Story: It's Fate

 

Let's take a look in on a few girls that we've ignored for a long, long time. Yumako Kijimuta and Koken Nomura. They attended the same school, and both had recently met with Eito during his quest to fulfil the tasks laid out by the extremely advanced computer, FATE. Well, it's only natural that they would happen to meet up on this particular lunchtime, isn't it?

"Yo, Koken!" Yumako said, slapping the smaller yet bustier girl on the back. "Hah, not talked to you in a while. How's it going?"

Koken then turned to look up at Yumako, maintaining absolute silence in the process. As is her wont.

"Right, right, just as quiet as your sis..." Yumako muttered to herself.  "Uh... Gotta ask though, you going through a growth spurt or something? You seem to be a bit more top heavy than I remember."

Koken looked down at her new, enhanced bust. She blushed quite heavily. Yes, like quite a few other girls recently, she'd had a bit of an improvement in that area. Thanks to some milk that had been hit by a bust-growth ray.

"So, what's your secret?" Yumako asked. Apparently oblivious to the fact that her own breasts, while not as large as Koken's, were still quite large. "Come on, I won't tell! Promise!"

"M-Milk," Koken whispered, impossibly quietly.

"Milk, huh? Hah! That's great!" Yumako slapped her on the back once again. "You know, I heard that if a girl falls in love, then she gets bigger boobs! That's daft, right? Dontcha think?"

Silence fell as Koken stared intensely at the ground. Her blush deepend.

"No way." Yumako stared her in the face. "No way! Mayo's tomboy big sister has a crush? Huh? No way! That's huge!" She grabbed the smaller girl around the shoulders and smiled down at her, holding onto her just a little too tightly. "So? What's the lucky guy's name? You can tell me, right? We're friends, ain't we?"

"E-Eito..." Koken muttered.

"Eito?" Yumako's smile widened. "Kinda short, a little nervous, generally nice and polite?" Nod, nod. "Ohohoho! That's soooo cute! You'll make an adorable couple! Hah! He invited me with him to watch the wrestling show this weekend."

Koken shot daggers up at her for that remark. Jealousy rearing its ugly head.

"Hey, hey, hey! Come on now, like I could steal some guy you're interested in!" Yumako said. "I ain't nearly as cute as you!"

She pinched the smaller girl's cheek to make her point clear. To her mind, she wasn't cute at all, while Koken was like an adorable little teddy bear. On the other hand, Yumako's sex appeal was obvious to anyone but her, as usual. It was a little frustrating for the girls she knew, as you can well imagine.

"Hey, you know what?" Yumako asked with a twinkle in her eye. "You know where he lives, right? Come on, let's go surprise him. Haha! I can be your wingman. Wingwoman? Look, all you need is a confidence boost and then you'll be good!" 

Koken silently stared up at her, and trembled almost imperceptibly.

"I ain't taking no for an answer, just so you know!" Yumako warned, and just like that, Eito's harem life was making great strides forward. Almost as though destiny itself had decreed it to be so.

Or perhaps... FATE had decreed it.

<hr>

Eito sneezed. Not because someone was talking about him, or anything so asinine or cliche. It was just, you know, there was an awful lot of dust being kicked up right about now, and his immune system was having an overreaction.

That being said, a sneeze due to dust was the least of his problems right now. Somehow, he'd wound up in a situation that many would envy. Many who he would consider fools. Really now, it was absurd. Patently absurd. The stuff of dreams. Not his dreams, of course, but he understood all too well the sorts of dreams his peers had.

The more he was thinking about it, the more it made his mouth dry. Two cute girls competing for his interest. Trying to show him the 'best date possible'. Gulp! Between his best friend, who was perfectly capable of making his life miserable, or a vindictive social butterfly with all the right connections to really make his life miserable -

What was the best thing to do? That was a hard question to answer. The only thing he could say was... Judge fairly? Oh no. How was he supposed to do that when Koemi would be there as well?

Koemi... Watching him on a date with two other girls...

His imagination piped in just then. All three of them, reclining on a couch. Wearing very precious little. Think, like, the Golden Bikini from Star Wars. Slinky little outfits that, uh, actually the actress that wore it really hated how good she looked in it because she knew she'd never fit in it again. Just like they'd resent him for making them wear it, all to satisfy his male ego...

"Eito," a voice whispered in his ear.

"It's not like that I swear!" Eito yelled, tripping over nothing and face planting hard on the ground. A hand reached out to help him up. "Oh... Yoko?"

Yoko... Oh no, Yoko! She was a member of the Golden Salmon too, wasn't she?

"So I heard about the contest," Yoko said. "Sounds dumb. I'm absolutely there for it."

"Huh...?" Eito grunted his response. Not out of derision or anything mean spirited, far from it. The boy didn't have a mean bone in his body, in case you hadn't realised by now. This was confusion. Raw, unprocessed confusion. The sort of baffled state of being that, should you drop it on someone's head, would compel them to punch themselves as though they were a character in an RPG. Case in point, Eito slapped himself to try and come back to reality. "I'm sorry, what do you mean you're there for it?"

"I'm competing," Yoko said. "A contest like that is just too weird, I'm not turning it down for anything."

Eito stared at her, somehow reaching yet further peaks of confusion. This time he slapped himself twice across the face. Clearly this was some kind of fantasy he was having.

"Lucky guy, you get all three of us at once," Yoko said. "See you tonight, handsome. And make sure - make damn sure - you pick the right winner! Got it!"

She gave him no time for a reply before spinning on her heels and walking off. Uh... With the way she was walking, it almost seemed like she was... how to put it...? Deliberately trying to draw attention to her butt or something? Eito, upon realising this was in fact exactly what she was doing, blushed and turned to look away.

"What's going on here, why are these girls acting so weird...?" he asked nobody in particular. Little realising that a destiny manipulating computer had decided that this would be prime time for him to have himself a harem.

=====

Chise was pacing in front of Koemi in the girl's bathroom, back and forth, back and forth. A worried crease upon her pretty brow.

"Careful now, at that pace you'll wear a hole in the floor!" Koemi chirped, her usual bad sense of humour choosing that moment to pipe up. Chise gave her a death glare for that one. "Sorry, sorry, but you really do need to relax a bit."

"Relax?!" Chise asked, no, demanded. "How can I relax? I mean, let's take stock shall we? We get worried because our dumb kinda cute male friend is suddenly hitting on... I mean, talking to a bunch of slu- girls that we don't know. Sound right?"

Koemi nodded. That did sound about right, yes.

"And then, from there! The Golden Salmon wants to talk with you in an attempt to get information about him as well!"

Koemi nodded again.

"And then! That somehow led to the two of us agreeing to a date off with said male friend! On the same night! At the same time!"

"Your point being...?" Koemi asked, making that sort of whirly motion with her hands that universally means 'get on with it already', to the point it makes you wonder who decided that.

"That chain of events is completely unnatural!" Chise said. "I mean, the very notion that someone like Saito would be interested in a dork like Eito is - It's absurd! That even goes before the idea that I'd be okay with dating him which - come on, he's a fun guy to hang out with, but he's not dating material. Not my type anyway. I'd say he's more yours, if anything!"

"R-really?" Koemi asked innocently. "S-So, does this mean you're going to, uh, throw this contest? I mean, if it doesn't actually matter to you at all -"

"Like hell I'm tossing the contest! Not only is my pride at stake, your swimming career is too! Don't forget the stakes here!" Chise snorted out air through her nose, like a bull getting ready to charge. "I'm gonna win, but that doesn't mean I like being manipulated either! Someone's pulling the strings around here, playing us all for fools - and I shall not rest until I figure out who! Now! Koemi! Help me figure out how best to win this dumb contest! Hrm... Maybe if I use these new breasts...? No way Saito will be able to compete with them!"

"Hahaha, oh wow, I am sure this event will go over swimmingly, without leaving Eito or myself any emotional scars at all!" Koemi said. There it goes again, her bizarre sense of humour. Now. If only she could work up the courage to actually join this little contest herself...