The latest enemies in Demon Slayer have proven exceptionally difficult to deal with–even surviving a beheading from the Mist Hashira himself. Tanjiro has just made a big leap forward, however, as he’s learned a big clue as to how these new demons operate.
The demons that Tanjiro, Nezuko, and Genya are currently up against began as a single demon, the Upper Four known as Hantengu who breaks one of Demon Slayer’s biggest rules. After the beheading, which normally kills a demon, the creature instead regenerated from both parts, creating two new demons. They divided further into four, each with distinct powers and a certain marking on their tongues. While they initially had Tokito, the Mist Hashira, with them, he was blown away by one of the demon’s fans, sending him far off into the mountains, where it will take some time to return from. Tanjiro is dragged off by one of them, a tengu-like flying demon, and has to face it on his own.
Demon Slayer’s Hantengu is Weaker Divided
As Tanjiro is battling the flying demon, known as Urogi, he begins to piece together what’s happened. Each of the markings on the demon’s tongues corresponds to an emotion–joy (Urogi), sorrow, pleasure, and anger. When Tanjiro slashed through Urogi, he regenerated temporarily into two, and Tanjiro noticed that the combined attack power of the two was far less than when they were one, and both still said “joy.” Tanjiro was also able to deduce that the tongue was these demons’ weak point–while cutting it wouldn’t kill them, it significantly slowed down their regeneration.
Zeroing in on their tongues is a good catch on Tanjiro’s part; they’re a big clue that these aren’t run-of-the-mill demons, but instead some sort of manifestation of different feelings belonging to Hantengu. There’s still a lot left that Tanjiro needs to figure out, though; if it’s even possible to defeat these individually, or if there’s perhaps some main body hiding elsewhere that he needs to take out. And of course, even if they do manage to defeat these manifestations of Hantengu, there’s still Upper Five Gyokko to deal with, as well as the fish minion demons that he’s summoned into the village. This fight is far from over, even if Tanjiro has moved them slightly closer to victory.
If the Demon Slayer side is to win, Tanjiro will need to keep his tactical brain thinking and watching these enemies, staying on the lookout for openings and weaknesses.
