.

Auction

At six o'clock, two hours before the official close of the Toying With Nagatoro auction, Nagatoro and Senpai walked into the Kawasaki Gallery holding hands. In sharp contrast to her dream hours earlier, she wore a simple skirt, blouse, and sandals. Despite her muted attire, she received a welcoming round of applause from the fifty-odd people standing in the auxiliary auction gallery.

"Check it out," one young guy said. "It's really her, in person." The crowd closed in for a better view.

"Please form a line to the right," Takao shouted. "Miss Nagatoro will be happy to sign autographs and take pictures with all of you." He glanced at the princess.

She nodded. "Sure."

For the next hour, the crowd shuffled past six paintings lining the wall behind a glass enclosure toward Nagatoro and Senpai, who stood in the corner greeting fans and the curious.

This sure is different from the reception I dreamed up last night. Nagatoro squeezed Senpai's hand.

"Hi, Miss Nagatoro," said the beaming boy standing next to his Uncle Takao. "I think you're the best. Would you please sign this?" He handed Nagatoro a color printout of Princess Nagatoro standing on her Monarch platform, dressed in a skimpy red bikini.

"Who do I make it out to?" She gripped the Sharpie.

"My name is Koby."

She signed, To Koby, My biggest fan and the coolest guy in the world. Love always, Princess Nagatoro.

Uncle Takao winked. "I appreciate it."

"You're really getting into this," Senpai said.

"Sakura's right. Being a celebrity is kind of fun. I've never been semi-famous before." It surprised her how comfortable she felt despite standing several meters from six paintings depicting her fully nude. Everyone behaved so nice and appreciatively.

"I bid my life savings on one of your paintings," a voice chirped.

Nagatoro turned to the source of the high-pitched voice, a short, bushy-haired guy wearing thick glasses. "Toshi!" She smiled brightly.

"But I don't think I'm going to get it."

"Which one?"

"I really like the one of you by the tree with the seascape background. I bid $2150, but the bids have already gone past $3000."

"No way."

Toshi glanced up. "Is this your boyfriend?"

Nagatoro and Senpai glanced at each other and held hands before she affirmed, "Yes, he is."

"No kidding. Oh, sorry, Mr. Hachioji. What I mean is, it's encouraging to see there's hope for someone like me."

Senpai frowned.

"I mean… damn, Mr. Hachioji. You did really well for yourself."

Senpai shrugged. "It amazes the hell out of me too."

"On the bright side, getting outbid means I've got more money for your merch."

Her mouth dropped open. "My what?"

"Princess posters and figurines." Toshi held up his phone. Below the main auction page sat links for official Princess Nagatoro merchandise.

She stomped over to Tokao who stood, iPad in hand, at the opposite side of the room.

"You're selling figures official Princess Nagatoro merchandise? That's news to me. What's going on?"

He adjusted his glasses. "Well, yes. It's in the contract, which includes a signed model release."

"I thought that was for the paintings."

"That, and 'related merchandise.' I guess you haven't heard the good news. Mr. Kawasaki inked a licensing deal with the folks at Vapor Gaming. They figured it's better to get a small cut of something, than a big cut of vapor. The items are made to order with a six-week lead time. No inventory, no risk."

Nagatoro put her hands on her hips. "What's my cut?"

"Twenty percent, as agreed. We take our cut of your stuff. You take your cut of ours. I wouldn't be surprised if we move a couple thousand units. We're not talking Sakura-level sales, but, based on auction interest, I'm predicting a pretty healthy take."

"You guys are all about business here, aren't you? That and making money."

He chuckled. "Ain't none of us be standing heah if we wasn't getting' paid, M'am," he said, poorly mimicking a gangster rapper. "Nonetheless, I'll always be grateful for the smile you put on Koby's face." He bowed. "Thank you, Miss Nagatoro."

As the final hour approached, the greeting line dissipated. Yet, people continued filing in to see the paintings. Many sought out Nagatoro and Senpai for selfies. When the wall clock hit 7:00 PM on the nose, it switched to a sixty-minute countdown timer. LED info panels lit up under each of the six frames. Two additional panels lit up under the display as a whole.

The numeric readouts conveyed the bid amounts for each of the six paintings, while the two panels below the display compared the total of separate bids to the full-package bid—a single bid for the entire display.

The bids ranged from $2000 to $5000. The display bid hovered around $17,000.

"This is crazy," Nagatoro said. "I can't believe how much money people are bidding. It's almost two million Yen."

Senpai shook his head. "I know what you mean. Somehow my stuff made it into a big-city art gallery that's hosting an international auction. And people like my work. It feels like a dream."

Nagatoro recalled an earlier dream—standing at the center of the room, fastened naked to a rotating platform, getting played like a fiddle for the crowd—and giggled.

As the timer counted down, the atmosphere heated. Nagatoro didn't have a moment to herself. People came, browsed the paintings, met with the artist and the model, took pictures, spewed compliments, and milled about. Professionals asked for both their business cards, which Takao had printed out. The stream seemed endless.

Thirty minutes before the auction close, a Splatter Battle fan shouted, "It's Princess Sakura."

"Hello," the fashionably dressed blonde said with a wave as she approached Senpai and Nagatoro. Gamo and Yoshi followed close behind.

"I can't believe you modeled for him naked," Gamo said as she admired the paintings. She put her arm around Sakura. "And this one did it too."

"Which is just between us girls." Sakura elbowed her friend. "Don't you ever forget that."

Gamo bumped her shoulder into Senpai's. "Don't think I'll be posing for you any time soon, Paisen. Though I've got to admit, the boy's got talent."

"I'd do it." Yoshi smiled coyly while undoing the top button of her blouse.

"Stop that." Gamo slapped her hands away.

Someone tugged on Senpai's sleeve. "Mr. Hachioji, want to see some of my latest ideas?" Toshi extended his phone. "I guarantee you'll love them."

"Sure." With a relieved expression, Senpai stepped to the side.

As the artists chatted, Nagatoro and her friends strolled to the paintings.

"Oh, man. I totally remember this one." Yoshi pointed to Nagatoro Reclining. "You made this one after we watched baseball practice, didn't you?" Her eyes lit up, and she turned to Gamo. "It all makes sense now, doesn't it?"

Gamo stepped on Yoshi's foot.

"What makes sense?" Nagatoro faced the two and crossed her arms. "I want to know what she's talking about."

Gamo groaned. "Since we're standing in front of six paintings of you dressed in absolutely nothing, I guess it won't hurt to come clean. We've been wondering what's going on with you two for a while now. It's been a real mystery."

"Go on."

"Remember that day when you got blitzed on Yoshi's punch, and we took you to the art room to sleep it off? Well, we kind of pranked you."

Yoshi shot Nagatoro a guilty smile. "We took off all your clothes. To freak out Senpai."

"And we let you sleep it off that way. But then nothing happened afterward. You never mentioned it. Senpai never mentioned it. It made no sense. My first theory was he put your clothes back on and never told you. But when we razzed him about it later, he didn't seem to have a clue. Now we know it was no big deal for him to find you naked because you pose nude for him all the time."

"You were already a pro at stripping for him," Yoshi added.

"And then Sakura told us she did it too." She playfully knocked Yoshi on the head. "And now you've got this girl thinking about doing it."

Nagatoro stood frozen, wide-eyed, and speechless, her mouth agape, the color drained from her face.

Takao grabbed Nagatoro's arm. "Sorry to steal her away from you," he told the others, "but it's five minutes to auction close. This is where the craziness starts." He yanked her toward Senpai, who stood off to the side with Takao's iPad in hand.

"No way," Senpai said when he looked at the full-package bid. It had passed $68,000. "Is that number real?" Noting the look of shock on his girlfriend's face, he added, "This really is hard to believe, isn't it?"

Nagatoro—the color returning to her face—blinked and nodded.

Takao tapped on the iPad. "There's a bidding war between folks in London, L.A., and Florida."

Senpai and Nagatoro watched in stunned amazement as the full-package bid surpassed the total-bids-value on the individual paintings.

"Somebody's definitely taking the package home tonight," Takao said.

At $80,000 and three minutes left everyone cheered. When the counter hit $90,000 at the two-minute mark, the crowd roared again. At the thirty-second mark, the dollar counter surpassed $100,000.

"Ten, nine, eight, seven…" The crowd chanted as the bid numbers soared.

"Wooooo hooooo!" People screamed, streamers flew, and poppers popped when the auction finally closed. Flashing below the display in red was the number $128,500.

"That can't be right." Nagatoro gripped Senpai's arm.

Takao nodded. "I told you things get crazy toward the end. It became a bidding war between someone named Mihairu7 from California and Zog from Florida. Dirk from London bowed out when the auction hit six figures. Mihairu came through for the last-second win."

"You love this stuff, don't you?" Nagatoro asked the hopping man.

"Hell, yes." He motioned towards the doors. "Come on. Let's take care of the paperwork so you folks can go home."

Nagatoro hugged her friends. "Thanks for stopping by, you guys. We've got to take care of some business upstairs. I'll see you tomorrow."

Senpai and Nagatoro signed the paperwork giving up all rights to the art in exchange for 80% of $128,500, or $102,800—less $1200 for copies which could not be sold or reduplicated—leaving $101,600, well over ten million Yen. The gallery would deliver the amount once the auction bid cleared. Since Mihairu was a regular customer and art dealer in the states, Takoa felt confident he'd pay within the allotted three days.

###

Nagatoro and Senpai sat on the train as it sped from Tokyo over and through the mountains back home. They sat next to each other facing two empty reversed seats with the dividing armrest between them raised, shoulder to shoulder, holding hands.

She pushed into him. "Hey, Senpai. Remember when you painted me the first time?"

"You mean, while you were nude?"

"Yeah."

"That one became Nagatoro Reclining. What about it?"

"Why did you do it?"

"Um… because you posed. It wasn't the first time you posed for me while pretending you were asleep."

"You're such a pervert. I can't believe you did that to a vulnerable, naked girl."

"What are you talking about?"

"You knew I wouldn't really pose nude for you in a million years, didn't you?"

"Of course I knew that. Until you did."

She groaned. "Pervert."

"You realize we're about to split a hundred thousand dollars."

She sat quietly for a moment, then rose out of her seat and hopped on top of Senpai, her spread knees straddling his legs, her arms around his neck. "You are such a creep. I still can't believe you took advantage of me like that." She pulled him close and kissed him.

He wrapped his arms around her waist and returned the sentiment. They made out until the next stop and returned to their more conservative side-by-side seating arrangement when someone took a seat on the opposite side of the car.

Author's Notes: Only one more chapter to go till I take a break. A big thanks to Mihairu7 for his continual encouraging reviews—even though he's been slacking off the last two chapters! He's the big winner of the auction. When I wrote the first chapter, I had no idea this story would turn into a kinky Nagatoro light novel. I'm also amazed I managed to keep up a chapter per week pace. Thanks to everyone who stuck with it. Only one big question remains. Will they go all the way? Find out next week! — SK