Rui ( Demon Slayer )

Rui was a member of the Twelve Demonic Moons, having held the position of Fifth Lower Moon.

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Apparence

Rui has the appearance of a young boy. His skin is white, with red spots. His hair is light pink and looks like a spider's legs. The sclera of his eyes is red, while his irises are pale blue. Due to his position as a Lower Fifth Moon, Rui has the kanji of five tattooed in his left eye.

As a human, he had black hair and his hairstyle resembled a spider, with bright blue eyes.

Personality

Rui was a troubled person who desired the close ties of a family and expected family members to play their own "roles. To him, "family members" who do not perform their roles as he expects (i.e., unconditionally protect Rui or follow his instructions) are worthless and even dead.

Despite the fact that he longs for a "family," his view of it is incredibly twisted and based on nothing more than fear of him, instilled by repeated abuse of his loved ones, which he does with unrepentant sadism.

Well aware of his power, he is incredibly overbearing and cruel and has no qualms about mistreating others or punishing his "family" by tying them up and leaving them to burn in the sun when they go against his wishes. Because of his strength, he believes himself to be all-powerful and confident, but his arrogance does not blind him to potential threats to his life.

Interestingly, Rui is incredibly sensitive about family and was furious when Tanjiro Kamado pointed out the more than obvious toxicity of the ties between his "family. This angered him to the point that he demanded that Tanjiro withdraw his words himself and threatened to kill him in a very slow and painful way if he did not comply. This stance is in stark contrast to his desire to have Nezuko Kamado as his sister, after witnessing her selfless act of protecting Tanjiro from his sons, became obsessed with developing a bond with her, albeit still through fear and torture. This contrarian behavior is further evidence of Rui's delusions, mental insanity and emotional instability.

History

Human life

Many years ago, Rui was born with a weak and fragile human body that even the act of walking and breathing was difficult for him to do, causing him to spend the majority of his life trapped in his home, cared for by his mother and father who, despite his frailty, loved him deeply and cherished him.

One night, Rui was approached by Muzan Kibutsuji who then offered to "save" him and turned him into a demon. Now possessing a strong body, Rui was finally able to move freely for the first time, bringing joy and happiness to his parents. However, this did not last, as he was now a demon and Rui now needed to eat humans for sustenance, which led him to kill a man inside his house. This bloody scene was later discovered by his parents who were immediately horrified by what their son had done. That night, his father and mother agreed that Rui should be stopped and tried to kill him in his sleep to prevent him from doing anything worse in the future.

His father then tried to sneak up on him with a knife and told him not to worry because he was planning to kill himself for killing his son, while his mother sobbed and cried at her door. However, Rui woke up and in anger, killed them both in lieu of self-defense.

However, as his mother lay dying, Rui heard her regretting apologizing to Rui for not being able to give him a healthy body, which then made him remember his father's last words, promising that he and his wife would follow Rui to the afterlife, which made him realize that his parents really loved him and just tried to keep him from becoming a complete monster, sending Rui into emotional turmoil. However, Rui persisted on the lie that his connection with his family was false due to receiving words of encouragement from Muzan, who supported his initial denial that they could not be his family due to not accepting his demon state, and gave encouragement to simply look for a new family.

Demon's life

Now as a demon, Rui continued to kill and eat humans gaining more strength until he finally obtained the position of Fifth Lower Moon and joined the Twelve Demonic Moons after being recognized by Muzan. Due to the repression of his painful memories as a human, Rui asked Muzan if he could create a "family. Muzan allowed him to do so and he began to gather appropriate "members" who would each play the role of his new parents and siblings.

It was shown that he came across a lonely demon girl while running away from a group of Demon Slayers, he then simply asked her if she wanted to be saved by him and if she agreed, she would have to do whatever he said. Desperate for her life, she agreed, so Rui easily killed the group of slayers and warmly welcomed the girl into his "family". He then began to give her a small drop of blood to strengthen her power and painfully alter her physical appearance to resemble his own and officially recognized her as his new "older sister".

Later, Rui was informed by the Great Spider Demon Sister of how one of his other older sisters was planning to escape from Mount Natagumo and leave the family. Furious, he intercepted this escape attempt and tied it up and let it burn by the morning sunlight.

Synopsis

Mount Natagumo Arch

As Mother Spider Demon fights the demon slayers with her puppets, Rui who asks her to win and hurry up. She panics because despite the supposed "Mother-Son" relationship between them, she knows very well the huge power gap between her and Rui. Rui then threatens to inform Father Spider Demon of the situation if she doesn't quickly kill the remaining slayers.

Tanjiro finds the Great Spider Demon Sister being tortured by Rui. He then tells her not to witness their family affairs, however, Tanjiro protests that he can't sense their true feelings and that there is no trust or love between them, just fear, disgust and distrust, calling their family fake. A Mizunoto appears and boldly states that he can kill him easily and climb the ladder that way, however, he is instantly cut down by Rui. Rui then turns his attention to Tanjiro, irritated by his claim that their family is a fake. Tanjiro realizes that Rui is a powerful opponent and the two fight, with Tanjiro able to avoid Rui's sons. As Tanjiro finds an opening to attack Rui, his blade collides with Rui's web and shatters.

Tanjiro is able to narrowly escape his attack, tries to get closer and decapitate him. Rui asks Tanjiro to take back what he said but he doesn't answer. He retaliates by wrapping Tanjiro in a web of threads, but Nezuko suddenly seems to protect him from damage. Seeing this, Rui becomes obsessed with making Nezuko his perfect "sister" and yearns to develop a bond with her. The Big Sister protests, but he angrily cuts her off in response.

Rui then despises her and the rest of his family for not being able to fulfill the roles as he expected. The Sister begs for one last chance and Rui orders her to kill the rest of the invaders to forgive her for her transgression, which she fearfully obeys. He then tries to negotiate with Tanjiro, wanting him to give up Nezuko to become his sister. Tanjiro refuses instantly, believing that Rui's idea of a bond forged by fear is a joke. Rui rejoices that no matter what Tanjiro does, he cannot defeat one of the Twelve Moons. As Rui explains his philosophy to Tanjiro, he pulls Nezuko with his sons, capturing her. Tanjiro rushes to save Nezuko who scratches Rui's face furiously, but is forced to stop to avoid his sons. Rui then hangs Nezuko with his sons to punish her and Tanjiro stumbles while trying to escape from more sons and eventually finds himself at the mercy of Rui's blows.

Rui asks if he's trying to get close to him to decapitate him and gives him a chance to do so, revealing that his skin is tougher than his threads before rejecting Tanjiro. This infuriates Nezuko and Rui tightens the threads, causing her to fall asleep to regain her strength. Tanjiro tries to calm down and attempts another charge on Rui. Using the momentum of the rotation, his attacks gain the strength to cut Rui's wires. However, activates his Blood Power, strengthening his threads with his blood and trying to envelop Tanjiro. Before the attack succeeds, Tanjiro has a flashback of his father's Hinokami Kagura and his Breath technique. Imitating this, Tanjiro increases the power of his attack, breaking through Rui's web and chasing him relentlessly as he tries to keep him at bay before the two are about to strike. Nezuko is summoned by her mother's spirit who begs her to protect Tanjiro and she awakens her Blood Power, igniting Rui's sons. Helplessly, Tanjiro seizes the chance to decapitate the Lower Fifth Moon.

But Rui reveals that he had previously cut his neck with one of his sons and then sewed it back on. Tanjiro is then at the end of his strength and desperately crawls towards Nezuko. Before Rui finishes off the young siblings, Giyu intervenes. Again, it doesn't take long for the Pillar to nonchalantly decapitate the demon. Rui dies as he watches Tanjiro instinctively protect his sister as his own body makes its way towards them. As he recalls memories of his father and mother and sees him approaching, Tanjiro places his warm hand on his back, comforting him to leave in peace.

Skills & Competencies

Demonic abilities

Because of his membership in the Twelve Moons, Rui has received a greater amount of Muzan Kibutsuji's blood than an ordinary demon, allowing him to possess incredible power. This strength easily surpasses that of other demons, as he was easily able to coerce many demons from Mount Natagumo, forcing them to work for him and become his "family". Evidence of his strength is further proven when he was able to easily overwhelm talented fighters like Tanjiro and kill dozens of slayers with little effort.

Overdeveloped Resistance: Rui remarked that his body is incredibly tough and hard to cut, easily surpassing the toughness of small demons by far, as Tanjiro noted that Rui's skin was much thicker than his "father's", Rui even admitted that the durability of his skin far exceeded the durability of his own sons.

Overdeveloped Strength: Rui has shown superhuman strength, being able to easily physically overpower Tanjiro by simply kicking him, though he himself also has enhanced physical strength.

Overdeveloped Regeneration: Being one of the Twelve Demonic Moons, Rui possesses a powerful regeneration power, as seen when he heals easily and shows no visible pain from having his face cut and clawed by Nezuko and later was able to reattach his head after being decapitated.

Demon Blood: Similar to Muzan, Rui can increase and strengthen another demon's overall power and give them access to new abilities by giving them a drop of his own blood, thereby strengthening each of his "family" members who were all originally weak demons.

Cellular Manipulation: As revealed by the Great Spider Demon Sister, Rui has the ability to manipulate and change the physical appearance of other demons who consume his blood, after altering his "sister's" physical traits to match his own. He has probably also done the same with other members of his "family" to resemble her.

Blood Power

Rui's Blood Power is based on the creation and manipulation of threads from his blood. His power is versatile, providing both offense and defense, the sharpness and durability of the threads being strong enough to easily break a sword, cut a human being into pieces, and easily subdue and capture demons with little difficulty.

Prison de Fils
(刻こく糸し牢ろう Kokushirô) Rui creates a web-like chain around his opponent to cut him into pieces.

Assassin's Eye Cage
(殺あや目め籠かご Ayame Kago) Rui creates a cage from his web around the target,
which continuously shrinks until the target is cut into pieces.

Rotary Cutting Wire
(刻こく糸し輪りん転てん Kokushi Rinten) Creation of a rotating wheel of wires, which, upon reaching the opponent
will cut them into pieces.

Anecdotes

• Rui was ranked 16th in the first character popularity poll with 191 votes.
• Rui is one of two members of the Twelve Demonic Moons who met the people he knew in life when they died, the other being Akaza.
• Rui's Blood Power may have been inspired by Lubbock's Imperial Arms from Akame ga Kill! as both grant the user the ability to wield steel wires with their fingertips, and both users use this power in the same way.