Believe in Yourself (
Summary
Tanjiro Kamado desperately cheers himself on as he blocks Kyogai's incoming attacks. The Demon suddenly remembers his past, where a man is seen criticizing his writing, telling him it wasn't beautiful and sounded like garbage. The man continues to put him down, telling him how he should stop writing and just beat his drums as that was the only thing he could do. As he walks away, he steps on one of Kyogai's writings and the enraged Demon beats his drum once, killing him instantly with three slashes.
Tanjiro uses his Breath Style to attack Kyogai.
After recalling this memory, Kyogai is furious and performs Blood Demon Art: Rapid Drumming. Tanjiro has trouble dodging all of his attacks and notices the number of slashes had increased to five per attack. The movement of the room causes some of Kyogai's writings to fall on the ground which Tanjiro notices, but he avoids stepping on them which surprises Kyogai. The Demon Slayer figures out that it would be easier to use short breaths and smells the mold before incoming attacks, making more fluid and calculated movements as he uses Water Breathing: Ninth Form - Water Splash to decrease the distance between the two. Right before he decapitates Kyogai, Tanjiro tells him his Blood Demon Art is amazing.
A cat arrives to collect Kyogai's blood.
Tanjiro breathes heavily after defeating the Demon, but keeps telling himself that he is the eldest son and must pull through somehow. Kyogai's disintegrating head asks him if he really thought his Blood Demon Art was strong, and Tanjiro reassures that he did but says it is unforgivable to kill humans. He then takes out a tool given to him by Tamayo which extracts the blood from Kyogai's body, giving it to a cat wearing a talisman. Kyogai's head, on the verge of disappearing, cries about how Tanjiro saw the value in both his writing and drumming.
While making his way through the corridor, Tanjiro opens the door to where he left Teruko and Kiyoshi and is greeted by a mass of objects thrown at him. The siblings apologize; they mentioned how they were scared since the drum disappeared and didn't have a way to defend themselves in case of an attack. The trio make their way out of the house, but just as they make it to the entrance, Tanjiro smells blood. He runs out to see a crying Shoichi as Inosuke Hashibira beats a wounded Zenitsu Agatsuma.