With no solid idea, I face the Ring's learning curve.

I really was trying my hardest to take the question seriously. Apparently, Regina found something funny about me standing with my arms crossed in concentration, earnestly trying to reason out the best method. "You're thinking about it too hard." With a smirk, she walked past me and back over to Kaede. "I'll give you one tip," she called back to me. "This is a lot easier for someone your level when there aren't a bunch of people around. Make good use of the time before you get to class, all right?"

It looked like Regina was telling Kaede we'd wrapped up. I still didn't have any idea how this ring stuff worked. I didn't have any idea, but... Damn, I really wanted to see what Kaede was wearing ever since Regina put the idea in my head! If I was being honest, I really, really wanted to...

Before I knew what was happening, I was walking next to Kaede as she explained all sorts of introductory information I ought to be listening to. Meanwhile, my eyes, hidden as usual behind my bangs, stayed rooted on her skirt as I wished for it to magically lift itself. But, as I thought about it... A skirt magically lifting itself wasn't one of the ring's powers, was it? I needed to think... Apparently, the ring allowed me to shape the minds or bodies of women. Therefore, the easy answer was I needed to make Kaede lift her skirt for me, herself.

I tried staring at Kaede's face with intensity, intending to try and drill the thought into her head through sheer **** of will...

As I did, I realized she'd been asking me a question I'd totally missed. "So, what do you do as a ringmaster?"

Immediately, I panicked. "Aaah, uh, I don't do anything as a ringmaster! I'm not trying to make you do anything!"

"'Make me do anything?' Like, make me..." She seemed to consider something. As she was thinking, I saw her hand that hadn't moved pensively to her chin move to her skirt instead, her thumb and finger starting to form a hoop to pinch an edge. She seemed to catch herself doing it, though, and stopped herself, laughing briefly. "Sorry, I'm not quite sure I get it! I'm assuming you run a circus?"

"Uh huh..." I was sure I'd started to get her where I wanted, but it didn't seem like I was strong enough yet. Controlling minds probably wasn't going to be easy... Maybe there was a way I could game it? Kaede seemed to realize what she was doing wasn't natural, so she was able to stop herself.

"You've almost figured it out," Regina's voice popped into my head. I turned around and saw her following us at a distance. Her mouth wasn't moving, so she must be projecting her thoughts to me by some kind of telepathy. "There ought to be like ten different ways you can do this, even at your power level. Think about it!"

Okay... If Kaede won't lift it for me if it isn't natural. What are some other ways? I wanted to think, but I realized I was supposed to also be talking to Kaede so I tried to respond. "Yeah... Um, I run both the business side and the actual in-ring performance when I can. The ringmaster mostly directs the audience to what part of the ring they're supposed to look at, and acts as the manager of the other acts. So, for instance, I'd talk to one of the clowns and say something like, 'lift your skirt' and-" I clapped my hand over my mouth, trying to **** my accidental slip back in.

Kaede only laughed good naturedly. "That's funny! And then the clown just does it as part of the act?" she asked, pinching both sides of her skirt and starting to lift. It had ridden up high enough so that the sides of her pale upper thighs were visible before she caught what she was doing, probably by the way I was staring, and hastily let go. "Ha... Ha ha! Wow, that was weird! I almost got pulled into that act of yours just thinking about it, I guess. Does that happen to you a lot?"

I couldn't decide if "yes" or "fuck no" was the better answer here, and I clammed up stupidly instead. I'd almost been there, I was sure of it... But if I kept just trying that out, Kaede would probably get suspicious pretty fast. Since I needed to plan my next move, I decided to try and move the conversation away from me. "What about you, Kaede? What do you do?"

"What do I do?" Kaede tilted her head. "Oh, you mean as the Ultimate Pianist-"

"Ultimate what?!" I stopped her, mishearing. I could feel my face burning.

She raised an eyebrow. "I said, the Ultimate Pianist..."

"Oooh! Haha, I thought you said something else..." I felt like a ten-year-old disappointing my parents laughing at a dirty joke. I was flubbing this so bad...

Kaede seemed to realize I was uncomfortable and tried to apologize, sweeping it under the rug. "I get it, sorry! You thought I said Ultimate Penis."

I flushed even harder, hearing my stupid misinterpretation in her words. "Forget I said anything, please!"

She looked at me apologetically... then said it again with a funny grin that didn't match her eyes. "Ultimate Penis. Ultimate Penis." I saw a different expression of realization creep into her plum-colored eyes as they grew rounder. "Ultimate... Dick. Ultimate Cock...~" she almost purred in a strange voice, and I could see in her eyes she was starting to freak out. "Ultimate Girl Meat, Ultimate Lady Tamer, Ultimate Throbbing Erection!"

Obviously, this was my fault. I couldn't believe my creepy desire to hear a charming model student like Kaede say dirty words could have this big of an effect...! I did the only thing I could think of: I clapped my hand over her lips, counted to three to calm myself down. When I removed my hand and confirmed she wasn't spitting out every synonym for penis I could think of, I spoke as evenly as I could. "Yeah, I misheard you. You okay?"

"I'm... not sure what came over me. That wasn't like me at all," she replied honestly, looking shaken. She seemed to think she was freaking me out, and tried to play it off. "... Uh... b-but yeah, what was I saying? I'm the Ultimate Pianist, so... Um, I've been playing the piano since I was a kid..."

The two of us were awkwardly looking in different directions as we walked now, and I could only half pay attention to her explanation. I didn't need Regina to explain this one to me; it seemed like if I wasn't careful and let my thoughts run away from me, I could end up exercising my power by accident. Hopefully, if I practiced, I'd be able to pull it together...

What was I talking about? Practicing? Wasn't I going to get rid of this ability?

Forget it. I understood now. Now that I'd had a taste of it, there was no way I could even pretend I'd just throw this power away. After all, the power of the ring was based on what I wanted. If I didn't actually want the power gone, there'd be no way I could **** it gone just from a sense of responsibility... So, this was probably going to define my life, I realized. I was going to have to get it under control, or I could make something awful happen by accident-

Speaking of things I was failing to control, I'd started walking ahead and had made it all the way to the steps of the school building. I was so out of it that I tripped at the transition of the flight of stairs to the landing, falling flat on my face. I rolled over onto my back and rubbed my sore nose, feeling tears welling up in the corners of my eyes. "Fuck!"

Kaede hurried over to me, reaching one of her slender hands down to help me up as she brushed her hair aside with the other. "Minnie, are you okay? You've got to watch where you're going!"

I stared up at her through my misty eyes, wishing I wasn't such a hopeless idiot outside of my talent. I wished I had a way to just reset my impression with Kaede, who had to think I was a complete dumbass.

"Don't worry, happens to all of us!" Kaede reassured me, stepping a little closer to me. "I don't think you're a dumba- ah! A d-dummy at all," she corrected herself, almost using my words.

... Right, the ring worked that way, didn't it? If I wanted Kaede to think I was cool, I didn't have to actually be cool. Maybe not now, but eventually, I'd be able to just overwrite her mind with the idea.

"You're actually pretty cool!" Kaede added, still stepping closer to me until she was at an awkward angle to actually try and pull me up. "And smart, and interesting!" she continued to rattle off my wishlist, stepping even closer. By this point, she was actually standing over my head, with one foot on the landing at either side. Whether I wanted to or not (and I did), I could now see straight up her skirt, to the point where her pale, creamy thighs met and gave way to the frilly pink panties I'd been expecting. I'd probably have considered them flashier if Kaede's entire outfit wasn't some shade of purple or pink already, establishing that her choice in undergarments was probably less about being flashy and more about a default preference. Still, even though they weren't surprising, they definitely weren't boring. From this lucky perverted angle, I could see everything way too clearly, even make out the shape of her lower lips in spite of the shade her skirt offered... Meanwhile, she rambled on in accordance with what I wanted. "And you're normal, and not a weirdo! And you're s... s-sexy..."

I blinked.

As soon as I did, Kaede jumped away from me. She no longer seemed interested in helping me up, but was instead wringing her hands with a panicked look. "Minnie, uh... s-something really weird's going on. I swear I don't usually act like this or talk like this! I... I haven't introduced anyone to this school, before, since we haven't had any transfers. I must just be... nervous or something, right?" I could tell she hardly believed that, but was ready to believe a far-fetched explanation if it meant she wasn't going crazy.

I nodded. "Yeah, don't sweat it... Sorry I'm not a great talker. It must be weird trying to talk to me..." Over and over in my head, I repeated that I didn't want Kaede to reassure me that, actually, talking to me was fun and she liked me. That was something I wanted, of course, but I really just wanted my power to stop running away from me. I was trying to avoid what seemed to be a recurring cycle where I was going to keep exerting my influence to make her like me after fucking up, so I just repeated it like a mantra in my head. "Don't like me, don't like me, don't like me!"

As I watched, Kaede's confused face changed. She looked upset... Then, ticked off. She turned her head away as though she didn't want to look at me. "Minnie... I didn't want to say anything, but you're kind of creeping me out. This is actually causing a lot of trouble for me. I've got things to take care of, so when you get your butt up off the stairs, I'd appreciate it if you can try and find your own way to the classroom." She flipped her gorgeous blonde hair, set her eyes on the doorway like she had important business, and hurried away from me without so much as a goodbye.

Dammit! I overcorrected!

"You overcorrected," Regina agreed with me. Even though she'd arrived next to me, she was just standing there, not offering a hand to help. "So, I gotta say... this is pretty rough. Your big problem is you don't have a handle on what you want, so your control of reality is all over the place. Fundamentally, I think the actual strength of your output is all right, but the focus-"

"Forget the review!" I shouted at her, struggling to my feet and dusting myself off. "Kaede hates me now, right? I've got to figure out how to fix this."

"Calm down." Regina rolled her eyes, then raised two fingers to count off. "First, and I don't know how many times I've got to say this: You. Control. Her. Reality. If you don't like what she thinks of you, well, in no time at all, you're going to be able to control exactly what she thinks of you. But second, with your weak-ass power, you don't even control what she thinks of you right now. Yeah, you accidentally made her not like you, but your power is so fuckin' pitiful that by the time she gets away from you, it'll probably wear off and just return to whatever the net balance of like and dislike was."

"Oh... Good." I let out a sigh of relief, then cleared my bangs aside to look at Regina seriously. "Cause I really... I feel like Kaede might be the one. She's so cute, isn't she?! I wanna use the ring's power to make her into me, right away!"

This made Regina laugh hard. "Oh yeah? Honey, I don't know if you've realized yet, but your strike zone has probably gotten a lot larger since you put on that ring. I have a feeling you're going to be meeting a lot of 'the ones,' but whatever. We'll see. Right now, think you can find your way to that classroom without a guide?"