“Together we shared a bond not even death would violate.” -Dee Remy
Kyojuro Rengoku, Flame Breathing Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps.
Aoi Todo, the hand clapping Grade 1 Sorcerer of Jujutsu Kaisen.
Whether it be as a teacher, fellow warrior, or a simple friend, it's always a pleasure to have a big brother figure in your life. Especially if you're battling curses and demons without pause in a world where chaos runs free and the king of it all slaughters as he pleases. That only makes it all the more bittersweet when they sacrifice everything that they can to ensure the rest of humanity will bask in the rising sun of a greater tomorrow.
So when the Hashira that brings fiery spirit to all faces the best big brother sorcerer that anyone could ask for, who would win? Will the Sorcerer clap no more, or will the Demon Slayer lose his spark? Find out in a DEATH BATTLE!
Before We Start…
Both characters will be getting their original stories and supporting media. That means Rengoku gets the Demon Slayer manga and anime, its supporting side stories, guidebooks, and light novels. Todo will receive similar content, namely the Jujutsu Kaisen manga and anime, and its own supporting material.
Background
Rengoku
For generations, supernatural monsters known as demons have threatened mankind. They consume flesh in order to survive, and ravage all manner of defenses with their mystic Blood Demon Arts. However, for every Yin, there will be a Yang, and thus, the Demon Slayer Corps was founded to protect humanity, as were its greatest warriors, the Hashira. These 9 brilliant blade slashers are the pinnacle of humanity's strength, and one of the greatest they have ever known is Kyojuro Rengoku.
Hailing from a multi-generational lineage of Flame-Breathing Hashira, Kyojuro and his brother Senjuro were happy children with happy parents. That is, until their mother died, killing their father’s spirit as well. Despite these moral setbacks, Kyojuro became the next Rengoku to join the Hashira and met new friends who would help him in his quest to slay all demons. Things would go by normally for a while, until Rengoku met another who wielded a similar (yet different) sword of flame, Tanjiro Kamado, on a mission to solve the Mugen Train Murders. Tanjiro and his friends would idolize Kyojuro, who himself would take them all on as apprentices and lead them to saving all of the passengers on the Train. However…the mission was not yet finished.
Before the break of dawn, a new party arrived. The 3rd Upper Rank of the Twelve Kizuki, and one of the strongest demons alive: Akaza. A master of martial arts and unparalleled warrior, he offered Rengoku a choice before their coming battle; to become a demon like him, so their strength would grow eternally. While this may sound like a great deal to anybody else, Kyojuro was taught differently by his mother. He was taught that those born strong should become stronger; not to protect their own selfish desires, but to protect the weak.
With his spirit burning and his passion aflame, Rengoku battled Akaza, and despite his valiant efforts, even almost slaying the demon single-handedly, Akaza escaped, and Kyojuro would soon succumb to his wounds. Before he passed to the next life however, he would teach his new disciples one last lesson: do not weep for the dead, be happy for the experience. Because what Akaza failed to understand was that the beauty of humanity is in their mortality, and the sacrifices they endure to keep pushing forward. With his heart set ablaze and a smile on his face, Rengoku died happy, knowing in his place would be one even stronger than him, and one who would carry the torch of humanity to even greater heights than he could ever hope to achieve.
Todo
During his time at Tokyo Jujutsu High, Yuji Itadori has encountered all manner of strange individuals and esoteric techniques. Summoning various monsters for battle. Attacking with nails and straw voodoo dolls. Talking people to death, being a fucking panda, and hitting people… really hard! But this academy for those who battle Cursed Spirits is not unique – it has a sister school located in a different city: Kyoto Jujutsu High. And among Kyoto’s upperclassmen was perhaps the strangest of them all, and he only has one question for you… what kind of woman is your type? This is the one, the only, Aoi Todo.
Todo was trained since grade school by Special Grade Sorcerer and professional Kenjaku victim Yuki Tsukumo, and picked up a lot of his… strange mannerisms from her, alongside his deceptively versatile Cursed Technique. As a third-year student, he’s risen to the rank of Grade 1 sorcerer, and surpasses all of his peers in strength – and Yuji’s peers for that matter, as proven when he beat Megumi Fushiguro within an inch of his life for giving a boring answer to his introductory question. A fate that could have befallen Yuji too, were it not for his own uncommon physical strength – and, of course, the fact that his… tastes align with Todo’s own.
Upon realizing their shared interest in tall women with big asses, Todo found instant kinship with his underclassman from a different school, immediately deluding himself into believing that the two of them were long-lost brothers. From then on, Yuji and Todo would recurrently team up against Special Grade Cursed Spirits, including the nature curse Hanami and patchwork man Mahito, proving themselves an unstoppable duo capable of standing up to even the strongest of adversaries with their might combined. Yuji became a source of strength for Todo, a brother-in-arms loved in equal measure to his existing love, the idol Nobuko Takada.
But that source of strength was not without limit, for in their battle against Mahito, one of Todo’s arms was severed, and the other damaged beyond repair by Mahito’s soul manipulating Idle Transfiguration. Rendering Todo’s Cursed Technique unusable and forcing him into retirement before he even graduated. Still, even with his combat ability gone, Todo managed to distract Mahito long enough for Yuji to score the final blow. Leaving everything in the hands of his brother while his own hands could function no longer.
Sadly, a pyrrhic victory in the end. As the world has continued to descend into anarchy and the King of Curses having recently begun to slaughter his way through the strongest sorcerers of the modern day, Todo’s presence at Yuji’s side has been sorely missed. But with Yuji’s ability to affect the soul and recently-developed healing powers, who knows? Perhaps their time to fight as a pair will come again someday. And if not, at the very least, Todo certainly left one hell of an impression.
Experience & Skill
Rengoku
As a Hashira, Rengoku is one of the deadliest warriors in the world. For those unaware, “Hashira” is the title reserved for the Corps strongest and most skilled fighters, which describes Kyojuro perfectly. Just becoming one in the first place means going through the kind of training that almost kills you, killing either 50 demons or a member of the 12 Kizuki (strongest demon's in Muzan's hordes) and up to 5 years of training; 2 if you're a fast learner. No surprise for Rengoku, as he has been trained since childhood by the former Flame Hashira, his father. Even after that training stopped, he continued to grow and advance in skill, reading all his fathers volumes on Flame Breathing that were passed down through generations. He's also adept in physical combat, like when he matched Shinaguzawa in a simple brawl without taking damage or making any effort to hit him.
Rengoku's style can simply be described as a “hit hard and give it your all” type of battle mindset. Most of his moves rely on overwhelming force behind deadly strikes to quickly and efficiently dispatch his immortal foes. He's battled and killed hundreds of demons across his career, like the Bushido master/Lower Rank 2 Haido, and even battled Akaza; a multi-century old demon who has mastered physical combat. Despite his might, Rengoku held his own throughout, earning constant praise from the demon, who even stated he had “developed his fighting spirit to perfection”.
This is even more impressive when you look at Akaza's track record. Even as a mere human, a child no less, Akaza could defeat multiple adults on his own in combat, or even take down 67 users of Kendo in such a fashion he was mistaken for a demon by Muzan's forces. Akaza's style, later dubbed Soryu Style, focuses on quickly and efficiently destroying an enemy's means of combat, through deadly blows to vital areas, or destroying their weapons, like a sword. It has also been described by Giyu Tomioka as one that adapts to his opponents moves over time to overwhelm them. Yet despite suffering this problem, Rengoku still forced him to flee or be killed, through taking an impalement as an opportunity to lock him in for a killing blow, with the rising sun at his back. Even after his death, Akaza offered praise to the fallen Hashira, and his uncanny skill with a blade.
Todo
While not coming from a Sorcerer family, Todo’s undoubtedly among Jujutsu’s High’s best. He was first picked up by Special Grade Sorcerer Yuki Tsukumo when he was in third grade, and now stands as a Third Year and ranked as a Grade 1 Sorcerer, the highest of his entire class. Grade 1 Sorcerers are said to be those who uphold the standards and are fit to lead society, and the dangers involved can’t even compare to even Semi-Grades. Unlike most other sorcerers, Todo’s fighting style consists of nothing but his raw brute strength and hand to hand experience to overwhelm his foes, though that’s only half of his fighting style. Todo demonstrated great skill in also dancing around his opponents, especially helped by his Cursed Technique, Boogie Woogie, making it a great challenge for their attacks to even land.
Todo’s craftiness as a fighter also extends to his intelligence. He’s been shown to theorize and deduce how his opponent’s moves work and their potential limits, and put together how Hanami’s Cursed Buds work in 0.01 seconds, and this was only after seeing it used on Megumi once. This even extends to fighting styles, as against Yuji he analyzes his fighting style during combat. Todo’s demonstrated himself to be a great mentor as well, being able to teach Yuji the ways of improving as a Sorcerer and battling high level curses, even teaching him how to utilize Black Flash within a couple hours at most. He’s also demonstrated great creativity in using Boogie Woogie in combat, which will be elaborated on in its own section.
Todo has fought a great variety of foes across his time as a Sorcerer. During The Night Parade of a Hundred Demons, Todo defeated five 1st Grade curses without using his technique once, and a Special Grade on top of that. With Yuji, Todo’s also battled against the Disaster Curse Hanami with Itadori, who while initially began to anticipate Todo’s technique, was thrown off guard multiple times as Todo began to reveal more on how his technique works. But the greatest challenge he was able to battle was Mahito during the Shibuya Incident alongside Yuji. For reference, Mahito was able to battle Nanami, another First Grade sorcerer who has been one for many years, even fighting him alongside Yuji, and Mahito has grown much more proficient by the Shibuya Incident. Todo has demonstrated great adaptability against Mahito, playing around his shapeshifting, weaponry and transfigured humans all while only getting hit once in response. This has also all been while fighting with Yuji and using Boogie Woogie on all three of them, showcasing Todo’s incredible multitasking ability.
Most importantly, if he wants to determine an opponent’s worth, Todo will go to one of his signature tactics: Preferences in women. He used this to test both Megumi and Yuji’s worth, with his disappointment in Megumi’s response in valuing unshakable character compassion above all else (based) resulting in Todo being disappointed at how boring Megumi is as he didn’t show any strong feelings and dedication towards his choices. However, should his foe answer honestly with passion (such as liking tall girls with big butts), Todo would show great respect and even help his foe with improving as a Jujutsu Sorcerer.
Equipment
Rengoku
Nichirin Sword
The tried-and-true staple of (nearly) every Slayer of the Corps. Forged from a special ore in the hidden swordsmith village, this blade absorbs the natural sunlight all around, and is the only weapon that can kill an immortal demon besides the sun. Even better, it can be used and harnessed in extreme techniques through Total Concentration Breathing; powering up its strikes to the maximum. Behind Rengoku's divine skill and strength, it can slash through nearly anything in his path, or any foe stupid enough to challenge him.
Demon Slayer Uniform
Every member of the Demon Slayer Corps is outfitted with a uniform made from a special fabric. The uniform that Rengoku wears provides him resistance to extreme temperatures, whether it’s the freezing cold or scorching heat as well as protection from the claws and fangs of your average demon. Combine this uniform with Rengoku’s flame-patterned white cloak, and you’ve got one badass-looking side character.
Todo
Playful Cloud
A special grade cursed tool, Playful Cloud is a three section staff that relies on the user’s raw physical power rather than high levels of cursed energy. It amps up a user’s strength with cursed energy, and its power varies based on the user.
Locket
Todo keeps a locket around his neck containing pictures of the two people who mean the most to him, Yuji Itadori and Nobuko Takada. This highly motivates him as he can fabricate entire situations of beating his foe and hype himself up to do the same in real life.
Abilities
Rengoku
Total Concentration: Flame Breathing
In order to kill the unholy wretches of Muzan's progeny, the Demon Slayers need a bit more than a sword and anime stereotypical power of friendship (even though that still works) to win the day. Thus, they have created an incredibly versatile fighting style to combat the Blood Demon Art's their foes use: Total Concentration Breathing. By focusing the simplest form of life and energy through their lungs to the rest of their body, the Demon Slayers can enhance their power through deadly techniques that slice their enemies to shreds. As a result, the Demon Slayer Corps has developed various special sword styles that utilize these unique and concentrated breathing patterns.
These practices can help increase lung capacity and the amount of oxygen in one's blood, enhancing physical capabilities/mental concentration for fighting on par with Muzan’s demons. Not only that, but they can also help clot a slayer’s wounds sustained from severe injuries, and slow down any poison that’s circulating within their bloodstream. Even better, Some Demon Slayers can constantly maintain Total Concentration Breathing at all times throughout day and night, even during sleep. The immense difference in strength, speed, and stamina is showcased between those who have completed this training and those who haven’t. Those who have can destroy a large gourd by simply exhaling their breath.
There are several styles, offshoots, and variations of those, but the 5 primal styles stand tall as the most powerful. Rengoku utilizes one of these styles, known simply as Flame Breathing. Through his uncanny skill and strength, Rengoku can focus his blade like a raging inferno (literally) to slash his way through any Demon with little more than a single swing. That's pretty much the core of Flame Breathing as a whole; to give it everything you've got with unbridled passion stoking the flames of your every move, holding steadfast stances to back everything up. Rengoku's vibrant flames honed through his own select sword can be used in multiple techniques, all to slay any monster he comes across.
First Form: Unknowing Fire
As the first form of Rengoku's burning bag of tricks, he zips forward with flames licking at his heels, boosting his speed and power to lunge forward in a deadly slice. He's used this before to quickly dispatch Demons in one stroke, or match Akaza's strength blow for blow.
Second Form: Rising Scorching Sun
This technique is executed similarly to Tanjiro's Water Wheel, in order to similarly execute any Demonic adversary. Through bringing his blade up; Rengoku unleashes a deadly upper slice of flame. A perfect pick for dismembering or beheading your enemies as fast as possible, and to give you some breathing room in the heat of battle.
Third Form: Blazing Universe
A technique that is executed similar to Rising Scorching Sun, but in reverse. By swinging his blade down, Rengoku delivers a killer lower slice of flame. Just like with the second form, it’s a perfect pick for dismembering or beheading opponents as fast as possible as well as providing some breathing room.
Fourth Form: Blooming Flame Undilation
Not every technique needs to be a large slash of firepower. Sometimes defense is the best offense, and Kyojuro understands this very well, as proven by this masterful move. Rather than strike a foe, this move crafts a swirling flame shield to block attacks, and even shrug off the smashing fists of Akaza.
Fifth Form: Flame Tiger
For his more ferocious encounters, Rengoku can unveil this equally ferocious beast of a move. Through racing forward with all his might, the Flame Hashira can almost become a flaming tiger to match powerful strikes from Akaza; truly becoming speed and strength incarnate.
Esoteric Art Ninth Form: Rengoku
In his final stand against Akaza, Rengoku took Flame Tiger…and decided to completely outclass it. With this…well, Esoteric Art, Rengoku zooms forward in a brilliant spiral of flame to match Akaza's strongest moves, giving every last bit of his undying spirit into his strikes to stop him. It is rather fitting it shares his name, or the meaning behind it; “purgatory”. For even the most fiery depths of hell can not hope to match the might Rengoku will charge at you with.
Extraordinary Senses
Due to being a skilled Demon Slayer, Rengoku can sense the presence of others and their intentions. Before he became one himself, Rengoku was able to sense the aura of the other Hashira. In fact, he was able to identify Shinobu and Kanae as sisters just by judging their auras. Impressively, Rengoku’s body can instinctively react to danger on its own despite not sensing any evil aura (see more below). Muzan Kibutsuji has even stated that the Hashira are skilled enough to sense the presence of a demon and tell them apart from humans, even being able to instantly sense one in a town should they show themselves.
Instinctive Reactions
Rengoku's body can move on its own due to sensing the intentions of others, and if he himself is in danger but not exactly able to mentally perceive it. His arm has instinctively raised to grab and choke a girl who was endangering his Spiritual Core, despite him being asleep at the time. As in, his body moved all on its own in accordance with its senses due to perceiving this threat…while the man was knocked TF out in a nap.
Enhanced Stamina/Pain Tolerance
As any (sob) Rengoku fan can tell you, this guy is the physical embodiment of willpower and endurance. Even as a relatively new member of the Corps, he endured several gunshot wounds and explosions while battling Hairo, yet pushed through and defeated him nonetheless. Throughout his later battle with Akaza, he endured having his ribs broken, his eye crushed, internal organs damaged, and even straight-up impalement, but still kept going nonetheless. Hell, he almost decapitated Akaza despite being Impaled by him; literally using this as an opportunity to lock him in and attempt to slash his head off. Even after Akaza escaped, Rengoku still remained alive for multiple minutes while impaled: instead dying to blood loss from the arm still stuck in him fading away. And all through this? Smiling like the absolute Gigachad he is.
Healing
As stated above, Demon Slayers that have mastered their training in Total Concentration Breathing such as Rengoku are skilled enough to stop the wounds of their injuries. Tanjiro, for example, was able to stop a hemorrhage under Rengoku’s instructions. With a single breath, a Demon Slayer can recover during combat while multiple breaths can strengthen the muscles around broken bones.
Todo
Cursed Energy
Cursed energy is a form of energy that is utilized by all sorcerers to enhance their power for unique techniques, with all jujutsu sorcerers knowing how to operate it. This energy is generated through triggering negative emotions (Examples being anger, jealousy, and hatred). As said previously, every sorcerer knows how to use cursed energy, as all undergo training to generate and use cursed energy from even the slightest of their emotions. This allows them to avoid wasting cursed energy whenever their emotions are greatly affected. Cursed Energy flows from the gut, and to the rest of the body. It can be used to reinforce the body, increasing strength, speed, and durability and can be used to walk on water. The usage of Cursed Energy in combat is called Taijutsu.
Injuries caused by Cursed Energy cause people to become automatically cursed, which creates severe consequences for normal beings, such as extreme pain, weakening of the body, becoming ill, and eventually death. Cursed Energy also grants the ability to harm non-physical entities, like low-grade Curses, which are capable of becoming intangible.
Usages of Cursed Energy
Physical Empowerment - By fusing cursed energy with their bodies, sorcerers are able to massively increase their physical prowess and abilities, and even interact and harm cursed spirits. Skilled enough sorcerers can restrict damage by controlling their energy, as shown by Todo focusing his energy in a singular spot to minimize harm from an attack.
Spiritual Protection - Sorcerers can also use cursed energy as a protection of their souls.
Cursed Techniques - An essential trick card to every sorcerer, a way to manipulate cursed energy through different and unique ways rather than simply unleashing it, while all sorcerers are skilled in different techniques, the ones Gojo can pull off will be elaborated in the sections below.
Revealing One’s Hand
A simple Binding Vow that grants Todo a higher cursed energy output by divulging the details of his Cursed Technique. Todo abuses this ability by being intentionally vague and withholding the extent of his technique, allowing him to surprise his opponents with new applications should they start to adapt to his technique.
Boogie Woogie
Almost every Jujutsu Sorcerer possesses their own innate technique, and Todo is no different. Todo’s Cursed Technique, dubbed ‘Boogie Woogie’, is one activated by either clapping his own hands together or his own hand with another individual. Upon clapping, Todo can swap the positions of two people within a certain range. While Todo initially uses this on himself and someone else, he reveals later that he doesn’t have to be one of the people swapped. The targets aren’t even limited to just humans or curses, as even any object with cursed energy can be a target of the technique, from his Playful Cloud to even small rocks.
Those swapped also return the momentum the other person or object had, allowing for lots of creativity with how and when Todo uses it in battle. Even for those who know how the technique works, it can still be incredibly disorienting when playing around it, as stated by Mahito in his battle against Yuji and Todo.
But of course, if you know Todo you know that he can get incredibly creative with his technique. Like what was said in the Binding Vow section, Todo likes to be ambiguous on how his technique works to catch his opponents off guard. In his fight with Hanami, he fakes out Hanami by not activating his technique and only chooses to reveal he can swap any two individuals once it’d benefit him and Yuji, then later reveals he can swap with any object for yet another surprise attack (which he does again against Mahito).
But even that’s the tip of the iceberg for Todo’s creativity. He’s used Boogie Woogie to easily play around his opponents’ attacks, making them miss and even tricking Mahito into slicing one of his Transfigured Humans in two. Todo’s used this move to catch opponents off guard to set up attacks, swapping in to parry their moves, swapping out his brother so he’s able to grab them, and swapping himself out for an ally to counterattack.
Boogie Woogie’s even been used for mobile purposes with regular objects, including swapping with thrown rocks to attack from above, switching himself with a thrown rock to escape incoming attacks, to using thrown rocks dodged by foes to attack them from behind, to weaponizing momentum from thrown objects for more powerful attacks when swapping himself in. Todo’s even used this to craft escape routes for himself or his allies whenever needed. What may be a simple technique can have a thousand different applications, and Todo’s Boogie Woogie is the perfect example of it.
Black Flash
Upon applying cursed energy within a microsecond of landing an attack, an effect known as Black Flash is produced. It’s born from a spatial distortion, and the attack’s potency is increased by the power of 2.5. Successful uses of Black Flash result in being in a zone compared to that of athletes, to where manipulating cursed energy becomes like breathing to the sorcerer, where it’s able to let the user utilize 120% of their full potential.
It’s said that those who’ve experienced Black Flash possess an immeasurable understanding of the essence of cursed energy, which Todo also falls under, as he’s demonstrated this technique multiple times and even taught Yuji how to utilize it. However, unleashing Black Flash requires incredible concentration and no jujutsu sorcerer is capable of using it at will.
Simple Domain
Learned from his mentor, Todo’s capable of utilizing the technique Simple Domain as a countermeasure against Domain Expansions. To avoid the guaranteed hit that would land from one, it creates a barrier around the user that is affected instead. Todo uses this to counter Mahito’s Domain Expansion, though wasn’t fast enough to fully negate it. Other Simple Domain users have shown the capacity to alter its properties, allowing time itself to stop within the realm, or even slow its passage relative to the outside. It’s unclear however if Todo is capable of these alterations.
Enhanced Stamina/Pain Tolerance
Todo’s technique isn't his only defining trait, but his persistence in staying in the fight until the end. He’s taken several punches from Yuji, even multiple to the face and still kept going, and against Hanami demonstrated great stamina and agility in maneuvering around Hanami’s attacks. This continues with his battle with Mahito, even shrugging off being smashed and pinballed through a building.
But most impressively, Todo was able to keep going after severing his own arm to stop Idle Transfiguration, and got off one last Boogie Woogie by clapping his hand with Mahito’s after barely surviving Mahito’s Black Flash to his stomach by shielding it with cursed energy. Todo was even able to stand one last time a bit later in the fight, and tricked Mahito one final time by clapping his wounded hand and severed arm together to fake a swap to let his brother finish the fight.
Resistances
Will Manipulation: He and Yuji break out of Hanami’s flower garden, which reduces an individual’s will to fight, almost immediately mid combat.
Mind Manipulation: While requiring manual activation, Cursed Energy is capable of blocking out Cursed Speech.
Soul Manipulation: Could be comparable to fellow Grade 1 Sorcerer Nanami, who was able to use Cursed Energy to resist Mahito’s Idle Transfiguration, which transfigures the soul.
Extreme Heat: Other sorcerers have been able to withstand Jogo’s presence including inside his Domain Expansion (even beginning of series Yuji) despite the average sorcerer burning up just by entering. Sorcerers like Naobito and Nanami are even able to survive Jogo’s presence while enraged, Jogo being able to passively char someone and even vaporize the ashes of dozens with a single finger flick. Jogo’s fire can even vaporize metal, yet Sorcerors can barely survive on death’s door with lethal burns.
Foreign Intrusions: Due to the body being like a living Domain, foreign intrusions cannot manifest in the body. They must enter the body via piercing the skin or be breathed inside, like toxins.
Feats
Rengoku
Overall
Became a Hashira and succeeded the line of Flame Breathers to enter in record time
Saved the Infinity Train's passengers and his 3 new students from Akaza
Regarded as one of the strongest and greatest among the Corp by its best members
Defeated Haido, the 2nd Lower Rank of the 12 Kizuki, while still somewhat new to the Corps
Fought and nearly killed Akaza, the 3rd Upper Rank of the 12 Kizuki; forcing the Demon to turn tail and run or be killed by the rising sun
Was successfully reincarnated alongside Tanjiro in the modern day to be the best of friends once more
Power
Beat Giyu Tomioka in an arm wrestling match, and was later compared to his Marked Form by Akaza despite lacking one himself
His movements lifted two cars of the Infinity Train
Slashed Akaza's neck and almost beheaded him even while impaled, also restraining his arm/stopping his punch using his other arm (shown above)
hAS tHe sTreNGtH oF a bLAzINg UnIVErsE (universal, clearly)
Speed
Saved Tanjiro from Akaza, who didn't even see the blow coming
Was considered to be in a “completely separate dimension” by Inosuke while dueling Akaza; so much so that him interfering would only slow him down and result in his own death
Durability
Survived multiple gunshot wounds and this large explosion back to back
His Blooming Flame Undilation shield blocked strikes from Akaza
Took a kick from Akaza (shown above)
Was impaled by Akaza’s arm and was still able to swing his sword
Todo
Overall
Ranked as a Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer
Fought and easily kept up with Megumi despite not using his Curse Technique
Taught Yuji the ways of improving as a Sorcerer
Alongside Itadori, battled the Disaster Curse Hanami
Considered the strongest student of the Kyoto Jujutsu high school by Mechamaru
With Yuji (again), assisted in defeating Mahito during the Shibuya incident
The absolute lad
Power
Suplexed Megumi (as seen above)
Sent Yuji flying through trees despite a Cursed Spirit getting in the way
Together, he and Yuji launch off one another to escape Hanami’s attack
Speed
Intercepted Yuji’s Divergent Fist with his forehead before it could gain momentum
Deduced him needing to deactivate his cursed energy in 0.01 seconds
Chopped off his arm before Mahito’s Idle Transfiguration spread to the rest of him
Black Flash activates within a microsecond (Mach 284.4 - 932.9)
FLew PasT tHe STaRs wHIlE aPpROaCHiNG maHiTO (2,743,927c, obviously)
Durability
Took multiple blows from Yuji
Shrugged off Mahito’s Polymorphic Soul Isomer launching him through a building
With his cursed energy, could survive a Black Flash from Mahito to the stomach
Scaling
Rengoku
Demon Slayer Corps
As a member of the Hashira in the Demon Slayer Corps, Rengoku is objectively superior to pretty much everybody in it. In fact, based on an arm wrestling tournament, we can tell that Rengoku was stronger than the rest of the Hashira besides Tengen and Himejima. Beyond this, he has battled and nearly killed Akaza, the 3rd Upper Rank in Muzan's warriors. Considering Akaza is superior to foes who gave the other Hashira like Mitsuri and Muichiro trouble and later dueled Tanjiro and Giyu, it's pretty clear Rengoku should scale to the blunt of impressive feats from the Slayers, even after his passing.
Zenitsu has blitzed Kaigaku
Zenitsu himself has been stated in guidebooks to have the momentum of lightning early in the series, after which he would be much faster
Inosuke caught up to Zenitsu's Thunderclap and Flash Godlike Speed in an instant to help him behead Super Daki
Nezuko pushed Tanjiro out of the way of Hantengu's electricity (not cloud to ground)
Muichiro deflected 10,000 flying fish in moments (Mach 526.02)
Mitsuri has jumped over lightning and attacked in a timeframe where it barely moves
Mitsuri has a muscle density that’s eight times more than a regular human
Tanjiro believed a fight between Giyu Tomioka and Shinazugawa would threaten multiple buildings, people, and potentially a town in a Light Novel
Upper Moon Demons
The upper ranked demons are the most dangerous foes any demon slayer can face, second only to Muzan. Rangoku was able to match the Upper Rank 3 Demon, Akaza, and was nearly successful in killing him. Other Demon Slayer Corps members like Tanjiro and the Hashira, such as Mitsuri, can match other upper ranks as well and were able to kill all of them, though not without injury. Given Rengoku can match the other members of the Corps and almost killed Akaza, it's fair to say Rengoku can scale to the rest of the Upper Ranks of the 12 Kizuki.
Upper Rank 6/Gyutaro let loose a gigantic explosion of his Blood Demon Art upon his death that destroyed the Entertainment District (2.4 kilotons of TNT)
Tanjiro, Tengen, Inosuke, and Zenitsu could all survive this while near death and poisoned themselves, meaning at their peaks, they would be significantly greater, yet still inferior to Rengoku through Akaza
Upper Rank 4/Hantengu could blast parts of buildings away and crater the ground with simple attacks
Upper Rank 3/Akaza was “in a whole other dimension” of speed while battling Rengoku according to Inosuke and shown through both him and Tanjiro
Upper Rank 3/Akaza is stated by Rengoku to be moving at a “fraction of a blink”
Nakime/Biwa Demon shook the entirety of the Infinity Castle, and almost made it come apart through a mental battle with Muzan (6.3 - 100.8 kilotons of TNT and 8.8 megatons of TNT)
Yushiro also rapidly moved it to the surface to force Muzan out (7.165 - 57.32 Megatons of TNT as a highball, More in Before The Verdicts)
Todo
Yuji Itadori
Brother and brother, Todo was one of Yuji’s first major hurdles in Jujutsu sorcery, and after passing his tests Todo and Yuji have battled together multiple times. While Todo has stated Itadori to be stronger and faster than he is, he should still be comparable given he could battle against Yuji directly and are portrayed on a similar level while fighting as a duo. Which is especially impressive considering…
Yuji can throw cars and punch through concrete walls with ease
Dodged a blast of blood that surpasses the speed of sound
Is stated to be even faster than Maki Zenin who can catch a bullet (Mach 7.4 - Mach 16.3 - Mach 21.3) and later caught up to Naoya moving at Mach 3
Can utilize Black Flash which activates within a microsecond (Mach 611.4)
Jogo
While Todo has not battled Jogo directly, he should naturally be comparable given he’s battled the other disaster curses Mahito and Hanami. In addition, Jogo was stated to have died instantly if he took the five Black Flashes from Yuji in addition to Todo’s Playful Cloud strike, the same ones that Hanami was able to survive. So naturally, Todo should be comparable.
One-shot Maki, Naobito and Nanami in quick succession
Can crater the ground by jumping and can destroy several buildings
Superior to his fellow curses, Hanami who can create several trees (3 kilotons of TNT) and Dagon who can create a domain with an island inside (69.8 kilotons of TNT)
Created a domain with an actual volcano inside (441.5 kilotons of TNT)
MAXSHIMMMMUHMMMMMMM MEATEEEOOOORRRRR (240 kilotons of TNT - 79.5 megatons of TNT)
Mahito
Todo was able to hold his own against Mahito during the Shibuya Incident, and alongside his brother Yuji, they teamed up against Mahito and both performed incredibly well, with Todo keeping up with and landing several hits that staggered Mahito and put him on the backfoot. Todo was put out of commission by Mahito during that fight, but that’s solely due to Mahito landing an Idle Transfiguration on him from his Domain Expansion that was impossible to dodge.
Made a trench in the road from smashing Yuji across the road
Stated to give Kenjaku a difficult fight. Kenjaku’s able to:
Dodge Choso’s blood shots constantly, which move at supersonic speeds, even when it was centimeters away from him (Mach 7)
React to arrows and sniper fire
Geto (who Kenjaku’s using the body of) can react to and block bullets
Can also use Black Flash
Thanks to being a Special Grade Curse, pistols, shotguns and tanks are ineffective
Sukuna
Nah, he’s too good to scale to him.
That said, Todo > 20 Finger Sukuna fr fr.
Weaknesses
Rengoku
With his skills and TOTALLY REAL katana magic, it’s easy to forget Rengoku is still human. He can still get tired and strain his body to the limits, injuring him further. And even though Total Concentration breathing can stop minor injuries like stab wounds and internal bleeding, a big enough injury can render it useless and kill Rengoku. Plus, like most other Demon Slayer's, he is basically defenseless without his blade.
Todo
Todo generally lacks major weaknesses, though Todo can’t use his hand for clapping if one is amputated, however his technique is still usable though not to the same effect and much more difficult. Todo is also just deemed as quite annoying to be around by… basically everyone not named Yuji.
Before the Verdicts
Demon Slayer Speed
One factor regarding Demon Slayer that has come into question recently is the speed of it, due to lightning reevaluations in select parts of the community. This should clear up exactly how it matters, and arguments for or against lightning feats in the verse.
The biggest example of this would be the attacks utilized by Hantengu, the 4th ranked Upper Moon of the 12 Kizuki. He shoots lightning from his staff multiple times throughout his battle and forms, which has been dodged/moved in tandem with by both Nezuko and Mitsuri; the latter doing so rather easily in a faster sense. This is where the arguments against it being lightning come in. Technically, for lightning to maintain its massively hypersonic conditions, you need specific atmospheric conditions, or the big one, for it to come from storm clouds, otherwise known as cumulonimbus.
Hantengu's lightning is referred to as lightning by him, given descriptions like “thunder-death” in his techniques, and called lightning multiple times in his section of the second official fanbook. Still, you can say it's just a more broad description of electricity, due to lacking cloud to ground comparisons to justify legitimate lightning speeds. That said, there are also plenty of instances in Hantengu's duel with Mitsuri where he calls down lightning from above her, not shooting from his staff or drums, so you could say they came from the clouds. The issue there is the clouds we see aren't cumulonimbus/storm clouds. You could still however argue it could be the case, or alternatively that Hantengu manifested them in midair… as weird as that is.
Ultimately, it lacks substantial evidence to be used for feats, with arguments for and against its usage with varying levels of levity. Still, despite this being highly debatable, there are other feats in Demon Slayer that still yield massively hypersonic results that are easier to prove. The main example would be Zenitsu being stated in guidebooks to have the “momentum” of lightning. Several characters can keep up with Zenitsu in combat, like Inosuke catching up to his fastest move at the time during the Entertainment District. This statement was also pretty early on in the series, and Zenitsu has since gotten faster. There's also Zenitsu blitzing Kaigaku, who moves at the speed of lightning. This is supported by other feats from the verse, like Muzan casually moving over Mach 100 to kill one of the lower Kizuki, Muichiro moving at Mach 500 to block 10,000 fish needles, and Rengoku's own statement of being in another dimension and on another level to Inosuke, who is comparable to Zenitsu.
So at the end of the day, the Hantengu feats are pretty debatable, but the verse is still MHS speed wise without it.
Infinity Castle
One of Muzan's greatest assets in his demonic army is Nakime, otherwise known as the Biwa Demon. Her Blood Demon Art is the manipulation of the Infinity Castle; a sort of separate dimensional area the demons can hide in or discuss business without fear of interruption. Why does this matter? Well, there are several feats of Nakime moving or otherwise affecting the entire massive castle.
For starters, it's clear she has direct influence over the entire castle. She states “with absolute certainty” who is and isn't inside, and effortlessly moves massive portions of it, making it “throb” and such, moving it “as if it were her own hands and feet”. When Tamayo's assistant Yushiro took control of Nakime's body, and thus her control over the Infinity Castle, he used her power to push the castle up through the ground, eventually pushing up past the surface. Muzan immediately aimed to kill Nakime and prevent her powers from being utilized, resulting in a mental skirmish that shook and warped the entirety of the castle. Once Muzan killed Nakime, the Infinity Castle collapsed. This was made clear by both Iguro and Yushiro, and confirmed by the second Demon Slayer Fanbook (which is official, don’t be misled by the naming).
With all this in mind, there are several methods that could be used to calculate the feat. The kinetic energy needed to move and shake portions or the entirety of the castle at once, the potential energy needed to lift such a massive structure, the energy needed to push the castle up through the earth above it, and ultimately the energy needed to collapse the castle. All of which would scale to the power output of Nakime’s Blood Demon Art, and thus the power of higher ranked demons as well.
Technically, it’s also worth acknowledging that calculations for the feat may be a lowball of the Infinity Castle's actual size. What we are shown is just a portion of it after all, and only a select angle, not counting the many other parts, sections, and layers we see as Akaza and the others fly through. There are at least three layers inside it, from the more ground-like layer with Douma's mini fortress, to the city-like area we’ve seen, and finally an upper layer in which the Upper Moons discuss.
As for how Rengoku scales to this, we know that Nakime took the place of the deceased Hantengu as Upper Moon 4, with the Upper Moons’ ranking system being strength based. Given that Rengoku nearly killed Akaza, who is Upper Rank 3, we know him to be stronger than Nakime. He should also be superior to characters who have fought Hantengu like Marked Mitsuri, Nezuko and Tanjiro at the time. Despite dying early on, Rengoku has dueled one of the most formidable foes in the verse, and thus scales beyond lesser threats from later in the series like Nakime.
Maximum Meteor Scaling
There may be questions regarding why we are scaling Todo to Jogo’s Maximum Meteor, given how there are several important points that some may feel invalidates the scaling.
To begin, Todo has never actually fought Jogo 1 on 1, he hasn't even met him! However, Todo has fought numerous special grade curses, including two other Disaster Curses in Hanami and Mahito. Mahito himself was considered powerful enough by Jogo to carry on with their plans if Jogo died, and Hanami was able to endure hits from Todo and Yuji that were considered powerful enough to exorcize Jogo if they landed. Ultimately this creates a general level of power consistent with any special grade cursed spirit.
There is also the question of scaling to the level of power in the attack itself. Maximum Meteor is Jogo’s ultimate technique. And its power is demonstrated as something greater than any of Jogo’s “normal” attacks. Sukuna even admits that if it hit him, it would have done some damage. As such it is valid to question if even scaling to Jogo, if it would be valid to scale to the meteor itself. To put it simply, while Todo would not scale to the full power of the meteor, he should still downscale from it. It is a powerful attack from Jogo, his strongest move. But it is not so powerful and so draining that it leaves him drained afterwards. He was still capable of carrying on his fight with Sukuna afterwards, and as such the technique isn't hundreds of times higher than his base power.
It should be noted that there are other examples we can point to which prove that Maximum techniques aren’t far beyond the user’s normal level of power. Kenjaku’s Maximum Technique Uzumaki, for example, has been blocked before by Grade 1 sorcerers such as Kusakabe. Additionally, Yuki, a Special Grade whom Kenjaku is relative to, was able to withstand a point blank Uzumaki to the upper half of her body by blocking with her arms - albeit, the second Uzumaki tore through her stomach, as she was unable to defend from it. Additionally, Geto was able to withstand a Cursed Energy blast from Yuta powerful enough to overcome Uzumaki, albeit not without severe injuries. Which suggests that Geto/Kenjaku are not themselves incomparably inferior to their own Maximum technique, and the same should hold true for Jogo. This makes sense, as these techniques still stem from the user’s pool of Cursed Energy, which is the same power source that reinforces the body and all Jujutsu attacks.
As a result, while Todo shouldn’t fully scale to it, it should be fine for him to downscale from the meteor itself, with the meteor getting anywhere from 240 kilotons to 79.5 megatons of TNT in power.
Domain Expansion Scaling
In addition to the questions surrounding Maximum Meteor, the other question may be how this is applicable to attack potency, due to the fact that these areas being exactly what they are as well as their size has been questioned by people in the past. However, it is important to consider them as an argument for this debate, for a few key reasons.
First of all, Domains have been explicitly stated to be constructs made from Cursed Energy and are the most taxing technique for any sorcerer to do - them being made from Cursed Energy should mean that they should be able to follow the same formula as any other attack made from Cursed Energy, and as such still be calculable.
In addition to that, Demon Slayer’s greatest feat, the Castle, is a similar feat that also involves calculating the energy needed to create and manipulate a large area through non-physical abilities. Since the two are similar in nature and JJK if anything has a more well-established energy system (thus making the scaling from creation -> combat applicable power easier to argue), it’s fair to equate the two in terms of argument; accept one, the other should be valid too, and the inverse as well.
Verdicts
Rengoku
Stats
Stat-wise, Rengoku can match all of Todo's best ends, and exceed in higher ones. While both verses have their fair share of impressive hypersonic feats, their best dip into massively hypersonic. Todo can utilize Black Flash, applying Cursed Energy in a microsecond at speeds 200-900 times faster than sound. Rengoku would upscale from Zenitsu's reaching the momentum of lightning (Mach 286) early in the series, and Muichiro's Mach 500 fish slice. Both values would match the mid and high ends of Todo's speed given his upscaling, but more often than not, it’s safe to say they are roughly even in speed.
As for strength and durability, both are several leagues above low level kiloton feats at minimum. Rengoku's best showing is battling and nearly killing Akaza, the 3rd Upper Rank of the Twelve Kizuki, who scales leagues above Gyutaro creating a 2.4 kiloton explosion in the Entertainment District. Todo on the other hand should scale to Dagon, who made an island inside his Domain worth roughly 69 kilotons of TNT. While Todo may seem to have the edge, the absurd difference between Gyutaro and Akaza would help bridge that gap.
Next up, we have their higher stats, which are… a bit weird. In Todo's case, the strongest character he can match would be Jogo, who has a 440 kiloton feat of melting Shibuya, and up to 240 kilotons to 79 megatons with his Maximum Meteor. Given the five Black Flashes from Todo and Yuji’s fight with Hanami were stated to be fatal to Jogo, it's safe to grant him this kind of power. However, it's just downscaling to its maximum potential, as it is portrayed as WAY outside his normal weight class. While he has fought people similar to Jogo's feats, the Meteor is far stronger than his base as proven by the logic in before the verdicts. So, for those feats, he can't scale all the way. For Rengoku, let's turn to the Infinity Castle, and how much stronger it makes him.
Given that Rengoku is superior to Nakime’s feats, he should be beyond the potential energy of the Castle, which equals 8.8 megatons of TNT, and the highball of the ground push getting up to 57.32 megatons of TNT. This is a little over 37 times stronger than the lowest end of the meteor for the low end, and thus higher than the other feats Todo would scale to. If you decided to take the highest end of the meteor, which gets up to 79 megatons of TNT, he would be slightly stronger. If that was all there was to it. Remember, Todo would not scale to the full output of Jogo's meteor, and thus at best he can downscale. Rengoku on the other hand upscales from Nakime's potential by several levels given the power difference between classes, meaning even if you take the highest ends for both, Rengoku should still be stronger.
What's more, this also isn't exactly the cap for the Castle either. The calculation essentially uses the normal walking speed for a human to gauge the distance and get the mass. You could say that they weren't going in a linear path and thus not attribute the distance to them… but this logic falls through once you look at the actual context. For one thing, it treats them as normal humans walking, and not them actually running the majority of the time or being superhuman by default. For another, any debunk assumes Nakime actively warped them and messed with the distance…when she didn't. Once Yushiro warped the Castle, all the Slayers present were visibly shocked and confused for a time, as that sort of thing hadn't happened to them before. Even in cases where she actively tries to separate people like Tanjiro and Giyu, she's just moving parts around to alter where they move, not switching their literal path or anything like that. The closest example to support for that theory is Nakime leading Shinobu to Douma, but this again is answered through context.
All of the Slayers were warped around the Castle at whim upon entering, and Shinobu found Douma, who was in his own layer/palace. She achieved this simply from traveling without any major hurdles, and thus it is safe to assume she was simply put on his level to begin with. So, the established multi kilometer distance is absolutely viable, and if anything the bare minimum for the Castle. This takes only one layer and treats the example as the entire castle, when there are multiple other layers to add on to the weight, height, and overall energy attributed to the feat. However, these ends can still be dismissed and booted back to the basics, but that would still leave the result of Rengoku being as fast as Todo at least, and much stronger and tougher at the end of the day.
Arsenal & Abilities
When it comes to their arsenal and abilities, it's obvious Todo will have the edge. Boogie Woogie is overpowered in a one on one duel, and given the pair’s similar speed, it's going to be quite the challenge for Rengoku to actually hit Todo. However, it isn't impossible. To emphasize, Todo's ability is indeed broken, but it's not a solid game changer when his opponent is a bit faster and much stronger. He may have the luxury of dodging multiple hits easier, but that doesn't improve his ability to do damage through his own hits. Given his limited arsenal outside of that, he doesn't have a solid option to finish the battle.
One possibility is Cursed Energy and its effect on people who don't possess it. It has negative side effects, almost like poison, and could potentially do Rengoku in, with enough time. However, this is unlikely for multiple reasons, mainly his unnatural resistance to pain. He has fought on with extreme bodily injury and fatigue on several occasions against beings just as powerful as himself with few detrimental problems, and could likely shrug off any negative effects because of it. On another note, other Slayers have used their breathing and natural resilience to slow down poisons and negative effects before, like Tanjiro and his friends, or his fellow Hashira Tengen. They have some external reasoning, but their resilience can still be applied to Rengoku, and thus this effect will not matter much all things considered.
Beyond that, Rengoku takes most of the other factors that matter here. His sword is obviously more dangerous than a staff or physical blows, and through Flame Breathing, he has more options to attack that don't require complex strategies that take time away from defending. His simple methods of shielding and boosting his physical stats through higher forms can also match Todo's own power boosts, like Black Flash. Perhaps his biggest advantages though are his keen senses and instinctive reactions, which, combined with his later elaborated experience, are the perfect tools to adapt to Boogie Woogie.
In short, the senses of a Hashira and Demon Slayer in general are enough to instantly locate demons across the span of an entire town. His sensing auras and people's general location is somewhat mirrored in his instinctive reactions as well, such as when he stopped an attacker despite being asleep and mentally unaware of the danger he is in. Combined, this means Rengoku will almost always have a clear bead on the battlefield, and be able to defend even if he can't always see what Todo is setting up. While he may get tricked a few times, his superior strength and endurance means he has what it takes to adapt to his foe, which he can certainly do given the combination of his senses, reactions, and finally, skill.
Tertiary Factors
As far as tertiary factors are concerned, both Rengoku and Todo hold solid advantages. They have been trained for similar years, hold similar amounts of experience, and have their fair share of monstrous foes. However, Rengoku tends to hold the important edges where it matters. In terms of overall training, Rengoku has learned from greater sources, and is the more skilled combatant overall. He has learned from great warriors like his father and the multi-generational knowledge of Flame Breathing, and his skill with a blade is nothing to scoff at given he took on Akaza. For those unaware, Akaza not only has over a century of combat experience, but he's also a… well, demon in physical combat; enough to mutilate over 60 warriors skilled in Kendo. His style also adapts to his opponents as they battle, yet Rengoku still dealt with all of this over time and managed to nearly kill him; only losing due to his running away.
Kyojuro’s genius in combat is pretty frequently hyped up by his fellow Corps members, and Todo doesn't really have anything comparable except for how he uses Boogie Woogie. To be fair to him, the ways he can apply it and the versatility that comes with it are ludicrous, but Rengoku is no slouch himself, and has greater experience and adaptation to speak of when it comes to taking on foes. Given his other edges in senses and reactions, it's no stretch to say he could adapt to Boogie Woogie, especially given he is a Demon Slayer after all, the kind of warrior who spends the entire fight waiting for a good shot to end the fight instantly. With that mindset, and given how Todo needs to clap his hands to use the move, Rengoku would certainly pick up on this and act accordingly. To support this, we can look at Mahito, a far less skilled individual who came to the same conclusion. Once he worked it out and used his Domain Expansion to remove Todo's hand, his Cursed Technique would not work anymore, and the same will happen here.
For the final piece to this puzzle, we can also compare their experiences overall to each other. Todo for example has mainly fought fighters in physical tests, not masters of the blade like Rengoku. On the flipside, Rengoku fights physical Demons based on close quarters combat all the time, like…say, Akaza? Along with that, the other Hashira have several examples of adapting to crazy hax and powers as the fight goes on, like Muichiro escaping Gyokko's water prison or Mitsuri keeping up with the currently unkillable Hantengu for a long period of time, and against all odds, pushing to their victory.
With all this said and done, Todo has his advantages, but Rengoku's are more important in context, and give him the perfect tools to counter his enemies' many tricks overall.
Conclusion
Advantages:
Stronger and tougher by a decent margin in all ends of the debate
Likely relative in speed if not higher
Slightly superior showings of pain tolerance
More skilled, and has plenty of experience against physical fighters
His skill and senses would likely lead to his adapting to Boogie Woogie as the fight goes on
The best big bro in anime since Kamina…
Disadvantages:
Despite his skill, is an inferior strategist
Boogie Woogie is an extremely useful ability that he would have trouble getting around, especially given their similar speed
Flames wouldn't do much against Todo's heat resistances
Less impressive showings of combat IQ
…but like Kamina, died (rip bozo)
To sum up everything, Rengoku holds the most important cards in this bout. Thanks to the Infinity Castle, he will always be a good deal stronger than Todo, and his own speed feats make him as fast or slightly faster. He is less versatile, but his instinctive reactions, enhanced senses, and overall experience mean he can likely adapt to Boogie Woogie as the battle goes on, especially given his solid stat edge. In terms of experience, he has superior training in worth, better examples of it, and a history of working through deadly fighters' powers to attack their weak spot. With all of this combined, it's no surprise than Todo's chances of victory went up in flames.
The winner is Kyojuro Rengoku.
Todo
Stats
In terms of stats, Todo should match or outdo Rengoku for the most part. In terms of direct feats, neither have many super impressive things they’ve done by themselves - they’ve been able to punch holes in the ground, lift train cars, blitz other characters like Tanjiro and Megumi, and deal significant damage to characters like Akaza and Mahito, which leads us to the key part of this - scaling!
In terms of speed, both should be roughly comparable - Black Flash’s numerous ends can land anywhere from Mach 284 to Mach 932, and Todo has been able to react to Black Flash during his fight with Mahito, supporting his reactions being roughly within that range. This is roughly comparable in the middle ends to Muichiro’s deflecting of the flying fish, which gets around Mach 526. Being fair to both, they should be roughly even in speed, with low ends or high ends of Black Flash favoring Rengoku or Todo respectively.
However, strength is where the real conversation begins. As established in the scaling section, Todo should definitely scale to Jogo, who’s lava wave got 44 kilotons of TNT, in addition to Jogo’s domain creation getting 441 kilotons of TNT. Without the Infinity Castle, this should outclass Rengoku, whose best scaling is to Gyutaro’s explosion, which got around 2 kilotons of TNT.
…However, you may have noticed a problem there. Without the Infinity Castle. The Infinity Castle itself adds in a whole new problem for calcing, as it can get many different ends. However, we firmly oppose the proposed megaton ends for the Castle.
The way that the calc gets its result is by taking into account the fact that it took five hours for two individuals in the castle to reach each other with guidance. Based on an average walking speed and the time-frame, the calc deduces that the distance they would need to move must be around 30 kilometers, and reasons that the size of the castle must be in that ballpark.
However, the calc uses an incorrect speed, which would shorten the size by about 6 kilometers, and completely fails to account for the shifting rooms of the castle. As Nakime is constantly moving the castle’s rooms around, there is no linear path that the Demon Slayers could be taking to meet up with one another, so their movement would be constantly delayed, requiring them to find alternate routes or change direction to account for their shifting environment.
This completely throws the calculated size into question. If the Demon Slayers aren’t going in one consistent direction the whole time, and are instead making their way through a maze that’s constantly shifting around, there is no way to reasonably conclude the size of the castle off of their travel time alone. There is simply far too much margin of error to draw conclusions from this, which makes it much more reasonable to measure the castle’s size off of the wide shots we actually have of it.
With this (much more reasonable) method, the highest end we would place the Castle would be around 100 kilotons. As a result, even without scaling to Jogo’s domain, scaling to Dagon’s would get in a similar range, with Rengoku being barely stronger, and with scaling to Jogo’s domain, Todo would be roughly 4 times stronger, giving him a solid edge in terms of strength and durability. While Rengoku should upscale Nakime to a degree, it shouldn’t be enough to close the gap by this much or give him a significant advantage within strength.
It’s also worth acknowledging that Jogo’s Maximum Meteor could be stronger than the calc we’re using, as some variants of it which are mathematically correct have gotten results as high as 79.5 megatons of TNT, nearly 10x greater than even the megaton calc for Nakime’s feat, meaning that for equal leeway being given to both feats, Todo should come out on top regardless, especially considering the Maximum Meteor calc makes far less assumptions then the Infinity Castle one, technically making it more viable.
Overall, being fair to both, they should be about even in speed, but in strength and durability, Todo should reasonably outclass Rengoku, or at the very most, they should also be even.
Arsenal & Abilities
Despite both not having the largest range of arsenal and abilities, there’s a surprisingly large amount of discussion to be had.
Let’s touch up on resistances first. To start off, Todo should solidly resist the flame properties Rengoku’s attacks have, and there’s quite a lot of evidence for this! Sorcerers like Yuji at the near start of the series were perfectly fine inside of Jogo’s Domain Expansion despite the severe heat burning the average sorcerer, which Todo should easily be comparable to. There’s also sorcerers like Naobito and Nanami withstanding Jogo’s presence when enraged, despite the curse being capable of charring someone just by being there. In addition, with a single finger flick, Jogo can incinerate humans to death, while sorcerers like Naobito and Nanami were able to survive, albeit on death’s door. Given Todo’s status as a Grade 1, he should be comparable to all these showings, giving him lots of leeway around Rengoku’s flames.
To give credit to Rengoku though, the poisonous properties of cursed energy would likely be ineffective against him as well. Breathing is capable of slowing down poisons within a Demon Slayer’s bloodstream, and some can even do this throughout the day. In addition, the poisonous effects would likely not be effective at first, given Rengoku’s frankly insane endurance (elaborated more in tertiary factors), meaning that unless this fight drags out for an unreasonable time it’s unlikely to play a large factor.
With those out of the way, let’s address the elephant in the room first: Todo’s Cursed Technique. Boogie Woogie easily gives Todo the versatility edge in this bout. Even swapping just Todo and Rengoku would already disorient him heavily, as even Mahito who knew of Boogie Woogie’s basics stated this himself while fighting Todo. Rengoku has never dealt with something like this and will be caught off guard several times when the fight starts, as Todo would dance around any attacks Rengoku tries to throw at him while Todo can freely counterattack to land free blows.
But of course, that’s not the full extent of Boogie Woogie. Todo’s shown to be vague on how his technique works when opening fights, which is where swapping with objects comes into play. Rengoku has no way of knowing Todo can do this, so when Todo chooses to start using this, it’d make things even more confusing for the Demon Slayer. Todo has used these objects for many tricks, including using them to get the jump from above, escaping attacks, throwing them behind his foes to strike from behind, and even using them for escape routes should things go south. This gives Todo several ways of playing around Rengoku’s attacks while hitting back with his own.
One aspect of Boogie Woogie that shouldn’t go unmentioned is how it seemingly transfers momentum between those swapped, as we see when Todo first reveals his technique against Hanami and in the Shibuya Incident against Mahito. Why is this important? Well, aside from combat, this provides Todo the perfect counter to Rengoku’s mobility. Rengoku’s First Form provides him with incredible burst mobility that Todo wouldn’t initially match… until Todo claps. The momentum transfer wouldn’t only mean Rengoku suddenly trips in place, it’d also grant Todo a sudden burst that he can likely weaponize against Rengoku, be it rushing him directly or dancing around him. Combine this with the various methods Todo has of jumping around his foes via Boogie Woogie, and it gives him an undeniable advantage in mobility for this match.
There’s also an interesting possibility to consider with Boogie Woogie, that being potentially disarming Rengoku by swapping his sword out. Of course, Todo likely can’t disarm Rengoku immediately, as personal possessions are likely kept when swapping. However, this doesn’t discount the possibility of Todo being able to infuse Rengoku’s blade with Cursed Energy and using that to disarm it. Of course, this would be incredibly difficult to do given Rengoku’s skill with the blade, but given Todo’s various ways of catching him off guard, it’s not entirely impossible that he can come in contact with Rengoku’s blade just once to infuse it. If he is able to though, the fight may as well be over once the swap happens as while Rengoku has demonstrated skill in hand to hand, his most lethal option is now out of the picture and grants Todo even more leeway in dealing with him. That being said, this would still be incredibly difficult given their similar stats and Rengoku’s skill, so this isn’t a primary argument.
Lastly, despite Todo’s sheer versatility with Boogie Woogie, there’s one important question to consider: could Rengoku possibly adapt to it? It’s difficult to say, as while Rengoku has fought Akaza, whose fighting style has shown to adapt to his foes, Rengoku himself hasn’t shown to adapt to something on the level of frankly bullshit as Boogie Woogie. Rengoku’s only way of adapting to Boogie Woogie would have to be anticipating when the swapping would happen, but this would be difficult with the various ways Todo employs swapping to catch his foes off guard as mentioned earlier. Funnily enough, we actually see something similar when he and Yuji fought Hanami who began to start anticipating Todo swapping himself and Yuji. In response, Todo revealed him being able to swap people other than himself and later being able to swap cursed objects by jumping him by swapping Yuji with Playful Cloud. Not to mention, Todo’s also feigned clapping against Hanami earlier to make him think he was going to swap, and employing the same in this fight would mean Rengoku is constantly going to be playing a guessing game he can never win.
Now, Rengoku does have some other abilities that could help him anticipate Boogie Woogie, namely his senses and instinctive reactions. However, they wouldn’t be as useful here as at first glance. Todo rarely implements stealth into his fighting style, and given it’s a direct confrontation it’d be unlikely for him to resort to something like that compared to when he had Yuji backing him up. Furthermore his senses and instinctive reactions still have their limits, and against equally fast and powerful foes they are not consistent defenses capable of protecting him from Todo. Worst case scenario Todo would be detected if he set up a brief escape route via a CE-infused object, but this wouldn’t really affect much in the long term.
Lastly, even if Rengoku begins to adapt to the technique, Todo would also start adapting in response given his fighting style. He’s had entire monologues’ worth of deducing how abilities work, meaning he can likely figure out Rengoku’s senses and instinctive reactions to formulate plans around them. He’s also analyzed Yuji’s fighting style in their battle and has shown an amazing ability to play around foes introducing new abilities against Mahito, demonstrating that if Rengoku starts to work around the technique, Todo should be able to do the same in response.
All in all, while Rengoku definitely has a powerful offense, Todo has everything he needs to play around it. Resisting Rengoku’s flames gives him far more leeway in evading his attack range, and Boogie Woogie allows Todo many ways to dance around Rengoku while he’s unlikely to keep up. And while the possibility of Rengoku anticipating Boogie Woogie overtime remains, it’s unlikely to happen in time given we haven’t had showings of Rengoku adapting to something on that level. On the other hand, Todo has plenty of showings of adapting to foes and has ways around Rengoku’s abilities that could be problematic at first glance. Todo solidly takes this category.
Tertiary Factors
Looking more into these factors, this is where Todo does fall behind a bit. That’s not to say he’s not a very great fighter. but in skill and experience. Rengoku does have more impressive showings. Rengoku has been training longer than Todo. and he is older as well, granting him the experience edge along with more time training. Along with his training, he mastered all of Flame Breathing, which is a feat not a lot of Demon Slayers can do. Rengoku has also fought foes that are hundreds of years old like Akaza. Akaza also has also stated to have mastered his fighting style to perfection and was still very close to killing the demon. In comparison, Todo is not as old as Rengoku and while he can still fight sorcerers that are very experienced, it's not beating someone who’s been training for hundreds of years.
Rengoku also does beat Todo when it comes to his pain tolerance. Sure Todo can still keep going even after being thrown around, taking a black flash to the gut, and losing one of his hands, but that’s most of his limit we’ve seen from him. However Rengoku and many other Demon Slayers have shown they can still fight even in the most horrific conditions. Examples shown as Tanjiro still fighting even with broken ribs and fingers, Tengen being slowly poisoned and losing one of his eyes and still keeping up with an Upper Rank demon and winning, and Rengoku still overpowering Akaza even though his ribs are broken, eye is crushed, and having Akaza’s arm impaling him.
Now when comparing both fighting styles on paper both are pretty basic. Most of the time, it's them just moving fast and hitting around till they overwhelm the opponent. However both do have their advantages against each other's fighting style. For Rengoku he is experienced in opponents with deadly hand to hand combat like Akaza who again is hundred of years old and basically perfected his martial art. This is also important because his fighting style isn’t all that different to Todo in a way. Akaza’s martial art consists of overwhelming the opponent with powerful attacks and making it so his opponent can’t fight anymore. Not all that different to how Todo fights as he dances around his opponent and overwhelms them with his raw strength.
Todo, on the other hand, has the advantage of being able to understand Rengoku attacks very quickly. Todo is a fighting genius. as he can figure out how an opponent's attack works by most of the time just looking at them. The main example of this is understanding how Hanami’s curse buds work just by it being used once. Again, Rengoku’s moves aren’t anything very special, really all his attacks come down to Rengoku hitting his opponent REALLY HARD. This is a huge advantage for Todo as he can just predict and move out of all of Rengoku's entire move set and adapt against it.
Now granted this can come back to how Akaza’s fighting style is somewhat comparable to Todo’s given Akaza also adapts very quickly to an opponent's attacks. That doesn’t mean he can win all the time against someone adapting to his moves as at the end of the day he still lost because Akaza could get around his attacks and hit Rengoku’s limits. So Todo’s style of combat is still super deadly against Rengoku and this is not adding along the amount of tricks he can pull against him with Boogie Woogie which as explained in the abilities section isn’t something Rengoku can understand or get around with. At the end of the day Todo fighting style and craftiness can be enough to overwhelm Rengoku despite being less skilled and experienced.
Conclusion
"An arm is merely a decoration. The act of applause is an acclamation of the soul!”
Advantages:
Matches or surpasses in power and durability
Relative speeds
More versatile with his Cursed Technique
Better strategist
More versatile powers and applications of them
His heat resistance would neuter Rengoku’s flames
Hard counters Rengoku’s mobility
Didn’t die (typical Todo W)
Is an ass lover (based)
Disadvantages:
Less skilled in combat overall, and has less experience against sword-users
Has less examples of pushing through severe bodily injury, despite similar pain tolerance
Rengoku could maybe adapt to Boogie Woogie as the fight goes on
Inferior weaponry and equipment
His entire class hates him (except Yuji)
While this is a fairly close fight, Todo should take it more often than not. If you’re fair to both, they should be around even in speed, with Todo being either stronger or about even in strength if you are generous to Rengoku’s upscaling from Nakime, with him also having higher arguments to counter any higher scaling for the Infinity Castle, ensuring that no matter what Todo will always have the edge in power. However, Todo’s far better abilities should in the end cement his victory. Between his resistance to Rengoku’s flames and his better strategic skills, this should lend Todo a lot of room for error for the biggest factor in this fight, Boogie Woogie.
This ability frankly screws up Rengoku’s entire game plan. Todo can use it at any time and use it to counter Rengoku’s mobility by stealing it for himself, disarming him, confusing him, giving himself more openings, and so much more. While Rengoku’s skill, instincts, and experience should make him able to somewhat adapt to it, it’s been shown many times that Todo’s creativity with this skill is hard for even very adaptable fighters like Mahito to be able to keep up with before it’s too late.
While Rengoku’s better pain tolerance is nothing to scoff at, and his skill is definitely far superior, in the end, none of these can really help him in dealing with Todo’s far better versatility before Todo can wear him down, especially with power and durability being either in Todo’s court or being about relative between them.
Ultimately, while the Hashira’s near equal stats and superior skill, experience, and pain tolerance certainly posed a massive threat to Todo, the 1st Class Sorcerer’s strategic skill and sheer versatility ultimately burned out Rengoku’s flames. You gotta hand it to Todo, this was one flaming battle.
The winner is Aoi Todo.
Final Tally
Rengoku (2) - Frost, Round 1 Fight
Todo (9) - Cabbage, greymerlion2, Coach Boomer, Discount Ginger, door-kun, Hi Hi, Hippo, VampyreNVRmore, Why am I here
Garnet vs Aile is a interesting matchup
ReplyDeleteAre you still working on the espada vs Akatsuki vs warlords thing
ReplyDeleteLast i checked they are, it's just taking a while and will be out when it's out
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