Chapter 31

## Letting Someone Else Go First

**Letting Someone Else Go First** (自 (じ) 分 (ぶん) ではない誰 (だれ) かを前 (まえ) へ, *Jibunde Wanai Dareka o Mae e*?) is the thirty-first chapter of Koyoharu Gotoge's Kimetsu no Yaiba.

## Summary

With one controlled Demon Slayer left to restrain, Inosuke moves in to finish the task, with Tanjiro asking that he be gentle. Suddenly, Mother pulls on several threads at once and snap the necks of her dolls, including the agonized man and the female Demon Slayer. Tanjiro is horrified and Inosuke becomes annoyed that all their efforts were futile in the end. Walking to the closest body of a comrade, Tanjiro silently releases his rage, which startles Inosuke greatly. He only tells his friend that they must continue and Inosuke quietly agrees.

They travel quickly through the forest and approach the strong odor of a demon, however they begin to panic as they realize that it is a headless body being used as a puppet. Tanjiro attempts to formulate a plan to take down the puppet, however Inosuke charges forward and engages with the being. To his disadvantage, Inosuke sustains multiple slashes and unknowingly gets entangled by a spider's thread, panicking as the headless puppet prepares to pierce through him.

At that moment, Tanjiro quickly comes to Inosuke's defense and parries the puppet's attacks, he manages to push back the puppet and yells to Inosuke that they need to fight together in order to defeat it. In an angered protest, Inosuke calls him out saying "*I won't let you embarrass me anymore!*"

The puppet charges forward to attack, however the boys prepare their counterattack together, Tanjiro bends over to evade the attack and tells Inosuke to go over his back. He successfully slices both of the daggers from the puppet and leaps into the air off of Tanjiro's box, meanwhile Tanjiro uses the **Water Breathing, Fourth Form: Striking Tide** to demobilize the puppet by slashing its legs. As Inosuke descends from above, his jealousy at Tanjiro's skills and abilities builds up and he powerfully delivers the final blow to defeat the puppet demon.

Tanjiro is amazed by Inosuke's final cut but becomes stunned when Inosuke suddenly charges at him. Inosuke exclaims that "I can do anything you can do dummy!" and furiously throws him up into the air. Nearby in the forest, Mother sits defeated on her rock after her strongest doll was defeated. She upsettingly blames Rui for her defeat since he had threatened her to do well.

As Tanjiro spots her from above and prepares to attack, Mother panics when trying to formulate a plan however she comes to realize that she will find freedom and peace in death. She holds out her arms and accepts her fate. Tanjiro notices the change in her demeanor and switches from using the **Water Breathing, First Form: Water Surface Slash** to **Fifth Form: Blessed Rain After the Drought**, giving the frightened demon a merciful death.

## Characters in Order of Appearance

* Inosuke Hashibira
* Tanjiro Kamado
* Spider Demon (Mother)

## Events

* Tanjiro Kamado and Inosuke Hashibira vs Spider Demon (Mother).
* Mother kills her Demon Slayer dolls and uses her strongest: a headless demon.
* Tanjiro and Inosuke kill the demon doll working together.
* With Inosuke's help, Tanjiro finds Mother but opts to give her a peaceful death seeing she has surrendered.