Genya
Shinazugawa

Genya is a Demon Slayer who cannot use Breathing at all. In a cast where technique is everything, he brings a shotgun, a sutra, and a horrifying workaround: he eats demon flesh, temporarily borrowing demon strength and regeneration at an unknown cost to himself. Gyomei Himejima took him on as a student when no other path existed.

He joined the Corps to reach his brother. As children he watched Sanemi kill their demon-turned mother and screamed at him for it, words he has regretted ever since. Sanemi answers every approach with contempt, trying to drive him out of the Corps, and Genya keeps coming anyway, wanting one thing: to be strong enough that his brother has to acknowledge him and hear the apology.

The Swordsmith Village arc made his case. Against the Hantengu clones he was maimed, choked, and repeatedly killed short of death, and he kept repeating his sutra and reloading. He consumed a clone's flesh, briefly turned half-demon, and helped hold the line long enough for Tanjiro to find the real body. The loner act cracked along the way; by the arc's end, Tanjiro and Nezuko were simply his friends.