Sonoka Narukami

**Sonoka Narukami** (鳴神 園花, *Narukami Sonoka*?, lit. Sound Divinity Garden Beauty) is the main female heroine of *Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Castle Avidya*.

She is the designated heiress to Hidenobu Narukami, the current head of the Narukami Family, one of the Five Great Sorcerer Clans, and a Special-Grade Jujutsu Sorcerer of the Narukami Family. She is also the fiancée of the designated heir of the Arai Family, Kouki Arai.

## Background

Sonoka Narukami was born on October 27, 2005, alongside her twin sister, Yumemi Narukami. She is the second daughter and fourth child overall of the heir to the Narukami family, Junpei Narukami, and his consort, Kanae Narukami. Immediately from birth, she was discovered to have a problem: her eyesight was incredibly impaired to the point that she could barely see; she was medically diagnosed with a profoundly low vision of 20/850. She also had the beginnings of what appeared to be fox ears and a small nub of a tail growing out of her butt. This didn't particularly worry the Narukami family but Sonoka's impaired vision prevented her from doing most of the things she would normally have been capable of were she born with normal vision. Once she was capable of forming full conscious thoughts after learning how to speak, she cursed her inability to do basic things which was the large spark needed to ignite her cursed energy and from that point on, it began to grow as it tempered itself over and over.

Upon turning four, she picked up the sword and began training, learning the techniques of her family. Upon being first taught the Inherited Technique of the Narukami family, Sonoka displayed something strange: one specific application of the technique that she uses had never before been seen. Investigating the phenomenon further, it was discovered that Sonoka had, in fact, used a completely different technique, and it was designated as her unique "*Innate Technique*" on top of the Inherited Technique of her lineage. This also helped to solve the mystery behind Sonoka's near-blindness: the cost of this Innate Technique, which was discovered to be the manipulation of light, was that her vision would be equally impaired. The second mystery of her fox ears and tail (which had grown to noticeable sizes) was solved as well; it was classified as a Heavenly Restriction where Sonoka would sacrifice her humanity in exchange for inhuman abilities. As such, Sonoka became one of the only known examples of a sorcerer that can use both an Inherited Technique, passed down from her parents, and an Innate Technique.

When she turned six, it was Sonoka's turn for the ceremony of selecting a wielder for Narakumo, the family heirloom of the Narukami family. All three of her older siblings were able to use Narakumo but none were able to use it to its full extent as the cursed tool's nature was to actively drain its wielder of their cursed energy. The sword could not form a lasting bond with any of her older siblings, as they weren't able to form an equal relationship with the sword and when it was Sonoka's turn, her parents weren't that excited as they figured that this time would be the same (the pessimism of a failed bonding was stronger than the optimism of the small chance of it succeeding). However, against all odds and shattering all expectations, Sonoka was able to perfectly wield the cursed tool. She even raised her voice, saying that she had found her partner. Celebrations would ensue but it was not long after that Sonoka collapsed to the ground, pain firing through her eyes; it was ascertained that as a side effect of being Narakumo's master, the cost of Sonoka's Innate Technique increased, completely blinding her.

Despite entirely losing her vision, Sonoka became an exceedingly powerful sorcerer. By the age of nine, she had already achieved the rank of first-class sorcerer, the youngest first-class sorcerer in history; this unprecedented promotion is backed by her exemplary track record as she had been able to exorcise numerous first-class curse spirits as well as two intelligent unregistered special-grade curse spirits all on her own when she was sent to nearby Korea to inspect rumors of cursed spirits. In between one of her missions, her parents set her up for an *omiai* (a formal meeting set up by a special counsel and the attendees' respective parents between two people who have not yet met prior to the meeting for the intention of marrying them to each other) with the son of the Arai family who held dominion over the far south of Kyushu.

Upon meeting him, Sonoka felt an affinity with him; his cursed energy strangely soothed her. Once they got to know each other, it was decided that they were to be married at their third meeting. Sonoka was overjoyed as she had finally found the man that she would devote her entire life, body, and soul to. She was only ten when she made this vow and it was later when she was eleven that she encountered an ocean-based cursed spirit and reportedly exorcised it by awakening to a Domain Expansion before collapsing from exhaustion. Upon showing proof of it to the higher staff, she was promoted to Special-Grade sorcerer, making her the fifth and youngest ever Special-Grade sorcerer. She also has a strange student-teacher relationship with Satoru Gojo, the undisputed strongest among the special-grade sorcerers; he is particularly her mentor in coaching her how to master her Domain Expansion.

Upon turning twelve, Sonoka was chosen to be entered into Tokyo Prefectural Jujutsu High School as her academic track record allowed her to easily skip a few grades despite being unable to read or write due to having limited vision since birth. There was also the reasoning that she was extremely young and while she is a special-grade sorcerer, she should first be kept in some semblance of safety until she reaches adulthood (at least, that is the logic used by her parents who have more than just a few streaks of overprotectiveness). Sonoka's admission into Tokyo Prefectural Jujutsu High School sets yet another record as she would be the youngest student to ever grace its grounds.

## Appearance

Sonoka Narukami has been described to be the "flower on a high peak" (高嶺の花, *takane no hana*). This term is an idiom mostly used to describe a beautiful woman so dazzling, it is only possible to look at her from afar. Her beauty is renowned throughout the sorcerer community and primarily due to her young age, she is often made into the poster girl for sorcery, lauded as an idol. While the origin of the rumor is up in the air, it is said that if one were to catch a glimpse of Sonoka's opened red-orchid-hued eyes that see nothing, they will be blessed with good fortune for the rest of the year.

Despite her bloated reputation, Sonoka dresses rather meekly. She does up her flowing purple hair into waist-length twintails and a double hair bun on the left and right sides of her crown which has sometimes led people to call her a kitten as the hair buns look a lot like cat ears. These hair buns come undone in battle when Sonoka breaks her self-imposed Binding Vow and are replaced with the accursed fox ears she was born with. Her purple tail also grows out of her tailbone. Sonoka usually wears a pale lavender top with a high violet collar and ruffled dark blue skirt, layered under a deep violet overcoat. The opening of her overcoat is marked by a golden ornament, which has white flowers and purple and gold-accented feathers attached. The pattern of the feathers resembles the ones on the dangling backs of her long sleeves. In addition, she wears a golden hairpin, a tasseled choker, and dark gloves with lavender trim. She is also usually seen wearing either a blindfold or bandages to cover her eyes as she is blind; of course, these come off in battle as even if she sees nothing, Sonoka opens her eyes to "take in" the battle.

Upon attending Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical College, she began wearing the standard uniform, consisting of a dark blue *gakuran*-style top (a button-down jacket) and a long matching skirt that reaches to just above her knees. She also wears full-length pantyhose along with black high-heels (which don't particularly impede her walking despite being blind). Her sword is always hooked to her left waist as she refuses to ever go anywhere without it. She also wears a *haori* over her school uniform, said *haori* being decorated in the family crest of the Narukami family to prove her lineage.

## Abilities

### General Abilities

As a sorcerer of one of the Five Great Families, Sonoka has had innate talent since birth. The fact that she was born with an Innate Technique carved into her body despite being born in a family with an Inherited Technique was proof that she had an incredible talent. She was also born with a **Heavenly Restriction** (天与呪縛, *Ten'yo Jubaku*?): in exchange for being born inhuman (Sonoka is cursed to grow as a *kitsune*) and with extremely limited eyesight, she would be able to use the Innate Technique as well as possessing very high capabilities of generating cursed energy.

To compensate for the handicap of her low vision, both her sense of hearing and her sense of touch are super-enhanced to the point that she can both hear and feel 10 times better than the normal human. After being fully blinded, her senses enhanced by another five times for a total of 50 times (if she further enhances her senses with cursed energy, their sensitivity increases by yet another 10 times for a total of 500 times). However, because of her extremely sensitive ears, Sonoka has a hard time in daily life as her hearing allows her to clearly pick up sounds that are fifty times outside of the range of normal human hearing. In order to remedy this, Sonoka placed a **Binding Vow** (縛り, *Shibari*?) on herself where she is able to hide her cursed fox ears and tail in exchange for losing her superhuman hearing (even in this state, her hearing is still five times better than a normal person). Sonoka only breaks her Binding Vow, **Imperfect Apotheosis** (不全神化, *Fuzen Shinka*?), when she does battle against high-classed cursed spirits.

Sonoka has a sort of "*pseudo-vision*" where by sending out regular pulses of cursed energy, she is able to construct a map inside of her head of what's in her surroundings. This ability is quite similar to radar and is what helps Sonoka get around in her daily life without having to rely on the standard means of a blind person. In fact, Sonoka is confident that this ability essentially allows her to "see" like a normal person as her mental map is often as accurate as the legitimate vision other people have.

### Jujutsu

The first to note about Sonoka's jujutsu capabilities is the special trait of her lineage. Her Narukami family is one of the only known sorcerer families to have most, if not all, of its members able to use inverse cursed energy. Inverting cursed energy to birth positive cursed energy sounds contradictory but it can be achieved. For the members of the Narukami family (as well as their branch families), inverting cursed energy is extremely simple and similarly to the rest of her family, Sonoka primarily utilizes the inverse cursed energy she generates for either self-regeneration or to heal the wounds of others. However, Sonoka has created a technique unique to herself utilizing inverse cursed energy, **Cursed Technique Inversion: Simple Domain: Paradise Pure Land** (術式反転「簡易領域・楽園純地」, *Jutsushiki Hanten: Kan’i Ryōiki: Rakuen Junchi*?). Via this technique, Sonoka creates a variable-sized area of effect in which said area is flooded with inverted cursed energy to create a "*land*" in which all wounds sorcerers receive are automatically healed. She only ever uses this technique when fighting in groups with other sorcerers which is exceedingly rare considering her rank of Special-Grade sorcerer.

#### Cursed Techniques

As a member of the Narukami clan, Sonoka uses the Inherited Technique, Thunder Advent. In a nutshell, it is the ability to manipulate electricity. In terms of Sonoka, she primarily uses the technique to enhance her swordplay: on top of running cursed energy through her sword, she electrifies her blade by running lightning through the sword. The technique is also used by other members of her family and it has been given the name of **Chidori** (千鳥, *One Thousand Birds*?) as the sound the technique makes is akin to the simultaneous chirping of one thousand songbirds, however, the specific application used by Sonoka is named **Chidori Blade** (千鳥刀, *Chidorigatana*?) and it hasn't been displayed in any other users due to the unique traits of the Narakumo.

Partly due to the curse she was born with, Sonoka has also displayed the capability to use the Innate Technique, Wondrous Virtue Saintblade. It is a technique that "*guarantees*" a fatal cut to any target she sees; it is only when using this technique that Sonoka temporarily regains her vision. With her sight restored, Sonoka spots and "*locks-on*" to any target or targets within her line of sight (which is ten times better than a normal human, even with Earth's curvature taken into account) and performs a *battōjutsu*, a sword-drawing technique. This maneuver then invokes a stream of light that appears directly in front of the target and slashes them.

In her life's greatest crisis, Sonoka's cursed techniques had advanced to the point that she was able to reflect her Innate Domain and project it onto reality. Awakening to the Domain Expansion, Vajra Phoenix Edict, Sonoka was able to dispatch the ocean-based special-grade cursed spirit that had appeared off the coast near the mouth of the Ishikari River. It is a technique that mirrors the total calm of Sonoka's heart.

### Narukami Shintō-ryū

To put it simply, Sonoka is a genius of the sword. From the second she was able to pick one up, she displayed extremely rapid growth, absorbing all of the techniques like a sponge. She even easily learned the 12 *kata*, having already displayed the ability to generate and maintain a Simple Domain. Her skill with the sword is among the best among sorcerers even when one factors in her young age and the breathing room she has to improve. Satoru Gojo is one of the most avid advocates of Sonoka's growth and whenever he has time, he tutors Sonoka, his Spartan regimen creaed in the hopes that Sonoka's skill will reach the point where she can cut through a Domain Expansion (at least, that's the level Satoru wants Sonoka to reach).

### Equipment

#### Narakumo

Sonoka's main weapon of choice is the family heirloom passed down in the Narukami lineage, the special-grade cursed tool, Narakumo. Despite its rather nasty disposition, she is able to use it to great effects. She utilizes her family's sword style, the Narukami Shintō-ryū, through this sword with deadly precision and the sword's ability to create far stronger slashes than it should also makes any of her attacks that much more fatal.

#### Lightning Raiment

The outfit which Sonoka usually wears is actually a specially crafted battle dress, combining all of the arts and crafts of the Narukami family into a single set of clothing. Given the name of **Lightning Raiment** (雷鳴衣装, *Raimei Ishō*?), this dress when run through with cursed energy, becomes practically indestructible in the sense that it becomes an armor that protects Sonoka's body. While, by default, she also protects herself with a hardened layer of cursed energy around her entire person, the Lightning Raiment boosts her defenses, especially when she is fighting special-grade cursed spirits; she cannot and will not hold back against these opponents as doing so will mean instant death.

The Lightning Raiment can also easily channel the Inherited Technique of her family, stimulating her senses even further while simultaneously removing limits placed on her body. The human body naturally limits the full strength a person can output because continuously doing so will damage the body, sometimes irreversibly if repeated too many times. In the case of Sonoka, she can easily heal those wounds with her ability to readily generate inversed cursed energy and as such, does not need to worry about irreparably damaging her body. With the natural limits on her body removed, she can fight at extreme capacities.

## Trivia

* Sonoka's appearance is that of Keqing of the *Genshin Impact* game series.