Chapter Thirteen

Yura narrowed her eyes. This green demon had speed, strength and agility. He was not like the fighters of her time. Those fighters were many in number but lacking in skill. It was much like facing a Great Demon. She saw years of ability, somehow, restrained in such a young body. This body she fought was not as old as the skill. Demons such as herself had centuries of life, unlike the weak mortals they were often pitted against.

As it currently was, she was bleeding and one of her arms had been severed by his attacks. She had taken to her hairs to avoid several of his attacks but this one was clever. Most charged right after her, which only opened them up to her net and thus any manipulation she desired. This one stayed at a distance, utilizing the long distance attacks. It gave her no time to regenerate her arm.

A horrific sound from behind her made her turn to see her victims plunge from her enclosed cage of hair, fire and smoke. Anger boiled in her blood. She was an ogress, one born of the highest skill. She could not lose, especially not to these pathetic fools. Besides which, the demon in front of her already posed enough issue and the odd spiky haired one did not look of human blood. His son, that despicable half-breed, was of no concern to her but the father was. And while she was not overly concerned when it came to demon slayers, this one was talented. She had managed to make her hairs visible which took away a great deal of what made her so dangerous.

Thus, it was not the best situation.

All the same, she had managed to slip away a bit of the green demon's blood. Blood itself was a great indicator of many things. Looking over her hands, some of his blood still decorated them. She lifted one to her lips and took a small lick. It was rich and it burned with power. It was not the taste of slug or lizard demon blood but something else entirely. There were hints of both kinds within it but it tasted like an evolved version, or perhaps with a hint of dragon blood.

Kanna or perhaps Jidai would be able to tell more. Her main concern was perfecting and protecting her nest.

Goku let his son go and the small yellow cat swiftly enlarged to carry her human companion. Sango clasped onto the cat's fur, pulling herself up right and immediately scanned the horizon for Yura. She knew more about demons than her two companions though they could certainly carry a fight as well as she and she was more than aware that in a well known situation they could probably cause more damage than her. Already, they seemed able to manipulate their ki in ways that she had seen Kagome do with the spiritual arrows.

"Mister Piccolo!" Gohan greeted his green skinned friend. The Namekian replied simply,

"You've attracted trouble again, like you usually do, Son."

Goku eyed the namekian. "Hey, this one ain't after me…least not completely." He said in defense. "Never seen this one before. You, Piccolo?"

The Namek eyed the creature. There was nothing in his memory that gave any clue to this thing. The memories he had acquired when he merged with Kami had faint recognition of her type but not of her in particular. "I'd prefer to have this the last time, Son. You made any progress, with all the tricks you have up your sleeve?"

Goku didn't reply just narrowed his eyes at his opponent. Her eyes had changed, she no longer looked so full of confidence but she also wasn't full of fear. Rather, she had a look to her that Goku saw in a lot of his opponents, right before they unleashed some unexpected attack. Already, he knew this girl attacked without physically being near. Hell, her last attempt hadn't looked like much but Goku's lungs still burned slightly from it.

Piccolo frowned; this opponent he didn't like in the least. Usually their opponents seemed to have some kind of weakness. So far, all he saw was her ridiculous attachment to these hairs. That in itself didn't even give them much of an advantage. She could move them at will. It didn't matter that they could snap them open. They slowed them down, they made it hard to maneuver and with enough strands, even their attacks could be faltered or buffered or even stopped entirely.

Gohan powered up a little ki in his hands but he made no attempt to release it, not yet. So far, none of their attacks had done anything. All she did was repair her limbs. It reminded him a little bit of cell but with an important difference. At least with Cell, they had seen him pause to regenerate, they had seen pain.

With this Yura, he saw nothing except shock on her face at times but there was never any pain. How could she never express any pain? Even Daddy and Vegeta would be unable to hide pain at times. Yet, this girl would laugh more times than not! She would laugh, she would dodge and attack again with a small delay to regenerate herself but she was never slowed down due to pain.

As for Sango, she had seen this a few times. She was only sixteen but she had been working as a demon slayer for almost six years. She had risen in rank throughout the village rather quickly, due to her quick and thorough work as well as her bravery and unrelenting pursuit. She never came away from a battle or mission without new experience and knowledge under her belt. She learned those demons to be feared and those which were easily conquered. Any demons that could take the form of bugs usually were easily conquered and destroyed, being frail in body despite looking menacing. The two exceptions to this were moth and spider demons, both of who were trappers and to be approached with caution.

Other demons it really varied. The pack demons were ones that she learned to respect, due to the fact that it was rare to find just one of them. Koga's clan was an excellent example. While the young lord of the wolf demon clan was full of pride and liked to think himself invincible, Sango had seen how much less of a threat he was once his pack had been decimated. He fought better with others, much as he liked to think of himself as completely independent.

Yura stretched her hands again, smirking but as it was the group of warriors were at a standstill. Goku and the others knew enough to not charge this woman needlessly. It didn't seem like any of their attacks did any good. Wasting their energy wouldn't do any good. As it was, they were pretty much lost on how to handle this kind of enemy. Every enemy had some kind of weak point. Cell even did, if you completely obliterated his body then there was no way for him to reform.

Piccolo, as much as he wanted to throw another attack at her, was busy trying to analyze a good strategy without much time. He knew if they gave her enough time that she would attack again. He had already counted out much of their energy attacks. All she did was reform from them. A physical attack was a possibility but her damned threads made that more difficult, no doubt one reason she used them.

Sango was done trying to dart about however. She turned to her yellow cat companion and whispered to her "Let's go Kirara."

The cat called flames out of its feet and bounded forward. Sango leapt from her feline friend's back, drawing her katana from its sheath. The metal clashed with Yura's own sword which she pulled up and into the battle. Sango jumped backwards, using the woman's own threads as her support, jumping from one to another before they had a chance to ensnarl her. She swiped out, drawing blood from the woman's arm, letting it drop limp to the ground below.

Yura merely swiped out with her other arm, shifting the threads to toss her katana into her remaining hand.

Sango dodged under her blow, pushing up with her arms to thrust her feet out at her. The small sickle blade that she kept sheathed alongside her ankle shot out and sliced through the flesh and bone of the woman's remaining limb, severing it at the wrist. Unperturbed, the woman drew her red comb into her mouth and yanked.

Sango's left ankle immediately felt a surging red hot pain in it as several microscopic threads that Yura had been silently commanding, even as she fought her, suddenly contracted. Red blood formed in a circular line, cutting into flesh and started to seep into bone. She swung down with her katana immediately only to have her wrist ensnarled by the same threads. Not about to be wrapped up or beaten, she hit the heel of her other shoe, unleashing the small scythe on that ankle, swiping down against her other foot. It cut into her flesh a little bit but it also sliced the threads apart which were now a bit easier to find, ironically, due to her red blood.

A sudden jolt on her hand caught her eye and looking up, she was staring at the smaller teenaged boy…this Son Goku's child. He had flown up and caught her hand to keep her from falling. She was grateful for it but as soon as Kirara came about, she swung back up onto the yellow feline though not without a nod of appreciation for her younger companion.

As for Gohan, he had already seen something worth mentioning. While their energy blasts seemed to do absolutely nothing, she had not yet managed to reconnect her arm. Her strands were working quickly to achieve that but Sango was already diving, her arm out and another blade already emerged. She sliced through the strands, jumping off and around the hairs to land back onto her feline friend who was growing smaller then enlarging then smaller then enlarging to make her way through the hairs.

She looked like a cheerleader with the way she was jumping around but she also reminded Gohan of those sumo wrestlers on television. Her muscles were flexed and she was so focused that she reminded him of Tien at times.

Well, whatever he wanted to call her, he was pretty sure "bad ass" would about cover it.

Frowning, he called "Piccolo! It's physical attacks!"

"I know.' The Namekian replied as he charged forward, his fist connecting with her face. Yura recoiled, her lip dripping some blood. She drew up her strands which provided something of a net, which blundered the Namek's next blow and gave her time to move backward. However, now, she found another blow cutting into her upper shoulder. Had her bones not been demon, they would have shattered on contact. Turning, she growled.

"Me oh my, such feisty men. Especially you." She slurred through her dark lips. "Aren't you married?"

Goku withdrew his power pole, backing up enough to give him some range. "Power Pole, Extend!"

With a burst of blood, the pole cut straight through her chest. Sango leapt forward and swung her sword out again, severing the woman's legs.

Gohan darted forward, having to shred several hairs in the process but called to Piccolo, "Mr. Piccolo! My weapon, from the wilderness…now'd be a good time to have it back."

Piccolo didn't even turn to look at him, just fired a beam his direction and just as before, the weapon materialized in his hands. Drawing it out of its sheath, Gohan yelped in surprise at first. The weight was massively different, not too surprisingly since he had been four when he last lifted it and he was much older now. It took him a moment to gather his bearings but then he charged at her, his eyes on anything on her body he could cut. If they could keep her from regenerating…

He yelped out at the strands he ran into but they weren't too hard to break through but the result was that they cost him some of his speed. He woulda laughed at it if someone had told him yesterday that hair would impair him in a battle. It sounded so stupid. He shook his head to gather his thoughts and jolted up at the woman, breaking through the strains with brute force.

Swinging his sword down, it broke through skin and bone, like a hot knife through butter, effortlessly. It was weird though. He had cut through dinosaur tail many a time with that blade and there was always some form of protest, either by the muscles bunching, some kind of hideous screech of pain or in some cases...both. There was no resistance here. He swiped down and through and not once did this woman pause in her assault though now her limbs were severely limited. She had to depend more on her hairs and while they were a hindrance, they could snap them.

Sango's trained eyes were scanning the situation. Even as Piccolo and Goku continued their physical assaults, she was looking for it, that one weak point. If Yura was making no physical response to pain or the attacks, then she was a separated demon; she had placed her soul, her spirit, her heart in a separate location. While she had not faced Yura before, the name was familiar; Kagome had told her that it was the demon against which she and Inuyasha had battled when the Shikon jewel was first shattered.

Sango frowned, thinking, even as she threw some of her hidden knives at Yura, severing major hairs and allowing Piccolo and Goku to get another good three or four punches in, which pretty much reduced anything she had left of a torso into cracked mush. However, as the skin and muscles tore away, it did give Sango the break she was looking for.

There! A thread of hair, slightly thicker than the others. If one looked closely, they could see the other hairs branching off from it. That was it, the core strand. Follow that and you found the heart.

She knelt down and whispered to her companion "that way, Kirara!"

With nary a growl in response, the cat dove, trailing the small thread into the distance. Sango felt bad for leaving the others behind but they were engaged in an endless battle if they didn't find that heart. Demons may have struck to some old habits, they were uniquely humanistic with some ways. If kagome's account was accurate then in the first battle of defeat, Yura had hidden her heart within her nest. It was not surprising, again, the demon ways sometimes tended to be animalistic for specific things, namely regarding their dens and homes and mating rituals.

That being said, demons learned far more than animals did. If Yura's nest had been destroyed before to get to her heart, she was not about to repeat hiding it in the same spot. However, while her body was indestructible, always repairing itself, that thread was essential. It was impossible to break but it had to connected to her heart. Sango also took note that with the quickness of her moves that the heart had to be close. Demons who separated from their hearts may have been able to move and act at any distance from their heart but the further, the harder and slower it became. If Yura was repairing her body as quickly as it appeared, she must have been very close.

There, ahead! Entangled amid dozens of threads, like cobwebs upon cobwebs, she could see the thread enter. She leapt from her companion, landing amid the various tree branches. Using them like steps, she darted from one to the other, almost not stopping to look for her next foothold, figuring them out as she went, pulling her weight along using the bamboo stalks that decorated this landscape.

Withdrawing the blade from her wrist again, she swung, shattering the threads about the core strand. She swiped once or twice before she saw it. A small skull, blood red in shade. Lifting her arm up, she swung down, the bone cracking from the well-made blade. Like a split shell, the skull crumbled away to the side. Sango narrowed her eyes.

A small red comb, barely bigger than her hand. Her blade came down again, cracking it clean in half.

"Duck Dad!"

Goku gave a faint "Yiie!" as his son tore through the air he had just been in with his blade. It cleaved into the woman's head, going straight through, sending the lower half of her head, brain and skull all tumbling downward. Gohan felt a tad sick at this, as even with all the battles he had been in, gross was still gross and seeing blood, guts and brain matter flying was gross.

The eyes of the woman still laughed for a mid-second then Gohan blinked, seeing them enlarge in shock and horror. Gohan had seen those eyes before, lastly from Cell when he had unleashed his final Kamehameha. It was the look when one realized their time was up and that their karma was going to determine their next path. For a brief second, her remaining body, what was left of it, turned into a faint white light and then dissolved like dust, leaving her torn tattered clothes to fall to the winds. Her threads went limp and collapsed.

Goku scratched his head "uh…what did you do, Gohan?"

Piccolo, his eyes scanning the landscape, replied for the boy "I don't think he did."

Gohan looked down, seeing as that lady emerged from the trees and bamboo. She looked kinda torn up but looked pretty good for the most part. She eyed the three of them and Gohan, then his father and Piccolo drifted to the earth. She smiled at Gohan and held out the broken comb. Gohan blinked for a moment then said "THAT thing is what made her invincible?"

Sango chuckled lightly under her breath. "Her way…separate the heart from the body and you make the body invincible."

Goku scratched his head again "So…her heart is a comb?"

Sango nodded, "yes. And one that has been broken before." She trailed her finger down a faint crack on the left half. Feeling a faint prick, she dug in her fingernails and withdrew a small sliver of pink glass-like stone. "Someone else revived her." She lifted the shard to the air and continued "And this is what multiplied her power."

Goku took the broken comb bits from Sango and crumbled them in his left fist, igniting them in a flash of yellow ki. "Why though? I mean, I know I have a habit of acquiring enemies but I don't remember making anyone mad that has that kinda ability."

"I don't think it was one of your enemies." Sango said simply, turning the shard over in her hands. "She was revived with a Shikon shard. So, Naraku probably has a hand in this."

Piccolo and Goku repeated "Naraku?" but Gohan's eyes went huge.

"Shikon?"

Sango nodded in response to both questions. "it's a bit…involved."

Piccolo frowned but his voice was not venomous. "And our battles never end easily. This is just the start. Anything you know, we should know."

Sango couldn't argue that point so she pocketed the Shikon shard and replied "Gladly but not here." She looked about, cautiously. "I don't trust to talk about Naraku so close to one of his minions' battles."

Gohan eyed Piccolo "What about the Lookout?"

Piccolo nodded "As good a place as any." He turned to Goku "You going to tell Krillin and your wife?"

Goku nodded "let Gohan and I catch them up and we'll meet you there." He took to the air, Gohan following. He eyed Sango "Your cat can follow Piccolo with no problem right?"

Sango rubbed the large feline's head affectionately. "There's little Kirara can't catch."

That being said, two flew off towards the small house and Piccolo rose to the air, the woman and her feline following.

And from the ruined battlefield, a large bee grasped a small strain of hair, stained with the namek's blood and rushed back to its master.