The Labyrinth
Chapter 6
"Well." Kira said sardonically. "Aren't we doing wonderfully."
Indeed, he was so caught up in his fantasy - and Kira too was lost in his own thoughts - that neither of them really heard any of the sounds of hard and surreal battle coming from in front of them until they had practically walked from the corridor they were currently traversing and into a large courtyard. Characteristically Kira snapped out of it first, stopping short when he saw what was going on ahead of them and dragging Setsuna back into the alleyway.
"What?" Setsuna spluttered. "Kira-sempai!" How dare you ruin my pleasant Sara dream, he wanted to add, but he decided not to for the sake of discretion.
At the far end of the courtyard, a group of goblins - so, there actually were goblins in this place then? Setsuna had been beginning to wonder considering he hadn't actually seen any yet and he'd been going for what felt like forever - had, for some bizarre reason (for it certainly couldn't be profitable nor did it look like that much fun), suspended a man, or at least Setsuna thought it was a man, upside-down by their ankles from a tree and were poking him with sticks. Why Setsuna didn't know. Certainly whoever it was they had there seemed no more than mildly annoyed about being upside down hinting at a certain flexibility that very few people possessed. In fact, if it hadn't been for the fact that they were having difficulty keeping their hat on Setsuna might almost have said that they looked untroubled, in spite of the goblins. Unfortunately they also looked completely out of their tree.
"That's not blocked. Or at least it won't be if we get the goblins out of the way." Setsuna said, then added in a way which for him was almost shrewd, "anyway, if there are goblins there that must mean we're getting closer to rescuing Sara!" He smiled.
"Pth. Thanks for nothing." Setsuna muttered as Kira walked off, then he turned back to the courtyard. Great. The dratted sword finally went dormant when they were in the oubliette and now he actually needed the thing could he get it? No. Cursing, Setsuna started shaking the pendant Kira had given him in the hope that the Nanatsusaya might get the hint and come out again. Maybe the trouble was that Setsuna wasn't feeling terribly Alexielish, either that or it was because Kira didn't want to help, as it didn't work. Oh well, looked like it was time for plan B…
Finally stepping out into the courtyard, Setsuna picked up the large branch that lay conveniently at his feet, carefully tugged out his earrings then walked threateningly over to the goblins. There weren't that many of them, but that really was the Mad Hatter so maybe this wasn't such a great idea after all. Still… in this reality he guessed he was the closest they were going to get to a Hero and it was a Hero's job to rescue women in trouble - not that Mad Hatter could be described as a woman without stretching the term somewhat. Good Lord, considering the way the narrative universe worked he'd have to team up with her and he didn't really want to get up close and personal with one of the Seven Satans. But he needed all the help he could get, even if the Mad Hatter did have a tendency to stab her allies in the back, and when occasion demanded in the front, whilst wearing a wide variety of nifty headgear.
"Rociel."
Katan tried to pretend he wasn't there. Something about polite conversation became very embarrassing when both parties had tried to kill one another on numerous occasions. Because they had an audience though, Rociel and Sevotharte were trying their utmost to act like they could talk to one another civilly without resorting to threats, bodily harm both actual and grievous and a spot of attempted murder. It wasn't easy for either of them. Sevotharte was looking at Rociel with utter loathing from under his mask; Rociel was attempting to smile so that Sara and Kirie didn't pick up the bad vibes, but he looked like he was planning to murder someone; he had that kind of smile after all. Probably Sevotharte.
It probably wasn't helping smooth matters along that, in order to make some kind of point, Rociel had got Dubbiel out of his kennel (at least Katan suspected that was where Rociel was keeping him) and was casually holding his leash. Sevotharte could hardly have failed to notice. That probably accounted at least in part for the faint look of disgust. Everyone knew what Sevotharte thought of Dubbiel - exactly the same thing that everyone thought about Dubbiel. And to think he'd used to be Katan's superior. Katan certainly couldn't believe it, largely because Dubbiel was currently trying to worry the hem of his coat and was only slightly hampered by the fact that he didn't really have the jaw for it.
"Stop that!" Katan pulled his coat from between Dubbiel's teeth and tried to gently nudge him away with his foot. For some strange reason he didn't feel entirely comfortable kicking the man who used to issue his orders. Rociel looked round, wondering what the problem was, then sighed. "How many times, Dubbiel…?" he said despairingly then wrenched at his leash, dragging Dubbiel bodily away from Katan. "Don't chew on Katan! And I told you to sit! Sit, damn you! That's better! I'm sorry, Sevi, you were saying?"
Sevotharte tried to think. It wasn't easy when you were facing a delicate, worryingly pretty man - even if Rociel had put his uniform back on again, albeit without a jacket, and had his hair in a horribly severe plait which didn't suit him - who had one of your own subordinates on a leash. "You want me to look after Jibrielle?"
Sevotharte blinked once or twice in confusion. He really wasn't sure quite what Rociel thought he was achieving by having Dubbiel in the room with them, but whatever it was it wasn't working so well. Certainly the only thing he was worried about was that the horrible creature would jump up on him and soil his robes.
"Rociel, I am, as you know, a very busy man. Do you really think I have the time to babysit Jibrielle?"
Sara watched the whole scene in complete mystification. Who was 'Laila' and why did this Sevotharte character care what happened to her? What was with the man on the leash? And what did Rociel want this Sevotharte for in the first place? Her questions were soon answered when Sevotharte, still looking daggers at Rociel and by extension Katan (who responded with another of his incredibly rare dark looks), walked over to her.
"I'm going to be looking after you." He said brusquely. "Come on."
"That felt nice." Setsuna said, wiping his brow and giving a happy sigh. All around, a large number of goblins lay either feigning death or unconsciousness or actually dead and unconscious. He didn't care which and he wasn't going to ask. He had needed that. All the frustrations he had been feeling were, if not exactly alleviated, at least assuaged. There was nothing like causing havoc to make one feel a lot better, he thought, fastening the last of his earrings and casually swinging the oh-so-convenient branch.
The battle had been brief but decidedly violent, most of the violence emanating from Setsuna. A fortuitously-thrown rock had nicked his cheek a few seconds in, and the smell of the blood had been enough to send him completely over the edge, laying into anything he could lay fists, feet or branch on. Shame Kira-sempai had left really, it would have been good for his standing with him if Kira had seen him dispose of any number of nastily-beweaponed goblins using only a large chunk of wood. Sadly Kira had not been there. Maybe next time they met up Setsuna could oh-so-casually work the conversation round to it. It was a positive sign, he thought, that he had managed to deal with a major obstacle without having to get sempai involved.
One hand on his hip, the other still clutching the branch, Setsuna surveyed the little courtyard and wondered which way to go next, all the while being very aware that he had to look quite amazingly cool. He was, after all, surrounded by the bodies of his fallen enemies, still gripping the weapon with which he had overcome them, the wind blowing through his hair and even the conventional action hero's tiny cut on the cheek! How fortunate that he was wearing jeans and his white t-shirt; he knew it would only increase the resemblance to all the Everyman heroes ever. If only Sara could have seen him now! Oh well, he would definitely tell her about this; he knew she'd be overwhelmed by how much he had gone through to save her… maybe it would do him some good with her.
It was a great pose. Shame he blew it by screaming when someone tapped him on the shoulder. "What!" He shouted hysterically, spinning one hundred and eighty degrees so that he faced this new assailant, branch raised.
Setsuna lost his temper once again and threw the card to the ground, where it caught fire - all very dramatic but Setsuna was in another Sara-induced rage and completely failed to notice it (Mad Hatter seemed a little stung by this; why had she gone to all the effort of wandering round with spontaneously combusting cards if nobody even noticed, never mind cared, when the things caught fire?). He had no time to waste playing card games with an insane clown! Deciding the best thing to do was rise above it, Mad Hatter looked critically at him and frowned, closing the deck again and tucking it back inside her clothing. Best thing to do was change the subject.
"One wonders what you are doing here, Messiah."
Setsuna gave Mad Hatter a cheerful wave and walked off. He was actually walking out of the courtyard when he realized she was following him. He decided not to say anything at first in the hope that he was mistaken and that they were merely walking in the same direction but when five minutes and a number of turnings had passed and Mad Hatter was still quite obviously following him, humming slightly to herself in what seemed to be an attempt to irritate him into attentiveness, he finally looked at her.
"Why are you following me?" he asked.
Setsuna thought it was a good thing they were actually walking as they talked, Mad Hatter a couple of paces behind him, seemingly quite content to let him set the pace. The only problem was Setsuna now felt horribly conspicuous. He could hardly feel anything but conspicuous though when he was being followed round by a tall, androgynous figure who was wearing circus make-up and who dressed even more like a visual rocker than Rociel did. The worst thing about it was he would actually have felt more comfortable being with Mad Hatter if she was a very flamboyant man; in spite of all the make-up she didn't look even remotely female, never mind at all feminine.
"Somehow I'm not reassured." Setsuna said. "Firstly because you're a demon, secondly because you're also a habitual liar, cheat and a backstabbing traitor, and finally you're a complete nymphomaniac."
This was going to be a long afternoon… okay, a longer one. Setsuna honestly couldn't imagine less relaxing company than Mad Hatter and now he thought about it he wasn't sure he wanted her behind him. It would be far too easy for her to stab him with an invitation or something, never mind what might happen if she suddenly decided she was sexually frustrated. Okay, this was not a good idea. But it wasn't really like he could tell a horribly powerful, if surprisingly scatty, demon to go away.
Deciding that conversation was going to be a bit of a non-starter, Setsuna said nothing else until they reached a crossroads. He looked at it and frowned, deliberating. He had no idea which way to go now, both paths curved only slightly so it wasn't like trying to keep the castle in front of him would help; whichever way he took he would still be heading toward it. Irritating, he thought, but maybe not quite so irritating as the company he was in. It was a very good thing that he wasn't Raphael.
"You come from this part of the labyrinth, don't you?" he asked. "Any ideas which way now?"
Mad Hatter's answer was to take her hat off and dig around inside it as if looking for something, in the process of which she handed several things to Setsuna; a skull, a box of chocolate and Metatron's terrifying 'Usa-san', which Setsuna put carefully down on the corridor floor and backed away from. The damn thing was looking at him! Eventually Mad Hatter appeared to have found what she was looking for and relieved Setsuna of the skull and the candy, though Setsuna couldn't help but notice that she didn't seem to want anything to do with that creepy 'Usa-san' either. She was probably at quite a loss to work out what it had been doing in her hat in the first place.
"Heads or tails?" she asked.
"Do you know where Anikichan is?"
Sevotharte had been watching Sara for exactly thirty-six minutes and fifteen seconds, he had another fifty-four minutes and forty-five seconds to go, and a miracle had happened. For the first time in his life, he had come to understand a situation from Rociel's point of view, and that point of view was this: having to look after Sara Mudou and not being able to even threaten her with any real conviction was an absolute, total, utter, complete pain in the proverbial. No wonder Rociel had wanted to get rid of her, even if it was only for an hour and a half (Dubbiel's jumping up at him had clinched the extra half-hour; anything to be out of the room and able to burn the cloak that oaf had soiled).
In just over half an hour Sara had asked him where Setsuna was twenty-one times, told him she had a cheap ring which would protect Setsuna and herself five times, reminded the room at large that Setsuna would protect her and she knew he would come and rescue her twelve times and called Katan an unprincipled brute nine times. She seemed very fond of the phrase for some reason, shame it was so inaccurate. Sevotharte might not have liked Katan all that much, but the last thing he would have accused him of was being an unprincipled brute when the annoying thing about Katan was that he was quite the reverse. He had found no fault with the way she had described Rociel though and had tried to encourage her to talk about him, but Sara hadn't been able to stick to the topic for more than two minutes before starting to wax lyrical about Setsuna again.
Sevotharte fixed her with his most intimidating glare, a glare that had never failed to shut up a prattling subordinate, intimidate a pawn or convey to an underling that he or she was in deep, deep trouble. Even though the underling could see only his eyes and eyebrows, it had always been enough. He very much doubted it would work on Sara. "No. Either start complaining about Rociel again or shut up."
He was going to need a bath when this hour was up, and then he was really going to have to murder Rociel. Partly to shut him up about Laila (how did Rociel know about Laila anyway? Had Dubbiel known something? No, that wasn't likely; Dubbiel was too stupid), but mainly because he had forced him to look after this vacuous blonde ninny.
Actually, no. Sevotharte needed a bath now, and a complete change of clothing. He was starting to feel quite horribly dirty - he hadn't even bathed when he got back from Rociel's! Just a new set of outer robes to replace the ones that had been soiled by Dubbiel - and the best thing to do when that happened was burn your clothing and get a clean, new set on. There had to be someone he could call to watch this girl for him whilst he was busy getting all the horrible dirt and grime off. There had to be…
Ah yes, he knew exactly who to get to watch Sara.
Getting to his feet and cutting off Sara's latest stream of prattle, Sevotharte looked coldly down at Sara as he excused himself "If you don't mind, I have to go and see to Metatron-sama. The Sisters will look after you." And with that he swept grandly out of the room, leaving a rather bewildered Sara sitting at her desk and wondering if it was something she said. A few minutes later, there was a tentative knock on the door and a Sister, a young girl with pink hair and an expression of almost limitless vacuity on her face, walked into the room, smiling at Sara as she came.
"Good afternoon, Sara-sama!"
This was a lot better, Sara thought to herself as Moonliel skipped from the room. Tea and cake, flowers for the room and a friendly, smiling Sister to see to her… she could get used to this. She was sure she could bear this for the next few hours, and then Setsuna would be here and would save her and everything would be wonderful again. With that cheering thought, Sara settled back down at the table and waited. This wasn't so bad. This was the way being held prisoner ought to be.
~to be continued~
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