#I can't forgive him for taking Kotoha away

[character-reference-cafe]

(At the time) Uppermoon 6 Douma Character Sheet (Entertainment District Arc)

When I tell you good photos are difficult to find of this blonde-haired bimbo—

Edit: found one more

[thatringboy]

Actually more on Kaigaku's subtle religious trauma in your au

His initial appearance shows that he carries prayer beads with him, but he's staunchly not a practicing Bhuddist. Instead, the beads are his "lightning rod" that help ground him when his mind gets away from him, like the cord he wears around his neck that's reminiscent of the noose that was forced around it when he was younger

He was threatened with abandonment if he didn't join the church he was raised in and the monks that raised him (I use that term loosely, they barely even fed him) just gave up on him because he was difficult. His "best friend" had a fucking god complex over him, and it was one of the monks that raised him that beat him so badly that he went fucking deaf before being hanged for murders he didn't commit

(not even commenting on the commentary on the harm that short-term missionaries do when they garner the affection of those they minister to and then just leave to go to the next place, abandoning those they formed connections with. that was so well done!)

Yet he carries the beads and he wears the cord and he repeats the phrase "Namu-Amidabutsu" as his personal mantra?

He's obviously happy with his life and where he is. He's got a loving father, tons of friends, a platonic girlfriend, and he's insanely powerful. Even when retelling the horrific story of his childhood, he laughs at others' reactions to it and he feels weird about how cathartic it was to share it. Yet, in his first scene without Nezuko in it, he bolts awake from a nightmare about his childhood and he can't do anything but clutch onto his throat until Shinobu calms him down. He's fucked up, he's messy, but he's also so very strong. He has to be, he's the Strongest Pillar. I'll note that he doesn't try to hide this reaction from Shinobu, he lets her calm him down and that part is so telling of the type of man he is and the type of friend she is

We didn't get to see his reaction to Kotoha telling him about what Gyomei did to her, nor any commentary on his part about what happened, nor if he even knew Gyomei was trained by Urokodaki all these years. Gyomei didn't seem to know of him (it's probably better this way, but that meant that Gyomei's god complex was redirected to an infant Inosuke) but we know that he hated Kaigaku. If Gyomei had succeeded in becoming the Stone Hashira, would Kaigaku shut down? Hate him? Forgive him? Does Kaigaku even know the part Gyomei played in his trauma?

I'm obsessed with how vague yet so fucking detailed Kaigaku's trauma is. He recognizes the toxic ideology Gyūtaro was spewing immediately and shuts it down, even if what Gyūtaro was saying wasn't necessarily religious in nature. Kaigaku knows that it only takes a single seed to be planted to sow a mountain of toxic rhetoric deep within a person

I'm just rambling at this point, but for a character that gets passed off as the Dumb Jock in both canon and in your AU, he really is so emotionally intelligent. I think next to Obanai, he might be the Hashira who's the most comfortable in their body and lives. Easily my favorite Pillar in this AU

Can't wait to see what he does next time!!

Aaaah!!! Thank you!!! I didn't mean for all of this to really exist in his character, I just took inspiration from my own experiences and elaborated on what canon gave us for his and Gyomei's backstory, but I'm so happy that such a complex character resonated with you so much!