Tanjiro Kamado vs. Hand Demon is a battle that takes place in Fujikasane Mountain during Final Selection. It focuses on the battle between future Demon Slayer Tanjiro Kamado and the Hand Demon.
Prologue
After fending off two demons at the start of Final Selection, Tanjiro notices a smell of rot and the screaming voice of a boy running away in fear. Tanjiro glances up and is horrified to see a large shapeshifting Green Demon whose hands cover his entire body. The Demon swallows a dead boy whole and grows stronger by devouring him.
Battle
The Hand Demon throws his hands at the fleeing boy and pulls him in. Before the Demon devours him whole, Tanjiro finds the courage to take action. He cuts off the arms using the second form of the Water Wheel: Water Wheel. Despite his injury, the Demon seems happy to see another “cub” and asks what the Meiji year is. After Tanjiro tells him that this is the Taishō period, the Demon goes mad and curses Sakonji Urokodaki for trapping him on the mountain forty-seven years ago.
Tanjiro is surprised to learn that the Demon knows Sakonji. The Demon was trapped there by Sakonji in the past and he fed on all of his students in revenge. He can distinguish them from other competitors thanks to the protective masks he makes for his children. The Demon survived in this prison of wisteria by eating more than fifty candidates during the selections, including thirteen students of Sakonji.
It turns out that Sabito and Makomo were the strongest among the students killed by this Demon. He begins to explain how he killed them and hopes that Sakonji feels responsible. This sends Tanjiro into a rage and he rushes at his enemy in a fit of revenge. The Demon sends several outstretched arms at the “little fox”, which bares its fangs and slices off the arms with its sword.
All of Urokodaki’s children watch over Tanjiro. Sabito reminds him to calm down and regularize his breathing. He wants Tanjiro to forget about them for now and focus on winning this fight. Enraged, Tanjiro rushes towards the Demon’s head but he is knocked back by a punch and crashes into a tree. The boy falls injured with his mask broken and bleeding from the head.
The boy Tanjiro saved flees the area and leaves him for dead. However, the voice of another familiar soul calls out to his big brother and wakes Tanjiro up in time before the demon traps him. Tanjiro somersaults back to free himself and the Demon unleashes a barrage of outstretched arms. The swordsman in training chops his arms off until he is forced to retreat.
The Demon claims that Tanjiro can’t win just by chopping off his arms. He taunts the boy saying that not even Sabito was able to slit his neck. Sakonji’s last student cuts off another arm and opposes the Demon. He knows he can’t lose and he must defeat this Shapeshifting Demon in this climactic battle. Tanjiro charges towards the Demon, cutting off three more arms before noticing the Demon’s scent coming from below him.
Four hidden arms rise from the ground but Tanjiro jumps in time, surprising his opponent. The Demon tries to capitalize and grab Tanjiro while he’s in the air. Meanwhile, Makomo asks Sabito if Tanjiro can win. Sabito claims he can’t predict the outcome, but he reminds Makomo that Tanjiro was the man who sliced the biggest and hardest boulder of all Sakonji’s students.
Tanjiro deflects the hand with his rock-hard head and turns on the Demon’s outstretched giant arm. The Demon creates smaller arms and attempts to stop Tanjiro, but Tanjiro counterattacks with his Total Water Breathing Focus and quickly separates the arms flying through his enemy’s defenses. Tanjiro manages to get close to the Demon’s head with a leaping strike. The Hand Demon thinks his neck is too hard for his opponent to cut and plans to crush his head after the sword fails. However, Tanjiro reveals the common thread and decapitates the Demon with the Water Breathing, First Form: Slash from the surface of the water.
Continuation of the fight
The manner in which the Hand Demon was defeated reminds him of his previous defeat at the hands of Sakonji. The Demon remembers feeding on a few humans before being discovered and captured by Sakonji in his youth.
Tanjiro decapitates the Demon and its morphed body disintegrates into nothingness. The Demon regrets that the face of a Demon Slayer is the last thing he sees. He is surprised to notice Tanjiro’s sad expression despite his victory. It reminds him of his past life as a human, when he accidentally killed his beloved brother before falling into darkness.
Tanjiro recognizes the scent of sadness and prays that God doesn’t reincarnate this man as a Demon. The spirits of Sakonji’s children who watched over him appear. Tanjiro announces to them that he has won and asks their souls to finally rest in peace. Sabito, Makomo and the others disappear, but their will lives inside Tanjiro. If he had died, his soul would also have returned to Mount Sagiri.
