Deep Sleep

The twenty-eighth episode brings Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke together with the Flame Hashira on the train. After Kyojuro swiftly destroys two demons in front of them, the real danger emerges: Lower Rank One Enmu casts a spell that pulls the sleeping passengers and the slayers into deep, inescapable dreams. Tanjiro drifts into a vision of his late family while Enmu prepares to have his cores destroyed.

Meeting the Flame Hashira

Boarding the train, the trio find Kyojuro happily devouring bento boxes. He deduces Nezuko is hidden in Tanjiro's box and, when asked about Hinokami Kagura, admits he knows nothing of it before cheerfully offering to take all three as his apprentices. He outlines the five core breathing styles, Flame, Water, Wind, Stone, and Thunder, from which others branch. When the conductor's odd manner and a foul scent give away a threat, Kyojuro cuts down one massive demon with the First Form, Unknowing Fire, then a second with the Second Form, Rising Scorching Sun.

The dream takes hold

Once the passengers are asleep, the conductor, working for the demon, begs for the reward he was promised. A disembodied hand lulls him under, then directs four children to tie ropes to the sleeping slayers. Tanjiro finds himself walking through snow into a warm reunion with his mother and siblings, breaking down as he embraces them. Atop the locomotive, Enmu explains that humans are driven by fragile spiritual cores, and that destroying those cores will kill the slayers as they sink ever deeper into sleep.

The two eyecatchers recreate a chapter cover and an end panel from the source. In the adaptation Kyojuro battles two demons on the train rather than the single one he faces in the manga. Tanjiro's dream is also reordered, appearing first here instead of last and extended with a brief sequence of him on guard in his slayer uniform before the dream shifts him into his old clothing.