Chapter 49

Functional Recovery Training - Part 1 is the forty-ninth chapter of Koyoharu Gotōge's Kimetsu no Yaiba.

Summary
Zenitsu muses over his medical treatment and the condition of the other people turned into spiders. He then thinks about Shinobu and her treatment of these individuals, noting that her sound is irregular and somewhat unsettling. He goes on to note that Tanjirou and Inosuke had been taken by her to undergo the functional recovery training and had come back extremely exhausted and bedraggled, causing him to despair, as he was to join the training the next day. The next day, Zenitsu joins his friends at the training, where Aoi explains that there are three parts: a massage to loosen the body, reflex training with Kanao involving medicated bath inside teacups, and whole body training, which is essentially tag, with Kanao and herself.

An irate Zenitsu takes his friends aside and chastises them, annoyed that they had been "fooling around" with girls but had come back to the room looking so miserable. A confused Tanjirou asks his towheaded friend what in the world he is talking about, but the maddened youth tells him to shut up, explaining that this training involves a lot of physical contact, which essentially translates into being touched by the girls on a frequent basis, something he sees as pure bliss. Inosuke, also irritated at this point, says that Zenitsu doesn't know what he is talking about, stating that he'll die inside when he loses to someone with a smaller body, only to mocked by his friend. All three of them then got started with the training, with Zenitsu succeeding due to his love of women, but Inosuke making things difficult for everybody due to his hatred of losing.

Despite the overall positive performances of his two friends, Tanjirou continues to lose. He is soon joined by his two fellows, however, as neither of them can best Kanao at the reflex training or the whole body training. Over the next five days, the three continue their efforts to beat her, but none of them succeed, causing Zenitsu and Inosuke to give up. Tanjirou continues to persevere, but is unable to make any progress, continuing to lose for another ten days. He contemplates the reasons for this, noting Kanao's exceptionally fast reaction speed, the fact that she smells similarly to how the Pillars do, and that her eyes also seem different. His musing is interrupted by Naho, Sumi, and Kiyo, who give him a towel and ask if he can do the full focus breath all day and all night. When he answers in the negative, they explain that the Pillars and Kanao are capable of doing this, and ask him to continue to try hard at his training. Inspired, Tanjirou vows to do this.

Characters in Order of Appearance

 * Agatsuma Zenitsu
 * Kochou Shinobu
 * Hashibira Inosuke
 * Kamado Tanjirou
 * Tsuyuri Kanao
 * Aoi
 * Naho
 * Sumi
 * Kiyo