Well, "unlucky victim" wasn't quite the right way to put it.
The proper term was "test subject." There was a difference, you know.
It wasn't like she was trying to do anything bad.
She really wasn't.
Heh heh heh heh.
Mahiko retracted her human appearance and slipped into a Cursed Spirit's invisible state. To ordinary eyes, she simply vanished somewhere among the library bookshelves. Everyone was busy minding their own business — naturally, nobody noticed her disappear.
She drifted soundlessly to the side of someone reading and crouched down beside them.
Start simple. Basic commands first.
Mahiko opened her mouth. Along her tongue, the markings unique to Cursed Speech had already surfaced — serpent eyes and venomous fangs etched into her skin.
She adjusted her focus, channeled Cursed Energy into her vocal cords, and spoke slowly.
"You are very thirsty right now."
This was her first time using Cursed Speech.
It was still speech — still just talking — but the sensation of the words passing through her mouth was completely different from before. The sound her vocal cords produced felt like it had been run through some kind of special filter, layered with a strange, noise-like vibration — as if a voice modulator had processed it. If she had to describe it, it was like an electronic bassline had been laid beneath her words, humming under every syllable.
The person she'd spoken to suddenly froze for a moment.
Then, perfectly naturally, reached for the water cup on the table and started gulping it down.
Mahiko blinked.
Huh. That actually worked.
And after the first cup was gone, the person stood up and went to refill a second. They genuinely seemed to believe they were parched.
Mmm... very nice. Very nice indeed.
Rubbing her chin, Mahiko drifted over to the next person.
"Your butt itches incredibly badly right now."
The person stiffened for one second — then began squirming in their chair, hand unconsciously creeping behind them to scratch.
It looked absolutely ridiculous.
Mahiko slapped a hand over her mouth to muffle a snort of laughter.
This ability would be fantastic for pranks.
Though... these two experiments didn't quite count as hypnosis, did they.
Because Mahiko couldn't be sure whether she'd genuinely altered their perception, simply confused their senses, or literally caused physical changes in their throats and backsides.
And none of this was related to what she'd learned from that book of hypnosis case studies.
This was just the appetizer.
She needed to try a different approach.
She had to test deeper effects — altering cognition, changing behavioral motivations, making someone feel from the bottom of their heart that they should be doing a certain thing...
Mahiko was still thinking it over as she scanned the room.
Her gaze landed on a high schooler in the corner — clearly here to study, a math workbook open on the table, pen sitting beside it. But the kid was slumped face-first on the desk, scrolling through his phone with dead eyes. He had clearly given up studying and entered full slacker mode.
That simply would not do.
If you come to a library, you should study.
Mahiko grinned her most wicked grin and sauntered over, bending down and leaning close to his ear.
Then she spoke in Cursed Speech — a long, elaborate string of words:
"From this moment on, you will imagine yourself to be an eager and dedicated student. You will suddenly discover within yourself an overwhelming desire to fill out math worksheets. You will crave nothing more than to dive headfirst into a sea of math problems and swim. This will bring you joy. It will bring you tremendous satisfaction and burning passion."
The words fell.
The high schooler sprawled on the desk stopped scrolling.
His previously glazed eyes snapped open slightly, an expression of shock spreading across his face.
I… why am I looking at my phone?
The high schooler jolted upright in his chair, clutching his own head in both hands, eyes wide with disbelief.
Didn't I come here to study?
WHY AM I ON MY PHONE!!
He looked down at the math workbook open in front of him like it was the most precious thing he'd ever laid eyes on. Without a moment's hesitation, he flung his phone aside, snatched up the pen, and threw himself at the math problems — furiously scribbling, calculating at full speed.
Working away, his nostrils flaring with every breath.
That intensity.
That fanaticism.
That blazing light burning in his eyes.
It was like Gauss himself had descended. Like Newton had been reincarnated.
Seeing this, Mahiko was dumbstruck. She hadn't expected results this immediate.
Was this not a tiny bit terrifying?
It was way more powerful than she'd imagined. She'd only meant to slightly nudge the boy's psychological inclinations — and instead she'd given him a shot of pure adrenaline straight to the brain.
That high schooler was doing math problems at machine-gun speed. His pen tip was practically smoking.
Hold on, you're going that fast — are you actually solving them? You're not just copying the questions, right…?
CRASH!
But before she could think any further, a commotion from the other side of the room snagged her attention.
She turned — and saw the first person she'd used Cursed Speech on. He was now bear-hugging the library's large water-cooler jug, had hoisted it above his head, and was chugging directly from it, neck craned back as hard as he could go.
Water was spilling from the corners of his mouth, soaking him completely — but he didn't care at all. He looked absolutely deranged. A library staff member was frantically trying to drag him away.
THUD!
On the other side, the second person she'd affected — the one with the extremely itchy butt — had tumbled clean off his chair and was now rolling around on the floor.
Rolling and scratching.
Faster and faster, scratching with increasing desperation. If you knew what was happening, you'd see someone dealing with a catastrophically itchy backside; if you didn't, you might think this person was attempting to generate fire through friction using only their rear end and their fingers.
It was genuinely horrifying.
Everyone in the vicinity had scrambled away in alarm, and a few people had already stood up to film it.
SMACK!
"AHHH!!"
A girl screamed.
Mahiko whipped around in alarm and found that the high schooler she'd "helped study" had apparently already finished his own workbook — you were definitely just scribbling randomly, don't try to tell me otherwise — and was now snatching the math workbook from the girl at the next table, prompting her screams.
"Get away from me!! Someone like you, who doesn't understand the beauty of math problems — GET OUT! These math problems are MINE! Hand over all your math problems RIGHT NOW! I want to write, I am going to WRITE WRITE WRITE WRITE WRITE—"
He was sprawled across the table, sweeping everyone's workbooks toward himself in a frenzy, grinning ear to ear like a rabid dog mid-episode, eyes blazing, already charging on all fours at the next table over.
The sudden chaos turned the entire library into a pot of boiling water.
Staff were shouting, readers were scattering, the high schooler was seizing math problems, the person by the water cooler was still chugging, and the guy on the floor was still rolling.
Mahiko watched all of this with her jaw on the floor.
Hold on…
Was her Cursed Speech… a bit too powerful?
Was it because her Cursed Energy output was higher than Inumaki's?
She had the feeling her Cursed Speech carried significantly more influence than his.
One wrong move and she'd already gone way overboard.
When Inumaki used Cursed Speech and said "stop," the target would freeze for a second or two. When she said "very thirsty," the target started chugging from a water cooler like a man possessed.
The gap was insane.
It seemed Cursed Energy output really did directly amplify the potency of Cursed Speech.
Though of course — it might also be because her test subjects were ordinary people.
Hmm… could it also be because her own understanding and mastery of soul manipulation was already quite high? That didn't seem impossible either.
But honestly, the situation right now was getting a little scary.
Mahiko stared at the chaos she had created and opened her mouth.
Then —
"Heh heh…" A deeply entertained grin spread across her face.
The mischievous streak buried deep in her soul ignited all at once.
This Cursed Speech was turning out to be so much more fun than she'd ever imagined.
The scene was already a disaster — so why not throw up a Curtain and let the chaos expand just a little bit more?
"Everyone here! Right now! All eyes on me!"
Every single person in the library froze.
The man chugging water set down the jug. The man rolling on the floor stopped scratching. The high schooler stealing workbooks let go. The screaming girl went silent. The people filming stood there with phones raised, paralyzed. The staff stopped mid-step.
Every pair of eyes in the room swiveled in perfect unison toward the same spot — the air above a certain table.
The entire library fell dead silent in an instant.
To their eyes, there was nothing there. Just empty air.
But under the compulsive force of Cursed Speech, they could not control their own eyeballs. Dozens of people, staring in lockstep at nothing, expressions cycling from blank confusion to bewilderment to outright fear — a whole gallery of reactions.
In reality, Mahiko was standing on top of that very table, hands on her hips, looking down over the crowd from on high — like a queen upon her throne surveying her subjects.
"For the next one hour, all of you will believe that you are —"
Mahiko flashed the widest, most wicked grin of her life.
"— a cat!"
____
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