A/N - thank you for the kind reviews and alerts. I am going to post one chapter a day or! If I get a lot of interest, I'll sneak a bonus chapter in here. I was wrong about the length, this story has expanded! Thank you for reading, this chapter was fun to write :)

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Haru stared at the trees from which she had just exited. It wasn't so much of a forest as it was a clump of close together trees. Hard to believe it could hide an entire other world. She supposed maybe there were entrances to other realms everywhere. The way the frog made it sound, it was entirely possible anyone that had a brush with a magical anything could end up slipping through the cracks and what was a grove of trees could be an entrance to somewhere else all together. If Haru was indeed one of those types of people she might have to start being more careful about where she wandered. "Poor little frog, I hope I didn't upset him."

The tin candy hold in her hands looked markedly different than it had before. The color seemed to be fading away, no longer bright and brand new, it looked years old and worn. The holder itself seemed smaller, the metal lackluster and looking at it, it was hard to imagine it had ever caught her eye to begin with. With the tips of her fingers, she managed to pry off the lid, which gave up with a dull 'pop'.

Inside the dark can, a single candy wrapped in yellow rice paper hid as if forgotten in the bottom. Only able to fit two fingers in the now quite small opening, she carefully fished out the last remaining candy.

After a careful inspection, Haru declared. "Looks like regular candy to me." Shrugging, she pocketed the treat and started heading back down to the road. Before she got too far from the trees, a harsh wind kicked up suddenly, snatching the now empty tin from her hands and blowing it end over end back in to the forest.

Watching it vanish in to the trees, the young girl resolved not to return to that particular park again. "And I should probably toss this candy as quickly as possible." She added to herself. It seemed like a very foolish idea indeed to eat anything from that spooky carnival.

~.~

It was dusk by the time Haru returned home. With a hello to her mother and a quick sandwich for dinner, she raced up to her bedroom – the homework completely forgotten on the kitchen counter.

Her pajamas were warm and comfortable and sitting on her bed, she could hardly believe the events of today had taken place. She reached in to her pocket and took out the candy and the only evidence that, yes, there was at least a few other worlds out there like the Cat Kingdom.

"I bet you're catnip flavored." She accused, twirling the candy around in her hand, she continued on, "I'm not stupid, you know. You are a mysterious candy from a magic land. I read about this kind of stuff all the time in manga. I bet if eat you, I, you know, turn in to a cat. Or, get haunted by a cat ghost that only I can see, or maybe just get a cat tail or smell like tuna forever. Something bad would end up happening either way. So you see, you tricky candy, thanks, but no thanks."

The only slightly tempting thought was maybe being a turned in to cat. It had been a few months since her trip to the Cat Kingdom and sometimes she couldn't help but imagine what her life would have been like if she would have stayed. Would she be with the Baron, right now? The few times Haru had wandered by the Cat Bureau, a polite 'Closed' sign had always been hanging on the door handle. She believed that if she ever really had a need for him, that door would be wide open - but not just for the sake of her idle curiosity.

"So sorry candy," Haru said, "I can wait. If I'm meant to see him again, I will. No magic candy needed." She glanced over at the wastebasket by her bed. That seemed like a truly terrible way of disposing of a magical candy. Come to think of it, she had no idea how to get rid of it at all.

~.~

The next day, a very hectic Haru rushed to the Crossroads, candy gripped in her hand. It had, in fact, turned out to be impossible to get rid of. Tossing it back in to the trees at the park resulted in it's sudden reappearance in her pocket. The same result when she tossed it in to a lake. And in to a passing garbage truck. And, in an inspired moment, freezing it in an ice cube and hiding it in the back of the fridge only resulted in a very wet, cold pocket and a very dry annoying candy.

With determined steps, the teen headed straight for the fat, white cat napping on top of a café table.

"Muta!" Haru whispered harshly to the cat, trying not to drawn the attention of other passersby. "Muta, you have to help me!"

Stretching awake from his nap, Muta looked up at Haru.

And promptly rolled back over to sleep.

"Muta!" She demanded, shaking the cat awake. "I'm being haunted by a candy!"

Sighing, the cat rolled over just enough to meet her eyes. Taking that as her queue to plead her case, Haru launched in to her story, occasionally waving the horrid candy towards him for emphasis.

When she had finish, she had to take several breaths and recollect herself.

Another minute passed and with a very deep, very annoyed sigh, the cat got up and started strolling down a familiar path. Haru followed behind with subdued steps, her head hanging. She really didn't mean for this kind of stuff to happen to her, she really didn't.

After they crossed under the arch of the small, doll sized village where the Cat Bureau made its headquarters, Muta turned towards her, paw outstretched.

"Oh!" Haru said and placed the candy on the offered paw.

Muta mused it over, looking at it from every angle, carefully weighting in thoughtfully. Several times, he nodded wisely to himself and finally, after a great length of looking quite serious, he handed it back to Haru.

"And?" She prompted.

"Looks like candy to me." He shrugged and started wandering back out towards the Crossroads.

"What!" Cried Haru, grabbing the overweight tabby by the scruff of his neck. "Weren't you listening to me?"

"Hey, hey!" Muta protested, "What'd ya want from me? I'm just a cat! I don't know anything about magic candy! And why are you taking things from mysterious carnivals anyway, you stupid or something?"

With a sigh of frustration, she let Muta go and sat down by the fountain that Toto's statue called home. "What am I going to do Muta? I just want it gone."

"So eat it."

"You have got to be kidding! Have you even read any fairy tales? That's the very last thing I should do! Why don't you eat it, you're already a cat!"

Muta backed away quickly from the offered sweet. "No way, no way! What, you think just cause I'm a little heavy I'll eat haunted candy?"

"You told me to!"

"Yeah cause it's your haunted candy!"

Feeling frustrated, Haru flicked the candy off her palm and on to the ground. It wasn't a hard flick, more like a push, really. However, the second the candy touched the ground it started to eagerly bounce away, rushing towards the Cat Bureau with tiny, quick hops.

Muta and Haru blinked in surprise, watching it in disbelief.

"Oh that can't be good." Muta finally said.

With a high pitched 'epp!" Haru scrambled to her feet. "Quick, we have to stop it!"

The candy increased the speed of its hops, managing to spring away each time Haru made a grab for it.

Muta, on the other hand, just shook his head and watched. There was no way he was going anywhere near that thing.

In a last desperate bid to stop it, Haru lunged at the candy – and missed. Landing hard on the ground, she watched in shock as the candy bounced at the window. It rippled through as if it had been water instead of solid glass. With a bright satisfied 'pop!' the candy exploded in a cloud of white sugar dust and sparkling light that rained down on to a familiar cat statuette.