In the common area of the dorm building, Ellie and her friends found an eclectic group of yokai waiting for them. Ellie recognized their breeds from Morgana's book: four tanuki, three kitsune, a karasu-tengu, an oni, a kawauso, and a bakeneko. Going by the look on Harper's face, she recognized all the yokai breeds as well; she honestly looked like Christmas had come early.
Ellie blushed when she realized that the yokai were all wearing nothing but loincloths, their large breasts bared for all to see. Even more mouthwatering were many of their waistlines. While a few of the yokai rikishi (presumably the newest recruits) were only mildly pudgy at best and skinny at worst, most of them bulged and rippled with layers of luscious fat. It gave Ellie hope that Kyūri really could fix her horrid slimmed-down body.
"And here they are!" Kyūri declared to the yokai. "The American exchange students! Your three new classmates are Ellie Rubenstein, Beck Hamilton, and Kristi Wenzel." He gestured at each as he spoke their names. "Living here as observers and errand-runners are their mates Harper Browning, Brianna Dixon, and Joelle Bowman." Again, he gestured at the owners of the names he spoke. "I expect all of you to do everything you can to make them feel welcome while they stay at my humble heya... even YOU, Shizuka-san!" He glared sternly at the fierce-looking Bakeneko.
A very fat kitsune with white fur approached Ellie and shook her hand. "Welcome, Ellie-san," shi said with a smile. "Normally, it should be Humiya Omoibushi, my best friend and Kyūri-sensei's top student, who leads the greeting, but shi's in America as an exchange student right now. I hope I do a good job in hir place. My name is Haia Yoshimoto. I have been a student here for some time, and Kyūri-sensei says I'm nearly ready to become a full rikishi. I can barely wait!"
Ellie did her best to avoid staring at Haia's enormous tits and belly (to say nothing of the intriguing bulge in hir loincloth), but it was difficult. "I'm... uhh... honored to meet you, Haia-san," Ellie managed, blushing.
"I'll introduce you to the other sandanme," said Haia.
"The what?" Ellie asked. The Potion of Understanding translated the Japanese word into "third tier" in her mind, but she wasn't sure what that referred to.
"It's a sumo rank," Harper explained. "It refers to the highiest rank of trainee rikishi. We'll almost certainly be entering as jonokuchi, the most junior rank. Once we master the basics, we'll be promoted to jonidan, and then we'll be working toward becoming sandanme like Haia-san. Once we graduate from the student levels, we'll be ranked as makushita. If we win consistently, we'll keep ascending the ranks. first to jūryō and then to makuuchi, the top division."
"Wow, you know a lot about sumo already, Harper-san," Haia smiled.
"I'm a huge fan of Japanese culture," Harper said, blushing.
"Like I was saying, these are the other sandanme," Haia said. Shi gestured at the bakeneko. "Meet Shizuka Zayasu. Just be sure to watch your step around hir. Shi's got quite the temper."
"Especially around humans," Shizuka snarled. "Which I've heard one of you guys is."
"Uhh... guilty as charged?" Joelle laughed nervously.
Shizuka narrowed hir steely eyes at Joelle. "I'll enjoy grinding you into paste in the ring."
"No talk like that, Shizuka!" Kyūri barked. "All rikishi must respect each other!"
"But she isn't even a real yokai!" Shizuka protested.
"She will be soon," Kyūri said, munching on a cucumber as he talked.
Shizuka crossed hir arms. "That doesn't count!"
Haia cleared hir throat, hir two tails twitching uncomfortably. "Anyway, these two tanuki are Natsuki Haratsutsumi and hir best friend Yoshino Kōgan."
Yoshino Kōgan giddily charged at Ellie to greet her, knocking the poor werehyena over with hir giant belly. The shock caused Ellie to reflexively shift into her hyena shape, fur and a mane covering her body, her face lengthening into a muzzle, an extra pair of breasts growing in, her clothes shredding into nothingness as she grew in size, and (of course) hir clit swelling into a massive cock and developing a ballsack beneath it. Ellie blushed under hir fur, hir tail sinking between hir muscular legs.
"Ooh, you're hot!" Yoshino grinned lewdly, hir giant ballsack spilling out of hir loincloth as shi talked. "Like Haia-san said, I'm Yoshino Kōgan. I love sumo, drumming on my great big belly, pranks... and sex! Think you'd like to threesome with me and Natsuki sometime?"
"Yoshino!" Natsuki groaned, thumping hir best friend in hir wobbly belly. "You can't just ask someone that the second you meet them!" Shi turned to Ellie. "I'm so sorry about Yoshino. Shi usually talks without thinking."
"It's okay, Natsuki-san," Ellie smiled. "Yoshino's offer was pretty flattering." To hir horror, Ellie noticed that hir cock was at full mast. "Apparently I find it very flattering!"
"I'll keep that in mind!" Yoshino winked.
"I think I'll introduce you to the jonokuchi now," said Haia. "They're as new as you are. First of all, meet Maruko Futobara."
A tanuki waved at them. Shi was nowhere near as fat as the other tanuki here, merely a tad plump. There was no way shi weighed more than a meager 137 pounds. "Hello," shi said shyly. "I'm Maruko Futobara. I just got here from the tanuki village of Toyoda, and... you're probably wondering why I look like this, right?"
"I have been getting the impression that tanuki are usually fat," Brianna answered.
"Well, I had a really bad breakup," Maruko said sadly. "I don't wanna go into the details, but it was painful. I was so upset that I couldn't eat. You can see what it did to my belly."
"Don't worry, Maruko-san," Beck said. "I'm sure your belly will be back to normal in no time."
"And this is Akane Inarimago," Haia said, gesturing at a graceful, willowy kitsune.
"Hello," Akane said. "I know I don't look like a rikishi, but that's kind of why I'm here. All my life, I've dreamed of a big belly. Unfortunately, kitsune metabolism was working against me. Mercifully, the chankonabe here should fix that."
"I expect you to actually learn sumo, of course," Kyūri grumbled, taking another bite from the cucumbers that Beck had given him.
"Of course, sensei," Akane said, bowing hir head.
"And this is Tsubame Sorayama," Haia continued, gesturing to a fairly chubby karasu-tengu with a crumpled wing.
Tsubame bowed respectfully to Ellie and hir friends. "Pleased to meet you, Ellie-san. I am Tsubame. I grew up in a tengu mountain clan with my massive extended family. I was very happy there until a crash crippled my wing. I felt useless, so I came here to find a new purpose for my life."
"I know exactly what you mean," Kristi smiled. "I used to be a camgirl on OnlyFans, but I think sumo might be my real calling."
Tsubame smiled back. "It's an exciting new chapter, isn't it?"
"And this is Kijo Onidzuyo," said Haia, pointing to a slightly pudgy oni with pale green skin, wild black hair, a single rhino-like horn growing from hir forehead, sharp claws, and a pair of wicked tusks jutting up from hir lower jaw.
"Hello, everyone," Kijo said, bowing. "I'm Kijo, I've been practicing amateur sumo my whole life, and I'm here to show the world that girls can be great rikishi... even if my new sensei did force me to become a futanari." Shi shot Kyūri a quick glare. "The dick is kinda fun to play with, though. Fair warning, it's really sensitive and I have a lot of premature ejaculations."
"I... don't think they needed to know that, Kijo-san," Haia said nervously. "Anyway, this is Hōman Harekōgan, another longtime practitioner of amateur sumo." Shi gestured at a very chubby tanuki with a colossal ballsack that didn't fit into hir loincloth at all.
"The best practitioner of amateur sumo in all of Japan, Haia-san," Hōman elaborated, a cocky smirk on hir raccoon dog face. "Greetings, Americans. This is a golden opportunity for you: a chance to witness the meteoric rise of the magnificent Hōman Harekōgan firsthand! That'll be something to tell your grandcubs about, I promise you. I hope none of you are jealous types, because nobody is better at sumo than my glorious self... especially not a gaggle of gaijin like you."
Beck bristled at the word gaijin, the Japanese term for a foreigner or outsider. "Hey! Are you saying that we can't beat you just because we're from America?!"
"Japan is the homeland of sumo," Hōman shrugged. "If even my fellow yokai are nowhere near as good as me, what chance do you stand, Beck-chan?"
"Do not demean your fellow pupils!" Kyūri shouted, nearly spilling his head water as he furiously waved a cucumber at Hōman's smug face. "I understand your mistrust of gaijin, but anyone who comes here to learn from me is to be treated with the utmost respect unless shi breaks my rules! Do you want to be tossed out of my heya before you've even begun to train, Hōman-san?!"
"I'm... sorry, sensei," Hōman sighed. Shi said the word 'sorry' like it was foreign to hir.
"And this is Misaki Satō," Haia said, pointing at an elegant, slender kitsune girl with two orange tails.
Misaki bowed. "Hello, everyone. I am Misaki-san. Until recently, I was an ordinary human girl like Joelle-san. I worked as a miko at my father's Inari shrine, but then I discovered this heya, and... well... look at me now!"
Kristi gazed at Misaki with envy. The werevixen longed to have two magnificent tails like this beautiful kitsune. Soon, Kristi told herself, soon she would also be a kitsune.
"And here is our newest pupil, Taki Morikawa," Haia said, gesturing to a thin otter-person.
Taki bowed energetically. "Hello, everyone!" shi chirped, an excited grin on hir lutrine face. "I'm Taki-san, and I'm one of the kawauso! I came here because we kawauso have a proud sumo tradition just like the kappa, but we have so few rikishi left now that our numbers in general are dwindling. Hey, I've heard a rumor that your group's human plans on becoming a kawauso. Is that true?"
"It is," Joelle grinned at the willowy otter yokai. "I think otters are just adorable."
"Good!" Taki grinned. "Our species needs all the members it can get!"
"Speaking of 'members'," Kyūri snickered. "I need to go fetch Saku the witch to gave cocks to your human forms and to turn Kristi and Joelle into their desired yokai breeds. Be right back!" With that, the old kappa waddled out of the building to find Saku.