Struggling Diet Warriors Chapter 9: Orbiting Obesity (Patreon)

Ami had never seen somebody cry so much about their lunch being tossed in the garbage. Then again, she’d never seen so big a lunch.

Thirty packs, each holding two pies for a total of sixty, had been upended into the bathroom’s bin. Taiga had torn through the entire bag, checking each zipper and finding numerous hidden packets of pies, sending them after their trash-bound companions while Minori cried out in tortured pain.

“Savage…” Minori mumbled, following behind Taiga and in front of Ami as they returned to the classroom. “Evil fairy. Brutal tiger.”

“Would you can it?!” Taiga demanded. “It’s for your own good. You can have Ryuuji’s lunch.”

“Not my physician,” Minori sobbed. “Not even my nurse.”

Ami felt sorry for her loss, but there was one saving grace. Taiga had searched Minori up and down but had neglected to search the Ami’s devious ‘piggy hooves.’ Only one of her containers had been smushed against the wall. The other, Ami extended over Minori’s shoulder, pressing the warmth to girl’s bright skin.

It was amazing to see the chill flow from the girl’s hips, up to her red mane, and then down again. She stared at the package and then at Ami, who winked and came up to walk beside her.

Minori’s hands were quivering almost as much as her stomach when she secured the pie, watching Taiga ahead of them as she silently tore the paper free.

Taiga stopped dead in her tracks, her neck snapping up. Impossibly alert, she spun around like a fantastic ballerina, only to be met with Ami’s bright smile.

“Hiiiii Taiga,” Ami gushed, bending forwards. She tilted her head, “Is there something I can do for you?”

Minori huddled behind Ami’s wide belly, hidden entirely from view as she lustfully shoveled the pies into her mouth.

They were in the classroom now.

People saw.

“Get outta my face, piglet…” Taiga muttered. There was a low grumble from below as Taiga’s tiny tummy growled and she turned back around. “Can’t believe we nearly missed lunch because of you. Fatass.”

Ami didn’t even notice the spiteful name. “Awe, I hope that’s okay!” she moved forward, hearing Minori skittering behind her. “I can share one of my truffles with you.”

The brunette’s wavy main bristled in a manner extraordinarily similar to Minori’s hunger for warm tasty pies, but the girl said nothing.

The pack approached their seats, which had been pushed together to form a miniature table in the center of the room. Ryuuji turned up form his notebook. “There you guys are,” he said.

He and Maya sat alone, three empty desks waiting for each other girl. Everyone else was giving them a wide berth, and Maya was poking at her pathetic lunch while texting on her phone, looking almost like she was about to cry. She was whispering something under her breath. “Doomed… She’s not even sick, it’s all just her clothes… I’m so doomed…”

Ryuuji glanced uncomfortably at the black raincloud that hung over her. “Uhh…” he turned back, “I was wondering what took you guys so… Minori? What are you doing?”

“Muffing!” Minori hopped up, apple crust spraying from her mouth and over Maya.

“I knew it!! Hey! Where did you get another?!” Taiga rushed past, hopping up to try and get in Minori’s face. “Spit it out, spit it out, spit it out! It’s not healthy!!”

Minori tilted her head back and swallowed before sighing and rubbing her tummy. “Mhmm, an apple a day keeps the mean doctor away.”

“That’s not how that works at all!”

Maya blinked at the crust on her desk, wiped a glob of filling off of her shirt, and thunked her head down onto desk with her hands wrapped around her tummy.

“Uhhh… hey,” Ryuuji turned to Ami, “your outfit’s looking a bit better. You two almost fit back in.”

Butterflies spun in her chest, as shocking as any moment she’d been up on the runway. His sharp, dark eyes felt like they held her more completely than any camera. In his fingers, he twirled a deep blue kiku.

He noticed her looking. “Oh, yeah. I didn’t want to get it roughed up in my bag,” he lifted the flower. “I was thinking I’d give it to my mom. She loves this kind of stuff. One of the few things she actually knows about, I think.”

“You idiot, it’s gonna be dead by the time you get home,” Taiga plopped into the seat next to his.

“Since when did you know anything about flowers?”

“Since forever!” Taiga lightly batted his shoulder. “No time, how long is there left for lunch?”

“Uhhh,” he checked the clock. “Less than ten minutes.”

“Crap!” Taiga bristled, snatching her bag and flinging supplies to the side.

“Hey, hey! I got yours already. Here.” He passed her the container he had beneath his empty box and Taiga flung the lid off to reveal a small but appetizing lunch.

Ami pulled her own school purse over before removing the white bag from Sugary Sweets. She took out the box of truffles but was surprised to find that there was a second box, the extras she had forgotten about until now.

Minori, sitting at the head of the arranged desks, set her head down on the desk, miming Maya like a wilted flower. “I shall remember you, fallen comrades.”

Then Ami opened the box of mini pies, and the table became as still as a graveyard.

Golden dough with toppings cooked into and then slathered over the crust, there were eight of the palm-sized treats squeezed into the little box. Her sweetness contained pies of chocolate, blueberry, French silk and finally… apple.

Oblivious to the sudden shift, she sighed with content. “Bless you, Raiko,” she said to herself. Two hungry fingers plucked up the first French silk and tossed it into her mouth, chewing pleasantly as the whipped cream washed over her tongue. It smothered her taste buds with sweet sugary flavor before tumbling into her pastry packed pooch.

She took a blueberry pie next, poking the tiny round fruits with her fingers to make sure they stayed on top. An explosion of juice popped on her tongue when she crunched the fruity goodness, with a small purple trickle dribbling over her lips. A fat droplet sped down her cheek and plopped onto her uniform before she could catch it.

“Ahh, shoot!” she mumbled through her full mouth, wiping her lips and her chubby chin. She tugged her shirt out, feeling the newly stitched fabric stretching to cover. The drop of blue stained her white dress cloth, and she felt the warm wetness on her skin beneath. She swallowed before looking up. “Does anyone have a… napkin…? W-what?”

Taiga sat across from her, hanging onto her chopsticks with tight fingers. A string of noodles was frozen halfway to her mouth. On either side of Ami, Minori and Maya were staring not at her, but at her food. Maya was sweating, Minori was drooling, and both had stopped trying to quiet the want in their bellies.

“Listen to them…” one of their classmates murmured. “They’re like wolves…”

“Or a drove of pigs.”

Maya released a sharp “Eep!” before her hands flew back to her softened stomach. She pushed her tiny lunch away from her, shaking her head furiously. “No, no no, no!”

Ami puckered her lips, listening to the girl’s hungry tummy as it pleaded. She frowned, taking one of the chocolate pies and holding to Maya. “Come on,” she said firmly. “Have one.”

Maya looked at the pastry as if it were covered with a most delicious, delectable, succulent plague.

“If you don’t take it, I’m just gonna eat it my-”

Maya snatched the sweet and shoved it wholly into her maw. Tears dropped from her closed eyes, joining her sweat while she made noises as if she’d just found out that the gates of heaven were made out of chocolate.

There was a large *thwack* followed by a yelp of pain. She turned to see Minori kissing the back of her injured hand and Taiga attempting to slurp her noodles up with a now broken pair of chopsticks.

Ami rolled her eyes. “Kushieda, would you like one of my pies?”

Minori whined, joining her tummy in misery. “N-n-no, t-thank-unwahaha…” she devolved into unintelligible misery.

“It’s not good for you!” Taiga cut in, gesturing with her snapped utensils. “How many have you had today?!”

“Appllllleeeessssss,” Minori sobbed.

A tug on Ami’s arm from an extremely guilty looking Maya earned the destitute girl another of pie. Before she chould inhale it, Ami caught the orange-haired girl by her wrist. “You should eat it slower. Enjoy it, yeah?”

Maya’s eyes fluttered before she softly breathed, “Y-yeah,” and nodded.

Ami nodded and let Maya go, watching her take in a bite of the pie. Her lips closed, tongue spooning the sweet nectarine, and a gasp of love escaped from her mouth while a tremble of hunger shook up from her soon-swollen belly.

It made Ami chuckle. A different sensation, yet one so familiar, was inside of her chest as she turned to Taiga. She opened the second container, lifting back the lid before asking, “Would you let Minori have one if I gave you one of these?”

More gorgeous than any model, more captivating than any mistress, the chocolate truffles glistened in the bright red-orange of the morning sunlight.

“How is that a balanced lunch?” Ryuuji asked.

All the girls ignored them. All of them stared at the divinity of chocolate beneath Ami’s fat grin.

Taiga finally relented. “Fine… but only cause the mutt didn’t pack anything sweet today.”

“Wha- how’s that my fault?! We were late! We only had time to stop at one spot!”

Ami picked out a chocolate and passed it to Taiga. She didn’t see Minori take the pie from the box. One moment it was there. In the next, Minori was chewing with full cheeks like some adorable rabbit. It made Ami giggle. A true, happy giggle, that bounced right from her belly.

She then turned to Ryuuji.

And words failed her when she saw he was smiling at her.

He had one eyebrow raised and Ami felt the new flame in her bolster. It felt like eternity had slowly crawled past before the piglet finally managed, “W-would you like one?”

He shrugged. “Nah, I had chicken salad from the market and some leftover noodles. Oh, yeah, speaking of which!” he reached down into his bag. “I nearly forgot!”

He withdrew an extra plastic container that had been packed with sauce-covered noodles, noodles with a bright red powder spread over the top.

Ryuuji set the small container in front of her, directly between her two boxes of sweets. She blinked down at bin before looking back up into his eyes.

Through the glow of the sun, the sapphire shimmered. The light passed between them, revealing everything. She wanted nothing from him. From any of them. And they wanted nothing special from her. There was no hidden agenda, no ulterior motive.

There was no mask. Ami saw Ryuuji, and Ryuuji saw Ami.

“I saved some for you, since you couldn’t come yesterday.”

Silence came as Ami’s heart skipped several beats.

The noodles were inside of a plain plastic bin and he’d passed her a standard pair of wrapped chopsticks. But she found she was grinning from ear to ear at the cute white package and the adorable wooden sticks, the pleasant container and the delicious smell.

Ami wasn’t a fast eater. She ate slowly, enjoying every bite, tasting it to the fullest. It was one of the only comforts she had had at this point of her life.

But right now, even as she was weighed down by doughnuts and pies and chocolates and noodles, she felt like she could float. Her sense of taste was amplified, fat foodie thoughts growing reinforced. She slurped the noodles from the little bin, felt the tender burn of the spice, the weight of the homecooked meal sinking into her stomach.

It was the best thing in her life.

She didn’t care about her belly pressing into her skirt, giving her an angry red mark around her waist. She hardly noticed that the stitching Taiga had done could only help so much, and that in reality she looked fatter than she ever had, or that everyone knew. Ami didn’t even care that her weight was currently spiking on a sharp incline.

In this moment, she was happy. A delighted piggy that made happy noises of porcine enjoyment, and every other girl in the class saw it.

Some felt horrified. Others felt spiteful. The palpable sense of confidence that exuberated from the piglet infected each of them worse than seeing any sexy model or some skinny body ever could. Compared to the butterball that ate with doughy poise and certain pleasure, each felt as if her life was severely lacking in taste.

One of these girls, even while being really glad for Ami, internalized an immeasurable jealously. She decided that she had a lot to learn from this master of life.

But Ami didn’t notice any of this. She didn’t see their looks, nor the muttered whispers from those further away. She didn’t realize that Taiga was glaring at her, slowly chewing at what was left of her truffle, that Maya and Minori were panicking as Ami ate the last of her pies without ever seeing their pleading looks.

She was too busy eating a meal that had been saved specifically for her.

The blue embers swelled as she fed till she was full, and then it still grew. Just a bit fatter.

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“Okay!” their homeroom teacher clapped, summoning the students’ attention and speaking in an authoritative tone. “Somebody really needs to explain to me why the desks are arranged like this.”

She was met with silence from the oddly structured room. Normally, desks were set into five even rows and each seat was filled. But after lunch, the room never returned to the normal setting. Almost every single girl now sat near the outskirts of the room, arranged almost methodically spaced away from the overstuffed center. Taiga and Maya were the odd ones out, each sitting next to the respective pillows of Minori and Ami.

The only ones who dared to be so close to ground zero were men, and more than a few looked uncomfortable in their own boyish ways.

“Class representative?” the teacher asked.

Ever prompt, Kitamura stood up. He cleared his throat, looking over towards the class. “Well, ma’am…” he paused as Ami caught his eye and shook her head. “Just… changing things up. Keeping a fresh perspective.”

The teacher put her hands on her hips. “You’re not covering for Aisaka again, are you?”

Taiga’s hair somehow curled in defensive irritation, but immediately went slack when Kitamura chuckled. “No, ma’am. There hasn’t been any fights that I’m aware of.”

“Hmmm…” the teacher looked speculatively over Taiga before her eyes centered on Ami and looked down her outfit. “And I see you’ve fulfilled your word. I suppose praise should be given. Good work, Aisaka,” she said, heading back to her desk at the front of the class.

Taiga opened her mouth but Minori kicked her before the tiger could growl at their teacher, earning Minori a hiss instead.

The teacher finished writing the next segment’s introduction before turning around and clapping once more. “Okay!” she grinned from ear to ear, with a note of a blush on her cheeks. “Tomorrow is our long-awaited pool opening day!”

There were several cheers from guys and girls on the outer fringe of the class. People instantly began to buzz, excited for summer and to soak in some sun.

Not a peep escaped the center as the teacher’s words washed over them like the rolling waves of the sea. Four girls looked down at themselves in pure abject terror.

Two of them saw bellies that no swimsuit could possibly contain. One of them imagined thick thunder thighs that were far worse than she had. And the last grasped at a short wooden plank, flat nothingness covered with wavy brown hair.

“I’ll explain the important parts now,” the teacher sounded as animated as the rest of the girls while the immense gravity well at the class center went from pale to pasty, hardly able to breathe as all around them, people began to remember.

Countless eyes turned inward, and each of the four was convinced they were all staring at her.

“Won’t be so confident when she has to show off in front of all the boys.”

“Everyone will see her for who she truly is.”

“Oh man, I can’t wait for tomorrow.”

Each of them applied the words to themselves. Cold dribbles of sweat formed.

“Hey, are you okay?” Ryuuji asked.

“I’m fine!” Taiga and Ami hissed at the same time, their eyes snapping wide before locking with the other. A silent howl of feline fury met a rising blue inferno, neither one noticing that Ryuuji had been talking to Minori, who was holding her chest and whimpering about apples.