Yoriichi Tsugikuni

is the overarching protagonist of the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba franchise. 
He was the creator of the first Breathing Style, the Sun Breathing. With the introduction of the Breathing Styles, the pace of demon hunting began to accelerate, giving demon slayers the power they so desperately needed to fight demons on even terms. 
He was also the younger twin brother of Michikatsu Tsugikuni, who had a very complicated love-hate viewpoint of Yoriichi and later became the Upper One demon, Kokushibo, to transcend death and attempt to surpass Yoriichi's incredible talent, which can only be depicted as being blessed by gods. With Yoriichi's Sun Breathing eventually deriving onto various forms of Breathing techniques, demon slayers finally began to produce desirable results. No demon slayer as an individual was ever as powerful as Yoriichi before his birth, during his life, or since his death.
He is voiced by Kazuhiko Inoue (who also voiced Kakashi Hatake from Naruto) in Japanese and by Mick Lauer in English (who also voices Toga in Yashahime: Half-Demon Princess).
==Appearance==
Yoriichi is a young man of tall and an athletically muscular stature. He shares a strikingly similar appearance to his twin brother, Michikatsu Tsugikuni, later Kokushibo, though unlike him, Yoriichi has slightly more slimmer bangs and wavier hair than his brother. His hair is both spiky and long, about waist length and coloured black to burgundy in the anime, similar to Tanjiro Kamado, the protagonist of the show.
His demon slayer mark was placed at the left side of his forehead, similar to Tanjiro, albeit of a lighter color. His sharp, almond-shaped eyes are a majestic maroon-red colour in the anime and a darker shade of maroon in the manga. Most of the time, Yoriichi sports a solemn, relaxed and unbothered expression on his face.
Yoriichi wears a red haori with black hakama pants over an orange kimono and a black Nichirin katana, whom turns red in battle, worn on his hip. He also wears the hanafuda earrings that were created by his mother and later passed on to Sumiyoshi and his descendants, including Tanjuro and Tanjiro Kamado.
==Personality==
Yoriichi was an extremely stoic man of peace and reverence. He was incredibly humble and proud to see himself like any other human being and no one special. He was adamant that the next generations of demon slayers would surpass the swordsmen of his era, including himself and his brother. He was also very kind, once helping an elderly man reach his dying son, and showing love for his brother even after he became an Upper Rank demon. However, Yoriichi did show strong emotions; when his wife Uta and their unborn child were killed by a demon, Yoriichi mourned their bodies for ten straight days.
Yoriichi strongly believed that the world was a beautiful place, but that it was corrupted by the demons' existence, so he set his sights on defeating all of them, especially their king, Muzan Kibutsuji. When he failed, his sense of honor made him experience severe guilt and he began to consider himself worthless.
==Powers and Abilities ==
Demon Slayer Mark: Yoriichi is the progenitor of the Demon Slayer Mark, being born with it, possessing the tremendous physical abilities granted by its effects all throughout his lifespan. Unlike all other marks users in his era, Yoriichi was able to defy fate and lived to about 85 years of age (the average life expectancy during the era Yoriichi was presumed to have been born was between 30 ~ 50 years). It is presently unknown why Yoriichi is immune to the Mark's effects, but it is presumably because he was the first one ever to have it and born with it naturally, unlike all other mark bearers who must train to attain it. 
*Bright Red Nichirin Sword: Yoriichi was the first person ever to be able to turn his Nichirin Sword into a bright Red color as he was born with the mark that presumably gave users the ability to turn their blade bright red as while. When fighting, Yoriichi can dye his black sword to bright red at will, letting him hamper the enhanced regeneration of demons, and even Muzan's instant regeneration, burning him at a cellular level, leaving scars on his body for hundreds of years. It has also been noted by Muzan himself that Yoriichi's bright red blade was far more effective than those of the current generation Hashira, as Yoriichi could completely negate Muzan's near-absolute regeneration for a short period of time while the modern era Demon Slayers could only slow it down.
*Transparent World: Yoriichi has access to the Transparent World since birth, and could use it with surprising proficient, evident when he could watch for lung expansions and muscle contractions within a person and surmise when to strike them. This ability also granted him an advantage against Muzan, allowing him to find his weaknesses instantly and overwhelm him.
* Selfless State: During their confrontation, Muzan noted that Yoriichi emanated absolutely no sense of drive, hatred, anger, fighting spirit, animosity or even bloodlust despite being in mid-battle against him, rendering it practically impossible for Muzan to detect him, predict his movements or gauge how powerful he was with his senses. This gave Yoriichi an edge in battle against Muzan as he underestimated his strength, a mistake that shook the Demon King to this day.
:
* - The user delivers a single high-powered vertical slash.
* - The user spins their body vertically to deliver a 360° slash.
* - The user unleashes two horizontal slashes to hit or defend from incoming attacks.
* - The user unleashes a large circular slash that defends from imminent frontal attacks.
* - The user backflips into the air to deliver a powerful upended sword slash.
* - The user charges towards the target, unleashing a horizontal slash seemingly covered in haze that fails to land, but actually does hit the target.
* - The user spirals into the air and delivers a powerful slash that surrounds the enemy.
* - The user unleashes a single thrust attack with the point of the blade.
* - The user unleashes a continuous fast and powerful sword attack that seemingly takes the form of a flaming Japanese dragon. This technique is capable of decapitating multiple enemies at once.
* - The user leaps behind the opponent and spins in the air downward, releasing a sword attack in a circular motion.
* - The user performs high-speed twists and rotations, thus creating afterimages used mostly to evade attacks. The afterimages work most effectively on enemies with good vision.
* - A two-combo strike which starts with a vertical slash and then a horizontal one right after.
* - The user continuously performs all twelve forms of Sun Breathing in repetitive succession to increase the accuracy and agility of his movements while reducing fatigue. This form was created solely for the purpose of killing Muzan, since the repetition of all twelve forms aims to destroy Muzan's twelve vital organs (seven hearts and five brains) that move freely inside his body thanks to his shape-shifting ability.
==Trivia==
*Because of similar designs, the bag in which Yoriichi Tsugikuni held Michikatsu's flute seemed to have made from a fabric of Uta, the kimono of his late wife.
*A robot version of him with six arms called Yoriichi Zeroshiki appears in the Swordsmith Village arc as a battle doll. This robot has six arms since some of Yoriichi's movements cannot be replicated with a two-armed robot. It also had a katana inside its body, and Tanjiro Kamado would later end up destroying the doll.
*Yoriichi has the kun-yomi reading in kanji reading for "fate/destiny" and a daiji meaning "one" comprising his given name. His family name means "inherit a kingdom" in the kanji script.
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