Messing AroundNSFW

Even in the dark future of 2072, there are few things that seize the average teenage boy's mind as completely as a teenage girl.

And the girl on 14-year-old Haruto Watanabe's mind was quite the enigma. There was a lot about her that his older sister Sanae wasn't telling him. In fact, the overprotective Sanae had expressly forbidden him from much contact with her, urging him not to get close to her.

"She has some... problems," Sanae had told him privately the night she had arrived. "I'm going to be taking care of her for a while. But I want you to keep your distance until I can talk to her about some things. I don't want you getting hurt."

As usual, the taboo had backfired, giving Haruto all the more curiosity about their new houseguest. She spent a lot of time in quiet reflection, staring blankly at the wall, but seemed to come to life whenever Sanae was around.

And the thing was, Haruto was pretty sure she'd eaten his sister alive.

Sanae didn't get a lot of sleep, as a rule. Haruto knew she got up to a lot of less-than-legal business with her friends, and it seemed like they only worked odd hours. She had nearly permanent dark bags under her eyes.

Nearly, that is, except when she'd been freshly brought back from digestion via a PreyFormers reformation pod.

Oh, sure, Sanae didn't like to talk about it around him... but her friends were loud and had no such compunctions. Haruto was able to pick things up and put them together just fine, no matter how much Sanae tried to hide them from him. He knew more about her lifestyle than he let on.

And the night Sanae had brought fellow 14-year-old Minka Riekert home, Sanae's eyes had been miraculously clear.

Haruto had been full of curiosity about Minka from that moment. What was it about her that made it so she could eat Sanae alive and Sanae would still bring her home? Her messy neck-length auburn hair, almost metallic copper, looked so soft and real and yet seemed to always fall so perfectly -- was she really particular about her hair, or maybe did she have some kind of cosmetic bioware? Parents with gene mods, even? Her warm brown eyes seemed to go cold and spacey when Sanae wasn't around, like she was a machine that needed to be activated. What was wrong with her? She didn't have a commlink, at least not that Haruto could see, but she was part of a group message with Sanae and she always responded eerily fast. Her right hand up to the elbow was made of a fancy ceramic that matched the rest of her soft, pink-lemonade-colored skin -- definitely some kind of cyberware, and expensive-looking, too. What was it capable of? Was that how she was so quick with mail? She had nice legs, Haruto thought, and the miniskirts she often wore did little to hide the bulge between them. Her butt was pretty cute too, not that he'd been staring at that... much.

And despite having eaten Sanae, Minka seemed scrawny, and she constantly ate way more than Haruto and Sanae put together, like she'd never tasted food in her life. She was taller even than Haruto, sure, but her appetite was way bigger. And it seemed like she could eat anything; Haruto had watched her eating the rind of a melon Sanae had picked up for dessert as if it were a completely normal part of the meal. Was she hiding digestive bioware under her thick, fluffy hoodie? What else was hiding under there?

What had driven her to eat him alive in his sleep?

And what had driven him to like it?

What had given him these recurring fantasies about it -- about being curled up inside her again, the darkness inside her blotting out his vision, her body warm and wet around him, her heartbeat pounding in his ears, her stomach's hot acids enveloping him like the most luxurious bath--

"Haruto!"

His shadowrunning sister's voice cut through the daydreaming. Haruto hopped to his feet, trotting over to stick his head out of his bedroom door. "Huh?"

Sanae was shrugging on a coat. "I have to run out for something. It should only be a few hours, but if I get unlucky I might have to be out all day. If you need anything, Charlotte is going to be close by, and she'll be able to come quickly. Text her if someone comes to the door, and don't answer it, no matter what they say. I can get in myself."

Ominous. "Is Minka going with you?" Haruto asked.

Sanae shook her head, setting her black ponytail dancing. "No. This is a solo job."

"Okay. Um, good luck," Haruto called, and the door to their apartment slammed behind Sanae.

His heart raced. This would be the first day he'd have more than a few minutes alone with Minka since she'd arrived. They'd talked, a little bit, but Minka had been slow to open up to him.

Maybe things would be different now that her appetite for him had proven insatiable. It sent a shiver up his spine to think that. She wanted him. She wanted him so badly that she took him in the night. Against his sister's explicit instructions -- he'd heard Sanae chastising her about breaking their promise when he'd woken up in a PreyFormers pod himself.

The thought still electrified him. Minka had promised not to eat him and been unable to resist him. Was it so wrong to wonder if there was something special about him that made him so irresistible to her?

To fantasize about her... maybe... wanting him as more than just a meal?

He returned to his bed, sitting on the edge of it and fidgeting with his commlink in his hands. Opening a message to Minka's commcode, then closing it again. Working up the guts to reach out to her.

It took almost fifteen minutes for him to come up with the message that would begin to unravel the enigma of Minka Riekert.

haruspexx: heyy

Her response was eerily instantaneous, as usual. No typing indicator, just a sudden message -- just a few seconds after he'd sent his, so quick it was like she was waiting for him to message her.

Wasp: Good morning Haruto ^.^

That seemed like a good sign, Haruto thought. Excitement spiked in him. She seemed pretty happy to talk to him. Maybe she'd been waiting for an opportunity like this, too! He paced his room impatiently, trying to come up with a good second message.

haruspexx: are you busy? wanna hang out?

After a moment of thought, he added,

haruspexx: sanaes out on a mission today, so... we can get into lots of trouble and she wont know XD

Minka was a bit slower to respond than last time -- probably she was fantasizing about all the "trouble" she could get up to with him just like he was.

Wasp: ^.~ What kind of trouble do you want to get into?

Haruto's face got hot -- okay, that was a bit more direct than he was expecting. He frantically backpedaled, too flustered to just come out and say "I kind of want you to eat me again."

Even if it was true.

haruspexx: idk mebbe just hanging out XD
haruspexx: sanae says youre a bad influence
haruspexx: but id have to see it to believe it XD
haruspexx: maybe you can tell me about you
haruspexx: youre kind of mysterious XD got a billion questions esp after last week and stuffff

Haruto felt his stomach knot as Minka took longer than three seconds to reply. Was this too direct of a reference to that life-changing moment? Was he using XD too much? Was that a turn-off for her? Was he being cringe??

Wasp: Sure ^.^ I'll finish up here in a second
Wasp: Should I come in your room?
haruspexx: okay XD

Haruto flopped on his bed and breathed out a sigh. Sweet relief...

... Wait, but if she's coming in here then--! His desktop was still full of cute anime girl figurines. They were all different sizes of Chimari Riyoda, the redheaded shadowrunner who was the protagonist of his favorite anime, Soulless Operation -- and Minka did not need to know about his fictional obsession. Haruto quickly hopped back upright, stuffing them into a shoebox and shoving the shoebox under the bed.

His cool reputation protected, he flopped back on the bed, picking up his commlink and scrolling aimlessly through feeds. Pretending to be relaxed and not a bundle of nerves waiting for her to show up.

All the racing thoughts finally quieted as Minka made her appearance, pushing open the door a bit and peeking inside. It didn't take her long -- she was probably just in Sanae's bedroom next door.

"Uh, hey," Haruto said, sitting up a bit and setting his commlink down. "You can, uh, you can sit on the chair if you want."

Minka moved over to the desk, dropping into the chair and looking around. "You have a nice room."

"Thanks," Haruto replied with a laugh. "I, um, guess you didn't really look at it when you came in here to uh- eat me last week."

"It was dark," Minka agreed. She didn't laugh. "And I was kind of focused on... my goal."

Silence fell, awkward and suffocating. Haruto felt his chest getting tight.

"N-Not that I'm mad or anything," Haruto added nervously. "Anyway, I was saying I wanted to know more about you!"

Minka smiled. "Okay."

And just like that, the silence was back again. He was going to have to actually ask a question, of course. Stupid...

He fumbled the opportunity, stammering through something barely coherent. "Uh- y-your arm, uh- it- what, um, why did you... want it?"

Shifting her ceramic arm so that she could look at it, Minka tilted her head. "I lost my real arm. I was abandoned as a kid, and Mitsuhama adopted me to raise me into a cyborg. But I freaked out, and I broke their brain-scooping machine. And it cut off my arm instead of cutting into my skull. So I got sold off to Kitania for being trouble, and I guess girls with missing arms aren't really in high demand at bunraku parlors, so she gave me this." She flexed her ceramic right hand, her fingertips clinking softly against her palm as she curled them.

Haruto swallowed hard. This answer had given him a million more questions, none with happy answers. "Mitsuhama, like Mitsuhama Computer Technologies, the biggest megacorp in the world...? And what's a bunraku parlor?" He recognized the Japanese word, at least. He'd seen some sims of bunraku in history class. It was an ancient style of puppet theater where multiple puppeteers worked together to control each puppet. "You mean... you were a... puppeteer?"

"Yeah, MCT." Minka tilted her head and spread her fingers again, turning her hand over, palm out toward him. "No, I was a puppet."

The matter-of-fact reply made Haruto's stomach drop. "... huh?"

"A bunraku parlor is where girls like me get made into puppets so that people can have sex with us and eat us and things like that." Minka didn't seem to be bothered by discussing it -- she looked up at him with that same placid smile. "Sanae rescued me from it. That's why she's my beloved."

Haruto felt like he could scarcely breathe. Now he understood why Sanae brought Minka home even after Minka ate her. She probably felt really protective over her, just like Haruto did right now.

"Uh-- that's um..." He had no idea what to say. Sorry that happened felt so empty. But she didn't seem bothered, and freaking out about it didn't seem like the right call either. "... bad," he finished lamely. "I wish I could have stopped that from happening."

"Yeah." Minka seemed to recognize that she'd said something heavy; at the very least, she suddenly shifted her attention to fumbling with the pocket of her hoodie. "Wanna see something cool?"

"Wha- uh-" The abrupt topic change threatened to give Haruto whiplash. But at least he was relieved of the burden of responding appropriately. Minka was... kind of weird, but that was kind of cool, too. "Y-yeah, sure."

She pulled out a handful of datachips, sorting through them. "Ummm, hang on... Gimme your commlink."

As Haruto handed it over, Minka found what she was looking for -- a datachip with PFRC on it. She slipped the datachip into the connector on the bottom of Haruto's commlink.

The parental controls Sanae had enabled on it flashed up on the screen.
EXTERNAL MEDIA FORBIDDEN. ENTER PARENTAL AUTHORIZATION:

Haruto laughed awkwardly, rubbing his neck. "Yeah, sorry, Sanae is really tough about security, I-"

The screen distorted for a moment, then a screenful of files appeared on the commlink's surface. "That wasn't tough at all. You're not much of a hacker, are you? I would have thought she'd teach you some things."

"Uh- Wha-" Haruto stared at the commlink. Minka hadn't even touched the screen. How... did she- was it because she was holding it in her 'ware? "H-How did you..."

Minka shrugged. The commlink seemed to have a mind of its own, its screen glitching every few seconds. It was clear she was doing this, but how?
EXTRACTING FILES... UNRECOGNIZED APPLICATION. INSTALLATION FORBIDDEN. ENTER PARENTAL AUTHORIZ-

Then, with another burst of distorted pixels, a splash screen appeared with an image of a puppet in silhouette. The app proclaimed itself Musen Omozukai 2.8e. A circular animation accompanied the text Connecting to puppets...

Haruto was beginning to get an idea of what Minka was about to show him. He felt a rush of fear prickling up his spine. As attractive as Minka was, and as much as he'd liked being eaten by her earlier (a lot), he wasn't sure he was ready to hand her his strings. "U-Um, w-wait, I- a-ah- I-I really don't think..."

"Don't worry," Minka assured him, removing the datachip from his commlink and handing it back to him. "I trust you."

That caught him off guard. "Wait. Huh?"

A patch of ceramic in Minka's forearm flipped open, revealing a chip slot. She slid the chip inside, and the ceramic cover flipped shut again on its own. "Sanae says you're a good kid, and she doesn't trust anybody, so... I trust you too."

Haruto shook his head. "No, no, I mean- what- what is it? What are you..."

The screen on Haruto's commlink changed now, showing a list of girls' names. Most of them were beside symbols that looked like red circles with broken lines through their centers -- but Minka's name was at the top of the list beside a pair of arrows facing opposite directions. Another symbol -- a smiling emoji face -- was on the opposite side of Minka's name.

"Do you want to try playing with it? It's the persona fix they used on me at the bunraku parlor," Minka said, as casually as if she were simply showing off her rock collection. "You can make me do anything you want. I don't mind." She leaned over the commlink, tapping on her name.

A screenful of information popped up:
Name: Minka Riekert
Age: 14
Gender: Female

Distance: <10m
Control Mode: ☺ Free

Status: ⇆ Ningyou v2.8.1-release-20700912c (up-to-date) connected
Drivers Loaded:
• Karakurino Tejyou v2.8.1-release-20700912c (up-to-date)
• Marunomi ARTS v8.7.2-release-20710808e (up-to-date)
• Nikushoku Nikukui v6.9.3-release-20711112d (up-to-date)

Buttons matter-of-factly offered the ability to change the control mode to ⚿ Restraint, 🖑 Manual, or ♥ Automatic.

In the span of a few seconds, horrible, dreadful, alluring potential sprawled across Haruto's world.

"This is a bad idea," Haruto said with a sharp shake of his head. "I could make you do something embarrassing."

Minka shrugged. "I don't really get embarrassed."

"I-I could make you kiss me," Haruto insisted.

"Do you want me to kiss you?" Minka asked. "It's okay. I don't mind."

Haruto's head was spinning. "I-I could... m-make you do something lewd to me. With your... m-mouth..."

Minka smiled invitingly. It sent shivers up Haruto's spine. "That's okay. I don't mind that either."

THAT'S OKAY?! Haruto squirmed on the bed. "But-- you promised my sister. Won't she be mad?"

"Oh, you mean eating you. Well... I did promise her, but if you make me do it, I can't stop you." Minka tipped her head, her hair falling to the side. After a moment, she smiled -- a coy grin that set Haruto's heart on fire. "So that's okay too. I wouldn't mind tasting you again. Just be careful, you know."

Wh- What did you think I meant?! You'd be okay with doing that too?! Haruto felt like he was having a crazy dream. "Why- why are you doing this?"

Minka shrugged again. "To be honest... I liked being a puppet sometimes. Getting to do nice things for people, not having to make any decisions. But your sister said she wouldn't want to do it with me, so... I was hoping someone else would. Do you want to try it or not?"

The ability to make his crush do anything he wanted... even if it was a sex thing. Or eating him. "I should not have this kind of power," Haruto whimpered. He was tempted to just drop the commlink and step away from it.

"That's what Sanae said, too," Minka lamented, shoulders sagging. "If you're not interested..."

Seeing Minka so bummed out made Haruto want to take a second look. He sat up straighter, leaning over the commlink and smiling back at Minka. "No, I'll do it. I just don't want to make you do anything you don't want to do."

"I wouldn't mind doing any of the things you said," Minka repeated. That same pretty, inviting smile was back on her face. Haruto was tempted to test whether she was telling the truth about it being okay for him to kiss her.

Haruto tried to be subtle about pinching himself -- ow! Yep, this was real life, all right. He breathed out. "O... Okay. So how do I... do it?"

Minka scooted onto the bed beside him to show him the operation of the control app. He was immediately, intimately aware of her physical presence, her warmth, her softness where her hips pressed against his as the bed sagged under their combined weight.

She smelled nice. Clean and fresh and a little metallic, like the scent of sparks, along with that same familiar scent of peach from his sister's shampoo. Haruto kind of wanted to ask her to just stay like this. Next to him.

She pulled the commlink closer with her ceramic hand, putting it around his. It wasn't cold and lifeless the way Haruto had expected; it was warm. Maybe even warmer than her flesh hand. Humming with life. Definitely hard and smooth, nothing like any skin he'd touched, but... Haruto wouldn't mind holding this hand.

Minka didn't seem to think much of their touch. She pointed to the Manual button, but the commlink's screen locked as her finger got close, warning somewhat presciently that self-control not possible. "Here. You switch it to Manual, and then you press a button to speak a command, and I'll do it."

"Why not Automatic? It's my first time," Haruto protested. "I-I don't know if I can do this. It's a lot of responsibility..."

"If you want me to eat you, you can't do Automatic. It puts some limiters so that I won't hurt the person giving me commands by accident." Minka tapped the commlink. "So pick Manual."

Haruto's face got painfully hot. Is she... encouraging me to let her eat me? "O-oh... W-well, if you think it's better..."

"Yeah." Minka turned to smile at Haruto. "If you ever get freaked out and you want to stop, you can just turn it back to Free mode and I'll stop, okay?"

Seeing Minka smile at him from this close was not helping Haruto's blush go down. "Yeah."

"You're cute," Minka said with a laugh, patting Haruto's bare arm with her flesh hand before getting to her feet. Her skin was warm, too, and soft and nice to touch. "I guess it runs in the family."

"I'm not cute," Haruto protested, flustered. "I-I mean, I'm handsome, not cute. Sanae's cute, but I'm- I'm manly."

Minka covered her mouth to suppress any further laughter, returning to the chair. "Sure. Go ahead, Haruto."

Taking a deep breath, Haruto looked back at the commlink. The lock screen had lifted now that Minka was a bit further away.

"Alright." He lifted a hand, raising a finger for the all-important button. One simple tap, and his crush was all his. At least until Sanae got home.

When the button was pressed, there was no immediately obvious change other than her hands falling to be folded neatly in her lap. Minka kept breathing, kept staring at him, kept smiling. But looking closer... her breathing and blinking had become unnervingly regular. Her lazy smile, too, didn't so much as twitch. And her eyes were perfectly fixed on him. Somehow lifeless yet alive.

Haruto breathed out slowly. "Minka?"

Minka didn't respond.

Haruto swallowed. Okay, it really works. He leaned in closer, waving a hand in front of Minka's eyes. Nothing. Poked her stomach -- no response. Minka just kept her neutral smile and steady blinking.

He glanced down at the screen again.

Distance: <10m
Control Mode: 🖑 Manual
Active Commands: Idle

A button now offered him the ability to "Issue Command". Haruto pressed it, bringing up an input box with a microphone button beside it. Time to give it a test.

He hid the screen from Minka's view, typing in a command.
↳ pick your nose

The screen changed:
Active Commands (tap to cancel):
• pick your nose

And as Haruto looked up, Minka lifted a hand from her lap toward her nose. He stared openly, jaw agape, as Minka obediently shoved a finger into her nostril for a moment before returning her hands to her lap.

Haruto frowned, glancing between Minka and the commlink's screen. What should he do with this power?!

He tapped the command button again.
↳ do my matrix homework

An error popped up: Insufficient information: where is your Matrix homework?

The command was still in the input box, so Haruto amended it:
↳ do the matrix homework thats on my commlink

Minka didn't move, but the command was accepted this time. The commlink's screen glitched and spasmed again, the internal data storage popping up on it and the list of questions about the Matrix coming up on screen. The metallic scent of sparks in the air got more intense as the multiple-choice questions were answered one by one on their own, words appeared populating the short-answer questions.

Now finished, the homework disappeared again, and the commlink switched back to the puppeteering program.

Haruto's mouth was dry. This girl really was a puppet now. "W-Wow..."

He wriggled back on the bed until his back was against the wall, until he could be absolutely certain Minka couldn't see the screen. If this didn't work he was going to be super embarrassed. Actually he might be super embarrassed even if it did work.

With trembling, nervous hands, he typed:
↳ kiss me long and good and romantic

He could hear the fabric of Minka's clothes rustling as she rose even before he looked up from the screen -- and when he did look up, there she was, leaning over him. She lifted the commlink out of his hands, using her ceramic hand to grip his hands and separate the commlink from them. Her grip was a little tight, and Haruto was sure it'd leave a mark.

Ow... right, the limiters so she won't hurt me are only on Automatic, Haruto thought dizzily. She was so close to him... she grabbed him by the chin and leaned in, her lips brushing his.

Her lips... her lips were so soft and tender. It was heavenly. Haruto didn't know the first thing about kissing, but Minka clearly did. Haruto could hear his heartbeat thrumming in his ears as she held him steady. If this was a dream, it was the best dream Haruto had ever had or would ever have again.

And then her tongue slipped into his mouth, catching him by surprise and making him squeak into the kiss. He tried to pull away -- he wasn't expecting this -- but Minka wouldn't let him, pinning him down and maintaining the kiss. He couldn't get up, couldn't stop her, couldn't push her away no matter how he tried. He frantically grabbed for the commlink, tapping the command to cancel it, and only then did Minka finally release him.

"O-Okay, wow," Haruto mumbled, catching his breath. His face was red and his heart was racing -- that was a bit more than he'd bargained for. Minka returned to the chair, folding her hands in her lap once more. "So um, you take orders pretty seriously, huh..."

Minka didn't answer, just sat in the chair. Staring at him.

"This is a bad idea, right?" Haruto asked the motionless Minka. "If you do it like that over something like kissing me, then..." He looked down at the commlink, squirming in place. "But... I just wanna see what would happen... A-and you said you didn't mind, right?"

He licked his lips nervously.

↳ say

He hesitated, thumbs trembling as they hovered over the commlink's screen.

↳ say some encouraging things about eating me

"I'll gobble you right up, Haruto," Minka said, voice warm and comforting. She tipped her head. "You tasted really good. You're such a good meal for me. You fill me up like nothing else."

It was too much. Haruto buried his face in his pillow, ears burning. A muffled squeal rent the air.

"I-It's not you saying that, though, not really," Haruto managed once he'd recovered from the concentrated humiliation of hearing his crush tease him like that. At his own request, no less. "You only said that because I told you to. Right?"

Minka's empty smile betrayed no secrets.

He shook his head. "U-Urgh, you can't answer me right now... And even if I asked you to say, you'd just say yes because of the persona fix..."

Haruto swallowed hard, breathing unsteadily.

↳ eat me

He shook his head, erasing it. "N-no, no... I-I can't... I..."

He glanced at Minka's lazy smile one more time. She said she liked doing things that people liked. And, well, he rather liked what she did to him last time, but it would be even more fun if...

↳ count down from 30 and then chase me around the apartment and swallow me whole if you catch me but be gentle with me so you dont hurt me while youre swallowing me and tease me about being your food some more and tell me that boys are food

There.

He had sent it. His fantasy. He eagerly looked to Minka, hoping she wouldn't think he was weird.

And it looked like the command was accepted, but Minka was still just sitting there. Maybe he made some mistake in the command entry?

He leaned forward, waving a hand at Minka again. "Um? Hello? Did that not work? What the..."

Minka just watched him, sitting in silence.

"What the heck..." He leaned in, as if he could see or hear what was going on in her head.

Wait. He hesitated, glancing down at the screen again. Minka was standing up with a grace the genuine article could never possess. Dread filled him as he realized what was going on. I didn't say "out loud"...

Panic spiked through him as he sprinted out of his bedroom, Minka's teasing voice hot at his heels. "Ready or not, here I come!"

"Not! Not!"

He had a tiny bit of a head start, but Minka's gorgeous long legs were closing the distance fast. He changed direction and darted into Sanae's room frantically, trying to find a place to hide long enough to cancel the command without getting grabbed and dropping his commlink. "C-Cancel! Abort! Aaahh! Minka, stop!"

He nimbly weaved through Sanae's mess of shadowrunning gear -- over a portable server, around an old drone, past a stack of assorted circuit boards and an old trideo camera, behind Sanae's workstation. He'd taken this route a thousand times, even at night, to reach his sister when he had a bad night, but Minka won't know how to-

CRUNCH
CLATTER
SMASH

Even knowing he was in danger (of his own making), he couldn't help but cringe as Minka just plowed her way through everything, charging straight toward him heedless of the obstacles he'd so deftly set in her way.

The server and drone? Crushed and clearly dented from bearing her weight.
The pile of circuit boards? Scattered, several of them broken.
The holomonitor atop Sanae's workstation? Knocked to the ground and shattered.

Ohhhhh, Sanae's going to be so pissed, Haruto thought weakly as Minka vaulted the desk and leapt forward to reach him. He tried to fake her out, pretending he was about to jump onto the bed, but she didn't buy it -- grabbed him by the shirt, lifted him off the floor, and shoved him against the wall next to his sister's bed.

His socked feet kicked over nothing, his heart pleasantly racing. Here his crush was, staring him down with a hunger in her eyes. Her hands gripped him by the shirt and holding him in the air. He was already totally hers.

And then she opened her mouth.

"There you are, Haruto," she cooed. "I've been sooo looking forward to having you. Boys like you are just food, and you look like an especially good specimen..."

Holy frick, Haruto thought, transfixed. Escape had been completely forgotten, and survival was no longer a priority. His pants were painfully tight, his heart working overtime to deliver plenty of blood down south. She- she's actually freaking doing it! I've been dreaming about this for a week, and now-- uh--

Panic gripped him as she licked her lips and he remembered his predicament. Don't do it, Haruto. Do not lose track of what's important. If this girl eats you and you don't have the commlink to tell her to let you out, you are going to get digested.

A pleasant shiver ran down his spine, and his grip on the commlink loosened. Clearly this was the wrong kind of motivation.

... and Sanae's going to find out that you like weird stuff like this.

That worked. His fingers tightened to a trembling white-knuckled death grip as she leaned in closer, mouth stretching wider than should be possible.

Haruto had never seen down a girl's throat in such clarity before. Last time, he'd woken up to Minka swallowing him in the darkness of the night, where he'd been unable to see much of anything by the time he even fully woke up. And he dared not seek out any sims online, lest Sanae catch him at it and he have to die of humiliation. (He wasn't sure whether she was actually monitoring his Matrix use -- but with his paranoid, overprotective hacker sister, it was better to err on the side of caution.)

This time, though, he could see plenty well in the bright sunlight that passed through Sanae's privacy-frosted bedroom window. Could see the deep, yawning darkness of the stretchy path he'd be traveling down, the gleaming pink muscle of her tongue... and her teeth, impossibly perfect, dazzlingly white marvels of ceramic. Every part of her was beautiful and perfect, but this widening road leading to her depths would be burned into his memory forever. For... later.

It was intoxicating. He'd have stared into it forever if she hadn't shoved him into it.

As the sounds of Minka's throat rippled deafeningly in his ears, he finally had a moment to process what he'd seen -- and understood why she would eat melon rinds. A potent mixture of fear and arousal, hot and intense, made his own stomach do somersaults. Her teeth and tongue looking like that meant she had indeed had digestive expansion bioware put in. If Sanae's stories were true, he was headed for a stomach that could digest him so completely there would be nothing left of him but a memory, if Minka so willed it. There was nothing indigestible to someone with digestive expansion bioware like this. Just a question of how long it would take.

Her stomach could even obliterate his commlink. Sanae would have no way of finding him, no idea where he went. Might not even think to check Minka's stomach...

He clutched his commlink all the tighter to his side, his heart pounding as Minka -- true to his command -- tenderly gulped him down. Her arms now moved to embrace him with a delicate but inescapable pressure as more and more of him disappeared into her. And he could feel her soft chest pressed against his stomach. Aaah, it feels so good when she holds me like this... her body is so w-warm... but I don't want to end up adding to it for good!

Minka didn't bother tasting him -- he supposed he hadn't ordered her to. Just ate him clothes and all. He could feel her warm breath on his stomach where his shirt rode up over his jeans.

His mind raced. ... Right. She won't do anything I don't order her to, and she'll just do whatever fulfills the command... Okay. Okay. Stay calm, Haruto. I haven't ordered her to digest me. She- she wouldn't digest me on her own, without input from me. I only said she should swallow me, so she'll just hold me. Right?

Now that his head was dangling into the open space of her stomach, he could hear the sloshing acids below. So much for that theory -- of course, it probably takes effort for her to suppress her digestion. He squeezed his eyes shut -- he was going to fall headfirst into what could potentially be an extremely deadly puddle of digestive juices. If her digestive expansion was allowed to run wild on him, this could really hurt...!

Glp

...

But... it didn't hurt. Not even a little. It was like when he was younger and he used to dunk his head in the tub at Charlotte's -- his hair got wet, got heavy, but it didn't hurt. It actually sort of felt nice, getting his scalp massaged by her squeezing stomach walls.

He was feeling a little dizzy from being held upside down now, though. And Minka was most of the way through swallowing him whole. He could hear the crash of her teeth snapping shut somewhere above him, feel himself being forced into a ball in her belly.

Admittedly... it wasn't very pleasant being fully dressed in here. His clothes rapidly soaked up the digestive fluids, becoming heavy and sodden and hanging off him. But thinking about how embarrassing it would be for him to be naked in front of Minka -- for Minka to strip him... he supposed it beat the alternative.

And it wasn't like getting his clothes wet in the rain, where the cloth quickly got cold and sucked all the heat from his body. On the contrary, the clothing seemed to bear her warmth even closer to him, wrapping him up in her inner heat so he couldn't get away from it.

He checked his commlink. It seemed to be functioning well enough -- the micro-trid screen was certainly wet, the holograms it projected warped by their trip through the fluids, but it worked just fine. He was able to enter his passcode and pull up the interface to control Minka's persona fix.

The first thing he did was disable it. He'd taken enough risks for the moment. Besides, he wanted to make sure Minka felt okay.

"Sorry, Haruto," Minka said around him, rubbing his head through her stomach wall. She seemed surprisingly unfazed by her experience under his control. "Did I scare ya?"

"No, no!" Haruto pressed a hand against the stomach wall. Stretchy, soft, squishy... it awed him to touch it just as much now as it had the first time she ate him. Giddy laughs bubbled out of him now that he was safe. "I-I mean, yes, but... u-uh, hahaha, but that was... amazing. You're amazing."

Haruto felt, rather than heard, Minka's giggle as it vibrated through his body... He was sure some deep part of his brain was being rewired by this experience. He'd never be able to enjoy the sight of a pretty girl without thinking about her doing this to him.

"You're sweet. Won't... Sanae be angry about what I did to her things, though?"

"Not at you. I'll tell her that was me that did all that," Haruto argued. The undercurrent of anxiety in her voice had his protective urges rising sharply. "I won't let her blame you for this, Minka. I made you do this. And I won't let you get in trouble for what I made you do."

Though Minka didn't argue back, she certainly didn't seem to be comforted by this. "I really should have warned you that it was dangerous..."

Haruto blew out a nonchalant breath, hoping to impress her. "Psshhh, nah. I'm not afraid of a little danger."

"Yeah, I bet. Cocky boy..." She giggled again, her attention flitting away from his bravery. "Hey, are you hard right now? I've never had anyone be, you know, into the idea of being eaten by me... It's kind of cute."

Her giggles felt more teasing than affectionate now. He was hard, but he wasn't exactly proud of it! "I- Wh-what are you saying?"

"I bet you are, right?" The prospect seemed to bring Minka endless mirth, much to Haruto's humiliation. Her giggling was shaking the stomach he was in, making the stomach fluids splash around him. "Should I give you a handjob through my stomach wall? Do you want to fuck my belly?"

Haruto's face felt searingly hot -- he was terribly thankful she couldn't see it. Paranoia made him vaguely wonder whether she had a camera into her stomach put in with her digestive expansion bioware. "Do we have to talk about this?! Minka, stop..."

"Sorry. I guess you didn't make me fuck you. But you did make me kiss you, so..." The whole stomach sloshed into motion as Minka stood up, leaving Haruto feeling unsteady. His body swayed with each step she took, like being in a hammock in a storm -- and getting him about as drenched. "I'm going to go back to your room, okay?"

As they walked, Haruto tried to regain his words. How does one tell his crush that he does want to have sex, just not right now? "Yeah... I'm sorry, I sh-shouldn't have made you kiss me. I- I don't think... I'm ready for that kind of... like... you know... sex, and stuff. A-and I'd want you to really want it, too, not just do it because I want it."

"You are as sweet as your sister says," Minka said. The swaying stopped as she lowered herself down -- sitting? On his bed or his chair, maybe... "But I said it's okay."

"I-I know, it's just..." Haruto licked his lips. "I haven't had as much sex as you."

This was apparently the wrong thing to say. Minka got quiet. When she spoke, her voice was cold and far away -- despite her warmth and presence being all around him. "Oh."

"N-No! Wait, no, Minka, it's not- l-like that, it's just- I-"

"Yeah. I get it," Minka said flatly. "You can turn the persona fix back on whenever you want. Unless you want me to spit you out."

Haruto felt nauseated; he didn't want to make Minka feel bad. The boner from earlier was dying now; Minka's chilly, wounded tone was the very opposite of sexy. "No, don't do that. Sorry. I just mean... that... I haven't learned about this stuff except in biology. I don't... know anything about it, and I-I want it to feel special the first time. Especially if it's with you. I don't want to just... use you like a sex toy."

That seemed to cheer Minka up a bit. "Why not? I just used you for a midnight snack last week."

And just like that, the boner was back. Even if he was a little disappointed that Minka didn't respond to him wanting it to be special with her...

"Yeah, but- sex is- sex is different. It's intimate," he pressed, feeling a little out of his depth. "Minka..."

She giggled. "Sex isn't different, silly. It's just one person being inside the other, just like eating people."

"So? Who cares? Do you want to have sex?" Haruto shot back.

That stopped Minka cold.

Haruto felt the stomach around him contract as Minka's arms wrapped around him, around her belly. Her head came to rest on top of his.

Finally, she said, "It doesn't really matter what I want. As long as you're happy."

"That's not true," Haruto insisted. "Cause then you'd be fine if I didn't want to have sex with you, and you got all upset when I said that. So I think you want to have sex."

Another long silence. It was soft and hard to make out over the gurgling background noise, but Haruto was sure he could hear a quiet whine from his predator as she lay her cheek on top of his head, clutched tighter around him.

"... Right?" Haruto asked. "Minka? It's okay if you want-"

"... I don't really know how to talk to people," Minka cut in. "I'm just used to being useful for sex. If I'm useful, then I get more clients. More clients means more nuyen. More nuyen means I can afford to buy better food and better clothes. I can recharge my hand and get more BTLs and maybe even have a place to sleep besides a client's bedroom."

The BTLs. Sanae had mentioned them when Minka arrived -- mostly in the context of them being extremely forbidden, and her threatening a hefty punishment if she caught Haruto with them. He knew it was short for "Better than Life", and they were some kind of addictive sim to which Minka was addicted, but he didn't know anything else.

Her life outside their little apartment sounded like it had been miserable, in his inexperienced opinion. He vowed privately to give her a better one -- starting right at that moment.

"So if you don't want to have sex with me... I don't know. I don't know what else there is," Minka finished. "Do you not like me?"

"I-It's not that I don't want to have sex with you! I really... really do, I just... want to get to know you better first," Haruto assured her. A rivulet of stomach juice ran down Haruto's arm as he pressed a comforting hand to the stomach wall. "There's lots else. There's, I don't know, being friends and stuff. I do like you, a lot, just..."

Minka was unimpressed. "Friends? What's that like?"

To be honest, Haruto hadn't had a lot of friends, but he had a few friends he would hang out with on the Matrix now and then. "It's- um- you talk about stuff you both like."

"I like sex and BTLs," Minka suggested. "And... the Matrix. And your sister."

"I like my sister too," Haruto agreed, happy to have a shared topic. Even if he was a tiny bit jealous Sanae had made the list and he hadn't. "Maybe not the same way as you, but... we could talk about her. Do you like anime?"

"What's anime?"

Haruto felt the urge to laugh -- what's anime -- but then remembered Minka had been sheltered her whole life. "Um- I'll teach you about it. There's a really cool anime, you'll like it. It's called Soulless Operation. The protagonist is a girl named Chimari, and she has red hair, kinda like you, and she's tall and pretty, definitely like you. And she's tough and cool and she hacks stuff..."

Minka giggled. "Sounds like you like her."

"She's- she's alright," Haruto mumbled, suddenly embarrassed.

Minka drummed her fingers on her stomach, not lifting her head still. "I guess... if we're going to be friends and talk about your sister and anime and stuff, I have to let you back out."

Haruto's heart leapt up into his throat, and he stammered, looking for words before she let him out. He finally settled on, "You don't... h-have to."

"Hehehehe... You like being inside me, right?" Minka teased, prodding him in the ribs with a finger. She hummed to herself. "I guess that's another thing we can talk about. We both like being eaten. Is it that my stomach is that comfortable?"

"Hffh..." The blush was threatening to return in force. Haruto curled into a tighter ball, ducking his head between his knees. "I-It's not... UNcomfortable in here... I... mnnn... I-I shouldn't say."

Minka flexed her abs around him, a soft pressure that tenderly enveloped him like a hug. "No, c'mon, tell me! You came back even though I digested you last time... did you like it when I did that?"

"Ghk--"

Minka's stomach was warm, make no mistake. But it wasn't Minka's body heat that flooded Haruto's cheeks in that moment.

And Minka knew it. Her laugh rang in his ears all around him. "You did order me to chase you, didn't you... What was it you wrote? 'Tell me that boys are food'?"

"No! I-I mean, yes, but-" Haruto's heart pounded in his throat. "... you know what I wrote? You remember... that stuff?"

"When you give me commands, it's kind of like the voice of a god in my head." Minka's finger ran lazy circles around Haruto's head. "But it's my voice saying it, not yours. Like I'm reading it to myself in my head. Say some encouraging things about eating me, huh? Yes, sir!" She dissolved into giggles.

It was not exactly the answer the humiliated Haruto was hoping to hear. He hunched down, wanting to crawl down her intestinal tract and disappear.

And her stomach would be more than happy to grant that wish -- but asking Minka to do it was exactly the humiliation that Haruto wanted to hide from in her guts!

"Haruto?" Minka asked, her voice vibrating through him. The level of stomach juices was getting higher already, Haruto noticed distantly, and it made it sound almost like he was already part of her body. "Haruto, I promise, I'm not making fun of you. I just think it's cute."

It wasn't exactly reassuring, given that she was still shaking off giggles as she said it.

... But cute isn't always a bad thing. Haruto timidly raised his voice. "Like, the kind of cute you like? Like, the way girls think about boys?"

"Yeah, I guess. I dunno. I don't know a lot of normal girls. Or boys."

All right, well... I can work with that.

"So, then... did you..." Haruto licked his lips. "Like it? Eating me?"

"Yeah." The giggles bubbled up again, but she sounded distant, reminiscing. "You taste a lot like your sister. And you get all embarrassed like her. You're a lot like her." She hummed, then seemed to think of something. "Oh, it's a compliment. I like your sister."

Haruto's heart sang. To be compared to Sanae in Minka's starstruck vision...

"Um- did you like digesting me?" Haruto pressed. "Or- or... t-... teasing me?"

"It's really cute seeing you get all flustered," Minka affirmed. "I wanna be able to do it to you more. And you were a really good meal."

She wants to do it to me more!

The rush of excitement was enough to push past the fear of humiliation. "I uh- would you wanna- would you wanna do more of that?"

"Do you want me to pretend I'll churn you again?" Minka asked, her sing-song voice sending pleasant chills through him.

Haruto puffed out his chest. "Psh! Why settle for just pretending? I bet- I bet I can get out of here if I really try."

Minka laughed, the sound bubbling up through Haruto. "Big talk from a boy who's already been churned by me once."

"I was asleep when you ate me last time!" Haruto protested. "I can get out this time. I'm gonna turn the persona fix back on now."

"Good luuuuck," Minka teased -- right up until Haruto tapped the button again.

He had the perfect commands in mind before he even brought the command entry interface up.

↳ try to keep me inside you

Tapping the button to add another command, he gave the details some thought. Of course he wasn't going to let her really digest him. He would just... turn it off if he was still in here in an hour. That would do it. But how fast should Minka try to digest him? Sanae would be home soon, but... she wouldn't be home that soon, right? Two hours should do.

↳ try to digest me but not too fast like give me two hours

He licked his lips, hesitating for a long moment before typing the next command. It was really embarrassing to ask for things, especially knowing Minka would hear what he typed. But on the other hand... Minka did say she wanted to fluster him some more... and it would be a shame to let her down when she'd been so eager to do it...

↳ tease me about being food for you and not being able to get out and other stuff like that every few minutes

His face glowed with more than just the light from the commlink as he tapped the additional-command button. And when it comes to flustering... There was something else she'd done the first time she ate him, that one night. Something that he definitely wanted to happen again.

↳ burp really loud if you feel like you have to burp

Sanae's friends were a lot more carefree with their belches than most girls Haruto knew (Sanae herself included), often joking about how well it conveyed their satisfaction with their meals. Haruto wanted very badly to be a satisfying meal for his crush. And when Minka burped because of him that night... he was so disappointed that she tried to stifle it.

The idea of her properly letting loose around him gave him chills. What would Minka's biggest belch sound like... what would it feel like, to be in it? To be part of the meal that satisfied her so much that she could rattle the windows...

He lay his head back against the wrinkled wall of the stomach, wriggling back and forth in place as he fantasized about the burp and considered whether there was anything else he'd forgotten.

There should be a reward if I get out, right? He considered this for a moment, cheeks still pink.

↳ if i manage to get out of you kiss me a little bit with no tongue and stop doing the other things

Minka didn't complain about him asking her to do that before, so surely this meant he was allowed. It certainly would fluster him more. Not to mention make for a good motivator to escape...

Satisfied, he submitted the commands and closed the command interface, preparing himself for his flawless escape.

There was a moment where the icon on the screen pulsed, and then Haruto felt the stomach tighten around him as Minka wrapped her arms tightly around him.

"Oh? You're going to try to escape me? You're not going anywhere, boy," Minka cooed in a low, sultry, menacing voice. "Sounds like my lunch was decided for me today."

A thrill raced through him, making him shiver despite Minka's body heat. "That's what you think," Haruto said, tingling from head to toe. He stretched himself up, out of the deep pool of stomach juices at the bottom of the stomach with him. He had the power of middle school biology under his belt. He was going to find the path leading up and out of Minka's body, and he was going to escape, or he was going to melt away trying!

(... Not really. Of course not. That would mean Sanae would find out for sure. He'd turn off the persona fix before that happened. But he was sure it would be exciting to take the risk!)

The slick, rippled surface of Minka's flexible stomach wall didn't make it nearly as easy as Haruto had hoped to find his way back out. He'd figured it would just be a simple matter of finding the chute he'd used to make his way in here, then... standing up.

But against the backdrop of velvety, squeezing, churning muscle, that path might as well have never existed.

He groped across every inch, searching with eager fingers. Deep in focus.

Out of nowhere, Minka's hands squeezed him tightly from either side, threatening to crush him and startling him out of his concentration. He hadn't even noticed that she'd stopped hugging him.

"Aah, wh-what the heck?!" Haruto yelped, trying to muster his arms to push back against her. To stop her from squishing him.

"Struggle all you like, but a boy like you is just a meal for a girl like me." It wasn't an explanation, exactly, but Haruto understood -- this was somehow part of her trying to keep him down and digest him, wasn't it? Just like what she was saying now was because he'd asked for it.

Once the pressure let off, Haruto let out a sigh, shaking his head. "J-Jeez... You're really not going to make this easy for me, huh? Lucky for you I wanted a challenge."

Minka didn't respond to him, just returned to quietly embracing him.

He reached up again. He'd completely lost his mental map of the soft folds overhead, and perhaps they'd even changed? None of this felt familiar. It was like starting from scratch.

If she did that often enough, he might never get past the first step.

"Heh, this isn't tough," he blustered, poking his fingers into the yielding flesh above him. "I'll be out of here with plenty of time to spare."

Still no answer. It was a little unsettling, a reminder that he'd knowingly and intentionally set an organic machine to have the singular goal of melting him into nothing more than fuel for it.

Maybe he should have told her to tease him when he said something? Having nothing but the gurgling of her stomach, the whooshing of her breath and the beating of her heart as background noise for his escape attempt was a bit unnerving. He licked his lips to wet them, swallowing hard. He was sweating, and not just because of the heat of Minka's insides.

And somehow, he was... excited. The slow terror, the building adrenaline, it was thrilling. It was exactly the kind of excitement he'd needed in his boring life.

Which felt like it was going to end any second now in her stomach...! Should I still be doing this? Maybe I could just turn it off, set the persona fix back to Free and--

Minka's smug voice cut through the noise in his head. "Just give up, Haruto. You'll be happier when you accept the truth -- you're just food."

Eeeeeee-- She's so hot... I can't disappoint her like this! He redoubled his efforts, pushing hard against the bottom of the stomach. "Never! I'll never give up! You'll have to take me by force if you want me that badly!"

And it continued like this. Struggling to escape. Getting distracted by Minka's grip on him. Getting teased for encouragement.

It took him a long time -- his commlink measured almost thirty full minutes of his two hours -- to realize that the sphincter to exit the stomach was actually in front of him, not behind him. He'd gotten himself turned around during his time in her stomach.

When he did finally realize this -- when he finally put a finger into the esophagus and felt it pull back against his intrusion, it sent a fresh spark of life through him. This is it!

"Hope you're ready to lose your lunch, Minka," Haruto teased, pushing his hand into the sphincter. Grabbing his commlink, he shoved it through as well with his other hand -- he wasn't going to lose his grip on the sphincter from being jostled this time! "Here I go!"

Minka was quiet, not trying to disturb him just yet. He could feel fresher, cooler air hitting his face as he reached up Minka's throat a bit. Relief. Freedom.

There was a tiny piece of him that was almost disappointed. Wishing that he would have had more trouble getting out. That he could have nearly failed before making his escape.

... Maybe a tiny little piece of him wished he could have failed entirely.

Minka's arms wrapped around him as he struggled to get his head into her throat with his arms. "One last futile effort to keep me, eh?" Haruto asked, pride mixing with his voice. "I won't be held down that easily!"

As Minka squeezed, the pressure on his body was growing. It felt so... tight, so oppressive. Shouldn't it be easier now that he was nearly-

BRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAP--

TUNK

The whole stomach rattled, every square inch of flesh around Haruto vibrating with a guttural bass. His head, his heart, they resonated with the force of it, and he reflexively pulled his arms from the esophagus to cover his head, tucking into a ball and trying frantically to protect his ears. He couldn't breathe -- the breath was ripped from him as fast as he could take it -

... and then it was over.

He sucked in a deep breath of the fresh air that he'd pulled in by tugging her esophagus open, panting and gasping. "Wh... whew..." he whimpered, relieved he'd survived. "O-okay, you're... pretty serious... I respect that..."

Somehow he still felt dizzy and weak. Rubbing his forehead, he groped around for his commlink. "Uuuuhhn... o-okay, I think I lose, you win..."

His fingers didn't find anything but stomach fluids and fragments of acid-eaten cloth. Pieces of his own clothing.

Wait. It must have gotten stuck in her throat. It must have. He groped around, his heart in his throat. No, no, no, no... This can't be...

"Game over, Haruto," Minka purred around him. "You're not getting out, and you can't tell me to stop without your commlink... I hope you're as excited as I am about an encore."

Haruto's blood turned to ice.

"Wait. Wait wait wait, Minka, wait, what about my commlink? Do you have it?" Haruto asked, voice high and frantic. "Minka, give me back my commlink."

Minka didn't answer.

Haruto replayed the chaotic moment of the belch in his head.

TUNK

Wha-wh-what was that TUNK... Haruto bit his lip. He had a sinking feeling he knew the answer. "O-Okay. Okay, this is- fine. It just means I'm playing with real stakes now. I just... have to... get out of here. I still had an hour and a half when I last checked my comm."

But after half an hour of struggling, he wasn't as fresh as he was when he first started this. He was worn out, his arms and legs aching from exhaustion and beginning to cramp up from being curled up for so long. His skin felt warm and tingly. Not unpleasant, just sort of like having a wet area blown on.

He'd accepted it, maybe even welcomed it, the first time he'd been eaten. Back then, he was tired, in shock, not trying to get out. And it had come on minutes after he was eaten.

But now? Now it was a warning sign of his coming defeat.

He was being digested. Just as he'd requested.

And he had no way to stop it.

The rush of panic at the finality of that realization gave him new strength, and he pawed at the general area of the exit he'd found earlier, searching for it with his full strength. "Mi- Minka! Let me out of here, seriously!"

"What's the matter, Haruto?" Minka asked, voice teasing. "I thought this was going to be soooo easy for you... did someone realize he's just girlfood after all?"

Haruto's face flushed, the hot tingling spiraling through him. Chills cascaded down in its wake. Aaaah, I can't stand it, it's better than I imagined... b-but I shouldn't let her s-seduce me into getting melted--!

"Where is it, where is it..." Haruto muttered under his breath, hands searching for that entrance and finding nothing. "C-come on... it's got to be here... it's not like it disappeared..."

But try as he might, he couldn't find it again. The stomach walls seemed impenetrable. No way out.

He waited for Minka's regularly scheduled tease -- and there it was, right on time.

"Don't tell me you forgot about my digestive expansion," Minka purred. "There's no escape from me unless I allow it. You're mine, Haruto..."

Minka's hands surrounded him again, but this time they didn't try to crush him. Instead they rubbed over him, synchronized mirror images that kneaded and massaged him together. Their touch was almost indistinguishable despite the obvious differences between flesh and porcelain.

Did she- let me almost escape on purpose? Haruto wondered, trying to push her hands away. "I can't let Sanae find out about this, c-come on, please? Let me out!"

He strained against her grip, mind racing. Okay, plan C: kick up a fuss until her stomach is so upset she has to spit me out!

And he fought valiantly. Kicking and punching and yelling and writhing.

He gave it everything he had. For as long as he could manage. And still, when he was done, she seemed unperturbed. It had been a humiliatingly short time before he was too drained to continue. But to have not bothered her at all was disheartening.

Laying in the bottom of her stomach, gasping for stale breaths as the stomach soup around him got thicker and heavier, he lay his head against the wall. "... Plan... plan D..."

Minka cut him off before he could finish describing it. "Poor, tired, weak little Haruto. Admit it. Admit you're my meal. I won't let you out, but at least you'll be able to rest."

"No way," Haruto managed between pants. "Plan D... is to free you from the persona fix."

It was a long shot. But on Soulless Operation, Chimari had escaped from a similar predicament by sheer force of will. And Minka had a lot of heart, too, just like Chimari, so she'd surely be able to do it too!

He hummed the climactic music to himself, more to psych himself up than to encourage Minka. She hadn't seen the show, after all. Still... a part of him kind of hoped that the power of music would help free Minka's mind from these chains.

If nothing else than because he was too tired to be very persuasive.

"Minka, focus on my voice. It's me! Haruto! Your friend!" Haruto yelled forcefully. "Forget the orders! Forget the program! Just concentrate on me! Concentrate and believe!"

He paused. Of course she wouldn't be able to respond yet, but just in case... no?

"I-I know this program seems impossible to resist, but you can resist it! You're not just any girl! You're Minka Riekert! And you're going to overcome this persona fix!"

"Pipe down in there," Minka said dismissively. "I won't take instructions from my meal."

Haruto's ears burned. "Don't- don't just think of me as a meal! Think of me as your friend! Your friend who cares about you and wants you to be free, and your friend who could be digested if you don't fight hard! We have so much to talk about -- y-you have to let me out!"

She didn't answer him. Arrrgh! Why isn't this working?!

Surely not because his beloved shonen anime didn't accurately depict what persona fixes were like in the real world. Surely not because escaping a persona fix through force of will was merely a convenient plot device for an animated show, and bunraku parlors across the world would lose their puppets en masse if the dolls could really just will themselves free.

No -- he had to keep trying!

He raised his voice again. "Minka, focus on the core of your being. You know who you are. You're not a predator who'd just eat me for lunch even if I didn't want you to. You're my friend, and a good person. And you'll- you'll let me out!"

If he was honest, he didn't actually know most of these things. He'd had to keep his distance from her, after all. Sanae's orders. But he would believe in them, because believing in their friends was how heroes escaped their predicaments!

He was having trouble sitting up fully in the stomach. His body felt so... floppy. Like a stuffed toy, discarded in a pile. In a puddle. A puddle of Minka's stomach acids.

This is so hot, it's not fair that I can't enjoy it cause I have to not get caught, Haruto lamented.

"And that's the end of your story," Minka intoned dramatically. "Haruto Watanabe... just another meal for the same girl who devoured his sister alive. He should have known better."

Haruto covered his face weakly, beyond embarrassment. "Come on, Minka, I know you're in there somewhere." He had to give it his all. He couldn't give up...

But man, he was tired. Every limb felt heavy, weak. "You can do it. You can resist. You can let me out of here, no matter what the program says..."

He thought of the figurines in the shoebox under his bed. Of Chimari. How would she get out of here? Well, she probably wouldn't be dumb and horny enough to get herself locked in someone's stomach to begin with. "Like Chimari in Soulless Operation, you're not a slave to any program! You just gotta fight it and..."

His enthusiasm flagged. He was just so drained. Maybe he really was just food. "Mmmph..."

He thought of the commlink. If he could just get it...

He sat up slightly as an idea occurred to him -- wait, of course! It must be hard for Minka to go against a direct order. But maybe she can do something that I didn't order her not to do!

"Can you at least get me my commlink back?" Haruto asked. It had a quality of pleading that didn't feel very heroic, but he didn't have much else he could do. "You don't have to let me out, just... go on, swallow my commlink..."

But despite how high his hopes had gotten, Minka didn't move an inch.

And a moment later, she just teased him again -- a testament to his hubris. "Figures that you can't escape, Haruto. Boys are just food, just like I told you."

A muffled female voice -- not Minka's -- made itself known, though Haruto couldn't quite make out what it was saying.

Haruto held his breath, dread soaking him. Could it be? Is Sanae home already? No way... Sanae's going to find out, and I didn't even get digested...

... Wait, though. That isn't Sanae's voice. Right?

The voice called out again, louder, clearer. Still muffled, but unmistakable now. "Haruto? Can you hear me?"

"Ch-Charlotte?!" Haruto cried out, relief washing through him at the sound of the adult shadowrunner's voice. "Charlotte! Charlotte, I'm in here! I, um, it's complicated, but can you get me out of here? Please?"

"There's no escape for you, silly boy," Minka purred. Haruto wished he could see the face that went with that low, dangerous voice. "This is where you were meant to be all along. Just be a good dinner and settle down and digest..."

Charlotte didn't seem bothered by the threat. "Don't worry, Haruto. I'll save you. How, ah, how are you feeling right now?"

"I-I'm okay, but... um..." Haruto looked down at himself. He couldn't see much in the darkness of Minka's stomach without his commlink to light it up, but he could feel enough. He had a bad feeling that he wasn't going to be saveable for much longer. "I feel kind of woozy and almost... soft, like... Um! Can you get my commlink?"

"Er, well, try not to move too much," Charlotte said distractedly. "Your commlink... oh..."

Haruto breathed out a sigh of relief. "Geez, it's r-really lucky that you came to visit..."

"Is this something I could do with my commlink, Haruto?" Charlotte asked after a moment. "I've found yours, but it's... having some issues."

"Uhhh..." Haruto's eyes widened. His commlink was having issues?! The commlink he needed to be rescued from Minka's stomach?! Maybe the relief was a little premature...!

Charlotte had another question -- a more embarrassing one. "... Do you know what's happened to Minka?"

His mind raced, ignoring the question for now. After she installed the app on my comm, she... what did she do with it... it came out of her hoodie but... yes! That's right! She put it in her arm! He hurriedly tried to form sensible instructions. "Y-You don't maybe have a way to open Minka's arm, do you? There's a chip in the chip slot in her arm, there's an app on that that you should install." Remembering the question, he added, "And, um, promise me you're not going to tell Sanae about any of this, please!"

"Er." Charlotte's hesitation wasn't very reassuring either. "I didn't bring over a set of tools... I'm not even sure what you'd need to open a cyberarm," she muttered, her voice dropping to the point it was nearly inaudible. She raised it again to try to comfort him. "Erm, don't worry, though. It's going to be okay. ...And I swear a solemn oath that I won't tell Sanae," she said. "So... what happened?"

Embarrassment flooded Haruto's face at the prospect of having to explain this to Charlotte. Charlotte was cool, for sure, way cooler about all kinds of stuff than Sanae, but what Haruto had done to Minka probably wasn't very cool... and he had promised Minka he would protect her, too...

Before he could answer, Minka's arm wrapped around him and started rubbing again. "Mmmph, Haruto, you're the perfect dinner... just a shame I can't eat you more than once."

The firm caresses would be more than welcome in any other circumstance, but with Haruto feeling like a half-melted wax sculpture, right now they felt like a mortal threat. "I-I'm not food! You're gonna actually digest me!" Haruto protested, voice cracking.

He chewed his lip, building up the courage to explain. "Charlotte, listen, I-I swear I didn't mean anything weird by it, I just wanted to try it out, and she really wanted to try it out too, it's not because of anything creepy, okay? She told me I should do it and I was only doing it because she wanted to do it! Okay?!"

"Try it out?" Charlotte asked lowly, seemingly more of herself than him. Of course, he wasn't giving the essential details, but the essential details were the most embarrassing, and-

... Charlotte figured it out before he could summon the courage to tell her. "Is this her persona-fix? She still had her p-fix, after that? I would have deleted it immediately if I could."

Before Haruto could confirm it, though, Minka started crushing him with both hands, a much stronger massage than last time. "Beg and plead all you want, Haruto, but no one's coming to save you. You're all mine now!"

It felt like she was going to crush him right here and now...! He'd heard Elissa, another of Sanae's shadowrunner friends, talking about crushing her meals in her stomach, but he didn't want to find out what it felt like to be the one crushed!

"Ah, Minka, no- how about we don't do that?" Charlotte said hurriedly, and the pressure lessened some.

"Okay, yes, it's her persona fix," Haruto admitted reluctantly once the danger was past. "She wanted me to try it, and I-I even stopped it to make sure she was still having fun... ah... while I was, um, inside her, and..."

"Is that right? ...And did you think about what would happen if you didn't get out?" Charlotte's voice carried way too much understanding. "If you wanted to do this sort of thing with her, you should at least have had some supervision. I wouldn't have minded babysitting. And, you said you turned it off... so that means you turned it back on, too? Knowing she'd digest you if you couldn't escape?"

Haruto's face turned red hot, and he hastily thought of a clever lie. "Look, I, um, sh-she ate me before and I, I couldn't get out at all, so I just thought I could... practice?"

Okay, not a clever lie at all! But he was stuck in it now, and he plowed ahead, determined to save at least a little face in front of Charlotte. "... I-I just... wanted to see if I could get out of her on my own, and... she kept teasing me and teasing me, and I-I just-"

Minka cut in, dubiously saving him from the yarn he was spinning. "Giving up, Haruto? I think that's for the best. We both know you were just a meal for me from the second I came in your room."

"Stop!" Haruto squawked, voice cracking again. He swallowed hard, raising his voice as if he could prove it hard enough that Minka, Charlotte, and even he himself would believe it through volume alone. "I just wanted to prove to myself if I could get out if I tried my hardest! And then she belched up my commlink and now I'm stuck!"

Charlotte didn't answer right away, and Haruto fidgeted nervously. He didn't want to be alone with Minka's churning stomach for too long, for fear that he might forget that he could be rescued. "If I didn't get out I was just going to turn off the persona fix! I had a plan, really! She wasn't supposed to burp up my commlink! A-And it would be weird if you were watching us do that..."

But Charlotte still didn't answer.

His head was spinning. Was he imagining that, or was his head actually spinning? Wait, was this a sign of him being too far gone to pull out of her stomach?! Was Charlotte here just in time to be too late to save him?!

"Charlotte?" Haruto pressed, fervently thinking un-food-like thoughts. "Y-You're still there, right? I feel really dizzy..."

"Just give in and melt for me, Haruto darling, there's no point in prolonging your struggle any further," Minka cooed in seeming response to him.

It really was uncanny the way she'd talk, Haruto thought. Half aware, half speaking in phrases at intervals like an NPC.

"Y-yes! Yes, I'm here, Haruto," Charlotte said finally with an awkward cough. "The app was, er, just freezing for a second. It's fine now. Ahem. I didn't mean I'd have to be watching. I could be in the other room, in case of any trouble. Like, just to pick an example, what happened here."

He ducked his head, ears burning too much to reply. I'm embarrassed enough that you're here, let alone if you have to be here to catch me being stupid...

"...Haruto, it won't let me end these commands without your passcode," Charlotte said bluntly. "If you want to get out... you do want to, right?"

The prospect of being melted by Minka a second time was definitely not offputting, but the prospect of Sanae finding out about it via a trip to Charlotte's for another revival was. But on the other hand, Haruto most assuredly did not want Charlotte to know his passcode, and was now desperately wishing he had picked a different one. A less embarrassing one.

"I, I have to tell you my passcode?" Haruto asked, voice cracking.

But the thought of Sanae knowing about his weird little private interest in Minka was too scary. "I, um, I-I... Yeah, I want to get out!"

"Then you'll need to tell me it."

Why does Sanae have to be the good hacker and not Charlotte? Haruto lamented internally. He put a hand against the stomach wall, weighing the relative humiliation of his options.

Finally, he spoke up. Maybe if he spelled out the words little by little, Charlotte wouldn't put together what it was. "It's, um. Capital C-H-I... M-at sign-R-I..."

He hesitated. A passcode incorporating the name of his favorite anime character was embarrassing, yes. But one suggesting that he was be married to her? For that to get out meant total ego death. "A... Ampersand... Capital H... A-R-U-T-O... Exclamation ma-"

And Minka spoke over him again, making him shrink even further down into her stomach. "Looks like I'm going to be gaining some weight today. Sanae was telling me I have to get a better diet, after all~"

By the time he got the last characters out, he could barely raise his voice over the noise of the heavily churning stomach around him. Not for weakness, but just for shame. "The, the number 4... Capital L... y... f... 3.... and that's it."

A light weight pressed against his back. Charlotte's cheek, no doubt, as she was trying to hear him half-whisper. "Nnf... got it. ...Don't worry, Haruto. This is still less embarrassing than Sanae finding out, right?"

"Just get me out of here, please," Haruto whimpered. Why does even Charlotte have to tease me? "I don't want to melt so much Sanae finds out anyway!"

"Got it."

Minka's hands released him, resting atop her stomach again in a delicate pressure. That had to mean that she was going back to her neutral position! That meant that Charlotte had saved him!

He was about to ask when Minka would release him when he got the answer -- her stomach clenched just enough to grip him, pushing his head up against the wall. And then he was being dragged upward and outward by a series of small reverse-swallows, pulled free of the dark, wet stomach. Light and fresh air hit his eyes and mouth a few moments before he felt himself being urped over the threshold of her lips. She was bent over, so he was sticking out upside down over the floor beside his bed. Making eye contact with the shoebox of Chimaris.

Safe. You and me are safe, Chimari.

His head bumped lightly against the floor, and then his back, and then he was tumbling out of Minka's mouth onto the floor entirely.

His skin was red all over and his clothes were nearly completely shredded by Minka's stomach. But he was safe.

"Charlotte," Haruto whimpered, clambering to his feet and rushing to hug her.

"There you are." Her embrace was delicate, ensuring he wasn't squeezed to death outside of Minka's stomach either.

He rested his head on her shoulder, huffing out a sigh of relief. "Thank you... You really, really, really promise you won't tell Sanae, right?"

Charlotte flinched, Haruto could feel it... but she gave her word. "I promise. Ah- assuming Minka also doesn't want that. Is that fair?" She pulled back and looked at him.

The prospect of Sanae finding out anyway after everything he went through made Haruto feel vaguely faint, but he had a chivalrous oath to uphold. "I... I promised I wouldn't let her get in trouble for this, cause it was my fault, so... a-as long as she doesn't get in trouble..."

Charlotte fiddled with the persona fix, glancing at Minka. "It looked to me like she's in a stiff competition with Chimari," she whispered to Haruto, winking at him.

Haruto reddened, looking away. He wasn't going to answer that.

Even if it was true.

"Whewwww, that didn't work like I thought it would..." Minka said from behind Haruto, back to her usual voice. "Ummm... hi again, Charlotte... sorry for making you come over here if it was because of me..."

Haruto froze, heart leaping up into his throat.

Charlotte frowned sharply at Minka. "How did you think this would go, exactly? Is it true what Haruto said that you wanted to be controlled?"

She eyed Haruto again. "Because if that was the case, saying it was just your fault might not be quite fair..."

But that was not Haruto's concern.

Hearing Minka speak normally again had reminded Haruto of some very important things. Namely, that his crush was not an anime figure or a robot or anything like that. She was a real person, one who was all too aware of what she'd just gone through with him.

One who had spit him up half naked.

One who could currently see his bare butt through the holes in his pants.

He squatted on the floor, using his hands in a frantic effort to cover his crotch and butt. (Never mind that she'd probably been able to see all that since she spat him out...) "Minka! Cover your eyes! I'm- I-I need to get new clothes! Your stupid stomach acids put holes in them!"

Charlotte barely covered a teasing grin. "Yes, that is what being digested does, Haruto. Incidentally, you really should go take a shower. Your skin's still covered in stomach acids."

"They weren't so stupid when you were getting all hard thinking about being in them," Minka teased, giggling. Notably, not covering her eyes.

"Do we really have to do this right now with Charlotte here?" Haruto wailed.

Charlotte snorted. "It's all right, you two. I see fooling around goes a little differently than when I was your age."

That was, if anything, possibly the only thing Charlotte could have said that would make this situation even worse. Haruto had to get out.

He crab-walked out of the bedroom toward the hallway. Toward the sanctity of the blessedly private shower in the bathroom. And the hope that the two women wouldn't reveal anything too embarrassing about him while he was out of the room.

"Ch-Charlotte! Can you get me a towel?! Please?!" he called, shutting the door to the bathroom behind him and leaning against it to make sure no girls would follow him in.

He slid down it slowly, head resting back against it.

That...

He'd been humiliated in front of Charlotte, in front of Minka, failed to escape and nearly gotten digested.

It was...

But thinking about it now, he really only regretted that Minka hadn't actually claimed him again.

... the hottest thing ever.

He lifted his head, glancing at the soaps and shampoos in the bathroom. Didn't Nimue mention that there was some kind of soap that made people taste really good?

Perhaps that would be the next thing he saved up his allowance toward...

Late that night, Haruto lay in his bed, fidgeting with the fancy new commlink Charlotte had bought him.

Embarrassing as it was to have to talk about this stuff with Charlotte, having Charlotte show him safe places to look up sexy sims where pretty girls ate people was helpful.

Sanae had insisted on putting the parental controls back on, of course, but Charlotte had at least convinced her that he was a growing boy and he had needs, and she should give him his privacy on that. She was not happy with him for the broken tech stuff, but Charlotte had replaced much of it and at least talked her down from grounding him for a month to merely having extra chores for a week.

All's well that ends well, Haruto thought. Though he still found himself wishing he'd gotten more time in Minka's stomach, or... at least gotten to enjoy it more.

A message popped up over the screenful of sexy sims.

Wasp: Still awake?

Haruto sat up, hastily opening the message with Minka.

haruspexx: yeah lol
haruspexx: still thinking about today XD
haruspexx: sorry everything went bad
Wasp: I didn't think it was *all* bad. ^.~

His face felt warm -- his chest, too. He shivered happily, thumbs wiggling over the commlink as he thought of how to respond. But Minka continued before he could.

Wasp: I did forget something, though. Since there was such a rush after you got out of me.
haruspexx: ?

Minka padded into his bedroom on silent bare feet, raising a hand in greeting.

Before he could ask what was going on, she leaned in, sliding her flesh hand into his hair and kissing his forehead. It was brief, but it was real -- not compelled in the slightest.

"There," Minka whispered, winking at him. "Night, Haru."

He was completely frozen as she glided back out of the room, unable to move or breathe until the light in Sanae's bedroom went out.

And then he melted down into his bed, head completely empty. Perhaps getting Charlotte's help would be worth it, to get to do that again...