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

Emotionally Detached (6)

      The next door they came to was gray. Kokichi knocked on it, which made a long creaking sound as it slowly opened. A gray Himiko peeked fearfully from behind it, shaking as she did so.

   "Y-Y-Yes?" she stuttered timidly.  

    "Hey, you must be Fear, right?" Kokichi asked. Instead of answering, the girl squealed and bolted her door shut again. 

    "Yeah, that's Fear," Sadness confirmed to Kokichi. 

    "What, is Himiko afraid of me, too?" Kokichi asked in disbelief. 

    "Well...not exactly," Sadness replied.

   "Haha, who would be afraid of you? You're too fine!" Amorous said, squishing Kokichi's cheeks. 

   "SHUT UP!!!" Anger roared at Amorous. 

   "Nyeh...seriously! Stop climbing all over him, you weirdo!" Jealousy said. "Ugh...you're not all that pretty, anyways, so stop acting like he wants you." 

   "You're just jealous because he doesn't want YOU!" Amorous yelled. "You're not good enough for him, so you gotta try and bring me down to your nauseous level!" 

   "STOP IT!! STOP IT, RIGHT NOW!!" Jealousy exploded, pointing at Amorous. "YOU SH-SHUT UP!!"

   "If both of you guys don't shut up, I'm going to pound your stupid faces!" Anger screamed. 

   "They're fighting," Sadness began to cry softly. "I hate it when they fight."

   "Enough!" Kokichi ordered. The room fell silent, and the emotions who had been arguing bowed their heads in shame.

   "We're sorry, Kokichi," they said. 

   "Don't apologize to me, apologize to each other," Kokichi said. Anger, Jealousy, and Amorous turned to each other and began apologizing.

   "Nyeh...I'm sorry, Jealousy," Amorous said.

   "Nyeh...I'm sorry, too, Amorous," Jealousy said.

   "Nyeh...I'm sorry for threatening to punch your faces," Anger said to both of them. The three of them all gave each other a hug. 

   "Good!" Kokichi said with a satisfied grin. "Now, let's proceed." Again, he knocked on Fear's door, hoping she'd open up and actually come out, but nobody answered. 

   "Try telling her to open up," Sadness suggested to him, wiping the tears from her eyes. 

   "Fear, open up! I wanna talk to you!" Kokichi said through the door. As expected, the door slowly creaked open again, and Fear peeked her little head out. She opened the door wider until her whole body came into view. Her hair was disheveled as if she slept fitfully every night. She wore a tattered and torn nightgown over her trembling body. Around her shone a bright gray glow. Kokichi held out his hand for her to shake. "Hiya, Fear!" he said cheerfully. Fear timidly touched his hand, but didn't shake it. 

   "H-Hi," she whispered. Her voice sounded similar to that of a ghost's. Kokichi explained to Fear what his and Himiko's emotions mission was.

   "So, do you wanna join us?" he asked when he was finished explaining. Fear sorrowfully hung her head and turned away from him.

   "N-No," she said. "You should leave me out of it." She walked back into her dark room, not even bothering to close the door, and sat forlornly on her bed, hugging her knees close to her chest. Kokichi and the others followed her inside. "What's the point?" Fear whispered, her eyes wide with dismay and sorrow. "Maybe it's better this way." Fear's sisters gasped.

   "Why do you say that, Fear?" Kokichi asked. Fear looked up at Kokichi, her lip quivering.

    "You'll leave me," she replied. "When that happens, it'll be better to not feel anything at all."

    "Why do you think I'll leave you?" Kokichi inquired.

     "Because...you'll get bored and tired of me," Fear replied, her voice shaky. "You'll find someone more interesting, more attractive, more...s-smart." As she said the last word, Fear clutched her chest as if her own words hurt her very core. Tears streamed from her eyes. "Nobody would want a failure like me." Sadness clutched her own chest as tears also began to flow from her eyes. She sat down next to Fear and cradled her in her arms and rocked her as they both silently cried. Kokichi awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck and shifted his weight uncomfortably. Despite his discomfort, he couldn't help but think about the word that triggered Fear to cry: "smart." Kokichi thought back to what Anger had said about calling him "Mr. Brainiac" and Jealousy saying that he was able to solve things without her help. It seemed to Kokichi that Himiko was angry and jealous of him for being smart, but also afraid that he would leave her because she wasn't. But he was still wondering what had caused her to feel such a way. It's not like they had entered kind of intelligence contest to see who was smarter. The closest thing they had to that was...the "event" from a few days ago! That's when it hit Kokichi! But before he could say anything, he heard Sadness whispering to Fear.

   "Feel better?" she asked. Fear nodded her head, sniffling. Sadness kissed her forehead a few times to help calm her down more and wiped her tears for her. Now that Kokichi knew what was wrong with Himiko, he figured he could encourage Fear to help him and her sisters break open the barrier. He sat down next to her and put a comforting hand on her shoulder and took a deep breath. 

   "Fear, I need your help with this," he said to her in a firm voice. "I can't do this on my own. Without Himiko, I wouldn't even be here in the first place. I wouldn't even know how to help her. And even if I did, I probably wouldn't have been able to get through to her without her magic. She's way more powerful than I am. Huh...those times when she was so mad at me, she could have even turned me into a frog."

   "I have thought of doing that," Fear admitted, sniffling. "But I was afraid you would get mad and you wouldn't love me anymore if I did." Kokichi gave her a sympathetic pat on her shoulder. He thought it was weird how Himiko believed that she didn't deserve someone like him, when he always thought it was the other way around. After spending time with Himiko's emotions, he now knew for sure that it WAS, in fact, the other way around: he's the one who didn't deserve Himiko at all. She may not be the smartest or the prettiest, but she was definitely patient with and faithful to Kokichi, even when he hadn't been with her. Not that he ever cheated on her, or anything, but there were definitely times when he'd lost his patience with her, used her, and had hurt her feelings. He held Fear's hands in his.

   "Fear, listen to me," he said. "I...I don't..." he began, but Sadness stopped him and smiled sadly.

   "Save it for when you get out of here," she whispered to him. Kokichi understood what she meant and nodded at her. "C'mon, let's go get Happy."