DouShino

"Hey, Shinobu-chan, hey. You wanna go to hell with me?"

- Douma to Shinobu after falling in love with her

DouShino is the het ship between Shinobu and Douma from the Demon Slayer fandom.

Manga


Ever since the age of 14, Shinobu has had an immense amount of hatred to the demon Douma for killing her older sister, Kanae. She had been planning to kill him ever since then, and circulated insane amounts of wisteria poison in her body all the way down to the tips of her fingernails. Once Shinobu found Douma’s residence inside the Infinity fortress, her hatred becomes even stronger when she witnesses him eating and killing his followers for “salvation” from their life of suffering. He introduced himself with an affable demeanor and seemed to find her amusing. She attacked him with her poison, but it had no mayor effect since he kept decomposing it, saying fighting with her was so much fun and he had never fought with anyone as fast as her before, truly admiring her ability. Finally, as Shinobu tried to attack Douma again, he slit her chest and lung open. Douma commented how the blood in her lungs must be so painful and that he would finish her off. She gave him a final blow before Douma held her in an embrace, breaking her spine, and ate her by absorbing her body into his. Before killing her, Douma teared up and complimented her for striving so much to kill him and asked her if she wanted to say any last words. Shinobu told him to go to hell.

After Douma’s defeat at the hands of Kanao Tsuyuri and Inosuke Hashibira, he met Shinobu in the afterlife as he was on his way to hell. Shinobu stated now he was dead she could finally rest in peace. Douma said that he had never felt emotions before, but his heart felt like it was beating now. He started doubting his belief that heaven and hell didn’t exist and started blushing at Shinobu, quickly developing a crush on her. He told her that she was cute and asked if she wanted to go to hell with him. Shinobu put on her classic fake smile, rejected him, tossed his head aside, and made her way to heaven as he stayed in hell.

Official Fanbook
In one chapter of the Second Fanbook, Gotou dreams about asking the demons about their feelings when they were killed by the Breathing Styles. Douma is seen along with the demons who were killed by Insect Breathing. While the other demons seems displeased, Douma laughs and says that they should let it slide, because Shinobu is cute.

Fanon
The majority of the Demon Slayer fandom dislikes this ship due to the amount of hatred between the two, and some people prefer the rival ships GiyuShino and DouKoto. Even so—if Pixiv works are any indication of popularity—DouShino is the 6th Demon Slayer het ship to have the most pixiv works, behind GiyuShino, ObaMitsu, TanKana, ZenNezu and AoIno.

Certain fans like to think Douma truly fell in love with Shinobu after dying and they enjoy the ship and its dynamics, thinking of it as an enemies to lovers trope and imagining how their possible relationship and interactions could be. They also like the physical appearance of the characters and love the contrast between Shinobu's petite figure and Douma's bigger frame. In fanon they usually portray Douma being comically in love with Shinobu while she despises him, or they both falling in love with each other and developing a romantic relationship despite Shinobu's initial reluctance.

Song
On March 26, 2021, 0.1g no Gosan, a Japanese Visual Kei band, tweeted a clip of their new song, called Kyuusai Butterfly (救済バタフライ ; Salvation Butterfly). The first line of the tweet are from Douma and Shinobu conversation in the afterlife, where Douma realized he's in love and Shinobu telling him to rot in hell, implying that the song is for Douma and Shinobu.

On March 27, 2021, the group's vocalist and the writer of the song, Midorikawa You, confirms that the song is indeed about Douma and Shinobu. He even calls it as a love song from Douma to Shinobu. You states that he tried to express Douma's detached personality and his pure—but heretical—way to court Shinobu after he knew about love. You also uses the hashtag for DouShino (童しの).

On You's next tweet, he posted the full lyrics of the song and says that even though DouShino has mixed opinions from the audience, he likes their relationship.

Fandom
PIXIV


 * 童しの tag on pixiv
 * 童しの on pixiv encyclopedia

FAN FICTION



TUMBLR



Trivia

 * Shinobu is the first person Douma holds real feelings for. In chapter 157, when Douma is crying false tears because of Akaza's death, Kanao sees through Douma's acts because the color of his face doesn't change and his cheeks aren't flushed. In the afterlife, Douma is visibly blushing when he asks Shinobu to go to hell with him.
 * After demons die, they usually meet people they knew when they were human, but Douma and Shinobu meet each other in the afterlife.