“N…no, this can’t be!”
Nicholas scrambled to his feet,
disoriented from the fall he took in the middle of the crowded station hallway.
As he struggled to his senses, he immediately noticed that the room had changed.
The walls and ceilings became hazy and distant, and the ground seemed to
stretch on and on, with only bits of dirt and debris breaking up the smooth,
tiled surface. The din of voices and footfalls resonated through the halls. To
his horror, he had shrunk.
What was once meant to be a
simple train transfer at Shinjuku during his trip to Japan had now become a
struggle for his life. Thoughts of his various fates flooded his mind,
overwhelming him with a torrent of horrific deaths that likely awaited him. At
best, he’d live the rest of his life as a miserable bottom feeder, trapped in
the station forever until insects, starvation or the sole of a shoe took him
from the world.
“No… I can’t just… give up.”
Steeling his nerves, Nicholas
rose to his feet and walked towards the main hallway, forcing himself to take
every step only to freeze as at the sight before him. An endless wall of people,
appearing more like living skyscrapers than fellow human beings, flooded the main
passageway of the station. An older woman walked dangerously close, buffeting
his tiny body as her massive white pump displaced the air beneath it. The thud
threatened to fling him across the station, and he rushed to hide along the
wall in the hopes of remaining safe from the near-certain death that awaited
him if he strayed too close to the wall of people.
Instead, he chose to travel
along the wall, staying as close as he could to the tiles while dodging the
occasional shoe that strayed too close to wall. A massive black loafer
momentarily impeded his path as a schoolgirl stopped to look at a poster on the
wall. Nicholas involuntarily shuddered, a wave of inferiority washing over him
just compared to the towering leather wall of a young woman’s footwear. Nevertheless,
he kept going, rushing around the shoe, and continuing along the wall.
A few minutes of walking later,
he carefully slipped around a corner to find himself in a small pastry shop. Nicholas
sighed in relief as he looked across the floor at the crumbs scattered about
around the counter. Croissant flakes and bits of cake clung in the bits of dirt
and muck by the gargantuan cooler. Quickly looking around, he dashed across the
hallway before resting under the lip. Above, the cooler’s fans bellowed with a
deafening roar, blasting hot air above him. The volume was of little concern as
he grabbed ahold of a shingle of croissant flake, choking down the dirty piece
of pastry. Unfortunately, few other crumbs seemed edible, either being too
small or too embedded in the filth to consume. As he scoured around for more
things to eat, the sound of talking seeped through the drone of the fan.
Nicholas struggled to
understand the conversation through his limited Japanese, but a few words
registered in his ears.
“Clean”.
“Mop”. “Sanitize”, and a few similar words stood out, just in time to see the
looming black sneaker of the store attendant, followed by blasts of acrid
cleaner drenching any other bits of crumbs he could eat. A rushing sound filled
his ears, and he rushed into the open just in time as a dirty fabric wall
barreled through the crevice, effortlessly mopping away grime under the cooler.
Mere moments later, he heard a
scream, looking up just in time to see an older woman raise her heel over him.
Although he couldn’t fully understand her, the word “bug,” tipped him off to
her intention. He dodged to the side as her stiletto smacked the ground with a
crash. Another seismic thud stopped him in his tracks as the store attendant
narrowly avoided crushing him flat under her dirty work sneaker.
With only a moment to spare, he
ducked underneath a rack, buying him a few moments of time to catch his breath.
His chest heaved uncontrollably, and tears streamed down his face in mortal
terror. Consumed in stress and fear, he was unable to stop himself from
throwing up, expelling the last bits of food from his stomach. After a few
minutes of quiet sobbing, he rolled back onto his other side, sighing in relief
as it seemed like the attendant and customer went back to their business,
completely forgetting about the tiny life they so callously attempted to snuff
out just a bit ago.
Once he caught his breath,
Nicholas staggered back to his feet. Quietly apologizing to the store for the
puddle of vomit under the rack, he made his way to one of the other sides of
the rack, surveying the landscape outside the store. With the shop located on a
corner, he weighed his options. Attempting to cross the hallway seemed like a
potential option. As it was now late in the afternoon, now seemed like the best
time to try crossing before the evening rush once again filled the hallways
with people. He also considered continuing along the other wall, hoping to find
a safer place to take shelter for as long as he needed.
Thoughts
of the long term filled his mind as well. The chances of him surviving in the
station long-term seemed grim. If he somehow avoided being crushed or otherwise
snuffed out by one of the giants, surely some pest would find him and rip him apart.
Thoughts of rats or bugs consuming his helpless body caused him to shudder, and
he quickly worked to push the doom from his mind. Because of this, the only
option would be hopefully getting the attention of someone passing through.
Once again, thoughts of becoming nothing more than smushed paste under the shoe
of a random person flooded in his mind.
Setting
that aside, Nicholas had to decide. As the hours clicked by, he would have less
time to maneuver around. Taking a breath, he checked on the store attendant
before darting from the rack, through the door and back into the main hallway. As
he jogged down the hallways, the telltale roar of shoes on tile resounded
behind him. Without thinking, Nicholas leapt over the yellow tile of the visual
impairment blocks and laid down in groove, bracing himself for the gigantic
being to walk near him.
The
visage of a younger woman, clad in short black skirt and crop top filled his
view. As the woman struggled with a plastic container with a pastry inside, she
grew larger and larger on the horizon. The rumbles quickly grew louder, turning
into a deafening roar as her combat boots trampled the dirt in her path.
Lifting his head, Marcus realized she was heading right towards him. He knew he
couldn’t run, and in a last-ditch attempt to survive, he covered his head as
the shadow over his tile trough grew dark. He squeezed his eyes shut and
prepared for the worst.
Nicholas
felt like a bomb exploded in his face. An earsplitting blast wracked his body,
accompanied by a rush of air barreling through the trough. He opened his eyes,
and nearly screamed. Mere inches from his face was the lugs of the girl’s heavy
boot, the ceramic walls around him being the only barrier between him and
becoming grimy mush between the skyscraper-sized woman’s shoe treads. She paused
for a moment above him, wrestling with the container until a pop and subsequent
sigh of relief tipped him off to her success. Moments later he heard a plop,
and the girl’s Japanese mumbling vaguely hinted at some sort of berry falling to
the ground below as she continued her walk, once again flooding the trough with
light.
After
a few more minutes of wide-eyed recovery from the abject terror rushing through
his mind and body, Nicholas shakenly clambered back onto the floor of the
station. As he stood back to his feet, a blue orb on the horizon caught his
eye. A blueberry, likely dropped from that woman’s pastry, sat just a few
meters away from him. Another wave of biting hunger radiated from his stomach;
a feeling that went unnoticed as he ran to the berry, tackling in it excitement
as he clawed at it, barely managing to tear through the skin of the fruit. He
hungrily shoved his hand into the fruit, ripping a bit of the fruit flesh
before shoving it into his mouth. The tart sweetness of the fruit flooded his
palate, purging the latent taste of the grimy croissant crumbs from his mouth.
He sighed at the bit of familiarity, a distant reminder of his former size as
he slurped down the juicy fruit flesh.
His
rest was short lived as once again; the ground began to shake. He turned his
head to face the source. To his horror, a gargantuan young woman strolled
directly towards him, distracted by the phone in her hand. Most important to
him was her footwear, black platform boots that loomed over his miniscule
frame. Although she was far from the first giant he had encountered, the sheer
impact of seeing the skyscraper-sized woman eclipsing his very existence
threatened to break his mind entirely. In comparison, his pathetic form felt
more like a twisted mockery of the near godlike woman approaching him, an
oppressive weight that threatened to overwhelm his sole as he watched the
earth-shattering rubber hammers of her boot strike the ground with unimaginable
force.
Moments later, he snapped out
of his delusion and his gaze returned to his berry. Desperately, he clawed at
the heavy sphere, trying to move it over the gap before slipping off of the condensation
on the smooth surface. He stumbled back just in time for the girl’s enormous
black boot to land on top of his berry. Her shoe barely even hesitated as the
small fruit popped into a spray of juice underneath the incomprehensible force.
In an instant, his one source of food was reduced to a wet purple mush, a
disgusting pile of gunk tainted with the dirt from the enormous woman’s heavy
shoe. A chill ran down his spine as he stared blankly at the nasty slop before
him. Just an inch to the right and he most likely would have looked like the
berry, a crushed stain pasted into the floor of Shinjuku station, sentenced to
be worn away to just another bit of blacked mush, and almost certainly would
have attracted a similar level of attention as the berry.
Looking
back up from the remnant of his fruit, he spotted the girl leaning against a
vending machine a few feet away from him tapping away on her phone, unaware of
the disaster she had caused a few moments ago. Frustrated, tired and hungry,
Nick turned back towards the girl and began marching towards her. Despite the
overwhelming size difference and the fact that he was essentially an insect to
her, he was determined to give the skyscraper-sized woman a piece of his mind.
“HEY, YOU CRUSHED MY FOOD YOU
OVERSIZED…” He paused, staring up the woman towering over him, his anger
dissipating as he realized his insignificance to her.
“Sorry…” he muttered, hoping to
avoid being crushed on the off chance she heard his rant.
He looked back up and an icy
chill ran down his spine as he suddenly locked eyes with the enormous woman who
looked away from her phone.
---
Like the tiny on the floor,
Yuumi too was having a less than stellar day. Train delays meant that her
connection departed right as she arrived at the station, stranding her for the
next 30 minutes while she waited for her next train. Shinjuku was the last
station she wanted to be stuck at, so it was clear she was not in a good mood.
In a huff, she strolled over to a nearby vending machine and leaned against it,
opening her phone to buy more train tickets. For a brief second, she glanced
away from her phone, only to spot what appeared to be some sort of insect at
first glance. She looked again, and the bug almost appeared to be… waving to
her?
Meanwhile, every fiber of
Nick’s being screamed at him to run as the titaness locked eyes with him. If
she thought he was a bug, he’d maybe have a second before her huge boots
snuffed him out. After a moment of her watching him silently, he began to move,
trying to run away before she decided to drop her shoe on him. A rush of air
behind him caused him to break into a sprint.
“Hmm.” Yuumi muttered, watching
the small creature start to run away. Without thinking, she shifted her foot,
setting her shoe down in front of the tiny creature blocking its escape. She
covered her hand in shock as she watched the tiny panic at her feet.
A tremendous crash blasted him
off his feet as his view of the station was replaced with an enormous wall of
black. It was over, Nick thought, as he desperately scrambled for some form of
escape from the cruel woman. A dark shadow came over him as his attention was
drawn back to the woman, who has begun squatting down. It was like a building
was collapsing down on him, as the woman descended from above. Before he could
even think, slender fingers plucked him from the ground. The world became a
blur as he rocketed upward, faster than even the most powerful fairground ride.
When his world stopped spinning, he was staring at her billboard-sized face.
Her eyes fixated on his every move.
“A tiny… foreigner?” She
muttered, blasting him with her warm minty breath with every word. Nick struggled
to process her words in his shrunken, disarrayed state.
“Do you… speak Japanese?” The
woman asked in Japanese, eagerly waiting for a helpful response.
“A little” Nick shouted back,
prompting a relieved sigh from the woman, who muttered something he couldn’t
understand in Japanese.
“You… are safe” the woman stammered
in broken English, gently sliding the tiny into her breast pocket. For the
first time since he shrank, Nick was able to breathe a sigh of relief, the thunderous
roar of her powerful boots on the concrete floor fading into a distant rumble,
far from his mind as he leaned into the warm shirt pocket.
The train announcement caught
her attention and she sighed with relief as the cheerful announcer broadcast
the impending arrival of her train. Carefully adjusting her jacket around her
now sleeping new friend, she rushed to the escalator, riding it to the platform
until she slid her way into the empty train door, just as the chime signaled
departure. As the train quietly rushed through the amber glow of a sunset
Tokyo, Yuumi closed her eyes, a strange sense of peace washing over her as she
felt the tiny foreigner bundled in her jacket gently squirm in his sleep.
---
Nicholas awoke on a vast wooden
plain, wrapped in what appeared to be a clean, white sock. Off in the distance,
he watched his savior off in the distance standing over a skillet. The smell of
bacon and the hiss of frying meat in the pan filled the small apartment. As
Nicholas carefully rose to her feet the behemoth off in the distance turned to
look at him.
“Good Morning.” Nicholas spoke
in Japanese.
“Good Morning!” Yuumi replied.
She opened her mouth, lost for words before rushing to her phone. After a few
moments of tapping on her phone, she turned the screen to him. The billboard
sized screen was lit with a translation app, with Japanese text on one side and
translated English text on the other.
“How did you get so small?” The
translated screen read.
For a moment, Yuumi tried to
hand him her phone, before realizing. Thinking for a moment, she tilted the
phone with the speakers and microphone aimed directly at him before pushing the
button. A ding from the phone prompted him to begin reciting the day’s events
to her. As the Japanese text flooded the screen above him, he watched as
Yuumi’s face began to sink.
“The berry…” Yuumi muttered,
her guilt displayed on her face as she instinctively began to pat the small boy
on her desk.
As Nicholas finished his story,
Yuumi tapped on her phone.
“I am so sorry you had to
endure that. You looked so scared when I picked you up. I did not even realize
how terrifying your day was. I must have been looked like a monster to you…”
“It’s ok, it’s ok. You were the
one who saved me. I can’t thank you enough.” Nicholas responded.
“What do you want me to do
now?”
“I don’t know. I can’t exactly
travel on my own now. Someone will have to get my stuff at the hotel, but other
than that, I don’t know what I will do until then.”
Yuumi pondered for a moment
before tapping away. “I can take care of you until we find a way to reverse
this. I’ll make sure that you’re kept safe and well fed.”
Nicholas’s stomach growled, the
soft moan filtering its way to her ears.
“Hang on, I will return in a
moment.”
The gargantuan woman walked
away, leaving Nicholas with a few moments to himself as he watched his savior
digging through her refrigeratior. Yuumi smiled as she returned with a small
blueberry gingerly pinched between her fingers.
“There, here’s a berry to
replace the one I stepped on. I hope this makes up for it.”
“Thank you, it really means a
lot. I will do whatever I need to in order to earn my keep around here.”
The enormous girl giggled. “No
need! You’re small so there’s no need to worry about being a burden! Even then,
you’re kind of like a pet, but better! My apartment is really quiet by myself,
so it’s nice to have someone to liven up this place.” Yuumi gently pat his
head. “You’re in good hands, I promise.”
Nicholas sighed. “Thank you,
truly, thank you. If I can get unshrunk somehow, I promise I will find some way
to repay your kindness.”
Yuumi gently grabbed ahold of
him between her fingers and lifted him to her face.
“I think this is the start of
something fun.”