Episode 1
It may be sudden, but I can control people.
Humans are controlled by all sorts of forces, tangible and intangible, but my case is special.
"Welcome!"
I open the convenience store door and walk in. I haven't decided what to buy.
After scanning the female part-timer greeting me with a brisk attitude from behind the counter,
I pace around near the shelves, pretending to be deep in thought for no reason.
The part-timer is quite pretty.
Like the fate of such a convenience store part-timer, men hitting on her must have swarmed like mayflies.
I am someone with no relationship to her whatsoever.
I'd stopped by this convenience store a few times and had chances to see her face, but that was it. The fact that she's quite pretty was something I only noticed today when she suddenly caught my eye. I suddenly had this thought. What are the odds of things working out between me and her?
Very slim. Because no woman comes to a convenience store to get a boyfriend.
She most likely has a boyfriend, and even if she doesn't, she'd probably make an awkward expression if I approached her.
And in the unlikely event things did work out, the odds of her stripping in front of me or acting like a whore were practically zero.
It would take at least a week, at most several months, or even years of building human empathy and mutual trust... before finally developing into a relationship called 「lovers」.
It's not that it's bothersome, but the number of times a person can meet a potential partner in their lifetime is extremely limited.
But what if I could skip that process entirely at my whim?
I grabbed whatever items were at hand and set them down on the counter one by one.
"I'll ring these up for you."
The female part-timer said with a kind smile.
"Just a moment."
When I raised my hand, a slight unease crept across her expression.
But it was a fleeting moment too brief to notice, and she returned to her smiling face.
"Yes, what is it, sir?"
Click.
I snapped my fingers lightly.
At that, the woman suddenly became blank and dazed, as if she had lost her soul.
"Show me your chest."
"Yes."
The part-timer began taking off her uniform on her own. The excitement I felt at that moment was impossible to describe in words.
Even if you staged the exact same situation in a porno, it wouldn't give you the same feeling.
The part-timer who had been helping me check out just moments ago was now revealing her pale skin all by herself.
She unhooked her bra in a flurry, exposed her breasts, then straightened her back so I could see clearly.
Good consideration. I nonchalantly reached out and touched her chest.
I pressed and rubbed with my palm, stroked up and down, grabbed her nipples and pulled, playing with them.
Satisfying. I couldn't tell when she had clothes on, but she had quite large breasts.
"Put them back on."
She puts her underwear back on. Leisurely, as if changing at home.
She pushes her breasts into place with her hands to position them comfortably, then puts on her uniform.
I watched all of that, then clapped my hands.
Clap.
"Aren't you going to check me out?"
"Ah, yes! I'll help you right away."
The woman has no idea what just happened.
Because you forget what happens while in a trance (Trance). This phenomenon is called post-hypnotic amnesia; what just happened clearly occurred in reality, but to this woman, it's as if it never happened.
This is the power to control people.
I call it hypnosis.
I finish paying and walk out of the convenience store.
Of course, if you asked whether what I just did was the perfect crime, it wasn't.
There's physical evidence in the form of CCTV, and someone might have witnessed me while I was completely enraptured by the elasticity of her breasts.
But is an explanation even necessary?
I don't need to worry about such things.
The authorities can't corner me. Unless I cause something major.
I've lived a life faithfully fulfilling my desires in small ways.
If you asked me to name a weakness of hypnosis, it would be that I can't stop physical phenomena that have already occurred.
Just as no one lives worrying that a bomb will suddenly fall on their head.
I'm the same.
Well, I've bought some reasonable snacks, so let's head home.
As I entered a deserted alley, someone called out to me from behind.
"Oppa!"
It was a familiar voice.
"Huh?"
The moment I tried to turn around, a sharp pain pricked my back.
"Hurk!"
The strength left my legs and I collapsed. I can't breathe. What is this?
"Ahahaha."
I think I've been stabbed with a blade. The woman looked at me and laughed like a maniac.
"Ugh...!"
"Now we'll be together forever."
I wondered who this crazy bitch was, and it turned out to be my ex-girlfriend.
As soon as the knife was pulled out, blood gushed out of my body like a broken faucet had been attached to it.
Could I really be dying like this?
"Ugh! Hurk!"
A thought came to me through the shock and pain.
When my ex-girlfriend cheated on me and left, I had been so furious that I hypnotized her with the suggestion, "You'll be miserable without me."
I thought it was a rather refreshing act of revenge, but that had been a mistake. My consciousness rapidly fades.
When I was liberated from the terrible pain, I naturally realized.
I was dead.
"Hahaha!"
I burst into laughter.
To die young from a hypnosis I myself had cast—it struck me as such an idiotic way to die.
"What's with him? He arrives dead and immediately starts laughing."
What, wasn't I dead? Who is that?
I realized I had come to a place I had never seen before. A space filled with pure white light; I was in the middle of some kind of procession when a woman on the outside pointed at me and spoke.
"I'll need to look at him separately. Bring him here."
"Lady Reira! To arbitrarily pull aside a soul who may have committed sins..."
"That's exactly why I'm going to look at him myself. Bring him."
"Yes!"
What the hell?
Her face was obscured by the light so I couldn't see clearly, but the woman seemed to be quite high-ranking.
She commanded men with frightening appearances with mere hand gestures and chin movements.
They dragged me out of the procession and led me somewhere.
Where is this? The world you go to after death?
I had hoped to miraculously come back to life, but that wasn't the case; it seemed only my soul remained and I was being taken somewhere.
So the problem starts now.
Is the current situation that I got picked out and dragged away because I laughed like a madman?
"Stand up."
This bald man—I thought he just looked threatening, but he also had horns sprouting from his head.
This isn't a normal situation. I realized that deep in my bones.
"From now on, the person you will meet is a goddess.
The moment you enter the room, kneel immediately and bow your head. Do not even think of making eye contact.
Do you understand?"
"..."
When I remained silent, the man beside me sighed.
"Shall we send him back? What if he's a dimwit? We'll all be killed by Lady Reira."
"Hey, I'm telling you to answer."
"Understood."
For now, I should do as they wish.
I died stupidly, but it doesn't seem like this is the end.
I suddenly had the thought that I wanted to meet this so-called goddess.
I had always wondered why I was the only one born with this ability; wouldn't a being who was a god know the answer?
Perhaps, like correcting an error that occurred in the mortal world, they had deliberately placed me in a destiny to die young.
I opened and entered an ambiguous white door. The goddess was wearing a slit dress that exposed her legs.
With a slender waist and red hair that seemed to burn like flames, she was a woman whose figure displayed the bold, refreshing physique of a Western beauty.
A feminine form so nearly perfect that it was not unworthy of being called a goddess.
"Kneel!"
A masked knight guarding the goddess's side shouted.
"Ugh!"
I felt a crushing pressure and fell prostrate on the floor.
I have no complaint about prostrating itself, but isn't this too human a thing for a goddess to be doing?
It feels almost like I've gone back in time to have an audience with a queen.
"Enough. Tell him to raise his head."
"Raise your head."
I finally received permission and raised my face.
"A young soul. You look like you have a story."
A story? I don't have anything like that.
Though I did die so stupidly that I burst out laughing without thinking.
But hearing her words just now, I felt something was strange.
The fact that she didn't know about me until she saw me directly meant that the gods here weren't all-knowing beings.
"You don't seem to have any particular issues. How many worlds needed salvation right now? Send him as a Champion."
"Shall we send him to where the beasts are?"
"Wasn't that place on the verge of humanity's extinction because of the Red Moon? That sounds good."
Hold on, they're talking about me as if I'm not even here.
"You'd like that too, right? Going to a new world."
"I..."
"It's better than being annihilated, isn't it? Right?"
Damn. She was a worthless goddess.
Far from listening to me, she was trying to do whatever she wanted.
How is she any different from an insolent brat? Not to mention, she's saying she'll send me to a world on the brink of human extinction?
"Couldn't you send me back to my original world?"
I found myself becoming servile.
"Who gave you permission to ask questions!"
My whole body trembled as the knight shouted loudly.
The goddess raised her hand to stop him, then looked at me and spoke.
"That won't do. You're dead, aren't you? Your allotted time in that world is over. Now, take him away."
The goddess gestured casually, as if telling me to go.
"W-wait!"
Struggling as I was being dragged away, I somehow wrenched one arm free and snapped my fingers.
Click!
Silence fell as if time had stopped.
I confirmed that the two minions trying to take me away, the goddess's knight, and even the goddess herself had all fallen into a trance.
It had gone according to my wishes, yet far from being excited, I felt filthy.
Being murdered was annoying enough the more I thought about it, but to be treated like this even after death really pissed me off.
I pointed at the minions and spoke.
"You two, when you wake up, do push-ups until I tell you to stop."
Next was the knight.
"You cannot move from that spot. You cannot harm me. You cannot interfere with the actions I am about to take."
Finally, the goddess.
"Obey my commands. Answer my questions truthfully."
Clap.
I clapped my hands to wake them.