Yuki Tsukumo & Choso vs. Kenjaku is a battle fought by special grade sorcerer, Yuki Tsukumo and the Cursed Womb: Death Painting, Choso against the curse user, Kenjaku. It occurs when Kenjaku invades the Tombs of the Star in an attempt to seize Tengen.
Prologue
Yuki and Choso volunteer to protect Tengen.
At 9:00 A.M. on November 9th[1], Tengen aided with Yuji and Megumi's group with their plan to combat the Culling Game. In return, Tengen asked for two sorcerers out of Yuki Tsukumo, Choso, and Yuta Okkotsu be chosen to protect them. Tengen explained to them that despite being immortal and protected by barriers, Kenjaku possesses the means to both undo the seals on the Tombs of the Star and absorb Tengen with Cursed Spirit Manipulation. Yuki and Choso volunteered to remain in the Tombs of the Star to eventually face the curse user while Yuta joined the other Jujutsu High students to enter the Culling Game.[2]
Yuki, Choso, and Tengen strategized in anticipation of Kenjaku's arrival. Aware the battle will take place in the empty barriers above the Tombs of the Star, Tengen wants Kenjaku to feel comfortable there because he's a powerful barrier user and can manipulate the environment. The primary objective of their joint strategy is to get Kenjaku to expand his domain and take advantage of it burning out his cursed techniques. While Kenjaku's cursed techniques are unusable, it's the group's hope that Yuki can best him.
Tengen and Yuki strategizing for Kenjaku.
Choso volunteers to fight Kenjaku first to bring out his domain even if he has to sacrifice his life. However, Yuki and Tengen have a better idea. They suggest using Yuki to bait out Kenjaku's domain and then Tengen will dispel it by destroying the empty barrier, then he'll be vulnerable to a two-on-one attack. Choso still insists that he go alone first to draw out any of Kenjaku's hidden techniques because he doubts his father will use domain expansion if he knows someone else is going to leap into the fight. Even if Choso is defeated, he can use this to convince Kenjaku is in a one-on-one against Yuki, leaving him properly vulnerable to an ambush.[3][4][5]
Choso confronts Kenjaku first.
On November 16th at midnight, Kenjaku breaks into an empty barrier above the Tombs of the Star Corridor. Choso is there waiting for him and Kenjaku uses the opportunity to present one possible outcome of his master plan. He manipulates the empty barrier, changing it into a theater to give a visual explanation to Choso. Kenjaku shows Choso the citizens of Japan transforming into a conglomeration of cursed energy. When Choso asks why he's doing this, Kenjaku simply answers that it intrigues him and is fun. He even admits he would laugh if the conglomeration ended up being nothing more than a funny face. Irritated with his father's antics, Choso rejects Kenjaku's scheme and attacks him with Blood Manipulation.[6]
Battle
Kenjaku gets in close on Choso after avoiding Piercing Blood.
Choso immediately launches Piercing Blood blood straight at his father's face. Kenjaku not only avoids the blood beam by ducking underneath it, but he sends a cursed spirit to crawl up the stream in one smooth countermovement. Choso whips his Piercing Blood to the side to slash apart the cursed spirit while tearing up the ground around his opponent. Kenjaku casually rides through the air atop the debris and throws one of the broken stones at Choso. Believing he's being underestimated, Choso prepares more condensed blood to counter when suddenly cursed spirits spawn from behind the projectile and catch Choso by surprise. In response, Choso throws the condensed blood at the cursed spirits and uses Supernova to exorcise them all in one shot.
Kenjaku pummeling Choso while his legs are restrained by cursed spirits.
Kenjaku uses the aforementioned exchange as a diversion to close the distance. He grabs Choso's defending arm and parries it away before landing a strong left hook to the Death Painting Womb's face. Choso is sent back from the hit but he leaves compressed blood behind to blast Kenjaku with Supernova. Kenjaku uses another cursed spirit to defend himself and remains completely unharmed, practically bored of the fight.
Choso asks Kenjaku what his plans are for Yuji but he reveals there isn't anything specific. Kenjaku believes Yuji is the eye of the storm for a new age, one where the cycle of curses will continue as long as he and Sukuna exist. Irritated, Choso launches another Piercing Blood at Kenjaku, which he easily avoids with an exasperated look. Choso loudly declares that Kenjaku is the root of all evil and twistedness in the world, not Yuji. Choso's passion distracts him and allows cursed spirits to surprise him by snaring his legs from underneath the floor.
Kenjaku completely outclassing Choso with reinforced cursed spirits.
While Choso is immobilized, Kenjaku knocks him to the ground with a strong left hook to the jaw. He steps on Choso's face and adds insult to injury by revealing he knows this fight is just a feeling-out process for Yuki to observe. While his foot is still planted on Choso's head, Kenjaku taunts him about his younger brothers being disinteresting. Irate, Choso tries to grab Kenjaku's ankle but he's immediately rammed by a swarm of centipede-like curses that quickly spawned from their master. The cursed spirits lift Choso into the air and slam him back into the ground, ruining his clothes and severely injuring him. Kenjaku states that he used low-level cursed spirits reinforced with his cursed energy to win without ever taking a hit. As Choso lies on the ground near defeat, Kenjaku continues to boast, explaining the rank special grade signifies power Choso can't hope to match. Despite his shame, Choso rejects Kenjaku's statements about his younger brothers and uses their very image to give him strength. His
Choso uses the thought of his brothers as motivation to keep fighting.
Lying on the ground nearly defeated, Choso is ashamed for being unable to land a single hit. Despite this, Choso rejects Kenjaku's statements on Yuji and the Death Painting Wombs. Choso uses the image of his younger brothers to bring him strength. His body erupts with a wave of blood and Choso reaches his feet while yelling for the Death Painting Wombs to fire.[7]
"Like Yuji, I must fight with power!"
Inspiration from his younger brothers reassures Choso that he's got this. Re-energized, Choso fires another Piercing Blood at his father. Kenjaku points out Piercing Blood's weakness and argues that Choso's attempts are pointless. However, rather than the singular Piercing Blood he normally fires, Choso sends several blood beams at Kenjaku at once. Choso imitates Eso's Maximum: Wing King, even creating the wings on a ring of blood on his back. Kenjaku rides atop a winged cursed spirit that's unable to outrun the blood beams and gets hit but Kenjaku switches to riding a cloud-like curse. Choso engages Kenjaku in close-quarters combat and they exchange blows and parries with their fists. Choso uses the remainder of Wing King to curve the blood beams from behind him toward Kenjaku while they're still trading punches. Kenjaku summons another cursed spirit from his feet to block Wing King and then backflips to avoid Choso's punch at the moment of the technique's impact. The exorcised cursed spirit explodes into dust and acts as a smokescreen to impair Choso's vision for a moment. Several more curses suddenly appear from the smokescreen and ram into Choso, forcing him to respond with blood to rip each of them to shreds.
Forced to deflect Choso's attack, Kenjaku reveals he can manipulate gravity.
Kenjaku casually sits on a tree and watches Choso struggling, boasting that all of his son's actions are pointless. He emphasizes that even with Wing King's tracking, reducing the speed of Choso's blood beams isn't ideal and the poison won't affect him either. Choso ignores his father and takes and takes further inspiration from his brothers. First, Choso fights freely like Kechizu, separating his forearm from his body and launching it forward using blood to maintain a connection. He grabs Kenjaku by the collar from across the field and lifts him off the ground. Choso whips Kenjaku around several times, slamming him across the ground before reeling him in to deliver a crushing, downward, right hook. This strike takes inspiration from Yuji's power, but Kenjaku nullifies all possible damage by using cursed spirits to protect him.
Unharmed, Kenjaku taunts Choso by asking if he's finished. Choso responds by activating Wing King again and forces Kenjaku to leap back away from the four streams of blood. He reminds his son that this technique lacks speed but Choso is making up for that by using Wing King's tracking as a canal for transporting compressed blood. Choso sends four orbs of compressed blood at Choso at once and activates Supernova before he can react with a cursed spirit. However, all the blood from Supernova is sent straight into the ground by an increased gravitational force. Choso quickly realizes this is a second cursed technique aside from Cursed Spirit Manipulation that Kenjaku used to bail himself out. Satisfied and impressed with Choso's effort, Yuki enters the barrier and commends her new "older brother".[8]
Yuki makes short work of Kenjaku's special grade curse.
Yuki tags in for Choso and he falls through the floor of the barrier to safety. She tells Kenjaku that she likes the rough type but she'll need to beat him into shape. Kenjaku knows very little about Yuki's capabilities other than her rank. Not even Jujutsu Headquarters had any information on her cursed technique. He decides to play this encounter cautiously and tells Yuki he'll keep her at a distance. Kenjaku summons a foreign special-grade cursed spirit to feel her out. It's an Asian divine curse that can remove obstacles and target concepts. Yuki folds her shikigami, Garuda, into a ball and kicks it with such incredible force that it flies straight through the head of the cursed spirit, exorcising it in one blow.
While Kenjaku is taken aback by his cursed spirit being taken down so easily, Yuki closes the distance between them. She appears from behind the curse's disappearing body and divulges that her innate technique manipulates mass. Yuki punches Kenjaku with a fist amplified with virtual mass. He tries to block the punch with his arms but Yuki's fist strikes through his bones and hits him in the face. Yuki hits Kenjaku so hard that he flies until he breaks the circular definition of the barrier.
Yuki's enhaned punch strikes through Kenjaku's guard.
While Kenjaku is down and healing himself with reverse cursed technique, Yuki reveals her innate technique is called Star Rage. It has the ability to add virtual mass to Yuki and Garuda, making their destructive potential exceptionally dangerous. Kenjaku wonders if he can tackle such a wild beast while Yuki ponders his mysterious gravity-related abilities. They both analyze one another's capabilities until they come to the same conclusion: "This is a pain". Yuki reminds herself that she needs to get Kenjaku to expand his domain. However, Kenjaku does so suddenly and voluntarily, opening his domain, Womb Profusion. He calls out Yuki for hesitating and for displaying a lack of confidence in a possible domain clash. With her opponent's domain expanded, Yuki calls for Tengen to enact their plan to counter it.[9]
Yuki and Tengen miscalculated their strategy. Kenjaku doesn't enclose the barrier of his domain, leaving no outer shell for Tengen to target. Yuki uses simple domain to defend herself but it's quickly stripped away by the opposing barrier. Before Yuki's simple domain is completely destroyed, she races toward her opponent in hopes of hitting him before she's struck by an attack. Tengen tries to target the edge of the area of effect for Womb Profusion's can't-miss attack but they're just moments too late as Yuki's simple domain is destroyed and she's hit. The empty barrier and Kenjaku's domain are dispelled, but Yuki is grievously injured by the domain nonetheless. She's bleeding, collapsed, and her arm is badly mangled. Kenjaku tells her a proper domain clash might not have led to such a poor outcome and criticizes her for putting so much trust in Tengen.
Garuda reappears behind Kenjaku and it surprises him that Yuki's shikigami hasn't disappeared yet. Yuki stands up despite her injuries and gets Kenjaku's attention. Garuda strikes and forces Kenjaku to jump around and avoid damage while he can't counter with cursed techniques. He believes that Yuki is trying to use her shikigami to buy time to heal and decides to use that time to replenish his cursed techniques. However, Yuki makes the staggering decision to attack head-on and engage Kenjaku in hand-to-hand combat rather than heal.
Yuki attacking Kenjaku even after being injured by his domain.
Fighting through her injuries, Yuki throws a combination of spinning kicks and punches with her good arm. Kenjaku parries and avoids any significant hits until he backs into an attack from Garuda. The shikigami rams itself into Kenjaku's back and then wraps itself around his waist. Yuki throws another kick that Kenjaku blocks but her body reaches its limit and she vomits blood before she can follow up. Kenjaku admits she's surprised him but asks if there were better options. Yuki responds by reminding Kenjaku that she likes the rough type when Choso suddenly re-enters the fray, jumping through the wall behind Kenjaku with condensed blood ready to finish him off.[10]
Kenjaku uses his severed scalp to slip Piercing Blood.
Garuda increases its weight and forces Kenjaku down on one knee. Ready to commit patricide and end his father one and for all, Choso activates Piercing Blood at point-blank range, right in front of Kenjaku's face. However, Kenjaku counters with a clever maneuver to survive. He detaches the stitched-on top half of his head and uses its rotation to deflect the blood beam, like slipping a punch in boxing. The right side of Kenjaku's face is injured but he avoids any serious injuries. Yuki feels like that move displayed Kenjaku's desperation and decides to go on the offensive while he's cornered. She hits him across the face with a flying kick while Garuda is still holding him and believes this would've finished her opponent if Star Rage's effectiveness wasn't dampened by her injuries.
Choso attacks alongside Yuki and Kenjaku defends against their initial strikes by bending backward to duck under another kick from Yuki and deflecting her foot away. Choso tries to land a diving elbow but Kenjaku blocks it with his arm while standing back up straight at the same time. Yuki attempts to elbow Kenjaku in the face from behind and he narrowly blocks this as well. As the intensity and speed of the attacks increase, Kenjaku gets overwhelmed and Choso lands a palm strike to the face. Choso tells Yuki to heal while he and Garuda hold Kenjaku off. Yuki thanks Choso and takes a moment to recover from her injuries using reverse cursed technique.
Yuki regains her strength and goes for the win.
While Yuki is healing, Star Rage is powered down, allowing Kenjaku to slip out of Garuda's clutches. Once she's healed, Yuki takes Garuda in hand and wildly whips it around, shredding the ground with the resulting shockwaves. The floor of the barrier is destroyed and the combatants descend to another level where the ground is flooded. Choso and Garuda surprise attack Kenjaku from two sides using the falling debris as cover. Kenjaku counters by increasing the gravity around him, slamming Choso and the shikigami into the ground.
Kenjaku has replenished his cursed techniques and now Choso is unable to move after taking the block. Garuda gets back up but is slammed back down by another wave of gravity. Yuki uses this demonstration to analyze the ability and discover its effective range and activation time. In the six seconds while the gravity is active, Yuki presses hard on the offensive using Garuda to attack from range and assumes Kenjaku will try to counter with Cursed Spirit Manipulation. Unafraid of any curses he may throw at her, Yuki whips Garuda at Kenjaku. He ducks underneath it and summons a cursed spirit, the response Yuki expected. She rips through the cursed spirit with ease using her shikigami and closes back in on her opponent.
Kenjaku surprise attacks Yuki with consecutive mini-Uzumakis.
Yuki is confident victory is at hand because her opponent is exhausted and his cursed energy is diminished from using reverse cursed technique and domain expansion. She lands a hard right hook across Kenjaku's face and follows up with a left uppercut that lands hard as well. However, Kenjaku rolls with the punch and grabs Yuki's right arm after she throws it. Yuki realizes too late that Kenjaku has created a miniature Maximum: Uzumaki that is floating in front of her face. Kenjaku blasts Yuki with a beam of concentrated cursed energy and she narrowly defends her face with her arms. This leaves her mid-section vulnerable and Kenjaku has realized that Star Rage doesn't improve tensile strength. Kenjaku blasts a hole through Yuki's lower torso, dealing a fatal blow as Choso watches from the ground.[11]
Yuki's last-ditch effort transforms herself into a black hole.
Yuki realizes too late that Kenjaku wasn't using curses as a diversion for a gravity attack, but the mini Uzumaki. Before Yuki has time to use reverse cursed technique, Kenjaku activates his gravity technique to force her body to the ground. Choso tries to intervene and save her, but per Yuki's request, Choso is removed from the fight so he can live on. Due to the hole in Yuki's torso, her body is bisected as she's slammed into the ground by the increased gravity, sealing her fate.
Tengen appears and gets Kenjaku's attention long enough for Yuki to grab his ankle. Kenjaku tells her to die already when suddenly he feels the pressure of being sucked into a powerful vacuum. Yuki continues to add mass to herself until she morphs into a Black Hole that appears to suck Kenjaku in. The black hole expands, but only enough to so destroy a large portion of Jujutsu High above the Tombs of the Star. Kenjaku miraculously climbs out of the debris and admits he's impressed.[12]
Aftermath
Kenjaku successfully seizes Tengen.
Tengen's proxy appears before Kenjaku one last time to ask how he survived an encounter with a black hole. Kenjaku explains that his ability to manipulate gravity comes from the cursed technique reversal of Kaori Itadori's innate technique, Antigravity System. Yuki's will and Tengen's barrier suppressed the black hole because it could've destroyed the Earth. Kenjaku partially attributes this survival to them and declares this battle as a fun "warm-up". Tengen's proxy disappears as Kenjaku approaches the tree containing their real body. Kenjaku tells Tengen that this will allow them to atone for their tedious existence. As Kenjaku undoes the seal on the tree and reveals Tengen's true form, he says goodbye to an old friend.[13]
Kenjaku seizes Tengen and completes the pre-prep for the merger. Choso is distraught over the loss and Jujutsu High is left in a poor state. He's only left with the back of Prison Realm and Yuki's book of notes on the soul. This news reaches Maki and the others participating in the Culling Game by noon of November 16th.[14]
References
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 146 (p. 4).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 145 (pp. 3-8, 14).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 203 (p. 1-2).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 206 (p. 1-5).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 207 (p. 1-2).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 202 (p. 8-19).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 203 (p. 2-19).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 204 (p. 1-19).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 205 (p. 1-19).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 206 (p. 5-19).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 207 (p. 3-19).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 208 (p. 1-17).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 208 (p. 17-19).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 211 (p. 4-5).