"It was in here…" The woman says, pointing to an isolated well in the middle of the forest.

"That looks like a horror movie scenery."

"Doesn't matter, keep your guard up..." Obanai responds back to me, silently checking the area.

"How can we find the de- I mean, the evil spirit?" I ask, Tanjiro and his nose would have been so useful right now.

"We don't have much choice besides looking around."

'Wait! We do have something with a good sense of smell here!'

"Can't Kabamaru track it for its smell?"

"For your information, he's a snake, not a dog." Obanai responds back, almost in an offended way.

"But he's an intelligent snake! Or do you have a better idea?"

"…. Fine." He sighs in frustration, delicately putting the snake in the floor.

He starts to slowly crawl around the place.

Ba-dump.

Something is approaching.

Ba-dump.

It's getting closer.

Ba-dump.

It's here!

We both jump to avoid the demon jumping from under the floor, a hole was made in where it was resting before.

"Under the floor? Do you think you're a mole or something?"

A female demon was reveled, her appearance was strangely similar to Medusa, but there was nothing in the holes where her eyes were supposed to be.

"Shut up! I'm not interested in girls! I only want men! The young ones! The handsome ones!"

"So you're a pervert, then?"

"Shut up!"

The snakes in her head started to make a spiting motion, shooting a bullet with a strange coloration in our direction.

We managed to avoid it, I look back to where the bullet ended up, only to see it dissolving the tree it had hit against.

'Acid?'

The snakes once again got ready to shoot another bullet.

Total concentration, Seraphic Breathing, first form: Absolute Severance.

I quickly got close to her, making a clean cut above her scalp, the snakes falling to the floor and thrashing around.

She quickly healed her head, making two new snakes appear and grab my sword, throwing it some meters behind her.

She tries to punch me, I hold both of her fists.

"What a fool! A human fighting with a demon barehanded?! You should have tried to escape the moment you lost your sword!"

I didn't respond to her, instead, I took advantage of the fact that she was stuck in place and gave a knee to her stomach, she let go of me in surprise.

This little second of surprise was enough for me, as I took a small step away and gave a harsh round kick to the back of her head, she falls on fours in the floor, so I ran around her to grab my sword back.

"I can handle myself against a demon pretty well, with or without a sword."

'Oh, she looks pissed.'

I look behind the demon to see Obanai slowly approaching her from behind.

Using me as a bait? Seems like I will have to hit him when we are done with this, but I suppose that for now I will help with distracting her.

"Hey, hey! why do you only eat men? Genuine question!"

"I ONLY EAT THE HANDSOME ONES! YOUNG AND BEAUTIFUL! JUST LIKE HOW THEY ALWAYS EXPECT US WOMAN TO BE!"

"Though I kinda get your point, eating them is-"

"How about your partner?"

"Huh?"

"He looked quite handsome, with the bandages and all! Is he your boyfriend? If he is, then I will be sure to devour him very slowly~"

"Nah, his type is the cute girls who are strong and like to eat a lot."

"Well, why don't we ask directly to him, then?" She says, one of her snakes getting longer and harshly curling up in his neck, lifting him up.

"OBANAI!"

"Back off! You both really thought I would fall for a petty trick such as a surprise attack? AhaHAHAhaha! As expected of humans, you guys are all fools! Well, well, there's no need to panic now that we are getting to the best part of the show right? Now, let me see this beautiful face of yours…" The demon comments in a sickly sweet way, slowly undoing his bandages, even though him, as a hashira, could probably get out of this situation easily, it must be hard for him to move.

That medusa, besides being quite similar to the demon who traumatized him as a kid, is also about to reveal his biggest insecurities, and I can't even make a move, since she can easily break his neck with the snake who's choking him right now.

She then finishes undoing the bandages, they slowly fall to the floor.

As she takes a look at his face, she started to loudly scream, I couldn't even tell if the scream was because she feared his face or because she was mad at it.

"UGLY! GROSS! WHAT A MONSTROSITY! YOU DARE DIRTY MY HANDS WITH THIS APPEARANCE OF YOURS?!"

She throws him in the direction of the well who was close by, he grabs the edge of it before he can completely fall inside.

I try to run to aid him, but he screams back.

"THE DEMON FIRST! GO KILL IT!"

The demon was scratching her on face almost in a maniac way, does holding someone who she considers ugly that much of a problem for her?

She was in her knees, still loudly screaming and scratching her face and body.

It doesn't matter why she's doing it, she's vulnerable right now.

total concentration, Seraphic Breathing, second form: Dominion Authority 

She noticed my attack too late to completely evade it, she tries to get up and run, I couldn't change the direction of the attack because of the speed of it, and the cut who was meant to chop her head off ended up severing her legs instead.

In a desperate attempt to escape, she started to crawl with what's left of her body, only for her to reach a dead end with several trees besides each other, she flips to rest her back against one of the tree's trunk.

"I-, please spare me! I can tell where the bodies of these men are! I- I-, please forgive me!"

"…so only your snakes can heal fast, huh?"

By the look she has on her face, it seems like I got it right.

"I b-beg you! Forgive me!"

"....I can't do that. But don't worry, you will probably thank me after I kill you."

Seraphic breathing, fourth form: Infinite Aprissioniment.

A clean cut was made in her neck, her lifeless head falling to the floor.

'Though I can't forgive you, I still hope you can find your peace.'

"Obanai, I already killed the-"

I ran up to the well where he was hanging before, but….

Where is he?!

Oh, no! Don't tell me that-

I quickly go look inside it, it was hard to see with the lack of lighting, but he was there, curled up into a ball while trembling.

"Obanai! Hold on, I'm going in!"

I turned to the woman who took us here before, she was hiding behind the trees while we fought.

"Please call someone! I'm going to need help to get him out of there!"

"But, what do I say-"

"Say that someone fell into the well by accident!"

She nodded weakly before running in the direction of the village.

I took a deep breath and without hesitation jumped inside.

"Obanai, are okay? Here, let me-"

"NO!"

He slaps my hand away, before covering his face with his arms, he was trembling even harder than before now.

"N-no, don't look at me, I am a monster! No! Please don't-"

He's having a panic attack! What should I do in this situation?!

Because of his experiences with his family, Obanai doesn't like woman, so one-step wrong and I might make things even worse!

What should I do? Oh no, oh no-

Should I try to comfort him? Though I still classify as a woman, it's not like I am a complete stranger, and it's better than just leave him like this….but…

No, I can't just look at him and do nothing. Because if I do that, he might genuinely believe that I think he's a monster.

It's now or nothing.

I took a deep breath and hugged him, holding his face against my chest.

"Here, I can't see your face like this."

I silent pet his hair.

"No! No! Don't look at me!"

He started to weakly trash around, he's not pushing me away, so I might be going in the right direction.

"Shhh…there's nothing wrong with your face. You are a perfectly normal young man. You are a gentle person who helps people and have a great sense of responsibility, you are a hardworking guy who managed to get your place amongst the strongest demon slayers with your own strength, you are wonderful Obanai, you are beautiful both inside and out."

His breathing started to slowly get more coordinated.

Now that I have calmed down, this well stinks…in a strange way.

Don't tell me…the bodies that demon from before was talking about are….

"They're here!"

Oh, thank god!

♡

The way back to Mitsuri's estate was silent.

Obanai still wasn't using any bandages, and he was also strangely fidgety all the way back too, he must be nervous with nothing covering his face.

"Oh, I remembered! I asked for some new bandages at the village."  I say, handing them over to him.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner…?"

"I wanted to look at your face more!"

"…that's cheesy."

"Hehe~, Though I don't think Mitsuri cares about how you look at all, you still don't want her to see it, right? That's why I asked for the bandages, even though I don't think you should hide your face."

"…. I think I hate you a little less now."

"Oooh? How much less do you mean?"

"Just a tiny little bit, and I mean really tiny."

"Jokes on you! I'm a professional in tsundere language and when you say you only like me a tiny bit, it means a lot!"

"Don't go making assumptions! And what even is a tsun-"

"Ah! There's Mitsuri's estate! "

It would be too much trouble to explain it to him, so I just changed subject.

Though this was harder than expected, I'm happy that everything turned out okay in the end.