Liar, Liar, the Mage's Desire Vol. 2 (The Oumeno Strikes Back)

The Baby Pageant (7)

 Kokichi returned backstage with eyes wide with horror. He came back to find all the parents had calmed down from the "bee attack," and were trying to soothe their babies. Of course, Kokichi couldn't care less about them. He was more horrified at what he just went through himself. Himiko ran up to him and waved her hand in front of his face.

  "Nyeh...are you okay, Kokichi?" she whispered.

  "It was horrible," Kokichi muttered in a far away voice as he handed Ryoma to Himiko. 

   "Oh, my!" Himiko exclaimed. Kokichi sighed. 

  "Himiko...let's just call it off, okay?" he said. "I just got finished wiping the ass of one of our classmates. I don't wanna go through that again." Himiko gave him a sympathetic smile and gently patted his cheek.

   "That's fine, Kokichi," she said. "We can go home." Kokichi gave her a grateful smile.

  "Thanks, Monkey Buns," he said. They slipped out the door. Himiko turned to Kokichi.

   "Nyeh...so, did you learn your lesson about hypnotizing Ryoma?" she asked. 

   "Yeah," Kokichi said with a shrug. "I guess being a sad, little jailbird suits him better." Immediately after saying that, Kokichi slapped his hands over his mouth. At them mention of the word "jailbird," Ryoma blinked and looked around him. 

  "W-Where am I?" he asked. "What's going on?" He looked at Himiko, who was still holding him. She put him down immediately.

  "Um...a-haha, heeeey, Ryoma," Kokichi said with a nervous laugh. Ryoma turned to Kokichi and glared at both him and Himiko with suspicion.

   "Why are you two wearing those ridiculous disguises?" he demanded. Kokichi and Himiko exchanged sheepish glances. Ryoma looked down at his own clothes and sighed with frustration and anger. "You ended up taking me to this baby pageant after all," he growled. "Why...would you do this to me? What did I ever do to you?"

   "Okay..." Kokichi sighed. "Listen, Ryoma, we wanted to win some money to buy some roller skates, so in order to do that...I had to hypnotize you to act like a..." He paused, realizing that he shouldn't say "baby," which was the word to turn Ryoma into one. "...an infant so that we could enter you in this...infant pageant." Ryoma stared at Kokichi in utter disbelief.

   "You...hypnotized me?" he asked quietly. "All that...just for some roller skates??" He turned to Himiko. "And you were in on this, too?? I thought you were my friend." Himiko's cheeks burned with guilt.

  "Nyeh...well, I..." she began.

   "You're one to talk," Kokichi said, raising a brow at Ryoma. Ryoma stared back at him icily. "I thought you said we were all just classmates to you, and nothing more." Ryoma sighed.

   "I did say that," he admitted. "I guess I'm just surprised that Himiko would do something like this to me, since she has shown me some kindness in the past. But I guess I was wrong to be surprised. When it comes to knowing who I can trust, it seems I still have a ways to go." Himiko bowed her head in shame.