Bonus Short Stories
A Request From Mary-chan
Suimei was in his room at Alto Schloss, the Society’s headquarters in Germany, putting together the results of his magicka work at his desk when there came a rapping at the door. After knocking several times, his assistant Hydemary Alzbayne entered the room. When Suimei turned around and asked her if she needed something, she replied in her usual flat tone with zero inflection.
“Suimei-kun, there’s just a little something I’d like to ask of you.”
“I’m a bit busy right now. I’ll have to wait till later.”
“Whaaat? But I want it now.”
Despite Suimei clearly being in the middle of something, Hydemary seemed ready and willing to force the issue. In response, Suimei turned to her and offered some candid advice.
“And I want to keep working. Think of me for a second, will ya?”
“No way. You should be the one thinking of me.”
“You’re the one who wants something! It’s common freaking sense that you’re supposed to be the one being considerate. Can’t you compromise?”
“Isn’t it because I can’t compromise that I’m here making a request?”
“That’s... Well, you do have a point, but...”
“Right? So just compromise with me. Life is a series of compromises, isn’t it?”
Hydemary spoke in an extremely composed manner. There was no denying the truth in what she said, but such wisdom was hardly convincing coming from someone her age.
“A six-year-old shouldn’t be giving me life lessons, damn it... Seriously.”
“So, what do you say?”
“I dunno...”
Suimei still seemed reluctant, so Hydemary drew closer and looked up at him from below.
“...The hell are you doing?”
“I’m looking at you with upturned eyes. I was told it was a gesture that would bring down any man.”
Hydemary spoke with confidence in her sources, but this seemed to be her first time putting such knowledge into practice. Her completely deadpan face didn’t quite have the appeal she was hoping for. Yet she persisted nonetheless.
“Nobody’s falling for that,” Suimei sighed in exasperation. “Actually, who the hell told you something so dumb?”
“Miranda-san from Usher’s Bar.”
“Ain’t he a guy?!”
Miranda was the transvestite shopkeep who ran a small restaurant at the foot of the mountain. Suimei would take Hydemary there every once in a while, and the two of them got along surprisingly well. Suimei wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing. In any case, Hydemary still didn’t relent.
“Hey, it’s fine, isn’t it? You’re free anyway, aren’t you?”
“You have eyes! You can clearly see that I’m working!”
After shouting at her, Suimei turned back to his desk. When he did...
“Hey, hey...”
“No.”
“Hey, hey, hey, hey...”
“...”
“Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey...”
“Alright already, damn it! Just shut the hell up! I got it, so stop fucking ‘hey’ing me!”
Suimei’s eventual downfall was Hydemary’s plan to throw off his concentration by being a noisy nuisance. Even if he’d tried to use magicka to do something about it, Hydemary was a magician who rivaled his abilities. One thing might quickly escalate to another, so Suimei begrudgingly consented in order to keep both them and the headquarters safe. Hydemary threw both her arms in the air to celebrate his capitulation, though she remained completely expressionless.
“Yay! That’s my Suimei-kun. Your unfortunate face isn’t just for show!”
“God, you insult me on top of everything else? What a... Whatever. What do you even want?”
“Yes, about that...”
Hydemary became uncharacteristically bashful, seeming hesitant to say it. Finding this rather unusual, Suimei prodded her to continue.
“Out with it.”
“You see, I’d like you to be the experimental subject for my magicka.”
“...”
The only reply Suimei offered to Hydemary’s request was silence.
“Hey, are you listening? I want you to be my experimental—”
“Oh, I heard you. And I refuse. I’m not going to be a guinea pig.”
“Whaaat?”
“Don’t act surprised! The hell made you think I was just gonna happily agree to be your test subject?! The hell makes you think anyone would?!”
“Oh? I don’t think it’s anything that unusual.”
“This is magicka way off the right path, isn’t it?!”
“How rude. My magicka is not sinister.”
“I don’t even care!”
As Suimei continued to protest, Hydemary stepped closer.
“But it has to be you, Suimei-kun.”
“Yeah, I’d be flattered if you didn’t mean for a guinea pig. The answer’s still no.”
“Don’t say such selfish things.”
“I’m not being selfish!”
Suimei had been quite adamantly refusing for a while now, but Hydemary hadn’t backed down in the slightest. Rather than him not getting through to her, it felt more like she was just teasing him. And without one of them conceding, this conversation would likely continue in circles all day and night. So in order to move things along, Suimei volunteered to take the next step forward.
“Out with it. What kind of magicka is it really?”
“It’s that. You know, that.”
Suimei looked in the direction that Hydemary was pointing and spotted a large, rectangular box.
“That...? If I remember right, isn’t that the setup for a magic trick to split someone in two?”
“That’s right.”
“And isn’t that the kind of magic trick where you need two people in the box to make it work?”
“That’s just it. That’s the crux of this experiment. I’ve developed a spell to enhance the trick so that only one body is necessary to— Ah! Suimei-kun, wait! Don’t run away!”
Before Hydemary could even finish explaining, Suimei fled the room as fast as he could.
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