The manga follows Chihiro Rokuhira, the son of renowned blacksmith Kunishige Rokuhira, who created enchanted katana known for single-handedly ending wars. The father and son lived a peaceful and happy life together working to forge even more katana, with promises of Chihiro one day succeeding his father’s legacy. However, when tragedy strikes, Chihiro takes up his father's final sword to seek bloody revenge.
The manga started serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump on September 18th, 2023.
Provides examples of:
- A Death in the Limelight: Chapter 8 is titled "Norisaku Madoka: I Will Change" and starts by focusing on said character, who otherwise was just one of various Mooks pursuing Char earlier on. He reflects on what led him to this point and vows to turn his life around as the audience learns about his family, and is on the way to reconcile with his mother when he and his sister are brutally murdered by Genichi Sojo. Another sorceror gets a little bit of time dedicated to him as Sojo's next destination.
- Age Cut: In chapter 14, a younger Chihiro wiping off a tear while laughing at his dad's jokes is contrasted with him doing the same motion in the present, deciding to stop lamenting his weakness and keep fighting.
- Agony of the Feet: Shiba tortures Daruma by repeatedly smashing his foot into the ground with his teleportation sorcery amplifying each hit. By the end of it, Daruma's foot is lodged into the ground and he is later seen wearing a cast.
- Ambiguous Time Period: Automobiles in this setting seem to be much older than modern times, with cars straight out of the 40s and 50s while there's an operational steam train, the same can be said for the buildings, which vary between 50s western and classic Japanese architecture. Meanwhile, characters dress and speak as if they're speaking from the time the manga got released (albeit still not everyone, since some background characters wear traditional Japanese clothing when out on the street).
- An Arm and a Leg: In just about every fight scene at least one combatant loses a limb. While this is often only a henchman or two having an arm removed, even major characters are not spared from this trend. Chihiro and Kazane both survive having one of their arms lopped off fighting Sojo, as does Ikuto losing both legs. Even Char loses a leg at one point, to show off her regenerative qualities.
- Anti-Climax: At the end of Chihiro's assault on Sojo's base of operations, the two henchmen left standing are the twin Co-Dragons of Sojo who have remained completely confident as Chihiro cut down all their allies. They quip about getting the chance to finally cut loose and both unleash an impressive looking sorcery that gives them Cool Masks... before Chihiro instantly decapitates them both. Given the far more tense and brutal fights he is involved in both before and after this moment, it doesn't detract much from the momentum of the arc's climax.
- Asshole Victim: Chihiro usually strikes first against yakuza, and quite brutally at that, but it is made clear every time he does so the yakuza are complete scum who have it coming beyond just being criminals. The first group he goes after string up and torture anyone who argues against their reign of terror, Sojo's group gleefully experiment on a child, and the third is introduced beating an innocent man they kidnapped after he stopped them from kidnapping a little girl for their boss's pleasure.
- Auction of Evil: A yearly criminal auction known as the Rakuzaichi is held by the influential Sazanami family, with weapons, corpses, and live people all for sale. It becomes a target for Chihiro when he discovers the strongest of the Sacred Blades is to be sold as the centerpiece of the auction, and allies with the Sazanami's White Sheep to bring the auction down.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Chihiro knows (because his father made the sword) that Sojo's lightning attack "Mei" has a recharge period, so once he's nullified it with his own sword, there's a window to counterattack which he exploits.
- Back-to-Back Badasses: We see a brief moment of this between Chihiro and Hiyuki as they rush past each other fighting Mooks to cement their newfound strained partnership with each other among the heat of battle.
- Badass Family: The Sazanami family are a criminal family who maintain a yearly auction of illegal goods for the Japanese underworld. To protect their business, all of the Sazanamis are extensively trained in sorcery. This makes the estimated fifty active sorcerers of the family such a threat even the Kamunabi do not wish to engage them in open combat.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Sharp two-piece suits and ties are popular among the criminals of the Japanese underworld and the Kamunabi alike, leading to them getting into swordfights and bloody battles while dressed exquisitely.
- Bait-and-Switch: Chapter 27 gradually builds up to the seeming revelation Chihiro has successfully reforged Kuregumo and is now wielding it as his own, with the hilt shown crackling with electricity as he draws it from a sheath and calls out one of its techniques. Chapter 28 flips this on its head, with the reveal he only brought the hilt and its Spirit Energy is gradually, yet permanently fading. He merely brought Kuregumo along to use up the last of its power before it became a completely normal broken sword.
- Bait-and-Switch Comment: Shiba rambles to Chihiro about how famous his father used to be and how the boy will certainly become a worthy successor, with Chiriho replying he's heard all that hundreds of times. Shiba then says he'll tell Chihiro something he doesn't know about, comically admits to being a Motor Mouth, and leaves.
- Beyond the Impossible: In Chapter 20, when Chihiro is being interrogated about the location of Cloud Gouger, he truthfully answers that he broke it during the fight with Sojo, which is dismissed as a lie out of hand. Given the danger presented by the Sacred Blades and how much of a threat they can be to a stable society, it's implied that rather then disbelieving he'd destroy such a valuable resource, the Sacred Blades were hitherto impossible to destroy until that point, which is why the Kamunabi decided to protect/monitor their bonded wielders to neuter them instead whilst leaving the blades themselves in Kunishige Rokuhira's hands.
- Both Sides Have a Point: Hiyuki argues against the Kamunabi's wider decision to tolerate the Rakuzaichi auction of the Sazanami family. She notes doing so will only encourage the criminals they are supposed to be fighting against and they should be fighting against them openly. This is contested by one of the higher-ups, who notes doing so would result in inevitable causalities and a change in the status quo from their actions, which could result in the widescale destruction they are trying to avoid. He grimly notes they are "succumbing to evil" in their methods, but pick the path which allows them to peacefully get their hands on the equally great threat of the Sacred Blade up for auctions.
- Bring It:
- In the end of chapter 5, Chihiro is on the phone with Shiba when he is ambushed by both several yakuza in cars and a sorcerer with Body Horror abilities rising out of the street. Even though it was said Chihiro's been badly tired from overuse of his magic sword, he remains stone-faced and doesn't even alert Shiba about the situation.
- Kyora, the head of the Sazanami clan, is downright excited to have Chihiro as an enemy and openly challenges him to come after the Enchanted Blades with everything he has. He makes it clear this is due to seeing him as both an equal opponent for his martial and mental prowess, and knowing having him killed to make Enten a viable auction item is a spectacle which can singlehandedly make the 208th Rakuzaichi the most profitable in the family's history.
- Broken Masquerade: Prior to the Imperial War, sorcerers had an unwritten rule that they didn't interfere with the outside world, so the people of Japan were barely aware of them. That changed after their existence got exposed during the war, with a lot of sorcerers deciding to operate in the open.
- Calling Your Attacks: Several sorcerers need to call out the name of their spells to use them, leading to this when they are employed in battle. A more intricate example is shown with Hiyuki, who possesses several attacks with her sorcery. To specify which, she must make a full declaration to an entity known as "Rikuo" for which piece of the skeleton she wishes to use.Hiyuki: Rikuo, give me a hand.
- Cast of Snowflakes: Every single character, no matter how minor, has a distinguishing factor to their design. From unique hairstyles, masks or accessories, a character is usually best identified by their features, as most also go unnamed.
- Central Theme:
- Legacy. Chihiro's quest to retrieve the enchanted blades is motivated just as much by a desire to protect Rokuhira's legacy as it is by revenge. Likewise, Sojo also wants to carry on Rokuhira's will — albeit one informed by his own interpretation of Rokuhira's work rather than by the man he actually was.
- Responsibility, particularly surrounding weapons. Kunishige instills in Chihiro the notion that katanas ought to be used to defeat evil and protect the weak, and that rather than blindly follow the same path he did in making the Enchanted Blades, Chihiro should put more thought into what kind of katana he ought to forge and why. In the present, Chihiro refuses to tolerate those who use katanas to commit evil, and his main goal besides avenging his father's murder is to retrieve the stolen Enchanted Blades and keep them out of the wrong hands. However, this sense of responsibility is by no means exclusive to Chihiro. Many who oppose him, such as Hiyuki of the Kamurabi, share this very same sentiment, regarding Chihiro as a potential threat to the nation for wielding an Enchanted Blade himself.
- Charles Atlas Superpower: Azami appears to be just that strong and agile unlike Shiba, as Chihiro and his opponents don't sense any sorcery in his acrobatic and martial prowess.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Shiba interrogates the captured Daruma by stepping onto his feet and using his teleportation to crush them. By the time Shiba is done, the room is covered in cracks and the villain's blood-soaked right foot is completely embedded in the ground. He later plans to dish this out again with some fingernail pulling on Kyora before he is dissuaded.
- Contrived Coincidence: In his first appearance, Hakuri Sazanami wishes to find Chihiro so he can employ his help in stopping the rest of his criminal family. He gets distracted saving a little girl from Yakuza, and they take him to their base. Before they can kill him, Chihiro happens to show up, having been methodically hunting down criminals to find out information about the Sazanamis independently, unintentionally saving Hakuri and giving him the source of information he needs by complete lucky timing.
- Cracks in the Icy Façade: In the opening flashback, Chihiro is established to be a quiet and reserved young man who doesn't emote much even around trusted friends and family. When he is first seen in the present day, he seems to have become dark and brooding during his quest for vengeance, commenting to his partner Shiba he keeps the scar on his face to remind himself of his hatred every morning. Despite this, he emotes for the first time on page in shock seeing a bunch of innocent protesters strung up in front of their families and immediately shifts gears to take out the Yakuza who preformed the act and save a young man they are planning to kill. While a Hidden Heart of Gold is later more firmly established with how he treats Char, this is the first hint there is more to him than his desire for revenge.
- The Dead Have Names: The full names of the Anti-Kuregumo Squad members are only given by one of the Kamunabi top brass as he is confirming their deaths several chapters prior.
- Didn't Think This Through: A child known as Mr. Inazuma walks right up to the Rakuzaichi auction to demand his sister's release from the auction to the guards. This is his full "plan" to save her, which quickly fizzles out as the guards don't even take him seriously. Worse, when one starts manhandling him Inazuma pulls a knife and sticks him in the arm, which would likely gotten him killed if not for Chihiro's timely arrival.
- Disturbed Doves: In the hours before the proper start of the Rakuzaichi auction a duo of criminals discuss how there is inevitably a conflict among criminals which results in causalities but remark on how peaceful everything has been so far. With Chihiro, the Kamunabi, and the Hishaku all having vested interests in the year's auction, the upcoming conflict is symbolized by a duo of nearby birds being disturbed and flying off as the two speak.
- Doppelgänger Attack: One of the unnamed Bounty Hunter sorcerers pursuing Chihiro and Char has the ability to form clones of himself out of the environment (with some being shown literally pulling themselves out of a road). He uses them as a horde of expendable bodies to throw at his targets and wear them down while he remains at a safe distance.
- Dynamic Entry: Hiyuki makes her grand arrival at the Rakuzaichi punching clean through a wall into the front room of the auction house, sending a few Mooks flying.
- Early-Bird Cameo: A sorcerer wearing a hannya mask is first seen in Hinao's exposition in Ch. 3 before making an appearance in the story proper in Ch. 7. From the same scene in Ch. 3, the sorcerer wearing thick sets of ropes and a visor appears in Ch. 28 as one of the elite sorcerers participating in the Rakuzaichi who confronts Chihiro.
- Enemy Mine: The sheer depravity of the Rakuzaichi is enough for Chihiro and Hiyuki to put aside their differences and work together to accomplish their goals related to bringing it down before they go back to antagonizing each other.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Norisaku Madoka is the cruel Starter Villain who attempts to kidnap Char but is defeated and captured. Shiba convinces him to reconcile with his family, but both his mother and sister are assassinated by Sojo before Norisaku himself dies in a panicked and botched Suicide Attack that ends up finishing off his badly injured but still barely alive sister. This is followed by a scene of the unnamed Mind Rape henchman's encouraging words to his brother being juxtaposed with Chihiro blowing his head into the sky. The brother asks Sojo to avenge him... and gets slaughtered too for no reason.
- Evolving Weapon: On top of the sheer power Kunishige's enchanted swords have, another reason why they're so dangerous is that they have a "true realm" beyond their base limits, allowing their wielders to gain new techniques and abilities unique to them the more they understand and harmonize with the blades. For example, Chihiro, after being forced to fight in a badly-injured state, learned to both use his Nishiki and Kuro abilities in ways that could compensate for his reduced physical abilities, with Nishiki granting a constant boost to his movements rather than powering up a single strike and Kuro being able to execute multiple smaller slashes rather than one powerful attack.
- Falling Chandelier of Doom: As Chihiro starts his invasion of the Rakuzaichi auction house, Shiba drops the chandelier of the first room he enters, killing the lights and crushing a guard in one motion.
- Famous Last Words:
- "...ONE KILL!!!" Norisaku Madoka aka Daruma, when his explosion backfires on himself and his sister.
- "ROKUHIIRAAA" Genichi Sojo as he attempts to seize the power of the Datenseki in a last-ditch effort to save himself from bleeding out.
- Fantasy Gun Control: Despite several more advanced technologies being shown to exist (automobiles, flip phones, etc) guns do not seem to have been invented. The world is said to still live in a "katana society" and instead rely on magic for any ranged fighting.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing:
- When Soya catches Hakuri after he tries to jump off a high ledge to escape him, he casually mentions how Hakuri wouldn't survive the fall because of how weak he is. An odd remark to make about falling to death which makes more sense a few pages later when the family sorcery is revealed. Isou, a powerful shockwave which allows Soya to fly through the air, meaning it truly is impossible for the Sazanamis to fall to their death, except for Inept Mage Hakuri.
- When the Rakuzaichi auction begins, a lone boy named Yuu, stylizing himself as the superhero "Mr. Inazuma" (or "Mr. Lightning") with a baseball helmet and cape, tries and fails to break into the building through the front door to rescue his abducted sister. While Yuu is getting manhandled, there's a flashback to where he's afraid of thunder and lightning outside, and his sister would console him by saying that lightning only strikes evildoers. When Chihiro arrives on the scene to rescue him, he gets charged by the security who believe he's easy pickings due to him lacking his Sacred Blade, Enten. However, after Shiba causes a blackout, Chihiro reveals he did not, in fact, show up unarmed, and demonstrates how Yuu's sister was saying the truth by revealing a certain lightning-based power...Chihiro: Kuregumo. Mei.
- Foreshadowing:
- When Char is first introduced, she quickly falls asleep and mutters about cell division, which Hinao notes such a young kid shouldn't be familiar with. It isn't until several chapters later it is revealed she is recalling the experiments of her pursuers, who are interested in the unique properties of her bloodline allowing her to divide cells extremely quickly, more or less giving her a Healing Factor.
- A rather humorous but equally morbid example that borders on Black Comedy. In the discussion between Chihiro and the male Anti-Kuregumo Squad members taking place in the bathroom, squad leader Ikuto is seen using the urinal with handrails made for disabled people despite not having any disability himself. In the aftermath of Sojo massacring nearly all of said squad, Ikuto is revealed to be one of only two survivors, among his injuries being the loss of both his legs, rendering him disabled.
- Functional Magic: The magic system of Kagurabachi relies on an Inherent Gift variety. A unique energy known as Spirit Energy dwells within every human, and those born with a high enough Spirit Energy can utilize sorcery. This sorcery can manifest in many different ways, from Elemental Magic to mental manipulation, and a person high in Spirit Energy can pass on their abilities and Spiritual potency to their children. That said, Shiba makes it clear training and determination also play a significant factor in the ability to properly develop and use sorcery.
- Gender Is No Object: Women are by all accounts treated completely the same as men within the setting. Women are shown in high-ranking positions in the Kamunabi (Hiyuki is their top agent and one of the nine heads is a woman) and leading their own careers independent of men (Hinao). Even the isolationist, morally-bankrupt Sazanami Clan have a woman among the Tou, the trusted family elite.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: The appearance of an evil sorcerer with a scarred face is followed by Chihiro being shown for the first time as a scarred swordsman. He explains to Shiba that even if he could remove the scars, he must keep them to remember the loss of his father and start each morning "with fresh hatred".
- Government Agency of Fiction: Amidst the Seitei War, a coalition of sorcerers was formed by the Japanese government to maintain peace and order among independent sorcerers and the unpowered of Japan called the Kamunabi. Following the war, they continue to be the main authority in policing criminal sorcerers, and their agents quickly become entangled with Chihiro's quest to bring down the Hishaku.
- Gratuitous Foreign Language: In translations, sorcerers who use verbalizations to utilize their Spirit Energy have spell names still in Japanese, even with the rest of the text in the translated language.
- Great Offscreen War: The Seitei War, which took place only 18 years before the start of the main story, is left vague to the reader and only mentioned in passing by veterans of the era, but the grand consequences of the conflict established the world as it is in the present. It was the turning point for sorcerers to enter into wider society, the war Kunishige forged Six of the Enchanted Blades to bring to an end, and the reason the Kamunabi was formed.
- Guardian Entity: Chihiro's blade allows him to summon giant fishes, which were the same that his father had brought home one day. The other Sacred Blades also each have their own entity, with Cloud Gouger summoning a massive dragon.
- Heroic RRoD: After basically four consecutive fights, Chihiro finally reaches his limit, collapsing after Sojo gives him the slip and falling into a five-day-long coma.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The Rakuzaichi policy for the auction is to allow three members of an organization within the building while any extras take up duties as perimeter guards. While this results in enough condensed criminals to ward off the authorities from trying anything, it also means there are dozens of strangers and unaffiliated crooks working together, allowing Shiba to easily slip in under the guise of being just another criminal.
- Hostage for MacGuffin: After an offhand comment from Soya confirms his son Hakuri's involvement, Kyora summons him up, as he is technically "stock" of the storehouse dimension he holds control over, and threatens his life if Chihiro doesn't give up Enten. While Shiba tries to bluff him, Chihiro is unwilling to play with his new friend's life and hands the blade over without a fight, though he claims afterward it is a necessary part of a plan he thought up to get to the Shinuchi.
- Identical Panel Gag: A small bit of visual humor in Ch. 28 occurs during its flashbacks. Twice Chihiro calls Hakuri over from an activity with Char and Hinao to discuss details on the Sazanami family, and both times the panels are structured identically at the bottom of their respective pages: Chihiro to the right calling Hakuri's name, who runs over from the background on the left (in the exact same pose both times), immediately abandoning what he was doing with the girls.
- In Medias Res: Chapter 8 begins with the door to Hinao's café ringing behind her as it opens. The scene silently cuts back in time to Madoka, the Daruma henchman, being murdered by Sojo for his failure. Then Sojo gets the location of Hinao's café from the brother of the Mind Rape henchman and murders him too before getting to the café, opening the door and locking blades with Chihiro in the present time.
- Inconsistent Dub: The official translation simply cannot make up its mind. Technique names tend to be translated and suddenly untranslated, the swords are alternatingly referred to as "enchanted blades" or "sacred blades", and flip-flopping between the two can even happen between pages of the same chapter.
- Improbable Weapon User: A bad guy, Daruma, pursuing Char sits in on her conversation with Chihiro in a soba shop, eventually getting so annoyed with the proprietor demanding he order something or leave that he stabs him in the throat with a pair of disposable chopsticks.
- Katanas Are Just Better: Fitting for a manga that centers on the son of a swordsmith, swords hold significance for the setting. Chihiro wields a katana that besides killing people normally also gives him special powers.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Daruma taunts Chihiro about her dead mother and her Senseless Sacrifice. He dies thinking that Sojo has murdered his mother and with his attempt to kill Sojo backfiring on not just himself, but his only remaining family member — his sister.
- Light/Darkness Juxtaposition: The cover of the second volume
◊ shows this in the clash of the dark Chihiro and the bright Sojo. Sojo's lightning-imbued blade and cloud dragon provide blinding light in the face of Chihiro's encroaching darkness. - Loophole Abuse: Tafuku's sorcery moves specific combatants to an alternate reality where they fight until one is knocked out or worse. While this helps in allowing his partner Hiyuki to fight without worry of civilian casualties, he can just as easily take a group of people who aren't fighting and simply use the subspace to take a breather from combat or speak uninterrupted, as he does for Chihiro as they negotiate at the Rakuzaichi.
- Loyal Phlebotinum: The Sacred Blades bond to a single user at a time and will only use their powers for them until their deaths, when the next wielder takes their place. The Kamunabi take advantage of this to make the blades useless between Rokuhira's death and the present day by keeping the five remaining wielders protected and hidden.
- Magic by Any Other Name: The word magic is never actually used as terminology within the series. A person's potency with the setting's magic is referred to as "Spirit Energy", which powers Sorcery used by sorcerers.
- Mandatory Unretirement: Azami, a colonel in the Kamunabi (government sorcerers), confronts Shiba with this as the quest for the swords is rapidly becoming a national-level matter.
- Marionette Master: One of the sorcerers pursuing Char has the ability to summon and control human-sized clay puppets, which Chihiro dispatches with ease and considerable Bloodless Carnage.
- Mind Rape:
- One henchman in chapter 6 ambushes Chihiro and forces him to experience a nightmare about his father's death, momentarily incapacitating him. However, Chihiro is fueled by The Power of Hate and just gets psyched up to slice all the villains around him to ribbons.
- Said henchman's brother informs Sojo about Chihiro for revenge, but only for the yakuza to want to murder him too just for practice. Sojo is made to dream of a child in a flower field bathed in the blood of countless corpses floating above, but it only bemuses him and he immediately resumes with his mutilation of the sorcerer.
- Missed Him by That Much: In the opening chapter, one of the Hishaku sorcerers Chihiro is hunting down makes a rare in-person appearance to collect some money from his underlings at their base. Minutes at most after he departs, Chihiro invades the base, missing his target without even knowing he was there by an extremely narrow margin.
- Mook Horror Show:
- When Chihiro's mission to retrieve Char from Sojo's headquarters goes loud, he figures out techniques to keep fighting even in his injured state. What follows is multiple pages of overconfident henchmen being warned about the situation while Chihiro slices and dices guards in the background. Eventually Chihiro emerges onto the foreground, decapitates one last pair of guards and casually offers Char a sandwich.
- On the way to retrieve the Sacred Blades from the Rakuzaichi and put an end to the auction, both Chihiro and Hiyuki cut down dozens of nameless guards without breaking a sweat. However, right when the hero meets back with Hakuri, suddenly one of the mooks starts putting up a fight. Much to Chihiro's shock and disbelief, it is a Hishaku member who has appeared before him from out of the blue.
- Mr. Exposition:
- As the story's fantastical elements are revealed in the first chapter, Shiba talks out loud just for the reader's convenience about how Rokuhira was no mere blacksmith but instead one who imbued his swords with sorcery. He then indulges in Parrot Exposition until Chihiro shoos him away. Shiba also talks about magic powers in detail to Char a while later.
- Hinao is introduced in her job board café talking about the setting's swordsmen, sorcerers and the past of the two protagonists to some unseen person that represents the readers.
- Azami, as the result of his conflicting loyalties to the Kamunabi versus Shiba and Chihiro, winds up outright telling them via Could Say It, But... (whilst half-heartedly dissuading them from further action) that the next sword will be auctioned off by Sojo on the black market in a month's time, with his sheer presence indicating the government is taking the matter seriously.
- Sojo explains the experiments he's doing on a rare mineral crucial to making new enchanted blades to two Mooks who presumably should know what his entire operation is about, so maybe they're new recruits.
- No Honor Among Thieves: The Tou and the Oni Mask Sorcerer mention how every year a few criminals try their luck to attack Kyora during the Rakuzaichi and try to make off with merchandise for free despite the heavy security and fair auction process enforced by the Sazanami Clan. Every year, all those who interrupt are routinely slaughtered by the Tou, which makes the crowd gathered for the 208th Rakuzaichi have a fairly nonplussed reaction to Chihiro's invasion.
- No Name Given: The names of characters are almost always given through diegetic sources instead of narration. This leaves several major supporting characters and antagonists nameless until their names are mentioned in dialogue, or simply left unnamed altogether.
- Once More, with Clarity: Chapter 19 begins with a flashback to Chihiro and Sojo's fight during Chapter 9, from the perspective of bystander Hakuri Sazanami, revealing how Chihiro indirectly saved his life during the fight, giving Hakuri a great respect for "the Samurai" in the present of the story.
- Painting the Medium:
- Certain significant Written Sound Effects, such as during Chihiro's fight with Sojo in chapter 10, cover such an amount of the page that they also double as the borders of the panels around them.
- One of the final three bounty hunters pursuing Chihiro and Char is a sorcerer who attacks with chanting spells which send off sound waves powerful enough to shred a hand. This is shown by his dialogue bubbles becoming razor sharp and physically hitting his opponents.
- Phlebotinum Overload: If a sorcerer's spiritual energy is amplified past what their body can handle, they die. The mystic blades avoid this by storing energy outside the wielder's body in the form of a Guardian Entity, allowing far more power than normal sorcery.
- Pocket Dimension: Tafuku, one of the Kamunabi's sorcerers has a power which manifests in this way; it maintains the nearby environment, but forms a "sumo ring" for specific people and locks them in an empty version of the world until a fight is completed within it.
- The Power of Hate:
- Chihiro claims that he would refuse treatment for his scars so he can wake up every morning "with fresh hatred" by seeing them again and gain. It's this hatred that leads to the Mind Rape above (involving making him relive the day his father was murdered) backfiring horribly on the sorceror attempting to induce a Heroic BSoD on him.Chihiro: That day is what drives me. You just made the reason clearer.
- Genichi Sojo, Nightmare Fetishist that he is, relishes remembering the trauma of being showered in blood as a child (assuming that the vision he got from those same powers was him in that situation.)
- Chihiro claims that he would refuse treatment for his scars so he can wake up every morning "with fresh hatred" by seeing them again and gain. It's this hatred that leads to the Mind Rape above (involving making him relive the day his father was murdered) backfiring horribly on the sorceror attempting to induce a Heroic BSoD on him.
- Reused Character Design: Tafuku, the "sumo" sorcerer introduced in chapter 20 bears a resemblance to Kuro from the author's previous oneshot CHAIN, which could be considered a prototype of Kagurabachi setting-wise.
- Rule of Seven: Rokuhira forged six mystical swords during a war and they were stolen by his murderers. Chihiro wields his father's seventh and final sword in his quest to retrieve the other ones.
- Storming the Castle: The climax of both the Vs. Sojo and Rakuzaichi arcs begin with Chihiro storming into the giant, elaborate base of operations of the arc's respective villain, looking for a specific thing of great importance while a legion of henchmen try to stop him.
- Switching P.O.V.: While the series consistently follows the exploits of Chihiro during his quest, the internal narration the chapter follows can vary wildly, with small looks into the mindsets of the antagonists and supporting cast interspersed among Chihiro's internal narration.
- Teleportation: Shiba first showcases a teleport spell to get a bystander out of danger, but warps the boy upside down by mistake.
- Time Skip:
- The first and most prominent example occurs after the opening flashback, skipping to exactly 3 years and 2 months later, with Chihiro becoming a hardened warrior after his father was killed.
- Smaller jumps forward occur at least once per arc, with two weeks being skipped at the end of the Vs. Sojo arc, and a week being skipped to close the distance on the date of the Rakuzaichi in its titular arc. Any important scenes or revelations during the skipped time is subsequently shown in flashbacks.
- Unobtainium: The Enchanted Blades were forged out of Datenseki, a special ore of which only 250 kilos are known to exist. It has the unique property of amplifying spirit energy channeled through it, with the drawback that it will destroy the user's body unless refined.
- Urban Fantasy: The manga's setting seems like modern Japan, but sorcerers are working together with criminal organizations and seem to be an important part of the underground world.
- Villain No Longer Idle: Sojo places a bounty on Chihiro's head but it gets halted by the military, so the villain takes matters into his own hands. In a single day, he callously murders the henchmen who failed him, gets Chihiro's location and casually walks into Hinao's café to confront him.
- Visual Pun:
- Hakuri is introduced with an internal monologue about how even though he lost his entire family, he just needs to grit his teeth and move forward. Then his jaw involuntarily goes loose and he spills his whole drink.
- Hiyuki gets so worked up while thinking about all of the different factors of the Rakuzaichi and how her orders conflict with her personal morals she decides to completely do away with subtlety and burn down everything unjust. Her sudden anger and "rush of blood to the head" as she decides to act is symbolized by her briefly mentally short-circuiting and literally bleeding out of the head from her cut on the forehead reopening.
- Volumetric Mouth: A variation appears to be a Signature Style of Hokazono's where, if they're being comedically loud, a character's mouth will warp into a trapezoid and extend past the edges of their jawline. Many instances of this were edited to more realistic shapes when they were compiled in Volume 1.
- Wacky Parent, Serious Child: Kunishige was an eccentric airhead of a father, prone to doing things like talking to his goldfishes, while his son was the responsible and serious member of the family that often had more responsibilities around the house. Despite this, they seem to have a very happy life together and were pretty close.
- "Wanted!" Poster: A specific one for the Rakuzaichi is handed out to all of the guards for Chihiro, offering up a 50 million yen reward (roughly equivalent to $330,000 in the US) to bring him to Kyora as a corpse.
- Weapon of Mass Destruction: If a splash page from Chapter 6 is to be taken at face value, the enchanted blades were so powerful that one could destroy celestial objects. No wonder they're so dangerous.
- Wham Line:
- Hinao and Chihiro get these from Char in Chapter 3, complete with Beat Panels as they each have a "Eureka!" Moment about the significance of Char's testimony re: one of the stolen swords. This is the first solid lead anyone has on them in the story so far.(to Hinao) A bad guy with the most strongest sword [is after me]!
(to Chihiro) A cloud comes out of [the sword]. - Chapter 7 brings us Azami's explanation that the missing swords are rapidly becoming a national-level crisis, and their next lead.The big shots of the underworld will hold their annual black market auction, the Rakuza Ichi. Kunishige Rokuichi's legendary Shinuchi of the six enchanted blades is up for auction. Submitted by...Sojo.
- Hinao and Chihiro get these from Char in Chapter 3, complete with Beat Panels as they each have a "Eureka!" Moment about the significance of Char's testimony re: one of the stolen swords. This is the first solid lead anyone has on them in the story so far.
- Wham Shot: In Chapter 27, after Shiba destroys the chandelier, the darkness is suddenly lit up ... by a flash of lightning.
- Chihiro: Kuregumo. Mei.
- World of Badass: In Japan, katanas can be legally owned and openly wielded for self-defense, meaning even the lowliest of Mooks has some skill in sword-fighting. On top of this, over a thousand sorcerers in Tokyo alone use their unique powers for combat and mercenary work, making Elite Mooks liable to show up at the drop of a hat.
- Would Hurt a Child: And how! Sojo's henchmen abuse Char's Healing Factor by cutting her leg off to act as a decoy for Chihiro, and Sojo later subjects her to repeated extraction of Human Resources because he thinks using her flesh in the sword-making process is the key to making new enchanted blades.
- You Can't Thwart Stage One: After learning the Shinuchi, the second Sacred Blade on their hunt will be the centerpiece of a criminal auction, Chihiro and Shiba work tirelessly to acquire it beforehand and subvert having to infiltrate the auction. After tracking it to the Sazanami household, the end result of their effort is Chihiro's own blade is stolen and they are forced to raid the auction anyway. Clarification on the weapon's location reveals they have no chance to get their hands on the Shinuchi before the Rakuzaichi without unavoidable loss of innocent life.
- You Killed My Father: Chihiro's father Rokuhira was assassinated by three mysterious sorcerers who then stole his six magical swords. The hero sets out on a quest to find those hitmen and kill them.
