Murata Suiten

## Portrayal

**Murata Suiten** was a major supporting character in Demon Slayer: Blade of the Night, having reappeared from the original Demon Slayer. Murata, since the timeskip, had developed his own Breathing Style, and had been promoted to Cloud Pillar.

## **Appearance:**

Murata was a tall man with a lean, but muscular build. He has long, silky black hair, which reaches down to his jawline, and features a long, low ponytail formed out of its longer strands. Murata has sharp, slanted eyes, featuring heavy eyebags, and he is usually wearing a neutral, frowning expression.

Murata wears the traditional Pillar Uniform, and a completely plain dark gray haori, of average size and shape. Upon his death, he is covered by a white haori, since his was destroyed in the battle against Rui.

## **Personality:**

Murata is a quiet, aloof man with a generally unkempt disposition. This extends both to his appearance, and general portrayal. Despite being a Pillar, and the creator of a Breathing Style, Murata never cared to have disciples, nor create a Sect of his own, to the point where his techniques are passed down by others, taught almost entirely by Core mandated books he left behind and word of mouth.

Murata's original cheerful personality had been completely and utterly shredded during the events of Demon Slayer. After losing his girlfriend, Ozaki, at the hands of the Mother Spider Demon, Murata took on a determined stride to become stronger and help in the fight against Muzan as someone stronger, temporarily overcoming the grief by focusing on the grind. This was, however, utterly shattered when he was proven to be completely and utterly useless in the Battle of the Infinity Castle, despite having trained for months, he was saved by three different slayers, sacrificing themselves to he could live, and yet, Muzan also survived, and the war wasn't over by the point the battle ended.

Having his happiness destroyed by these events, Murata developed the Cloud Breathing, overcoming his initial weakness, and was subsequently promoted to Pillar Rank.

Murata was shown to be distant, both physically and mentally, from situations, displaying an intense disconnect to his supposed friends, and generally only speaking when a single subject was concerned, Rui. He surprised all his Pillar comrades by his sudden, powerful drive to find and kill the revived demon, displaying an obsession with the idea of finishing the job, and avenging Ozaki. His distance and disconnect was mostly displayed in his relationship with the main group, in the sense that there was barely any.

Murata, throughout the whole trip, was stuck at the rented home to not attract attention, but regardless, even when the others were present, he'd shut himself upstairs and not talk to any of them, except for one instance, where he instructed Ryo on how to train properly. Other than that single occasion, his relationship with them was entirely by middlemen.

Murata, however, remains a good soul, throughout his grief and apparent apathy. He not only advises Ryo on how to best use the Moon Breathing, but also has a Form designed specifically for mercy kills.

Murata, to his death, displayed a strong inferiority complex, to a level of delusion so insane even Rui was left wordless at the nonsense that Murata spouted.

After returning via Kaijin's power, Murata has displayed a much happier personality, and even a bit of snark, showing the person he could have been, should Ozaki had survived, or rather, he overcame his issues.

## **Synopsis:**

Murata, at a young age, lost his entire family at a demon attack. He was the sole survivor, joining the Demon Slayer Core shortly after, and "learning" from a Water Breathing Cultivator. After his training, Murata was comically weak, but with this, he met Ozaki Genyuri at the Final Selection, who shared his same difficulty in gaining power. The two began dating, not long after.

Murata proceedingly lost Ozaki, and was unable to grow any further, lacking potential. However, with time, he developed the Cloud Breathing, allowing him to close the gap between him and other Pillars.

## **Abilities:**

**Monumental Strength:** Murata is incredibly powerful. He was able to survive the full brunt of Rui's Cutting Thread Rotation: Singularity with minimal damage, having enough strength to power through two final slashes. He was similarly able to dig his blade into Rui's neck entirely by himself at highly dangerous speeds, to the point where Rui thought he was going to die.

**Monumental Speed:** Murata is immensely fast. So much so he was able to keep up with Rui in an exchange of blows, furthermore, his techniques all involve sudden, powerful movements, nigh undetectable for most. Not only that, but he was able to blitz through a tornado of rubble, jumping on the high speed rubble and using it as footing to approach Rui before he could notice. Similarly, Murata once again overcame Rui's perception, appearing in a flash to slice off Rui's eyes off.

**Indomitable Will:** Murata's determination and drive to power through all of Rui's attacks, no matter how powerful, has shaken the demon on multiple occasions, even being willing to allow his bleeding to continue, being a fatal choice, so he could carry on fighting Rui for the moment.

**Tactical Intellect:** Throughout the entire Tokyo Arc, Murata displayed a powerful tactical intellect, only becoming rash when the emotion reached his skin, and the anticipation to kill Rui became too strong. Murata is shown to be quite strategically bold, allowing his bleeding to grow stronger in order to overcome Rui's poison.

**Image Training:** Murata implied that he is capable of forming mental images of opponents to train, and it can be inferred that Rui was a primary target of these training sessions. This ability was highly dangerous in the long term, and allowed for Murata to predict and beat Rui nearly by himself.

**Total Concentration Breathing:** Murata has achieved Total Concentration Breathing late in his life, but after doing so, he was able to grow to the heights of a Pillar.

**Demon Slayer Mark:** Murata has unlocked his Demon Slayer Mark, being comprised of light blue lines extending from his eyes to his neck, encircling it as if it was a chokehold.

**Bright Red Blade:** Murata, with the help of the friction brought by a thick bundle of threads by Rui, managed to turn his Nichirin Blade Bright Red.

## **Fighting Style:**

**Master Swordsman:** Murata, despite having learned slowly, was a master at swordsmanship, and was continuously able to overcome Rui's powerful techniques, keeping up with the demon.

### **Breathing Style:**

**Water Breathing** *(Mizu no Kokyu)*: Murata, at one point, used the Water Breathing. He did, however stop using it as soon as he developed the Cloud Breathing, due to his lack of affinity to it.

**Cloud Breathing** *(Kumo no Kokyu)*: Murata's personal creation and master work, Murata has developed five techniques for it. The Cloud Breathing is regarded as being incredibly difficult to learn, considering the sudden jolts of movement, which are ironically soft and wavy.

#### **Techniques:**

* **First Form: Drizzle Slash** *(Ichi no Kata: Shigure Giri)* - The user concentrates, performing one powerful slash aiming to damage the foe severely.

* **Second Form: Light Rain** *(Ni no Kata: Kosame)* - The user slashes from above, aiming to decapitate the foe with one swift, painless slash

* **Third Form: Cumulonimbus** *(San no Kata: Nyu-Do-Gumo)* - The user makes their movement unclear, before slashing four times at the target

* **Fourth Form: Heavy Rain** *(Shi no Kata: Oame)* - The user slashes from above, falling to the ground and slashing against the opponent countless times.

* **Fifth Form: Bright Clouds** *(Go no Kata: Akarui Kumo)* - The user dashes, jabbing powerfully against an opponent or projectile, aiming to damage/stop them.

## **Equipment:**

**Standard Nichirin Sword:** Murata carries around a regular Nichirin Katana, with a plain, mat gray color to the blade, as expected of a Cloud Breathing user. His handguard is composed of a square with four indentations on each corner, a handguard he got from Ozaki. His original handguard, which was a plain circle with a gold border, was since kept in storage.

## **Familiars:**

**Haran:** Murata's crow, Haran, is a shy, but competent crow. It has become quite complacent with the addition of its helping hand

**Shizuku:** Originally Ozaki's crow, Shizuku was since "adopted" by Murata. It is quite helpful and generally friendly.

## **Battles:**

* Murata, Gikuro and Yushibo vs Rui
* Murata vs Rui
* Murata vs Ryo
* Murata and Hajime vs Akio

## **Trivia:**

* Murata's name can be broken down into [Mura], meaning "Village", and [Ta], which means "Rice Field". His surname, meanwhile means "Water and Sky". The name [Suiten], however, is also used to refer to Suijin, a water deity with many festivities centered around exorcism, and the purification of diseases and illnesses.
* Murata, similarly to his original role, portrays the average Pillar, both in power level, and character. Most importantly, he displays the sheer level of trauma that each Pillar has inevitably gone through, and how utterly broken each one of them are.
* Murata, however, is also a reflection of what Ryo could become. Their situations and feelings are similar, with both losing a loved one and having a powerful inferiority complex. Ryo, however, has the means to overcome it all, with Kaguya having a chance to survive her coma, and being surrounded by friends. Murata is the perfect mirror of what he could become if he let his insecurities tear him down.
* Murata's opinions on his fellow Pillars are:
	+ Tanjiro: *I like him a lot. He makes me feel better when I talk to him*
	+ Giyu: *He's the one guy I actually consider to be my friend*
	+ Kyojuro: *I feel like he's too loud... My ears hurt when we talk for too long*
	+ Gyomei: *He's really respectable.*
	+ Sanemi: *He's really rude, but it's not personal, so I don't mind him*
	+ Zenitsu: *He's fine, I like him a lot more nowadays*
	+ Kanao: *She's scary, even if I have no reason to be scared of her*
	+ Seiji: *He's really rude. I'm happy to not talk to him ever.*
	+ Daisuke: *He's nice, I guess... I never talked to him*
	+ Obanai: *He's rude, even when I try to be friendly.*
	+ Shinobu: *I'm still scared of her, and her son is no better*
	+ Mitsuri: *She's very... Bright. I don't like talking to her much, she's too intense*
	+ Senjuro: *I understand him.*
	+ Suguru: *He's an odd guy, but I'm not sure what's his deal*
	+ Muichiro: *I wanted to be friends with him, since he's Tanjiro's friend. He shook me off so fast*
	+ Inosuke: *He's at least entertaining.*
	+ Aki: *He's a nice fellow, but he's unremarkable*
	+ Tengen: *I vaguely remember him. He was really strict.*