Episode 44

is the forty-fourth episode of the Jujutsu Kaisen anime adaptation and the twentieth episode of the second season. 
== Summary ==
Yuji stands in a daze at the disaster before his eyes, his mind already well past its limit. As a curse, Mahito is elated at seeing his ideal sequence of events play out before him, and he prepares to further finish off Yuji.
== Plot Details ==
 
As Nobara's blood splatters on Yuji's face, he remembers the time when the three first-year students were lounging at a table enjoying their cups of coffee before she knocked over her drink onto a shirt belonging to Gojo. Nobara attempted to pass off the blame on Ijichi for leaving their sensei's freshly dry-cleaned shirt in their care, but Megumi and Yuji were unconvinced. The three of them work together to try and dab away the stains. 
Despite their efforts, much of the shirt remained stained. Nobara suggested that they buy a replacement for the shirt, but Megumi discovered that it costs 250,000 yen after checking the label, dumbfounding the other two first-years. Nobara then asked the boys to chip in 80,000 each while she would add the 90,000. Just then, Gojo arrived to retrieve his shirt, only to notice a bulge in an annoyed Megumi's jacket. Nobara and Yuji tried to hold back their laughter but were ultimately unable to and reveal to Gojo that they stuffed his shirt inside Megumi's uniform. 
 
Currently, Nobara lays on the ground before Yuji, missing her left eye and having half of her face bloodied. Remembering his loss to Choso, Sukuna's rampage, and Nanami's death, Yuji begins to hyperventilate as his spirit breaks, barely mustering up the ability to call Nobara's name. Mahito, satisfied with Yuji's reaction and commending his own talent as a curse, rushes towards the sorcerer and strikes him with a cursed energy-reinforced punch, successfully unleashing Black Flash. 
Not letting up, the special grade curse relentlessly beats Yuji while exposing him for his weak determination. Mahito claims that he and Yuji are not so different, because he kills people without hesitation just as Yuji saves people without a second thought. He outlines the nature of their fight as a clash of truths between the instincts of a curse and the dignity from human reasoning, a conflict which will determine which of the two races remains. 
After thoroughly beating Yuji down both mentally and physically, Mahito asks the student if he has ever counted how many curses he's exorcised. Treating the student's silence as admission, Mahito gleefully says that he never cared about how many people he's killed either. As he morphs his arm into a praying mantis-like claw and prepares to kill Yuji, Mahito claims that he'll surely forget about Yuji eventually. However, there is a clapping noise and Yuji disappears from Mahito's view. 
Reciting part of the opening line from The Tale of the Heike, Aoi Todo, having used Boogie Woogie to save Yuji, arrives at the scene as he declares that he and Yuji are the exception to the inevitable decline of the prosperous. As it turns out, Aoi Todo and Arata Nitta arrived at the Fukutoshin Line Platform where Satoru Gojo was sealed at 11:09 PM. There, they ran into a crowd of non-sorcerers still left in a trance from being exposed to Unlimited Void. Todo arrived at the spot where Prison Realm dented the ground upon initially processing Satoru and confirmed that the cursed object had been moved. Todo decided to change their goal from retrieving Satoru to rescuing as many of their fellow sorcerers as possible. Feeling that his "brother" was nearby, Todo told Arata they needed to hurry, confusing the latter as he thought Todo was an only child. 
 
In the present, Mahito recognizes the scar on Todo's face and his cursed technique from Hanami. Meanwhile, Arata arrives after treating Nobara, though he informs Todo that she's probably already dead and asks his upperclassman not to blame him for it later. Aoi then asks him to help Yuji next before telling his nearly defeated friend that he must wake up, as their battle is just beginning. 
Opening his eyes, Yuji trembles on the ground as he explains that he no longer has the will to fight, having been traumatized by witnessing Nobara and Nanami's demise at the hands of Mahito. Furthermore, Sukuna's slaughter at Shibuya has made him feel as if he failed at his mission to help others. Crying and writhing on the ground, Yuji expresses that he can't forgive himself. 
Overjoyed by Yuji's suffering, Mahito rushes at Yuji with his arm shaped into a jagged blade. Todo claps his hands and activates Boogie Woogie to switch Mahito with Arata behind him. Mahito attempts to turn around and attack Todo, but the third-year student switches the curse's position with Yuji's before delivering a powerful kick to Mahito's face that sends him flying towards Arata. Todo quickly swaps Arata and Mahito again, preventing a collision as the special grade tumbles away on the ground. 
 
Impressed, Mahito laughs and admits that Todo's technique is extremely disorienting even though he knows how it works. At the same time, Todo tells Yuji not to belittle himself and reminds him that he is a jujutsu sorcerer, the same as Todo, Nananmi, and Nobara. Todo expresses that as long as there are sorcerers who are alive, the ones who have passed on are never truly defeated, and trying to look for meaning or reason for their deaths would only disrespect them. As he throws away his jacket, Todo asks Yuji to remember what he was entrusted with by those who died. While he doesn't need to answer right now, he must keep fighting until he does, for that is the punishment he has to bear for being alive. Todo then walks away to fight Mahito. 
Arata quickly treats Yuji's injuries by applying his cursed technique. He explains to Yuji that his cursed technique can only stop existing injuries from worsening and gradually lessen the pain, but not for new wounds. He then informs Yuji that he has already treated Nobara the same way, though he admits that she doesn't have a pulse and isn't breathing but encourages Yuji by adding that there isn't a zero percent chance of survival. After trying to instill some hope in Yuji, Arata takes Nobara and retreats out of the station. 
Mahito attacks Todo and tries to split himself in a variety of ways to outmaneuver the sorcerer. However, Todo's technique allows him to effectively avoid all of Mahito's attempts at touching him, all the while keeping their battle away from Yuji. Having left a small transfigured human behind Todo, Mahito then transforms it into a large spike, but the third year avoids the attack. Mahito is disappointed that the sneak attack didn't provoke Todo into activating his technique, as he been hoping to unleash Black Flash again to better understand the true essence of his soul. 
 
Anticipating a position swap with Todo, Mahito is thrown off guard when Todo instead swaps with Yuji, who charges his fist with cursed energy before striking the curse's arm with Black Flash. As Mahito is knocked away from the attack, Yuji remembers Nanami's last words and resolves to suffer in his place. An amused Mahito regenerates his arm, while Todo welcomes Yuji back into the battle as the two stand ready to exorcise the curse. 
Meanwhile on a train to Shibuya, one of Mechamaru's communication devices informs Kasumi that the Shibuya Incident will end soon, hoping to dissuade her from heading to the special ward. Kasumi asks him why he only had Todo and Arata go to Shibuya, to which Kokichi responds that the two men have a high chance of surviving the incident. 
A disappointed Kasumi asks if Kokichi did this because she was useless, which he denies. Kokichi reveals that he purposefully arranged it so that everyone else from Kyoto Jujutsu High would have a mission in the south of Kyoto on October 31. When Kasumi asks him if he didn't trust them due to their weakness, Kokichi argues that he is the weak one for not being able to follow through with his mistake. Kokichi then confesses that there was someone he loved who he wished to protect no matter what happened to the world, even if she hoped for someone else to protect her instead. 
 
As Kasumi begins to cry, Kokichi tells her that he is out of time and bids her farewell. Kasumi begs him not to leave, when suddenly an imagination of Kokichi appears in the reflection of the window, sitting next to her. The imaginary Kokichi tells Kasumi his final wish: for her to find her own happiness, before disappearing. With Mechmaru gone forever, Kasumi breaks down and cries profusely. In a different car on the train, Mai asks Utahime about Mechamaru's betrayal, though the latter says that it doesn't matter anymore now that Kokichi is dead. Noritoshi is disappointed that Mechamaru underestimated them, while Momo swears to kill the people responsible for killing Kokichi and making Kasumi cry. 
Meanwhile, in Shibuya Station, the battle between Mahito and the jujutsu sorcerers rages on, eventually taking them to a lower level as their brawl destroys the floor. Mahito estimates that Todo's soul is at full strength, so a single touch with Idle Transfiguration may not kill him, whereas Yuji's is at about 10% of its strength, and his own is around 40% due to having his clone destroyed and being pummelled by Yuji earlier. Deciding to take care of Todo's troublesome technique first, Mahito uses Body Repel to create a train-like transfigured human that chases the two sorcerers through the station's tracks and eventually separates them. Mahito takes advantage of this to personally pursue Todo, relentlessly attacking him with swords created from transfigured humans. Todo manages to fend off all of the curse's assaults and finally kicked him into an elevator that brings him to the upper floor. 
 
The two sorcerers then regroup and rush upstairs to continue their fight. As the special grade curse appears, Todo tells Yuji to throw a rock imbued with cursed energy at Mahito. Resolving to not be left behind by his "brother" and Mahito, Todo swaps positions with the stone and uses its momentum to deliver a Black Flash-enhanced high kick to Mahito, all the while imagining Nobuko Takada's voice. The force behind the kick launches Mahito far away, though it fails to do any damage since it did not hurt his soul. However, now all three fighters have reached 120% of their potential as a result of using Black Flash. 
Mahito vomits up several shrunken transfigured humans and combines them using Soul Multiplicity before activating Body Repel, launching multiple transfigured snake-like creatures at his opponents that bombard them with hits and prevent the use of Boogie Woogie. Yuji and Todo withstand the attacks, but Body Repel's damage to the ceiling behind them causes them to break through the underground of Shibuya into the streets above. With a deranged smile, Mahito gleefully shouts at Yuji to try harder, as it is their last chance to curse each other. 
== Characters in Order of Appearance==
* Yuji Itadori
* Megumi Fushiguro 
* Kiyotaka Ijichi 
* Satoru Gojo 
* Nobara Kugisaki
* Kento Nanami 
* Mahito
* Aoi Todo
* Arata Nitta
* Pseudo-Geto 
* Hanami 
* Sukuna 
* Kokichi Muta 
* Kasumi Miwa
* Mai Zenin
* Noritoshi Kamo
* Utahime Iori
* Momo Nishimiya
* Nobuko Takada 
== Locations == 
* Shibuya
** Shibuya Station
== Battles & Events ==
* The Shibuya Incident
** Yuji Itadori & Nobara Kugisaki vs. Mahito (Concluded)
** Yuji Itadori & Aoi Todo vs. Mahito (Started)
== Jujutsu ==
== Music ==
== Anime & Manga Differences ==
== Trivia ==
== Navigation ==