Kaoru slowly regained consciousness, her heavy limbs lazily protesting as she awoke with an eerie sense of déja vu. As far as she could tell, she was lying on her side on a bed; her body ached all over, her temples throbbed almost painfully.

*Why am I sleeping?* she wondered through a dreamy haze. The last thing she could remember before darkness claimed her was that she had been in the kitchen, preparing a meal for herself and that ungrateful, cheap excuse for a psychotic abductor. And then... Then what?

Then a strange buzzing sound, a sting... and total oblivion.

The young woman cracked an eye open. The surroundings were dark, but not pitchblack. Soon her blurry vision came into focus, and she realized that she was not alone.

There was someone lying next to her, close, so close in fact she could hear the faintest hint of a snore. Tentatively, Kaoru reached out to the person, trying to shake him or her awake, to no avail.

"Wake up... Please wake up!" she said, her voice lowered to an urgent whisper.

No reaction. For all she knew this guy (she decided at once that this person was in fact male) could be dead, if not for the warm skin she'd felt under her fingers, and his slow, steady breathing. However her eyes were growing accustomed to the dark, and soon her companion's face became recognizable.

*Ohmigod!!!* Kaoru nearly bolted out of bed.

*Would someone tell me what I am doing in a bed with Yukishiro Enishi?!?*

Her heart racing with mounting panic, Kaoru hurriedly scooted over to the far side of the bed, until she came to another frightful realization: gone was the bathrobe, she was stark naked. And come to think of it, so did he appear to be, but she wasn't about to lift the covers and check.

Already her feverish imagination jumped to ghastly conclusions, and her temper was flaring. Oh, she was mad enough to crack his skull. This man was only lucky she didn't have any particularly sharp or heavy object at hand. So much for compassion and hours spent toiling (risking her life even) in the kitchen, the monster didn't even have the minimal decency to respect the innocence of a young girl!

"Why, you perverted lunatic!!" the young woman shrieked wildly, forgetting all pretense of cautiousness. "Drugging a girl for...for!!" For what exactly? Kaoru checked her body for any bruises or suspiciously sore spots, but couldn't find any, save for a little itchy scratch on the side of her neck.

*Maybe nothing happened.Maybe he just likes to watch...Ew!!* She grimaced at the thought. *Where did that come from? Bad, bad Kaoru.But...Wait a minute. He's still sleeping...*

And why was he indeed? After raising such a tantrum, she should have expected Enishi to have both hands fastened around her neck, possibly wringing the life out of her. Only there he laid, silent and resolutely unmoving. Warily, Kaoru leaned forward and once more prodded his shoulder.

Again, no reaction whatsoever. By the look of things, Enishi was either unconscious or suffering from an acute case of chronic lethargy. Kaoru opted for the former explanation; somehow, she couldn't picture him as man given to deep slumber, much less someone who'd allow anyone near him while he actually slept. Unless simulating sleep was yet another of his twisted mind games, although why he'd do such a thing was beyond her understanding. In truth, this seemed even too strange coming from him.
 
*But then who..?*

Tightly wrapping the blankets around herself, Kaoru surveyed the room for clues. She couldn't see much in the dark, but it was clear enough that the whole setting was arranged and decorated in the Western style; this definitely was not the mansion where Enishi had brought her. There was also something terribly alien about the place, although she couldn't really pinpoint the reasons for her feeling this way.

After stealing one last look at her "companion", Kaoru silently crept out of bed and padded naked accross the room to the window.

*Nice carpet...* she idly noted.

Faint light glimmered through the drawn curtains, beckoning her. With one firm hand she pulled them aside... and stood staring, completely dumbstruck by the sight that greeted her eyes. Now, *that* beat the panoramic ocean view by a long shot.

Lights.

There were little lights everywhere. So many lights that the night sky seemed to fade before them. And where was the ground? Kaoru pressed her face against the glass pane and squinted. There was a ground all right, but the room was located at such a vertiginous height she felt dizzy just by looking down. *How tall can this building be?* she wondered, eyes widening as her gaze met with another tall, dark tower glittering with lights that went on and off like fireflies.

*I know.*

Kaoru took an unsteady retreating step. *This is a nightmare.* She calmly drew the curtains back over the window, a little nervous smile tugging at her lips. *This whole thing is just the worst nightmare I've ever had.* Her eyes briefly flitted over Enishi's recumbent form. *Moo...Tada no warui yume... And he's part of it.* She trod back to the bed and slid beneath the sheets, still careful to remain as far as possible from her crazed captor.

*Just a dream.* she kept on telling herself, the thought quietly lulling her to sleep.

This felt rather nice. A little weight on his chest. Not too heavy. Warm and nice.

Enishi mentally groaned as consciousness returned, ruthlessly pulling him out of the sweetest dream he'd had in ages. As a matter of fact, it was quite possibly the only good dream he'd had in years, one that didn't involve Battousai slaying his sister, rotting corpses or gory dismemberments-or an unsavory mixture of the three. He wasn't entirely clear on the dream's contents or meaning, but it sure was likable. Enjoyable even.

*Wait a second. Why am I dreaming?* the rational part of his mind suddenly arose in suspicion. He could remember being outside, sword in hand, practicing... He could also remember trying to fend off that extraordinarily pesky little fly (a fly?) when it stung him (since when do flies sting?). Somehow he'd managed to squish it and it had made the strangest sound... Out of curiosity, he'd bent over to take a look at it, and then... The little men in white, and blackness.

Oh great. He'd been stung by one of these African killer flies (African killer flies, in Japan?!?) and he presently was in the throes of delerium. He was dying. Or maybe he was already dead. Hence the sweet, sweet dream.

Warm... Nice... Soft too.

Indeed, this could only be death. Life was painful. This was not.

But what a vivid, realistic dream..! He could really get used to this.

"Ken...shin..." A small voice purred next to his ear, and he frowned in his sleep.

"Ken...shi...n..."

The frown deepened. Why was the woman in his arms calling out to Battousai?

*Did I just say woman?*

Enishi gasped loudly as his eyes snapped open onto unfamiliar surroundings. He was lying on his back, on what he could only assume to be a bed, a sleeping woman draped over his midriff, her head nestled in the crook of his armpit.

*The HELL?!?*

As he carefully extricated himself from her embrace, the woman rolled onto her side, her head rolling towards him. Carefully he brushed aside the silken mass of long, black hair that hid her face. It was Kamiya Kaoru.

He suddenly felt sick to his stomach. Had he completely lost it? What had he done to her? Sure, he had killed, maimed and tortured. But he'd never raped anyone, especially not a helpless young girl.

*Battousai is going to kill me if he finds out. What am I saying... I do want him to find out. Why didn't I think of that before? The best way to destroy him would be to...* Enishi didn't complete his thought. His gaze dropped, and lingered on the white, soft virginal curves, a little longer than he would have liked.

No... Maybe there was some other way to hurt Battousai after all. Harming this girl seemed... distasteful. In this instant Enishi also knew he hadn't done anything to her- or at least, not anything that would leave her scarred for life.

*But it still does not explain what we're doing here.*

His mind working furiously, he tried to remember the events that led to his waking up in this place.

*Little white men and a fly, little white men and a fly... Neesan, tell me I'm not making any sense...*

Enishi stood up and gently pulled the covers up to the young woman's shoulders. He took a quick mental note of his complete state of undress, mechanically scanning the room for his clothes. He did find them, neatly folded on a low table, along with his sword and the bathrobe he'd "lended" to Kaoru, folded as well.
 
But he turned his attention to the window. Sunlight was filtering inside through the lined curtains, and bathed the room in a warm glow as he drew them aside. What he saw outside then knocked the wind out of him, and for a moment nearly convinced him that he'd finally gone off the deep end. However, the young man quickly recovered from the initial shock, and soon his astonished features hardened into intense, hawkish scrutiny.

This was obviously a city, but a city of gigantic proportions, unlike any he'd ever seen. Some buildings, like this one, seemed to defy gravity, soaring high up to reach the blue sky. Down below, the streets were milling with bustling activity, cars (were all these cars?) speeding away in an endless flow__

A muffled, rustling sound behind him suddenly interrupted his observations. Enishi spun around to find Kaoru awake - and staring at him in petrified horror.

*Not a dream!! Not a dream!!* The words hammered inside Kaoru's head, as panic slammed back into her ten fold.

And to think that she had gone back to sleep next to him..! There he was standing, awake for God knows how long, and now that she could see better in the daylight, he really was wearing noth--- Kaoru gave out a cry, and flung herself back under the sheets, color rising to her cheeks.

"Oi..." she heard a few instants later. "Are you planning to get out of here any time soon ?"

She felt the sheets being pulled down, in spite of all her attempts at holding them up above her head. "...or should I leave you and go alone?"

"Na-nani shitten no?" she managed to stammer, still struggling to cover herself.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Enishi's voice snorted in contempt. "Here's your bathrobe."

"Huh?" Loosening her grip, Kaoru peered out from under the sheets. Enishi dropped the garment next to her and walked away. To her relief, he'd been considerate enough to put his pants back on, and now he kept his back turned to her so she could change.

"Um... Where are we?" She ventured hesitantly.

"No idea," came the flat answer.

Kaoru stood up, securing the belt around her waist. "You mean... you didn't..."

Enishi looked over his shoulder, his expression unreadable. "Someone drugs you and kidnaps you, and you automatically assume it's me?" His gaze wandered back to the scenery. "As usual, blame it on the psycho..."

"Well... you are an easy target..." Kaoru said pointedly, then bit her lip. But he continued before she could add anything else. "No, I'm not responsible for any of this and I can't think of anybody who could be. Looks damn real for an illusion, doesn't it?" Curling his hand into a loose fist, he lightly tapped the glass. "Feels real."

"Oh, but everything here is real, Mister Yukishiro..." A low baritone voice boomed out of nowhere, causing both of them to jump. The voice had spoken in a language Enishi recognized as English. Soon after, the large black box that sat on a stand in the corner of the room flicked on by itself, and the head of a man, whose face was concealed behind a stark white mask, appeared inside.

"As you and Kamiya-san are soon to find out," the voice continued in a heavily accented, yet faultless Japanese, "this world is as real as it gets."

The voice chuckled as Kaoru started looking nervously around. "Oh, do not bother looking for me. I am not in this room. This, " the figure in the black box lifted his hand in a sweeping gesture, "is a television, and it's only transmitting my image from far, far away. We can see you, we can follow your every move, but you cannot see us, except when we choose to manifest ourselves, it goes without saying."

"Since I get the feeling you're not planning to release us, I'll go straight to the point: what the hell do you want?" Enishi inquired, with the cool, yet controlled ease of one used to such dealings.

"Release you?" The man echoed. "Oh, we are going to release you. That's a promise we'll fulfill in due time. Of course, you first have to make it out of this alive!"

"Out of what?" Enishi and Kaoru exchanged surprised glances; they'd spoken up at the same time.

"Call it a game. It'll officially start in forty eight hours, just to give you enough time to familiarize yourself with the city... and from then on, you'll just have to survive against the few odds and opponents we've pitted against you."

Kaoru took a step forward. "But that's... so unfair! We don't know anything about--"

"Tut-tut!" The man interrupted her. "Life is unfair, Kamiya-san. It's a jungle out there. But pray, the parameters of this game have been designed in such a way that it is possible for you to win. We have... detailed information on both of your backgrounds, we know what you're capable of, and what you're not. In short, you have a little less than one chance in a hundred to finish the game, but that's still a sporting chance."

The man laughed heartily, as if he'd said the funniest thing.

Enishi scowled at the TV screen. "You do realize you're nuts, don't you?"

The man froze for a moment, then started laughing even harder than before."Touché, Yukishiro-san!! And coming from you I'll take it as a compliment! But I'm not as insane as I look. You see, I'm a business man, and it's my duty to entertain my clients," he said cryptically. "You two could either put up a fine show...or fail at the task. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some pressing matters to attend to--"

"Wait!" Kaoru cried out. "Where are we?"

"Oh yes. I suppose I can safely disclose this information. You, my friends, are at the very heart of Los Angeles. The state would be California in the United States of America, and the year would be 1999. Welcome to the twentieth century."