Tanjiro Kamado and Nezuko Kamado vs Daki is a battle that took place in the Entertainment District. It focuses on the battle between Tanjiro Kamado and Nezuko Kamado against Upper Rank 6, Daki.
Contents
Prologue
A sweating Tanjiro sees black-haired Daki inscribing Koinatsu into one of her large sashes. He sees the kanji for Upper Rank (
With no other questions asked, she swings one of her sashes towards Tanjiro which launches him out the window onto a nearby building. Tanjiro is terrified over how the sash hit him so fast he could barely see it. He is also terrified over how he is finally facing an Upper Rank himself and states that if he didn't react the way he did, he would've certainly died from either the sash hitting him or the impact on the building. From this, he quickly gets information about her obi and how it is her weapon and that she can trap any living being inside it.
Daki is impressed over how Tanjiro survived her attack and sees his eyes as very pretty. The box containing Nezuko Kamado is greatly damaged and one of its straps broke from Tanjiro's right arm. Tanjiro knows the box can't take any more hits else it'll be completely destroyed. Tanjiro says to Nezuko that he has to put the box down as it would weigh him down in the fight against Daki. He orders Nezuko to never get out of the box unless her own life is in danger. Tanjiro and Daki dash at each other and the very first battle that Tanjiro has against an Upper Rank begins.
Battle
Tanjiro slashes one of Daki's obi with his Water Breathing: Fourth Form - Striking Tide while Daki attempts to cut Tanjiro with her obi. Tanjiro is able to dodge her sashes and cut the obi that imprisoned Koinatsu. Daki thinks to herself that Tanjiro's midair movements are indeed impressive as well, due to him being able to dodge her and cut Koinatsu out of Daki's control without harming her.
While thinking, Daki hears the sound of explosions due to Tengen using his Sound Breathing: First Form - Roar in order to get underground where all the imprisoned civilians are in her disembodied sashes. Daki askes Tanjiro how many Demon Slayers came to the city, to which she assumed four. Tanjiro refuses to answer despite Daki letting him live if he tells the truth. She then tells Tanjiro that the edge of his Nichirin Blade is already chipped and believes that the swordsmith who forged Tanjiro's blade is "very crappy", to which he immediately disagrees. This gets on Daki's nerves as she then questions why Tanjiro's Nichirin Blade is chipped. To which Tanjiro knows that a sword breaks solely because of it's user not being strong enough to combat a demon efficiently. Because of this, he believes that he isn't as compatible with using the Water Breathing compared to Sakonji Urokodaki or Giyu Tomioka.
Set your Heart Ablaze
Tanjiro then realizes that the Hinokami Kagura is more suitable for his body and his combat style, however due to its raw strength compared to the Water Breathing he knew he couldn't use the Hinokami Kagura consecutively. However due to his intense training since, he is now confident that he is finally able to use the Hinokami Kagura as his main Breathing Style, because of this a vision of Kyojuro Rengoku appears telling Tanjiro to set his heart ablaze. Thus while Daki attacks Tanjiro, he uses the Hinokami Kagura: Raging Sun in order to cut two of her sashes to which comes to her surprise that his combat style became much sharper and more efficient. Tanjiro dashes at Daki again and uses Hinokami Kagura: Flame Dance while Daki backsteps his first vertical slash but Flame Dance consists of a horizontal slash after the vertical one.
Daki attempts to behead Tanjiro with one of her sashes and succeeds, or so she perceives. Tanjiro in reality releases the Hinokami Kagura: Fake Rainbow to unleash an afterimage of himself in order to distract his her. He appears behind Daki and attempts to sever her head with Hinokami Kagura: Fire Wheel. This quickly backfires as Daki launches Tanjiro away with one of her sashes. Tanjiro quickly attempts to go on the defensive but fails due to him using multiple Kagura attacks in rapid succession which fatigued his body greatly.
While Tanjiro and Daki continue engaging on each other, the other sash that fought Tengen, his three wives, Inosuke and Zenitsu quickly dashes and phases into Daki's body. Tanjiro is greatly shocked to see her obi merge into her physical body, he however takes this opportunity to strike her with a Hinokami Kagura technique while she isn't attacking her. This is unsuccessful as Daki quickly moved beyond Tanjiro's senses on top of a nearby store, with her hair slowly turning silver. Daki discerns that a Hashira actually is within the city and will make him "pleased". Tanjiro discovers that her scent completely changed and became more sinister. While he comprehends Daki's new strength, a young man comes angry at Tanjiro for disturbing the nearby residents from their sleep, to which Tanjiro was completely unaware of so he quickly warns him and the others of what's to come.
The man complaining to Tanjiro completely infuriates Daki thus causing her to flail her sashes all over the place, destroying the surrounding stores and civilians. Tanjiro defends the man as much as he could taking a barrage of slashes, only making the man lose his left hand. Tanjiro then sees the other civilians he couldn't protect either dead or greatly injured, many sliced in half or having deep wounds. Despite having insuppressible anger boiling within his body, Tanjiro tells the man to remain calm and cover his amputated hand. Tanjiro's eyes become covered with blood as his rage becomes ever more concentrated.
Become One with Rage
As Tanjiro becomes more livid, he remembers a letter Shinjuro sent to him genuinely apologizing for both hitting him and Senjuro as well as speaking ill of Kyojuro. He also informs Tanjiro that all Sun Breathing users have a special birthmark on their forehead thus proving that Tanjiro is indeed a user of the Sun Breathing. Tanjiro debunks Shinjuro's explanation and believes that he doesn't have a birthmark and that it is a burnt scar when he protected his brother from a falling brazier. He then wounded it even more when he took the punch from the Hand Demon, thus giving it the current appearance of a mark.
Because of this reminiscence, Tanjiro starts having tears of blood and runs toward Daki who is walking away on top of a building, presumably in the direction towards Tengen Uzui. He grabs Daki's right leg and attempts to behead her but she pulls off her foot to create distance away from Tanjiro. He speaks to Daki about the lives of humans and how once they are lost, they will never return. Daki while regenerating her foot sees a mysterious figure that looks like Tanjiro all grown up talk in similar fashion. Daki however has no clue who the man is and has never seen him, she the realizes that it's not her own memory but of the cells of Muzan Kibutsuji reacting to Tanjiro's speech about human life. Tanjiro meanwhile tells Daki that she was once human too and had a life similar to theirs to which heavily frustrated her, enough to smash the roof which she is standing on.
She states that since she is a demon now, she no longer needs to be aware of the faults of humans, sickness, income, age, and loss of others as demons. She also says that strong and beautiful demons like her are capable of doing anything without consequence, to which angers Tanjiro even more. He dashes at Daki to which she attempts to slice Tanjiro up with her Blood Demon Art: Eight Layered Obi Slash. Daki no longer wants anything to do with Tanjiro anymore and says that it is impossible for him to defeat since he already had his hands full when she was both not using her Blood Demon Art and didn't merge with the sash that fought the others which increased her overall power. Tanjiro however counters her Blood Demon Art with the Hinokami Kagura: Burning Bones, Summer Sun by cutting most of her sashes. Daki screams in pain as the parts of her obi that got cut burn much like exposure to sunlight but is also confused to how the wounds that Tanjiro suffered aren't opening due to his sudden sharp movements. Tanjiro keeps on overwhelming Daki which makes her question if he even is human. During which Tanjiro was able to cut Daki's neck however her flesh becomes a sash in order to soften the cut. She retaliates by unleashing thirteen sashes instead of eight, but Tanjiro parries all of them with his blade and pins all of them into one spot. Daki thinks that pinning all thirteen of her sashes will stop her and attempts to launch him. Tanjiro takes this moment to drag the sashes back and leaps into the air in order to both cut her sashes and behead her.
Defend Onii-Chan
Just as he was about to slice Daki's neck, his youngest sister Hanako Kamado appears reminding him to breathe correctly in which he completely forgot to do the entire time. He immediately collapses and coughs out blood, Daki explains the two limits of humans, their 'stamina' and 'life' limit. Because of these limits, she abhors humanity and how despite their tenacity, they will always reach failure. Thus, Daki wants to behead Tanjiro as payback for him attempting to behead her with her sash. Just she was about to, Nezuko comes in and crushes her skull with a side kick, pushing the Upper Rank back away from her and Tanjiro. Nezuko is seen incredibly angry with visible veins poping out due to numerous civilians either killed or harmed from Daki. Daki is both angry that someone crushed her skull and pleased because that "someone" is the demon that escaped Muzan's influence.
Due to this, Daki remembers the time when she met Muzan and he requested her to destroy the second demon who escaped his influence. Nezuko lunges over towards Daki in order to get a kick in, to which Daki easily analyzed and predicted and so Daki easily cleaved Nezuko's kicking leg off and then slices her in half horizontally, launching her to a nearby building on the ground. Tanjiro unconscious, remembers his younger brother Takeo Kamado which tells him that he and Nezuko are similar in that they show little to no concern for themselves despite showing so much for others. Takeo also states his worry for Nezuko possibly losing something precious to her as a result of this trait.
Daki jumps onto the same floor as Nezuko and points out how weak she is due to not consuming any humans and questions how she escaped Muzan's control. Daki reminds Nezuko that due to her torso being cut clean off and her not being able to regenerate quickly. Due to them both being demons and not being able to kill one another, Daki says she will take Nezuko into her sash and release her to burn from the sun. Nezuko however stands up with her right leg completely healed already, to the Upper Rank's surprise. Nezuko also instantly heals her arm in front of Daki, making the Upper Rank admit that Nezuko's healing now rivaled hers. As Nezuko keeps transforming the strap for the bamboo nuzzle breaks off so it falls to the ground revealing her mouth.
With Nezuko's new demonic transformation, the mere pressure emanating off of her even makes Daki afraid. With no hesitation Nezuko dashes towards the Upper Rank to deliver another downward kick. Daki immediately sees through this attack and cuts her leg again and tries to behead her. However, Nezuko still lands a solid blow on Daki's back, smashing her into the ground. This comes to Daki's surprise as to how a disembodied leg could still land a kick, to which she discovered that as she cut Nezuko's leg, it regenerated quick enough for her to still kick. Thus making her admit that Nezuko's regeneration surpassed her in all matters. Nezuko then gives off a sadistic smile as her demonic instincts continue impacting her decisions. Tanjiro then wakes up with help from Takeo.
Daki incredibly angry cuts all of Nezuko's body with her sashes while Nezuko's right arm catches one of them despite being severed from her body. Daki realizes that Nezuko solidified her own blood in order to stop the impact from her sash. Without Daki realizing, Nezuko converts her solidified blood into her Blood Demon Art: Exploding Blood and engulfs Daki with crimson red flames. As the Upper Rank continues to burn and scream from anguish Nezuko reassembles her amputated limbs and her head, giving off another sadistic smile and stomps Daki's head into the ground.
Aftermath
After burning Daki with her Blood Demon Art: Exploding Blood and kicking her to a nearby building, Nezuko witnesses multiple civilians harmed, specifically a woman with her right forearm cut by Daki's sash. After seeing the woman's blood due to her transformation drastically convincing her demonic instincts, she quickly dashes at the woman to eat her and consume her blood. Tanjiro springs to action and stops Nezuko by restraining her body with his legs and covers her mouth with his Nichirin Blade. Tanjiro begs Nezuko to regain her humanity and apologizes for her fighting and being harmed in the process. Nezuko attempts to get Tanjiro off of her by increasing her body size and jumping into many buildings, floors and walls.
Daki reappears with the right side of her body including her face badly burned from Nezuko's Blood Demon Art. On top of this, despite being a demon specifically an Upper Rank, her regeneration speed has significantly waned due to Nezuko's flames which angers her due to her admiring her own beauty. Tanjiro is now in a difficult position on how to both stop Nezuko from consuming a human and protecting the bystanders from Daki. As he is about to think forward for his actions, the Sound Hashira Tengen Uzui suddenly appears in front of him. Tengen points out to Tanjiro that his sister is flamboyantly progressing into a real demon losing her humanity in the process. He also points out that Tanjiro specifically said to Kagaya Ubuyashiki that Nezuko will never eat a single human and this is how it turned out. Daki is glad to see the Hashira without having to look for him, but also annoyed that he isn't paying any attention to her. Tengen bluntly says to Daki that she is too weak to be an Upper Rank and so she is not the demon he is looking for. Suddenly Daki's head falls off her shoulders, greatly surprising both her and Tanjiro.