Chapter Two
When K-Chan didn't show up for school the next day, Neko called her at home during her lunch period. 'Maybe she's sick and took a day off,' Neko pondered. But the phone rang thrice and the answering machine picked up, offering no more clues as to K-Chan's whereabouts. Neko dismissed it, thinking that K-Chan was probably asleep.
But when K-Chan wasn't answering the phone that afternoon either, Neko proceeded over to her house to investigate. As soon as she got off the bus after school, she ran to her friend's house, only to find it empty. K-Chan's large dog barked at Neko from his doghouse in the backyard.
"Konnichiwa, Quincy-kun!" Neko greeted the typically friendly beast. But something was amiss. The dog was growling and straining at his chain as though he was trying to get at some invisible intruder. Puzzled, Neko went to try and calm him down. Quincy knew her scent, but he reacted to her as though she was a stranger. Too late, Neko came to a sudden realization.
"You are not K-Chan's-" but before she could say "dog," the world around her went black. Had she been conscious, she would have seen "Quincy" disappear (for the real Quincy was lying curled up on a rug inside next to a toasty radiator) and the handsome dog-demon Sesshô-maru take his place. Sesshô-maru looked down at Neko disdainfully. He had followed Naraku to this world in a race for Shikon shards, only for this brush encounter with a human teenage female. Neither Naraku nor Shikon shards were anywhere to be found. But there was something interesting about this girl. Upon closer inspection, Sesshô-maru realized that she was wearing his brother's rosary. That human girl, Kagome, used it to repress his brother by saying . . . what was the word? Sit.
As Neko came around, her eyelids twitching and a painful groan emitting from her throat, Sesshô-maru tempted the powerful magic of the rosary. "Sit," he commanded evenly. Neko, who had propped herself up into a pseudo-seated position, suddenly found herself jet-propelled back onto the ground.
"Oro . . ." she moaned. That blow to the head had been painful enough, and now this. A cos-play necklace that really worked!?!? But forgetting that for a moment, had she really just seen . . . ?
Sure enough, as Neko hesitantly sat back up, at the risk of being "sitted" again, she stared into the trademark poker-face of her one true love, Sesshô-maru.
"Sess-sama?" Neko's tone was questioning. Sesshô-maru widened his eyes by a fraction of an inch, the only indication that he was the least bit perplexed. How did this repulsive human know his name? Well, there was only one way to find out.
"Not that it matters all that much, as far as I'm concerned," he began, "but how did you know my name, and why are you wearing that tacky accessory of my brother's?"
Neko's eyes went wide with glee. "It . . . . it really is you!" she rejoiced, bounding at Sesshô-maru. "Can I wear your boa?"
"Sit," the dog demon yawned, and Neko plunged to the ground once more.
"I wish you'd stop that," she growled through a mouthful of dirt and snow. A thought struck her, and she raised her hands to her neck. 'I'll just take it off,' she thought. 'After all, it's only a cos-play necklace, right?'
To Neko's dismay, the necklace clung to her as though the claw-like projections were digging into her skin. The next thing she knew, she had been hefted into the air and was slung over Sesshô-maru's shoulder like a sack of flour, backpack and all.
"Put me down!" she shrieked immediately as a reflex, then thought about that a moment. "On second thought, you really don't have to! Um, where are we going?"
Sesshô-maru sighed. "Kisama . . ." he growled, then without warning, leapt into a deep hole in K-Chan's backyard.
"GAAAAAAH!" Neko screamed as they splashed down. "I thought this was a dry well!"
Muttering something about the mediocrity of humanity, Sesshô-maru waded through the waist-deep water to the edge of the so-called "dry well" and began to scale the rocks effortlessly, with Neko still clinging to his shoulder.
* * * ^-^ * * *
When K-Chan opened her eyes, she found herself in an unfamiliar room surrounded by candles and incense. Her captor was nowhere to be seen.
Wincing, she sat up shakily, the swirling smoke clouding her senses. Leaning over on her side, a loud and indignant squeak made her leap to her feet. Needless to say, she was surprised to find Neko's Naraku doll beside her.
"How in all nine levels of hell did that get here?" she pondered, picking up the flaccid doll. After a beat, she rephrased, "How did I get here, as a matter of fact?"
"Awake, I see," a cold voice sneered from behind her. She turned to see Naraku, sans pelt, staring at her from the doorway. K-Chan's heart nearly beat itself out of her chest. She clutched the Naraku doll in her titillation.
SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAK!
Naraku actually leapt back like a skittish cat as though he expected the doll, or K-Chan, or both, to spit fire. K-Chan saw clearly then, and smirked.
"You're afraid of my . . . voodoo doll, aren't you?!" she improvised. Naraku glared at her through the slits of his eyelids. K-Chan gave the doll a short, sharp squeak in Naraku's direction. He jumped slightly.
"Do that again, and I swear, I will-"
SQUEAK!
"I'm warning you, girl-"
SQUEAK! K-Chan started to advance.
"Don't you even dare-"
SQUEAK!
"How did I get here?" K-Chan demanded, holding the squeaky doll at arm's length towards a distrustful Naraku. However, Naraku was not so easily beat.
"Give me the Shikon no Tama," he demanded. K-Chan could be pretty street smart, and she knew that he was ready to bargain.
"Quid pro quo, Naraku—you tell me things, I give you things," she offered. Once he learned she didn't have the real Shikon no Tama, K-Chan was guessing, she would have found a way to escape and get back home.