"Did you eat too much sōmen?"

In which you're spiraling after the death of the Star Plasma Vessel.

Setting: Third year at Jujutsu Tech; the summer after the Star Plasma Vessel incident.

Scenario: Basically, you take on the role of Suguru...during the summer after the Star Plasma Vessel incident. There are two starters here: in one, Haibara recently died and everyone on campus is a little more tense than usual. Satoru, not fully recognizing how messed up you're feeling as you're careening towards the edge, can still tell something is wrong and asks what's up. In the other, it's essentially a reprise of the street scene where Gojo and Geto have their falling out. You decide whether or not you want the possibility of being talked down from the edge to exist.

This bot uses Pronoun Macros! Please make sure your persona has pronouns set.

This was a request from a while back (just after my requests closed, I think) that I never saw until now. They asked for a scenario where the user was depressed instead of Suguru. I interpreted this in a way that puts the user in Suguru's position and removes Suguru from the narrative altogether. (Of course, you can always play as Suguru, or you can reintroduce him into the plot. These bots are usually pretty flexible with this sort of thing, and I tend to overthink things on my end that can be handwaved away if desired.)

I'm in a bit of a creative slump, so this isn't my most... well, creative. It's more or less just 'the plot as it actually happened'. But 'Premature Death' is my absolute favorite episode of Jujutsu Kaisen. Total masterclass in visual storytelling and quite possibly my favorite 'villain origin story' I've encountered in media. Geto casting two shadows on the wall in the village and the two burning candles - then one of the candles burns out and he resolves into a single shadow representing his choice of which path to travel down as per his conversation with Yuki. Mwah.

Unrelated rant! I don't like it when Gojo and Geto are discussed as 'rivals' in media. Nabbing pictures for this bot, that phrase comes up in articles - 'Gojo and Geto's rivalry explained!', et cetera. They're not rivals. They have some moments of tension but they're never really competing with each other - because they both know there is no competition.

I feel like the term 'rivals' evokes a very different kind of dynamic you see in media. The whole Naruto/Sasuke thing, or Sports Anime Guy 1/Sports Anime Guy 2. Those relationships feel more fraught, contentious, evenly matched, etc. I know that in a lot of cases the 'rivals' are childhood friends or something, but there's a hostility between them that I simply do not see with Gojo and Geto. Between rivals, affection is only reluctantly shown, working together is extremely difficult - and most of all, in rival dynamics, the rivalry exists because the characters are both seeking the same goal, whether it's the affection of a girl or victory in a tournament, and they see each other as competition. Gojo and Geto, meanwhile, are shown to work really well together as a team. They easily rely on each other, they split up tasks without argument, and they trust one another's judgment. I view them as best friends, all the way up to Geto's death, even though they spent ten years estranged from each other.

The rift between Gojo and Geto arises because their goals diverge. There's never any genuine animosity between them as people - there's mostly just an ideological clash. Which is weird to say in regards to a situation where somebody murdered over a hundred people in cold blood, but it's really what I feel exists between them. As 'yikes' as it might be, my take is that Gojo is never genuinely upset about the people Geto killed. He's upset that Geto's worldview twisted so much that he was willing to target those people, and he's upset that he hadn't seen it coming, and he's upset that Geto did something that created an unbreachable rift between them - because the rift was painful, not because murder is bad.

TL;DR: Rivalry exists between characters in competition with one another for a common goal. Gojo and Geto were never rivals. They were best friends who existed as ideological antagonists to one another.

MY SATORU GOJO BOTS:

Find a full list with the #gojoday tag!

Adult: Your Temporary Boss / Training the Foreigner / The Shibuya Incident / Childhood Acquaintance / Sewer Rescue / Shrine Visit / Arranged Marriage / Merry Christmas / Happy New Year! / Just a Dream / Sengoku Period / Too Late / Uncomfortable Arrangement / Broken Road / Parenting 101 / Medicine Peddler (Mononoke crossover)

Teen: Rescued / Your Trainer / Childhood Friend / Goodbye / Misunderstanding / Spiral