3 Conditions for Hypnosis
“Later!”
Ryugo ran out into the hallway like a shot.
His destination was the infirmary. He could take temporary refuge there, and most importantly, there was a teacher there who could perform hypnosis.
But he didn’t think the teacher would stop Makoto, who would surely be chasing after him.
The teacher had always taken a hands-off approach. Once the hypnosis was lifted, he would willingly hand Ryugo over.
“Hold it right there!!”
He could hear Makoto’s furious shouts from behind him.
“I’m gonna kill you, you bastard!! You used that crappy move on me, you bastard!!!!”
“Crappy, huh!? I named it!!”
He couldn’t afford to look back.
Makoto’s athleticism was probably better than his.
Ryugo had some experience in sports, but not in running.
Makoto had the advantage in agility.
The moment he stepped into the hallway, he dug his heels into the tiled floor and flew down the nearby stairs. At the landing, he used the railing to run on the inside track and jumped again. The impact of the landing made his legs ache .
But it wasn’t time to stop yet.
“Don’t run away!! Hold it right there!! I’m gonna kill you!!”
Makoto’s angry voice hit his back, and his shoulders jumped with fear.
He ran down another flight of stairs. When he reached the first floor hallway, he sprinted down the corridor to the right.
The staff room was there, but there weren’t many people around since classes had just ended. He could run through it at top speed.
“Bastardddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd in
The voice was close.
Had Makoto caught up to him on the first floor? If he let his guard down, he would be caught.
Ryugo yanked open the door to the infirmary at the far end of the hallway, gave the surprised Ms. Yuka a quick glance, and locked the door. That should keep Makoto out.
“Teacher! Help me!”
“What’s wrong, Tanuki-kun? Are you here to confess your love to me…!”
“Tanuki-iiiiiii! Open up, you piece of trashhhhh!”
The door was being pounded on violently.
It felt as if an intangible force was squeezing Ryuugo’s heart.
“Wha, what?! What’s going on?!”
“I’ll, I’ll explain. Please wait.”
Stay calm.
The first thing to do is to figure out how to cancel the hypnosis and whether or not she remembers anything. If I don’t know this, I can’t move on to the next step.
I need to know this to get out of this situation.
With trembling hands, I grab my phone and launch the app.
A new and easy-to-understand section called ‘Currently Hypnotized People’ has been added to the screen. When I tap on it, the name Kashiwagi Yuka appears.
I wonder why the app knows her name, but common sense doesn’t apply to something this magical.
At the top it says ‘Maximum Number of People That Can Be Hypnotized Simultaneously: 1’. It seems that at my current level, I can only hypnotize one person at a time.
I don’t know when it will increase, but for now, I have some useful information. It’s fortunate that I found out now.
When I tap on Yuka’s name, ‘Cancel’ and ‘Remaining Time’ are displayed.
“Remaining… ’23 hours’… Does it only last for one day?”
“Open up!! Open uuup!!”
The pounding has become even more intense than before. It sounds like he’s trying to kick the door down.
That bastard, the staff room is right next door.
Shouldn’t he hesitate a little bit at least!?
Anyway, it’s time to cancel the hypnosis.
Apparently, as long as the person is nearby, the hypnosis can be canceled without needing to make eye contact.
The screen says ‘Hypnosis Canceled’.
The interval—the amount of time before hypnosis can be used again—is surprisingly short at ‘six hours’.
It’s inconvenient that I can’t use it consecutively, but when I check the help section, there are more detailed rules.
If the hypnosis is automatically canceled after twenty-four hours, hypnosis can be used again without an interval.
It’s quite an inconvenient system.
Yuka’s appearance hasn’t changed, but I’ll have to check her internal state later.
“Teacher.”
There’s only one question I can ask.
That idiot will be barging in here any minute now.
“Do you remember me getting into the bed you’re sleeping in?”
It’s something she wouldn’t normally do because of the hypnosis.
This is the only way.
I’ve come up with a plan to get out of this situation where Makoto is after me. To do that, the answer to this question is very important.
If she remembers what happened while she was hypnotized, it’s over.
My future will be shrouded in darkness.
Please say you don’t remember.
Yuka opened her mouth in surprise and said,
“W-well, yes. I remember.”
The shock that hit me was like a scaffold collapsing and sending me plummeting into the abyss.
I remember.
I remember, you say?
That can’t be right
Yuika didn’t question her actions despite remembering cornering the student.
“Ta-nu-kiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!”
The door sounded like it was about to be destroyed.
I have no choice but to trust my reasoning.
If this is right, there’s a way out. It’s a risky gamble, but it’s the only one I have.
Ryugo exited the classroom through the window and onto the school grounds.
My school shoes are getting dirty, but who cares?
A little dirt is nothing if it means avoiding the bleak future that awaits me. Even the god of cleaning would forgive me.
He slipped between the trees and headed to the back of the school building.
Here’s the plan:
Makoto can’t say no to Iraq.
That’s why I’ll hypnotize her into being his ‘lover’ and have her order him to stop. Even a rotten woman like her would try to stop her boyfriend from getting beaten up.
If she remembered what happened while she was hypnotized and noticed something was wrong, there was no way she’d go along with it.
Of course, I considered hypnotizing Makoto.
But he’s furious right now.
Would he forgive me just because I changed my attitude? It would be riskier than hypnotizing Ira.
I don’t know how much this app can do. Still, it can’t completely rewrite someone’s emotions.
And then there’s the problem of what happens after I release the hypnosis.
That’s why I have to use Ira’s authority to stop Makoto.
If I start the app while I’m looking for Ira, it’ll be too late. I should leave it ready to go right before I start.
As he thought that and operated the app, he suddenly noticed something strange.
“Wha-…”
It had been ‘Level 2’ just a moment ago, but now,
“Whaaat!?”
For some reason, it had dropped to ‘Level 1.’
Not only that, the ‘Lover’ option was grayed out and wouldn’t respond.
“Whaaat!?”
Why did my level go down!?
Ryugo desperately searched for the cause while running at full speed. He had to find out what had caused this.
Immediately.
The screen was hard to see because of the shaking, but he couldn’t spare the time to steady it.
He checked everything quickly, but there were no notifications saying that his level had gone down. This app is really inconvenient.
Then, a certain phrase suddenly came to mind.
‘Virtue Points’
As the name suggests, these are probably points you get for doing good deeds. It said that if you collect them, your level will go up and you can use more advanced hypnosis. Good deeds are rewarded accordingly.
So what happens if you do bad deeds?
I just hit Makoto with a chair a little while ago, and that was definitely a bad deed. Even if it was to prevent my life from being ruined, attacking someone who hadn’t done anything yet can’t be considered self-defense.
Ryugo flipped to the explanation of Virtue Points.
It said that you can level up by helping people, but that’s not what I wanted to know right now.
He scrolled down and down until he finally found the passage he was looking for.
『In Case of Misdeeds』
“Intentionally or otherwise, acts that are seen as evil in society, such as harming others, stealing, or deceiving, will result in a level down penalty!
This also applies to hypnosis. If you hypnotize someone and steal their money or harm them, your level will decrease in accordance with the severity of the crime!
Please be careful!
By the way, we’ll overlook certain things to some extent! ”
Why is this text so informal?
Even a poorly written scam email would have better grammar.
Regardless, I get the gist of it.
Acts that harm others, huh?
Hitting someone would definitely fall under that category.
However, the vague and ambiguous wording, such as “we’ll overlook certain things to some extent,” bothers me. If there’s a difference in our understanding and I end up getting penalized for a misdeed, it’ll be a huge pain.
Now, onto the next issue.
As Ryugo ran up the stairs facing the school entrance, he remembered that he was Level 2 when he first started the app.
That must have been because Ryugo had done a good deed somewhere.
So, when did he do that good deed? What was he doing before morning homeroom started?
I think… back then…
“I scolded Era for sitting in my seat…”
That’s the only thing I can think of.
Even if the app had been downloaded while he was on his way to school, Ryugo didn’t do anything during that time. He just walked. He didn’t help or scold anyone. The most he did was obey the traffic signals.
He checked his phone before school and confirmed that there were no changes. The app was definitely installed in the morning.
“Scolding…? Is that really enough? Seriously?”
There’s no way to be sure.
Scolding might not even be considered a good deed, and the app might have just started at Level 2 as a service.
It’s probably a 50/50 chance.
No one would be happy if they only got 1 level up as a download bonus.
“Where are youuu!! Raccoonnnnnnn!!!”
The hunting dog’s cry as it chased its prey came closer.