In the world of Demon Slayer, the Twelve Kizuki were an organization made up of a group of twelve Demons who pursued the goal of finding the Blue Spider Lily. The organization was created and led by Muzan Kibutsuji; the demons that composed it were under the control of Muzan and he was in charge of giving them a considerable portion of his blood as a reward for following his orders. They consist of the Upper Demons and Lower Demons.
In this article, we are going to rank all the known Upper Mon based on their strengths. We are going to rank them from weakest to strongest and bring you a brief overview of each of them so that you know their basic powers and abilities.
9. Daki
Daki, being one of the Twelve Kizuki, had power and abilities that were beyond the abilities of an average demon. She possesses regeneration abilities and strength superior to that of the rest of her progeny and is considered by Muzan Kibutsuji as “someone special”. Her abilities were shown after being able to subdue swordsmen of the caliber of Tanjiro, Inosuke, Zenitsu, and Tengen, the latter a Hashira, and also Nezuko who was able to hold her off temporarily.
However, her position and power as part of the Twelve Demon Moons are due to her brother as she only serves as a complement to the latter’s powers. To better understand Daki’s level of strength, her brother Gyutaro mentions that she has killed and subsequently devoured seven Hashira. As a member of the Twelve Kizuki, she was able to make use of the Blood Demon Art and developed an ability that allowed her to manipulate her Obi at will since its girdles were extensions of her own flesh.
8. Kaigaku
Due to his becoming a Demon, Kaigaku’s breathing techniques suffered a sharp increase in power, being enough to fill the vacant position of Upper Moon Six. However, Kaigaku was just beginning to adapt to the changes that his transformation into a Demon brings, so his exact power was only growing. Yushiro comments that if Kaigaku had been allowed to live another year, it is possible that Zenitsu would have died if they had faced each other after that time.
Taught by Jigoro Kuwajima, Kaigaku barely knew five of the six Thunder Breathing attack stances, despite not learning the first stance, which was the most basic and main of the other attacks. Like Kokushibo, Kaigaku uses his Blood Demon Art to increase the power of his attacks allowing him to break the skin and burn the flesh of his opponent. In the visual aspect of him, all of his attacks had a black coloration.
7. Gyutaro
Being part of the Twelve Kizuki, Gyutaro possessed superhuman strength and resistance and was completely different from that of a conventional demon because a considerable portion of Muzan Kibutsuji’s blood ran through his veins and also because for years he consumed a lot of people. Gyutaro claims to have killed and eaten fifteen Hashira himself.
Even though the fight against the slayer was going in their favor, Gyutaro and Daki were able to recover and tip the scales in their favor during the fight. He was able to wound, maim, and nearly kill Tengen Uzui, the Pillar of Sound, Tanjiro, and Inosuke who survived thanks to Nezuko’s Blood Demon Art that was able to neutralize the poison present in his blood.
His strength was so overwhelming even in his days as a human being able to easily kill a Samurai and an adult woman bigger and heavier than him. In fact, Muzan later states that if he hadn’t been so arrogant, he probably would have been able to kill them all. As a member of the Twelve Kizuki, he was able to make use of the demon blood technique and developed an ability that allowed him to create blood scythes encased in poison.
6. Gyokko
As the Upper Moon Five of the Twelve Kizuki, Gyokko is a powerful demon with several unique fish-based powers and techniques revolving around his pots that allow him to easily outmatch average demons and give him the edge needed to crushing and killing the Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps, As can be seen, for most of his fight against the Mish Hashira, Muichiro, he managed to easily get the upper hand on him and probably would have killed him if the latter had not awakened his demon slayer mark, regained his original Nichirin Blade, and received oxygen from Kotetsu.
After molting, Gyokko’s skin becomes covered with thick, hard scales that are extremely tough and harder than diamond, making him extremely strong. One of Gyokko’s main abilities are his vases; these vases seem to materialize out of thin air according to Gyokko’s will and he uses them for various purposes. He can also summon insensitive, fish-like demons from his vessels; though it’s unclear if he crafts them inside the pots, or summons them from different locations.
However, this is not limited to fish, as it can summon other creatures, such as the tentacles of an octopus made from its own cells. These invocations could be related to the demonic creatures of the base of Muzan. After summoning these grotesque fish-like demons, he can freely manipulate them to consume humans to increase his strength or to attack his enemies.
Gyokko has shown the ability to manipulate the cells of those he has trapped in his pots, as shown when he mutilated the blacksmiths he had trapped and fused them together. He used this ability to mold his fish-like demons into different sizes and have them possess various unique properties. He can also use this ability on himself, when he changed his appearance or when he created tentacles from his flesh. In an emergency, Gyokko can mutate in order to change his appearance.
After changing his appearance, Gyokko becomes much stronger. Its body is covered with transparent scales, harder than diamonds, which have been kneaded together inside its pot. Only three people have ever seen Gyokko in this state. Everything he touches with his fists is transformed into nice little fish. His appearance and strength change after morphing and is similar to Father Spider Demon’s shapeshifting ability.
5. Hantengu
Being part of the Twelve Kizuki, Hantengu possesses superhuman strength and endurance completely different from that of a conventional demon. He was able to send the Mist Hashira, Muichiro Tokito, several kilometers away with a single blow as well as overwhel Tanjiro, Nezuko Kamado and Genya Shinazugawa with his incredible abilities.
As a member of the Twelve Kizuki, he was able to make use of the Blood Demon Art and developed an ability that allowed him to manifest different appearances, personalities, and unique abilities; each of these could create tools through their own cells and could develop new clones of small size as a limb was severed.
4. Nakime
As the new Upper Moon Four title holder, Nakime possessed tremendous strength. She was able to use her abilities to defend herself against Obanai and Mitsuri, two incredibly strong Hashira, simultaneously, without either of them being able to even scratch her. Later, after getting the Upper Moon Four rank and presumably receiving more blood from Muzan, she showed the new ability to create and detach multiple eyeballs from her body.
This allowed her to spy on others from a distance. With this new ability, she was able to find and locate the positions of nearly every member of the Demon Slayer Corps as well as the hidden mansion of Kagaya Ubuyashiki, who had gone to great lengths to conceal its location even to the most senior members of the corps.
Nakime possesses the ability to manipulate and create a seemingly infinite castle simply by playing her biwa. She can create and shape rooms, such as an open room filled with giant pillars where the fight against Kokushibo took place; a small garden where the fight against Doma took place; a hallway leading to several other rooms where the fight against Akaza was taking place.
Nakime can also use this ability for offensive purposes by shaping pieces into gigantic pillars and ramming it into enemies to crush them. By tying and rooting her hair to a nearby wall inside the castle, she could control the positioning of the castle as she pleased: move and change the positioning of various rooms and walls as if they were her own limbs. However, this presumably made her immobile.
3. Akaza
Akaza is extremely fast, as shown during his fight with Kyojuro when he moves at super fast speeds, moving so fast that even Tanjiro Kamado and Inosuke Hashibira couldn’t perceive his blinding movements, the latter remarking that he was in “another dimension”. Akaza notably possesses phenomenal physical strength.
His incredulous strength has been demonstrated many times, most notably when punching or kicking, which is strong enough to generate powerful shockwaves and shatter the ground. Akaza has one of the most incredible regenerative abilities in the series due to assimilating a massive amount of Muzan Kibutsuji’s blood.
Akaza has a unique ability called Technique Development. Akaza begins by initiating a unique Soryu-style stance. Currently, there are two versions of the position. The first position is achieved by bending his knees into a half-squat position, extending his right arm with a half-closed fist facing his body, and bending his left arm with an open palm; the second version is almost identical except that he opens his palm over his right arm while fully clenching his fists in a downward bend over his left arm.
Afterwards, Akaza uses his Destructive Death fighting style while unleashing shockwave-enhanced martial arts techniques.
2. Doma
Having held the position of the Upper Moon Two, Doma is considered the third strongest demon in the series. His combination of combat techniques and skill is powerful enough to overwhelm and defeat Shinobu, the former Insect Hashira, without any difficulty and it is also noted that he defeated Kanae Kocho, the former Flower Hashira in the past.
According to Doma, the Upper Moon 3, Akaza, would have no chance of defeating him in battle. Considering this, Doma can be presumed to be an extremely powerful demon, although he is not seen fighting seriously until he is severely weakened by Shinobu’s poison. Complementing his cold and calculating disposition, Doma is exceptionally intelligent.
While battling at subsonic speeds with Kanao Tsuyuri, he was able to process and deduce her abilities, surmising that it was her superhuman eyesight that allowed him to parry and dodge his ice attacks. After leaving Kanao and Inosuke Hashibira to fight his ice clones, he interpreted that Inosuke not inhaling his ice powder was because of his extremely acute sense of touch.
It is hinted that Doma was able to trick all of his followers, allowing him to kill and eat them. He was able to maintain this for over a century with almost total infallibility. Doma also possesses an incredible memory, being able to remember the most insignificant details from when he was human over a century ago.
Complementing Doma’s cold-blooded nature, his Blood Demon Art allows him to generate and manipulate ice and frost from his flesh and blood. The ice he creates is light and deep blue in color with little purple and white and is freezing, almost freezing Kanao Tsuyuri and Shinobu Kocho in an instant after coming into contact. Doma can generate his ice at any distance, from the edge of his fans or tens of meters away.
He has repeatedly shown that he can shape ice into different shapes and sizes, including lotuses, gusts of freezing wind, and even a giant bodhisattva statue. He can also create a special ice powder that can suck blood from humans and cause their cells to slowly die. Her powdered ice, when inhaled, will slowly cause her opponent’s lungs to deteriorate, eventually nullifying their ability to breathe and fight.
1. Kokushibo
Kokushibo was an extraordinarily powerful demon, proven to be the strongest of the Twelve Moons and the second strongest demon in existence, second only to Muzan Kibutsuji himself. As one of the oldest demons in the series, he had fought many demon slayers and gained vast experience and knowledge of combat.
He was able to easily decipher the techniques and skills of at least two Hashira and overwhelm them in battle. His physique is one of the finest and most immense in existence, as he is not only a Total Concentration Breath user, but also a marked individual as well as a member of the Twelve Moons who possesses the strongest blood concentration improving Muzan’s physique in the organization.
These all-encompassing abilities and skills allowed Kokushibo to defeat two Hashira with minimal effort and then battle against Sanemi and Gyomei, the latter of whom is considered the strongest Demon Slayer in the current generation Demon Slayer Corps. Even when Gyomei and Sanemi awakened their Demon Slayer Marks, which increased their physical abilities well above their normal limit, he was still able to hold his own against both of them simultaneously.
As a testament to his power, it ultimately took a combination of attacks from Gyomei Himejima, Sanemi Shinazugawa, Muichiro Tokito, and Genya Shinazugawa to even inflict a significant injury on him. He was so strong that the only way for the Demon Slayers to win was to immobilize him, which cost the lives of Muichiro and Genya, the latter having to use a Blood Power to do so, which means that normal attacks wouldn’t work against Kokushibo at all.
Towards the end of their fight, he even gained the ability to regenerate his severed head, leaving the sun as his only weakness. In the end, Kobushibo’s loss was mostly the result of his resolve wavering upon realizing that his lust for power had turned him into a monster, causing him to stop regenerating, rather than his opponents’ skills.
Complementing his fighting style, the Moon Breathing Style, his Blood Demon Art allows him to create and manipulate dozens of sharp blades in the traditional crescent moon shape from his flesh katana. They are believed to be created from his blood and can be bright yellow or bright blue in color. These crescent moon blades are extremely chaotic, constantly changing in size, length, and speed, making Kokushibo’s attacks extremely unpredictable and unreadable as they have no set pattern.
This Blood Demon Art greatly enhances the power of his techniques, making each of his sword swings extremely deadly and dangerous. He also appears to be able to use his Blood Power while his katana is unsheathed, allowing him to create crescent moon blades even without swinging his sword or triggering a technique. The volatile nature of his Blood Power makes it extremely difficult to circumvent Demon Slayers.
Sanemi said that without his years of demon hunting experience, he wouldn’t have been able to hold his own against Kokushibo’s attacks. Kokushibo’s Blood Power appears to have a secondary ability that allows him to manipulate the shape and range of his sword slashes when unleashing his Moon Breathing techniques.
