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The Labyrinth: Chapter 3 - Nothing, Tra-la-la
by Korogi
Boredom encompassed nearly 90% of his time now, he had figure
that much out a long time ago. So many times, he had tried to find
things to occupy his time, to keep his mind away from the fact that he
sat alone in this great castle. Games had never been his fancy.
Neither had long walks through the countryside, watching over the extent
of the hands of his power. Perhaps he found comfort in visiting the
gardens regularly... but they were to far away, and the keeper was a real
jerk.
Or perhaps, Kurama-Osama just did not have the right kind
of person in his life, keeping him occupied, putting his mind to good use.
Kurama sighed heavily and leaned his head back over the
arm of the great chair he stretched out in, cradled like a small child,
his legs dangling weightless over one of the arms. "I am so BORED!"
he declared in a great sigh, watching upside-down as the small koorime
baby tossed a tinker toy at one of his goblins, giggling adorably.
Kurama pushed himself up to sit straight in the chair,
still cradled like an infant. He held out his hand flatly, a swirl
of ki collecting above it in a clear sphere. Twinkling and swirling,
Kurama moved it closer to his green eyes, following swirls of dust as it
materialized into a tangible picture. Inside was a surveillance image
of the little black-haired youkai whom he had met not more two hours ago.
The little, compact body flitted about the maze, this way and that, never
noticing that The Labyrinth would shift and change behind him, herding
him about in circles.
Kurama smiled lazily and leaned back in the plush
chair, smiling as he watched the little youkai struggle within. "He's
a kawaii little thing, ne?" he asked the globe before him, swirling it
about in his fingertips, watching the black figure closely.
"Nani, Kurama-Osama?" one of the little goblins blurted
out. The small, grotesque little figure scampered over and stood
straight at Kurama's feet, raising a hand quickly to toss off a primed
military salute.
"Nan demo nai," Kurama smiled, dissipating the globe into
thin air. "I was just thinking out loud."
"Oh, hai!"
He flipped the black cape over one shoulder as he un-cradled
himself from the chair, the black leather tightly caressing his body, creaking
and slipping beneath him as he moved, tightening around his slim figure
and enhancing his build.
"You know... I think I've just found something to
occupy all this free time of mine," Kurama smiled, flashing green eyes
over to the baby koorime.
The entire room erupted spontaneously into cheers, party
streamers and confetti sparking into existence.
Kurama frowned heavily, rising from the chair in a humph
as the goblins began their 'hip-hip-hurray!' around him. With the
speed and agility of the wind, Kurama dashed across the room in a heartbeat,
grabbing one of the Captains of the Guards up by the shirt collar and hoisting
him eye level." Are you trying to IMPLY something here?!"
The little guard sputtered as Kurama shook him violently
back and forth, a little blue pacifier wobbling from side to side in his
mouth. "Uh.. no, Your Highness!!" he choked, his little body tossing back
and forth. "Uh.. it was only a joke! Hai! A joke!"
"A joke?" Kurama's eyes sparkled a bit as
he stopped shaking the little captain.
"HAI!" the whole room agreed in one voice, cowering
back a bit, the confetti and streamers fluttering to the ground defeatedly.
"Ahahahahahah!!!" Kurama tossed his head back and laughed
loudly, clutching his chest and nearly doubling over. All around
him, the goblins sweat-dropped, eyes growing wide as they watched their
king rolling into fits of hysterics, crickets chirping in the background
around them.
"...ahahahah ... well, laugh," Kurama
ordered with narrow eyes, scowling about the palace room at the goblins.
As a collective, the goblins all broke into hysterics
around him, laughing as best as they could, rolling on the floor and on
each other.
Kurama recovered in the hysterics about him, picking himself
quickly to his feet and adjusting the black leather. "QUIET!"
he ordered... and within two seconds, the palace room fell silent.
Kurama smiled again, tapping his toe on the stone floor,
ringing a sultry echo through the room. "What we need is some music...
"
"Hai, Kurama-sama!!" a handful of goblins shouted, scampering
off into the palace depths immediately.
Hiei flicked to the top of a short set of stairs,
red eyes scanning the maze walls around him. For some odd reason,
he knew he had been here before.
"K'so," he murmured, standing straight in the sunlight
rising behind him. "I'm going in circles." Anger crowded over
his face, furrowing his brow and wrinkling the little forehead as he scowled
deeply.
He walked over to the marble wall and laid a hand on it,
feeling the cool stone underneath. Somehow he had to mark a trail
so he knew where he was going... but how? He had no katana to mar
the walls with, he had no tools whatsoever...
Hiei shoved a hand into his pocket and fished around.
Surely he had picked something up that could help him out here! He
continued to fish, coming up with only balls of lint before his small fingers
wound around something long and thin. He pulled it out.
In his hand sat a long, fat, pink tube of something,
large golden letters reading 'Mabeline' on the side glinting back at him
through the sunlight. "Nani..." he spoke to the tube, half expecting
it to answer back to him. He fiddled around with it for a few moments
before he managed to uncap it.
A pointed rod of dark red something stuck out from the
tube, glistening, rivaling the color of his own deep eyes.
Curiously, he sniffed it, brushing it against his nose. He
wiped his nose immediately as the strange, perfumy smell stuck to him,
coming back with a red streak smeared across the back of his hand.
"Lipstick," he snarled, furiously wiping a sleeve over
his nose. "Well, it's better than nothing." Hiei tossed
the cap aside and bent down to the floor of the maze, blowing dirt and
leaves from one of the sandstone tiles that laid over the floor.
With the lipstick, he drew a perfect red arrow on the surface marking his
intended path before flitting quickly off.
Hiei had disappeared around the corner all to quickly
to notice the stone under the red arrow shift and lift up. From under
it, a tiny head popped out, quickly blowing a raspberry to the direction
the youkai had ran off in. "Baka.... do you know how long it takes
to CLEAN these damn stones???"
The little elf expertly flipped the stone over above him,
his little hands becoming instantly covered in the red lipstick.
He grumbled lowly to himself as he lowered the stone back into to place,
the red arrow gone from the floor of the maze.
Hiei knelt and wrote again in lipstick, flitting
quickly off in the direction the lipstick arrow pointed him to...
And just as before, the stone moved, another little elf
flipping the stone over and crawling back under, muttering curses to himself.
A heavy beat pounded throughout the room as Kurama
pranced daintily about, kicking goblins out of his way as he danced happily,
ruffling his hair about his neck and shoulders seductively. Lightly,
he sung along with the music, glancing out the window every chance he could,
looking out into his Labyrinth and to the little youkai he knew tried furiously
beyond to conquer it.
"Ah, my darling little youkai," he said to himself above
the music, furiously booting another goblin into high orbit under his feet,
prancing by with a playful grin painted widely across his face. "If
you only knew that no one has ever been able to solve my Labyrinth... oh,
but where's the fun in telling you? It will be so much more fun when
your time runs out and you become mine out of sheer default."
He chuckled deeply and bent down, scooping up the baby
koorime into his arms. He cooed and babbled lightly to it... until
he noticed it was only a rag-doll impersonation of the baby, a placid,
dumb little face grinning stupidly back up at him.
Quickly he stopped his prances and darted green eyes to the
playpen in the middle of the room. The real baby koorime sat laughing
and tossing toys around, so absolutely adorable it made Kurama's teeth
hurt just looking at her.
Kurama shrugged and tossed the rag doll high into
the air, catching it and tossing it again, higher and higher each time
as he sang along to the music, dancing around in place.
On the last throw, Kurama stepped out from under the rag
doll, watching it plummet like a rocket back to the floor, its plastic
head busting into three pieces as it hit the stone tiles. And Kurama-Osama
laughed hysterically.
The goblins around him all stopped their dancing
and sweat-dropped again, watching their king laugh and point fingers at
the busted doll head on the floor before him. "Ahahahahah.... well,
laugh!" he ordered over the music, laughing and prancing over to the playpen.
Once again, the entire room broke up laughing.
The little koorime babbled and drooled at Kurama as he
nestled down beside her, tickling her little stomach. "In 12 hours
and 26 minutes... you'll be mine! And your handsome little uncle
too!"
ACHOO!!
The little youkai sniffled and raised a finger to his
nose, coaxing away the tingling sensation that tickled him. "Damn
Ningenkai wives-tales."
Hiei tried his best to ignore the music floating to his
ears from the castle as he bent down and wrote another red arrow into the
stones. He got quickly to his feet and flicked off... only to come
nose to nose with a dead end.
"Damn," he whispered to the wall, backing up a few stepps to
stare confused at it's polished, marble surface. "That's not right..
I could have sworn this was an open passage." He eyed the wall momentarily
and flicked back to his red arrow...
The red arrow had turned 180 degrees, pointing opposite
the direction he had originally drawn it, pointing on it's merry way right
through a wall. "Nani? What the.. someone's changing
my marks! What a horrible place this is! It's not fair!!" Hiei
pounded a fist into the blocks, tossing the lipstick tube through the maze.
"That's right! It's not fair!!" A voice laughed
at him, chorused by three other laughs.
"But that's not even the half of it!!" another laughed.
Hiei sprung to his feet and leapt forward toward the voices,
snarling and raging. He was prepared for just about anything... except
what he came up against.
Hiei slid to a clumsy halt, arms sprawling forward over
his sudden loss of momentum, wobbeling the youkai about in place.
Two figures, resembling living playing cards blocked passages to two doors
directly before him. Each figure had two heads, one on top right-side
up, the other on the bottom of the card, upside-down. They giggled
and snickered at Hiei as he looked them over carefully, giggling amonst
themselves.
"Yoroshiku!" one of the card heads laughed.
It was dressed in red as far as Hiei could tell, a little head with three
red stars lined under one, large brown eye. "Rinku desu!" the top
red-clothed head greeted.
"Chuu desu!" the blue-clothed top head greeted, guarding
the other door across from Rinku.
"Shura," the bottom red-clothed head sang.
"Shi-shiwakamaru," the other bottom, blue-clothed head
echoed.
"What in the hell are all of you" Hiei steamed.
"This was a dead end just a minute ago!"
"Nope.. that's the dead end behind you!" Shura giggled,
pointing out from under the card.
Hiei whirled to come nose to nose with a wall blocking
his way where once there was an open passage. "Nan da... this damn
place keeps changing! How in wonder am I supposed to solve this blasted
thing if it keeps changing?"
"Well..." Rinku started, winking a large, brown eye.
"The only way to get out of this place is through one of these doors.
Rule Number One: One way always leads to the castle at the center
of The Labyrinth, and the other way always leads to certain death."
He smiled widely.
"So..." Chuu echoed. "What the shrimp is tellin'
you is that one of these doors takes you to the castle, one of them is
sure to eat you alive. So. Choose which one. You're boring
us!"
Rinku leaned over off his card and stuck his tongue out
at Chuu's big head, darting quickly back.
"So, which one goes where?" Hiei asked gruffly, crossing
his arms over his chest.
"Uh.. we can't tell you," Shura said simply.
"Because we don't know," Shi-shiwakamaru echoed.
"But they do," he pointed a fat little finger up to the top heads.
"Rule Number Two!" Rinku declared. "You may ask
only one of us one 'yes or no' question."
"Rules rules rules," Chuu complained, popping a whisky
bottle in his mouth and taking a big glug. "You talk to much!"
"I do NOT!!" Rinku shouted back. He pulled down
an eyelid and blew off a giant raspberry, coating Chuu in a generous coating
of slobber. "Baka!!"
Hiei sighed heavily and reached forward, bonking Rinku
heavily on the head. "Shut up now. I want to ask a question."
"AH HA!! Rule Number Three!!!" Rinku shouted, flashing
a 'V' sign. He watched in awe as Hiei face-faulted and crashed to the ground
under him, kicking up a large dust cloud in his wake. He leaned over
the edge of the card and yelled down to the youkai "One of us always
tells the truth, and one of us always lies. Heh heh... see that big
dumb galoot over there?" he threw a thumb over his shoulder to Chuu.
"That dumb ox always lies."
"I DO NOT!!!" Chuu bellowed back. "I tella truth!!
"Oh, what a lie!!" Rinku chuckled, echoed by his counterpart
below.
"Shut up!" Hiei growled, pulling himself to his
feet, brushing plumes of dust off his black clothing. He whipped
out a finger and pointed it directly at Rinku's little head. "You!
Answer this. Would he," Hiei pointed a finger to Chuu, " tell me
that this door leads to the castle?"
Rinku thought a moment, disappearing behind the card to
confer with Shura underneath. Several minutes passed by as the two
whispered and chuckled, Hiei growing more and more impatient with every
heartbeat.
Just when Hiei though his patience would force him to
the brink of insanity, Rinku's little head popped out, smiling widely.
"Yes!" he declared, flashing another 'V' sign.
"So... "Hiei thought briefly, stepping back. "The
other door leads to the castle and THIS door leads to certain death."
In one of those rare moments, Hiei smiled, baring little fangs.
"Nani? How do you know, Mr. Smarty-Pants-san!" Chuu
bellowed.
Hiei smiled wider. "I asked Rinku what your answer
would be if I asked YOU whether or not the door behind him lead to the
castle. He said 'yes.' So if he told me that you said 'yes',
someone's lying in there someplace, so the answer is really 'no'."
Chuu poised himself to ask another question, his mouth
flopping open as the thought escaped him at the moment, the sheer complexity
of the statement freezing his drunken brain solid. "Uh, is that right?"
he asked Rinku.
The little guy just shrugged. "Beats me. I've
never understood it!"
Hiei snorted and pushed Chuu out of his way, throwing
open the door beyond. "Hn... this ain't so hard," he snickered, stepping
quickly through the door. "This Goblin King should redesign this
place. It's entirelyto easYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!"
Rinku and Chuu blinked across the maze at each other,
turning to look through the doorway. Hiei was nowhere in sight.
Instead, a large trap door spanned the width of the corridor beyond, Hiei's
voice disappearing into the blackness beyond.
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH... *thud!*
Hiei's fall ended abruptly as he landed on a pile
of hard pillows in absolute darkness, the smell of centuries of dust rising
up to his nose.
And he sneezed.
Kurama glanced into his sphere, seeing a dimly lit
outline of Hiei against a sea of black, stumbling around the new prison
he found himself in. "Damn... he's in the oubliette," he growled.
Around him, over his shoulders and perched on his lap,
the little goblins all flew into fits of hysterics, rolling about and creating
a roaring ruckass.
"SHUT UP!" Kurama shouted. "He shouldn't have made
it that far... he should have given up long ago."
"Um, what if he never gives up, Kurama-sama?" one of the
goblins squeaked quietly, cowering behind one of his buddies.
"Hmm... good question. Well, he'll realize his efforts
are hopeless as soon as the gardener leads him back to the beginning.
He'll give up when he realizes he has to start all over again! And
until then, I'm going to have some fun with him!" Kurama dissipated
the globe and began laughing rolling over onto his back and chuckling heavily
at the ceiling. "Well...?" he grumbled.
The goblins flew into fits of hysterics around him again
as ordered, rolling over the floor as Kurama disappeared in a flurry of
rose petals.
Hiei felt blindly through the darkness, groping at
walls that seemed to surround him at every turn. Things littered
the floor that he could not see... possibly a few pillows to serve as a
bed and a pool of water to keep him from going thirsty. But he was
alone. So desperately alone.
He cringed inwardly and whimpered slightly, pulling away
from the wall to stumble through the darkness. "Hello!!" he called
frantically, his eyes desperately searching for some ray of light to focus
on.
"Hello," a soft, whispy voice called through the darkness,
drawing the adrenaline into Hiei's veins. Quickly, he twirled around
to catch two thin slits of green light before they closed, a soft, deep
chuckle dimming with them. The hair on the back of Hiei's neck stood
on end, chills running up and down his body. He was being stalked.
With a yell, Hiei darted across the stone prison cell
to where the green slits were supposed to be, tumbling over the pillows
to smash into the wall beyond. "K'so. where the hell are you!"
"Over here," the deep voice whispered seductively.
Hiei spun to catch the green slits, again bounding over
the pillows only to smash into the wall again.
"Damn you! Show yourself!"
Silence. Nothing more. A great, black
devouring darkness that dropped Hiei's hopeful soul through his feet.
Hiei turned in a frantic circle, rubbing his eyes,
straining against the blackness that encompassed his vision. "OI!
where are you!"
Silence yet again.
"But.. don't leave me alone here..." he whispered to himself,
feeling long curling fingers creep around his elbows... but those weren't
his hands!
"You're not alone," the voice whispered above him, green
glowing eyes sparking into existence and looking down onto him as long,
strong arms wound around his shoulders.
Hiei froze in the beaming light of the eyes, staring up
into them as the arms lifted his body to lay him gently on the pile of
cushions he knew to be somewhere in the blackness. He was paralyzed,
like a wild animal caught in the headlights of a car at night, unable to
consciously move his body as all he could do was stare into the green eyes.
They glowed with a disembodied life of their own, seeming
to speak the soft words that were being muttered down to him. They
would shift and smile, thinning into green slits occassionally as they
blinked lazily. The eyes were all Hiei had to focus on, staring into
them, using them as a life line through the darkness, his soul fluttering
nervously as they would blink out of existence only to appear bolder and
brighter.
"Who.. who are you," Hiei whispered, finding the mobility
to stretch a finger through the air. He was surprised to find it
come in contact with soft, warm skin hovering above him, the green, glowing
eyes blinking lazily at him again.
He never got an answer. Instead, the green eyes
slid shut, plunging Hiei's vision back to black. He laid perfectly
still, feeling the figure above him lean down onto him... before soft,
warm lips pressed firmly over his little mouth, calling him into silence.
Hiei's eyes slid shut, unable to tell when his eyes shut
completely... he was rewarded only with black either way. He felt
a tongue rub gently against his lips, parting them slightly. His
little body reacted, gasping and involuntarily opening his mouth, letting
the tongue slip into his mouth in the darkness, strong arms drawing his
body up into the body of another man's just above him.
