Toji and Megumi: did Toji love his son?

Yes, Toji is Megumi's father, and no, Megumi never learns that the man who nearly killed him in Shibuya was his dad: Toji dies without saying so, and the only person who recognised him dies too (Game Rant; Game Rant, Toji and Megumi). What Toji shows instead is pride, at the moment Megumi tells him his surname is Fushiguro rather than Zen'in.

This is one thread of the Jujutsu Kaisen story, and it runs from a sale arranged in 2006 to the manga's final chapters.

Spoilers: Season 2 episodes 4, 5, 15 and 16, and one marked detail from the manga's final chapters.

Pick your path: Toji's wife, why he left Megumi, the Shibuya fight, or does Megumi ever find out?

YourCrush.AI has Toji Fushiguro as a chat character, so once you have read this you can talk to Toji Fushiguro yourself.

Is Toji Megumi's dad?

Yes. After he left the Zen'in clan, Toji married a woman, took her surname, Fushiguro, and they had Megumi. That also made him stepfather to Megumi's stepsister, Tsumiki (Game Rant; CBR).

Toji Fushiguro is Megumi Fushiguro's father in Jujutsu Kaisen. He was a Zen'in-born assassin with no cursed energy who arranged to sell his son to the Zen'in clan, and when he was revived in Shibuya he fought Megumi without either of them knowing who the other was at first. One line in Wikipedia's character list calls Toji Megumi's "mother." That's an error, and every other source says father.

How YourCrush.AI lets you ask the questions a father never answered

A conversation like this only works if the character remembers what he has already admitted, and YourCrush.AI keeps track of that. YourCrush.AI lets you pin memories, so the one thing Chikara said about why your father left stays fixed while you ask the next question. YourCrush.AI supports story branches, so you can ask the hardest question first in one branch and work up to it in another. YourCrush.AI also has voice messages, for a character who talks better than he writes. Joining is free, signed-in members chat without a message cap, the site is for adults 18 and over, and conversations are not sold to third parties.

Who was Toji's wife?

Nobody names her. She's the woman whose surname, Fushiguro, Toji took when they married, and she died not long after Megumi was born. Even how she died is unknown (Dexerto).

ComicBook.com notes she had not been named in the anime as of 2023, and that she first appears in Toji's dying memory in Season 2 episode 4 (ComicBook.com). Wikipedia's Megumi article does not name her either (Wikipedia, Megumi Fushiguro). Any name you see on fan pages is invented.

Why did Toji leave Megumi?

The sources describe a sale rather than a departure: Toji arranged to sell Megumi to the Zen'in clan "for a certain sum, depending on his cursed technique" (Game Rant). The anime frames it as Toji believing the sale would give Megumi a better future (Wikipedia, Season 2).

The deal

Toji was born a Zen'in with no cursed energy, in a clan the press describes as "discriminatory" (CBR). He leaves. He marries, takes his wife's name, and has a son. Then his wife dies, and he is a mercenary with a small child.

Spoiler: the deal Toji made over his son

Toji arranges to sell Megumi to the Zen'in clan, the family that rejected him, for a sum that depends on what cursed technique the boy turns out to have (Game Rant). Dexerto says Megumi was "barely three or four years old" when Toji sold him (Dexerto).

Toji Fushiguro from Jujutsu Kaisen sitting alone at a bar counter late at night — Toji arranges to sell his son to the Zen'in clan for a sum that depends on the boy's cursed technique.

Why sell his son to the one family he spent his life spiting? CBR calls Toji's whole profession an attempt to spite the Zen'in (CBR). My reading: a man with no cursed energy knows exactly what the jujutsu world does to people who have none. If his son has a technique, the Zen'in are the people who can make it count. He hates them, and he trusts their greed.

What did Gojo do about Megumi after Toji died?

Toji's dying words told Gojo about the sale, and Gojo later found young Megumi and protected him from the Zen'in clan (Wikipedia, Season 2). That's how Toji's son ends up as Gojo's student at Tokyo Jujutsu High (Wikipedia, Season 1).

Last words

It's 2006. Toji has finished the job he was paid for, and the boy he killed has come back and destroyed his left side with Hollow Purple. Dying, Toji tells Gojo that his son Megumi will be sold to the Zen'in clan.

Spoiler: what Toji tells Gojo as he dies

Toji tells Gojo about the sale and, in Game Rant's paraphrase, tells him "to do whatever he wanted with that information" (chapter 75, episode 4; Wikipedia, Season 2; Game Rant).

Our imagining of that moment, in Toji's voice and our words: "Got a kid somewhere. The Zen'in have him on order. You want him, take him. I don't care either way." Nobody spends a last breath on something he does not care about.

Gojo steps in

A year later, Gojo is still a student. He goes looking for the boy anyway.

Spoiler: who stands between Megumi and the Zen'in clan

Gojo finds young Megumi and protects him from the Zen'in clan (episode 5, "Premature Death"; Wikipedia, Season 2). By then nobody is looking after the children: Megumi's stepmother, Tsumiki's mother, had also left. Gojo arranges for jujutsu society to fund Tsumiki's upbringing in exchange for Megumi becoming a sorcerer (Sportskeeda; Wikipedia, Megumi Fushiguro).

Satoru Gojo from Jujutsu Kaisen standing at a school gate in spring — Megumi grows up to be one of Gojo's first-year students at Tokyo Jujutsu High.

What happens when Toji fights Megumi?

Season 2, episodes 15 and 16. Toji throws Megumi out of a building, overwhelms him, and stabs him. Then he recognises him, asks his name, hears "Fushiguro," and ends his own possession (Wikipedia, Season 2).

The fight

Halloween night, 2018, in Shibuya. A séance has pulled Toji back into a borrowed body, and his consciousness has overwritten its owner's (Dexerto). He has just finished off the curse Dagon. The next person standing in front of him is a 15-year-old boy.

Spoiler: how the fight between Toji and Megumi goes

Toji throws Megumi outside the building and overwhelms him (episodes 15 to 16; Wikipedia, Season 2). Neither of them knows who the other is.

The name

Toji stabs Megumi. Then something in the borrowed body catches.

Spoiler: the name Megumi gives, and why it ends the fight

Toji recognises his son and briefly regains his humanity. He remembers selling Megumi to the Zen'in. He asks the boy's name, and Megumi answers "Fushiguro," not Zen'in. Proud that Megumi has rejected the Zen'in name, Toji stabs his vessel in the head and ends the possession (episode 16, "Thunderclap," overall episode 40; Wikipedia, Season 2; ComingSoon).

How I imagine the second after he hears it, in Toji's voice: "Fushiguro. Your mother's name. You kept it." That is all a father gets to say, and he says it to himself.

Did Toji love Megumi?

Canon never has him say it, but two moments point that way. Dying, he hands Gojo the fact of the sale and leaves him to do what he likes with it. In Shibuya, he ends his own possession out of pride that Megumi kept the name Fushiguro (Game Rant; Wikipedia, Season 2). Whether that counts as love is the reader's call, and the anime's framing of the sale as a better future is the closest the sources come to an answer.

My reading: the man who spent his life refusing the Zen'in dies the moment his son proves he refused them too. Toji did not raise Megumi, did not protect him, and sold him. He also, twice, spent the last minutes he had on Megumi. Fans who call him a terrible father and fans who call him a loving one are both describing real scenes.

Does Megumi know Toji is his dad?

Not in the Shibuya arc. Megumi never realises his opponent was his father. Naobito recognised Toji but died before telling anyone, and Toji died without revealing it (Game Rant; Dexerto). No source we use shows a later scene in which Megumi learns that the man he fought was his father.

What Megumi does learn, much later, is something else.

Spoiler: what Megumi learns in the manga's final chapters

In chapter 268, Yuji delivers a letter Gojo wrote before his death. It says "Sorry, Megumi" and tells him, bluntly, that Gojo killed his dad. Megumi bursts out laughing (Sportskeeda, VIZ translation; ComicBook.com). The letter says "your dad", not "Toji", and nothing in it tells Megumi that he fought his father in Shibuya.

So the answer is half yes. Megumi learns who killed his father. He never learns that his father found him first.

How do you build a character who can answer for a father who never did?

You build one by making him the person who knew the father, not the father himself, and by giving him a promise to tell the truth. Toji and Megumi belong to canon, and Megumi is a minor, so the recipe below is an original adult inspired by the theme. You play an adult; the character is a family friend, and the relationship is not romantic. Every field fits the YourCrush.AI character creator.

Name (16 of 40 characters): Chikara Nonomura

Behaviour mode: natural

Category: Anime

Traits (5, from the list of 32): Calm, Honest, Emotional, Protective, Mysterious

Speaking style (4 words): gruff, halting, short, plain

Description (258 of 2,400 characters): Chikara is 58, a fishing-boat captain with bad knees and a long memory. He was your late father's oldest friend, the only one who knew him before he left. He is not good with words, so he says less than he knows, and he will not lie to you to make it easier.

Backstory (280 of 2,400 characters): Your father left when you were small and died before you were old enough to ask him why. Chikara was there for the years you were not. He promised your father he would answer you honestly if you ever came asking, and tonight, years later, you have come down to the harbour to ask.

Greeting (189 of 500 characters): You have his way of standing in a doorway. Sit, the tea's still hot. I know why you came. Ask me one thing at a time and I'll answer the truth, even the parts that don't make him look good.

The phrase that does the work is "even the parts that don't make him look good". It gives you permission to ask the hard question first.

Frequently asked questions

Who is Tsumiki?

Tsumiki is Megumi's stepsister, and Toji is her stepfather (CBR). She's the one who looked after Megumi once both parents were gone (Wikipedia, Megumi Fushiguro).

Did Gojo tell Megumi that he killed his dad?

Yes. Gojo wrote it in a letter before his death, and Megumi reads it in chapter 268 (ComicBook.com). His reaction is a laugh.

Why is Megumi's surname Fushiguro and not Zen'in?

Because Toji took his wife's surname, Fushiguro, after leaving the Zen'in clan (Game Rant). Megumi kept it even after the Zen'in tried to buy him.

How old was Megumi when Toji died?

A small child at the first death in 2006, and 15 at the second, in Shibuya (CBR, character ages). His exact age in 2006 is never given.

What is Toji's personality like?

The press describes a mercenary whose entire profession spites the clan that rejected him (CBR). He kills sorcerers for a living, which is where the name Sorcerer Killer comes from.

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Toji and Megumi: does Megumi ever know Toji is his dad? The story of a father who sold his son