Akaza

## Portrayal

**Akaza** is a major supporting antagonist of the original story of Demon Slayer, and returns in the same role for Demon Slayer: Blade of the Night. He is a demon affiliated with the Twelve Kizuki, holding the third highest position, Upper Moon 3.

Over a century ago, Akaza was a human by the name of **Hakuji** **Soyama**, a prodigious martial artist who trained under Keizo while nursing his daughter, Koyuki, who would later become Akaza's fiancée.

## **Appearance:**

Akaza is a very muscular young man of average height with chalk-white skin. decorated by a pattern of thick blue lines, which resemble the criminal tattoos he had as a human. Akaza also has short, bright pink hair. His eyes carry the daiji for "Upper Rank" and "Three" in each eye.

Akaza only sports a short, sleeveless dark purple-pink haori that was cut off at his waist, left open to expose his chest, that was decorated by a square pattern on his back. Aside from that, sported a pair of baggy white pants

Akaza, after failing to kill any of the slayers he was sent to decimate, lost his left arm until Muzan decides otherwise, or a hundred years have passed

## **Personality:**

Akaza is a headstrong, stubborn and battle-crazed Social Darwinist who enjoys fighting, especially against strong Demon Slayers. He purposefully drew out fights so as to savor every moment of it, always complimenting his opponents when they unleash strong techniques or land blows on him, usually remarking that their techniques and swordsmanship are magnificent and intriguing. This trait of his allowed for Kyojuro Rengoku to survive their initial encounter, and grow in strength to properly stand a chance the second time they fought. This flaw also allowed Ryo Yorunoha to very briefly gain an "upper hand" against him, even if it was short-lived.

He genuinely respected those who were strong in his eyes, demanding to know their names, and would not stop until he finds out; he remembers all the names of strong past opponents and committed them to memory as tribute to their strength. He also values strength above his rule of not killing women, seeing as he deems it a disrespect to ignore whatever strength they've cultivated as either slayers or demons.

Akaza is not exactly loyal to Muzan as much as he sees the Demon King as a boss, whose orders must be followed, be-all end-all.

## **Synopsis:**

Akaza was once a human named Hakuji, who was born into extreme poverty, and as his father grew sick, Hakuji began to steal in order to pay for medicine. One day, he was caught, having his arms tattooed to forever mark him as a criminal. Hakuji's father, upon hearing of it, killed himself.

Hakuji then lived his live as a vagabond, fighting whoever he deemed interesting until a man named Keizo finally beat him. Hakuji was then accepted into Keizo's home, and fell in love with his daughter Koyuki, who eventually was set to marry Hakuji. Unfortunately, a member of a rival dojo too fell in love with Koyuki, and upon Hakuji leaving to see his father's grave, he poisoned the dojo's well as vengeance, killing both Keizo and Koyuki.

Hakuji then massacred the rival dojo, and was found by Muzan, who turned him into a demon.

## **Abilities:**

**Immeasurable Strength:** Akaza has enough power to nonchalantly cause shockwaves so powerful they vaporize wood with the slightest of his movements, all the while he was able to shatter a ball made entirely of the hardest metal in the world, which Akaza, as a demon, has a particular weakness towards, with a headbutt, all the while nonchalantly destroying nichirin weapons with his bare hands.

**Immeasurable Speed:** Akaza is incredibly quick, appearing and disappearing far too fast for the slayers to locate or predict him. That's not mentioning how, while holding back to make the fight more exciting, he darted around the battlefield, going from target to target on a spree

**Tactical Intellect:** While not displaying it often due to his desire to make fights exciting, Akaza is quite powerful intellectually, as he was able to discern Mizushi's ability properly, and dismantle him quite easily with the gained knowledge

**Immense Regeneration:** Akaza has displayed his regeneration's strength when he reformed his own skull on top of Shinku's naginata, shattering its blade, and merely spitting out the scraps.

## **Fighting Style:**

**Master Hand-to-Hand Combatant:** Akaza is a genius at hand-to-hand combat, this being displayed since he was a human child, able to best adults in fights. He is capable enough to fight tens of swordsmen at once, all the while constantly having the upper hand.

### **Soryu Style:**

A bare-fisted martial arts style taught to him by Keizo, a martial arts expert, when he lived with him and took care of Koyuki. The Soryu Style utilizes both a user's arms and legs to unleash swift and powerful strikes that target an opponent's neck and weapon. At the start of a battle, the user begins by going into a stance performed by bending their knees in a half-crouch position, extending their right arm with a half-clenched fist facing his body and bending his left arm with an open palm

#### **Techniques:**

* **Bell Splitter** (Suzu Wari): A technique where Akaza strikes a sword from the side as it is descending to break it with little effort.

### **Blood Demon Art:**

**Destructive Death** *(Hakai Satsu)*: Akaza's Blood Demon Art is centered around martial arts, combining the manipulation of destructive shockwaves and the Soryu style martial arts he mastered when he was a human. Using the shockwaves of his caused by his strength, Akaza is able to attack his targets with both destructive long-ranged barrages and precise short-ranged strikes.

#### **Techniques:**

* **Compass Needle** *(Rashin*): Akaza manifests a light blue snowflake-shaped compass that allows Akaza to sense a person's Fighting Spirit, which he uses to achieve numerous effects while in combat. Firstly, he is able to determine the strength of anyone at a glance, but also detect the presence of his opponents in his immediate surroundings (even in his blind spots) and can use this to predict where and how his opponents will strike him. Furthermore, the precision of Akaza's attacks are greatly enhanced, to the point where Tanjiro stated that it was like magnets were pulling his fists towards his vitals, and even described them as having unparalleled precision. Effectively, Akaza's Compass Needle provides for the ultimate battlefield, where he understands the opponent's strength to an exact degree, has no blind spots, and determines exactly the most minute of weak points within his opponents, also having added precision to capitalize on them.

* **Final Form: Blue Silver Chaotic Afterglow** (*Shushiki: Aogin Ranzanko):* Akaza's ultimate technique. Akaza unleashes an omni-directional barrage of countless thin and sharp shockwaves that deliver a hundred blows to his target coming from everywhere almost at the same time

##### **Fist Types:**

* **Air Type** *(Kushiki):* Akaza punches the empty air in front him while creating a shockwave that flies towards his target and hits them from afar.

* **Disorder Type** (Ranshiki): Punching rapidly at the target, Akaza creates a barrage of large shockwaves, destroying anything in front of him.

* **Annihilation Type** (Messhiki): One of Akaza's most powerful techniques. Akaza crouches with both his arms at the side of his body poised to strike. He then lunges forward, creating two powerful circular shockwaves from the palm of his hands which he uses to strike his target with tremendous force.

* **Eight-Layered Demon Core** *(Kishinya Eshin):* Akaza unleashes eight powerful punches, each strike creating large and strong shockwaves in a similar fashion to his **Disorder** technique.

* **Ten Thousand Leaves Flashing Willow** *(Manyosen Yanagi)*: A powerful downward punch that delivers a large shockwave into the ground which expands outward.

##### **Leg Types:**

* **Crown Splitter** *(Kamuro Saki Wari):* A reverse, rising axe kick that produces a shockwave once it connects with the target.

* **Explosive Flurry** *(Ryusengunko):* A flashing flurry of powerful straight kicks so fast that they create afterimages, with each kick producing powerful shockwaves.

## **Battles:**

* Akaza vs Kyojuro
* Akaza vs Kyojuro, Giyu and Tanjiro
* Akaza vs Gikuro, Yushibo, Aya, Shinku, Iwajima, Kanjuro, Taro, Ryo and Fubuki
* Akaza vs Giyu and Obanai (Off-screen)

## **Trivia:**

* Akaza's name can be divided as [A], which means "gentle/docile", [Ka], which means "Cave", and [Za], meaning "Position/Status".
	+ Akaza's human name, Hakuji, can be read as [Haku], meaning "Komainu/Lion-Dog" and [Ji] means "Cure/Heal"
* Akaza is one of Muzan's favorites, but even so, Muzan makes sure that this never reaches Akaza's ears, as to make sure he stays mostly competent.