It’s a rainy night at The Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles. The rain pittered down on the rooftop, echoing across the rooms for all to hear. Well…for most to hear anyway. Two of the residents at the academy - Shuichi Saihara and Kaede Akamatsu - decided to spend their night in the library for research purposes. Halloween was coming soon, and the two of them had yet to decide on costumes to wear for the Halloween Gala that the student council was preparing. With only three days left, they needed to decide on something tonight so Tsumugi would have enough time to make their outfits. With the goal in mind, the two nodded as they split up to search the room littered with thousands of books.

Shuichi wasn’t having much luck on his part searching the west wing of the library. As the academy is a top-notch school for students with incredible talents, there aren’t many books around meant for leisurely purposes. “Let me see…”Shot Put for Beginners”, “How to Tie a Ropeway”, “The History of Seesaws”...none of these seem useful.” The detective said aloud to himself, rummaging through the bookcases. That was another thing making the task so difficult, all the books were unorganized. None of them were in alphabetical order, nor were they following a Dewey decimal system…or any system at all for that matter. But they could stay up all night searching for something anyways. There was a time limit, but a rather lax one.

Kaede was also struggling to seek out some answers. The books were covered in dust, meaning she would have to stop and brush the spines to be able to get a legible look at what they are about. She dribbled her fingers across the leather covers, as if she were playing a piano, until her tips stumbled across one book that was different from the rest. This book was completely white, and there wasn’t even a single speck of dust on it, like it was brand new. Curious as to what she discovered, Kaede pulled the book out from the case and glanced at the title.

“Episodes of an Underleveled Ultimate…what a weird title.” Kaede spoke to herself, inspecting the outside appearance some more. There was nothing written on the back, and the only words on it were those of the title. Not even an author was listed. Everything about this screamed suspicious. But thankfully, she had the Ultimate Detective on her side to solve this mystery. With the book in hand, she strolled over to where Shuichi was still searching and tapped him on the shoulder. “Hey Shuichi, I think I found something…”

Shuichi turned around, raising an eyebrow as this was the first sign of anything useful. He took the book out from Kaede’s hands and looked over it as well, noticing the same things she did earlier. “Do you think someone may have planted this for us?” He asked, pointing out just how obvious this is in the first place.

“No idea. But still, do you think we should read it? We may be able to brainstorm some costumes if we do.” Kaede asked, justifying her curiosity. Shuichi nodded and opened the book, turning to the first page filled with other words. He placed the book on the nearby table and took a seat, Kaede following behind and pulling up a chair to sit beside him. The two stayed silent as they read to themselves the contents revealed.

Hidden away in one of the empty rooms on the third floor of the academy, a secret ceremony was taking place. Thousands of men and women were being led down a dark alleyway with no end in sight. Leading the charge of this group of people was Korekiyo Shinguji, the Ultimate Anthropologist. As an Ultimate, everyone in the group respected him and his knowledge of tales. And tonight was one of the biggest tales of all, as he would lead these people to a place where he could speak to the afterlife.

The walk to this ritual ground was a daunting one. The whole time everything was pitch black, and the ground they tread on was damp, as if walking through a swamp. People were constantly smacking their heads on huge rocks they couldn’t even see, and tripping over each other causing them to fall to the ground, coating their entire bodies in the wet substance. Even though the journey was miserable, they still followed their leader whom they all trusted. But under the mask, Korekiyo had a wicked grin.

Three days ago, another secret ceremony was being held in the room of the Ultimate Maid, Kirumi Tojo. But instead of a ceremony, it was a…unique discussion.

“So you want me to grab one of Angie’s shoes, get Miu to make a shrinking device, and then shrink you and a bunch of others to make a haunted house for you to host a seance?” Kirumi questioned in a monotone voice.

“Yes, and also I will need you to provide the ambiance as well.” Kiyo responded, sipping some tea as they made arrangements.

“It is a strange request, but as the Ultimate Maid, I shall do my best to uphold it.”

--------------------------

Back in the present, Kirumi now sits in the almost empty room. She had brought a small light and a book to keep herself occupied, as the only thing else in the room was one of Angie’s shoes sitting in the middle of the room. She had already fulfilled most of her request, shrinking a bunch of people down to the size of dust mites and depositing them in the shoe with Kiyo. All that was left was to provide some frights to the people trapped inside. She closed the book and stood up, setting her book down on the chair. Very slowly, she took a step right beside the discarded shoe, and then another. For the people trapped inside, the steps of Kirumi’s boots slapping against the ground made it sound like constant thunderstorms for the frightened folks. The tremors of her steps caused even more to fall down against the damp surface of Angie’s insole, and others to get caught against the huge mounds of lint stuck in the shoe.

For the maid, it was time to step up the scares to a new level. She slowly approached the mouth of the shoe and bent down, lowering her head as close as she could to the entrance. Part of her felt a little humiliated doing this, but those stuck inside had it a whole lot worse. Kirumi gulped, forming a huge glob of saliva in her mouth. With her spit primed, she pursed her lips a bit, letting that sticky liquid ooze from her mouth, dumping right inside the cage that is now a problem for the residents of that shoe.

Behind the crowd of people, they could hear something rapidly approaching them. But in this darkness, it was impossible to tell what it was until it was too late. A vast ocean of saliva flooded down the sole of the shoe, swallowing people as it sank deeper down inside. The mite sized people could only scream in terror as they were washed away into the unknown. Those more athletic tried to swim away, but the thickness of the liquid was too strong for their puny bodies to handle. The strong acidic feel to the gooey drool mixed with the salty sweat from Angie’s insole caused their eyes to burn from the intensity of the liquids. Mixed with the cuts formed on their body from the sudden rush of the heavy water, those unfortunate enough to get caught felt their bodies dissolve, melting them down into a pool of liquid to become a part of the more superior body of water that was Kirumi’s saliva before they could even drown. Kiyo was taken aback, not predicting this to be a part of his plan at all. And now he, too, was at risk of meeting the same gloomy fate. He quickly gave up on his plans now as most of the people who came to meet ghosts were quickly turning into them instead. But at his size, there wasn’t anywhere for him to escape, so he quickly hightailed it down the shoe, doing his best to try and reach the toe section, waiting things out until the maid could free him.

Up above in the normal world, Kirumi smirked, feeling as if she did a good job really sending shivers down their spines, completely unaware of the fact that she had slaughtered hundreds with a single action. But then, disaster struck for her too as something she didn’t account for happened.

The door to the empty room swung open, revealing Angie wearing only one shoe. There was no reason for anyone to come into these empty rooms unless they were looking for something. And as it turned out, she was looking for something rather apparent to her.

“Oh Kirumi, you found my shoe for me! May Atua bless your soul.” Angie praised the maid, completely oblivious to what was truly going on in this room. The maid tried to speak up, but she was too late as the energetic artist girl sprang into action, leaping across the room and raced to her shoe, quickly sliding her right bare foot into it.

Korekiyo panicked, as well as the few survivors that managed to avoid the tsunami of drool, as they all heard the deafening voice ring out high in the sky above them. The world-shattering stomps caused the microscopic people to trip over themselves, barely making any progress before the true owner of the shoe finally arrived home. As the titanic foot shifted forward, it quickly squashed those that were caught in its path, turning those poor souls into little red dots on the bottom of her toes. Their limbs were all mangled up now, and their guts all mushed together and formed an incohesive glob that didn’t even look remotely human now. The only saving grace from this was that it was too dark to see the massacre taking place below her foot. Kiyo kept racing, hoping to escape this deadly force and hide out in the safety of the end gap in the shoe. But at his size, all hope was lost as he wasn’t even halfway across the sole. Just like that, Angie’s foot quickly caught up to him, causing the leader of the group to wind up underneath the ball of Angie’s foot. He let out a horrified shriek as he felt his bones crumble to dust under the sheer weight of the foot. His guts and organs compressed into one another, mixing itself in with the skin on his outer body. He could feel his body compact itself into one of the canyon sized wrinkles, merging to become one with the bottom of her foot. The wrinkle was stronger than his whole body, cutting off his limbs from a simple twitch, leaving him to bleed all over the place. For Kiyo, it felt like an eternity in hell with what he was experiencing. But yet, this all happened in less than a second as the anthropologist soon joined the world of the undead he loved so much.

“Hmm…it’s kind of wet. Oh well!” Angie stated, wiggling her foot around to feel the inside of her shoe. Most of that wet, sticky feeling came from Kirumi’s drool, but there was a hint of something mushier, as now the artist had thousands of crumpled up bodies stuck to her sole. But she would be none the wiser as she quickly turned around and skipped out of the room, leaving Kirumi in complete shock as to what just happened. But they never agreed to letting them out in the first place, so as far as she could tell, her request was complete.

—-----------------------------------

Shuichi just stared down at the pages with a blank expression on his face as he finished reading the chapter. His fingers were already pinched between the sheets to flip to the next page, but his mind came to a halt trying to process what he just saw. After a long pause of silence, he finally lifted his head up to turn to Kaede, who had already been looking over at him to try and gauge his reaction.

“What…was that?” Shuichi finally spoke up, still baffled at that story. “Why was Kirumi, Angie, and Kiyo all in this? And then this whole…shrinking thing. It makes no sense.” His detective brain was hard at work trying to piece things together. One thing was for sure, that this was a work of fiction as he had seen Kiyo alive and well earlier in the lunchroom for their morning breakfast.

All Kaede could do was smile. She reeled her arm back, and smacked Shuichi in his back, trying to bring him back to reality. The spaced out boy let out a gasp from the force, which led to a friendly giggle from the pianist. “Well…it was a pretty creepy story. But that’s what we came in here to look for anyways, something creepy for the Halloween spirit!” Kaede cheered, doing her best to stay optimistic after reading something so gruesome. “But I don’t think dressing as Angie’s shoe lint would make for a great costume so…let’s keep reading! Maybe the next story will be better.”

Shuichi sat back up after that playful smack, staring back into Kaede’s pleasant smile. He felt like with that kind of energy around him, he could do anything. “Alright, let’s do it.” He accepted, finally turning to the next page. His heart was pounding now, not really sure what to expect after a strange and twisted tale like that. But one look at the title showed that things weren’t going to get better anytime soon.

With the Gala coming soon, the student council needed a way to raise some funds to decorate the gymnasium. The five members - Gonta, Tenko, Angie, Keebo, and Himiko - all gathered in Angie’s research lab to brainstorm some ideas…but they were all shot down pretty fast. Keebo wanted to host a karaoke contest, which was denied after hearing the robot sing. Gonta wanted to display his bug collection, but was denied by the girls in a majority vote. Angie wanted to have an art gallery, but after hearing what all she wanted to make, was declined due to how much all that would cost.

Running out of ideas, Tenko glanced over at Himiko, who seemed spaced out from the conversation, and that’s when she got a brilliant idea. “How about a magic show?!” The energetic aikido master spoke up. Everyone then turned their eyes to the magician in the room, then back to each other to discuss it some more. But it didn’t take long to come to an agreement, as all they would have to do is set up a stage and let Himiko work her magic.

Once they settled on the plan, the student council split up to work on their tasks. Angie got Kirumi to help set up the stage, Gonta was able to convince Kaito to help sell tickets around town, which left Tenko to work on a little trick of her own. Grabbing Keebo, she dragged him away to Miu’s lab, discussing her plan for the show with her. Loving the idea, Miu kept Keebo in her lab to make some adjustments to his robo body. With everything now squared away, all Tenko had to do now was wait for the show.

Three days later, and the big day had finally come. Thousands of people had shown up, as it was a luxury to bear witness to the skills of an Ultimate. Tenko stood at the door to the gym to collect the tickets, doing her best to contain her excitement for what was to come. As soon as the last person walked into the gym, Miu had finally shown up, with Keebo by her side. The inventor looked exhausted, like she had just pulled several all-nighters to get this prepared. As soon as Tenko got her hands on her robo-accomplice, Miu passed out right there in the hallway, her job was done.

Backstage, Himiko was shaking in her boots. Performing for a crowd this large was much different than just doing a show for fun for her fifteen other friends. The nervous magician peeked around the curtain as the commotion of the people echoed throughout the gym, enjoying the concessions of free punch and bowls of candy that Angie had prepared. Himiko calmed herself by using some deep breathing exercises Tenko had taught her. Now she was ready to perform for these people and put a big smile on their faces, unaware that someone else had a much different plan.

The lights in the gym grew dark as Himiko made her way center stage. Once in position, a spotlight shined down on her, illuminating her for the whole crowd to see. While the audience clapped upon her arrival, she used that downtime to steel herself some more, not wanting the last three days of practice to go to waste.

“Prepare to be amazed, fall to your knees. I, the great Himiko Yumeno, shall perform a trick you’ve never seen before!” Himiko announced to the crowd, holding her arms out and waving them around like any good performer would do. “What you all are about to see is a brand new trick, where I will make you - the audience - disappear!”

The whole crowd let out a shocked gasp, it was truly an honor to be the first ones to witness something new from the Ultimate Magician of all people. But in Himiko’s mind, she was more than nervous. It was Tenko who encouraged her to try this out. But when she asked her friend for information, all she was told was to ‘not worry about it.’ This didn’t help, as now was the time to worry about such a thing. But still, despite how clingy Tenko can be, she still trusted her friend that everything would go well. Angie pulled the curtain up, hiding Himiko from the crowd before she went backstage. The anxious magician just stood there, as she wasn’t given a cue on what to do next. Maybe a trapdoor would open up and cause everyone else to fall into a cushion below? It was the only explanation Himiko could think of.

Once the spotlight shut off, Tenko sprung up and stood at the doorway with Keebo. “Hit it now!” she whispered loudly at her robo-pal. Keebo nodded, pressing a button Miu had installed on his chest. When that activated, a weird, ray-like device popped out from his chest, firing into the crowd. For a moment, there was a murmur in the audience, trying to predict what will happen, but that sound quickly vanished after the blast. The smoke cleared from the ray gun and retracted back into his chest as Tenko turned on the lights. What was once a room stacked with people was now completely void of any form of life, save for one magician tucked away behind the curtain.

“Yes yes yes, Miu’s transporter ray worked!” Tenko cheered, jumping up and down. She wasn’t sure how it did, but from what the inventor explained, it would take people’s molecules and shuffle them around the room…but the restoration process would make them lose a lot of cells in the process, turning them a lot smaller. And the more people involved, the smaller they would get. Now this left thousands of people stranded at a nanoscopic scale around the gym, causing everyone to go into a panic that couldn’t be heard in the normal world.

The curtain finally lifted, revealing the room to Himiko, who was in complete disbelief as to what she was seeing. “...Nyeh?” was all she could say after what she could discern. The trick…somehow worked! The audience had disappeared just as planned! But with Tenko being the one who planned this trick, the magician didn’t have a clue as to how to bring them back. In the back of the room, she witnessed Tenko cheering to herself, as Keebo turned around to go back for Miu, carrying her back to the dorms. “Tenko, where did everyone go?” the distraught magician asked, hopping down off the stage.

Down on the floor, a group of the now shrunken audience members were startled as they looked around at their surroundings. Little clumps of dust and dirt that had been kicked up by them formerly now completely towered over them. To their right, a stray red hair lay forming a barricade preventing them from going in that direction. But those surroundings didn’t last very long. Before they could even come up with a plan, a colossal brown boot crashed down onto them, as if the very moon itself collided with the Earth. Their bodies were completely crushed and mangled, their bones shattered upon impact, leaving the group of several hundreds as nothing more than red blotches on the bottom of Himiko’s shoe. But to the magician, she didn’t even feel a thing, as if nothing out of the ordinary happened.

Noticing Himiko now, Tenko stopped her momentary celebration and continued on with what she set out to do…see her crush be large and in charge. Tenko quickly rushed over to the candy bowl and pulled out a few M&Ms. At the size those people were stuck at, she had no way of telling if there were any on the ones she had chosen. But as luck had, quite a few hundred did end up inside that bowl. The ones unlucky to not be in those pieces, however, were met with a swift death as Tenko’s fingers plowed right through them as she reached into the bowl. Just the tip of her finger was several dozen tons of force being applied to their minuscule bodies, cracking their bones and skin right off in less than a second, leaving those that unlucky to be unsuspecting blots lost in the ridges of Tenko’s fingers.

With the candy in hand, the aikido master ran over to her best friend and placed her free hand on Himiko’s shoulder. “Good job Himiko! I’ll bring them back soon, so for now, have a snack!” Tenko encouraged her friend, offering the candy.

“Well, at least I get some downtime…thanks Tenko.” Himiko muttered monotonously, taking Tenko up on the offer and scooping that candy into her mouth. Doing no work was definitely a lot better for her than an unprepared trick. Tenko retracted her hand away, watching with a blush on her face as her friend munched down on those little pieces of chocolate. Those poor people were so small, she could only imagine what living hell they could possibly be going through.

As for said people, it was truly an absolute nightmare. Their bodies were practically molded into the pieces of chocolate, making them unable to escape. The first thing they had all encountered was the monster that was the magician’s tongue. Immediately upon contact, their bodies were coated in sticky saliva, adhering them even more to the candy. It was getting hard to breathe in there too, as the air was replaced by Himiko’s damp breath, weighing down the atmosphere significantly. The nanoscopic people were already in pain, but the worst was yet to come. Himiko rolled the chocolate with her tongue to the right and bit down, her teeth breaking apart the candy in an instant, along with those inside. Their bodies instantly turned to mush from the earth-shattering force that was a simple bite. The screams they let out upon impact were glass breaking, piercing volumes one could only imagine. Yet nobody could hear them, trapped in the dungeon that was a mouth. Their guts and skin mushed together elastically, causing their remains to stick to the tops and bottoms of her teeth, stretching in and out like they were little specks of gum. Some of their limbs would wind up stuck in between her teeth, while other body parts would cling to the side of her gums or attached to her cheek. It was a complete bloodbath, yet just a single piece of chocolate was more than enough to hide the massive amount of bloodstains left behind, leaving Himiko none the wiser.

Tenko was internally screaming inside, doing her best to hide her enthusiasm. There’s no way Himiko would agree to do something like this on purpose, so she kept it a secret. A little squeal escaped her lips, almost blowing her cover, but quickly caught herself and interrupted her own amusement to add some more. “Oh I bet you need something to wash that down! Let me get you something real quick.” With that statement, Tenko rushed over to the punch bowl and filled up a glass. Again, she relied on luck and hoped there were some of the people ending up inside the glass too. But with no Ultimate Lucky Students to steal that luck away, once again there were hundreds of nanos in the glass, swimming hard and doing their best to keep themselves afloat. But for them, all hope was immediately lost as the only exit for them was several thousand feet up, and the sides of the glass were much too slick to try and climb out.

Tenko returned shortly after, handing her friend the glass. The chocolate was rather sticky. Licking her lips, unknowingly causing a few mangled corpses stuck to her tongue to wind up on her lips, she held the glass up and took a big gulp, feeling a bit parched from the stage fright before this happened. High-pitched shrieks rang out across the doomed people as they swiftly took the water park ride from glass into mouth. They all saw a brief glimpse of the massacre that took place prior before getting washed down into the throat, with a long drop down into the stomach. For them, it was a ride that seemed like an eternity as they plummeted into darkness, only to be met with a horrifying end as they splashed down into a pool of stomach acid below. The screams rang out even louder as their skin and bones rapidly dissolved into the acid. Their bodies were inflamed from the high intensity of the heat, their blood boiling until they essentially imploded upon themselves, unable to take the pressure. Very few of them had survived, landing on chunks of chocolate yet to dissolve. Yet they couldn’t move as their limbs were broken from the high velocity fall earlier. All they could do now was weakly moan and accept their fate to become a single calorie added to Himiko’s collection.

Tenko held her fists up in joy as Himiko guzzled down that punch, not doing a good job at hiding her emotions anymore. When Himiko lowered her glass, her eyes met Tenko’s, with her own face turning into one of disgust. “Stop that…you look weird.” Himiko stated, although she looked pretty weird too with a red punch mustache formed between her nose and lips. All Tenko could do was giggle as she leaned in, licking up that punch residue of Himiko’s face, with a bunch of nanoscopic corpses entering the aikido master’s mouth now, soon to be digested quickly afterwards.

“Hmm…I thought the audience would be back by now…” Tenko exclaimed. “Ooh you know what we should do? Let’s go hide somewhere so they’ll think you did a vanishing act too!” She made up an excuse on the spot, pulling Himiko by the arm, causing her to drop her drink, ending the lives of those still left on the floor beneath the two of them as the weight of the liquid was just too much for their bodies to handle. With that, the two of them raced out of the gym, heading back to Tenko’s lab for now. With how much had happened, the tired magician was feeling a bit sleepy, laying down in her friend’s lap for a long snooze.

“N-nyeh…”

—---------------------------------------

Shuichi had to step back for a moment, as now things were getting incredibly suspicious. “Why did it have our friends in this one too? And it was another story about…shrinking and getting crushed. This doesn’t make any sense!” There was a hint of anger in his voice as he spoke up, not sure what to make of any of this. But once again, it was up to Kaede to calm him down, with another quick slap to the back.

“Calm down, Shuichi. It’s just a story! A work of fiction.” Kaede states cheerfully, trying her best to remedy the situation. Once Shuichi recovers, he returns to his seat, but still pondering the contents of the story.

“It may be…but it referenced the gala we have coming up. That shouldn’t be possible…” the detective mumbled, trying to wrap his head around things. But once again, Kaede interrupted his train of thought.

“That is pretty weird…but it’s also pretty weird both stories have involved shrinking in some way. Maybe it’s telling us to come up with a costume like that!” she smiled happily, trying to make things more positive.

“Well I’m not going dressed as…dust or whatever.” Shuichi retorted. Kaede giggled, looking down at the book to see how far inside the two of them had gone.

“Looks like there’s still a bit more left. Maybe that will clear things up.” Kaede responded. Shuichi had to pause, not really sure if he did want to continue…but he figured he can’t let this mystery go unsolved. With no other options, he turned the page, revealing the next chapter that he had hoped would be better than the last two.

For most people at the academy, it was a time to kick back and relax, not having to worry about classes or progressing their talents or anything. Except for one student. Kaito Momota - the Ultimate Astronaut - had a serious mission coming up. A group of scientists wanted to know if living on the moon could be possible one day, and so they asked Kaito for his help to spend three days up on the moon as a test subject. Just being excited for the chance to go to space in the first place, Kaito eagerly accepted, not thinking of any of the possible consequences. He’ll just cross that bridge when he gets to them.

The actual mission was yet to come, so in the meantime all he could do was prepare for the big day. Up in his research lab at the very top of the academy, Kaito made his way up the long flight of stairs to begin today’s training routine. But being an astronaut isn’t a one-man job, so he needed an assistant to stay in the monitor room to make sure all the gauges and stabilizers were normal. There was only one person he could think of more than suited to take on such an important role.

“Kaito, I don’t know what any of this stuff means.” Maki stated bluntly, glaring at the many computer screens before her. As the Ultimate Child Caregiver, Maki knew little when it came to computers. She knew how to use one of course, but advanced technological space travel was out of her league.

“Hey don’t worry Maki Roll, I only need you to watch a few things for me.” Kaito chimed in, trying to relieve the stress of the situation. He pointed his finger to the controls. “If any of these gauges goes into the red zone, just press this button here and it’ll alert me so I can fix things.” He explained, showing a big red button right below a monitor that surveyed the cockpit area Kaito would be in. “But there’s nothing to worry about, it’s just a simulation.”

Maki, feeling more reassured now, took a seat in the command chair and placed the headphones on her head. “Let’s just get this over with so we can go back to our normal training.” Maki commented snidely. Kaito just laughed it off as he walked out the door and into the main room where the practice space shuttle was. Maki could see him through her screen sitting down at his chair, pressing a bunch of different buttons. She didn’t want to express this now, but she was proud of Kaito for going through with this plan and living his dream. Maybe one day she could do the same…

But while Kaito was busy preparing for his practice, something more sinister was lurking above. Several hundred feet above the academy, a black unmarked helicopter was hovering above the vicinity. One by one, the goons inside hopped out of the helicopter, parachuting a short distance below. The first guy kicked his foot out as he neared the academy, smashing the nearby window, granting everyone else following him a point of access inside the astronaut’s research lab.

With Maki wearing the headphones, she couldn’t tell what was going on in the other room. All she could see and hear was whatever was happening inside the cockpit. But her eyes widened as she noticed a mysterious figure approaching from the bottom of the screen, and then another, and then another. There were about ten of these men, all wearing the same black suits and sunglasses, and it was clear who they were after. Maki swiftly pressed the button, activating the intercom. “Kaito, run!”

The startled astronaut was confused at first, but quickly stood up and turned around, only to be greeted by a mob of strangers. The leader of the group reached into his pocket and pulled out a gun, aiming it right at Kaito. Although this didn’t look like any normal handgun, as it looked more hi-tech with different dials and settings on it. But Kaito was too shocked to notice such a thing, simply raising his arms up and backing away as far as he could until his butt ran into one of the control panels. “Who the hell are you guys?” Kaito erupted, having a million questions going through his head right now, but that was the only one he could manage to speak.

The leader spoke up, Kaito staring straight into his bald head able to see his reflection in it. “My name is Ashton. We’re a secret organization known as the Moon Enders. Our goal is simple really…to destroy the moon.” The middle-aged man snickered to himself. “And from what our intel gathered…you’re planning on making a trip there soon. Not if we have anything to say about it.” After his little monologue, the bald man raised his arm up even higher, pointing the weird gun right at Kaito’s face. The stubborn astronaut grit his teeth. There’s no way something like this could stop the Luminary of the Stars! As the gun was about to fire, Kaito lunged forward, holding his right hand in a fist. He reeled his arm back and let out a roar. “Hhhrrrrrraaaaagggghhhh!!” His battle cry as he landed a punch square in the middle of the leader’s stomach, causing him to stumble backwards. But with his finger already pulling the trigger, the gun still went off as it flew out of his hands, spinning around in the air. A violet ray of light emitted from the gun, enveloping everyone in the spaceship with its weird power. The whole group felt a weird tingling feeling inside them, but that didn’t last for long as the whole place started to get much, much bigger.

“Kaito!” Maki screamed from the other room. Despite her talent, Maki is actually a skilled assassin. But without any of her weapons, and the time it would take to get to her lab from the very top floor, all she could really do was watch as everyone in the room had diminished in size. When the smoke had settled, Maki couldn’t even see anyone through the monitor anymore. She quickly ripped off the headset from her head and dashed into the main room, opening the door to the shuttle to scope out where everyone went.

Kaito sat up a few moments later, holding his head like someone had just knocked him out. Looking around, he saw the others who had assaulted him earlier too, all doing the same he was doing. Kaito sprang to his feet, ready for round two, but stopped as he noticed the room had changed. The floor had changed to a sleek white that seemed to never end. The same could be true for the walls and ceiling too, although they appeared to be several hundreds of miles away. Wanting answers, Kaito sprinted towards the bald guy who had him at gunpoint and lifted him off the ground by his chest. “What did you do?” Kaito shouted, more furious than ever.

Ashton chuckled once more, not feeling he was in any danger. “Murder is a crime you know. So we thought that the next best way to get rid of you…was to shrink you out of existence. Then one of our men would take your place.” Kaito was ready to throw another punch, not wanting to hear any more of this. “Go ahead, punch me. Our mission is complete anyways. Now that you’re stuck here at a micrometer tall, there’s nothing you ca-”

*THOOM*

*THOOM*

His speech was cut off from the sound of Maki walking into the shuttle, trying to find where everyone went. But it was an impossible task, as everyone had simply shrunk too small for Maki to notice. All she could spot was the ray gun on the floor, that had shattered in half from dropping to the floor, as no one was at a correct size to catch it. The assassin wanted revenge on these hooligans for doing this to Kaito, but she had to be careful as there was no way for her to differentiate between her friend and a speck of dust like this.

Maki decided she needed to get a bit closer to find Kaito. She dropped down to her hands and knees, lowering her head as low to the ground as possible to get a better view. As a trained killer, her eyesight is better than average, due to a lot of her jobs having to take place at nighttime with limited visibility. Her eyes were now laser focused on the floor, trying to find even the slightest hint of movement in hopes that Kaito was still okay.

While Ashton and Kaito were in their argument, the other members of the enemy cult finally got to their feet. They were about to spring into action to help their boss, but that plan came to a stop as the sky above them grew dark. All nine of the other men jumped in the air as a monolithic hand slammed down right beside them, and then again as the other hand repeated. Gazing up, all of them were scared stiff as two red orbs, big enough to be cosmic entities themselves, peered down right over them. But yet, Maki paid no mind to them. Even though she was looking for anything moving, her mind was fixated on the color purple, something none of these men had. Even though there was strength in numbers, there was nothing they could do together that could even put a dent in this titaness. They tried their best to hightail it out of there, but were stopped once more by the huntress.

*SNIFF*

Maki’s normal breathing was too much for these microscopic men to handle. As a group, they were all sucked up high into the air, like a tornado carrying a trailer. They all screamed for help, but it was too late as they split up into two groups, heading into the dark tunnels of Maki’s nostrils.

The journey was relatively short for them, as the strength of the suction caused them all to fly at speeds far too fast for them to handle. They all smashed against the hairs inside the nose, their bones breaking upon impact. Blood exploded out of their bodies, creating huge splotches of blood that no one would ever get to see. Their bodies fell into the minuscule globs of snot that had been slowly forming over the day, absorbing the remaining limbs and guts of these former people to now become a part of Maki that would one day be sneezed out of, forgotten to the rest of the world.

By this point, the bickering between the remaining shrunken people had settled down, now focused more on the quakes from the colossal being close by. Kaito noticed what Maki was trying to do, and quickly rushed by his opponent, waving his arms up to try and garner attention. “Maki, it’s me! I’m right here!” he shouted at the top of his lungs, but his voice was starting to grow hoarse from the amount of yelling he had to do in such little time. But it didn’t matter, as the sounds he made came nowhere close to reaching the ears of his only potential savior.

This didn’t stop Ashton though. He didn’t want to get his hands too dirty, but now that the possibility of his plan failing had arisen, he couldn’t afford to lose. He sprang up and began to chase after Kaito. Despite being nearly three times older than the astronaut, he was still quite fit, able to catch up fast, most likely because Kaito had to run in slippers. Ashton lunged forward, grabbing Kaito’s leg, pulling them both down to the ground. With his actions now being restricted, Kaito turned his body around, sending more punches the villain’s way to try and shake him off, but Ashton’s grip proved to be too strong.

Maki was still on the hunt looking for her friend, but it was beginning to strain on her eyes having to stare so intently for so long. It was the equivalent of finding a salt grain in a haystack. She had to carefully maneuver her body as she crawled along the ground, watching where she placed her hands to avoid squishing the one person she cared deeply about. It took her quite a bit of time, but eventually she did spot some movement down in front of her. Maki let out an audible gasp, crawling a bit faster to get a closer look. “Kaito?!”

The two men halted their actions for a moment as Maki’s deafening voice struck down on both of them. This pause in the fight gave Kaito the opportunity he needed, using his other leg to kick Ashton in the face, causing him to roll back, freeing the astronaut from his grip. This gave Kaito enough time to pull his cell phone out from his pocket, shooting a quick text to Maki.

“Crazy guy down here! Pick me up!”

Maki felt her own phone vibrate in her pocket. It was a feeling she was not accustomed to, only having two contacts in her phone, but still she checked anyway. Reading the text, she brought her hand around and turned her hand over, lending out her index finger to the speck closest to her, not sure if it was Kaito or not.

Kaito held his hands over his head from the strong surge of wind Maki caused by just moving her hand around, but there was no time to waste before Ashton would return. The luminary once again charged forward as fast as he could, leaping high into the air to grab ahold of an imperfection in Maki’s nail. The mysterious man was catching up quickly, so Kaito had to dig deep and haul himself up the tough cliff of nail, making it just in time before Ashton to grab on. The two of them got back to their phones, as it was the only possible way to communicate.

“Are you on?”

“Yeah, lift your finger up before he gets here!”

Maki did as instructed, lifting her hand off the ground. Just barely moving her hand up was more than enough distance for the pursuer to feasibly jump that high, leaving Kaito safe in the hands of his friend. With Kaito now secure, Maki slowly brought herself back off the ground, careful not to shake her hand around too much as she stood back up at her full height. Now she couldn’t even see the other speck left lying on the ground, but still had a good idea where it was, as there’s no way someone that small could travel any reasonable distance. Her eyebrows furled as she glared downwards, her frown even more intense, and her body was starting to heat up from all the anger she was experiencing. After a while, all she could say was…

“Do you wanna die?”

Maki turned around, facing the opposite direction. All Ashton could do now was turn and run the other way, but there was nowhere to run or hide. At such a scale, Maki was far too powerful that they were not even on the same plane of existence anymore, and one of them was about to leave said plane. Maki began to squat down, her butt casting an enormous shadow over the minuscule speck. No matter which direction he ran, it was all darkness. The colossal butt grew closer and closer with each second, her skirt swayed as she descended downwards. It was far too late for Ashton now. All he could do was brace himself for impact. But the impact was far too much to handle. It was as if the whole solar system had collapsed on him. The man yelped in agony from how much force was being applied. He could feel his bones collapse from the inside, his guts were getting all mushed together, suffocating him from the inside. Blood shot out of his body, flying everywhere across the fibers of Maki’s skirts. His entire body quickly flattened, leaving him an unrecognizable mess of a red splotch stuck in the skirt of an assassin. Just like that, Maki had ended the Moon Enders with her own moon.

With that taken care of, Maki stood back up, not even bothering to check if she was successful because of how unimportant that speck was and took to her phone again, getting back in contact with Kaito.

“So what do we do now?”

“Idk…maybe ask Miu?”

“Good idea. But where should I keep you?”

“Um…I’ll let you decide. I believe in you!”

Maki sighed. He had no idea how he could stay so calm and keep his usual demeanor in a situation like this. But that’s what made Kaito…Kaito. She then brought her hand up above her head, tilting her finger so that Kaito could slide right off and land in the forest of her own hair. The astronaut had to act quick, grabbing on to one of those strands thicker than any tree, repelling down the side of it until he landed down on her scalp. In every direction was just towering hairs, each one big enough to essentially live inside of. It was as if he landed in a never-ending forest. But Kaito didn’t mind this at all, quickly sitting down against one of the strands, pulling out his phone.

“You know…we don’t have to talk to Miu right away.”

“What? Are you crazy?”

“Maybe…but this isn’t so bad. Now I can spend a lot more time with you.”

Maki blushed as she read that last message, not sure how to properly respond to that.

“Don’t think of this as an excuse to forget your training.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll still train with you even like this.”

Maki then smiled, something she rarely did. He was still the same Kaito, but doing this made her feel even more important to him.

“Alright. I’ll see Miu in a few days then.”

“Thanks Maki Roll, you’re the best.”

Maki hung up her phone for now, exiting the space shuttle, leaving no trace of the ten murders she just executed. As expected of the Ultimate Assassin. But now she had Kaito all to himself for a few days…and thought things were going to get pretty interesting from here on out.

Shuichi kept his fingers on the last page. He surprised himself that he managed to make it to the end of these twisted tales. “Why was this book even written?” His analytical mind sprang into action. With no more pages to read, he could start driving down the highway in his mind to put together the pieces of the puzzle. First, what did they all have in common? That was obvious, all three stories involved shrinking. Next, why did these stories contain his friends in them? The only option he could consider was that someone in the academy had to write this. But the last question was the only one he couldn’t solve. Why would someone write this?

It was once again time for Kaede to do her thing. She cocked her arm back, swinging it right into Shuichi’s back for the third time this night. Despite all the slapping she’s done, Kaede still managed to keep a positive demeanor about her. “Hey Shuichi…what did you think about that last chapter? It was a bit different from the other two, wasn’t it?” She proposed the question, breaking the awkward silence in the air.

“Ah, you’re right.” Shuichi immediately responded. “In the other two chapters, everyone who was shrunk died in some gruesome manner. But in the third one, there was a survivor. And it led to a happy ending…if one could call it that.” Even though he spoke those words aloud, Shuichi still wasn’t close to figuring out what that could mean.

“I mean…what did you think about the ending? Did you like it?” Kaede asked another question innocently enough.

“It was a nice change of pace from all the gory ends everyone else met…” Shuichi commented, trailing off a bit.

“And what about the decision where he chose to stay small? What did you think of that?” Kaede continued her interrogation.

“It was a rather odd choice. Most people would want to grow back to normal as soon as possible if they were in that situation. However, I can sort of see that perspective of being looked after by someone you can trust. It’s weird, yet strangely comforting to be in a spot like that.” Shuichi said solemnly, almost like he was starting to get engrossed in the content, despite it already being over.

“I see…that’s good.” With that, Kaede scooted closer to Shuichi, placing her hand on top of his, staring right into his eyes. “Hey, I could tell you seemed troubled by all this. So I figured I should give you a clue that could help. The one who wrote this book…was me.” Shuichi seemed shocked to learn this news. But before he could ask another question, he was interrupted once more. “I spent the past three weeks putting this together. Then once I got it finished, I came here to the library last night and placed it on the bookshelf for us to find today.”

Shuichi paused. He didn’t suspect Kaede to be the culprit behind all this, then again the only person who came to mind doing something like this would be Kokichi. “That explains why it looked brand new. Because it was brand new.” The detective managed to piece that together. “But that still doesn’t explain why you wrote three different stories about shrinking people…”

This was it, the million dollar question. Shuichi could feel his heart sink getting closer to the truth. But Kaede never skipped a beat, answering everything with sincerity. “Because, I wanted to see how you felt if you were shrunk. All the other stuff about everyone getting squished led up to that final moment. Because I imagine being that tiny is incredibly scary and dangerous…but it can be fun if you’re with the right person.”

Shuichi could feel Kaede’s body temperature rise through her hand. It was so bizarre, but she seemed completely serious about this whole idea. Yet, something within Shuichi resonated those same feelings deep inside. Perhaps being cared for like that wouldn’t be such a bad thing. He wouldn’t have to worry about classes or work, or anything trivial for that matter. All he would need to do is take care of Kaede. “But, that book was a work of fiction. There’s no way that could actually happen.”

Upon hearing that, Kaede let go of Shuichi’s hand and reached around behind herself, pulling off her backpack and digging through it. After a few seconds, Kaede pulled out a strange gun-like device, one eerily similar to the one described in the last story they read. “Halfway through writing, I asked Miu to actually make a shrink ray. But it turns out, she already had one and gave it to me to borrow. But before she explained why she had one in the first place, I just left.” Shuichi sighed, knowing a couple of reasons why Miu would need something like that. But getting back on track, Shuichi examined the shrink ray in hand. If Miu really did make it, then it must be the real deal. Still, it was a life-changing decision if he wanted to go through with it or not. After a moment of deliberation in his mind, he stood up and faced Kaede.

“Alright, let’s do it. I trust you, and I wouldn’t want to do this if it was anyone else.” He gave his answer. He didn’t know if he would regret this choice, but this time, the detective followed his heart instead of his mind.

“If you’re sure…then, here goes…” Kaede didn’t even wait for a second opinion, because if she did then Shuichi might actually chicken out. She took aim right at her friend and fired, having the dials already set beforehand. She watched in awe as her stories soon became true, shrinking down someone before her very eyes. But soon she couldn’t even see him anymore, like he had truly vanished in the blink of an eye.

When Shuichi came to, he had no idea where he was for a moment. To his right was a white wall that seemed to stretch up for miles. To his right was a cliff way too high up for him to jump down from. In reality, he was standing on the back of the cover of the book they were just reading, with that white wall being a sheet of paper. The boy detective was now a nanometer tall, completely at the mercy of the outside world now. Looking up, it was blurry, but now he knew where he was. Standing on the table, he was staring right up at Kaede’s chest, each breast larger than a planet to him. Reading about this sort of thing and actually experiencing it were two different feelings entirely. But it was too late now, this was the path he chose.

Kaede put the shrink ray away and looked down at the table. Shuichi was impossible to see now, but that didn’t matter. They had their cell phones, so they could still communicate. But she didn’t need that for what she was about to do. Kaede reached her hand forward and balled it into a fist. Her hand hovering behind the book, she slammed it down as hard as she could. The resulting shockwaves from the blow caused Shuichi to go flying forward through the air towards Kaede. He was soon greeted by a wall of maroon, then a wall of pink, then a sea of black. At a size that small, Shuichi was able to phase right through the fibers of Kaede’s skirt and panties, landing himself deep within the forest of pubes. She kept them well maintained, but still each strand was still several thousand times his size. Never he would have guessed this is how he would get to experience seeing something like this, yet he was still cozy. He was knocked out of his trance-like state as his phone started to vibrate.

“Comfy down there?”

“Yeah…it’s different, but I think I’ll like things like this.”

“I’m really glad. I love you, Shuichi, and this is my way of saying I want to be by your side forever.”

Shuichi blushed hard at this last text, but no one was able to see him anyway. He was free to do whatever he pleases now, unable to be judged by anyone else. He can walk high now, as the only one who mattered to him anymore was Kaede.

“I love you too.”

With that, Kaede closed the book and threw it into her backpack. She may have not found a costume for the gala coming up, but she gained something much more important - a relationship that will last forever.

Things were a bit different at the Academy now. Kaede told everyone Shuichi had to go for a while to investigate a murder, leaving the rest of the students none the wiser about their new secret bond. Every morning she would take him out from wherever she kept him for the night and fed him a piece of crumb that would last a whole year before needing to replace it. The two of them would text each other about their days, although Kaede was the only one doing anything meaningful, but she didn’t mind. She had someone she wanted to protect and admire, and that’s what mattered. It was tough, but she wouldn’t trade this feeling for the world.

The End