Nozomi Bugendai

**Nozomi Bugendai** (のぞみ 部現代, *Bugendai Nozomi*) also known as **The** **Star Plasma Vessel** (星せい漿しょう体たい, Seishōtai?) Is a major supporting character in the *Jujutsu Kaisen: The Star, The Blight, and The Rose* series. He is a special grade jujutsu sorcerer first-year student at Tokyo Jujutsu High alongside Yuji Itadori, Nobara Kugisaki, Megumi Fushiguro, and later Saki Rindo. Nozomi is the first and only recorded male Star Plasma Vessel, and successor to the late Star Plasma Vessel Riko Amanai, eventually found by Satoru Gojo, who mentored him and enrolled him at Jujutsu High as his student.

## Appearance

Nozomi is a relatively tall, slim young man with fair skin and tainted brown eyes. He sports unkempt short hair with multiple piercing on both his ears.

Nozomi typically wears a standard Jujutsu High uniform with a dark blue jacket over a long-sleeved white dress shirt. His uniform pants match his jacket and only reach to just above his shins. He wears long black socks that cover his exposed ankles and finishes his outfit with low-top brown shoes.

After the events of the Shibuya Incident, Nozomi prefers to wear a black hoodie over a white long sleeve shirt with grey pants and light blue shoes.

After training for a month with Yuki Tsukumo and Toshihisa Negi until the events of the Shinjuku Showdown, Nozomi wears a skin-tight black bodysuit underneath a light-colored monk's robe that mainly drapes over his left side.

During his and Ai's battle against Doku and The Merger, Nozomi broke through the limits of a human, with his optimizing of his cursed energy turning his hair color changing to white and his skin becoming burned, and his eyes became light blue.

## Personality

Nozomi prefers to appear to be a good natured, kind, and sometimes sarcastic individual. Most of the time, he wears a smile and tries to get along with anyone he meets, in stark "contrast" to his close childhood friend, Megumi. Unlike Megumi, however, he is much less patient with others, becoming quickly sarcastic and passive aggressive with others should they get on his nerves, the prime example being Nobara.

In actuality, his apparent kind nature is but a façade and is just an attempted mimic of his childhood friend, Ai Barahata’s behavior. His true self is a rather sarcastic, selfish, and prickly person. He has stated his selfish intent to live a life which he can be proud of, though this constantly got him into trouble with Ai. Nozomi was greatly traumatized for being apart of the cause of Ai's near death. Nozomi carries an extremely heavy weight about him, weighed down by the guilt of being the reason that Ai is in a coma. Along with this, he feels pressured by jujutsu society, as the Star Plasma Vessel, and carries an unconscious fear that, at any given moment, his whole life can be upended by Master Tengen should he desire to merge. It wasn't until remembering the words of Ai, who told him he's the ultimate decision maker of his life, that he was able to unlock his true potential during the Goodwill Exchange Event. After this, he became much more open with his classmates, and began to truly experience the view of life that Ai had been trying to show him.

After the Shibuya Incident, and witnessing the “death” of his close friend Nobara, Nozomi lost some of his newfound friendliness in exchange for his old outwardly stoic personality in an attempt to hide his true feelings.

During the Culling Game, he became rather ferocious in order to protect the life of Ai, who had been awakened from her coma in order to participate in the Culling Game, determined to keep her safe from anyone who would attack her until he got to her.

As it happened, Nozomi was in love with Ai as something more than a friend, just as she was in love with him. Unbeknownst to Nozomi, Ai had kissed him once after his battle against Hanabira, then again after the pairs victory over Doku and The Merger of Humanity.

## Abilities and Powers

**Overall Skills**: Nozomi is one of only a few special grade sorcerers recognized by Jujutsu High and possesses one of the highest potentials of any student at Jujutsu High. Satoru believes that Nozomi could become as strong as he is one day, a sentiment only shared about only three others, those being Yuji, Yuta, and Hakari. Gojo has stated that he possesses as much skill and potential, if not more, than Megumi and Yuji. He has been recognized by Jujutsu society as a powerful sorcerer befitting the title of special grade. Even Kenjaku, a powerful ancient jujutsu sorcerer with hundreds of years of knowledge and experience, has taken an interest in Nozomi due to his unique abilities.

Even before his enrollment into Tokyo Jujutsu High, Nozomi was able to take on missions only a Grade 2 or Semi-grade 1 sorcerer could take on by the age of 14. During his past, Nozomi was able to combat and defeat Ikidori Yosoyososhi, a talented young sorceress trained by Chiharu Mugenno, a special grade curse user. After enrolling into Tokyo Jujutsu High, his talent and potential flourished, taking on solo missions and recognized by his classmates as an exceptionally strong sorcerer, even without his special grade ranking. During the Goodwill Exchange Event, he demonstrated the lengths of his training with his second-year upperclassmen, being able to easily overwhelm and take down Kaito Yuki, a semi-grade 1 first-year student from Kyoto, and fellow barrier user. He was even able to successfully forestall Hanami, a powerful special grade cursed spirit, along with Kaito, for several minutes.

During the Shibuya Incident, he was able to effortlessly defeat Kagome, a skilled curse user, and exorcise Makaze, the second strongest unregistered special grade curse in Mahito’s Group, alongside Saki Rindo. During their fight with Makaze, Nozomi's potential shown through, activating his Domain Expansion, and using Black Flash three times in a row. After accidentally encountering the King of Curses and Jogo, Nozomi was able to react to Sukuna’s Dismantle purely on instinct, saving both Mimiko and Nanako Hasaba before retreating again to search for his allies. Later, in his fight against Mahito with Yuji and Aoi Todo, he managed to use Black Flash again, and was able to continue fighting after the arrival of Kenjaku, Doku, Uraume, and Meirei. Shortly after the Shibuya Incident, Nozomi received special training from Yuki Tsukumo, a fellow special grade sorcerer and former Star Plasma Vessel.

In the Culling Games, Nozomi was able to easily dispatch of 2 Culling Game Players upon being randomly teleported in Tokyo Colony No. 1, and was able to defeat 3 incredibly strong jujutsu sorcerers, one of which being Kosen, a reincarnated sorceress who was the strongest sorcerer of her era 800 years ago, alongside another reincarnated sorcerer known as Jack The Ripper. Nozomi also stood against the reawakened Ai Barahata, his childhood friend, who had merged with the ancient sorceress Hanabira. He became the only other student to accumulate over 100 points, the only other being Yuta. After Megumi's possession by Sukuna, Nozomi was able to enter into hand-to-hand combat against him, alongside Yuji and Maki, the three being the strongest close quarter fighters of all the students.

During the Shinjuku Showdown, Nozomi was able to contend with both The Merger of Humanity and Doku, the latter of which had become the **Inheritor of Kenjaku’s Will**, gaining all of their cursed techniques. During the entire battle, Nozomi was capable of both contending with his opponent, but also maintaining a multilayered barrier around the battlefield, as well as a country-wide barrier that encased all of Japan, as well as protecting Ai with his barriers. In the later stages of his battle with Doku, Nozomi surpassed the limits of a human, gaining incredibly enhanced abilities and eventually killing Doku, with the latter claiming Nozomi had “the same brilliance in his eyes” as some of “the strongest” sorcerers. Nozomi was able to unconscious recover from his temporary surpassing of human limitations in mere minutes, aiding Ai in finally defeating Chiharu Mugenno, before returning to Shinjuku to help defeat Sukuna.

### **Physical Prowess**

**Expert Hand-to-Hand Combatant**: Nozomi is a strong fighter who has never been afraid to get in close to hit his opponents. Having been personally trained by both Satoru Gojo, the strongest jujutsu sorcerer, and Yuki Tsukumo, a former Star Plasma Vessel, Nozomi is well versed in close quarter combat, his prowess inferior only to the likes of Yuji, Saki, and Maki. Nozomi mainly uses his innate technique in tandem with his close range combat, making weapons or gauntlets to use along with it.

**Expert Weapons Specialist**: Nozomi was trained by Maki, the best cursed tool user at Jujutsu High, to use a variety of different weapons. He typically creates the weapons he needs with his cursed technique, and disposes of them after their use.

**Advanced Endurance**: Nozomi is especially tough for a human being, with high pain tolerance, exceptional stamina, and especially impressive durability. Along with his cursed technique and basic cursed energy reinforcement, Nozomi has been stated to have the greatest defense of the jujutsu world, with the exception of Satoru Gojo.

## Trivia

**•** Nozomi’s name 望み (nozomi) means “desire, wish, hope”, with his surname 無限大 (Bugendai) meaning infinity.

**•** He liked to have longer hair in middle school, but cut it short to show off his self made piercings.

**•** Nozomi is a big eater, and is willing to try any kind of food.

**•** Nozomi blames himself for how Ai ended up in a coma, due to his failed attempt to exorcise a grade 1 curse and Ai blocking the curses attack aimed at Nozomi with her body.

**•** After the incident that left Ai comatose, Nozomi nearly left Jujutsu society.

**•** He tried to look for ways to cure Tsumiki Fushiguro prior to his enrollment in Tokyo Jujutsu High, but stopped after his accident involving Ai.

According to Jujutsu Kaisen Unofficial Fanbook:

• Enrollment method: Scouted

• His hobby is shopping for jewelry and playing all kinds of musical instruments.

• Favorite dish: Ramen with shrimp tempura.

• Least favorite dish: None.

• Cause of stress: Talking about Master Tengen.