Chapter 67-68—The Case Of A Low Self-Esteem—1
After the first successful hypnosis experiment, I grew bolder in my trials.
My first targets were the middle-aged men who finished work at the nearby factory and drank at the outdoor pubs.
You might wonder why I focused on men instead of women, but being able to hypnotize men was just as important. That way, I wouldn't risk getting stabbed for accidentally hitting on someone else's wife.
Perhaps because these men were already drunk, they slipped into a trance easily. When I asked them to reveal their secrets, they confessed everything—affairs with other men's wives, hidden emergency funds, and more. Most of them spoke freely before I even needed to use the second level of hypnosis.
After experimenting on ten drunk men, I moved on to sober middle-aged men.
I approached one man smoking a cigarette and asked for a light—I got the cigarette through hypnosis. As a reward, I promised to show him something amazing, and then began the hypnosis.
I quickly learned that sober people had much stronger mental guards than drunk ones. It was easier to draw out the secrets of men who seemed rude, while kind-looking men held back more.
It seemed that the strength of these mental guards depended on both a person's mental fortitude and the depth of their secrets—just like when I had experimented with Yumiko.
After finishing with the middle-aged men, I turned my attention to the neighborhood kids. I didn't have any ulterior motives with them; I was simply curious how hypnosis would work on children, since most of my subjects had been adults.
I hypnotized a few kids and asked, "Can you hear me?"
"Yeees…"
'Hmm… interesting.'
There didn't seem to be much difference between adults and kids when it came to inducing hypnosis. Of course, there were still some differences.
"Do you have a secret you can't tell anyone?"
"…I secretly hid the change that Mom told me to bring back…"
The kids' secrets were, how should I put it, very low-level. When I asked them to reveal their secrets, nine out of ten told me immediately.
The last one also revealed everything after two rounds of hypnosis. For the record, the one who had resisted was the most mature-looking kid among them.
In short, the more mentally mature someone was, the stronger their guard against hypnosis.
'This was a pretty meaningful experiment.'
Having gained some valuable information, I was heading home with a smile when I heard a strange sobbing sound near the playground.
'A woman's crying?'
It was a bit far, so I wasn't completely sure, but it was definitely a woman's voice. Curious, I glanced at the playground and saw someone crying on the swings.
The person on the swing was a woman, presumably a college student, wearing a large hooded jacket. Her upper body was covered, but her smooth legs were clearly those of a woman.
Seeing her, I had two choices.
First, I could just go home and eat the warm meal my mom had prepared.
Second, I could approach the woman, ask what was wrong, and maybe taste her pussy as a bonus.
I was a bit tired from walking all day. But honestly, my heart and lower body were telling me to choose the second option. So I did.
Thud… Thud…
I walked confidently toward the swing, took out a tissue from my subspace pocket, and said to the sobbing woman,
"Hey."
"Sniff… sniff… Yes?"
"Stop crying and use this."
As I handed her the tissue, the crying woman refused. She said she couldn't, as if she felt sorry.
"Ah, no. I can't…"
From her stuttering and hesitant tone, I roughly understood her personality. She was the type who was easily intimidated. So I forcefully shoved the tissue into her hand and said, "Ah! Just take it!"
If I pretended to be angry and pushed something into her hands, she would comply.
"Ah, okay. Don't get mad…"
'See? It was easy to make her take it. Easy peasy.'
While I was internally channeling a cartoon character, the woman wiped her tears, blew her nose, and said, "I'm, I'm sorry… for showing you such an awful sight…"
I casually replied, "No, it's okay. You can cry on the swings."
But my nonchalant attitude seemed to make her even more embarrassed. Her face turned red as she said, "… I'm really sorry. I'll be more careful next time…"
I told her it was okay again, then asked, "So, what were you crying about?"
She hesitated to answer, her expression troubled.
Okay, I could understand that much. I tried to continue the conversation, but she kept hesitating without saying anything.
Her indecisive attitude finally pissed me off, and I decided, 'I'll just do it my way.'
With that decision, I immediately took out my secret weapon—a coin—from my subspace pocket and said to her,
"Hey, could you take a look at this?"
Knowing she had done something wrong, she silently looked at the coin. After a few seconds, her eyes glazed over.
I was surprised that I had successfully hypnotized her in just a few seconds, when it usually took at least ten. I then asked her what I was most curious about.
"What's your name, age, and occupation?"
"My name is Kobayashi Honoka… I'm a 20-year-old college student…"
I had to use hypnosis to find out something so simple. How annoying.
'It would have been easier if she had just told me a few words. So troublesome.'
I thought to myself and continued to ask Honoka,
"Why were you crying here?"
"Because I can't adjust to college life…"
She was crying because she couldn't adjust to college life.
'Is that really something to cry about? Honestly, I didn't understand. It wasn't like anyone was bothering her at college. So why was she crying over that?'
It wasn't that I was a psychopath. I had genuinely never been to college, so I couldn't grasp it.
I asked again, "Why can't you adjust to college life?"
Fortunately, the answer was easy to understand.
"Because the other students in my department avoid me for being too gloomy, stuttering, and having a bad sense of style…"
Hearing that, I immediately understood why. Well, her style was…
'Greasy long hair, square-rimmed glasses, freckles on her face, and clothes that look like they were bought for a thousand yen at a market.'
I didn't need to say more.
'No wonder she's not liked when she stutters like that.'
Honestly, I felt like I was dying of frustration just talking to her. But aside from that, I also felt a little sorry for her. And also…
'Hmm… come to think of it, I haven't tested command compatibility yet, have I?'
There was still something I wanted to experiment with. If the effects of hypnosis lasted for a long time, I wanted to see if they would remain even after the hypnosis ended.
'Well, while I'm at it, why not do a good deed?'
After a moment of thought, I decided to do a good deed. I hypnotized her with the intention of making the effects last as long as possible while also changing her.
[You thinks the man in front of you is your boyfriend. Honoka, you truly love your boyfriend, so you must do whatever he wants.]
[Not wanting to be disliked by your boyfriend, you start learning how to dress and take care of your appearance.]
[You wants to talk to your boyfriend as much as possible. To do so, you try to fix your stuttering habit.]
After applying those three layers of hypnosis, Honoka's gaze towards me changed.
Just a moment ago, it was the gaze of a stranger, but now it was the gaze of someone looking at her lover.
I received Honoka's affectionate gaze and calmly started acting like her boyfriend.
"Honoka, are you okay? You seem out of it today."
She looked surprised. She hesitated for a moment and then said to me, "I'm, I'm sorry, Takuya… It's just that today is a little… yeah. I can't concentrate…"
She lowered her head as if she were sorry.
'Hmm. The hypnosis is working well.'
There were no other reactions or strange behaviors, so it seemed that the hypnosis was quite effective.
Also, if I looked closely, Honoka was embarrassed by her current state.
Judging by how well the hypnosis was working, she would gradually start to change if I left her alone.
'Then I should get some reward, right?'
I wasn't originally planning to, but after seeing her potato-like appearance before the hypnosis, I wanted some compensation.
"So, can I go to your place today, Honoka?"
She looked flustered and replied, "Uh, uhm? My place? I live alone, so you can come, but…"
"Really? Then let's go right now."
"Ah, uhm…"
And so, I headed to Honoka's apartment.