Chapter 21: This is my punishment… it’s my punishment.

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Translator: Soafp

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“…Oh, s**t.”

One morning, I muttered those words with a foggy head.

Ever since I woke up, my body had felt strangely heavy. Thinking it might be something, I took my temperature—and, sure enough, it was an ordinary cold.

I measured it again, thinking I might have misread it, but the number only changed slightly. There was no denying it, so I ended up taking the day off school.

“Make sure you rest properly, okay? Seriously. You're sturdy, so I'm sure your fever will go down soon. Once you feel better, you can go out or play games if you want. But while you're feeling rough, be patient.”

My sister gave me those kind words, and Mom and Dad also made sure to tell me to rest.

“Yeah, I really do feel awful… but my lower half is doing just fine.”

My other self was pitching a tent big enough to fit ten people on a camping trip. Apparently, even a cold couldn't suppress my sex drive.

If nothing had changed from before, it probably wouldn't have been this bad. But thanks to the hypnosis app, I now knew exactly what Mari and the others' bodies felt like. Just remembering it—not merely imagining it—was enough to get me incredibly worked up.

“…Man, this sucks. I wanna see Mari, Honma, and Agatsuma. I wanna touch them.”

If I'd only said I wanted to see them, it might have sounded romantic. But, as usual, I ruined it by adding that I wanted to touch them.

Mom had said she would make something simple and leave it in the refrigerator, and that my fever would probably break by noon. For now, the only thing I could do was behave myself and get better.

“…Though it's not like I can fall asleep. Maybe I'll check the app for a bit.”

The hypnosis app that had changed my life. It hadn't shown any signs of changing since the first time I used it, and it was still lending me its power.

“…‘Hatred rooted deep within the heart,' huh?”

It was a warning I'd seen countless times since then, but the word “hatred” was strong enough that it still bothered me.

It never explained what would happen if that hatred swelled up. But maybe it meant that hypnosis could be undone by hatred—that they might regain their memories, or become immune to it. I'd started to wonder about that.

“Hm?”

But as I kept reading, I found text that made me wonder whether it had been there before.

“Because they are in a hypnotic state, every word you speak will reach directly into the target's heart and control them. What emotions that creates is entirely up to you.”

“…I see.”

It said my words would reach their hearts directly and control them. In other words, did that mean that someone under hypnosis couldn't resist what I said and had no choice but to obey?

Well, I already trusted the power of this hypnosis from experience, so it wasn't exactly new information.

“But yeah… it might be worth testing someday. Seeing exactly how far it can go, what kinds of things I can make it do.”

I'd used hypnosis not only on Mari and the others, but also to some extent on the guys who had hurt them. Maybe it would be worth finding out exactly what it was capable of—or whether there was even more I could do with it.

“Eh, whatever. I'm already satisfied enough as things are.”

Alright, thinking about all this had made me sleepy.

My head had started to ache a little too, so I decided to be good and go to sleep.

“…I wanna squeeze some b**bs.”

Those were the last words I uttered before falling asleep.

And so, while my classmates were presumably working hard at school, I rested properly. By early afternoon, I had completely recovered.

The headache was gone, the heaviness in my body had vanished somewhere, and I felt like I could run around without any trouble at all.

“Having meals prepared like this really makes you feel your family's love…”

As I ate the lunch Mom had made for me, I voiced my appreciation for my family.

Still, I'd basically joined the ranks of adulthood in one sense already. Sure, I was the kind of son who did whatever he wanted with girls under hypnosis, but hey—let's keep getting along from here on out!

“Phew. That was good!”

My stomach was full, and I was officially feeling perfect again.

Still, my sister had messaged me earlier and told me not to go out after all, so I decided to stay put.

“If I disobey her, I'll get yelled at…”

My sister was usually kind and dependable, but she was also terrifying when she got angry. So I decided to follow her instructions.

After that, I killed time until around four without going back to sleep.

Then the doorbell rang.

“A visitor? No… maybe a delivery?”

It was hard to imagine anyone visiting at this hour on a weekday. My sister, Mom, and Dad were all still out, so a package seemed like the only possibility.

Either way, I headed to the front door.

“…Eh?”

There was a camera by the entrance that let me see who was outside. The moment I looked at it, I was stunned.

“No way. Why are the three of them here?”

Standing outside were three girls: Mari, Honma, and Agatsuma.

I stood there blankly for a moment. But when Mari, who was at the front, started looking anxious as if she thought nobody was home, I opened the door.

“Ah, you're here!”

“…Thank goodness.”

“Are you okay, Senpai?”

“…I'm fiiine?”

Um… what exactly was going on here?

I felt bad refusing to let them in just because I didn't understand, so I forced my confused mind to accept the situation and invited the three of them inside.

I couldn't exactly bring them to my room right away, so I led them into the living room and quickly prepared some tea and snacks.

“Thank you, Kai-kun.”

“No, uh… what's going on?”

Seeing me stare at them wide-eyed, the three explained.

First, they had asked Akira and Shougo where I lived. Honma, my junior, had come along because she noticed that I hadn't come to school.

(…Oh, right.)

Come to think of it, I had called Honma out during lunch today.

Even under hypnosis, it was natural that she would think something was strange if the person who had summoned her wasn't there. That was another new discovery.

Apparently, Agatsuma had found Honma while she was looking for me. After hearing the situation, that had led to all three of them coming here together.

“…Why were you looking for me, Honma?”

“Um, I'm not really sure… I just felt like I wanted to look for you. Then I ran into Agatsuma-senpai, and she told me you were absent… Are you really okay?”

“…Yeah.”

Not only Honma, but Mari and Agatsuma had apparently been worried about me too.

While they were worried about me, I'd been fantasizing about them naked. That felt incredibly embarrassing—kind of guilty, even…

No, maybe that was part of the spice.

“…Anyway, thanks, you three. I seriously didn't expect you to come visit me.”

“Really? I think it's only natural.”

“Yeah. There's nothing strange about it.”

“If we just stayed quiet, wouldn't that be cold?”

Could I cry over how kind these girls were being to me?

Just as I felt myself trembling with emotion, Mari asked the obvious question: how exactly had I gotten to know Honma?

Honma answered before I could.

“I was being bothered by a stalker. But Senpai solved the problem for me, and I was really happy about that.”

“Oh, I see… He helped you here too, huh?”

Mari smiled gently as she said that, and I got embarrassed enough to look down.

Still, as unexpected as their visit had been, wasn't this actually an opportunity?

A first step toward the dream I'd talked about before—having all three of them together, enjoying myself and being served by them.

“Could you three come with me for a moment?”

I led the three of them into my room.

They looked a little tense, but I didn't care what they thought of my room.

Right now, I would simply follow my desires.

“Alright, you three. Time for hypnosis.”

“Ah…♪”

“…Mm…♪”

“Master…♪”

Huh? They seemed a little different from usual, but whatever.

Their eyes had lost their light—the proof that they were properly hypnotized. They had become dolls who did nothing but stare at me and wait for orders.

“I'm fully recovered, but I don't want to pass anything on, so let's keep things restrained today—”

The instant I said that, Honma moved faster than anyone else. She dropped to her knees and hugged my waist.

“Master… I missed you… I missed you so much…”

“H-Hey…!?”

Before I could even process Honma's action, Mari and Agatsuma also hugged me from both sides.

They had never done this before. For a second, I wondered whether they meant to restrain me—but that clearly wasn't it.

Could it be… that they had felt lonely, even just because I hadn't been at school?

“Kai-kun…♪”

“Masaki-kun…♪”

No, that question didn't matter right now.

After that, with Honma at the center of it all, they made me feel better than I thought possible.

“…Phew.”

I had entered post-nut clarity, but I was still holding the three of them close.

Mari and Agatsuma clung to me from either side, while Honma hugged me from the front.

A wish I'd once spoken aloud had now come true.

“Listen up—dreams aren't something you give up on. Men of the world, all you nameless guys out there, don't give up either.”

Wrapped in the softness and scent of the three girls, I was happier than I'd ever been.

Then I heard the faint sound of the front door opening.

“I'm home~!”

“…Oh, s**t!?”

That was my sister's voice.

Before I could do anything about this situation, the door to my room opened mercilessly.

Maybe this was the punishment for everything I'd been doing as I pleased.