Hotaru Haganezuka

Hotaru Haganezuka is a supporting character of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. He is a swordsmith affiliated with the Demon Slayer Corps.

Appearance
Hotaru wears a sunflower-patterned haori and has his head wrapped in a spotted head scarf. Like the rest of the swordsmiths, his face is concealed by a Hyottoko mask (wooden festival mask) to conceal his identity. When traveling he wears a large, woven hat with hanging floral wind chimes on top of the head scarf.

During the Swordsmith Village Arc, he is seen with a more muscular build compared to his initial appearance after he had been training in the mountains.

Unmasked, Hotaru is revealed to have long, black hair coupled with sharp eyes and distinctly-shaped thick eyebrows. However upon being attacked by Upper Rank Five, Gyokko, Hotaru now possesses several deep scars and cuts from the Demon all over his body, including an X-shaped one on his face, and has now lost the use of his left eye.

Personality
Hotaru is a rather hot-blooded individual. He seems to show very little care, if any, about anything besides the swords he creates. His passion for swords is so strong that he would be able to speak about them for long periods of time, a trait unique even among other swordsmiths.

The same passion that gives him the enthusiasm and extreme dedication in creating swords is also the reason why he is easily enraged (usually in a comical fashion) towards swordsmen that break his creations, especially Tanjiro Kamado, no matter the circumstance. When angry, he usually calms himself down by eating mitarashi dango. Bystanders can subdue him by either pinning him down or tickling his sides, as demonstrated by Kozo Kanamori, after which he will fall limp.

As Hotaru is socially inept in dealing with people, he is still unmarried. His intense and asocial behavior also causes other swordsmen to hate him and he lost a lot of clients because of this. Although he won't be honest about it, he is actually happy that Tanjiro still trusts him in making his swords.

His concentration on sword making is so immense that it prevents him from paying any attention to his surroundings when forging a blade, even when a demon is attacking him and inflicting severe injuries on him. When the process of forging or refining is interrupted by taking the sword away, he feels the need to restart the whole process from scratch again. As a perfectionist, any small scratch on a blade that is irremovable hurts him immensely.

History
Hotaru was born from a long line of swordsmiths from the Haganezuka Clan. When he was two years old, Hotaru was so horrible to deal with that his parents had a mental breakdown and the village's chief, Tecchin Tecchikawahara, had to raise him. The chief gave Hotaru his first name, which Hotaru does not like, because it sounds too cute and he would often badmouth the chief about it. According to the chief, he had been having a temper since he was a child, and would always throw tantrums right away and then go off somewhere.

Learning the craftsmanship of sword making from the other swordsmiths, he also became a swordsmith that forges and polishes Nichirin Swords for the Demon Slayers. After Tanjiro successfully survived the Final Selection, Hotaru was assigned by the Corps to forge Tanjiro's sword.

Final Selection Arc
Hotaru first appears at Sakonji Urokodaki's house to deliver Tanjiro's Nichirin Sword after the latter passed the Final Selection. Despite Tanjiro's frequent requests for him to enter the house, Hotaru ignores him and sits outside the door, describing the blade he forged.

After suddenly looking up at Tanjiro, he comments on his red hair and eyes, stating it was good fortune. Excited, Hotaru enters the house while remarking how Nichirin swords would change color and that his sword could turn a bright red, however, after seeing the blade turn jet black, Hotaru shows evident disappointment and gets angry at Tanjiro.

Mount Natagumo Arc
During his fight against Lower Rank Five, Rui, Tanjiro breaks his blade and an enraged Hotaru is briefly seen in Tanjiro's thoughts as he internally apologizes to Hotaru and Urokodaki.

Rehabilitation Training Arc
After Tanjiro heals at the Butterfly Mansion, he and Inosuke Hashibira greet their swordsmiths but are met with an angry Hotaru charging at Tanjiro with a knife, furious about his broken blade. After chasing him and then calming down, Hotaru and Kozo give the swordsmen their repaired blades.

Mugen Train Arc
Hotaru appears when Tanjiro comes back from the Rengoku house, enraged over the loss of another sword and chases Tanjiro again.

Swordsmith Village Arc
After Tanjiro wakes up from his coma after the battle against Upper Rank Six, Daki and Gyutaro, and enquires about his new sword, Kiyo Terauchi shows him the fierce letters Hotaru sent after his sword got chipped. In the letters he expressed angrily that he will not make a new sword for Tanjiro. Kiyo suggests that Tanjiro should meet Hotaru in person to discuss it. Tanjiro then travels to the Swordsmith Village, but the village chief Tecchin Tecchikawahara informs him that Hotaru is missing and they are trying to locate him.

When Tanjiro was arguing with Muichiro about the latter's treatment of Kotetsu, Tanjiro expresses loudly that a swordsmith’s job is extremely important and crucial. He praises swordsmiths for possessing amazing skills that are different from swordsmen, and exclaims that swordsmen and swordsmiths cannot exist without each other, fighting the same fight every day in their own way. Hotaru is hiding behind a tree listening to Tanjiro's speech and is very moved by it. After Tanjiro became unconscious from being hit by Muichiro, Hotaru appears in front of Kotetsu and offers to carry Tanjiro back down, but when Tanjiro started to come by, he immediately runs away. Tanjiro wonders if he is imagining hearing Hotaru talking.

After Tanjiro trained with Yoriichi Type Zero for some time, he manages to behead it and discovers a hidden sword from 300 years ago, Hotaru suddenly appears topless and completely buffed, shocking both Tanjiro and Kotetsu. He tries to take the sword away, and the two struggle with him until he is tickled by Kozo, after which he falls limp. Kozo reveals that Hotaru had been training in the mountains to make an extremely strong sword for Tanjiro and Tanjiro is moved by it. After Hotaru wakes up he explains he will refine the rusted blade. It will take him three days and three nights to finish, and Tanjiro is worried about Hotaru's health as there are swordsmen dying from using Hotaru's method.

During this period the village is attacked by two Upper Rank Demons. Upper Moon Five, Gyokko, enters the shed where Hotaru is working on the blade and slashes Kozo who desperately shields Hotaru from the Demon. Unaware of their presence, Hotaru continues to fixate himself on refining the blade. When Gyokko calls out to him, Hotaru does not respond and continues muttering about the eccentricity of the blade, a level of concentration that astonishes Gyokko. Jealous of Hotaru's fixation for his craft, Gyokko slashes him multiple times, causing Hotaru's mask to fall off his face from the attack and revealing his face. Kozo tries to snap Hotaru out of his trance, with Gyokko summoning fish Demons and continue to attack Hotaru, the swordsmith still did not break his continuous persistence and keeps sharpening the blade silently. This greatly infuriates Gyokko, who continues to inflict numerous severe injuries on Hotaru, including the loss of an eye. Muichiro arrives and attacks Gyokko, who then destroys the shed with his Blood Demon Art. Hotaru is knocked outside from the attack, but pays no mind to it as he returns to sharpening the blade. His stubborn persistence puzzles the Demon who believes Hotaru is not sane. Gyokko tells himself he will finish the swordsmith after taking out the Hashira first.

In the ensuing fight between Gyokko and Muichiro, Hotaru and Kozo gets blasted away, but Hotaru continues sharpening the blade while lying on the ground. After Muichiro successfully defeated Gyokko, Muichiro falls down foaming and Kozo screams at Hotaru to help. Hotaru ignores him and continues working on the blade, who curses him for not helping him earlier as well when he was almost killed by Gyokko in the shed.

Hotaru's hard work proved instrumental in defeating Upper Moon Four, Hantengu. Muichiro had grabbed the sword Hotaru was sharpening and threw it towards Tanjiro, who used it to successfully decapitate the Demon just in time before the sun rises. All this time, Hotaru had been screaming his objections about the sword still being unfinished and wants it back, while Kozo and Kotetsu attempt to hold him back.

Hashira Training Arc
After Tanjiro has been resting for days after the fight in the Swordsmith Village, Hotaru arrives at the Butterfly Mansion to deliver Tanjiro his sword. The swordsmith is huffing and puffing behind his mask with visible sweat coming off the mask. He passive-aggressively urges Tanjiro to unsheathe the blade. Tanjiro is in awe by the blade. Hotaru says that it is made from high quality steel and it must have been used previously by a very strong swordsman. He theorizes that the Demon Slayer hierarchy must have been established after this blade was forged. When Tanjiro says that he didn't remember seeing the now-visible character on the sword when he used it, Hotaru angrily explains that they took it while there was still rust on the blade covering the blade as he only finished the first stage of the process. He also claims that Tanjiro has put irremovable damage on it and wants to kill Tanjiro. He leaves after Tanjiro promises to bring him Mitarashi Dango until the day he dies. Tanjiro believes he treated him relatively mildly this time, because he looked like he was in pain.

Abilities
Overall Abilities: Being a swordsmith, Hotaru has shown to have no indication of any superhuman abilities similar to Demon Slayers. Though after Tanjiro broke his Nichirin Sword multiple times against members of the Upper and Lower Ranks, he underwent a special training in the mountains so he could forge a stronger blade for Tanjiro. Due to the training, he gained a lot of muscles which made him looking much stronger than post-training Tanjiro.

Enhanced Stamina: Mostly used as comic relief, Haganezuka has absurd amounts of stamina, evidenced by relentlessly pursuing Tanjiro for hours from evening to morning, and even made another attempt the following day. In both instances Tanjiro was left exhausted.

Enhanced Strength: After training in the mountains, his increased strength apparently exceeded that of even Tanjiro.

Master Swordsmith: Hotaru is a skilled swordsmith, able to forge Nichirin Swords and repair it multiple times each time it broke in battles against demons. After Tanjiro chipped his sword in his battle against Upper Rank Six, Hotaru trained more to make a stronger sword. Hotaru demonstrated his professionalism and expertise when he polished and sharpened the 300-year-old blade left in Yoriichi Type Zero while completely ignoring the wounds he received from Gyokko. The polishing techniques he used has been passed down the Haganezuka line for many generations. His method is so severe that other swordsmiths have died from them.

Fighting Style
Tantōjutsu: Hotaru is an expert in using a Tantō, though he practices the combat style with his razor-sharp knives. He usually shows his skills by attacking Tanjiro after he damages his swords.

Trivia

 * Hotaru's surname contains the kanji for "steel" (鋼), a reference to his occupation, and his first name means "firefly" (螢).
 * He hates his first name due to how "cute" it is.
 * Hotaru's favourite food is mitarashi dango, and he goes out to buy some whenever he loses his temper.
 * Hotaru has wind-chimes attached to his hat because he's liked them since he was a child. Whenever he would throw a tantrum, the adults would use the chimes to calm him down.
 * Tickling his sides is the only way to break his concentration, after which he humorously goes limp for several minutes.
 * In an omake, Hotaru is depicted as having a wife, but during the Swordsmith Village Arc he is said to be single.
 * The knives that Hotaru uses to try to stab Tanjiro in his temper tantrums were actually made by Hotaru himself. These knives are noted to be extremely sharp and should never be used for cooking.

Navigation
Hotaru Haganezuka Хотару Хаганезука 鋼鐡塚螢 鋼鐵塚螢