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 53: Chaos and Deep Sleep

Chapter 53: Chaos and Deep Sleep

[Rachel Poker]

──Returning to the main road of the hot spring town, I found the row of stores all shuttered and eerily silent.

For now, it seemed like there were no witch hunters in the vicinity… or so I thought. Just as the thought crossed my mind, I spotted a man standing on the roof of a building, several dozen meters away.

“Oi, Sakurako, that guy!”

“Yeah. There might be a Doll nearby, so Hikari-chan, stay on alert.”

A man standing on a rooftop at a time like this? There was no way he was just an ordinary person. Nine times out of ten, he was a heretical inquisitor from the witch hunters.

I activated my Kurobane and launched a surprise attack on the man. The best strategy was to strike first.

“…!?”

Noticing my approach, the man barely managed to dodge my attack at the last moment.

“Attacking out of nowhere like this… Witch hunters really are a nuisance, aren’t they?”

I readied myself to follow up with another strike, but instead, the man raised both hands and stepped out of his combat stance.

“…Calm down. I’m not a witch hunter. You must be Baba Sakurako—my daughter’s friend.”

“…Huh? Yeah, that’s me. But your daughter…?”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Atagawa Shinya, Kanon’s father.”

What!? This was Kanon-chan’s father!? I almost ended up hurting him!

And he looked so young—no older than his mid-twenties, by my guess. The fact that he dodged my attack so effortlessly made it obvious that he was one of Fujino-san’s kin.

“A-Ah, nice to meet you, I’m Rac—er, Baba Sakurako. Sorry about that, I mistook you for a witch hunter.”

“──Seriously, though, what the hell are you doing standing on a rooftop at a time like this? You’re asking to get mistaken for an enemy.”

Hikari-chan, realizing that Shinya-san wasn’t an enemy, climbed up to join us. She must have heard our conversation.

“I was looking for my daughter. She ran off, saying she was going to find a missing alligator, and hasn’t come back.”

“I see. We were searching for Kanon-chan and the others, too. It looks like the witch hunters are the ones causing all this chaos.”

“Seems that way. Your friends chased some of them off earlier, but I doubt they’ve given up completely.”

“Wait, hold on. Where are those friends of ours now?”

Not only had we run into Kanon-chan’s father unexpectedly, but we also got new intel. By process of elimination, the ones who drove away the witch hunters must have been either Karuta-chan or Emilia-chan—or maybe both. Those two were practically inseparable.

“I don’t know. I tried to stop them, but they ran off to look for the boss. I was searching for my daughter, so I lost track of them.”

“I see. Thanks for the information.”

“That doesn’t tell us much, does it? And where the hell did Vivian go?”

“Let’s just keep searching. The hot spring town isn’t that big. If they’re fighting, we should be able to hear the noise.”

An ambush was bad news, but having Vivian with us was a huge advantage.

If things went well, we might even be able to wipe out all the witch hunters gathering here.

Yes, when it comes to specialized jobs, it’s best to leave them to the experts—

***

“──Muhahaha! The last manjuu is mine, so there!”

“Hey! Bubblegum, you cheater! We split them evenly earlier!”

“Muhaha! Fairness is a lie, Latte! The one who holds the last manjuu wins, no matter what dirty tricks they use!”

“Oh yeah? Well, take this—!”

“Mu-fuu!? Using teleportation magic is a dirty move!”

“Victory is justice! Remember what you just said!”

Not long after I had dropped off some souvenirs at this shop, the place had turned into an absolute disaster zone, as if a tornado had hit.

The battle for the hot spring manjuu was so fierce that no one even noticed me.

“──Excuse me, are you still open?”

“…Muhaha? Oh, it’s Sakurako-chin and Hikarin. Sorry, but we’re closed for now. Come back later.”

Bubblegum-san, who was currently wrestling with Latte-san, lazily gestured for us to leave.

The inside of the shop was utter chaos. The two of them were locked in combat, while Heather-san sat at the barely-intact counter, calmly sipping coffee.

Meanwhile, for some reason, Lilac-san lay sprawled out on the floor, and Brush-san was helpfully attending to her… though from the way she was thoroughly groping her, “helping” might not be the right word.

Magenta-san once told me that there wasn’t a single normal witch in the Ravens.

But I never imagined it was this bad…

“Oi, I don’t give a damn about your café, but at least do your real job properly! The witch hunters are wreaking havoc just over there!”

Even in the face of this chaos, Hikari-chan never forgets her true calling. As expected of her.

“Muhah, witch hunters, you say? You serious, Hikarinn?”

“Dead serious, dumbass. Now hurry up and take care of it!”

“Muaaa, isn’t this what you’d call a stroke of luck? Oi, you lot, I’m gonna go kill some inquisitors real quick, so clean up the shop while I’m gone, yeah?”

Bubblegum-san tossed aside Latte-san, whom she had been grappling with, and started taking off her apron.

“Bubblegum, the boss told you to help out with this shop, didn’t she? Don’t just do whatever you want!”

“Come on now, let her go, Latte. Honestly, Bubblegum doesn’t seem to be much help around here anyway.”

“Muaa, way too honest, Heather, you bastard. But whatever, I’ll rack up some major credit here and claw my way back to freedom!”

With that, Bubblegum-san climbed up the stairs leading to the second floor.

“Muaaa, Sakurako-chin, Hikarinn—once I’m done changing, I’m off to go slaughter those inquisitor bastards, so you guys can head home now. Thanks, yeah?”

“Um, the witch hunters are here, right? Is Bubblegum-san really going alone?”

“We’re stationed away from the front lines right now, running this shop to keep our finances in order. Bubblegum’s pretty much the only one here who enjoys brawling. We could call in some of the fighters from the castle, but if the boss finds out about the mess in the shop, we’re in trouble. Don’t worry, she’s more than enough to handle it alone.”

“What a damn mess, Ravens.”

Originally, Ravens and the whole shop were supposed to handle the witch hunters, but things don’t always go as planned.

Still, getting Bubblegum-san on board was a decent win. Now, all that was left was to find Vivian and Kartua-chan.

***

It hadn’t even been ten minutes since leaving Wetterhan when we found Vivian.

No—more accurately, we found Karuta-chan and Emilia-chan, who had found Vivian.

“Mumuuh, what is it, Bambi? The night is still young… zzz…”

“Uh… why is the boss fast asleep?”

“Who knows. Probably ‘cause she’s an idiot.”

“Yeah, probably ‘cause she’s an idiot~”

“What kind of dream is she even having…?”

According to Karuta-chan, the president had been dozing off on one of the facility’s benches. To sleep through such a blaring alarm, I almost wanted to believe she had shut off her hearing entirely.

“Karuta-chan, Emilia-chan, are you guys okay? I heard you fought the inquisitors.”

“We’re totally fine~ They attacked out of nowhere, but then they just kept running away, and in the end, they just disappeared somewhere~”

“We were two against them, and Kanon-san’s father showed up too. They must’ve realized they had no chance and bailed.”

Neither of them had any visible injuries. It seemed they were really okay. The way the witch hunters acted still bugged me, but at least they were safe.

“Glad you guys are alright. That just leaves Kanon-chan. Her dad is looking for her too, but let’s search together.”

“Searching is fine and all, but are we just leaving the witch hunters alone~?”

“Yeah, the witch hunters will probably be handled by Ravens. Long story short, Bubblegum-san is already on their tail.”

“Ugh, you mean that zap-happy freak Bubblegum~?”

“Karuta, you know her?”

“She broke my phone and electrocuted me, that awful woman~”

Ah, right, that happened back at the Seraph Witch Association. Even now, I still think dropping the phone was Karuta-chan’s fault, though.

“I see… Ravens really is full of dangerous witches. It’s reassuring this time, but… I just hope they properly take care of the witch hunters—”

Just then, in the distance, near the facility entrance, a massive purple lightning bolt crashed down.

Completely ignoring Emilia-chan’s concerns, Bubblegum-san had apparently already started her work. Or perhaps… it was already over.