Chapter Five
It had been two days since her kidnapping, and K-Chan had seen no sign of Naraku since the night that he had taken her. She was pondering escape when he summoned for her.
"Waka has sent for you," Yôka informed her. K-Chan had been staring idly out of the window, watching the day roll by slowly before her. It was the only view she had as a prisoner. She turned slightly towards Yôka, and the young Japanese woman noticed a distressed look on K-Chan's face. The two had become friends during K-Chan's time at Naraku's castle, and now Yôka stepped towards the girl, concerned.
"K-Chan-sama? Is everything all right?"
K-Chan sighed deeply and returned her gaze to the slowly sinking sun. She wasn't exactly sure of how to put into words the emotions that had settled into her heart. Despite the circumstances of her being held prisoner, K-Chan had never felt so . . . well, at home in her life.
"I don't know," she began finally, after having been silent for several moments. "I guess—I guess what bothers me most is the ever-impending thought of my going back home. And yet at the same time . . . I feel like I am home. Back—in my world, I never felt like there was a place for me. I felt so different from everyone, and I never knew what it was. Still, I can't place my finger on it, but here . . . now . . . I know that I belong." She paused, then asked, "Does that make sense?"
"Perfectly," a low male voice answered her. Startled, K-Chan turned to see that Yôka had left, apparently before K-Chan's soliloquy, and Naraku had taken her place. Embarrassed, she turned her face away from the youkai.
"I-I'm sorry," she stammered, "I should have come when you sent for me."
"You really . . . feel at home here?" Naraku persisted, coaxing K-Chan to confide a little more. When the girl said nothing, he placed his hand on her shoulder. She started at his touch, rather taken aback, but somehow managed to slightly relax. "K-Chan," he said seriously. She looked back at him over her left shoulder. He was without his pelt, and his face was very serious. "There is something that you should know—that I should tell you."
* * * ^-^ * * *
It what could only be described as a miracle, Neko ran through the forest, keeping ahead of Miroku and even Inu Yasha. 'Please be alive, K-Chan, please, please don't be dead!' she silently wished. The castle couldn't be that far—and then suddenly, there it was, looming before her like a brooding shadow. She stopped suddenly and caught her breath as Inu Yasha and Miroku came up after her, panting, a look of awe painted on both of their perspiring faces. Determined, Neko made her way towards the castle, only to be yanked backwards by Miroku.
"Are you crazy?" Inu Yasha hissed at her. "What sort of sick and twisted death wish do you have?"
"Don't do anything stupid, Neko," Miroku agreed in a somewhat softer tone. "You're underestimating Naraku."
Neko glared at the both of them then jabbed an index finger in the general direction of the gloomy castle. "My friend is in there," she began. "Dead or alive, I don't know for sure. But I do know that if our roles were reversed, K-Chan would run barefoot through hell to save me, and there's no way that I'm gonna let that Naraku bastard hurt her!"
The two men looked at little stunned at Neko's sudden ferocity. They didn't have too long to be idle, however, as they were suddenly attacked by a swarm of saimyoushou [hell wasps] and one of Naraku's very own golems, a perfect replica of himself with his pelt on.
"Crap!" Inu Yasha swore, drawing Tetsusaiga and knowing that this one was all on him. Miroku couldn't open his Air Rip with the saimyoushou flying ominously about. Neko was at a loss as to what she could do to help out when the golem spoke directly to her, although simultaneously fighting Inu Yasha.
"Forget about your friend K-Chan," it warned her. "If you come any further for her, I swear," it growled, "I'll murder her."
In that moment, Inu Yasha swung true and sliced off the golem's right arm. Neko took this golden opportunity to rush forward, despite pleading from Miroku not to, and grab the sword that the golem had been using. As a final hurrah, she swung angrily, satisfied when the golem's head fell to the ground and the whole thing burst into a crumbling heap of dirt, at the center of which was a small wooden doll with one of Naraku's own hairs wrapped around it.
"Another puppet," Miroku observed, then followed Inu Yasha's gaze to Neko. "Where did you learn . . . ?" he began, then trailed off, at a loss for words. Neko glanced at him, then looked back to the broken mass of what could have killed them only moments before.
"Don't you ever threaten me like that again," she spat, then, speaking to her compatriots, added, "Are you coming or not?"
* * * ^-^ * * *
"Everything created has a soul, K-Chan," Naraku began. "Even the minions that I bring to life by my own will. And a soul can transcend time and space.
"Several years ago, I created a young female to be of service to me. She was to be just another slave, but something . . . happened. To me." Naraku shifted his gaze from K-Chan to the wooden floor, then whispered, "I, Naraku . . . fell in love with her.
"Yes, I!" he stated again, more adamantly, as though he scarcely could believe it of himself. "It should not have been, but it was. I called her Kanai . . ."
'Wife,' K-Chan thought, recalling the little bit of Japanese she could comprehend. She bit her lip, not quite understanding where Naraku was going. Why was he telling her all of this?
"I knew that we could never be together, and I thought, 'I'll kill her, and she will never come to mind again,'" Naraku continued. "I slew her and felt as though I had murdered a part of myself, but naively, I figured that my troubles with her would be over, that she could never come back to me now. And yet, somehow . . ." he paused and lifted his eyes again to K-Chan, " . . . she did."
Suddenly, his words began to sink in. K-Chan's heart knocked against her ribs as though it would beat itself out of her chest. The infatuation with Naraku, why he hadn't killed her, the feelings of belonging . . . it was all beginning to add up.
Naraku was still speaking to her. "You have no father, K-Chan. Surely why has crossed your mind . . ."
[*Note: this part is, albeit loosely, based on fact—K-Chan was a test tube baby, or so she has been told all of her life . . . ^-^]
K-Chan took a frightened step backwards. This was too much, all at once. "My father . . . he . . . I . . ."
In the most chivalrous gesture of his life, Naraku outstretched a friendly hand towards the quaking girl, but K-Chan could only turn and run, fleeing from the words that could have been true. Did she believe him? Of course, he could be lying . . . but then, how could he have known about her origins, of the unnatural method of her birth . . .?
A miasma of volatile thoughts thunder stormed in K-Chan's brain. 'Fact or false, there is an iota of truth to his words. I was not born—I was created. I . . . was . . . created . . ."