🦋Shinobu Kocho🦋

Personality

Shinobu displays a bright, friendly and cheerful demeanor, always having an easygoing smile on her face regardless of the situation she is in. However, her outward behavior is shown very quickly to be a façade. This is displayed in the way she enjoys teasing others, to the point of being rather sadistic about it, enjoying most notably to pick on Giyu Tomioka. Despite her relaxed exterior and her initial claim of wanting to get along with demons, she can be rather cruel towards them, which is seen when she kills Daughter after giving her false hope of helping her, and attempting to kill Nezuko Kamado without hesitation. Later on, she is shown to have a more compassionate side towards both Tanjiro Kamado and his sister after hearing their full story.

Appearance

Shinobu is a petite young woman with a slender build, and a pale complexion and large, compound-like eyes that lack pupils, only a haze of gradient purple, making her eyes appear similar to those of insects. She has black wavy hair that fades to dark purple, styled at the back of her head into a flat yakai-maki bun, fastened with a white, turquoise and light purple butterfly ornament. She has center-split, ear-length, voluminous curtain bangs that flow down to frame the sides of her face, with two slightly thinner chin-length locks of hair in front of her ears below them. Shinobu is short in height and has been described as having a small and weak-looking build, which is later reinforced by her mentioning that she does not possess enough physical strength to decapitate a demon as the other Hashira do. According to Zenitsu, Shinobu is so cute, that she could make a living on her looks alone. Shinobu wears a dark purple standard Demon Slayer uniform with gold buttons, consisting of a dark-purple tinted straight-lined black jacket and matching colored tabi socks and hakama pants, tucked into white butterfly patterned Kyahan fading into pale turquoise then pink around her lower legs, fastened with white ribbons. Over her uniform, she wears a white haori that previously belonged to her older sister, which has a butterfly wing pattern that fades into a pale turquoise then pink color on the sleeves and hem which are cuffed with a black and white dotted trim. She wears white zōri sandals with purple straps for footwear, with a hidden blade in one of the heels.

Abilities

Overall Abilities: As a Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps, Shinobu is a very powerful and skilled combatant. Despite not possessing the physical strength to cut off a demon's head common to that of an average Demon Slayer, Shinobu uses her creativity, ingenuity and other physical abilities to more than make up for it. Instead of the traditional method of decapitating a demon with a Nichirin Sword to kill them, Shinobu opts to use a modified version of a katana that acts as a stinger to inject a powerful wisteria-based poison that is lethal to demons. In addition to her intellect, she is extremely fast and agile, allowing her to overpower demons very quickly. Her true strength was revealed during her battle with the second most powerful Upper Rank demon, Doma, where she was able to go toe-to-toe with the demon briefly, even managing to outmatch him slightly and received praise from him.

Immense Speed & Reflexes

Shinobu possesses superhuman speed and reflexes enabling her to effortlessly evade and out-pace demons, attacking them before they can even register what happened. Shinobu is so fast that it often appears as if she teleported. Her inhuman speed even managed to surprised Doma as she out-sped the Upper Rank numerous times during their fight, unleashing dozens of strikes that even Doma couldn't fully block or evade, making him admit that Shinobu is the fastest Hashira that he had ever met. Furthermore, she once moved so fast, even while severely injured, that even Doma couldn't register and barely countered. Most impressively, she moved so fast that she sundered a bridge after being severely injured by Doma.

Keen Intellect

Shinobu possesses vast knowledge in using poison in combat. During her battle with Doma, she was able to calculate the amount of poison and the poison mix that would be the most effective against him. After her sister's death, she was able to use what paltry information Kanae gave her to devise a strategy that eventually led to the defeat of Doma. She also developed a form of sign language with Kanao to communicate crucial information in a short span of time, while helped Kanao in fighting and defeating the Upper Rank demon.

Fighting Style

Master Swordswoman: As a Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps, Shinobu is one of the most powerful and skilled swordswoman in the entire organization. Her fighting style is incredibly unique, but as effective as traditional swordsmanship styles. Shinobu's swordplay specializes in sword thrusting and piercing techniques in order to inject poison into demons. Her sword thrusts are so fast and powerful that they can pierce boulders and out-speed Water Breathing's Drop Ripple Thrust form, the fastest thrusting technique in that Breathing Style. However, the structure of her sword makes it ineffective for blocking attacks, so she makes up for it with her swift thrusts and stabs. Her swordsmanship prowess allowed her to go against Upper Rank Two, Doma, who has lived and fought for over a century, further showcasing her brilliant sword wielding skill.

Breathing Style

Insect Breathing (蟲むしの呼こ吸きゅう, Mushi no kokyū?): A Breathing Style created by Shinobu Kocho, who designed it to compensate for her lack of physical strength to cut off a demon's head. She has became extremely proficient in this swordsmanship style, allowing her to defeat countless demons and even go toe-to-toe with the second strongest Upper Rank demon, Doma.

What is a Breathing Style?

Breathing Styles are swordsmanship styles that makes use of an esoteric breathing technique known as Total Concentration Breathing practiced and taught by members of the Demon Slayer Corps and are used in combat by Demon Slayers (later passed on as traditional dances post-time skip). All known Breathing Styles currently taught within the Demon Slayer Corps are derived from Sun Breathing, the first one ever created. The majority of known Breathing Styles mimic a certain element of nature (i.e. flame, water and wind) and replicates it with the user's movements, techniques and abilities. The weapon attacks of Demon Slayers who use Breathing Styles are also longer ranged, possibly due to shockwaves or air pressure generated from their weapon itself when swinging and striking. New Breathing Styles are always being created to suit a Demon Slayer's combat needs,[1] which results in new weapons being utilized in demon hunting (i.e. flails and whips). Such Breathing Styles embody a bigger variety of concepts, like animals, plants and emotions (i.e. serpents, flowers and love). When utilizing a Breathing Style, users automatically visualize themselves manipulating the subject behind their style, making it seem as if they were using magic, though those that are less apt and proficient in their style will visualize less of it than one who is.