Jujutsu Kaisen: Here’s Why Sukuna Smiled at Mahito!

Mahito is a major villain in the Jujutsu Kaisen manga and anime. An important member of Pseudo-Geto’s team of villains, Mahito caused trouble for the Jujutsu Sorcerers and is infamously known for causing the death of Nanami, which is why many fans hate him. He later fought Yuji, Nobara, and Aoi Todo, seemingly killing Nobara and almost killing Yuji in the process. He also had a very interesting moment with Sukuna while fighting Yuji in Episode 21 of the second season, when he threatened to kill Yuji, to which Sukuna simply smiled. Why? Keep reading to find out, as we are going to provide you with an explanation!

Mahito was in a tough position so he opted for a desperate move

After seeing Mahito kill Nanami in front of him, Yuji got into a heated battle with him; concurrently, Nobara was battling Mahito’s clone and was able to deal some significant damage to him. After realizing that Nobara could cause even more damage, Mahito called for his clone again, but he tricked Yuji and was able to touch Nobara’s face, seemingly killing her. Yuji was left broken, but Aoi Todo’s prompt intervention kept him alive, and once he found his fighting spirit again, he returned to the battle alongside Todo.

Mahito tried to isolate Todo to kill Yuji but was unable to do so and found himself cornered. He then thought about what he should do and came up with the idea of activating the 0.2-second Domain Expansion technique, thinking that it would bring him some good. And while he did cause some harm, his plan ultimately failed, but that is not what interests us here. As he was expanding his Domain, he had a brief moment with Sukuna, who smiled at him while Mahito was boasting. Why did Sukuna smile? Keep reading to find out!

Why did Sukuna smile at Mahito?

This scene was never properly explained, really. As he is activating his 0.2-second Domain Expansion, Yuji is rushing towards him, and Mahito suddenly has a one-on-one with Sukuna, who is inside Yuji but not in control of the body. Mahito asks him whether he is safe this time, but Sukuna is silent, with an enigmatic smile on his face. Mahito continues that he knows Sukuna probably has a backup plan for Itadori but explains that he won’t let him do anything, as he plans on killing Yuji before Sukuna can switch with him. Sukuna once again remains silent, and Mahito tells him to just keep quiet and watch.

We’ve explained what happened later, which means that Sukuna’s reaction is the only thing left unexplained. Now, to be frank, we don’t really know what transpired there, as Akutami never really analyzed this scene later, so we can only guess as to the meaning of this scene and this enigmatic smile.

We know that Sukuna and Mahito have a plan in the sense that Mahito already tried to kill Sukuna with his Domain once, but almost ended up getting killed himself. This made Mahito cautious, but after seeing Gojo’s 0.2-second activation, he thought that he would be able to surprise Sukuna simply because the powerful villain would not have enough time to switch with Itadori. This gave Mahito a sense of security, but Sukuna’s look revealed something different.

Sure, Mahito believed he could do it, but Sukuna seemed to look at the cursed spirit with a lot of pity, and the smile could probably be something along the lines of: “Oh, you poor naive bastard!” Sukuna let Mahito have his moment of fun, but this smile implies that Mahito never stood a chance against him, even with the 0.2-second activation. Sukuna let him think otherwise, but he pitied him and that is why he had such an enigmatic smile on his face.

Of course, Mahito never hit Yuji with his domain, and his plan backfired, but it wasn’t because of Sukuna, although we believe that it would’ve been an even bigger failure had Sukuna intervened. And that’s all we have for you when this topic is concerned.

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