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Vae Victus

That night something changes between Inuyasha and Kikyou, something Inuyasha can't put his finger on. He knows the moment it happened; he can still taste her kiss, all women and nothing of the scent of death that clings to her. He has not yet recognized that by giving in to the kiss he has given in to the woman; that he is allowing his softer feelings and the memory of love to win over the panic of the final moments before he sank into sealed sleep.

It isn't hard; she needs protecting, she always has, because despite the enormity of her power she is fragile and soft and sad. The shield of her position, of her title as shikon no miko – that is gone from her now, along with the truth of herself. Inuyasha still possesses it – that truth – and a little at a time, because he can't help himself, he begins to treat her like the woman he used to know.

A little at a time, she begins to become that woman, remembering day by day tiny pieces of the person that she is. Kikyou. When he says it, the name is still warmest, but when they meet strangers and she introduces herself, she no longer feels like the name doesn't belong to her.

They move west, almost out of Inuyasha's forest now and into lands that bear a scent that brings him discomfort. They are following the promise of recent rumor and he is eager enough to disregard the promise of danger. They meet few youkai; lesser beings that scatter from the threat of Inuyasha's youki and more from the latent terror of Kikyou's holy power. One, then two and then five of the shards of the shikon no tama come into Kikyou's care with ease.

Perhaps it is for this reason that when the attack finally comes, it is so surprising.

Inuyasha walks forward, his eyes flickering between the path ahead of him and Kikyou beside him and just slightly behind. Her eyes are less empty than they have been, but the dreamy quality of her gaze still unnerves him. The next time he looks at her, he feels his ankle catch against something sharp, and he stumbles.

"Inuyasha?"

Kikyou stares at him for a moment and then turns to the left, bow and arrow in her hands without a moment's pause.

"Who's there? I know you're out there, demon!"

Inuyasha untangles his ankle from something he can't see, but which feels like wire, and comes to stand close behind Kikyou, his claws at the ready.

Mocking laughter echoes between the trees, high-pitched and female. Inuyasha grits his teeth and growls, feels the pressure of the Inu in him increase with the promise of combat. Kikyou is still, calm, focused, completely alert, and when the laughter becomes the figure of a demoness, she is ready.

Swift as light itself, the arrow flies free from her bow, strikes the laughing female in the face. The laughter stops, and Inuyasha relaxes, flips a grin over his shoulder toward Kikyou.

"Good shot -"

And then the words are choked off by a heavy tendril of something dank and tight and heavy wrapping around his throat. Inuyasha is yanked off his feet and hangs suspended by his throat. He claws ineffectively at it, and what he feels under his fingers confuses him. Hair? And how had the youkai avoided purification at Kikyou's hands?

He heard the demoness speak again, her voice mocking and angry and just the smallest bit afraid.

"So, you're a priestess, hmm? Isn't that lovely."

The words fell flat. Kikyou stood still, a second arrow on her bow, her stance unwavering.

"Release Inuyasha, demon."

There was more laughter, and the hair wrapped around Inuyasha's throat begins to spread, creeping up over his face and down toward his chest. He draws in a creaking breath and then feels a wave of heat wash over him, brilliant, familiar power.

The hair is purified before his eyes, splits apart and vanishes into dust. He falls free from it and lands on all fours, choking and coughing. When he has his breath back Inuyasha stands and takes a step backward to stand by Kikyou. She reaches out and stops him, points just behind him at something he can't see.

"Be wary, Inuyasha. The hairs are just there. Can't you see them?"

Inuyasha shakes his head and Kikyou turns back to the forest, scanning on lines that make no sense to him.

"Kikyou, is there -"

"She isn't really here. The shape of the demoness that I shot with the hama no ya – it is only a construct of these hairs."

"My, my, aren't you a smart little thing!"

Inuyasha jerks back with a snarl, one arm across Kikyou's chest. In front of them, the demoness stands on the ball of one foot, balanced on an invisible hair.

"You could be dangerous, though, couldn't you? I should kill you; it's too bad you don't have nice hair, priestess! But you, pretty boy..."

Inuyasha splutters and stares at her. Pretty boy?

"What lovely hair you have; the crown jewel for my collection! And you have something else for me, don't you, pretty boy?"

She steps forward, as if down stairs. She wears a black kunoichi, cut short and tied to show her figure to best advantage. On her left hip she carries a sword; in her left hand is a blood red comb. In her right hand she holds up a gleaming shard of the shikon no tama, and then she smiles and seems to sink down toward them.

Kikyou watches her approach calmly; Inuyasha snarls and crouches, knowing what she wants now.

"You won't have the shards, youkai!"

She smiles at him and waves a finger at him, and then draws her sword.

"My name is Yura, pretty boy. Benigasumi will cut the most well armored flesh to the bone, without harming a single one of your lovely hairs!"

She leaps toward him, sword upraised. Inuyasha tries to move, to leap out of the way, to dodge her strike, but hair he can't see have crept around his limbs and throat and pin him still. He stares upward, and thinks that this can't be happening, he can't be dying like this – not now, not here, not in a fight against a low-class youkai like this pretentious bitch!

Light passes before his eyes and he thinks for a single instant that it's death – but no. It is the light of the hama no ya, Kikyou's arrow passing a blazing inch before his face. It severs the strings of Yura's control, and for the second time Inuyasha falls free.

Yura is still, suspended in mid-air by the hair that obeys her, but now her eyes are dark and her mouth is twisted in a spiteful scowl.

"Stupid priestess, I don't want your hair! Why don't you just go – away!"

With a cry of effort, Yura swings the red comb in her left hand. Kikyou sees fire beginning to rush toward her, but her focus is on the comb. To her miko sight it is the whirring core of the dark youki animating the dangerous hair and the shape of the demoness, and in an instant, she understands what Yura is.

"Tsukumogami -"

Arrow to the string; draw back and release. It flies true, purifies the waves of demonic fire and strikes the red comb in Yura's hand. She screams and then the wave of Kikyou's power washes her out in sweetness.

The comb cracks in half and falls to the ground, and beside it falls a shard of the shikon no tama and Yura's sword.

Inuyasha stares.

"K-Kikyou?"

"She was a tsukumogami; she was the comb, probably a comb used on the hair of the dead. The shikon no tama made her stronger."

Inuyasha blinks and then reaches out almost absently to pick up the shard.

"Good one, then; I'd never have figured that out."

Kikyou only smiles faintly, but Inuyasha is sure to step on the broken comb as they walk away.

A/N: Arrrrrr . I slept too much. Annnyway, here's yesterday's chapter – a fiftieth chapter, woo! Today's chapters will be coming shortly, as I'm about to write it after I finish a Bloodlust chapter and have breakfast! The title of this chapter, "Vae Victus", translates to "woe to the conquered"; one dead Yura, one shard collected...and now we leave Inuyasha and Kikyou to continue making their way toward the west and go back to Kagome...and Kouga...those courting fwooms!

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