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Disclaimer: Major spoilers for the Jujutsu Kaisen anime and manga chapter 164.
With Jujutsu Kaisen manga Chapter 165 due to be released in a couple hours, its a good time to review Mahito's current situation.
Mahito is one of the most fascinating villains in Jujutsu Kaisen, and a major antagonist alongside Sukuna and Suguru Getou. Mahito is everything that a stereotypical curse is - malicious, violent, bloodthirsty, and being a special-grade curse, Mahito kicks it up a notch.
As the series progresses, we see Mahito evolve and grow a lot stronger, and needless to say, dangerous. Which is why Mahito's defeat was jarring and had everyone asking the question: Is he dead?
Is Mahito dead in Jujutsu Kaisen manga? Villain's fate explained
What exactly happened to Mahito?
Technically speaking, Mahito is not dead because cursed spirits cannot be killed, but rather exorcized. This is the fact that brings Yuuji Itadori to an ethical dilemma when he was forced to kill humans distorted by Mahito's Idle Transfiguration in the Jujutsu Kaisen anime.
That said, Mahito's existence right now is kind of a Scrodinger's cat situation, due to Geto's unusual exorcism technique.
In the manga, pushed to the brink of being completely exorcized by the joint efforts of Itadori and Todou, Mahito's "death" is almost certain. But Kenjaku arrives at the crucial moment in an ex-machina style and absorbs a highly weakened Mahito using Suguru Geto's jujutsu technique.
Suguru Geto's body being possessed by Kenjaku suggests that we will likely see Mahito or at least his cursed technique sometime in the future. But whether Mahito as a character will appear again is debatable.
Will Mahito survive this?
As a rule, cursed spirits in Jujutsu Kaisen can only be exorcized by using cursed energy against the spirit causing it to disappear.
Unlike other jujutsu sorcerers, special-grade sorcerer-turned-curse user Suguru Geto's technique, Cursed Spirit Manipulation is a bit different. It can dominate and ingest the cursed spirit to harness its powers, effectively removing it from existence.
Jujutsu Kaisen 0 reveals that Geto unleashed over four thousand curses at once, using a technique called Maximum Uzumaki, in his attempt to overpower and ingest the cursed spirit Rika.
But the fact that he could expel them in such a manner suggests that the cursed spirits live on within Suguru Geto's body.
Final thoughts regarding Mahito's fate
Mahito may be superficial and infantile in his impulses, but like Nanami notes, he is an extremely powerful curse. Especially one whose personality is reminiscent of none other than Satoru Gojou.
Just as Gojou was pitted against Sukuna from the very beginning of the series as a worthy opponent, Mahito formed a similar relationship with Itadori. Itadori is even more hell-bent on destroying Mahito, ever since he lost several people that he cared for, to the villain.
However, in the end, Mahito is still an intermediary villain and a pawn, so the plot of Jujutsu Kaisen would not be especially affected by Mahito's loss at this point. Mahito's evolution was on par with and complemented by Itadori's own.
With Itadori Yuuji becoming stronger, Mahito's role in the story might be over.
