(Story 1 – Barbara)
Damage: Seaside Wear-and-Tear
Height: 40 cm, 20 cm
Adeptus Treasures can be very sensitive. That was a lesson they should
have learned from the very beginning.
From the largest crack to the slightest chip to even a smudge – any
imperfection and bit of wear-and-tear could damage the treasures of yore. To
have a weakness to ‘erosion’… the Lord of Geo’s concerns were well-founded
considering the devices in his land could be troubled by the passage of time.
As someone who had seen the land of Liyue in almost its entirety, the
Traveler journeying around Teyvat should have realized sooner that the gifts he
had received were just as prone to breaking and needing maintenance as any
other tool. His ‘Home on the Road’, the Serenitea Pot, was no different. A
device that could bring one to another realm required proper care to correctly
transfer people inside. Their location, belongings, and even their very size
all had to be properly accounted.
… At least, that was what it was supposed to be.
It all started because of a little carelessness.
“So you were ambushed by Cryo Slimes while you were distract with
fishing, were you? With the water nearby and their cold bodies, I can imagine a
good amount of freezing was involved.”
“A lot of freezing…”
Tubby’s summary was correct. The constant freezing and his struggles to
break free had damaged the pot he had taken out. The typical glowing markings
on its edges were worn out. He should have realized that they were glowing a
lot more dimly than they usually did.
“It seems the markings that were worn out affected the entry limit and
the spatial coordinates. That certainly explains why your friend wasn’t able to
enter.”
Paimon was likely panicking trying to find someone nearby at Mondstadt
to help since the teapot only pulled him in when he suggested head in to take a
hot bath to warm up. It was probably for the best that Paimon wasn’t around,
though. The situation was much more complicated than just merely getting locked
out of the Serenitea Pot.
“And that most certainly explains the rather… miniscule state you are
in now…”
The fact that he had to climb a boulder and still was beneath eye-level
to the Teapot Spirit that was only slightly floating above the sand showed what
his current predicament was. Size, was mentioned earlier, was one of the things
the Adaptus treasure took into account when bringing people from the outside
into the compact, alternative realm. At that moment, he was shorter than
Paimon, standing only at 40 cm tall – close to but smaller than the size of a
newborn.
“No need to worry. As the Teapot Spirit, I can certainly fix the
problem,” assured Tubby. “But all good things take time. It is safe within the
realm, so you should rest and take a short respite with your guest until things
everything is fully restored.”
He supposed he had no choice but to wait, and hoped Tubby would put her
priority into fixing his size first. However, there was something she had said
that caused the blond traveler to raise an eyebrow.
“Guest?”
Thud. Thud.
The baby-sized traveler stiffened up as a shadow fell over him. Someone
had visited before he had gone in, and because the entry limit had been cut
down, their presence was the reason why Paimon wasn’t able to enter.
“E-Eh? I thought someone had shown up,” a familiar voice called out
from behind him. “Traveler, is that you? What happened?”
The owner of the voice was also the owner of the pair of flowery flip
flops and pillar-esque bare legs that towered over him - the idol deaconess of
the Mondstadt Church, Barbara. To his curiosity, she was wearing her swimsuit
instead of her usual clothes.
“An error in the main entrance of the teapot has caused this,” Tubby
explained to the deaconess. “I believe the dispatch system is still working
properly, but the main entrance is current having trouble. For the time being, I
will begin with the repairs. I’ll let you know on my progress as soon as I
determine how large the problem is.”
With those words, the Teapot Spirit vanished in a puff of smoke,
leaving him alone with Barbara.
“Repairs, huh? As always, you seemed to run into some crazy things,
Traveler,” the deaconess was taking the situation extremely lightly. “I’ve only
visited two other times before this, but does this happen often?”
It didn’t. The idol of the Mondstadt could be rather ditzy on occasion,
but at the very least, her treating things lightly did make it easier for him
to adjust to the situation.
“This is new to me,” he answered, trying to not sound intimidated by
the deaconess’s size. She had to be around 4 times larger than him – like one
of Mondstadt’s buildings. He didn’t even come up to her knees. “Are you here
for a break, Barbara?”
For a moment, Barbara paused. She hesitated to answer and when she did,
she glanced away from him. “… It… was getting a bit hectic at the church
because of my fans, so I wanted to hide away here for a while.”
“In a swimsuit?” he raised an eyebrow.
He supposed the realm he had the teapot set to was the Cool Isle.
“… I-I wanted to play too!” she blushed, embarrassed to admit she was
purposefully slacking off.
“Barbara…” the traveler could only look at the deaconess incredulously.
She was quite the free spirit whenever she wanted to cut loose. It was to be
expected from someone from the City of Freedom.
“Hey, don’t give me that look. I knew you’d tease me about it!”
Barbara started pouting, stomping her feet with a huff. While it would
normally be seen as the young deaconess’s cute antics, at his present size,
Barbara was actually lifting her foot above his own head. He was reminded of
the ruin golems that he often had to fight, but he was sure Barbara’s current
size was taller than the clunky machines. She certainly felt stronger than
them.
Slam!
“Whoa!” he had to actively dodge out of the way to avoid getting hurt
by the impact being in the same vicinity as her flip flop’s impact would have
caused.
Hearing his shout caused Barbara to realize what she had done. She took
an immediate step back and apologized. “A-Ah, sorry. This is pretty bad. It’d
be really dangerous if you end up staying like this. I don’t see how you’d be
able to travel at this size.”
He didn’t see how he’d be able to easily either. He could only hope
that Tubby would be able to fix what was wrong with the Teapot soon.
“I didn’t mean to bring the mood down. It’s fine, Miss Tubby said she’s
doing repairs right? You’ll be back to normal before you know it!” Barbara squatted
down to try to get closer to him and reassure him. Even with her knees bent, he
found her knees were still above his head. “But you know… seeing you like this
is really cute~!”
A smile wriggled up on Barbara’s mouth as she brought her hand over to
him. He tensed up as a hand larger than his skull landed on his head. Barbara
was trying to pet him like she would a puppy. Unlike a puppy, though, he was
actually much smaller. Her palm wrapped around his head as she tried to ruffle
his hair. Her ‘gentle’ caress felt rough enough to rattle him.
“Mfffpt!”
“Ehehe~” giggled the enormous girl, oblivious to his trouble. “It’s okay.
This is just for a short time, right? Until then, how about we pass the time?”
It took a moment before Barbara pulled her hand away so he could
breathe and talk. “Pass the time?”
Standing up to her full height, the twin tailed deaconess put her hands
on her hips. “There’s no sense in mulling over things we can’t change, right? Since
you have to stay here until Tubby fixes things, why don’t we relax? This is
your own personal beach, isn’t it?”
“I mean, it is,” he admitted. “But do you really have the time to be
playing around, Barbara?”
He would rather have Barbara leave so he wouldn’t have to deal with
someone many times his present size. This was especially because the deaconess
seemed to just want to fool around.
“Hmph… Do you not want me around?” Barbara realized his intentions and
felt insulted. She huffed. “Well, since I’m the bigger one here, whatever I say
goes, okay?”
“Eh?” To his surprise, Barbara quickly swooped down and wrapped her
hands around his waist. He had no time to react as his body was yanked upwards.
Being baby sized meant he weighed as much as a baby if not less.
“Oh my, you’re really light, Traveler,” the twin tailed girl blinked
twice in surprise as how simple it was to pick him up. “I was just joking
before, but I guess it really will end up being ‘whatever I say goes.’”
“Hey Barba- Mfft!” he was silenced when the young deaconess pulled him
close with a hug. His whole body was pressed firmly against the sleek fabric of
the blue swimsuit behind the white frills. She was holding him right above her
stomach the same way a child would hold a stuffed toy. The warmth of her body
spread into him from of her that touched him.
“La~ La la la la~ La ~La~”
Of course, the contact didn’t stop there. Barbara started to move. His
shrunken body could feel the strong movements of the girl holding him in her
arms. Every step she took reverberated through his body as she carried him onto
the sand and into the water.
“Here we go!” He heard her say before the tight grip she had on him suddenly
vanished. In an instant, he fell past her stomach and down her legs until he
hit water.
Splash!
“Gah. Bleagh!” he spat out the salty beach water before glancing up at
Barbara who was happily looking down at him while getting her feet and ankles
wet. Water that was half way up her knees was already up to his waist.
“Hehe~!” she giggled. “Let’s play to loosen up a little. You have a
whole beach here. No sense in letting it go to waste! Take this!”
Bending down, the swimsuit clad deaconess cupped her hands and scooped
up some water. She flung the water out of her hands in his direction, aiming to
splash him in the face. He was caught off guard by the sudden spray of water
that had the force of one of her catalyst-based strikes. He had to put up his
guard to keep himself from getting knocked over… only to lose his footing on
the sand.
“Wah-!”
Splash!
“Whoops. Sorr- Ufufu~!” Barbara was about to apologize when he got his
head out of the water again, but couldn’t stop herself from laughing. “Teehee, are
you swimming already??”
Swimming? He didn’t think about it until she had said so, but he was
already treading water. There was a slope in the sandy beach so it had gotten
deep where he had fallen back. His feet could no longer reach the ground. As
Barbara approached, he found himself pushed further out too. Where the
deaconess could stand, he was expending his own stamina to remain afloat.
“Even Klee would be able to stand here,” Barbara noted. She tried to
keep a straight face but she couldn’t keep herself from having a giggle fit.
“I’m more around Dodoco’s level, aren’t I?” He was much smaller than
Klee at that point after all. I don’t think it’d be good if I stay in the water
for too long.”
“I guess you’re right. It’d be dangerous if you drift out,” Barbara
nodded, a little disappointed to see him swimming around her legs. “Hm… Oh, I
know what we can do then.”
He wasn’t sure what Barbara had in mind since he was focusing more on
getting back onto land before he got too tired. He didn’t turn his head until
she shouted at him.
“Traveler! Catch!”
“Hm…? Mgk!”
The moment he had turned in Barbara’s direction, his vision was filled
with what he thought was a diving giant Hydro Slime. It was too late for him to
dash out of the way and evade. He was smacked right in the head with a beach ball
as big as he was and knocked down to the ground once again.
“Huh? Uwah. Sorry, I thought you’d catch that,” Barbara ran over,
realizing her playful action had actually hurt the Traveler. She knelt down to
look over him, covering his body in her shadow. “Oh my, was it that bad? You
actually got hurt. I’ll heal you right up.”
“That was a surprise attack,” he mumbled as the deaconess took care of
his bruised head. He was honestly not sure if it had been a beach ball she
threw, but that was because of its sheer size in comparison to him. “Did you
really think I’d catch this?”
After she properly healed him, Barbara sat down, pulling the beach ball
towards her. She held it against her stomach and noted how close in size he and
the ball were. “A-Ah. Sorry, I guess I didn’t think it through.”
“Do you usually? This might be why Rosaria keeps an eye on you a lot,”
he sighed, musing that Barbara’s clumsiness must have caused the other church
sister plenty of trouble before. It certainly was causing him trouble now.
“Hey, that’s mean,” the deaconess pouted. The traveler was teasing her
again, but this time he really hit a nerve. “And just who needs keeping an eye
on right now?”
“… I can still handle myself,” he hesitated to answer because the
shadow of the huffing deaconess actually intimidated the traveler. Even seated
on the sand, she still towered over him.
“Are you sure?” To try and prove her point, Barbara shoved her beach
ball toward him. This time, he was ready to brace himself, but the enormous boulder
of a sphere needed both hands for him to hold in place. He couldn’t wrap all of
his arms around it, but, but the moment she let go, he found himself surprised
by its weight. Everything around him was over four times bigger but also
magnitudes heavier.
“Oof,” he ended up showing his weakness by grunting and stumbling back.
“Hm? Is it too heavy for you?” the twin tailed girl teased, seeing his
struggle.
“N-no… Just unexpected,” he tried to maintain his pride, but that was difficult
when it was clear he had to put down the boulder of a beach ball before he lost
his grip. It became impossible when Barbara stood back up to her full height,
her long bare legs rising above him even higher than hilichurl towers. With one
hand, she grabbed the heavy traveler-sized beach ball and lifted it high up
above his head.
“No lying, Traveler,” she giggled, effortless tossing the ball over her
shoulder. “You’re not in any position to be making fun of me now, are you?”
She was right. He only ever poked fun at Barbara’s reliability and
airheaded-ness because she couldn’t strongly retaliate, but at his current
size, it was easy for her to do so. The situation between them had been
completely reversed.
“I wonder how long it’d be until you get as tall as I am,” the
deaconess teased, putting her hand on her head and holding it above his to
highlight the difference between them. Even if he jumped, he wouldn’t be able
to reach her hand. “It’s not often that I’m taller than someone. This feels
nice.”
She had initially intended to only get back at him for his snide
remark, but considering how often she compared her height to her sister’s
height, Barbara was finding teasing the traveler over his height to be far more
enjoyable than she had expected.
Rumble! Rumble!
“Hyah!”
“……!?” before he could say anything, the entire landscape seemed to
shake. Was it an earthquake? No, they were in a teapot. What could possibly
cause the land to move?
Vhrm!
The answer to that question was actually very simple. Tubby had told
him that she would be trying to fix the problem; however, much to his dismay,
the shaking was not a sign of a successful fix. All of a sudden, during the
shaking, his eye level dropped, sinking further down Barbara’s knees.
Everything around him doubled in size.
“Oh no.” He realized Tubby must have made an error.
Unfortunately, getting smaller actually wasn’t the biggest danger to
him at that moment. Because of the shaking landscape, Barbara had lost her
footing. She took a step back and her foot landed on top of the beach ball she
had dropped behind her.
“W-Wah!”
“Huh?”
The Traveler’s vision abruptly became filled with the blue of Barbara’s
swimsuit and the peach of the girl’s enormous behind which fell upon him.
Whaaaam!
“Mgff!” Before he knew it, the Traveler’s body was suddenly pressed
down into the sand as Barbara’s body fell atop his now 20 cm form. Even
Azhdaha’s girth paled in comparison to the weight pinning him down at that
moment. He couldn’t breathe nor see. He couldn’t even move his arms and legs
under the pressure of the deaconess’s weight.
“Ouch. My butt. What was with that shaking just now?” Barbara’s words
were felt by his body rather than heard. She had fallen hard onto the sand, her
butt landing directly on top of him. “Traveler?”
As she was looking for the previously 40 cm tall traveler, Barbara
thought he had disappeared all of a sudden after the quake. Looking left and
right, she tried to find him. Unfortunately, due to his even more miniscule
weight now, she hadn’t realized she was on top of him. The traveler was forced
to endure the force of Barbara’s every movement increasing and decreasing the
weight crushing him.
“Hm? That’s strange. He was here just a second ago.”
He was right there. There had to be some way to get her to notice him,
but no matter what he did, Barbara’s weight pushed him further and further down
into the sand. Between the sandy prison and Barbara’s round behind, he was
completely restrained.
“Bmmpff…” Even trying to speak was impossible for the tiny Traveler.
Only when Barbara shifted her sitting position one more time was the Traveler
to see light or rather, shadow… along with more of the blue color of the
deaconess’s swimsuit. “This is…”
He had known he was beneath Barbara’s immense rear end, but his head
now was flanked on both sides by the massive peach colored walls that were her
thighs. The rest of his body was being held down by the girl’s crotch – the
blue fabric of her swimsuit firmly pressing down onto his body.
“Traveler? Where’d you go?”
“D… Down here…” he struggled to respond.
“Huh?” his voice finally was heard by the girl. Looking down, her eyes
widened upon seeing him. “What the-? W-What
are you doing there, Traveler?”
“…You’re the one who fell on me.”
“Sorry,” the deaconess apologized, but she did not move off of him.
“But wow. Did you get smaller? You look like a baby Cicin right now.”
“And you look even bigger than a Ruin Guard… Can you get off me? You’re
really heavy,” he groaned. The Traveler should have picked his words more
carefully, but he was too tired to.
“Heavy?” Barbara huffed. The idol-like deaconess wouldn’t tolerate the
insult. Even worse for him though, her legs pressed together while pouting. His
head and torso were clamped and pressed on both sides by her mighty thighs. “It’s
rude to call a girl heavy, Traveler.”
“Mghhf!” the shrunken adventurer grunted and struggled to free his head
to speak. Even if she wasn’t consciously trying to pin him down, her entire
body was capable of sealing him in place.
“Wow, I think you’re the one who
got super light. I don’t even feel you there,” the twin-tailed idol realized
how miniscule he had gotten. Though she was concerned, she also couldn’t resist
giggling. “You look like a doll down here, Traveler. I think Diona might
mistake you for a rat.”
That would be another concern if the catty bartender was around. Having
Barbara around was apparently enough trouble as is for him.
“Fufu~! Maybe I’ll just keep you here until you apologize.”
She was having too much fun getting back at his remarks by physically
overwhelming him. Until Tubby got him back to normal, he was going to keep
being toyed with by Barbara until she was satisfied.
… Or at least until she as embarrassed.
“My apologies. I might have made a temporary erro…” He suddenly heard
the teapot spirit whose voice drifted off. “O-Oh my! I see that I’m in the way.”
“T-Tubby?!” Barbara saw the teapot spirit. Her entire body twisted to
the left as she turned to see Tubby. With his body between her legs, he was
jerked along with her.
“Sorry for intruding on your
private time. I’ll just get back to my task and leave you two to it.” From what
he could tell, Tubby quickly ran off as suddenly as she came
“Private time?”
Barbara took a moment to process that the teapot spirit meant, but the
moment she realized, her entire face turned tomato red. She looked down at the
Traveler and then, finally, released him by jumping up onto both feet with a
heavy impact.
“Wait, it’s a misunderstanding!” The swimsuit clad deaconess ran off to
clear up what Tubby had seen and misinterpreted.
With the heavy footfalls of the titanic girl getting lighter as she ran
off, the shrunken traveler was finally able to breathe properly. He was finally
freed. To have been so easily toyed with by his ally because he was so small…
Being tiny was truly dangerous.
“… Just how much longer until I can change back?”