To You Someday

While Nanami and the newly recruited Takuma Ino are hemmed in by transfigured humans below the city, Yuji races to Satozakura against Ijichi's protests. He finds Junpei attacking Shota and the two young sorcerers collide. Junpei shelters inside his jellyfish shikigami, Moon Dregs, whose soft mass absorbs each punch, and argues that no one has the standing to halt another from taking a life since hearts and morals are illusions. Yuji muscles through the tentacles, drives the shikigami into its master, and the brawl spills out a window.

Recalling Gojo's lesson to target the operator rather than the summon, Yuji presses his case verbally as much as physically. He lets the stingers pierce him to show resolve, dispels Moon Dregs, and nearly reaches Junpei with a promise to bring him back and find the killer. At that moment Mahito descends the stairs. Yuji, unable to place him at first, hesitates and is pinned; Junpei realizes too late that the curse never cared for him.

Mahito uses Idle Transfiguration to mutate Junpei into a tool against Yuji. The desperate boy begs Sukuna for healing and is refused. As Junpei's warped body fails, he whispers a final plea for help and dies, while Mahito and Sukuna share a cruel laugh. Enraged beyond anything before, Yuji smashes Mahito's face, and the curse's nosebleed reveals that Yuji's twin souls let him perceive the contours of the soul. The two trade blows as Mahito reshapes his arms into blades, until Mahito reaches for Yuji's soul and Sukuna warns him to know his place. Just as Yuji gains ground, Mahito flanks him, but Nanami arrives to deflect the strike, and the pair resolve to exorcise the curse together.

Yuji battles Junpei and breaks through Moon Dregs, nearly talking him down before Mahito interrupts. Mahito transfigures Junpei, killing him after Sukuna denies healing. Yuji discovers his ordinary attacks land on Mahito while his cursed technique does not, and that Mahito cannot touch his soul. Sukuna punishes Mahito for reaching toward his soul. Nanami returns and teams with Yuji to corner the curse.

Adapted from Chapter 26 through the opening of Chapter 29, the episode introduces Takuma Ino and marks the first time the series condenses more than three chapters into one installment. The shot of Junpei imagined as a Jujutsu Tech student is taken from a chapter cover. A Juju Stroll short shows three small transfigured humans frightened by a pop-up pirate toy, the same trio Mahito later deploys.