Jujutsu Kaisen: How Did Master Tengen Stabilize Themselves Without a Star Plasma Vessel?

Master Tengen, a mysterious centuries-old entity who keeps the jujutsu world in balance, has been featured heavily in the second season of Jujutsu Kaisen, despite the fact that they have not actually made an appearance in the season. Now, while Tengen are an enigma, they are also going to play a larger role in the upcoming arcs, as Kenjaku is going to target them as part of his plans. But, as far as the second season is concerned, we know that the merger of Riko and Tengen failed, which raises the question – how did Master Tengen stabilize themselves to remain an ally of the sorcerers despite not resetting their technique? This article is going to answer that question for you.

Master Tengen themselves explained that a lot of effort was needed on their part to stop the evolution into a chaotic being, but that they have managed to do it; still, a direct consequences is that they transformed into a being that is more a curse than a human at this point. Tengen evolving into a chaotic creature wasn’t a definitive outcome, as some might think, and it was just one of the possible outcomes, an outcome that the sorcerers wanted to avoid because of the risks involved, but it wasn’t a certain outcome, so it makes sense that Tengen actually managed to avoid it.

As you’ve probably deduced by now, this article will focus on Master Tengen, the character who is a background focus of the Gojo’s Part Arc, and their current status in the Jujutsu Kaisen manga and anime series. We will bring you all the known information about what happened after Toji killed Riko, which prevented the merger with Tengen and the reset of their Infinity technique. Be careful, though, as we must inform you that this article will contain many spoilers from the manga, so you have to decide for yourselves how you want to approach it.

By Tengen’s own admission, it took a lot of effort to avoid becoming a chaotic creature

Master Tengen, referred to as ‘they’ in the series, is a very complex being. They were once a powerful jujutsu sorceress that lived many centuries ago. Their Innate Technique is called Infinity, and it grants them eternal life. Although it doesn’t really prevent aging, it just slows it down significantly. This is why, every 500 years, Master Tengen need to find a vessel – the Star Plasma Vessel – to merge with in order to prevent their “evolution.”

The “evolution” of Master Tengen in a special new form is a complex process that, according to the higher-ups, has to be prevented because there is a grave risk attached to that evolution. Namely, if Master Tengen does, indeed, change bodies by themselves, they will evolve and will enter a higher state of existence, which wouldn’t be an issue per se, but as all will, and reason are lost in that new state, Master Tengen would stop being Master Tengen at that point.

They would transform into a totally different being, and everything would be destroyed along with the balance they had managed to maintain. There was also a possibility that Master Tengen could also turn against humanity, which is something that everyone wanted to avoid because, while (as it later turned out) a non-fighter, Master Tengen were still very powerful.

This is why Master Tengen had to merge with the Star Plasma Vessel, a suitable body, every 500, to halt that. Following the merging, the information in the body is reset completely, and there is a kind of refreshing there that also triggers a restart of the cursed technique. The Star Plasma Vessel is significant for this reason, so it was important to save Riko and bring her to Tengen.

But, this did not really happen like that. Namely, before Riko could be brought before Tengen, she was killed by Toji Fushiguro, who the Time Vessel Association hired to kill Riko and prevent her merger with Tengen. This event had a lot of consequences, especially on the traumatized psyches of both Geto and Gojo, but the major one is related to Tengen, as the merger failed and the evolution could not be stopped. So, what happened?

Well, you know how Yuki came to the school and talked with Geto in 2007? As she turned to leave, she assured Geto that they did not need to be concerned about Master Tengen for two reasons. They first stabilized themselves somehow, preventing the feared transformation that would have transformed Tengen into a monster. Second, she added that a new Star Plasma Vessel was either being born at the time or had already been born. How did she, however, know that? Since she was aware that she was the candidate for the Star Plasma Vessel at one time—a fact that would be revealed later in the series—Yuki Tsukumo actually knew about the new Star Plasma Vessel.

So, Yuki confirmed that Tengen was fine, but what actually happened? Later in the series, Tengen themselves confirmed that the evolution wasn’t really stopped, but it was stabilized. Tengen did, indeed, change their form, but since they used all their barrier-related skills, they somehow managed to stabilize their will and reason to maintain the balance of the jujutsu world with their barriers, as they realized the importance of that fact.

This enabled Tengen to retain their will and reason, but they did change into a curse, and if the barriers were to become weaker, there was still a risk of Tengen becoming a chaotic creature. This is why they needed protection from Kenjaku, especially, as their current form was closer to that of a curse than anything else, which meant that Kenjaku could easily absorb them if he wanted to.