Chapter Six
Neko half expected to be ambushed by a thousand youkai once she got close to the castle, yet the premises was disturbingly still. 'Now what?' she mused.
Thinking along the same lines, Inu Yasha snorted, "Do you think we should ring the bell first to be polite, or can we just let ourselves inside?"
Determined and afraid for K-Chan, Neko made up her mind and pushed on the heavy oak doors with all of her might. To her surprise, they opened easily. All of her senses heightened as she put herself on guard.
"It must be a trap," Miroku established. "No villain would just leave his doors wide open to the public. What are you planning, Naraku?"
As if on cue, a swarm of various minion youkai teemed about the motley trio. Too late for turning back, Neko and Inu Yasha stood armed and ready to fight, and Miroku's fingers tensed on the rosary beads that temporarily sealed his Air Rip, ready to remove them as soon as necessary.
Inu Yasha was a strong fighter, and Neko proved to be able to hold her own quite well. Miroku did what he could, careful to avoid the ominous saimyoushou that seemed ever present.
"Inu Yasha!" Neko called to her companion, "use the move with Tetsusaiga that you did in book eleven!" she pleaded. The youkai railed against her, and Neko was unsure of just how long she could hold them off. They seemed endless, and the feeble sword she had picked up off of the golem was close to powerless against them.
"What the hell are you talking about?!?!" Inu Yasha exploded. Neko silently swore, wishing that Inu Yasha had read his own books.
At that moment, a rather immense hawk-like youkai sailed into Inu Yasha and sank its talons deep into the flesh of his right arm. He cried out, almost more in anger than in pain, accidentally letting Tetsusaiga fall from his grasp. In that slow-moment motion of utter desperation, Neko got a twinge of a crazy idea, the kind that one only experiences under pressure of that sort. Maybe there was another reason that the cos-play rosary worked on her after all . . .
Not wasting the chance, she flung herself at Tetsusaiga and landed on her stomach just as her small fist grasped the hilt of the currently un-transformed blade. As more youkai advanced, Neko felt a surge of power as though her body was conducting electricity. Rolling over to her back, she swung Tetsusaiga, now fully transformed, as hard as she could, thinking over and over, 'I'm gonna save K-Chan . . . this one's for her!" Tetsusaiga glowed brilliantly as though it were feeding off of the power Neko felt. In that instant, with that one fatal wave of the sword, the massive throng of youkai burst apart, slaughtered by the violent power behind Neko's swing.
As beads of sweat rolled off of her face, Neko let her entire body go limp with relief. She rested the back of her head on the cool wood of the floor and shut her eyes, a sense of triumph filling her veins as the torrent of strength had just moments before. "I . . . I did it . . ."
Miroku and Inu Yasha, meanwhile, looked upon Neko with newfound respect. Miroku helped Neko to her feet, stammering, "I . . . you . . . that was incredible!"
"I don't understand," Inu Yasha contemplated, half to himself. "Why did Tetsusaiga transform for you? And how did you know how to use it?"
"I don't have time to explain to you right now," Neko admitted, adding, "In fact, I'm not sure if I'm even sure I completely understand it myself. I think, however, it has something to do with this." And with that, she exposed the cos-play rosary that K-Chan had given her as a Christmas present. "It's a long story," was her response to Inu Yasha's shocked expression. "Come on, let's go find Naraku . . . and finish him. And if you don't mind," she added, holding up Tetsusaiga, which had gone back to its original form, "I'd like to hang onto this."
As it turns out, finding Naraku was not as challenging as Neko had anticipated. They found him seated in the same room where he had, unbeknownst to them, kept K-Chan, looking out the window and brooding to himself as she had done. K-Chan was no where in sight. Neko felt another surge of fury, and again, she let that go to her head and approached Naraku with no fear.
"Where is she?" Neko snarled viciously, her hand tensed on Tetsusaiga. Just let him see that she had this, and she'd show him what she could do with it.
"You must be Neko," Naraku welcomed her. "I've heard a lot about you in the past several days."
Neko took another bold step forward. "What the hell did you do to her? Where's K-Chan?" Neko demanded. Naraku turned his back on her, which threw Neko a little off-guard. Who would turn their back on an enemy? What was he trying to do?
"I honestly do not know," came his heartless reply. But if Neko could have seen his face, she might have noticed that his eyes were troubled. "But if you would like to make an arrangement, I'm sure that we could talk something out."
"The time for talk is over," Neko declared, then positioned herself in a fighting stance. "Are you ready to die, Naraku?"
Naraku turned his face towards her slightly. He appeared to be smirking. "If you kill me," he warned, "then K-Chan shall die as well. I'm only telling you this for her benefit."
"Bullshit!" Neko swore, ready to charge, when a soft voice stopped her.
"It's true."
Neko turned to see K-Chan, looking sad and distant, donned in a beautiful kimono. Neko was so relieved that she dropped Tetsusaiga and ran to her friend.
"K-Chan, oh my god, you're alive!" Neko threw her arms around her friend, but K-Chan returned the gesture with only a slight embrace. Neko pulled away and stared at K-Chan, who felt like a stranger.
Inu Yasha, meanwhile, had repossessed Tetsusaiga and was advancing towards Naraku. Neko tried to step protectively in front of K-Chan, but K-Chan had other ideas and calmly placed herself between the on-coming dog demon and the pelt-less figure of Naraku. Inu Yasha recoiled.
"What the hell are you doing? Are you stupid? Get out of my way!" he barked. K-Chan looked at him through hollow eyes.
"Back down," she commanded. "Neko, give me your rosary beads, please?"
The funny look on K-Chan's visage somehow made Neko obey. To her surprise, the beads slid over her head easily, and with trembling fingers she placed them into K-Chan's outstretched palm.
"K-Chan . . ." Neko tried again, "I don't understand."
Without a word, K-Chan turned face-to-face with Naraku and slipped the rosary over his head, her hands brushing his soft black hair as she did so. Seeming that any word of suppression would work, she whispered, "Stay." Inu Yasha, Miroku and Neko were dumbfounded. He hadn't just . . . let her do that, had he?
K-Chan turned back to the stunned trio. "There. He can't hurt you now. Please . . . wait for me, just outside the room. I promise that I'll join you."
Observant to the pleading tone in K-Chan's voice, Neko slowly ushered Inu Yasha and Miroku out of the door. "I don't understand either," she admitted to them. "But K-Chan . . . seems to know what she's doing. Besides, we'll be right outside in case there's any trouble." Neko bit her lip, hoping that her male companions hadn't picked up on the incredible worry in her voice.
"We should have killed him," Inu Yasha protested bitterly. But he, too, remembered the vacant yet profound look on K-Chan's face, and remained silent after that.
'K-Chan,' Neko silently pleaded with her friend, 'what's going on?'
Back inside the room, K-Chan removed the beads and stared into the face of Naraku for the final time.
"The well . . . it's just beyond the woods surrounding my castle, to the North," he instructed her. K-Chan remained silent. "I . . . would get you there myself-"
"I understand," K-Chan promised. "Good-bye, Naraku." She turned and began a silent walk towards the door to freedom. As her hand touched the knob, Naraku's voice again called out to her.
"Kanai-" His voice was halting, not know the words to say. K-Chan couldn't face him, only quietly reply.
"My name . . . is K-Chan."
As she made her exit and closed the door behind her, Inu Yasha, Miroku, and Neko scrambled sheepishly into what they hoped were nonchalant positions. "We weren't eavesdropping," Miroku insisted.
K-Chan looked over, a flicker of her old self returning to her gray-blue eyes. With a grin slightly retained by sadness, she said, "Come on. Let's go home."