#but I'm busy slowly writing pre-canon Butterfly Mansion fic right now

[demonslayedher]

Recently, I've been thinking about how Lady Amane told the Tokito twins that they were descended from a wielder of the 'First Breathing Style'. So my question follows as such in 2 parts:

1. Did Yoriichi and Michikatsu become conflated as one individual? How long do you think that would have taken to occur?

2. Despite the fact that Muichiro was not technically descended from Yoriichi, do you think he could have learned Sun Breathing, since his father was a 'Red Child'?

Ha ha ha… “recently.” I’m hanging my head in shame for how long it took me to get to answering this. I have indeed wondered about similar things! And, unsurprisingly, considering the possibilities may make this get a little long.

Answering the second part first: The fact that red eyes are pointed out as special, and Muichiro’s genes make him special, and the fact that his dad’s eyes are pointed out as having been red like Tanjiro’s, and the fact that Tanjiro’s eyes seem to tie him to the ability to perform Sun Breathing, like, how can we not read into this?

Certainly, being born into the Tsugikuni clan is not a requirement for performing Sun Breathing, but one’s family history does seem to have a significant impact on one’s suitability for any given Breath. In the Kamado case, there seems to be a theme of how we all only exist through the influence of our ancestors, and we can inherit more from them than only DNA, even being able to draw from their very memories and experiences. There’s also a comparison in a book I heard one time, from the perspective of an American working in China, that in the West we tend to look at the landscape as having been shaped by people, and in the East, they may be more likely to look at the people as being shaped by the landscape. The example he used was a pretty standard, “girls in such-and-such locale have beautiful skin because of the humidity/good soil/clouds/clean water/etc.” (which is also something you hear in a Japanese context too), but I feel like it can be applied here for the affect that working with fire has had on the family, which Haganezuka found so auspicious. If we think about Tanjiro’s physical aptitude for Sun Breathing (as opposed to being able to perfect something like Water Breathing), it’s not so much that the original Kamado genes (or memories) have diluted through the generations (as Muichiro would prefer to think about his link with Kokushibo), but instead make have compounded and gotten more prevalent with every generation, especially in the case of the years and years of working with fire. That’s a lot of good charcoal karma stacked up, perhaps. Of course, it may also just be a genetic luck of the draw, like how Sanemi is the most skilled Wind Breath user and his full brother Genya can use no Breath whatsoever. (Genya entered and won a genetic lottery instead. Congratulations…?)

Apply this back to the Tsugikuni/Tokito family, if it is indeed a genetic predisposition that allowed Yoriichi to be, well, Yoriichi, and Michikatsu to be not quite Yoriichi but an outstanding swordsman and Breath user (and originator) in his own right, then this may be the basic quality that they inherited from their own parents and which got passed down. However, between the two of them, Yoriichi was the lottery winner. Even with all the Kamado’s compounded charcoal karma and red eyes, they might had achieved Sun Breathing, but none of them could hold a hot little piece of smoldering charcoal to Yoriichi.

But, since you don’t have to be Yoriichi to accomplish Sun Breathing, and since Daddy Tokito might have been genetically predisposed to swordsmanship through both what he inherited and his own luck, then sure, I would not be surprised if he randomly had the ability to pick up Sun Breathing. There’s also no telling if Muichiro could or could not, had he ever tried. Since he’s got a whole lot of other ancestors besides Michikatsu with genes to contribute, that means he’s found himself with a soup of ingredients that makes him take extremely readily to Mist Breathing, which we might think of as a couple steps removed from Sun Breathing. Since he is a genius, however, who knows how well he may or may not had taken to being taught Sun Breathing? One doesn't have to be perfectly suited to a Breath to pick it up, like how Tanjiro was a very competent Water Breath user even if he wasn't as good a fit for it as Giyuu or Urokodaki. If Tanjiro had taught Sun Breathing to anyone else in the cast, Muichiro is the one who perhaps would have had the best chance of picking it up (much less deciphering Tanjiro's attempts as "teaching").

As for the two Tsugikuni bros being conflated, my first answer is “yeah, history is fuzzy, it’s easy for misconceptions to be spread,” but in the Corp, history is also well recorded. Setting aside whatever records the Ubuyashiki family might have kept personally, this Sengoku period member of the Rengoku family (notably, his diary is labeled that of the “21st Flame Pillar”, which is a timeline to unpack another day), wrote all about that Yoriichi guy, and presumably about his evil twin brother, but he probably focused on the parts that were relevant to the Corp and may have omitted their family details.

Sengoku-Rengoku (teehee) would had known that Yoriichi left behind no offspring, or at least, he’d have found it unlikely knowing Yoriichi as a friend, and staying in touch with him even after Yoriichi was ousted from the Corp. He might had been vaguely aware that Michikatsu left his family to join the Corp. Since there might have been some way of knowing that there was some switching around and confusion in who would be the heir to the Tsugikuni clan, it’s possible that misinformation could had spread that it was Yoriichi who was the official heir (which he was, for a time), and that it was his children that who were left behind. For people who didn’t know Yoriichi as well, and who had hatred for both Yoriichi and Michikatsu, who knows what other rumors they might had spread.

Now how much would Amane had known through Ubuyashiki records? That might depend especially on how much their family shared information with the Rengoku family, and how actively. Since that diary was in the property of the Rengoku estate, and since they might have wanted to keep relations with an outcast on the downlow for at least a few generations, it’s possible the Ubuyashiki clan never heard all the details Sengoku-Rengoku knew. Although Kagaya, the 97thgeneration Oyakata-sama, memorizes the details of all his slain Corp children, we don’t know when they started this practice. If it was before Yoriichi’s time, I feel like they’d have wanted to keep the record straight. However, if they hadn’t started doing that yet, perhaps since the young boy who granted Yoriichi lenience despite the others’ anger may have felt conflicted about this throughout his life, he, or even his son or grandson, might have felt they could only do justice to him by trying to set the record straight, but by then the record was already muddled, and Sengoku-Rengoku had already died due to the mark so they couldn’t ask him directly and perhaps did not know of his diary.

As for if Yoriichi and Kokushibo could have been conflated as one individual instead of just having confusion for which one left children behind, that also depends on how clear the records were of family histories, especially since an Oyakata-sama was killed by Kokushibo as one of his first acts of proving loyalty to Muzan. That’s a huge offense which probably can’t be forgiven by the “oh, but he gave us Breath technique, that’s cool” contribution. If people were angry enough at Yoriichi, maybe that could be the source of conflating the two twins as one terrible individual, but I doubt Amane would had gone looking for the descendent of that evil person.

Conversely, perhaps the identity of the demon was not as memorable as the fact that “wow, Muzan’s making way more powerful demons now, we gotta up our game,” in which case Kokushibo’s identity might had lost its immortality early on (sorry, dude). Instead, the reputation of that one really super amazing guy who taught everybody Breath and no one could ever be his match (but we sure wish we could find someone who could because he dealt enough damage to Muzan that he hid in fear of him for a handful of decades) might have had a lasting impact, giving Amane only one lead to follow, to the Tsugikuni clan, and then down the clan’s history. Given the unwelcomeness of twins in that household, the fact that there were two of them might not even had been recorded.

I find this the most likely scenario, seeing as the Corp collectively does not seem to have much information about the Upper Moons (only that they have never managed to kill one, and any Pillar who has encountered them didn’t live to say much about them). This means there’s no Kokushibo lore among the Corp. The demon who has been known by name to the Corp from generation to generation, however, is Tamayo. Kagaya was curious to meet her, perhaps because he knew of Yoriichi’s decision to trust her and let her go free.

Which is to say, yes, indeed, all very plausible, we’ve got plenty to work with all of this Tokito family history.

#kny fandom theories and meta #tokito muichiro #tokitou muichirou #tsugikuni yoriichi #tsugikuni michikatsu #demon slayer #kimetsu no yaiba #this makes me want to delve into Sengoku-Rengoku fic or something #but I'm busy slowly writing pre-canon Butterfly Mansion fic right now #hhhnngghh