Chapter 18

Which Zenin sister sits lower becomes the subject of a heated back-and-forth, until Maki rules that the pair of them occupy the same low rung. Todo cuts the bickering short and departs with Mai. Once Nobara discovers that Maki possesses no cursed energy whatsoever, her view of the older sister turns to admiration. Elsewhere, a private meeting is arranged between Gojo and the principal who runs Kyoto Jujutsu High.

Sprawled and apparently knocked out, Nobara lies between the warring sisters. To Maki, neither of them amounts to much: she dismisses Mai's whole skillset as merely charging objects with energy, while Mai shoots back that owning no technique still ranks above carrying no energy at all. Letting the quarrel go, Maki asks if Nobara is able to get up; Mai sneers that she cannot, and at that instant Nobara revives, tackling Mai to the floor and pinning her. Todo then turns up to fetch Mai, citing a Tokyo meet-and-greet for the idol Takada that he refuses to miss, and on her way out Mai promises her rivals an all-out clash at the Kyoto Goodwill Event. Nobara afterward presses Maki about the missing cursed energy; Maki admits to it and says she took up sorcery purely to silence those who doubted her, a reply that wins Nobara's plain respect before the two go to find Shoko.

Over at Kyoto Jujutsu High, it is Gojo rather than Yaga who shows up to face Principal Yoshinobu Gakuganji, indifferent to how rude the surprise visit reads. He presses for answers on why the leadership left Yuji so exposed, describing the two special grade curses that ambushed him and how clearly and intelligently they could speak. The future, Gojo contends, will see both sorcerers and curses push well beyond the special grade ceiling, and he leaves a warning that others besides him intend to challenge the brass, which leaves Gakuganji sore. A month on, in September, three twisted student corpses surface at the Kinema Cinema in Kawasaki City; Mahito, a curse tied to Geto's circle, is caught slipping away and startled that a human spotted him, just as Yuji shows up to look into the killings. The chapter tucks in cameos from Jogo, Hanami, Pseudo-Geto, Sukuna, and Yuta while introducing Gakuganji, Miwa, Nanami, and Junpei.