~ I wanted to clear up the mind of everyone who believes Megumi didn’t get an Epilogue and was forgotten by Gege. This is just my interpretation. You’re still allowed to feel unsatisfied with Megumi’s ending. I personally just don’t believe JJK ended with Yuji being in Sendai timeline wise.
Something about Megumi not having an Epilogue didn’t make any sense to me. So I got to thinking.
I ended up realizing that both Yuji and Nobara’s appearance in the Epilogue section, involved them tying up loose ends with their family. When I thought about it I realized that Megumi ties up loose ends with Tsumiki by laying her to rest in ch. 270. There was no need for him to get closure in the Epilogue section.
If you think about it, Ch. 270 serves as as an Epilogue for not only Megumi, but for the other from the Culling Game characters.
~Cont. reading below to see why I think this is the case
Theory about the Timeline of Events
I have a theory that the last mission the first years go on, happens after Yuji and Nobara’s Epilogue. I base this on the fact that in ch. 271, Yuji, Nobara and Megumi discuss the whereabouts of Sukuna’s last finger.
In ch. 270 when Ijichi explains the mission to the first years, he suggests that the victims fiancée started seeing his face being morphed, as of two weeks ago.
Megumi also mentions to Yuji that the guy might be an awakened player from the Culling Game.
This suggests that the Culling Game ended two weeks before the start of ch.270.
If you keep in mind that the last mission happens before Ozawa and Nobara’s Epilogue, Megumi confirms the two week time skip, at the start of ch. 270. We see Megumi go straight from putting his sister to rest, to his mission with Yuji and Nobara.
So what does this two week time period after the Culling Game suggest about the order if events?
Within those two weeks I strongly believe this is how the order of events went down:
Yuji goes to Sendai to handle business with the inheritance of his grandfather’s house.
Nobara meets up with her mom.
Megumi puts Tsumiki to rest.
The first years meets up and then goes on their last canonical mission .
The first years finishes their canonical mission, talks about sukuna’s finger and walks forward on a path of a new era together.
1. Yuji goes to Sendai to take care of the inheritance of his grandfather’s house
In Ozawa’s Epilogue, Yuji goes to Sendai and tells Ozawa that he left his grandfathers house empty when he moved to Tokyo. He then says that along with that, he has other loose ends to tie up.
I believe those loose ends were him putting Sukuna’s last finger in the thermometer box back at his old school.
Yuji later mentions to Ozawa that it is snowing. When he was in his domain with Sukuna he says it barely snows in Sendai anymore.
With this in mind I checked to see if the panel of the thermometer box where Sukuna’s last finger was located, had snow on the ground. To my surprise it did! The grass definitely has snow on it!
2. Nobara meets up with her mom
I believe Nobara goes to meet her mom after she’s had a random feeling that Yuji was getting ahead of her.
Her saying, “something tells me,” is her admitting she didn’t know what Yuji was doing. She just had a feeling he was, “standing at the doorway to adulthood.”
It’s Megumi who tells her what Yuji is doing. He responds to her comments by saying, “well yeah inheriting a house isn’t something a kid can do.”
It’s implied that Megumi already knew Yuji went back to Sendai to take care of matters involving his grandfather’s house, based off his response to Nobara. He’s the one who tells Nobara what Yuji was doing.
In the image above, the first panel pays homage to the second panel. The third panel is Nobara not liking the idea of Yuji getting a girlfriend before she got a boyfriend.
Her reaction to Yuji in both panels suggests that she wants to win against Yuji when it comes to big milestones. For Nobara’s character, this homage proves that she still values the silly little competition she has with Yuji.
From my pov, these panels have nothing to do with her suggesting Yuji and Ozawa are getting together. Especially since it implied she doesn’t even know what Yuji is doing.
Also, some people theorize that Megumi and Nobara are in Sendai with him, but it doesn’t make sense based off of their clothes. Megumi and Nobara are wearing their uniform and Yuji is wearing his casual clothes.
This further proves my point, that she has no idea what Yuji was doing until Megumi tells her. But keep in mind her not knowing, doesn’t mean that she has a bad character relationship with the Yuji. Just based off the fact that she randomly gets a feeling that Yuji’s ahead of her, is a good example of their bond.
This is why I believe her Epilogue with her mom happens after Ozawa’s. Nobara finally meeting with her mom to honor Gojo’s dying wish, also suggests her wanting to catch back up to Yuji.
It’s funny to see that Megumi doesn’t sound or look surprised in both panels. I think these panels add to the suggestion Nobara makes, about Megumi knowing Yuji better than she does. (She says this to Ozawa at the cafe)
I also really love the dynamic between Megumi and Nobara, where they always end up talking about Yuji when they’re alone. They’re able to bond over their shared connection with Yuji.
3. Megumi puts Tsumiki to rest (I’ll include all panels I think are meant to be his Epilogue)
Megumi’s Epilogue occurs after Ozawa’s and Nobara’s because it happens the same day as the first year’s last mission. Two weeks after the Culling Game ended. (All these panels are from ch. 270)
It also makes sense that it would take Shoko two weeks to finally get a chance to cremate Tsumiki. I’m assuming that after the Culling Game, Shoko had to heal a lot of injured players and civilians.
I’m also sure she needed Megumi’s help to find Tsumiki’s body, since he knew where she was based on watching everything Sukuna was doing with his body.
4. The first years meet up and then goes on their last canonical mission
Together they stop the guy who was making a women’s fiancé, face morph with his curse technique.
This mission suggests that they are all capable of working on missions, even if they enjoy their youth by joking around. Even though Yuji and Nobara share the same brain cell, Megumi is there to hold them together.
5. The first years finishes their last canonical mission, talks about Sukuna’s finger and walks forward on a path of a new era together.
Now I will wrap up this analysis as to why Megumi’s Epilogue is implied to be in ch.270. I will talk about how the first years final scene in ch. 271, the last chapter of JJK, proves my point.
In their final scene, the first years discusses what happened to Sukuna’s last finger.
Nobara asks Yuji what happened to the last finger. He tells her that he tossed it, jokingly obliviously. Fushiguro then says come on and Yuji tells him not to worry because it isn’t harmful anymore.
The next panel is from Yuji’s pov with him staring at his left hand. The hand where he lost his pinky and ring finger. He then tells Fushiguro that “it’s okay.” To me this shows that Yuji had already taken care of Sukuna’s finger back when he was in Sendai.
~What does this suggest about them?
By the end of the manga, the first years have now all tied up their loose ends with their families. Timeline wise, first it was Yuji, Nobara then Megumi.
It’s also good to note that Yuji’s grandfather was the reincarnated soul of Sukuna’s twin, not Yuji’s dad. Knowing that in the JJK verse twins are connected, Sukuna’s death means that both Yuji’s grandfather and Sukuna souls can move on. Therefore, when Yuji took care his inheritance regarding his grandpa’s house he had to make sure he took care of Sukuna’s last finger.
The final panel of ch. 271 (I already added the image above) shows that the thermometer box is left slightly cracked, with Sukuna’s finger wrapped without a protection seal in an open box. This is the perfect way to symbolize that Sukuna is no longer a threat. The finger is harmless and the start of a new era has begun.
The first years are now ready to move forward together, with the strong and intelligent allies they make along the way.
If you made it this far thanks for reading!