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

Emotionally Detached (2)

     Himiko woke up to find herself sleeping on a bunch of pillows on the floor. The fire in the fireplace had died down and was replaced by dim, burning embers. She was wondering what she was doing on the floor wrapped in pillows and a blanket when she remembered that Kokichi had been with her, trying to tell her to go to bed, or something. She whirled around expecting to see Kokichi, but instead, she just saw her table on which sat her math book. 

   "Oh, no!" she gasped, remembering that she had to finish her homework. She checked her phone and saw that it was 7:30 AM. School started in 30 minutes! She rushed towards the stairs of her lair, then abruptly stopped and rushed back to her table. She rushed back and forth a couple times, not knowing whether to do her homework or get ready for school. "Stop! Stop!" she told herself. She felt like crying as she slumped onto one of the chairs at the table. She looked through her homework, but noticed something different: it was complete! It was in her own handwriting, but she didn't remember finishing her homework. A purple sticky note on one of her math sheets caught her attention. It read: "Hey, Monkey Buns! Hope you don't mind me doing your homework! Love, Your Supreme Leader of Evil! Mwahahaha!" 

  That explained why it was in her own handwriting even though she hadn't finished it herself; Kokichi was skilled in forgery. Himiko felt relieved, but surprisingly, she also felt a hint of anger and...jealousy? Himiko didn't want to dwell on her feelings any longer, so she shook her head and put the sticky note back down. She gathered her schoolbooks and headed outside. She entered the house from backyard of Casa V3, tiptoeing so as to not be heard. But, it was no use. Once Himiko got to her room, Tenko was right there waiting for her.

   "HIMIKO! There you are!" she exclaimed. "Where have you been? Oh, I was worried sick!"

   "Library," Himiko muttered, picking her clothes out for school.

   "All night?!" Tenko exclaimed. "The library isn't open all night!" Himiko didn't respond. Tenko went up to Himiko and faced her.

   "Himiko...what...is...going...on?" she demanded. Himiko merely glared at Tenko before pulling the brim of her hat over her face.

    "Leave me alone," she muttered. 

    "Sorry to interrupt your little quarrel girls, but Tsumugi needs your help, Tenko," came Kokichi's voice in Tenko and Himiko's doorway.

   "Tsumugi can wait," Tenko said, not taking her eyes off of Himiko, who glared back at Tenko.

   "Mmm...okaaay, but I heard Tsumugi say that she thinks Kaito stared at her the wrong way," Kokichi said. Tenko huffed and looked back and forth between Kokichi and Himiko, not knowing whether to get Himiko to open up or help Tsumugi supposedly not get ogled by Kaito.

   "Oh...okay," Tenko finally said. "But, Himiko, we seriously need to talk about what's going on with you. I'm really worried."

   "Well, stop it," Himiko replied quietly. "I'm not going to talk about it, and I don't have to." Tenko looked at Himiko with frustration and sighed before pushing her way past Kokichi and heading downstairs. 

   "Nee-heehee...she'll believe everything she's told," Kokichi giggled. 

    "Kokichi, why did you do my homework for me?" Himiko asked. She didn't mean for her question to sound so irritable, but she couldn't help but feel annoyed. Kokichi's eyes fixated on Himiko's. At first, he looked annoyed, but then, he smirked.

   "Well, someone had to, considering that you weren't going to do it," he replied. Himiko felt her blood boil, but she did her best to quell her anger. Kokichi noticed her slight expression of anger and raised an eyebrow at her. She turned away from Kokichi.

   "Oh...well, thanks," she muttered. 

   "You're welcome," Kokichi huffed curtly, shaking his head and heading downstairs. Himiko sighed with frustration as she got ready for school. Soon, she was walking to school with her head hung low. Tenko and Angie followed closely behind, keeping an eye on her the whole time. As the other students headed off to school, Kokichi decided to stay behind. He headed to Himiko's magic lair after making absolute sure that he was completely alone. Once inside, he sat down at one of the table's chairs and pondered the situation with Himiko. 

   "She's been like this for a few days now," he muttered to himself. "Since...Monday? What happened on Monday?" He closed his eyes and thought deeply about anything significant that might have happened earlier that week. As if in response, he heard a hum coming from one of Himiko's bookshelves. Kokichi noticed a book that was glowing and headed straight for it. Pulling it off the shelf, he read the title: "Inside the Magical Mind." It was a grimoire of spells pertaining to the psyche of mages. The glowing book fluttered the pages by itself. Kokichi watched with fascination as one of the pages landed on a particular spell with a diagram of a mage's brain and stick people of different colors living in it. Kokichi thought that was weird, so he decided to study the page that the book had shown him. As he read, his eyes grew with amazement.

   "Hm...so this is a spell to go inside Himiko's mind?" Kokichi asked. The book glowed brighter and hummed louder as if responding. "I see! I see!" Kokichi's smile grew with excitement. "Okie-dokie, then! It says here that to get into Himiko's brain, I have to point to the spell in the book and say the spell out loud with the person's name whose mind I want to enter. Um...well, okay, here goes: 'Himiko Yumeno, show me what's on your mind!'" In an instant, a wind picked up and blew harder as the book, and Kokichi, glowed brighter. Clutching the book tightly in the crook of his elbow, Kokichi also began to shrink. Before he knew what was going on, he suddenly flew fast out of Himiko's lair and into the world, flying all the way to Hope's Peak Academy at lightning speed. He flew through the doors of the academy, straight past the classrooms, until he entered the History classroom where Himiko was. But, instead of stopping, Kokichi flew right into Himiko's ear and straight to her brain. Kokichi saw her brain the way an astronaut might see Earth from space. Himiko's brain was massive with electrical signals buzzing all around it. Suddenly, Kokichi plummeted towards it, the way a meteorite rips through Earth's atmosphere. Oddly enough, that's exactly what Himiko's brain was like; it was as if it had its own atmosphere. Kokichi flew closer to the surface of Himiko's brain, but instead of landing on solid ground, he landed on something flimsy. Still clutching the grimoire, Kokichi shook and rubbed his head. He gasped at what he was standing atop of: a giant queen of hearts card. He looked above him and noticed there was a sky similar to that of Earth's dark blue evening sky. Far across from where he stood on the queen of hearts card hovered a massive platform with a brightly-lit city with tall, black skyscrapers with white tips. Kokichi tilted his head in thought.

   "How am I going to get over there?" he muttered to himself. As if hearing his question, more magic cards placed a pathway for Kokichi to walk on that led towards the floating city. "Nee-heehee...that oughta do the trick!" he joked to himself and began walking across the cards towards the floating city.