Trading Blows at Close Quarters (
Summary
Tanjiro Kamado notes how all his companions are working hard to take down Enmu and protect the passengers and rallies himself to do the best he can so he can be of use as well. Following his nose, Inosuke wildly slashes around and jumps into the front car, saying that is where the Demon's smell is the strongest.
The conductor is startled and yells at him to get out but Inosuke ignores him and continues forward, however, the Demonic ingrowths present in the car all form into hands and reach out to grab him.
Inosuke furiously slashes at the arms but is unable to contain them all and some of them grab him by the head and begin to crush him but are quickly sliced down with a Water Breathing: Sixth Form - Whirlpool performed by Tanjiro who arrives in the nick of time. Having cleared out the area, Tanjiro senses that the Demon's stench is coming from right below them and tells Inosuke as much and the boar boy angrily responds that he is the boss and Tanjiro shouldn't boss him around.
Performing a Beast Breathing: Second Fang - Rip and Tear at the floor to blast it open and Tanjiro looks on in disgust to see that Enmu's neck bone now runs through the bottom of the train right beneath their feet. He launches a Water Breathing: Eighth Form - Waterfall Basin at the bone but the attack is blocked by more ingrowths and the gash in the floor closes up again due to Enmu's regenerative powers.
Holding back the ingrowths is as much as he can accomplish on his own however and so he comes up with a plan to cut the neck where, in conjunction with Inosuke, one of them would cut all the flesh and the other would follow without delay and chop the neck.
Commending this brilliant plan, Inosuke agrees but before they can proceed, eyes grow out of the ingrowths as Enmu uses his Blood Demon Art: Eyes of Forced Unconscious Sleep and Tanjiro falls asleep but not before advising Inosuke to kill himself in his own dream to wake up.
Tanjiro quickly regains consciousness again by killing his dream self but stares straight into another eye and falls back asleep, he falls into a cycle of falling asleep, waking himself up and immediately staring into a Demon eye until he begins to have his sword ready to chop his neck off in the real world before he falls asleep.
Inosuke stops him from committing such a grave mistake, saying that he is not dreaming at that moment and he shouldn't die in a lame way. He explains that since he is wearing his boar mask he is unafraid to look at the eyeballs directly and realises that due to the mask Inosuke has a hard time seeing the full gaze and is thus immune to their spell.
The eyeballs all get sliced shut by Inosuke, allowing Tanjiro to see freely again and he notices that the conductor is about to intervene and attack Inosuke but Tanjiro intercepts and headbutts him. The conductor however, stabs Tanjiro with the awl made by Enmu, Tanjiro immediately knocks him out and yells that he is alright, bidding Inosuke to quickly attack. Using his Beast Breathing: Fourth Fang - Slice 'n' Dice he reopens the floor, exposing Enmu's neck bone and Tanjiro asks his father for strength and perform the Hinokami Kagura: Clear Blue Sky.
Characters in Order of Appearance
Events
- Tanjiro and Inosuke reach the front of the train, discovering Enmu's neck bone present inside the train.
- Enmu uses a new Blood Demon Art by manifesting eyeballs on his internal flesh.