Natagumo Mountain Arc

Looking at the poorly lit, dreary looking mountain, the sounds of a murder cawing emanated from such a place. Having my face continuously slapped by spiderwebs as I walked into the forest, I come across a Demon Slayer who was worriedly looking over a bush. Flinching at my touch, I announce myself.

"I'm here for support. I am Shiro Urokodaki, Rank Pillar"

"Pillar… Thank goodness they sent a pillar. Things can finally change."

"Explain the situation."

"Well, after receiving our command… from the crow… 10 members got here. However, after entering the woods… the other Demon Hunters… They started to… Kill each other...!!"

Straight after saying that, a Demon Slayer with blood running from his mouth showed up. Rushing towards us, the Demon Slayer clumsily swung his blade. Catching the edge of it with my fingers, I proceed to then punch the Demon Slayer in the face. Rocketing backwards, his momentum was slowed to a halt, and he hung limply in the air, until his limbs started to creak, and he moved again.

Looking above the Demon Slayer, the moonlight that barely showed through the trees caught on spiderwebs that connected directly to the Demon Slayer. Dodging his strike again, I cut the wires that controlled him. Seeing him fall limply to the ground, my attention focused on the two Demon Slayers that had come to 'help' their fellow Slayer. Inosuke however stepped in and cut the wires that held their backs.

Feeling the sensation of spiders crawling along my uniform, my limbs were then slightly tugged at. Cutting the webs that covered me, I looked at the crumpled bodies that begun to stand up again. However, my senses shoot towards a Demon who stood on two strings of web and looked down upon me.

"Don't disturb our clan's peaceful life here."

The demon's appearance was that of a young boy with a short stature. His skin is white, with red dots. His hair is light pink and bears a resemblance to spider legs. The sclera of his eyes is red, while his irises are pale blue.

"Because you will all… be killed by mother in the next few moments."

Turning to walk away, I steal a blade from one of the controlled Demon Slayers and rocket it towards the demon. The demon swipes his hand outwards nonchalantly and four webs block and cut through the oncoming blade.

Disappearing past the tree line, I slowly turn my head to a part where a demon sat in the woods.

"Inosuke, you deal with the situation here with the other one, while I go hunt the Demon that controlling everything."

"Huh?! And why do I have to follow what you say?!"

"Because I'm your superior."

Running into the forest, the first trial I come across is a female Demon Slayer who looks at me with tears streaming from her eyes.

"You can't… Don't come near me… Hurry up and get a higher-ranking person to come here!! If you don't, I'm going to end up killing everybody!! Please… I beg you!!"

"Well, it's a good thing that I am a higher-ranking person, I can deal with you."

She then sprints forward with a tad bit more coherency than what was seen with previous Demon Slayers, I duck under her first slash then immediately ram into her abdomen with my shoulder, rocket her up and back, over a branch where she would be unable to move. My eyes then focus on two heavily injured Demon Slayers that came waddling towards me, but a wild Inosuke came into view and dealt with them same way I dealt with the female Slayer.

However, when I felt as the threads were going to twist and break the neck of the Demon Slayer, I activated my Demon Slayer Mark, went down into stance, and then used 'Thunder Breathing First Form Third Extension: God Speed'.

Travelling faster than the speed at which the order to snap the Demon Slayers neck would occur, I appeared in the Spider Demon's (Mother) vision for a mere nanosecond before she found her vision spinning around.

Unaware of what was happening, I heard her say, "I'm finally free."

Rushing through the forest, Inosuke finally caught up with me.

Continuing our walk through the forest, we arrive at a small river. Seeing a demon on the other side of the river, Inosuke goes to move, but is stopped when the female demon calls out, "Father!!"

Landing with a large thud, I find myself staring at a 320cm (10'5") demon with dark brown skin with the same red, dot-like design extending from his shoulders reaching down to his arms. The most nightmare-inducing part however was that his face resembled that of a gigantic spider with several eyes and spider pincers in both of his cheeks.

"Get! Away! From! My! Family!"

Slamming the ground with a single arm, he sends us upwards. Turning myself upside down in the air, I use "Wind Breathing Ninth Form: Idaten Typhoon" unleashing a powerful gust of circular wind down upon Spider Demon (Father).

However, it seems that I had overestimated the strength of the Spider Demon and he was literally carved open by the technique. His limps completely dismembered from his body. Sweat dropping at how simple this behemoth seemed to have gone down, Inosuke began to fume about me not giving him a chance to fight anything.

This same kind of disappointment came from when I also fought against Kyogai.

Following the direction that the previous demon had head before her father had stepped in, I came across a very interesting scene of who I presumed to be the Lower Kizuki standing over his own sibling with a bloodied spider web in his hands.

"What're you looking at? This isn't for show."

"I was here to take you down, but it seems as if I won't have a need to."

Not getting the hidden meaning behind my words, from out of the shadows, Kanao along with Giyu came.

"You guys seem to be a little early."

Pointing to Kanao, Giyu stated, "She forced me to move faster."

Kanao, upon seeing me, wanted to embrace me, but the addition of a Lower Kizuki prevented her from doing so.

"Why're there now more guests to watch the personal exchange between family." Rui fumes. "Why don't you all just go away."

Manipulating all the threads in the area, a web-like construct came crashing towards us. Blocking the thread with my Nichirin blade, I am knocked backwards.

Being the first to rebound, Kanao makes her way towards Rui. Rui notices her presence and creates a web-shaped string that surrounds Kanao, but she uses 'Flower Breathing Second Form: Honorable Shadow Plum' to deflect the web as well as cut through it.

Taking a step towards Rui, he creates a spherical cage of threads around Kanao which then begins to shrink. Giyu however steps in and uses 'Water Breathing Eighth Form: Waterfall Basin' to cut the entire backside of the prison in half, allowing for Kanao to escape unharmed.

Kanao then flashes towards Rui who creates a barrage of webs in which Kanao uses 'Flower Breathing Sixth Form: Whirling Peach' to evade the webs and then deliver a strike to Rui's neck once she spins her body. There is a hint of resistance shown, but Rui's head then flies free of his body.

Instead of the fight being finished however, Rui creates and manipulates more threads from his body that try and make mincemeat of Kanao. Dodging by just a hair's breadth each time, near causing me to have a heart attack, Rui speaks while his head hangs upside down on threads.

"You thought that you defeated me? You sad fools, were you relieved in you delusions. I cut my own head off with my own strings way before you could cut my head off. It's been a while since I've been pissed off, so I'll make sure to kill all of you."

Reattaching his head, Rui's hands become blood red, a huge number of webs start to rotate around in a wheel and is called 'Demon Blood Technique: Wheel of Chopping Threads'.

Stepping past Kanao into the direct line of fire of Rui's technique, the blood red rotating disk was utterly nullified by Giyu's 'Full Focus Breath of Water Eleventh Style: Lull'.

Appearing in Rui's peripheral vision for a second, Giyu quickly beheads Rui for a second time. Not having enough time to remove his head, Rui starts to disintegrate. Not forgetting to take a portion of his blood and send it to Tamayo, from out of the woods, Shinobu appears.

"Oh, what's this, the main demon has already been taken down. And here I was hoping to have a bit more fun while being stuck in this forest."

"This forest is not fun."

All of us were put off by Giyu's statement.

'Why of course not Giyu, I was being sarcastic."

"Oh."

Slapping my head at Giyu's inability to hold conversation, we each then begin to tell one another of the situation that we went through in the forest.

"Well, the Kizuki will make sure to clean everything up, so we should start heading back."

Nodding in agreement with Shinobu, we head back to Headquarters with a lot of injured Demon Slayers in tow.

---

(Rokuro POV)

*Twang*

Finding myself in a completely different place with stairs running each way, I look blankly out into the building.

*Twang*

Hearing a biwa note again, my eyes lock onto the new Upper Kizuki Two. As my eyes survey the surrounding again, I find that the other Lower Kizuki were also here. Staring at each of them suspiciously to know who had been stupid enough to cause problems for all of us, the biwa is played again.

Reorganizing my senses after being teleported rapidly, I find myself the audience to a stage where a woman stood. However, no matter how hard I thought, I couldn't recollect anything about this woman.

"Lower your heads and squat. Prostrate yourselves."

Immediately doing as the woman told me to do, I begin to sweat profusely, ashamed of myself for not having recognized Muzan. Both his presence and figure were different. It's a terrifyingly accurate camouflage.

"W- We are very sorry. Your figure and presence are completely different…"

Cringing when I heard Mukago (Lower Kizuki Four) speak, the punishment from Muzan occurs from his voice.

"Who said you could speak? Don't say anything out of your pathetic volition. You can only reply to whatever questions I ask."

Feeling as Muzan's anger kept up, my sweat poured even more.

"Rui got killed. That was Lower Moon Five. Two Lower Moon Sixes also got killed. I only have one thing I want to ask. 'Why are the Lower Moon Demon so damn weak?' Just because they say that your part of the 12 Demon Moons doesn't mean it's over. It's just the beginning. The beginning of eating more people, becoming stronger, and being of much more use to me. For over a hundred years, the members of the Upper Moons from the 12 Demon Moons have change once. The ones who have laid the demon hunter pillars to rest are always the Upper Moon demons. But how about the Lower Moon Demons? How many times have they been replaced?"

'Just telling us that doesn't mean we can change….' I think to myself.

"'Just telling us that doesn't mean we can change'? Oh? Then tell me."

'He can… read thoughts? I'm screwed…'

"What's wrong? Tell me."

As if to fulfill my previous thoughts, a flesh tube shoots from Muzan and grabs me. Lifting me up into the air, I begin to shout.

"Please Forgive Me! Please, Kibutsuji-sama! Please Have Compassion! I'm Sorry! If You Were To Give Me Your Blood Then I Could Do So Much More, Just Give Me A Chance!"

Having my body be eaten completely by the flesh tube alongside the disgusting crunching noises and swallowing, my head rolls on the platforms, bleeding without an end in sight. As I take one last look at Muzan, the face of contempt and disappointment remains clear. By then, the silver that had started to cover my vision became pitch black.