Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba’s two-part second season continued. Here’s your synopsis for Demon Slayer episode 11 season 2, named “No Matter How Many Lives.”
Previous episode synopsis
Somehow, Gyutaro and Daki – after intense battles with their foes – were beheaded by the combined efforts of Uzui Tengen and Tanjiro, and Inosuke and Zenitsu, respectively. However, during the attack, Tanjiro took one of Gyutaro sickles through his jaw, bleeding out and succumbing to poison. Just before the episode ended, a huge explosion rocked the district as Gyutaro was able to store and release his Blood Demon Art Rotating Circular Slashes: Flying Blood Sickles that left the entire area in ruin and fate of the four protagonists a mystery.
“No Matter How Many Lives” – Demon Slayer episode 11 season 2 synopsis
A replay of the beheadings is shown as Gyutaro’s and Daki’s heads land facing each other. Uzui notices the Flying Blood Sickles emerging from the body and tries to run and protect Tanjiro, but the Sickles destroy the entire district. Tanjiro’s Mist Cloud Fir box is thrown into the air, but Nezuko emerges and summons her Blood Demon Art: Exploding Blood, which seems to counter the Sickles. The title screen and episode title air.
Small hands are nudging Tanjiro awake, and he opens his eyes to see his sister in her child-like demon form looking down on him. He sees the destruction around him. Tanjiro tries to walk, but his legs collapse as he wonders why he’s even alive after being so thoroughly poisoned. They hear Zenitsu call out for him – in his conscious state – asking for help. Nezuko lifts her brother into a piggyback, still in her child-like form, and heads to Zenitsu.
Zenitsu, with tears and snot everywhere, says he woke up and his whole body hurts with his legs feeling like they’re broken. He says Inosuke’s in worse shape because the sound of his heartbeat is fading. Tanjiro finds Inosuke on a roof, but his body is turning purple from the poison beginning with his chest, where he was pierced. As Tanjiro wonders how to save him, Nezuko uses her Blood Demon Art to dispel the poison as her Art uniquely damages demons and anything of their origin – like Gyutaro’s poison.
Uzui was shown with his three wives by him – Hinatsuru, Makio, and Suma – wondering why the antidote isn’t working and crying that he will die. Uzui says he has some last words, but Suma just keeps crying and Makio ridicules her (loudly) for speaking over Uzui. He says to himself he won’t even be able to get his last words out as the poison is making his tongue stiff.
Then, Nezuko appears and repeats the process with Uzui by burning away the poison with her Blood Demon Art: Exploding Blood. Suma goes after Nezuko, not understanding the situation, until Uzui tells her to stop because the poison is no longer in his system. His wives fall upon him, crying and thankful that he’s alive. Tanjiro tells Uzui he needs to go ensure the demons are dead.
Tanjiro notices a big pool of demon blood and collects a sample. Tamayo’s cat appears and receives the delivery from Tanjiro, who’s amazed he was able to get a sample of blood from an Upper Rank of the Twelve Kizuki. Nezuko, still carrying her brother, helps him head to the scent of the two demons.
Tanjiro approaches to hear the brother-sister demon duo arguing with each other over who’s to blame for their defeat. Daki says Gyutaro didn’t help, but he says he was battling a Hashira. They keep arguing as they slowly start to disintegrate. Daki yells that her brother is too ugly to be related by blood (in spite, with tears in her eyes) and his only saving grace is his strength. Gyutaro, obviously struck by the comment, yelled that she’s too weak and would have died without his protection, something he wishes he never gave.
Tanjiro somehow runs over and covers Gyutaro’s mouth, saying Gyutaro is lying and doesn’t believe that. Tanjiro adds people don’t get along, but, “In this whole world, you two siblings have no one but each other.” He adds there’s no way they’ll be forgiven and they’ll be resented by those they’ve killed, but they shouldn’t be cursing each other out so much.
Daki begins wailing, telling Tanjiro to leave them alone. She yells to her brother that she doesn’t want to die, but she disintegrates first. Gyutaro yells out, “Ume!” her human name as he suddenly remembers that was his little sister’s name, not Daki, “a god-awful name.”
A flashback is shown of their human time where Gyutaro says Ume wasn’t really good either since she was named after the disease that killed their mother. They grew up on the Rashomon Riverbank, the lowest class of the Entertainment District where children were just seen as extra mouths to feed. He said his mom tried to kill him several times before he was born and after, seeing him as nothing but a burden as a scene of her holding his head down and beating him was shown.
He continues by saying his body was weak and frail, but he clung to life. Rocks were being thrown at him as he recalled all the names he was called for his looks and voice, being considered filthy. He says in a place where beauty was your value, he was the lowest of lows. He says he at mice and insects when he was hungry, using a “toy scythe” a customer had left behind (it was impaled in a snake).
He says things changed once Ume was born, his pride and joy. He says adults would “reel at the sight of your beautiful face” even when she was young. He found out he was good at fighting and became a debt collector. Everyone feared him, and his ugliness became “a source of pride.”
Then, when Ume was 13, she stabbed a customer, a samurai, in the eye with a hairpin, blinding him. She had her hands and feet bound and was immolated – while Gyutaro was gone. He returned to see her body in a pit, still smoking. She let out a cough and he held her, yelling out the gods, Buddha, “every one of you” that he’ll kill them if they don’t return Ume.
He’s cut down from behind by the blinded samurai, who made a deal with the hostess to kill him because of his debt collecting habits. As the samurai turns to deliver the finishing blow, Gytaro supernaturally leaps out and impales his sickle into the hostess’ eye, killing her immediately. He then cuts the samurai’s face in half, and walks away while carrying the charred body of his sister.
He fell over carrying his sister, succumbing to the wound on his back as it started snowing. Suddenly, (spoiler!) Upper Rank Two of the Twelve Kizuki, Doma, appears. He has the head of a woman in one hand and her lower body being carried by his arm, draped over his shoulder, with the right leg having a big chunk missing (his mouth was dripping blood). Doma gives them both blood and says if he chooses you, you’ll become demons.
Gyutaro says he doesn’t regret becoming a demon and no matter how many times he’s reborn, he’ll always become a demon. “I’ll always be the Gyutaro who seizes and collects debts!” He says if he did have one regret, it’s that Ume could have turned out much different than him. He says if she had worked at a better house, she could have become an Oiran – a high-level and respected courtesan. He says if she’d been born to normal parents, she could have been a normal girl, or a respectable woman in a high-class household. He blames himself, saying he taught her to take before it can be taken from you, to collect from others. He says his only regret was Ume.
Gyutaro is then shown in a black, empty space, wondering if it’s hell. He hears Ume call for him, and he turns to see her in her 13-year-old form, saying she doesn’t like it here and wants to leave. He yells at her to stop following him, and she says she didn’t mean what she said; she apologizes and says she doesn’t think he’s ugly. She says she was just bitter that they lost and didn’t want to admit that she was the reason. She apologizes for always dragging him down, but he said she’s no longer his sister.
He says he’s going this way (to the darkness), but she should go the other way (to the light). She jumps on his back and yells that she’ll never leave him, crying as she tells him. She says no matter how many times they’re reborn, she’ll always be reborn as his sister. She says she’ll never forgive him if he leaves her all alone because they’ll always be together. She asks if he forgot their promise.
He recalls a memory where they’re sitting, huddled together outside in the snow with only some naturally made coverings to protect them. He tells Ume in this time that they’re the best duo and a little cold or hunger is nothing them. He promises her that they’ll always be together and he’ll never leave her. Back in the in-between, he decides to carry his still-crying sister with him into the fires of hell.
Then, the Serpent Hashira, Obanai Iguro, is partly shown, subtly ridiculing Uzui for having such trouble with “the lowest of the Upper Ranks.” He does congratulate Uzui for defeating an Upper Rank, “Six or not.” He offered his praise, but Uzui says his praise doesn’t do anything for him. Iguro asks how long it will take Uzui to recover after losing his left eye and left hand, but Uzui says he’s retiring and the Master should accept that, but Iguro says he can’t accept the outcome.
Iguro says too many of the young Demon Slayers are dying before reaching their potential, and even someone “as uninspiring as you” is better than no one, especially with a Hashira spot still open with the death of Kyojuro Rengoku, the former Flame Hashira. Uzui says there is one youngster with that potential, and he’s the one Iguro hates: Tanjiro Kamado.
A crow is shown delivering the news to Kagaya Ubuyashiki, the “Master” Uzui references. He’s shown in the last stages of his disease, coughing blood as he congratulates Uzui, Tanjiro, Nezuko, Zenitsu, and Inosuke. Ubuyashiki says nothing’s changed for 100 years, but now it has thanks to the efforts of the five (plus Uzui’s three wives!). He tells Amane, his wife, that fate is about to take a dramatic turn and it will reach that man. He vows to defeat Muzan Kibutsuji during this generation, “You, the sole blemish on my family!“
They shift to Akaza, Upper Rank Three of the Twelve Kizuki, summoned to an alternate dimension with floors that slightly resemble M.C. Escher’s “Stairs.” Akaza states it’s the “Infinity Castle,” home to Kibutsuji. He says the only reason he could have been summoned is that an Upper Rank was defeated by the Demon Slayers. Then, (spoiler!) Nakime strummed her biwa (stringed instrument), which summons demons to the Infinity Castle.
Instead of the traditional ending credits, the opening theme played over a scene of the Demon Slayers leaving the Entertainment District. Uzui was being helped by his wives, then saying they should return to a hero’s welcome in a flashy way! Tanjiro, Inosuke, and Zenitsu hugged each other, crying, thankful they survived. Then, the credits to the Entertainment District arc run as the season comes to an end.
What is Nezko’s Blood Demon Art?
Nezuko’s Blood Demon Art is Exploding Blood. She can ignite her own blood (which she can regenerate as a demon) as long as it’s outside of her body. That blood is only harmful to demons and demon creations.
It stands to reason that she was able to ignite Inosuke and Uzui with her Blood Demon Art by targeting the blood on the exterior of their bodies, which then burned the impurities away from being damaged by demons, including poison.
The drawback to using her Blood Demon Art is that using it too much and in quick succession will make her sleepy, causing her to revert to her child-like form and sleep to recover as she is the lone demon who does not need human blood.
Who is Doma (spoilers)?
Doma is the Upper Rank Two of the Twelve Kizuki. He is one of the oldest demons among the Upper Ranks. He leads a the Paradise Faith cult, devouring his followers to “spare them suffering” as they live inside him.
Not only was it revealed in the episode that Doma is the one who turned Gyutaro and Daki (Ume) into demons, but Doma plays critical roles in the backstories of several Demon Slayers, though these will be revealed later in the anime.
What does it mean to be “chosen” by Kibutsuji?
Doma said if the brother-sister duo was “chosen” by him (Kibutsuji), they could become demons. As shown in season one with Kibutsuji’s interaction in the alleyway with three thugs, he can inject his blood into humans. If that human can take the concentration of power within the demon blood of Kibutsuji, they’ll transform into a demon, hence being “chosen.” However, if they can’t withstand the blood, they die, usually in spectacular fashion.
Since all demons have Kibutsuji’s blood, they effectively act as demon recruiters, which is how Doma turned the two into demons. This is also how Kibutsuji can locate each demon, place a curse on them, and why it’s so unique that Tamayo and Yushiro were able to break the curse and evade him for all these years.
What is the Infinity Castle?
The Infinity Castle is the base of Muzan Kibutsuji and the Twelve Kizuki. It first appeared in the anime when he summoned the Lower Ranks, killing off all but Enmu, which led to the Mugen Train arc and movie. The Infinity Castle is also known as the Dimensional Infinity Fortress.
With his favoritism toward the Upper Ranks for not having changed in over 100 years as Ubuyashiki stated in the episode, only they and Kibutsuji (and Nakime) know of its existence. The Lower Ranks were only brought to the Infinity Castle so Kibutsuji could kill them.
The Infinity Castle will also serve as the setting for the penultimate arc in the entire series.
With that, the entire second season and Entertainment District Arc of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is complete. The next arc is the Swordsmith Village arc, where Tanjiro must seek a new Nichirin blade after having his destroyed during the battles with Gyutaro and Daki.
Hope this made Demon Slayer episode 11 season 2 easier for you.