Chapter 3: Lady Centipede and Inuyasha
We all sit around the fire with awkwardness thick in the air, each one of us has a bowl of stew in our laps, but Kaede is the only one eating while Kagome and I are still as stone; bewildered by the entire situation. Kagome got here a bit similar to me; she was looking for her pet cat around her shrine's well when she was suddenly pulled in by some ugly monster – however she managed to escape and when climbing out of the well she had somehow gotten here, where ever here is.
When I tried explaining to her my situation she gave me a funny look as if I were just joking and waltzed here magically. It doesn't surprise me that she acted like that, we both had it rough getting here and it's still a strange scenario but we should be sticking together on this, right?
Kagome has always been popular from what I heard at school and we never talked much during any of our classes but recently we were partnered for a science project that we both had to present together. It was the reason why I went to her house to begin with.
Together, after Kagome had arrived, we tried explaining to Kaede where we are from but she didn't even know how to pronounce Tokyo. Matter in fact she didn't even know what a city is. The longer we sat around the fire, watching it burn and churn while it had cooked us our meal, the more I believed the Torii myth and that this really isn't a dream.
"Ye are in Japan," Kaede concludes finally, after a long pause of silence, "And in the village that has long been under my protection. For many years I have lived here and have guarded it as my sister Kikyo did before me. That was over 50 years ago. She died when I was but a child." She takes a long hard look at Kagome, something she has been doing for the entire time Kagome has been here, Kagome and I just glance at one another.
"Is that why you attacked us? You were guarding your village?" Kagome asks.
"Aye, bid us no ill thoughts. Ye just…" She looks us over and lingers on our similar clothing.
"We aren't normal." I reply for her.
"Aye."
"But we don't look like demons, like you said." Kagome brings up. Probably unlike Kagome I tried to keep in mind that if this wasn't a dream, then maybe this is a lost society that I've stumbled upon and to them we could very much look…I don't know, demonic?
Kaede frowns, closes her eye and lets out an uncomfortable sigh. "Some demons can take on the form of anyone. We have been at war with them since before I can remember."
"Between you and demons? I guess we should get going soon." Kagome mumbles half to herself; she turns to me with an uncomfortable smile and expression.
I don't know what to say to her other than apologize, "I am sorry but I don't know how to get back home."
"How did you get here again? You said you were shoved through the torii gate at the bottom of my shrine's stairs?"
I nod in response. I could have been shoved…or even pulled but from what I can remember, no one was around me at the time I was sent through. Her eyes soften when I don't give an answer and she returns to looking down at her stew. She must miss her family – we've only been here for maybe an hour but this is all so much to take in.
"I am sorry," I mutter again, earning back her attention. She looks surprised now at my words and I would probably be surprised too if I could feel.
"It's not your fault."
"But…"
Suddenly, a series of thundering crashes shake the ground like an earthquake, we all grab for support, I catch hold of the window frame at my side and as I do a warning bell clangs from somewhere nearby. An earsplitting roar bellows over the village forcing me to clamp my hands over my ears like irons but it's too late, I can already see dots of colors obscuring my vision.
Kaede rushes out of the hut beside me and seconds after Kagome wobbles to her feet to follow, without much of choice I do the same. Outside, almost the entire village is flocking towards the crash, weapons ready and at their sides.
"What's going on?" Kaede yells for a response. Just as she asks a giant centipede with the upper torso of a woman towers over us all, a limp horse grasped tightly in its jaw. Blood sprinkle down upon us from the gaping puncture wounds; some trickles down the woman's chin and over her bare nipple-less chest.
A demon. This must be what Kaede was talking about.
Villagers begin to shoot arrows, throw torches and even charge with swords at the demon but nothing pierces through her hide. They still try, over and over to no avail.
The demon thrashes in response; her long body crushes innocent villagers and huts alike, all in her large wake. With a pleased hiss at the damage she caused, she flings the horse from her jaws in our direction, instinctively I rush to pull Kagome and myself out of the way and just barely remove us from where the horse lands. I look around for Kaede and see her on the opposite side safe from the fatal damage the horse would have inflicted.
A foul order quickly reaches my nose; I cringe at the awful scent.
"What the hell is that thing?!" Kagome screams. I'm up on my feet as swiftly as I can go and help Kagome afterwards, we both stare up at the blood covered demon.
"Where is it? I must have the sacred jewel!" The demon bellows, my heart pulses along with her words, the demon's blank, white eyes turn to Kagome and she steps back into me in fear. "Give it to me!"
The demon slithers in our direction, a malicious smile on its bloody lips. It leaps for her and without hesitation I grab Kagome's shoulders and throw us out of harm's way again, dodging the demon's attack by inches. We catch our footing just as the demon comes to swing at us again with failed precision.
"It said Sacred Jewel!" Kaede shouts, "You have the jewel!"
"I'm not sure…" Kagome tries to respond but she's in too much fear, she stares up in terror at the demon so much her legs lock below her. I can't feel fear but I know action. I have to be her saving grace right now. The centipede cackles down at us, swinging at the arrows still being shot at her. They bounce off her hide like bothersome flies.
"I must have it! I must!" The demon cackles again. She starts to spin before us, faster and faster, until she takes on the appearance and devastating power of a massive tornado that barrels over everything and anything in its path. Villagers and buildings are left in ruins as the living still fight a pointless battle. Women and children flee the village, but will they escape?
Kagome shivers next to me, fear and disgust cover her face. How can a jewel be worth all this destruction?
"We must lure it to the dry well!" Kaede commands the few fighting villagers left.
"Dry well?" I ask.
"S-she must mean the bone eater's well, right?" Kagome stutters hysterically.
"Aye! In the forest of Inuyasha!" Kaede reaches for a bow and quiver from a fallen villager and prepares an arrow.
"Which way is the forest?" Kagome asks.
Before Kaede has the chance to answer I spot a dim light glowing over the tree line to our right, my heart pulses seeing it, that's the forest I came from – the one with the man stuck to the tree. I nudge Kagome, pointing off into the direction of the light, she must see it too because she bursts off into a sprint towards it.
In reaction, I follow and only look back to gain the centipede's attention, "Hey, ugly! We have your damned jewel!" It's the only thing that comes to mind and it works. The demon freezes its torrent of destructions and narrows its sight on us. "Run, Kagome!"
"What do you think I'm doing!" She yells.
Without bothering to check we sprint side by side pass the rice paddies and into the first border of trees. The heavy slithering and shaking of the ground tells us we gained the demon's full attention and is close behind. We slide down a small inlet into a shallow stream, grunting at the excess weight the water adds as we kick through, struggling to thrust ourselves into the forest on the other side.
"We are close!" I yell over the loud sliding. I can see the light burning brighter and brighter as we near, finally passing the border of the forest but the closer we get the closer the demon does.
Out from the corner of my eye I catch sight of one of the centipede's arms reaching out for us. I try not to alert Kagome; I don't want her to scream in fear but to focus on the escape. But she sees it too, and lets out a high pitch squeal that hurts my ears.
I am at a loss, there is nothing I can do for us. I have no fear and I can't fight this beast, but I know we need help. I need to do something. Maybe there are villagers, those very few fighting men left, following us? Maybe someone's out there in these woods, travelers, merchants, who might help us? It's all I have left. "Help!" I shout. "Somebody help us!"
A surge of power bursts out in waves from my body and soul, each sending ripples through the air that pushes trees, disturbs the stream behind us and even sends the demon far enough back to give us a little extra time. I don't care to ask what it was, how it happened or where exactly in me it came from, I just follow the wave the leads us on as it pushes bushes, branches and shrubs out from our way. The current finally blasts through the clearing and into the man on the tree where it hits him full force. Instead of pushing him or causing damage, it rebounds off of his body several times like a pulse coming to life…
I have to narrow my eyes just to see the smallest twitch of his dog-like ears; once…twice…and then his fingers crack and his nails extend into pointed claws. Suddenly his eyes flash open with two angry amber orbs turning towards us.
An explosion erupts at the back of our feet sending both of us twirling in the air; I flip once and land with my entire weight onto my back, shocks run through me with extreme pain. If this was a dream, I wouldn't have felt that. Kagome skids on her belly to my right making an 'ouf' sound.
We both groan in pain, dizzy and in shock from the attack, we didn't realize we are right under the man on the tree.
"Hello, Kikyo," a sneering voice says above us, "Why haven't you destroyed her with a single blast, Kikyo, like you did to me." We both look up, confused on who he's talking to and that he is even alive to begin with. But we see no one else around us and where he's staring is exactly at Kagome.
"H-How are you alive?" I ask.
"Why are you playing with second-raters, Kikyo?" He sneers again, paying no mind to my question.
We both stare at him silently, watching him talk as if he's all okay when there is an arrow in his chest.
"Why so surprised? Shouldn't be considering you're the one that shot me!" He laughs scornfully. "Should have known I'd still be alive and kicking."
An ache runs along my body when I roll onto my side, it gets worse when I catch my footing, cracking my back from just standing straight.
"I didn't shoot you! I don't even know how to hold a bow much less shoot one!" She shouts.
The ground beneath us rumbles angrily, I have to balance carefully or else I'd be on my back again. "What the hell?"
"You look pretty dumb there, Kikyo. The Kikyo I know wouldn't waste her time and would just kill the damned thing." He says, seemingly enjoying Kagome's burst of anger.
"Kikyo this, Kikyo that!" Kagome snaps, jumping from the ground to a standing position with no problem while I am still here hurting from my back injury. "I am not this Kikyo person! My name is…"
The demon's ears twitch; a growl rumbles out from his chest. He looks alert, eyes searching the area. "She's here."
I circle our surrounding with my eyes myself but it's too late. The centipede drops down from the thick canopy of the tree before us cackling wildly. "Give it to me! I can sense it!" She hisses, she drops further and widens around us. Her body is massive, longer than I thought originally, it moves swiftly around us just about to close the gap between her, us and the tree when from behind us a few harpoons shoot into her body digging deep into the meat of her flesh. A group of men from the village begins to pull, tugging the demon's body away from us.
"Pull, pull!" They shout, encouraging one another. The demon is heavy and they struggle to get her body any further away from us.
"You're pathetic, Kikyo." The dog demon scoffs, looking away from Kagome.
Ever since I arrived here and they found Kagome, it's all been about her and this Kikyo person. It's hard to concentrate when the two of them are bickering. Don't we have bigger problems?
"Listen up; I am NOT Kikyo! I am Kagome. Ka-go-me." Kagome shouts louder, blocking off the sound of the men heaving in the background.
This is enough!
"Stop!" I command, stomping in-between the two, "We have bigger things to worry about." I wave a hand towards the demon who the villagers are having a harder time holding. The two pause staring at me with awe with almost silence surrounding us, at least if it weren't for the villagers grunting and groaning and the demon hissing in retaliation in the background.
The dog demon sniffs the air and then frowns in defeat. "You aren't her." He says astonished. He eyes us both with a little less anger swirling in those amber eyes than before.
"Told you!" She retorts.
The dog demon looks away, both annoyance and disappointment runs his cheeks pale. "Kikyo was cuter." He whispers.
I roll my eyes, I mean seri – my thoughts are cut off when something thick and heavy rams into my waist slamming me up and against the dog demon's chest. My feet dangle from the height, my back aches worse than before but my heart races like the moment I first entered this clearing hours ago. There, in my chest, I can feel the tingling fighting against the pain.
I don't know how the demoness missed Kagome but I know she's safely at a distance from the tree and the centipede because I can hear the demoness moving about, stretching her body around us more and more. "Give me the sacred jewel!" She demands.
The dog demon is unbothered by the tightness that envelopes us, no, now he's interested on what's going on. He's watching the scene with new surprise in his eyes that I can only figure comes from an interest for the jewel also.
The demoness charges at Kagome, sharp fangs out and ready to grab. Kagome squeals and holds out her hands to protect herself and then, the most unusual thing happens. A purple light glows from her palms and blasts into and through the centipede, crippling the beast of all five of her arms. They drop to the forest floor with a thud where they start turning into puffs of smoke as if they are burning from the inside out.
Kagome looks down at her hands in surprise, we all do, well…except for me. I watch in apathy as a bright pink glow starts to appear under her thin white school girl shirt, right where her left rib cage is. "What's going on?" She asks in shock.
"There it is! My sacred jewel!" Lady centipede hisses with glee, showing no pain to the detached limbs, she rockets forward while Kagome is distracted and pierces her with her sharp fangs right where the glowing is located. A blood curdling scream tears from Kagome's lips, blood flows freely amidst the air. The demon thrashes her back and forth, flinging Kagome in every direction.
The dog demon and I watch helplessly as she rags dolled around, flinching at every single one of her painful screams. And just like that Kagome is released, thrown up in the air where blood twist like a dance and a pink-purple sphere falls out from her wound.
The only thing keeping Kagome alive from the fall was her sliding down every part of the centipede's body on the way to the ground, slowing her decent enough for her to roll onto the grass below with the pinkish purple gem landing beside her.
"Give me the jewel!" The dog demon barks, frantically moving against me and our captor. There is little he can do; it is like the arrow has punctured a part of his body that refrains from moving any major limb other than small twitches.
Kagome groans in pain, her hands are planted on her open wound and is trying to hold it close as best to her ability. She is in too much pain to be coherent to protect the jewel. Now we both struggle helplessly against the centipede's body.
"Inuyasha – half demon spawn who is after the sacred jewel," cackles the monster, lowering herself to just above eye level of the jewel. "At last we meet." She tightens her hold around the dog demon and I. I grimace in pain and Inuyasha; who I am assuming in the dog demon's name, hardly flinches.
Half demon…I look up at Inuyasha expecting him to be in some sort of pain by now but he just smirks evilly at the centipede whose body constructs tighter around us.
"Don't insult me, mistress centipede, if I wanted, our meeting would've been very short and your last."
"I need you to stop talking and fight her." I groan with a hoarse breath. He looks down at me with surprise, his lips parting to say something but the centipede interrupts.
"You cannot move, can you, Inuyasha?" The centipede hisses. A long, slimy tongue glides out from in-between her lips and with it she picks up the jewel and swallows it hole.
"N-No, it's mine!" Inuyasha yells.
"She ate the magic gem!" Yells a man from behind me.
"This cannot be!" I hear Kaede not too far away.
The severed arms of the centipede rise up from the ground and like magnets, are drawn back into the demon's body, remolding themselves to her shape. With renewed strength, she tightens her grip on us more so than before.
I cry out when my shoulder rams into Inuyasha's abdomens, they feel like stone against my flesh. What is he made…rock? I search frantically for an escape but my eyes keeping landing on the arrow in Inuyasha's chest. Our eyes meet along the sight of the arrow; in the background we can hear the sound of flesh being torn apart. I force myself to glance away from Inuyasha and behind me, the centipede is shedding her human skin for a more reddish-purple hide with two large red eyes replacing what was left making her humanoid.
"Such power! Such joy!" She cackles.
The centipede grips harder and harder, I can barely breathe, my vision starts to blur out.
"Hey," Inuyasha's voice echoes through the dark of my mind, it sounds so good in my head…Good. I can feel that little sensation. "This arrow, can you pull it out?"
Squinting my eyes up at the arrow, I can barely make it out from the fog surrounding my vision. I struggle to pull my arm loose and once I release it I reach for the arrow but it seems so far way. I fight. I fight to reach it.
"Nay, child." I hear Kaede yell, but all I feel is pain and I want release. My fingers skim over the thin wood. Almost there. "That arrow contains the spell! You must not free him!"
"And what do you want, witch?! To become the demon's dessert! Once her body fully accepts the jewel none of us will be able to stop her!" Their bickering becomes shadows mixed in my head with the demon's grunting and snarling, "Well, girl?! Do you want to die here with me?!"
No…I don't want to die…
My fingers wrap around the arrow and with the last of my strength I pull the arrow. Live…Live again!
A loud whistling blasts in our ears, following it a blinding white light explodes from the arrow for several seconds until I rip it free from his chest. The arrow disintegrates into dust in my hand and for a moment, everything is still…
Then the stillness is interrupted – Inuyasha's whole body begins to pulsate with an awakening power that I can feel in the pits of my soul.
Finally giving into the fog, my body slumps weak and fragile against Inuyasha, my head rolls limp on his chest that rumbles in satisfaction. His heart beats along with his chuckling that escalate from victorious to malicious cackles.
The centipede growls, sensing that its control over Inuyasha is now waning and constricts itself as tight as he can around us and the tree. The tree cracks in several places as a result of the sheer force of her new strength, but I don't feel the pain any longer. With a tremendous roar, Inuyasha blasts us out from the centipede's hold, her bits of flesh flinging everywhere.
I'm thrown out from the blast and land alongside Kagome, I take deep, heavy breaths now that I can finally breathe. Every inch of my skin tingles from having been asleep from blood restriction. Kagome is more stable now than before next to me, she looks over my entire body with hollowing eyes from the major wounds, but any wounds on me would be internal.
"Bout time!" Inuyasha leaps from his entrapment of the tree and lands gracefully crouched behind the enraged lady centipede.
"You, child!" She hisses.
"Nasty hag!" cackles Inuyasha; he cracks his claws by just clenching his fingers and every joint along with hand and wrist follows.
The centipede charges at him with full speed, he leaps up recklessly into the air meeting the demon's attack halfway, he shouts, "Iron reaver soul stealer!" His claws burning red, he slashes through the centipede like butter, easily splitting her in half and to pieces with an erupted explosion. Limbs, bits of pieces of flesh and blood rain down upon us.
"With a single strike!" A man says in awe.
Inuyasha lands neatly on the ground surrounded by the mess he's caused with a satisfied grin. He observes his work with excited eyes. "I was expecting more of a challenge."
A grunt comes from me when I lean up from my side; Inuyasha is looking down at Kagome and I. Her hands are still plastered to her wound, she's pale and fatigue, blood stains her school uniform just as the centipede's stains mine. The ground around us is a swamp of bug parts and blood, it smells like rotten flesh.
He did this? With a single move? I would look up at him with awe if only I could feel it.
A flicker of movement catches my attention from my peripherals, pieces of the deceased centipede's body begins twitching and sliding towards the center of the mess.
"Why is it moving?" Kagome asks.
"Can you see a place where the flesh glows?" Kaede asks from behind us. I don't know how or when she got here but she spooks the both of us. We both search the torn limbs with careful eyes but Kagome spots it first and points a bloodied finger in the direction where, I too, see a glowing light.
I don't need her saying another word; I push myself off the ground and half-crawl and half-run to the hide the jewel burns in. Without thinking I plunge my hand into the grimy flesh and tear out the jewel and just as I do the limbs all around us burst back into smoke just as they had before she swallowed it.
The Shikon jewel, its round sphere pinkish-purple glows brilliantly in my hand; I rub the grime off its smooth surface using my white shirt and look hard at this tiny thing that causes so much despair and destruction. In its reflection I expected to see myself but instead I see what I see every night when I sleep; a battle waging war between a single woman and a hoard of demons. My heart races at the sight, my very dream in my tiny hand.
"You're telling me that, that jewel that came out of me, gives powers to demons?" Kagome asks.
"Exactly!" Inuyasha sneers, dragging me from my stupor. "So why bother keeping it? Hand over the Shikon Jewel right now and I won't have to sharpen my claws on you." He threatens, cracking his knuckles.