The Yōkai's rise to power: The Saga of Mistress Centipede
Chapter VII - Imbalance of Power
The midday sun was reflected by Inuyasha's golden eyes. They were fixed on Mistress Centipede - the demon he had been chasing for several hours incessantly. He had not expected this chase to last so long. He had been on her tail all night, but now he had finally caught up with her.
"You're faster than you look, I'll give you that. But did you really think I would just let you get away with the jewel?"
Inuyasha lowered his head and clenched his fists. His hateful gaze, cloaked in half-shadow, was enough to unnerve the demon - at least for a brief moment; there was something menacing about him. There was no point in denying that. Reflexively, she backed away with her long body a bit to gain distance from the half-demon, but then suppressed the urge to increase that distance even further. Mistress Centipede had no intention of fleeing.
"Hand over the jewel, or have you still not had enough, huh? You don't want me to cut you into pieces for a third time, do you?"
Mistress Centipede knew from her own experience that there was more to this brat than it seemed. Inuyasha was powerful. The boy with the long white hair had already been able to defeat her twice, but not only that; both times he only needed a single attack to beat her. But now things were different - Mistress Centipede was no longer the Yōkai she had been before.
I hoped to have a little more time - at least enough time for the jewel to transfer its huge power to me completely.
Mistress Centipede could still feel the jewel throbbing inside her. Like a second heart, the ancient artefact dawned within her. It seemed that it still wants to resist her.
"I didn't think you would catch up with me so quick - after all, you have been sleeping for a very long time."
Mistress Centipede's voice sounded unnatural and disturbing - even more so now than before. A strange echo resonated with each and every one of her words.
"This involuntary slumber has not made me sluggish, if that's what you're saying. On the contrary; I feel better than I ever did before. But even if that wasn't the case: A bitch like you is just a small-fry."
He doesn't seem to have noticed my change - or he simply doesn't care. Either way, he's in for a surprise!
The fact that he had already defeated her twice seemed to justify Inuyasha's arrogance - he was just brimming with self-confidence towards her... a circumstance that should be to her advantage - a circumstance that could be exploited by Mistress Centipede.
"Perhaps you have not noticed, but me and the jewel have now become one. Even if I wanted to give it to you, I could not. My body has completely absorbed the power that was in it. The jewel is now a part of me - hehehehehe."
Inuyasha ground his teeth together so hard at this lie that Mistress Centipede could still hear it clearly despite the distance between them. His head sank even further so that his fearsome gaze was directed downwards. His aura seemed even more threatening than before.
"You lie!"
His muscles tensed.
"YOU'RE LYING!"
The centipede moved her long, green-violet lower body in such a way that her upper body came closer to the angry half-demon. Meanwhile, the back of her body was slowly digging into the earth. It was a windy day, which was why the sounds emanating from her huge body parts slowly finding their way into the ground was hard to make out, even for Inuyasha's sensitive ears - apart from the fact that Mistress Centipede's body was so long that her rear end had to be out of hearing range anyway.
"You are too late - hehehehe. The jewel is mine and there is nothing you can do about it. That being said, you have to recognize that you alone are responsible for this."
Inuyasha looked up at her. More and more segments of her long body found their way underground.
"What do you mean?"
Mistress Centipede smiled - inwardly at least, outwardly she could no longer demonstrate it due to her new, grotesque appearance.
"You decided to get that girl to safety first, didn't you? Hehehe - you probably carried her to the people from the village who were looking for her. You really thought it was that Kikyo, didn't you?"
The half-demon could not hide his anger at her words. Unlike her, his emotions were clear to see.
"Tzz - so what? What are you trying to tell me?"
The tighter Inuyasha's eyebrows drew together, the more amused Mistress Centipede became. She feasted on the fact that the brat was so easy to tease and manipulate.
"I'm pretty sure they weren't too pleased to see you. After all, there was a good reason why Kikyo had banished you to the tree with her arrow back then, before she passed away of course."
So it's true... Everything the old woman said is true! Kikyo is no longer alive... Yet I could swear... I could swear to have smelled her presence.
"How would you know that, nasty hag!? As far as I remember, I had killed you before. How would you have known that?"
The light of the midday sun was fading. A thick blanket of clouds opened up. The green of the forest turned pale. Everything lost colour and became darker.
"After Kikyo had banished you on that tree, not only your body, but your spirit had drifted away. She had thrown my remains into that well, but my spirit was still awake and present, while yours was asleep. I had not been able to intervene directly in the material world, but I still got to see all that was going on - and I've been waiting."
"Waiting? Waiting for what?"
"For the right moment."
Inuyasha gave her a questioning look.
"My existence is tied to the jewel, and when I saw my chance, I took it," the Yōkai added.
"The girl."
"While you left the remains of mine to save the girl, my body had plenty of time to regenerate itself. You were kind enough to leave the Sacred Jewel with me too – and now it is mine again. At last it is mine. Hehehehehehe - as things should be."
"I hope you enjoyed your time with it."
Suddenly, Inuyasha's hands turned to razor-sharp claws.
"Because that time ends now."
"You seem to be slow on the uptake - even for a half-demon. But I will gladly explain it to you one more time; the jewel is now a part of me. You can no longer take possession of it."
Mistress Centipede tried to take away his ambition, indermating his hope for the jewel. She tried to make him angry so that Inuyasha would become inattentive, but Inuyasha smiled back at her. It was a sinister smile. At the same time, a light drizzle began.
"I'll make sure of that myself, don't worry. But even if what you say is true, I wouldn't care. It wouldn't change anything."
Mistress Centipede tilted her head. She looked almost suprised by his words - as far as one could tell.
"If I can't have it, then no one shall - certainly not an insect like you!" he added. "You are not worthy to possess it."
Mistress Centipede seemed either irritated, or uncertain, at this statement. Any emotions were hard to read from her face - now that she had none. Her imposing body straightened as the earth stirred around her. She looked down at Inuyasha, who seemed tiny from her perspective.
"You impudent child!"
She didn't hesitate another moment and lunged straight at him, her upper body first.
„DIIEEEEEE!"
Inuyasha, meanwhile, did not move. He lowered his gaze once more. The earth began to shake and thick clouds of dust swirled up as the part of her body that was hiding under the earth suddenly emerged from the ground and tried to wrap itself around Inuyasha's body. But Mistress Centipede's flesh did not feel the warmth of his body - the half-demon easily dodged her surprise attack from below and escaped her poisonous grab. He came out of the dust cloud and shot straight at her. Inuyasha's body rotated on its axis so fast that Mistress Centipede's large, blood-red eyes could only see a white-red ball that grew larger and larger. The rear segments of her body pushed her forward and down to him - she could not stop her attack even if she had wanted to. Suddenly he stopped spinning when a mere few metres separated the two opponents. Time seemed to almost stop - everything moved in slow motion. Mistress Centipede could clearly see Inuyasha's face, albeit briefly: the smug smile on his face hit her full force first, before he grabbed and crushed her crooked and long tongue, which was sticking out of her mouth and pointing in his direction, with his hand. With a swift, powerful movement of his arm, he then tore it out. Mistress Centipede did not even have time to cry out - in another swift movement around his own axis in mid-air, the centipede felt the Hanyō's other hand pressing against her facial bones with such a force that she could clearly hear them snap. Her eyes could see her long, pointed teeth floating loosely in the air before her sense of time suddenly returned to normal and the massive pressure hurled her massive body away. Back first, she slammed into one tree after another. It took half a dozen destroyed trees before her body finally came to a halt. Thick dust rose, but this time not around Inuyasha, but around her. She abruptly propped herself up on the ground with her six arms - at least the pain factor didn't seem to be a problem; Mistress Centipede felt nothing at all. Her head spun wildly and jerkily in all directions - she couldn't make him out, she couldn't make anything out. By the time the misty veil of dust slowly lifted and she could see the grey sky that lay above her again, it was already too late; Inuyasha's feet pressed against her back. Even her numerous arms could do nothing to stop this and lay stretched out and flat on the damp earth now, just like the rest of her long body.
"Is that all you've got?"
He could feel the warmth of her body - her skin was almost uncomfortably hot. She was trembling. No, not trembling - her body was vibrating...
Strange - I wonder if it's because of the jewel.
"I'm almost disappointed.", he added.
Inuyasha grabbed Mistress Centipede's long black hair and pulled her head towards him, but then something else drew his attention.
This feeling... I've had this feeling before.
From the small clearing that had opened up after Mistress Centipede's body had knocked over one tree after another, he looked into the dense thicket of the forest. A strange feeling plagued Inuyasha, as if someone - or something - was watching him. That brief moment of inattention was quite enough; Mistress Centipede took advantage of it to position her long lower body and lunge neatly to fling it like a tail towards Inuyasha. The attack hit him with full force. The half-demon was now slammed against a tree in his turn. He squeezed his eyes shut and cried out. When his golden eyes opened again, he saw nothing, only pink. Mistress Centipede's flesh pressed Inuyasha's face and body against the wood of the tree. His arms were also held against it. Inuyasha could no longer lift a single finger. He felt the air being pressed out of his lungs.
I'm not going to die. Not here. Not today. And most importantly: not because of her!
He channelled the demonic energy that lay dormant within him and felt the heat emanating from him. His sense of smell perceived how the flesh that held him captive slowly began to steam around him. Inuyasha roared. Then it became bright - the flash of orange light illuminated the forest like a second sun. Shortly after, the white-haired Hanyō could breathe in the humid air again. But the smell of burnt flesh that crept into his nose disgusted him. His eyes opened again. He saw Mistress Centipede, but only a few pieces of her - scattered on the wet forest floor before and around him.
She had escaped him once again.