Obanai knows disappointment, had dealt with disappointment all his life.

That feeling of being too late, that feeling of warm blood between his fingers, that feeling of seeing crying, hopeless faces. Yes, Obanai knows disappointment. He has been disappointed with himself too many times to count and has been disappointed in others even more, so when Uzai declares loudly that he's done with demon hunting, and that he is considering retirement, he glares and calls him pathetic.

Yes, he is disappointed in Uzai, and he tells him so. "We can't afford to lose you," he sighs. "Stop being a child Uzai, Rengoku is dead. You're one of very fewer pillar's left."

Uzai runs his remaining hand through his hair and smiles sheepishly up at him; his wives not too far away, and a crying blonde teenager by his side. "I'm sorry Obanai," he says; grin a bit too sharp and eyes a bit too sad. "Me and my girls promised each other that we would retire after taking on an upper moon. We did, we won, and now I'm kinda done with all of this."

The snake pillar stares him down, but the sitting male's gaze is unwavering. Obanai sighs again. "You're pathetic," he finally mutters, turning away. "Love has never saved lives before."

He doesn't look back; walking away as fast and as quickly as possible, trying to not lose his cool, but he does hear the kid. The blonde, sniveling, pathetic kid.

"I don't know what his deal is Uzai-senpai," the brat blubbers. "But there is nothing wrong with picking love over fighting a war which you have given so much for already." There is a particular note In his voice that almost makes the snake pillar stop in his track and look back, but he refrains. Jumping down the roof instead, with only Uzai's happy cries of "you called me senpai you little brat," ringing in his ears and a certain pink haired girl dancing behind his eyes.

He doesn't think much about the kid, not until he sees him next, sneaking out of the butterfly estate; hand clutched around his mid and face too bruised to be identifiable. If it wasn't for his hair, Ubanai wouldn't have even recognized him. He speaks up before the kid is fully out of view. "What are you doing out of bed?"

The brat jumps, and then visible curls in on himself with pain. "Ouch, ouch, ouch," he mutters; face pinched and eyes watering.

Obanai isn't sorry. "I said," he repeats himself. "What are you doing out of bed?" He has to speak a little louder than he likes; the estate running unusually high in patients this time, but the kid does hear him, and slowly turns around; lips wobbly and eyes glassy.

He looks pathetic.

"Leaving?" the kid finally says; trying his hardest not to meet his eyes. Obanai scoffs.

"You're in no condition."

"I know that!" The teen is tilting from side to side now; face taking an interesting shade of green. "There are a lot of new patients right now, and they don't have enough beds and I don't wanna take up more room since I'm feeling better!"

The kid says all of this in one breath, before faltering and clutching at his stomach even harder. Obanai is acting before he can even think. Shoving the teen none too gently into a chair and running away and coming back quickly with a trash can; just in time for the idiot to spew his guts out. He grimaces, disgust written all over his face and under his bandages, but he still finds himself lifting a hesitant hand to rub gentle circles on the blonde's back. "Easy brat," he mutters. "Easy."

The kid eventually lets up, lifting his head from the basket, and while shivering uncontrollably pushes himself till he's leaning fully against the chair. Obanai silently hands him a wad of paper towels. The blonde whispers something, but the snake pillar doesn't care enough to listen, instead he signals over the first medical personal he sees and sharply directs them to take the moron back to bed. "Don't let me find him wandering around again," he snaps. The man pales, and so does the kid. Obanai walks away.

"Thank you," someone calls out from behind him. He doesn't stop, but maybe, just maybe his shoulders relax just the tiniest bit at the appreciation.

"You're really kind Kanroji-senpai!"

Obanai comes to a halt. Someone else was already here? Who? Why? He frowns. Mitsuri tended to be too nice for her own good, and Obanai had found himself threatening people into behaving themselves several times throughout their years together as pillars, so whoever was cozying up to the girl better be prepared for hell when they left the pink haired woman's company, because-

"Thank you Zenitsu! You're really kind too!"

A loud; almost grating awkward laugh, and a soft "thank you."

Obanai's muscles untense.

The blonde, the blonde was named Zenitsu right? Why the hell did he even know that? His frown lines deepen, and he finds himself opening the door to the dining room a lot softer than he'd intended. But not before he hears the brat's next, heartfelt words.

"I wish I'd known you when I was a kid," he says. "You don't hate me or call me annoying," Obanai barely catches the bright smile on the blonde's face as he opens the door. "I wish you were my big sister!"

The love pillar brightens up so much, Obanai would have cringed back from the sheer force of her smile if he hadn't been so used to it. "I'll be your big sis!" she says, and the brat smiles back; equally as bright. Obanai pauses at the door, watching them. They look ridiculous. Mouth stuffed half with food, hair clashing in colors, and soft giggles making them choke every now and then on their dinner. They look ridiculous, but still-

The snake pillar finds that his mouth quirks up just the slightest bit at the corner as he watches them.

Bullies.

That's Obanai's first thought, when he comes across the pitiful scene in front of him that morning. Bullies.

'How the hell,' he thinks; speeding up just a little bit. 'Do we have bullies in this organization when people are dying off like flies every day.'

And how the hell was Zenitsu showing up everywhere and anywhere around him lately. He sighs.

"Stop that guys," the blonde wails; jumping after his sword as the cannon fodders throw it back and forth above his head. Laughing scornfully with each other. "That's mine. Give it back!"

They of course didn't, and the stupid boy keeps on whining and wailing and occasionally screaming "Tanjiro."

Pathetic.

It was clear this wasn't the first time the bulling had taken place by the way the other boys seemed overly familiar with the idiot, but it was also clear this might have been the first time they've gotten him without his ridiculous bodyguard around, because-

"Tanjiro isn't here to save you now crybaby," one of them taunted; lifting the sword high in the air, prepared to throw it. "What you gonna do when I throw it into the trees up there?"

Zenitsu pauses momentarily at those words. "Go get it?" he mutters finally; fists rubbing at his eyes.

They laugh, and the kid smiles tentatively back at them, as if trying his hardest to fit in, and that-

That makes something ugly crawl up Obanai's gut and weight heavily on his shoulders. He growls, and with a speed too fast to detect, the sword is clutched between his fingers, and the cannon fodder his lying flat on the ground; his boot pressed on his back. "And pray tell," he says slowly; grinding his foot down and making the idiot gasp. "What Is going on here?"

"Nothing, nothing!" The morons scramble back, bumping into each other as they try their best to get away from his wrath. Doesn't really matter, because in a blink of an eye, he has them all lying on the floor, unconscious. Except for one, the brat.

Walking towards him, he notices while Zenitsu is visibly shaken, the kid doesn't move away from him, instead his eyes grow just a little bit lighter and his lips curl into a smile. "Thanks, Iguro-senpai," he says.

And Obanai just sighs. Handing over the sword carefully, and for some strange reason reaches out without thinking, and pats the kid's hair. The brat just blinks up at him owlishly. "Stop letting these idiots walk all over you," he grumbles, and then he's gone.

Next time he sees the brat, he's called in for backup. Apparently two lower moons had been terrorizing the district some of the younger demon slayers had been sent to, and unfortunately, most of them had died.

It left a bitter taste in Obanai's mouth, as the sword pillar quickened his pace to get to the kids as fast as possible. According to his messenger crow, not many were left; barely hanging on.

How so many inexperienced children were still breathing was honestly a miracle, and if he wanted it to stay that way, Obanai needed to hurry.

Finally spotting the riverside, the pillar jumped up; landed on a tree branch and continued on. Already he could smell the blood, a stench of death so strong, he would have gagged if he'd been a lesser man.

'I'm going to make them pay' he thought furiously; clutching at his sword, he bounced from tree to tree, not allowing his eyes to linger any longer on the dead corpses splayed on the ground bellow him. And then-

The hair on the back of his neck raised; the air tasted differently, and suddenly – Lightning flashed across the sky.

Obanai breathed.

"Zenitsu."

The energy dancing around the clouds was brilliant, bright, breathtaking, and powerful. The snake pillar started moving again; eyes narrow and teeth gritted tight. He'd heard about the kid's powers from Uzai. And of course, he hadn't believed him, not really. The other pillar had no reason to lie to him, but, how could someone so pathetic, be so powerful?

Still, that was him, without a doubt, and-

He needed him.

The enemy were two lower moons sure, but the kid wasn't a pillar, and he wasn't; as difficult as it was to admit, that moron Tanjiro, so he couldn't, he wouldn't be able to fend them off for long, not without help, and with that in mind-

Obanai Iguro jumped down to ground level and found his eyes zeroing on the only standing figure through the plethora of scattered bodies.

The blonde teenager was currently standing still, body unmoving and eyes; his eyes were closed.

There were no holes in his stance, and surrounded on both sides by two agitated demons, the kid, remained unfazed.

Behind him were seven up to ten other slayers; curled up and scared. They were still holding their broken swords between bloodied fingers, but it was clear none of them seemed up to the task. None of them had the kids back, and-

The snake pillar immediately recognized at least two of them from the week before. The bullies. He almost snorted at the irony.

Pathetic.

He grabbed his sword then, and is only a second away from unsheathing it, when – The kid moves. 'Fast,' is his first thought. 'The kid's fast.'

The demon snaps out of the way, but before it could get its footing under it, Zenitsu is behind it; eyes still shut, but blade slicing through its head with elegance meant for the seeing. The other demon takes that very opportunity, it most likely created for itself to attack, but Obanai was tired of just standing around, and with a split-second notice, another head rolls off the neck of a body.

Obanai pushes himself back to his full height, flicking the remaining blood off his blade, before he turns around to look at the kid. "Zenitsu?"

No answer.

Instead, the kid tilts sideways and falls into the pillar's waiting arms. Sighing, Obanai looked down at the blonde's head pressed up against his chest.

What an interesting brat.

"Rest," he said finally; fingers coming up to pat the bloodied locks of the teen. "You did good."