7Chapter Two: The Resurrection of Inu-Yasha and Larva!
"Who are you?" Kagome asked, almost too stunned to talk.
"They talked…" Miyu thought, openly staring at the two.
"Destroy her with a single blast, Kikyo! Miyo!" Inu-Yasha taunted.
"After all, you did it to us!" Larva added, with a challenging light in his fiery red eyes.
"Kikyo? Whoa, whoa, whoa! My name's…!" Kagome started, but was interrupted by Inu-Yasha.
"She's coming…" Inu-Yasha muttered, as Mistress Centipede dropped down from the branches above them. With screams, the two girls tried to get away from the youkai, barely managing to evade her grasp. Just as Mistress Centipede was about to close in, spears impacted into her side, and forced her to look away.
"W-we're saved…" Kagome gasped, looking a little relieved to see the villagers there.
"Really, Kikyo….I'm disappointed…" Inu-Yasha said, sarcastically.
"As am I, Miyo." Larva agreed.
"Listen you! I don't know who 'Kikyo' is, except that she's not me!" Kagome retorted, angrily.
"And I'm not Miyo!" Miyu added, also becoming a little angry with the two who were pinned to the tree.
"Do you expect me to believe that we wouldn't know the stench of the girls who…." Inu-Yasha snarled, then inhaled deeply. Larva did the same.
"You're…..not Kikyo…" Inu-Yasha mumbled, sounding a little surprised by this fact.
"And this isn't Miyo, either." Larva said, as he gave Miyu a look that was akin to curiosity.
"Get it now? My name's Kagome! KA-GO-ME!" Kagome said, in frustration.
"And I am Miyu, not Miyo!" Miyu stated, a little more perturbed than before.
"I get it." Larva said, softly. Inu-Yasha snorted in derision.
"I'm a fool after all. Kikyo looked intelligent…..and pretty." Inu-Yasha muttered. Kagome gave him a look that could have boiled water. It was then that Mistress Centipede threw the villagers who had been holding her back to the ground, then grabbed Kagome.
"Kagome-chan!" Miyu yelped, as she reached over and grabbed for, and missed, Kagome's hands. Instead, Kagome grabbed onto the closest things to her; the two strands of white hair that hung down over Inu-Yasha's shoulders!
"Let…me…go!" Kagome shouted, over her shoulder at the youkai.
"You let me go!" Inu-Yasha cried, as Larva chuckled at his expense.
"This isn't funny, Larva!" Inu-Yasha snapped.
"Well, I told you not to grow those strands out, didn't I?" Larva asked, grinning when he saw he'd gotten a rise out of his friend.
"THIS IS NOT THE TIME FOR 'I TOLD YOU SO'S', LARVA!" Inu-Yasha screeched, furiously, as his hair was used to play tug-of –war with a monster centipede.
"Kaede-sama…Inu-Yasha and Larva…." One villager said, as he stared at the goings-on.
"Larva and Inu-Yasha….are awake?!" Kaede yelped, then thought, "That spell was never meant to break…but it has! How?!"
"This body is so weak. I will devour you whole, Shikon no Tama and all." Mistress Centipede hissed, as she drew closer to the two girls.
"No!" Kagome cried, not knowing that surprised looks were appearing on the two hanyous' faces.
"The Shikon no Tama?!" Inu-Yasha and Larva muttered, in disbelief.
"Get away!" both girls shouted as they used the light that they had used in the well. Again, the monster backed off, and again its arms were knocked off.
"This happened…..in the well too…" Kagome thought, as she stared at the disembodied arms.
"How…..How are we able to do such things?" Miyu wondered, shuddering a little at the memory.
"Vile things!" Mistress Centipede spat, as she swatted Miyu aside, then picked Kagome up in her teeth.
"Kagome-chan!" Miyu cried, in horror, as blood spurted from the wound in Kagome's side, and something else emerged from it as well.
"What?! Something…came out of her!" one of the villagers shouted, in astonishment as well as horror.
"The Shikon no Tama…!" Kaede said, her eyes wide with fear and disbelief. Her expression was partially shared by Inu-Yasha and Larva as well.
"Kagome-chan, daijobu?!" Miyu shouted, as she kneeled down beside Kagome.
"Hai…I think so, Miyu-chan…" Kagome replied, shakily.
"It was…..inside of her?" Miyu wondered, as she and Kagome stared in wonder at the glowing bauble that had emerged from the wound.
"I knew, I knew, I knew you were hiding it!" Mistress Centipede howled, victoriously.
"That Jewel is ours!" Inu-Yasha snarled, furiously.
"What?" Kagome asked, not sure if she was hearing things right.
"Give it to us!" Larva demanded, eyes glowing as he eyed the jewel. Before either the girls or the hanyou could react, Mistress Centipede had both girls trapped against the hanyou.
"'Larva and Inu-Yasha who seek the Shikon no Tama'…I have heard of two half youkai by such names. At last we meet." Mistress Centipede hissed.
"Half youkai?" Kagome wondered, as she looked up at Inu-Yasha.
"Him?!" Miyu also wondered, as she did the same to Larva. Both young men stiffened.
"Don't insult us, Mistress Centipede. If we'd wanted, our meeting would have been very short….and your last." Larva threatened, coolly.
"Hey, you two talk pretty big. But can you actually do anything except talk?!" Kagome asked, shortly.
"Well…." Larva trailed off, looking a little sheepish, at that moment.
"Do you think we'd still be here if we could move?" Inu-Yasha asked, snappishly.
"You cannot move, can you, Demon Boys? That's quite a spell you're both under. All you can do now is watch!" Mistress Centipede cackled, as she grabbed the Shikon no Tama with her tongue.
"No!" Larva cried, his eyes wide with alarm.
"She's et the magic bead, she has!" another villager cried.
"This cannot be….!" Kaede said, horror most evident in her voice. And with good reason; for no sooner had the youkai swallowed the Shikon no Tama, when she started to change. Her arms reattached themselves to her, and her skin cracked and peeled away, revealing a more hideous monster underneath.
"Ah! Such power….such joy!" Mistress Centipede sighed.
"She won't win a beauty contest now…" Miyu muttered, under her breath, earning a smirk from Larva for her comment.
"Definitely not." Kagome agreed, with disgust in her voice. They both gasped when Mistress Centipede tightened her grip on the tree, crushing them against the trunk.
"We're going to die here….crushed by a giant bug!" Kagome thought, then a voice interrupted her thoughts.
"Hey." Inu-Yasha said, almost calmly. Kagome looked up at him.
"This arrow…..can you pull it out?" Inu-Yasha asked.
"Can you do the same for mine?" Larva also asked, as he looked down into Miyu's eyes. Both girls nodded in response and reached up to grasp the shafts of the arrows.
"You mustn't!" Kaede shouted, then added, "Those arrows contain the spell! You must not set them free!"
"What do you want, witch?! To become a centipede's dessert?!" Inu-Yasha retorted.
"Once her body has digested the Shikon no Tama…..none of us will be able to stop her!" Larva cried, wincing as the crushing pressure started to come through the girl in front of him and began to impound his breathing.
"Well, girl? Do you want to die here with me?!" Inu-Yasha asked.
"Or me?" Larva added, as he gave Miyu a look.
"No…..I won't die…" Kagome thought.
"Not in this…..stinking hell!" Miyu finished.
"Live again, Inu-Yasha! Larva!" they both thought as they grabbed the arrows and pulled. Before the arrows could be pulled all the way out, they both vanished from sight.
"The arrows…." The villagers gasped.
"They vanished?!" Kaede murmured, subdued almost to the point of silence. With loud, jubilant laughs, Larva and Inu-Yasha broke free from the fifty-year enchantments and faced off against the youkai.
"You…children…" Mistress Centipede snarled.
"Old enough for you, hag!" Inu-Yasha said, snidely, as he and Larva exchanged cocky smiles and prepared to attack.
"Demon begone!" Larva and Inu-Yasha both shouted, as they slashed Mistress Centipede into many pieces, from her ugly head to the tip of her tail.
"A single…stroke…..from both of them….." the villagers muttered, in shock. As both hanyou landed gracefully on the other side of the clearing, Miyu and Kagome stared in wonder at them.
"I had no idea….." Kagome's thought began.
"That they are so powerful." Miyu's thought concluded. They both returned to reality when the monster's remains began to twitch.
"You gotta be kidding! It's still moving?!" Kagome yelped.
"Can you see a place where the flesh glows?" Kaede asked, seeming to come from nowhere.
"I can." Miyu murmured.
"The Shikon no Tama must be burning inside her! Unless one of you removes it, her body will resurrect through time without end!" Kaede said, as both girls' faces paled. The monster could return?!
"Whaddaya mean…unless one of us can remove it?!" Kagome asked, perturbed at the very thought of touching the monster's remains.
"I think she means that we're the only ones who can handle the Jewel, Kagome-chan." Miyu said, her voice having a calming effect on her friend.
"Okay…..wait! I see it too!" Kagome said, as she focused on one segment of the monster in particular. As Kagome inched closer to the piece of demon flesh, Larva and Inu-Yasha watched closely. They knew that there was yet another chance to get the Jewel, and that they had better not miss it.
"You're telling me…..that this Shikon no Tama thingamajig gives power to youkai?" Kagome asked, as she looked at Kaede for confirmation. Yet before the old miko could respond, another voice answered her question.
"Exactly. Meaning that there's no point in two mortals keeping it." Larva said, coldly.
"So be good little girls and hand it over, unless you'd rather feel the caress of our claws." Inu-Yasha sneered, as he cracked his knuckles for emphasis.
"Nani?" Kagome asked, as Miyu and Kaede gaped at the two hanyou, as though just remembering that they were there.
