Chapter 8
“This hypnosis application is primarily intended for individuals only. It is not possible to hypnotise one person while the other person is hypnotised, in which case the pre-hypnotised person will come to their senses. However, hypnosis is effective if several people are in front of you at the same time.”
“…There you are.”
I quietly walked out of Honma’s house, but the man I thought was the stalker was still hiding behind a telephone pole.
His appearance started before I had my way with Honma, which means he’s been there for roughly an hour.
“That’s a suspicious enough, isn’t it?”
It’s a surprise that he didn’t get reported for that.
I asked Honma about him in some detail, but she said she had no recollection of him or where she had met him.
He doesn’t show up like that every day, but once he does, he sometimes stays there until around six o’clock.
“Well, I guess you can’t stalk someone unless you’re pervert.”
I chuckled at such an obvious thought.
Well, then, let’s just get down to the business of seeing the stalker, as promised.
“Hey.”
“….What?”
I called out to the man who was hiding behind a telephone pole.
He shook his shoulders and turned his body towards me.
“Oh, you!!!!”
And immediately his gaze on me turned sharp.
When he looked at me with a strong gaze, as if he was looking at his parents’ enemies, I was sure I had no history with him, but I wondered if it might have been between Honma and me.
The man was slightly older than me, with a shaggy haircut and glasses… well, what can I say, he was a typical stalker you would see in a Manga or something.
“You! What kind of relationship do you have with my Emu-chan!”
“—”
The too-too-template dialog stunned me.
Seeing me stunned, he thought he was pushing me with momentum, and he continued his words even more strongly.
“That girl reached out to me! I was crying because I was being ridiculed in university groups and that girl reached out to me and asked if I was okay!”
“…Oh, come on, you can’t mean that -”
“That’s not what I meant! That girl is worried about me because she has feelings for me! Don’t get any closer to my Emu-chan, you bastard!”
Okay, this guy is seriously ill.
Although I might have called out to him if I saw a good old university student walking down the street crying, Homma’s actions were a bit of a bad move.
In manga and anime, that’s where romance might start, but the guy she approached was the worst kind of maniac.
“Man, are you aware that you’re a stalker?”
“Stalker? Don’t be like those rubbish people!!!!!!”
Okey-dokey, it seems this guy’s hopeless.
I’m not going to listen to him if I deal with him any more, and more than anything else, he may make a full-fledged move on Honma now that I’m here.
“Just let me hypnotise you for now.”
“What are you–”
I took out my phone.
Looking at the screen, I realized that I was still in the process of hypnotising Honma, so I released the hypnosis and activated it on the man again.
The man immediately became quiet and turned his vacant eyes towards me.
“I don’t have a taste for men staring at me, you know. Anyway… hmmm.”
How should I deal with this, though?
If it’s a stalker, he’s likely to take even more outrageous action if you provoke him badly, so is it better to let him do something like the previous Aisaka-related incident so that he doesn’t even have a leisure to think about Honma… mmm…
“Just to make sure. Everything you said earlier isn’t a lie, is it?”
“Ah.”
“You’re stalking Honma based on your own assumptions, are you sure?”
“It’s not an assumption, I’m serious.”
I chuckled.
Anyway, I launched the app screen and looked through it again to see what it could do.
Like the ones I’d seen before, it seems that you can basically give commands, but you can’t use brute force to change the personality itself.
“Well, it’s tiring to think about all this. Are you taking pictures of Honma or something?”
“Of course I do. I have them on the walls of my room, and I also stole her underwear that was hanging out to dry.”
“—”
He’s doing all the things he’s supposed to do, isn’t he?
Thinking it might be possible, I looked inside the bag the guy was carrying, and what came out inside were a bunch of photos of Honma and a bra and panties.
“Let’s put aside how you stole them, but for now, go to the police now.”
“Okay.”
Well, if you’re confronted with the reality that you’ve committed a crime, you’ll probably change your mind.
His university life, for example, may come to an end, but that’s none of my business as an outsider.
Fighting off a stalker who stalks girls is justice.
But I’m not on the side of justice.
“I’m committing worse crimes than you.”
I muttered to myself and followed behind the man who started walking away.
“…?”
At that moment, I suddenly felt a gaze behind me, and turned around, but no one was there.
I tilted my head to see if I was imagining things and watched the man walk into the police station.
I ordered him to confess everything about what he had done and what he had been doing earlier, so the police would do the rest.
“…Oh, the battery ran out.”
Just in time, my phone had run out of juice.
It’s a hypnosis app that I’ve used many times before. but what I’ve discovered is that it generates a lot of heat and consumes a lot of battery power, to the extent of playing a high-resolution app game.
“I can’t imagine running out of battery when I’m using this thing, I’m so scared…”
“What are you scared of?”
“No, my phone’s charging…?”
Wait, who am I talking to now?
It’s a familiar voice, but it’s the sweet charming voice from earlier.
“…why?”
It was Honma who was behind me.
In case you’re wondering, I had her dress up before I left the house, and did a simple wipe off the parts of her body that she soaked herself in, but I should have been able to erase any traces.
Well, from her point of view, she was in a hypnotic state, so she didn’t remember anything about me… I think.
“erm… I think I probably fell asleep, but when I woke up and looked outside, I saw Senpai and that man together…”
“—”
I see, you woke up just when I switched the hypnotic subject.
If you are thinking that maybe that man and I are in on it, it’s a little bit embarrassing, but that’s not the case.
“When Senpai told him something, that man went straight to the police station… Did you know perhaps that I was being stalked?”
“No? I was in the neighbourhood running a little errand, and he just stepped on a rock or something and fell over. That’s when I found a bunch of photos of Honma in his bag.”
“Oh… so that’s what happened?”
I breathed out a lie as if I was sucking in my breath, but I’m so impressed by the fact that I’ve grown a thicker skin too.
“And by the way, I also found some underwear, but it looks like it was stolen without you noticing.”
“Oh…I thought for sure I didn’t have some piece of clothing. I thought it might have been put away or hidden somewhere without my knowledge.”
Okay, okay, Honma doesn’t seem to have any suspicions about me.
I actually thought about hypnotising her right here,, and running away, but unfortunately, the battery ran out, so I can’t use the app’s power.
If she suspects me in this state, I don’t know if I can fool her, and my heart is still beating fast as if to express such anxiety.
“It looks like coincidence and coincidence coincided. Good, good, good.”
Haha, laughing I turned my back to Honma.
“Oh, wait, senpai! Well, I’d like to thank you for…”
“I don’t need it. I’ve already received a lot.”
?”
I’m an outsider. I’m not the kind of person who needs to be thanked.
I’m the kind of guy who leaves cool as a cucumber.
“It’s dark, so be careful going home~? Don’t get another stalker’s attention, okay~?”
“I know…I know. Thank you, Senpai.”
Waving my hand with a flutter, I parted from Honma.
Yes, there’s no need to thank me… because I’m going all out with Homma from now on, too.
“…Even so, you make a great cry even when you’re in a hypnotic state. This is dangerous if it’s not when the parents aren’t around.”
Imagining what I had done to Honma, I giggled all the way home.
“But then again, my body is really exhausted..”
The hypnosis app was powerful, but my body didn’t feel like it could go for multiple rounds like the hypnotised dudes in the Manga.
I wonder if the day will ever come when I will be able to rank up from a wise man…
