Liar, Liar, the Mage's Desire Vol. 1 (A New Oumeno)

Things Get Magically DICE-y For Kokichi and Himiko (4)

     Himiko felt like she had been walking for hours in the tunnel. She started to wonder if it was a mistake to follow Kokichi down here. She didn't know where she was going to end up. Just when she was thinking about turning around, she saw a faint light ahead. *Finally!* she thought to herself, and began to pick up speed. When she reached the end, she entered what looked like a sewer tunnel. Walking towards the edge of the platform, she looked down and saw a stream of sewage water flowing by. Across the water was another platform with rungs that stuck out of the wall, leading up to a manhole cover. To her right, she saw two long planks of wood placed side-by-side that spanned the smelly water below. *That must be how Kokichi got across,* Himiko thought to herself. Of course, she didn't need to use the plank, so she hopped on her broom again and flew across the sewage water and up to the manhole cover. 

    She lifted up the cover slightly and peeked through it, making sure Kokichi wasn't nearby to spot her. When she felt that the coast was clear, she grabbed onto the last rung and lifted herself out of the manhole. She found herself surrounded by a bunch of trees in a dark, creepy forest with the moon as the only light source.  Himiko didn't know which way Kokichi would have gone; there were nothing but trees as far as they eye could see. She crouched down closer to the ground to see if there were any footprints, but there weren't any. There was, however, a path hidden among the blades of the thick, lush grass. Himiko followed that until she came into a clearing and gasped at what she saw. In front of her was a large abandoned two-story building that looked old, but surprisingly, well-kept. The building looked like a hospital, and given how ominously it shone in the moonlight, Himiko wouldn't be surprised if it was haunted. Himiko surprised herself as she walked up to the spooky building. It's as if it had its own gravitational pull. But she just had to see what was inside and if Kokichi was in there. 

   Himiko didn't want to try the front door, so she walked around the building, trying to find another way in. The bottom-floor windows were too high up for her, so she had to hop onto her broom and fly up to one of them. She reached her arms out and, to her relief, the window opened. She climbed through it and gently eased herself onto the floor inside. In the dim moonlight, Himiko could see that she had entered a corridor. Across from where she stood, she could see rows of doors that spanned the long, creepy corridor. On the floor, she could see a black-and-white checkered floor, the same pattern on Kokichi's scarf. Himiko didn't know if that was a coincidence, since many buildings had that pattern on their floors, or if it meant that Kokichi may have had something to do with it. Either way, she picked the direction of the corridor that led further into the building rather than the way that went towards the entrance. 

   As she made her way through the corridor, Himiko saw dice patterns etched into the walls, which she thought was weird. *Why would an abandoned hospital have dice on the walls?* she thought to herself. What she saw next on the walls further down the corridor made her heart stop with fear. There were giant faces of creepy clowns mounted onto the walls. Even after sending a clown to jail at one of her previous magic shows, she still feared them. To avoid looking at the creepy clown faces even further, she entered one of the doors. She had entered a small office room with a desk and a lamp that was turned on. She walked cautiously over to the desk and saw some newspaper clippings on it. A headline on one of the newspapers read :The Mysterious D.I.C.E. Slips Away Again." She looked around the room and noticed more newspaper clippings attached to all of the walls. Another headline read "Trying To Capture D.I.C.E. Will Leave You With Snake Eyes." Another read "D.I.C.E. Doesn't Give Two Craps," and "The Clown Scare Is Back!" Himiko definitely didn't like reading that last one. She was so engrossed in the clippings that she didn't notice the shadowy figure in the dark corner until it was too late. The figure reached out at Himiko and grabbed her, covering her mouth.

   "Mmmmpphhh...nyeh...let me go!" Himiko managed to squeak. 

  "Sorry, li'l lady," came the voice of her captor. The voice was deep, but surprisingly jocular, as if Himiko was merely a toddler being babysat by this person rather than an intruder. "No can do. The boss doesn't like outsiders dropping by unannounced, so if you want someone to complain to, you'll have to take it up with him." Himiko struggled as her captor took her out of the newspaper room and walked further down the corridor past the creepy clown faces. Himiko shut her eyes so she didn't have to look at them. She tried whacking her captor in the face with her broom, but he dodged it every time. "Hey, watch it, will ya? Dang!" he exclaimed. "Whacking me ain't gonna help you in this situation, so chill, girl!" 

   Her captor turned a corner and walked down another corridor until he came to a stop halfway in front of a door and opened it. Through her captor's hands, Himiko let out a muffled gasp at what she saw. The room was immense; on one side of the room, there were giant camera monitors on the walls that overlooked the city, on another side were shelves lined with items you'd associate with pranks, along with gas masks, wigs, walkie-talkies, etc. In the center of the room on the floor, there was a large painting of the D.I.C.E. logo. Towards the center back of the room was a set of stairs leading up to a platform where a glow-y throne sat. On the throne sat a very familiar person: Kokichi. Himiko's eyes widened as she saw him stand up wearing a dictator hat along with a long, black cloak that made him look more menacing.

   "Hey-o, boss," Himiko's captor called out. "Looks like we have a visitor!" Kokichi folded his arms and stepped smoothly down the stairs, his cloak gliding behind him. He walked up to Himiko and her captor, glaring at her. Himiko stared back at him with wide eyes, afraid of what he was going to do to her. 

   "Release her," Kokichi instructed Himiko's captor. He obeyed and let Himiko go. Clutching the broom to her chest, Himiko's knees wobbled and her lip quivered as she faced Kokichi, who was still glowering at her, wondering what he was going to do next.