*hiyoi* *hiyoi*
Inuyasha and Kagome peeked over the lip of the well, back in the Sengoku Jidai. Kagome was currently wearing Inuyasha's upper kimono piece covering her head and the covered bowl full of oden on top of it. "You're a fool! Yura of the Hair wants the Jewel! What reason would she have to hunt us?"
"Maybe…" Kagome admitted. "But I get the feeling that the jewel is only one thing she's after."
"Speaking of the Shikon jewel, witch," began Inuyasha, "why did you bring the thing with you where it could get stolen by Yura?"
Kagome glared at him. "Inuyasha, think! If we left it back there, Yura could flinch it right under our noses by coming after it when we're away from the well!"
"Oh…" said Inuyasha, seeing the rationale himself. "Good move. Nice to see you're thinking, like I am," he added, trying to sound like he had thought along those lines himself. He failed.
Kagome perked up. "Heads up! It's above us!" she yelled. Inuyasha pulled himself fully above the well's lip, and yanked Kagome after him. Kagome let out a screech, climbing onto his back. The bowl slipped off her head. "O-oto!" she yelped, her hand shooting down to snatch the bowl out of the air. "Whew!" Kagome sighed with relief.
"Never mind your silly bowl, girl! Trace that witch's hair to its source so I can kill her!" growled Inuyasha.
"Do NOT taunt Happy Fun Oden!" snarled Kagome back, grinding her fist into his crown.
"STOP THAT!" barked Inuyasha. "What's more important: defending the Shikon jewel, or your silly oden?"
"Oden!" Kagome said without any hesitation.
Inuyasha's eyes narrowed. "Okay, let me rephrase that. Which is more important: your oden, or the safety of that family of yours?" asked the dog-boy.
Kagome choked. The family was important, but the oden was right in front of her, so tempting. "Family…" she answered at last. Oden comes from family, right?
"Then time's a-wasting, girl! Sniff out the origin of that web!" Inuyasha commanded.
Kagome did so. She noticed that some of the hairs glowed with power, and seemed to be controlling the web. Therefore, Yura would be lurking around where the threads converged. With this reasoning in her head, Kagome guided Inuyasha deeper and deeper into the forest, where the density of controlling hairs grew and grew.
They stopped only briefly to evaluate a campsite with a burning fire. What they found shocked Kagome. Headless armored bloody corpses littered the site, spare limbs a fair distance from the bodies were also scattered about.
Kagome felt a little sick, her maiden circuit ticking over big-time. "Are they… were they… human?" asked Kagome, choking back the marionette equivalent of bile.
"Ronin," observed Inuyasha dispassionately. He flicked at a line of razor-sharp hair soaked in blood (which is why he could see it). "They must have blundered into the hair. Luckless bastards."
This must have happened while I was back home.
Inuyasha noticed something strange about the bodies. "Their heads are gone. Only their heads!" He turned to Kagome. The strength seemed to have left the saber marionette, with her kneeling to the ground like she was. "Why are you crouching down there?" he asked. "Don't tell me your feeble courage has failed you again, girl!"
When Kagome looked up, it wasn't with a face drawn in fear, but one set in cold anger. She lifted a bow and a quiver full of arrows. "I thought this might come in handy," she said grimly. If we don't defeat Yura soon, more and more people will die.
Inuyasha's insults failed him.
Soon, Kagome was on Inuyasha's back again, and the oden bowl was back on Kagome's head as her hands were otherwise occupied with holding the bow or Inuyasha's clothes for support.
The dog-boy thought about how she conducted herself in the ronin camp. She may be squeamish at times, Inuyasha thought, but she has a fire in her.
"Careful! We're close!" Kagome warned. Inuyasha kept his eyes and ears open for danger. His only warning, however, was an outcry from Kagome. "OH! To your right! No, left!"
"Which one?!" Inuyasha yelped, first dodging right, then left, as instructed. "Make up your mind, dangit!" The ground busted open on their left side. She must have meant left. "Keep your directions straight, woman!" he yelled up at Kagome.
"In front!" Kagome yelled back, but it would come to naught. Inuyasha was snagged by the flowing lock of hair. He was jerked high into the air, where his hairy restraints were increased to three. Kagome yelped as she it the ground, then shot her hand out to catch her precious oden bowl. With a brief check to see that all was well with the bowl, she lifted her head up. "Inuyasha!" she called.
That's when she saw it.
A giant hairball? That's Yura's stronghold? thought Kagome, still staring in amazement at the enormous ball of hair.
A figure flitted down from the moon onto a one of the strands of hair in the net. "Ah, what a lovely fly I've caught!" remarked the newcomer as the strand bore her weight.
Kagome recognized her immediately. "AHHH!! It's Miss 'Skanky Tomoe Hotaru With Boobs'!" she screamed. (Okay, she forgot her name…)
Yura of the Hair wore her own hair short, tied with a simple cord across her crown. Her dress would be considered downright scandalous, even in the modern era, with a sleeveless black dress that opened the sides, front and back of her torso to the open air with a deep front and a deep back. Its skirt would be considered a super-mini, held on by a wide sash about the waist, and on the same side as a complete slit up the side hung a sheathed sword. She had fingerless gloves and toe-less socks, all black.
In other words, somewhat like Tomoe Hotaru, if she had grown a big rack and taken to wearing sexy clothing. And no underwear, the skank.
Not that the two demons got the reference, just staring at Kagome, blinking bemusedly.
"Nevermind," Kagome murmured, "Quiet as a mouse. Nezumi. Nezumi."
"So," Yura began, picking up where she left off. "You're Inuyasha, aren't you?"
"And you're Yura of the Hair," countered Inuyasha, a cocky smile on his face despite his bonds. "What do you know of me?"
"You have quite a reputation among the oni, you know," volunteered Yura. "We heard that a youkai named Inuyasha became the pet of a reincarnated miko in order to defend the Shikon jewel."
Inuyasha heard a couple of words in that, that he didn't like. "What?! I?! A pet?! To that fool of a girl?!" he snarled and spat at Yura. "Who told you that?!"
Yura sniffed. "Call it what you will. You're both in my way," she said cooly. "I'll kill you both now, and take the Shikon jewel at my leisure."
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Wed, 29 Dec 2004 18:04)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.