I'm not Muzan Kibutsuji!

Chapter 5: Deja Vu (and spiders)

Masaru was happy to learn that after last night, the other slayers were less wary of him, as they invited him for breakfast the next morning. Tanjiro had mentioned it last night, but it seemed they were all heading to the same mountain, something that

Masaru felt was likely on purpose. After all, the more the merrier, right?

He was also happy to learn that Tanjiro seemed to have gotten used to his eyes. He seemed less tense around Masaru, which was good because the other two were a little harder to talk to. Zenitsu seemed to switch between normal, simp, and terrified in a matter of seconds, and Inosuke was.. well he was something. Masaru doubted the teen knew what a shower was. Still, Masaru felt comfortable around them. Even though they had a rough meeting, the boys didn't treat him like lesser for his eyes.

Inosuke was adamant that Masaru had to be his new sidekick with the cool "demon eyes", and Zenitsu decided that Masaru was his new meat shield when Inosuke got mad at him. It was endearing, in a way. After the trio(and Nezuko, who was asleep) ate breakfast, they headed out. Despite the Wisteria house not being far from the mountain, the rocky terrain made it so they barely got there as the sun set.

Zenitsu looked like he was about to pass out from terror, Inosuke was yelling about killing demons, Tanjiro was trying to mediate, and Masaru? He was wondering why there were so many spiders. Masaru wasn't afraid of much, but spiders? No. Just no. Too many legs. Spiders creeped Masaru out, and they kept getting on his hat. The mountain was full of them, and Masaru was starting to understand why Zenitsu was so scared.

Then they saw the bodies. It wasn't quite right to call them living, as the young slayers were mostly dead and pulled up like puppets on strings. Masaru felt sick as one called out to them: "Please.. he..lp.." Tanjiro sliced through one of the strings on the nearest slayer, and Masaru copied the other boy, trying to help one of the puppeted members down from a tree, but it was too late. The slayer had already died.

Masaru looked around in confusion as both tanjiro and Inosuke ran towards where the demon controlling the slayers were, before deciding to cut down a few more.

Masaru realized quickly that most of them were dead, but two had survived. He used his hat to shoo away more spiders and cleared a small area for the injured slayers after trying to stop whatever bleeding he could, before running off.

Tanjiro and Inosuke had gone one way, and Zenitsu had gone another. Masaru trusted his friends to stay relatively safe, and decided to head to a higher portion of the mountain, considering that was a good vantage point, and the demon orchestrating this would likely be there. He cut a few more slayers down before arriving at a clearing where a demon was standing on a string above him.

Masaru drew his blade, pointing it at the demon, who was in the form of a child.

"..." the demon said nothing before attacking Masaru, throwing webs at him left and right. Masaru cut through the razor sharp threads with a breath form, using one of the more aggressive techniques of wind breathing as a strange sort of parry.

The two continued exchanging blows, though Masaru took some considerable hits, a few slices in his arm and one on his leg. One particular blow forced the blade in his hands to be thrown away from him, as well as blowing his hat, and the demon away.

One unfortunate thing Masaru was coming to realize was that wind breathing was inconvenient for someone trying to use clothing to hide their identity.

Masaru decided not to think of it any longer, making a mad dash for his blade, which was lying at some point in between him and the demon. As Masaru reached for the sword, he saw the demon readying an attack, as both of their eyes met.

Just like the other demon, The Spider boy's eyes widened in shock as his movement came to a halt and the threads he was weaving fell to the ground.

"Who...are you...?" He asked, Looking at Masaru in some mix of confusion and horror. "Not Kibutsuji, if it makes you feel better," he replied, sighing and picking up the sword. "My name is Masaru, and no, I'm not a demon. No, I'm not your king."

The demon seemed to regain some of its composure at that, but the boy stil looked a little shaken.

"Why do I... feel so..." The spider boy looked at Masaru strangely, and started to slowly walk towards him. Masaru had already realized the boy was likely an uppermoon, and froze upon realizing the spider demon had already arrived in front of him, and had weaved his wrists together.

The boy looked into his eyes for a moment, as if trying to pick something out of them, before sighing, and tying Masaru up upon a tree. "My name is Rui," the boy stated, looking away from Masaru. "Something in my body feels weird.. I feel like... I know you." Masaru looked back at the demon in confusion, but didn't comment further.

"You look strikingly similar to my master."

Masaru shivered at that, but nodded, feeling that somehow the boy was still looking at him despite his body facing away from Masaru. He had a feeling Rui would say that, considering what everyone else said. "...can I ask a question..?"

The lower moon turned back at him, raising an eyebrow. "Why do you kill humans?"

Rui looked away at that, scoffing. "Food, obviously. Don't ask foolish questions, Masaru." Masaru jolted at the use of his name.

"I have matters to attend to." The demon weaved another set of webs for him, trapping him even tighter in the tree, before walking to the other side of the clearing.

Masaru closed his eyes, took a breath in, and started pulling on the strings. In all the confusion, Masaru's blade was tied to the tree too.

A/N: Sorry this is like two months late, I forgot how this arc goes and procrastinated. Next chapter should be out soon tho, :>