"I'm sorry Giyuu you haven't heard? Onichan started training Kyojuro since Shinjuro refused to train him any further."
Giyuu deadpanned at his friends' younger sisters' words, "Huh?"
"Well Shinjuro-" She cleared her throat, "He uh...he isn't in the place to train the next heir to fire breathing. So, Hikaru uh, Onichan started training Kyojuro, because he was taught a few forms of fire breathing in training. Because, you know, Shinjuro helped train Onichan"
"Oh."
"Yea..."
Giyuu stood in the outside area of Y/n's estate, he had gone to Hikaru's house, but seeing he wasn't there had gone to see if he was at his little sisters estate. She was currently hanging up laundry.
"I see." The Pillar bowed, "I'm sorry to bother you." He went to turn away, but a voice stopped him.
"A-Ah! Wait!"
He turned back to her.
"Would you like some tea? Onichan is eating dinner here tonight, so he'll be here in a bit! Why don't you wait for him?"
He was going to decline but hesitated when he saw the desperate look on the girl's face, he could tell she didn't want to be left alone again. The crows where company, but they weren't the best. She didn't really have anyone to talk to, Hikaru and Kyojuro where busy training, Shinjuro wasn't in the right mind, all the Hashira where out on missions, and Kanae was well...gone.
Giyuu nodded with slight hesitation but that quickly faded away as the girls' eyes shined brightly.
"Here just sit down! Ill get us some tea!"
----------------------
"I'm sorry I don't have many flavors; crows can be sensitive to how some tea smells so I have to be careful with what I buy." Y/n smiled sadly, pouring the newly brewed tea into cups for both of them.
The two now sat on Y/n's engawa, crows flew around training, eyeing the Water Hashira suspiciously. How could they not? I mean, what man wouldn't want their beloved master?
They sat in an awkward silence before Giyuu spoke up, bowing his head.
"I'm truly sorry if I caused you an inconvenience Y/n-San."
"No! No! Your fine!" She waved her hands around, "I don't mind at all! In fact I'm happy you came over, I bet Onichan will be happy to see you!"
"I could've just come back later..."
"Your fine Giyuu, plus I like the company." The girl chuckled, pushing her h/c locks back more, "Plus, you're a good friend to my Onichan I can tell." She smiled softly, "Its hard to see, but he seems a lot happier now."
He nodded, pausing in silence for a moment before going on, "How are you?"
"Hm?"
"Have you been feeling anymore dizzy since you've fainted?"
"Oh, no I've been fine thank you."
The raven-haired man hummed, taking a sip of his tea.
"..."
"..."
Y/n sweat dropped.
It was awkward.
The only thing these two had in common was that they both had ties to Hikaru. Other than that, they had nothing. It was worse that the Water Pillar was a naturally stoic and quiet man.
Clearing her throat Y/n tried to make conversation, "I do hope you weren't busy before you got here, id hate to keep you held up."
"I got a day off."
"Oh."
"I wanted to spend it training with Hikaru but...." He droned off.
"Oh! I'm sorry I didn't mean to get in the way of that..." The girl smiled sadly.
"No, I mean-"
"I bet you wanted to go and train by yourself after seeing Hikaru wasn't here huh?" Y/n smiled, "Its fine Giyuu im sorry for keeping you up, you can leave if you want after you've finished your tea."
"Its fine."
"Giyuu you don't have to lie."
"I'm not." He placed down his now empty cup with a bit of force, "I'm staying."
"O-oh!" She blinked, "Ok!"
They went back to silence for a few minutes before Y/n spoke up again.
"Luckily, I've finished my daily training exercises with the crows, but I still have some paperwork to do regarding this years Final Selection. "
Giyuu hummed.
"Why don't you train here Giyuu? I'm sure Hikaru will be back soon, and we can keep each other company as I usually do paperwork outside."
"Is that ok?"
"Yes, I just hope you don't mind training with some dummies." Y/n gave a closed eyed smile.
"Don't worry. I'm sure he's use to it, he should be, since he's a dummy himself." A voice spat. A familiar hiss following it.
The two turned their heads to see Obanai walking through the front gates.
"Who is that?" Giyuu muttered, tilting his head.
"Iguro-San!" Y/n pouted, "That's mean, you haven't even met Giyuu-San yet!"
"Whatever..." The multicolored man walked up the engawa, stopping next to the girl, as he loomed over them both. Pointing a finger at the Hashira he continued, "I can already tell he's an asshole, and I told you its Obanai."
"That mean Iguro-San..."
"Obanai."
Y/n sighed, "Obanai-San-"
"O-B-A-N-A-I"
She stuck out her tounge, "Fine then you better call me Y/n."
"We'll see..." The man mumbled as his snake hissed in delight.
"Oh, hi Kaburamaru!" Y/n waved.
Giyuu stared at the interaction before Y/n stood up,
"Oh! That's right you two don't know each other yet huh?" Y/n clasped her hands together, "Giyuu-San, this is Iguro Obanai and his friend Kaburamaru."
The snake hissed and Obanai simply just narrowed his eyes, Giyuu also doing so in kind.
"The snake is a friend?..." Giyuu mumbled in slight confusion.
"You got a problem with that?" Iguro spat venomously.
Giyuu hummed.
"And Iguro- I mean Obanai, this is the Water Hashira, Giyuu Tomioka!"
"Wait- seriously?" The Heterochromia eyed man raised his eyebrow, "HES The Water Pillar."
"Obanai!" The girl lightly scolded him, "You've just barely met him, stop judging him..."
Iguro scoffed, "Why is he here anyways?"
"He's keeping me company while we wait for my brother to get home." Y/n tilted her head, "Not that I don't mind it, but why are you here Obanai? Shouldn't you be training right now at the Rengoku's estate?"
"Oh. Those two idiots, your brother and Kyojuro, are so damn loud. I couldn't get any peace and quiet."
Her mouth did an "O" shape, "Onichan isn't being too hard on Kyojuro is he?"
Obanai shrugged making the girl sigh.
Giyuu suddenly stood up and bowed making Y/n flinch,
"Now that you have a guest I wouldn't want to intrude, thank you for your hospitality. Ill be leaving now..."
"Aw, don't leave! I'd feel like I'm kicking you out!" Y/n pouted.
"Its fine..." Giyuu mumbled.
"Yea, its fine." Iguro hissed with his slithering friend.
"Oh, I know! Obanai you probably haven't had time to train yet because of my brother and Kyojuro taking up all your space at the Flame estate! Giyuu needs to train too! Why don't you train together!"
Giyuu hummed.
"It may help to train with another Hashira besides Shinjuro!" She added on.
Iguro was going to reject but after seeing the excitement in the girls' eyes, probably from having people over to cure her loneliness, he couldn't reject.
"Have you passed final selection yet?" Giyuu inquired drawing his sword.
"Just last month." Iguro narrowed his eyes dangerously, also taking out his sword.
Giyuus and Y/n's eyes widened in disbelief as Iguro drew his sword. It wasn't a normal blade; it was just like Iguro had explained to Y/n before. It was curved like a zigzag, reminding them of a serpent, and its holder was a box strapped together with Velcro for an easy unsheathing.
"Woah!" Y/n gasped, "I remember you telling me earlier how it was shaped but I didn't know if you were joking or not!"
"You though I was joking?.." Iguro mumbled, obviously a bit peeved.
"It does seem...strange..." Giyuu muttered.
"Don't insult my sword jackass." Obanai spat before running full force at Giyuu, knocking them off the engawa.
Y/n just sighed, use to violent behavior and rapid sparring due to her brother when he use to take in students to find a Tsuguko. Of course, none of them lasted.
------------------------
"You are...hah, very strong, hah...," Kyojuro smiled, trying to get his breathing back into control, "I can see why you're a Pillar!"
Hikaru ignored the chitchat the boy was trying to engage as he swung his wooden sword over his shoulder,
"Fifth form, again, go."
"It is a pleasure training with you!" The flame haired man laughed, as he picked himself off the ground charging at the Pillar, "Flame Breathing; Fifth form, Flame Tiger!!"
Hikaru sighed, immediately seeing an opening in his form, "Shadow Breathing; Third Form, Shadow Step!"
Kyojuro watched in amazement as Hikaru disappeared from his line of vision in a flash. His eyes widened even more though as he felt his presence reappear behind him. Trying to go into defense, or at least dodge out of the way from the Pillars wrath, he twisted his body around, raising his sword. There was no point though as Hikaru went to land another swift blow to the student's neck, effectively making him cough out in pain and fall back to the floor in agony as he heard a sickening crack.
"WAHHHHH! Kyojuro!" A female's voice cried with a clatter.
Hikaru watched as the pink haired female ran out to her teacher, the young Rengoku following quickly behind, leaving the plate of snacks they dropped on the porch.
"Y-you didn't break anything did you!?" Mitsuri wailed out in worry, helping Kyojuro into a sitting position, "I heard a loud crack!"
The elder Rengoku was quiet as his younger brother crouched by him too, trying to ignore the cold glare the Shadow Pillar was giving them both.
"B-brother...." Senjuro squeaked, eyes shaking in worry when his elder brother didn't answer.
Kyojuro didn't move for a minute, keeping his head down.
"AHHHH! YOU KILLED HIM! YOU KILLED HIM! NOOOO! SENSEI!!!" Mitsuri sobbed, hugging Kyojuros body with a death grip.
Senjuro started blubbering too, "Onichan...Onichan...."
The two sat there crying for a minute before Mitsuri spoke back up, "I Told you! I told you, you where being too harsh! You-!" She quickly stopped though when she looked up and saw the scary look on the Pillars face. One that basically said he didn't care.
Shivering in fear Senjuro was about to say something but was interrupted by a small chuckle emitting from his brother's body.
"Oni..Onichan?..."
Rengoku let out another small laugh before standing up, ignoring the twos resistance.
"I see...it seems I have underestimated how hard this training would be, how foolish of me." Kyojuro smiled, his head still hanging, "Do not fear you two for the crack you heard was only that of my trainer's sword breaking."
The two looked over gasping in shock as they, indeed saw, Hikarus swords next to him, shattered into pieces.
"Kyojuro-San! Maybe you should take a break!" Mitsuri stuttered, now standing.
"Yea! What Neesan said!" Senjuro cried.
"Your really banged up! You've been at this for hours!"
Not seeing any resistance from the boy Hikaru grunted, turning away, as he got ready to leave.
"Where do you think you're going?" Rengoku raised his head, a wide smile present on his face as blood dripped down it.
"Are you not done?" Hikaru spat, "You've fallen down many times, I assumed you would've given up by now?"
"Unfortunately for you, you are wrong!" Rengoku proclaimed, repicking up his sword, "I refuse to give up!"
Hikaru narrowed his eyes.
"I won't stop fighting!"
"That's what all the others said Rengoku." The pillar sighed in annoyance, cracking his knuckles.
"I will never give up! Until my flame is extinguished, until my heart stops beating!"
Mitsuri pulled Senjuro back.
He grinned, a new fire lighting in his eyes, "I won't give up, until I become the Flame Hashira!"
A/n- Next chapter! A fight between the Shadow Pillar and heir of the Flame Pillar! Also, anyone going to Megacon this weekend? My friends going as Mitsuri!