SPIDER

While Chinatsu was trying to prevent a fight, he meant it in earnest when he suggested that they all go home together. After all, why couldn’t they? There was never a reason given as to why it had to be just one.

Everyone stared at Chinatsu. He felt his face turning red, embarrassed by the sudden spotlight.

“No way! That’s impossible!” Peony laughed.

“Is it though?”

“The God of this world would never allow it,” Peony replied.

“Then I’ll ask nicely,” Chinatsu said, looking Peony in the eyes. The Elf just stared back with a smirk. Was it an expression of pity or amusement? Chinatsu couldn’t tell, but he wasn’t going to back down about this. “I’ll find a way for all of us to leave here.”

Peony sighed and rolled up the map before tucking it back into their pack.

“I knew you were an interesting person, little Chinatsu,” the Elf murmured into Chinatsu’s ear. They patted his shoulder and started to head down the path towards the fork.

Masha pushed Joel forward and gave Chinatsu a little smile before continuing as well. Miyabi followed.

Chinatsu looked over the rubble once more. It was a little high up, but Chinatsu noticed a sigil, painted in white, on one of the rocks. He craned his neck to get a better look.

“Hey, what are you doing? Hurry up, we’re leaving,” Miyabi called out. She had stopped while the rest of the group was making their way down the path.

“Sorry, I thought I saw something interesting.” Chinatsu hurried forth.

“Don’t say something like that. Knowing you, it was probably dangerous,” Miyabi sighed.

The two of them caught up with the rest of the group upon reaching the fork, and once again, they were all faced with the prospect of taking the ominous left fork. For the sheer amount of trees and ivy forming the canopy, there was a complete absence of birdsong. Chinatsu had a feeling that was a bad sign.

“You had a map of this place, and you didn’t know that path was blocked?” Joel complained.

“It obviously wasn’t always there,” Peony huffed. “If I knew it was there, we would have taken this path instead and wouldn’t have found you.”

“Do you know what kind of danger is down this way, Peony?” Miyabi asked.

Peony mumbled something inaudibly.

“Huh!? What was that!? Speak up, you!” Joel snapped.

“S-s-spiders…” Peony muttered.

“Hah! That’s it?” Joel smirked. He shook his head. A chuckle turned into a belly laugh.

“Would you shut up! It’s not like what you’re thinking!” Peony snapped, stomping on the ground.

“Now, now! You two,” Masha said, getting between them.

“I shouldn’t be surprised a pretty little thing like you is afraid of some bugs,” Joel teased, stifling his laughter. “Don’t worry your little head. Big Joel can stomp out alla da bugs for you.”

Joel began to saunter down the path while Peony chased after him, urging him to step carefully. Masha looked back at Chinatsu and Miyabi and shrugged before following after the other two.

“Hey Miyabi–”

“Don’t say anything!” she hissed. Miyabi stomped off ahead. She was tense and kept her hand on the hilt of the sword.

Chinatsu knew. Miyabi's body knew and was reacting with goosebumps too. She was deathly afraid of spiders.

Single-file, they all stepped carefully down the path like they were avoiding stepping on broken glass. There were webs everywhere–stretched between shrubs, dangling from branches above, strung to-and-fro throughout the path. However, they had yet to see any spiders.

“Touching just one of these webs is going to bring them all down on us,” Peony warned.

Joel had completely changed his attitude to compliant once he saw the sheer volume of spider webs within the path. Even a tough grown man is nothing when faced with the prospect of a swarm of spiders. Though if everything before was to go by, Chinatsu knew that these spiders would be far from ordinary.

He looked at Miyabi. She was sweating like crazy. Spiders never bothered Chinatsu, so he was surprised that she was creating such a strong reaction in his body. He was sure that the overwhelming psychological impact of her phobia was at play.

They were halfway down the path and could see the light at the end of their literal tunnel of web and vegetation. Chinatsu kept his eyes on Miyabi. He noticed a bead of sweat had formed at the hairline on the nape of her neck. It rolled down the neck past the shirt collar.

“GYAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!” she screamed.

“Miyabi wai–” he tried to stop her, but she’d already broken out into a sprint.

Chinatsu watched in horror as she stepped on and ran through web after web. Flailing around and tearing through them all.

“What the hell is he doing!?” Joel shouted.

Miyabi had almost reached the end of the path when she stopped as if running into an invisible wall.

“Oh no…” Peony moaned.

Rustling came from all around them–the canopy above, the layers of dead leaves and overgrown plants below. Several dog-sized spiders–orb weaver types with black and yellow stripes–began descending from the canopy, and several more rushed up on them from the ground.

“EEEK!” Masha screamed and stabbed one of the large spiders that began crawling up her leg.

Chinatsu kicked another away like a soccer ball.

“Still gonna stomp out ‘alla da bugs’?” Peony asked in a mocking tone. The Elf swatted spiders with their staff.

“Shaddup!” Joel grunted, whacking a spider with the butt of the rifle.

Chinatsu was the only one without a weapon. The little craft knife in his pocket was not going to cut it in this situation. If only he had a sword.

A sword…

Chinatsu looked to see Miyabi struggling against the enormous web she was caught in. From the corner of the web, Chinatsu could see a spider the size of a kei car crawling towards her. Black and yellow like the rest–the mother.

“Miyabi!” he shrieked.

She fainted at the sight of the enormous spider.

Peony rushed over to her side and began trying to pull her from the web to no avail. The Elf desperately tried to beat back the spider from Miyabi. Chinatsu felt so utterly helpless that he didn’t even notice one of the dog-sized spiders lowering itself above his head.

“Pay attention, kid!” Joel barked, stabbing the spider with the bayonet.

Soon after, another spider was rushing at Chinatsu. He pulled out the craft knife and tore through the spider’s thorax. More of the blades broke off, and he was down to only two.

There were just too many of the spiders to fight them off like this. They could potentially beat back and outrun the smaller spiders, but the giant mother spider was blocking the exit to the path.

“We need to focus on the humongous one and get out of here!” Chinatsu yelled.

“I’ll take care of it!” Joel rushed over to the large web and stabbed at the mother spider with the bayonet. The stab wounds only seemed to make it more tenacious, though.

Then, the bayonet broke. Joel threw the rifle at the spider in anger. It seemed unfazed.

“Take the sword from Miyabi!” Peony shouted. The Elf had been unable to pull her free from the web and could now only focus on swatting back the smaller spiders.

Joel took the sword from Miyabi and tried slashing at the giant spider, but only managed to slash through the web. It loosened the tautness that kept Miyabi suspended within it, and her limp body flopped forward.

The giant spider moved higher, just out of reach of the sword.

“Damn it, if only we could stun it…” Chinatsu gritted his teeth.

Masha put her slingshot in Chinatsu’s hand.

“You know how to use one of these, right? I’ll back you up, just focus on shooting that thing,” she said, putting a small rock in his other hand.

Chinatsu aimed the slingshot, pulled back as hard as he could, and prayed it would hit.

WHAP

It hit the abdomen of the spider, but didn’t seem to have any effect. He looked around for more stones on the ground, but it was too dark and covered in detritus to even find something like that.

Then he remembered the coin.

Chinatsu pulled out the 100 yen coin from his pocket, aimed it in the slingshot edge-side out, and shot.

It whizzed through the air with a ZWIP and hit the spider’s thorax with a SPLAT, embedding itself into the spider.

The spider dropped down from the web.

Joel raised the sword and slashed down onto the spider, slicing it in half.

Chinatsu and Masha rushed over. They were still beating back the smaller spiders.

Joel slashed at the spiders with the sword, and Masha stabbed with her knife while Chinatsu and Peony pulled Miyabi from the web. They retreated through the hole created in the large web.

When they hit daylight, the spiders stopped their pursuit and retreated. Their nest was so dark that it made sense they might be repulsed by the bright afternoon sun.

Peony and Chinatsu set Miyabi down on the ground.

“Miyabi! Wake up!” Chinatsu shook her.

She slowly came to and sat up.

“Wuh–What happened…?”

“You fainted, dummy,” Chinatsu sighed.

Miyabi picked bits of web off of herself and looked like she was about to faint again.

“I’m sorry, everyone…I’m afraid of spiders,” Miyabi dropped her head low.

“Good grief, kid,” Joel sneered. “How old are you? Maybe it’s time to man-up–”

“Shut up, asshole! It’s normal to be afraid of spiders!!” Chinatsu snapped. Why kick someone when they’re already down? Now he was itching to fight this guy.

“Chinatsu…He’s right,” Miyabi mumbled. “I put everyone in danger because I couldn’t keep a cool head.”

Miyabi stood up and noticed the sword was missing from her belt. Joel threw it down on the ground.

“Personally, I don’t think you deserve that thing until you can prove you’re not a coward, but,” he stopped and looked at Peony. “I think that one might kill me in my sleep if I don’t give it back.”

Chinatsu looked over at Peony. He hadn’t noticed the burning rage the Elf was emitting. It was the same dead-eyed look Peony gave Joel earlier. Peony met eyes with Chinatsu. The mask went up, and their expression shifted to a softer smile. Chinatsu got goosebumps.

Masha cleared her throat.

“I think it’s in everybody’s best interest to work together! So why don’t we put aside our differences for now? Hm?” she said, smiling and holding the huge cooking knife she had just been using to kill spiders.

Never mind Peony, this woman was scary in a different way!