Asura (Knife)

WARNING! This article may contain major spoilers from the Dandadan manga series. Please read at your own risk.

This is the article on the kozuka knives. For the cursed sword, head to Asura.

Asura
Japanese	阿修螺
Rōmaji	Ashura
Statistics
Type	Weapon
Wielder(s)	Count Saint-Germain Takeshi Murakami Koki Yukishiro Enenra Kettetsu Power User Mika Adachi
Debuts
Manga Debut	Chapter 163

An Asura (阿修螺, Ashura^?) is a kozuka knife crafted from a blade fragment of the cursed sword Asura.

Appearance

Asuras are kozuka knives with a flower design running along its handle. The handle of each knife comes in either a black color or a white color, signifying their different functionality. The black handle Asura is the one most commonly used.

Capabilities

Black Asura

Power Absorption

Forged from the same blade as the cursed sword Asura, an Asura possesses the weapon's ability to extract powers from living things and spirits. This is specifically exclusive to Asuras with black handles. The extraction process can only work if the wielder's target admits defeat (or "yield" to them), and once they do, they can proceed to cut them with the blade. For Count Saint-Germain, he can use a power from a black Asura knife by inserting one through the tsuba holes of his sword and by calling out the name of the yokai he stole the power from.

White Asura

Power Bestowal
In addition to extracting powers, an Asura that has absorbed a particular power can bestow it to an individual through a cut somewhere on their body. This is specifically exclusive to Asuras with white handles.

Known Knives

Power	Knife Possessor(s)	Previous Power Possessor(s)	Current Power Possessor
Microfauna Manipulation	Takeshi Murakami Enenra (Formerly) Count Saint-Germain (Formerly)	Lord of the Flies	Koki Yukishiro
Severed Head Dribblers Manipulation	Mika Adachi Takeshi Murakami (Formerly) Enenra (Formerly) Count Saint-Germain (Formerly)	Takeshi Murakami Unknown Progenitor	None
Jiangshi Manipulation	Mika Adachi Enenra (Formerly) Count Saint-Germain (Formerly)	Unknown Progenitor	Mika Adachi
Kettetsu Transformation	Kettetsu Power User Enenra (Formerly) Count Saint-Germain (Formerly)	Kettetsu	Kettetsu Power User
Enhanced Jumping	Hase Enenra (Formerly) Count Saint-Germain (Formerly)	Jumping Crone	Hase
Body Manipulation	Count Saint-Germain	Fairy-Tale Card	Ultimate Yokai Vessel

History

Past

Five years before the start of the series, the cursed sword Asura that was sealed away was stolen by an unknown robber and was used to craft various kozuka knives and kogais from its blade to better utilize Asura's ability to steal yokai powers.

Kintama Hunt Saga

Danmara Arc

Following the Fairy-Tale Card's defeat, Count Saint-Germain used a kozuka on the yokai to seize the yokai's spiritual power, fulfilling the agreement the two previously made with each other.

Current Saga

Kozuka Knives Arc

Aiming to steal Momo Ayase's psychic powers, Murakami approached and threatened female student Koki Yukishiro with blackmail if she did not do as he says in siphoning the Momo's power with an Asura for him.

Koki attempted to acquire Momo's psychic power while she was alone in the school's library. However, she ran out of time to complete her task as the school's bell rang. Around the same time, Count Saint-Germain, disguised as Sanjome, approached Okarun in the halls and tried to use a kozuka to seize Okarun's Turbo Granny power. Although Okarun unintentionally agreed to "yield," Count Saint-Germain ultimately chose not to proceed after being startled by something unexpected at that moment.

Later, an unknown individual approached a working man and Adachi to persuade them into collecting yokai powers for them using the Asura knives, starting with Seiko Ayase located at Nikujiru Gyoza. The two ultimately failed in their mission after the working man was defeated by their target fighting alongside Payase and Kashimoto.

After failing to best Okarun during gym, Hase heard a voice communicating with him and two Asuras in front of him. The voice instructed Hase to cut himself with the white-handled kozuka to gain powers and then to cut Okarun with the black-handled one to steal his power. However, they reminded him that he needed to make Okarun yield in order to successfully do so. Later, after discovering that two girls had a crush on his rival, he decided to cut himself with the white Asura. At first, nothing happened, reassuring Hase that it was merely a sick joke, until he froze upon sensing the presence of an old woman standing behind him, signifying the knife's effects.

Adachi, who had returned to school after the failed ambush at the restaurant and perceived Murakami's spiritual power, decided to offer herself to Murakami with the excuse that she needed money in order to be alone with him in his apartment. With her jiangshi and the sudden swarm of bugs remotely controlled by Koki, Murakami had no other choice but to accept her request and he yielded to her, cutting himself with the black kozuka knife. This transferred the Severed Head Dribblers' powers into the knife and causing the humanoids fighting in the gym at school to disappear.

Because Murakami was then violently carried to the school, Adachi fled and contacted the orchestrator, who ordered an intermediary to meet with her at a secluded point under an overpass. Here, the agent was ready to retrieve the stolen power, but a call from the mastermind shockingly revealed that she had attacked another agent just like her without receiving a direct order, which was eligible for termination. The voice requested her to deposit both the ability she had stolen and the powers that were given to her in the beginning. Ultimately, the transaction did not go through as the intermediary who had the power of the Fairy-Tale Card was suddenly faced with Vega, who could resist the yokai and forced the man to escape.

Trivia

• Asura's name comes from entities beings presents in Dharmic religions. In Hinduism, Asuras are a class of lowest rank deities who are associated with violence, rage, anger, ego and jealousy, opposed to the more peace-inclined Devas. They are portrayed as demonic with various faces and arms, also being constantly angry and wantonly violent, seeking fights wherever they can. In Buddhism, they are view as some kind of demigods, titans, or antigods race.