Shinobu Kocho

Shinobu Kocho (しのぶ) was a Demon Slayer and the Insect Pillar of the Demon Slaying Corps.

Appearance
Shinobu is a petite girl with pale skin and large, compound-looking eyes that do not possess pupils, only a haze of gradient purple iris that becomes darker the lower it goes, which makes her eyes appear similar to those of bugs. She has short hair that fades from black into dark purple, fastened at the back of her head with a white and purple butterfly ornament, with split ear-length bangs that rise a little away from her head before they fall down to frame her face, two thinner chin-length strands below them. Shinobu is rather short in height and has been described as having a small and weak looking built, which is later reinforced by her saying that she does not possess the physical strength to cut a Demon's head off like other the other Pillars do.

Shinobu wears the standard Demon Slayer uniform that consists of a dark purple straight-lined black jacket, and hakama pants that are tucked into a butterfly pattern fabric around her lower legs. She also wears a white haori with a butterfly wing pattern, which fades into a turquoise and then pink color down the sleeves, which are cuffed with a black and white dotted trim, and white sandals with purple straps.

Personality
Shinobu is rather laid back, always having a smile on her face regardless of the situation she's in. She seems to enjoy teasing others and can be rather sadistic about it. Despite her relaxed exterior and her initial claim of wanting to get along with Demons, she can be rather cruel towards them, which is seen when she kills the Older Sister Spider Demon after giving her false hope of helping her, and attempting to kill Nezuko Kamado without hesitation.

Later on she is shown to have a more compassionate side towards both Tanjiro Kamado and his sister after hearing their full story. Later, during her battle against Doma, Shinobu reveals that she has also suffered from an inferiority complex due to her inferior physical abilities compared to her fellow Pillars, having been jealous of them for possessing taller or more muscular bodies than her and cursing her own body for not developing further to make her more effective in combat. Later, as revealed by Tanjiro, Shinobu, despite her outward calm and tranquil disposition, is revealed to be in a near constant state of anger due to everything she and others have lost, her anger and frustration at her own body for being small and thus ineffective in combat, the death of her elder sister, the deaths of her Tsuguko (other than Kanao Tsuyuri) and finally the orphaning of her apprentice healers, who lost their entire families to Demon attacks and were forced to enter into the Demon Slayer corps in order to survive.

Natural Abilities
Despite not possessing the physical strength to cut off a Demon's head common to that of an average Demon Slayer or even the superhuman abilities possessed by her fellow Pillars, Shinobu is none the less as dangerous and deadly as the rest of them.
 * Medical Expertise - Despite not being as combat talented as the rest of her fellow Pillars, Shinobu has instead displayed immense skill and mastery over medical and pharmaceutical fields to make up for her lack of natural born combat talent, being highly knowledgeable about how to create various poisons and venoms using wisteria flowers. She is capable of killing opponents within seconds, and has even managed to create a poison strong enough to fatally injure and weaken members of the Upper Moons of the Twelve Demon Moons. She possesses the necessary skills to slowly alter her own body to be saturated with poison without negatively impending her own health, as well as the medical skills needed to counteract the venoms and poisons created by Demons. This is seen when she manages to undo the poison that was slowly transforming Zenitsu into a Spider Creature, managing to restore him back to his previous human form.
 * Immense Speed  - Shinobu has displayed almost superhuman levels of speed, being fast enough to easily evade and outpace Demons and catch them by surprise.
 * Immense Physical Strength - Despite being the smallest member of the Demon Slayer Corps and thus having the weakest swing strength due to her small arms, Shinobu has instead displayed powerful thrust and stab strength instead, with her other Pillars noting that a single thrust from her sword could easily pierce a stone boulder in half.

Swordsmanship
Breath of the Insect (の) : The Insect Breath is branched out from the Flower Breath, which itself is branched out of the Water Breath. While Shinobu may be the only one of the Pillars incapable of beheading demons, she is still as deadly as them. Using this unique Breath, she coats her weapon with poison made from Wisteria flower and alters the mixture and composition of the poisons inside her scabbard.
 * Dance of the Butterflies: Frolic (ノ れ) - Shinobu jumps forward towards the opponent and stings them multiple times with her blade to inject her poison.
 * Dance of the Bee Sting: Mere Fluttering (ノ き) - Shinobu dashes at her target at an incredible speed and uses the momentum of her speed to then strengthen her single thrust into her opponent to inject lethal poison into them.
 * Dance of the Dragonfly: Compound Eye Hexagon (ノ) - A six strike attack where Shinobu aims to strike and inject her target with several attacks to inject multiple area's of her targets bodies with poison.
 * Dance of the Centipede: Hundred-Legged Zigzag (ノ) - An attack where Shinobu used her full speed to run a zigzag pattern to confuse her opponents in order to create an opening for her to directly stab her opponents neck and inject poison into their neck and kill them, with the stab's force and power being further enhanced by the momentum of her speed. Doma noted that the sheer speed of this technique was strong enough to destroy an entire bridge.

Body Modification
Poisonous Body - In order to defeat the Upper Moon Two, Doma, Shinobu heavily alters her body by absorbing and altering her body's physiology with highly concentrated wisteria-based poison. With the assistance of the Demon Doctor, Tamayo, Shinobu is successful in saturating her body with undetectable poison that completely merges with her body's own cell structures, including those of her blood and internal organs -- all the way down to the very tips of her fingernails. With Shinobu's overall size and body wight, her body is the equivalent of 37 kilograms worth of poison, approximately seventy times more than the lethal amount needed to kill an average demon, with the poison being strong enough to melt Doma, the Upper Moon Two, down to his very bones.

Trivia

 * Shinobu is the dictionary form of shinobi, an alternative name of ninja.
 * The engravings on Shinobu's sword read "evil spirit/demon" (悪鬼).
 * Shinobu's surname Kocho means "butterfly" (胡蝶/こちょう).
 * Shinobu was ranked in 6th place as of the first character popularity poll with 1,813 votes.

Site Navigation
Шинобу Кочо Shinobu Kocho