Chapter 4: Outside

Naturally everyone was freaking the hell out.

A building just fell over, and with it the streets on all sides of the collapse had piles of rubble as hinderances. The debris acted as natural barricades to keep cars stalled on the roads. The people nearby saw the giant woman with a smug grin and the building remains at her toes; it was easy to put two and two together.

Saki giggled, her gaze falling towards some photographers near an ally across the street.

“Going somewhere?”.

She took a step towards them. Her heel crunched the front of a (by now empty) bus like a cardboard tube. It felt wonderful, but if she stopped to shiver *every* time she felt something neat and new, she’d never get anywhere.

The smartphone wielding pedestrians were just some university students in the area when this all happened. They wanted to record what was gong on for posterity. They didn’t think they’d attract her attention. The ground beneath them quaked in her approach. The alleyway was a dead end: the space between two short buildings on either side. Her toes blocked the way they got in, and there was a wall of bricks at the end of the passage.

“Pretty dumb of you to box yourself in like this? Did you think that just because I couldn’t fit my whole body in here that’d you be safe or something?”

The corner of her lipped curled in a wry grin. Saki slipped her right foot into the alleyway. She could’ve just shoved the buildings to her side over, or sent in her nanites after them, but she found this funner~

The group of five had no where to go. The way they got in was now blocked by foot. The giant wiggled her toes as she scooched her ped in. The alleyway was pretty narrow. Saki’s foot was as wide as she was tall back when she was normal, so there was only about two feet of room to either side of the ped.

They all reacted differently. One woman ran straight to the back. Her ponytail was drenched with fear-driven sweat. She tried in vain to climb that brick wall out of here, but she couldn’t get a hold. She just kept breaking her pointed nails on the smooth brick surface.

One of the group members, a courageous young man, tried to run by the giant’s foot. In particular, he tried to sprint past the side of it. Naturally, Saki crushed him for that insolence. Even if she didn’t have super human reflexes, she was too big for something like that to work. Soon as he was to the side of her toes she just nudged her foot to the left and slammed him into the brick wall. The others saw him get chopped in half by the side of her foot, red mist spraying all over her ped. Yet, it disappeared soon after. The red spot on the fabric by her ankle too just... faded away in an instant.

Saki, of course, didn’t want anything marring her skin or outfit, so the nanites kept her clean. It was invisible to their eyes, though. She didn’t need too many of those tiny little bots outside to deconstruct the blood and gore into more of her. Cleaning while expanding the swarm: ‘two birds one stone’, she thought.

That man’s foolish act of bravery inspired a bit of insanity in what must’ve been his friend. Snarling with rage, another young man with shorter brown hair ran at her toes and started pounding on them. Saki could only laugh. He couldn’t even lift a single one of those digits, no matter how hard he tried. Curling his palms beneath her middle toe, he nevertheless tried to yank it upwards. Maybe he was trying to punch at it from below? She really had no idea what he was thinking. She let the humorous display go on for a few more seconds till she shifted her foot forward and pressed down with her toes. He was red mist too then, through and through.

The other two members of the group joined their friend in attempting to climb the wall out. Well, at least they *tried* to. One blond woman tripped, and Saki took a good deal of delight letting her foot overtake the fallen one as she slowly slipped her leg in deeper.

The others saw the ped lift its toes as it overtook their friend, bringing them down once overhead to better crush the woman. The ball of Saki’s foot got the woman’s legs first before scooching forward to flatten the body. They had to listen to the sickening cracks of their bff’s bones with every wiggle of Saki’s toes. A glance upwards was the sight of Saki’s self-satisfied smile.

And then there were two. Both of them huddled at the back wall of the alley, trembling in fear. Saki licked her lips. She giggled, sliding her foot to a halt *just* before the duo. The sides of her leg were pressing against the buildings from the middle now, causing them to lightly sway.

“Let’s play a game~”, she chimed. “You two seem like good friends. First one of you to sacrifice the other doesn’t get swallowed alive. Game starts now, so get to it.”

Marissa and Kate turned to each other with horror. The two women had been inseparable buddies since they had the same math class together freshman year. Even though they had different majors, they still found the time to share their lunch breaks together. The notion of one throwing under the bus was unthinkable!

Saki inched her toes closer, pinning the two against that brick wall. She could feel them try and push at the front of her toes. That lovely sensation wasn’t making her want to stop; that was for sure.

The giant spoke again. “Well, I’m waiting? It’d be a shame to have to eat you both here. Surely at least one of you took a biology class at some point. You should know how acidic a stomach can be. Digestion doesn’t seem very fun right? You should be jumping at the opportunity to avoid it.”

Kate gulped. Marissa turned to her friend and saw the tears in those eyes. She was still managing to hold back her own. “I-I’ll go.”, she said.

The giant woman moved her foot back while Kate was speechless. “Marissa you don’t have to do this!”, said Kate, catching her breath without those toes pressing at her abs anymore. Saki leaned forward, still not trying to break the buildings, and scooped the two women up in her hand.

They were brought to her mouth. She teased them a bit. Another lick of her lips.

“Mm, are you sure there ‘Marissa’? You could still change your mind, toss your friend right. in. here~”

Saki opened wide as she could and exhaled. The two women would see the inside of her mouth. Perfectly white teeth, unoffending breath, that pulsing, quivering flesh by her throat, ready to gulp one of them down...

Marissa held strong. “I-I’ll go so you don’t have to Kate.”

Saki’s shut her jaws with a fast snap of her teeth. She spoke. “Suit yourself~” Then, she slipped her tongue from pursed lips and lapped Marissa right up.

At only 100ft tall, there wasn’t too much room in that mouth of hers. Marissa couldn’t even stand up: and not just cause she was being manhandled by Saki’s lips at the moment. Soon as she went into Saki’s maw, her blond-haired head ran straight into a band of spittle. Revulsion joined the sensations of fear as wiggled about the dark, damp cave.

Saki held her preys limbs by their side with just the strength of her lips. Marissa started to panic, flailing her legs fast enough to lose one of her sneakers. Kate was bawling. Saki slurped the rest of Marissa inside like a thick-noodle.

“Mmmf, too late to change your mind now~”

Marissa’s muffled screams trickled past Saki’s lips. With how full her mouth was, the giant black-haired woman looked like she had jawbreaker or something in there. In another context, the distortion of her cheek might’ve made for a funny photo.

Saki set her brown eyes on Kate. With that smug smirk again, she gulped. Her ‘slender’ finger trailed the lump in her throat that was obviously Marissa.

Moving that palm even closer to her mouth, she let out a satisfied, humid sigh right over Kate’s wincing body.

“Aaaah~”

Saki giggled. “I can feel her squirming a bit against my throat. Your friend’s a fighter. I can respect that I suppose and--oop, she just entered my stomach~”

Saki’s nanite-enhanced sense of touch extended to her insides when she wanted it to. Marissa squirmed like a sardine against her slimy throat muscles before plopping down into that acrid, dark gut. Her acids were enhanced from earlier, so they already got to work breaking down her meal. Still, Saki felt something was missing. She had the nanites in her stomach light up a bit. For whatever reason, the idea of her prey having to see her insides in all their macabre glory got her going a bit.

Kate skittered to the edge of Saki’s palm. The giant woman leaned in some. “Alright, your turn now~”

Kate’s heart sank. “W-what, b-but you said!”

Saki’s booming laughter interrupted. “What? Sucks to feel betrayed? Too bad. I’m not a genie or something, I don’t have to play fair. Besides, I *did* said one of you had to sacrifice the other: not yourself. If any case, you should be delighted to spend your last moments with your friend.”

Kate tried to leap off, but Saki caught the morsel in her other hand. The college student was pinched up by the scruff of her top, with the soft, warm palm flesh of the giant’s palm beneath on the off chance she fell. “Please,”, began Saki. “I’m not some run of the mill giant monster. I’ve got the reflexes to catch a runner like you. Anyways, time to eat~”

The giant woman dangled Kate above her open mouth. It was like one of those whale-feeding displays at an aquarium or something. Kate lost one of her shoes in her futile flailings. She and Marissa did have a lot in common it’d seem... The stylish flat fall right down Saki’s throat and disappeared.

“N-no wait please. I’ll feed you someone else I don’t wanna di-”

Kate’s screams cut her sentence off as Saki just let go. The woman plopped on that wet tongue, lips sealed. The tongue tilted and she was gone. Tugged and squeezed towards Saki’s gut to be greeted by her half-digested friend.

Saki tip-tapped her fingers across her flat stomach. With her hearing quality, she picked up every scream from inside.

According to the briefing, the nanites were only supposed to replicate via leeching off excess food in the hosts stomach. Of course, Eirica lied about that. The nanites could obtain energy from, and replicate from, almost anything. Eating people for fun though, and then using their matter for nanites once they were fully dissolved? Saki thought it nice~

These college students didn’t offer much though. Just another 6ish feet of height each. If she really wanted to grow, she’d have to break down a few of these buildings. Saki set her hand atop the roofs of the two structures at her sides and extended her swarming nanites. That familiar dry, grey putty-like stuff swept away from her, and broke it all down. Controlling it all, she willed these nanites of herself to reenter her main body.

The buildings weren’t as tall as her, but they were wide and spacious with floors of concrete and steel. Tons to work with~ Saki’s form shot up to the lovely height of 400ft tall.

While she did another nice big stretch and basked in the glow of the California sun, something was coming from around the corner. They still had to stop at that barricade of debris, though. It was a small caravan of green and black trucks. Must’ve been the city’s reserve force of military or something. Saki grinned to herself. Seems word got around about the giant woman...

She turned to face them. They filtered out of their cars like beetles from overturned soda cans. She couldn’t help but laugh. They were about an inch tall to her now, she started sauntering over.

One had a megaphone. He did his best to keep his voice steady from those rumbling foot falls of hers. “Freeze! You are under arrest by the US military. You will be taken into custody and... and...”

Welp, he tried.

It only took Saki two steps to get upon them. Between her and their small force was a pile of rubble which didn’t even stack up to her ankle. Once she was looming over them more properly, she figured his courage must’ve faded. To really drive it in, she moved her right foot above the ‘impassable’ rubble and stomped it down.

His gaze fell to her toes: each one hovered about a meter in height. She clenched them, digging right into the asphalt of the street.

“I’m sorry, were you saying something?” she asked from above. Her voice had an almost professional timbre to it, as though she were customer support trying to solve an issue as opposed to a giant threat that took down buildings.

“Go on? You’re gonna take me into custody, then what?” She leaned forward now, one hand crossed over another by her thighs. They looked up at her exposed tummy, black top and, up her body further, a facetious expression that let them know she knew *exactly* what she was doing. She wiggled her toes, starting at the pinky toe with each foot. Each one thump thumped against some underlying concrete.

“Are you gonna lock me up somewhere? Got a big enough pen for that, hmm?” She giggled. In truth, this group had no orders than what Captain Stack had given them. He radioed nearest military base soon as he saw a giant woman--of all things--burst from one of Eirica Co.’s properties. Yet, the only orders relayed to him were to try and keep her in place till they showed up with a proper force. The hundred or so men and women with him were just some members of the national guard in the area.

Orders were orders though. He found his courage again. “She’s hostile, engage!” he shouted.

Saki rolled her eyes. This display was pathetic. They didn’t even bring one of those trucks with a gun on it. All they had were some rifles and shotguns either on their person or hastily being pulled out the back of the vehicles. They definitely didn’t have any of the fun toys Eirica sold the government. Bargain bin soldiers assigned to city guard duty. She figured they never expected to have to fight anything at all.

Let alone someone like her.

Saki spoke. “That’s it, that’s all the weapons you got? I expected better. Well, in terms of what you brought against me. Your incompetence thus far is in line with my guess.” She laughed at her own taunt, then lifted her right foot and shadowed two of their trucks with it. All the while, they were peppering her with an onslaught of bullets that barely tickled.

The couple troopers under that 50ft long foot scrambled. All but three managed to run away out from under it before it slammed down. Saki savored thousands of dollars of military equipment flattening like foil. She lifted the foot again and slammed it down on another truck, then two more. She was taking her movements slow, just messing with them really. Her ears picked up some chatter on that officer’s radio.

“Bullets aren’t doing anything. We need an ETA on backup!”. He shouted into the handset while he ran back to his truck at the back. Saki remembered and chuckled. The poor fools. they probably didn’t even know she was *more* than just some big gal. The nanite project was top secret aside from unverifiable rumors. There’s no way they had the clearance to know what was in that building, and they must’ve not seen her absorb anything yet.

She decided to blow their minds a bit. “Where are you going sir, not abandoning the others are you?” Saki held out her hand and drew up some nanites. The soldiers paused firing briefly to try and comprehend things. The grey, amorphous goo forming up from it prompted a few guesses.

“That isn’t water is it? It’s too... bland looking and gooey.”, said one uniformed woman.

“I-is that... magic?” stammered another uniformed woman.

Saki giggled again; what a mirthful day thus far.

”Good guesses~” she chimed, letting them know she heard them even at their quiet voices. “But no, the truth is far more scientific~”

She held out her hand and plopped the blob of nanites down atop that captain. Immediately, she felt his matter utilized for the swarm.

“Of course I’m not gonna tell. If you’re not smart enough to suss it out, you don’t deserve to know. If that stings at all, well, you’ve not much longer for this world anyways~”

The others started to split off now, but Saki had evolved in both tactics and design. The nanites developed some wings and, beating them together, they could get aloft. The big 10ft glob of amorphous nanites split into four smaller clumps which hummed as they took flight, more airy now. Like grey clouds, they swarmed a nearby truck, picking it apart like locusts do a field of crops. From there, they chased after the remaining soldiers, dismantling and converting them one by one.

There was one soldier that escaped the nanite clouds though. He ran right to the front of Saki’s foot, and she just couldn’t resist snuffing him out with a twist of her big toe.

When it was all done, she stood elated. To think, she single-handedly defeated a small military task force. All it took was just a few steps. The nanites helped of course, but she saw them as part of her being for quite some time now.

The grey cloud turned back into a blob. She looked down at herself by her toes, while also looking up at herself. The nanites had light-sensors now too, of course, which let her see with them. She had to admit, she looked quit intimidating from down there.

Saki pondered reabsorbing this bounty, but figured it might be good to have some insurance. After all, who knows what tricks a proper military force could have up its sleeve. She did discover they were on the way, after all. Saki willed that clump of nanites to slither down a nearby storm drain and burrow low.

She still wanted to grow though. She’d just get some mass from elsewhere...