Hantengu

Hantengu, along with Gyokko, was one of the primary antagonists in the Swordsmith Village Arc of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. He was a demon affiliated with the Twelve Kizuki, holding the position of Upper Rank Four (の).

Appearance
Hantengu = Hantengu is a short, frail man with a very thin and skeletal body, covered with veins and wrinkles, and is usually seen crouching. His most noticeable feature is a large bump on the top of his head, accompanied by two curved horns. His face is thin with a sharp chin, and he constantly wears an expression of terror and fear, with a prominent brow ridge that lacks eyebrows. His eyes are narrow and often appear to be squinting, obscuring his pupils. He has red eyes with golden irises, and the daiji of "Upper Rank" and "Four" engraved into them. Hantengu also has the kanji for "fear" etched into his tongue.

He has dark shoulder-length wavy hair with a low hairline, only growing out from the back of his head and ears, which themselves are sharper and longer than normal humans. His nails are long but not sharp like most other demons and retain their natural square form.

Hantengu wears a dark kimono that is split in the middle, the right half being covered in a pattern of flowers and lines (simplifed to just yellow lines in the anime), with the left half being a dark red and lacking any detailed features. He also wears black hakama pants and a pair of zōri.

As a human, Hantengu was nearly identical to his appearance as a demon, with the exception of the discolored veins on his forehead, his pupil-less eyes, and curved horns.

Personality
Hantengu = Hantengu's primary form has a persona of extreme cowardice and agitation. He was easily frightened by what occurred in his surroundings, showing traits of paranoia, fear and delusion. He was always shown to cry out in fear at even the most insignificant things, such as the number of years since the last meeting of the Upper Ranks being 113. Moreover, during said meeting, Hantengu spent most of the situation crying out and cowering in fear over everything around him. This extreme paranoia is especially evident in the fact that he always chooses to crawl instead of walking up straight. Even in combat, Hantengu was shown to be extremely cowardly and afraid, crying when he was slashed by Muichiro Tokito and when he was hiding from the Demon Slayers throughout most of the battle.

Hantengu seems to believe that he was completely innocent despite the obvious evidence pointing toward his numerous crimes as a human. He had a habit of deflecting the blame towards anything but himself, even proclaiming at one point that his hands were guilty but not himself as a whole. Even as a demon, killing and eating scores of innocent people, he stubbornly and erroneously maintained that he was innocent, and claimed that he deserved the sympathy of others.

Sekido = As the manifestation of Hantengu's anger, Sekido was in a constant state of vexation, irritation, and rage, even towards his fellow clones, which could be seen when he easily got angered when they failed to meet his expectations and were subdued by the Demon Slayers. Sekido was also seen to care very little about his brethren, as shown when he forcibly absorbed them against their will to form Zohakuten, even as Aizetsu protested. He also showed himself to be the most dominant of the emotion clones and appeared to be the leader, as he was the one who gave out orders to them and took charge at critical junctures when they were battling the Demon Slayers.

Karaku = As the manifestation of Hantengu's pleasure, Karaku showcased himself to be the most relaxed and laid-back of Hantengu's clones. The entire time he was battling against Genya, Tanjiro and Nezuko, he was constantly praising them and, instead of taking the battle seriously, he saw it as nothing more than a game, seeming to only take interest in the new experiences he was obtaining in the battle. This was demonstrated during his battle with Nezuko, when, instead of finishing her off immediately, he decided to tease and play with her despite being able to easily overpower her anytime he wanted. He also seems to display slight masochistic tendencies, which could be seen when he happily expressed his interest in the new sensation upon being shot by Genya, commenting that he had never been injured like that before.

This behavior easily got on the nerves of his fellow clones, such as Sekido, who constantly berated him for not taking on a serious outlook in battle, and Aizetsu, who was confused at why he was taking so long to kill Nezuko.

Aizetsu = As the manifestation of Hantengu's sorrow, Aizetsu was portrayed to be completely dejected, sour, and negative, constantly describing everything as depressing. Out of all the manifestations, Aizetsu was shown to be the calmest and most collected out of all five of them, as seen when instead of frivolously wasting time on entertainment as Urogi and Karaku or immediately getting agitated and enraged by anything like Sekido, Aizetsu was shown to calmly analyze his opponents and think out his strategy and figure out his opponents' abilities and weaknesses before attacking. His perpetual dour and sadness even extends towards his fellow demons, as seen when he complies with Sekido's orders to make him stop yelling.

Urogi = As the manifestation of Hantengu's joy, Urogi is the most jovial and giddy of Hantengu's clones. Similar to Karaku, he seemed to view the entire battle against the Demon Slayers as nothing more than a game or as a source of entertainment, as seen when he happily complemented Tanjiro on his intelligence for correctly guessing that neither one of the four clones was the "real" body and constantly exclaimed that the entire fight against Tanjiro was delightful.

Zohakuten = As the manifestation of Hantengu's hatred, Zohakuten shared many personality traits with Sekido, as he too was easily enraged and was incredibly spiteful and hateful towards his enemies, due to him deeming them as "evil" for bullying the "weak and innocent" Hantengu. Like Sekido, he was also incredibly foul-mouthed as seen when he constantly insulted his opponents and referred to Mitsuri as a harlot, constantly calling her various degrading names in his thoughts.

He also seemed to harbor an immense sense of loyalty towards Muzan, as seen when he told Mitsuri that he only heeds and follows the orders of one man in the entire world. Out of all the clones, he was shown to be the most intelligent and insightful, aside from Sekido, as seen when he easily analyzed why the Love Hashira survived his powerful attacks and figured out the true source of her strength. Moreover, he was not above admitting to his own weakness, as he determined that the best way to kill Mitsuri was to exhaust her endurance and strength through incessant attacks upon seeing that she was capable of evading and attacking his Blood Demon Arts successfully.

Urami = As the manifestation of Hantengu's resentment, Urami was shown to be just as hypocritical and delusional as Zohakuten and Hantengu, as he angrily told Tanjiro not to bully and hurt his "weak and innocent" self. He angrily asked why Tanjiro couldn't "see" his innocence and, true to his name, he has shown to be the embodiment of Hantengu's resentment due to him being punished and persecuted for crimes that he was "innocent" of. In addition, he is much more aggressive and quick to anger than his smaller counterpart, as he actively tries to seek out humans to replenish his regeneration and became enraged when Tanjiro vowed to decapitate him.

Overall Abilities
As the holder of the fourth highest title in the Twelve Kizuki, Hantengu was an extremely powerful demon. Through his Blood Demon Art, he is able to create four clones that were manifestations of his emotions, each of them possessing an Upper Rank demon's level of strength. They were able to hold off and overwhelm the combined efforts of Tanjiro, Nezuko and Genya, all of whom were powerful and seasoned Demon Slayers. Genya stated that Hantengu was particularly difficult to defeat as the Demon Slayers would have to play a cat-and-mouse game instead of a traditional confrontation, looking for the main body while being chased down by four Upper Rank-level demons.

As another testament to their strength, when the four clones fused into one body, Zohakuten, he was once again capable of fending off all three Demon Slayers as well as the Love Hashira, Mitsuri Kanroji, one of the strongest Demon Slayers in the Demon Slayer Corps singlehandedly. Even after the Love Hashira awakened her Demon Slayer Mark, she could only evade and dodge Zohakuten's attacks and stall until the Demon Slayers defeated the main body, Hantengu. As Zohakuten and Tanjiro stated, Mitsuri would've run out of stamina and died if not for the sun rising and Hantengu being killed.

Hantengu =

Demon Abilities
Size Alteration: Hantengu has the ability to change his size at will, as shown when he shrunk himself to a small enough size to fit into a wooden burl during most of Zohakuten's battle with the Demon Slayers, allowing him to stay hidden until the Demon Slayers began to actively seek him out.

Physical Abilities
Immense Durability: Hantengu possesses a body so durable that not even Genya's Nichirin steel shot could leave a dent on his body, the same bullets which tore of the necks of his clones with relative ease. Even when Genya tried to cut off Hantengu's body with his Nichirin Sword, his blade broke before it could do any damage. Even with the use of his bright red blade, Tanjiro was initially unable to make a dent in his neck.

Immense Speed & Reflexes: As an Upper Rank demon, Hantengu possesses incredible movement speed and reflexes, being able to evade both Muichiro's Mist Breathing technique and Tanjiro's Hinokami Kagura's technique with little effort. When he was in his smallest form, he could run fast enough that Tanjiro, Nezuko, or Genya, then enhanced with the flesh of an Upper Rank, could not keep up.

Supernatural Abilities
Enhanced Stealth: Hantengu possesses immense skill in stealth, which can be seen when he managed to easily infiltrate the Swordsmith Village, one of the Demon Slayer Corps' most vital and well fortified bases, without any of the numerous Demon Slayers stationed there noticing. Hantengu later managed to sneak into Muichiro's and Tanjiro's room without any of them detecting him, despite the former possessing a heightened ability to sense the presence of demons and the latter possessing an incredibly acute sense of smell that would've sensed a demon's presences from extremely long distances. His stealth also enabled him to trick both Muichiro and Tanjiro into a false sense of security, as it was not until he got close to attack them that they realized Hantengu was truly an Upper Rank.

Sekido =

Demon Abilities
Biological Absorption: Sekido displayed the ability to draw in and absorb the bodies of Karaku, Urogi, and Aizetsu, fusing to become Zohakuten.

Flesh Manipulation: Like all demons, Sekido possesses the ability to control and alter his flesh to a certain extent. Sekido uses this ability to shape his flesh into a Khakkhara which he uses as a means to channel his Blood Demon Art. He is shown to be capable of creating more than one at a time.

Physical Abilities
Immense Speed & Reflexes: As an Upper Rank demon, Sekido possesses incredible speed and reflexes comparable to that of the Hashira. This was shown when he was fast enough to block the bullets from Genya's shotgun before they could reach him. He is also seen being able to absorb Karaku, Urogi, and Aizetsu in the mere blink of an eye to transform into Zohakuten, a feat only witnessed by the perception of the demon-enhanced Genya.

Karaku =

Demon Abilities
Flesh Manipulation: Like all demons, Karaku possesses the ability to control and alter his flesh to a certain extent. Karaku uses this ability to shape his flesh into a maple leaf-shaped Uchiwa. Similar to Sekido, Karaku can create more than one Uchiwa at a time, even creating an enlarged version of it to increase its area of effect.

Physical Abilities
Immense Strength: Karaku displayed incredible physical strength as he was able to nonchalantly overpower Nezuko, pierce her durable body with a single kick, and ripped her hand off with ease.

Unlimited Stamina & Endurance: Like all demons, Karaku possesses infinite stamina and endurance. When Genya shot off his head with his shotgun, leaving his head dangling on a piece of flesh and having his neck bones exposed, Karaku never showed any signs of pain but rather exclaimed in excitement over how he has never felt an attack like that and proclaimed that it was fun.

Aizetsu =

Demon Abilities
Flesh Manipulation: Like all demons, Aizetsu possesses the ability to control and alter his flesh to a certain extent. Aizetsu uses this ability to shape his flesh into a Jūmonji Yari.

Physical Abilities
Unlimited Stamina & Endurance: Like all demons, Aizetsu possesses infinite stamina and endurance. This was shown when he was able to engage in battle with Genya for an extended period of time without showing any signs of fatigue in the slightest. Aizetsu was also completely nonchalant when Genya destroyed his neck with a shotgun that fired Nichirin steel shot, even managing to attack without his head intact and heal his neck with ease.

Urogi =

Demon Abilities
Avian Physiology: Urogi's unique body allows him to gain the attributes and abilities of avian creatures, namely his large feathered wings and razor sharp talons. These large wings grant Urogi the ability to fly at incredibly high speeds while his talons are powerful enough to cut through diamond. He frequently fights in the same manner as how a bird of prey hunts, swooping down to a target to attack with his talons. A drawback to this ability is that his body has to be extremely light for him to fly, which gave an opportunity for Tanjiro to use Urogi's own flight against him.

Zohakuten =

Demon Abilities
Flesh Manipulation: Like all demons, Zohakuten possesses the ability to control and alter his flesh to a certain extent. He primarily uses this ability to form the drums attached to his back to form his Blood Demon Arts and the bone-like daggers to beat said drums to control it.

Supernatural Abilities
Menacing Aura: Zohakuten possesses an extremely menacing and overwhelming presence. Tanjiro choked on his breath and felt immense pain in his heart from Zohakuten's mere gaze. His aura is so strong that Genya could barely stand and caused him to start sweating profusely.

Urami =

Demon Abilities
Size Alteration: As Hantengu's last ditch attempt to escape from the Demon Slayers, Urami has the ability to greatly increase his size in order for Hantengu to hide in his heart.

Physical Abilities
Immense Durability: As Upper Rank Four's largest manifestation, Urami proved to be incredibly durable. He was able to shrug off the effects of Nezuko's fires with little trouble and has the notable feat of being able to endure the effects of direct sunlight for an extended amount of time, due to Hantengu still being alive and hidden inside him. Tanjiro noted that though his death in sunlight was inevitable, it would have taken enough time to cost the lives of the swordsmiths he is pursuing and forced him to take immediate action.

Immense Strength: Due to his large size and muscular physique, Urami is immensely strong and hard to take on in a physical fight. He uses this in an attempt to strangle Tanjiro, with a demon-enhanced Genya struggling to pry Urami's hands off. Urami proved so physically potent, Nezuko was forced to use her Blood Demon Art in order to simply weaken him to the point they could continue attacking.

Blood Demon Art
Hantengu = Emotion Manifestation: Hantengu's Blood Demon Art allows him to manifest his emotions as younger clones of himself. Each clone personifies a core emotion, which can be identified by a kanji on their tongue. These clones all have different appearances, abilities, and weapons, with their individual strength being at least Upper Rank caliber, and all of them seemingly resembling a younger Hantengu. The emotions shown so far are anger, pleasure, sorrow, joy, hatred, and resentment, with Hantengu himself having the kanji of "fear" etched onto his tongue. It is implied that Hantengu can control these clones however he sees fit, as seen when he took control of Urami's body to kill a group of swordsmiths after he was beheaded.

This Blood Demon Art is activated when Hantengu's head is cut off, where his head and body turn into two separate clones, one that personifies his anger, and the other which personifies his pleasure. After these two clones are decapitated, they split off into two more clones, personifying his sorrow and joy. One notable trait about these manifestations is they cannot be killed when Hantengu himself is still alive. Damaging the clones' tongues has shown to slow their regeneration speed momentarily.

If need be, Sekido, the personification of Hantengu's anger, can absorb the 3 other clones present to form a younger, even stronger clone, Zohakuten, who is able to use all of the 4 clone's Blood Demon Arts along with his own.

Sekido = Electricity Generation: Sekido's Blood Demon Art allows him to generate electricity that flashes blue and red from his Khakkhara by stabbing it onto a surface, typically the ground. His electricity is extremely potent, instantly paralyzing targets, even if they are in mid-air, and causing them to lose consciousness in a short period of time. His Blood Demon Art has a wide area of effect, allowing him to subdue multiple targets at once. He can also summon electricity in the form of lightning that strikes his targets from above. One drawback to his electricity is that it cannot pass through anything made from his own cells, such as the body parts of any of Hantengu's clones, which Tanjiro utilized to avoid getting shocked.

Karaku = Wind Blasts: Karaku's Blood Demon Art allows him to generate powerful gusts of wind using his maple leaf-shaped Uchiwa. By simply swinging his Uchiwa down, Karaku can generate a gust of wind strong enough to blow Muichiro into a distant forest in an instant, leave gigantic craters, level an entire building, and crush Demon Slayer and demon alike under its immense pressure, even knocking them unconscious.

Karaku is capable of using his Blood Demon Art tactically, hitting the entire battlefield with gusts of strong wind in order to make it harder for his opponents to move akin to being in a tornado. However, this ability is not limited to him; anyone who has possession of his Uchiwa can create his powerful winds, as shown when Nezuko used Karaku's own Uchiwa to blow him away.

Aizetsu = Spear Projection: Aizetsu's Blood Demon Art allows him to project the thrusting attack of his Yari over great distances, allowing him to attack his targets from afar. Additionally, its potency has been shown to be enhanced, as Genya, in his attempt to shield Tanjiro, was left with numerous puncture wounds all over his body.

Urogi = Sonic Scream: Urogi's Blood Demon Art allows him to generate powerful sound waves from his mouth. The power from Urogi's scream is strong enough to make Tanjiro bleed from his nose and ear, momentarily stunning him. He can even utilize it while not whole, as shown when his leg was severed but still attached to Tanjiro, enabling him to manipulate his flesh into a mouth to use the scream again. However, the strength of his attack appears to be at a specific level, as Tanjiro noticed that the scream of his leg's mouth was not as potent as before.

Zohakuten = Wood Manipulation: Zohakuten's main Blood Demon Art grants him the ability to generate wood out of his flesh and blood and manipulate it by striking the drums at his back. Zohakuten mainly shapes the wood into massive snake-like dragon heads that can stretch up to twenty meters in length, though he can also create dragon heads within the main dragon heads in order to increase its length and reach. Using Countless Striking Trees, Zohakuten can create a lot more wooden dragons to attack his targets. The dragons attack by biting them with their massive jaws or trapping them inside its mouth to be crushed. The wood he creates is extremely durable, being impervious to sword slashes from a demon-enhanced Genya Shinazugawa. Zohakuten's dragons have incredible maneuverability, and their numbers make them even more deadly to deal with. As these wooden dragons are made from his flesh and blood, they can regenerate quickly if they are damaged.

Other than his wooden dragons, Zohakuten also displayed the ability to shape wood into a twisted trunk-like burl which he uses to protect and hide Hantengu's main body. Like his dragons, Zohakuten can move this burl at will to conceal it or to attack those that get too close to it. This trunk can also create branch to act as whips to deter targets.

Ability Combination: Zohakuten and his wooden dragons can use the Blood Demon Arts of Sekido, Karaku, Aizetsu, and Urogi. Moreover, Zohakuten can use them at a much higher level than the four clones. Zohakuten and his wooden dragons can emit electricity in the form of lightning bolts, unleash powerful wind blasts that leave craters in the ground, project spear-like attacks out of thin air, and generate deafening sound waves that can momentarily knock out Mitsuri Kanroji, a Hashira.

Urami = Ability Combination: It is heavily implied that Urami is able to utilize the other clone's Blood Demon Arts as seen when he utilized Urogi's powerful sound waves to stun Tanjiro and Genya.

Techniques

 * -|Description =


 * Weeping Spears: Aizetsu violently thrusts his Yari, creating multiple long-ranged projections of the spear attack.


 * Crazed Cry of Thunderdeath: Zohakuten strikes a drum, commanding two wooden dragons to unleash Sekido's electricity and Urogi's sound waves respectively.


 * Countless Striking Trees: Zohakuten incessantly strikes his drums, unleashing numerous wooden dragons to create a wide-ranged attack.


 * Compressed Sound Waves: Zohakuten opens his mouths and unleashes extremely loud and powerful sound waves that were able to knock a Hashira unconscious.


 * -|Demonstrations =

Equipment
Sekido = Khakkhara: Sekido wields a Khakkhara fashioned from his flesh. It serves as his main tool in combat when used in conjunction with his Blood Demon Art, allowing him to channel his lightning and strike at close and wide ranges to shock, paralyze, and incapacitate his targets. Sekido has also been shown to create multiple Khakkharas at the same time, as he formed a new one in his hand to attack Tanjiro whilst his previous one was still imbedded in Nezuko's neck.

Gallery
Karaku = Uchiwa: Karaku wields a maple leaf-shaped Uchiwa fashioned from his flesh. It serves as his main tool in combat when used in conjunction with his Blood Demon Art, allowing him to generate powerful gusts of wind to launch his enemies a far distance and to level any battlefield and turn it into one full of torrents of wind, making it extremely difficult for his opponents to fight or even move. However, this Uchiwa can be used by anyone, which makes Karaku susceptible to having his wind Blood Demon Art used against him by his opponents.

Gallery
Aizetsu = Jūmonji Yari: Aizetsu wields a Jūmonji Yari fashioned from his flesh. It serves as his main tool in combat, being used to unleash close to mid-ranged thrusting or slicing attacks as well as allowing Aizetsu to block and parry attacks from his opponents as a traditional weapon. His Blood Demon Art works in conjunction with his Yari, allowing him to project and lengthen the spear's attacks to strike his targets from afar.

Gallery
Zohakuten = Double-Bladed Dagger: Zohakuten wields two bone-like double-bladed dagger fashioned from his flesh and blood. It serves as his main tool to unleash his Blood Demon Art, using it to strike the drums on his back and activate his techniques.

Trivia

 * The alias "Hantengu" contains the On'yomi reading of the kanji for "half" (半), "heaven" (天) and "hound" (狗). The last two kanji in his name means Tengu, a winged yōkai that uses fans in battle. The aspects of the Tengu are shared between two of (and thus half of) Hantengu's four basic emotions (Urogi's wings and Karaku's fans), hence the name.
 * Hantengu's first four emotions are derived from the "Yojijukugo (four-character idiom)", which can be used to describe the range of human emotions people (rather demons in this instance) feel as a whole. All his manifestations (not including Hantengu himself), have the kanji for their respective emotion in their names.
 * The drums behind Zohakuten's back represent the Taiko drums of the Shintō kami "Raijin". Whenever Raijin strikes the drums levitating behind his back, lightning strikes upon both the human world and the underworld.
 * Muzan sees Hantengu as normal but sometimes he's so annoying it's intolerable.
 * Even as a child, Hantengu lied to make those around him look bad and gain sympathy.
 * Hantengu lied about his name, age, and background so much that he forgot about what his real name, age, or background really is.
 * Hantengu has married and had children several times. This didn't last though as whenever he would be accused of dishonesty, he would feel as if he was mistreated and kill his wives and children in anger.
 * This cycle of marrying, having children, and killing seem to have continued until he met Muzan.
 * His appearance was described to look like an 87-year-old man.
 * Zohakuten was initially colored by Gotouge on the cover page of Chapter 125 to have golden irises with white sclera, but in Shounen Jump's promotional material, he is shown to have golden sclera with golden irises. The anime adopts a third scheme, with Zohakuten sporting Sekido's red sclera (as he was the one who absorbed the other clones), while still having golden irises.

Quotes

 * (To himself) "Since the day I was born I've never lied... not even once! I'm a good natured weakling! I deserve pity, but no one has any sympathy for me."

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