Flame Hashira Kyojuro Rengoku

The twenty-seventh episode opens the second season and is largely original to the anime. Kyojuro Rengoku is sent to look into the Mugen Train, where more than forty passengers have vanished. While following the trail, he hunts down a marked demon, nicknamed the Slasher, that has been preying on people in a nearby station town. The episode establishes Kyojuro's character and hints that the real threat lies hidden on the train.

Hunting the Slasher

Guided by a Kasugai Crow, a Demon Slayer joins Kyojuro at a noodle shop, where they learn the town is gripped by fear of a Slasher and that the Mugen Train has been pulled from service after its passengers disappeared. At the rail facility, Kyojuro picks up a demon's scent and intervenes when the creature seizes a young worker. He severs the demon's hands to free the boy, but it flees toward the station, intent on killing the bento vendors who fed it.

Kyojuro's resolve

Racing along the tracks with Total Concentration Breathing, Kyojuro overtakes the demon just as it threatens Fuku and her grandmother. He finishes it with the First Form of Flame Breathing, Unknowing Fire. The grandmother, moved to tears, recognizes his haori and recalls being saved decades earlier by the previous Flame Hashira, his father. Kyojuro warns the others that the demon responsible for the forty missing passengers is not the one he just killed, and he suspects a stronger demon still rides the train. As night falls again, he boards the Mugen Train to investigate.

This installment is entirely anime-original; within the story's timeline it sits during the events of the chapter that covers the rehabilitation period. The episode was left out of the live marathon Crunchyroll held to mark the Infinity Castle film. Its closing moments connect to the trio's arrival, with Fuku glimpsing Inosuke headbutting the train.