Akutami has no interest in stopping himself from delivering peak fiction every week and we are here to enjoy every single letter and pen stroke of this breathtakingly amazing series.
Speaking of the story, a lot of damage has been dealt to the King of Curses but he still has a lot of gas to burn.
But let’s not forget about Yuji’s new form, with demonic hands breaking records by throwing continuous Black Flashes and showing extreme resilience.
He is able to keep up with a fully powered Sukuna on equal standing. Yuji being the nephew of Sukuna and then having two cursed techniques? He is fully packed with surprises!
It’s always great to hear our protagonists getting their deserved powerups but what exactly happened to Yuji during Gojo’s return and Christmas Eve? Keen eyes might have noticed a very interesting panel in chapter 220 that talks about the presence of Death Paintings inside Yuji.
What exactly is going on? Did Yuji Itadori eat all of the Death Paintings who are essentially his siblings? What is Choso’s fate? Let’s talk about it all.
Season one of Jujutsu Kaisen ended with the introduction of Cursed Wombs: Death Paintings who are half curse and half humans, born from the experiments of the infamous Noritoshi Kamo, the most evil Jujutsu Sorecer in history under the control of Kenjaku and with the help of a woman who could give birth to half human and half curse offsprings.
During the Goodwill Event Arc, Mahito was able to steal the eldest three Death Paintings from the warehouse as Hanami caused a rampage and proved to be a viable distraction.
The eldest brother of them all, Choso, became a part of Mahito’s group and orchestrated the Shibuya Incident of sealing Gojo and causing a rampage for innocent civilians.
It was in the middle of the fight between him and Yuji that Choso started seeing different memories: that Yuji was his brother.
This was confirmed in chapter 143, where it is revealed that Yuji’s mother is no one other than another one of Kenjaku’s vessels at that time. This makes Yuji Choso’s younger half-brother. (I know it’s weird but so is Kenjaku!)
Choso joins forces with the Jujutsu High students and fights with them. Along with his mastery of Blood Manipulation, he is a formidable special-grade curse, able to hold his ground against the strongest.
Choso with his knowledge of Cursed Wombs and Curses in general, proved to be a crucial asset for Jujutsu High. In chapter 220, Gege drops a bombshell where he states that Yuji had or is going to eat the Cursed Wombs or funnily enough, his half-siblings.
Fast forward to chapter 257, after the historic battle between the strongest sorcerers of different eras, the narrator was kind enough to confirm the existence of Cursed Wombs inside of Itadori.
So this answers the main question. But what exactly did that do? As mentioned above, Yuji has access to Blood Manipulation, the inherited technique of the Kamo clan and the Cursed Wombs.
He also showed proficiency with the said skill, as he joined back his leg after getting hit by Sukuna’s slashes in chapter 258.
We also must include some more information from the official fan book, where he responded to a question that stated what would happen if Yuji were to eat the Death Paintings:
“Either the Death Painting Womb will become something like Sukuna’s current state, or the Death Painting Womb itself will disappear and become cursed energy within Itadori. If Itadori ingests it after he is already a host for Sukuna, the Death Painting Womb will just be obliterated by Sukuna.“
He pointed out various possibilities. The Death Painting Womb can become similar to Sukuna’s current state (as in Yuji being the vessel of a curse) or the Death Painting disappearing and turning into Cursed Energy within Itadori. These are the two possibilities if Yuji had been an empty vessel.
According to Gege, if Itadori were to consume a Death Painting when he is already a host for Sukuna, the Death Painting would be obliterated by Sukuna. The King allows no one in place of him.
That explains the decision for Yuji to ingest the Cursed Paintings after Sukuna got out of him. But what can we expect from Yuji? Looking at the current state, we can see him getting demonic hands of sorts that are far from human.
Does that mean Yuji is on his way to transform into something Curse-like? Only time will tell as we wait for chapters!