Alright, so the results are in and the people have chosen San to go with Ashitaka. Why aren't I surprised?

"I choose San." Ashitaka said. Nobody was truly astonished with his choice. San nodded and got onto Yakul, sitting behind Ashitaka.

"Take care, sister." Okami said.

"Don't worry, Ashitaka, we'll be alright." Eboshi assured.

"After you kill the demon," Gonza growled, "bring me to its body. I'm going to burn it to make sure it never comes back."

Ashitaka took note of what Gonza had said; cremating the demon's body would be the best way to get rid of the body since he didn't know how to properly bury a god or a demon. He knew the wise woman in his old village knew how to. But the Emishi were a long journey away from Irontown, and even if Ashitaka wanted to go back, he couldn't. To the Emishi people, he was dead, no longer their prince.

Ashitaka and San went off the path to the left while Eboshi and the rest went to the right. Ashitaka was worried for them since none of their weapons could hurt Kumo. He thought it may be possible for Urufu and Okami's claws to harm it, though he wasn't completely sure since the last time the wolves fought the demon, they nearly ended up killing each other.

"Are you sure you can trust that human?" San asked.

"You mean Jigo?" Ashitaka asked; San nodded in response, "I suppose I do. His mercenaries were killed by the demon, so there's one reason he would want it dead."

"I still don't like him."

"I don't either."

The first place they checked was the den. San had asked Ashitaka to go there, saying she felt that something was wrong. Ashitaka guessed she was just worried and rode over to the cave to show her that everything was fine. The only problem was that everything was not fine; the apes had arrived and appeared to be searching for them. There were only three of the mindless puppets being controlled by Kumo. Two of them jumped down the side and made their way towards Ashitaka and San.

Ashitaka dismounted Yakul with his sword drawn and San behind him with her spear. The first ape to attack was also the smallest, though he was still at least a half a foot taller than Ashitaka. Instead of charging straight at him, the ape leapt over Ashitaka and landed between him and San. The Wolf Girl, however, wasn't very surprised, as her brothers and her sometimes fought and hunted this way. She brought down the ape with a quick thrust of her spear and moved next to Ashitaka. The ape which had remained at the mouth of the cave began to take large rocks from the inside of the den and hurl them down at Ashitaka and San. The two were able to avoid them with relative ease, but the largest ape was about to come upon them.

The ape lumbered at seven feet in height with paws as large as San's head. It made a swing towards Ashitaka and San, the former of which jumped back while the latter ducked the ape's wide attack. San took the opportunity to strike at the ape with her knife, though he turned out to be faster than she thought. The ape grabbed her arm and prepared to toss her, but Ashitaka slashed at the beast and hit in its lower abdomen. The pain caused the ape to let go of San and stagger back, though it was not enough to cause any serious damage. San attempted to dart around the ape so she and Ashitaka could flank the possessed beast, though each time she or Ashitaka tried, it would step in front of them and pound the ground with its fists clenched.

Above them, the other ape had found a rock that was twice the size of his head. He hurled the heavy stone down at the three who were fighting, disregarding the safety of his ally. San saw the stone first and saw that it would hit Ashitaka where he was standing. She placed her knife between her teeth, quickly picked up a rock from the ground, threw it at the ape she and her mate were currently fighting, and tackled Ashitaka to the ground. The ape they were battling against saw this as an opportunity and jumped towards them with the intent of crushing them beneath his massive weight. The stone thrown down by his ally, however, smashed against the spine of the ape, causing him to land several inches away from Ashitaka's feet.

The remaining ape, now seeing that his two friends were down, ran back into the den. San helped up Ashitaka and looked up. Seeing that the ape was gone, they believed he had retreated. However, they were proved wrong when the ape suddenly charged out from the den and threw himself into the air. He screeched loudly as he continued to crash to the ground with great speed. Ashitaka and San simply moved out of the falling ape's way and watched as he crashed into the ground, causing the nearby earth to rumble and leaving a crater where he landed. They knew the ape wasn't dead, so San went over to him and finished the task with her spear.

"I want to see what they did up there." San told Ashitaka. Since they were most likely ahead of the others, Ashitaka nodded and went up with her, leading Ashitaka to the foot of the ledge that the den was perched upon.

Inside of the den, they found that the apes had brought in a strange totem-like object. It was made from the wood of a dead tree that had been charred by flames at one point, making it black in color. Eight carved legs, four on each side, protruded from the totem. Near the bottom of the totem was an odd mark -which somewhat resembled an hourglass- made with red paint. At the top of the totem were many painted red dots.

"I wonder what this is for." Ashitaka said.

"It's some sort of Totem," San said, "Supposedly, humans used to worship the gods of the forest. Totems were used as symbols to show which god the human would worship." San took the totem from Ashitaka and examined it. "Those apes must have been praying to the demon for some reason."

"Maybe it ordered them to." San threw the totem out of the den, causing it to land and break nearby the body of the ape which had dived at them. They did not find anything else in the cave that was of any concern to them. They returned to Yakul and remounted him. Before they continued on their way, they quickly looked around themselves to see if there were any apes nearby. Unable to see any, they continued back on their path to the Forest Spirit's pond.

A good number of miles away from the den, Okami and Urufu were leading Jigo, Gonza and Eboshi to the pond. Gonza was walking next to Eboshi while Jigo stood between the wolves and the other two. Gonza and Jigo were armed with rifles while Eboshi carried a sword. Gonza kept his eyes on Jigo to make sure the monk didn't try to pull any tricks. The wolves walked at a slower pace than usual so the humans could keep up. They remained watchful as they moved their eyes left and right to watch for the demon or the apes.

As they were walking down the path, the two wolves saw what looked like a small group of humans standing motionless on a nearby rock. They told the others to stop and alerted them of the other humans. The humans were carrying rifles and were dressed in white robes and wore red hats on their heads. They were a couple of Jigo's hunters. Seeing his comrades were still alive, Jigo waved one arm at them.

"Hey, you guys!" Jigo shouted, "It's me!"

Okami was about to tell Jigo to shut up when he saw the humans were now moving. Two of them had gotten into a crouching position while the others appeared to be putting ammunition into their rifles. "Get out of the way!" The wolf roared.

The hunters took aim and fired at the group without a word. Three rifles erupted with fire and propelled a large iron ball towards Okami, Urufu, and Lady Eboshi. Urufu dodged out of the way while Okami tackled Eboshi out of the way since she wasn't fast enough to dodge the bullet. All of the bullets missed their mark and hit the ground.

"You useless traitors!" Jigo shouted as he took aim with his rifle and fired. One of the humans was knocked back off the rock as the bullet hit him in the center of the chest. Gonza took aim with his rifle and fired. His bullet hit one of the other hunters in the shoulder, causing his arm to be blown off. "Yeah! That's two down!"

"No it isn't," Eboshi said, "look."

The human which had his arm shot off by Gonza lifted his now reloaded rifle without the slightest hint of pain and fired and Jigo. While the bullet did not hit the monk, it hit his rifle near the barrel, causing bits and pieces of iron to fly everywhere nearby. Jigo received a few shards of iron in his leg and grunted in pain. Okami and Urufu took off towards the humans, dodging the bullet from the other hunter. The two wolves leapt in unison and bit into their enemies. Okami crushed the head of the human who had lost his arm; Urufu brought his opponent down and began to rend him with tooth and claw. Gonza winced a little at the viciousness of the wolves. He knew they were fierce fighters, but he didn't know they were this fierce! The wolves returned to the humans with their mouths coated in blood.

"Any idea why they would attack us?" Gonza asked Jigo with one eyebrow raised in suspicion.

"What? No! I didn't order this!" The monk cried, "I don't know why they would shoot at us. I don't even know how they escaped from that giant bug."

"Perhaps they didn't." Eboshi said, "Ashitaka told me that the demon is able to control those which are bitten by its fangs. I'm sure that we're going to encounter more of Jigo's friends, and we will have to kill them if they attack us."

"Eh, they were a bunch of cowards anyways." Jigo muttered. Before they continued on, Jigo went to the bodies to collect more bullets. Even though they couldn't harm the spider, they would be useful against the apes and hunters. As he went to the hunter which was shot first, he found a charred wooden totem tucked in the hunter's robe. He knew a little about totems and their original purpose and brought it over to the wolves. They confirmed what he had thought: his hunters were carrying an idol of the demon. Gonza took the idol from him and crushed it under his heel before they continued to the pond. A red sun had begun to set.

By the time Ashitaka and San had reached the pond, the red sun had disappeared and was replaced by a bright full moon. The hole they had made earlier had not been repaired, allowing them to enter the tent of spider webs freely. Ashitaka told Yakul to stay outside and to run away if the spider demon showed up before he went inside.

Inside the fortress of webs, they found the island remained untouched. The sacks that held the bodies of the spider's victims were now open and empty; whatever had been inside of them before were now gone.

"Where do you think it's hiding?" Ashitaka whispered to San. San shrugged and suggested they wait on the island. They swam to the island and waited on the edge of the water for the others to arrive.

Before the others were able to show up, Ashitaka and San heard what sounded like scuttling coming from the outside, followed by the sound of Yakul's hooves rapidly trotting away. Kumo had arrived.

Ashitaka immediately readied an arrow while San stood with her spear. She figured that she could bash the creature with the blunt of it since the head wouldn't cause any damage. The demon was quick to enter the area, knowing that Ashitaka and San were near. Ashitaka let his arrow loose, but the demon jumped out of the way. He readied a second one and fired just as the demon jumped onto the ceiling of webs, barely dodging the arrow. It scuttled across the ceiling and made its way to a spot over the island. Ashitaka had just readied his third arrow when the demon suddenly dropped from the ceiling and landed with a loud crash in front of him and San.

"Not this time, humans." Kumo rumbled as he swatted Ashitaka out of the way, causing him to let go of his bow and arrow and lose the arrow in the water. San took the arrow Ashitaka had dropped and drove it into one of the demon's eyes. The spider shrieked in pain and San stabbed it once more in another eye, causing it again to writhe and roar in agony. As she pulled her arm back for a third strike, the demon unleashed twenty tentacles, five for each limb, and held San in place. The Wolf Girl struggled against the grip of the demon, which began to bring San closer to him. "You are no wolf, you are a human." San managed to kick the demon in one of its injured eyes, which, while hurting the demon slightly, didn't do much to loosen its grip. "Playtime is over, feeding time has begun." The demon threw San twenty feet into the air as she gasped at the sudden burst of strength it summoned. Ashitaka managed to get up from the blow, having hit his back on a large tree on the island, and watched with horror as the demon caught San by the arms and legs, held her upside down and bit into her stomach with its fangs.

"No! San!" Ashitaka cried as he ran over to the demon with his sword in one hand and an arrow in the other. The demon tossed San's body aside and leapt up to the ceiling once more. Ashitaka, holding back tears in his eyes, ran over to San as the demon moved away from the island and back to the shore. "San, wake up!" Ashitaka cried as he crouched next to her and shook her shoulders.

To his surprise, San's eyes opened. The wound in her side had completely disappeared. Ashitaka was about to say something with a smile before he immediately noticed something was wrong. There were purple streaks on San's cheeks and her eyes were blank, nothing but white. He whispered her name, wondering if she was truly there.

"Ashitaka." San whispered back as she slowly reached for something near her leg. Ashitaka looked to see what she was reaching for and found it was her knife. Then he knew that he wasn't actually talking to San. He jumped away from her just as she thrust the knife at where his throat would be. The now possessed Wolf Girl sprung onto her feet with her knife held in a reverse grip. Ashitaka knew that if he wanted to free San from Kumo's grip, he would have to fight her to reach the demon. With great reluctance, he held his sword in a defensive stance and waited for San to strike.