At the top of a dark stone stairway, four figures came into sight.
"So what is the treasure we're after this time, Joker-san?"
"Geez, Joker, you didn't even tell your own assistant what you're trying to steal? You don't need to be that secretive!"
"Huh? Phantom thieves /do/ need to be secretive! That's one of the basics of the profession, Queen!"
"You could at least trust your own partner..."
Joker, Hachi, Queen, and Roko walked down the stairs into the darkness, each of them holding a flashlight in their hands (except for Roko, who had no thumbs and preferred to have his mouth available to talk). Once again, Joker was targeting some valuable item.
"Anyway, the treasure this time is called the Damascus Record. It's said to hold the secrets of the lost art of damascus steel," Joker explained.
"Damascus steel? I thought that was made in the Middle East. Aren't we in England?" Hachi asked in puzzlement.
"Right. The record was brought over here during the Crusades. Though actually, the place we're in right now wasn't constructed until about a century ago. The owner at the time kept being asked for the record by the military, so he spent a good part of his fortune building this place to hide it."
"If you know that much about it, Joker-san, it doesn't sound very well hidden..."
Queen cut in. "Just knowing where it's at won't help at all. After all... this is a labyrinth."
The party of four reached the end of the stone stairs and found themselves standing on a glass floor. The walls were also made up of glass bricks. Between the thickness of the glass and the dimness of the room, it was impossible to see what lay beyond. The low ceiling was some kind of sturdy metal.
"Well, a labyrinth's no problem for me. That's what you're here for, Queen. Just cut through the walls and it'll be a piece of cake!" Joker laughed.
"Huh? I came because I wanted to test my sword against some of that steel! I'm not your personal demolitionist!" Queen complained. She hated how Joker kept using her to do his job. Admittedly, she had done the same things a few times to him, but not nearly as often.
"Whatever... Looks like there are two paths. Let's go right," Joker ignored Queen and started down the right path. Hachi started to follow after him. Queen stayed put. "Left."
"Right!"
"L-e-f-t!"
"Why do I have to follow you?"
"Who's the demolitionist here?"
"I really hate you sometimes."
About fifteen minutes after walking down the left path, there had been plenty of twists and turns, but not a single fork since the very beginning.
"Don't you think this is a little too simple...? It's not really living up to the name of maze," Roko commented.
"I think so too. But how long is this? Don't tell me it goes on forever..." Hachi had been dragged into unbelievable situations many times before by Joker, and was unsettled by how safe their current situation seemed to be.
"No. There's something wrong here." Joker stopped walking. The rest of them were more than willing to stop as well, after walking for so long.
"True," Queen nodded. "Hachi-kun, Roko, you might not have noticed, but we've been here before."
"Ehh!?" The two assistants exclaimed in unison.
"We may not have been in this room before, but it doesn't add up. We've made so many turns in the same direction that we should have crossed over where we went before, but we haven't."
"Is the floor sloped at all? If there are multiple levels, that would explain why we haven't come across any forks." Joker took a packet of gum from his pocket and popped it into his mouth. After chewing for a few seconds, he masterfully blew a bubble. The bubble expanded, then contracted into a sphere about the size of a tennis ball. Joker rested the sphere on the floor. It was completely still. "...There goes another brilliant idea."
Roko sighed. "Well, if it were that easy, nobody would have gone missing in here."
"Gone missing!?" Hachi repeated in shock. "You mean... there have been people stuck in this maze forever!?"
"So a few idiots couldn't find their way out. Doesn't really matter to me," Joker put his hands behind his head.
"Besides, I hear the owner went in himself a few times and came out fine each time. There's a safe passage somewhere," Queen added.
"Safe's no fun though! There's nobody here to watch me steal the record, so I at least want to have some thrills!" Joker complained.
"Don't tell me... you also wanted me here so you could gloat?" Queen's tone turned hostile as she placed her hand over her sword's grip. Joker didn't fail to notice the slight movement. "Well. well... that's a different matter..." He put his palms in front of him as if to protect himself.
"Aren't either of you two ever bothered by the danger...?" Hachi sighed.
Joker and Queen turned to Hachi and responded in unison. "Not really."
After a moment's delay in mental processing, they immediately turned back to each other. "Jinx!" they both shouted. "Jinx!" Again. "Jinx! Jinx! Jinx jinx jinx jinxjinxjinxjinxjinx..." Queen drew her sword. "Jin- Whoa! Stop! You don't need to kill me over something like this, Queen!"
"That's not it, you moron! Can't you hear?"
"Huh?" Joker fell silent in confusion. Then he heard it - the sound of footsteps echoing from ahead. Joker's expression became serious as he took a handful of cards from his pocket, holding them as if ready to fight. Judging by the intervals, there were at least two people. There were voices, too, but it was hard to make out what they were saying. "Who's there?" Joker shouted. His voice echoed again and again off the glass walls until it faded.
The footsteps stopped for a moment. Then one set of steps broke into a loud run, followed shortly by slightly slower steps. Joker and Queen stepped forward, sword and cards at the ready. Behind them, Hachi gulped. Roko bared his teeth. A dim white light came into view at the end of the hall. Suddenly, the light turned toward the group, blinding them. The four of them shaded their eyes. The light and whoever was holding onto it was bobbing up and down, heading straight towards them.
Then the white light fell to the ground with a clatter. The first set of footsteps dropped off, and a red light began to radiate in midair. "Prepare yourself, Joker! Bloody Rain!"
"Shadow!?"
"Onii-chan, stop!"
"Not happening!" Queen ran forward and jumped up. Between the light behind her and the light that was now shining behind Shadow, she could just barely make out his form - and more importantly, the silhouette of his umbrella. With one stroke, Queen had cleanly cut the weapon in two.
"Wha-!?" Shadow cried out in surprise. He deftly landed on the ground and turned back to face Queen, who had just landed as well behind him. "How dare you- Ahhh!" Shadow lifted a hand toward Queen, but was suddenly frozen in place. A mysterious aura had surrounded and immobilized him. "Rose, let me go!"
"No! Onii-chan, don't attack them!" The second set of footsteps had been Rose, who was now standing ahead of Queen. Her arms were outstretched toward Shadow. Queen sheathed her sword.
"Shadow-san, Rose-san! What are you doing here?" Hachi asked in surprise.
"What else would we be doing? Treasure hunting~" Rose replied cheerfully.
"Then we're after the same thing again? Seems like that's been happening a lot lately. Sure you aren't following me?" Joker asked half-dubious, half-teasing.
"Like hell! If I wanted a showdown, I'd tell it to your damn face!" Shadow spat. He was still frozen mid-action thanks to Rose's magic.
"Rose-san, were you on your way out? How is it that you were coming this way?" Roko interrupted the quarrel before it could go any further.
"Huh? We've just been following the path. We turned right at the entrance, but it's been a single trail ever since..."
"What!?" The four in Joker's group broke into simultaneous disbelief.
"But we went left and didn't see any branches either!" Hachi exclaimed.
"This can't be a closed loop, right?" Queen pondered.
"Don't tell me there's a secret passage somewhere..." Joker thought aloud.
"That still doesn't line up with what we know." Roko swiftly shot down Joker's suggestion.
"Don't ignore me, dammit!" Shadow yelled, still bound. Aside from Rose and perhaps Hachi, nobody was paying much attention to him.
"Calm down, Onii-chan..."
The floor suddenly began to tremble. All of them cried out in surprise. "What's happening!?" Hachi shouted. "An earthquake?"
"That can't be. This place isn't near any faults." Roko called back.
Joker turned his head all around, looking for a source. As he did so, he could faintly hear the grinding of gears under his feet, and some kind of... rushing sound from beyond the glass brick walls. Then he saw something move ahead of him, about where Rose was standing. Something was falling from the ceiling, right over her head. "Rose, look out!"
"Eh? What fo- Ahh!" Rose was trying to stay steady and keep Shadow from moving at the same time. Joker's exclamation made her lose concentration, and she slipped backwards on the slick floor. Shadow was released from her spell, but lost balance from the continued momentum and hit the ground. Queen had spotted the ceiling move at the same time. Wordlessly, she leapt toward Rose and looped her arm around her waist, pulling her backwards. The two of them fell to the floor, safely out of the way of the falling ceiling - but on the wrong side of it. For what had dropped was another glass wall, dividing the party in two.
"Queen!" Joker and Roko ran toward the wall, with Hachi trailing behind. The floor stopped shaking, but the rumbling and rushing sounds continued.
"Rose! Rose!" Shadow yelled. He got up and banged his fists on the wall separating him from his dear sister.
"Joker-san, can't you get the wall to open somehow? Like with one of your card bombs?" Hachi asked distressedly.
"I can't... not this time." Joker pushed down the brim of his hat, hiding his eyes.
"What the hell do you mean, you can't!? Hand them over!" While Shadow usually would have instantly reached for his trusty Bloody Rain, Queen had put it well out of commission this time. Instead he reached to where Joker stood on his left and in a frenzy shoved his hand into Joker's jacket, feeling around for the breast pocket where he kept his cards. Joker grabbed Shadow's stretched arm, holding it in place against his chest. "Hold on! If you blow up that wall, you'll kill us all!"
"What?" Shadow's arm fell still as he glared at Joker. Though he would be more than happy to let Joker die, he was at least somewhat attached to his own life.
"Roko, do you hear that rushing sound?" Joker asked calmly as he kept his gaze on Shadow.
"Yes... it sounds like flowing water," Roko offered.
"This place is close to the ocean. What's beyond these walls isn't just more maze - it's probably seawater." Joker continued in the same calm tones.
Shadow remained unassured. "But you saw Rose on the other side! That's still part of the maze!" he growled.
"Not anymore. There's no light coming from that side. That's where the grinding sounds come in. This labyrinth moves."
"M-moves!? Joker-san, is that how we've crossed over the same area without crossing over the same paths?" Hachi asked.
"Yeah." Just as Joker spoke, the sounds from the maze stopped. There was a moment of silence.
"Then how are we supposed to find Queen-san, Rose-san, and the treasure...?" Hachi questioned further. Another moment of silence, longer this time. Joker did not answer.
"You bastard..." Shadow's hand, still pressed against Joker, grasped his dress shirt. Joker's hand in turn gripped tighter over Shadow's in an effort to stay in control. "This is your fault!" The copy violently pushed the original against the side wall and drew closer to him, so close that their bodies pressed together, their faces almost touching. Joker's head knocked against the glass wall, and he winced in pain. "Getting angry now isn't going to do us any good, Shadow...!" Joker tried to reason, but Shadow wouldn't listen. He put his free hand against the wall for support and weighed down on Joker, who was trying to push him off to no avail. Joker constantly skipped physical training in lieu of games, while Shadow was diligent in his daily training. In a hand-to-hand struggle, the former was no match. The two of them remained locked against each other, growling.
"Shadow-san, please stop...!" Hachi pleaded from where he stood a few feet away beside Roko.
The more aggressive double seemed to have finally realized the futility of violence at the moment. Joker was the one who had an idea of how the maze worked, and as frustrating as it was to admit, he couldn't figure it out by himself. He took a step back. "If you don't help me find her..." Shadow shoved Joker to the side, releasing his grip. Joker fell on his forearm, still facing Shadow. "...I will kill you."
Joker took a few moments to catch his breath, then got up and brushed himself off.
"All right."
On the cold ground, Queen kept her arm around Rose beside her as the floor continued to shake and rumble. The light beyond the fallen wall behind them gradually began to disappear. They had both dropped their flashlights on the other side of the wall. In no time at all, the two of them were enveloped by the complete darkness. The two of them stayed still until the sounds and quaking stopped. In a world without light, without warmth, without sound, the two of them were all they knew.
Queen broke the silence first. "...Are you okay?" Her voice resounded.
"Yes..." Rose's single word similarly echoed in the empty space.
"Hold on a moment, I'll get a light." Queen sat up, but instantly regretted it. Without touching Rose, she had lost yet another sensation. She felt a wave of dread incoming, and reached into her pocket for her phone as fast as she could before it could overcome her. Frantically she pushed the power button, and was blessed with a blinding light spilling into her eyes. Once she had turned on the flashlight, she could finally see her surroundings. Staggeringly close beside her was Rose, who had also sat up and was looking right at Queen. The expression of fear on her face was hardly reassuring, but Queen was nonetheless relieved to have sight and company.
"Q-Queen-san, you're bleeding..." Rose pointed a shaky finger to Queen's face.
"Huh?" Queen spaced out for a moment, then raised her hand to her face. "Ow!" It stung when she touched her left cheek. When she lowered her hand a little, she saw the tips of her glove stained red. Apparently the floor was not only hard, but must have had some unfinished edges as well.
"Here, I'll wipe it off." Rose took out a handkerchief and leaned over Queen, firmly holding the cloth against her skin. "What just happened?"
Queen had arrived at the same conclusion as Joker. "I think the labyrinth just changed. It's an effective way to keep intruders out."
Rose shifted her gaze from the cut to Queen's eyes. "Then are we stuck here?" Somehow, seeing those wide eyes look at her made Queen feel unnerved, but she had to keep her head still. "No way! There's a way out of any situation if you know where to look!" She tried to encourage the other girl. Surprisingly, Rose giggled. "But Queen-san, do you know where to look?"
"Well, no..." Queen admitted. "But first things first, I'm not leaving without the treasure!" she asserted.
"You really are a phantom thief. I'm sure Joker would feel the same, so if we find the treasure, we'll find Onii-chan and everyone else too!" Rose smiled. She wiped away the last of the streaming blood, then took Queen's hand and stood up. "Time's a-wasting. Come on!"
Queen, still kneeling, couldn't help but smile back. Instead of having to calm Rose, she was unexpectedly the one reassured instead. She slowly got to her feet with Rose's help. "You're right. Let's go!"