Short Story: Plushie Paradise

“You know, Linze… I really do love these stuffed animals… but don’t you think this is a little much?”

“Ughhh… I had a feeling…”

Elze sighed lightly as Linze frowned. Linze’s room was overflowing with plush toys. Far more than there had been only a few weeks prior, even. Her room was pretty big, but she’d almost completely covered the place in fluffy fabric. I couldn’t believe she’d made so many.

“Whenever I get an interesting idea, I want to make it right away… It just ended up this way before I even noticed…”

‘Interesting idea,’ huh? I can understand dogs, cats, and other cute animals but… you’ve made plushie versions of furniture! And there’s even a stuffed toy bike! Don’t get me wrong, it all looks cute, but you’ve gotta admit a plushie steak isn’t very normal… Well, at least they all look nice.

“Whoa, that’s a big one.”

There was a stuffed white tiger in the corner of Linze’s room. It was a plush version of Kohaku’s heavenly beast form. The other plushies in the room were relatively small, chibified versions, but this one was full scale and extremely realistic.

“Why’s this one so big?”

“Oh, I’ll show you.” Linze walked over to the plush Kohaku, sat down, and leaned back against it.

“See, this way I can rest on my back during reading time.”

“Ohhh, so it’s like a cushion.”

“Yeah. I got the idea when I saw you relaxing.”

Oh. She saw that? I guess it’s true that I like to lean back against Kohaku when I want to relax… Kohaku’s fur is nice and soft, so I can’t help but do it… Heavenly beasts are on a whole other level when it comes to comfort.

I copied Linze and laid against the plushie. It was incredibly soft and cozy…

“I used heaven’s cotton for the insides and white lynx fur for the lining. Still, it’s no match for Kohaku’s fur…”

I wasn’t so sure about that. Sure, it wasn’t quite as gentle or soft as Kohaku’s, but it could certainly give it a good run for its money. I kind of wanted one of them for myself… though I had a feeling it might upset Kohaku if I had one in my room all the time.

“Well, don’t you think you’ve made enough? You need to do something about all these stuffed animals,” I asked.

“I could just put them in my Smartphone’s [Storage]…”

“If you’re just gonna make them and throw them in there, what’s the point?” “Gah…”

Watching Elze and Linze bickering reminded me of the time my dad got mad at my mom for making too many plastic models.

“You wouldn’t want to toss them out, right?”

“Well, no… I worked hard on them…”

“How about we sell them through Olba’s store? They’re really nice quality, after all.”

“Oh, that would be nice.”

I thought maybe the cat and dog plushies would be okay, but to be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure about the plushie steaks and bicycles. I had a feeling only a particular kind of buyer would go for those…

But I was wrong. Linze’s stuffed plushies were a resounding success. In fact, they sold so well that Olba asked me to establish a full brand line. Linze couldn’t keep up with the demand, so we started mass production at one of Olba’s facilities.

The life-sized Kohaku plushies proved especially popular, which ended up giving the real Kohaku a case of mixed feelings.