In the Nirvana’s cafeteria, nine of the ships crew, who were all in the running to receive the Rabat as a prize were chatting among themselves, trying not to think about the prize they were all competing for. The winner was being selected randomly, but that didn’t stop the girls from trying to compete with each other over who had the best idea for taking care of Rabat.

“So you plan on eating him raw?” Gascogne asked Pai, who had stated without a second thought that if she won, she was going to eat Rabat raw. Smiling, Pai nodded, she hadn’t given it much thought, but she was positive that if she won Rabat would be going down her throat twitching and squirming. She licked her lips at the image in her head of Rabat screaming inside her stomach as he’s digesting. That would show the stupid male who’s boss.

“He’s going to be my first man meal, so I want it to be special and I can’t think of anything more special then feeling a big stupid man wiggling in my tummy. Ribbit, ” Pai confidently said, petting her hand puppet frog as she spoke. She had always liked the frog puppet because she wanted to be like it, catching prey with her tongue and swallowing it down. She had tried once to carry a snake around, but everyone told her it looked like a sock puppet.

“I forgot, you’ve never eaten a man before,” Gascoigne said with a shrug. Something clicked in her mind at that moment and she looked at Parfet, Meia and Dita with a slight grin.

“You girls haven’t had an opportunity to eat a man either. Whenever we have any captured men to eat you’ve ether been on duty or training.” The three girls looked down at their feet, slightly embarrassed that Gascoigne knew they had yet to ever taste a man. It had never been that much of a deal to the girls, unless someone started gushing about the experience. Nothing was more humiliating then being in a room with someone going on and on about how delicious something is when you haven’t ever tried it before. Most women in the military at least get a taste of their first men during their first year, but Parfet, Meia and Dita had never gotten an opportunity on the Nirvana because there was a shortage of male hostages to eat. After all, they only attacked male ships half of the time, the rest of the time they attacked female ships and they couldn’t eat anyone one on there, they weren’t cannibals.

“Have you ever eaten a man Gasco?” Dita asked shyly. Out of all the crew, Dita was the most interested in males or like she thought of them, ‘aliens’. She wanted to know everything about the, what they like to wear, how big do they get, what’s that antenna between their legs? But when she asked Hibiki, he usually blew her off and for some reason when she asked to feel his antenna, he ran away screaming. His past reactions made her second-guess asking him about how he tastes or what goes best with men. It had gotten to the point that she had found herself sniffing the ruff male, trying to detect his flavor. If Gascoigne could fill in some of the blanks for her, she’d be very grateful.

“First off, it’s Gascoigne, not Gasco,” The purple haired pirate growled and shook her fist at Dita. “Secondly, I’ve eaten men both cooked and raw.”

“How was it? Did they taste better cooked or did the living male feel better going down?” Meia asked curiously. Unlike her fellow Dread pilot Dita, Meia had only a passing interest in eating men. If eating a man slowed her down or caused herself to lose her edge in battle, then she’d stick to salad. However, there was a rumor that if you ate a strong male, you’d gain his powers. Most women thought it was hogwash, just an urban legend to make eating men even more appealing (which wasn’t necessary because women already wanted to eat men). The mere idea of gaining some of Rabat’s shooting skills made Meia nearly drool at the possibility of getting that man inside her stomach.

Gascoigne chuckled as she thought back to her previous meals, eating those men had been a highlight for her. It was hard to put into words, but when she had a man resting inside her stomach, absorbing into her body, Gascoigne had felt stronger then ever before in her life.

“There both different in there own ways. You have to eat a man whole if your going to do it raw, so that means no leftovers and it’s harder to marinate them. But nothing can quite explain the feeling of having your stomach bulge out with a living breathing person, feeling them struggle around inside you as they are taken into your body. Some people even think it can be kinda erotic.” All the girls blinked at that. How could having a man inside them feel erotic? Gascoigne didn’t notice the skeptical looks she was getting from everyone, so she continued.

“But it’s nice cooking them. I remember this one I had where we used a honey garlic sauce that was perfectly blended. We waited several days while the meal was being basted, by the time we were cooking, the sauces had gone into the skin and made the meat tender. I’m telling you, the meat was so soft that we could of cut it with a fork and it just melted in your mouth.” The girls all licked their lips thinking about the meal Gascoigne was explaining. It seemed like a meal to die for.

“Sounds good, why don’t you make some,” a very gruff voice said from behind Gascoigne. Everyone froze and looked behind Gascoigne to see the only male fighter pilot on the Nirvana, Hibiki Tokai. He was smiling at the girls while holding up a plate he’d gotten from the cafeteria. The male had at first fought against eating woman food and had tried to stick with male food, which was just flavorless pills. After much prodding from Dita, he’d tried woman’s food and fallen in love with the rich tastes and textures. Now he wanted to try every meal women had to offer.

The girls remained silent, unable to know how to respond. They were saved when the intercom blared on.

<WOULD THE WOMEN INVOLVED IN DECIDING THE FATE OF RABAT PLEASE COME TO THE BRIDGE! >

“Sorrygottogobyenow,” Gascoigne said in a split second and left with everyone else. Hibiki blinked as he watched everyone run away from him. What was their deal? Curiously he saw Dita pause before leaving and stare at him. Before she followed the rest of the crew, Hibiki saw her lick her lips.

“Weird,” was all he said.