If they have to die to get their shards out then they are all prob willing to die to close the gates of hell. Though I doubt they'll find all the shards in their life time. I liked this ep because last week I asked how many demons there were and Kureha answered my question , I still don't like her hair it just doesn't look natural. One part about herback story that I didn't get was that she said she was the same age as him but in the flashback her and her brother looked older then him and his sister. Is she basing her age before she was in a coma for 2yrs or was that attack on her parents at a later time since they already knew about their tatoos?

They mention alchemists trying to create life... Homunculi as the main enemies again?
Nah just standard demons.