Hello…?

*Approaches cautiously, holding a frying pan up in defence*

I know, I'm a terrible author for not updating sooner. But I did warn you. Anyway this chapter is very short compared to my first, but bear with me!

*Bows apology*

Enjoy. ^_^

I did a double take.

Than a triple.

And quadruple.

I blinked, rubbed my eyes, pinched my arm, and tried every trick in the book I could think of. But nothing changed. I was still surrounded by tall skyscrapers, animated skyscrapers. I was still sat in an alleyway, an animated alleyway. And I was still wearing the necklace Ohba had given to me. Oh and guess what? It was animated too, big shocker there.

"Rae, please tell me when I look at you, I will not see an anime you." I whispered.

I heard her shift uncomfortably.

"Can't guarantee nothing." She replied.

Slowly, I turned to look at her. My mouth dropped to the floor.

It was Rae. Same old teasing, competitive, slightly childish Rae… only a little bit different. Okay, that was a lie. She was really different. She was anime style, sleek and slender. Her clothes were anime, her face was anime, and her hair was woven with red. Defiantly anime.

But even an anime Rae isn't as strange as what I am about to describe. Atop Rae's head were two, scarlet cat ears. REAL neko ears. They twitched and moved, fluttered and pricked. They seemed to have a mind of their own. I swallowed.

"Er Rae…"

She whirled around, and gasped. Her now dramatically large, brown eyes widened further, and her… *ahem* ears flattened against her head.

"Stripes… you… your… ears." She spluttered.

But I could understand her well enough. I spotted a broken mirror in a bin. I leapt up, and dragged Rae with me toward the shiny surface. I pulled it out, wiped the dirt from it, and then set it in front of us. Now it was my turn to gasp.

It was me, only now I was anime too. Anime black and purple tights, anime denim shorts, anime t-shirt, and anime jacket. Not to mention anime black hair, with bits of purple thrown in. And hey, what the heck? Let's give the girl purple neko ears too.

That's right. I had neko ears, what else is new?

"Stripes, do you think Ohba put something in that tea?" Rae asked, gingerly touching her ears.

I did the same, they felt really soft. "That would explain a lot of things, or maybe this is a dream." I answered.

Rae blinked. "Huh, it could be. Let's test it."

She punched me in the arm, hard.

"OW, what the hell did you do that for!" I yelled.

Rae sighed, not bothering to apologise. She slid to the floor, pulling her legs to her chest.

"It's not a dream then." She murmured.

I glared at her, before sliding down onto my butt to join her.

As you can probably imagine my mood was not the best. My body had just disintegrated moments ago, I'd woken up in a strange animated alleyway, then I'd found out my head had sprouted neko ears, and then my so called best mate had punched me in the arm. No, surprisingly I did not feel the need to break out in song and dance.

"Should we go have a look around?" Rae asked.

I threw her a glance, raising my eyebrow. "Like this?" I gestured to my ears. "Yeah great plan Rae, we'd probably be thrown in the first science lab available for god's sake!"

Rae narrowed her eyes. "There's no need to bite my head off!" she shot back.

I snorted, rubbing my sore arm. "And there was a need to punch me in the arm? I'm in agony here!" I grumbled.

It was a bit overdramatic I admit, but it still hurt. It's not like I'm a wimp or anything (well, not much) but Rae has one hell of a left hook.

I sighed, letting my head swing back to study the sky. At least it's a nice day; I thought, and then resisted the urge to slap myself. Yeah, way to focus on the important stuff Stripes. You're sucked into an animated world and all you're concerned with is the damn weather! I can be a real idiot sometimes.

We both sat in silence for a while, wrapped up in our own thoughts. It was getting a little unbearable, so it came as a relief when Rae decided to break it.

"So, what now?" she asked.

I rubbed my ankles together, contemplating. "Well since we can't go anywhere like this." I gestured to my ears. "There isn't much we can do. Unless…" I trailed off.

There was something in the sky, a black dot. I squinted against the sunlight, straining my vision. It was getting bigger, steadily growing by the second. I craned my neck, trying desperately to make the shape out. I was so focused on it, that I failed to notice it was heading straight for me. Until it was too late.

It hit me square in the face with a smack, sending a ripple of pain through my body.

"OW!" I yelled.

"Stripes! Are you okay?" Rae asked, bending over me.

I shoved the offending object off my stomach, rubbing my sore head. It seemed everything was out to get me today.

"Where the hell did that come from?" I asked, angrily.

Upon closer inspection I realized the thing was a backpack, and that I recognized it. It was my backpack. The only difference I could detect (not counting the fact that it was animated) was the note pinned to it.

Rae pulled it from the yellow material, reading it with quick precision. "It's from Ohba-sama." She said, handing me the note. I all but snatched it from her hand, pulling it as close to my face as possible. The handwriting was black and spidery, stretching like spider web across the page.

Hello Stripes, Rae.

I hope your journey was successful. I shall take this opportunity to explain a few things. First, for now I cannot communicate with you, but hopefully that should change in a few minutes. So I leave you to explore a bit. Oh and as for the ear situation, a solution should find its way to you in a moment. I apologise for that, it was a slight miscalculation on my part.

From Ohba

"A slight miscalculation?" I exclaimed.

Just as the words left my mouth, two fishing hats fluttered from the sky. One was purple, the other red. They landed at our feet, making no sound whatsoever. There was a note pinned to the red one.

The solution.

There was a moment of pure silence, as Rae and I both stared down at the hats. Then, very slowly, Rae bent down to pick up the red one. She studied it in her hands for a full minute, and then took a deep breath.

"HOW THE HELL IS THIS A SOLUTION!" she exploded.

I took a step back, eyes widening in surprise. Rae was scary when she was angry, really scary.

"I SWEAR OBHA-SAMA THAT IF I EVER GET A HOLD OF YOU, I'LL KILL YOU WITH MY BARE HANDS. YOU SMART ASS!"

She stopped, panting hard. Her hair was tousled slightly, stray strands falling into her face. I sweat dropped, actually sweat dropped! Looks like there's a few perks to this situation after all.

"Feel better?" I asked.

Rae grinned, pulling the hat over her ears. "Much, yelling does wonders for my mood."

I picked up the other hat, dusted it off, and then also pulled it on. I stretched my arms, closing my eyes. "Well at least we can go see where we are now." I said.

Rae's eyes glinted with intent, which could only mean trouble. A slow smile spread over her lips, flashing white teeth.

"Know what I just realized Stripes?"

I shook my head, feeling my skin pale. Whenever Rae looked like this, it meant trouble.

She laughed mechanically, flinging her arm out to point at the entrance to the alleyway.

"We're in an anime!" She shouted.

News flash of the century, I already knew that. I coughed. "Er Rae, I kind of already sussed that one out." I said.

Rae continued to laugh, putting her hands on her hips. I would have given her an Oscar right then and there for the best villain. But funnily enough, my supply runs low on Oscars.

"Don't you get it Stripes? This is an anime. We can do it all. Vein popping, sweat dropping, we could even swing hammers at each other and turn out alright! This is every otaku's dream Stripes!" she announced.

I froze. She was right. This was a dream come true. How many times had I thought about this, how many times had I wished for this? I had literally been handed everything I had hoped for on a silver platter, and I was complaining?

I smiled eagerly. "You know what? You might actually be right for once."

Rae gave me a sly smile, still in character. All she needed was a moustache and white cat now. "But of course dear Stripes, I am always right."

I grinned for the first since we'd landed ourselves in this whole mess. "What are we waiting for then?"

Rae laughed, linking arms with me. "Let's go whiskers."

And then, about as gracefully as two hippos wearing skates, we bounded out of the alleyway.

Like I said, shortest chapter ever. -_-

Arigatō Hawkbelly FreaxGeax Moka-girl PlasmaDragon007 and shinigamiConnections.

You guys rock! ^_^