It’s easier to reread 248 and 249 but these are the key panels.

Rika starts killing them, then Kenjaku adds his rule. Cut back to 248 and we see that only TWO panels after the rule was added, Yuta has already made it back. One attack from Sukuna later, and Rika gets there too.

Am I crazy for thinking that Rika must’ve killed 99% of them within mere seconds here? I don’t think Yuta even needed to get involved cuz he wasn’t killing while Kenny was yapping to him. Mind you, this is Rika’s weakest form.

This includes his high grade curses too, which would be intelligent.

Basic Rules of Sky Manipulation:

- Sky Manipulation treats the sky, or rather space, as a surface that can be warped according to the user’s will. This can be done via the hands, or, seemingly to a lesser extent, passively. Uro is able to use the sky as “clothing” which exists constantly, so long as her technique can physically be used, (i.e. not on burnout or otherwise disabled) [Slide 1]. It can also be used to float or fly through the air [Slide 2].

- Opponents, parts of opponents, or objects - including attacks, which enter warped space, become warped themselves. This renders the part of the opponent affected useless, and can persist for some time after the user stops directly touching the space [Slide 3]. For objects or attacks, their trajectory can be altered according to how the space is reshaped [Slide 6]. 

- Attacks from Sky Manipulation, specifically Thin Ice Breaker, are capable of bypassing conventional defences, making them unblockable [Slide 4], [Slide 14].

- The user can affect very large portions of space, especially with respect to attacks [Slide 5].

More Specific Applications:

- Uro uses Sky Manipulation to completely shield herself from a wide range granite blast, coming out unscathed. This shows that the user is able to avoid any and all damage from directed AOE attacks, regardless of attack range, assuming they can react in time [Slide 7]. Note that “reacting” in this case is no slower than reflexively throwing up one's hands to block.

- Uro easily blocks Yuta’s punch using Sky Manipulation, which results in his reinforced gauntlet being completely shattered [Slide 8]. This shows that it can be used to cause an opponent to harm themselves, as a mere side effect of stopping their blow.

- Sky Manipulation is frequently used to advantageously manipulate distances.

- Uro rapidly closes a great distance between Yuta and herself, allowing her to catch him off guard with an attack [Slide 5, right]. 

- Yuta initiates Sky Manipulation far from Sukuna, but the sword thrust manages to reach him [Slide 18].

- Similarly, Yuta uses Sky Manipulation to swing at Sukuna, initiating the attack from outside his reach [Slide 16], [Slide 17].

- Yuta redirects Ryu’s attack from a notable distance away, then seamlessly gets close to him when attacking with Thin Ice Breaker [Slide 9], [Slide 10], [Slide 11].

- Yuta uses Sky Manipulation to fly above Sukuna, out of his reach [Slide 12].

- Yuta is able to alter the trajectory of Ryu’s granite blast when it is already high in the air [Slide 13, top]. This suggests that Sky manipulation can be used to warp people and objects from a substantial distance away.

Offensive Power

Sky Manipulation, specifically Thin Ice Breaker, offers unblockable and extremely high burst damage accompanied by significant knockback. Using it, Sendai Yuta was able to make Ryu vomit blood, as shown in slide 11. Note that Ryu is able to easily withstand dismantles from 16F Sukuna, and serves as a benchmark for high durability, even compared to the Shinjuku cast. 

Attacks that make use of Sky Manipulation are massively stronger than standard strikes:

- An elbow from Uro [Slide 3] was shrugged off by Yuta with little to no issue, while Thin Ice Breakers forced him to use RCT, contributing to his (massive) reserves being noticeably drained [Slide 19].

- As previously stated, a simple block completely destroyed Yuta’s cursed tool [Slide 8].

- Fully Manifested Rika’s punches are likely > Yuta’s, and left Ryu with noticeable bruises, but his Thin Ice Breaker caused blood vomiting, indicating immediate internal damage; A major step above bruising.

Yes, Sky Manipulation Completely Shuts Down CQC Fighters - Debunking a Common Talking Point

With all that said, it's time to take a look at actual combat applications, specifically against “Punch kick merchants” like Yuki, Yuji, Hakari, Ryu, Kashimo, etc. As we established, Sky Manipulation is frequently used to initiate powerful attacks from a significant distance - well outside the physical reach of the aforementioned characters.

This means that in a combat situation, unless the sky manipulation user gets completely blitzed (ie attacked before they can react), they will always be able to manipulate the space in front of them, allowing them to simultaneously attack and defend from a safe distance. Using Yuta as an example, the interaction plays out as such: 

- Yuta and punch kick merchant start a distance apart 

- Yuta pulls the sky in front of him, as seen in slides 1, 10, 16, and 18.

- At this point, his opponent cannot attack him at all, because if they enter the warped space, they will be disabled like Yuta was aginst Uro, leaving them completely open.

- Alternatively, they can keep their distance. This results in the same problem, however - Yuta can simply launch a high AP, unblockable Thin Ice Breaker like he did against Ryu. The attack range is incredibly wide, meaning dodging the shockwave is not an option.

- The attack sends them flying away. Rinse and repeat.

Key points here: 

1. SM users will always be able to attack H2H merchants first, as they have far greater effective range via the aforementioned distance manipulation.

2. The H2H merchant cannot attack at all while space is warped.

3. The H2H merchant cannot block the SM user’s attack.

4. The SM user attacks and defends all in one simple move.

5. The H2H merchant is sent flying and forced to heal. This distance can be immediately closed by the SM user, in order to press the advantage.

“Sky manipulation’s defence isn’t that good for H2H. Unless they’re fast enough to stop the punch midway like Uro did against Yuta, it’s useless!” 

This is a completely false talking point that I see way too often. Sky manipulation isn’t a frame-perfect parry reliant on speed, it’s complete area denial. The manipulated space can essentially be as large as the user wants - in slide 1 Uro grabs a section of sky easily large enough to cover her entire body, in slide 7 she does the same to avoid the wide range granite blast, and in slide 5 she’s seen attacking massive areas. 

The warp effect doesn't just only work in the instant she's pulling the sky. She blocks Ryu’s AOE granite blast preemptively. If it was some tiny window of timing, she’d never be able to block an AOE sustained beam like that. If you attack warped space, you’ll be disabled by it, end of story. 

As was just discussed, all the user needs to do is grab the sky from any distance beyond striking and they’re totally free to attack without worry. 

Some additional points

Yuta chose to use cursed speech to bypass Uro’s Sky Manipulation. This carries a lot of weight because cursed speech is best saved as a surprise - using it so early suggests that he felt there was no other way to get past her defences, even with Rika. Furthermore, he chose to use Dhruv’s CT to secure a guaranteed hit, which revealed his nature as a Copy user, running the risk of eliminating another element of surprise early in the fight.

Similarly, Uro was the first to be taken out when her CT went on burnout, again showing that the only way to beat a competent SM user is to somehow disable their CT entirely.

Yuta’s usage of Sky Manipulation in his domain was severely gimped by being limited to one use per sword. Full access to the technique would make him even more dynamic.

Conclusion

Overall, Sky Manipulation is a cursed technique that perfectly blends high offensive power and nigh-absolute defence. If you have no way of attacking other than fists, kicks, and even heat seeking laser beams, you’ll need to be an entire blitz tier faster if you want to beat a sky manipulation user. It’s absolutely perfect for use in situations like a domain clash - every attack is unblockable, and even one is enough to cause major internal damage.

In conclusion, sky manipulation IS allat, Yuta upscale.