Zenitsu and Genya were racing along a pathway leading up Natagumo Mountain, chasing after the puppeteering demon that had given them so much trouble with the Demon Slayers she had forced them to fight. As they ran, however, the latter of the boys would find himself distracted by troubling thoughts. For once, however, it wasn't about his own safety Zenitsu was worried about. Rather, it was about Tanjiro. He understood being shaken by what they had bore witness to. After all, even in their line of work, it was not every day you saw so many humans lives snuffed out so suddenly and in such a gruesome way. The sounds of their bodies burning still made him shiver somewhat even then, so he couldn't imagine how it must have been for his friend to actually smell it with his acute sense of scent.
At the same time though, something still didn't seem right. It wasn't upon seeing those bodies that Tanjiiro had seemed odd to him. If anything, he'd just seemed angry, so much he'd rushed right in to confront the demon when none of them had even noticed its presence yet. It was after being knocked back down to the ground however that Zenitsu had seen the look in his face. One he might've been very familiar with himself, but was still the last thing he'd imagined he'd see in Tanjiro. It was fear. Pure and simple fear.
In any other situation, he would never doubt Tanjiro's abilities, but that face...even if he'd tried to hide it once he realized his feelings were starting to rub off on them too, Zenitsu had heard his racing heartbeat, and knew that something had startled him deeply back then. Even his decision to separate them despite how earlier he'd been driving in the point that they had to work together...it was unlike him.
"You don't need to be so worried," Genya noted beside him, halting Zenitsu's line of thought as he looked over to his fellow Tsuchinoe, "the demon we're going after is clearly the type to hide behind its puppets rather than coming out to fight us itself. As long as we don't let those spiders ensnare us with their threads, we should be fine."
"Yeah...that's a relief," Zenitsu replied quietly but chose not to share the real reason behind his worries. After all, he didn't want to risk having both of them focused on their worries and further distracted about the mission at hand. He suddenly perked up, however, and stopped, reaching out to grab Genya by his Yukata before he could get too far either.
"What?" The scarred Demon Slayer asked annoyedly, turning over to him, only to see the blond direly staring straight ahead into the darkness.
"I can hear it...something's coming," Zenitsu told him, and Genya would turn too, just in time to see a large figure emerge from the forest's shadows. With several thick threads attached to it, the monster that came out was a tall humanoid creature wearing only pants, leaving its muscular torso and dark skin bare to see. Instead of hands, however, the demon's forearms linked instead to a pair of sharp scythe-like blades. Most notable though was the fact that, strangely enough, the demon did not have a head.
"...a headless demon, huh?" Genya asked in a mixture of nervousness and morbid fascination, "Now that's something you don't see every day..."
"I guess the demon still had one more puppet remaining..." Zenitsu anxiously spoke, taking a hold of his sheathed katana's hilt.
The demon was, for obvious reasons, not very talkative as it quickly rushed in at the two Demon Slayers. Genya drew his blade, but only managed to haphazardly block a blow that sent him skidding to the side while the demon moved in at Zenitsu. The blond nervously backed up, dodging and blocking the headless demon's bladed arms slashing at him wth his drawn katana. Genya however, had not yet given up on fighting the puppet and leaped in trying to slash it from behind, only for one of its blade arms raising to intercept him. Zenitsu would see this as his chance and leap over the demon's other arm being swung at him, slashing over its nonexistent head to cut off the strings holding it up.
At least that's what he tried to do. What he couldn't have expected however was his blade cutting through about two of the threads with difficulty before the last one bent with his blade, damaged, but not fully cut, and the demon spun around swinging its blade at him. The blond managed to block it despite still being midair and was flung back, managing to spin midair and land on his feet. He was given little time to recover however as the headless demon moved in at him with its cut threads already reattached by the same spiders as before, ready to hack the boy apart, only for Genya to leap in at the last moment and intercept its dash, blocking its two blades with both his kodachi and his gun, "Keep going!" He told Zenitsu, holding back the demon with gritted teeth, "I can handle this bastard, you go ahead and kill the one controlling it!"
Zenitsu blinked, uncertain if he should follow Genya's advice and leave him there to deal with such a strong opponent, "Are...you sure? I don't know if it's a good idea for us to separate even further"
"I know, but it's still the best way to do this! If we both just try and fight it, the demon will have just run away by the time this thing's defeated!" The scarred boy insisted, "If I hold it down though, and you can slip past and finish the demon off while the its still distracted using its puppet to deal with me! So, instead of wasting time worrying, why don't you go ahead and actually do something useful?!"
The blond boy widened his eyes, but his expression steeled after a moment before he nodded and quickly turned his back on Genya and the headless demon, beginning to run his way up the mountain once again, "Alright...I'll go on ahead." he declared, "Just please be careful, Genya!"
Genya smirked as Zenitsu disappeared behind him before, with a sudden burst of strength, pushing back the headless demon and causing it to stumble slightly. "Alright then...just you and me now, you headless motherfucker." He declared, raising both his weapons together, "Gimme your best shot!"
The headless demon wordlessly complied as it rushed in towards the scarred boy. Genya, in turn, backed up while blocking and dodging its blows frantically. The demon, however, did not let up, focusing entirely on making mincemeat of his opponent. The boy would duck underneath one of its swings as one of its blades carved deeply into a tree behind him before turning around and throwing an upwards swing at him. Though once again blocking the blow, he'd do so off-balance, and be sent sprawling some ways back rather violently.
Despite shaken, Genya managed to regain his bearings enough to push himself forward and roll underneath the headless demon leaping in towards him. He rose and brought his blade with him to block the demon spinning around and swinging its blade at him again. He was sent skidding some distance by the blow, but would grin as a bite-sized chunk of his opponent's arm was now missing. Genya chewed, and swallowed slowly before spitting out at the ground, "Damn...you really taste like shit, huh?" He asked the puppet demon with a grin while stepping in towards it, whipping off blood from the corner of his mouth, "Still, that really gave me the boost I was looking for...whatcha say we go another round?"
The headless demon responded by rushing in at him again, but Genya would move in to meet it. This time around, their clash was not as one-sided, and the Demon Slayer would manage to hold his ground by blocking the demon's swings and slashes with his kodachi, its moves quick but predictable, and not as overwhelming as before due to his new boost. However, just as he sidestepped one of its swings and moved to slash across its chest, he'd suddenly feel his movements be suddenly halted in place as every muscle in his upper body suddenly froze. Glancing to the side briefly, he'd see a spider's thread leading up to the treetops attached to his shoulder and curse. The headless demon took this chance to try and impale him with one of its arm-blades, but Genya struggled against the control placed on him and managed to move his left hand enough to aim at the demon's chest with his gun before pulling the trigger.
The shotgun blast knocked back the demon with its power, preventing him from cutting down the Demon Slayer. Given some time to recover, Genya managed to fight enough against the thread's hold on him to cut it off and dash back in at the demon, only for the threads to suddenly drag it back to its feet, allowing it to block the boy's sword with its arm-blade, the bleeding wound on its chest not showing any signs of healing as it would to a normal demon, but not seeming to bother it all that much either.
The headless demon would stab forward at Genya to try and impale him again, but the boy would sidestep the blow and be able to evade it while only receiving a gash on his side. He swung his gun as a makeshift weapon to hold down its other arm-blade while thrusting his kodachi at its other shoulder. The blade sunk in halfway through, and Genya would try to twist and pull at it to disarm the demon, but he wouldn't be given the needed time as the headless demon rushed into him, body slamming the Demon Slayer away from it.
Grunting, Genya would rise again, and lick the bitter demon blood off the edge of his blade to give him another small boost and help in healing his new injury. The thing was strong, no doubt about it. Its body was tough and it had no obvious weak spot like a neck for him to target. Still, normally he wouldn't be all that worried in taking it down, but those spiders and their strings could prove to be a real problem. All it took was one mistake to let them paralyze him at the wrong time and leave him skewered by the headless demon's blades. He had to remind himself that this was not just about winning, but about buying time. His best shot was by keeping it busy for as long as he could and give his comrade a chance to defeat their real opponent, "Come on, Zenitsu...I'm counting on you." He thought, crying out before rushing his opponent once again with his kodachi raised.
Zenitsu flinched as the loud bang of a gunshot echoed out behind him, but he went on running regardless without even glancing back. It was pointless to worry now, be it for Genya fighting that monster or Tanjiro running off after a dangerous demon. All he could focus on was doing his job, finding and killing the one controlling the puppets they had been facing off against since arriving in this mountain. Though it wasn't like he wasn't worried about that either. With so many things weighing down in his mind, he tried to invest the rest of his attention into keeping an eye on his surroundings for any sign of the demon. Still, that wasn't enough to prevent him from running in between two trees and being caught up in a spiderweb discreetly weaved in between them, causing the boy to yelp in surprise and quickly begin patting himself to get the cobwebs off him, "Ugh, damn cobwebs...they really had me panicking for a moment." He thought, before pausing for a moment "Wait...a spider's web...oh, no."
Realization dawned upon him a moment too late however as an invisible force suddenly pulled at him, forcefully dragging the boy on the ground through a great deal of forestation, being pulled through bushes and bounced off trees, all the while struggling fruitlessly to try and rise up or draw his katana, anything that could help him stop himself, but it was for naught. Finally, it seemed he'd been dragged far enough as the thread stopped pulling Zenitsu, allowing him to begin recomposing himself after being forcefully dragged there, but would freeze as he heard a wry chuckle, "How lucky…of all the Demon Slayers that could've reached me, turns out the one who made it is also the meekest looking one."
The boy would turn to look at the source of the chuckling and be met by a short voluptuous woman with white hair sitting on a tree stump right in the middle of the dark clearing he'd been dragged to. Zenitsu might've felt a hint of attraction towards her if it weren't for the very obvious demonic traits such as her pale skin, demonic markings on her face and overall bloodthirsty grin. "Up, now." She commanded him, pulling at a thread connected from her left index to the treetops above and all the way down to his back, suddenly dragging Zenitsu up to his feet. All the while, her right hand was fidgeting its fingers with another set of strings attached to its fingers, presumably the ones controlling the demon Genya was probably still fighting at that very moment.
Zenitsu would attempt to struggle his way out of the threads, but he soon realized that two more of them had connected to each of his arms, further limiting his movement. The demon would grin as a pair of spiders came down the thread she was using to puppet him and attached another two threads to her thumb and middle fingers, giving her free control of the boy's arms."What a fun new flesh puppet you brought me…" She commented, narrowing her eyes as one of the threads she was controlling in her other hand seemed to snap and fall limply to the ground, causing her to frown "Your friend is giving me such trouble too. Maybe I should have you go help in killing him."
"N-no…" Zenitsu stuttered, trying fruitlessly to move against the threads controlling him, "…stop…I won't let you use me to hurt Genya…"
The demon looked at him as if he was nothing more than a cute animal doing a trick, "Is that so? And what exactly will you be doing to stop me?" She inquired, tugging at his thread and suddenly having Zenitsu be suddenly dragged up into the treetops, pulled roughly to be hit back first against the branch of a tree before being let free to fall back down to the ground. "Yes…I thought so," The demon commented, seeing him struggle again to rise from the ground, "Still…you did bring up a fair point." She noted, having him be pulled back to his feet again, "If I send you out there like you are, your friend might just free you from my threads, and then I'd have to deal with the two of you at once." She sighed, "It might be less effective that way, but I guess I'll have to kill you before I can really make you my puppet."
Zenitsu widened his eyes at that, beginning to panic as the danger he was in fully began setting. Tanjiro was not around to help him, and Inosuke had followed him. Genya was still down there fighting that headless puppet and Kanao had no idea of what was even happening to them as she'd stayed to heal Murata at the base of Mount Natagumo. He was alone, with no one to help him and entirely reliant on his own self to somehow escape this situation. But for all his struggles, it all proved meaningless as the threads continued preventing him from moving his own body.
"You know, I could simply tug at that thread and snap your neck…but that's not the fitting way to do it." The demon told him, pulling at the threads to force him to reach out and slowly draw out his katana, raising it horizontally before him, "I think it's far more poetic to have you slice off your own head as you Demon Slayers are so prone to doing with us demons, don't you agree?" She inquired with a shit-eating grin, having Zenitsu flip over his blade so the edge was pointing towards him before starting to have him move it towards his own neck.
He fought with every inch of his being to stop his controlled motion as the katana drew closer to his neck, and was able to momentarily halt it as his arm shook violently with being tugged by the two forces controlling it at opposite directions, "Oh? I didn't expect that kind of struggle from you…" The demon admitted, "No matter. It's impossible to break my control. You should just give up and save us both some time." She told him, twitching her middle finger and causing the force tugging at his arm to get stronger, resuming its strained movement towards his neck as Zenitsu stared down at the reflection of his own widened eyes full of fear reflected back to him in his own blade.
"I can't stop it…I can't stop my arm…I can't stop the blade…!" He thought nervously, "…is this it? Am I really gonna die in such a pathetic way such as cutting off my own head…?"
"You're no fit for being a Demon Slayer, Zenitsu. Too soft. Too cowardly." He could almost hear his senior student's harsh words ringing in the back of his mind, reinforcing the feeling of despair, "You should quit while you're ahead and spare yourself from a gruesome death."
"I guess Kaigaku was right all along…" Zenitsu mused with a grim, nervous smile, "Maybe if I hadn't been so stubborn…maybe if I had listened to him, I might have lived a long peaceful life….but then again…"
"I told you already, I ain't giving up on you, kid!" Gramps had once told him for what seemed to be the umpteenth time as he cried and crawled at his feet, "You might not even believe it yourself, but I'm gonna show you there's potential in you for greatness yet!"
"Was gramps wrong too…?" Zenitsu wondered silently, the edge of his blade reaching his neck and leaving a small cut to the side, but at this point he was too enthralled in his own thoughts and in unconsciously fighting back the demon's pull to even notice, "No…cause he wasn't the only one who believed in me..."
"Deep down, I know you're actually a capable Demon Slayer, Zenitsu." Tanjiro had told him just after they'd arrived in Natagumo, "Hell, if you managed to control your fear, I bet you could get even stronger than me."
"...that's right…I am strong." He muttered to himself out loud with newfound conviction, breathing in deeply and turning an intense gaze down to his arm as the blade slowly began being pulled away from his neck, with him successfully beginning to fight back for control of his body.
"…huh? What do you think you're doing?!" The demon asked irritably, tugging harder at the strings and pulling back the blade closer to his neck again, but Zenitsu held it tightly and continued fighting against the demon's control.
"Don't falter…don't lose your focus…you just need a moment…one moment, and you can take her down." He told himself, his teeth gritting as one last memory surfaced in his mind.
"Your wounds aren't fully healed yet, so make sure you don't push yourself too hard!" Aoi had told him when he'd last seen her, putting a tough facade for a moment before allowing herself to mellow out slightly and show the worry she'd tried to hide, "…take care out there, Zenitsu…come back to us safe, okay?"
"Stop this!" The demon demanded, pulling at the strings controlling him angrily, "You are my puppet, obey your puppetmaster!"
"I'm no one's puppet…" Zenitsu replied direly, his eyes steeled with defiance while his blade's edge towards the demon once it was far enough from his neck, allowing him to work on switching his footing as well, this one with significantly less difficulty, "I'm a Demon Slayer."
No sooner did he make that declaration that lightning began to flicker in and out of view around him, surrounding both the entrapped boy and his extended blade, "Breath of Thunder, First Form…" He chanted as the quickly panicking demon tried to pull at the strings to desperately reign back the Zenitsu before he could make his move, only for them to snap at that very moment with the Demon Slayer's sudden dash. The demon barely registered what had happened as a bolt of lightning rushed past her, the edge of a katana striking at her neck and easily slicing through, with her body finally falling limp as her head was separated from it. "…Thunderclap and Flash." Zenitsu finished, now standing across the clearing with his blade lowered as the yellow streaks of electricity faded around him.
He glanced down on the side and saw the look of shock still stamped on the demon's face. She said nothing as she began disintegrating from her neck up, before finally seeming to notice him staring down at her and turning her gaze to his. Neither demon nor Demon Slayer said a word as the former finished disintegrating, but Zenitsu could've sworn that right before her eyes were turned to dust, he saw a look of calm acceptance flash past them just as she vanished fully. Despite all her actions and what she'd tried to do to him, in that short moment, the boy actually felt glad for the demon managing to achieve some sort of peace before her demise.
He took a deep breath and sighed quietly in relief, "That was close…" He thought to himself while silently dragging the back of his blade in between his pinched fingers before returning it to his scabbard, "If it wasn't for that sudden burst of confidence, I'd be dead meat for sure…but still," The blond boy stared down at his open palm, still surprised at his own actions, "who would've thought you had it in you, Zenitsu…?" That, he quickly realized, was a dumb question, "Yeah…of course," He silently noted, thinking back to Gramps, Tanjiro, Aoi and even the other Senses, "I guess they all did, to some extent…"
This though served as a sudden reminder of their situation and about the other Senses, "Oh, crap, that's right! Tanjiro and Inosuke are heading up the mountain right now to fight a Lower Moon, not to mention what else might be lying up there! I gotta go help them!" He decided, starting to run his way up the mountain, before suddenly stopped as he recalled another member of their group, "But...what about Genya...? He was down there fighting that puppet too...is he okay...?" He wondered silently, hesitating to keep on going and wondering for a moment if he should head back to check on his fellow Tsuchinoe. He recalled, however, that up to his beheading of her, the demon was still moving her other hand to control the corpse demon. Meaning up until she was no longer able to control it, Genya must've still been fighting her puppet. Not to mention that Genya, out of all of them, was the one that had to be least worried about these kinds of injuries given his own unique method of fighting. He'd only been explained the gist of it after asking the boy about it, but apparently a boost in overall power was not the only thing he got from eating demons, but also a quite potent healing factor that allowed him to survive injuries that would certainly be fatal for any normal human.
He knew, then and there, that the decision he was about to make was a very stupid one. But even if he went back to Genya, there was no guarantee he'd be able to keep moving forward while healing from any injuries, and if he did he would probably slow both of them down greatly. The whole team was already slowed down somewhat on their way there in order to let him keep up when he couldn't use breathing techniques like the rest, he had no doubt making his way up the mountain would be even worse. Even with all that considered, moving on without him was still a very stupid decision, but it wasn't one fully guided by logic. Try as he might, Zenitsu still couldn't shake off the look of terror on Tanjiro's face after his clash with that demon. He really didn't know what it meant or what might have been going through his friend's head, but he knew that if he ended up going back for Genya instead of rushing ahead to help him and something ended up actually happening to Tanjiro, he would never forgive himself.
So, hesitantly and worriedly, he glanced back over his shoulder while biting onto his lower lip and offered a silent apology to Genya, all before turning his gaze ahead of him and starting to once again make his way up the mountain.
"So much for invincible, ain't that right, you headless fuck?!" Genya inquired to his opponent smugly. He was not quite in perfect shape, his yukata torn at the left side alongside ripped sections of his Demon Slayer garbs, as well as a thin cut marring the shaved side of his head that left him with dry blood belonging to both him and the demon painting his face. The demon, however, was undoubtedly worse, evidenced by the fact that it was now lacking its entire left arm, torn off at the shoulder by Genya. He'd eaten the bastard's rotten flesh up to its elbow, and from that was left with its thick arm blade made of bone, which he took pleasure in dual-wielding against it alongside his kodachi. "You think you're tough shit cause you don't have a head I can cut, but there ain't much point in that if you can't even regenerate, am I right?!"
The headless demon only responded by silently raising its bladed arm at Genya again, to which the boy opened a feral grin, "Wanna go again, huh? Fine by me!" He shouted, dashing in at the demon and having it responded by the demon dashing at him. However, just as the two of them were about to reach each other and trade blows, he would see the threads holding up the creature's body quickly fading into ash, causing it to collapse limply on the ground right before it was about to swing at its opponent.
Genya paused then, halting his dash as he looked down at the collapsed demon, its body beginning to disintegrate. Finally relaxing, he dropped the blade he stole from the creature, it too fading into dust as he spat out a mix of saliva and blood on the ground, stumbling towards a tree and collapsing with his back against it to rest a bit.
The demon, despite being just a corpse turned puppet, was still a tough opponent. Not as powerful as the fire-breathing demon he faced off back in Kaigara, but tough regardless. Genya could have likely beat it still, but who knows at what cost, " He might seem like a total pussy, but I guess Zenitsu really pulled through after all..." the Demon Slayer thought, stabbing down his kodachi into the ground, "Well...I guess I'll just wait here and rest a bit 'till he gets back."
Genya silently stared up at the sky in between the treetops, narrowing his eyes. And just like he told himself, wait he did.
Inosuke Hashibira was quite annoyed at the moment. After all, despite asking for the boar-headed boy to follow him, Tanjiro was not at all keen on waiting for him to catch up after he'd dashed off up the mountain following after the swordswoman demon he'd seemed so nervous about. With that said, it was only a matter of minutes before he'd left Inosuke behind entirely, with the feral-looking swordsman being left to try and follow his trail. And then, just a while later, that trail was lost, and he now found himself aimlessly roaming through Natagumo Mountain's forestation in search of any clue leading him back where his rival might've run off to. The particularly disgusting smell that covered the surrounding area for whatever reason did no wonders in improving his mood either, "Ugh...damn that Denjiro! I can't believe he really left me behind!" The boy grunted annoyedly. Not even his Spatial Awareness technique had been any help in locating him seeing as the bastard had long left his range. "Next time I see him he's gonna regret ever disrespecting me! I'm still vice-leader after all, so if he thinks he can just run ahead and ditch me like that, he's gonna-"
His line of thought was suddenly interrupted when he suddenly felt something crawling at the side of his leg and instinctively kicked it away. He turned to look at what it was as the thing bounced off the ground before coming to a stop. As Inosuke caught a good view of it, he would be met with an unnatural sight. What he had kicked, as it turned out, was a living creature, one that looked as if it had the body of an oversized spider, with several legs creeping and crawling at its side. The really weird part about it though was its head, which to put it simply, was not a spider's. Despite being about the size of a toddler's head, with no sign of real intelligence in its eyes and a hairless, pale and overall disheveled appearance, that spider most definitely had a human head, and it was looking right at Inosuke.
Now, for a normal person, this would be cause for alarm. They would be scared or at the very least creeped out by the weird creature. Inosuke however, had just found a target on which to vent his increasing frustration, "The hell are you looking at?!" He angrily shouted at the human-headed-spider, causing it to widen its eyes in fear and suddenly begin crawling away. Inosuke was not letting it get too far however as he screamed while running after it, quickly catching up and punting it with a mighty kick that sent the poor creature flying over the treetops and well out of his line of sight.
"That takes care of that...creepy little bastard..." He grunted, before turning around and blinking underneath his mask as he finally took note of his surroundings and the place he'd just happened to walk into. It was a large open clearing with a quaint wooden house, which also just so happened to be hanging sideways fifty feet up in the air, kept in place by numerous woven threads that all connected together to make an intricate spiderweb. Hung from the same web were several bodies, some looking more human, while others seemed more shrunken, with their hair gone, limbs turning into the legs of a spider and their unfit clothes beginning to fall off. Not to mention, the smell was now worse than ever, as its source was made clear to be this horrible-looking place.
The boar headed boy barely had the time to take all that in before it appeared. Sliding out through the house's open door, hanging upside down from a thread woven from its spinneret was undoubtedly the biggest spider Inosuke had ever seen. It was easily larger than an adult person, and much like the smaller spiders that had attacked him or the ones that were still turning, it had a humanlike head of a young man. Unlike them though, it had white spiky hair and round markings across its face, with mismatched eyes and a wide grin.
That grin, however, would fade when the spider's gaze met Inosuke's and the boy would begin chuckling quietly before quickly ramping it up to a full-on boisterous laugh that seemed to leave the spider demon quite confused, "Ah, that's just great! Kicking that puny thing wasn't even enough to scratch my itch, but pummeling this freak here? Now that might just be what I need!"
"...well, you're an odd one." The spider demon noted while studying the boar-headed boy, "Most humans freak out whenever they see me, some put on a brave face and try to fight, but I've never seen anyone bursting in laughter when they see me...I can't decide whether you are that dumb or if you just have a death wish."
"Enough talking!" He cried out, leaping from the ground towards the demon, his two jagged blades already drawn and posed to slash at it. The Spider Demon though saw this coming, and before Inosuke could reach him, he would puff his cheeks before spitting out a thick dark mass of thick liquid towards the boar-headed swordsman. Seeing that though, he'd spin his body midair, to narrowly avoid the liquid, some of it dousing his back and causing the boy to grit his teeth underneath his boar head, a burning sensation being left where it had hit him. In spite of getting somewhat caught by the attack and being put off his original target, he still tried to slash at the demon with one of his swords. Two of its legs would raise to intercept his blade between them though as the spider demon pushed Inosuke away from him with a grin.
Inosuke wouldn't hit the ground again though, as mid-fall he found himself tangled in a mess of webs that he hit his back against instead, giving the demon another chance to attack as it puffed up its cheeks again, "Demon Blood Art: Poison Sputum!" He announced, making the thick dark liquid rain down on the Demon Slayer. Struggling in his hold, the boy would manage to cut through the webs and allow himself to fall again before the poison hit him, and use his momentum to roll as he hit the ground in order to dodge the rain of poison, which in seconds dissolved through the grass where it landed, leaving behind a shallow but steaming melted hole.
"Damn...this shit stings already, but if I get a full-on dose of it, there won't be much left of me." He thought with a grunt, moving around as to not make himself too easy a target, "I hate to admit that, but I'll have to be more careful if I want to close in and cut off his head."
Seeing that, the spider demon narrowed his eyes as they began glowing in a faint red flow. Not a moment later, Inosuke would notice something staring at the back of his arm and move to the side as one of the human-headed spiders crawled out of the forest and opened its mouth to shoot out a stinger attached to a thread at him, managing to graze his forearm with it before he reached out and grabbed onto the spider's thread. It tried to pull itself closer to him through that thread, but the boy quickly turned around and kicked the creature away from him. More of the spiders would begin then emerging from around the clearing, attacking him with their stingers and forcing him to dodge around their attacks, all their eyes glowing with the same soft red as the spider demon.
"You can keep dodging for as long as you want, but the moment one of them bites you, you'll start transforming into another one of my spider slaves!" The demon spider cackled from its hanging position far above, "The moment you make a mistake is the moment you lose this fight!"
"...I get it...so the big creep is controlling all the little creeps..." Inosuke realized, knocking a pincher aside with his blade while jumping over another one, "Gotta finish this off quickly and cut his head off. The longer I play around, the more chances I'm giving the bastard of getting to me."
The boar-headed boy gripped his two katana tightly, rushing past the smaller spiders while hacking them apart with reckless abandon. He would then run up the side of a nearby tree, reaching one of its branches and jumping off towards the spider demon once again. Annoyedly, the creature would puff its cheeks as it prepared to spray Inosuke with its poison sputum once again, but the swordsman was quicker, and he would throw one of his two katana not at the spider, but rather upwards at the thread he was hanging from. The blade slashed through the web easily before coming to a stop as the serrated edge of the weapon sunk into the outer walls of the suspended wooden house.
Surprised, the spider's poison would miss entirely as it suddenly felt itself falling, with Inosuke spinning midair before starting to fall headfirst after the demon. As he began closing distance, he'd grip his raised katana with two hands, preparing to decapitate his opponent mid-fall with one mighty swing. The demon, however, despite the brief look of fear and panic crossing his face, would react quicker, and shoot out its web from its spinneret, catching Inosuke in the chest with it before spinning around and pulling the boy to the side, throwing him off position and causing him to slam down on the ground painfully while his opponent landed on all his eight feet.
"Well, I have to admit…for a brutish dumb human like yourself, that wasn't all that badly thought out. For a second there it really seemed as you'd gotten me." The spider pointed out, smirking at the boy smugly while Inosuke struggled to rise. He angrily cut off the web attached to him and rushed in at the demon, but wasn't fast enough as the spider quickly shot off another incredibly fast web upwards, reattaching himself to the house and quickly dragging himself upward to avoid the jagged blade slashing at him. "Nah ah! You won't be getting another chance now!" The spider demon taunted him, pulling itself up to the suspended house and hanging sideways from its side just next to the stuck sword as a spider would do. Looking down, his grin would then grow ear to ear as his eyes once again began glowing in that same soft red as before, "Now, how about we wrap up this game?!"
On cue, dozens of small human-headed spiders would emerge from all sides of the clearing, their eyes also glowing red as they rushed in towards Inosuke intent on converting him into one of their own. Despite being deprived from his normal dual-wielding style, he raised his blade regardless, slashing apart the approaching spiders indiscriminately. However, doing all that with one katana alone was proving somewhat troubling with how many of them were moving in at him akk at once, with the boar-headed boy groaning while staring up at the grinning spider demon next to his thrown sword and silently wishing he hadn't gotten rid of it like he did.
Just then, one of the human-headed spiders released its stinger at him and missed, allowing Inosuke to take a hold of the thread again with a tight grip. Grinning behind his mask as another idea came to mind, he tugged at the thread forcefully, dragging the spider closer to him and beginning to spin it around by the thread over his head, using it to bludgeon its fellow spiders out of the way while still cutting them down with his sword. Once he'd gained enough momentum spinning the thing though, he would turn his attention back upwards, and sent it flying high into the air at high speeds, straight towards the suspended house and the Spider Demon on its side. Seeing that though, the creature quickly crawled out of the way so that the spider instead just squashed in the side of the house, leaving a smudge on its side and shaking both the house and the web holding it up slightly.
"Heh…was that really meant to hit me? What a poor effort…guess you're really getting desperate." The demon taunted, not taking note of how the wobbling loosened the sword stuck on its side until it serrated edge finally got unstuck and it began falling down. By then, however, Inosuke had already found himself in trouble, especially when stabbing one of the spiders caused it to get stuck on his blade and began making it hard to use it effectively in cutting the other approaching arachnids. The few seconds he took in ripping the creature's body off his sword was all the small army of spiders needed to enclose around him, quickly swarming the boar headed boy and drowning him underneath their bodies, the Demon Spider grinning widely as he came out of view, probably set to emerge from the situation he got in as another spider himself.
The sword, however, kept falling towards the swarm regardless, and just as it was about to hit them, an arm emerged from the mess of spiders and took a tight hold of the katana by its hilt, "Breath of the Beast, Fourth Fang…" A booming voice called out from down below, "MAD CLEAVE!"
Suddenly, the swarm of spiders were all ripped apart from the inside out, two serrated blades violently being swung at all directions to cut through every single last one of them. By the time they were done, all that was left standing amidst the remains of the spiders' remnants was an angered and dirtied Inosuke, every single one of the many developed muscles on his body still flexed in order to prevent the spiders from having their stingers pierce past his skin. With the small fry dealt with and his two blades recovered, the boar-headed boy turned his gaze upwards, breathing deeply and causing steam to leave his nostrils as a hissing sounds were heard. The Spider Demon looked both surprised and nervous as he watched Inosuke kneel slightly, all his strength focused on his legs before he rocketed upwards into the air again, intent on ending the demon this time around.
Gritting his teeth angrily, the spider demon would puff his cheeks and spit out a rain of poison towards the ascending Inosuke, but the boy would see it coming, and grab onto one of the strings mid-jump, slashing it and using the release of its built-up tension to pull himself to the side and avoid the poison, spinning midair again to plant both his feet on another one of the strings, stretching it back before being sent flying skyward once again, his two katana raised wand readied to cut down his foe. The spider demon widened his eyes and attempted crawling inside the house as a last-ditch effort to protect himself from the Demon Slayer, but it was for naught. Inosuke would grip his two swords tightly regardless, breathing in deeply as he approached the suspended house, "Breath of the Beast, Fifth Fang: Mince to Bits!"
The attack's name turned out to be an accurate description as, with a series of several continuous diagonal slashes, he minced to bits not only the spider demon but the house as a whole, its debris as well as the splattered remains of the surprised demon after being cut into multiple pieces. After all, all it had taken was the first of those slashes to separate his head from his body and cut the house in half, the several that followed and ripped both of them apart were seemingly only a means to show off. Inosuke meanwhile continued his ascension, before landing atop two intersecting strings above the house, looking down to see it, the demon and most of its web crashing down violently onto the clearing below. Chuckling wryly, the boar-headed swordsman raised one of his hands still holding onto his serrated katana and ever so tactfully raised his middle finger at whatever remained of his opponent below, "Guess you learned your lesson now, creep. You don't mess with Lord Inosuke and live to brag about it."
Still gloating in his victory, Inosuke would kneel down slightly and put his weight on the string beneath him, causing it to stretch down for a moment before once again sending the Demon Slayer flying above the treetops, once again left to make his way through the forest.
Genya grunted in frustration as he walked aimlessly through the dark forest. Despite waiting for quite a while, as it turned out Zenitsu did not show up. He had been worried at first that something might have happened to him, but after searching the surrounding area and not finding any trace of him, he concluded that after killing the demon, for whatever reason he might've had, the blond had decided to move on ahead without him. This frustrated the scarred boy greatly, but given that he had no means of tracking his comrade, there was also little he could do at that point but to head up the mountain himself and hope he would meet with the others before he ran into another demon. So far, he hadn't seen either, so all he could really do was to continue wandering about and to trust his instincts.
Luck though seemed to finally smile on his side as, amidst his aimless walking, he would hear the sound of water flowing, and be drawn to it. After all, his throat was still very dry, not to mention the aftertaste of the corpse demon's blood still sticking to his mouth even long after having defeated it. Normally, he'd have a canteen with him, but they had foolishly left all their supplies with Kanao when they left her to treat that one wounded Demon Slayer. Sure enough, as he followed the sound of flowing water, he'd see the forestation around him opening up to give way to a large river with the full moon reflected in its waters, causing his shoulders to slump in relief.
"Good...at least I'm not gonna die of thirst up here." He thought, finally getting to see a bright side in the fairly bad situation he was in. Walking up to the river's shore, he'd kneel down and cup his hands together, scooping up some water with them and taking a healthy swig of it before closing his eyes and letting out a refreshed sigh. It wasn't the cleanest source of water, sure, but it wasn't like his stomach hadn't handled worse. His brief moment of peace was interrupted however when he'd hear the sound of something shifting in the rivers and, even with his eyes closed, he'd notice how it had suddenly gotten darker, the full moon's light seemingly covered by something. For a moment, he'd assume it was a cloud, but upon opening his eyes, Genya would find out just how wrong he was.
Standing just in front of him was a towering figure of pure muscle, mostly humanoid other than the darker skin with red dot-like markings spread alongside its arms. The illusion of humanity was broken quickly when Genya made out its face from under the creature's long white hair and realized that it had the face of a spider, complete with several black eyes and large tusks at either side of its cheek. It roared fiercely, exposing rows of crooked, sharp teeth and giving the boy a good whiff of its terrible, terrible breath, "...ah, shit." Was all Genya could mutter before the massive spider demon brought down a fist to crush the Demon Slayer.
A/N: And here I thought the general quarantine thing would allow my writing to go faster but turns out it kind of complicated things a bit, and now my writing is late. To make it clear, it's not like I or anyone I know is infected, but it did muck up my scheduling a bit. Anyway, quarantine is still on, so I should be able to pick up the slack eventually. That said, let's about this chapter.
I know it's a bit disappointing not to return to Tanjiro here, but as a great man once said, if writing and sex have one thing in common, it's that you have to hold onto the climax until the right time in order to maximize satisfaction. Actually, no, I just made that up, though I wouldn't be surprised if someone else beat me to it already. The point is, I'm not making you all wait without a good reason.
In place of Tanjiro here, we focus on the other Senses instead. Genya gets a pretty decent fight and has another one set up for him by the end of this chapter, but even then he is the least important one in this chapter. More importantly, I want to talk about Zenitsu and Inosuke. After all, Zenitsu has a pretty big step forward in this chapter. I never liked how Kimetsu no Yaiba itself never focused much on Zenitsu's journey of zero to hero, instead just having a trigger in the form of Kaigaku that allowed him to get past his limitations and finally step up. Not that it's a bad character arc, but given the attention it deserved, it really could've been better. Here I started his character arc already by having him defy his cowardice and go help Tanjiro, but only now we're actually seeing him rewarded for it, by rising up another step and claiming a proper win with his own hands, not even having to resort to his OP sleepwalking to do so.
Then there's Inosuke...well, Inosuke's character arc really has only barely begun. His fight with the Spider Brother this chapter has a lot to do with me switching up what happens in Canon in order not to make it too repetitive, but really, he did deserve that win. After all, Inosuke hadn't had any major wins in this story so far aside from nameless demons, given his fight with Kyogai was interrupted and he lost to Tanjiro in their brief clash. That said, I really wanted to write a proper one on one fight scene where he can shine before anything else, and through the Spider Brother, it's something I actually managed. PLus, having Kanao and Tanjiro fight him would make it too quick a victory, and Genya is really not suited for a midair fight, in my opinion, seeing as though he is stronger and tougher than the rest, he is still not as quick nor has as much stamina. Not that he couldn't win this fight, but it's much more fun to have Inosuke jumping around in the spiderweb than Genya shooting up with his gun.
Ah...I almost forgot. I really gotta point this out, cause I know its gonna be a point of contention if I don't, but those baby-headed spiders? Inosuke fucking slew them all with no remorse. And rightfully so, as far as he's concerned, they're no different than any other humans. Except, as we know, they're not demons, and can be turned back into normal humans given the right treatment. If y'all think that's something I'm gonna gloss over though, then you're wrong? Inosuke's actions will have repercussions later. Which, as a matter of fact, might be quite the theme for him going into this arc. How though, you're gonna have to wait and see.
On a closing note, last chapter of Kimetsu no Yaiba wraps with dawn finally arriving as the battle with Muzan rages on, meaning that barring any insane plot twists or unexpected turns, the series will be ending soon. I'm glad we got to see the main trio going up against Muzan as a tag team, even if briefly, and Zenitsu's "Kick me in the back, Gramps!" really gave me the chills. Anyway, some people will still die, according to Kokushibo Gyomei should be knocking on death's door given his use of the Mark. With that said, as some of you might have noticed, I removed the 'tragedy' genre from this fanfic. That's because I realized Kimetsu no Yaiba itself is a tragedy in many ways, so this is bound to bring that over with it. I won't spoiil whether the ending I have in mind for this is happier or not than what the series' does, but one thing I know for sure is that even if I really like the way this series ends, I'm gonna have to be different. How, when, why...I guess it all comes in due time. Maybe I should wait for the series to really end to write down those final plans properly, seeing as the final battle alone really shifted them a lot since it began.
Ah, and as always, thanks to DownwardDive. He thinks Kimetsu's ending is gonna happen on Chapter 200, or in other words next week. Doubt it, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.
Now onto the reviews.
Guest: Is Nezuko going to recover her memories at any point? If so, will that cause her to lose faith in Muzan since he killed her family? Also, is Rui going to have an expanded role? You've mentioned he's special to Muzan and he wishes to work with Nezuko long-term, so I think he may survive past the point he died in canon.
I would reply all your questions, if that didn't suck out a lot of the fun of you guys finding it for yourselves when you read about it. So you'll have to excuse my discretion.
Cieszesi Niezmiernie: Well then I am happy to say that you had me fooled with Nezuko :)
Thought it also makes me wonder if brother spider doesn't doing anything? In canon thanks to him(I think) whole moutain stinked and Tanjiro couldn't use his nose properly. I know he trained his nose better at this time but I think if there is really bad smell all overplace it would still affect his ability, at least with long range search.
Hmm...I honestly forgot about that, but on reread...yeah, you're right. It's mentioned briefly right by Zenitsu when he is about to fight the brother and again when Tanjiro and Inosuke are about to meet the Father. Honestly though, like a lot of minor elements of the original story, it's something I think am gonna end up having to write around rather than about.
Neema Amiry: Thanks for the chapter again
Well, thanks for the review.
Shiplx" I really love this story, it is so well made and so are the characters
P.S: I hope that you giyuu x shinobu happens, huge fan of that ship
Giyu and Shinobu is also a pairing I'm inclined towards and given they are probably the two most important Pillars in this story, a romance building in between them eventually is very possible. Ultimately though it still has a lot to do with how the readers would react to such a concept though.
So that's that for now. Hope y'all are safe and healthy with the shit going down worldwide at the moment. If you like what you read, please leave a review and let me know why. Recently, a new reader by the penname Remnae has begun reviewing every chapter they read, so it's really fun for me to accompany their line of thought and what they take from each individual chapter. It really reminded me how much these reviews fuel my writing, so I do hope you can contribute to it too. Ah, well, that's enough for today. Sky signing out.
