P4: Idol Hauntings (Patreon)

Somewhere unknown

Fog… nothing but fog. It was all Rise could see around her, all-encompassing and blocking whatever pulsating pink and purples existed behind it in the eerie space she found herself in. A droning bass sound matched the throbbing of the glowing neon behind the fog and it was all backed by a gentle twinkling that reminded Rise of some kind of children’s lullaby.

She was wrapped in suffocating fabric and her arms were trapped down at her sides. With an exploratory tug Rise tried to jerk her shoulder, unfortunately only managing to move it little more than an inch while also feeling the resistance of something across her chest holding her down. Trying to twist her hips yielded similar results, as if a strap was keeping Rise held down onto whatever surface she was lying on.

The surface itself reminded her vaguely of her mattress but fluffier, like it was threatening to swallow her up. Even worse, the cushiness was creeping up her waist, pushing against her groin, and spreading her thighs apart.

“It… It’s a nightmare,” Rise thought, the heaviness of her body and her sluggish movements being the only explanation, “It’ll be over soon. I’ll wake up in my own bed…”

A sound cut through the gentle thrum of bass, footsteps that were remarkably different from any of the others polluting the dreamscape. Rise’s eyes fluttered as two figures cut through the fog. Each step grew louder as they came closer

Only now did she recognize that there were bars around her. Not only was she strapped down but also fully imprisoned. The limited view she had meant she couldn’t get a good look at their faces. Even worse was that as they got closer she grew more tired. She fought to keep her eyes from closing, trying to will the fog away so she could see who was approaching her, until unfortunately she failed and the world went dark as her lids slinked down.

Rise’s Apartment

Just like that Rise was back in her bed, curled into a ball and her body heavy with sleep. Her eyes opened dreamily. She gave an exploratory turn, finding that she was no longer held down by whatever had been confining her within her nightmare. Gratefully, she shifted her limbs.

A yawn left the redhead's mouth and she started rolling out of bed. As soon as her feet hit the floor she stretched, trying to shake the stiffness from her body that didn’t match the fact that she’d just woken up.

“What a terrible nightmare,” Rise thought, “it almost feels like I didn’t get any sleep at all.”

Whatever annoying lack of sleep she was feeling didn’t change the fact that her schedule was packed full today, with a full rehearsal for an idol show taking up the majority of her afternoon. Rise started getting ready, adjusting her messy copper-colored bed head into the wavy ponytails her fans knew her best for.

A knock at the door pulled her attention away from the delicate line of eyeliner she was drawing. “Ugh, not now… I’m almost done.” Rise considered ignoring the beckoning to her door, thinking it may just be a delivery that could wait till she finished. She hummed to herself and brought the pencil back to her lid, but there was another urging rapping at the door.

Rise dropped her eyeliner by the sink, marching with a bit of annoyance driving her footsteps toward the entryway of her apartment. She threw open the door fully prepared to scold whoever had dared to disturb her.

Her attitude flipped to a more cheerful one upon seeing Yu standing there holding a long box. “Senpai!” Rise exclaimed cheerfully.

Yu blushed at his partner practically jumping in the air, it didn’t help that she was pretty much only wearing a towel. He rubbed the back of his head, looking more than slightly embarrassed. “You know, being several years out of high school and each of us being in our 20s, it feels pretty weird for you to call me Senpai.”

Rise giggled because she could tell there was more he wanted to say but the towel was distracting him, or rather, the bits of her skin extending beyond its concealing limits was. “You’ll always be Senpai to me—you’re still a year older after all. Sooo what’d you bring me Senpai?” Rise asked, motioning to the box in his hands by bending down slightly. She could feel the edge of the towel creeping up her thighs as well as Yu’s eyes unable to break away.

“I feel like I learn this time and time again, but you certainly are dangerous, aren’t you?” Yu whispered.

Rise remembered when Chie had called her ‘dangerous girl’ for her shameless flirting with Yu, and throughout their relationship he’d taken to mentioning it whenever she teased him like this. “You still haven’t told me what’s in the box Senpai.” Rise said, guiding his attention back to the matter at hand.

He shook his head as if snapping out of hypnosis. “Oh, right, the box. Uh I actually don’t know. It was sitting on your porch when I arrived. “

Rise cocked her head, eyeing the box. “Huh, must be an outfit my manager wants me to put on… well, I can deal with it later.” Rise pointed to her counter, “Would you be so kind as to put it over there while I finish getting ready?”

“As you wish,” Yu said with a chuckle.

Rise looked back and winked at him, disappearing to finish putting on her makeup and clothes for the day. Re-emerging earned her an approving look from Yu whose eyes were just as fixated on her as when she was wearing the towel.

“What do you think, Senpai?” Rise asked cheekily.

Yu raised an eyebrow. “About?” he asked.

“Coffee of course!” Rise said, “I heard about a little Cafe in Yongan-Jaya I wanted to try, I think it was called Le’blanc.”

The banter between the pair continued as they walked out of the Shibuya apartment, leaving the mysterious box behind on Rise’s counter.

Hours Later

When Rise returned, it was without her paramour and after the sun had long since disappeared below the horizon. The rehearsal for her show had gone well and she was assured that the final one tomorrow was just to make sure everybody was hitting their marks on stage. Rise sighed, knowing that everybody had done their parts well, but Minoru insisted on it.

The darkness in the apartment was sliced through by moonlight landing almost perfectly on the box she'd had Yu leave on her counter earlier that day. It stood out like it had a spotlight on it and piqued Rise’s curiosity. She’d forgotten about it somewhere between her morning coffee with Yu and her first costume change during the first rehearsal.

Now it was the only thing she could think about. Why had her manager sent it to her house instead of giving it to her at the rehearsal space? Why didn’t he bring it up during the show? Something about the box sitting on the counter was captivating, so much so that before she turned on any light, or even removed her shoes, she was stepping forward and gripping the top of the package.

Opening it only left more questions for her though because the dress laying on the ruffly white tissue paper wasn’t Rise’s style at all. At least not in recent years. As an idol, she’d taken more to a glamorous, sensual look that highlighted maturity recently. It seemed a good direction to go to differentiate herself from the typical cutesy idols.

The vibrancy of this dress's pastel pink in the moonlight was almost enough to hurt her eyes. She could hardly imagine what it’d look like under stage lights or even under the lights of her kitchen. It wasn’t even complimented well because the lace and white bows just added more of a blinding sheen that caused Rise to cringe.

Her hands ran over the material—as ugly as she might have believed it to be, she couldn’t stop herself from touching it all over. “…satin,” Rise breathed, “Ooh, it’s so soft! I bet Kanji would be all over this too, though he’d probably be mad that somebody put such nice material into something so ugly.”

Despite her disparaging words about the dress, Rise’s hands wrapped around it and lifted the garment free from the paper so she could get a better look at it. The paper crinkled as she pulled the dress from the box, its material unfurled but went wide rather than long. What she’d missed before was an absurdly short skirt hiding lots of petticoats. The short sleeves too hid layers of stuffing meant to make them look round and puffy.

“A hime-lolita-style dress… seriously?” Rise scoffed, recognizing it as a recreation from earlier in her career, albeit made shorter than she ever remembered it being. She tried to set the dress against a chair, hoping to talk to Minoru in the morning about it.

However, her grip didn’t release from the material, even when she could have sworn she uncurled her fingers. The white ruffled collar of the dress remained firmly within Rise’s hands.

“I… why can’t I let it go?” she wondered, staring at the iridescent pastel pink, “Maybe I should… try it… on?”

Rise’s head was going fuzzy staring at the fabric, like hypnotic patterns were emerging in the hazy moonlight.

Her feet carried her to her bedroom where she set the dress down before her hands pulled off her clothes, depositing them in a pile on the floor. Those same hands continued to betray her by pulling the dress over her head, squeezing around her body until it was pulled in place. Surprisingly it hugged her body perfectly at every curve and angle.

Only now did Rise wander out into her living room, driven by her traitorous legs toward the full-length mirror. She flipped the light switch on her way out examining the dress in the reflective surface. That hugging sensation read more outwardly as tightness than a perfect fit. It was more like she’d gone and squeezed herself into a dress that was too small.

Wiring hidden under the petticoats made the skirt she thought would be a fluffy bell into more of a disk shape. It was so bad that the crotch of her underwear was fully visible despite the outfit’s skirt. Honestly, it was a stretch even calling it a dress. It was little more than a tight top with a lace collar and big puffy sleeves attached to a disk around her waist that was almost two and a half feet in diameter.

Rise scoffed at the outfit upon seeing herself in it. “Why in the world would anybody send me this, let alone my manager?” she wondered, wandering back over to the box to see if there was a note or something that she’d missed.

No note awaited her. Buried in the paper, however, was something folded though it was significantly thicker than a piece of paper. The smooth plastic surface of the folder nappy matched the pink of her dress and next to it was a pacifier, big enough for an adult. It completed the ensemble with its white mouthguard and pink ring.

Rise nodded, thinking that she understood perfectly why the box had arrived at her door. She'd hoped it wouldn't reach her, that the trend would die out before Minoru could suggest it. The Adult Baby trend has been taking Japan by storm lately, with more and more women and men choosing to don infantile clothes and even going as far as wearing diapers.

There’d been stores in the Shibuya underground mall that opened, selling specialty clothes and diapers to the populace. Rise had passed by it once or twice even, looking in with a mix of fascination and curiosity. She was even surprised to learn that larger changing tables had even been installed in public restrooms to support full-grown adults. It was a phenomenon that spread through Tokyo overnight, and given the amount of effort being put into it, it seemed to be here to stay.

“I had to know this was coming,” Rise sighed. She’d had to fight with Minoru to maintain the image she wanted. Rise insisted on leaving behind the teen idol bubblegum pop persona of so many others for her new, more mature image. He always was recommending she chase trends and she was prepared for this one to come up between them.

“Still pretty bold of him to send it directly to my house before we even talked about it through.” Rise grumbled, shuffling back to her bedroom to remove the garment she’d slipped into. She even wondered what had compelled her to wear it in the first place.

Then, like she’d forgotten all about the embarrassing dress, Rise collapsed into bed. A wave of exhaustion hit her the moment she saw the comfy mattress, followed by all the stiff body aches that came with dancing on stage all day.

She even landed perfectly so the circular skirt compressed under her, the front flattening beneath her thighs while she huffed the intoxicating aroma of her pillow.

Somewhere Else…

Rise’s dreams were less distinct from the night before, though no less bothersome to her. It was as though she was floating in a vast chasm, kept away from any solid surface that she could use to orient herself. All around her purple neon flashed in the distance, blurred by whatever haze laced the air and from every direction the bass-driven twinkling music filled her ears.

The redhead wanted to scream, to call out for some sort of help in the noisy void, but when she did something pressed against her tongue to take up any space in her mouth she could have used to yell.

She closed her mouth around this intrusion, feeling like it was exactly what she needed to do. Instantly calm overtook her caused by a little strip of squeaky rubber separating her teeth and leading to a larger pacifying bulb.

Rise’s Apartment

The sound of her phone’s alarm tore Rise back into the waking world, causing her to sit up in bed. She thought it odd, given that she’d fallen asleep face down and rarely shifted in the night. The weirdness of her morning didn’t stop at a changed sleeping position either. Rise felt a rubbery protrusion in her mouth and the satin of the dress across her form.

Whatever had possessed her to put on the dress last night had apparently followed Rise into her sleeping hours. Somehow the pacifier from the garment box had ended up in her mouth and she was suckling on it. She spat the binky out of her mouth, watching it roll across her floor in revulsion.

“Eh!? Why did I have that?” Rise asked, hoping that the empty room would provide an answer. With the energy of concern driving her, Rise jumped out of bed, looking around the room like she might spot the culprit behind this.

Nobody appeared from the woodwork, only the faint static of her small bedroom television adding mixing with the sound of her frantic breathing. Seeing she was alone, Rise took a deep breath, relaxing her tense body and mind so she could try and think rationally for a minute.

“I… I must have been sleepwalking.” Rise said, wandering around the room to see if any evidence of her deduction existed. It wasn’t as if she’d left footprints on the floor or anything, but at the same time she didn’t see any evidence to the contrary either.

“I-It’s just been a little strange lately. Yeah, I haven’t been sleeping well and it’s making me sleepwalk. That’s what it’s gotta be.” The rationalization was flimsy at best but was also all Rise could think of that sounded sane. “It’s not like this place is haunted!” she said.

The statement was said just a little too loud, as if she was expecting a reply that would confirm or deny whether or not her twenty-year-old Tokyo apartment had a ghost in it.

With her nightly transgression figured out—or at least rationalized—Rise turned her attention to the pink satin horror still wrapped around her body. “Alright,” she said, “Let’s get rid of you and give Minoru hell for sending you to my house.”

Reaching down to the stiff skirt, Rise moved to tug the dress off of her body in one swift move. With all her might Rise tugged, pulling at the fabric and expecting it to follow her movements.

It didn’t budge.

The material of her skirt remained firmly in place and Rise’s arms struggled to lift it. It wasn’t like she wasn’t trying, she pulled at the petticoated skirt with all her might and it just wouldn’t budge. Her limbs started to shake and her lungs burned from the air trapped inside. Sweat started to bead on her forehead as her muscles strained. The skirt of the dress felt as though it weighed a thousand pounds.

“Come… off!” Rise shouted, the tension causing her voice to warble, “Please just… let… go!”

Her hands slipped at the word 'go' with the skirt remaining in place at her hips. The tactic quickly changed when she realized it was pointless to try again. Rise tried to dig her fingers into the satin wrapped around her torso.

She couldn’t, the pads of her fingers simply slipping off like it was a metal surface coated in oil. “What the hell!” Rise hollered, running her hands ineffectually against the material. “Get off, get off, get off, GET OFF!”

She tried hard for a long time to remove the dress but the parts she could grab were impossibly heavy in her hands and the rest was so tight around her it may as well have been a second skin.

Her frantic attempts were eventually interrupted by a notification on her phone, a trilling noise that calmed her frantic mind and brought reality back to the forefront. The impossibility of her dress was so quickly forgotten by her responsibilities waiting for her on the other end of the call.

RIt was Rise’s manager calling. She looked at the time and realized how long she’d spent pulling at the dress—so long she was now late to today’s rehearsal. “Crap, crap, crap.” Rise cursed, swiping away the call and rushing into the bathroom to quickly apply her makeup for the day. A quick text to Minoru let him know she was on her way. With no time to dawdle she tore through the kitchen, heading as fast as she could for the front door to catch a cab.

She stopped momentarily when she caught sight of a pink rectangle that matched her dress sitting on the small counter next to her door. She stopped short, staring at it. “Did I…” Rise started, trailing off as she thought back to that evening, “Did I take that out of the box?” she asked again, picking up the diaper she could have sworn she’d left sitting in the garment box.

Its outer plastic crinkled invitingly in her hands, and running her nails across it made an inviting swish sound that sent a shiver up her spine. A tingle that crawled up her back and made her vision fuzzy.

“Why did I pull out a diaper…” she said dreamily, fixing her thumb through the fold and doubling the length of the garment. The sheen of the plastic landing strip caught the light behind Rise flashing in her unfocused gaze back and forth like a metronome. “Was I going to put it on?”

*HONKKKKK*

The honk of the taxi’s horn caused Rise to release the diaper, dropping it to the floor. Whatever spell it had over her was broken. She threw a coat on before rushing out to meet the driver like the strange pause hadn't even happened, a little blip in her mind and nothing more.

She made it to rehearsals only an hour late.

The Theater

Rise’s late arrival earned her a questioning look from everybody in the theater. The main culprit was Minoru who shrugged and tapped his watch.

“What happened?” he asked.

“I… something unexpected happened. Can I ask you something?”

“I suppose,” he said, turning and looking toward the stage, “but we should really start the run-through soon. We’re already going to have to pay the dancers extra today as is.”

“It’ll be quick I promise.” she said, taking a deep breath, “What was with the outfit you sent to my apartment? I thought we tal—”

Minoru stopped Rise with a raised finger. Concern spread across his normally blank face. “I didn’t send anything to your house. The outfit for the show isn’t even done yet seeing as fittings aren’t until next week.”

“I—” Rise stopped because, honestly, what could she say to that? If that was true then the mysterious outfit she’d found at her doorstep truly might be cursed or—even worse—possessed! Seeing as her last experience with supernatural phenomena via the midnight channel had proved authority figures to be less than helpful, Rise shut up about the clothes, deciding she’d need to figure it out herself.

“Don’t worry about it.” she said with a dismissive hand wave, dropping the long coat she’d worn in to reveal the dress underneath. “I’ll need a pair of tights.” Rise said confidently, masking her worry behind the strong Idol persona she’d cultivated over the years.

Whispers Whispers made their way around Rise, sending a spike of nervousness through her. However she was bolstered by the fact that her manager didn’t outwardly react, only nodding and fetching the tights she’d asked for to finally give her something to hide the material of her panties that peaked out beneath the petticoats.

Rise’s Apartment

Getting back home was accompanied by a long sigh of relief from Rise because her confidence proved to be somewhat short-lived when it came to moving in the strange dress. The tight material wasn’t exactly made for her on-stage dance moves and stifled her wild kicks and turns.

She wasted no time in turning on the lights and flopping onto her couch. A low, plaintive cry escaped Rise’s lips, whispered into a room she was alone in. “What am I going to do?” she asked aloud, leaning her head back to look at the ceiling. She wished Yu was here but at the same time didn’t. He’d been through so much with the whole Izanami thing that it seemed selfish to pull him into another weird paranormal occurrence.

She spread her hands across the material of the couch and her left hand bumped into something. It was light, puffy, and made a *zipppp* sound when her fingers ran over it. Her hard stare at the ceiling broke as she turned her attention to the folded diaper next to her on the couch. The one she’d missed when she initially sat down.

“Wha—?” Rise said, then her eyes went wide and she jumped up, realizing what she was seeing. “How did you get here?”

The pink diaper stayed right where it was despite Rise addressing it directly, but given that it had apparently magically refolded itself and moved from her kitchen floor to the couch Rise half expected it to answer.

The off-putting silence in the room prevailed.

Rise stood there for a long time, making sure that the plastic incontinence aid product wasn’t going to jump up and bite her. When she was at least half sure it wasn’t an invading shadow coming to ruin her life, Rise snatched up the offending object. This time, she was only briefly distracted by the feeling of it in her hands before she marched toward her garbage can and dropped it in.

“That’s enough of you.” she said, closing the lid, “Now let’s try and get this stupid dress off.”

Later…

All of her efforts to remove the dress proved to be as ineffectual as before, so Rise, for the second time that day, gave up. “I’m taking scissors to it tomorrow.” she grumbled.

Honestly, she almost wanted to try tonight but the lure of sleep was starting to drag her eyes down and rather than fight it she thought it best to give in and collapse into bed.

“Yeah, I’ll try again in the morning. I need sleep.”

…

…

… except sleep didn’t come.

For whatever reason Rise’s bed was feeling like the most uncomfortable object in the world. She groaned, tossing and turning within the comforters to find some semblance of comfort in the blanket, but none came to her.

It wasn’t even the dress making it hard to sleep. Rather, the satin material of her stuck outfit proved to be a welcome reprieve to the sandpaper-like grit material her down comforter had become.

The copper top idol pouted to herself, the mounting hopelessness of her situation settling in as the minutes of discomfort slipped into hours and her restlessness continued well into the night. She considered getting up and trying to remove the dress again, but the promise of finding a comfortable position that would allow for sleep kept her locked in bed.

Sometime around two in the morning, Rise shifted from one side to the other, scrunching the skirt’s material beneath her. There, lit by the glowing numbers of her bedside clock, was the pacifier she’d spit out the previous night.

Just like the diaper, it’d moved from the spot where she’d discarded it to her bedside table.

The mounting exhaustion slathered across Rise’s mind kept her worries at bay as she considered the pacifier. Her hand reached forward, she slipped a finger through the pink ring and brought it to her mouth. For a second the rubber teat remained pressed against her lips, awaiting entrance. Reluctantly she parted her mouth just enough to let the rubber mass nestle inside, pressing down her tongue.

All it took was a little suckle of the thing, and her eyes fluttered. She sank back into her comfortable bed and fell asleep.

The Next Morning.

Being lucky enough to wake up the next morning without any strange, bassy, foggy dreams plaguing her left Rise with a smile on her face. It almost immediately disappeared when she felt her lips turn upward behind the mouthguard of her pacifier.

She opened her lips, half to yawn and half to let the pacifier slip out so she could get on with her morning. A little nagging feeling told her that she should have been worried about how well she slept with the pacifier or how she was going to get the dress off but it was squeaking through weakly, vainly fighting against the haze of sleep still crusting her eyes.

With one hand Rise put the pacifier back on her nightstand, much less perturbed by it now than she was the previous morning. Stepping out of bed she crossed the room, instinctively reaching down and pulling off her dress so she could enjoy the hot morning shower that was sure to heat some life back into her muscles.

It was only when the water had turned off and she was staring at the satin pink pile that she realized what she’d done, how quickly everything had changed in that moment. “I took it off…” She murmured, staring at the hideous dress in astonishment. “I couldn’t budge it yesterday and now it’s off!”

There was a measure of amazement and cheer that filtered through Rise’s words as she stared at the garment laying on the ground. She practically jumped excitedly in the air now that she was free of it and immediately began looking around her closet for something she could actually enjoy wearing.

“Put it back on…”

Rise whipped around, swearing she caught a whisper from behind telling her to wear the dress again. She half expected to see a ghost or something, a being trying to tempt her back into the outfit. There wasn't anyone and the only thing making noise behind her was the gentle hum of static on her untuned TV.

Normally she would have dismissed it but a note of agreement rose up in her mind, and she nodded. “I should put it back on.” she thought dreamily, before shaking her head violently. “NO!” she shouted, snatching up the dress and shoving it to the very back corner of her closet.

“I won’t get caught in that again,” she said, feeling her resolve falter just at the thought of the outfit. She was already considering putting it back on.

Over the Next Week...

The week that followed didn’t get much easier for Rise. At least not mentally. Sure, she was free of the dress, but Yu had gone back to the countryside to see his family for a while and the days leading up to her big show were busy with interviews and press.

At home constant intrusive thoughts about the dress popped into her head at random, leaving her to wonder what it might feel like against her skin. Trying to shake them away or distracting herself didn’t help either. Even sleep was elusive the first few days because, like that initial night, Rise couldn’t bring herself to relax in her own bed.

Popping the pacifier in her mouth for its sleep inducing effects was done reluctantly the first time, doubtfully the second, and then regularly every time after that. The ease at which comfort came in such a stressful time caused Rise to relent in her fight against the childish sleep aid.

While the pacifier stayed on her nightstand and the dress remained in the back of her closet, the folded pink diaper jumped around no matter how often Rise threw it away or ignored it.

It’d be next to her door when she tried to leave, laid ever so delicately next to her when she woke up, or even waiting on the bathroom counter after a shower.

“It’s like it’s following me.” Rise said with a shiver when she tossed the padding out her window. It was almost guaranteed to come back but at least the action made her feel a little better. She woke up from a short nap hours later to find it on her chest.

On the seventh evening, Rise nestled into bed. She was already prepared to pop the pacifier into her mouth so she could drift off to a peaceful sleep.

She was ready for it too. Tomorrow was her first day off in a while. Minoru had told her she could take a break so she had a free day. It was perfect because Yu was due to return home that day too.

“Maybe now that he’s back it’s time to ask for help…” Rise told herself, finally feeling that the situation was getting too out of hand for her.

She pressed the bulb of the paci against her tongue, drifting off to sleep immediately after.

Somewhere Else…

Back within the fog.

The nightmare bothered Rise but at the very least she wasn’t floating in the open air. This time she was laying on something. It reminded her of her bed, all cozy, comfy, and threatening to engulf her in its plushness. She turned her head, trying to see through the fog. Craning her neck was almost all Rise could do because her limbs remained held in place, a familiar theme in these dreams apparently. She was firmly strapped to the surface with a full-body outfit that included mittens and booties.

Turning her attention to the left only showed Rise vertical bars disappearing upward into the fog. To her right was a presence with an appearance that shocked her. With copper-colored hair and a pink one-piece suit with both mittens and booties, Rise found herself looking at, well, herself lying tied up exactly as she was

The doppelganger next to her didn’t meet her gaze though. She stared straight up, mesmerized by something above her. It was the only way that Rise knew it wasn’t a mirror image.

“What’s going on?” Rise whispered to the other version of herself.

The double didn’t answer, instead simply continuing to stare. She licked her lips in anticipation while nestling herself into the plush bed-like material beneath her.

Rise looked pleadingly at the double for a long minute, thinking that if anybody could help her it would be herself.

Finally, the other Rise pulled her gaze away from the sky and looked at the trapped original. Her eyes were a deep burning yellow. “Shhhh, it’s starting!”

Rise wanted to scream, but when she opened her mouth to yell a pacifier appeared to fill it, blocking whatever noise she was going to make with a teat three times the size she was used to. Her gaze snapped up to look at an explosion of light, the ceiling her double had been staring at cleared of the fog to reveal a glow.

Above them, a gigantic television screen loomed, glowing with the warm hum as it came to life. It gradually displayed a yellow and black swirl, swirling infinitely in the center of the screen.

Now it was Rise’s turn to stare up at the sky unblinking because the whole world around her melted away at the sight of the hypnotic rotation, turning and cleansing her thoughts like a washing machine.

All of Rise’s visual attention was taken up by the looping visual on the ceiling but she was also stuck feeling the outfit wrapped around her. Its felt material tickled her skin as she shifted and twitched in her bonds. Only one thing felt different from it all, distinct in a special kind of way, and that was the bulk around her waist.

The padding shoved around her butt and crotch raised Rise’s waist away from the bed just enough to be noticeable. Its interior wasn’t just soft like the felt pajamas, it was soft and compacted against her like a bundle of clouds had been packed tight in a plastic shell and held against her.

“Is… Is this what d-diapers feel like?” she thought shakily, struggling to get any articulated thought through the cleansing of her thoughts, “I-I always wondered but i-it’s so… fluffy.”

Rise had no idea how long she lay there twitching as her nerves fired with every touch of her nappy to sensitive skin. She only knew that she broke from a timeless trance when an incomprehensible amount of pressure hit her abdomen.

At the edge of her vision Rise saw a figure with their face shrouded in fog. Every bit of logic told her to look and see if she could identify this person, to see who was doing this, but she couldn’t tear her eyes away from the spiral.

The pressure in Rise’s abdomen grew with the figure pressing down on her bladder relentlessly. A gasp escaped as she felt the first rush. Liquid rushed through her body toward the padding around her waist.

“...oh!” Rise gasped, feeling the explosion of pee hit the compacted padding. There was an expectation that the wetness would have spread, dribbled down Rise’s thighs, and created a pool beneath her.

It didn’t.

The heat of Rise’s urine bloomed across her crotch, absorbed by the dream diaper’s padding and spreading across the core as she poured more and more into the heart of the nappy. The pressure on her abdomen increased, keeping up the intensity at which Rise wet her diaper until her bladder had nothing left to give. Her piss remained caught and held against her cradled against her body by the imaginary diaper.

The spiral looming above tore a pleased moan from Rise’s lips. It was like the spinning image made her enjoy the heat in her pants, making all that slick padding into something pleasurable. Next to Rise her double emulated the sound moaning right along with her.

Rise’s Apartment

The sun streaming in through her bedroom window earned a groan from Rise, her consciousness flitting back now that her slumber had ended. She extended her arms and stretched stiff muscles that felt like she’d held them over her head all night long.

She moved to roll out of bed and start the day again. However, rolling onto her hip caused something to squish beneath her and Rise was all of a sudden aware of the cold chill around her waist.

Her eyes flew open wide and she looked down at her waist to something more horrifying than her bound nightmares. A massive wet spot bloomed across her bed sheets and it radiated out from one specific point.

“I wet the bed?”

Rise was flabbergasted, she’d heard the rumor that if you used the bathroom in your dreams you’d make a mess in real life, she wasn’t prepared to test it for herself though. She jumped from her bed in horror, examining the bottom of her soaked pajamas, the wet circle on her sheets, and the little stains on the blanket she’d shoved to the side.

“I-I’ve got to clean up… oh no. Yu is coming back today, he can’t see this!”

Rise lept into action, ripping her sheets and comforter off the mattress. She held the ball of material out in front of her, hoping to avoid the pungent stench she expected to have been soaking her sheets the whole night.

The unique tang never hit her nose, but she was so distracted trying to shove the material into her washer that she didn’t think it mattered. “Maybe I just got used to it,” she thought, so much of what had happened over the last few days had proved to be weirder than a lack of pee smell that it hardly registered.

With the linens stuffed away and tumbling in the washer, Rise turned her attention to the mattress which had its own wet spot covering its surface. “No, no no!” She called, snapping her attention between it and the pervasive cold that had settled upon her thighs beneath the soaked pajama bottoms, the liquid having long soaked into the material of her panties.

It only made sense though, seeing as beneath her pants was where the accident had originated…

Not seeing a quick solution for the stain on her mattress, Rise started to peel away her clothes, aching for a shower when a knock at the door resounded through the apartment. Rise turned her head, arms up and ready to pull off her shirt. She stopped, lowering the sleep shirt back and going to her door automatically. A sleepy thought shrilly called through the action.

“Where are you going dummy?” Rise asked herself, “You’re moving like a puppet and there’s still a big wet spot on your crotch. You can’t let whoever is out there see that.”

Internal protests aside, Rise's hand still turned the doorknob, revealing her bedwetter state to whoever was on the other side.

Strangely enough, there was no one there.

Nobody waited outside in the chilly morning that existed beyond Rise’s apartment. Whoever had knocked disappeared in the short span of time it took her to cross from her room to the entrance. There was no trace that anybody had been there to begin with save for the memory of the sound in Rise’s ears.

Or so Rise thought until she looked down and saw the box they’d left on her mat.

She stared at it for a long minute, blinking slowly.

The sound of television static filled her ears. “Is that… the TV?” she asked no one in particular. She blinked slowly again.

Some time later…

Opening her eyes, Rise looked down to locate and pick up the box only to find that she wasn’t standing in front of her door—she wasn’t even in the hallway. The box was on her bed, already torn open and plundered of its contents.

“What?” Rise asked, looking around to wherever the clothes inside had gone. The draft on her legs alerted her that she wasn’t wearing her soiled pajamas anymore, prompting her to look down.

The sight of a pink onesie covered in red hearts with arrows through them felt like a slap in the face, because it was already on her and she suspected that, like the frilly dress, it would be impossible to remove. Clipped to the material by her collarbone was a nylon strap with little bunny heads trailing down its length. The pacifier she’d become so dependent on to sleep on a nightly basis dangled from it, now permanently attached.

“No no no!” Rise said, stomping her foot in frustration. There was a notable difference between this and her panicked denial before, enough that even she realized it. It seemed brattier.

Her cheeks puffed out and she crossed her arms, feeling grouchy. She hadn’t even realized that she was holding the folded diaper that’d been plaguing her for days until that moment, or that the bottom of her onesie was just hanging open unsnapped, waiting for her to slip it on.

“I won’t,” she called out to the empty air, “you’ll have to possess me again or whatever you did you stupid pervert ghost! I won’t put it on myself.”

Rise defiantly dropped the folded padding, stomping angrily up to her underwear drawer. It was pointless to try and take off the onesie she’d been forced into but at least she could slip panties under it. “Just like the tights before…” she whispered.

With determination she slid open the drawer, a smug smile on her face. Only folded plastic rectangles greeted her, every single pair of panties having been replaced.

Rise dug through them to the bottom, hoping one pair had been spared only to cry out in frustration when they weren’t there. Not a single one was there anymore.

She slumped against her bed in defeat, squirming in the onesie she’d apparently slipped on in an extended fugue state. The material of it danced invitingly against her skin, tickling her slightly at the points where it hugged her. In an effort to relax, Rise took the ring of her pacifier in her hand, guiding the teat to her mouth so she could suckle on her new favorite comfort object.

Then her front door clicked open.

With her adrenaline running on high the idol rocketed up from her floor, looking around in a panic at the mess of padding littering her room. The garment box on the bed barely covered the massive wet stain, the clothes she had on were ridiculous, and the paci was still bobbing in and out of her mouth. Somebody was here and all of her bedding was tumbling in the washer because of an obvious accident. It was the perfect culmination for whoever crossed the threshold of her bedroom to see what she’d wanted to disprove since all these strange things had been happening; she looked like a big baby.

Yu walked into view right when Rise started to pick up all the diapers she’d ripped from the drawer, stopping mid-step at the sight.

“Ah-ah, aht’s naht whawt aht loo—” Rise tried to say it’s not what it looks like but her mouth refused to release the bulb of her pacifier. She felt her frustration and embarrassment rising, culminating in an accumulation of moisture at the corner of her eyes.

Yu didn’t say anything, stepping forward instead. He wrapped his arms around Rise and embraced her. “It’s okay.” he said quietly as Rise started to sob against him, twitching as the overwhelming feelings of no longer being trapped and alone overtook her, “I can help.”

Rise wasn’t sure what she expected her Senpai to do but recalled when he’d rushed in and saved her in the past,his  katana swinging and persona burning brightly. It made her so sure in that moment that no matter what, he'd be able to help her.

Yu pulled away after a moment, his hands landing on the squares of padding in Rise’s hands. No more words were needed. He took the diapers from her and started picking up the scattered rectangles from the floor, stacking them neatly on top of the dresser for the time being. All but one that is.

He kept a single diaper in his hand and approached Rise, who laid down on the dry portion of the bed. “What am I doing?” she wondered dreamily. Just like with the knock at the door, her body moved automatically driving her toward something she wasn’t sure about.

She lifted her bottom for him all the same, allowing Yu to slip the diaper underneath her despite concerns. When her bottom compressed the soft padding she sighed despite her better judgment. When Yu’s hands started applying the baby oil he’d pulled from somewhere unknown she squirmed despite his teasing requests that she keep still. When the diaper was taped closed around her crotch and pressed against to make sure it was fully secure Rise cooed despite her conflicting feelings about the padding as well as her vehement rejection of it over the last couple of days.

“There,” Yu said, “feel better?”

Internally Rise didn’t know how she felt. Every instinct told her this was wrong. She told herself gone had no interest in ABDL and it made no sense to have enjoyed or gone along with Yu diapering her, but it felt so good. His touch was soothing, letting him take control made her feel light inside, and the diaper gave a sense of security to her life that Rise had been fighting off up until now. It was a hurdle cleared in that single moment and now she didn’t think she could go back, especially since Yu had held her hand while she crossed over.

He pulled the pacifier out to kiss her and Rise didn’t resist. She missed his tenderness.

Photography Studio.

Leaving the apartment had been hard for Rise, but a ding from her phone reminded her that she had a photo shoot for a tea sponsorship today. Panic had quickly whisked away her starry-eyed enjoyment of the situation, but it was calmed by Yu.

He offered to take care of the bedding while she was gone and even re-diaper her when she returned.

Rise remembered wanting to retort and fire back that she didn’t want to be re-diapered at all, but instead she shook her head, the words failing to come to her lips. “I-I can’t take this off.” she said, gesturing to her outfit.

The way Yu smiled when she said that still burned confusingly within her as she stood in front of the camera for the fourth round of photos. Only when she left did she finally understand that he wasn’t seeing her statement as meaning she couldn’t change, but rather that she wouldn’t.

He thought Rise wanted to remain in the babyish clothes, and even worse seemed to like it.

Rise took another sip of the canned tea she was meant to sell, finishing off her sixth of the photo shoot. She wondered how much of her onesie was visible through her idol outfit. She’d simply slipped it over the childish clothing as per Yu’s suggestion but was sure the tight dress now stuck out in odd places. The pacifier clip left a particularly ugly outline from her perspective, but it seemed that nobody else working on the shoot was going to say anything about it.

The wandering of Rise’s thoughts throughout the shoot kept her there longer than she’d realized. She just constantly wasn’t hitting the poses they wanted her to, or the angles were bad. With each new round of photos came another can of tea to help her calm down.

She didn’t even realize how much liquid was sloshing around in her bladder until it started to pour out, pooling in the pink diaper and around her delicately oiled and powdered nethers for just a moment. The warmth of her accident was caught and held there, cradling her waist in a pool of heated liquid until the thirsty padding sucked it up.

A gentle gasp escaped Rise’s lips as she brought her thighs together, squishing the expanding padding between her legs. She bent her knees just slightly and felt her eyelids flutter uncontrollably. Her awareness of the world around her disappeared with the hissing noise of her own urine pouring out against the absorbent core soaking it up.

“Oh, that’s the one!” Rise’s photographer called from behind the camera.

Even with the last little sprays piddling into Rise’s diaper she looked up surprised. “What do you mean?” she asked.

The photographer turned and showed her the picture she’d taken, one that perfectly depicted Rise mid-wetting, her knees brought together and a look of bliss on her face. “If our customers think you like the product that much they’ll surely buy it.”

Over the next few weeks…

That accident proved to be the turning point in Rise’s life. Whatever semblance of normal she had disappeared from that day on.

She returned home from the shoot to find that Yu had been busy. Her bedding had been washed and replaced while all her diapers were put back into the underwear drawer and another garment box waited on the counter for her.

She ignored it all except for the bed, collapsing into it and falling asleep for the night despite her clammy, soggy nappy. The pacifier helped.

Waking up the next morning, Rise found herself staring at the unopened box left for her yesterday across her bed and another at her door. She didn’t want to address them, especially since each one continuously proved to be babyish and embarrassing.

Knowing it’d happen eventually Rise flipped open the boxes. One was full of onesies of all different designs: some were plain, some were patterned, and all of them were adorned with ruffles and lace. The other had all the miscellaneous accessories whoever was doing this thought Rise would need, be it pacifier clips, bibs, booties, and even bonnets.

It was enough to replace everything in Rise’s closet, which was good because when she opened it only one thing was there— the pink lacy dress she’d buried in there nearly a week ago. It was delicately hung, waiting for her to discover it again.

It wasn’t just Rise’s clothes that had disappeared either. Bits and pieces of her life started disappearing in favor of strange and babyish ones. The food in her fridge was swapped for jars of mushy, bland baby food. Her cabinets? Filled to the brim with formula. Even a crib large enough to comfortably fit Rise had replaced her bed after two weeks.

It wasn’t like she was letting it all happen without a fight. Rise resisted and denied more vehemently against the increasing babyfication of her life the more it happened. She attempted to replace the clothes that'd disappeared from her closet by ordering an entirely new wardrobe to replace what she’d lost originally.

When it arrived she even got excited and ripped open the box. It had the name of the site she’d ordered from and her phone even confirmed the package that she’d ordered had arrived. None of the 'mature' clothes she’d ordered were inside though, only a new selection of especially cutesy dresses.

Rise lost it when she saw that. It’d been especially hard for her to keep control over her emotions recently after everything that had been happening. Pouting and whining became her two most common responses to anything but this was worse. It sent her into a raging temper tantrum. The infantile clothes flew across the room, landing in small heaps while she stomped around her house impotently.

She could have attributed her increasing lack of emotional regulation to a lot of things but the mental strain from both her changing environment and the constant stream of strange, inconceivable dreams were undoubtedly the main factors.

Even her body was starting to betray her and that couldn’t be ignored. The nighttime wettings increased in number, even slipping beyond the barrier of sleep and becoming frequent daytime accidents. Even worse, it didn’t cause Rise as much concern as it probably should have. Three days of piddling into her padding was enough for her to give up on trying to make it to the bathroom whenever it happened. She had a better chance of hiding the accidents if she didn’t make a scene about it, and Yu was always there to help with changes.

Rise’s boyfriend proved to be the one bright spot through the entire tumultuous haunting that was gradually turning mature idol Rise into a big adult baby. He came to check on her every day. Even more than that, he was taking care of her. Yu picked up after Rise’s tantrums, cuddled her through all the tough emotions she was having a hard time dealing with, and even changed whatever wet diapers she waddled home in.

That care had Rise forgetting about any of her worries. As long as Yu was there, she was more than happy to go along with him taking care of her. It was in that automatic way her body did before, like she was a wind-up toy set forward to obey. However, she didn’t feel the need to fight it when he was there. It was easy to submit to those feelings when she didn’t have to worry about the aftermath of any of them.

Rise’s world grew so much smaller in that time. She only went to the most necessary of her idol commitments. Leaving the house otherwise was risky as the outfit she’d be wearing for the day was dependent on what the specter in her house or Yu had changed her into. She had no intention of risking being caught sporting the ABDL fashion in public if she didn’t have to.

Rise’s bedroom.

Rise laid in her crib for the night, a fresh onesie and diaper provided by Yu before he went home for the evening. She stared through the bars at her little bedroom TV, some show droning on while she slipped in between semi-consciousness and disinterested wakefulness.

Her latest rebellion was trying to fall asleep without the pacifier, and over the last few nights, she came close. The droning of the television helped, like a white noise of late-night ads and game shows that made Rise’s eyelids flutter.

She could feel how close she was getting to the joy of falling asleep, waiting for how nice it was going to feel to take some sort of control back in her life. Maybe even falling asleep without the bulb of her pacifier bobbing in and out of her mouth would make the strange dreams go away.

The promise of sleep returned once again with Rise’s heavy eyelids closing just as her TV turned to static. The alarm clock next to her crib displayed a digital 12:00 on its face. It was midnight.

Her eyes opened again, catching a glimpse of static out of the corner of a spreading shadow. “Huh, that’s weird.” Rise thought before her eyelids fluttered again. The shadow was closer and much, much bigger when she opened them this time.

Her sleepiness disappeared as Rise’s eyes flew open and she got a good look at what she thought was a shadow. In reality, a massive black hand was stretching from the small television, reaching toward her in the crib.

She tried to run, to jump up and out of the massive barred bed, but her hands struggled with the side latch, keeping her trapped like a fish in a barrel. The fingers of the shadowy hand wrapped around her body with ease, cradling her gently while she beat her fists into their mass. The entity wasn’t even bothered by her struggling and she was pulled into the static in one swift move.

The only sound she was able to make was a shocked scream, and it followed her through the portal, leaving the room silent save for the buzzing television static.

The TV World

Rise had reflexively squeezed her eyes shut when the shadow hand snatched her through the TV. Going through the TV itself had always reminded Rise of jumping through a watery pool and this time was no different, though she landed with a splash rather than lowering in gently.

Once through and released from the massive shadowy fist Rise was immediately reminded that she’d been here before and not just in high school. The bass-driven music and pastel glow of the walls should have been recognizable in Rise’s dreams; she couldn't believe she hadn't caught it before—they belonged to the Marukyu striptease.

Her Shadow-self’s projection of sleaze and sexuality became clearer when Rise whispered its name, a metaphorical and literal fog lifted from her eyes, giving her a clear view for the first time ever. The space around her still had a lot of that cabaret, upscale gentlemen club accents. The curtains on the walls were adorned with neon hearts and shadows of figures that looked suspiciously like Rise, but there were other things added now. Among the hearts were rattles and pacifiers. The booths in the entry each faced a crib and changing tables lined the walls.

“It was never a dream…” Rise said in disbelief, “Each night I’ve had a nightmare… I was actually coming here?”

“Thaaaat’s right~!” a familiar voice sang song next to her.

Rise snapped around quickly coming face to face with the shadow version of herself. It wore the same pink frilly monstrosity of a dress she’d received in that first garment box all those weeks ago. It did look better with a diaper on under the skirt, but its style still caused Rise to cringe.

The yellow-eyed doppelganger smiled. “Nice to see you again, me.” she said.

Rise started backing up, wondering if she’d be able to escape even without her glasses. There wasn’t fog here but she was sure it existed outside of her own Shadow's landscape, and if her shadow was here she doubted her ability to use Kouzeon existed. She'd lost her only weapon to survive without even realizing it.

While keeping an eye on her shadow, Rise continued to step back. She should have been paying attention though because she ran into something after a few steps, hands landing on her shoulders as she made contact with its soft form.

She turned again, expecting to see a massive shadow that her own shadow had enlisted to help. Instead there stood a sharp-looking woman in a black suit and glasses. Her short, dark hair remained neatly placed despite Rise having just run into her.

This was another face from the past but also one Rise had seen recently, one from the Iniba weather last time she returned to the countryside. “Marie?” she asked, curious as to why Inaba’s local weather goddess would be here in the TV world.

Shadow Rise laughed, prompting the original to turn back around. It was just in time to see a flurry of straps flying toward her, a myriad of materials wrapping around her body with lightning speed and replacing her onesie before she could even yelp.

With what could only be described as magic, Rise’s onesie was gone and replaced by a bright pink straitjacket made of fuzzy fleece. The garment was quick to consume her arms, slipping the sleeves around them and then moving as if they were sentient, pulling her into a tight self hug.

Rise pulled defiantly at the restraint, trying to break free of its hold. Just like in all those dreams, however, she failed as it held firm. With her efforts being fruitless she turned to her shadow and Marie. A simple question came to her lips.

“Why?” Rise asked.

Shadow Rise shrugged looking more amused than bothered by the question. “Why did you end up here the first time Rise—why do I exist?”

She knew the answer but wouldn’t bring it to her lips. The words were stuck in her throat because something about admitting it to herself felt impossible.

The Shadow seemed annoyed by her lack of an answer and shook her head. “It doesn’t matter, you know and I know that it’s just about getting the reason out of you.”

Rise whipped around looking at Marie. Betrayal knit across her brow. “Wait!” she said, “Why are you helping her?”

Marie crossed her arms, looking annoyed. “I felt her presence in the TV world a little while ago.” she snapped back, “When I came to investigate I found your poor shadow all alone here, diapered and abandoned. She needed somebody to look after her and help in the real world.” The irritation and anger from Marie was staggering but Rise understood why it existed from just that sentence. She was protective of the Shadow Rise, like she felt some form of responsibility.

Shadow Rise skipped toward Rise, taking the opportunity of her being distracted to give her a little shove. Without her arms to help maintain balance she toppled easily, landing on her thickly diapered butt. “Hey!” she called, wriggling to get herself up. All she managed to do was turn onto her stomach.

The shadow moved rapidly, snagging one of Rise’s feet before she could change position again. Poor restrained Rise could only feel her doppelganger’s grip and the fuzzy thing slipping over her feet, the straitjacket plus the position she was in didn’t provide any reasonable way for her to see what was happening.

Instead she looked at Marie, unable to do much else while what she assumed were massive booties slipped onto her feet. “What do you mean help in the real world?” Rise asked. She had started to put together some of the puzzle pieces herself, like how the diaper and other things had moved around her apartment, why the TV always seemed to be on when she woke up, and why the clothes she’d ordered had arrived as baby clothes. The Shadow of herself had been toying with her. Changing orders and moving things. There were still some things that didn’t add up though.

Marie rolled her eyes, Rise’s questions obviously irritating her. “I brought all the clothes.” She said plainly, “I removed your underwear, your bed, and even your food and replaced it with the things your true self obviously wanted. I dumped a huge bowl of water on your crotch so you’d think you wet the bed.” She said it so matter-of-factly that Rise could hardly believe what she was admitting to.

“I—you did all tha—!?”

Shadow Rise interrupted her once she fully secured the other booty to Rise’s foot. “Yep,” she said happily, “and when you were here you spent time with me, watching a big hypno screen, bound all snuggly and filling your diapers like no tomorrow.”

Rise couldn’t believe what she was hearing, it honestly felt like she had whiplash just from what she’d learned in the past minute. Not only had she been told that everything she’d experienced in her apartment was a joint fabrication pushed forced upon her by this twisted pair, but everything she thought she’d dreamed—all the times she’d pooped her diaper, struggled in bondage, watched a mind-bending spiral loosen her prudish inhibitions about diapers—had been real.

With great effort she pushed herself up to her knees, looking back at the fuzzy booties Shadow Rise had slipped onto her feet. They matched the felt jacket forcing her arms around her sides. They even had locking straps tightened around her ankles.

Marie stepped around to examine the shadow's work, leaving the exit to the striptease unguarded in front of Rise, she tried to step up, swinging her leg out from under her and landing the booty-covered foot solidly on the ground.

Immediate discomfort struck Rise as something pointy poked into the meat of her sole, causing her to reverse her movement and end up right back where she’d started. “Spiked insoles!?” she asked incredulously despite knowing the answer already because they’d just bit into her feet.

“Well we can’t have you running.” the Shadow said, “These just train you to crawl, or at least they would if you could use your arms.”

Rise once again moved laboriously, shuffling to turn on her knees and face the pair. “So what now?” she asked defiantly, “Are you going to just keep me all wrapped up here? Huh?”

Her insistence for an answer didn’t seem to be taken seriously by the pair, like everything else she’d said. The only reply she received was a poke to the stomach by her Shadow accompanied by a playful “boop!”

“What the—?” Rise started but halted when she doubled over. She suddenly felt more full than she’d ever been in her life, her stomach stuffed to the brim with all the heaviest foods she could eat. It wasn’t in her head either because the strain of her suddenly bloated belly pushed against the fabric of her straitjacket too.

With no arms to prop her up, Rise’s face pushed into the soft floor leaving her on her knees with her padded rump in the air. The straps of her binding jacket that wrapped around her diaper zipped against the material as she moved, creating two indents.

Her stomach rumbled and roared, churning as it processed the newly added mass faster than humanly possible. The subtle push of breath trailed across Rise’s ear just before her own voice trickled in as a soft whisper.

“Feel that fullness?” she asked, “It’s all the denial you have living in your heart, turned into food and dumped into your stomach. Can you feel how heavy it is? That’s the weight I’ve had to carry for so long.”

Rise grit her teeth, struggling against the body quakes of her, the mass moving through her intestines.

“I know you. I’m you after all. The moment you started to feel embarrassed about your interest in diapers I started to form. You did have an interest though, Rise. I know the dresses reminded you of Risette, the padding looked safe and secure, and it would have given you an opportunity to be cared for.”

Rise’s bowels were spasming, the oncoming release inevitable.

“You like to be a big baby Rise. You certainly enjoyed your time here when Marie was taking care of us together. I could feel it out there too. While you were with Yu, you were the happiest you’ve ever been.

Her Shadow’s whispers sent a shiver up Rise’s spine as she pictured Yu and his caring attitude over the last few days. The tenderness of his lips, of his hands while he changed her. Rise shivered and nodded.

From somewhere behind her she thought she heard someone else talk. It certainly sounded like Teddy, and it almost sounded like he said “I think she’s through here!”

Her bowels moved automatically. No matter what sound she heard, Rise had zero hope of stopping or even slowing down the process. Her body was releasing the first log of mess into the back of her diaper. “I did.” she whispered as the first push tented out the back of her diaper.

A loud fart trumpeted through the space, and a squelchy avalanche started dumping into the back of Rise’s diaper as she cried out. “I loved it all!” she cried, “I’m so sorry for denying you again, of course you’re a part of me! I want to wear diapers! I want Yu to take care of me! I want to fill my pants like the incontinent baby I am and I want to be punished for being naughty. I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry!”

Her pleas of apology came through the lewd sounds of her diaper erupting in size against the straps of the straightjacket. Its exterior crinkled loudly as she pushed wave after wave of her putrid waste into the nappy, causing the back to sink lower and lower in the small space between the straps.

Her body quaked with the impossible movement of her guilt-turned-mushy-waste pushing through her body and piling into the diaper. Heat rose to meet her skin, eventually smushing into it due to a complete lack of space.

Without even having to look, Rise felt her Shadow smile, the connection between them reforged thanks to the admittance of her love of diapers. “I am thou…” the Shadow said.

A twinkling sparkle came from above as Rise squirmed on her floor, waiting for the release into her diaper to end. Shakily she pushed herself up to see that her Shadow was gone. Instead, Kouzeon stood above her, looking beautifully regal. A new addition of something bulky pushed out against the persona’s skirt.

“Thank you for carrying my weight.” Rise said, “It won’t happen again.”

Then the persona was gone, leaving Rise kneeling on the floor with red cheeks and a slight sweat on her brow. The back of her diaper sagged by her heels, threatening to graze the ground with its putrid weight.

Staring at Rise from the entrance of the space was the entire investigation team, with all of them looking in complete shock. Slack-jawed faces spread in a line of people with weapons drawn and a determination to save their friend once again. All save one person who smiled at Rise with the most comforting, loving look they could give.

Yu’s supposed understanding of the situation didn’t clear away the mortification of seeing all of her old friends stare at her bound and diapered. Rise’s face flushed again, not because of exertion but because she felt intense embarrassment.

“H-How long have you been standing there?” she asked, wanting to run away but remembering the insoles in her booties.

“Uh…” Chie said, avoiding eye contact as much as possible. “Long enough to have… seen everything.”

Rise shot her gaze down, avoiding the seven gazes from all her old teammates. “I-I…”

She couldn’t find the words, but she didn’t have to because Yu stepped forward, squatting down to meet her gaze. “You don’t have to explain.” he said, “We were all there, maybe not like this, but in our own ways. Can you walk?”

Rise looked back at the booties, then at Yu. In her quick scan of the room, she couldn’t help but notice Marie had disappeared, gone without a trace just like when she’d left the packages on Rise’s doorstep.

“Not with these on.” she replied, shaking her feet to indicate the booties.

“Okay,” Yu said and then he slipped his arms around her and picked Rise up like it was nothing, bridal carrying her towards the exit.

“Wait!” she cried, “I’m so… stinky. You can’t carry me all the way back like this.”

Yu smiled down at her. That slight smile that told her not to worry. “I was going to have to change you back at your place anyway. Don’t worry about it.”

Rise blushed again but didn’t argue anymore, nestling into her senpai again to enjoy his warmth while she was being carried out. Nobody else said anything, not when they all left the striptease, or even when they exited the TV world and parted ways.

Yu got Rise home swiftly and quietly, covering her with a blanket and letting her lay in a car he’d rented.

Back at her apartment he undid her bonds, the straitjacket first and then the booties, using a key left on the counter to undo the lock. Neither of them questioned where it had come from. After a shower and a change, Rise collapsed into his arms, exhausted from the day's events. They fell asleep there on the couch, Yu in his street clothes and Rise in nothing but her fresh diaper.

It was a peaceful moment lit by the TV static of the living room television.

From the portal to another world, Marie peeked through. “Finally happy again little Risette?” she asked nobody. She walked away after several long moments, leaving the pair to snore peacefully.