The Head Of The Spider Family
Hello everyone and welcome to the latest chapter of Heart Of The Asura! Now this one wound up a little short this week but once you get to the ending I think you'll understand why I cut it off where I did. Speaking of understanding, you'll have a lot better grasp of what's going on if you visit my Pat reon and see about becoming a patron! And I haven't mentioned this in a while, check out my book on Amazon and Amazon Kindle, Barons Of The Stars! Now then I've rambled long enough, so with no guest review questions to answer this week, on to the story!
Nighttime: Mt. Natagumo
"Breath of Water Second Form! Breath of Water First Form!" Tanjiro slammed his blade into the Father Spider's massive arm, stopping his punch while Kojugai came in low and cut into the back of the demon's leg. But despite the ferocity of their attacks, the blades didn't sink in far and the large monster reared his other fist back in order to punch Tanjiro. Thankfully, Susamaru moved in and seized the spider demon's arm, just barely stopping him from attacking.
"Hit him now!" The Temari Demon yelled, not that Inosuke needed any encouragement as he leapt up and swung his blades towards the Father's neck. The swords hit their mark and blood was drawn, but not near as much as they'd hoped.
"Uh oh," Inosuke commented nervously as he noticed his weapons had only sunk partway into the demon's neck.
"RAAAAAAAGH!" The beast roared and flung his arms outward, the force sending them all flying away in different directions. "I told you, stay away from my family, STAY AWAY!" He again turned towards Tanjiro and brought his fist down. If the boy swordsman had been any slower he would've been crushed like the rock he was just on as the slayer jumped out of the way and landed on the bank.
"Hey, your nine eyes are supposed to be over here!" Inosuke declared while sailing through the air for another attack, but it proved ineffective as he was batted away into the stream. Susamaru attacked next, throwing her Temari at the muscular monster who staggered slightly from the first couple of impacts but held his arms up and stood his ground against the rest of the barrage. Kojugai moved in from behind and again tried to slash the backs of the demon's knees.
The Father Spider roared in pain as he cut into one before turning and knocking the Breath of Water user back with a swing of his fist. The beast roared again before charging after Susamaru and Inosuke. "Damn it's like trying to bring down an extra thick tree," the Temari Demon yelled as she and the boar fighter fled further down the stream, the splashing of giant feet sounding behind them. Fortunately, Tanjiro was able to use this distraction as a chance to come up with a plan as he crossed to the other side of the water way and ran along it.
"Breath of Water Second Form," he stopped and swung his sword at a tree, "Improved Lateral Water Wheel!" The technique sliced cleanly through the tree at a slight angle, causing it to fall down towards the stream. Susamaru, realizing what he had in mind, summoned and threw another Temari as hard as she could at the demon's face. He recoiled as it impacted against one of his larger eyes, slowing him down just enough for the large tree to land on top of him.
"Excellent work slayer," Kojugai complimented as he ran up and hopped on top of the tree, "let's cut his head while he's pinned!"
"Right," Tanjiro readied his own Breath of Water Technique, but before either of them could strike, the Father Spider made his move. With a defiant roar, the demon erupted from the water, lifting the tree over his head with his massive strength.
"Whoa," the senior slayer leapt off to keep from losing his balance as the beast started swinging the entire tree around. The group managed to duck the first swing but as Susamaru tried to move in and tackle the demon's legs she was hit by the top of the tree, unable to avoid the mass of branches.
"Oh shit look out!" The Temari Demon warned as the force of the swing picked her up. Unfortunately, Tanjiro didn't move in time and was also swept up in the attack. At the apex of the swing, both slayer and demon were sent flying high into the air.
"Inosuke! Kojugai!" The boy swordsman called as they sailed away, "that's one of the twelve Kizuki! You have to hold on until we get back! Don't Die!"
"I fucking hate this night!" Susamaru yelled as the duo fell towards another section of the forest several hundred yards away. Unfortunately for the both of them, their return would be a little delayed.
With Honoka and Zenitsu
"What do I do," Honoka thought as she sat down cross-legged with her head held low, "I tried sucking out the poison but it was already in his blood stream. None of the medical ointments I have are working and there's not a doctor around here for miles." She glanced at the broken pocket watch on the ground before pulling her knees to her chest and burying her head in her arms. "I'm so grateful to you for saving my life, but is sitting down and watching you die the only thing I can do now?"
The one saving grace in this situation seemed to be that somehow, Zenitsu was slowing down the venom with some technique, probably related to that move he pulled earlier. Honoka had assumed she'd wind up protecting him from the spiders since they didn't disappear when the Eldest Son Spider died, but they'd held back, turning docile now that their master was gone. She reached down and touched Zenitsu's hand which was now the size of a baby's. "I don't know what else I can do," the police officer admitted, "the only thing I can think of right now is begging you not to give up, so please, don't give up."
Honoka wasn't sure if he heard her, but his eyes, which had been drooping for several moments, opened back up. 'Don't give up,' she silently encouraged him, 'don't stop fighting.' "Oh my," a feminine voice made the lady officer look up. Her eyes widened as she took in the sight of… a butterfly? No, a person wearing a black and white haori resembling a butterfly's wings! "It seems I've arrived just in time, is your friend alright?"
"Who," Honoka responded dumbly as the woman, who she now saw was quite short, landed gracefully with her large sleeves settling near soundlessly, "who are you?"
"I am Shinobu Kocho," she bowed in greeting, a butterfly clip visible in her dark hair as her purple bangs shook ever so slightly, "a hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps. Now, would you kindly tell me what has befallen my comrade?" The police officer could only laugh in relief before explaining. It seemed hope had arrived after all, on white-scaled wings.
Back With Tanjiro and Susamaru
The slayer and the demon girl were quickly falling towards the ground, already having lost sight of the stream due to the distance they'd flown. "I can already tell this is gonna hurt," Susamaru pulled her knees to her chest in midair and tensed her muscles while Tanjiro repositioned and readied to swing his sword. "Breath of Water Second Form: Water Wheel!" He used the familiar front flipping move to cut through several branches he would've otherwise crashed into before hitting the ground blade first and somersaulting forward.
His momentum was stopped by a tree which he just managed to keep from completely crashing into by throwing up his left arm. The Temari Demon was far less graceful as she hit the ground like a cannonball and rolled a few feet before also hitting a tree, albeit back first. "Yep, that hurt," she grunted while standing up, her arms retracting while she popped a couple joints back into place and made a sickening crack when she reset her spine, "but I've definitely had worse."
"It's amazing we managed to stick that landing," Tanjiro sighed in relief as he got back to his feet, "but now we need to-AAAAAAAARGH!" The duo's heads whipped around to where the noise was coming from.
"Please stop, I'm begging you!" A girl sobbed. Susamaru and Tanjiro exchanged a look before moving towards the sound as quietly as possible. The sight they came upon was the same girl demon who'd signaled for the Father Spider and the boy they'd met right before dealing with the Mother Spider Demon. Currently, the girl was on her knees, her face bleeding from healing wounds as tears filled her eyes.
"What are you looking at," the boy demon turned his gaze on them, spotting the two despite their efforts to stay hidden, "this isn't a play, you know."
"But I thought," the boy swordsman couldn't quite figure out how to feel about the situation, "I thought you were friends?"
"Friends," the spider boy repeated, "don't put our relationship in a category as flimsy as 'friends'. We are family, connected by a strong bond-."
"DON'T BULLSHIT ME!" Susamaru yelled while gritting her teeth, clenching her fist so hard it drew blood, "you think you've got a bond?! It's clear on her face and it was clear when your so-called 'mother' yearned for death. You're not a family, everyone's here because they're afraid!"
"What are you blathering about," the spider boy narrowed his eyes, "do you want me to carve you up?"
"But she's right, isn't she," Tanjiro spoke up, "bonds are formed by trust between two people. Being blood-related doesn't make a difference if there's no trust, so you're mistaken by calling it flimsy. Moreover, I'm not picking up anything that resembles trust between you two. All I can smell is fear, hatred, and revulsion!"
"You," he produced a web from his fingers that joined between his hands, "what-?" He was interrupted by the sound of someone else entering the scene.
"What do we have here," another slayer, this one an older boy with short bowl cut hair and an arrogant smirk, "looks like it's my lucky day, a few small demons."
"Wait, you don't have to worry about," Tanjiro started to say before being interrupted.
"You just stay away from my prey," the slayer drew his sword, "most of my unit may have been wiped out, but I can still claim a reward by taking out this bunch. After all, more status means more money in my-." He'd stepped forward to attack, but just before Tanjiro and Susamaru could warn him, the spider boy casually whipped his hand back, sending a web into the slayer. But as one might expect, it wasn't an ordinary web.
It was beyond razor sharp and cut right through the arrogant boy in an instant, leaving nothing but a diced-up mess on the ground. "Annoying fly," the demon boy remarked before turning back to them, "now, what was it you just said to me?" The atmosphere changed with his question, as if the air had grown heavy. 'His aura,' Susamaru realized, 'this isn't the aura of a regular demon.'
"Your bond," Tanjiro answered despite some sweat beading on his forehead, "it's just a forgery, nothing like the bond of an actual family."
"You'll have to…..explain that to me!" He suddenly moved his hands, whipping out spider webs that Tanjiro and Susamaru barely dodged. The Temari Demon threw some of her projectiles, only to have them stopped by more threads. "So you are a demon as well? Your scent was so strange I wasn't sure."
"You smell weird too," Susamaru remarked before rushing in while using a bobbing and weaving pattern, "what kind of demon are you?"
"Do you not recognize a Kizuki," he suddenly slashed with a large number of webs in front of the Temari Demon. She held up her arms and produced her weapons, hardening her limbs as much as possible before the threads sank into her. The result was her being sent backwards with all of her arms chopped off. "I am Lower Moon Five, Rui the Spider Demon."
"What," Tanjiro barely hid the nervousness in his voice after deflecting some of the thread and moving over to Susamaru.
"Don't believe me," he pulled his hair back to reveal a kanji engraved into his left red eye, the kanji for the number five. 'It's just like Tamayo said,' the slayer's grip on his weapon tightened as he and Susamaru got to their feet, 'the Kizuki really are much stronger.' "But there is good news, I won't kill you immediately."
"How is that good news," the Temari Demon narrowed her eyes while her arms quickly regrew.
"What I mean is, I'm going to carve up that slayer slowly," Rui explained while forming more thread between his fingers, "however, if he and you, Temari girl, take back what you just said to me, I'll make the boy's death quick and allow you to leave the mountain. I won't even report your treachery to that man."
"Why don't you say it," Susamaru smiled wickedly, albeit nervously, in spite of the situation, "say the name: Muzan Kibutsuji." It was a small victory, miniscule really, but she still got a kick out of seeing Rui's eyes widen along with the sister spider who'd taken cover behind a nearby tree.
"How can you," he narrowed his eyes.
"Hurt Tanjiro and you'll never find out," the demon girl shot back.
"You assume I'd turn traitor against him," Rui scoffed, "he's given me everything I could ever want!" He swung his hands and sent more threads at them. The duo bobbed and weaved around the ones they could but eventually they were forced to block some and were knocked back onto the ground. "But it's clear you care for this human, so I'll need to think of a suitable way to torment him until you beg for forgiveness."
"That's not gonna," Susamaru was stopped as the boy slayer put a hand on her shoulder.
"Susamaru," he glanced at her, "I have an idea but it's a longshot."
"What is it," she whispered back. Tanjiro quickly laid out his plan to her and she immediately didn't like it. "Are you crazy, that'll leave you-."
"I'll be alright," he assured her with a resolute look, "he wants to kill me slowly and it'll still be two on one, remember?" Susamaru glanced at the red box that was somehow still on his back before sighing.
"You better hope it stays that way," the duo took their stances again.
"Hey, Rui," Tanjiro pointed his sword at the spider demon, "you said you wanted me to take back what I said? Well it's never gonna happen, not on your life! Your bond is a forgery and the way you treat the ones you label as family is despicable. Even if it's my dying breath, I'll never call what you consider a bond the real thing!"
"Then your death will be slow," the Lower Moon declared as Tanjiro and Susamaru both rushed forward. The Temari Demon attacked first by throwing her weapons which Rui blocked with his threads. The boy swordsman moved in from the side and swung his blade but was again met with the same result as his weapon was stopped by threads. Yet despite the obvious failure he still smiled, causing Rui to raise an eyebrow until he figured out why.
Susamaru went racing by, moving as fast as she could towards another target. "Hey what the fuck are you doing," the spider sister yelped as Susamaru scooped her up and carried her over her shoulder.
"Listening to an idiot," the demon girl remarked while sprinting further and further into the woods.
"You little-," Rui grit his teeth before blocking Tanjiro's Striking Tide Technique.
"Now this fight is just between us fellow brothers," he declared with his sword held high.
"You're mistaken," the Lower Moon readied more threads, "this is only the beginning of your torment."
With Inosuke and Kojugai
'Damn it, this is infuriating,' Kojugai peeked his head out ever so slightly from behind the tree he was currently using as cover, 'how are we supposed to stop this thing?' They'd fled the stream a couple minutes after Tanjiro and Susamaru had been sent flying. With four people, yes including the demon girl, the senior slayer had been confident they'd find a way to defeat the Father Spider. But now it was just him and an injured guy, definitely not the kind of odds he liked.
The boy named Tanjiro had promised he'd return as soon as he could but that was who knew how long ago and there was no telling how he'd track them down. Speaking of tracking, the large demon was stomping towards them now. Glancing down, Kojugai cursed when he noticed yet another problem: the boar boy was now leaving drops of blood as a trail on accident! "Inosuke," he yelled just as the Father Spider reared back his fist.
The dual wielder moved just in time as the muscular demon punched right through the tree with his fist. Kojugai moved then too, joining up with Inosuke as the duo continued to flee. "We need a plan," he urged his comrade, "We can't keep going on like this."
"But what can we do," the boar boy asked as they continued to run, "until Monjuro and Sillymaru get back, we have to survive and-." He stopped so abruptly that Kojugai nearly tripped over himself when he turned to see what the problem was. "Why in the world am I thinking like that?! We don't have time for this!" He turned and raced back towards the demon, his blades swinging wildly.
"What in the world are you trying to do?!" The Breath of Water user put his hands to his head in both disbelief and frustration.
"I must've gotten infected by Montaro's germs!" Inosuke declared as he leapt up and slashed with his right weapon. Expectedly, the Father Spider raised his arm and blocked the strike, not seeming to register it digging into his flesh. What wasn't expected was Inosuke bashing his left blade against his right blade repeatedly. "Here I was trying to use my head, that's not my style at all!"
"And you think recklessly hitting your own weapon is a style you should be using," Kojugai started to say before the blade suddenly cut through and sliced off the demon's hand, "IT WORKED?!" The Father Spider was just as surprised as he backed up, holding the stump where his hand used to be.
"It's that simple," Inosuke held up both his weapons, "if you can't cut it with one sword, you just pound it with another sword! And since I have two that makes me your worst nightmare!" Amazingly, the demon seemed to agree as he turned and fled. "Are…..are you running away from me?! Get back here dammit!"
'I have no idea what in the world's going on,' Kojugai sighed before running after his comrade, 'but I won't look a gift horse in the mouth. If this insanity is somehow working then we'll capitalize on it!' And so they gave chase, the hunted now becoming the hunters for the next few minutes until they finally caught up to the demon. He'd scurried up a tree, somehow finding a branch large enough to support his bulk.
"Damn it, how high did you climb?" The Boar Fighter pointed his blade at the currently treed demon, "you trying to make me use my head again?"
"The good news is cutting down a tree should be far easier than cutting through that demon's skin," the senior slayer pointed out. But before they could do anything, the demon began growling strangely as his body started shaking. "What in the world?"
"Don't worry about it," Inosuke laughed, "he's probably trembling in fear at the sight of…..the fuck?" The Father Spider's skin began sliding off of his body, revealing an even more horrifying visage with more beady green eyes, more numerous and sharper teeth along with spikes running down both his arms. Topping all of that off was a crown of short black horns on his head.
The beast roared as he dropped down to the ground, whatever fear he might've had gone as he stood before them. "Oh shit," Kojugai's eyes widened, "we're dead."
So the true master behind the family of the spiders has been revealed, and it's none other than the younger brother?! Definitely not the best family dynamic happening here. Still, I hope you all enjoyed this somewhat shorter chapter and while we wait for the next one feel free to leave a comment or review about what you liked/disliked or if you've got any neat ideas for future chapters! Last thing, stop in next time as Susamaru attempts to enact Tanjiro's rather odd plain. 'Til then!