Episode 2

Trainer Sakonji Urokodaki (育手・鱗滝左近次) is the 2nd episode of the Kimetsu no Yaiba TV anime series.

Synopsis
At Giyu Tomioka's urging, Tanjiro heads for Mt. Sagiri with his sister Nezuko, who's been turned into a demon. During the night, Tanjiro catches the scent of blood from inside a temple. He enters, thinking that someone might be hurt, only to come upon a man-eating demon. When the demon attacks, Tanjiro manages to fight back with his axe, but the demon's strength is overwhelming. Just as the demon is about to finish him off, Tanjiro is saved by none other than...

Plot
On the way to Mount Sagiri, Tanjiro asks a nearby farmer if he can take his basket, along with straw and bamboo to fix it. The farmer allows him and Tanjiro offers to pay. The farmer denies payment since it has holes but Tanjiro wants to give him money. The man offers the straw and bamboo for free as well but Tanjiro stubbornly offers to give him money. Annoyed, he tells Tanjiro he can take it for free once again, only for him to slaps several coins into his hand, before running away and thanking him as the farmer yelps in pain.

Tanjiro finds Nezuko in a nearby dirt tunnel; she has also dug herself into the ground, showing her great reluctance of seeing sunlight. After repairing the basket, Tanjiro asks if she can fit inside, talking slowly as he is unsure she can fully understand him. After shrinking herself to fit inside, Tanjiro straps the basket on his back. Now able to carry her while protecting her from the sun, Tanjiro makes his way to the mountain, asking for directions from a nearby woman; she also warns Tanjiro that people have gone missing as of late and urges him to be careful. Once night arrives, Tanjiro and Nezuko find a temple in the woods. As he approaches, he smells blood and runs inside. Upon opening the doors, he freezes upon catching sight of a demon living inside, eating several corpses. The smell of blood causes Nezuko to salivate. The demon lunges at Tanjiro, who slashes his neck with his hatchet. Somewhat impressed by the cut, the demon showcases his powerful regeneration, healing the deep cut in seconds. With incredible speed, the demon disappears momentarily and suddenly grabs Tanjiro, who is too slow to react. Despite the smell of blood, Nezuko fights the urges and runs to save her brother, kicking the demon's head off. Initially believing she had kill him, the demon's body attempts to grab him, forcing Nezuko to kick the body to keep it at bay. The nearby demon's head begins talking to him, annoyed that he was right about one of them being a demon. The head grows arms and attacks Tanjiro, while his body batters Nezuko about and throws her deep into the nearby forest.

With the demon's head attached to his hatchet, Tanjiro attacks by head butting him, stunning the demon with his hard skull. With the head attached, he hurls the hatchet at a tree, pinning the head in place; with one threat neutralized, Tanjiro makes his way to Nezuko. At a cliff's edge, Tanjiro finds the body kicking Nezuko towards the drop. He tackles the body and hurls themselves over the edge. Nezuko grabs her brother before he could fall, while the body lands hard on the rocks below. The demon's head gets knocked unconscious after feeling its body's pain.

Armed with a knife, Tanjiro finds the head unconscious but still alive and prepares to kill it. He rationalizes his decision by saying that killing it could save others but he remains hesitant about killing the demon, taking long enough for a man to appear behind him. The man tells him he cannot kill it with a knife, motioning Tanjiro's attention to a rock. Now forced to bludgeon the head repeatedly, Tanjiro freezes in the moment. The man catches his scent and believes he is too kind to even kill demons. The demon awakens and tries to grab Tanjiro; at that moment, the sun rises and the light burns the demon away into ash. He realizes the demon is now dead from even little sunlight and runs to find Nezuko. He is relieved to see her inside the basket in the temple, safe from the sunlight.

After burying the dead of the temple, the man introduces himself as Sakonji Urokodaki, and he surmises Tanjiro is the boy Giyu had sent for him. Tanjiro introduces himself and Nezuko but Sakonji cuts him off by asking what he will do if Nezuko devours someone. Shocked by the question, Tanjiro does not respond and is harshly slapped in the face, admonished for thinking too slow. Sakonji criticizes him for his hesitance to kill even a demon, telling him the proper response to if Nezuko kills someone is to kill her and then kill himself, "That's what it means to travel with your sister who became a demon".

Sakonji warns him it must never happen, to which Tanjiro now acknowledges the threat. He tests him to see if he is fit to join the Demon Slayer Corps; by carrying Nezuko and following him. In the middle of the day, Tanjiro chases after Sakonji, who is keeping a steady pace far in front of him. Wonder how old he is and how he is able to be so fast and create little footstep, Tanjiro struggles to keep up. He apologizes to Nezuko since she is being battered about inside the basket as he sprints, asking her to be patient and believing patience is all she had known. As the sun set, an exhausted Tanjiro has reached Sakonji's house at the foot of the mountain. Struggling to catch his breath, he asks if he had passed the test; to this, Sakonji only tells him the test will now begin and they will climb the mountain, causing Tanjiro to scream in shock.

With Nezuko safe and asleep inside his hut, Sakonji and Tanjiro make their way up the mountain; the latter continuing to feel the exhaustion of his run and now feeling dizzy. Suddenly, Sakonji stops in his tracks and turns to Tanjiro. He instructs the boy to make his way down the mountain before dawn before vanishing. Though initially shocked, Tanjiro believes he can descend the mountain with his keen sense of smell before daybreak. As he runs down the peak, his optimism is quickly fades when he learns the mountain contains numerous traps within. After being injured by several, he realizes he won't make it down if he continues to get hit, and his problem is worsened by the mountain's thin air causing him difficulty in breathing.

Before embarking on his descent down Mount Sagiri, Tanjiro takes a deep breath to compose himself and isolate the scents of the mountain. With a clear path, he makes his descent and begins to avoid most of the traps. Despite being injured by one made with bamboo without the human scent he had been avoiding, he urges himself to continue for Nezuko's sake. As day breaks, Sakonji sees a battered and bloodied Tanjiro at his doorstep, who only mutters "I...have...returned" before losing consciousness.

Sakonji recalls the letter he was sent by Giyu. Giyu apologizes for his abrupt request to ask him train someone but tells him that Tanjiro wants to become a Demon Slayer, since he was brave enough to attack him. He adds his belief that Nezuko won't harm humans and that like Sakonji himself, Tanjiro possesses a keen sense of smell. Asking Sakonji to train him to be a swordsman, Giyu apologizes for this self serving request, before wishing him good will in his endeavours. Sakonji sees the exhausted and injured Tanjiro and accepts him as his student.

Characters in Order of Appearance

 * Tanjiro Kamado
 * Nezuko Kamado
 * Temple Demon
 * Sakonji Urokodaki
 * Giyu Tomioka

Anime Notes

 * In the manga, Giyu's letter to Sakonji is shown as a memory before he meets Tanjiro, while the anime has it depicted as Sakonji reminiscing on the message before accepting Tanjiro as his student.

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Episodi 2 Эпизод 2