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

It's On, Leon! (2)

      Himiko rang the doorbell to 7th Island House. The door opened to reveal Nagito, who gave Himiko a happy smile. 

   "Why, hello there, Himiko!" he said cheerfully. "It's so great to see you!" Himiko shuddered internally. Nagito sort of gave her the creeps. She knew he wasn't intentionally trying to be creepy, but the way he spoke put her on edge sometimes. 

   "Nyeh...hi, Nagito," Himiko replied politely. "May I come in?"

   "Of course!" Nagito said, allowing Himiko to come in. "Who are you here to see? I know you didn't come to see me. I'm too worthless to even be in the presence of yet another Ultimate."

   "I...don't think that," Himiko said hesitantly. She really didn't believe that Nagito was worthless, but another thing that made her nervous about him was that he was constantly putting himself down, which made things awkward for her. She understood where he was coming from, but to hear him talk down on himself all the time was a bit too much. 

   "Of course you don't," Nagito said. "You don't have time to think about worthless garbage like me."

   "Um...uh..." Himiko mumbled. 

   "Haha, I'm sorry. You came here for a reason, right?" Nagito asked. 

    "Yeeaahh...I wanted to see Ibuki," Himiko replied. 

     "I'll take you to her...unless, you don't need me to help you. You *are* an Ultimate after all. You can do anything I can't," Nagito said. 

   "It's okay, you can help me," Himiko said, giving him a small, polite smile. "Besides, you're an Ultimate, too!"

   "Pffft...I have a worthless talent," Nagito sulked. "I'd give anything to be the Ultimate Magician."

   "Um...actually, I'm a...you know what? Never mind," Himiko muttered. She knew that if she corrected him, he'd go on about how worthless he was for forgetting that she preferred to be called a mage. Nagito led Himiko up the stairs where the girls' bedrooms were. Unfortunately for Himiko, she and Nagito ran into Hiyoko on the way. 

  "What are *you* doing here, you clumsy, fish-lipped uggo?!" she spat viciously at Himiko. Usually, Himiko would have stuttered out of fear, or tried to ignore her. Instead, she merely looked Hiyoko in the eye, and spoke with her best firm voice, hoping she sounded and looked more confident than she felt.

   "None of your business," she merely stated, then proceeded to follow Nagito down the hallway. A look of shock flashed briefly across Hiyoko's face. She suddenly snapped out of it, and became angry again.

   "Well, n-next time, you'd better watch where you're going, skank!" Hiyoko shouted, stomping on the ground. 

   "Is she referring to what happened during lunch this afternoon?" Nagito whispered to Himiko.