"What's gotten into that Naraku now? Looks like he really is on his last legs. I ought to find a way out for myself, too."
Outside the cave.
Kagura frowned slightly, lost in thought.
She found this old father of hers increasingly impossible to understand.
Before she could think any further, however, countless tentacles shot out of the cave with a series of whistles, coiled precisely around both her ankles, then yanked her straight inside.
"N-Naraku, what are you doing?"
Kagura broke into a frightened sweat, her teeth chattering.
Naraku suspended his increasingly restless second daughter in the air, brought her before him, then spoke in a voice devoid of emotion:
"Kagura, don't forget that you are my incarnation. The things you've done lately... do you want to return to my body?"
Did this restless, foolish woman think he hadn't noticed her letting Inuyasha, Kagome, and the others return to Kaede's Village earlier?
The thought of how close he had come to falling to Kagome's two Sacred Arrows still filled him with lingering fear.
And the thought that the Shikon Shards he had used to resurrect Poison Master and Setsuna no Takemaru had fallen into that hateful human brat's hands made him even angrier.
Now that human brat had actually gotten to play the hero rescuing a beauty, all because of his casual arrangements?
Damn it!
This was outrageous!
If Kagura had bought him a little more time that day, he wouldn't have ended up in such a sorry state. If Kagura hadn't deliberately lost those three Shikon Shards, his situation would undoubtedly have been much better. After all, gaining three shards and losing three shards meant very different things to him now.
"W-wait... I-I-I... I won't act on my own again."
Facing Naraku at almost point-blank range, Kagura was