The Tenant Is a Little Jumping Spider - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Something seemed to have gotten into my home.

When I washed the dishes, I felt like someone was spying on me.

When I watched TV, there would be faint rustling beside me.

And before I took a shower, I would sometimes hear the tiniest little “yaa,” followed by the vague sound of something frantically scrambling away on its legs.

Most importantly, lately I had been receiving a bank transfer every month with the note: “rent.”

This place was haunted, wasn’t it…

I sprawled on the sofa and muttered to myself, then called a friend.

“Hey, something’s weird at my place. Send me the contact for that reliable master of yours.”

The next day, I was lazily sprawled on the sofa again. The master never came. Instead, a tiny, delicate voice sounded.

“H-hello. Could you maybe… take a look at me…?”

I focused my eyes.

Oh. So it was a little black-and-white striped, fluffy Little Jumping Spider.

Chapter 2

I swear, this was the cutest spider I had ever seen. Black and white, timid and fluffy, with four shiny black eyes that were all staring up at me.

It seemed terrified. The little claw holding up a slip of paper was trembling slightly.

“I-I’m not a bad monster…”

Its head drooped against its chest, as if it was about to cry.

I reached out with two fingertips, gently pinched away the slip of paper it had struggled so hard to raise, and smiled like an absolute pervert.

“Then prove it.”

“H-how do I prove it?”

The little spider tucked two fuzzy claws against its chest and rubbed them together uneasily.

I am not a cruel person. But for some reason, whenever I looked at such a tiny creature, I always felt an urge to tease it.

“I want to see the Little Jumping Spider’s courtship dance.”

Chapter 3

“C-courtship dance!”

Making a little spider perform a courtship dance was probably a very excessive thing to do.

The tiny thing waved all eight claws around in a panic, completely unaware that its hidden fluffy belly was now exposed.

So cute. If it were human, its whole body would probably have turned pink.

I tapped the table.

“Hm? You don’t want to? Then I can only…”

“I do! I do! But… if I dance the courtship dance, can you give me a rose petal?”

A rose petal?

I looked toward the vase at the corner of the table. It held the roses I had bought last week, still half-dead and blooming, their sparse red petals scattered all over the floor.

What was so good about this trash?

I casually picked out one that was still fairly fresh.

“Here.”

“Thank you!”

It was such a careless gift, yet the Little Jumping Spider looked as if it had received a star.

It carefully gathered the petal beneath its round, bulging belly, turning it into a soft, brilliant stage. Then, full of enthusiasm, it began to dance with a rapid patter.

Mm…

To be honest, it was pretty good.

I hadn’t expected this otherwise ordinary little arthropod, whose only merit was cuteness, to have a tiny colored fan at its waist.

Unlike the fluff puffed up all over its body, the little fan looked tender and fragile. Its inner ring shimmered with peacock green and pigeon-blood red, like the last faint afterglow left behind after the universe exploded.

It hopped down from the red stage of the rose petal, solemnly raised two fuzzy hind legs, and carefully, nervously presented that bit of afterglow to me.

“For you!”

I smiled at it, but secretly extended my freshly done nail while it wasn’t paying attention…

And poked the pointed black tip of its rear.

I touched it. It was hard.

The Little Jumping Spider was scared out of its wits and shot straight into the air.

“Y-you-you… you-you!”

Spider good. Woman bad.

The Little Jumping Spider did its best courtship dance for a bad woman, and the bad woman had secretly poked its pointed little rear end.

It probably thought its dance had been terrible.

One by one, the Little Jumping Spider’s eight eyes dimmed. It curled into a ball, becoming a little fluffy shut-in.

For once, my conscience gave a rare twinge.