A Trivial Secret

I regretted it the instant I watched the female college student’s pupils beside me glaze over slightly before sharpening again in real time.

CCTV. Memory loss upon release of hypnosis. One short hour. Far too restrictive to attempt anything meaningful unless I was willing to ignore the consequences entirely.

The camera on the elevator ceiling behind me felt like an itch I couldn’t scratch. Even if I groped her breasts right here and now, she wouldn’t remember a thing. But what if the building manager or owner checked the footage every single day?

I couldn’t justify the risk for a single touch over her clothes.

All those calculations flashed through my mind in less than a second.

Then a sudden headache slammed into my skull like a hammer.

Ugh. What the hell? Why now?

My face twisted into a frown on its own. Meanwhile the building’s painfully slow elevator had only just reached the second floor. No time. The third floor was seconds away.

I issued the command inside my ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠head as fast as I could.

Tell me. If there’s something you want? A secret you don’t want discovered?

“I want to do well on exams. My secret is that I lied to my parents and told them I got a scholarship for good grades. I was scared they’d make me commute from home…”

The female college student spilled her inner thoughts without hesitation, her face completely calm. She was confessing to the nameless guy next door whom she only ever greeted with a polite nod.

The content itself was trivial, but by the time she finished speaking the elevator had already arrived at the third floor and the doors had slid open.

I released the hypnosis immediately.

I stepped out first, acting as if nothing had happened, then glanced back with a puzzled expression.

She was still standing inside the elevator. She blinked once. Twice. Our eyes met. A dazed ‘Huh?’ face.

“Aren’t you getting off?”

“Eh? Yes? Oh… um…”

The female college student flusteredly checked the floor number. Third floor. She looked confused, wondering what was going on.

I casually pressed my door lock. She hurried out after me.

Beep beep beep. The door opened.

Before stepping inside I gave her a slight bow. She reflexively returned it, but the dazed look never left her face.

I closed the door. Click.

Only then did I let out a long breath and rub my temples. The headache refused to leave me alone.

Yet I found myself chuckling. Pfft.

Cute if you called it cute, trivial if you called it trivial. But secrets like that would differ from person to person. For someone, it might be something worth hiding at all costs.

I had just caught a glimpse of that fragment.

I turned on the light. A cramped studio. Bed, desk, clothing rack, sink. My ordinary, tedious room. Far too small. Small and shabby. I wished it were bigger.

Huu—

But why did my head hurt like this?

I leaned against the wall, pressing my temples. The only causal link I could think of was that the pain had hit right after activating hypnosis. So did using the ability strain my body the more I relied on it?

Yet a clear sensation of denial rose inside my mind.

No. It’s not that the body is breaking down.

Then what was it?

Consecutive use?

Affirmative. With absolute certainty.

It felt exactly like the intuition I’d had at the bus stop when I wondered whether the ability was one-time only. It wasn’t logical reasoning on my part; the ability itself seemed to be answering.

Or more precisely… I still didn’t fully understand.

Anyway, now that I knew, that was enough.

In short, using hypnosis multiple times in quick succession triggered a headache. If I tried it once more right now, would my skull split open?

In movies and dramas, overusing mental powers always ended with nosebleeds, didn’t it?

I need to be careful.

First, a shower.

Even under the warm water my imagination kept racing, though the headache kept the fantasies from lingering too long. The certainty that the ability wouldn’t vanish after a night’s sleep gave me some breathing room. Tomorrow was the weekend anyway.

After drying off I poured a glass of ice water, turned on the computer, and searched everything I could about hypnosis.

While jumping from link to link, web novels kept appearing in the results.

Hypnosis novels?

A quick look at the gallery showed there were quite a lot of them. Searching the word brought up all sorts of things. I quickly made an account and started skimming through several titles.

But… the covers were plastered with provocative women, and sure enough…

I couldn’t speak for the later chapters, but every hypnosis story I checked used the ability for one thing only: sleeping with women. Not even for anything else—just that.

Well, it was arousing, I had to admit. These writers really knew how to make it hot. Was that why people read web novels?

As I read, the image of the female college student next door rose naturally in my mind. That beautiful face. Her well-proportioned figure. The way her lips had moved when she spoke under hypnosis. The woman who had obeyed my every word. The hypnosis that let me control her completely.

What would her naked body have looked like?

My erection refused to subside.

Sigh. There was no one I could ask.

My friends had all drifted away for various reasons, and I couldn’t exactly walk up to my coworkers and casually ask what they would do if they suddenly gained the power to hypnotize people.

Then I remembered the gallery where I had first learned about hypnosis novels. I had never posted there before, but maybe it was worth a try.

It felt awkward, yet the protagonists in those stories—my so-called predecessors—were all obsessed with women and nothing else, so they were useless. I had no choice but to borrow the power of collective intelligence.

I posted it and refreshed after a few seconds. A comment had already appeared. Was this place haunted? Surprised by the macro-like speed, I clicked on it.

Then what… Fragments of thoughts scattered inside my head. Controlling people. The fact that the target could be anyone. What that truly meant was—

Of course the limitation of only being able to control one person for one hour was painfully restrictive, but still.

I refreshed again after a moment of thought.

…Is this place full of lunatics? Do they all have their brains attached to their dicks?

The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠only one who seemed even slightly normal was FurryManse. Should I reply and ask him? But what the hell was a furry? I searched it on Google…

Fuck. I really didn’t need to know that.

Feeling like my mind had been dirtied for no reason, I shut the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠computer down. The headache felt worse. On top of all the alcohol from the company dinner, the pain, and now these lunatics…

I’ll think about it tomorrow.

I collapsed onto the bed. I must have been more exhausted than I realized; my consciousness sank almost immediately. In that fading awareness, one stray thought rose to the surface.

…But could it work on animals too?

The next morning, the first thing I did after opening my eyes was check the sensation of my hypnosis ability. I couldn’t explain exactly how I checked it, but the information rose clearly in my mind.

Relief washed over me. It hadn’t been a one-night dream that would vanish by morning.

I reviewed what I had learned yesterday. Consecutive use caused a headache intense enough to feel like my skull was splitting. Good.

And another crucial fact: today was Saturday. The weekend.

I needed to go outside and test the ability properly. I briefly considered searching for more ways to use it online, but after seeing nothing but lunatics in that gallery yesterday, I decided against it.

Let’s just go out and experiment.

With that decision made, I headed to wash up. While looking in the mirror, a thought suddenly hit me.

Why didn’t I think of this before? What happens if I use it on myself?

I pondered ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠for a moment. But if I hypnotized myself, who would release it?

Ah, right. It would automatically end after one hour.

…Was I really this slow?

I took a deep breath and prepared. I would need to look at my reflection since the ability seemed to require visual recognition of the target. To avoid falling, I lowered my stance for stability and gripped the sink with both hands. Just in case, I wrapped my head in a thick winter coat even though it looked ridiculous. If I passed out and cracked my skull on the toilet, it would look like an accident but would actually be the all-time number one Darwin Award winner: a superhuman who died testing hypnosis on himself by smashing his head on a toilet.

I even closed the toilet lid to reduce the danger before trying.

I whistled.

Go lie down on the bed.

But no matter how much I whistled or how clearly I commanded inside my head, nothing happened.

Did the ability disappear?

I asked myself internally. Can it be used on myself?

Negative judgment.

The sight of myself in the mirror—thick winter coat wrapped around my head—looked utterly pathetic. I clicked my tongue, got dressed properly, and left the studio.

Click.

As if by coincidence, the female college student next door opened her door at the exact same moment. It was Saturday so she wouldn’t be going to class, yet she was dressed in a refreshing beige dress, clearly heading out somewhere fun.

Perfect timing.

I whistled again immediately.

Obey my words and actions.

Even if someone watched through the CCTV it wouldn’t look strange. It would simply seem like we were having a naturally long conversation instead of taking the elevator right away.

But the hypnosis didn’t take.

What? Did the ability really disappear?

It hadn’t worked on me in the bathroom earlier either… No. The judgment had clearly been negative. But right now… what was going on?

Why the hell isn’t it working?