Tanjirou Kamado and Zenitsu Agatsuma roamed Mount Natagumo together as a pair. They hoped to reunite with both Natsu and Inosuke. As they roamed, Zenitsu would usually get freaked out by spiderwebs and Tanjirou would usually cut them down. They had not encountered any demons while roaming...
"Zenitsu, look!" Tanjirou pointed towards the dirt and found Natsu's signature written.
"Natsu?" Zenitsu read Natsu's signature written in the dirt.
"Yeah. Natsu wrote his name in the dirt, so that we could learn that he was here. And this one must be Inosuke's signature..." Tanjirou had bent down and pointed at the boar snout print in the dirt.
"A boar snout print? But, couldn't Inosuke had written his name in the dirt, just like Natsu?" Zenitsu asked as he looked at Inosuke's print in the dirt.
Tanjirou stood. "Inosuke can't read or write, remember?" Tanjirou refreshened Zenitsu's memory.
"Oh. Yeah. I kind of forgot about that." Zenitsu rubbed the side of his right head.
Natsu had caught a whiff of a certain scent. "Let's keep going." Tanjirou said, leading the way.
Meanwhile, the Mother Spider Demon sat on top of a boulder and had webs attached to the tip of her fingers. She was manipulating the walking corpses of the Demon Slayers, just as she was manipulating the living. "Tee-hee! The closer the enemy gets to me, the stronger and thicker my threads become... including my dolls." she chuckled.
"Mother."
The Mother Spider Demon gasped as she heard a familiar evil voice. She looked over to her right, a hundred and thirty-five degrees to see Rui standing behind a tree, peeking half his body out. "Rui..." she then became intimidated by his appearance.
"You can defeat them, right?" Rui asked.
"A-am I taking too long?" The Mother Spider Demon stuttered.
"If you don't hurry, I'll tell father." Rui said, which made her scared.
"N-no! Not him! Please, give me more time! I can protect you and defeat the intruders! Just please, don't call your father!" The Mother Spider Demon had pleaded with Rui.
"Then hurry up and defeat them." Rui said before disappearing from behind a tree.
The Mother Spider Demon begun panting out of fear for a moment. She then begun screaming and groaning. "Argh! Just die! Die already! If you don't, I'll endure more suffering!" she yelled as she swung her arms, controlling the threads.
Meanwhile, Natsu and Inosuke stood in front a girl named Ozaki, whom was being manipulated by the Mother Spider Demon with threads. She begged for Natsu and Inosuke to leave and find help, until... Ozaki suddenly felt her arms moving on their own.
"P-please... run away!" Ozaki begged as she had swung against Natsu against her will.
Natsu dodged by jumping a few feet backwards. 'She's gotten faster!' he noted, as he watched her movements.
"I... I'm being controlled! So, my movements are different! I'm not even strong!" Ozaki said as she started swing her sword left and right. Three seconds later, her arms begun to twist behind her back, cracking parts within her arms. "Ack!" she screamed in agony, than started swinging towards Natsu, rampantly.
Natsu was now on the defense as he clashed swords with Ozaki, blocking each and every attack she makes. 'The demon is using their threads to make her act this way! I can already tell that the she's in a lot of pain. By the sound of hearing her bones crack. And the way she cried in front of us and how she sounded... ' Natsu grunted. 'This is completely cruel. How could demons ever think of doing stuff like this?' Natsu dodged by ducking from Ozaki's forced swing. "What your name!"
"My name is... Ozaki!" Ozaki said, as she swung recklessly.
Nats boldly placed his right fist over his heart. "Don't worry, Ozaki! I'm gonna cut you free from the demon's control! I swear it!"
"T-thank you!" Ozaki let out a stream of tears in relief after hearing Natsu's words.
Natsu then heard a rattling sound from behind, at least a few yards from behind. 'There goes that rattling sound again!' Natsu noted as he heard another rattling sound from behind. He saw two more Demon Slayers being controlled. One was alive and the other was dead.
"Please... kill me." a boy with long black hair and dark brown eyes, dressed in a Demon Slayer uniform was severely injured and manipulated by threads. He wielded two swords, only one blade was broken in half. "The bones in my arms and legs... are broken. I could feel them stabbing my internal organs..." the boy then coughed up a bit of blood from his mouth. "When we're moved... so much pain for us to endure. I can't stand this pain, anymore. I don't know how long I could last! Please... just kill me. And I will join my friends in the afterlife...!"
Natsu can hear the excruciating pain within his voice. He was a bit traumatized to see and hear the boy's condition. He closed his eyes for five seconds, then thought of an answer. "No!"
The boy grunted as he was denied by Natsu. "But... why not?"
"Look. I get that you're in a lot of pain right now. More than I can endure... But you still have too much to live for!" Natsu gave his answer to the boy.
"C-come on...! Just kill me, already!" The boy yelled.
"I'm sorry, but I can't. I'll tell you what. Once I free you from the webs and kill the demon that's controlling you, I'll take you to go get help. Will you be okay with that?"
The boy grunted, not giving Natsu an answer.
"I'll kill him." Inosuke said as he charged at the boy.
"Wait, Inosuke! It's wrong for a person to take another person's life!" Natsu tried to reason with Inosuke, as he charged.
Inosuke stopped running and turned to Natsu. "Shut up, redhead!" Inosuke dodged by ducking, not knowing the walking corpse swung at him, horizontally. "You're starting to sound like Monjuro, now!"
"You mean, Tanjiro!" Natsu corrected Inosuke, when pronouncing Tanjirou's name.
"I know his name!" Inosuke replied as he clashed swords with a walking corpse. Inosuke then jumped back, after dodging a few swings. "Look, they said it, themselves. They want to die. So the only thing we can do is honor their wishes."
"Inosuke..." Natsu and Inosuke had stood back-to-back, facing the manipulated Demon Slayers. 'I can't use my Breathing Forms against other people... it'll be wrong. We gotta find a way to stop the corpses from moving, first. Then we gotta find a way to save them both!' Natsu looked around in the area of the woods and tried to find a solution to immobilize the corpses. An imaginary lightbulb had appeared over Natsu's forehead as he thought of an idea. "I got it!"
"Got what?" Inosuke asked.
Natsu then took off running in one direction.
Ozaki gasped as she saw Natsu ran in one direction. Then suddenly, the threads forced Ozaki to chase after him.
"What the heck are you doing, redhead?" Inosuke questioned Natsu's reason for running, before clashing swords with a walking corpse.
"I know what I'm doing, Inosuke!" While running for a few seconds, Natsu looked back to see Ozaki chasing after him, uncontrollably. "Ozaki, can you hear me?"
"Y-yes... But, what are you doing?" Ozaki asked.
"I got a plan! Just trust me! When I say "Duck", use whatever strength you have to duck from what I'm about to do!" Natsu ordered.
"W-what?"
"I'm going to save you!" Natsu then stopped running in in place, then turned around and charged towards Ozaki. "Here I come!"
"W... wait!" Ozaki grunted as she felt her right arm moving uncontrollably again. She gripped the katana within her right hand and prepared to swing down, vertically at Natsu.
As Natsu came into close range with Ozaki, he grabbed her right wrist with his left hand, preventing her from swinging downwards at him. Then he used his right hand to grab his Nichirin sword and swung at her head, horizontally. "Duck!" he quickly yelled.
At the last second before Natsu's Nichirin sword could touch her, Ozaki used her remaining strength she had to duck and crouch down from Natsu's swing, like Natsu told him to do. As she had quickly ducked, Natsu severed all the threads that were controlling her body at once. Ozaki was now free from the Mother Spider Demon's control.
"Are you okay?" Natsu bent down and offered a hand to help her up.
Ozaki looked at her sides and downward at her body, seeing that there were no threads attached to her. "There are no threads... You saved me. Just like you said you would..." Ozaki muttered as she looked at him.
"Yeah, I did. Now you're free." Natsu nodded.
"Who are you..." Ozaki asked.
"My name is Natsu Rengoku. And my goal is to become a Hashira!" Natsu answered, giving a bright smile.
Ozaki gasped when she saw Natsu's bright smile. She saw light within that smile. Suddenly, the thought of being controlled by the enemy and witnessing her comrades in front of her had begun to fill her mind. Tears had begun to fill her eyes again, as she quietly closed her teeth. She then moved her upper body onto Natsu's chest and started crying. Not in grief or fear, but in tears of joy. "T-thank you, Natsu!" she thanked him while crying.
As Ozaki cried onto him for thirty seconds, Natsu comforted her by wrapping one arm around her lower back and used the other arm to pat her upper back and smiled down at her, as he knew she was upset. "It's going to be okay. You're safe, now."
Ozaki sniffled. "Are you... here to defeat the demons on this mountain, too?"
"Yes. I am. I actually came with a couple of my friends." Natsu looked towards Inosuke, who's fending himself off against the walking corpse and a severely injured Demon Slayer. "As you can see, that guy with the boar hide on his head is one of my friends. His name is Inosuke."
"Ha! Ha!" Inosuke pushed them off with his dual Nichirin swords. He then looked at Natsu, who was comforting Ozaki. "Hey, redhead! Stop flirting with that girl and help me deal with these two!" Inosuke yelled at Natsu after severing threads, that was controlling a walking corpse.
"I'm coming!" Natsu said as he saw Inosuke was still fighting. He then looked at Ozaki, who was in front of him. "Are you still hurting?"
"Ow..." Ozaki ached from the pain within her upper arms.
"Sorry!"
"My arms and legs are still hurting from being controlled, earlier..." Ozaki nodded.
Natsu removed his haori from his back placed it around Ozaki's shoulders. "Here. Put this on."
Ozaki gasped after Natsu gave her his haori. "But, why are you giving me your haori?"
"This will keep you warm, for the time being... just stay here and look out for any spiders." Natsu left Ozaki alone with his haori as he go out and help Inosuke.
"Okay." Ozaki replied.
"I'm going to help Inosuke." Natsu ran towards his other comrade, leaving Ozaki alone.
'Be careful, Natsu.' Ozaki thought as she watched Natsu run towards Inosuke. She then moaned, as she felt the warmth of wearing Natsu's haori around her shoulders. 'His haori is so warm...' she commented as she gripped part of Natsu's haori.
"I'm coming, Inosuke!" Natsu yelled towards Inosuke, as he ran towards his
Inosuke spotted Natsu without his haori. "What took you so long, redhead? And where's your coat?"
"It's a haori. And I let one of our comrades wear it." Natsu said.
Inosuke suddenly felt excited after watching Natsu launch Ozaki up in a tree. "Whatta we do?"
Natsu looked at his surroundings to see bushes and black trees surrounding them for thirteen seconds. "Okay. Here's what well do. First, cut off the threads that are controlling them. Then, we're gonna throw them within these trees! Hopefully, the spiders won't catch them up there." Natsu instructed.
"Got it!" Inosuke replied.
Natsu then turned to the boy with the broken arms and legs. "Hey, you... what's your name?"
The boy looked over at Natsu to see that he was talking to him. "My name? It's Kurosaki..."
"Kurosaki... what a cool name." Natsu complimented the boy's name, then turned back to Inosuke. "Be careful with Kurosaki, Inosuke. His arms and legs are broken and his bones are puncturing his organs!"
"Hahahah!" Inosuke laughed as he was being chased by Kurosaki. Then used his strength to grab Kurosaki by the waist and threw him upwards, really high, tangling him in the tree, like a spider hanging from its web. "Yes! I did it!" Inosuke bragged as he threw Kurosaki up a tree.
"Inosuke, you were supposed to cut the threads, first. Then throw them in the tree!"
"Quit your yappin', redhead, he's alright. The demons can't control him, now." Inosuke argued.
Natsu looked up at the hanging boy in the tree. 'Well, he does have a point.' "Kurosaki! How are you doing up there?"
"I kind of feel... a little bit better, now. Thanks for asking..." Kurosaku replied.
"And plus, I noticed a thread behind his neck. It looked weird to me, so I removed it." Inosuke added as he crossed his arms.
"That's great, Inosuke." Natsu then he turned towards a walking corpse that has a slash across his face. "Now we just gotta deal with this guy!"
"Alright! I'll do it again. You better take a good look this time, because I'm going to surpass you!" Inosuke said as he casually walked towards the walking corpse. Eight seconds later, the walking corpse's neck had snapped, automatically.
Natsu gasped after watching his dead comrade's head twist backwards, like an owl.
"Argh, dammit! The demon twisted his neck!" Inosuke became annoyed and cursed out loud. "Well, he was already dead, so..."
Natsu stared at the walking corpse for a moment, then thought about Kurosaki. He looked upwards at Kurosaki, who was hanging in the tree. His neck didn't twist, though. "Kurosaki! Are you okay?" Natsu called for Kurosaki's attention.
"Yeah. I'm still breathing..." Kurosaki replied to Natsu as he hung from a tree.
"Good. I'm gonna get you down, now. Just hang on and-"
"Leave me." Kurosaki said.
Natsu paused and looked upwards at Natsu.
"Leave me here... and go get help. I can't fight anymore... my arms and legs are broken, and I'm tangled in these threads... I'm useless right now..." Kurosaki said as his eyes begun to water.
'Kurosaki...' Natsu stared at the teared up Kurosaki. He then felt a masculine hand on his shoulder, then looked to see Inosuke standing next to him.
"We don't have time to argue. There's still a demon to kill." Inosuke informed Natsu.
Natsu briefly sighed, then looked up to Kurosaki who's hanging from a tree. "I'll be back with help to get you!" he yelled and ran alongside Inosuke elsewhere.
"Thank you, Natsu..." Kurosaki muttered.
A Minutes Later
The young Demon Slayers had reunited with Ozaki and were running towards the Mother Spider Demon's location. Inosuke had taken the lead, while Natsu followed. He carried Ozaki on his back, piggy back style while running. He continued to let Ozaki wear his haori to keep herself warm from the chilly weather.
"How far are we from the demon, Inosuke?" Natsu asked Inosuke.
"Not far. We're getting really close!" Inosuke stated as he took the lead. They ran for another eighteen seconds, until they stopped and met a topless, headless masculine demon with blades attached to his arms standing right in front of them.
Ozaki gasped as she had witnessed a scary demon for the first time in her life. She covered her mouth and begun to cower while on Natsu's back. 'What... is that?' Ozaki asked as he stared at the half conscious.
"That thing doesn't even have a head!" Inosuke yelled. "It doesn't even have a weak spot, you know! So, how do we even kill it?"
"I'll deal with it." Natsu said.
"You ain't finna fight him alone, are you, redhead?" Inosuke asked.
"Yeah. I am." Natsu replied to Inosuke with a normal face.
"Natsu?" Ozaki looked downward at Natsu.
"Ozaki. Would you mind climbing off my back for a moment? I know your arms are still hurting..." Natsu kindly asked.
"Okay." Ozaki then climbed off of Natsu's back and stepped a few feet back to give Natsu space to fight.
"Everyone stay back! The faster I defeat this demon, the quicker we can get to the one that control all the threads!" Natsu said as he pointed the tip of his Nichirin sword towards the headless demon. 'That thing doesn't have a head, so decapitation is out of the question. Which means, I have to use the Kesagiri technique. Like my brother taught me, twice.' He took a breath and sucked in some oxygen and ran towards the headless demon. 'Flame Breathing. First Form...' Natsu's Nichirin sword had slowly coated itself with orange fire. As the headless demon had got within close range, it tried to skewer Natsu within close range. Natsu gripped his hilt tightly and gave two fatal kesagiri slashes to the headless demon's chest with his fire coated Nichirin sword. 'Flame Strike!'
The headless demon falls down on the ground and evaporates in three seconds after being slashed by Natsu.
Inosuke grunts after witnessing Natsu's Flame Breathing techniques for the first time.
Ozaki happily gasped as she watched Natsu destroy the headless demon with his Flame Breathing. Three seconds after the headless demon completely evaporate, she walked behind Natsu and smiled. "That was amazing."
Natsu turned his body around to see Ozaki smiling at him. "Ozaki..."
"You're a really strong fighter, Natsu." Ozaki complimented on his strength.
After hearing that compliment, Natsu begun to slowly blush, as he looked at Ozaki's figure. "Thanks for the compliment! You see, I'm training to become a Hashira, just like my older brother. He's one of the strongest people I know. So, yeah. I'm pretty much useless without his training." Natsu embarrassingly rubbed the back of his head and chuckled in front of her."
As Natsu and Ozaki begun to drag their conversation for over thirty seconds, Inosuke started to feel impatient, as a red nerve appeared on his hide. "Hey, redhead." Inosuke had called for his attention. "Are we still going after that demon with the threads, or what?" Inosuke asked, feeling impatient.
"The one controlling the threads, yeah." Natsu said as he looked over to Inosuke.
"Then, stop wasting time! We got a demon to murder!" Inosuke yelled, he jumped, feeling energetic and irritated at the same time.
"You're right. We should get going, though." Natsu said, remembering why he was ordered to come to Mount Natagumo. Natsu then looked
"In that case..." Ozaki offered to give Natsu his haori back. "You might need this.
Natsu looked at his haori, then at Ozaki. "Oh. It's alright. You can keep it, until we get off the mountain."
"But, don't you need it to fight?" She asked, as she looked down at Natsu's haori that she had worn.
"Not really. Most Demon Slayers like me wear haori, so it would make us look cool." Natsu chuckled.
"But, I think you're cool already." Ozaki said.
"Thanks for that, Ozaki." Natsu blushed a bit. A moment has passed. "Let's keep moving."
"Right!" Both Inosuke and Ozaki chanted, as the trio continued running towards the Mother Spider Demon's location.
Author's Note: I felt bad for the Demon Slayers that were forced to fight Tanjirou against their will, while being controlled by the Mother Spider Demon and were later killed by the Mother Spider Demon. So I thought, "Hey, why not change their fates?" So that's what I did. Ozaki lives. And that other boy with the broken lives, too. His name was never revealed, due to his untimingly demise, so I decided to call him Kurosaki.
Mother Spider Demon next chapter.