Ningyou

(Non-cannon)

**Ningyou** (人形 Ningyou) is a puppet demon, who feeds on wrongdoers, in order to bring them to justice. Her behavior could be shaped by her last minutes as a human, when she was obsessed with revenge. Perhaps, as a former member of the Demon Slayer Corps, she simply adjusted trait of hunting demons to hunting down humans, that are threat to others. It is also possible, that it is her way of feeling less guilty about taking lives.

## Appearance

Ningyou is a short, frail female demon, resembling a life-sized puppet. Her skin is mostly white, however the top right part of her face is light gray, surrounded by black markings, that look like stitches.

Her hair is black, with white streaks to the right side and red streaks to the left. Ningyou's eyelashes resemble seamstress pins, while her red eye orbs look like mismatched buttons, with her left pupil, shaped like a horizontal line and right one, shaped as x. It gives impression of her orbs, being sewn to her face using black threads.

Ningyou has black lips and long, pointed, red nails. She mostly wears maroon, red or monochrome kimonos with cherry blossom pattern, or western outfits in similar color scheme, such as trench coat dresses and knee high boots or Mary Jane shoes. From Heisei era, she usually chooses Gothic Lolita fashion or Guro Lolita outfits, which is partially for pretending that her bizarre appearance is merely a part of her style.

## Personality

As a novice demon, Ningyou appeared extremely dedicated to grow stronger as soon as possible, in order to be able to carry out her revenge against the group of demon hunters, who managed to defeat the demon, far stronger than her.

Despite her hurry, she preferred to stick to her morals and feast on selected people, who truly deserved it in her opinion: criminals, corrupted system or demon hunters, that got in her way, still holding grudge against them, after losing her ally. Regardless of her morals, Ningyou is still a demon, therefore she is prone to snapping over the pettiest reason, especially when she is hungry, she may regret her behavior after a while, but it will be already too late for her prey.

Most of the civilians, aware of her existence, do not really mind the puppet demon, in fact, they believe that she is more helpful, if anything.

In spite of not having physical need for sleep as a demon, Ningyou chose to take a nap daily, hoping to see her former ally in her dreams, which showed her sentimental side, as he was the one of very few things she remembered clearly from her human past.

Ningyou can easily fight her hunger with animal flesh or small amount of blood, before she detects the fitting candidate for becoming her next proper meal. The puppet demon believes that her tiny body requires less food, compared to larger demons, not realizing that her occasional naps are the real reason behind her small appetite.

Despite seeking immortality as a human, Ningyou barely had any will to live, when she was finally turned. She grieved constantly, blaming herself for her former ally's death, apparently, the only reasons stopping her from embracing sunlight, were her strong craving of revenge and hope that she would meet him again, in her dreams.

Ningyou became far more cheerful, after awakening and mastering her blood demon art, but she never stopped blaming herself for the past. Even after fixing the fatal mistake she made as a human, she seems to stay deeply traumatized by it, referring her past, human self as a different person and showing deep self-loathing.

## Fighting style

Ningyou uses strategy, traps, sneak attacks, manmade weapons and average demon strength in fight, since her blood demon art is not exactly lethal.

Despite being a former member of the Demon Slayer Corps, she shows no desire of using breathing techniques again, however, after her power-hungry partner expressed interest, she decided to fuse with him temporarily, for demonstrating easily, how to use a breathing technique. Their practice ended with developing a new breathing style, **Steam Breathing**, since her partner had difficulty, getting used to mist breathing.

## Blood Demon Art

### Sacrificial Puppets

Ningyou has only one ability, however, it can be used flexibly, mainly for the purpose of resurrection.

She merely requires a hair strand, removed from the living person's head. Once the said hair strand is pinned to a puppet, Ningyou's technique is activated and puppet's appearance changes accordingly, resembling the owner of the hair strand.

Puppet activation works differently, depending on whether hair strand owner is currently alive, or not.

* If Ningyou uses hair strand of a deceased person, taken after their death, said person remains dead.
* If She uses hair strand of a dead person, which left person's head before their demise, then the person in question shall be resurrected in the exact health shape they were in, the moment hair strand was pulled out from their head, with no memory of what happened afterwards. Used puppet shall demolish, suffering exact damage which took person's life.
* If Ningyou uses hair strand of a living person, puppet will change appearance, but nothing else shall happen until that person's death. After that, puppet shall be destroyed, taking the damage of the deceased person and returning them in the exact shape they were in, the moment hair strand left their head.
* With this technique, Ningyou can turn a demon into a human, if she will find the hair strand which left their head before turning. After the demon is killed, they shall be resurrected as a human.

Resurrected people always return in the exact same shape they were in, the moment they lost the hair strand, which was used for activating a puppet. They will have no memories of things that happened after losing that specific hair strand. They appear at the place where puppet was kept, while the puppet is teleported to the place of death, destroyed by taking exact damage that ended person's life. Resurrected people are recovered without clothes, since Ningyou's technique recovers their soul, memories and DNA.

Although Ningyou can activate puppets infinitely, she can never keep more than six activated puppets at the same time. If activation fails, because amount of her activated puppets already reached its total number, it shall not take effect after one of the six activated puppets gets destroyed — failed puppet stays failed forever, Ningyou will need to create another puppet for activation, when she has five or less activated puppets. That is not obligatory, but it is safer to use her own hair strands on as many puppets as possible, so she gets resurrected where the nearest puppet is hidden, if she will get killed.

Ningyou cannot feel when her puppet is destroyed. She keeps them hidden in shadowy areas and only visits them when she wants to destroy an old puppet, to be able to create new (she does it to update hair strands, so she will not lose important new memories after her death). She always chooses different locations for hiding her puppets, because visiting same place continuously could make her puppets easily detectable.

To check whether or not her puppets are safe, Ningyou just tries creating a new puppet — if it works, at least one of the six puppets was destroyed, if nothing happens, then they are untouched. However, this method does not guarantee her safety — puppets might be merely moved to unsafe area (for example, a small cardboard box under sunlight), where Ningyou will continuously die right after resurrection, until her final demise.

Ningyou is well aware of this weakness and she does everything to not have her poppets discovered.

Puppet activation will fail, if:

Ningyou pins the hair strands of two or more people on the same puppet.

Ningyou pins two hair strands of the same person, especially if they did not leave person's head very shortly after each other.

Ningyou uses a hair strand of the dead person, pulled out after their demise.

## History

As a human, Ningyou was known as Akako Ogawa, member of the Demon Slayer Corps. Despite her occupation, Akako could not resist falling for a demon and doing everything for his approval. Being aware of Akako's feelings for him, Enmu decided put her to good use and manipulate her into becoming his accomplice and an undercover agent. Their alliance stayed secret until Enmu's death, after which Akako lost the last remains of her sanity and went on rampage, openly attacking group of random colleagues and revealing her true colors. Of course, it led to her execution, but Akako's dying body was found by Muzan Kibutsuji, who decided to save her life by turning her into a demon, hoping that her strong craving of revenge could help him, get rid of their mutual enemies.

As a novice demon, Ningyou spent her time, trying to find out, how to function properly as a demon, impatient to become stronger and have her revenge soon. She kept bothering every demon she met with questions, so at some point she was sent to Douma's place, since no one else had time and patience for her annoying questions. Upper Two showed more patience than other demons, but Ningyou felt like she was not learning anything, so she left pretty soon.

Ningyou took a while to awaken her blood demon art and realize what she was capable of. By the time she learned everything, Muzan Kibutsuji and every member of Twelve Kizuki were already destroyed.

Ningyou used her power to resurrect Enmu, not bothering to help anybody else. With most of the demons already gone, Enmu realized that he was the highest ranking demon alive now, therefore he had the right to become the next demon king. Ningyou argued, reminding him why he was alive in the first place and announcing that she deserved to be the queen of the demons, as a real survivor of the war. Arguing over becoming the new ruler of demons, caused little tension between them, but in the end, Enmu decided to give up.

They fled Japan for fifty years, in order to avoid being outnumbered by the enemy, convincing them that every demon was extinct by bow.

Even after returning, they continued to lay low and use help of their human accomplice.

## Relationships

**Satoko**

A human businesswoman who serves Ningyou faithfully, to the puppet demon, she is both right hand woman and a mother figure, despite being chronologically younger than Ningyou and physically only ten years older than the demon.

**Enmu**

Ningyou's companion, ever since she was a human. After getting resurrected by the puppet demon, he decided to stay by her side, despite Ningyou's words that she had not brought him back for any personal gains and he was free to go.

It was the safest option for the sleep demon to stay near Ningyou, because of her useful ability, therefore Ningyou is unsure, whether he stayed solely for the purpose of using her, wished to show gratitude for resurrection, or actually enjoys her company, at least a bit.

## Trivia

* Ningyou is perfectly capable of resurrecting Muzan Kibutsuji, but she refuses to do it, because she found him absolutely terrifying and obnoxious. In the end, she betrayed the demon king, just the way she betrayed Demon Slayer Corps as a human, proving to be loyal to none other than Enmu.
* Ningyou can easily control herself in presence of marechi, it is partially because she is not very powerful demon, though it is not the only reason: She was generally resistant to addictive substances, ever since being a human.