Warning: The following contains spoilers for Jujutsu Kaisen by Gege Akutami!!

One of the biggest surprises of Jujutsu Kaisen comes from the Cursed Womb: Death Paintings, which gave fans one of the community’s most beloved characters, Choso. Choso is very committed to his brothers, who were his only company over the 150 years he spent suspended and kept from maturing. But two of these brothers, Kechizu and Eso, meet a quick end after a run in with Yuji Itadori and Nobara Kugisaki. That dynamic duo put them down, and Choso set out to avenge his lost siblings.

Choso did nearly take down Yuji during the Shibuya Incident. But when he could finally land a lethal blow and avenge his brothers, Choso suddenly recalled a memory that didn’t happen – one where he, his brothers, and Yuji, enjoyed an afternoon together as family.

It shocks Choso so badly that it makes him quickly swap to Itadori’s side and call him little brother. But these two definitely don’t seem related at a glance, so there’s a big question mark about why Choso sees Yuji this way. The answer is surprisingly simple, but they actually do share a parent.

Choso and Yuji’s Family Ties

Their Surprising Paternal Connection

This explanation at first makes no sense. Choso was born over one hundred and fifty years prior to Jujutsu Kaisen‘s beginning, and was kept in stasis until the present day. Yuji, meanwhile, seemed to have a ‘normal’ life, even if his parents had died when he was young. So how would they share a parent? Such a person would have to be immortal, or at least very, very old. Thankfully, for the sake of identifying the mysterious shared parent, Choso actually identifies his father at the tail end of the Shibuya Incident – it’s Kenjaku.

This body hopping fiend had, at one point, taken the form of Noritoshi Kamo, his actions getting him branded throughout history as one of the most evil sorcerers ever. It was then he created the Death Paintings, beings born of a curse and a human woman. While living as Kamo, Kenjaku had put his own blood into these beings. This makes Choso view Kenjaku as his father, whom he resents for mistreating his mother. Kenjaku would later abandon Kamo’s body and take on a new one. Somewhere before Yuji’s birth, he took on another sorcerer’s body, but this body was a particular woman’s.

Yuji’s Mother Is Choso’s Father

Kenjaku’s Control Over Bodies Lets Him Be Both

Kenjaku himself is simply just a brain that hops from body to body. He’s referred to as being male, as the most notable bodies he inhabits – that of Sugeru Geto and Noritoshi Kamo – are male. But at some point, Kenjaku took over the body of Kaori Itadori, a female sorcerer who was married to Jin Itadori, Yuji’s father. Together, they had a child – the series’ protagonist, Yuji. So, Kenjaku is actually Yuji’s mother. This is enough for Choso to identify and proudly call Yuji his little brother, and technically be right, as they’re half brothers through their shared parent in Kenjaku.

Choso is indeed Yuji Itadori’s brother by some measure, a connection that later opened an interesting oppurtunity for Yuji to become even stronger. By eating and absorbing the other Death Paintings that hadn’t yet awakened, Yuji was able to absorb a new technique in Piercing Blood, bringing him even closer to his half brothers. So one of the biggest mysteries of Jujutsu Kaisen actually has a very simple answer, even if Kenjaku complicates it by his constant body hopping.