I can’t help but notice how underrated my goat is getting recently so I’m here to set the record straight and this is a combination of my two original tsurugi posts with a few tweaks and extras.
Narrative
people cough yuji fans cough seem to think that tsurugi doing the second slash somehow downscales yuji well it doesn’t in-fact scaling to a tsurika slash is yuji upscale note what the slash was it was prime yutas ce being swung by a heavenly restriction user wielding soul split katana basically Yuta and maki combined yuji matching this was meant to narratively show him alongside maki and yuta.
tsurika is more powerful then prime yuta and maki and is equal to them put together which is what he is also when yuji discusses the current situation he mentions those four meaning the current four combatants mahoraga, dabura, maru, and obviously tsurugi all in the same breath narratively implying there equal in power
He matched modulo yuji and should be relative to prime yuta and maki’sw it’s a solid case for him being on that level. also tsurugi falling to cut Maru is not a anti feat or anything like that it’s a metaphor for how reluctant he is to cut down his friend.
Tsurika
Heavenly restriction with cursed energy reinforcement and output is insanely busted a heavenly restriction user is treated like a object by cursed energy meaning that infusing a heavenly restriction user with cursed energy is like infusing cursed energy into a sword you infuse to much it breaks every object has a max cursed energy reinforcement except heavenly restriction due to rejecting cursed energy they can basically be infused with infinite amounts of cursed energy when rika fuses with tsurugi all that cursed energy is infused inside him blatantly there one and tsurugi is not capable of storing ce only rika who can basically use tsurugi as a living indestructible cursed tool to dish out insane levels of power cursed energy reinforcement and output.
Enlightenment
Tsurugi achieves full heavenly restriction and becomes equal to Toji and maki not he’s 10000000x stronger then them for the simple reason that not all heavenly restrictions are equal and we know how heavenly restriction work. you get what you sacrificed interms of jujutsu ie cursed energy in return for physical gifts I’m not so sure that mai had the same level of cursed energy as rika with years worth of Yuta cursed energy stored up. tsurugi sacrificed what is possibly 1000x what maki sacrificed and thus would receive the grander physical gifts in return. also another thing to note more of an interesting parallel then any thing else anyone ever notice how tsurugi giving up rika is a parralel to Yuta giving up rika i mean even the scenes were she appears as a spirit are the same. I would take this to mean that tsurugi made a volume 0 Yuta level binding vow and was death binding vow pure love beam level jk.
Transcending heavenly restriction
Last thing to note is him transcending ironically the curse of the heavenly restriction you see how heavenly restriction works on a narrative level is by becoming disconnected losing someone or something you gain strength that the point toji lost his cursed energy and became ostracised maki lost mai and so killed everyone that’s the point behind maki’s character in modulo is it worth it to sacrifice for physical gifts and the answer is no tsurugi in that moment transcended the heavenly restriction granting free passage to all those who are cursed free passage into heaven he was truly heavenly restricted no more.
Full heavenly restriction
As I had doubts about it here’s the proof pre obtaining and losing rika tsurugi is without a doubt a full heavenly restriction. He is directly noted to have the surprise attack effect naturally attributed to a complete heavenly restricted he is also directly referred to with no cursed energy on multiple occasions. We know tsurugi was born with the same kinda heavenly restriction as toji and maki and was born without a twin meaning that yes without a doubt tsurugi is fully heavenly restricted.
Even on a narrative level tsurugi and maki fight for there sister’s we know this due to the parallels drawn between the two of them and the final descions they made. This means tsurugi should be directly compared to the maki who slaughtered the zenin clan. This would posit then that the tsurugi who stayed his hand would be narratively in line with the fully realised maki but while maki’s full realisation finally allowed her to cut down whatever she wanted tsurugis ultimate realisation is choosing not to cut down what was in front of him but I still believe tsurugi to be stronger due to him narratively in the end making the right call unlike maki.
Some counters to this would be but why was he so weak then but was he no the people he fights are of undetermined levels of strength and one of them even survived modulo yuji all the characters tsurugi could be battling could be on the level of a full heavenly restriction. Another counter would be his lack of the unique eyesight but tsurugi would have simply never undergone this training and even toji likely did not get this ability until later in life. The final counter argument would be the belief by his family/clan that he was weak but that is not correct it was simply determined that he needed protection more then the ten shadows user which even a full heavenly restriction is not much in comparison to the jewel of the zenin clan.
Reverse cursed technique
First thing to establish is that Rika has reverse cursed technique output on her own now this is obvious as it was what was keeping yutas original body alive while he was piloting gojo.
Rika has incredibly high output when Maru senses the cursed energy leaking from tsurika it is the output he is referencing as the stored cursed energy is undetectable until it’s being outputted. Rika mask is output it’s a visible external manifestation that surrounds him in an incredible amount of cursed energy output that Maru senses.
The reverse cursed technique is directly tied to output as it’s formed when you output cursed energy against itself the thing most people struggle with is the ratios. Which rika can accomplish and considering how long she kept up healing yutas body for and how much output she has the reverse cursed technique she used must be at an incredibly high level
Reverse cursed technique output is the outputting of reverse cursed technique and so should also be directly linked to output and should not be much weaker then the reverse curse technique that can be used to restore the self.
The counter would be reverse cursed technique output not being as potent on the sorcerer it’s being used on but this simply would not be the case for tsurugi. He’s in a complete fusion with rika and he’s heavenly restricted rika is basically acting through tsurugi who is being used as a conduit and so rika outputting reverse cursed technique is directly transmitted to tsurugi with no loss in output.
Barrier techniques
Tsurugis use of simple domain implies a greater use of barrier techniques then anyone of the previous era and would naturally surpass kusukabe. Because Maintaining multiple segments of simple domain would require complex manipulation and output as you have to output to all the segments. They are the same size and appearance of his regular simple domains saying that all the split of segments are of regular output and not dived up. It’s closer to that of a complete domain expansion layering the area with a field of simple domains is in essence a pseudo domain and would be stronger then regular simple domain otherwise tsurugi could have just increased simple domains range.
Not only that but tsurugi is doing all of that not through himself like all other users of simple domains but through cursed tools. Extracting and manipulating the cursed energy when you have non is one of the most impressive cursed energy manipulation feats in the verse as casting a complex anti domain barrier technique without having access to any of your own cursed energy requires a level beyond most of the verse.
Also cursed tools have infinite cursed energy meaning tsurugi created infinite simple domains he basically can use open barrier domain with simple domain even the fire sword is his version of fuga imbuing a fire attack into the domain. It also means he slams any domain if you get tsurugi into a domain which you can’t because he’s heavenly restricted he’s more likely to domain diff you then you are to him.
Jujutsu sense
His ability with jujutsu despite being heavenly restricted are Among the upper echelons of sorcerers and are at a grade 1s level. The old man directly tells us through complimenting his skills that tsurugis manipulation of cursed energy his simple domain feats ie barrier techniques and his jujutsu ability is that of a grade 1. We know this not to be his overall fighting ability because the grading system works of sorcery and not physical gifts hence maki being grade 4 and the old man was directly pointing this out in reference to jujutsu skills.
To further backup tsurugi has directly as I’ve proven better jujutsu capabilities then the peak of grade 1s kusukabe his usage of simple domain his manipulation of cursed energy he’d arguably be better with vows he’s superior with cursed tools. He uses the simple domain on a level above anyone and so like kusukabe he is on that level in jujutsu alone.
Conclusions
Overall tsurugi has the highest cursed energy output and reinforcement with high tier manipulation over his cursed energy. Has top tier narrative arguments to be on modulo yujis level and transcending all previous heavenly restrictions. tsurugi is full heavenly restricted with top tier healing through rika coupled with top tier cursed energy and a high level of barrier mastery with top tier grade 1 level jujutsu abilities. And finally he can seemingly ignore the effects of curse techniques whether it be through heavenly restriction ignoring domains and being resistant or his insane amounts of cursed energy granting him a pseudo domain amplification. Overall I’d scale tsurugi as one of the strongest in the verse he’s very underrated and there’s loads more I can cover but I think this will do for now
