.

Viral

Senpai stood in the shower with his hand on the cold water knob. He gritted his teeth—"I'm a professional, dammit."— and turned the water on full. "AAAAAA," he clenched his fists as the cold water drenched his body. He managed to last thirty seconds before turning off the spigot.

He caught his breath and once again affirmed, "I am a professional."

Senpai had smugly assumed he'd mastered the art of painting naked women. He'd produced several awesome paintings of Nagatoro in that vein and spent a good deal of time with her dressed in nothing more than two hair clips and an ear ornament. It felt so easy and natural.

Because he'd eased into it.

At first, Nagatoro was asleep or, more likely, faked sleeping. Then that rain dash to her home and a fun time in the pool. Like Nagatoro told Sakura, you get used to nudity. For a while, he felt like he'd actually mastered the thing. Like the masters. Like a gynecologist. He was a professional.

A second model would present no problem. And, for the most part, she didn't. Until she stripped off that bikini to reveal those full round breasts blending with smooth sexy curves that led to that gorgeous plump bottom and those flawless toned legs.

Like any normal guy, his imagination had gone there when they went on their fake date, but to see it all in real life. Wow.

It might not have been so bad if it wasn't for her expressions. Shy, timid glances gave way to subtle pouts of lewd intent. Maintaining the "thirty-degree" position exposed all her wonder to his view. And it was glorious.

Not that his other model didn't look good. He still preferred Nagatoro by a million miles. He felt that honestly. They'd developed this admittedly creepy model-artist professional relationship, but it worked for them.

Would it continue to work?

Four days had elapsed since he entered Sakura's natural image into the game—and he was still taking cold showers.

Things hadn't worked out too well for the gaming club. They got demolished at a weekend Splatter Battle tournament, although the digital representation of their Monarch Princess rocked the show. Subsequently, someone leaked Sakura's character data onto the Internet. Hackers used game mods to access the tournament database, and versions of her figure went viral, becoming the unofficial Monarch standard all over Japan.

A gaming TV show invited Sakura to Tokyo for an interview at their studio, all expenses paid, and Nagatoro invited Senpai over to her place to watch it.

###

He knocked on the door of her home a half-hour before showtime.

"Hey, Senpai," Nagatoro said with a sly smile when she opened the door dressed in a blue top and red shorts. "Get that frown off your face, you pervert." She glanced up the stairs. "My brother's home."

"I wasn't expecting…" He shook his head. As usual, she'd nailed it.

He followed her into the living room, and they sat on the couch in front of the TV. A gaming channel show reviewed some new titles scheduled to come out the next quarter.

"Want something to drink?" Nagatoro asked.

"No, thanks. I'm fine. Do you want to play a game?" He pointed at the game console under the television.

"We better not. Sakura might come on any minute. Can you believe how popular she's gotten?"

"No, I can't."

"She's the number one game DLC in all of Japan." Nagatoro pointed at the ceiling. "My brother's got a copy of her. With those mods, they're dressing her up in the sexiest clothes… or less."

"No steam to keep things wholesome?"

"Are you kidding?"

Senpai scratched his head. "I still don't get why she's so popular. First of all, her team lost. And there's tons of that sort of stuff on the Internet."

"It's popular because she's a real girl. If Sakura were just some cute 2D character in some popular anime show, nobody would care about her. But all these gamer guys now have a real-life girl to go with the pictures. It makes all the difference in the world."

"I suppose." Senpai glanced at the set. "How much longer till Sakura comes on?"

Nagatoro shrugged. "Beats me. Hey, how about we play an analog game until she does?"

"What do you have in mind?"

"Let's play Truth or Dare."

"Huh?"

"Come on. It'll be fun."

Senpai smiled. "Okay. I dare you to take your clothes off."

Nagatoro squinted. "You are such a skeevy pervert, Senpai." She smiled. "You know, a month ago I might have smacked you. Now, that's about as wild a dare as you asking me for a soda—except me getting totally out of, and then back into my clothes probably wouldn't take as long." She rested her hands on her knees. "Proper dares are going to take up too much time, so let's play Truth or Truth instead."

Senpai frowned and pushed his glasses up his nose. "Okay."

"Truth," Nagatoro said. "Why did you go so nuts when you tickled me the other day?"

A smile crept on his face as he considered her question. "Because I had a free tickle pass?"

Nagatoro's brow creased as she focused on his eyes. "Truth."

"Because you sounded annoyed and, um… I didn't want to lose you as a model."

Maintaining her focus, she nodded slowly but then shook her head. "Truth."

His cheeks flushed, and he broke eye contact. "Because it was a lot of fun."

A wide smile lit up Nagatoro's face. "You're such a creeper." A giggle followed. "Okay, your turn."

"Why did you set up this thing with me drawing Sakura and let it go the way it did?"

"Because she's a good friend, and I wanted to help her out."

"Truth."

Nagatoro groaned.

"Truth."

"Because I think the girls are onto me. Especially Gamo and Yoshi. And I figured if I got Sakura to model nude for you, it wouldn't be as big a deal."

"I understand."

"What we're doing is kind of odd. Not that I want to stop modeling for you." She pinched her t-shirt. "I'm actually feeling kind of overdressed at the moment. But…" She pointed at the ceiling just as her brother's muffled laughter filtered through the floorboards.

"It's starting." Senpai motioned toward the TV screen. A montage of Splatter Battle game-play video clips showed Sakura's Monarch character dressed in her princess gown, then a bikini, then lingerie. The final clip pixelated the character's chest and private region.

The real-life image of Sakura filled the screen, seated on a couch next to the host's desk with her legs crossed, dressed in a fashionable hat, pink scarf, blue blouse, short white skirt, and thigh-high socks.

Nagatoro turned up the volume.

"How does it feel to be the most downloaded character in Japan right now?" the host asked.

"It's really pretty amazing. I can't believe all the attention I'm getting. Although it makes me kind of sad because my team didn't do that well in the tournament. Those guys worked hard."

"She's so sweet," Nagatoro said, "and she looks phenomenal."

"Does it bother you that players are using a modded risqué version of your likeness?"

"I think it would be a pretty boring world if you asked guys to switch off their imaginations. No, it doesn't bother me at all. It's not like they're seeing me that way in real life, even though the game engine is amazingly realistic."

Senpai pushed his glasses up his nose.

They watched the interview as Sakura fielded question after question, culminating with the query, "Is there anything you'd like to say to your fans?"

Sakura waved at the camera. "Thanks for all the warm vibes, guys. Oh, and I want to give a special thanks to my two friends who helped me with this. You know who you are." She flashed a thumbs-up sign.

"That was so cool." Nagatoro bumped her shoulder into Senpai's.

He nodded. "Definitely."

When the video stream shifted to a paid promotion for a new game, Nagatoro switched the set to console input and grabbed a controller. "Ready to get your ass kicked?"

Senpai grabbed the other controller. "Bring it on."

Author's Notes: Does anyone recognize the game I'm tangentially referring to? Yeah, it's pretty obvious if you own a Switch—although I made up the part about the mascot. Some trivia. I just found out Nagatoro is a town in Japan. In the Saitama Prefecture. (One Punch Man fans will recognize that name too.) Nagatoro is a beautiful natural getaway north of Tokyo. Tourists take boats up and down the Nagatoro River. Google "Nagatoro Saitama" to check it out. As always, thanks for the feedback and reviews! - SK