Author: Bob Williams Title: Haruka's Education Part: Chapter 17 of 20 Universe: The Megumi Stories Summary: A young girl is prepared for a career as a Japanese sex artist Keywords: Mff, ff, bd, tort, exhib, Japan ===== HARUKA'S EDUCATION 17 By Bob Williams and Haruka Sekine CHAPTER XVII Preparations for a Party Haruka's first video was released a couple of months later and had a modest success. The studio was a small one and lacked the resources to promote it as an important "debut" by a promising new artist, but my contact on _The Strippers_ kindly gave it a few pages, pointing out that Haruka had recently had her first exposure in his magazine. The series continued for another two episodes of stripping schoolgirls but the actresses going through the identical plots were not, in my opinion at least, nearly as pretty and arousing as Haruka and the project soon came to an end. Of course that did not matter to Haruka. The important thing was that she had starred in her first professional sex-video. She even received some fan-mail, including a couple of offers from admirers willing to pay well for a session with her, one of them making some very imaginative suggestions about the enjoyable things he wanted to do to her. I had some difficulty persuading her not to accept these invitations at once, but she at last understood that a young sex performer with a career ahead of her could not accept private invitations from unknown clients unless they had been checked out first by an experienced studio or manager. However she told me later, with delighted giggles, how she had suggested shyly to one of her regular lovers at her hostess club that he try out the ingeniously sadistic ideas of her unknown fan, with highly satisfactory results for both of them. "You haven't forgotten, have you?" asked Haruka one afternoon. She had come back from one of her lunchtime assignations with the usual distant look on her face. I was able to bring her back from whatever private paradise she was temporarily inhabiting by asking her what her date had done to her. Had he been generous enough to rent a "theme" room in a love hotel, perhaps? She was happy to tell me. No, he had just taken her to a secluded spot in the grounds of the Hiei Shrine overlooking Akasaka. She had bent forward and clung to a tree while he gently raised her short skirt. As usual she was wearing nothing underneath and was ready to receive him in whichever of her love-holes he fancied. After all, as she reminded me, trying and completely failing to sound annoyed with me, my cruelty to her earlier in the day had left her poor bottom so hot and sensitive! Had he been a good lover? I asked. Oh yes, very satisfying ... but the best bit was yet to come! A pair of high-school boys out for a lunch-time walk - it was still school holidays time - had caught them at it. Had she been making a lot of noise? I asked. Well, perhaps she had been squealing a bit. After all, it had felt so good, what he was doing to her cunt! But the two boys didn't get embarrassed and walk on pretending they had seen nothing: they wanted to join in! "Were they any good?" I asked. "Well, inexperienced," said Haruka in a superior tone. "They knew about being sucked, of course. I guess the girls at their school were doing that to them all the time. But my date thought it would be fun if we - that is, they - all took me together. So he lay on his back on the grass and I sat on top so he could enter my cunt, I was his date after all, and leant forward so that one of the boys could take me in the arse. And do you know, he'd never done it before! Isn't that strange? You'd have thought the girls at his school would have taught him. But he got in at last, and then the other boy knelt by my mouth - _that_ was no problem, of course - and we sort of came together. It was nice." "You're giving me an erection." "Am I?" she asked innocently. "Well, what would you like to do to me? Perhaps not my arse, if you don't mind, not just for a little while, he was rather clumsy. But my cunt is ready as usual, or I could suck you or stroke you." "A little stroking first, and then you could suck me - then when you're ready I could just visit your cunt and see how it's getting on. After all, I haven't been in there for hours. And finish in your mouth? How does that sound?" "It sounds good. A nice messy one to finish with, please." "Sure. If you promise not to wipe it off at once. You know I always think a girl looks specially pretty with cum on her face and tits." So it was that Haruka was lying in my arms, snuggled up against me, translucent streaks of my cum decorating her face and her breasts where it had dripped from her chin. One hand was hopefully stroking my cock. It was while she was waiting for that to produce results that she asked me to assure her I hadn't forgotten something. "Forgotten what?" I asked. "My birthday, of course, silly! I'll be seventeen in October." "Of course. You'll be quite a grown-up young lady. Ready to interest many more men." "_Even_ more ..." "What would you like?" I asked cautiously, hoping she would be reasonable in her demands. "Can I have a party? A nice party with lots of sexy men all fucking me?" "I don't see why not. Let me think about it." Of course I could easily have invited a few good friends to come round to the apartment one evening for drinks and some food, letting them know that Haruka would be there, ready and eager to be fucked. We would all have a good time, but there would be nothing unusual or special about it and Haruka might well think that there was not much point: it would be less fun than a regular evening session at one of the clubs where she worked. I had standing invitations to several of the regular sex-parties organised by people I knew at weekends, always on the basis that when I came I would bring a pretty date who understood what she was there for. Well, Haruka would understand that all right and her freshness and youthful enthusiasm would make her a popular addition to the party; but there would be other more sophisticated girls there, experienced sex-video actresses and nude models, who might be more in demand than her and would look down on her relative inexperience. She might enjoy herself even so, but it would not feel like _her_ party. I needed help from someone not much older than Haruka who would know at once how to make a girl of just seventeen feel the centre of attention, and who also had the resources to give her the party of her dreams. It would not be easy to find someone like that. I began running through names in my mind, and perhaps it was thinking of the weekend sex-parties I sometimes attended and the beautiful actresses I met and fucked there that suddenly produced the answer - or at any rate someone who could help me to the answer. Before Haruka came into my life there had been a girl called Sayaka Onodera [28]. She had not been a pupil of mine, though I had been able to contribute to her education by introducing her to a few sexual pleasures and techniques which were new to her. She had an older cousin called Reina who was an exceptionally beautiful and successful star of the Tokyo sex business. Reina was just my type, or one of my types: taller than average for a Japanese girl with lovely long legs and a strikingly elegant figure, and we had first become lovers at a sophisticated sex-party. I remembered the occasion well. I had spotted her almost as soon as I arrived and there was something about her amused sidelong glance in my direction that suggested she might not refuse my approach. Of course I had to do my duty by my date first. I helped her out of her clothes and made sensitive love to her - she was not inexperienced but it was her first time at a party where she was expected to fuck in front of the other guests - and then ensured that she was happily engaged being pleasured by a group of _bukkake_ enthusiasts [29]. I was then free to introduce myself to Reina. Through her I came to know Sayaka. She idolised her beautiful elder cousin and was desperate to follow her into the sex business; and Reina, seeing her potential talent, had put a lot of effort into training her. When she decided Sayaka had acquired the basic skills of her profession - stripping, whipping, masochistic displays - she had arranged for her to become one of the mistresses of a wealthy man with a fancy for keen young beginners. The following day, after Haruka had departed for one of her mysterious lunch engagements, I found Reina's number in an address-book. She was pleased to hear from me and did not reproach me for my neglect of her. "I've been busy," I explained, "I have a pupil who decided to move into my apartment." "Yes, I can imagine that would keep you busy." "It's really about her I'm calling." "Ah, yes, I thought it was too much to hope you were thinking of me." "Oh, Reina ... once she has moved on, I'll have so much more time for friends like you," I said, feeling I had recovered rather cleverly. "H'm, well ... Let me tell you that if you are planning to ask me to take on your little friend's training, I am just too busy. I did it for my cousin Sayaka - you remember Sayaka? - but that was special." "What is Sayaka doing now?" I asked, pleased that Reina had mentioned her without my having to sound too interested in her. "Oh, she's still with --- living in the apartment he set her up in. He visits her from time to time. Otherwise she keeps happy with the young men he supplies, and throws a lot of sex-parties. He likes to come along and watch." She mentioned the name of an elderly Japanese businessman of such distinction that I have no intention of risking my position as a foreign resident in Japan by repeating it. "Really? It must be a year now since you gave her to him. That's unusual, isn't it? I thought his girls only lasted a few months." "They used to. He has about half-a-dozen at a time in different apartments, and I will say he is a generous _ojisan_, but once they lose that look of frightened innocence he likes so much he arranges to pass them on. But there's something about Sayaka ... actually the old goat can't do much these days, he mostly just likes to watch. And she arranges just the sort of elaborate sex-parties he enjoys. I've been to a few, that's how I know." "That sounds just what I wanted to hear - it would be so good if she'd let my little girl attend one, and perhaps catch an _ojisan_ of her own. It would be the ideal next stage of her education." "I'll give you her number. Then when at last you're rid of your little _roriita_, and before the next one comes along, you can invite me on an expensive date and make it up to me." "I'd love to." "H'm, well ..." she said again, gave me the number I wanted, and hung up. Sayaka politely pretended to know who I was when I telephoned her, but I could tell that she really remembered only when I reminded her that I had met her with Reina in a cocktail lounge with striptease entertainment, on her very first visit to such an establishment, and how we had gone on to a "theme" hotel afterwards. "Yes! That's right!" she said, and then added with a sexy giggle, "Do you know, that was my first experience of being whipped? I've never forgotten it!" "Nor have I," I said politely. "I remember that you loved it very much and wanted me to go on doing it for ever." "Well, of _course_ I did!" "I'd love to see you again. May I come and visit?" "Yes, I'd love you to. But you'll have to bring a _much_ stronger whip! I've learnt a lot since then, you know." "I'm sure you have. I'll bring a very special one." "Mm'mm. Come soon. Afternoons are best. My _ojisan_ prefers to come in the evening - and I will say for him, he's very thoughtful about letting me know in advance." A few days later, early in the afternoon while Haruka was out, I found my way to the block just off the main shopping street in Omotesando where Sayaka's _ojisan_ had established her in an apartment. I was carrying a present for her, chosen in consultation with my friend Fujiko of Restraint, and carefully wrapped in the shop's elegant paper. I pressed the button marked "Onodera" and was surprised to be welcomed by a well-modulated male voice over the intercom. As instructed I took the elevator to the penthouse suite and was greeted at the apartment door by the owner of the voice, a bare-chested and barefoot young man wearing only black trousers. "Mistress Sayaka is so looking forward to your visit, sir," he said. "Please enter." I kicked off my shoes in the hallway but rejected his offer of fluffy house-slippers, following him down the corridor in my socks to the main living-area where Sayaka was reclining in a comfortable armchair. "Please don't move!" I said, "you look far too comfortable." I accepted her offered hand and bent forward to kiss her. Then I stood back and took a careful look. She was even prettier than I remembered, slimmer and with her long hair attractively waved, and was wearing a silken housecoat loosely tied round the waist and, as I could clearly see from my position standing near her head, with nothing underneath. Another young man, apparently identical to the one who had welcomed me at the door, was kneeling before her held in position with her legs wrapped firmly round his shoulders, his face buried in her crotch. He looked up at me for a moment, but Sayaka dug the sharp points of her stiletto-heels into his back and his face disappeared as his tongue resumed slurping rhythmically in her pussy. "Lovely to see you again, Sayaka!" I said, "It's been a long time. You're very well set up here." The room was large and elegantly furnished, its big picture-windows offering a view over the Meiji Shrine gardens. I did not say how pretty she was looking. Japanese girls are not accustomed to flattery, and she would in any case have read my admiration in my eyes as they roamed over her and looked down the half-open front of her loosely tied coat. "Thank you. My _ojisan_ has been generous ... I have this apartment, all the clothes and equipment I want - and these young men to do whatever I tell them." "I brought you this." "Oh, you are kind! May I open it now?" "Of course. I rather hoped you'd want to use it straightaway." "If it's what I think it is, I hope _you'll_ want to use it!" She looked at the black Restraint logo elegantly decorating the white carrier, showing an oriental girl's lovely slanting eyes looking through a black mask. The parcel inside was wrapped in paper folded diagonally in the traditional style of a high-class Japanese store. She unwrapped it carefully and one of her bare-chested young men was immediately at her side to receive the paper and pack it away neatly. She opened the box and revealed the whip I had chosen for her with Fujiko's help. She lifted it and admired the beauty of its seven flexible lashes, each of them braided from three thin strands of polished leather in varied colours, their edges roughened so that they could bite deliciously into a girl's tender flesh and leave pretty patterns on her skin. Sayaka ran the long lashes through her fingers, cooing as she imagined the delights they offered. "Perhaps, Mistress Sayaka," said the young man, "we should draw lots to decide who should have the pleasure and honour of whipping you with this gift." She looked up at him demurely, fluttering her eyelashes. "Or perhaps you should draw lots to decide which of you _I_ should whip?" she murmured. It was his turn to look demure and coquettish. "Oh, Mistress Sayaka, would you really?" he asked, wriggling in his excitement. She has really come a long way, I thought, if she has learned to take pleasure in being a enchanting little _sadisu-chan_ wielding a whip over a team of happy male slaves. Perhaps that explained why she had held her position in the affections of her _ojisan_ for so long. She turned to me. "Bob, do you remember the first time you whipped me?" "How could I forget?" "It was such a simple whip ..." "Yes, I think plain flat leather lashes are best when a girl is being given her first ever experience." "I remember you tickled me with it so lightly at first I didn't even realise it _was_ a whip ... I wanted it more and more ... and you gradually made it kiss me harder ... oh, it was wonderful!" "I remember you raising your bottom higher as if you were trying to get closer to it." "It didn't feel as if you were whipping me. It felt as if I was pulling the lashes down onto myself." "It was a beautiful experience for both of us." "I'm so grateful to you! You made me love it so much ... and I've never stopped loving and wanting it since. I'm just looking for even better ways of experiencing it." "I'm glad." "Now ... before we try out the new one, there was something you wanted me to do for you." "Well, it's a lot to ask, but the girl living with me just now is about to be seventeen. I wondered if you would be willing to give a party for her." "Of course! I'd be delighted! My _ojisan_ is pleased if I give parties when he comes to see me. And he likes it if there are new girls there. Your girl is ... experienced is she?" "Oh yes. I've been training her and she's very keen. She still has a lot to learn but she won't disgrace you." "I remember my last birthday party so well ... that was when my _ojisan_ chose me." "I wasn't there," I said, trying to keep my voice level and not to sound as if I was complaining. "Reina arranged it for me. At a very exclusive club. I was performing with a group of friends then. We called ourselves the Chain Gang. You can guess the sort of show we put on! The group doesn't perform any more but I'm still in touch with some of them, and they come to my parties. Tell me what dates would suit you both and I'll arrange it." "That's very kind of you. I really appreciate it." "No ... I want to help a girl starting out on her career. I was like that once!" What a difference there is, I thought, between an eager sex-kitten of sixteen and a grown-up young woman with her own clients and establishment. The door buzzer sounded and the young man who had admitted me - or another identical one - ran down the corridor to admit whoever it was. Soon I could hear feminine chatter and laughter approaching and two beautiful girls entered. They were well worth looking at: they were so similar they could only be sisters, and were wearing dresses in an identical style, with very short tight skirts and elbow-length sleeves, one in gold and the other in glittering silver. Looking at their legs I noticed with approval that they were still wearing matching high-heels, having rejected the invitation to slop about in house slippers. Sayaka kicked the man crouching between her legs out of the way, jumped up, made a sketchy attempt to adjust her short coat, and welcomed the two girls eagerly, slipping her arms round their waists. They made an enchanting picture, which I enjoyed to the full. "Kin-chan, Gin-chan," she said when they had all finished kissing and squealing, "this is my friend Bob. I haven't seen him for ages. We're planning a party." "Ooh!" said the two girls in unison, skipping prettily on their heels, "can we come? Can we come? Please?" "Of course! I couldn't give a party without you!" "Can you make it when Kuni-san is here? Then he can come too?" "If you two will let him take part in the fucking and not keep him to yourselves." "He's here tonight," said one of the girls. "We'll ask about his programme." "Sounds like you've a heavy night ahead." "Oh yes ..." said the other girl. "We've just been buying new clothes to please him. What do you think?" They struck an attitude like a pair of models; then each freed the single jacket-button of their outfits and tossed the jackets over their shoulders, letting each trail on the floor from one hand. I could not help gasping at the effect they made. The minidresses they were both wearing were cut low enough to reveal fully their pretty firm breasts. Long tinkling decorations swung from the rings piercing their nipples, gold for one girl and silver for the other. They flirted their bodies at me, enjoying my appreciation. "D'you think he'll like it?" they asked together. "He'll be mad if he doesn't," I said. "Whoever he is, the lucky bastard." "Oh, we're the lucky ones," said the gold girl. "Do you mind if we ...?" said the silver one to Sayaka, gesturing towards the big picture window. They dropped their jackets, which were at once gathered up and folded neatly by two of the respectful young men, and skipped over to the window without waiting for Sayaka's response. I followed them of course. Standing in front of the window was a row of metal columns a little less than a metre high, each topped with something a little like a bicycle saddle. The two girls raised their skirts, revealing pretty hairless cunts unconstrained by even the skimpiest panties, and prepared to straddle two of these structures. As they did so they pressed buttons which caused thick penis-shaped dildos to rise from the centre. They impaled themselves delightedly and wriggled into position, and I could just hear the humming from the mechanisms causing the dildos to thrust and vibrate precisely to their requirements. "Aah, that's better!" said the silver girl. "Yes, it's been _hours_!" said the gold girl. "You were all right," said her sister accusingly. "A man tried to finger you on the subway." "But he wasn't much good. He only just got me into the mood." "Who is Kuni-san?" I asked, feeling I had to do something to keep my own lust from bursting out of control. "Oh, he's our lover. We share him." "Lucky bastard," I said again. "He's a long-distance truck driver. He's away for ten days or so and then has leave here in Tokyo. The first night he gives us all the cum he's built up while he was away. Every drop!" "How can you be sure?" I asked unkindly. "Oh, we can tell! We know how much there should be and how many times he should be able to come!" "But he can't tell about us! That's the lovely thing about being a girl - you can come and come and _come_, and still be ready for more and more!" "What do you do when he's away?" I asked. "Well, we have to work, of course. With the money we make from fucking and Kuni-san's salary from the truck company we can afford a nice apartment, but ... In the early evening we work a shift at a _sopurando_. That's where we met Kuni-san, he was a customer." "Together?" "Oh yes! The management offer us as a couple. We cost a lot extra but the customers seem to love being serviced by the two of us. We get lots of tips." "And then later we do a session at a hostess club or strip theatre. That's such fun! Everybody wants to have us together - you know, _jitensha_ [30]." "Sometimes we do a lesbian display. That really gets the gentlemen in the right mood." "I can imagine," I said. Even the idea of it was getting me into the right mood. "We're twin sisters, you see. Until we had our nipples pierced and chose gold and silver rings no one could tell us apart. Our names aren't really Kin and Gin [31] but everyone calls us that. And of course incest is always a turn-on for gentlemen ..." "And lesbian incest by twin sisters ... there's never been anything like it for getting a party going!" There was a short pause while the two girls squirmed happily on their dildos and I tried not to let my imagination get completely out of control. "I want a cock," the two girls then said, almost in unison. There was a chorus of "Yes, Mistress Kin!" "Yes, Mistress Gin!" "Please let me!" "No it's my turn!" from the helpful young men. Somehow they contrived to decide who should have the privilege and two of them removed their uniform black trousers, taking up position standing beside the girls and respectfully offering their erections to their mouths. I decided I had neglected my hostess for long enough and returned to her reclining chair. She had taken off her short coat and was in a kneeling position with her arms along the back, watching Kin and Gin with an amused expression on her face while one of the young men busied himself tenderly kissing and stroking her bottom. "They're fun, those two, aren't they?" she said. "We were at school together, and they were members of the Chain Gang." "How many girls were there?" "Seven. But we've split up. Masumi - she was my best friend at school - has decided to become a lesbian and hangs around mostly with her group. We're still friends and sometimes when we meet she teaches me some of the nice things they do together. Jun and Aki are working as OLs now. They're popular and get fucked a lot on dates but they'll end up married and spend their lives at PTA meetings. Pity. Such a waste. So there are only me and the twins left. Oh no, that's only six. Whom have I forgotten? Of course - Kokomi." "What is she doing?" "Well, she was always good at gymnastics. She and her lover have a special routine and they are often booked to entertain at nightclubs and sex-parties. She takes up a series of very difficult poses and remains absolutely motionless while he whips and canes her. It sounds a bit weird but she loves it and the act is very erotic to watch." "I'd love to see it." "Talking of whipping ..." "Of course. I'm so sorry to keep you waiting." She sat up and turned to give instructions to the young man who had been pleasuring her. "Right, that's enough for now. Bring some ropes and a pole for my arms. You'll need some of the others to help you." "Yes, Mistress Sayaka. At once. And thank you for letting me enjoy your arse. It was so nice!" She waved a hand dismissively, then stood up. "Let's move the chair closer to the window. I expect Kin and Gin would like to watch." We pushed it together to a spot near the picture-windows, quite close to where the two girls were still squirming on their hot-seats and sucking their chosen cocks. Several young men came running up, chattering excitedly and carrying a bamboo pole and neatly coiled ropes. Sayaka knelt on the chair again and stretched out her arms while they bound them carefully to the pole. One young man offered me a ball-gag. "Yes, I think so, don't you?" I said as I dangled it before Sayaka's eyes. "Can't have you calling out for mercy or anything like that, can we?" "Sadist!" she said happily, and then the gag slipped into her willing mouth and I tightened the straps behind her head. I picked up the box holding the new whip and carefully took it out, letting the lashes cascade to the carpet where Sayaka could see them. Then I went and stood behind her, running my hands up and down her helpless body. I noticed that Kin and Gin had brought the cocks in their mouths to orgasm and were now watching in fascination as they licked their lips and enjoyed the cum they had extracted from the slaves. A vague but pleasing fantasy of myself alternating between torturing Sayaka as cruelly as I knew how and submitting to the twins' sweet sadism flashed across my mind. I placed my hands on Sayaka's bound arms and leant forward till my head was almost touching hers. "Ready, darling?" I whispered. "Remember, if you want me to stop you only have to ask me nicely." There was an incoherent grunt from behind the ball-gag. I stood, picked the new whip carefully from its box and took up position behind Sayaka to the left of her chair. Because the whip's lashes were each braided from several strands of leather they were thicker than those of a less complex instrument, but they were long and flexible, and the little coloured bows at each tip gave them a flirtatious and almost girlish look. My friend Fujiko had told me how much she enjoyed their affectionate caress, even when applied with a lover's full strength: her employers encouraged her to borrow and experiment with the latest lines so that she could daintily describe to the shop's customers the masochistic delights their girls could expect. I began by dribbling the lashes lightly over Sayaka's expectant bottom, tickling and teasing it as I had done all those months ago at our first meeting. She shivered and wriggled, and I could hear frustrated moans from behind her ball-gag. Gradually I increased the strength of the strokes, and noted with pleasure how her bottom began to rise rhythmically to meet and welcome the kisses of her seven lovers. I whipped her harder and harder, enjoying the pretty coloured patterns of the lashes as they fell and the elaborate dark-red traces they left behind on her firm flesh. Of course a whip of this quality can give of its best only to a girl standing freely in a whipping-frame or suspended from a ceiling-hook - then the long braided lashes can curl deliciously round her, embracing her several times and tormenting her breasts and the sensitive valley of her crotch, their roughened edges dragging against her quivering flesh apparently as reluctant to release her as she is to let them leave. But even in her kneeling position I was able to vary the angle of my strokes so that I could delight her thighs and back as well as her bottom. This was just a taste, I thought: enough to make her impatient for the fullness of the whip's love. She was experienced enough in the pleasures of masochism to know how to exploit the new instrument's possibilities when offering herself to her master or to other regular lovers. After twenty minutes or so I let the whip fall, walked round to her head and released her from the ball-gag. "Was that good?" "You know it was," she said after swallowing her accumulated saliva. "It was wonderful. But it wasn't enough. It never is!" I held the whip out as long as I could between my outstretched hands. "He's beautiful, isn't he? I hope he'll give you hours and hours of pleasure." "I'm sure he will. Thank you so very much." "I must go now. Haruka will be waiting for me. We'll be in touch about the party for her birthday." One of the young men politely accompanied me down the corridor. As I left and turned for a last look at Sayaka, her arms still pinioned to the bamboo pole, I saw one of his colleagues pick up the whip and stand respectfully before her as she gave her instructions. Haruka was already home when I returned. She was lying on the floor in front of the TV monitor, her head against the couch, naked apart from her beloved clamps. She was wearing the little metal frames with cross-bars which can be screwed together to torture the nipple. She had probably been wearing them discreetly under her clothes all through her lunch date: I hoped her lover had been suitably stimulated when he undressed her and found them. There was a vibrator deep in her cunt, its control at the end of its wire conveniently by her left hand; a porn video was playing on the monitor, the remote in her right hand so that she could rewind the disc and enjoy again any passages she had found especially arousing. She made a charming picture of a thoroughly contented girl, I thought. After a moment I identified the video she was watching as one of my most recent acquisitions. The story-line concerned two sisters who had been kidnapped and were being trained in the skills of masochistic sex before being sold as slaves. I had seen it several times already and Haruka had arrived at one of my favourite scenes: the elder sister, bound and hanging from a ceiling hook, was being expertly whipped by an elderly sadist with a medium-length cat of narrow leather strips. She had reached the point of no return, her mind helplessly flipped from feeling pain to experiencing transcendent joy as the leather lashes hissed and sizzled ruthlessly down onto her arse, thighs and back. The younger girl was present, also nude and led by a rope binding her arms, brought to watch a torture which she had yet to experience. She was whimpering and begging for mercy, not understanding that her sister had crossed the divide and was now addicted to an ecstasy which she would constantly implore her future masters to grant her. She had become a perfect sex-slave, I thought, as indeed would her kid sister in the following scene. "Oh, please whip me! Please fuck me! Promise to whip me!" they would be crying pathetically to their new owners in the final moments of the video after they were auctioned. "Nice, isn't it?" I said to Haruka after bending down to kiss her. "Lovely!" she said happily without taking her eyes from the screen. "Did your lunchtime date whip you as well as that?" "No, not really. But I made him try. The nice thing about this video," she went on, gesturing towards the screen with the hand holding the remote, "is that it's _genuine_. The man is really whipping her hard, and she's really enjoying it." "Yes, have you seen the company slogan at the end?" "No. I haven't got to the end yet. I keep going back to watch the best bits again." "'We always do it for real'. The company slogan of the Marucho Studio. I know them well. I'll introduce you to the Chairman if you like. I expect she'll give you a screen-test if I ask her." "She?" For the first time Haruka took her eyes off the girl being so beautifully whipped and looked up at me. "Oh yes. A woman Chairman. She began as a porn actress the moment she was old enough and now runs the studio. If you want to enter the porn business after your eighteenth birthday - _and_ if you are good enough - she'll help you. She's very good to the keen young beginners." "Ooh! Yes please! And will you tell her I'll always, _always_ do it for real?" "Of course. But that's for the future. The next thing is your _seventeenth_ birthday. And I have some exciting news for you." Haruka took her coming birthday party very seriously and discussed with me several times what she might wear. It may seem absurd that she was so interested in her clothes when the other guests would be concerned to get her out of them as early as possible, but girls are like that ... and there was a certain sense in wearing something that would inspire the strongest possible desire to see her remove it. At last she reached a decision. "I shall go as a cat," she announced one morning over a late breakfast, a few days before the date fixed for the party. "What made you decide that?" I asked. "I was dancing at Synthesis last night," she explained. "My manager asked me to go there again to help out. Girls keep letting them down - calling in the morning to say with no notice that they won't be coming in. And it's not because they're having an early period either," she added disapprovingly. "Well, you know what it's like at a big establishment like that," I said. "A girl meets a man in the audience, they like each other and go off together when her shift is over, and the next day they decide to carry on fucking for another day or two." "It's very unprofessional," she said. She was starting to take her work as a sex artist seriously, I thought. "If I was managing a place like that, I wouldn't take a girl back if she let me down." "Oh, there's always work for pretty girls who want to be nude in public," I said tolerantly. "You can't be angry with girls like that!" She looked at me severely and I could tell she was about to say something about men being too easy for girls to manipulate. Well, of course we are, and why not so long as they manipulate us by giving us all the sex we want? But I did not want to discuss that over breakfast. "Tell me how you came up with the cat idea," I said. "Well, you know Synthesis like to have a theme for the big final display? Last night we were all cats. Just a little mask over our eyes, with ears and whiskers attached, and a tail - a belt with a furry thing dangling behind. It was such fun! Of course we can think up a much more elaborate costume together but keep the basic idea." "Did you get fucked?" "Of _course_! Several times ... In fact the manager told me to act shy, you know the sort of thing. Because I was the youngest girl on stage he wanted me to let the gentlemen think I was very inexperienced and didn't know they wanted me so much." "And did you?" "Well, I _tried_ ..." she said, wriggling slightly on her chair, "but I just couldn't. When they came up to take me it was so wonderful, how could I resist, even just pretending to? I longed to be fucked even more than they wanted to fuck me." "But anyway, the cat costume was effective? Stimulated the men's lust?" "Oh, yes." "Good. Let's go for that then. We'll need to do some shopping." "Ooh! Nice!" "There isn't much time before Saturday. What are you doing for lunch today? Do you have a date?" "No - nothing definite. I was planning to go somewhere where I know I will be picked up, but it can wait." "Good. We'd better leave as soon as you've finished breakfast." She fluttered her eyelashes at me and wriggled delightfully. "I've finished ... but haven't you forgotten something?" "Have I?" I asked, knowing perfectly well what she meant. "I haven't had my morning whipping yet." "Oh, well ... I suppose I must ..." She knew I was only teasing her. She stood up, took me by the hand and led me up the stairs to the door of the torture-chamber. As I operated the code-lock she stood on tiptoe in her high-heels and kissed me. I took her naked body in my arms and could feel her shivering slightly. "You will make it a specially good one, won't you?" she said shyly. I have never been able to refuse Japanese girls: they ask so nicely for what they want. An hour later, delightfully pink from the whip and fresh from the shower, her hair in a youthful ponytail, she was in the bedroom deciding what to wear for our shopping expedition. She had already picked out a white tank-top cut low to give a good view of her breasts and a pretty pale green miniskirt wide enough to swing nicely round her bottom as she walked and offer occasional glimpses of its lower curves. I was already looking forward to being envied by other men as I escorted such an attractively dressed girl in public. First however she was considering one of her favourite thongs, the one with metal _benwa_ balls which press agreeably against her cunt and arsehole. I stood and watched her trying to decide whether to wear it or not, careful to offer no advice. I just do not know which is more delightful: a girl naked under her little skirt, her love-holes trembling as they are kissed into desire by the fresh air, or a girl wearing a little strip over her crotch cleverly designed to tickle her appetite gently at her every movement. She reached her decision at last and pulled on the thong, drawing the waistband tight so as to get maximum stimulation from the metal balls. Then she stepped into her miniskirt and pulled on the tank-top, dragging the front as far down her breasts as it would go and tossing her hair down her back out of the way. She added a pair of gold high-heels which would go well with the pale green of the skirt, and was ready. "Where are we going?" "Shinjuku. I want you to meet a friend of mine who works in a shop there." She sat demurely in the subway, knees together and occasionally playing innocently with her ponytail, ignoring the lustful glances of the few men in the carriage, but I knew she was secretly enjoying the way the movement of the train caused the _benwa_ balls pressing against her cunt and into her arsehole to keep up their unpredictable vibration. Soon enough - too soon for Haruka, I guessed, but I was looking forward to seeing Fujiko again - we reached Shinjuku and left by the West Exit. The part of Restraint which opened onto the street was devoted to sales of straightforward clothing, sex-toys and videos. The men thumbing through the magazines glanced up for a moment as I led Haruka through the shop and then returned to their fantasies. In the next room Fujiko was respectfully attending to a couple of Office Ladies on an early lunch-break, oohing and aahing over a show-case exhibiting a selection of cuffs and gags. She was looking delightfully pretty in a simple halter-neck minidress, the bow behind her neck loose to offer side-glimpses of her breasts. She excused herself politely from the other customers and welcomed us warmly. I introduced her to Haruka, whose eyes were already shining with excitement as she took in the varied equipment on display. "I'm so sorry," I said, "we've come when you are busy." "Not at all!" she replied. "The customers are still deciding ... What can I do for you today?" "Well, Haruka has been with me for a while but she is about to become seventeen." Fujiko smiled at her encouragingly. "And of course we are planning a party to celebrate ... that is, a good friend of mine is kindly arranging one for her ... and we wanted your help in deciding what she should wear." "I'm sure you already have ideas," said Fujiko politely to Haruka. "Yes! I want to go as a cat." "How very clever, and pretty. I guess you will need a mask, to start with? Let me take you to a colleague in the main room where we stock things like that, and when you've chosen we can discuss the other ... er ... items." A polite young man knew exactly what Haruka wanted and quickly produced a style of mask designed to cover the upper part of the face and fixed to a sort of Alice band which fitted neatly over the head. There were perky cat-ears and long springy whiskers made of wire. Haruka's eyes sparkled through the holes as she tried it on in the mirror. "What do you think?" "Very pretty," I said. The young man smiled politely and put it aside for us as we returned to Fujiko's specialised department. The two OLs had left and she was waiting for us, leaning over her counter. "I hope we didn't put those girls off buying what they wanted," I said. "Oh, no. They're not ready yet. Another couple of visits and one of them will take the plunge - and then the other will follow. A pair of cuffs and a gag for each of them, I expect, to be displayed shyly on their next dates. And when they discover what a success they are with their lovers they'll be back for more, so I can introduce them gently to their first whips and clamps and things like that." "Lucky guys," I said, meaning the lovers and dreaming momentarily of pretty helpless girls submitting timidly to the first caresses of the whips that Fujiko had helped them choose. "Yes, they'll make nice obedient slaves. OL training is good for that. Now, about that cat costume. Did you find the mask you wanted?" Haruka hardly heard: she was gazing fascinated at a chastity belt in gleaming steel occupying centre place under the glass of Fujiko's counter. It was fitted with a long thick dildo and a deeply ridged anal finger also of shining metal. "Do those ... things ..." she asked in a husky whisper, "vibrate and ... you know ..." "Of course!" said Fujiko with a gentle smile. "They vibrate and give you lovely electrical surprises - very powerful when they're turned right up! They are radio operated by a remote, and that also controls the locking mechanism. Of course your lover has that. He decides how long you must keep the belt on and chooses the things it does to you." "Have you tried it?" asked Haruka, almost overwhelmed by the beauty of the instrument and its possibilities of teasing torment. "Oh yes! I wore it for a whole weekend recently. Well, not all the time, of course. He let me take it off from time to time! But it was such fun wearing it secretly in public while he tried to surprise me and make me give myself away." "We thought long black boots and matching gloves," I said firmly. The shopping trip looked like being quite expensive and while I did not grudge Haruka her sexy cat outfit - was looking forward to seeing her wear it, in fact - the budget would not stretch to other pricey toys. "And a corset." "Yes, that would look very pretty on the young lady," said Fujiko, discreetly abandoning the chastity belt. "Let me see what I can find. What is your shoe size?" Haruka told her, then hastily added, "But I like to wear them a little tight - and with the highest possible heels." Soon Fujiko was unfolding and laying out on the counter shiny black thigh-boots in a flexible plastic-coated material which would cling like a second skin. Next came matching long gloves, or rather sleeves ending in a discreet loop for the middle finger which, as Fujiko explained, would leave the hands free "for whatever you want to do ... gentlemen like to see a girl in gloves but for touching and stroking in a really sensitive way your fingers alone are best, don't you think?" Haruka was too excited to reply. "Would you like to try these on? I think they will fit but I would like you to be quite sure before you decide. Oh, you will need some baby-powder to help you get into them. Here ..." "What about the corset?" I interrupted. "Oh yes ... just round the waist, I think, don't you? Leaving the breasts and the bottom free?" Haruka nodded eagerly, and Fujiko soon found what she wanted, sliding it deftly out of its plastic wrapping. The two girls vanished behind the curtain of a discreet cubicle, leaving me to gaze round the shop while Haruka's transformation was taking place. I was just making up my mind to at least ask the price of the steel chastity belt when the curtain was drawn back and an elegantly erotic figure stepped out. Fujiko's taste had been perfect: the boots and sleeves looked as if they had been sprayed onto Haruka's legs and arms. Her pretty little feet looked even tinier in the tight boots and the high spike heels forced her into that teetering walk, strutting yet helpless, that no man can resist. She struck a glamour pose with her hands behind her neck, pushing her naked breasts forward, then came to me. "You look gorgeous," I said. "Quite irresistible. How does it feel?" "Lovely. I can already feel my feet tingling ... constricted and _so_ sexy! And very tall heels like these always make me feel halfway to orgasm already ... Will you tighten my corset for me?" "Sure." She turned her back and I pulled the laces through the strong eyeholes, lined with metal rings designed to take the stress of exquisitely tight bondage. But not as firmly as I would bind her on the evening of the party: I gave her only a taste of the delicious constriction in store for her then. She twisted round, stood on tiptoe to give me a grateful little kiss, then returned to pirouetting round the room. Fujiko stood by her counter, watching Haruka proudly. "I wonder, as a cat, you should have claws, don't you think?" She went to the door and called her colleague who had provided the cat mask. "Could you very kindly bring me a set of fingernails? Fetish ones - black, the longest we have, and with sharp points." It took the young man only a few moments to find what was wanted. He handed them to Fujiko, looked appreciatively at Haruka, and withdrew. Fujiko opened the little plastic box and showed us both the pretty contents. "They clip on, you see: they don't need adhesive. They will look very sweet on you, and your partners will enjoy it when you prickle them gently with the points. At the right moment! Trust me - there's nothing a man likes more than a submissive girl suddenly showing just a little bit of resistance! It stimulates him, inspires him, makes him try to control you ..." "Lovely!" said Haruka. "There's just one other thing." "Of course! Your tail." "When I was on stage ..." began Haruka carefully, and then suddenly realised what she was saying, "... I mean, I saw some girls dancing on stage recently and they were wearing cat outfits with a tail fixed to a belt round their waists." "Oh, I think we can do better than _that_!" said Fujiko with a little laugh. She quickly pulled a box from a shelf, opened it and laid the contents out on the counter. "How about this?" "Ohh!" said Haruka: and then "_ooohh_!" as she took in the implications of what she was looking at. It was a long tail with black fur fixed to a flexible wire spine and ending in a long, deeply ridged dildo in black plastic. "Would you like to try it?" she asked in a conspiratorial whisper. "Oh, _yes_! May I?" "Of course. Shall I fix it for you? Or perhaps it would be better if Williams-san ..." I did not wait to be asked twice. "Let me give you a little oil to help it in more smoothly ..." She poured some kind of oily lotion onto a tissue and wiped it copiously over the dildo. Haruka, knowing what to expect, turned her back and I pushed her down by the shoulders till she was leaning forward with her naked bottom in the air. She let out a sexy little squeal as the oiled tip touched her tight rosebud, then moaned happily as the dildo progressed, ridge by ridge, into her anal passage. At last it was inserted as deep as it could go, and the first hairs of the tail's fur were brushing maddeningly against the inner curves of her arse. Slowly she stood up. The wire spine of the tail made it stand out proudly from her bottom before curving elegantly and falling towards the floor. Her anal muscles, naturally seeking to expel the intruding object, began to contract and relax rhythmically. The last wide ridge held the dildo firmly inside her anus, but the muscular spasms made the tail frisk and swing up and down. The effect was magical, one of the most beautifully erotic pictures I have ever seen. Fujiko led her to the mirror so that she could share our enjoyment of the lovely sight. "It's beautiful!" said Haruka at last, "and it feels so _good_! I never want to take it out. Never, never!" "Well, there might be occasions ..." suggested Fujiko gently. "Yes, of course - but when the man has finished I'll insist that he puts it back in!" "Are you planning to leave your breasts bare?" asked Fujiko. "Oh, no! I'll have a beautiful decoration ... a collar with lots of chains fixed to my nipples." "If he chose it, I'm sure it will be lovely. He has such good taste." "It's meant to be a surprise," I said severely. "Haruka, it's time we left. You get changed while I, er ..." I reached into my pocket for my credit-card. "Oh," said Haruka coquettishly, "mayn't I wear it all home?" "No, you may not. It's for the party and not to be worn till then." I had no intention of getting into a discussion on the subject with Haruka. She would soon talk me into letting her wear at least some of her new wardrobe in the street and on the subway, and the trouble was that my imagination was already working overtime picturing her doing just that. She, I had come to realise, was entirely serious about appearing in public in outrageously provocative clothes and the only way of controlling her was to refuse outright to let her do it. Arguing about it and giving way to her step by step was fatal. That risky obsession of hers with provoking lust in others was something I wanted to discuss with her, and the moment to do it had perhaps arrived. "What a nice girl Fujiko-san is," said Haruka a few minutes later as we walked down the street back towards the station, she again technically decent in her white tank-top and green miniskirt and I keeping my erection under control by worrying about the quantity of bags we were carrying. "May I invite her to my party, do you think?" I thought for a moment. It was after all her party, a party being given in her honour, and Sayaka would make sure plenty of men were present. "Yes, I guess that would be all right. I'll tell Sayaka. And I thought I'd suggest Fumie and her husband. You like her, don't you?" "Oh, yes! We said we were going to be best friends. But then she married that dull fiance of hers and went off on honeymoon ..." "He's all right. He's not so dull since he learnt to give her what she really wants. It would do him good to share her and he can make the other girls happy now she's taught him how. And we mustn't invite too many girls on their own. You want more men than girls at a party like that." "Oooh!" she said, and skipped happily along beside me. "Are we going home now?" she asked after a few moments. "Yes, but not directly. I want to have lunch first. We'll find a place in the station." For a moment I thought she was going to object, then she slipped her free hand into my arm. "All right. Let's have something to eat. You will need all your strength this afternoon." "How do you mean?" "I'll need a lot of fucking. And whipping. Normally when I go out on my own at midday I find a man to pick me up and take me somewhere to do that. But I haven't been picked up today, have I? And all that preparation for the party has given me an _enormous_ appetite." Before long we were settled at a small table in a cafe in Shinjuku Station, sitting very close together surrounded by bags from Restraint. "How does it make you feel, being about to be seventeen?" I asked. She looked at me, her eyes dancing with mischief, then suddenly became serious. "It feels strange," she said at last. "I mean, only the other day I was just a little schoolgirl, learning how to suck cocks nicely, longing to be fucked properly but frightened about what might happen if I was. Then I was taken to a strip-club ..." "And you were nude before an audience for the first time ..." I prompted her. "Yes! And when I did that I knew ... I just _knew_ that I couldn't live without it! I wanted to be nude and fucked in public for ever and ever without stopping for a single moment!" She was silent, gasping with emotion and excitement. "And then," I suggested softly, "you were picked up by a horrible hairy _gaijin_ ..." She recovered quickly, and smiled at me sweetly. Our knees were already touching under the little table but I felt her leg begin to rub gently against me. "... Who was so good to me," she murmured, "and taught me everything I know about sex." It wasn't true, of course, but it was sweet of her to say it. "And all that time," she went on, "ever since my first public performance, I have been longing to be a real sex artist. Nude model. Adult video actress. And now I'm going to be seventeen I can start being it for real." "Well, in theory," I said carefully, "even before you are eighteen you are allowed to do 'glamour' modelling - bikini shots with high heels, school swimsuits, that sort of thing." "It doesn't sound much," she said accusingly, as if it were my fault. "Well, yes, but once you're old enough to be taken on legally by a professional studio, it can lead to lots of things. Girls posing for nude shots or taking part in fuck videos are supposed to be eighteen, but who knows really? Pretty Japanese girls look underage even when they aren't." "Yes ..." she said thoughtfully, "I have to be a seventeen-year-old girl pretending to be an eighteen-year-old-girl pretending to be fifteen or so. That's right, isn't it?" "Exactly right. Of course you know that when you perform nude at public theatres like Synthesis, a lot of the audience are taking pictures of you or videoing you." "Yes! It's lovely! Makes being nude feel even nicer." "How does it make you feel, knowing that all those shots and scenes of you are out there, being posted on the internet and so on?" "Oh, it's so exciting! Thousands of men looking at me all over the world, wanting me ... but it does seem such a waste," she added with a sexy giggle, "all those litres and litres of cum being shot over me, and I don't get to taste any of it! I could bathe in it, don't you think? _Swim_ in it!" "You love cum, don't you? Did it give you your first orgasm, the first time a boy came in your mouth - or was that earlier?" "Oh, much earlier. I was stroking myself in bed. My breasts had begun to grow, you see, and were already very sensitive. My chest had never felt that way before, and I was enjoying it, and trying to find other areas it was fun to tickle, and my fingers found their way, ever so naturally, to the interesting places between my legs. And then suddenly I sort of exploded! I had no idea what was happening. For a moment I wondered if I'd died and gone to heaven." I nodded gently as she waited for my reaction. "Lots of girls feel that their first time," I said. "Well, of course when I had recovered I wanted _so_ much to see if I could make it happen again. And I found the courage to ask some school-friends whether they'd had the same experience. Somehow I could tell which girls knew. And they gave me tips on how to make it even better. We started meeting after school in the gymnasium to take our uniforms off and stroke each other, and then the boys found us doing it - but I told you all about that." I nodded again. "And then ... oh, _then_ I found out about whipping and how wonderful that was - how being whipped by a man who really knows what he's doing is like having fifty orgasms all at the same time. You taught me that: remember?" "How could I ever forget?" In fact it was very easy to forget: I had introduced so many girls to the ecstasy of the whip. But I did not tell Haruka that. "Of course I was very ignorant. I thought boys wanted to come all the time like girls do. The first time a boy came with me I expected he would keep his cock in my mouth or pussy and just come and come. It was a terrible shock when I discovered boys couldn't do that. They only came occasionally. I think that's why we girls masturbate so much: it's the only way we can get enough sex." This was an original way of looking at an ancient problem. I had thought the trouble was that men always wanted sex and didn't much mind how they got it, while girls were choosier. But I did not interrupt. "Masturbation is nice but there's nothing in the world as good as being fucked by a real man with a real cock. I learnt something important from working at strip-clubs and bars. If I want to be fucked lots and _lots_ and LOTS - and of course I _do_, it's the most important thing in the world - then I must look the way men like a girl to look, the way that makes them want desperately to fuck her. Nude with a little decoration is best, of course, but if I'm not allowed to be that ..." She sat up straight on her little chair, wriggling sexily as she pulled the front of her low-cut tank-top down to reveal as much as she could of her firm breasts, tossed her ponytail back and smiled flirtatiously at me. I guessed the wriggle made the metal balls of her tiny _i-pan_ panties vibrate maddeningly against her lower love-holes. "You want to fuck me, don't you?" she said teasingly. I guessed she was pretending I was a pick-up she had just met. "So why don't we go somewhere so you can do everything to me you want?" I discovered something lots of other men had certainly already found out: being picked up by Haruka and invited to a lunchtime sex-session made you feel on top of the world. But before I surrendered to her I had something else to say - something I had been leading up to all through this conversation. "I somehow think," I said carefully, "that we may not be together much longer. I'm just guessing, but things may change a lot after your birthday party." "That's strange," she said, "I feel that too. Something's about to happen. I don't know what, but something important." "You're a wonderful girl, and whatever happens I'm sure you are going to be very happy. And make lots of other people very happy too. But when you've moved on, will you remember one very important thing I want to tell you?" She nodded, knowing that I was serious. "Of course if a girl wants to be fucked she must make herself look fuckable. As fuckable as she possibly can be. And even if a girl isn't being fucked, looking fuckable - and knowing it - is the best possible way of making a girl feel good about herself. You understand that. It's great. But you can't always trust a man when you have got him sexually worked up. Some men will want to do things to you that you won't enjoy. So will you remember that, and be careful?" "I'll try. But I just can't imagine a man wanting to do things to me that I _won't_ enjoy." "All right. Just remember that when you tease a man and stir up his lust for you, the effect may be even more powerful than you imagine. Now let's go home so I can do all the things I've been dreaming of doing to you." "I'm due at a hostess club for the nine o'clock shift so I reckon we've got six hours. You won't forget the whipping, will you?" "I won't." "I know you don't want me to wear my party clothes yet, but may I at least wear my new corset to be whipped in?" "Yes, all right." "Ooh, lovely! Nice and tight, please." "Sure. It's funny," I went on, reminded by what she had said of our visit to Restraint, "but I was thinking of those two girls in Fujiko's shop. Preparing to buy their first bondage toys." "Did you want them?" "No, not really. But there is something very special about a girl's first experience of the whip. That wonderful moment when 'Please don't hurt me!' becomes 'Oh, please don't stop!' and you both know her sexuality has changed for ever." Haruka picked up my mood and responded to it as only a Japanese girl can. She reached behind her head and freed her ponytail from its band, letting her hair fall loose around her shoulders and even over her breasts. She put her head on one side and looked up at me with innocent, wide-open eyes. She licked her slightly parted lips with the tip of her tongue. "Will you teach me the things you like best?" she begged in a breathy little voice. "I ... I don't know much, yet - but I'm sure if _you_ teach me I will learn to enjoy them too ..." FOOTNOTES [28] If you would like to know the full story of Sayaka please try the book she and I wrote together, _Learning About Myself_, the sixth volume in the "Megumi" series. - B W [29] _Bukkake_ - literally "splash" - is the Japanese term for a group of men taking turns to masturbate over a nude girl, coating her face and body with semen. It is enjoyable to watch, and the girl's delight in being the centre of attention can be very touching, but I personally feel it must be more fun for the girl than for the men. - B W [30] _Jitensha_ or "bicycle" is the word for fucking two girls at once in a brothel or similar establishment. - B W [31] Gold and Silver. - B W [Next in Part 18: Chapter XVIII: The Birthday Party] For complete series so far see /files/Authors/Bob_Williams Comments welcome at bobwilliams1@tiscali.co.uk