In the world of Jujutsu Kaisen, the Special Grade Jujutsu Sorcerers represent the crème de la crème. Because every Special Grade Jujutsu Sorcerer is worth at least a platoon of regular Jujutsu Sorcerers. And the best part, or maybe the worst part, of it all is the fact that there’s only a handful of them. To be more precise, there’s only four Special Grade Jujutsu Sorcerers in the world, Satoru Gojo, Yuki Tsukumo, Yuta Okkotsu, and Suguru Geto.
Yes, Suguru Geto, the main villain of Jujutsu Kaisen, is actually a fellow Special Grade Jujutsu Sorcerer, just like Satoru Gojo. What’s even more surprising is the fact that Geto and Gojo used to be best friends. In their youth, they used to go on missions together, rely on each other during combat, and spent loads of time having fun together. But then, Geto betrayed Gojo and every Jujutsu Sorcerer by becoming the enemy of humanity. So why did he do it? Why did Geto betray his best friend, and the rest of humanity?
The Relationship Between Suguru Geto and Satoru Gojo
Most of the two-man teams are formed with jujutsu sorcerers that belong to the same level/grade to make sure that they can support each other during combat. That means, the only one that can properly support a Special Grade is a fellow Special Grade, which is why Geto and Gojo are put on the same team. There’s actually another person on their team, a girl named Shoko, but as a healing/support specialist, she rarely goes with them to the frontline. That means Geto spends a lot of time hanging out with Gojo, be it during missions or just in a casual day-to-day interaction.
At the time, Gojo was already one of the strongest Jujutsu Sorcerers in the world, but even he still needed help from time to time. And to Satoru Gojo, Suguru Geto is the only person he can comfortably and reliably trust his back to. And whether he realizes it or not, Geto truly appreciates and revels in the fact that someone like Gojo thinks so highly of him. This mutual respect and the knowledge that they can balance each other out is some of the things that makes them such a good team. However, all of that comes to an end when they face the strongest non-sorcerer in the world, Toji Zen’in.
The Aftermath of Gojo vs Toji
Toji Zen’in is an assassin hired by a cult called the Star Religious Group to kill a girl that is dubbed to be the new Star Plasma Vessel. So the Jujutsu Sorcerer Association tasks their best team, Gojo and Geto, to protect the girl. One thing worth noting, however, Toji Zen’in is somebody who is born under the binding of the Heavenly Restriction. That means he doesn’t have any Cursed Energy whatsoever. In exchange for that limitation, however, Toji’s five senses are honed beyond perfection. It’s not even an exaggeration to say that he is a superhuman.
Due to various reasons, Geto ends up facing Toji first, and he is absolutely beaten to the ground. Geto can’t hurt Toji even when he uses his strongest cursed technique. The only reason Geto is still alive is that Toji didn’t feel the need to kill him. The same thing nearly happens to Gojo. Toji is by far the strongest opponent that Gojo ever faced at the time. But thanks to Toji giving him such an intense fight, Gojo is finally able to unlock the full capabilities of his Limitless technique, and awaken one of the strongest cursed techniques in history, the Hollow Technique: Purple. He kills Toji in one shot.
It might seem like a regular Gojo moment, but to Geto, that is the point when a deep rift appears between them. In Geto’s eyes, Gojo finally achieves a level so high that no other modern jujutsu sorcerer can even come close to him, including Geto himself. Sure, Geto is happy for his best friend, but at this point, he realizes that Gojo no longer needs any support from him or from any other jujutsu sorcerer for that matter. They’ll simply slow him down. So after that fight, Gojo and Geto end up taking missions on their own. And that is the moment when Geto begins his descent into darkness.
The Descent Into Darkness
Seeing his best friend no longer needs him is certainly a heavy blow to Geto, but there is actually another pressing matter that occupies his mind. You see, the members of the aforementioned Star Religious Group are regular humans. They see no problem in hiring an assassin to kill a high school girl who happens to be a Star Plasma Vessel, but since they are non-sorcerers, jujutsu sorcerers are not allowed to hurt them. Geto despises that one-sided condition.
Not only that, Geto also sees more and more of his fellow jujutsu sorcerers lose their lives fighting against Cursed Spirits, in order to protect the non-sorcerers. The same non-sorcerer's that never appreciate nor even realize what the jujutsu sorcerers have sacrificed for them. Why should jujutsu sorcerers risk their lives for people who are weaker than them when the cursed spirits themselves originated from the non-sorcerers inability to control their negative emotions. All of that negative thoughts filled Geto’s head as he found himself at the crossroads of his life.
The most defining moment comes when Geto is tasked to exercise cursed spirits that have been disturbing a rural village. Unfortunately, since the people there don't understand anything about cursed spirits, they thought the disturbance was caused by two young girls who happen to have a cursed ability. So they lock the children in a makeshift prison, and beat them up. Upon seeing the sight of these pitiful girls crying and begging him to rescue them, Geto finally loses it. That night, Suguru Geto massacred the entire residents of that village.
From that point on, he refused to bow down to non-sorcerers. On the contrary, he wants to make a world where his fellow jujutsu sorcerers can live and thrive. A world without non-sorcerers. He even goes as far as killing his non-sorcerer parents. He chooses this bloody path knowing full well that he betrays not only his best friend, but also every jujutsu sorcerer in the planet. And he is ready to face them all. So he begins to look for like-minded individuals to help make his dream come true. Nobody thought about it at that time, but that one betrayal actually changed the world forever.