Several days had passed since the last time he'd gone out with Ichinose and the others. Whenever Ju Ji thought back on it, he felt that she and Kikyo really knew how to liven things up. That was precisely what Ju Ji couldn't do.
Recently, Ju Ji had been trying something: [Hypnosis Lv2]. If he could hypnotize other people, could he hypnotize himself, too? The answer was undoubtedly yes. When he hypnotized himself, he became the kind of person he wanted to be. But perhaps the hypnosis level was too low, or perhaps it was because of the system's safeguards—the effect didn't last long. About ten minutes, at most.
Meanwhile, the study sessions had been taking place as scheduled. Sudo and Ike were easy enough to deal with. They were both practically hopeless at studying, but they were at least diligent. On top of that, the [Taming Lv1] skill increased the learning ability of those being tamed by 10%, so their progress was decent.
The only problem was Sakura. She stayed curled up in a corner, never asking questions or striking up a conversation with them. Even when Ju Ji approached her, she'd quickly back away like a startled rabbit. It was practically impossible to get anywhere with her—but that was about to change.
"Now that's a great shot."
A lively, adorable-looking girl with a subtle, elegant touch of makeup was taking selfies with her phone in the school building. Aside from her air, she barely resembled Sakura in real life.
Even people who knew her well would have thought they were two different people if no one had pointed it out to them. But Ju Ji knew better. He'd installed cameras in the Special Building specifically to capture this scene. Since he had no idea where she might take a selfie, he'd set cameras on every floor and checked them each morning.
"Looks like this should take care of the problem."
During the break after first period...
"[Sakura, could you come outside with me?]"
"Ah... okay."
Ju Ji had planned to test his luck and see whether Sakura would follow his suggestion. If that didn't work, he'd use the photos he'd temporarily saved on his phone to threaten her.
But the moment Ju Ji gave the command, the light in Sakura's eyes suddenly vanished. Like a puppet on strings, she answered without a hint of emotion.
Well, in that moment, Ju Ji realized something: Sakura had been hypnotized. The same thing had happened when he'd gone to buy test papers from an upperclassman. Otherwise, how could he have gotten his hands on both the second- and third-year test papers for just ten thousand points each?
In fact, this hypnosis skill had only worked twice since the start of the school year. He didn't know whether it was because the skill was useless or his luck was too low. Still, successfully hypnotizing someone saved him a lot of trouble.
"Who was that person Shinomiya just called out?"
"Idiot, that was Sakura from our class. She's our classmate, at least. It's rude not to remember her name."
"Sorry, she's just so inconspicuous."
"No, you've got a point. Still, it's unusual for Shinomiya to call someone out. Could he be confessing to her?"
"No, that's impossible. Shinomiya has Horikita. How could that be?"
Perhaps because Ju Ji usually kept to himself in class, the fact that he'd called Sakura out seemed to cause quite a stir.
"Horikita and the others think Shinomiya's going to confess to her. What do you think?"
"Confess? Him? No, he'd never have the guts. Sakura's part of Ju Ji's study group. He probably called her out for that."
"Horikita, you sure know a lot about Shinomiya."
That was right. In their minds, Ju Ji couldn't possibly have the courage to confess to someone. After all, he didn't even have the nerve to talk to his classmates. He could count the people in class he was able to talk to on one hand, and they were among them. In a way, they weren't much better than Sakura.
"But what if he does?"
"Ayanokoji, if you have nothing to do, could you study the material for our next class?"
"Sure."
Horikita seemed to have been angered by Ayanokoji's words. Her presence turned intimidating, making people keep their distance. She clearly seemed dangerous. Even Ayanokoji didn't dare push his luck.
Meanwhile, Ju Ji took the hypnotized Sakura to the school building's rooftop. It was the only place without anyone around during break. At lunchtime, some students might come up to eat.
Snap.
The sound of a finger snap rang out, and Sakura immediately came out of her hypnotized state. Ju Ji's hypnosis could only induce a shallow trance at the moment; the slightest stimulus was enough to bring the subject back to their senses. So he couldn't do those kinds of things. What a shame.
"Ah... this is the rooftop? How did I get here... Shinomiya?"
"Don't worry, Sakura. I called you here. Don't think about running away. I've locked the rooftop door. Give up struggling and listen to what I have to say."
Sakura panicked the moment she came out of the trance and realized she was in an unfamiliar place. But after hearing what Ju Ji said, she unexpectedly calmed down. She was still curled up like a small animal, as though she were afraid of something, but she was clearly less panicked than before.
"What...? Ju Ji, you called me here...? Is something wrong?"
"I'm surprised. You're in a situation like this, and you can still keep calm. Aren't you afraid I'll do something to you?"
"No, Shinomiya wouldn't... do that. I don't... sense anything scary... from you?"
The original story made it clear that Sakura seemed to have a keen sense for other people's malice. Since Ju Ji had no intention of doing anything special to her, she must have judged him harmless. That clearly left Ju Ji feeling a little disappointed. His mischievous side wasn't satisfied.
"In that case, the rest should be easy. Sakura, do you know what this is?"
"That's a photo I took of myself... Why do you have it, Shinomiya?"
"Of course I have my ways. I also know about your other identity online: the gravure idol Shizuku. Sakura, you don't want the whole school to find out about it, do you? Then you'd better do as I say. If you do, I won't spread the photos."
"This is... blackmail? You're not going to make me... do anything outrageous, are you?"
"Well... that's hard to say."
"How could you!"
And so, for the first time, Sakura Airi began to doubt her instincts.
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