Summary
Rika stares at her food in disdain before betting up to toss it. It can't be helped that none of it appeals to her taste; she doesn't like milk, most vegetables and meat, among several other things. If it was candy and sweets that'd be different. Rika gets caught and her Teacher scolds her, forcing her to hold onto the still-wrapped raisin bread she didn't touch.
While trying to determine how she can dispose of it she bumps into an old doll. Her friend recognizes it as Mary, a doll her sister would see when she attended this school. As a joke Rika politely offers the bread to the doll, but upon return they discover a bite now missing from it. One classmate theorizes that Mary ate it, then recalls a story he was told. As Rika's friend berates him for telling scary stories, Rika casually slips Mary into her backpack.
Rika grumpily stares at dinner as her mother lectures her on the importance of food and eating. She sets Mary on the floor and lowers her plate to her, then pulls it back up before her mom returns. She is instantly suspicious, but dumbfounded after she checks Rika and can't find any sign of her hiding the food like usual. After she walks away with the dirty dishes, Rika heads to her bedroom and has a laugh at her expense.
With that, Rika decides to use Mary to dispose of unpleasant foods she dislikes. She does it at school and impresses her classmates and Teacher, who gives her a reward for being so attentive to her health and for getting over her pickiness. Her friend is especially surprised and asks what happened, but Rika teases her rather than give a straight answer, and she becomes distracted. Even though she hasn't been eating, she doesn't feel hungry. Not only that but Mary looks better than she did the other day.
The following day, Rika gets stopped by her mom before leaving for school. She happily reveals that her Teacher called to let her know what happened, and she feels very proud of Rika. Rika feels a little guilty knowing she is being deceptive, and she meets up with her friend, who proudly announces that she managed to conquered her disdain for mushrooms. Rika inspired her and she feels really good about herself now. Rika is very surprised to hear this, and this causes her to realize that with everyone giving their best efforts she really wasn't trying. She decides not to use Mary today, and during lunch she forces herself to eat the meal given to her. It's difficult but she manages to get it all down and please her Teacher. Rika cheers up and knowing that she's earned his praise makes her feel happy.
Rika continues to put in the honest effort of eating the foods she dislikes so much. Her mother and classmates give her support and it helps her keep going. In this time she also returned Mary to class.
Then one day, during gym class Rika has low stamina and doesn't feel good. She's been eating so she doesn't understand why that is, or why she doesn't feel hungry anymore either. Her friend worriedly mentions that she looks sickly, and Rika's body suddenly locks up causing her to fall down. Her friend grabs their Teacher and she is taken to the Nurses office until she feels better a short while later. She returns to class while everyone remains outside and is alarmed to find bite marks covering her desk and items. As she wonders if Mary did it, her friend and some classmates come by to check on her. Rika makes an attempt to tell them about Mary but becomes frightened after one points out that her hand looks weird: it's become jointed, like a dolls. She yells at Mary and throws a book at her before running away.
Rika runs home and calls out to her mom in desperation, only to find Mary at the table. She begs for her to stop, offering to feed her again when suddenly, she hears a pulsating beat coming from the doll. She faints shortly after.
Hours pass when Rika awakens again to find her mom making breakfast. She must have been dreaming, but when she tries to greet her mother, she can't hear anything. She attempts to move but nothing happens, and much to her shock, a girl about her age steps into the room, wearing fancy clothing. She greets her mother, and in return she addresses her as Rika. Rika desperately tries to yell but she goes unnoticed as her mom happily talks about Rika not being picky anymore and how she's been having fun experimenting with cooking lately. "Rika" giggles and repeats her mothers words; "Eating is Living".
Stuck on the shelf as a doll, the real Rika sheds a tear.
Tropes:
- Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Rika receives a pat on the head from her teacher when he praises her for working hard to finish her meals. This encouraged her to become more determined to do her best.
- And I Must Scream: Rika is trapped in a doll's body and nobody can hear her, and because Mary took over her identity nobody will notice she's missing.
- Body Horror: As Rika starts to transform into a doll, her limbs become stiff and ball-jointed, and she loses the ability to move around on her own and speak.
- Creepy Doll: The titular character, an old doll that ingests food.
- Girlish Pigtails: Both Rika and Mary have them. As part of her design, Mary's are styled into ringlets.
- Hope Spot: Rika begins making an honest effort to eat all her meals when she begins to get praise for it.
- Happens again during the end of the story, when Rika awakens and sees her mom cooking after having passed out.
- Humanity Ensues: for Mary.
- Kill and Replace: Somewhat, Rika's not killed as much as she's turned into a doll and Mary takes over her identity as a human.
- Meaningful Echo: "Eating is living" - said by Rika's mother when trying to get her to eat, and then repeated by Mary after ingesting enough food has caused her to become human.
- Parents Know Their Children: Averted. Rika's mother fully believes that the transformed Mary is Rika.
- Picky Eater: Rika, who had a Long List of things she won't eat.
- Single Tear: The chapter ends with Rika shedding one.
- Sweet Tooth: Apparently the only kind of food Rika isn't picky about, as long as they don't have raisins.
