For assassins, taking out your target in one quick blow is often what's desired, but for these two it's a given. Despite not possessing the respective abilities of their worlds, both of these demonic fighters are among the most feared. What happens when an unstoppable force meets another unstoppable force?
The Minuano
Jetstream Sam
Vs
The One Who Left It All Behind
Toji Fushiguro
I would like to make it clear that this blog was made exclusively by John, and that I uploaded it here for him because he could not do so himself.
Jetstream Sam
“Now I see, you deny your weapon its purpose. It yearns to bathe in the blood of your enemies… but you hold it back!”
Background
Samuel Rodriguez was born in Brazil to a father who owned a Brazilian Kenjutsu Dojo. After inheriting the sword Muramasa from him, his father was killed by a former pupil with ties to the drug cartels. Sam trained for years, eventually killing the pupil and leaving Brazil to travel the world as a mercenary. Sam quickly made a name for himself, one famous example of his exploits is the time he took down 10 mobsters with nothing but his sword. After upgrading his sword to a high frequency blade, Sam learned of Senator Armstrong’s involvement with World Marshal, deciding to raid the HQ and kill Armstrong. After fighting Armstrong on the rooftop, Sam was left on the ground with his arm severed. Sam was then recruited by Armstrong, having his arm replaced with a cybernetic one. Sam became a member of the Winds of Destruction going by the name “Jetstream Sam”, hoping to someday find someone strong enough to take down Armstrong. Sam eventually found Raiden, monitoring his growth and having a final showdown with him in the badlands of Colorado, ending in his death. Sam’s sword was passed on to Raiden, being the ultimate key in defeating Armstrong for good.
Equipment
Exosuit:
While not having cybernetic enhancements of his own, Sam wears a cybernetic suit to protect his body. In combination with his metallic arm, Sam is even able to catch High Frequency Blades and fight against cyborgs with his bare hands.
High Frequency Muramasa Blade:
Sam’s main weapon is a sword passed down through generations of the Rodrigez family. It has been given the high frequency upgrade, heavily enhancing the cutting power of the sword. Unlike many other HF weapons, Sam’s sword will cut normally even with the HF effect nullified.
Durability Negation and Quantum Manipulation: High frequency weapons are strengthened by an alternating current, vibrating at a frequency that causes quantum decoherence at the planck scale, effectively allowing them to cut through any material by severing the bonds between the target’s atoms.
Heat Manipulation: HF weapons are commonly seen creating burn marks on those they cut, even on Metal Gears designed to survive nuclear wars. This is also seen in Sam’s first encounter with Raiden when he lights his sword on fire.
Charged Sheath: Muramasa is kept in a sheathe with a trigger on it that allows Sam to QuickDraw much faster. He can also charge up these slashes to increase their power.
Vacuum Slashes: After charging up his attack, Sam is able to release multiple slashes in the air at once, either next to his normal sword or as a projectile.
Jam Grenade and Red Phosphorus Grenade:
These grenades emit a cloud of smoke over a large radius that jams the sensors of machines like cameras and infrared trackers. Sam can carry about 5 of each.
Electromagnetic Grenade:
These grenades emit electromagnetic energy over a wide area to short-circuit electrical devices and temporarily stun cyborgs (cyborgs in Metal Gear temporarily shut off when hit by these to avoid permanent damage). Sam can carry up to 5 of these.
Missile Launchers:
This weapon fires heat seeking missiles that home in on targets. Sam can fire about 5 missiles.
Repair Nanopaste:
These items are able to heal nearly fatal wounds to cyborgs, Sam can hold up to 5 of these.
Electrolyte Pack:
These items can fully restore Sam’s fuel cell gauge, he can hold up to… well you get the point.
Abilities
Parrying: Sam’s fighting style revolves around parrying attacks, with perfect parrys giving Sam an opening to use Blade Mode. Sam can even parry large attacks from Metal Gear Raymond.
Blade Mode: Blade Mode is an ability that massively slows down Sam’s perception of time while letting him swing his sword several times in an instant. Normally blade mode slows the world to 50% of its normal speed, but if he pulls off a perfect parry or lands a critical hit, Sam can enter a super speed Blade Mode that slows it down to 10%. Although a dangerous tool, it heavily consumes Sam’s fuel cell gauge.
Scanning: Sam is able to see the weak points on enemies, as well as where their fuel cells are located.
Zandatsu: Sam’s sword is able to absorb electrolytes and refill his fuel cell gauge. After locating fuel cells in enemy cyborgs, Sam rips them out and crushes them against his sword to absorb their electrolytes.
Double Jump: Like all Brazilians, Sam is capable of performing an extra jump in the air.
Taunting: One of Sam’s common tactics is taunting his opponent to make them more aggressive. This heavily increases their strength while making their attacks easier to avoid. Sam’s taunts even work on emotionless machines like Bladewolf and Metal Gear Raymond.
Resistances
Heat: Can survive Metal Gear RAY’s plasma and Armstrong’s flames capable of blowing up Metal Gear Excelsus.
Feats
Strength:
Able to slice straight through Metal Gear RAY and parry attacks from it. These metal gears have armor designed to survive nuclear wars.
Able to fight against and take attacks from Senator Armstrong, who's capable of blowing up Metal Gear Excelsus with a punch (182.486 Kilotons, Large Town Level).
Armstrong is also capable of punching the ground so hard that pillars of magma burst up (486.862 Megatons - 8.277 Gigatons of TNT, Mountain - Island Level). Raiden is capable of surviving nanomachine enhanced punches from Armstrong in base, Ripper Mode is a 10x increase (82.77 Gigatons of TNT, Island Level).
Can briefly hold Raiden’s sword in a tug of war against him. Raiden has been shown capable of throwing around Metal Gears like RAY and EXCELSUS. He was also capable of ripping EXCELSUS’ giant sword off its body and cutting it to pieces (6.219 Kilotons, Town Level).
Raiden was also capable of holding back Outer Heaven (156.78 Tons of TNT, Multi-City Block Level).
Able to harm Ripper Mode Raiden with his punches and kicks, Raiden is able to survive Monsoon throwing tanks and helicopters at him while in Blade Mode (65.875 - 112.536 Megatons of TNT, City Level - Mountain Level).
Speed:
Is able to easily deflect multiple bullets at once with his sword.
Can block several strikes from Armstrong, and with his charged slash could outpace his nanomachines.
Toyed with Raiden at the beginning of the game, moments prior Raiden was able to jump across Metal Gear RAY’s missiles (Mach 7884.9, MHS+).
Raiden was also capable of dodging a railgun (Mach 229.46, MHS).
In super speed Blade Mode, Raiden sees the rain as frozen and can slice several times in the midst of it (0.026c, Sub-Relativistic).
Raiden scales above Solid Snake, who in his first game was able to dodge infrared lasers (0.19c, Relativistic) and punch in tandem with them (1.3723c, FTL). Sam is capable of moving normally in Raiden’s normal blade mode which is a 2x multiplier (2.7446c, FTL).
Sam’s normal Blade Mode is a 2x multiplier (5.4892c, FTL) and super speed Blade Mode is a 10x multiplier (27.446c, FTL+).
In game, Armstrong is capable of catching Raiden’s strike in super speed Blade Mode, however, Sam’s QuickDraw blitzes Armstrong’s punch and outpaces his nanomachines.
Intelligence/Skill:
Is possibly the most skilled member of the Winds of Destruction despite not having cybernetic enhancements, in his past being able to take down 10 mobsters with nothing but his sword.
Was able to raid World Marshal HQ on his own, taking down many cyborgs and holding his own against Senator Armstrong in a fight. Armstrong is a trained navy seal and was much physically stronger than Sam.
Noticed a weakness in Armstrong’s nanomachines and found a way to exploit this.
Was able to figure out Raiden’s personality and skill from a couple sword strikes and deduce what he's lacking in his fighting style.
Bullied Raiden at the start of the game, easily chopping his eye out and his arm off. Raiden is a human weapon trained since birth who right before fighting Sam was capable of deflecting several bullets from multiple angles while running at top speed.
Raiden was trained as an agent of FOXHOUND, a special ops unit stated to be the best of the best and possess various skills such as airborne and underwater combat, survival ops, and infiltration missions.
Raiden could hold his own against Vamp, a skilled fighter who can read his opponents moves via subtle muscle movements. Vamp also knows fighting styles more advanced by half a century with nearly infinite applications.
Held his own against Raiden using his bare hands while Raiden used a HF blade.
Endurance/Durability:
Raided World Marshal HQ, starting from the sewers and going through the building floor by floor taking down dozens of enemies on each one and multiple bosses including Bladewolf and Metal Gear RAY. Eventually made it to the roof where he fought against Armstrong, nearly defeating him before being caught off guard by him using his severed arm as a spike to stab through Sam’s shoulder. Was still able to remain conscious and laugh after all of this.
Continued fighting after taking multiple nanomachine enhanced punches from Armstrong.
Weaknesses
Although taunting lowers his opponent’s skill, it also raises their strength.
His lack of cybernetic enhancements means that wounds are more fatal for him and he can feel pain.
He can sometimes be cocky, as seen when he chopped Armstrong’s arm off and thought the fight would end there, only for Armstrong to use his severed arm as a spike and stab Sam through the shoulder.
Toji Fushiguro
“But you guys, with all your blessings, lost to a monkey like me
who can't even use jujutsu. If you wanna survive, remember that.”
Background
Toji was born into the Zenin clan with a heavenly restriction that removed all cursed energy from his body in exchange for extreme physical prowess. Toji was abused by the Zenin clan for not possessing Jujutsu, gaining a scar on his mouth. Toji left the Zenin clan and worked as a notorious assassin known as the Sorcerer Killer, until he eventually settled down with Megumi Fushiguro’s mother, taking her last name. After his wife’s death, Toji sold his children off to the Zenin clan and returned to his work, taking on the job of assassinating the Star Plasma Vessel. After tiring out Satoru Gojo, who was guarding the Star Plasma Vessel, Toji snuck into Jujutsu Headquarters and seemingly killed Gojo alongside the Star Plasma Vessel. What he didn't know was that Gojo awakened to the true essence of cursed energy, confronting Toji. With the strongest sorcerer of the modern era before him, Toji fought Gojo out of pride to prove himself against the Jujutsu world that shunned him. With his newly unlocked Hollow Purple, Gojo completely obliterated a large chunk of Toji’s body, killing him. The last thing Toji remembered before dying was his wife and child, informing Gojo with his last words that Megumi was to be sold off to the Zenin clan. Toji, free from the fate of cursed energy, left an immense impact on the world of Jujutsu, sparking a chain of events that would lead to Geto’s downfall, Kenjaku’s rise, and a new Golden Age of Jujutsu. In the modern day, Toji was revived by Granny Ogami’s cursed technique, taking control of her grandson’s soul due to his special body and going on a rampage in Shibuya. After he discovers that he was fighting his son, Megumi Fushiguro, he tells him he's glad his last name isn't Zenin before ending his own life.
Equipment
Inventory Curse:
Toji’s main method of storing cursed tools is a cursed spirit he keeps in his stomach and regurgitates, this method hides the spirit’s cursed energy and allows him to remain invisible.
Pocket Dimension:
The cursed spirit has an infinite pocket dimension within itself, allowing Toji to store a large amount of tools and the curse’s own body to fit within Toji’s stomach.
Resistance to Absorption:
The curse is too closely bonded to Toji to be absorbed by Geto’s Cursed Spirit Manipulation.
Non Cursed Tools:
Toji carries normal weapons in his Inventory Curse too, including katanas, knives, and pistols.
Fly Heads:
Toji keeps low level cursed spirits inside his curse to release like a chaff grenade and distract sorcerers with their cursed energy signature.
Inverted Spear of Heaven:
One of Toji’s main weapons, it's a small oddly shaped blade with a ring at the end that allows him to attach it to chains.
Power Nullification: The spear is able to forcefully deactivate cursed techniques upon contact, allowing him to lessen the output of Gojo’s Red blast and even strike through Infinity.
Chain of a Thousand Miles:
This chain can extend infinitely and long as one end of it remains hidden, likely within the Inventory Curse. Toji often uses it in conjunction with the Inverted Spear of Heaven.
Playful Cloud:
Playful Cloud is a staff with two other staffs attached to the end of it via chains. It doesn't have a technique imbued into it, instead delivering powerful blows enhanced by the user’s own strength. Toji was able to sharpen it by banging it against itself and turn it into a piercing weapon.
Soul Split Katana:
Another one of Toji’s main weapons, it's a katana that was later replicated to be used by Maki Zenin.
Durability Negation and Soul Cutting: When used by someone with a special pair of eyes, the katana can be used to ignore conventional durability and attack the soul directly.
Abilities
Heavenly Restriction: Toji was born with a Heavenly Restriction that removes all cursed energy from his body, substituting it with enhanced physical strength. This heavily increases his agility and physical strength, allowing him to remain undetected by some characters due to sheer speed. His lack of cursed energy also works to his advantage when battling sorcerers who rely on detecting cursed energy, allowing him to easily sneak up on them and bypass barriers that rely on trapping targets with cursed energy, being treated like an inanimate object by domains.
Awakened Senses: All five of Toji’s senses are heavily enhanced by his Heavenly Restriction, allowing him to see Cursed Spirits. On top of this, Toji is able to see and feel the air around him, detecting changes in temperature and air pressure and using it as a sort of precognition. This ability lets Maki dodge attacks midair from a character that previously blitzed her. This precog was also capable of sensing Sukuna’s undetectable slashes, including his Space Cutting Dismantle that Gojo’s Six Eyes couldn't detect. Toji’s eyes can also see the souls of even inanimate objects, allowing him to attack the soul with the Soul Split Katana.
Enhanced Healing: Toji’s body recovers from injury faster, as seen with Maki who was able to recover from Naoya’s attack quicker than an average human and even from Sukuna’s black flash. The damage received from Naoya was said to be internal damage, Maki could heal from it in less than 3 minutes.
Air Jumping: Maki was somehow able to use the air itself as footing while fighting Sukuna. Could be part Brazilian.
Resistances
Curses and Disease Manipulation: Toji’s body possesses a resistance to curses, cursed energy causes non sorcerers to become ill and pass out. This also makes his body naturally more resistant to cursed techniques, although not completely immune.
Extrasensory Perception: Outside of possessing no cursed energy, Gojo was unable to detect him with the Six Eyes despite them allowing him to see matter at an atomic level.
Mind Manipulation, Soul Manipulation, and Possession: Toji’s body is special, when it was summoned without a soul his body was able to dominate the soul trying to use it, causing Toji himself to be reborn and go on a rampage.
Fire: Maki was much less injured by Jogo’s flames than Naobito, a character stronger than her. This was due to her Heavenly Restriction as stated by Yuki.
Paralysis and Telekinesis: Maki was able to break out of Ranta’s paralysis cursed technique.
Electricity: Maki was unscathed by Nue’s lightning.
Possibly Fate Manipulation: Was said to be free of the fate of cursed energy, shattering the destinies of Gojo, Tengen, and Kenjaku.
Feats
Strength:
While rusty, easily took down Teen Gojo and Geto.
In Shibuya, was able to easily dispatch Dagon and could have killed Megumi at any moment.
Scales above Disaster Curses like Dagon and Hanami, the latter of which was able to raise a tree from the ground (6.67 Tons of TNT, Large Building Level+).
The Zenin clan existed on his whim, this is seen when a Maki weaker than Toji massacred the entire clan. One of the Zenin clan members she took down was Chojuro who can manipulate the ground to make massive arms (3.45 Tons of TNT, Large Building Level).
When Maki became equal to Toji, she was able to toy around with Curse Naoya.
Maki was able to contend physically with 16 Finger Sukuna. Although the output of his technique was lowered, his physical stats remained unchanged. Jogo, who was considered to be worth around 8-9 Sukuna fingers, could make a meteor capable of turning Shibuya to ash (79.5 Megatons of TNT, City Level+).
Maki was put alongside Yuta as a heavy hitter. Yuta was capable of blocking Granite Blast with his bare hand (290.4 Tons of TNT, Multi-City Block Level).
Should scale to Kenjaku due to Yuta being able to oneshot him (albeit he was a bit exhausted). Kenjaku was capable of surviving Yuki’s initial black hole before he had to use Antigravity (676.211 Megatons of TNT, Mountain Level).
Sukuna was more interested in Maki than other sorcerers like Kashimo, Higuruma, and Yuta due to her Heavenly Restriction.
Speed:
Is able to blitz semi grade 1 sorcerers like Ino.
Was able to move fast enough to not get caught up in Gojo’s blue.
Can run on water through sheer speed.
Megumi stated he was at least as fast as 3 Finger Sukuna.
Scales to Maki who was able to easily dodge Curse Naoya, a cursed spirit that took Projection Sorcery beyond human limit. Using Projection Sorcery, Naobito Zenin became the second fastest sorcerer of the modern era only behind Satoru Gojo. On top of this, the Zenin clan existed on Toji’s whim, suggesting that Toji could at least somewhat keep up with Naobito in speed. This would allow Toji to scale above almost every modern sorcerer pre Shibuya.
Curse Naoya was also capable of blitzing Noritoshi Kamo (Mach 54.9, High Hypersonic+).
Scales above pre awakened Maki who was able to catch a bullet (Mach 19.59, Hypersonic+).
Maki was put around Hakari’s level, Hakari was able to land several blows on Uraume who could block Choso’s Piercing Blood (Mach 2.593, Supersonic+).
Scales above many characters capable of using Black Flash like Nobara, Todo, Mahito, ect. Black Flash is a phenomenon where cursed energy is applied within a microsecond (Mach 932.9, MHS).
Scales above Hakari who could dodge Kashimo’s lightning (Mach 11 - 4760.1, MHS+).
Maki is shown to be relative in speed to current black flash amped Sukuna, who you can argue is superior to the version of Megkuna on the verge of death. This version of Sukuna was able to dodge Kashimo’s electromagnetic waves (5.323 - 7.4c, FTL).
Skill:
Toji made a plan to put a bounty with a time limit on the Star Plasma Vessel, giving her guards a false sense of security and a goalpost so that they would let their guard down when he striked.
While rusty, was able to defeat Teen Gojo and Geto while deflecting attacks from multiple angles from innate domains.
His attacks are hard to read even from Gojo who can see matter at an atomic level.
Was able to defeat Dagon within his domain while deflecting and catching attacks that “don't exist until they hit the target”.
In the anime, was able to poke rubble in the air to hit all of Megumi’s rabbits.
The Zenin clan existed on his whim, a Maki less experienced than Toji was able to dispatch the entire clan at once and predict attacks from Naoya who was faster than her, this was before she gained precog.
Endurance/Durability:
His body consumes no cursed energy.
Was able to survive Gojo’s red.
Maki, while weaker than Toji, could survive attacks from Curse Naoya and remain conscious with internal organ damage.
Maki was also completely unharmed by Nue’s lightning strikes (69 Megatons of TNT, City Level).
Maki could take cleaves to the face from Sukuna as well as multiple black flashes. Although multipliers for black flash are dubious, they should be at least around 2.5x stronger than a normal punch. After his first black flash, Sukuna would likely be around Jogo’s level due to fighting current Yuji, which means the second black flash he lands on Maki would be around 198.75 Megatons of TNT (Mountain Level).
Died standing up.
Weaknesses
(Art by @drugsandsocks_ on Twitter)
His lack of cursed energy, while usually a strength, can sometimes be a detriment. For example, if he were to be trapped within a domain, he has no countermeasures to sure hit attacks outside of his own physical toughness.
Has not completely abandoned his pride. Despite his gut instinct, when faced with the strongest sorcerer of the modern era he betrayed his true self and fought when he had nothing to gain from it.
Needs cash now. 🗣️🔥
The Fight
Sam Advantages
About 1.4x stronger, possibly 1,041x stronger using high ends.
Using high ends for both, he'd be around 12x stronger.
4x faster in super speed Blade Mode, as well as with QuickDraw.
Far more skilled up close.
Toji is susceptible to the HF blade.
Sam’s taunts could weaken Toji’s precog.
Inverted Spear of Heaven is useless.
Toji Advantages
Toji’s durability could be 2x greater than Sam’s strength.
Using high ends for Toji, he'd be about 6x stronger
3x faster than Sam’s base
Better stamina.
Sam has no defense against the Soul Split Katana.
Sam’s weapons targeting technology will have no effect on Toji or his equipment.
Precog will let him dodge most of Sam’s attacks, especially vacuum slashes.
Can double jump more.
The Verdict
Finally got this ready after a couple months of slacking lmao. Anyway uhhhh this match is somehow even more of a headache than I expected, sadly for me. Might as well rip the bandaid off tho, to start, let's go over…
Strength: I'm gonna go a bit more in depth here than I did with Boros vs Battle Beast, mainly due to how much more there is to talk about here. To start, using their generally accepted feats Sam would have an advantage, with him being able to scale to Monsoon who can throw APCs while rain appears frozen, the kinetic energy of that creating force more than double our strongest nukes. Toji definitely isn't falling behind that though, with Jogo’s Maximum Meteor being capable of vaporizing Shibuya. The difference is close to nothing with Sam having a minor advantage. However, things get weird when we go a bit deeper into their scaling. I'll use this section to go over my personal opinions on scaling for both series and include some stuff for speed too because that'll be important later.
2.5x Multiplier for Black Flash?: Many of you likely know that black flash is stated to multiply the user's attack to the power of 2.5, however I feel this is kinda weird to use. For one, Gege themself seems to think it doesn't really make sense, and characters have survived black flashes from other characters that can hurt them with normal punches. If the difference was that great, either their normal punches would do nothing or their black flash would splatter them. Either way, I think the 2.5x multiplier is fair to use given that Gege only said it was to the power of 2.5 so that it'd seem more impressive than multiplying it. Given this, black flash being at least a 2.5x multiplier isn't too far fetched imo, in fact it's likely far greater than that. This can likely be applied to the current version of Sukuna amped by his black flash, this version of Sukuna being on par with current Yuji who should scale to Jogo’s Maximum Meteor. I personally wouldn't apply this multiplier to the next feat I'm about to bring up, at least on Toji’s end, mainly due to the fact that it's much harder to prove the current Sukuna being on par with a version of Sukuna that scales above Kenjaku like 16F Sukuna.
Kenjaku Surviving a Black Hole?: This is a feat I've seen thrown around recently, and from what I know it makes sense. First of all, it's very explicitly a real black hole and Kenjaku seems to only activate his Antigravity technique after it grows beyond this initial stage that gets around mountain level. Having said that, I'm definitely not a good judge on black hole feats in general, so definitely take this feat with a grain of salt. But does Toji scale to Kenjaku? Although you can argue Kenjaku being stronger, I believe most characters partaking in the Shinjuku Showdown should scale to Yuki who can punch clean through Kenny’s arm. This is mainly due to the fact that Yuki and Yuta are generally put around the same level, both being special grade after all, and this was Culling Games Yuta who's weaker than the current one after a month long timeskip. If anything, it'd be harder to prove Yuki scales to Yuta than the other way around, and with Maki being called a heavy hitter alongside him and fighting the same Sukuna he is, yeah I think it's pretty safe to put Maki/Toji around the same tier as Kenjaku at least.
Does Toji even scale to current Maki?: This is something that's come up a bit in JJK inverse discussions due to a monthlong timeskip taking place where the current students of Jujutsu high grow heavily, and imo yes he definitely should. First of all, the statement that made Maki equal to Toji in the first place stated that “a demonic fighter equal to Toji Zenin had been fully realized”, with those last words implying that Maki has sorta reached her full potential. Secondly, the training itself would be basically useless to Maki, mainly because it involved the students swapping souls with their teachers so that their bodies would remember using high level manipulation of cursed energy. This would obviously be useless to Maki due to her 1. Not having cursed energy so she can basically learn nothing from the others, and 2. If they tried this with her then the other person’s soul would likely be overwritten, remember what happened when someone else tried to use a Heavenly Restriction user’s body with their soul? Overall any feats that current Maki performs should be applicable to Toji.
FTL JJK?: This is probably one of the most debated feats I've seen in recent memory, with many agreeing with it and many not agreeing, it comes from Sukuna fighting Kashimo’s Mythic Beast Amber form fresh out of his fight with Gojo and supposedly dodging electromagnetic waves. I will say that I'm probably more inclined to agree, due to the fact that arguments like it having force likely don't work due to Kashimo being able to apply cursed energy to the blasts or just arguing it's Gege attempting to draw vaporization. On the other hand, there are other arguments like Kashimo using soundwaves instead, indicated by a moment prior where he uses an attack with the same VFX and Sukuna says “too loud” indicating that it could be soundwaves. However, I don't think this necessarily confirms that they're soundwaves, as it doesn't really make sense for Kashimo to not fight the strongest sorcerer in history with his fastest attack, and from what I could find electromagnetic waves are able to produce sound when interacting with solid objects. I also don't think this is “aim dodging”, the lines on the attack right before Sukuna dodges seem to indicate that the attack is in motion, and this attack seen previously isn't seen needing charge up time, it pretty much fired the instant Kashimo transformed his mouth. And there's also the fact that, if ftl JJK isn't valid, then that means Kashimo blitzes the verse basically (not using this to argue FTL JJK just pushing the Kashimo agenda 🦆). Overall, you're free to believe what you want, but this blog will be taking this feat into consideration. However, aside from the fact that the feat itself is debatable, there's also the question of…
Does Toji even scale to FTL?: Hot take time. Usually when I see this feat brought up, people usually only say Gojo, Sukuna, and Kashigoat scale to it. However, I believe you can definitely argue other characters scaling to it, particularly the mid tiers currently fighting Sukuna. Some people seem to forget that the version of Sukuna that preformed this feat was basically on death’s door after fighting Gojo and taking a giant Hollow Purple nuke. It should be noted that he lost an arm, which heavily reduces a sorcerer’s speed as seen with Naobito. After fully reincarnating, Sukuna was then shown being much faster than before with Kashimo having to try harder against him, and after being amped by a couple black flashes, Sukuna is strong enough now to preform domain expansion when he wasn't able to earlier, this is the version of Sukuna that Maki was shown to be on par with in speed. Imo, most of the JJK mid tiers (particularly characters like Toji/Maki, Yuta, Yuji, ect) should be able to scale to this FTL feat, either that or KasHIMo blitzes the verse (again, not complaining).
Island Level Armstrong?: Senator Armstrong has an attack where it appears he punches the ground so hard that pillars of magma come up through the earth’s crust. There are some arguments against it like him being able to do this on a building in his fight against Sam, but as other blogs have pointed out this attack is very different in appearance from the one he uses against Raiden. In the latter, these pillars of flame look far more liquid like in appearance. While this feat is far above anything in JJK (that characters should reasonably scale to), I do have some doubts about it. Mainly the fact that, well, this attack is never really stated to be Armstrong making magma emerge from below the earth’s crust from what I could find. No databooks or nothing unless there's smth I missed. You could also say that it's just Armstrong’s fire fragmenting the ground and it'd make almost as much sense. Either way I thought I'd include it because there does seem to be evidence backing it up. If you do choose to believe this, Sam should be comfortably oneshotting Toji (not that he couldn't anyway, but shh we'll get to that).
Do the HF Blades actually Dura Neg?: There's been some discussion on this, and while most people agree nowadays that HF blades pretty consistently negate durability, I have actually seen some interesting counter arguments recently, namely this codec entry from Doktor;
"It is a high-frequency blade, Raiden, not a plasma sword. There are limits to what it can cut. The HF waves strengthen the metallic bonds in the blade, improving its cutting ability... But in terms of pure physics, no blade can, erm, cut it in every situation. Theoretically speaking, an HF blade can damage anything, no matter how tough. But thick ceramic or carbon nanotube armor does not simply split open like butter with a hot knife. You need to chip away at it first, before you can "
While this seems like pretty damning evidence, from the discussions I've seen it seems more like the atomic makeup of the objects mentioned matters most, with CNT and Composited Ceramic armor specifically having defenses on the same scale that the HF blade cuts. Even with that being said, Raiden can still eventually cut through these enemies after a couple hits and can even cut through metal gears made of the same material in one go. It seems more like the thickness or atomic makeup of the material is what mainly matters when it comes to whether the HF blade can dura neg or not. With that being said, this mostly doesn't matter as Toji doesn't have resistances like these, I mean he was killed by Gojo’s purple after all (although equating these seems odd, uhhh shut up).
Equipment: After getting past the weird stats for both verses, this is where things get really interesting. Most of Toji’s equipment that relies on fighting sorcerers like the ISOH and flyheads won't really be useful, but on the other hand Sam’s grenades that are useful against cyborgs won't do shit here either. Their other equipment like normal guns or rocket launchers can easily be dodged or deflected. This mainly comes down to the Soul Split Katana vs the High Frequency Muramasa. I will say straight up, whoever gets a good hit off with their respective sword wins. Sam has no real counter to soul manip and Toji definitely doesn't counter quantum manip lmao. Main thing I'm curious about though, what would happen if these blades clashed? Would Muramasa just split SSK apart? Would SSK cut through the soul of Muramasa? (the page shat shows the scan for dura neg does say inanimate objects have souls after all). Honestly, idk, I'm inclined to say mutually assured destruction maybe? I mean idk if there's any way to tell. There's a more important question though, who will land the decisive blow first?
Speed: I believe this match mainly comes down to speed, which just so happens to be the most contentious topic for both. Toji should outspeed Sam’s base speed, not by a huge margin but comfortably. However if Sam is able to go into super speed Blade Mode, while not blitzing, he'd have a comfortable speed edge over Toji that'd let him get the one hit he needs and then some. One problem though, unlike Raiden who has ripper mode, Sam needs to pull off a perfect parry or critical hit to enter this speed. If he's able to pull this off, then he should likely win, but that's a kind of a big if. There's another weird argument though, Armstrong is able to catch Raiden’s sword while in BM/RM, which you can argue means Armstrong scales to 27c. This makes scaling extremely weird and could lead to some sort of infinite upscaling loop, as well as being somewhat inconsistent since Armstrong is later shown to be frozen by Blade Mode. You could argue Armstrong is holding back on most characters due to wanting to recruit them, and you can also argue that Sam’s charge slash blitzing Armstrong and moving at these speeds isn't too inconsistent. However, with the fact that Sam has to charge it up Toji could just aim dodge it. Overall, Sam has higher potential for speed but he'd need to meet certain conditions to pull this off.
Stamina: I’ll keep this slightly brief. While Sam’s physical stamina is decent, he can only use blade mode so many times here before he's out of juice. Usually he has to rely on absorbing electrolytes from other cyborgs which isn't exactly an option here. If Toji can outlast Sam’s fuel cell gauge and electrolyte packs, he basically wins, so could he?
Skill: This category is actually very important, Sam would need the skill necessary to pull off a perfect parry if he wants to win, and he has skill in spades. Looking at their respective skill sections, Metal Gear has far more feats to pull from than JJK, so Sam should easily be able to pull off the perfect parry he needs to win right? Well, there's one problem with that; Toji’s precog. Sam’s HF blade has two properties that make it easier to sense for Toji, its high heat and air slashes, both being things that Toji explicitly senses. With pre awakening Maki being able to dodge and counter characters who are so fast she can barely see them, Toji should be capable of avoiding Sam’s attacks. Even with his superior skill, Toji still might hard counter his main weapon with his precog. However, what if I told you Sam has an unexpected counter to Toji’s precog and makes this fight a bit easier for him.
Sam Winning via… taunting…?: Bet you didn't see this coming, while it's a unique part of Sam’s arsenal that even works on machines for some reason, how would Sam calling Toji a little pussy shut off his precog? Toji’s precog in the first place actually relies on his state of mind, buckle up for my longest yap sesh so far, we're about to go through some events in JJK. When Maki was fighting Curse Naoya, she was getting dominated due to his sheer speed, but that changed when a reincarnated player came and used her katana to cut clean through Curseya. This led her to wondering what he and Toji could see that she couldn't, this was answered when another player challenged her to 1000 sumo matches in his hyperbolic time chamber domain where he explained to her that she was too preoccupied to truly be free, she had been too focused on her own shortcomings to be her true self. It is only after she abandons that mindset and eases her mind that she's able to fight at the same level as Toji, being able to see everything instead of being preoccupied with just what she can't do (this fight was 100% inspired by Vagabond lmao). After awakening, Maki gains access to precog through feeling the air and the ability to use the Soul Split Katana to its fullest extent. Now let's go back to Toji’s second fight with Gojo, where he chooses to fight him over pride and his need to prove his self worth instead of running like he normally would. Toji had lost due to betraying his true self and fighting Gojo to prove he's better than the jujutsu society that rejected him. In short, the mindset of Heavenly Restriction users matters a lot while they're fighting, particularly not acting on pride and being in touch with their true selves. Sam’s taunts would definitely throw a wrench in that, it's seen making opponents far more aggressive and easier to dodge. This is especially bad for Toji who normally acts with caution, he'd be betraying his true self by acting out of aggression. This is something Sam is especially good at picking up on and pointing out, as seen with Raiden. After a brief exchange, Sam was able to pick up on Raiden’s hidden personality, that he held himself back due to fear of who he was. He later taunted Raiden with this again, emotionally challenging him to the point that fodder enemies were able to heavily damage him. It was only after he stopped lying to himself that Raiden was able to defeat Sam. If Sam is able to pick up on and exploit Toji’s shortcomings, that would be disastrous. Not only would he be too preoccupied to use his precog properly, he might not even be able to use the Soul Split Katana, his main wincon in this fight. His predictable patterns could also lead Sam to getting off the perfect parry he needs to cut him to bits in Blade Mode, finishing the fight for good. Now, there is actually one more thing I'd like to tackle with this argument.
Is Sam’s Taunting an actual Hax?: This is kinda weird, while Sam can enrage anyone it does seem more like a game mechanic than an actual hax (although tbf game mechanics like this being canon in Metal Gear isn't too farfetched). Either way, I'll present both options and why neither really changes the outcome.
It isn't a hax and Sam just taunts the opponent: This actually makes the argument more effective surprisingly enough, because like I said he has shown to pick up on personality traits insanely fast and use these to weaken the mental state of his opponent. This also bypasses Toji’s mind manip resistance if it's not an actual hax and just Sam being smart with his mouth.
It is a hax: Well in that case, doesn't Toji just resist mind manip? In theory, yes, but it may not work in this instance. I've brought it up a couple times as kind of a joke, but Sam’s taunts can actually work on emotionless machines like Bladewolf and Metal Gear RAY. This could actually get past the reason Toji resists mind manip in the first place, which is his body functioning without a mind/soul.
Something else though, could Sam actually pull this off? Imo yeah, all he needs is a brief opening or even a moment where they're clashing blades to taunt his opponent, and an opportunity could come if Toji tries to explain his ability. Like cursed techniques, Heavenly Restriction is strengthened by the user explaining how his ability works to his opponent. And while Toji likes to end things quickly, he'd also likely be a bit cautious if he senses Sam’s blade separating matter on an atomic level, like with Gojo where he wore him down instead of rushing straight in due to the uncertainty of whether he could win. Both fighters have a way to solidly secure their win, but while Toji needs to outlast Sam’s fuel cell gauge, Sam just needs a brief exchange and small opening.
Overall: This debate is incredibly close depending on how you decide to scale these characters. In stats both could potentially oneshot each other whether you highball one or lowball the other, and even without that they oneshot with their dura neg swords. Sam has far higher skill, but his main weapon could be countered by Toji’s precog, that coupled with Sam not being able to go into his higher speed at will makes this match kinda tricky. However, Sam’s taunting may actually be one of his main crutches here, as using Toji’s own psychological weaknesses against him and putting him into an uneasy/stressed state of mind could nerf him heavily and potentially counter his precog, maybe even his dura neg. Even without this though, if I had to choose one I may go with Sam regardless due to his quickdraw possibly scaling to those same higher end speeds, without taunting though I will say Toji’s chances of winning become far higher due to stamina. This is prolly one of the closest mus ever with two characters I know well, but in the end, I believe Sam should barely edge out. The winner is…
Jetstream Sam!
