Yuta Okkotsu

Yuta Okkotsu is the main protagonist of Jujutsu Kaisen's prequel series Jujutsu Kaisen 0: Jujutsu High. He was initially a Special Grade cursed human haunted by his late childhood friend, Rika Orimoto. Satoru Gojo mentored Yuta and enrolled him at Tokyo Jujutsu High. Yuta is currently a second-year student at Jujutsu High. He was training overseas in Africa with Miguel until after the Shibuya Incident when he returned to Tokyo.

Appearance
Yuta is a young man of average size with disheveled black hair and dark blue eyes. His body language makes it easy to tell that Yuta is very stressed. His posture is very unconfident, and he has dark eyelids due to lack of sleep.

At his old school, Yuta wore a suit for their uniform. He sports a long-sleeve shirt that stops at his forearms or a black t-shirt and dark green pants for casual wear.

After transferring to Tokyo Jujutsu High, Yuta received a specialized uniform. Yuta has a loose white jacket with sleeves that stop at his forearms. The rest of his uniform appears to be the usual Jujutsu High dark colors. He also often carries his sword on his back.

Personality
Yuta was a very timid and lonely boy who was bullied a lot while growing up. Due to Rika haunting much of his early life, Yuta was unable to connect with other people and has lost all confidence in himself. This makes it difficult for Yuta to interact with others, as they often scare him without meaning to, or he's just too shy to speak to them.

Even so, Yuta genuinely cared about other people and decided to isolate himself from them even if it means remaining alone. Maki Zenin called Yuta out for being a moody kid who's lived his entire life without goals. He acknowledged that this was true and used her advice to gain a resolve for being a jujutsu sorcerer. This helps Yuta realize that deep down, he truly desires the confidence to feel like he belongs.

While his timid nature stays intact, Yuta slowly becomes more social and interacts with others normally. Even after early signs of improvement, Yuta still struggled to understand someone like Toge Inumaki. He was initially scared of Toge until he realized how kind of a person he truly is and made an effort to establish a social connection.

Gaining friends helps Yuta gain confidence in himself and establish the goal to help set Rika free. He felt responsible for her turning into a curse in the first place and worked extremely hard to find a way to help her. He pushed himself during training and took all his friends' and mentors' words to heart, showing a more determined side of himself. At his core, Yuta wants to become someone who can help keep others out of danger.

Against Suguru Geto, Yuta showed the darkest side of himself. Geto hurt Yuta's only friends, and the young man was more than willing to kill him for it. Yuta's rage allowed him to even command Rika's power at will. He was willing to sacrifice his life to use Rika to kill Geto to avenge his friends, the only people who give him the confidence to continue living.

Abilities and Powers
Overall Skill Level: Yuta is one of four special grade sorcerers recognized by Jujutsu High. While being haunted by Rika's cursed spirit, Yuta was immediately registered as a special grade due to Rika's immense power. He apparently dominated all of the Kyoto students in the 2017 Goodwill Event and was able to defeat Suguru Geto after releasing the limiters on Rika's power.

After training with Gojo and the other students, Yuta learns to control his cursed energy and becomes reliable with a sword. Even after Rika's curse is dispelled, Yuta still retains his special grade ranking, and Gojo has stated that Yuta has the potential to surpass him. Yuta's great power comes from being a descendant of one of the Big Three Vengeful Spirits of Japan. It is the reason he cursed Rika when he rejected her death at a young age.

Yuta trained for the majority of 2018 overseas with Miguel, a talented sorcerer commended by Gojo. Since his return, Yuta has become a masterful jujutsu sorcerer entrusted by the jujutsu higher-ups to handle curses and execute Sukuna's vessel. Upon confronting Yuji, Naoya Zenin, and Choso, both exceptional jujutsu users recognized that Yuta was far more powerful. Naoya, especially, who prides himself on his abilities, quickly ally himself to Yuta to avoid any potential conflict. Choso advised Yuji to run at all costs because fighting Yuta would ensure death, comparing his strength to Satoru Gojo's.

Expert Swordsman: Yuta was given a katana mainly to channel Rika's power. Through vigorous training with Maki, a cursed tool user, Yuta became decent with a sword, able to hold his own against powerful cursed spirits and even Suguru Geto, who has exceptional physical prowess. As a second-year student Yuta continues to wield his katana as his main weapon. He is far more proficient and moves extremely well as a swordsman. Yuta reinforces his body and blade with cursed energy, allowing him to wield it with superhuman physical prowess. He defeated a large high-level cursed spirit with a diving stab so powerful it cracked the ground beneath the curse.

Trivia

 * Yuta ranked 7th place in the manga's 1st Character Popularity Poll with 7,934 votes.

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