Jujutsu Kaisen — Chapter 55 - Reclaiming a Misguided Youth! The Meaning of the Will of Fire

"Boom!"

A Grade 1 Cursed Spirit shaped like a giant spider was crushed into a mass of purple-black flesh and gore by invisible gravitational force.

Satoru Gojo, one hand in his pocket, didn't spare a single glance at the scattered meat on the ground. He pulled out his phone.

"Hey. Next mission location?"

The Assistant Supervisor on the other end was audibly shaking: "G-Gojo-sama, you've already exorcised two Grade 1s and five Grade 2s today. The higher-ups are saying, shouldn't you maybe take a break..."

"Less talking. Where's the next one?"

"I-In Saitama Prefecture. A Grade 2..."

Satoru Gojo hung up.

He raised his head. His pale blue Six Eyes were chillingly cold in the dark.

He couldn't stop.

He didn't dare let himself stop.

The moment his mind went quiet, Suguru's resolute "It's too late" would slither out like a venomous snake and sink its fangs into his nerves.

He didn't know what he was supposed to do.

So he'd kill Cursed Spirits.

Kill every Cursed Spirit in Japan.

Satoru Gojo took one long stride and vanished.

He had become a tireless exorcism machine.

At the same time. Tokyo. The Fushiguro backyard.

"Nine thousand nine hundred ninety-eight!"

"Nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine!"

"Ten thousand!"

Toji was balanced upside down on a single finger, every muscle in his body knotted and veins pressed against the skin, sweat dripping from his chin into the dirt and gouging tiny craters.

Megumi had dragged a small stool to the veranda, a picture book in his lap, watching his old man lose his mind with a perfectly blank expression.

Toji snapped into a clean backflip and landed without a sound. He grabbed the towel around his neck and wiped his face.

He looked down at his palm.

That violent energy was ramping through his meridians, looking for a way out.

The Fourth Gate of the Eight Gates Released Formation. The Gate of Pain.

Since the Jujutsu High incident, Megumi had been sent back to kindergarten. For this entire past month, aside from dropping off and picking up Tsumiki Fushiguro and Megumi, Toji had poured every remaining hour into physical training.

He could feel it. One more push, and the Gate of Pain would crack open completely. But that push still needed a trigger.

When it came, his speed and strength would undergo a qualitative change that would be genuinely terrifying.

Still...

Toji walked to the sink and turned on the tap, splashing cold water over his face.

He picked up his phone and checked the bank notification.

Jujutsu High's salary had come in on time. A decent amount.

Toji smacked his lips. For once, a flicker of something like guilt surfaced.

This past month, there was no other way to put it: he had been on paid leave.

Jujutsu High barely had students to begin with. Haibara, Kumagai, and Suguru Geto had left one after another.

Shoko Ieiri and Satoru Gojo were nearly done with their final year.

He, the taijutsu teacher, was now a general with absolutely no army.

What kind of situation was this?

I get all fired up, ready to tear through the Jujutsu World and make something happen, and there isn't a single student left to even hear me shout?

Toji shook the water off his hands.

And that kid Satoru Gojo had been in a seriously bad place lately.

Running around like a rabid dog every single day, hunting Cursed Spirits all over the country. He hadn't even come back to the college.

"Megumi." Toji glanced over at his son.

"What?" Megumi turned a page.

"Papa's going to go rescue a lost soul wandering in the wilderness of his adolescence." Toji grinned and threw up a thumbs-up. "Don't wait up tonight."

"Have Tsumiki heat up yesterday's curry for dinner!"

Megumi rolled his eyes and went back to his book.

Tokyo Jujutsu High. The edge of the training ground.

Satoru Gojo had just turned in his mission report. Dark circles sat under his eyes, and his steps were slightly unsteady as he made his way toward the dormitory.

A burst of raw, hammering fist wind came at him from the side.

Satoru Gojo didn't look. Infinity snapped on.

"BANG!"

Toji's fist stopped 1 centimeter from Satoru Gojo's cheek, locked in place by the invisible infinite space, unable to move a single millimeter further.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Satoru Gojo lifted his eyes. His voice was rough.

Toji pulled back his fist, planted both hands on his hips, and let loose: "You look like a corpse with functioning legs. There is nothing youthful about that! Look at those dark circles. You're a panda that's been awake for a week!"

Satoru Gojo couldn't be bothered. He stepped around Toji and kept walking.

"Are you just going to drift like this forever?" Toji's voice followed him.

Satoru Gojo stopped.

He turned around. His Six Eyes fixed on Toji, and his tone sharpened with irritation.

"I'm out there exorcising Cursed Spirits every single day. I've cleared over half the Special Grades and Grade 1s across the entire Kanto region. You call that drifting? Tell me, is there anyone in the whole Jujutsu World more dedicated than me?"

"That's called running away." Toji cut through it without mercy. "You think killing every last one of those disgusting Cursed Spirits is going to cover up the impotent rage you feel for not being able to hold onto your friends?"

Satoru Gojo's expression went cold.

The air around him shifted into something dangerous. Pale blue cursed energy flickered at his fingertips.

"Don't push me, Toji Fushiguro. I am in a very bad mood."

Toji didn't flinch.

He walked straight up to Satoru Gojo and looked down at him from his full height, half a head taller, staring down at this strongest child of the gods.

"Don't you want to change this rotting Jujutsu World?"

Satoru Gojo went still.

Then something shifted in his face, and he let out a short, contemptuous laugh, like he'd just heard the world's worst joke.

"Change? We slaughtered all the old fossils, and the new batch that took their seats are timid as quails. The wanted notices have been pulled. What am I supposed to change exactly? Kill every non-sorcerer alive so Suguru can see his grand cause through? That bullshit?"

The exhaustion underneath his voice was bone-deep.

"Killing is the easy part." The wildness in Toji's eyes pulled back. What replaced it was something harder, quieter. A tenacity that had been tempered in blood and sedimented over years.

It was the first time Satoru Gojo had ever seen that look on Toji's face.

"We massacred the Directorate. But as long as the system that treats sorcerers as disposable tools is still standing, as long as that self-righteous arrogance is still breathing, a second crop of old fossils will grow. Then a third."

Toji pointed down at the training ground beneath their feet.

"Jujutsu High needs fresh blood. We need to raise a new generation with fire in them, one that can carry forward a new Will of Fire, and use those flames to burn through this lifeless Jujutsu World once and for all."

Satoru Gojo stared at him.

Wind swept across the training ground and lifted a few dry leaves off the ground.

"Will of Fire..." Satoru Gojo turned the words over slowly, his brow drawing in. "This thing you keep talking about. What actually is it?"

Toji looked up at the heavy sky above Jujutsu High.

"Where the leaves dance, the fire burns eternal."

His voice was low. But it landed like something solid.

"That fire will light the village, and let the new leaves grow."

Satoru Gojo said nothing.

His mind had been running nonstop for weeks, packed tight with killing and self-recrimination. These words brought it to a rare, complete halt.

"The older generation's sacrifices weren't meant to saddle you young people with debts you can never repay. They were meant to be nourishment. Something new things could grow from."

Toji turned and looked directly into Satoru Gojo's Six Eyes.

"Do you actually think you can kill every Cursed Spirit on your own? Do you think you alone can protect everyone?"

Satoru Gojo's lips moved. He wanted to push back. Nothing came out.

Alone, he would always fall short. That was just the truth.

"Aren't you the strongest?" Toji bared his teeth in that wide, reckless grin.

"If one person isn't enough, then go build comrades who can stand next to you. Go teach the kids who haven't been poisoned by these broken rules yet."

"Make them as strong as you. Make them stronger."

"Let them use their own fists to break apart the fates that were handed to them. That is how you change the world. That is what youth looks like when it belongs to someone who teaches."

"Raising... new leaves, huh." Satoru Gojo murmured.

"One more thing!" Toji grabbed him by the collar.

"Suguru Geto goes and hides himself away, and you're just going to leave him there? He's been running his mouth about killing every non-sorcerer in the world. Look at this past month. Has he moved? Has he done anything?"

"That idiot! That absolute fool! He's trapped himself in a loop he can't get out of. He needs us to knock him out of it. He needs someone to get in his face and tell him that grand cause of his is a load of garbage. To show him what a real new world looks like."

"It looks like this, you bastard — a new world burning with youth, soaked in sweat and heat!"

---

ps: This part is important. I'm putting it here in the author's note so you don't miss it.

A lot of readers want a good outcome for Suguru Geto. I've seen your comments, and I hear you.

My original outline planned to follow the source material's trajectory. After all, Suguru Geto's fall in canon exists to serve the core plot of the Culling Game. If I skip the fall to darkness, I'd need to build a significant amount of original plot, and probably introduce entirely new villain characters just to balance out the power dynamics on both sides. Otherwise, Suguru Geto plus Toji plus Satoru Gojo would be so overwhelmingly strong they'd bulldoze every obstacle in the story. (And if he's not going dark, I'm obviously not letting Suguru Geto become the shame of the Special Grades.)

I'll admit it — the author took the lazy route. There's a reason so many writers love fanfiction: it lets you get away with not thinking too hard.

But! When someone says the author simply doesn't have the ability to write it, that stings. So I've decided Teacher Might Toji is going to spank that attitude out of the story, hard. As for how the Culling Game gets started, I do have a plan, it's just going to cost a significant number of brain cells and a lot more writing time. The author does have a day job, and this is a side project.

So! If you want to see a more interesting path, a story that goes somewhere completely different, please give Chai Chai a little encouragement!

Leave a positive review, add it to your bookshelf if you haven't yet — it genuinely makes a difference!

➤ Next: Satoru Gojo's Resolve, the Struggle for the Greater Good