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portals to the 16th century are kind of a big deal
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Oh, that is so not going to work twice. It takes her a second to realize that the shards are on the move again, but once she does, she's not going to be misdirected by a swirl of blue flame. 

She grabs her bow without really thinking about it - she hated being without it when Sesshomaru attacked, and now it just seems safer to avoid having it out of arm's reach - and then tears off after Shippo and the jewel shards.

"Stop being obnoxious and give those back!"

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"Kagome! Kagome! Come back and deal with the SCROLL, Kagome!"

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"I'll be right back!" she calls, not breaking stride.

She has a bunch of reasons for not wanting to turn around. Mostly she doesn't want to lose Shippo, and figures he'll be further away if she doubles back afterwards. Partly she feels responsible; her little speech obviously helped absolutely zero, and she was the one who wanted Inuyasha to let the kid go. And a little bit of her is still annoyed that Inuyasha thinks the shards belong to him in particular, on the grounds that he successfully won them from people, which either means that he's discounting all the work she did to get them (which she's pissed about), or that he's counting taking the shards off Shippo, which is stupid, because she could obviously have gotten the shards back from Shippo herself. And maybe a part of her wants to prove it, even though that's not a very good reason at all.

By the time it occurs to her that Inuyasha is both much faster than her and quite possibly capable of tracking Shippo by scent, which obviates the only actual tactical considerations she had for this, she's far enough away that she can't hear him anymore.

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Shippo is scampering away triumphantly with his excellent bait for his excellent plan that will in no way immediately get him killed. He's not too worried about the girl, and he seems to have successfully pinned Inuyasha, so he figures he's home free.

He's so pleased with himself that he doesn't even notice the other nearby demon until it's too late.

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Manten is miserable. This is not surprising; being miserable is really his natural state.

He's bald. He's ugly. He has exactly three hairs on his head, three, and no girl wants a bald guy. Maybe if he had more hair women would be all over him like they are with Hiten -

- Hey wait, is that another jewel shard?

Oooh, attached to a snack! He will go investigate.

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"My, my, my, the pup of our late opponent."

(Manten is only about as tall as Kagome, but is about six feet across the shoulders, thoroughly muscular, and equipped with armor, a jewel shard embedded in his forehead, and a bitchin' fox-fur wrap around his waist.)

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This makes him a lot bigger than Shippo, who is also pretty thrown by Manten wearing his father's skin.

"You... how dare you..."

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"Admiring my wrap? You can ask your father for one - he had one just like it."

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"Murderer! You'll pay for that!" he screams, and leaps at Manten.

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WHACK.

It's... not, really, an attempt to attack Shippo - just a quick backhand, hard enough to draw blood, swatting aside someone Manten does not, really, even take seriously as an enemy.

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....Shippo is maybe starting to realize that he may, possibly, have made something resembling a tactical error, here. Also that hurt. Kind of a lot.

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"You have a shard of the jewel, little cub. Bring it out. For if you do not..."

And he readies his breath weapon, glowing light filling his mouth - 

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Kagome, who is not actually any slower than Shippo, has also realized that she's made a tactical error. She had sort of forgotten about the whole thing where there were, in fact, other demons around who also wanted to steal the jewel, and that leaving Inuyasha for even a few minutes is dangerous, because she cannot actually defend herself. 

She could, possibly, run away and get him now. Manten might or might not notice her. She could abandon the jewel shards and try to slip away unnoticed, get Inuyasha (and free him, if he's actually still stuck), and Inuyasha would berate her for a couple seconds and then bound off to get them back, with no risk to her.

But, of course, Shippo might die.

Instead of doing any of that, Kagome fires an arrow.

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"Huh?"

There is now an arrow straight through Manten's nose, paralleling his eyes.

And Kagome has his attention.

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Okay, well, you know, that's, uh. At least she hit him?

- gravitas. Totally meant to do that.

"Stay where you are! The next one won't be a warning shot! - Shippo, come here, hurry!"

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Shippo clutches the shards close and scampers behind her!

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"After you leave the shards!" he says, lunging for Shippo! (The shards in his forehead sparkle...)

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"I said don't move!" she says, thinking as she says it that she should probably actually be yelling at Shippo to go get Inuyasha. Of course, there isn't really time to get Inuyasha, especially not if this guy is faster than them.

She's already aiming another arrow.

This is stupid. This will not work. The first one went right through his face, and doesn't seem to have slowed him down at all. She hasn't seen a single demon, save Shippo and maybe Jaken, who it seemed at all plausible for her to beat in a physical fight, and the odds are that this guy isn't any different.

On the other hand, she doesn't have a better idea, and sometimes her arrows are magical, and he's so close at this point that she bets she can actually hit him again. She fires, aiming for the jewel shards, hoping that if she hits it'll maybe at least stun him long enough for her to run and get help.

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The arrow hits him vaguely near the jewel shards, bounces off his bony forehead, and deflects upwards, trimming off two of his three strands of hair as it does.

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Manten is, in fact, stunned.

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And, as two of the three strands drift to the ground, staring.

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"GRRR......"

And then he SCREAMS, tears flowing from his eyes as he ROARS his wrath to the heavens. "MY HAAAAAAAAAAIR!"

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Kagome is really unclear on what is happening, there, but her plan was to run, so she's going to scoop Shippo and try to run, instead of firing another arrow.

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"HOW DARE YOU?"

And Manten, still screaming, will ready his breath weapon, his mouth filling with crackling destructive energy, the wrath of the storm incarnated in a demonic shell -

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"That's the attack that killed my father!" exclaims Shippo, still scooped. "Hurry, or - "

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