Yoru

Counted as one of the twelve Supreme Grade blades, Yoru stands at the very summit of the world's weaponry. Its name means "Night," a fitting label for a jet-black blade hailed as the strongest Black Blade in existence. The sword belongs to Dracule Mihawk, the man recognized as the greatest swordsman alive, and Mihawk himself has declared it the World's Strongest among Black Blades. At some earlier point the weapon was permanently transformed into a Black Blade, a status that speaks to its extraordinary toughness.

Cross-shaped and heavily ornamented, Yoru follows a Western design closer to an oversized kriegsmesser than a traditional katana. The single-edged blade curves gently, runs jet-black with a mirror sheen, and stretches well past two meters, rising taller than Mihawk's own head when slung across his back. Lacking a scabbard, it hangs upside down from two loops sewn into his coat. The bandaged grip is long enough for two hands, capped by a large red cabochon set in gold, while the golden crossguard extends so far to either side that, viewed head-on, the whole weapon resembles a crucifix. The anime swaps the manga's red gemstones for blue, green, and purple ones.

In Mihawk's grip the sword has proven devastating, cleaving a war galleon and a mountain-sized wall of ice apart in single strokes. His swings throw out enormous cutting shockwaves, rendered as greenish energy in the anime, that travel hundreds of meters without weakening. Yet despite its weight and power, Yoru is delicate enough for Mihawk to redirect a bullet with the faintest touch of the edge or to aim flying slashes with pinpoint accuracy from any range. Numerous named techniques, including Kokuto Issen, Kokuto Arahoshi, and Kokuto Saku, appear in video games though they go unnamed in the manga and anime.

The blade has only one wielder of note, Dracule Mihawk, a member of the former Seven Warlords of the Sea and the world's finest swordsman, who handles its great mass effortlessly as though it were an extension of his own arms. His Seraphim clone, S-Hawk, carries a roughly similar sword, though that copy is far plainer and is not pure black. In a lighthearted SBS sketch, Oda once personified Yoru as a cool older sister named Yoruko.