I liked him without one too. But remember that Benitora has special abilities too - even though he's not a supernatural type. And he also has the Muramasa spear/trident thing. Yukimura's sword is just a plain old sword. I think it's the one he got from Mizuki, isn't it? Her father's? Because when he tells his story in "Dragon of the Blue Sky," he says "It was when I first held this sword."

But the guys he's facing are just getting too high-powered. At least he can't use his power ad lib - it will kill him if he does it too much. And I like his reaction to how it makes him feel - he gets kind of high from it. Very Yukimura - life is just one long strange trip (sadly, not long enough, in his case).