The Witch and Her Companion: I'm Just a Normal High School Student, but I Became the Familiar of the Highest-Ranked Witch. Also, It Seems I'm the Only Guy in the Witch Organization I Joined

Chapter 104: Exoskeleton and Side Effects

[Todoroki Ryuna]

“—Still, it’s all food, huh? Hardly the kind of souvenirs you’d give to a teenage girl.”

The hot spring inn staff was briefly startled by Fuu-chan and me popping up out of nowhere but quickly softened upon recognizing Fuu-chan’s face, responding warmly.

Apparently, they’d been coming by every day to deliver the souvenirs while Hare and Fuu-chan were away. Talk about dedication.

Right now, I’m holding a little souvenir unveiling party in the living room, for the time being.

“The manju are a bit much, but the rest seem to keep pretty well.”

Since we don’t know when we’ll reunite with Hare, we’ll need to eat or freeze the perishable stuff soon.

“—Ryuna, I packed all the clothes!”

As I’m staring down the souvenirs on the table, Fuu-chan comes downstairs with a big bag.

While I was sorting the souvenirs, I had Fuu-chan upstairs packing for an overnight stay.

She’s borrowing my old clothes for now, but it’s better to have her own. My place will be our base for a while, so we need to take everything necessary.

“Alright, shall we head back to my place? I’m almost done here too.”

“Sorting the souvenirs? Why not just take it all?”

“If we take it all, we’ll eat it all, won’t we?… Wait, what’s this? No expiration date?”

The last souvenir I checked didn’t have an expiration label. It’s a thin, square paper box—maybe cookies or tea bags inside?

“…Oh, could that be a photo?”

“A photo… of what?”

Fuu-chan seemed to have an idea and started opening the box as she spoke.

“…It’s a wedding photo.”

“…What?”

—Come again?

Inside the box was a cute frame holding a two-shot of Fuu-chan and Hare. In a wedding dress and tuxedo, no less.

Now that I think about it, the photo that fluffy-head sent was also Fuu-chan in a wedding dress, for some reason. It bugged me, but I never got the chance to ask and totally forgot.

“F-Fuu-chan? What… is this?”

“Like I said, a wedding photo. We went to this… bridal fair thing together, and they took it there.”

“H-Hmm… a bridal fair… huh.”

…What’s that? I’m jealous!

“Yeah, yeah, and that’s where your friends spotted me. You know, the fluffy-head people.”

“…Oh, those two. What were they doing there?”

The Andou siblings were slacking at the arcade, and that idiot couple was at a bridal fair?

But to spot Fuu-chan there, talk about timing—good or bad, I’m not sure.

“…What happened to them?”

“The fluffy-head is back at it, working on their next job. They’ve got healing magic, so they recovered faster than anyone.”

“Back at it” sounds cheery, but their next job targets Vivian Hearts’s organization, so it’s probably weighing on them.

“Oh, good. I kinda punched them hard.”

Fuu-chan said that with a relieved sigh. Worrying about the people who kidnapped her—how pure can she be?

“Fuu-chan, you don’t need to worry about us. You’re the victim here.”

“…But you guys aren’t doing this because you want to, right? Even now, you’re trying to help me and Hare… Why did you end up as a witch hunter, Ryuna?”

Not doing this because we want to—obviously. Who’d willingly do something this awful?

My dad, Ten Andou, the fluffy-head, Gozaru, all the people called inquisitors—every one of them has their own reasons, I’m sure.

And the people those reasons involve… ironically, they know nothing. Probably everyone except me.

“…Sorry, I don’t want to keep secrets from you anymore, Fuu-chan, but I can’t talk about that… I’m really sorry.”

“No, I’m not trying to force it out of you. There’s gotta be some reason, right?”

“…I can’t say now, but I’ll tell you someday, I promise.”

Saying “someday” is such an irresponsible line. I should know better than to think I can always share what I want when I want, after learning that lesson the hard way—

＊　＊　＊

[Hirata Masaki]

“—You holding up okay?”

“Ara Ara Ara Ara Ara!? Darling worrying about my body? That’s a rare treat! Could it be… I’m pregnant!?”

“No way in hell. Also, it’d be creepy as fuck if I noticed before you, idiot.”

“You can’t say it’s completely impossible, though~”

The day after that old fart Barnes summoned me, Kokoro finally came back from the lab. She doesn’t look obviously messed up, but that just means they tampered with stuff that’s not visible. Can’t help but worry.

“Kokoro, what’d they do to you this time?”

Times like this, I hate how rough my words come out, no sugarcoating. Guess that’s the price of avoiding people as much as I have.

“Darling you perv, you’re asking about that?”

Kokoro plopped onto the sofa with a cheeky grin. I sat next to her.

“Cut the crap… What’d they do?”

“…An upgrade to the exoskeleton, apparently. They say it’s almost twice as powerful as before. Big win, right, Darling?”

She winked and threw up a peace sign, but it’s just bravado. No matter how much healing magic she’s got, there’s no way she’s this chipper a day after they cut her open. Especially since—

“Doesn’t that mean the side effects are twice as bad too?”

“Non, non, they’re supposedly three times worse. They said a normal witch would either go berserk or die, so only someone with healing magic like me can handle it, or something…”

“That bastard… screwing around like that.”

The witches the witch hunters can catch are usually the weak ones. To turn those weak witches into usable dolls, they came up with the exoskeleton.

It’s some psycho research involving implanting artificial magic conduits into the body.

When activated, the magic formulas in the conduits kick in, instantly healing bodily injuries and even letting you cast powerful red magic… but only for a limited time, and with harsh side effects.

Forcing a body to wield power it wasn’t meant for puts a insane strain on the doll. And now they’ve made it stronger? Experimentally, no less—

It’s probably for the next mission, but this just means we can’t use the exoskeleton at all. The risk’s too damn high.

In the end, Barnes doesn’t give a shit about me or Kokoro. If we die, we die—that’s probably all he thinks.

“…Darling, your face is scary. You okay?”

“That’s my line.”

“Huh? Was my face scary? I’m supposed to be cute 24/7, you know…”

“Not what I meant, idiot… Just sleep in bed today. Tomorrow’s gonna be busy.”

As I started to get up from the sofa, Kokoro grabbed my sleeve.

“It’s too early to sleep. I still wanna do something with you, Darling.”

“…Fine, I’ll sleep next to you, so sleep.”

“Oh my, coming on so strong… Did you go to an all-you-can-eat snapping turtle buffet while I was gone yesterday!?”

Kokoro’s eyes went wide, no spark in them, as she said that. Is she serious or joking…?