Rustle, rustle—
Footsteps advanced along the mountain path.
Perhaps because there was strength in numbers, even Agatsuma Zenitsu, who was the most timid when facing demons, did not say anything cowardly. He merely edged a little closer to where Tanjiro and Uchiha Hikari were.
As they traveled, Bulma muttered softly, "Hikari, don't you feel like the atmosphere on this mountain is creepy? There really aren't demons lurking around, are there?"
"Yes, there are. And they're real Twelve Kizuki, too."
Uchiha Hikari answered casually, while inwardly beginning to calculate her hunting plan.
Lower Moon Five, Rui, who had taken up residence on Spider Mountain, was a very unusual demon.
Because of his experiences in life, he had an almost twisted obsession with family bonds. He liked taking in demons fleeing hardship from all over and playing house with them. Counting all those messy "family members," there had been more than a dozen at most and five or six at least.
To the Demon Slayer Corps, this was an exceedingly troublesome enemy. So far, more than a dozen Demon Slayer Corps members had gone missing here, and that number would have continued to rise—because Uchiha Hikari's group had arrived several days earlier than in the original storyline. According to the original timeline, even Tanjiro's group would narrowly survive here and need several months of recuperation afterward before they recovered.
However...
For Uchiha Hikari, this was good news. After all, opportunities to catch so many demons in one go were rare.
"Tanjiro, can you smell any demons?"
"Yes, they're ahead. About a kilometer away—the scent is very strong!"
"Zenitsu?"
"...There are a lot of people screaming over there. It sounds awful. How about we go another way instead?" Agatsuma Zenitsu hugged his shoulders and began trembling again.
—It had to be said, Tanjiro's