Episode 45

**Transformation** (変身, *Henshin*?) is the forty-fifth episode of the Jujutsu Kaisen anime adaptation and the twenty-first episode of the second season.

## Summary

After rescuing Yuji from his predicament, Aoi bolsters his morale and encourages him to stand back up. As Mahito kicks things into higher gear, he begins using Soul Multiplicity and Body Repel to unleash omnidirectional attacks.

## Plot Details

As transfigured humans burst out of the ground below Shibuya and fill the streets, Yuji and Todo return to the surface. Mahito descends before them and shouts at Yuji to try harder, as it is their last chance to curse one another. Todo asks if the curse has forgotten about him before clapping his hands, swapping Yuji and Mahito's positions with his Boogie Woogie. Grabbing Mahito, Todo holds him in place as Yuji jumps over to kick his head. In response, the cursed spirit rapidly twists and rips off his own head to avoid the attack. In place of his head, a new head that resembles a snail's with a smile grows out.

While Mahito's original body transforms its arms into whips to attack the sorcerers, his severed head runs away and regrows into a separate body. This new Mahito then activates Soul Multiplicity, combining the souls with weak rejection to create a single powerful transfigured human known as Polymorphic Soul Isomer, which then charges at the battling sorcerers. Noticing the new transfigured human, Todo swaps positions with it, causing it to rush back towards him.

Todo speculates that Mahito split his power 8 to 2 amongst the snail-head body and his main body, which can use Idle Transfiguration. He then swaps the positions of Mahito's bodies so Yuji can take on the weakened main body while he deals with the Polymorphic Soul Isomer. As he dodges the transfigured human's punch, Todo assumes that its strength is equivalent to a grade 3 to grade 2 cursed spirit and believes he can easily take it down. However, he is surprised by an unusually powerful backhanded punch from the transfigured human, which proceeds to launch him through a nearby building with a second blow.

Crashes through a shopping mall before landing on a road, Todo looks up and notices the pursuing transfigured human. After putting some distance between them, the grade 1 sorcerer throws a coat hanger infused with cursed energy at the transfigured human before swapping places with it, catching it off-guard. With a single punch to the head, the Polymorphic Soul Isomer is killed, much to Todo's surprise. He surmises that the transfigured human's explosive power is due to the multiple souls expended to create it, and as a trade-off it has low durability. Two more Polymorphic Soul Isomers then appear to confront him, causing Todo to kiss his locket and ask for their forgiveness before engaging in battle with them.

Now free of Boogie Woogie, Mahito merges his bodies and decides to pile on the attacks against Yuji, unleashing more Body Repels. Yuji evades the attacks and dropkicks Mahito through the air, though the curse counters by grabbing his leg and throwing him away. As Yuji tumbles into an open area caused by Sukuna's Malevolent Shrine, Mahito gives chase, only to find Todo has already returned to Yuji's side, who taunts Mahito for trying so hard to remove him from the battle.

Mahito is surprised that even two Polymorphic Soul Isomers weren't enough to stall or defeat Todo. He hopes to get rid of the top-knot gorilla by transfiguring him, but finds it too difficult to touch him. Mahito then considers his second option: using his domain expansion. However, doing so will definitely lead to him being killed by Sukuna if Yuji is included in the domain. Excluding Yuji from the domain using barrier techniques is too complex for Mahito, and doing so would also be ineffective since he used this method before during his first usage of domain expansion at Satozakura High School.

Deciding to take a gamble, Mahito takes inspiration from his encounter with Satoru Gojo and activates his Self-Embodiment of Perfection for 0.2 seconds, shocking Yuji and Todo with his seemingly suicidal action. As the domain forms, Todo quickly activates Simple Domain, which he learned from Yuki Tsukumo, to protect himself. Yuji is even faster, having already begun sprinting at Mahito in hopes of exorcising him before he can activate his cursed technique. Unfortunately, Mahito was the fastest and activated his cursed technique earlier than Yuji. Having awakened through his usage of Black Flash, he shortened the two-step process of realizing his innate domain and activating his cursed technique into one.

Entering Sukuna's innate domain as a result of touching his soul, Mahito taunts the King of Curses, arrogantly claiming he will kill Yuji before he can switch with the boy, all the while the latter silently looks at him with a smile. As Self-Embodiment of Perfection ends, Todo's left hand begins to transfigure. Todo quickly severs his hand, which explodes into a rain of blood and metal shards that cut him, one of which almost cuts apart the thread holding his locket. This distracts Yuji, who Mahito punches aside before quickly closing in on Todo while mocking him.

With his innate technique experiencing burnout as a result of activating domain expansion, Mahito chooses to hit Todo with a strong punch infused with cursed energy to his stomach, which is further enhanced by Black Flash. The impact pushes the grade 1 sorcerer away, though it is revealed that he survived the heavy blow by concentrating all his cursed energy to his abdomen to protect it. Nonetheless, Todo suffers heavy damage and spits out blood. With his Idle Transfiguration recovered as a result of the Black Flash, Mahito charges at Todo, intent on killing him once and for all.

Just before Mahito can get near Todo, the string holding the latter's locket snaps, causing it to fall to the ground and knock it open, revealing its contents which are photos of Yuji and Nobuko Takada. This briefly distracts Mahito, and after being motivated by an imagination of him and Takada-chan beating up the cursed spirit, Todo uses Mahito's hand to clap and activate Boogie Woogie, switching places with Yuji who immediately strikes Mahito in the face with another Black Flash.

Collapsing to the ground, Todo looks at his heavily damaged right hand as a result of touching Mahito before shifting his focus to Yuji. As he watches Yuji sprint towards Mahito, Todo falls unconscious. Prepared to finish the fight alone, Yuji looks back at Todo and thanks him. Meanwhile, despite being heavily injured, an overjoyed Mahito discovers the true essence of his soul after experiencing his second Black Flash. Using Idle Transfiguration on himself, Mahito morphs his body and evolves into his final form, which he dubbed Instant Spirit Body of Distorted Killing. Feeling reborn in his new form, Mahito asks Yuji to wish him a happy birthday.

As Yuji wonders about the difference between Mahito's current transformation and his past ones, the cursed spirit reveals that unleashing Black Flash allowed him to finally understand his true unbridled soul. Yuji mocks Mahito, and an amused Mahito declares his intentions of killing Yuji to complete his rebirth. The two fighters then charge at each other and reignite their battle.

Yuji makes the first move, attempting to kick Mahito's head. However, his leg is caught by the black hairs protruding from Mahito's head, who follows up with a tail pierce. Using his leg strength, Yuji rips apart the hairs and stomps on the tail, concluding their first exchange. Both fighters continue their brawl, and Yuji quickly realizes that Mahito's body has gained a new level of toughness that is much harder than Choso's hardened blood. Mahito then punches Yuji, who blocks it with both of his arms, leaving him vulnerable to a slash from Mahito's spike-like elbow blades. After suffering a slash to his left arm, Yuji quickly jumps away and realizes that the cursed spirit has transcended beyond his original form.

As they continue to trade blows, Yuji's superhuman punches prove to be useless against Mahito's new body, all the while the special grade injures him with his elbow blades. Mahito then grabs the overwhelmed Yuji by the face and slams him into the ground, creating a giant crater. As burst pipes fill the bottom of the crater with water, Yuji stands back up and realizes the only way to defeat Mahito is with a Black Flash enhanced punch infused with all his cursed energy.

Yuji is overwhelmed and slammed into the street, creating a giant crater from the impact. The street crumbles apart and Yuji falls to the bottom of the crater where several pipes have burst. As water fills the bottom of the crater where Yuji stands across from Mahito, the former realizes he can only win using a Black Flash infused with maximum cursed energy.

Yuji's left leg suddenly begins to shake from fear, and Mahito attempts to take advantage of this. However, the damage he received from the Black Flash after using domain expansion stops him in his tracks as his elbow blade shatters and he coughs up blood. Yuji hammers his leg to stop its shivering, prompting Mahito to comment that they are both still full of energy.

Mahito stomps his foot, kicking up a large wave of water that obscures Yuji's vision and inhibits his movements. Yuji begins charging cursed energy in his right fist, which breaks apart the water wave. Through the water, Mahito rushes his opponent and slashes at him with his blade, though Yuji dodges it and prepares to punch Mahito. Realizing Yuji's intentions, Mahito retreats and begins to rapidly rebound off the walls of the crater. While no one can use Black Flash at will, Yuji's prowess makes Mahito believe he could. With a countermeasure in mind, Mahito charges back at Yuji, seemingly about to trade blows.

At the last second, Mahito partially deactivates Instant Spirit Body of Distorted Killing on the left side of his body, causing Yuji's punch to slip off that part of his body. Just when Mahito is about to go for the kill, a delayed second impact caused by Divergent Fist hits his left side, throwing off his counter strike. Yuji ducks under Mahito's missed attack and prepares to deal the final blow, while the cursed spirit aims his right elbow blade at Yuji, intent on extending it to pierce Yuji.

Suddenly, Todo's voice echoes throughout the battlefield, interrupting Mahito's momentum. Standing above the edge of the crater, Todo proclaims that his arm is merely a decoration and the act of applause is an acclamation of the soul, before using his amputated arm to imitate clapping with his remaining hand. Anticipating a switch, Mahito turns around and swings behind him, before realizing too late that there was no position swap and ends up hitting nothing. Todo apologizes for fooling Mahito and reveals that his cursed technique is dead. Taking advantage of Mahito's distraction, Yuji strikes the curse with his maximum cursed energy Black Flash. The immense power of the punch blasts Mahito out of the crater and forces him out of his Instant Spirit Body of Distorted Killing form.

Weakened and heavily injured, Mahito tries to regurgitate his stockpiled transfigured humans, only to realize he ran out of them. As Mahito begins to despair, Yuji stands over him and admits that the two are the same, despite his previous denials. He declares his sole intention of continuing to kill Mahito henceforth, no matter what form the cursed spirit takes even if he is reborn. Aware that he is nothing more than a cog in the grand scheme, Yuji resolves to keep killing curses without seeking a reason or meaning, intent on fulfilling his role as a jujutsu sorcerer until his death.

Mahito flees out of fear, with Yuji slowly pursuing. In an imaginary snowy forest, Mahito is a rabbit running from a pack of wolves led by a white wolf that symbolically represents Yuji, before finally tripping over after twisting his ankle. As Yuji walks up to him, the special grade cries out in horror and begins flinging snow (dirt in reality) at Yuji, fruitlessly trying to stop him. Yuji then punches down on Mahito, and while he misses the strike, he then kicks Mahito away.

Injured even more, Mahito struggles to crawl away when suddenly a person appears before him, who is revealed to be Pseudo-Geto. His sudden appearance surprises the other two, and standing over Mahito, Pseudo-Geto asks if the cursed spirit needs saving.

## Characters in Order of Appearance

* Yuji Itadori
* Aoi Todo
* Mahito
* Satoru Gojo (Flashback)
* Sukuna
* Yuki Tsukumo (Mentioned)
* Nobuko Takada (Fantasy)
* Choso (Flashback)
* Pseudo-Geto

## Battles & Events

* The Shibuya Incident
	+ Yuji Itadori & Aoi Todo vs. Mahito (Concluded)

## Jujutsu

**Aoi Todo's Techniques**

* Boogie Woogie

**Mahito's Techniques**

* Black Flash
* Domain Expansion: Self-Embodiment of Perfection
* Idle Transfiguration
	+ Instant Spirit Body of Distorted Killing
	+ Soul Multiplicity: Body Repel
	+ Soul Multiplicity: Polymorphic Soul Isomer

**Yuji Itadori's Techniques**

* Black Flash

## Music

*This section is a stub. You can help the Jujutsu Kaisen Wiki by expanding it.*

## Anime & Manga Differences

* In the anime, Todo threw a coat hanger infused with cursed energy when battling the first Polymorphic Soul Isomer. In the manga, he threw a rock.
* In the anime, when Todo's locket necklace is knocked open, he imagines a scene where he and Takada pummel Mahito together.
* In the manga, after Mahito is knocked away by Yuji's second Black Flash, he uses a Polymorphic Soul Isomer to distract him while he attains his Distorted Killing form. This is omitted in the anime.
* In the anime, Yuji's left leg shakes as he prepares to hit Mahito with a third Black Flash. In the manga, it is his right leg that shakes.
* In the anime, the scene where Yuji chases after Mahito is extended, including an additional scene where Mahito twists his foot, Mahito throws dirt at Yuji, and Yuji kicking Mahito.

## Trivia

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