Harem Hijinks, Part 6 (Field Trip Group to Anime Harem TG) (Patreon)

By FoxFaceStories

A Commission for Al

After a landslide claims the lives of Ken and several other archaeology students on a field trip to Japan, the great Creator himself apologises for this accident and gives them a chance for a second life. But when Ken talks about his love of harem anime tropes before the others can speak, this ditzy creator sends them all to a new world that operates on anime principles . . . and where Ken’s fellow students and his professor are now all cute anime girls who are desperately trying to fight off their new roles, and their new attraction to him.

First Part

Previous Part

Part 6: Rika

Rika was no fool. Unlike Haruka, she hadn't become ditzy and inattentive, nor overwhelmed by strong emotions like Mao in a way that batted her reasoning skills aside. She could recognise the pattern that was occurring: one by one her fellow transformees were falling for Kenji and even sleeping with him, and it was only becoming more obvious the more now that all four of the others had joined his harem. They were barely even trying to hide it at this stage! She had retained some hope that Tomoko, as their original professor and a figure of steely will, would hold out against her attraction to Kenji, but for several days now Rika had noticed Kenji running off to several unscheduled ‘tutor’ lessons in private spaces around the school. Private spaces that echoed excited moans from behind the locked doors, after which Kenji and Tomoko would emerge, the latter frazzled as she did up her buttons hastily and tried to find a missing shoe.

“Oh, Rika!” the clumsy woman exclaimed. “I just fell over here and Kenji was helping me up! Nothing to see!”

“Yes,” Rika said, sighing as Kenji also emerged, “nothing to see.”

“Oh, hi Rika!” Kenji said, features warming. He was blushing heavily, turning tomato red as per cartoon conventions. “C-can I help you? I didn’t forget one of our walks, did I?”

She looked away, trying not to notice that his fly was still open. He seemed to realise and zipped it up quickly.

“No, I was just walking by myself,” she said. “M-maybe we could walk again, this afternoon? We could go into town?”

“Of course! I’d love that - oh damn, I just remembered that Alicia has asked me to rate a couple of her new dresses, and afterwards I need to check in on Haruka and Mao. They’ve been really sick lately and asked me to come by and see them about something. Maybe we could go for a walk tomorrow?”

She nodded sadly, trying to hide her disappointment. “Y-yes. Of course. I’m sure that would be fine. It’d just be a friendly walk, after all. Not like what you have with these other girls.”

“Rika, that’s not what I-”

But she was already walking away, trying to control the tears bubbling up in her eyes.

“Why is it so hard to tell him the truth? Why can’t I just say it!” And why am I the last one to give in to him, when I have all the best reasons to be the first one to do so?”

She wiped her stray tears and moved beyond the gates of the school, skipping the upcoming class for the first time since she had arrived here. She was normally such a good woman, the classic ‘friendly girl next door’ archetype who had grown up with Kenji in this reality and adored him from afar.

But then, that had been true for a while now.

***

Back when she had been Ryan, Rika had a terrible secret. He - for he was a ‘he’ at that time - had been quite deeply in the closet. When he was young, he remembered watching cartoons with his older brothers. Silly superhero nonsense with dashing figures in tights. He remembered them making crude comments about how hot some of the heroines were, and what actresses they’d like to see in a live action film adaptation. Ryan laughed along and added his thoughts, but he didn’t possess the passion of his brothers, nor quite understand the appeal. In fact, he was far more fascinated with the male heroes, particularly the lithe ones who danced acrobatically about as they fought.

At the time, he had assumed it was just because he was only twelve years old and therefore not ready for romantic feelings, but as the years went on he continued to appreciate female beauty only from afar. Male beauty, on the other hand, intrigued him. He thought most guys were like that, and so when the previously lonely Ryan befriended a similarly nerdy young teenager named Ken, he just assumed it was ordinary. He and Ken became huge anime and manga fans, and the ridiculous romances with their meet-cute moments and scantily clad characters and silly harem situations were not only amusing to Ryan but actually spoke to a hidden fantasy within him: what if he could find himself in such situations, only surrounded by young men rather than women? Hell, what if he was the woman? Wouldn’t that be easier to explain his feelings? Sometimes it felt like his wires were crossed, and far from puberty clarifying the situation for him, it only made it more difficult, especially with one particular development.

Ryan developed a crush on Ken.

He wasn’t sure how it had first developed. Ken wasn’t exactly his ‘type’, but then Ryan wasn’t really sure he had a type, and was still battling with the fact that if he did, it would be someone far more masculine than feminine. He’d raised an eyebrow at the men with washboard abs on television, yet Ken didn’t have washboard abs at all, far from it! His best friend was tubby, had occasional bad acne, and his hair was often mussed up in a way that irritated Ryan. And yet despite this, he couldn’t help but be intrigued by his friend. It was the way he could be so passionate, even if it was just with his collection of fiction. It was how despite being kicked down again and again in life, he didn’t let that keep him down. It was how, in a cute way, he could be pretty socially unaware of the people who mocked him, and how he never held a grudge and always offered a hand of friendship, even to those who would never take it. The two of them spent so many afternoons and nights together that Ryan found the times without Ken difficult in some undefinable way, as if in not being around his friend, he was also not truly himself.

It couldn’t last. It simply couldn’t. As they entered the late teenage stage, it was truly obvious to Ryan that Ken was not even remotely into men. There was no drop of bisexuality in him, and his repeated excited discussions about the hot girls in his harem anime and manga collections only made Ryan all the more sadly aware that he was the odd one out here. He was pining for a friend he could never have, all while that friend was utterly, naively oblivious to his own pain.

He began to work out his frustrations by going to the gym and meeting new people. He tucked away this hidden side of himself and made female friends, even girlfriends. Those relationships never lasted, though not for the reasons others suspected. Far from being a ladies man, every moment of passion with a woman, no matter how attractive, was an effort of imagination on his part. Ken repeatedly slipped into his mind, and once he even said the name during climax. It was lucky the woman he was doing it with was named Cindy, as he could play it off as him saying ‘Cin.’ During this time he shifted away from Ken. He couldn’t stay in that friendship, not feeling the way he did. It was easy to play it off as moving on, and putting all the nerdy hobbies away from him as he became the kind of tough alpha male his father wanted him to be.

It didn’t stop him from having secret stache of old manga and anime on his computer, each one carefully scanned from the collection he had grown during his time with Ken. On sad nights when he felt lonely and missed the presence of his crush, he took the time to read them and place his fingers thoughtfully over particular scenes. He could almost imagine how much better his life would be if he were in a world like that.

But then he would have to put it away, and resume his studies and work ethic, and remind himself that wasn’t who he was anymore. He couldn’t be that person. It was all just fairytale nonsense.

***

That, of course, had been before coming face-to-face with the Creator. Now, Ryan had become Rika, and her life had been shaken all about, leaving her right back next to Kenji all over again. She didn’t know what to make about becoming a woman. It was so strange having a pair of breasts (and not bad ones either) on her chest, or being so short and weak, soft and feminine, with her calming, almost maternal voice. Kenji was now taller than her, and something about that piqued her interest just like in her teenage days. And unlike before, he now actually did have washboard abs beneath his clothed everyman appearance. His face was handsome, and he had kind eyes. Moreover, his passion had not waned, even if he was embarrassed to find all his obvious kinks come to reality.

“I’m one of those kinks now,” she mused as she walked her way home after the Tomoko incident. “Me! I’m one of his dolls, playing my part like all the others. So why don’t I hate it like I should? And why haven’t I embraced it! Magirawashī! So confusing!”

She stumbled into her little crammed apartment and threw her bag on the ground, before sliding against the wall and crying again.

“Stupid. Stupid. I shouldn’t be jealous. This is his dream come true, and it’s not his fault really. I’ve just got all these hormones, and I’m so shy now. If I couldn’t tell him before, how can I tell him now? How can I tell him I love him.”

She gasped at her own words, placing a hand against her mouth. She hadn’t said it out loud to herself before. It was almost unbelievable, and yet saying it made it all the more concrete. She did love Ken, even with his ridiculous kinks and fantasies that had inadvertently landed them in this harem anime trope-run universe. And it made sense, didn’t it, on some level? She really was his childhood friend in both realities. Here she had grown up beside him, studied with him, gone on long walks with him. She’d done some digging and found that she and he had met even earlier in this timeline. They had both been six years old and found each other while exploring a forest. Together they invented all sorts of amusing tales and worlds together. Their parents often joked they would get together, but Kenji had been oblivious, passing this off as a joke even as Rika had become increasingly in love with him. It was almost vomit-inducing in how stereotypical it was for anime romance: the classic unrequited love story of a friend who wanted to be something more.

“But that is my life,” she whispered to herself as she held her own arms for comfort. “That’s how it was before, and how it is now. Except Kenji is having s-sex with all those other beautiful women who also changed, and once more I’m outside looking in!”

She could just imagine how happy Kenji was. Finally, not only had he lost his virginity, but he was getting to enjoy the fruits of actually being at the centre of a harem narrative like he’d always fantasised about. It made her want to join in. She could do that, couldn’t she? She could take that step?

“I can’t,” she groaned, putting her head in her hands. “This stupid new brain of mine is too nervous! Too shy! I’m incapable! I blush and look away and fail to hold his hand at every chance he gets. And he deserves more than just s-sex, he deserves to know the truth I kept from him all these years. I’ve always loved him. I’ve always loved him.”

She stood up suddenly, fast enough to cause her still unfamiliar chest to bounce in her bra. She put her brown hair back into a ponytail with surprising rapidity, straightened out her clothing, and wiped away the last of her tears. A new determination was forming.

“I will tell him. I have to. I’ll do it just like the tropes call for!”

And she knew exactly the best way to go about it.

***

“Wow, this is a really lovely walk, Rika!” Kenji declared happily.

“It is, isn’t it?”

Kenji wasn’t wrong. The sky was crystal clear and a vibrant midday blue, the sun’s rays warm upon their backs but tempered by a cool Spring wind. Rika was wearing a cute pink summer dress, something that only emphasised her new femininity. Her brown hair was tousled elegantly, almost unrealistically, by the wind. Kenji on the other hand was dressed in a pair of cute navy shorts and a button shirt that made him look boyish and manly at the same time, somehow. Rika found it hard not to keep looking at him. She had to force down her smiles. Her heart was beating in her chest, her stomach twisting itself into knots in anticipation. She had practised her words in the mirror, the explanation of everything she needed to get off her chest before she exploded. And she needed to do it without any interference from the other women; she’d practically had to trick Alicia into going on a solo shopping trip just so she could spend some time along with Kenji.

“Why did you invite me on this walk, Rika?” he asked as they ascended up a hill on the edge of town. Its idyllic hilltop had a single large tree for cool shade, and it overlooked the city. The perfect place for a romantic picnic and an unburdening of feelings.

“Wh-what do you mean?”

Kenji gazed up at the sun thoughtfully for a moment before continuing. “I mean you seem very nervous around me lately, even more than usual. I know I’ve said sorry again and again for doing this to you, but I’ll say it again. I am sorry. I know you wanted to do your best to avoid me, so what changed?”

“The others all stopped avoiding you, didn’t they?” she said, muttering under her breath.

He frowned. “They did. Um, is that what you wanted to talk about? I didn’t pressure them or anything, I swear. You know I wouldn’t do that. I have my own compulsions too, you know. I have to be the nice guy, all the time.”

“You always were a nice guy,” she said quickly. She meant it too, though Kenji didn’t realise that.

“You’re just saying that because of the rules of this world. You’re the Childhood Best Friend archetype.”

“No, I mean it. You were a good friend. I was the bad one. I walked away.”

They reached the top of the hill. The view of the city was astounding, and for a time they simply stared at it. Her hand hovered near his, only to withdraw.

“Beautiful,” Kenji said.

“It is.”

“I meant you. Sorry, I shouldn’t say that.”

Rika blushed. “No, you . . . I’m sorry, Kenji. Sorry that I walked away.”

“Why did you? You always loved our nerdy interests, and then one day you were too good for them. I know I’ve always been pretty bad when it comes to social interactions. Was I embarrassing you? Was I too much of a loser otaku or something?”

“No, no! It wasn’t anything like that!” She said it so enthusiastically that she bounced a little, almost like Haruka. It made her breasts bounce in her dress, drawing Kenji’s eye. She liked his gaze on them, though it also made her anxious.

“Then what was it? I’m sorry, I have to ask even if you didn’t want to talk about it on our walk today-”

“I did. That’s why I brought you here. Look, let’s get the picnic out, and I’ll explain everything.”

“Of course! I’m getting ahead of myself!”

The conversation was dropped for a time as they opened the picnic basket Kenji had been carrying. Inside were numerous carefully made sushi rolls courtesy of Rika’s new cooking skills. It was only appropriate that with her new ‘girl next door’ origin that she had a homemaker’s set of skills. Hell, even her cute pink dress had been made by her; she’d gotten the strange impetus to make herself a dress rather than buying one with Alicia just the other day, and this was the incredibly impressive result. It was a new set of skills she was coming to appreciate, especially as Kenji took his first bit. His eyes lit up with literal stars.

“Sugoi! This is amazing Rika! I’ve never tasted a sushi roll this delicious before!”

“R-really? You think so?”

He beamed at her. “Absolutely! You’re so talented, if you don’t mind me saying. I wish I had your cooking skills! At least you got that out of the change, huh?”

She blushed a deep shade of red, unable to meet his eyes. “I - I did, yes. Also sewing. I made this dress. Do you like it?”

“Do I like it? It looks perfect! It suits you absolutely! I thought Alicia might have bought it for you, but you’re right, I can tell your handiwork in it. No one could make something so appropriate to who you are.”

Who she was. That was what she was here to clarify. To let him know.

“You’re too kind, Kenji. I - I don’t blame you for this, you know. I don’t. It’s not your fault, or even the Creator’s. It was just a stupid, silly accident and we all have to adjust to it. Even if some, like Haruka and Alicia, seem to be adjusting much quicker than the rest of us.”

He chuckled. “I think we’re all adjusting at our own pace.”

“I’m the slowest. I used to think I could adjust fast, back in my other life. Now I feel like I didn’t change as much as I thought, and that I was never really adjusting, just running away.”

She took a sushi roll and ate it while thinking about how to proceed. Kenji gave her time, and two of them drank tea and ate as they looked over the city. Romance certainly felt like it was in the air, or at least on the verge of manifesting within it.

“Kenji, I have to tell you something,” she started. “All those years ago, I -”

“Mao and Haruka are pregnant,” Kenji said suddenly.

Rika paused. Her jaw fell. The sushi roll fell out of her hand and began to roll down the hill and out of sight, picking up speed like a comet. Clearly, this was a comical cartoonish flourish according to this universe’s tropes.

“Wh-what? Pregnant? PREGNANT!?”

Kenji put up his hands in a placating gesture, obviously sheepish and mortified. “I’m sorry, I know you had to say something important, but I needed to come forward as well! I didn’t mean for it to happen, Rika, but one by one all the others who were changed came to me. I tried to comfort them, or get along with them. I didn’t mean to romance them, but then one thing led to another and I also had my own new harem protagonist instincts to follow; you remember how the tropes go in the stories we used to read!”

Rika stammered. She tried to form the words, but simply couldn’t. And in the awkward silence that followed (and the convenient wind that whistled and crickets that chirped, in midday no less) Kenji filled it with his own desperate explanation.

“I have to be completely honest with you, Rika. I didn’t share this with you even when you were my friend in the old reality. I mean, I never stopped seeing you as my friend, even when . . . anyway, you know that I liked harem anime and manga stories. B-but there’s also another trope I liked. A subgenre, if you will. And I think the Creator incorporated that when he sent us to this reality or perhaps even created it.” He scratched at his mussed-up hair, trying to find the words.

“What is the thing you never told me?” she asked.

He coughed awkwardly. “I, um, liked it when they ended up pregnant at the end.”

“P-pregnant!?”

Now he was struggling to look at her, rather than the reverse. “Yeah. I can’t explain it. I’ve just always had a fetish or a kink for it, alright? I liked it when he knocked them up at the end, and they end up having big, wonderful families at the end, all while living in the same big house together. It’s stupid, I know . . .”

The worst part was that it wasn’t entirely stupid. Rika knew it was part of her change, but she could almost feel her ovaries burning, her womb radiating fertility in a desperate bid to get her knocked up. The idea of not only being with Kenji, but of being his wife, his pregnant wife, made little thought clouds emerge that only she could see. Her, still in pink, her belly swollen with his children, the two of them tied together forever, as she had long wished for to be. Well, quite differently from her initial wish back in her old reality, but the substance of it was somehow even more loving and romantic.

But she couldn’t pry her mind away from what he’d said.

“They’re pregnant? Haruka and Mao?”

He gave a sheepish grin. “Um, and probably Alicia too. She had to cancel a few things lately because she’s been sick. She actually complained that she’s struggling to fit into her dresses lately. Which is ridiculous, because she wouldn’t even be showing, but maybe her boobs are a little bigger? I know Haruka’s boobs have grown even bigger. Mao is complaining that hers have barely budged, but I think that’s a tsundere thing, like a cosmic narrative joke or whatnot. I only had, um, sex with Tomoko for the first time two weeks ago, but if the pattern follows I might have gotten her pregnant. Definitely, actually, since she was really begging for it. I feel bad for the professor - tutor - but she seems like she really was down with becoming a mother now that she’s accepted her part as a total-”

Rika stood. She couldn’t hear this, not right now. It put too many strange emotions into her. She had realised he had been sleeping with the other girls, perhaps even all of them, but to know that these incidents were not only not flings, but actively ongoing relationships, complete with babies on the horizon, that was something else entirely!

“R-Rika! I’m sorry!” he exclaimed, standing as well. “I didn’t mean to put this all on you. I know it’s a lot to absorb. I shouldn’t have run my mouth but you deserved to know the truth before you told me yours. I swear I didn’t mean it. Look, I always liked it when the protagonist finally ended up with the entire harem, right? It’s just silly fantasy stuff. I didn’t mean to live it out!”

“But you are! And you’re enjoying it! And so are they! And it’s happened; they’re pregnant! They’re all pregnant! And I’m . . .”

‘And I’m not,’ was what she thought. Her hand fell briefly to her belly, before she forced it to her side.

“And I h-have to go! I can’t deal with this right now!”

Tears streamed from her eyes, and there was no way to wipe them all away with how thick and fast they came. She ran down the hill, her gorgeous pink dress rippling with the wind. To match the new mood of the scene, dark clouds emerged over the horizon and closed over the hill, and rain began to pour.

Kenji remained on the hilltop, getting soaked by the rain, for some time. He cursed himself for his idiocy.

***

The other women comforted Rika. Despite knowing what she knew about them now, she couldn’t blame them. She had felt the pull of Kenji back when he’d been Ken, and it was a lot stronger now that she was following a harem romance arc. The other girls had adapted far better somehow, though Mao was still quite crabby about getting knocked up.

“I can’t believe it! At least you haven’t fallen for him yet! I don’t even really c-care about him! He’s just some guy! But now I have to stay with him because I’m going to blow up with a big baby. And I still don’t have big boobs, damn it!”

Haruka smirked in Rika’s direction, but wisely didn’t say anything, except perhaps thrust her chest out a little. Tomoko put her hand on Rika’s shoulder, giving her an encouraging smile.

“I’m sorry, Rika. You were always such a good, adaptable student, even before. I didn’t mean for this to happen to me. I never would have wanted to make you uncomfortable.”

“Me either, dear!” Alicia said, looking a bit green in the gills. “I never expected to become the kind of woman who would hang off Kenji’s arm. Ah, but he is too cute! Too dashing! And he appreciates my style far too greatly!”

“Not to mention he’s amazing in bed,” Haruka sighed, gazing off wistfully into the distance. “Seriously, that man knows his way around a pair of -”

“Please don’t say anything more!” Rika exclaimed, blushing furiously. “I - I can’t know this. At least not in detail. I mean, he can’t be that good, can he?”

She gazed around at the other women. They were all sitting at one of the benches in the local city park, having come there after school. For a couple of hours they had been talking, coming to grips with their new relationships with each other and with Kenji. Each were in uniform, though Tomoko had her tutor outfit and Alicia got to wear her golden variant, while Haruka had tied her top up so that it showed off her midriff and emphasised her waist. Mao, of course, was in the sports uniform, her muscled legs and biceps showing. Only Rika was stock standard, and she felt even more so as she took in their amused expressions. Not one of them even pretended to agree with her statement.

“What? Really? He’s actually good in bed? Kenji!?”

Tomoko gulped. She had placed a pen in her mouth, and was sucking on it idly as she tried to answer. “He’s . . . very good.”

“Good enough to knock us up,” Mao said grumpily.

“Yeah!” exclaimed Haruka, who was clearly a bit more excited. “I mean, I should hate it. The old me would have. But it’s just so exciting! I can even do performances with my big belly sticking out in the future.”

“Well, lucky you. I can’t exactly win track or play basketball!”

“And I have to get a whole new set of dresses,” Alicia complained, though it sounded more like an opportunity than genuine annoyance.

Tomoko put a hand on her belly. “I might not be pregnant,” she said. “I meant, I could not be, right?”

The rest of them all raised an eyebrow. The poor former professor sighed.

“You’re right. I am p-pregnant. God, I’m such a klutz! I really wanted it at the time. I - I think I still do.”

“We all do,” Haruka said. “It’s part of this world’s rules.”

“Hey, I don’t want it!” Mao snapped.

“Oh please, I see you rubbing your belly and smiling all the time when no one is looking. You’re just playing out the tsundere thing.”

Mao snarled, but otherwise didn’t argue back. Everyone knew it was true, and arguing would only make it more obvious. Tomoko sat back against the bench, looking at the horizon.

“I used to be your teacher. Now . . . I’m your friend. I didn’t expect my life to go this way. But maybe it won’t be all bad. In fact, even though I’m always clumsy and can’t help but be flustered half the time, I feel like I have a new lease on life, even if pregnancy wasn’t expected. I mean, I might not be - oh, obviously I am. It’ll be strange. But we can manage this together, right?”

“Of course!”

“Obviously!”

“Oui!”

Rika was silent. The eyes of the others turned to her. Tomoko placed a hand back on her shoulder.

“You can fight it, you know. I think you can, if you really try. You don’t have to end up like us. But we’re happy, Rika. Or at least, we’re finally admitting we are, despite the hiccups and awkwardness.”

Rika nodded. “I know. I just . . . it’s a lot to take in. There’s a lot you don’t know. I felt such . . . betrayal when he told me you were all pregnant. Like it was meant to be m-me. I was his childhood friend in both realities. Why am I the last one? Does he not care about me? Do I mean so little to him?”

The others all exchanged a look. Tears flowed once more, and it was clear that they all finally understood what her problem truly was. It was Mao who broke the silence.

“BAKA!”

“What?”

“I said BAKA! You idiot! You think because you’re the last that he doesn’t care, when it’s the obvious, moron!”

Rika was taken aback. “I - I don’t understand.”

Alicia folded her arms. She looked like she was about to vomit again soon. Morning sickness for sure. But she hung on to hear what Mao was thinking. “Me either! Explain zis theory of yours, Mao! At once!”

Mao rolled her eyes and lounged back. She had her hand on her belly, and Rika could see for the first time that it was rounding out a little. It made sense. Kenji would have slept with her a couple of months ago, and if she was eight or so weeks along, that would mean her stomach would be showing the first signs of change, even if very small. The woman drank some of her power drink and chuckled.

“I may have been a total stoner in my previous life, but even I knew a bit about harem stuff. I mean, I had all sorts of junk from cruising through life. And in those stories where the guy ends up with all the women, it’s the one that ends up with him last who is the most important to him, and the most romantic. It’s the climax of the story, idiot!”

The revelation hit Rika like a ton of bricks. Mao was absolutely right. The Childhood Friend was often the last one to become fully part of the wider romance, precisely because the author wanted to tease out that particular ship for as long as possible before it set sail.

“I’m . . . I’m the special one,” she whispered to herself.

“Well, I wouldn’t say that special,” Mao said.

“I mean, we’re all pretty wonderful too, right?” Haruka said.

“Certainly, I am ze most stylish.”

“And I am the most motherly! I mean maternal! I mean . . . oh, never mind!”

Rika smiled at them. “Of course you all are. I just - I didn’t think. I didn’t realise. I thought that Kenji didn’t consider me much after-”

“Oh please, he loves you!” Alicia said. “He always talks about you, about the past and the present! Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to be very inelegant in the bathroom.”

She ran off, cupping her mouth. Rika chuckled at this, as did the rest, but then she stood and gave each a close hug in turn.

“Congratulations, all of you. And thank you. Now I know what I have to do. If you don’t mind, I should-”

“Go!” they all shouted, shooing her away with encouraging expressions. “Go go go!”

Rika giggled and ran. She ran all the way to Kenji’s apartment, even as the sun dipped over the horizon. It was on-site at the school, but was of an unrealistically large size to fit with the narrative conventions of their universe. She had only been in it a couple of times, and those times had been nervous indeed. Not this time. She was determined to do it right, and let him know the truth. She didn’t even knock on his door, instead pushing through into the apartment with zeal in her spirit and confidence in her heart.

“Kenji! I’m sorry about before! I just needed time to understand it all, but now I do. Kenji, it’s taken me a long time to be able to say it out loud, but -”

But he was asleep on the couch, snoring heavily. Rika smiled softly at him, amused by his tender breathing and his easy slumber. It was only nine o’clock, but clearly he’d been working hard or otherwise distressed by her reaction the day previous. Either way, she could wait patiently. He wasn’t using the bed, which she knew would smell of him.

In the meantime, she now had an even better way to prepare her confession to him. She gazed over to the little kitchen in his room. The best way to a man’s heart, after all, was through his stomach . . .

***

Kenji woke to the most wonderful smell. In fact, for a moment he thought he was in heaven, or back with the Creator in that wondrous place. The truth was even better, though a little more confusing. He was in his dorm apartment, the entire area somehow cleaned utterly spotless, his mess removed right down to the last visible crumbs. And in the kitchen was Rika, looking utterly beautiful in her pink dress, the last rays of the setting sun shining down upon her pretty form as she cracked several eggs. She looked up at him and winked.

“Looks like the sleepyhead is finally awake!” she declared.

“Finally? How long was I out? Wait, I don’t remember you being here!”

Rika giggled. “Morning, sunshine.”

“Morning!?”

Kenji stopped for a moment, the epiphany hitting him in full. The light streaming in from the curtains wasn’t from the afternoon light, but from the rising sun. He was still in his uniform, having fallen asleep while studying, his thoughts having been continually distracted by concern for Rika. And now she was here . . .

“How long have you been here?”

“All night,” she said, blushing a little. “I hope you don’t mind. I came by last night around nine o’clock to tell you something very important, but you weren’t present, so I thought I’d just stay around and, um, help out.”

The apartment was not only spotless, it literally shined from her ministrations. Everything in the kitchen had been put back in its place. Somehow, she hadn’t woken him at all, in part thanks to her own carefulness, but also due to how deeply he’d slumbered.

“I can’t believe it,” Kenji said, rubbing his eyes. “I feel quite embarrassed. Where did you sleep?”

“In your bed, of course!” she said, though she bit her lip from embarrassment a bit at that. “I hope you don’t mind.”

“Oh, um, not at all! No! It’s just . . . unexpected. But I guess we used to do sleepovers all the time, right?”

Rika grinned, and the two of them shared a laugh. It wasn’t that it was funny, it just reminded them of times when they’d been close. Rika felt that closeness again, and so did he. But the moment was interrupted by the loud grumbling of his stomach. Kenji clutched it, looking a bit sheepish.

“Sorry, I forgot to have dinner last ni-”

Rika placed down several plates and bowls on the coffee table before him, as well as a set of chopsticks on a holder and a tea cup. She had made a traditional Japanese breakfast, and it looked delicious. Tofu and fish in one bowl, a homemade miso soup in another, a split bowl with porridge on one side and rice on the other, while several egg slices and vegetables were also present. She had even gone to the trouble of getting mushrooms and serving them with the vegetables. The whole thing smelled divine, and his eyes watered at the prospect of eating it, especially the carefully prepared salmon.

“Rika, this is amazing! Please, you must have some for your-”

“Already do,” she said. She was interrupting him a bit; it was a good sign that she was feeling confident. She returned to the kitchen and laid out her own breakfast on the other side of him. Together they crossed their legs on the floor and ate. Kenji couldn’t believe it. It was the best breakfast he’d ever tasted, though he was acutely aware that Rika’s presence made it all the better. She ate slowly and methodically, with a womanly grace that somehow fit her so perfectly despite the fact that she had once been a tall, muscular man. He found himself continually distracted by her, particularly since she was wearing a gorgeous pink and rose-coloured kimono that just made her look so demure and homey. The bow around her waist suggested her lithe, feminine figure.

“Eat, silly!” she teased, laughing at his constant pauses. “You can look at me later! For now, I want to fill your stomach and make you happy.”

“Just having you in my life again makes me happy,” he said, causing her to blush and look away. “I mean it. I’m sorry for what I said the other day. We were having such a good time and I dropped that on you. Rika, I swear that I never meant to harm you.”

“No, I’m sorry. I harmed you first, by leaving our friendship and never telling you the real reason why.”

Kenji put down his chopsticks and finished the last of his tea. It cleared out his mouth, and left his belly warm and full. She too finished, though her petite stomach meant she hadn’t eaten it all.

“And you’re not upset about me with, um, the others?”

“I was . . . awkward about it. I accept it now. Kenji, this isn’t your fault. And they’re happy. I talked to each of them, and even Mao is overjoyed, though she pretends otherwise. I think she’ll be happy when she’s big and round to finally act like her old self a bit and lounge around!”

They both laughed.

“And even Tomoko is coming round. She really does love you, it’s just a big adjustment.”

“What about you?” he asked. “Are you adjusting? I feel so bad that you have to live in a world where it pushes you to be attracted to me.”

She sipped her tea delicately, lowered it back to the table, and took a deep breath. Then, she looked down. Not from nervousness or embarrassment this time, but from a desire to be submissive. To act like the perfect Japanese homemaker and wife. She had already started to play the role so well.

“I’ve always been attracted to you, Ken. I’ve always been in love with you.”

Kenji nearly dropped his cup. “You - what?”

“It’s true. It’s why I ended our friendship. I knew that as I was, you could never love me back. It hurt too much to hold such unrequited love. When we landed here, I was confused and hurt and still trying to dislike you. Disliking you was the best way to avoid confronting that I still loved you, that I never stopped loving you. But these past few months, as you’ve connected to each of our friends, I could no longer hold onto those feelings. And I thought maybe we could just be close again, like we were. But . . . I know now that it’s not enough. I love you, Kenji. I have always loved you, and I want you, too. If - if you’ll have me.”

Her patience dissipated, and she cast her eyes to the ground again. Kenji didn’t say a word as he took all of this in. And it was a lot to take in. But then he stood slowly, stepped around the coffee table, and helped pull Rika to her feet. Gently, he cupped her chin and brought it up so she was staring up into his handsome eyes.

“I had no idea, Rika. I’m so, so sorry. I didn’t appreciate what you were going through. I was too socially stupid to realise.”

“It’s not your fault. It wasn’t anyone’s fault. We weren’t compatible.”

“But,” he said, pausing for a moment on the cliff edge of uncertainty, “we are now, aren’t we?”

She smiled, and that smile turned into a beaming toothy grin that crossed from one ear to the other. She put her hands on his shoulders just as he put hers around her waist. Her eyes shimmered, but there were no tears this time. Only hope.

“We are,” she replied, in a voice so faint it might well have been a whisper. “If you want me.”

“Do you want me?” he asked. “Still?”

She nodded, barely able to form words. “Mm-hm. Yes. Absolutely, yet.”

“Good,” he said, practically glowing with his emerging joy. “Because I want you too, Rika, more than all the rest. If you’re, um, willing to share with them a little.”

She giggled. “I’m more than happy to, Kenji, just so long as you make me your wife.”

“That is something I absolutely can do. How could I not, after that amazing meal?”

They laughed together, their foreheads resting against one another. Slowly, the laughter faded, and they stared into one another’s eyes. And even more slowly, they pressed closer together, her on the tips of her toes as they kissed.

It was a far more romantic kiss than any of the other harem girls received or gave. More than even Tomoko’s first dalliance, this was a kiss of love, more than simple passion and lust.

Which was not to say there was no passion or lust. There was quite a bit of that. They held one another for a long time, continuing to kiss, but soon Rika’s body began to respond in a far more base way, especially as she felt Kenji’s hardness against her.

“Let me take care of that,” she whispered. “I’ve dreamed of it for so long.”

“We won’t keep you waiting then!” Kenji said excitedly. He took her hand and led her to the bedroom, and she sat on the bed submissively, facing away from him so he could help disrobe her from her kimono. He did so slowly, and the excitement and tenderness built as it fell from her smooth shoulders. He kissed them, then helped remove the clothing all the way. She turned, holding her breasts demurely with her forearm.

“Do you like what you see?”

“I see my friend. The person I was meant to be with. Of course I like what I see, Rika. I just wish I had seen it a long time ago.”

She launched herself at him, and soon they were kissing and caressing and touching and removing the last items of their clothing. She moaned softly, her sighs sweet and feminine, her nature like that of a perfect submissive housewife to-be. When she spread her legs to receive him it felt like this was how she was always meant to be. She said so, and Kenji agreed.

“Maybe it is. If it isn’t, then let’s make it so, Rika. I want to make you happy.”

“Then enter into me, Kenji, and you will. I promise you’ll hear it.”

Funny, how much confidence came to her when she was in the bedroom. But then this was the climax of everything her life had been moving her towards. She couldn’t be more thankful to the Creator, except when she felt his large penishead press against her entrance and then slide into her slickness, at which point she was in a far more rapturous gratefulness.

“Yessssss,” she moaned. “Ohhhh, it f-feels so different from what I imagined, and s-so much better. I love you K-Kenji!”

“I love you too, Rika. I should have always loved you.”

“We w-weren’t - ahhh - compatible. But now we are! Now I can finally b-be yours! Be your wife! B-bear your children! Ohhhhh!”

Kenji continued to pump inside her, the pleasure growing. He was quite adept at sex now, but as he played with her breasts and caressed her hip, he was conscious that he was performing far better than usual.

“Are you s-sure you want that, Rika? To have babies, I mean? I didn’t mean to knock the others - ahh - up, but now that we know, we could use pr-”

She clamped him with her thighs. “No! Don’t you d-dare! I want you to be happy! I want to be e-everything you want me to be! Give me your babies. I’ll be your w-wife. I’ll cook and clean for you, my future husband, and give you all the children you desire! It’s p-perfect! You know it is; admit it!”

He thrust even faster, building closer to a climax. Her body was gorgeous, and she bucked her hips in time to his, milking his cock expertly despite her lack of female experiene.

“I do!” he cried, verging on cumming. “I want to kn-knock you up Rika! I want you in my harem!”

“Then make me join, Kenji! Make me the first in your harem! Give me your babies!”

He came, and so did she. They erupted together, their cries becoming a sweet song that lasted a long while, their bodies shuddering as stream after stream of his issue poured into her waiting womb. She clamped onto him harder, refusing to let any of his cum leak out of her. She was greedy, wanting it all. Wanting to give him children.

Wanting to be his perfect, pregnant wife. The leader of his loving harem.

In the aftermath as she held him, stroking his hair while he caressed her form, she knew that’s exactly what she would be.

“I love you, Kenji,” she whispered as she held him.

“I love you too, Rika,” he replied.

She had him. He was all hers. No, that wasn’t true. She would have to share him, with Mao, with Haruka, with Alicia, and with Tomoko. And yet after their chat earlier in the day where they’d all gotten along, that seemed remarkably okay. In fact, it seemed like it would be very comforting, and great fun to boot. Kenji was more than enough man for all of them, and they could help each other in pleasing him. There was no need to compete. Instead, their shared submission to him was cause for celebration.

Rika grinned to herself as the last of the post-coital delirium faded. She couldn’t be more thankful for the hijinks that had led to Kenji’s harem.

To Be Concluded . . .