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Ubume was the main antagonist of the third light novel in the Demon Slayer franchise's spin-off series. She was the Lower Rank 1 of the Twelve Kizuki.

Appearance[]

Ubume was a woman of short size. She had long dark hair, braided hairstyle, and had blood-red eyes. Her hair was decorated with a crimson flower.

Personality[]

On the surface, Ubume appears to have kind and caring maternal demeanor, always speaking politely and expressing kindness to people she kidnaps, acting as if she's their mother and even referring to herself as such. Even when fighting her enemies, she treats them simply as misbehaving children in need of discipline, and simply gently admonishes them for fighting back. However, that mask hides a cruel, sadistic, and cold-blooded streak, with her taking great joy in toying with her enemies before going for a kill.

Bystanders who were around back when she was still a human rumored that Yae originally used to be a kind and caring woman who used to care greatly for her family, taking care of her sickly daughter Sae and enduring her husband's abuse for the sake of her family, before she became struck with grief over her ill daughter's death. However, these rumors were concealing the much grimmer truth.

In reality, Yae was a warped individual who, after murdering her own abusive husband for trying to leave her for another woman, became obsessed with taking care of Sae while she's suffering due to feeling euphoria every time she nurses her, and even went as far as to deliberately prevent Sae's recovery by poisoning and mutilating her just so that she'll have an excuse to keep taking care of her. When her daughter resisted her too much, Yae murdered her in rage, and regretted the deed not out of guilt, but due to the fact that she was no longer capable of playing out her ideal mother fantasies, and every time Sae is brought up in a conversation again, she always decries her as "ungrateful" or a "traitor". This shows that she was already evil even before she became a demon.

When she became a demon, Ubume was determined to repeat what she did to Sae on other children and even other victims of hers until they die so that she'll be able to eat them and reunite them with her inside her womb, and whenever they proved themselves to be too disobedient, she had them murdered or even compelled them to commit suicide, all while decrying them as ungrateful traitors who wanted to trample on her happiness.

History[]

Past life[]

As recounted by an old man who was around to know of Ubume back when she was a human, Yae was a noblewoman who lived in the mansion owned by the aristocratic bloodline, with multiple heirlooms to their name. He stated that she married a handsome man out of loneliness, but when her daughter Sae was born, her husband revealed his true abusive colors, wasting their fortune and selling her heirlooms, and beating her and Sae constantly, as well as their servants, to the point that they left their household. It continued until he eventually was lost in a storm, lost his footing and crashed down into the river. However, after his death, Sae fell ill, and despite Yae's best efforts, the girl died at the age of 10 or even younger, with Yae being struck with grief ever since.

However, the true story was much darker. Although her husband was abusive, Yae still endured all the abuse in hopes that they'll manage to build an image of a happy family, but when he decided to leave her for a girl he met at the gambling den, she ultimately decided to kill him by making it look like an accident, with no one batting an eye. However, she still felt empty and unhappy until the day Sae fell ill. The act of nursing her ill daughter, along with the image of herself in a mirror illustrating a perfect depiction of a motherly love, filled her with immense feeling of euphoria that she wanted to keep for the rest of her life, so whenever Sae recovered, Yae made sure to sabotage her recovery by poisoning and mutilating her, finding the new ways to hurt her to delay her recovery as much as possible. Sae tried to escape her clutches, but Yae, frustrated by her "ungratefulness", killed her in rage.

However, with her husband and Sae's deaths, Yae was no longer able to play out her ideal family fantasies anymore, so she ended up feeling empty and devoid of purpose. In that moment of weakness, Muzan Kibutsuji has made his appearance and offered to turn her into a demon, an offer she accepted, and so she began to devour humans, Sae's corpse being her first meal. Afterwards, Yae, now Ubume, began to lure children not loved by their parents to herself, promising them happier lives while intending to subject them to the same suffering she subjected Sae to until they gradually wither to death from malnourishment and dehydration, and any children who rebelled against her false love would end up being killed, while some children find themselves being swayed by her false love to the point that they end up developing Stockholm syndrome for her. Some Demon Slayer were dispensed to investigate the disappearances, but while some went missing, becoming another of Ubume's victims, others were deceived by her illusions and believed that the mansion is clear and there's nothing to investigate.

Signs from the Wind[]

One day, Sanemi Shinazugawa and Masachika Kumeno, two Kinoe-ranked Demon Slayers, were entasked with a two-man operation of investigating an abandoned house near whom children were always disappearing, which was suspected to be a part of the demon activity. But as they entered the mansion, they both were struck with aroma of sweet incense and found themselves separated, with Masachika struggling to remember what happened and ending up finding nothing of importance in the mansion. Sanemi, meanwhile, was lured in by the demon's thrall.

As Masachika was met with an old man familiar with Yae's tale, he has managed to convince the man that he's a policeman investigating the house, with the man telling a young Demon Slayer a history of Yae's life, of her abusive husband, of Sae's illness and death despite Yae's best efforts, and how Sae's grave was found robbed, with Masachika beginning to connect the dots and coming to believe that Yae was possibly turned into a demon, and then came to try and find Sanemi again.

Sanemi, meanwhile, was lured into the room where Ubume was nursing two heavily-malnourished children and a Demon Slayer named Uraga. At the same time, three corpses of two children and one another Demon Slayer were present in the room. Ubume welcomed Sanemi as another "child" of hers, but when he, insulted by her remark that his mother must've abused her, attempted to attack her, she used her illusion manipulation Blood Demon Art to change the room from its appearance as a bedroom into the appearance of a womb, claiming that Sanemi is now in her belly while absorbing the three corpses.

As Sanemi unsuccessfully tried to attack her, Ubume simply used her illusions to make his attacks fail, and during their battle, Sanemi demanded she drops her motherly act, only for her to claim that she becomes a "beloved mother" to children who didn't receive any love from their parents. When Sanemi called out how much in agony "her children" are, he recognized Uraga as a demon from the same Final Selection he undertook. After hearing him plead for Sanemi to help, Ubume tried to kill him, but when Sanemi saved him, the demon demanded that Uraga commits suicide for "abandoning his mother" while putting him through mental torture until he slits his throat with a dagger. When called out, Ubume excused her actions by blaming Uraga for "villainizing" her and "spitting on her generosity", which enraged Sanemi.

Masachika, meanwhile, overheard Sanemi's rage and became more determined to find him. Eventually, he found the dresser with a mirror in which he found a folded parchment. As he read the paper, he discovered with horror that the paper was a desperately rushed note written in blood by Sae, with her revealing the extent of tortures her mother put her through. Horrified by the reveal of the demon's true nature, Masachika felt empathy for Sae's suffering and heard another of Sanemi's grunts of rage. Seeking to rush for his partner's aid, Masachika accidentally removed the cloth draped over the mirror with his sword, discovering that the mirror showed him the room where Sanemi was, trying to attack the demon, but striking only empty air. Masachika tried to help, but eventually saw in the mirror that the display case behind him contained an incense burner, invisible to normal eye. Realizing that the incense burner is Ubume's Blood Demon Art, he shattered it.

Thanks to Masachika, Sanemi was freed from Ubume's illusion, much to her shock as she was caught off-guard by how Masachika managed to recognize her deceit. As Masachika reunited with Sanemi and explained his findings about Sae's note, the incense burner, and the mirror, Ubume expressed frustration at how the mirror worked against her and how Sae "betrayed" her again. As Masachika called her out that Ubume was the one who betrayed her own daughter, he calls her by her human name, Yae, with her expressing cold anger at being called her human name, reinstating that she calls herself Ubume, a name Muzan gave her, and proceeded to describe her past in full detail, about her murdering her husband, the euphoria she felt over nursing her daughter, how her daughter tried to escape and she killed her, how she met Muzan, how she ate Sae's corpse, and how she began to lure children to herself and nurse them until they die before she eats them. Afterwards, she notes that children like Masachika who don't live in fear or feel pain from their parents don't interest her while expressing interest in keeping Sanemi as "her child", decrying him as a hurting soul in need of help.

Insulted on Sanemi's behalf, Masachika charged at Ubume and cut off her arm, calling her out on how she was desecrating Sanemi's memory of his family like that. Sanemi, meanwhile, reassured Masachika and engaged Ubume in a fight, while instructing Masachika to help the two remaining children. As Masachika put them in safer place, he then joined Sanemi in a fight, with the two Slayers coordinating their attacks well, but Ubume managed to injure Sanemi and make him bleed while leaving even more grievous injuries on Masachika. However, Sanemi's bleeding resulted in Ubume sensing his marechi blood, which felt her with ecstasy as she became more obsessed than ever to claim him for herself until his blood became too much for her to handle, leaving her incapacitated with intoxication, which Sanemi used to his advantage to grievously injure her.

Meanwhile, Masachika recovered from his injuries and was about to finish the demon off, but a girl who was one of Ubume's victims rushed to her captor's defense, having developed Stockholm syndrome for her, which resulted in the Slayer missing his attack. Taking it to her advantage, the demon threw the girl aside like a ragdoll and took the opportunity to land a lethal blow on Masachika, mocking him for not cutting the girl down, before Sanemi cut her head off in rage, the demon's severed head still having a false motherly smile on her face as her entire being crumbled to ash. However, although the demon was slain and her two remaining victims were rescued, with Sanemi being promoted to a Wind Hashira after slaying a Twelve Kizuki member, the death of Masachika Kumeno, Sanemi's partner, would still haunt him to this very day as one of the many examples of the demonkind's vicious cruelty that fuels his immense hatred.

Abilities[]

As the current Lower One at the time, the strongest of the Lower Ranks, Ubume was powerful enough to handle and almost defeat both very powerful Demon Slayers, Sanemi Shinazugawa and Masachika Kumeno. She was only able to kill Masachika, while Sanemi managed to finish her off mostly on his own.

• Hallucikinesis/Illusion Manipulations: Ubume’s Blood Demon Art allows her to manipulate her opponents’ visions with illusions at will, via the burning incense. She used this ability to hallucinate the Demon Slayers into believing that her mansion is empty, hide the existence of the incense that produces illusions, make the children she kidnapped perceive the rotten tatami mats they lay on as clean white beds, and make Sanemi perceive a mansion’s room as an environment of the inside of her stomach. Her manifestations were so great that Sanemi overlooked that he was being manipulated under the demon’s ability until Masachika managed to use the mirror made of the same metal as Nichirin Swords to find and shatter the incense that produced the fumes, and dispel her illusions for good.

Trivia[]

• Despite the fact that their names share the same pronunciation, Ubume is not Yae from Giyu Tomioka's Story, as their names are written in a different kanji.

Navigation[]

Villains

Demons Demon King Muzan Kibutsuji Twelve Kizuki Original Upper Moons One: Kokushibo | Two: Doma | Three: Akaza | Four: Hantengu | Five: Gyokko | Six: Daki & Gyutaro Replacement Upper Moons Four: Nakime | Six: Kaigaku Lower Moons One: Enmu | Two: Rokuro | Three: Wakuraba | Four: Mukago | Five: Rui | Six: Kamanue Former Lower Moons One: Ubume | Two: Hairo | Six: Kyogai Lesser Demons Shizu Shinazugawa | Temple Demon | Kyogai’s Mansion Demons | Snake Demon | Susamaru and Yahaba | Hand Demon | Swamp Demon | Spider Family (Father Spider | Mother Spider | Brother Spider | Sister Spider) Humans Tengen Uzui’s Father | Gyutaro and Daki's Mother | Kyogo Shinazugawa | Iguro Family | Doma's Parents | Kanao Tsuyuri's Parents