Ryomen Sukuna

Introduction

Ryomen Sukuna (両りょう面めん宿すく儺な, Ryōmen Sukuna?), more often referred to as simply Sukuna (宿すく儺な, Sukuna?), is the strongest jujutsu sorcerer from a thousand years ago. Regarded as the undisputed King of Curses (呪のろいの王おう, Noroi no Ō?), Sukuna is one of the primary antagonists of the Jujutsu Kaisen series. According to legend, Sukuna was an Imaginary Demon (仮か想そうの鬼き神じん, Kasō no Kijin?) during the Heian Era but in truth he was a sorcerer also known as the Disgraced One (堕だ天てん, Daten?). Jujutsu sorcerers of the Golden Age of Jujutsu gave their all against him but ultimately fell one after another. Sukuna existed throughout the ages by transforming into a cursed object after death, a state where he split his power into twenty indestructible fingers.

Bio

Physical Appearance

His past appearance is described as a demon with four arms and two faces. Previously, he used to take the appearance of his former host: Yuji Itadori, but with pink spiked hair slightly pushed upfront and with tattoos/lines on his forehead, nose, cheeks, upper body, and abdomen. He also has a second pair of eyes underneath his normal eyes, which are usually closed.

Perosnality [1/2]

Sukuna is selfish, cold-hearted, immoral, and exceptionally sadistic. When he was reincarnated shortly after Yuji ingested his finger, he commented, implying the slaughter of women and children and likening them to maggots crawling around. Due to his immense power, he rarely cares about the consequences of his actions, even if these affect his host, Yuji Itadori. In fact, he frequently taunts and insults Yuji, calling him a brat and even laughing at or enjoying Yuji's despair on multiple occasions. Sukuna is aware of his immense power and is quite arrogant about it, brutalizing a finger bearer while being patronizing and proclaiming his superiority over it. For this reason, he is highly dismissive of his opponents and rarely takes them seriously, even explicitly stating he would kill Satoru Gojo to his face. However, these brutish traits are not to be confused for stupidity. Sukuna is highly intelligent and manipulative, taking Yuji's body hostage by tearing out his heart to force him into a Binding Vow. He has also displayed the ability to acknowledge and praise his opponents, as shown by how before killing Jogo Sukuna acknowledged his strength despite having completely overpowered him and told Jogo that he should be proud.

Perosnality [2/2]

Through Sukuna's conversation with Yuji during their fight after possessing Megumi's body, Sukuna espouses that he likens human beings to insects and admits he is unable to comprehend why the weak cling so desperately to life instead of quietly accepting the suffering that life forces them to endure since the weak should have no right to complain. He also claims that he doesn't understand how a creature that falls apart at a touch can say that it always wants to be happy, which expresses his antipathy and disregard of human emotions and their will to live. It also reveals that Sukuna's perception of life adheres strongly to social darwinism. It is also repeatedly stated that Sukuna has a myopic view on love and does not comprehend the value of relationships.

Overall Skill Level [1/3]

Back in the Golden Age of Jujutsu, the Heian Era, Ryomen Sukuna was feared and regarded by awe by all those in his time as the most powerful sorcerer of the time, defeating and killing thousands of Jujutsu sorcerers even as they sharpened their skills against him. One of his feats included single-handedly slaughtering the both the Sun-Moon-Stars and the Five Empty Generals so utterly that they were unrecognizable as corpses, the most elite of the Fujiwara Clan's Subjugation Units, leaving the authorities of Japan so utterly terrified that they were willing to hold festivities in his honor. The impact Sukuna left on history until he died earned him the title of the "Strongest Sorcerer In History", as well as the "King of Curses", regarded as the strongest Cursed Spirit in history. His strength is still held in such a high regard that even Satoru Gojo, the strongest jujutsu sorcerer of the modern age, with arrogance levels of confidence and pride in his abilities, acknowledged his strength and that a fight between the two of them would be difficult. More than living up to his titles, Sukuna possesses vast amounts of cursed energy and equally incredible control over it, with an extraordinary grasp over jujutsu, but he was also not reliant on jujutsu alone, possessing overwhelming physical prowess as well, capable of dispatching almost any opponent without unveiling his true cursed technique.

Overall Skill Level [2/3]

Even at his weakest state upon his incarnation in Yuji's body for most of the time he spent there, due to lacking most of his fingers, Sukuna remained extremely strong, capable of effortlessly dispatching powerful cursed spirits, including the likes of a cursed spirit who had ate his finger, which he easily retrieved from the cursed spirit after completely overpowering it. While purposefully weakening himself by removing Yuji's heart to ensure Yuji could not switch back with him, Sukuna utterly defeated Megumi Fushiguro, the inheritor of the Zenin Clan's prized Ten Shadows Technique and a prodigious genius who started school as a Grade 2 sorcerer with one of the highest potentials in Jujutsu High, to where Megumi admitted how utterly outmatched he was and was more than willing to unveil Mahoraga to defeat him. Sukuna would have killed Megumi had he not been interested in Megumi's unique talents, although before he could fight Megumi's trump card, Yuji managed to regain control of his body. Sought out by Mahito's group under the belief that his revival could ensure their success, with just three fingers, Sukuna demonstrated an overwhelming superiority in power compared to Mahito by being able to resist his Idle Transfiguration completely and effortlessly inflict such a severe injury on Mahito when finally angered too much along with dispelling his Self-Embodiment of Perfection with a single attack. This terrified and intrigued Mahito to where he came to firmly believe that with Sukuna being on such a whole other level, his resurrection would surely bring about the Age of Curses.

Overall Skill Level [3/3]

Once Yuji's body had consumed fifteen fingers, Sukuna's overwhelming cursed energy was felt throughout Shibuya once he was awakened, compared to Satoru's own while being overwhelmingly more sinister. With 75% of his strength restored, Sukuna proved capable of overwhelming Jogo, the most powerful cursed spirit in Mahito's group, in a mostly one-sided battle as he easily overpowered the best efforts of his foe, leaving him utterly unable to even land the single hit that would get Sukuna to join him, before killing him with his own speciality of fire. His last act during the Shibuya Incident was to defeat Mahoraga single-handedly, a feat no user of the Ten Shadows Technique and even a member of the Gojo Family with the Six Eyes had done.

Incarnation

Incarnation (受じゅ肉にく, Juniku?):[3] There is a slim chance that Sukuna will incarnate into whoever eats his fingers, gaining a physical, human body in the process. Upon Yuji consuming the first of his twenty fingers, Sukuna immediately came to possess his body, which he used to inhabit. Unlike other incarnated sorcerers, according to the Angel inhabiting Hana Kurusu, Sukuna, after experiencing death, had developed the knowledge to split his soul as cursed objects, which he demonstrated by imbuing all his cursed energy into Yuji's pinky finger and then force feeding Megumi with it to possess his body.

Master Hand to Hand Combatant

While immensely powerful as a jujutsu sorcerer, Sukuna is also shown to be an extremely skilled and powerful hand-to-hand combatant, using martial arts as his first method of combat before unleashing his jujutsu abilities. Sukuna can unite his cursed technique and his hand-to-hand prowess, making him an extremely difficult opponent to overwhelm in battle. During his fight with Megumi, he was able to effortlessly overwhelm Megumi in unarmed combat, countering his attacks in close-range with ease before delivering a strong punch that send him flying. When Yuji attempted to attack him in his Innate Domain, Sukuna effortlessly countered all of Yuji's attacks before seeing through his attempt to trip him and defeating him with a single kick. With fifteen fingers, Sukuna easily overpowered Jogo with hand-to-hand combat alone before finally killing him with a single use of a cursed technique. He was later capable of fighting on par with both Yuji and Maki Zenin, both being exceptional unarmed fighters with extraordinary physical ability, deflecting most of their blows and landing a few hits on his own, using hand-to-hand combat.

Immense Strength

In his first appearance Sukuna has shown to possess immense physical strength despite being in an incomplete state. He could easily defeat a very large cursed spirit with just a simple swipe, and during his fight against Gojo he was able to punch the roof of the school so hard it causes the building to rupture and crack. He easily overpowered the likes of a finger bearer, a special-grade curse. When gambling Yuji's life against Megumi, Sukuna managed to fling the sorcerer through several building floors without effort and he easily overpowered and destroyed Megumi's shikigami. He even punched Megumi so hard, the raindrops in that area dispersed. With fifteen of his fingers, Sukuna punched Jogo through buildings and even destroyed the latter's jaw. His blows had considerable effect on Mahoraga. Upon taking over Megumi's body, he was able to easily pierce through Yuji's gut and send him flying across the city with a single punch, stunning him temporarily.

Immense Speed

Sukuna has repeatedly displayed overwhelming levels of raw physical speed, capable of effortlessly surprising most opponents with the sheer quickness of his movements. With three fingers, Sukuna easily slammed a finger bearer to the ground and even cut off his arm without him noticing. He was also able to effortlessly blitz Megumi several times, delivering powerful blows with Megumi barely able to react at all. With fifteen fingers, he easily overwhelmed Jogo and was able to keep up with Mahoraga in their fight. Sukuna was even able to appear in the middle of Atsuya Kusakabe and Panda, both capable sorcerers, with the former being a Grade 1 sorcerer.

Immense Reflexes

Sukuna can easily counter any opponent and is fast enough for his opponent to not even realize that their limb has been cut off. He consistently dodged Mahoraga's blows and countered during their fight. He was quickly able to put Mahoraga down for good before he had finished regenerating. He was able to dodge Jogo's Maximum: Meteor.

Immense Durability

Even in Yuji's body, Sukuna can use cursed energy to bolster his host's resilience. Sukuna was punched through five buildings and shown to be completely fine.[4] Sukuna was able to survive a 200% Hollow Technique: Purple during his fight with Satoru Gojo.

Great Tactical Intellect

Sukuna is an extremely intelligent individual. He has fully grasped the nature of cursed techniques, curses and reverse cursed technique as a whole. Due to that, he is able to quickly deduce the inner workings of cursed techniques after only seeing them once or twice and creating suitable foils to such techniques. He did this against Mahoraga in their fight, and was able to defeat the shikigami after gaining an understanding of its technique. Sukuna was also able to realize the potential of Megumi's cursed technique just by seeing it once during their short battle and he was able to create a binding vow with Yuji in order to take Megumi's body patiently waiting for the right moment before executing his plan. During his fight with Hana Kurusu by using Megumi's memories he was able to make Hana think that Megumi is in control of his body and thus when she hugged him he was able to critically injure her.

Metamorphosis

Sukuna can create new eyes and mouths on his host, allowing him to see and speak without controlling the body of the host. For example, he made a single eye and fanged mouth on Yuji's left cheek to belittle and taunt him.

Cursed Energy

Cursed Energy Manipulation

Immeasurable Cursed Energy: Sukuna possesses vast levels of cursed energy due to his innate power, cementing his title as the King of Curses. He was able to continuously use his techniques throughout his battles without exhausting himself in the slightest. His reserves of cursed energy likely is the most transcendent throughout history, far surpassing special grade cursed spirits and sorcerers alike. Yuta Okkotsu, a Special Grade sorcerer who possesses even more cursed energy than Satoru Gojo, states that Sukuna has double the amount of cursed energy that he has or more.[5] Sukuna also has absolute control over his cursed energy, being extremely proficient in both Domain Expansion and Reverse Cursed Technique and capable of performing both flawlessly and repeatedly without issue. Hajime Kashimo, one of the strongest sorcerers from 400 hundred years ago, was astonished by Sukuna's mastery over his cursed energy, displayed by his ability to seamlessly shift between Domain Amplification to his Innate Technique, to where he stated that if not for the Six Eyes, even Satoru Gojo would be no match against Sukuna in utilizing cursed energy.

Binding Vow

Sukuna has an unnamed Binding Vow with Yuji. The King of Curses agreed to revive the boy after his apparent death in during the events of the Fearsome Womb Arc under two conditions: ① Yuji would allow Sukuna to take over his body for one full minute when the cursed spirit would chant "Enchain" and ② he would forget about the agreement. Yuji initially opposed the Binding Vow, making Sukuna promise that he wouldn't kill or hurt anyone during that minute. The boy still disagreed with the terms and instead had a battle against the King of Curses, where he'd allow the agreement to occur if he lost. Sukuna effortlessly defeated Yuji, forcing him into the Binding Vow.

Innate Technique

It is currently unknown what Sukuna's cursed technique is. He was shown to use his cursed energy to perform invisible slashes. Considering his reaction when his attack was deflected by Mahoraga, they are hard to notice in general. Sukuna was also shown to use fire-based powers after chanting "Open" (開フーガ, Fūga?).

Jujutsu

Dismantle (解カイ, Kai?): Sukuna's default ranged slashing attack that is normally used for inanimate objects, however it can also be used against cursed spirits and sorcerers to great effectiveness.[8] Using Mahoraga's second adaptation to Limitless as a model, Sukuna learned to enhance Dismantle by extending its target area to the world itself, transforming them into "slashes that cut the world" (世せ界かいを断たつ斬ざん撃げき, Sekai o Tatsu Zangeki?).[9] Cleave (捌ハチ, Hachi?): A slashing attack that adjusts itself depending on the target's toughness and cursed energy level to cut them down in one fell swoop.[8] Unless used in his domain expansion, Sukuna must make physical contact with the target in order to activate Cleave.[10] Spiderweb (蜘く蛛もの糸いと, Kumo no Ito?): Sukuna can utilize the Cleave technique in the shape of a spider's web by touching the ground. As a variation of Cleave, Spiderweb adjusts itself to the surroundings' toughness, collapsing the ground in one fell swoop.[11] Fire (炎ほのお, Honō?)[10]: Sukuna can create and manipulate flames for long-range attacks by forming an arrow. These abilities exceed Jogo's, an unregistered special-grade curse whose defining trait involves extremely destructive pyrokinetic powers.

Reverse Cursed Technique

Reverse Cursed Technique (反はん転てん術じゅつ式しき, Hanten Jutsushiki?): Sukuna is highly proficient with reverse cursed technique. While incarnated in Yuji's body, he used his reverse cursed technique to instantly heal any injuries, including even regenerating lost limbs within moments. Regained limbs maintain the same integrity as the rest of Sukuna's body. He can go further and even heal others, something few can do. Sukuna can also use reverse cursed technique to heal his burned-out cursed technique by destroying the part of his brain that cursed techniques are engraved in and regenerating it. This displays Sukuna's extremely high level usage of the reverse cursed technique.

Domain Expansion

Malevolent Shrine (伏ふく魔ま御み厨づ子し, Fukuma Mizushi?)[13]: Sukuna's Domain Expansion creates a Buddhist shrine decorated with skulls. Malevolent Shrine has a unique trait; it doesn't create a separate space using a barrier. By allowing an escape route, a binding vow is formed which vastly increases the guaranteed hit's effective area with a maximum radius of nearly 200 meters.

Early Life

Over a thousand years ago, Sukuna was a human sorcerer that had killed many of the sorcerers from the golden age of jujutsu. During Heian period, Sukuna was invited to the Harvest Festival in the capital and worshipped as an idol after annihilating the Northern Fujiwara Family's Five Empty Generals and Sun, Moon, and Stars Squad. During the festival Yorozu embraced him thinking he was lonely, only to be driven away by Uraume. Yorozu then expressed her wish to alleviate his loneliness, only to be slashed by him in disgust. After Sukuna had died, his fingers became cursed objects.

Fearsome Womb Arc [1/3]

One of Sukuna's fingers was kept in an outdoor thermometer box at Sugisawa High School.[1] The school's occult club had taken the finger from the thermometer box and had tried to remove the seal placed on it. Once they had taken the seal of the finger off, other cursed spirits that the finger had drawn in attack the club members. As Yuji Itadori and Megumi Fushiguro came in to save the club members, Yuji eats the finger in order to fight off the cursed spirits.[2] This causes Sukuna to be incarnated into Yuji, which he is excited about.[3] As Sukuna plans to start a massacre, he is stopped by Yuji who reclaims his body, which surprises the cursed spirit that he is able to resist his control so easily.[4] When Megumi plans to kill Yuji to exorcise Sukuna, Satoru Gojo shows up and decides to test out Yuji's will. Sukuna is then given control of Yuji's body and starts to attack Gojo, but Yuji manages to take back control after ten seconds.[5] The next day, another one of Sukuna's finger is shown to Yuji, with Gojo explaining how there are twenty of them and that they cannot be destroyed.[6] Yuji then eats another of Sukuna's fingers and is able to still keep Sukuna under control.[7] Days later when Yuji is brought to the Tokyo College, Sukuna finds out that Gojo is not the leader of the sorcerers and says how he is disappointed. Sukuna also tells Gojo that he will kill Gojo first when he takes over Yuji's body, for not killing Yuji right away. As Gojo says that it's an honor to be targeted by Sukuna, Gojo then explains who Sukuna is to a curious Yuji.

Fearsome Womb Arc [2/3]

During an investigation at a detention center, Sukuna is forcefully given control of Yuji's body to combat a special grade cursed spirit before it kills them. Instead of taking on the spirit, Sukuna decides to fight with the spirit in order to take out Megumi. When the spirit starts to attack Sukuna, Sukuna easily blocks the attacks and easily overwhelms the spirit. Sukuna then decides to teach the spirit a lesson and uses his domain expansion to easily cut the spirit into pieces. Sukuna then takes back his finger, which causes the spirit to die. Sukuna is prepared for Yuji to take back control, telling him to switch already, but when nothing happens, he eerily smiles realizing he can't. Sukuna meets up with Megumi outside of the detention center, and removes Yuji's heart so that Yuji won't be able to switch with him. Sukuna then eats the finger that he had just got from the special grade cursed spirit and plans on killing Megumi.[13] Sukuna and Megumi start to fight, where Sukuna easily defeats some of Megumi's shikigami, though he is impressed by the skill in which he utilizes them. Sukuna manages to push Megumi into a corner, questioning him on why he focused on fleeing, which confuses Megumi. Nonetheless, Megumi decides to fight seriously, which greatly enthuses Sukuna, but before the fight can continue, Yuji regains control from Sukuna, which results in Yuji's death. After Yuji has died, Sukuna and Yuji start to fight one another within Sukuna's territory. Sukuna easily overpowers Yuji and after restraining Yuji, he tells him that they are not dead yet.

Fearsome Womb Arc [3/3]

Sukuna proposes to bring Yuji back to life, with the condition that he will be able to take complete control of his body for a minute, but also swearing he won't harm any of his friends when he does. Yuji rejects and tells him just to revive him, so Sukuna proposes that they fight and the winner get their deal. Yuji accepts, but Sukuna immediately defeats him. Yuji is subsequently revived, aware that Sukuna is responsible, though with no memory of the deal he made with him.

Kyoto Goodwill Arc

The fingers that are at the Tokyo college are collected, along with the Death Painting Wombs 1-3, by Mahito.

Death Painting Arc

After Sukuna was incarnated, the finger at Yasohachi Bridge awakens and starts to kill people. Megumi manages to defeat the spirit that has Sukuna's finger and retrieve it, which Sukuna is glad that Megumi was able to get stronger.[33][34] After Yuji and Nobara Kugisaki reunite with Megumi, Sukuna creates a mouth on Yuji's palm and eats the finger when Megumi gives it to Yuji.[35] Days later, Sukuna taunts Yuji about how his awakening is killing people because he had eaten one of his fingers, which Yuji simply tells Sukuna to not to tell Megumi.