Work Text:
"One bowl of ramen coming right up!"
Athena awakened slowly after hearing an unfamiliar voice. All sorts of unfamiliar senses immediately overwhelmed her mind – bright blurry colors of ochre and yellow, the steamy atmosphere that threatened to burn her skin, and a rich yet salty aroma of what seems to be ramen. In fact, she was confused as to why the smell was all around her. Was she in a ramen place? Before she came to her senses, a sudden movement akin to an earthquake threw her on her feet, stumbling her backwards.
The immediate sensation of boiling hot water pushed her to quickly climb on a nearby raft. Athena cried in pain as the heat stung her exposed skin, and the steam didn’t help with the recovery. “Where am I?” she wondered. “Why is it so hot here?”
She wiped the water off her face – that oddly smelled (and tasted) like ramen broth but saltier – and opened her eyes. She gasped, jaw dropped, at what she was seeing.
She found herself in the center of a giant bowl of ramen noodles, refuging on a kamaboko . It was almost the size of a pond, with snake-like ramen noodles below vicious waves of hot broth. Towering above her was her coworker, Apollo Justice, kilometers in height like a red skyscraper. He was staring down at her, with hungry eyes and a mouth on the brink of salivating.
She cried out for Apollo, trying to get his attention. She doesn’t know why she was inside his bowl, nor does she remember what happened beforehand. Blurry memories of winning today’s case bounced around her mind as she attempted to remember why she was here.
A pair of lumber-like chopsticks disturbed the ramen she’s in, knocking her down into the broth below. Her feet entangled by strings of ramen noodles, Athena struggled staying afloat and swimming to the brim. Before she knew it, she was squished alongside thick strands of ramen. She was carried thousands of feet high in a sudden motion, just stopping in front of Apollo’s mouth. Instantly, she was slurped with other bits of ramen, lips closed before she could escape.
Apollo, on the other hand, was just enjoying his quiet dinner at Eldoon’s. It was a habit of the Wright Anything Agency to eat on his stand every winning case, and he, while hesitant at first, came to begrudgingly accept the Guy’s signature salty ramen dish and enjoy it. He was treating himself after winning a small case a few hours back. He did wonder why Athena didn’t tag along with him. After savoring his first bite, he proceeded to take another, unaware of his tiny coworker trapped in his mouth.
The inside was warm and humid, and the smell of ramen overpowered the smell of mint. Strands of saliva dripped from his palate, and more seeped underneath his tongue, which pushed her about. Narrowly, she avoided his molars almost her size, which were busy grinding the noodles into chewed paste. A low moan emanated beneath her, almost mocking in tone. Apollo was clearly enjoying his meal with her in it.
She cried for his name, which only fell under his two deaf ears. Before long all the ramen noodles had become chewed remains and Athena barely kept her body intact. Suddenly, Apollo tilted his head back, ready to swallow. She tumbled backwards and hit the back of his mouth, which promptly sucked her down whole along the rest of the ramen, giving no chance for her to resist.
Apollo gave a few coughs. He was surprised after swallowing something large, which gave him an odd feeling below his collarbone. Almost wriggling even. Thinking it was just the lump having trouble descending, he took a few sips of the ramen broth to aid it sliding down, not knowing he was sealing Athena’s fate.
Inside, she scrambled trying to climb up his esophagus, but cycles of peristalsis plus the slippery walls prevented her from even gripping the walls. She heard quiet gulping from above, and she was quickly showered with more ramen broth, quickening her descent even more. Now fully inside Apollo, she was met with his beating heart, shaking her to the very core. His lungs sucked air in and out with a whooshing sound, and gurgling emanated deep below her. Athena was enduring the inner workings of a human in ways no other person had ever experienced.
Her slow descent finally ended when she splashed into what seemed to be a mixture of ramen noodles, ramen broth, and stinging acid. Pitch-black darkness met her eyes, but she knew she was in her final destination – Apollo’s stomach. She felt giant folds of slippery epithelium walls that stretched where she couldn't reach, appearing cavernous from what she could only feel. The air was hot and humid, which smelled of a mixture of vomit and ramen. The organ wasn’t quiet too; its loud churns along with other body processes drowned out Athena’s pleas of help to her unaware captor.
More and more remains of ramen noodles and broth rained below her, until the acids rose to her knees. She couldn’t feel her hands anymore, and her feet began to weaken and brought her down. As the acids proceeded to dissolve away her clothes, she desperately pounded her fists to the stomach walls as a last ditch effort to be noticed by Apollo. As if mocking her existence, a loud burp vibrated through the walls, and the air quickly became stale. Her consciousness finally gave up shortly afterwards, becoming a small part of the meal of the young attorney.
Outside, Apollo gave a deep resounding sigh after finishing his ramen bowl. Somehow the silence and the saltiness of the noodles increased his satisfaction with the taste tenfold. He paused for a moment when he felt some kind of movement just within his stomach. As if on cue, a burp came out. He felt the movement disappearing soon after. He gave his stomach a few rubs, unaware that he just digested Athena.