WARNING: The following contains spoilers from Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Volume 23, by Koyoharu Gotouge, available now in English through VIZ Media.
In the penultimate chapter of the Demon Slayer manga, Tanjiro accomplishes his original mission by returning home with Nezuko as a human once more. The fierce battle against Muzan and the drama of Nezuko's return to humanity, unfortunately, overshadow the fact that the rest of the Kamado family is still dead, and the chapter swiftly ends once Tanjiro and Nezuko return home. However, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Volume 23 comes with bonus content, including an extended scene revealing Tanjiro's and Nezuko's reactions to finally going home.
The slaughter of the Kamado family was the jumping-off point for the series, yet Tanjiro's primary source of angst throughout Demon Slayer was whether he could find a way to make Nezuko human again. Other than having their legacy used against him in Mugen Train, the idea of his dead family is seldom revisited. Furthermore, Nezuko spends nearly the entire series as a mute Demon, unable to express or possibly even process her own grief regarding her family's fate. While she clearly recognizes Tanjiro as her brother, it's unknown to what extent she recalls the rest of her family, if at all.
Volume 23 of the manga provides an extended, crucial scene focusing on the surviving Kamado siblings and how they feel about everything that's happened to them. Picking up where the original version of Chapter 204 left off, this new scene shows Tanjiro saying a prayer to his deceased family. He assures them that, now that he's brought Nezuko back, they will always be together. Nezuko is also seen making a prayer of her own, but her thoughts are not known.
This is the first time that Nezuko is truly able to process her emotions about her family's demise and her own survival, so one can only imagine what she's thinking now that she's back at the place where it happened. Suddenly, the spirits of the deceased members of the Kamado family appear behind Tanjiro and Nezuko, collectively welcoming them home before vanishing once again. Tanjiro and Nezuko each turn around, then look at each other, the tears in their eyes indicating that they both either saw or felt their family's presence.
Finally, the weight of their journey, all the suffering, pain, guilt, and relief come crashing down on them, causing them both to begin sobbing. In a moment of pure poetry, their grief over their deceased family spurs their new family into action. Zenitsu, never one to miss an opportunity to cry, sobs as well and hugs his friends, while a confused Inosuke hugs them, too. Tanjiro and Nezuko continue to weep while the series officially comes full circle, as they left their home after the death of their family and came back with a new one.
The bonus material in Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Volume 23 is mostly just an expansion upon the already established happy endings of the main characters. However, this scene is a powerful reminder of the pain that Tanjiro bore the entire series, and how that same pain is a fresh wound for Nezuko. Nezuko's return to humanity didn't get enough time as it could have used in the original publication, so Volume 23's bonus material made good on its opportunity to explore her character just the tiniest bit further. While everyone else in the series has reached the end of their journey, Nezuko's is just beginning.
