Chapter 220

By forcing fresh rules onto the Culling Game, Kenjaku twists it onto a straight path toward its finish. Meanwhile, the companions of Satoru Gojo prepare for the day he returns, fully aware that the heavy task of bringing down Kenjaku and Sukuna still waits for them.

Spending three hundred and nine points, Kenjaku moves to write new rules into the Culling Game. His Kogane refuses the first proposal, since it would steer the game toward an end, but he wins leverage by vowing to wreck the central barrier, an act that would halt the game while also barring the merger with Tengen. Across the country, pure barriers bolster curse suppression and the work of Jujutsu High's managers. Four count as essential. One anchors the Yamakuni Mausoleum, another the corridor called the Tombs of the Star; a third holds the core of the Imperial Palace, while the last crowns Hida's Holy Mountain. The Culling Game's bon barriers lean on Tengen's millennia-old pure ones, which Tengen could have released to stop the game at ruinous cost. Kogane then passes rule thirteen, shutting out newcomers, and Kenjaku adds rule fourteen, ending the game once death has claimed every player but for three survivors, Suguru Geto, Megumi Fushiguro, and the body of Shiori Himi, who serve as the vessels of Kenjaku, Sukuna, and Uraume. Spotting Sukuna's mummified body in the barrier, the curse user decides to bring it along as a keepsake.

Word reaches Jujutsu High, where the sorcerers suspect a trigger for the great merger. Maki notes it boils their goal down to defeating Kenjaku and Sukuna, and when Ui Ui compares that to felling Gojo, Maki reminds him Gojo is about to return. Shoko Ieiri tends Hana Kurusu's wounds from Sukuna; with her arm beyond regeneration, the Angel admits Hana pulled through only thanks to Rin Amai together with Fumihiko Takaba. The Angel cannot trade bodies as Sukuna does, and confirms that Culling Game entrants cannot become cursed objects upon death, a skill Sukuna gained through experience. Rin confesses to Yuji his hatred of his old people-pleasing ways, and Yuji, off to rejoin his allies, vows he would eat anything to bring Sukuna down. Choso passes Yuji the notes Yuki Tsukumo wrote on the soul, and Shoko, watching the youngsters, recalls Gojo's wish to raise strong, sharp allies and quietly urges her friend that the time has come to return.

This nineteen-page chapter came out April 17, 2023 in issue 20, part of the Culling Game Arc and gathered into Volume 25, with the Prison Realm on the cover. Rules thirteen and fourteen take effect here, and the chapter pins down who serves as the Culling Game vessels for Kenjaku, Sukuna, and Uraume.