Yahaba

Yahaba was one of the two primary antagonists in the Asakusa Arc of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, along with Susamaru. He was a demon who aspired to join the Twelve Kizuki.

Appearance
Yabaha was a young man of an average build with pale, gray-tinted skin and very short black hair. He had red, cat-like eyes that he normally kept shut, as well as another pair of pale-ringed orange eyes on the palms of his hands, a red upward-pointing arrow marked on each of the irises with sclera of glowing dark green color.

Yabaha wore a plain olive-green kimono with a brown obi and a dark gray haori, decorated by a strip of green that ran down his arms from his shoulders to his wrists. He also sported white tabi-socks and a pair of brown zōri with black straps, along with a akoya necklace of large blue pearls.

Personality
Yahaba was a loyal demon who served only to please his leader, Muzan. Like Susamaru, he desired Muzan's approval and the chance to become one of the Twelve Kizuki. While he had a sadistic personality, Yahaba prefered to do things in a clean and mature manner; he disliked Susamaru's immature attitude and hated getting himself dirtied.

Even in death, Yahaba regretted being unable to win Muzan's approval and desired only to vindictively slay Tanjiro for rubbing his face in the ground.

Asakusa Arc
Outraged by the appearance of a Demon Slayer wearing hanafuda-like earrings in Asakusa, Muzan summons two of his followers, Yahaba and Susamaru to hunt him down. The two walk the quiet streets during the night and pick up the Demon Slayer's trail. Yahaba uses his Blood Demon Art to track his movements and finds that there are two more people traveling with him.

Excited, Susamaru asks how the two should kill them all to which Yahaba replies that they should slaughter them as cruelly as possible for their lord, Muzan. He leads Susamaru to their enemies' hiding spot and she destroys a cloaking seal over the house using her deadly Temari balls. Yahaba asks her how she plans to kill them and the Temari Demon agrees they have to kill them all vindictively.

Susamaru destroys the house piece by piece using her Temari handballs. While she's enjoying handball, Yahaba notices the Demon Slayer is accompanied by three demons. He tells Susamaru she's too immature and to stop splattering dirt on his kimono. She simply tells him to get back and to calm down, having exploited their enemies inside the house.

Yahaba takes a supporting role in the assault, hiding up in the trees away from the action. He uses the Koketsu Arrows to guide Susamari's temari, tearing up the house and even managing to take off the head of the young demon boy, Yushiro. Yushiro eventually recovers and informs Tanjiro that Yahaba is using arrows to guide the balls unnaturally.

Tanjiro sends Nezuko into the trees to stop Yahaba. She finds him and delivers a powerful kick, but he blocks it and sends her flying away with a Koketsu Arrow after telling her to stop stirring up dust. Yahaba leaves the trees and Muzan's followers stand off with their four opponents.

Tanjiro takes on Yahaba alone while the others fight Susamaru. He smells an opening thread on the Arrow Demon but it snaps as soon as Yahaba activates his ability. He sends Tanjiro flying around, making him crash into the ground and multiple trees. Yahaba recognizes one of the others as Lady Tamayo the Fugitive and swears to bring Muzan her head as well. Susamaru asks if they can bring Muzan four heads but Yahaba says they only need two.

Yahaba forces Tanjiro on the defensive with his arrows and wraps one around his arm. Tanjiro flips in the direction of the arrow to avoid losing his arm. Yahaba believes he has control of the battle and calls the Demon Slayer a monkey for his acrobatics. Annoyed, Yahaba unleashes more vector arrows that Tanjiro finally counters by enveloping them in his Water Breathing techniques and using the momentum to direct his attack.

The Arrow Demon tries to force Tanjiro away by activating his arrows, but only manages to make his sword extremely heavy. Even so, Tanjiro manages to slash the blade and decapitates Yahaba with Water Breathing, Second Form: Improved, Lateral Water Wheel.

Slowly disappearing, Yahaba laments his inability to win Muzan's approval. He curses Tanjiro for rubbing his face in the ground and decides to take him out with him. Yahaba's body places Koketsu Arrows on Tanjiro from all directions as a parting gift. Tanjiro manages to avoid being crushed by unleashing consecutive swordsmanship techniques one after the other. Yahaba disintegrates before being able to kill Tanjiro, but manages to take him out of the rest of the fight.

Overall Abilities
Yahaba was a decently powerful demon, as evidenced by possessing a Blood Demon Art and displaying a proficiency in utilizing in combat. His unorthodox Blood Demon Art makes it extremely challenging for Demon Slayers to counter and overcome, especially since they are effectively invisible and intangible. When combined with Susamaru's Blood Demon Art, their destructive output drastically increases, allowing them to flush Tamayo out of hiding and destroy their hideout without much trouble.

Demon Abilities
Flesh Manipulation: Like all demons, Yahaba possessed the ability to control and alter his flesh to a certain extent. In his case, he used it to transplant his eyes into his hands, allowing him better control of his arrows and enabling him to track objects, like Tanjiro's footsteps and Nezuko's attacks.
 * Enhanced Tracking: Yahaba's palm eyes could guide his senses which allows him to track footprints with amazing accuracy.

Blood Demon Art
Koketsu Arrow (の): Yahaba's Blood Demon Art allowed him to conjure and manipulate invisible red arrows by blinking the eyes on each of his palms. He was capable of moving the arrows in any direction he pleases and can seemingly spawn as many as he wants. Despite being intangible, Yahaba can manipulate matter and their interactions through their related vectors with his Blood Demon Art by forcing the desired target in whatever direction the arrow was pointing.

Game Exclusive Techniques

 * Chaser Arrow (の): Yahaba creates 3 levitating arrows that will pursue his opponents.


 * Smack Down (ちとし): Yahaba utilizes a single Kotetsu Arrow to pummel his opponent towards the ground.


 * Boulder Toss (ばし): Yahaba launches three huge boulders towards his opponent using his Kotetsu arrows.


 * Torrential Arrows (の) Yahaba conjures a torrent of Koketsu arrows to fly down on their opponent before unleashing a super concentrated barrage of arrows to slam them into the ground, rupturing the ground in the process.


 * Koketsu Arrow, Eruption (の・): Yahaba conjures three Koketsu arrows off the terrain throwing his opponent into the air.


 * Koketsu Arrow, Plunge (の・): Yahaba conjures a single Koketsu Arrow that pull his opponent upward and slams them towards the ground.


 * Koketsu Arrow, Finale (の・): Yahaba conjures multiple Koketsu arrows to fling his target into the air before slamming them into the ground with great force. Afterwards, he has his Koketsu arrows pierce his target's body in all directions before pulling them apart, causing tremendous damage to them.

Trivia

 * Yahaba's appearance may refer to the Japanese yōkai known as Tenome or "hand eyes" (の).
 * Yahaba's name contains the kanji for "arrow" (矢), "lute" (琶) and "feather, wing, plume, float" (羽).
 * Yahaba shares his Japanese and English voice actors with the protagonist of the video game Persona 5.
 * Yahaba was ranked in 37th place as of the first character popularity poll, with 14 votes.
 * In Kimetsu Academy, Yahaba is a third year from the Mogura class and president of the archery team. He's the son of a tofu shop owner.

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Yahaba Яхаба Yahaba 矢琶羽 矢琶羽