Former Member of the Twelve Kizuki

The Drum Demon looks back on holding the Lower Six seat within the Twelve Kizuki, a time when he slowly hit his ceiling and could swallow no further humans. Muzan once came to his mansion, named him Kyogai, and grew enraged at his stalled appetite. Slashing the eye that bore his rank, the demon king cast him out of the Twelve Kizuki. Kyogai remembers believing at first that Muzan's blood would let him grow endlessly stronger, only to be proven wrong.

After Teruko tearfully reunites with the rescued Kiyoshi, Tanjiro introduces himself as a slayer and treats the boy's wounds with Urokodaki's medicine. Kiyoshi recounts being kidnapped to be eaten and how three demons fought over him, the scuffle tearing the drum from Kyogai's back; he had used that drum to shift rooms and stay alive. Tanjiro's crow explains that marechi blood is prized because it equals the nourishment of fifty to a hundred people.

Sensing Kyogai approach, Tanjiro tells the children to use the drum to flee while he fights. As he dashes out, Kiyoshi beats the drum to move them clear. Kyogai turns the room over and sends invisible slashes that nearly catch Tanjiro, beating faster to disorient him.

The flashback clarifies how the Twelve Kizuki function, with Muzan personally demoting and maiming members who can no longer grow in power, and reveals the origin of Kyogai's bitterness.

In the present, the chapter sets the stage for the full duel between Tanjiro and Kyogai. Battered from earlier fights and struggling to keep his balance, Tanjiro recalls Urokodaki's lessons on the versatility of Water Breathing and steels himself to face the demon head-on.