Chapter 39: This is a bitter feeling that will be etched into my memory!

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Translator: Soafp

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Emu had been dragging a male student by the hand with a severe expression, so I became curious and followed them.

At first, I wondered whether this was some kind of romantic situation—or perhaps one of those dramatic moments from youth.

Apparently, it was nothing like that.

“I've never seen Emu look like that before.”

Even from a distance, it was obvious how stern her expression was.

Since Emu was familiar with hypnosis-themed stories and other suggestive material, I briefly wondered whether the boy had somehow discovered one of her secrets.

But that did not seem to be the case either.

“Alright, I should be able to hear them from here.”

Emu had taken the boy to a secluded place where they were unlikely to be seen.

Since it was after school, teachers might occasionally pass through, but hardly anyone would be paying attention to the area.

It seemed a little careless to me, but for the moment, I focused on listening.

“Don't be ridiculous. You're doing all this over something so stupid?”

“Stupid!? This is your fault! You rejected my confession, then kept clinging to someone like him!”

“Oh… I think I understand what started this conversation.”

“Clinging to him? At least I enjoy being with Senpai. You have no right to complain about that when you're only my classmate.”

“What did you say!?”

“Yes, that's right. I don't care what you say to me. But that doesn't mean I'll forgive you for harassing someone who is practically my benefactor.”

Judging from the conversation, the boy had probably confessed to Emu before.

He couldn't stand seeing the girl he liked spending so much time with someone like me, and the situation had escalated from there.

Hearing Emu say that she enjoyed being with me made my cheeks loosen into a smile.

“Wait, that's not the important part. What does she mean by harassment?”

I had seen the boy's face a few times but had never spoken to him. I didn't even know his name.

However, if Emu was this angry, he must have done something to me.

The problem was that I had no idea what it could have been.

“Lately, in my dreams… Ahem. I noticed that Senpai seemed worried about something, though I never found out what it was. But then I happened to see you putting something in Senpai's shoe locker.”

“So what?”

Emu pulled a piece of paper from inside her clothing.

I was too far away to read it clearly, but it was probably one of the same notes that had been appearing in my locker.

“‘You're a piece of trash.' ‘Don't come to school.' ‘You should die.' How can you write things like this? Do you understand how pathetic you're being?”

Emu was angry on my behalf.

But I felt a pang of guilt.

In a way, the insults on that paper were accurate. I had done things to Emu and many other girls that made me deserving of such words.

I was a shameless, irredeemable person.

But I could not go back now. I was a gentleman of a different sort—a gentleman named Deviance.

“Shut up! You're the one who's strange! You're always around a completely ordinary upperclassman like him instead of someone like me!”

“Wait—let go of me!”

The boy suddenly reached for Emu.

He must have been gripping her wrist tightly, because her expression twisted with pain. He pushed her back against the wall.

“Emu!”

Naturally, I couldn't just stand by.

The two of them froze at the sound of my voice, and the boy immediately released Emu.

“S-Senpai?”

Emu stared at me in shock.

I stepped in front of her, shielding her from the boy, and faced him directly.

When he realized who had appeared, he glared at me.

But I wasn't frightened. I had been enduring the stares of the popular guys every day, and this level of pressure didn't bother me.

“Just because you're upset doesn't give you the right to put your hands on a girl.”

“…This is all your fault!”

He wasn't wrong. In a sense, everything was my fault.

It was ridiculous for me to lecture him about touching girls, considering my own behavior.

But Emu had become someone important to me.

Even if our relationship existed because of hypnosis, I did not need a reason to protect her.

“Alright, hypnosis.”

“…!”

“Ah…♪”

The boy's name turned out to be Aragaki.

I had no interest in prolonging the conversation, so I placed both Emu and Aragaki under hypnosis and questioned Aragaki directly.

The entire series of incidents that had been troubling me was his doing. He had acted alone and had no accomplices.

“Compared with him, those popular guys are actually pretty decent.”

They had been jealous, but they had never harassed me.

They still glared at me constantly, but compared with someone like Aragaki, they were far more reasonable.

“So you were angry because I was close with Emu?”

“That's right. Why is someone as perfect as Honma-san spending time with someone like you? It's ridiculous. She should be with someone much better!”

Was he implying that he was the better option?

He was more handsome than me, after all. My own face was thoroughly ordinary—just the sort of face you saw everywhere.

“What an insulting thing to say…”

I wasn't angry enough to lose control, but I wanted to shout that he had no right to say something like that.

Before I could, however—

“I'm not perfect. Right, Senpai?”

“Huh?”

The next development left me speechless.

Emu stepped in front of me, then stretched up and pressed herself close to my neck.

“Emu!?”

“…Delicious.♪”

We had run a little, and it was summer, so I was sweating. Emu became completely absorbed in teasing me, while Aragaki, also hypnotized, stared at us in stunned silence.

(…Huh? This feeling isn't bad.)

Something inside me whispered.

Neither Emu nor Aragaki was in their right mind, so this moment would not remain in his memory.

The thought brought out a particularly cruel impulse toward him.

“Emu.”

“Yes.♪”

I lifted her chin and kissed her.

I was already used to kissing Emu, but doing it in front of a boy who had feelings for her gave me an overwhelming sense of superiority and excitement.

“…!”

You won't remember this anyway, I thought with a smile. So experience the greatest possible loss and frustration while you're still under hypnosis.

In a way, this was the kind of thing people imagined hypnosis being used for.

Though, if anything, Emu seemed even more enthusiastic than I was.

“Aragaki-kun, I'm not perfect. I can only see Senpai. I don't want anyone except Senpai to touch me, and I only want Senpai to train me. I want to become Senpai's slave. I want to remain completely devoted to him for the rest of my life.♪”

“…Guh…!”

Aragaki's face twisted so severely that I began to worry he might literally collapse from rage.

Continuing would have been amusing, but I had already used the app during lunch with Mari, so the battery was becoming questionable.

Since I now knew who was responsible, I decided to send Aragaki home first.

“That should be enough.”

Once I thought he had gone far enough from the school, I released his hypnosis.

Emu blinked repeatedly, but she did not seem particularly surprised.

She stared at me for a moment, then her cheeks turned red. Her expression became apologetic.

“Um… I'm sorry, Senpai. Did I make you worry?”

“Of course you did. Though I was the cause of the situation too, you shouldn't come to a secluded place alone with a boy. If he became angry and attacked you, you'd be in trouble.”

“Yes… You're right. But I couldn't control myself.”

That meant she had been genuinely furious about what Aragaki had done.

I patted her shoulder and suggested that we both go home for the day. We parted soon afterward.

I didn't assume the matter was completely over.

Even so, no more notes appeared in my shoe locker before summer vacation began.

Much later, I also learned that whenever Aragaki happened to make eye contact with either me or Emu, he looked at us as though he were terrified.