“ARTICLE 2. THE RECALL BEACON. All girls of all nations shall gain the inherent ability to activate the Recall Beacon by merely thinking it. Eight hours after a girl activates her Recall Beacon, she shall be teleported into her nation’s recovery room, stripped of all clothing, mess, and magical or other effects. In addition, the leader of a nation shall be able to activate any of her girls’ Beacons remotely in case the girl becomes unconscious or otherwise unable to activate the Beacon herself.” — excerpt from the Treaty on Friendly War
The stage was set.
I and Ciel sat on a bench behind an ornate table labeled with the sigil of the kissborn. We were dressed in kissborn exhibition attire: lacy panties, pink-and-black pantyhoses, a chest-covering undershirt and a semi-transparent dress flowing from neck to knees.
Our opponents, Xera and Xeelee, were both obviously slimeborn. They were clothed in a one-piece lime jumpsuit — no decorations, just pure function — and thick socks. This was the first time I had actually seen a slimegirl in the flesh. Their light green skin, so creepy in pictures, seemed actually pretty and even attractive now.
The girls themselves were as different from each other as they could be. Xera was tall, had big breasts and a constant grin on her face, her very posture exuded the aura of “I’m winning this, puny worms, and you all know it.” Her teammate, Xeelee, on the other hand, was about the size of Luna here, and her confidence was small, too. She was furtively looking around. I instantly made a connection with her. I knew that we felt the same, both of us forced into this competition by powers beyond our control.
The audience was huge. Hundreds of people, kissborn and slimeborn, and even some representatives from the Sacred Temple (naked as they always are), and even other nations, came to look on this. And of course, everything would be recorded for posterity.
I trembled.
The judges came on stage, one slimeborn and one kissborn, and the competition began.
“Welcome, everybody, to the Kissslime Competition,” said the slimeborn, “one team from each of our two nations will battle for glory of their nation. We begin… now!”
“What is the name of the Princess of the Kissborn?” the kissborn judge asked of Xera.
“Estell.”
“What is the greatest treasure of the slimeborn?” the slimeborn judge asked Ciel.
“The Pool of Restorative Slime.”
“What are the names of your opponents?” asked the kissborn judge.
Xeelee answered, “Astra… and Ciel.”
Now it was my turn. The slimeborn judge read her question, “what does the star in the slimeborn sigil represent?”
I was dumbstruck. I had no idea. I would be the very first person to get a question wrong. The slimeborn would get the first victory. And I… I would suffer a punishment of their choice. Tears already started to well in my eyes. “I… I don’t know.”
(“Aww, poor Astra,” said Jouette, “the star represents the compass rose, the drive to explore and discover, does it not?”
“Of course, I know that now. But back then, there was very little communication among nations.”)
Xera stood up from her table. The hall fell silent. The first punishment would set the tone of the competition.
Two carts full of buckets were driven on stage.
“Let. Us. Begin!” Xera said and dumped the first bucket over my head. Black pudding fell on my head and into my dress. That was still… fine. I liked pudding and I rather enjoyed how it felt against my chest.
But Xera didn’t stop there. She threw the next bucket in my face. It was full of red, hot sauce. I shrieked. The sauce hit my face but also splashed on my neck and shoulders, and of course, again into my dress. This was going to be bad.
Then Xera did what I didn’t think was allowed. She marched right up to me and tore the entire bottom part of my dress away. Before I could react, she pulled up my panties and poured the contents of a third bucket into them.
It was glue. Seriously, weak but thick glue. It filled my panties to the brim and made them permanent. At least I couldn’t get naked anymore. But the glue’s touch between my legs was unnerving. Somewhat pleasurable, I admit, but again there was that feeling that other people shouldn’t be allowed to do that. Especially not an outsider, and one as smug as Xera was. I glared at her but that just made her pour a fourth bucket on my back. This one was pure slime, but not the regenerative kind. This was one was merely hot, and I shrieked again.
Satisfied, Xera left back to her table. I was humiliated and Ciel did not share in my punishment. She seemed like she wanted to say something, but she looked as shocked as I was. I never blamed her, but that didn’t make me feel any better.
Another round followed. This time, it was Xeelee who answered incorrectly. I looked at Ciel. We were expected to dish out punishment. We nodded to each other, rose as one and moved.
Xeelee looked at us with fear so we gave her her punishment slowly, so she was never surprised. Ciel first poured a bucket of pink slime over her, letting it slowly trickle down from her hair on her shoulders and then in her lap. Then it was my turn so I poured a second bucket down Xeelee’s jumpsuit, both in front and in the back. I maintained eye contact with her the whole time, but made sure that the slime reached every part of her chest and back anyway.
Ciel then gave Xeelee the kissborn Great Kiss. She sat on her lap, embraced her and then passionately kissed her for about a minute. While doing that, she put her arm inside Xeelee’s jumpsuit and spread the slime in there on her neck and on her butt.
We may still have been too rough. Xeelee held on, but as we returned to our table, she was still in a state of shock.
The competition proceeded.
Many rounds followed, during which I, Ciel and Xeelee were each punished many times. Bucketfuls upon bucketfuls of mess were emptied on us. Xeelee didn’t last. As soon as her clothes broke from all the mess, she curled down on the floor, naked, and wouldn’t continue the game. From then on, she didn’t even answer questions. We took pity on her then and just poured a single symbolic bucket of gunge over her each time.
I and Ciel were both also eventually out of our clothes (the glue didn’t last, fortunately) and covered in many substances but we were covered together and the competition didn’t seem as bad anymore. Xera, however, never missed a single question and was still fully dressed and all clean. She was either exceptionally clever or exceptionally lucky.
One round, I missed on a question on advanced magic (anybody would have missed that one!) and Xera tackled me to the ground and stepped on my crotch. I suppressed the shriek and was silently grateful for Ciel’s training. But I was so looking forward to humiliating Xera. We both knew that when she finally gets a question wrong, we would mess her up for all the previous rounds combined.
But she never did. Until, one round, the kissborn judge frowned and asked her, “what is the location of the secret kissborn Vault?”
Xera stuttered, “what? What kind of question is that?”
“A question that you should be able to easily answer, if you learned everything you answered until now legitimately.”
“Don’t speak in riddles, judge,” she shouted, “and give me a proper question instead.”
“No,” said the judge. “There’s no way you were able to answer all of those questions correctly. You are cheating! Answers are being fed to you from outside the game!”
“W-what?” the three of us said in unison, even Xeelee.
Xera looked around. All eyes in the audience and on the stage were on her.
“Well, it matters little. This distraction worked for long enough. Slimeborn, attack!”
And a wave of slimegirls rose from the audience and turned on the kissborn among them. They threw slime at our fellows, stripped them of their clothes and even attacked them physically. Xera herself was already picking up a bucket to throw at our judge.
And I, I just stood there, mouth agape, trying to comprehend what was happening.
Ciel grabbed my hand and led me away from the stage, even as the Original War started unfolding around us.