Note: If you’ve seen Ryokohunohara Labyrinth and/or have seen other fanfiction for it, please let me know! I was unable to find any but in truth I didn’t try all that hard. Anyway, I know that this show is obscure but I felt inspired to write for it… you can find the 40-minute OVA on Kazaa I recommend it. It’s labeled as yaoi but isn’t, tho’ there is some rather heavily implied shounen-ai.

Warnings: Pointless, more or less. The shounen-ai fluff level is at about the same as in the OVA.

***

Somewhere Other Than The Beach

“Hiking?” Kanata blinked at Hiroki in confusion.

The brown-haired boy chuckled, and grabbed his wrist. “Oh, c’mon, it’ll be fun.”

Kanata scratched behind his ear with his free hand, thinking but not pulling away. “I thought we were going to go to the beach?”

Hiroki shrugged fluidly. “We went there just last week. Besides, Hueko wants to go hiking! We haven’t done that in a while.”

“Okay.” Kanata smiled.

Hiroki heard the words through a fuzzy filter. He hadn’t slept, didn’t sleep, but sometimes his mind would wander to the point where things weren’t real anymore.

He looked over to where he was, apparently, chatting casually with Kanata. His gut twisted in something akin to jealousy.

Fhalei… how can you expect me to just leave him like that?

He wasn’t sure how real his other ‘self’ was. He wasn’t certain how real he was, for that matter. It was all so surreal. How long have I been like this? How long ago did I die without dying?

If there was anything to be happy about it was that Kanata was spared the sorrow of his death. That was the last thing Hiroki wanted to do, which is why he hadn’t tried to talk to his friend even though the other boy obviously had some ability to perceive him.

They were leaving, Hiroki suddenly realized. He shook his head in an attempt to clear the fuzz from his brain, and ran after them, trying not to think about it too much.

Kanata paused for no apparent reason, which irritated Hiroki to a minor extent.

Hiroki dropped back to follow them at a distance. No point in bothering Kanata… it still hurt, however.

***

“Shuichi,” complained the girl with pale purple hair, “Why did you want to go hiking? The forest is so *boring*.”

Shuichi shrugged apologetically and tapped his flashlight against a tree in a futile attempt to shake some life into the dying battery. “I’m sorry, Kiroko…”

Hueko flipped her long, dark hair over her shoulder. “It’s not that bad,” she said reasonably. “But it isn’t very exciting. Hey!” she slapped her hands together. “Why don’t we set a snare, and try to catch a rabbit?”

Her five friends just stared at her for a moment. She waved her hands placatingly. “I was joking, just a joke!”

Hiroki looked at her incredulously, not believing a word of it. Suddenly he laughed. “Of course!”

Ijima joined in the laughter tentatively, but the others didn’t find it quite so funny.

Kanata looked around, suddenly intent on surroundings in an attempt to distract himself from the thought of killing a rabbit. Suddenly he noticed something.

“Hey, is that a path?”

Shuichi peered in the indicated direction, adjusting his glasses. “It seems to be.” He paused. “An old one.”

“I wonder where it goes?” mused Hiroki, moving forward to stand next to Kanata. He grinned down at the slightly shorter boy. “Let’s check it out!”

“It should be fine,” reasoned Ijima. “Do you want to go, Tokino-san?”

Kanata thought for a moment, then finally shrugged. “I don’t see why not. Does anyone not want to go?”

Ijima and Shuichi immediately shook their heads a firm negative; Hueko and Kiroko, in a rare moment of feminine solidarity, glanced at each other as if to exchange their exasperation with the male gender before looking back at Kanata and shrugging indecisively.

“Well, that’s a go, then!” Hiroki grabbed Kanata’s wrist and began down the overgrown path, kicking it clear of overgrowth as he went.

Hiroki followed at a distance, leaving the specter of a woman with long red hair behind…

***

It hadn’t been nighttime when the flashlight had started to die, but now that it was dark out the glimmer was almost nothing, much less enough to see by. Shuichi shook it again, hopelessly, but all it did was flicker between an unhelpful glow and nothing at all.

Hueko crossed her arms over her chest. “We’re lost, aren’t we?”

Hiroki laughed, but it was a somewhat nervous sound. “Of course not. We’re still on the path, after all.”

The four just looked at him incredulously. Kanata, the only one who didn’t clearly accuse him, still seemed uncertain. “Didn’t anyone bring spare batteries?” the blond boy asked, trying to change the subject.

“Yeah, Shuichi! What’s up with bringing a half-dead flashlight?” Hiroki immediately jumped on the opportunity to place the blame on someone else.

“I didn’t test them before leaving,” Shuichi admitted, “but you got us lost! We weren’t planning on staying out this late, it must be almost midnight by now! So if we’re not lost, get us out of here.” He tossed the flashlight to Hiroki. “There’s enough light to see by, even if it’s dim.”

Hiroki caught it numbly, startled into speechlessness. He stared at the flashlight blankly for a moment, not sure of what to do.

Kanata grabbed it out of his hand. “I’ve got a better sense of direction,” he said. “Let me.” He leaned down, putting the flashlight close to the ground so that the meager illumination could be somewhat useful. Hiroki leaned down next to him, examining the path as well. 

Hueko rolled her eyes. “Next time, we’ll let me take charge. And no straying down weird paths when it’s getting dark…”

“The footprints criss-cross all over the place,” Kanata whispered to Hiroki in a voice no one else could hear. “We were going in circles.”

“I know…”

Kanata glanced at him, startled. “What?”

Hiroki sighed. “I noticed. I’m not that bad, you know. But I didn’t want to tell anyone, ‘cause that would make them mad…”

“And this doesn’t…?” Kanata mumbled to himself. Louder, he went on, “Hiroki, why don’t you look at the other side of the path? This flashlight isn’t much use, it’s mostly moonlight by now…”

Hiroki froze for a moment, looking suddenly apologetic. “I’m… sorry…” he mumbled, just barely loud enough for Kanata to hear.

Then he was gone. Kanata sighed, wondering if was being to harsh. It was a combination of tiredness and frustration, he supposed, making his usual good nature sharper.

Hiroki watched with an ache in his translucent chest. The urge to bend down next to Kanata, as his other self had been, was unbearable. Without realizing it he took a step towards the blond boy.

Kanata, concentrating on figuring out the puzzle of the criss-crossing footsteps, didn’t notice. Emboldened, Hiroki walked closer, until he could simply reach out and touch Kanata, if he so desired… and the temptation was great. But not right now… not until he knew the mystery.

“Kanata…” he whispered, quietly enough so that even if he had been real the other boy might not have heard. “Kanata… I wish I could help you…” It was painful watching his friend be so obviously worried, yet unable to help. Some instinct activated and without thinking, he lifted on hand to rest it on Kanata’s, where he held the useless flashlight limply at his side.

Kanata’s eyes widened suddenly and he almost shouted in surprise. He looked directly Hiroki, making his heart jump for a moment before it was painfully clear that Kanata was looking through him, not at him. “Hiroki…?” it was a low whisper not directed at the person he could see but rather a faint sense of… something that stood at an intimate distance, impinging minutely at the very edge of his awareness.

Hiroki smiled sadly. “Kanata… I’m right here…”

Suddenly the flashlight glimmered. Kanata turned his gaze to it, startled. “What…?”

Hiroki looked down as well, just as incredulously.

Hiroki, disgruntledly examining the other end of the path, didn’t notice.

Hiroki, his hand still resting on Kanata’s, thought for a moment. “Is this his ‘mysterious power’?” he wondered to himself. The flashlight was steadily strengthening, until it was at full power, illuminating the entire small clearing they were in – but it didn’t stop there and glowed brighter than it possibly ever could normally, shining through the trees and the forest like halogen daylight in the palm of his hand.

The other five had noticed by this point, of course, and gaped in astonishment. “Kanata?” Of course they didn’t see Hiroki and his hand resting on Kanata’s… somehow, this pleased Hiroki.

Kanata looked back at his friends and shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know. It just suddenly started working.”

Ijima looked around. “Spirits…?” he asked with a note of wonder in his voice.

“Ghosts…” Hiroki mused to himself. Hueko gave him a startled glance.

“This isn’t a haunted forest, Imanishi,” she said point-blank. “It’s not a very special forest at all, actually,” chastising Ijima as well.

“Of course not…” Kanata mused. “Well, I think I can find the way out, now. This way.” He started off, keeping ahead of everyone else.

Hiroki lagged behind, feeling as if there was something not quite right going on. His nagging suspicion that somehow there were ghosts involved wouldn’t go away, no matter how unlikely the idea was.

Hiroki, for his part, kept his hand firmly on top of Kanata’s, in order to keep the flashlight glowing. He glanced at the blond boy, who looked distinctly anxious. “I wish I could show myself to you, Kanata…” he whispered. Kanata relaxed, hearing the words on a subconscious level. “I miss walking with you like this, miss being able to be the one who’s holding your hand and walking next to you. But I’m dead… and Fhalei wants me for some reason… I just want to make sure you’re safe with the other me, first…”

Kanata smiled slightly, sadly, and had absolutely no idea why. “It’s alright, Hiroki…” he whispered, wondering where the words were coming from. “I understand…”

Hiroki wiped the tears he hadn’t been aware of shedding away. “I know… you’re too nice.”

By now they had reached the edge of the forest. Hiroki withdrew his hand, reluctantly; the flashlight immediately dropped back down to it’s almost nonexistent dimness, then sputtered and died entirely.

The six exhausted hikers stared confusedly for a moment before shaking their heads and deciding almost as one that they didn’t want to know the answer. Well, five didn’t want to know.

“It was a friendly spirit,” Kanata announced. “Look, there’s the house.” He pointed.

“Thank goodness,” Hueko sighed.

Everyone else looked just as relieved except for Hiroki, who was just getting more convinced that something strange and ominous was going on. A fear gripped him, driving his thought down illogical paths. Of course, a lot of that could easily be attributed to mere tiredness. “It wasn’t a friendly spirit…” he muttered to himself, low enough that no one else could hear. “It must’ve been a demon.”

Suddenly Kanata was standing next to him. He almost jumped away in surprise, but that was replaced by mild confusion when Kanata grabbed his hand and started to pull him down the road, after the other four who were already on their way home. “C’mon, Hiroki,” he said, smiling. “Let’s go home.”

Hiroki blinked as the previous train of thought derailed entirely, to be replaced by a much happier set. He grinned. “Yeah, let’s go.” He let himself be dragged along.

“Oh, and Hiroki?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks.”

“Huh?”

Kanata laughed. “Nevermind.”

Hiroki, still following at his now-customary distance that was almost impossibly painful by now, smiled slightly. “I’ll protect you, Kanata…” he vowed to himself. “Even from myself.”

Hiroki chuckled, earlier paranoia forgotten. He started running side-by-side with Kanata, although without pulling his hand away.

That sort of thing didn’t seem to matter, somehow, when Kanata smiled.

***

~Mordain

AN: Hueko, Shuichi, Kiroko, and Ijima are Hiroki and Kanata’s four friends, who are barely named in the OVA (Kiroko isn’t, actually, and Shuichi is called ‘Shiki’…) but are around most of the time. If you can’t tell them apart it’s okay, I had trouble with that too. I pretty much made up their characterization as I went along, so I’m sorry if I messed up miserably. And if the two Hirokis were confusing, I apologize. It’s confusing in the OVA too.