# The Obanai/Giyu/Mitsuri Scaling (CHAPTER 184-185)

In Chapter 184, a weakened Marked Giyu, Base Obanai, and Mitsuri, who was likely already Marked as well (I'll explain why later), were all able to react to and weave through Muzan's attacks while simultaneously closing the distance and landing their own attacks, which would put them within a broadly similar combat speed tier.

However, we have additional evidence suggesting that Mitsuri is still the weakest of the three. In the following chapter, Chapter 185, both Giyu and Obanai protected her from Muzan's attacks, as Mitsuri herself states: "Everyone defended me, but he still hit me!"

For Giyu and Obanai to do that before she could defend herself, they necessarily had to be capable of reacting faster than her in that situation.

While it's not showed, I do believe it would fit the story's consistency that Mitsuri is marked at that point, and this post (shout out to the person who made it) summarizes why:  
[https://www.reddit.com/r/DemonSlayerScales/s/CCrocKRyvV](https://www.reddit.com/r/DemonSlayerScales/s/CCrocKRyvV)

So the power scaling here is:

**Base Obanai ≈ Weakened Marked Giyu > SCA** **Marked Mitsuri.**

But whether you believe Mitsuri was Marked or not doesn't actually matter for my argument, because it doesn't change the direction of the scaling. You'll understand why once you get to the end of the post.

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# Akaza VS Base Giyu (CHAPTER 148)

Now, since Base Obanai was relative to Weakened Marked Giyu throughout Chapters 184-185, as I already explained, it's reasonable to say that Weakened Marked Giyu is at least comparable to his own fresh Base version because I don't think I need to explain why Base Giyu is relative to Base Obanai, as that should already be fairly obvious.

From there, we can add Akaza into the chain, Base Giyu was able to fight a suppressed Akaza in Chapter 148 while remaining relative to him, but ultimately lost, so the scaling here:

**Suppressed Akaza (vs. Base Giyu) > Base Giyu ≈ Base Obanai > SCA Mitsuri.**

# Throwback to SSVA Mitsuri VS Zohakuten (CHAPTER 122-124)

A weaker version of Mitsuri, specifically her SSVA version, could have defeated Zohakuten if not for the gimmick that prevents him from being decisively killed through beheading because even in Base, Mitsuri was already capable of canceling out Zohakuten's attacks, closing the distance, and nearly beheading him. The only reason she failed to decisively win was because she was caught off guard by the fact that beheading him doesn't actually kill him.

If Base Mitsuri was already capable of doing that while still holding back, then there is nothing stopping her from accomplishing the same thing even more effectively once she activates her Mark and stops holding herself back. Yes she was holding back because her backstory reveals that her unusual strength as a woman was an insecurity that caused her to suppress herself, so her Base performance against Zohakuten wasn't representative of her best capabilities

The reason she doesn't simply try to behead him again after awakening her Mark is because she now understands that beheading Zohakuten won't kill him. So instead, she changes her objective to stalling him long enough for the others to reach and kill the main body. As she herself says, *"Leave this to me. I will protect everyone, I'll handle this whole thing somehow."* The word "somehow" doesn't specify exactly how she'll accomplish that, so that leaves the method open to interpretation. And the interpretation I've outlined is, in my opinion, the one most consistent with the overall power scaling I've established so far.

So SSVA Mitsuri should at minimum scale slightly above the UM4 level in terms of matchup and combat ability. She later becomes even stronger in HTA, to the point where she can be considered somewhat comparable to Base Obanai and Base Giyu.

That gives us the final chain:

**Suppressed Akaza > Base Giyu** ≈ **Base Obanai > SCA Mitsuri > SSVA Marked Mitsuri >≈ Zohakuten >≈ Base Mitsuri > Suppressed Base Mitsuri.**

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# Conclusion

So you have Akaza, while holding back, being comfortably stronger than both Base Giyu and Base Obanai. Meanwhile, SCA Mitsuri who scales above Zohakuten by a decent margin, is still slower than Base Obanai and Base Giyu to the point where they can repeatedly save her before she can even react or save herself.

**With all of that considered, any matchup difficulty estimate above a LOW DIFF in Akaza's favor is wrong. And that's without even factoring in Akaza actually going all out + I'm being generous to Zohakuten.**

The overall power gap between Akaza and Zohakuten is WAY bigger than you think.