For those who noticed the confusion earlier, hontou ni gomenasai! I had to delete Chapters 8 and 9 because of the error in order, in which I mistakenly posted Chapter IX as Chapter VIII! *facepalm* But I have fixed it. *sigh*

To those who have read this story all along, thank you very much! :).

CHAPTER X: Entanglement

The blanket of the night sky immediately became a webbed expanse of black space as webs and strings crisscrossed.

Miru grinned as she landed over the post right above Bansai. Crossing her arms, the webs that embraced the post directly infront of her tightened.

"IKKE!" The spider demon screamed as the post came crashing down, the wood of which it was made gradually broken by the sharp web strings.

The samurai raised his sword and sliced its blade right across the post, the strings attached with it weaving across the lower half, sending it flying towards the Miru, whose ecstatic demon instincts made her grin even more as she let herself slide down the upper half. Arching herself forward, Miru spread her left arm, letting the silver threads spring and morph themselves into a sword. Clasping it tightly with her murderous arms, the spider demon swung her weapon wildly—ready to slice some human flesh.

"As if I'd let you!" The blue green samurai blocked the sword with his own, clashing it with such force that Miru had to grit her teeth in resistance. That was when she heard the sound of another post crashing, and it was coming right straight to her.

Bansai smirked as his own strings pulled the gigantic wood, maneuvering it to the spider demon.

"Demons are not that simple, human."

All it took was a kick from Miru, sending the piece of wood flying in midair. Bansai grabbed the moment, entangling his strings around his opponent's right leg. With tremendous force, the Kiheitai Joui pulled the strings backward, consequently aiming his sword towards Miru's face. The spider demon lost her balance—

"Nani—"

Or not.

The spider demon let her slim body dangle upside down like a trapeze performer circling around his own strings, only to prop herself upright behind her prey. Bansai only had the time to use his shamisen to receive the tremendous blow of the sword.

The sword plunged itself with pleasure to the shamisen.

It was Miru's turn to be surprised.

The blade had just stuck itself inside the wooden plane. Bansai seized the opportunity, jerking the shamisen backward, causing Miru to get pushed forward. The next thing she knew, the sword was right behind her.

Bansai smirked with triumph. "Let me hear the music of your scream!"

The sound of a plunged flesh reached the Kiheitai leader's ears, who had been enjoying the scene behind one of the posts.

But it was not a scream that followed.

It was a laughter that resonated throughout the battleship of the extremist terrorist group of the Kiheitai.

For it was not a flesh that Bansai has just killed, but a mass of web who took the form of the spider demon.

"Makikomu."

The web's strings exploded, engulfing the blade, and eventually breaking in into pieces.

"I TOLD YOU! WE SHOULD JUST SEAL THAT DEMON RIGHT AWAY!" The bald man yelled at Takasugi. He wore a white robe, the emblem garment of omnoyis, and at the very center of the white cloth was the symbol, ごみ, Gomi.

"Yamettoke." Takasugi spoke casually as his sword blocked the omnoyi's way, who was about to enter the battlefield.

"What the hell are you saying?! At this moment, this ship will get destroyed by that spider demon! I should tell you, you samurais are nothing compared to—"

It was a gunshot that followed.

"Didn't quite follow that. What was that again? Huh? What were you going to say?" A blonde woman appeared right behind the bald omnyoji, whose mouth hung open as one shove would have meant his bald head meeting an unfortunate fate.

"Samurais are what? Nothing compared to demons? Dammit, then if that's the case they wouldn't have lost two swords under their watch? Na, Shinsuke-sama?"

"You too. Behave yourself Matako."

"Tch." The woman named Matako reloaded her pistol. "You're lucky. You say you're an omnyoji? Jiji, without those damned papers of yours, you'd be nothing but some bald man."

"Nan'da to?!", the bald omnyoji yelled again, but shut up immediately as he felt the cold tip of the gun's hole push itself against the skin of his shiny forehead.

"Matako."

The gunslinger woman shot one last glare at the omnyoji, then rushed to Takasugi's side. "Shinsuke-sama, are you really sure about this? It's demons we're up against! Compared to Amantos, they possess innate abilities which these aliens are not even on par with!"

Takasugi smirked. "Are you by any chance, afraid?"

"A-Afraid?!", exclaimed Matako, as if she had just been insulted. "O-Of course not Shinsuke-sama! As long as I'm with you, I will never ever be afraid of anything—"

A poker-faced man shoved a dead spider right infront of Matako's face. Matako shrieked, hitting the poor man with her gun.

"I-Itte…", the poker-faced man wiped the blood that gushed from his mouth.

"T-Takechi-senpai, what was that for?!", Matako yelled as she kicked the huge eight-legged creature away.

"They have been swarming the ship, that's why I took the chance to be a spider buster.", replied the man named Takechi. "I've killed twenty four so far."

Takasugi smirked. "How very thoughtful of her to send her minions over here. Makes it only easier for us. Na, Hage-san?" He turned his eyes to the bald omnyoji.

"Ha!" The bald omnyoji spread his arms. "Behold the power of us humans who possess the abilities to enslave the most feared creatures in this world of life and death—WARE WARE WA OMNYOJI—"

The ship swayed violently. The bald omnyoji was not able to finish his declaration of greatness anymore as the spider demon swiftly glided past the group of spectators, grinning as she knelt to the ground, pointing a finger into the very center of the ship's wooden floor.

"Hachigatsu no michi…HAHEN!"

The samurai guitarist had to use both of his arms to cover his eyes from the golden blinding light.

The spider demon's expression could not be read, the red hair that she inherited from her father covering her face, a face that bore the sadist smile of a former murderer.

"Witness. The power of a demon from the Hundred Parade—KISAMA!

And from the very spot she stood, golden lines outlined and spread wildly from the center, forming themselves into one huge giant web, a red light of fear creeping through every thread. The seals quivered violently as the webs reached to them.

Everything happened within the speed of light.

Deafening series of explosions filled the ship, clouds of smoke blocking the vision of the boarders. The crew kept on running to and fro to keep the ship from sinking.

"SHINSUKE-SAMA!" Matako had to cling for her life with the nearest post she found herself next to be with. "YAPPARI, IT WAS A MISTAKE TO BE INVOLVED WITH THIS—" Matako stopped as she saw their leader laughing as if he never did before.

"Sou, DESTROY EACH OTHER, DESTROY EACH OTHER UNTIL THERE IS NO MORE STRENGTH LEFT FOR YOU TO KEEP ON FIGHTING!" Takasugi had never felt so much joy in his life as he watched the spider demon dash towards Bansai whose teeth were already cringed, aware of the pounding thirst for triumph mirrored on the demon eyes of Miru, the feared demon of entanglement.

The seals aflamed like lanterns of death. Bansai

Matako yelped.

"BANSAI!"

All it took was once swoop.

Bansai fell down on his own pool of blood.

The next thing was even more unexpected.

For Miru appeared right infront of the Kiheitai leader.

"Temee, it seems I have to betray my mistress' orders."

Matako eyes widened with horror. She withdrew her two swords, ready to protect the man she have sworn to follow all her life.

"Takasugi Shinsuke, you are no human. For you to desire of destroying this city."

Miru raised her sword.

"For you to go against our kind."

The image of a beastly man reflected themselves from the demonic eyes of the spider demon.

"YOU ARE NOTHING BUT A DEMON TO ME."

"SHINSUKE-SAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Takasugi met the spider demon with a smile.

It was as if the Mistress pandemonium might have became one with the air. Even as a long-time member of the Nura Clan, Zen could not still swallow the strength of his Mistress, who sliced her way through the seals with so much ease it registers how unnecessary the two of them were after all.

But the Inugami proved to be ecstatic as much as Reiya. He kept laughing as his sharp claws tore the papers, merrily counting them as he ran with the Mistress herself.

"Ara, it seems you're rather on the time of your life, Sadaharu-dono", said Reiya, smiling as she took twenty seals with one strike.

"Mochiron! This is the first time I've fought this much with so much freedom for twenty years!", exclaimed Sadaharu, whose laughs were getting closer and closer to a kid.

Zen had no choice but to grin for himself. Clearly, what more could he ask for? Just as the Sandaime trusted his strengths despite being a bird demon, Reiya clearly did not had any doubts over him, who had served as her mentor and guardian while she grew.

"Zen. You're creeping me out.", Reiya noted as they took the tenth set of seals.

"Like you're one to talk!", Zen spread his silver wings even more, flying high above them.

"We got no time to waste.", said Reiya, this time with seriousness as they jumped over the next building. "Sadaharu, can you feel their presence?"

Sadaharu bent forward, sniffing the air. "Hm…we're coming closer and closer."

"Please Reiya-sama, just let me hit them once for the ruckus we would have skipped had they not escaped…"

"Ojisuke Zen. We need them after all. Plus, that man's a comrade of that beast."

"Just how much are you obsessed with that man?", Zen snapped, apparently annoyed.

Reiya raised her hand, unleashing a rope of osore and eliminating seals along their way. "Saa na."

The man flipped his long and shiny black hair. He then took the cup of tea from an odd white creature sitting right next to him. Smiling with satisfaction, the man was obviously savoring the moment, despite the wails of a China girl who had been lamenting the fact that they forgot to bring their huge and cute mascot with them because of hurrying.

And then for no reason, the table was flipped, hitting the poor man and sending him to decorate the wall with his blood.

"Mukatsuku-aru!" The criminal turned out to be the China girl after all. The strange white creature carefully lifted the beat up victim. The creature then raised a signboard: ARE YOU ALRIGHT?

The man coughed out blood. "A-and after I finally had you joining the Joui…" He then coughed out more blood.

"WHO'S JOINING THE JOUI?!", the silver-haired samurai smashed his own cup of tea on the floor. "I told you, we're just running from the worst of all kind of creatures in this world they make Amantos look like harmless angels!"

"G-Gin-san…Katsura-san had been kind enough to lend us this hideout, so would you—"

But Gintoki clearly paid no heed upon Shinpachi's words as he snatched Katsura from the white creature.

"And just in case you know, they're already invading Edo! Even the Bakufu has partnered with Omnyojis to put up seals all over Edo!"

"N-Nani?!" Katsura immediately withdrew himself from Gintoki. "And I was busily buying Umaibou. A—and would you believe? I got these free tissue papers for free. You see, we've been running out of these since we've been having loose bowel movements. Elizabeth, would you kindly bring them here?"

The strange white creature nodded and opened his mouth. Pieces of white paper fell, bearing characters written on them.

Shinpachi and Gintoki froze. Kagura picked out one and blew her nose, stuffed from crying.

"TEMEEEEEEEEEE!THOSE ARE NO TISSUE PAPER!"

The pieces of white paper scattered themselves like confetti the moment the two joined in beating up the poor Katsura.

"Maa, maa. Ojisuke." Katsura calmly sat again infront of the kotatsu once the two have calmed down. "And is it really true? They are looking for Benizakura? And even Takasugi?"

"Dakara, we've told you.", said Gintoki, picking up his nose. "They want the Benizakura. As with Bakasugi, hell they must have wanted him for his involvement with that sword."

"But invading Edo…this is really all of a sudden.", said Katsura, crossing his arms with his eyes closed. "And they even hunted for you…makes me wonder why they did not look for me."

"Well, demons can detect stupidity after all. Who would want help from a standby Joui leader desperately doing a parody of one of their leaders?", said Kagura without batting an eye. "If you really want to get some screentime, go dance out there naked and get slaughtered by those monsters."

Katsura ignored Kagura's comments. "But strange…I don't think these demons have any plans of conquering Edo. If there's anything more fishy, it's the Amanto I'd put my doubt with. Are they not too desperate over these demons when they have not done anything? In fact, they have not even shown traces of violence."

"But the woman they showed on TV—", said Shinpachi.

"Shinpachi-san, would you really believe anything that comes out on TV?", said Katsura. "What do you think Gintoki?"

Gintoki also had his eyes closed.

"Gintoki?"

Gintoki's eyes remained closed.

"GINTOKI—" And that was when they heard snore coming from the silver-haired samurai.

"HOW CAN YOU EVEN SLEEP IN A TIME LIKE THIS?", Shinpachi shook the Yoruzuya Boss violently.

"Tonikaku, that demon you met must be hunting you by now. I would not say that it's really admirab;e of you to break a deal."

Shinpachi could only sigh. "S-sou da na. B-But fear took over us! I-If you only saw that demon's power.!"

"Indeed. I would never forget how that man just sent me back to my standby position.", Katsura crushes a seal with one hand. "What was that demon's name again?"

"Zenzen-chan.", replied Gintoki from his sleep.

"Zenzen-chan ja nai."

Shinpachi froze.

"Gintoki, did you just speak?", said Katsura, eyeing the still sleeping Gintoki.

Shinpachi was already trembling as he pointed a shaking finger towards the door.

"Oy Gintoki, it's really bothering me! Have you by any chance mastered the art of ventriloquism! Shaberu!", Katsura yelled as he shook Gintoki, who seemed to have no plan of waking up.

"K-K-Katsura-san!"

Zen opened the door wider, letting a woman in her black cloak enter. Katsura was still busy in unveiling the mystery of Gintoki's "ventriloquism", making Shinpachi the sole one to receive the sudden blow of the situation.

The woman pulled her hood down. That was it. Shinpachi fell down to his knees.

It was the woman who had been aired on TV.

Nura Reiya smiled. "Ojamashimasu."

Somewhere from afar.

A spider demon fell to the pool of his own blood.

And from her vision.

She saw a crimson light.

No.

It was a crimson sword.

She raised her line of vision.

"S-Sonna…"

Takasugi smiled, as he stepped to his left, revealing the man who held the crimson sword.

The sakura blossom fell from its branch.

Ritsuki-sama…