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Scouting the Gallery

The following Wednesday, a courier from the Kawasaki Gallery arrived to pick up six, not five, paintings of model Hayase Nagatoro painted by artist Naoto "Senpai" Hachioji. After adding the finishing touches to Nagatoro Sitting by the Pool on Monday, Senpai felt inspired to brush the sixth of the series the following day. Calling on a combination of vivid memories and images stored on his phone, he created a work depicting a rear view of his model seated with her arm to her face, impersonating a stringed instrument. He titled the piece Cello-Toro.

Sakura came up with a name for the gallery display. "Now I know how you manage to stay put for an hour when he paints you," she chided Nagatoro. "He ties you up and turns you into a still life!" She chuckled. "Then he turns you into his plaything. Did he tie you up for every one?"

"No. Just four of them."

Sakura's eyes bulged. "Toro-chan!"

"Most of the stuff he does to me when I'm tied up is mild," Nagatoro said in her defense. "And he never made me come before. The pool session was the first time. I swear."

After giving her friend a lecture on birth control, Sakura suggested naming the display Toying With Nagatoro. "It's vague enough so nobody else will get the joke, but provocative enough that it'll be memorable."

Nagatoro Sitting by the Pool and Cello-Toro joined Nagatoro Reclining, Nagatoro on her Belly, Nagatoro Seated, and Nagatoro Under a Limb in the gallery presentation scheduled to run from Thursday through Sunday.

Disguised in her Kazahaya High School hoodie and a flu mask, Nagatoro visited the the display on opening day, Thursday evening. Senpai, conservatively dressed and maskless, joined her.

The Kawasaki Gallery offered a hip, spacious floor plan that focused on game and anime-related art and paraphernalia. In addition to the Splatter Battle Zone, other sections spotlighted popular games like Luigi Kart, Smash Sisters, Pokerman, and others.

A prominent display near the front featured Princess Sakura merchandise. It offered posters, t-shirts, figurines, and even racy coffee mugs—the kind where the princess's gown disappeared when hot or cold water was added to the container, leaving the princess in a bikini.

The Toying With Nagatoro display graced the floor plan's back corner in its own glass-walled room. Senpai and Nagatoro stood in the center of the room along with four other people.

"I have to admit," Nagatoro said. "It's cool how they set it up."

"I know," Senpai replied. "The framing, placement, and lighting are perfect."

"Well, it is a big name gallery. I suppose these people know what they're doing."

A bespectacled young guy stepped into the room, walked up to Senpai and Nagatoro, and bowed. "Hello, so glad you could make it."

"Are you Mr. Kawasaki?" Senpai asked.

"Me? Heck no. I'm Takao, one of his assistants. I manage this place. Mr. K has way too much going on with his TV shows and other ventures to deal with this little old gallery. I don't even think he knows my name."

"He seems to have time for Sakura," Nagatoro said.

Takao raised his eyebrows. "You mean the smoking hot blonde?"

Nagatoro shook her head. "Never mind."

Takao shrugged, then squinted at the mask. "Miss Nagatoro, I presume?"

"Yes, that's me." She lowered the fabric.

"Nice to meet you." He bowed. "Your paintings are truly lovely. And my teenage nephew is in love with your Splatter Battle avatar. He's coming Sunday. Would you do me a solid and take a selfie with him? It would make his year. Can I give you the grand tour in exchange?"

Nagatoro groaned. "You don't need to bribe me. I'd be glad to take a picture with your nephew."

"Come on, guys. I want to show you anyway." Takao motioned with his hand. "Let me take you to the command center."

They followed him through a back door and up a flight of stairs to a control room with several large LCD monitors attached to the wall opposite a counter lined with stools. Several of the monitors displayed a checkerboard of security camera views of the main floor from every conceivable angle.

Other monitors displayed auction information for various sale items. He walked them over to a monitor whose label read "Auction 9: Toying With Nagatoro." Thumbnails of Senpai's six paintings were evenly spaced across the screen. A list of bidders and bids sat below each thumbnail.

Nagatoro read the list below the Nagatoro Reclining thumbnail. Crab $24.00, Noodles $18.50, Dan22 $17.00… She turned. "Who are these people?"

"They're regular human beings like me and you bidding on the paintings. I imagine the list includes fans from all around the world. That's why all the amounts are in US dollars, by the way. For international auctions dollars are the defacto currency."

She scanned the other lists. At the moment, each of the paintings had high bids between $20 and $100.

"We opened the auction at noon today and will close it at 8 PM sharp on Sunday."

"My paintings already have this many bids?" Senpai asked.

"Those initial bids are mainly people testing out their mouses. The real bidding doesn't start till the last hour on Sunday. That's when things heat up. Although the movement we see before then will be a good indicator of how well your paintings will do. We get a lot of agents in here, shopping for others. Judging from the research I've done, I think we'll see a lot of action from the United States. Two of our California resellers have shown a ton of interest in these works."

"Resellers?"

"People that think they can make a profit reselling your work. It's not uncommon for good Japanese art to sell for double what it does here in an LA art gallery. It depends on the art."

"How do you think we'll do?" Nagatoro asked.

Takao scratched his chin. "I think you'll do really well, and not just because of the Splatter Battle tie-in. Speaking as an unbiased art critic…"

"And not a skeevy pervert," Nagatoro quipped.

Takao glanced at Senpai. "You put up with this?"

"You have no idea."

Takao continued, "If you don't mind me saying so, Miss Nagatoro, your natural form is not only lovely to view, but you come across as extremely comfortable and inviting in your skin. Nudity suits you. That's special." He turned to the monitor. "I think these will sell for $10,000 easy."

Senpai's jaw dropped. "No way. That's over one million Yen for the lot."

Takao shook his head. "No, I'm talking $10,000 apiece. Of course, the gallery gets its twenty percent cut."

Nagatoro took Senpai's arm. "It hurts my heart to see the paintings go."

Takao said, "I can have copies made for $200 apiece, framed and delivered. It's in your contract."

"I insisted they let us keep private copies for ourselves," Senpai said.

Nagatoro frowned. "It won't be the same."

"No it won't," Takao said. "But you can't tell the difference from a distance. Besides, you've got everything you need to make more."

Senpai and Nagatoro held hands.

Author's Notes: Okay, I'm late again. Apologies! An amazing thing happened last week when I checked the story statistics on FFN. Normally, I get a bunch of views on the day I post and then it gradually falls off the next few days. Last week, the view count increased! The day after I posted it got more views and even more the day after that. An image of Nagatoro came to mind, on her phone texting everyone, "Yarashi! Yarashi!" Anyway, thanks for stopping in. Hopefully, I'll post on time next week. — SK