I Awakened the Power of Hypnosis

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I awakened the power of hypnosis.

It wasn’t like some grand, dramatic event had occurred. I simply awakened while walking home from work. Awakened? Realized? Just… came to know it? I’m not sure how to phrase it, but I genuinely became aware that I could use hypnosis.

It was on my way home from the office. The company wasn’t far from the bus stop, so I was trudging along on foot. Then, out of nowhere, it hit me.

It felt exactly like a program had launched inside my head. It was self-evident. That’s why I felt no confusion. But then, belatedly, my thirty-year-old ego started throwing a tantrum in the name of reason. A tangle of complicated thoughts flooded in.

What? I can use hypnosis? By whistling? Does that even make any fucking sense?

…Screw it. Just try it.

By then I had almost reached the stop. I glanced around. Who should I test it on?

A man in his ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠thirties stood a short distance from the bus stop. Looked like he’d been out drinking too, just like me. His face was flushed, and his whole body sagged with exhaustion.

Whistle, right? I pursed my lips and let out a very soft sound.

Walk forward.

I thought the command in my head. The hypnosis command.

The man remained perfectly still, shoulders slumped. Two passersby brushed past me. Feeling awkward, I pulled out my smartphone and turned on the screen.

Didn’t work? Maybe the target has to actually hear the whistle?

Now that I thought about it, that made sense. If just blowing a whistle from anywhere was enough, there would have been no need to specify whistling in the first place.

I checked my surroundings and cautiously moved closer. I didn’t want to stand right on top of him, so I kept a natural distance. Pretending to look at my phone, I blew a short, quiet whistle aimed at his ear.

In that instant, it felt like a notification window had popped up in my mind. That man was now under my hypnosis. It imprinted itself on me so naturally, so eerily clearly. Something had switched on inside my head. Exactly like running a program.

A sensation no ordinary human could feel. Like walking of your own free will.

The man began walking forward. One step. Two steps. Slowly. But steadily.

I could sense it. Right now, that person was inside my grasp—no, inside my head? The feeling that he existed within my senses.

Stop.

Just in case, I changed the command. The drunk man stopped naturally.

Okay, maybe the first time was a fluke.

Walk forward.

The man moved again. Exactly as I thought. Exactly as I commanded.

Goosebumps raced up my arms. I had no idea what kind of expression I was making. Even as excitement surged through me, I fought hard to keep my face neutral.

Still pretending to stare at my phone, I slowly circled around to the man’s opposite side. For now, I couldn’t afford to draw attention. My head was still a mess, but that one conviction was crystal clear.

With my head lowered as if focused on my screen, I kept stealing glances at him with just my eyes. The man continued walking slowly, step by step. He was stepping off the sidewalk.

He reached the edge of the pavement. People’s eyes began turning toward him one by one. Maybe they thought he was trying to hail a taxi. At first, no one paid much attention. They probably assumed he was just moving forward to board the bus. Or maybe he was waiting for a cab. A drunk person wandering to the curb wasn’t exactly common, but it wasn’t unheard of either.

But the moment the man stepped down onto the asphalt, the atmosphere shifted.

“What’s he doing?”

“He looks pretty wasted. Shouldn’t someone stop him?”

Murmurs like that rippled through the crowd. After all, it was obvious at a glance that the man wasn’t just walking—he was clearly drunk.

One concerned office worker who had been watching dashed forward.

“Hey, what are you doing!”

The instant he reached out to grab the man, I changed the command.

Three steps back!

The man jerked backward. Faster than he had been walking, exactly as I ordered.

Beeeeep—!

A car shot past right in front of his nose. Everyone at the stop flinched.

Turn around and walk back onto the sidewalk.

The man turned as if nothing had happened and stepped back onto the pavement. His face remained blankly dazed. The office worker who had stretched out his hand now looked embarrassed as he let out a shaky breath. His face twisted strangely. Panic. Embarrassment. Anger. All of it mixed together.

A chill ran down my spine.

I had done that. I had moved a person. With nothing but a thought.

And yet, at the same time, it felt strange. It wasn’t frightening. It was electrifying. Was this what people called a thrill? An emotion I had never once felt in my entire life.

“What the hell, seriously?”

The man glared at the drunk before walking back toward the stop. He muttered loud enough for everyone to hear.

“Fucking lunatic.”

It would look weird if I kept staring at my phone in a situation like this. I lifted my head belatedly, acting like someone who had just noticed the commotion. I pretended to scan the scene with a confused expression, but my eyes kept returning to the hypnotized man.

Wait. What if this ability could only be used once in a lifetime?

And I had just wasted it making one drunk office worker stand in the middle of the road?

…Fuck. That would be way too unfair.

I searched my mind. That sensation from earlier. One person. One hour. Maintain hypnosis. Can be canceled. Memory erased. That part was still vivid.

But what about the number of uses? How many times per day? How many times in a lifetime? There had been no explanation for that.

It was vague. Yet strangely, the more I thought about it, the stronger the conviction grew that I could use it again. Just like before, the judgment came from inside my head. I couldn’t tell if it was my own thought or the ability itself answering me. Either way, the certainty was real.

Right then, the bus arrived. It stopped in front of the stop, doors opening with a long hiss. People began lining up one by one.

What should I do with that guy?

If it had been a permanent condition that could only be used on one person for life, that would be one thing. But it wasn’t. I was about to cancel it when I remembered that canceling the hypnosis would erase the target’s memory of that time.

Just to be safe, I commanded the man to return roughly to where he had been standing, then canceled the hypnosis.

Once again, that bizarre sensation washed over me. It felt like a program running in my head had been terminated.

Amid this unknown sensation, I kept watching the man as I boarded the bus. He stood there with a blank face, then looked around. When he spotted the bus waiting at the stop, he gave a small start and stepped forward. The confusion on his face vanished once he realized it wasn’t the bus he had been waiting for. In that expression, there was no sign that he realized several minutes of his life had simply disappeared from his memory.

Even after I got on the bus, I continued observing him through the window until we pulled away. The man took out his smartphone and checked something. He looked perfectly normal. I couldn’t be completely sure, but it didn’t seem like the hypnosis had caused any fatal damage to his mind.

I waited for that same internal judgment I had felt earlier about the number of uses.

…No answer came.

Does that mean no? It didn’t feel like a denial. I still didn’t know if the number of times I could use hypnosis was infinite, but I would have to test it myself.

I looked around inside the bus. People heading home after work. A student wearing earphones. An old man dozing off. A woman speaking quietly on the phone. An elderly woman leaning against the window with her eyes closed.

I wanted to use it. Right now. I wanted to wield this power that had suddenly been given to me on anyone at all. I wanted to feel again what it was like to control another person, to stand above someone else.

Should I try it again?

But whistling in here would make me look like a total lunatic. If I whistled, everyone on this bus would hear it. The hypnosis would only affect the specific target I chose among those who heard the sound, but still…

Was there any way to hypnotize everyone inside this bus at once?

Only one person. And only for one hour. Only. With just this, I couldn’t even handle the handful of people on this bus.

Through the window, countless people flashed by. From them, I could sense the countless people living in this city. Beyond the city. The country. And then the world.

I let out a long breath through my nose. It was such a shame.

Don’t be disappointed. Even an ability like this is incredible.

Humans really are funny creatures. Even after receiving a miracle, we immediately crave a bigger one.

Let’s think about what I can actually do with this.

I got off the bus. On the ride, I had considered all sorts of things. First, why did I gain the power of hypnosis? That was something I couldn’t know, and the odds were high that I would never find out. Since ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠gaining the ability hadn’t caused a green antenna to sprout from the top of my head like Piccolo, the reason probably wasn’t that important.

No, it was important. If it was something I could know, I should know it. But more urgent than that was figuring out how to use this ability.

I had obtained an absolutely tremendous power… the power to freely control other people.

Lost in thought, the distance to my one-room apartment felt strangely short today. Before I knew it, I was standing in front of my building. I got on the elevator and pressed the button for the third floor. Just as the doors were about to close—

“Hold on!”

A pleasant scent entered before the person’s shape did. Then came the voice. Just that was enough to melt away my stress. It was someone I knew. The woman who lived next door on the same floor. I think she was a college student.

“Thank you.”

Huh? Oh, I had unconsciously pressed the door-open button. I didn’t even remember doing it. Was this the effect of hypnosis? Was the power of hypnosis more common than I thought? Well, with a face like that, her face itself was basically hypnosis. With looks like hers, she was probably at the top of her class, right? She must be insanely popular.

The natural, eye-crinkling smile she gave to men. There must be a ton of guys who had fallen under the hypnosis of that smile. At any rate, I was hooked. If she asked me for anything, I already ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠felt fully willing to do it, whatever it was.

The elevator doors were closing. It was impulsive.

I whistled. The hypnosis command.

Obey my words and actions.