Aoi Kanzaki

**Aoi Kanzaki** (神崎 アオイ, *Kanzaki Aoi*?) is a supporting character of *Kimetsu no Yaiba Reishoki*, and a Demon Slayer of the Demon Slayer Corps. However, she works as a helper at the Butterfly Mansion, rather than taking to the front lines and fighting demons.

## Etymology

* "Aoi" (アオイ, *Aoi*?) can have different meanings depending on the kanji used. For example, her name can translate to "hollyhock" (葵, *aoi*?) or "blue" (青, *aoi*?).
	+ However, her name is spelled with three katakana characters, which have no semantic properties. Although since her entire character design revolves around the color blue, it can be presumed that it stands for blue in nature.
* Aoi's surname, **Kanzaki**, contains the Kun'yomi reading of the kanji for "deity, spirit" (神, *kan*?) and "promontory, peninsula" (崎, *saki*?), the latter is affected by rendaku.

## Appearance

Aoi is a young girl of average height, with deep blue eyes that fade to a lighter blue at the bottom, along with white rectangular pupils, straight black hair with a parted fringe, and twin-tails. She wears two blue butterfly clips to keep her twin-tails in place. She is often seen with a frown on her face.

She wears the standard Meiji - Taisho era Demon Slayer uniform with the addition of a white nurse dress on top of it, with a blue sash around her waist. Her uniform is tinted slightly blue.

## Personality

Aoi is tough, uncompromising, strict and serious, displaying an efficient and no-nonsensical attitude nearly at all times. While performing her duties in the Butterfly Mansion, she is effective and pro-active, evident when she quickly demanding a complaining Zenitsu to silence himself and take his medication; Aoi goes so far as to demand he does not complain to her when he does not heal, despite Zenitsu's reluctance due to its bad taste.

Her personality is somewhat similar to that of a younger Shinobu Kocho, being loud, volatile, and open. She often appears angry, generally displaying how she feels very clearly. However, she does occasionally express more tender emotions such as declaring her enjoyment of the time spent with the trio when they were at the Mansion, looking openly surprised at Tanjiro's reassurance towards her, and bursting into tears when discussing Inosuke's serious injuries.

Despite her somewhat gruff demeanor, she is kind and caring, doing her best to help the Demon Slayers that came to the Mansion rehabilitate. Aoi also harbours insecurity over inability to be an effective Demon Slayer, stating that her survival of Final Selection was due to luck and deeming herself a coward for her failure to fight in battle.

## Abilities

### Overall Abilities

As someone who passed Final Selection, Aoi has above average fighting abilities and physical capabilities. However, she isn't on par with Demon Slayers such as Tanjiro Kamado, Zenitsu Agatsuma, and Inosuke Hashibira as she doesn't spend time training to fight demons or go on missions, but rather chooses to be a helper in the Butterfly Mansion, helping injured Demon Slayers to recover.

**Medical Knowledge:** After training under Shinobu Kocho, Aoi is able to concoct most of the more simple medicines and use them to treat injured patients.

**Trained Craftsmanship:** Aoi is knowledgeable and skillful enough to repair Nezuko's box which was damaged by Sanemi's blade.

## Fighting Style

### Breathing Style

**Water Breathing** (水の呼吸, *Mizu no kokyū*?): Aoi was a user of Water Breathing when she took Final Selection. Despite her surviving Final Selection, she believed it was nothing but pure luck and decided to stop training with the Water Breathing and instead helped other Demon Slayers within the Butterfly Mansion.

## Trivia

* Aoi appears to have low self-esteem, as seen where she disregards her survival of Final Selection.
	+ She also was in the same Final Selection as the Mist Hashira, Muichiro Tokito.
* Aoi's uniform was supposed to have an open chest design like Mitsuri Kanroji's uniform, same with Kanao and Shinobu. She later on burned this uniform with the oil and matches that Shinobu gave her and Kanao.
* Aoi is the heaviest female character in the Demon Slayer.
* Aoi wanted a sister so she was fiercely pestering Kanao Tsuyuri to choose her last name.
* Aoba shares the Hepburn romaji spelling of the first part of his name with Aoi (however, the "ao" in "Aoi" and the "ao" in "Aoba" are written using different character scripts). Given that Sumihiko Kamado, Kanata Kamado, Toko Agatsuma, and Yoshiteru Agatsuma share parts of their names with their ancestors, this is also the case for Aoba.
	+ Due to Aoba's name containing the character "blue, azure" (青, *ao*?), this is direct evidence that Aoi's name is in reference for blue.
	+ Aoba works in the field of science, much like Shinobu did back in the Butterfly Mansion where Aoi lived.
	+ Aoba has jet black hair rather than hair that fades from black to blue like Inosuke's, the same as Aoi.
* Aoi was partially responsible for Kanao's name. During the time in which the naming selection for Kanao took place, Shinobu and Kanae placed the names on the floor, allowing Kanao to choose a name at random. After seeing that Kanao was going to choose a paper containing the name "Kamasu" (カマス, *Kamasu*?), Aoi swiftly swapped the paper for the one containing Kanao.

## Quotes

* (To Tanjiro Kamado) "*Compared to you guys, I'm not so important, so thanks aren't necessary. I survived selection due to pure luck. Since then I've been afraid to fight, so I'm a coward.*"
* (To Inosuke Hashibira) "*If you're hungry, eat **this**. This plate is just for you, so eat from it whenever you want. But stop stealing food!*"