As a Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps, Shinobu is a very powerful swordsman.[11]Despite not possessing the physical strength to cut off a Demon's head common to that of an average Demon Slayer or even the superhuman abilities possessed by her fellow Hashira, Shinobu is nonetheless as dangerous and deadly as the rest of them.
Natural Abilities
Master Swordsman: Being a Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps, Shinobu is one of the most powerful and skilled swordsmen in the entire organization.[11]Medical Expertise: Despite not being as combat-talented as the rest of her fellow Hashira, Shinobu instead displays immense skill and mastery over medical and pharmaceutical fields to make up for her lack of natural-born combat ability, being highly knowledgeable about how to create various poisons and venoms using Wisteria flowers. She is capable of killing opponents within seconds, and even manages to create a poison strong enough to drastically weaken Doma, the second strongest Demon of the Twelve Kizuki. She possesses the necessary skills to slowly saturate her body with poison without negatively impending her own health, as well as the medical skills needed to counteract the venoms and poisons created by Demons. This is seen when she manages to undo the poison that is slowly transforming Zenitsu into a spider and restore him back to his previous human form.Anti-Kibutsuji Drug: Upon teaming up with Tamayo and Yushiro, Shinobu was able to aid Tamayo in creating a successful, four-stage drug that would be used to significantly weaken Muzan Kibutsuji, even despite his immense physical resistance and abilities. The first stage, although unsuccessful on Muzan, is capable of turning a Demon back to a human.Aging Stage: The aging stage was the second stage of the drug and an idea proposed by Shinobu herself. This stage aged its user at a rate of fifty years over a minute, which, in Muzan's case, successfully aged him 9,000 years over three hours. The side effects of this aging process caused Muzan to slow down enough for the Demon Slayers to continuously fight him.Human Conversion Stage: After working with Tamayo, Shinobu helped her create the successful Demon-to-human conversion drug, a feat considered impossible. Both Muzan and Nezuko received the drug, but Muzan was able to decompose it and render it ineffective.[12]However, Nezuko was able to revert to her human form and regain her memories upon receiving the drug.[13]Immense Speed: Shinobu has displayed almost superhuman levels of speed, being fast enough to easily evade and out-pace Demons, catching them by surprise. Doma, the Upper Rank 2, stated she might have been the fastest Hashira he had ever met.[14]Enhanced Strength: Despite being the smallest member of the Demon Slayer Corps and thus having the weakest swing strength due to her small arms, Shinobu instead displays powerful thrust and stab strength, as the other Hashira notes that a single thrust from her sword could easily pierce a stone boulder in half. Her thrusting speed is also noted to be the fastest among her fellow Hashira.
Swordsmanship
Unique Weapon: Shinobu uses a heavily modified katana made by Tecchin Tecchikawahara[15] as her primary weapon. It is the same as any katana from the handle to slightly above the hilt, but above that, the weapon loses its blade and is replaced by a rod. It ends in a needle-like tip, resembling an insect's stinger in appearance and function. The "stinger" is designed for injection of Wisteria poisons into Demons, as Shinobu uses her medical expertise to overcome her relative lack of strength and inability to cut off heads. She has also modified the weapon's sheath, using it as a portable poison mixer and loader.[16] She is one of five Hashira to wield a unique weapon, the others being Tengen Uzui, Mitsuri Kanroji, Obanai Iguro, and Gyomei Himejima.
Insect Breathing (蟲むしの呼こ吸きゅう, Mushi no kokyū?):[5] The Insect Breathing is branched out from the Flower Breathing, which itself is branched out of the Water Breathing. While Shinobu may have been the only one of the Hashira incapable of beheading Demons, she is still just as deadly as they are. Using this unique Breathing, she coats her weapon with poison made from Wisteria flower and alters the mixture and composition of the poisons inside her scabbard.[16]
Shinobu using Butterfly Dance on the Older Sister Spider Demon.Butterfly Dance: Caprice (蝶ちょうノ舞まい戯たわむれ,Chō no mai: Tawamure?)[5] - Shinobu jumps forward towards the opponent and stings them multiple times with her blade to inject her poison.Dance of the Bee Sting: True Flutter(蜂ほう牙がノ舞まい真ま靡なびき, Hōga no mai: Manabiki?)[17] - Shinobu dashes at her target at an incredible speed and uses the momentum of her speed to then strengthen her single thrust into her opponent and inject lethal poison into them.Dance of the Dragonfly: Compound Eye Hexagon (蜻せい蛉れいノ舞まい複ふく眼がん六ろっ角かく, Seirei no mai: Fukugan rokkaku?)[18] - A six strike attack where Shinobu aims to strike and inject her target with multiple doses of poison at the targeted Demon's weak spots (such as the neck, heart, torso, etc.) in order to kill them with a large dose of poison.Dance of the Centipede: Hundred-Legged Zigzag (蜈ご蚣こうノ舞まい百ひゃく足そく蛇じゃ腹ばら, Gokō no mai: Hyakusoku jabara?)[19] - An attack where Shinobu uses her full speed to run a zigzag pattern to confuse her opponent in order to create an opening for her to directly stab her opponent's neck and inject poison to kill them, with the stab's force and power being further enhanced by the momentum of her speed. Doma noted that the sheer speed of this technique is strong enough to destroy an entire wooden bridge.
Body Modification
Poisonous Body: In order to defeat the Upper Rank 2, Doma, Shinobu heavily altered her body by absorbing and altering her body's physiology with highly concentrated Wisteria-based poison over a period of a year. She is successful in saturating her body with the undetectable poison that has completely merged with her body's own cell structures, including those of her blood and internal organs—all the way down to the very tips of her fingernails.[20] With Shinobu's overall size and body weight, her body is the equivalent of 37 kilograms worth of poison, approximately seven-hundred times[21] more than the lethal amount needed to kill an average Demon, with the poison being strong enough to melt Doma, the Upper Rank 2, down to his very bones.
