Futaba Levels Up

	Futaba Sakura snored quietly on her bed. The tiny girl did not bother with things like blankets or pajamas and instead just collapsed on her mattress and dropped like a rock straight into dreamland. As she slept, she unconsciously lowered a hand to adjust her Tetris themed tanktop. A thin hand pulled the hem up high, revealing a pale stomach and a tiny navel which she rubbed and scratched. Her legs were splayed out. A trickle of drool ran down her lips. All in all, it was not perhaps the most dignified way to sleep. Sleeping Beauty she was not. But Ren Amamiya had to admit it was pretty cute.
	He had actually been there to help the poor girl with her promise list. That is, he wanted to help the reformed NEET overcome her fears and develop as a more social, well-rounded person. It wasn’t going to be easy, but they had made some progress. With his help, she could go out in public and make some purchases at a store. It didn’t seem like much, but given the state she had been a few months prior, this was astounding.
	However, today had not been particularly productive. He had come to visit and she said they would move on to the next step as soon as she finished a little project she was working on. He sat on her bed, watching as she attacked her keyboard with an endless barrage of keystrokes. He didn’t know what she was working on, but it seemed to be important. He couldn’t see much of the screen as the large office chair blocked most of the computer, but what little he could see was a flurry of computer code far beyond anything he could understand.
	The little project was not so little though. An hour later, Ren was still sitting on her bed, resting and waiting. Morgana sat on his lap and occasionally left the room to stretch his legs, but neither of them said a word. Instead Ren just watched intently. Futaba didn’t so much sit in her chair as she crouched in it. Her shoes and socks sat on the floor beside her chair like mere decorations. Her eyes almost never left her screen, not even when she reached for a bottle of an energy drink or a soda. She was pure focus made incarnate.
	Eventually, Ren began to feel a tickle in his throat. He raised his fist to his mouth and let go of a tiny, stifled cough, but that was all it took. Futaba jumped to attention, her hunched posture straightening out like she had been hit with a bolt of lightning. She swiveled in her chair, looking back at the dark-haired boy sitting on her bed. Her eyes seemed like they were ready to jump out of her head but her pupils seemed to be ready to disappear entirely.
	“Ah! Ren! You’re still here!” said Futaba, her voice filled with genuine shock. She shoved her huge glasses back up her nose, as if to make sure she was seeing what was really there. “That’s right! The promise list!” She hopped down from the chair and walked over to him. “I’m sorry! I got so into my work I forgot all about it!”
	Ren wanted to tell her that it was alright, that he didn’t mind waiting while she finished up, but instead all he could do was focus on her. She did not look particularly well. Despite her infatuation with energy drinks, she looked exhausted. Large black bags sat under her eyes. They looked so heavy that they threatened to drag the rest of her head down with them. She was slouched over and pure exhaustion seemed to pour off of her.
	“Futaba, when was the last time you got some sleep?” he asked.
	She tilted her head back, lost in thought. “What time is it?” she asked.
	Ren took out his phone and took a quick look at the clock. “About 5:20.”
	This answer did not satisfy her. “...Morning or afternoon? Actually scratch that. What day is it?”
	“Right, off to bed with you,” said Ren, standing up and motioning to the mattress behind him.
	Futaba shook her head weakly. “Can’t, I gotta finish my program and more importantly I didn’t...” she stopped to stifle a yawn. “I mean, the list, we… we didn’t...” She tried to stifle another yawn but it forced its way out.
	“We can do that another day,” said Ren. He felt like someone’s fussy mom, but it was still the right thing to do. “Now get some rest.”
	“No, I’m still good, I can...” she stumbled a bit, arching towards the bed. She collapsed onto the bed back first.
	“Good, just get some rest. I’ll be back tomorrow to--”
	GRUMBLE
	Ren’s lecture was interrupted by a growling which echoed throughout the tiny room. “Was that your stomach?” asked Ren.
	“It’s fine,” Futaba said, her consciousness barely holding on.
	“When was the last time you had something to eat?” he asked.
	“I had… a cup of instant ramen a while ago… Probably today. Probably.” He voice didn’t sound that sure.
	Ren clenched his fist in frustration. He needed to feed her, but getting her to eat in this state was going to be futile. He could always bring her something later when she was awake. He wanted to lecture her a bit on getting a balanced diet, or any diet at all really beyond instant ramen and energy drinks, but he could see she was already gone. So he ended up just standing there, watching the young girl sleep. He wanted to be mad, but in spite of her disheveled state, she was just too damn cute. Even when drooling and scratching her flat stomach, she was just too cute. He wanted to go over and caress her face and touch her long, dyed hair, though he resisted the urge before heading out.
	After leaving Futaba to her rest, Ren returned to Cafe Leblanc. He pulled open the wooden door with a pleasant jingle of the bell and saw Sojiro manning his post behind the counter.
	“Ah, you’re back,” Sojiro said with a smirk. “How was Futaba?”
	Ren walked up to the counter and sat on a stool, slouching over the counter. “I didn’t get to say much to her today. She’s sleeping now.”
	Sojiro’s smirk vanished and was replaced with a knowing grimace. “Let me guess, she was up all night again, working on her computer.”
	Ren nodded, sighing in exhaustion. “She hasn’t had anything to eat or had any rest in a while. Two or three days, I’d guess from the bags under her eyes.”
	Sojiro groaned. He grabbed a coffee mug and began to fill it before sliding it over to Ren. “She’s always been like this,” he said. “For as long as I’ve known her, she’ll lock herself in her room, focused on whatever work she’s decided she needed to do, and won’t leave for anything. If I don’t go in there and force her to eat and rest I think she’d just collapse someday. She just has this laser-like focus that doesn’t let up.”
	“It’s not healthy,” Ren said taking a sip of his coffee. It was delicious, but it also made him crave a plate of curry to go with it. This did give him an idea, though. “Would it be okay if I used the kitchen to make some curry?”
	Sojiro raised a single eyebrow. “I don’t mind, but what for?”
	“I want to make some curry for Futaba. Maybe I can make something she’d like. Get her to stop skipping meals.”
	Sojiro sighed and started to put away the dishes he had been cleaning. “I don’t think it’s the food that’s the problem. The problem is her appetite. She just doesn’t seem to feel it like the average person. When she gets worked up, she barely feels any of her other needs.” Sojiro stroked his goatee thoughtfully. “She’s always been that way. She didn’t like to disturb her mother, so she would just go without meals when Wakaba was busy. At best she’d learn to cook instant meals and the like rather than  interrupt her mother’s work. Eventually she just got used to it. Hunger just stopped bothering her like it should.”
	Ren shook his head. That was no way to live.
	“And, of course, I’m confident in my cooking. She really likes my curry,” Sojiro said with a slight grin. “It’s not the taste. When she’s not busy, I can get her to eat just fine. She really loves my curry. She just needs to learn to listen to her body more. Maybe do something to stimulate her appetite.”
	A face popped up into Ren’s mind. If there was one person out there who could help, it would be her.

	“An appetite stimulant?” asked Tae Takemi. “I mean, that’s easy enough. I have plenty of things that could do the trick, but I don’t think you really need them. Your BMI is about what should be expected for an average male of your age and height.”
	The punk-styled doctor spun around in her chair, kicking her long, bare legs over and onto her desk. She leaned back and pored over a clipboard filled with her latest test data.
	“It’s not for me, actually,” said Ren. “It’s for a friend.”
	Tae set down the clipboard on her desk and rolled her chair across the floor, stopping just in front of the bed Ren had taken a seat on. She crossed her legs and leaned forward. A hint of interest came across her face.
	“When you say a friend, do you mean a friend? A classmate?” Tae’s face twisted up into a smirk that would have made Sojiro proud. She leaned forward, getting uncomfortably close to Ren’s face, leaning forward just enough to make a hint of cleavage unavoidable. “Or maybe a girlfriend?”
	Ren’s cheeks turned faintly pink as he turned his head to look away. He couldn’t keep his cool. Asking such a question while giving him such a sight simply wasn’t fair. “N-no, nothing like that,” he said, though a part of him began to wonder.
	Tae chuckled to herself before she kicked the bed and shoved her chair back to her desk. She shuffled through a few stacks of papers and pulled out a beige folder. “I know, I’m just having some fun. I’m going to guess you want this for that Sakura girl you had me look at a while back, the one who collapsed in exhaustion?”
	“Y-yeah, that’s right.”
	“Makes sense. I didn’t weigh her but I could tell at a glance that she’s definitely underweight.” Tae put the tip of a pen in her lips and chewed it gently. The image did nothing to help Ren’s body temperature return to normal. “Tell you what, this isn’t exactly what I’m supposed to do, but you’ve been a good little guinea pig.” She rolled over to a small cabinet and pulled out a pair of orange pill bottles. “I’ll give you a couple bottles of a special concoction of mine. It’s nothing special. Just a pill in the morning and one at night before bed. It’s a basic appetite stimulant. It’s not that different from stuff you can get in any pharmacy. I’m not going to give something stronger than that to someone who I’m not seeing regularly. But it should be enough.”
	Ren took the bottles and looked them over. They just seemed to be filled with unassuming white and blue capsules. “Thanks,” he said, and stood up to leave.
	As he opened the door out of the office, Tae called out to him one last time. “Oh yeah, and make sure she stays away from caffeine.”
	“Why?” he asked.
	“It has a reaction with that stuff. Nothing major, just maybe some nausea, dizziness, and maybe some bloating, but it’s best to just skip the stuff.”
	“That’s… all right, thanks.” Once more, Ren headed out into the street, bottles in hand.
	It wasn’t going to be easy to get Futaba to take these. She trusted him enough that there was no way she’d think he was up to no good, but that stipulation was going to be brutal. Futaba practically lived on coffee, soda and energy drinks. Her blood probably had more caffeine in it than, well, blood. Half of her bad sleeping habits could probably be chalked up to her excessive intake of the stimulant, but getting her to cut back was not something she was going to enjoy.
	Still, it was something he would have to address at some point. Maybe it was better to address all these problems at once. If he could fix her sleep schedule while also making it so you couldn’t see her ribs through a t-shirt, it would be two birds with one stone.

	“You want me to take what?” asked Futaba incredulously. The tiny girl was kneeling on her office chair, rocking back and forth against the back of the chair.
	“It’s just a little stimulant. It will increase your appetite,” Ren said.
	“Why would I want to do that?” asked Futaba. “I mean, I think I eat plenty.” She paused for a moment, lost in the memories of the past few weeks. “At least, when I remember to eat, anyway.”
	“That’s the problem. Now, I know this is a little weird, but--”
	“Question!” Futaba interrupted Ren as her hand shot straight into the air, her face more serious than he had ever seen.
	“Uh, yes?”
	“Do you think if I take this stuff, could it… that is...” She looked down at herself, fixating on her torso. “Do you think I could be more like Ann?”
	Ren tilted his head. “More like Ann?”
	“You know.” Futaba put both hands on her chest and quickly pushed them outward, as if they had suddenly become filled with something heavy. “Boing! Boing!” She cupped the air, as if bouncing and catching a rather large pair of breasts. “Maybe I could bounce all over the place when we drive through Mementos, too!”
	“Uh,” Ren was at a loss for words. “Maybe? I mean, it couldn’t hurt.”
	“Sold!” Futaba cheered. “Gimmie my pills!”
	She lunged forward, reaching for the pill bottles in Ren’s hands, but the he put a hand on her forehead and held her back.
	“Now hold on there, we’re going to do this right,” he said. “One pill before bed, one before breakfast, and no caffeine, all right?”
	Futaba’s eyes widened as the last few words hit her. Her grin dropped into a shocked frown, like someone had just told her her puppy had died. “Wait, so I can’t have my drinks? None of Sojiro’s coffee?”
	“Well, you can see if he’ll make you some decaf.”
	“It’s not the same!” she said with conviction. “But then...” She once again cupped the air in front of her chest. “Maybe if I think of it like an optional objective in my quest. Those always lead to the best rewards.” She gritted her teeth and smacked her cheeks. “I’ll do it! I’ll do it for my bouncy reward! It won’t be easy, but I’ll take your challenge! We’ll make it another item on my promise list!”
	Ren smiled gently. “Glad to hear it. So, why don’t we go out to make it official?”
	“Can we make it sushi?” asked Futaba.
	With a slight jingle in his pocket, Ren felt the weight of the cash he had earned selling junk from the team’s journeys into Mementos. Sure, it was technically meant for buying weapons and armor, but he was sure a little bit could be used for other things as long as it was in the name of the team. 	“That sounds good. I think we can make that happen, so feel free to eat your fill,” said Ren as he lifted up his school bag with Morgana inside. “And you can order anything you want to drink.”
	“You’re the best, my key item!” Futaba followed Ren out into the hall, practically bouncing with anticipation.

	Hours later, Ren returned to his room, dragging his heavy body towards the bed. He felt like he had swallowed a medicine ball. What had been a trip to get Futaba to start eating right had taken a turn for the strange. A dare and a wager were made. If Futaba could eat a plate of sushi covered in the hottest wasabi the restaurant had, Ren would have to eat twice as much. Little did he realize what an insane tolerance for spice that girl had. She demolished the plate like it was nothing. And so Joker ended up downing plate after plate of the stuff. Sea urchin. Tuna. It didn’t matter, as long as it was covered in wasabi. He could barely feel his mouth, but his stomach felt like it was ready to revolt.
	He collapsed onto his bed, just praying that he could manage to fall asleep with all this discomfort. But as he lay on his stomach, he felt a stirring in his pocket as his phone lit up with messages. He pulled it out and saw several texts waiting for him.
	Ann: What’s this about going out for sushi and not inviting us?!
	Ryuji: I didn’t even realize you liked sushi that much.
	Ann: I don’t! I mean, I like it just fine, but that’s not the point!
	Makoto: Then what is the point?
	Ann: That sushi place is right next to this new shop I want to try.
	Ann: It sells these amazing mint chocolate cookies that I’ve been dying to try out!
	Ryuji: Yeah, of course it’s about sweets.
	Ren rolled onto his back and groaned as he felt his stomach pushing down on him. He held his phone over head and began to type.
	Ren: Sorry about that, it was just for Futaba, but I’ll invite you all next time.
	Makoto: Oh no, that’s not necessary, but thank you for the offer.
	Makoto: But that makes me wonder, who told you about that, Ann?
	Futaba: Yo.
	Yusuke: What’s this about eating out?
	Ann: Futaba told me earlier she and Ren went out for sushi.
	Yusuke: That sounds delightful. I’m quite fond of sushi.
	Yusuke: I occasionally splurge and get the rather nice sets from the grocery store.
	Ann: You know that’s not really the ‘nice’ stuff, right?
	Ryuji: Yusuke, how about I take you out for some real food one of these days?
	Makoto: Anyway, what was the occasion?
	Futaba: Ren got me to add eating better to my promise list.
	Makoto: Well, that seems like a sensible goal.
	Futaba: I’m going to get a totally killer body!
	Ryuji: Ain’t no diet in the world that’ll give you that.
	Futaba: Quiet, you.
	Makoto: Anyway, did you guys have any plans for tomorrow?
	Ren paused to think of his schedule.
	Ren: I was thinking we could go to Mementos.
	Ren: I know a few targets who need to be taken care of.
	Ryuji: Sounds good to me. I’ve been itching to get a good workout anyway.
	Ann: It’s not like we’ve got any leads on a bigger target yet.
	Ann: And then we can go out for sushi afterwards!
	Makoto: If you want to go to that bakery, you can just say so.
	Makoto: You don’t need to go for sushi first.
	Ann: I can make room for both!
	Futaba: Nyeh heh heh
	Futaba: You eat like that Ann and you’re gonna get fat.
	Ann: I will not!
	Yusuke: There’s nothing wrong with a woman with a healthy appetite.
	Makoto: That’s enough. Let’s get some rest and we’ll meet up tomorrow
	Makoto signed off.
	Ann: Alright. Good night everyone.
	One by one they said their good nights and signed off until it was just Ren and Futaba.
	Futaba: Hey, Ren?
	Ren: Yeah?
	Futaba: Thanks for helping me out.
	Ren: You’re welcome, but what’s this all about?
	Futaba: Nothing, you’ve just been really nice.
	Futaba: I don’t know what would have happened to me if you guys hadn’t helped me.
	Futaba: But you’ve really been there for me, so thanks. You really are my Key Item!
	Ren stopped for a moment. He could feel himself beginning to sweat a bit as his body warmed up.
	Ren: It’s nothing. You’re a part of the group. We’re helping you because we want to.
	Futaba: Yeah, but I’m not the only one with problems. You’ve had it rough, too.
	Futaba: And you take time out of your own stuff to help me. I want to help you guys, too!
	Futaba: So if you ever find out who the bastard is who framed you, let me at them!
	Futaba: I’ll cast Knights of the Round on his ass! (╬ Ò ‸ Ó)”
	The reference was a little strange, but it warmed Ren’s heart.
	Ren: Thanks, but for now, let’s save that energy for tomorrow. And remember to take your pill.
	Futaba: Okay, okay, I will. See you tomorrow.
	Futaba signed out.
	Ren smiled and dropped his phone. The warmth in his heart seemed to calm him down and within a few minutes, he was fast asleep.
	The next day, Morgana rolled through the halls of Mementos. The Cat Bus rocked and bounced along the train tracks. After several hours of the constant shaking, pretty much everyone was ready for a rest. Unfortunately, with shadows in every direction there was no real chance to take a quick break.
	“How much longer are we gonna be down here?” asked Ryuiji.
	“We only have one more target left for today. A school bully who has been terrorizing another school in the area,” said Makoto, looking over a notepad she had brought in. “Sasahara Horikoshi.”
	“I just want to get out of here and sit in a nice air conditioned room,” said Ann leaning back in her seat and fanning her chest wildly. “Hey Oracle, any sign of this guy?” There was silence. Ann lifted her head and looked to the group’s navigator. “Futaba?”
	Futaba was sitting on the seats across from Ann, clad in her usual black and green skin-tight suit. The way it clung to her skin made it even more obvious how small she actually was compared to her usually baggy clothes. Normally she would be quiet enveloped in her laptop at this point, happily typing away, but today she was inordinately quiet. Her laptop’s green glow reflected off her face, but she didn’t seem to be paying it any attention.
	“Oracle, you okay?” asked Ren looking back from the driver’s seat.
	“Huh?” She looked around as if just awaking from a deep sleep. “What?”
	“Are you okay?” asked Ann, leaning forward, her face awash with concern. “You seem out of it.”
	“Oh, I’m just--”
	GURGLE
	A loud roar was made even louder due to the tight space.
	“What the hell was that?” asked Ryuji.
	“I’m hungry, okay?” yelled Futaba, feeling her cheeks redden. “I’ve never been so hungry in all my life!”
	“Wait, did you eat anything today?” asked Ren.
	“...No.” she said with hesitation.
	“But you took the pills?”
	“...Yes.”
	Ren sighed deeply. He reached into a bag at his side and pulled out a small candy bar which he passed backwards. Futaba grabbed the small morsel and tore open the package with her teeth, going at the chocolate like a starved animal stumbling across a free meal.
	“Wow, you weren’t kidding,” said Makoto watching in shock. “Hm?” She averted her attention from Futaba’s sugar assault to see Yusuke staring with great intent. A trickle of drool seemed to escape his lips. “Wait, you too?!”
	Another candy bar was acquired and passed to the literal starving artist, who seemed to view the free food with the same reverence as an ancient civilization worshiping its godly protector.
	Ann sighed. “Who needs shadows to fight when a good chunk of our team seems intent on starving themselves to death?”
	“Ah, I feel alive again,” said Futaba, patting her stomach.
	“Right, straight after this mission, we’re getting some lunch,” said Makoto. “We’re not going to have you guys passing out on us. You can’t fight on an empty stomach, you know.”
	“Speaking of which, where is this guy?” asked Ryuji.
	With renewed strength, Futaba focused her mind and grabbed her laptop. A few quick keystrokes later and she had what she needed. “He’s up ahead. Maybe a few tunnels down, on the left.”
	“All right, then let’s do this!” cheered Ryuji.

	“Why should I do anything you say?” asked the shadow of the young bully. A tall and wiry boy, he stared at the Phantom Thieves with contempt. “It’s the weak versus the strong! If I can bully them, it means they’re too weak! And I’ll show you how weak you guys are, too!” The form of the bully shifted from a human to that of a demon. It seemingly doubled in size until a massive spear-wielding warrior stood before them.
	The figure wasted no time, charging straight for the thieves, thrusting wildly. Ren easily blocked them, but none of his counter-attacks seemed to be effective. Ann stood at the side and aimed her gun, but the bullets didn’t seem to do anything either. It was a stalemate, but the thieves had their new weapon.
	A green UFO floated above the battlefield. Like a maniac, its occupant pounded at the keyboard in front of her. Futaba smirked smugly as the treasure trove of information exploded before her eyes. “Nyeh heh heh. All your secrets are mine.” She turned to make her announcement. “Analysis complete! Don’t bother with physical or gun attacks! Electricity is the way to go!”
	“Got it!” said Ryuji, who summoned Captain Kidd and brought down a bolt of lightening on the spear-wielding shadow. The shadow fell to the ground, momentarily stunned.
	“Now, finish him off!” Futaba slammed her keys with a flourish as she gazed down at the battlefield. She felt a burst of power flow out of her and reach out to the others. The thieves below felt that same power surge into them as they dog piled onto the downed foe and with that, the battle was over.
	Futaba dropped out of the sky and landed gently onto the battlefield. She opened her mouth to bask in the joy of victory, to proclaim how much fun it was to help the team crush the shadows, but all anyone heard was another loud gurgling roar of her stomach.
	“...Can we get some lunch already?” she asked.

	It was perfect. The buffet was like an oasis. A cold, climate controlled breeze flowed throughout the entire room. Free from the constricting, sweltering grasp of their thief costumes, they could finally breathe easy.
	“I want to live here forever,” said Ann, biting into a chunk of cake. “This is seriously heaven.”
	“I know, right? An endless supply of steak,” said Ryuji. “A good plate of steak after a mission is the best thing in the whole damn world!”
	“Yusuke, stop rearranging your plate and just eat, please,” said Makoto. The starving artist had nearly been in tears at the sight of all the food which was now available to him. Unfortunately, he was so enraptured with the sight of the food and the joy that it brought him that he spent less time eating it and more time trying to make his plate as aesthetically pleasing as possible. Makoto wondered in her head how this boy had not starved to death years ago.
	The schoolbag in Ren’s seat rustled quietly as Morgana stuck his head out of the bag. “Where did Ren go? How long does it take to get a plate of food? I’m hungry too, you know.”
	“He went with Futaba,” said Ryuji between mouthfuls of steak skewers. “She wasn’t comfortable getting it on her own, so she asked him to go with her.” He turned his head towards the buffet tables. “Hey, here he comes now. And—whoa!”
	Ren stopped at the table, carrying an utterly massive tray of food. Plates of everything imaginable seemed to sit upon it. Fish, beef, soup, salad, bread and a myriad of desserts sat upon it. How the tray didn’t snap in half was a mystery. He dropped it onto the table with a loud THUD and sighed in relief, finally free from the pain of carrying all that food.
	“Dude, you’re going to eat all that?” asked Ryuji in disbelief.
	“Uh, it’s actually not for me,” Ren replied.
	Instead, Futaba took a seat in front of the giant try and began to devour it. She really was like a starved animal. She didn’t so much eat it as attack it. She’d stab something with a fork and stuff it in her mouth and was attempting to do it again before she even finished swallowing the first time. Makoto had to step in and hold her back.
	“Calm down, Futaba. Take it easy,” she said.
	“But it’s too good and I’m starving! Now I know how my hunter feels in Monster Tracker!” Futaba replied. “Fighting really gets your appetite going. It makes me want to finish this and get back out there to farm for some rare drops!” Her eyes shone brightly at the idea of some rare materials.
	“Not happening,” said Makoto. “And if you want to eat up, that’s fine. Just pace yourself. You don’t want to choke.”
	“Fiiiiiine.”
	“And look, you got some sauce on your face.” Makoto grabbed a napkin and started to wipe the corners of Futaba’s mouth as the younger girl squirmed and struggled in her seat.
	“Hey, cut it out, I can get it!”
	Ryuji smirked. “You guys got a real family thing going on here,” he said. “Or maybe it’s just Futaba feels like a little kid.”
	The glare Futaba gave him in return could have frozen over magma. “Do you want me to look up and share your browser history?”
	“A heh heh...” Ryuji sweated and returned to his steaks. “Nothing, nothing.”
	Futaba smirked and returned to her food. “But man, things really do taste better when you’re hungry.” She had a plate full of Korean BBQ that she went to town on, downing whole pieces at a time.
	“I’ve never seen her like this,” said Morgana before stealing a bite of fish off of Ren’s plate.
	“It’s all just so good...” Futaba was never one for manners or pleasantries. It wasn’t for lack of respect of others but simply because such things usually didn’t cross the many, many thoughts that occupied her mind. And right then all of her thoughts were about how hungry she was. As such, she was even less mannered than usual. She gulped, gobbled and gorged on everything she could. It was pretty amazing to watch everything disappear into such a small girl. The others couldn’t help but stare even as they tried to eat their own meals.
	At least there was no way she could keep this up. At least, that’s what the team thought to themselves. They thought it multiple times over the course of the half-hour they had. The only reason they even stopped thinking it was because eventually they ran out of time.
	With her plate, or rather her tall stack of plates, mostly empty, Futaba leaned back in her seat and sighed contentedly. She let out a small burp which she did not even try to cover up before placing her hands firmly on her stomach, giving it a few solid slaps with her palms. Even through her baggy clothes, it was visibly bulging. It looked like she had smuggled a small couch pillow under her clothes, but the way it wobbled with her smack.
	Everyone tried to avert their eyes to the display of wanton gluttony. Maybe those pills were working a little too well? On the other hand, wasn’t this better than forgetting to eat for extended periods?
	“Uh, enjoying yourself today, Futaba?” asked Ryuji.
	“Happy happy happy...” she muttered to herself, hands on her stomach.
	“Aaaaaanyway, since we’re all here...” Makoto coughed and tried to steer the group away from the topic of Futaba’s eating habits. “September is almost here, so you guys are going to have to get ready for the school trip.”
	“You’re not going?” asked Ann. “No, third years aren’t taking the trip. We have to prepare for exams.”
	Ren turned to Futaba. “Are you going to be okay by yourself while we’re away?”
	Futaba smirked. “Of course I am. Besides, I’m not going to be alone. I still have Sojiro. But besides that, I’m more than capable of going solo.”
	The small girl attempted to stand up and explain how far she had come and how sure she was that she could do this, but her first step was thwarted.
	“NGH! UNGH! OOF!” She struggled and strained, but her legs gave out and her stomach was just too heavy.
	“Key item, please carry me home. I can’t walk.”
	And so a few minutes later, Futaba was lifted into Ren’s arms and gently carried out of the buffet back to her house. This likely would have been quite embarrassing had the young girl not fallen almost immediately into a food coma that she did not wake up from until the next day.

	“Mornin’,” declared Futaba.
	“Oh ho, it’s unusual to see you down here so early.” Sojiro continued to tend to his handful of early morning customers when Futaba walked through the door into Cafe Leblanc. “I didn’t even see you last night. It seems your friends brought you back already asleep.”
	Futaba quietly moved to the counter and pulled up a seat.
	“Hey, would it be okay if I had some curry for breakfast?”
	Sojiro blinked. “You’re going to have some today?”
	“Is… is that a problem?” she asked sheepishly.
	“No, no, it’s fine, it’s just—whenever I used to bring you breakfast you never ate it. You always put it off until lunch.”
	“I just woke up really hungry today. I thought I could put it off, but I couldn’t concentrate. And… I promised to eat better.”
	Sojiro stirred a pot of curry he had already been working on. “From the sound of it, you had plenty of it yesterday. I’m surprised you’re still hungry.”
	“Well, I am,” she said.
	“I’m not complaining. A girl your age should have a healthy appetite. It just means you’re still growing.”
	A sly grin crossed her lips as she looked down to her chest. “I wanna grow, all right.”
	“Hmm?”
	“Nothing. Anyway, would it be all right if you fixed me breakfast everyday like this?”
	Sojiro tried to keep his cool, stirring his curry with nonchalance, but a warm smile started to infest his whole face. “It’d be no trouble at all.”
	A minute later, Sojiro poured a bowl of his curry in front of Futaba, who was practically salivating before it hit the bowl. She quickly grabbed a spoon, lifted the bowl, and started to dig in.
	Sojiro watched with parental joy, as the sight of her happily gulping down his hard work filled him with a warmth and brought back some fond memories of her mother. He could definitely get used to this.

	The rest of the week was mostly without incident. Futaba and Ren spent a couple of days trying to go to places with just the two of them, slowly acclimating the young girl to being out without all her friends around. She was getting more used to being out in public, bit by bit, though she still couldn’t do it without her key item around. Otherwise, she spent her days as she often did. She worked in her room, looking up information the group could use, programming, playing games and catching up on her favorite shows. But now she made a concerted effort to get out and eat as well. She didn’t ignore her stomach when it pleaded with her. She made the trip to Cafe Leblanc every morning, at midday and at night to get some food.
	The results were apparent. The day Ren was set to leave for the school trip, he noticed Futaba at the counter eating her breakfast. As he passed her carrying his suitcase, he couldn’t help but notice that she had filled out a bit. It was especially evident when she just wore the tank top and shorts. She had managed to reach what would be considered a healthy, average weight. No longer did her ribs stick out, visible even through her shirt. Her stomach bulged out ever so slightly, no longer almost caving in. All around her was now a small, healthy layer of protective fat. Just enough to move her from underweight to average.
	Despite this, Futaba wasn’t entirely happy with the situation. She stared into her bowl of curry with an irritated frown.
	“Morning, Futaba,” greeted Ren.
	“Yo,” she said in turn, not looking away.
	“Is something the matter?” Ren put his suitcase down and took up a seat beside her. “Is it because we’re leaving for the trip?”
	Futaba shook her head and stirred her food with her spoon playfully. “I’ll be fine. I’ve been getting better. And I won’t be alone. So go have fun in Hawaii.” But the irritation in her voice said she was not all fine.
	“I can tell something’s bothering you,” said Ren, matter of factly.
	“Grrr.” Futaba growled. “This is like when you spend all day on this raid boss and you keep going at it and going at it and when you finally manage to take it down, you don’t get the one drop you need and all the loot you pick up might as well be vendor trash.”
	Ren blinked. He was no stranger to video games, but this analogy was lost on him.
	Futaba looked him in the eyes and sighed. “I’ve been taking my pills and eating more, but none of the growth went to my chest!”
	He couldn’t meet her eyes. He knew what she was saying was true. She had put on a little weight, and was now about where she should be, but none of it had gone towards making her any bustier. Or if it had, you’d need a micrometer to see the difference and Ren felt using one of those may constitute and invasion of privacy while also only making her feel worse.
	“W-well, maybe… just keep at it? You could… be headed for a growth spurt?” He himself did not believe his own words. It was possible, but it didn’t seem likely. “If you grow a little more you could maybe...”
	At that moment, the rest of the team showed up, ready to take their trip. Taking the excuse to leave for the airport, the team said their good-byes, and headed off.
	Futaba returned to her room, set up a communication channel with the other thieves via hacking into Ren’s cellphone so she could see and hear everything they did, and spent the rest of the day as usual, but a melancholy hung over her like a cloud.
	Eventually, it proved too much. She grabbed her pill bottle and stared at it intently. “Maybe if I grow a ‘little’ more? Not a chance.” But a thought crossed her mind. “Unless…. Maybe it’s time to up the dosage a bit.” She unscrewed the cap and popped out four pills before quickly downing them. “Nyeh heh heh. Won’t they all be surprised to see me when they get back.”
	And nothing happened. Of course it didn’t. She knew it wouldn’t. There were no pills in the world that you just took and moments later everything was fixed, but a part of her had hoped. Heck, who knew if the pills even got stronger if you took more of them? She had read enough biology and medicine textbooks to know how complicated this stuff was. But she still kept hoping. Still, after taking those pills, she began to feel a little silly and defeated. So, with a heavy heart, but not a heavy chest, she decided to call it a night. She crawled on top of her bed and without bothering with pajamas or blankets, and within minutes, she was out cold.
	But it did not last. In the dead of night, Futaba awoke, hunger gnawing at her insides. She bolted upright, moving the same urgency as a man on fire. She had never known it was even possible to be as hungry as she was at that moment. It felt like her stomach was going to push back so hard that it would force its way through her spine.
	All she could do was make a break for the kitchen. She unlocked her door, dashed down the hall as quietly as she could, and turned on the light. She made for the refrigerator and opened it up. The sight of all the food inside was breathtaking. She felt like an archaeologist, opening a treasure chest of a lost civilization, filled with priceless treasure. Except instead of a British museum, these treasures were going straight down her gullet.
	Fruits. Vegetables. Candy. Cake. A leftover bowl of ramen. It didn’t matter. Down it went. And then she found a large pot of curry. It was an entire, huge pot of the curry he had made yesterday but did not manage to sell. Sometimes he’d use it the next day to make some breakfast. If so, it was breakfast time, even if it was about midnight. She dragged the pot out of the fridge and, with all her might, she hoisted it onto the stove. She let it warm for a minute while she emptied a few more drawers of the fridge. A bowl of oden and a plate of takoyaki kept her occupied for a few minutes before she returned to the pot.
	Tasting the contents, it was good, but still not warm enough. But it didn’t matter. She was starving. She grabbed a ladle and poured a bowl. She didn’t bother with a spoon. She just poured it back, gulping down the contents. Then she poured another. And another. But it wasn’t enough. Her eyes turned to the pot itself, still very full. She grabbed the handles firmly and started to pour it back. She put her lips on the rim and just continued to tilt it towards her. For several minutes, all the could do was drink and drink and drink. It was like a curry hose straight to her stomach. It was a waterfall of spices. Even if it wasn’t nearly warm enough, she could still taste Sojiro’s signature blend and it was magnificent.
	After several minutes, the pot was light enough that she could lift it up with ease and she held it above her head, sucking down every last drop. She licked the rest of the rim, the tips of her fingers, and set it aside, letting out a deep sigh of relief and a small belch. She covered her mouth, hoping her gluttony had not woken up Sojiro. Oh gods, what would he think if he woke up and saw all this?
	Then she looked around the kitchen. The empty pots. The used bowls. The discarded wrappers. Everything was a mess. Everything was empty.
	Well, not quite everything. She lifted her shirt and looked down. A bulbous ball of food distended her stomach. She took her hands and bounced the jiggly orb up and down. It felt surprisingly good. It was warm. It was soft. She wanted to have it as a pillow. She shook herself back and forth and watched it shake, until it started to growl back.
	In spite of everything she had eaten, it wasn’t enough. Not by a long shot. But she had work to do. First, she had to throw out the trash. She had to destroy the evidence. She had to clean the tableware and get it put away. And then she had to go back to her room and see if there were any good food places that would deliver directly to her online. Preferably any place she could pay online cheaply, quietly and most importantly, quickly.

	The days of Ren’s trip came and went. He returned from Hawaii with his head held high, flowers around his neck and a slight tan on his skin. He opened the door to Leblanc and was greeted by Sojiro.
	“Welcome back. How was Hawaii?”
	Ren waved back enthusiastically. “Aloha!”
	“That good, huh?” Sojiro chuckled. “Glad you got a chance to relax.”
	With a deep stretch, Ren threw his hands up over his head and pushed out the many kinks he had developed over the course of the plane ride back. He cracked his neck and smiled. “So, how’s Futaba been?” he asked.
	Sojiro sighed. “Maybe… it’s better if you see for yourself.” The joy in his face seemed to drain away a bit. “She’s been waiting for you upstairs.”
	“See what for myself?” He didn’t know what to expect, but he decided it was easier to just go upstairs and find out for himself. He adjusted his school bag and made his way to the attic.
	As he climbed the stairs, he could hear the rhythmic button taps and 8-bit audio that meant someone was playing games on his old retro video game console. And sure enough, when he made his way to the top of the stairs, there was Futaba, wildly smashing the buttons on her controller, lost in her own little world. But she quickly noticed him out of the corner of her eye and paused the game.
	“Ah, you’re back!” she squealed with delight.
	But Ren couldn’t answer back with the same enthusiasm. It was Futaba, it was her usual outfit, but she was still so different.
	Her clothes, a pair of cargo shorts and a tank top, were pretty baggy. Or at least, they had be. At this point, they were almost as tight as her thief outfit. They dug into her skin, with the hem of her shorts leaving a visible indentation into her thighs. She had always had pronounced hips and thighs, proof positive that she was a growing woman, but they were simply fat now. They had expanded to the point that her black thighhighs were pushed to the breaking point. All around her upper thighs, tiny tears in the fabric opened up, revealing pockets of flesh poking out.
	This was to say nothing of her ass, which was now very pronounced. It was so rounded it jutted out from the side and he could see it wiggle and bounce even from the front. It was struggling to be contained by her shorts, which were being pushed lower and lower.
	Of course, her belly was doing her shorts no favors. The bulging ball of food she had had that day at the restaurant seemed to have decided it would like to stick around. It jutted off her torso and dangled a bit, pushing open the buttons and the fly of her shorts. Between the ass pushing out the back and the belly pushing on the fly, it felt like one wrong move would expose something indecent.
	Granted, it was hard to focus on the shorts when that navel was so exposed, as if it was staring right at him. Her stomach was waging a bloody war on her tank top and the black, Tetris-themed garment was on a Northern retreat. It slid upward, unable to contain the bulge below.
	Even her breasts were, well, they were now there. Unlike the rest of her, you could not call them big unless you were feeling extremely charitable, but they were most definitely there. She was giving Makoto a good run for her money. Ren also couldn’t help but notice a tiny bit of cleavage which could not have existed before. But this only made it harder to look away. And the tightness of the shirt wrapped around her new assets made it quite clear she wasn’t wearing a bra.
	Ren quickly looked away, his face turning beet red. He couldn’t bring himself to look back.
	“Hey hey, what’s wrong? You get hit with a stun status effect?”
	She tried to meet his eyes, but he kept looking away. This only amused Futaba. “Oh, I see. Did my new… assets give you pause? Isn’t it great? You were right! All I had to do was grow a little more! I leveled up!”
	Ren tried to force a laugh. “Ha ha…. Y-yeah, a little growth...”
	Inside, he sighed. It seemed like first thing tomorrow he’d have to make an appointment with Dr. Takemi.

	“That’s… not normal,” said Tae, looking at a cellphone picture Ren had taken of Futaba.
	He had taken the photo for reference, but Futaba believed he just wanted a sexy wallpaper for his phone.
	Tae grabbed another bottle of the pills she had given out and looked at them closely. “These things aren’t that strong. They’re basic, over the counter appetite stimulants. They don’t aid in actual weight gain. And to gain that much in so short a time...”
	Ren rubbed his forehead and sighed deeply. “I can’t get her to cut back on her own. She likes what the weight is doing to her bust. Is there anything you can do for her?”
	Tae leaned back in her chair, spending a few moments collecting her thoughts. “It’s really hard to give advice on someone I’m technically not seeing. It’s not really something I should be doing.”
	Her eyes darted to her favorite guinea pig. She could see the stress building up within him. She couldn’t turn him down, even if she wanted to.
	“Look, the only thing you can do is watch what she eats. It’s the same advice any good doctor will give you. Eat less, exercise more, a better diet, et cetera. But since I get the feeling that won’t be enough to set your mind at ease, take these.” She got up from her chair and went into a locked cabinet. A moment later she tossed Ren a bottle of pills.
	He examined the bottle closely. It looked identical to what she gave him last time. Obviously more appetite stimulants would only exacerbate the issue. So that had to mean one thing.
	“A placebo?” asked Ren.
	The punk doctor clapped her hands. “Very good. You’re quite astute, my little guinea pig. They’re sugar pills. Have her take those instead of the ones she has.” She leaned over to deliberately flash her test subject a little cleavage. “I don’t normally like lying about medication, but if you want to tell her these pills will enhance her grow a bit more where she wants to, you might be able to avoid a headache.”
	Ren turned the pill bottle over in his hand. “I’ll think about it. Thanks again, doc.”
	He got up from his seat and was halfway to the door when a hand grabbed his wrist, holding him back. He turned to see Tae with a fake smile plastered across her face.
	“Now now, this is a give and take relationship,” she said as she gripped a syringe in left hand. “I gave you advice and some free pills. Now, let’s get some good test data, alright?”
	Sensing no escape, he resigned himself to his fate, rolling up his sleeve and lying down on the bed. He considered offering fake data, since he had received fake pills, but decided it wasn’t smart to sass a woman standing over you carrying a syringe filled with who-knows-what.

	A few hours later, Ren stepped back into the attic of Leblanc. Futaba was still there, still in the same seat she had been when he left for the clinic, but the piles and piles of takeout were definitely new.
	“What’s all this?”
	Futaba did not respond. Instead, she sat on her chair, a donut stuffed in her mouth, as she stared on her video game with laser like focus. For once she was actually sitting in her chair rather than crouching in it as she typically did. This was probably not because she had decided to improve her posture and more likely she couldn’t balance on the chair anymore.
	“As soon as you left she ordered food from every takeout place she could muster,” said Morgana, stretched out and half-asleep on the bed. “She’s done nothing but eat and play games since you left.”
	Inspecting one of the bags on the floor, it was filled with what seemed like an entire bakery’s worth of confections. Another had several bowls of soba noodles and various kinds of ramen. A stack of pizza boxes sat in the corner, half of them already finished.
	“Hmm?” Futaba looked up from her game, finally noticing Ren’s return. “Oh hey! Wanna play some Streets of Vengeance with me?”
	Ren carefully stepped around the bags of food and took a seat next to the growing girl and picked up a controller. He decided to play along. “Is, uh, all this food for you?”
	“Of course not.” She finished her current donut and quickly replaced it with the next. It too was gone in a moment.
	A weight felt like it had been lifted off of his shoulders. Maybe there was some sense left in the world.
	“You can help yourself. It’s for both of us.”
	And the weight was right back on his shoulders, perhaps heavier than before. Still, he wanted to talk to her, so this would be the best chance, so he continued to play along. He needed her to be at ease.  He grabbed a slice of pizza and started eating.
	“Hey, this is pretty good,” he said.
	“Oh yeah, I found them recommended online. They make some of the best stuff around. And you can pay online and have them deliver pretty much anywhere! This one here has curry mixed into the cheese and the one under it has chicken and bacon on it. And after those, you need to try these meat buns I ordered over here. You can seriously get anything you want in them!”
	“Isn’t it still a bit much?”
	“Huh? No way. I can finish this easily. And speaking of finishing easily, let’s play!” Futaba booted up the game and within a few seconds, the fight was on.
	Axton and Flamestone, the brawlers of Futaba’s favorite old-school brawler, made their way down the street, dishing out pain and punishment to the forces of evil that lined up in easy-to-dispatch formations. They punched, kicked, slammed, threw and bashed their way through crowds of street gangs, bikers, thugs, yakuza and evil soldiers, stopping only briefly to snack on food that fell out of easily destroyed containers to restore their health.
	This was mere child’s play to Futaba, who managed to do both at the same time. She rested her controller on the top of her exposed stomach and pulled off every attack, every special move using only a single hand, rapidly smashing the buttons. Her free hand was equally as busy, reaching for food all around her. She didn’t miss a beat as she gamed and snacked simultaneously.
	All Ren could do was gawk. She really was going to go through all this food by herself. He couldn’t let that happen. But there was no way she was going to let him throw it out. Besides, that would be a shameful waste of food. So the only thing he could do was eat. He had the proficiency. So he tried to imitate her. He held his controller with one hand and started to eat with the other. He wasn’t nearly as good at this game as Futaba was, but that didn’t matter. Despite being a co-op game, Futaba was clearly skilled enough to clear it solo, even on two-player mode.
	As the third slice of pizza disappeared down his throat, he told himself he had to do this for her sake. Anything he didn’t eat she would eat. He was definitely doing this for her, no matter how good everything was. It was definitely, totally and completely for her sake, period.
	“Ooh, dibs on the turkey dinner!” she said before taking a gulp from a two-liter bottle of Cielo Mist.
	“That does sound good. Did you order one?” Ren turned his head to look around for a bag which may contain a whole dinner.
	“SNRK.” Futaba snorted so hard that she nearly sent soda out of her nose. She paused the game, grabbed some napkins and wiped her face down. When she finally dried herself off, she was still smiling a big, goofy grin. “I meant in the game, you dork. I need the turkey that popped out of the garbage can you just smashed.”
	“O-oh.” He didn’t know what to say as the warm glow of embarrassment rose to fill his entire being. He wasn’t enjoying the food, he swears!
	“But hey, if you want a turkey dinner, I do know this place that we could probably order one from. They do a lot of western cuisine.” She picked up her phone and started going down her bookmarks menu. “Might take a while, though.”
	“That’s… okay.” He felt the urge to say yes bubbling up from somewhere within him, but he pushed it back down.
	“You sure? You already finished your pizza.”
	Ren looked down and realized his hand was groping around an empty, greasy box. He had hardly noticed.
	“Yeah, I’m uh, sure.” He stifled a small belch. Adding more food meant there was more for her, and that’s what he was here to prevent. In fact, he needed to get back to work. “So, you ready to continue?”
	“Always!” Futaba slammed her butt back down into her seat with a loud thud and a jiggle in her stomach that bounced her controller right off her. She picked it back up, hit start and the brawling and feeding continued. And it continued well on into the night.
	Eventually it was closing time for Leblanc, but Ren didn’t feel like he could go downstairs to see Sojiro off. All he could do was lie down on his bed and groan. He had never been so full in his life. His hands naturally found their way to his bulging stomach, gently massaging the very visible bulge. It rustled and gurgled as the insane amounts of food digested and sloshed about. His gaze went across the room, which was littered with empty boxes, plates which had been licked clean and finally, a very happy, very content and very fat young girl who was now on her back, lying on a blanket she had thrown on the floor. He swears she wasn’t that big when they started. How much stuff could you fit in a girl so short?
	He attempted to stand, but the fullness of his belly overwhelmed him. He felt like he had just awoken from a coma. Either that or he was about to fall into one. All he knew for sure was that this was definitely not going to work.

	The next day, Ren had to drag himself to school. Someone had to have planted a ball of pure lead in his stomach. That was the only possibility. There was absolutely no way that he had spent the night before pigging out to a ridiculously degree. The way his stomach was still bulging and jiggling to his touch was an illusion brought on by bad dreams. Still, it was a very heavy illusion, and the moment he reached his desk he collapsed like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
	“Whoa, you look like crap,” said Ann, turning around in the seat in front of him.
	“Thanks,” he replied.
	“Oh, uh, sorry. That came out wrong,” she said.
	“Nah, I feel like crap, too. I was up late.”
	“Ooh, doing what?” Ann smiled. “Were you making Phantom Thief equipment? Looking for new targets?”
	“I was up with Futaba eating enough food to feed a small village and I feel like I’m going to explode like a pizza-filled pinata on a pile of lit fireworks,” was exactly what Ren did not say. Instead, he opted for a halfhearted shrug and a simple, “I dunno, can’t remember.”
	“Anyway,” said Ren, “have you seen Futaba since we got back?”
	“Hmm? No, but I did get a few texts from her. She was bragging about… something. Honestly, she sounded kind of weird. She kept talking about how she’s ‘bouncy’ too.”
	“Yeah she’s...” Ren tried to think of the most diplomatic way to put it. “She’s a little bit...”
	“Wait, hold on, we’re getting a text.” Ann pulled out her phone and Ren quickly followed suit.
	Ryuji: What the hell?! Futaba blew up like a balloon while we were gone!
	Ann: Wait, what?
	Ryuji: She got fat! Like, seriously!
	Makoto: Ryuji, that’s a terrible thing to say about a teammate.
	Ryuji: No, I’m serious! Like, she sent me a picture herself! Look!
	Ryuji: FutabaNewAssets.png
	Ryuji uploaded a photo of Futaba who seemed to be beaming with pride. She smiled and winked at the camera as she flashed a peace sign. However, the overhead angle and the off-centered focus made it clear she was trying to emphasize her newfound cleavage. It did this, but it did a better job of showing off the big ball of blubber that had replaced her stomach.
	Makoto: …
	Makoto: Wait, what?
	Ryuji: I told you!
	Ann: Why did she even send you this?
	Ryuji: Hell if I know!
	Ryuji: She said something about how I said she couldn’t have a killer body!
	Makoto: Well, you did say that. You should probably apologize.
	Ryuji: For what?!
	Makoto: Ryuji!
	Ryuji: Ugh, fine. I didn’t mean to make her feel bad.
	Ryuji: But we still gotta do something about this!
	Ann: Have you tried talking to her about this, Ren?
	Ren: I did last night.
	Ren: It didn’t go well.
	Ann: Is that why you don’t look so good today?
	Ren: No comment.
	Makoto: What if you spoke to her, Ann?
	Ann: Me? Why me?
	Makoto: Well, you know a lot about maintaining a figure, right?
	Makoto: Maybe you could take her bra shopping and use the chance to talk to her.
	Ann: Hey, yeah! That sounds pretty fun, too!
	Ann: Alright, I’ll call her a little later and take her shopping.
	Ann: It’ll also be good training for her to get out on her own.
	Ren: I’ll leave it to you, then.
	“Alright class, let’s get started.” Kawakami entered the room, signaling that class was ready to start. Ren and Ann quickly stashed their phones away and settled in for another day of only paying half-attention to the lessons.

	The bell on the door to Iwai’s airsoft shop jingled as it slammed shut. Ren Amamiya looked down into his shopping bag, making sure all the equipment he secured was still there. He opened his transparent umbrella and stepped out into the streets. It was a warm, humid and rainy day, as if the entirety of Tokyo had become a makeshift sauna, but it was a little refreshing in a way. He made his way onto the quiet and mostly vacant streets, taking his time as he pondered what else he should do. He could go see Tae and help her out but he could also go and spend some time with more of his teammates. Makoto still had problems with her classmate. Ryuji was counting on his support. Or maybe her could--
	He stopped dead in his tracks as he passed a restaurant. Big Bang Burger. He’d been there a few times. But he seemed fixated on it all of a sudden. He stared at someone in the window seat who was taking the Big Bang Burger challenge. They were holding up the biggest burger he had ever seen. It was monstrous. It was insane. But it also looked delicious.
	“No!” he said, shaking himself out of his trance. “I’m still full from yesterday.” He put a hand on his stomach. You couldn’t see it through his uniform, but there was still a bulge underneath it all. Of course there was. That much food wasn’t going to digest that quickly. He probably didn’t need to, and shouldn’t, eat anything all day.
	But still, he gazed into the window, transfixed on the food. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt. Maybe--
	BRING.
	Ren jumped back in surprise as his ringtone snapped him out of the spell the restaurant held over him. He pulled it out of his pocket and held it up.
	“Hello?”
	“Hey, Ren!” Ann’s voice came through, cheerful as ever. “We’re done shopping. Futaba says she wants to meet up and show off. We even have some stuff for you! Can you meet us over at the Shibuya Diner?”
	“Uh, sure. I’m just down the street from there. See you in a bit.” Ren hung up and exhaled deeply. At least he had an excuse to get away from the Big Bang Burger. He could go somewhere, grab a quick coffee and get back on track.

	The coffee was alright, but it didn’t compare to anything from Cafe Leblanc. Ren had become quite an aficionado for a good cup of coffee, and he took pride that his personal blend was better than this. Still, it hit the spot at the moment.
	“Ren!” The voice calling out to him belonged to Futaba, who came bouncing towards him at surprising speed with Ann trailing behind her. Despite supposedly going out to do some fashion shopping, she was dressed exactly as she was when he last saw her. Her cargo shorts and tank top were both as tight as they had been, with her circular belly still out in the open. As she leaped towards him, it did plenty of leaping on its own.
	Before he could even respond, she reached into a shopping bag by her side. Suddenly, he feared the worst. He had flashbacks to the night before, with an army of paper bags filled to the brim with food. He couldn’t let that happen again.
	But instead of food, she pulled out a small handful of fabric. It was a collection of underwear.
	Futaba’s face lit up with excitement. “R-Ren! They’re… They’re pink! And they’re frilly! And they’re pink and frilly! And they’re mine!” She looked at the handful of bras as if it were a pile of priceless treasure. “Ann had to—I mean, an attendant wanted to measure me, but I couldn’t do that! I nearly passed out, but Ann said she’d do it instead and she did and it was still so exciting and she did it and and and and and now these are mine!”
	He didn’t quite get it. But as long as she was happy, everything would be alright. So he settled back with his coffee and smiled. Futaba sat down beside him, cheer and excitement radiating off of her.  Ann followed suit, taking the seat across from him at the booth.
	“So? Did I do a good job?” asked Ann with a similar aura of pride coming off her.
	Ren gave her a quick thumbs up. “Seems like it. She seems really happy.” He took a quick look to his left, making sure Futaba was occupied. When he saw she was digging deep in a bag of her new undergarments, he leaned in close. “Did you also have a talk with her?” he whispered. “You know, about her diet?”
	Ann nodded, and whispered back. “Yup. And then we got these!”
	From under the table, she brought out a couple of bags of her own. But they were not filled with clothes. She reached in and pulled out what had to be the biggest crepes he had ever seen. They were enormous! The cream alone must have weighed more than his head!
	“Here you go, Futaba!” she said as she handed one to her.
	“Ooh, thanks, I was starving. I didn’t think I’d last until we ordered some dinner,” Futaba said.
	Ann then handed another crepe to a stunned and baffled Ren, whose hands grabbed the gigantic pastry out of reflex alone before taking out one for herself. She tore into the flaky, strawberry and cream filled delight as if it were the first, and last, crepe she would ever get to eat. The joy on her face was simply too much to look at. It was like staring at the sun.
	In the face of such happiness, it felt impossible to say something. Even if it were possible to reach them, ending such joy felt like a crime. So instead, all he could do was eat. This was made easier by the fact it really was delicious. It was so light and fluffy. It was like eating a cloud, albeit a strawberry and sugar coated cloud. Before he knew it, it was gone and he was licking his fingers clean.
	It was only then that he noticed the waitress standing at the side of the booth. He did not know how long she had been standing there, but her look said it all. It was a combination of irritation and hesitation. She wanted to explain that outside food was forbidden, but she also realized it would be a huge hassle and probably pointless to do so. Instead, she waited in silence.
	Before he could apologize to her, Ann spoke up. “Oh, hey, can I get the ice cream sundae?”
	Futaba jumped in as well. “I’ll take one of those as well, actually make it two, the daily special, the grandmother plate, the beef bowl and an appetizer sampler? Oh, and a black coffee.”
	Ren stared in amazement. “Are you sure--”
	“He’ll have the same thing as me,” Futaba interrupted.
	The waitress jotted all of this down, uneasiness almost visibly weighing down on her, and quickly walked off without a word. Wait, he was going to be eating all of that, too?
	Ren leaned over the table to get closer to Ann and whispered, albeit quite loudly, “I thought you said you had a talk with Futaba about her diet.”
	She nodded. “I did. I told her she has to eat right if she wants to improve her figure. Then she asked me what I ate to get how I was. And I told her that I basically just kinda ate whatever I felt like and it all just sort of worked out.” She smiled warmly. “And she looked so overjoyed when I told her. I mean, if she’s happy that’s all that matters, right?”
	Ren slumped over, his head hitting the table. Maybe asking Ann was a bad idea. But what else could he do?
	A few minutes later, the first of many trays arrived at the table. Ren stared at the mountains of food before him, and at the girl to his left who was already excavating her own. Her thick thighs were rubbing against his as he stared at the pale orb all that food was disappearing into.
	He gave up. He couldn’t say no to her. He couldn’t bring himself to stop her. So he vented his frustration on his food, and let loose. He ate and ate and ate, stopping only briefly when he noticed Futaba staring back at him with a warm smile on hers. When he turned towards her, she blushed and returned to her own food. And so it went.
	When they were done, he collapsed into his seat. He could feel his pants and his short straining against his uniform. When he was sure no one was looking, he reached under the table, past his food bulge, and loosened his belt a little. He could feel his belly touching the table, even as he sat further back and slumped down, but what could he do? He considered undoing a button or two, but this was too much.
	He looked at Futaba, who was having similar problems, but was seemingly reveling in it. She sighed lovingly as she patted her exposed belly, slapping it gently and watching it jiggle under her palms. She admired her new cleavage and the medium breasts that made it. She occasionally lifted the strap of her tank top in order to peek at the pink strap of her new bra. He could see her hands occasionally go down to her waist, where they tried to adjust her shorts, but they simply couldn’t get under her muffin top or into the tightening garment.
	It was hard to believe it was still the same girl who a short while ago was considered dangerously underweight. And if he didn’t do something, who knows where she’d end up? He had to do something. He had to think of something.
	He burped lightly and patted his stomach. Well, he’d do something another day. For now, mustering the strength to get up and get back home was adventure enough.
	“Oh, before I forget, I bought a few more of those crepes. You can take some back home with you,” said Ann, putting one last shopping bag on the table.
	And it seemed like there were going to be many perils on the way back to Leblanc.

	From then on, everyday Ren tried a new approach to helping Futaba lose weight, but everyday it backfired. He figured someone would have a better idea, since he struggled to say no to her.
	He tried to send her with Ryuji so she could exercise at the gym. In the end, the two of them spent hours at a store looking for the right type of protein powder. They spent a great deal of time arguing over which brand was more effective and, more importantly, which type wouldn’t taste awful. They spent a long time arguing, sampling the products, but no time actually exercising. This did however leave several gallons of protein powder left over, which would not last long. So at the end of the night, the three of them ended up chugging the leftovers. Ryuji would likely be fine, but Ren had a feeling that the only bulking up he and Futaba would be doing would not be in the muscles department.
	Of course Makoto would be a safe bet. Of all the thieves besides himself, she was the most level-headed and even tempered. If anyone could help, it would be her. But Ren underestimated Futaba. The two girls, while both prominent thieves whose intelligence greatly aided their missions, they otherwise did not have much in common, or much to talk about. So when the two of them decided to spend some time together, it was Futaba who ended up choosing what to do. Makoto tried to find the time to talk to her about exercise, about restricting her diet and about stopping her pills, but the younger girl was simply too much for her.
	The two of them ended up running all over the place, trying this place and that. Futaba was so excited to actually visit places she had never been and still didn’t have the emotional fortitude to visit alone. Makoto found herself lost in a world of tech shops, game stores, walls of figurines, and finally a gamer cafe, where the two of them finally had a chance to sit down, only for Makoto to get entirely engrossed in a fighting game. The competitive, high-speed nature of the game just spoke to something within her. For hours, the two of them duked it out. They sat in cushy chairs, ordering drinks and snacks, with cries of “one more round” being heard a half-dozen times. And as the two of them left, they carried an armload of snacks, souvenirs and drinks they ordered.
	“I’m sorry, Ren. I have failed you,” Makoto whispered to herself as she walked Futaba back to Leblanc. She prayed for Ren’s good digestion.
	And lastly was Yusuke. No one on the team had faith in his ability to help. It was not that they didn’t respect him, because they did. His calm, detached view of the world, while slightly odd, was invaluable. He was loyal, strong and determined. But he and Futaba got along like oil and fire. So when Ren returned to the attic to find that Futaba had convinced him to order a ton of food, on her tab, in order to create an original still life image, no one was particularly surprised.
	So as Ren sat beside the two of them, eating the items that didn’t make the cut for Yusuke’s latest piece, he realized he was going to have to change his strategy.

	Business with the thieves came first, however. While Ren as working, and failing, at getting Futaba to shed the weight, the Phantom Thieves’ website was taking requests. The group set their sights on taking down the CEO of Big Bang Burger, even taking on the help of his daughter Haru Okumura to do it. Overall, the operation was a success and added yet another thief to the fold.
	There were however some complications. The thieves learned firsthand how physical fitness played a role in their daring heists. On the bright side, it seemed like one’s strength, speed and agility were always multiplied to such a degree that even the weakest child could still be a formidable force. Even with a stomach bulge that refused to go away, Joker had no trouble bouncing around the halls of a Palace, even if his stomach wouldn’t stop bouncing when he did. Unfortunately, he was also still human, which meant he got tired. Taking multiple breaks in the Palace safe rooms to catch your breath was a little embarrassing.
	Haru didn’t seem to mind, though. He kept finding her staring at him whenever they had a spare  moment. He could have sworn he could see her eyes dart quickly to the bulge in his stomach and watch her cheeks flush. He didn’t quite know what to make of that, but at least she didn’t seem put off by him.
	Futaba was another story. Seeing as her role as support meant that she rarely had to move, she had taken to flying around in her Persona whenever possible. She tried to hide it, but she clearly also had a supply of snacks up there. Her communications in battle would often be interrupted by the crunching of chips and the slurping of sodas. At least it could be said that her performance had not suffered. If anything, she was improving. Except for that one time they found her taking a nap in the Necronomicon in mid-battle.
	Her outfit was definitely stretching it though, literally. Her skin-tight spandex suit was already something that left little to the imagination, and now there was so much more of her to not have to imagine about. The spot where her stomach was beginning for form a roll. The contour of her medium-sized breasts. The entirety of her ass which seemed to stick straight out of her back. The outfit hid absolutely nothing. Makoto was actually the one who suggested she spend most of her time in the UFO flying above, if only so the boys wouldn’t see it all so constantly. This annoyed Futaba a little bit but she did appreciate the privacy and the snacks she had ready, so she went along with it.
	This was also the best chance for Ren to talk to Futaba. After exploring the Palace for a while, he took the young girl aside, asking for the others to give them a minute.
	“Futaba, I wanted to talk to you about something,” said Ren.
	“Me, too!” she said excitedly.
	“Wait, really?”
	“Yeah!” She bounced on her heels as she spoke, a smile all over her face. It was strange to see her so excited. Unfortunately, this also made various parts of her equally as excited, and it became difficult to focus.
	“A-anyway, I wanted to talk to you about your diet...”
	“Hey, that’s what I wanted to talk about, too! Don’t you think it’s going great?” She awkwardly struck a pose. She tried to put one hand behind her head and another on her inner thigh, bending over slightly. Unfortunately she had some difficulty reaching her inner thigh. Eventually she gave up and simply put both hands behind her head and trying to puff her chest out.
	Ren had to avert his eyes. Despite her growing weight, the sight of her like that, especially in such a tight outfit, was too much to bear. He couldn’t keep his heart from racing.
	Futaba didn’t let him look away though. “Come on,” she said. “Isn’t this what you… I mean, I thought you...” She shook her head. “Anyway, do you have more of those pills?”
	“Huh?”
	“Those pills you got for me? I ran out.”
	Ren remembered the placebos he got from Tae. Fortunately he still had them with him. He handed them over.
	Futaba took the bottle and looked it over. She pulled her goggles down over her eyes and gave them a good, hard look. “You know, these look a little off. Are you sure these are the same ones?”
	A cold sweat poured down Ren’s forehead. How could she tell? They looked identical to him. Was this her Persona’s ability? Maybe giving them to her in the Metaverse was a bad idea. He’d have to bluff his way out.
	“A-actually, they’re better than the old ones,” he said, waving his hands about.
	“Better? Better how?” she asked.
	“W-well, they promote, uh...” His mind blanked out.
	“They must make your boobs even bigger! Wait, I can get even bouncier?!”
	Ren snapped his fingers. “That’s right! They’re a special blend.”
	Futaba didn’t wait. She opened the bottle and immediately swallowed a handful of them.
	Despite knowing there was nothing to them but sugar and capsules, it worried him to see her take so many at once. “Hey, take it easy,” he said. “Let’s not go overboard.”
	She raised an eyebrow. “Wait, you think they’re not safe?”
	Ren shook his head. “Of course they’re safe.” He grabbed one and popped it into his own mouth. “See? I’d take them myself. But, you know, better safe than sorry.”
	“Well, alright,” she said, seemingly convinced. “Thanks, though. Talking with you like this always makes me feel better about myself.”
	“I’m glad to hear that,” he said.
	Ren was relieved that he had finally taken a step in helping Futaba return to normal, but he also didn’t like lying to her. Still, wasn’t this for the best? It was over anyway, and with that they returned to their mission.

	The next day, Ren took the opportunity to speak with the newest member of the team. He had hoped that a new perspective would offer him fresh solutions. When he asked her out to talk, Haru was practically beaming. And she knew just the place.
	After school, Ren and Haru sat in a booth at Big Bang Burger. He had been to the place a few times, but it still felt strange. He understood intellectually that Haru technically owned the place, but she still did not feel like she belonged in a fast food joint like this.
	“So, what did you want to talk about?” asked Haru. Her tone was as polite as ever, but there was a bit of excitement to her voice.
	“It’s about one of our friends,” said Ren.
	“It’s about Futaba, isn’t it?” asked Haru.
	He nodded. “How did you know?”
	“I spoke with Makoto for quite some time. We’ve been in the same grade for a while, but this is the first time we’ve really spoken. She told me that her...” Haru closed her eyes as she searched for the politest way possible to put this. “She said that her current condition is something new. And that you’ve been trying desperately to help her. And that’s… really kind of you. You definitely care a great deal about your friends.” Haru’s cheeks reddened the more she spoke of his virtues.
	“Then, is there anything you can think of that might help? Some way to reach out to her?” asked Ren.
	“Before that, let’s get something to eat,” said Haru as she signaled for a waitress.
	Haru bowed her head as the waitress approached. Despite her family owning the entire franchise, Haru was the very model of manners. “Excuse me, but I placed a special order. Could you please have it brought out?”
	“Yes, Miss Okumura,” said the waitress with a curtsy.
	Alarm bells were going off in Ren’s head, but it was too late to back out now. The alarm got even stronger as a waitress returned with what looked like several of the burgers the restaurant used to challenge its customers. They were gargantuan. And they were all set in front of him, while Haru only had a tiny container of fries and a small soda.
	He wanted to ask why all this food was set in front of him. What was she thinking? But all he could suddenly think of was how hungry he suddenly felt. Next thing he knew, he was halfway into a burger with no signs of slowing down. If anything, it wasn’t enough. What was causing this? It couldn’t have been the pill he took yesterday, right? That was just a placebo, right? But the hunger was definitely real. Even when he felt his uniform grow tighter, he kept eating.
	Haru meanwhile was content to simply watch. She didn’t say anything but merely leaned over and stared at Ren as if what he was doing the most interesting thing in the world. She watched as he attacked his food like a starved bear encountering an immobilized deer. Her eyes frequently followed the bites from his mouth, down his throat and into his stomach. She watched the bulge expand little by little.
	Eventually, the first burger was done. He leaned back in his seat, panting like a dog in the heat of August. He undid the bottom buttons of his uniform, letting his stomach rest in his lap as he undid his belt. He rested his hands upon his stomach which grew and shrank with every breath. He felt like he had just finished a marathon and in a way, he had. And the worst part was he still didn’t feel completely full.
	And Haru simply smiled. Rather than be weirded out or disgusted, she seemed even happier.
	“How do you feel?” she asked.
	“I...” A slight belch escaped his lips.
	Haru nodded. “I think the most important thing is honesty. I...” She paused, taking a deep breath. “I don’t trust a lot of the men around my father. A lot of people surround him just to get a taste of power and influence. The company is full of people who would gladly stab each other in the back for personal gain. I hate it.” She clenched her fists and brought them down on the table. It was so out of her normal character that it sent a chill down Ren’s spine. “That’s why I like people who are honest about themselves. And I think you’re a very honest and very kind boy.” The more she continued, the redder her face became. She squirmed in her seat. “But I wonder if you’re being totally honest with yourself. You want to help Futaba, but have you asked what she wants? And watching you today, I don’t think you’re being honest with what you want.”
	What did she mean? What wasn’t he being honest about? And what did Futaba want? Wasn’t the best thing for all of them to lose the weight? His mind was spinning, and all the food was not helping.
	“Now, let’s go for round two! I know you can do it!” Haru pushed the second tray with an even bigger burger closer to him. A part of his mind screamed out in terror, but another part reached out to the burger and brought it to his mouth and didn’t stop. It just wanted more and more and more.
	One thing was for sure. Haru was not going to be of much help. In a way, she was the scariest of all. No, if he was going to do something, he was going to have to do it himself. Right after he finished this burger.
	Doing things himself, however, was starting to feel more and more difficult. As he woke up the next day, he had to drag himself out of bed. He was not exactly a morning person to begin with, but for Ren they became even worse. Each day the weight on his shoulders became a little heavier and the desire to sleep in a little greater. And today as he finally sat up and looked down at himself, he had to acknowledge reality. His pajama shirt was not covering all of him. His pants were cutting into the tender flesh around his waist. This was not an accident in the laundry. The cause was the massive flabby, fleshy orb of flesh that sat in his lap.
	Ren knew he was getting fat. And he continued to think of himself as ‘getting fat’ because it was easier to accept than the idea that he was already fat with no conditions attached. A while back, he could have just said it was because he had overeaten the previous night, that this was all just a bulge and it would go away. But when he continued to eat like he did night after night, it had a toll and that toll was wobbling down at his waist. He threw his short off and looked at what he had become. A beer belly was the nicest way to describe it, even if he had never tasted a drop of alcohol. He couldn’t even see his toes with that thing in his way. He sighed as he grabbed his gut with both hands and shook it like a snowglobe, watching as it took several seconds to come back to rest. He could see the ripples move from his belly to the doughy ring that made up his muffin top. Even his chest seemed a little puffy, jiggling along with the rest of him.
	He reached down and grabbed the waistband of his pants and pulled them wide, watching the flesh drop, leaving behind a line of red marks all around his waist where the elastic had dug into the pale skin. He dropped the pants to the floor and looked into a mirror. The sight of his own corpulent form in nothing but a pair of boxers which clung to his skin was too much and he fell back onto the bed which creaked under his weight.
	Maybe if he just went back to sleep this would all go away, he thought. But as he lay on his back, the weight of his gut pushing down on him told him it was no dream.
	Then the feeling of four padded paws met his exposed flesh. Morgana’s feet pressed into his legs and made their way up to his stomach. Ren found him face to face with a cat, staring at him intently, his soft paws sinking slowly into his doughy midsection.
	“You’re fat,” said Morgana.
	“Yeah,” replied Ren in a monotone.
	“Totally fat,” Morgana added.
	“Yeah,” said Ren once more, with even less emotion somehow.
	Morgana hopped down and walked slowly to the stairs. He looked back, with as much pity in his eyes as a cat could muster. “But it’s none of my business. As long as you can still fight, you can do whatever you want.” And with everything said, Morgana leaped down the stairs.
	He was right, of course. As long as he could still be Joker, as long as he could still lead the Phantom Thieves, that was all that mattered. Anything else was just vanity. He still had their respect, and whose respect did he value besides those of his friends?
	That night, Ren returned home from school.
	“Oh my, it seems that the menu isn’t the only thing that’s grown around here,” said Goro Akechi cheerfully, sitting at the center of Leblanc. He nursed a coffee gently, maintaining his smile which seemed a little too wide the whole time.
	Ren stared back wordlessly. He didn’t need this right now.
	“I’m sorry,” said Goro. “Did I come at a bad time? Did I interrupt dinner?” His eyes lowered themselves briefly, but deliberately, to the spot on Ren’s shirt where he could not for the life of him get the bottommost buttons on his blazer to close, revealing the fabric of his white turtleneck underneath. Below even that was a hint of pale flesh where his shirt could not be pulled far enough to be tucked in. “No, I don’t think I did.”
	Goro was almost always annoying, but he wasn’t usually this transparently smug. He was clearly having a criminal amount of fun with this and was struggling to contain his laughter.
	Ren intended to walk past the detective without incident, planning to simply walk past him without even acknowledging his existence. He wasn’t going to be antagonized.
	But as Ren passed the boy, he swore he could hear the faintest whisper.
	“Fatty.”
	Ren tightened his fists. He didn’t have to take this.
	“Wait, did somebody say something?” Ren leaned in very close to Goro and quickly did an about face. The end result was a build up of centripetal force.
	“Oof!” Goro winced as a heavy ball of flesh slammed into his back, bushing him into the counter.
	Ren looked around with exaggerated bemusement. “Weird, I thought I heard something.”
	Goro readjusted himself in his seat. “Well then.” He wiped a bit of coffee off his face. “It’s been a pleasure as always, but I suppose I should take my leave. Well then, see you later.” In a hurry, an aura of malice pouring off of him, Goro got up from his stool and headed out the door.
	Ren ran up stairs, throwing his stuff on the floor. He hurried to his bed, where he collapsed. He spent several minutes staring at the ceiling as he clenched and unclenched his fists. Finally, he sat back up.
	“I can’t fight him, but...” He spoke to no one in particular.
	He pulled out his cellphone and pulled up his contacts.
	Ren: Hey Futaba, do you have any plans for tomorrow?
	Ren: Bring games, food and those pills.
	“Let’s see how much he’ll laugh when I’m done.”

	Futaba wandered up the stairs to the Leblanc attic. It took her a minute, each step echoing throughout the building. She didn’t know what she expected to see, but whatever it was, it wasn’t this. Several televisions were lined up in a row, each attached to a game machine. Chairs were lined up around each one. Around each chair and around the room were various bags and boxes, each labeled with a different restaurant on the side.
	“What is all this?” she asked.
	“It’s our special Gamer Gainer Party,” said Ren.
	“A what?”
	“It’s simple,” explained Ren, adjusting his glasses. “We have a long weekend coming up. We’re going to spend it playing games and snacking. We’re going to be competing the whole time!”
	A hint of a smile appeared on Futaba’s lips. She liked what she was hearing, but she still didn’t quite understand. “Wait, compete how? For what?”
	“A combination of game victories and food victories! Whoever wins the most and eats the most will get to pick any reward of their choosing!” said Ren.
	Futaba;s face lit up with glee. “You mean… any reward?”
	“Any reward at all,” replied Ren.
	“Then let’s get to it! Move over!”
	Futaba walked over to a chair in the middle of the room and sat down. The metal chair creaked under her butt as she sat down. Her black shorts and thighhighs were already clinging to her pudgy ass and legs, and she was ready to see how far they could be pushed.
	“Just one thing before we begin,” said Ren taking the chair beside her. “Did you bring the pills?”
	Reaching into her pocket, she produced the pill bottle.
	Ren grabbed a couple and swallowed them with a swig from a soda bottle. “I think I should tell you that these are--”
	“Placebos, I know,” said Futaba.
	Ren blinked in genuine astonishment. “You knew?”
	The smuggest of all grins grew on Futaba’s face. “Of course. I’m your Oracle. Scanning and data analysis are what I do. But the thing is, in the Metaverse, cognitive pscience takes over. Items without innate power change because of the perception of them. So when we took them to the Metaverse, they gained some of the power they were supposed to have.”
	Ren slumped over, defeated. “I can’t get anything past you.”
	“Nyeh heh heh. You really can’t.” She slapped her big gut so hard it left a handprint. “And you’re not going to get anything past this baby.”
	Joker patted his own stomach bulge. “I’m not going to make it easy. Let the gains begin!”
	And with that, three days of gluttony and games commenced. They played Road Wrestlers while eating pizza. They scarfed down cake while they duked it out over Super Plumber Kart. They downed gallons of protein powder while slamming each other in Wrestlepsycho. Whenever supplies dwindled, they simply called out for more. They had a nearly endless supply of games and food.
	Clothing, however, was a different matter. Deep into the third round of Super Bash Bros., Ren’s buttoned down shirt suffered a critical hit. He grunted, feeling his stomach strain against the increasingly tight garment.
	“What’s the matter?” Futaba teased. “Feeling the heat?”
	Moments later she watched as the lower three buttons on his shirt were launched like bullets across the room. Joker’s engorged belly flopped out of his short, landing in his lap like an oversized waterballoon.
	Futaba’s face went bright red as she stared slack jawed at the exposed flesh. She had the irresistible urge to walk over and give it a firm poke.
	“GAME!”
	Ren’s victory fanfare played as Futaba’s character was launched off screen during her momentary distraction.
	“No fair! No using your stomach as a diversion!” Futaba declared.
	Ren blew a raspberry and shook his belly in defiance. “All’s fair in love and war,” he said with a wink before taking a cream filled doughnut and eating it in a couple of bites.
	However, Futaba had her revenge shortly after. In a round of Silvereye, a bucket of fried chicken was the last straw for her shorts. She stood up and the stressed shorts split right down the back. Ren was immediately treated to the sight of the largest backside he had ever seen and a pair of white panties that were either going to split like the shorts or become enveloped in the ass they were digging into. She kicked the torn shorts to the side and used her opponent’s inability to look away as the prime opportunity to score some free shots.
	“Turnabout is fair play,” Futaba teased.
	And so the pattern continued. Ren removed his shirt, so she removed her bra, which was starting to dig in, anyway. He removed his pants so she removed her thighhighs. By the end of the first night, they were left in nothing but a pair of black boxers for Ren and a pair of white panties and a distressed Tetris tank top for Futaba.
	This did not slow them down. Ren placed a bowl of nachos on his stomach as a makeshift table while she let her cleavage hold various candy bars and sticks of pocky.
	When night fell, however, their spirits cooled off, they were left feeling very exposed. They made an agreement not to remove clothes as a distraction. Clothes may only be removed via gaining weight.
	Of course, this restriction didn’t change much. The second day saw Ren tear through the back of a pair of sweatpants as his expanding rear claimed new territory. Futaba’s JLMK! Shirt didn’t tear, but it did become in effect a long-sleeved belly shirt, leaving her entire midsection exposed. Her growing chest also left the lettering on her shirt stretched until it was illegible.
	Their growth was also becoming an issue of coordination. Walking by your opponents chair was bound to end with bits of you rubbing up against them. On several occasions, Futaba’s trips to get her phone or to go to the bathroom resulted in her naked gut brushing up against Ren’s back. Later on, Ren had difficulty finding a controller, culminating in Futaba following the wire from the console to a roll of fat in Joker’s stomach where it had gotten stuck.
	And still they gamed and ate, all at the same time. They didn’t care about anything else and just ignored the rest of the world.
	By day three, the effects were entirely obvious. Both of them had blown up. Calling them fat would be like calling the ocean ‘a bit big.’ They were obese. They were absolutely huge.
	When Ren had been sitting in his metal chair, his ass enveloped it. A pair of the largest sweatpants he owned was barely containing it. His multi-rolled stomach was the main course, though. It extended past his lap and dangled well below his knees. He couldn’t wrap his arms around it without squeezing it in. The only reason it didn’t currently dangle so low as because his weight had finally caught up to the chair. After downing yet another pizza during a puzzle game marathon, a leg snapped off and he was sent crashing to the floor. Even his chest was developing. He had looked at Futaba’s discarded bra that she had been wearing when she came in and gave serious consideration to trying it out.
	Futaba was certainly not going to be using it. It wouldn’t even come close to fitting. She had finally reached her goal. She had a pair of mammaries rivaling even Ann. She was just as bouncy as she had dreamed. It was just that the rest of her was so huge it made her chest feel small by comparison.
	Her dimpled, ever widening ass was too much for any one garment to contain. She had given up on using a chair since she couldn’t fit in any of them and instead let the massive cheeks service as built in beanbags. There were no pants that were going to contain it so she stopped bothering. Her panties had dug into her flesh, the top portions being enveloped by her hanging gut or digging into her fleshy waist and the back of them were swallowed into her seemingly endless crack. One could be forgiven for thinking she was totally bottomless.
	Her thighs had always been prominent but now they were like tree trunks. When she walked the two blubbery limbs rubbed together, the sound of sweaty flesh rubbing against itself was constant. She had her thighighs still on, or at least what was left of them. Holes and pockets of flesh had pushed through the sheer material and only widened over time. They ran down all of her legs even to her ankles, where the rolls of fat seemed like they were trying to absorb her bare feet.
	Then there was the bottomless pit from which no burger, no pastry and no bowl of curry would ever return called her stomach. When seated, it pushed out past her knees, though those were difficult enough to find in all the rolls. Her tank top didn’t even begin to cover it and instead had become something more like a belly shirt or a makeshift bra for her new breasts. When she stood up, it pushed out so far and hung so low it felt like she was going to fall forward with every step unless she leaned backwards. It did at least make a nice shelf for her Ann-sized tits, which let her admire them with ease. But Ren’s eyes were more drawn towards her navel, which seemed to be an endless tunnel that drew everything in.
	Out of breath, Ren tried to reach a compromise. “How about… we call… it a tie...” He took a deep breath between each word as if simply talking was getting to be too much for him.
	But the offer was rejected. Futaba threw back a fat arm whose dangling flab jiggled madly. “Not a chance.” She inhaled deeply. “Come at me!” A confident smile covered her double-chinned face as she adjusted her glasses.
	The two of them stood apart from one another, barely clad and morbidly obese. It looked like an extremely unorthodox sumo match, and in a way that’s what it was. The two of them ran, or rather speedily waddled towards one another with no intentions of slowing down. In the middle of the room, they collided. It was a clash of titans, or at least a clash of titanic bellies. A deafening WHAP filled the room as they collided. The two bellies pressed deep into one another and deformed, like a tennis ball hitting a racket in slow motion. And like a tennis ball, the compression gave way to incredible force.
	Ren was much taller and he was also older. But in this battle of the bulges, he was simply outmatched. He staggered backwards as he struggled to control his already unfamiliar center of gravity. He finally toppled over, landing back first onto his bed.
	Unfortunately his bed was really just an old mattress with several milk crates holding it up, meaning everything underneath it was destroyed with a loud snap. Not that there was anything of value under there. At least the mattress and his sizable amount of padding broke the fall.
	“So, do you give up?” said Futaba, hands on her gargantuan hips.
	Ren waved a chubby arm before letting it drop back onto his chest. “I yield.”
	Futaba’s face was filled with excitement, but tinged with nervousness. “S-so, does that mean…” She took a deep breath. “Does that mean I get my wish?”
	“It does,” said Ren who continued to lie on his back, still out of breath.
	“Does that mean we… we...” Futaba took a massive breath. “Doesthatmeanwe’redating?”
	Ren picked up his head. “What?”
	Her face was lit up like a house on fire. “Does this mean… I can wish for… for us to be boyfriend and g-girlfriend?”
	Ren rushed to his feet. At least, as quick as he could, which was not very quick at all. “Is… is that what you want?” he asked, his own face turning equally as red.
	“Do you… not want that?” asked Futaba, tears welling up in her eyes. “I thought that this was my chance. I thought maybe this was because you liked bigger girls. And you kept taking me out for food and you always looked so happy eating too, I thought we could eat together and get closer and I felt more confident and I felt k-kinda sexy and and and the more I ate the more attention you paid to me so I… I...” The tears started to flow.
	Ren shook his head furiously. “That’s not it! I mean, I was concerned about you. I was always worried and...”
	“So, do you… not like me like this?” Futaba asked. “I thought you’d like me more if I was all nice and bouncy and soft.” She cupped her breasts in her hands and bounced them. “Isn’t this what you like?”
	Ren gritted his teeth. “I just like you! You don’t have to be big or small, I just like you! That’s why I’ve been so worried about you!”
	For a solid minute, Futaba seemed frozen in place. Nothing Ren said or did seemed to register. Her internal software had frozen up. When she finally did awaken, she sprang to life almost all at once.
	“B-boyfriend!” she cried, tears of joy pouring down. “I love my boyfriend!”
	She charged at him full bore, arms outstretched. Unfortunately, a hug was a bit difficult, especially at such short notice. As she reached out to wrap her arms around him, their naked stomachs pressed into each other, keeping them too far apart. Even when they both leaned in, it was simply impossible to get their arms around.
	So they improvised. Futaba dropped to her knees and wrapped her arms around his stomach as far as she could, pressing her face into his belly button, nuzzling it gently. It felt… interesting, to say the least.
	A bit of drool rolled down Futaba’s lips. “You know, bouncy boys are pretty fun too...” she said to herself.

	The next day should have been the end of it. School was back in session, but Ren decided it was best to call in sick. While it was tempting to go to school half-naked, he thought it was better to call Kawakami and order the largest possible school uniform they had. If he tried to wear his old uniform it would have split in two. So they had one last day just to themselves, a newly minted couple. And Futaba had one last surprise.
	With a blindfold over himself, Ren stood in the middle of his room. He had been told that there was a dream she had always had, and now was finally the chance to live it out.
	“S-so, I’ve always wanted to try and… cosplay,” she began. “You know, something special for a boyfriend...” She took a deep breath. “And… I don’t think I’ll ever be someone so confidant to do this in public, but I would like you to see it, so...” She removed his blindfold.
	It certainly was cosplay. It was a rather famous piece at that. Granted, there wasn’t much of it to see. It was a costume that, on a normal sized person, would likely be classified as skimpy. On someone of Futaba’s generous proportions though, it was downright obscene.
	A headband with angel wings attached. A pair of pink gloves and boots adorned her otherwise bare arms and legs although even these items seemed stretched out. Blue pads protected her shoulders. All of this was normal enough. But everything else was simply unfair.
	The only thing covering her otherwise naked breasts was a pair of small, blue, circular, metallic plates attached by a thin strip of leather than went around her back. The strap was thin and basically vanished into her flesh, disappearing under rolls of flab on her back. The plates themselves pressed into the breasts and it felt like one deep breath would put an end to them. Below that was a tiny blue bikini bottom which was stretched out over the bottom of her stomach, leaving a large rim of fat jutting out from the top.
	Yes, it was the world famous magic bikini armor. Futaba, her face red as a tomato, tried to stand on one leg and give the peace sign, but gave up after nearly falling over several times.
	“S-so, what do you think, my d-dear b-boyfriend? D-do you want a puff-puff?” she asked as sweat poured down her face.
	It was Ren’s turn to stare in dumbstruck silence. There was more flesh on display in front of him than in an entire swimsuit magazine. It was a stimulus overload. He was somewhat grateful that his own hanging gut was currently obscuring his crotch though.
	“H-hello? Earth to Ren?” Futaba said hesitatingly.
	This time it was he who sprang to life. He buried himself in her flesh, sending shrieks and laughter throughout the attic. They were going to have a lot of fun together.

	The next night, Ren returned to Leblanc from an eventful day at school. Reactions to his new looks had been interesting, to say the least. But it didn’t matter what the kids at school thought. Granted, his team’s reaction had been equally… interesting, but they seemed more or less okay with it as long as he could still perform his duties. Haru, if anything, seemed more enthusiastic than he had ever seen her. But other than them, whose opinion should he even care about?
	“SNRK.” Goro struggled desperately to control his laughter. He stared at Ren’s new uniform which was more like a tent draped over him. Getting exact measurements and proper fitting would require a tailor and a lot of work which was impossible on such short notice. But Goro clearly found it extremely amusing.
	“Excuse me, but could I have an extra large order of curry, please?” asked Goro through his smile.
	“Here you go,” said Futaba, bringing over a plate. Sojiro had… reservations about her new look, but he also couldn’t say no to her, especially when she was finally more confidant and more social.
	He snickered at Futaba as well, not bothering to say anything else the whole time. He quickly finished his food, paid his tab and left the cafe, before laughter could be heard off in the distance.
	The two of them retired to the attic for the night, picking up a few quick games and a ‘light’ snack. As they played, Ren turned to Futaba.
	“So, did you manage to sneak the pill into his food?”
	“Nyeh heh heh. Of course. Mixed it right into the curry. And I got plenty more where those came from.”
	The two bespectacled fatties smiled mischievously and returned to their gaming.

	A few blocks away, before boarding his train, Goro started to feel a little peckish. Well, stopping off for a little bite to eat couldn’t hurt before heading back, could it?