Kokichi blearily opened his eyes. His vision was blurry at first, but he blinked his eyes to clear it. When he finally came to, he realized that he was lying on a hard, cold, stone floor. Moaning, he reached for his face to rub it, when he noticed that his hands were tied together. He shook his head, forcing himself to completely wake up as he lifted it. He saw that his feet were tied together, as well. He looked at his surroundings. Right at his feet were a tall set of bars. He was locked in a cell. Grunting, he shifted his body so that he was now sitting up. The smell of urine filled his nostrils, making him wrinkle his nose in disgust. He heard the sounds of quiet sobs and sniffles from girls nearby. He then sat up on his knees and looked down at his belt. Fortunately, his kidnapper was dumb enough to leave his tools. He must have thought they were part of Kokichi's costume. Kokichi reached for the knife Sonia had given him and unsheathed it. Sitting back down on his butt, he tried his best to turn the knife so that the handle was placed between his knees. He then carefully placed the blade of the knife in between his hands and pressed the bindings against the blade, slicing them completely. His hands were now free! He then used the knife to cut the bindings from his feet.
"Thank you, Sonia!" he said to himself. Putting the knife back into the case, he stood up and examined the lock of the cell door. "Let's bust this bad boy open," he muttered. Using his lockpicking tools, he fiddled with the lock until he heard a click. The door to the cell swung open. "Nee-heehee...now we're getting into the swing of things!" he joked. Clipping his lockpicking tools back onto his belt, he then reached for his flashlight and looked around. Right when he was about to search for Himiko, however, the door to the room opened up. Kokichi quickly bolted back into his cell and laid back down.
"Hey! Who's in here?" came the gruff voice of Kokichi's kidnapper. He looked inside each cell, making sure nobody was hiding. When he got to Kokichi's cell, he noticed the door was unlocked. "You awake in there?" the man asked. Kokichi stayed quiet and still. The man narrowed his eyes and walked inside, pulling out a syringe. When he knelt down to see if Kokichi was truly asleep, Kokichi thrusted his foot into the man's face. The man shrieked and fell backwards. Kokichi then sprang up and snatched the syringe away, sticking the needle in the man's neck. Before he knew it, the man fell asleep. Kokichi got a closer look at the man, smirking as he realized his suspicions were confirmed. He definitely recognized the man, now! But, the important thing at the moment was Himiko. Finally getting a good look at his surroundings, he realized the room was a dungeon with many other cells. Kokichi looked in each cell. Many were empty, but there were some that were occupied. As he walked further along, the smell of urine became stronger. Kokichi nearly gagged at the smell. How long had these girls been down here? He kept searching each cell for Himiko, but he was beginning to think that he was too late as he neared the end of the row of cells. Finally, at the last cell, he spotted pink and white-striped stockings inside a pair of black platform mary janes. He rushed over to the cell and looked inside to find Himiko with her hands and feet bound together, and her eyes filled with terrified and exhausted tears.
"Himiko!!" Kokichi exclaimed in hushed excitement. Sobbing, Himiko slowly turned to him with a confused face.
"Who are you?" she asked. Her voice was raspy from crying. Using his sleeve, Kokichi wiped the makeup from his face.
"It's me! Kokichi!" he replied. Himiko's eyes widened with hope.
"Kokichi?!" she whispered.
"Hang on, Himiko! I'll get you outta there!" Kokichi said, reaching for his lockpicking tools. In a matter of seconds, he unlocked her door, and with Sonia's knife, he freed Himiko. Himiko threw her arms around him.
"Kokichi!!!" she sobbed. Kokichi held her tightly as she sobbed into his shoulders. He could also smell urine on her, as well. He pulled away from her, checking her to make sure she was okay.
"Himiko, are you okay? Are you hurt?" he asked.
"N-No..." Himiko said, shivering. "I'm just really tired...and hungry, I guess. They wouldn't let us out, so we couldn't eat anything. They wouldn't even let us use the bathroom." More tears came pouring from her eyes as she hung her head in shame. "I couldn't...hold it in...so I had to...I had to..." She began sobbing again as she shamefully buried her face in her hands. "I'm so sorry, Kokichi!" Kokichi hugged her again and rocked her gently back and forth. He felt anger rising inside him as he thought why in the world someone would do this to Himiko and the other girls.
"It's okay, babe. It's okay," he said in a soothing voice. He then looked at Himiko in the eye. "Himiko, we're going to get out of here, okay?" Himiko nodded.
"Oh, but...how did you find me, Kokichi?" she asked Kokichi. "How did you get here?"
"I'll tell you later," Kokichi said firmly. "Right now, you and the other girls need to escape whatever this place is immediately."
"I don't even know where we are," Himiko admitted sorrowfully.
"Neither do I, but...Himiko...remember that show you were watching a few days ago? About that girl who disappeared?" Kokichi asked.
"Nyeh...on Crime Time? Yeah," Himiko replied, sniffling. "What about it?"
"That little girl's aunt and uncle...they're part of this whole thing after all," Kokichi answered. Himiko's eyes widened, and her mouth gaped.
"H-How?! What do they have to do with any of this?!" she cried.
"I'm not sure, but we're going to find out," Kokichi said with a look of determination in his eye. Himiko grabbed Kokichi's sleeve out of fear.
"Kokichi...whatever they're doing here, it's something really bad!" she whispered with fright.
"What do you mean?" Kokichi asked.
"The other girls in here, the ones who've been in here longer than me, they told me that they take one of the girls out of here, and take her outside that door," Himiko explained, pointing to the door that leads into the dungeon. "I don't know what they do, but it always ends up with screaming! I even heard it myself last night! They took a girl, Kokichi, and all I heard was her screaming for her life! It was as if she were dying! I felt so bad, Kokichi! I was so scared that I was gonna be next! I'm scared! I'm so sca-" Her own sobs interrupted her as she wrapped her arms around Kokichi again. "Get me out of here, Kokichi!"
"I will," Kokichi said, hugging her back. It broke his heart to see Himiko completely terrified and helpless. "It's okay, Himiko. You're okay, okay? You don't have to worry anymore." Hearing Kokichi speak those words made Himiko calm down. She took a few deep breaths as she pulled away and gave Kokichi a teary, appreciative smile.
"I love you, Kokichi," she said.
"I love you, too, Himiko," Kokichi replied, wiping Himiko's tears. He leaned forward to give her a tender kiss. Himiko giggled softly.
"Nyeh...I never thought I'd kiss you while wearing a wig and a dress," she said.
"Nee-heehee...you're not wearing a wig or a dress!" Kokichi joked. Himiko swatted him playfully.
"You know what I meant," she said.
"Did IIIIII?" Kokichi asked with a mischievous grin. He and Himiko giggled as he helped her up. "C'mon, Himiko. Let's free the other girls. We should do it fast, before whoever is behind all of this figures out that that one guy has been knocked out."
"Nyeh? He's knocked out?" Himiko asked. "What happened to him?"
"I did that to him," Kokichi replied as he began lockpicking the locks on the other cells with prisoners and freed them of their bindings. "Go see for yourself."
"Okay," Himiko replied softly with a firm nod. She went over to the unconscious man and gasped. "Kokichi! You're right! This is that little girl's uncle!"
"Yup! And I saw her aunt at that café," Kokichi said. "She was posing as a waitress named Hana."
"I didn't see her yesterday," Himiko said, walking back up to Kokichi.
"She probably wasn't working while you guys were there," Kokichi said, lockpicking another cell's lock. "Or, maybe she was. I don't know. I didn't go with you guys. All I know is that she was wearing a pink and blue dress, and she had pink hair, or whatever." Himiko tried to remember if she saw anyone with that description working at the café yesterday, but she wasn't sure.
"Nyeh...I don't think I was paying enough attention to see anyone like that," she admitted forlornly.
"Don't worry about it, Monkey Buns," Kokichi said. "The important thing is that you're safe at the moment." Himiko smiled at him. "By the way, did you happen to notice the name of the café?"
"Lolita Land Café?" Himiko asked. "What about it?"
"Notice anything about the color of the letters in particular?" Kokichi asked with a sly grin.
"Actually, I did!" Himiko answered. "Nyeh...like, the beginning of each word was pink, and the rest was blue. Something like that."
"Well, the first two letters of the first two words, 'Lolita,' and 'Land,' were pink," Kokichi corrected.
"Nyeh! That spells 'Lola!'" Himiko exclaimed. "The name of the girl who disappeared five years ago!"
"Exactly, Monkey Buns!" Kokichi said, stroking Himiko's cheek.
"Wait...what's going on here?" one of the girls that Kokichi freed asked. He finally finished freeing all the girls, seven in total. The girl who asked the question was a gothic lolita. The others were a sweet lolita, steampunk lolita, military lolita, sailor lolita, and a punk lolita.
"It's a long story," Kokichi replied. "But, I'll go ahead and assign you guys names, since we don't have time for an official greeting." Kokichi went down the line, giving each girl a nickname. "You're Dark Lady, Cutie Pie, Gizmo, Army Brat, Popeye, and...Punky Brewster. Alright?"
"What about you guys?" Gizmo asked.
"I'm Kokichi, and this is Himiko," Kokichi replied.
"Wait, how come you guys get to have actual names?" Popeye scoffed.
"Who cares?" Kokichi sighed. "C'mon, we need to hurry up and get out of here!"
"You mean...out there?" Cutie Pie whimpered. "Where the screaming is?"
"If it's the only way out of here, yes," Kokichi said. "We're all going to get out of here, so we need to stick together, okay?" The lolitas nodded their heads apprehensively. "Good, now let's get out of here while goonie here is still asleep." Kokichi held Himiko's hand. The other girls followed close behind as Kokichi slowly opened the door to the dungeon. He peeked outside and saw a narrow staircase heading up towards a single door. Kokichi motioned for the girls to stay before heading up to see if the coast was clear. He opened the door at the top of the staircase and peeked outside. It led into what looked like a dimly-lit laboratory. Nobody was inside, so he motioned for the girls to follow him. They quietly stepped into the laboratory and looked around as Kokichi led them to the other end of room where the door was.
"What is this place?" Cutie Pie whispered, latching onto Punky Brewster's shoulders.
"Is this where all those girls were screaming?" Army Brat asked, pointing to a table with straps where the hands and feet of a person would be.
"It must be a torture room," Popeye breathed in horror. Kokichi noticed a narrow podium with a round glass case at the top. Inside the glass case was a large tube of glowing green liquid.
"What is that?" he asked.
"Nyeh...it looks like some kind of...potion?" Himiko asked. Kokichi smiled at her.
"I don't think these guys are mages, or anything, Himiko," he whispered to her.
"Does it matter what that is?" Dark Lady hissed frantically. "I just wanna get out of here."
"Okay...follow me," Kokichi whispered. They finally made it to the door on the other side. Kokichi opened it and peeked outside, yet again. He could see a long corridor painted in pink. He looked down and saw that the floor was painted pink and covered in sparkly glitter. "C'mon," Kokichi whispered to the girls, and led them out into the corridor. Along the walls, they saw portraits of lolita girls, as well as intricately-detailed, life-sized lolita dolls with horrified expressions and poses.
"This is creepy," Army Brat said with a shiver.
"Nyeh...Kokichi, these mannequins look so...real!" Himiko whispered.
"I know," Kokichi agreed. "It's like they're...not really mannequins at all."
"How nice of you to notice!" echoed a cutesy, cheery voice once they entered an enormous, open room. Suddenly, the room became flooded with light. Kokichi and the girls could now get a better look at their surroundings. Before them was a long, silvery and glittery spiral staircase that wrapped around a silver fountain in the shape of a lolita girl posing as she held up a syringe that was squirting pink lemonade. High above them was a massive chandelier.
"Okay, you freak! Show yourself, already!" Kokichi called out, holding tightly to Himiko's hand as he braced himself.
"Heeheehee...I'm not a freak!" giggled the voice.
"Look! At the top of the staircase!" Cutie Pie said. At the top of the staircase, a spotlight shined on a little girl, about 10 or 11 years old. She had a smirk on her face as she walked elegantly down the steps. She was dressed in a hime lolita outfit. She wore a pink, poofy, layered dress with white lace at the edges, and a pair of white tights with shiny, silver mary janes. Her shiny, curly brown hair was piled high on her head and decorated with a sparkly, silver tiara with a pink heart in the middle. In her hand was an open pink parasol. She walked down the steps and stopped right in front of Kokichi and the other girls, holding her hands up grandly.
"I am Princess Lola!" the little girl announced. "And welcome to...Lolita Laaaaand!"