Soichi Kurayame

## Portrayal

**Soichi Kurayame** is a deuteragonist of the story Demon Slayer: Blade of the Night, and the unknowing rival of Ryo Yorunoha. He is a Demon Slayer, working for the Demon Slayer Core, and is currently, one of the four unranked Slayers not hailing from any sect, along with Ryo, Tori Kamado and Genya Shinazugawa.

## **Appearance:**

Soichi is a tall, lean teenager with reddish, dark brown hair kept short, and a mostly pale completion. Soichi's eyes have bright red pupils, and are noted to be stunning upon first sight.

Soichi wears the traditional Demon Slayer Uniform, with no difference in colors or tone. He wears a plain, dark red haori atop it all, and a white blindfold covering both of his eyes. Despite wearing the cloth, both eyes are perfectly functional.

## **Personality:**

Soichi presents himself as a polite, generous boy with a charismatic and welcoming exterior. He does not discriminate over his demeanor, playing the same part and character regardless of who he is talking to. Due to his naturally nice personality, this does not tend to complicate things for him.

Soichi is very easy to befriend, and is noted to be very wise by those around him, despite his age. This does not indicate that he is quick to give advice, however, as he much rathers wait for others to demand him

Soichi is highly revered despite only recently joining the Demon Slayer Core, being seen as the hero that shall save them all, as he is the only user of the Sun Breathing that was directly taught the Style by another master, as Yoriichi never had disciples that could use the technique, and Tanjiro failed to find any other than Soichi himself.

Soichi's behavior remains mostly the same, even when confronted with an enemy. He maintains a casual, occasionally smug demeanor over whoever he's fighting, better demonstrated with Akuto, who originally engaged in a discussion with Soichi over the morality of lying for a brief moment prior to them engaging in battle. As he claims, he wouldn't want his executioner to be someone he dislikes.

Soichi is also noted for being extremely empathetic towards others, even demons, as shown by his demeanor towards opponents. He is quick to understanding people such as Asahi, who is extremely hard to know on a deeper level, much less tolerate.

Soichi is, however, riddled by guilt. He despises himself for having lied over his father's guilt simply because he was afraid of the rejection he'd receive from saying otherwise. He easily caved in the pressure and blamed the man for a heinous crime. Soichi proceeded to swear that he would wear a blindfold until his crime was atoned. All the terms of the atonement are currently unknown, but killing every demon is one of them.

## **Synopsis:**

Soichi was born in the poor Kurayame family, along with his four siblings. His family was mostly well-liked among his village, with the exception of his father, who, despite being a well-meaning man, had an unpleasant personality and attitude. After a demon attacked, Soichi's entire family, save for his father, were killed. The man was proceedingly accused of murdering almost the entire Kurayame family, and afraid of going against the villagers, Soichi lied, and stated that he had indeed committed the crime.

His father was subsequently executed in front of Soichi, as they imagined this would bring closure to the case, not realizing that the boy had lied, and the event ended up deeply traumatizing him. Soichi, after time passed, joined the Demon Slayer Core, and was the first disciple of a Sun Breathing master to ever exist.

## **Abilities:**

**Superhuman Strength:** Soichi is quite physically powerful, being able to withstand the weight of gravity increased by fifty times, and even using powerful blows while under the weight.

**Superhuman Speed:** While not directly shown, Soichi is known to be incredibly fast, reacting to bullets with a relative amount of ease, and being capable of keeping up with Asahi Azayaka, who is notorious for his immense speed.

**Superhuman Durability:** Soichi was able to withstand fifty times the weight of gravity, even being able to move at high speeds during this setback. Soichi is shown to be quite durable, as a very balanced fighter.

**Enhanced Vision:** Soichi has extremely powerful eyes, being capable of deciphering his opponent's next move almost entirely based on outward information. He can easily read muscular movements and shifts, despite not having gained access to the Transparent World yet.

**Enhanced Hearing:** Soichi, to compensate for his choice of blindfolding himself until his mission is complete, has gained an immensely powerful hearing, and with it, he is capable of having a sort of echolocation and extrasensory perception. This is best shown by his behavior being entirely regular, despite being blindfolded, as if he could see through the cloth.

**Enhanced Touch:** Soichi, as stated by himself, can feel the air around him move. His sense of touch, while not as honed as Shinku's, is quite powerful by itself, and in addition to the others, renders him into an incredibly difficult opponent.

**Genius Intellect:** Soichi is incredibly intelligent, despite not having any sort of scholar background, and never having gone to school. One such example is figuring out Akuto's ability quite easily, and picking up that the man was handicapping himself for the sake of keeping his ability a secret.

**Indomitable Will:** Soichi insisted on fighting, despite being grievously wounded by Akuto, he continued to battle, and did not give in until Akuto himself launched away for the sake of not catching a dog on the crossfire.

**Total Concentration Breathing:** Soichi has fully learned the Sun Breathing, even if he has ways to go in terms of mastering it fully, being nowhere close to the height that Tanjiro Kamado has achieved.

**Demon Slayer Mark:** Soichi has unlocked his Demon Slayer Mark, and is capable of activating it almost on command. His Mark appears as two red lines that cross through his face, from forehead to jaw, passing through his eyes. The lines, upon appearing, seemingly ignite, forming a flaming pattern where the straight lines used to be

## **Fighting Style:**

**Skilled Swordsman:** Soichi is quite adept at swordfighting, being capable of performing the Sun Breathing techniques, albeit not perfectly so. He has learned from Tanjiro Kamado, one of the strongest swordsmen in history, and as such, has had a good teacher.

### **Breathing Style:**

**Sun Breathing** *(Hi no Kokyu)*: Soichi is the first direct disciple of the Sun Breathing, learning it directly from Tanjiro, who had mastered the technique. Soichi is quite adept at the techniques, despite not yet reaching his peak.

#### **Techniques:**

* **First Form: Dancing Flash** *(Ichi no Kata: Enbu Issen)* - An edited version created by Tanjiro Kamado, designed to replace the original, as he was incapable of replicating the same level of power than Yoriichi had while using it. This form uses a dash alongside the regular attack

* **Second Form: Clear Blue Sky** *(Ni no Kata: Heki-Ra no Ten)* - The user spins their body horizontally to deliver a 360° slash.

* **Third Form: Raging Sun** *(San no Kata: Retsujitsu Kokyo)* - The user unleashes two horizontal slashes to hit or defend from incoming attacks.

* **Fourth Form: Burning Bones, Summer Sun** *(Shi no Kata: Shakkotsu En'yo)* - The user unleashes a large circular slash that defends from imminent frontal attacks.

* **Fifth Form: Setting Sun Transformation** *(Go no Kata: Shayo Tenshin)* - The user backflips into the air to deliver a powerful upended sword slash that aims to decapitate their target.

* **Sixth Form: Solar Heat Haze** *(Roku no Kata: Hirin Kagero)* - The user charges towards the target, unleashing a horizontal slash seemingly covered in haze that fails to land, but actually does hit the target.

* **Seventh Form: Beneficent Radiance** *(Shichi no Kata: Kiki Onko)* - The user spirals into the air and delivers a powerful slash that surrounds the enemy.

* **Eighth Form: Sunflower Thrust** *(Hachi no Kata: Yokatotsu)* - The user unleashes a single thrust attack with the point of the blade.

* **Ninth Form: Dragon Sun Halo Head Dance** *(Ku no Kata: Nichiun no Ryu Kaburimai)* - The user unleashes a continuous fast and powerful sword attack that is capable of decapitating multiple targets at once.

* **Tenth Form: Fire Wheel** *(Ju no Kata: Kasha)* - The user leaps behind the opponent and spins in the air downward, releasing a sword attack in a circular motion.

* **Eleventh Form: Fake Rainbow** *(Ju Ichi no Kata: Gen'nichi Ko)* - 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.

* **Twelfth Form: Flame Dance** *(Ju Ni no Kata: Hono Enbu)* - A two-combo strike which starts with a vertical slash and then a horizontal one right after.

* **Thirteenth Form: Dance of the Fire God** *(Ju San no Kata: Hinokami Kagura)* - The user continuously performs all twelve forms of Sun Breathing in repetitive succession to increase the accuracy and agility of its movements while reducing fatigue. This form was created solely for killing Muzan Kibutsuji.

* **Fourteenth Form: Scorching Rush** *(Ju Shi no Kata: Hayagake Giri)* - The user rushes forward with a flaming sword and performs five consecutive slashes against the opponent's weak points.

* **Fifteenth Form: Phoenix Flash** *(Ju Go no Kata: Shunten Giri)* - The user descends, either after hopping or from high ground, where they perform a massive overhead circular slash.

## **Equipment:**

**Standard Nichirin Katana:** Soichi, as expected of a Demon Slayer, carries a standard sized and shaped Nichirin Katana, with a black blade, demonstrating his proficiency at the Sun Breathing. His handguard is that of a plain black circle with a golden border. It has no further detail or design.

## **Familiars:**

**Nisshoku:** Soichi's crow Nisshoku is a very hyperactive Crow, especially during the night. Due to this, it is extremely competent.

## **Battles:**

* Soichi vs Ryo (Sparring)
* Soichi vs Ryo (Sparring)
* Soichi vs Akuto

## **Trivia:**

* Soichi's name is quite simple in meaning. [So] means "Creation/Beginning", and [Ichi] is, well, "One". His name is as such for a very particular reason that will be elaborated on next topic. His surname, [Kurayame] is a different spelling of [Kurayami]. It is pertinent to his backstory in particular, as it is close, but not equal to the spelling of [Kurayami], which means "Darkness".
* Soichi used to be a multitude of characters before this one, and for a multitude of stories before this one. Originally, the primordial character of Soichi was a Sound Breathing user that once was a disciple of Tengen after the man's retirement, and he'd have the exact same backstory, even if he was much stricter and meaner than current Soichi. Back then, he had no name, and belonged to a scrapped story of the author, where a demon would surpass sunlight and aim to join the slayers, where he'd develop by consuming whatever demons he killed. It was a bad idea, so it was scrapped. Next, he was the protagonist of a bad-end sort of scenario, where all Pillars died, and humanity was subsequently conquered by Muzan, who overcame the sunlight along with every demon, and made an entirely demonic society, with humans being kept and farmed as cattle. Soichi would effectively be the second coming of Yoriichi in that story. It was, however, scrapped, mostly because the author didn't know what to do with the middle chunk of the story, even if the beginning and end were already finished. Notably, early versions of Iwajima and Shinku both come from that story. Shinku had an entirely different name, but the surface-level characterization was the same, and he did use the Wind Breathing.
* Soichi's openness level is 50%
* Soichi's favorite color is red.
* Soichi's favorite food is *buta-no-shogayaki*, or simply ginger pork.
* Soichi is quite good with the ladies, but he isn't looking for a relationship yet.
* Soichi originally resided in the Thunder Sect before becoming Tanjiro's protégé, that's when he met Asahi.
* Soichi, due to taking longer to be under Tanjiro's tutelage, had to take the Final Selection late, along with Tori, who was afraid of the challenge.
* Soichi, if he was in Kimetsu Gakuen, would be almost universally despised for being a teacher's pet.