Insect Hashira, Shinobu Kocho

Doma recalls being born with rainbow eyes and white hair, which led his parents to build a cult around him called the Eternal Paradise Faith. He never heard any divine voice and merely played along, finding it tiresome that adults sought wisdom from a child. He saw paradise and the gods as fairy tales, pitied people for refusing to accept death, and came to believe his purpose was to make them happy by eating them.

In the present, Doma heals from Shinobu's poison and notes she is breathing heavily, her lung cells dying from his Blood Demon Art. She tries a heavier dose, rushing in to stab him six times with a dragonfly-themed strike, but he wounds her in return, taunting that her small frame keeps her from beheading him. Reflecting on never having grown taller, she compares herself to the taller Kanae and the powerful Gyomei.

As Shinobu falters from blood loss and a damaged lung, the spirit of Kanae appears and tells her to rise, insisting she can win with the right resolve. Remembering their younger sister, Shinobu stands, surprising Doma, and coughs blood as he urges her to give up. Instead she makes a last stand with a centipede-themed form, speeding toward the Upper Rank, evading his counterslash, and driving her blade through his neck to pin his body into the ceiling.

The chapter humanizes Doma as an emotionally empty being who feigned divinity, deepening the horror of his philosophy. Shinobu's physical limitation, her small size, is framed as the obstacle she cannot overcome, setting up the tragic sacrifice and hidden plan that define her duel with the demon.