Kumori Kobayashi

**Kumori Kobayashi** (小林 蜘理) is a student in the School of Devotion and a participant of the Killing Competition. Her title is the **Ultimate Arachnologist** (超高校級の「クモ学者」lit. *Super High-School Level Arachnologist*)

## History

### Pre-Killing Game

#### Childhood

Kumori comes from a poor household located in Fujisawa, Japan. Her mother and her father, after finding out that they had fallen pregnant, decided to marry at a young age to give their future child a chance at a somewhat normal family life. However, this didn't work out too well for them as the house they were renting, and the baby furniture were extremely expensive, and while the two of them worked two separate jobs each in order to be able to provide, they weren't earning nearly enough to cover it all; leaving them with one choice: Get an even smaller but less expensive house, or put the baby up for adoption. At first, her parents were heavily considering putting her up for adoption, but after remembering the whole reason they had committed the past eight months to setting up a home fit for a child was purely to give their child a normal family life, they found hope and decided they'd keep her, getting a smaller, less expensive house, and work their way up to a normal-sized family home.

The only house they could find that was manageable was significantly older than the previous houses they've lived in, being about ~100 years old. On top of all that, the plumbing wasn't all that great either, the toilet would fail to flush occasionally, taps would drip, and the plumbing could be heard from within the thin walls, and it was very noisy. On top of all that, bugs would frequent this humble abode, all kinds of bugs. Cockroaches, ladybugs, ticks, mites, ants, all kinds of creepy crawlies - the main attraction being spiders. Many, many different species of spiders, too. Not just the Daddy Long-Legs that you see every so often in the corner of your room. Despite all of these flaws, Kumori's parents reluctantly put in an application to move into the house, and since no one in their right mind would apply for it, they got it almost immediately.

A month later, on the 14th of March, Kumori Kobayashi was officially a part of the world and her parents couldn't be happier, albeit feeling incredibly guilty that their daughter had to live in a bug infested house with bad plumbing, they promised since the day she was born that they would do their very best in order to give her the most normal family life possible. Growing up, Kumori was an extremely lonely child, mostly because none of the other kids in her neighbourhood wanted to play with her since her house was commonly referred to as the "Witches' Den" by other residents in the neighbourhood.

Due to this, Kumori resorted to playing and talking with the bugs she saw in her house; having a specific interest for the spiders especially. She would often partake in all kinds of activities with any spider she saw crawling around on the creaky floorboards or the dusty walls, such as tea parties, dress-up, play pretend, and numerous other childish games.

Her favourite thing in particular were tea parties, because she liked to pretend to gossip with the spiders while drinking her favourite fictional tea, "Tsumu Tea." Which she claimed was the only tea a spider could drink safely.

During her kindergarten and middle school years, she was often considered the "strange kid" for her liking to spiders and as a result had little to no friends; which kicked off once she brought her two pet spiders, Lucas and Charlotte to school for show and tell. So, although not bullied, she had a lot of rumours spread about her - the most farfetched one being that she is a Jorogumo, a type of Yokai in Japanese culture who is a form of spider who can shape-shift/change its appearance into that of an attractive woman whenever it wants to eat a human. A jorogumo's reflection, even when in its human form, *will still be a giant spider.* So, Kumori would often get pushed in front of reflective surfaces or even followed to the school's bathroom just so people could "catch" her reflection, however she would always miraculously dodge the mirror or reflective surface whenever pushed; leading the rumours to worsen over time.

Kumori's parents worried about her mental health, as they deemed this bullying since the other children would outcast her and treat her like a monster, but Kumori wasn't particularly bothered by these rumours... in fact, she was honoured to be called a spider. However the rumours died down when she reached high school.