"There are people outside..."
I ran with all my might. Until my knees ached and my legs could take no more. The charm of moving into a new university had worn off. With every door thrown open, each step of the stairs launched down, I wanted nothing more than to be back in high school and playing on my Nintendo Switch. I burst out the doors of my dorm building.
"It can't be--"
My eyes trembled. Millions of stars and galaxies drifted above. The milky way swirled and churned in the distance. Students ambled around the courtyards and fields with fear. We were somehow able to breathe outside. There was something protecting us. My hands shook uncontrollably and the anxiety took over. I should have never gone to this university. I should have listened to my gut. Something was wrong with this place.
"Fudanashi. Did you do this...?" Muttered a voice.
I turned around to see Akiko glaring me down. She had followed me outside. Hina, Eiko, Haru, and Keiko reluctantly stood behind her.
"Are you kidding me?"
She flinched. I waved my arms around angrily.
"How could I have possibly done this...?!" I yelled.
She stood abrasively.
"Are you seriously still trying to pin every weird or unfortunate thing on me simply because I'm a male student? This is beyond whatever school drama you seem so desperate to keep up!"
Her eyes watered. I sighed as I watched her cry. It almost hurt to see such an adorable girl brought to tears. Hina consoled her and I looked to the stars above. A shooting star streaked past the university.
"I'll never see him again..." She wept.
"We'll fix this. You'll see Jace again." Comforted Hina.
Did she have a boyfriend? If so, that explained a lot.
"How are we able to breathe?" Questioned Haru as she fixated her glasses.
She undid the bun at the back of her hair and let streaks of orange dangle downward. She ambled beside me, her dress shirt unbuttoned and a noticeable absence of her skirt. She must have not bothered to finish getting dressed. I glanced at her lingerie, her creamy breasts propped up in an entrancing manner. I noticed a tiny black dot by her chest and then turned back to the cosmos.
"It's some kind of force field." Commented Eiko.
Her emerald hair shifted as she pointed above. I watched her thighs jiggle as she shifted, the garter straps stretching as she stood on her tippy toes.
"The light of the stars is refracted. As the campus moves, you can see the barrier."
I squinted my eyes. She was right. I looked more closely and saw the stars expanding as we drifted through space. It was like we were in a giant bubble of air. A gust of wind then came rumbling through the barrier.
"There's something coming..." Muttered Keiko.
Her violet skirt fluttered upward with the breeze. I could once again see her lilac panties with fluffy bunnies embroidered around them. A bead of sweat dripped down the shimmering skin of her butt and to the thigh high socks around her legs. In fact, I stepped back to see the wind was blowing up all of their skirts. I gulped at the sight of five lustrous asses perking out before me. Then, the stars and galaxies glowed. The light of the cosmos expanded before momentarily blinding me. My vision blurred. As I regained focus, a structure appeared before the university.
"What is that...?" Asked Hina—bells and ribbons shifting from the ends of her skirt.
It was another school. Another university. Chunks of dirt and concrete drifted away from the campus; as if they were broken off in the process of whatever transported it here. The force field above then rippled like static. A drawbridge tumbled down and slammed into the quad we stood on. I squinted my eyes as several figures approached from the distance.
"Someone's coming."
A moment of silence passed. Everyone was still to disoriented to say much of anything.
"Maybe they'll have answers." Affirmed Eiko.
A young man stopped at the end of the drawbridge. Curly black hair draped down his face. His crimson red eyes sagged with what I could only describe as vitriol. The most perplexing thing was his clothes. He wore what looked like battle armor. Shiny metal sheathings covered in indents and ashes. Behind him were what looked to be a dozen or so girls. They all had different colored hair—similar sets of armor enwrapped around their silky bodies. Except their armor was much more revealing. I could see see jiggling sets of breasts and glistening plump thighs. In fact, the twelve or so girls behind the man looked to be strikingly beautiful. Their skin was lustrous and they cooed with cutesy mannerisms, like they were taught to be prim and proper maidens. Just like the students at Kengen.
"My name is Lucious." Bellowed the man.
He grinned.
"I see you have entered my territory in this star sector."
With each word uttered he stepped toward me.
"About that—" I said, my hands raising to the air.
I stepped forward as well.
"I have no idea what's going on here. The school... It just sort of lifted into the air and then we ended up in space somehow."
He narrowed his eyes.
"Are you stupid?"
Before I could respond, a blade raised to the air and pointed at my chest. It was faster than I anticipated. My eyes darted to his side and noticed a sheathe dangling from the war-torn armor. I froze in place.
"No—I don't think I'm stupid... Just... Confused is all." I said with a fake laugh.
"Did you bring us here?" Asked Keiko, her purple hair wavering.
Lucious paused. He looked me up and down carefully. Then he turned to survey his surroundings. He glanced at the many frightened Kengen students who looked beyond bewildered to be in space of all places.
"You really don't know, do you?"
"We don't." Stated Eiko.
"This is all new to you, isn't it?"
Silence. We stared at Lucious with a sense of shared frustration. He lowered his sword. He laughed to himself and paced around the field.
"This is going to be easy..."
"Can you tell us what's going on already?!" I shouted.
"Let me get this straight. You're the only male student at this university, right?"
I glared at him. He seemed to understand my lack of a response.
"You've probably noticed by now that all the other students are beautiful women, ripe for procreation."
My stomach twisted. The girls behind me faltered.
"What are you saying?" I probed.
"All of this..."
He waved his arms around and motioned to the campus of Kengen University.
"This was all orchestrated. You were chosen as a prime male specimen. To propagate with the prime female specimen at this institution. This was never a place for academics or studies. It was orchestrated to be breeding grounds!"
"Who would do that?" I yelled, tired of hearing such ludicrous ideas.
He went quiet. His arms dropped to his sides.
"I don't know."
"You don't know...?" Mumbled Hina—her cutesy demeanor deflating.
"What I do know... Is that whoever orchestrated this whole fake university did the same to me. As well as countless others. I was the first male student at my school... Only to be shocked when I felt like I was in some kind of hentai!"
There were others...? Other universities floating out in space like us?
"Whoever put us here is beyond anything you can imagine. I learned that relatively quickly."
"Tell us how to get back to Earth." I demanded.
My hands had formed into fists. Lucious burst out into laughter again. The girls behind him chuckled.
"You can't go back."
"What do you mean?" I interjected.
"There's no returning."
Akiko wept from behind me.
"The universities are designed to sustain life indefinitely. This is all some kind of experiment. An experiment that I'm going to win."
He lifted his blade again. Starlight glistened off the edge of the sword, the tip inches away from my eye.
"Calm down..." I wheezed.
"You're easy pickings. A swift and effortless death."
"We can work together! Pool our resources and—"
His stature shifted. His gaze burned into me. His eyes elongated with malice.
"The other universities... The ones in the other star sectors... They're at war. Sorry—we're at war. The last one standing gets all the women. The more women, the more power. Then maybe the ability to get back home."
My mind raced with a million thoughts. What the hell was he talking about? How did women equate to power? Why was he talking about them like they were objects...?
"Mei! You are required!" Shouted Lucious.
One of the girls behind him then ran forth. Long white hair ran down her back, adorned with ivory flowers. Her armor gleamed under the stars and her enormous breasts wobbled with every stride. Once she stood beside us, Lucious grabbed her by the waist. He leaned forward and kissed her on the lips. My stomach twisted with disgust. I awkwardly watched as he groped her. His hands sunk into her doughy ass and then ran up her body. She moaned lovingly and trembled with pleasure. As they intertwined, they began to glow. Their silhouettes shimmered. They departed, both their eyes shining and consumed by white light.
"Now you die."
A gigantic blade straight out of final fantasy formed in the air and dropped into Mei's hands. I wish life were as simple as playing videogames back on Earth... But this was not a game. I then remembered what the text message from earlier said: 'The game has begun.' Someone did orchestrate this—and not only did they want to see beautiful girls get groped but they also wanted to see us fight. I lunged to the side, narrowly evading the gigantic blade of white light. Lucious chuckled.
"Sword of Stars, commence flight!"
The blade he had waved around so casually then launched into the air and hovered in place. I almost froze by the sheer awe of it all, but had to leap backward as Mei swung at me. The floating sword whizzed through the air and shot after me. I scrambled back to the girls while trying to evade the two blades.
"Someone do something!" I screamed.
"Do what?!" Shouted Akiko, her pink hair flailing.
"I don't know!"
I then thought about what Lucious said. 'The more women, the more power.' I thought about how maybe his display of affection with Mei was not just a display of affection. It could be a form of power.
"Kiss me." I said.
"What?" Yelped Akiko.
Her cheeks flushed and she stumbled away.
"The person who put us here—who's pulling the strings... They want me to be intimate with the girls at Kengen! That's why everything has been the way it has!"
I shouted while ducking and dodging each swing of the swords.
"You're insane...! No way...!" Protested Akiko.
I sighed, then turned to Hina. She stared at me with concern and confusion. Her flowery skirt fluttered upward with each attack from the blades. Her tight sapphire sweater had her cleavage so revealing and so bountiful that my eyes immediately stared at them. Her skin looked soft to the touch. The ribbon tied in her short blue hair wavered as I avoided another attack. I sucked in a breath and then grabbed her by the shoulders. I planted a kiss on her lips. I expected pushback. Instead, she shut her eyes and embraced me. Our tongues interlocked. I could feel her velvety breasts pushing against my body as she gripped me lovingly. The stars around us glowed, a blinding light consuming our silhouettes.