*Note: I do not own, nor am I associated with, Naraku,
Miroku, the Bone-Eater's well, Rumiko Takahashi, any of her characters or
flatware, nor do I own Microsoft, any division of Microsoft, any subdivision of
a division of Microsoft, or Bill Gates.
I do not own Neko, but I am affiliated with her. I do own K-Chan, but at this moment in time,
I highly doubt that I'm even affiliated with myself . . .
P.S. Text in brackets (these things—[]) denotes K-Chan side
notes.
Chapter One
"I'm
ho-ome!!" K-Chan announced to what she thought was an empty house. She shrugged a seemingly lead-filled
backpack that was bursting at its seems to the kitchen floor before going in
search of tuna fish to ease the pangs of hunger that had plagued her since her
last class. To K-Chan's surprise, her
mother rounded the corner from the dining room, covered in soil and mud.
"Hi,
sweetie. How was school today?"
"Made me
want to kill myself, as usual. I'd hug
you, but um . . .yeah."
K-Chan's
mother laughed. "This warm weather has
made me want to do nothing but yard work."
'Weirdo,'
K-Chan thought to herself. If anything
warmer weather should only mean the onset of swimming season. K-Chan loved the water. Her mother continued talking as K-Chan
helped herself to a glass of hothouse apple cider, naming the random things she
had done to fill up her day such as hoeing the garden and planting some early
flowers. Then, as if just remembering,
she added, "Oh! And guess what else I
did today?"
"Went
insane?" K-Chan jested. Her mother
flicked her with a dishtowel.
"Close
enough—I filled in that awful old dry well!"
A tidal
wave of apple cider cascaded half way across the kitchen in epic proportions as
K-Chan practically choked to death in horror.
"Wh-what?!" she sputtered.
"Good Lord,
what's wrong with you?" K-Chan's mother asked, shocked and concerned. K-Chan stared her mother in the face, very
serious.
"Mom—tell
me honestly. You really . . . filled in the dry well?"
"Of
course. Why should that bother you?"
And K-Chan
promptly ran from the room screaming.
It had been
approximately five months since K-Chan and her best friend Neko had traveled
through the old dry well in K-Chan's backyard to feudal Japan, the setting of
their favorite anime/manga, Inu Yasha.
In fact, in what had once seemed like a hopeless fantasy, the two had
been kidnapped by two of the Inu Yasha villains—the deadpan, debonair
Sesshô-maru (he had taken Neko) in pursuit of Naraku, who had come for K-Chan. As it turned out, what K-Chan had thought
was a simple cos-play necklace of the Shikon no Tama, or Jewel of Four Souls,
was, in fact, the actual jewel that had somehow crossed space, time and
continent to find K-Chan. It was said
that the jewel possessed the power to fulfill one's greatest desire. Neko had given K-Chan the jewel as a
Christmas present, and in turn had received a rosary from K-Chan (also thought
to be a cos-play necklace at first) that suppressed the wearer with the simple
word, "Sit." However, on the plus side,
it had also given Neko the ability to use the Tetsusaiga, Inu Yasha's sword
that transformed when used in defense of humans. She had used her power over the sword to help rescue K-Chan, with
the aid of Inu Yasha and Miroku, a Buddhist monk with a lust for women, from
Naraku's castle. In the process,
however, the shards of the Shikon no Tama necklace had been lost and scattered
throughout the forest, where they had most likely been gathered gleefully by
many men and youkai. Before returning
home, K-Chan and Neko had promised their newfound friends that they would
return to help them collect the shards.
'But that's
all over now,' K-Chan thought remorsefully.
Now the well to take them back was gone, buried beneath level upon level
of sediment and rock. Tears welled up
as she made her way to her sanctuary, her bedroom. Now the adventures were over before they had even begun. How could she even begin to explain to her
mother what she had filled in and buried this afternoon?
Wiping the
saline tracks from her cheeks, K-Chan pushed open her door and nearly toppled
backwards at what met her eyes.
"Welcome
home, K-Chan," Naraku greeted her coldly, sitting cross-legged on K-Chan's king
sized bed and sneering at her from underneath his trademark white baboon
pelt. "Did you really think you could
escape me so easily?"
* * * ^-^ * * *
Meanwhile,
a black-and-purple clad figure sauntered casually up the road, near to humming
to himself. He stopped short, though,
when he caught sight of a dead squirrel in the middle of the road. The monk had seen more disturbing sights
than this in his life, but something about it tugged at his heartstrings.
"Poor
thing," he spoke aloud, squatting over the dead body and prodding it with the
end of his shokajou. A sudden low
rumbling made him lift his head, alert.
Whatever it was, it was getting nearer, and . . . it sounded big! Just in time, he leapt safely out of harm's
way as what he thought was a massive chrome-polished monster roared into view
then zoomed out of sight, chugging and huffing and emitting some awful stench
that made the poor houshi gag.
Meanwhile,
the unknown driver of the brand-spanking new SUV scratched his head in
bewilderment, then shrugged it off.
'Weirdo,' he thought.
Shaken,
Miroku pulled himself to his feet and brushed off his kesa. His fist instinctually tensed on the rosary
beads sealing the Air Rip in his right hand, ready to use his houriki should
anything such as that passing monstrosity attacked again. And he had thought the feudal youkai were
deadly!
Luckily, he
soon reached his destination; Neko's home.
A few short months ago, the cute, perky girl had promised to bear his
child—after they'd dated a year first, the only drawback in Miroku's eyes—and
ever since he had followed Naraku through the old Bone-Eater's well, he had
searched relentlessly for the beautiful Neko.
It had been a good ten minutes at least.
Smoothing
his clothes out as best as he could, he knocked on the door only to be answered
by a scornful looking woman who glared at him with a suspicious eye. "Pardon me," he began, "but I am looking for the young lady known
as Neko?"
"Who's
asking? Oh, wait—you must be Dan,
aren't you?"
Miroku
blinked. "N-no, my name is Mir-" he
began, but the woman—apparently Neko's mother—waved him into silence.
"Yeah, you
must be Dan, Tina talks about you all the time," she stated casually,
dismissing her daughter's nickname which she refused to call her. "Although I figured you'd be cuter," she
added disdainfully.
"I beg
your-" the indignant monk began, but then resumed his politeness. "I mean, about this Dan . . . Neko already
has a boyfriend?" he finished in a whisper.
The woman's
eyes widened. "As a matter of fact, you
look much older than a daughter of my age should even be associating
with." Miroku suddenly noticed the
glinting butcher knife in the woman's right hand and sweat-dropped. "How old are you anyway?"
"Twenty-"
was all he could get out. Without
letting him finished, Neko's mother began to advance, and not slowly
either. Miroku backed away
defensively. "Please, I mean you no
harm, ma'am . . . OH, BUDDHA!! She's
gonna kill me!" he shrieked.
Much to the
monk's relief, Neko's curly-haired head poked around the corner of the doorway
just in time to see Miroku stumble backwards as her mother advanced
menacingly. "WAIT!!" she cried out,
stumbling in front of Miroku to shield him.
"Are you
seeing this . . . boy?" Neko's mother threatened in a voice that dared her to
answer truthfully.
"Oh, uh, of
course not!" Neko only half-lied. When
her mother gave her a doubtful glance, she burst out with, "He's my tutor!"
"Tutor?"
her mother questioned dubiously.
"What's
a-OW!" Miroku began and was painfully silenced as Neko stomped on his toes.
"He's
K-Chan's cousin," Neko fumbled, making up the story as she went along. "His name is, uh, Keith, and he's a history
major at, um, Notre Dame college I think, and he's visiting K-Chan because he's
out of school already—anyway he's really smart and since K-Chan knew I was
having trouble in Recent American History, she asked if he wouldn't mind
helping me out a bit, you know, since he's a history major and all." Neko silently prayed to any deity willing to
listen that her mother didn't see through the lie.
Fortunately,
Neko's mother bought it. "Well, he
should have said so in the first place." She suddenly turned sweet. "Would you care to stay for dinner, Keith?"
Neko could
see Miroku slightly grimace. "Uh . . .
certainly."
As soon as
Neko and Miroku were upstairs and out of sight, she pulled him into her room
and shut the door behind them. "How the
hell did you get here?" she demanded in a whisper. Though they were out of hearing range of her mother, Neko felt
that she couldn't be too safe.
"You're not
even glad to see me?" he returned, slightly hurt. "And who is Dan?"
Neko
blushed a slight shade. "Dan is a . . .
friend. That's all. And of course I'm glad to see you, I've
missed you!" she admitted, suddenly genki, and gave Miroku a huge hug.
"I missed
you too," Miroku sighed contentedly, lowering his hand to a somewhat
compromising place on Neko's body. A
hard glare from her, and he sweat-dropped while moving his hand back to her
slim waist.
"So . . .
you came back just to see me?" Neko said softly. Miroku smiled at her, then parted his lips to speak.
"Well . . .
not exactly."
* * * ^-^ * * *
K-Chan
stared dumbfounded at the pelt-clad figure huddled on her bed looking back at
her through those creepy eyes. "How . .
. how did you . . ." K-Chan was at a loss, unable even to finish a
sentence.
In one
smooth motion Naraku shrugged off his pelt and slinked down from the bed. Standing his full height, he was several
inches taller than K-Chan, who sucked in her breath. Her heart still fluttered into palpitations whenever she saw
Naraku without his pelt.
"How could
you leave me?" he accused, lifting her chin with an icy finger to meet her
eyes. "And then, to fill in the Bone
Eater's well . . ." he trailed off and shook his head as though he could hardly
believe it.
"Hey, you
think I had anything to do with that?" the indignant K-Chan said in her
defense. In response, Naraku took
K-Chan's face into his palm in an oddly human gesture. K-Chan made a noise similar to the squeak of
a mouse when encountered with a cat bearing cheese. Her tumultuous emotions ranged from being deathly frightened to
head-over-heels infatuated.
"What are
you . . . let me go . . . OH, MY GOD, I'M DATING SOMEONE!" she cried out in
desperation.
If Naraku
cared, he chose not to show it. Rather,
he turned his back on K-Chan and glided over to her window, which overlooked
quite a distressing sight, the dry well in her backyard now overflowing and
spewing out excess sedimentary rock.
Somehow, K-Chan found her tongue.
"Why did
you come back, anyway?"
For a
moment, it didn't seem that Naraku was going to answer. "I was forced to come to this world. That lecherous bouzu [an insulting term for
a Buddhist monk] challenged me, but I managed to drive him back, deep into the
forest, where the Bone Eater's well sits . . ."
"Miroku?"
K-Chan was suddenly concerned for the welfare of the overtly sociable monk whom
she had befriended. "What happened?"
It seemed
to K-Chan that Naraku faltered. "I . .
. was distracted by a sudden ominous noise coming from the well. Naturally, I threw myself in to investigate,
and ended up trapped here."
K-Chan's
voice was rather amused. "You chickened
out and ran, didn't you?"
Naraku
whirled around, furious. "I-!" he
began, but couldn't seem to finish, and K-Chan had to bite her lip to suppress
her laughter.
* * * ^-^ * * *
"So when Naraku dove into the well, of course I
followed him through," Miroku concluded.
"When I finally climbed out of the well, he was nowhere to be seen. However, I recalled K-Chan mentioning that
you lived just up the hill from her, so I went in search of you."
Neko's eyes were glistening as she
threw her arms around the object of her affection, proclaiming him her brave
hero, then got serious.
"So, if Naraku jumped through the
well before you, then where . . . ?" she trailed off, then went wide-eyed as
she drew the appropriate assumptions.
"K-Chan's," was their simultaneous
deduction.
