THE LABYRINTH, 
     
Chapter Two: Into the Labyrinth
          
by: Cricket

**Standard disclaimers apply.  Contains slight scenes of yaoi.**


   Hiei navigated through the field of golden wheat in perfect leaps and
bounds, flicking through the waving, nearly chin-high stalks with expert
ease.  Behind him, beating down on his back, the morning sun rose on
the new world he found himself in, peaking totally on his 13 hour time
limit set by the Goblin King only moments ago.  Absently, Hiei brought
a hand up to rub his ear, still feeling the tingling sensations that ran
through it after Kurama-Osama had nipped ever so slightly upon it,
whispering in his ear like a dim wind. A dim, sensual wind.
   The little youkai quickly put the thought to the back of his mind and
continued on, navigating through the wheat with expert care.  His path
was barely visible behind him.  Occasional patches here and there laid
slightly trampled, leaving small burrows in the golden stalks, darting
back and forth like a large game of hop-scotch.  But to the untrained
eye, it looked completely normal, sporadically appearing to mar the
gold surface.
   The wheat field ended abruptly in a short stone wall marked only with
a tall, crumbling archway, grown over with years of ivy and grass.  Hiei
paid it no attention as he darted through, barely disrupting the curls of
grass that sprouted around.
   Inside the fenced enclosure, intricate stone workings and statues
created tall walls and rooms, ending in a towering, black-brick wall on
the far side, glistening with age and wear.  Around Hiei, a garden was
well maintained, sprouting fragrant little flowers and odd new plants up
to tug and play on his nose. Bees and fairies flitted from petal to petal,
lapping nectar and collecting pollen, swirling past him in sporadic fluffs.
   But something else was in this garden besides him... and it was
humming.  The odd noise sent Hiei crouching to the ground in a
readied stance, his hand reaching instinctively for the swift,
ever-present katana at his side.
   But it wasn't there.
   "K'so," he whispered shrilly, turning over the empty scabbard in his
hands.  Probabl one of Kurama's little tricks... which would not help his
progress through this Labyrinth.  Gruffly, Hiei tossed the empty
scabbard quickly to the side, creeping up around a hedge to peak out. 
What ever laid in wait for him would meet it's end at the hands of the
Kokuryuha, as far as he was concerned.  Hiei blinked little red eyes
around the shrubbery and scanned until they found the source of the
humming.
   A figure, maybe a bit taller than he stood directly across the garden,
back turned and humming merrily in baggy brown clothing.  The figure
stood facing a pond... arching a glistening fountain through the air as he
relieved himself into the water, chuckling lightly.
   "Baka..." Hiei said out loud, emerging from behind the hedge.
   The tinkling figure startled, immediately stopping his show and
struggling with the zipper on his pants, tugging it up as he turned and
painted a large smile across his face.  A handsome image pulled to
reveal large, brown eyes sparkling in the morning sun, playing with its
light to send it streaming about the garden... but the smile faded quickly
as the brown eyes sought out Hiei and made contact with his deep,
crimson glare.  "Oh, it's only you," he groaned, turning from Hiei
to retrieve a baseball bat.
   Hiei grumbled and flicked out from behind the hedge, following the
figure with the baseball bat closely, watching with predatory skill.  The
new figure was odd, bouding about, mumbling, cursing under his breath
as he pranced around the pond.  The baseball bat looked worn from
ages of use, either that, or a few hard strikes to a brick wall. "So,
who the heck are you?  Some kinda guard to this Labyrinth thingy?"
Hiei spoke, following the figure over to the black wall, hands shoved
deeply in his pockets.
   "Nope!  I'm gonna be the one gettin' your ass out of trouble through
all this.  Name's Yusuke... yoroshiku!"
   Yusuke wrapped his fingers tightly around the baseball bat, slinging it
over his shoulder.  Around the great black walls, large blue bugs
fluttered awkwardly about, bumping into plants, the wall and each
other in their flights.  They were incredibly clumsy in nature, fat, blue
bodies mounted under light, small wings. Upon closer inspection, Hiei
found them to be little blue oni, little yellow horns sprouting from their
heads, and giant yellow letters reading  'JS' painted across their chests.  
  Yusuke  whirled the bat, raising it from his shoulder,  readying his
aim... and swung with surprising accuracy, striking one of the little blue
oni, sending it spiraling up to the sky.
  "Waaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!" the little thing wailed as it was
batted half way into next weekend, flying swiftly past Hiei and out of
the gardens at a phenominal rate.  
   Yusuke cheered softly, raising a hand to shield his eyes from the sun,
watching the little blue oni disappear into the horizon beyond. 
"Alright!  New record!  Bet that guy flew a good 2 miles!  58!" he
congratulated.
   "Baka," Hiei snorted, watching Yusuke flaunt off, stalking another
blue winged-oni.  "Look, I've got to get into this Labyrinth.  So,
where's the door?"
   Yusuke wound up and swung again. SWOOSH!  "59!!" he cheered
as another blue winged-oni flew into high orbit.  He cheered again and
turned to Hiei.  "What door?"
   "What do you mean, idiot?  How do I get into The Labyrinth?"
   "Oh.. THAT door!" Yusuke realized, turning swiftly, winding up his
next swing.
   "So, where the hell is it?"
   SWOOSH!  "60!!!  Yeah!!  Where's what?"
   "The door, stupid!"
   "What door?"  SWOOSH.. followed by a tiny Ahhhh!!! as the oni
went flying by Hiei's head.  "61!!!"
   "This is pointless!  You're no help whatsoever!  How am I supposed
to figure any of this out if you're not going to help me?"
   "Possibly, if you ask the right questions, Hiei."
   Hiei paused a moment, watching Yusuke hobble strangely off to
swing another oni into high orbit.  "Fine.  Where's the door that gets
me into The Labyrinth?"
   Yusuke dropped the bat suddenly, watching as it clamored to the
ground and rolled off, various sighs of relief coming from the small,
flying oni around him.  "Ahh.  So, you want to get into The Labyrinth?" 
He tugged on his pants a few times and pointed to a tall, rusted iron
door beside him.  "Right there.  But I warn you..."
   The heavy iron door shuttered and creaked from years of unuse,
slowly sliding open before Hiei.  Yusuke walked up calmly behind
him, hands deep in his pockets, watching the doors open, chewing on
the side of his mouth.  Together, they watched and winced as the great
iron doors began to lurch open, clearing out two dusty arcs in their
paths.
   In a polite, sweeping gesture, Yusuke ushered the youkai through the
door into what looked like the center of a long narrow brick hall open
to the sky above, extending straight on forever in both directions.
   "Now.. here's the hard part," Yusuke began, glancing up and down
the open hall.  "Which way?  Left or right?"
   Hiei smirked and looked Yusuke straight in the face.  "Suppose you
tell me that one."
   Yusuke only shrugged, kicking at a rock on the floor, watching it
scamper off into the distance before settling into its new position. 
"Me? Oh no, no.  I wouldn't step foot in this place unless absolutely
necessary.  You don't know Kurama-Osama, do you?  Rich, powerful
and has a lust for men... especially little fire youkai." Yusuke shuddered
slightly.  "I wouldn't go either way."
   "Hn.  Some help you are."
   "You're welcome," Yusuke smiled obnoxiously.  He pushed himself
from the wall and stepped out of the hall and pack into the garden. 
"Good luck, I guess... you'll need it," and he slammed the great doors
shut.
    Silence filled the air around Hiei, hanging thickly in the air, drowning
out his thoughts.  Around him, growing from the walls, strange plants
watched him with human-like eyes, whispering to themselves, pointing
their eye-ball stalks at him.  At his feet, little mice scampered, retreating
into holes and burrows, squeaking and rustling.
   "Hn... pleasant."
   Hiei crouched and took off, flashing down the long, straight corridor
in a gush of black wind, darting over fallen tree limbs and toppled wall
portions.  This wouldn't be so hard...  He continued on at this pace for
a hand full of heart beats, until frustration required him to stop.
   Hiei looked back down the hall as he came to a rest... then back
before him.  "What the... this isn't a labyrinth.  It's just a tunnel.  There
aren't any turns or any corners..."  He whirled back and forth.  "This
just goes on and on!"
   "Of course it does!"  a little voice giggled below him.  "You're not IN
The Labyrinth yet, silly!"
   Hiei crouched and readied himself, slinking to back up against the
wall, red eyes scanning the great open hall.  "Dare da!  Who's there!"
   "Hello!" the little perky voice called back.  "Down here!"
   Hiei's eyes darted around before falling on a small, blue-haired figure
in a pink kimono sitting neatly on the edge of a small inlet inthe wall,
her little feet dangling over the edge.  Curiosity pried him from the
wall, bringing him down to crouch up by the black brickwork, leaning
down to a small ledge near the base of the wall.  His little nose hung
inches from a tiny woman seated there, smiling and waving
occasionally.  "Hello!"  she called up again.
   "Uh... what the heck are you?"
   "Oh, I'm a little spirit guide, here to help you on your way.  Would
you like a cup of tea?"
    "No... hey.  Tell me how to get into this Labyrinth.  There doesn't
seem to be an opening into it."
   "Oh, sure there is!  This corridor's full of openings.  You just don't
see them correctly."  The tiny woman pulled herself to her feet and
scampered to the left, pointing around and  behind Hiei.  "There's one
right over there, just across the way."
   Hiei turned on the balls of his feet, looking up to the wall across from
him.  It loomed above nearly half a mile above him, solid and black,
absolutely impenetrable by any standard.  "No there's not," he snorted. 
"It's just a brick wall."
   "No no... things are not always what they seem in this place, Kurama-
Osama made sure to that.  You just go over there and try walking
through.  You'll see..."
   Hiei frowned down at the little blue-haired woman as she furiously
waved him on, hopping up and down.  This was one of the stupidest
things he had ever gotten himself into...  he felt like a lab rat trying to
find a piece of cheese in a maze, running to beat his own personal
record.  But if he didn't get back Yukina and Kuwabara's son...
THEY'D most likely beat on HIM!  
   Reluctantly, he pulled himself to his feet, turning to stalk across the
corridor, placing himself eye to eye with the huge, black-brick wall.  He
pulled a fist back, aiming for the wall before him, gathering a great deal
of his ki up into his fist.
   He barely had time to react when the wall face suddenly retreated
back four feet from him, leaving and reveiling a whole other doorway
beyond, twisting out of sight around corners and up stairs.
   "Welcome to The Labyrinth," the tiny woman called out behind. 
"Now,  you have 12 hours and 35 minutes to solve it, and you'll need
every second of it if Kurama's concerned.  Good luck!"
    Hiei snarled, stepping into the twisting brick maze, leaving the
straight corridor behind him.  This was not a comfortable escapade...
   It seemed he walked around blindly for about fifteen minutes,
winding his way through the maze before the tall, thin, black-brick gave
way to wider, more spacious marble rock walls.  Imbedded on the
walls, disembodied hands pointed off in various directions, frozen in
stone, gnarled fingers pointing of in their twisted directions.
   Hiei's eyes followed one of them, his red eyes darting over the
Labyrinth walls to a large castle looming in the distance, sitting atop a
hill like a harpy, watching the youkai in the maze.  "That must be the
castle," Hiei stated the obvious,  hopping through the maze work a bit. 
This was going to be harder than it looked.  Hiei had lost his jumping
abilities... which would have made this task a hell of a lot simpler. 
Instead, he bounced around like a half-wit rabbit, coming no where
near close to the height he needed to make to the top of the wall.  And
climbing was impossible... the walls were sheer, polished marble, free
of anything that could pass as a grip or foothold.
   
   In the castle, Kurama-Osama leaned royally on the stone window sill,
looking out over his Labyrinth.  He smiled widely, remembering the
little youkai he had met just half an hour earlier, his smile deepening
greatly.  The wind stirred through his hair, whisping it around him in
long, blood-red vines, swirling to drape over his shoulders and caress
his open chest.
    Kurama sighed lustily and blew a kiss through the wind.
  
   Hiei stalked impatiently down another leg of the maze.  He was
grumbling silently to himself when something brushed over his lips
leaving a thin, wet trail, like a blown kiss sent over the wind.  He
stopped dead in his tracks, eyes darting around him, falling on the
castle in the distance.  'Couldn't be," he grumbled, quickly wiping his
mouth dry.
   Another one slid over his cheek, another over his neck, another over
his chest...
   Hiei nervously brushed his hands over his face and chest, the tiny
caresses moving slowly further and further down his chest, to his
stomach...
   Hiei stumbled backwards, loosing his footing, smashing back against
the wall behind him.  The strength left his body in the light caresses,
almost like kisses were being planted down his body.  His knees gave
way beneath him, sliding his compact frame down the smooth wall to
the ground, eyes closing back as waves of sheer pleasure floated over
his body, the caresses hitting their mark.

  Kurama smiled seductively from the window, laughing softly to
himself, blowing one last long kiss through the wind.
   Behind him, one of the goblins scurried in, leading in a host of larger
goblins who all shuffeled to a hault and bowed as a great collective. 
The little one saluted, large purple letters scribbling 'Jr' on his forehead
glinting in the morning sun.  "Kurama-sama... we have the child," the
goblin announced in a low squeaky voice.
   Kurama's lazy green eyes turned from the window down to a small
little koorime, dozing quietly, yawning from a little mouth.  The green
eyes smiled as Kurama cooed, reaching out and taking the baby into his
arms.  "So cute."  He rocked the little baby softly, purring down to it as
he bundled it into his arms. "Now, all I need is my little fire demon..."

(c) August 1997 by Jiminy Cricket Presses