It took some time for Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke to recover from their injuries, healing their various broken bones and making sure they were in peak condition once more, though while each of them did that Pinkamena made sure to head out and cut down any Demon the crows wanted her to take out, since she didn't need to rest and her demonic body allowed her to recover from any injuries in a matter of seconds. Of course the Demon Slayers made sure that any and all rest houses were safe, as every so often they had someone come by and take care of any enemies who might be lingering in the area, or Demons would sense the Wisteria near the walls and be repelled instantly, but due to her unique nature she was able to get by the defenses and her existence here allowed several Slayers to tackle other missions. The Demons she faced off against were weak and offered no challenge, not like how Kyogai had been rather challenging when he picked up the pace with his drums, though she made sure to cut each one down and deprive Muzan of his forces, making sure to claim all the remains after defeating them, though she kept staring out at the surrounding area as she waiting for their crows to come back. She knew that if all four of their birds came back, and not just her own crow, it meant that they were being sent out to tackle a new mission, so for now she was dealing with the smaller Demons to lessen the workload of the other members of the Corps, mostly to kill time while waiting for a challenging mission.
Eventually, however, the four birds arrived, and she made sure it was three crows and a sparrow, where she welcomed them to the house and let each land near her as her crow gave the report that she was waiting for, they were being summoned to go to Natagumo Mountain and aid the other Slayers that had been sent to it, though as the others got ready she realized what this meant, a powerful Demon was involved, possibly a Kizuki.
"We'll be leaving now." Tanjiro said, where he had Nezuko's box on his back and he, plus Zenitsu and Inosuke, had their work attire on, joining Pinkamena as she stood outside the old lady's house, showing her that they were ready to go and tackle the mission that had been handed to them, though he made sure to bow his head towards their host, who seemed to be pleased with his actions, "Thank you for taking care of us."
"I shall light some sparks for you." the lady replied, to which she pulled out what appeared to be some flint or something and struck one object with another as she focused on them, producing the sparks that she spoke of, where Pinkamena had learned that it was to ward off evil spirits, or at least that seemed to be what the process had been designed for, but, of course, Inosuke seemed totally ignorant as to what was going on right now.
As they dragged Inosuke away, before he did something stupid and got them in trouble, the lady told them to hold their heads high and wished them luck on their upcoming battles, which really stumped Inosuke as he followed behind them, as Pinkamena was ahead of everyone and Tanjiro was right behind her, leaving Zenitsu between him and the wild one, just to keep him from attacking Nezuko, given his earlier desire to kill her. Of course Pinkamena tuned out most of what the rest of the group talked about, as they were talking about the lady's words and Tanjiro seemed to think that she was trying to make them think about their actions, to plan accordingly or something to that effect, though that part made sense, given that injuries had landed them in her care and it was to make sure they avoided taking more damage, or something to that effect. Inosuke thought about it for a time as Zenitsu claimed that Tanjiro was reading too deep into the lady's words, due to the fact that he didn't care about the words too much and appreciated the giving of sparks, since he was sure that this was going to be a far harder mission than the one they had just finished, especially if they were being reinforcements for a number of Slayers. Of course that was when Inosuke started to ask a lot of questions, showing he didn't understand any of Tanjiro's words and that it only confused him more than he was willing to admit, though when he started to ask questions it ended up causing Tanjiro to pick up his speed, causing Zenitsu to follow after him so he didn't get left behind and even caused Inosuke to pick up the pace as well.
In the end it was nighttime when they reached Natagumo Mountain, where they found that it was covered in thick trees, which would give their enemies an advantage over them and the other Demon Slayers who had been sent here, an area that seemed dark and ominous when they stared at it, though as they got close Pinkamena discovered that Zenitsu just was totally scared, to the point where he was lagging behind them.
"Wait! Can you three please stop for a moment?" Zenitsu asked, where the trio stopped for a few seconds and glanced at him in the process, to which he stopped and sat on the ground as he hugged his legs, showing them that he was freaked out at the moment and didn't want to go any further than what this, "This is too scary! It feels so much scarier the closer we get to our destination!"
"Zenitsu, I know this can be frightening, but you have to have some faith in us." Pinkamena remarked, as she decided to speak before Inosuke voiced his annoyance over what was happening, since he seemed to have a short fuse and snapped at anything or anyone who dared piss him off, even though she was thankful for the mask once more, because she was excited by what might be in this mountain, a possible Kizuki who had to be stronger than Kyogai.
She opened her mouth to say more, but that was when they heard the sound of someone coming and found a wounded Demon Slayer crawling out of the forest in front of them, as his face seemed like there was blood on it, though as the four of them noticed that, and rushed over to tend to him, something yanked him through the air and pulled him back into the forest he had escaped from.
"I shall be the vanguard!" Inosuke stated, where he stepped forward and placed his hands on his blades, showing them his determination to head inside and kill more Demons, though he stared at the forest that was in front of them and seemed to be thinking about the enemies that might be waiting for them, just like Pinkamena happened to be doing, "You can just bring your trembling buttocks and follow me when your ready!"
Pinkamena stepped into the forest with Inosuke, leaving Tanjiro to follow after them as Zenitsu remained sitting where he had decided to place himself, though the first thing she discovered was that there were a large number of spider webs on the trees, connecting them and their branches together with some rather large spiders, about the size of one's hand when she stared at them. As she walked Tanjiro talked with Inosuke, telling him that he was happy to have him along since the odd boar mask wearing boy gave him a new level of confidence that allowed him to face the twisted smell of this place, as it had sent his body into a bit of a shock when he first stepped into the forest, something that seemed to click something in Inosuke's head, since he paused for a moment. He was likely thinking about how nice the old lady had been, given that she had taken his wild costume and cleaned it to the best of her ability, not to mention teaching him the names of every bit of food that she made for all of them, before he returned to reality as Tanjiro paused, as they discovered that someone was in the area that they had stopped in. What Pinkamena discovered was that it was another Demon Slayer, a young boy who was likely about Tanjiro's age, in fact most of the Mizunoto in the Corps were likely his age, though as they walked up to the boy, who freaked out when he noticed them, her friend introduced them to the boy, giving him an idea as to who was coming to aid him.
"Mizunoto? Why are they still sending Mizunoto here?" the boy stated, his tone revealing that he wasn't happy to see the three of them, where Pinkamena had a feeling that they had walked into an area that was ruled by a powerful Demon, as it looked like all of the other Slayers had been either taken out or were unconscious, though at the same time it sounded like Inosuke was getting annoyed with him, which might be his default setting for newcomers, "Why didn't they send one of the Hashira? The result will be the same no matter how many Mizunoto they send here."
As Pinkamena expected Inosuke punched the boy and got him to spill the beans on what happened, that the crows had brought him and nine others to this place, though not a few moments after entering the forest the others started to attack each other, as he wasn't sure if anyone had survived, even if he had fled to make sure he survived until someone stronger came to deal with this threat. While she considered the very real possibility of a Kizuki being in this place, a fact that made her want to fight them even more than before, they found one of their allies walking out of the nearby trees, though they did see that his body shuffled around, like someone was controlling him, or at least she saw it and assumed she was able to figure out Blood Demon Arts with just a glance. Of course he wasn't the only one that appeared, as a few more, more boys around Tanjiro's age, walked out with the same shuffling movement, showing her and the others that these weren't their normal movements and, more importantly, that someone was controlling them, especially when they attacked, since it looked like the Demon in question was forcefully twisting the limbs of the other Demon Slayers. Tanjiro and Inosuke did the smart thing and dodged attacks, even though the latter seemed more interested in trying to cut them down and that lead to Tanjiro trying to stop him since their comrades were still alive, though Pinkamena remained on the defense as she dodged the incoming sword swings, where her focus was on detecting the number of Demons in this forest, where she was able to find five targets.
One thing they discovered was that someone was using spiders to control the Demon Slayers, and that cutting the webs that they produced did nothing in the long run, but as Murata joined them, which was the other boy's name, they found a newcomer, a young boy with white skin that had red dots in certain locations, who wore a white kimono with a nice spider pattern on it, while his hair was light pink and was molded to resemble spider's legs in some manner, though while it did look he was standing in the air he was actually standing on some threads.
"Don't disturb our clan's peaceful life here." the Demon stated, where Pinkamena was happy that her mask was covering her face again, as while Tanjiro was coming to terms with what he was seeing, even though he and the others cut through the rest of the threads that were around their comrades, she could feel the power of the Demon and knew that he had to be one of the Kizuki, confirming her thoughts that one had to be here, "Not that it matters, because all of you will be killed by Mother in the next few moments."
As Inosuke leapt at the Demon, who was pulled up by the threads that had to be due to their 'mother' controlling them, so he was allowed to escape without confronting them, Pinkamena resisted the urge to unleash her Chaos Breathing, as she knew that the First Form might make short work of the retreating Kizuki, meaning he had to be Lower Moon Six, Kyogai's replacement, even though there was a chance he was one of the other Lower Moons. After that Tanjiro determined that the best course of action was to track down the Demon controlling all of the threads that were wrapped around the rest of their comrades, to which Inosuke, after getting up and repelling some attackers, stabbed both of his blades into part of the ground and then knelt with his back facing them, all while raising his hands and holding the palms out towards his left and his right. In that moment he unleashed another Form of his special Breathing Style, where this one was called 'Fang of the Seventh, Spacial Awareness', something that happened to be him utilizing his sense of touch and all of his time growing up in the wilderness to detect where all of his enemies were, basically the same thing that Pinkamena had done the moment they entered the forest, and it wasn't long before he understood where their targets were. Murata, sensing that someone had an idea of where their first target rested, informed them that he would stay here and try to save as many of the others as he could, to which Pinkamena started to move without delay as she headed deeper into the forest, focusing on where the Mother Demon was while Inosuke swore he'd punch Murata, as he had called their new ally a pig after being insulted in some manner, which she had ignored in favor of tracking down their target.
Eventually they came to another member, a female one this time, who was in the process of wounding two more Slayers, and as she saw them she asked that they find a higher ranking Slayer to come here and take care of the Demons, as she was sure that if this persisted she would kill everyone else that was weaker than her, to which Pinkamena sighed for a few seconds as she considered something. Part of her didn't want to reveal her hand just yet, as she was sure that the Kizuki might detect her if she revealed her Blood Demon Art, though if she did nothing more Corps members would fall and even die due to their various wounds, though in that moment she found that the lady in front of them stalled for a moment and it allowed her to make up her mind as she turned to Inosuke and Tanjiro. In that moment she revealed her plan, to use the Fang of the Seventh in combination with part of her demonic power, as she intended on using Inosuke to track down all of the Corps members so she could either knock them out or temporarily snatch them from this reality, where the latter one would be good since they could rest and be dropped somewhere safe once this was over. Tanjiro, on the other hand, just watched as the two worked together for a time, where the Corps members in front of them seemed to be knocked out by some unseen force before disappearing, leaving the threads behind, though he could tell that Pinkamena was focusing her powers more than he had seen since they passed Final Selection, but he kept his eyes open in case any Demons came to attack them while this was going on.
Oddly enough they discovered that no Demons came at them, even though Inosuke thought there were five scattered all over this mountain, of course not counting Pinkamena, meaning they were able to succeed in their mission, allowing her and Inosuke to separate before moving forward once more, each keeping an eye out for their true enemies and anyone who might be answering the summons to this place, only to find a large figure who seemed to have spider legs sharpened into blades for hands, a Demon without a head and with threads attached to it.
"They beheaded someone who was useless to them and then altered their body to this state," Pinkamena remarked, as it was easy for her to tell that it had been a Demon at one point in time, given her nature and everything she had seen since joining the Demon Slayer Corps, and that it had been molded into a creature to defend this place if the forced puppets fell in battle, either by the hands of those invading the mountain or the one controlling them.
"Yeah, they took away his weak spot! We can't kill him anymore!" Inosuke stated, where he gripped both of his blades for a time as he and the others focused on the foe that was in front of them, even though it looked like he wanted to raise one of his hands for a few moments and point at the beast in question, showing that he was confused by what the three of them were seeing, "I can't chop him down if he doesn't have a head!"
"You know, we can cut at him from a diagonal angle," Tanjiro said, showing that he was thinking about the situation as the one who controlled the modified Demon seemed to be waiting for them to make the first move, or maybe they had to be in the middle of planning their own attacks while they did nothing, though he carefully raised his hands to make sure the puppet didn't attack them, "maybe if we cut into it from the bottom right of the neck to the bottom of the arm bit that's on the other side of it's body... if we do that, we should be able to take it down."
Inosuke barely waited for Tanjiro to finish speaking before rushing at the Demon that was in front of them, where it did seem like he was following what had been said and wanted to kill this foe on his own, though his attack didn't go through as the Puppet Demon slashed into his arms, legs, and his side, not enough to actually kill him, before Pinkamena found a few threads on his arms and legs. Both she and Tanjiro moved at the same time, her slashing through the threads while at the same time her friend moved into position before parrying the Puppet Demon's attack, though while Inosuke started to complain about how they were acting, since he preferred to be a wild beast and not think about things, something that all of them were going to have to deal with for some time. In the end, however, Inosuke was still willing to listen to Tanjiro as he started to duck down and called for Inosuke to stomp on his back, as in use him as a step and slash both of the Puppet Demon's arms off, though once that happened Tanjiro unleashed his Third Form and sliced through their foe's legs, and in the moment that it started to fall Pinkamena shifted her blade and sliced through the body in a diagonal manner. As soon as that was done they found that the Puppet Demon was slain, allowing her to gather all of the pieces for later while the others believed the lies that Chaos World told them, that the demon turned to ash and disappeared, but before anyone relaxed she found that Inosuke was still moving and he grabbed onto Tanjiro before hurling him into the air.
In that moment she understood, he was tossing Tanjiro in the direction of the Demon, to which she used her speed once more and found that it was an attractive female Demon, who had to be in her twenties or something and dressed in the same attire as the Kizuki, but in the end their foe seemed to think about things and raised her hands, offering her neck to Tanjiro, who switched from the First Form to the Fifth, a technique called 'Blessed Rain After the Drought', a single flowing strike that caused no pain and was only used when Demons willingly offered their necks.
"Very nice, you did well in executing that technique." Pinkamena commented, making sure to collect some of the Demon's blood before storing her fallen body away, that way when they were done here Tamayo would have more samples for her work, though her comment was also because Tanjiro was learning how to safely switch between Forms without losing the power of his strikes, who focused on the Demon's head as it faded away, only she did confirm the existence of a Kizuki that called this mountain home.
Tanjiro nodded as they made their way back to where Inosuke was standing, who didn't want to be thanked for his actions as he puffed out his chest and bragged that anything they could do he could replicate, causing Tanjiro to frown as he took a moment to think about the injuries their companion had suffered a few moments ago as Inosuke continued his routine as he focused on her friend. While they were doing that, however, she sensed a change in the air and expanded her radar for a moment, finding that Zenitsu was walking through another part of the forest, screaming at every little thing that set him off, causing her to sigh for a moment as she wondered what it would take to make him into a true Demon Slayer, as surviving the Final Selection didn't seem enough for him. Since it appeared that Tanjiro and Inosuke were arguing, at least Inosuke was while Tanjiro focused on his own thoughts, Pinkamena rushed into the trees for a moment and followed what she was sensing, finding that it brought her to a house that was held in the air by threads, not to mention some Humans who were hanging in the air, who seemed to be in the process of becoming spiders. As she thought about that, since that meant one of the Demons was creating followers to help protect their clan, she found Zenitsu and the Demon who lived in this area, a young boy whose head was attached to a large spider's body, though he seemed excited for what was about to happen as he noticed Zenitsu staring up at him.
As Zenitsu started to run the Spider Demon informed him that it was too late for him to run, as he had been bitten by one of the spiders earlier, when he entered the forest, and it was only a matter of time until he turned into a spider, a poison that had been injected into his right hand and seemed to be spreading already, based on the marking on his palm, where he even mentioned that it only took half an hour for the poison to take hold of him. A few seconds later the Spider Demon held out a large pocket watch and revealed a few things, that when time reached a certain point Zenitsu's limbs would go numb and the pain would set in, when it reached another point he would become dizzy and vomit, the third point would be followed by intense pain and his body shrinking, causing him to faint, and when the fourth point arrived he would be a spider like all the others. That, as Pinkamena expected, caused Zenitsu to freak out and run up a tree, like he was trying to hide from the world or something, and he even lashed out at the Spider Demon by saying that he had no friends, no real family, and that no one loved him or his wicked ways, so much so that she found the Demon pausing as Zenitsu thought about what brought him here, to find someone to blame for his predicament. When he pulled out some of his hair, a fact that the Spider Demon hadn't talked about, but one could have assumed it would happen, Zenitsu fainted as soon as he did that, laying out on the branch, though in that moment the branch broke and Pinkamena found that the useful side of Zenitsu woke up, as he gripped his sword, spun around, and kicked off the edge of the tree as he utilized his First Form to cut his target down.
Sadly it didn't work, as the Spider Demon spat poison at him, causing him to spin around and land nearby as the poison struck a tree and melted part of it, where she watched as Zenitsu tried to utilize his technique and the spiders forced him to move, to the point where they were swarming him while his body weakened as time went by, before he stopped nearby and focused once more. This time around Pinkamena found something interesting, the air around Zenitsu seemed to be vibrating, though while she knew that a normal user of the Thunder Breathing would be imagining this she also knew that he was no ordinary user, especially since the Spider Demon seemed to sense it as well, as he ordered the spiders to swarm his foe and take him out with the poison. In that moment the air around him exploded outwards, knocking all of the small spiders away from where he was standing while lightning seemed to dance around him, causing the Spider Demon to land as he stared at Zenitsu, who revealed that he was going to use the First Form of his Thunder Breathing and that this time it was going to be 'Sixfold', meaning six attacks instead of one, which was followed by lightning breaking the ground while he readied himself. Pinkamena watched as the Spider Demon attacked and Zenitsu flashed off to the side, using the second through fifth instances of his technique to confuse his foe, who actually retreated into the house as Zenitsu landed on one of the threads and propelled himself up into the house, where he actually sliced through his foe's neck and removed the Spider Demon's head, before crashing down on top of the side of the house as his foe broke apart.
Pinkamena had to admit something as she collected the Spider Demon's body, when Zenitsu was serious he was quite the fighter, to the point where he could take out a Demon in a single hit, though since it seemed like there were no more foes in the area she left him alone, because with the poison user taken care of it the remnants of his poison should fade from Zenitsu's body, hence why she focused on returning to Tanjiro's side so they could deal with the last two Demons and the Kizuki that ruled over them.