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h4 style="padding-bottom: 5px; margin: 25px 0px 10px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17.280000686645508px; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; color: #b6171c;"emTaken/em/h4
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p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 15px;"Sharp, searing pain. For a moment, as she teetered between standing and falling, that was all she could feel. Then, before she even realized what she was doing, she was slashing out with her hand to snatch at his again and exploding her powers out around her. There wasn't a single fear in her for the child; they would withstand this attack, if only because of the strength that came from their father./p
p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 15px;"Barely taking note of her friends and family gathering outside her barrier, she crawled to her knees, gripping his wrist so tightly now that if he had been human, Kagome was sure it would have broken by now. Right now, two things were prominent in her mind: the loss of whatever he had taken was like having part of her soul ripped away from her body and it emhurt/em. Hurt like nothing else she had ever felt before, like part of her was missing. The other was that this could be her only chance. He was so strong, and yet, so was she. She could kill him. "Give it back," she breathed, fury and determination flashing in eyes that used to spark with fear./p
p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 15px;"He hissed at her and used his own strength to yank her to her feet until they were pressed almost body to body. "Let go!" He moved his free hand towards her side again in one quick motion and would have slashed another hole in her grotesquely swollen body, except for one thing./p
p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 15px;"Kagome hadn't been aware she could move so quickly. She held his other wrist in her other hand and shoved against him, using the forward momentum of his jerking her towards him. "You're going to die." The words were a mere whisper of sound, but she had never been so sure of anything as she was of this. "Give it back."/p
p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 15px;"Jirōbō, for the first time in his life, felt something akin to fear. It never occurred to him that she was stronger, merely that this was something to do with the jewel. He knew it was cursed and for a moment, he wondered if risking his life for it was really worth it. "You think you can defeat me?" Forcing a smirk, he pulled her ever closer until there wasn't even a breath of space between them./p
p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 15px;""Maybe." She smiled sweetly, and though there was fear, she swallowed it. "Maybe not. But if you kill me, and that's what you'll have to do to leave with your hands intact, do you really think you'll make it more than an inch from my body?"/p
p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 15px;"His eyes drifted to those gathered behind her and he hesitated. Every youkai gathered there was old, very much so, except for the wolf and they were all full-blooded. It wasn't that Jirōbō was a coward, or that he wasn't a decent fighter, because he was, but against so many opponents, and three of them Daiyoukai….but they couldn't enter the barrier. And he couldn't leave. Smirking, he used his superior strength to maneuver their arms behind her, securing her body to his. "Then I'll just have to take you with me." /p
p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 15px;"o.O.o/p
p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 15px;"Word Count - 525/p
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