This is the weirdest thing ever, I think, as I sit there cross-legged in what looks like a dark blue jungle, surrounded by about twenty huge spiders that are all making cute synthesizer sounds. I try very hard not to make eye contact, but it's difficult considering that all of those spiders have a lot of eyes.

And a lot of legs. I close my eyes, trying not to think about the legs. The furry, scrambling, skinny legs.

Just thinking about them makes me shiver all over.

These are Hiroki's friends, I remind myself. They're good, even though they look disgusting. I think about what Shun said about clowns. Clowns, sacrificing themselves just to make people laugh, just to see that smile on people's face. It's not their fault for looking scary. The spiders are the same. They're friendly spiders, so I shouldn't discriminate against them just because of their looks.

My brain tells me all of this, but my body refuses to cooperate and I sit there hugging myself tightly, making myself as small as possible so as to lessen the probability of touching any of the spiders surrounding me. I still feel them rustling about though-it's hard to be quiet with so many legs.

My only comfort is that Shun is with me. He is reasonably less unnerved about the spiders than I am, but he doesn't look very excited to be around them either. Being the diplomat he is, he still tries to make friendly conversation.

"So you know where Hiroki is?" he asks the spiders.

"Is snakes take him did! Take to their nest," a small spider exclaims. It appears to be a hotheaded spider with a limited grasp of the English language. "Snakes bad. Snakes ugly."

"And how are we going to get him back?" Shun continues.

"I not know!" the small spider cries. "Snakes long, snakes strong!"

An elderly-sounding spider coughs. "We'll just do it the traditional way. We fight them."

"But... we twenty! Snakes many!" the small spider complains.

"How many?" Shun asks.

"Bro," the spider who had picked me up in my hyperventilating state and carried me to this gathering states, "there are at least a hundred of them. Total legit. Total no chill."

I nickname this spider "Bro" in my head. He seems to talk like one.

"Oooookay," Shun mutters. "Any weak spots? Spots I can shoot, I mean?"

"Aim for the eyes. But wait, you can shoot?" the elderly spider queries. If he had had eyebrows he would have raised them skeptically.

Shun shows off his gun by spinning it. The older spider inspects the gun and deems it satisfactory. He then turns to me.

"And what can you do?"

"I-"

"Show him," Shun whispers, nudging me. I slowly and unwillingly call my elega into my hands. Playing a concert for an audience of twenty giant spiders is the last thing I ever imagined I would be doing but life throws you curve balls that way.

"What do I play?" I whine.

"Play something that spiders will like," Shun suggests.

"What do spiders like?" I whine harder.

"Bro," says Bro, "play me some dopey stuff."

I have no idea what he means by dopey stuff but I do my best to strike up a sort of beat that would be good to break dance to. And Bro starts to dance.

Have you ever watched a spider break dance? I bet you haven't. Good for you, because I can't say it's entirely pleasant on the eyes. But it's all fine and dandy because after the dance Bro decides that he likes me. He says so outright.

"Bro," he tells me, "I like you. You can ride me to victory." He scrunches his legs and flattens himself, like he's asking me to board him.

"Well-" I say.

"Bro, whatcha waiting for? Hiroki doesn't have all day!"

I close my eyes and brace myself for the bodily contact as I clumsily clamber onto the spider. Every inch of my skin crawls and goosebumps are all over my body. I gulp twice and try to calm myself down.

This is Hiroki's friend. This is Hiroki's friend and he likes me and he says I can ride him. But oh god he's so ugly-

I feel somewhat better as I watch Shun leap onto the smaller, more excited spider as well. He looks at me and grins disarmingly. "This is better than riding a horse."

I smile wanly, but my legs feel like jelly.

And the next thing I know, we're flying.

Well, not actually flying. Not Ririka's kind of flying. More like the spiders are using their silk to swing us from tree to tree, higher and higher, until we're amid the poofy structures again, one swing after another.

It would have felt exhilarating, soaring through the brightly colored mist like that, if I weren't so very conscious of the fact that I'm on a spider. Just thinking about it pretty much takes the enjoyment out of everything.

Oh god I'm on a spider. I'm on a spider. I'm on a giant spider that calls me Bro-

And we're heading towards a nest of hundreds of snakes.

-

They greet us in front of the cave, the cave that they're apparently keeping Hiroki in. There are only around ten of them in sight, which is very disconcerting since there're supposed to be hundreds and who knows what the rest are doing to Hiroki. Being harassed by snakes in the darkest depths of a cave in your own mind can't be very healthy, I imagine.

Of course, being harassed by snakes outside the cave can't be very healthy either, I think, as the snakes immediately attack. Bro dodges expertly, like he had been dodging snakes his entire life, and he sends sticky spider silk flying towards the offending snake. It's a stripey, colorful, triangle-headed snake, which means-

It's poisonous.

I quickly take a look at the other snakes present. All stripey. All colorful. All triangle-headed. Poisonous snakes. I try to call out a warning, but before I can even open my mouth a small spider with a mohawk gets bitten on the leg. I watch as it turns a weird greenish color and slumps to the ground.

"They're poisonous," I tell Bro.

"I know," Bro replies. "Aw man, Petey is down."

So the mohawk spider is Petey. Good to know.

Actually it's not good at all, because I feel tears brimming in my eyes already. He had a name. He was Petey. Never in my wildest imaginations could I foresee that one day I would be crying over the death of a spider, but knowing the spider's name somehow makes it personal, like he were my friend.

"What's your name?" I ask Bro, even though I'm pretty sure this isn't the right time for small talk since Bro is firing spider silk every which where while dodging snakes like a dodge ball expert.

"Me? Bro, I'm Stephanie," Bro says.

"You're a girl?" I scream. I feel instantly bad for assuming that all those spiders are male, but in my defense it's not like I know much about spider anatomy.

"Yes, and I'm pregnant!" Bro, I mean Stephanie, says with obvious pride in her voice.

Holy shit, I'm riding on a pregnant spider that can break dance. Who knows how many tiny baby spiders live in her tummy? I don't even want to think about it, so I don't. Instead I focus on the fight, watching as two snakes fall backwards all of a sudden and begin to squirm in confusing angles, smashing into their own allies.

They can't see, I realize. Shun has shot them in the eyes. Maybe I should do something to help too-but what?

"Play something!" Shun shrieks as he and his young spider fly past me. The young spider, because of his hotheaded personality, seems to be intent on charging at every snake he sees and Shun is almost having trouble staying seated on it.

"Play what?" I cry, and that's when I notice it. The cute video-game-esque pitter-pattering is gone. All gone. Probably because the spiders are suspended in the air from their strings of silk. Their feet are not touching the ground and therefore can't pitter-patter.

They are not making sounds. Their soundtrack is gone, which leaves them fully open for me to control. Like a video game.

I turn the default instrument of my elega to a glockenspiel with one finger, and sweep across its surface with the other hand, making a swift, tinkling sound. Right away I feel myself and Stephanie soaring higher.

"Bro, we're flying!" Stephanie says. "Hey, babies, did you feel that? Mommy is flying!"

All the other spiders, depending on how far away they are, have also all risen up to varying degrees, which is kind of a good thing since the sudden change of position has apparently saved one of the smaller spiders from being headbutted by a snake. It raises one leg at me as a silent thanks. Shun seems to be stifling laughter which makes me think hello I'm not that funny goddamit but his eyes are so cute and crinkly when he laughs so I forgive him in 0.2 seconds.

"That's it, girl. Play our way in," the elderly spider instructs me.

I have no idea how I'm going to do that but you don't say no to elderly spiders three times your size so I hold my elega tightly, hope for the best, and begin to play.