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Exposure

Senpai stood at his easel, freshly sharpened pencil in hand. Before him, on the table, sat an apple, a banana, and an orange.

Scarcity value, he thought to himself as Nagatoro's prophetic words echoed through his brain. "Why draw fruit when you can paint a real live girl?"

Unfortunately, the real live girl was doing laps in the pool with her swim club. It never hurt to practice the basics.

The club room door rattled and slid open. "Hello, Senpai-kun." Sakura's sweet melodic voice complimented her smile. Dressed in her standard high school uniform attire—shirt half tucked, poofy socks—she strutted into the room and sat down on the couch. Her blouse, unbuttoned down to her breasts, strained when she crossed her legs, leaned forward, and rested her hands on her knee. "What are you doing?"

He pushed his glasses up his nose and motioned toward his easel. "Practicing my drawing."

"Fruit. That's got to be boring compared to the stuff you usually draw."

He sighed. "Um… well…" He looked down. "I guess it is."

"You know, it's a funny thing." Sakura brushed a few strands of her blond hair behind her ear. "You develop a special bond with someone who's seen you naked. Do you feel that way?"

"I… um…"

Sakura hopped to her feet and stepped next to Senpai at the easel. "You're really good at this." She turned and met his eyes. "Especially when you've got the right subject."

Senpai's heart skipped a beat when Sakura brushed his arm.

"Show me the paintings you made of Toro-chan."

"I can't. Those are personal."

"Don't worry. She said it would be okay."

His palm slid over his pants pocket, covering it. "I'm not sure if I…"

Sakura put her hands on her hips. "You've done three paintings. In one she's laying on her side, in one she's on her belly with her ankles crossed, and in one she's sitting in that chair." Sakura pointed to the chair. "She's got all the original canvases rolled up and stored under her bed."

"Is that where she keeps them?"

"Show me your phone."

Senpai fished his phone out of his pocket, navigated to the painting gallery, and handed the device to Sakura.

She smiled as she flipped through the images. "These are amazing Senpai-kun. I am so jealous of what you and Toro-chan have going on. She's a good friend, and she deserves to be with someone who worships her the way you do."

"I don't..."

Her fingertips deftly manipulated the touch screen.

Senpai reached out. "What are you doing?"

"I'll tell you later. If everything works out all right." The phone chimed. "Which I'm sure it will." She tapped some more, stopped, and handed him the device.

Senpai took his phone, verified all his images were still intact, and pocketed it.

Sakura strolled to the door and turned. "Thanks again for all you did." She waved—"Bye."—and took off down the hall.

###

Earlier that day, in the cafeteria …

Having finished their lunch, Gamo-chan, Yoshi, and Nagatoro rose from the table. Sakura remained seated and tapped Nagatoro's arm. "Hang on. I want to talk to you for a minute."

"Okay." She sat in the chair opposite her friend at the table.

Gamo-chan strolled away. "See you later."

"Later days." Yoshi joined her.

Nagatoro rested her chin on her intertwined fingers. "What's up, Sakurua-chan? How does it feel to be world famous?"

"I'm not gonna lie, it's really fun. Five guys already confessed to me this morning, and a couple hundred sent me love letters via my online forum."

"You've got a forum?"

"Heck, yeah. Mr. Kawasaki helped me set it up. He's the executive producer of the show I was on the other day. He's helping me out with some other stuff too—and he's taking his cut—but that's another story. Anyway, that's why I wanted to talk to you."

"About what?"

"What kind of art has Senpai-kun made of you?"

Nagatoro's cheeks reddened, and she tightened her lips.

"Come on. You can tell me. We're sisters in nudity, remember?"

She groaned. "I guess. So far he's made three paintings of me."

"Totally naked?"

"Pretty much." She glanced down. "They're really good."

"And Senpai-kun has them in the art room?"

Nagatoro's eyes widened. "No way. I keep them at home."

"Framed?"

"Rolled up under my bed."

"So what's Senpai got? Pleasant memories?"

"No, of course not. He's got pictures of the paintings on his phone. Why are you asking me all this?"

"Now that I'm all kinds of popular, Mr. Kawasaki wants to license my image. For figma figures and t-shirts, that kind of thing."

"Can he do that? You're part of a game. I remember what happened when those companies tried to make unlicensed merch of Miku Hatsune."

"That's the beauty of his plan. It's true that I'm a Monarch character in Splatter Battle and Vapor owns the full rights to that image. According to Vapor's terms of service, I gave up all my rights when we uploaded my data. But what's cool is that the data isn't just some made-up animated character like Miku. It's linked to a real live person." Sakura self-pointed her thumb. "Me. Since their game engine is so darned realistic, they have to be careful. But Mr. Kawasaki doesn't have to be. There's nothing stopping him from making figures, posters, and t-shirts of a real-life human model, as long as he doesn't infringe on any of Vapor's trademarks."

Nagatoro nodded. "So you, dressed in a generic princess outfit…"

Sakura giggled. "Or less."

"…is fine."

"Nude?"

"No way. Unless they make me a really, really good offer. Mr. K warned me to be realistic about all this. My popularity will probably fizzle out in a week or two when everyone is onto the next big thing."

"So what does all this have to do with me?"

"I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you and Senpai-kun, and I told Mr. K that. I told him about how Senpai-kun entered my image data and that he was really talented. Then Mr. K told me about how we gave up all our rights to the Monarch image when he uploaded it thanks to Vapor's terms of service, but he could tell Senpai-kun had talent from what he did for me, and he'd like to see his other work. Mr. K owns a gallery in downtown Tokyo where he introduces new products, and a section of the gallery hosts regular shows. He says if Senpai-kun's work is good enough, he'd love to sponsor an exhibit." She shrugged. "Of course, he'll take his cut."

"Uh-uh." Nagatoro shook her head. 'There's no way. No way in the world he's doing something like that."

"Why not?"

Nagatoro planted her hands on the tabletop and leaned forward. "Those are paintings of me—without any clothes on!"

"They call that art."

"I don't care what they call it. It's not happening. Those paintings are not going on display."

"Do it for Senpai-kun."

"He said he already got his reward for being able to paint me."

Sakura frowned. "Seriously? This is a huge opportunity that could jump start his career."

"But all that exposure."

"It's no big deal." Sakura tapped a button on her blouse. "The whole country knows what I look like under this."

"Then why don't you pose for him?"

"Do you think the paintings would turn out half as good?"

Nagatoro visualized the paintings she'd unrolled atop her mattress after waking. A pleasant glow warmed her core. "No."

"So again, what's Senpai gotten out of all of this? You keep all the canvases. All he's got are three digital images and some memories, right?"

Nagatoro dropped her head onto the pillow of her arms.

"You want him to succeed, don't you?"

"Of course."

"He's got a shot at a featured display in a big city art gallery. Most artists would give their left nut for an opportunity like that." Sakura giggled. "If they had one."

Nagatoro chuckled.

"Come on. I'll help you with this. Like you helped me."

Nagatoro raised her head. "If I do decide to go ahead with this, how would we proceed?"

"I need to text Mr. K some samples of Senpai-kun's work. If he hates them, you're off the hook. If he likes them, full steam ahead!"

Author's Notes: First of all, it's totally coincidental that Executive Producer Mr. Kawasaki has the same last name as me. Secondly, I love how they change the names of familiar products in Japanese anime. Things like Mikon and Somy. The Pear logo. For those who didn't know, the game name Splatter Battle comes from the Switch Game Splatoon, and the gaming company Vapor is my take on Steam, even though technically, Steam is only a platform. So, will I be impressed by the pictures Sakura texted me? Find out next week! — SK