Liar, Liar, the Mage's Desire Vol. 4 (The Oumeno Menace)

Undercover Lolita (7)

     "You mean...you're going to dress up as a lolita?!" Shuichi exclaimed. 

    "If it means going into the café and rescuing Himiko, yeah," Kokichi replied. "If you wanna come, Shuichi, you're going to have to dress up as one, too."

   "Ah, well, um...I, uh..." Shuichi stammered.

   "Okay, I'm taking that as a 'no,' then," Kokichi said before turning to Celeste. "Celeste have an outfit ready for me by the time that café closes!"

   "But, the café is going to close very soon," Celeste replied. "By the time you get there, it will already be closed." Kokichi frowned in thought. 

   "Then, I'll spend tonight looking around the area for clues where Himiko disappeared," Kokichi said. "Celeste, take me to where you guys last saw Himiko."

   "It will be my pleasure!" Celeste replied with a sweet smile. 

   ***

  By the time Kokichi and Celeste arrived at the area where Himiko went missing, the sky was beginning to grow dark. Kokichi had brought a flashlight with him, just in case. They were standing on the corner across the street from the building with the café.

   "The café is on the third floor of that building right over there," Celeste explained, pointing to the building. "We walked across the street from the building, and I do believe Himiko was still with us. However, as we were walking along this sidewalk right here..." She paused to gesture to the sidewalk they were standing on, and moved her hand up along the path of the sidewalk. "...Himiko disappeared, probably right before we reached the billboard, which is right there." Passing by the dark alleyway, Kokichi walked over to the billboard and sifted through the sheets of paper. He came across the missing persons poster that Himiko had spotted. 

   "And this is the missing persons poster, right?" he asked Celeste. 

   "The very same," Celeste confirmed with a brief nod. Kokichi studied it closely. Like Celeste mentioned before, the girls on the poster went missing on the same street Himiko disappeared from. Kokichi looked up and spied the alleyway. Folding the poster and placing it into his pocket, he jogged towards it.

   "Come on," he said, waving his hand for Celeste to follow him. He turned his flashlight on and looked around. He shined his light down onto the ground and noticed some tire marks. "A-ha!" He knelt down to observe them closer. "They're fresh." He shined the light further down the alleyway, which led out onto another street on the other side of the buildings he and Celeste were in between. "I see..." he muttered thoughtfully to himself. 

   "So, do you think Himiko was kidnapped?" Celeste asked. 

   "Yeah," Kokichi said, staring off into the direction the tires headed. "There's no other reason why she would have disappeared." He turned to Celeste. "I don't know if Himiko was meant to win that contest, but the fact is that she did, and was kidnapped as a result. Whoever snatched her away has something to do with that café."