6 - Aoi Asahina - Alien Abduction

"Puah!!"

The Ultimate Pro Swimmer, Aoi Asahina, took a deep breath as she came up from the water of a moonlit lake, her wet, tan body shimmering in the cold air. Her class was on a field trip camping in the mountains, and she wasn't going to miss the chance to get in some swim time outside of the school's pool, for once. Even better, the cold temperature meant that she'd be completely alone, which suited her just fine. Not that she didn't like her friends, or being around them: she simply wanted some alone time to think about her future.

Plus, there was another great reason to be alone...

"Skinny dipping!! Not," Aoi joked with herself, adjusting her swimsuit self-consciously. She wasn't about to go full nude on a clear night like this when her friends were a short hike from her swimming hole. Still, she'd been getting more and more self conscious about her weight. All the donuts she'd been eating seemed, in her mind at least, to be contributing to the way the sporty yellow-and-orange bikini she was wearing hugged their contents so tightly. Most would probably call her body glamorous, but that wasn't how it looked in her head. "I bought this thing with the crazy idea I'd show off to somebody, but sheesh! Look at all these pounds I packed on. I can't let anybody see me until I do a hundred laps around this lake. Then I'll burn this fat off for sure, right?! For sure!"

Aoi was about to take a deep breath and give it another go, when suddenly, something in the distance caught her eyes. A strange, eerie light was moving erratically through the trees. It was getting bigger and brighter, which Aoi assumed meant it was getting closer. Wasn't she supposed to be alone out here? "Th-that's okay... if it comes to fighting, well... I'm confident! In my athleticism! So I'll swim, then run away!" Feeling antsy, she was already starting to drift backward...

The thing in the foliage revealed itself. It was a huge, shadowy creature with three green, glowing eyes and a mass of wild tendrils like a bush growing out of the back of its head, babbling incoherently.

"Aaaaaaaah!!" she screamed, finding herself paralyzed in spite of her plan.

"Gyaaaaaagh!!" the creature screamed in response, falling backward on his ass. It wasn't a mysterious monster; it was Yasuhiro Hagakure, her classmate, and his stupid height, and his stupid dreadlocks, and...

"W-what the- Yasuhiro?! What do you have on your face? Nevermind that, what are you doing here?!"

The unusually tall student rose to his feet, lifting a pair of night-vision goggles off his face and grinning at her. "Ain't these cool? I got Byakuya to let me borrow him in return for not telling him any fortunes. For Byakuya, I think that means he's warmin up to me! Or maybe somethin' about that white suit makes him warmer? Or maybe the moon's alignment-"

"Ugh, I don't care. I'm trying to ask how and why you found me! I was trying to be alone, and I didn't tell anyone I was coming here."

"The goggles, duh! With these babies, I can see even more clearly than in my legendary crystal ball. All I had to do was follow the trail, although, uh, it ain't too easy to see where your feet are goin' when everything's green... But it's still cool, right? Like an alien sees, I gotta figure! Anyway, dude, even I'm not so stupid I wouldn't know you'd be at the lake if you weren't at the camp, right?"

"Oh... ya got me there," Aoi had to admit. It didn't feel good handing anything to Yasuhiro, but that was a fair point. "But I still don't know why you're bugging me. You know I'm trying to be alone! Is now really the time to scam me for a fortune?!"

"A fortune... that's it! That's right!!" Suddenly, the man shouted, looking gravely serious in spite of his weird headgear. "I came to tell ya I had a premonition! About you! The spirits congregated upon this mountain and declared: tonight, you will return my hamburger to me!"

Aoi looked at him humorlessly. "That's it? What are you even talking about? I thought we were grilling fish. I already got my belly ready for it!"

Yasuhiro scratched at his stubble, still looking pensive. "I get it, dude. It's weird. Y'know why this is a REALLY weird prediction? Cuz the hamburger I'm talking about was **** by-"

Suddenly, the world lit up green. Yasuhiro stared at Aoi blankly, then flipped his night-vision goggles down by reflex, which only made everything even more blinding.

For her part, Aoi incorrectly looked down at the surface of the lake first, assuming that since the whole surface had taken on a bright green shine, it was coming from something below. When that didn't seem right, she glanced upward...

... She was blinded by an ethereal, neon-green spotlight trained directly on her. When she shaded her eyes with her hand, she could see a metal surface, rounded, but wide enough that she couldn't see the edges. She could hear a noise which also seemed to be focused on her, a strange warble like a loudspeaker whine. Then, she could feel a **** which, again, seemed to be focused on her. It started at the tip of her up-done ponytail, making it stand straight up like someone was pulling it.

No, not like someone was pulling it. She really was being pulled! First her stomach, then her hips, then her legs... her entire body was lifting out of the comfortable safety of the mountain lake and into the ominous green light, which she was now correctly thinking of as a tractor beam.

She tried running out of it, to no avail. Moving her arms and legs only resulted in her turning on strange axes, rotating and ending up upside down. "D-don't just stand there, dummy! Do something!!"

Hagakure watched with a dropped jaw. He looked around, but he didn't see a rope or anything. He could try throwing his crystal ball, but that was expensive... His crystal ball! His fortunes! He suddenly remembered something important. "Duuude, the prediction! Remember to ask for my burgeeeer!!"

"Are you serious right now?!?!" Aoi asked as she continued to float higher towards the unidentified flying object.

"In my vision, you safely gave me my burger baaack! So don't have a cow, and bring back my beeeef! Then you'll be safe, 100%! Or, uh... 30%!!"

"Ooh, okay! Thanks, Hagakure! Can you just... go get Sakura or Byakuya or anybody else to help?!" She had the feeling that while she could still hear him, he couldn't hear her. "I'm gonna have to get myself outta this, but I can't run. It's just like a strong current... Which means maybe I can swim!" Taking a deep breath and holding it out of habit, Aoi began her practiced swimmer's stroke to try and fight against the beam's pull. For a moment, she was still moving upward, even as she did her damndest. Then, she seemed to be holding her own. She'd stopped her upward progress, at least. At this rate, with another push, she'd be headed back to home sweet lake! She wasn't sure what she'd do when she got there, but... she'd worry about that later!

Only... it appeared there were still things to worry about in the moment. Aoi hadn't really noticed when her hair tie pulled loose, zipping up into the steel craft overhead and leaving her hair drifting up around her. However, she definitely noticed when it began pulling her swim bottom free from her butt, exposing first the crack and then the entirety of both cheeks. Too late she broke her swimming stance and tried to rotate to grab it, only to see it zooming away from her. "Nooo!! Give those back!" Since her hands were no longer in use trying to swim, she used them to cover her privates. "You! Hagakure! Don't look! Get heeeeeeelp!!" she cried, finally speeding in her own ascent into the origin of the beam.

When the green light faded around her, Aoi found herself in a sterile white room. She was on what she thought of as a machine, a pedestal, or some kind of operating table. Her mind was going nuts with sci-fi tropes, but there really wasn't anything to hint at what its use was. There weren't any little grey men she could see. Annoyingly, however, there also wasn't any sign of her bikini bottom. She could feel cold metal on her backside, and she was crossing her hands in her lap to avoid giving too much of a show.

Before she could begin investigating, swirling motes of green light danced before her eyes like fireflies, then arranged themselves before her. They were slightly different tints after all, and when put together they formed a kind of pixelated image. They seemed to depict faces as if on camera. She couldn't tell if it was just the pixelation, but they didn't look human at all.

Aoi found herself shaking. Imagine, being kidnapped while still in school! She couldn't imagine a crazier fate. "H-hello? Um, my name is Aoi Asahina! I'm a human who lives on Earth, in Japan, on the planet Earth! My favorite things are swimming, donuts, and being on Earth. Your space ship is super cool but I'd really like to go back to the planet Earth now, please and thank you!"

A sound emanated all around her, like voices speaking backwards in another language. When her confusion began to show on their face, one of the luminescent monitors drifted lazily to center itself in her vision. She felt the eerie sensation of an alien voice in her head. She heard words... no, not heard. Somehow she felt them.

[YOU] [EARTHLING] [NEEDED] [PURPOSE]

Aoi nodded along as if she had any idea what the alien was talking about, trying to appease it.

There was a pause, as if considering.

[INSUFFICIENT] [TALKING] [ALTERNATIVE] [NEEDED] [.] [APPEAL] [EMOTION] [RESONANCE] [FRAME] [.] [EARTHLING] [IDENTIFICATION] [NOW]:

Images. A farmhouse at sunrise. A stable, with animal noises. A plate at a dinner table with a juicy steak.

"Oooh, all you guys are doing is making me hungry! I have no idea what you're saying, and I'm feeling cooped up! Can I, maybe uh, walk around your ship a little? While we talk?"

Another pause.

[EMOTION] [INSUFFICIENT] [STATE] [NEEDED] [.] [ALTERNATIVE] [NEEDED] [PEACE] [.] [APPEAL] [EMOTION] [SUFFICIENT] [MATERIAL] [NOW]:

Images. A bakery at sunrise. A pastry cart, loaded with all kinds of baked goods decorated in a rainbow of colors. A donut-

"DONUTS?! You aliens know about donuts?! I knew it! I KNEW donuts were the universal symbol of goodness across the universe! I've always felt it. If you've got donuts, you've gotta share! I've gotta taste an alien donut right now or I'll die."

There was a murmur. It grew in volume, sounding distressed.

[EMOTION] [INSUFFICIENT] [CRITICAL] [TERMINATION] [ALTERNATIVE] [NEEDED] [.] [DANGER] [CRITICAL] [DONUT] [NEEDED] [.] [APPEAL] [DONUT] [EMOTION] [SYNTHESIS]:

As Aoi watched with widening eyes, the space in front of her eyes began to shimmer like a heat wave. Slowly, an image began to stabilize. It was exactly what she had prayed for. A piping hot, freshly baked (?) donut, glazed with some foreign green material that looked like... moss? Aoi wasn't going to be picky. "Well, well, well! Looks like there might be peace across the galaxy, after all! With that... thanks for the grub!" Without a second thought, she bit into it recklessly, stuffing half of it in her mouth-

...

.....

With a perturbed face, Aoi did something she thought, she hoped, she prayed, would be the first and last time she'd ever have to. She took the donut out of her mouth with comical slowness, sticking out her tongue with a miserable expression and the green gunk still coating it. Then, she began theatrically spitting it out all over the strange room, dirtying up their sterile surfaces and brushing at her tongue with her fingers, not caring if she had to flash them her lower body to do it. "Peeyuck! Pfbt pfbleh! Dash da gwoshesh donud I evah tashded!!"

There was additional murmuring.

[DONUT] [SUFFICIENT] [ALTERNATIVE] [IMPOSSIBLE] [.] [EARTHLING] [NEEDED] [PRECISE] [SUFFICIENT] [.]

"No, not sufficient! Not sufficient at all!!" Aoi complained, not caring if she was coming off as rude to her captors, either. "I have NEVER tasted such a nasty donut! It tasted disgusting! Like... a vegetable, uncooked! Like... like grass!"

There was some movement on the monitor.

[PRECISE] [DONUT] [EARTHLING] [.] [SUFFICIENT] [.] [EMOTION] [PEACE] [.] [NEEDED] [RETRIEVAL] [.] [NOW]:

Images. The flying saucer at sunrise. Travel through the stars. Unloading a package from a delivery truck. A science fair trophy.

"Hey... h-hey! Are you saying what I think you're saying? No, you can't take me to your planet. And what's with your images, anyway? Can't you just use your words? And why do you always start with a sunrise, what's the deal with that?"

Louder murmuring.

[EARTHLING] [INQUIRY] [CRITICAL] [VOLUME] [!] [NECESSARY] [.] [NECESSARY] [PEACE] [IMPOSSIBLE] [.] [INQUIRY] [SUFFICIENT] [NOW]:

Images. Aoi in only her bikini top, at sunrise. A cow.

"... Huh?" Aoi only smiled back blankly. "Sorry, the way you guys talk is really hard to understand. Can you try again?"

[SUFFICIENT] [NOW]:

Images. A mirror... presumably at sunrise. A cow.

"Hey. Hey hey hey!" Aoi rose to her feet and put her fists on her hips, no longer bothering to cover herself in front of aliens that she was losing respect for. "No, that's wrong. What kinda cow do you guys think you're abducting in the middle of a lake in the mountains of Japan?! Aren't aliens supposed to be intelligent life? In what way do I look like a cow?!"

Images. A farm at sunrise. A cow. A cow's udders. A plate at a dinner table with a piping hot, juicy steak. Teeth chewing. A donut.

Aoi blushed and crossed her arms over her chest. She had no idea what was going on, but she felt like she was being insulted. "Look, I dunno what's going on here, but I'm gonna have to say no to any more donuts. I'm, uh... watching my figure. I'm not a cow, so-"

An exceptionally loud murmur, loud enough to rattle Aoi's teeth.

[INSUFFICIENT] [.] [CRITICAL] [.] [DANGER] [.] [APPEAL] [EARTHLING] [EMOTION] [RESONANCE] [.] [NOW] :

Images. Aoi in her bikini top, at sunrise. A package removed from a delivery truck. A voyage across the stars. Laughter at a playground. A tomato flying through the air. A crying baby.

[NECESSARY] [SUFFICIENT] [SOLE] [FRAME] [.] [ALTERNATIVE] [DANGER] [.] [NEEDED] [.] [NEEDED] [.] [NEEDED] [.] [NEEDED] [.] [NEEDED] [.] [EMOTION] [RESONANCE] [APPEAL] [CRITICAL]-

"All right, all right! I think I get it. You're trying to say you can't leave empty handed or everyone will laugh at you. You're trying to say... you just need a picture of me... a picture of a cow... and you'll leave? Well, I'm a girl, not a cow, but I am super done with this place, so I'll give you whatever you need. Uh..."

Frowning, the athlete took a stance on all fours. She wished she knew what their camera looked like and which direction it'd shoot from, so that she wasn't offering them a shot of her ass. When no shutter noise or flash immediately appeared, she tried selling a little harder. The young woman began moving her jaw slowly in a pantomime of chewing cud. "M-oooo-oo! M-oooo-oo! I hope my friends never somehow see this, moo-oooo-oo! Let me go home so I can wash your nasty space donut down with some milk! Moo-ooo-oooo!"

There seemed to be a reaction. Not one she particularly cared for. All of a sudden, hatches began opening all around her. On strange mechanical arms, a variety of tools of unknown purpose began to extend towards her. She wasn't much of a sci-fi fan, but she had some pretty nasty ideas of what might be about to happen. Her suspicions were confirmed when something like a scalpel approached her and cut off her top with surgical precision, leaving her unharmed, but with her big boobs bouncing freely.

"N-no, uh... You just need a photo, right? Not a dissection? Look, I'm uh, I'm all fatty! There's way better humans you could abduct and munch on!" As the tools grew closer, she began to get a more bizarre idea of what was about to happen to her. "Wait, no! You can't! I already did my best to look like one, right?! You can't turn me into a... No.... Noooooo!!!"

Yasuhiro remained sitting right where he'd been at the time of Aoi's abduction hours ago. Instead of going and getting anyone, or doing basically anything else helpful, he'd been burning smoke sticks. "C'mooon... the only thing that can save a girl from aliens is a super-powerful ghost! I'm swallowing all of my terror to call on the biggest, spookiest specter to track down that UFO, and- oh."

He'd trailed off both because he'd lost his train of thought and because, without any warning, the flying saucer had suddenly reappeared in the sky. It had extended a yellow searchlight to earth once again, right in front of his feet.

In a surreal sight, something began to float down towards him. He lowered his night vision goggles once more, got blinded for a second time, and took them back off. Yelping and rubbing his eyes, he was unable to see anything until almost a minute later, at which point the ship, the beam, and any sign of extraterrestrial activity had vanished. All except for the mysterious present they'd left behind.

Tan skin...

A juicy, meaty body...

Huge buns...

... It was Aoi, curled up butt-naked and looking totally unamused, placed between two human-sized hamburger buns. For a moment, it might look like she was gruesomely bloodied... but with context, it became clear the young woman was covered in ketchup and mustard. It would have been nice if those condiments were thick enough to cover her nudity, but patches of her skin were visible through the splotchy layers. She shut her eyes tightly and grumbled. "They didn't want a cow after all. They wanted a hamburger?! Ggggh! Communicating with aliens is the worst!!"