Rehabilitation Training, Part 2

Tanjiro's first try at sustaining Total Concentration ends with him collapsing, his ears ringing and his heart pounding. Recalling Sakonji's lessons about the importance of the lungs, he commits to strengthening them. The mansion's young helpers bring him rice balls and dried gourds, explaining that Shinobu set Kanao the task of bursting them by breath alone. Stunned that the slight Kanao can shatter gourds as large as the girls themselves, Tanjiro takes up the method.

Fifteen days later his stamina has clearly improved, his lungs stronger from fast drills by day and slow breathing at night. While meditating he is interrupted by thoughts of an enraged Haganezuka, his broken blade, and Tamayo's disapproving cat. Shinobu then joins him and, touched by his diligence, opens up about her late elder sister and the anger she carries beneath her smile. She admits she is weary of trying to spare demons but asks Tanjiro to keep protecting Nezuko and pursuing her sister's wish of coexistence.

Tanjiro struggles to keep Total Concentration active around the clock and turns to the mansion helpers, Naho, Kiyo, and Sumi, for guidance on improving. They agree to beat him awake with carpet beaters whenever he loses the technique in his sleep.

Shinobu praises his persistence, then shares the loss of her elder sister and the trust she now places in him. After ten more days Tanjiro bursts the largest gourd, and in full-body and reflex drills he keeps pace with Kanao before finally besting her, tapping her head with a cup to claim victory while Zenitsu and Inosuke watch in disbelief.

This chapter is part of the Rehabilitation Training Arc and is adapted across Episodes 24 and 25 of the anime. The gourd-bursting exercise becomes a recurring shorthand for lung capacity training.

Shinobu's conversation foreshadows her larger arc and her complicated stance toward demons, contrasting her own anger with her sister Kanae's gentleness.