Kid Venom #2 (2024)

On Mount Oe, Shuten Doji tortures Ashiya Doman to verify that the wayward oni known as Clinter is alive. Pleased, he declares that they are coming closer to realizing the Vacant Oni's dream. Ibara and four masked figures kneel before him, shocked that Clinter survived the immolation of its host fourteen years prior. Noting that he doesn't know where Clinter is at that moment in time, Shuten states that the next day it will be in Kyoto. The following day, Ibara leads a horde of tsuchigumo to lay waste to Minamoto no Yorimitsu's mansion, headquarters of the Minamoto Samurai Corps. Sakata Kintoki, Clinter's host, fights against the horde of offshoot oni alongside Usui Sadamitsu, who gripes that he's always having to bail Kintoki out of trouble. As he uses his flaming magic scythe to slash through a group of offshoots, Kintoki is abruptly impaled through the heart by a red-and-black spike. Sporting four spider-like legs made of symbiote biomass, Ibara grins maniacally and calls Clinter a traitor to the homeland. Speaking through Kintoki, Clinter laughs and scoffs that Ibara was born on Earth. Enraged, Ibara starts to transform, blood-red symbiote biomass and fangs forming around his face as he snarls that he'll kill Clinter in the name of the Vacant Oni. Ibara fires a barrage of symbiote-matter spikes, but Sadamitsu counters by using his scythe to envelop Kintoki in a sphere of flames. As Sadamitsu shouts a challenge to Ibara, the oni prince sneers at him; Sadamitsu asking if Kintoki can fly yet. Kintoki replies that he needs to heal to do so and needs to feed to heal, telling Sadamitsu to throw him at one of the tsuchigumo. Manifesting more spider-like legs, Ibara blocks their path but is shot through the head by Urabe no Suetake, who sets his head ablaze. Minamoto no Yorimitsu asks if Kintoki and Sadamitsu made it out and is dismayed to learn Kintoki was gravely injured, Suetake watches incredulously as Sadamitsu launches Kintoki into one of the maw of one of the tsuchigumo, fashing back to Kintoki giving him the mysterious mask for safekeeping and telling him to keep the tsuchigumo distracted. As he does so, shouting that Kintoki had better respect him after this, the tsuchigumo implodes to reveal Kintoki unconscious and holding onto a baby boy.