Hideyoshi Nakata

**Hideyoshi Nakata** was a Demon Slayer that served during the late-Meiji Era. He was known the Water Hashira before Giyuu Tomioka. His skills in combat rivaled even Gyomei Himejima, the Stone hashira, being that he joined the ranks of the demon slayers around the same time as him.

## Characteristics

### Age

* 23 (At the start of story)
* 26 (At the time of death)

## Personal Status

### Relative(s)

* Unnamed Father
* Unnamed Mother
* Unnamed Uncles
* Sayaka (Spouse, deceased)

## Life

Hideyoshi was born into the Nakata family, where all men served as demon slayers, and naturally, that included him too. He grew up being trained and taught water breathing at a young age, but mostly in kenjutsu, iaijutsu, karate, and jiu-jutsu. Everyday, he had to endure harsh training that even fully grown men had difficulty doing ever since he was 6. Once, he beat up a gang of bullies for picking on a girl named Sayaka. Sayaka never got the chance to properly thank Hideyo, and instead, left him a basket of fruits along with a letter everyday, but never revealed herself. One day, his trainers were sick, so he had a day off. He spent a couple of hours hiding on top of a tree where the basket of fruits would come. When Sayaka came by, Hideyo jumped down from the tree and surprised her. He scared her at first, but after she calmed down, they talked and quickly became friends. From then on, Sayaka was allowed to come in to the family estate to see Hideyo train everyday, as long as he doesn’t get distracted. A few years later, the two became fonder of each other, as Hideyo’s masculinity and adeptness in swordsmanship grew along with Sayaka’s beauty. The two finally decided to get married when they were both 16. However, on his wedding day, which the wedding would take place in the evening as the two planned, he was late to the wedding, and by the time he got there, he has found out that everyone at the wedding, including both his and Sayaka’s family, and also Sayaka have been killed by no other than Muzan Kibutsuji who happened to pass by and had disguised himself as one of the wedding guests. But the demon king was long gone by the time Hideyo arrived. He thought the wedding would be secure from demons, but he certainly did not expect one strong enough to eliminate a handful of trained swordsmen. He cannot rely on connections with other slayers because at this point, he had not attended the final selection yet as it is the tradition of his family to send men of the age 18 to the selection.

With pure fury and a desire to kill demons now for retaliation and their extinction rather than for money, Hideyo wandered the country, killing demons without mercy. However, his skills in water breathing proved to be insufficient when he was forced to fight the lower moon 6. He would have died if Sakonji Urokodaki had not come to save him. Urokodaki took Hideyo in as his disciple and trained him in the arts of water breathing. Hideyo’s lifelong prior knowledge allowed him to complete his training in 3 months. He finally went to the final selection and came back without a single scratch. He has not encountered the hand demon during his time at the selection. After that, Hideyo rose through the ranks quickly due to his activeness in killing demons, reaching up to 50 kills in one month. Even as a Hashira, that did not stop Hideyo from constantly sweeping the floor with demons, as well as tracking down and killing all the lower moons at that time with little difficulty. By the demons, he was known as “The Fox of Calamity”, as he wears the warding mask he has from Urokodaki during his missions. No demons except for the Upper Moon 4 onwards could hope to hold a candle to counteract Hideyo’s undying rage.

### Death

During a mission, Hideyo had a run-in with Upper Moon 1, Kokushibo, and attempted to fight him. He put up a good fight for a few minutes, but it was one attack from Kokushibo that made him lose in an instant. He was quickly dying from bleeding and was brought back to Muzan Kibutsuji. Kibutsuji saw potential in Hideyo as a demon and turned him into one. Kibutsuji has managed to take full control over Hideyo’s body. Hideyo’s noble mind has struggled to take back control but had failed since. Hideyo could do nothing but sit and watch. His demonic forme was now sent to kill a squad of Mizunoto ranked demon slayers in Osaka. He would have succeeded if not for a Kasugai crow sent to warn Hideyo’s ex disciple, Toshiaki Watanabe as well as Gyomei Himejima, the only available Hashira at the time. But Gyomei was slow to arrive, so Toshiaki had to hold off Hideyo on his own. During the fight, Toshiaki was quickly losing and tried his best to persuade Hideyo to control his mind, and regain control of his body, in which Hideyo has succeeded for a few seconds, telling Toshiaki to kill him and that it was too late to save him. Toshiaki hesitated, but finally ended the fight managing to create frost breathing’s tenth form on the spot and decapitating the demon Hideyoshi using Frost Breathing’s fourth form. Hideyo gained full control of his body in his last few seconds, apologizing to Toshiaki and rushing to tell him about Kibutsuji’s plan to find the blue spider lily. But he didn’t get to tell Toshiaki all about it as his jaw was slowly turning to dust. After Hideyo was nothing but dust, Gyomei Himejima arrived at the scene to find Toshiaki on the floor, crying for Hideyo. They both decided to set his funeral right where he died. Toshiaki buried Hideyo’s haori, locket, and nichirin, and prayed for him to go to heaven.

###### Going to Heaven

As Toshiaki was praying at Hideyo’s funeral, we can see Hideyo now in his human form waiting in front of the door to hell. But behind him, he sees a pathway of candles, and follows it. After following it for a while, he sees a flash of light that blinds him. After he opened his eyes, he was dressed in the same uniform he wore for his wedding and was standing in a lush field. On top of a hill, he saw Sayaka, he runs up to her and calls her name. She turned around to see Hideyo and they both hugged. Sayaka scolds him for being late but then told him it was fine. It is shown they both walked together into the horizon, and both vanish in a ray of light. As Toshiaki finishes praying, the first rays of sun are appearing, but it is still dark out to see stars. Toshiaki sees a shooting star as he looks up at the sky and whispers under his breath “rest in peace, Hideyo-san”

## Appearance

Hideyoshi is a person with an athletic build. He wears a haori with the same pattern as Sakonji Urokodaki’s kimono to honour him. He also wears a locket around his neck. Due to passing the final selection without encountering the hand demon, he still has and wears the warding mask Urokodaki gave to him during missions.

## Personality

Hideyoshi is the most loyal swordsman in the organization. He is also very initiative, serious, and an incredibly tough leader when it comes to him having to use his leadership due to his edgy nature. However, he was shown to warm up to people closer to him, or people that are in the same situation as him in his past. Hideyo shows no mercy to not only demons, but also corrupt demon slayers who take advantage of others or have decided to turn against the Demon Slayer corps for whatever reason. This type of personality creates an interesting acquaintanceship between him and Obanai Iguro, the Serpent hashira. However, Sanemi Shinazugawa, the wind hashira is rather envious of how much Kagaya Ubuyashiki favors him. Iguro often has to step in for Shinazugawa to calm down. At first, he does not like children, but he becomes more fond of them during his time training Toshiaki Watanabe.

## Abilities

Superhuman strength, speed, and reflexes

Total concentration Breathing

### Techniques

* **First Form: Water Surface Slash** (, *Ichi no kata: Minamo Giri*?) - The user generates enough momentum to create a powerful single concentrated slash.

* **Second Form: Water Wheel** - The user leaps and vertically spins forward in the air while releasing a flowing attack in a circular motion.
	+ **Second Form: Water Wheel, Oxbow** - The personal creation of Hideyoshi Nakata. The user performs this form multiple times in quick succession, with each slash increasing in strength and power due to momentum.

* **Third Form: Flowing Dance** (, *San no kata: Ryūryū Mai*?) - The user swings and bends their blade in a winding motion along with their body and dances in a flowing pattern, slicing everything in its path.

* **Fourth Form: Striking Tide** - The user makes multiple consecutive slashes while twisting their body and sword in a flowing fashion to deliver multiple blows simultaneously.

* **Fifth Form: Blessed Rain After the Drought** - The user changes the grip on their sword and decapitates the opponent in a single flowing strike that causes little to no pain. It is a “sword strike of kindness” used when the enemy willingly surrenders.

* **Sixth Form: Whirlpool** - The user fiercely twists their upper and lower body, creating a whirlpool of air that cuts anything caught in it. Its effect and efficiently is enhanced underwater, where the user can draw water around their weapon to enhance their slashes.

* **Seventh Form: Drop Ripple Thrust** (, *Shichi no kata: Shizuku Hamon Tsuki*?) - The user performs a fast and accurate stab, capable of reducing the impact of a moving target.

* **Eighth Form: Waterfall Basin** - The user cuts the target vertically in a flowing motion which is most effective when they are falling downward.
	+ **Eight Form: Drainage Basin** - The personal creation of Hideyoshi Nakata. The user does a thrust instead of a cut, which paralyses the target. He was inspired to create this form by Toshiaki Watanabe and his personal creation, Frost Breathing.

* **Ninth Form: Splashing Water Flow, Turbulent** - The user changes their footwork in a way that minimizes the landing time and surface needed when landing, allowing the user to move without limits. Ideal when fighting in a place with no solid foothold.

* **Tenth Form: Constant Flux** - The user performs a continuous flowing attack which seemingly takes the form of a water dragon that increases in strength and power with each rotation due to momentum.

## Trivia

* He was in the minority of Urokodaki’s disciples who didn’t encounter with The Hand Demon or survived their encounter.
* He keeps a picture of Sayaka in a locket that she gave to him when they first decided to get married. He wears the locket on his neck, and it drapes close to his heart. This shows he misses and will forever miss Sayaka.
* His ex fellow comrade, Kanae Kocho has took an interest in him, but rejects her when he knew about it. This causes Sanemi Shinazugawa to envy and hate him even more, and also causes Kanae’s younger sister, Shinobu Kocho and their adoptive sister, Kanao Tsuyuri to also form an extreme disliking of him.
* Another reason why Obanai Iguro may not like Giyuu Tomioka is because he thinks Giyuu is not as good as Hideyo and is only a downgraded replacement of him.
* He was not able to break Muzan Kibutsuji’s curse permanently like Tamayo or Nezuko Kamado because he was not placed under the same circumstances as them. Being that his inner human personality took over on its own in his demon forme is not an easy feat.
* Giyuu Tomioka was actually his Tsuguko, recommended to him by Urokodaki.
* Due to water breathing’s defensive style, it is often believed that he had the most chance in this generation of hashiras that would’ve been able to hold the Upper Moon 3, Akaza until sunrise without suffering severe injuries.
* If he was alive during the main story, he would be 28, making him the oldest out of all the active hashiras.
* Demon Slayer Batman ig. I based this character quite a lot on Batman.

## Quotes

* “He’s very quiet. I can tell he is suffering from melancholy. Possibly from the neglect that his friends died. As he is my Tsuguko, I should open up to him a lot more.” - Hideyoshi Nakata regarding Giyuu Tomioka
* ”He’s a really nice person. He has such a heartbreaking story, and I pity him for his blindness. We are pretty close, I guess. We often talk about philosophy and religion.” - Hideyoshi Nakata regarding Gyomei Himejima
* “His skill and style in swordsmanship is very interesting. He once told me he despises women because his female relatives were planning on feeding him to a demon. Can’t blame the poor guy though, he was domestically abused since birth.” - Hideyoshi Nakata regarding Obanai Iguro
* ”She doesn’t like me just because I rejected her sister. But little does she know about my past, and doesn’t seem interested in hearing about it, either. Ever since Kanae died, she’s been trying to act like her. Her sweet smile isn’t foolproof to people like me.” Hideyoshi Nakata regarding Shinobu Kochō
* “She is a nice person, but I only see her as a friend and comrade and nothing else. Though, I should have offered to go with her that fateful day… but she was still a bit upset with me. If only… I was a bit less harsh, I would’ve been able to help avoid it from happening.” Hideyoshi Nakata regarding Kanae Kochō
* ”How can someone take in such an individual this young and train them to become a war machine without a thought of their own? I’ve been through similar things, but she is still not taught to have a thought of her own. A coin is a start, but just to leave it at that? What would the difference be if she is still treated like a slave in a way? Kanae’s little sister is not taking care of their adoptive sister so well if you ask me.” Hideyoshi Nakata regarding Kanao Tsuyuri
* “Tengen-san’s style is very extravagant, despite him being a ninja. He’s a really fun guy as well… considering what we do is quite brutal.” Hideyoshi Nakata regarding Tengen Uzui
* ”He tries to pick fights with me incredibly often. I don’t understand what problem he has with me. He is a good swordsman with the right philosophy, but he’s too rude to everyone who he thinks he is above or equal to..” Hideyoshi Nakata regarding Sanemi Shinazugawa
* ”He is a clever and heroic young man. He is kindhearted with an undaunted will. He doesn’t let his emotions take over him, and he has the ability to move on, unlike me. I’m sure that he will achieve great things; things far greater than I have and ever will ever achieve.” Hideyoshi Nakata regarding Toshiaki Watanabe
* “At first, he comes off as hard, but deep down, he’s very caring.” Hideyoshi Nakata regarding Sakonji Urokodaki
* ”Go to hell, scumbag.” Hideyoshi saying to every demon he subdues before executing them.