Night fell heavily over the mountains of Settsu Province.
The fire crackled low, its embers glowing like dying eyes in the darkness. Raizen sat with his sword across his knees, sharpening the blade in silence. Kaito leaned against a tree, chewing on dried meat, while Haruka checked the perimeter with quiet steps. Senji remained crouched near the edge of the camp, eyes fixed on the forest as if listening to something only he could hear.
Something was wrong.
Not danger—change.
The mountains no longer felt like simple wilderness. The air was thick, almost breathing.
"Senji," Raizen said quietly. "You've been tense since sunset."
Senji didn't look back. "Because they're not scouts anymore."
Kaito frowned. "What does that mean? Tsuchigumo are Tsuchigumo. Bandits, mountain rats, killers."
Senji shook his head slowly. "That's what they were."
The fire popped loudly.
Haruka stopped walking. "Explain."
Senji finally turned. His face was pale in the firelight. "When my clan fell… I saw something I never understood. Men who should've died—who did die—get back up. Limbs twisted. Bones bending wrong. I thought it was fear playing tricks on me."
Raizen's grip tightened on his sword.
"You're saying," Raizen said carefully, "they're not fully human."
"No," Senji replied. "They were human. Once."
⸻
The Legend Beneath the Mountains
Senji reached into his pack and pulled out a torn, weathered scroll. "This was taken from an abandoned shrine near the northern ridges. A monk's writings. Forbidden knowledge."
Haruka knelt beside him. "Read it."
Senji nodded.
'The Tsuchigumo are not born.
They are made.'
Kaito swallowed. "That's not reassuring."
'Long ago, those who defied the Imperial Court fled into the mountains. Starving, hunted, forgotten. They prayed—not to the gods of men, but to the spirits beneath the earth.'
Raizen's eyes narrowed. "Earth spirits…"
'The thing that answered them was ancient. A devourer of fear. A weaver of forms. It promised survival—at a cost.'
The fire flickered violently.
'Flesh was reshaped to endure. Bones reinforced. Blood altered. Those who accepted the pact gained strength, longevity, and resistance to death.'
Haruka whispered, "A curse."
Senji nodded grimly.
'But humanity was the price. Over generations, the blessing twisted. The deeper the pact, the more the body reflected the spirit beneath the earth.'
Kaito stared at the shadows. "So the half-spider forms…"
"Are not monsters born that way," Senji finished. "They're the final stage."
⸻
Stages of the Tsuchigumo
Raizen spoke slowly. "Then explain it. How does it happen?"
Senji took a breath.
"First stage: Human Tsuchigumo. Stronger than normal men. Faster healing. Fierce loyalty. These are the scouts we've fought."
Haruka nodded. "That matches what we've seen."
"Second stage," Senji continued, "comes after years of consuming special herbs, poisons, and… flesh."
Kaito recoiled. "Flesh?"
"Human," Senji said flatly. "Enemies. Prisoners. Sometimes their own wounded."
The fire snapped.
"These warriors begin to change internally. Bones thicken. Veins darken. Pain dulls. They stop aging properly."
Raizen clenched his jaw. "And the third?"
Senji hesitated.
"The True Tsuchigumo."
Silence.
"Those who fully accept the pact lose their human shape. Limbs split. Extra joints form. The body adapts for climbing, ambush, and endurance. They are no longer men pretending to be monsters."
"They are monsters," Haruka said.
"No," Senji corrected quietly. "They are former men who chose survival over humanity."
⸻
The First Shadow
A sound echoed from the forest.
Not footsteps.
Something skittered.
Raizen stood instantly. "Weapons."
The fire dimmed—snuffed, not extinguished.
From the treeline came a shape too tall to be human, too narrow to be beast. It moved wrong, joints bending at impossible angles. Pale limbs scraped against bark as it emerged into the moonlight.
Kaito's breath hitched. "That's… not a man."
The creature's torso was human—once. Its lower body split into multiple jointed limbs, chitin forming where skin should be. Its face was stretched, eyes too many, too glossy.
A half-formed Tsuchigumo.
"Second stage," Senji whispered. "Or early third."
The thing spoke.
"You smell… unbroken."
It lunged.
⸻
Blood and Truth
Raizen met it head-on.
Steel screamed as his blade struck its arm—and bounced. The creature shrieked, retaliating with a claw that tore through Raizen's shoulder guard, ripping flesh open.
Blood sprayed.
Haruka screamed, "Raizen!"
Kaito charged, roaring, slashing wildly. His blade cut deep into the creature's side—black blood spilled, thick and steaming—but the Tsuchigumo didn't fall. It laughed, wet and broken.
"Pain is gone," it hissed. "Fear is gone."
Senji sprang into motion, triggering traps he had set earlier. Ropes snapped tight around two of the creature's limbs, yanking it off balance.
Haruka drove her polearm forward with everything she had.
The blade pierced its chest.
The Tsuchigumo shrieked—a sound of rage, not death.
Raizen gritted his teeth, ignoring the pain in his shoulder. He stepped forward and plunged his sword into its throat, twisting.
The creature spasmed violently.
Then—finally—it collapsed.
The body twitched… and went still.
⸻
Aftermath
Silence returned.
Raizen dropped to one knee, blood soaking his sleeve. Haruka was immediately at his side, pressing cloth against the wound.
"That thing…" Kaito panted. "That thing talked."
Senji stared at the corpse. "This is only the beginning."
Haruka looked at Raizen. "Now you understand why we couldn't introduce them earlier. The Tsuchigumo don't reveal their true forms until they know you're a threat."
Raizen nodded, eyes hard.
"They're evolving," he said. "And if they exist…"
"There are worse," Senji replied.
The mountains seemed to close in around them.
Somewhere deep beneath the earth, something ancient stirred.
The Tsuchigumo were no longer just shadows.
They were awakening.