Mate Chopper

The «Mate Chopper» 「友切包丁 Meito Choppā, lit. "friend-cutting cleaver"」 is a rare and powerful dagger-class cursed weapon that served as PoH's primary weapon in Sword Art Online. It is a monster-drop, likely originating from a boss-level monster. Due to surpassing the best weapons any highest level player blacksmith could craft by April 2024, it was considered a maken (魔剣, lit. Demon Sword). If the player were to lift the curse placed on the weapon, it would transform into a katana named Tomogiri-maru 「友切丸, Tomogirimaru.

Appearance
Although classified as a dagger, the Mate Chopper is actually more similar to a large Chinese kitchen knife. The weapon is rectangular-shaped and has a blood-red like reddish-black blade, with several holes on the spine of the blade. It is said to be powerful enough to pass through full plate armour with ease.

History
Due to a curse, the Mate Chopper grows weaker with every monster it kills; on the other hand, it grows in power with each player killed by its blade. If its user were to continue killing monsters with the blade despite the negative impact of the curse, the cleaver would eventually be freed from its curse and transform into a powerful katana. However, this change in the weapon's type would render the player's Dagger skill useless for wielding the new blade, forcing the player to change their skills to make proper use of the katana.

A Murder Case in the Area
On April, 2024, PoH brought the weapon to the Hill of the Cross on the 19th Floor in an ambush on Schmitt, Yolko and Caynz. However, before PoH could use the weapon on Schmitt, he was interrupted by Kirito, who announced that he had brought enough healing items to survive for 10 minutes, as well as having drunk an antidote potion, while a group of clearers had been called in for reinforcement. Thus, PoH and two other Laughing Coffin members had to reluctantly retreat.

Trivia

 * In Japanese gaming terminology, maken refers to legendary-class swords that have some special powers and may or may not be based on legends or myths. Depending on the context, the term can be translated as either "magic sword" or "cursed sword".