"I c-collect…cute girls…"
Haruka opened her mouth to speak, but her lips slowly sealed back around the edge of her soda in a submission of silence. She wanted to digest that a little further to make at least some sense of it. She took a sip, then nodded.
"C-Cute girls?" Haruka stammered, swaying slightly with the drink still close to her mouth. "You collect them?"
She asked this to Utena, the shy girl before her. They were classmates in the same class, but beyond that, Haruka knew nothing about her. She had her assumptions of Utena, all were fair to make; she was quiet, introverted to say the least, and it was easy to call her goth in an age where the goth lifestyle was a little less extreme. In truth, Utena's gothic features were limited to her long violet hair, riddled with messy waves, and an attire that favored darker colors, though the skirt was a more energetic touch -- it was something Haruka commented on to Utena, once, in passing. The more she thought about that in the moment, the more Haruka realized how far and few their conversations had been over the past month.
Somehow, that was enough to signal to Utena that Haruka was approachable, at least from Haruka's perspective. Both girls had found themselves staying late after class, working on computers just opposite of each other on the same lonely table. Some casual conversations lead to Utena asking to be escorted home. Haruka replied with a positive smile and a thumbs-up. She understood that it wasn't comforting to walk home, not with reports of girls going missing in the area, and Haruka was regularly willing to service herself out to others in need. A simple favor like this, and for someone who looked so innocent and weak, was nothing to think twice about.
"D-Do you mean like, on social media?" Haruka chuckled. That silence had lasted for several seconds too long, and it was worrying that Utena never clarified herself. "If you wanna friend me, sure, b-but I don't really go online much--"
"You do," Utena corrected. Haruka blinked in surprise. "Y-You're online a lot, actually. A lot of the time. I've noticed."
"H-Have you?" Haruka bit her lip, then forced out another chuckle. "You got me! I am on my phone a lot. I don't-- Err, I-I'm not proud of that, is what I mean…"
"Not just your phone…" Utena's voice was weaker, and though she smiled, it was a weak expression that she angled away. Haruka felt a bump in her throat, realizing she had been caught in a lie, and yet perplexed as to how her lie was so confidently called out.
Haruka spun the remaining soda in the can she held, unable to come up with something else to move the conversation along. She looked to her left and right, acknowledging the walls on either side of them, cramping her spatial options. A pitstop to a convenience store along the way home had taken the two on a short detour, and now Utena, having been the lead in the duo's walk, had guided them into an alley lit with only a single light from one of the buildings. Haruka denied that she felt trapped, well aware she could turn around and dash off whenever she wanted, assuming first that she couldn't somehow overpower Utena and trample forward, and assuming second that it was going to be necessary to flee.
"Alright, well… I think I'm feeling a little bleh right now," Haruka said, still maintaining a sense of humor. She massaged her upper stomach. "Are you ready to keep going?"
"Bleh?" Utena replied. "How bleh? I-Is your stomach and head spinning?"
Haruka was losing patience, but her lips were stuck in a polite grin. "Actually yeah, a little bit of… both, yeah." She had meant to lie, but she was soon convincing herself it was real. She lifted the soda up to her head, pressing its cool surface to her brow for just a second. "A-Actually… I really am feeling kinda out of it…"
"O-Oh, oh," Utena took a step forward and placed hesitant, gentle hands on Haruka's shoulders. "Sit down-- Y-You should take a seat, b-before we go on."
"I'm okay," Haruka said, but found her balance weak enough that Utena's gesture was actually enough to move her. She stumbled slightly, but found her back against the brick wall to her side. It didn't take any more force for Haruka to scoot down and sit along a low-level ledge, just barely wide enough to hold her. She took another drink, then sat the rest down on the pavement at her feet, a movement that made her feel more sick.
"Are you sore? Tired?" Utena leaned in over Haruka, her face only inches above. "If you're tired, we shouldn't walk. I-I can watch you, while you take a…a breather, or…"
"I'm not--" Haruka winced, like something cold and sharp had sunk through the core of her body. "I just want to… g-get to bed. C-Can we…?" She tried to lift up, but between Utena remaining right where she stood and her own fatigue burdening her, she was unable. Instead, she let out a deep sigh. It was getting warm.
Utena continued to watch. She fidgeted and swayed, she would look to the sides to make sure no one was eavesdropping, but otherwise her eyes never left Haruka. She watched her classmate go from idle twitches to semi-delirious squirms. Whatever sickness was plaguing Haruka was bringing a subdued excitement to Utena, and Haruka, in a flickering state of consciousness, was catching on.
"Collecting… girls…?" Haruka repeated that point from minutes ago. Utena's expression didn't change, but Haruka did note that her lips were quivering. "That was a joke? Right? Maybe this whole thing is just-- I-I'm a little freaked out, Utena, w-what did you mean by that? Just tell me."
"I…" Utena looked down, her face hidden until she brought it back up with a more confident smile, a little hectic look in her eyes added as well. "I collect girls. I find girls I like, that are cute girls specifically, and I subdue them. I give them something to drink, a-and then I collect them. I can just pick them up, and they look so cute, and i-innocent…"
Haruka's expression grew more desperate with every reveal in Utena's words. She was quiet for a while, then she worked up the energy to laugh, even through her discomfort. "Okay, s-sure," she said, "you…think I'm cute? I-Is that what you're trying to say?"
Utena nodded, "I do…which is why I'm… I'm collecting you. Right now, I'm making you mine."
Haruka shook her head and covered one half of her face. "That's not-- It isn't happening. I'm not some toy," Haruka affirmed. She didn't open her eyes, fearful that she could be wrong. In doing this, a careless movement from her foot knocked her soda down, but she ignored the spillage entirely. "Damn, Utena, d-did you do something to me?"
Utena's smile was bigger than before. "I told you already," she whispered, bringing her face closer to Haruka, but only as close as it had been just moments ago. "You're getting weaker. It's because of my curse. I-I put a curse on you, and the other girls, i-it changes them. It's from a spellbook."
"You've gotta be kidding me," Haruka chuckled, one last time. "Utena, whatever the hell is happening, please…can we…?"
Haruka, through a gap in her fingers, finally looked up. What she hated to imagine was right in front of her. Utena was there, but no longer was she a short woman that could be blown over with a moderate wind. Though Haruka still denied she was the one changing, she saw Utena now as a beast, a formidable wall that hovered completely over her. Haruka had taken to leaning on the wall for support, but now she felt cornered, overwhelmed with the girl in front of her that had now, spontaneously, doubled in height.
"See? It's very obvious from here," Utena giggled. "You're becoming mine~"
Haruka huffed. She twisted to one side and made a dash to leap away, to make some distance between her and Utena, but she was cut off just as quickly. An arm blocked her path forward, and a hand grabbed her shoulder firmly from behind as well. The touch wasn't rough, more of a precaution, to help manage the tired motions Haruka committed to in her dazed state.
"L-Let me go!" Haruka ordered. She even tried to kick at Utena, but she missed, just shy of hitting the shins. Again, she attempted to escape, but Utena could restrict her while still having the humor to laugh.
"You're becoming weaker, too," Utena said. Her blocking arm shifted to help hold Haruka as well -- as wide of a difference in strength between them, Utena still estimated well how Haruka could realistically get away if she was careless. "P-Please, I understand you're scared… You don't have to be! Y-You really don't!"
"Y-You're drugging me, Utena!" Haruka shouted. "Stop it! Whatever this is, stop it! Stop it now! Th-This is scary!"
Utena cooed, much to Haruka's dismay. The creeping horror of her predicament was all for Utena's entertainment. Acquaintance or not, Haruka was beyond trying to understand and reason with the situation, yet struggling wasn't doing anything, except pressing out more and more giggles from Utena overhead.
Soon after, Haruka ceased to put up a fight. It wasn't from submission, but from the lack of energy. The entire time she argued with Utena, the swirling sensation deep in her stomach, her mind, and even her center of balance was only getting worse. There was no value in trying to ward off Utena now, especially when Utena was getting equally crazier and stronger. Haruka had refused to look up at Utena again, and to admit once more that she was dwindling away, but inevitably she would catch a glance of her classmate and become sicker knowing that the effect had brought her to knee height.
"Th-That's right… Keep resisting... " Utena offered wispy words of encouragement, as if Haruka's problem was a lack of confidence. "Keep-- Keep resisting… Breathing helps, probably. Breathe…"
Haruka growled, but it wasn't unsound advice. Eventually she did resort to just breathing, sliding back more against the brick wall while her face was flushed red. She draped an arm over her forehead, using the sleeve to wipe away a line of sweat. Her support behind her was giving out, but more specifically, she was finding herself sliding beyond the ledge she sat on. Now, the height at where she once rested was overhead, acting as another reminder that she was losing -- falling to the ground, becoming weaker, losing something as unappreciated as her normal self. And all the while, her only option was to squirm helplessly under Utena's watch.
"Ahh… I really don't want you to… a-actually be sick or something," Utena went on. Even though she was quiet, her words were echoing in Haruka's head. "Uhh, you're taking this pretty rough… Worse than… the others…"
Haruka flinched and rolled her head back. "The… others…" She managed to mumble that much, then swallowed to say the rest, "The other girls…Y-You kidnapped them…? You're gonna kidnap me…"
Utena chortled. She didn't need any reason now to continue holding Haruka down, there was no way her short legs would actually catch enough distance between them, especially with her classmate getting weaker by the second. Utena stepped back, as if to appreciate her work.
"Kidnapping… Uh, err…" Utena blushed at Haruka's accusation. It was impossible to lie about her own actions when spoken about so bluntly. "Well, y-yes, but I'm nice. I'm so nice! I-I love cute things. I'll treat you really…"
"Bullshit! U-Utena, please!" Haruka looked up again, she wanted to wish that this time would be different, and that her eyes would bless her with a mundane scene and reveal it was a twisted daydream. She was hit with the same reality she feared, still on the ground as Utena towered overhead. "Why are you doing this?! H-How is this even fucking possible…?"
"I… already said, I-I like cute girls…" Utena's fingers pressed against each other. If Haruka didn't know better, she would have thought Utena was the victim here. "And you… I like you the most… I like you a lot, a-a lot more than the others… Oh!"
Utena turned away from Haruka in order to reach around to the bag at her waist. While she shuffled through it, Haruka naturally tried to engineer an escape. Her captor was distracted, and so easily too, it felt like the only opportunity she had. Freedom was such a privilege in that moment, it was hard to not have the drive to fight for it. Yet, when she went to dash forward, it was only a step. A shakey, unbalanced step that lead right into a tumble. A messy dance took her right into the soda can she had been enjoying just a few minutes earlier. With a puddle of black fluid had seeped out of it, was her undoing now. This flimsy can on its side was now the new form of suppression for Haruka to fall to, doing so while she gasped for breaths. The can slipped from under her weight, and it rolled aside, leaving her to trip forward into the ground. She whined, curling her body close together.
The sound of a can being rolled brought Utena's attention back to the latest victim at her feet. Utena wasn't surprised by any of this, expecting Haruka to have tried as much, and she was accurate in estimating how far she would even get. The results made her smile, even though the target of her affection was laying on the ground, bent in pain.
"Be careful, now," Utena warned. "You'll get hurt sooo easily! Th-This is why you need to stay close to me…"
"Look at what I have, by the way." Utena squatted down. She sat on her haunches and leaned over Haruka's form, casting a long shadow over both her and her toppled beverage. "This is what I was going to show you. Sit up, look."
Haruka despised this attitude, being told what to do, but she despised her own obedience twice as much. On command, she worked to push herself up, at least enough to be laying on her side, and she focused her vision to clear up. She squinted up at what was overhead, the enormous Utena taking up the sky. Haruka's breathing became colder and more ragged, just witnessing Utena's dominating shape was enough to get her worn body to spasm in fear. To her left and right were loafers that were cleaner than her own due to not stepping in the soda, which were only the roots to legs as slim and shapely as twigs. Not that Haruka doubted they could kick her head in for disobeying. Behind said legs and black socks was a glimpse up and inside Utena's skirt, but in her weakened state, that glimpse of white panties was more like an outdoor theater's view. Haruka struggled to process an appropriate emotion, overtaken only by the fear that she was shrinking seemingly out of consciousness.
Yet, with all that effort just to look at Utena, she hadn't even seen what she was told to look at. Unable to stretch out any further to better her perspective, Utena leaned in more to meet her halfway. Propped up in front of Haruka was a picture of a clear, plastic container, and inside it was another person. Caged within the otherwise ordinary box was a woman, completely nude, shaking in the corner furthest from Haruka. Measurements seemed meaningless to Haruka now, but to her, the plastic container was just shy of her current height, and the lady imprisoned on the inside took up less than half its allotted space.
"This is someone else… that I saved," Utena explained, but Haruka had figured as much. "Look how cute she is~! I wanted you to appreciate how well you'll be taken care of, b-before you actually become that reliant on me."
Utena's words had grabbed Haruka from the inside and twisted, hard. Adrenaline was kicking in just enough that Haruka could move again, and she spent that burst of energy to get back to her feet. Maybe she thought to escape again, but all her body would allow her to do was to look at the woman. Finally on her feet, Haruka approached the phone, still held up only as tall as she was by the time she leaned against Utena's leg.
"She's an office worker," Utena said. "Err, she was, anyway. She used to be my… second test. She's older than me and you, and she's still not as cute as you! I don't have her anymore, but I still wanted to calm you before you completely lost yourself…"
Haruka put her hand against the phone, looking deeper inside while her breathing fogged the surface. The woman, who certainly looked like a woman in her thirties, was over half the size of Haruka, and yet she too lost. Haruka could feel it, the way her fingers gripped on the plastic shifted as fractions of her remaining strength just disappeared. When she looked at the woman again, with an expression drained of hope, she saw a reflection, an outlook of what she, too, was going to become. Compared to this prisoner, Haruka was so much stronger, an appreciation for a fact that was fleeting.
"You're almost done~" Utena giggled. This entire time, her attitude had only improved. She became gigglier, lighter, her smile free of anxiousness. "You're the cutest one so far, d-definitely! I-I'm not just saying that. I always thought you were cute…"
"Please!" Haruka backed away from the phone, unable to look at its contents any more. She dropped to her knees quite hard, and she begged, like a servant forfeiting everything before a goddess. There were no regrets, even when kneeling in the dirt and mud. "Please, Utena! This is fucked! I'll g-go out with you, I'll do anything! I-Is this what this is about?! D-Did you just--"
"Ah, I-I wouldn't be happy with… just that," Utena interrupted. She didn't care how calm her words were, nor how they cut into Haruka's desperate pleas. "I don't just like you. I love you. W-When I first saw you, my… heart throbbed." She giggled, blushing just like the school girl she was. "That sounds stupid, d-doesn't it? It sounds so stupid…"
Haruka shivered and her body became limp again. She had been stricken of all her power as an everyday human, and the justification behind it was only now being challenged by her captor. Her degrading new position in life was just to entertain a fellow classmate, a creepy girl that everyone avoided on instinct, and even she was berating herself for how silly this all truly was, now that it was far too late to correct anything.
"Ahh, I've confused you, probably," Utena said, addressing Haruka's silent response. "But it's true. I want you. I-I want you entirely. I feel it's more like a need, actually…Like I need you to be only mine, s-so I can have you everywhere…Everywhere I go, I can keep you around, a-and you'd make me feel better. I get so nervous, but just seeing you in class, or walking back to your dorm…o-or texting your friends, or eating! Everytime I see you, my blood gets…really hot! Like, like something inside me wants to explode out and consume you!"
Haruka was beyond the point of shivering in panic. Utena had transcended beyond being just overwhelming. She felt like everything to Haruka, every facet of reality now was connected to her. She whimpered again, but she knew it was fruitless to argue. She had to endure these words, all of which were just unveiling more dark truths about their relationship and how unexpectedly deep it had apparently been. In hindsight did she find so many moments where she swore she was being watched or studied, and all this time, those suspicions were right.
"And after I found this weird book, I knew it was fate." Utena continued, not missing a beat. "I could put curses on people…It looked like little things, um, like sneezing, coughing, m-making hair fall out… But when I found this intoxication curse, even if it was kinda complicated, I knew I could do exactly what I wanted. Exactly what I wanted! I-I never realized how much I wanted this, and now it's-- it's here, it's happening! Heheh...! Ahh, it's actually, really happening! I have you weak and helpless, and no one can stop me from doing a-anything to you! And just think it'll only get better! Soon you won't be able to live without me too!"
Haruka screamed. All at once, a new flood of energy, from the deepest of pits within her, had flared to life. She scrambled, back up to her feet and charged off, choosing to head right only because that's where she had ended up facing. There was a pile of boxes at the end of the alley with a trash can in front. She had just enough strength to get it to roll an inch out of her way, but just a second later, Haruka was tripped back to the ground. A loafer landed next to her head and tapped impatiently. Even then, she tried to crawl, but that second wind had already faded, its precious energy depleted in an instant -- a footstep, if even that.
"Sorry," Utena stammered. She then giggled, lifting up her foot to look at the damage. One soda can, crushed just enough that it remained stuck to her shoe's sole for a brief moment before it was kicked aside. Haruka flinched again.
Utena waited for a second, expecting Haruka to get up again and try to run. When Haruka didn't and she remained on the pavement, Utena didn't hesitate to dive in and snatch her prey. One arm was all it took to lift up the limp body. Haruka whined in protest, trying to ward off even just one finger, but the boney tendrils overpowered her with casual ease. Her body was wrapped up in a warm embrace, picked up from the ground like a lost trinket. She desperately tried to reach out for something to hold onto, but she found nothing, not even the slightest possibility of escape.
"Haah, heheh… You're sooo pathetic!" Utena brought Haruka up close to her face, perfect for observing her latest victim. "You feel really light… Are you hungry? You can eat all the food you want now! D-Doesn't that make you really happy? I can buy your favorite burger, it'll be so good eating together now, won't it? And I know you don't like onions or pickles, it'll be exactly how you want it!"
That was Haruka's life now. These were the events she had to prepare herself for now. She had to admit it, she told herself to accept it and to force herself to accept it. But for now, it was too much to swallow. She wondered if that despair would ever go away, or if this depression was permanent, that she would never come to terms with her new role in life.
Utena shifted her arms around so that Haruka was pressed right against her belly. Through the fabric of the white shirt, Haruka could feel the warm surface of Utena's stomach. A moment later, she heard it as well.
"Hah, I'm hungry, too~" Utena laughed, embarrassed by her stomach's growling yet unaware of how monstrous it sounded to her helpless crush. "Let's go home, I-I'll order us that food. You'll have lots to eat~"
Utena stood up. Even that act brought a new world of sickness to Haruka's fatigued system. Utena was infatuated with her latest addition to her collection, especially a target she had prized from the very beginning. For the first time that month, Utena's smile was beaming. It had taken a lot of practice on other people, but she had finally done it. She couldn't hide her joy, it was written all over her face. She practically sang aloud the plans she had in store for Haruka, grateful for how empty the streets were. She bragged about how she would personally feed Haruka, and play with her, and her eyes and lips flared with excitement at just the teasing thoughts of what else she would do to Haruka.
"Endless." This single word was etched into both Utena and Haruka's minds as they separately readied themselves for their new futures together.