Jujutsu Kaisen Manga Chapter 196

   

 Summary:

Rokujushi Miyo finally finds someone to wrestle with when Maki agrees to wrestle to clear her mind. Maki can't focus because he can't reach the level of power he desires, and for the first time he needs to rely on someone else to progress. Miyo shows Maki the way to freedom the only way she knows how, through sumo.

Plot:

Maki is too tense and Rokujushi Miyo can tell it's dulling her blade. He invites her to sumo wrestle with him and she accepts, surprising Noritoshi. Miyo simple domain is a pure sumo match where the challenger must agree to the match to avoid any need for binding vows. Noritoshi doesn't understand what Maki is thinking, but explains that she was thinking too much. Needing to clear her head, Maki walks into Miya's simple mansion, asking herself what she can't see.

In her first sumo match, Miyo tosses Maki aside despite her aggression. Miyo expresses her love for sumo and admits that Maki could easily beat him in a straight fight. She wants to know why he's not at his best and asks why he can't concentrate. Maki has no one to call a teacher because she thinks Satoru and Atsuya are imbeciles. She never thought of relying on others to get stronger. Maki tells Miyo that she doesn't understand what Daido meant by seeing everything, and Miyo tells her that she can only explain it to her through sumo.

Miyo tells Maki that she was involved and caught up with everyone and everything around her. Sumo wrestling is about grappling and engaging with an opponent, but people have to develop outside of the ring before entering the match. Every experience leading up to the moment of entering the ring of a wrestling match flows naturally into the fighters. Miyo compares the sensation she feels to smelling light or seeing sound. This feeling is the ability to perceive everything around you and your opponent. At that point, everything, including competition, falls away and becomes meaningless in the grand scheme of expression. Miyo reveals that the sensation Daido was describing is true freedom, and now Maki must experience it for herself through a sumo match.

After many bouts of sumo, the domain disperses and Maki rejoins the fight. All the witnesses look on as something has clearly changed in Maki. With a smile on her face, Maki proudly proclaims that she is at her best.