Chapter Summaries

Su Mu, a demon turned by Muzan Kibutsuji, spoke to the starving girl he had often seen searching for food and learned that she had no name and had lost her older sister. He offered to bring her food whenever she came out at night, and she asked why he was kind to her.

• The frail girl sneaked out at night and found a rice ball in a rubbish heap.
• Su Mu spoke to the girl from the restaurant roof and introduced himself.
• The girl said she had no name and that her older sister had called her Xiao Ba before she died.
• Su Mu learned that her father gambled and left her without food, and he offered to bring her something to eat.
• The girl asked Su Mu why he was kind to her.

Su Mu fed a starving little girl and promised to bring her food each night, then struggled against his demon hunger and refused to eat humans. He examined his abilities and weaknesses, uncertain how long he could keep resisting his instincts without losing himself.

• Su Mu sensed the little girl's painful past and gave her a chicken drumstick.
• Su Mu promised to bring the girl food each night, and she returned home after eating.
• Su Mu watched the girl leave while fighting his hunger for human flesh and blood.
• Su Mu checked his character panel and learned the extent of his demonic abilities and weaknesses.
• Su Mu resolved not to abandon his principles, even as his demonic instincts grew stronger.

Su Mu resisted the urge to eat human flesh despite the hunger that came with being a demon. In a cave full of human bones, another demon tried to persuade him to give up his humanity, but Su Mu confronted him with the family he had devoured.

• Su Mu left town before sunrise and took shelter in a cave in the nearby forest.
• He passed piles of human bones and found a bluish-purple demon eating a thigh bone.
• The demon offered Su Mu human flesh and argued that resisting the hunger was pointless.
• Su Mu reminded the demon that he had eaten his parents, wife, and daughter, provoking a furious reaction.
• The demon insisted that they were now powerful, immortal demons and questioned why Su Mu still cared about his human past.

Su Mu struggled against the growing urge to eat human flesh, while another demon insisted that resistance was futile. He walked toward the cave entrance and stopped before the sunlight, leaving the demon frozen in fear behind him.

• The demon told Su Mu that every demon eventually gave in to hunger, and began eating a thigh bone in front of him.
• Su Mu fought the craving stirred by the scent of flesh and recalled that Nezuko had resisted eating humans, possibly because she had eaten the Blue Spider Lily.
• The demon mocked Su Mu when he stood, expecting him to join in eating the flesh.
• Su Mu turned away from the demon and walked toward the cave exit.
• The demon followed Su Mu until the sunlight at the entrance filled him with dread and stopped him.

Su Mu tested the sunlight that demons feared, confirming that it dissolved his fingers and slowed their healing. He resolved to seek the Blue Spider Lily, which he believed grew near Tanjiro Kamado’s home and could let a demon overcome the sun.

• Su Mu approached the cave entrance despite his fear of sunlight, while the demon warned that it would kill him.
• Su Mu put his fingers into the sunlight, watched them dissolve, and withdrew into the cave darkness.
• Su Mu observed that his fingers healed far more slowly after being injured by sunlight.
• The demon told Su Mu that no demon, not even Muzan Kibutsuji, could stand in sunlight.
• Su Mu recalled that Nezuko overcame the weakness by eating the Blue Spider Lily, which bloomed during the day.
• Su Mu decided to find the Blue Spider Lily, believing it grew near Tanjiro Kamado’s home.

Su Mu rejected another demon’s proposal to hunt Demon Slayer Corps members and continued seeking a way to escape his hunger and demonic weaknesses. Meanwhile, Kyojuro Rengoku encouraged Hiroshi Furukawa before the young swordsman departed with his squad to investigate a suspected demon.

• Su Mu recalled that eating the Blue Spider Lily might free him from his hunger and Muzan Kibutsuji’s control, but he did not know where to find Tanjiro Kamado’s home.
• A demon invited Su Mu to help hunt a nearby Demon Slayer Corps squad, but Su Mu refused and rested while the demon left in anger.
• Kyojuro Rengoku praised Hiroshi Furukawa’s training and encouraged him to pursue his goal of slaying one of the Twelve Kizuki.
• Hiroshi Furukawa told Kyojuro Rengoku that his squad was heading to investigate signs of a demon in a small town, then promised to treat him to salt-grilled sea bream and sweet potato rice after returning.

Su Mu waited through a cold rain to keep his promise and bring the starving girl food, and their growing trust left him asking about Mount Sagiri. He continued to suppress his hunger for human flesh and blood.

• Su Mu stole a roast chicken and waited on a rooftop, resisting his craving for human flesh and blood.
• The girl ventured out in the rain and found Su Mu still waiting for her.
• Su Mu brought the girl under the eaves, shielded her from the weather, and gave her the warm roast chicken.
• The girl offered Su Mu a chicken leg, but he refused and avoided explaining what he liked to eat.
• Su Mu asked the girl whether she knew where Mount Sagiri was.

Su Mu searched for Mount Sagiri and the Kamado family, hoping to find the Blue Spider Lily that could help him overcome his weaknesses as a demon. After failing to find leads in a village, he reached a larger town and discovered a Demon Slayer Corps swordsman fighting a samurai.

• Su Mu asked a little girl whether she knew Mount Sagiri or the Kamado family, but she did not; he carried her home after the rain stopped and told her to stay inside at night.
• Su Mu broke into a man's courtyard and demanded information, learning only that the Okada Family sold charcoal and that the man had never heard of the Kamado family.
• Su Mu left the village and traveled through the night toward a larger town where merchants and travelers might know the surrounding region.
• At the town gates, Su Mu heard fighting and saw a Demon Slayer Corps swordsman battling a samurai who was not a demon.

Su Mu discovered that Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu was taught at the Hiko Dojo and decided to seek training there. After he arrived late at night and could not name where he came from, the dojo’s senior student grew suspicious and planned to reject him after an assessment.

• Su Mu watched a Demon Slayer Corps swordsman spar on equal terms with a samurai who practiced Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu.
• The samurai asked whether demons existed, and the Corps swordsman confirmed that they did.
• Su Mu followed the samurai to the Hiko Dojo, then questioned townspeople and learned that its master taught Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu to students who passed an assessment.
• Su Mu entered the dojo and told a student that he wanted to learn its swordsmanship.
• The student brought Su Mu to the senior student, whom Su Mu recognized as the samurai from the sparring match.
• The senior student asked Su Mu where he came from, became wary when Su Mu hesitated, and planned to assess him before refusing him.

Su Mu passed the Hiko Dojo’s strength test by raising a hundred-jin stone lock overhead with one hand, despite Arakawa Akihiro’s attempt to turn him away. After arranging to study swordsmanship at night for extra tuition, Su Mu began learning about Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu and considered how it resembled the Transparent World.

• Arakawa Akihiro tested Su Mu by demanding he lift a hundred-jin stone lock overhead with one hand.
• Su Mu easily raised the stone lock, and Arakawa Akihiro reluctantly agreed to let him study at the Hiko Dojo.
• Su Mu offered to pay extra so he could attend lessons at night, and Arakawa Akihiro accepted.
• Arakawa Akihiro introduced Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu and explained its emphasis on speed, precision, and anticipating an opponent’s movements.
• Su Mu compared Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu with the Transparent World and concluded that the two shared similar capabilities.

Su Mu learned about Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu from Arakawa Akihiro and saw the human swordsman cut through a straw dummy with a lightning-fast draw. After locating Mount Sagiri, Mount Fujikasane, and Mount Natagumo, Su Mu returned to his cave and found a dead Demon Slayer beside a Nichirin Blade.

• Arakawa Akihiro explained Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu to Su Mu and demonstrated its sword-drawing slash, cutting a straw dummy in half before Su Mu could follow the blade.
• Su Mu reflected that Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu could be even more powerful when wielded with his demonic body.
• Su Mu questioned merchants and learned the locations of Mount Sagiri, Mount Fujikasane, and Mount Natagumo, where Rui's demons were still causing disappearances.
• Su Mu returned to his cave before sunrise and passed the bones scattered across its floor.
• Su Mu noticed a bloodied skeleton, torn Demon Slayer Corps uniform, and Nichirin Blade among the bones.

Su Mu used a Nichirin Blade to suppress his growing hunger for human flesh and blood, then visited a demon recovering from a battle with a Demon Slayer Corps swordsman. The demon urged Su Mu to hunt humans and grow stronger, while insisting that the Demon Slayer Corps would hunt them either way.

• Su Mu picked up a fallen Nichirin Blade and found that holding it eased his craving to devour humans.
• Su Mu found a Demon Slayer Corps uniform and bloodstained skeleton, then carried the Nichirin Blade deeper into the cave.
• Su Mu met an injured demon who boasted that eating the swordsman’s flesh had made him stronger and brought him closer to joining the Twelve Kizuki.
• The demon invited Su Mu to hunt Demon Slayer Corps swordsmen with him, but Su Mu refused and warned that the Corps would kill them.
• The demon argued that demons had to grow stronger or remain prey, and vowed to make the Hashira his prey once he reached the Twelve Kizuki’s level.

Su Mu rejected a demon’s invitation to hunt and grow stronger, insisting that he would live as he chose even as a demon. That night, he brought a malnourished girl to a safe courtyard and fed her chicken porridge, where she worried that he might starve if he did not eat.

• Su Mu asked the demon whether he remembered his human life, and the demon struggled with the fading memories and emptiness he felt.
• The demon argued that every demon gave something up as they grew stronger, but Su Mu said he would live by his own choice.
• Su Mu searched the cave for valuables and found enough money to pay for studying at the Hiko Dojo.
• That night, a hungry girl waited outside for Su Mu, who carried her across the rooftops to a rundown courtyard.
• Su Mu served the girl chicken porridge, and she offered him some because she feared he would starve like her sister and brother.

Su Mu refused the food offered by a hungry girl, then took her home before returning to the Hiko Dojo and impressing Arakawa Akihiro with how quickly he learned sword forms. After training, Su Mu traveled to Mount Sagiri and watched from a distance, planning to search the area for Tanjiro Kamado.

• Su Mu refused the girl's food, urged her to eat, and carried her home before leaving into the darkness.
• Arakawa Akihiro tested Su Mu's sword forms, realized he had mastered them quickly, and decided to teach him seriously.
• Su Mu studied swordsmanship under Arakawa Akihiro for about two hours and then left the dojo.
• Su Mu sprinted through the night and reached the vicinity of Mount Sagiri in a few hours.
• Su Mu stayed far from the mountain to avoid Sakonji Urokodaki and planned to search nearby for Tanjiro Kamado.

Su Mu searched towns near Mount Sagiri for a charcoal seller named Kamado, then hid in a basement from the rising sun. Meanwhile, Hiroshi Furukawa and his Demon Slayer squad mourned their missing comrade Murayama and prepared to search Taro Town for the demon.

• Su Mu broke into homes across five towns to ask whether any charcoal sellers were named Kamado, but found none.
• Su Mu found an abandoned courtyard basement and hid from the sunlight as dawn arrived.
• Hiroshi Furukawa arrived at a wisteria-marked house and learned that his squad had still found no trace of the missing Murayama.
• Hiroshi Furukawa learned that Murayama was last searching Taro Town and led the squad there to look for the demon.

A neglected girl learned that her father had sold her to Ichiro Akiyama, but she felt only despair at losing the nightly visits of the gentle uncle who had shown her kindness. As night fell, Hiroshi Furukawa stopped to speak with her, and she waited for the warmth she associated with darkness.

• Ichiro Akiyama inspected the malnourished girl and agreed to buy her from her drunken father.
• The girl heard she was being sold and felt distressed only because she would no longer see the gentle uncle who visited at night.
• Ichiro Akiyama paid her father and said he would return in a couple of days to take her away.
• Her father stopped her from working only to avoid damaging his newly sold property, then left for the gambling house.
• Hiroshi Furukawa gave the girl some change, warned her to go inside after sunset, and left.
• As darkness fell, the girl’s vacant eyes brightened, and she remained outside, believing the night held no danger.

Su Mu brought the girl dinner in the abandoned courtyard, where she told him her father would sell her the next day. The chapter ended with Su Mu stunned by how calmly she faced being taken away.

• Su Mu returned to Taro Town and carried the girl to the secluded courtyard.
• Su Mu cooked rice and vegetables while the girl watched him quietly.
• Su Mu served the girl dinner and urged her to eat the vegetables as well.
• The girl told Su Mu that her father would sell her the next day and that they might never meet again.
• Su Mu froze as the girl calmly continued eating.

Su Mu learned about the abused, nameless girl’s horrific childhood and realized she was likely the future Kanao Tsuyuri. He gave her that name, leaving her quietly repeating it as she began to accept it as her own.

• Su Mu gently comforted the girl and asked her to tell him about her past.
• The girl recounted growing up as the eighth of eleven children, enduring severe abuse and losing her ability to feel sadness and pain.
• Su Mu connected her history and pinkish-purple eyes to Kanao Tsuyuri, the future demon slayer.
• Su Mu wondered whether Kanao would fear him if she knew he was a demon, but she did not understand what a demon was and said she was not afraid of him.
• Su Mu named the girl Kanao Tsuyuri, and she softly repeated her new name.

Su Mu offered to take Kanao Tsuyuri away from her abusive father, and she chose to stay with him. He brought her home to say goodbye to her past and stabbed her father when the man tried to take her back.

• Kanao Tsuyuri felt joy when Su Mu called her by name and grew afraid at the thought of being sold and separated from him.
• Su Mu asked whether Kanao Tsuyuri wanted to stay with him, and she clutched his sleeve in answer.
• Su Mu carried Kanao Tsuyuri to her home so she could say goodbye to her past.
• Kanao Tsuyuri trembled when she saw her angry father, and Su Mu comforted her.
• When Kanao Tsuyuri's father tried to take her, Su Mu stabbed him in the abdomen with a flame-colored blade.

Su Mu killed Kanao Tsuyuri’s abusive father, and Kanao showed no grief or anger, clinging instead to Su Mu as he cared for her. After bringing her clean clothes and preparing a bath, Su Mu realized she did not know how to bathe.

• Su Mu killed Kanao Tsuyuri’s father, who pleaded with Kanao for help as he bled to death.
• Kanao watched her father die without emotion, then looked to Su Mu and leaned into his touch.
• Su Mu hid the body in the woodshed, took Kanao inside, and went out to steal clothes for her.
• Kanao ran to embrace Su Mu when he returned, and he heated water to prepare a bath for her.
• Su Mu discovered that Kanao did not understand what bathing was.