"Foolish humans, did you really think you could kill me with fire alone?"
Leaving aside the reactions of Hojo Akitoshi and the others on the hill, Yura of the Hair had become a rat in a trap there.
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For the moment, she remained unruffled, even as she watched the entire hill burn fiercely.
For one thing, the wildfire had yet to spread into the ravine where she stood.
For another, Yura of the Hair was confident that her true body was unlike those strands of hair. It was considerably more resistant to fire.
Besides...
She summoned the demonic energy within her, which had yet to fully recover, and formed a new humanoid body.
Then she concealed the skull that housed her true body, along with her comb, inside it.
Looking around, Yura of the Hair smiled mockingly.
"Did you really think I had no legs and would stand around stupidly waiting for the flames to reach me?"
Indeed, Yura of the Hair had no intention of staying put and foolishly waiting for the approaching wildfire to swallow her.
Although her lair, made from countless skulls, offered decent protection, why defend passively under these circumstances when she could take the offensive?
The hill was neither particularly large nor small, and the Hojo Army had surrounded all of it.
In other words, didn't that mean every point along the Hojo Army's encirclement offered her a potential breakthrough?
All she needed to do was find a weak spot and fight her way out.
Not only could she kill those hateful humans' fighting men, but she could also devour the entire Hojo Army that had humiliated her the other night, one mouthful at a time!
Quick-witted and adept at judging the situation, Yura of the Hair acted as soon as the idea occurred to her.
Controlling a vast mass of hair to form a barrier, she first tested the strength of the surrounding flames.
Then Yura of the Hair smiled as she watched the flames slowly burn away only the outermost layer of her hair.
"Just as I thought."
Once she confirmed that the flames could not rapidly destroy her hair, Yura of the Hair relaxed.
"They're different from that night's flames."
The sight bolstered Yura of the Hair's confidence, and she immediately wrapped herself in hair.
Then, brimming with courage, she picked a direction and charged straight toward where she imagined the Hojo Army would be, beside the forest beyond the hill.
"Lord Akitoshi, can a demon really be burned to death?"
Beside the forest outside the hill, Kagome watched the raging wildfire in admiration for a while before a question suddenly occurred to her.
A wildfire was certainly powerful against humans, but this time they were facing a demon, something entirely different.
Could the common sense that applied to humans also apply to demons?
What would they do if the wildfire failed to kill the demon and she fought her way out?
"Don't worry."
Hojo Akitoshi was very confident about that.
They already knew that the incendiary oil mixed with sugar had burned away great swathes of the hair Yura of the Hair controlled the other night.
That was sufficient proof that conventional human weapons could harm a demon's actual body.
Now the incendiary oil contained even more additives, and the burning that followed would cling like maggots gnawing at bone.
How could Yura of the Hair possibly remain unscathed, especially when she was not even in peak condition?
She had suffered a setback the other night and would suffer another today. After being weakened again and again...
Even if she truly broke through, how much strength would she have left, and what condition would she be in?
"Is that so?"
Kagome gazed at the supremely confident Hojo Akitoshi and said no more.
Turning back, she silently watched alongside Inuyasha and the others as more Special Incendiary Bombs fell.
And the wildfire began to change.
"Bastard! I've been tricked!"
At first, Yura of the Hair had strolled through the wildfire. It was uncomfortable, but still bearable.
Yet the farther she walked, the more she sensed something was wrong.
First, the temperature of the flames had risen far more than just a few degrees. Right before Yura of the Hair's eyes...
The surrounding rocks began to crack, and patches of earth beneath her feet melted into liquid.
As for the hair wrapped around her body, she could no longer create it fast enough to keep up with the rate at which it burned away!
Should I retreat?
By the time Yura of the Hair realized something was wrong, she was caught in a dilemma.
If she advanced, she might not retain enough fighting strength to break through.
If she retreated, judging by the wildfire's current development, she would merely be waiting to die.
"I'll risk it!"
Gritting her teeth, Yura of the Hair refused to accept her situation. Since she would face the blade whether she stuck her neck out or pulled it back...
She might as well gamble with her life. She refused to believe that a formidable humanoid demon like herself...
Who ranked among the upper-middle tier of demons...
Could truly meet her downfall at the hands of a bunch of humans!
So she steeled herself, though in truth she had no choice.
Forcing herself onward, Yura of the Hair picked up speed and continued through the flames. It had to be said that she was unlucky.
Or perhaps, as the first humanoid demon in the world of Inuyasha to die upon her debut...
Her luck at this point in time had reached an all-time low.
As she pressed onward, of all the rotten luck, another Special Incendiary Bomb from the Hojo Army struck Yura of the Hair squarely on the head!
In an instant, the gift Hojo Akitoshi had originally prepared for the Takeda Army and the Imagawa Army...
Was thoroughly enjoyed by Yura of the Hair instead.
"What's going on?!"
The moment the jar struck her head, Yura of the Hair felt disaster closing in.
She had thought it would contain nothing more than incendiary oil, which she could shake off or roll away.
After all, flames surrounded her, and incendiary oil was everywhere.
As the saying went, once you were buried in debt, a little more made no difference; once you were covered in lice, a few more bites hardly mattered.
"It's actually burrowing into the barrier of hair?!"
Horrified, she stared at the flames that had burned through her hair in mere breaths and reached her true body.
Having lived for a hundred years or even longer, Yura of the Hair had never seen humans wield anything like this.
"Monks? Onmyoji? Shrine maidens?"
"It couldn't be demonic fire! How could that lowly dog half-demon possess demonic fire like this?"
The strange yellow flames, unlike ordinary fire, had already reached her humanoid form, leaving Yura of the Hair utterly terrified. In fact, she tried everything she could think of.
But she simply could not get rid of the flames clinging to her like maggots to bone!
Beat them out with her hair?
The hair vanished as soon as it touched the flames.
Rolling on the ground did nothing to the fire.
Finally, she tried extinguishing it with hands infused with demonic power, but the yellow flames truly behaved like demonic fire.
They rapidly spread to her hands and every other part that touched them.
And just like demonic fire, these flames really were burrowing into her body!
It was only because Yura of the Hair's body consisted of hair held together by demonic power that she endured.
Had she possessed a flesh-and-blood body, those yellow flames would have exposed her bones in no time!
"Hojo Akitoshi! Hojo Army!"
Letting out an anguished howl filled with boundless hatred, as mournful as a cuckoo crying blood or an ape's lament, Yura of the Hair screamed toward the sky with all her might from within the flames.
She hated. She cursed.
Hadn't she merely come to seize the Shikon Jewel?
How had she encountered a human daimyo who defied all common sense?
Yura of the Hair's screams were so loud that everyone in the Hojo Army beside the forest beyond the hill heard them.
Merely hearing those agonized cries seemed enough to let them feel her pain.
One after another, they looked in awe at Hojo Akitoshi and the so-called Special Incendiary Bombs he had developed himself.
"Not bad."
Listening closely, Hojo Akitoshi lowered his head slightly to conceal the smile on his face.
A smile inappropriate for the occasion.
"I obtained white phosphorus through soaking and used sugar to raise the flames' temperature."
"I hardly need to mention what this crude, old-fashioned budget incendiary bomb does to humans. Looks like it works just as well on demons."
"Heh heh heh heh."
Murmuring words no one else could hear, Hojo Akitoshi quietly awaited the result.
And considered whether this same approach could deal with the Great Dog General's eldest son, who would soon arrive!
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