Let’s talk about Toji for a second here.
Let me lay out the actual facts here, because apparently we all need a refresher.
Toji was in Megumi’s life until he died.
Not “until he abandoned him as a baby.” Not “until he got bored and left.”
Until he died.
We literally see Toji’s flashbacks in Hidden Inventory, and Megumi looks about 3-4 years old in them. You know what else happened when Megumi was around that age?
The Star Plasma Vessel mission, the one where Toji died.
So let’s do the math here: if Toji “abandoned” Megumi as a baby, how the fuck does he have memories of what his kid looks like at 3-4? Was he sending himself postcards?
He didn’t leave, he died. There’s a pretty significant difference.
Even his final moments were about baby Megumi.
He just watched Gojo Satoru basically come back from the dead, and in that moment, Toji realized something: maybe there was someone who could take care of Megumi. Someone who wasn’t him, someone stronger than the Zenin he’d made that deal with out of desperation.
Because here’s the thing: everything Toji did was aimed at giving Megumi a better life than he had.
Toji knew exactly what the Zenin clan was like. He lived it and barely survived it. And sure he knew that without cursed energy, Megumi would be chewed up by that family the same way he was—except Megumi did turn out to have the technique.
After Megumi’s mother died, Toji was trying to figure out how to give his son a better childhood. And yeah, his solution involved some morally questionable deals, but the goal was never “abandon my kid and go live my best life.”
It was “find someone who can give him what I can’t.”
The Zenin arrangement was a backup plan, and the second Toji saw someone who might be a better option, someone strong enough to protect Megumi—he changed his mind.
He told Gojo about Megumi because he wanted his son to have a chance.
What was the alternative to selling him off? Raising a kid with possibly a jujutsu technique while being hunted by curse users and having zero support system after his wife died?
The Zenin deal wasn’t him cashing out, it was him trying to ensure Megumi had something, even if that something was a family Toji himself hated.
But sure, let’s call him a deadbeat.
Then we get to Shibuya.
Toji gets brought back as a mindless puppet and he encounters Megumi.
And for a few seconds, his last few seconds—he wakes up. He, who’s supposed to be a puppet with no soul, no thoughts at this point, recognizes his son and his immediate decision is:
To kill himself.
He takes himself out so he won’t have to fight Megumi, so he won’t risk hurting his own kid.
Toji was a guy who got dealt the worst possible hand by his own family, who got treated like shit his entire life for something he couldn’t control, and who still tried, in his own deeply fucked up way, to make sure his son didn’t end up like him. He wasn’t father of the year but he wasn’t some guy who abandoned his infant son for gambling money.
He was a man who loved his son enough to die twice.
Once on a mission trying to secure his future.
And once to keep from hurting him.
