Muzan Kibutsuji

Muzan Kibutsuji is a Demon, the first of his kind, the progenitor of many other Demons, and the main antagonist of Kimetsu no Yaiba. He is also the Demon responsible for slaughtering the majority of the Kamado family and transforming Nezuko Kamado into a Demon.

Appearance
Muzan's physical appearance is like that of a man in his late twenties with pale skin, curly black hair, and sharp, almond-shaped eyes. His pupils are vertical, like cat eyes, and colored plum red. He also possesses sharp, blue nails on his hands that can be used for offense.

He is usually shown wearing a white fedora with a red ribbon and a somewhat extravagant outfit.

Muzan has the ability to change his appearance and form, often doing so to hide from Demon Slayers. During his meeting with the Lower Moons, he arrived disguised as an elegant woman wearing a long black yukata, causing the Lower Moons to not initially recognize him. Later, he transformed himself into his latest cover identity - the adopted sickly son to an old couple - taking the form of a young child aged 10 to 11 years old with pale, white skin and black, silky smooth, neatly combed black hair. His main outfit in this disguise is a plain white button-up shirt and black cargo shorts with long tube socks and loafers.

After he neutralizes Tamayo's poison and emerges from his flesh cocoon, Muzan's hair becomes shoulder-length and turns a paler color. He also grows a large number of mouths all over his limbs, each one lined with a set of incredibly sharp fangs, which he can use on the offence and for regenerative purposes. His skin also appears to have a dark-red mass growing from the ends of his limbs and branching onto his body.

Personality
Muzan is cold-hearted, ruthless and exceptionally intelligent. He sees no value in any humans he has encountered and shows little value in his own subordinates. Rarely ever visually upset or happy, he appears completely monotone and detached on most occasions, even when he callously murders his own subordinates. The only times he ever shows emotion are when his vision of perfection is moving forward or when he has subordinates completely submit to his will. The manga shows him to be more expressive, particularly when enraged and his facial features are accentuated to demonstrate as such (possibly as a way to display his normally unreadable emotions). In the anime, his expressions change slightly and his voice-tone tends to be consistent at nearly all times, accentuating his detached demeanor.

The most prominent trait Muzan possesses is extreme narcissism and an obsession with becoming the perfect being. As he has had nearly 1000 years to live and observe, along with hardly any real challenges, his extreme egocentrism is almost expected. He considers almost nothing to be his concern except overcoming his inability to walk in the sun, which is his primary drive. His long life and obsessions have caused him to want every plan he concocts to be absolutely perfect, and his god complex prevents him from seeing his own failures. His belief that he is the closest thing to a perfect being causes him to have zero tolerance for any failure, brutally punishing those who fail him or those he considers weak, even if the failures are minor.

His inflated ego and delusional sense of self worth are so large that he cannot stand being mocked or corrected in any fashion, believing that others only exist to serve him. It also means he rarely ever takes any opponent or threat seriously. He brutally killed a pair of drunk men simply for being rude to him, and killed their female companion when she had done nothing, all while proclaiming his own perfection and superiority over them. When he finally managed to confront Kagaya Ubuyashiki, the man responded to Muzan in a tone of pity and sadness for the life he had lead. In Muzan's mind this registered only as insults and threats, which he used to justify his hatred for Humanity and the Demon Slayers.

Furthermore, his delusional sense of omni-potency is such that he compares himself to natural disasters, namely something that is far beyond what humans can compare to and fight against. As a result of this he believes the Demon Slayers to be a group of deviants who cannot accept the natural order of things and reassume their lives as normal when other people simply move ahead following a tragedy. His analogy evidences his complete inability to feel sympathy or remorse for his actions, given none of the murders he ever committed (directly or indirectly) were the result of an accident but carefully orchestrated acts of pure evil.

He has shown to be fairly manipulative and cunning, being able to blend in human society normally, even having a family of his own to add. A long life and continued practice has allowed him to take on many roles in society and play them capably, including children and women should he chose to. This life has also given him great intelligence and ability to think tactically. Muzan is a quick-thinker and strategist who is able to deal with unfavorable situations rapidly and quite well, though this may also be because loss of his subordinates means nothing to him in the long run.

Because of his perceived superiority and his double-faced nature, he feels little attachment to his henchmen, using them and discarding them as disposable pawn whenever he pleases. He does not allow his subordinates to question his will, regularly enacting brutal reprisals should they do so. Many of his subordinates, in turn, are deeply afraid of him, and measure their words and thoughts carefully for fear of saying anything to displease him. He is able to sway many demons to his side with promises of power, revenge and grandeur, as long as they serve him. His intelligence and manipulation shine here since many find the promises quite appealing, as he encounters many of his subordinates at their lowest point, when their emotions are easy fodder for him. Alas, all of these promises are ultimately false, given that Kibutsuji only cares about himself and has no qualms about killing his own men to protect his own safety.

When not hiding behind a facade, his sheer malice and overflowing violent intent, are so incredibly malignant that they can be perceived by others. Most notably Yoriichi Tsugikuni described him as being like boiling magma erupting from a volcano ready to consume everything

As proof of this, he curses his subordinates in a terrifying manner so that none of them may utter his name, or else they will be killed instantly in a morbidly cruel manner. Interestingly, this almost paranoid sense of self-preservation contrasts with his megalomania.

History
As a young human man, Muzan was diagnosed with a disease that would kill him before he reached the age of 20. The doctor treating Muzan gave him a special prototype medicine. In a fit of rage, resulting from his worsening condition, Muzan killed the doctor. However, only after killing the doctor did he realize that the medicine was actually working. He had acquired a strong body. Muzan had no problems adjusting to having to kill other humans for survival, but the problem he faced was the fact that he was unable to walk in the sun. The sun was fatal to him, forcing him to resort to doing his activities only during the night, a condition that he resented. It was at that moment, that he truly regretted killing the doctor, before he could have finished his treatment with his "Blue Spider Lily" medicine. He searched the entire country for the Spider Lily, but couldn't find it. Due to this, Muzan started to create more Demons. Planning to spread them in the world, hoping that one of them would eventually find a way to overcome the sun or at least help him on his quest to find the Blue Spider Lily. He then wants to use this information to turn himself into a truly perfect being.

Around 400 years before the main story, Muzan was almost slain by Yoriichi Tsugikuni, a Breath of the Sun user, but in the end he managed to escape and survive. Ever since then, he has been more vigilant and careful about encountering possible Breath of the Sun users, who can be identified by a pair of Hanafuda earrings they usually wear, which also made the Kamado family a target, as they practice the Dance of the Fire God, which is the most closely-related breath to the Breath of the Sun. To that end, he, along with Kokushibou were hunting people that possibly possess Hanafuda earrings.

First Mission Arc
He is first ever mentioned when Sakonji Urokodaki tells Tanjiro Kamado that he is the enemy of the Kamado family and that he might know how to turn Nezuko Kamado back into a human.

Asakusa Arc
Traveling through a crowd in Asakusa with his family, Muzan is accosted by an angry Tanjiro. Muzan's daughter asked him who the young Demon Slayer was, and he asked the youth if there was something he wanted from him. His wife then approached them, asking if Tanjiro was somebody familiar to their family. Muzan denied this, suggesting the youth had mistaken them for somebody else. He then quickly slashed a passing man, turning him into a Demon. During the commotion, he and his family leave while he comforts them.

Afterwards, Muzan sends his family home in a carriage without him, declaring he has some work to do. He wanders through an alley, where a drunk man bumps into him. The man then mocks and insults him, saying he doesn't like wealthy people like him. When the drunk man notes how pale his skin is, Muzan smashes him into a wall and also proceeds to kill the man's older brother. He then turns to the drunk man's cowering girlfriend and asks if he looks pale or close to death. Muzan answers his own questions and tells her how he is infinitely close to perfection. He then drills his finger into her forehead, pumping her with so much blood that her cells melt. Finally, he calls Susamaru and Yahaba and orders them to kill Tanjiro.

Demon Train Arc
The Lower Moons have a meeting, where Muzan appears in the form of a woman. He is very disappointed after Rui's defeat, so much so that he declares that he'll disband the Lower Moons and that he will now lead only the Upper Moons. Then he starts killing everyone. Rokuro still pleaded with him and asked for more of his blood to prove himself. This order towards himself made Muzan incredibly angry and he killed him as well. However, before killing Enmu, he let him say his last words. When Enmu states how

much he enjoys making humans suffer, Muzan sees some potential and gives him a lot of blood. Enmu almost dies from the new load of power, but manages to survive. Muzan then gives him one last chance to prove that the Lower Moons aren't that useless.

Muzan also leads another life among humans as a small boy. He pretends to have a skin condition, due to which he can't step into the sun. After killing Kyojuro Rengoku, Akaza reports to Muzan and tells him of his victory. But he isn't so pleased by the death of the Pillar, instead showing anger that Akaza let all the other present Demon Slayers get away and that Akaza has yet not found any hints for the Blue Spider Lily.

Entertainment District Arc
In the Red Light District, Muzan talks to Daki. He tells her how proud of her he is and that he hopes she will become even crueler and stronger. He also lets her know about Nezuko and leaves it to her to kill her. After the fight, he orders the Upper Moons to meet in the Dimensional Infinity Fortress. He is standing on the ceiling and experimenting, trying to heal his sun weakness. Muzan tells them that he won't allow any failures such as Daki and Gyutaro. Muzan regrets putting so much confidence in her and wishes Gyutaro had fought since the beginning. He tells them to serve him with more suicidal devotion and states how he hates change. He believes change only means decline and he didn't change for so long, since he is practically perfect. He then sent Gyokko and Hantengu to destroy the swordsmith village before departing from the meeting.

Swordsmith Village Arc
Muzan feels through Hantengu that Nezuko was able to overcome the sun and is amazed by this. He was in the disguise of a small boy when he hears of this. His foster mom and maid come in but Muzan instantly kills them. He is extremely excited and sets his mind on getting Nezuko.

Pillar Training Arc
He appoints Nakime as Upper Moon Four and makes her more powerful. He uses her to scout out the whereabouts of all Demon Slayers. He is quite impressed by her efforts and compliments her. He says that he is sure to soon find Nezuko and Kagaya.

Dimensional Infinity Fortress Arc
Muzan appears at the Ubuyashiki mansion and sees Kagaya. He mocks him for his weak appearance. Kagaya tries to lecture Muzan and points out how the Pillars will never give up trying to kill him. Muzan laughs and proceeds to attack Kagaya. Before he can kill him however, the mansion explodes, with Muzan caught in it. The explosion, which was enhanced by spike traps, manages to injure Muzan. Before he is able to regenerate fully, Tamayo appears and uses her Blood Demon Art to keep him in place, while using a drug that can turn him into human. Using this opportunity, Gyomei Himejima appears and destroys Muzan's head. However he is able to instantly regrow his head. As all of the other Pillars join the fight, the Dimensional Infinity Fortress appears as if sucking in all the people nearby and scattering them. Muzan claims he will slaughter them all tonight.

As the Demon Slayers manage to beat the majority of the Upper Moons and attempt to locate Muzan, several lower ranked members are able to find his cocoon. Emerging from it, he proceeds to eviscerate all the Demon Slayers in his proximity, as he tries to regain the stamina lost from his struggle against Tamayo. He takes her head and mocks her for being unable to kill him, ridiculing that the drug she designed was useless. Tamayo angrily demands Muzan to return her family to her, to which Muzan replies she should join them on the other side and crushes her head, which Yushiro senses. He further proceeds to slaughter Demon Slayers and reaffirms his vow to kill all of them.

Through Nakime's ability, Muzan is placed face to face with Tanjiro and Giyu. Muzan asks Tanjiro why he is so concerned with revenge against him, when he got out of the massacre of his family alive, and thus can reassume his life if he wanted to. Comparing himself to a "Great Calamity" he states that it is impossible for humans to take revenge on natural disasters like rain, winds, volcanic eruptions or earthquakes take the lives of dear ones, humans keep on living, and that fighting him amounts to the same kind of folly. He thus concludes that the Demon Slayers fight him because they are a group of deviants, and that he has tired of dealing with them and is the only one who wants to truly put and it to the fight. An enraged Tanjiro claims Muzan should not have been allowed to exist.

A battle ensues with Muzan extending his arms into long bladed whips keeping Giyu and Tanjiro at bay, as the latter infuriated at Muzan's inhumanity Tanjiro navigates between Muzan's strikes and attempts at infiltrating but is ultimately unsuccessful and slashed near his eye. Giyu pulls Tanjiro away reminding the latter that Muzan's power is above any of the Upper Demons. Muzan wonders if they can defeat him with just three pillars, as he declares that Mitsuri Kanroji and Obanai Iguro were killed by Nakime. Muzan performs more sweeps that Tanjiro can hardly avoid due to his injured eye, as he stumbles. Before he can kill Tanjiro, Kanroji appears smashing the walls and attacking Muzan with her Sixth Style: Kitty Paw Love Breeze, but is unable to inflict any damage on Muzan, much to her frustration. Iguro also appears revealing both pillars to be alive.

An angered Muzan demands explanations from Nakime only to learn that Yushiro has used his own Blood Demon Art to take control of Nakime and that he will force Muzan out of the Infinity Fortress. Further angered by the opposition, Muzan tries to wrestle control of the Fortress back from Yushiro as he tries to absorb his cells through Nakime, an attack from Giyu and Obanai, force Muzan in the defensive allowing Yushiro to win control, so Muzan remotely detonates Nakime crushing her head. While her remaining cells still alive, Yushiro uses them to take control of the Fortress as it continuously shifts. Muzan performs more sweeps which manage to slash Tanjiro, as the Fortress shakes being forced into the outside. Before Muzan can land a critical blow on Kanroji, Tanjiro throws a broken Nichirin Blade which stabs Muzan in his head, causing him to miss. He grows furious with Tanjiro as the Fortress breaks into the surface.

Now at a city, the Demon Slayers are told to stall Muzan for one more hour and a half until sunrise. A furious Muzan now with whips from his spine, emerges from debris and dares them to try, wildly swinging his limbs. The Pillars seize a chance to slash him, but to their surprise he regenerates so fast that he cannot be decapitated. Before he can fatally wound them, hordes of lesser ranked Demon Slayers push the Pillars out of harm's way, ready to die as human shields as Muzan murders dozens of them. He muses that they were fortunate to die immediately and points to Tanjiro as an example of the contrary. Showing a horrible facial burn, Muzan reveals he injected his blood into Tanjiro on his earlier attack, and that his body will be destroyed, boasting that he is already dead.

Muzan and the Pillars exchange blows and notices that Demon Slayers with their mark activated can resist the effect of his demonic blood. As Muzan tries to land a killing blow on Kanroji, Gyomei saves her. Sanemi takes the chance to slash Muzan from behind who reacts to the Pillar's attack. Sanemi tosses vials filled with flammable liquid and proceeds to set Muzan ablaze, to which the progenitor Demon protests as dirty. Sanemi proceeds to insult him and say it iits him and vows to kill Muzan.

Demon Abilities

 * Demon Anatomy: Muzan has a very unique anatomy even compared to other Demons. Possessing the grand total of seven hearts and five brains, these seem largely responsible for the majority of his abnormally powerful constitution. Conversely, should many of them be destroyed simultaneously, he would be significantly weakened.
 * Instant Regeneration: As the progenitor of all Demons, Muzan possesses the fastest and most powerful regenerative power seen so far in the series. He was able to instantly regenerate his body after being caught in the huge explosion prepared by Kagaya Ubuyashiki and manages to circumvent the metal spikes added into the explosion. Additionally, Muzan has successfully overcome one of the Demons' prime weaknesses of being decapitated by a Nichirin Blade as seen when he easily regrew his head after it was completely destroyed by Gyomei's flail made out of sunlight steel. Later, in his battle against the three Pillars Obanai Iguro, Mitsuri Kanroji and Giyu Tomioka, they managed to successfully pressure him and get the chance to decapitate him. However, his head was already immediately reattaching itself even as the blade was cutting through his neck, shocking the trio as no other Demon, even among the Upper Moons, displayed such powerful regenerative powers.
 * Body Control: Muzan has incredibly control over his own body flesh. When endangered, he is able to burst his body into multiple lumps of flesh, up 1,800 in total, which can in turn rejoin to regenerate after, allowing him to survive. He used this technique to avoid death at the hands of Yoriichi.
 * Extrasensory Perception: Muzan can feel the presences of both human and Demons, including the latter's bloodlust.


 * Absorption: He has also displayed the ability to absorb, assimilate and dissolve organic and inorganic objects. As seen when he began to absorb the flesh seed spike branches pierced into his skin, or when he began absorbing Tamayo and dissolving her drug, as well as how he planned to eat and assimilate Nezuko to obtain her immunity to the sun. He adapted to become immune to being beheaded by blades created with sunlight imbued metal. He's also surely capable of adapting to poisons even better than Upper Demon Moons, who became resistant to wisteria poison which kills normal demons in seconds, and he was able to adapt himself to resist a drug specifically made to transform Demons back into humans.
 * Shapeshifting: Muzan can control his body's shape and even his presence, making him able to transform into someone completely different, without even those with extrasensory perception noticing, though he cannot fool Tanjiro Kamado's sense of scent. This shapeshifting allows him to become a child, and adult, a woman, or even to become a pillar of flesh, eyes, or mouths to eat others, or a cocoon of flesh to dilate and adapt to poisons.
 * Combat Form: When fighting Muzan can adopt a more monstrous form, with a dark-red mass covering his limbs, featuring sharp-toothed wide mouths, with his torso exposed. His hair becomes longer, messier and white. His speed, strength, reflexes and power are greatly magnified in this form to the point that, despite having lost a great amount of stamina and endurance in fending off Tamayo human transforming drug, he was still fully capable of easily outmaneuvering several low ranking Demon Slayer and consuming scores of them within minutes of emerging from his cocoon. The sharp toothed jaws/mouths located all over his body in this form not only serve as his main form of offense in battle, but also the purpose of helping him recover faster since he can use the jaws to tear apart his opponents and eat their flesh, simultaneously killing his opponents and regaining his strength at the same time.
 * Demon Whip: Muzan can stretch his arms and grow several sharp blades in his extended forearms and shapeshift his hands into several bladed protrusions, which he could then swing like whips to easily tear his opponents to pieces. The sheer swinging speed of his attacks is extremely fast and the precision of his attacks is also extremely accurate. And, due to the sheer length of his arms, Muzan possesses a massive attack range that not even three Pillars could get close to him. These whip arms also have sharp-fanged mouthes on them, which allows Muzan to inhale a large amount of air with them which he can use to create an immense suction effect.
 * Spine Whips - Later, upon being further enraged, Muzan displays the new ability to grow-spine like protrusions from his back that extend into bladed, whip-like tentacles. With them, Muzan is able to drastically increase his attack range and number of attacks in tandem with his whip arms, allowing him to easily mow down hordes of Demon Slayers and corner four Pillars.
 * Demon Blood Empowerment: As the first Demon and creator of the Demon race, Muzan's blood possesses powerful trans-formative qualities that once ingested by a normal human causes their bodies to immediately transform, giving them access to powerful regenerative abilities, enhanced strength, speed, reflexes and even gives them access to unique supernatural abilities called Blood Demon Arts. Muzan can also further empower a Demon by giving him more of his blood, enhancing their preexisting abilities and giving them new ones altogether. However this ability is limited to how much blood the recipient can withstand and "adapt" to. If a human were to take in too much blood from Muzan, their body would mutate faster than they can withstand, causing them to self-destruct into one giant mesh of flesh before disintegrating into ash. The same would also presumably happen to a Demon if they couldn't withstand the blood's effects, as implied by Muzan. Later it was revealed that Muzan has learned to weaponize this particular trait of his blood. By coating his claws and attacks in his blood, he could secretly and subtly inject an opponent during combat with his blood through the wounds he makes. The dosage would be too much to handle and instead act like a poison and destroy the human body's cells shortly after they enter. However, this process is much slower in comparison to his transformative blood method used to turn others into Demons, further adding to its subtlety.
 * Demon Blood Nullifying: As explained by Tamayo, as the creator and progenitor of the Demon race, Muzan is the only known Demon capable of inflicting life threatening wounds capable of completely destroying the cells of other Demons without the need of Nichirin Blades or sunlight, thereby making him the only Demon capable of completely nullifying a Demon's natural regenerative abilities and kill them.


 * Telepathic Communication: Muzan has the ability to read the thoughts of Demons that he has shared his blood with when in close physical proximity to them, as seen when he read the minds of all the Lower Moons as they all gathered before him. Later it was displayed that he could also send telepathic messages and have full conversations with other Demons as well, as seen when he was communicating with Upper Moon One, Kokushibo, to check how many Pillars he had defeated and to order him to keep the Pillars at bay until he finished recovering from Tamayo's poison. Muzan is also able to see what demons see, as he could with Nakime. However this ability is limited strictly to what is in their perception, so if a Demon's senses are fooled, Muzan is unable to realize the difference.
 * Curse: Muzan possesses the ability to put a curse onto the Demon he creates by sharing his blood. If any Demon he created even utters or says his name out loud the curse activates and destroys them, regardless of their original intent. This was seen with Susamaru who had accidentally said his name despite having no malice or ill intent towards him and was still destroyed by the curse, implying that the curse is automatic. However the curse can also be intentionally triggered by Muzan, if he wants so. This was seen when he killed Nakime, who was manipulated by Yushiro. Because of this, many Demons serve Muzan out of fear and respect, also simply refer to him as "that Man", when necessary to speak of him. However, it has been proven that if Muzan is weakened or someone with sufficient willpower can break free from the curse which has been seen with Tamayo and Nezuko.
 * Demon Control: Muzan can control Demons to a certain extent. As seen when he was able to take control of Nakime's body in order to try to force an absorption of Yushiro's cells in order to stop his interference when he attempted to usurp control of the Dimensional Infinity Fortress. However, this ability requires extensive concentration as Muzan immediately lost control of her the moment he lost focus due to needing to defend himself while in the middle of battle. Other Demons can also wrestle control back from him. Muzan can also remotely detonate a Demon, by closing his fist he can crush a Demon's head from a distance.

Blood Demon Art:
 * Black Blood: Spine of Thorns (・ Kokketsu: Kikyoku): Muzan uses his own flesh and blood to create several spiked-barbed wires to entangle his target.

Weaknesses

 * Sunlight: Muzan is noted to be immune to being killed via decapitation, as seen when Gyomei destroyed his head and he still managed to regrow it. Thus the only other known way that he can be destroyed is by sunlight. This is further given credence by his attempts to locate and devour Nezuko in order to gain her immunity to sunlight.
 * Crimson Red Nichirin Blade: Demon Slayers who have awakened the Demon Slayer Mark may unlock the power to change the color of their Nichrin blade into a shining crimson red. This especially applies to Demon Slayers who use the Breath of the Sun or the Dance of the Fire God. A hit from a Crimson Red Nichirin Blades can hamper demonic regeneration and even incinerate their cells, disabling or maybe even killing Demons with high chance. Muzan is no exception to the fact, as seen in his battle against Yoriichi Tsugikuni.

Trivia

 * Muzan's name contains the kanji for "demon dance" and "miserable, pitiful, merciless".
 * He was made a Demon in the Heian Period in the late 700's.
 * Muzan was ranked in 11th place in first character popularity poll for the series, with 285 votes.

Quotes

 * "Do you have something you want from me? You're in quite a panic."
 *  "I am a perfect creature that is infinitely close to perfection.
 * "Does my complexion look terrible to you? Does my face look pale to you? Do I look weak to you? Does it look like I haven't got long to live? Does it look like I'm close to death?"
 * "I want you to remove the head of that Demon Slayer with the hanafuda earrings."
 * "I now imagined that it would be better for the Twelve Demon Moons to consist of Upper Moons." 
 * "It's only natural for Demons to defeat Humans."
 * "But over here, anyone who lacks the power of a Pillar pretty much can't tell the difference, because we look like humans."
 * "There is a Demon who escaped my control, just like Tamayo. Find her and put an end to her. You are the only one I can ask."
 * "The Ubuyashiki family has yet to be entombed." 

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Музан Кибуцудзи Muzan Kibutsuji