To Live Again, For the First Time!

  "Pfft," Emilin really tried to hold it in… she really did, but seriously.

The Master hypnotist in front of her really made her want to laugh. She couldn\'t help it when she looked at the man\'s serious face as he pulled out this little toy.

​​

This wasn\'t going to be helping Moulan in any shape or form, but Emilin calmed herself down and played along.

\'What\'s so funny,\' Moulan\'s eyes squinted a little as he tilted his head.

He hadn\'t wanted to ask at first less it would sound awkward, but he did so anyway.

"Is there something funny?"

Emilin simply shook her head with a sigh.

"Very well then, if you\'re okay with it, we\'ll be heading to the side room over there so that we can get started," Moulan pointed at the door that would lead to yet another room.

\'An office inside of an office?\'

He already had a waiting room, so why would he need another office after this one? This was clearly the room he worked in.

"Okay," She replied.

This was the first time Moulan heard Emilin\'s clear voice. He was surprised that Emilin was so agreeable considering her position here, but that was also a good thing.

He wasn\'t sure whether this was because she had nothing to hide, or if she wasn\'t scared that what she had to hide could be exposed.

Either way, he would find out soon enough.

The next room was just as minimalistic as the last. Moulan\'s office and working room were both completely different from the lounge.

It was like someone had been trying to cover up how minimalistic the lounge had been previously with those paintings, fake potted plants, and everything else. Or maybe it was to hide the presence of the cameras.

As for the office, they might have just given up.

There really hadn\'t been much there. 

A desk, a few couches, a chair, along with four bare walls.

Even if there was something else, hidden contraptions or anything else of the sort, Emilin really didn\'t stay there long enough to have the time to have noticed.

This next room wasn\'t much better, in fact, she would really say it was worse.

The walls were once again bare, and the two lounge chairs were the extent of the interior décor.

\'Do they mistreat the Master hypnotist that works with them?\' Emilin found that thought laughable. 

Maybe this man just didn\'t like all the extra furniture and everything else, while the things in the lounge were to cover for the cameras.

"Okay, so I\'ll just need you to stare at this watch," Moulan said in a soft yet calming voice, snapping Emilin out of her short daze.

Emilin did just that.

The chain that held the golden pocket watched swayed and the clock swayed with it.

The tick-tock sound synced with the swaying.

"You\'re doing well, just a while longer." Moulan continued to speak with his elusive voice.

Emilin\'s hazel pupils shifted from the left to the right, to the left, to the right, to the left, and then to the right again.

Moulin waited for Emilin\'s eyes to haze over, preparing his index finger and thumb for it to happen at any moment and before he even knew it.

*Snap*

But it wasn\'t Moulan\'s fingers that created the snapping sound… it was Emilin\'s.

\'Hm… that was easier than I thought. He must have really put his guard down.\' Emilin looked down at the man who had collapsed on his lounge chair.

It was especially easy to get to someone who was both concentrating on something else, in this case, hypnotizing her, and looking down on you, once again quite obvious since he believed he could get to her so easily.

Emilin stood up to look down at her handy work and had a sudden thought.

\'Well, talking to a man who\'s hypnotized still counts as practice, right?\' 

Though she couldn\'t practice too well with people who could have their own opinion, this man, who was going to forget all of this would work.

Emilin convinced herself that this was also a way she could train, but she obviously wasn\'t going to do this to all the people she would go on to try and speak to, this was just a special circumstance.

No.

This was an opportunity.

"Okay, so this is how this is going to go." Emilin\'s voice was unlike her usual one, it was even clearer than wind chimes, more soothing than being cradled like a baby, and softer than cashmere.

"Doctor will be your keyword," Emilin spoke with an amused undertone as she spoke in her calming voice.

It was quite mystical.

"When I use that keyword, you\'ll wake up, and when I say it once again, you\'ll forget everything we\'ve said thus far, up until the point where you said \'Okay, so I\'ll just need you to stare at this watch.\'" 

Emilin paused to see the corners of Moulan\'s closed eyes twitch a little.

His brows furrowed as he processed the orders he had received from a soothing, yet piercing voice, so piercing that it reached straight for the connections of his neurons in his brain.

A voice that he found hard to disobey. 

It was as if it was embracing and chaining him at the same time, if he resisted, it would forever be a chain, but when he finally let go, it would embrace him with warmth to spare.

"You will think that you have determined that I am not a threat and will tell whoever you need to so that I can get out of here as soon as possible, without making any of it suspicious to the best of your capabilities."

Emilin had been thinking about what she would say while Moulan had been messing with his shenanigans a few minutes back and this was what she came up with.

"If there is a need for me to change my orders, I\'ll snap my fingers once again, and you\'ll listen to everything I have to say and act accordingly." 

This was just a precaution.

"Meanwhile, I\'ll be asking you a few questions and you\'ll answer them as honestly as you can." Emilin got to the main point and gave Moulin some time to process once again.

Emilin sat back down before getting herself into the right mind space.

"Doctor." 

The moment Emilin\'s quiet voice reached Moulan\'s ears, he naturally opened his eyes, without any of the previous conflicts.

So naturally, that one would have assumed he had just woken up from a nap, but he, on the other hand, hadn\'t even realized that he had been laying down.

"What is it?" Moulan asked, looking at Emilin with a serious expression on his face.

Emilin lightly rubbed her chin for a bit in contemplation while Moulan just quietly sat there obediently in silence.

"What do you think of the weather?"

Emilin\'s voice sounded hesitant, lacking in the confidence she had while Moulan was semi-unconscious.

Moulan tilted his head to the side in confusion, looking around even though he knew there were no windows in this room.

Moulan had a sudden impulse to answer this question the best as he could, even if it was something as simple as the weather as if his life depended on it, but he didn\'t question that emotion, in fact, he didn\'t even question why she was asking such a strange question.

While Moulan was hesitant for different reasons, Emilin was wondering whether she had messed up in the hypnosis process, after all, he had never tried on a Master hypnotist before.

It should have been much harder than it actually was, right?

She had thought that it had gone a little too smoothly.

"What is it. Didn\'t I tell you to answer honestly? Why aren\'t you answering?" Emilin\'s brows knitted as she clenched her teeth a little.

"Sorry!"

Moulan\'s serious expression as he apologized would have been hilarious if anyone else were there to watch. 

"It wasn\'t that I didn\'t want to respond, I just haven\'t been outside in a while and there really aren\'t any windows or anything here."

Emilin: […]

Moulan: […]

Moulan: [And last time I checked it was still pouring.]

Emilin: […]

\'Well god damn, I\'m bad at this,\' Emilin had an itch to curse, but promptly shoved it to the side, she didn\'t have time to waste.

Instead of moping, she could get some more practice in.

Emilin: [FOrGet! foRGeT! Forget!]

Moulan: [Yes Ma\'am! ( ゜ω ゜)ゞ]

Emilin continued like that with trial and error until her mouth was dry, which was also when he promptly asked Moulan to grab her some water.

Just in case, she had asked Moulan what the average time others spent in his office, and seeing as she hadn\'t gotten too overboard, she took her sweet time.

Moulan on the other hand wasn\'t much better, he was already sweating.

Even though most of the questions he was answering weren\'t very high maintenance or of much relevance, his brain was constantly running at max capacity.

There were times where he couldn\'t process why he was having conflicting feelings, which made his heart clench.

Overall, even though he wasn\'t doing some hardcore exercising, he was still burning calories like crazy with his brain going on overload.

\'Hm… should I stop here?\'

Emilin thought as she savored her well-deserved water.

She had most likely spoken more in the last few hours than in the last few years of her life.

\'I\'ll just ask a few more questions, I should probably get to those relevant ones, those concerning my safety before I get out of here.\'