"If we can't have any more chankonabe, then I'm at least getting some pie," Ellie said, eying the man's cart. "Care to join me?"
Beck and Kristi both nodded, hungry for dessert. The three friends followed the man as he wheeled his cart out of the cramped dining hall to avoid being completely squished by all the young rikishi. They were soon joined by their girlfriends heading from the dorms.
"Phew!" Harper sighed, wiping sweat from hir brow. "We're FINALLY done sweeping the dormitory floors! The things I do so I can be with you, sweetie." Shi planted a kiss on Ellie's cheek and gave the werehyena's belly a loving pat, making it jiggle slightly. "Ooh, you've got a bit of your belly back!"
"It's still just a shadow of its former glory," Ellie laughed nervously.
"At least it's somewhat soft again," Harper smiled. "I hated how hard and tight it was before."
"I really have a ways to go," Kristi sighed, glancing at hir own belly. The camgirl-turned-werefox-turnedkitsune's belly had once been massive, but now it was no larger than Ellie's.
"I love your belly no matter its size," Joelle smiled sweetly. The freshly minted kawauso adoringly kissed hir kitsune girlfriend's belly button, a smile in hir otter face. "Besides, it'll be fun watching you grow a bit bigger bit by bit over the next few months."
Brianna gazed at Beck's chubby belly in aroused fascination. Shi'd never seen hir partner chubby before, but shi'd been daydreaming about since even before Beck came out as wanting to be fat. The reality more than lived up to the fantasy. Shi hugged Beck's rounded belly tight and grinned. "Oh Beck, it's wonderful! This was worth all those chores and more!"
"Glad you like it, Bri," Beck said proudly, running a clawed hand through her mane. "Now let's all go get some pie."
The six of them trotted over to the cart, which had mercifully dealt with all of the other young rikishi of the heya. The vendor, a short and skinny Japanese man smiled at the six and bowed. "Good evening, young rikishi," he said. "How was your first day of training?"
"Pretty good," Ellie smiled. "That bakeneko named Shizuka was brutal, though."
"Kyūri-sensei asked hir to demonstrate what a sandanme can do," Kristi explained. "He offered a full serving to any jonokuchi who could beat hir. Shi went way too far and Kyūri-sensei assigned hir extra chores... after tossing her around the ring for a few minutes. Shi blames us, of course."
"Especially me!" Beck gloated. "After all, I'm the one who beat hir and claimed the prize!"
"Beginner's luck!" Ellie scoffed, rolling hir eyes.
"Luck or skill, I don't care," Beck smiled. "I'm just thrilled to finally be chubby!" Shi turned to face the vendor. "On that note, we'd like some dessert, please."
"Have whatever you wish!" the vendor smiled. He pointed from pie to pie, giving the obvious Americans a guided tour. "This one's made with nashi pears. And this one's made with peaches. This one's a Western-style meringue. And this one has chocolate filling." He then pointed to a pastry made of many layers of pie dough rolled up into the shape of a heart. "This is a Genji Pie. It's a little like a palmier. It's made from pie crust without the filling."
"It all looks delicious!" Ellie said hungrily.
"Of course, I don't just serve pies," the vendor said proudly. "Those Western delicacies sell very well, but I also have a fine selection of wagashi."
"What's that?" asked Joelle.
"Tradition Japanese confections," The vendor beamed, "often served with green tea."
"Sweet!" Harper squealed happily. "A lot of them are made with mochi, anko, and fruit, right?"
"Correct!" the vendor laughed. "You clearly know quite a bit about Japanese culture." He held up two delicate wagashi shaped like a rose and a chrysanthemum. "These are nerikiri, a type of highly decorative wagashi created in the Edo Period. They're made by kneading white bean paste, gyūhi (that's a softer and sweeter type of mochi), sugar, yams, and other ingredients, and made in various colors and shapes based on seasonal flowers, animals, nature, events, customs, and the like. Lovely, aren't they?"
"They're gorgeous!" Harper nodded emphatically.
"I've never seen a food so beautiful in my life," Ellie nodded in agreement with hir mate.
"And this is dango," the vendor said, holding up several soft orbs skewered on a stick and coated in syrup. "They're sticky, sweet Japanese dumplings. The syrup's made from soy sauce, sugar, and starch." He then pointed to a pile of reddish-colored balls. "These are botamochi. They're sweet rice balls wrapped with anko."
"Anko?" Kristi asked.
"A paste made from azuki beans," Harper explained. "Sweetened anko is used in wagashi all the time."
"And this is yatsuhashi," the vendor smiled, holding out another variety of wagashi. "They're thin sheets of gyūhi. I fold mine into little triangles around a ball of red anko. They come in all sorts of flavors; this one's cinnamon. So, what would you like?"
"A bit of everything!" Ellie grinned delightedly, handing over some money. "Kyūri-sensei probably wouldn't exactly approve, but this stuff's worth it."
"Don't worry too much about old Kyūri," the vendor laughed as he doled out sweet treats to the werehyenas, the kitsune, and the kawauso. "He may bluster about me selling to his students, but he's secretly fond of me. He and my father were old friends. I'm Banri, by the way."
"Great to meet you, Banri-san," Beck smiled, bowing respectfully to Banri. "I'm Beck Hamilton (formerly Becky Hamilton, but that makes me sound like a girl, which I do NOT identify as), and these are my girlfriend Brianna Dixon and my friends Ellie Rubenstein, Harper Browning, Kristi Wenzel, and Joelle Bowman." She gestured to each of her friends in turn. "Hey, can I ask you something?"
"Sure!" Banri nodded. "Ask away."
"I thought only yōkai could find their way to this heya," Beck said. "Morgana-san said that's how it is with most gathering places of magicals. And yet you look human. How'd you get here?"
Banri chuckled. "looks can be deceiving, Beck-san. I may look like a human, but I'm every bit as yōkai as Kyūri is. Kappas are just more... obvious than rokurokubi."
"What's that?" asked Kristi.
"It's what I am," Banri explained. "Rokurokubi are human-seeming yōkai that can elongate and snake around. Watch."
Banri's neck slowly began to stretch out, growing longer and longer, finally reaching a length of twenty feet. Banri's neck twisted around like rubber, allowing his head to rove all over the grounds of the heya. Banri reached out to a paper-and bamboo lamp on a distant windowsill and opened it with his teeth. To the Ellie and hir friends' astonishment, Banri stuck his head in the lamp and began guzzling the vegetable oil fueling it!
Once he'd drunk his fill, Banri snapped his head back to its original length. "So," he laughed, "what do you think?"
"That was so cool!" Beck cheered. "You're like Elastigirl from The Incredibles!"
"Or Reed Richards from The Fantastic Four!" Ellie added.
"Considering this is Japan," Harper observed, "maybe a better comparison would be Monkey D. Luffy from One Piece."
"I actually get the Luffy comparison a lot from new jonokuchi all the time," Banri chuckled.
"But why did you drink the lamp oil?" Joelle asked.
"Rokurokubi are drawn to the taste of rapeseed oil," Banri explained. "It comes from the same plant as canola oil, but it's harvested from specimens with more erucic acid. This makes it taste too bitter for the palettes of humans or most yōkai (as well as not being very good for the human cardiac muscle), so its mostly used as a fuel, but that same bitter taste that puts off humans and other yōkai is irresistibly delicious to rokurokubi. In fact, erucic acid has an effect similar to alcohol on us."
"This is so amazing!" Harper grinned. "I've always wanted to visit Japan. The creatures, the food, it's so cool."
"I'm glad you like it here," Banri smiled. "Welcome to Japan."
The three new jonokuchi gathered up their pile of treats, thanking Banri profusely. They waved goodbye to their new stretchy-necked friend, leaving to eat their large dessert under a tree.