Yuji Itadori’s “accidental” transformation from an ordinary high school boy to a jujutsu sorcerer is how the story of Jujutsu Kaisen started. So when does Yuji get his power? Or was he already strong even if he didn’t eat Sukuna’s cursed finger? Read on to find out.
When Does Yuji Get His Power?
Yuji acquires his power the moment he awakens Sukuna in his body. We see this happen clearly in Episode 1 (anime)/Chapter 1 (manga) of the series.
This moment changes Yuji Itadori’s life. His fate changes forever when he meets Megumi in the hospital soon after his grandfather dies. After learning his friends are in danger, Yuji and Megumi return to school. That time, the school is already filled with the cursed energy of Sukuna’s finger, which his friends unsealed. The cursed energy has attracted so many cursed spirits around.
Megumi gets injured, and Yuji’s two friends faint. Then, a cursed spirit thrusts itself directly into Yuji and Megumi. At that moment, Yuji knows he needs to do something. So, he swallows the finger in his hand and kills the cursed spirit with his hand alone.
But he also awakens a monster sleeping inside that finger. It’s Ryomen Sukuna, the King of Curses from the golden age of Jujutsu. From this moment, Yuji becomes the vessel for Sukuna. And his path to becoming a jujutsu sorcerer officially starts.
But is this really the beginning of Yuji’s superpowers? Actually, not quite.
The Incredible Physical Strength of Yuji
Yuji has incredible physical strength. You can check about this right in the first episode of the series. The story starts when Yuji and his friends have fun in the room of the spiritual club. Then, the track and field coach arrives and invites Yuji to his club.
Yuji refuses it because he wants to join the spiritual club. So, the coach challenges Yuji to a competition. If Yuji wins, the coach will give up his intention and let Yuji be where he wants. But the teacher doesn’t want to give up Yuji easily.
He challenges Yuji with Shot Put, which Yuji has never tried before. The teacher confidently thinks he will win the match.
Yuji throws the ball, and the result shocks everyone.
The shot put flies more than 30 meters and even bends the bar. Even at that time, Yuji is already famous because of his superhuman strength. He even has the nickname “The Tiger of West Junior High” in school; others said he could run 50 meters in just three seconds!
When he and Megumi return together to school that night, Yuji is already set to become the hero of the fight. He jumps from the ground to the floor where Megumi is fighting with a cursed spirit, breaks the windows, and punches the enemy before saving his friends.
Megumi gets so shocked when he saw Yuji fighting. Yuji has yet to be trained, but he can already use his physical strength against cursed spirits.
After Yuji eats Sukuna’s finger, close combat is still his primary fighting style. His two main techniques are Black Flash and Divergent Fist; they are all physical attacks.
This means he is already strong. For him, becoming a Jujutsu Sorcerer is to teach him to control cursed energy effectively.
Why is Yuji So Strong?
If you pay attention to his background, you will learn that Yuji has a grandfather. But where are his parents?
The boy grows up without his dad or mom. It is important to remember this about Yuji’s parents, who might know: when does Yuji get his power?
In Chapter 143, after getting killed by Yuta Okkotsu, Yuji remembers a time when he was just a child. In that memory, Yuji was in the arms of his father. In the same scene were his grandfather and mom.
Here’s the thing: Yuji’s mom looked weird. She had stitches on her forehead. Her stitches looked exactly like those of another character named Kenjaku. Kenjaku is a brain that can steal and use a dead body by replacing the brain of the dead body with its own.
And the victims of Kenjaku would have stitches on their foreheads. Kenjaku has been alive for a very long time. He used to be a Jujutsu Sorcerer and has done numerous experiments on humans.
We can imply that Kenjaku stole the body of Yuji’s mom and gave birth to Yuji. So maybe Kenjaku did something to Yuji to give him incredible physical strength.
For another more straightforward explanation, Yuji could be the son of a strong person like Kenjaku. He might have inherited some of Kenjaku’s features through the body of Yuji’s mom.