Erza: Session 3

Ignazio was glad to see he was making progress with Erza. Things with Levy and Cana were easy, but he knew Erza would be a major challenge.

He could tell she was starting to trust him, and wanting his approval was a major step in the right direction. The issue was...

"Now Erza. I'm going to ask you to provide me with three percentages. Obedience, Trust, and Love"

Erza nodded firmly

"Obedience is 80%. Trust is 95%..."

She paused, a bit caught off guard by his last query. Ignazio decided to take a peek into her mind for this.

"Love? Do I love him at all? I... I'm not certain. I know how I feel about my fellow guild members. And I know what I feel for Ignazio is somewhat different but... Is that feeling love? That desire for him to watch me? To approve of me?" These were the thoughts circling in her head. Ignazio, upon hearing this, figured... Well, he may as well interject

"I suppose it is love. Thinking about him makes my chest tight. It makes my stomach flutter. And I find it difficult to keep my mind off of him when I'm not busy. All of this dancing... It started off as something for my own sake but now.. I desire to have him look at me. To watch me dance. To... Oogle my body. Is this love? To be treated and seen as an object of desire? I wouldn't think so but... If this light and happy feeling I get from it is any indication.. perhaps it is a budding love."

After forcing those thoughts in, Ignazio left her mind alone. He would allow her to sort through these thoughts. And shortly after, she swallowed hard, straining to find her words

"Love is... 60%."

He had to admit, that number was higher than he expected. Then again, a lot of unexpected events were happening. It seemed that a lot of these women, at least the ones he knew previously, harbored some type of positive feeling for him. His hypnosis was bringing it out of them despite him not even directly asking for it. He didn't command Cana to love him. Or Levy to want to obey him. These were things that seemed to naturally evolve out of these women. Much like this apparent desire for his approval that lurked within Erza. Or maybe it was just a general desire for approval. He knew Erza put her all into everything she did... And while everyone claimed she was one of Fairy Tail's strongest members, that always felt more like a lable slapped onto her rather than an award to be respected.

Maybe she felt his desire to help her, and his attention, were genuine?

Either way, 60% wasn't quite enough. But he couldn't do much about it now. All he could do was move things along.

"Erza. You've started to relax more, haven't you?"

A small smile drifted across her lips as she nodded.

"Good. Your clothes feel better. Your body more relaxed with your dancing. Anything not feel comfortable?"

"Yes. My speech. Trying to modify-- change-- how I speak is difficult and stressful." She stated

"That was the point of this test. We needed to see what we could and couldn't reasonably change to make things better. If trying to change how you talk is bothersome, I don't see why we would need to continue. But we do need to continue your dancing. Tell me, why did you decide on Hula?"

Erza sat in contemplation for a moment

"It's difficult to put into words, but I suppose I felt other forms were too refined as ways to relax. I tried ballet, ballroom dancing, belly dancing..." She began to list

"Erza. The purpose of this wasn't to make you less refined. It was to make you comfortable. If you believe you'd enjoy learning Ballet, then learn ballet." He replied

"I see... It appears I misunderstood the assignment" Erza muttered

"Tell me something. How comfortable are you with hula dancing?"

"I... Love it" she cooed "I also enjoyed what little I tried of other dances"

"So you enjoy dancing? In that case, let's make the next assignment much more clear. Erza, to help you better relax, I want to see three new dances next session. I don't want you to stress about learning them, however. I'll be disappointed if you show up tomorrow claiming to have them done. Learn three of your choice, on your terms. Understood?"

"Of course" she replied.

This was about as much as he could do today, but it had a benefit. She was apparently thinking of him a lot. Having her do these dances while deprived of him should fuel these thoughts further.

"Excellent. Now, wake--"

Before he could finish, a commotion broke outside, snapping Erza from her trance.

Both of them shot up from their seats.

"What the hell?" They both exclaimed at once, as both rushed out of Ignazio's office to see the source of the noise.

In the main hall, furniture had been pushed aside to create a sort of arena. There within stood Cana and Lucy, as well as some woman Ignazio had never seen before. Macao was on the ground, struggling against this woman who wore a maids uniform and broached a head of pink hair, as Elfman dodged and struggled against Cana's cards.

"What the..?" Was all Ignazio could muster before a voice rang out over the guild.

"Enough!"

The fight stopped as everyone looked towards Erza.

"Erza... What is she wearing?" Lucy muttered to herself, noting the hula attire which still clung to the red-haired mage.

"Damn Erza! Looking good!" Cana said with her usual carefree attitude.

Erza glared at her, crossing her arms. For Cana, this was probably terrifying. But to Ignazio, all it really did was work to emphasize Erza's barely-covered breasts.

"Should I stop, Princess?" The pink Haired woman asked Lucy.

"Oh uh... Yeah. That's enough Virgo" Lucy said with a smile. Virgo released Macao, bowed, and then vanished.

Ignazio had forgotten that Lucy was a Celestial wizard. He barely knew anything about her to begin with, let alone what spirits she had. But he now knew that at least one of them was hot.

"Now would someone care to explain what exactly is going on here?" Erza sighed.

From what Ignazio knew, fights weren't exactly unusual. But... He was working to help Erza lower her stress and become more comfortable. Maybe these fights made her uncomfortable and she just didn't want to ruin the fun before?

"What's the big deal, Erza? We were just sparring." Macao said with a big grin.

"The big deal is that I was in the middle of something important and now I will have to wait at least a week to get back to it." She hissed.

"My sessions?" Ignazio thought to himself "Shes only upset because they woke her up?"

He shrugged. This had nothing to do with him. Not really. And he returned to his office, where he waited out the rest of the day in peace, excited to return home.

But little did he know, a wrinkle would soon form in his plans. A wrinkle he would need to snuff out.