Miss Li’s watch buzzed softly. Her reminder alert for that morning’s exercise, which she always began at 10:30am, when Lewis had a regularly scheduled break at work.

She stood, taking her phone in one hand, and walked across to the wide, white wall of her living room. As she did so she shrugged out of her bathrobe, then took down and discarded the sodden towel which had wrapped around her hair, shaking out her long dark locks.

Later she would want to brush and braid her hair, but there were more important things pressing upon her time, so in the interim she let her hair settle down her back.

Hurriedly she tied her blank belt loosely back in place over her hips and took up the exercise nipple clamps - these being more streamlined and without the hanging weights - to fit them into place.

Lastly, she stepped forward and took her phone, slotted it into the flex-armed phone holder set up in front of the empty white wall, and opened up the private server she shared with Master Lewis, where she dropped into the voice channel and began to broadcast.

That done she paced back to the wall and turned back to face her phone’s camera.

She brought the palms of her hands together in salute, close in against her belly, and let them rise until her knuckles brushed against the inner curves of her breasts. Then, maintaining respectful eye contact with the lens of her phone camera, she bowed low.

“Good morning, Master Lewis,” she said. “It is now 10:31 and my exercise begins, whether you choose to watch and enjoy or not.”

The words were the same every day, but they were not rote, they hadn’t been chosen for her - not like many of the rules Master Lewis had been so generous as to give her for her own education - instead, they were simply the easiest formulation of what she wanted to express.

She wanted to show him the respect of a correct greeting, whether he was there to hear it or not; he had made it clear to her that her exercises were not simply for him to enjoy, but should continue under all circumstances.

She knew they had to begin at a certain time, and she wanted to mark clearly that she knew this.

And she knew that Master Lewis’ attendance and enjoyment was his to decide or not, so she acknowledged.

As such, her greeting had become a formula, and one she enjoyed saying - she enjoyed doing as she was told; it was proof Master Lewis’ hypnosis treatment was working, and she enjoyed being naked in front of his eyes, even when she couldn’t be sure whether they were on her or not.

She was already wet when she began the star jumps. These had been among the first exercises Master Lewis had required of her, and they were still how she started her exercises; sets of four, with eight seconds between each, counted out for five minutes in her head.

Each jump was accompanied by a phrase Master Lewis liked to hear from her.

“Miss Li! Obeys! Master! Lewis!”

Over and over she recited the phrase, and over and over a part of her mind heard her say it and thought: That’s me saying this. It must be true.

She said it once for each set, and in the eight seconds between each set, she stood still and silent, head respectfully bowed. She didn’t need to see if Master Lewis was watching; this information wasn’t relevant.

Besides, she was keeping count of the seconds in her head.

When five minutes were complete she brought her hands together again and bowed respectfully.

“I go now to continue my exercise, Master Lewis,” she said, very formal. For some reason sounding formal had come to sound better to her over time.

She stepped forward and hung up the call, then picked her phone from the stand and jogged briskly upstairs. By now, while she’d started to sweat a little, her hair was much drier, a trail of the water that had soaked into it having trickled down her back and dried over her vigorous exercise.

*

She put the toy in first, then pulled her panties up over it to keep it in place, hips already twitching slightly as she had started with it on.

(She always started with it on; Master Lewis had once made a very satisfied noise when he heard her try to suppress a whimper at it, and ever since he started hypnotising her, Miss Li had been very aware how important it was to please him.)

Next came her running shorts; she’d always favoured spandex but now that she ran with a toy, Master Lewis had required her to go over to the slightly looser fabric booty shorts so the toytip jutting out wouldn’t be clear to any engaged observer.

Miss Li didn’t really understand why an observer would be so closely engaged - after all, this was the best way to exercise, as Master Lewis had taught her, so it wasn’t like she was doing anything at all out of the ordinary - but when Master Lewis said something firmly, Miss Li obeyed.

Miss Li always obeyed Master Lewis.

On over the top went a patterned sports bra that could just about be worn in public without negative comment. She quickly pulled on shoes and socks, tucked her earbuds into her ears, and linked the toy’s remote control app on her phone to her audio.

Then she went for her jog, Master Lewis’ words echoing through her head, her lips echoing them silently, her blank belt now carrying the phone in its case clipped to the belt, bouncing on her hip.

“No power,” her lips shaped, “no control. No choice. No power, no control, no choice. I love to be hypnotised. I have no power. I have no control. I have no choice.

“No power, no control, no choice. No power, no control, no choice. I am hypnotised to have no power. I am hypnotised to have no control. I am hypnotised to have no choice.”

Her feet, pounding away at the sidewalk, ate up the distance she was tasked with running. They moved at a steady speed, their pace dictated by the rhythm of Master Lewis’ voice as she echoed him.

“No power, no control, no choice. No power, no control, no choice. I accept Master Lewis’ choices. I accept Master Lewis’ control. I accept Master Lewis’ power over me. I have no power. I have no control. I have no choice.”

By the end of the first mile, she was reciting Master Lewis’ words aloud, though not loudly; it was more that his words filled her, so completely that they spilled out breathlessly with each exhalation.

“I have no power, no control, no choice. I am an obedient Blank Belt. Miss Li obeys Master Lewis. Miss Li has no power, no control, no choice. No power, no control, no choice.”

Miss Li could not have told you the route she’d run. She’d only have been vaguely confident of the weather. But she knew with absolute certainty in whose power she was, under whose control she lived, and how little choice she had in the matter.

This was important. It made her feel helpless, to have the physical power and capacity that she held but to be so utterly unable to wield it on her own behalf.

*

There was one final leg to her exercise when she returned home.

She left the earbuds in, left her phone and her blank belt in place, in fact everything stayed the same except for her booty shorts, her panties, and the toy, all of which came out and were placed on the kitchen table.

Master Lewis liked the evidence of her obedience to go onto the kitchen table where he could, if he chose, exercise his right to examine it.

Miss Li liked to obey Master Lewis.

She adopted the position above her chair - nowadays she considered only one of the five chairs around her kitchen table to be hers; the one marked by the big suction-cupped dildo - and slid onto it, impaling herself on her workout cock.

She was sat with her thighs out wide, her feet not fully on the floor, technically balanced just on her toes. In this way her ankles and knees could work wonders in giving her movements pace, enthusiasm, and precision as she went to work enthusiastically trying to milk the big fake rubber cock.

She moved on to the next file with a series of instinctive taps on her phone, still hooked to her belt; she didn’t need to see its screen anymore in order to move from one file to the other, as she’d done it often enough now in the near-trance state that so often filled her mind that it had become a simple physical reflex.

Again, her pace shifted quickly to fit the cadence of the words in her ears, but this time she wasn’t listening to Master Lewis; she was listening to herself, he words a contented, dazed, slurring drone.

“I’m so lucky to be hypnotised. I’m so lucky to be conditioned. Other women don’t know what they’re missing,” her recorded voice began.

Miss Li’s own voice joined in, a half-glazed, soft rendition deep enough into trance that no emotion was present, but so full of the arousal she always felt when exercising that anyone listening would know just how erotic she found it.

“I don’t have a mind of my own, but I have a purpose,” she echoed her recorded, entranced self, her eyes glassy, her face slack. “Not many people have a purpose. But I serve Master Lewis. I obey Master Lewis.”

The idea of being a woman with purpose was as important to her as everything else; it made her special, set her apart from others. And that meant she was special in her turn.

She liked that idea. Only someone very special could deserve for Master Lewis to take charge of her mind.

“I must earn my role under Master Lewis. I must strive to be worthy of a blank belt. I must seek to advance.”

She did truly wish to advance, too. Her belt was white, and that had not been the case for a long time, but she felt its emptiness just as keenly.

True, she was proud to wear the belt, but she still felt she should advance. She must advance.

“I am more than a plaything. I am a tool. And I maintain myself at all times for optimal use.”

Her words were quieter now than the wet shlikk-shlikk-shlikking of her pussy around the workout cock, at least the ones she was speaking aloud. The recording was the same volume throughout, even if her words were not always clear.

That hardly mattered. Miss Li knew her rules as if by rote. They were more than a mantra; they formed the bedrock of all thought.

“I want to be the very best I can for Master Lewis,” she said. “The best fighter. The best teacher. The best lover. The best slut.”

Both in the recording and in life, her breathing was ragged, her gasps for air doubling as whimpers of pleasure and delight.

It didn’t occur to Miss Li to wonder when these additional roles had become things she aspired to. It was enough to know that she did.

“I don’t need a mind. I have a Master,” she continued, and again, and again. “I don’t need a mind. I have a Master. I don’t need a mind. I have a Master.”

Her speech found clarity again, this idea important enough that it had to be properly spoken, that it deserved clarity. The movement of her body against her workout cock slowed slightly, but without losing any of its intensity, her thighs and buttocks slapping against the chair.

“I don’t need a mind. I have a Master. I don’t need a mind. I have a Master.” Her drone was taking on an eagerness and an excitement that confirmed just how aroused she was, how slick the workout cock and the chair beneath it were with her juices.

How ready she was to cum.

“I don’t need a mind. I have a Master. I don’t need a mind. I have a Master.”

It was a good thing that the kitchen wasn’t next to any neighbours. She was squealing her mantra, almost screaming it, her body nothing but a vibrating mess with arousal and pleasure and desire.

She came crying out, her words lost in a noise of helplessness, and subsided, her head empty and mindless, lolling forward, barely moving except to breathe for five minutes before her own self began to return, always a little more changed by her workout.

*

Happily, Lewis had been able to watch the first phase of her exercise. He always tried to make time, out of a feeling that perhaps Miss Li had earned it as well as out of his own enjoyment. He’d even roped in a friend to show him how to stream video from his phone to his work desktop without the clinic’s intranet security noticing anything; his friend didn’t entirely know what was going on and Lewis thought he probably just assumed Lewis wanted to watch porn on his phone.

Which, he supposed, was true in a way; Miss Li was creating live, bespoke porn daily that connected precisely to Lewis’ interests.

The second part of that was probably unsurprising. Over the past couple of months he’d been converting, subverting, or plain corrupting her interests and desires to more perfectly complement his own.

It would make a hell of a theory paper, if he could ever publish it.

As he talked to his 11am appointment, his attention wavered intermittently, returning to Miss Li’s naked body. The shape of her, the way she moved, the flickers of uncertain submission that cracked the facade of certainty she wore in her daily life as an expert.

It was odd how many similarities he found between his conquest and his client, even if he was moving them both in different directions along their journey; helping his client to understand that the uncertainty that showed through when she cracked was a natural part of her, and something she could work on.

A reminder that with the right support, all the work he’d done on Miss Li could, in time, be picked apart, teased apart.

He was surprised by just exactly how uncomfortable that notion made him feel. He’d known it, really, and yet thinking about it wasn’t pleasant.

It wasn’t just the risk to his career, though of course that was significant. No, he wanted to see this project through to the end.

Miss Li had been, at one time, a competent, effective, smart woman who had carved out a life she was perfectly contented with.

Lewis had started to think it was possible to refine and to twist someone to the point they were just as contended with a life that had been defined for them. Miss Li was his test subject, his way to prove his theory. And he very much wanted to see that he was right, even if the proof could never be published.

After his appointment, he produced a small notebook from one pocket, opened it, and began to make notes.

*

Some hours after her workout ended, Miss Li showered, changed her blank belt for another, fresher one, and dressed again.

This time she picked out black high-leg panties, the kind Master Lewis had been delighted by when he discovered them in her collection, and covered her long, muscular legs with black sheer tights so that only people who looked twice (or stared) would realise how entirely on display she’d be below the belt.

Added to this ensemble was the soft, padded teal green bra that made her silhouette so much more impressive in Master Lewis’ eyes and ensured that outside of her workout and her classes her chest got the kind of support it needed, and over it a hoodie in the same teal green, a mens’ hoodie a size too small; this meant that the hemline stretched down far enough to cover the fact she wore tights rather than leggings, but at the same time the hoodie’s supposedly baggy cut didn’t really have the room needed to be loose.

She gathered her long hair up and tied it back in a ponytail, then considered the effect in the mirror thoughtfully.

Then she sighed, took down her ponytail, and sat down before her mirror to braid her long hair. It took a while each time, now, but something about it had tickled Master Lewis’ fancy once, and since then she’d taken the steps needed to wear it in his presence more often than not.

It didn’t occur to Miss Li that she hadn’t had to deliberate over her panties, tights, bra, or top at all, but that the braid was a conscious decision; the way she dressed wasn’t something she thought about any more, wasn’t even something she noticed anymore.

Instead, her constrained mind followed rules that had been set in place for it, without any need for deliberation or decision, and a shiver of pleasure went through her every time she picked up the correct garment and every time her long, elegant, obedient fingers smoothed it into place.

A dark green lipstick and a soft green eyeshadow completed her preparation.

She pulled on a pair of worn old sneakers, regretting that it couldn’t be tall heels - she had a pair that put her cleavage level with Master Lewis’ lips, if he was seated - and left the house.

By the standards of her work it was early, but she was in position to be waiting by the parking lot at Master Lewis’ work before he finished for the day.

She watched him make his way to the car and made her way across to meet him. With each step, a part of her seemed to fall away, a dizzying sense of something new rising up through a fraying self.

At the passenger door she paused. Her hands came together, palms pressed against one another, and she bowed fractionally - enough for her to know she had observed proper protocol, but shallow enough that a casual onlooker might not put it together.

Master Lewis gave her a fractional nod in return. She had permission to enter his car, and she did.

He moved his hand from the gear stick to her thigh, and automatically her eyes turned to face the road, her hand settled on the gear stick, and everything but the road and the occasional muttered word from Master Lewis faded away.

Miss Li was an object now, a tool, an automated gearshift. Like part of the car, responding to what she saw or to any adjustment her Master told her to make, and all the while his fingers explored her inner thigh, tracing patterns, enjoying the feel of all that powerful muscle under his complete control.

Miss Li wasn’t even aware of how wet she was getting.

*

If truth were told, Lewis had spent a little time wishing he were better at self-hypnosis lately. The attack hadn’t left his mind, and he seemed to spend more and more time dwelling on how lucky he’d been as time went by. So when he had something to do after work, even in much nicer areas of town, Miss Li went with him.

She sat while he drove, but once they were out of the car she fell into step two paces behind him, just off to one side, and her mind went from a total focus on the road ahead to a much wider awareness of the world around her.

She spent that time with the same high-intensity alertness of a trained guard dog, and in a sense she fulfilled the same function, scanning crowds and individuals and alert constantly to anything that might be a threat to Master Lewis.

A tiny part of her mind noted that this seemed incredibly unlikely in the mall they were visiting, but it was ignored by the part of her in the driver’s seat, a sort of idealised Miss Li (whose ideals, alas, she was not entirely sure of) of a possible future, where she had undergone some nonspecific improvement. This Miss Li she identified strongly with Master Lewis, and consequently she considered it the better version of herself.

The better version of herself did not question Master Lewis. The better version of herself obeyed his commands or attempted to anticipate and fulfil his desires. The better version of herself was not permitted to lose focus, to get distracted, to cease the state of high alert when it had been required.

This was the first time, however, that as well as monitoring for danger, she had also been fully aware of just how many women, after noticing the sheerness of her tights and the darkness of her panties, had glanced up at her with disdain, nor those whose eyes had radiated admiration or envy or desire.

It was the first time she had kept track of the men, young and old, whose eyes tracked her figure the way Master Lewis appreciated her figure. It was as if something had changed during the car journey.

Perhaps Master Lewis had hypnotised her. If so, it was his right; he could hypnotise her whenever he chose and she could not and would not resist.

She couldn’t imagine what purpose would be served by having her aware of the effect her body had on others, though.

*

Lewis had significantly relaxed by the time they reached the mall’s food court, enough that he simply told her what he wanted and took a seat in the courtyard, leaving her to run his errands. She, of course, complied eagerly; he had made his desire clear and it was her pleasure to fulfil it.

There was a surprising amount of attention on her, enough that Miss Li wondered how she’d never registered it before. She stood in line dutifully, thoroughly aware of the eyes on her backside, especially from the young man in the couple stood directly behind her; she could practically feel his desire, as well as the growing frustration of his girlfriend.

Why was it, she wondered, that college kids seemed incapable of knowing when they were being too obvious for their own good? Miss Li almost felt sorry for him, knowing that if he was lucky, he had a brutal argument ahead of him; if not, his girlfriend would be casting him aside abruptly. Which was probably worse than he deserved, but also, he needed to learn, and clearly learning wasn’t coming too easily.

Was it just the outfit? It was the only thing that had definitely changed that Miss Li could think of, but it was also something made up entirely from clothes she’d already owned.

She collected their food on the tray, pivoted on one heel, and almost marched back to Master Lewis’ table in as straight a line as she could. Around her she was conscious of many of the men (and not a few of the women) perking up and knew the were following her with her eyes.

So it wasn’t just the outfit. It was the way she carried herself, the way she moved.

She didn’t think of herself as particularly sexualised. The workout cock was just a sensible part of any fitness regimen, and Master Lewis’ sex drive was high enough that she was, of course, satisfying him regularly. But these were just natural parts of life, and you couldn’t draw conclusions from that.

So it had to be something else about her appearance, she decided. And once she had, the answer was obvious. It was even in one of her longform workout mantras.

I’m so lucky to be hypnotised. I’m so lucky to be conditioned. Other women don’t know what they’re missing. I don’t have a mind of my own, but I have a purpose. Not many people have a purpose. But I serve Master Lewis. I obey Master Lewis.

Miss Li found herself smiling as they ate. It was nice to have the mystery solved, and it was just as good to have proof that the mantras Master Lewis had given her were right; she had a purpose. And the people around her responded to that purpose, desired it, envied it.

She was so lucky to be conditioned.

*

Master Lewis had gone home and Miss Li had gone on to the dojo to teach that night’s class. Once all was done and the dojo was locked up once again, she started walking home.

Or, as she realised around twenty minutes later, actually she’d been walking to Master Lewis’ apartment throughout. Somehow her mind had refused to notice the landmarks she used to navigate on foot were a completely different set to the ones that led her home, had refused even to acknowledge the different ambience of the two neighbourhoods.

If, during the portion of the evening she’d been Master Lewis’ bodyguard, she’d been on high alert for everything, registering almost anything that moved for assessment, during the walk she’d been aware, consciously, of almost nothing.

Was this another demonstration of what it meant that Master Lewis could hypnotise her whenever he wanted?

She realised she was smiling dreamily and felt a shiver of pleasure down her spine at the realisation. So much of what her mind and body did now was beyond her, was in fact no more than her inner self being placed under automated, self-enforcing rules.

Before she knew it she was at his door, ringing his doorbell - and only when she took her thumb off the button did Miss Li learn what number he lived at.

Evidently Master Lewis had been expecting her as the buzz of the unlocking door sounded without him even bothering to check. She was clearly walking into a situation that, like her, was entirely under his control.

She realised she was mewling slightly in pleasure and bit her lip for silence.

Stepping into the elevator she hit the button for the fifth floor, then fell back to the exact centre of the elevator. Her eyes lifted to the red floor number displayed above the doors and Miss Li became conscious of a peaceful stillness settling upon her.

As the number changed to 2, she felt her worries and her tiredness seem to fall away from her, left a floor deeper.

On floor 3, she felt light-headed, her thoughts seeming to stumble through clouds.

Miss Li did not think on floor 4.

When the number changed to 5, Miss Li dropped into a helpless, senseless, mindless trance.

The door opened to reveal Master Lewis, in bathrobe and slippers, holding a steaming mug. Wordlessly, she stepped out of the elevator and started walking along the corridor.

She had never been here before, and yet it felt as if she had always been here.

Master Lewis followed her, and she could hear from the way he was breathing that he was enjoying the view.

Miss Li didn’t know when she’d removed her hoodie. Miss Li didn’t even know she’d removed her hoodie.

Once in Master Lewis’ apartment it slipped through nerveless fingers to the floor, and Miss Li forgot she had even been wearing a hoodie.

The click that was his apartment door closing went completely unnoticed.

His hand was on her ass, her thoughts were not in her head, and everything was right with the world.

Master Lewis brought his other hand up in front of her, one finger raised, and conditioned responses more powerful than her own instincts had her eyes lock onto it, immediately certain she could not look away, unwilling to test.

She didn’t want to be able to look away. She wanted only to be deep for Master Lewis. And she knew this would help.

“Mmm-m-mmm…” Lewis made that sound, sometimes, when she was fixated on his finger or his cock and sinking deeper and deeper. She was fairly sure it was a good thing, inasmuch as she was able to have an opinion on it at all. “Isn’t it good to be in trance?”

“Yes, Master Lewis.”

“You obeyed your commands correctly.”

“Yes, Master Lewis.”

“Good girl.”

“Thank you, Master Lewis.”

“Did you notice consciously?”

“No, Master Lewis.”

“Very good. Are you feeling deep?”

“Yes, Master Lewis.”

“Are you feeling obedient?”

“Yes, Master Lewis.”

“Are you feeling helpless?”

“Yes, Master Lewis.”

“Did you have any issues finding your way here?”

“No, Master Lewis.”

“Did anyone watch you?”

She had not taken any notice of anyone watching her, but she found herself saying, straight from the hindbrain, “Yes, Master Lewis. A number of young men waiting on a corner for their taxi. An older man coming out of the liquor store. A woman walking her chihuahua.”

“And earlier, on your way to the dojo?”

“Yes, Master Lewis. The barber next door stopped and watched me past his window. Three men and one woman in the taco truck queue. Another woman taking her child home in a stroller. Seven of the men playing basketball at the corner court.”

“You remember each of them individually, as instructed?”

“Yes, Master Lewis.”

“You know each of them was looking at you with lust?”

“Yes, Master Lewis.”

“And how does that make you feel?”

“Proud, aroused, and needy, Master Lewis.”

“Why are you aroused?”

“Because I cause arousal, and this means I am aroused, as you instructed, Master Lewis.”

“Why are you needy?”

“Because when I am aroused I need to give you pleasure, Master Lewis.”

“Why are you proud?”

“Because if others look at me with desire I am a credit to you, Master Lewis.”

“Which of those feelings is most important?”

“I do not know, Master Lewis.”

“Why not?”

“You have not instructed me, Master Lewis.”

“And are you ready to learn?”

“Yes, Master Lewis.”

“Very good. Are you ready to be further conditioned?”

“Yes, Master Lewis.”

“Are you ready to become a better version of yourself?”

“Yes, Master Lewis.”

“Very good. What makes a version of yourself better?”

“I am better the more I approach your ideal, Master Lewis.” It was a truth so secret it wasn’t even allowed into the mantras she recited when conscious yet. It was something that her willing collaborator subconscious used to inform the way her conscious thoughts were shaped, but it certainly wasn’t anything that Hua Li needed to know.

Not until she was ready for it.

“Correct,” Master Lewis said, and she felt a deep and exciting flush of pleasure at his words. “So. Listen, accept, and obey…”