Doma

Doma is a major supporting antagonist of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. He is a demon affiliated with the Twelve Kizuki, holding the second highest position, Upper Rank Two (の).

Over a century ago, Doma held the position of Upper Rank Six (の), and during that tenure, he turned Gyutaro and Daki into demons and introduced them into the Twelve Kizuki.

He is also the leader of the Eternal Paradise Faith, a cult dedicated to worshipping Doma and a place where he listens to all his followers' troubles and gives them advice. It also acts as a place for Doma to capture and kill humans. This cult also took in Inosuke Hashibira's mother, Kotoha Hashibira, before Doma killed her for finding out that he was eating his followers.

Appearance
Doma is a tall young man with a toned and muscular body, who is of a notably pale complexion and possessed unusually long, pointed nails that appeared to be stained with a pale blue color. He possesses long platinum blond hair that he wore parted to his right, the shorter parts around his face seeming to flare out to either side around his head, curving backwards with one lock slanting down to the right of his face to fall between his eyes, while the longer parts were left to drape centrally down his back in a thinning spiral. His eyes have been described to be incredibly rare and beautiful, as, in color, they appeared to be made up of an array of rainbow pastel tones that fade into one another as they circle his irises, this unusual appearance even causing people to believe Doma is a blessed being who could communicate with the gods. The kanji for "Upper Rank" and "Two" (or "Upper Rank" and "Six" at the time when he first met Gyutaro and Daki) is etched across them, and they were shaped to slope downwards towards the sides of his face, with a set of notably large, thick black eyebrows acting to frame them above.

Doma wore a blood-red turtleneck of a design that made it appear that the section between his neck and upper chest is covered by a black substance that looks like it's dripping slightly down his body, this same design repeated at his wrists and down his hands, as well as on the small, circular "blood stain" he adorned on his head. Below this, he wore a pair of straight, tan-colored hakama pants of a pinstriped design, their cuffs visibly loose, which he secured with a pale green-tinged golden belt, its buckle a bright silver. He also only wears plain black tabi socks on his feet. On occasion, Doma may also have been seen sporting a black cloak, which he drapes around his shoulders, two lengths of purple and black cloth with a rectangular pattern also hanging from it around his neck, as well as a black crown which is lined with gold around its frontal plates and has flowing black ribbons dangling from each of its sides. He is also usually seen holding a pair of sharp fans that were made entirely out of shining gold, a lotus design engraved across them and a green tassel at the base, which acted as his primary weapons.

Personality
Doma is outwardly friendly, possessing an approachable and charismatic air and described to talk and act in a calm and carefree manner by Kanae Kocho. However, it is soon revealed that Doma has psychopathic tendencies, adopting sick beliefs and habits like ruthlessly and happily murdering and devouring his cult's followers and young women under the belief that he is saving them from their suffering by letting them "live" inside his body.

Under his carefree and unassuming demeanor, Doma is a cold and calculating individual that possesses extremely keen intellect. His high intelligence may be the reason why he looks down on humans, genuinely believing that they are pathetic and stupid, to the point where he cried out of pity for them. His condescending attitude towards humans was also showcased when he was decapitated by the combined efforts of Shinobu Kocho, Inosuke Hashibira, and Kanao Tsuyuri, where he felt insulted to be killed by individuals which he thought lowly of.

It is later revealed that Doma is clinically apathetic, being completely emotionless and unable to experience proper emotions. Doma himself admitted that the concept of emotion was completely foreign to him, even as a human. Aware that this is abnormal, Doma compensated his empty "heart" with his own charisma, learning to express his carefree demeanor enough to deceive all but the most keen observers.

Despite his innate apathy, he appeared angry when Kanao insulted his inability to feel real emotions, dropping his kindly facade and outright trying to kill her. His apathy could be tied to his psychopathy, or even be the source of it. This is shown when his mother murdered his father and then proceeded to kill herself all while being observed by Doma when he was a child; Doma didn't show any sign of grief or shock, but instead complained that their blood made the room stuffy.

In spite of his apathy, Doma has a disturbing habit of primarily eating young women, as evident by most of his cult followers being women. One exception to this was Inosuke's mother, Kotoha Hashibira, who Doma didn't want to kill and instead wanted to keep by his side until she died of natural causes, though he eventually killed her when she tried to escape. The reason for this unique behavioural trait is still currently unclear, though it is implied that the reason is because women provide more nutritional value for demons as they can nurture babies.

In addition to his incapability to feel genuine emotion, Doma also possesses masochistic pain tolerance, comparable to congenital analgesia. He had been shown to have several disturbing habits such as sticking his finger into his skull, puncturing a hole straight through his temples, and then fondling and fiddling with his brain in order to stimulate his memories from his long life with a completely serene expression in his face.

During his interactions with fellow Upper Rank Akaza, he showed no negative reactions to him delivering two fatal blows to his head, in fact, he considered this to be their form of personal "greeting" between two "best friends." Doma has even implied that he actually enjoys these physical abuses as seen when he morbidly asked Muzan with excitement on what type of extreme self harm he should inflict on himself as punishment for his failure, and again expressed delight upon the severe pain he felt at Shinobu Kocho's numerous attempts to poison him to death and even cheerfully expresses his delight on the feelings and sensations of the poison destroying his body and how he might actually grow to "like" it.

Despite leading a cult, Doma is a nihilistic atheist who staunchly believes that gods, Buddhas, and the afterlife do not exist. He believed that after death there is nothing and that people who "could not accept something so simple" are naïve and dumb. However, after his death, he accepted that he is wrong and that Heaven and Hell actually do exist. Doma also displayed what arguably is his first true emotion, love, when he proclaimed his love for Shinobu after finding her cute.

Abilities
Overall Abilities: As the holder of the second highest position in the Twelve Kizuki, Doma is an exceptionally powerful demon, being the second highest ranking member in the Twelve Kizuki and the third strongest demon in existence. His combination of combative prowess and his potent cryokinetic Blood Demon Art in battle is powerful enough to overwhelm and defeat the Insect Hashira, Shinobu Kocho, without any difficulty, and he is also noted to have defeated Kanae Kocho, the late Flower Hashira, in the past. Afterwards, Doma could take on both Inosuke and Kanao, who were on par with the Hashira, simultaneously without much effort either.

According to Doma, Akaza, who holds the rank of Upper Three, would have no chance in defeating him in battle. Moreover, Doma was able to surpass Akaza in a shorter period of time, showcasing the immense power gap between the two demons. As further credence to Doma's immense power, he rarely fights seriously and instead adopts a casual and carefree attitude even in life-and-death situations against the most powerful Demon Slayers, only ever becoming serious when his life is in serious danger, such as when the deadly effects of Shinobu's poisons became apparent.

Apathy: Doma is clinically apathetic, being completely incapable of feeling human emotion. Doma covers his emotionlessness with a carefree and friendly facade that was able to trick all but the most keen observers. Kanao is the only human that was able to discern his true disposition using her superhuman eyesight, and concluded that Doma merely acts like he shows emotions in hopes that one day he would actually be able to feel human emotions himself, a concept which he admitted seemed alien to him. Even when he was a child, Doma possessed little to no emotion, as shown when his mother ruthlessly murdered his father and then proceeded to kill herself in front of Doma; he was neither shocked nor petrified, instead feeling annoyed that their blood made the room stuffy.

This inability to feel emotions has become an advantage for Doma, as this allows him to calmly process, understand and analyze any situation he is faced with without being hampered by emotions, allowing him to easily and quickly come up with any solution for any adversary. Although, after his death, he seemed to have developed feelings for Shinobu Kocho, making it the first time he actually shows true emotion.

Biological Absorption: Doma briefly displayed the ability to absorb human bodies through physical contact, shown when he completely broke down and assimilated Shinobu's body within only a few seconds of killing her. He mostly uses this ability as a faster alternative of consuming humans during battle.

Extrasensory Perception: Doma possesses extraordinary sensory abilities which allow him to detect things outside the normal range of perception, as shown when he could perceive attacks even from places he is not looking at, allowing him to nullify the effectiveness of sneak attacks. Later, Doma was capable of detecting Akaza's transformation into a demon immune to decapitation by Nichirin Swords despite being extremely far away from him.

Immense Durability: As an Upper Rank demon who has assimilated a huge amount of Muzan's blood, Doma has an exceptionally durable body. This is shown when Kanao had difficultly slicing Doma's neck even when his body was falling apart due to the extreme dosage of poison he received. Kanao only succeeded in decapitating the Upper Rank when Inosuke used his swords to push her blade through Doma's neck.

Immense Speed & Reflexes: Doma possesses inhuman movement speed and reflexes, being able to move so fast he appears to teleport. Due to their rankings, it is strongly suggested that Doma is faster than Akaza, who was able to keep up with a Marked Giyu while holding back, and Gyutaro who was able to keep up with and overpower Tengen, the fastest runner among this generation's Hashira. He first displayed his immense speed during the Upper Rank meeting, where he appeared to teleport to Gyokko, which caught him off guard. Later, when Akaza appeared behind him and destroyed his head, Doma claimed that he could've easily evaded it if he wanted to, but didn't do so on purpose as he wanted to get along with him.

His imperceptible speed was further testified when he sliced a woman to pieces after Shinobu, the fastest Hashira Doma has met, brought her away from his attack range, taking the Insect Hashira a while to register the attack. Moreover, Doma was shown to be able to keep up with Shinobu's imperceptible speed for the majority of the fight. More impressively, Doma was able to deliver a deep cut to Shinobu before she could even react, effectively blitzing her. Against Kanao, a Hashira-level Demon Slayer, Doma was able to easily dodge her Crimson Hanagoromo technique while still busy absorbing Shinobu, and later managed to move so fast he appeared to teleport behind her, nearly decapitating the Demon Slayer's head.

Later on in the fight, Doma managed to completely blitz Kanao, running up to her from a considerably far distance, stealing her Nichirin katana while she was still gripping onto it, and returning to his original spot so fast that Kanao, despite possessing superhuman vision, couldn't react to, let alone perceive the Upper Rank's movements, even taking several seconds to comprehend and realize what just happened. Similarly, Doma blitzed Inosuke, this time, stealing his mask without he and Kanao realizing it until several seconds later. Due to how casual Doma was when he performed the aforementioned feats, it is implied that Doma could've instantly blitzed and killed both Kanao and Inosuke had he taken the fight more seriously.

Immense Regeneration: As an Upper Rank demon, Doma possesses one of the most advanced and powerful regenerative healing factors in existence. When Akaza punched off both his lower jaw and the upper portion of his head, he instantly healed with ease, even considering the fatal attack to be a friendly gesture. Doma also took mere seconds to recover from Shinobu's onslaught of fatal Wisteria poison attacks and from a deep slash in his abdomen which caused his guts to spill out. Even when Doma absorbed Shinobu's body and ingested over 37 kilograms worth of poison, approximately 700 times more than the lethal amount needed to kill an average demon, it still took a considerable amount of time before it began to have any adverse effect on him.
 * Reactive Adaptation: During his battle against Shinobu, he is able to break down and render all of the various poison mixtures Shinobu injected into him useless, immediately developing antibodies to her poison without much trouble. Shinobu herself was shocked at how fast Doma built a resistance to her normally fatal poison.

Keen Intellect: Doma is exceptionally intelligent, which he displayed on multiple occasions. While in a fast-paced brawl with Kanao, he was able to process and deduce her abilities, surmising that it was her superhuman eyesight that allowed her to parry and dodge his ice attacks and immediately develop a strategy to counter it. In another instance, when he left Kanao and Inosuke to fight his ice clones, he construed that Inosuke had an acute sense of touch just by observing his behavior when near his ice techniques.

It is also implied that Doma was able to trick and deceive all of his followers, allowing him to kill and eat them. He was able to keep this up for over a century with almost complete infallibility. Doma also possesses incredible memory, being able to remember even the most insignificant details from back when he was human, which was over a century ago.

Unlimited Stamina & Endurance: Doma possesses absolute and infinite stamina and vitality, never tiring and always remaining in optimal physical and mental condition all the time as well as being able to endure waves of onslaught as if it were nothing. He showed almost complete immunity to being repeatedly violently attacked by his fellow Upper Rank, Akaza, having his eyes slashed out by Inosuke, being repeatedly poisoned and stabbed by Shinobu, having his stomach slashed open by Kanao and inflicting various forms of extreme self-harm to himself. Doma never once expressed the slightest bit of pain, discomfort and panic at being wounded so grievously, having been able to nonchalantly and calmly continue fighting, talking or doing whatever else he is doing as if nothing is happening.

Fighting Style
Tessenjutsu: Doma is incredibly skilled in Tessenjutsu as shown during his battles against the Demon Slayers. It is implied that his skill in this martial arts surpasses Akaza's bare-fisted combat prowess due to his superior ranking compared to Akaza. Doma showcased his skill in dual wielding his Japanese war fans against Kanao and Inosuke, where he could easily fend off both combatants, displaying his ability in using his fans for both attacking and defending during high-speed battles, parrying and delivering attacks that overwhelmed the Demon Slayers.

With his exceptional proficiency in Tessenjutsu, Doma could make use of techniques that require him to perform eight to nine fan attacks in the blink of an eye and generate huge gusts of air with them. Furthermore, Doma's Tessenjutsu incorporates his cryokinetic Blood Demon Art which enhances its range and lethality, making his fighting style a great blend of offense and defense.

Blood Demon Art
Cryokinesis: Doma's Blood Demon Art grants him extremely powerful cryokinesis. He can generate ice and frost from his flesh and blood and can spawn it anywhere in his vicinity, as well as manipulating it at will, allowing him to unleash incredibly potent ice techniques. Additionally, the ice created from his Blood Demon Art is extremely lethal to those that inhale it, causing the cells of the victim's lungs to die and rendering them unable to breathe very quickly. His ice and frost has also been noted to be extremely cold, as shown when the air around Doma's frost was cold enough to make Shinobu's lungs feel as if they were about to burst and nearly freeze Kanao's body and surroundings just by coming into contact with it.

Doma is incredibly proficient in his Blood Demon Art, being capable of creating constructs out of the ice he generates such as frost lotuses, stalagmites, clouds of icy air and even miniature ice clones of himself capable of unleashing the same techniques as him. He has also shown the ability to use the ice he creates as extra appendages, as seen when he created ice vines to hold himself up the ceiling while he uses his arms to hug Shinobu. In combat, Doma usually incorporates his cryokinetic abilities with his Tessenjutsu, enhancing his fan attacks with ice and frost. Doma prefers to use his Blood Demon Art to create frost lotuses and crystal-like shards made of ice.

Techniques

 * -|Description =
 * Frozen Lotus - Doma delivers a forward fan slash that creates razor-sharp ice shards along with several ice lotuses.


 * Barren Hanging Garden (り) - A series of 8 to 10 successive fan attacks that generates ice shards to slice the enemy into pieces.


 * Freezing Clouds (て) - Doma creates a large wave of cold wind and uses his fans to scatter them. This technique nearly froze Kanao's eyeballs.


 * Lotus Vines - Similar to his Frozen Lotus technique, Doma creates several lotuses made of ice and long frost vines that extend his reach and can capture or slice up his opponents.


 * Cold White Princesses (の) - Doma creates the upper body of two female humanoid figures at the end of lotuses using ice with the ability to blow icy air towards his target. The wind generated was cold enough to instantly freeze the surrounding wood bridges and water. Kanao noted that this technique is extremely broad and has a long reach.


 * Wintry Icicles (ざれ) - Doma spawns numerous icicles to impale his target.


 * Scattering Lotuses (り) - Doma swings his fans and creates a blizzard of long-ranged razor-sharp ice shards shaped like lotus petals.


 * Crystalline Divine Child (ノ) - Doma creates miniature ice replicas of himself to battle his opponents. He has shown to be capable of creating up to six clones of himself at once, all possessing roughly the same skill and proficiency as Doma himself in addition to being fully capable of using any of his techniques, albeit not to the same caliber as him. Furthermore, these clones are able to record any information it gathers during battle and relay it to Doma, allowing him to better fight his opponents. However, one drawback to this technique is that the clones require concentration in order to maintain their functionality, as seen when they disappeared when Shinobu's poison started to take effect on Doma.


 * Rime — Water Lily Bodhisattva (・) - Doma creates an enormous Bodhisattva statue surrounded by lotuses made of ice. Its most notable trait is its ability to generate huge gusts of Doma's deadly ice from its mouth and deliver powerful physical attacks using its large arms. It is also able to grab targets using its hands.


 * -|Demonstrations =

Equipment
Japanese War Fans: Doma carries around a pair of gold-plated Japanese war fans most likely fashioned from his flesh (similar to all other weapons used by demons), that act as his main offensive weapons and aid in spreading his Blood Demon Art. His fans are of a golden color with several patterns resembling lotuses engraved on the side complete with a green tassel. They are extremely sharp and suited for his style of combat, being able to slice and slash as well as swords and generate huge gusts of air. They are also shown to be extremely durable, withstanding multiple sword slashes and attacks without breaking.

Trivia

 * Doma's name contains the On'yomi reading of the kanji for "child" and "polish, improve".
 * In the manga's original Japanese, Doma's hair is described to be very light blond/gold in color, "birch-colored", and this is how it's colored in the colored version of the Final Battle Arc. However, on Shonen Jump 2019 issue 29 and Chapter 162's covers (both of the covers he's on that were personally colored by Koyoharu Gotoge), in the anime adaptation, and in the manga's English translation, his hair is pictured/described as being a silver color.
 * Doma's attire and Eternal Paradise Faith is an inspiration to Dzogchen Atiyoga, a tradition of teachings within the Karma Kagyu, a trasmitting lineage and practice in Tibetan Buddhism. Doma himself is represented as the Gyalwa Karmapa, the leading figure who teaches all to attain enlightenment.
 * This leads back to Doma's entire Blood Demon Art techniques being centered around the teachings and practices of the Karma Kagyu. The lotuses being connected to the cycle of enlightnement along with the Lotus Sutra, religious Buddhist texts that teaches those about dharma (law), karma (action) and saṃsāra (cycle, world).
 * Muzan never really liked Doma, despite his loyalty and worship of him. Doma also made Muzan the figure of worship within his Paradise Faith Cult.
 * After Kotoha stumbled into his temple, Doma grew fond of her beauty and singing. He initially never intended to eat her as he enjoyed her company.
 * Kotoha's husband and mother in-law also went to the cult (possibly in search of her) but Doma found them noisy and murdered them. He didn't devour them though, only leaving their bodies in the mountains.
 * In Kimetsu Academy, beyond fake marriages, Doma is a scam artist in various ways. He is infamous to the point that he gets covered in special programs on TV. He's also been involved in several incidents, but because the evidence is insufficient, he has yet to be prosecuted. After greeting a woman with pink and green hair, he went missing afterward. Earlier at the crime scene, the voices of a man and a woman fighting were overheard saying "I had a feeling you were lying".

Quotes

 * (To himself) "How sad... that paradise does not exist. It's a fairy tale that humans created with their imagination. The Gods and Buddhas don't exist either. These people had been alive for decades yet they couldn't understand something so simple. When you die, you just become nothing. You just stop feeling anything. Your heart stops and your brain stops. You rot and return to the earth. As long as you are a living creature, it is unavoidable. They could not accept something so simple. It must be difficult to be so dumb. I wanted to make the pitiful people happy and help them. That is why I was born."
 * (To Kanao and Inosuke) "The reality is that even those who live upright and good lives meet with misfortune... while the wicked act as they please. They enjoy themselves and live life to the fullest. The idea of divine punishment is a joke. Wicked people going to hell after death? If humans didn't think like that, people with weak spirits couldn't keep going, right? I truly believe... that humans are pathetic."
 * (To Shinobu) "You know, everyone's afraid of dying. And that's why I eat them all up. Now they get to live together with me. Forever. All the feelings of my worshipers. Blood. Flesh. I made sure to accept, rescue, and guide them all to enlightenment."

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