Oni Candy

by Stephen

"I'm.. I'm sorry." she said to Ataru with uncharacteristic politeness. "Excuse me." She scooped up her daughter and hurried away, looking shaken. It took a lot to worry Sakura. Ataru decided that perhaps he should hurry home after all. ****************** "Mmm..." Lum took another huge bite of cheese log. "Mmmmmmmm!" "How can you stand to keep eating like that?" Ran said, making a disgusted face. "All you do is stuff yourself with junk food all day long." "Well, it's not my fault--" Lum paused to stuff the stump of the log into her mouth and pushed the wad to one side. "Oni babies need a lot of food to grow." She patted her stomach, eight months gravid with her and Ataru's first child. Remarkably, thanks to the elasticity of Oni fabrics, she was still able to squeeze herself into her everyday tiger-striped bikini. Her breasts, though they had grown larger in preparation for nursing, were contained by the top, and she was able to slip into the panties which were fortunately slung low enough to accomodate her distended abdomen. Some woman in her condition would have been embarassed to show so much of themselves, but Lum was proud of her pregnancy- she had always dreamed of becoming a mother, and at the very least her stomach was definitive proof that she had, in fact, finally been able to get Darling into bed.

"Besides," Lum continued, ripping open a package of chips, "You're eating more that I am." The floor of Ataru's room was covered with their combined wrappers and other garbage. "You should try carrying Rei's kid sometime." There was no way Ran could have fit into her old clothes. Even with two months before her due date, she was barely able to squeeze into her pink maternity T-shirt and jogging pants. "I HAVE to eat all the time, or else this kid starts kicking up a storm. And she doesn't care how full I am, she just keeps making me eat- half the time I end up too stuffed to move. Not that I can move very well anyway what with carrying this huge baby in front of me." "The baby's not THAT big, Ran-chan." Lum said mischeiviously. "All that eating is making you fat!" She poked the mammoth sphere of Ran's belly with a finger, watching it indent the soft layer of insulation. "Oh, that makes me feel so much better. Thanks a lot." Ran groused. "You're not exactly keeping your slim figure either. Oh great!" she moaned as she felt a kick on the inside of her belly. "You woke her up! Now I have eat again- I'm about to burst already!" Grimaceing, she started in on a slice of leftover large pan pizza that graced a nearby half-empty box she'd started in on earlier. "Food's coming okay?" she snapped at her vibrating belly. "I'm so jealous of you." Lum started as she gazed an Ran's hugeness. "Your stomach is so big and active- mine hardly does anything." "You WANT a stomach like this?" Ran snorted. "You'd hate if you actually--" The rest of her words were muffled as she crammed the entire slice into her mouth in an effort to get it down and over with. "But still..." Lum sighed, popping open a box of candy and shaking a few directly into her mouth. "I-" "LUUUM-CHAN!" Ataru called from downstairs. Lum swallowed the mouthful of candy and called to him. "Daaaaarling! Up here!" Within seconds, Ataru had pounded up the stairs and was in the room. "Lum, are you all right?" "I'm fine Darling, why?" Lum asked, puzzled. She was astonished as Ataru knelt down and embraced her. "D-Darling, I--" she stammered, flushing. Ataru's hand crept down to her belly, rubbing its taut surface to make sure their child was still safe. "Oh, it's nothing.. I was just worried about you, that's all. Sakura's brat said something was going to happen today, something to do with Jariten." "But he isn't even here, Darling, he's started school on Uru full-time, you know. I even got a nice package from him this morning with some candy and things, wasn't that thoughtful?" She shook out another piece of candy into her hand and popped it in her mouth. "Lum!" Ataru started in shock. "What are you- spit out that candy, quick!" "Darling, wha-" "SPIT IT OUT!" He grabbed her roughly. "NOW!!" Lum spat the candy out onto the carpet, then growled at Ataru, showing her fangs, "How dare you yell at--" "Lum, you IDIOT! Haven't we seen a dozen times the horrible effects this candy has on Earth creatures? Remember the swallow that turned into a penguin and the little blowfish that grew huge and started spitting electrified water? You can't put this stuff in a Earthling system!!!" "Well, I'm not FROM Earth, STUPID!" "And what about the half-human baby in your stomach, hmm? Do you want to take the risk that this candy won't affect-" "Oh!" Lum's hands flew up to cover her mouth. "I almost-" Then it hit her like a bucket of ice water. "No...no... oh, Darling... I... already ate some..." She began to shiver with fear. "Oh Darling, oh Darling... what have I done to our baby?" Already her voice broke and she began to sob. Ataru had tears of fear pouring down his cheeks as well. For a minute, all he and Lum could do was hold each other. There was silence for a minute, broken only by the sound of Ran chewing pizza crusts, apparently oblivious to what was happening around her, locked into her cravings. Then Lum hiccupped loudly. "My- hic- my stomach feels- hic- really strange- " The young woman's face began to take on a green tinge like that of her hair. "Ooooh, I- HIC!!" Lum jerked a foot into air and hung there. Suddenly she remembered Ten's accounts of what had happened to the swallow and the fish- before they had changed, they had gone into a frenzy of activity. "Uuuhh!" The baby kicked her, hard, and then with no warning at all, she shot through the ceiling and into the sky. Fortunately, the often-rebuilt Moroboshi house was flimsy enough that crashing through the roof gave her nothing worse that a few scrapes, but the shock sent her heart leaping into her throat. She could feel the pulling of her abdomen and instinctively wrapped her hands around it to hold on, as if she were Baron Munchausen riding a cannonball. "LUM!" Ataru screamed as she vanished from sight. "Ran- Ran, we have to do something!" "Can't talk. Gorging." Ran mumbled, spraying flecks of pizza sauce on the carpet. Ignoring her, Ataru leapt out the window, using all his skills developed over years of chasing the most fleet-footed and athetic of girls to twist in midair and haul himself on to the roof. "LUUUUUM!" he cried again, scanning the horizon for any sight of her. "DAAARLIIIIIING, HEEELP!" came the reply, loud and getting louder. Lum was being pulled horizontally now, skimming the housetops like a dolphin riding the crest of the waves as she headed back towards the Moroboshi house. As she passed over his head, Ataru leapt straight up to grab her, hoping he could pull her down to the roof. His efforts failed however, as the tip of his finger just managed to snag her briefs, and he felt himself lifting away from the ground too.

Before he had even fully realized what happened, the ground was too far below Ataru to ever consider letting go. Instead he got a better grip, pulling himself up and getting a glimpse of the Oni girl's plump, shapely buttocks as his finger yanked the briefs off her rear. He had to force himself to tug his eyes away (he was used to gawking even in potentially lethal situations, and had to remind himself that his wife and child were in danger too), and wrapped his arms around her body and stomach in a protective embrace. Not that there was anything to run into up here- they seemed to be going higher and higher. With his hands on Lum's belly, Ataru could feel the changes happening within it, the rumbles and bumps, and the gradually swelling out of her abdomen beneath his fingers. What was happening in there? The air began to get thin and cold, and the only warmth they had was each other. To Lum, who was used to spending time in the upper trophosphere wearing scanty clothing, it wasn't nearly as uncomfortable as it was for Ataru. "Lum...chan..." he whispered. "I'm... I'm going to freeze... " "Darling, no.." Lum fought to reverse direction and head back down again, but couldn't. A tear dripped from her eye and froze on her cheek. "Dammit!" she screamed into the wind. She swatted her rubbery, percolating belly with her hands. "You're killing your father! Turn around!" Her stomach stretched as what was inside pulled up as she struggled violently to go down, and it continued growing, so big around now Ataru was barely keeping a grip on it. Then, as soon as it had started, the stage of frenzied movement was over, and the effects of gravity coupled with Lum's desperate exertions sent them plummeting down like a cannonball. The air began to get warmer and thicker, and Ataru revived somewhat-- but they were falling too fast, far too fast, and Lum realized that for all her efforts to slow her descent she was too large and heavy now to have much influence over her own body's mass, let alone Ataru's addtional weight on top of that. The houses below were clearly in view now, and Lum closed her eyes for the invitable splatter. She was surprised as Ataru, reviving from his near-freezing, adroitly slipped directly under her and postioned himself as a shield. "Da-" she started, and then they hit. The impact was tremendous, Lum's weight driving Ataru through the roof and causing the floor of Ataru's room to virtually implode as they crashed through it and created a crater where the dining room table had been. Momentarily stunned, Lum regained her senses to find her mother-in-law frantically attempting to administer help to her, though there wasn't much she could do. Ataru's father had drawn his head down behind his newspaper like a turtle hiding in its shell- his usual response to any out-of-the-ordinary occurance. "Lum, dear, are you okay?" Mrs. Moroboshi said, lifting Lum's sagging head. "Y-yeah... uh..." the stunned girl answered, blinking her eyes to make the room stop spinning. "Oh no, I... I landed on Darling! Please, help roll me over!" She was trying her hardest to roll over on her own, but her massive belly was stuck into the floorboards, with Ataru buried underneath in. "Do we have to right away?" "Yes! Please hurry!" Lum pleaded tearfully. "He could be suffocating under there!" "All right, all right..." With the two women working together, it wasn't long before Lum was rolled over onto her back, gasping for air as the full weight of her stomach pressed down on her. She turned her head and looked into the hole, fearful of what she might see. "D-darling..." she choked, her worst fears being comfirmed. Ataru had taken the full force of the impact and been compressed to less than a centimeter of thickness. "No.. he... he gave his life, he put himself there to take the impact, to save me and the baby..." Tears began to flow freely down her cheeks. "Oh, don't be a big wuss." Ataru said crossly, sitting up in the crater. Lum stared at him with a mixture of shocked relief and utter confusion.

"You're alive?" she asked in puzzlement. "What, you think I haven't taken worse than that? As long as a sexy girl is involved, I'm invulnerable to damage. It is my hentai nature after all." He spoke almost with pride in his voice. "Darling, you..." Lum flushed. "You still think I'm... sexy?" "Of course!" "But... I'm so huge! I mean sure I was getting pretty big before but--" She couldn't even see around her stomach- it must have been close to the size of a beach ball. "You're still gorgeous." He leaned down and kissed her, which shocked her speechless momentarily, as it wasn't something he usually did when anyone but the two of them were around. "But... It IS worrisome, because we don't know what exactly happened..." Still, with their wild flight over, he couldn't worry too much. "Probably just a really big baby. I'm sure they can do a C-section or something, though. But you need to be checked out by a doctor as soon as possible." He tried to cheer her up. "Hey, our kid could be a basketball star or something!" "Oooooooooh..." Ran moaned. Having ignored everyone else for the last several minutes, she was now miffed that they seemed to be ignoring her. One greasy hand rubbed her gravid, gorged belly gingerly as she peered over the edge of the massive hole between floors. Near the corner at the moment of impact, she had fortunately avoided the comet of destruction, but she didn't seem especially happy about it. Her face was a pale greenish color, and unbelieveably, she looked ever huger than she had been earlier- the stitching on her shirt was on its last legs. "I caaaan't believe I ate the whooole thing." Her other hand was flopped haphazardly into the empty pizza box. "Ran, can't you see Lum's in trouble?" Ataru asked curtly. Ran belched loudly in response. "We've got to get you to a hospital!" Mrs. Moroboshi said worriedly. "Can you fly?" "I... I don't think so..." Lum said. "Honey, call for an ambulance." Ataru's mother barked to her husband, who quickly scurried off to do her bidding. "Take me too." Ran whined plaintively. "Oh, I think I'm going to be sick." ********* The hospital smelled like chemicals, like natto, but Ataru didn't notice the smell as he paced back and forth waiting for Lum to come back from her tests. The floor at his feet was covered in cigarette butts- not his, Benten's. The the goddess of the cosmos had arrived on her motorbike as soon as she learned of her friends hospitalization. Oyuki had come even earlier, arriving at the hospital through a dimensional warp. Ran was sprawled on a couch, having slipped into a food-induced coma, and was snoring away obliviously to the beating of her stomach as the baby kicked for still more sustenance. "You might want to put your cigarette out, Benten." Oyuki said cooly. "The smoke isn't good for Ran's baby or mine, and besides, it's against the hospital rules." "Hey, I'm nervous, okay?" Benten said crossly. "A little bit's not going to hurt the kid. And goddesses don't submit to the rules of mere mortals." "You might want to put your cigarette out." Oyuki repeated, her voice low and cold and emotionless. "Yes ma'am." Benten hurriedly stubbed her cigarette out one one of her armor plates. "Hey-- wait, what do you mean, YOUR baby?" If Oyuki was flustered at having slipped, she didn't show it. "Yes, I am pregnant. Five months along so far. I wanted to wait to tell you all until after Lum and Ran delivered, in order not to take the attention away from them... Ran especially seems to like being in the spotlight." "Uh, yeah." Benten said, glancing at Ran, who looked like she was dreaming about indigestion at the moment. "Huh, I noticed but I thought you were just getting fat. So... who's the father?" "He was a mistake." Oyuki replied frankly. "He said he loved me, and then one day I woke up and he was gone. All that was left was a puddle in bed and his hat, and a note. He said he would be back someday the next time snow fell, but it doubt it." If she had ever cried any tears over this, they were staying in her private life. "And you, Benten?" "Me what?" Benten asked, surprised. "You're the only one of us who hasn't announced a pregnancy. Do you have anything you're keeping from us?" "I'm NOT pregnant!" Benten said, poking a finger defiantly at her flat-as-a-board abdomen. "You guys might be ready to start a family, but I'm wild! I am untamed! I'm never going to settle down and become somebody's sweet little mommy!" "Keep on living as wild and untamed as you have been." Oyuki said softly, the tiniest sliver of a smile on her lips. "I'm sure it won't be long." "I--hey!" Benten fumed. "Did you just call me a slut? Look, I'M not the one who went and got herself knocked up, ya hypocritical ice bi--" All heads in the room, except Ran's lolling, cotten-candy haired one, turned as the door opened and the medical examiner led Lum out. She flew with difficulty, struggling to keep aloft while carrying her jumbo-sized belly, but she was clearly happy about something, and save for a fading red mark across her forehead caused by her fall through the floor, unharmed. "Hey look, it's the Fuji blimp!" Benten exclaimed cheerfully, relieved to see that Lum was okay. "Lum-chan! What did he say? What happened to the baby?" Ataru asked hurridly. "Well Darling... it's not really a baby anymore." Lum said, inexplicably smiling as she delivered this chilling pronouncement. "N-not a baby..." Ataru repeated in horror. "Then... then what is it?" "It's TEN babies!" Lum exclaimed joyously. "We're going to have dectuplets! Isn't that wonderful, Darling?" "WHAAAAAT?" "Aren't you happy? I always wanted to have a large family and now we get one right off!" "TEN BABIES?!" Things began to come back to Ataru- what had Hanako said? She said she saw `ten`... and then she'd gotten confused when he'd mentioned Jariten. So she had meant ten babies... why couldn't she have just SAID that at the time? "Well, congratulations, Lum." Oyuki said. "Thanks!" Lum said, setting carefully into a chair, legs splayed. "You too." The metal legs of the chair creaked under her weight, and the plastic was cold on her rear. "I need to get some maternity panties..." she sighed. "And here I thought I would make it all the way through without getting maternity clothes. Then again, the babies are due in only a few weeks- maybe I could just go bare until then, Darling?" She winked at him flirtatiously. "TEN BABIES? AAAAAGHHH...." "He'll be fine in a little while, I'm sure." Lum said. THE END