu students and teachers alike encounter curse users from Mahito's group. Aoi switches up his approach by swapping Yuji out for Playful Cloud, revealing he can make anything with cursed energy change places. Aoi cracks Hanami's hard shell with Playful Cloud but doesn't quite finish the fight. Before Hanami can activate his Domain Expansion, Juzo's curtain is dispelled and Gojo is revealed to be floating above the battlefield.

Gojo first takes out Juzo Kumiya, who's fighting Gakuganji. He twists apart his limbs with ease but leaves him alive for questioning. Hanami attempts to retreat, but Gojo unleashes Hollow Technique: Purple to obliterate a giant portion of the forest in an attempt to exorcise the curse. Gojo effortlessly brings the battle to a decisive end but Mahito manages to escape uninhibited with several cursed objects, which was the true goal of their invasion.

Mahito escapes successfully and regroups with Hanami and the remaining curse user. He has successfully stole six Sukuna fingers as well as Death Painting Wombs No. 1-3. In the aftermath of the invasion, as the students recover, the teachers count the casualties and try to cancel the event. Aoi refuses to allow this and the students vote to settle the event using a Baseball Game. Following the final competition where the two sides are more able to understand one another, the Kyoto Goodwill Event is concluded with the Tokyo school as the victor.

Trivia

 * This is currently the longest arc in the anime, both in terms of the air duration (lasting for 50 days from January 16 to March 6 of 2021) and the amount of episodes (8).

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