"Grabbing the chest of a woman you just met? How rude."

... Kind of a shame when Kagome's right, huh?

Kagome is listening to all of this, over the sound of her hammering heart. It's terrifying. But her hands aren't free, so even if she were inclined to take another shot, she couldn't. And even if she could, it wouldn't hit. She remembers Inuyasha telling her that whatever was happening with the villagers would end if they defeated the demon (if the villagers are still alive, if many of these aren't their skulls already). By the same principle, if she can't hold her own against the Yura puppet - and she clearly can't - then the only way to help everyone is to find whatever's pulling the strings. She could call out to him and tell him that the puppet master must be inside the nest, but Inuyasha can't see the nest, and the second Yura notices her again, she's probably dead.

So she keeps climbing, sometimes accidentally cutting herself, and sometimes slipping, but on the whole making progress. She uses skulls as handholds and footholds when she can, hoping that they're not going to start attacking and biting her fingers off. 

She looks for anything that isn't just a mass of hair or a skull.

That's a skull, there among a great mass of approximately-identical-looking skulls, but it sure doesn't look like just a skull. There's something - important - about it.

...well, Kagome's not entirely sure whether her gut is right, here, but her gut is insistent, and she doesn't have anything else to go on.

She tries to climb up to the weird skull.

A process that, unfortunately, ends up making enough noise that Yura will glance over her shoulder.

And freeze.

And, visibly, panic.

"Die, girl!" And with her free hand she'll send razor-sharp strings whipping across the -

You forgot about the 'within arm's reach of a pissed-off half-demon' bit, right?'

"Forgetting someone?"

"Silence, dog!" Fine, she'll cocoon him to a wall first, will that get him out of the way so she can deal with the priestess?

Very temporarily.

"The skull!" she screams, fighting to hold on, but she can't point while climbing and doesn't have any idea how to specify which one. She she isn't even sure whether he can see the skulls.

"I see it!"

And Yura's going after Kagome, sword raised in puppeted hand -

And Inuyasha's broken his bonds and is rushing, leaping after - not after her, after the skull - 

- and Yura must turn again to block him, because she can't hold off both Inuyasha and Kagome at once - the hair under Kagome rattles and shifts, the skulls snap at her, but that's all Yura can spare the attention for as she tries to keep Inuyasha down and he refuses to stay down - 

She has to reach it. She clings to the swinging mass of hair and tries as hard as she can to move forward, to get closer, squeaking and flinching as the skulls snap at her -

And Yura cannot afford for her to do that and, flooding Inuyasha with grasping strands of hair, hurls her sword (she named it Crimson Mist, this sword that cleaves flesh and bone and leaves only hair uncut) directly at Kagome, heedless of how this makes her vulnerable - 

- well she's certainly not going to dodge that, not while all of her limbs are occupied with holding on for dear life!

She freezes, involuntarily, trying to shrink some small amount into the robe again.

And it hits her straight in the chest and bounces off.

"What are you?" she hisses. And wraps her strands of hair to grasp her, pin her arms and legs and strangle her -

No, no, no, she was so close, and now she can't move at all -

It must have been the robe. If Inuyasha were wearing it, he wouldn't have gotten stabbed all of those times. Of course, if Inuyasha were wearing it, she would be dead -

She feels the hair tighten around her neck, and is so certain that she's about to die that she can't even find it in her to cry for help. All she does is look at Inuyasha, to see if he's even still alive - 

"BLADES OF BLOOD!"

Kagome's hands are now free! Kagome's legs are now free! Kagome's neck is now free! 

"Pass out, girl, and you're on your own!"

And Yura is now missing two (2) hands, and staring in horror as the skulls are spilling out across the ground beneath her web. The ultimate string-puller may not be in the body, but absent both hands her coordination is shot.

- But, in spite of his words (and all the blood he's missing) Inuyasha will in fact catch her as she plummets to the ground below.

She's still alive! Again! Wow!

(Is that four counts of - not the time.)

She sits up and scans the area for the skull, they're not going to have more than a few seconds to see where it's fallen -

It's over there!