The Labyrinth
Chapter Two
Setsuna was hot, tired and sweating already, and he'd only just reached the perimeter wall. This was supposed to be fun? Well, it wasn't. It was so far removed from 'fun' that it couldn't have got more excruciating if it tried (well Rociel probably thought it was fun but then Rociel thought that putting dismembered body parts in the beds of people he didn't get on with was also fun, so Setsuna didn't think that his opinions on the matter were really worth considering). He didn't know how much time he'd wasted just trying to get down to the labyrinth proper, but it had certainly worn him out. He just hoped that the labyrinth itself really would be as simple as it had looked from the top of the hill, but now he was getting up close he was beginning to have his doubts.
First off, it was obviously very big. It had been obviously very big from the top of the hill as well but perspective had rendered it less alarming than it actually was. Close to Setsuna could see nothing but the exterior wall - no sign of a door, even - and he was beginning to have his doubts about the whole enterprise. Mazes were bad enough even when you didn't have a time limit and weren't up against a man who was obviously more than inclined to cheat (or, as he was likely to describe it, change the rules whilst the game was in progress), but when you did have a time limit and a lot of rules and were only doing it because you were desperately trying to save your beloved little sister and you couldn't even work out how to get in… well… Setsuna didn't quite know what that was except for grounds for justifiable homicide.
The only thing he could do was keep on walking round this wall until he found a door, or got so annoyed that he started trying to climb over the wall in spite of the lack of any kind of purchase that he could see on the thing. Still, there was no way he was going to give up before he'd even got into the labyrinth. He had to rescue Sara!
So where the flaming hell was the damn door?
There had to be a way to get in. Nobody in their right mind would build a labyrinth with no way to get in and out and, even if that was a category that only at infrequent intervals actually included Rociel, he couldn't imagine Rociel would go to all this trouble just so he could watch him (of course he had to be watching, he was Rociel, the New World Order were total amateurs when it came to surveillance compared to him) walk round and round a perimeter wall. There had to be some way in, logically.
But after several minutes of walking alongside bare, featureless wall Setsuna was beginning to have second, third and fourth thoughts about the whole thing; after all he'd actually found himself with time to think and that was never good for someone as prone to angst as Setsuna was. He hadn't even made it into the damn thing yet and he was getting tired and bored. Maybe simple logic was too much to expect from Rociel. Oh good God, did he even want to go in anyway? True, there was Sara… but Setsuna wasn't sure how comfortable he felt with the thought of voluntarily subjecting himself to the laws of any country that was run by Rociel. After all, Setsuna reminded himself, Rociel was an insane bitch. But dear God, this was boring. Even whatever anarchy lay within the labyrinth would have been a relief from the mind-numbing tedium of walking along by this wall…
An unspecified amount of time later (time didn't mean a lot when all you were doing was wandering along by a high wall in a tediously unchanging setting) Setsuna, by now seriously considering trying to scale the wall no matter how high and horrible it was, got his first sign that he was not alone. In the middle distance he could hear, as well as the sound of a small fountain tricking endlessly into an equally small pool, the faint but unmistakable sound of someone's footfalls. Company! Setsuna quickened his pace, almost pleased by the thought that there was someone else in this place. Not only was he bored and desperately wanted to see, well, anyone but maybe whoever this turned out to be would know where the damn door was!
But what if it was just another lunatic? Oh well, Setsuna thought he would cope…
"Sempai? What the hell are you doing here?"
Setsuna stopped short when he actually caught sight of the man, though, partly because he had no idea what the hell Kira thought he was here for. He had been practicing needlessly complicated sword forms when Setsuna interrupted him, for what reason Setsuna had absolutely no idea, though he had a feeling that it was because that was a suitably cool and moody thing to be discovered doing…
"Don't sound too pleased to see me." Kira said, pointing the sword straight at Setsuna and frowning in a diabolically sexy way. "And I could ask you the same question."
Setsuna blinked; what had he done, he wondered? What was going on? His question was answered for him when some small creature shot past his ear so fast Setsuna was convinced he had heard a miniature sonic boom. He ducked and thus completely missed the sudden swing of Kira's katana as he effectively skewered the thing.
"What the hell was that?" he asked somewhat dumbly.
Kira sighed and Setsuna got the horrible feeling that maybe he'd missed the point, so he did as bidden and took a look around him. Now that he was actually paying attention he noticed that the place was swarming with the little things - and that Kira, with an expression of horrible calm on his face, had just bisected another one. Curiously he stretched out a hand and one of the little creatures flew over at immense speed and perched upon it.
Weird.
Looked like Setsuna's comment about Rociel being Queen of the Fairies had been more accurate than he thought. As yet he had seen no goblins but the bugs, he now realized, were not bugs at all but dozens of rather nerdy-looking dark-haired little girls in blue dresses, with tiny gossamer wings sprouting from their backs. As he watched, the one that was perched upon his hand curled up and began touching and petting his thumb with an expression of quite alarming fascination on her face, all the while chattering to herself in delight. The significance of this action was, at first, almost lost on Setsuna - or at least it was until several others flew over and also started perching on his hand, their actions attracting another couple nearby…
Fortunately, Kira noticed his predicament in time (well, Setsuna had started cursing and frantically shaking his arm in an attempt to dislodge the tenaciously clinging little things) and, with a muttered curse, he ran to his stricken friend. Distracted as he was by the swarm of fairies, Setsuna was still together enough to notice that Kira had his katana pointed at him again and he was just about to politely enquire as to the possibility of him putting the bloody thing down before he hurt someone with it when Kira swung it just above Setsuna's stricken arm, dislodging the girls. Those few who were still clinging after that had been frightened and started to wail pitifully; it was easy enough for Setsuna to dislodge them. That done he turned to Kira, still angry.
"What the hell did you go and do that for?" he yelled.
Kira didn't seem to think that was worth a reply so he went back to playing with his sword, though now Setsuna could see that he wasn't doing that at all. He might not have been doing it in the most effective way possible, but what he was actually doing was disposing of the desperately clingy Catholic girls before any of them could land on him and notice that he was male. Setsuna also couldn't help but notice that, now they had no definite target to develop desperate crushes on, there didn't seem to be quite so many of the little fairies any more. Great, he hadn't even got into the labyrinth yet and already he'd very nearly been crushed to death by tiny, geeky and dangerously obsessed Catholic girls.
"Hey, Kira-sempai." He began a little anxiously. "Can I ask you something?"
Setsuna decided that he had coped with quite enough of this for one day and so, ignoring the sword and the crowds of fairies that clustered round them, intrigued by two real men so close to them, he grabbed Kira by the shirt front and pulled him to him. "Are you going to tell me where the fucking door is or not? Because if you're not I'll go and find someone who bloody can."
Setsuna had to stifle a string of curses as he realized that, just beyond where he and Kira were standing, the wall dipped in somewhat and, in that sunken-in segment of wall, was a giant set of double doors covered in mysterious occult carvings. Maybe they had meant something to Rociel but they didn't mean anything to Setsuna and so he ignored them completely, which was a shame as they had taken a lot of time and effort to make. Setsuna was more interested in actually getting inside and his only interest in the doors was whether they opened inwards or outwards.
Slowly, and with no discernable effort from either Setsuna or Kira, the doors swung slowly inward, to reveal… well, nothing terribly exciting. Just a gloomy, high-walled passageway, its sides covered with mosses and lichens. It looked damp and uninviting, but there was nothing overly sinister about it. All the same, Setsuna was glad that he had Alexiel's sword with him, even if it was dormant at present, and he felt that one bit happier for knowing that all he had to do was yank out his earrings to turn into a war-crazed sadistic lunatic. Hesitantly he took a couple of paces over the threshold, looking up and down the passageway.
"Which way do I go now?" he asked Kira, who was stood behind him looking just as monumentally cool and unruffled as he normally did.
And with that he turned on his heel and walked back outside into the sunshine; the doors slammed shut behind him, leaving Setsuna stranded in the moss-lined corridor, suffering from a sudden and unexpected attack of claustrophobia. Besides which, he felt a little lonely. Annoying though Kira undoubtedly could be, he was at least a friend - and a good one at that - and Setsuna was getting the feeling that he was going to need all the help he could get to make his way through this thing…
No, he really wasn't liking it in here. The walls were too high and covered in stuff, there was other stuff - like tree branches and leaves - littered inexplicably all over the floor (how come he didn't know as there wasn't a tree in sight; another whim of Rociel's, presumably, maybe he thought it made the place look more spooky or something), the air was slightly damp and felt cold after the sunlit field he had just been stood in; the sky above him seemed almost as trapped between the walls as he himself was. Setsuna felt like he was in a box, or some kind of human version of a hamster farm. He peered all round himself in both directions, but couldn't see anything by way of a clue as to which way he was meant to go, so arbitrarily he chose right in that it just felt happier. Sighing to himself, he hurried off down the corridor, occasionally breaking into a run in an attempt to make up for the time he had lost dealing with Kira and those wretched little sexually repressed Catholic fairies.
Now where the hell was the center of this thing and, presumably, Sara? And wherever Rociel was, Setsuna hoped that he would at least have the decency to stay there and not keep moving round so it was impossible to find and kill him. This whole thing was bad enough as it was.
After a few minutes of walking down the passageway though, he realized that there was something a little weird going on. He had, as yet, seen no openings or passages into the labyrinth, or indeed any openings at all. What the hell kind of labyrinth was this if it didn't even have the decency to have any way in? Apart from typical of one of Rociel's insane creations of course. Why in the hell had he agreed to this?
Because he wanted to save Sara of course. That was a good enough reason to be putting himself through all this; if as a result of this he got Sara back safe and unharmed wouldn't it have been worth it? He hoped she was holding up okay.
He sighed again, deeply, and added a few more pages to his dictionary of Rociel-specific curse words as he ran along the corridor, desperately looking for any kind of break in the wall. What was the point of a labyrinth with no passages or turns or twists or anything? Maybe he was meant to climb this wall? But how? It was far too high for him to scale. True, he could, given enough time, a hammer, nails, some rope or string, wood glue and the like, probably have constructed some kind of ladder and scaled the walls that way, but Setsuna wasn't in the habit of carrying things like that round with him and he doubted anyone was. So, obviously he either wasn't doing something right or Rociel was already cheating, big time. It had to be at least possible to get through somehow, surely, even if it wasn't easy? Setsuna liked to think he knew the way Rociel's mind worked and he couldn't imagine the man would want to make things too difficult. That wouldn't have been as fun.
Still no openings…
Bloody man, what the hell was he doing? If he had hurt Sara there would be trouble, big trouble! What did a weirdo like Rociel want with his darling little sister anyway? Okay, he didn't even want to go there. Better not to think about it, he didn't think he wanted to know if he could get any angrier with the guy than he already was. Still, it probably wasn't any of the normal things that men wanted to do with pretty young girls. Even if he had been interested in Sara that way (and thank God he wasn't because if he had been Setsuna would have killed him long ago, though that wouldn't have been such a bad thing), Rociel probably wasn't even capable of it. That was one cheerful thought at least.
And there were still no openings.
"What the hell kind of labyrinth is this?" he asked incredulously. "It's just a passage. It's not even a very interesting passage!" Irritably, he kicked at the brickwork, cursing again as he stubbed his toe (should have expected that to happen, really). "Bloody hell!" That had hurt. He stepped back, leaning against the wall with one hand and rubbing his injured foot on the back of his other calf in an attempt to stop his crushed foot from hurting quite so much. That done, he stood straight again, looking down at his palm. Yuck, it was covered in… what was it covered in anyway? Some kind of matter. Quickly, he dusted his hands off then rubbed them against a relatively unencrusted section of wall.
"I hope you think this is funny, Rociel, because I don't." Setsuna muttered under his breath. "I hope you're enjoying yourself because when I catch up with you I'll make you wish you'd never even been born so make the most of this whilst it bloody lasts because when I run into you again I'm going to kill you in a way so protracted that… that…" Once again Setsuna had run out of ideas for what, exactly, he was going to do apart from something so extreme that it would make a psychopath blanch and so he merely glowered up at the sky. Should he shake his fist? No, that would be stupid.
"That what?"
The voice made Setsuna yelp and he turned, ready to spring. That had better not be Rociel again because if it was his timing was absolutely lousy…
"Oh." Setsuna stood straight again, an awkward expression on his face. "It's you, Arakune."
It wasn't Rociel, thankfully, but Setsuna wasn't sure he was that relieved to discover that the reason for this was because it was Arakune instead. Arakune may not have been actively trying to kill him, but he wasn't a lot more relaxing to be around for all that. No sign of Kurai though and that was surprising. No, Arakune was alone, leaning up against a bare patch of wall (no moss or lichen there, Setsuna noted; maybe he had cleaned it off so he'd have somewhere to lean) and languidly smoking a cigarette. Setsuna hadn't thought it would have been possible but somehow Arakune managed to look even more like a hooker than Rociel had done earlier, but that could have been because Arakune was, once again, wearing a leather mini-skirt and knee-high boots and he was still very blonde.
"Yes, it's me." Arakune smiled. "It's not much of a part, but I suppose I'll just have to do what I can with it."
Setsuna wasn't sure what he had expected from Arakune but it hadn't been what he got. Instead of tutting sympathetically or laughing and telling him that that was because he had gone right at the doorway instead of left, Arakune pushed himself up from the wall and did the same left-to-right sweep of the corridor Setsuna had, before giving him a funny look that suggested that Arakune was of the opinion that he, Setsuna, was several cardinals short of a Vatican.
"Are you cracked?" he asked. "The place is full of them."
Gritting his teeth and resisting the temptation to try and strangle Arakune on the grounds that it would only waste more time he didn't really have, Setsuna took a couple of paces towards the wall. Nope, it still looked just as solid as it had done before, and that lichen looked horribly sticky. Still Arakune was right; he wouldn't get anywhere by just standing round and that other passage didn't look like it was going to go anywhere either, so it looked like he'd just have to trust Arakune. Pity he wasn't more trustworthy, really. Holding his hands out in an attempt to stop himself from breaking his nose on the wall he fully expected to walk into, Setsuna closed his eyes and walked forward, rather surprised when he wasn't suddenly brought up short by smacking into moss-encrusted brickwork. Somewhat suspiciously, he opened his eyes and looked round himself.
He was stood in another passageway, in front of another stretch of wall and another passage leading off in both directions; behind him a gap in the first wall that hadn't been there before. Arakune stood in the gap, smiling in a told-you-so kind of way. Luckily for his short-term health he didn't actually say 'I told you so'.
"You off now, then?" he asked with a little half-smile. "I'd get going if I were you." Then, as he saw Setsuna start to head off, he added "Only don't go that way." He pointed down the right-hand passageway. "Never go that way, it's very dangerous to go that way."
And with a wave that even that flirtatious kiss couldn't have made any less friendly, Setsuna headed off down the passageway again. His spirits had been raised by that encounter. Not only was he going in the right direction now, toward the castle, but it didn't look like the inhabitants of Rociel's labyrinth were any fonder of Rociel than Setsuna himself was, and that could be nothing but a good sign! After all, if they didn't like Rociel they'd probably be more prepared to help him.
Arakune watched him depart, then sighed again, uncharacteristically sadly. He hoped Setsuna would be all right in there; it had been nice to see someone from the outside for a change, and Setsuna had seemed an okay sort. All the same, maybe he shouldn't have told him not to take the right-hand path that would, if he had just followed it, led Setsuna right to the castle. Oh well, at least that way the poor kid wouldn't have to see Rociel.
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