Demons Have A Hard Life, Too

by ConstellationBrotherhood

Angela finds herself unceremoniously dragged into the KNY world — and into the body of a Demon Moon — by none other than Muzan, who seeks out someone with knowledge of "future events" (AKA meta-knowledge of the KNY series) who can help "tweak" canon events into his favour. She ends up derailing the whole story like the Infinity Train instead. [-AO3 is fully caught up-]

4. Chapter 4: Mother-and-Son Bonding?

A/N: Wow, it's been so long since I've updated! Uh, okay, so I've been super caught up with IRL matters, mostly school, and haven't been able to do much with AO3 updates. That's why I've decided to throw a quick update on FFN! Promise this isn't an April Fool's joke, haha

Again, if you don't want to wait for updates here, feel free to go to the AO3 version under the same username! I also have another (suuuuper self-indulgent) KNY fic ongoing over there with a poll for you guys, if you're curious! Don't be fooled by the title "To Be A Human Once More", the actual story isn't nearly as insightful-sounding lol

Warnings: Nothing much, except for a bit of body horror and the usual swearing from Resident Foul Mouth over there.

~0~0~0~

The trek back to the house was long, miserable, and cold.

Angela wasn't sure how much time she had spent furiously scrubbing the bloodstains out of her clothes, but by the time the haori returned to a satisfactory shade of white, she estimated about half the night having gone by already. She had to hurry back if she wanted to stand a chance of surviving tonight, or she could very well kiss her life goodbye soon. Those were only one of the many thoughts to run by her mind as she trudged through the dark forest, arms wrapped tightly around herself and teeth chattering like mad. She tried to ignore the way her drenched kimono clung to her frame.

'At least I don't look like I drowned in a vat of guts anymore,' she thought with a sigh, hopping over an overgrown root. 'Now I look like I just drowned. Yippee.'

When the house appeared within her peripheral, Angela didn't immediately walk up to it. Instead, she stared up at it with a stare of contemplation while staying hidden in a cluster of trees. 'Will they ask about the meeting? They're definitely going to ask about my clothes...' She gave herself a quick once-over. Both the kimono and haori had dried somewhat during the walk back, but a lot of it was sadly in tatters, especially the sleeves. 'What would Rui do?'

... Yeah, that was a stupid question. Rui wouldn't even be facing this situation because everyone would be too scared to make a peep around him... Oh, duh. 'Why didn't I think of this before?' she thought, stifling a relieved laugh. This was going to make her feel awful for the rest of her life for sure, but she'd do anything to get back home to her family. She just had to hold on for a little longer...

Striding up to the house, she slid open the front door... only to be immediately swamped by an unintelligible din courtesy of the Spider Clan, and Angela nearly ran back out before managing to catch herself. "Wh-whoa!"

As she tried to push back the swarm without hurting anyone by accident, one question managed to stand out to her amongst the amalgamation of voices: "You're still alive?". Angela couldn't even tell who asked, and as the yammering showed no signs of stopping, a familiar irritation crept up on her. "Alright, everyone back up right now!" she snapped, sweeping out an arm to chase away the nearest demons.

It worked like a charm. Everyone scrambled back as if suddenly scalded by the proximity, until they were a comfortable distance away from her. The expressions eyeing her held the expected fear, but also a little bit of curiosity; they must've been a right tizzy after Muzan whisked her away for interrogation/torture. "Thank you," she huffed once she got absolute silence, and shook her damp bangs out of her face. "I don't recall asking for a welcome party when I returned, so enough with the fussing. And of course I'm alive!" she snapped, semi-pleased to see the resultant flinches from the smaller spider demons. "Who was the one to ask that?"

The crowd immediately parted to expose one of the sister demons; the one that got strung up to fry in the show. The look she was giving Angela now, a stone cold gaze with arms crossed over her chest... She was starting to see why Rui strung her up in the first place. Well, Angela personally wouldn't do it, that was going too far. But she could see why he'd do it. "I did," Burnt Sister said, her tone as stiff as her demeanour. "I was simply... curious, since our master appeared quite furious when he was looking for you."

"I see." A pause, as Angela furiously scrabbled for a plausible excuse. "... ... It was a simple misunderstanding. Our... master was looking for a Lower Demon Moon, and he mistook me for them. That was all."

Burnt Sister stared.

Angela tried to ignore the bead of sweat trickling down her temple.

"Mistook you for... What?" Looking truly confused, Burnt Sister dropped her arms for a moment. "What is that supposed to me—"

"Anyway!" Angela hastily interrupted, clapping her hands together to grab everyone's attention. "Time has been wasted enough as it is, so we'll be going out to hunt now." She gagged inwardly at the word.

Apparently that was something all of the present demons could get behind. With a murmur of general agreement rippling through the crowd, Angela stepped aside to let the spider demons file out one by one: Burnt Sister (who was giving her a side eye that she did not like), Spider Sister, Spider Douche, Mother—

"Wait," she blurted out, pulling Spider Mother out of the crowd. The arm in her grasp stiffened, but the demon's face betrayed no emotion beyond mild confusion. "You're coming with me today."

Spider Mother's pupils visibly dilated. "O-oh, I see. If... If that is what you wish," she said with a barely audible quiver in her voice. Angela was sure she would've missed it if not for her improved hearing. "But, um, if I may ask, why do you want to bring me along? I thought you were displeased with my performance from the last time..."

Spider Mother trailed off nervously, her claws picking at the edge of her sleeves. Angela realised, with a sinking heart, what she meant; Rui and Spider Father evidently pummeled her often for... being weak? Because it was simply in their nature to be vicious? Whatever it was, it was obviously still on her mind, and Angela had to resist the urge to facepalm. 'Man, this lady really needs some self-preservation instincts. She's not supposed to remind me that she did something wrong,' Angela groaned inwardly. 'How am I supposed to ignore this now?'

After a brief pause, Angela steeled herself as she answered, "Yes, you did displease me the day before. But I've decided to give you a chance to prove yourself, since I'm in a good mood tonight."

"Good mood...?" Spider Mother's eyes flicked to her tattered haori at those words, something resembling doubt mingling with the fear in her features.

Angela instantly twisted away from her gaze (not that it did any good with hiding the tears), her brows furrowing. "Of course, if you're ungrateful enough to throw away my generous offer, I could just—"

"N-no! That's not it!" Spider Mother cried out in alarm. "I can do it! I just need a chance!"

A snigger arose from one of the departing spider demons (probably from Spider Douche), which Angela ignored as she ushered Spider Mother out of the door. "Yes, yes, you do that. Try not to scare the humans away with your theatrics, okay?" Angela said dryly.

Inwardly, she could feel her heart thumping like a drum. 'Jesus, this is so much more difficult than I thought it would be. Can't believe I'm thinking this, but guess I have Dad to thank for the lesson on how to be an asshole.'

"Y-yes, Rui..."

The frightened look Spider Mother sent her way made Angela's heart ache. She hadn't lifted a claw, or even said anything terribly bad by the real Rui's standard, and yet the demon mother was already flinching away like a kicked puppy. It made her want to reach out and tell her everything would be alright...

'Wait, no, stop! Bad thought! She's not my damn mom, she's a demon!' Angela scowled. 'Quit feeling sorry for them and get a move on, Angel. The sooner you get this done with, the better.'

Sharply gesturing for Spider Mother to follow her, Angela hopped down the porch steps and purposefully strode back into the woods. The moon shone brightly tonight, casting the departing demons in a pleasant glow as they vanished into the forest's confines, like they weren't about to kill scores of humans. Angela glanced over to see Spider Mother trailing after her at a conspicuously far distance. "Pick up the pace!" she said impatiently, gesturing towards herself again. "We don't have much time until sunrise, so unless you want to get caught in it, move faster."

Spider Mother jerked her head in a semblance of a nod and hurried forward, not once looking in her direction as she scampered by.

Angela pursed her lips. 'She's just a demon, she's just a demon,' she sternly reminded herself, fighting back the tightness in her chest. A monster was all she... it was. Humans weren't supposed to feel sorry for monsters, that was a stupid thing to do.

In a matter of minutes, the two demons were well within the murky depths of Mount Natagumo. Walking alongside Spider Mother, Angela scanned their surroundings. Everything was quiet... Too quiet. There was no piercing droning of crickets that she was accustomed to breaking the silence, and their own steps made no noise even when walking over fallen leaves. This would make the perfect horror movie setting, she mused, and they were the monsters prowling about in search of the humans that the audience usually hated. Too bad human characters tended to die by droves in those movies...

At the stark reminder of their goal in the forest, her stomach performed a weird flip-flop, and her hand convulsively grabbed onto the tattered ends of her sleeves. 'God, I haven't thought about this at all. I talked so much shit at Moon Two that I completely forgot to think about how I'm going to not eat humans and keep up appearances at the same time,' she thought ruefully. 'Actually, forget about eating them! How can I stand there and watch them get killed?'

Dirtying her own hands wasn't what worried Angela — that was entirely why she brought a spider demon along — but for how long can she stomach watching demons trample upon humans? The taste of bile crept up her throat...

"Rui?" Spider Mother called out timidly.

"Hm? What is it?" Angela asked, still somewhat distracted by her thoughts.

"I-I've found some humans."

"What?!" Her head snapped around instantly, making Spider Mother jump. So fast? But she wasn't mentally prepared yet! "Where?"

"To th-the south, down where the stream runs," Spider Mother said, nervously pointing a slender finger to their left. Angela squinted in the same direction, but it was nothing but a wall of pitch black. She just had to take the demon's words for it. "I have some threads set up near the foot of the mountain, and I felt them break under a heavy weight just now... Two adult human males, f-from what I can tell."

Despite herself, Angela raised her eyebrows in surprise. Spider Mother somehow got all that from someone stepping on her threads? Wow, and all she could do with them was swing herself face-first into trees...

"Good job, M-Mother," she said with a little cough. She automatically reached up to pat Spider Mother on the arm, only to falter when she shied away from her touch. A beat, and Angela dropped her hand awkwardly, mouth opening and closing as she desperately looked for a way to break the uncomfortable silence. "... If you're certain of their location, then go down and do it quick. Don't waste my time."

"Of c-course!" With a shallow bow, Spider Mother quickly turned and ran down the mountain with a panicky gait. Angela managed to keep a straight face until the demon vanished from sight, and then...

'AAAAAAAAI'MSOSHITATTHISFUCKME!'

Claws gripped her hair in a fit of frustration, threatening to pull it out as her own conscience berated her. 'What the hell was that lie?! Muzan mistook you for another Demon Moon? That's the best thing you could come up with? And then you try to comfort a goddamn demon?! How stupid are you? You're damn lucky everyone else is even more stupid to not question it!'

A low whine of embarrassment slipped out, and she buried her reddened face with both hands. The fact that she somehow managed to make it this far was a god-tier miracle... "This is why I took up gymnastics instead of theatre," she groaned into her hands. "God-fucking..."

Once she felt like she had sufficiently wallowed in self-pity, Angela took a deep breath and pushed it aside. She couldn't stay behind for too long, or even Spider Mother would start asking questions. "She said they were down by the steam, right?"

Angela was about to start running to the south when something occurred to her. She glanced down at her hands. 'Hm... Maybe I should scratch that running idea.'

After all, she had to practise using Rui's powers. Might as well start now, when nobody was watching.

'Leeet's just hope this doesn't become a huge disaster like earlier,' she thought, the phantom aches of her previous attempt coming back to haunt her. Readying herself, she extended her fingers, willing the threads to form. They did almost instantly this time. 'Okay, okay, good. Now for the gross part.'

Sucking in a steadying breath, she willed the threads to get pull back into her flesh. They obeyed with nauseating ease, and just like she had hoped, her whole body was yanked into the air like a puppet on strings.

The threads easily supported her weight as she was flung a good three metres above ground. In the split second she stayed airborne... 'Detach!' The silvery threads fluttered free from her fingers. 'And retach! Er, reattach!'

New strands attached themselves to a branch further along the path, swinging her forward, and she focused every fibre of her being in maintaining this constant motion: spider threads out, yoink herself upwards with momentum and upper body strength, detach threads, repeat cycle. Honestly, it didn't feel any different from gymnastics practise; it was all in keeping her feet off the ground as she flipped through the air like some kind of demonic Spider-Man, the air whipping her hair around.

She didn't touch the ground once — something she took a little pride in — but she couldn't say the same thing about her head, unfortunately: it came veeeery close to being caved in several times by the thicker branches whisking by above her. "Thank christ for — ow! — for demon healing," she grumbled under her breath, wincing when a scraggly branch yanked strands of hair out of their roots. It stung like the devil, but soothing herself was a luxury she couldn't afford right now. "Where in the god's name did she—"

CRACK

It rang out like a crisp gunshot. Startled, Angela accidentally released the threads too early. In her panic, she wildly swung out new strands towards the closest branch, but gravity was dragging her down far too quickly and she missed it by a mile, causing her to fall to the ground. Actually, "fall" was a bit of an understatement. It was more of "rolling head over heels like a goddamn tumbleweed until her back smashed into an unfortunately sturdy pine tree". She flopped to the ground with a groan.

'This isn't the time to rest! Up up up!'

Angela forced her body up to its feet and began half-running, half-hobbling towards the source of the noise, her back ache already healing up. The leaves and twigs entangled in her hair itched like hell, but she didn't bother brushing them out at this point. She'd probably look like a mess regardless. 'Did she already get one of them?'

CRACK

'... I'll take that as a yes.'

A second crack sounded into the night the moment Angela reached the base of Mount Natagumo. Her eyes widened the moment she took in the horrific scene: the bodies of two male humans dressed in traditional Japanese garb laid prone on the soft soil, with what must've been their belongings scattered carelessly around them. Their heads were twisted at grotesque angles, and their glassy eyes gazed far into the distance at nothing in particular. They weren't moving...

'Wha?!'

All of a sudden, her eyes widened in alarm as a new scent, so intoxicatingly sweet, reached her nose. Angela immediately slapped a hand over her mouth to smother a yelp. 'What the fuck is that?! That smells... That actually smells really good! Ngh...'

Her gaze was drawn to the tiny rivulet of blood trickling out of one of the men's mouth, and she gulped. 'No, no, nononono I don't want to eat that!'

Her stomach growled in protest.

Angela hunched over with one hand tightly pressed over her abdomen, screwing her eyes shut to block out the temptation. 'Not food, not food, that's not food! I hate it, it's disgusting, it's fucking disgusting!'

so hungry

'Shut up!'

Fortunately, just when the gnawing hunger became too much to ignore, a soft voice drew Angela out of it. "Rui?"

One, two, three deep breaths later, she felt safe enough to turn around without looking like a starving animal. Spider Mother appeared from a particularly dense cluster of trees, her own silvery threads dangling from her fingertips. "Did you... Did you do this?" Angela asked, struggling to keep her voice even.

Spider Mother gave a hesitant nod. Of course, Angela already knew this when she saw spider threads that weren't her own attached to the base of the human heads, but... she needed to ask, if only to be able to mentally connect the gruesome murders to the timid demon before her. "Good... job. Good job, Mother. I'm pleased with your work," Angela bit out.

The shocked look she got for the compliment almost made the whole experience worth it.

"Ah... Um, th-thank you, Rui!" Spider Mother said with a flustered expression. "I-I'm flattered, but I'm not deserving of that much praise! It was only two defenceless humans..."

'I only said one sentence. Jesus...'

"Shall we look for... for more humans, then?" Spider Mother continued, looking up at Angela with a considerably cheerier look. It was less fearful, at any rate.

Angela nodded. "Of course... Mother," she added a little too late. The demon didn't seem to notice, thankfully. "But before that, we need to deal with these bodies."

She hesitated. How did demons deal with their kills? Lugging two dead weights all the way back to the Spider House seemed pretty counterproductive, what with the distance they must've walked by now... Not to mention that she wasn't sure if she could resist taking a bite while carrying the dead bodies. But then what could she do?

As she pondered, Angela glanced up the pine trees. The colossal pine trees.

"... Mother? Why don't you eat one and tie the other one up in the tallest tree here? We'll be hunting around here for a while, so I don't want to risk any humans getting sp- scared off by the sight of a corpse," Angela suggested.

"Of cour— Wait, but what about you?"

She raised an eyebrow. "What about me?"

"Do you not want to eat, too?" Spider Mother asked, gesturing to the bodies.

Angela winced. 'Shoot, I didn't think that far ahead. Uuuuh.' After taking a second to formulate a believable excuse, she hoisted on a neutral expression as best she could. "You will be the one hunting tonight, correct? You need all the energy you can get."

The demon stared at her, her expression completely baffled. "But—"

"And you deserve it."

Angela felt herself freeze when those words slipped out. Spider Mother looked like she couldn't believe what she had heard either, if her dropped jaw was anything to go by. She stammered, desperately grasping for a way to take back her words, but deep inside, she was very aware that she just screwed herself. Fucking christ, what the hell possessed her to say that? It wasn't like she didn't mean it, but... Goddamnit!

"R-Rui...?" came the demon's hushed voice, full of emotion that she couldn't identify.

"Just hurry up and do it!" she snapped hastily, turning on her heel so that she wouldn't have to see the demon or the bodies anymore. "Before I lose my patience!"

"O-of course!"

Angela watched warily as Spider Mother raised her arms. That wariness flipped to everlasting horror in a matter of seconds when instead of creating threads like she had expected, spiders began wriggling out of her flesh. Was it just her imagination and they were actually hidden up her sleeves or something...? No! They were just popping out of her skin, twitching legs and all, like bubbles surfacing out of water! Spider Mother didn't display any outward pain during the process; as Angela watched with a rapidly paling complexion, she nonchalantly shook off the spiders, letting them tumble to the ground in droves and and scuttle off to the two bodies. Angela had to physically turn away just as they began wrapping threads around one of them.

Forget about Muzan's freaky arms or her own flesh threads. This took the "Demon Slayer world was fucking disgusting" cake.

When loud rustling reached her ears, Angela chanced a peek over her shoulder. She barely caught a glimpse of a limp arm disappearing into foliage before Spider Mother knelt down beside the body wearing a dark blue kimono shirt, lifting up an arm with a hungry expression on her face. 'Oh man, she's gonna do it...' Angela thought, quickly turning back to stare hard at the stream.

The first squelchy crunch kicked up her gag reflex, and she hurriedly covered it up with a little cough before Spider Mother could notice.

Minutes crawled by agonisingly as the munching behind her carried on steadily. Ugh, the eating scenes in the anime were bad enough, and those lasted a few seconds at worst. Being forced to stand there and listen to every stringy muscle being stripped off like a chicken wing... It felt wrong. That was all she could think, it felt wrong and she was standing there, letting it happen.

The memory of the man's empty gaze flashed before her eyes. Guilt stabbed at her heart.

'I'm sorry, I'm sorry!' Would the man's spirit hear her in heaven if she pleaded enough? A sick feeling pooled in her stomach. 'I have to let them do it! I'm so sorry!'

A night breeze wafted the metallic scent in her direction, and she jerked her head to the side in refusal. Angela didn't dare turn around; even as she heard Spider Mother stood up to cross over to the stream, followed by gentle splashing as she washed off the aftermath of her snack. Oh god, the water was tinted with the lightest shade of pink. Greeeaaat.

Eventually, Spider Mother announced that she was done, and Angela nodded stiffly. "Good," she said, giving everywhere but the corpse a cursory glance. "Hide the remains, and we'll patrol the mountain's base for the time being— Ah!"

Something sparkled in the remains of a partially destroyed box, with some kind of foreign characters carved into its wooden lid. Almost instinctively, she hurried to it and plucked it out of the wreckage, examining it with squinted eyes... before she smiled in relief. 'Finally, something's going my way!'

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Spider Mother inch closer with a tentatively curious expression on her face, and Angela quickly tucked her find under her obi, shaking her head. "It's nothing you should concern yourself with. Come on, let's get a move on now," she said, already walking towards the forest.

"Y-yes, Rui!"

Spider Mother hurried after her with no hesitation. Huffing out a sigh of relief, Angela was more than ready to leave this horrid incident behind and out of mind when her heel suddenly dipped in a puddle of warm liquid, its scent making her freeze up in an instant. Every single neuron in her body screamed, clawed out for the sweet sustenance that it desperately wanted—

"Rui?" Spider Mother squeaked when Angela suddenly grabbed her hand in a death grip.

"Stay close to me."

That was all she could bring herself to say before she began tugging Spider Mother along, hoping to god that she hadn't noticed the lone trail of drool dripping down her chin (which she quickly swiped away with her sleeve). For some reason, the physical contact did help to distract her from the hunger pangs, and Angela didn't dare release her hand until they were far, far away from the bodies.

Worst part was, this was just the beginning.

~0~0~0~

CRACK

Angela didn't have the energy anymore to flinch again, only tiredly close her eyes until she heard the bodies hit the ground. She had the foresight to situate herself on tree branches to keep as much distance from the hunting as possible this time, but still, was she supposed to crave human meat this much? Even though she had been a demon for barely a day?

All of the humans unfortunate enough to to trip up Spider Mother's threads had their necks snapped with frightening efficiency. Some were hoisted into trees, some were consumed, and after every single time, Angela took Spider Mother by the hand and led her away. She could've sworn she felt the hand squeeze back sometimes, but that could've just been her imagination...

'How much longer is this going to go on?' she thought with a suppressed sigh, glancing down long enough to see Spider Mother bite off a finger. Eurgh. 'We can't even go five steps without running into another human! At this rate, I'm never going to get any alone time to test out these powers...'

The reminder made her smile a little. It felt a little bit like a shameful secret to admit, but as much as she detested her new demon body, the threads were... not too bad, if she was to be honest with herself. Not that bad to play around with, at least. Although it was no substitution for actual gymnastics at her school, being able to swing around to her heart's content was oddly therapeutic.

She had to stop when she caught Spider Mother staring, though.

Another thud reached her ears, and she winced. She was technically causing all of these deaths by letting her "family" do this, wasn't she? No, she couldn't let herself think too much about that right now. Just had to say sorry and move on before she could let herself get consumed by it.

Spider Mother looked up at her — a clear indication that she was done — and Angela deftly hopped down the branches until her feet hit the ground, completely unscathed. Minus the tiny cut on her heel after the second last branch. "You've done a great job," Angela said absentmindedly, and Spider Mother gave the same response she had been giving the entire night: a half-smile, as if she wasn't quite sure if it was safe to accept the praise.

Well, Angela didn't mind. She was pretty sure she had a good handle on what Spider Mother was thinking about every nice thing she was saying, and she was definitely sure that it wasn't a good idea to push her to accept it right out of the gate.

(Plus, it was better than all of the crying.)

"Shall we look for one more human, Rui?" Spider Mother hesitantly suggested. "Then we can fetch the other bodies and return home."

She was getting a little bolder with her speech, Angela noticed. Unlike before, when nearly everything Spider Mother said was rendered incomprehensible by her stuttering. It was hard to believe that the demon couldn't follow up any conversation topics Angela thought of (not that there were many to begin with. She was still facepalming over her attempts to discuss the weather). 'Which is good! Kinda...'

On one hand, hooray for an abuse victim finally finding her voice! Always heartening to witness.

But on the other hand, that was kinda the opposite of what she wanted? With her being meek as a mouse, Angela had counted on Spider Mother being the least likely to prove her about any unusual behaviour, but now? She couldn't help being a little nervous.

"That sounds like a good idea, Mother," Angela said as calmly as possible, plucking out a twig in her hair. "Perhaps to the west?"

Spider Mother started to nod, but her face abruptly blanched.

'Oh no.' Dreading the worst, Angela turned to find herself mere inches from Spider Douche's ugly mug.

She barely managed to stifle a yelp, her heart skipping several beats. Hadn't she likened the forest to a stereotypical horror setting earlier? Because Spider Douche was the embodiment of a stereotypical jumpscare monster, and not the enjoyable kind.

Spider Douche cackled, his upside-down grin having lost not one bit of its nastiness. "Getting a little jumpy there? That's no good at all. It's dangerous to leave your guard down when there are demon slayers prowling around our home, you know."

Angela's mouth opened and closed like a goldfish's as she found herself torn between telling him off and probing for more information on the demon slayers. "... We'll be having a talk on personal boundaries after this hunt is over," she said slowly, backing up a few feet. She also couldn't help but notice that Spider Mother refused to stand anywhere but behind her. That... didn't fill her with confidence. "Now what was that about demon slayers?"

"Just like it sounds. A small group of them stumbled into my little hiding spot, and I made quick work of some of them," At this, his grin somehow grew sharper, "but one of them slipped from my grasp and scurried off deeper into the mountain. Sorry about my carelessness, but these things happen sometimes, you know? I'm sure our dear mother knows all about it. Kehehehe!"

His gargantuan body swayed side to side with the force of his shrill laughter, and eventually, Angela couldn't stand to look at it anymore. Glancing at Spider Mother, the sight gave her pause. Silvery-white eyes full of abject fear, the demon had a hand held to her mouth as she trembled like a leaf in a storm. But why? It was only a mean-spirited jab, right?

"... What's that got to do with us? If you lost them, then it is your responsibility to track down those demon slayers," Angela snapped, glaring at Spider Douche as she discreetly shuffled herself closer to Spider Mother.

Unfazed, Spider Douche simply snickered. "What's with the sour look, Little Brother? I just thought it would've been a good idea to follow your example and give Mother a chance to make up for the last hunt," he said in a too-innocent voice. "After all, wouldn't Father get furious again if she doesn't contribute adequately tonight?"

Breathing behind her hitched.

"That's enough!"

The order came out as a growl that caused several night creatures to scuttle off in alarm. She was having a hard time keeping the building fury she felt in check, but who could fucking blame her? She could see this asshole's sadistic glee in needling Spider Mother as clear as day, with zero evidence of remorse for his actions, and even though she was supposed to be acting like a demon, Angela couldn't just let it go on.

"You would do well to remember who is in charge here," she said lowly, voice taut with restrained anger. "You are in no position to give chances to whomever you want. That is my decision and mine alone. Next time you try to pull something like this again, I will make you regret it. Understood?"

Spider Douche's grin faltered, but not completely. "... Crystal clear."

"Then get the hell out of here!" she snarled.

"Alright, alright! Tch, someone's in a bad mood tonight..."

That parting shot was all he left behind as he crawled back up a pine tree, taking with him the creepy-crawly sensation that had been plaguing her ever since his arrival. She continued staring up the tree, past the point of him possibly returning, until she felt comfortable enough to drop her hackles. 'God, I hate hate hate him. Ugh... Why does he even exist?'

She couldn't wait until Zenitsu smoked his ass.

Feeling drained all of a sudden, Angela turned to Spider Mother, whose face was still ashen. "Hey."

The single word made her flinch in surprise. "Wh-what is it, Rui?"

"You were going to hunt down one last human, weren't you?" Hunting was absolutely the last thing she wanted to do, but Angela couldn't afford to let slip of how much their latest encounter had shaken her. "Or were you suggesting it for fun?"

"N-no! I mean, I, I did say that." Her eyes flicked to the spot Spider Douche had previously occupied. "Rui, will your father—"

"Save the questions for later," Angela hastily said, grabbing her hands before she could further pursue that line of thought. Spider Mother bit her lip, staring down at the ground, but Angela didn't pay much mind to it. Her number one priority for the moment was getting out of this forest ASAP.

~0~0~0~

"Ah! No no no, don't wriggle so much!"

Sighing, Angela stared at the scenery below her with a half-lidded glare. The pleas were coming from Spider Mother, who was perched on a large boulder and jerking her fingers every which way in a desperate attempt to manipulate threads that extended far into the forest's depths. They had been going on for... what, half an hour now? She wouldn't know; she had lost track of time after nodding off for the fourth time.

After yet another yelp of alarm below her, Angela felt the last bit of her patience trickle away. Seriously, was it too much to ask that they returned to the house quickly? Was it too much? Apparently so!

She leapt off the branch and swung herself down, landing neatly (for once) next to the boulder and glaring up at Spider Mother, crossing her arms. "What's going on? You were doing so well before, and now you can't catch one little human?" she asked waspishly.

"Hee!" Spider Mother jumped, her outstretched hands visibly shaking. The demon opened her mouth as if to defend herself, but whatever it was, it wasn't coming out.

Angela ran a hand down her face, sighing. "For the love of everything, just hurry up and— Ow!" For fuck's sake, she nicked herself again! "Hurry up and finish it off so that we can return to the house! And don't look at me like that!" Angela snapped, pressing the heel of her palm against the wound. Spider Mother flinched and averted her gaze.

"I-I... I apologise..." Spider Mother returned to the task at hand, but it was obvious from her unfocused gaze that her heart wasn't completely into it.

Angela grimaced. That... might have been a little mean of her. All she wanted to do was urge on the demon, buuut she might have done the opposite. Whoops. 'I couldn't help it! It's hard to balance being nice and acting like a dick all the time, it's starting to get on my nerves!'

'Well, your own mom gets on your nerves all the time and you don't snap like that,' her own conscience whispered.

'Yeah, but this thing isn't my mom!'

'Bah, don't kid yourself,' it scoffed.

Angela sighed. 'I can't believe I'm thinking this, but it feels weird not being able to say sorry when I actually want to. It's usually the other way around.' She idly combed her claws through her hair, picking out a few dead leaves. 'And it's not like I know enough about demons to make up for it another way. Should I just hope she forgets about it...?'

Angela soon got lost in her thoughts. So lost, in fact, that when Spider Mother let out a jarring "No!", she toppled over in surprise and slammed face-first into a nearby tree, scraping her cheek. "Son of a—!"

She swallowed down the curse in the nick of time. "What happened?" she asked Spider Mother, looking over every inch of her body. She didn't seem injured, at least.

However, that didn't mean she looked well. Sweating, trembling, seemingly incapable of speech; she looked about five seconds away from getting a heart attack. When no response came, Angela tried stepping closer, but the demon only cringed away. 'Okay... Okay Angel, no need to take it personally. She has every goddamn reason under the sun to be afraid of you,' Angela thought in response to the sting in her heart. 'At least she doesn't look like she's going to make a run for it. Actually, she's just sitting there? ... Yeesh.'

This lady really needed to stop waiting to get slugged in the face. But on a more serious note, what could she do for her now...?

After a moment's consideration, Angela glanced around her surroundings. There wasn't anyone around, right? Tentatively taking a sniff of the air, the only scents noticeable to her was Spider Mother's and the faintest whiff of human blood (she swallowed hard); nobody else was nearby. But could she really trust that, given her inexperience with this body? What if they were watching her right now?

However, her worries were interrupted when she heard a whimper— an honest-to-god whimper of fear. Angela bit her lip, weighing her options... before thinking, 'Bah, screw it. If they see me, I'll just say I'm trying to earn her trust or whatever.'

"Mother. Can you move over?" Angela asked aloud.

Spider Mother complied, her hands creeping up to her neck as she kept her gaze down. Hoisting herself onto the craggy boulder, Angela scooted closer to Spider Mother — who cringed at the close proximity — and she held out her hands with their palms up. "Gimme— Give me your hand," she ordered. The demon stopped shaking long enough to shoot her a doubtful look. "Just do it!"

Still seeming uncertain, Spider Mother complied again, and Angela hastily grabbed the offered hands before she could change her mind. They were clammy and cold to the touch. 'C'mon Angel, you already committed. No backing out now,' she thought. With practised ease, she turned the demon's hands over and pressed it on the left side of her chest.

"Do you feel your heart? How it's beating this hard and fast?" she asked. Spider Mother nodded. "Good. I need you to make that stop now. Take slow, deep breaths until you feel that heart slow down."

~0~0~0~

"Angie, can you hear me? Take a breath, sweetie, you can do it. Palm against your heart, that's it."

~0~0~0~

"B-but, the h-h-human..." Spider Mother was stuttering far too much to even complete the statement, her hands trembling harder than ever.

~0~0~0~

"But, but, but I—! B-bad thing, I did, m-made D-Dad m-m-m—"

~0~0~0~

Angela shook her head. "Forget about it. One measly human won't make a difference when we've... when you've caught so many already," she emphasised, and the demon's eyes widened. "I need you to focus on yourself first. Calm yourself. Can you do that for me?"

~0~0~0~

"Don't worry about him, okay? Momma will go talk to him for you, but she needs you to take deep breaths first. Can my little Angel do that for me?"

"O-okay..."

~0~0~0~

Slowly, Spider Mother nodded again, and the next minute was filled with her uneven breathing as she struggled to bring it under control. It took some time... But eventually, the curled hands Angela still had in her grasp relaxed.

"Do you feel better?" Angela inquired.

A wordless nod was given.

"Good. Now," Just in case, she tightened her hold on the demon's hands, "what happened with that human?"

"I was... distracted in my attempts to capture the human, and someone sliced through my threads." Angela brightened a little. Her voice was relatively stable; progress was being made! "I think it might have been the doing of the demon slayer your brother spoke of."

Aaaaaand that evaporated her jubilance in a flash. 'Ugh, I never want to hear that thing be called my brother again. My real brother's adorable and has two legs, thank you very much,' she thought with a shudder. She kept that internal, though.

"That doesn't matter much. After all, you managed to k— to hunt down several humans by yourself tonight. That is more than enough proof that you're a strong demon." Was she laying it on a little thick? Yes or no, it still made her insides curl up in embarrassment, but Spider Mother didn't seem to mind. Her watery gaze was gone, replaced by a tiny smile. It was the happiest she'd ever looked that night.

Angela quickly released her hands before it got to the point of awkwardness, and hopped of the boulder. "Ah, before I forget."

She stared up at Spider Mother with a stern expression. "Never speak of this to anyone. Any of this. Do not bring it up anywhere outside of this forest either. I don't want to have to deal with any questions," she said coldly, wiping off the smile on the demon's face. "I also expect you to be able to keep this up without me having to hold your hand, understand? I can't keep being by your side during every hunt."

"Yes, Rui!"

"Good, so long as you understand. You are able to get things done, your only problem is that you freeze up. Just remember to breathe. Now hurry up and collect the bodies," Angela ordered, "so that we can return to the house, Mom... ther. Mother."

'What in the ABSOLUTE TITS did you just call her?! Are you asking to be caught? What the fuck, Angel?!'

Spider Mother nodded, gracefully sliding off the boulder while Angela silently sweated off to the side. "But what of the one that escaped?" she asked, not bringing up her slip-up. Either she hadn't noticed, or she was gracious enough to ignore it.

"D-don't bother. I'm sure someone will take care of them," Angela said quickly.

Sure enough, an ear-piercing scream rang out just as they left the vicinity. Angela did little more than to hold on tightly to Spider Mother's sleeve as they walked back to the house.

~0~0~0~

"Wow, so many humans?"

"What a stroke of luck! I wasn't able to find any hum— Um. Ah, it's nothing, I didn't say anything!"

"Thanks for the meal, Rui!"

Her attempt at a benign smile turned out more as a grimace. "Thank your mother. She was the one, ah, largely responsible for tonight's haul," Angela said.

The "haul" referred to the mini pile of corpses that some of the spider members had carefully arranged in the main room, with some whole and some... in pieces more than not. Angela did her best to keep her breathing as shallow as possible around them.

The talking ceased almost immediately. With the exception of Spider Douche, everyone was staring at her in utter shock, and Angela shot back a glare at the collective crowd, daring them to say something.

Spider Mother stared uncertainly at Angela, who simply shot back a look. "Remember our promise" was what she wanted to convey, and it seemed that she eventually got the message.

"Eat up, all of you. I will be returning to my room for tonight, and I don't wish to be disturbed under any circumstances." Once she issued her last command for tonight, Angela briskly swept past the surge of demons going after the body pile, passing by Spider Mother who was still hanging back. She raised an eyebrow at her. "What are you waiting for? Go."

Her eyes widened. "I... Can I?"

"Yes. I already said so, didn't I? You deserve it," Angela said lowly enough for the other demons to not overhear. "Just go and... enjoy yourself."

Spider Mother stared blankly until she realised that Angela wasn't joking, and... was that a grateful smile she just saw? Angela wasn't sure, and Spider Mother didn't stick around long enough for her to take a second glance. '... Whatever. It's not my problem anymore.'

She saw someone about to approach her from out of the corner of her eye — Burnt Sister? — but Angela didn't stick around long enough either. She hastily made her way back to her room, relieved that she was finally able to collapse onto the futon without any more interruptions. Her entire body was begging for sleep, but she couldn't let her eyes close just yet. She still had one more thing to do.

Angela glanced down at her torn sleeves. "So much happened in so few hours... it honestly doesn't feel real," she murmured, carefully examining the damage. It was more than she was used to repairing, but she couldn't afford to whine now. "All those injuries gone, like nothing happened..."

She said that, but that didn't erase the agony Muzan caused, nor the fear the Demon Moons inspired in her, nor the heartache she felt for a demon that reminded her way too much of her mom for her own good...

Any sane person in her shoes would probably be breaking down right about now, but she couldn't bring herself to do that. Not with good conscience, when she knew that her mom — her real mom — and brother were waiting for her to return safely. If she wanted that to ever happen, she had to do everything in her power to make Muzan happy, and that meant getting the hanafuda earrings...

But that could wait until tomorrow.

With shaking hands, Angela withdrew the thing that she had snatched up from the bodies earlier: a single sewing needle. She couldn't find any sewing thread in the room, but that was a non-issue; she simply spooled a line from her own finger. It was a bit of a struggle to thread the needle with these cumbersome claws, but she eventually managed it, and Angela carefully kept the needle pinched between her thumb and index finger. She took a deep breath.

'Baby steps, Angel. You'll get back home eventually, but you need to take care of yourself first.'

Careful to keep her claws away from the tatters, Angela began sewing.

~0~0~0~

A/N: I hope this chapter isn't too boring after the events of Chapter 3! Once again, I appreciate any feedback you guys can give me, be they negative or positive. In fact, I would really like some criticism; when I inevitably give the earlier chapters a rewrite once I go further into the story, any comments you give me will be invaluable towards the process!

(Also, let me know whether I should post the self-indulgent fic here. Will make a poll, so make sure to check it out!)

Other than that though, I hope you guys enjoyed this! Not sure when I'll update, but I do know that I'll be updating the AO3 version soon after this, so keep an eye out for that! Until then, keep safe, everyone!

~CB