It might only have been a panel long, but the sight of Toji’s cursed spirit crawling up to Geto and saying something to him was haunting. It also painted a chilling picture of the aftermath of Toji and Satoru’s battle.
While it is easy to gloss over this incident (assuming it doesn’t add anything major to the storyline of Jujutsu Kaisen) there are fans who have tried to figure out what Toji’s cursed spirit said to Geto.
Well, the text does look gibberish in the manga, making it hard to decipher what Tojiworm might have said. But fret not, for those who are unaware, the answer to this question was revealed by author Gege Akutami in the official Jujutsu Kaisen fanbook.
According to the official fanbook, Toji’s cursed spirit said “Mom, hug me” to Geto Suguru.
Before the fanbook came out, speculations and theories were the only source of answer to this question. I remember scourging reddit and twitter to see what other fans were coming up with!
And a couple of years ago, Korean fans cracked the jumbled words in the manga. While their translation was slightly off, they had come pretty close to the correct answer.
Instead of Mom, they had translated Tojiworm’s dialogue to ‘Dad, hug me!’
Here’s an interesting piece of information for you – this panel of Toji’s spirit approaching Geto was included to give continuity from Hidden Inventory to Jujutsu Kaisen 0 prequel. This panel explains how Geto came in possession of Toji’s spirit in JJK 0 volume, because we see the worm with him.
Now that we know what Toji’s cursed spirit said to Geto, here comes the second part of the question. Why did it say that?
Read More: Why did Geto kill his parents and everyone at the village?
Why did Toji’s cursed spirit call Geto mom?
Toji’s cursed spirit referred to Geto as ‘mom’ due to one of the following reasons – either because Geto possessed the cursed spirit manipulation technique or because the spirit was born from children’s fear of abandonment, or perhaps a combination of both.
The cursed spirit manipulation technique allows a user to freely control cursed spirits after taming and ingesting them. So, could we say that Geto, having ingested and become the master of these cursed spirits, essentially became their parent too?
Toji’s cursed spirit wasn’t a special grade and it did not have the ability to hold intelligent conversations with anyone else. However, it is possible that the spirit sensed Geto’s cursed technique, especially when he tried to absorb it earlier.
Let’s put on our tinfoil hats for a second.
We could metaphorically say that Geto was holding all the cursed spirits he ingested in his body (stomach?) and caring for them in a way. This nurturing aspect could have led the cursed spirit to perceive Geto as a maternal figure.
Coming to our second scenario. It is possible that the cursed spirit which Toji possessed was born out of the fear of abandonment that children had.
Such a spirit, born from this particular fear, could easily say the words ‘Mom, hug me’. Also, the spirit had just gone through a traumatic experience which could explain its request for comfort through a hug.
Though being a grade 3 cursed spirit meant it shouldn’t have been capable of intelligent conversations, the words spoken were more aligned with the fear associated with the cursed spirit rather than a meaningful conversation.
Maybe ‘Mom, hug me’ were the only words it was capable of saying, and it kept repeating them. Ultimately, the possibility remains that Tojiworm could have said the same words to anyone it encountered in that situation and not just Geto.
But it is also worth considering that Geto possessing the Cursed Spirit Manipulation technique may have influenced the cursed spirit to view him as a mother in some manner.
Another fact that I want to point out is that Tojiworm is a cursed spirit formed out of a particular fear, and not a transmogrified human which we see during Young Fish and Reverse Punishment chapters.
It is easy to confuse them both, because the latter too had the habit of repeating single phrases. However, in this case it has been clarified that Toji possessed a cursed spirit, meaning Tojiworm was NOT a child or a baby who was CONVERTED into that form.
It’s just a ball of cursed energy that took a form!
Do you think there was any other particular reason for Toji’s cursed spirit calling Geto ‘mom’? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below, or you can hit me up on Tumblr/Reddit!