Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi

Lore & Background

In the mythological foundation that Record of Ragnarok draws upon, Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi was born from the tail of Yamata no Orochi, the eight-headed serpent that Susanoo slew in a fit of divine fury. The blade was subsequently presented to his sister Amaterasu and became one of the Three Sacred Treasures that legitimized the Japanese imperial line. In the series, this heritage is preserved: the sword is not merely a weapon but a symbol of the storm god's complicated relationship with order, his sister, and the world he is sworn to protect.

Within Ragnarok's arena, the Kusanagi is depicted as a long, elegant blade that contrasts sharply with Susanoo's massive, scarred frame. When the god swings it, the air splits with crackling storm energy, and the ground beneath the impact zone shatters. The weapon functions as a conduit for Susanoo's inner tempest—his rage, his grief, his refusal to yield. Every strike carries the weight of a god who has been exiled, humiliated, and yet still stands.

The 11th round elevates the sword's significance to a narrative climax. As the final contest of Ragnarok, the Kusanagi represents not just Susanoo's personal power but the last stand of the divine order against humanity's defiance. The blade's legacy, stretching from the slaying of a primordial serpent to the thundering blows of Ragnarok's closing chapter, makes it one of the most symbolically loaded weapons in the series.

In Their Own Story

The sky above the arena had turned the color of a bruise. Rain fell upward, defying gravity, pooling in the air like suspended glass before shattering against the invisible ceiling of the coliseum. Susanoo stood at the center of the ring, his bare feet planted in cracked stone, the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi resting across his shoulders like a yoke he had chosen to carry. The blade hummed—a low, resonant thrum that vibrated in the teeth of every god and human watching from the tiers above.

Jack the Ripper adjusted his gloves, tilting his head with that quiet, surgical curiosity. "You're loud, god," he murmured, almost to himself. "Loud and slow."

Susanoo did not answer. He did not need to. He drew the Kusanagi in a single, fluid arc that split the rain into a perfect circle of droplets, and the storm in his chest roared to life. The first swing was not a strike. It was a declaration. The blade carved a line of white lightning across the arena floor, and the earth remembered what it felt like to be young and afraid.

The gods leaned forward. The humans held their breath. And the sword, ancient as the first thunder, sang.

Reader's Guide

Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi is the divine longsword wielded by Susanoo, the storm god, in the 11th and final round of Record of Ragnarok. Its origin traces to Japanese Shinto mythology, where the blade was drawn from the tail of the eight-headed serpent Yamata no Orochi after Susanoo slew it, and was subsequently enshrined as one of the Three Sacred Treasures alongside the Yata no Kagami mirror and the Yasakani no Magatama jewel. In the series, this mythological pedigree is preserved as the sword's identity and symbolic weight.

In combat, the Kusanagi functions as a conduit for Susanoo's storm energy. His strikes are characterized by overwhelming raw force, with each swing generating visible arcs of lightning and shockwaves that fracture the arena floor. The blade itself is a long, straight sword suited to wide, sweeping cuts as well as piercing thrusts, and it appears to channel the god's emotional state—his rage amplifying the destructive output of each blow.

No explicit mechanical cost or limitation is stated for the sword in the same way some other divine weapons in the series have defined restrictions. Its power is tied to Susanoo's own condition rather than a separate resource pool. In the 11th round, the primary counter it faces is Jack the Ripper's precision-based killing technique, which targets the moment of greatest vulnerability in an opponent's attack. The round's tension hinges on whether the sheer, storm-fueled power of the Kusanagi can overwhelm a human opponent who exploits openings with surgical accuracy, making the sword's strength also its potential weakness: its大开 swings leave telltale gaps that a disciplined adversary can punish.

Did You Know?

• Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi is one of the Three Sacred Treasures in Japanese mythology, a trio of divine objects that traditionally legitimized the imperial line.
• In the mythological origin story, the sword was discovered inside the tail of Yamata no Orochi after Susanoo severed it with his own blade, making it a weapon born from another weapon's act of destruction.
• Susanoo is the final god to take the arena in Ragnarok, meaning the Kusanagi's most prominent on-screen moment is reserved for the series' climactic 11th round.
• The sword's mythological presentation to Amaterasu, Susanoo's sister, is a point of tension in the broader Japanese mythos that Record of Ragnarok inherits, adding emotional weight to the god's relationship with the blad