ANALYSIS/THEORY : The Ryomen Sukuna and Megumi Fushiguro Connection
Throughout the course of Jujutsu Kaisen’s story there has been a recurring theme of relationships or character connections being teased at in multiple intriguing and misleading ways. Whether it be the connection between Choso and Noritsohi Kamo, Mai and Maki Zenin, or even Todo and Yuuta from the prequel series, Gege Akutami seems to have a passion for giving subtle possible character arcs that would revolve around the relationship with another important character of the cast. Some of these hints come into fruition like Choso and Yuji finally meeting and having their bathroom brawl within the Shibuya Incident Arc. What this mainly highlights is Akutami’s writing style and ability to keep the story fresh and even pulls unexpected stunts like reviving an antagonist to have a final confrontation with their son, who without coincidence is one of the main focuses of this piece. Megumi Fushiguro, the deuteragonist of the story, is of course a focal point used to progress the plot in many ways and sometimes feels like more of an important piece than Yuji himself. That makes the theory I’m going to discuss even more interesting especially when you look into Megumi and Yuji’s relationship with each other. The connection between Megumi and Sukuna is a relationship and/or plot line that Akutami has teased since chapter 8 of Jujutsu Kaisen. What makes this so interesting is knowing that Sukuna is already a part of Yuji via sharing a body so one could only wonder what Sukuna is thinking, and we have enough information to form a solid hypothesis, Sukuna wants to use Megumi(or his ability) for his ulterior motives.
First and foremost, when discussing Sukuna and Megumi it is important to talk about the conditions in which the two have interacted. Sukuna and Megumi have had only one occurrence with one on one interaction and that was during the Cursed Womb arc. This interaction covered in chapters 8 & 9 brought a new light on not only Sukuna’s character but Megumi’s as well, giving a glimpse into his mind when he decided to save Yuji and also who he is as a person, while for Sukuna we see him express interest in Megumi and his ability. Statements such as “why did you run?” and “A wasted treasure.” were triggers for Megumi and the audience but for different reasons. Sukuna’s words show that he has an interest in Megumi and his ability(more on that later) while giving the audience a more in-depth idea of Sukuna’s tauntful personality but also giving Megumi room to progress. In this moment Megumi prepares to use what Gojo calls his “Trump Card” an attack that is unconfirmed in nature, but seemingly is the end all be all for Megumi. Before he can launch the attack Yuji takes back control of his body which ends the confrontation with Sukuna. In this small bit of dialogue between the two we can see that Sukuna clearly has some type of motive going by looking into Megumi’s potential, but there isn’t much to go off of except one piece of monologue that didn’t suffice as evidence until later in the story. Sukuna thinks to himself “he can summon without a talisman, much more practical”.
This line seems trivial when first displayed but as the story progresses and we learn about Sukuna and his fingers we find out that certain curses have begun to resonate and awaken ever since Yuji ate one. This began to open a whole new avenue as Sukuna states to Yuji “The spirits I cut and scattered have woken up”, literally letting the audience know that Sukuna has the ability to control other spirits. These “cut and scattered” spirits may have been originally under Sukuna’s control through some form of charm hence his thoughts about Megumi’s shadow technique.
The question still remains of why, and naturally it can be assumed Sukuna wants to use a similar technique to get back control of a possible army and/or subordinates. Within chapter 115, we see Sukuna copy the baseline ability of the curse Jogo, using flames in a similar fashion. With this development it becomes even more likely Sukuna wanted to understand Megumi’s ability to be able to use a rendition of it himself, but I think there is more to his interests than that.
The next big piece to their uncanny connection is Sukuna’s statement to Yuji after the Megumi confrontation which gave a peak into why Sukuna wants to stay in Yuji’s body for now. Covered in chapter 11, Sukuna proposes a binding vow to Yuji. In exchange for saving his life, when Sukuna says “Enchain” he will have control of Yuji’s for one minute. Yuji declines stating he doesn’t trust Sukuna but unexpectedly Sukuna sweetens the deal by saying he promises not to kill or hurt anyone while in control. Yuji sarcastically inquires why he would agree to help and Sukuna thinks about Megumi and says “The game has changed. Soon we’ll see something interesting”. This is only 2 chapters after Sukuna and Megumi’s interaction further showing that Megumi is special but in a way only Sukuna seems to understand. The same type of hint is displayed when Yuji forces his way into Mahito’s Domain Expansion, causing Sukuna’s personal domain to be compromised. Sukuna’s retaliation toward Mahito is explained with the narration “For Ryomen Sukuna whether Nanami or Mahito survives doesn’t matter at all. Only one person holds his interest aside from him he truly doesn’t care about anyone else” while showing a portrait of Megumi.
These moments are so important to understand because it lets us know that killing Megumi isn’t Sukuna’s goal. This is also confirmed in chapter 112 where two vital things are said by Sukuna in response to Jogo’s request for him to leverage permanent control of Yuji’s body. The first being “Not necessary. I have my own plans.”, and challenging Jogo for his desperation, agreeing to kill every human in Shibuya but one if Jogo can land a hit on him. Even though Sukuna did not specifically name Megumi, it is obvious that he is the only human he wouldn’t want to kill, meaning he has a plan that Megumi may be in the center or at least a big piece of.
With all of this build up between these two major players where could Akutami be going? How will these two connect and continue to progress the world of Jujutsu Kaisen? Well to put it simply, I believe Sukuna will try to use Megumi to revive his original body or use Megumi’s ability to create one. This is where the theorizing goes to the maximum output and multiple subtle facts and key points given by Akutami must be taken into account. As previously discussed, Sukuna has already shown proof that he has had at some point the ability to control spirits. This comes as no surprise due to one of his epithets being the “King of Curses”. What is fascinating about this and almost like a tease by Akutami is that we get a glimpse of Sukuna using a Domain Expansion in chapter 10 called “Malevolent Shrine” in official Viz english translation, but when looking at the original Japanese text, some translate it to “Demonic Feretory”. What should be focused on is not just the ability but the name of the territory itself, because Sukuna does a form of slicing ability after but it is later shown that Sukuna possess more than one technique. Focusing back on the name of Sukuna’s expansion, a feretory is an ornate often portable bier for the relics of a saint, or in other words a shrine to keep relics for saints. So no matter how you translate it, both names correlate to a shrine used for evil spirits or curses; it is highly possible that Sukuna has an ability to copy or store other abilities like relics, and his expansion is a manifestation of that. The spirits that Sukuna had cut and scattered could be apart of the arsenal of spirits he was taking abilities from.
Aside from the spirits connected to him the biggest piece to this theory is Sukuna’s fingers, one of the biggest focuses of Jujutsu Kaisen. Sukuna’s fingers are stated by Gojo to be indestructible even demonstrating this by blasting a hole in the wall trying to destroy it, but the fingers’ mystery doesn’t stop there. In chapter 1 of Jujutsu Kaisen we get Yuji eating a Sukuna finger and becoming possessed for a moment and in these crucial seconds we get monologue from Sukuna that is commonly overlooked by fans. Sukuna yells out “AHA I KNEW IT! LIGHT IS BEST APPRECIATED IN THE FLESH! A CURSED SPIRITS FLESH IS NO FUN!”. These lines are crucial to the theory because it confirms that the Sukuna fingers being eaten by curses has a different effect to Yuji’s current situation. Yuji being a one in a million potential vessel was a breaking point for Sukuna to once again feel human flesh but we know he doesn’t want to stay in Yuji’s body permanently, why not? The obvious reasoning being because Yuji can control the possession and can become stronger as he absorbs more fingers and if he dies the fingers within him would die, unlike with curses the fingers would just appear where the curse once was showing they cannot be destroyed by normal means. This means Sukuna is actually trapped within Yuji. Even after eating 10 fingers at once it was stated that Sukuna would have control albeit temporarily, which could just be adding to his imprisonment. It would only make sense that Sukuna would want to find his own body, one that he can control without binding vows or originally owned by a teenage boy, but what body could he use? His own.
As wild as it sounds, it is confirmed possible that since Sukuna’s fingers cannot be destroyed then his body must be around as well. Evidence of this comes from chapter 3 where Gojo gives minor lore on Sukuna stating he was once human and during the Golden Age of Jujutsu that Jujutsu Sorcerers fought against him but were defeated. If this is the case, then how did Sukuna die and when did he get his fingers separated from his body? That is an unanswerable question but it is also stated by Gojo that the Sorcerers couldn’t even destroy his remains that were preserved in his own Grave Wax. That description given 3 chapters in, is the most crucial evidence that Sukuna’s body may still be recoverable after he becomes one with all his fingers. Another thing that adds to this is that Grave Wax is created from a decomposing body created from saturated fatty acids. In other words it happens after fungi and other poisons begin to decompose the body but the fatty acids conjugate to form a wax like substance. What if Sukuna’s body is reacting to these poisons in a way that preserves his powers and life essence? Sukuna’s second epithet is “The King of Poisons”, stated during Origin of Obedience when Yuji and Nobara were fighting two of the three cursed wombs. This is the same reasoning given for Yuji’s immunity to Junpei’s poisonous Jellyfish. It seems likely that Sukuna’s original form reached a level of omnipotence that allowed him to live for ages to maybe eventually be revived.
Sukuna seems to have his own plans and interests for Megumi and I believe it is heavily involved with reviving Sukuna’s body through shadow manipulation or to help revive his past controlled spirits or both. With Sukuna able to copy abilities but also have huge interests in Megumi on a personal level, even once commenting “Good. That’s good” after seeing Megumi use Chimera Shadow Garden, I think there is more to Megumi’s ability and it’s potential has yet to be fully revealed to him. Sukuna being a veteran Sorcerer and also having some sort of copy technique or talent not only worries me for the characters but also excites me for the plot progression. With a new ally arriving to help Sukuna, it feels as if this connection with soon be fleshed out but also could see a major increase in strength and capability by Megumi. This is a theory that has very small and large concrete information with heavy speculation around it but it is one that seems highly plausible. Why is Sukuna’s body indestructible, where is his body, why is he only interested in Megumi, and what does he expect to see from him? These are the questions I know Akutami wants the readers to be asking and as much speculation that can be done the truth won’t be known until Akutami puts the pen to the paper.
