“Ah, Sadako-chan! Good to see you again!” Saki said as she hurried to embrace a tall woman with black hair so long it trailed slightly on the floor. “Goodness, you’re covered in blood! What happened to you?”
“A little exercise,” Sadako smiled as she lifted up a hand and licked the blood off. “But never mind that, I’ve brought you a little gift.” She motioned behind her and Saki could see a gigantic cocoon-like structure made of spider silk. The cocoon seemed to be moving around; something was inside of it. “Now, behold!” Sadako reached over and sliced the cocoon open with her transformed claw.
Several girls fell out, all of them bound by spider silk as well. There were several Japanese and Chinese girls as well as a few Americans and Koreans. The girls whimpered as they looked up in fright at the tall, intimidating woman that was staring down at them. “Interesting…where did you get them? And why so many foreigners?”
“They were going to be used for prostitution, so I thought why should some old geezer be the ones to enjoy them? They don’t fully appreciate girls like these. So I thought perhaps the Kumobito might find them appealing…”
“Thank you, Sadako-chan,” Saki said as she reached down to inspect one of the Chinese girls. “So what happened to the people they were with?”
“They were using a house in the countryside as a resting place. I had quite a bit of fun tearing them apart,” Sadako giggled. “They said that human males are supposed to be stronger, but they all tear apart the same way…”
“Are…are you going to kill us?” one of the Japanese girls asked, her voice trembling. The other girls had the same question in their eyes too; they were especially starting at Sadako, who continued to lick blood off her hands.
“No,” Saki said. “We’re not going to kill you.” She turned towards Sadako. “By the way, you might want to be careful; I’ve set the Takagi sisters loose and they’re searching for the source of a spiritual disturbance as well as a girl we failed to catch.”
Sadako stopped in surprise. “The Takagi sisters, huh?” she mused. “The ones right below me in terms of power and the only ones put under watchful guard…what made you so desperate to use them?”
“The only reason they’re locked up is because Mitsuko is a loose cannon; luckily, Kaoru is with her. Besides, the Spider Princess is close to awakening; all Kumobito must be present when that time comes.”
“I see…” Sadako said quietly. “So it doesn’t matter anymore what the others do now, huh? They can’t stop us anymore…” Sadako’s eyes soon wandered over to the area where the students that hadn’t been transformed yet were laying. Several of them were lying on the ground in shock at what they had seen. Her eyes fell upon Sachiho, and she smirked a little. “That one…is she taken?”
Saki looked at Sachiho, then Sadako with surprise. “No…you fancy her? Then you can take her; we weren’t planning on transforming her, anyways.”
“Saki-sama, you truly are kind to me,” Sadako smiled as she reached over and pulled Sachiho up. The girl, far too frightened by all she had seen, could only whimper as Sadako pulled her close into a tender embrace. “You’re so pretty…” she whispered to Sachiho, who only sobbed quietly. “I’ll be sure to have a lot of fun with you…”
A shrine maiden soon came running. “Saki-sama, we’re sensing a large amount of spiritual force coming this way. It appears that…”
“The Kumobito of the other countries are returning…” Saki said with a smile. “Perfect; the coming of the Spider Princess is fast approaching!”
------------------------------------------------------“Hatsune-san, where are we going?” Kanako asked as the older girl pulled her along. The two of them had left the house and were heading towards what looked like the edge of town. Hatsune especially seemed on edge; the black-haired girl seemed to be taking great pains to avoiding detection.
“Damn…there are a lot of them roaming around…” she hissed.
“Hatsune-san…?” Kanako asked quietly, her eyes filled with uneasiness. Suddenly, her eyes widened in horror and she slapped her hand over her mouth to keep from screaming. On the ground was a large tarantula, one of the largest she had ever seen. The tarantula seemed to stare up at her before trying to scuttle away. Without a second thought, Hatsune reached over with her foot and crushed it.
“Weakling…” she murmured. “Kanako, do you see the old shrine over there? Hurry over there and meet me there; there’s something I want to do first. Hurry!” Kanako hesitated for just a moment until running off. Hatsune reached down and picked up the squashed remains of the spider. “The strong eat the weak…”
And she promptly swallowed it.
------------------------------------------------------
Mitsuko clutched the right side of her face. “Damn it! Someone squashed my third eye! But at least I found the girl…Kaoru-neesama, how’s your third eye?”
“It’s currently scuttling towards the torii gate,” Kaoru said, both eyes closed in concentration. “Where is the girl?”
“She’s near one of the shrines…” Mitsuko said, recalling the final visions right before the tarantula was crushed. “I’ll head over there right now.” As she was about to run off, she felt Kaoru grab her sleeve. “Kaoru-neesama?”
“…be careful,” Kaoru said quietly.
“No worries,” Mitsuko grinned. “I’ll be back before you know it.”
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Kanako soon saw Hatsune running towards the shrine. “Hatsune-san!” she said as Hatsune caught up with her. “Why…why are we here?”
“This was one of the places that I felt familiar with…I’m here to see if there’s something here that can help us out…” Without another word, Hatsune immediately began searching around the shrine.
“Um…what exactly are we looking for?” Kanako asked.
“I’m not sure, but…ah!” Hatsune suddenly fell forward, causing Kanako to rush over to her side. “I’m…I’m alright…” she gasped, holding up a hand to reassure Kanako. “I…I just remembered something…”
“Remembered something? Remembered what?” Kanako asked urgently.
“It…it was something about this place…something my older sister told me…”
“Older sister? You have an older sister?”
“Apparently…” Hatsune said as she shakily got to her feet. “Let’s see…” She took a look around the shrine; like the one Kanako had been in, it was decorated with an assortment of spider imagery. The altar in the shrine seemed to have been recently used; there was an incense stick stuck into an urn that was still burning slightly.
“Um, what did your sister tell you?”
“She said something about a secret place…a secret place to go to should any of us be in trouble…” Hatsune muttered as she continued to scrutinize the shrine intensely. “Think…think…wait…”
“Hatsune-san! Do you remember something?!”
“Ugh…something about a thousand clouds…whatever that’s supposed to mean…” Hatsune’s face was screwed up in concentration and Kanako put her hand on Hatsune’s shoulder, whispering to her not to strain herself…
“Thousand clouds, huh…” Kanako said out loud as she glanced around the shrine. The wall scrolls depicted pictures of all sorts, but all of them had some sort of spider motif along with some sort of word. “‘Everlasting Hunger’…” Kanako muttered, looking at a picture of a spider with thousands of warriors trapped in its web. “‘Demon’s Love’…” for a picture of a girl with the body of a spider clutching another girl in her legs, “‘A Thousand Spiders’…” for a picture of a swarm of spiders coming out of a crack in the ground. Wait a minute…
“‘Spider’ and ‘cloud’ are both ‘kumo’…” Kanako said out loud, realization causing her eyes to brighten. She lifted up the wall scroll and motioned for Hatsune to come over. “Hatsune-san! Take a look at this!”
“What is it?” Hatsune asked curiously, her eyes narrowing. “A door?” It was a small panel, to be exact. “I don’t see any way to open it though…” She knocked on the panel and tried pushing on it. “Hm…that doesn’t work…” Hatsune placed a hand on the panel, trying to see if there was a way to slide it around. “I don’t think…ah!” Hatsune drew her hand back sharply as the panel suddenly swung open.
“How did you do that?” Kanako asked as she looked inside the compartment.
“I have no idea…” Hatsune said, looking mystified. She reached inside and pulled out a strange-looking jade object. The thing vaguely resembled a large key, and the two girls looked at the object curiously.
“What is this supposed to be?” Kanako asked as she looked at the object. “There’s a whole bunch of symbols carved on it…do you recognize it?”
“No…wait, kind of…” Hatsune said as she studied the symbols closely. “I don’t know what they mean, but they seem so familiar…I think I’ve seen them before, but if only I could remember where…”
“Hatsune-san, please, we need to go quickly!” Kanako begged. “My friends…”
“Oh, you won’t have to worry about never seeing them again!” a voice suddenly sang out. The two of them whirled around to see Mitsuko lounging near the entrance of the shrine. She was smiling in a rather merry way as she ran a hand down the walls of the shrine affectionately. “Ah, such memories…”
“Who are you?” Kanako asked, her voice shaking in fright.
“Takagi Mitsuko,” Mitsuko said as she bowed in an almost mocking manner. “I’ve come to, ah, retrieve you…”
“R-retrieve me?” Kanako squeaked.
“Oh yes…you see, Saki-sama is a little upset that we might not have all the girls we need for the grand ceremony, and since you were the only little mouse to escape, we cannot have you running free.” Mitsuko’s grin widened as she started to transform. Her spider legs came tearing out as her limbs stretched themselves. She landed on all fours as the spider legs from her back reached the floor.
“Ah…ah…” Kanako seemed to be trying to hitch in a scream until Hatsune grabbed her hand. The older girl seemed to take in the sight quite calmly as she pulled Kanako behind her. “Hatsune-san…”
“Oh, you look quite nice…” Mitsuko purred as she licked her lips. “Maybe Saki-sama will let me have you some time…” With that, all eight limbs tensed up as she leaped towards Hatsune. However, the black-haired girl didn’t flinch. Instead, her hand shot out and caught a hold of Mitsuko’s face. The spider girl let out a cry of surprise as Hatsune shoved her aside, causing her to slam into the shrine walls.
“H-Hatsune-san…” Kanako couldn’t believe her eyes; how could Hatsune face down something so frightening like that?
“Stronger than you look, huh?” Mitsuko said in surprise as she picked herself up. “Looks like I’ll get to play a little.”
“Come then,” Hatsune said coldly. “I’ll tear your limbs off before I let you take Kanako away.” She tensed up as Mitsuko once again prepared to charge.
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Rie glanced at her watch; it was almost evening. Teruko seemed to be quite absorbed in her new baby, watching her as she tried crawling around on all eight legs.
“Teruko-neechan…we have to get you out of here,” Rie said as she shook her sister’s shoulders. “We need to get you out…”
“I can’t…” Teruko said quietly. “My baby needs me…and if I leave, people will be frightened of me…” She reached over to stroke the infant’s head, the baby gurgling happily as she nuzzled against Teruko’s body.
“But…what about her?” Rie pointed at the girl that had given birth. “What if something bad happens to her? We need to get her out of here before…”
“That’s enough, Rie,” A voice called down from the door. Rie looked up to see her mother coming down the stairs. “She stays here and that’s the end of it.” Masako had a rather pitying look on her face. “I really hoped that you wouldn’t find things out this way. You were snooping around my room, weren’t you?”
“Mother…” Rie slowly stood up, anger building up inside of her quickly. “How could you? How could you do this to Teruko-neechan?! How could you do this to that girl over there, making her give birth to such a…”
“So she’s given birth?” Masako’s eyes brightened. “Wonderful…just wonderful. The day I’ve been waiting for…”
“Mother! Answer me! What did you do all this for?!"
“Rie…you should’ve listened to me and joined the group,” Masako whispered softly. “Do you not understand that by rejecting her Highness you are rejecting your own destiny! The time of her awakening is nearly here and you shall be a part of it as well!”