The Competition

	The door to Leblanc closed with a tiny jingle as Sojiro made his exit, flipping the sign on the door to “closed” as he did so. But while the tiny cafe was quite empty, the same could not be said for the attic which bustled with activity.
	The Phantom Thieves’ mission was over for the day and it was time to kick back and relax. 	“Come on, dragon punch! Dragon punch!” Futaba cried as she cheered on Makoto, who was staring down at a controller in her hand.
	“I don’t know what that means!” cried Makoto frantically as her character was backed into a corner.
	“Forward, down, forward and punch!”
	The whole team was gathered around, watching with varying levels of interest in Makoto’s very first round of a 2D fighter.
	“Come on, kick his ass!” yelled Ryuji.
	“The graphics are rather quite impressive for the technology,” mused Yusuke. “I suppose that limited resources can force you to exercise greater creativity. Hmm, perhaps I should try using a limited palette.”
	Makoto’s beefy martial artist character was stuck, unable to do anything but block as a huge wrestler left no room for counter attack.
	“Makoto, hit A and B when you block an attack!” shouted Futaba.
	“L-like this?”
	With one well timed tap, the tides turned. A flying kick was blocked and the assailant was hurled back. Makoto’s fighter instincts took over. She saw an opening. A quick punch, a medium punch, followed by a strong kick and…
	“K.O.!” The TV screamed in a highly garbled voice.
	“You did it!” cheered Haru, patting the victorious girl on the shoulder.
	“You kicked his ass into next week,” said Ryuji.
	“That was surprisingly exhilarating,” said Makoto, wiping the sweat from her brow. “I had no idea fighting games could be this intense.”
	“You did good,” said Futaba, slapping Makoto on the back like a coach congratulating a star player on a game winning play. “But let a master show you how it’s done.” She reached out to take the controller from Makoto’s hands, but stopped.
	“Actually, I’m feeling pretty hungry. Let’s get something to eat first.”
	Futaba spun around, stretched out her arm and pointed directly at Joker. “I am a quest giver, and I charge you with making us all some curry! This is a story critical mission, so you can’t turn it down! But I’ll give you tons of EXP when you’re done!”
	A murmur of agreement seemed to pass through the group. Curry did sound good.
	“Yeah, I could definitely go for some curry, so how about it?” said Ryuji.
	But Futaba turned again and this time pointed straight at him. “Not so fast. You’re going to the bakery to grab some dessert.”
	“Wait, what? Why me?”
	Futaba didn’t even bother answering him, and instead just turned to Yusuke. “And Inari… go somewhere else.”
	“Excuse me?”
	“I have marked the locations for your quests on your maps. So, get going!”
	The three boys could only stare at each other in confusion. Where was this coming from? Then again, it wasn’t a terrible idea.
	“Eh, whatever. I’m fine with that,” said Ryuji.
	“Curry sounds good,” said Ren.
	“I’d be interested in observing the cooking process,” said Yusuke.
	“W-well, I don’t know where this came from, but if you guys are okay with it...” added Makoto.
	After some deliberation, the boys agreed to prepare dinner for everyone and headed downstairs. And with nothing else to do, the girls returned to their seats to pass the time. All except for one.
	“Umm, Futaba, what are you doing?” asked Haru.
	The young hacker had not returned to her laptop, but instead ran up to the messy bookcase at the top of the staircase and was rooting through the dusty boxes laid all around it.
	“Reconnaissance.” That was all she said.
	She rummaged through boxes, pulled back tarps, and inspected every nook and cranny. And when it became clear she wasn’t going to find anything there, she moved on to the other side of the room. She couldn’t find anything on the desk or under the sofa. And then she turned her eyes on the pile of milk crates and a mattress that was charitably called Ren’s bed.
	All eyes were on her.
	“What are you looking for, exactly?” asked Ann.
	Futaba jammed her arm under the mattress and fumbled around. “Think about it,” she said. “Ren’s a guy, right? What does any guy have to keep in his room?”
	“Uh, clothes?” guessed Ann.
	“A diary?” suggested Haru.
	“I… have no idea what you’re hinting at,” noted Makoto.
	Futaba shook her head. Were they angels? Were they that innocent?
	“Magazines! Every guy keeps magazines in their room!” She coughed and added, “at least, from what the Internet has told me.”
	The temperature of the room skyrocketed. Every face was turning red and getting too hot for their brains to function well enough to respond.
	Despite the heart, Haru tucked her face into her sweater to hide her embarrassment. “Wait, are you talking about… you know… those… kinds of magazines? Do… do you think he collects things like that?”
	“Of course he does!” said Futaba.
	“W-why are you looking for that?!” yelled Ann.
	“Shh!” Futaba shushed. “Keep it down, or Ren will hear you!”
	Taking a deep breath, Makoto calmed herself down and spoke in a whisper. “So, you sent the boys away so you could look for…” she paused and tried again. “Why, exactly, do you want to find these supposed magazines?”
	Futaba stood up straight and adjusted her glasses. Somehow, a studious air seemed to emanate off of her. “Think about it. Ren is nice, but he’s so quiet. And when he does talk, he almost never talks about his own interests, right? So...” She slapped the mattress. “Don’t you want to know what he likes? Or rather, aren’t you curious as to what kind of girls he likes?”
	In an instant, the atmosphere changed. As if acting in sync, Ann, Haru and Makoto gulped all at once. The embarrassment on their faces slowly washed away only to be replaced with a mix of concern and anticipation.
	“W-well, I suppose there’s no harm in looking,” said Ann as she twirled one of her ponytails around her finger.
	“It’s important to try and understand your teammates, after all,” said Makoto as she deliberately avoided looking anyone in the eye.
	“Y-yes, this is just a team building exercise,” said Haru as she fidgeted with her fingers.
	With a common goal and a spirit of camaraderie, they got to work. The three older girls each grabbed an exposed corner of the mattress and lifted it as high as they could. With the bedding out of the way, their goal was in sight. A small, white shopping bag sat upon the supporting milk crates. Futaba grabbed it and the girls dropped the bedding back into place.
	“We got it!” cried Futaba as she held her prize over head. “Ooh, it’s heavy.”
	They brought the bag to the meeting table and crowded around. This was the moment of truth. Sweat dripped from their foreheads as they contemplated what their leader would go to the trouble of hiding under his bed. Futaba reached into the bag, grabbed the first thing she could get her hands on and dropped it onto the table with a hearty thwap.
	And then their hearts stopped.
	“Eh?”
	The only sound was a tiny squeak of air escaping from Haru’s throat. This had to be a mistake. They didn’t know exactly what to expect, but this was definitely not it. Well, they had been expecting a dirty magazine and that was definitely what this was. The cover featured a blonde, busty model lying on the sand at a beach while wearing a swimsuit that would get her thrown out of pretty much any public beach for breaking pretty much every indecency law ever made. But there was more. There was so much more.
	“H… Huge,” whispered Makoto to herself.
	“Full... Bodied?” Ann read the English title of the magazine aloud, tossing and turning the words over in her brain.
	The girl on the cover was no ordinary model. There was just so much of her. She was a pile of rolls and flab that seemed to spread out all around her. A caption just under her deemed her a “Big Beautiful Beached Whale.” And the pile of snacks lying on a blanket beside her, especially the corndog she was suggestively nibbling on with a coy smile on her double chinned face, hinted that she was fine with the comparison.
	A full minute must have passed in complete silence as the four girls merely stared in disbelief. Eventually, Futaba worked up the nerve to flip briefly through the pages. Almost every page was the same. Big bellies. Big thighs. Big breasts. Big everything.
	“This… is...” Ann tried to form a sentence, but it died in her throat.
	“No, this is… obviously just a mistake,” said Makoto, waving a hand dismissively. “It must have gotten mixed in, right?”
	“R-right,” added Haru, nodding enthusiastically. “It must be like, when you go to a book store and they throw in a few free books with a large purchase, right?”
	“Yeah!” Ann pumped her arms as her mind worked to explain it. “Like, sometimes, when I buy a magazine and I’m in a hurry, I accidentally grab the one behind it, too, and I don’t realize it because I’m in a hurry, you know?”
	“I know what you mean!” said Makoto loudly. “I’ve done that a few times myself.” And the three of them shared in a heart laugh at the misunderstanding.
	THUD.
	Futaba dropped another magazine on the table. The laughter stopped as the words “BIG AND BEAUTIFUL” stared back at them, hovering over a picture of a gravure idol so overweight that on her hands and knees her stomach and breasts sagged to the floor.
	No one said a word.
	An aqua-haired lass balanced a laptop on her stomach on the cover of “Large and Lovely.” On the front page of “Overweight and Sexy” a red-haired pig-tailed idol was barely able to fit into a hot tub. And the poor dress shirt of the girl shown on “Plump Police” was about to turn those buttons into ballistics if she kept eating those donuts.
	The girls could feel their excuses and rationalizations vanish faster than that detective’s plate of snacks. Ren’s tastes were becoming very clear.
	“So… I guess we know what he--”
	Wham. Wham.
	A series of loud noises interrupted Futaba and jolted the girls to attention. They could hear a pair of sneakers hitting the wooden stairs. The dirty magazines were thrown back into the bag and quickly thrown back under the mattress by Makoto.
	“What’s going on, you guys? Dinner’s ready.” Ryuji looked around the attic. “You girls okay? You’re all red.”
	“Oh, uh, we were just doing some light aerobics,” said Ann quickly. “You know, gotta stay in shape for… the Phantom Thieves business, right?”
	“Hey, that’s cool.” Ryuji smiled. “I’d be happy to train any of you. But first come on already. Curry’s gettin’ cold.”
	Thankful not to be found out, they sighed in relief before heading downstairs and taking their places at the booths. The smell of fresh curry and hot coffee wafted through the cafe. Friendly chit chat began as Ren, clad in his work apron, walked about filling every plate and every mug. The girls began to relax as the delicious meal and the friendly discussion allowed the surprise upstairs to work its way out of their minds.
	All except for one girl. Haru stared intently at her curry. Then at Ren. She couldn’t get the site of those magazines out of her thoughts. And if that was what he liked…
	“Mmph!” Haru lifted her plate of curry high and began to devour it. She practically shoveled it into her mouth. All conversations stopped as every eye turned on Haru. She flinched under their gazes, but it wasn’t going to stop her. “Oh, um, sorry if that was rude, but I, uh, skipped lunch today, you see.”
	Yusuke shook his head solemnly. “That’s not good, Haru. Skipping meals is a terrible habit.”
	“Dude, I don’t think you have any right to be sayin’ stuff like that,” noted Ryuji.
	Ren got up and grabbed the clay curry pot and held it up. “Seconds?”
	“Yes, please,” she said with a nod. “An extra large portion, if that’s okay.”
	And Ren poured and poured until her plate couldn’t hold any more. The pile of curry was daunting, but she wasn’t going to give up. She grabbed her spoon and went to work.
	“Hey, save room for dessert,” said Ryuji with a grin. “I didn’t know what kind of cake you girls like, so I got a bunch.”
	But Ann, Makoto and Futaba couldn’t think about dessert. They could only stare blankly as they watched the normally reserved girl go to town on her plate. Their eyes darted between her and Ren as a realization dawned on them. They could see her plan in their minds. Well, four could play at that game.
	“I’d like some more, too!” said Ann, raising her hand.
	Makoto thrust out her plate. “I’ll take seconds! No, thirds!”
	“I’m still growing, right? So I need the most!” said Futaba.
	The boys could only stare in confusion. Where had this suddenly explosion of hunger come from? Though what harm could there be? Ren grabbed his pot and began to pour and pour.
	As they ate, the eyes of the four girls met. No one said a word, but one look said it all. This was a game. It was a competition. No, it was more than that. This was a war. They pictured the immense models on the magazines, so huge that they practically popped off the pages. Some sacrifices were necessary to win a war. But as they watched their handsome leader they knew some prizes were worth fighting for.

	After school the next day, Makoto did not head to the library as she usually did. Instead, she headed straight to Center Street, skipping past the book store and all her other usual shops. She was practically running through the crowded street as she approached her destination.
	“Welcome to Big Bang Burger. May I take your order?” The waitress gave her a warm but very practiced smile.
	“Uh, yes, I was hoping I could… That is, I heard that you offer a special challenge, right?”
	“Ah, are you looking to take our Big Bang Challenge? I should warn you, it’s quite the challenge.”
	Makoto inhaled deeply, working herself up. She could do this. She would do this. “Good, I’m hoping for a challenge.”
	“Very well. That will be 5,000 yen. We will bring that out to you as soon as we can.”
	Makoto turned to take a seat at the back of the restaurant, but a voice stopped her in her tracks.
	“Oh, hello, Mako-chan. What brings you here?”
	Sitting by the window was Haru, giving her a friendly wave. But what drew her attention was what was in front of her. It seemed she had had the exact same idea. A gigantic burger, bigger than her head, sat on her plate. Except there was two of them. Two Big Bang Burger challenges was sitting in front of the smiling heiress. Or rather, one and a half sat in front of her. The uncharacteristic smudge of ketchup on Haru’s lips like a bit of poorly applied lipstick hinted at what had happened to the other half.
	“Oh, I was just, uh, a little peckish after school. Still, I’m surprised to see you here. I didn’t think you ate at your own restaurants.”
	“I believe it’s important to help out where I can. And how can I hope to help out if I don’t know our products inside and out.”
	Makoto took a seat across from her friend, a decision she immediately came to regret as she watched Haru begin to eat. The unfathomably huge burgers were too big to eat normally. You couldn’t hope to take a solid bite unless you could unhinge your jaw. And watching Haru’s entire face disappear into that mountain of meat, lettuce and bread was putting her off her appetite, which was not what she wanted.
	“Here you go, ma’am. Please enjoy. You have thirty minutes for the challenge.”
	The waitress came by and dropped another burger in front of Makoto. And seeing it on her own plate was something else entirely. This was a joke, right? There was no way something this big was meant to be eaten, right? She felt sick just looking at it.
	“Oh, what’s the matter, Mako-chan?” Haru was staring at her with a gentle smile. But there was something about the look in her eyes, or the curl of her lips. There was something else there. Something a little condescending. “Is it too much? If it’s too much food for you, I’d be willing to finish it for you. I hate to waste food. And we do have a kid’s menu, if you’re looking for something more your size.”
	Something snapped. She could feel a deep-seated anger boiling up from within her. That anger removed any doubts from her mind and took the nausea with it. With a quick glare, Makoto got up from her seat and ran to the counter.
	“Oh, hello again,” greeted the waitress. “Is there something wrong with the burger?”
	“No, it’s fine. It’s just, can I get a jumbo order of fries and an extra large chocolate milkshake to go with it?”
	She hadn’t heard that correctly. The waitress could only blink in astonishment. But the pile of coins Makoto was leaving on the counter suggest she was serious.
	“Please hurry. I’m quite famished.”

	An hour later, the two girls sat in silence unwilling or unable to move. The table before them was a graveyard of barren, ketchup-stained trays, crumpled up burger wrappers, empty boxes of french fries and a half-dozen or so milkshakes whose contents had been reduced to a pile of melting ice cubes.
	Makoto reached down and undid the bottom button on her vest and rolled up her stifling turtleneck, revealing an overstuffed belly. The thought of exposing herself like so would normally be humiliating, but if she didn’t, she was sure she was going to pop. And given that Haru had already taken off her sweater and had a similarly stuffed stomach on display, at least she wasn’t alone, so the stares of passersby didn’t hurt so much.
	Plus, this was not the end. This was only the beginning. Neither of them was someone who accepted defeat very easily.
	Though through their groaning and the post-binging haze, neither of them noticed what appeared to be a giant, sentient pile of crepes with blonde pigtails pass by the window.

	“Ugh, these guys are so bad. They think they can make it big like this? This is too easy.” Futaba leaned back in her office chair and reached into the drawer next to her desk and pulled out a handful of potato chips which she smashed into her mouth, sending crumbs flying in every directions. “It’s like they’re not even trying.”
	“VICTORY!”
	She stared blankly at the computer screen, all of her enthusiasm lost. How was she supposed to enjoy winning if no one would put up a decent fight? Victory without a struggle was no victory at all. Honestly, she was getting so bored it was making her angry. She promptly took out her anger on a chocolate bar she pulled from her desk, snapping it in half with her teeth.
	“Come on, just give me something to do.”
	As if to answer her request, there was a knock on her bedroom door.
	“Futaba, packages. Three of them.”
	When she opened the door, Sojiro stood before her. Or at least, she assumed it was Sojiro. His face was hidden behind a stack of boxes that reached to the top of the door. Futaba took the smaller two from the top of the pile and dropped them on her bed.
	“Sheesh, this thing is heavy,” he said with a weary sighed. “I nearly threw my back out carrying them over here. Did you order a new computer again? I don’t mind if you buy more stuff, but I really wish you’d at least tell me before you do.”
	“No, no more computer stuff, I promise. These are… books. Yeah, books.”
	Sojiro sighed and shook his head disbelievingly. “Well, whatever. As long as it makes you happy, I don’t mind.” He dropped the final box on the floor beside her bed. “Just let me know if you need anything else.” And with that, he closed the door and left her to herself.
	“Phew, that was close.” She didn’t like lying to him, but he wouldn’t have believed her if she had told him the truth, anyway. “Still, that was fast. Next day delivery is no joke.”
	She grabbed a pair of scissors and opened the largest and heaviest box first. Inside was nothing but a massive pile of small, individually wrapped snacks emblazoned with bright red lettering spelling out “CaloriLuv.”
	These were supposed to be special rations designed for use in the military or anyone who might not have time to eat a full meal while working out in the field. Each bar was a dense cluster of essential fats, calories, salts and everything else you’d need for a full days worth of nutrition and energy.
	“Mmm, these aren’t half-bad,” she said as she held one in her mouth while she unwrapped a second. “The chocolate ones are good, though the vanilla flavored ones need a little something. Maybe if I dipped them in some chocolate...”
	They were not, however, meant to be eaten in bulk, as she was doing.
	She pushed the nutrient bars aside and opened the next package, which contained a series of supplement bottles. She held one up for examination and read the label. “Kirijo Brand Ultra Effective Weight Gain Powder. By prescription only.”
	Sometimes it really paid to have online connections.
	And then there was the final package. This was a vital component to her plan. Perhaps it was the most vital component. She violently tore the box to shreds and held her prize to the skies.
	“Dragon’s Journey XII! 200 hours of uninterrupted, pure RPG goodness!”
	Futaba was ready. She had been born ready for this moment. All she had to do was assemble the pieces. She slid the open box of calorie bars to the side of her chair. She poured a generous portion of the weight gain powder into her soda bottle and placed it at her side. She slid the game disc into her console and gripped the controller firmly as the title music blared.
	A smug grin crossed her lips as she took a swig of her soda and threw another bar of CaloriLuv into her waiting mouth. This was going to be a fun 200 hours.
	“Let the gains begin!”

	“This is so good!” Ann’s voice was practically bursting with joy as she spooned another forkful of cake into her mouth.
	“Eat up, you’ve certainly earned it,” said Mika with a pleasant smile on her lips. “I mean, you’ve been working sooooooo very hard and every model needs a break now and then, right? Nothing wrong with the occasional trip to the buffet, right?”
	“I swear, I’ve died and gone to Heaven...”
	Mika leaned back in her chair and as she stared at her rival in modeling, her smile began to slip. Ann was no longer sitting at the table. Her mind had disappeared and was currently in its own little world. That world was evidently one of endless sweets.
	The plate in front of Mika was empty save for a tiny serving of salad and a handful of nuts with a glass of mineral water. One could be forgiven for believing it wasn’t even there, as the rest of the table was simply stacked from one end to the other with nothing but cakes, pies, cookies and every kind of sweets imaginable. And all of them were for Ann.
	“I just want to do this forever,” moaned Ann.
	“Well, you go right ahead. It’s all on me,” said Mika, waving a free pass around. “Consider it a gift to celebrate our friendship.”
	“Not like I was going to use it,” she grumbled under her breath. What kind of idiot sends a model a hundred free tickets to a buffet? What was the agency thinking? Well, whatever. At least it’s come in handy.” She paused and stared at the bulge that was developing in Ann’s stomach. “And maybe I can take care of a few more pesky rivals in the meantime.”

	With a weary groan, Sae dropped her briefcase to the floor. Work was never easy, but lately it was simply brutal. And while it felt good to take off her heels, she knew she had even more work to do before she could get a good night’s rest. And worst of all, there was one more thing she had to deal with before she could get to it.
	“Makoto, we need to talk.”
	“Hmm?” Makoto paused for a moment, her cheeks bulging with chocolate. She swallowed it, though her cheeks remained rounded. “What’s wrong? I was just about finishing up my studying.”
	Sae glanced over the dining room table. True, there was an open notebook in front of her sister, but the scene before her looked more like a bakery than a study session. Every inch of the table was covered from end to end in sweets, cakes and breads. Or rather, half of the table was covered in those confections while the other was covered in discarded wrappers, empty bags and plates which had been licked clean.
	And in front of them was Makoto, quietly licking her lips as she slid a tray of eclairs closer to her chair. She acted like this was completely ordinary. But this wasn’t normal.
	“Makoto, I...” Sae began, but she lost the words. Did she really even have to say it? Apparently, she did. “Makoto, your eating has gotten out of hand. Every time I see you, you’ve got enough food to feed a large family.”
	“Do I?” Makoto put up a finger to a full cheek, as if she had just noticed this. “I suppose my appetite has been a bit bigger than usual. But I find sweets help stimulate my brain. It really helps my studying. And my grades can attest to that.”
	Sae’s brow furrowed as a deep frown grew and grew to encompass her face. She couldn’t exactly fault her younger sister. She was keeping up with her school work. But there had to be a limit.
	“That may be, but your out of control snacking is becoming…” she stopped, tossing words around in her mind until she found one strong enough to have impact but not so strong as to hurt. “...unsightly.”
	Makoto pushed her chair back and looked down at herself. She had taken to wearing her pajamas, a flannel pair of pants and a matching shirt, around the house as they were far more comfortable and roomier than her school outfit. Or at least, they had been a short while ago. Now, the bottom button on her shirt was perpetually left undone as its brethren grew tighter and tighter as the strained top covered less and less. A doughy ring of flesh ran out her midsection, pouring over the increasingly strained waistband.
	But for as much as her midsection had grown, it was nothing compared to her backside, which had completely overtaken her chair. The shelf jutting out from behind her made it all but impossible for her to lean against the backrest and if she grew any wider then the singular chair attempting to contain all of her expanding ass was not going to cut it.
	“Maybe I have put on a few pounds,” said Makoto, grunting with effort as she got to her feet. She raised her arms and spun in place once, as if she were trying on a new dress. Sae’s face grimaced even further as she watched bits of her sister bounce up and down and she groaned when she noticed a tear in the seat of her pajama pants, exposing a pair of white panties to the air.
	“A few? Makoto, please. This is...” She slapped her palm to her forehead and started to pull her hair. “I can’t just watch you eat you life away.”
	“Oh!” Makoto’s eyes lit up as she pounded a fist into her open palm. “That reminds me, I got something for you.” She ignored her sister’s angry stares and produced a white box from the kitchen counter which she quickly flipped open, displaying its contents to Sae.
	“Look, I don’t care what you have, the problem is—Is that a chocolate brownie cheesecake?” All of her anger and frustration seemed to fade away she stared longingly at the calorie-rich dessert.
	“Yup. It’s your favorite, right? The bakery was having a sale, so I thought I’d pick some up for you. There’s a couple more boxes of them in the fridge.” A wry smile came to Makoto’s lips as she prepared the final blow. She slowly closed the lid of the box and said,  “Of course, if you don’t like it, I could eat it myself later.”
	“No!” Sae screamed, practically leaping for the box before she caught herself. “I mean, I think you’ve had enough. I’ll, uh, take it so you don’t have to.” She snatched the box from her sister’s hands and held it like a newborn. A dainty finger quickly scooped up a dab of the chocolaty cake and brought it to her lips.
	In that moment, Sae could feel all of her cares and her stress melt away like a chocolate chip on her tongue. It was good. It was fantastic. And it was hers.
	“Just… You know, as long as you keep your grades up, I think it’s fine,” said Sae as her eyes darted between the cake in her hands and her bedroom door. “So, I’ll just go and get ready for bed, alright?” She spewed out a half-garbled good night before making a dash for her room, the door slamming shut behind her.
	“That went well, I think.”
	The plan had gone without a hitch. It did mean she was going to have to keep spending some of her food budget on her sister, but if it would keep Sae from riding her ever widening ass it would be worth it.
	Still, looking over the table in front of her, vast amounts of sweets taunting her with their unconsumed calories, she knew she had enough work to last her all night.
	“Then again...” She grabbed her notebook and flipped to the last page, revealing an entire spreadsheet listing every fast food delivery service in the area and their delivery hours. “Better safe than sorry.”

	Undressing was becoming a difficult task for Haru. It was almost as difficult as getting dressed in the first place, but it was made especially difficult in an already cramped fitting booth. It took her several minutes to strip all the way down and by the time she did, she was sweating profusely and totally out of breath. But this wasn’t a problem. Rather, it became a source of pride. It was proof that her efforts had paid off.
	Hanging on a hook in front of her was a pink, polka dot bikini. She wasn’t a huge fan of the design, but that’s not why she was going to try it on. Rather, it was a matter of necessity.
	“Excuse me, but are you sure this is the largest size you have?”
	“Oh, yes, Miss Okumura. We double checked. Is that alright?”
	“Yes, thank you, that was all I wanted to know.”
	Taking a deep breath, she readied herself. This was going to be tough, especially when she couldn’t see half of what she was doing, but in a sense that made it more exciting. She took the bottom piece in her hands and looked it over. It was strange how one piece of clothing could seem so big and also so little all at once. She had to lean against the wall to give herself the support she needed to lift her legs high enough to slip them in. That was the easy part. Pulling them up over her thighs was another story. There was much grunting, groaning and sweating. She eventually had to take a seat on the bench to give herself some more leverage and that seemed to do the trick. It wasn’t comfortable, but it was on.
	Next was the top. This part would be easier or so she thought, at least until she realized it needed to be tied in the back. There was no way she was going to be able to do that on her own, so she was forced to ask for help. It should have been embarrassing, but there was a certain thrill to the way the clerk looked at her as she tied on her top.
	And when they were done, Haru finally stopped to take a good look at herself in the mirror and was stunned by what she saw. Despite being the largest size in the entire store, it wasn’t enough. It covered so much and yet so little.
	It was too small.
	It was too tight.
	It was completely humiliating.
	It was perfect.
	“I’ll take it!”
	“Are you sure you wouldn’t like to order a custom fit? We could always prepare something that would...” The clerk’s voice trailed off as she failed to find a diplomatic way to say that they would need to specially design a suit that could reasonably contain her.
	“I’ll want to order some of those for the future,” said Haru with plans for the future running through her mind. “But for now, this will do.”
	She grabbed her cellphone and began to make a call. “Hello? Destinyland? I’d like to make a reservation. Yes, we can charge it to the Okumura account.”

	“Alright, get ready to taste defeat, Dragon Lord. You may think you’re hot stuff, but I’ve completed every side quest, maxed out level, and acquired every last piece of God Armor. You’re going down hard!”
	As the unskippable cutscene that began the fight against the final boss played out on her tv screen, Futaba grabbed her extra large soda cup and gave it a chug.
	She had realized early on that it was a waste to open each ration individually, so she had begun opening them all at once, pouring them into a blender, mixing in soda, weight gain powder and a little extra chocolate and turning it into a thick shake. Plus, now she didn’t have to waste the energy actually chewing. It freed up what little energy she was willing to expend on her games. Although it had a negative effect on her clothes, but seeing as she was all alone, she simply did without.
	Of course, an all liquid diet would never be enough to satisfy, so she rested her controller on her naked, exposed stomach and grabbed the bowl of instant ramen she had been preparing on the side.
	BING BING
	But as she slurped down the first mouthful, an alert popped up on her computer screen. She paused her game and rolled her chair over to her PC.
	“Well well, what do we have here?” she said with a smug smile between slurps of noodles. “Haru, you’re going on the offensive, huh?”
	The Thieves had long ago set up their own personal channels so they could text each other in peace, away from prying eyes. Well, except for one specific set of eyes.
	The texts popping up on her monitor were supposed to be a private message from Haru to Ren, but Futaba had a very unusual definition of the word private. She was fine with her team keeping things private, as long as it was also her information to keep private. Texts, phone calls, videos, internet browser history, magazine subscriptions and more were all fair game.
	“An invitation to Destinyland’s indoor water park? Hmmm, not a bad idea. I like the way you think. A little one on one time with Ren? Sounds nice.” Within a few seconds, an altered version of the message was quickly forwarded to the rest of the team. “Unless a few new challengers were to appear.”
	A day at an indoor pool, huh? That would be quite the chance to show off her progress. Then again, she’d definitely need a swimsuit. Would her old one even come close to fitting? Maybe she should check to see what she had in her closet.
	“Urgh. GAH!” She attempted to stand up, but it would seem that her belly had become lodged between the arm rests of her chair. And it didn’t help that her naked, sweaty rear had seemingly become  glued to the leather seat.
	“Maybe I’ll just rush order one online.”

	Ryuji wiped the sweat from his brow with his hand before downing another gulp of his protein shake. He was soaking wet, sore down to the bones and utterly exhausted, but it was a good feeling. A good rest sipping on a cold drink after pushing your body to the limit was a pleasure to be savored. But as amazing as he felt, it couldn’t even compare to the pleasure Ann seemed to feeling at that moment simply biting into the massive crepe she held in front of her.
	Ann was radiating pure pleasure. Ryuji would bet that come nightfall you could read by her beaming smile. He didn’t know how a simple pastry could bring one person so much happiness. Especially when it was her fifth one in half an hour. And the dozen other crepes set out on the cafe table  would know doubt bring similar pleasure in a matter of minutes.
	He wanted to say something. He needed to say something. The girl had always had a sweet tooth for as long as he knew her. It wasn’t even like she hadn’t binged in the past. But this was getting to be too much. She was getting to be too much in a very literal sense.
	But there were two things keeping him from saying something. The first was a simple matter of manners. He wasn’t exactly the most tactful person in the world. In fact, if Futaba wasn’t on the team he’d be dead last in tact. But even he knew randomly telling a friend “You’re eating like a pig and getting fat” was considered something of a faux pas.
	Then there was the second reason. Actually, it was a pair of reasons. A pair of incredibly perky, heavy, jiggly, round, bouncy, huge…
	Ryuji wiped his head again. It seemed her was sweating more than he was during his time on the treadmill. But he just couldn’t take his eyes away.
	Ann’s non-stop culinary tour of every dessert shop in the city had taken its toll on her model body, but it was obvious where most of the fruits of her labor were headed. Her face had certainly rounded out with full cheeks and a dimple where a second chin was emerging, and the belly pushing against her hoodie was plain to see, but they had gotten off relatively lightly. No, what truly turned the head of every boy in school, and a large chunk of the girls for that matter, was a chest which had become the bane of every lingerie shop in town. She had always been rather busty, but she now sported a pair of bra busters which simply refused to be contained.
	“Sho… good...” Ann murmured to herself as the last bite of the treat was stuffed into her already full mouth.
	“H-hey, Ann, do you think you might be kinda overdoin’ it?” He couldn’t look her in eyes. The only way he could say anything was if he stared up at the sky, although he could swear he saw a few particularly busty looking clouds.
	“Hmm?” Ann finally took her attention at least partially away from her sweets. “What do you mean?” This of course did not mean she stopped eating, but it did stop her constant commentary on how sweet and creamy everything was.
	“I mean, all this!” Ryuji’s hand waved vaguely over the uneaten pile of sugar that lay before them. “Like, aren’t you worried about, you know, your figure?”
	“And what’s wrong with my figure?”
	Ryuji suddenly felt like a man dropped in the middle of a minefield with no map, no guide, no metal detector and no prayer. But then again, when there was no good answer, there was no sense in overthinking your answer.
	“I mean, you’ve been eating non-stop for a while now. Don’t you think you’re getting a little fat?” He said it. And he couldn’t look her in the eyes and he was sure if he did, he’d be killed on sight. She must have been shooting daggers from her eyes. “I mean, you know, just a bit?” Even he knew that  was some weak backpedaling.
	What followed was what felt like an eternity of awkward silence. God, why couldn’t Ren be here? He never got into these situations.
	“Look me in the eyes if you’re going to say something like that! And what do you mean ‘a little fat?’” yelled Ann, anger dripping off of every word.
	Ryuji took a deep breath. He had to be honest. It was for her own good. “Look, I’m sorry, but someone had to say--”
	“I put on way more than a little weight! I’m way bigger than a little fat!”
	Ryuji’s brain officially broke.
	“What.”
	“I’ve been working hard to put on this weight. I know I’ve got a ways to go, but I can’t help it if most of my weight goes to my chest!”
	She put her hands under her hefty udders and gave them a quick squeeze. It was practically an obscene sight. She was still wearing her ever present hoodie, but her figure made zipping it up impossible. She managed to get the zipper up and over her still sizable stomach but any hope of getting it higher than that was quickly dashed and the tiny metal object was seemingly forever lost under mounds of ever expanding chest. And since no shirt or bra was ever going to contain all of the Ann on display, the only thing between a pair of melons which would put any produce stand to utter shame and total exposure was the ever tightening flaps of her hoodie.
	And with Ann squeezing them so openly, she was practically asking him to stare into a valley he  wasn’t sure his eyes would ever return from. And yet, her words echoed in his mind, snapping him out of it.
	“Wait, you’re gaining weight on purpose?”
	“Uh-huh! Well, Mika thinks she’s tricking me into doing it, but I was planning on doing it anyway. That just made it way easier.”
	“F’real?”
	“Well, yeah, you thought I didn’t notice? We all are!”
	Ann took a moment to polish off a few more crepes while Ryuji’s train of though violently derailed. What was even going on? Why? And wait, who was ‘we?’ It had been a few weeks since he saw the other girls in their group.
	“Argh, this makes no sense! Why would you do this?”
	For the first time in this entire conversation, Ann was the one who was embarrassed. “That’s...” She couldn’t exactly tell him. “...It’s because I want to be the best plus sized model in the world!”
	“Wait, since when? And why?”
	“Well, why not?” Ann slammed her hands on the table, causing cutlery and plates to rattle, though it was the endless bouncing of her chest that drew Ryuji’s gaze. “Beauty isn’t just about fitting some ideal, it’s about attitude! It’s about confidence and presence!”
	Ryuji slumped back in his chair, unable to argue back. He didn’t get it, but when she got like this, there was no sense in arguing with her.
	“Well, whatever, I guess. If it’s what you want to do, it’s what you want to do.”
	“Right, and won’t Mika be surprised when--”
	Ann’s cleavage began to dance and sing. The impassable valley jiggled back and forth as the first few muffled bars of a pop song began to play. Ryuji thought he had finally lost it, but a moment later Ann reached into that amazing gap and pulled out her cellphone.
	“Oh hey, it’s a text from Haru.” She studied it intently, and as she did so a catty grin crept up onto her lips. “Hey Ryuji, mind giving me a hand? After this, it looks like I’m going to need to pick out a new swimsuit.”

	Destinyland was packed year round and it wasn’t hard to see why. It had it all, rides, arcades, restaurants, hotels and more. And today was no different. Throngs of people were cheering and shouting all across the park. All except for one place.
	Atlantis was the newest and most popular attraction at the park, but today it was virtually abandoned. The wave pool was clear, the water slides were empty and the massive pirate ship ride was utterly vacant. No one was allowed in or out, save for a select few chosen guests who had been invited to an exclusive event.
	“Ms. Okumura, where do you want the second dessert table to go?”
	“Please set it up over there, beside the beach chairs.”
	And evidently it would be an extensively catered event. A team of Okumura Foods employees was setting up an entire buffet that could have fed a massive gala for fifty people with leftovers to spare. But in reality, it was only ever intended to be a party of two.
	“Everything looks perfect,” said Haru, overlooking the spread.
	“Very well. Let us know if you require anything else.” With a quick bow, her employees exited the facility, leaving Haru to herself in the vast complex.
	Haru inspected the scene with a careful eye. It had to be perfect. This was her chance. It had been far too long since she had last seen Ren and she had to absolutely wow him. She needed to make his jaw drop.
	Granted, looking at herself, there was very little chance he wouldn’t be surprised at the sight of her. She had become such a walking, or rather waddling, pile of flab and if she kept this up her mobility was going to seriously come into question. Her bulbous stomach had grown and grown until it practically leaped off her frame, dangling down to her knees. With every slow step she took, it audibly slapped against her thunderous thighs. It may have been a bit difficult to differentiate the slapping of her stomach though with the rubbing of her thighs or the flab of her arm slapping into her sides or even the constant thwap of her breasts hitting her stomach. And this says nothing of the gurgling of her stomach, the occasional belch that arose as she digested or the near constant chewing. She was a veritable soundboard of gluttony.
	And all of this was being contained by a relatively tiny pink bikini. Contained may have been too strong of a word. Her bottom was entirely covered by her drooping belly and her top was so tight, so unable to contain her expanding chest that one good bounce might have undo it entirely.
	Of course, her suit being so tight, it would be a shame if, while her friend were here, her eating were to cause an unfortunate accident. It would truly be shameful.
	Her gut growled, as if in agreement. Or maybe it just wanted offerings. In either case, their goals aligned. Ren likely wouldn’t show up for at least another half-hour, and while the feast before her was meant to be shared between the two of them, that is to say she wanted him to feed it to her directly, it would probably be better to warm up before he got there.
	Carefully she lowered herself onto a bench. This was easier said than done and the moaning of the wood beneath her suggested the bench didn’t like it either. But she had work to do and she wasn’t going to, or more likely couldn’t, do it standing.
	And she got to work. She worked on the roasts, the pies, the grilled fish and everything else she could grab.
	At first, eating was a means to an end. She ate because the way to her beloved’s heart was through her stomach. But eating was like any other activity. The more you did it, the easier it became. And then it became a habit. It was almost unconscious. When she first started, she had to force herself to eat through the fullness. Even when she felt like she was going to explode, she ate. Now, that wasn’t an issue. Her stomach had expanded and her appetite grew to accommodate it. Hunger wasn’t something she felt, it’s what she was. Now every bite, every leg of lamb, every sushi plate was both a step towards her goal and a pleasure in itself.
	She was so enraptured by her feeding that she didn’t notice that she was no longer the only one at the table until she reached for a turkey leg only to find it snatched away before her eyes. She watched in bafflement as the juicy bit of meat disappeared into a face she absolutely was not expecting to see today.
	“Hey, this stuff is good,” said Futaba between bites. “But I don’t think we’d expect anything less from a rich girl’s catering.” She looked up and down the line before tossing a bare leg bone aside. “Though I hope there’s more than just this or we’re all going to go through this faster than a max level party goes through a trash mob.”
	Haru wasn’t listening. Her mind had gone into shock. Why was Futaba here? And how did she get so huge? Haru simply stared in disbelief at the girl before her.
	The first thing that stuck out was her face. Even when Futaba didn’t have a mouthful of food, which was never for long, her cheeks remained round and puffy. Her features had softened, giving her face a long curve that fused into her neck. It was hard to tell where her cheeks ended and where her neck began, but it was doubtlessly somewhere beneath that prominent double chin that wobbled with every bite.
	Grease dripped from the girl’s mouth, rolled over her swollen fingers and dripped onto a shirt that was quickly becoming a vast collection of stains. For some reason, Futaba had forgone a swimsuit entirely and instead was wearing a white Featherman t-shirt. At least, Haru thought it was a Featherman t-shirt. She was fairly certain that the red mask in the center of the shirt was supposed to be the mask of Feather Red, but the shirt had been stretched to its absolute limits, warping and distorting the image. It didn’t help that half of the design was slowly being devoured by the many folds that now made up the young hacker’s stomach.
	Haru stared for a while at Futaba’s flattened navel which had been sandwiched between the girl’s many rolls.. If her own stomach was like an overinflated ball, Futaba’s was a one which had begun to deflate and fold over itself.
	But eventually Haru brought herself back to reality and was finally able to react.
	“Futaba what are you—That is, how did you--” Haru didn’t know how to ask how to ask why the young hacker was hear without coming off as angry or mean. She took a moment and composed herself. “It’s such a pleasant surprise to see you, Futaba. What brings you here?”
	“What are you talking about?” asked Futaba, genuine confusion on her face, along with grease and ketchup. “You invited us here.”
	She produced a phone from the pockets of a rather overtaxed pair of sweatpants. She opened the chat program and showed it off to Haru who’s bafflement was readily apparent. It was the invitation she had sent to Ren, yes, but why did Futaba have it? Did she accidentally send it to Futaba as well by mistake?
	“Oh right, Ryuji and Yusuke said they were too busy, but Ren should be here pretty soon,” said Futaba. “I wonder what’s taking the girls so long, though. They were right behind me.”
	Without a word, Haru rose to her feet and made a mad waddle for the entrance.


	“Ann, please. Not so fast,” said Makoto gently, tears pooling in her eyes. “Can’t you be a bit more gentle?”
	“Sorry, but I can’t help it,” said Ann, wrapping her arms around Makoto from behind. “Just try to bear it a little longer.”
	Their bodies were pressed together, skin glistening with the sweat of exertion. The two were locked together, faces red and lungs starving for air. Rhythmically, Ann began to thrust, pressing all of herself into Makoto’s soft, yielding back.
	And yet, Makoto remained stuck in the metal turnstile, her butt cheeks firmly wedged between them.
	“It’s no use,” said Ann as she wiped the sweat from her brow. “You’re stuck in there good.”
	Makoto had been careless. In the excitement of a trip to a water park she had momentarily forgotten her newfound width.
	The past few weeks had been generous to her backside. A little too generous, perhaps. Those hips and that ass had become the bane of doorways everywhere. It was also becoming a death trap for swimsuits and underwear. The only suit she could find to even fit it was a modified blue school swimsuit. Unfortunately, even that was unable to resist the gravity of her posterior and all her squirming and struggling in the turnstile had turned it into a combination one-piece-suit and thong.
	“Wait, wait,” said Makoto. “I think I have some suntan lotion in my bag.”
	“What bag?” asked Ann, turning her head back and forth.
	“It’s right at your feet.”
	“Where? I can’t see it.”
	It was growing increasingly difficult for Ann to spot anything which was below eye level. It was quite a task to see the floor clearly when you had a chest that would have sent a prized melon farmer into a bout of depression and jealousy. Her jumbo sized mammaries rested upon a prominent paunch barely wrapped in a bright red bikini that offered just enough support to shove them straight into her growing double chin.
	“Ugh, whatever. I have my own lotion,” said Ann. She reached into her valley of her chest and pulled out a bottle of stretch mark cream. Even if she couldn’t see her feet anymore, there was definitely some utility to her condition.
	Ann poured some lotion into her palm and rubbed it between her chubby fingers.
	“Now, this might be a little cold,” she said as she approached Makoto.
	Despite the warning, Makoto couldn’t help but shriek as Ann jammed her fingers into her yielding flesh. Ann’s hands gently massaged their way between the supple flesh and its metal confines.
	Ann didn’t want to say it out loud, but it felt good. The amount of give to Makoto’s backside was impressive. It was so soft and comfortable. A part of her just wanted to bury herself face first between the cheeks that had somehow eaten the seat of a one-piece swimsuit and use her like a pillow.
	“H-hey, come on, that tickles,” cried Makoto. But what she didn’t say was how good it felt to be touched like this. Without trying, she began to imagine it was Ren, walking up behind her and sinking his hands into her meaty thighs. He would squeeze and fondle, running his fingers all over her side. It was almost like he was being absorbed into her, becoming one and then, unable to hold himself back… Makoto could feel her body temperature rising her skin turning red as her mind wandered.
	“Alright, push!”
	Makoto’s fantasy was brought to a halt as Ann’s overweight body came slamming into her. The blonde model had gotten a running start, or rather a sped up waddle, and rammed her with all the momentum she could muster. In one movement, Makoto was freed from her prison, stumbled forward and came crashing down to the cold, wet floor with a loud thwump.
	The fall might not have been so bad since she was so well padded, even if most of it was on her back, had Ann not followed suit and come crashing down on top of her. The effect was quite like getting run over by a semitrailer made out of pillows, carrying even heavier pillows.
	Ann’s entire weight pressed down on Makoto, forcing their air out of her lungs. Makoto squirmed and writhed as she struggled to breathe. Unfortunately, their unusual physiques was making this harder and harder. Makoto’s bulbous butt was like a miniature mountain, and Ann could not rest on it. Her own potbelly slid down the back of Mt. Nijima until it rested on the shorter girl’s shoulders. This placement meant that Makoto’s head was now wedged firmly between two soft but suffocatingly heavy  milkbags that dwarfed her own head. Ann’s heaving bosoms pressed all the way into the floor, creating an airtight seal of mammary flesh.
	“Mmmph!”
	“Sorry! I’m trying to—ungh!” Ann grunted as she tried to roll to the side, but it was too much effort.
	“What… what’s going on here?”
	Haru had picked an odd moment to walk in on. It took her a moment to come to terms with what she was looking at. But the muffled screams coming from under Ann was enough to spur her into action.
	After a minute of pushing, straining and overall more effort than any of the girls had exerted in many weeks, Makoto was free, and the three of them lay on the floor, panting and groaning as they attempted to catch their breaths. Their sweat drenched bellies rose and fell with every desperate attempt to fill their lungs with air. As drenched as they were, they looked like they had just come back from a long swim. Or maybe they just looked like three beached whales in desperate need of rescue.
	“I seriously thought… I was gonna suffocate in there...” whispered Makoto between breaths.
	“Sorry, I’m really sorrry…” replied Ann.
	“I’m just glad… you’re both… okay...” said Haru.
	They took a moment to rest, with the only sound being their breathing, which began to subside as they finally relaxed.
	GRUMBLE
	Until Makoto’s stomach made its voice heard.
	“S-sorry,” she said. “I haven’t had anything to eat in almost an hour. Sae… kind of ate the lunch I prepared.”
	Ann chuckled. “It’s fine. I’m pretty hungry too. I only had a single lunch today.”
	Haru sighed deeply. This wasn’t how this day was supposed to go. But maybe this wasn’t so bad all the same. Slowly she returned to her feet.
	“Come on, let’s go get something to eat.”

	The table was a desolate wasteland. Nothing remained but the dried husks of the meals that had been. The bones of fish and chicken had been picked clean and left to bleach in the artificial sunlight. The only bit of food that had managed to survive was a bit of rye bread that had soaked up too much miso and fell off of its plate. But even that last scrap could not escape its fate. A pair of fat fingers gripped the imperiled carbohydrate and hauled it to a gaping, insatiable maw.
	Haru licked her lips, savoring the taste of miso that rolled around on her tongue before swallowing it with a loud gulp followed by a slow, satisfied sigh. Or at least she tried to sigh, but it came out more like a belch.
	“C’mon, that can’t be it! That was hardly a warm up!” cried Futaba as she patted her middle stomach roll. “There’s dessert, right?”
	“Ann ate it already,” said Makoto dejectedly.
	“And it was worth it,” came the voice of Ann from the floor. She had fallen off the bench and onto her back in a moment of cake-enduced lethargy and simply couldn’t work up the energy to get back up.
	“Ugh, fine, I’ll just grab something on the way home later,” said Futaba, slowly getting up from her seat, which was a precarious maneuver. Trying to get all those folds out from under the table while lifting one leg was not easy. “I’m going to go play in the pool.”
	“Wait up, you shouldn’t go swimming by yourself,” said Makoto, rising from her own seat, leaving a bench-shaped groove in her monumental backside for a while that slowly filled back in as she made her way to the wave pool.
	“I think… I need—urp--I need a nap,” said Ann rubbing her hands on her engorged stomach, still lying on the floor. “Wake me up when it’s time to go,” she said, closing her eyes. “Or if you order more dessert.”
	And then Haru was alone again. Left with nothing but her thoughts and a hundred empty plates and the sound of waves splashing in the distance.
	This wasn’t how the day was supposed to go, but in a way, it was fine. It had certainly been enjoyable. As she held her gurgling belly, so full as to nearly brush the ground from her seat, she felt a sense of contentment wash over her. The fullness of her stomach, the gentle snores of the obese model beside her in a food coma, watching Makoto and Futaba playing around and failing to crawl on top of a pair of innerturbes and splashing into the water, it was all so relaxing. It was enough to make her forget the reason why she set this up and to simply slide into a state of contentment.
	“Haru?”
	And one word was all it took to wipe all that peace and serenity away. Haru turned her head to see a familiar face staring back at her. One she hadn’t seen in so long and the reason she was here.
	“R-Ren! You’re here! I… Wait, I can--” Haru tried to jump to attention, but that was simply not possible in her state. It had taken her quite some time to slide into that bench and it would take even longer to safely get up. Trying to jump up so quickly just caused her immense gut to slam into the table from underneath like a battering ram.
	This began a domino effect. The force of Haru’s stomach hitting the table jolted it off the ground, sending empty plates and debris flying. It also threw the poor girl completely off balance, sending her tumbling over her seat. Her attempts to right herself and maintain balance only allowed her to twist her body enough to come landing hard on her belly on the cold, wet floor.
	Ann was startled awake by the sound of plates shattering as they hit the ground, and her eyes opened just in time for an empty bucket of fried chicken to land directly on her face. This alone wasn’t so bad except for the bench which came toppling over, slamming into her stomach and knocking the breath out of her, which she was now struggling to recover.
	The chaos attracted the attention of Makoto and Futaba who came back, sopping wet, waddling as fast as their blubbery legs could carry them. But it was too much for Futaba, who had never been used to physical exertion, who grabbed her chest and collapsed onto her stomach halfway up the beach, totally out of breath.
	“Are you alright?” Makoto turned and offered Futaba a hand, but she simply lacked the strength to help the younger girl to her feet. When Futaba’s wet palm slipped from Makoto’s grip, Makoto was sent staggering backwards towards a discarded innertube. She fell over, sitting directly on the rubber toy.
	POW!
	And in the blink of an eye, the rubber tube surged in size and exploded, raining bits and pieces down from the sky. The noise deafened Makoto for a moment, with the poor girl writhing on the ground.
	And Ren could only stare. He stared blankly at the girl who struggled to lift her fat, globular stomach off the floor. He stared at the model whose face was trapped in a bucket and whose massive chest was thrashing like a pair of wrecking balls as she squirmed and writhed trying to take it off. He stared at the obese hacker, crawling along the artificial beach, out of breath after ten seconds of mild jogging. And he stared at the disoriented student council president, ears ringing from the exploded overinflated pool toy she had crushed with her own, overinflated backside.
	And for once, their decisive leader didn’t know how to react.

	Ren straightened out the bench and took a seat, sitting across from the four girls who stood before him. He had been out of school for a while and he they hadn’t done any Phantom Thieves work in quite some time, so this was the first time he had seen the girls in so long. He had heard talk from Ryuji and Yusuke, but he had shrugged it off. But with the evidence in front of him, folded over into rolls, bouncing and jiggling with even the slightest twitch, it was impossible to ignore.
	“What happened to you?” he asked.
	This was supposed to be the moment. This was when he saw their new figures and fell head over heels in love. Or at the very least, some steamy lust would be nice. So when the moment finally came, and all they could see in his eyes was bewilderment, they could feel their confidence wash away like the waves behind them.
	But they had come this far, and this wide, and they couldn’t stop now. It was all or nothing.
	“Well, I guess we’ve put on a few pounds,” said Haru, grabbing her stomach and giving it a vigorous jostle, sending waves across the heavy sack of flesh. “I mean, maybe we got a little bit fat,” she said with the same tone that one might suggest they were a little bit pregnant.
	Seizing the opportunity, and her sizable assets, Ann shook the contents of her bikini top and followed suit. “I mean, maybe we have let ourselves go, but you know, I think we carry it pretty well, don’t you think?” She bent over as far as she could to display as much cleavage as she could, which was more than Ren had ever seen in his life.
	“R-right, we, uh, we still look good, right?” Makoto’s voice wavered. She wasn’t good at this sort of thing. But she couldn’t back down. Then again, she had no idea what to say. “So, you know, I uh… I think we… Say, wh-what’s that over there?” Awkwardly, she turned around, accidentally slapping Futaba in the side of the face with her hip, knocking the poor girl over, but Makoto couldn’t stop. She bent over, exaggeratedly pointing off into the distance, putting her ass on full display. Her face turned bright red with embarrassment, but her will to win wouldn’t let her stop. “O-oh, I guess it was nothing,” she said, shaking her ass slightly and sending even more of her suit into the abyss that was her crack.
	“What’s gotten into you?” asked Ren.
	And once more, their dreams were dashed. All their confidence dripped away.
	“What do you mean?” asked Haru, shoving her face closer to his.
	“Yeah, isn’t this what you like?” asked Ann, closing the distance between them.
	“We know you like big girls,” cried Makoto, pushing her way towards Ren. The three of them were standing side by side, bulging flesh pushing into bulging flesh. A wall of meat stood before him. “Isn’t this how you want us?”
	Desperation took over. “Please, feel for yourself!” cried Haru as she grabbed Ren by the hand and pulled him close. “He was taken completely off guard and offered no resistance. He slammed into her at full speed, pushing into her soft flesh. It was like falling into a pile of freshly fluffed, warmed pillows. She wrapped her arms around him, or at least as much as she could, and squeezed him tight. The tighter she squeezed, the more he could feel his stomach being pulled into hers, and her warmth permeating his body.
	And just as he began to calm down, as his body began to acclimate to the warmth surrounding him, he was ripped away. Ann’s chubby hand had taken his and ripped him away. “No fair,” said Ann. “Ren definitely prefers his girls to be more bust than belly! Let me show him!” Before Ren could object, Ann’s hand made its way to the back of his head and quickly shoved him face first into her chest.
	He couldn’t see. He couldn’t hear anything. It was like his head had been stuffed into a sauna. And he was certain his entire head could have easily fit into that marshmallow sweat box if Makoto hadn’t intervened.
	Once again, a hand took his and freed him only to deliver him into a different prison. Makoto pushed him backwards, sending him staggering backwards and onto the bench. “Ren likes… girls with… like me!” she cried as a blush consumed her face and turned to face him with her ass.
	It had to be like a small mammal watching the approach of an oncoming asteroid, if the asteroid was made of an actual ass. His vision was consumed by her encroaching backside. And then she landed in his lap.
	She was more lap than girl. It was oppressive. He couldn’t take all the weight, pressing down on him. He couldn’t feel his legs, but something in him was beginning to stir down there.
	“He’s turning red!” cried Futaba. “Give him some air!”
	Makoto did not let up. She pressed down harder. It was an odd sensation, feeling his body almost fused into hers. She could feel the entire form of his chest, his lap, his--
	Something was poking into her.
	“Yah!” Makoto shrieked as she leapt off of his lap like she had seen a snake. Which wasn’t far from the truth.
	Ren took a moment to catch his breath, wiping the sweat from his brow, but making sure to keep a hand over his swim trunks.
	“Are you okay?” asked Futaba, offering him a shoulder to lean on.
	“Y-yeah, I’m--” As he used her help to get to his feet, he couldn’t help but notice her soaking wet shirt and how white it was.  Specifically, he noticed two small, pink bumps in her shirt that suggested she hadn’t bothered to wear anything beneath it, which was not helping his condition. He made sure both hands were resting as naturally as possible over his lap. “I’m fine, thanks.”
	“But what is going on? What happened to you all?” he asked. He made sure to turn his head away from Futaba’s shirt, but considering the amount of flesh on display everywhere else, he wasn’t sure where to look.
	“We thought… Isn’t this what you like?” asked Haru.
	“I mean, we found your magazines,” said Ann. “You know, the ones you hid under your mattress.”
	“Wait, what magazines?”
	A pregnant pause filled the air.
	“What do you mean, what magazines?” said Ann. “The ones we found in your room!”
	Ren’s face went blank. “But, I don’t own any magazines.”
	“What? But we found like a dozen of them in your room!” said Makoto. “And all the girls on them were all… a bit… curvy...”
	The look on Ren’s face told the whole story. He still had no idea what they were talking about. But then, a flicker of memory crossed his eyes.
	“You know, I don’t own any magazines at all, but that does sound a bit like some of the magazines I found while cleaning...” he trailed off, but his gaze turned towards the girl at his side.
	“Wait, so you mean--” said Ann.
	“Then the one who owns those magazines,” began Haru.
	And every eye was turned towards a slowly retreating Futaba.
	“N-now, wait just a second. We can’t jump to any conclusions,” said Futaba, holding up her palms in a diplomatic manner.
	“It was pretty strange how you knew there was magazines to find in the first place, and then found them so quickly,” said Makoto as the details began to fall into place.
	“H-hey, it’s not like that! I don’t even like big, motherly girls, full of soft, gentle curves and… and… I mean, those magazines were just a prank! I-I only had them because I was holding them for… I mean...” Futaba’s mouth began spewing out excuses faster than her mind could think them up as she slowly retreated.
	But she knew the gig was up, and turned around and made a hasty retreat, or at least as hasty a retreat as she could muster.
	“Come back here!” cried the other girls trailing after her.
	It was a slow-speed chase, with none of the participants able to do much more than an awkward waddle that Ren could beat with a brisk walk. Still, there was a lot of movement, if only in the form of bingo wings flapping as arms pumped back and forth, exposed bellies bouncing from side to side and an indecent amount of T&A.
	Futaba made a beeline for a waterslide, heading for the stairs leading to a multistory drop. The tube twisted and turned, spewing a waterfall into an open pool. It wasn’t a strategically brilliant move since the only way up was the stairs and the only way down was the tube, but neither she nor her pursuers were thinking straight.
	And the biggest flaw in her plan was exposed after about ten steps up the wooden planks when she was nearly out of breath. Stairs, were not her friend.
	“Futaba, calm down,” said Ren, pulling up alongside her on the stairs. “We can talk this through.”
	“Tell that… to them...” she said with ragged breath.
	A trio of girls, faces full of fury, suggested that diplomacy truly was not the best solution at the moment.
	“...Okay, fine, give me your hand.” Ren took her chubby palm in his and pulled. It wasn’t much, but it helped enough to keep her moving a step at a time.
	Additionally, the barbarian horde behind them had its own problems.
	“How could you get stuck again?” said Ann.
	“I can’t help it,” cried Makoto, desperately trying to wedge her buttcheeks free from the wooden handrails that were holding her hostage.
	“Ugh, let me get out the lotion again.”
	That should buy them some time, at least.
	It might have taken ten times longer than it should have, but eventually they made their way to the top. Ren and Futaba stood on a wooden platform overlooking the whole facility. Rather, Ren stood while Futaba collapsed on the floor, gasping for air. But he could use a moment to spot the closest exit. Maybe they could get away and give everyone a chance to calm down and they could put all this behind them.
	But actually behind them at the moment was three angry, large girls, and they were finally making their way to the top.
	There was only one thing to do and one way to go.
	“Futaba, come on.” He helped the exhausted girl to her feet and they made their way to the entrance to the slide. The blue, plastic tube was their only escape route.
	“W-wait, I’m not ready,” said Futaba, still exhausted. “I’ve never ridden… one of these… be-before...”
	“It’s okay, I’ve got you.”
	Ren sat Futaba down in the water jet sat right behind her, wrapping his arms around her, sinking into her soft arms.
	“W-wait! Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaait!” Futaba’s cries for help were ignored as Joker pushed off, and the two of them rapidly slide down the twisting, turning passage, her voice echoing all the way.
	Haru, Ann and Makoto arrived just in time to witness the two of them make their watery escape.
	“After them!” shouted Haru.
	“Give me back my figure!” demanded Makoto.
	But the tunnel was not accommodating to the three of them, as they learned when all three of them attempted to be the first down.
	“Just let me go first!”
	“No, me!”
	“Look, someone needs to step aside!”
	“So why don’t--”
	If arguing in front of a waterslide was a bad idea, pushing and shoving was an even worse idea. Eventually Makoto was thrown off balance, falling onto her back. She reached out, looking to grab something, anything to hold her in place, but all she managed to do was drag the other two with her. And so the three of them were rushed down the waterslide,side by side, shouting and yelling as they went.
	At the bottom, Ren and Futaba were launched from the tube, landing in the awaiting pool with a tremendous splash.
	Futaba may not have been much of a swimmer, but her heavy form was fairly buoyant. She relaxed as Ren held onto her and kicked his way to shore.
	The two of them had hardly made to land when the screams of the other girls approached the end of the slide. But there was no jump. There was no splash, let alone three. Instead, there was a muted THWUMP and a series of groans as the three girls jammed up the tube.
	Jutting out of the end of the ride was a gigantic chimera, a frightening, fat-covered beast, one with two heads, four arms, two legs, two sets of breasts, a tremendous ass and too much fat to fit through the pipe.
	“H-hey! I’m stuck!” cried Ann, flailing her arms, trying to pull herself free.
	“W-watch it! I think your… everything is pressing into my stomach,” moaned Haru.
	“That’s not me, that’s Makoto,” said Ann.
	Makoto’s voice could not make its way out of the pipe, but the way her legs flailed suggested she was none too happy about the situation, either.
	“Hey, quit kicking! You’re—hey, my top!” Haru cried as one of Makoto’s toes got caught on the back of her bikini top.
	“W-wait, where’s my top?” asked Ann, doing her best to cover her titanic breasts with her hands, but reaching that far was hard enough under the best circumstances. “A-ah!” Her face turned as red as the top she currently saw floating in the pool in front of her.

	A while later, Ren and Futaba sat on a bench just outside the park, wrapped in towels the Okumura group had provided them. They decided to wait outside while the maintenance crew worked to free their friends from the ride. They felt too guilty to leave.
	“So, what is this all about?” Ren broke the silence.
	Futaba didn’t respond. She took a moment to take another chug of the energy drink she had bought from a nearby vending machine and tossed the can into a nearby trash can. It was a stalling tactic. But she knew she couldn’t be silent forever.
	“So… uhh… A while ago, I read somewhere that the hot new thing was guys really like girls… with some meat on them...”
	This was certainly true, but looking at her, he had the feeling she may have taken it to a bit of an extreme. Futaba’s flabby stomach couldn’t be contained by the towel draped around her. When she leaned forward, the lowest layer of belly fat managed to touch the concrete beneath her. She had a bit of meat on her in the same way a twenty course meal at a steakhouse did.
	“And I was always super skinny, not like that at all,” she continued. “So, I bought a bunch of magazines about girls with meat on them, and I thought… maybe I could try to put on some weight. But I thought, it might be weird if I did it alone. So, I figured, if I put them in your room, and made everyone think that was what you liked, we might all...” her voice trailed off.
	She wiped a sugary film from her lips, jostling her prominent double chin.
	“I think I may have gotten a little carried away.”
	“...Maybe a little.”
	They paused for a moment, letting the silence build.
	“I guess I should apologize for dragging everyone into it. It just felt so good to let loose and let myself go.” She cupped her hand over her rather impressive chest, bouncing it up and down. “And look! I’ve got curves now! Lots of them!”
	Ren nodded, trying not to stare, but it was hard not to, especially when her shirt was probably more see-through than she realized. He decided not telling her was probably the safer option at the moment.
	“Well, I can’t exactly say I dislike the new look,” said Ren.
	“R-really?” Futaba’s face beamed.
	“I didn’t realize I was… into that sort of stuff, but--” His mind flashed back to being smothered so thoroughly by the girls. It was intense. He’d never felt so much overwhelming softness. It was so incredibly
	“Ah!” Ren noticed the bulge forming in his trunks and threw his towel over his lap. “I mean, as long as you’re all okay with it, too.”
	“M-maybe if you show the others that you like them this way too, they’ll feel a bit better?”
	Ren smiled and nodded. “So, how about we go back in there and apologize? And then, why don’t we all make plans to go to a buffet tomorrow?”
	Futaba’s eyes lit up. “That would be the best ending! Can we really?”
	“Sure.”
	“Okay, okay. I’ll go back in there and see how they’re doing. And I’ll really say I’m sorry.”
	With that, Futaba headed back into the park.
	Ren watched her walk back, watching bits of her bounce and jiggle as she did. And now, alone with his thoughts, he could begin to sort through his feelings.
	But as he tried to come to grips with his desires, a thought occurred to him.
	“I wonder if those magazines are still there. They sound… interesting.”