First Impressions (8)
The rustle of fabric was barely audible.
Only someone like me—with these cool, cute rabbit ears—could pick it up. An ordinary human probably wouldn’t even notice.
Yeah.
Exactly.
The reason I could register every single whisper of cloth as I undressed was entirely because I was a rabbit beastman.
It had nothing to do with being so tense that every nerve in my body had zeroed in on my ears. Nope. Not at all.
Rustle…
Click.
The soft sound of the basket as I set my clothes inside was the last noise. Then silence swallowed the changing room whole.
“…….”
“…….”
This was awkward.
Turning around felt impossible.
Why?
Calm down. Just calm down, Luna.
Think rationally.
Why does this feel so weird?
Because Theo was in the same space, right behind me. Because we were both completely naked.
But that was strange in itself. Sure, I had a woman’s body now, but only a few weeks ago I’d been a perfectly functional man with all the original equipment.
Changing rooms, pools, bathhouses—I’d seen more naked male bodies than I could count. A man’s body had just been… a body. Nothing more. No special feelings, no lingering thoughts. It was literally just the dictionary definition.
So I was fine. That was the correct response. I turned around like it was no big deal.
Theo stood there without a stitch on, just like me.
Yeah. It was about the same as the bodies I used to see on the bros at the gym back when I was a guy. Nothing particularly special. Nope. Not at all.
Theo hadn’t turned around either, mirroring what I’d done earlier.
Of course he hadn’t.
I used to be a man, so I could stand here completely unfazed. But Theo wasn’t like that.
Couldn’t be helped~
In that case, the relaxed one—me—would have to take the lead.
“Hey, Theo. What are you just standing there for? You’re not coming in?”
“I am. I will. Just… give me a second to mentally prepare.”
“Keep preparing and Faye’s gonna walk out. Come on, move it.”
“W-wait a sec…”
I shoved Theo’s back toward the bath before he could finish steeling himself.
His back felt surprisingly solid under my palm. Made sense—he wasn’t just a mage; he trained with a staff too. Forget the usual stereotype of scrawny spellcasters. Theo’s body was well-balanced and muscular.
No wonder I’d thought of the gym bros.
Theo let himself be pushed forward, pretending he couldn’t resist.
We were only a few steps from the bath when—
“Whoa.”
Theo’s startled voice cut off his movement. No matter how hard I pushed, he wouldn’t budge.
What’s with this guy?
But seriously throwing my weight into it over something this small would’ve looked pathetic. I scanned the area for the cause of his weird behavior… and found it.
I really, really found it.
A huge mirror stood between the changing room and the bath. It reflected both Theo and me with merciless clarity. Through its stupidly clean surface, I could even see Theo’s expression in perfect detail—a completely dazed, idiot look on his face.
I didn’t need to wonder what he was staring at.
Just as his face was clearly visible, so was my entire naked body.
Ah…
Um…
It really was a little embarrassing.
Still. Act natural. Act natural.
“What’s wrong? Why aren’t you moving? Did my beauty short-circuit your brain?”
“…….”
“Haha, I am pretty, aren’t I? But you’d better get used to it. You’re gonna meet plenty of other pretty girls.”
“…….”
“So stop staring at me and look forw… ard……”
“…….”
“Umm……”
I’d tried to keep it playful, but Theo stayed completely silent.
Dude, say something. You’re making this weird for me too.
The mood had gone completely off the rails.
My legs kept fidgeting. My rabbit ears kept twitching. This ticklish, squirmy feeling—I didn’t know how else to describe it.
Then, salvation came from an unexpected direction.
- Hum~ Hmm-hmm~ Hum~
A soft humming drifted from the bathhouse.
Faye’s little tune gently melted the frozen atmosphere.
In the mirror, Theo’s eyes met mine.
Blink. Blink.
After a brief system reboot, Theo whipped his head away.
“Ah, uh, right. Faye. What are we going to do about Faye?”
His voice practically dripped with panic, but at least he was trying to change the subject.
“Faye? Ahem. What about her?”
“You know how my hypnosis works. It doesn’t just succeed no matter what. If I suddenly tell her to bathe with a man, it probably won’t take. We need a better approach, right?”
“Oh.”
For something he’d thrown out just to shift the mood, it was surprisingly solid.
The hypnosis genre had its own set of clichés. Sometimes it was a total cheat that worked on anyone the moment you cast it. In those cases you didn’t need strategy—just fire the hypnosis beam and done.
But after seeing what happened with Claire, Theo’s version clearly wasn’t that broken. The original game hadn’t been a straight-up hypnosis porn story anyway. From a balance perspective, it made sense.
Though if he’d had enough brain cells to think about balance, maybe he should’ve spent some on the actual plot.
Anyway, Theo’s hypnosis was relatively realistic. It worked by creating a plausible scenario and guiding the target into accepting it.
In other words, the key was how you shaped the situation.
In this case, the problem was Faye’s belief that there’s no way I’d bathe with a man.
“The simplest fix is probably a suggestion that ‘there are no men here.’ Suddenly imagining a guy walking into the bathhouse is pretty unrealistic, so she’ll naturally accept the idea that no one actually came in.”
“Hmm. Huh.”
“What’s with that reaction?”
“Nothing. It’s just… more convincing than I expected. Why do you know so much about hypnosis?”
“…….”
No way I’m telling him.
That when I was a guy I owed a massive debt to countless works in this genre? I’d rather die.
Better stay silent. This was definitely a silence moment.
“Well, whatever. If hypnosis works like you described, Luna… Okay. I’ve got a decent idea.”
“An idea? What is it?”
“First, you go in and…”
For a brief time, the villain who used hypnosis to toy with women and his willing partner held a strategy meeting.
And then…
-------------
Theo was extremely conflicted.
Luna dragging a girl named Faye back to their hideout without saying a single word to him? Well… yeah. He could let that slide.
But then she’d casually told him to ambush the girl while she was bathing.
Even someone as mild-mannered as Theo had gotten angry at being treated like a criminal.
In that burst of irritation, he’d thought then you try it too and dragged Luna in with him.
Watching the usually brazen Luna suddenly go quiet in the changing room had given him a strangely dark sense of satisfaction.
The weird atmosphere that followed… let’s just move on.
Anyway, the plan had worked. He’d successfully hypnotized Faye.
The suggestion had been simple: This is Theo’s building. Therefore, while using the facilities, you must comply with the owner’s requests.
So when he intruded on her bath, she accepted it without resistance. After all, bathing together had been one of those “requests.”
Thanks to that, Theo got to enjoy the extravagant luxury of a mixed bath with two beautiful girls.
A moment any man would envy.
However…
“Whoa! Theo, your body is incredible! Can I touch it?”
It was overwhelming!
This orange-colored puppy—Faye—closed the distance without the slightest hesitation.
Did this girl not feel any shame at all?
Theo had used hypnosis, yes. But he’d only made her accept the mixed bath. He hadn’t told her to discard her sense of embarrassment.
Which meant Faye was currently in full Since I’m already bathing with a man, let’s explore every single thing I’ve been curious about! mode.
She kept poking his arm muscles, squeezing his shoulders. Even though her own naked body was completely exposed, she made no move to cover herself. All her attention was laser-focused on groping Theo’s physique.
He actually started wondering if he was the one who’d been hypnotized.
Even someone with limited experience with women like Theo could tell Faye’s reaction was different from a normal girl’s.
Probably because the other woman sharing the bath was acting like that over on her side.
“…….”
A single rabbit had claimed the far edge of the bath, keeping her distance from Theo.
In that she wasn’t even trying to cover herself with a towel while bathing with a man, Luna was actually similar to Faye.
Still, if Theo had to pick which one was closer to his idea of a “normal woman,” it was Luna. At least she wasn’t actively approaching while showing everything.
“She’d be pretty if she just stayed still like that.”
The moment the words left his mouth, Theo startled himself.
Luna was beautiful. That was undeniable.
But her usual carefree attitude and forehead-flick-inducing behavior made her feel less like a romantic interest and more like… well, just a girl who happened to be annoying.
That’s what he’d thought.
Yet seeing her naked like this, he suddenly felt incredibly generous about overlooking her usual irritating habits.
That chest, though. Couldn’t be helped.
“By the way, where did you learn that staff technique from earlier? It didn’t look like random swinging.”
The cute, chattering chest right in front of him, and the violently proportioned breasts quietly asserting their presence a short distance away.
A certain physiological reaction was inevitable.
“…Mm.”
Theo subtly leaned his hips back. Thankfully, Faye just assumed he was uncomfortable sitting and let it slide without suspicion.
But unlike Faye, there was someone present who understood exactly what that awkward posture meant.
“Hehe, hehehe. Faye, why don’t you get a little closer and touch more? I’m sure Theo won’t mind.”
“Wow! Really?”
They were already close enough to reach out and touch, yet Luna was actively encouraging her to close the distance even further.
It was a prank only possible because she’d noticed Theo’s condition.
“Luna, you…!”
When their eyes met, Luna flashed a mischievous grin.
Her face was burning red from the mixed-bath situation, but she still tried to smile like everything was normal. The bravado was completely transparent, yet the provocation still landed.
However, this Theo was different from yesterday’s Theo.
He’d realized that Luna’s constant sly jabs and aggressive attitude were just ways to hide her weak defenses.
“Sure. You can come closer. And Luna, why don’t you come closer too? It’d be nice if you stood next to Faye.”
The counterattack had begun.