A/N: Here is my first fanfic on this account. It takes place three years after Haru went to the Cat Kingdom, which means that she is now twenty years old. Prince Lune(now known as King Lune) and Yuki(Queen) need Haru's help. A bunch of cats in the kingdom have gone missing including their two kids, Emiko and Chika. Lune and Yuki would go themselves, but they can't leave since they must rule over their kingdom. Thus, Haru goes on her journey to find the Cats, but she's not alone. Baron, Muta, and Toto come along to help too. If you wish to read this story, then please, by all means, continue reading what's here. But if you hate this story then refrain from sending a flame. It's not appreciated and it's rather childish to flame someone when you could just hit the 'back' button and pretend you never came across this story. Now doesn't that sound great? No? Well…moving on..
Disclaimer: I own one thing and that is, my imagination. In this imagination of mine, I own Emiko and Chika. I also own the Dog Kingdom. But to make you happy, I do not own The Cat Returns…no matter how much I wish I did.
Haru Returns: Journey to the Dog Kingdom
Chapter One: Routine
"Life is a routine. You see, we continually do stuff in a cycle and those who try to break routine still are in a routine because they have made a routine of breaking the routine…does this make sense?"
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Haru sighed inwardly as she sat behind the counter of the library. Yes, she's a librarian, but she goes to classes at night for college. At the moment, she was thinking how three years ago she could have been stuck in a kingdom full of cats and married to the king of the cats. She was beginning to wonder if she made the right decision in coming back here as a normal human being, but she knew that she wasn't normal because she still wishes to return to Cat Kingdom to check up on how the new king and queen are doing. Yes, the original king was sent away to live with the turtle monks since he had decided to keep trying to take young human girls to marry him.
Thus, King Lune and Queen Yuki now rule over the Cat Kingdom in his place. The last Haru heard was that Yuki had given birth to twin girls, but that was two years ago. Now, however, she had no idea how they were. She hasn't even spoken to Baron, Muta, or Toto in months. If she could, she would leave her boring routine of a human's life and live with the cats, but she has no clue how to get back to them all.
"Why can't I live my life as I please," Haru muttered twirling the strands of her now long brown hair.
"Well, you could if you wanted," drawled a deep voice from below.
Haru blinked and looked down to see a rather large white cat sitting cleaning his paw.
"Muta?" Haru asked staring at him.
"What?" Muta said kinda annoyed, "You forgot about me and Baron already?"
Haru shook her head and tilted her head to the side, "No, I just haven't heard from you two in awhile."
"Sorry, I was away visiting family," Muta said, "And Baron was away on some errand looking for someone."
"Family? Since when do you have family?" Haru asked pointedly at him.
"Well, everyone has family," Muta growled, "I guess you could call them my owners, but I come and go as I please. Besides, it's not like they'd care when I came seeing as one of my owners just recently got married to the love of his life. It's rather mushy, but still, they seem to love each other. Last bit of conversation I heard from them was that they'd be leaving to live in Cremona, Italy…something about becoming a true violin maker. I guess violins are those wooden things with strings attached to them."
"Oh..kay," Haru turned back to staring at the bookshelves, "So then who was Baron looking for?"
"Beats me," Muta said leaping up onto the counter, "He never says anything about it to me or Toto."
"Oh, that's strange. Anyway, why are you here, Muta?" Haru said looking back at Muta.
"Thought I'd drop by and say hello,"Muta replied nonchalantly, "So how are you , Haru?"
"Fine, I guess," Haru shrugged, " Just following the routine of my life."
"That sounds boring."
"Well, it's not like I'm going on some adventure or anything," Haru muttered, " I have to go to college and work."
"You humans really need to look outside the litter box," Muta said getting up and leaping off the counter, "Well, I got to run. Baron wanted me to run an errand for something."
With that said, Muta vanished out of sight. Haru continued staring at the bookshelves unaware of a pair of eyes watching her from a distance. Haru may think that she's not going on an adventure anytime soon, but she truly had no idea what the future had in store for her.
Haru sighed exasperatedly and leaned back against her chair. This was probably the most uneventful day of all. All she did was get up in the morning, take a shower, eat breakfast, brush her teeth, drive to the library, and sit around at the library like now. She was starting to think that life is a never ending routine. Maybe that was just the way things were for humans…Maybe she should've taken the ex king's offer on being a cat for the rest of her life.
She held up her hand and looked at the watch. It was time to close the library and go to her classes. She stood up and pushed her chair back under the desk and turned the computer off. Haru then grabbed her bag, turned the lights out, and walked out of the library. After locking the door, Haru made her way down the sidewalk to her college since it wasn't far from the library she worked at. While walking, Haru once again thought off her adventure in the Cat Kingdom.
'If I'd stayed,' she pondered while walking across the street, 'would I still have been married to Lune or the ex-king?'
Thinking about that, she came to the conclusion that she would most likely have been married off to either one of them. While Haru had her thoughts to occupy her attention, she failed once again to notice figures darting about getting closer and closer to her. Before she even reached the steps of the college, she was whisked away by the darting figures that had been following around unnoticeably all day. Panic came to the mind while she was seemingly carried off at a fast pace in the opposite direction of where she'd been headed, but after awhile the feeling was replaced with curiosity as she realized that the things carrying her were furry and had tails. Cats. Yes, indeed. Cat's were carrying her off to, of course, the Cat Kingdom.
Haru had thought about going back to the kingdom many times, but she'd never thought that the cats would come back for her.
"Um," Haru said slightly confused, "Do you guys mind telling me why you are carrying me off somewhere?"
"Because," came a familiar voice, "the king and queen have requested to see you, so we do what we are told and take you to them."
"Natoru? Is that you?" Haru asked looking behind her to see a squinting spotted cat sitting behind her.
"Yep," Natoru said happily, "Good to see you again."
"You too, but why have King Lune and Queen Yuki requested to see me?"
"I'm afraid you'll have to wait and see, Miss Haru," Natoru replied quietly, "they wanted to tell you themselves why they have sent me to get you."
"Oh, okay," Haru said even more confused as she turned back to look at where the cats were leading her.
The cats continued their journey to there home with Haru and Natoru on their backs. Finally, after many turns and twists, they made their way to the gate of the palace.
"Halt, who goes there?" Came a growling voice from one of the guards standing by the gate.
"We've come back with Haru like King Lune and Queen Yuki requested," Natoru said quietly.
The guard nodded curtly then opened the gate for Haru and Natoru to pass through. As soon as Haru got through the gate, they snapped it shut and locked it. That's something that didn't happen the last time she came to visit Lune and Yuki. It's as if the Cat Kingdom is afraid of something..or someone...but who?
'Well,' Haru thought blankly as she and Natoru made their way to Lune and Yuki, who were both sitting drinking tea,' At least this is out of routine.'
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A/N: And that would conclude the first chapter. It seems a little short to me, but I figured that was the right place to stop it. I'll have the next chapter up soon, hopefully. I just need to put the pieces of ideas together in my mind or this story might turn out like scrambled eggs. Well, please review this story, I'd really appreciate it.