"We made it so far- we began to get past who we were; what we had done. All of us were monsters. But because of one boy, we were given a second chance, one that was nearly ruined by the same force that made us into the monsters we had become. There would be no shortcut to our redemption, but in the end we succeeded in breaking through who we once were, and saw again, the hope past the despair."
---
{iUgh, what hit me?}
Akane Owari opened her eyes to a gray sky dominated by enormous black skyscrapers. The sound of honking car alarms and construction work rang through the air, making the SHSL Gymnast's budding headache far more painful than it should be.
Shit, where the hell am I? Owari picked herself off the block of sidewalk she was laying sprawled out on with a quick front flip and gazed around the street block. It looked like it could pass as any old downtown shopping strip, with the exception that every single building was some sort of restaurant. There was every type of food that Owari could even think of available: Italian pasta, Korean barbecue, Indian curry, American pizza... the list went on. So much so that Owari stopped taking note of them all and turned her attention back to the barbecue.
Hey, meat actually sounds great right about now! Owari licked her lips in anticipation and reached into her shirt pocket to grab her wallet. "..Hey, where the hell is my wallet!"
The gymnast quickly glanced around the city for anyone suspicious she could hopefully beat her wallet out of. Unfortunately there was no one who looked justifiably suspicious enough. In fact, there didn't appear to be anyone around at all.
"Um, Hello? Is anyone around? Some punk jacked my wallet and..."
Owari's question tapered off as she saw a big, multi-story neon light sign, which read "City council meeting- move fatasses!" and had an arrow below that pointed around the corner of the block.
Ah, that must be it! Everyone in town must be at that meeting... Owari grinned at her successful deduction. She knew that figuring stuff out wasn't her strong suit, but whenever she did piece something together she was proud. Well, I've never been good at politics, but someone there must know who took my wallet!
And so the gymnast rushed down another block of eateries and nearly ran head first into an enormous statue of what looked to be a stuffed animal pig with two short tusks jutting out from underneath the snout. Two such statues stood at the entrance of a large domed building which featured a dark brown double door with pig carvings on the handles, Corinthian pillars, and a huge marble staircase that led up to the ornately decorated entrance.
Huh, fancy... a little too fancy if you ask me... Owari shrugged and dashed up the stairs, kicking the large brown door open with far more force than was needed to simply open it. As soon as the door swung open, Owari saw rows of wooden benches that led up to a series of 7 raised seats at the back wall of the room that overlooked the rest of yet another overly designed setup. As she glanced around the room, Owari spotted the source of the conversation she had heard earlier.
"Oh, hey guys!" The SHSL Gymanst was exited to see that her friends from the island again, especially after her rather odd awakening. From left to right, Sonia, Saionji, Ibuki, Koizumi, Tsumiki, and Pekoyama stood gathered near one of the benches. All with various looks of confusion and concern on their faces. "Any chance you six saw who took my wallet? That punk is in for a world of hurt!" Owari cracked her knuckles in anticipation.
"Your wallet?! Your stupid face is worried about your wallet when we're stuck in some dirty city!" The SHSL dancer childishly shouted.
"Huh?!" The gymnast took a step back in shock. "What do you mean we're stuck?"
"E-exactly that! There's no way out of the city! No trains, no buses, a-and if you walk too far, there's just a wall of buildings blocking your path! I'm sorry I couldn't find a way out! Please forgive me!" Tsumiki fell to her knees and began breaking down in tears
"Shut up you worthless stupid head!" Saionji gave the SHSL Nurse a kick to the side. "No one wants to hear what you have to say!"
"There's no need to antagonize her like that, there are more important matters to attend to." Pekoyama adjusted her glasses an folded her arms. "Like finding where the young master and the others wound up."
"Oh yeah!" Owari suddenly noticed the complete lack of their male associates in the room. "Where's Nidai hiding?"
"Oh, I don't think you need to worry about him."
Suddenly a small black and white stuffed pig descended from the rafters and landed into the middle of the seven raised seats in the back of the room.
"M-m-m-Monobear!" Tsumiki screamed and huddled into a ball on the ground.
"Huh? Where?" The pig toy looked around the room. "Oh, you're talking to me! Well, listen up toots, I'm not Monobear, I'm Monoboar! Get it? Isn't that just hilarious!"
Monoboar waited about ten seconds, hoping for some sort of laughter or applause at how clever his name was. "...Well anyway, the point is I ain't no bear! We're playing a new game now!" "What kind of game you ask? A game of gains, you might say! A play of plentifulness! A scrum of succulence! A-"
Monoboar paused to cough for a few seconds, before resuming.
"Look, the point is you're all going to get really, really fat!"
"What!?" All of the SHSL students asked simultaneously.
"That's right! This series hasn't had a single fatty girl in two games. We owe it to our FA readers to show them some love! That's why I devised this little game for you all to play! The rules are simple: Eat as much as you fucking can and pack on those pounds! You all are now part of red team! And you're competing against you're fellow SHSL girls from the first game to see which team can push their waistbands out more! The team that fails to fatten the most will be on the chopping block each week, and then the losers will have to vote to punish one of their own!"
As he finished, 14 banners unfolded along the left hand wall. The first seven depicted each of them over a red background. To the side of each of their heads was their SHSL title along with their current weight. Owari glanced at hers: 56 kilograms. A fine weight for her age and athletic level. Would she really have to get fat for a toy pig?
"And if we refuse to play your game?" Pekoyama asked, knowing full well what the answer would likely be.
"Refuse to play? Well shucks, I thought you all would just go along with it...I guess I'll just let you go then..." Monoboar looked at the ground and teared up slightly.
"R-really?" Tsumiki nervously asked.
"Of course not! You're all trapped here until I decide to let you go!" Immediately Monoboar jumped back to his impassioned rant. "Look at it this way, all of you can try and keep your supermodel figures, but what happens if someone on the other team gains a single pound? Then you'll all be dragged here and have to vote to punish one of your own! You might all be friends, but can you trust the other team to think about your interests above their own?"
Owari nervously bit her lip. This was bad. It was just like what happened back on the island. A lot of talk about trust and betrayal that she didn't fully get. She had always left the hard thinking to others. One thing she had learned though, was that attacking the toy head on would never work. A lesson she had learned at the cost of Nidai's human body; which he lost protecting her from a rocket. A sacrifice she could never forget...
"Oh, one last thing! The first person from either team to double their starting weight gets to be my mayoral assistant! What are the perks you might ask? A steady job, good pay, and complete immunity from being punished!"
All of the girls stood motionless in the room, overcome with a similar feeling of despair that had gripped them in the past.
"And that's everything girls! I took the liberty of passing out your Despair City passports while I was speaking. Boy, are these things cool! They get you into any restaurant in town, have a built in map of the city, and gives you a live display of your current weight and "battle stats" if you know what I mean!"
Owari patted her shirt pocket, and suddenly found a virtual book where her wallet once was.
Monoboar suddenly sounded impatient. "Are you all still here? Go on, schoo, scram! You're belly isn't going to stuff itself!"
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