After an hour of waiting, with Kay just staring at Miho and Maho just yell at Katyushka about how she represents everything a proud woman of the revolution should represent, the group finally stopped doing what they were being commanded to do. Mako and Hanna, upon realizing that they were touching each other's faces, quickly put their hands to their sides and stopped making eye contact. "We… We were touching each other strongly…" Hanna said in a quivering voice. Mako just nodded slightly and crossed her arms. Miho and Maho, on the other hand, quit their acting subtly, acting as though nothing had happened. "And then we will take to the streets! The king will cower at our might! Why do I feel flustered right now?" Miho asked as she looked over to Maho, who was rubbing her chin as though she was deep in thought. "But without the army by our side we will never succeed! The power of the people will suffice! What was I saying?" Maho looked over at Miho is a confused face, raising her brow towards Miho and Katyushka. Katyushka's face looked very smug, her arms were crossed and her head was raised high. "I agree with whatever you just said, I will lead the revolution and become the greatest hero our proud country will ever know!" Katyushka burst out into laughter while Nonna sighed and looked at both Miho and Maho, realizing that they were just under something's control for the moment. Both girls just looked down at Katyushka and cocked their heads a bit in confusion. "Eh? What revolution?" Katyushka stopped her laugh and looked up at Miho then at Maho. "You… You don't remember? What about the glorious revolution?" Nonna tapped Katyushka on the shoulder. "This is just a hunch, but I think the notes we saw from before can control what we do and what we perceive." Some of the girls looked over at Nonna, interested to hear what she had to say. Except for three girls. "Tch, why don't you listen to the nice 'n pretty girl? She's a girl ain't she? You like dem girls like I like ma boys, right?" Yukari smiled smugly as she looked over at Nonna. Yaori raised both of her hands up and widened her eyes as she backed up. "Oh, you did NOT just go there, bitch!" Miho looked at Yaori in astonishment. "Yaori! I've never heard you say things like that before!" Yaori just kept backing up before turning to look at Nonna. Erika, on the other hand, was still trying to keep tears rolling from her eyes and tried to quiet her sobs. "Why… Why can't we all just be friends and get along?" Nonna sighed before going on. "I think that we've been hypnotized." Kay looked down at Darjeeling who looked back up to her. "Is that what I'm under right now, Mistress Kay?" Kay blushed a bit before turning away from her. "I told you not to call me that!" "But, hypnotism only works when the hypnotized is aware and willing, correct?" Nonna shook her head. "Sometimes that's true, but I doubt that it relates to us right now. Someone has planted suggestions in our heads to… To…" Nonna seemed to be getting light headed before she shook it off. "Make us all act silly and stuff! Like, we're all just, like, uh, getting controlled and stuff! We got to, uh, try and, like, break out of it somehow? Right? That's right, right?" Nonna's stance, voice, and the way she used her hands while speaking changed from strict and serious to poofy and girly. Nonna looked down at Katyushka and laughed. "OMG, you're, like, so small! You're like a small little doll! OMG, I gotta take a pic of this!" Katyushka puffer her cheeks up. "Hey, you said to never talk about my height anymore!" Nonna shook her head and grabbed it. "My pattern of speaking and thought is, like, changing right now. I, uh, can't think straight right now…" Just then, the door leading to the president's office opened up. Alexander walked in and smiled. Anzu was walking right beside him. "That's correct, Nonna. Sorry about that, I didn't want anyone to explain that right now, so I put a suggestion in your head to make it harder for you to explain your situation." Nonna scoffed and put her hand on her hip. "Like, why dude? Grrr… I don't like talking like this!" Alexander crossed his arms and looked at Nonna sternly. "I like explaining things that I did." Nonna scoffed and again and turned her head to the left, away from Alexander. "Like, whatever!" Alexander tried to stifle and laugh and looked over at Anzu who was giving him the thumbs up.
"Nonna is right about one thing, the rules of hypnotism are just something to make people feel alright about it. In fact, once a hypnotist hits the sub-conscious level, he gets the key to the city, in a manner of sorts. Of course, when someone does something that they are highly un-comfortable with, they can still break out. However, if the hypnotized becomes aware of this sensation of being hypnotized, they can break out if they choose." Kay jumped up and ran over to the cake. "I choose not to be hypnotized!" She picked up another piece of cake and shoved it in her mouth before spitting back out and whining a little. Darjeeling walked over to Kay and began to lick off crumbs from Kay's face. Kay pushed Darjeeling away and sighed. "I guess that you found a way over those two as well." Alexander nodded. "I am Doctor Alexander Bronse, leading expert in the field of hypnotism. I have been studying the effects of subliminal messaging to exploiting the psyche of the mind. I not only like birthday parties, but I also like it when I get a chance to try out my research. Of course, you are in no danger of doing anything lewd… Unless your minds perceive a command that way, then it's not my fault. However, you are here for a different prize. Anzu, I believe you know more about the rules than I do." Anzu nodded and smiled a bit. "I've been looking around the grounds on my time off and I found an old WWI tank with a large chest with lots of golden coins in it. I took it to a collector and he said that they are estimated to be around 2.5 million dollars." The entire room yelled in surprise. "Fo' real dawg? Dang, that's a lot a papers yo!" Anzu sighed and looked at Alexander. "Can you please do something about this?" Alexander looked at Yaori and Yukari. "Alright, normal girls again." Alexander snapped his fingers, snapping Yukari and Yaori out of it, not realizing that he missed Erika in the back behind Maho. "Now, I spent about one million for the school. Upgrading our tanks, our facilities and our school itself. I now have one million dollars to spend which I am willing to give to you all… But you have to find it yourselves. I've hidden thousands of golden pieces in and around the school grounds including a grand prize for someone that finds the old WWI tank, which is still in the same place I had left it. HOWEVER, there is a large note on all four sides of it saying that you won't be able to find it without a set amount of coins." Yukari raised her hand then put it back down after she realized that she could just ask her question. "What's the amount?" Anzu snickered and put her hand to her mouth. "I'm not saying." Yukari sighed in frustration and looked at Miho. "Well, if Miho's doing it, then I'm doing it too. Miho, how about it?" After a few seconds of thought, Miho looked up at Anzu and Alexander. "Then let the best woman win." Anzu smiled widely and looked up at Alexander. "Alright, looks like they're up to the challenge. Can you tell them the OTHER half of the challenge?" Alexander smiled a malicious smile as he looked up at the girls. "Along the way, you'll experience notes like these and another challenge. I would like to call him The Headsman." Erika flinched a little and whimpered. Maho looked down at her and found that her face was showing fear instead of the smugness she had always seen in her friend. "Erika?" "My dream… From my dream… He'll get us all…" Maho knelt down and hugged Erika. "Just stay close to me, nothing will hurt you." Erika sniffled a little bit and looked up. "He gets me last… You're first…" Alexander continued his explanation. "You will be split into two teams of your choosing, though one team will have one more person than the other. If the Headsman catches you, he will steal your coins and keep them for himself. Whoever finds has the most coins at the end of the week wins." "Oh, by the way…" Anzu made some strange hand gestures after speaking. The girls saw this and found themselves fighting to stay awake once more. "The contest starts now and you have a ten minutes grace period till HE shows up… Nighty night, girls!" Darkness consumed the girls once more as they slumped to the floor.
Erika woke up again and looked around quickly and found that she was outside. It was just like her dream that she had during the morning. "Maho? Oh please… No…" Erika was still not entirely herself, she still felt afraid and timid, but not as much anymore. "Erika? I'm over here!" Erika breathed a sigh of relief as she saw Maho walking out of the brush behind her. Erika then felt sheer horror take over as she saw a tall dark figure behind Maho. "Maho! Run!" Maho looked behind her only to find a large axe hurtling towards her neck. In one quick swing, Maho's head went flying off in one direction while her body tried to turn around before collapsing to the ground. This time, it wasn't alone. Erika could only see it for a moment before it took Maho's head and ran towards the figure. "I gots it fer ya!" The figure growled a little bit before taking Maho's head and putting it in his sack. He then looked up to see Erika was trying to run from him. He roared in anger as his large figure began to run right for her. "No! No! Maho… Maho broke her promise; Maho's letting it hurt me! No, I won't die! I'll-" Erika heard something being thrown at her. She looked back quickly to see that the monster had thrown its axe towards her legs. Luckily, noting was cut off. However, Erika found that now her legs were broken and she could barely move. "No, I don't wanna play anymore." Erika looked back at the monster and saw that it was now right next to her, picking up its axe and wielding it in one hand. She began to cry for mercy, but the monster simply swung his axe behind his back. "Please, I don't wanna die! I-I don't wanna di-"Erika heard a loud whooshing of air before she felt her head roll to the side. The monster grabbed her head and picked it up, showing that Erika was without a body now. The last thing Erika saw was Maho's head trying to turn around. "He got you too Erika?" Erika simply cried. "Yes… You heard?" Maho tried to nod but simply made her chin go up and down. "I won't abandon you next time. Now please, wake up."
Erika awoke with a jolt and looked around for Maho. "Erika, you okay?" Erika breathed a sigh of relief. "Bad dream… I've been getting those." Erika could still vividly remember her dream as though it had just happened. "Wanna talk about it?" Erika shook her head and looked around. She saw Katyushka, Kay, Darjeeling and Nonna still in the room. "So, we're a team then?" Maho nodded and help Erika up. "You're sure you're okay, you were mumbling in your sleep." Erika stopped her from speaking more about the subject. "Just… I'll be okay." Katyushka began to walk out of the room and opened the door that lead to a large hallway. "They didn't go this way, so come on!"
Whoopie, I released another chapter. Again, thank you for reading this stuff. I'm also thinking about doing something with the Headsman if things go well from here on out. Maybe in another story, but I'm content with keeping him here.