Gyomei Himejima

Gyomei Himejima is a Demon Slayer and the Stone Hashira of the Demon Slaying Corps.

Appearance
Gyomei is one of the tallest characters to appear in the series, and is the tallest Demon Slayer out of the Hashira. He is extremely muscular and stocky. He always wears a large beaded necklace around his neck and is constantly seen holding prayer beads whenever he isn't engaging in battle.

He has black hair with a scar running horizontally along his forehead. Gyomei is the only character thus far in the series who doesn't have any irises, primarily because he is blind. His eyes frequently tear up when he gets emotional.

Personality
Gyomei embodies the gentle giant stereotype, being surprisingly soft-spoken and emotional, despite his intimidating appearance. He is also shown to be highly religious, having a tendency to offer a prayer at situations that sadden him.

Despite his emotional and soft-spoken disposition, Gyomei bears a very objective and somewhat doubtful view of the people around him; fully aware of the possibilities that others, particularly children or those younger than him, could do when given an opportunity. Due to his experience before becoming a Demon Slayer, he has further reinforced his discreetly doubtful nature. It would take a while for him to accept people completely; but should he accept others, he would cast away even what others would say about them, believing fully on the person he accepted.

History
Before Gyomei was a Demon Slayer and Hashira, he lived with nine other children who were orphans and raised them in a temple. The area was well known for demon attacks so Gyomei had always burned Wisteria Incense to ward off any demons that would harm him and the children.

One night, one of the nine children disobeyed the temple rules and traveled beyond its borders. He is immediately accosted by a demon, and in order to save his own life, he tells the demon to eat the other children including Gyomei. After night fell, the child invited the demon into the temple after putting out the Wisteria Incense.

Four children were immediately killed by the demon and the remaining children insisted on escaping the temple, ignoring Gyomei's orders. His frail stature and blindness fueled the distrust the children had in Gyomei's ability to protect them, which led them to abandon him and ultimately get killed by the demon.

In the end, only one child-- the youngest, Sayo-- had listened and stayed behind in fear of the demon.

Though it is unknown how the exchange went down, Gyomei had been cut across the forehead by the demon but soon reversed the situation and began attacking the demon mercilessly after realizing he had a "frightening amount of power." He went on and beat the demon's head until the sun arose.

Soon after, people came to the scene of the incident to help but due to a misunderstanding with Sayo saying "That man's a monster. He killed them. He killed everyone." the villagers thought she meant Gyomei and not the demon.

He was later imprisoned and charged with the murder of the seven children but Kagaya Ubuyashiki, a.k.a "Oyakata-sama", intervened and released before he would've been executed for his false crimes.

Later on, Gyomei became a Demon Slayer and later the Stone Hashira.

Natagumo Mountain Arc
Himejima was present with the other Hashira when Kamado Tanjiro awoke.

Functional Recovery Training Arc
Himejima is mentioned but never shown directly.

Demon Train Arc
Himejima appears at the very end of the arc, where it shows him receiving the news of the Flame Hashira Rengoku's death. Himejima is visibly saddened, tearing up, and offers up a prayer.

Abilities and Powers
As a Pillar of the Demon Slaying Corps, Gyomei is a very powerful swordsman. Gyomei is stated by both Tanjiro and Inosuke to be the current most powerful demon slayer in the entire Demon Slaying Corps and of all the Hashira of the current generation. This is further given credence by Upper Moon One, Kokushibo, who noted that Gyomei's natural physical abilities have been trained to their absolute peak and also stated that in the last three hundred years, he has not encountered a warrior of Gyomei's caliber. Because he can't use Full Focus Breathing, he instead achieves a similar state where he has to muster strength by recalling all of his past hardships. Gyomei was able put up a fight against the strongest Upper Moon for a brief time without the use of his Demon Slayer Mark, further showing the extent of his skill.

Natural Abilities

 * Master Swordsman: Being a Pillar of the Demon Slaying Corps, Gyomei is one of the most powerful and skilled swordsmen in the entire organization.


 * Enhanced Strength: Even before undergoing training, Gyomei possessed great physical strength despite having a weak build at the time he discovered his abilities. He can also use his tremendous strength to push a large boulder bigger than him through a town along with the help of "Repetitive actions".


 * Enhanced Reflexes: During their battle, Kokushibo noted that in stark contrast to Gyomei's large physical build, he possesses extremely fast and quick reflexes being able to easily move around his body to avoid all of his attacks, the Upper Moon even remarking that the ease and the grace that he moved was almost absurd to believe.


 * Enhanced Hearing: Being blind, it can be assumed Gyomei has remarkable hearing, being able to become a Hashira. He also remarks on the sound of Muzan's flesh regeneration during their brief confrontation. Later during his battle with Upper Moon One, Kokushibo noticed that Gyomei uses the sound of his chains rattling to tell the exact position the chain is in and uses that to guide his axe and fail during combat.




 * Demon Slayer Mark: Later during his battle against Upper Moon One, Gyomei displayed that he too, has awakened his mark, appearing as a large group of blackened blood vein tattoos appearing on both of his forearms. When activated it drastically increases his physical and mental abilities, allowing him to fight the Upper Moon One for long a period of time.


 * Ability to See-Through: A different perspective of the world. Despite being blind, Gyomei gained the ability to see a perfect image of his enemies in his mind and sense them naturally.

Swordsmanship

 * Unique weapon: Gyomei wields a hand-axe complete with a spiked flail attached to the hilt through a long chain. To wield his unique weapon, he uses the sound of the chain to judge the position of the flail and axe, covering for and even taking advantage of his blindness. He, along with Tengen, Shinobu, Obanai, and Mitsuri are the only pillars shown to use unique weapons. The chain, spike flail and axe are all created using the same metals used in the creation of Nichirin Blades. However the craftsmanship of the weapon is noted to be incredibly high class and even superior to the swords forged during the Sengoku era, where smithing and sword forging was already at its highest development, that even the Upper Moon One, Kokushibo could not cut through the chain and was forced to instead resort to close range combat.

Breath of Stone (の)


 * First Form: Serpentinite Bipolar (ノ ・): Gyomei throws both the flail and axe towards his intended target and manipulates the chain by rotating it thus causing the axe and flail to also rotate in order to drill and grind right though his target.


 * Second Form: Upper Smash (ノ き): Gyomei throws both his axe and spiked flail for a pincer move before smashing down on the chain to cause the flail to then rebound and smash his target from afar.


 * Third Form: Igneous Reflection (ノ の): Gyomei unleashes a series of slashes with his sword deflecting nearby attacks.


 * Fourth Form: Volcanic Rock - Rapid Conquest (ノ ・): Gyomei manipulates both the flail and axe weapons at both ends of the chain by swing the chain on both sides in order to strike his opponents using a two pronged wide ranged attack.


 * Fifth Form: Arcs of Justice (ノ)

Trivia

 * Gyomei is blind, thus explaining the reason for the lack of pupils in his eyes. It is unknown whether an incident had caused him to be blind or he was born like this.
 * According to Tengen Uzui, Gyomei was one of the two people who became a Hashira only two months after becoming a Demon Slayer, the other being Muichiro Tokito.
 * It is heavily implied that the child who disobeyed the rules and let the Demon into the temple was Kaigaku, the future Upper-6.
 * Gyomei is the only Hashira who doesn't use a Nichirin Blade, instead favoring a set of chained axes.
 * "Namu Amida Butsu" also known as Nembutsu, is a chant from the Shin Buddhism. A common translation is: "I entrust myself to the Buddha of Infinite Light and Life".

Quotes

 * (To Tanjiro Kamado) "If I never got attacked by that Demon, I would have lived my entire life not knowing I was strong."


 * (To Kokushibo) "For example, even if the mark had not appeared, as long as you are in the Demon Slayer Corps, there is no guarantee you will live to tomorrow. Why would I cling to life at this point? No one becomes a Hashira with such half-hearted determination. That horrible insult... makes me boil with anger."

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