Akaza Husbando

Akaza is a major supporting antagonist of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. He is a demon affiliated with the Twelve Kizuki, holding the third highest position, Upper Rank Three. Over a century ago, Akaza was a human by the name of Hakuji, a prodigious martial artist who trained under Keizo while nursing his daughter, Koyuki, who would later become Akaza's fiancée. Akaza is a very muscular young man of average height with skin so fair, it appears bright green-tinged white, decorated by a pattern of thick blue lines, which resemble the criminal tattoos he had as a human. Akaza had short, bright pink hair that fluffed out around his head, and inward-tilting yellow eyes with pink eyelashes and blue sclera that looked somewhat like cracked glass. The kanji for "Upper Rank" and the daiji for "Three" are etched into his irises as well. The lines on his face curved through each of his eyes from below his ears to over his temples, another blue line running from the center of his hairline to the bridge of his nose, with two more lines running around his neck, three others branching off the lower one to his torso. The center line ran directly down his chest to halfway down his stomach, and the other two branched off to the sides over each side of his chest to join the two other lines, this same three-line pattern there also repeating around his waist. On his arms there were lines running down the front of his shoulders that ran into two more, which went around his biceps, before continuing to run down to his wrists, below which it could be seen that each of his fingers are also dark blue with an orange fingernail, his toes also sharing this unusual appearance. He wore little, only sporting a short, sleeveless dark purple-pink haori that was cut off at his waist, left open to expose his chest, that was decorated by a square pattern on his back. Below this, he sported a pair of baggy white pants that he rolled to just below the knee with a blue rope belt to secure them at his waist. Akaza prefers to go barefoot, but wears a chain of large round pink pearls around each of his ankles. During his human days as Hakuji, he had the same hair, just colored black rather than pink, and pale blue eyes with unusually-colored pink eyelashes. He was also very muscular as a human, and, on each of his forearms, he bore three black criminal tattoos. He also wore a dark blue-gray yukata. Akaza is a headstrong, stubborn and battle-crazed Social Darwinist who enjoys fighting, especially against strong Demon Slayers. He purposefully drew out fights so as to savor every moment of it, always complimenting his opponents when they unleash strong techniques or land blows on him, usually remarking that their techniques and swordsmanship are magnificent and intriguing. Akaza looked down on anybody he deemed weak, so much so that his skin would crawl at the sight of them. He genuinely respected those who were strong in his eyes, demanding to know their names, and would not stop until he finds out; he remembers all the names of strong past opponents and committed them to memory as tribute to their strength. Akaza also presents an opportunity for those he recognizes the strength of to become demons, believing that preserving their refined techniques and skill was right and feels pain watching the deterioration of those blessed with extraordinary gifts as they age, and going so far as to kill them in order to preserve their magnificent skill himself should they decline his offer to become a demon. Akaza also doesn't discriminate strong warriors that were weak before, as shown when he praised and complimented Tanjiro Kamado despite initially attempting to kill him over how weak he was during their first encounter, even going so far as to thank Kyojuro for Tanjiro's growth. Akaza believes strongly in Social Darwinism, believing that the law of nature dictates that all weaklings shall be eliminated. Akaza has a deeply-rooted psychological need to become stronger, and did not get along with his fellow Upper Ranks, seeing them as his rivals. He is especially antagonistic towards and somewhat jealous of the two Upper Ranks above him, Doma and Kokushibo, lashing out at Doma and vowing to kill Kokushibo. Even after being beheaded during his fight against Tanjiro and Giyu Tomioka, he stubbornly held on and continued to fight, remarking that he must become the strongest no matter what, to the point of overcoming all demons' shared weakness of decapitation by Nichirin Swords through nothing but sheer willpower and resolve. It was later revealed that Akaza's desperate and stubborn pursuit of strength was to heal his sick father and to protect the ones he loved and cared about, namely his fiancée Koyuki and his teacher Keizo. Akaza also possesses a deep hatred for his past life as a human, believing that it was absolutely worthless, and hated anyone or anything that reminded him of it, such as Tanjiro's own view of how the strong should help the weak and Giyu's unwavering resolve reminding Akaza of Keizo, both instances which he reacted to negatively. As a human, Akaza possessed the same stubborn and resilient personality,however, as a human, his personality was also much more noble and kind, and even somewhat honorable,the only reason he committed crimes was out of sheer desperation, as he needed money to buy medicine for his father. Even after receiving countless beatings that would make a grown man go numb, Akaza's resolve never wavered, further declaring that he would endure those same beatings for a hundred years just for his father to heal, showing how much Akaza valued the well-being of his loved ones more than himself. This was also shown when he nursed Koyuki despite having no connection to her before, never even feeling that it was a burden before and declining her offer of going to see the fireworks instead of tirelessly nursing her. Even after becoming a demon and losing his memories of his human life, parts of his human memories influenced his decisions; he refuses to eat or kill women, despite knowing it would make him stronger if he did so. Koyuki's name and hairpin influenced the shape and design of his Compass Needle technique, the martial arts style he uses as a demon was mainly inspired by the Soryu style Keizo taught him, and the naming of his attacks were based on fireworks, a reference to Akaza's promise to take Koyuki to see the fireworks after she was healed. His hatred of weak people and belief of Social Darwinism stems from a corruption of his human memories, where a rival dojo poisoned his dojo's well because they were never able to beat him. After remembering the entirety of his past, Akaza started to regret his actions both as a human and demon, realizing that he never respected his father's words to live an honest life and bloodied Keizo's precious Soryu Style by using it to murder others. He came to the realization that he hated himself for all of the times he wasn't there to save or protect those he loved, and that he himself was the person he really wanted to kill all along. With the knowledge that the people that he wanted to protect had already died a long time ago, Akaza lost the will to continue fighting as his pursuit of strength was already for naught and decided to end his own life. In his final moments, Akaza showed that he still had a lot of humanity left in him, remarking that Tanjiro's technique was magnificent and that he had lost fair and square, even smiling and feeling gratitude towards him for reminding him of his past.