Shinoby Kocho

Shinobu was the youngest child of the Kocho family and lived happily with her mother, father, and older sister Kanae until her parents were killed by a demon in front of her and her sister. As the demon was about to attack the sisters, the pillar Himejima Gyomei appeared and cut off the monster's head. After their ordeal, Shinobu and Kanae decided to become demon hunters, protect each other, and prevent other people from losing what the sisters had.

One day, they met Kanao, a slave girl. Kanae decided to take her to the Butterfly Estate, although Shinobu was skeptical. They eventually bought the girl and made her their follower. Some time later, Kanae was attacked by Upper Moon 2, Doma, but before she died, she managed to talk to her sister. She asked her to give up the path of demon hunters, but realized that Shinobu was adamant and told her what the killer looked like. Shinobu prepared for a long time for the fight with Doma, in particular, a year before Muzan appeared in the Ubuyashiki family home, she began taking small doses of wisteria poison.

Shinobu displays a bright, friendly, and cheerful demeanor, always having a good-natured smile on her face no matter the situation she is in. However, her outward demeanor is revealed to be a mask. This is shown in how she enjoys teasing other people. She told Tomioka that everyone hates him. He refuted this, saying that this is not true. Despite her calm demeanor and her initial desire to get along with demons, she can be quite cruel towards them, which is shown when she kills the Spider Demon's daughter after giving her false hope of helping her and attempted to kill Nezuko Kamado without hesitation. Later, after hearing their full story, she shows more compassion towards both Tanjiro Kamado and his sister. It is later revealed that her outwardly calm and serene personality is a mask, as Shinobu harbors a strong hatred towards Demons due to the loss of her sister, Kanae Kocho, at a young age, as well as the deaths of her parents, nearly all of her Tsuguko families, and her students at the Butterfly Mansion. This hatred is so strong that she is in a near-constant state of extreme anger, which is felt by Tanjiro Kamado whenever the two men converse. Her thirst for revenge has robbed her of the chance to live the normal life her sister wished for her, and she has instead dedicated all of her energy to defeating Demons. During her battle against Doma, Shinobu reveals that she also suffers from an inferiority complex due to her lower physical abilities compared to her fellow Pillars, envying them for possessing taller or more muscular bodies than her and cursing herself for not developing further to make her more effective in combat.

Shinobu was a petite girl with pale skin and large compound eyes that had no pupils, only a hazy gradient, purple iris that became darker the lower it went, giving her eyes an insect-like appearance. She had shoulder-length hair that faded from black to dark purple, usually tied at the back of her head in a yakai-maki style, with a white and purple butterfly-shaped hair clip. Shinobu was small in stature and was described as having a small and weak appearance, which was later backed up by her statements about not having the physical strength to cut off a Demon's head like other hashirō do. Shinobu wore the standard Demon Slayer uniform, consisting of a dark purple, black, straight-lined jacket and hakama pants that were tucked into the butterfly-patterned fabric around her legs. She also wore a white haori that belonged to her older sister with a pattern of butterfly wings that faded to turquoise and then pink on the sleeves, with black and white dots on the cuffs, and white sandals with purple straps.