Tengen Uzui

Tengen Uzui is a major supporting character of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba and a major character in the Entertainment District Arc. He is a Demon Slayer of the Demon Slayer Corps, and the current Sound Hashira.

Appearance
Tengen is a very tall, wide-set man of a bulky, muscular build with lightly-tanned skin. His hair is white and of uneven length, the longest strands reaching his shoulders, and is styled with three more notable, shorter clumps arching up to fall as bangs between his eyes and on either side of his face. He has quite thin, maroon eyes that appear to slant inwards, each with one long eyelash flowing to the far side of his face.

During his days serving Demon Slayer Corps, Tengen wears a sleeveless and dark turquoise version of the standard Demon Slayer uniform, along with a wrap of burgundy cloth around his calves where his hakama pants tuck in, and white-strapped sandals. He also wears two thick, golden rings around his upper arms and what appear to be a pair of fingerless blue gloves, secured around his middle finger with a band of white and his wrists with another set of thinner gold rings, this time with two on each side. As well as this, Tengen sports a white head-wrap that covers his hair, leaving only a thin ponytail visible to fall behind his head from between its layers, which is adorned with a large headband of pale gray that's decorated by six light pink gemstones, three large and arranged in a line, and three small and arranged in a triangle to the far left. A chain of smaller, pale blue gemstones hangs from each side of this headdress, framing his face, and he also wears what looks to be red eye make-up around his left eye, consisting of alternating large and small dots that run inwards, towards his eye.

After his retirement from the Demon Slayer Corps due to the injuries his sustained during his fight with one of the Upper Rank Six Demons, Gyutaro, Tengen changes his appearance to coordinate the loss of his left eye and hand. He now wears a long, aqua colored yukata and a black haori, and replaces his old head-wrap with a dark eyepatch adorned with what look to be the remaining gemstones left over from his old headdress, leaving his hair to fall loosely past his shoulders.

Personality
Tengen is an eccentric and flashy individual, always wanting to be "flamboyant". He is usually seen talking boastfully, proclaiming that he is "god" in front of Tanjiro, Zenitsu and Inosuke and demanding them to treat him so. Outside of this, Tengen displays a carefree and forceful attitude towards others, as he gets excited imagining how "flamboyant" it would be if Tanjiro Kamado's blood vessels exploded, and tries to forcefully haul Aoi Kanzaki off to the Entertainment District with him so she can unwillingly help him with a dangerous mission. Tengen is also very demanding of others, treating the Demon Slayers very harshly during the Hashira Training Arc and insulting them for having no substance when they couldn't survive basic stamina training. He usually puts on a confident front, being steadfast and resolute even when he's losing, to the point that Tanjiro saw Kyojuro in Tengen.

However, Tengen also has a caring side that is masked under his flamboyant facade, one he only shows to those that are extremely close to him, most notably his three wives, Makio, Suma, and Hinatsuru. Tengen declares that they must value their lives above all others as they are precious to him. After the events in the Entertainment District Arc, Tengen also becomes more friendly towards Tanjiro.

Tengen looks up to people like Kyojuro Rengoku, and is seen to compare himself to his fellow Hashira, implying that he has some sort of inferiority complex. This is further proven by the fact that he completely denies the possibility that he was blessed with talent and that he tells himself that he will never become someone as great as Kyojuro. Tengen is also shown to harbor regret over the fact that he has let so many lives slip through his fingers over the years. Kagaya Ubuyashiki praised Tengen for the hard path he chose, and that he faced forward and fought to protect human lives despite carrying all of his conflicts and contradictions he hides behind his loud and confident facade, which made Tengen respect Kagaya too.

Despite being a shinobi that has traditionally valued completing the mission over all else, Tengen has rejected that ideology after seeing its effect on his family. Now, he believes that his subordinates, whether they be his wives or the Demon Slayers under his command, should value their lives, and the lives of innocents, over their missions or his own. Tengen especially hated becoming like his brother or father who were apathetic towards human lives and wanted to desperately abandon what he was taught by them.

Abilities
Overall Abilities: As a Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps, Tengen is a very powerful and skilled swordsman and combatant. He has displayed incredible physical feats of strength and speed, being one of the physically strongest Hashira in the current generation as well as being the fastest runner out of all the Hashira. Skills wise, he could match the combat proficiency of both Daki and Gyutaro, both of which are Upper Rank demons that have fought and killed numerous Hashira in the past. Tengen was also able to decapitate Daki without her realising it effortlessly, to the point that he didn't believe that she was an Upper Rank at all. Impressively, he was able to fend of the combined efforts of Daki and Gyutaro while being infected by a poison that would kill someone instantly under normal circumstances and protecting the bystanders. Tengen has also showcased great skill and precision in using explosives, minimizing damage dealt to the surroundings and maximizing the damage dealt to his opponents. Due to his shinobi training, Tengen's has more technical skill and sharper senses, especially his sense of hearing, which helped him greatly during the course of his battle.



Enhanced Hearing: Tengen has a heightened sense of hearing similar to that of Zenitsu Agatsuma. This ability allows him to easily hear noises deep underground, and he uses it to immediately discern that there are channels of underground tunnels and caves directly beneath him when he's looking for Tanjiro Kamado and Daki. He also uses his superhuman hearing the monitor all the activity in the Entertainment District in an attempt to find the location of the demons dwelling in the area.
 * Echolocation: As an advanced application of his hearing, Tengen also possesses echolocation. When trying to find the location of a battle underground, he analyzed the sounds reflected and resonated through the air by the walls of the caverns, and accurately locates and is even able to guess the number of people inside the tunnels by listening to the sound bouncing from their physical bodies.
 * Musical Score: A technique Tengen developed using his heightened sense of hearing to work in conjunction with his Sound Breathing. This technique is where Tengen analyzes combat maneuvers and deconstructs the rhythm of his enemies' attacks into sound and reads them like sheet music to the point every fight becomes a song. Tengen takes advantage of this technique and hears repeated phrases and can attack between beats and during the rests, essentially dancing with his opponent and striking them when there is an opening in their attacks or movements. However, one weakness of this technique is that Tengen takes a long time in order to completely analyze and convert his opponent's movements into sound, which may leave him at a disadvantage

Immense Speed & Reflexes: Tengen can move at superhuman speeds, shown when he seemingly teleported right in front of Tanjiro, Zenitsu and Inosuke multiple times and moved faster than they could perceive multiple times. Tengen is so fast that he could cut off an Upper Rank demon's head before she could even register what happened. Tengen is also the fastest runner out of all the Hashira in the current generation. Despite being severely poisoned, he still was able to keep up with the immense movement speeds of two Upper Rank demons, Gyutaro and Daki, at once.

Immense Stamina & Endurance: Due to his upbringing being raised to become a ninja and his own father's increased attempts to revive their clan by forcing Tengen and his siblings to train even more harshly and painfully then necessary, Tengen developed powerful resistance to pain, as seen where he bared little to no reaction at having being caught up in a hail of Kunai knives and being pierced by them without even flinching or showing any form of discomfort or pain, continuing his battle against Gyutaro. Later Tengen was also noted to have suffered other severe injuries during this battle and managed to ignore the pain of such injuries as well.


 * Poison Resistance: As a shinobi, Tengen has been shown to possess high resistance to poison to the point where he could continue fighting while under the effects of a poison from Gyutaro that would have killed someone instantly under normal circumstances.

Immense Strength: Due to his extremely muscular build, Tengen possesses immense physical strength greater than that of even his Hashira brethren. In fact, Tengen was ranked second in an arm-wrestling contest among all the Hashira, with only Gyomei Himejima surpassing him. Tengen displayed his strength numerous times, as he was shown effortlessly carrying Aoi and Naho and later knocked Zenitsu and Inosuke unconscious with a single punch to the stomach. Most impressive of all is that Tengen can fight at blinding speeds while carrying around his giant Nichirin Swords, later being able to hold both his enormous cleavers at their tip and with only two fingers, as well as being able to match Gyutaro in strength with only one hand after his left hand was cut off.

Shinobi Training: Before joining the Demon Slayer Corps and becoming a Hashira, Tengen was a ninja from a family of shinobi. Tengen received extremely harsh training that killed all his siblings except for his older brother who became cold and heartless. However, as a result of his intensive shinobi training, Tengen possesses great technical skill in weaponry such as kunai and explosives. His training also made him extremely pain tolerant and poison resistant, which saved him from Gyutaro's poison and allowed him to fight despite suffering numerous injuries and losing his arm.


 * Enhanced Stealth: Tengen is also extremely stealthy, moving so silently that he doesn't make a single sound nor disturb the air. His stealth allowed him to evade the senses of both Tanjiro and Inosuke, both of which had heightened senses. Later, Tengen was able to sneak up on and decapitate Daki, an Upper Rank demon, without her noticing.

Tactical Intellect: Due to accumulating tons of experience as a former ninja and Hashira, Tengen has incredible judgement, making decisions on the fly while in battle with Upper Rank demons to protect bystanders and minimize the damage dealt to the surroundings. Even when he was held back by Gyutaro's poison, Tengen was able to properly determine the most efficient strategy to fight off the Upper Rank demons and even fooled Gyutaro into thinking he was dead by stopping his own heart to prevent himself from dying from his poison, which managed to give Tengen an edge against him.

Fighting Style
Master Swordsman: As a Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps, Tengen is one of the most powerful and skilled swordsman in the entire organization. Tengen displayed his incredulous and unique swordsmanship skills with his dual Nichirin cleavers during his battle with Gyutaro, managing to adapt to the Upper Rank's fighting style and fend him off. Tengen can also use his sword wielding expertise in conjunction with his anti-demon bombs with great synergy, making him all the more dangerous.

Swordsmanship
Sound Breathing (の): A Breathing Style that Tengen created himself that combines his heightened sense of hearing, his Musical Score technique, shinobi expertise and anti-demon bombs.


 * First Form: Roar (ノ) - The user lifts their twin swords above their head and slams them down with great force whilst simultaneously creating an explosion with his bombs to deal massive physical damage, causing a loud sound resembling thunder as a result


 * Fourth Form: Constant Resounding Slashes (ノ) - The user holds their swords apart and spins them rapidly in conjunction with releasing his bombs, creating massive explosions while defending themselves from attacks.


 * Fifth Form: String Performance (ノ) - The user holds one of their swords with a reverse grip and spins the other using the chain that connects them. They couple this by also releasing numerous bombs to detonate, causing great explosions that deal massive physical damage.

Equipment
Dual Nichirin Cleavers: Befitting Tengen's flamboyant personality, he carries an equally flamboyant set of weaponry. As his main weapons, he uses two gigantic Nichirin Swords that are amber in color, which each have a notch in the sharp ends of their blades and are held together at the hilt by a metal chain, making it very similar to the kusarigama. His swords are said to have large amounts of explosive power, and it is stated that, until Tengen's fight with Upper Rank Six, no one had ever survived a blow from them. His hilt is circular shaped with 4 slight indentations and gold in color, there's a maroon ring that connects to the center; it has an outer green border. His blades are engraved with the phrase Destroy Demons. Due to the sword's huge size, Tengen doesn't use a sword sheath and instead carries is on his back, having his sword being wrapped in cloth.

Anti-Demon Bombs: Tengen carries dozens of black beads that create large explosions with the slightest impact that are capable of harming the bodies of Upper Rank demons.

Wisteria-Laced Kunai: Though he doesn't carry them on his person, Tengen has an arsenal of Kunai that are laced with wisteria poison strong enough to paralyze normal demons half a day and even capable of immobilizing the Twelve Kizuki's Lower Rank demons.

Trivia

 * Before Tengen became a Demon Slayer and then a Hashira, he was originally a Shinobi, as stated by Gyutaro.




 * In his initial design, Tengen:
 * Was less muscular with a far thinner build.
 * Had half of his face covered in bandages, making it hard for others to see what he looks like.
 * Wore sleeves due to him "not wanting his arms sunburned," according to the author.
 * Tengen is one of the only known Demon Slayer and Hashira to retire due to being permanently disabled instead of death or age, the other being Jigoro Kuwajima.
 * He and Inosuke Hashibira are the only known Demon Slayers who use two Nichirin Swords instead of one.
 * Tengen's rankings in the popularity polls are as follows:
 * Tengen ranked 37th in the first popularity poll with 14 votes.
 * Tengen ranked 13th in the second popularity poll with 3436 votes.
 * In Kimetsu Academy, Tengen is an art teacher. He is nicknamed "Buddy Sensei" and is known for calling art as "explosions".
 * Tengen had eight siblings (9 children in total). Three of his siblings died due to their father's overzealous training. The remaining six was then placed on death battles against each other while being masked. Tengen only realized this fact after killing two of his brothers, this enraged him and caused him to have an arguement about his father's stupid ideals. Tengen's remaining brother then killed two more of their siblings, leaving him and Tengen as the survivors. Tengen turned his blade away and left the clan with his wives.
 * For some time, it became Tengen's habit to say that he was going to hell. This stopped after seeing his wives' reaction: with Makio getting angry with him, Hinatsuru crying for him, and Suma biting him.
 * He would occasionally think of exterminating his entire clan, but he couldn't bring himself to kill his father and brother.
 * Tengen viewed the other Hashira as follows:
 * "She's earnest. A bit flamboyant. Has an easy deliverable type of butt.*" - Shinobu
 * "He's always in a daze. Young and quiet." - Muichiro
 * "He's fastidious and too serious. His eyes are so flamboyant! His left and right eye color are different, I'm jealous!" - Obanai
 * "This is the first time I've ever seen a guy whose height was bigger than mine. He's ridiculously strong." - Gyomei
 * "So gloomy! He always looks like he's at a funeral and it's depressing." - Giyu
 * "So flamboyant! He's more self-reliant than me! He's an extremely good guy as well." - Kyojuro
 * "She's a weird woman. Is flamboyant when she gets angry. Has an easy deliverable type of butt.*" - Mitsuri
 * "He's dangerous. He has a brat-ish side still." - Sanemi
 * Tengen's level of openness was ranked at 88%

* Anzangata (安産型) is an expression in Japan that's used only by older people to say to younger women as a compliment. It simply means they can give birth easily because they have a big bottom or wide hips.

Quotes

 * (To Gyutaro and Daki) "Do I look like I have talent to you? You've got a pretty rosy outlook on life if that's what you think. Then again, you've been hiding out here for hundreds of years so I guess you've got a pretty ignorant view of the world. This is a big country and it's teeming with incredible people. Some are a mystery... and a few have a natural way with the sword and become a Hashira in two months. So I'm chosen? Gimme a break. You have no clue how much I've lost over the years!"
 * (To Kagaya Ubuyashiki) "Master, it is I who am thankful who am thankful to you. You showed me something worth risking my life for. Doing so is merely a matter of course. People who struggle with their inner conflict are foolish weaklings. I see what must be done and I do it."

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