One More Time

Battered by Naoya's speed, Choso adapts by enhancing his vision and his blood until he can finally match the Zenin's tempo. Drawing on his nature as a Death Painting, which can generate blood from cursed energy and never bleeds out, he floods the underpass and pins Naoya's feet with coagulated blood before defeating him with his original technique, Supernova. Yuta then arrives dragging Yuji's body, knocks Choso out, and forces the dying Naoya to report Yuji's execution in exchange for healing.

Yuji wakes beside a fire to find Yuta wearing a warm, relieved smile. Yuta explains that Gojo asked him in Africa to protect the younger students, and that his cold executioner act was a cover. He healed Yuji's heart the instant it stopped, faking his death to buy time. Megumi soon appears and, after Yuji resists rejoining, asks Yuji to start by saving him.

A flashback shows infant Yuji watched over by his father Jin, his grandfather Wasuke, and his mother Kaori, who bears stitches on her forehead. Megumi reveals the Culling Game, a battle royale among awakened players that has swept up Tsumiki, and lays out its rules: pledging into a colony within nineteen days, earning points by killing other players, and the threat of losing one's technique. The sorcerers resolve to reach Tengen for answers about the Prison Realm's seal and Kenjaku's plan. Choso proposes navigating Tengen's shifting barrier by sensing his brothers' remains in the cursed warehouse, and the group reunites with a scarred Maki and Yuki before entering the Tombs of the Star.

The episode adapts the close of chapter 141 through chapter 144 and introduces Jin Itadori, Kaori Itadori, and Tengen. It also previews several future Culling Game players, including Kashimo, Higuruma, Uro, Reggie, and Ishigori. Anime-original adjustments expand Choso's wave of blood and his repeated use of Slicing Exorcism, and have Naoya punch Choso fully through a support pillar rather than merely denting it as in the source.