Update (April-May 2020): Chapter edited and lengthened, now including a new name for one canon character!
Chapter 4: A Hair-Raising Battle & Partnership Forged
Recap:
Modern-day teenage girl Coraline has been in Sengoku Edo for about three days, and finds herself at odds over what to do next. Though the threat of Mistress Centipede and the Carrion Crow have been subsequently snuffed out, Kaede informs the redhead and Inuyasha that they will have to team up in order to reclaim the broken pieces of the Shikon-no-Tama, preferably before malevolent forces do so...
Unfortunately, the pairing is more mismatched than complementary. After Inuyasha makes it clear that he wants nothing to do with Coraline anymore than he has to, the latter storms off in a huff for the Bone Eater's Well, intent on returning to her time. Meanwhile, Kaede is called by a young mother whose daughter had mysteriously collapsed without warning moments ago...But when the priestess goes to examine her, she's attacked by the girl who was under influence by an otherwise sinister source...!
When Coraline reaches the well, she suddenly meets the one responsible for the manipulation and deceit which spreads through the village (causing trouble for the half-demon in red when he arrives): Yura of the Hair, another demon in search of the Shikon-no-Tama. She attacks the human and steals away her shard of the jewel, only to discover the jewel's current state. When Yura is told by Coraline that the whereabouts of the other shards is virtually unknowable, she lunges at the latter with her katana!
Coraline barely dodges the sword, and subsequently falls into the Bone Eater's Well, escaping Yura, much to the latter's confusion...
Meanwhile, Inuyasha is informed by an injured Kaede of the puppet tactics being orchestrated, and after barely escaping being skewered by several demon hair strands, he decides to retreat from the village with the shrine maiden to come up with another plan. When Kaede tells him Coraline has the ability to see the hair (likely related to her connections to Kikyō), Inuyasha leaves the older woman in hiding and dashes off to find the young redhead, with Yura's tendrils of demon hair following close behind...
As for the girl in question, she was...relaxing in the shower, ignorant to what would soon be coming her way.
Now...
As night rolls in over the Higurashi Shrine and Residence, the second-oldest member and mother Akari sits with her son, Sōta and her father - whom from this point onward shall also be known as Hayato - around the living room coffee table as they discuss what Coraline had told them regarding her mysterious disappearance.
...With a moment of quiet - uncertain though it may be - between the action and intrigue, let's have a quick glance at the other two blood relatives of the Higurashis. We see Akari is a fairly beautiful woman in her late thirties, about five foot five and a half with a slim figure and an ivory complexion, and burnt umber irises. Her hair is dark brown, short and styled in a lighter version of the marcell waves, and for her outfit, she wears a goldenrod yellow cardigan over a lilac and bistre-striped tee shirt, a knee-length sienna brown pencil skirt with an off-white waist apron overtop, white knee-high socks and black ballet flats.
Then there's her son, Sōta, an elementary school boy about average height and body type for his age, with a warmer ivory complexion than his mother and eyes the same colour as his grandfather. Another trait he possesses from his paternal genes is black rather than dark brown hair, styled into an extra long standard cut. Then for his clothes, he's wearing a tangerine shirt with a fern green stripe across the middle, light-wash jeans and dark gray sneakers.
"...Come on, don't tell me you believe her story?"
The eldest Higurashi frowns and crosses his arms in thought to his daughter-in-law's skepticism, while the younger male defends his adopted sister by repeating what he remembered during the first day she was gone.
"But it is true: Coraline fell down the well, and then a monster came up and kidnapped her!"
Hayato finally voices his insights:
"There is a certain legend of the Bone Eater's Well. Since ancient days, whatever's inside has consumed the corpses of monsters...But what if the continuum of time and space itself is disrupted?"
He then rises from his seat with a determined frown, and heads straight for the said well house to reseal the well the best he could...By the time his work is complete, the well had been hammered shut with wooden planks, then plastered with several sacred sutras.
"That'll stop ya! Heheheh."
Back inside the house, Coraline had come out of the shower and was now downstairs in a pair of avocado green cargo pants, a candy apple red tank top, and an ash gray shawl. As she dries her hair with a towel, the girl turns to address her grandfather regarding his latest actions.
"Closed it off, eh?"
"Yep. We needn't worry about any more visitors from there."
He takes his cup of tea from the table and adds,
"I used special spirit wards just incase, (sip)."
Coraline flashes an appreciative smile at his efforts, despite the uncertainty traced in her eyes.
I hope f'r both our sakes, the strength of those sutras holds out for once, Grandfather.
(...Whoosh)
Back in Edo, Inuyasha hones in on the path the redhead took to leave this era, heading uphill before stopping to crouch down and sniff the air to check the scent pattern.
"Hm, it's her alright; I know her anywhere."
He gets up from the ground, fixing his hazel-gold irises on the destination in front of him: the Bone Eater's Well...He walks over to the rim, noticing the pile of clothes Coraline was forced to leave behind during her spontaneous escape from Yura.
"Why'd she leave her clothes?"
...The answer dawns on him in an instant.
"She did it. She went back to her own world...!"
The half-demon looks down into the well for a moment...before jumping inside, determined to bring the girl back to his time.
"Through here, was it?!"
...
...
In Tokyo, Coraline decides to relax a little in her room before dinner, laying atop the covers of her bed with Buyo tucked by her side.
"Haah, it sure feels nice ta be in my own bed again..."
She then reflects aloud on all that's happened in the last few days.
"T' think...I was really there, in Sengoku Japan, five hundred years in the past...Not only tha', but I go'to witness firsthand the truth of the legends and myths that surround the cultural history of this country..."
I still find it odd the supernat'ral presence is so low now, bu', maybe it's just Tokyo?
(Flash)
"Coraline, Inuyasha. Only by working together will the two of ye be able to recover the shards of the Shikon-no-Tama."
"Oh! You naughty, naughty girl, you shattered the jewel..."
(Flash)
"...Then there's that Yura character. If no' for her, I probably would'a jumped in the well sooner."
She sits up on her knees while sighing,
"And now, she has that one shard of the Shikon-no-Tama. She's obviously no' gonna give it up without a figh', and I can already hear Inuyasha..."
(Flash)
"I ain't gotta do nothin'. It's you, the weak human who needs me."
(Flash)
"Tch, of course...Cripes, why am I worrying ov'r him of all people?"
Coraline lightly bangs a fist on her mattress firmly with finality on the subject (which ends up waking the bobtail).
"Alrigh', it's settled then. As far as I care, this will just be anotha' adventure t' record in my journal."
I'll go back the day that half-demon comes barrelin' into this realm...
"Coraline! It's dinner time, plus your friends are on the phone!"
"I'll be right down!"
...Just as she prepares to head out of her room, the girl then turns back around and walks over to open the drawer of her nightstand, pulling out a mini medical kit for travelers to put in her back pocket.
Still, there's this nagging in m' skull sayin' the tale's only begun...
Back downstairs, Sōta and Grandfather Higurashi are still sitting at the coffee table, waiting for the women to join them for tonight's meal.
"Grandpa? T-Those, sutras will stay on, right?"
"Of course they will! Have a little faith, will you? If there's one thing I know, it's spirits!"
Coraline is the first to join them while Akari finishes a few last-minute details in the kitchen.
"Hey Grandfather, Sōta. Mm, tonight's meal looks fantastic."
"I'll defend you to my last breath, Coraline, so don't you worry."
She turns to her senior with a smile and replies,
"I appreciate th' concern, Grandfather, but I'm no longer worried. I have confidence that wha' lies beyond the well will not be making any beelines to this era anytime soon."
"Are you sure, Cora?"
"Quite sure, Sōta."
Coraline sighs in content, convinced that her sources of stress has seized moments...Well, mostly.
Thank goodness the danger has passed. Or a' least I hope...
What she didn't realize was that one of those sources had touched down into her time, and was already stomping her way...
"Alright, let's get star-"
(Shwoop)
Suddenly, the screen door to the living room slides open, with Inuyasha standing in the doorway!...All members of the household stare at the newcomer with shock, Coraline's being the highest.
"I-Inu-yasha?!"
Curse my karma...!
"Idiot! Who told you you could go home?!"
She barely remembers to set her bowl and chopsticks as she asks the pissed half-demon,
"How, in the world did you-"
"Through the well, of course!"
"The well?!"
Hayato is just as surprised, and responds in an exclaim,
"You lie! I made those sacred sutras myself! There's no way you could've-"
Inuyasha holds up one of the said talismans with a deadpanned expression.
"Well, I hate to break it to ya, old man, but, they don't work."
The poor shinto priest could only gape in an appalled manner, while Sōta sweatdrops and mutters his family member's title in exasperation.
Well this definitely says it: gramps is losing his priest power with age.
The half-demon then grabs Coraline by her arm to drag her away back to the well.
"C'mon you, we're leaving!"
She immediately swats off his grip and angrily retorts,
"Whoa whoa, who says I'm goin' anywhere with the likes of you?!"
Akari immediately goes on the defense for her daughter's sake.
"Stay right there!"
"Now what?"
"Akari-sama..."
...Coraline's surprise would be she short-lived, however when the older woman went to tug at Inuyasha's ears with curiousity.
"Those ears; are they real?"
"Me next, mom, me next!"
The redhead tries to reason with Akari when she hears the young man's vocal chords rumble a growl of annoyance.
"Uh, Akari-sama, that really isn' a good idea...'Course, I did something similar once, but..."
Suddenly, the girl notices something lingering on Inuyasha's shoulder, namely...
Dark green hair?
"Inuyasha, on your right shoulder."
He looks down at said body part in confusion.
"What?"
"You don' see it? A hair strand, here..."
She wraps her hand around it...and it tightens against her palm, causing blood to seep out from a slithered cut, much to the worries of the adults in the room.
"Coraline, your hand!"
"What is it?"
"...It's here."
They only hum in confusion, while she narrows her eyes in thought.
Of course. I'm the only one tha' sees the hair...
(Flash)
"Pity...because seeing isn't enough."
(Flash)
Yura...Oh shit!
Coraline immediately dashes out of the house and for the Bone Eater's Well, opening the doors...just as a large tendril of hair began to pool inside!
"Dammit, she already found the well again...!...Or did she-"
"The old crone was right."
She turns around to see that Inuyasha had followed her.
"You do have the sight."
Grinding her teeth with a glare, the redhead remarks to herself,
She must'a tracked back through him. My karma just keeps gettin' better and better...Not!
"...Coraline!"
The other residents of Higurashi shrine come on scene, but the eldest youth of the family knew they'd be in bigger danger than she if they got too close.
"Stay back! Don't come in here!"
She closes the doors tight, and turns back to the well to watch the demon hair's movements.
I gotta find a way t' stop the flow of hair, and fast!
The tendril then lunges at Coraline, and she dives down for one side of the well house while shouting,
"Inuyasha, there!"
"Where? Here?!"
He tries to claw at the spot where he assumed the follicles were, but misses. Using his sharp canine hearing, the half-demon picks up on another attack and jumps away, only to get his limbs tangled by several other tendrils!...Meanwhile, Hayato began banging on the door as he and Akari call out to their family member.
"Open the door, now!"
"Coraline!"
Inside, Inuyasha manages to cut himself free...but Coraline sees that the hair has regenerative properties.
"Crap, it can grow back!...And there's more comin'..."
Focusing on the well...that's when she spots it.
"Ah, there: that one strand must be the low-bearer tha' controls the mass!"
The girl rushes down the steps just as her fellow teen pulls back hard enough on the tendrils attached to his wrists and ankles to meet her side.
"Inuyasha, swipe y' claws on this strand here!"
"Which one?!...This one?!"
"Oh that's right, you still can' see it, can you?...Okay, time for plan B!"
Grabbing the hair for her own hands, she allows it to cut into her skin so that her blood made the strand visible to the half-demon...
"I see it!"
He immediately claws it in two, and the hair stills...before retracting into nothing!
...The two look towards the well, Inuyasha commenting,
"It went back in," as Coraline frowns with a wince from her minor injuries.
Something doesn' feel right.
Yura already has my shard of the Shikon-no-Tama, so why continue with the assault?
...Unless...she's after th' both of us!
Knowing what she had to do, Coraline prepares to enter the well.
"We need to go, now."
"Hm? But I though'cha didn't wanna go back?"
"...There's no other way."
"Huh?"
Slipping her fingers into the back pocket of her cargo pants, she inches out that mini first aid box and opens it to retrieve a roll of medical tape and a gauze sponge, ripping the latter in half with help from her teeth to plaster on each of her palms.
Alright, poin' to the nag this time...but if I linger here fo' much longer, my family will be the ones needin' more than this littl' box o' band-aids.
"...Hm?"
Coraline then felt something being draped over her, and turns to Inuyasha who's now without the haori of his kimono.
"It's made with the hair of the Fire Rat...You'll have some protection at least."
She's taken aback by his generosity, but is nonetheless grateful.
"...Thank you."
"Yeah well, if ya weren't so weird-lookin', you wouldn't need it."
Coraline retorts back with a half-smirk as she stows away the little medical box,
"Tch, that's rich coming from you, Edo-boy."
The half-demon leaps up onto the rim of the well and replies dryly,
"Yeah yeah, whatever. You ready?"
"As ready as I'll ever be."
With that, they both leap into the well, he putting an arm around her waist as they descend...Meanwhile, back in the Sengoku Era, Yura is seen lounging lazily on a massive pile of skulls from past victims of her power, smirking as she awaits the human and half-demon to resurface.
"They'll be back any minute."
She grabs a particularly unique cranium - the bone colour a deep blood red - to rest on her chest and adds with a coo,
"Only we won' let them run away this time, will we~?"
The hair demon breaks into a soft chuckle while stroking the skull, already anticipating victory...Back in the forest canopy where Inuyasha and Kaede were last seen together, the latter urges out to the wind,
"Here me, Inuyasha: Coraline is truly Kikyō reborn! Yet that will aid ye, but little, if she not knows her power. Help her, Inuyasha, to find herself..."
...It was in this moment the two teenagers emerge into Edo...
"Better watch ourselves; there's hair all ov'a the walls."
"So you're saying, that all Yura's really after, is just us."
They pop up from behind the lid as the girl replies,
"Yes. Why else would her hair be trackin' us since she already has my shard of the Shikon-no-Tama?"
"Your shard of th-How did that happen?!"
Ignores Inuyasha's demanding question, Coraline turns her gaze to the forest, noticing something strange in the undergrowth.
"Great, more hair...bu' there should be another low-bearing strand which'll lead us to Yura...Aha! There; straight ahead!"
"Got it!"
Back in her hideaway, Kaede sends out another plea as the teens begin their search for the hair demon.
"Ye must both work together...Ye need Coraline, Inuyasha, and Coraline, ye need him. Forget ye differences for now, and be as one."
...After a bit, the youths stumble across an abandoned fire along the dirt path cutting between cypress and oak...Or at least, it had been abandoned quite recently, but not on the volition of the souls that once occupied it, soldiers whose corpses had their heads sliced clean off!
Coraline cringes a little at the disturbing scene.
"Dear lord...Where are their heads?"
Inuyasha steps forward for a closer look.
"They're guys from the village...or their bodies anyway. Looks like their tops came clean off."
He turns back to see his companion on her knees, and thinks she may be feeling a bit overwhelmed by the light gore.
"Now what'sa matter? I better not hear you say you're scaaared, or that you wanna go home..."
...Contrary to what most teenage girls of her era would feel, however, Coraline felt no fear gazing at these corpses. Instead, she picks up a quiver and bow set, and stands up to face the half-demon while calmly replying,
"Actually, I was thinking of implementin' these."
This'll only be the beginning of Yura's slaughter-fest unless we stop her...
But even with that thought in the back of their heads, Inuyasha couldn't help but comment on the 'flaw' in the redhead's choice of weaponry as they set out again.
"You know that you're not gonna hit. Why bother?"
"Hey, gimme a break! I jus' need practice, that's all."
"Practice?! Dont'cha mean learn?"
As they settle atop a tree branch pointing for the distant riverside, Coraline remarks with confidence,
"It isn' too different from aimin' with a rifle. I just need to focus, and I'll do it."
The silver-haired male scoffs, but thinks to himself,
Then again, who knows. Maybe she can do it.
"The hairs here are much closer..."
(...Zwwwwrrr, SLICE)
Several demonic follicle strands suddenly slice through the tree they pair are occupying, and Inuyasha barely jumps off the trunk in time before it crashes to the ground...
"The main force is here!"
Another huge torrent of tendrils comes flying their way, forcing the half-demon to leap out of the way each time with Coraline trying to help the best she could.
"From the left!"
"Okay-"
"The right!"
"Hey!"
They pause on the ground for a short moment, and the redhead looks up to see more hair where that came from.
"...Arrh, it's no good; there's too many to dodge!"
"Gee, thanks for the update!...You're really not good for much, are ya?"
"Left, left!"
(Wham...)
"Behind you!"
"Oh, gimme a break!"
Their journey to stay off the offensive end of the enemy takes them downhill, and as they slide, one tendril of hair wraps around Inuyasha's wrist and yanks him away, leaving Coraline to tumble on her own!
"Aaaahhh!"
"Inuyasha!...Waaaaaa-gyh!"
...Stopping at the bedrock, the redhead winces and picks herself up, only to gape at the following sight: a massive cocoon of demon hair!
"A giant, hairball?...Yura's hideaway!"
Sensing the arrival of her enemies, said demon comes down from the air, landing gracefully on several suspended strands...
"Oh my, look at the cute doggy~."
She's of course referring to Inuyasha, trapped by his wrists and ankles mid-air...
"You must be Inuyasha."
"And you must be Yura of the Hair!...How'd ya know my name?"
"Let's just say a little birdie told me. Everyone's saying that half-demon Inuyasha is playing fetch, with some reincarnated shrine-maiden."
The teenage boy felt a little insulted by the indication, despite the truth in it.
"Me, team with that half-wit human down there?! Nothin' doin'!"
"Oh? You're both half-wits to me. Just look what you've done to the poor jewel~."
Inuyasha growls at Yura, seeing her hold up the piece she swindled away from Coraline in her fingertips. The redhead sees it as well, muttering,
"There's the shard that witch stole from me."
Now, how t' seperate the two's the question...
"Once you two have been wrapped up, I'll go and find the rest for myself."
"You, take care of me?!"
Pulling harder on his restraints, Inuyasha proclaims threateningly,
"When this is all over, you're gonna wish you've never met me, or ever heard my name!"
And just like that, he frees himself from the hair, using one of the tendrils to swing over and try a hand at clawing down Yura...The key word being try, for unfortunately the demon woman easily dodges said attack, then uses her power to summon more tendrils that would crash against and ultimately restrain Inuyasha once more!
"Urh, not this again!"
Yura then comes up to examine his own follicles.
"You have such pretty hair. But you really haven't cared for it very well. Look at the split ends..."
"Get, OFF OF ME!"
The male swipes the female away from him, but she was hardly fazed, merely somersaulting downward onto a set of hair strands...Her weight causes a bend, before the force sends her shooting upward like a trampoline, and she takes out her sword to cut Inuyasha's side on the way up.
(SLASH)
"Aaaaagh!"
Coraline cries out his name in worry as Yura lands not too far from him, giggling before going to lick the blood on her blade...
"I'm going to cut you into little pieces."
...But just as she readies to lunge in a killing blow...
(Twok, zing)
"A-hh!"
An arrow comes shooting in front of Yura, blocking her path and forcing her to refrain!...She lands on another set of her demonic follicles, and looks down at the source of the counter, revealed to be Coraline who readies another arrow.
"Let him down, now, otherwise I promise m' next shot won't miss."
"The girl who fell in the well..."
"You heard me, Yura."
The hair demon stands upright on her hairs and coos to the other,
"Ooo, I think she wants you back, Inuyasha. What a sweet wittle doggy you must be~."
He peers down at Coraline and shouts,
"I told ya to hide, not draw attention to yourself!"
Yura then insults the human with the following comment.
"Of course, her hair isn't as pretty as yours, Inuyasha. But then, waste not, want not."
"Auh, off all the nerve!...You have any idea how much maintenance goes int'a caring fo' long hair like mine?! No, of course not, since I'm talkin' to a bob-cut hair witch living in a time before conditioner!"
Coraline releases another arrow, but her aim is way off the mark, just barely missing Inuyasha by an inch!
"Gah! Grrrh, would ya watch where your aimin' that thing please?!"
"Sorry; my bad!"
The ammo continues its trajectory, and embeds in the hair cocoon...which ends up being more consequential than thought of.
(Sheen...)
The area vanishes in a glow of amaranth pink, and pouring out of the loosened strands is a mess of human skulls!
"Oh no, what have you done?!"
"Those guys we saw from the village..."
Yura informs Inuyasha,
"I'll be putting you in there too, once I separate that pretty hair from your head. It's wasted on you anyway..."
The hair demon then drops down a bit...before emitting with a sadistic smile,
"One thing first: that woman over there has to die!"
She sends out a stream of flames down a few strands, which hits Coraline dead-on!
"Aagh!"
The redhead is forced to the ground, cringing from the heat...
"There, hot enough for you? You'll feel the heat down to your bones."
"Ack-koff, d-dammi'...!"
Yura and Inuyasha watch as the fire continues to add pressure to Coraline's endurance.
"That's for emptying my lair."
"Huh?"
"Pity there'll be nothing left but ash..."
"Come on...!"
"Poor thing...I almost forgot: pets ought never be allowed to outlive their masters!"
Yura then lunges to attack the half-demon once again...just as he sinks his claws into his wound, drawing crimson onto them...
"BLADES, OF, BLOOD!"
"Oh no!"
(SLASH)
The hand holding her wakizashi is cut clean off by the blades formed by Inuyasha's own red life! The action causes one of his restraints to lax its hold.
"It's loosening up...!"
Of course, the appendage isn't made useless, instead drawn into some strands of demon hair like a puppet fragment as Yura forms an irritated glare.
"That's not fair!"
"There, how'd ya like that?! Serves you right!"
"I do wish you'd show some restraint when addressing a lady. Were you brought up in a doghouse?!"
The skull heads exposed from Coraline's attack began gnashing their teeth as the opening to Yura's hideaway widens even further in response to her next move...
"Heads up!"
She then commands several tendrils of hair with skulls at the front to lunge at Inuyasha, he smashing them away using his fists...But this was but a distraction so Yura could use her puppetry to send her decapitated hand with sword to try and slash at her opponent, who barely lunges away from its path!
"Stay still~, it's much harder to hit when you move!"
"Yeah, I'll just, (swipe) bet it is!"
He sends another set of blood blades back at her, but she manages to block them with a wall of hair...Next thing Inuyasha knew-
(STAB)
"Auuuuugh!"
The wakizashi plunges through his kimono and into his flesh from behind, just below his left shoulder!...He's then sent to the ground by his hair restraints, while Yura uses her powers to reattach her hand.
"Hmhmhm, half-demon, half-power, I should've known."
"Rrrgh, why you...!"
Yura begins descending downward, mockingly pulling out the pouch with the jewel shard while continuing her thoughts.
"Disappointed? I'll bet you were hoping to use this to become all demon."
"The Jewel of Four Souls...!"
She stops behind him, sword at the ready.
"Now stay still~. If I don't get a clean cut, your blood will stain that pretty silver hair of yours."
"Don't you, (lunge) wish!"
(SHOOM)
Refusing to give in, Inuyasha drove one of his clawed hands straight through Yura, specifically, just above her chest...! As he yanks his arm back, the pouch containing the jewel shard falls to the ground...
"There, that'll teach ya...Grh!"
But before he could grab it, Yura's foot stomps on his hand, she staring down at him with malice.
"Why I never! A half-demon I just met, sticking his hand in my chest?!"
The half-demon is stunned that his fatal blow wasn't in-fact fatal.
Wh-Why isn't she dead?!
"Plus there's the fact that you stole my jewel. (Takes it back) Now I have become cross."
Her weak spot...Where is it?!
Yura looks down on Inuyasha with a smirk...but then frowns confusingly when she feels a tug on her larger demon hairs.
Huh?
She turns around...and spots Coraline - alive and well - climbing up the hairy hideaway!
"That, girl...Rrrh!"
Using her enchanted comb, the hair demon pulls at the larger follicles, causing the mass to go upwards and Coraline to tumble a bit. The redhead barely holds her place, while Inuyasha sees this as an opportunity to get the jump on Yura, grabbing her katana.
"You shouldn't have looked away!"
(SLASH)
"Aaaaaagh!"
He aims true and lands a deep cut to his opponent's back, causing her to cry out in agony before using her hairs to repair the damage. She turns around to him, anger hailing true on her face.
"Alright. That, does it...!"
She forces Inuyasha into a spread-eagle pose with his restraints with the intent of finishing him off first...but he wasn't fazed at all.
"Heh, when I took your hand, it was like you broke a nail, but now you seem mad for real. What're you hiding that'chre so worried about?"
Curse him...!
Once she was close enough to her new target of inquiry, namely, the crimson cranium, Coraline then points at it while calling to her battle partner,
"Inuyasha, the red skull, up there! Focus your attacks on tha'!"
"What red skull?!"
Yura sucks in a sharp breath, realizing,
Damn! The maiden's figured out my weak spot!
She makes the motion to lunge at the other girl before any damage could be made, but Inuyasha wasn't having it.
"No you don't!"
He breaks out of his tendril bindings and leaps after her...
"Stop pulling my hair!"
"Whoooa!"
Coraline holds on for dear life as Yura forces the hair mass upward, and Inuyasha tries to intervene, only to dodge another set of tendrils.
"Whoa, whoa!"
The hair demon then sends her wakizashi sword up at the human.
"You're tangling it all up!"
"Gah!"
(SLA-Clang)
"Got you...Uh!"
Coraline may have been knocked off the mass (yelling all the while), but Yura watches the descending form with confusion, realizing the sword didn't make contact with flesh!
Im-possible!
"What are you?!...Why don't you bleed?!"
She then traps the redhead by the wrists in a set of hair tendrils, unaware that the latter was just as befuddled if not more so.
Yura does have a point. Why wasn' m' arm chopped off, and how did I avoid being scorched?
(Flash)
"It's made with the hair of the Fire Rat...You'll have some protection at least."
(Flash)
Inuyasha...
Yura's voice cuts into the human's thoughts as she examines her more closely.
"Even from here, you look mortal enough to me...Let's put you to the test."
The demon leaps back and shoots a few strands at Coraline, which wrap around her throat!
"Ah! Nnh!"
The redhead forces herself still against the choke hold of the hairs, just Inuyasha voice rings in through the air.
"BLADES, OF, BLOOD!"
(SLASH)
"Auuuugh...!"
Yura is hit true from the multiple red blades, her body dematerializing and no longer having control over her demonic follicles! Coraline's neck relaxes from the weakened hold of the hairs, and she emits a rasped mutter of the half-demon's name just as she and the cocoon of hair begins falling...
"Don't you faint on me, you stupid girl!"
Thankfully, Inuyasha's able to reach her in a mid-air jump, putting one arm around her waist and the other around the front on her shoulder as they slowly descend to the ground, flinching a bit from the crashing hair and skulls...
"Gh! Inuyasha, look out!"
(STAB)
"Auuuh!"
Coraline's warning comes a few seconds late, and the boy is stabbed by Yura's katana through his upper chest!...It retracts back to the source, who's somehow still alive!
"You again...?!"
"You forget I'm immortal!"
She sends her blade out again...when suddenly-
"Uh-hh!"
(Tok, tok, tok, tok...)
The weapon stops in mid-trajectory. Why? Panning to the side, we see that Coraline had relocated the mysterious red skull, and is now stabbing the top of it repeatedly with a single arrow!
"I'm onto you, Yura! This is your source of power, so it's gotta go, along with yeu!"
"STOP THAT! I'LL KILL YOU!"
"You're, finished!...Haaaaa-ah!"
(TOK...C-CRACK)
Coraline manages to break open the skull in time, slamming through the bone to the bottom-center and ultimately stopping the incoming wakizashi sword!
(POW, sheen...)
The inside of the broken skull glows, revealing the shape of a comb - aka Yura's true from - which snaps in two...
"Huh?...Uuuuuhhhhh..."
And just like that, Yura of the Hair is no more, her body dissolving in the wind...Panting heavily in relief, Coraline reaches to pick up the broken comb just as Inuyasha wanders over, a hand on his shoulder to cover his wound.
"So that's what Yura really was..."
"Guess tha' would explain the theme of her attacks...Actually, thinkin' about it, she was jus' a few marks off from the infamous ghoul Harionago..."
"Never heard of 'em. Anyway, that comb more than likely had its power 'cause it was once used to comb the hair of the dead. Yura didn't really use so much it as it used her...Rrrgh!"
The half-demon then drops to one knee, cringing from the full extent of his injuries. Coraline says to him worriedly,
"Inuyasha! That stab wound in your chest. It only happened because I've go' your kimono..."
"It's, no big deal. What happened to the Shikon-no-Tama?"
The redhead finds the pouch atop the modified shinobi tunic left behind by the demon that once wore it.
"It's here...Hm, yet I can' help bu' wonder how long it'll be before the rest o' the shards will show themselves..."
"...Coraline, let's go."
The girl turns Inuyasha's way in surprise, causing him to ask,
"What?"
"(Stands up) That was, the firs' time you've addressed me by name..."
"Yeah, what of it?"
"(Slight smile) I jus' think you're warmin' up to me as I am to you."
Inuyasha brushes her comment off with a huff and replies dryly,
"Tch, don't get excited...I still think that you're pretty useless."
Coraline forms a light glare and retorts,
"Huh, well excuse me for havin' your back!"
She pats him on said area, causing him to cringe in pain and fall over on his side.
"Gayh!"
"If your injuries were that bad, why didn' you speak up?!"
"L...Leave me alone!"
And what about Kaede?
...We~ll, unfortunately she's still buried in that hiding place in the forest...
"Inuyasha, only by working together will ye triumph...Also, don't ye dare forget where ye had buried me."