Flashes of loveNSFW

Valentine's Day, 2031.

Chika sits on Iriko's lap. Her adorable runty spider girl has turned into a towering monstrosity... well, relatively. It seems like just as Chika stopped growing, Iriko started and didn't stop. They've ended up at 177cm and 148cm, with Iriko having a full head over her beloved Chika.

Chika doesn't mind. Having her head fit snugly under Iriko's chin like it belongs there is nice.

This year they're not going back home for Valentine's Day. They have stuff to do here, and besides, they don't want to cause any trouble for people at home.

Iriko is watching the romantic drama on screen, but Chika is thinking about their own. They've come a long way since those first days on the playground.

===

"Princess Shamaniko, you don't really mean to turn us away like this when you've been relying on Popikan aid yourself for so long," Masumi said, her hands on her hips.

Recess got pretty intense back then. Chika could have done without all the imaginary political intrigue over imaginary tea, but at the time she was just happy to have friends. She'd play whatever they wanted to play, as long as she could play too.

"Lady Majanala, we simply haven't the money to spare," she said, waving her hands around. "But perhaps, if you are willing to marry-"

"Ugh, don't look now, here comes trouble." Masumi had abandoned her princess voice, and switched to a cranky undertone. "I'll handle this." She raised her voice as Iriko approached. "We don't want any monsters here, thanks. That's kid stuff."

The hypocrisy of this coming from a nine-year-old had been lost on the equally nine-year-old Chika.

Iriko spread her stance and clenched her fists, setting her jaw. "Too bad. Are you gonna pay the protection fee? Or am I gonna start eating everyone in your whole country?"

This was sophisticated, for Iriko. Normally she just threatened to eat all the princesses.

Chika remembered feeling bad for Iriko, who wandered the playground during recess getting rejected by every social group. Everyone liked her, everyone would be happy to group with her during class, it's just that no one wanted her to be part of their group during recess. Clearly she'd learned enough to start trying to fit in.

And it still wasn't enough. "There are no monsters in this country!" Masumi shouted, exasperated.

"Maybe there didn't used to be, but there are now," Iriko pressed, undeterred.

"No there aren't," Masumi said through gritted teeth. "There are no monsters in this world. That's all make believe, made up, kid stuff!"

Things might have never changed if Chika hadn't risked social suicide by going against Masumi.

"That's because I slayed them all," Chika had said. She'd nearly lost it from the sudden attention from the rest of the group, but she pressed on. "That's right. You're talking to Princess Shamaniko, the famous monster slayer. I eat monsters like the way monsters eat princesses."

She remembered admiring the way Iriko had jumped on without missing a beat. "Princess Shamaniko... You're the one who ate my sisters. I'll never, ever forgive you!"

"Ugh, you two are ruining my game!" Masumi shouted. "Miss Minamoto!"

===

The woman Chika now recognized as Iriko's Aunt Toki had moved over to break things up, and that had been the end of that.

Until the next day at recess.

She had been sitting at a bench waiting for the rest of the princess group to show up. She hadn't even heard Iriko coming.

"Princess Shamaniko," Iriko growled in Chika's ear. "I'm here to avenge my sisters."

Chika squeaked, jumping in her seat. "You startled me!"

"Oh, sorry," Iriko said, her voice apologetic and not at all monstrous.

Chika turned toward Iriko, putting a hand to her cheek. "I forget all the monsters I ate. Cause I eat so many. What's your name?"

"It's Iriko." Iriko still hadn't switched back to her monster voice. "What's yours?"

"Oh, um... Princess Shamaniko is my monster slayer name. My real name's Chika."

Iriko nodded, then changed into her monster growl. "Well, Chika... Be prepared for one monster that's gonna eat YOU. Cause I looked up the ancient secrets about how to beat monster slayers, and now no one's gonna stop me!"

===

They'd run off before Masumi could arrive, then, chasing each other across the playground. Shrieking and laughing. Pushing each other down on the grass and getting in trouble for it.

It hadn't been long before these games spilled into lunchtime, and the two started pushing their desks together while they ate.

"Today I'm having a monster slayer for lunch," Iriko announced, opening the lid on her lunchbox to reveal a cute human-esque face. "Ewww... she has green peppers in her hair..."

"That's funny, cause I'm having a monster for my lunch." Chika popped the lid off her own lunch. "Look at her big scary monster eye..." She poked at the egg in the center. "I'm gonna eat her all up!"

"Better eat me fast or I'm gonna eat you!"

"Better not!"

===

Their laughter had always gotten the attention of the teacher on lunch duty, who had often warned that the high school teachers would be less forgiving of this kind of playing with one's food.

Iriko, in theme with her monster play, had spoken of her mother as the nicest, scariest, meanest, best monster you ever knew, and if you got in trouble in high school she'd definitely eat you. But she liked to play with her food too.

The first time Chika got to meet Iriko's mother was late in the school year where they'd become friends.

Something had happened at school, where Chika fell asleep in the middle of the day. They talked about it on the news. Chika had never watched the news back then. But something big had happened, and her mom had been scared.

She didn't really understand everything that was being said, but it sounded like... Monsters were real. That's what her mom was scared of? She wanted to hug her mom and tell her that of course monsters aren't real. It's kid stuff.

And then Iriko and Miss Minamoto didn't come to school the next week.

At first Chika thought maybe Iriko was just sick. But the phone call a week later made it clear that wasn't it.

"No, Iriko, Chika can not come over, now or ever," she overheard Sayuri saying. "Leave my little sister alone, you little monster."

"Sayuri, I wanna play with Iriko," Chika said, rushing into the kitchen. "Don't call my friend a monster..."

Sayuri's jaw clenched. "No. You're my responsibility and I'm not going to let you risk your life to play with a monster. And I am going to call her that because that's what she is."

"Sayuri, you don't get it!"

"No, Chika. I do get it, and I'm keeping you safe. This is the end of this discussion."

===

Chika had run up to her room, then. Not come down when Sayuri declared dinner was ready. A few hours later there had been shouting from downstairs. Her older sister in a fight on the phone with Iriko's mom, she'd gathered.

Her sister had sometimes sounded angry, sometimes scared, but either way, she hadn't sounded like she was going to let Chika play with Iriko.

It had been time for Chika to take matters into her own hands.

While Sayuri shouted on the phone, she had downloaded a map from the family computer and very quietly unlocked the front door, then run outside into the cold November air.

She'd run all the way there. All the way to the little shrine that was listed as Iriko's home address on the school roster. There had been nobody there, and she was too cold to run anymore.

She had fished a 10-yen coin out of her pocket and put it in the offering box, then prayed.

"Dear Miss Goddess," she mumbled. "Please tell my big sister to let me play with Iriko."

"I already did," a voice from behind her said. "She didn't listen."

She jumped. "Miss Goddess?"

"You may call me Okano-sama," the orange-haired fox girl had said. She wore glasses, and was shorter even than Chika. ... This was Iriko's mom? Or at least a girl with the same name as her... But if it was the same Okano, it was no wonder Iriko was so short... "Come inside. Iriko'll be happy to see you."

Even though the fox girl seemed suspicious of Chika the whole way, Chika followed her into a stone cave that was underneath the shrine. It was warm and comfortable, and... huge.

Iriko was sitting on her bed, blowing her nose. She wore a nightgown, which Chika had never seen her in before.

And she had six arms, which Chika had never seen her have before. On her forehead, above where the eyes on humans would go, were six more glittering, spider-like eyes.

Chika's pulse quickened. Monsters really were real, and Iriko really was one.

"Iriko, you have a guest," Okano said quietly. She nudged Chika forward.

Iriko looked up, all eight eyes focused on Chika. Her human eyes were red and her face was streaked with tears.

Chika didn't even breathe at first. But the fear mixed with the concern for Iriko and melted away, leaving only the worry.

She stepped forward, holding her arms out. "Hi."

Iriko didn't say a word. She just launched herself off the bed, and Chika got the first of many bone-crushing six-armed hugs.

===

Okano had hung around them the whole time, always pretending to be doing something else but never getting more than a few meters away. When Iriko had admitted, a few years later, that her mother was afraid Chika would eat Iriko, Chika had burst into laughter. At the time, she'd been so convinced that Okano didn't like her...

They'd spent the night together, and Iriko had caught her up on everything that had happened since. How Iriko had been captured by some bad people, and forced to make silk for them. How her mom and all her friends had come rushing in to beat up the bad people and save her. How she'd thought about Chika the whole time, and then cried when she got home and still couldn't see her.

How she thought that Chika must hate her.

"Nuh," Chika said, snuggling up closer to Iriko under the blankets. They were sleeping in Iriko's mom's gigantic pillow pile bed, along with Iriko's mom and her big sister, who had no face. Chika remembered wondering why she needed such a big bed when she was so little, but she didn't mind when swimming through pillows was so fun. "Never ever."

"But you're scared of me, aren't you?"

Chika shook her head. "Maybe I was for a little while, but then I remembered that I'm the monster slayer. So if you try to eat me, I'll just eat you."

Iriko giggled, her first laugh all night. She pressed her cheek against Chika's. "I missed you a lot..."

"Don't go away again, then," Chika said, matter-of-factly. But the truth was, she'd missed Iriko a lot, too.

===

The next morning had been a nervous one for Chika, thinking about having to go home to Sayuri, who was probably furious. She'd probably be grounded for a month. She just wanted to stay here under the covers with Iriko until forever.

But when Iriko's mom had called Sayuri to let her know where Chika was, that wasn't what had happened.

Okano called irritably into the den. "Chika? Your sister is here. Come say hello."

Sayuri stood in the doorway to Okano's den, getting the evil eye from Okano. As soon as she saw Chika, she knelt down, opening her arms. "Hey, Chicchai..."

Her eyes were red and puffy, like she'd been crying. Chika scurried over, giving her a hug. "What's wrong?"

"I was worried about you, that's all," Sayuri said. "I thought I screwed up so bad that I lost you... I'm glad you're okay."

"Don't you have to work on Saturdays?"

"Not today. Today is gonna be just me and you, okay?" Sayuri released Chika. "If it's okay with everyone..." She looked between Okano, Chika, and Iriko. "Could you introduce me to your friend and her mom so I can apologize?"

===

They'd spent the afternoon talking about the games they played, their favorite and least favorite classes, and what had happened to Iriko.

Sayuri had admitted that she'd acted too rashly. That she'd been trying to protect Chika without knowing what exactly she was protecting Chika from. That she should have listened to Chika first.

When Chika and Sayuri left, they were invited back to visit whenever they wanted. And Chika had taken full advantage of this invitation, spending more time in Okano's den than in her own home.

Their friendship had deepened through the remainder of elementary school and middle school. Chika had staged a campaign to remind everyone why they liked Iriko so much, and Iriko had returned to school to love from all her classmates and teachers. But as popular as Iriko got among their classmates, Chika still had a special place in her life. And Iriko still had a special place in Chika's as she started meeting more and more yokai.

They'd grown up, of course. By high school, they'd stopped with the silly pretend monster slaying games, and become just ordinary best friends. You'd never even know Iriko was a yokai if you didn't see her extra arms. (Chika missed those monster slaying games, privately, in her heart, but she was sure that Iriko would think her childish if she said so.) Chika had been strangely lonely one week when Iriko and her mom were absent, meeting some friendly yokai from another territory. Iriko had joked that she might even find a girlfriend there, and Chika couldn't stop thinking about it. She'd been compelled to write a note. Just something nice to show that she missed Iriko.

She pressed the paper up against Iriko's locker. The pen felt unusually heavy in her hand. Chika's heart was pounding straight through her chest.

She hadn't even written anything yet.

Iriko, she started.

She chewed her lip. Was this a good idea?

It seems like every time you're gone, I miss you more and more. Like there's a bigger and bigger Iriko-shaped hole in my heart, so that the leak gets worse and worse every time you're gone. But then you come back and you fill me back up again. You're my best friend, almost a sister to me, and sometimes it feels like even that isn't enough for me.

Chika was writing on autopilot now. Her heart was absolutely thundering, but she could pay it no mind.

I think I'm falling in love with you, but I'm too scared to say it. If you don't feel the same way, if it got too awkward for us to be friends, I think I wouldn't be able to face you again. But I can't go on like this without telling you, either. Please forgive me for being so selfish.

She took in a shuddering breath, looking over what she'd written. She needed Iriko to see this, but... Putting her own name in felt too real, and... A moment's hesitation, then she wrote "Your admirer" and shoved the note into the gap in Iriko's locker before she could change her mind.

When Iriko returned the following week, Chika could hardly breathe. Anticipation, fear, hope, disgust at her own selfishness mixed in her stomach, making her feel sick.

She didn't walk with Iriko the last part of her trip to school. She got in early, got her things from her locker... but she couldn't just go to homeroom, either.

She lingered by Iriko's locker.

It felt like spying on her, and it felt terrible. But Chika needed to know. She needed to see.

Iriko got in a bit late. She was in a hurry when she unlocked her locker, but all the hurry stopped when she found the note.

All of Chika stopped, too. Her breath, her heart. It seemed like time itself slowed to a crawl as Iriko read it.

Iriko's head whipped around, and Chika quickly ducked into the hall, her heart resuming its deafening thundering. She shouldn't have been spying, she shouldn't have...

"Found you," Iriko said lightly, throwing her (two) arms around Chika from behind.

"W-What?" Chika stiffened. "W-Why were you looking for me?"

"Because you didn't come with me to school today, and I missed you after my trip," Iriko said at Chika's ear. "Why, is there some other reason I should be looking for you?"

Chika looked down at the note still clutched in Iriko's hand, where it was around her waist. "I-I..."

"Like, maybe because you wrote me this lovely note?" Iriko murmured.

Chika chewed her lip. "Was it that obvious?"

"Um, we've been friends for six and a half years now. I know your handwriting. And you're the only person who I would let describe herself as my best friend. And you didn't come to see me, and you were trying to hide from me..."

Chika raised her hands in surrender. "Okay, okay, I guess I'm not that sneaky..."

Iriko released her, moving around in front of her. "Guess that trip turned out pretty well. I got to eat some treats I've never tried before, I bought some trinkets... ended up with a new girlfriend..."

"Oh." Chika tried not to let her horrific disappointment show. "Um, congratulations... I misunderstood, I'm sorry, I thought-"

"Wh- N-No, I meant you! I was- sorry, I-"

"H-Huh? But you-"

The two girls dissolved into frantic babbling, both incomprehensible as they attempted to reassure the other, interrupted finally by Iriko grabbing Chika and squeezing her half to death. "I was trying to be cute, but I guess I should just say I would love to be your girlfriend, if that's what you want."

"Uh huh." Chika's voice came out strained from the emotional rollercoaster she'd just been on. "... Did you get taller while you were gone? Didn't you used to not be able to get your chin over my shoulder?"

Iriko stepped back, smiling. "Heh heh. I hope you like tall girls. I'm gonna be a supermodel."

"I really like this one..."

===

They'd spent all of their free periods together that day, and gone on a special date to the park outside the school to continue staring at each other.

Honestly, it was almost shocking how long they had managed not to reveal their secrets.

It had been late summer of their second year at high school that the truth had come out.

Chika remembered that night very clearly. It was a movie date, just like this one. The normally-highly-athletic Iriko was recovering from an injured leg during a tournament baseball game, and her normally-well-defined abs and thighs were covered over in a pillowy soft layer of pudge, perfect for Chika to lay her head on.

It was Chika's turn to cook. She'd made Iriko's favorite tempura, and Iriko had stuffed herself silly. She was comically groaning about how she'd never be able to get up again, and she'd have to be carried everywhere.

Chika lay her head down in Iriko's lap to watch the movie. She wasn't really paying attention to it, just enjoying the time with her girlfriend.

A girlfriend who seemingly could not stop commenting on how full she was.

"Oof, I am so stuffed... You really know how to please a girl's taste buds..."

From Chika's new position on her lap, she could hear Iriko's stomach groan as it set to work on her massive meal. It was very distracting - Chika couldn't possibly focus on the movie while listening to all of this.

"I definitely shouldn't be eating a dinner that big, Coach is going to be upset that I'm not following her injury time diet recommendations, but I don't regret it... I have the best girlfriend in the world..."

She felt guilty for thinking this way, but her head revised the situation... went straight to the games they used to play as children, and more specifically the fantasies she had as she grew older. Iriko catching and actually devouring her. A bubbling, rumbling sound from Iriko's intestines interrupted these thoughts for a moment, but only for a moment, then it was just tucked in to the fantasy.

"Oop, I might have to ask you to move a little... You're putting a little too much pressure on my stoma-urf... brrrruUUUUAAAAAAAP" Iriko groaned from the effort of her belch. "Sorry, my stomach's kind of loud tonight... I think it's working overtime to deal with all of this... Trust me, though, even as loud as it's complaining, you made my belly very happy tonight... and my mouth, too..."

Chika's cheeks were red hot, and she turned her head to bury her face in Iriko's thighs before Iriko could see it. "Iriko, your family eats people, right? It's not just a weird stereotype, right?"

Iriko scratched her cheek sheepishly. "... Yeah. My mom and my aunts are not as subtle about it when you're around as they think they are, heh..."

"Even you, right?"

Iriko was silent for a few moments. "I've done it, yes. Humans and yokai both. ... Does that bother you?"

"No, that's not why I'm asking about this."

"Oh." Iriko pursed her lips. In the momentary silence, a gurgling sound from Iriko's belly filled Chika's greedy ears and spilled over her perverted heart. "... So then, why?"

Chika looked for the words. She really did not want to weird Iriko out... "Um... You see..."

"Uggghhh, I feel like I ate a whole person tonight, actually..." Iriko lay her head back against the loveseat she'd set up in her bedroom. "Seems like with the diet Coach wants me on, I'm always hungry, but thanks to you I think I actually got overfull for once... It's nice to have a girlfriend who knows how to satisfy me. Hehe."

Chika pressed her face further into Iriko's thighs in a desperate effort to hide her embarrassed excitement. Iriko probably just meant that in a dirty way, but Chika was taking it a completely different way...!

"I'm gonna just get even fatter," Iriko said, pinching her belly. "My thighs are already getting squished by the uniform socks, honestly... My belly's gonna start hanging over my uniform skirt... I'll still be cute when I'm chubby, right?"

"Are you doing this on purpose?" Chika cut in, her voice a little too loud for her own taste. She rolled over so she was facing up, but kept her face covered with her hands. "You're torturing me..."

"Huh?"

"Th... The stuff you're saying! And your stomach noises... and your burps..."

Iriko was mystified. "Are they bothering you? I'm sorry-"

"No! The opposite!"

"... Um... They're not bothering you?"

Chika drew in a steadying breath. "I'm gonna tell you a secret about me, and you can't judge me for it or tell anyone else, okay? Do we have a deal?"

"Of course."

Chika licked her lips to wet them. "You remember how I told you last month that... um... the first time I... you know... by myself, I was thinking about you?"

"Yeah, it was really sweet of you," Iriko said, smiling.

"Well... I didn't tell you what I was thinking about when... that... happened..."

"And what were you thinking about?" Iriko asked, pressing on. "If you don't mind telling me."

"You know those games we used to play when we were kids? Monster and monster hunter and all that stuff..."

Iriko laughed. "Yeah. We were such dorks when we were little. What about them?"

"Well..." Chika licked her lips again, keeping her hands over her face. "Um, the last few years I've been thinking, you know, about... those games, and... Um... I think about... You know, what would happen if we played them again, kind of, but this time we weren't just playing... and I... you know, if you... if you decided to eat me for real... or if I somehow managed to eat you for real... Well, not... It's not really us, of course I wouldn't really want you to disappear, and I'm sure you wouldn't want me to disappear either, but..."

Iriko's stomach grumbled next to her ear. "But just fantasizing about how you really want to eat me, and then you finally do, and I'm really satisfying and filling and stuff, and you decide to keep me for good by, by d-digesting me, and I think about how noisy your stomach would be while it's working on me, and it's really weird but in my head it's, like, super romantic and stuff..."

She's vaguely aware of how long she's been talking continuously, but her poor heart can't handle the silence right now. "And even though I love you being all muscly and stuff I really love the idea of you getting chubby because of me, and being soft and keeping the fat that you turned me into as a memento of me..."

"A-And sometimes I fantasize about eating you, you know, like when you go away on long trips with your mom to learn how to be a goddess and you don't even bring your cell phone, I daydream about being selfish and just eating you so that you can't go, and then I accidentally digest you and tell you that I didn't mean to but at least you can't get away from me now... Um... I know all of this is really, really weird but you did promise not to judge me...!"

She split her fingers to get a peek up at Iriko through them.

Iriko had her hand over her mouth and smiling eyes. "What? No. I'm not judging you." Her voice had a laugh in it.

Chika put on a fierce pout, taking her hands down from her face. "You're laughing at me!"

"I'm not! I swear I'm not. I'm laughing, I'm just not laughing at you. I'm laughing at me." Iriko grinned sheepishly. "Now I'm gonna tell you a secret that you can't judge me or tell anybody about."

"What?"

Iriko bent down so that her nose touched Chika's. "I think about that stuff all the time. I just never tell you about it because I thought it would scare you."

"... Really?" Chika was too nervous to accept this so easily.

"Yeah! I mean, I know your sister was anxious about us yokai eating people. So I thought if I said that I thought about eating you, even though of course I would never do that, it would freak you out..."

"... You thought about eating me? And you let me babble like an idiot without interrupting to tell me that?" Chika playfully smacked Iriko's stomach.

"Oof! And being eaten by you, don't forget that," Iriko said, laughing. "Um, let me try to tell you the less stupid ones... I, uh... Y'know how you said that you think about if you ate me so that I can't go on trips? I daydream about taking you with me, except of course my mom would never let you come on those trips so I gotta smuggle you in in my stomach. Annnnd you tell me that you want to be the first offering to me, and so I graciously accept you and stuff. And I spend all night with you, telling you how happy I am, and then by morning... you're all gone."

Chika shivered violently at this thought - not out of fear... "Ohhhh..."

"Mmm. And I daydream about you eating me, too." Iriko tipped her head back. "I dream about you coming in to class after lunch one day with a big belly, and putting your feet up on my chair, and I never show up... And the teacher asks you where I am, and you tell her that you forgot your lunch and I turned out not to be much of a scary yokai after all... And after class all our friends come over and poke at and listen to your tummy, and they say how they're all surprised and yet not at all surprised that I wasn't able to stop a human from eating me... And they give you belly rubs to help you digest me, and tease me about how I should be happy that at least I'm giving my girlfriend a full belly one last time instead of getting eaten by someone else, which they all thought was going to happen... And then you belch up my underwear, and every time you come in to class you put it up on my chair so everyone will remember that I'm busy being a cushion for your cute butt..."

Iriko trailed off there for a moment, her face bright red despite her easygoing smile. "Um, I really like to think about, um, you know... being humiliated in public, kind of."

"Oh... all that is really nice... So you don't think I'm a weirdo pervert?" Chika asked in a small voice. "Or that I'm being creepy about you being a yokai..."

"Nah, you're a huge pervert. A big weirdy weirdpants. It's just that I'm just as big a pervert as you." Iriko ran her fingers through Chika's hair.

"Can you tell me one of the stupid ones so I feel better?" Chika asked.

"Hmmm. Oh, pardon me. OOoooOOUURP. Chika's really fighting in there." Iriko took Chika's hand, rubbing her stomach with it.

Chika blushed scarlet, hesitantly responding in kind to the tease. "I-I won't... let you have me that easily..."

"Stupid ones... My aunt accidentally shrinks you and drops you in with my lunch. Um, you're yawning and I'm watching you from the ceiling, and I accidentally fall in."

Chika giggled. "That wouldn't even work!"

"I know! I told you they were stupid!" Iriko put a hand to her chin. "While we're snuggling together, you accidentally eat me in your sleep and don't even know where I am in the morning. I come home and I'm so happy to see you again that I kiss you so hard I swallow you by accident. You dive into the pillow pile and I'm waiting with my mouth open. Should I go on?"

"No, wait, it's my turn. Um, I got lost on the way to the cafeteria, and one of the lunch ladies put me on your tray!"

===

The movie had continued, but neither of them had been watching it. To this day, Chika still couldn't remember what movie they had not watched that night.

Things had gotten so much flirtier from then on. And, as a result, they'd had to hide their phones from Iriko's mom and Chika's big sister more and more. By the time they entered university, it seemed like every night they were playing out some way for them to eat each other (or, sometimes, more rarely, help someone else eat the other - Iriko was the bigger fan of these scenarios between the two, but Chika much enjoyed them, too.)

But they had never acted it out, not until university began. Neither was willing to risk the other. Iriko was confident that if anything happened, Iriko's goddess grandmother would be able to help them... but all the same, neither would let the other be the first to be digested.

Still, Chika had started working on her throat's stretchiness. She had started off swallowing gummy bears as a joke when they were kids, and within a few months of returning to her practice could swallow whole watermelons. And the Minamotos were delighted to know that they didn't have to pretend around her anymore, and were more than happy to help her practice with live, shrunken humans. She felt a little bit bad about it at first, but that didn't last long.

Come their first semester of university, public reformation booths had become available and, by the middle of the semester, had made their way to the university campus. As part of the meal plan, digested students could be given a new body.

Chika and Iriko were still not willing to move forward, though. Though both wanted to experiment with being swallowed by the other, and eventually being digested, neither wanted to let the other be alone in the stomach or after digesting her meal.

Iriko was the one who had come up with the compromise: Sayuri would eat them both, and they would be digested for the first time together. And then they'd find some students and eat them, and they would share in digesting someone the same size as them for the first time together. Sayuri had mocked them for being dorks, but she had eaten them both, and let them both digest.

It was a moment Chika still remembered fondly.

And from there, they'd gotten more and more comfortable with the process. Iriko had helped Chika practice with unshrunken human girls, although she couldn't finish swallowing any of them for the longest time. Chika's practice had eventually paid off, and when she had gotten her fill of Iriko's belly, she managed to get Iriko down - albeit with much stomachache and need for belly rubs.

This, too, faded with time, especially as the two started playing with size more often. Playing with pleasure instead of just satisfaction. They made up all kinds of games where one side or the other would get eaten or otherwise melted.

And now here they are.

The movie is over. Both girls have, as usual, missed it. Iriko fell asleep, and Chika has been fantasizing. Cuddling like this is just so comfortable.

There's just one thing more comfortable.

"Hey Iriko," Chika whispers, nudging her girlfriend's thigh. "Want to help me melt all this chocolate we got and pour it over me so that I can be your Valentine's Day treat?"

"Um, yes," Iriko says, almost immediately shaking the sleepiness from her voice. "Go get cleaned up in the tub, I'll get the kitchen started."

Chika got to her feet, happily bouncing off. There were still special occasions between them, like this. And special occasions merited special treats!