If you just watched the latest anime episode and ended up on this blog, then here’s the reassurance you are looking for. Gojo is not dead!
Now that it’s out of the way, let’s focus on the major topic at hand here. In the Hidden inventory arc, Toji stabbed Gojo not once but twice. While springing such surprises are common when it comes to the shonen trope, there is a deeper burning question that needs to be answered here.
How exactly was Toji able to stab Gojo? The victim here is a guy who is renowned for his cursed technique that doesn’t let anything pass through. How was Toji able to bypass Gojo’s defenses?
The answer is not very hard to understand, but while I give you the details, I ask you to take a moment and admire Toji’s tactical brilliance when it came to planning the whole thing.
How did Toji stab & defeat Gojo the first time?
Toji took on the seemingly daunting task of assassinating the Star Plasma Vessel, Riko Amanai. Why was it daunting? Because her bodyguards were two sorcerers who were dubbed the strongest duo.
Toji’s reasons for wanting to take up the assassination are quite nuanced. Check out the following article to know what motivated him to do so!
Read More: Why did Toji kill Riko Amanai? Understanding the sorcerer killer’s psyche!
Keeping that aside, the sorcerer killer stayed true to his name when it came to justifying his asking price.
He started off his assignment by pinpointing the biggest obstacle in his path to reach Riko – Gojo Satoru, and then worked towards eliminating this obstacle.
Toji knew that Satoru stood a head above the other sorcerers of his generation. This was not an enemy he could fight head-on. Even if he did catch Satoru unawares, the latters Limitless cursed technique would ensure that Toji’s attacks never reached its intended target.
No. To take-out Gojo, Toji needed a foolproof plan. A plan sprinkled with enough cunning and underhanded tactics. And he did come up with one such strategy.
A bounty to boot:
This plan of his involved anonymously putting a huge price on the head of Riko Amanai. Toji knew all too well that curse users (sorcerers who are not working with the Jujutsu society) in the job of bounty hunting would jump at this opportunity. And jump they did.
However, what these bounty hunters failed to notice is that they were all being set up to fail from the start.
Toji was well aware that a group of no-name bounty hunters were no match for the pair of Satoru and Suguru. The point of the bounty was not to make the curse users kill Riko. Underhanded though he was, Toji was not someone who made the others do his dirty work.
Instead, the whole idea behind putting a price on Riko’s head was to make sure curse users went after her, which would in turn force Satoru and Suguru to fight them off, thus wearing them out in the process.
It’s safe to say that the events transpired exactly as Toji had envisioned. By the second day, Satoru and Suguru had fought a couple of curse users. Add the kidnapping of Kuroi to this, and they had their plates full ‘babysitting’ Amanai.
The Okinawa itinerary surely looked like a picnic, however, Gojo and Geto always had their guards up. It’s safe to say that they were both mentally and physically exhausted by the time they returned to Tokyo Jujutsu High on the third day.
This is where we come to the best part of Toji’s plan.
A deadline and a false accomplishment:
When he put out the bounty on Amanai’s head, he made sure that it came with a deadline. Meaning once the deadline had passed, Gojo and Geto would feel that they had finally finished the job of protecting Amanai.
You can’t blame those two for thinking so. They assumed that the Star Religious Group, a group of non-sorcerers, had no means but to put out a bounty on Riko in order to assassinate her. They weren’t aware that all of this was being orchestrated by Toji.
So, when the bounty had finally lifted, Gojo and Geto finally let their guards down. The exhaustion from the past three days also caught up to them, especially Gojo, making him vulnerable and an easy target for Toji.
Let me clear up one thing. Unlike the Satoru of the present, during the mission to protect Amanai, his Limitless technique was not working automatically 24/7. Back in the day, Satoru manually activated his limitless technique.
So, when the party had finally reached Tokyo Jujutsu High, Gojo finally deactivated his technique. Toji perfectly coaxed him into feeling a false sense of accomplishment and security. Little did he know that the actual fight was about to begin now.
Satoru, with his Limitless deactivated and in need of some highly overdue rest, became a sitting duck for Toji. But even so, Gojo was in possession of something unique. The six eyes. If Toji were to spring an attack on Gojo even at this moment, he would have sensed the cursed energy signature, and reacted immediately by activating the Limitless again.
In short, the plan was missing a crucial piece. And the final piece of the puzzle here was obviously Toji’s heavenly restriction.
Heavenly restriction- the chemical X:
Being affected by this unique phenomenon meant that Toji completely lacked cursed energy. And this let him catch Gojo completely unawares, but this time, without his limitless activated.
Let’s not forget that Toji used a simple katana to stab Gojo the first time. Because, if he had used a cursed tool, Gojo, once again, could have caught on to its energy signature and been on the defensive. This would have foiled the entire plan.
Remember how Gojo notices that the katana that Toji stabbed Gojo with the first time, and the one he used for obliterating Geto’s cursed spirit was different?
Using the simple katana made sure that Toji remained completely undetected. It was the chemical X that helped him create the powerpuff girls.
In the end, when all was said and done, Gojo ended up with a katana through his chest and clearly overwhelmed.
So, to answer in short, Toji was able to stab Gojo the first time because the latter was worn out by the brilliant plan that the sorcerer killer had concocted.
While this answers the question as to how Toji was able to stab Gojo the first time, we still need to know how he fell prey the second time. Because, unlike the first time, Toji did not have the surprise element on his side this time.
So what went wrong there? Once again, all we do is admire Toji’s brilliance. Read on to know why!
How did Toji stab Gojo the second time?
The shorter version of the answer is this – Toji was able to stab Gojo a second time by using the Inverted Spear of Heaven, a cursed tool which had the ability to forcefully stop any cursed technique.
While it may sound simple, it really isn’t.
After the initial stab, Gojo was aware of Toji’s presence. Not just that, he was also aware of what Toji was capable of doing. So, it goes without saying that Gojo was wary of his opponent.
This is where Toji’s brilliance once again comes into play.
During the whole fight, Toji let Gojo believe that Riko was his final target. While that was true, Toji was actually gunning for Gojo.
Why? Because if Gojo was not eliminated, he technically would not be able to reach Amanai. So he had to take out the bodyguard, before he could actually go after his intended target.
I don’t think this was a conscious choice. It was something that Toji decided to do then and there. His first stab was actually supposed to kill Gojo. Since that did not happen, Toji was forced to improvise on the fly.
As I said before, a head-on fight with Satoru would not be in favor of Toji. He had to be cunning to hold his ground.
So, as the prodigy of the Gojo clan decimated the landscape around him to get rid of any obstacles that might act as a cover for Toji to attack, the sorcerer killer came up with his own ingenious distraction.
He let loose the fly heads, which were stored inside the cursed spirit he carried, and limited Satoru’s range of vision once again. However, after doing so, he did not immediately attack, and instead waited.
This led Satoru to believe that Toji had created the distraction in order to go after Riko. And once Gojo had fallen for his bait, Toji pulled out his trump card.
The inverted spear of heaven:
The Inverted Spear of Heaven is an extremely dangerous cursed tool, all thanks to the cursed technique it possessed. Not all cursed tools have an ability of their own, and the ones that do have are classified as special grade.
So here Toji was, waiting for the right moment to pull out his special grade cursed tool. And what was the ability of this cursed tool? It could forcefully stop any cursed technique with which it came in contact.
Remember how I pointed out that Toji had specifically used a simple katana the first time around? That was to spring a surprise on Gojo. This time, he was not worried about it.
Not only was Gojo cornered and without help here, he had taken the bait, and switched his attention to Riko for a second. In that brief moment, Toji used the inverted spear of heaven and went straight for Gojo’s throat.
The Six Eyes ensured that Gojo sensed the ominous cursed energy emanating from the tool, however, since he was distracted for a second there, all he could do was activate his limitless and go on the defensive.
Being oblivious to the ability of the Inverted spear of heaven, Gojo assumed that he had done enough to be safe. Unfortunately, Gojo was wrong. The weapon sliced through his limitless like a hot knife through butter.
It is extremely important when I say that this whole maneuver was not a fluke. It was a well timed and carefully planned attack by Toji and it landed.
The limitless technique was forcefully stopped by the inverted spear of heaven and Toji was thus able to stab Gojo a second time around. And unlike the previous one, this stab was more fatal.
The result? Satoru was left lying in a pool of blood, almost dead. And a bullet went through Riko’s head eventually!
Toji succeeded in carrying out the assassination all thanks to his tactical brilliance. A lot of people fail to notice this sometimes. Also, we should give credit where it is due. Akutami made this whole battle up in his head, I can’t help but praise the author’s talent for writing a good fight even more.
Now that everything is cleared up, what do you think of Toji’s elaborate plan? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below or hit me up on Tumblr/Reddit!