For over a thousand years, a shadow moved silently through the fabric of society—sometimes as a grieving widow’s husband, sometimes a dignified child or sometimes a mysterious geisha.
However, beneath these borrowed faces, hid the same sinister entity: Muzan Kibutsuji, the origin of all demons and a being utterly obsessed with perfection.
Muzan Kibutsuji: A Body Molded by Will
Cunning as he was ancient, Muzan’s genius wasn’t just in his power, but in his ability to hide. His one true weakness, sunlight, kept him from revealing his monstrous self and so he slithered through human society by becoming them.
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In the bustling streets of Taisho-era Tokyo, he wore western suits and rode in a luxurious car, his sharp eyes masked by the gentle smile of a man called Tsukihiko. To the woman by his side, Rei, and their seemingly happy daughter, he played the role of a doting father. But this facade was merely another of Muzan’s many masks, donned not for love, but for leverage of wealth, influence, and access.
Muzan didn’t just mimic appearances, he rewrote himself. His body, malleable like clay, could shift flesh, blood, even organs with a thought. These transformations weren’t just cosmetic but tactical.
In the elegant guise of a geisha, he used allure to manipulate powerful men into hunting the elusive Blue Spider Lily under the safety of daylight. As a child named Toshikuni, he immersed himself in literature, libraries, and silence, quietly chasing the secrets of immortality. But as we all know that innocent face is just another calculated move in a game spanning centuries.
Each form Muzan took was a testament to his belief that humans were nothing more than tools. Yes, tools to manipulate, discard, or destroy which he exactly did without hesitation.
When his cover in the Swordsmith Village Arc was no longer useful, the household he had infiltrated was reduced to corpses. No one was spared. Not the mother, not the helper, not the innocent bystanders because to Muzan, loose ends were unacceptable.
And yet, this shapeshifting monster wasn’t always so powerful. In his human past, before he became the demon feared by all, he murdered the very doctor trying to cure him, when he was driven by rage and fear of death. That impulsive act sealed his fate, turning him into a creature bent on conquering mortality, even if it meant destroying every other life in the process. He would rather burn the world than be bound by it.
What’s chilling is how deep his deceptions went. He even managed to have five wives, all of whom met tragic ends, not because they defied him, but because they simply couldn’t satisfy his impossible expectations or uncover his secrets. Muzan didn’t just kill out of necessity but he killed to control.
And the tides began to shift when a demon named Nezuko did the impossible by walking in sunlight. It was then Muzan’s obsession sharpened into desperation. No longer needing to wear the skin of man, he shed his disguises, casting off his thousand-year masquerade. Still, every form he ever assumed told a story, not of empathy or understanding, but of the lengths a truly monstrous soul will go to achieve godhood.
