A Destructive Prank (An Oumeno story)

Chapter 10 - Safety

The sweet and gentle texture of his lips alienated her from the harsh reality surrounding them. She wanted to escape from this horrible place at once to understand what happened and to collect her thoughts. Stress, anxiety, and affection gnawed her soul simultaneously, so she continued to experience everything as if it was not real. 

Kokichi moved himself away from her face. 

''Go, or both of us will die, Himiko. I'm seriously not interested in playing any more games,'' he said, shifting himself with considerable strain. 

''Games?! No, you're coming with me, I will get help and-'' 

''Then...what? What do you think-'' Here he went silent for a moment, his eyes closing which prompted Himiko to grab his hand in fear, but then he resumed, ''what do you think will happen afterwards? The Ultimate Detectives will have to figure out who was behind all of this, and I do believe that their conclusion might point to me.''

''So now you want to die?! W-was that your plan all along? K-kokichi, please, this is too much...'' The urgency of the situation and Kokichi's stubbornness paralysed her. She wasn't sure whether she would be even able to drag him out of here. For both of them to survive, someone else had to come with assistance and thereafter Kokichi's prediction would've likely been realised.

''Let me help you,'' she then said, and tried to carefully disentangle him. Thankfully, he did not suffer any serious fractures, but his lacerations and head injury prevented him from walking. 

''No, I won't go any further,'' Kokichi said and collapsed on the floor. Himiko kneeled beside him. 

''Kokichi, but I can't do this alone,'' she said, hoping to convince him that fetching another student was their only means of escaping together.

''Himiko, go!'' He shouted, his face darkened as if by death. 

''No, I will bring someone!'' She rushed out of the classroom and almost walked back when her face was met with an unbearable heat. The smoke that lingered in the hallway left an acerbic imprint in her throat that made out of breathing an excruciating torture. She hurried towards the stairwell and halted when from the other side of the hall she saw two people running towards her, one much leaner than the other and the latter spraying something on the flames. Himiko concluded, with great bewilderment, that the people must've been Hifumi and Korekiyo. When they reached the stairwell, both were quarrelling about something until they noticed the red-headed mage standing amongst pillars of flames. 

''HI-hi-himiko!'' Hifumi cried, made a weird beckoning gesture and, with his equally panicked companion, ran downstairs, the already dilapidated stairwell seemingly quaking from the pressure of his weight.

''Wait!" Himiko shouted after them. She was surprised and indignant that they simply left her. Anyhow, the fire and the explosions have been taking place for a considerable amount of time, so she wondered why this unusual duo left the school just now. A glimmer of hope told her that perhaps they were the ones responsible, but Hifumi's general clumsiness and Korekiyo's esoteric interests could not unite in bringing forth a tragedy of this scale knowingly, unless by some accident. 

Himiko continued her way downstairs. Her thoughts were entirely about Kokichi. She feared the worst and blamed herself as if that had already taken place. Confusion and uncertainty left her puzzled about where to go once she reached the ground floor. Moving from the first floor to the next, there was a bizarre transition that made her doubt the destruction happening upstairs. The ground floor was not in its normal state, yet it remained discernible. Himiko wanted to pause and rest, but Kokichi's impending death revived her willingness to move forward. 

''Himiko!" She heard someone shout. It was a distant call accompanied by a number of footsteps getting closer with each second. Uneasiness took over Himiko as she recognised the voice and for a moment thought that she was stuck in a time-loop.

''Dammit, Himiko, the school is burning!" Kaito shouted.

''Why did you go back?'' Maki asked, eyeing Himiko with more suspicion than compassion. 

Himiko, however, was not able to respond and stood there pale, trembling, desiring to vomit out all of her suffering. Now was the time to say anything, to inform them about Kokichi's whereabouts and his perilous condition; she was not able to do that. Whatever the cause of her taciturnity, her friends were much quicker to respond.

''We can't wait, Himiko, not like last time. C'mon!" She heard Kaito shouts as they headed out of the building, Maki giving Himiko sporadic glances that, with time, begun to display more sympathy than suspicion. 

The brightness of the sun and the tumult of the worried students was much more pleasant to her than the radiating facades of crackling flames, although the change was something that she had to grow accustomed to. When heading to the ambulance, Himiko spotted Hifumi and Korekiyo who, with their heads hanging low, were being subjected to insults from some students for their inaction in helping Himiko. Kaito and Maki cooled the crowd's anger, reassuring them that he should've stopped Himiko earlier anyway. Either way, everyone were relieved about the rescue's success and the air of fear and restlessness into which Himiko formerly entered now changed as the students began to reminisce with sadness about their favourite classrooms and favourite hangout spots. As a result, Himiko felt an uncontrollable urge to cry, imagining what might've happened to Kokichi already. One of the medics glanced at her sympathetically and called forth someone. Kaito and Maki came over and sat next to her. 

''Hey, Himiko, any way we can help? If it's about me leaving you up there, then I'm sorry, but,'' he stopped, searching for a way to lessen his shame, ''I think I was afraid. Yes, me: Kaito Momota, The Luminary of the Stars, feared some stupid fire.''

''Kokichi.'' Himiko blurted in response and started crying. 

''What?'' Kaito wrapped his arm around Himiko and looked at Maki quizzically.