A/N: Hey look! Twenty chapters! Yeah okay so anyway...I'm such a bad person...I've been writing on the story, just not on the place where I should be, eheh. I have some things written that happen later on, but I haven't been working very hard on current events. Oops...
O/C19: The room's secret has been solved and the correct door to exit from...is the one that they entered from. Said path holds a fork in the hallway; Genkai, Kuwabara and Yusuke take the left passage and Kurama, Misaki and Hiei take the right. But their path ends up leading to a dead end. Misaki fazes through the wall by pulling apart her molecules and then she is able to open up the dead end—which is actually a door—from the other side. Another door is beyond the now opened one and the trio head for it going into the next room...
--
"I suppose asking for something interesting to happen would be too much." Misaki grumbled.
Kurama, Misaki and Hiei stood in the room, glancing about.
It was a circular room with archways in the walls covered by a flimsy, see-through material every three feet or so. Though she wasn't really paying attention, Misaki counted ten of the archways. But it appeared that there were more on the second level which she could make out by standing in the middle of the room.
Curious, Kurama walked up to the first archway to the left of the door and looked inside, moving the filmy curtain that covered it to the side. He couldn't see very far in as it was pitch black. He got closer, wondering what could be beyond. Still unable to see anything, Kurama went even closer. There was a blinding flash of light and he was entering the room again by the door they just came in from.
He pivoted around, seeing the empty hallway just behind him.
"Kurama are you okay?" Misaki noticed the strange look on his face.
"I believe I am intact." He checked to make sure, "Strange...I wonder if all of the others are that way."
"All of the other what?"
"I went into that archway and came out over here." Kurama pointed at the archway next to him.
"Hm..." Misaki walked up to the archway he indicated, going inside. She reappeared just behind Kurama, her eyes widening as she found his words to be true.
Hiei was leaning against the wall in between the door and the archway to the right of it, his eyes closed.
"Try the next one." Misaki motioned to archway number two as she headed for the third one.
Kurama nodded, warily going into it.
The white light flashed again, but this time he came out of archway number ten, next to Hiei.
"Hn." The fire youkai closed the eye he had opened when the red head reappeared.
Misaki was standing puzzled by the door.
"I believe this is another sequence puzzle." Kurama walked over to the first archway again.
"Ugh. I'll be glad when we get to fight again."
"You're not the only one." Hiei scowled at the puzzle proposition.
"This will go much faster if all three of us pick an archway." Kurama motioned to the other two.
Misaki and Hiei went through the second arch, appearing at the tenth. Then Kurama went into the first, Misaki the third and Hiei the fourth.
Hiei was the one to reappear in another archway, the fifth one. Kurama and Misaki went into the second, then the fourth. Then they all spread out again.
Kurama went into the first archway once more, this time coming out at the seventh.
"That makes it second, fourth, first." Misaki mumbled. She followed her words, entering and exiting the various archways. She and Hiei caught up with Kurama.
"Here we go again." She said standing in front of the third arch, knowing that they would probably just end up at the second floor and have to do it all over again. "Wait, Hiei, we used that one already."
The fire youkai was standing in front of the fifth archway. He looked at her, then looked at the archway.
"See how the curtain is blowing in the wind?"
Yes he saw that.
"All of the other ones we've entered in and come out of are doing the same thing."
He ignored her, marching into the fifth archway and Misaki shook her head as she and Kurama went into the third and sixth ones, respectively.
Of course, Hiei appeared at the door but then so did Misaki and Kurama. They went through the sequence, second arch, fourth, first. Hiei went for the seventh arch—the curtain was billowing—and Misaki shook her head at his stubbornness as she entered into the eighth one, Kurama the ninth.
Misaki found herself on the next floor. The middle of the second floor was open to the rest of the room, a short wall marking the edge of the ground. Misaki leaned over the wall to see Kurama and Hiei looking around for her.
"Up here!"
They spotted her as she waved once.
"The eighth one."
They followed the sequence and appeared behind her.
"This is really annoying." She looked around, finding the second floor to be the same as the first. "Wait here." Misaki requested of them, choosing a random door.
She felt thankful when she simply reappeared behind them. "At least we won't have to start completely over."
"This seems to be the only other floor." Kurama noted, looking above them and seeing only ceiling.
"I hope so."
They all started the process over again, mechanically moving back and forth through various doorways, finding a pattern and following it around. It was boring in general and by the time they neared completion of the sequence, all three of them felt as though they could use a good fight.
Misaki mumbled the order to herself as she followed it around the room. Kurama had disappeared into their last doorway and Hiei was close behind her. Finally, it was all over.
"Oh great, what now?" Misaki found herself standing beside Kurama in another room.
An unseen voice boomed at them from above, "Team Koenma, second finishers of the maze. Time elapsed: twelve hours. Time remaining: fourteen hours."
"That certainly did not seem like twelve hours." Kurama skeptically pointed out.
"I don't think twelve hours has passed outside of the maze." Misaki said, "It's in another dimension. I wonder though...Which team completed the maze first?" She aimed the question at the ceiling.
"Team Lanora."
The response was automatic and Misaki knew she was talking to an automated voice.
"Time elapsed?"
The answer took a little longer to come than the other. "Four hours."
--
"I hate mazes!" Kuwabara announced for the thirtieth time since they left the others.
He had a good reason for it, they had just encountered another dead end and were forced to turn back.
"You know I think that dead end is the same one we've been running into." Yusuke said.
"Not that either one of you are volunteering to choose a path." Genkai ran ahead of them.
"Couldn't we just climb to the top of one of these walls and walk to the end?" Kuwabara asked.
"Have you looked up at all?" Genkai wanted to know.
Kuwabara saw that the walls met the ceiling so his suggestion wasn't feasible.
Yusuke cursed as they rounded a corner only to find themselves at another dead end. He punched it, hard, leaving a prominent fist mark.
"Feel better, dimwit?"
"Yes as a matter of fact I do, grandma."
She led them off again, past various corridors, turning left twice, then right.
The three of them skidded to a stop.
"But...I...it..." Yusuke stammered.
In the wall of the dead end in front of them was Yusuke's fist mark.
"That poses a problem." Genkai crossed her arms.
"You mean to tell me that we've been running in circles this whole time?!" Kuwabara exclaimed, "These stupid paths all look the same!!"
"That's the point, baka." Genkai uncrossed her arms, fishing in her pocket for something. She pulled out a roll of twine and took an arm's length of it in her fist. She punched the floor, infusing the twine with her spirit energy. "Alright. Let's go."
Genkai took off again, letting the twine unwind as she ran.
They twisted back and forth between the hallways and turns again.
"Whoa, hold up!" Yusuke looked behind them. The other two stopped.
The twine was gleaming with Genkai's energy. It was woven back and forth between four doors which led to various paths.
Genkai walked up to a door which the twine had not come near, tapping the remaining string in her hand.
Back in a dead end somewhere, the twine popped itself out of the ground and began winding back to Genkai's hand.
"Because you never know when you need a ball of twine." Kuwabara said sagely.
Genkai ignored him, opening the door they stood in front of.
"Welcome."
Numerous voices echoed the greeting. Numerous identical voices.
"Not good." Yusuke said, "Definitely not good."
"What?" Kuwabara asked.
"There's one door and they happen to be blocking it."
"You are correct, ma'am!" One of the many stepped forward. "And I have the only key to open said door." He took it out and waved it around, the other clones doing the same. He sighed, "But sadly, which one of us is real and which is not?"
"There aren't any mirrors in here are there?" Kuwabara suspiciously examined the walls around them.
A confused expression passed over the clones' faces. "What? Mirror? I'm afraid not."
"Well that's something." Kuwabara nodded.
"He's had a bad experience with a mirror lately." Yusuke explained to the clones.
Their faces lit with understanding, "Ah."
"Hey! I had just about as much trouble as everyone else!!"
"And yet no one else took the time to run into the mirror."
"Shut it Urameshi before I pound your face into the ground!"
Yusuke rotated his shoulder, loosening the muscles, "How many wins would that be for me if you tried?"
"Alright you two dimwits, that's enough. Save your petty arguments for a petty time." Genkai snapped, "We have bigger issues to deal with than your baka rivalry."
"You ought to listen to the old lady, a Tie Up is easily capable of taking care of you all considering the dire consequences if you fail in the end."
"Certainly is a tie-up," Kuwabara grumbled, "We need to move forward. Don't we have some sort of time limit we're supposed to be watching?"
"No, no. Not a tie-up. A Tie Up. We're a Tie Up." The Tie Ups gestured to one another.
"That's what I said, you're tying us up. We need to get a move on." Kuwabara repeated, his brow turning down a little.
"No, we're not 'tying you up', we're Tie Ups."
"That's what I said!" Kuwabara's frustration crumpled across his face.
"No, you said we're tie-ups. Haven't you ever heard of Tie Ups?"
"I don't know!!"
"Third base." Genkai rolled her eyes.
They all turned and looked at her.
"You know it really makes your age show when you do that." Yusuke grimaced.
"When she does what?" Kuwabara asked.
"Make an old-timey reference like that. Next thing you know she'll be calling me 'whipper-snapper'."
"If I'm so old-timey, slacker, then how come you know what I'm talking about?"
"I hate to interrupt, but as the tall dumb one and short saucy one pointed out, you are on a tight schedule here." The Tie Ups interceded into the commentary.
"Saucy?" Yusuke looked at the clones and back and Genkai a couple of times.
The Tie Ups sighed collectively, "Forget it. We're just trying to help you out."
"Explaining what we're supposed to do would be helpful enough." Kuwabara crossed his arms.
"Figure out which one of us is real, take the key, and go out the door. Simple."
"Nothing is ever that simple." Kuwabara shook his head, "Not here anyway."
The Tie Ups shrugged.
"Can we fight you for it?" Yusuke wanted to know.
"Fight us for the key? Sure take your best shot."
"Great." He smiled, eager to release the pent up physical energy unused so far that day.
Simultaneously—as all of them desired some relief from the mental strain they'd been put through—the trio relaxed into defensive positions, clones across from them imitating the movement. There were a few moments of paused silence as all of them analyzed their opponents.
Then the fight broke out.
Yusuke ran forward, dodging to the side as three clones swept passed him, pivoting so that he was behind them. Each one disappeared as Yusuke's fist made rapid contact with their backs. Surprised and a trifle disappointed that they were done with so quickly, Yusuke ducked an oncoming kick he sensed behind him, shifting his weight to one foot and rotating his body around, putting full force under the opposite fist which contacted ever-so-nicely with the clones' jaw. He turned to the next one, connecting a solid left to their shoulder, following up with a right to the clone quickly advancing to take its fallen comrades place.
Kuwabara's spirit sword pulsed with its owner's energy, the powerhouse of a male swinging through several clones at a time. He was as astonished as Yusuke to see that the enemies vanished at his touch. There were more than enough of the fighting copies to take care of though.
Leaping nimbly over an unsuspecting clone, Genkai crouched as it sent a backwards kick in her direction, swooping her own leg in a circle and tripping up the would-be attacker. Her eyes constantly shifted around the room, keeping tabs on both the boys and the clones, able to concentrate on the fight in front of her almost absently.
After minutes of fairly intense fighting as it seemed more clones always scrambled up to meet them, Genkai stopped, her breath briefly catching her in throat; the number of enemies had multiplied, filling the room to the brim. Evading various assaults, she darted between legs, taking down assailants any time they got to close. She watched closer as Yusuke fought. Yes he was doing fine, even Kuwabara could take on several of these guys at once, but there was something odd going on. There it was again. Her eyes caught the strange surge of energy, locking on to the unusual pattern, but it was fleeting, lasting not even a second. That same surge reappeared, just as fleetingly, but quadrupled in number various places in the room. Genkai calculated how many she had taken out, adding in an estimate for Yusuke and Kuwabara and quadrupling the number. Oops.
--
So part of this chapter holds my tribute to Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. Man I love that game.
Heheheh, 'idiot rivalry'. Heheh, Genkai makes me laugh.
-lotsm