Obanai Iguro

## Portrayal

**Obanai Iguro** is a minor supporting character in Demon Slayer: Blade of the Night, reprising his role as the Serpent Pillar from Demon Slayer.

## **Appearance:**

Obanai is a relatively short man and pale completion. He has straight-edged black hair of varying lengths. His right eye is yellow and his left eye is turquoise. He is partially blind, barely able to see out of his right eye. Obanai's mouth has two large scars coming from the horizontal tips of his lips.

Obanai used to wear bandages on top of his mouth, but has since ceased with the habit.

Obanai wears a green-tinted Pillar Uniform, along with a black and white pinstriped haori, the hem and cuffs of which are striped length ways rather than vertically, which covers his hands.

## **Personality:**

Obanai is a very harsh and strict individual who shows no concern for those who do not abide by the Demon Slayer Core's rules. Obanai's cold exterior is seen both in his rule over the Serpent Sect, and his own relationship with his family, keeping a distance from Mitsuri Kanroji, and even his own son Tsukuro. His strict rule-following was displayed in Ryo Yorunoha's trial, where Obanai was steely that he should be punished severely for his actions.

His expectations for other slayers are immensely, almost impossibly high, while he, at the same time, understands how unrealistic they are, and therefore underestimates most others, as seen with Aki Kodachi and Suguru Sunarashi at the Infinity Castle, berating them and thinking they wouldn't be capable of handling Zohakuten, and that they were overconfident. Obanai has a rather prominent habit of pointing at people with his finger while berating them or talking badly about someone.

He often expects the utmost from even his Pillar comrades, suggesting in a Pillar Meeting that the ones that didn't have Tsugukos should simply look harder, potentially calling them lazy for not doing so already. He is also quite confident on his skills and work ethic, seeing as he referred to Gyokko, an Upper Moon, as a small fry.

Obanai, despite his cold, and distant behavior, cares deeply for both Mitsuri and Tsukuro. He has made sure to inform her that she was to contact him if anything went wrong, but keeping his distance by saying that should only happen in emergencies. Similarly, he constantly pried Kyojuro Rengoku to promote Tsukuro to a Tsuguko, up to a point where he actually succeeded. The only reason why he stays far away from them is because he believes he already tainted Mitsuri before, and they don't deserve someone cursed like him ruining their lives.

## **Synopsis:**

Obanai was born into a clan of thieves who lived off the riches that had been stolen from those who had been killed by a demon that they worshiped. This demon had a great taste for newborn babies, which is what the family sacrificed to her in exchange for their riches. As the first boy born into the family for 370 years, Obanai Iguro lived out the beginning of his life locked in a wooden cage being excessively spoiled by his family, who insisted on bringing him so many plates of rich food that he became sick of it due to the overally pungent odors of the food and the poor ventilation of his room.

When he turned twelve, Obanai was finally allowed to leave his cell for the first time in his entire life. The demon remarked that Obanai was very small and decided that she should wait to eat him when he was bigger. She ordered his mouth to be cut wider, all the way to his ears, to match hers due to her "liking" him.

Eventually, Obanai finally managed to completely remove a wooden chunk of the bars and escape into the night. As he ran, the Serpent Demon began to pursue him, almost catching up to him and killing him before Shinjuro Rengoku, by chance came to his rescue. Obanai joined the Demon Slayer Corps and decided to turn all his rage onto whatever demons he could find, believing that he would feel like a better person if he risked his life for the sake of others and somehow ease his guilt. Despite this, he constantly felt as if his dead family would continue to drag him down despite the good he accomplished as a Demon Slayer, and his lingering self loathing would haunt him everyday.

## **Abilities:**

**Monumental Strength:** Obanai, despite being on the weaker side of the current Pillar lineup, is still powerful enough to stand among them, and is considerably stronger than the average Slayer, even being capable to light his sword bright red with only grip strength.

**Monumental Speed:** Obanai is quite swift, being able to contend with Akaza in battle, all the while coming out alive. Obanai also blitzed Muzan with Mitsuri, even if Muzan was poisoned to a point where he had the reflexes of a drunk human.

**Synchronization:** Obanai, having always been partially blind in his right eye, developed a combat technique utilizing his pet snake Kaburamaru. Kaburamaru possesses a unique ability which allows him to read and predict a target's attacks and then relay that information to Obanai.

**Total Concentration Breathing:** Obanai created and mastered the Serpent Breathing, using the Total Concentration Breathing to reach heights far beyond what should be possible for a human.

**Demon Slayer Mark:** Obanai awakened his own Demon Slayer Mark. His Mark took the form of three snake like tattoo patterns with large dots, stretching from his left arm to the left side of his chest

**Bright Red Nichirin Blade:** Obanai was able to turn his blade bright red after being excessively taunted by Muzan, using most of his strength to do so, even if he did feel dizzy afterwards, Muzan's current poisoned state proved to be much worse, allowing him to make a quick recovery mid-battle.

## **Fighting Style:**

**Master Swordsman:** Obanai is one of the most powerful and skilled swordsmen in the entire Demon Slayer Core, and by extension, the world. Obanai makes use of a unique swordsmanship style that utilizes slithering motions to bending his sword and attacks in impossible ways, allowing him to weave through narrow openings with ease despite wielding a standard wooden sword.

### **Breathing Style:**

**Serpent Breathing** *(Hebi no Kokyu):* A Breathing Style Obanai created himself and mastered. This swordsmanship style makes use of twists and turns similar to how a serpent slithers to attack in strange ways. To this day he remains as the Style's strongest user.

#### **Techniques:**

* **First Form: Winding Serpent Slash** *(Ichi no Kata: Idagiri)* - The user moves like a slithering snake and releases several slashes in a winding pattern. This attack can be done while advancing to increase its efficiency, it is, however, too tiring to use in more than one enemy in a row.

* **Second Form: Venom Fangs of the Narrow Head** *(Ni no Kata: Kyozu no Dokuga)* - The user dashes behind their opponent at blinding speed and aims to swiftly slice off their head. This attack is completely silent, and works well at stealth

* **Third Form: Coil Choke** *(San no Kata: Toguro Jime)* - The user circles around their opponent while using their sword to slice them from all directions, pressing them closer and closer to the center, eventually culminating in a decapitating slash, or a follow-up by an ally

* **Fourth Form: Twin-Headed Reptile** *(Shi no Kata: Keija Sosei)* - The user leaps forward and performs a horizontal slash that slices through the target. This attack can be done over and over, showing great effect, but it doesn't work well on waves of targets

* **Fifth Form: Slithering Serpent** *(Go no Kata: En'en Choda)* - The user curves their sword in multiple directions and slices their opponent, making it capable of decapitating multiple enemies at once, or pushing a single defensive enemy much further than they should be.

* **Sixth Form: Serpent's Lunge** *(Roku no Kata: Hebi no Tosshin)* - The user will dash strongly, using all of their leg strength to attack once. This attack often destroys the ground where the dash started, the user leaping so strongly they don't touch the ground until after the target was reached.

* **Seventh Form: Shield of Scales** *(Shichi no Kata: Uroko no Tate)* - The user mimics a snake, twisting their entire body like a coil to defend attacks from all sides. This is a strange attack to look at, so more often than not, the attacker won't even realize their blow was blocked.

## **Equipment:**

**Nichirin Indonesian Kris:** Obanai carries around an Indonesian Kris sword made from Nichirin, setting the pattern for the entire Serpent Sect. It is lavender in color, as expected from a Serpent Breathing user's tools. His katana's handguard has a gold circular shape engraved with two snakes connected by several plant-like patterns. Obanai also carries along a special scabbard made of leather held together by a weak magnetic pull that opens up whenever he uses his katana. It is designed so that Obanai unsheathes his sword vertically instead of horizontally.

## **Familiars:**

**Kaburamaru:** Kaburamaru seems to be a rather intelligent animal, not just an ordinary snake. In most situations, he is usually seen flicking his tongue to sense his surroundings while coiled around Obanai's neck.

**Yuan:** Obanai's crow, Yuan, is competent, but it often "overworks" by gossiping with Obanai rather than actually saying useful information. While Obanai will shush it more often than not, any info about Mitsuri has his attention.

## **Battles:**

* Obanai and Mitsuri vs Muzan
* Obanai and Giyu vs Akaza (Off-Screen)

## **Trivia:**

* Obanai's name carries the following meanings: [O] means "Small", [Ba] comes from "Banana", and [Nai] means "Within". His surname, meanwhile, has [Guro], meaning "dark/sinister"
* When Obanai is tired, he blinks with one eye at a time.
* Obanai's level of openness is ranked as 30%
* Obanai more often than not eats unhealthily little, this became especially dangerous after he stopped talking to Mitsuri
* Obanai's opinions on his fellow Pillars are:
	+ Tanjiro: *Naive, far too forgiving.*
	+ Giyu: *Tolerable at best. He doesn't look miserable like before, but I still dislike his face.*
	+ Kyojuro: *I trust him a lot. He feels like an older brother, perhaps a little too doting though.*
	+ Gyomei: *I am happy that the Core has someone like him around, if not, we'd all be lost.*
	+ Sanemi: *He's becoming more and more miserable as each day passes. I wish he'd open up.*
	+ Zenitsu: *It took some time, but I consider him a somewhat acceptable ally.*
	+ Kanao: *While competent, she adds nothing to any discussions, no better than a robot.*
	+ Seiji: *He is the model of what every Pillar should strive to be.*
	+ Daisuke: *If he takes care of his Sect as well as he cares for his facial hair, his students are all doomed.*
	+ Murata: *Laxness incarnate. He could have passed his techniques on, no need to gloom on the past.*
	+ Shinobu: *Quite competent, though she does have extremely poor taste in men. At least her offspring is competent.*
	+ Mitsuri: *I shall remain silent.*
	+ Senjuro: *Nothing like his brother, in the worst possible way.*
	+ Suguru: *I have a feeling he lazes off rather than does any actual work.*
	+ Muichiro: *Competent. I like him. Out of him and Kamado, I prefer him as the head of the Pillars.*
	+ Inosuke: *He is immature, and clearly not capable of being a Pillar.*
	+ Aki: *Overconfident. Overbearing. Overoptimistic. He needs to learn his place.*
	+ Tengen: *I respected him a lot. A shame he isn't here to give the new generation a shred of good will.*