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portals to the 16th century are kind of a big deal
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I HAVE OPINIONS ABOUT THIS CONVERSATION AND THEY ARE THAT KAGOME IS NOT BEING SUFFICIENTLY EATEN

Current plan: RIP HER STOMACH OUT

WITH FANGS

(the fangs are new)

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If Kagome were calmer, she would probably be embarrassed about the amount of screaming she's doing today. Of course, if she were calmer, she would probably not have as many reasons to scream. 

She runs towards the tree. There's not much further to run, there, but Inuyasha is seeming like a much better option than the well, right now. She reaches out for him, blindly, with one hand, and with the other, she tries to do the thing again. Last time she was mostly feeling blind terror, which is very convenient, because that's pretty much what she's feeling right now, too.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!"

(Not a very inspiring battle cry, admittedly, but it's what she said last time, and she's not inclined to get experimental right now.)

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It continues to work! Mistress Centipede is not happy about it working!

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"Told you you could do it."

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And that is about when Kaede and a bunch of villagers with nets show up! Their strategy, as is clear, is less to try to shoot her full of holes (that not having worked) than to ensnare her; to hope that several dozen people, all pulling at once, can out-tug-of-war a giant centipede monster, especially if the giant centipede monster can't use its leverage properly.

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She's blown the centipede's arms clean off, this time. Why does that work? What is it? Why can she do it, if not everyone can?

As the light fades, she notices that it hasn't completely dissipated. There's a light coming from inside her. Not from her heart, or her hands, places she might expect a power like this to be situated, but from a small orb of light situated on one side of her abdomen, just the same size as...

The jewel of four souls.

The jewel of four souls is physically inside her. And it glows the same way that the attack does. Does that mean - 

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Turns out giant centipede monsters are really good at tug-of-war, and also that trying to restrain them with rope nets is about as dumb as trying to restrain them with wet paper towels.

Also that they can see glowing magic jewels.

Nom!

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You'd think that having your abdomen ripped open would be the sort of thing that you couldn't help but scream about. Instead, though, Kagome simply whimpers and falls down, clutching her side and staring stupidly up at the centipede monster.

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"GET ME OUT!"

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"MINE!"

And she swallows the jewel.

Her skin sort of ripples, her appearance becoming even more monstrous - she's even longer than she was before, and in a moment she wraps around Kagome and the tree both, crushing her against it - her arms are starting to grow back -

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"Just pull the arrow out, you stupid girl!"

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"Do not release Inuyasha!"

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She knows she needs to make a decision, here, and make one now - but it feels like the moment in a story when someone makes a terrible decision they can't take back, and also like a moment where any hesitation will allow the one thing that might save you to pass you by, and it turns out that it's really hard to think things through carefully when two people you don't actually know at all are yelling opposite things at you as a centipede monster crushes you to death and your blood oozes out of you through a wound that could easily be fatal anyway, in this century. Maybe she's dead already, but she doesn't feel dead, and she doesn't want to die, but she doesn't want to get anyone else killed, either - 

"We can't fight it alone!" she yells back.

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"He is worse!"

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"Yeah, but nobody here's pissed me off except Mistress Centipede."

(pause.)

"Hey, Mistress Centipede! You hear that! Fifteen seconds and you're dead!"

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"Bold words, from a little half-demon who can't even scratch his nose. Fell out with your girlfriend, did you?"

She squeezes harder. 

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"LET ME OUT!"

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If she takes any more time, she's going to die. The centipede, newly empowered by her and her failure to keep the jewel away from it, will go on hurt more people.

She'll go over it in her head again and again, later, trying to decide whether it was cowardice or courage, an abandonment of her obligations or the fulfillment of them, that led her to pull the arrow out. The truth, or the nearest thing to it, is only that he sounded sincere, and that she felt better about dying of foolish trust than of foolish cynicism.

 

She reaches up as far as she can, straining to move, and pulls on the arrow until it shatters like glass in her hands.

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It starts with laughter, joyeous laughter and the dog-demon stretching his arms, arms that end in hands with very sharp claws -

And then, very quickly, instead of Mistress Centipede there's lot of chunks of very dead monster tumbling to the ground.

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"And you doubted me."

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She laughs slightly, nervous and relieved, and stops when the wound in her side complains about it. "Thank you."

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"Great!" He'll start looking around for the jewel. "Problem solved." His eyes pass over the villagers without recognition. "Next question: Which way's Kikyo?"

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"I want to thank her for my nice nap."

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"She's dead."

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