Born into sorcerer royalty, Jujutsu Kaisen's Maki Zenin should have been at the forefront of the next generation of cursed energy s. Instead, she left her family legacy behind to pave her own way, and in doing so proved that there's more to defeating evil than using magic.
The Zenin family is one of the most powerful and influential sorcerer clans in the world. One of the ways that have been able to command such respect and deference is due to the fact that the family is consistently able to produce top-lever sorcerers with impeccable jujutsu abilities. The downside is that for family who are not able to exhibit the necessary ability levels, there is only abuse, ridicule, and ostracization. As a result of being a twin, Maki was not born with much of an ability to manipulate "cursed energy". That ability was ed on to her sister Mai. As a result, Maki was terribly mistreated as a child. Expected to quietly suffer her fate, Maki instead decided to leave the clan and show her family that she too could become a top-level sorcerer.
However, since her curse energy control was so low, she developed a two-pronged strategy to achieve her goal. First, rely on and develop her natural physical abilities. Fortunately, what she lacked in of sorcerer abilities, she made up for in tremendous physical strength, control, and endurance, as well as indomitable will. Ultimately, these attributes, combined with her physical training make her one of the toughest, most skilled melee fighters to battle in Jujutsu High.
Her second strategy to achieve her goal was to tap into her physical prowess to unleash her nominal sorcerer abilities. This occurs in one major way, namely the use of "cursed weapons". While cursed weapons are not sorcery, they normally possess enough cursed energy that when combined with the physical skill of an expert wielder, they're able to cut down the most powerful curses. Maki developed expertise in a number of cursed weapons, which she uses according to the situation at hand.
Ultimately, it was the combination of her physical skills, strategy, and use of cursed weapons that allowed Maki to be deemed a sorcerer. On the road to success, Maki proved that sorcery or magic were not the only way to tame a cursed spirit. Indeed, as she proved in Jujutsu Kaisen #149 and #150 - when Mai's death removed her remaining sorcerer abilities - her physical powers were more than enough to obliterate the rest of her family, despite the fact that they were top-level sorcerers.
Maki's quest has shown that in the Jujutsu Kaisen universe, greatness is not destined only for sorcerers, but can also be achieved by regular people willing to put in the time to master physical trials and acquire the right tools to be successful. Indeed, Maki Zenin has shown that few curses are immune to an effective physical attack, forever changing how power is seen in Jujutsu Kaisen.
