Though we had spent the whole day on the floor with the girls told to ignore us, we weren’t going to be as ignored after lunch while they changed or while they went to the gym. The former was obvious enough as they didn’t want us boys peaking, but the latter meant we’d still be taking part. I had thought we’d have the chance to not take lessons the entire day. Just by wandering around, we had already gotten enough physical exercise in.
But that was not the case. We had to gather up by a Reduction Transport container with our things while the girls left the room to change. They actually checked we were all present before leaving. That was why Sensei had given Takahashi a notebook. It had our class roster on it and since she could recognize most of us boys (through putting her face far too close for comfort to us), she checked we were all there and left us to the other health committee girl in charge of transport.
It took time, but once inside the liftable steel box that resembled an animal carrying case, we were expected to change into our athletic clothes. The walls of the entire interior of the box were all lockers.
I heard from the other boys that the container was different from the one they were in yesterday to take them to where had stayed overnight. This one was a lot smaller, the size of a purse, but a lot more roomy, probably due to our size. The steel box also lacked the cushions the other carrier had. This was, in a sense, a miniature locker room.
“Okay, boys. You can head on out,” we were told by the health committee girl. We stepped out to find ourselves in the school gymnasium like we had been the day before. Only now, the gymnasium was as expansive as a city, and in this vast field of laminated wood, we could see the towering girls all around us.
“What the heck are we going to be doing in class today?”
“They don’t seriously expect us to wander around here while the girls are playing, do they?”
“Where’s Sensei?”
“Um… Guys… what’s going on?”
Our questions went unanswered as the voices of us boys talking and shouting at the health committee girl’s feet never made it to her ears. She picked up the purse sized carrier that held all of us and waved good-bye.
We were left grouped together in the center of the gym unsure what to do. All around us were the girls in their gym clothes. No, more importantly, we were completely surrounded by them. They were in a circle all around us.
This surely was an experience. The girls stood, kneeled, sat, and squatted around us in a circle about 4 meters wide while we boys stood in the center, taking up less space than a single basketball. Speaking of basketball, we could see one underneath Hozuki’s foot - the building sized orange sphere firmly kept in place by the giant athletic girl’s foot. We were thankful she was keeping it steady, but she was also looking straight down at us. All of them were.
“Wow. I know I let those girls ask, but this is kind of underwhelming.” “What do you expect? they’re like a bunch of ants. You can hardly see them.” “I wonder what they’re thinking right now.”
“Can I pick them up?” “You idiot. Sensei said we’re not allowed to.” “But I’ve been wanting to all day.” “I know. It’s so unfair.”
“... Hey, Airi-chan... Eguchi-kun’s down there, right...? Let’s scoop him up and go...” “Eh? N-No. We shouldn’t do that!” “S-Shizuku-chan, you’re scaring me.”
“Wow. I was thinking it’d be funny to play ball with them yesterday, but that looks impossible now.” “Yeah. The ball’s so much bigger than them.” “Shouldn’t we be more worried about stepping on them? We’re not wearing those soles anymore.”
Surround sound conversations thundered above us, some of which more nerve-wracking than others to hear. We had been around the girls all day, but having all of them surround us sent us boys grouping together. We were back to back staring up with trembling legs.
Yoshikawa and her friends were chatting amongst themselves while glancing at us. Tsujimoto and her friends were squatting, dangerously leaning forward to the point of nearly losing balance and falling over us. Eguchi’s admirers, Shima and Satou especially, were trying to hold back the expressionless Yukimura, their struggles sending earthquake-delivering stomps across the gym floor. Hozuki and her friends were being cautious despite Hozuki’s usual apathetic tone.
“Y’know, I kind of get why Sasakura-Sensei didn’t want the girls to pay attention to us now,” I heard someone say.
I agreed. While we were on the floor all day, we weren’t surrounded on all sides by the girls nor were we under their observant gazes. It may have just been because of the perspective (since we hadn’t gotten that small), but we certainly felt under the microscope.
I was now 6.5 cm tall, half of my height from when I woke up this morning. This meant the size of everything had doubled again since the day had begun. The girls were now 50 m tall from our perspective - kaiju sized. Even the JSDF would be challenged by them if they were our size. How could a couple of ordinary boys fare against a group of kaiju scale girls in gym clothes?
Primal fear and instinct were starting to take priority for a couple of us. I could see some guys breaking out into a run while others felt weak in the knees. When faced against an overwhelming monster, wouldn’t you? While the girls weren’t monsters, they were certainly the size of the famous ones we knew of.
“Maybe we should run? That’s what my body’s telling me,” Nakano suggested.
“I’d agree with you. I’m in the mood to yell ‘Gojira!’ and run in panic too, but there’s nowhere to go,” I shut down Nakano’s idea. We were surrounded on all sides, and, even if we ran, we wouldn’t even make it to the nearest girl unless we ran for a good few minutes.
“Wow. Look at them go. They’ve really slowed down,” Hozuki remarked, noting how little distance the fleeing boys covered. When one step from them was twenty to thirty of ours, we’d clearly look slower to them.
Stomp!
Yawn.
A familiar sleepy sound entered my ears after a powerful stomp that sent all of the running boys to the floor. Turning in the direction of the sound and looking up, I saw Takahashi leave the circle and approach. In just two steps, she was already on top of us, her shadow covering the entire area where all of us boys were.
“Hey, boys,” the girl’s half-lidded eyes turned towards us as she waved from above. “How was the view? Were you scared? I bet you didn’t think you’d have all of us around you when you got out.”
We didn’t, but judging by how she was speaking, Takahashi had planned the surprise.
“You are having way too much fun this week, Takahashi!” I shouted up. Of course, my voice didn’t reach up to her ears. It was too soft and weak, only able to reach past her knees. Takahashi could see me vent however so she knew what I was thinking.
“Don’t be like that, Kirishima-kun. I just thought I’d give you boys all the experiences Reduction Week has to offer… Well, some of the girls asked for it too...”
I wondered who was on that list, but before I could start deducting who, another question crossed my mind.
Where was Yae?
All of the girls in the class were surrounding us except Yae. While it was a given that I couldn’t see past the wall of legs formed by the girls, I would have thought she’d be around if everyone else was. I tried to focus my vision past the girls’ bodies, but the rest of the gym was distant and blurry in my eyes. My childhood friend was nowhere to be seen
“Hey, Aoi-chan. This is your job. I wanna look too!” “Takahashi, what the heck are you doing over there?”
She could, however, be heard - Sensei as well. The circle of girls cleared away for Yae and Kawamura-sensei to pass. It was an astounding sight to see the giants move aside - as major as seeing the sea split.
“Clear the way, girls. Come on.”
“Is over here fine, Sensei?”
“Almost. Hey, Takahashi, help already. Hold on to those ends, would you? This thing’s light, but it sure is fragile. We need to lower it slowly.”
“Fine...”
“Easy does it.”
Slaaaaaaaam!
All of us boys were caught up in a cacophony of stomps, clamoring, and tremors as Takahashi moved to help Yae and Sensei gently (to them) set something down. What was going on? We couldn’t tell while the girls were setting up because we were thrown about by just their footsteps.
Only when the set up was complete did we discover what Yae and Kawamura-Sensei had brought in.
“Whoa. Are you serious?” “They did this just for the program?” “Wow… this seriously makes it obvious how small we are.”
What was in front of us was a building. Or rather, it was a gym - a miniature gymnasium much like the one we were already in. Yae and Kawamura-Sensei had carried the government seal and sponsor logo decorated building like they would a cardboard box. The Reduction Program had brought along another surprise to us boys.
Stomp. Stomp.
Kawamura-Sensei’s feet stood on both sides of the building as she stood over it. We stretched our gazes up to listen to her speak while I could see Yae behind her complaining to Takahashi for not helping out.
“Okay, boys. The folks down from the program were nice enough to send you some proper sized equipment. They shrank down a gym just for you all to play in. It should be the right size I hope. Head on inside and see for yourselves.”
Inside we went. The Kaiju comparison really hit home with how easy it would be for any of the girls to step over or even on the miniature gymnasium. We were thankful to experience something that seemed regular size to us.
This building was much more equipped than our own as well. The gym building was fitted with a stage, basketball courts, and even a second floor walkway with seating. There were even proper basketballs reduced along with it so we could play.
“Why didn’t they bring this in yesterday?”
“I’m guessing it was delivered here too late. Deliveries are always late to the nurse’s office,” I tried answering the question as a health committee member. “I’m willing to bet we’re getting something for tomorrow too.”
This wasn’t a normal gymnasium, we were all aware of that. Though it looked like a model, it wasn’t. An 8 m building had been shrunken down to our level, meaning it was now less than 0.3 m tall, below any of the girls’ knees. I doubted that the Reduction program would emblazon their logo on everything unless there was something special about this building. While it was good for us to be able to use, there had to be a catch.
Shake! Shake!
“Waaah! The roof!”
“T-The heck? So easily?”
There it was.
“Alright. Looks like you boys all fit inside here nicely,” Kawamura-Sensei’s voice reverberated around the shrunken structure. She had opened the roof by simply lifting it off with one hand. The gymnasium’s roof had been removable. “I expect you all to play a proper game with the equipment there.”
We’d probably do that even if she didn’t tell us. We were very appreciative of having something our size after spending all day on the floor.
After Sensei stepped away, we found ourselves staring at a blurry brown sky - the ever-distant ceiling of the actual gym we were in. That was shortly replaced, however, by Takahashi, who leaned over to peak in.
“Hm… This seriously does look like a model,” I heard her mumble. “Asano, it wasn’t heavy, was it?...”
“You would’ve known if you did your job, Aoi-chan,” Yae replied. She was out of view but I could tell from her voice that she was pouting over being made to do Takahashi’s job for her.
“Sorry. Sorry. I wanted to give the boys a scare. So is it heavy?”
“Not at all.”
It absolutely wasn’t for Yae. The 50 m by 25 m building was made with concrete, wood, and steel, a majority of it being steel for reinforcement, but because it was now less than 2 m by 1 m, it was a fraction of its original size and even less of its original weight. Yae had effortlessly brought it in and only needed Kawamura-sensei to keep balance so as to not bump into anything.
“It certainly looks fragile,” Takahashi reached towards the edge of our roofless building. We stopped to see her hand grip the thin (in her perspective) wall.
“Ah, don’t touch it, Aoi-chan. You’ll break it off,” Yae warned. She certainly would. It was thinner than a wafer to her.
“I can see that now. Wow...”
“Aoi-chan?”
“I wonder if the floor’s just as brittle too then...”
“Stop stop stop stop stop!”
“Whoa. I was just joking. Stop hitting me.”
A chill ran up all of our spines for a moment before Yae pushed Takahashi away as quickly as possible. The girl was probably teasing us, but the idea of her raising her foot and stepping into the building we were all inside was not a funny one.
Soon after, Yae’s visage appeared above us instead. “Sorry everyone. I’ll get Yae-chan out of the way, so don’t get mad at her, okay?”
Yae didn’t have to bow for Takahashi’s sake, but she did so anyways. It was odd seeing a giant woman bow. For starters, as much as she lowered herself, there was no way she could get any lower than we already were. She also completely covered the entire gym in her body’s shadow when she did so. It was more intimidating than anything else.
Still, Yae succeeded in getting Takahashi away since Sensei also wanted to scold her for not helping earlier.
“That’s our class’s voice of reason for you,” I heard. Yae was the most reasonable among all of us, I had to admit. I felt a little disappointed to see Yae go away, but she was trying to keep us safe.
She did at least for the start in any case. We were able to take part in some sports recreation for a while without any of the girls bothering us. For a moment, we were able to enjoy a little bit of normalcy again while inside our miniature gymnasium in the middle of the actual gymnasium.
After that, the girls started approaching to visit whenever they got to take a break from their game.
First was the gyarus.
“Hey boys, you up for a photo session?” Watanabe asked on behalf of the gyaru squad with their photography enthusiast Nomiya.
“Shino-non~, I totes don’t think I can get everyone’s permission all at once,” Nomiya was being the reasonable one, though the fact that she was tucking the phone she snuck into class in her cleavage told us she was the one to suggest the photo op. We were treated to the view of the undersides of their breasts blocking the view of their faces until Sensei caught them and made them run laps.
Some time later, Eguchi’s admirers showed up...
“Airi-chan, it’s okay. Don’t squirm so much.”
“B-but…”
“They’re the boys, not bugs or anything. Don’t freak out.”
“... Eguchi-kun’s there… But where...”
Or rather, they tried to. Shima’s poor reaction to small things was keeping her away. Yukimura was more than willing to lean in to see if she could find Eguchi, but he was blending in very well with the rest of us who were trying to play while under her gaze. I could swear Eguchi was beaming from being able to relax without his admirers right up in his face. Did the popular guy like them or not?
“It’s troubling having no time to myself. Even I want to just hang out with the guys once in a while,” Eguchi told me.
He earned the disdain of many of the single guys. Popular guys were so insensitive.
“Look who’s talking, Touya-kun...”
Honda’s clumsiness took a turn for the worse again too when a heavy earthquake outside the gym sent all of us to the floor. A few of us walked out to see Honda’s body on the floor, stretched longer than the building was wide. We pulled back into the building when she picked herself up off the floor after having tripped to get the ball that was sent out of court. Her body blocked out the light from the ceiling as she sat up.
More noticeably, her shorts clad butt was nearly touching the back side of the shrunken gym. Honda certainly didn’t have a heavy-build, but she did have remarkable curves. Her rear end which was taller than the walls of the building took up our vision when we looked in her direction. She had a lot of presence, and though some of us boys enjoyed the sight, we were also trembling as though we were looking at an avalanche waiting to happen. If she shifted just a bit further back, she would have bumped into the building and probably knocked down the wall. Worse, she could completely engulf a good chunk of the court underneath her butt.
“Oof… I got it… Eh?” Honda saw us all having fallen as well when she turned to us. We could see from her red face that she was embarrassed for having fallen again right in front of us.
“Oi! Honda-san, are you okay?”
“... Y-Yeah. I’m fine. S-Sorry, boys,” Honda replied. It seemed she was looking for somebody, but when she couldn’t spot him, she bowed and ran off. Her foot nearly kicked the building and Nakano who was outside of the gym after having gone around to use the facilities.
“That was close…” Nakano told us. “I barely escaped getting sat on.”
We were a bit curious as to the view Nakano got, but a few of us boys, myself included, realized Honda had been looking for him. We began thinking of ways we could’ve helped set Nakano up with her, much to his embarrassment.
After Honda, Hozuki as well came over to us much to my annoyance, lording the basketball over our gymnasium as it was a massive building in its own right.
“Yo, boys. How about a game?”
She reached down to my court in particular and, with her hand, tapped the floor. A few of us fell over and dropped the ball, earning her laughter.
“Hozuki, you’re worse than Takahashi,” I complained though my voice never reached her.
Hozuki was having fun interrupting our basketball game with just one hand. She blocked our shots with her fingers, blocked our paths with her palm, and plucked the ball between her thumb and index finger with ease like it was a piece of lint. The sporty girl was treating us like ants in an ant hill she wanted to mess with.
“Hey! Hozuki-chan!”
“G-Geh! Yoshikawa...”
Our Class Representative came later to pull her away. She also had to be scolded. Honesty, every girl in the class approached out of curiosity. There wasn’t a dull moment. We were all like a class pet they watched with mild interest. Was this why some kids kept ant farms?
This was how our gym period passed, in any case - as a little attraction in the middle of the gym for the girls to come see whenever they wanted. What was the purpose of this part of the program, I wondered. Perhaps they just wanted us to get some exercise or perhaps they wanted us to get used to the girls looking at us while we did what was ordinary to us. Whatever the case, when Yae and Takahashi came again, we had grown used to it.
However, by the end of class, they came with a purpose, and it was still too early to leave.
“Ya- Mmph!”
“Found him.”
Before I could say her name, Yae’s hand came down and picked me up. My surroundings were blackened inside her clenched hand. It was only when Yae stood back up that she opened up.
“Hi Touya,” my eardrums were blasted by Yae’s powerful close range voice as she held me on her palm in front of her face.
“Y-Yae… Hi yourself...” I stammered out. It was hard to after being battered by Yae’s hot breath and loud voice right after being picked up and raised dozens of meters up.
“S-sorry,” Yae noticed my discomfort and started to whisper. “I haven’t gotten to talk to you all day, so I was a little too enthusiastic.”
Another giant body came into my view as Takahashi grabbed onto Yae’s shoulder and leaned onto her arm. “She was feeling a little lonely. Are you going to do something about that, Kirishima-kun?”
“I-I wasn’t lonely, Aoi-chan.”
Though she was yawning, she was clearly enjoying poking fun at me and Yae.
“Well, in any case, you two are going to be going to see Sasakura-Sensei before class is over. Since you two signed up for the exemption, you need to get some things from her,” Takahashi yawned as she informed us. She more told me than she did Yae as she probably told her before they came.
“Things? What things?” I asked.
“Oh, you’ll see. Knowing you, you’d enjoy them, Kirishima-kun.”
I didn’t like how Takahashi phrased that, but Yae seemed content and calm.
“Okay, Touya. Let’s head over there then. Hold on tight, okay?” Yae warned me before closing her palm up again. There wasn’t anywhere to hold on. In fact, she was the one holding onto me. “Uwah… This really is a surreal feeling, Aoi-chan. He’s even smaller than he was this morning.”
“Holding him in your hand? I told you. You’ll be getting used to it tonight, though, won’t you? All that and more, right?”
“I’m not sure I like what you’re trying to imply, Aoi-chan...”
“Ah, but maybe Kirishima-kun would like being in your shoe instead.”
“W-What?! A-Aoi-chan?!”
I nearly panicked at Takahashi’s words but Yae did so before me. I couldn’t do anything other than be taken along for the ride when she clenched her hand reflexively. Yae didn’t let go even after she calmed down either. I tried to regulate my breathing inside the hot, cramped grasp of my childhood friend as she left the gym while in her PE clothes to get to the nurse’s office.