Within a humble-looking spa somewhere in Tokyo was a tall and attractive woman casually sweeping the floor as her staff prepared for another day of work. It was just before opening and the newest employee, Hiro, found himself nestled within the front pocket of her apron as she got ready to open. He may have been pressed up against her very well-endowed chest, but there was another thing making him nervous. The little guy wasn't averse to his new job there but he still wasn't used to it either. As she tied her hair up into a ponytail and flipped the close sign to open, Hiro got a bad feeling about what customers would be coming in.
"Look, kid. I get that it's a scary job but you shivering like a freak against my tit is startin' to get pretty annoying." Brash and tomboyish, as always she had no problem airing out such personal details to her newest (and only) male employee.
"Sorry, I'm just super nervous for today, Boss. I've got a super bad feeling." Hiro yelled up to her, peeking his head over the edge of her apron pocket, only to be picked up soon after.
"Kid..." Bringing Hiro up to her face, she stared at him with a look of confidence. Her massive dark brown eyes intimidated the hell out of him, but they were oddly comforting at the same time. "You've got nothin' to be nervous about. You're a natural at this shit, so stop being such a scaredy-cat."
Overhearing their conversation, one of the spa's pedicurists, a "seemingly" sweet girl by the name of Kyoko Kaname, Decided to also give the little guy some words of encouragement.
"Yeah! You got this Hiro!" She cheered, her smile filling him with a bit of confidence. "And once our shift’s over I’ll take you to dinner to reward you for your hard work, hehe~"
Winking, she placed him back into Boss’s apron and went back to her station. While it was a pretty shallow reason, just thinking about dating such a cute girl was more than enough to motivate Hiro. Taking a deep breath, the tiny boy calmed himself down and stared at the door with confidence flowing through his veins. However, as the door swung open and a familiar face walked through the door that confidence quickly evaporated into thin air.
"Heya!!" Walking into the spa was a girl with pink twin tails. Wearing her track and field jacket, the girl that had completely erased his confidence was a returning customer that Hiro had a particularly scary experience with. Smiling smugly towards Boss and her tiny passenger, she waved at the two of them while walking closer.
“It’s so awesome to see ya again little guy.” She giggled, watching Hiro sink back into the apron pocket. Unlike the first time she handed him over to the girl, Boss actually put her foot down. While it was indeed Hiro’s job to satisfy a customer’s stress relief needs, it was clear that the girl had gone way too far during her last visit and it was the Boss’s responsibility to stand up for her employees.
“Look here girly, if you think you show your face here again after what you did to the kid, you’ve got another thing coming.” Cracking her knuckles she shot the smug teen with a very intense and menacing glare. Backing up, with a nervous laugh, the pink-haired girl very quickly pleaded her case with the Boss.
“This is a seriously important issue though, I swear!” She exclaimed, getting on her knees. “If you don’t help us out then our team’s not gonna make it to nationals!”
“Us?” Kyoko asked, peeking into the waiting room.
“Yeah… as much as I hate it, I’m very aware that I’m banned from this spa, but our captain isn’t.” She said, impatiently looking at her watch. “She had this real nasty break up and she keeps saying that it doesn’t bother her, but everyone on the team can tell that it definitely does. She’s been seriously underperforming and worst of all, she won’t even hang out or, like, talk to us. As rough as I may have been, that little guy seriously helped out last time I was here, and even if we don’t make it to nationals… I at least want her to be able to move it.” The girl said, tearing up slightly.
“Look, I’m sorry to hear that but if all the girl’s in your little clique are as bad as you then there ain’t a chance in hell I’ll let him—” Before Boss could finish her sentence, Hiro poked his head up from her apron pocket and very boldly accepted the girl’s request.
“I’ll do it!” He yelled very hesitantly. He knew full well that it was a dumb decision, but his nature just wouldn’t let something potentially serious pass him by, even if he ended up regretting it later. Hearing his compliance, the girl couldn’t seem happier. Wiping her tears, she practically jumped with joy before peeking her head out of the shop.
“Oh crap, she’s almost here. Please give her the usual spiel, I really don’t want her to know that I gossiped about her to complete strangers.” Pausing to remember what she did to Hiro last time, the girl quickly smirked. “Well, not complete strangers but that’s beside the point! Either way, just some words of advice, Ryuuki’s a little…” By the time the girl could finish struggling to find the right words, the door had already flung open and their new client stepped inside.
“Scary! That’s the right word, yep.” Nodding her head, she failed to notice the almost 6’5” monster of a high school student. Short dark brown hair and piercing green eyes, the tall track captain strode into the spa almost hitting her head in the door frame. Pretty much everyone who saw her was almost speechless. Boss was already super tall to most of the staff, but seeing this random high school girl stand a head taller than her was pretty intimidating. Despite all the earlier theatrics, Hiro was way more terrified than he thought was possible. After some standard greetings and some peer pressure from her friend, Ryuuki eventually agreed to a 2-hour "stress relief session."
Leaving her beat-up running shoes by the door, Boss led Ryuuki into one of the private rooms before dropping her tiny employee off so the two of them could enjoy some "alone time." Shivering with fear, Hiro stood on the soft floor of the recently refurbished "massage room #1." While he had treated guests many times before within the room, or rather while guests treated themselves with him, Hiro had never felt more intimidated. He had dealt with stressed-out college and high school students before but despite the girl in front of him being yet another one of them, it was clear that this would be the most difficult customer.
"God, what a waste of my damn time." She snarled, her voice bouncing off the walls of the small room as she stomped menacingly towards the cowering little guy. Backing away, Hiro couldn’t explain why but something felt wrong about this whole situation. "Is beating up on some masochistic little shrimp supposed to make me feel better or somethin?!" From a glance, it was easy to see how much rage had been building up inside her, and in almost an instant, Hiro felt the full force of that rage as Ryuuki kicked him as hard as she could. It felt like a missile had hit him dead on, and its “explosion” had sent the poor guy flying.
After almost a month of working as the spa's living stress toy, Ryuuki's kick was by far the most painful experience. It was a miracle that he survived even the first day of this job, not to mention the countless life-threatening situations that followed after. Whether it was being stepped on by the high heel of a stressed-out office lady or stuffed inside the shoe of a college girl during exam season, Hiro always found a way to get back up uninjured, Ryuuki’s kick was no exception. Every experience still hurt like hell though so it wasn’t exactly a blessing, but despite all the pain, Hiro always felt happy knowing that he was helping people out. While thinking about all the past customers, Hiro finally understood why it felt so wrong. Writhing in pain near the corner of the room, Hiro stared at the girl with blurred vision. Even if he spent a year as her personal stress toy, it wasn’t going to help. Stress wasn’t the problem and letting her vent out all her anger was not going to help either. If Hiro wanted to actually help, he needed to handle her delicately, but given how violent Ryuuki was, it was going to be quite the uphill battle, to say the least…
Eventually recovering from the shock of being kicked, Hiro stumbled to his feet dreadfully bracing himself for what was to come. Ryuuki’s shadow draped over the poor guy and before he could even begin trying to convince her, she continued to go on the offensive. Staring up into the heavens, Hiro saw her tattered and stained socked foot quickly descend onto him. Before long, with a deafening crash, he was buried under her smelly foot as she began grinding him into the padded floor. Sweat slowly drenched his entire body, eventually creeping its way into his mouth. The smell was almost bad enough to knock him out and before he passed out from suffocation, Ryuuki had lifted her foot.
"Please wait." Hiro coughed. "Can I just say something before you—" Barred from finishing his sentence, Hiro was subjected to underfoot hell as Ryuuki brought the toe of her other foot down onto his helpless body. Proceeding to grind his body into the ground like a burnt-out cigarette, Hiro was starting to get real familiar with the underside of Ryuuki's socks. Every piece of sock lint, thin loose thread or tear, and most of all, the horribly intense odor. Hiro could've been halfway across the room, or heck, even in the next room over, and he could still smell them. Even the "sportiest" of past customers couldn't compare, and if she kept trying to suffocate him with the smell of her socks, Hiro feared that he'd no longer be able to remember those past customers.
Banging and struggling under her toe like a worm, Hiro desperately tried not to faint hoping that he could somehow find an opportunity to actually put his skills to use. While he did consider licking as a last resort option, there was no way she'd feel it through her heavily worn gym socks. As his vision began to fade, a sudden flood of light blinded Hiro. Waiting for his eyes to readjust, he was sad to learn that it wasn't the after-life but instead it was Ryuuki. Standing over him with a slightly less angry look of annoyance. Sighing, she fell back onto the padded floor and placed her legs on either side of the durable tiny. Trying to recover fast so he could get a word in, Hiro was, yet again, interrupted.
“How much do you get paid?" She asked, poking and prodding at his exhausted body with her index finger. Before Hiro could respond, his voice was drowned out as Ryuuki started to talk again. "What dumb question. I bet you do it for free!" At first, Hiro thought that she was finally winding down but it became very evident that this was undoubtedly the start of a rant. And the poor guy was not looking forward to how it would escalate.
"Silently getting off as unsuspecting girls use you to 'relieve stress?' What a load of bullshit. Why the hell would anyone but a masochistic little bug like you take such a shitty job anyway? And that shady middle-aged scam artist of a boss of yours has the gall to charge Uehara just to satisfy some little perverts fetish.” With every sentence, her voice became angrier and her body language became more and more intense. "In fact, you should be the one paying me because… whatever hogwash ‘stress relief’ crap you're trying to pull has not helped in the slightest!!!" She shouted, her breathing got heavier and her eyes began to water. In a fit of rage or some other outburst of emotion, Ryuuki slammed her fist down mere centimeters away from Hiro, nearly smashing him. It was almost like an explosion. He could've sworn he had felt a shock wave and the deafening slam was enough to make his ears ring for a few moments.
Gathering up all his courage, he stared back at the furious girl. A cold sweat ran down his spine and his legs quivered in fear. However scared he may have been, Ryuuki’s outburst had confirmed all his suspicions. This was the perfect moment for him and he couldn’t afford to waste it. Taking a deep breath, he hastily composed himself and poured his heart out to Ryuuki.
“Because you aren’t stressed.” He said, still shivering in fear.
“Huh?!” Raising her voice, she leaned in closer. Hiro probably should’ve led with a more precise statement but he was happy to actually be heard for once. That is until he tried to go into more detail about things.
“And you know how? Look jackass, if you think I’m listening to some shrimp tell me about my feelings.”
“Look I get it. Break-ups are really messy and your emotions are probably all over the place but, despite how angry you may be feeling, blowing off steam isn’t always the best option.l—” Slowly realizing his mistake, Hiro turned the other way around and started running for his life. From behind, he could hear how angry Ryuuki had gotten and in front of him, he could see her feet begin to close in on him. Before long he was tightly sandwiched between both her heels as she attempted to turn him into a fine paste. Applying more and more pressure, sweat began oozing from the tattered socks, and thanks to Hiro struggling to breathe all that sweat fell right into his mouth. Once again, the intense salty liquid coated every “micro-inch” of his mouth, He gagged, and almost threw up but he knew full well it was his fault. As he mulled it over in his head, it occurred to him that it was probably best that she found out now rather than later.
"So, who told you?! You better tell me before I rip your shrimp body to shreds— oh wait…" Face palming, she split her heels apart allowing Hiro to fall onto the ground. Coughing and catching his breath, he was happy knowing things were unfolding relatively well. "Tch, that blabbermouth. Uehara really set this whole thing up, huh? Tell me everything she said… or else." She threatened, hovering her foot over him. Whilst cowering under the shadow of Ryuuki’s toes, Hiro decided it was time to go on the offensive. He stood his ground, hoping that she wouldn’t stand him. It was yet another stupid decision. Even if he couldn’t care less about ratting Uehara out to Ryuuki, Hiro was dead set on helping her.
“It doesn’t matter what she told me. I know enough. You already acknowledged that the stress relief treatment isn’t for you, so how about we get down to the source.” Preemptively bracing himself, Hiro was very pleased to know that he wasn’t plastered to the bottom of her sock again. Pleased enough to keep on trucking along. “You’re allowed to be sad, you know.” He said trying to get a good look at her face, only to be caught off guard as Ryuuki finally put her foot down… literally.
“Am I really?!” She said, her voice quivering. “Have you seen me? Do you know what I am to other people?! To my team?!! I am not someone who’s supposed to start acting like a wimp over getting dumped by my first crush.”
Aside from being stuck under her foot, Hiro was a temporary loss for words. He figured this was how she’d react and was happy that he at least made some progress, but this was the first time someone had “opened up to him” in person. He’s read notes about behaviors, seen testimonies, and offered his help to people over text or phone, but hearing the pain in her voice made him all the more motivated to help her.
“I am a leader. When all else fails, I'm the person people depend on. I can't afford to be so… vulnerable." She sighed, pulling up a chair. "But here I am now, ranting about all this shit to some guy stuck to the bottom of my foot." Lifting her foot onto her lap, she pried him off her sock and placed Hiro on the top of her foot.
"Carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders is admirable, but as a leader are you sure that weight isn't holding your team back? Your teammates know about the breakup, I assume, have they been trying to cheer you up?" Hiro needed to get a feel of her whole situation before he could go further. Despite reading the room surprisingly well, taking things on the safer side couldn't hurt.
"Yeah, obviously. That's literally the reason I'm here, genius." She snarked, holding her head in her hands. "Aside from that, they've been giving me the usual stuff. They keep telling me 'there's plenty of fish in the sea' and 'that I'll find someone else soon' but it's all bullcrap!" She slammed her fist onto her lap, almost knocking Hiro off her foot.
"You need to be honest…" Hiro said.
"What? Do you think I'm lying—"
"Honest to yourself and your teammates. They're your friends, right? Why do you have to hide how you feel? Are you afraid that they'll take advantage of you?" Placing his hand on her big toe, he tried his best to simulate someone putting their hand on someone's shoulder.
"Of course not, the girls aren't like that, not in the slightest. It's just… I'm scared. I'm supposed to be strong and cool-headed, but that's not who I am, at least not now. They look up to me and I'm scared." Tears welled up in her eyes, dripping down her face and nearly hitting Hiro as they fell down to the floor.
"It's ok to be scared. I mean, look at me." He said, looking down at his nervous hands. "If you can express your emotions 'to some guy stuck to the bottom of your foot' then you should have no problems doing the same with the people who care about you the most. It's ok if you cry, or get mad because no one should suffer through pain alone." Giving her big toe a hug, he was so glad he was able to get through all that without gagging. And before he could stop hugging, he felt the massive force of her finger push him harder and deeper into the fabric of her sock. While it was disgusting, Hiro believed it was her way of hugging him back. When she finally lifted her finger, Ryuuki placed him back on the floor.
"You're a real weirdo, uh…"
"Hiro. Masumi Hiro."
"Thank you so much for talking, and sorry for being so rough, Hiro." She smiled, walking towards the door. Taking a moment to feel proud of himself, Hiro collapsed onto the floor and stared up at the ceiling. He felt so accomplished, a rush of happiness was coursing through him and nothing could bring him down… that is until he heard the boss's voice.
"You know you still have an hour left, right?" She said, sending a chill down Hiro's spine. Whenever a customer would want to leave early, he knew exactly what the boss would suggest.
"Oh no, I'm pretty satisfied with—"
"Even so, the station is quite a long walk from here. You should take advantage of the extra time and kick those socks off so the little guy can give you a massage. Everyone says he's super good at them so it'd be a shame not to try it, right?" She chuckled, before leaning in to whisper something. "And plus…"
"Ohhh, I see. That actually makes a lot of sense. Well, I guess it couldn't hurt." Going back into the room, she closed the door behind her and plopped herself down onto the padded floor. Peeling off her socks, Hiro was hit with what was essentially a heatwave. Sweat and loose sock lint covered every inch of her giant feet. "Get to it, Hiro. Oh and sorry about the smell… though I'm sure it doesn't bother you that much, right?" She winked.