Redux of my Garuda post for superior comprehension.
Garuda is Tsukumo’s Shikigami, converted into a Cursed Tool from her technique; Star Rage. This has been a misconception for a while that Garuda is just a Shikigami, but it is, in Yuki’s own words, a Cursed Tool that was once a Shikigami. Like Yuki, it is capable of utilizing her Star Rage Technique, meaning it can also use the sheer destructive force of Star Rage. I consider it to be highly underrated as a part of Yuki’s kit, as it’s been a major part of her ability. Below are its various uses, feats and statements.
PHYSIOLOGY
Garuda’s build is extremely practical and useful for Tsukumo. It appears to be made out of a tough yet stretchy material covered in some boney material in segments. The flesh between seems to be competently able to both extend rapidly and to a long distance (1) as well as quickly shrink down and hide the flesh behind the boney segments (2).
Garuda rapidly extends the fleshy parts to largely increase its effective range in a rather brief timeframe.
Garuda quickly shrinks the fleshy material until none is visible and it appears entirely coated in the boney material. This variability in length and composition gives it a significant advantage in that it can quickly switch to whatever length is necessary for any given moment
It’s worth mentioning just how extremely far Garuda is capable of extending. If we use this picture as a baseline for its length without extending too far, we can estimate its length to be around 12 feet if we assume Yuki to be around 6 feet tall (Garuda appears to be well over twice her height in length)
Nextly, looking at how far a single segment can extend is most evident in panel (1). PS; writing this I ran out of room so unfortunately you’ll have to refer to the numbered panel above.
It would appear that one boney segment seems to be just a quarter of the length of a fully extended fleshly segment, meaning that at maximum length Garuda could extend to a huge length of <=30 feet. Pretty alright for a punch and kick merchant, huh?
Furthermore, Garuda appears to have a small degree of manipulation over its tail and its shape, evidenced repeatedly.
We can see that the tail goes from wide and two pronged to thinner and more one pronged. Even if minor, I simply find this fact fascinating, and doing such should increase lethality by concentrating the force into a smaller area.
USAGE AS A PROJECTILE
During chapter 205, Yuki punts Garuda towards the Special Grade imported Cursed Spirit; Ganesha. The resulting speed and force of the attack, empowered by Star Rage, tears without any resistance through the Curse's head and through the back, exorcizing it effortlessly. While we don’t know much about Ganesha, we do know that it was a Special Grade Curse, and that Kenjaku was confident enough in it to use it against Yuki to keep her at a distance. Only four characters have killed a Special Grade Curse in one attack; Yuki, Takaba (Akuro-o-Otake), Yuta (Kurorushi) and Gojo (Hanami), so the fact that Garuda did it, regardless of how much we know about Ganesha, is still an incredibly impressive feat. Not only a Special Grade Curse, but Kenjaku was almost certainly reinforcing this Curse further with his own CE, making it even more powerful and thus the subsequent obliteration even more impressive.
The speed of this attack is also similarly impressive, as considering it completely blitzed the curse and seemingly caught Kenjaku off guard, I have no doubt that it could reach speeds not dissimilar to that of Piercing Blood, only made more lethal by a larger area and increased lethality. If a direct punch from Yuki could make Kenny reach M1, then a kick (physically more powerful than a human punch), using the same mass, with a more aerodynamic shape, should allow Garuda to be incredibly fast when kicked.
USAGE AS A RESTRAINT
During chapter 206, after Yuki took severe damage from Kenjaku’s Domain, lowering her Star Rage’s output, Garuda manages to wrap itself around Kenjaku’s waist to hold him in place for Choso’s attack. In the following chapter, Yuki enhances Garuda’s Mass, even with her technique severely lowered. The result of that made Garuda so massive that even Kenjaku could not pry it off of himself before Choso fired piercing blood. Not only that, but it was so heavy that Kenjaku’s body ended up breaking the ground below him from the weight. This same Kenjaku was effortlessly physically overpowering Choso just three chapters earlier, yet Garuda, even with a weakened Star Rage, still could force him into place. I find this to be one of Garuda’s most underrated abilities, as not many characters are all that superior to Kenny in terms of strength, yet even he struggled with Garuda as a restraint. Kenny only ever escaped Garuda when Yuki used RCT, which slowed down her already weak Star Rage.
This might actually be the best use of Garuda for Yuki, as it’s basically a free shot if she can get someone restrained in it. We see something similar with Rika holding down Yuji and Sukuna multiple times, and considering how Star Rage works, this could more than likely easily perm restrain even top tiers if Yuki’s output was not severely hampered. I don’t doubt the effect to be any less powerful than Yuta’s usage of Rika to do the same.
I later have theorized that Garuda at full power would be even more powerful, considering just how large the drop in output caused by injury would have been.
Logistically speaking, it is far from impossible that Garuda could crush an opponent if they were to be caught, which is not unlikely considering it could easily catch Kenjaku only fighting an extremely weakened Yuki at the same time.
USAGE AS A WHIP
Later in 207, Yuki recovers part of her Star Rage’s output, and wields Garuda as a whip towards Kenny. While he is forced to dodge, the destructive force of Star Rage rips apart part of the Tomb of the Stars corridor, destroying enormous amounts of the area with just one attack. It’s clear from the paneling that Gege wanted to show this as a powerful attack, considering its scope of damage and speed.
This whip is also not at all slow, as Kenjaku put in visible effort to dodge it. This very same Kenjaku was able to easily dodge over 3 Piercing Bloods without any effort, so it’s not unfair to call it at worst somewhat quick. Furthermore, if it operates even remotely like a real world whip, it should be extraordinarily quick.
After Uraume uses Icefall, sending massive shards of ice flying down at Yuji and co. While paneled as a powerful attack, we immediately see Yuki use what is implied to be Garuda (judging from the AOE) to destroy the ice in one fell swoop before it even has the opportunity to kill anyone.
This further my belief that Garuda whip is extremely quick, as it was able to(supposedly) destroy this ice mere inches from the heads of these people.
INCREASED LETHALITY
As one of my latest posts discussed, Garuda should have even greater AP than Yuki while utilizing Star Rage, especially when used as a whip.
This is for a variety of reasons, but what I detailed is the physical toughness of Garuda meaning that it would be not only more capable of ripping through less dense material, but also the schematics of a whip in general meaning that it could produce drastically more momentum than Yuki herself is capable of producing. Especially notable since Yuki is capable of this level of lethality alone, and by what has been discussed, Garuda should be capable of creating dramatically more lethality.
INDEPENDENT USAGE
Another, often forgotten aspect of Garuda is its ability to fight on its own. We saw twice that Garuda is able to attack while not being directly weaponized by Yuki.
The first time, Garuda attacks Kenjaku after Yuki was injured, ending up forcing him to dodge and destroying part of the floor. While it’s hard to gauge how strong this attack was while independent, the fact that Kenny chose to dodge it can say something about it was to hit, no?
The second time Garuda, even with its frontal part held down by Gravity, was able to shoot forwards its tail, which was subsequently held down but seemed rather quick in release.
Based on the lining and paneling, I’d also say that these quick release pokes are rather quick, and having a quick close to mid ranged prodding attack is useful for getting opponents out of rhythm and could be used to deal quick damage to ground and thus their footing.
Most recently, its become somewhat consensus that Garuda itself, not Yuki, had destroyed this Cursed Spirit, as her hands were already up and off since the previous whip.
This is especially important, as if Garuda is capable of quickly building up speed independently of Yuki, she is capable of doing more by herself, thus making any fight significantly more of a 2V1 than a traditional mono e mono battle, and further increasing the pressure on her opponent.
RIDICULOUS DURABILITY
Garuda is, as expected of a Special Grades Shikigami, exceptionally tough. This post by MemeEnjoyer sums up its exceptional durability extremely well
In summary, Garuda was struck by an attack even more forceful than the punch that ripped through Kenjaku on a more direct strike and yet received absolutely zero lasting damage from said attack.
It’s been debated as to if Garuda tanked Kenny’s Domain which, I don’t find impossible yet I won’t use as conclusive evidence. Check this post if you desire to discuss that point.
MOBILITY
Garuda can fly :3
But seriously, having a range of upwards motion is incredibly helpful. It allows Yuki to handle opponents like Uro better and in a practical battle having more control over the area, especially upwards, is highly valuable. Being able to lay on attacks from the top and on the ground makes things rather difficult for any opponent.
There seems to be a small physical signifier for when Garuda is actively flying, that being a couple of little… wings(?) that appear near the boney segments. These are generally seen when Garuda is flying or hovering, and seem to disappear when Garuda is used as a tool or not flying.
ABILITY TO USE STAR RAGE SIMULTANEOUSLY
Garuda is capable of using Star Rage at the same time as Yuki, as evidenced by this panel when Garuda is using mass to weigh down Kenny and Yuki uses it to beat on Kenny, even while their output is largely dropped;
Now this should be fairly obvious knowledge, but I have seen people claiming Yuki can’t apply it to both simultaneously, while the story more than proves otherwise. While seemingly insignificant, having them be able to use it at the same time further increases my opinion that Garuda makes a fight far more of a 2v1 than people would like you admit. And, considering that Garuda should have increased lethality than even Yuki, this puts opponents in even more of a “trapped between a rock and a hard place” situation.
Garuda Statements
There aren’t many Garuda statements, as it’s not exactly talked about commonly, but it’s worth noting that Yuki was confident that Garuda would give her and an exhausted Choso an certain edge over Kenjaku, even if her and his own techniques were burnt out, implying a fair degree of power. Tengen also never disagrees with this, only disagreeing with HOW they should get there.
We also see Yuki assert again that, even if her technique was also burnt out, Garuda would give her the edge to beat Kenjaku, not even mentioning Choso.
Overall, Garuda is an incredibly strong tool at Yuki’s disposal. Garuda is easily one of the most useful Shikigami/Cursed Tools in the series when wielded in Yuki’s hands. Being usable as a whip, restraint, cannonball, a target for Star Rage other than Yuki, and a self regulating creature is incredibly useful, and I wish it was talked about more. It’s one of the biggest parts of Yuki’s game, so seeing it forgotten is rather unfortunate