Demon Slayer

To become a Demon Slayer, a candidate must pass the Final Selection, an entrance trial in which they survive seven days atop Mount Fujikasane, a demon-infested mountain, using only the skills built in training. Most entrants have studied for years under a Breathing Style cultivator and are sent to the test only once their teacher deems them ready, though Inosuke Hashibira is a rare case who entered untrained and of his own accord. Those who pass receive the standard uniform, choose the ore for their Nichirin Sword, and are assigned a talking Kasugai Crow.

Pay varies sharply by rank. A slayer at the bottom Mizunoto rank earns roughly twenty thousand yen, while a Hashira may draw as much as they wish.

The Corps sorts its members into ten ranks, named after the Ten Heavenly Stems, running from the lowest Mizunoto up to the highest Kinoe. New members all begin as Mizunoto (Chapter 8) and rise by completing missions and proving themselves. After the Final Selection each slayer has their rank inscribed on Mount Fujikasane through a process called Wisteria Engraving, and from then on they can check their standing by uttering a password and clenching a fist, which makes the rank symbol swell on the back of the hand.

Above the ordinary ranks sit the Hashira, the Corps' elite, answerable only to its leader. A slayer becomes eligible for that group by slaying fifty demons as a Kinoe or by defeating a member of the Twelve Kizuki single-handedly. A Tsuguko is a gifted slayer named as successor to a Hashira, a role earned by application or by being scouted directly.

The series follows a core group that includes Tanjiro Kamado, Zenitsu Agatsuma, Inosuke Hashibira, Kanao Tsuyuri, and Genya Shinazugawa, several of whom rise to the Hinoe and Hinoto ranks by the story's end. Slayers also carry distinctive sensory gifts: Tanjiro and Sakonji Urokodaki for smell, Zenitsu, Gyomei Himejima, and Tengen Uzui for hearing, Kanao for sight, Inosuke for touch, and Genya for taste. Two slayers, Michikatsu Tsugikuni and Kaigaku, are notable for willingly abandoning the Corps to become demons.