Evasion Archery Training (1)
Here I was, wanting nothing more than to keep up the hypnosis training so I could get stronger fast — and who would've thought Sora would be the first to say it out loud.
Last time I'd given her a choice between two options and forced her to pick one. Compared to that day, today definitely felt different in a subtle way.
"Ready, Sora?"
"...Yeah. I'm ready, so you can start whenever."
Han Sora nodded with a grave expression, as if steeling herself for something. Seeing that reaction, I figured she was probably planning to try something while she was "under hypnosis." There was no other explanation — she'd never make a face like that over a mere archery session.
And if she did try something, my guess was it would be some attempt at feminine appeal, or maybe a small flirtation aimed at me.
Well, jumping to conclusions is a sin, as always.
There was still a nonzero chance she simply wanted to train seriously. Maybe she'd heard what Choi Marie said in class today and wanted to pull good grades in Teamwork and Strategy, or maybe she wanted to make up for the week's worth of training we'd missed together. Until I knew for sure, I wouldn't touch the subject first. Calculating risk over return before every move — that was the whole essence of my ability.
-Shff.
"Ah, uuh..."
I cast Suggestion: Hypnosis with a light touch of mana, and Han Sora accepted it with a faint shiver running through her body, as if slightly nervous. But despite that guarded attitude, the mana cost of the suggestion had dropped to almost nothing — barely above baseline. It meant her wariness toward the "hypnosis" I cast had fallen right along with it.
Feeling, deep down, just how much of a relationship I'd built with her, I launched straight into the "hypnosis training" as usual.
"Sora, you're under hypnosis, right?"
"...Yeah. I'm under hypnosis right now."
"It's been a while, so let's check your form first. Get into your usual training stance and draw the bow for me?"
"Okay, got it."
Maybe it was just my imagination, but her movements looked a little stiff as she slowly settled into position, and the form that took shape before me was about what I'd expected. After a whole week of carefully correcting her posture, just a few days apart and half of it had already slid back toward her old shooting habits.
She'd probably been training alone, noticed her accuracy dropping off, gotten desperate, and let her body drift toward whatever felt comfortable. If I'd left her alone another month like this, she might have regressed almost all the way back to square one.
Honestly, having this much to fix works in my favor.
The slower her progress, the longer she'd need to depend on me — the longer my window to train her. And the more excuses I'd have to put my hands on Han Sora's body under the guise of fixing her form.
With those thoughts in mind, I reached out with a casual remark, starting from her lower body.
"Your form's drifted quite a bit in the time I haven't seen it. I'm going to touch you a little, so bear with me, Sora."
"...Yeah. I-I'm under hypnosis anyway, so you don't have to worry about it."
Right. That's exactly why I'm not worrying.
I wrapped both hands around her leg from the calf and deliberately drew them upward in a slow, caressing motion.
-Shff.
"Hh, hhng..."
Despite the blatant, stroke-like movement, Han Sora couldn't resist. She was under Suggestion: Hypnosis to begin with, and I had the perfect alibi of correcting her posture — she'd have a hard time suspecting anything. Trust in me must have been running sky-high in her head by now.
And it wasn't as if I was skipping the actual corrections, either. Sure, I was savoring the feel of her legs as I stroked them, but I was faithfully doing my job too — turning her splayed-out feet inward, and so on. Just as a little truth mixed into a lie makes the lie more convincing, a little earnest effort mixed into groping makes it awfully hard to call it groping.
-Squish.
"Hyii—?!"
"...Ah, sorry. Was just steadying your hips. Reflex."
"Y-you don't have to apologize. I'm under hypnosis."
Even with me openly kneading her ass under the excuse of rotating her misaligned pelvis back into place, all Han Sora could do was keep up the charade of being hypnotized. Once I confirmed that this level of skinship raised no objections, I got bolder with her body.
-Rub, rub.
"Hh, hmm..."
Bringing my hand up over her lower belly under the pretense of straightening her spine, stroking it gently.
-Squeeze, squeezze.
"Hit, hiit..."
"Pull your arms back a little more. Spine perpendicular to the floor."
"O-okay..."
Under the excuse of loosening up a form that was already perfect, I'd break it slightly and reset it — and in the process, catch another faint trace of the feel of her chest I'd sampled before. The way she couldn't say a word even when I pressed my palm right up against her breast was honestly pretty cute.
Watching her be this docile, I felt a real sense of payoff for that past month of playing innocent and dismantling her guard piece by piece.
This much should be plenty for the opening stage.
My personal appetites were more or less satisfied for now, so I intended to take the training seriously from here on out. No matter how high her favorability toward me had climbed, that feeling included affection for "Lee Seonho, who helps with my training."
A pervert Lee Seonho who ignored the training entirely and just chased his own desires could never win Han Sora's heart completely.
"Last time we ended at ten Sprearmen, right? It's been a while, so let's warm up our feel for it with eight first, then move on."
"...Okay, got it."
"I'll hold your form, so just move as I move you. And don't forget to recall the release — the feel of letting the string go when I give the signal..."
And so Han Sora and I began the full-fledged "hypnosis training," our bodies layered front to back as always. Drinking in all the skinship I'd been putting off, I pressed myself flush against her and made my presence felt — quite unmistakably — near her rear.
-Piiing, thock!
'Geuhk!!'
"...Whew."
I released the bowstring in time with Seonho's fingers giving the back of my hand a light pinch.
...When I trained alone, my shots would drift off target from the same form. But with Seonho behind me, holding my posture — it really is different.
"Nice shot, Sora. Even after the break, your skill hasn't gone anywhere."
"...Thank you."
...It's not the break. It's you. You're what makes it good.
It was a little frustrating, wanting to say those words and having to swallow them inside. Not being able to fully express how grateful I was to Seonho always left me with this guilty feeling.
I kept thinking how nice it would be if I could convey even a sliver of this gratitude to him. But no matter what, announcing that I'd voluntarily do something for him while "under hypnosis" would be way too weird, wouldn't it?
If it ever came out that all this "hypnosis training" had actually been me pretending to be hypnotized the whole time, it would be mortifying for both of us.
"I'd say you've gotten fairly comfortable with the standing shot now, so we can start moving into the applied stage."
"......"
"I was thinking it's about time we learned evasion shooting, and you, Sora... ah, right, you're under hypnosis."
"......"
"Well, it should be fine. Even under hypnosis, your real feelings don't change. I'll just explain what the training was after it wears off."
I'm under hypnosis anyway, so he doesn't need to worry about my feelings. He can just run it however he likes.
That saintly personality of his is going to lose out one of these days, I swear. Thankfully, none of the people who gather around Seonho seem inclined to exploit that nature maliciously — for now, anyway.
...And thinking that just makes the guilt hit harder. Here I am, taking and taking from Seonho one-sidedly, unable to give him anything back.
"Sora, even though you're under hypnosis, just think of this as a regular question from me and answer honestly."
"......Mm-hm."
"You've practiced stationary shooting quite a lot, so I'm thinking of starting evasion shooting training soon. How do you feel about that?"
"...I'm fine with anything. Anything you've prepared for me, Seonho."
It's not like there's any reason to refuse training when I'm the one receiving all the help. And besides, nothing Seonho prepares for training could ever be wrong for me.
"Great. I'll get things set up, then."
Seonho smiled, apparently satisfied with my answer, and started fiddling with the training ground's console. Watching his back quietly, I felt a rush of emotions all at once.
After all, this was archery training I was stealing from his personal time. He'd told me it counted as team practice for the Teamwork and Strategy group project, but honestly, I knew perfectly well it was just an excuse to help me train.
I simply couldn't bring myself to refuse someone who'd go that far to help me, so I pretended to accept the reasoning and let it be.
The fact that he'd offered first — made the very suggestion I'd been dying to bring up myself but hadn't been able to out of guilt — was enough to make me want to repay him somehow. That badly.
...Like, say, letting him touch my chest or something. I remember hearing somewhere that men go crazy the moment they get to touch a girl's breasts.
...That probably doesn't apply to me, though.
If there are breasts that feel good to touch and breasts that are just... there, mine would have to be the latter.
If mine were even as big as Cha Eunju's... no, wait, Cha Eunju's are way too big, she doesn't count. But if I were at least Choi Marie-sunbae's size, I could have floated it as a joke, just once. With this flat chest, even joking about it would be too embarrassing.
...Then again, even if I did say it, Seonho wouldn't take it seriously, would he?
If I asked "Wanna touch my chest?", what would that innocent boy even do? Best case, he goes blank with shock and then gets mad at me for saying stuff like that.
After all, when a guy goes so far as to put hypnosis on a girl, this is what it amounts to with him — earnest archery training. With me, who gets called pretty wherever I go, whose only flaw is slightly small breasts, he doesn't do anything weird at all.
If anything, if we were actually dating, maybe I could push the conversation somewhere bolder — but we're not. And I don't know his type well enough to confess to him myself, which scares me a little.
So for now, all I can do is keep it piled up inside. Someday, an opportunity to repay this debt to Seonho will come. It has to.
"Evasion shooting's all set up, Sora."
"......Yeah."
Seonho came back from configuring the training ground wearing an expression that had no idea — not even in his wildest dreams — what I was thinking with him standing right in front of me. His body pressed against my back again, layering us front to back a little more snugly.
-Shff.
"Starting now, Sora."
"Yeah..."
With our bodies pressed together, there's this thing that keeps poking against the back of my... that. That's got to be 'that thing,' right...?
The day after I stayed over at Seonho's place, I looked it up, and apparently a size like his is supposed to be, um, enormous... yeah.
I never noticed it before because I wasn't paying any attention, but today it keeps catching my focus, for some reason. It's probably just that now that I know the facts, my attention gravitates there accordingly.
'Not that Seonho seems to have any spare attention for it — he's completely absorbed in my training.'
And this just makes it feel like I'm the only lewd one here, seriously. It's not like I went looking for it on purpose.
Right. Don't think about it. When it's time to train, focus on training and nothing else. Getting distracted by weird things and botching the session helps no one...
-Piiiiiiing!
"Arrow incoming from the front! Jump right!"
"...Huh?!"
Seonho's voice rang in my ear while I was off in la-la land. Before I could even process what he'd said, my body was already tilting to the right along with his.
-Tap!
"Reset your form fast and snipe! Against ranged monsters, a quick kill shot is everything!"
"O-okay!"
Ah, right. This is evasion shooting now, not stationary.
In the field, monsters aren't going to stand there politely while I take my time aiming. Yeah — I can see why this kind of training matters.
-Piiing!!
"On your right! Pivot off your left foot and rotate your body right!"
"R-right, confirmed...!"
-Fweee!
"We're taking out the goblin archer on the right first! Eleven o'clock relative to where your body's facing! Tell me when you're ready!"
"R-ready!"
"Then loose, now!"
-Piiiiiing!!
'Kerchuuuk!!'
"Good, back to evasion! This one's coming from the left!"
"Haa, hha, haa...?!"
...I know. I know it's necessary training.
But this evasion shooting thing... it's way more intense than I imagined...