Bonus Short Story: The Terror of the Marionette Spell
On a certain day, Society magician Yakagi Suimei was visiting Hydemary Alzbayne’s room at the Society’s headquarters.
Standing in front of the old-fashioned wooden door, he used the knocker modelled after an ouroboros. Hydemary’s flat voice called back to him before long, and Suimei opened the door and stepped inside. A gentle rosewood fragrance filled the room, which was uniformly decorated with white antique furniture. It impressed a sense of tranquility on Suimei, but at the same time, it gave the place a strange atmosphere.
The same as always, a girl with long, black hair dressed in very magician-like clothing was seated at the table. She appeared to be doing some needlework.
“Welcome, Suimei-kun. What’s the matter?”
Without stopping what she was doing, Hydemary didn’t even look up at him as she spoke. It looked like she was sewing together some pieces of cloth, but Suimei paid it no mind and cut straight to the chase.
“Nothing major. I just came to talk about tomorrow.”
“About tomorrow? It’s just the same as always, right? At the request of the Thousand Nights Association, we have to go and restrain a magician for some reason or another.”
Hydemary spoke with the cynicism of someone who knew what they were in for.
“...It’s true it’s business as usual, but I want to discuss how we’re going to go about it.”
“What a pain. No way. I’m busy right now.”
“Hey now...”
“I mean, we just have to capture them like always, and hand them over to that shady-looking person like always, right?”
“Well, yeah.”
“Then what is there to discuss? We can make our preparations while we’re on the way tomorrow.”
In other words, Hydemary had completely no interest in talking about work. It wasn’t like Suimei didn’t understand how she felt, but...
“So, what’ve you got there?”
“This? This, you see, is a Suimei-kun doll.”
“Hmm, a doll of me? A doll of me, huh...”
He always thought that she was rather commendable. To think she was making a doll of him...
“Wait, a doll of me?!”
“That’s right. Why are you so surprised?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?! It’s a doll! A doll! The hell are you doing?!” Suimei yelled in a shrill voice.
A doll. If there was an official ranking of items magicians didn’t want anyone to possess, that would take the top spot by a large margin.
“Heehee, look. Here it is.”
What Hydemary proudly showed Suimei was a rather adorable stuffed doll with a large head.
“What’s with that? No, could it be that... Did the monster in the basement give you that or something?”
“The professor? Oh, no. I made it myself.”
“Come on! Why would you make that kinda crap?!”
“Isn’t the answer obviously for amusement? What other reason could there be?”
“Just how is that amusing?! It’s a doll of me, you know?!”
“You see... How do I put it? To be able to toy with the always snippy Suimei-kun in the palm of my hands will definitely be amusing.”
“Stop right there! There isn’t an ounce of amusement in that!”
“Moreover, it has an amazing function added to it.”
Hearing that, Suimei looked at Hydemary with a mix of suspicion and terror.
“Hey... What do you mean by ‘function’? Seriously, what function? I have a super bad feeling about this.”
“It’s probably right on the mark.”
“Burn that thing right now! This instant!”
“No way. I finally made it several hundred... No, several thousand times cuter than the original. Besides, there’s that function I mentioned.”
“Listen to people when they? Ugh!”
As Hydemary threw up both arms of the stuffed doll, Suimei mimicked the action. It was as if his arms were being forcefully yanked upward by giant, invisible hands.
“‘Ugh’? Tsk, grunting like that.... Suimei-kun, as a magician, you need to be more elegant.”
“Y-You son of a... Making crap with that kind of compelling force in it...”
“If I’m going to do something, then I’m going do it properly. So, how is it? Has this once more impressed my genius upon you?”
Suimei had to concede to that.
“...Yeah.”
“Heh, so it seems you finally understand.”
“With the caveat that nobody, friend and foe alike, should ever let their fucking guard down around you.”
As a rather unhappy Suimei cursed at her, Hydemary simply acted as if it had nothing to do with her.
“Yes, yes. Carelessness is one’s greatest enemy. You can’t forget that even girls as beautiful as flowers still have thorns, just like roses. All pleasure comes with some pain, you see.”
“And just where is the pleasure in this?”
“Me, of course. To be able to chat with such a cute girl is nothing other than a pleasure, is it not? Especially for you.”
“Don’t make me out to be some sad loser who has no luck with women.”
“Am I wrong?”
“Please just stop...”
Hydemary cocked her head to the side and waited, but Suimei could offer no argument. It was true. He didn’t have enough luck with women to definitively say that he wasn’t a loser. He was jealous of his friends in Japan. Thinking about all of this, Suimei realized that there was something else he should be asking her about instead.
“Actually, how the hell did you make that thing?”
“I just gathered the standard components like your hair, blood, nail clippings, and so on. That’s all.”
“Don’t collect that kind of shit!”
“My, my... When you say I’m collecting them, doesn’t that make me sound like some kind of pervert? It was for magickal research. Look, a female panther pose.”
Setting the stuffed doll on all fours, Hydemary stretched out its back.
“Damn it! Stop it! Aaaaah!”
Suimei’s body mercilessly complied, imitating the pose against his will. No matter how much he struggled, he was unable to escape the stuffed doll’s magickal power and the laws of resonance her sensory resonance magicka used. Watching Suimei turn bright red as he was compelled to strike such an embarrassing pose, Hydemary commented with her typical indifferent expression.
“My, my, this is even more amusing than I thought.”
“I’m not amused at all!”
Suimei got in a retort, but Hydemary’s rampage was far from over.
“Poke, poke...”
“Wh-Where the hell do you think you’re poking?!”
“Somewhere... intimate? Poke, poke.”
Hydemary was poking a certain somewhere on the doll with her index finger. Suimei tried to object in a flustered panic, but it was already too late.
“Hrk!”
Suimei’s face went from bright red to ghastly pale as he grabbed his crotch and sank to the floor pigeon-toed.
“Ah, you collapsed in agony.”
“Hrgh... You asshole. That’s really fucking crossing the line...”
“Sorry, sorry. I suppose it is a man’s weakness after all, huh?”
“You son of a... I’ll remember this...”
Suimei glared at Hydemary spitefully as she apologized. Then, standing in front of Suimei who was still in agony, Hydemary bent over as if taking a closer look. And then, in a sinister tone...
“Hmm, is that really something you should be saying to me considering the position you’re in?”
“Wh-What...? What’re you gonna do?”
“No matter how you look at it, I am a genius. I can easily think of any number of ways to do something as trivial as plunging you into the very depths of terror.”
“Wait, you... What the hell are you planning?!”
“Now, here we go. Let’s try a spread eagle pose, Suimei-kun.”
“STOP THAAAAAAAAAAAT!”
Suimei screamed, but there was nobody there to stop such tyranny.
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