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Life Passing Before One's Eyes (走 (そう) 馬 (ま) 灯 (とう) の中 (なか) , Sōmatō no naka^?) is the thirty-ninth chapter of Koyoharu Gotōge's Kimetsu no Yaiba.

Summary

The chapter begins with Rui explaining the structures found within a family, specifically explaining the roles of each member to protect the youngest of the family. He goes on to further explain that people who do not fulfill their roles within a family are not worthy of living, and informs Tanjiro that his role is to give up his sister or die.

While Tanjiro contemplates a plan in order to defeat Rui, the Demon stealthily uses his threads to capture Nezuko from Tanjiro and proceeds to hold her hostage. Desperate to save his sister, Tanjiro charges at Rui and demands that she be released but as the Demon begins to spindle more threads, Nezuko unexpectedly claws at his face, forcing him to release her.

Tanjiro falls back to avoid Rui's attack but ends up losing sight of Nezuko, as he looks around to locate her, a splash of blood falls from the sky and he looks up in horror to see his sister bleeding and strung up in the threads. Rui nonchalantly demands that Tanjiro stop screaming and informs him that he will leave her to bleed in order for her to obey his will, threatening that he will leave her to disintegrate in the sun if she disobeys. When he looks into the sky, Rui notices that Nezuko has seemingly fainted or fallen asleep and notices an "odd feeling" resonating from Nezuko as opposed to his Demon family.

Tanjiro regains control of his emotions and concentrates his breathing to preform Water Breathing: Tenth Form - Constant Flux to charge at Rui. He generates powerful strikes and successfully cuts the threads using his broken blade, catching Rui off guard. However, Tanjiro's attack leaves him intrigued and Rui incorporates his blood to preform his Blood Demon Art: Cutting Thread Cage in order to quickly end Tanjiro's attack.

Tanjiro smells the immense danger coming from the thread, and the memories of his past begin to flash before his eyes. As the memories of his comrades flood before him, Tanjiro recollects the theory that he is being given a chance to search through his memories to find a method to escape. At that moment, he remembers a memory from his childhood in which he played with Nezuko as a man sat watching them. He focuses in on the man who turns out to be his father, and is told to control his breathing to "become like hinokami."

Characters in Order of Appearance

Events

• Nezuko gets taken hostage by Rui