Chapter 39

**Life Passing Before One's Eyes** (走 (そう) 馬 (ま) 灯 (とう) の中 (なか) , *Sōmatō no Naka*?) is the thirty-ninth chapter of Koyoharu Gotoge's Kimetsu no Yaiba.

## Summary

Rui recounts his belief in the structures found within a family, stating that the parents protect the children and the older children protect the youngest, even with their lives. He adds that people who do not fulfill their roles in life are not worthy of living and informs Tanjiro that his sole role is to give up his sister or die.

As Tanjiro contemplates a plan in order to defeat Rui, the demon becomes annoyed by his look of determination and wonders if he believes he has a chance of killing him; he uses his threads to capture Nezuko from behind Tanjiro and proceeds to hold her hostage. Desperate to save his sister, Tanjiro charges at Rui and demands that she be released but as the demon begins to spindle more threads, Nezuko unexpectedly claws at his face, forcing him to release her.

Lower Five launches threads at his opponent but Tanjiro flips back to avoid Rui's attack, only to end up losing sight of Nezuko. As he looks around to locate her, a splash of blood falls from the sky and he looks up in horror to see his sister bleeding and strung up in the threads. Rui nonchalantly demands that Tanjiro stop screaming and informs him that he will leave her to bleed in order to make her obey his will, threatening to leave her to disintegrate in the sun if she disobeys. When he looks into the sky, Rui notices that Nezuko has lost consciousness and notices an "odd feeling" resonating from Nezuko, different to normal demons.

Tanjiro regains control of his emotions and concentrates his breathing, preforming the **Total Concentration: Water Breathing, Tenth Form: Constant Flux** to charge at Rui. Using increasingly powerful strikes, he successfully cuts the threads using his broken blade, catching Rui off guard. However, the demon is amused to think Tanjiro had believed he was using his strongest threads and infuses his blood into new ones, casting his **Blood Demon Art: Cutting Thread Cage** in order to quickly end Tanjiro's life.

Tanjiro smells the immense danger coming from the unavoidable attack and believes he is going to die. Suddenly, the memories of his past begin to flash before his eyes. As the many moments of his life flood before him, Tanjiro recollects the theory that he is being given a chance to search through his memories to find a method to escape. At that moment, he remembers a memory from his childhood in which he played with Nezuko as their father watches them, before telling Tanjiro to control his breathing and "become like Hinokami."

## Characters in Order of Appearance

* Spider Demon (Father) (Vision)
* Spider Demon (Mother) (Vision)
* Spider Demon (Daughter) (Vision)
* Spider Demon (Son) (Vision)
* Rui
* Tanjiro Kamado
* Nezuko Kamado
* Sabito (Vision)
* Shoichi (Vision)
* Kiyoshi (Vision)
* Teruko (Vision)
* Kazumi (Vision)
* Inosuke Hashibira (Vision)
* Makomo (Vision)
* Tamayo (Vision)
* Yushiro (Vision)
* Zenitsu Agatsuma (Vision)
* Hotaru Haganezuka (Vision)
* Giyu Tomioka (Vision)
* Sakonji Urokodaki (Vision)
* Shigeru Kamado (Vision)
* Takeo Kamado (Vision)
* Rokuta Kamado (Vision)
* Kie Kamado (Vision)
* Tanjuro Kamado (Flashback)
* Hanako Kamado (Vision)

## Events

* Tanjiro Kamado and Nezuko Kamado vs Rui.
* Nezuko is taken hostage by Rui.
* Rui ensnares Tanjiro in a Blood Demon Art he cannot escape from.
* As his life flashes before him, Tanjiro sees a vision of his father.