18. Threads

"Nezuko-chan!"

That shrill voice. Hana groaned and rubbed her temples before even opening her eyes. Zenitsu. Of course.

The peaceful silence of the morning was shattered by the sound of hurried footsteps several of them, running in frantic circles. She pushed herself up from the futon.

Her suspicion was confirmed when she saw Zenitsu charging after Tanjiro and Nezuko, arms flailing as he wailed dramatically.

"Let's be friends, Tanjiro!" Zenitsu cried, running in circles around the room.

"Zenitsu, stop chasing us! Please!" Tanjiro's desperate plea only fueled the chaos.

"Oh, don't be like that, Tanjiro!"

Hana stared blankly at the chaotic scene, still half-asleep. "...What in the world are you doing?" she muttered, stretching her arms with a yawn. "Tanjiro? Zenitsu?"

Zenitsu froze in his place, turning his heads toward her.

Then Zenitsu's eyes sparkled with adoration. "Hana-chan!" He sprinted straight at her, arms wide with admiration lovesick look on his face.

Hana's eyes widen and her body moved before he could reach her her foot connected with his chin sending him flying into the wall.

"Hana-chan!" He cried holding his head wailing on the floor.

Before the situation could spiral further, the sliding door slammed open with a deafening bang.

"Aaahhh!"

Inosuke barreled into the room, ramming into Tanjiro's back and knocking him flat on the floor. Tanjiro groaned, rubbing his head in pain.

"What was that for!?" Tanjiro protested.

"Inosuke?" Hana snapped, narrowing her eyes at the boar-headed boy. "What is happenin? Why are you all so keen on ruining my peace early morning?"

Hana finally shouted, her patience breaking. "Enough! Do you all have a death wish before breakfast!?"

Back in their room, Tanjiro's crow swooped inside, squawking its orders.

"North-northeast! North-northeast! Your next mission is Mt. Natagumo!"

"We'll be heading out now. Thank you so much for everything," Hana said, bowing politely. Tanjiro mirroring your gesture.

"Now then, for good luck," the woman said, producing a piece of coal.

"Thank you!" Tanjiro responded. Everyone turned to leave but not Inosuke. Misunderstanding the situation, he clenched his fists.

"What the hell are you doing, old hag!?"

Before he could move, Hana grabbed his arm, her glare sharp enough to cut. "Put that sword down, Inosuke. Now. She's blessing us, you ungrateful brat."

Tanjiro hurried to soothe the situation, but Zenitsu beat him to it, screaming, "It's a purification ceremony, idiot! Don't attack her!"

The old lady only smiled gently, unfazed. "Always live your lives with great pride. I wish you luck in battle."

Zenitsu's whining grew louder the closer they got.

"I'm scared, okay!? Now that we're nearing our destination, I'm so scared! I don't want to go any further!" he cried, crouching on the ground.

Hana's patience snapped. She planted her hands on her hips and scowled down at him. "Zenitsu, if you think sitting there whining will save anyone, then stay behind. The rest of us have work to do."

Tanjiro tried to encourage him gently, but Hana's harsh words made Zenitsu flinch, her eyes widen heart filling with guilt as he cried.

"You can do it Zenitsu. Belive it" She said trying to encourage him.

Zenitsu clutched his chest, nearly swooning. "Hana-chan... my heart..."

Hana sighed, running after Tanjiro and Inosuke.

"Wait for me Hana-chan!" Zenitsu ran after her.

Suddenly Hana smelled something coming from the mountain. She turned to Tanjiro.

"What? What's wrong?" Zenitsu asked.

"You smell it?" Hana asked.

"Yeah...I do but I don't know what it is," Tanjiro replied.

Without another word, Hana and Tanjiro ran forward Inosuke following after them.

"Hana! Tanjiro! Wait for me" Zenitsu cried running after them.

Running towards the smell, Hana and Tanjiro finds a boy laying there.

"H-help me..." he choked out.

"He's got our uniform on! He's a demon slayer! Something must've happened!" Tanjiro said.

"Are you all right? What happened?" Hana asked the man.

The man was suddenly pulled back into the trees.

"They were attached to me, too! Help me!" he shouted, before disappearing into the trees.

"I'm going," Hana said.

"Me too," Tanjiro nodded.

Inosuke brushed past Tanjiro's shoulders and moved him aside, stretching his hands.

"I'll go on ahead. You can follow me, shivering. This is making me hungry," Inosuke said, taking out both his swords.

"Inosuke..." Tanjiro said.

"This is challenging enough for you, right?" Zenitsu muttered.

"Let's go!" Inosuke cackled and ran, Hana and Tanjiro following leaving poor Zenitsu shivering behind. While walking up the mountain, Inosuke suddenly stopped.

"What the hell is this?" Inosuke asked.

"Spider webs?" Tanjiro wondered, looking around at the trees filled with webs.

"Jeez, this place is full of spider webs! What a pain!" Inosuke shook his hands to get rid of the webs.

"You're right," Tanjiro agreed.

"Let's go," Hana said quietly, running over to the man. She gently put her hand on his shoulder, making him yelp and turn around.

"We've come up for backup. I'm Hana Kamado, rank Mizunoto," she explained.

"Mizunoto..." he muttered his eyes widened.

"Mizunoto? Why didn't they send a hashira? It doesn't matter how much Mizunoto they send! It won't help!"

A fist suddenly collided with his face, stopping the words flowing from his mouth.

"Inosuke!" Tanjiro yelled.

"Shut up! As far as making a difference goes, your existence itself doesn't make one at all! Now tell us what's going on, you spineless fool!" Tanjiro held Inosuke back from hurting the guy.

"Who the hell is this guy? Did you forget I have seniority? The crow gave us the order! Ten of us demon slayers came here. Not long after we entered the then the slayers... the slayers started killing each other! I... I..." the guy stopped and cried.

"What is that sound?" Tanjiro questioned.

"There it is again. It's that sound again! I heard this sound, and the next thing I knew, everyone started killing each other!" the guy explained.

"Where's it coming from?" Hana asked.

They all looked around when the guy gasped. A person emerged from the shadows. A demon slayer, and soon many more figures appeared.

Hana and Tanjiro turned towards them dodging their attacks.

"These guys are all morons! They don't even know we're not allowed to fight each other!" Inosuke said proudly.

"No, that's not it! They're not moving normally! Something is manipulating them!" Tanjiro said.

"I'm gonna slash them to ribbons!" Inosuke said bringing his swords out.

"You can't-they're alive. Some of them are still alive. Besides, we can't harm the corpses of our teammates," Tanjiro argued.

"Stop denying me at every turn!" Inosuke said head butting Tanjiro.

"Why is there a strange, sweet scent coming from his back?" Hana thought. She took out her sword, spun it around her hand and fingers, and finally sliced the threads from his back.

"Threads! They're being manipulated by threads! Slash the threads!" Hana said.

Inosuke grunted as he tried spinning his swords around his hands but failed. He jumped up and cut all the threads off with multiple slashes.

"I already knew that before any of you did!" Inosuke bragged.

A horrid smell wafted past. Hana felt something crawling up her arm white and red spiders. She shook them off, but suddenly her arm and leg were pulled in opposite directions. She used her sword to cut the threads controlling her.

The slayers stood up again, only to be controlled once more.

Hana nodded and drew her sword. Knew it! Something's controlling them... time to start cutting! She charged forward, carefully slashing behind the puppets.

"Just cutting the threads won't be enough. They'll just reattach more strings!" Hana shouted.

Bunches of spiders appeared on the ground, trying to attach threads to her. She stomped on them and leaped back. "Why are they so creepy!? Looking at them with disgust.

"So, all we gotta do is kill the spiders?" Inosuke asked, preparing to attack.

"No! That's impossible they're tiny and there's too many. We need to find the demon controlling them!"

Ignoring her warning, Inosuke plunged his swords into the spiders.

"It's no use, Inosuke!" Tanjiro said. Then an idea struck him. "If you can sense the demon's location, help me! My nose isn't working great... and, um..." He hesitated.

"It's Murata!"

"Murata-san! Hana and I will handle the controlled people. Inosuke, you..." Tanjiro's sentence trailed off as a shadow loomed above.

A young demon with white hair and a kimono appeared, speaking in a monotone voice.

"Don't disturb my family's peaceful life."

he's floating! Hana thought, noticing a faint gleam beneath his feet. Nope, he's standing on threads.

"Mother will kill you all immediately," he stated.

"Mother?"

Inosuke lunged, but the demon hovered out of reach.

"Damn you! Where do you think you're going? Fight me!" Inosuke shouted, smashing against the ground.

"Inosuke!"

"That kid probably isn't the main demon pulling the strings. Let's-" Tanjiro began.

"Okay, okay! I hear you!" Inosuke yelled, cutting the threads of the corpses attacking him. "You want me to locate the demon, right? Shut up already, forehead!" He stabbed his dual swords into the ground and activated his ability:

"Beast Breathing, Seventh Form: Spatial Awareness!"

The technique let him track anything within a certain range perfect for this situation.

"I won't let anyone get in our way," the demon muttered, raising web-covered hands above his head.

"Found it, there you are!"

"You did? Great!" Hana praised.

"Yeah, that way!" Inosuke pointed, puffing out his chest. "Of course I found it I'm awesome!"

"Way to go, Inosuke!" Tanjiro praised, dodging and slashing threads.

Meanwhile, Zenitsu was still searching for them amidst the chaos.

"DAMN YOU, TANJIRO! NEZUKO-CHAN! HANA-CHAN! WHERE ARE YOU ALL" he cried.