|| 𝒀-𝑶-𝑲-𝑨-𝑰 || 𝑲𝑵𝒀 𝒙 𝑶𝑪 ||

Chapter 17: Brutal, but Peaceful

{3rd person POV}

Tanjiro looked around, trying to find the location of the demon. 'Where's the location of the demon controlling them?' He mentally asked as he looked around. Tanjiro suddenly caught a weird scent, 'What's this? What an irritating odor! Though it was just for a second!' Tanjiro complained as he covered his mouth and nose. He suddenly felt something crawl onto him.

He looked down on his arm to see small white-colored spiders were crawling on his body. 'What's this?' He thought as he watched the spiders crawl on his body. A white-haired woman was giggling while she moved her hands around like she was controlling something. She sat on a huge rock underneath the moonlight. The woman then articulated her hand as Tanjiro's wrist followed her movements.

Tanjiro slashed his sword above his wrist as the thread came off as well as the spiders. 'Spiders! So, the spiders are attaching them to puppet strings? That means..' His sentence faded as he looked up to see that the corpses of the dead slayers were starting to get up again. The woman laughed, "Now then, my sweet little dolls... Dance until your arms and legs fall off." She said as she tightened the strings around her fingers.

"It's not good enough to just cut the threads! The spiders are just gonna stick more puppet strings onto them! So--" He was interrupted by the unpleasant scent coming into his nose. 'That acrid smell again! What is it anyway? It's being carried here by the wind!' Tanjiro then jumped as the spiders jumped as well, trying to attach more strings onto him. "So, all we gotta do is kill those damn spiders, huh?"

"That would be impossible! Those spiders are tiny, and I'm sure there are tons of them! We gotta find the demon who's controlling them!" He suggested as Inosuke started killing the spiders with his sword. "It's no good, Inosuke! Inosuke, if you have some type of power that can pinpoint the demon's location, then help me out!" Tanjiro desperately told Inosuke.

"This weird smell has been flowing in, and my nose isn't working great!" He said as he blocked a slayers' attack with his sword. "And also, um...", "It's Murata!" The boy who was now known as 'Murata' answered. "Murata! Murata and I will find a way to deal with the people being controlled! Inosuke, you...!" A young boy was seen above Tanjiro. He was standing on a few strands of string.

"Don't disturb my family's peaceful life." He stated as he looked down at Tanjiro. 'He's floating! No, he's standing on the threads! What did he mean by "family"?' Tanjiro questioned as he gripped his sword tighter. "Mother will kill you all right away.", "Mother?" Tanjiro silently whispered as Inosuke was running towards a slayer and jumped on top of him to reach the white-haired boy.

The boy just looked down as Inosuke cursed. "Damn it! Where do you think you're going? Fight me! Fight--" He was cut off by landing on the ground. "Inosuke!" Tanjiro worriedly called out to the fallen male. "Why did he show up anyway?" Inosuke asked, "That kid probably isn't the demon pulling the puppet strings! So, first, let's..." Tanjiro clashed his sword with another slayer as sparks flew from each of their swords.

"Okay, okay, okay! I hear you, alright? You want me to find where the demon's at, right? Shut up already, forehead!" He said as he stabbed his swords into the ground. Inosuke then sat down and spread his arms out. "Beast Breathing, 7th form... Spatial Awareness!" Inosuke chanted as he stayed in that position before finally seeing the same woman who sat on a rock controlling the remaining slayers.

"Found it! There you are!" Inosuke called out as he looked up. The young boy stood on the few strings that were attached somewhere. "I won't let anyone get in our way. The five of us are going to live in bliss as a family. No one can break our bond." Zenitsu panted as he leaned from tree to tree. "Ne... Ne... Nezu... Ne..., Whe... Wh-Whe... Whe... Where are you?" He said in between breaths.