"Waaaaaah!" A piercing, tearful scream tore through the quiet night sky over Mount Natagumo. Zenitsu Agatsuma was scrambling desperately up a large tree on all fours, tears and snot smeared all over his face, looking utterly bedraggled.
"Stay away! Stay away!" He glanced back, and that single glance nearly scared him out of his wits-the ground beneath the tree was crawling with spiders. Worse still, every one of those spiders had a human face!
"Chirp! Chirp!" Chuntaro, the sparrow on his shoulder, pecked anxiously at his face, seemingly urging him to hurry up and fight.
"Shut up! You think I don't want to?!" Zenitsu shouted tearfully. "But I'm so weak! I'm about to die! They'll suck out my brains and use them as fertilizer!"
He truly regretted it. He should never have listened to that crow and come to this hellhole. Tanjiro and Inosuke were both monsters, and Sasuke was a monster among monsters. He was the only normal, ordinary person!
As he wallowed in his fear of death, he suddenly spotted a wooden house hanging in midair a short distance ahead. Countless thick spider threads suspended it between several large trees, making it look utterly eerie.
A figure much larger than an ordinary person stood on the roof. It was a demon with a massive spider's body: its upper body was humanoid, but its head was a hideous spider's head bearing six eyes that shone with an ominous light-it was the "Big Brother" Spider Demon.
"Another meal delivered right to my door." The "Big Brother" Spider Demon gave a raspy laugh, his gaze fixed firmly on the trembling, golden-haired figure in the tree. Zenitsu saw him too. The instant their eyes met, his body went rigid, then his eyes rolled back as though he were about to faint.
"Pfft!"