why did choso get memories of yuji
Choso gets those “fake” memories of Yuji because the story is hinting at a real blood connection between them, and uses a sudden, impossible flashback as the trigger for Choso’s change of heart.
The core in-universe explanation
In Shibuya, right when Choso is about to finish Yuji off, he suddenly remembers a scene that never happened: Yuji happily eating with Eso and Kechizu, as if they’d always been brothers. That memory is explicitly labeled in the series as something that “didn’t exist,” which tells us it’s not a literal past event but a supernatural impulse or realization taking the form of a memory.
The key points are:
- Choso is a Death Painting created with the help of the sorcerer Kenjaku, who has a long history of body-hopping and experimenting with cursed wombs and humans.
- The manga later clarifies that Kenjaku is also directly tied to Yuji’s birth, which makes Yuji and Choso share the same “parent” in a twisted, sorcerer–experiment sense.
- When Choso is about to kill Yuji, that hidden familial link is awakened, and his brain fills in the emotional truth (Yuji is my little brother) as a vivid, false domestic memory.
So: the memory is “fake” as a scene, but “real” as a manifestation of their blood connection.
How fans and articles usually explain it
You’ll often see three overlapping explanations discussed:
- Blood connection / Death Painting logic
- Choso’s blood-manipulation lets him sense his brothers; when he’s drenched in Yuji’s blood, that familiar sense spikes.
* His brain translates that feeling into a fully formed family memory because that’s the easiest way for him to understand “this person is my brother.”
- Kenjaku’s experiments and shared “parent”
- Kenjaku (in the Kamo line) created the Death Paintings and later orchestrated Yuji’s birth.
* Once Choso realizes Kenjaku survived by moving bodies, he deduces that Yuji must be related to him through Kenjaku, and afterward he consciously treats Yuji as a younger brother.
* The Shibuya memory scene is effectively the moment that truth “clicks,” before he has words or facts for it.
- Narrative / symbolic device (“memories that didn’t exist”)
- The series has used invented memories before (like Todo’s sudden school bromance) as a way to show an instant, irrational bond.
* With Yuji, the memory isn’t just a gag; it motivates a permanent shift in Choso’s allegiance, from someone seeking revenge to a protective older brother.
In other words, the story takes a real, hidden connection (same creator, linked bloodline) and expresses it as a dramatic false flashback at the exact moment it matters most.
Why Choso’s reaction matters
After the “nonexistent” memory, Choso:
- Can’t kill Yuji, despite having every reason to.
- Starts referring to Yuji as his younger brother and actively protects him for the rest of Shibuya.
- Later directs his hatred toward Kenjaku for manipulating and hurting his brothers (including Yuji) rather than at Yuji himself.
That one memory literally rewrites Choso’s role in the story—from enemy boss fight to tragic, ride-or-die big brother.
Is there a definitive answer yet?
Officially, the series has:
- Confirmed Kenjaku’s role in both the Death Paintings and Yuji’s existence.
- Shown that Choso consciously accepts Yuji as his brother once he understands the Kenjaku link.
But it has not spelled out every technical detail of why the memory manifests exactly that way (e.g., whether it’s purely the blood link, Kenjaku’s curse-tech side effect, Sukuna’s presence, etc.), so fans still discuss it as a mix of:
- Bloodline instinct
- Kenjaku’s experiments
- A deliberate narrative device about “memories that didn’t exist”
Most current writeups lean on the shared parent / blood connection as the main reason, with the false memory being how Choso’s heart and cursed nature process that revelation in the moment.
TL;DR: Choso gets memories of Yuji because they’re essentially brothers through Kenjaku, and that buried blood connection erupts as a supernatural “fake” memory that stops him from killing Yuji and permanently reorients him as Yuji’s protective older brother.
Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.