I felt like something quickly drained out of me and rushed towards Luce, who slowly stopped in her tracks. Her previous expression of curiosity fading into a completely blank one as the skill took hold.

I assumed the feeling of draining was the feeling of using up mana, since that's how it's usually described in webnovels and such. It left a noticeable feeling of tiredness, but not an unbearable one. Maybe something like jogging about a mile back when I was doing track?

Anyway I could probably afford to use it again without feeling overly exhausted if I wanted to, so there was no need to worry in terms of energy.

"Hey! There's no need to yell at me! I can hear you just fine!"

As I was watching Luce's expression, Fig flew out of my chest while voicing complaints.

I guess it makes sense that I don't need to yell, even mentally, so that's my bad. More importantly, though…

"It… worked?"

"Of course it worked! What would I have to gain by lying to you?"

"So, how does it look?"

"Um. Well the good news is that she has basically no active mana in her body and very little mental resistance towards just being in a trance, so you could probably hold her in this state forever if you wanted to. There's no hurry at all for figuring out what you want to do to her!"

"Um. Okay, sounds good I think? And the bad news?"

"She really despises you."

"..." 

"You probably can't lay a single finger on her unless you suddenly become the most persuasive guy in the world."

"...Then?"

"Then you just have to start small!"

Start small, huh?

It's a little… well a lot disappointing that I can't just go right ahead to the good stuff, but it was kind of expected based on what Fig had said earlier about her limitations. Even so, I'm sure there has to be something fun I could do with her right now.

I stood around for a while as I thought over my options. Fortunately, as Fig had just said, Luce showed no signs whatsoever of moving. She simply stayed there in a trance as if she was frozen in time.

"Hey Fig."

"Hmm?"

"So how does this work, exactly? I mean, do I just talk to her, or..?"

"Yeah, that should be fine. The skill should just stay like this until you activate a change in her mind, and you'll definitely feel when that happens."

"And she won't react at all until then?"

"Nope!"

In that case I could…

"Oh! But given her mental state, if you lay a finger on her she'll probably snap out of my control instantly and call the cops on you."

Never mind then.

In that case let's see…

"Show me your tits."

…

Nothing happened.

"It won't work if you just order her around!" Fig sighed, looking exasperated once again. "It would be one thing if she was already totally under your control, but she won't just mindlessly do something she would never do normally just because you tell her to!"

Fig flew in front of my face, hands on her hips, as she continued on.

"Corruption is about changing values, not forcing someone to do something! Got it?"

Okay… in that case how do I adjust that to work here? Maybe…

"You want to show me your tits?"

This time I immediately felt something happen. It felt like the air shifted slightly around me and then settled down.

My head started to throb slightly as the air returned to normal, but Luce didn't show any sign of anything happening yet. I looked towards Fig, hoping for an explanation.

"Well… It's at least the right style, but it's maybe just a little too much? The skill activated, but there was too much resistance."

"I thought you said she has basically no mental resistance?"

"Yeah! To being put in a trance! Just because she's okay with one thing doesn't mean she's automatically okay with anything."

"Are you sure you're not useless?"

"Rude!"

Ignoring Fig, I thought about the situation again.

Okay, she hates me, but she also pities me and thinks I'm at least somewhat attractive. Fig said earlier that it would probably help to frame it in a way that plays into her existing feelings so…

"Luce."

Despite saying her name, she seemed to give no response, so I decided to just keep talking on my own.

"It would be a waste for someone like me to continue being an unmotivated NEET forever, and you think that showing more skin when it's just me around would be a good way to motivate me to do better."

Once again I was hit by the feeling of something shifting in the air. This time, instead of settling down, the feeling seemed to quickly shift towards Luce and then rush into her before disappearing completely.

"Ooh, that should work pretty well!" Fig said as she floated in front of me and stared at Luce's face.

I also looked at her, wondering what would happen when she snapped out of the effects of Corruption.

Suddenly, Luce shuddered and started blinking quickly as if she'd fallen asleep on her feet and was trying to wake herself up. Dazed, she looked at me and saw that I no longer had my phone up for the pretend phone call, causing a look of confusion to come up on her face.

"What? Didn't your mom have something she needed to tell me?"

Her voice was clearly less sharp than usual, likely because she was still slightly disoriented. It made sense to me since, from her perspective, she had just blanked out and had everything shift around her in the blink of an eye.

"Well she had something to say, but she had to go. She just wanted me to tell you that your usual check might be a day or so late because of something at her work."

"Oh… r-right."

Somehow or another my excuse worked. 

Luce seemed confused for another moment before shaking her head and looking at me with her usual face of contempt. 

"Hey you!"

My name's not "you" but okay.

"Uh, what's up Luce?"

"How many times do I have to tell you it's Ms. Ohm!?"

"I'm not calling you that."

"Ugh, forget it. Look, I'm trying to help you out here."

"Huh?"

"You still don't have a job and you haven't gone back to college right?"

Right to the point as always I see.

"Okay, what about it?"

"You realize no girl will ever want to be with a pathetic guy like you who does nothing but sit around and play video games, right?"

I mean… It's not untrue, but…

"I mean, you've probably spent so long cooped up at home jerking off to cartoons that you've completely forgotten how to interact with real women, right?"

Also not untrue, but damn it! Try to care about my feelings!

"So, I just thought of a great way to motivate even a loser who's given up on life like you!"

After saying that, she reached up and slowly started to pull off her dark blue top. 

Her baggy blue pants were pulled up almost to her navel, making it the first thing I saw, alongside her nicely curved waist and barely visible abs. Her shirt continued climbing, revealing her just slightly visible rib cage before it suddenly stopped on something. After a glorious moment of being caught on the edge of her shirt, a plain pink bra bounced down, bringing with it two milky white breasts that looked just slightly too big to fit in my hands. Each was sprinkled with the same small brown freckles as her face, making them draw my eyes in even more.

In typical virgin fashion I stared at them, transfixed, until the motion of the shirt caught my eyes again and drew them up to her collarbone and her freckled shoulders. Finally, the shirt came over her head and she held it in front of her, looking as smug as ever. 

Somehow her smugness didn't bother me as much this time.

I stared openly as she folded her shirt, each motion pressing her boobs together or shifting them against each other, bringing to mind all sorts of videos I'd seen before and increasing my anticipation for the future. 

Any doubts I had towards this skill of mine went out the window as I watched her folding her shirt like my life depended on it. 

I anxiously waited for more as she folded the top she'd been wearing and sat it on my stepmother's bed. It was quite an impressive sight, but unfortunately it seemed like that was as much as I was going to convince her to take off right now.

"Well? What do you think?" She asked with an uncharacteristic hint of embarrassment. "Probably been forever since you've seen a woman take her shirt off, right?"

Actually, I've never seen a woman take her shirt off other than when I walked in on my stepsisters changing, but she doesn't need to know that.

Okay. How exactly do I progress this conversation? 

"What exactly are you doing, Luce?"

"Didn't I just tell you? It's obviously motivation!" She said, rolling her eyes. 

How she managed to keep that gaze of contempt going even with her shirt off, I did not know. 

"Motivation?"

"Obviously."

"Could you maybe explain?"

Once again she rolled her eyes at me. Don't they ever get tired?

"You've been here doing nothing for so long, I thought maybe a reminder of what you're missing out on would inspire you to get off your ass!"

Yeah, that's about what I suggested when she was under the effects of Corruption.

"You're welcome. Now let me do my work."

With that, she turned around and got back to cleaning the master bedroom as though I wasn't there. I stood there blankly for a minute, watching her stretch over the dresser as she dusted, until finally she scoffed at me and walked over. She shoved me out of the doorway and grabbed the doorknob with a slightly red face.

"Alright. That's enough motivation for one day, let me work in peace!"

With that she slammed the door in my face.

Seeing her half undressed had already turned me on, if I go back in and use Corruption again, then-

"Nope! I can only affect someone once per day!"

Shocked, I jumped up slightly and almost yelled again, only catching myself at the last minute as Fig flew out of my chest.

Not wanting to speak outside of the door Luce was on the other side of, I quickly ran down the stairs before speaking quietly.

"Why can't we just do it? I still feel like I can totally use Corruption again."

"Doesn't matter! I work by using mana to forcibly reorder someone's thoughts. Even ignoring the mana cost and the chance of frying their brain completely, the mana left over by the skill gives too much interference to use again in a short time. You have to wait until they at least get some sleep!"

Well, shit. I guess that means I really do have to do this patiently.

"But man!" Fig continued "She's hotter than I expected, and her tits are pretty great too! I can't wait to make her do all sorts of things."

Fig's face twisted into a frankly creepy smile as she seemed to envision what she would be used to make Luce do later on.

The sight of Luce's breasts pressing together as she did her work came back to mind, bringing with it a number of fantasies. The thought of them wrapped around my dick, pressing together and moving up and down…

Alongside those mental images, my member started to harden against the inside of my pants, quickly becoming almost unbearable.

"Hehe. Looks like you thought about it too!"

Ignoring Fig, I rushed into the restroom, the only place I could expect some privacy, and locked the door behind me. 

As I pulled down my pants and sat down, a voice rang out from just above my head.

"Hell yeah! Let's jerk off!"

… yeah, no.

I quickly covered my extremely erect penis as best as I could while trying to speak calmly.

"Hey Fig, could you please go away while I do this?"

She looked at me confused for a second.

"I mean, I could, but wouldn't that be kind of a waste?"

"Why would it be a waste? Even if you're my skill, I'm not exactly comfortable with you watching me jerk off."

Even saying it felt embarrassing.

"Um? Exactly because I'm your inherent skill?"

Saying that, she started floating down in front of me. Suddenly, her catsuit started to shimmer and then fade away, leaving her floating just inches away from my face, completely naked.

Her flawless peachy skin seemed to glow in front of me, and her small breasts which seemed to just barely exceed A cups were held up proudly as she watched my stunned reaction. Her tiny pink nipples pointed slightly upward as she puffed out her chest proudly. Below her skinny torso was a neat little patch of blue hair and a pair of thin, but nicely shaped legs.

"I'm not exactly big enough to do all of the fun stuff, but wouldn't it be a waste for me to just vanish when I could put on a really nice show for you instead?"

Hearing that, I gulped as my erection throbbed against my hand.