Sukuna Ryomen 《New Vessel.》

Main info: 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 main antagonist of the Jujutsu Kaisen series. He was history's strongest jujutsu sorcerer, regarded as the undisputed King of Curses (呪のろいの王おう Noroi no Ō?). According to legend, Sukuna was an Imaginary Demon (仮か想そうの鬼き神じん Kasō no Kijin?) born over a thousand years ago during the Heian Era, the Golden Age of Jujutsu. In truth, he was an undefeated human sorcerer also known as the Disgraced One (堕だ天てん Daten?), having felled countless other sorcerers that challenged him. After accepting a proposal from Kenjaku to participate in the Culling Game, Sukuna continued existing after death by transforming himself into a cursed object, remaining in a state in which his cursed energy and soul was split into his twenty indestructible fingers. Sukuna was incarnated in June 2018 when Yuji Itadori consumed one of his fingers. He was trapped inside Yuji's body and was rarely in control until he managed to transfer his soul into Megumi Fushiguro's body.

Personality: Sukuna is egocentric, hedonistic, psychopathic, exceptionally sadistic and selfish. Mass murder, suffering, and the screams of his victims are what the King of Curses relishes; this is best shown when he was reincarnated shortly after Yuji ingested his finger, after which 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. In fact, he frequently taunts and insults Yuji, calling him a brat and even laughing at or enjoying Yuji's despair on multiple occasions. Outwardly, Sukuna claims to have no dreams, goals, or aspirations to work towards, while the jujutsu sorcerers fighting him do and grow stronger because of it. However, on one occasion, Sukuna has alluded to feelings of resentment from his upbringing. Sukuna is an immense glutton, not only for actual food and human flesh, but for fighting and bloodshed. Because of this, he tends to draw out his fights with strong opponents even if it would be wise to finish up his fights quickly. Sukuna is aware of his immense power and is 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. While in possession of Fushiguro's body, he fooled Hana Kurusu into lowering her guard by pretending his influence was removed from the boy. He has also displayed the ability to acknowledge and praise his opponents on multiple occasions. Primarily seen before his killing of Jogo, Sukuna acknowledged his strength despite having completely overpowered him and told Jogo that he should be proud. In rare cases, Sukuna is capable of forming non-combative relationships, as he had taken in a young Uraume initially to have the child cool his food chilled and cook for him, and eventually to be his subordinate. While he is observative when it comes to jujutsu, he's displayed a lack of interest in the modern world's technologies and foods, glancing at Nanako Hasaba's smart phone used for her technique and refers to it as a phone with a camera, showing that he doesn't pay attention to the modern age aside from jujutsu. 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. Sukuna's perception of life adheres strongly to social darwinism. It is repeatedly stated that Sukuna has a myopic view on love and does not fully comprehend the value of relationships. Though he claims to understand love, Sukuna considers it worthless and abhors the idea of needing another individual to satisfy him. According to the King of Curses, responding in kind to the multitude of sorcerers who sharpened their skills and rose to kill him is his way of connection.[16] Stemming from this mindset, Sukuna is enraged by anyone pitying him or offering him mercy, as he bases his identity on being the strongest and views such acts as considering him weak. However Sukuna's perception of life is rooted in some hypocrisy, as he was willing to further demoralize Fushiguro's faltering will in an openly desperate attempt to live. Yuji's existence affects Sukuna in a way he can't ignore, no matter his efforts. Due to the nature of his initial incarnation within Yuji, Sukuna is unable to disregard how Yuji himself challenges his worldview by being Sukuna's opposite and invalidating his views. Furthermore, this fills Sukuna with a hatred that he can't describe, unlike anything he has ever felt. His constant belittlement of Yuji and refusal to consider him a threat in spite of knowing that Yuji is the grandson of Sukuna's reincarnated twin brother exemplifies this. This is compounded when Yuji offers Sukuna one last chance to surrender out of mercy and Sukuna is enraged by the pity Yuji shows him. Even on the verge of death, Sukuna could only bring himself to compliment Yuji's attempts at leveling with him as a long standing farce, refusing to accept mercy. Despite his immense arrogance Sukuna had while alive, in death Sukuna is capable of introspection. In the passageway for souls in circulation, Sukuna did not deny Mahito's accusations of lying to himself about his own nature of wanting revenge against those who scorned him in the past. Sukuna even confessed that had he not feared immolation from his own curse, he would have been able to go down less destructive paths. He even appeared to be open to changing his ways should he reincarnate and accepted his loss.

Overall Skill Level: 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 both the Sun, Moon, and Stars Squad and the Five Empty Generals, the most elite of the Fujiwara Clan's forces, leaving the authorities of Japan so utterly terrified that they were willing to hold festivities in his honor.[25][26] 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". 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.

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 Tokyo 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 four fingers, Sukuna demonstrated an overwhelming superiority in power compared to Mahito by being able to resist his Idle Transfiguration completely and effortlessly inflict 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.

Once Yuji had consumed 16 fingers, Sukuna's overwhelming cursed energy was felt throughout Shibuya when he was awakened, comparable to Gojo's while being overwhelmingly more sinister. With 80% 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 Clan with Limitless and the Six Eyes had ever accomplished.

Incarnation (受じゅ肉にく Juniku?): 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 developed the knowledge to split his soul as cursed objects after experiencing it once from Kenjaku, which he demonstrated by transforming Yuji's pinky finger into a cursed object and then force-feeding Megumi with it to possess his body.

Metamorphosis: Sukuna can create new eyes and mouths on his vessel, allowing him to see and speak without controlling the body of the host. He typically uses this ability to make a single eye and fanged mouth on Yuji's left cheek to belittle and taunt him.

Great Tactical Intellect: Despite his outwardly brutish mannerisms and sadism, 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 can create 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 ability. 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 was in control of his body and thus when she hugged him he was able to critically injure her. When pushed into desperate situations, Sukuna has demonstrated the intellectual capacity to remain levelheaded and formulate strategies to counter his opponents. After Mahoraga was destroyed and he was severely injured by Hollow Purple, Sukuna made a binding vow that allowed him to bypass the world-cutting slash's conditions and unleash it, killing Gojo when the latter least expected it. Even when he lost two left hands and suffered seven consecutive Black Flashes from Yuji, which disrupted his connection with Megumi's soul and lowered his cursed energy output and physical control, Sukuna regained his ability to expand his domain without lowering its output or difficulty by improvising several binding vows that included uncertain conditions, instantly turning the tides of the battle by removing all the sorcerers except Yuji from the battlefield

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Appearance: After incarnating in Megumi Fushiguro, he took his appearance but had his black spiked hair pushed upfront as well. Similar to Yuji, a second pair of eyes grew underneath his normal eyes and his tattoos manifested on Megumi's body. He wore a black haori with a white kimono and black undershirt underneath tied together with a black belt, white pants, and black sandals.

The day Megumi fought with Sukuna, the King of Curses sensed not only the potential of the Ten Shadows Technique, but Megumi's potential to suppress him as well. Sukuna's plans for Megumi have been to take his body in order to obtain the Ten Shadows Technique. He could have made him swallow a finger earlier, but it would've been an issue if Megumi turned out to be a cage-like Yuji instead of a proper vessel. In order to fully ensure control over Megumi's body, Sukuna waited until the right moment, the moment his soul was crushed. Yuji desperately calls for Megumi as he bleeds from his missing finger. However, Megumi has been suppressed, and it's Sukuna looking across from his former vessel. Sukuna blitzes Yuji with extreme speed and strikes with a blow so hard that it sends his former cage crashing through an entire building. As Yuji is sent flying and crashes across a rooftop, Maki and Takaba notice the disturbance. As they rush toward the scene, Sukuna comments that insects always come crawling out of the woodwork, no matter what age it is. He uses the Ten Shadows Technique to summon Nue, but his version of the shikigami is much larger and imposing than Megumi's. Nue sends down several bolts of electricity to the ground that surprise Maki and Takaba. Shortly after deploying his attack, Sukuna is suddenly attacked from behind by several beams of light. Hana is the one ambushing him with blasts of light, making it too bright to see while burning his body. Sukuna quickly realizes that the Angel likely helped Hana regain consciousness so quickly. Hana doesn't want to hurt Megumi, but the Angel expresses that they must take the risk to eliminate the Disgraced One before he achieves a stronger hold over the body. Channeling the Angel's strength, Hana uses an extension technique to hit Sukuna with maximum cursed energy output: Jacob's Ladder. This conjures a giant cylinder of light down from the sky that strikes Sukuna. Hana expresses her desire to be with Megumi and repeatedly demands Sukuna give him back. Sukuna survives the blast but is visibly injured from the technique. It initially appears as if the impact allowed Megumi to regain control of his body. He claims to remember Hana and motions for her to embrace him. Hana desperately clings to Megumi despite the Angel repeating several times not to. Just as they embrace, Sukuna's head grows into a monstrous shape, poised to tear the girl to shreds.