When she realized she was utterly powerless to stop Lin Ye, Isshiki Iroha finally understood what a terrible thing it had been to agree so rashly.
She hadn't even understood the situation—how could she have agreed so carelessly!
Now look at the mess she was in.
Her body was completely beyond her control.
Even though she felt Senpai wasn't the type to do something like bully a girl…
No.
The moment she thought of what had happened last night between Senpai and Ryou Fujibayashi, and the moment she thought of that scene with Kyou Fujibayashi during the day, her confidence in Lin Ye plummeted to its lowest point, leaving scarcely any faith behind.
Before, Senpai had been a virgin who'd never touched a girl, who had no idea what girls were like at all. In the face of her teasing and mockery and seduction, Senpai would just 'bashfully and awkwardly' dodge away, occasionally firing back head-on, but he'd never actually lay a hand on her.
But now—was that really still true?
He'd already taken that step, already crossed the line drawn on that day.
Wouldn't there be a second time, a third time?
Isshiki Iroha knew full well that, as a woman, she still fit men's aesthetic tastes and preferences quite nicely.
Don't be fooled by the way Senpai usually looked at her with disdain—he definitely acknowledged her charm, so…
"Fifty high knee-raises."
Isshiki Iroha: ???
But her body obediently sprang into motion.
'Thump, thump, thump…'
'Thump, thump, thump…'
Isshiki Iroha raised her knees without stopping.
Drenched in sweat, her forehead, her body, sweat streaming down, her clothes soaked through.
At last,
the fifty high knee-raises were done.
Isshiki Iroha was panting and gasping, sucking in great gulps of air. Soaked in sweat, she looked toward Lin Ye.
"Sen… haah, haah… Senpai,"
"Bullying a girl like this… you're going too far."
"Then, next…"
"No, Senpai…"
Realizing what Lin Ye was about to do, Isshiki Iroha summoned an unprecedented strength—even her aching legs couldn't stop her from pressing forward. In a single bound she rushed right up in front of Lin Ye, and with sore, swollen hands she clamped them tightly over Lin Ye's mouth.
"Let me off, please let me off!"
"I, I… I can't take it anymore, really… I can't bear it."
"I'm begging you… really… I'm begging you."
...
Those mournful, pleading words echoed through the first floor.
Lin Ye couldn't help but laugh—he'd finally managed to wear down this lively, outgoing little junior.
Isshiki had finally learned what fear was, too.
"Aw, that won't do! Isshiki, you're supposed to help me test the limits of this ability of mine."
Isshiki Iroha shook her head hard. "I, I can't… let… let Sister Ryou do it."
"No way, I can't bear to make Ryou tire herself out."
Isshiki Iroha: ???
But you can bear it just fine with me!
She really was about to cry.
What sin had she committed to deserve this!?
"Sen, Senpai… I, I'm a girl too… a precious one,"
"Average, I'd say!"
"..."
Acting like this, you really won't ever get a girlfriend.
But then Isshiki Iroha thought of Ryou Fujibayashi.
That girl was already warming his bed and sleeping beside him—becoming Senpai's girlfriend definitely wasn't going to be any trouble at all.
Sigh, how sad—even this tiny little curse of hers wouldn't come true.
"Senpai, let… let me off! I, I'll do anything… you want,"
Lin Ye raised his right hand and pointed. "Right now you are extremely willing to do anything."
Hard to refute.
No room whatsoever to refute it.
No matter how much her mind objected, her body still obeyed Lin Ye's commands without fail.
No matter how uncomfortable her muscles and body became, she would still give her all to fulfill whatever Lin Ye asked—and until it was done, she absolutely would not stop.
"I'll… I'll die, I'll break, Senpai… you don't cherish me at all, I, I'm going to be… played to pieces!"
Isshiki Iroha let out a wail of grief,
clinging to Lin Ye and refusing to let go even a little.
Only like this could she feel the faintest sliver of possibility.
"Promise me one thing. Do me a favor."
"Tw-two things… anything's fine,"
Even ten things would be fine.
"No, one thing will do,"
Facing Lin Ye's serious gaze, Isshiki Iroha nodded vigorously.
"Tell me… Senpai, tell me."
Lin Ye slowly opened his mouth. "I need you to forget what happened today. I don't want other people to know."
So that was all it was!
Isshiki Iroha let out a sigh of relief.
She loosened her grip a little, straightened her clothes, and made herself calmer and more composed so she'd look in better shape.
"Senpai, for something like this, I… as your junior, of course I can keep it secret for you and not let anyone else know. Please… set your mind at ease! My lips are sealed tight."
She put both hands on her hips, a show of her confidence.
Keeping a secret—too easy.
Agree for now, get past this crisis, and then…
"So, you're agreeing?"
"Of course,"
Isshiki Iroha answered at once.
"As long as you agree. With that one word from you, I'm at ease."
Lin Ye patted Isshiki Iroha on the shoulder.
"By the way, Isshiki, didn't you want to know the name of this ability of mine?"
"Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, Senpai, you're willing to tell me now?"
Isshiki Iroha had a few guesses, but in the end, confirming it still required Lin Ye to say it himself.
It should, probably… it couldn't be… that one, could it!?
"Hypnosis. That's what this ability of mine is,"
Isshiki Iroha's eyes widened slightly.
Even though she'd had a premonition, she still couldn't stop herself from trembling.
It really was the male protagonist's superpower from those hentai works—Hypnosis!
If any other man got hold of this power, probably every pretty girl in the whole world would be unable to escape his clutches, getting bullied in all sorts of ways.
It was only Senpai who had absolutely no idea how to use this power correctly.
Pitiful, lamentable, such a waste!
At this moment,
Isshiki Iroha was lamenting why she didn't have this power, why she wasn't a boy—if both of those were true, she would absolutely indulge herself to the fullest and enjoy the blissful life this power could bring!
"Senpai, haven't you… ever thought of doing this and that, just like the male protagonists in the Inner World?"
Lin Ye looked at Isshiki Iroha, his expression rather calm. "Do you want to be poured full like a cream puff?"
Isshiki Iroha shook her head hard. "I, I'm talking about other girls! The other girls you like… if you hypnotized them… couldn't you just toy with them as you pleased?"
"Am I that kind of person?"
"Senpai is capable of being that kind of person."
"Starting with you?"
Isshiki Iroha shook her little head once again.
Why did it feel like Senpai had set his sights on her, the way he kept asking her!
"Since you're unwilling, then let's get down to our real business!"
Those words from Lin Ye made Isshiki Iroha freeze.
"What real business?"
"The thing you agreed to just now yourself,"
"Keeping the secret? Of course I'll keep it secret! Unless Senpai wants me to sign a confidentiality agreement—well, that's… not impossible either."
Yielding to Lin Ye's intimidating presence, Isshiki Iroha decided to compromise and go along for now.
It was just a signature, after all!
Very simple.
Lin Ye placed both hands on the girl's shoulders. This serious attitude suddenly stirred up a flicker of foreboding in Isshiki Iroha's heart.
"Senpai, this is…"
"Forgetting what happened today—wasn't that the thing we settled on from the very start?"
"Uh, just now I…"
But a suspicion gradually surfaced in Isshiki Iroha's mind.
The dread that had been receding from her heart gradually welled back up.
Could it be,
could it be that Senpai meant to use this power to make her forget everything that happened today?
This… that's impossible, surely that's impossible!
How could Hypnosis possibly make a person lose their memory!?
But Isshiki Iroha instinctively took a step back—even her aching muscles couldn't stop her from continuing to move away from Lin Ye.
She instinctively recoiled from memory loss; she would rather be hurt than lose her memories.
Memories were especially precious to her.
"Looks like you've understood,"
Lin Ye smiled faintly, his eyes gazing at the girl,
"No, Senpai, you can't, you can't do this."
"This is the thing you agreed to,"
"I'll go back on—"
But Lin Ye, a step faster, appeared directly in front of Isshiki Iroha. His hands unceremoniously cupped her chin, his eyes meeting hers, and he slowly said, "Isshiki, forget everything that happened today."
The ability activated.
Lin Ye felt a surge of power manifest within him, and Isshiki Iroha's eyes went from bright to hazy.
"Sleep, and when you wake, you'll forget everything that happened today."
Isshiki Iroha's hands, gripping Lin Ye's arms, gradually went slack, and her whole body quickly lost its strength and crumpled limply down.
Lin Ye immediately caught the girl.
"Looks like it works after all,"
Memory could be tampered with too.
But the specifics still had to wait until Isshiki woke up to be confirmed.
If Hypnosis couldn't make Isshiki Iroha forget completely, then he'd just have to choose some other method to keep Isshiki quiet and a little more obedient.
Lin Ye laid Isshiki Iroha down on the sofa.
"You two can come down now."
He had long since noticed the Fujibayashi sisters at the entrance to the stairway.
The two sisters probably had a rough idea of his ability now as well.
"Lin, Lin-kun…"
But before Ryou Fujibayashi could finish, Kyou Fujibayashi strode right up to Lin Ye. "You—you haven't used your Hypnosis on Ryou, have you~!"
She was scared too!
Scared that her little sister had been hypnotized into doing something like that.
"Sister, Lin-kun didn't!"
Ryou Fujibayashi was so startled she'd nearly thought her sister was about to charge over and hit Lin Ye—but fortunately Kyou Fujibayashi hadn't gotten impulsive enough to actually raise a hand.
"Your word isn't convincing,"
"But if Lin-kun deliberately lied to you, wouldn't you fail to get an accurate answer either?"
That was a fact.
But what she wanted was precisely a single word from Lin Ye.
"Answer me,"
"I haven't."
Lin Ye said.
"Good."
Kyou Fujibayashi didn't press the matter any further.
"I hope you won't use your Hypnosis on Ryou from now on either."
She did not want, in the slightest, to be controlled by that kind of power.
But she also understood that, apart from issuing a warning and pinning her hopes on Lin Ye's character, there really wasn't any better method available to her.
"I won't misuse this power."
If he'd wanted to misuse it, who knew how many heaven-defying, outrageous things he'd already have done.
Kyou Fujibayashi could only accept it.
After that, she bowed toward Lin Ye—a sight that left Lin Ye unable to react.
Why on earth was the perfectly-fine Kyou Fujibayashi bowing in apology?
"I'm sorry. The truth is… I declined that invitation,"
"I… I don't have the memories of that world. The 'Give yourself to him' was merely a record I'd kept, along with your angry reaction at the time,"
...
After Kyou Fujibayashi's explanation,
Lin Ye more or less understood.
He'd misjudged the situation back then, which had let Kyou Fujibayashi confirm that matter through his reaction.
Lin Ye was at a loss.
Back then, the moment he thought Kyou Fujibayashi had accepted the invitation, he'd been so angry he'd cursed her out on the spot.
And in the end, in the end it was all something that didn't even exist.
"Phew…"
After a good while,
Lin Ye slowly let out a breath.
This sent Kyou Fujibayashi—who had been waiting anxiously to the side, heart in her throat, bracing for Lin Ye's furious, stormy tirade—to the very peak of tension.
What sort of scolding was she about to receive next?
Kyou Fujibayashi was uneasy and on edge, yet she also felt that letting Lin Ye scold her harshly would be a fitting price for having deceived him.
She recalled that day when, even through a phone, she could feel the genuine concern coming from Lin Ye.
From now on, she'd probably never get to feel it again.
"It's good that you don't have to take part in any mandatory instance. Live well, and cherish the people around you."
In a certain sense, this news was a good thing.
Kyou Fujibayashi didn't have to take part in the Strange Game and could live on safe and sound.
He'd still been racking his brains over how to boost Kyou Fujibayashi's strength in a short time, even preparing to pick out several suitable Strange objects for that purpose.
Now that was settled.
None of that was needed anymore.
"Thank you,"
"Thank your little sister!"
"But thanks to you are necessary as well,"
Kyou Fujibayashi still insisted on thanking him. "I think about the promise between us—if you feel you can accept canceling it, then let's cancel it!"
Instead, she was the one seeking Lin Ye's opinion first. If Lin Ye were unwilling, she wouldn't cancel it on her end, and would still go on honoring the agreement.
Listening to this, Ryou Fujibayashi only felt her sister was making an unnecessary fuss.
Wasn't this putting Lin-kun in a difficult spot?
This should have been something her sister stated her own stance on outright, rather than tossing the burden back onto Lin-kun.
"I have no problem with it."
Lin Ye agreed.
With this matter able to be resolved, he no longer needed to keep honoring that agreement with Kyou Fujibayashi.
"Mm,"
Kyou Fujibayashi nodded.
She felt a sense of relief, and also a touch of melancholy.
"I'll make it up to you in some other way. Please rest assured—I, Kyou Fujibayashi, am not the kind of person who forgets a debt of gratitude."
She made a new promise to Lin Ye.
Lin Ye accepted it with composure.
The matter with Kyou Fujibayashi was now thoroughly concluded.
And she wouldn't interfere in his affairs with Ryou Fujibayashi—she probably wouldn't interfere excessively.
Lin Ye had originally intended to use the superpower of Hypnosis to make Kyou Fujibayashi forget this whole thing, forget everything about the promise and the agreement.
But given the girl's attitude now, he didn't need to use that method.
"Since the agreement with me has been cancelled, then—now you can officially become my little sister's lover, right!"
With a single sentence, the atmosphere that had only just settled grew tense once again.
'Ring-a-ling…'
'Ring-a-ling…'
But at that moment,
a sudden ringing broke the deadlock before them.
Lin Ye picked up his phone and looked at the caller ID.
Yukinoshita—Yukino Yukinoshita.
His Quasi-fiancée.
A call at this hour was highly unusual.
After all, today was Monday, and Sobu High had its regular classes.
There was no reason for Yukinoshita to call at this hour, unless something important had made that girl choose this very time.
Had the matter with Mai caused that cool, aloof girl to lose her composure as well?
Lin Ye couldn't help but lament inwardly.
He didn't know whether he ought to be sad or glad.
...
...
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