Chapter 216

Kenjaku and Uraume weigh how the Culling Game ought to finish, and they also dwell on an old rite known as the Bath. By steeping himself in that ritual, Sukuna sinks Megumi Fushiguro's spirit into total shadow, then departs to locate the boy's elder sister so the rest of him can be wiped out for good.

The promise Kenjaku gave Choso is empty: fusing mankind with Tengen cannot proceed while the Culling Game runs, since his binding vow ties him to ending what was meant to last forever. The method leaves Uraume cold, drawing only a push to act. The Bath, however, captivates Kenjaku. The rite once turned family treasures into cursed tools by soaking each object in energy drawn from venomous beasts through a method labeled kodoku. He marvels that Uraume rebuilt the procedure within the Zenin disciplinary pit out of cursed spirits; rather than letting such entities scatter once slain, Uraume pinned them, froze their cores, and split them apart for filtering. Climbing from the water, Sukuna keeps Megumi's features, reasoning the frame suits warring with sorcerers, then orders his Kogane to fix Tsumiki Fushiguro's whereabouts.

Sendai is the answer, with Yorozu waiting there. Trading Megumi's points, Kenjaku summons a huge fish-shaped curse that glides through the sky and ferries Sukuna over. Sensing the colossal cursed energy at once, Takako Uro and Ryu Ishigori both react; for Uro, a survivor of the obliterated Sun and Moon Squad, the dread is sickeningly familiar. Ryu charges anyway. Stepping close, Sukuna lays open his torso, laughs the strike was meant to part him three ways, then outraces Ryu's retreat toward a Granite Blast and divides his skull into three. Only then does he reach the arena where Yuta had recently put down Dhruv Lakdawalla, and Yorozu stands across from him at last.

Running nineteen pages, this installment came out March 13, 2023 in issue 15. It sits within the Culling Game Arc and appears in Volume 24, with Sukuna on the cover. His real motive for the journey north is to slay Tsumiki and so complete the drowning of Megumi's spirit, not to seek a fight with Yorozu for her own sake.