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Digitizing Sakura

Sakura strolled into the art club room and set a laptop case on the table. "Hey, guys."

Nagatoro, seated on the green couch, closed her manga and set it beside her. "Yo, Sakura-chan. Ready to strut your sexy stuff?"

"I'm as ready as I'll ever be."

Senpai opened the case, started the laptop, and plugged in his drawing tablet. Then, he started the Splatter Battle program and navigated to the Advanced character input section he'd worked with the night before.

Nagatoro looked her friend over. Sakura wore her standard daily attire—school uniform, loose socks and sneakers, half her blouse tucked in with the other half hanging out.

"Did you bring your bikini?" Nagatoro winked. "Or are you going to pose nude?"

Sakura's eyes widened, and her face flushed. She moved her hands to the buttons of her blouse. "I'm wearing it underneath my uniform." She glanced over at Senpai, working with the laptop. "Are you sure it'll be all right?"

"Don't worry. Senpai is a professional and a really good artist. Plus," she said in a louder voice, "I'm here, so he won't try anything skeevy."

Senpai groaned.

Sakura glanced at the entrance. "Can we lock the doors?"

"Of course." Nagatoro jogged over and padlocked them shut.

Senpai pulled his chair and a stool into the center of the room. He set the laptop on the stool, sat in the chair with the drawing pad in his lap, and pushed his glasses up his nose. "If you stand right there." He pointed at a mark on the floor. "That would be perfect."

"Okay." Sakura moved into position with her hands still grasping the buttons of her blouse.

"Come on, girl. Strip already."

"Toro-chan, stop it."

Nagatoro stepped forward. "Do you need help getting your clothes off?"

Sakura took a deep breath. "Senpai-kun, could you turn your chair around for just a moment?"

"Sure." Senpai turned.

Sakura unbuttoned her blouse, dropped her skirt, and stepped out of her socks and sneakers. Nagatoro took the clothes, folded them, and set them to the side.

"Okay, I'm ready."

When Senpai turned, his eyes bulged. Sakura stood smiling with her arms at her sides, dressed in a skimpy red bikini.

Nagatoro suppressed a growl as steam rose from her head.

"Is this okay?" Sakura smiled sweetly.

Senpai pushed his glasses up his nose again. "Um… I promise I'll do my best."

For the next thirty minutes, Senpai entered digital renditions of Sakura's front, profile, back, and top. The entries went in far more smoothly now that he'd had experience.

"That's good for now." He stepped off his chair and took the laptop back to the table.

"Can I get dressed?" Sakura asked.

Senpai replied, "This is the first time I've entered a person into this game, um… that looks like you, so I may have to tweak a few things."

"He has to 'interpolate,'" Nagatoro said.

"I understand." Sakura sat on the couch next to Nagatoro.

Ten minutes later, Senpai looked over with a frown. "I think I'm done."

Nagatoro and Sakura hopped up and jogged behind him to look over his shoulders at the laptop screen.

Senpai ran Sakura's Monarch character through the same demo program he'd taken Nagatoro's character through the night before. "What do you think?" he asked as he made her dance.

"It looks off," Sakura said.

"It does." Nagatoro nodded.

"I don't want to sound ungrateful. This looks a million times better than putting my head on one of those creepy defaults, but my body doesn't look like that." She sighed. "It's sort of close. And I appreciate you trying."

"He's not done yet," Nagatoro said. "He can fix it."

Senpai met her eyes. "But she's… different."

"You can fix it." Nagatoro led Sakura back to her modeling spot, and Senpai returned to his chair.

Senpai did his best to tweak the full-figure image of the bikini-clad beauty standing before him, but the character's features still looked off.

"What's the problem?" Nagatoro asked. "Your inputs look fine."

"Yeah, but this game has that really amazing physics engine, remember?"

"So?"

"That means it works with the data it gets. If the figures don't go in exactly right, it'll look off."

Nagatoro nodded. "The bikini is messing things up."

Sakura blinked. "Huh?"

"Unsupported breasts don't hang that way." Nagatoro pointed at the Monarch's chest. "Your bikini top is lifting and deforming the natural fall of your breasts."

"Can't he, you know, interpolate?"

He sighed. "I'm trying my best, but it's coming out wrong. I'm not used to drawing bare breasts that big."

"What?" Sakura's jaw dropped, and she looked at her friend.

Nagatoro stood stiff with wide eyes and crimson cheeks.

"Are you modeling for him nude, Toro-chan?"

Nagatoro clenched her fists. "Senpai!"

He turned his head away. "I'm sorry… I, um…"

Nagatoro took a deep breath and unballed her fists. "It's fine." She shrugged. "Can you show her what we did?"

"Sure." Senpai fished a flash drive out of his pocket, imported the Nagatoro Monarch character, and started the demo program.

Sakura looked over Senpai's shoulder with a sly smile. Then her eyes bulged. "Oh my god. That's amazing!" She turned to her friend. "She moves exactly like you do."

Nagatoro pointed. "See how my hair sways and my breasts bounce?"

Sakura nodded. "It's perfect." She stepped back and crossed her arms under her breasts. "So, to get mine like that, I have to pose nude?"

"It's not so bad." Nagatoro rested her hand on Senpai's shoulder. "He's a professional."

Sakura took a step back, paused, then stepped forward. "Can you show me mine again?"

Senpai replaced the Nagatoro Monarch character with the Sakura character and moved her around.

"Now show me Toro-chan's."

Senpai did.

"Oh, man!" Sakura's fabric-encased breasts bounced when she jumped up and down. "I can't believe this." She took a deep breath, expelled it, and glanced back at her modeling spot on the floor. She looked down at her body and turned to her friend. "Are you sure it's fine?"

"Of course. I have no problem taking off my clothes, too, if you don't feel comfortable being the only naked girl in the room."

"For real?"

Nagatoro nodded.

Sakura patted Senpai's shoulder. "Show me Toro-chan's character again."

Senpai showed her.

"I really don't have a choice."

"Turn around, Senpai," Nagatoro said. Five minutes later. "We're ready."

When he turned his chair back, two gorgeous naked girls stood at the mark on the floor. Nagatoro clasped her wrist behind her back with a cheerful smile. Sakura stood wide-eyed with her legs clenched and her arms wrapped over her chest.

"Come on, girl. Thirty-degree pose." Nagatoro pulled her friend's wrists apart and nudged her feet to the sides. "Posing nude is like jumping into cold water," she whispered. "You'll get used to it in a minute."

"Okay." Sakura took a deep breath and forced a smile.

Senpai entered the corrections like a consummate pro. By the time he took her close-up headshots, Sakura's posture had softened.

"All done," he said. He took the laptop to the table.

"Can we get dressed now?" Sakura asked.

"We could. Or we could stay nude in case Senpai needs to tweak something."

Sakura shrugged, giggled, and sat down next to her friend. "Okay."

Ten minutes later, both girls stood behind Senpai as he ran the new and improved Sakura Monarch character through her demo program paces.

"That looks fantastic!" Sakura squealed as she watched the Princess version of her digital copy twirl and dance. "Thank you so much!" She bent forward and hugged Senpai from behind.

Senpai's eyes bulged, and his face flushed as two unfamiliar globes compressed into his back.

Nagatoro's eyes shot Sakura a death ray.

She straightened and crossed her arms over her breasts. "Whoops. I'm sorry."

Nagatoro regained her composure. "It really does look a million times better. What did I tell you?"

"It's perfect." Sakura bowed. "Thank you both so much."

###

Senpai and Nagatoro walked home together under a waning sky, Nagatoro with her shoulders slumped forward. "Congratulations. I bet you had the thrill of your life digitizing Sakura's choice figure and impressive breasts."

He pushed his glasses up his nose. "It was okay. I suppose."

They walked silently for another five minutes.

"The thing about Sakura, though," Senpai said, "is she doesn't feel at home in her skin. I mean, that's the impression she gives off."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean… she's really good with fashion. And she knows how to make herself look pretty and all. Like when we went on that pretend date. She wore that cute hat and matching outfit. I could tell she felt at home right then. But then in school, she's forced to wear the uniform… and she does the best she can to make a fashion statement by keeping half her shirt tucked in and by wearing those puffy socks…"

He glanced over to see Nagatoro gazing up at him with intense concentration. He looked forward and continued.

"When she modeled naked, I got that same feeling, like something wasn't right, like she didn't belong. But I don't get that from you. You look perfect in your school uniform. You wear it like it belongs on you, and I love drawing that. And your swim club one-piece… it suits you to a tee. It's comfortable and natural." He bit his lip. "And when you're naked... everything's in the exact right place, in the exact right proportions, like you belong that way. At least it feels that way to me."

Nagatoro considered telling Senpai how gross and creepy he was, but decided instead to quietly bask in the warm feelings his words had produced. They remained silent until they reached the crossing where their paths diverged.

Nagatoro grabbed Senpai's hand and rested her head on his shoulder. "Thanks, Senpai."

Senpai returned the squeeze as he glanced down at the top of her head.

"See you tomorrow." She dropped his hand and ran off down the street.

Author's Notes: Another week, another chapter. Apologies to mihairu7 for messing with the comments. After I post a chapter, I go over it about a hundred times and every time I seem to find another error. It's usually a good idea to wait a day or two after I post if you want the final version of the chapter, although the changes aren't ever major. — SK