Marionettes

Murata urges Tanjiro and Inosuke to leave him, insisting he can handle the controlled slayers now that he understands their movements and the threads. Tanjiro thanks him, grabs Inosuke, and presses deeper into the forest while Inosuke fumes over not getting to strike Murata for the earlier insult.

They soon meet a female slayer bound in threads, clutching her dead teammates and crying for someone of higher rank. Elsewhere, the demon Mother giggles on a rock as the slayers approach, knowing her threads grow stronger nearby. A voice calls her Mother, and she turns nervously to face the pale boy, Rui.

Rui asks whether she can win and warns that if she stalls he will tell Father. Frightened, Mother promises to protect him, and once he leaves she jerks the slayers into violent motion, their bones twisting unnaturally. Tanjiro dodges the female slayer's attacks and spots two more Corps members, one begging to be killed to end his suffering.

Inosuke moves to comply, but Tanjiro holds him back, searching for a way to immobilize the slayers without further harm. He lures the woman into a chase, then turns and hurls her into a tree, where she stays tangled in the branches. Inosuke copies the move on another member, boasting he can do anything Tanjiro can. With her puppets stuck, Mother decides to deploy a particular doll.

This chapter reveals that Mother and Rui belong to a spider family in which she fears both the boy and Father. It is part of the Mount Natagumo Arc, collected in Volume 4, and adapted in Episode 16.

Tanjiro and Inosuke's tree-tangling tactic gives them a nonlethal means to neutralize the controlled slayers, setting up Mother's next move.