Zenitsu had been wandering the eerie, twisted woods of Mount Natagumo for what felt like years. In reality, it had been about ten minutes, but time moved differently when you were as panicked as Zenitsu. He stumbled through the dense foliage, clutching his chest like he was going to pass out at any moment. Sweat dripped down his forehead, and his face was twisted in absolute fear.
"Okay, Zenitsu, get it together!" he said to himself, trying to muster some courage. "You're a Demon Slayer now! You've faced worse than this, like... well... okay, maybe not worse, but you've got this!" He took a deep breath. "I'm fine. I'm fine. Just... uh... where's the path? I'm totally lost. Why does everything smell like a mixture of rotten eggs and burnt hair?!"
Zenitsu scrunched his nose. "UGH. WHAT is that smell?! It smells like an ogre with a garlic addiction has been doing squats in a sauna! I can't even—"
Before he could finish, a terrifying creature stepped out from the shadows. It was a human-headed spider, its massive spider legs twitching and curling. Its creepy, grin-like human face stared at Zenitsu, and he could feel the hairs on his neck stand up.
Zenitsu froze. His face went pale. He backed up slowly, but then his foot caught on something and he fell flat on his face. The spider grinned wider, and Zenitsu let out an ear-piercing scream.
"AHHHHHHH! WHAT IS THAT THING?!" He scrambled backward, kicking dirt in all directions, his hands flailing as he tried to get away. "I DON'T WANT TO BE A SPIDER! I DON'T WANT TO BE A SPIDER! NO, PLEASE, NOT A SPIDER, PLEASE!"
As if the universe thought this moment wasn't bad enough, Zenitsu stumbled into a clearing and saw a horrifying sight: people—no, humans—turning into spiders. Their bodies warped grotesquely, their faces frozen in eternal agony. Zenitsu's stomach churned, and he stumbled backward.
"No, no, NO! I CAN'T BE A SPIDER! I CANNOT! I HAVE A DIGNITY... okay, maybe not much of one, but still!" he screamed, clutching his head.
A deep, sinister voice suddenly echoed from the shadows. "You've been bitten, fool. You'll turn into one of us in 30 minutes."
Zenitsu's eyes bugged out. "Wait, what?! B-b-b-b-biten?!" He looked at his arm, where a creepy spider bite was swelling up. "I'm going to turn into a spider?!" he wailed, clutching his chest. "I'm going to have eight legs and no dignity! I'll never be able to wear pants again! I can't even handle the one leg I have—WHAT AM I GONNA DO WITH EIGHT?!"
The voice chuckled. "Too late now. In 30 minutes, you'll be like the others. Just another member of our family."
"NOOOOO!" Zenitsu wailed, throwing himself against a tree for dear life. "Not my life! Not my looks! Anything but that! I'll never get another date again, I just know it!"
But then, in the midst of his rapidly worsening panic, Zenitsu's mind wandered back. Way back. Far, far back, to the day everything changed.
"Zenitsu!" Gramps yelled, his face scrunching into an angry ball of wrinkles. "You're nothing but a scared little coward! But maybe you can be something more. Maybe... I can teach you to be a real Demon Slayer!"
Zenitsu, trembling, stared at Gramps, who was as terrifying as a storm cloud on a bad day. "But Gramps, I—I'm afraid of EVERYTHING! I'm a disaster, I can't—"
Gramps just shoved a katana in his hands. "You'll train with me, boy, and you'll learn. We'll start with one thing: you'll master a single form to perfection, or you'll never survive!"
Zenitsu looked at the katana like it was a live snake ready to bite. "I-I don't know if I can, Gramps... what if I mess up? What if I—I run away from everything like always?!"
Gramps huffed. "Well, then you'll die, and we'll call it a day. But... there's a chance. A small one, maybe. Don't screw this up."
Zenitsu nodded eagerly, trying not to think about how this was basically a death sentence. "I won't... I won't let you down, Gramps. I'll learn... just, uh... not now, right? Maybe later...?"
Zenitsu snapped back to the present, feeling the poison slowly creeping into his system. His vision blurred, and his legs wobbled as he climbed a tree, trying to escape his impending fate. No, I can't give up! I'm going to fight this!
"Okay, Zenitsu," he muttered to himself. "You can do this. Remember what Gramps said: Master one thing to perfection! You've got this, you're gonna be fine... probably. But definitely not as a spider. Please, not as a spider..."
Zenitsu's body couldn't handle the stress. His mind raced, and his heart pounded. He fainted. Straight-up passed out.
However, as he fell unconscious, something strange happened. His body, like a well-trained puppet, instinctively began to prepare. His fingers twitched, his breath slowed, and his body went into a fighting stance. Thunder Breathing. First Form. Thunderclap and Flash. Even in his sleep, Zenitsu was ready to fight.
The Spider Demon and its minions watched Zenitsu from below, snickering.
"Heh, look at him—relying on just one move? Pathetic."
Zenitsu's body, however, didn't care about their judgment. He exploded into action, lightning crackling from his body, blowing away the spiders in an instant.
"Yikes! Is this guy seriously still alive?" the demon muttered, its voice full of disbelief.
Zenitsu's voice rang out. "Thunder Breathing, First Form: Thunderclap and Flash! SIXFOLD!" His body surged with electricity, sending spiders flying left and right as his form crackled like an electric storm.
The Spider Demon tried to fire more poison blobs, but they were so slow that Zenitsu dodged effortlessly, zipping around the clearing like an electric blur. The demon couldn't keep up.
"NO! You can't be this fast!" the demon shrieked, stumbling back.
Zenitsu grinned like an electric-charged idiot. "Guess what, Spider-Breath? I can actually fight now!"
With a final burst of speed, Zenitsu launched himself at the Spider Demon, grabbing a web thread like a trampoline and flipping upwards.
SNIP. Zenitsu sliced the demon's head clean off.
The demon's body collapsed, disintegrating into ash with an angry hiss. "What? NO! This... this cannot be happening! I'm a spider demon, and I was defeated by this guy?!"
Zenitsu stood tall, panting as he wiped the sweat from his brow. "I did it! I beat the big bad spider demon! And I didn't turn into a spider! Take that, life! You can't mess with me anymore!" He collapsed onto the suspended house, breathing heavily.
His sparrow, Chuntaro, landed beside him. It chirped sadly, looking up at Zenitsu with teary eyes.
"I... I'm sorry I worried you, Chuntaro. I thought I was done for," Zenitsu whispered. "But hey, look at me! I did it! I'm powerful now... kinda... right?"
Chuntaro flapped its wings and perched next to Zenitsu. Then, as if on cue, Raja appeared from the shadows, clapping slowly.
"Well done, Zenitsu. That was... spectacular. Very, uh, dramatic. And surprisingly effective."
Zenitsu blinked. "Raja?! You were watching me the whole time?"
"Of course. I don't miss a good show," Raja said with a smirk. "And don't worry about the poison. I've got the cure right here." With a wave of his hand, he healed Zenitsu instantly. "I'll take you out of here. Don't get too cocky now, you're still a work in progress."
Zenitsu grinned, his body now fully healed. "I DID IT! I REALLY DID IT! I'm not a spider! I'm a hero!"
"Sure, Zenitsu. Sure. Let's just get you to the Demon Slayer Corps for treatment before you faint again." Raja rolled his eyes as Zenitsu celebrated.
"AND I'LL NEVER TURN INTO A SPIDER! WOOO!" Zenitsu screamed, not realizing how much he had really just narrowly escaped.