Summary
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The first and most powerful Breathing Style - Sun Breathing, from which all other Breathing Techniques came from (such as Water, Flame, and Thunder) was a natural force for destroyingdemons. Its technique closely mimicked sunlight, making it an effective technique against demons.
During the Heian era, Muzan was turned into a demon because of an experimental treatment for his illness gone wrong. Ever since he realized he possessed eternal life, his goal was to remain truly eternal. This was before he met Yoriichi Tsugikuni, a powerful Demon Slayer who nearly killed him. Ever since then, Muzan has been fearsome of Yoriichi and his Sun Breathing.
The First And Foremost Breathing Technique
Sunlight Is The Kyrptonite To All Demons
Even though Muzan was extremely strong, just like any other demon. He had a weakness for sunlight. The first time he came across Yoriichi, the inventor of the first Breathing Technique, Sun Breathing, he believed he could easily defeat him. At this point in time, Muzan had killed many demon slayers, and he thought he could easily kill Yoriichi. However, Muzan underestimated Yoriichi’s power and was quickly overthrown by Yoriichi’s Sun Breathing Technique. Before Yoriichi could land the final blow on Muzan,Muzan blew himself up into a thousand piecesof flesh so that he could escape and regenerate his body later.
The true monster is that man. Not me. -Muzan Kibutsuji
After barely escaping Yoriichi’s Sun Breathing and experiencing fear for the first time, Muzan lived in fear after realizing that a Demon Slayer was able to nearly kill him. Muzan only properly resurfaced after finding out about Nezuko and her ability to walk in the sun.He made it his life’s missionto ensure that after the death of Yoriichi that there would be no other Demon Slayers that could be capable of Sun Breathing and vowed to kill anyone who had the ability to use it. After that day, Muzan never directly confronted the Demon Slayers, and he would only send his demons to do his bidding. This shows how much of an impact Yoriichi had on Muzan’s life.
Muzan Encounters Tanjiro For The First Time
He Realizes His Worries Are Far From Over
The first time Tanjiro meets Muzan is in Akasuka, Tokyo. While Tanjiro recognizes Muzan’s scent and confronts him, Muzan pretends not to recognize him and swiftly turns a passer-by into a demon without anyone else noticing, causing a distraction and makes his escape. Muzan then later meets up with his lower moon demons and orders them to kill the Demon Slayer with the Hanafuda earrings. In this scene,Muzan has a flashbackof his battle against Yoriichi and the remembers the fear he felt as he was about to die. It could be that Muzan recognized the Hanafuda earrings that Tanjiro was wearing, and that the ones Yoriichi was also wearing were the same. This shows that Muzan’s past had come back to haunt him, causing him to panic and now face his new-found fear.
Since Tanjiro’s family had unknowingly preserved the Sun Breathing technique through the Kagura dance, Muzan saw Tanjiro as a direct threat to his well-being. Another reason Muzan feared Sun Breathing is that the Sun Breathing Technique is able to bypass demon regeneration and delay it. After spending so much time trying to get rid of Sun Breathing and trying to ensure new users of the sacred technique would never surface, Muzan had failed. The reason why Muzantargeted and killed Tanjiro’s familywas also because he wanted to get rid of the remaining people who knew about anything to do with Sun Breathing or had a connection to Yoriichi. Since Tanjiro’s descendants knew Yoriichi personally, Muzan wanted to ensure that the Kamado bloodline was eradicated to prevent the rise of any new users of the Sun Breathing Technique and protect himself from it.
