It is not enough to destroy the Amrita Corporation. Further steps have to be taken to undo the mistake we once made.

Jisoo felt the breezy nighttime air on her cheeks once again. Along with the rather unpleasant odor of fertilizer and pesticide. She wrinkled her nose and opened her eyes to discover that the same field of corn where her vision had begun was back, and so was the helicopter that had deposited her aunt. 

To her disgust, Min had taken the opportunity while she was unconscious to take a seat on her left thigh and continued to work her way through the pack of cigarettes like an addict. As she woke up the woman glanced over towards her gigantic niece, before she was indelicately tossed off onto the ground when Jisoo stumbled back to her feet.

Min landed gracefully, but looked mournfully at the cigarette that had fallen from her hands and landed on the ground. Jisoo crossed her arms. “Put that out. You might start a fire.” She murmured. “How long was I out?”

“Less than ten minutes.”

“And you didn’t take the opportunity to run away?”

“As if I could ever hope to escape you, my dear.” Min replied earnestly and brushed herself off. “Although I am curious about what you were dreaming about. You said some very peculiar things. May I presume it had something to do with your mother? And Satsuki?”

“Hmph. Wouldn’t you like to know?” Jisoo replied cryptically before she reached out towards her aunt once again. Min made no effort to scamper away and was quickly ensnared by her enormous fingers. “The omikami is dealt with. That’s all that matters.”

“Oh? Just like that?”

“I’m going to shrink you now. Then I’m going to shrink the rest of our family one by one.” Jisoo proclaimed, and ignored Min’s inquiries. “Every last one of you will live a mundane, mortal life and die off like the rest of humanity. Afterwards I’ll dismantle the entire company, uproot your supporters, and diminish them as well.”

“It was only a matter of time before something like this happened. The taller the house of cards the more disastrous it is when it all comes crashing down.” Aunt Min remarked. “Very well. Do as you will.” She stated without an ounce of trepidation.

Jisoo had hoped that Aunt Min would be just as fearful to be reduced as the others she had diminished thus far. Both Grace and Lihua had considered this a fate worse than death, by contrast Min seemed to have simply accepted that this was how things would end for her. It made her frustrated that she could not get a similar reaction from the steely woman, but at least she would never oversee the dominion of others ever again. 

Her eyes gleamed a bright gold as she reached out and touched Aunt Min with her mind. Instantly the statuesque woman began to fall, and shrink deeper into her own clothes. She made no efforts to resist the process or squeal in discomfort. It happened over the course of a few seconds, before she was just a little moving bundle beneath layers of fabric.

Jisoo plucked the dress away and inspected her now puny, pathetic relative who was completely naked on the ground in the middle of a plain cornfield. Such a fall from grace was poetic, but still nowhere near the punishment she deserved to endure…

No. I’m not that person anymore. Jisoo thought and resisted the urge to humiliate the woman any further. The deed was done, and that’s all that mattered. “Scurry off to some dark hole and never come out.” She muttered and turned around. “I never want to see you ever again.”

Is it finally over? 

Hours had passed since the tremors began. Ruiwen was thoroughly disoriented by the ordeal, and to even walk in a straight line was difficult. Somehow nobody else on the street seemed to have the same dilemma.

Eventually she had lost sight of her aunt, and now Ruiwen was simply befuddled by what had just happened. “You alright?” She asked Maddie quietly when they found a lonely park bench to sit on. “Still in one piece?”

“I’m a bit woozy but otherwise I feel fine. Although how either of us are still alive, I have no idea.” Maddie responded. “If someone that size took even a single step the shockwave would have caused cataclysmic earthquakes. Tidal waves that would demolish the coasts. Billions of casualties.”

“But nobody seemed remotely concerned.” 

“Exactly, which is why I’m so confused by what we just saw. Jisoo was the size of a planet and nobody but us seemed to notice.” Maddie said in agreement. 

The redhead scratched her chin thoughtfully. “Something must have happened to her. I don’t think she’s with the Amrita Corporation at all anymore.” Maddie remarked. “I guess there’s no way to know for certain until we ask her.”

“True… We need to find a way to contact her immediately.”

“That won’t be necessary.” A familiar voice suddenly interjected. Ruiwen blinked in surprise at first, then realized how elementary it probably would have been for the godlike woman to locate them. 

Jisoo appeared from seemingly thin air just down the road. Perhaps she actually had, and teleportation was also in her personal repertoire of endless abilities. She smiled at both women and took a seat on the bench next to them. “I’m sorry if I frightened either of you earlier. It was not my intention.” 

“Well you certainly could have warned us.” Maddie snapped crisply and crossed her arms. The tone she took with a woman who had just been a thousand miles tall was quite bold, all things considered. 

Nevertheless Jisoo only laughed nervously and scratched the back of her head. “I did not have the chance before. It was not until a few days ago when I discovered I was even capable of becoming so large.” She explained. Her expression softened and she looked directly at Maddie with empathetic eyes. “I never really apologized to you… I’m sorry, Madeleine. I’ve done irreparable damage to you, and my cruel actions directly led to the deaths of your close friends.”

“Hmph.”

“I… I don’t expect you to forgive me, I know I do not deserve it. However I want you to know that I will never kill another person and am trying to fix the damage that I’ve caused. There is no justification for ordering the assassination of your former employees, and by extension bringing you and Maeve into the crossfire.” Jisoo continued even as Maddie regarded her disdainfully. “Everything that my cousin Grace did to Maeve was my fault. Everybody else in Eureka who Grace had killed, died because of me.”

“It sounds like you finally accepted that you’re a pretty shitty human being.” Maddie said with an uncaring shrug. Ren stared daggers at her, but the speck remained cold despite the apology. 

To their surprise, Jisoo actually seemed delighted to hear that. “…I am a pretty shitty person. I’m a human who has done terrible things to lots of people, and hurt countless others.” She remarked. “I used to call myself a monster as a means of deflecting blame, since it’s only natural for a monster to do bad things. And as a so-called ‘goddess’ I could do whatever I wanted. Now I see that really, I’m just a fucked up person with nobody to blame but myself.” 

“Good for you! You made an iota of progress. I’m sure the millions of people you’ve killed are elated to hear that.”

“Maddie for fuck’s sake give her a break!” Ren said in exasperation. “She’s trying to apologize to you and you’re being an asshole about it.”

“It’s okay, like I said I don’t expect Madeleine to forgive me. The victim never has any obligation to forgive anybody. And frankly, I deserve it. I should be knocked down a few pegs after all I’ve done.” Jisoo said calmly. She turned back to face Maddie. “Although to clarify, earlier when I was a giantess I did not actually kill anybody. Surely you noticed that nobody seemed particularly alarmed? I cast a spell to keep everybody calm and safe.”

Cast a spell? Like magic? Ren thought and furrowed her brow. “I don’t get it. How did~?”

“It would take a while to explain. And it’s kind of cold outside.” Jisoo cut in and stood up from the bench. “You two must be exhausted, I certainly am. Perhaps we can all get something to eat?”

It was a brisk walk to the nearest convenience store. The clerk waved sleepily at them, but if he had any objection to the presence of a speck customer, he was wise enough to keep his mouth shut. 

The only positive to Jisoo’s sudden arrival was that she was way better at handling specks than Ren was. Maddie felt more comfortable to be touched and moved around by the more experienced woman, who had a lifetime to prepare for such things.

Still, she regarded her warily and felt her heart flutter when Ren excused herself to use the bathroom. While she was away, Jisoo purchased a package of instant ramen with some spare change she had in her coat pocket and took a seat on the curb.

Maddie sat next to her gigantic toned thigh on the concrete and watched the giantess tear open the cellophane to reveal a brick of dried noodles. “Not exactly what I had in mind when you offered to buy me dinner.” She murmured. “Aren’t you rich?”

“I left the Amrita Corporation. And the Chen Family.” Jisoo revealed and sprinkled the seasoning packet on the uncooked ramen. The pungent odor stung Maddie’s nose slightly as the spicy mixture was caught by the wind. “My sister was smart enough to withdraw some money from my account before we left though. Unfortunately she’s not here. I asked her to watch after Eren and Maeve.”

“…Do you trust her?” Maddie asked uncertainly. 

Jisoo nodded. “Suji dedicated her life to fighting the Amrita Corporation and the rest of our family. She would never let them hurt innocent people.” She proclaimed. “You were right about Grace. She was torturing Eren and Maeve for months.”

“But you stopped her.”

“She would have killed all of us if I didn’t unlock my powers. I was wrong to trust her, idolize her even. It nearly cost me… us… everything.” Jisoo said with a heavy sigh as she broke off some of the dry noodles and gave them to Maddie. “You love Maeve, don’t you? When she thought you were dead she was devastated. All she wants to do now is to return here to be with you again.” She noted.

Really? I didn’t… We never really had a chance to confess our feelings to one another. Maddie thought and took a bite of the uncooked ramen. It was similar to a potato chip. In college she had eaten dry ramen all the time, so this was a very nostalgic flavor for Maddie. “…Thank you for saving me and Maeve.” She eventually forced herself to say. “I guess I can’t hate you for what you did to me. I did try to kill Eren once before and you let me off with a warning.”

“We both made our mistakes and did bad things, but I sincerely hope we can become friends. Start fresh and just try again.” Jisoo said optimistically. 

What would my grandpa say in this situation? Would he just call it water under the bridge? Maddie wondered. For months she had harbored mixed feelings towards Jisoo. On one hand she was both the bane of her existence, and also a savior. 

There were times when she genuinely wished the woman would have fallen off the face of the earth, and times like this where she genuinely empathized with her. Jisoo probably felt the same way about her, Maddie realized. They both had reasons to despise one another. 

Yet here they were, chatting somewhat amicably over a cheap packet of instant ramen on the ground in front of a convenience store. “I like that idea.” Maddie eventually said with an affirmative nod. “We’re friends now. So stop calling me ‘Madeleine’. Everybody I’m friends with calls me Maddie.”

“I appreciate that.” Jisoo said and smiled warmly. 

Ruiwen watched the two women reconcile their differences from a distance. She had finished her business in the restroom earlier, and had time to buy a bag of chips for herself along with a cup of yogurt. She hesitated at the door where just outside Jisoo and Maddie were. 

If Jisoo had not stopped me, I would have killed Maddie outright. This reunion wouldn’t be possible if I had done what I set out to do. Ren thought to herself and slumped her shoulders in shame. 

For months she had been a warden for Maddie’s prison. When they first met she treated the girl as a slave, and not once had she tried to see if Eren was actually alright. Because of her failures Maeve had been found, tortured, and used as a sex toy by Grace. 

Jisoo was right. The women of her family used their titles as goddesses to justify their abhorrent acts. In the last few months, what good for the world had Ren actually done other than satisfy her own sadistic urges? As an assassin, her life’s work was dedicated to the destruction of innocent lives.

Her footsteps alerted both women to her arrival. Jisoo turned around and smiled at her as well. “You all finished?” She asked. “I can take us to a safer place across the sea if you are ready.”

“You mean teleport us?” 

“Mhm. My mother taught me how.” Jisoo explained. “Come on. I’m sure you’re both exhausted and could do with a good night’s sleep after everything.” She suggested.

I get it now. This is how Jisoo and her mom felt before they snapped and abandoned it all, right? Ren thought as she let out a sigh and shook her head. “Both of you should go on without me.” She replied. “I’m going to return to Philadelphia.”

“What?” Maddie blurted in confusion. “Ren, it’s okay. You’re a part of this now.”

“No I’m not. All I know is that I’m not really a demi-goddess or an operations specialist.” Ren replied. “…I can’t come with you.”

“Ren~!”

“Maddie, I would have killed you earlier. I killed your friends and had fun doing it. And even though I’ve done a lot of fucked up shit, I honestly don’t feel that bad about it. I sleep easily every night even though I have blood on my hands.” Ren cut in. “I’ve realized that’s a problem I need to work out on my own.”

“It’s too dangerous for you to do that! What about the Amrita Corporation? Sarah Lin? It’s safer for you to be with us.” Maddie insisted. 

Ren shrugged. “Something tells me the Amrita Corporation won’t be the boogeyman by the time Jisoo is finished. She doesn’t need any extra help, especially from a lousy assassin like me who botched her first and only assignment.” She noted. “For the first time in my life I’m able to go anywhere freely, and I just discovered a new perspective on life itself. I want to find out who I really am.”

“I think that’s a great idea, honestly. You should see the world for yourself with your own eyes and not the lenses of a trained killer.” Jisoo professed. 

Maddie remained unconvinced, saddened even that Ren did not want to accompany her for the next leg of her journey. “Ren come on, we can do all of that together. We’ve come this far.” She murmured. 

Ren sighed. “I’m sorry Maddie. I ruined your life and took everything from you. It’s something that I need to learn to completely regret. Even now I still have the urge to justify my own actions.” She remarked. “Those people that I killed before deserve closure. Their families should know the truth at some point.”

“But you don’t need to go through this alone.” Maddie said, her voice almost a whimper now. “I… I don’t want you to go.” She eventually said simply. 

Please don’t make this harder than it is. Ren thought as she strolled forward and ruffled Maddie’s curly red locks. “This isn’t goodbye forever. Just for now.” She promised and blinked the moisture away from her eyes. “Besides, I don’t want to get in the way of you and Maeve. I’m sure she’ll appreciate some alone time with you.” Ren remarked.

She bowed to Jisoo. “I wish both of you luck with everything. Please send my regards to Eren and Maeve, we’ll have to meet in person at some point.” Ren mentioned. “And be safe.”

“We’ll see each other again soon, Ruiwen. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me.” Jisoo said affectionately as she returned the bow. The shorter woman smiled and turned around to stroll back down the street.

She was only a few steps away when Maddie’s voice carried across the gap. “R-Ren!” She called out tearfully. “…Take care.”

Jisoo decided to walk a short distance before she made the leap through time and space to her rendezvous with everyone else back home. It was strange to think that with just a gesture and desire, she could travel anywhere she wanted to go in the world. No ocean or mountain had any meaning to her. 

If I wanted, I could spend the rest of my life happily traveling aimlessly. Never spend a year in the same country. Visit the most beautiful places in the world. Jisoo thought as she contemplated what further uses her magic could have. 

It could have happened that very same week. All she had to do was reunite Maddie with Maeve, then she and Eren could elope. That was what she had thought she wanted to do, until she realized that her newfound abilities had granted her a unique opportunity. 

A possibility to undo a generation of suffering in the world caused by her own hands. “Do you mind if I pick your brain on something?” Jisoo asked after a few minutes of silence. “How has your outlook on life changed since you became a speck?”

“...It’s been hard. Everything I used to think about specks has been proven to be an utter falsehood. Not a day has gone by where I haven’t wondered if someone would try to kill me on the street.; Ren was the only person who made me feel safe.” Maddie replied honestly. “It also demonstrated how quickly I would die if I lived in a speck commune.”

“Eren mentioned you spent a lot of time at the commune that Maeve is from.” 

“I tried to help them out as much as I possibly could. A few times a week I would bring them food, clean water, hygienic supplies, some blankets, fabric, new tools…” Maddie replied.

It’s more than I ever did to help out a commune. Jisoo thought. “They must have really appreciated that.”

“They were extremely grateful. But also pretty confused to know why I wanted to help them out so much. I was the only person in the history of the commune who had ever tried to do something like that, so at first there was a bit of suspicion.” Maddie revealed. “Although I could only do so much to really make a difference.”

“Meaning?”

“Even with my help every week, the commune still struggled. I’m not a doctor and even if I was I could not treat many of the illnesses that were rampant, and every so often there would be one less speck because a person out in the world killed them.” She replied grimly. “Charity can only do so much to help out. The general population considers specks to be sentient cockroaches, and treats them as such. Unless something radically changes in society itself, that will never go away.” Maddie concluded with a heavy sigh.

That’s exactly what I was afraid you would say. Jisoo said to herself and bit her tongue. So far she had only told her mother and sister what her possible future plans for the world were, and she was hesitant to share it with someone else. 

However, Maddie had a very unique perspective that she desperately wanted to hear. “I agree with you; unless there is a radical change in society itself, specks will always be treated as second class citizens.” Jisoo mentioned. “It begs the question as to what that change might be?”

“I once thought that simply showing the world just how awful life is for specks might cause a big change, but then I realized how meaningless that would be. The news already covers the plight of people with no homes, food, or shelter. And everyday the average person simply agrees that it is horrible and goes about their daily lives since it does not directly affect them. Most people only care when something has an immediate impact on their lives.”

“Also, both of us have seen first-hand how cruel seemingly ‘normal’ people can be to even young children who happen to be specks. The average person has been trained to view specks as a lesser entity, like vermin.” Jisoo continued and recalled the horrors of what they had witnessed in Norwich earlier that year.

Exceptions like Maddie exist, but she is in such a small and frankly insignificant minority of the population it doesn’t matter. Over half her company left when she kept a speck as an employee. Before Grace had them executed, Desmond and Leah were good people as well but also represented a tiny percent within an already small amount of people that care for specks. 

Besides that, the vast majority of the population thinks that specks are coddled and even when shown the truth, can’t be bothered to care. And there is a frightening amount of people who use specks as an excuse to exercise whatever cruel fantasies they have…

Maddie leaned against her neck while draped over her shoulder like it was a bed. She had quickly grown comfortable perched up there. “I faced a lot of push back from my investors when I tried to shift focus to help specks. It is not profitable to help them, so major businesses have no incentive to support them.” She remarked. “I’m sure that even if some major campaign to get specks out of poverty was launched, there would be a massive backlash from traditional and conservative media. They would double down on propaganda and we would be stuck in the slow process of social gridlock for generations until finally specks would be treated as normal citizens by the average person. Even then the discrimination cannot fundamentally be removed.”

“You don’t think it’s possible for specks to ever be accepted at all?”

“The difference in size and power dynamics makes it inherently impossible for specks and normal people to ever be ‘equal’. There will always be a divide between specks and others for that reason alone, because of the very simple and immutable fact that a speck can be crushed under a shoe as casually as an ant.” Maddie explained. “Those differences make it impossible for specks to ever be seen as anything more than a class of people to be pitied, and they certainly will always trail behind in terms of wealth.” She went on.

I see her point. Even in countries like Germany, China and Korea where specks are protected equally by the law and that law is for the most part well-enforced, specks are typically barely above the poverty line. Career opportunities and upwards social mobility are pretty much non-existent. Jisoo thought. 

But there was a way for that to change. A way for the world to go back to the way it once was. The question was whether or not such a thing could possibly be justified. “What if… What if the power dynamic was removed altogether? What if everybody was the same?” Jisoo proposed.

Maddie furrowed her brow. “What do you mean?”

“What if everybody was a speck?” She pressed and turned her gaze to the side to see what the woman’s reaction would be. “If every person on the planet was a speck, would that remove the fundamental power gap between specks and everybody else?”

“…To an extent. It’s also very likely that without a proper redistribution of wealth and resources to the disenfranchised speck population there would still be a significant difference between the original specks and the new ones.” Maddie theorized. “Although it would be a much, much easier socioeconomic dilemma to deal with than the status quo.” She noted.

One that probably would not require me to act as a goddess or forcibly alter peoples minds. Jisoo considered. “Needless to say there is no conceivable course of action that results in a perfect outcome for specks, there will always be a divide.” She remarked. “But without the power imbalance that comes inherent due to size…”

“There is an endless list of other factors to consider as well. Just how would the world adapt to the sudden change if it were to happen overnight for instance? And the chaos of the shrinkage.” Maddie reminded her. “The vast majority of the world we have built is not designed for specks. It would take a very long time for that to change.”

“What if the buildings and cities shrank as well?”

“Something tells me we aren’t speaking hypothetically anymore.” Maddie muttered and folded her arms knowingly. 

I just want to know if this is really the best course of action. If it’s not enough to just shrink humanity, then I’ll shrink their concrete forests as well. She thought and nodded in affirmation. “Do you have a better idea?” Jisoo asked quietly. “Look I know it’s a batshit crazy and pretty stupid, shortsighted plan, but I~!”

“If you can do something like that it might just be the best option.” Maddie cut in, to Jisoo’s obvious surprise as her eyes went wide. 

She stammered at first. “R-Really?” Jisoo replied in shock. “You don’t think it’s a bad idea?”

“Both of us witnessed the aftermath of a massacre in which almost forty people were killed. The vast majority of them were young children, and the rest elderly people. All because they were specks. We found their frozen corpses after a completely ordinary construction worker smashed them all to death with a hammer. If you were to go up to any random person on the street with that information, over half would shrug since all the victims were specks.” Maddie proclaimed with a shiver. “…You could spend your entire life advocating for specks, spend trillions on campaigns to improve their living conditions and place in society, and it would do nothing substantial. If you threatened the world with destruction unless they treated specks differently, a few psychopaths would go out of their way to harm them even more as a means of rebellion against a goddess.”

“Maybe it’s just because in all the time I’ve been a speck I’ve not once been treated as human by anybody but you or Ren, but I think the only way to undo the dehumanization of specks is to remove the only thing that separates them from anybody else.” Maddie suggested.

It felt strange to have Maddie outright agree that her initial plan was a good idea. Jisoo had been confident that the mere suggestion would have been met with a resounding disapproval and she would be sent back to the drawing board. Instead, Maddie had reaffirmed the belief in her mind that this was the best course of action. 

A world where every single person was made a speck. It did not have to happen instantly, Jisoo could slowly ease the population into it at whatever pace she pleased. That would make it a tad bit safer too. Afterwards she could push the governments she had previously intimidated to work on integration with speck society rather than exclude them.

Now I understand why the Amrita Corporation was necessary for Baochai to manipulate the world. If I had those same resources at my disposal I would not need to be so personally involved. Fortunately, magic covers my bases. Jisoo said to herself. “I appreciate your viewpoint. I’ve always thought you were one of the smartest people I know.” She professed. “I will give it some more thought before I put any plans into motion.”

“Good idea. It’s an irreversible change to the world and you should ponder every possible consequence.”

“Would you be willing to talk through logistics with me? If I really do decide to turn everybody into specks?”

“Certainly. Consider us business partners as well as friends from now on!” Maddie exclaimed cheerily. “I’ll want to pick your brain from time to time too. You are a very fascinating woman and there’s a lot I want to know.”