^_^ The labyrinth battles! This is the reason I wrote the fields into story in the first place! I've always wanted to do a fight inside of a giant maze…

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the original YYH characters, or any original characters besides Misato, Luna, Kaijuu and Yumi.

The Tomuraigassen Tournament

Chapter 12: Interesting…

"Alrighty, people! We're ready to begin the second round of this glorious Tournament!"

It was a new announcer that proclaimed this, a boy. Well, mostly…There were two dark dog ears on the top of his messy, shoulder-length brown hair. His skin was dark, with odd white markings on his cheeks and hands. He was dressed in a dark red, long-sleeved shirt, with an unbuttoned green shirt over it, and dark blue shorts over what appeared to be normal tennis shoes. He was hovering on a small platform above the gigantic maze.

"Welcome to the Tournament, everybody!" he cheered, smiling around at the crowd. "My name's Kokuru, and I'll be doing the commentary for the rest of the matches! However, don't worry, Sad-san's still with us, right?"

The girl waved from her box, keeping her face impartial as she turned on her headset-mike. "That's right, people. The committee decided they wanted some more… 'character'…in the commentary, so I'll be handling the rules as Kokuru takes over the in-match situation. Oh, joy…"

"Now!" Kokuru gestured towards the doors widely. "Let's bring out the teams! On my right, Team Urameshi!"

The doors to the right opened slowly to a chorus of boos. The Urameshi Team, minus Kuwabara but plus Luna, came hovering out on another of the odd, floating platforms.

"Man, I seriously hate these guys." Misato muttered, wiggling a finger in her ear. "Don't they ever shut up?"

"Only when you kill them." Hiei growled under his breath.

"And on the left…" Kokuru pointed at the other door. "Team Takitsubo!"

The doors opened and the other team came out on their own platform. Matzo and Takitsubo from the night before were there, along with the three other members…a small girl with brown hair and brown eyes, a pale-skinned girl with dark blue eyes and blue-streaked-silver hair, and a tiny little girl with black-undertone-red hair and cat-like, amber eyes.

"The Labyrinth Matches are some of the most complicated and intense fights known to demon kind!" Kokuru announced, tail wagging with excitement. "Allow me to explain all the brilliant details…both teams are split up, as their five members are place at key dead-end points across the labyrinth. There are two exits, located at the very middle point of both of the longer sides. Each member should try to get out of the maze, but once you're out, you can't get back in, so anyone left behind is outta luck! First team to get all their members out of the maze, or to systematically eliminate all the members of the opposing team, will be declared the winners!"

Yusuke sighed, finally pushing off his place leaning against the support bars to the platform. He glanced at his team in nervousness, then looked back at the huge maze. Then he did a double-take.

"Luna, what is that thing?!" he exclaimed.

The wolf demon looked up, a bit annoyed, and Misato raised an eyebrow. "It's a sword, whattya think it is?" the blonde rolled her eyes.

Hiei and Kurama glanced their way in not-quite interest. Luna now head a thick leather strap across her chest from the left shoulder. It held a large sheaf over her back, and inside was a suitably large sword. It was at least five feet long, handle and blade so it was almost as big as Luna herself, and the blade was about six inches thick. It was huge.

"It's so…big…" Yusuke stuttered out.

"I've always used it." Luna said shortly.

"But…I thought we were going for stealth…" Yusuke stuttered. Both girls gave him icy cold looks, and he quickly shut up.

The platform hovered over a wall on the southern end of the maze. "At each stop, one member please get off the platform and enter the maze." Sad instructed from her box.

Luna glanced at the others, then her eyes connected with Misato's. The wolf-demon smirked and jumped off the platform, landing nimbly on her feet.

Out in the stands, the girls and Kuwabara watched with interest. "Looks like Luna's going in first…" Keiko commented.

Kuwabara made a frustrated noise. "I don't see why I couldn't have gone along." he growled under his breath.

His sister whacked him up the side of the head. "They didn't bring you 'cause the chick's got more skill. Stop whining, she can only take your place for one round." she snapped, then took a swig out of her can of beer.

The platform hovered a bit over 800 feet up the eastern wall. Hiei jumped in at this point, landing calmly and waiting for once in his life. Yusuke looked up and noticed that the other platform was dropping their opponents in other spots, but they were hovering close enough to the maze to be unable to tell which route to take.

Another couple of hundred feet dropped Misato off, and then Kurama near-by. For Yusuke they hovered far to the other corner of the maze…they wanted him alone, for reason or another. Maybe just to make it hard on him.

He watched the sky as the hovering machine zipped away. He was tense…and more than a little nervous…all of them were, probably. This fight was all-or-nothing. You'd probably be killed if you were weakened too much…to make sure you never made it to the end. They'd all have to be in top form for this.

"Combatants ready?" Kokuru's voice floated over the stadium, tingling in excitement. "Very well then! Battle Royale: Team Urameshi versus Team Takitsubo… BEGIN!"

~ * ~ * ~

Misato started out at a slow jog. She wanted to get through the maze, but not wear herself out too much before she got to any real fights. She hadn't had to make many decisions starting out…She'd calculated perhaps 600 feet, judging by the tiles on the ring floor and had only need to decide which way once. The rest had been a perfectly straight line. She could hear the roar of the crowd very close on her right, so it took a few moments of thought for her to figure out that she was traveling north, up the east wall of the maze.

"Alright people!" she head Kokuru's voice over the speakers. "It's been twenty-two minutes and thirty-seven seconds since they were sent loose in there, and now it looks like we may finally be getting some real action!"

Misato tensed instinctively. That meant one of their team and one of the Takitsubo members were about to cross each other's paths. And it was even more dangerous that they didn't know who…or where…

A noise suddenly floated to her ears. It was…music. She paused, raising an eyebrow. Yes, quite distinctly, it was music…a very throaty, reedy, deep music, echoing slightly in the halls. It didn't suit Yusuke or Kurama, Luna was an anti-music advocate, and she seriously doubted that that Hiei character used a flute, so that meant…

She stepped quietly to the gap in the wall that signaled a new turn in the maze. She held her breath a moment, wishing herself luck, then slipped in.

She found herself face-to-face with the small brown-haired, brown-eyed girl from Team Takitsubo. She was only barely taller than 5 feet, with tanned skin and her hair pulled into a long braid. She was dressed in a 3/4 length sleeved brown shirt, brown pants, and brown boots that came to her knees. She had a long, brown wooden flute to her lips and was playing the haunting tune.

She stopped, pulling it away with a grin. "Ah…thought that might lure one of you out." she smirked. "But I was expecting someone bigger…"

"Bigger?!" Misato snapped. "Why you…Who do you think you are?!"

"The name's Harumi." she said coyly, "Team Takitsubo's musical wonder."

"Yeah, I noticed." Misato lifted a Starlight Marble into her hand. "Catchy tune. But you think that's gonna help you against me?"

She threw the small, golden ball. Harumi leaped up and to the side, leaving it to explode harmlessly against the wall. Misato followed her with her eyes and threw another one, only to miss and have it go off in mid-air.

"Oooh, look at those fireworks!" Kokuru's voice rang through the stadium. "Misato's certainly showing us why she calls them 'Shooting Star Balls', but the otter demon Harumi is dodging them like children's play-toys!"

Harumi landed neatly behind Misato, very calm. "That technique is very interesting." she said appealingly. "But don't knock my music until you've heard it for real."

Misato turned to face her, as she lifted the flute back to her lips. "Listen now, Miss Itoshigo…to Melody of Misery…"

And she began to play.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cliff-hanger. ^_^ Yes, Misato is in trouble. A lot of it, too. She has her weaknesses, after all…

NEXT TIME: It doesn't take long for one of our more familiar teammates to come to Misato's much-need aid. But against Harumi's Melody of Misery and Tune of Terror, they could both be in more trouble than they can get out of.

See ya next time! Ja ne!

~*~ GS ~*~