Demon Slayer Mark

The **Demon Slayer Mark** *(Kisatsu Aza)* is a mysterious birthmark-like marking that sprouts on powerful enough Slayers under specific circumstances, drastically increasing their abilities, and allowing them to rise to levels of power close to those of demons.

## **Overview:**

Demon Slayer Marks are irregularities on a Demon Slayer's skin that resembles a birthmark. It commonly appears on the face or another visible location of the body of Demon Slayers that resemble the crests of demons. Each Demon Slayer possesses a unique pattern to their Mark, which many factors being involved in their shape, being hereditary or simply spiritual. Yoriichi and Michikatsu Tsugikuni both had flame-like Marks, most likely due to their brotherhood, while Tanjiro Kamado had similar Marks, potentially due to his spiritual connection to the former.

The Mark can only be awakened under very specific conditions and grants special abilities while also enhancing pre-existing traits of the bearer. The amount of time that the Mark lasts vary entirely based on the bearer, as there will be a point where their body will relax either intentionally, or due to exhaustion, by which point, the Mark will dissipate.

One special property of the Mark is that it is able to spread from one bearer to the other as if they were resonating which each other.

### **Unlocking:**

For one to awaken the Demon Slayer Mark, they must survive extremely life-threatening conditions, specifically a heart rate of over 200 beats per minute and a body temperature of over 39° Celsius. One important detail is that in most cases, the bearer will only be able to awaken the Mark if their body jumps to these conditions naturally, through training and growth, usually awaking in the midst of battle.

However, perhaps the most important prerequisite is being in contact with an individual that possesses the Mark or has been marked before. Without fulfilling this condition, it cannot be awakened at all.

There are ways to suppress the Mark's awakening, as shown by both Gyomei Himejima and Taro Tokito, as means to keep them for later

### **Effects:**

The Demon Slayer Mark's effect drastically increases the muscular capacity of the user, by continuously rending and reforming their structure in order to strengthen them at high speeds, effectively forcing the bearer into a working out while standing still. This makes for an immense muscular strain, and when uncontrolled, the Mark will maintain this strength for far too long, potentially permanently damaging the bearer's muscles.

This, however, can be mastered, as those who have unlocked the Mark for an extensive period of time can use it to train, as the Mark makes almost all of the bearer's movements quite effectively as means to work out. With this, the current generation of Pillars reached heights previously unseen in the Demon Slayer Core, only finding a resemblance in Yoriichi Tsugikuni specifically.

The extensive muscular strain means that every time the bearer activates their Mark, their entire body is put in danger during the first few attempts. To mitigate the potential damage, the user must contain their own body, forcing their muscles to clamp down and only allowing more superficial structures to be destroyed and rebuilt, slowly working their way to the rest of the body, so that they can finally use the Mark without major drawbacks

Every time the Mark activates, the user will exhaust themselves, even if they willingly relax enough to deactivate the Mark, the effect will have been enough to drain them of most of their stamina. Notably, when the Mark is first awakened, the user will require a lot of time to recover, and on the occasion that it has been forcefully awaken (Such as Hachu's own), there is a chance recovery is never possible.

#### **Bright Red Nichirin Sword:**

Bearers of the Demon Slayer Mark can dye their Nichirin Swords a shining bright red color mainly through clashing their blade with another marked swordsman's or gripping it with tremendous force. Bright Red Nichirin Swords have the ability to generate intense heat and also hamper the regeneration of demon.

### **Curse of the Mark:**

The Curse of the Mark is an entirely supersticious belief that the Mark has the magical ability to kill any of its bearers before the age of 25 without fail, with the asterisk that any bearers that awoke it past that age are bound to die a few hours after the activation. In the hypothesis, turning into a demon saves a bearer from the deadline.

This curse, however, is simply a myth. The Mark has no inherent magical abilities, and as such, does not kill its own users. It can be speculated that the myth was born from the fact that the Sengoku Era Slayers didn't quite understand how the Mark functioned, and in their hubris, they overstrained themselves, leading to death caused by multiple reasons, be it in battle, their muscles crushing their own organs, or bleeding, both internal and external.

## **Trivia:**

* It is unknown if Demons can awaken Demon Slayer Marks, however, Marked humans that turn into demons maintain their ability to activate it.