Author's Note :

I'll try to keep these notes brief going forward, but I felt this one deserved a small intro. This is the beginning of a new project I am working on, and it will likely progress slower than the other one did. I'll write the ending for my other ongoing story before I get too far into this one, but I wanted to take a break and write something a little different and with shorter chapters that don't necessarily need to be entire stories on their own. Although the story takes place in an alternate timeline, I still plan to keep all the characters acting as close to their original form as possible, cause that's the way I like them!

Start :

Time seems to stand still for a few moments, as Rito considers his surroundings. The roaring crowd, the dust floating in the air, the strange purple tint cast over everything by this planet's sun, which he never even had time to get used to.

He sees the diminutive ruler of these strange people, leaning forward in his throne, his protruding canine tooth gleaming. He sees the pink haired girl standing next to the throne, a hand to her mouth, seemingly the only onlooker not cheering for his blood.

But most of all, he sees the five-hundred pounds of muscle bound death charging towards him from the other side of the arena.

"What am I even doing here?!" He cries out, though the noise of the crowd is far too loud for him to be heard. He hears a collective gasp as his opponent bears down, everyone anticipating the bloody splatter that will be left when this is all over.

Rito continues to backpedal, looking for one last desperate escape, but with his luck finally run out, he feels his heel catch on a stone, and he does the only thing left that he CAN do.

He falls.

Chapter 1 : Unwilling Space Explorer

The day Rito left Earth started like any other day of his highschool life.

"Rito, breakfast is ready!" MIkan calls from the bottom of the stairs. "You'll be late if you don't get moving."

He is already half-way down the stairs (and half-way into his school shirt) by the time she finishes her sentence. Mikan just shakes her head in disbelief. "What would you do without me, Rito?" She laughs.

"Be late for school, I guess." Rito says, smiling back at her. While his love life may be a wreck, at least he could always rely on his little sister. Most boys his age would probably be embarrassed to admit that their little sister took care of them as much as Mikan does, but then most boys his age don't have a sister like Mikan.

Rito grabs the toast that has been set out on the table, along with an orange and the packed lunch she is holding out for him. "Don't want to be late for Haruna-chan, huh Rito?" She asks teasingly, as he runs towards the door.

Rito stumbles and nearly collides with the door, turning in surprise at Mikan's remark. "What?! Who told-"

"Sorry, I kinda overheard you talking to Saruyama last night." She says. "Is it true? Are you going to try to tell her how you feel today?"

"Not if I miss her on the way to school, I won't!" Rito says, looking at the clock hanging in the front hallway. He hears Mikan laugh again as he bolts through the door and out into the street.

High above the Earth, a massive ship hangs in space. Two small shuttles rise quickly from the surface of the planet. As soon as they finish docking with the larger ship, it turns and begins moving away. It moves slowly at first, but then there is a sudden flash of light and the ship vanishes.

When he is sure the larger ship is truly gone, the captain of the vessel brings his ship out of its hiding place beyond the moon.

"That was a Deviluke Battleship!" One of two his crewmates says, panic evident in his voice. "What are they doing all the way out here?"

The captain holds up a hand to quiet the man, indicating a device attached to his ear. He appears to be listening to something. He begins to chuckle, his serious look replaced with a wide grin. "Seems that Princess of theirs tried to slip away again. Managed to make it all the way out here to the outer rim this time."

"So they ain't followin us then?" The third man asks, clutching a long bladed knife in both hands and waving it about in front of himself, as if warding off a non-existent foe.

"If they were, do you really think that would have helped?" The captain asks sarcastically. He punches in some coordinates on the panel in front of him as the ship continues its course towards Earth. "Now listen up. Let's do this quick and get out of here before any other surprises show up. And remember, young and healthy. We show up back at the docks with another load as sickly as the last and our shares will be cut in half again. We're already losing most of our proffit coming out this far."

All three move towards the back of the ship, where a number of pods are leaning up against one wall. "We only got room for six, but this planet isn't as primitive as it looks, so we can't be hanging around long."

"Today's the day." Rito says to himself for at least the tenth time. "Yesterday was just practice. I'll do better this time."

He continues walking down the street towards his school, muttering encouragement to himself and staring at his own feet. He nearly collides with a street lamp, and at least one motorist honks their horn angrily at him as he wanders obliviously into traffic, thinking of nothing besides his goal to confess to Haruna.

"I'll show Saruyama. I'm not pathetic." He says.

"Yuuki?" A quiet voice says.

"I can do this. I can do this."

"Yuuki-kun?"

"What?!" Rito snaps, losing his concentration and looking around to see who called his name. He is shocked to see that Haruna has moved up to walk next to him, a concerned look on her face.

"Uh, sorry Yuuki-kun." She says quietly. "It's just, you looked really worried is all."

"No!" Rito blurts. "I'm sorry, Sairenji. I didn't see you there." He scratches his head nervously and looks around. "This is so great." He thinks. "Haruna is talking to me. Just me! When was the last time this happened?"

Rito clears his throat and turns to Haruna. "I wanted to ask you something." He pauses, gathering his thoughts. "It's now or never." He thinks. "From the moment I first laid eyes on you-"

"Huh?" Haruna says.

"Oh no." Rito thinks. "She hates me so much she won't even let me finish?" He looks up to see that she is not looking at him, but is instead looking at the sky above him. Before he can react, a strange light falls over him and a loud buzzing sound fills his ears.

"Yuuki-kun!" Haruna shouts, though even now he can barely hear her voice over the strange sound.

RIto's mind struggles to comprehend what he is seeing. "A spaceship?" The strange light focuses on him like a spotlight, and he can see a round hatch in the bottom of the ship begin to slowly open. He feels strangely calm, and his vision starts to blur.

Just before he blacks out, Rito feels his feet lifting off of the ground.

"That the last of em?" Xuk snarls, as his two underlings, Grug and Ogal drop another sack onto the floor of the ship. He hears a dull groan and the larger of the two, Grug, gives it a kick.

"Ya, Captain." He says, grinning when another groan is heard.

"Well stop screwing around and get them all in the pods!" They both grunt in reply and drag the sack to the rear of the ship while their Captain returns to the helm. Soon the ship is underway again, speeding away from Earth.

Rito awakens to the sensation of flying again, though this time is not as graceful as when he passed out. A pair of rough hands grabs him by the neck and hoists him up, slamming him backwards into a strange pod. It is the same size and shape as a coffin, although the number of valves and dials on it are staggering. Before he can finish taking in his new surroundings, the lid slams shut. It is made out of some sort of glass, so he can still see the two figures in the room beyond.

At first they appear to be human, but as his vision clears Rito begins to notice several differences. They are both completely bald and their skin is bright green in color. They are about the same height as Rito, but their arms are much longer, reaching nearly to the floor. Both are quite muscular, especially the one that just finished throwing him into the pod.

"Let me out of here!" Rito shouts, banging on the glass with his fists. "Where am I?" Both of the creatures ignore him completely. One moves across the room to check on several other pods while the other makes some adjustments to the one containing Rito.

Rito continues to struggle and manages to get the pod to rock forward slightly. The creature standing in front of the pod snarls. "Hey, cut that out." This of course just causes Rito to struggle more. Suddenly the pod tips forward and falls to the floor with a loud crash.

"You idiot. You gotta lock the pod down before you put him inside." Ogal says as he moves back across the room to help. They lift the pod back into place. A large crack is now visible, running the entire length of the glass.

"Guess this one gets to stay awake then." Grug snorts as he finishes locking the pod into place. He slaps the side of the pod, causing Rito to jump again. "Enjoy the ride, Earthling."

"Wait, come back!" Rito says, but they have gone back to ignoring him now.

After he is alone, he begins looking around the room. He remembers the spaceship he saw before he blacked out and figures that must be where he is now. He sees five more pods like his own lined up beside him. Each seems to contain another person, although a thick fog of some sort has been pumped into each, making it impossible to see clearly.

"Sairenji!" He suddenly remembers what he was doing before he was captured. "At least they grabbed me instead of her." He thinks. He wonders if she has run to get help yet. As he looks out the only window in the room, at the sight of stars streaking past, he realizes that 'help' won't be able to save him now.

Without any way of knowing how much time has passed, Rito can not be certain, but the gnawing hunger in his gut convinces him that it has been many hours. He dozes, only half awake, until a sudden loud blaring alarm sounds throughout the ship.

He can hear stomping feet, as the crew in the next room rush about, readying for landing. The view outside the window has changed. Instead of endless space, Rito sees a clear blue sky. "Did they bring me back to Earth?" He thinks, hopefully. "Was this all just a mistake?"

The ship settles to the ground with a loud thud. Shortly after, the two creatures from before enter the room Rito is in, along with a third who has a similar appearance.

The newcomer immediately notices Rito and snaps a glare on the largest of the three. "Why the hell is that one still awake, Grug?" He notices the damage done to the pod and sighs heavily. "Well get him out of there, no sense in lugging that thing around. Make him help with the others. And that damage is coming out of your share." He turns to leave, shaking his head in disgust.

The largest of the creatures, Grug apparently, looks angry as he opens the lid and lifts Rito out. He shoves him towards the other pods, which have been released and are now laying flat on the floor. "Get to work! Maybe we keep you alive if you're useful."

Each of the creatures grabs one of the pods under each arm, easily lugging them across the room and out the door. Rito, figuring that keeping his captors happy is his greatest chance for survival, attempts to move the last pod himself.

Several minutes later, the one called Grug returns to find that Rito has barely managed to move the pod more than a few inches. "So much for being useful." He says, shoving Rito out of the way. He grabs the pod and turns to face Rito, pointing one large hand towards the door. "What are you waiting for? Get moving!"

As he descends a ramp towards the surface of the planet, Rito's mood brightens for a moment. He initially thinks that he was right about returning to Earth. The sky is a clear blue and he sees what he thinks are other human beings wandering about near the landing pad.

His heart sinks quickly though, as he starts to notice a few striking differences. Although they stand in what could only be called a 'space port', with several other ships of varying sizes landing or taking off around them, all of the structures he sees nearby are made entirely out of stone. Were it not for the advanced technology on display everywhere, he would have sworn he was standing in a medieval city or at some sort of renaissance fair.

The second thing he notices is the moon, or rather, moons. Two of them are visible in the sky, despite the daylight, and both are quite a bit larger than the moon he is used to on Earth.

Lastly, he notices that all the people he thought were humans have long black tails. They are also staring at him, as if he were some sort of exotic animal.

"You idiots!" A man steps forward, an angry look on his face. "You can't let one of them walk around like this. Do you have any idea how much trouble we would all be in if one of the palace guards found out what we're doing here?" The man wears a large cloak, hiding his face, but his hands are humanoid and Rito can see a tail, marking him as one of the locals.

Rito tries to step forward to ask the man a question, but Grug pulls him backwards and slaps one giant hand over his mouth, keeping him quiet.

The door opens on a second ship and another crew of the green skinned creatures exits the craft. They inspect the five pods and after some quiet discussion among themselves they select two of them and begin loading them aboard their ship.

"What? Only two?" Captain Xuk asks.

"Your Prince is only interested in females at this time." Says the cloaked man. "I will take the other three." He points a finger at Rito. "But I can not pay for that one. He has seen too much already."

The captain glowers, unhappy about seeing a sixth of his profits slip away. "What should we do with him then?"

"That's not my problem." The man says, handing over an envelope. "Our business here is done." He gestures and two more men step out of the shadows.

Rito is shocked when these men easily hoist the remaining three pods onto a cart and begin wheeling it away. "Is everyone on this planet insanely strong except for me?" He thinks.

Soon Rito realizes that he and Grug are the only ones still standing on the landing pad. Grug gives him a shove and he stumbles forward to the ground. When he turns back, he sees Grug ascending the ramp, which is quickly closing behind him.

"Wait! What am I supposed to do?" Rito asks, confused.

Grug chuckles. "Not my problem now. Have fun life, weakling." He waves as the ramp finishes closing. The ship wastes no time at all, rising again into the sky and streaking away, leaving Rito alone.

Rito wanders about the strange city. So far he has had no luck finding any help. Most of the locals seem to just ignore him completely, while others whisper to each other and point.

When he finally works up the courage to approach someone and ask for help, they simply point him towards the large structure at the center of the town, which he now approaches.

As he rounds a final corner and gets his first clear view of the place, he realizes it is some sort of coliseum. The place is massive, and large crews are climbing all about, putting up banners and decorations. Rito sees a man standing in the street in front of him, shouting at the crowds around him and handing out flyers.

"Only five days left! Don't miss your chance to buy a ticket!" He yells. "The King himself will be there, along with his lovely daughters." He says this last part with a wink, drawing a cheer from several young men in the crowd. He stops suddenly when he sees Rito. "And what have we here?" He asks, noticing Rito's strange clothing and lack of a tail. "Perhaps a competitor? A travelling warrior from a far away planet?" Another cheer is heard from the crowd.

Seeing the confused look on Rito's face, the man steps forward, wrapping an arm over his shoulder. "How can I help you, young man?"

"I need to get home." Rito says. "I don't belong here!"

"Raiders." The man says glumly. "From the planet Gamma, if they're as you describe."

Rito has just finished telling the man about how he was abducted, happy to have finally found someone to talk to.

"I'm afraid there's not much to be done about it." He says. Rito's shoulders slump at this. "You could tell the palace guard, but they won't waste any time trying to track down a single ship that's raiding planets that far out. And you're not going to find any transportation back there without anything to trade for it."

"So I'm stuck here?" Rito says, panic entering his voice once more.

"Well, I didn't say that exactly." The man says, a calculated gleam in his eyes. "I think I have just the opportunity for you. You can learn more about this place, endear yourself to the most powerful being in the galaxy…" He pauses for a moment and smiles. "And earn enough money to get yourself back home." He extends his hand towards Rito. "But where are my manors? The name is Dregu. I'm the Games Master of the arena you see here in front of you."

Rito accepts the handshake. "I'm Yuuki Rito." He says. "I'm just a normal kid from Earth though. I don't even know the name of the planet I'm on!"

"Don't even know the name of the planet?" The man asks, surprised. "Don't be ridiculous. This is the capital of the entire Milky Way Galaxy!" He extends both arms into the air, as if presenting the entire city to Rito. "Welcome to planet Deviluke, Yuuki Rito!"

End.