Episode 17

You Must Master a Single Thing (ひとつのことを極め抜け) is the 17th episode of the Kimetsu no Yaiba TV anime series.

Synopsis
The Twelve Kizuki, directly subordinate to Muzan Kibutsuji, are here…

When Tanjiro slays the mother of the Spider Demons of Mount Natagumo, he learns that a demon who might become the key to turning Nezuko back into a human could be in this very forest.

Despite how battered Inosuke is, he heads deeper into the forest with Tanjiro.

Meanwhile, Zenitsu trudges forlornly through the woods, only to encounter a human-headed spider.

Plot
With a true member of the Twelve Kizuki present on Mount Natagumo, Tanjiro realizes it must possess a higher concentration of Muzan's blood, reaffirming his goal to extract it for the medicine for Nezuko. He runs back to Inosuke, who asks if he had defeated Mother. Tanjiro tentatively answers so and asks if he is alright, noticing his numerous cuts. Inosuke ignores his "showering of sensitivity and kindness", proudly proclaiming he can beat him at anything. Despite this, Tanjiro blames himself for Inosuke's injuries and then remembers Mother's final moments, how she gave off the scent of suffering and terror and her willing surrender.

Tanjiro attempts to patch Inosuke's wounds, to his annoyance, and ponders on the strange nature of the mountain, as it has both a Twelve Kizuki member and a demon family within, despite the fact that demons don't group together. Elsewhere, Zenitsu feels a prick on the hand as he continues his way around the forest. Now angry at being lost for so long, he wonders about Tanjiro and Inosuke's whereabouts; he finds a two way fork at the road and becomes more frustrated, as well as annoyed at the terrible smell present and numerous spiders around. With his enhanced hearing, he senses someone behind him and yells at them to stay still; instead, he looks down to see a large spider with a human head. Terrified, he runs way screaming he must be in a dream, unwilling to believe what he has just seen. He begs to wake up on Nezuko's lap and plow fields just to escape his "nightmare". As he stops, he finds himself in an enormous clearing in the forest and sees numerous captured humans transforming into spiders. Zenitsu sees a floating house suspended by threads and is further repulsed by the stronger stench of the area, believing it is pungent enough to kill Tanjiro with his sense of smell. He hears a rustling from the house and sees an enormous spider demon emerging from below.

Zenitsu runs away at the sight of the monster but the demon taunts him by saying that, "You're already losing". He tries to ignore his words but the demon continues talking about his situation becoming dire. Zenitsu asks what the demon is talking about; the spider asks he look at his hand and he sees it has become contused and blistered. The spider tells him he was poisoned by a bite earlier and will soon transform into one as well. The demon tells Zenitsu he will soon be his slave inside of 30 minutes, commenting he will feel pain, dizziness, nausea, lose consciousness and then become a spider, laughing as he taunts the Demon Slayer over his impending fate.

Now even more frightened, Zenitsu runs away and is chased by numerous transformed spiders. The demon reminds him that running is futile, to which Zenitsu yells he already knows, climbing up a tree to avoid the spiders. The spider demon tells him not to worry, as his intelligence will be reduced too. Zenitsu refuses to listen and laments he has no friends, a girlfriend or anyone that likes him; hearing this, the spider instead offers an extra dose of poison to acceleration transformation. Zenitsu becomes frightened at his fate and hugs the tree, reminiscent of when he had climbed up a tree to escape his trainer, admonishing him for running away continuously.

His trainer commands him to climb down to resume training but Zenitsu adamantly refuses, sure that he will die by continuing. His trainer tells him he won't at the level they will be at and tells him again to get down. Zenitsu refuses, calling him as "Gramps", his trainer commands to be addressed as "Master"; Zenitsu then replies it is because he loves him, much to his trainer's surprise.

Zenitsu recalls when he first met him; he was with a girl who made him raise money just to start an affair with a different person. Racked with debt, he was rescued by his trainer and subsequently taught to be a Demon Slayer. Though he aspired to meet his expectation, he didn't believe himself to be capable of reaching them. He states that he does regret being so weak-willed and cowardly, adding that he had also been training in secret without getting sleep, yet he still is yet to show any amount of progress. As he speaks, thunder clouds roll in

Anime Notes

 * This episode has a translation error that states that the Thunder Breathing has 3 teachable forms, there are however, 6 forms. This may be due to the fact that the letter "i" is right next to letter "u", which may have turned "6" (六つ) into "3" (三つ).

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Эпизод 17