A Weighty Case- Part 1 (Patreon)

Shirou Ogami wakes up with an extra eight hundred pounds, mysteriously irresistable food, and a lot of questions in desperate need of answering. Enjoy!

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Shirou blinked the sleep out of his eyes, groaning softly. He normally wasn't a creature of comfort, but something was practically pressing him back down into his bed. It never felt so soft, his blankets feeling heavy and cozy. When his hand reached blindly out for his phone, he felt himself moving sluggishly, as if he were moving through water. What was the problem, exactly? Had he woken up early?

The wolf beastman gasped sharply in surprise. No— it was almost noon already! Shirou threw off his covers and leapt out of bed, only to trip and fall over his own momentum, hitting the ground with a loud and heavy thump. As he tried to steady himself, the wolf quickly realized what was wrong. As he pressed his hands on the floor and pushed up, it was far harder than it should be— and no matter how much he pushed up, he could still feel his body pressed against the cold floor. Looking down, he saw to his horror he was inexplicably huge. 

Every part of the wolf had grown grossly obese, his limbs swaddled in thick reams of fat. His now flabby arms were pressed up against his chest, pushing a pair of thick breasts that bunched up against his multiple chins. His round boulder of a belly pooled against the floor, and as Shirou grunted under the herculean effort to pull several hundred pounds piled on to his body up, he saw that enormous, round gut spill over his waist, stretching out in a wide circumference that seemed dangerously close to filling his bedroom's door frame.

Shirou's jaw hung open, eyes wide as he pressed his fingers into the voluptuous mass hanging off his torso, flinching as he felt soft, pliable fat being squeezed. It made no sense— he had trained hard over the years, and never let himself go, not once— he had gone to bed his usual fit, athletic as far as he could remember, so how was this possible?

He took a few faltering, clumsy steps with short and shallow breaths, already feeling the weight piled on to his frame and still acclimating to moving around with trunk-sized thighs rolling off one another. By some miracle, his boxers still clung to his wide hips and round, jiggling rear, preserving what little dignity he had left as he stumbled forward, squeezing himself into the bathroom. He let out a shocked gasp as he saw his reflection in the mirror, every feature of his fierce, angular face softened and bloated. Maybe it was just his fur he thought, but no, just as his enormously round belly was all too solid, his cheeks and extra chins were a real, soft excess of flesh.

"This… this doesn't make any sense…" he muttered, shaking his head. "How did any of this happen?" 

He glanced at the bathroom scale, thinking he could at least assess the damage. He took a few lumbering steps over and put his full weight on the scale, only to realize the massive curtain of belly fat completely obscured the read out. As he tried leaning forward or sucking in, he heard the crack of broken plastic, and then felt his whole weight drop about half an inch— he had crushed the scale under his weight, his ears flattening as he realized what had happened.

His heart pounded as he squeezed back out of the bathroom. "This is impossible. What… What could have possibly caused all this?" He began to pace in wide circles around his room. "Is it some sort of disease? Am I still dreaming?" His stomach growled ominously in response.

"Oh, no." Shirou said emphatically, smacking his middle and causing ripples across his spherical torso. "None of that. No, no, I've got to start fixing this right away. I— I'll have to start a strict exercise regimen, an absolute ascetic's diet, and…"

Shirou trailed off, his nose twitching as he smelled something delectable. He glanced over to his desk, which was now covered in several plates of tantalizingly spiced meats and bowls of fresh fruit. 

"What?" he growled. "Where did that come from?" the wolf demanded. His stomach protested again, and he felt his arm rise up, reaching out for it. "No! Stop!" Shirou snarled, but he felt himself shuffling closer. "What… what is going on? I can't… stop myself—! Mmph…" the wolf groaned as he had lumbered over to his desk, and then shoved the nearest piece of meat into his mouth, his sharp teeth tearing into it as juices dribbled down his chin. "Ah…"

With reckless abandon, Shirou tore into the food, any question of its safety or origins thrown to the wind as he gorged, picking every plate clean. He finally regained his faculties as he was sprawled on the floor, resting on his gigantic pillow of a belly as he gnawed at a steak bone.

"Gah… ah…" Shirou groaned, shuffling to pull himself back up to a standing position. "What happened? What was that? I-I couldn't…" he glanced at the clock. It was already well into the afternoon. "I-I need to get some help."

Shirou squeezed down the increasingly narrow stairwell of the Beastman Co-Op. "Gem! Melissa!" the wolf cried out in an increasingly panicked tone. "Help!"

The couple who owned the Co-Op he had lived in for years were quick to meet him, both visibly shocked at Shirou's appearance. 

Gem's beak hung open, the cockerel beastman staring openly. "Land's sake, what happened to you, Shirou?"

Melissa pressed her hand over her mouth. "My goodness! Are you sick? Do you need something to eat?"

"No." Shirou held up his hands defensively. "I- I don't know what's happened, but I can't help myself around food." He glanced to Melissa. "You didn't… send food up to my room, did you?"

The wombat rolled her eyes, putting her hands on her hips. "I'm your landlady, honey, not your maid."

"Someone did!" Shirou exclaimed, grasping his head as his belly bounced. "I went to the bathroom, came back, and there was a whole spread on my desk! I-I couldn't control myself, I just went for it."

"Alright, calm down, Shirou, calm down," Gem stepped forward, giving the wolf a reassuring pat. "Let's go to the living room and think this through."

Gem and Melissa led Shirou to the couch, Gem wincing slightly as the furniture groaned audibly, handling all of Shirou's bulk. Melissa stepped back to the kitchen, returning with a plate of apple slices that she set in front of the wolf. "Now, is it any and all food?" 

"There were a few bowls of fruit…" Shirou said, glancing apprehensively at the slices.

"So? Anything?" Gem asked.

Shirou slowly relaxed, not feeling the compulsion. He eased back in his seat, his belly filling his lap and then some. "No, nothing."

"Hm…" Gem stroked his beak. "Well, you were fine last night. Do you remember anything? You were at the festival, weren't you?"

Shirou blinked. "The festival! I completely forgot about it with all this. It was a harvest moon festival… I ate well, drank a fair bit, but not enough to cause this." He said, jiggling his gelatinous gut.

"Did you take anything from anyone strange? Anything that stood out?" Melissa asked.

"I…" Shirou's nose wrinkled again. His ears perked up and he glanced to the side. A bowl of crispy bacon had appeared, where he was certain it hadn't been a moment before. "Do… do you see that?"

"What? Shirou-!" Gem was suddenly plastered against the wall as the wrecking ball of a wolf slammed into him to reach the bacon, ravenously grabbing it in greedy hands and stuffing it into his mouth.

Shirou was left panting, finally easing his weight off Gem so the cockerel could peel himself off the wall. "S-sorry…" the wolf grunted. "It happened just like that."

"It doesn't make any sense!" Melissa exclaimed. "I didn't even make bacon— we don't even have it! How could it just appear like that?"

Gem caught his breath, smoothing his coxcomb. "It's clear that this is going far above what we can do for you. Shirou, I think you need to talk to the mayor."

The wolf sighed heavily. "I was afraid you were going to say that…"

An hour later, Shirou sat in the mayor's office, what clothes he could find stretched and fraying at the edges— his shirt couldn't even make it half way across the circumference of his belly. He had just explained the strange circumstances since he woke up to his erstwhile employer, the mayor of Anima City. Through out all of it, Barbara Rose say quietly and placidly, the sphinx cat listening patiently— she didn't even react as some of the food appeared, this time on golden platters, and Shirou nearly broke her desk under his massive weight lunging to get at it. When he finally finished, she rose.

"Well… by looking at you, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong… nothing physical, I should say. I don't think you're suffering from any sort of… poison, for lack of a better word, or chemical imbalance." She circled Shirou, a roving eye clinically studying the massive heft on the wolf. "I can run some tests, of course, but I don't know how likely it would be to figure anything out. This whole situation defies science and biology at every turn."

"Then what's left?" Shirou asked, a hint of desperation creeping into his voice. 

Barbara Rose stroked her chin. "Well… when logic and science fail, the only thing left is the unknown. We both know your past… this wouldn't be the first time you 've had a brush with the supernatural. Though this is…" she prodded the wolf's plush love handles. "A lot more visceral than your other brushes with the unknown. But I'm beginning to think this may be related to something I didn't give much thought to, but given the effect it's having on you…"

Barbara Rose passed a pamphlet across the desk towards Shirou. He leaned forward to get a better look, his belly spilling over the desktop, and his brow furrowed as he read the pamphlet's title. "The Friends of Nirvasyl?"

The mayor nodded. "I was about to pass this to the side… but now? This seems concerning. It urges people to give offerings to the Silver Wolf, and, well…"

As if to illustrate her point, another plate of food appeared, and Shirou nearly broke Barbara Rose's desk lunging for it as he gorged on it. "Ugh…" Shirou wrapped his arms around his enormous middle, feeling the weight of it as it spilled over his thick arms. "Then I need to find these Friends of Nirvasyl. And beg them to stop whatever it is they're doing."