"Kaito, you're lucky you're not human or you'd be a blimp by now..."
Kaito was seated at the dining room table, wearing just his tank top and brown pants. His familiar jacket and muffler hung on a hook over the door. He had his fourth pint of strawberry ice cream in one hand, a spoon in the other, and he'd almost drained the container of its tasty contents. "Aw, come on Meiko-chan, I'm not that bad..." he pouted, "Plus I do all that dancing, I'm sure I'd keep up!"
The brunette began scooping away the empty ice cream containers on the table. "And what about you and all that sake anyway?" he said.
Meiko hestitated for a moment before continuing. "Sake... and I... are different," she mumbled, "And... it's still way healthier for you than ice cream anyway..."
In spite of her excuse, Meiko laid off of him after she finished taking out the trash. As the two oldest Vocaloids in the house, Meiko and Kaito theoretically had seniority... though in practice, Meiko tended to take on most of the tasks herself as the somewhat scatterbrained Kaito wasn't trusted with the loftier responsibilities. The only major responsibility Kaito had was handling his own grocery shopping - largely because nobody else in the house wanted to keep funding his enormous ice cream appetite. But in spite of his normally voracious appetite for the sugary, creamy treat, Kaito, like the rest of the Vocaloids, never showed any of the consequences of a little overindulgence. Or in his case, a lot of overindulgence. Meiko had explained the mechanics to him once, but he didn't quite understand the technical side of it - all he knew was, he wasn't human, so he could eat to his heart's content.
As Kaito stood up to throw out the container, he heard his smartphone receive a text. He picked up the phone and checked it. "Kaito V3 patch online?" he read aloud, "Already? I swear, they're patching us so much I'm get worried about getting a really nasty bug..."
Meiko grumbled. "Seriously, the last one they put out made me allergic to rabbits," she said.
Kaito shuddered as he put on his jacket and muffler. "And just two weeks ago Miku said she got a patch that made everything she ate taste like sauerkraut..." he said, his nose wrinkling at that. She'd been sobbing for days about not being able to enjoy her beloved negi.
"I have no idea what's going on with their quality assurance!" Meiko fumed, "It's like they're not even checking these things out! You be careful, okay?"
"Hopefully nothing bad happens this time..." Kaito said, "I guess I can pick up some more ice cream on the way home..."
"Oh yea, Kaito, I think you have a few more cubic feet of ice cream to cram in there..." Meiko said with a laugh.
Getting a patch installation never took terribly long - for Kaito, he'd gone in and out of the Crypton R&D lab within an hour. It had simply been a matter of synchronizing with the computer system. But as he left the building, he felt a gnawing hunger in his stomach. "I guess it has been a whole two hours since I last ate..." he chuckled, "I'll grab an ice cream cone on the way to the store..."
As the blue-haired man stopped at his favorite ice cream stand, the vendor smiled. "Oh thank goodness, I was getting worried," he said, "You hadn't been here all day and I'd even brewed an extra large batch of strawberry ice cream!"
"Strawberrry!?" Kaito said, his eyes lighting up. He quickly pulled out his wallet. "I'll take the whole batch!"
Soon the blue-haired pop star had his arms full of trays of ice cream cones. "I'll have to get these home quick before they melt..." he said, "I don't usually order this much but..."
His stomach growled. "I guess I need a little more than usual..."
As the vendor watched him walking away, he breathed a sigh of relief. "That guy is putting my kids through college... can't believe he took the whole batch though. Just lookin' at him, you'd never know what he can pack away..."
As Kaito hurried home, he couldn't help himself and grabbed one of the delicious treats off the top of the tray. As he took the first lick of the cone, though, he felt a greater awareness of how wonderful it tasted. He thought his taste buds were about to explode with flavor. Though the Vocaloid certainly had an unnatural love of ice cream, he'd never remembered it tasting quite this good. "Maybe it's something special about that batch..." he said as he ate with far more gusto than normal. Soon he'd devoured the entire cone and felt a craving for more.
Kaito stopped walking and took a seat at the bench, grabbing another cone off his top tray. Somehow it tasted even better than the last one he'd had - sweet and savory, with fruit chunks in it. But unlike normal, when he tended to take his time with every bite, he found himself gobbling it down with unnatural speed. The third cone went much the same way, Kaito still obsessed with the flavor. "I've never had ice cream this GOOD before!" he exclaimed between bites.
By the time he'd cleared out the first tray of ice cream cones, Kaito noticed a tightness around his midsection. "Oh no..." he muttered, "Did Rin shrink my pants again?"
He ran a finger under the waistband and noticed two things - one, his pants were definitely tighter. And two... his stomach felt a lot softer than he remembered. But he brushed off the second - after all, he couldn't gain weight, so perhaps his memory was faulty. Before he could question the status quo any further, he felt that ravenous hunger come back and he was back at work, clearing out his trays of ice cream cones. By the time he'd eaten his way through a second tray, he started to get a little concerned as his hunger didn't seem to be going away... even for someone like Kaito who loved ice cream more than almost anything in the world, he normally had a limit. And he was started to feel a draft around his stomach...
Kaito's eyes widened as he noticed his shirt was starting to curl up over his rounder stomach, which was now pushing it's way over his pants. He placed a finger on it and to his horror, felt a far fleshier softness there where he'd, earlier in the day, had a flat stomach. As he ran his hand around it, he could feel the soft curve under his fingers. "How... how did this happen?!" he gasped out.
As if in answer, his thicker tummy only growled again. Kaito nervously glanced at his last ice cream tray. "I... I probably shouldn't eat anymore..." he said, remembering Meiko's scoldings earlier in the morning.
But as his hunger won the battle with his wits, he found himself reaching for another ice cream cone. "...after this tray," he said, "I shouldn't eat anymore... after this tray."
By the time his tongue touched another decadent scoop of ice cream, Kaito found himself forgetting about his concerns about his figure and just lost himself in the flavors. He didn't regain his senses until he'd finally eaten all of the cones... and by now, his shirt was revealing far more of his rounder body. Kaito began to panic - he had no idea what was happening to him or why, but his body seemed to be getting larger right before his eyes. He tried to yank his tank top back down over the fleshy sphere, but found he was getting far too much resistance. Every time he tried to tug it back down, it popped right back up again.
Desperate to conceal his changed appearance, Kaito zipped down his jacket. While he got some resistance and he could feel his stomach packed up against the fabric, he could at least conceal his embarrassing condition from the rest of the world. He wanted to just head straight home until he remembered he needed to make a trip to the convenience store. "Okay..." he said, "I'll pick up some more ice cream... but... I'll save it for... later!"
But Kaito's resolve felt weaker as his hunger demanded more. His larger stomach felt so incredibly empty... even though Kaito had spent the last hour gorging himself on ice cream cones, the maddening hunger made him feel as if he'd not eaten in weeks. As he approached the glass doors to the convenience store, he got a good look at his reflection. His jacket and pants seemed tighter around his arms and legs, and his face looked a bit softer. 'I shouldn't go in!' he said to himself, starting to back away from the door. But his hunger won out yet again and Kaito found himself marching inside. He grabbed a basket in each arm and marched straight to the ice cream freezer, filling the basket with as much ice cream as he could carry. 'I can't eat it right now,' he reasoned, 'I don't even have a spoon! So it's for... rationing...'
He quickly paid for his groceries, hoping the cashier hadn't noticed anything different about him. Her eyes had lingered on the bump under his jacket where his stomach was creating an extra curve. His cheeks red with embarrassment, he walked out, his eyes forward and still trying to fight the urge to just rip open every tub of ice cream he was holding and eat until there wasn't a drop of cream left. 'I don't understand what's happening to me,' he thought to himself, starting to feel sick as his packed up stomach fought with his jacket, 'I can't stop eating... and now I'm blowing up like a balloon!'
As he returned to the Vocaloid's home, he quickly scanned for any other people. He didn't want anyone to see him like this, not until he'd had time to hide it anyway. "Meiko? Miku? Anyone?" he called out. He really hoped Miku wasn't around. Whereas Meiko would just give him a hard time and the Kagamines would make fun of him, he was more upset with the idea of his girlfriend being disgusted by him. Shoving the ice cream into his freezer (of course he had his own freezer - that way nobody could claim he'd taken their own ice cream), he lamented that whether he liked it or not, he'd have to go ice cream-free until he got rid of this unwanted weight.
No ice cream... for weeks...
He placed a hand on the bump of his stomach concealed under his jacket. "This shouldn't even be happening this fast..." he whispered, trying to think about how humans normally gained weight, "I thought it was supposed to take time..."
Kaito tried to think things over until he remembered. The software patch - his hunger started after he downloaded the patch. It must have been some kind of bug or glitch. He'd have to get on the phone with technical support right away - surely they'd help him. His management wouldn't want to deal with the publicity fall out if he chunked out, so no doubt they'd have a way to fix him.
He reached into the communal fridge looking for something to satisfy his maddening hunger that wouldn't cause him to get worse. His eyes drifted to a stalk of celery. He was fairly sure that was good for him. He broke off a small piece and started chewing on it.
It was the most awful thing he'd ever tasted. He felt like every bite reminded him of rotting garbage - he was fairly certain he'd liked celery before though. Just swallowing it made him feel ill. He grabbed for an apple, hoping maybe he just needed something sweet. But as soon as he bit into it, the same rotten sensation shot through him. It was as if his body was rejecting everything he tried to feed it.
Except...
Kaito's shut the door to the fridge, staring at his beloved ice cream freezer. 'No... I can't...' he reasoned, 'I'm only going to get bigger if I do that...' But as the lovely memories of his afternoon with the strawberry ice cream cones returned, he yearned for that explosion of taste yet again. He clutched his stomach, trying to remind himself that there were now consequences for his indulgences.
But the choice ended up being far too easy to make given how painful not eating had become. He grabbed a spoon from the kitchen, popped open the freezer door, and grabbed the first pint. Popping off the lid, he gluttonously began shoveling the substance into his mouth. Somehow, the lack of time spent eating his precious ice cream only made the taste of it that much more welcoming. Soon he'd drained an entire pint and he reached for another. The taste only seemed to drive him into a greater and greater frenzy the more he ate, making his return for a third and then fourth pint a certainty. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew he needed to stop, he could feel the greater and greater pressure of his stomach against his jacket, of his thighs starting to fill his once-baggy pants, of his arms squeezing against his sleeves. But now Kaito was practically unstoppable as he devoured his seventh pint of ice cream with no signs of slowing down. As the logical side of him pleaded with his hunger for rationality, to try and save him any further indignities from his unwanted growth, Kaito couldn't stop himself - his beloved freezer was now his greatest nemesis as it had been stacked from ceiling to floor with pints.
What finally drove Kaito out of his eating frenzy was his jacket finally giving out - his belly burst out of the tight fabric that could contain it no more, the zipper tearing open against the force of his bulging body. He dropped the empty pint in his hand, having lost count somewhere around the 15th pint, and placed a hand over the enormous fleshy mass. He grabbed a fat fold and shook it, realizing just how much damage he'd done to himself this time. Tear started to come to his eyes as his hunger kept prying at him to keep eating. "I... I can't stop..." he whispered, "How much bigger am I going to get?"
He took a few tentative steps away from the freezer, watching his new belly bounce and quiver with his every heavy footstep. He was aware that his thighs were so thick now they'd begun to rub together as he walked, his gait becoming more of a waddle. His pants were so tight now they looked as if he'd painted them on, and his arms looked like tight sausages as they were still wrapped in the sleeves of his coat. He couldn't even see his tank top anymore, though he felt it cushioning his pecs, which had now inflated to the point his shirt was more of a bra. He felt disgusted with himself for not having the willpower to fight back against the bug-induced hunger he'd wrestled with all afternoon. He glanced into the freezer - he'd basically eaten all of the pints he brought home, and his heart pounded with fear as he realized how much ice cream was still in there. "I'm not going to be able to move if I keep eating like this!" he said in a panic, trying to imagine himself a bloated blob of a man still desperately shoveling ice cream into his mouth. What would everyone in the house say?
What would Miku say?!
"I'm HOOOOME!"
...to Kaito's fear, he was going to find out sooner rather than later. He paniced, slamming the freezer door shut. As he looked around the kitchen floor though, he realized he couldn't possibly conceal the containers he'd slothfully dropped to the floor as he devoured their contents with such glee it might have been better to call them "carcasses." Hoping to at least hide some part of himself, he desperately tried to get his coat closed again, but found himself fighting a losing battle against the belly that had exploded out of it mere moments before. "Kaito? Mei-chan? Rin, Len?" Miku called out as he heard her footsteps approaching the kitchen.
"Don't come in!" Kaito shouted desperately trying to hold her back.
He heard the girl giggled. "Oh oh, somebody's doing something he's not supposed toooo..." she said in a sing-songy voice, "Did you steal Meiko's sake ice cream again!?"
Kaito swallowed his heart as Miku skipped into the kitchen, cute and thin as ever, like any Vocaloid would be. Or rather... should be. She had an ice cream cone in each hand and as awful as Kaito felt for how fat he'd gotten, the craving he kept losing against begged for a taste...
As Miku laid eyes on him, she almost dropped them both in utter surprise. Her enormous eyes ran up and down his obese form. "K...Kaito?" she said in disbelief.
She walked forward and poked his exposed stomach with one finger, watching it sink in. As she seemed to be wrestling with what to do, Kaito suddenly started blurting out whatever came into his head. "Miku! Miku, I'm sorry! Something happened to me... I think the upgrade they gave me broke my metabolism... and now I... I can't stop eating! I haven't been able to stop eating ice cream all afternoon! But I promise, I'll call them right away and get all this fixed and go back to normal and..."
"Ice cream did this?" she asked, still sounding shocked and poking at his belly.
Kaito looked away in shame, nodding his head. "I'm sorry..." he apologized, "I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough... you don't deserve a fat boyfriend like me..."
As Miku stopped poking at his stomach, Kaito finally got the courage to look at Miku. Expecting a face full of disgust and revulsion, he found something altogether different. He didn't entirely know what to make of it... she didn't seem upset or angry. His enormous stomach growled, reminding him of the awful hunger that still hadn't left him.
As Kaito caught a glint in the the teal-headed girl's eyes, he suddenly got a terrible premonition. There was, in fact, a far worse reaction Miku could have had to his revealing the software glitch to her.
She held up her ice cream cone in his face. Dangerous, dangerous temptation. "Sounds like you didn't have enough..." she said, an odd smile on her face, "Come on Kaito, surely you have room for this one too?"
"M...Miku..." he pleaded, "Whatever you're thinking..."
She could encourage him.
He couldn't say no to both ice cream and Miku. Not like this. His will broken down, he grabbed the cone from her hands and resigned himself to another frenzy of gluttonous growth. Only this time... he'd have help... once both the cones were gone, Miku had popped open his freezer and pulled out a fresh pint.
She waved a spoon full of ice cream in his face. "Say... ahhhh!"