Jack tilted his head to the side while looking at Lila.
"Just the two of us? But there are so many people to see! Why would you want to limit yourself like that?"
He appeared genuinely confused as to why she would have a desire like that. Though a bit flustered, Lila explained her reasoning.
"I-If I have to talk to more people, then that will reduce our time together! I-I don't want that."
Jack let out a giggle before raising a finger.
"But just meeting people doesn't mean you have to spend less time with people you want to. What if you find someone that is super cool? If you don't try to find them, then how will you know?"
While his logic wasn't exactly incorrect, it just didn't feel right to Lila. However, those thoughts were gradually swept away, before she simply believed that he was correct. There was a part of her that realized her thoughts were being manipulated beyond normal means.
She got quite stressed, furrowing her brows as her breathing sped up. The side that had given in was clashing against the still somewhat rational part of her mind.
"I... well... no but..."
Lila held onto the sides of her head and grit her teeth. She closed her eyes tightly in the chaos. Jack had a completely oblivious look. He scratched the side of his head before proposing a solution.
"Sometimes when I get really stressed, I like to break one of my fingers! I know it's not something you're supposed to do, but... it's usually not too bad, and it really works!"
Lila opened her eyes and before she knew it, one of her hands gripped onto an index finger. Her grip tightened significantly around it, but she didn't pull it back. Cold sweat began forming on her forehead as she realized the situation she was in.
At least, what part of her realized. There was an intense desire to simply listen to what was told to her. More than just the fact Jack said it, but that she had started to believe his reasoning was correct.
To the point that it was something she should simply do because it made sense.
In the end, she caught herself off guard, ripping out her finger as though it was a given on the same level of breathing. Unfortunately for her, while the hub's protection worked very well against external threats, it would not do anything if she hurt herself, even if it was suggested to her.
Lila immediately let out a scream of pain, but strangely enough, with every second the sensation was fading away. Instead, it was replaced with an eerie feeling of euphoria.
"Y-You're right! I feel... so much better! I feel great! Haha..."
Jack clapped rather happily, genuinely trying to congratulate her.
"Yay! Now, what do you think about what I said before about meeting new people?"
With a bright smile and overly enthusiastic expression, she nodded.
"Yes! Yes! It's great! It has to be! I want to meet as many people as I can!"
Jack scratched the top of his head and looked to the side in thought.
"Ah, I remember that there was a person I was supposed to meet. He said to look for someone named Asmodeus, which I guess was him. There is also Dad, but I'm looking for him with some friends! Why don't you try to meet the Asmodeus person, I'm sure he will be a great person to talk to!"
With a wildly aggressive nod, she agreed.
"A-Alright. I'll go find him for you and meet new people!"
Without delay, she rushed out of the room with her index finger in one hand while the other was twitching and bleeding. Jack followed her out soon afterwards.
On the outside, Jessica was slamming the door, trying to get it open.
"You bastard! What are you doing? Get out of there! I swear to god I will make you regret this..."
Mia let out a small sigh seeing this, putting a hand to her forehead.
"I doubt she would listen just because you said so, and that's assuming she can hear us in the first pla-"
She was cut off by Lila suddenly running out of the room with unnaturally wide eyes and an obsessed look.
"Where's Asmodeus? Do you know where he is? I need to find him!"
Jessica and Mia were both shocked speechless by her sudden appearance, along with some of the passerby around. Though they couldn't think about it for too long before Lila suddenly ran off, screaming about her desire to find Asmodeus.
Jack came out of the room and looked in the direction she had run off to with a small smile.
"It looks like she's having fun!"
Jessica immediately rushed over to Jack, picking him up and tightly hugging him. She rubbed her cheek incredibly affectionately just as Seedy would.
"I was so worried..."
Despite only really touching Jack on the level of a pat on the shoulder before, she now was hugging him as though there were incredibly close siblings and this was a normal thing.
A few seconds had passed, more than enough time for the average hug. However, instead of letting go, Jessica tightened her hug, unwilling to let him go. One of the onlookers muttered to themselves.
"Wow... I suppose age is just a number. But why do I feel... jealous?"
Mia was holding onto the side of her head. She furrowed her brows intensely while averting her gaze from Jack. The effects of charm were fairly strong on her, especially since she previously had a positive impression of him.
However, her rational side strongly opposed the sense of irrational affection, realizing that it was due to some sort of unordinary means.
"Jessica! Calm down a little, there seems to be a charm effect that Jack has right now."
Kenji, who was standing a few steps behind her, slowly nodded.
"I... feel it as well. That appears to be the power of a hearts. How terrifying."
Jessica turned to look at Mia with an aghast look, though she was still hugging Jack.
"What? How could you say that about him? We've been through so much together, and you want to discount him now?"
Jack shyly turned around and put a finger on the bottom of his lip.
"Did I do something wrong?"
Mia nearly keeled over, her hand trying to grasp at her heart as though to try and stop it from beating. After going down for a while almost like she had a stomach ache, she slowly rose up with a bitter smile.
"No... you didn't do anything wrong."
Kenji looked over at her with a bit of surprise. He didn't have nearly as strong of a reaction. Though the benefits Mia had gained allowed her to resist more than others, the previous favorable impression she had appeared to make the effects substantially more potent.
Jessica looked at Mia with a bit of annoyance.
"If he didn't do anything wrong, then don't accuse him of things!"
In response, Mia awkwardly smiled. While she was still quite cognizant of reality, she didn't have that strong of a desire to correct things, in part due to Jack's look.
"Sorry, sorry. Anyways, we should discuss what we should do from now on."
Jack raised one hand in the air.
"I wanna see all the cool things!"
Jessica stroked the back of his hair with a small smile.
"I think that's a great idea."
Mia let out a soft hum.
"I suppose getting a better idea of the facilities is quite important, even if we had a brief tour already."
Kenji blinked a few times before speaking up.
"May I come with you?"
At this point, Mia looked at him a little strangely. Realistically speaking, their previous encounter was fairly short and relatively neutral. While she could've written off the initial tour as a form of courtesy, albeit one that extended a little too far. All things considered, it felt rather shady.
While Mia wasn't sure what other motive Kenji possibly could've had, it wouldn't make sense to say that they were friendly, when at most they were acquaintances.
"I do appreciate the tour, but why do you wish to come with us? It is not as though we know each other particularly well."
Kenji did not respond right away. Instead he looked up at the ceiling for a good while, deep in thought about something. His lips parted slightly as he continued to stare silently at the ceiling.
Eventually, he weakly gave a response, though he didn't bother moving his eyes from the spot at the top of the ceiling.
"I... don't know."