Nezuko's head was spinning with how fast everything was moving. One moment she was fighting that spider demon, an actual lower moon, and even almost holding her own–and now she was at some fancy mansion with her face shoved into the gravel by a white haired man with multiple scars on his face. The leader of the demon slayers, who she'd only heard referred to as Oyakata so far, was explaining everything to do with Tanjiro's situation. She could tell by smell alone that the pillars gathered around her weren't thrilled.

"-and I believe this goes for Tanjiro as well," Oyakata continued. "I believe something… unexpected has happened for Kibutsuji. Do you understand?"

Nezuko took a chance to glance at the pillars and note the expressions on their faces. Outside of the pink and green haired girl, almost all of them seemed to have a carefully crafted neutral expression on. She couldn't turn her head enough to look at the expression on the man with the scars, but she could feel the hand shoving her into the ground tremble ever so slightly. The scent of anger coming off of him was so strong that it made her want to puke.

"I don't understand, Oyakata-sama!" The scarred man gritted out, "We can let humans live, but not demons! I can't consent to this!"

The pressure on her back let up and Nezuko sat up as fast as she could. She craned her neck around just in time to see the scarred man use his sword to slice at his arm and the nauseas churning in her stomach got worse. She knew where this was going to go and she didn't like it one bit.

"Oyakata-sama, I will show you the true nature of this demon!" The man vowed.

"Don't!" Nezuko cried.

"Sanemi…" Oyakata didn't protest, but his tone held no approval.

Sanemi held his arm out over Tanjiro's box and let the blood drip down onto it. Nezuko tried to lean forward to block the flow of blood but a set of hands grabbed onto the ropes binding her wrists behind her back and yanked her back upright. She hissed at the pull on her shoulders and glanced behind her to find the man with the snake glaring at her even as his hands went from the rope to her wrists. She had the fleeting thought that she should be lucky he hadn't shoved her into the ground like Sanemi had, but was then distracted by the shuffling she could hear in Tanjiro's box.

"Shinazugawa," snake man never took his mismatched eyes off of Nezuko, though she knew he wasn't addressing her. "You can't do it in the sunlight. You have to go in the shade or the demon won't come out."

Sanemi grit his teeth and then glanced up at where Oyakata and his daughters stood, "Forgive me for my rudeness, Oyakata-sama."

Sanemi grabbed one of the straps on Tanjiro's box and then hopped up into the house, rushing past Oyakata and the children. Nezuko struggled against the grip on her wrists but couldn't make the snake man budge. She'd worked so hard to get to this point, to protect her brother and try to find a cure to return his humanity, and now she could see it all going up in smoke.

"Leave Tanjiro alone!" Nezuko hollered.

Sanemi raised his sword once more and stabbed it into Tanjiro's box. She heard Tanjiro's pained grunt and saw red, ramming her head back into the snake man's face in an effort to get him to let her go. His arm came up and wrapped around her neck, applying enough pressure to cut off her air. Nezuko struggled as much as she could anyway, trying to rasp out her brother's name.

Tanjiro was stabbed three more times before Sanemi seemed to have enough fun torturing him and instead kicked the box onto it's side, allowing the door to fall open. He stood with his arm outstretched over the opening so that the blood running down it could drip down directly onto Tanjiro. He'd positioned himself and Tanjiro's box perfectly so Nezuko and the rest of the audience had the best view; Tanjiro was curled up inside the box and shaking.

"Come on, demon!" Sanemi taunted as he kicked the corner of the box, "Got your favorite human blood!"

Tanjiro crawled out of the box and stood up slowly. His body grew as he rose up and the veins on his forehead were bulging prominently. The pupils of his eyes were little more than slits and the low growl that emerged from his throat sent a shiver down her spine, though Sanemi didn't even blink. Tanjiro's nostrils flared visibly and he blinked once and then twice, his pupils returning to normal as he glanced down at the cut on Sanemi's arm. His eyes fell on Sanemi's sword next and he stared at the blood dripping from it for a long moment before he raised one hand and rested it over the bloodied hole in his side that had yet to heal. He'd pieced together that it was Sanemi who had attacked him.

And then Tanjiro burst into tears.

Sanemi's eyes widened and he took several hasty steps back as Tanjiro shrunk down until he looked about five, tears streaming down his face. Nezuko struggled even harder as Tanjiro looked around at everyone until he saw her and then made grabby hands at her, wanting her to comfort him.

"What's going on?" Oyakata asked.

"He's crying," one of his children answered.

Several sets of eyes turned to look at her for an answer and Nezuko shrugged her shoulders upwards until the guy who had her in a chokehold seemed to realize just why she couldn't answer and loosened his hold on her.

"Urokodaki-san used some sort of suggestion so Tanjiro would see all humans as family," Nezuko explained.

Outside of Tanjiro's sobs there was nothing but silence. The hold on her was removed entirely and a second later the rope binding her wrists was cut in half. Nezuko didn't bother to waste any time and forced herself to her feet, running over to Tanjiro as fast as she could and picking him up. He buried his face in her neck and she rubbed soothing circles on his back.

"Poor thing," the pink and green haired pillar's eyes had filled with sympathetic tears. "He thought one of his loved ones was trying to kill him, didn't he?"

"I didn't know he'd think that," Sanemi tried to defend himself.

"You still stabbed him!" Nezuko spat.

"I believe this has proved that Tanjiro will not attack anyone," Oyakata cut in quickly. The smile on his face only grew, "After all, he barely seemed affected by Sanemi's marechi."

Nezuko turned her head to glare at Sanemi and the man took a few steps away from her. If she ever ended up alone with him then she would find a way to get him back, she just had to figure out how.