Chapter 7: More than just your average girl
The forest thickens as the shadows of nightfall drape around me, every corner is consumed by this darkness making it impossible for me to follow the trail of broken thread. With the village men far behind me, their moans and groans drowned out by complete silence, I can solely focus on the heart beat - like throb of my skin. Every bruise and scrape comes alive and reminds me of the last few days that have been the most brutal out of my entire life. It's hard not to believe that this place is real now with so much physical pain telling me that I am most definitely not asleep.
Before today, this pain would be no more than a faint echo on my flesh telling me that it thrives but now that the emptiness within me is gone, the world is clearer - sharp and in focus. I can even feel the slightest difference in the temperature from one area to the next but most of all, I can feel the cool breeze as it plummets through my nose down into my body filling my lungs full of chilling air. I shiver.
That's not all that's different. No. The most unique difference I have noticed is the sharpness of my mind. It feels unlocked, as if someone took tiny little gold keys and unbolted parts of the brain that weren't meant to be unlocked before - to the point where I feel I've read a pile of books and gained all their endless knowledge within the few seconds that beam had hit me.
I don't think I am the smartest person alive but I sure do feel ...unlocked...in some small way.
"Keara, Inuyasha!" Kaede yells. Her frail, old voice is croaking and it's loud and clear.
She's close by. I quicken my speed and narrow my eyes in false hope they'll be able to focus on the smaller surroundings just in case I might have missed something. "Kaede?" I begin, "Where are you..." Right as the words leave me my foot hitches onto a mound of dirt, I stumble forward pathetically waving my arms about to catch myself. By chance my right hand grips onto a layer of bark from a tree next to me and I keep myself from plummeting into the ground below.
"Right here." She speaks again. This time she's behind me, low to the ground. I look over my shoulder down to the mound that tripped me to see that she is the very mound I fell upon. She's a hill beneath a blanket of dirt and dry leaves, her head the only limb that's not covered, lies on a pillow of fresh green leaves.
You got to be joking. Out of all places he could have taken her or put her, he buried her? That can't be good for her wound.
"Inuyasha is searching for Kagome." She breaks my distraction.
An immediate anger washes over me. And I bet to hell she has the damn jewel. Lost again. Again! I glance around in a full circle in search for any sign of the jewel but I come up empty handed. I get the whole, 'She's a protector' deal but she's not at all good at it. So why is she so damn important and trusted with it? Every single day we've been here.
Every. Damn. Day. She's lost it. And even broke it!
I grit my teeth painfully but I can't seem to stop. My hands curl into fists, red begins to take over the edges of every object around me. I want to scream again. I want to beat her into dust. She's not taking any of this seriously! And yet the villagers think she's some kind of god!
"I see." Kaede replies to my silent rant, I look down at her in a bit of surprise. "Ye have finally found a piece of ye's soul."
Just like that, my anger drains out of me and sinks into the earth below. I furrow my brows in confusion. Not quite understanding what she means.
"Ye lacked something. An empty vessel wandering aimlessly without any emotion. Ye must have missed your soul but ye still lacks all of it." She continues.
The events from earlier replays fresh in my mind: the jewel shattering, the beam of lights it released, how one dived bombed into my body and how my flesh sucked it up like it was dehydrated - only then did I begin to feel. Is that what she means? That light from the jewel, is my soul? Or a part of it.
Is that even possible, and how? Am I really questioning this - I am in feudal japan due to a Torii gate after all.
"Ye plays a bigger role in this destiny than ye knows. Kagome and Inuyasha can search for the jewels but ye needs them. Once the jewel is complete only then will ye be complete. The breaking was only the beginning. I do not know why or how, but ye are more connected to the Shikon no Tama than even my sister Kikyo."
Shivers run through me. A mixture of excitement and doubt hits me. I remember the moment the Jewel itself called out to me. It called for help. It called my name for help. I don't think Inuyasha heard it...and if he did he didn't respond to it. "Well...It did call out to me earlier just before it was taken and broken." Just remembering those hundreds of voices fresh in my mind makes me feel little guilty. I thought if I mentioned this before that I would be seen as one of the monsters that wanted it to myself.
At the same time. I didn't feel as if I wanted to possess it. I wanted to protect it.
"A connection so deep its spiritual."
That's it! A connection - that's what that woman from my dream said. I'm connected but her lips didn't spell out spiritually. "Connected with my soul..." It's the only thing that makes sense. I've gained a part of my soul from the shattering and now my other parts must be with the other pieces.
"I can tell with your eyes. Your eyes are no longer empty."
So even if I did want to go back to the present I couldn't until I find all those pieces otherwise I'd go back not myself. Not like I was myself before...Not like anyone in the present is waiting for me either.
My heart starts to race, a tingling rushes through me, I hear an almost silent murmuring from my distant right. I can't make out the words. Kaede doesn't seem to hear it. She peers up at me with a stern look. Maybe it's the jewel like before...
I lift my head up high and hold my breath: listening. Only dead silence. Not even the song of crickets or patting of the breeze on the tree branches.
"It's calling for ye." Kaede notices, "Kagome can protect it, ye are a part of it. It can seek ye, ye can seek it."
I ignore her comment about Kagome, no longer needing the anger to control my mood and continue to concentrate on the murmuring. I close my eyes and empty my mind. Silence and darkness. Focus. Focus...The image of the jewel and the woman trapped inside starts to circulate.
"Help." The word is ghostly, like a whisper in my ear from an invincible source who's not strong enough to call out loud. "Help!" It defines itself, blasting like a microphone now.
My eyes shoot open, just like that the darkness around me is highlighted with a faint glow. I can see the shapes of trees and bushes - and there off in the far distance glowing through the thicket of the woods is a purplish light. It shines and sparkles, its small but bright. It's my green light.
There is no pausing this now. I burst full speed in the direction of the purple light and ignore the pain that follows.
There they are! Just beyond the tree line is a sight I would have never imagined - a scene full of hair.
In the middle of an open dirt field hangs a massive ball of black hair, it's held up by thick streams of tight black tresses that clutch at the trees in the distance, somehow managing to stand straight and strong beneath the heavy weight.
High off the ground, on a fine wiry string of black hair that can't be any thicker than one strand of my own, stands on her tipsy toes a thin pale woman. She wears a revealing black dress that hikes up her mid thighs and exposes the entirety of her cleavage. Purple eyes gleam spitefully down at a hurt Inuyasha, blood stains his white under shirt, it leaks and leaks but he's defenseless - his wrists and ankles are strung tight as he dangles far off the ground.
"Inuyasha!" Kagome shouts from ahead of me. I can spot her now that I've entered the field, she's wearing Inuyasha's red Kimono over her head and shoulders, a bow and quiver lie a few feet away from her. She looks confused and lost, unsure what to do with our strongest member of our group at the clutches of a female demon.
The most she could do is try something! Even with a piece of soul returned to me, I know when to take action and when to be afraid.
The woman smiles, her tiny red lips a mere crescent on her white face, her eyes glisten with excitement. She brings up her own blade - a medium sized tachi - to her lips and licks the entire length of the blade seductively. She lets out a little giggle, "I'll make you into sushi." She puns. Like a dancer she leans forward elegantly, both arms lifting to her sides as she drops down towards Inuyasha with the blade aiming down at Inuyasha's chest.
No you don't! My heart skips a beat and adrenaline pumps through my veins. I can feel it like a venom as it fuels me. I skid to Kagome's side snatching the bow so quick Kagome couldn't keep up as I string an arrow faster than I expected myself. I hear Kagome whisper my name at my side but I choose to ignore her existence and focus my anger and strength on my shot. I free the arrow right where I expect her body to drop and hold my breath as the tail of the arrow flicks the arc of the bow.
The sound of whistling fills our impatient ears; the arrow skims across the woman's upper chest, marring her perfectly plump breasts only enough to cause a tiny stream of blood to trail down their sides. Not a direct hit but it causes her to pause midair. With amazing acrobatic skills, she leaps back up to her perch from before. She glances down at us in surprise, not at all showing any pain from my attack.
I respond by grabbing another arrow and stringing it tight. "Let him go!" I order, narrowing my eyes, and the more I do so, more adrenaline rushes through me, igniting a fire I've never felt before. A confidence. "Or the next one will leave a permanent hole!"
"Who ARE you?" She pronounces.
Kagome finally takes a stand, her tiny hands coil to fists at her sides, "You heard her!"
"I think they want you back, Inuyasha! What a sweet widdle doggie you must be."
"Keara, get Kagome and hide!" Inuyasha snaps.
But my arrow doesn't falter, I keep aim and steady. Unafraid and sure of myself. I wasn't dropped here to this world to run away.
"Shoot her, Keara." Kagome demands.
The more the commands are being shouted at me the harder it is getting to hold the string. My right arm starts to shake and it has me wary. What if I can't hit her now? I was surprised that I got so close with my last shot since this is the first time I've ever handled a bow.
"Shoot!" Kagome's scream is right in my ear, startling me so much my fingers release the arrow with a pathetic turn of the bow. The arrow pierces through the sky right for Inuyasha's upper back.
He lets out a grunt, using all this strength just to heave himself midair in a random direction just to duck out of the way but he does it just in time for the arrow to barely miss him. After it passes his head it takes a sudden nose dive straight into the middle of the massive hair ball.
"Hey! Watch where you're shooting!" Inuyasha growls, I snap an angry glare at Kagome who freezes under my sight.
A sharp, loud whistling interrupts us, we all turn our attention back to the arrow, out from where it landed a purplish light streams from the puncture it inflicted. The light grows and grows like the blast from the Shikon Jewel when it broke and as it does so, the circle widens literally melting away the hair and unleashing countless waves of black locks decorated with skinless skulls.
The smell of death fills the air, Kagome and I both begin to cough from the sudden intrusion of our lungs.
"Oh no!" The woman yells. She runs her fingers down her face dramatically, "What have you done?!"
The skulls look familiar, freshly scraped free of the burden of flesh, the only remnants left is the hair that is still attached to the scalp. The hair runs long and twines itself within the much larger lock of black tresses. That's when I notice it, I know those skulls somehow.
"Those guys...We saw them in the village." Inuyasha points out before I can. Kagome looks at the both of us, her eyes slowly widening in sickening horror.
If the demon is freaking out from just that little exposed hole, then the hair ball must be her power source - her domain. The ball of hair is huge - there could be a considerably large amount of dead bodies inside. The more we destroy it, the chances we have to destroy her.
"I'll be putting you in here too," she looks back at Inuyasha with a simple smile, "But first those humans have to die!"
With the twist of her left wrist a small oriental red comb appears in her hand. It's the kind I've seen geisha's use in my history books, it's so tiny that I can't imagine it gives off a dangerous vibe - that is - until she swings it towards us.
Four lines of fire rain down towards us, with left or right being my only escape, I leap to the side dropping the bow as I go. When the fire hits I look over my shoulder; Kagome didn't budge, the fire takes over her and the entire area surrounding her but she doesn't burn. She collapses to her knees before curling up into a little ball safely under Inuyasha's red Kimono. Her face is tense but I can see she's not at all harmed and I don't know how the kimono is doing it.
The demoness doesn't seem to notice this though, and instead let's out a sweet giggle of pleasure. She may have not caught us both but she caught one. The fire breathes on and on the longer the woman watches - I don't know how strong Inuyasha's kimono is but I have to do something before she runs out of time!
"Now for you!" The demoness turns her attention on me. I'm quick to stand back up and glare at her head on; I'm not afraid of a ball of hair or the bitch who spits it out. She lifts her comb immediately; my right foot moves back in readiness to bolt.
She grins.
I hold my breath.
"Blades of Blood!" Inuyasha punctures his chest wound without so much as a flinch of pain and then swings his bloody hand at the demoness releasing bloody claw-like blades in a row of four. One blades catch her right wrist, the hand that holds the blade, and cuts it off like butter. She doesn't wince, not even a sound of pain. No, instead, she looks bewildered that she didn't see it coming.
For a split second the hairs holding Inuyasha loosen but for not long, they tighten back up once she notices she's been hit. Off in the distance, her hand dangles from a few strands of hair with the blade still tight in its grip.
Inuyasha glances at me, I catch a glimpse of them skipping to the forest. He's telling me to run. He knew his attack wouldn't kill her but it did gain her attention. He looks away from me as quick as he glimpses and back up at the demon.
"Serves ya right!" He shouts.
"I do wish you'd use some restraint when addressing a lady, were you brought up in a doghouse?" A rhythm of clanking noises comes from the mouths of the skulls. Really, are they laughing?
The demon places the red comb in her mouth and then lifts her left hand up towards Inuyasha, along with the movement the skulls fly up out from the hair and directly at him like flying missiles. He's quick to break each approaching skull with a quick twist and turn of his wrists.
Now's my chance!
I search for the best route to help. Obviously she's not getting hurt physically. I search the length of the hair and hair ball, seeing nothing but endless black and skulls...wait...
In the abyss of grey and tan skulls I spot an unusual color to be mixed in. I spot a red skull hanging half way up the stream of hair that drapes down to the ground from the arrow that melted it away.
"That must be it..." I whisper to myself. I take a quick look over my shoulder at Kagome; the fire has faded completely now with the demon's attention elsewhere but she's still curled up and shivering in fear. Making absolutely no move to help.
Some protector.
I burst full speed for the stream of hair and skulls, behind me are the sound of Inuyasha and the demon fighting it out, after the cracking of skulls mix the noises of clashing and roaring with the occasional grunt of pain from Inuyasha and the snappy comments of the demon. I keep myself from looking back, I know at any moment the demon can turn and see me heading for her precious hair. I have to end this.
When I am close enough I leap as high as I can at the river of hair, clutching with both hands onto the silky, almost oily and sickening smelling hair. I try not to vomit immediately. It's death and bad greasy hair smell mixed together and right up near my nose.
Concentrate.
I look up, spot the skull, hold my breath and begin my slippery tread up the hair as swiftly as I can.
The sounds of a body dropping to the ground following the sound of flesh being torn reaches my ears. I bite my lip, forcing myself not to look back but panic rises in my stomach. I'm half way there...
The hair beneath me starts to shake back and forth, my grip tightens but I still manage to slip a few feet down because of the oiliness. I look over my shoulder and meet the demon's eyes glaring up at me. They are purplish pink and furious. I guess I didn't notice their full color before. But what I do see is her right hand is back attached to her wrist and a fist sized hole is in her is in her chest.
"You shouldn't have looked away!" Inuyasha yells, he has her blade - I don't know how but he does- with both hands the hilt he slashes down her turned back cutting right through her.
No blood spills. She doesn't fall limp like a normal person does. No. A river of hair passes along her wound and like that her body is repaired as if it never happened to begin with.
She's angry now. Her face is twisted and tight. She slowly turns to Inuyasha with gritting teeth. "All right..." Swinging her left hand up with five strings attached at each end of her fingers she prepares another attack we haven't seen before.
Inuyasha is already wounded, there is blood dripping on the front of his shirt that I can see. He needs help. I need to help him. Kagome is useless, afraid and scared - still curled up. With Inuyasha still kind of trapped by the hair, he can't do much.
I grab the nearest thing I can throw; a skull with a broken jaw, and tear it from its nest of hair. With one hand holding all my weight I use the other to chuck the skull at her head.
-Thunk!-
The skull smashes and breaks against the back of her head. She freezes still. All her muscles tighten and shake.
She's pissed.
"Inuyasha! Destroy the red skull!" I point up at the only discolored object in the mass of black, gray and neutral browns.
He struggles from side to side trying to see pass the hairess, "what red skull?!"
The demon growls much louder than before and then leaps down for me. Instinct has me start climbing again, I'll be damned to fall without a fight.
"Hey! No you don't!" Inuyasha yells; behind me I can hear the tearing of hair but I refuse to look back again, the hair I hold onto begins to shake and rife to life, this time it engulfs my legs. I can feel it trying to drag me down, pull me off - I kick though but it's getting harder and harder to climb.
From my peripherals I spot her, she somehow managed to get her sword back from Inuyasha and is now charging her way towards me with it aimed for my head. "Stop pulling my hair!" She screams.
Without thinking I release my hold on the hair to block my head with my hands, I plummet down to the world below, the wind embraces me with force until suddenly I come to an abrupt stop. My wrists are torn from my head and are tied up above me with thick lengths of greasy hair.
"Why don't you give up?!" She lands elegantly on a thin string a couple of feet in front of me. Her mask of anger is covered by a random thrill of excitement. She knows there is no way for me to defend myself and relishes in it. I'm stretched wide open with no armor to protect me. "We will see how much more fight you have in you while I slice you bit to bit!"
She whisks her left hand up into the air, following her movement drapes a thin thread of hair - that is nearly impossible to see if it didn't glisten from the moonlight - it circles my head leaving me feeling defenseless as it hangs down onto my shoulders.
It's loose at first and then as she snaps her fingers towards herself, it tightens sharply. A pain strangles my throat, only best described as a paper cut that encircles it entirely. It squeezes and squeezes, I try to fight against the hold by flexing my neck muscles but it doesn't work. The seconds pass slowly, my throat closes and I start to lose air, I breathe deep and slow but I can't fight it.
The world begins to spin.
"Blades of Blood!"
Bloody red blades fly through the demon, and this time, every single blade hits their target. The demon is sliced this way and that, detaching the connection of her with the hair. The string around my neck loosen and I take in the deepest breath of air I can. The locks around my wrists release and I begin to fall again.
I relax against the pressure of the wind this time, my eyes closing and I wait for the impact of the earth below. But seconds pass and no collision occurs, I reopen my eyes to find myself no longer falling but instead within Inuyasha's arms. They tighten just then, securing me against his chest as his amber eyes examine my throat.
He lands us gently on the ground with absolutely no thump and I see around us, the hair begins to fall like tidal waves and skulls drop to the ground, breaking and shattering like hail. He helps me stand on my own again.
This is it! Her world is being destroyed and she has little to no defense. She can't escape Inuyasha's attacks now that he's free and her main power source, the great ball of hair, has been broken. All connections are loss. We can win now.
Inuyasha's entire body tenses next to me, his muscles tighten and he dives in front of my body and as he does so a loud groan of pain leaves his lips. Coming from his back and through his chest specks of blood splatter across my face; the tip of the demon's sword has punctured right through him.
My heart stops.
His body limps forward, I reach out and capture him into my arms but he's too heavy for me to hold up. I slowly drop us to our knees and hold him against my chest. I feel the tug of the blade as it gets pulled out from his back from a fine thread controlled by the demoness. He whimpers from the pain; the blood begins to pool in my lap; the warmer it gets the stronger I hold. Parts of me want to believe the harder I grip, the less blood that will come out.
Don't you die on me. Don't you make me feel the guilt of you protecting me just to die...
A heat burns in me; I feel no guilt just plain rage. I want to hurt her. I want to rip out her heart. I want to beat her to the ground for hurting him. All for what? A damn shard. A. single. damn. shard.
She thrusts the blade behind her with the thread preparing a powerful speed and strength, as she throws her hand back towards us in a whip-like manner. My eyes narrow into thin slits daring her to try to kill me. I won't falter. I will come back and haunt your ass.
The tip of the blade comes so fast I don't have time to blink away the image and as it races closer and closer I feel the heat of my anger growing. Inches from my face it halts midair. From the speed the blade went flying, there is no longer any blood on its length, it shines and sparkles before me. Did I stop it? Did my anger pause her attack?
The sound of clanking fills all ears; we all turn our heads slowly to Kagome - she sits next to the red skull, striking it with a single arrow. Each time she strikes a pain crosses the demon's face, she pulsates.
"No!" The demon screams, the sword starts to swing back and I react.
I throw out my right hand and grab a hold of the blade, the sharp edge slices into my palm but I ignore the pain; the demon's eyes turn to mine and I show her how angry she's made me. My teeth grit together and I am sure my face is red with frustration. The blade is caught in my hold and though my arm tugs lightly, her strength is not enough to beat the strength of my anger and adrenaline mixing together.
"Kill her..." I hiss through my teeth.
Kagome grabs a hold of the arrow with both hands now using her entire body this time to slam it down and through the red skull. It cracks slowly relieving a tiny red comb similar to the demon's in all aspects, it shatters beneath the arrow's head.
"Oh..." The woman sighs out her last breath of air; all around us the hair, the sword, the skulls and even the demon herself begins to crumble into fine dust that blows away. All that's left is her tiny black dress that hovers down to the ground like a feather. From the garb I can see the purple sparkle of the shard as it plummets to the ground. It no longer calls for me for help.
Warmth seeps into my white top bringing my attention back to Inuyasha. He's weak in my arms but he already looks better from seconds ago. He no longer whimpers and even struggles to get up and out of my arms. My heart beats fast and strong but he doesn't notice. While I help him back up, Kagome picks up the broken comb and holds it up to examine its fractured form.
"So she was a comb." Inuyasha hunches forward a little when he stands, one arm grips to my shoulder for support. I glance down at my hand. There is a cut across my entire palm and it bleeds non-stop but I still don't feel that much pain from it. I look over my school uniform that used to be white and green, is now brown, black, red and other colors I don't even have a name for.
I sigh. All the anger within me I had moments ago washes out of me as if I just went under a shower.
"Yura was a comb..." Kagome repeats Inuyasha's comment as if she can hardly believe it. She twists the tiny comb back and forth inches from her face. Not one tiny bit of her is hurt from this attack. Not even a charred hair. And here Inuyasha and I am, beaten to a pulp.
Yet she saved the day.
"Are you really surprised? It probably got powers because it was once used to comb the hair of the dead," she lets out a pig-like squeal from just that sentence alone and drops the comb instantly. She runs her hands across her clean clothes; she must have gotten from our time, and starts for the shard. Inuyasha rolls his eyes and continues, "Yura didn't use it so much as it used her though."
Inuyasha falters against my body, his entire form is shaking from the pain. I use all my strength to support his weight until he's able to resume his footing.
"That stab in your chest..." Kagome starts.
"It's because you protected me." I finish. Now that Yura is gone, shame and guilt pool inside my stomach. It's an awful feeling I have never had to experience until now. It hurts and is heavy. I want to be able to protect myself, fight alongside him without becoming the person that weakens him and at the same time, a tiny little sliver of me enjoyed the fact he did protect me.
My entire life was full of people who only hurt and abandoned me.
"It's no big deal." He says. His eyes are turned to me and a weak smirk crosses his lips; he looks like he knows what I am thinking. There is a sereneness to that thought. "What happened to the Shikon Jewel?" He turns his head to Kagome.
She leans down to pick up the tiny little red bag the sliver hides in, opens it and let's it drop out onto her palm. "Safe and Sound."
This is the first time I've seen the jewel broken. It's so tiny and fragile that my heart deepens and quakes just from the sight of it. To believe - I am a part of that teeny, tiny little shard that all these demons want a part of. It's hard to believe that in order to find just a sliver of myself I have find probably the most powerful jewel in existence.
And now we just have to find the rest of it...to find the rest of me. Us three have to complete this Jewel together.
"Let's go guys." Inuyasha says. He pushes himself off my support and starts to head off in the direction I can only assume is the village.
With all these frustrating new emotions, a half demon whose sole purpose is to take the jewel away and a naive ignorant girl that's so weak and pathetic I want to punch her - I can't help but to smile.
With excitement leading me... I can move forward.