I had opted for the game controller when Yae returned in a loose pink blouse and blue shorts. I was a bit disappointed to see her hair tied low by a pink scrunchie. She looked a lot better without messing with her hair. The curl of her hair was cute in my opinion. Still, she seemed to be happy with my request because she didn’t get a chance to play on weekdays normally.
“Oh. how about if I pull this thing?”
“Ah, I can cross over now. Nice job, Touya.”
A slow paced co-operative game was just what the doctor ordered to relax. Though the controller was half my height and heavier than me, I was able to sit down in front of it and use it like a giant arcade machine. With me at 42 cm, it was clunky and I couldn’t use both the stick and the buttons at the same time, but it was workable. As a plus side, the television, while looking more than 5 times as far as it usually would, was also much larger from my perspective - like I was using a cinema screen.
Yae led the way in game while I assisted. It made sense since it was her game that she had purchased with her money, but I was disappointed because I couldn’t do much more. I believed I was slowing her down because of how hard it was to manipulate my character. I made it up for it with my puzzle-solving skills however. We were able to clear a few levels together.
“Ah! No fair!”
Stomp! Stomp!
“Huh? Waah!”
I reacted to late before Yuri entered the room and spotted us playing. She ran over to the front of the table I was on and pointed right at Yae. The powerful stomps of her primary schooler body along with the gust of wind caused by her running over caught me off guard, but I nearly fell off the table when the side of Yuri’s foot accidentally bumped into the table leg when she stopped.
“Onee-chan, why do you get to play games today?” Yuri demanded to know. “Okaa-san said no video games on weekdays.”
“Ah, Touya!” Yae called my name to check that I was okay. I was so she answered her sister. “Touya wanted to play before he got too small. This was a special exception.”
“Uuu,” Yuri pouted. “I want to play with Onii-chan too. I just finished my homework, so can I?”
“I guess s… No, Okaa-san will get mad if I say yes,” Yae was about to relent but stopped herself. “How about if we play something else together? Touya was having trouble with the controller anyway.”
“So I was slowing you down!” I knew it.
I was fine with changing to accommodate Yuri. The little kid could be a handful. I didn’t have siblings, but I could tell being the older sister was something Yae had to grow into.
We changed to the board game Yae had brought out. She spread the game board onto the table and both girls sat on opposite sides. I stood on the board itself among the spinner, dice, and cards. I recognized I had fallen to 40 cm tall because the 20 cm spinner was half my height.
I wanted to quote Yae in that it was a surreal experience playing a board game while on the board. The cards were the size of posters and the plastic spinner looked like a game show spinner as well. Each die fit in my hands like a deck of cards would fit Yae’s. They weren’t too heavy, but they did have a noticeable weight in them when I threw them much like the pieces when I carried mine from space to space. I was getting some exercise from the board game.
All the while, Yae and Yuri were looking down on me with curiosity and interest. I must have looked like a moving toy to them going about the board, putting in an effort to pick up the pieces and cards or use the dice and spinner. They sat above me as 7+ m and 5+ m giants, their hands descending on their turn to do what I was doing with ease.
“Onii-chan, you’re so slow,” Yuri laughed as her hand picked up my piece and moved it for me, bringing it 11 spaces away. I started to walk over to where it was when Yae took her turn and rolled. I heard the thud as the brick sized dice fell from above to my right.
“Five spaces. Let’s see what the card says,” Yae reached past me and over my head to the pile of cards to read it. “Ah. Move a player of your choice back five spaces. Touya, you’re the furthest ahead so that’s going to be you.”
And Yae reached over to move my piece 5 spaces back, changing my destination again. I looked up at her to see her stick her tongue out at me. Though she said it was because I was in first, she clearly wanted to mess with me.
The game continued until Ayame-san called us over for dinner. Yae cleaned up the board game by taking me off the table and pushing everything into the box. I was able to tell from comparing myself to Yae’s chest high bare thigh as she sat that I was around 38 cm tall, meaning I had lost 2 cm while we were playing.
Being brought to the dinner table, I found Ayame-san had placed a chopstick’s worth of everything she had made onto a small dipping sauce tray. This was my plate. Yae placed me on the table beside where she was sitting and moved the plate over to me.
It sure was something to be standing next to a bowl that was up to my stomach. The rice Ayame-san piled on for Yae was up to my chest. If I didn’t know anything about the Reduction, I would have immediately considered the ceramic bowl a Culture Festival prop.
I considered calling Yae a big eater to poke fun at her, but decided it was in poor taste, especially when I realized Yae was eating more than my own weight in food considering my current stature.
The clamboring of the Asano family as they ate became my background noise. Yuri told her mother about all of the fun things that happened at school while Ayame-san inquired with Yae for more details about Reduction. I ate the few grains of rice, the small fragment of chicken, and the chunk of fried eggplant as best as I could. Finishing it was my self-imposed challenge as my pride wouldn’t handle not finishing so little food.
Especially after Yuri said, “Onii-chan, is that going to be enough for you?”
I was glad Ayame-san considered my reduced stomach size.
When dinner was over, Ayame-san made the two sisters do the dishes. I was left on the table where she sat with me. She had with her the Reduction Week pamphlet from the school.
“So… Yae’s getting used to this program, isn’t she?” Ayame-san spoke with certainty. “I bet she’s been getting more touchy-feely with you.”
“Was it that obvious?” I asked. Yae had been careful not to act like she had been in school today now that her parents around, but Ayame-san had noticed anyways.
“I know how the experience goes. And I also know my daughter, Touya-kun,” Ayame-san shoved her finger into my stomach. It felt like being hit by a log. “I’d be careful if I were you. She might just take advantage of the situation. In fact, I’m sure she will. It’s a natural response to us women as you get smaller.”
“I should be happy about that, but that’s also a little worrying,” I answered, wanting to fight back but the repeated thrusts of Ayame-san’s finger kept shoving me back. Ayame-san sure enjoyed poking fun at the two of us, and it was literal with me.
“You can also consider this as just another lesson in your Reduction Week,” the attacks ceased after I fell onto the table. “Think of it as punishment for making my baby girl wait. At the very least, I don’t believe she’ll do anything extreme, so maybe you should just enjoy things while it lasts. I know she certainly will.”
Enjoy, huh? Ayame-san spoke as though she had experience in the matter, which she probably did as adults like her had also gone through Reduction training in the workplace. I got back up slowly after it was clear that she had finished with her serious chat.
That didn’t mean she was done talking with me, however.
“That aside, I noticed there isn’t anything in this pamphlet about a bath,” Ayame-san changed the subject. “Touya-kun, you aren’t going to be going over the next few days without bathing, are you?”
The motherly scolding face was a lot more persuasive when it took up my field of view.
“Well, I do have clothes in my bag that shrunk with me, but it’s not like I can draw a bath myself. It’s only two more days after this so it shouldn’t be a problem,” I said.
“Are all men like this? Takeshi says the same thing every time he’s in a bathless hotel when on business,” frowned Ayame-san.
“Wah!”
I jerked back as Ayame-san’s hand dropped to my level and her index finger jutted out at me. She didn’t poke me this time, but having her finger directly in front of my face caused me to flinch.
“Your parents may be away, but I refuse to let you ignore your hygiene while you’re in my house, young man,” she told me. “I’ll prepare a warm cup of water. You can have a water bath in private when Yae’s taking her bath. Is that fine?”
“I don’t get to refuse do I?” I asked.
She answered simply by smiling and reaching her hand towards me.