So, you’re trying to wrap your head around how to use World Cutting Slash. It sounds simple on paper, right? You just swing a hand and everything in front of you falls apart. But if you’ve been following Jujutsu Kaisen closely, especially the brutal showdown in Shinjuku, you know Gege Akutami didn't just hand Ryomen Sukuna a "win button" without some seriously heavy lore implications and mechanical drawbacks. It’s not just a big sword swing. It’s a fundamental rewrite of how Cursed Techniques interact with reality itself.
Let’s be real. Most fans think this is just a "stronger" version of Dismantle. It isn't.
The Actual Mechanics of the Slash
To understand how to use World Cutting Slash, you first have to understand what it's actually hitting. Normal Cursed Techniques, like the standard Cleave and Dismantle, target the opponent. They target the person, their Cursed Energy, or their physical durability. Satoru Gojo’s Limitless made this impossible because it created an infinite distance between the attack and the target.
The World Cutting Slash—or the "World-Spanning Dismantle"—doesn't care about Gojo. It doesn't even look at him.
Instead, the technique targets the existence of the world itself. Think of it like this: if you want to kill a fly sitting on a piece of paper, you can try to swat the fly (standard Dismantle). If the fly has a shield, you fail. But if you take a pair of scissors and cut the entire piece of paper in half exactly where the fly is sitting, the fly dies anyway. It doesn't matter how fast the fly is or if it has a shield. The space it occupies no longer exists as a whole.
Sukuna learned this by watching Mahoraga. He didn't just copy the Shikigami; he used it as a blueprint to expand his "technique interpretation." He basically changed the "target" parameter in his brain from "Entity" to "Space-Time Coordinate."
Why You Can’t Just Spam It
If this move is so broken, why didn't Sukuna just spam it against everyone immediately? Because Gege implemented some massive "nerfs" via Binding Vows to make it fair for the plot.
Originally, against Gojo, Sukuna was able to pull this off with almost no telegraphing because he used a one-time Binding Vow. But after that? The cost went up. To use the World Cutting Slash now, Sukuna (or anyone attempting this level of sorcery) faces three massive hurdles:
- Hand Signs: You need the Enmanten hand sign. This is why the heroes kept trying to rip Sukuna’s arms off. If he can't make the sign, he can't expand the target.
- Chanting: He has to say "Dragon Scales," "Recoil," "Twin Meteors." These aren't just cool-sounding words; they are incantations that prime the Cursed Energy for a reality-warping output.
- Directional Aiming: Unlike a standard Dismantle which can be fired off like a flick of the wrist, the World-Spanning version requires a specific path or "spark" of Cursed Energy that savvy sorcerers like Maki Zenin can actually see coming.
It’s slow. It’s loud. It’s telegraphed. But if it hits? It's over. No amount of Reverse Cursed Technique can easily fix being cleaved at the level of reality.
The Mahoraga Blueprint
We have to talk about the Eight-Handled Sword Divergent Sila Divine General Mahoraga. Honestly, without Mahoraga, Sukuna never figures this out.
The first adaptation Mahoraga underwent against Gojo's Infinity was just changing the nature of its own Cursed Energy to bypass the filter. Sukuna couldn't do that. It wasn't his "nature." He waited for the second adaptation. That second one was the game-changer. Mahoraga stopped trying to "touch" Gojo and started "slashing the space" Gojo inhabited.
When Sukuna saw that, he realized his Dismantle technique was capable of the same thing if he just stopped thinking about it as a projectile and started thinking about it as a topographical cut.
Misconceptions About Durability Negation
A common mistake in the power-scaling community is saying the World Cutting Slash has "infinite attack power."
That’s not technically true. It has Infinite Bypass.
If you hit a brick wall with a sledgehammer, you need power to break it. If you remove the section of the universe where the brick wall exists, you didn't need "power" at all. You just needed a way to edit the map. This is why it worked on Gojo but why Sukuna still struggled against Maki or Yuji later on. Against them, he didn't necessarily need the World Slash because they didn't have an infinite barrier. Using it on them was actually a waste of energy unless he needed to end the fight in one shot through their sheer physical toughness.
How to Use World Cutting Slash: The Strategic Layer
If you’re looking at this from a tactical perspective—say, in a tabletop RPG or just deep-diving the combat logic—the World Cutting Slash is a finisher, not an opener.
- Distraction is key. Sukuna used his Domain Expansion and a constant barrage of regular slashes to tire Gojo out and force him into a position where he felt safe behind his Infinity.
- The Binding Vow Trade-off. You have to be willing to give something up. Sukuna traded the ease of use for the power to kill the "un-killable" sorcerer.
- Environmental Awareness. You aren't aiming at a person. You are aiming at the horizon. If your opponent moves even a few inches outside the "cut" of the world, they might lose an arm instead of their life. This happened multiple times in the later chapters of the Shinjuku Showdown.
Practical Steps for JJK Fans and Theory Crafters
Understanding this move changes how you view the entire power system of Jujutsu Kaisen. It moves the bar from "who has more energy" to "who has a better philosophical understanding of their technique."
If you want to apply this logic to your own theories or fan works, start by looking at other techniques that could be "expanded." Could Megumi expand his shadows to not just be a storage space, but to replace the floor of the entire world? Could Nobara's resonance target the "soul of the earth"?
The next steps for mastering this lore are simple:
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- Re-read Chapter 236 very carefully. Pay attention to the dialogue about "the world itself."
- Compare the hand signs used in the Sukuna vs. Kashimo fight to the ones used later against the main cast; you'll see the struggle Sukuna has when his limbs are compromised.
- Analyze the incantations. Each word relates to a specific narrowing of the technique's focus.
The World Cutting Slash isn't just a move; it's a testament to Sukuna's genius as the "King of Curses." He doesn't just use power; he solves the puzzle of his opponent's existence. Once the puzzle is solved, the slash is just the final stroke of the pen.