Hantengu/Synopsis

Human Life
Even as a child, Hantengu was a frequent liar who deflected blame towards him onto anyone else. Whenever something happened, he would play the part of the victim and did anything he could in order to make others around him look bad as a way to gain sympathy. Throughout most of his adult life, Hantengu committed many heinous crimes. He stole from numerous innocent people and murdered others in various towns and cities, all the while claiming that he was innocent, even once claiming that his hands alone were solely to blame for his actions, thus hinting that he was also mentally unstable and delusional due to his claims. He was even married several times and had children, but falsely believed he was being mistreated and killed his many wives and children in "retaliation". Eventually, he was captured by a high-ranked magistrate and sentenced to death by decapitation, despite his outrageous claims of innocence that were then silenced by threatening to cut off his "sinful" hands instead. While imprisoned and awaiting his execution, he was approached by Muzan Kibutsuji who offered to "help" him after taking pity on his situation. Muzan proceeded to give him some of his blood, transforming him into a demon.

Demon Life
After his transformation, he escaped his prison and killed the magistrate who condemned him to his death sentence. With his dying breath, the magistrate told him that killing him didn't matter because eventually his past sins and actions will see him punished in the future no matter what he did.

Over the course of the next 200 years, Hantengu would develop a unique and extremely powerful Blood Demon Art. All of the powerful emotions he felt throughout his life would manifest themselves into younger clones of himself, all equipped with unique powers and personalities. In time, he would eventually attain the position of Upper Rank Four of the Twelve Kizuki.

Swordsmith Village Arc
Having been summoned to the Upper Ranks Meeting, Hantengu corrected Upper Rank Five Gyokko over the number of years since they had last met: one hundred and thirteen, a number which unnerved Hantengu. As Upper Three Akaza struck Upper Two Doma in annoyance, destroying the latter's jaw, Hantengu yelped in fear at the violence and cowered behind a staircase. He later bowed timidly as Muzan arrived and listened as his leader revealed the death of Gyutaro, before berating the Upper Ranks present for their uselessness in meeting his goals, causing Hantengu to beg him for forgiveness. Eventually, Gyokko provided Muzan with new information and was sent on a joint mission based on it with Hantengu. Upper Four quickly acknowledges Muzan's orders for him and Gyokko to head to an unknown location once the latter confirmed his newfound lead.

Later, Akaza viciously destroyed the upper portion of Doma's head after he attempts to join their mission without Muzan's orders, only for the former to get his hand lopped off by Upper Rank One, Kokushibo, causing Hantengu to cower in fear and apprehension once again. Afterwards, he and Gyokko were then transported to their destination by the Biwa Demon.

At the Swordsmith Village, Hantengu crawled on the roof of a building, eager to fulfill their mission to avoid facing Muzan's wrath. Crawling and sobbing inside one of the buildings, he encountered the Demon Slayer Tanjiro Kamado and the Mist Hashira Muichiro Tokito, shortly thereafter which, he was attacked. He swiftly avoids an attack from the latter by leaping to the ceiling and then dodged a follow-up attack from Tanjiro, only to be kicked by his demon sister Nezuko. His head was then severed by another slash from Muichiro, causing him to manifest two of his emotions: his anger Sekido and his pleasure Karaku. As Muichiro and Tanjiro attempted to attack the new demons, Karaku blew Muichiro far into the distance with a single wave of his uchiwa. The two then confronted Tanjiro and Nezuko, briefly exchanging biting comments at each other, with Sekido then attacking Tanjiro with a burst of electricity from his khakkhara. The two failed to notice Genya approaching them from behind with a shotgun.

Firing both shells, Genya succeeds in decapitating Sekido but failing to completely sever Karaku's neck, much to the latter's amusement. The young Demon Slayer finished the job with his wakizashi, only for the anger and pleasure manifestations to split once more. Urogi, the winged manifestation of Hantengu's joy, then grabbed Tanjiro by the leg and flew off with him, while the manifestation of his sorrow, Aizetsu, impaled Genya with a Jūmonji yari. The former congratulated Tanjiro on figuring out their strategy, while the latter commented on Genya's pitiful weakness. Tanjiro urged Nezuko to help Genya, prompting his abductor to reprimand him for forgoing his own safety, before firing a concussive blast of sound waves at the Demon Slayer. Urogi grows surprised to find that his opponent had hacked off the leg holding him, a head then growing from the severed limb to fire the sound blast at a shocked Tanjiro.

The disembodied leg of Urogi was then cut in two by Tanjiro, swiftly turning into two mouths that fired their sound waves at him once more. However, their attack power had been lessened due to consecutive divisions, leading Tanjiro to cut them once more and stop the attack. Urogi himself then appeared behind the Demon Slayer, firing another sound blast, which was dodged, but followed up by a vicious claw attack to Tanjiro's chest. Urogi then boasted about the sharpness of his claws, promising to carve up the young Demon Slayer, only to discover the youth had sliced his face in two. As Tanjiro prepared a follow-up attack, Urogi then attempted to fire the sound blast once more, only to have his jaw sliced off, causing him to land on the ground. Nonetheless, he quickly heals his wound and takes flight.

Elsewhere, Karaku held back a transformed Nezuko, taunting her while Sekido told him to finish her off. Listening to the demon of anger's orders, Aizetsu offered to finish her off, only to discover he is unable to pull his weapon out of Genya, who promptly fired a point-blank blast at his head, partially decapitating him.

Sekido reprimanded Aizetsu for this, leading the yari-wielding demon to then pull his weapon out and slashed Genya across the chest. Regenerating his head, Aizetsu grows annoyed at his opponent for not dying immediately, before he then noticed that Genya had begun to pray. Sekido commanded Aizetsu to crush the Demon Slayer's head, which resulted in the yari being swung at Genya's head. The weapon hit nothing but the floor as the Upper Rank's opponent appears behind him, swinging his sword at Aizetsu's head. This ambush was foiled by a burst of electricity from Sekido, who was shot at by their highly resilient opponent and has his right hand severed by his pellets, much to his frustration. Aizetsu then swung his yari, smashing into Genya's torso and driving him through a wall. Karaku commented that his allies were having fun, and told Nezuko that he was done with her, driving a foot through her chest.

Karaku then told Sekido to stab and electrocute her until she didn't move anymore, ripping off one of Nezuko's hands off after his speech, leading Sekido to angrily note that it was his intentions to begin with. The young demon then responded with a sudden counterattack, nearly decapitating Karaku with a swift kick and splashing him with her blood. After burning him with her Blood Demon Art, she then torn the hand that held his uchiwa fan and the leg in her chest off. As Sekido demanded to know what Karaku was doing, Nezuko waved the torn arm and fan towards the latter, blowing him into the distance with his own wind.

She attempted to do the same to Sekido, who foiled her attempt by stabbing her in the neck with the blunt end of his staff and electrocuting her. Elsewhere, Urogi continued to battle Tanjiro, managing to land a blow while avoiding one from his opponent, and circled around for another attempt. Aizetsu continued to confront Genya, who once again was praying, confused as to how he was still alive and wondering what he was. The Demon Slayer introduced himself and demanded he remember the name of the man who will kill him.

As Urogi swooped in for his next attack, he is stabbed through the mouth by Tanjiro, causing the two of them to crash into the building they started in. Sekido, still in the process of electrocuting Nezuko, demanded to know what Karaku and Urogi were doing, and quickly grew a khakkhara out of his palm. He thrust the weapon at Tanjiro, who blocked it with Urogi's foot. Sekido praised Tanjiro's instincts, as his electricity cannot be transferred through his own cells, while the Demon Slayer slashes his tongue cut in half as he reaches Nezuko, slowing his regeneration. As his opponent freed his sister from his other khakkhara, Sekido tried to stab him in the neck behind, pinning him to the ground, but his attack was stopped from doing any further damage by Nezuko, who lit Sekido on fire with her Blood Demon Art. Just then, Karaku reappeared and leapt high above the building, using his fan to demolish part of the building his foes were fighting in, incapacitating both of them. He, Sekido, and Urogi then prepared to finish the pair.

Their would-be victims recovered quickly and tried to flee, but were knocked down again by an electricity blast from Sekido. Urogi swooped in to attack them, but his attempt was dodged. As the two ran away, Sekido reprimanded Karaku for his slowness, telling him to level the whole building, which the demon of pleasure quickly accomplished. He then noted that the two no longer had any place to hide.

Eventually, the three manifestations found Tanjiro standing alone before them, amused to see him challenge all three of them at once. Even after noticing the Demon Slayer was wielding a new blade, Urogi was unfazed and charged in to attack the swordsman as Sekido and Karaku watched. However, it is only Sekido who realized that Tanjiro's burning blade was similar to that of the swordsman's from Muzan's memories, so much so that their very visages seemed to be overlapping. Tanjiro then unleashed Hinokami Kagura: Sun Halo Dragon Head Dance, decapitating all three in one powerful, fluid motion. A short distance away, Genya had managed to heavily injure Aizetsu, pinning him to a tree with his own yari and ripping his head off.

Each of the demons hit by Tanjiro's attack reacted differently: Urogi simply screaming in pain, Karaku panicking over his apparent lack of regeneration, and Sekido berating the latter, stating they were still regenerating, but at a much slower pace. Sekido was the first to recover, firing his electricity blast at Tanjiro, Nezuko, and Genya, who were in the process of finding Hantengu's fifth body. Elsewhere, this fifth entity cowered, confident that the other emotion Demons would beat all the "bad guys". Tanjiro directed Genya towards the location of the fifth Hantengu, with Nezuko and himself providing cover for their scarred ally, with an immediate attack launched by Karaku, forcing the youth to grip a nearby tree while Sekido prepared to attack once more. He was attacked by Nezuko, who was immediately pierced by a recovered Aizetsu, who Sekido also attempted to attack, only to have his khakkhara hand severed by Tanjiro.

Sekido realized that the youth was improving in ability as the battle progressed, just as he had been told and had observed thus far, noting he experienced explosive growth in critical situations. Urogi's right wing was subsequently severed by Tanjiro, and Aizetsu was grabbed by Nezuko's using both her hands and feet and lit on fire. Seeing this, Sekido desperately looked to see what Karaku was up to. Urogi used his uchiwa fan to crush Tanjiro into the ground, turning to attack one of the others, only for his fan arm and fan to be split in two by the youth's fiery counterattack. Furious, he stomped on the youth, who continued to give Genya directions on how to find the Upper Rank's fifth body. The two were ultimately successful, the fifth Hantengu cowering at the sight of Genya. The scarred youth shot at the tiny emotion Demon, to no effect, but the miniature Hantengu ran from him regardless. He was pursued by Genya, who swung his blade at the Fear Demon's neck, only for it to break. Another gunshot yielded a similar result, with Sekido attacking Genya from behind almost immediately afterward.

Just as Sekido was about to land the fatal blow, his arm was severed by Tanjiro, causing him to land only a minor blow. As Sekido reeled from the attack, Aizetsu attempted to attack Tanjiro from behind with a flurry of air slashes. His attack was foiled by Genya, who took the brunt of the attack, allowing Tanjiro to land a blow with his fiery blade on the miniature Hantengu, who screamed in agony.

As the Fear Demon continued to shriek, a sixth Hantengu appeared from behind Tanjiro, who continued to press his attack. However, the boost he had gotten from Nezuko's blood had ran out, the blade being halted by the miniature-Hantengu's thick neck. Genya shot at the sixth Hantengu, who struck at one of the drums on his body, summoning an amalgamation of tree and dragon, which attacked Tanjiro and flung him up into the sky. Mitsuri arrived and caught Tanjiro, gently allowing him to rest while she fought the new clone who has the word "hatred" inscribed on his drums. The hatred clone, named Zohakuten, wrapped his miniature copy in a protective covering of branches.

This new form was revealed to be the result of Sekido absorbing Karaku, Urogi, and Aizetsu, who reacted with a strong glare as Tanjiro told him to stop protecting his Fear counterpart. He asked him if he had a problem with what he was doing, calling the pair of Demon Slayers evil, as the mini Hantengu cowered and trembled in his wooden protection. He answered Tanjiro's question of why he had said they were evil by pointing out their attack on his smaller version, something he called "pure injustice" and something "only a savage would do". He stood impassively as Tanjiro pointed out his misdeeds, promising to cut the Hatred Demon's head off.Infuriated by the boy's defiance, Zohakuten, beat one of his drums again and sent his 5 dragons on the Demon Slayers. Tanjiro, Nezuko, and Genya were quickly overwhelmed in their battle against the Upper Rank, with Tanjiro deducing that Zohakuten not only possessed the abilities of the original 4 clones, as his attacks included Sekido's lightning attacks, Karaku's wind blasts, and Urogi's sonic screeches, but also that their potency had been amplified, as the latter two broke his foot and burst his eardrums respectively. He also estimated that the dragons could extend to 66 ft. Two dragons ensnared Nezuko and Genya in their coils, and when Tanjiro tried to get 66 ft away, one created multiple dragons from it's mouth like a Russian doll, and grabbed Tanjiro by the arm, pulling him towards his mouth and swallowing him whole, much to Nezuko and Genya's horror. When the dragon began to crush Tanjiro with it's innards, Zohakuten triumphantly declared his victory, believing that the boy was good as dead. But at that moment, the Love Hashira, Mitsuri Kanroji, sliced open the dragon that swallowed Tanjiro and rescued him, while reacting with horror at the monsters that Zohakuten had summoned. Still holding Nezuko and Genya hostage, the demon glared at and insulted the "damn slip of a girl." Confident, Mitsuri charged into battle, despite Tanjiro's warnings of Zohakuten's status. Mitsuri was able to destroy a dragon and outmaneuver the rest, but she later paused the fight for a moment attempting to assertively and diplomatically order Nezuko and Genya's release. The demon spitefully rejected this, calling her a "shameless tramp" and boldly declaring that there is only one person in the world who could give him orders, referring to Muzan. Zohakuten then tried to kill Mitsuri using Blood Demon Art: Crazed Cry of Thunderdeath, a combination of Sekido's lighting and Urogi's screaming. To his surprise however, she was able to combat this with Love Breathing, slicing through his lighting. Growing more agitated by her also being able to counter Karaku's wind blasts and Aizetsu's "Weeping Spear" projectiles, Zohakuten attempted to bury Mitsuri with a BDA known as "Countless Striking Trees", an attack meant to overwhelm her by summoning a multitude of dragons. He also used this opportunity to to relocate the cluster of branches protecting Hantengu's body. After Mitsuri successfully slashed and destroyed Zohakuten's dragons, she attempted to use her long, flexible sword to decapitate him, but Zohakuten opened his mouth and began to power up his own sonic screech. Although the girl was confident, Tanjiro yelled that decapitating Zohakuten wouldn't defeat him, causing her to let her guard down and attempt to move out of the way. Before she could however, Zohakuten directly hit her with an extremely powerful sonic screech dubbed "Compressed Sound Waves". To his shock however, Mitsuri's body was not only still intact, but she had survived the attack, only being knocked unconscious. Hopping off the cluster of branches he was using as podium, Zohakuten walked towards her, baffled how she had survived an attack that should had completely annihilated her. He then realized that her slim physique hid her true muscle density, and excitedly decided to eat her flesh in order to gain strength, after he pulverized her skull and tissue. Before Zohakuten could land a killing blow on Kanroji, Tanjiro, and the recently escaped Nezuko and Genya came to her aid, and pushed her out the way. When they attempted to carry the Hashira to safety, an unimpressed Zohakuten attempted to finish all 4 of them with a powerful lighting attack, but Mitsuri had once again sliced trough it, now with new-found motivation. Summoning even more dragons, Zohakuten and Mitsuri engaged in combat once again, with her ordering her comrades to go after the main body. Any attempt to stop the Kamado siblings and Genya from reaching it was halted by the Love Hashira, who destroyed any dragon that approached them. Confused and furious, Zohakuten questioned how Mitsuri's attacks were more faster and powerful then before, before noticing a Demon Slayer Mark had appeared on her neck, which he remarked looked like a demon's crest. Although beyond frustrated with the girl thwarting his attacks, he knew that her stamina was finite, and she'll eventually run out of it like all humans do. Now in a location away from the battle, Hantengu continued to cower in the cluster of branches he was encased in. When Tanjiro, Genya, and Nezuko attempted to attack the cluster, it suddenly became animated and ensnared the 3, and then began moving at an extremely fast speed in order to shake them off. Genya bit the wood in order to gain strength and successfully chewed it in half. The half that contained Hantengu then tried to defend itself using flailing branches that acted like whips, although with help of Nezuko's blood demon art, Tanjiro was able to slice it open. However, Hantengu had somehow escaped and was attempting to sneak away, but he was quickly detected. Infuriated by the demon's cowardice, Tanjiro angrily ordered the demon to face the consequences for his actions, while Hantengu fled from the slayers. Tanjiro's words of condemnation gave him vague flashbacks of the magistrate who had sentenced him to death so long ago, causing the demon to tearfully lament how nobody had showed him any sympathy despite his apparent "virtue." As he continued to flee, the 3 young slayers began to give chase. Although trying their best to catch up to the demon, Hantengu's speed and small size made it a fruitless endeavor, and the demon was quickly outrunning the 3. However, using a memory of his close ally Zenitsu Agatsuma, giving a brief lesson on how to utilize Thunder Breathing, Tanjiro was able to build enough enough force into his legs and use Thunder Breathing to catch up to Hantengu. The boy then ignited his sword with Hinokami Kagura and attempted to behead the main body once again. However, after asking if he felt the least bit sorry for him, Hantengu suddenly transformed into an angry, hulking, behemoth and began to strangle Tanjiro, while admonishing him for "bullying the weak." Genya was able to catch up and desperately tried to pry the demon's giant hands open to free Tanjiro, but both were hit by Hantengu using another sonic screech attack, although this one was weaker and only momentarily stunned them. Nezuko then used her BDA to set the giant demon alight, which disoriented him enough for Genya to rip his arms off and release Tanjiro, who continued his attempt to behead the demon. However, Hantengu began ran backwards, pulling Tanjiro with him, and fell off a cliff in order to shake him off, with Nezuko jumping as well on order to save her brother. After they landed, Hantengu, with the sword still lodged in his neck, was unable to regenerate his arms, noting that Zohakuten's was using too much of his power, causing his regeneration to slow down. He was able to detect some humans nearby, and decided to eat them in order to replenish his power, but Tanjiro, who had landed in a tree called out to him, vowing to kill him. Taken aback, and infuriated by his defiance, Hantengu ran off, desperately searching for the humans he had sensed. He eventually found three swordsman villagers, and gave them chase when they spotted him and fled. Believing that the Kamado's no longer posed a significant threat, he was then taken by surprise when Tanjiro had caught up to him using Thunder Breathing once again. The boy had been armed with the old sword of Yoriichi Tsugikuni, the man who Sekido earlier recognized as the swordsman who nearly decapitated Muzan, and using that sword Tanjiro was finally able to decapitate the giant demon. The headless body of Hantengu began to wobble for a bit, but Tanjiro who believed that he had vanquished demon, desperately tried to hide his sister, who had just woken up after being knocked unconscious by her earlier fall, from the approaching sunlight. However, Nezuko desperately ran towards Tanjiro's direction, and when the boy tried to stop her, she pointed towards the distance, revealing that Hantengu had regrown his arms and was still alive, chasing the 3 villagers from earlier in an attempt to consume them. Tanjiro then noticed the decapitated head of the giant demon, and realized that it's tongue had the word "resentment" inscribed, instead of "fear", like the miniature demon from earlier. The giant demon had turned out to be another emotion clone, this one by the name of Urami, and the true main body was still yet to be killed. The Kamados briefly tried to finish the job, but the sun finally came out and began to burn Nezuko alive, causing Tanjiro to stay for the sake of his sister. Meanwhile, Urami was also burning the the sunlight, although his tough, muscular exterior made the process slower, and Tanjiro noted that he would've already killed the villagers by the time he finished burning. Unable to resolve his dilemma on whether to save his sister or the villagers, Nezuko kicked him off, forcing him to save the villagers at her expense. With the belief that his only remaining family was dead, Tanjiro, filled with grief and rage, rushed towards Urami, and used his sense of smell to detect the location of Hantengu's main body, which inside Urami's heart. After catching up with the demon, Tanjiro severed Urami's arms that had grabbed the heads of the villagers, and then sliced open his body, causing Hantengu's true miniature body to fall out. Demanding that the cowardly demon atone for its sins with its life, Tanjiro used his burning blade to slash Hantengu's neck. Hantengu then remembered his life as an elderly human criminal, his murder of a man who called out his duplicity, his final trial with the magistrate, and his first encounter with Muzan. He seemed genuinely surprised that his life was flashing before his eyes, with his final flashback being the magistrate telling him that one day his sins would catch up to him. Cutting back to the present, Tanjiro continued his attempt to decapitate the demon, and although Hantengu tried to use Urami to push the boy off, after a long, slow, and excruciating slice, Hantengu was finally beheaded once and for all. Due to his decapitation, coupled with with the exposure to sunlight, Hantengu, and what was left of Urami's body, instantly disintegrated. However, milliseconds before his death, Hantengu was able to catch a glimpse of Nezuko Kamado, who had survived exposure to the sunlight and reported it to his lord, Muzan Kibutsuji. Back in the forest, Mitsuri was still fighting Zohakuten, as just as the demon predicted, she had finally ran out of stamina, and had tearfully accepted that her death was imminent. However, right as a dragon swallowed Mitsuri, Hantengu's death finally caught up and both Zohakuten and the dragon disintegrated, with the child demon reacting with only mild surprise, but was otherwise silent. With the death of the most powerful and dangerous of Hantengu's clones, the Upper Rank's reign of terror had finally come to an end. However, although Gyokko and Hantengu had both failed in their mission to annihilate the swordsmith village, with both the demons dying at the hands of demon slayers, Muzan was overjoyed that a demon had finally survived the sunlight, and praised Hantengu for his unintentional scouting. The king of demons then decided to finally come out of hiding and personally search for Nezuko, so he could finally achieve his long sought goal of immortality.

Hashira Training Arc & Infinity Castle Arc
Shortly after Hantengu's death, the position of Upper 4 was replaced by Nakime. When Mitsuri Kanroji and the Serpent Hashira Obanai Iguro, encountered the demon, they reacted with surprise on how quickly Muzan replaced the former Upper Rank 4.

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