Chapter 11: Tangled in a web of fear
Notes: Part 1 of the Natagumo Mountain Arc.
Much to Zenitsu's fear, and Inosuke's delight, once they were relatively healed, they were sent from mission to mission, with little rest in between.
"Why are we pushed so hard to go to so many missions?" Zenitsu groaned one evening.
"It's my fault, really." Tanjirou smiled apologetically, "I need to gain battle experience and fight many demons, before I can take my place as the next Sun Pillar."
There was a moment of silence.
"YOU'RE THE WHAT NOW?!" Zenitsu screamed so loudly that half the village heard him.
Tanjirou smiled, embarrassed.
"I'm not yet." he pointed out, "I need experience. Sanemi-san nearly strangled me and my father when he found out." he said, taking a deep breath, "'This pipsqueak has no real experience and you expect him to be the Sun Pillar?! Are you out of you fricking mind?! Huh, Tanjuurou?!'" he imitated Sanemi-san's voice, "That's why I had to train with the Pillars and now fight a lot of demons."
"That's why you vanished from training with Gramps one day?" Zenitsu remembered, "We are traveling with a future Pillar. Why did you take me with you, Tanjirou?! I am going to die! I don't want to die! I am too young!" he wailed, trembling.
"Weak." Inosuke scoffed.
"Of course I am weak! I know my limits! You're not insulting me by telling me what I've been saying all along!"
Tanjirou chuckled, as he led them to their next mission.
They had been back to Hisa-san's home when the urgent summons to Natagumo Mountain came, telling the three of them to hurry there as soon as possible.
They got up, got dressed and exited the house, Hisa-san seeing them off.
"We'll be going now! Thank you for your care!" Tanjirou said, him and Zenitsu bowing in thanks.
"I shall light some sparks for you, for good luck…" Hisa-san said.
"Thank you very much!" Tanjirou smiled.
"What're you doing you old hag?!" Inosuke tried to hit her.
Zenitsu came to stand before her, as Tanjirou wrapped his arms around his friend and pulled him back.
"ARE YOU STUPID?!" Zenitsu exploded, "IT'S A RITUAL! IT'S PURIFICATION TO WARD OFF EVIL SPIRITS SINCE WE ARE ABOUT TO EMBARK ON A DENGEROUS MISSION!"
Nothing seemed to surprise Hisa-san, despite their little scene.
"No matter what may come, please live your lives with pride and your heads held high. I wish you good luck on your coming battles…" she said, bowing them goodbye.
They bowed once more and then took off.
"Pride? Heads held high? Luck on our coming battles? What's all that mean?" Inosuke asked.
"Actually, now that I think about it, it seems like a pretty difficult thing to achieve…Living with our heads held high…Well, how I understand it, is acting in an appropriate way, following the correct course of action at all times, by truly understanding our current standing, without any fear of shame or embarrassment. I think. It is Hisa-san's way of praying for our safety." Tanjirou explained.
"What's a standing? What do you mean by 'without any shame'? Why would it be embarrassing?" Inosuke asked for explanations.
"Well, that's…"
"What exactly is 'behaving appropriately'? What is a correct course of action specifically? Why is the old hag praying for our safety? For the old hag to pray for us, when she has nothing to do with anything, she is the one who doesn't understand her own position." Inosuke kept asking, not waiting for Tanjirou to answer.
Tanjirou did the only thing he could given the circumstances; he sped up.
"Ah, he's accelerating!"
Once they reached the mountain, Zenitsu froze up.
"WAIT! Can you please wait a moment!" the blonde Slayer screamed, "I'm scared!" he sat down, hugging his knees, "Now that we've reached our destination, it feels so much scarier!"
"Why are you sitting down?" Inosuke demanded, "You're disgusting. You really piss me off…"
"You're the last person I wanna hear it from, pig-head!" Zenitsu replied, "I'm not disgusting! I am average! I'm normal…and you're abnormal!" he said pointing to both Tanjirou and Inosuke.
Tanjirou turned suddenly towards the mountain, as he caught a scent. The others looked on, too.
A Slayer was crawling down the mountain path.
"H…Help me…"
In a heartbeat, Tanjirou and Inosuke ran towards him.
"YAH! WAIT!" Zenitsu shouted, surprised.
"He's wearing the Corps' uniform! He's a Demon Slayer. Something happened to him!" Tanjirou called at him, "Are you alright? What happened?" he asked, as he got near the male Slayer.
Before he could reply, before Tanjirou could help him up, the young man was pulled back into the mountain.
"AAAAHHHH! I WAS STILL CONECTED!" he shouted, as he flew, "SAVE ME!"
The three of them stood frozen for a moment.
"I…I'm…I'm going in there." Tanjirou said seriously, "…To save him…"
"Me first! I shall be the vanguard!" Inosuke stepped forward, "You can just tremble and follow behind me! I'm hungry!"
"Inosuke…What?"
"He just means he's waiting for a chance to go all out." Zenitsu trembled.
"Zenitsu?"
"I…I…I can't! I'm scared! Didn't you see what happened to that Slayer?!"
Tanjirou gave him his hand and a warm smile.
"It'll be less scary if we're all together." he said, "Unless you want to stay out here alone?"
Zenitsu paled and shot to his feet.
"I'M COMING!" he screamed in fear.
They were walking in silence, Inosuke in the lead cutting spider webs.
"Hmph! This place is full of spider webs! And they're in my way! So annoying!"
"Yeah…" Tanjirou agreed, "Inosuke…"
"What is it?!"
"Thank you. I'm glad you said you'd come along. It gave me the confidence to enter the mountain. This twisted, ominous and unnatural scent that comes from here…freaked me out and made my body go into slight shock. But you coming calmed me down. So, thank you." he smiled.
Inosuke stared in shocked silence.
"Inosuke…?"
"I don't think anyone has ever thanked him before." Zenitsu supplied.
"Guys!" Tanjirou called softly, getting his friends' attention.
He had noticed a Slayer hiding in the bushes and the three of them walked up to him.
Tanjirou tapped him on the shoulder and the young man turned around startled[scared], ready to strike him.
"We're here to help." Tanjirou said, "I'm Kamado Tanjirou and these are Hashibira Inosuke and Agatsuma Zenitsu, level Mizunoto."
"Mizunoto…? Mizunoto?!" the Slayer exclaimed in despair, "Not a Pillar?! Why didn't they send a Pillar?! It doesn't matter how many Mizunoto come! It won't make any difference! It's pointless!"
Inosuke punched him in the face.
"Inosuke!" Tanjirou exclaimed, grabbing his friend's leg, as Inosuke grabbed the other Slayer by his hair.
"So annoying! Shut up! Hurry up and explain the situation, weakling. If you want to talk…about pointless things, let's start with your very pointless existence!"
"A…After we got our orders from the crows, ten Corps members came here…However, not long after we entered into the woods and up the mountain…the other hunters…they started to…to kill each other…!"
Zenitsu was white as a sheet, one step away from passing out.
Suddenly the bushes rustled to their side.
"Ah!" the Slayer exclaimed, as one Slayer appeared, closely followed by others.
They attacked, Tanjirou and his friends avoiding their attacks by dodging, backflipping or grabbing them to immobilize them.
"Those idiots don't know it's forbidden to kill fellow members?!" Inosuke wondered.
"No…their movements are very strange…Someone or something is probably controlling them!" Tanjirou explained.
"Good. Then I'll cut 'em up!"
"No! Some of them might still be alive! And…we mustn't defile the corpses of our comrades!"
"Stop bossing me around and denying my fun!" Inosuke headbutted Tanjirou.
Suddenly two controlled Slayers closed in on the one from earlier and Tanjirou flipped one of them over his own shoulder, while Inosuke pushed the other down with a headlock.
'Behind him…A sweet, unsettling scent!' Tanjirou thought.
He cut behind the Slayer and the body fell to the ground.
"They're controlled by threads! Cut the threads!" he ordered.
The other three nodded and focused on releasing their fellow Slayers' bodies.
"I figured that out before you!" Inosuke called as he cut the threads from three Slayers.
'Where…? Where's the demon…that's controlling them?! What's their position?' Tanjirou looked around him, trying to sniff out the one responsible, 'Ugh! What's that? A really strong and foul scent even though it was for just a moment…'
Suddenly Tanjirou noticed the spiders on his arm as it was pulled.
"Tanjirou!" Zenitsu called out worried.
He quickly cut the threads.
'Spiders? Is the spider thread controlling them? Then this must mean…!'
They watched in despair as the corpses rose up again.
"It's not enough just to simply cut the threads…the spiders will just spin more!" Tanjirou let the others know, 'Ugh! That smell again!' he covered his nose. 'What kind of scent is this…? It's being carried over by the wind…'
His eyes caught the movement of spiders by his feet and he quickly stamped them.
"Then we gotta kill all of these spiders!" Inosuke called out.
"Impossible! The spiders are tiny! There must be hundreds of them! We have to find the demon controlling them! But with this wind blowing, I can't sniff them out!" Tanjirou focusing on defending from the Slayers' corpses and the spiders, "Inosuke! Zenitsu! If you two have a way to pinpoint the location of the demon…then do it! Me and, um…" he glanced at the other Slayer.
"I'm Murata!" he called as he defended against a comrade's body.
"Murata-san and I will deal with our controlled comrades! Inosuke, Zenitsu, you have to…"
A shiver ran down Tanjirou's spine and he looked up to see a young-looking demon boy with white skin and hair and red spots on his face and one visible turquoise eye, looking down on them.
"Don't disturb the peaceful life of our family." he said in a disinterested voice.
'Is he floating? No…He's standing on threads!' Tanjirou realised, 'Family?' he tried to understand his meaning.
"Otherwise Mother will waste no time…in killing you."
'Mother?'
"Hey!" Inosuke exclaimed, jumping high in the air, using a controlled body as his springboard, as the boy started leaving, slashing at the air, "Damn it! Where are you going? Come back here and fight me! Why did you even come here?!" he called as he fell back, "Ah!" he hit the ground hard.
"Inosuke! I don't think that demon is controlling the Slayers! So first –"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah! I know! We gotta find where that demon is first! You never shut up, Gonpachirou!"
"I have a very general direction!" Zenitsu said, "There are five or six demons here!" he trembled, "And there are a lot of bodies and I get sounds I do not understand! They sound like demons, but not! Tanjirou, I am scared!"
Inosuke stuck his swords in the ground, kneeled and spread his arms outwards.
While he concentrated, Tanjirou, Zenitsu and Murata-san focused on defending him.
"Found it!" he called out, "There!"
"Leave this place to me! You guys go on ahead!" Murata-san called.
"Huh?" Tanjirou looked at his senior.
"What's this bed-wetter talking about? You've already pissed your pants!"
"Who's a pissed-pants bed-wetter, you stupid pig?!" Murata-san shouted furious, "I'm not talking to you, so shut it! You saw an embarrassing side of me, but I am a Demon Slayer, too! I'll handle this! Knowing I have to cut the threads will help…and the bodies move in simple ways! I'll watch out for the spiders! There're probably stronger Slayers being controlled near the demon! Hurry up and go the three of you!"
"…We understand! Thank you!" Tanjirou called, as he took off in the direction Inosuke had provided them with.
"First I'm gonna punch you! Who are you calling a stupid pig?!" Inosuke demanded, only to be pulled by his two friends.
"He's calling you a stupid pig, you moron!" Zenitsu fumed.
"When we get back, I am so gonna knock your teeth in!"
They kept running, Inosuke now moving of his own volition.
"I'm definitely punching that guy silly!"
"Stop talking about that!"
"He called me a stupid pig, Monjirou!"
"I always call you stupid pig!" Zenitsu interjected.
"It's Tanjirou!" the red-haired teen corrected at the same time.
They stopped when they came across more Slayers.
"No…Don't come this way." a female Slayer said, tearfully. "Bring someone with a higher rank! If you don't, I'm going to end killing everybody! Please.…I beg you!"
She was holding a dead Slayer by their hair and her sword was stuck in the neck of another.
Suddenly she started moving towards them.
"Run!" she shouted, "Ruuunn!"
The three Slayers moved quickly out of her way.
'She's fast!'
"I'm being controlled, so my movements are completely different! We aren't that strong!" she explained, "Aaah…!"
Her hand was bent in unnatural ways.
'The demon's threads are forcing her to move in ways…that are breaking her bones! So cruel!'
He dodged to the side and then ducked under a thrust attack.
He quickly noticed others closing in.
"K…K-Kill u-us!" another Slayer said, "Our hands and legs…our bones they're broken…Our organs are…damaged…We are being forced to move…The pain…We'd rather die…No matter what happens…we are dead. Help us…Please end…our misery!"
Tanjirou had frozen by the young man's request. He couldn't do it. He couldn't kill another human being.
"Okay! I will!" Inosuke rushed.
"WAIT!" Zenitsu and Tanjirou called out.
"Maybe there is a way we can help them!"
"Shut up! Just shut your mouth!" Inosuke screamed, "They said it themselves, they want to die!" he kicked a slayer away, "These guys are fast! If you drag your feet, we'll be the ones getting killed!"
"I'm trying to think of a way to deal with this! So wait for a moment!"
'I don't want to use my sword techniques!' he parried the female Slayer, 'But if I only cut the threads, the spiders will just reconnect them! How can I immobilize them…?' he looked around him, 'I've got it!'
He ran and the female slayer followed.
'Yes! She's following!'
"Hey, you! What are you running around for?! Stop messing around!" Inosuke called out.
"Tanjirou has a plan." Zenitsu frowned.
As he ran away, he spun around, ducked under her attack, wrapped his arms around her and tossed her overhead to hang from a branch, to everyone's surprise.
'Good!' Tanjirou looked up at her, 'She's completely tangled up.'
"What did you do?! I wanna do it too!" Inosuke said.
Tanjirou was focused on the next Slayer, but he heard Inosuke laugh and shout joyfully.
"See? I can do anything you can do!" he called at Tanjirou.
"Sorry, I wasn't watching!"
"What did you say?!" Inosuke replied angrily.
"Sorry, I am a little busy here!"
The three of them worked hard, immobilizing the Slayers.
"Good! There's only one more person! I'm going to do it again, so watch me closely!" Inosuke declared.
"Got it. Go get 'em! Just don't be too rough!"
"Tanjirou something bad is coming. The threads…" Zenitsu started, suddenly.
Tanjirou had barely enough time to cut the female Slayer free, watching horrified as the rest of the Slayers were killed.
"Are you ok?" he asked her, helping her stand up.
"My arm." she said, "The others…?"
"DAMMIT!" Inosuke screamed, "They're all dead!" he shouted angrily.
"I am sorry. I wasn't fast enough." Tanjirou said, looking down.
The Slayer looked away.
"Thank you, um…"
"Kamado Tanjirou."
"Thank you, Kamado-san. I'm Ozaki. I'm sorry, I won't be of any help."
"That's okay. Follow that path," he pointed the way they had come from, "and find Murata-san. He'll get you out of the mountain. Look out for the spiders." he warned her.
"Thank you again."
The three of them watched her go.
"…Let's go." he said with a dead voice.
"Okay." the other two agreed, not even Zenitsu finding the strength to whine about going after a demon.
They ran in the direction of the demon.
"This way! We're getting closer!" Inosuke called, taking the lead.
'The wind has shifted, so my nose is helpful again! I can smell…I can smell something. There are two more scents…There!'
Tanjirou noticed a person-shaped shadow.
"Guys!"
"I saw it first!" Inosuke said, running beside Tanjirou.
They stopped dead in their tracks.
'What is this?!'
Before them stood a demon's body without a head.
"This thing doesn't have a head! So it doesn't have a weak spot!"
"We can't cut what isn't there!" Zenitsu was trembling again, "We're going to die!"
"That means…what? What do I do?" Inosuke was mumbling.
"Both of you calm down!" Tanjirou called, serious, "We'll use the Kesagiri maneuver. Slash from the base of the neck on the right side all the way down through the left armpit. It's a broad strike, so I think it'll be pretty tough, but…"
Inosuke rushed.
"Wait! We have to do it together!" Tanjirou called after him.
He watched as Inosuke got slashed at and then immobilized by the spiders.
Tanjirou ran in, using his sword to act as a shield to defend him and parry the demon's attack, while Zenitsu cut the threads off.
The body jumped back.
"Inosuke! To beat this demon…we have to work together! Cooperate! Just this once…let's fight together!"
"You say 'cooperate' but you jump in front of me! You're in my way all the time!"
"Then go over me!" Tanjirou, noticing the body was charging them again.
Inosuke used Tanjirou's back to jump in the air, as Tanjirou leaned forward, using his free hand to balance himself, as Zenitsu cut off the demon's hands.
"Jump, Inosuke! Jump!" Tanjirou called, moving to balance on his head.
'Total Concentration. Sun Breathing; Ninth Form: The Setting Sun.'
He cut off the demon's legs.
"Go now!" he called out, turning to watch Inosuke cut the demon body.
'Wow! A beautiful cut!' he thought in relief, as the body disintegrated.
Inosuke landed behind the demon and ran at Tanjirou full speed.
Tanjirou watched him close in, surprised. Zenitsu yelped.
"I can do…anything you can do, you bastard!" he shouted, as he wrapped his arms around Tanjirou and tossed him in the air towards the demon who controlled the spider threads.
From up above, Tanjirou saw the female demon sitting atop a rock. The female demon looked up at him as he fell.
'Sun Breathing; First Form…' he started, but he watched in surprise, as she raised her hands in the air, in surrender, accepting and welcoming her death.
She had such a relieved scent by the prospect.
'Water Breathing; Fifth Form: Blessed Rain After the Drought.'
At the last moment he changed Styles and delivered the kindest and gentlest of the techniques he knew. There is little to no pain from this merciful sword strike to those who surrender their necks.
Tanjirou landed behind her and quickly turned and caught her head as it fell, holding it close.
"Please, find peace." he said softly.
"Thank you. And…be careful. There's a member of the Twelve Demon Moons here." she said, her last words before she disappeared.
'A Twelve Demon Moon? There is one here in the mountains? They have a high concentration of Kibutsuji's blood. If I can get some of their blood, I can further help Tamayo-san with her drug.'
"Oh, right! Inosuke and Zenitsu!" he suddenly remembered and took off, running towards the direction he was flung from.
Only Inosuke was there.
"Did you defeat her?"
"Yes. I did. Are you okay, Inosuke?"
"Don't coddle me! Okay? Got it? I can do anything you can do! Pretty soon my head will be way harder than yours and also…"
Tanjirou zoned him out.
'What terrible wounds…! So severe. And I couldn't help any more of my companions, other than Ozaki-san. And she…smelt of…such fear and deep suffering…that she longed for her death. What is happening on this mountain?! Why exactly has it turned into what it is right now?' he wondered, as he subconsciously started wrapping his friend's wounds.
"Stop it! I don't need it!" Inosuke's protests falling on deaf ears.
'With one of the Twelve Demon Moons lying in wait here…Does a clan of demons live here? However…I thought demons didn't group up?'
"Zenitsu?" he asked, once he finished.
"Told him to find a demon to kill." Inosuke replied.
"And he went?" Tanjirou blinked, surprised.
"No. I threw him towards it!" he said proudly.
Tanjirou looked up at the sky, worried.
They started walking further into the woods, until the two of them reached a river.
Suddenly a loud sound echoed in the night.
"That sound right now…Did lightning just strike?"
"How should I know?!"
"I don't think I smell thunderclouds, but that awful scent…is so strong that I can't tell." he said thoughtfully, "Inosuke."
"Haaah!?"
"I think I'm gonna go look over there." he told his friend.
"Do whatever you want!" Inosuke replied, angrily.
"Inosuke, I think you should go down. Down the mountain."
"Why should I?! Buzz off!"
"Because you're severely injured. My basic medical skills are enough to stop the bleeding for when an actual doctor checks them."
"I'm not hurt at all! I'm fine!" the other boy stated, despite the blood-soaked bandages on his arms proving him wrong.
'Huh?' Tanjirou blinked, not believing his friend's stubbornness.
Suddenly a demon girl appeared from across of them, on the other side of the river. She seemed shocked to find them there, as were they.
"Graahh! I'm gonna slice you up! Hold it, demon!" Inosuke started chasing her.
"Inosuke!" Tanjirou tried to stop him.
The demon girl turned to run, looking back at them.
"Father!" she called out.
A huge male figure landed before them in the middle of the river.
'From above?!'
It screamed. It had the body of a man, and the head of a spider, bringing equal levels of shock, fear and disgust to Tanjirou and Inosuke, if his scent was anything to go by.
"Stay away…from…my…family!" he screamed, punching the riverbed before him, the two slayers jumping back to avoid getting hit.
'Sun Breathing; Second Form: Azure Heaven.'
He swung his sword down on the Spider Father, only for him to raise his right hand. The sword didn't cut the arm off.
'My sword…isn't cutting through!'
The Spider Father swung his left arm towards Tanjirou, who was open for a hit, only for Inosuke to intercept the attack with his swords getting stuck on the demon's arm.
"He's tough!"
They used the demon's thighs as leverage to remove their swords and jump away, as the the demon moved again.
Tanjirou landed on his feet in the river and Father charged him.
'I can't cut him, even while using my forms! What to do? What to do?' he wondered as he avoided the demon.
"DON'T GET NEAR…MY FAMILY!" he shouted again, raising his fist to strike.
"GRAAAH!" Inosuke came up from behind.
He watched almost absent-mindedly as Inosuke attacked and was knocked back.
'I did it with Water Breathing's second form. I can do it with Sun Breathing, too!' he thought, targeting the tree closest to the demon, 'Sun Breathing; Second Form: Improved – Lateral Azure Heaven.'
He spun horizontally cutting through the bark of the tree.
He watched it fall and once it had immobilized the demon, Tanjirou closed in on him.
'I can cut him down now.' he thought, 'Total Concentration: Sun Breathing; Eleventh Form: Solar Halo Dragon Dance.'
He wasn't fast enough, as the Spider Father started raising the tree off him.
"Look out!" Inosuke warned him.
The demon used it to parry his attack and throw him away.
"KENTAROOOUUU!"
'I softened the shock to my body by absorbing the blow with my sword's hilt…but it didn't lessen its force.'
"Inosuke, be careful! I'll be back as soon as I can! So, until then, don't die! Just don't die! Whatever you do…don't you dare die!" he called out as he was getting further away.
Notes: Cliffhanger again! And yes, I did just save Ozaki-san. Also; Tanjirou is a good boy, so he doesn't cuss, hence why he uses the mild substitute 'fricking' instead of Sanemi's actual word. Lastly, please pretend that the word was in use already, and did not appear four years after the end of the Taishou Era, in the 1930s.