A Mountain of Hands

Sakonji shares the core truth of slaying demons with his pupil: only severing the neck with a Nichirin blade ends them. Tanjiro recognizes that his sparring with Makomo has taught him to sense the Opening Thread, a guiding scent that steers his strike toward the throat. Sakonji admits he never wished to send the boy to the trial, fearing another lost child, yet he embraces him and asks him to come home alive.

Before departing, Tanjiro is handed a carved warding mask resembling those of Sabito and Makomo, bids the sleeping Nezuko goodbye, and asks his master to watch over his sister and the two departed children. Sakonji is stunned that the boy somehow knows their names. Reaching Mount Fujikasane, Tanjiro marvels at out-of-season wisteria as overseers explain the rules: survive seven nights among the captive demons that roam past the flowers.

Tanjiro grasps the Opening Thread technique and uses it to time his cuts. Once the trial opens, two squabbling demons rush him, and he cuts both down at once with Water Breathing, Fourth Form: Striking Tide, marking his first true combat use of the style. He pauses to mourn them before a foul stench warns of danger.

A grotesque creature with sprawling arms pursues a fleeing applicant while gripping another boy. Tanjiro forces himself to act, lopping off a limb with Water Breathing, Second Form: Water Wheel, just as the demon notes that yet another of its prey has appeared.

This chapter introduces the Hand Demon and the Ubuyashiki overseers who manage Final Selection. Several future allies appear in the crowd of applicants, including a scarred youth, a blond boy, and a quiet girl, all glimpsed before their names are known. The episode adapts to anime Episode 4 of the series.