a theory about yujiβs parent(s)
in which i provide empirical evidence that we have already met yujiβs mom. i havenβt seen this idea floated yet, but if itβs actually a common theory, sue me.
obvious spoilers under the cut
remember this incredibly throwaway line spoken by yuji when he introduces himself that everyone thought was just a joke?
itβs completely out of the blue. βIβm into girls like jennifer lawrence!β literally nobody asked you, yuji. and this is even before he meets todo who WOULD ask that type of question first time he meets someone, but todo says that because he had met- thatβs right!
and againβ¦
tsukumo yuki, who outright asks what type of girl someone is into as an introduction. just like how yuji would introduce himself by telling the other person what type of girl heβs into.
yes iβm positing that yuki is yujiβs mom based on these throwaway lines because i donβt think akutami gege is the type of writer to
do throwaway lines.
thereβs also the fact that yuki is established as traveling everywhere. yujiβs parents are nowhere to be found. he doesnβt even see his parents as his parents. and why is yuki traveling everywhere?
sheβs searching for a way to treat the cause of the neverending marathon of shamans dying for non-shamans to exorcise curses. she elaborates that there are two ways of tackling this issue.
when she talks about papa fushiguro:
ah, so sheβs abandoned the heavenly binding curse route. but wait! this conversation took place around 10 years before the start of the series, which would mean yuji wouldβve already been born by then.
i think yujiβs freakishly superhuman body comes from yukiβs personal research/experiments with heavenly binding curse. trying to create a superhuman like toji. obviously it didnβt succeed, as yuji couldnβt sense curses naturally like papa fushiguro could with his exact 0 cursed energy. βiβm chasing the second option for now.β it failed with yuji, so sheβs moved on.
but there is some credence to yukiβs 2nd method. βmake all of humanity able to control their cursed energy.β weβve seen this firsthand with none other than todo, who was an otherwise average kid who could beat up a bigger person back in elementary school. in an extra:
now, there are other examples of shamans from non-shaman families becoming strong shamans, like geto. but i think itβs pretty revealing that gege
chose to show yuki meeting up with todo at an age when he didnβt seem like he was affiliated with the shaman world at all. i think todo was part of her research to turn humans into shamans.
gege also says that theyβve already decided on how to introduce yujiβs mom from an interview (translation credit to IDuckyx on twitter):