Hantengu

Hantengu (半 (はん) 天 (てん) 狗 (ぐ) , Hantengu^?) was one of the Twelve Demon Moons, holding the position of Upper Moon Four.^[1]

Appearance

Hantengu's most noticeable and presentable feature is the large bump on the top of his head. From it the rest of his features are defined around it. His face notably, has no eyebrows but instead his eyebrow lift juts so far from his face it defines his constant state of fear. His ears are more sharp and longer than a humans. He has the appearance of an aged man from the many hard and defined forehead lines and frown lines, all seemingly in thick consistency like veins. His body also has the old disheveled appearance from protrusions and dimples defining each joint and muscle. His short horns, resting asymmetrical on his temples, point straight out with a slight curve to a direction of the sky. His hairline is quite low,  only behind his skull at the bottom of his crown with silky, black wavy hair spilling out. his hair is also short and only reaches a little beyond his shoulders. His nails are long but not sharp like most demons, they keep a square appearance. His toenails are not long like his hand, more at a normal well-kept length. Hantengus clothing, covers most of his body. The pattern on his "dress" splits halfway down, half of it is black(left side), and the other is more detailed and complex. This pattern actually flips sides when crossing down under his Obi. His footwear seems to be only sandals.

Personality

Hantengu's primary form had a persona of cowardice. He was easily frightened by what occurred in his surroundings, showing traits of paranoia, fear and delusion, as, despite the obvious evidence of his numerous crimes as a human, he still believed that he was innocent and didn't do anything wrong. Even as a Demon, killing and eating scores of innocent people, he still stubbornly and delusionally believed that he was innocent. The more threatened he felt, the stronger his other personalities became.

Anger (積怒, Sekido^?) - The personification of Hantengu's anger. As such, this clone portrayed himself to be in a constant state of anger, irritation and hatefulness, even towards his fellow clones, which could be seen when he forcibly absorbed them against their will to form Zohakuten. He also showed himself to be the most dominant of the emotion clones and appeared to be the leader, as he was the one who barked orders to them when they were battling the Demon Slayers.

Relaxed (可楽, Karaku^?) - True to his name, this clone showcased himself to be the most relaxed and laid back of Hantengu's clones. The entire time he was battling against Genya Shinazugawa, Tanjiro Kamado and Nezuko Kamado, he was constantly praising them and, instead of taking the battle seriously, he instead saw it as nothing more than a game, seeming to only take interest in the new experiences he was obtaining from the battle. This could be seen when he happily expressed his interest at the new sensation upon being shot by Genya and commenting that was the first time he was ever injured in such a manner. This was demonstrated again, only this time during his battle with Nezuko, when, instead of finishing her off, he decided to tease and play with her despite being able to easily overpower her anytime he wanted. This behavior easily got on the nerves of his fellow clones, specifically to Sekido, who constantly berated him for taking so long in battle.

Sorrow (哀絶, Aizetsu^?) - This clone portrayed himself to be completely dejected, sour and negative as he constantly described everything as being depressing.

Delight (喜, Yoroko^?) - The most jovial and giddy of Hantengu's clones. Similarly to Karaku, he seemed to view the entire battle against the Demon Slayers as nothing more than a game or as a source of entertainment, as seen when he happily complemented Tanjiro on his intelligence for correctly guessing that neither one of the four clones were the "real" body, and constantly exclaimed that the entire fight against Tanjiro was delightful.

Hate (憎珀天, Zohaukten^?) - The evolved form of Sekido after he absorbed the other clones. Zohakuten has displayed the same traits of Sekido, as he too was easy to enrage and was incredibly spiteful and hateful towards his enemies due to him, deeming them as "evil" for bullying his "weak and innocent" self. Like Sekido, he was also incredibly foul-mouthed as seen when he constantly insulted his opponents and referred to Mitsuri as a harlot, constantly calling her various degrading names in his thoughts. He also seemed to harbor an immense sense of loyalty towards Muzan, as seen when he told Mitsuri that he only heeds and follows the orders of one man in the entire world. Out of all the clones, he was shown to be the most intelligent and insightful aside from Sekido, as seen when he easily analyzed why Mitsuri Kanroji survived his powerful attacks and figured out the true source of her strength.

Resentment (恨み, Urami^?) - The final of Hantengu's clones, and his last-ditch attempt at surviving. He was shown to be just as hypocritical and delusional as Zohakuten and Hantengu, as he angrily told Tanjiro not to bully and hurt his "weak and innocent" self. He angrily asked why Tanjiro couldn't "see" his innocence and, true to his name, he has shown to be the embodiment of Hantengu's resentment due him to being punished and persecuted for crimes that he was "innocent" of.

History

As a human Hantengu was known to have committed many heinous crimes. Stealing from numerous innocent people and murdering them in various towns and cities all the while claiming that he was innocent and that it wasn't him that committed these crimes. He blamed that his "Hands" were solely to blame for his actions, thus hinting that he was also mentally unstable and possibly delusional due to his claims.

Eventually he was captured by a high-ranked law official 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. After his transformation he escaped his prison and silenced the magistrate who condemned him to death. However with his dying breath, the magistrate told him that killing and silencing him didn't matter because eventually his past sins and actions will see him punished in the future no matter what he did.

Synopsis

Entertainment District Arc

Having been summoned to a meeting of the Upper Moons, Hantengu corrected his colleague Gyokko over the amount of years since they had last met: one hundred and thirteen, a number which unnerved the horned Demon. He cringed as Akaza struck Doma, and bowed as Muzan Kibutsuji arrived. He listened as his leader revealed the death of Gyutaro and berated everyone present for their uselessness, causing the timid Demon to beg for forgiveness. Hantengu then quickly acknowledged Muzan's order for him and Gyokko to head over to an unknown location once the latter confirmed his newfound lead.^[2]

The high ranking Demon cringed again as Akaza viciously destroyed Doma's head, only for the former to get his hand lopped off by Kokushibo. He and Gyokko were then transported to their destination by the Biwa Demon.^[3]

Swordsmith Village Arc

At the swordsmiths' village, Hantengu crawled on the roof of a building, eager to fulfill their mission to avoid Muzan's wrath.^[4] He encountered Tanjiro and Muichiro Tokito shortly thereafter, swiftly avoiding an attack from the latter. He dodged a follow-up attack from Tanjiro, only to be kicked by Nezuko. His head was then severed by another attack from Muichiro, causing him to regenerate into two different Demons: Sekido and Karaku. As Muichiro and Tanjiro attempted to attack these newcomers, Karaku blew Muichiro far into the distance with a single wave of his leaf-like fan. 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 shakujō. The two failed to notice Genya approaching them from behind with a gun.^[5]

Genya's shot was true, decapitating Sekido but failing to completely do the same to Karaku, much to the latter's amusement. The young Demon Slayer finished the job with his sword, but the two then turned into four. One of the new Demons, reminiscent of a harpy, grabbed Tanjiro by the leg and flew off with him, while the other impaled Genya with a Jūmonji yari. The former congratulated Tanjiro on figuring out their strategy, while the latter commented on Genya's weakness. Tanjiro urged Nezuko to help Genya, prompting his abductor to reprimand him for this, before firing a concussive blast of sound at the Demon Hunter. The harpy-like version of Hantengu was 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.^[6]

The disembodied head of the harpy-like Hantengu was swiftly cut in two by Tanjiro, swiftly turning into two mouths that fired their sound blasts at him once more. However, their attack power had been lessened due to so many divisions, leading Tanjiro to cut them once more. The main body of the harpy-Hantengu appeared behind the young Demon Hunter, firing another sound blast, which was dodged, but followed up by a vicious claw attack to Tanjiro's chest. The harpy-Hantengu boasted about the sharpness of his claws, promising to carve up the young Demon Hunter, only to discover the youth had sliced his face in two. As Tanjiro prepared a follow-up attack, harpy-Hantengu attempted to fire the sound blast once more, only to have his jaw cut off, the final blow incoming. Elsewhere, Karaku held back a transformed Nezuko, taunting her while Sekido told him to finish her off. The yari-wielding Hantengu, Aizetsu, offered to finish her off, only to discover he couldn't pull his weapon out of Genya, who promptly shot Aizetsu's head into bits.^[7]

Sekido reprimanded Aizetsu for this, the yari-wielding Hantengu then pulled his weapon out and slashed Genya across the chest. Regenerating his head, Aizetsu reprimanded his opponent for not dying immediately, and then noticed that Genya had begun to pray. Sekido commanded his fellow emotion Demon to crush the scarred Demon Hunter's head, which resulted in the yari being swung at Genya's head. The weapon hit nothing but the floor, the Upper Moon's opponent appearing 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, much to his frustration. Aizetsu then swung his yari, smashing Genya into 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.^[8]

He then told his fellow emotion Demons to stab and electrocute her until she didn't move anymore, ripping off one of Nezuko's hands off after his speech. She responded with a sudden counterattack, nearly decapitating Karaku and splashing him with her blood. Igniting it with her Demon abilities, she then torn the hand that held his leaf 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. She attempted to do the same to Sekido, who foiled her attempt by stabbing her in the neck with the butt end of his staff and electrocuting her. Elsewhere, the harpy-Hantengu 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 Hunter introduced himself, the name of the man who would kill the sorrow Demon in this place.^[9]

As the harpy-Hantengu swooped in for his next attack, he is stabbed through the mouth by Tanjiro, causing the two of them to crash into the building Nezuko and Genya are fighting in. Sekido, still in the process of electrocuting Nezuko, demanded to know what Karaku and Urogi, the harpy-Hantengu, were doing, and manifested a shakujō from 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, and has his tongue cut in half. As his Demon Hunter opponent freed Nezuko from his other shakujō, Sekido attacked the young man from behind, pinning him to the ground. His attack was stopped from doing any further damage by Nezuko, who lit the Anger Demon on fire with her blood technique. Just then, Karaku reappeared, 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.^[10]

However, their would-be victims recovered quickly, 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 fan Demon quickly accomplished. He then noted that the two no longer had any place to hide.^[11] Seeing Tanjiro with a burning blade, Urogi was unfazed and charged in to attack the swordsman as Sekido and Karaku watched. However, Sekido realized that the youth's blade was just like the swordsman's from Muzan's memories, so much so that their very visages seemed to be overlapping. Tanjiro then unleashed a devastating Dance of the Fire God technique, inflicting grievous injuries to each of the three emotion Demons. 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.^[12]

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".^[13] 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 shakujō hand severed by Tanjiro.^[14]

The Anger Demon 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. The Joy Demon used his 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 Moon'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.^[15]

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 the Anger Demon 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.^[16] 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 hatred clone. The hatred clone 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 Hunters 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.^[17]

In the end, Tanjiro manage to behead him using Dance of the Fire God: Flame Waltz. However, the head Tanjiro just cutted was not the real Hantengu, proven as the headless body of Hantengu continues to run away. As the sun is about to rise, Tanjiro finally decides to continue in hia pursuit upon Nezuko sacrifice. Tanjiro eventually locates Hatengu real body inside of Headless Hantengu's heart. Ultimately, Hantengu finally dies after having his torso slashed by Tanjiro. However, Hantengu managed to inform Muzan about Nezuko’s immunity to the sunlight beforehand.

Abilities and Powers

Demon Abilities

Having held the position of Upper Moon Four, Hantengu can be considered to have been the fifth strongest Demon in the series.

Stealth Master: Hantengu's skill in stealth seems to be his most formidable ability when not divided into his clones as can be seen when he managed to easily infiltrate the blacksmith village of the Demon Slayer Corps, one of their most vital and well fortified bases, without any of the numerous guards noticing. Later on he managed to sneak up on both Muichiro and Tanjiro without them noticing, despite the former being a Pillar and having prodigal skill and talent in battling demons and the latter's superhuman sense of smell.

Blood Demon Art (血 (けっ) 鬼 (き) 術 (じゅつ) , Kekkijutsu^?): Hantengu can split apart into several younger looking forms, each with their own personalities and powers. Each is identified by their clothing and a kanji tattoo in their tongue labeling their core emotion.

• Hantengu (Fear) : Main form of Gantengu which is a diminutive version of the original body and also the body possessing Hantengu's "core". This body has incredible physical fortification and durability, that not even Genya's Sun Steel bullets or sword could penetrate his flesh, despite Genya using his demon enhanced strength to further strengthen his attacks.

• Sekido (Anger) : One of the first emotion clones shown by Hantengu, his main form of offense is his ability to conjure powerful lightning and thunder attacks using a staff (which seems like a shakujo) created from his own cells. The lightning attacks themselves are powerful enough to nearly kill fellow demons, as seen with Nezuko, and to completely paralyze demon slayers. However a weakness to this is that Sekido cannot electrocute something created from his own cells as seen when he could not channel his lightning through the severed leg of Urogi. When angered and enraged enough Sekido can forcibly absorb and assimilate his fellow emotion clones and form Zohakuten.

• Karaku (Joy) : The second of the emotion clones created by Hantengu. This clone has the power to create a maple leaf like fan using his own cells. He can use it to create powerful gushes of wind capable of easily leveling an entire building and nearly crushing humans and demons respectively to death and leave behind maple leaf like craters. A weakness to this fan is that other people can make use of it once taken from Karaku.

• Aizetsu (Sorrow) : The third emotion clone created by Hantengu. This clone possess the ability to fashion a long spear Yari from his cells, that can then extend and shrink according to Aizetsu's will. He incorporates this ability in close range combat by extending the reach of the spear during mid thrust and slash, allowing him to easily butcher his opponents from a long to mid range combat.

• Urogi (Pleasure) : The fourth emotion clone created by Hantengu. It that takes the form of a gleeful harpy-like demon with wings and bird talons with power to blast sonic screams from his mouth. This clone is also capable of creating several miniature clones of himself from his severed body parts. The clone is also capable of firing sonic screams, however only possess less than a tenth of their original power allowing even the weakest demon slayer to easily shrug its attacks off.

• Zohakuten (Hatred) : The most powerful emotion clone of Hantengu. It is formed by Sekido after forcibly absorbing all the other clones: Karaku, Aizetsu and Uragi. This clone can conjure and create a five headed wooden dragons to attack his opponents. The wooden Dragon heads themselves are capable of breathing out the attacks and powers of the other emotion clones as seen when the heads breathed the lightning and thunder of Sekido, emit the Sonic Screams of Urogi from both his dragons heads and his main body, Create powerful wind attacks that leave behind gigantic maple leaf craters of Karaku and breath out spear like thrust attacks at its opponents of Aizetsu. Zohakuten has even demonstrated the ability to combine these techniques as seen when he used Sekido's lightning and Urogi Sonic screams in tandem. Also Zou Hakuten has also demonstrated the ability to use own unique Blood Demon Arts.
  • Karmic Wood of Avici : Zohakuten unleashes his Wooden Dragons towards his opponents, making them rapidly grow bigger and making their heads multiply as they rush towards his opponent. In Buddhism, Avīci or Avici is the lowest level of the Naraka or "hell" realm.

• Urami (Resentment) : The final emotion body detachment created by Hantengu as a last line of defense, being essentially a larger more physically powerful version of his "core" with its primary purpose is being a living armor used to hide Hantengu's true body inside its heart.

Trivia

Quotes

References

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