Gathering

With Nezuko safely returned to her box, Tanjiro hurries back to support Tengen. At the fight, Gyutaro praises the Hashira as unusually gifted compared to the pillars he has slain before, which only angers Tengen. He rejects the idea that he is somehow chosen, recalling the many people he has lost despite the label. Gyutaro, meanwhile, is unsettled that his poisoned scythes have not finished the swordsman off.

Tengen reveals that he grew up immune to such toxins. Raised among nine siblings in a ninja clan, he watched seven of them die by the age of fifteen under a brutal father who drove them through punishing training. His surviving brother absorbed that same coldness. Rejecting that life, Tengen left with his wives and joined the Corps under Kagaya Ubuyashiki, who welcomed the family and thanked them for choosing to risk their lives for others.

Back in the present, Gyutaro senses Tengen weakening and gloats that the venom is working. Tengen denies it and charges, kicking Daki away from her brother and scattering dark beads that erupt in chained blasts. Using the distraction, he nearly takes Gyutaro's head while gripping only the tip of his blade, but the demon blocks it. Daki sloppily reattaches her own head as Gyutaro accuses Tengen of having figured out their weakness, which the Hashira pretends not to understand.

The chapter delivers Tengen's backstory and shows him coming within an instant of decapitating both demons. Gyutaro insists the poison will still claim him regardless, but Zenitsu and Inosuke arrive to challenge that boast, and Tanjiro drops down to plant himself between the injured Hashira and the enemy. Flashbacks feature Kagaya and Tengen's three wives, while images of other Hashira underscore the stakes of the entertainment district mission.