There is flattery in the exultation and praise of another individual’s features. However, one must consider the time and place. A facet of society that Ritsuka, the young woman who was the master of Chaldea, had neglected to cogitate on for one too many a time. 

For the orange-haired girl currently found herself reaping the fruits of her misunderstood efforts. And they were large, much larger than the young woman’s body that they currently pressed down upon. “Fruit” that bore a peachy complexion that turned a darker shade of red the hotter it got and was studded with ridges and whorls. It had a soft and rounded appearance and feel, that could become as firm and unforgiving as a concrete wall. Dense droplets, the size of Ritsuka’s hands, of astringent moisture dotted these structures. The briny salt contained within them were unveiled to the trapped young woman during the flashes of light and obfuscated by the much lengthier darkness. This water that smeared against Ritsuka’s bare skin left a pungent miasma that the master had to inhale to oxygenate her body. Thus, the bitter residue of femininely shaped “fruit” was left to condense within the alveoli of young woman’s lungs. 

The master’s eyes and nose burned from this pernicious assault to her senses. Yet, it didn’t prevent the young woman m from observing the sheer immense nature of her environment. Bulbous and sloping, the flesh underneath the exterior of the “fruit” worked its sinuous threads in a mechanical and rhythmic fashion. Expanding as the surface above Ritsuka lifted and then contracting as they bulldozed the young woman into submission and into the solid brown platform underneath her. Flesh and fresh brine together created a loud and grotesque noise comparable to a huge layer of goo sloughing off a surface that it adhered to. This sensorium of experiences was enough to make the young woman want to vomit. As the space she was trapped in seemed to move, ever forward, in a cyclic trajectory. However, such a luxury would not be afforded for the master who was trying to stay alive. For the fruit that she was being smashed with were merely the features of the underside of a much older and experienced woman’s foot. Her senpai Yu Mei-ren.

Ugh…when is Yu Mei-ren going to take me out. I don’t think I can last this long.

A territorial woman that felt slighted by the improper intrusion of the young Ritsuka one too many times. Especially during moments that she had planned to spend alone with her beloved Xiang Yu. Thus, the master was shrunken by some arcane art that master knew and placed under foot. In Yu Mei-ren’s eyes, the young woman’s pained choking breaths, the repeated filling of foot flesh into Ritsuka’s mouth as she accidentally took a misplaced inhalation, only for her ribcage to ache from both a lack of oxygen and inhuman amounts of pressure, and the agony that spread throughout the shrunken woman as the water level of sweat began to rise in the sandal’s sole were all well-deserved punishments. Part of an intense instruction that would be doled out by Yu Mei-ren as she donned her beachwear and soaked up the summer sun at a lovely coast.

Gusts of wind filled with sandy debris pelleted Ritsuka’s frame and scratched at her sides. The rough surface of the searing hot stones left welts of rubor and violaceous swelling on the young woman’s frame. But it was not enough to detach the master from her entrapment. 

SLAP

SQUELCH

The sloshing sweat that surrounded Ritsuka had formed a thin film. One that grew thicker over time. The intense heat and pressure made it into a slick sludge. One that made any sort of independent action a scarce wish for the master. As the fluids only seemed to have one avenue of escape. The surface of her senpai’s insole. Heavy dark imprints of the older woman’s feet were emblazoned around Ritsuka. Spots where her dense sweat had seeped into before. Thus, the minuscule pores also suckled and clasped at the skin of Ritsuka’s back. The only force that stood against the pulling force of the relative giantess’s insole, from being ingrained as a sticker on the footwear, was the suctioning force of slick foot flesh. A sole that became dirtier, and its surrounding micro-environment boggier, as time passed. 

Is this really just because I fixated on Xiang Yu’s body so much?

Ritsuka wondered if her fascination with Xiang Yu’s body, due to him having features comparable to giant mechas from Mecha anime, was inexcusable for the one punishing her at this moment.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Phew.”

It’s a little hot right now.

The summer sun emanated brilliant light and heat. A normal human would be sweating bullets and left panting after a simple walk to the beach. As for a powerful True Ancestor who was bestowed the epithet Crimson Beauty under the Moon, well, she sweated all the same. It was honestly humorous, for the senior member of Chaldea and current servant, to consider that the only representation that her species has in conventional mortal media was a distant approximation and grotesque bastardization: vampires. As the overbearing sun far up above was familiar to the immortal elemental “vampire”, and not something that she considered a dangerous threat. It reminded the sunglasses wearing woman of the climate back in China over 2,200 years ago. A radiant sun that left many of the impoverished in China with a tanned complexion compared to her pristine and pearlescent skin. Even though the sun rays heated up the grains of sand to the point that it seemed like the wavy image of granular detritus was steaming from afar, the true ancestor was mostly unperturbed. A physiological feature of the unageing millennia-aged woman that may be owed to the frequent number of times that she blew her immortal body up in an explosion of super-heated blood.

Although, the levity that Yu Mei-ren found at that thought was most assuredly not shared by her traveling companion. Rather, it seemed that the orange-haired master of Chaldea would have preferred if they went somewhere much colder. A fact that Yu Mei-ren surmised by the furtive squirms, originating between the underside of her right foot and sandal, of the presently shrunken young woman between the noisy Schlucks of the relative giantess’s sandals. 

Hmph~ I bet that my kouhai is relishing the time that she has away from my attention. Before I can truly begin reprimanding her on the unsaid boundaries between men and women.

The only response that the True Ancestor bestowed the little tramp was a few scrunches of her mature digits and a pounding from the ball of her foot. A courtesy, by Yu Mei-ren, made possible through a minor flex of her foot before the next lifting of her chunky sandal off the sandy floor. An action that only required the expenditure of what was equivalent to a few calories. It was a shift in anatomy that had caused Ritsuka’s movements to stall and then intensify as she fought for her life. All that was conferred to the millennia-old summer beauty as a pleasant tingle on her sole.

Schluck

Schrtch

The True Ancestor’s brown hair, that was styled into twin tails, bobbed along the side of her back as she wiped the sweat off her furrowed brows and took the next step on the sweltering sand. Yu Mei-ren could feel the extreme heat packed into the sand granules through the thick brown sole. Undoubtedly, this conduction of heat also involved the shrunken master. Whose squirms seemed to intensify and weaken with each step casually taken. The senpai’s head nodded downwards as she scrunched her toes once more. A tease that was motivated by equal parts whimsical and malicious. Sun rays refracted off the tinted lens of the much older woman’s dark sunglasses, and her eyes flitted down to the distal ends of her limbs that seemed to be sufficiently moistened. A moisture that was produced from the True Ancestor’s natural metabolic activity, before being forced to collect at the ends of her legs due to the natural force of gravity. 

Thin rivulets of salty perspiration passed through her two-piece white bikini. A piece of fabric that was less about coverage and more about accentuating a physique that meshes functional athleticism and curvaceous sensuality. As a result, the white straps of fabric clung sinfully along Yu Mei-ren’s contours and left most of her flesh observable to the naked eye. White rectangles, with brown or red fringes covered, the center of her breasts. While the mature woman’s lower half was clad in a thin and tightly stretched triangle along her waistline. Brown strings stretched and bit at the large pearls of her skin that was laid bare for the sun to shine down on. 

Most importantly, this meant that there was barely any fabric to soak up the sweat that washed down Yu Mei-ren’s body. Salty fluid flowed freely from her brow to the pasture between her breasts, along the hilly plains of her toned abdominals, along the slopes of defined legs before passing the straps, of the chunky sandal, wrapped around her lower calf and dousing her feet and sandal insoles in rich organically produced brine. Such a topological mapping of the senpai’s natural body water flow was not of concern for the woman who had seen all annals of life. It was simply Yu Mei-ren’s body sweating and no further thought was needed on that matter.

SQUELCH

This factoid would be much less appreciated by the one taking the brunt of this continual fountain of sweat. A grimy pool soaked the female tiny’s skin. Dense globules of water mixed with dirt and imperceptible refuse, that dotted the True Ancestor’s skin, coated Ritsuka’s body. Once it had formed a uniform film, it would increase in thickness before it reached a critical mass. Either one of two things would occur at this point. The deciding factor being whether Yu Mei-ren was going to push her foot down on the unforgiving sole and the crumpling body of the master. If the film of sweat and grime were to reach a critical mass when the ascended foot descended calamitously to the ground, then the voluminous gunk would burst. A hydraulic explosion that would further batter Ritsuka’s body. The resulting outward motion of bubbling fluid would then seep deep into the imprint of Yu Mei-ren’s foot. Right into the insole. Making the environment that much less amenable for Ritsuka as it became a veritable swamp. Otherwise, if the critical mass of the thick film was reached as the descended foot was ascending, then the combined gravity and pressure of salty mud solution would seep through the pores of Ritsuka’s skin. Contaminating her body with the taint produced by Yu Mei-ten’s otherwise beautiful body. Thus, the byproducts of such a physically attractive figure served as weapons of torture for the fatigued master. 

SQUELCH

An experience that was further exacerbated by the heat. Like a hydraulic press, the foot threatened to flatten Ritsuka’s body with the immense feminine weight. Tons of heated flesh and rough boggy insole burned against the young woman’s skin. Reddening her body with a burn of devastating superficial damage, comparable to that of a sunburn. The salty grime bubbled and frothed around the master’s body by the time that the mature woman was just a few paces away from her desired location. However, by this point, the leisurely saunter of the relative giantess left Ritsuka feeling that saltwater was being boiled directly onto her skin. Her mouth would frequently open in pained wails in between her desperate gasps for air. Formerly, the young woman would open her mouth to inhale the rancid life-sustaining atmosphere and exhale its toxic byproducts and close her mouth as the orb-like flesh of Yu Mei-ren’s calloused ball would press down on her…as the bulbous digits squeezed down and over her head. However, as Ritsuka’s ribs were compressed irreversibly over her lungs and heart, and the pleural sac left violated by the salty fluids that broke through the young woman’s skin at a microscopic level, agony would prevent the girl from even maintaining a rhythmic breathing pattern. Pain was eventually a monotonous experience as Ritsuka’s mouth was opened into a silent and unending wail. 

SQUELCH

SLAP

Not even the slight separation of sole and insole, terminated by an audible slap of foot flesh back against the planar surface of the sandal’s dirtied sole, was enough time for the girl’s screams to ring out and reach the True Ancestor’s ears. Perhaps it would have inspired some pity from the mature woman who was referred to as the master’s senpai. In fact, Yu Mei-ren was already considering to what extent would be too far for punishing Ritsuka for her unintentional flirting.

I guess that I shouldn’t be too extreme in my treatment of her. After all, she is my kouhai.

Yu Mei-ren’s kouhai in question was vacillating between the realm of consciousness and unconsciousness. The young woman’s chest burned up and her extremities, which had felt blisteringly hot up to this moment, had begun to cool. To the point that they felt numb in the sweltering bog of sodden sandal leather and slimy sole skin. 

Why…does it feel like I can’t move my arms…

Yes…a good senpai would ensure that her sentience is still intact in some form. So, anything besides killing should be appropriate for a punitive instruction.

The True Ancestor thought to herself, however, an awkward sensation tickled the back of her mind. A swell of emotions that the senpai usually kept restrained around others. Especially Ritsuka. It might have been because of this internal inclination that led Yu Mei-ren to take this drastic of an action in the first place. When the young woman’s command spells were depleted after a grueling summer party that involved many irresponsible decisions. Regardless, for Yu Mei-ren this was to make sure that her kouhai started to take her part seriously from now on. 

…is my body dying?

Such a thought terrified the young woman. That the mere act of walking, something that the young woman had taken for granted, was enough to pulverize her body. Blood tinged each shallow breath that passed through her lips. Sanguineous fluid that should not have been out of vessels within her body were. All because the oppressive landscape of her senpai’s body had molded her. Changed her with immense pressure and heat like master’s body was some sort of putty. 

Why with blood leaving her closed circulatory system, Ritsuka felt comparable to that of a bug. A forgettable insect whose fate was more likely to end up as a greasy stain under someone’s foot rather than something of great resplendence. Or was death a luxurious destination. The young woman wouldn’t feel the pain of her ribcage pushing against her lungs with each breath. Of her numb limbs flaring up with sensation, but only ever with tinctures of pain. Of the veritable swamp of sweat slime that sloshed over her body with each cyclic motion of this dynamic biome. 

Oh god…no…I don’t want to die…

The agony that she was going through was far greater than what the owner of the oppressive slab of muscle thought it was. However, would the senpai care if her kouhai couldn’t handle this level of pain. Or would Yu Mei-ren stamp her foot in frustration at the sight of such weakness from her master. Maybe the True Ancestor would decide that Ritsuka would better serve as a blood smear lost in her foot wrinkles then to continue to disappoint with her immaturity and incapability of growth. Regardless, the frightened thought that echoed in Ritsuka’s mind, was an involuntary reaction from the woman who had many life-or-death experiences. Whether those thoughts of living were genuine or not would be put to the test soon enough

Here should be good.

Yu Mei-ren elatedly fanned her toes as she found the perfect spot to lay down in the coastal beach.

H…help.

Meanwhile, Ritsuka felt the pressure on the front of her body intensify without remitting. The tons of foot muscle that always rose to the sky had instead stayed pressed down on Ritsuka’s body. She could feel her skeletal frame flattening from the continued force over her body’s area. It was an immense power that Ritsuka’s bones had accommodated because of how short the pressure was. However, the heated and salty wrinkles did not shy away in their clutches this time. Instead, they continued to wrap and tense over the young woman’s body. The thrumming of blood through the meaty muscles of the underside of the foot thundered in the master’s ears. Each flush of blood in the salty slab evoked a pulsation of flesh and wrinkles. Pockets of air were shifted away from the kouhai and in its place was salty skin of the bottom of her senpai’s foot and effervescent sweat slime. A swill that every fiber of Ritsuka’s being rebelled against, but her body needed oxygen more than it wanted to refuse the sludge of foot refuse. With several retches, as the kouhai felt sharp stabs of pain in her limbs, the vile concoction, dense with organic salt and dirt, was subsumed. Collected on the tongue of the orange-haired girl’s mouth and forced down her throat. The obscene bolus bobbed up and down the young woman’s throat awkwardly as her body tried to vomit it back up. It took several tries, and the eventual perishing of the sensory nerves lining Ritsuka’s internal body, for the sludge to slough off her esophagus and make her belly bloat out. But such concerted efforts were able to buy Ritsuka a few seconds of stale air.

Please…just move your foot…

Ritsuka’s wishes were granted. But she may have wanted to be a tad more precise. As the muscles in Yu Mei-ren’s calf and thigh tensed from her lowering herself to the floor in a squatting position. The senpai’s dainty fingers moved quickly to unlacing the sandals on her feet. The left foot first and then the right foot, the one that Ritsuka was trapped under, second. It was from this new position that the True Ancestor was able to feel a trifle of moisture in a crevice of her wrinkles. One distinct from the hot perspiration bath hidden under her sole. It felt a tad bit colder, and admittedly a little refreshing under the beaming afternoon sun.

Unbelievable! To be licking my foot under these circumstances. My kouhai’s perversion knows no bounds.

Regardless, in the True Ancestor’s perspective, this seemed to be the right step forward. It displayed a level of situational awareness that Yu Mei-ren found to be lacking within her kouhai. Ritsuka playing her part as a lesser endearing herself to the lowest part of her senpai, was a reassuring development. But the fact that Ritsuka had so quickly adapted to this position instead of other roles, was a bit alarming. It caused the True Ancestor to take pause and ruminate on what would be the optimal outcome for this instruction.

The senpai flexed her foot and slowly drummed the toes of her right foot. The dirty and matted scalp of orange hair was finally made visible to the older woman. Along with the slight whisper of a guttural splash.

Oh…oh wow. That almost sounded like she was drinking down my sweat with gusto.

A minor rubor, a crimson blush, flared on the Crimson Beauty’s face. She felt a tickling sensation along the back of her spine and cranium. It was a thought, that the dirtiest part of her body was able to consume the world of her little kouhai to this extent, that fed a unique pleasure within the True Ancestor’s spirit origin. Her soul. It was both an emotional triumph and served to stoke the sadistic fires that spread from the older woman’s loins and up.

Perhaps I will give my perverted kouhai a carrot before the stick. Have her lick up the dirt under my toes before we begin her rehabilitation.

Yu Mei-ren’s tongue crept out and possessively raked over her pink pillowy lips. The glistening softness contrasted from the shimmering taut muscles of the underside of the senpai’s foot.

Ritsuka was in hell. She didn’t know why, but the pressure had increased. The young woman could feel blood flow freely in patches of her abdomen. As evidenced by a sharp pain that radiated to her back. One that became more diffuse as time passed. Despite the sloshing of sanguineous fluid in the abdominal cavity, the young woman made her tummy even more obese by swallowing more foot gunk. The increased force over Ritsuka’s body, and the interrupted pace that the older woman took in unlacing her sandals forced the young woman’s mind to teeter on the brink of insanity. 

Her mind became bereft of thoughts as the more primal side of her brain took over. Ritsuka forced herself to slurp and suck on the rubbery skin in hopes of not drowning in grime. For the master to ignore the rolling pressure as the giantess hummed above and began to unlace the straps of the sandal that the young woman was trapped in. Sun shined as the foot was lifted and an obscenely wet sound reverberated the kouhai’s body. But the master continued to imbibe the salty brine that poured out of rubbery wrinkles. Even when gravity shifted, and the foot was brought up to a sitting Yu Mei-ten’s eyes. A grunt of disgust shook the battered girl that finally woke her up from her survival-induced stupor.

“Stop worshiping my foot or I’ll squash you like a bug!”

Yu Mei-ren muttered sternly. She had no patience for those that did not know their place. Even so, the volume of her voice was precisely measured to not burst the tiny’s eardrums, but also so that her kouhai could clearly hear the tone of her voice. It was one filled with abhorrence and resentment. The older woman saw how disgusting her master’s body was. The peachy complexion that was once comparable to her own was now filled with purple and blue spots. Like that breed of dog… a Dalmatian. The soft orange locks that were a curtain to the young woman’s shining face was left a frazzled mess. More fitting for the end of a mop with how soaked it was with wet dirt. And Ritsuka’s face when it finally turned around to look up at Yu Mei-ren. The way that haggard countenance recoiled from the bright sun. Absolutely revolting. 

The older woman was becoming less sure of her initial evaluation of her master, and of what defined the best outcome for this rehabilitative instruction.

“Couldn’t you have practiced even a smattering of restraint while you relieved yourself on my foot. You don’t even bare the slightest resemblance to a woman.”

Yu Mei-ren’s whispers tore at Ritsuka’s soul like a sharp and serrated knife. She would cry if she hadn’t used up all those tears on the way here. 

What do you mean…I gave it my all just to not get crushed, suffocate, drown—

The resentment that Ritsuka felt towards her senpai, the words that she wanted to and waited to yell at her, all seemed to be reduced to cinders once the young woman was finally able to look at the Crimson Beauty without the sun’s light blinding her. Even hunched over and looking downwards, the woman, whose age predated the country that Ritsuka grew up in, looked divine in appearance. The sun cast over her body like a wide halo that robbed the young woman of a clear sight of the mountainous form. However, the master was still able to discern how the muscles of Yu Mei-ren’s abs rolled like small mounds of landscape. Before a depression that led to a greater slope. Twin hills of mammary flesh with a valley in between. All cast in the natural darkness of the Crimson Beauty’s body. As if Ritsuka wasn’t allowed to look at the full beauty of this forbidden sight. 

Instead, her eyes were drawn even further away. To a point in space where her vision began to blur. The brown hair that crowned Yu Mei-ren’s scalp were like dense clouds that framed her face, a snow-capped mountain that bore twin pools of reddish-brown. Her eyes were now unblocked by the dark shades that she wore earlier. Just trying to investigate her senpai’s eyes made Ritsuka feel like all the energy was leaving her body. That she was shrinking even further. The landscape of muscle and fat, formed as aesthetically pleasing orbs, rolled with the monotonous breaths of the divine being. Her existence unchanging with the passage of time like many natural landforms. Even when Ritsuka would perish, by natural or unnatural means, such a titanic figure, the immortal True Ancestor, would still remain.

“I will admit that I was pleased to find you worshipping your elder’s body. But it seems that there is a lot that is wrong with you as a human.”

Ritsuka felt little. She felt oh so little. The giantess sighed and caused another roll of the divine landscape. Who was Ritsuka to try to question the world? A world that Yu Mei-ren occupied a much larger space of. Such that the senpai might as well take up the role of a world for the kouhai.

“No. I believe that you absconded of that role yourself. Consider yourself relieved of your duty as master Ritsuka. For I fear that your instruction is going to have to be of a much…longer term.”

Yu Mei-ren said with a condemning tone and smooth cadence. There was not a shred of doubt in her words as she looks down at what must have either been one or two inches of height. The True Ancestor was thankful that she had recalled that ancient mystic art that allowed for this to come pass. For her kouhai’s future to be made malleable in her hands. Furthermore, it felt like an immense weight left the True Ancestor’s shoulders after she said those words that would damn the young woman to a worse fate than was initially planned out. Yes, this feeling of possession of Ritsuka’s life was one that the ageless woman, with her vast amounts of experiences, had no qualms in practicing and testing the limits of.

Meanwhile, Ritsuka, in the periphery of her vision saw the padded ends of her senpai’s thumb and finger. They neared her body. All the defeated young woman could do was shrivel up into herself and try to hide in the folds of foot flesh. 

Ritsuka found her body pinched between the rubbery ridges of Yu Mei-ren’s digits. There was no hope of escape in struggling, and Ritsuka did not want to further fuel her senpai’s anger, so she made no attempt to. The young woman was sure that it would have been an anti-climactic endeavor that would have only been rewarded with further misery. No. Any fight left in Ritsuka had left her body. She trembled as she felt the familiar sensation of brine coat the pads that held her. The slick film rubbed against her soaked body with much less intensity than when the young woman was buried under tons of muscles of her senpai’s weight. Yet, the constricting pressure of the older woman’s digits left her feeling similarly violated.

But…what did Yu Mei-ren mean by my role of being Chaldea’s master being over…

The gusts of wind, the firm pressure between Ritsuka’s sides, and her downward destination to the towel floor had revitalized her mind. In a better state of mind, she could have mustered up words. Some words. They could have made the situation worse or salvaged the misunderstanding and reconcile cultural differences and personal values between the two. 

But it could have also been too late. As Ritsuka was already turned away from Yu Mei-ren. The millennia-old woman had a smile that slowly grew the farther away that the insect that called herself a master of Chaldea got from her. The same petulant hussy that had not only gotten in the way of her time with Xiang Yu in this life, due to her Mecha fetish, but also in Yu Mei-ren and her mechanical lover’s past life. The two of them just wanted to live sweetly with each other alone until the end of their Lostbelt. Until the end of their world. No. Instead, that foolish master, with all her hubris had put all her heart and effort into burning up her senpai’s dreams. Going so far as to ensure her beloved Xiang Yu’s premature demise right in front of her eyes. 

After today, you are just going to wish that I just crushed your body into a bloody paste between my toes.

The Crimson Beauty’s toes flexed, and she pulled her knees to her chest and extended her arm past her toned legs. Pillars that glistened with sweat that slowly dripped down and off the rubbery pastures of Yu Mei-ren’s feet. The dark intentions that were repressed up to this moment began to bubble over. Simultaneously, fear still gripped Ritsuka’s heart. Courage failed to swell up in her chest and she instead looked forward to the false sense of comfort of being able to stand on solid ground again, like a normal human being, and not being smashed down with the full weight of a human being.

haah—

A slight gasp escaped Ritsuka’s lips as the grip of the whorled pads left her body. She then plummeted what felt like a couple of feet for her body. Such a drop, for a body that was compressed by a hydraulic press of flesh, was not one that the young woman would happily endure. Several cricks and cracks sounded off as the long shafts of calcium in her limbs strained to contain the impact. The master’s orange hair blew to the side, from the idle current of coastal air and an impromptu roll and blocked her vision. Fortunately, such a landing was able to partially minimize the stress that Ritsuka’s skeletal structure had to withstand. However, escape was not an option at this point. Even if Yu Mei-ren was distracted for an extended period, Ritsuka wasn’t sure she could make the distance to find another giant to help her with her legs in this condition.

Hah…a giant…they’re just normal people…I’m the one that is small…wait…is there anyone else here?

Ritsuka looked around but found difficulty in inspecting facets of reality from afar from her diminished perspective. Everything looked like distant mountains from afar. The young woman was unsure if what she was looking at was in fact a mountain or a small hill of sand. The waves that crashed in the shore were too far away to properly use as reference.

“HEY! OVER HERE CUNG ZAI!”

Ritsuka covered her ears as the booming thunder manifested in the air. The young woman half expected to see lightning in the distance. Rather, when she turned her head in the direction of the loud disturbance that her head began to retroactively piece together as words, she was met with an awe-inspiring sight. The sun shined a yellow shine off Yu Mei-ren’s shades. The pair of sunglasses were pushed up and over her brown bangs. The dense brown cloud of hair was now accompanied by a thinner white fog that seemed to emanate from the giantess’s mouth.

Is that the moisture expelled from Yu Mei-ren’s mouth when she talked?

The blanket of moisture showered down along the nondescript mountain range of the senpai’s body. Her arms were pillars placed on both sides of her body. The Crimson Beauty’s body must have been resting on her hands while she sat on the boulder size cheeks, as the length of her torso was reclined away from Ritsuka. Such a posture allowed the True Ancestor to push her feet outward and right in front of the young woman. Thereby, blocking the tiny’s view of the divine being’s lower torso.

“DID YOU HEAR ME CUNG ZAI! I EXPECT YOU TO POLISH THE SWEAT OFF MY FEET!”

Ritsuka shook her aching head and felt her eardrums pulse hotly from the physical force of her senpai’s unrestrained voice. The young woman wondered if she heard the older woman correctly. If their difference in scale and the distance made the words heard differently from how they actually came out of the True Ancestor’s lips. 

What is cung zai? Is that what she said?

It was that word that made Ritsuka hope that she had misheard Yu Mei-ten’s ridiculous request.

Can’t she see that I can barely move.

However, this hope that the young woman desperately clung to diminished as she gave it further thought. The toes in front of Ritsuka scrunched and unfolded with soft cracks. She could almost imagine her own bones breaking if she were caught in between those bulbous structures. They fanned out and then flexed back inward almost as if they wanted to chew something. To grip a toy in its grasp and test its limits. Until those bulbous monsters, shifting from a reddish hue to a flushed white with each scrunch, make a cracking sound from the toy that was louder than the small bubbles hidden within the internal infrastructure of the doughy whorled digits. 

All the while, Yu Mei-ren observed expectedly from afar. Her demeanor slowly growing a bit darker. Like the sun setting over a natural landscape.

Is she angry? Maybe that is what she said. No, my bones will break. And my guts will spill out.

Ritsuka winced at the negative thought. But the more that she ruminated on these commands, the more she convinced herself of the abysmal nature of this reality. The tone and cadence of Yu Mei-ten’s voice, even though they were hard to decipher with the naturally deeper timbre of the giantess’s voice, communicated a commanding and indignant air.

A fury that was matched by the physicality of the underside of Yu Mei-ren’s feet. Her feet’s skin tone was naturally creamy in color, but that was a conclusion that Ritsuka made by extrapolating from observations made of the edges of the sole and the depression of the True Ancestor’s arch. The ball, heel, and toes were naturally a vibrant pink that bordered on red. The color that one would envision on a scoop of ice cream. Red, creamy soles that brimmed with vitality that stood in contrast to the lack thereof within Ritsuka. A woman who felt like a worm that could barely wriggle. However, it would seem that Ritsuka would be given the inspiration that she needed. As even though the distance between the diving being’s face and her own were literal miles, Ritsuka was finally able to detect a shift on her senpai’s visage. Whatever form her lips had taken before, they were now replaced by a scowl.

Then she yelled words once again. With such a volume that Ritsuka, on her knees, was forced to fall on her back. Some of those words was that phrase cung zai again. Before Ritsuka could grind the wheels in her useless pile of gray matter, the answer was enlightened to her in a simple, devastating manner. 

The young woman’s gaze was still trained on the divine being. Thus, Ritsuka saw the True Ancestor lift her left foot off the towel and moved it forward. Right in the direction that Ritsuka was laid prone on the towel fibers. Then the whorled pad of the largest toe stopped and loomed over Ritsuka like a scabbard poised to strike. The young woman’s eyes were glued onto the spiral pattern of the bottom of the big toe. It was as if the ridges held within the misery that the kouhai had experienced in these short moments. Finally, the meaty scabbard descended to strike Ritsuka’s unmoving body.

Ah— I get it…cung zai…it means “bug”.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The edges of Yu Mei-ren’s lips, which were turned upward, began to descend as time passed. Until an ache in the True Ancestor’s head emerged as she waited for the kiss of her kouhai’s lips against the underside of her foot. Instead, a vexed scowl spread on her face as the only kisses she felt were from the coastal wind. Repressed emotions swelled up like a blazing fire within the center of Yu Mei-ren’s chest. The older woman tried to be mature and understanding of the young woman who had up to this point only acted selfishly. When she had killed her love. When she had robbed her of the recent time that she was reunited with him. And now that Yu Mei-ren was taking out the time to try to instruct her on the nuances of respect and social awareness, the young woman instead ignored her words.

I only chose this method because of how bull-headed you are!

The True Ancestor fumed as she felt like she was at her wit’s end. True, she could have tried asking Ritsuka why she was not listening, but even the excuse of having her body battered and broken to the point of not moving would not have been good enough. Many mages have sacrificed more and accomplished more. Yu Mei-ren endured millennia of isolation just for the astronomical chance of an impossible of being reunited with Xiang yu. It infuriated the Crimson Beauty. That such an uninitiated individual, that was unwilling to learn and used her own failings as excuses, had so greatly affected her life. Someone whose life would only last a several decades. Who would just be there for one second and gone the next.

“Fine then cung zai! If you want to ignore me then I’ll ignore you as well. If you aren’t willing to appreciate the value of my instruction, then I might as well clean up this beach of any pests.”

Yu Mei-ren said with an elevation in the volume of her words. In the small chance that Ritsuka did not hear the older woman, then she sure as hell did now. The edges of the ageless woman’s lips crawled upward again. A glee that was fueled by righteous fury and justified sadism. She lifted the foot that had yet to enjoy the company of her kouhai and moved her toe forward and over the pathetic cung zai. The True Ancestor wiggled her big toe for emphasis before slamming it down as forcefully as possible on her supposed student. The only hope that she had for the master was that they were going through as much pain as possible in this moment.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Like a ram, the firm muscle and abrasive skin slammed down on the middle of Ritsuka’s torso. The blood, that had pooled in the foreign spaces of the young woman’s body, once again splashed onto her sensitive organs. Such a sensation elicited an electric wave of pain that coursed through her body. Meanwhile, the rough orb of flesh rolled over, and drove its salt-covered ridges onto Ritsuka’s bare body. Ulcers and welts punctured and the blood that had been bathing her insides began to seep out. Tears from abused lacrimal ducts poured out again. A fear that Ritsuka did not think was possible as her vision was blurred. This agony was enough to wake up the young woman’s leaden limbs. They flailed and jerked to the master’s sides before her senses returned to her. 

I…I’m going to die if I don’t do…

Blurgh

Ritsuka was unable to finish her thoughts as fresh blood spilled out of her mouth. If the young woman didn’t do something soon, then the bottom of her senpai’s toe was sure to reduce her abdomen to protein caught in the whorled ridges. Thus, with as much willpower and strength that she could muster, the master moved her limbs and tried to push the titanic pressure off her body. A Herculean effort that Ritsuka thought might have worked. As the smaller size of the toe, relative to her experience with the entirety of Yu Mei-ren’s entire foot, had led the master down that conclusion. However, what the disoriented young woman did not consider was that her senpai was just casually walking back then. The pain and agony were not a concerted effort on the True Ancestor’s part. Unlike now. The ageless woman, whose existence had existed for far longer than many countries in the world, wished for nothing more than for this little girl to splatter as a bloody grease on the firm dough of her toe. For death to be brought about by a soft and dainty structure, and for Ritsuka to realize how close her status was to dirt that Yu Mei-ren treaded on.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thus, the pressure did not stop due to mercy or because Ritsuka was able to summon a great amount of strength. Rather, the True Ancestor had focused her attention to the writhing of the cung zai below her toe.  The older woman imagined that she could feel the master’s forceful breaths. For the moisture that collected at the front of her toe was either from those erratic and retch-ridden exhalations, or from the salty coastal breeze. Such a sensation was soon supplanted by what felt like the dull edges of a paper clip pounding against the sides of her toe. This stimulus was without a doubt the limbs that Ritsuka had so selfishly did not allocate the power to move earlier.

Hmph~ and you could have avoided this if you had just worshipped my feet as I had ordered earlier.

sqlch

That sensation was short lived. Yu Mei-ren’s eyes widened as she felt her toe sink down about an inch. Her heart thrummed, like a tightly wound drum, in her chest. The older woman’s own breathing became erratic.

I guess that I did it.

A strong blaze of red flashed across her face, but it was not out of shyness or embarrassment. No, she did not feel any shame for what might have just happened. The thought of not holding back on the one that had slighted her so many times, the True Ancestor’s act of deliverance onto Ritsuka, had been a euphoric moment for her. 

I won’t say that I’m beyond reproach, but my kouhai didn’t even put forth a lick of industriousness.

Yu Mei-ren moved her toe and leaned her body to inspect the work that her mere plump digit did on the master. A perfect cap to a powerfully sadistic denouement of the young woman’s life. 

Huh~ This is surprising.

The True Ancestor pursed their lips before speaking.

“It seems that you are still alive. Count your blessings and consider this a lesson on the dangers of being slothful.” 

Ritsuka’s body was still intact. Her body had not squished into a stain on the towel. Although, there was a very small patch of red blood that colored the ridges of Yu Mei-ren’s toes. But that was just bleeding from a small wound in Ritsuka’s body. A nearly untouchable stain that would be washed away the next time the older woman took a shower. However, that is not to say that Ritsuka’s body was not worse for wear. In fact, the damage to her body might require surgical attention. The squish that Yu Mei-ren had felt was due to two reasons. Firstly, a clump of sand under the towel broke apart. Secondly, a tear had opened in Ritsuka’s diaphragm. An opening better known as a hernia that pushed some of the young woman’s abdominal organs up into her thoracic cavity.

The pain that Ritsuka felt was excruciating. Unlike anything that she could imagine. But she had learned her lesson. The words that left from the domineering visage from above shook her body literally and figuratively.

I…have…to get up.

Ritsuka could feel her throat clog with hot blood. The young woman tried to ignore it as she stood back up and looked at Yu Mei-ren. Her senpai had returned to her former position: reclining on her hands and her creamy red soles thrust forward. The expression on the True Ancestor’s ageless face was unreadable. But the master was certain that a hot fury bubbled underneath that peach complexion. There was an expectation and she had to fulfill it. 

“CUNG ZAI! MAKE SURE THAT YOU USE YOUR TONGUE TO CLEAN OFF EVERY WRINKLE OF MY FEET. I WON’T SETTLE FOR ANYTHING LESS.”

The older woman’s expression did not break, but Ritsuka couldn’t help but imagine that she was restraining a pleased smile upon setting the rules of this engagement. The young woman dragged her body forward, one weak step at a time. All it took was a wriggle of her toes for the cung zai’s body to stiffen and for them to hasten their pace.

Finally, Yu Mei-ren was able to close her eyes in peace. The True Ancestor felt the first drags of cool wetness against the bottom of her heels. It was truly a minuscule delight. One that was barely noticeable, but she relished in the mental pleasure of utterly dominating the cung zai. The emotions that the older woman felt from figuratively and literally stomping over a petulant child that did the same to her…was oh, so…resplendent. Yu Mei-ren resolved to contemplate more on how she wanted this day to end. As even though the earlier thought the older woman had, of snuffing out that cung zai with just the brunt end of her toe, was an exquisite one, she was sure there were ways to not sacrifice the instruction for her own indulgence. 

After all, Yu Mei-ren wasn’t some young child who wasted her time on efforts in vain. She had a wealth of experience to rely on. 

Now, the older woman felt that her heel was sufficiently soaked with cool saliva, and rid of the grime that littered the creases of her rough heels. A roughness that was owed to the dynamic movements and feats of superhuman athleticism that her body performed. But there was still the rest of the foot.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was like licking concrete. That was the only thing that Ritsuka could compare the grainy sensation of what must have been dead skin that collected at the bottom end of the heel. Unlike the soft red that blanketed the sole above the one to two-inch tall woman, the heel’s surface was covered with a cross-cross of chalk white. Natural abrasions of a seasoned warrior. And a grainy surface that flaked and scraped against the edges of the master’s tongue. The young woman’s eyes moistened upon feeling the grimy skin and stale sweat that collected on her tongue. Ritsuka had half a mind to just massage the surface, but she didn’t have the courage to test Yu Mei-ren’s superhuman senses. Thus, even when the rough surface of the heel robbed the young woman’s mouth of moisture, her tongue now dry, she continued to lick softly. Meanwhile, the master busied her hands and arms by rubbing them against the rough surface until the surfaces that weren’t marked by welts were also red. It seemed that the abuse sufficed for the divine being’s pleasure.

MMHHH~

Like a good instructor, the True Ancestor let the cung zai know when she had done a good job. The unit of five obelisks, a fleshy hydra, rolled in approval of the young woman’s work. All that Ritsuka understood from this was that her earlier fears were spot on. If she were to slack for even a moment, then her body would be seconds away from becoming a very red pancake. 

Shit…senpai isn’t expecting me to scale her foot to lick the arch and ball.

Ritsuka would have attempted it sooner before hesitating, but the sharp throbs originating from the hole in her diaphragm told her otherwise. Such an injury made such a feat even more difficult due to the relation between diaphragm and lungs. Even though the master was back in the mephitic atmosphere of Yu Mei-ren’s soles, her breaths were shallow and slow. The muscles in her neck strained to compensate for the work that the young woman’s diaphragm simply couldn’t provide anymore. 

“CUNG ZAI!”

Fortunately, Yu Mei-ren displayed her magnanimity. She slowly began to flex her leg: raising her knee and dragging the heel away. Thus, the once vertically oriented football field of flesh was now slanted. An action that brought the wrinkled softness of the older woman’s arch in front of Ritsuka and her tongue. Through clenched teeth, the young woman gave a shaky breath. Whether it was one of relief or pain, it was hard to tell. She took several uncertain steps underneath the shadow of the now looming building of flesh. Unconsciously smacking her dry lips, hoping to find moisture to cool the divine being’s arch, Ritsuka then shoved her tongue deep into a wrinkle before dragging her defaced tongue along the moist hot flesh.

It was a welcome change in pace from Yu Mei-ren’s heel, but in some respects, it was a return to an old purgatory that Ritsuka thought she had escaped. The kouhai’s tongue was met with a pool of sweat that was caught in the wrinkles. A volume that felt and tasted less stale than the dried-up brine that added to the flakiness of the heel. Such a viscous liquid was dense with the sharp and bitter taste of refuse and grime. Microscopic dirt that Yu Mei-ren could not see on her pristine body, but coated Ritsuka’s tongue all the same. The young woman had to either spit the fetid liquid once it had saturated her mouth or be forced to swallow the swill. Especially if she felt that spitting was not enough to rid her oral cavity of the dirt blockage. The clogging of the master’s esophagus was less of a concern this time around. Almost as if her body had forgone its natural reflexes in lieu of submission to a higher being.

A cung zai. I’m a cung zai. But at least I’m not dead.

Meanwhile, the True Ancestor was finally able to enjoy the gentle pleasures of the summer heat and cool coastal breeze. A mixture of arid heat, brine, and cool moisture. The same components of Ritsuka’s torture composed Yu Mei-ren’s relaxation. She couldn’t help but crack a smile now that her face was well and far away from the one being instructed, being punished, or possibly being prepped for a permanent fate. The older woman was still deciding how to handle this instruction going forward. 

But now, she had her own part to play in this current activity. Yu Mei-ren gave another appreciative coo. A deafening noise that had a slight tincture of the sadistic pleasure. Pleasure derived from this reality the two of them found themselves in. 

The Crimson Beauty then repeated her earlier motion. 

The True Ancestor dragged her heel and lowered her foot closer to the cung zai. This continued with each subsequent section that the senpai felt was sufficiently cleaned until they found themselves back at step zero. The older woman’s foot oriented nearly horizontally, with the younger woman lying on her back as she pushed her mouth into the orbs of foot flesh that were the balls of the former’s foot. The only thing missing was the sandal underneath Ritsuka

For Ritsuka, it was a terrifying sight. The thought that at any moment, at the slightest displeasure that Yu Mei-ren attributed to her, she was this close to being squashed back against the powerful muscle was petrifying. 

HMMM?

A petrification that was noticed by the ageless divinity. Without a second to spare, Ritsuka pushed through and dived her tongue and nose into the worship of the springy rubber. Even paying attention, in her service, to the individual ridges of the ball. The refuse that built up on her tongue was swallowed up and collected in the now swollen stomach. A digestive system that cried as the fetid matter sloshed within. But visceral pain did not impede the master’s muscles that were motivated by the visceral fear of instantaneously being ushered back into a worse hell. 

Finally, the foot backed away and Ritsuka was out of the shadow of the foot. The young woman was able to see the late afternoon sky. The sun’s rays a lot gentler now that high noon had passed.

Oh. Oh…finally it’s over.

Ritsuka wasn’t sure if she had done a good job or not. If she was going to be squashed again and possibly for the last time. All she wanted to do was cry as she felt her body begin to give up. If the young woman was allowed the luxury of looking at the gentle sky for a moment longer then her body would have most likely shut down.

“CUNG ZAI! MY OTHER FOOT IS WAITING!”

There was no anger behind those words. There was no happiness in those words. There was simply a confidence and self-assuredness that Ritsuka simply did not possess in this crazy reality. That only someone privileged like Yu Mei-ren, an ageless beauty who had lived in human society far longer than others that Ritsuka had known of, was allowed to possess.

I’m just a cung zai…serving my divine senpai.

That became Ritsuka’s mantra as she lifted her body up and walked towards the other plain of sole flesh. Yu Mei-ren’s toes drummed against her ball as if to taunt the young woman that would be servicing them. The slave whose body knew nothing but only pain in these and the following moments. Thus, the senpai and kouhai repeated the same dance. 

Tongue and bleeding arms for the rough grain of heel, a shift of the foot. 

Tongue and swallow for the moist rubber of the arch, a shift of the foot. 

Tongue and full worship for the oppressive bulge of the ball, a…

The foot did not shift. 

Rather the toes that were just above Ritsuka’s head curled repeatedly. As if the bulbous hydra was plotting something. What the young woman did not take notice of was that the isolated coast had now become populated with a couple other servants. Yu Mei-ren rolled her toes against each other as she contemplated what to do next.

Hmmm~ I guess that I can go for a cool walk along the shore this time.

With a minor change in orientation, Yu Mei-ren moved her toes and grasped the warm body of the cung zai in between them. Rotating her leg outward, she then released the package over the insole of the sandal placed to the side of the towel.

“Continue your worship as I get something cold to treat myself cung zai.”

And with that, Yu Mei-shoved her feet back into the enclosure of her sandals. The master back into the pocket of leather and flesh that had ushered her into hell.

Sun.

Ritsuka wanted to look at the sun for longer, but the mechanical preamble of doughy digits fanning, releasing a pungent aroma and bits of dirt that the young woman missed, before curling over her body prevented such a wish from being fulfilled. Like several large snakes, Yu Mei-ren’s toes manipulated Ritsuka’s body, until she was gripped within the crushing pressure of her toes. The coastal air that blasted in Ritsuka’s body as she sailed. Then the successive plummet, as the construction of the fleshy appendages let go of her, were a minor reprieve.

SMACK

Guck

Blood spilled out in front of Ritsuka’s face once more. A productive cough of reddish sputum that confirmed what Ritsuka already knew.

Why…

She tried to roll over and lift herself back up. Even as the sandal began to shake from the shockwaves of the divine entity moving around. Reverberations of Yu Mei-ren raising herself up before looming over the pair of sandals. Such an innocuous action had undone nearly all the progress that the young woman made. Forcing the internally hemorrhaging master onto her back. 

The strength in Ritsuka’s arms gave out before she could mimic the action of the Crimson Beauty from far up above. The senpai’s leg merely lifted as she gave a slight unfocused glance at her sandal. A gaze that was to direct the older woman’s feet directly onto the insole and for no other reason.

She…isn’t even…looking at me.

A foot that Ritsuka had slaved to clear up of any dirt and sweat. Grime that collected on Yu Mei-ren’s foot because of its contact with the moist foot imprint. The same imprint that the young woman was laying on now. The ground that squelched under the pressure of the master’s body and would undoubtedly release a bog of mephitic and pestiferous brine when the larger surface area of the Crimson Beauty’s foot would land on the brown plane. An action that would not only crush Ritsuka but undo all the progress of cleansing the divine entity’s soles. Progress that required the sacrifice of the young woman’s health and well-being. 

This…isn’t…fair.

The young woman felt lower than dirt. At least those dust particles would get the attention of her senpai. They would at least inconvenience the ageless woman to clean them off herself. No, it seemed that no thought was given to Ritsuka at this moment. All the torture and suffering that the kouhai went through was ignored as Yu Mei-ren’s toes curled up in the air languidly. Like a member of the ruling class that was waving at someone that was about to be executed. Five digits, doughy and fat with opulence, that practiced their display of putting forth a proprietary air in front of a criminal. And then the entire slab of wrinkled muscle descended. The silhouette of the foot covered and darkened Ritsuka’s surroundings. She found herself oriented in the same position that was earlier. No, a little lower this time. Out of the reach of those invasive digits, but even closer to the flesh orb of the Crimson Beauty’s calloused ball. The master extended, a bent right arm. A last attempt at protection.

THOOOM

Crick

The first thing that Ritsuka did was choke and heave into the mouthful of rubbery skin. As the arm that she held out had undoubtedly been splintered into several pieces. The young woman could feel blood pool out and stain the sole creases that she had cleaned. Sanguineous fluid that flowed out of a limb that was closer to tenderized meat than a limb. And it only got worse from there as the tons of weight increased once more. 

The divine entity was knotting the straps of her sandals. At the very least, Ritsuka now knew from past experience that this would be the worst part of being underneath Yu Mei-ren’s foot. If she could survive this minute of hell, then…then what. Several parts of the young woman’s body were bleeding internally, her body had expended all energy just to complete the “minor” tasks that Yu Mei-ren set out for her, she had lost her right arm, and she had engulfed several pounds of fetid material from the bottom of a woman’s foot. An infectious source.

Even if Ritsuka survived this, she would need immediate medical attention. Otherwise, she might just end up dying underneath the heel of Yu Mei-ren’s rule, without the owner even noticing. 

Although, such complex thoughts had escaped Ritsuka at this moment. Now that the master was confronted by the question of whether to survive or not, she looked around for the crumpled pieces of her soul. The young woman had gone through so much abuse and was then shown the lack of value that her life and efforts yielded. 

Ritsuka didn’t feel like a human. She didn’t even feel like an animal. Existence was pain. The hurt and loss the young woman felt were things that she might have not experienced if she hadn’t tried to live in the first place. If she had just given herself entirely to the cavernous space in between the divine entity and her sandal. Thus, Ritsuka didn’t fight the pressure. 

When Yu Mei-ren began to walk along the beach’s coast, Ritsuka just let the tons of human flesh compress her form. The master didn’t time her breathing with the arc of her senpai’s steps. Instead, the young woman stuck out her tongue and tried to drain the foot sweat, that ended up collecting in the space once more, into her mouth. She did so in hopes that the Crimson Beauty would somehow recognize this, and that she would be given a merciful death. 

Squelch

Both the mind and spirit of the master was broken. The cleaned sole, the culmination of Ritsuka’s efforts this day, were erased as it became dirty once more. 

Ritsuka was no more. Just a cung zai remained.

Squelch

The cung zai would be knocked out periodically as she suffocated on the reddened cream surface of the sole’s skin. A brief reprieve for the former woman. Although, it wasn’t what she wanted. As the next couple of steps would invariably knock her cranium enough to arouse her body’s consciousness once more. The cung zai was thrust back into a reality where her body was just one big agonizing knot. One that the former woman was eagerly waiting for the wrinkled ceiling to untie and flatten into a growing spool of red. Regardless, or perhaps to accelerate this fate by means of cosmic intervention, the cung zai’s belly grew full and hot with the foot’s execrable ambrosia. The former woman continued to expend all her energy to subsume as much of the grime and sweat that trailed down into sole’s crevices.

Squelch

Then the cycle of the world that the cung zai was trapped in stopped. As Yu Mei-ren once again found a place to stand.

Ahhhh~

The former woman’s suffering grew exponentially as the walls of the ceiling’s wrinkles seemed to collapse on her. A sonorous shriek sounded through her fragile bones as she felt the familiar sounds of splinters forming in her other limbs.

Crack

The sodden wrinkles claimed another limb. This time it was one of the cung zai’s legs. The ceiling of flesh continued to pulse. Each excited vibration released a new splash of piquant brine. The nascent pain that thundered through the former woman’s body, and the near bursting volume of her stomach, made it impossible for such a nascent swill to follow the way of the cung zai’s abused esophagus. So, a pool grew as the former woman heard her divine entity’s voice from up above. It was then that a throbbing emerged in cung zai’s head. One distinct from the thundering headaches induced by her body’s agony. It was the beginnings of an inquisitive thought that was not befitting of a cung zai. Thus, the heavens saw fit to punish such independent thought. 

The former woman felt her world rapidly elevate into the air, and then in a fraction of a second it came crashing back down. With no warning the tons of muscles within Yu Mei-ren’s legs collapsed over Ritsuka’s body. Crushing her body and shattered several of her ribs. The cung zai was once again reminded of the mortality that it possessed. And with that the broken woman was reminded of the name that she once had. All before she lost consciousness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hmm~ This cool breeze blowing through my hair…

It may only have been the second time that Yu Mei-ren had her kouhai under her sole, but she felt confident that something was different.

It seems like cung zai has minimized her useless squirming and has given herself fully to serving my feet.

The older woman gave a sigh of relief as she internally crooned at this change in behavior. All that the senpai wanted was for her kouhai to show that she was willing to put forth the effort to change. It didn’t matter how, but just that the young woman showed that she had good intentions. By properly realizing what she did wrong, researching how to improve, implementing that change, and then further modifying her efforts. For so long Yu Mei-ren had tolerated the master with no such results being yielded. Until now. 

If you knew what ran through my mind, just how much I detested you and enjoyed today so far, then you might not believe me. But I truly wish that you just didn’t push me this far.

Yu Mei-ren realized that what started out as instruction motivated out of petty spite had now morphed into an irreversible punishment. As a result, the ageless woman felt guilty that she didn’t feel guilty about how things transpired. Rather, the True Ancestor was trying to look at the situation pragmatically. The master had nearly failed every expectation that the older woman had for her. So much that Yu Mei-ren doubted that things would be fixed up if she took the shrunken woman to the Chaldea health clinic right now. Not only that, but unwanted attention may very well be drawn to her because of this.

Aya~ And I just wanted to spend more time with Xiang Yu.

Thus, the idea of terminating Ritsuka’s existence was very tempting. And it was befitting her current station. As it seemed the role that the younger woman was most proficient at was being a cung zai. However, there was a nagging feeling that pestered the True Ancestor in the back of her head. If one were to consider lifespans, then most humans were practically cung zai in comparison to her. Should she just kill them all. No.

What if I made cung zai’s position one that could last…indefinitely?

The gears begin to turn in Yu Mei-ren’s head as she stood still. The older woman’s sandaled feet flexed in the footwear as she found herself lost in thought. A simple movement that led to the cung zai being squeezed in between the folds of her wrinkled flesh. The Crimson Beauty thought of the aspects of her abilities that she could utilize.

“Yes…this could actually work…”

A satisfied smile blossomed on the Crimson Beauty’s face. One that was accompanied by a thoughtless stomping of the foot that the cung zai was trapped in. 

Hmm~ I guess that I should begin cung zai’s absorption before the sun is down. I guess that I should head back to my stuff.

Yu Mei-ren stretched her arms and happily sauntered back to the towel on the other side of the beach. Due to how happy she was, the elated True Ancestor didn’t initially notice that her cung zai had stopped licking the bottom of her foot.

Huh…I’m not really bothered by this. Ritsuka will have all the time in the world to cement her lessons in the depths of her soul.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

…

…

…

When Ritsuka woke up again, there was just darkness, heat, and pressure. The young woman tried to open her eyes, but it felt like they were sealed shut. Like something had dripped and congealed over her face. Partially mummifying the young woman entrapped in sandal. At least that is where the master surmised she was located. The young woman’s skin and muscles were so shredded by this point, that she wasn’t sure if her brain could trust the nervous signals that the rest of her body was sending it. However, they conferred constricting surroundings of moist flesh. A sodden floor that was smooth and sank until it became a firm curve under the master’s weight.

How…long was I out?

Ritsuka could scarcely recall what had last transpired, but she knew that if she was in a sandal, then she was in danger of being walked on again by her senpai. Thus, the young woman prepared for the next step. 

…

…

…

But it never came. Rather it seemed that the pressure of the doughy ceiling was constant and unchanging. Furthermore, Ritsuka could barely hear a distant rumbling.

Is Yu Mei-ren whispering?

The master tried to listen and parse out what the older woman was saying, but it might as well have been in a different language with the several barriers that was between the Crimson Beauty and the cung zai. Like a lightning bolt, a sharp tearing pain erupted through the middle of Ritsuka’s body. The young woman’s body jerked, and she felt the gross opulence of her filled belly push against the soft dough of foot flesh. 

Ritsuka recalled the liters of sweat that she had guzzled down in her delirious state. However, that did not answer why she felt such softness against her abdomen. 

Am I not under the ball of my senpai’s foot anymore?

It was then that the rumbling stopped. 

I can’t…continue waiting.

A conclusion that the young woman made upon realizing that aside from the sharp pain originating from her abdomen, the rest of her body had become numb. A lack of sensation and limited movement that made Ritsuka fear that she might have lost all functioning in those regions of her body. The young woman’s limbs, and several regions of her torso, felt heavy like lead. As if something was forcing her down. She was trapped like a buried worm. Thus, the only thing that the master could do was act like a worm. She struggled and fought against the invisible constraints on her body. The young woman rubbed her body along the muscular ceiling. 

These actions went against any rational thought that the master could have now, but it was the most apt choice that the blind girl could take. As she felt something chip off her body. Ritsuka paused and then shook her body. The mobility of her body seeming to re-emerge. 

I…I was covered…in dried sweat.

Ritsuka realized that she had been in a pool of sweat before being knocked out by the weight of a normal-sized human smashing down on her. A pool that might have dried as the coastal breeze cooled down as night approached. Ritsuka eked out the little amount of strength that she had left and once again began rubbing her body on the rubbery sky. 

She ignored the fact that the skin of Yu Mei-ren’s foot felt especially soft. She ignored how the folds of muscle, underneath the rubbery surface, felt especially inviting. She ignored how Yu Mei-ren seemed to be doing nothing as Ritsuka wriggled under her foot.

The rippled flesh and whorled ridges served as a convenient scraper for the bound girl’s body to free itself. Finally, she pushed her face into the piles of pungent foot flesh. A surface that Ritsuka would call, only this one time with her sanity intact, a heavenly surface. As the dried sweat smeared right off.

I…I did…it.

Ritsuka fell back down in quiet relief as the nebulous darkness was replaced by a dull and scattered light. The evening sun’s glow peeked out between the gaps of Yu Mei-ren’s toes. This exacerbated the confusion that the young woman felt. As she was most definitely still located centrally at the ball of the True Ancestor’s foot. Yet the flesh felt so malleable. Ritsuka tried to piece together why such an odd fact seemed consequential to her. 

However, the dull light shifted to a grainy black and then back again. The young woman’s head span and she could feel her weakness all throughout her body. As a result, the master counted her blessings and bided her time. She thanked whatever deity that was listening for giving her nearly mutilated body the time to recover at least this barest amount. For bringing about whatever reason that her senpai was suspended in motion. 

However, that suspension of movement had ceased as Ritsuka collected her energy. The young woman heard what sounded like tree branches being ripped out from the main trunk. A sound that Ritsuka had become familiar with. 

Is she unstrapping her sandals?

Ritsuka didn’t know what to expect at this point, but the young woman knew that she would beg to be released. The kouhai would yell as loud as she can in the next opportunity given. That she had learned her lesson. The anticipation of freedom from this malodorous biome was killing the young woman. 

Thus, the moment that the pressure on her body was released, she began to crawl forward. Even though a voice in the master’s head was yelling at her for doing so. That her independence might anger the divine behemoth above.

HEHEHE~

Ritsuka felt a tug and her body slumped back into the sandal face first. Right into a salty pool. As a result, the young woman’s body jerked, and she struggled to lift her head out of what might as well have been less than a microliter of sweat. The reality that the master had nearly drowned in such a minuscule volume nearly made the woman forget that the thunderous voice had sounded reminiscent of a peal that was swiftly muffled.

What…why does it feel like my body…

The pads of Yu Mei-ren’s fingers manifested and pressed down on the lip of the sandal. With a strong pinch she pulled it forward and away from her foot. However, contrary to Ritsuka’s expectations, she did not go forward with the footwear.

…like…my body is being dragged back…

Squelch

Yu Mei-ren popped off her sandal and lifted her foot. She felt a slight suctioning before a snap. A mass stretching before returning to the bottom side of her foot. Like a rubber band without the painful impact against her skin.

“Evening Ritsuka. I’m guessing from your earlier wriggling that you are awake now. You really are like a cung zai.”

Yu Mei-ren’s voice was back to a powerful whisper. Just like when she first talked to Ritsuka at the beach. But it wasn’t just that. The intensity behind her words seemed to have disappeared. Rather there was a calm and collected quality to the reverberating sound waves. These were the words of someone who had just won. 

More aptly, the conflict that Yu Mei-ren was confronting had become a perspicuous one. After viewing the positive and negatives of each outcome and observing how they lined up with her motivations behind instruction and punishment, the hesitations that the True Ancestor possessed were quashed. As the senpai had reached a decision for her kouhai’s fate. 

But that wasn’t in the forefront of Ritsuka’s mind. Rather it was the fact that the skin of her limbs had unwound themselves. The muscle and bones were in a grotesque orientation bent back towards the softened creases of a once stalwart wall. The young woman was barely able to see the revolting image of body horror that her form had become. Although the pain, that should have accompanied this evisceration of flesh was not present. Instead, Ritsuka felt and heard a strong pulse. A powerful flow of liquid that seemed to move through a bright circuit hidden in the net-like architecture of her limbs. 

It was a sanguineous circuit that connected directly to vessels and nerves within Yu Mei-ren’s foot. A substance that felt like hot fluid and electricity flowed through Ritsuka’s body unimpeded. It vibrated her inner core in a way that was wholly different from the pain she felt. It was indescribable. But the young woman, in the absence of vocabulary, could feel more of herself being pulled into her senpai’s foot than what was visible. 

Sglorp

The master was being absorbed.

“No! Gwhy…cough…doing this…”

Ritsuka exhaled deeply after her understandably violent outburst. This was the first time that the young woman had strained her vocal cords to try and talk to her senpai. It didn’t help that her body was brutalized by a mountain of flesh for the entire day, and that her body felt like it was being sucked through a strong vacuum. Like milkshake going up a straw. But instead of thick liquid vanishing behind the glossy lips of a pretty girl, it was being spread along the lines and folds of a flexing muscle.

The True Ancestor couldn’t hear the garbled words of what was already becoming a part of her foot, but she was able to make an approximate guess. 

Hmm~

Yu Mei-ren dragged out the time she took to answer her kouhai. It was not as if she was beholden to a standard of prompt responses to someone that was already a quarter foot flesh.

“Sorry my kouhai. From what you have shown me so far today, it doesn’t just seem like you are fit to be a master. Not even a cung zai either. And it just takes so long to educate you, and just look at your body. Tell me that you were able to withstand your treatment today.”

The older woman spoke patronizingly. As if she was chiding a petulant child over breaking something so small. But this wasn’t small for Ritsuka. This was her entire existence, one that she felt becoming increasingly small. Especially as the hot pulsating tendrils of Yu Mei-ren’s sanguineous circuits dragged the young woman deeper into the muscular quicksand. She could feel the walls of muscles, hidden underneath the skin, make way to entrap the master within this extremely damp space. 

Slurk

Each pulse of these tendrils seemed to dissolve, break down the cohesive forces that held Ritsuka’s body together. The young woman tried to push her hands forward. The digits of her little fingers, even the one on the arm that wasn’t broken, had turned into deformed nubs. And the skin of her hands, the young woman, was finally able to see, was shifting into a lighter shade of color. The purple and blue welts on Ritsuka’s skin disappeared and the natural peach complexion was shifting to a paler and more pristine one. Just like the tone of Yu Mei-ren’s creamy skin.

Oh God. I’m becoming her sole!

This horrifying realization consumed Ritsuka’s mind. So, all she was able to conjure was a choked sputter in the face of Yu Mei-rhetorical question.

“I thought so. I will be honest. I’m not fond of you kouhai. In fact, I grew a little hot at the thought of you dying underneath my dainty foot earlier.”

Yu Mei-ren reoriented her body, causing the young woman to sway and dangle off the wrinkled surface, and she sat down in front of the beach’s coast. Right in front of the descending sun.

“But I would prefer if the title of senpai had more value than just that. So, I think that this is a better conclusion for the both of us. You get more time to appropriate yourself to your new lease in life. To safely learn of the errors of your ways and retain that information, while in the presence and service of your elder.”

Yu Mei-ren relaxed and soaked up the evening sun as she said this. The True Ancestor left out the part of how she already felt tinctures of electric pleasure as Ritsuka merged with her sole. The older woman couldn’t help but scrunch her soles at the unrestrained kisses from the coastal breeze and the warmth of a soon to be subsumed soul.

“Much better than trying to learn as a cung zai. With the constant worry of death hanging over you like an axe. And I guess that I’ll let you out in a year or two to see how well you are retaining information.”

Yu Mei-ren left out the fact that this was technique hastily put together. That she wasn’t knowledgeable enough of what she was doing right now to know if there was a way to reverse this. 

At first, the True Ancestor didn’t know exactly why she withheld information. It wasn’t like she expected Ritsuka to break free. No. It might have been because it was in her rights to use her property in whatever way she wished.

Hmph~

Yu Mei-ren felt a strong bubbling sensation along the ball of her foot that extended down to her arch. The region that Ritsuka was being absorbed into. 

It was a delectable sensation.

Oh~what a pleasant surprise. My kouhai’s intense emotions serve as added bliss for me. I wonder…

“Hey! Look at the bright side, you get to be near my beloved Xiang Yu. Isn’t that what you wanted in the first place.

The older woman bit her lip in anticipation. She could feel a gentle warmth spread along her sole. To think that these pangs of delight would feel so strong despite the absorption not being complete yet.

“Now that I think about it, isn’t this like your Mecha anime! You get to be a passenger in my foot. I guess that your senpai will be your giant robot.”

The bubbling sensation increased in intensity, much to the grinning older woman’s delight. She tilted her head back and began to think of the days to come. 

Would this pleasurable sensation wane once Ritsuka’s spirit was broken? What could be done to prolong it? Would different emotional responses evoke different sensations?

The True Ancestor was so engrossed in thought that she had failed to sense the approach of another individual.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Being compressed by rubbery flesh, grappled by plump toes, and cleaning the scum off the bottom of Yu Mei-ren’s foot had fully sapped Ritsuka of her vitality. She broke down. Then the pieces came back together in a crazed and hopeful mess. One that was reminded of the brutality of this world. One that she shared with others whose views would conflict with hers. Life was a gambit where one wrong step, would have another trodden under the paces of another. Ritsuka had learned helplessness as a cung zai and was willing to give up whatever else she had to sustain her life for even a second longer. A life that was now literally being folded and sucked into the bottom of her senpai’s foot. The volume of the older woman’s voice was not only heard but reverberated through Ritsuka’s body. As the young woman now felt the vibrations of interconnected muscular infrastructure tremble from the sonorous and taunting outburst. 

Hope was a poison that prevented Ritsuka from enjoying the sweet release of death earlier. However, it was an intoxicating one. As through the intermission of smug and victorious remarks from her soon to be owner, the young woman had taken note of gentle vibrations that became stronger, more powerful, in the distance. Until, finally, the master saw a pink-haired young woman walk along the shoreline in a two-piece bikini. Her mountainous body was fuzzy at first, but the magnificent arrangement of muscles came into definition in front of the young woman’s barely functioning eyes. 

Ritsuka couldn’t feel her legs, the mash of red and stark white of her muscles and bones had unspooled and shattered with a burning and painful mind-melting heat. One that nearly released Ritsuka into the deep abyss, but the image of the new giantess, a woman that she recognized, kept her conscious. It kept the master conscious as the lower half of her body unspooled and then was slurped up like the bubbly froth crest into a shoreline. Sinking into the pristine white landscape of Yu Mei-ten’s foot. The poisonous hope had kept Ritsuka alive and wanting to live emerged when she saw her kouhai…Mash Kyrielight in the distance.

THUD

Mash possessed a glistening frame that the red-orange light of the descending sun bounced off. A thicker frame than the True Ancestor that Ritsuka was currently being absorbing into. Soft contours that would jut sharply as if they had been built and sculpted from battlefields and determination. Under Mash’s creamy skin were tons of muscles that bulged with a stalwart vitality. Her mammary boulders jiggled with the saltwater that had soaked into the crevices from an afternoon swim. A dusty coating of sand granules had layered over the toned lower half of Mash’s body. 

THUD

But none of that mattered to Ritsuka. Her kouhai could have worn anything or been through a storm of sharks, and she would still look beautiful in this moment. Mash Kyrielight was not just strong in the physical sense. She was kind, gentle, and never made the orange-haired master feel less of herself due to her weak physical strength or low aptitude for magic. The pink haired woman had always made it known, intentionally or not, how much she cared for Ritsuka.

“M—guh…M…gsh.”

A discolored fluid sputtered out between Ritsuka’s incoherent stammering. But the young woman did not register the damage that had been incurred to her body as an independent human. Instead, she fought through the pain that racked through her form. A pain that was unending in its intensity. So, what does it matter if Ritsuka put all the strength that she had left, in addition the strength that Yu Mei-ren was swelling in her sole to absorb the master, to rip her body free.

“SENPAI! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“M…Mash!”

Yu Mei-ren stammered and a faint rose crept on her cheeks. She drew her legs back close to her torso, with her knees bent and feet lowered to a point of just contacting the towel. The True Ancestor, in her distress, had nearly planted her foot squarely upon the towel. A reactive action that she interrupted at the last moment. As the older woman wasn’t sure if smashing her foot, or even pressing it into the towel, will cause part of her kouhai to be absorbed into it instead.

Aya~ There is no way that Mash is going to agree to the young master being a fixture on my foot. 

“Oh! Hi Mash. I was just soaking up the summer sun.”

Yu Mei-ren said with a curt frankness. The True Ancestor’s brows trembled before furrowing. As she concentrated her energy and circuits into burying the master underneath her foot’s skin. The older woman could already feel how the young woman had loss the impression of limbs and defined torso. She was convinced that all it would take was just one more surge before Ritsuka was just an entrapped soul within the wrinkles of her sole.

“Not as if the body of a True Ancestor is vulnerable to such injuries as skin damage.”

Yu Mei-ren added in an attempt to engage in a humorous exchange with Mash. Regardless of the quality of the added quip, it had merited a modest laugh to erupt from betwixt Mash’s lips. To Yu Mei-ren’s ears, the abrupt eruption of noise from her kouhai was serene, smooth, and intoxicating. Just like wine made from the millet that the True Ancestor had a nostalgic want of for some time.

No wonder master finds herself swooning for this woman.

“Yes. I agree. I think that my constitution as a Shielder makes it difficult for the sun’s rays to irradiate my skin.”

Mash said before she sat, cross-legged, in front of Yu Mei-ren. Their feet were just next to each other in this position. The sole of the pink-haired kouhai’s foot was just adjacent to the upturned toes of Yu-Mei-ren’s foot. 

A subtle detail that Mash had noticed and felt oddly drawn to. 

Hmm. Is there something underneath senpai’s foot?

Meanwhile, Ritsuka felt her world become a blazing inferno from the added magical heat. Blood boiled within her remaining body and the tendrils that were her hands grasped clumsily out from the gaps of Yu Mei-ten’s toes. Mash’s deafening voice eclipsed the roaring waves of magical energy that had proceeded to render Ritsuka’s senses. 

Mash…please see me…

Ritsuka was able to peek out from the gaps of her senpai’s toes. The red light of the evening sun had all but disappeared. In its place was the all-consuming silhouette of Mash’s dirty sole. Beach grime had densely coated the underside of the pink-haired girl’s rough and weathered sole. As she had forgone any footwear in favor of feeling the warmth of the rugged sand granules in between her toes. And that she had. For every part of Mash’s, otherwise pink-tinted creamy soles, had become a hazy gray. The jaggy detritus either becoming lodged in the foot’s wrinkles, tickling the Shielder, or being ground to dust that caked the calloused underside.  

Such a slab of meat, attached to the physically focused combatant, would be unforgiving to Ritsuka id she ever found herself under the business end of it. 

Mash’s toes scrunched playfully, pebbles dropping from the gaps between her plump toes and onto Yu Mei-ren’s towel, as Ritsuka was in a bout of life and death.

Then another surge of energy coursed through Ritsuka’s body…

Was Ritsuka able to pull herself out of Yu Mei-ren’s foot?

•No — Proceed to Chapter 4 Ending: Senpai & Kouhai

•Yes — Proceed to Chapter 5 Ending: Kouhai’s Foot Fodder

…and the world was engulfed in a blazing darkness. 

SGLUMP

Ritsuka felt her body boil and flatten. It was a sensation that was more powerful then when Yu Mei-ren had pressed her big toe to the point of pulverizing the young woman’s abdomen. It was the sensation of organs being mulched and pushed out of the master’s organic cavities. Ritsuka’s body flattened, and a pressure wrapped around her. The pores that pulled at the young woman’s body widened and seemed to connect with one another. Creating a magically induced suction force that determined a single destination for the master who was, by this point, practically a wrinkled tissue paper underneath the Crimson Beauty’s foot 

SGLORP

No!

Ah~ there we go. Nice and snug.

SGULP

Muscles, skin, and nerves pierced and folded the physical components of Ritsuka’s body. Existence was a cycle of heat and pain as her awareness spread along the thrumming and perspiring underside of Yu Mei-ren’s sole. The foot grime and scum that had collected in Ritsuka’s belly were diffused and splattered along the wrinkles of the True Ancestor’s soles. As if the young woman had never drained the pristine sole clean of the detritus. The swill of rancid sweat sputtered out of a gash in the blob before it sealed up. The pale oblong rippled along the sole until its amplitude lowered. Then it softened into a bump which rapidly deflated as the Crimson Beauty flexed her toes.

As the older woman curled the distal ends of her appendages, she felt the skin of her sole began to settle. The new layer of nerves was stimulated with each subtle movement of her foot’s muscles. It was a sinfully delicious bliss.

“Senpai. I think there is something under your foot.”

Yu Mei-ren squished her lips together in a facsimile of shock. 

“Really?”

She lifted her foot up and Mash inspected the spot.

Mash…I…I can’t move.

Ritsuka tried to speak, but only thoughts in her head manifested. Her figurative head. The young woman felt a red-hot thrumming behind where her nervous structures were now packed. A pulse of sanguineous fluid that was located where the plantar metatarsal arteries and lateral plantar artery were located. Like a heartbeat the fluid was shot through Ritsuka’s new body. Each rhythmic spurt scattered the young woman’s thoughts. In addition, as the master felt her body lifted, and Mash come into her view, she felt her entire body crumple into itself. But that was merely Yu Mei-ren scrunching her sole in response to the euphoric sensation of possessing frightened trapped in her sole. 

All that Mash could see was a creamy red expanse that had a slight film of sweat and dirt. A grimy film that Ritsuka was forced to taste. The sour and earthy flavor that was left on the young woman’s tongue, and curled up to her figurative nose, was an unremitting flavor. 

Please…Mash…can you see me?

“Huh…I guess it was just my imagination.”

Yu Mei-ren allowed her visage to adopt a candid smirk. This forthrightness was maintained as she confidently turned her body around. 

“Hmm~ well while you are there Mash, you wouldn’t happen to mind if you massaged them for me? I’ve been walking around for quite a bit and there is a knot that I just can’t get to leave.”

Such an open request was uncharacteristic of the senpai that usually kept to herself around Mash. Thus, the younger woman responded with a bit too much enthusiasm. Especially for the older woman who was just asking this favor so that she could further deride the soul now layered into her sole.

“Of course!”

Mash said just before pressing her thumb into the foot that Yu Mei-ren pushed forward. The one that had taken possession of Ritsuka. Unheeding of the master’s cries, the pink-haired kouhai’s padded digits pressed down on the space between the ball and arch of the older woman’s foot.

Mash!

Ahn~

While Yu Mei-ren was surprised by the pleasure that she felt by the pink-haired kouhai’s attention, Ritsuka was forced to feel the abrasive ridges of Mash’s fingers and thumbs rub the brine collected from the two women onto her senses. For Ritsuka, it was like the pink-haired kouhai was shoving her digits right into the shrunken master’s mouth and nose. An experience that was profoundly traumatic in both the physical and the sensory sense. This process continued for minutes as the young woman felt her veritable body rolled and folded by Mash’s dexterous hands.

“Thanks Mash, I think that you got it.”

Yu Mei-ren said before pressing her feet back down into the toweled floor. Forcing the pressure and salty slop into Ritsuka’s senses. Muffling the words of the young woman’s new owner and her dear friend. 

If it weren’t for my new resident, I would have never asked for such a favor. But the delightful complement of Mash’s fingers to Ritsuka’s suffering…maybe I should make this a more frequent ask.

Just as Yu Mei-ren predicted, the young woman had ended the day begging for death. But her cries went unheard. As she now served a purpose of making the True Ancestor’s steps lighter. For a blissful step forward by the Crimson Beauty. One that the former cung zai felt as Yu Mei-ren and Mash got up to return to Chaldea. The full force of the older woman’s body weight, fully focused on the intact nerves of the young woman’s sentience, was one that battered her mind and soul. 

Each step forward was one that slowly eroded the young woman’s personality and memories. Who knows if she would have any wants to return to being a human by the time that Yu Mei-ren releases Ritsuka from her containment next year? Or the year after that. Or maybe not at all.

…and the world was engulfed in a dull light. Ritsuka felt a tear rip through her body before it was supplanted by a numb hollowness. But she was familiar with agony. Thus, she looked up at Mash’s shocked expression. The emotions running through her countenance were obfuscated by the dull evening light. In the periphery of Ritsuka’s vision, she saw Yu Mei-ren’s toes instinctively near her now freed body. 

It was an action that was made without thought by the True Ancestor once she felt the prey escape the hold of her foot’s skin. One that she had stopped herself from completing, since it was obvious from where Mash’s eyes were directed, that she had seen the master. Yu Mei-ren doubted that she could fool the pink-haired kouhai. And if the older woman made attempts to lay claim on the defeated master, then the Shielder would undoubtedly fight tooth and nail to protect her.

“Yu Mei-ren…”

Aya~ Just great. Oh…I’m so sorry Xiang yu.

“…I think there was a bug…or a sea animal trapped under your foot.”

Yu Mei-ren’s eyebrow raised in surprise. Ritsuka felt her heart plummet. The lips of Mash’s beautiful visage were turned downward in a frown.

“Really…”

Yu Mei-ren inquired as she pulled her legs away and looked down at Ritsuka. The shrunken woman truly looked like a cung zai at this point. Maybe even less. 

The bottom half of her body was torn away. And the arms that it once had looked more like podocytes. The foot processes that one would see on a micro-organism. The young woman’s body had loss any semblance of human form or coloration. She was just a red and white blob now. A moving wet tissue paper painted red.

“I don’t know why…but I think that it’s in a lot of pain.”

Mash saw the trail of red fluid in between the sea organism and Yu Mei-ren’s foot. The way that the organism near her foot floundered, not in a manner that a mobile creature should behave, convinced Mash that it was dying.

“I think that it’s about to die. Poor thing.”

Ritsuka tried so hard to yell Mash’s name. To evoke any noise out of her body that would confer upon the pink-haired kouhai that she possessed intelligence. But it seemed that the young woman had expended all the energy in her body. The saddened expression on Mash’s face, and the serious expression on Yu Mei-ren’s face. Ritsuka’s life was now in their hands. There was nothing else that she could do.

“I guess that we can just leave it alone. Let nature take its course.”

Yu Mei-ren stood up and looked like she was about to pack up and leave. In reality, the True Ancestor was trying to get Mash to leave with her. So that she could backtrack later and pick up Ritsuka to begin the merging process anew. As the blissful sensation in her sole had now vanished. 

No! Mash! Don’t leave me! Please. I’ll be your pet! Just take me!

Ritsuka internally yelled with all her heart. She trembled at the thought of being left at the mercy of the wilderness. Even the caring comfort of Mash’s presence was preferable to that. Even if she didn’t think of her senpai as nothing more than an insect.

It must be in so much pain. I can’t leave it like this.

Although, the growing frown on Mash’s face upon hearing those words from Yu Mei-ren made such a course of action to be unlikely. The pink-haired kouhai stood up herself, and she felt a little bit of her soul wither.

In Ritsuka’s perspective, she saw the two goddesses rise into the darkening heavens. Their bodies shook her surroundings as the discernible features of their faces became a nondescript blur. The alluring features of their beauty was a sight that the master was no longer permitted to view. Instead, she heard the words that left her caring kouhai’s lips. Words of condemnation.

“No. I’d rather not leave it to suffer.”

Yes!

Ritsuka was sobbing. Exuberant that Mash was the caring girl that she knew. That she would take care of her. And that perhaps Da Vinci and the others would find out the truth.

For a fleeting moment of lucidity, Ritsuka was able to see the faces of the giantesses deciding her fate. Yu Mei-ren bore an annoyed expression, while Mash’s expression was a pitying one.

“Better to put it out of its misery.”

The freshest amounts of despair, emerge when hope is taken away. Ritsuka’s mind went numb. She could only look up as Mash lifted her foot and curled her toes. The muscles in her legs bulged with a girth that Yu Mei-ren could not match. Dense calves and thighs gained from carrying the weight of the world on her back. An impressive feat that was made even more amazing that she kept her kindness as she dirtied her body. 

No…Mash…

It was due to that kindness that a rain of dirt fell from Mash’s foot as it looked overhead. Right over Ritsuka’s blob of a body. A kindness that desired not to prolong the suffering of another life on this Earth, no matter how little, longer than necessary.

“I’M SORRY.”

MASH!!

With an air of proprietary befitting of a goddess, she brought the pillar of muscle down upon the master’s form. The hazy gray surface of her sole blotted out the sun and sky from Ritsuka’s vision. It only took an instant for the slab of soft meat to press down on the young woman. For the pungent and salty brine of the pink kouhai’s sweat to flood the organism’s senses. A deluge of seawater that was tainted by pestiferous grime and gray refuse. The coating on Mash’s soles overloaded Ritsuka’s senses before the greater physical might of the physical combatant continued to press down with an increasing force. 

Muscles tensed over the blob as Ritsuka felt the remaining supporting structures of her body give way. The dough of Mash’s foot became firmer than Yu Mei-ren’s sole ever was. An underside that transformed into a literal car compactor.  The wrinkles of Mash’s skin tore at the outer layer of the young woman’s oblong form. As a result, squeezing the red organs of vitality that kept the master’s life going. The next pulse of Mash’s immense weight, as she lifted her other foot to bring the full brunt of her body’s weight down on the poor organism, smashed Ritsuka into a bloody smear. The organism’s gray matter squirted out and much like the rest of her wet viscera, became a sopping smear on the bottom of Mash’s foot.

“Well…I guess that it was just a cung zai.”

Yu Mei-ren shrugged her shoulders as Mash lifted her foot and inspected the damage. 

“What was that senpai?”

On the bottom of her foot was a bright red mess of guts that was stuffed into the wrinkles of her foot. The pink-haired kouhai completely unaware that the senpai that she cared deeply about was that stain on her foot.

“Ah~ nothing I was just talking to myself.”

Maybe I should go back to the sea to wash this off.

Mash idly thought as she rubbed her thumb back and forth against the bloody smear. Mixing its greasy stain with her body’s own natural oils. Until it became a darker shade of maroon. As the rest of the dirt that Mash had stepped on mixed with it. Thus, even making it difficult for someone to tell that the pink-haired woman had crushed a living being under her foot.

Both senpai and kouhai continued to talk until the sun went down. Then the two went back to Chaldea. Although Yu Mei-ren was wrong. By the end of the day, Ritsuka did want to live…she just never got the chance.