(Bonus What-If Idea 1) (0.09 cm) Take Home Strategy

I had thought that use of the Reduction Platform would mean an immediate end to my miniscule state after Reduction Week. What I expected was to be back to normal and be able to walk home with Yae side by side again at the end of the day and to no longer have to deal with my diminished stature. I believed in technological progress a bit too much, it seemed. 

“Who’d have thought there wasn’t enough power left to change me back right away,” I sighed, still 1/2000th my normal size while standing in Yae’s shoe locker while she changed out of her indoor slippers. “This is what happens when I’m the last person to use it.”

“At least Sensei gave you something to talk to me again,” Yae told me, pointing at the earpiece in her left ear. “And I’m so glad she gave me a spare uniform and socks. She was really prepared.”

She certainly was. Besides the spare clothes so that Yae wouldn’t have to go home in sweats, Sasakura-sensei had anticipated that the platform would need to recharge. What she did instead for me was use the low powered delayed effect option instead. I would have to wait a few more hours before my body would grow back instantly. Until then, I was going to stay less than a millimeter tall.

She did, not however, provide us anything else. When Yae finished putting her shoes on, she brought her hand to the locker. She put the tip of her finger nail against it. The fact that the thickness of Yae’s nail was around a third of my height meant I actually had to pull myself up onto it. I felt unsteady as Yae removed her finger from the edge of the shoe locker. The rush of wind would have blown me off if she hadn’t cupped her other hand around me.

“Jeez… Why didn’t she give us anything to carry me around like yesterday?” I found myself wishing I was a piece of jewelry hanging around Yae’s neck like before. It was an odd desire, I had to admit, but it certainly felt safer and less exposed.

“That’d be because it’s too small to use at your size now,” Yae told me. “Sensei said it wouldn’t fit on the necklace properly anymore, and if she tried to get another one, that one would grow back later just like you. And I don’t want to think about how we’d get that back to school when it’s normal sized again.

That made sense. I couldn’t imagine being able to roll the thick protective orb back to school. But where could I be put so that I’d be safely taken home then? That was the question.

Yae seemed to have some idea as she sat down on the bench by the shoe locker. I couldn’t clearly see while she cupped her hand around her finger, forming a skin colored wall all around me and blocking out the light along with the wind. “Okay, Touya. Hop on. I think this should be a good place to keep you on the way home.”

When she removed her hand, I found myself stumbling as Yae tilted her nail. I had to start running or else I would trip and fall down Yae’s nail. I wasn’t able to handle my own momentum however and when I got to the very end of Yae’s finger nail, I tripped and face planted onto her skin. 

“Oof… A bit less of an angle would have been more appreciated, Yae,” I mumbled as I picked myself up. I looked around to see a vast plain of skin spreading in all directions around me, but what drew my attention more was the sky. It was now pitch black.  “Huh? Yae?”

“Is something wrong, Touya?” I heard Yae’s voice. It was high above me as I thought it would be. That meant I was still on her body somewhere. It figured it out when the black sky seemed to stretch, thinning out until some light started to slip through… Well, light and skin in the shape of two fingers.

I was standing on Yae’s thigh, I realized. The black sky was just the part of the stocking she was holding up. 

“Um… Asano-san,” I spoke formally, wanting to confirm. “Where am I?”

“You’re on my leg,” she answered. “This should be nice and snug for you so you don’t get sent flying around, right?”

Yae was gigantic to me. I was aware of that. She was a multi-kilometer tall titan of a girl whose legs could fit our neighborhood several times over, but it was really telling how distant the differences between our sizes were when she could create a sky just from lifting her stocking. I had been joking before about Yae being a goddess, but honestly, this made that joke seem more realistic than I should ever have been.

“So the plan’s to keep me stuck to your stocking, huh? Well, at least this is a new pair. It doesn’t smell too sweaty right now.”

“M-My sweat doesn’t smell bad, Touya,” Yae was offended. I didn’t describe it as bad. It was just intense. The tight confines of Yae’s stocking as they compressed around her legs meant that her presence was the only thing around me. No matter how far I went along Yae’s thigh, I was surrounded by her scent.

And it was only going to get stronger as Yae released her grip on her stocking.

Snap!

“Whoa-!” I was immediately slammed down into the plush ground of Yae’s thigh when the sky literally fell. Yae’s black stocking came down and every part of me was shoved downwards until I was face down into Yae’s leg. I was held down by her stocking. 

“Well, even if you don’t like it Touya, this is where you’re staying until we get home,” Yae told me. “Hm… Wow… I can’t even feel you. You are there, right?”

I struggled to turn my head to get my mouth free to breathe. It was like a literal ton of blankets were pinning me down. I was winded just trying to talk. “I’m... here… Sheesh… I can’t move...”

“That’s sort of the point. I was worried it’d be too loose and you’d just slip all the down to my foot.

I balked at the idea. I had enough of dealing with feet for a lifetime and wanted a long term break from being trapped with a foot thousands of times my size. Now I was thankful to be bound to Yae’s thigh.

“Sorry if it’s a big rough~,” Yae told me. 

I could hear the bit of whimsy in her voice. “... You’re enjoying this, aren’t you, Yae?”

“I-I… Since you’re definitely turning back to normal soon, I thought I’d try to have a little fun...” she admitted.

I sighed, relenting. “Just be careful, okay?”

“It’s fine. I’ll walk as carefully as I can.”

All of a sudden, the world began to shift. The weight pinning me down lightened up, but the ground started rising and tilting as well. I closed my eyes to brace for the intense g-force that came with Yae standing up. I could feel the powerful muscles I was pressed against as they lifted my monolithic childhood friend up.

I was no longer slammed against the ground anymore. Or rather, the ground that was Yae’s thigh became a wall. I was now sandwiched between vertical walls - the thick black cloth of her stocking and the hot meat of her thigh.

But that wasn’t the end of it either. That was only her standing up. When Yae began moving, I felt the powerful thigh-quakes as Yae moved her legs to walk. With her step, a vibration imperceptible to her ran back up her leg, shaking her body and me along with it. My head felt rattled and Yae had only shifted her foot so she could turn and close her shoe locker.

“Carefully isn’t going to be that helpful…,” I groaned. 

“Fufu~n,” I heard her laugh. It seemed she was enjoying my predicament again now that it was clear I would be changing back in just a few hours. “It sure is surreal having you stuck to my stockings, Touya. I don’t hate it.”

Begrudgingly, I also had to admit I didn’t dislike it either. Though it was claustrophobic and confining to be trapped between her black thigh high and her leg, this was Yae’s body. Maybe it was the fact that her pheromones were actually affecting me or maybe it was just because of how close we were - whatever the case, as straining it was on my body, it was also exciting.

“C’mon, Touya. Let’s take you back to my house.”

I was thankful Yae didn’t take any detours along the way home. I could tell this much because the time it took to get from the school back to our neighborhood did not change too much from the norm.

It was a struggle though. While Yae walked, of course, her body began to sweat. At less than a millimeter in size, every drop of sweat that poured from her body was an enormous house-sized blob of salt water that not only splashed onto me but also absorbed me. I couldn’t resist being pulled up and down by the beads of sweat as they trickled down Yae’s thigh before being sucked up by her stocking.

Though I told Yae I was slowly falling down her leg, there wasn’t much she could do. If she pulled on her stocking, she’d make enough of a gap that I’d fall all the way down to her foot. All I could do was endure it.

When we arrived back at the Asano house, I was drenched in my neighbor’s sweat.

“M-My bad, Touya. I didn’t think it’d be that bad…,” Yae twiddled her fingers. Though I had complained to her along the way, she didn’t think I’d be completely drenched.

I was standing atop a white handkerchief that Yae’s mother had put out so it was easier to see me atop their dining table. Although I had spent Reduction Week with them, facing all three members of the Asano family at 2000 times less than my normal height was admittedly more intimidating than I expected.

“Yae… You were to take care of Touya-kun properly. I didn’t think you’d go as far as putting him in your socks…,” Ayame-san shook her head. She then glanced down at the handkerchief that I was on. I was no more than a speck lost on the white plain looking up at the titanic mother. 

“Nishishishi… Onii-chan, that is you, right? You sure are teensy-tiny,” grinned Yuri as she put her chin onto the table. Not only was I knocked off my feet by the sudden shaking of the table when she hit it but when she breathed out of her nose, I was blown back. The sight amused the gigantic primary schooler. “Wow! You went flying like a piece of dirt, Onii-chan!”

I didn’t appreciate how giddy Yuri sounded. She probably didn’t even realize what she had said was a bit humiliating to me. Well, kids could be innocently cruel after all.

Slam!

“Grk!”

Case in point, Yuri’s finger slammed right down on me hard. It was as though a building had fallen down on top of my 0.09 cm body. I found myself stuck to the titanic primary schooler’s finger when she lifted it back up and saw me clinging to her.

“I was right. Touya Onii-chan’s just like dirt! Onee-chan, Okaa-san, look! Picked him up with just my finger!”

I could hear Yae sigh. “Yuri, be a little less rough on Touya, would you?”

“You’re not one to talk, Yae,” frowned Ayame-san before she leaned in a bit closer to take a look. “But you are right, Yuri. This is quite the sight, Touya-kun. Even my co-workers don’t get this small.”

So being 2000 times smaller was not as natural in the workplace. I supposed that made sense. Reduction Week had us experience all the possible smaller sizes on the spectrum, but it wasn’t as if all of those sizes were used out in society.

My weakness at the moment was a concern for Yae’s mother, however. She lowered herself down to Yuri’s level so she could pull the girl’s finger in front of her face. “Touya-kun, you’ll have to tell me everything Yae’s done to you. If even Yuri can deal with you like this, I’m afraid of what that girl’s done.”

Though she sounded concerned, I could tell from Ayame-san’s piercing gaze that she was not requesting. She was demanding.

“Y-Yes, ma’am,” I stuttered. There was more than just parental authority being used to convince me now. The sheer strength of Ayame-san’s voice overwhelmed me. My legs trembled in the face of Yae’s mother.

Since only Yae had the earpiece, only she could hear me rather than her mother. She absolutely did not want me to say a word considering all that had happened during the day. “O-Okaa-san! That’s none of your business!”

Such a childish retort was not going to work on Ayame-san who crossed her arms. “You do know what my job is, don’t you, Yae? It is my business to make sure you two are not misusing Reduction. If my daughter and future son-in-law ended up developing inappropriate interests or doing something indecent too early, I don’t know what I’d do.”

“I-It’s not inappropriate, and it wasn’t indecent!” Yae turned red, but she defended the wrong thing.

“So you admit you did something?”

Yae had been caught in a web of her own making. Her inability to lie was her own downfall. “U-Uh… Well I… Er… Touya?”

She looked at me expectantly, though I wasn’t sure what she was hoping for. She was the only one who could hear me through the earpiece, so whatever words I said wouldn’t convince her mother.

“You’re going to have to tell your mother sooner or later, Yae” I gave up on helping her. Going against her mother was something I couldn’t do even at normal size. “Don’t forget: you fell on top of me… nearly ate me... sat on me… stepped on me.”

“T-those were all accidents,” Yae whispered and got close to Yuri’s finger in an effort to make sure Ayame-san wouldn’t be able to hear. However, her honesty dug the hole she was in even deeper. “J-Just don’t Okaa-san about what happened after class...”

A hand gripped her head from behind.

“Hyaa!”

“After class? Yae, what did you and Touya-kun do?”

“Busted…,” Yuri and I were both like-minded when we saw Yae get caught. She had brought it upon herself by blurting out too much. This was a common sight in the Asano household, honestly. 

“I’d love to hear about this in more detail. This and all of those ‘accidents’ you mentioned… Yae, I think the two of us need to have a little talk...” Ayame-san smiled. It was not a warm smile. It made both of us along with Yuri break out in a cold sweat. Ayame-san wore the pants in this family for a reason. “Touya-kun, you’ll be afterwards.”

“You’re kidding me…,” I groaned. So I wasn’t going to be getting away scot-free. Well, at least I was being spared for the moment.

“Awawawawawa… Okaa-san, please, be gentle,” Yae whimpered as Ayame-san grabbed onto her ear. She yanked the earpiece to talk to me off.

To our surprise, she handed it over to Yuri. “Yuri, you two can have fun and play for a bit, but make sure you ask Touya-kun for permission first, okay, Yuri?”

“Eh? Really?” “Eh? But Okaa-san-!” Yuri and Yae blurted at the same time. While the younger girl was excited, my childhood friend was not. I was more on Yae’s side. Leaving me with Yuri felt like being thrown into a lion’s den.

Unfortunately, Yae was not going to have any say in the matter as Ayame-san started to drag her out of the kitchen. “No buts, young lady. There are things a girl can and can’t do...”

The lecture was about to begin for Yae.

Left in the kitchen with Yae’s younger sister, I waited while she stayed motionless for a moment as her mother started to scold and interrogate her big sister in the living room. After the primary schooler processed what had happened, however, she looked back down at me on her finger.

“Nishishishi… Onee-chan’s in trouble,” she grinned. “Well, Touya Onii-chan, let’s go to my room.”

I braced myself as the towering girl bounced her way out of the kitchen. Being stuck with Yuri… just what was Yae’s little sister going to do with me completely at her mercy?