"Cold… why is it so cold?"

"It feels like I'm… underwater…"

"Did I die? Again…"

"It feels similar to how it did before… except colder…"

"How did I get here?"

"…"

"I was punched… that's right… and then…"

"I FELL INTO THE RIVER!"

Susamaru's eyes shot open as she realized where she was. She quickly sat up to get her head out of the river and began coughing up all the water that had filled her lungs. She may not have needed to breathe but she still could and thus could still feel the sensation of drowning. Once she had finally emptied her respiratory system, she also began to wrap her arms around her torso to warm herself up.

"Damn! This river is really cold! I gotta get back to shore."

Once she had waded through the river to reach the bank, Susamaru stopped to take in her surroundings. She didn't recognize this part of the forest and deduced that she must have floated downstream. After realizing this, she focused her senses towards trying to find Tanjiro, Inosuke or even Nezuko but they appeared to be out of range of her hearing and that foul stench was still screwing with her nose as it had Tanjiro's. She allowed a few minutes to pass before she gave up on that endeavor. She resolved to simply run back up the river and hope that she could find some signs of her friends for her to follow. As she began her sprint, she couldn't help but feel as though she was being watched. She couldn't actually detect anything but the hairs on the back of her neck stood up nonetheless. It was an eerie feeling and it caused her to remain vigilant as she roamed around. Luckily for her, "roaming around" meant that she was able to cover great distances quickly thanks to her demonic physiology.

After about twenty minutes of searching, her search was interrupted as she heard a boyish shriek in the distance to her left. She knew the voice didn't match Tanjiro or Inosuke's; however, it was human and Tanjiro would never forgive her if she just ignored it to continue looking for him. With her decision made, Susamaru allowed herself to skid to a stop and from there she was able to propel herself towards the noise. She quickly sensed the presence of another demon as she approached. In fact, she sensed it was the same female demon from before who hid behind her "father." Susamaru was certain they weren't actually related but she had to admit she was curious about the strange relationship these spider demons seemed to possess. Still, she couldn't let her mind dwell on such things as she finally got close enough to see the spider girl next to a ball of what appeared to be…

"Yarn? Weird… why is it that the more I hang out with humans, the stranger the powers of my own kind that I see? Oh well, it doesn't matter."

The spider woman was too busy explaining her own powers to whoever she had trapped to notice Susamaru's advance. The temari demon could hear that she was detailing exactly what her webs were going to do to the poor human and Susamaru had to choke back some vomit.

"Gross! She's going to digest him before actually eating him? That's disgusting! I mean… I used to eat people but dang I didn't turn them into throw up before doing so!" Susamaru thought. Although she supposed it was kind of odd for her to place herself above any other demon just for the manner in which they ate. After all… the result was the same either way. Another innocent life would be lost… Not this time! Susamaru had gotten close enough to the spider woman to spring into an attack.

The spider demon was still in the process of terrorizing the human she had trapped. She thought if she made him feel terrified her own fears over her earlier failure in front of Rui would diminish. She would be right in a sense; however, not for the reasoning she thought. Instead of relishing someone else's fears to forget her own… a sudden jolt of pain from her face and neck did so. Susamaru had decided to jump into the air and drop kick the other demon right in the face! Said demon felt her neck snap as her head was twisted one-hundred and eighty degrees and her body was sent flying into a nearby tree. Susamaru was pleased with how that had gone and with the spider lady stunned, she turned her attention to the ball of webs before her. She had to get the human inside out of it so she extended her nails into claws and shoved her hands into it. She tried to pull it apart but was unsuccessful.

"Fufufu, how silly. My ball of yarn is far more durable than it looks. Your little claws won't be able to do a thing to it! That's what you get for trying to steal my meal!" the spider demon screeched as she stood up and snapped her neck back into position. "You may have gotten the drop on me but I'll make sure you pay for snapping my ne-" Before the spider woman could finish ranting, a temari hit her square in the face; crushing her nose and causing it to bleed heavily.

"Shut up! I'm not going to eat him! I'm trying to save him bitch!" Susamaru declared before sprouting her extra sets of arms so she could try to tear the cocoon apart once more. Her veins popped out all over her body as she brute forced a tear into the cocoon and soon enough she opened it enough to see the human inside. "Hey! It's you! Uh… what was your name again?" Susamaru said as she remembered the demon slayer inside but… didn't bother trying to remember his name as he wasn't one of her friends.

"It's Murata! What are you doing here?" the boy said as she was both surprised and relieved someone was rescuing him.

"Saving your bed-wetting ass! How did you get trapped by such a weakling?!" Susamaru said as she extended an arm towards him to pull him out of the cocoon.

"For the last time! I have never pissed myself! What is wrong with you people?"

"… Murata… you can't hide it… I didn't say anything before but I can literally smell that you have…" Susamaru said with a deadpanned expression.

"You can?!"

"I'm a demon remember? I'm sure Tanjiro could too… he's just too nice to mention it."

"Oh great…" Murata said despondently. "Could you guys not tell anyone else in the corps? It's really embarrassing…"

Susamaru had a devilish grin on her face as she responded, "I make no promises!"

"Oh come on!"

Murata's reaction only made Susamaru start laughing hysterically. His faced was completely red from embarrassment by now and he knew his reputation would never recover from this; however, both his humiliation and Susamaru's mirth were interrupted by the spider demon once again.

"Why the Hell would you side with a human?! You should be helping us! Not saving them!" She said as she fell into a rage. As flawed as her "family" was, it was still a way for demons to come together and find collective safety from the demon slayers. She and many others had given up everything for the security they had with Rui and to see a demon laughing and joking with a demon slayer as if they were friends enraged her like nothing she had ever felt before. She knew something was off about Susamaru when she saw her hanging out with the other two boys she had lured into her trap with Father; however, she merely thought she was cozying up to them so she could eat them herself. She wouldn't have been upset by that, that's a natural demon strategy but to discover Susamaru wasn't eating them and was in fact their "friend" made her livid.

"Well the answer to that is pretty simple. A human saved me from Kibutsuji. Who is obviously a demon. So it is only natural that I side with him instead of my own kind considering my own kind tried to destroy me," Susamaru explained.

The spider demon was shocked for a couple reasons. Firstly, why would a human save a demon? That didn't make any sense! She had been hunted her entire demon existence! Why did one decide to save this bitch then? Secondly, she had said his name! Was she also completely stupid?! The complete idiocy displayed before her caused her to chuckle.

"Hehehehe," the spider lady laughed as she held a hand to her face.

"What's so funny? Did you finally see the humor in Murata pissing his pants?" Susamaru asked with confusion written all over her face.

"Hey, are you ever going to let that go?!"

"Nope," was Susamaru's only response to the human who had a couple tears tug at the corners of his eyes from embarrassment once more.

"I'm laughing at you! You complete fool!" the spider woman finally said. "You said his name aloud! All demons know not to do that! You've sealed your fate!"

"Oh?" Susamaru said before taking a deep breathe. "KIBUTSUJI! KIBUTSUJI! KIBUTSUJI! KIBUTSUJI! KIBUTSUJI!" she yelled surprising both Murata and the other demon.

"W-what?" the spider demon said as she was very confused by Susamaru's demonstration.

"See? Nothing happened," Susamaru said. "I'm free from his curse thanks to Tanjiro… I would definitely not recommend saying his name yourself though… very bad idea," Susamaru said seriously.

This only served to further upset the spider demon. Not only could this other demon hang around humans with no consequences but she could even say her master's name aloud! She wasn't brave enough to even think his name for fear of the repercussions and yet this girl just gets to shout it from the rooftops without a care in the world. She planned to make this demon suffer greatly for that.

"I hate you!" the spider woman yelled before spraying a massive amount of web out of her hands. She was trying to envelope both Susamaru and Murata into cocoons. She was going to enjoy eating the both of them. Before tonight she had never thought of consuming another demon but she was relishing the thought now!

Luckily for Murata, Susamaru was much faster than the other demon's webs and she shoved him out of the way before leaping up to dodge the attack. Susamaru used the other demon's frustration with her to keep her attention away from Murata so he could escape. She dodged volley after volley of web and used the trees around them as launching pads so she could keep jumping in erratic directions to stay a step ahead of her opponent. Eventually the spider demon grew tired and her attacks slowed to the point where Susamaru could get in close and deliver a punch to the top of the woman's head. This nearly knocked the other demon unconscious and caused her to drop to her knees.

"Damn it… it's not fair…" the spider woman said as she began to weep softly.

"Huh?" Susamaru asked as she stood over the other demon.

"I said it's not fair! Why do you get to be safe from him and the slayers and everything else?! Why do you get to hang around with everyone while the rest of us have to hide?! It's not fair!" the woman said as she began to sob.

Susamaru felt her heart twist at the other demon's words. Even Murata, who was keeping a distance from the fight, felt sorry for the demon before them. He now understood why Tanjiro probably saved Susamaru in the first place. If demons could feel this way… maybe they weren't as different from humans as he and many other first thought. Susamaru knelt down to be closer to the other demon so she could respond to her.

"I don't fully understand why I was saved either… I count myself as extremely lucky. I know how it feels to be hunted and scared like you feel constantly. I lived that way too for a very long time… but maybe… just maybe… you don't have to anymore," Susamaru said.

"What?" the spider demon asked as she wiped a few tears away.

"There is someone… who can make it so that you don't have to each humans anymore. I don't know where she is right now but she's the one who helped me and I bet she'd be willing to help you too. Why don't we go find her together?" Susamaru said as she extended a hand towards the spider demon.

The spider woman looked at Susamaru's outstretched hand and was debating about taking her up on her offer. She could tell the other woman was sincere and she did really want to take her hand; however, she then remembered Rui and Kibutsuji… they were far more frightening than any of the humans that had hunted her and she didn't want to incur their wrath. Even thinking about joining Susamaru and the humans could probably land her in trouble. She had a nearly perfect track record with Rui! She couldn't afford to ruin it and gain even more enemies! She determined what she needed to do…

Susamaru was patiently waiting for the girl's response. She knew it was a big decision for anyone and so she was going to give her as much time as she needed. She hoped the other girl wouldn't decline and even Murata was hoping the demon would accept her offer. Susamaru's eyes lit up as the demon in front of her hesitatingly began reaching out towards Susamaru's hand.

"It's okay, you don't need to be scared anymore!" Susamaru said as she closed her eyes and allowed a friendly smile to overtake her features. Finally, she felt like she would be saving someone like herself from their own darkness. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be. Just as the other demon was about to clasp her hand around Susamaru's own she flicked her wrist at the last second and shot a gob of yarn directly into Susamaru's face. The yarn wrapped around the temari demon's head and acid began to pour out of it, melting the skin on her face. She fell over and began clawing at the webs and rolling from the pain.

"Pffft, did you actually think anyone would accept such a foolish proposition? Siding with humans? You have to be really stupid to do that! Now where was I… Oh yes! I was going to eat that poor weak boy you so desperately tried to protect!" the spider demon said as she began laughing. On the inside she was actually more sad that she felt the need to do this but after weighing the options she felt like siding with Rui and Kibutsuji was her best bet and she wasn't going to risk her survival on the chance for freedom. She then turned to face Murata so she could deal with him but instead of the fear and despair she thought she'd see on his face, instead all she saw was fury.

"How dare you… how dare you do that to her! She reached out to you in friendship and you stabbed her in the back! It's unforgivable!" Murata said as he took a water form stance. He allowed his inner rage to boil away any fears he felt. He hadn't felt this way in a long time and he was going to use this feeling to destroy the demon before him. He leapt towards the spider demon with greater speed than he would have normally thought he had. Now it was the spider demon's turn to feel fear as he wound up for a strike. "First Form! Water Surface Slash!" Murata shouted as he struck the spider demon in the neck with his blade.

"Oh no! He's going to cut my head off!" The spider woman thought as she felt the cold nichirin steel make contact with the base of her neck; however… the blade did not pierce her skin. Instead it bounced off as if Murata had struck another piece of steel. Both he and the spider demon were surprised and Murata used that to get some distance between them so he could plan out a different strategy.

"Fufufu… you're even weaker than I thought! You can't even cut off my head! You're a hopeless waste of human space! I hope you at least taste good when I-" her sentence was cut off by a howling shriek that pierced her and Murata's ears. She turned to where the sound was coming from and saw Susamaru standing up and using her six arms to rip the webbing off of her face. Murata recoiled at the sight of Susamaru's mangled face. Her skin had all be dissolved along with most of the muscles. He could only make out one of her eyes and parts of her skull; however, as soon as it was exposed to the air, Susamaru's face regenerated rapidly back to its original form much to Murata's relief. The only difference was that Susamaru's eyes were completely bloodshot now. Murata thought that he had been angry with the spider demon; however, his anger was nothing compared to Susamaru's. She hadn't been this enraged since she had nearly been killed by Kibutsuji and she wasn't going to let this spider demon walk out of this forest alive.

"I was going easy on you… I only broke your nose or your neck. I wasn't really trying… I was hoping to save you… but you won't let me do that will you? Now I'm going to make sure you feel a world of pain before you die…" Susamaru said as she readied six temari.

"Oh yeah! Do your worst!" The spider demon declared trying to sound braver than she felt. After she finished her sentence though, Susamaru threw her temari with much greater force than before. This time they ripped the woman's arms and legs off as if they had been struck by cannon balls. "Gah!" she said as the rest of her body fell to the floor. Her limbs regenerated rather quickly although not as quickly as Susamaru's could and as they finished Susamaru threw another temari to vaporize the spider woman's head. As she regenerated once more, the spider woman realized she was up against a much more powerful demon than she realized and she began to retreat. She hoped that maybe Rui would save her as he had in the past. As she ran, Susamaru and Murata gave chase.

"Murata!" Susamaru yelled out to him.

"Yes?"

"For all my talk, I can't actually kill her. She'll just keep regenerating. I need you to cut her head off after I throw another volley at her."

"I'm sorry but I don't think I can. I tried while you were trapped in her webs… I couldn't do it! My blade just bounced off… I am very ashamed at myself…"

"Don't worry about that! Just try again! I promise you'll cut through this time!" Susamaru said. She didn't need him doubting himself right now and she had a plan. She heard his blade bounce off of her before and she already knew how to help.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes! I know you can!"

Murata was shocked. He never expected a demon of all things to be encouraging him and with all they had been through in the last half hour, he really didn't want to disappoint. So he steeled his nerves and cast his doubts away. "Alright! Let's try it!"

"Great! Go now!" Susamaru said as she threw four temari at the spider demon's limbs. Said demon tried to throw up a shield of her webs; however, the temari passed right through and hit their mark. Her limbs were blown off once more and she cursed from the pain. As she was falling from losing her legs, Murata used his water breathing to quickly close the distance between them and struck at the spider demon's neck once more. Like before, he felt his blade connect but the other demon's neck was too tough and his blade didn't even scratch it. He kept trying to force it to cut; however, he was unsuccessful. He was about to fall into despair at failing once again when two temari flew past his head and struck the back of his blade. They gave it just the amount of force it required to actually start cutting. The sword slid halfway through the spider demon's neck and Murata used the rest of his strength to finish the cut. When all was said and done, the spider demon's head came flying off as Murata fell to the ground from the effort. Shortly after that, the spider woman began fading away as all like her did after being decapitated by a demon slayer. As she was fading, small tears began streaming down her face. Susamaru walked up to her to say a few words.

"It didn't have to end this way… You could have lived…"

"I.. I was too afraid… I wanted to join you… I really did… but… I was too scared…"

Susamaru shed a tear as she watched the other woman fade away. She realized the other demon didn't betray her for the same reasons Kibutsuji did and felt bad for comparing the two of them. This demon was just a scared little girl doing her best to survive while Kibutsuji was a cold heartless monster. This time she actually knelt down in prayer. She prayed that when the spider demon was reincarnated that she would have a life free of fear. She didn't think god would listen to the prayers of a demon; however, she still wanted to try for this poor girl. After she finished she walked over to Murata.

"Hey are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm okay. What about you?"

"I'll manage. No injuries?"

"Yeah, thanks to you only some of my clothes got burned away. I'll be fine."

"Glad to hear it. You should start heading down the mountain. You've done enough I think."

"Yeah, I think I'll start heading that way. What about you?"

"I still have to find Tanjiro and Inosuke. I got separated from them by a demon way stronger than her. I need to make sure they are okay."

"I understand, good luck!" Murata said. He wanted to help too but after his pitiful display against the last demon he decided he would need much more training before he would be able to properly help anyone against demons of this caliber.

"Thanks! See you later!" Susamaru said as she began to run off. "Oh and don't worry! I won't tell anyone you pissed your pants!"

Murata didn't know whether or not to be relieved with her last statement or annoyed that she felt the need to bring that up one more time and he decided to just not comment.

Susamaru continued her search for her friends now that her little detour had been completed. Fortunately, the foul stench from earlier had disappeared as she was fighting the spider woman so now she could smell Tanjiro. He wasn't too far away; however, she could also smell his blood and that worried her.

"He better be okay... that other demon was really tough though… he pulverized me in an instant… I don't even know if I'll be able to help at all…" as Susamaru was lost in thought she didn't notice the presence that had been following her until it was right next to her.

"Hello there!" a young woman said as she ran alongside Susamaru.

"Gah!" Susamaru gasped as she was not expecting someone to appear before her. Her shock caused her to lose her footing and she tripped face first into a tree she would have avoided otherwise.

"Oh dear! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you fall. I just wanted to thank you for saving that slayer. I watch the whole thing and was very intrigued!" The woman said. Susamaru picked herself off and began rubbing her face where she had smashed it. "Oh you aren't hurt are you!"

"The only thing hurt is my pride right now. Anyway, who are you?" Susamaru asked the strange woman. Now that she was looking at her the woman was starting to creep her out. Even now she couldn't really "feel" the woman's presence. It was almost like she wasn't actually there. Additionally the woman was wearing a kind smile… that did not extend to her eyes at all.

"Oh silly me! My name is Shinobu Kocho! I have been watching you for a while now. Since you popped out of the river to be exact. I had just finished helping some other wounded slayers when I sense another demon nearby and went to find it. That demon happened to be you and I decide to follow you to see what you were up to since you don't really match the other demons around. Behold my shock when you saved that young slayer! I just couldn't believe it! After that I felt like I had to introduce myself and thank you personally," the strange woman finished.

"Uh… you're welcome?" Susamaru said. She was still very confused by this odd woman but at least she appeared to be on her good side so counted that as a small win. "Anyway, I have to get going. My friend is in danger and I have to help him!"

"Oh I certainly understand! I wouldn't want to get in your way; however… I must ask you a question before you go," Shinobu said.

'Um… sure I guess," Susamaru replied.

"You said in your fight with the other demon that you wouldn't eat a human, so have you ever eaten humans? And if so… how many?" Shinobu asked.

Her tone was supposed to be playful but Susamaru could tell the woman was actually dead serious and it gave her pause. She actually couldn't remember the exact number and so she put a hand to her face so she could think. She hadn't been thinking about all the people she had eaten… she really didn't want to face that reality; however, she had a feeling the slayer before her would not take kindly to a lie so she braced her mind and began counting the exact number in her head. After a few minutes of recollection Susamaru's eyes widened in pure, unadulterated horror at herself… she couldn't believe the final tally… how many innocent lives she had taken. It seemed unreal and she could barely force herself to speak…

"One… One… One-hundred twenty seven!" Susamaru said with her voice cracking at the end. Some tears welled in her eyes as well from the truth.

Shinobu's smile faltered for a moment. "Over one-hundred? Even I wouldn't have guessed it had been that many. That's an unforgivable amount… it really is a shame. I thought I had finally found a demon I could befriend and make my sister's wish come true… however… she has taken far too many lives for me to consider her a candidate for such a thing. A true shame." Shinobu thought as her hand rested on the hilt of her sword. "I really do appreciate your honesty and that you are trying to be better by saving people. I wanted to make that clear; however, no amount of retribution in this life can make up for what you've done. I'm afraid I'll have to slay you and let go decide your fate," Shinobu said as she drew her sword. Susamaru didn't register any of what the other woman had said as she was still reeling from her own horror at herself. Shinobu took no pleasure in slicing into terrified demon's throat with her blade.

Susamaru gasped as pain flared in her throat as she felt the blade cut into her. Her hand flew up to clasp the wound and she thought the worst. She thought her head had been cut off; however, she quickly realized it hadn't. "What? Why did she just slice my neck?" Susamaru looked at the other woman in confusion; however, she quickly understood her situation as an even greater pain began spreading throughout her body and she began coughing up blood. She had been poisoned!

"P-poison?!"

"Ah you figured it out! It really is a shame to have to do this to you then. Most don't figure it out until they are already dead… which you will be shortly," Shinobu said with her smile still on her face.

The temari demon was naturally upset with this development as she crumpled to the floor and her body began convulsing. Her eyes and nose began to bleed and she came to terms with her fate. Maybe this was truly the only way for her to redeem herself. Maybe she was kidding herself when she thought she could actually save people to make up for killing so many. Maybe… this was what she deserved. Susamaru's eyes began to close as she resigned herself to a death by the slayer before her. "I'm sorry Tanjiro… Nezuko… Inosuke… Zenitsu… Murata… I guess this is goodbye," she thought as her world began to fade.

"NEZUKO!"

Susamaru's eyes shot open once more as she heard someone scream Nezuko's name. She was sure it was Tanjiro! They really were in trouble. She looked up and saw that Shinobu had not reacted to the scream. She clearly hadn't heard it which means she might not be able to find them! Susamaru couldn't let her best friends get killed by some other demon so she steeled herself and began to stand up much to Shinobu's shock.

"What?! No demon has ever resisted my poison for this long! That shouldn't be possible!" And yet, Susamaru used her arms to start raising herself off the ground. She was determined to go save Tanjiro and nothing, no poison, no demon and certainly no slayer was going to get in her way. She willed herself to stand and took a few deep breathes before using her demonic strength to launch herself towards Tanjiro's location. Shinobu gave chase and went to stab Susamaru and she did; however, it was not where she planned! Susamaru had blocked Shinobu's jab with three of her arms so that the sword was stuck fast in her limbs.

"I understand why you want to kill me! I can't blame you at all! But, I can't let you until after I help my friends so get out of my way until then!" Susamaru said as she delivered a kick to Shinobu's stomach. The female slayer was sent flying backwards. Luckily for her, she was quite agile and easily landed on a nearby branch of a tree. Susamaru used the opportunity to dig the sword out of her arm and stash it on her sash behind her back. She then sped off to save Tanjiro and Nezuko from whatever the Hell they were fighting.

Shinobu was going to give chase but decided to lightly follow instead. She was curious to see just what was allowing this demon to power through being heavily poisoned. This demon had continued to surprise her and she was invested in what happened next. "Maybe… this demon is worth befriending after all," Shinobu thought as she hopped along after the strange temari demon.