Absorbing Passions 1 - The Big Tournament

“Well here we are folks, at the final round of this most unusual tournament.  Nami has run the field on her half of the ladder.  Facing her in the opposite corner is Daniel Adams, a relative newcomer to this event.”  The announcer, one Fred Farrago according to the text under his smiling face, blathers on about the event’s short history.

The camera switches to a large sumo-style ring.  At one side is a rotund man standing almost eleven feet tall, his face rounded and ruddy with exertion.  His body is massive, and seems to almost be churning, as if more than one something under his skin is trying to get out.  He is wearing a black loincloth, and little else.  His exposed limbs are showing a similar sort of churning, but less pronounced.

Facing him, looking comically overmatched, is a wisp of a girl.  Nami stands 4’9” tall, and looks perfectly at home in the ring.  She smiles and waves to the crowd, showing off her trim figure in a simple black bikini.  Her dark hair is back in a short ponytail, accenting her asian features.

The referee gestures for the match to start, and the noise of the audience diminishes.  Both Daniel and Nami crouch down at their respective edges of the ring, touching the mat with both fists.  The referee gestures again, and both leap up from the crouch.  Daniel is moving slowly, ponderously, while Nami darts forth to confront him.  The ring for the final bout is twice as large as a normal sumo ring, so tiny Nami has plenty of room to maneuver.  She darts in and out, as if daring Daniel to lay a hand on her.  He swings both giant arms, but his movements are so slow that she has ducked out of the way before the gesture is half-complete.

This goes on for most of a minute, with Nami circling around Daniel, and him struggling to maintain facing never mind managing to land a blow.  The squirming within his body is getting worse, and his already ruddy face is darkening.  He shouts and charges, but once again Nami is faster.  While he is off balance and swinging wildly, she darts around behind him and lands on his back.

Daniel’s eyes go wide and a look that’s more relief than disappointment crosses his face.  The squirming stops instantly, and his body starts to smooth and round out.  His limbs disappear into the swollen mass, and a moment later, so does his head.  All that is left of him is a giant sphere of flesh, attached to Nami at the belly.

Daniel’s flesh tone shifts, and the victor in the contest is clear.  The belly is Nami’s, as is the match and the championship.  The referee’s war fan comes out, pointing clearly at Nami’s side of the ring.

“What a fantastic, effortless win by Nommy Nami, once again champion of the world Con-Sumo wrestling league.  Lets go down to the mat.  Carla, over to you.”

The camera cuts to a view of a statuesque woman standing beside the referee and Nami.  Carla is at least six feet tall, towering over Nami and her rapidly shrinking belly.  “So, Nami... how does it feel to have over thirty people inside you?”

Nami pats her belly as it shrinks back to normal, and soon she has the same trim form that she wore into the fight.  “Mmm.  I love it.  Having so much inside me, being so full... it’s the best thing ever.”

“That was a remarkable win,” enthuses Carla.  “You’ve got an amazing degree of control over your talent.  How did you get so good?”

Nami smiles.  “I grew up on a farm, and discovered my talent early.  I was responsible for the rabbits, and once my chores were done I’d just cuddle them up.  One summer day, my favourite bunny just sunk into my bare belly.  I panicked a little, and she popped right back out again.  Having her inside felt so good, I kept on doing it, and soon I could hold all my bunnies inside me at once.”  While she’s talking, two fuzzy ears poke up out of her hair, stretching into tall, black-furred rabbit ears.

“So you train with bunnies, that’s your secret?”

Nami giggled.  “Hardly.  I started with them, then moved up to the barn cats.”  Her ears shrink down and become feline.  “Then on to bigger things.”  Two black horns poke out from her forehead.  “Mostly cows, especially when I’m training up for a fight.  I used to go to school with at least two cows in me.”

Carla’s eyes go wide.  “You consume entire cows for practice?  I can see where going around with two cows inside you would really boost your control.”

Nami nodded.  “And letting some of their strength out has really helped with bullies at school.”  She grins wickedly, and flexes an arm that’s far more muscular than it had been a moment ago.

“So that’s the big secret, two cows a day?”

Nami giggles.  “Oh, before a tournament like this I make sure I’ve got at least eight.”

“Eight... cows?  You started the tournament with...”

“Eight cows, yes.  And my favourite bunny and cat, for good luck.”

Carla looks stunned.  “That’s...  How much weight are you hiding in that tiny form?”

Nami’s grin grows wicked, and her horns grow longer.  She turns to the crowd, arms wide.  “Want to see?”

The chorus of “Yes” is deafening.  Nami makes lifting gestures with her hands, and the crowd starts chanting “Grow, grow, grow!”

Nami grows.  In moments she’s as tall as Carla, but she’s barely getting started.  Soon she towers over Carla, twice her height, then three times.  Her limbs are thickening, growing massively muscular, and her tiny breasts are growing as well.  The bikini she is wearing is incredibly stretchy, and while stretched thin it still manages to keep up with her burgeoning body as it hits five times Carla’s heightl.  Her breasts are so large that Carla would not be able to wrap her arms around even one of them, and they loom over her like great round umbrellas.

Carla stares up at this giantess with open lust in her eyes.  “My God, you’re beautiful.  Why the little girl act?”

Nami’s laughter booms through the auditorium.  “I’m more comfortable as me.  But this... this is fun.”  She takes a step back, then crouches down in front of Carla.  Her breasts are nearly as tall as the statuesque announcer, and the top is straining to hold them in, leaving large expanses of flesh exposed.  “Want to join?”

Carla steps forward, toward the cavern formed by Nami’s cleavage.  The moment her hand touches flesh it simply disappears, vanishing without a ripple into the massive expanse of breast.  The rest of her follows, step by step.  She turns to the camera, halfway submerged.  “This is Carla Carson, signing off.”  

A sudden slurp, and she’s gone.

“Any more volunteers?” booms Nami’s question.  The audience has already spilled onto the floor, gathering around at Nami’s display.  A number of them move forward, and one by one follow in Carla’s footsteps, stepping over the increasingly strained fabric of Nami’s top and into her breasts.

Each addition grows the breasts a little larger, and the camera watches as each one vanishes.  Suddenly, the top fails, slipping off the breasts and snapping back to Nami’s torso.  The breasts explode outward, trampling a dozen more of Nami’s clustered fans.  They vanish as well, and the breasts surge even further outward.  They stop with one nipple resting against the camera lens.

The video abruptly cuts to the announcer’s booth, where the Fred is staring raptly at a monitor.  He starts, mops his brow, and pastes a grin on his face as he turns to the camera.  “And we’re back.  Man, I’m glad we’re on cable or we’d lose our license over that.  That clip’s going to be all over the internet by morning, I’m sure.”

“That was certainly something.  I’ve never even heard of someone taking on so much mass, and to do so with such control is truly remarkable.”

A small segment plays, giving Nami’s background and a cutesy interview with her, talking about how hopeful she is that she can win the big tournament.

“And we’re back.  The officials have gotten things somewhat under control, I hear, so we can hopefully...”

The camera cuts back to the ring, a view from above this time.  Nami is still monstrously huge, but not quite so large as before.  The camera angle is from behind her, so only the sides of her still gargantuan breasts are visible.  People are streaming out from between them, walking away and back up to their seats with cheerful steps and waves to the audience and the cameras.

Once the last competitor is out, Nami starts to shrink more rapidly, and soon she’s back to her usual height.  She slips her top back on, and turns to face the cameraman at floor level.  The view cuts to the camera, and she waves to it.  “Hi everyone!”

The cameraman hands Nami a headset, then Fred speaks. “I can’t help but notice that we’re still short an announcer.”

Nami shrugs.  “Carla said she wanted to stay.  I like her, can I keep her for a little longer?”

Fred sighs.  “I suppose.  Who’s going to do the intervi... woah!”

Nami has grown taller, and her features have shifted.  She still has the same bikini, but it’s suddenly much better filled out by Carla’s curves and stature.  Carla’s face is grinning out from Nami’s hair.  “Woah!  Thanks, Nami.  Let’s go chat with the others.”

After the usual round of ‘could have done better’ and ‘tried my best’, including many comments on just how surprising Nami’s voracious talents are, the interviews finally end.  Nami, back in her own body, steps up to the podium to accept her medal and prize cheque.  Also included in the package is a year’s supply of beef, which makes Nami laugh and note that they can’t have the slightest clue how much she can eat...

Finally the show cut away.  Fred asked Nami if she was planning to let Carla go now.  Carla shook Nami’s head and refused to go.  “Sorry Fred,” said Nami.  “I guess you’ll need a new announcer.”

“Eh, her next gig is next weekend.  Have fun, you two.”  And that was that.

* * *

Nami left the building bundled up in a large overcoat, unnoticed by everyone.  By the time she’d walked a block, Carla was giggling inside her.

“What’s so funny?”

“This is perfect!” came a voice from inside her.  “Nobody is noticing me.  Do you know how rare that is for someone my size?”

Nami laughed softly.  “Is it really that bad?  I’ve gone my whole life being looked over and ignored.  That’s one of the main reasons I loved the tournament, people looked at me!”

“Let yourself grow to seven feet tall, and you’ll get noticed,” said Carla’s voice.

Nami shook her head.  “Out here?  On the streets?  I’d...”

“What?  You just showed thousands of people what you can do.  Now you’re shy?”

“Competition is one thing.  Making a spectacle of myself out in the real world?  It feels wrong.  I’m Nami, not some giantess.”

“You’ve got an amazing talent,” murmured Carla as they approached a thickening crowd.  “You should do more with it.”

“Like what?”  Nami wormed through the crowd, and suddenly came upon its cause.  In the middle of the road was the remains of a nasty crash.  A large cargo truck had fallen over, and was lying atop a compact car.  It was becoming more compact by the moment as the truck’s heavy load of steel pipes continued to settle.  Panicked screams were coming from inside the car.  Two passengers were visible in the front of the car, and the back had been crushed beyond recognition.

“You have to do something!” cried Carla.

Nami didn’t hesitate.  She dashed up to the car and held her hands out to the occupants.  “I can get you out, but it’s going to be weird.”  It took a repetition of her offer before the screaming couple could focus on her words, but another shift of the wreckage focussed their attention.  They reached toward her, and moments later vanished into her arms.  Nami backed up, and released both of them on the sidewalk.  They were shaken, but other than some scrapes, largely unhurt.

The wreckage creaked again, the roof finally giving way and collapsing flat.  “You just saved our lives!” said the man.  

His companion just screamed.  “Our baby!”

A thin, terrified wail was coming from the rear of the car.  It didn’t seem possible for anything to be alive in the compacted space.  

“Please!  Can’t you do something?” begged the woman.

Nami stared at the heap of pipe.  There were tons of metal there.  Maybe the car would hold...  The wreckage shifted again, settling even lower.  The baby’s cries grew more muffled.

“You have to try,” said Carla softly, pitched so only Nami could hear.  “I saw how big you got.”

Nami sighed, and shucked off her heavy overcoat, leaving only a her competition outfit.  She started to grow once more, acquiring hooved feet and heavy, corded muscles.  Black fur bristled from her skin as she hit her peak size, towering over the crowd.  She crouched before the toppled truck, set her shoulders against the pipes and pushed.  The pile creaked and groaned but slowly started to shift.

Bit by bit Nami drove the load back, then the truck abruptly righted itself, settling back onto its wheels.  Unfortunately for her, as it did so one of the heavy straps holding the pipes in place chose that moment to break, lashing at her viciously.  It flailed heavily against her back and she cried out in agony.

Nami stumbled back before sitting heavily at the side of the road.  The crowd surged away from her, giving her room.  Her fur vanished, but she didn’t shrink.  She just sat, and shivered, and bled.

“Nami!” hissed Carla from within her.  “What happened?  I can’t feel anything.”

“It hurts,” moaned Nami.  “It hurts so much.  The cows started to panic.  I had to...  I don’t think I can shrink, like this.”

“No,” agreed Carla.  “The damage might get worse.  Let me share the pain, I can handle it.”

Nami’s form shifted, her skin lightening and breasts expanding as she took on some of Carla’s features.  Carla hissed with the sudden return of the pain, then said from Nami’s lips, “More, I can take it.”

A moment later, Carla was sitting alone on the street, no sign of Nami in her face.  She took a few deep breaths to center herself.  The pain was bad, but she’d dealt with worse in the ring.  “Nami?  What happened?”

“Sorry!” came a soft voice from inside her.  “I can’t...  I’ll keep the others calm.  Can you...”

“I’ll manage.  Somehow.”  Carla looked around.  Even seated, she towered above everyone.  The truck was on its wheels, load still held if somewhat precariously.  An fire truck had arrived while she was trading places with her new friend, and two of the firemen were working to pry open the crushed car.  Carla smiled with relief when she saw the car-seat get carried out, a wailing but apparently healthy infant still safely in its grip.

“Excuse me, ma’am?”

Carla looked down at the fireman that was standing beside her right leg.  “Just Carla,” she said between gritted teeth.

“Your back is a mess, I’ve got a kit here but... damn, you’re big.  There’s an ambulance on the way, but you’ll never fit inside.  Can you... uh, get smaller?”

“We’re not sure.  It could make things worse.”

“Right.  I’ll do what I can.  This is going to sting a little.”

Carla took another breath to center herself, felt the pain flare where exposed ribs rubbed against each other.  “I’ll manage.  Don’t have a lot of choice in the matter anyway.”

The fireman set to work doing what he could, and was soon joined by EMTs from an arriving ambulance.  It wasn’t long before another polite young man was asking for Carla’s attention.

“Yes?”

“You’re too big for us to put in the ambulance, and I’d really like to get you to a hospital.  You have five broken ribs, and I’m worried some of the fragments may puncture your lung.”

“Is it safe to shrink?  I’d hate to make things worse.”

The EMT shook his head.  “No, you made the right choice.  We’ve got a VMT on the way who can help.”

“VMT?” asked Carla weakly.

“Heh, sorry.  Our name for an EMT with your sort of talent.  We’re seeing more cases where vore is involved, and this is a doozy.  Rani will know what to do.”  More softly he added, “I hope.”

Carla nodded slowly.  “Okay, sounds good.  Is that common?”

“Getting that way.  As more and more people show up with the talent for it, we’ve been finding jobs for them, especially in patient transport.  Plus, you get incidents where people think it’s all fun and games, then get stuck.  That takes someone with vore talent to sort out.”

Carla nodded again, but wasn’t really listening as the EMT carried on about the career options for those with the talent.  It took all her focus to keep the pain in check, so it was difficult for her to say how much time had passed when another vehicle pulled up.  A tall woman got out, looked up at her and did a double take.

“Damn!  You told me she was big, but I figured... seven, eight feet.  What the hell?  What did she do?”

Carla turned to the newcomer, and offered a weak smile.  “Eight cows, she said.”

“Eight...  Eight!  Wait, ‘she said’?  You’re not the...”

“No.  Nami’s... inside.  I offered to help deal with the pain, and ended up taking all of it.”

A muffled, “Sorry,” emerged from deep inside Carla’s chest.

“Ah, good.  So she’s still with us.  This is... not what I’d expected.  Nami, was it?”

Carla nodded carefully.

“Nami,” called the newcomer in a louder voice.  “I’m Rani.  I’m here to help you.  I have some talent with vore myself, but I’ve never ever seen anyone as big as you, or absorbed one.  So Plan A, where I absorb you and take you to the hospital, is out.”

Carla winced.  “Great.  Then... what now?”

“Plan B.  Nami,I can see you’ve got the hang of expressing your residents’ features wholesale.  But can you do it piecemeal?”

Carla nodded again.  “She did bunny ears and cow horns when I interviewed her after the tournament.”

“She was in today’s Con-Sumo tournament?”

Carla’s smile was genuine.  “She won it.”

“Ah!  Well, that explains things, and saves me some time on my next recruiting run.  The cows were training, I suppose?”

There was a muffled but cheerful, “Yep!” from inside Carla. “It’s getting on toward milking time, though.”

“OK.  Let’s see what we can do here.  Guessing by your reactions, you’ve never used absorption to share healing, before.”

“I can do that?” came the muffled voice.

“Yeah.  You can either divide the wounds among them, or combine and accelerate the healing of all your residents.”

“There’s a bunch of easily panicked cows in here,” offered Carla.  “That’s why I’m like this.”

“Sharing healing it is.  It’s a bit slower, but I have a little gift for you.  Nami, can you handle a few more residents?”

“Easy.”

Two small lizards melded up out of Rani’s palms.  “Here, take these.  They’re salamanders, and have a remarkable ability to regenerate.”

Rani set the lizards on Carla’s leg, and they immediately sank out of sight.  Soon, Carla’s back turned black and scaly, with large yellow spots scattered here and there.

“Hah!  You’re a quick learner,” exclaimed Rani.  “You’d be a natural at medical absorption work.  Interested?”

Carla’s face was replaced by Nami’s.  “I’m sorry, what was that?  I don’t think I heard right.  Medical... absorption?”

Rani nodded eagerly.  “There’s lots of life-saving applications.  What we’re doing here only works well on others with the talent, so you’re lucky your friend here is talented too.  The biggest thing is patient transport.  If you know what you’re doing, you can stop a trauma victim from bleeding out just by absorbing them.  Of course, we also get a lot of work helping the talented who’ve over-reached and gotten themselves or their friends stuck.”

“Wow.  I had no idea.  I just liked having my bunnies with me...”

“I see,” said Rani with a chuckle.  “You don’t have to decide now, we’ll have a spot for you in our talented program any time you ask.  And if you want to go on to work on a medical degree, we’d pay for it.”

“Um... what about veterinary school?  I really like animals.”

“I’m sure we could arrange it, if you’re willing to put in time helping people too.”  Rani looked over at the cargo truck.  The offending pipes were in the process of being offloaded onto another truck.  “Or you could try superhero work.  You’ve got a knack for it.”

Nami managed a giggle.  “Is that really a job?”

“Nah.  I’ve never heard of anyone doing what you did today.  Seriously, you did great back there.  Saved at least two lives.”

Nami’s face crumpled. “The baby didn’t make it?”

Rani hugged her leg.  “The baby’s fine.  Its car seat was creating a safe pocket for it, so even if you hadn’t shifted the truck, it probably would have been fine.”

Nami’s face fell, then vanished and was replaced by Carla’s.  “So all this pain was for nothing?” asked Carla weakly.

“You couldn’t have known,” reassured Rani.  “You did a brave thing.  And the salamanders are really helping.  In a couple of hours you should be able to shrink down to normal size, then we can check you out at the hospital.”

“A couple hours?” wailed Nami from deep inside.  “The cows need milking before then.  Uh... is there a storm drain somewhere around here?”

“Why?” asked Carla.  She was also scanning the area.  “Yeah, there is.  We’re practically sitting on it.”  Her face grew worried as her breasts started to expand.  “What are you doing!”

“Sorry!” came Nami’s voice.  “They really need it and there’s nowhere else for it to go.”

“Nami!  What am I supposed to... oooooh!”  Carla breasts started to slosh, and she moved as quickly as she dared with her injured back toward the storm drain.   The stretchy competition top was already getting damp.

“I’ll get you a tarp,” said Rani.  When she returned with it through the growing crowd, Carla had one breast over the grate.  Milk was soaking through the top and dribbling down the drain.  Rani tossed the tarp over the enormous woman, hiding her breasts but only part of her mottled yellow and black back.  A moment later, the trickling noise was replaced with gushing.

“Aaaaah,” sighed Carla.  “Much better.”

The sound went on for a very long time.  Once the crushed car had been towed away, the crowd lost interest and started to disperse.  By the time Carla was finished with the milk, her back was also looking significantly better.

“Done?” asked Rani kindly.

Carla sighed softly.  “Yeah.  That was a new experience.  Not unpleasant, though.  Thanks for the cover.”  She folded up the tarp, and handed the small bundle to Rani.

“You’re back’s looking good enough to try a reduction,” said Rani.  “Nami, take it really slow, just a little at a time and we’ll see how it goes.”

Carla winced as the reduction started, the bandages on her wound tugged at the edges.  When she pointed the problem out Rani loosened them, and suggested Nami try again.  Bit by bit Carla shrunk.  Each time Carla got shorter, the wound lagged behind, and needed time to stabilize.  A half hour’s worth of these cycles got Carla back to her original six feet tall, though by that time they had been in the ambulance for some time, and were nearly at the hospital.

As they were walking into Emergency with Rani, Carla felt her height drop once more.  “Hey!  What’s the big idea?”

“Sorry, this felt too tall,” said Nami.

“Eh, it’s different.  After being stared at by everyone, a bit shorter than usual isn’t so bad.”

“So that’s a no on becoming the size of a bunny?” asked Nami sweetly.

“Uh... you can do that?”

“Yup!”

Rani looked over at Carla.  “Seriously?  You’ve done more with absorption than most of the professionals I know.  And you’re only... um, how old are you?”

“Thirty one,” said Carla.

“I turned eighteen last week,” said Nami.  “My parents wouldn’t let me compete when I was underage.”

“Talk about an odd couple.  How’d you two get together?” Rani asked as they were escorted to an examination room.

“We’re... uh...  We met at the tournament.”  Carla hesitated to see if Nami would contribute anything.  She didn’t.  “I interviewed her, and she grew big as a house.  Her boobs were bigger than I was, and when she invited me in, it felt like going home.  When she let the competitors out, I stayed.  My job was done, be a pretty face to talk to the competitors.”

“That’s all you do?” asked Rani.  “Seems a waste of your talent.”

“What talent?  You mentioned that before.”

“You don’t know?  The stuff Nami’s been able to do with you, she could never do that if you didn’t have some absorption ability.”

Carla snorted.  “Well isn’t that just great.  That’s how I washed out of mixed martial arts.”

Rani’s eyes widened.  “Wait, you’re Carla Carson?  I remember you, you were awesome.”

“Yeah.  Until girls started showing up with a guy inside them to lend them muscle.  I didn’t even know what was going on, I just went from top of the world to not remotely able to compete almost overnight.  It drove me crazy.  How did this new crop of girls suddenly get so strong?  Once people figured out the trick, they started using a vore tester before matches... but it was too late for me, my career was over.”

“You never got yourself checked?” asked Rani.

Carla shrugged.  “Frankly, I wanted to forget it existed.”

“So why were you being a pretty face at an absorption based competition, then?”

“Because it’s a job.  And it’s ancient history, really.  Or it was.”  Carla looked away.  “Then I met Nami, and everything changed.  I just wish I had some actual ability.  Whatever talent I have, it has to be pretty weak or you think I’d have noticed it.”

Rani shook her head.  “That’s not how it works.  Everyone starts small.  It’s all in how you use it, how you train it.  The more you push yourself, the better you get.”

“Geez, girl, just how many cows have you absorbed to get this good?” Carla asked, poking her belly teasingly.

Nami giggled from within.  “I lost count a long time ago.  I got picked on at school for my size, so I started ‘borrowing’ one of the older cows to increase my strength.”

Carla laughed, one brief bark before wincing at the pain it triggered in her back.  “I can imagine it let you equalize things.”

“And then some!” Nami agreed cheerfully.  “It was great.  I was the strongest kid in my class by far.”

“That’s the best thing about absorption.  Guys don’t have an advantage like they do in physical strength.  It equalizes the sexes.”  Rani smiled wryly.  “Makes them a bit too equal in some eyes.  Guys tend to get intimidated when they find out you can make them disappear.”

Carla sighed.  “Yeah, I know that feeling.  Luckily, there’s plenty of guys who are stronger than me, so it’s not as big a problem.  Can’t you find someone with the talent, too?  He’d be less intimidated.”

“All the guys I know with my level of talent work here.  Dating at work in a place this big?  Trust me, not a good idea.”

There was a tap at the door, and one Doctor Saikachi entered with apologies for taking so long.  He explained that there had been a rather delicate absorption reversal to deal with, a woman had used her talents to put one of her lovers into another, then been unable to extract them.

Nami spoke up at that.  “You can do that?”

“Not generally.  Only if one of the other two has the talent.  The problem is, if they’re not skilled, they can get quite stuck.  And if they leave it too long before coming to us, or manage to make things worse... well, it can be quite tricky to fix.  I’ve run into a few cases where the joining ended up being irreversible without invasive surgery.”

Nami squeaked muffledly.  “I didn’t know that either!”

Doctor Saikachi patted Carla’s hand.  “Don’t worry.  If you run into trouble, come to us.  The case I’m most familiar with the two of them were turned into conjoined twins, sharing legs and most of their torso.  Quite fetching, from the right perspective...  But after two months they decided they couldn’t live quite so close together, and...”  He sighed.  “The only thing we could do for them was offer counselling.  It’s possible if someone with your obvious capacity was to keep them absorbed for long enough, they could be separated again.  It’d take weeks, possibly months.”

“Nobody was willing to try?”

“To have two people inside themselves, night and day, for weeks?  Few have the capacity, fewer the endurance.”

Nami’s face appeared in place of Carla’s, and gave the doctor a determined look.  “I’ll do it.”

His bushy eyebrows shot up into his salt-and-pepper hair.  “Truly?  That would be wonderful news.”

“Doctor,” chided Rani.  “She’s still a patient.  And barely of age.  And untrained.”

“Where better to start!” said the doctor cheerfully.  “But I suppose you’re right.  That there’s someone willing to try will make my least successful patients very happy.”

“Counselling isn’t going well?” asked Carla, her turn to be the muffled one.

Doctor Saikachi just winced and shook his head.  “Never mind that for now.  Let’s see how you two are doing.  Do you mind if I partially merge with your back?  I’ll be sure to leave more sensitive areas alone.”

“Is that necessary?” asked Nami, while Carla just said “Sure.

“To assess how you’ve healed yourself, yes.  I can’t X-Ray you, the layered residents make a right mess of the results.  In these cases, an absorber’s touch is the best tool we have.”

Nami nodded slowly, her face fading away to be replaced with Carla’s once more.  “I guess that’s a yes,” said Carla.

“Excellent.  We proceed.”

The exam did not take long.  The doctor praised Nami’s control, and recommended that Carla and Nami stay merged for the next two to three days.  He wrote them a prescription for two salamanders.  Carla looked at it askance.  “So we just go to a petshop?”

“No, the dispensary in the hospital.  But they’re quite popular as pets of late, so if you’d prefer something other than standard yellow and black, feel free to get whatever appeals to you.”

“Thank you doctor.  So that’s it?  Hang out with Nami for a couple more days, and we’re done?”

“Come in for an exam in two days, and we’ll see how you’re doing.  Comparing what I feel here to the wound described to me, I think you’re off to an excellent start.  Oh, and don’t worry about having to keep the cows, Nami did a good job protecting them, and they’re all fine.  You’ll need to keep the cat another day, though.”

Carla gave a huge sigh of relief.  “No more milking?  Yes!”  Her victorious fist-pump was interrupted by another wince.

That got a raised eyebrow from the doctor.  “I’ll explain it later,” Rani said with a barely suppressed laugh.

Soon afterward Carla found herself browsing in the nearby petshop that Rani had recommended.  Nami was giddy with delight at all the pretty colours on display, and was having trouble deciding between a red salamander and the blue-spotted one.  

“Red would look awesome, and I bet I could blend it with your skin tone to get hot pink,” enthused Nami.  Carla shuddered, and Nami sighed.  “But the blue matches your eyes.  It’d be so pretty on you.”

Carla patted her own shoulder.  “Or we could get both.”

The store manager looked at the prescription and nodded.  “Rani’s doing right?  She’s a regular here.  How long do you need ‘em for?”

“I want to keep them as pets, after,” came Nami’s voice from inside Carla’s chest.  That got a raised eyebrow from the manager.

“I can sell you a starter terrarium, but you may want to expand on it later.”

Carla paid for the lot, and soon they were on their way.  She admired herself in the glass of the pet store.  Nami had been right, the speckled blue skin was very pretty on her.

“Maybe you can keep the look,” murmured Nami, softly enough none of the passers-by could hear.  “If you like it that much.”

“Maybe.  You’ll have to teach me how to do it.”  Carla said as she started walking toward the nearest subway station.

“Haven’t you been able to feel what I’ve been doing?”

Carla blinked, and for the next few minutes she reviewed the events of the day as she walked.  “Not at first,” she said in amazement.  “But yeah, I could feel how you...”  She stopped to look at her hand.  The blue scales on the back of her hand paled to white skin at the edges, leaving her palms and the undersides of her arms normal.  She tried to flex the internal muscles she’d felt Nami using to bring the salamander’s skin to the surface, and was stunned to see her hand turn into a salamander’s foot.

Nami giggled.  “Did you mean to do that?”

Carla wiggled her new foot, staring at the appendage.  “Uh...”

“Oh, don’t worry.  It’s really hard to get fine control.  You did great!”  Nami nudged the hand back to normal, and they carried on their way.  Nami told Carla about the first time she’d taken on animal characteristics.  She’d first absorbed one of her bunnies by accident, but the second time was intentional.  Then she thought her bunny would get lonely, so she started absorbing others until she had four or five inside her.  That’s when they started getting out.  It wasn’t even deliberate, she had bunny feet and ears sticking out of her all over.

Carla chuckled.  “Oh, that must have been a sight.”

Nami giggled.  “Yeah.  It almost scared me off the whole thing.  But I let a couple go, and the others settled down.”

“How old were you?” asked Carla.

“It was a little after my ninth birthday.”

“You’ve been at this for nine years?  Wow, you must have been one of the first with the talent.”

Carla felt Nami’s shrug inside her.  “I guess.”

Then they were at the subway station, and Carla got caught up in the crush and bustle of all the people.  The crowds thinned a little at the train station, to the point where Carla was able to notice individuals rather than just a teeming mass.  She was used to furtive glances, but something was different.  It was like people would see her then studiously avoid looking at her again.

“What are they doing?” Carla murmured.

“What?” asked her resident.

“I’m used to stares and pointing at my ‘exotic looks’, but now it’s like they’re trying to pretend I don’t exist.”

“Ah, yeah.  The blue skin.  This prefecture has more than its share of the talented, so most people know what it means.  Anyone with the talent to do this much can do a lot more, and is thus dangerous.  They’d rather pretend the danger doesn’t exist.  Want me to hide it?”

Carla looked around, and grinned at all the people very carefully not gawking.  “Nah.  This is an improvement.”

Nami guided her through the process of buying two tickets to a nearby town, and their train arrived and departed exactly on time.

The city fell away, revealing green hills.  Carla spent the trip in silence, watching the passing countryside.

Less than an hour later they were walking again, this time without the crowds of the city.  Carla stared about in wonder.  She’d spent so long cooped up in the cities she hadn’t realized just how badly she missed seeing more trees than buildings around her.  Better yet, it was the tail end of cherry blossom season, and the petals were blowing in the breeze.  Nami had her stop under one of the trees, and let the petals rain against her face.

Before Carla knew it, they were walking up to the front door of a pretty little farmhouse.   She hesitated at the doorstep.  “Will they know who I am?” she asked Nami softly.

“Oh!  Right.”  Carla felt her face shift into familiar contours, then Nami raised their hand and knocked.  An older woman answered the door promptly.  “Nami, you’re home at last!  My, you’ve grown.”

Nami giggled.  “You saw the Carla on the TV, right?”

“The nice lady who interviewed you then got absorbed?  The one you kept?”

“Yeah, this is her.  Can she stay the night?  We got hurt a little in the rescue, and need to stay together for a couple days.”

“The one in the news, where you saved three people from being crushed?”

Nami nodded, grinning that she was being credited with all three.  “Yeah.  I hope I didn’t scare you.”

A younger man in his early twenties strolled into sight.  “You should see the videos of you two that have showed up on line.  Unreal.  Were you really that big?  And that...”  He held his hands out in front of his chest.  “Big...”  Then he got a good look at Nami and the body she was wearing, still Carla’s build and curves.  “Woah!  You look...  I...”  He blushed, then dashed off again.

“Well,” said Nami.  “That was my brother, Joe.  He’s... not usually like that.”

“Then again,” said Carla with a chuckle from inside Nami’s chest, “you’re not usually like this.”

“Oooh, dinner’s going to be fun.  We’re not late, are we?”

“You are cutting it fine, young lady.  But you haven’t missed it.  After all, we have to celebrate your big win, and your heroism as well.”

Dinner was a quiet affair.  Nami’s parents both gave little speeches about how proud they were, though her father’s was tempered with cautions about such dangerous actions.

Carla answered to that, noting that Nami had been very brave, and there had been no time to do anything but act as decisively as possible.  Nami’s father nodded at that, agreeing that Nami had shown the warrior spirit that day, in more ways than he’d expected.

Afterward, Nami took Carla out to the pasture with the other cows.  Carla stared at the expanse of field, it was huge by her way of reckoning.  “How big is the farm?”

“One hundred and one acres.  I think we currently have forty-eight cows... um, counting the ones inside me.  Which would really like to get out and have their dinners.  This is going to be...”

Carla sighed.  “What do I need to do.”

Nami walked their body over to a small shed, where they could have some privacy.  At her urging, Carla stripped off the robe and the competition bikini.  Then Carla’s eyes went bug eyed as a cow stepped out of the front of her body.  Its hooves scrabbled a few times as it pulled itself forward, then it was free and trotting out into the field.

“What?  That...  Holy crap.  I mean, you said, and I could sort of feel.  But...  A cow!  Just...  Ooogh!”  Another cow emerged, if anything slightly bigger than the last one.  Carla was momentarily blinded as its head emerged from her own, then she was staring at the back of a cow’s neck as it nonchalantly walked out of her body.  Six more followed and soon were out in the field and munching away at the sweet grasses there.

Carla slowly dressed, then stumbled out of the shed to stare at the eight cows.  “That was indescribable.  Incredible.”

“Fun?”

Carla tilted her head to one side.  “Once I stopped being startled.”

“Oh good.  Because I’ll want to do that tomorrow.  It would feel weird going around without a couple of cows in me.  Thanks for helping, it was way easier to get the last one out at your size than at mine.”

“Tomorrow?  What are we going to do tomorrow?”

Nami shrugged.  “I usually help with the cows.  So does Joe.  There isn’t all that much to do, they know to head to the milking machines at the right time, and those are entirely robotic.  Kinda fun, too.”

“Fun?” asked Carla weakly.

Nami giggled.  “Sometimes I put the cow on the outside, and go along with them.  Being milked is nice.”

“Do your parents know about this?”

“Yeah.  Dad makes me log everything I do with the cows, and he has spreadsheets and everything for how it affects production.”

Carla shrugged.  “Eh, if it’s OK by him.  I think I’ll pass, though.”

“We have to stay small anyway.  Just for a couple more days.  I have school on Monday, will you be okay with that?”

“Hah!  High school?  How long until you graduate?”

“Two months, one week, and four days.  Not that I’m counting.  The big entrance exam is over, so there’s really not much left to do but wait and see.”

“Ah.  Then I know what we’re doing tomorrow,” said Carla.

“What?”

“Back to the city, so I can have some fun before I get stuck in school all day.”

Nami curved their lips into a grin.  “Sweet!”