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

Secret Santa For Ryoma (End)

     Christmas Eve had arrived, and Himiko went to Kokichi's room to retrieve him so that the both of them could go to the pet store to buy Ryoma a kitten, like Himiko had planned. She knocked on the door to Kokichi and Gonta's room, which swung open and revealed Kokichi. 

   "Nyeh...did you finish wrapping Tsumugi's present?" Himiko whispered.

   "Yup! Check it out!" Kokichi replied, and led her inside. Kokichi reached under his bed and pulled out a poorly-wrapped present; the wrapping paper was all bunched, and there was tape everywhere. Himiko looked incredulously at Kokichi. "What?!" Kokichi exclaimed. "I never said I was *good* at wrapping presents!" Himiko sighed.

   "Here, let me help," she said. She looked behind her at Gonta's side of the room to make sure Gonta wasn't there. Then, she turned back to Tsumugi's present and cleared her throat. "*Christmas Day is almost here; neatly wrapped, this gift shall appear!*" She said, uttering one of her spells. With the tip of her finger, she tapped the present, which now became a beautifully-wrapped present with a red and gold ribbon. "There! All done!" Himiko said, crossing her arms smugly. Kokichi's eyes widened with delight.

   "That's so awesoooome!" he gushed, then gave Himiko a wide grin. "You are super-duper magical, Monkey Buns!" Himiko gave him a small bow of appreciation. 

   "Nyeh...now that that's out of the way, let's get Ryoma's present," she said. 

   "Okie-dokie!" Kokichi replied, putting Tsumugi's gift back under his bed. They headed out the room and towards the front entrance to put their coats on, and headed outside. The air was chilly, and heavy, puffy clouds lingered in the sky. "Looks like it's gonna snow, soon," Kokichi said, looking up. "We'd better hurry before it starts." They quickened their pace as they headed deeper into town to find the pet store. 

   "There it is!" Himiko said, pointing across the street at a small building on the corner. They rushed to the other side, and entered the pet store. Inside, it was brimming with activity, mostly with younger kids wandering around trying to find what pet they wanted, while other kids were begging their parents to buy them a particular pet. The store was filled with puppies, kittens, bunnies, hamsters, different types of birds, and even reptiles, like snakes and turtles. Kokichi and Himiko were trying to make their way through the crowd so that they could find the area where the kittens were.

   "Dang! We should have...come here earlier!" Kokichi said, straining his way past a couple who looked like they wanted a pet for themselves.

  "Nyeeeh...it's Kaito's fault!" Himiko said, squeezing past a few other kids. "I wish he would have...mentioned this whole Secret Santa thing...a little earlier!" They finally made it to the kitten enclosure, but to Himiko's dismay, there was only one kitten left, and it wasn't even a Russian Blue, the cat that Ryoma preferred. It was orange with black stripes all over its body, and it looked at Kokichi and Himiko with its curious, piercing green eyes. "Oh..." she whispered softly and sadly. "I don't think that's his favorite one."

   "Well, Ryoma likes cats, period," Kokichi said, shrugging his shoulders. "Any cat is better than no cat at all, right? And that one looks pretty cool! It looks kinda like a tiger cub!"