My Own Steel

This is the fifth episode of the anime. Learning that the Hand Demon has killed many applicants, including Sakonji Urokodaki's former pupils, Tanjiro slays the creature. When seven days pass, only four swordsmen remain. The guides explain the Demon Slayer Corps system, issue uniforms and Kasugai Crows, and have the survivors select ore for their Nichirin swords. Tanjiro uses his sharp sense of smell to make his choice.

Tanjiro uses Water Breathing, First Form, to behead the Hand Demon, who recalls being captured by Sakonji long ago. As the demon fades, Tanjiro senses its sorrow, holds its hand, and prays that it will not become a demon in its next life. With its death, the souls of Sakonji's students, including Sabito and Makomo, finally pass on. After more days searching for a way to restore Nezuko, Tanjiro returns to the wisteria shrine.

Only four applicants have survived, among them a quiet girl and a frightened blond boy. The Ubuyashiki twins congratulate them, assign them the lowest rank of Mizunoto, and hand out crows, though the blond boy receives a sparrow. A scarred boy grabs a twin and demands his sword, and Tanjiro intervenes. The recruits then pick their ore. Returning to Mount Sagiri, Tanjiro is reunited with a now-awake Nezuko and an emotional Sakonji. Days later the swordsmith Haganezuka delivers Tanjiro's Nichirin blade, which turns black when unsheathed. Tanjiro then receives his first mission, a town in the northwest where young women have been vanishing.

The episode adapts chapters 8 and 9. The first eyecatcher loosely recreates chapter 9's cover. The anime extends the Hand Demon's defeat into a brief flashback skirmish showing his original capture by Sakonji, and it moves Sakonji's explanation of Blood Demon Arts to just after Final Selection rather than later, as in the manga. Tanjiro's questioning of demons during his trek back is shown explicitly here.