“Oh, where are you?” Michiru whines as she walks through the forested path outside of school. The poor student has been beside herself with worry all day after she misplaced her best friend in the whole wide world… well, second-best friend, that is.
A gentle mew catches her attention, and Michiru rushes to search for her feline companion. “Oh, there you are! You had me worried sick!”
As she walks over towards the kitty cat, the kitten’s ears flicker, its head turns away, and it bounds off deeper into the path.
“No, no, wait! You can’t go out there. It’s much too dangerous for a kitty like you!”
Michiru rushes off towards the frightened feline. “Here, kitty, kitty, kitty! Oh, where are you?”
After a sprint, Michiru stops. Her senses flare to high alert, and she sees nothing but the foliage in her way all over the forest. There are just so many places for a cat to hide out in the woods. She slumps down onto her knees, feeling the tears well within her. If only she had called Sachi and Amane. They would undoubtedly have helped her find her kitty cat. As it is now, she’s all alone, with no sign of the poor stray she had taken such good care of.
A rustling brings her back to her senses. She crawls towards the sound, watching as a nearby bush shakes. “Don’t worry,” she whispers. I’ll take you home and give you a treat, and you’ll never want to leave again!
She holds still right in front of the bush, keeping her breath eerily quiet, her fingers twitching as she waits for the perfect moment, whatever that moment might be. When she feels ready, she thrusts her hands in and grabs the warm and fluffy body on the other side. “I got you! Don’t worry! Nngh, you’re heavy!”
Michiru pulls the cat out of its bushy hidey-hole, holding her prize in front of her face. “Hurray!” she shouts with glee, only to blink when she notices something absolutely perplexing. “Hey, you didn’t have that white streak before… wait, what are you?”
The not-cat turns its head, a malicious glint in its eye. 
The poor schoolgirl frowns at the sight of the strange creature.
The animal lifts up its tail, and a moment afterward, a sharp spray shoots out from it, hitting Michiru in the face and the chest.
“G… gaaack, kack!” Michiru drops the animal, and she grabs her throat, coughing and hacking as the burn wafts up into her nostrils. The animal strikes her down on her stomach and legs with another quick spray, and then it scurries off into the bushes.
Michiru’s head swims, and she stumbles about. Each breath is interrupted by the reflex to immediately cough up or spit out whatever was causing such a stench to get into her nose and throat.
She falls to the ground again, clutching her chest, supporting herself in one hand. “Whaaaah…. Aaaah…” her breath comes out in heavy wheezes. She can almost see the miasma floating around her body, staining her shirt and swelling around her face. “Uuuugh, s…. Someone… anyone…” she moans. “It stiiinks. It stiiiiiiiinks!”
The girl falls down onto the ground, arms spread out, but Michiru cannot escape her torture even with her face practically buried in the dirt. What was that thing? Her brain wracks to find the answer. It could be all sorts of nasty creatures, maybe. But she doesn’t know, nor does she care. All that matters is that she’s totally covered in the stuff.
She grasps at her shirt, stained with the stink, and wiggles herself out of it, pulling it up over her head and holding it out arm’s length away from her. She pinches her nose, but she can still feel it as she breathes, even with muted scent. Getting rid of the shirt doesn’t help, and the stains have gotten to her skin.
“Ew, ew, ew, eeeew!” she cries. This day just can’t get any worse. She does not have her cat, and she’s now a stinky monster!
If she has to stop breathing, so be it. It’s the price to pay to stop inhaling so much of it. Her lungs burn with the smell, and she sits there, hoping that it will disappear.
She sits there.
And sits there…
And sits there…
And her chest feels like it will burst if she doesn’t breathe, so she exhales and inhales, whining and falling back onto the ground on her back, her eyes tearing up. She fumbles around in her blouse and whips out her phone, pulling up the screen and furiously texting.
“Sachi, meet me out on the path. I really, really need your help!”
She lets her arms drop down to either side of her, her vision bleary from the smell, letting out loud whines and groans with each breath. “Why won’t you go awaaaay?” she whines, sniffling, and coughing immediately afterward. It’s just too putrid, and it’s just too horrible. The whole thing is a nightmare and one she cannot wake up from.
Her only hope is that her friend will come to her rescue. Her only hope is that Sachi will know what to do, but will she be able to help, even without knowing precisely what happened?
Poor, Poor, Michiru doesn’t know what happened, either.
Sachi had a lot of things to do. After all, as the class rep, she had many responsibilities piling up, all thanks to how busy everyone was this time of year. And now, here she is, rushing through the woods in her maid outfit, looking for a friend who had not been terribly specific about her condition and situation.
“Michiru! Michiru!” Sachi calls out, her hands cupped over her mouth. “Are you here? Say something!”
No response.
Sachi traverses into the woods, gulping as many terrible ideas pass through her mind. So many things could have happened to Michiru. How is Sachi supposed to help her?
Her worries only worsen when she hears the sobbing coming from beyond some shrubbery and past a scattering of trees. Lifting up her skirt just a little bit, Sachi tramples through the underbrush, taking a deep breath to call her friend to let Michiru know she was here for her.
But she doesn’t get the chance to give her heroic call. As she sucks in the wondrous oxygen, the tendril of awfulness whiffs its way up her nose and throat. The dutiful friend falls to her knees, retching and grasping her neck.
“S... Sachi...?” comes the whiny voice. I know it’s terrible, but you gotta help me.
Michiru’s voice is hoarse and warbly. She had been trying not to breathe for a while now. Still, She had to resign herself to her fate of taking shallow, teary-eyed breaths intermingled with coughs and gags.
Sachi takes another deep breath, her eyes watering and rolling back as the stench invades her nostrils, but she hops up quickly. “Here I am!” she calls in her usually polite self. However, she hopes desperately that Michiru does not see the singular tear rolling down her cheek, staining the otherwise cheerful face. “How can I help?”
Michiru finally picks herself up, emboldened by her friend’s arrival.
Internally, Sachi screams as more waves of foul-smelling muck approach her with the movement of her friend. Good gracious–it’s Michiru that smells like this.