Now, it’s very important to note that there are two very different extremes of reactions that could have played out in response to that question. On the one hand is the “intelligent” answer. An intelligent person might have figured out what was really going on based on careful observation of the facts around them, deducing the likely reason the question was asked. If they were intelligent, they might try to take advantage of it deliberately, or they might try to resolve the situation with tact and grace.
On the other hand an idiot would remain completely and blissfully ignorant and take the question entirely at face value without reading into why it was asked. They would answer it bluntly, truthfully, attempt not a single bit of guile or manipulation. In the process they would make the situation worse for themselves instead of better, as they strode on in without thought or consideration for the consequences of what they were saying.
Ataru sat on neither end of this spectrum. He was certainly no genius, but not quite stupid enough to be a fool. Sure, he acted quite the goofball, but he put far more thought into most of what he did than anyone ever realized. Still, thanks to his tendency to always want to act quickly, and his overly strong passions, things tended to go wrong for him. And when his judgement wasn’t wrong, external factors kept interfering to make it wrong in the end. It just didn’t work out for him all that well most of the time, largely because of factors he didn’t know about or because he got just a little bit too over excited. Therefore, his reaction fell in a much more dangerous place than either extreme: Somewhere in the middle. Now he could have the worst parts of both possible reactions at once.
“Why would a pretty girl ask something like that?” he wondered, entirely internally. The girl was blushing and staring at the floor. So adorable! Then again, knowing Ryoko… This was probably some ploy to give them an excuse to embarrass him or humiliate him, but with a setup like that how could he possibly resist playing along? Especially since they might just kick him out if he didn’t, and that was absolutely intolerable. He could play along just a little bit longer.
“Well,” he said, striding forward until he was right in front of her. The other girls stepped back with bated breath. No doubt waiting for their opportunity. “A love slave wouldn’t be as much fun as a girl that actually wanted to be with me.” All around him, the girls felt their legs weaken a little, but Ataru remained completely oblivious. “But hypothetically speaking, if I really did want to go about doing something like that… I’d start by…”
He reached forward to grab the pretty little chin, gently adjusting the angle of her unresisting head so she was gazing up into his eyes. “I’d start by flattering them. Maybe say something like ‘Your eyes are as bright as the sun. Yet I can’t look away, even though I know it will blind me’.” The girl swallowed a little bit. “I mean, if she’s super suggestible, she’ll completely accept any flattery, and it’ll probably make her want to believe me more and more as well.”
“R-Right,” the girl whispered. “What would you do next?”
Not quite enough of an excuse yet, huh? Fine, he could play along a little bit more.
“Well, the difference between being suggestible and being controlled is… If you’re being controlled, you’d just do it without thinking about it, no matter what it was. But if you’re just suggestible, you’re not gonna just do anything you’re asked right away! You gotta ease into it… So next I would -”
He stepped closer, and she made no effort to resist his approach. Man, she was really playing along with this! He gently placed a hand on her shoulder, and she flinched a little bit before suddenly relaxing - And then came the sudden movement, the expected hit for touching her without permission! Except instead of hitting his face with her fist or palm she had hit his chest with the side of her own head, and was leaving it there as though he were an upright pillow. Felt kinda nice.
“Uh,” he said, briefly losing his train of thought. “I would try to make her feel safe in my presence, I guess. Do you feel safe around me?”
“Mmmhmmm?” she said, and the vibrations of her muffled, dreamlike voice sent a funny feeling through his torso. He gently brushed her hair without even realising he was doing it. Just sort of felt like the right kind of thing to do.
“The key thing is to be affectionate,” he said. She began to nuzzle up against him, and now he was really in unfamiliar territory! “Sort of, push the boundaries a little bit further. Like… Say, I’d maybe ask something like… ‘If you don’t mind this, would it be okay if I hugged you?’ or something like that.”
“Sure, go ahead.”
Well. Okay. He was just answering her question, that’s all he was doing. Right? He pulled his arms around her, drawing her closer to himself while the other girls watched in fascinated silence. No doubt waiting for the chance to pounce on him the moment that he did something they didn’t like!
“Then you gotta push it a little bit more,” he continued. “So I’d sort of like, gently slide my hand down her back like this,” she began to tremble. The moment was coming, so he might as well enjoy himself while it lasted. “And all the while I’d be asking if she was really okay with this, reinforcing the idea in her head that this was okay. Until eventually, I’m touching right about…”
And then, at the last possible moment he backed away. Because that’s what was so dangerous about Ataru’s level of intelligence in this particular situation. He wasn’t quite smart enough to take full advantage of it, or try to defuse it, but he was also smart enough to do exactly the wrong thing at the most precise moment.
“And that’s how I’d do it,” he said with a bow, while behind him Aya stood trembling and glossy eyed. “You gotta go for it inch by inch, make the girl more and more comfortable with what’s happening, gradually reinforcing the idea into her head at every step along the way. If she’s in a suggestible state, she’ll fill the details in herself.”
The girls were all silently staring at him now in rapt fascination. Kind of weird that they weren’t laughing at him or trying to pound him or anything like that… Hey, then again he had heard rumours about all-girls schools. This was an all-girls school, wasn’t it? Maybe he shouldn’t have pulled away quite that quickly in an attempt to prolong his fun?
“Then wh-what would you do with a girl after she became your willing love slave?” Aya asked. “What would be the first thing you would have her do?”
<hr>
Did you ever have a moment where you intended to act, but didn’t? Even though you knew you should really look away? Sort of like a train wreck. You can’t quite go past without looking, even though you <i>know</i> your reaction will be revulsion or a similar negative emotion. The experience does not in any way make your enjoyment greater or improve your life in any way but you have to look. You <i>have to look</i>.
Ryoko couldn’t remember the last time her mouth felt this dry. She had stayed standing there in rapt attention, staring as Ataru Moroboshi answered Aya’s stupid, stupid question. Not because she had succumbed to the desirable state, of course. It was because she had been genuinely curious to see what he might say, and of course a Mendo would not fall for something that utterly moronic or sappy. They simply would not fall for it! If anything she would be able to use her naturally superior mind to turn this into her own advantage, especially since she was now aware of the effects the chemicals in her body were attempting to have on her.
At least, that was her thinking at first. It was quite clear to her that he was using the question as an excuse for proximity to Aya, as payment for being so bold to ask the question in the first place. She rolled her eyes when he pulled the sappy romantic option, and ignored her own heart beginning to race. She saw right through it when he pulled her into a hug and began to compliment her figure…
Then she looked again and didn’t see Aya, but rather herself. Being held in his arms. Being told such sweet and wonderful things. It shook her resolve. Maybe he really was a god of sex?
And that was when she realised the truth. Her iron will was rusting away before she even knew it. She had to put a stop to this. Had to warn the others. But how to do so? Moroboshi… If he learned they were all in a hyper-suggestible state, forget that romantic flourish he was spouting. His hands were slowly creeping down Ryoko’s back, leaving little trails of pleasure, and any moment now would be groping her -
She replayed that part in her mind and noticed her mistake. Not her own back! Aya’s! Aya’s back and Aya’s pleasure and Aya’s butt! This reaffirmed her determination: Get Moroboshi out of here, then warn the others, then try to undo the damage that had been done to their psyches.
“Then wh-what would you do with a girl after she became your willing love slave?” Aya asked. “What would be the first thing you would have her do?”
“Well, I guess I’d start by asking her -”
“- To come back another day,” Ryoko interrupted. “Unfortunately, Mister Moroboshi, it is clear that we shall have to conduct our experiment another day with more careful preparations.” She slid up close to him and mercilessly beat down the urge to quickly dart her head forward and steal a kiss, because if she did that then she might well surrender to him entirely, and to the ridiculous notion that he was some kind of god of sex. “Please do keep this a secret,” she whispered seductively. This was foolhardy. This was a self-destructive course to take. But she had to, because this is how she would behave if she wasn’t being affected by this hyper suggestibility. “I’d be ever so grateful.”
“Well, of course!” Ataru said, puffing out his manly, manly chest. She had never wanted to stroke anything so hard, and one time her parents took her to a laboratory where they had genetically engineered cats to mathematically determined maximum cuteness levels. “Anything for you, Ryoko-chan! See you tomorrow, maybe? Bye bye!”
“Bye, Ataru!” all of them said in unison. Even the way he waved was affecting her. This was bad. This was about as bad a situation as it could be! To fall for something so simple, so utterly trivial! If nothing else it had to be hushed up, the shame it would bring her… No, forget that. This was worse than that! It was the exact kind of foolishness her brother would indulge in!
That alone very nearly snapped her out of it. If she were to stand underneath a waterfall for three days straight, it might have less of an effect on her libido than this. Already her mind was furiously working on ways to fix herself and sort out the others, but she would at least bite her tongue until Ataru was out of the -
“Wait, one last question!” Kiko yelled out of nowhere, and too far out of reach for Ryoko to slam a hand across her mouth. Not that she was going to stop that from letting her try! “If… If you were to make a girl into your willing love slave, might there be some sort of phrase she might say that would make clear that she’s yours in mind, body and soul?”
Ataru turned around, pushing the door open with one hand while giving a strangely sexy and cool thumbs up with the other. Ryoko began to tremble. No. No. No! Stop that! Whatever he’s about to say isn’t going to be sexy or smart or awesome. There will be no awe, unless you count how stupid it will be. He’s Ataru Moroboshi, not some kind of -
“I suppose it would have to be… A harem doesn’t sound so bad!” Ataru said, and by the time Ryoko had finished collapsing into a chair panting like some kind of common runner, he was already gone.
- Ataru reflects on the experience while on the way home.
- Ryoko attempts to snap the other girls out of it and seems to succeed. Seems to.
- Ryoko attempts to snap the other girls out of it, but falls back under very quickly.
- The girls have another visitor.
- Actually, Ataru was super suspicious and decided to hang around to hear what’s going on.
- Something else
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