Now that our heroes have had their little run-in with the ever-mischievous tanuki, now they're about to run into some real problems. Specifically spider related.

Chapter 8: Jorogumo

Night had finally fallen as the moonlight shined brightly in the night sky, the clouds floating by.

But even still, the Turtles, Usagi, Kintaro, and Gennosuke did not stop even once. After another few hours of walking, they had finally come out of the Forest of Tangled Skein, and were now ascending into the mountains.

Once again, the journey was perilous, with the group having to jump over several small casems in their way. But it was also rather quiet, again aside from the constant complaints by Kintaro.

As they went higher and higher, a heavy fog began to set in as the clouds blocked out the moon.

Soon it began to rain as the group pressed on through the cold weather, their kasa hats at least keeping their heads dry.

Eventually, the group came across a large cave in the side of the mountain and agreed to take shelter there from the rain.

And as they ventured further into the cave, the group soon found themselves traversing through a large triangular shaped tunnel, the walls being coated with a strange white silk.

"Okay, what is this dudes?" Mikey questioned, poking some of the silk on the wall with his finger. "It's like a giant sticky loogie!"

Donnie's face looked grim as observed the silk closely. "Worse," He said, "they're giant spider webs."

Still, this did not deter Mikey from licking his finger to taste the silk.

As they journeyed through the tunnel, Leo couldn't help but feel the same strange feeling he had felt back at the forest with the tanuki, a strange spiritual presence was in the air, one that made him feel tense.

Raph lagged behind a bit as he began scratching his head which was beginning to itch. Slightly irritated, he took his hat off and was about to put it away when suddenly a dozen or so spiders came crawling out of it.

The sight of it caused the red turtle to freak out, screaming as he dropped his hat and backed into the wall.

"I don't like spiders, Yojimbo!" Kintaro complained. "Especially the oversized kind!"

"Be silent, Kintaro-sama." Usagi snapped sternly. "We must be prepared for anything."

Just then, the group heard something from the distance, or someone.

"Help!" A sudden voice called, one that was indiscriminately female and caused the group to stop.

"This way!" Usagi said as the group rushed towards the end of the tunnel where the voice was coming from.

As they exited the tunnel, the group found themselves in a gigantic underground chamber with several stone pillars and fog everywhere.

And just across from them, strung up in a giant spider web, was an all too familiar cat woman that Usagi knew well.

"Usagi!" She cried, sounding weak and helpless. "Help me, please!"

"Akemi?" The ronin questioned in shock. "How can this be?" When he last saw her, she was at the village which was miles away. How could she have gotten here before them? How was she even here at all for that matter?

"Don't worry, dudette! We'll save you!" Mikey yelled in a reassuring manner. "C'mon, dudes!" He then leapt from pillar to pillar towards Akemi, with Donnie and Raph soon following after him.

Leo was about to follow them as well when Usagi suddenly snapped out of his shock, before grabbing his shoulder and pulling the blue turtle back. "No, Leonardo-san, wait." The ronin told him.

The lead turtle raised a brow in confusion. "Why?"

Usagi said nothing while Gennosuke simply pointed down into the depths below.

Leo looked down and the fog cleared enough for him to see that down below them was an enormous spider web, with several cocoons laying about on the web, undoubtedly containing the poor unlucky souls who came into this place.

Wait, dark cave… huge pit full of spider webs… and a woman Usagi knows? That sounded an awful lot like something Master Splinter had told him in his stories. In fact, it sounded a lot like…

Leo's eyes slowly widened as the realization came to him.

"Guys, stop!" He shouted, trying desperately to get his brothers attention. "It's a trap!"

His pleas went on deaf ears however as Raph, Donnie, and Mikey soon reached the trapped cat woman.

"Please, free me," 'Akemi' pleaded helplessly. "I have been here for so long."

Without hesitation, Raph quickly cut the webs holding her with his sais while Donnie stood guard.

Mikey quickly caught her as she fell down. "It's okay, ma'am. We're here to help you." He said reassuringly.

'Akemi' didn't immediately reply, wrapping her arms around the party turtle. Her arms then suddenly morphed into giant spider claws, grabbing Mikey and causing the young turtle to yelp while Raph and Donnie gasped in horror as they stepped back.

"Yes~. Help me, ninja. Help me." 'Akemi' laughed sinisterly, her back legs and abdomen morphing into that of a spider's. She then roared loudly in his face, causing Mikey to scream in terror.

"Away, fiend!" Usagi shouted, as he and Leo lunged towards the spider lady with their swords drawn.

"Get away from my brother!" Leo yelled, swinging his katanas furiously as 'Akemi' forcing her to drop Mikey and scurry away into the shadows.

"Thanks, Usagi, dude. You too, Leo." Mikey thanked as he got up, whipping out his nunchucks. "What the heck was that thing?!"

"A Jorogumo. A spider yokai" Usagi answered. "They take the appearance of an attractive woman someone cares about in order to lure victims to her and consume them."

"Ugh, great. More shape-shifters." Raph groaned, keeping his sais out.

"Seems that way." Gen stated, drawing his swords.

Donnie drew his bo-staff and kept on guard, his eyes shifting around the environment. He listened as best he could to hear the spider yokai coming.

But all he was met with was silence, nothing.

He relaxed his guard a bit but didn't lower it entirely as he continued to look around. And this moment of relaxation cost him dearly as Jorogumo suddenly appeared behind him almost out of nowhere and grabbed him with her spider claws. She then flung him down into the pits below with him screaming all the way.

"Donnie!" Raph and Mikey cried.

Luckily, Donnie managed to catch himself on the spider web with his staff. His heart racing, he looked around and nearly screamed again upon seeing several webbed cocoons down with him. And there were hundreds of them!

The remainders of the group stood back-to-back, weapons at the ready as they waited for Jorogumo to come at them again.

However, none of them saw the spider yokai coming down from above them until it was too late as she slammed her whole body weight into the group and knocked them down like bowling pins before grabbing Raph and wrapping his body up in her webbing while she continued to laugh.

"Deja vu!" Raph cried, getting immediate flashbacks to Spider-Bytz before his head was wrapped in the webbing as well.

"Raph!" Mikey cried as Jorogumo tossed the cocoon into the pit near Donnie. Scowling, the party turtle whipped out his kusarigama chain. "Booyakasha!" He shouted his oh-so-famous catchphrase as he tried to hit the spider yokai with his chain.

But the orange turtle missed as the Jorogumo, in a shocking manner of speed, dodged the oncoming chain before swiping at him with her claws. Mikey was unable to dodge in time as he was hit and knocked into the web pit with the others.

The spider yokai then turned her attention to Kintaro, who held his axe out in front of him while he trembled with fright. "You… ugly spider woman! I-I'll-" He stammered in a futile attempt to seem brave.

He was cut off when Jorogumo tried to swat him with her claw, but Leo quickly pulled the Holy Child out of the way, standing protectively in front of the Golden Boy.

"You're not gonna touch him, monster!" Leo declared, gripping his katana in a guard position.

Kintaro couldn't help but stare at the blue clad turtle in awe and even a bit of admiration at how quickly he had come to defend him.

Jorogumo simply laughed. "Foolish kappa! Your little blade does not intimidate me!" She swung a claw at Leo, but the lead turtle quickly deflected it with his sword. Growling, the spider yokai swung her other claw, only for Leo to slice it off with a strong slash from his sword.

The spider yokai shrieked so loud, Leo thought his ear drums might burst.

Thoroughly pissed off, Jorgumo snarled as she managed to catch the blue turtle off guard with her remaining claw, smacking him and knocking him into Kintaro, causing them both to fall into the pits below.

Now, Usagi and Gennosuke were the only ones left.

"Fools! All of you! You cannot destroy Jorogumo!" The spider yokai roared as she quickly approached the rhino.

Gen tried to swing his sword at the yokai, but missed as Jorogumo swiped her claw at him and knocked him off balance. Lunging at him, she caught him and began wrapping Gen up into another cocoon of webbing.

"This is not how I thought this day would go." Gen grumbled as he was wrapped up.

"Gennosuke!" Usagi shouted, rushing forward and ambushing the spider yokai from behind, stabbing her in the thorax region with his katana.

Jorogumo howled in pain before turning her torso a full 360 and tried to swipe at Usagi with her claw.

The ronin jumped out of the way, landing on the edge of a stone pillar and was about to attack again when the spider demon's spinneret shot a strand of webbing which hit him and knocked him off his perch.

The spider demon then dropped Gen as he and Usagi fell down into the pits with the others.

"We're doomed!" Raph cried, managing to get his face out of the cocoon. "We're spider food!"

"Technically, she's only going to drain us of all our bodily fluids and leave us for-" Donnie started.

"Not helping, Donnie!" Raph snapped.

The smart turtle scowled. "Well excuse me, but it's how I deal with stress!"

"Here she comes!" Mikey cried, looking up.

Jorogumo laughed as she descended down towards her prey. "I will web you all like insects and drain you dry." She cackled.

"I don't want to be eaten by a lowly bug!" Kintaro cried as everyone began to struggle against the webs that held them. "Somebody do something!"

The spider demon laughed. "Even if you could break free, below you lies a bottomless pit!"

"Well, it wouldn't technically be bottomless since we'd probably fall to the bottom of the mountain." Donnie said in a-matter-of-factually way.

"Silence!" The spider yokai snapped, getting the smart turtle to shut up. Her face then suddenly changed into that of a spider, with six eyes on her face, a chelicerae jaw, and a slightly long tongue. Needless to say, she looked like the stuff of nightmares.

She then began to make her way towards Kintaro, causing the pug kid to squirm and scream even more, almost looking like he was going to cry.

"Hey, spider witch!" Mikey shouted, trying to get the spider demon's attention away from Pug-taro. "Eight-legged butt face! Yeah, I'm talking to you!"

Jorogumo simply turned his way and roared loudly, making him flinch in fright as he quickly regretted his plan.

"Heh heh, just kidding." Mikey laughed nervously. "You don't really have a butt face!"

Just as the spider demon was about to go over to devour him, she was suddenly hit by a rock to the head. She looked up to see… another Kintaro?

"Over here, Jorogumo!" The supposed other Kintaro shouted. "Come get me!"

"What's this?! There are two?!" Jorogumo roared, looking at the Kintaro in her web before looking back to the one above her. She roared again before chasing after the other Kintaro, leaving her prey unattended.

"What just happened?" Gennosuke questioned as the group looked confused and bewildered.

However, their confusion was soon clarified when suddenly several tanuki popped up and surrounded the group with stone knives.

"And it just got worse." Donnie whimpered in fear.

Leo, however, remained calm and looked at the yokai curiously.

What was it Usagi said about them? That they're magical tricksters who can either do great harm…

The tanuki giggled and raised it's knife before stabbing into Raph's cocoon. The red turtle screamed, thinking the yokai had stabbed him, but was surprised that he felt no pain. He opened his eyes and was shocked to see the tanuki had stabbed and ripped open the side of the cocoon, allowing his to free his arm.

or help us.

"Tha tanuki are… helping us?" Kintaro questioned in confusion as the tanuki freed Gen from his cocoon before moving to cut the others free as well. It seemed the offering of food earlier had worked in their favor.

However, as they cut the others free, the tanuki quickly noticed the web was on the verge of snapping as it began to fall apart.

The web soon completely collapsed under all the strain, and without warning, the Turtles, Usagi, Kintaro, and Gennosuke soon found themselves falling into the bottomless pit below.

As it seemed like they were going to fall to their deaths, the tanuki each grabbed on to each member of the group before using a sheet in their garments as parachutes, allowing them to glide the group down to safety.

The tanuki dropped the group, causing them to crash onto a small cliff in a pile of tangled limbs.

"Oh, snap!" Mikey exclaimed as they untangled themselves. "That was too close!" Deciding to be humorous, one of the tanuki then dropped Kintaro on the party turtle.

Across from them, Usagi could see the tanuki sitting on another cliff, watching them and giggling.

"Thank you for saving our lives, tanuki." He then bowed to them. "May the gods honor you."

Deciding to at least show gratitude, the Turtles, Kintaro, and Gennosuke all bowed as well.

Nodding back, the tanuki then all vanished in a poof of leaves.

"C'mon," Leo stated, "let's get out of here before spider lady realizes her dinner is missing."