#{ I've been so desperate for more content of Demon Slayer. }

[yuichiroswife]

{ Just came back from seeing the new Demon Slayer episode in theaters and I'm tempted to revive my Demon Slayer multimuse now. }

[demonslayedher]

(Hi!!! First of all, I want to wish you luck on your test!!! You've got this!!! We're all cheering for you!! Sending all of my good vibes and [meager] brain cells your way!!!!) Second of all, I've been wondering about the Mugen Train Arc after rewatching the movie. If Nezuko hadn't, for whatever reason, been there to burn the ropes and the tickets, do you think Rengoku and the Trio would have woken up? Hhhh I know it says something about it in the manga, but I'm just a teensy bit uncertain. ILY!

(Thank you for the extra brain cells, Anon! I've caught them and I shall pack them full of extra trivial nerd stuff! One more month of study to go and then Asks may get turned back on!)

Going back and reviewing it, the manga goes into extensive explanation that Ufotable decided could be left unclarified--for example, the impasse Rengoku finds himself in while choking his intruder as far as he can get without killing her, and that cutting the ropes with Nichirin would had made thd intruders unable to wake up (a risk Enmu didn't explain), and that Inosuke and Zenitsu have unusually strong senses of self in order to manifest in their unconscious spaces, and that Tanjiro's water-self warning, the glimpse of Nezuko's box, and the appearance of his father were all self-generated, a way of desperately trying to put form to something he already subconsciously knows but hasn't quite hit upon (that he needs to hurry and get out of there by breaking the illusion with a violent wake-up call). You already mentioned the tickets too, which was here in this Taisho Secret after chapter 59.

"Nezuko burned Rengoku-san and the others' tickets so the three of them woke up, woot woot!! Sorry for not fitting that in the actual content, my bad!"

(Wani-sensei, you're lying, Zenitsu is still asleep.)

So it seems Nezuko's fire had three effects:

1. Help Tanjiro start to rouse (but this did not cut off his connection to the sick boy, who was still freely prowling around and cracking his way deeper and deeper into Tanjiro's mind even as Tanjiro had enough willpower to leave his family behind, sob... sob, sob)

2. Cut off the link between the intruders and the victims (makes me think that when Nezuko originally went pyro on her thick-headed brother she didn't burn the rope yet, and that was a purposeful effort afterward)

3. Burning the ropes may remove the intruders, but waking up requiring eliminating Enmu's spell by way of burning the tickets (and some amount of willingness to wake up, stop looking for where Dream Nezuko ran off to and wake up, Zenitsu! No wait, don't, stay asleep. Yes, good). On that note, Rengoku might had taken a little longer than Inosuke to come around, and even Inosuke might had still been in a touch of a haze mixing dream and reality (or nevermind, silly me, Boss Inosuke is totally reality).

So if we consider how this would had gone without Nezuko's help, my thought is that it wouldn't had been impossible for this particular, peculiar band of Demon Slayers to find their way out of it. They each had their own subconscious responses to the danger, be it as self-preservation or a sense of duty or a mix of both.

But would it had taken a while? Highly likely. Enmu probably could had eaten a lot of people in the time it'd take them to break out through sheer willpower.

Good job, Nezuko! 200 passengers owe you their lives!

"Mm!"

(Translation: If you don't pat my head I will start fires.)