chapter 1 – Bullet 1: Hysteria Mode of The wise

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FEBRUARY 1, 2022 ~ FROZZENDETH

Cover art and illustrations by Kobuichi

Hello and thank you for reading! This is just a short message from the translator, @Waifuspite#6971 from the SilverTongue discord group.
Note, this book has not been translated by hand like the main series that BakaKaba is translating but done by machine translation and interpretation.
If you enjoyed reading this please feel free to join the discord group and interact with other HnA fans.
On that note I hope you enjoy this fanservice filled book, because I know I quite enjoyed translating it…

Bullet 1: Hysteria mode of The Wise

“Hahaha! Ki-Kun, Aria, Out-! You two don’t have any skills as Hunters!”

Riko childishly kicks me with her cherry decorated socks.

After a kick on my back from the couch, I nodded off, lying down in the same position as my Hunter on my PSP.

Right now, we are all playing Monster Hunter on our PSP’s together over LAN…

“How can I beat you when you have played for over 800 hours! You can beat me without using any weapons or armor!”

As the canine-toothed and twin tailed Aria just said, as per Rikos rules everyone was forced to fight giant monsters with their characters wearing no armor.

Another rule was, if your character dies three times, you are out.

“………”

The only survivors were Reki, who was using a heavy bow gun, and Riko, who was a Gun Lancer, who were both sitting under the air conditioning.

Me and Aria each begrudgingly paid our due of 100 yen to each of the two winners.

“Kin-Chan, just because it is summer vacation does not mean that you should play videogames all day…”

Shirayuki came to sit next to me with tears in her eyes.

By the way, Shirayuki does not have a copy of Monster Hunter, so she’s feeling a bit depressed today.

“It’s no use, it’s too hot to go outside today.
Hey, don’t grab my sleeve, you’ll push the wrong button!”

“But, but…!”

“-Hey Yuki-Chan.
Don’t you think that this game is good for learning about combat?”

Riko, who has survived every single fight, or rather has not died once, responded to Shirayuki.

“Particularly, competitive games like this are useful for developing a desire for competition.
They teach you to act based on reading your opponents moves and design strategies based on their facial expressions.
Kufufufu.” 

“Is that so, Kin-Chan?”

“Well… come to think of it, it was recommended in inquesta to play games.
But, I think that was referring to table games like cards or mahjong, not Monster Hunter.”

“Then let’s play a game like that, Kin-Chan! I want to play a game with Kin-Chan too!”

“That’s why you shouldn’t have grabbed my sleeve… Oh, you just made me take a Great Recovery Pill for nothing…”

As I was shaking off the white snowflake (Shirayuki) who was following me…

With a “!” above her head, Riko’s head perked up and she dropped her PSP.

“Monster Hunter is over! Let’s play table games together now!”

This girl…

Your mood is going to change soon isn’t it…

“Riko’s room has a game room! At Riko’s Cast-Off table, we can have a battle to determine the best military strategist!”

“The best military strategist…?”

Shirayuki’s eyes glittered.

“… so the person who is the best at table games is the one who can help Kin-Chan the most…! I’ll do it!”

As Shirayuki stood up, Shirayuki’s usual incomprehensible equation gave her an equally incomprehensible interpretation and outcome.

Shirayuki must be very enthusiastic about the idea of finally being able to play a game with me.

Even the sore loser, Aria, was enthusiastic about this new game, saying “I can’t win in  this game so I will play that instead.”

As for Reki… Riko said “Rek-yum you’ll play too!” with a smile and chuckle.

Reki nodded expressionlessly.

“What the hell is that? What is this cast-off table thing?

… My question was promptly ignored by all of the girls, who began to argue amongst themselves as they each claimed that they were the number one strategist…

Without learning what kind of game we would be playing, we decided to meet again in this game room of Riko’s in the girls dormitory tomorrow in the afternoon.

“Everyone must be in their uniform! Ki-Kun, wear a shirt with no jacket or tie!”

Riko said in a flirtatious tone…

I have a very bad feeling about this.
Well, a bad feeling this time too.

I had a bad feeling… and I was right.
I was right once again.

I decided to Google “Cast-Off table” that night and learned…

“Various table games in which the loser removes his or her clothes one by one.”

In short, it’s an undressing game… This girl!

I already don’t like the idea of taking my clothes off in front of girls, but if I were to see a girl strip, I would enter hysteria mode 1000% of the time.

And if I were to enter hysteria mode there, and there are several now stripped girls around me, I might end up with a harem end… it would be just like one of Riko’s games.

Regardless of the situation, I would get sick of hearing the quartet of shooting, slashing, bombing, and sniping from all directions after the fact.

It goes without saying, but my life would end there.

—With haste I thought about running away as fast as I could to Soya or the Cape, but…

My singular hope was dashed as Riko sent me an email saying “Deserters will be chased to the ends of the earth and sentenced to a giant Tsar bomb!” Even if I run away I’ll die!

After learning of this dangerous plan of Riko’s, I made emergency phone calls to Aria, Shirayuki, and Reki.
Aria responded with “I’m just going to win and I’m not going to let you take off any of my clothes”, Shirayuki with “I don’t care if it’s Kin-Chan… Kya!!”, and Reki with “…”.
This was a complete waste of time.

I began to panic and decided to call Riko to complain.

“I don’t care about that! Five people is not balanced though, so let’s call three more people! Jeanne, Aya from Amdo, and, um, Ki-Kun, bring someone else with you!”

—The result was that oil was added to the fire.

(in addition to Aria, Shirayuki, Riko, and Reki, Jeanne and Hiraga now are…!)

Everyone has different reasons to do this but–

All the girls are either beatiful or extremely cute.

This is dangerous.

This is too dangerous.

For me, this is like walking into a bullet-riddled battlefield naked.
This is because I have a condition called hysteria mode.

(What to do, what to do, what do you do Kinji…!）

After worrying about it so much that my hair almost turned gray…

I came up with an idea.

(…”Hysteria Wiseman”…!)

That’s what my brother used to call it – a secret technique passed down in the Tohyama family.

It must be one of the derivatives of hysteria mode.

When one of the Tohyama family’s men become a Hysteria Wiseman, he is not sexuall aroused for a while.

Instead of the usual physical boosts, the body becomes less powerful and offensive abilities are completely eliminated.

In other words, it is a useless technique–That’s what my brother said…

Except, it is useful.
At least under these very special conditions.

When I first read the scrolls at my grandfather’s house, I couldn’t understand them, but now that I’m in high school, I can understand the scrolls.

If I think about it calmly, I would always go through hysteria mode at least once, and its that kind of technique that makes me want to kill myself with a gun in self-loathing, but I cannot turn my back on it.

Still, entering wiseman hysteria mode is better than dying under the concentrated fire of those girls.

From what I can understand, Hysteria Wiseman should only last about 50 minutes.

After Hysteria Wiseman ends and I return to normal, it would then be possible for me to enter normal hysteria mode.

In other words, I need to beat them all and finish the game within 50 minutes, while it’s not possible for me to become sexually aroused.

Now, in order to settle the game as quickly as possible… I decided to take further measures the next morning.

In games, they use the so-called “passers”, henchmen that are used for cheating.

With that thought in mind, I made a phone call to Fuuma Hina, a first year student in Lezzad.

“Master.
You called me, didnt you?”

This eccentric ninja chatterbox, Fuuma, is actually a girl who is rumored to be a descendant of ninjas.

She is a strange and special junior who has been through a lot in the past and has an unusual amount of loyalty to me.

I’m not sure why she calls me master, but to her I am her master…

For now, let’s act like her master to get her to cooperate.

“Fuuma.
Are you free today? You are not busy, right? Great, come with me.”

“Yes, master.”

“Today, I’m going to give you a special lesson.
It’s training, your favorite kind of training.”

“Master, are you serious?”

With a estatic voice, Fuuma was quick to get on board with my “training”.

Whenever Fuuma is told that something is “training”, she will always do whatever it is, whether it is simply picking up groceries or laundry.

“So… I have been watching you lately, and you don’t seem to have enough guts.”

“No guts…? Yes… I’m sorry that I have none.”

“So, I’m going to give you a lesson on how to be courageous.
Just so you know, dont call me a sexual harasser.”

“???”

“We don’t have a lot of time, so I’m going to ask you point-blank….
and….
uh….
the content of this training is likely to include the act of undressing.
How about it, can you do it?”

“Huh, undressing!? In, in, in front of my master…!? Maybe you are talking about doing nude art…!?”

While saying a mysterious word, Fuuma stammered something like “awa, awa, awa,” but…

“–No! You are right! If I am to train with my master, I must be willing to do anything!”

…Rather, she immediately consented.

I felt a little guilty about this straightforwardness, but my life is at stake here. 

Please don’t hesitate to help me.

…She was shaking so badly that her ponytail was shaking…

When I explained the Cast-Off table and the rules to her, she suddenly looked both relieved and disappointed.

“It’s a pleasure to be of service to you!”

And right after she went back to her normal Fuuma self and knelt down to me.

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──Now, let’s go.

For me, this is a game of life and death at the cast-off table.

Once I actually changed I learned the hard way…

Hysteria Wiseman certainly seems to be an inconvenient mode.

Psychologically, I feel calm, but physically, I feel empty and slow, plus my senses are duller than usual.

Just as the scrolls in my parents house had said, this mode is completely useless in combat.

Also, once I met up with Fuuma in her sailor suit waiting under the girls dormitory, I noticed…

As a Wiseman, I seem to lose interest in women, or rather, I seem to be cold and unapproachable.

Well, actually, I’m the same as I usually am here.

Because of this, I wont act suspicious.

“Ah, Ki-Kun come, come! Come on in!”

I was welcomed into Riko’s room by an excited Riko, and as usual, there were sweet smelling lolita and cosplay outfits hanging all over the place.
It’s like a costume store.

“… let’s get started.”

I walked past Riko and sat down on the bed next to her….

Good.

Right now, I have no interest in Aria, Shirayuki, Riko, Reki, Jeanne, Hiraga, or the others gathered in their summer uniforms.
I can calmly ignore them.

I see.
So this is where the name “Wise Man” comes from.

It’s already been five minutes since I’ve been in this mode.
I have 45 minutes left.

In the meantime, I’ll have to settle this.

“Well, because of Jeanne’s suggestion, I’m going to have one of the boys, Ki-Kun, wear special goggles.
Aya, give them to him.”

“Yes! This was made by Aya yesterday!”

And so the child prodigy of Amdo, Aya Hiraga, handed the goggles to me with a tiny hand…

… night vision goggles…? It’s a pair of night vision goggles.

“What the hell is this?”

“This is a pair of goggles that recognizes only the bodies of girls and automatically applies blur to it.
It’s a popular item with everyone here!”

As Hiraga-san, who was wearing a sailor suit with a flat chest, said that…

When I put it on and turned the switch to ON, I could only see the girl’s face and hands.

Their skin appears to have a layer of light applied to it, as if it were a late night anime with a scene that I would consider disturbing.

Despite this light though I can see the table and my own hand, so it looks like I’m not blind to the cards and dice in my hand.

Aya, thank you for this.

Hysteria Wiseman, my henchman Fuuma, and the girl distorting goggles.

With all of these tools at my disposal, I’m sure that I can make it back alive from this cast-off table.

Best of all, with these goggles, I don’t have to worry about Wiseman’s time limit anymore.

The only risk is that I’ll be undressed, but there’s no danger of me doing anything should that happen.
I don’t have the same kind of exposure hysteria activator, like the first Tohyama to use hysteria mode had/did.

However, even though I’m a boy, I don’t like the idea of being naked in public.

──I’m sorry girls, but I’m going to win this.

After all, right now I’m cold towards girls.

Girls, are you ready for this?

Riko lives alone in a three-person room and have used the two spare rooms as a game room and a manga room.

In the game room, there is a collection of old, new, eastern, and western games.

There are cards, dice, hanafuda, shoi, othello, darts… and even a pool table.

She’s really a girl who spares no time or money when it comes to gaming.

“Well, then, let’s divide up the teams! Four pairs of two, please!”

And so Riko brought out a lottery in a bowl and everyone drew…

First of all, the Western pair of Aria and Jeanne, the Japanese pair of Shirayuki and Fuuma, the little girl pair of Riko and Hiraga, and the surplus pair of Reki and myself.

According to RIko, the pairs can cooperate with each other. 

“–This is the first game–!”

The desk which Riko removed the tablecloth off of was a magnificent Janjian table.

In other words, this is “strip mahjong”.

It’s a royal road.

Mahjong is a game in which… four players take turns taking and discarding mahjong tiles laid out on the table, and the winner is the one who quickly arranges the tiles into a shape called “yaku-yaku” 

In terms of playing cards, it’s a lot like poker.
You draw and discard cards, and there are various roles such as straight and flush.

These possible sets are mainly formed by collecting related tiles in sets of 3, 3, 3, 3, and 2.

This makes it more complex than poker and requires a higher level of strategy.

“I know the rules because I read it on a mobile app… Do you guys know the rules?”

I looked around and asked that to everyone.
Right now I’m the only one looking suspicious with goggles on.

To my surprise, almost all of them seemed to know the rules of Mahjong.

The only one who doesn’t know anything about mahjong is Jeanne.
Riko had tried to play mahjong in my room yesterday, so Aria and Reki seemed to at least know the rules.

Since then, Aria said that she read a manga about high school girls playing mahjong, which it seems Riko had recommended to her.

“Don’t worry Jeanne.
I mastered mahjong after reading that manga.”

… While looking sideways at Aria, who was confidently speaking to her partner Jeanne…

I also got to the table with Reki, who just knows the rules.

“It’s okay to consult with your partner! I wrote a detailed ruleset in this notebook!”

“Psst”

Riko holds up a notebook with a kitty-cat pattern.

When I looked at the Mahjong chapter of the notebook titled “Cast Off Table Ruru☆Buku”–

Rules for AriAri: there are no local rules.

–It’s a common Japanese style mahjong.

(I bet kitty didn’t expect to be turned into a mahjong rulebook)

I looked at the back of the book and saw some items that it would seem that I should pay attention to.

— “when a game ends in deadlock the pair is changed”—

(the pairs are changed in a deadlock, huh…)

My partner is Reki, a beginner among beginners.

In order to annihilate the girls, Reki will eventually have to be knocked out, but I can’t let her go down right now.

I don’t know how long the rule of pairing up will last, but there is no shortage of games where two players are better than one.

I should probably do my best to protect Reki here.

–As the group passed around the rulebook.

“People who are hit directly take off 1 piece of clothes! People who are hit with Mangan take off 2 pieces of clothes, get hit with a haneman and you take off 3 pieces of clothing and if you get hit with baiman you take off 4 pieces of clothing! In the case of a Tsumo win, regardless of whether it is a high or a low win, everyone except the person who won will take off a piece of clothing!”

Riko cheerfully explains the undressing rules.

“I have a total of 5 pieces of clothing, including a uniform ribbon, 2 socks, a blouse, and a skirt! Because of the warrior’s compassion, you will be eliminated when you are down to just your underwear! And when one of you is eliminated, mahjong is over!

Winner gets to decide what the next game is! So, good luck to everyone!”

By the way, as a boy, I’m wearing a shirt, vest, pants, and 2 socks.

That means I have 5 lives to use, just like the girls.

First, we roll the dice to determine who will be the starting players…

“I’m like a parent” (this is in reference to who is at the table, Kinji is obv the dad)

And then, starting with Aria, who had re-seated herself, Shirayuki, Riko, and I took the North, South, East, and West positions.

Unless there is a pair change due to a deadlock game, one of the four here will be stripped down to his or her underwear.

“—Let’s get started.
Mahjong is a rhythm.”

But when I checked my hand…

Oh, this isn’t good…

The types of tiles and numbers are all over the place.

(Damn… these tiles make me want to cry…)

It’s going to be hard to make a hand out of this.

Well that is me, with a terrible reputation for bad luck.

Pretending to rearrange the tiles, I quickly sent a distress signal to Fuuma, who was standing behind Shirayuki…

Fuuma, while overhearing something from Shirayuki, touched her ponytail… and returned a signal using her fingers.

You are saying… “I have a plan”…?

Hmmm… it doesn’t look like i’m going to go very far with this hand, so I might as well take it.

“Let’s get started.”

“Yes.
Please take it easy on me.”

“ugggg–! Okay–!”

“Come on.”

Aria was grinning, Shirayuki was smiling serenely, Riko was saluting with both hands, I had my goggles on… pon, pon, pon… and I began to cut the tiles, but…

What suddenly stood out was Shirayuki’s gesture of picking up a tile and shaking it.

Her hands and her eyes are majestic.

She looks like a professional female player.
That looks cool.

“Shi, Shirayuki… is this something you’re familiar with…?”

“Ah, Yes.
I used to compete with my sisters at Hotogi.”

Shirayuki responds a little embarrassed and with a shy smile.

…what are you doing at Hotogi? Why are you acting like that?

As I discarded the 9, I had a thought.

“Oh, by the way, Shirayuki.
You have ESS powers, right? Can you increase your own luck?”

“You cannot increase your own luck, but you can predict what the flow will be.”

“I see.
You can only see your luck… Isn’t that a foul thing to do?”

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When I asked her about it, Riko, not Shirayuki, squeaked.

She shook her head, flicking around her two side twintails.

“Because this is a combat game, anything is possible.
Of course, you can cheat too, you know.
But, if you get caught cheating, you’ll be naked at once! I’ll even take off your underwear!”

Riko then threatened everyone with the question “Are you cheating?” No one, of course, responded back.

–this is what is so scary about being a Butei.

Butei are not like cops or military personnel who must always be on the side of justice even when it’s at their expense.

The so-called “do-it-all” Butei, when given a mission, are relatively willing to use any means necessary to achieve victory.

Therefore, when it comes to games, anything is allowed.

That’s the unspoken rule.

“Im not cheating.”

The tile that Aria cute with a resounding thud was the 3 of Bamboo.

Aria just cut a dora tile.
In addition to that, Shirayuki has already cut the 2 of Bamboo. 

It’s an obvious backstrip, a dangerous tile.

However, Shirayuki only glanced at Aria and did not move.
It’s tough.
Aria’s tile.

…zawa…

A little bit of tension