Chapter 242

## Chapter Guide

**Foolish Survivor —Flying High—** (バカサバイバー！！〜舞 (ま) い上 (あ) がれ〜, *Baka Sabaibā!! ~Maiagare~* ?) is the two hundred and forty-second chapter of Gege Akutami's *Jujutsu Kaisen*.

## Summary

With his confidence restored, Fumihiko Takaba takes the fight to Kenjaku and manifests a spectacle beyond comprehension.

## Plot Details

Kenjaku summons the special grade rebel spirit Akuro-o Otake, but it is instantly exorcised after being ran over by a truck driven by Fumihiko Takaba. Acting as a drunk driver, Takaba blames Kenjaku, who was also hit by the vehicle, for jumping out suddenly.

Kenjaku reappears as a police officer and asks Takaba to breathe into a breathalyzer to confirm whether he is driving under the influence or not. The bag used as the breathalyzer has a goldfish inside, and if it dies, Takaba will be arrested. However, Takaba exclaims that the goldfish is already dead. Now dressed as doctors, the two rush the goldfish to the hospital and Kenjaku attempts to resuscitate it with a defibrillator. However, he shocks Takaba with it instead.

The goldfish ultimately died, leaving behind only its skeleton. Takaba asks Kenjaku, now dressed as a nurse to gather all the nurses to fawn over him since he is depressed. However, Kenjaku refuses despite Takaba's insistence, frustrating the latter as he fruitlessly attacks Kenjaku with his stethoscope. Deciding to settle their differences with rock-paper-scissor, the two return to their original outfits and sing the chant while preparing to reveal their choice. The two simultaneously decide to attack each other with their fingers when the time comes to show their hand, picking each other's noses as a result.

Driven back and bleeding from his nose, Kenjaku realizes that Takaba's innate technique, Comedian, does not only manifest things and force him to compel according to the comedian's imagination, but also integrates his own imagination to create feedback, essentially causing their souls to resonate. The two then appear in a mountainous area and begin participating in a game show. Takaba warns Kenjaku that he won't purposefully get the answer wrong, much to Kenjaku's glee as he dislikes stupid people who pretend to be stupid. The host of the game show then starts with the first question, asking which historical figure read the phrase "The world isn't amusing, so be amusing!". Kenjaku hurriedly hits the buzzer and answers "Shinsaku Takasugi". However, the host fakes-out Kenjaku by continuing the question with an unrelated second part, asking "What is the term for a group of subatomic particles held together by the strong interaction?". Takaba is unable to answer the question, but Kenjaku is able to correctly answer with "a hadron" despite already hitting his buzzer.

As Kenjaku mocks Takaba for his dad being an optometrist, the host announces the second question "Which one is hard to say to someone?" with the answers in the form of two doors, which have "self recommendation" and "designated school recommendation" written on them respectively. As the two sorcerers rush towards the doors, Takaba suddenly hears someone crying for help and turns around. He sees a cat crossing the street at a pedestrian crossing when the signal is red. As he rushes to save it from an oncoming car, the cat suddenly transforms into Kenjaku, surprising Takaba as he is hit by the car. However, the environment suddenly changes to the ocean and Takaba is now a drowning cat. As Kenjaku surfs over to save him, Takaba chases after him on a jet ski and catches up, hitting him in the head with it.

As the two of them play in the water, Kenjaku thinks about how much fun he is having and expresses how it makes the Culling Game completely worthwhile. Noticing that Takaba's technique is influencing his thoughts, he then grabs Takaba's head and tries to drown him in the water. However, Takaba notices something and asks Kenjaku to taste the water, who realizes that the water is actually Fanta.

In his head, Kenjaku notes that the damage taken in these imaginary situations are only simulations to Takaba, and if the fight continues like this, he will eventually lose due to steadily accumulating damage. Realizing that the fight cannot be won with brute force and can only end when Takaba's desire for laughs is satisfied, Kenjaku changes the scene. Now dressed in professional outfits, Kenjaku tells Takaba that warm-up is over. The two then walk on stage with an audience awaiting their comedy performance.

## Character in Order of Appearances

* Kenjaku
* Fumihiko Takaba

## Jujutsu

**Fumihiko Takaba's Techniques**

* Comedian

**Kenjaku's Techniques**

* Cursed Spirit Manipulation
	+ Rebel Curse: Akuro-o Otake

## Trivia

* Continuing the theme from Chapter 239, the chapter's title is a reference to the lyrics of *Baka Survivor* by Ulfuls, the second opening theme to *Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo* anime series.
* When diagnosing the goldfish's coma scale, Takaba states that it has a level of "FFX-II", a reference to the role-playing video game *Final Fantasy X-2*.
* In the original Japanese text, when preparing to use the defibrillator on the goldfish, Kenjaku says "Defibrillator!! I choose you!!" (除 (じょ) 細 (さい) 動 (どう) !! 君 (きみ) に決 (き) めた!!, *Josaidō!! Kimi ni Kimeta!!*?). This is a reference to the catchphrase used by Ash Ketchum from the *Pokémon* anime series whenever he chooses his Pokémon for battle.
	+ Similarly, when being shocked by the defibrillator, Takaba exclaims  ("やなかんじ!!?", *Ya na Kanji!!?*?) in the original Japanese text. This is a reference to the catchphrase  ("やな感 (かん) じ!", *Ya na Kanji!*?), commonly dubbed as "We're blasting off again!", used by Team Rocket from the *Pokémon* anime series whenever they are defeated and sent flying off.
* The subtext on page 7 "JASRAC 出 2308559-301" references the Japanese copyright collection society Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers, often abbreviated to JASRAC. "2308559-301" is the code for the song Kenjaku and Takaba are singing.
* In the original Japanese text, the phrase read by the game show host is  (おもろいがないよなよねあるかもね, *Omoroiga nai yo na yo ne aru kamo ne*?), which roughly translates to "Nothing's interesting. But maybe there can be something interesting?". This is a heavily paraphrased version of Shinsaku Takasugi's death poem, which reads "Live interestingly in an uninteresting world." (面 (おも) 白 (しろ) き 事 (こと) も無 (な) き世を 面 (おも) 白 (しろ) く, *Omoshiroki koto mo naki yo o Omoshiroku*?).
* When Kenjaku mocks Takaba for his dad being an optometrist, Takaba curses Yoshiharu Tsuge, the author of the one-shot manga *Screw Style* that follows of the story of an unnamed boy who goes around several places in war-torn Japan in order to find a doctor who can fix his pierced artery. In the manga, the boy arrives at a village in search of a doctor but only finds optometrists.
* The two options presented for the second question, 'Self-recommendation' and 'Designated School Recommendation', are two ways to enter high school or college in Japan.
* While playing with the water in the ocean, Takaba and Kenjaku make poses similar to the ones made by Yusuke Urameshi and Keiko Yukimura when they are playing in the ocean in Chapter 175, the final chapter of the *YuYu Hakusho* series.