Neko

Neko is a beautiful young girl with long black hair, fair skin and light brown eyes, who has the ability to transform into a Bake-Neko. She appears in the rental manga stories The Vampire Tree and the Neko-Musume and A Walk to Hell, from Kitarou's Night Tales (鬼太郎夜話, Kitarō Yobanashi or Kitarō Yawa), or Hakaba Kitaro. Neko later returns in the 15th volume of the main series.

In many ways she is a precursor to the character Neko-Musume, but she is officially classified as a separate character.

Both due to his affection towards her, and as a get-rich-quick scheme, Kitarou helps her becoming a famous idol singer, until the Fake Kitarou and Nezumi-Otoko forced her to reveal her Bake-Neko face in front of the public and then drive her to suicide in a plan to steal Kitarou's chanchanko and crush his spirit.

Since then, Neko's soul came to reside in Jigoku and, when Fake Kitarou ends up trapped there too, she gives up the possibility to be resurrected, forgiving him and sending the young boy back to the mortal realm with a piece of Nezumi-Otoko's brain she bit off during her Bake-Neko transformation.

Despite her physical death, she's still a powerful force behind the second part of the story: in her name the Fake Kitarou repents becoming a devout ally of Kitarou, and Kitarou himself is left deeply shocked, acting even more reckless and unbalanced than before.