Warning: Contains spoilers for chapter #258 of Jujutsu Kaisen.
Sukuna’s most mysterious ability in Jujutsu Kaisen has finally made a reappearance, and it might just confirm one of the biggest theories about Sukuna’s Cursed Technique. The latest chapter witnesses Sukuna using his fire technique last seen in Shibuya, finally revealing the name of the technique and in turn fueling the popular theory that Sukuna’s abilities could be connected to cooking.
Chapter #258 of Jujutsu Kaisen reveals Sukuna’s fire technique is called Divine Flame. In the chapter, Sukuna manages to open his domain and begins showering Maki, Ino, Choso, and Yuji with slashes. Just as Yuji’s Simple Domain crumbles, Sukuna halts the barrage of slashes and unleashes his fire technique, possibly intending to put an end to the fight at last.
Last seen in Shibuya, Sukuna’s Divine Flame technique has been highly speculated about, particularly because it does not seem to fit in with Sukuna’s other techniques. However, Divine Flame may actually be the key to understanding Sukuna’s abilities, which, according to a popular fan theory, may be inspired by cooking. As such, Cleave and Dismantle may serve to prepare Sukuna’s opponents by slicing and dicing them up while Divine Flame disturbingly cooks them.
The theory that Sukuna’s Cursed Technique and abilities are connected to cooking has been a well-known theory ever since Sukuna first used the fire arrow against Jogo and the upcoming chapters might finally prove if the theory has any merit. While Divine Flame’s name does not directly imply a connection to cooking, there is quite a bit of proof supporting this theory, including several subtle hints and allegories to cooking.
Most notably, when Sukuna’s slashing attacks are first explained in chapter #119, both Cleave and Dismantle are represented by two different kitchen knives. If Sukuna’s attacks were regular slashing attacks, surely any other weapon such as a sword or dagger would have sufficed to help visualize them. Sukuna’s Domain Expansion also fits into this theory fairly well. Malevolent Shrine’s Japanese counterpart is “fukuma mizushi” and the latter half of the Domain’s name may be derived from “mizushi-dokoro”, which refers to a room where meals were prepared for an emperor or nobility.
Moreover, Sukuna also makes many cooking allegories at the start of his fight against Gojo in chapter #224 where he refers to Gojo as a fish on a cutting board and even mentions stripping Gojo of his scales. Even against Mahoraga in Shibuya, Sukuna mentions starting with “a little taste” as he prepares to fight. On the surface, Sukuna’s choice of words appears to represent his cannibalistic tendencies. However, these references would surely make more sense if Sukuna’s innate technique does indeed have to do with cooking.
Given Sukuna’s cannibalistic tendencies and the recent revelation that Sukuna ate his twin in the womb, a cooking-related technique would represent his character perfectly. Sukuna has always looked down on all of his opponents and the possibility that he views them as insignificant ingredients waiting to be chopped up and devoured would not entirely be out of the ordinary.
That said, Sukuna unleashing the fire technique means he is finally pulling out all the stops and is perhaps taking the battle seriously at last. Yuji’s awakening appears to be have served as a tipping point for Sukuna who may finally be considering the slim possibility of defeat. Overall, Jujutsu Kaisen‘s final battle has just gotten a lot more interesting and the upcoming chapters will likely have plenty more shocking revelations in store.
Jujutsu Kaisen is available from Manga Plus and Viz Media.