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Jareth --------------- Kurama
Sarah ---------------- Hiei
Step Mother--------- Yukina
Step Father ---------- Kuwabara Kazuma
Toby ----------------- Kuwa-chan/Yukina's kid
Hoggle --------------- Yusuke
Worm ---------------- Botan
2-Headed Door guards:
Truth-Teller: (Top)Chuu, (bottom) Chibi Shi-shi-what's
his name
Lier : (Top) Rinku, (bottom) Shura
Talking stones ------- Mukuro, Toguro
Ludo ------------------ Puu-chan
Door Kockers:
Deaf --------------- Kuraihana
Mumbler ---------- Yo-mawari
Fieries ----------------- Touya, Jin, Toguro-Ani and Rinku
Sir Didymus ---------- Kuwabara Kazuma
Masqueraders -------- Senshui, Itsuki, Karasu, Yomi
Goblin City Guards -- Raigo, Bui, BMA Suzuki, and Ningen-Koenma
Captains of the guard -Yukina, Botan, Kuwabara Shizuru, Keiko and Shiori
Standard Disclaimer Applied
The Labyrinth: Chapter 1 - On A Dark and Stormy
Night....
by Korogi
Warning: Slight yaoi. And this'll kinda go along the Alternate Universe timeline, since the characters are a bit out of character.
Hiei flicked quickly through the dimming skyline
of Tokyo, easily avoiding the flocks of annoying ningens that flooded the
streets under the growing thunderheads. They swarmed the streets
like ants below him, crowding home to enjoy a weekend indoors.
It was times like these that he chose to roam, the jabbering fools below
feeding his anger as he trained himself, flicking and whisping about the
tops of buildings and telephone poles just out of site.
A loud crack of thunder split the air above him, rolling
through the thick, ionized atmosphere, dissipating into the distance.
In its wake, it let a single rain drop, falling gently down to ping into
life on Hiei's nose as he flicked down to a deserted park.
The youkai growled deeply, wiping a shirt sleeve roughly
across his nose, drying the annoyance from his face. He met firmly
with the ground in the park, crouching silently, reaching a slow hand back
to wrap small fingers about the hilt of the katana. He had been tracking
an imaginary image through the Ningenkai... one of his many training exercises.
The Jagan would create an image for Hiei to stalk and train with.
The challenge was always to beat his own mind and conquer the image, and
so far, he found the task quite difficult and exciting, learning the limits
and bounds of his powers more and more with each round.
The image flicked into view just across the small clearing,
holding his tiny niece... Yukina's new-born daughter. The figure
holding it vaguely resembled Youko Kurama, although entirely lifeless as
it held the small baby koorime in it's arms, smiling and rocking it back
and forth.
"Give me the child," Hiei growled to the image, slowly
and ever so quietly beginning to unsheathe the katana, red eyes never leaving
the image before him. "Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered,
I have fought my way here..." he stood quickly, unsheathing the katana
and swishing it through the air, gesturing through the park with the blade.
Another crack of thunder echoed a burst of lightning,
sending a soft sprinkle of rain onto Hiei and the vision below, dappling
the black cloak wrapped tightly about the youkai's shoulders with deeper,
black spots.
The image of the youko smiled and nodded a firm 'no'.
"Give me back the child that you've stolen."
Again the Youko-image nodded a no, curling the tiny baby
up into his arms, nuzzling it lovingly. It flashed deadly golden
eyes back at the Koorime, grinning over to Hiei, daring him to counter.
"Bastard... don't toy with me! For my will is as
strong as yours!!"
"Oh is it? I bet not!"
Hiei blinked momentarily, shuffling back a few paces.
His minds-eye image wasn't blessed with speech!!
*DONG!!*
Hiei whipped his head around from the image to a huge
clock-tower perched on the edge of the park like a large, guarding sentinel.
It's enormous face read 7:00 in tall, lumbering hands "K'so!
I'm late!"
Hiei turned back to the image and opened the Jagan upon
his forehead, instantly discontinuing his training program. The image
rippled and dissolved into the air as heavy raindrops began to make their
plunge downward, splattering onto Hiei's nose and face. He hated
getting wet.
Quickly, he sheathed the katana and pulled the white scarf
of the cloak up over his head, flicking off into the rain back towards
home.
Kazuma-san paced back and forth on the front
porch watching the rain drench the streets and lawn before him. Nervously
he checked his watch as the great clock tower just barely audible beyond
the rain, rang off it's last toll. "That little shrimp is late again!
I'll chew his ear off for this one! The only night out of the entire
week that I get up enough nerve to take Yukina-san out to dinner..."
"You complain too much," a dark voice came from the rain.
Hiei's red eyes sparked into existence as they walked slowly across the
rain-soaked lawn. "S..ss... ssss....sorry.... I'm late..." he growled,
reaching the edge of the steps and glaring up to the figure.
The porch light spilled onto his wet little body as he
glared up to the tall, young man above him. His black hair hung in
matted wet clumps about his shoulders like some grunge-rock singer, rain
dripping from him in rhythmic splatters to run in great rivers down his
wet clothing.
And Kazuma-san laughed, tossing his head back behind him,
nearly throwing his balance to the wind. "Ahahahah! If I had
a camera...."
"... if I had an elephant gun..." Hiei growled.
"You don't even know what an elephant is! Ahahahah!"
"All I know is that it's big and ugly... just like
you."
"N.. NANI! Kisama!!!" Kazuma-san screeched, watching
helplessly as Hiei mounted the stairs and disappeared in to the house.
Kazuma-san quickly regained his composure and stomped
into the house, closing the door tightly behind him, grumbling to himself.
Inside, little wet footprints darted through the foyer to where Hiei stood
beside the stairs, taking off his shoes and unwrapping the soaking bandages
from about his arms and ankles.
Above him, Yukina-san stepped lightly out from the baby's
room, quietly closing the door behind. She smiled cutely, blinking
large, wild pink eyes down to her brother. "Hiei-san! You're
soaked! And you're making a mess on the floor." She giggled lightly
and floated down the stairs to the grumbling youkai.
Kazuma-san stomped in, temper blazing, face set in a horribly
funny grimace. "And yer gonna clean up every BIT of this water!
Got it!"
His only response was a deep grumble.
"Look at the mess! And Yukina-san just cleaned
the floors!!! She was up all NIGHT!!"
"Oh... I can clean them again when we get home, Kazuma-san,"
Yukina said sweetly. "But really, Hiei, we were getting worried!"
"I can't do ANYTHING right, can I!!!" Hiei yelled.
He slammed his shoes down to the oak floor sending splatters of water about
him, and flicked out of sight in a mass of angry, displaced black air,
the upstairs door slamming shut, sparking the baby to begin crying.
"Oi, he took that well," Kazuma smiled.
Hiei quickly changed and plopped down on his little, plush
bed, grumbling and growling deeply to himself. He heard his step
parents leave the house, the car starting into existence and driving off
into the rain, leaving him alone with the baby screaming like a banshee
in the next room. He tried his best to ignore it, burying his head
under pillows, shoving socks in his ears... but nothing blocked that piercing
scream.
The youkai growled deeply, springing to his feet.
He hopped off the bed and tore the door off it's hinges, throwing it into
his room, smashing into the wall opposite. "SHUT UP!!!!!" he bellowed
into the hall, waving a fist to the air.
The baby only cried louder.
"GAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!! I said SHUT UP!!!!!"
Hiei bound down the hall, sliding around the corner to the baby's room,
throwing the door open. "S H U T U P ! ! ! ! ! !"
He seethed in the doorway, panting and breathing heavily,
growling and snarling whenever he found the air. The baby stopped
its bawling for a few seconds, rolling large pink eyes to look at him...
before taking a deep breath and beginning an entirely different stream
of wailings.
Hiei shuttered violently in the doorway, reaching over with
trembling fingers to flip on the light as lightly as he could. "If
you were any one else's daughter... I would rip you into fifty pieces and
string you on a necklace," he growled, stalking into the room.
He winced as he approached the bassinet, leaning over
the railing. The baby was definitely related to Kazuma-san, for it's
mouth encompassed nearly 90% of it's little face as it lay screaming
"Fine, you've wailed enough... now quiet!"
In the walls behind the large full-length mirror, a group
of tiny goblins leaned forward, pressing their distorted little faces to
the
opposite face of the mirror, twisting them into even more distorted
images. "Do you think he'll say it?"
"Say what?"
*BASH!!!*
"Baka... do you think he'll wish the baby away?"
One of the little goblins smiled and nodded quickly.
"Most definitely. After all, Kurama-Osama gave him the power to."
"To do what?"
*BASH!!*
"Baka... shut up! He may say the words!"
Hiei grumbled several curses to himself and pushed from
the bassinet, turning to sit comfortably back on the large, double bed
behind him. "I ain't telling you a story, if that's what you're hoping
for."
The goblins all face-faulted as a collective.
"Fine! I'll tell it! Once upon a time, there
was a little fire youkai who's step parents always made him stay home with
the baby. Now, the youkai was practically a slave in his own home,
constantly having to give up space and time for the baby. But what
no one in the household knew, was that the King of the Goblins, Kurama-Osama,
had fallen deeply in love with the little youkai, giving him the power
to grant a single wish. And so one night, when the baby's infernal
wailing could be heard all the way to the Makai...."
Hiei's eyes suddenly snapped wide open, a dim flicker of
a smile crossing his face in sheer malice. He pushed himself from
the bed, landing silently on the floor, slightly crouching under the shadow
of the bed's canopy. "I can get you to shut up," he smiled proudly.
"I wish..." he rounded to the foot of the bassinet, peering at the baby
through the bars, glinting sheer evil in his gaze. "I wish the goblins
would come and take you away forever." He stood back and flipped
the lights off in the room, reaching for the door knob. " Right now."
Hiei slammed the door shut tightly as he stepped out into
the hall beyond the nursery, listening to the thunder of the door roll
through the house...
And then silence.
The little youkai grinned widely. "It worked."
Perhaps a congratulatory piece of Yukina's chocolate cake
was in order!
Slowly, the door pushed open. Hiei's ears were rewarded
only with the rhythmic pounding of the rain and thunder outside the patio
doors, sparks of lightning growing into gleams on his large, red eyes.
"It worked," he congratulated himself again, silently stalking into the
room to check.
Hiei flicked to the bassinet and tore back the sheets.
Nothing.
He bared little fangs and grinned widely, nodding slightly
in agreement.
The lightning flashed again in his eyes, gleaming off
a small framed picture by the bassinet. Enframed within, Yukina and
Kuwabara each held the tiny baby in both their arms, Hiei smirking below
them.
"Oh crap, what have I done!! Yukina'll disown me!!"
he screamed, jumping back from the bassinet. "OI! Give me back
that kid!!!" he yelled tot he air above him.
The lightning streaked by again, followed in a game of
cat-and-mouse by a huge clap of thunder. Tiny voices giggled into
existence all around him in the darkness, echoing around him. Hiei
snapped his head about, each time, only finding small glimpses of tiny,
grotesque figures ducking onto shadows and behind pillows.
The patio doors burst open in a huge gust of wind, spilling
a wet wind into the nursery, swirling in glittering drops of rain and rose
petals.
A large, silver fox darted in, a perfect red
rose clutched tightly in it's mouth full of razor-sharp teeth, barking
softly to itself. It circled Hiei, stalking him, keeping close,
golden eyes on him at every pace, purring and growling.
A flash of lightning temporarily blinded Hiei, the youkai
raising his arms before him, shielding back the light. Streaks of
white and yellow coarsed through his eyes, the unmistakable feeling of
you-ki suddenly rising up around him.
A deep, seductive laugh rolled around his senses as he
stood helpless and blinded in the darkness, his eyes still flaring from
the lightning blast. A soft finger rubbed gently over his cheek,
almost running up to his forehead before Hiei swatted it viciously away.
The red eyes slid open to stare up at a tall, slim figure
in black leather and an open-chested, frilled white poets shirt.
Brilliant, red hair waved about his body through the wind coming in the
door, green eyes flashed from a perfect face, blocked by the occasional
red rose petal meandering through the air between them.
The tall figure smiled a seductive and disarming smile,
blinking heavy lids, fluttering rich red lashes down at the youkai below.
He reached out and stroked another finger over the youkai's cheek, still
smiling deeply.
Hiei's breath caught in his throat, watching the tall
figure toss locks of hair behind his shoulders as they disobeyed him through
the flowing air. He tried to move when the black-leather figure began
to pad slowly around him, glancing over every inch of Hiei's body with
a pleased smile, but he found the strength to do so locked within his unmoving
body.
"You're... you're him, aren't you?" Hiei managed in a
dry throat, growling to himself over the weakness in his own voice.
His red eyes circled around with the figure, keeping on him as best as
they could.
"Oh, I'm many people," the figure spoke softly, almost
at a whisper, closing his circle around Hiei to brush by his shoulders
at every turn. "I can be any one you want me to be... your hearts desire,
your most treasured dream. I can be your worst enemy, or you cherished
lover. I can be a sickened weed alone in a field of poppies, or I
can be a single, perfect rose, entwined in your heart."
"You're the Goblin King, ne?" Hiei chose, pushing off
the gentle, dark whispers as the figure continued to circle him in the
darkness.
The figure stopped his circle, pausing directly before
Hiei and bowing slightly. "Kurama desu, little shinju."
"I want my niece back," Hiei growled, folding his arms
across his chest.
Kurama-Osama chuckled deeply, reaching again to the koorime's
cheek. "What's said is said, little love. It can't be un-said,
as simple as it may sound. Just as a dowsed candle may not be revived
unless fueled by the heat and passion of another fire."
"So what. I didn't mean it."
"Oh you didn't?" Kurama laughed, pinching the little cheek
slightly. Hiei raised a hand quickly, but swatted at only thin air
as Kurama moved quicker than he could counter, smiling deeply. "Do
you 'not-mean' every thing you say?"
"Shut up! Give me my niece back."
Kurama winked an eye and spun a full 360, swirling a great
black cape that burst suddenly into existence, cloaking his body in darkness.
"Come and get her. She's in my castle in my bed chambers," he pointed
easily over his shoulder, smiling widely.
Hiei raised and eyebrow and looked around the leather-clothed
figure. The back yard was now replaced with a stretching golden field
of wheat dowsed in a morning brilliance, a great castle looming just in
the distance, out of place and blinking in the light of an unseen sun.
Hiei suddenly found himself in the field beside a great,
gnarled tree, over looking the valley. Set around the castle was
a dizzying network of mazes and such, swirling and shifting. "The
Labyrinth," Hiei whispered in awe. "Hn... doesn't look that far."
Kurama's soft face suddenly pushed over his shoulder,
his mouth closing over Hiei's little ear, playfully nipping at it before
his chin moved to rest on the youkai's shoulder. Hiei froze stiff
under him more from shock, as long limbs wrapped around his shoulders
and held him tightly. "It's further than you think, darling.
Time is short and very unmerciful. It comes and goes before you can
blink, rising on your mind like the morning sun before disappearing like
a brief wind into the distance, never to be re-born again."
Kurama's arms unwound from Hiei and he leaned back, adjusting
the open-chested white shirt. Behind him appeared a large, elaborate
clock face, both hands set up at a 13th hour. "You have thirteen
hours in which to solve The Labyrinth before you tiny niece becomes one
of my goblins forever." Kurama-Osama raised a hand and blew Hiei
a kiss, laughing deeply and dissipating into thin air. "I'll be waiting,
my love."
Hiei watched on as the clock face faded, leaving
him alone with the tree on the hill overlooking The Labyrinth. "Just
great. I get bitched out by that carrot-topped monkey, have my niece
stolen from my own house, and now some goblin king is trying to put the
moves on me. Something tells me this is gonna be a VERY long day!"
"The Labyrinth" And all the above characters listed on the left-hand side are owned by Jim Henson, Frank Oz and Jim Henson Studios. David Bowie and Jim Henson are in no way affiliated with this piece or with any other groups involved here.
Any references to the Yu*Yu*Hakusho universe, like the names listed on the right-hand side above, are trademarked, copyrighted and owned by Togashi Yoshihiro, Studio Peridot and Shounen Jump Comics Weekly. Togashi-sensei is not affiliated with this piece or with any other groups involved here.
I am making o money from this whatsoever; this is just a fan piece written solely for entertainment purposes for other fans, so please don't sue me.
All characters and situations within are fictitious: Any character similarities
to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.
