"Hmm?"

Oh good, he is here. "Is there any way to free the lord without killing them both? An - an exorcism, or something?"

"Well, he may be a demon, but he's still a toad. He should have an aversion to heat. You could throw some hot water on him? Then the toad will be in agony, and the real lord should be released."

"Where am I supposed to get hot water?!" There won't be anyone boiling anything in a kitchen somewhere, everyone's asleep. Something else hot -

"Is there anywhere that might still have a fire lit?" she asks the princess.

She's still distracted, what with her husband being a cannibal who just tried to kill her childhood friend, but she can still manage a response.

" - Candles on the walls? Watchtowers? I'm sure there's a hearth somewhere - Sometimes the soldiers out on duty light fires for heat - they shouldn't, but -"

Meanwhile, back in the egg room, Inuyasha shakes his head at Nobunaga. "Learned your lesson yet?"

"Don't kill him," he pleads, still collapsed on the floor.

What a waste of courage.

Think! Think! The candles are too small, the watchtowers are too far, and "somewhere" only helps if they happen to pass the somewhere while running! She's running now, and she sure hasn't noticed a hearth yet!

She could burn something else. The candles aren't a big enough flame by themselves, but if she could catch something else on fire quickly enough to make a real blaze - but what, she can't just set the building on fire, that's a sure way to kill all the sleeping people -

"Keep running!" she calls, and stops to rifle through her backpack for anything that might be flammable enough -

"Come back, my pretties, come back to me..."

And he'll fire his tongue at Kagome, this time!

She screams, throwing herself against the wall fast enough that the tongue just misses her, but now she's hardly in a position to dodge at all if he does it again -

And Inuyasha will land between her and the toad, claws out.

"All right, that's it. I let you give your way a try. Now we're going to cut out the stupidity and go back to mine!"

She's never felt so simultaneously relieved and sick to see someone. She's glad he's here, she's so, so glad, but it feels awful to know that after all of that, they just have to give up -

Why doesn't she have anything in her stupid backpack except for medical supplies and useless crap and a stupid amount of shampoo and conditioner and - hairspray -

The demon toad inhales for another gout of venomous breath - 

And Inuyasha's claws are out and he lunges to strike -

It should work. It's definitely the sort of thing you're not supposed to try at home, but this is really, really, extremely not home! So!

One hand closes around her can of hairspray. The other tears a candle from the wall. As she lines up the shot, though, she can see that Inuyasha's squarely in her way, about to strike the toad, and probably couldn't stop his momentum now even if he wanted to -

- unless -

"Sit!"

And dragged downwards by the necklace, Inuyasha faceplants straight into the wooden floor with a "WHAT?!".

There's still a toad-demon, though?

And Kagome sprays fire, right over his head.

"HYEEEEEEEEEE!"

The toad spirit is OUT OF HERE, and the lord crumples to the ground semiconscious.

....well, there are a bunch of people she could be checking on, right now, but - oh! Right! Jewel shard! Who has that?

"CLAWS OF STEEL!"

Inuyasha, now. Since there is no more toad spirit.

Oh good!

- aaaaand that's when the pain in her fingers hits her badly enough for her to realize she's burnt them, on the hand that was holding the candle, and she hisses and sets the candle down and sucks on them.

Worth it, though, if the lord's okay. Is he okay?

Groaning, somewhat uncomfortable in his own body (which is now clearly human, rather than a toad), and still having some trouble getting off the floor, but yes, basically okay.

"Inuyasha!"

Nobunaga is still, in fact, too badly injured to be very good at standing, but he's apparently dragged himself halfway across the castle anyway, just in case there was anything else he could possibly do. His shoulder is still bleeding, and he's obviously in horrible pain, but he's managing to smile through it, at least a little.

"You did it! You saved him!"