Warning: the following article contains spoilers for Jujutsu Kaisen Chapter 167, Tokyo Colony No. 1, Part 7" by Gege Akutami, John Werry and Snir Aharon, available in English from Viz Media.
Megumi Fushiguro and Yuji Itadori entered the Culling Game thinking they had it all figured out. They thought they knew its purpose and Kenjaku's objective and so came up with a plan, gathered allies and charged in. Little did they know, the already complicated Culling Game is even more complex than they believed. Kenjaku continues to demonstrate that there's always more to him than meets the eye.
Kenjaku has proven himself as a master manipulator and always seems to be at least 20 steps ahead. This is why it's not exactly a surprise that there's more to his plans than what he revealed at the end of the Shibuya Incident arc. What's intriguing about this is how it may end up impacting Fushiguro and Itadori's plans, and the Culling Game as a whole.
Fushiguro's previous appearance was in Chapter 163 when Remi led him to her ally, Reggie, after letting him believe she was taking him to Higuruma. Fushiguro is ready to fight upon realizing the deception, however, Reggie has something else in mind. He's impressed by Fushiguro's strength, which he assessed based on his shikigami, so he suggests that Fushiguro ally with him, which comes as a surprise to Remi.
Reggie asks Megumi how much he knows about the Culling Game and Megumi explains (leaving out details about Master Tengen). As far as Megumi knows, it's a ritual for using the Cursed Energy of the players inside the barrier, with the intention of crossing the people of Japan to the other side so they'll no longer be regular humans. In other words, turning them into sorcerers, cursed spirits, or something beyond.
Reggie informs Fushiguro that using the players' Cursed Energy is most likely one of Kenjaku's plans. His reasons for believing this are the number of players, the players' differing skill levels and the barrier rules. Basically, if there are 1000 players equally distributed in the 10 colonies, that means there are 100 people in each colony. Among the 100 are certain players who are far stronger than the others, such as Higuruma and Kashimo, who was introduced back in Chapter 158. These two alone have already culled around 60 sorcerers.
There's at least one person in each barrier with a similar level of strength as Higuruma and Kashimo, which means that after the early stages, the Culling Game will quickly reach a deadlock as only the strongest will remain. Then there's the transferal that occurs when players enter a colony. This was the reason Itadori and Fushiguro were separated. While scattering people is one of the game's objectives, its main goal is to stimulate early second awakenings in modern-day sorcerers, which some have actually died from.
Reggie reasonably deduces that if the goal is really to use players' Cursed Energy, long and drawn-out battles among many sorcerers would be the way to go. This assumption makes sense considering how many sorcerers Higuruma and Kashimo have killed and how quickly. Long battles would allow the newly awakened sorcerers to get stronger and develop their Cursed Techniques, which would surely make their Cursed Energy more useful. Then there's the fact that some players die from simply entering a colony. It makes no sense that Kenjaku would allow so many players to die off so easily if his main goal is to take advantage of Cursed Energy.
Reggie is certain that there's something bigger at play in the Culling Game and that Kenjaku will drop a bomb when only the strongest sorcerers are left, by which point the Culling Game will have fulfilled its purpose. His speculations are somewhat confirmed when Kenjaku is shown meeting with a group of important-looking men. Interestingly, one of the men addresses Kenjaku in Chinese and he responds in kind. This seems to imply that Kenjaku has made his way to China and is making moves there. Even more curious is the fact that he was invited.
This mysterious meeting raises questions about Kenjaku's influence outside of Japan. It's unclear whether the men he meets with in this chapter are aware that he's a sorcerer, but it's definitely a possibility. If they are, they may be sorcerers themselves. Perhaps some even awakened Cursed Techniques because of him. It will be fascinating to see how they fit into his master plan.
Fushiguro and Itadori will most likely have more work to do in the Culling Game than they originally intended. This bomb that Kenjaku is going to drop will likely change the entire situation for the worse and raise the stakes even higher. There are now even more questions surrounding the mysterious Kenjaku's motives than before as he seems to have endless tricks up his sleeve. It's no wonder fans have deemed him one of the best villains to come out of any ongoing Shonen Jump manga.
