Swallowed Whole

The darkness that surrounded Kagome was unnatural; though barely conscious, she recognized that fact to be true. She couldn't tell you how she got in this cramped, damp, dark crevice. Last she remembered she was sleeping soundly with her favorite kitsune tucked tight next to her, across from a demon lord who despised her, and a hanyou that coveted her. As the smell of death crawled its way up her nose, she promptly realized she didn't care how she got here.

She needed to leave.

She tried once, twice, three times to open her eyes, but was instantly assaulted with an unbearable pain. She tried to move her hands but whatever bound her wrists only seemed to want to saw into her tendons as she grabbed at fleshy walls. It was obvious that whatever trapped her was solid, and if she could move her hands despite the pain, maybe she'd be able to crawl out. A part of her whispered the fact that she didn't know up versus down, so out was going to be hard to accomplish. She let that thought slide past her conscious barely noticed.

She had to escape!

Her cage lurched and creaked around her. She could feel something slink its way around her body. Another unidentified something slithered past her lips leaving a slimy texture that tasted like rotten fish. The contents of Kagome's stomach threatened to undo her.

She had to get out!

She tried to move her hands again. This time calling forth any and all spiritual energy she could access, using the pain from her shackles to motivate her inner strength. A diminutive pink glow surrounded the tips of her fingers. She used them to press against her confines and was rewarded with a hiss. A liquid, the same feel as blood, painted her fingers instantly.

Walls don't hiss and bleed.

Her cage pitched yet again, this time sending Kagome's feet over her head. A plethora of bodies started to twist and kneed against her as they tried to re-establish their balance. Some of them used her as an anchor point; claws and tentacles dug into her skin pulling at her until she felt as though she was going to be torn in half. It dawned on her then that she was surrounded by demons. This place that trapped her was a precursor to hell and she was surrounded by all manner of deadly hell spawn.

Panic began to set in. She was going to die here. This unnaturally dark, fleshy, rotten cage was going to be her tomb. The obvious demons around her were going to rip her apart, as they too tried to hold on to the last threads of life.

She screamed.

Her panic soaked brain getting the best of her, she screamed until her lungs burned. She was not going to die like this. She'd faced countless demons, and survived to tell the stories. She climbed mountains and freed gods. She dared to defy time itself. She trained for years for this moment. She was Kagome Higurashi, the Shikon Miko. She'd be damned if she was going to die like this; her job in this world left incomplete and the people she loved left behind to wail in mourning.

She had to think.

The panic ebbed and flowed like an ocean as her brain tried to think through the horror and pain. She took stock of what she could do. Clearly she could access her powers. She took stock of her surroundings. Clearly she was not just surrounded by demons, but if the blood from earlier was any indication; she was actually inside a demon. The tight pull and push around her body only confirmed that she was in fact being digested. She took stock of what she had within her grasp to work with.

And just like that, the answer presented itself.

She had half of the Shikon Jewel around her neck. Now that she remembered she had it, the broken souls inside seemed to call out to her. During her training with Kaede, she felt that call numerous times. However she always shied against it. It was Midoriko's power twisted up and mangled with those of the demons she was trapped with. The more shards Kagome collected, the more they seemed to reach out to her, and the more she distanced herself from it. Even only half complete, the power of the Shikon Jewel was too much for her.

At least it was too much until this moment. This moment was do or die, and Kagome refused to die.

Adrenaline allowed her to tap into a well of power she didn't even know she possessed before this moment. Kagome once again called forth spiritual energy, not just from herself but also from the half of jewel that rested between her bare breasts. This time her pink glow of power coated her entire body. The demons that dug into her flesh removed themselves instantly and did their best to avoid her in the tight space. She threw her body around until the fleshy walls that surrounded her had no choice but to move her up and coat her in blood. Kagome found comfort in the fact that whatever she was in could bleed; if it could bleed it could die.

Kagome did her best to manage the power of the Shikon. Honestly and truly she did. That is, until she heard the call of the other half of the jewel. Her sixth sense telling her that what she's hunted and fought for in the last ten years of her life was so close she could almost reach out and touch it. The closer she got to the jewel, the more she lost control. Her powers shooting like sparks, searing into the muscles that were trying to expel her. The demons unfortunate to come into contact with her died instantly.

Just a little closer and she could heed the call of power coming from the jewel.

Just a little further and the journey that brought her through time would be complete.

Kagome finally caught the dark half of the jewel and trapped it between the flesh cage and her own body. Without the use of her hands, grabbing the other halfd proved difficult. So she slid down just enough so the dark half of the jewel and the light half she possessed touched.

One would think that there would be some strange shock and awe as the once shattered jewel finally became whole. That the long waited joining of the Jewel of Four Souls would prompt epic heavenly trumpets and a sweep of power. Alas there was only a soft click as the Jewel became whole again.

Kagome and the demon she was in became still. A pregnant pause followed.

It was the hesitation that scared Kagome. Being connected with the Jewel as she was in that moment, she knew that in that quiet shudder the jewel was locked in a battle of good versus evil. Would the tainted portion dominate, or would Kagome's half reign victor?

Kagome couldn't chance the outcome. She had stopped moving completely. She still didn't know if she had moved in the right direction. She was still trapped inside a demon. With the power of the jewel warring against itself, her spiritual energy wasn't enough to save her and purify the tainted jewel.

With one last ditch effort Kagome came up with an idea so off the wall that she was sure that if she survived this she'd never be able to explain the impulse; not even to herself.

Kagome slid down until the warring Shikon Jewel was nestled against her lips.

She opened her mouth just wide enough to allow her tongue to roll the jewel between her teeth.

And with a count of three…

One…

Two…

Three…

Kagome swallowed the Shikon Jewel whole.