Perfect Preparation Arc

The **Perfect Preparation Arc** (葦 (あし) を啣 (ふく) む編 (へん) , *Ashi o Fukumu-hen*?) is the eighth arc in Gege Akutami's *Jujutsu Kaisen*. It follows the Tokyo Jujutsu High students and their allies as they continue to deal with the fallout from the Shibuya Incident on top of preparing for Kenjaku's next great act of jujutsu terrorism: the Culling Game.

## Synopsis

### Contacting Master Tengen

Megumi convinces Yuji to help him combat the Culling Game and rescue his sister Tsumiki.

With Yuta and Choso, Megumi and Yuji return to Jujutsu High to form an unlikely team and contact Master Tengen. They sneak into Tokyo Jujutsu High and team up with Maki and Yuki Tsukumo. With Satoru Gojo sealed and Geto's motives unknown, Yuki believes this is their only chance to contact Tengen in order to get answers.

With Choso's guidance through Tengen's concealing barrier, the group reaches the Tombs of the Star. The main shrine appears to reject them at first, but before everyone leaves, Tengen decides to show themself.

Tengen offers answers to the questions they seek, but only in exchange for two bodyguards. Now that Tengen has evolved, they've become a target for Cursed Spirit Manipulation. The man possessing Geto's body is revealed to be named Kenjaku and he plans to force the evolution of humanity by merging them with Master Tengen. The Culling Game is a ritual to begin the complex merging process

Yuki and Choso willingly volunteer to be Tengen's bodyguards. In exchange, Tengen reveals there is a "back gate" to Prison Realm in his possession. However, the only way they can open it and free Satoru Gojo is using the cursed technique of a Culling Game player named the Angel, Hana Kurusu. The Angel has the power to extinguish cursed techniques and is located in one of the Tokyo colonies, one of ten colonies created by barriers around Japan.

The group discusses the rules of the Culling Game and formulates a plan while taking on their roles. Maki is to return to the Zenin clan and collect cursed tools to fight with. Yuta will enter a colony right away to take part in the Culling Game and gather information. Yuji and Megumi must go recruit Kinji Hakari the suspended third-year student for his strength.

### Masamichi Yaga's Curse

In accordance with the notice released by jujutsu headquarters, Masamichi Yaga is to be executed for his role in inciting the Shibuya Incident.

This is obviously just a scheme by the higher-ups to pressure Yaga into revealing how to create fully independent cursed corpses. They had done so in the past shortly after Panda was born, arresting him under the pretense that Yaga could develop an army if he knowingly developed a cursed corpse with self-sufficient cursed energy. This is why Yaga has always kept the creation process a secret.

At one point he made an independent cursed corpse for Atsuya Kusakabe's sister to help deal with the loss of her son. Using Takeru's soul information, Yaga was able to develop a cursed corpse with his personality but it could not live with her because it had to remain a secret. Regardless, it helped Kusakabe's sister feel again, and Kusakabe has always been grateful to Yaga for that. Panda was arrested by the higher-ups in an attempt to draw out Yaga but Kusakabe frees him as a show of gratitude for Yaga.

After saying goodbye to Takeru and the other small independent cursed corpses, Yaga returns to Tokyo to meet up with Panda. However, he's intercepted by a sorcerer who demands he reveal how to develop independent cursed corpses or die on the spot. He's accompanied by Principal Yoshinobu Gakuganji, who gets into a fight with Yaga and critically injures him.

Once the other sorcerer is dismissed, Yaga reveals to Gakuganji exactly how to develop an independent cursed corpse. Confused, Gakuganji asks why to explain it now and not before. With his last words, Yaga replies that this knowledge is "*a curse from me to you*". Panda finds Yaga shortly after he dies, but he does not attack Gakuganji. Instead, he mourns and sheds tears for his father.

### Annihilation of the Zenin Family

Maki returns to the Zenin clan with a key to the cursed warehouse granted to her with permission from the new head of the clan. On the way, she's harassed by Naoya and her mother, but Maki presses on to the warehouse. She's surprised to find that the vault has been emptied and there are no cursed tools in sight. The only thing inside is Maki's cruel father, sitting in front of his other daughter Mai, who he sliced across her abdomen.

The upper echelon of the Zenin clan refuses to hand over the family fortune to Megumi. They conspire to kill him under the guise of executing Megumi, Maki, and Mai for attempting to free Satoru Gojo. Willing to execute his own daughters, this is a plan Ogi formulated himself.

Maki stands against her father using Dragon-Bone, Juzo Kumiya's masterpiece of a cursed tool that she retrieved from his workshop using information from Tengen. She manages to break her father's katana but loses the advantage just before dealing the decisive blow. Ogi cuts down his own daughter using his cursed technique to produce a flaming blade. He sheds tears and tells the twins that he couldn't become head of the clan because of them, the real reason he wants to dispose of them from his life.

Ogi drags his bloodied daughters to a disciplinary chamber where curses grade 2 and below will feed on them. Before Maki bleeds out, Mai resuscitates her and brings them both into a dream space on a beach. In jujutsu, twins are considered to be one person. Mai was born with the cursed technique and what little cursed energy Maki possesses is holding her back. Mai decides to use her construction technique to make something, knowing the strain compiled with her injuries will kill her. As Mai's life fades away, she takes all of the cursed energy with her, allowing Maki to reach her full potential.

In exchange for Mai's sacrifice, Maki receives a heavenly restricted body that has broken away from cursed energy. Even so, what has happened to Mai is tragic and it is a somber moment for her big sister. Mai only asked Maki one thing in return for giving her life. She made Maki promise to "'**destroy everything'**". Maki begins by exorcising all the curses attempting to devour them and then effortlessly bisects her father's head to start.

Word of Ogi's death spreads quickly around the clan and the alarm sounds across the grounds. The Kukuru Unit is dispatched to deal with Maki but she slaughters them one after another using the sword Mai constructed until none of them are left. The Hei ambushes her immediately after with combinations of powerful cursed techniques in an attempt to kill her once and for all. They recognize that Maki has become like Toji and a threat to annihilate the clan completely. Despite their best efforts, Maki annihilates the Hei, including Ranta, Chojuro, Nobuaki, and Jinichi.

This leads Maki to come face to face with Naoya. He is one of the few people who recognizes Toji's strength in the entire clan, yet he still stubbornly refuses to acknowledge Maki's. Naoya's desire to be the one who stands among the strong like Toji and Satoru fuels him in a fierce fight to defeat Maki, who he sees as an imposter.

Naoya manages to maintain an advantage over Maki in battle by building up subsonic levels of speed. Just when Naoya thinks he's achieved victory and proved Maki is an imposter, she turns the tables on him by figuring out the rules of his cursed technique. Her new heavenly restricted body can keep up with his insanely fast movements, allowing her to finish the fight with a single devastating punch.

Maki's vengeful wrath reaches her own mother as well. After being dealt fatal wounds, Maki's mother finds Naoya vulnerable. He survived his fight with Maki but Naoya is stabbed in the back by her mother, ensuring that both their lives end. Momo Nishimiya arrives at the clan too late to help Mai. Maki leaves her sister's body with her so she can continue executing her vengeance. Maki keeps to her promise and destroys the rest of the Zenin clan members who weren't present on that day.

The official record states that no residuals were found that could lead to a culprit other than small trace amounts from an unknown cursed tool. Just days later, the Kamo and Gojo clans voted to remove the Zenin clan from the Big Three Families. Jujutsu headquarters is keeping the verdict on hold.

### Hakari's Underground Fight Club

Since being suspended from Jujutsu High, Kinji Hakari has been running an underground fight club between sorcerers. As agreed during the meeting with Tengen, Yuji and Megumi's role is to recruit Hakari to handle the Culling Game. They go to Tochigi Prefecture and decide it's best to hide their affiliation with Jujutsu High since Hakari is taking part in illegal jujutsu activities. Megumi is able to get Yuji in as a fighter and fortunately for Yuji, his first opponent is none other than Panda.

Yuji and Panda exchange information while dazzling the crowd with their battle. Hakari and his partner, Kirara Hoshi watch on the monitors in their base of operations. Yuji earns a meeting with Hakari and Panda meets up with Megumi to sneak him inside the fight club. Megumi and Panda want to ensure that Yuji's meeting goes smoothly and they sneak past all the security measures only to be caught by Kirara.

Megumi tries to explain that they just want to ask Hakari for help but Kirara doesn't believe them. Kirara protects the monitor room where the meeting is, preventing Megumi or Panda from even getting near the door. Megumi is able to figure out Kirara's constellation-based technique after some time and stops Kirara, but not before they send a warning to Hakari.

In Hakari's meeting with Yuji, he explained that he believes in the "fever". The fever refers to people's addictive passions and Hakari wants to control all of Japan's fever with his fight club. He was so impressed by Yuji's performance he was willing to invite him along to take part in his fever. However, Hakari gets a call from Kirara, which is code for something suspicious is going on. Hakari accuses Yuji of being a Jujutus High spy and attacks him.

Their fight ends up outside the monitor room where Megumi and the others are. Yuji decides to stop resisting and allows Hakari to beat him down. He needs to convince Hakari no matter what, so he keeps getting back up until Hakari breaks. Hakari is forced to recognize Yuji's fever and decides to cut a deal with his group. He hears them out and is surprised to learn what happened to Satoru Gojo and Masamichi Yaga.

Hakari decides to help them combat the Culling Game but only if they help him in return. Changes in jujutsu regulations are inevitable due to the long-term implications of the Shibuya Incident. Hakari wants to take advantage of this to legalize his fight club and Megumi convinces him he can do so with his status as head of the Zenin clan. Unbeknownst to Megumi, Maki annihilates the entire clan the next day.

Yuji's Kogane interrupts their conversation and announces a new rule has been added to the Culling Game by a player named Hajime Kashimo. Megumi and Yuji decide to use Kogane to look up players with one hundred or more points who can be persuaded to add rules to the Culling Game. They need to offset the rule that enforces cursed technique removal after nineteen days by adding a new rule that allows players to transfer points between each other. Hiromi Higuruma and Hajime Kashimo, who both have more than one hundred points, are designated the priority targets.

## Chapters

* Chapter 144. That Place
* Chapter 145. The Back
* Chapter 146. About the Culling Game
* Chapter 147. Even Pandas
* Chapter 148. Perfect Preparation
* Chapter 149. Perfect Preparation, Part 2
* Chapter 150. Perfect Preparation, Part 3
* Chapter 151. Perfect Preparation, Part 4
* Chapter 152. Perfect Preparation, Epilogue
* Chapter 153. Underground Fight Club
* Chapter 154. Sneaking In
* Chapter 155. Fever
* Chapter 156. Twinkling Stars
* Chapter 157. Cog
* Chapter 158. Kogane

## Characters Introduced

* Chojuro Zenin
* Fumihiko Takaba
* Hajime Kashimo
* Hana Kurusu
* Hiromi Higuruma
* Kenjaku (Named)
* Kinji Hakari
* Kirara Hoshi
* Nobuaki Zenin
* Ranta Zenin
* Tengen

## Terminology Introduced

**Jujutsu**

* **Cursed Corpses**
	+ Takeru

* **Cursed Objects**
	+ Back Gate of Prison Realm

* **Cursed Tools**
	+ Dragon-Bone

* **Kirara Hoshi's Techniques**
	+ Love Rendezvous

* **Ogi Zenin's Techniques**
	+ Blazing Courage

## See Also

Vol. 17: Perfect PreparationVol. 18: Fever
## References

*Jujutsu Kaisen* Manga: Chapter 144 (p. 1-19).
*Jujutsu Kaisen* Manga: Chapter 145 (p. 1-19).
*Jujutsu Kaisen* Manga: Chapter 146 (p. 1-14).
*Jujutsu Kaisen* Manga: Chapter 147 (p. 2-18).
*Jujutsu Kaisen* Manga: Chapter 148 (p. 2-19).
*Jujutsu Kaisen* Manga: Chapter 149 (p. 1-19).
*Jujutsu Kaisen* Manga: Chapter 150 (p. 5-22).
*Jujutsu Kaisen* Manga: Chapter 151 (p. 3-19).
*Jujutsu Kaisen* Manga: Chapter 151 (p. 3-19).
*Jujutsu Kaisen* Manga: Chapter 153 (p. 1-19).
*Jujutsu Kaisen* Manga: Chapter 154 (p. 1-19).
*Jujutsu Kaisen* Manga: Chapter 155 (p. 1-19).
*Jujutsu Kaisen* Manga: Chapter 156 (p. 1-19).
*Jujutsu Kaisen* Manga: Chapter 157 (p. 1-19).
*Jujutsu Kaisen* Manga: Chapter 158 (p. 1-19).