Hairō

**Hairō** (佩 (はい) 狼 (ろう) , *Hairō*?) is the primary antagonist of Kyōjurō Rengoku's Story. He is a demon affiliated with the Twelve Kizuki, having formerly held the position of **Lower Rank Two** (下 (か) 弦 (げん) の弐 (に) , *Kagen no Ni*?).

## Appearance

Hairō is a relatively tall young man with an athletic build. He has incredibly spiky black hair with two chin-length bangs. As a member of the Twelve Kizuki, he has the kanji for "Lower" (下 (か) , *Ka*?) and the daiji for "Two" (弐 (に) , *Ni*?) etched on his left eye. Hairō also had many black spike-like patterns framing his face.

He wears an western light suit with a black buckled belt with saggy pants and black boots. Over this, he wears a black cloak similar in appearance to a cape with protruding collars. Finally he wears a white sailor hat with a wolf emblem on its front center.

## Personality

Hairō appears to have immense anger management issues, coming to the point of him being "suicidal": Shooting himself in the head to contain it. The main cause is presumed due to mistreatment from his human life when being a member of the Shinsengumi. Despite his near constant anger, he has shown humbleness, seen when he venerated Kyōjurō's swordsmanship before his death.

## Abilities

**Overall Abilities:** As the holder of the second highest position among the Lower Ranks of the Twelve Kizuki, Hairō is an exceptionally powerful demon. Combined with his marksmanship and swordsmanship skills, he is an extremely formidable foe. As Lower Rank Two, it can be safely assumed that his power exceeded that of the Lower Ranks Kamanue, Rui, Mukago, Wakuraba, and rivaling Rokuro. He was able to stand his ground against Kyōjurō, dealing great damage to the Demon Slayer and nearly killing him multiple times, albiet Kyōjurō was a Kinoe at the time, which is the highest non-Hashira rank of the Demon Slayer Corps. Hairō was also able to immediately subdue Mitsuri, who was an inexperienced Demon Slayer at the time. The Lower Rank put up an extremely good fight against Kyōjurō, evidently pushing the latter to his limit as he collapsed after the battle, only being defeated when the Demon Slayer unleashed his **Rengoku** technique.

**Enhanced Regeneration:** As a member of the Twelve Kizuki, Hairō possesses great regenerative abilities, shown when he regrew his entire upper body in a matter of seconds after having it completely destroyed in an explosion.

**Enhanced Speed & Reflexes:** Hairō possessed decently great movement speed and reflexes, being able to keep up with a Kinoe-ranked Kyōjurō, evading many of the Demon Slayer's techniques. He was also able to travel from a building far from Mitsuri to right behind her in an instant, even subduing Mitsuri before she could react.

**Skilled Torturer:** As stated by Hairō himself, when he was human, he was extremely experienced in torturing people using a variety of methods. Hairō instinctively knew when someone was about to hit their breaking point as long as they are alive. He even has the mindset of someone who enjoys inflicting pain and suffering on others.

## Fighting Style

**Expert Marksman:** With the nearly infinite supply of weapons at his disposal, Hairō has displayed the ability to be extremely proficient in his plethora of firearms and ranged weapons, using them to great effect against Kyōjurō.

**Expert Swordsman:** After depleting his supply of firearms, Hairō switches his combat stance and uses his bushidō sword technique. His sword skill can even match the likes of Kyōjurō, albeit that was when his skill wasn't as polished as when he became a Hashira.

### Blood Demon Art

**Umbrakinesis:** Hairō's Blood Demon Art allows him to create and manipulate shadows with special properties and characteristics from his flesh and blood. His shadows have unique shapes and designs on them, ranging from white triangular patterns to eyes. These shadows contain a suction effect with not only absorbs damage from physical attacks, but also makes it extremely difficult to escape when in contact with them. Furthermore, the shadows also have a special property that seemingly gives even a dimensional pocket to store countless items and he can conjure these items from anywhere his shadows occupy. Hairō usually opts to shape his shadows into wolf-like creatures to increase his attack potency and striking range. Otherwise, he would turn parts of his body into his Blood Demon Art to nullify attacks and trap his enemies.

* **Artillery Manipulation:** Hairō's shadows contain a countless number of weapons, ranging from pistols to bolt-rifles to shotguns and sub-machine guns, even containing a rotatory mini-gun, molotovs, dynamite and other explosives, and also a large katana. He can command these to fire at will, whether it be from his own body or from shadows he has sent out in the environment as traps, or even from the shadow wolves he creates. However, these guns are real and not mystical, having a significant but limited amount of ammunition. Thus if he runs out of bullets, the guns become useless.

### Techniques

* **Capture Cavity** (鹵 (ろ) 獲 (かく) 腔 (こう) , *Rokaku-Kō*?) - These techniques involve shaping his shadows into wolf-like entities and using his countless supply of weapons to attack his targets.

* + **Shadow Wolves** (影 (かげ) 狼 (ろう) , *Kagerō*?) - Hairō creates multiple shadowy wolves from his blood that emanate from his cloak, these wolves have the same vortex effect as his regular shadows and thus can absorb a plethora of physical attacks and make them exceptionally hard to kill. These wolves can also conjure guns and other weapons.

* **Warwolf of Horror** (戰 (せん) 禍 (か) 陣 (じん) 狼 (ろう) , *Senka Jinrō*?) - Hairō gathers all his shadows to him and cloaks himself in them, transforming into a large shadowy wolf standing on its hind legs, akin to a werewolf.

## Equipment

**Weapons Arsenal:** Hairō has a huge arsenal of weapons, both melee and ranged weapons used for combat purposes found around that time period. Ranged weapons include pistols, bolt-rifles, shotguns, sub-machine guns, even containing a rotatory mini-gun, molotovs, dynamite and other explosives. The only close ranged weapon is a standard katana.

## Battles

Hairō Battles

**Pre-Series Battles**

* Kyōjurō Rengoku vs Hairō

## Trivia

* Hairō's name contains the kan-on'yomi reading of the kanji for both "to wear (a sword)" (佩 (はい) , *hai*?) and "wolf" (狼 (ろう) , *rō*?).
* Hairō would usually collect Demon Slayers's Nichirin Sword tsubas as trophies for him killing them.
* Judging from his flashbacks and period of events in the story, Hairō was likely a member of the Shinsengumi, a special police force organized by the Bakufu (military government) in Ezo, "now known as Hokkaidō", during Japan's Bakumatsu period (late Tokugawa shogunate) in 1863 the very end of the Edo period.
	+ Based on the visual factors of Hairō's flashbacks with him interacting with his opponents, it seems that he has participated in the Boshin War and has taken side of the Republic of Ezo. It is unknown which battle he has partook/lost in whether it was the Battle of Toba-Fushimi or the Battle of Hakodate.

## Quotes

* (To Mitsuri Kanroji) "*I will subject you to the limits of human suffering... in ways you could never even imagine! You are a victim of my revenge! But it's your fault for joining the Demon Slayers! How pitiful! You corps members die such pitiful deaths... yet no one admires or even knows you!*"
* (To himself, then Kyōjurō Rengoku) "*My wounds may have healed since that day, but I cannot control my fear and anger. I cannot stand to live in fear of him! My rage will kill me! Revenge! I will have my revenge... Kyōjurō Rengoku!*"
* (To himself) "*Impossible! I shot him with bullets... and caught him in multiple explosions... so why won't he fall?! Why face me with nothing but a katana? He's just a pathetic **human**! Why is he coming at me with a mere sword? How can this human stand up against me? That guy... Is the warrior before me now... really the one I encountered that day?*"
* (To Kyōjurō Rengoku) "*I admire... your swordsmanship.*"