Jujutsu Kaisen has steadily ramped up expectations for its third season, thanks to an artistry-first approach to Gege Akutami’s acclaimed manga. Last week’s episode, “Passion,” set the stage for an intriguing battle of wills between Yuji Itadori and Kinji Hakari, which gets resolved in this week’s satisfying entry, “Cog.”

[Ed. note: This article contains spoilers for Jujutsu Kaisen season 3 episode 6 and the manga’s Tokyo Colony arcs]

MAPPA continues to display an inventive edge with kinetic animation, which manifests during a fun fight involving Kirara Hoshi, who faces off against Megumi Fushiguro and Panda. After Yuji and his allies successfully forge an alliance with Hakari (whose cursed technique functions as an unpredictable wild card) in this episode’s final scene, we meet Hajime Kashimo, one of the most intriguing Culling Game participants.

Every participant in the Culling Game gets a shikigami called Kogane that functions as a liaison between the players and the game itself. After Kashimo defeats an unnamed sorcerer, his Kogane informs him that he has accumulated 200 points so far. So Hajime spends 100 of those points to add Rule 9, allowing players to use their Kogane to view information on each other. This includes the player’s name, number of accumulated points, number of rules added (if any), and assigned colony.

Image: MAPPA/Crunchyroll

Hajime is poised to emerge as a dangerous opponent in the episodes to come, considering that he’s a 400-year-old sorcerer inhabiting a vessel, not unlike Kenjaku. While Hajime only makes a brief appearance in the episode, he makes a point of mentioning Sukuna and expresses eagerness to find the King of Curses. Regardless of his motives, that puts him on a collision course with Yuji.

“Cog” also previews the upcoming “Tokyo Colony No. 1” arc, which spans 13 chapters in the manga (where it’s titled “Tokyo No. 1 Colony, Part X” instead). In the manga chapter dubbed “Colony,” Yuji and Megumi hatch a plan before officially entering the Culling Game on Nov. 12. They also discuss the potential whereabouts of Hana Kurusu/Angel. Hakari goes to Tokyo No. 2 Colony to fight Hajime alongside Panda, while Yuji and Megumi head to Tokyo No. 1 Colony, where a bunch of new players await them. As the duo will inevitably get separated during the tournament, they will have to either rely on themselves or make new allies.

The Culling Game is (finally) about to begin in earnest. The Tokyo Colony fights are some of the most visceral in this ongoing arc, as they lay the foundation for Kenjaku’s grand plan to merge jujutsu society with Master Tengen. Key players like Hanyu, Ren Amai, Haba, and Hiromi Higuruma are also due for an appearance in episode 7 of Jujutsu Kaisen, upping the ante for an already exciting death match that has the power to change the world as we know it.

New episodes of Jujutsu Kaisen season 3 release every Thursday on Crunchyroll.