A newly-opened bakery is hiring, and Shinespark needs a job. The shop's tanuki owner seems rather persistent on getting his potential employee to chow down on a blueberry cream pie, though...

My second story for Juicy July, using these prompts by @staticscreens.bsky.social! This was originally going to be a straight "fur gets tricked into eating something that turns them into a blueberry" affair, but then I wondered something. Would there be a legitimate reason for a person to do something like that? One that doesn't involve personal pleasure at the victim's expense? This is why there's a lot more plot here than inflation.

I also rushed the ending because I waited until today to write it, and I wanted to get this out before the end of the week. Sorry!

The thumbnail is an edited version of this artwork by @painttherabbit.bsky.social.

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"Hmm, been a while since someone set up shop here..."

The strip mall close to Shinespark's house had a vacant storefront that was said to be cursed. Not in the magical or spiritual sense, though - the location just sucked. When the other three stores in the complex were a fast food chain, a pizza place, and a coffee shop, all from popular national brands? There just wasn't room for anything else. It didn't matter what took that fourth slot; it was fated to close within a month. Wannabe business owners seemed to take the hint about five years ago - there hadn't been a residency in that quarter of the building since.

Until now, that is.

Shinespark, a chubby, blue and white-furred bunny with twin fox tails, was intending to grab a cup of Joe from the coffee shop one morning. Instead, he noticed a sign for "Barry's Bakery" where the empty part of the strip mall once sat. Whoever the new owner of this place was must have ignored every warning the real estate agent gave him.

The rabbit went to check out the new store, but was met with a "Sorry, We're Closed" sign... as well as one that said "Now Hiring! Ask Inside!" He could see what looked like a raccoon through the windows, but the glass was tinted and frosted, which made getting a better view impossible.

Shinespark shrugged. He was a bit short on cash right now - he'd been laid off from his last job. His apartment was so close to the strip mall that it would be worth it to work at this bakery, even if he knew it wouldn't last long. The bun stepped inside.

A bell rung as Shinespark opened the doors to Barry's Bakery. The interior looked like a typical mom-and-pop pastry shop. Ample seating, warm colors, a few display cases (which were unfortunately empty), a style that screamed "make yourself at home..."

"Ah, hello! I'm Barry! Welcome to my bakery!"

...and a friendly owner. This one was a tanuki. Not a raccoon. Jeez, it's so easy to confuse the two. Barry had all the hallmark features of his species: brown fur, cream-colored belly, dog-like paws, and darker fur on his face resembling a mask. The key difference between a tanuki like him and a raccoon was his head didn't have a pointed muzzle, and was overall more rounded.

"Rounded" would be a good way to describe Barry in general, now that Shinespark thought about it. The raccoon-dog was definitely portly, what with his outwardly curved belly and chubbed-up cheeks. The apron he was wearing hid it somewhat, but it was still pretty obvious that this guy took the old "don't trust a skinny chef" adage to heart. Not that the rabbit had any problems with that, of course; he liked his current, slightly softened build.

Right, enough staring. The bun was here for a reason. "Hi, my name's Shinespark," he said. "I'm here to-"

"Oh, I bet I can guess why you're here!" Barry cheerfully interrupted. "You saw the hiring notice outside, right?"

"Uh, yeah?" That was a bit rude.

"Then follow me into the back! I'll tell you everything you need to know!" The tanuki grabbed Shinespark's arm, practically dragging him through the staff-only doors leading to the kitchen!

"Wait! I-I'm having second thoughts!" the bunny protested.

"Nonsense, my friend!" Barry replied with a laugh. "You'll love working here!"

The kitchen looked fairly standard. Plenty of ovens, ample storage for baking implements and ingredients, enough counter space to work on whatever baked goods were needed, a table in the center of the room holding a single slice of pie on a plate... Hold on.

"Why is there a pie slice just sitting here?" Shinespark asked.

"Why do people bake pies?" Barry responded. "To eat them, of course!"

"You want me to eat it? Now?" the bun asked. The tanuki nodded. "...Why?"

"It'll all make sense later," Barry said. "Just go ahead and dig in!"

Shinespark stared at his potential employer, dumbfounded. Why was the tanuki so obsessed with having him eat this pie? "We haven't hashed out any details regarding this job," the rabbit ranted. "Nothing about my pay, responsibilities, hours... Heck, you don't know anything about me! For all you know, I could be a terrible employee! Shouldn't we talk about those things first?"

"Please, Shinespark, calm down," Barry said. Was he starting to panic? "I promise I'll explain everything after you eat the pie, just-"

"Why are you being so pushy, so secretive?" Shinespark's voice was rising in tempo along with his anger. "You interrupt me, literally drag me back here, then tell me to eat some random pie, and you don't explain a thing!"

"Shinespark, I will tell you what you need to know!" Barry pleaded. "You just need to-"

"WHY DO I NEED TO EAT THE PIE?!" Shinespark shouted out of the blue. The outburst left him panting.

Something finally clicked in the tanuki's mind, and he realized he needed to fix the mess he'd made. "I'm… sorry, Shinespark," he said, his tone remorseful. "I shouldn't have acted the way I did. I'll tell you what you need to know."

Shinespark's ears perked up, but he said nothing.

"I might as well start from the beginning," Barry said. "I'm not just any tanuki. I'm a magic tanuki, a bake-danuki - a spirit of Japanese myth."

"Wait wait wait, hold up," Shinespark said, eyes widened. "Tanuki can use magic? Why don't I ever see it?"

"Bake-danuki are trickster spirits," Barry explained. "Our magic is tied to our mischievous nature. If we don't use our magic to trick others, then it... fades away..."

"Oh..."

"Would you believe that every tanuki was once a trickster?" the raccoon-dog said, a wistful smile on his face. "This was long before my time - dozens of centuries ago - but my kind were revered as masters of transformative sorcery. We could perform feats no one else could, and we made jobs out of it. We were celebrated for it! My ancestors played a few harmless pranks on people from time to time to uphold their mischievous nature, but they made sure to never cause any lasting harm. Furs back then knew that randomly getting transformed into a chicken for an hour was a 'necessary evil' of sorts."

He lowered his head, his smile turning into a depressed frown. "Then... society changed. Evolved, to the point where a tanuki's antics were seen as too bothersome to justify keeping them around. Advances in technology lessened the need for spells. Pranking someone resulted in a call for guards or the police. Most of my kind had to adapt, and that meant giving up our magic."

"There's only a few magic tanuki left in the world," Barry continued. "We've had to mess with people in secret to survive. But I've grown tired of hiding. I wanted to use this bakery to show people that bake-danuki aren't public nuisances, that we can do great things if you just let us..."

Shinespark could feel the emotion, the desperation in the tanuki's words. He put his paw on Barry's shoulder. "I'm sorry you and your kind had to go through all of this," the rabbit said.

"I appreciate the sentiment," Barry replied.

"So, were you trying to 'trick' me into eating the slice of pie?" the bun asked, pointing at the confection on the table.

"Yes," the raccoon-dog said, "but you understand why now, right?"

"I do," Shinespark said, nodding his head. "What would happen if I ate it?"

"Have you ever read that one children's book, where a bunch of kids are invited on a tour of a candy factory?" Barry said.

"Yeah, I know what book you're talking about," Shinespark chuckled. "The way that second kid met her demise always stuck with me." Then his mind connected the dots, and he went wide-eyed. "No, you didn't-"

"It's a blueberry cream pie that fills you with, well, blueberries and cream," Barry said. "I always found it odd that the book mentioned 'blueberry pie and ice cream,' but didn't include the latter. It's not ice cream, but eh, close enough."

"How was I supposed to do anything related to baking as a giant, immobile, cream-filled blueberry?!" Shinespark questioned.

"Be a living juice and cream dispensary, of course! Nah, I'm kidding. I deviated a lot from the original concept," Barry answered. "Only your torso would have swollen, so you wouldn't have lost your mobility. You wouldn't have grown nearly as much as that girl did in the book, either. Plus, you'd gain all the knowledge needed for the job. I tested a temporary version on the only other magic tanuki I know, and he said he felt rather comfortable."

"That... doesn't seem too bad..." Shinespark commented.

"See, I'm not a monster!" Barry chuckled, albeit half-heartedly. "I can't run a business by myself, so the plan was to recruit an assistant through a little trickery, while also giving them everything they needed to succeed. I'd have a bakery I could use to bolster my public image, the prank would let me hold onto my magic, and you would have been a shining example of what I'm capable of."

The tanuki sighed, slumping his head. "But it seems this whole plan was a bust. What was I thinking? You probably thought the pie was poisoned with how hard I was pushing it onto you. Now I'd bet you just think I'm crazy. I guess I'll have to go back into hiding..."

"I'll eat the pie."

"I know you won't- Wait, did I hear that correctly?!"

Barry looked towards the table and saw Shinespark there, holding the plate with the slice of blueberry cream pie on it, fork in paw.

"What are you doing?!" the tanuki panicked. "Everything I told you was genuine! Do you actually want to be a blueberry?!"

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't," Shinespark said. His voice sounded authoritative, brave; he gave the impression that he knew exactly what he was doing. "I want to know something, though. If I'm fully aware that this slice of pie I'm holding is a trick, and I chow down on it anyway, does that satisfy your trickster spirit?"

"I-I-I don't know?!" the tanuki stammered.

"Then here's the deal," Shinespark proposed. "I'm going to eat this pie, and I'm going to turn into a cream-filled blueberry. You're going to tell me if your magic is renewed when I do so. If it isn't, you can still hire me and we'll follow your plan. But if it is, that means you don't have to prank people against their will to keep your magic."

"Wait, so you're telling me-"

"Yep," Shinespark said with a grin. "You and your kind could advertise your spells as tricks, practical jokes, and the like, and you'd still keep your magic! You wouldn't have to hide anymore!"

"That's... that's actually genius..." Barry said, astounded. "Are you an angel? Another of my kind in disguise? Why would you go so far to help me?"

"Because it’s the right thing to do,” Shinespark said, smiling. “And no, I'm just a normal bunny. Or, at least, I used to be." On that note, he ate the slice of blueberry cream pie.

"Shinespark, you were right!" the tanuki exclaimed with excitement. "I can feel my magic renewing itself! You've given me and the rest of my kind a boon we'll never forget!"

"I'm glad to hear that," the rabbit replied.

The two of them then noticed the changes in color spreading across Shinespark's fur. Anything light blue turned a darker shade of the same hue. Strangely, the white portions stayed white, and his pawpads and inner ears, both normally yellow, were drained of their color. The end result was a bun with a vibrant, dark blue and pure white color scheme.

Then the swelling started.

Shinespark felt his belly fill with a mixture of blueberry juice and whipped cream, the two swirling and mixing inside him. Various glorps, sloshes and gurgles could be heard from within the bunny as his entire torso rounded out. Yet as soon as his body became a sphere with arms, legs, and a head attached to it... the bloating stopped. The entire process had taken less than a minute.

Barry was the one to break the silence left by the lack of tummy noises. "So... how are you feeling? If you don't like this, I can undo it-"

"Nonononono, please don't!" It seemed like it was Shinespark's turn to beg. "You were right, this does feel really comfy..." The berried bunny felt up as much of his spherical center as he could, giggling a bit at how good it felt to do so.

"Aww, you look so cute when you're happy," Barry teased. "But I have a question to ask you. How would you like to co-own this place with me, instead of just being an employee?"

Shinespark's ears perked up. "Go on," he said, intrigued.

"I was thinking I'd take your advice about advertising, but still keep the bakery theme," the raccoon-dog continued. "We'd make pastries with all sorts of magic effects attached to them. How does 'Barry & Berry's Bakery of Tricks' sound for a name?"

"D-did you really have to put 'Berry' in the title instead of my name?" Shinespark said, blushing.

"'Shinespark' wouldn't have the same ring to it," Barry replied. "Plus, I can tell you like to be teased, berry-bun.~"

The berry-bun in question blushed harder. "A-alright, alright, I accept," he said.

As soon as the rabbit said those words, he felt a surge of knowledge within his mind. He was expecting it to happen - he'd been told about it - but something seemed off.

"Uh, Barry? I know you said eating the pie would give me all the knowledge I needed for the job, but why do I suddenly know how to imbue objects with transformative magic?"

The tanuki went wide-eyed this time as he realized what he'd done. His original intent with that part of the pie's spell was to teach its consumer how to bake, since that's what they'd be doing once employed. Because the script had been flipped on his head, though, casting spells was now a required part of the job.

The two furs looked at each other as they both became aware of just how lucky they were. They hugged each other with glee, Shinespark's round bulk colliding with Barry's squishy tummy. Their lives, and the lives of all bake-danuki, had been changed for the better.

To think it was all thanks to a blueberry cream pie.