Chapter Summaries

Rihito Sato stopped Kenta Ito and his gang from bullying Junpei Yoshino, then considered how to gain the power to survive in the world of Jujutsu Kaisen. He rejected waiting for a future disaster and decided to gamble on asking Mahito to reshape his soul.

• Kenta Ito bullied Junpei Yoshino and tried to take the videotape Junpei wanted to bring home.
• Rihito Sato entered the clubroom and ordered Ito to let Junpei go, prompting Ito to dismiss his gang and leave.
• Rihito helped Junpei pick up and clean the videotapes, then told him to learn to fight back.
• Rihito worried about the coming Shibuya Incident and realized an ordinary person in this world was unlikely to survive.
• Rihito ruled out waiting to become a jujutsu sorcerer and decided to risk having Mahito reshape his soul.

Rihito searched the sewer for Mahito and found a living transfigured human blocking a passage, but gained no useful clues. As he headed out, Mahito appeared behind him and asked what friends were.

• Rihito entered the sewer for his third attempt to find Mahito and investigated a loud crash.
• Rihito discovered that a supposed wall was a transfigured human who repeatedly begged for help.
• Rihito decided to keep searching for Mahito while also considering using Junpei to make contact with him.
• Rihito received Junpei's friend request, accepted it, and started back toward the exit.
• Mahito rested a hand on Rihito's shoulder and asked, “Friends? What are those?”

Rihito Sato deliberately earned Mahito’s interest by claiming he wanted power, hoping the cursed spirit would keep him alive. Mahito took him to an underground room and began an experiment, leaving Rihito unconscious as he marveled at how unusual his soul was.

• Mahito sensed that Rihito’s soul was strange and questioned him about it.
• Rihito admitted he had been looking for Mahito and claimed he wanted power to take revenge on the people who had oppressed him.
• Mahito agreed to give Rihito power through an experiment and led him deeper into the sewer past transfigured humans.
• Mahito brought Rihito to a restraint chair in a tiled room and learned his name.
• Mahito touched Rihito’s temples and put him to sleep, remarking that his soul was unlike anyone else’s.

Rihito awakened his cursed technique, Zero Coffin, which let him steal and release heat. Mahito led him to two failed test subjects and urged him to kill them, and Rihito charged at them.

• Rihito sensed cursed energy inside his body and produced a blue flame.
• Rihito discovered that Zero Coffin let him extract heat from objects and release it in a scorching blast.
• Rihito decided not to fight Mahito and told him he wanted to kill someone.
• Mahito took Rihito to two failed test subjects and told him to kill them.
• Rihito charged at the transfigured humans without answering Mahito.

Rihito killed the transfigured humans and discovered that Mahito's alteration of his soul had awakened a second cursed technique, Withering. Seeking a way to survive Mahito and learn jujutsu, he agreed to meet Junpei in Kichijoji, where Junpei had first encountered Mahito.

• Rihito fought and killed the two transfigured humans while Mahito watched and praised him.
• Rihito discovered that his innate cursed technique, Withering, could rapidly decay physical matter, cursed energy structures, and souls.
• Rihito decided he needed to reach Satoru Gojo through Yuji Itadori and join Jujutsu High to grow stronger.
• Rihito received Junpei's invitation to see a movie in Kichijoji and realized it was where Mahito and Junpei first met.
• Rihito accepted Junpei's invitation and headed home, determined to see whether Mahito would still target Junpei.

Rihito took Junpei to a movie, where Mahito killed three students in the theater while Rihito kept Junpei from watching. After Junpei asked why Rihito had helped him, Mahito appeared from the shadows and confronted Rihito.

• Rihito and Junpei shared popcorn at the theater, and Junpei admitted he had bought it because he was not alone.
• Rihito recognized three students as Mahito’s likely victims, and Junpei remembered Rihito’s earlier advice and steadied himself.
• Mahito appeared in the theater and killed the three students while Rihito told Junpei not to look.
• Rihito led Junpei out, then admitted he had known the killings were coming; Junpei thanked him and left, promising to treat him to another movie.
• Mahito emerged from the shadows and addressed Rihito, making him freeze in fear.

Rihito tried to save Junpei from Mahito, but Mahito transfigured Junpei in front of him. After Rihito ended Junpei’s suffering, he turned toward Mahito with overwhelming killing intent.

• Rihito pretended Junpei meant nothing to him so Mahito would not suspect his concern, but Mahito revealed he had noticed Rihito’s reaction at the movie theater.
• Mahito appeared in Junpei’s path and grabbed him when Rihito arrived to stop him.
• Rihito offered to become Mahito’s favorite toy in exchange for Junpei’s release, but Mahito rejected the deal and used Idle Transfiguration on Junpei.
• Rihito struck the transfigured Junpei to end his suffering, then laid him down as his killing intent toward Mahito grew.

Rihito struggled against Mahito after discovering that Withering could decay Mahito’s soul, but Mahito overwhelmed him as his Cursed Energy ran low. Remembering Junpei and longing to freeze the moment of his death, Rihito awakened his domain and declared, “Domain Expansion—Static Universe!”

• Rihito’s Withering began decaying Mahito’s arm and soul, so he combined frost and a Heat Blast with a punch to try to finish him.
• Mahito avoided Rihito’s follow-up attack and countered with transformed blade, hammer, and whip attacks, leaving Rihito injured and nearly out of Cursed Energy.
• Mahito tore off his decaying arm, regenerated it, and approached Rihito, who accepted that his chances of winning were almost zero.
• Rihito remembered Junpei’s death and imagined time stopping, which quieted his mind and brought his understanding of a domain into focus.
• Rihito crossed his arms and activated his Domain Expansion, Static Universe.

Rihito nearly killed Mahito with his incomplete domain, but Mahito trapped him in Self-Embodiment of Perfection before Yuji Itadori broke into the domain. Mahito escaped after Itadori struck him, leaving Rihito believing he had failed Junpei.

• Rihito used Static Universe and Withering to freeze Mahito and wear down his body and soul, while fighting off Mahito’s transfigured humans.
• Mahito expanded Self-Embodiment of Perfection just as Rihito ran out of cursed energy and prepared to die.
• Yuji Itadori punched through the domain from outside, interrupting Mahito’s technique and causing the barrier to shatter.
• Rihito told Itadori that Mahito had killed the three students in the movie theater and warned him that Mahito might escape through the sewer.
• Mahito swelled and deliberately burst before Itadori could stop him, then escaped as Rihito lamented that he had let Junpei down.

Rihito joined Itadori on the journey to Jujutsu High, hoping to grow strong enough to avenge Junpei and defeat Mahito. Gojo welcomed him, but Rihito was left wondering what the sorcerer had sensed about him.

• Rihito remembered Junpei and resolved to become stronger, while Itadori promised to help him at Jujutsu High.
• Nanami considered Rihito’s unusual cursed energy and lingering trace of a domain, but chose not to contact Gojo yet.
• Itadori brought Rihito to Jujutsu High and introduced him to Fushiguro and Kugisaki as their new teammate.
• Gojo met Rihito, examined him, and sent the others away so they could speak alone.
• Gojo welcomed Rihito and postponed his enrollment paperwork until the next day, leaving Rihito wondering what Gojo had discovered.

After demonstrating his growing control of Zero Coffin, Rihito finally received his delayed combat assessment from Satoru Gojo. He set out to exorcise an unknown cursed spirit in an abandoned psychiatric hospital, determined to pass despite the danger.

• Rihito defeated a charging cursed corpse with Zero Coffin while Itadori praised his progress and Fushiguro watched.
• Rihito asked about his delayed entrance assessment, and Gojo messaged him to come over for the combat test.
• Gojo warned Rihito about the dangers of being a jujutsu sorcerer, then assigned him to investigate an abandoned psychiatric hospital where urban explorers had vanished.
• Rihito realized the mission involved an unknown cursed spirit and resolved to rely on his strength, then headed out to begin the assessment.

Rihito searched an abandoned psychiatric hospital for clues about the cursed spirit and found a former patient’s account of abuse carved into a bed. After using a new cursed-energy technique to see in the dark, he realized the corridor had shifted and that he was standing outside Ward 23 instead of Ward 11.

• Rihito entered the psychiatric hospital, suspecting its cursed spirit was connected to the resentment of sane people who had been confined and abused there.
• Rihito inspected the wards and found an iron chair fitted with cloth strips and wires, suggesting patients had been subjected to electric shocks.
• In Ward 11, Rihito read an account carved into a bed leg by a confined person who had tried to escape and expose the hospital.
• As darkness made searching difficult, Rihito used a cursed-energy technique he had recently learned at Jujutsu High to sharpen his vision.
• Rihito noticed the corridor’s layout had changed and discovered that the ward door beside him was marked Ward 23.

Rihito discovered that the cursed spirit could rearrange the hospital’s rooms and lured it out by decaying the corridor with his Cursed Technique-Withering. After the spirit evaded his attack and began writing a diagnosis, Rihito charged to stop it.

• Rihito tested the room-swapping effect and concluded that the cursed spirit manipulated space to trap people on the floor.
• Rihito used Cursed Technique-Withering on the corridor walls, threatening to bring down the hospital floor and forcing the cursed spirit to appear.
• Rihito recognized the cursed spirit’s shifting faces as patients who had been misdiagnosed and tortured to death.
• Rihito charged the cursed spirit, but it vanished through a doorway and reappeared elsewhere, evading his punch.
• Rihito considered using Domain Expansion but held back, then rushed the cursed spirit when it began writing a diagnosis of right-hand paralysis.

Rihito discovered that the cursed spirit’s diagnoses inflicted painful but temporary effects, then used Withering on himself to make them fade faster. He defeated the spirit with Zero Coffin and left the hospital.

• The cursed spirit diagnosed Rihito with a numb right hand and a fractured right leg, but he realized his body was not actually injured.
• Rihito charged the spirit and attacked with Heat Blast, but it imposed nausea, deafness, and numbness on his left leg.
• As the spirit diagnosed him with blindness and approached to kill him, Rihito activated Withering on himself to accelerate time and clear the effects.
• Rihito dodged the spirit’s pencil attack, struck it with Zero Coffin, and shattered its frozen body.
• Rihito looked at the night sky and headed for the stairs.

After returning from a dangerous mission, Rihito joined Itadori, Fushiguro, and Kugisaki for dinner and felt less alone at Jujutsu High. The chapter ended with Rihito returning to his room after saying goodbye and looking forward to seeing them tomorrow.

• Rihito reflected on using his cursed technique on himself and the heavy cost of deploying his incomplete domain before planning to submit his report to Nanami.
• Itadori, Fushiguro, and Kugisaki pulled Rihito from his room to share dinner in Itadori's messy room.
• Rihito described the psychiatric hospital curse's hallucinatory diagnoses, and Kugisaki and Fushiguro recognized the danger of his response.
• The four first-years shared bentos and melon soda, while Rihito remembered Junpei and considered how he might have shared an ordinary dinner with friends.
• Kugisaki reminded Rihito to be on time for his report to Nanami, and Itadori told him, "See you tomorrow."

Rihito met with Nanami and Yaga for his second assessment after using his cursed technique on himself during the psychiatric hospital mission. Yaga initially rejected him, but Rihito explained that he could not give a polished answer about becoming a sorcerer because his reason was rooted in Junpei’s death.

• Nanami warned Rihito that reversing his cursed technique on himself could kill him and that each use was a gamble with his life.
• Nanami led Rihito to Yaga’s office, where Rihito saw Itadori, Kugisaki, and Fushiguro training.
• Yaga asked Rihito why he wanted to become a jujutsu sorcerer, and Rihito answered that he wanted to become stronger and protect the people around him.
• Yaga failed Rihito, saying his answer was empty and offering to erase his memories of jujutsu.
• Rihito refused to give the answer he thought Yaga wanted and explained that Junpei’s death made his own answer meaningful to him.

Yaga tested Rihito by sending a cursed corpse to attack him and challenged him to prove he could act on his conviction to protect others. Rihito expanded his domain, passed the test, and left with Nanami to collect his uniform.

• Yaga sent a cursed corpse after Rihito and questioned whether he could fight without relying on his cursed technique.
• The cursed corpse overwhelmed Rihito, and Yaga challenged him to show his strength of his own accord.
• Rihito said he still wanted to become stronger and protect the people around him, then expanded his domain, Static Universe.
• Rihito froze the cursed corpse, and Yaga told him he had passed.
• Rihito left the principal’s office, and Nanami took him to collect his uniform.

Rihito received his Jujutsu High uniform and reunited with Itadori, Kugisaki, and Fushiguro, who offered to help him face Mahito. He set aside his anger and joined his friends on the way to the cafeteria, while Gojo’s message hinted at a future mission involving Mahito.

• Rihito tried on his new Jujutsu High uniform, and Nanami led him into the corridor.
• Itadori, Kugisaki, and Fushiguro congratulated Rihito on passing and checked on his injuries and uniform.
• Nanami told Rihito that recent transfigured-human incidents were connected to Mahito and that Gojo would explain more before assigning a mission.
• Rihito recalled Mahito’s allies and his foreknowledge of the Kyoto Goodwill Event, and considered using it to stop Mahito without exposing his secrets.
• Itadori, Kugisaki, and Fushiguro pledged to help Rihito, and he agreed before they headed to the cafeteria together.

Rihito trained with Maki, learning to rely less on his cursed technique and improve his fighting fundamentals. Gojo then assigned Rihito, Kugisaki, and Fushiguro a mission involving transfigured humans while taking Itadori away, and Rihito resolved to keep training.

• Rihito and Itadori arrived early for morning training, where Maki began testing Rihito's combat skills.
• Maki repeatedly threw and struck Rihito while correcting his technique, and he gradually improved his stance and attacks.
• Satoru Gojo interrupted training and assigned Rihito, Kugisaki, and Fushiguro a transfigured human mission led by Nanami.
• Itadori asked to join, but Gojo took him away and told him his role was a secret.
• Rihito realized Gojo was likely taking Itadori for secret training and renewed his determination by asking Maki to train him again.

Mahito planned to use a new transfigured human to torment Rihito while Kenjaku and Jogo prepared to steal the six Sukuna fingers at Jujutsu High. Rihito left with Kugisaki and Fushiguro for an investigation at an abandoned steel mill, where Nanami warned them to flee if they encountered Mahito.

• Mahito told Jogo that he had made another toy to use against Rihito, while Kenjaku insisted that they first pursue their plan involving Sukuna.
• Kenjaku explained that they needed to collect the six Sukuna fingers at Jujutsu High before Yuji Itadori could consume them individually or the school’s higher-ups decided to eliminate him.
• Rihito met Kugisaki and Fushiguro at the school gate, and Fushiguro gave him pain-relief spray for his training injuries.
• Nanami briefed Rihito, Kugisaki, and Fushiguro on their mission to investigate an abandoned steel mill and clear out any remaining transfigured humans.
• Nanami warned the students to run if they saw Mahito, then led them toward their transport.