It was a day much like any other non-school day on Mid-Childa for Vivio Takamachi. Wake up, go through her morning routine of getting dressed, she had chosen a nice bright red dress which went a little above her knees and had some white highlights near the bottom, say hello to her mothers Nanoha and Fate, then go out to meet her friends and enjoy the perfect weather for the day. Clear skies, bright and sunny, aside from some wind it was wonderful conditions and an excuse to look around a little and say hello to a couple of the group’s other friends before heading back to her house in the evening for some fun. It had been a while since any of them had seen Victoria or Sieglinde so it felt like a good day to visit while already out and about. There wasn’t any guarantee the Intermiddle champion would be there, but with how often she was around Victoria, the odds were more for than against seeing both of them.
They had, however, had a brief run in with Hayate and Rein during their trip. The older girl had flagged the group down to say hello and give a little request, that being if they could deliver a Lost Logia to Nanoha and Fate to apply some extra protective sealing since they were headed there anyway. Hayate had said something about procedure and avoiding some extra paper since Nanoha and Fate had so much experience in it. Vivio could understand that since she usually saw the adults exasperated or at least weary over whatever paperwork meant.
Besides, when Hayate had offered to give everyone’s devices a little tune up as thanks for carrying out the delivery and saving her time, it was hard to say no. With her background, there was almost nobody as good with device maintenance as Hayate, especially for those focusing on the Ancient Belkan style.
They were close to Victoria’s mansion for a visit and decided to go visit it first though. The Lost Logia was going to be fine till then anyway, a few basic containment spells were applied that would be fine till more thorough ones were. Provided nothing disturbed the small black box she was carrying it in at least. But there was slim chance of that happening since they were close to Victoria’s place anyway!
“Hey, Vivio.” Rio eventually spoke up after a short break in the conversation, green eyes curiously leaning toward the box. Her outer pale blue vest flapped gently in the breeze alongside the long purple bangs which went down her torso. It was hard to believe she wasn’t cold in the wind with only the vest, a sleeveless pale shirt beneath it, and then a short skirt made in a pattern that made it resemble jean shorts than a typical skirt. “You said before your moms worked with this stuff a bunch, right?”
Vivio nodded.
“So, what kind of stuff do they do?” The girl continued while eyeing the box in Vivio’s hands curiously, almost helicoptering it with how close her face was.
“Well… Lost Logia is just a general term for old artifacts from lost civilizations, so they can kind of do anything. There was one time Nanoha-mama found one which turned her back into a kid again.” Vivio softly chuckled at the memory. It was a short lived, yet interesting experience, almost like having a sister. What had been even funnier was the day after its effects on Nanoha expired. “Fate-mama used it too, but then they locked it up, something about being dangerous for the adults.”
“Anything?” Rio’s curiosity was caught, a cheeky grin coming over her as she looked up to Vivio and then back at the box. “The one they found didn’t sound that dangerous, maybe this one’s harmless and will do something fun too. Sounds like the TSAB didn’t know know what it did yet.”
Vivio raised the box away from Rio, toward her head protectively. “Rio, we don’t know what it is, my mamas said they can be dangerous.” Admittedly, Vivio was curious what it could do with how completely random Lost Logia could be, one could turn back the clock while another could turn a kitten into a giant monster, but though it was probably not too dangerous if Hayate trusted them with it, one could never know.
“I wonder what it could do as well, but opening it isn’t a good idea.” Corona spoke from beside Vivio, looking up at the box in intrigue. Compared to the more tomboyish Rio, Corona’s outfit was a long sleeved black top alongside a more typical peach skirt with white ruffles. It contrasted her long blonde hair done up in twintails by two hair decorations that resembled candy wrappers.
“It’s important to be careful with anything that old. Ancient Belka had a lot of dangerous or odd things.” Einhart commented. She was dressed a lot more plainly, a simple, long white shirt with a darker skirt over it and some dark tights to match.
“Hey, hey, I know!” Rio dismissively answered turning and exaggeratedly waving her arms. “Can’t blame a girl for being cur-”
Rio’s arm accidentally banged Vivio’s.
The box slipped from her hand.
Vivio’s eyes went wide as the box tapped her head and started rolling behind her. Some kind of magical energy was rising and that couldn’t be good!
“Grab it!” Rio shouted.
Vivio started to turn, seeing some kind of light coming from behind her and Corona reaching for the box, but suddenly she felt immense dizziness overtake her, like a sudden weight had come across her body. It was enough to nearly rob Vivio of her balance before she could recover enough to fully turn, but that momentary sickness, which had come over her friends judging by the unfocused eyes and wobbly stance Corona had, proved fatal. The box was already on the ground with its top blown open, revealing a bright light obscuring the contents.
Another feeling assaulted Vivio’s senses, this time one almost like she was falling, yet her legs were planted unsteadily on the ground. There was also the feeling of pressure again, spread over every centimeter of her body, like somebody were pushing down on her whole being at once. It was too late to stop whatever the Lost Logia was doing, but it was doing something to throw Vivio’s senses into chaos. The whole world, except for her friends, was also rapidly getting… Bigger?
“A-Are you seeing this too?” Einhart spoke with some effort and concern, looking down at herself at then the group.
The ground was visibly getting close, in slightly more than a blink the distance had halved. The small box, which was not even the length of her forearm, was now larger than her head.
“We’re shrinking!” Corona shouted.
Everyone was a quarter of their height. The top of the formerly small box with dimensions no bigger than 15x15x15cm was now comparable to Vivio’s whole torso. She was starting to see tiny cracks in the pavement, imperfections she didn’t notice before when simply walking, the faded little blemishes and stained spots left by time that would’ve been easily missed before and been buried under her shoe, but now her foot was comfortably inside the mark on the pavement.
“Hurry and close it!” Rio shouted.
But it was too late. Before anyone could take a single step forward, the box was now taller than any of them. The individual flaps of the top that had been blown open now beyond their whole bodies in size, acting like a great roof over the sky and casting a massive shadow.
Vivio thought to try and run, but the lingering dizziness made her unsteady on her feet and the world changing from moment to moment made that a fool’s errand.
What was a single step soon became several, then a brief jog, then a whole field. Everything was changing and Vivio’s comparisons had to be reevaluated by the second, with the most terrifying being the black box. Like a car, like a house, like a building, like a stadium, it just kept growing and growing without an end in sight. The other ‘landmark’ had been the dividing line between tiles of the sidewalk. At her normal height, there didn’t even appear to be a distance there, but it had soon become a wide step, then a ditch, then a chasm, then she had become so small Vivio could not even see it anymore looking directly ahead.
Even the voices of her friends, which should have been a comfort, only served as a reminder of how the distance between them was growing by magnitudes each second. She heard them as if speaking right beside her at first, perfectly normal, before they were coming from across a room’s distance, then like they were trying to yell from across a street, before she completely lost Corona and Einhart’s voices entirely. Rio’s was close and running to her while half stumbling, something Vivio matched out of desperation to do something, but despite both trying to move close, they paradoxically only became further apart.
How small were they going to get? Would they keep shrinking into nothing?
By some miracle, the feeling eventually subsided, the pressure on her body ebbed away and Vivio’s strength returned to her, speeding her onward toward Rio and the distance between them finally began to close.
But there being a distance alone was enough to stir some anxiety in some part of the back of Vivio’s mind. They had been standing right next to each other before, yet now it was like she was racing to Rio across a field that was dozens of meters at least. A field that was fill of rocky holes that would catch the feet of anyone not careful. The material of the side walk had looked pristine and almost perfectly smooth from what felt like so high up now, yet every little imperfection and micro crack that was invisible without close inspection was now assaulting Vivio’s eyes, some of them were big enough her whole body would fall into them if not careful. ‘How small are we?’
She would figure that out later, for now, she had to regroup with all her friends, starting with Rio as the closest. “Riiiiiiiio!” Vivio called out while waving to the rapidly approaching form.
“Vivio! What the heck kind of Lost Logia is this!?” Rio shouted back with visible frustration as she slowed her pace with the two close together now.
“I don’t know!” Vivio replied as she came to a stop, waving her arms. “They do a bunch of different things!”
“How the heck are we even gonna get back to normal now then?” Rio shot back with a distressed look.
“Well, Nanoha-mama and Fate-mama’s only lasted for 24 hours, so it should wear off eventually…” Vivio murmured with a frown. 24 hours didn’t sound like a lot, but when they were… However impossibly small right now, and without their devices at that, 24 hours would be a lot harder than it sounded. If they were even in the ballpark Vivio suspected, less than half a centimeter if her math skills honed by magic were right, then a random bird could mistake them for insects as it flew by and try to gobble them all right up. And that was just one thought off the top of her head.
They would make it through it, she was always optimistic and confident, but that didn’t mean Vivio had any illusions it would be easy.
“A whole day!? Aww man, we don’t even have our devices and nobody’s around. That’s gonna suck!” Rio shared the sentiment, groaning loudly and scratching at her head with her hands in an exaggerated manner for a few moments before settling down. “I guess it’s better than being stuck like this… Let’s find Corona and Einhart-san then and figure out what to do.”
Vivio nodded in firm agreement.
Before either could move further, a strong gust of wind slammed into the two, making Vivio stumble for a step before catching herself.
“Woah! It was windy earlier, but when we’re this small it feels even worse.”’ Vivio stated after steadying herself. There were some incredibly strong winds now and again throughout the day. At their current size, that must have been one of the gentler gusts, probably barely a gentle breeze normally, but if even that was how they felt less severe wind, they might actually get blown away by a strong one at such a size. It would be best if she and Rio could meet up with Corona and Einhart, then get to some cover to wait out the duration.
“I hope they didn’t get blown away by that.” Rio added tensely.
“Vivio! Rio! Are you out there?!”
Both girls perked up at hearing Corona’s distant voice coming from the opposite direction Vivio had ran to Rio in. She sounded quite far, and looking in the direction it’d come from Vivio couldn’t see the girl who must’ve been hiding behind one of the corners of the stadium sized black box, but that would make finding each other easy!
“HEY, CORONA!” Rio shouted at the top of her lungs, enthusiasm loud enough to make Vivio flinch coming back to her. “WE’RE WAY OVER HERE.”
“Corona! Is Einhart-san with you!?” After a second to recover, Vivio added her own message, cupping her hands to her mouth for extra projection.
“She’s coming over to me now! We’ll start heading over to you! Meet us there!” Corona’s tiny voice again called.
“Alright! We’re on our way!” Rio called out eagerly as she broke into a run. “Come on, Vivio. Let’s go!”
Falling in line with Rio, Vivio sprinted after the girl, careful to avoid any holes on the ‘road’ she traveled. It was almost distressing how little the looming black box changed as they ran. It got closer and even more imposing, yes. But it was already so huge that even after running for almost a minute it still felt menacing as ever, like a gigantic landmark.
But one thing which did change in Vivio’s sight was who she saw round the corner as she got closer. “Corona! Einhart-san!” The girl cried with a friendly wave.
“Vivio-san! Rio-san!” It’s good to see you’re both alright!” Einhart returned the greeting with her own.
Before the girls could exchange many more words, a dividing obstacle soon became dangerously apparent.
The ‘gap’ in the sidewalk tiles. Or ‘canyon’ more accurately.
Vivio came to a stop alongside Rio, pensively looking down at the large drop which had to be well over a dozen meters straight down. Entire boulders the size of cars dotted the valley unevenly, crumbs beneath notice at anyone normal scale and yet several times the girl’s size now.
“Vivio! Rio! Do you think you can jump across?” Corona called out.
Vivio looked over the gap, measuring it carefully. Even without their devices, there was a chance they would make it, but part of the problem was how the sides of the canyon slanted downwards instead of cleanly dropping off, effectively lengthening the distance by a few body lengths to them. It was steep enough to send them tumbling backwards into the pit, which was much deeper than the gap was wide. The curve downward would also make it harder for Einhart and Corona to stand close enough to grab Vivio and Rio if they were just a little short.
“Wait, I have an idea!” Vivio shouted, inspiration striking her as she turned to Rio. “If you used your Thunderlight Rope, then maybe Corona and Einhart-san could use it to pull us over if we’re a little short on the jump!”
“Oh, yeah! That’ll work for sure!” Rio gave an affirming thumbs up.
Einhart took a few steps closer to Corona in anticipation, sharing a brief look and nod with her. “We’re ready over here!”
“Ready, Rio?” Vivio looked over at the other confidently.
Rio mirrored the enthusiasm, nodding as she leaned forward, getting into a ready stance.
“One…”
“Two…” Vivio echoed, dropping into her own.
“Three!”
Both girls took off in a full sprint, fast as they could. Vivio’s legs pounded against the hard ground beneath her as she kept pace with Rio, nearing closer to the edge with every step, the feeling of wind in her hair increasing in time as she accelerated till she hit her full speed right before the floor started curving downward.
Moving perfectly together, Vivio braced herself alongside Rio, maintaining as much of her momentum as possible in the process, and with one mighty push, kicked off the floor and sent herself airborne.
Soaring with nothing beneath her, Vivio’s powerful momentum lasted only a few moments before it succumbed to the inevitable foe of gravity and the girl began her slow descent. Even with only being part way across the gap, Vivio could tell she would be just a few steps short of having a perfectly safe landing, but that wasn’t anything to fret over. ‘We prepared for this!’
Reaching out her hand, Vivio took Rio’s as magic began to spin around the girl into a spell.
Energy swirled in Rio’s other hand till it became a ball with a segment coming from it and wrapped around Rio’s wrist. “Thunderlight Rope!” Rio called as she shot her hand forward.
The ball transformed into a thick rope of light, wide as a person’s arm, that surged forward like a rocket directly toward Einhart, who firmly grabbed the line with both of her waiting hands, Corona immediately going around her side to grip it alongside her. Both girls promptly gave a mighty tug to yank the rope, and the people attached to it, with all their strength.
‘We’ll make it for sure!’ Vivio smiled to herself with the thought.
Some great force slammed into Vivio’s whole body like a car and almost made her lose grip on Rio. “W-What the-”
Before Vivio could process what had hit her, another sensation of moving… upward? Came over her. But it wasn't a simple rise, it was like the girl was attached to a rocket that kept going up and started spinning out of control. Throwing her around like a ragdoll, blurring her senses and vision together, even overpowering much of the sound she could hear as the unmistakable roar of raging wind blasted all around her. ‘It’s like I’m in a tornado!’
But more concerning were the sounds of her screaming friends mixed with it.
“Woooooooah! We just keep going up!”
“Aaaaaah! E-Everyone hang on!”
“If anyone falls off now… We’ll never find them!”
Vivio fought against the intense motion and vertigo gripping her, managing to focus her eyes just enough on Einhart and Corona across from her, clinging onto Rio’s rope for dear life with both of their hands, Corona’s legs flailing through the air in a panic as she was visibly trying to pull herself closer to the rope, but having little success fighting against the pull of the spin compelling her to let go. Even Einhart, a much physically stronger girl, wasn’t having much luck doing the same task, thrown almost perfectly straight with no bend to her arms as she looked over to Vivio and Rio with worry in her eyes.
“Don’t… Let go! It’ll stop eventually!” Everyone was going through the same thing. A strong gust of wind must have swept her and Rio up while they jumped, alongside the other pair as they were holding the rope. How could a simple gust of wind be this overpowering? Weakened though they were, this was like being inside of a natural disaster, the sheer force of the rotation making it difficult to focus on everything going on. Even telling the background apart was difficult with it all a spinning blur, but at the very least Vivio could tell they were high up. Nothing remotely resembled anything like solid ground and she only saw a mix of white, green, and blue. She could barely spot a few recognizable shapes now and again, but with her sense of scale so far gone, it was hard to tell exactly what they truly were. Buildings? Even a chair would’ve been a skyscraper now. Clouds? They were so distant even at regular size the sky was the only thing that would’ve felt even somewhat ‘normal’.
“M-My grip’s slipping!” Corona’s voice called out in terror. One arm suddenly came loose with the declaration, leaving the girl hanging by a thread and even more violently flopping through the air.
“Corona!” Vivio cried out. If she was closer or the tumbling wasn’t so erratic, spinning, twisting, tumbling them all at once, maybe Vivio could’ve used something to bind Corona’s hand to the rope, but as it was now she couldn’t focus enough to properly aim!
“I’ve got you!” Beating her to the punch, Einhart shuffled one of her hands over the rope that was almost right next to Corona’s, moving till they were touching. With a pulse of magic, green chains materialized around Corona’s hand and the rope, anchoring her to Rio’s spell. “Keep holding on! It’s… Hard to focus much energy onto them like this!”
“T-Thanks, Einhart-san!”
Mercifully, the horribly spinning and roaring wind began to fade in intensity. Almost as quickly as it had come by them originally, the violent force of nature trying to rip them apart instead became more of a powerful, yet predictable one, still carrying them, but it was more akin to floating downward and gradually picking up speed, slowly and leaving just enough time to gather their bearings rather than if dropped off a cliff.
“I-Is everyone okay?” Vivio spoke up, looking around. They were floating for now, but they would be picking up speed in their descent and could be caught in another gust any second.
“I’m feeling a bit dizzy, but I’m alright…” Rio grumbled beside her.
“I thought I was going to get carried away like a bug for a second. I’m okay, thanks to Einhart-san.” Corona answered next, anxiety still in her words.
“We’re all fine, for now. We need to get down from here before another breeze comes by.” Einhart said tensely, looking around.
Einhart was right, they might not all be able to hang on through another one of those. But where even were they? Vivio started looking below her to try and gauge where they would land or what might be safe. The girl was immediately met with a familiar sight.
All around her were the fancy furnishings of Victoria’s enormous front lawn, that one section of her land larger than some people’s entire living spaces. Well cared for bushes and smaller trees dotted the area, alongside furniture and landmarks of various kinds. Being high up as they were, it was easier for Vivio to properly recognize what they were, but even when above some, the difference in scale was painfully evident. It didn’t feel like she was looking down on a ‘lawn’ so much as the whole country side. The furniture and chairs were like buildings, the bushes were like an immense forest of trees, but all of them paled in comparison to the immense landmark in front of the girls and where they were falling.
The absolute mountain of Victoria’s mansion.
Even calling the white building a mountain felt like an understatement, it had to perhaps be one of the biggest things Vivio had seen in her entire life after planets while traveling dimensional space. The great structure filled Vivio’s entire field of view and continued to do so even if she craned her head to the left or right, she only saw the sides when looking as far in one direction as possible.
Yet even that wasn’t the most striking thing to Vivio. It was what, or rather who was in front of it.
Sieglinde Jeremiah, one of their good friends, was waking away from the front door with a cheery smile and holding a large bowl of popcorn. She had bright pink ribbons tying her past hip length black hair into long, voluminous twintails, with the hair accessories matching her equally pink and long sleeved outfit that trailed into a dual layered ruffled skirt with a darker pink along the edges, and then black thigh high stockings which hugged the champion’s legs well. The only sharp contrast to her outfit were the dark leggings, alongside the black and red tie which hung past her chest.
Vivio had briefly worried about how a normal person would look at such a small size, but to think about it and actually see it was a completely different matter. The girl was like staring upon a moving skyscraper, every step she took traveling across city blocks, her tie alone could’ve covered much of a street, and each hand was bigger than a house. Worse still, gravity began to take further hold and accelerated everyone’s descent, starting to force their legs skyward. Drawing closer because of this, it was like Vivio was shrinking all over again with how all of Sieglinde’s form expanded before them.
The girl’s limbs soon became entire skyscrapers unto themselves, the individual buttons of her shirt whole platforms everyone could’ve stood on at once, the ruffles and folds of Sieglinde’s clothing each large enough to create impassable walls if any of the shrunken girls stood next to them, with the creases from around her breasts the size of great hills more than enough to completely bury everyone in particular.
It all came together in moments to transform Sieglinde from somebody who had ‘only’ looked like a large skyscraper into an entire mountain by herself as everyone rapidly fell in her path. But they weren’t falling directly at Sieglinde.
They were falling toward her bowl of popcorn.
“Hey! Maybe Sieg-san will see us!” Rio hopefully spoke up. They were tumbling right in her path and would be in her line of sight any se-
Sieglinde turned her head around behind her. “Thanks for all the popcorn again, Victor!”
“Aw, come on!” Rio whined loudly.
“We’re going to fall right into the bowl!” Corona shouted.
Vivio tensed her body up, readying for the inevitable. Whatever happened, they would have to get Sieglinde’s attention somehow! “Hang on, everyone!”
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Einhart had no idea what to expect when crashing into popcorn bigger than boulders, of all things, but luck was with them for once as the impact was far from the worst she had ever been through.
That did not mean it was a good one.
With a loud thud everyone slammed into a large piece, the impact canceling out Rio’s spell and causing everyone to be thrown around from the leftover momentum.
Einhart spun a few times and crashed into another piece of the snack that quickly brought her to a halt. But before she could even begin to get her bearings, the landscape, no the whole world, shifted around her like an earthquake. The popcorn she was on tumbled around and almost threw her off in the process.
‘Sieg-san was walking, so then…’ With her holding the bowl of popcorn, the tremors of her walking must’ve been enough to jostle the contents around, which included the unlucky shrunken girls. Sieglinde was one of the strongest and most skilled fighters Einhart had known, she had completely thrashed Einhart in a fight with minimal effort, and yet now the immense gap between them felt even more impossibly large than she had thought even after that. These weren’t practiced moves designed to wound or restrain an opponent, these were simple, unassuming steps taken by the girl going about her day. A perfectly normal walk without any real effort put into them, but each one was capable of a small natural disaster from Einhart’s perspective. It was like trying to compare a pathetic insect to a person. There was no comparison to be had, the two were on entirely different planes of existence when it came to strength and power. Would even that be an accurate comparison? Everything was so impossibly huge even a bug could’ve been gigantic.
“The wind keeps blowing my hair in my face, I can’t eat like this.”
Sieglinde’s booming, explosive voice blanketed the landscape like thunder, only furthering the sensation of powerlessness despite the rumbling of the world stopping.
“Victor won’t mind if I take one of these seats!”
With the declaration, the earthquakes resumed once more, but only momentarily as they stopped with one distant thud and a particularly violent one.
For a merciful second, the world had come to a stop after the almost constant rumbling and shakes that even the simple action of Sieglinde taking casual steps while holding the tub of popcorn everyone was trapped in caused. However, the momentary peace was of little consolation to the girls and Einhart wasted no time getting back to her feet. Einhart knew this was merely the calm before the storm, a storm whose approach was heralded by the oppressive shadow that washed over the landscape.
Looking up, the staggering huge face of Sieglinde loomed above everyone like a black cloud, her impressively long dark hair draping down her sides in knee length twintails only furthering the comparison. The width of her face was immense, perhaps dozens of meters wide, like that of a whole building side. Across it, was the customary friendly and cute expression her features produced, but from Einhart’s perspective, Sieglinde’s face was anything but friendly. There was a hunger in her eyes and the wide, pleased grin over her lips, parted ever so slightly in anticipation of the snack she was eager to consume, the snack which Einhart and her friends were currently on.
“Hey! We’re down heeeeeeeere!” Rio’s nervous, yet determined, voice shouted at the top of her lungs, alongside some rustling behind Einhart.
Utterly deaf to Rio’s pleas, the massive form of Sieglinde shifted, her right shoulder starting to move as if one were watching a small monument casually moving, bringing up a terror inspiring sight along the side of the popcorn bucket and resting over it.
A giant hand.
Sieglinde’s face was larger, but it was still distant, yet now her hand was bearing directly atop the whole group, not like a cloud, so far away one didn’t think much of it, but more akin to a meteor about to crash straight at everyone. Her palm alone looked bigger than the entire ring from the Inter-middle tournament, each finger was comparable to a whole pillar, with the tips alone looking several times Einhart’s size. With such a difference in scale and this close, Einhart could clearly see each individual line which stressed across Sieglinde’s palm in various patterns, the ridges from her thumb and fingerprints were all clearly defined. Yet, even despite her status as a world champion and fighting prowess, it was clear Sieglinde’s hands were well cared for, her skin looking largely smooth, with only an occasional sign of a callus born by intense training, something Einhart wouldn’t have even noticed at normal scale. But none of those were the most striking or worrying features, that was reserved for the pillars of the champion’s fingers rapidly descending upon the popcorn, already moving into a shape ready to grab a handful.
‘We’re too small to be seen between the popcorn.’ Einhart thought with a grimace. She had been hoping, once Sieglinde came to a stop and looked at the bowl, she would see none of the shrunken girls belonged, but from a combination of her hunger and their size, everyone in the bowl was no different than the many popped kernels to Sieglinde right now.
Acting quickly, Einhart’s gaze darted around the bowl. She could already tell the fingers wouldn’t hit her, for now, and she was lucky enough to not be buried by the individual pieces several times her size, but what of everyone else after all the motion?
Off to her side, Einhart noticed Vivio, almost directly in the path of Sieglinde’s advancing fingers, preparing for a leap. Off in one distant corner, Einhart’s trained eyes could likewise barely make out Corona trying to push a large piece of popcorn off her. Then, Rio had come from behind. Vivio only had to jump-
With a shout, she slipped on the slick, buttery surface of the popcorn.
“Vivio-san, I’m coming!” Einhart’s body moved on reflex, kicking off a nearby bit of thankfully dry popcorn and shooting through the air. With as much force she could still muster and not seriously injure, Einhart’s shoulder collided with Vivio’s body, forcibly shoving the girl a moderate distance as she let out a grunt. A rough maneuver that likely hurt Einhart would apologize for later, but it was the only way to keep Vivio from getting scooped up by the popcorn.
‘I have to get myself out now!’ Einhart started to twist and turn her body in the air to prepare for another quick jump to go anywhere else.
An overwhelming, yet touch soft, pressure suddenly clamped down on Einhart from all side and enveloped her in darkness, pinning her like someone caught in a landslide, before a great sense of moving upward followed. On instinct, Einhart tried to struggle, but whatever force was on her proved far beyond her power. She was able to shift the soft landscape slightly, yet the instant she gained any ground, her body was pushed into the gap and all progression undone. ‘Did I… get caught?’
“Einhart-san! Hang on! Divine Buster!” Vivio’s voice called out, but it sounded distant, far below Einhart. An instant later, she sensed and heard the flow of magic coming from Vivio’s powerful bombardment spell, but the rush of energy landed nowhere near Einhart’s form and she continued rising.
How had Sieglinde not noticed a spell such as that? Were they really so tiny even their stronger moves went entirely unnoticed? Did her hand block seeing it? Whatever the cause, Einhart knew not being noticed was rapidly advancing doom. Having had a moment to process her new location, it was becoming abundantly clear where she had ended up. The texture all around Einhart was exactly like popcorn, down to the slick coating of buttery flavoring that was seeping into and sticking to her outfit. But if that and the rapid upward motion were not enough to know her destination, what overtook most of her sight was.
Sieglinde’s giant face.
With the little movement allowed, Einhart had wiggled enough to see the outside world again, but she almost wished they hadn’t. The Jeremiah’s face was enormous before, but right next to it now, everything looked far more impressive. Sieglinde’s deep purple eyes were each a large pool that didn’t even look directly at Einhart. Her soft and light skin was almost flawlessly smooth and stretched on almost like a landscape. However, the most intimidating part of the champion’s features was her rapidly opening, and getting closer, mouth.
Unlike the rest of her face, the inside of the dark cavern was anything but soft. Past her pink, parted lips, two rows of large and deadly looking sharp, pearly white teeth lined the top and bottom. Resting along the bottom, was the massive pink goliath of an organ that was Sieglinde’s tongue, small visible bumps lining the top side of it. Already, the slimy looking tongue had a visible coating of saliva pooling over it, twitching in hungry anticipation of the snack which was growing ever closer, sending a tiny trail of spit back toward the black abyss of the throat, the sides of which likewise moved with an eagerness to send whatever was offered on a one way trip to the stomach to become nutrients.
The sight made the hair on the back of Einhart’s neck stand up. She was a second away from going past Sieglinde’s lips as part of the popcorn she obliviously planned to snack on, and if Einhart went inside her mouth, the sheer scale was worrying for her odds. Sieglinde’s tongue alone looked dozens of meters in all directions. Yet, no matter how dangerous Einhart knew not escaping would be, it meant nothing.
Despite all her strength and struggles, Einhart was barely able to do more than slightly wiggling around in the popcorn and Sieglinde’s buttery grip. She couldn’t even properly align herself to try a proper technique or spell, like Vivio had. Even if it was being held by the intermiddle champion, had Einhart become so powerless even popcorn overpowered her?
“S-Sieg-san!” Einhart, out of options, hopefully called out just as she passed the edges of Sieglinde’s lips and their shadow started to wash over Einhart.
And snapped shut behind her.
Without even a chance to process more than the world being drowned in darkness, all of Einhart’s senses were thrown into disarray.
A massive object, Sieglinde’s tongue she guessed, effortlessly scooped up Einhart and all the popcorn she was in, immediately dousing splashes of sticky saliva across her body. In the darkness of the mouth, Einhart couldn’t even tell where she was being violently thrown in the chaos. Up, down, left, right, everything blended together into ‘movement’ with nothing to ground herself. Even Sieglinde’s slimy tongue changed where it was tasting from moment to moment. The only thing Einhart had as any reference was the almost deafeningly loud crunches coming from within the wet cave as giant teeth ground pieces of popcorn to bits, but they were so overpowering it were as if the sounds were coming from everywhere at once. Even attempting to breath was a chore, not a single molecule of fresh oxygen was to be had, every bit of air was filled by the fighter’s warm breath and stung at Einhart’s lungs, further disorienting her. Inside Sieglinde’s overpowering mouth, Einhart was a helpless prisoner.
Einhart couldn’t be certain how much time passed, things were too chaotic to even attempt righting herself, but after what couldn’t have been more than seconds, there was a single instant of peace for the tiny girl as she landed on something mushy.
The next second every ounce of Einhart’s combat reflexes blared in alarm and she acted more on instinct than conscious thought, using magic to push her defenses to their absolute limit just before another massive, hard object crashed upon her like like a meteor.
The ‘ground’ around the girl immediately surrendered to the impact and compressed around her, burying Einhart almost entirely within the saliva coated confines, serving to soften the crushing force from above which shot jolts of pain through her form. Whatever slammed into her had the smallest gap which spared her upper torso, but from the stomach down Einhart felt as if she had been thrown into a trash compacter. The object from above squeezed her with tremendous pressure, further crushing Einhart into the remains of the popcorn till she could feel a similarly hard substance poking from beneath the softer layer caught in the middle. Even with all the strength Einhart could summon into pushing back with her hands, the rock hard wall wouldn’t budge a centimeter. She couldn’t even be certain if her own strength was of any help in delaying the pressure from breaking her body or if sinking into the mashed up popcorn did more to protect her.
But, just as quickly as it’d come, the pressure ceased and light flooded the cavern again. Even with what little Einhart could see, having been almost entirely absorbed into the food she could only see directly above her, how narrowly she avoided death was frighteningly clear. Looming like a white ceiling, were Sieglinde’s upper molars. ‘I… almost got chewed up with the popcorn.’
“Kernels already?”
Like a large bomb, a near deafeningly loud sound erupted over the landscape and made Einhart’s head ring. She could recognize that voice as Sieglinde’s, but the sheer volume was otherworldly and had the same effect as if it’d been through an amplifier 100 times over despite the girl merely talking to herself.
Momentary peace had been provided by Sieglinde’s confusion, but Einhart knew it’d be over an instant. Frantic, the girl tugged and pulled against the chewed up popcorn she was stuck to, managing to pull a limb free with her magically enhanced strength.
The instant Einhart started using her newly freed limb for leverage to push her body out, an overpowering wave slammed into them and easily scooped up Einhart, prison and all, tossing her all around the mouth once again. This time, things were somehow even more chaotic, bits of chewed popcorn slamming into Einhart till she was fully enveloped inside a coffin of food. Now, Einhart couldn’t even attempt to struggle, the weight of the mashed food and disorienting tumbling killing any squirming before it could begin. Where’s before, she could at least make some token attempt to flail, now even that was gone from Einhart. She could merely wait until Sieglinde was finished with her snack and an opening was presented. She could only hope they wouldn’t be thrown to the teeth again, she had barely saved herself once.
A passenger to whatever movements the champion’s strong tongue put her through, Einhart, in what little sense of direction she could maintain, felt not a break in the action, but a sense of sliding downward. She was inside Sieglinde’s mouth, entombed within food, and starting to move down. There was only one place Einhart could have been going.
GULP
A tight pressure started squeezing Einhart on all sides alongside the booming, wet squelch. It was less intense than nearly being crushed by teeth was, yet that didn’t make the experience gentle. Rhythmically, the force squished Einhart and undulated in a pattern that forced the snack deeper and deeper down the narrow tube as she once more was unable to mount a resistance. The further down went and became closer to food, the stronger the sounds of Sieglinde’s body became. The groaning of the depths below, the brief sound of her heartbeat that faded from above, even without being able to see and enclosed by chewed popcorn on all sides, Einhart knew exactly what had occurred.
Sieglinde had swallowed without a second thought and turned Einhart into food even easier than she had won their match before. And just like in their battle, Einhart could do little against the overwhelming abilities of Sieglinde’s hungry body.
‘I can’t be beaten this easily!’ Einhart affirmed to herself with conviction, but no matter how much she wished for something, how much she struggled, it could not change reality. Sieglinde’s throat would not be denied in its plan to send Einhart on a one-way trip toward her stomach in order to become food that fueled her competitive lifestyle.
Eventually, Einhart’s journey finally came to an end. The almost crushing pressure holding her released and she sensed herself falling. Without the squeeze of Sieglinde’s gullet, Einhart’s struggles suddenly proved vastly more effective. The soft walls gave way to her squirming and she could finally have a semblance of movement again. Yet, not seconds later, a great splash echoed from around the girl and a slimy fluid started flooding into the gaps of Einhart’s prison, filling the chamber where she was.
This wasn’t good, she was buried under an immense amount of food, but Einhart finally had enough ‘peace’ to collect herself. Focusing energy into her right hand, a green glow cut through the near all encompassing darkness. Throwing her fist forward with a powerful thrust, Einhart released the force in her palm in the form of Sky-breaking Sever, causing a powerful eruption of teal to explode outward and blow apart the entire upper half of the mound Einhart was stuck in, likewise blasting away much of the accumulated liquid before it could consume her head.
In no time, another flood rushed in to fill the empty gap, but this time, Einhart was ready. Pushing herself further, she used the soup to anchor herself and kick away from the remains of the popcorn, pushing until she felt herself finally free and merely treading water.
If only what she rested in was water.
The loud groans that echoed over everything, the thick fluids which clung to her and rocked roughly around. She was now floating inside Sieglinde’s stomach acid, which saw Einhart as no different than the tiny bit of popcorn she was in a second ago. As far as her friend’s digestive system was concerned, Einhart and the popcorn were all the same, simply food to dissolve.
‘What do I do now…?’ Einhart pensively thought to herself. She was already so pathetically small as to have handily lost to Sieglinde’s mouth. Her stomach would be an equally difficult, if not more so, foe that wouldn’t accept anything less than a death match, but Einhart’s chances of avoiding that loss and becoming nutrients did not look good.
‘Even so.’ She had to do something and would not let herself be dissolved. Perhaps she could try reaching the wall of Siegline’s stomach and cause enough of a disturbance to signal something was wrong? Yes, that felt like a sound idea. If she acted quick, perhaps Einhart could prevent anyone else from getting eaten. Maybe they could be lucky and manage to grab the champion’s attention by a miracle, but Einhart wasn’t optimistic about it. How would she even know which direction to swim though?
In the middle of her thoughts, another splash sounded so close, Einhart felt the waves of disturbance already hit her before she heard it. Like a boat in a storm, Einhart was effortlessly thrown aside with a surprised shout as a tsunami of stomach acid crashed over her and buried the hapless girl once more beneath the wave.
Having barely caught her breath, Einhart flailed under the surface, frantically trying to get above the fluids again. Even getting noticed would be difficult, but she had to struggle even to survive.The digestive properties of the stomach weren’t her only threat.
Einhart had to hope somebody could get Sieglinde to realize her mistake before she consumed everyone. Her stomach was as sturdy and determined as she was.
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Corona could only watch in mute horror as Sieglinde’s mouth gently moved, chewing her food with a satisfied smile only possible from her unawareness at who was currently part of her snack. The horror turned bone chilling once she swallowed and an agonizingly slow, tiny bulge traveled down her neck till it vanished a second later.
Corona didn’t want to believe it, but Einhart had just been eaten before her very eyes. For all her strength and prowess, all the effort Corona herself had put into trying to defeat her in a match and failed at, even somebody as strong as her had only caused a momentary disruption to Sieglinde’s eating. She hadn’t actually been crushed by the teeth, had she? Sieglinde had stopped because of a ‘kernel’ which could’ve only been one thing, and with such an overwhelming presence and display of swallowing buildings worth of food at once…
‘No, Einhart-san has to be okay!’ Corona shook her head vigorously, banishing whatever doubts she had. Einhartwas tough. Even if swallowed, Einhart had to be alive. She had to be!
But what were they going to do now? She was half pinned under a gigantic piece of popcorn, while Vivio and Rio were almost a dozen meters away. Everyone’s options were looking depressingly slim, but they couldn’t just sit around and let Sieglinde eat them all. Everyone’s devices were still with Hayate, but even with their magic heavily limited without them, it didn’t mean Corona had to be helpless.
‘Even without Brunzel… I can do this!’ Determination filling her heart, Corona started concentrating magical power into her right fist, small pieces of rock beginning to appear and take shape around her limb. It was definitely more of a struggle without her companion, like navigating one’s house without the crucial aid of their eyes. Yet just like with that task, it was familiar, the motions she had practiced many times drilled into Corona’s mind to the point of second nature, pushing her above the hurdle deviceless magic posed.
The shards of rock quickly expanded and grew into an impressive gauntlet that wrapped around her entire arm. Pulling back her hand, the girl let out a loud shout. “Nephilim Fist, Meister Arm!”
With the cry, her magically charged fist collided against the popcorn piece comparable to a large truck. Had she her device, Corona could’ve put in enough force to smash the object at least several meters and pulverize a good portion, but as she was now, even with all the strength her small body could muster into the blow, Corona could only just push it off her and leave a body sized dent.
Rising to her feet immediately, Corona’s eyes went wide as an immense shadow fell over the bowl. The girl already knew what it was, but a quick dart of her eyes upwards confirmed her fears.
Menacingly, Sieglinde’s hand reached for the bowl once more, this time going for a much bigger handful after an initial taste prepared her appetite. So all encompassing was the champion’s palm, she could’ve easily swept up all 3 of the remaining girls with the handful she was about to take. Corona was on the very edge and if she ran, perhaps she could avoid it, but her friends? They were right in the middle of Sieglinde’s palm, they would have to move fastto even have a chance!
“Vivio, Rio! Watch out!” Corona called with panic in her words. All she could do was shout a useless warning to her friends. She wouldn’t be able to summon Golem in time or reach them, but Corona couldn’t simply leave them to get devoured!
But, fortunately for Corona, her friends weren’t giving up so easily. She saw Vivio quickly talking to Rio and making a few motions. Between it all, Corona made out Vivio mentioning Rio’s Thunderlight Rope move and threw her a quick, hopeful look as she got into a familiar position.
‘So that’s the plan.’ Immediately, recognition flashed across Corona’s face as she pieced together Vivio’s plan, much like the one they had tried earlier. Vivio could use Jet Step to boost away, yet it wouldn’t be enough to escape, Sieglinde’s hand would be on them in moments. But, if Corona copied the move with her own arts, then she could meet the pair half way, from which Rio could then use her own magic as a rope to yank them all to safety. ‘I’ve just got to give them a boost!’
Hopefully, this would go better than last time.
The mansion sized palm practically on top of them, Corona braced herself in perfect sync with Vivio and kicked off the popcorn in the same instant as Vivio did as she sailed forward with Rio. The two rocketed through the air at high speed toward each other, Corona’s arms outstretched to grab her friends. They were going to make it by the skin of their teeth!
A crushing pressure and darkness enveloped the world.
They hadn’t made it.
Corona’s senses were overwhelmed and assaulted by a variety of things all at once, the immense warmth of body heat from Sieglinde’s hand, the softness of it contrasting the surprisingly hard popcorn that still gave way as Corona’s body was forced into it. The buttery flavoring and slick coating, normally such a small detail at normal size, rapidly seeped its way all over her body and clothes, filling everything around her with a strong smell. Between the coating and immense pressure squeezing her, Corona felt practically part of the popcorn. A thought she was painfully aware would become even more accurate with where they were headed, the vertigo of rapidly moving upwards taking hold to punctuate the fact.
“Vi...Vio, Rio…!” Corona called out in fear between grunting at the forces on her body. She couldn’t see through the darkness, and with only one arm barely free, she could do little more than grope around in a desperate hope to at least feel her friends as they had been close, yet they were just out of reach and all Corona could feel was more slick popcorn.
“Can’t… get… Anything strong…!” Rio grunted out as Corona heard the sounds of her and Vivio doing their best to struggle.
But none of them could do anything. If they had their devices, maybe they could’ve caused enough a disturbance together for Seiglinde to notice, but Corona had barely moved the boulder of popcorn without external pressure. And even if they could do something, the cramped space and force compressing their bodies meant it was impossible to get good leverage for any kind of strike. ‘S-She’s going to eat us…!’
CRUNCH
Trying to do anything against the impossible, the world ground to a halt as a deafening sound came from everywhere at once.
They were inside the champion’s mouth.
Only a fraction of a second to process this fact, everything started breaking apart as waves of pressure and sensory assaults slammed into Corona and drowned out much of her own. The last thing she made out before the environment of Seiglinde’s mouth overcame her were that of screams, her own in the mix.
An immense wave of force slammed into Corona and started carrying her in a direction, but before she could attempt to guess which, it changed again as more deafening CRUNCH sounds exploded with enough force to make Corona’s ears ring. The girl flailed her arms around, tried to spin and right her body to orient herself, fall back on her combat reflexes, but everything was such a disorganized mess she could only barely piece together some of the assaults on her senses.
The ‘force’ throwing her around must’ve been Sieglinde’s giant tongue, and that wet, sticky sensation had to of been her saliva seeping into the popcorn and Corona’s clothes, softening them all up and soaking the girl to the bone in Sieglinde’s essence. It was similar, yet distinct from the buttery coating that’s enveloped her moments ago, the same coating which had been rapidly licked off and replaced entirely by spit. The coating was even worse than the last one, because it acted like an adhesive, making Corona stick firmly to the increasingly mashed up bits of popcorn, as did the food’s own layer of saliva stick to her for further effectiveness, slowing down her motions as it quickly became like fighting with a house strapped to her limbs, more and more of the mush entombing her within it. In turn, some of the sounds of the mouth, the heavy breathing, the rush of air, sloshing of liquid, they all started to become more distant, yet no less overpowering. While as Sieglinde’s mouth created a coffin of popcorn for Corona, the slickness of her spit, the sweltering heat of her insides, the crushing pressure of more weight stacking itself on her even in the monetary piece of not being moved her the leviathan of a tongue, all of those intensified by the second.
Corona wanted to yell for her friends, to listen to some kind of response, but she couldn’t. If Vivio and Rio were shouting, Corona couldn’t be sure if she was simply imagining it and wishing for confirmation or not, the only sounds were that of Sieglinde’s mouth. Even if she could have heard anything though, so much as mustering even a scream would’ve been a terrible effort in the oppressiveness of the environment. Simply breathing was a struggle, with times when Corona had to hold her breath when waves of viscous liquid washed over her, hanging on until they receded from her head or got absorbed into the surrounding, enabling her to take a brief mouthful of tainted and stinging leftover oxygen.
Corona was utterly helpless against the terrible forces of Sieglinde’s mouth, she couldn’t even focus enough to attempt a proper spell in the chaos of chews, swallows, and swishing mush.
CRUNCH
Every chew was like an explosion in her ears, so loud it crashed all her thoughts t-
GULP
She couldn’t gather enough focus and magic for a spell with everything throwing her off!
CRUNCH
A crash came almost on top of her, which smashed Corona’s prison to pieces, launching her sideways with large chunks, though near microscopic to a normal person, of popcorn glued to her as she sailed through the air, colliding with some slime coated, fleshy wall she stuck to, but started slowly sliding down
Corona’s instinctive reaction was to start squirming her body, managed to pry one arm free with great effort as her consciousness started catching up with her. Where was she? It was soft, it was moving, but it was very slight compared to the terrible movements before. She could still hear all the awful sounds of Sieglinde enjoying her meal, but almost everything was coming from in front of her or off to one side. She had to be at one end of the mouth then.
‘I think… I’m against a cheek?’ That was it. If it was hard it would’ve been teeth, and if it was moving more she would’ve been on the tongue. She was quickly sliding down to the bottom and practically stuck in spit, only one arm and her head were not trapped in the thick liquid, but this was the break she was waiting for. Were her friends okay?
“Vivio! Rio!” Voice strained by the ordeal and bad air, Corona called out with all her might. Yet, as expected, she got no reply, only more chewing and crashing. They couldn’t have been chewed up, could they…?
No, just like Einhart she was going to have faith. Maybe they had been swallowed like she had, maybe it was just the oppressive atmosphere devouring their voices at such a small size, but they had to be okay. Whatever happened to her friends though, this was her chance to do something!
Not knowing how long she had, and already sunk so low she was nearly being sandwiched by the side of Sieglinde’s teeth and into a little mashed popcorn stuck there, Corona worked as fast as she could. The tiny girl gathered the little focus she could manage to reinforce her free arm, before smashing it back into the flesh wall behind her with all the strength she could summon on a moment’s notice.
The impact was like smashing the bottom of her fist into a bunch of mud, thick and full of resistance from the outer layer yet still gave, before slamming into the more solid mass of the cheek beneath it, splashing spit all around in the process. While Corona wanted to believe she hit hard enough to cause a real impact, it was difficult to tell, the sound of her smashing her fist into the cheek was heavily muffled by the other sounds of eating, despite being right next to her. Even gauging the rumble of her impact, if there was one at all, was difficult between the natural movement of the cheek while chewing. ‘Please notice!’
Overwhelming force scooped Corona up like a leaf in a storm in response to her pleas, burying her in popcorn and once again renewing the hellish experience of being food. If she had her device, if Sieglinde didn’t take such a large mouthful, if she wasn’t chewing so vigorously to throw off Corona’s focus, maybe Corona could’ve caused a disturbance, but she wasn’t the powerhouse Einhart was, she was little different than any of the other chewed up food that surrounded Corona right now to the veteran fighter’s mouth. Blind, coated to the core in saliva, helplessly tossed around inside it, and part of a large wad of the no longer recognizable popcorn sometimes even briefly losing track of where her body ended and the food began.
And there was only one destination for food.
Even among the chaos and frantic attempt to do… Anything, that recurring and ever closer inevitably stayed firmly in Corona’s mind. She couldn’t be certain how long she was part of the mouthful, but she had to get eaten eventually. The small girl couldn’t be sure if it was a blessing in the hopes another opening would present itself, or a curse of being further taunted with the looming trip of fueling the champion. What was she going to do? It was getting harder and harder to think with the dizzying spins and forces on her body, with the growing light headedness from the difficulty breathing. ‘Are we really… Going to Sieg-san’s stomach?’
GULP
The deafening sound blanketing the world snapped Corona’s mind back to clarity like a bucket of icy water, making everything momentarily feel in slow motion as the assault of Sieglinde’s mouth paused in transitioning its offensive to another part of her.
The throat.
Corona felt everything grow worse at an agonizingly slow pace. The slowly building pressure on the sides compacting the mouthful she was part of, the slime of the saliva and mashed up popcorn contorting around her body, the growing heat, the near impossible task of breathing, the downward suct-
‘I feel somebody!’ The girl’s mind instantly snapped to the one foreign sensation. The pressure from Sieglinde’s throat squeezing the descending lump rendered Corona unable to even reach out and pull whoever her body brushed against, but even with the sticky substance covering her world, Corona could still make out the distinctly human feel against her, she could feel the slight motions of trying to squirm, the shrunken girls barely able to so much as vibrate against the crushing grip of Sieglinde’s gullet. But despite all that, it was still something for Corona, the first sign of a friend being okay, despite that coming with plunging into the depths of giant girl who’d eaten them’s body. ‘I hope they’re both alright…’
But comforting thoughts were all Corona had for the terrible wait. Neither of the girls could properly speak with how confined their prison was, unless they wanted chewed popcorn or spit flooding their own mouths, and any grunts from trying to move were swallowed up by the ambient noises of Sieglinde’s body at work, things like her heartbeat that grew in pounding intensity till starting to become distant, the wet squelches of the throat muscles, much as the girls themselves had been, which likewise made it impossible for Corona to focus exactly on who’s presence was beside her, especially without her device.
Helpless, Corona was forced to endure the pressure, soft enough her body wouldn’t break yet too much to move or be comfortable, until the narrow tube opened all at once, ejecting her and the other girl downward with force. On instinct, Corona started trying to move, but with how compact the wad of food had become, trying to move was comparable to kicking underwater with weights on her body and no magical boost.
And that was nowhere near enough to free her before an immense SPLAT echoed as she slammed into something, rocking her world yet not enough to throw Corona free of her mashed up coffin, but still enough she couldn’t feel her companion anymore.
‘I have to get out quick!’ Corona was under no illusions of where they were. She wasn’t any expert in biology, but even the most basic understanding made it clear being separated could not happen. They were all absurdly tiny and inside a giant stomach, the groans and grumbling coupled with sloshing liquids of digestion booming across the entire world at once. If anyone got lost in the pitch black chamber that would be near certain doom.
Struggling and squirming in the direction she thought was ‘up’, Corona only met more mush. It was hard to get proper footing and push when the consistency was solid enough to have resistance being moved, yet not enough for a proper brace, she could only put some of her weight in to dig out and not kickoff. Corona knew she was small but how was a single chunk of chewed food this difficult?
“Einhart-san! I see movement!”
Corona paused, hope swelling in her chest. She knew that voice, that was Vivio’s voice! And she’d mentioned Einhart, which mean Rio got swallowed with her and all her friends were still alive!”
A firm hand gripped Corona’s own wrist a second later, yanking her upwards and half out of the mashed up meal, thighs down still under it.
“Corona!” Vivio’s relieved voice drew the girl’s gaze toward her friend.
Amazingly, Corona could see, but the sources quickly became evident, the first being a ball of magic emanating a soft glow from one hand, weak and quickly surrendering to the all encompassing darkness beyond, but still enough to see the immediate area, with the other was a quickly fading circle of magic beneath the blonde girl, she must have used it for some extra leverage to pull Corona out.
Vivio was smiling wide, but there was a tenseness underneath it and within the girl’s heterochromatic red and green eyes. The chunks of popcorn clinging to parts of her body, much of it slick with sticky fluids, only added to the anxious atmosphere of her look.
Vivio’s eyes briefly darted behind Corona and she uttered a small gasp. “Rio! You’re okay too!”
Orienting to turn around, a task Corona found easier now that she was atop the mound than buried in it, Corona indeed saw Rio, looking just as worse for the wear and covered in things as Vivio did, pushing herself out of a vaguely white and yellow mass that used to be popcorn, trying to stand unsteadily.
“Ah! I knew you had to be down here! You two scared me when we got separated!” Rio called back, her features brightening up in response, yet once again despite the relieved words, they were shaky, uncertainty hiding within and only just kept at bay.
“I don’t think I’d call being in Sieg-san’s stomach okay…” Einhart, stepping up behind Vivio, commented lowly with a strained expression, briefly looking around.
Corona had to agree with a frown, straightening herself up like everyone else. They had all avoided being chewed to bits by Sieglinde’s teeth, but having gotten past that they were still one massive question to be answered.
“Uuuuuugh, it’s awful in here. What are we going to do now?” Rio vocalized the thought on everyone’s mind.
The group was inside her stomach, how could they escape? Corona’s head started rapidly trying to formulate a plan, a sentiment shared from the expression that fell across the group at the words. Sieglinde has zero idea everyone was fighting for their lives inside her as she blissfully munched on her favorite snack, their devices were being tuned up by Hayate, and nobody was aware they’d been shrunk let alone eaten. A timely rescue wasn’t likely, but Corona struggled to come up with a viable idea they could do.
Nobody could fly, so trying to go back up her throat was out. Even with the light it was impossible to see any walls of Sieglinde’s gut, which didn’t bode well for their size vs it, they appeared to be on some huge pile of food that’d built up in her gut and was long since unrecognizable, but it was surrounded by bile that seeped into it and was visibly softening up and eating away at chunks.
Could they even make any kind of disturbance at such a size without any of their devices? Not to mention lacking them would also impact everyone’s defenses and barriers. Without active reinforcement, barriers, or their barrier jackets, which would’ve been extremely difficult or draining to maintain right now, everyone wasn’t that much tougher than a usual person. Without magical protection, the powerful stomach of the martial artist who ate them would work fast dissolving anything as tiny as they all were into the chyme for fuel. As if taunting about the inevitable, it was easy to see other chunks of mush even more melted and unrecognizable than the freshly added one the group stood on, so melted it was near perfectly mixed into the acids and ready to become calories for a workout.
That would be them if nobody figured out an answer.
“Can we hit her stomach or something?” Rio groaned out in frustration.
“It’s a long shot, but I can’t think of much else…” Corona lowly muttered.
The ground suddenly shifted like one of the most violent earthquake’s Corona ever felt, electing a few surprised yelps from the ground as they flailed around to catch their balance, almost sending Vivio barreling overboard into the stomach acid and barely saved by a Thunderlight rope from Rio.
“Sieg-san’s stomach is getting even more active.” Einhart stated tensely.
Things were going to just get worse as the digestive system got even more active, that was not good at all with the already slim prospects.
‘Is that really our only option?’ Corona thought with a frown, looking ‘skyward’ in hopes an idea would fall out of the sky.
Her eyes widened when something else did.
“Everyone, watch out!” Corona screamed in warning as another ton of food fell through the air near directly above.
The first one to see it, Corona reinforced her arm, just like before, with all the speed she could and slammed her fist against it right before the sticky boulder could crush anyone. Less solid than before, the remains of the popcorn broke apart more easily this time, the parts closest to impact splintering in chunks, while the top half of the mass rolled slightly to the side from the angle Corona hit it at, splashing against the ocean of fluid and part of their improved platform. A few stray pieces flew onto the girls, but at least they avoided getting buried.
“Ah, that’s right, she’s still eating too! There might be a lot more of those coming.” With a brief pause after the attack, Vivio stated while looking up. “Hrm… I think I might have an idea though.”
The group looked at Vivio.
“It doesn’t look like there’s anywhere safe to stand but we’re right under where more food comes in even if it’s better to stay out of the water. Einhart-san and I could use some attacks from here…” Vivio started to explain.
“Oh!” Rio suddenly interjected eagerly. “So then me and Corona smash up the extra popcorn coming down so we don’t all get buried?”
Vivio nodded, some optimism returning to her otherwise tired, slime and popcorn covered form.
‘That could work…’ Vivio knew some longer ranged spells, like her mother’s Divine Buster. Einhart was largely melee focused, but she still had a couple of cross ranged attacks that could probably reach the stomach walls. Meanwhile, Corona was more close to mid range to support her constructs and Rio was almost entirely melee. They had some ranged moved, but with how vast the stomach was, they may’ve been less reliable reaching the end, and somebody needed to keep watch for more popcorn.
It was a long shot and plenty could’ve easily gone wrong, if their platform got too dissolved to stand on and dumped them into the stomach acid, that would ruin their plans, if a strong churn threw anyone around or rocked it apart, then they’d quickly become nutrition as well. It was a precarious plan, but it was a plan.
And it was all they had.
“Alright…” Corona took a deep sigh to steady herself. “Let’s do our best!”
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Sieglinde hummed contently to herself as she swallowed another mouthful of popcorn. It seems like whatever oddly stubborn unpopped pieces had managed to reach the top were finally gone and the girl could enjoy the rest of her meal in piece. She always loved the nice food at Victoria’s place, even down to the snacks like her current one. The high class and well cared for garden decorations, from the seats, to the large and beautiful gazebo’s, to even how some of the plants were cute. Her friend’s furnishings were always impressive to look and made for a pleasant atmosphere for eating, especially when it helped shield Sieglinde from the wind constantly blowing hair into her face.
Every now and again though, Sieglinde felt a faint rumble in her gut. It must have been the hunger starting to appear now that she was beginning to get some food in her stomach. It had been a while since she’d eaten, but she must have been more famished than initially thought. Maybe she would take Victoria’s offer of a larger meal before she headed off.
Before taking another handful of her snack, the champion briefly patted her rumbling stomach begging for more food in an attempt to help it settle before answering the urge’s request with another full mouth of popcorn.
Sieglinde continued her snack while enjoying the atmosphere of Victoria’s mansion, slowly depleting the salty treats within.
Some movement and a twitch of magic at the edge of Sieglinde’s vision stole her eyes away from her meal. Focusing, she saw the ever familiar form of Vivio’s device, shaped as a medium sized white bunny plushie named Chris, and Einhart’s, which took the form of a similarly sized white tiger with black stripes, called Tio, rushing over toward her. They almost looked nervous? ‘Wait, what are they doing here? Are Vivi-chan and Haru-nya around?’ She hoped so, it’d been a while since they’d met up.
“Hey, i-” Before Sieglinde could even finish, Tio raced ahead and jumped into her lap, pushing and shoving at the large bowl of popcorn she had placed there.
“Ah?” The girl muttered in confusion as she lifted her bowl to make some room for the adorable device in her lap. Tio was a friendly creature, but something was wrong here. The animated plush was pawing at her stomach while making a distressed whine. Likewise, Chris floated up in her face, waving his stubby around frantically.
An uneasy feeling was slowly building in the pit of Sieglinde’s gut, along with the slight grumble now and again. “Where are Vivi-chan and Haru-nya? Is something wrong?” Sieglinde asked cautiously, slowly using one hand to removed Tio from her lap and set them down on the grass.
Chris’s head rapidly bobbed up and down.
Sieglinde instantly bolted upright from her chair, ready to spring into action. “Where are they?” Something had to be deeply wrong if the girls were without their devices. “I’ll fol-”
Chris instantly recoiled and started waving his arms in a whole new way, pushing forward at the same time. It was enough to give the champion pause as she tried to decipher the bunny plush’s intent. Oh, she wasn’t good at charades, only Vivio and Nanoha appeared to instantly understand Chris, but it almost looked like he was miming… “Stop? You… want me to stop?”
Again, to her confusion she was met with some nodding. Teo even pawned as her legs and meowed a little, further adding to the perplexed feeling. ‘If that’s what they say…’ She didn’t understand why Chris would tell her to wait, but devices had a special connection with their owner, with Teo and Chris, in particular, being unique and animated, so she would trust what they said. Sieglinde only hoped she wasn’t misinterpreting the charades.
The floating bunny started miming some other motions and pointing at her, but it was hard to tell what it meant. She had no idea how Vivio and her mother understood him so well!
“Um, sorry, I don’t understand you as well as Vivi-chan does. Let’s see…” The martial artist focused intently on how Chris moved to find the meaning and though some of it was confusing, he was pointing a short arm at her which made at least one thing obvious. “Something about me?”
A nod.
“Umm…” Sieglinde hummed to herself while watching Chris mime, some motions around his face and pointing at her popcorn. “They’re… Starving and need food?” She eventually, awkwardly guessed. That had to be wrong.
Some furious shaking soon proved her assumption right.
“It’s, um… Something about me and popcorn? Food?” Sieglinde kept throwing out whatever came to her mind, hoping for a nod that’d eventually confirm it, but nothing hit the mark.
Even Chris’s expressionless face somehow looked stumped for a moment on how to communicate. But suddenly, an idea appeared to hit as he floated down to Teo and started poking at him and making some moves. Somehow, Teo understood whatever device language they spoke far better than Sieglinde did as he quickly responded, running a bit in front of her and opening his mouth, which Chris started motioning toward.
Sieglinde frowned, now even more confused. Oh, well, she was going to have to keep guessing, her friends were clearly in some danger and she had to help! “It’s… mouth? Hungry? No? Eating? Yes? Ah! Did Viv-chan and Haru-nya get eaten by a monster!?” The girl gasped in imagined horror as she conjured the mental image of some terrible animal devouring them whole.
The fact Chris didn’t immediately respond only added to the nerves. That was supposed to be half a wild guess.
To her eventual relief, Chris flailed his head for ‘no’, or she guessed at least, but then perplexed Sieglinde further by waving in her direction.
“So it’s not that?” Confused, yet relieved, the girl asked. At least her friends weren’t stewing inside the stomach of a beast.
Chris instead flew up to Sieglinde’s stomach and started poking at it, which almost tickled much like Teo had, who joined in with pawing at her legs.
‘I wish somebody was here who understood Chris…’ The fighter mentally whined while trying to make sense of the actions. It was something to do with her, eating, and being in danger? A random thought came to her head which had to be wrong, but Sieglinde was feeling stumped and maybe a wild guess would narrow down what it wasn’t. “You’re not trying to say I ate them, right?”
Obviously, that was ridi-
Why was Chris nodding furiously?
Sieglinde froze like a statue while her brain rebooted itself for a few seconds.
No way, that was impossible, her friends were short but not that short. But even if they had somehow shrunk to a size tiny enough to eat, surely Sieglinde would’ve felt something while munching on her popcorn, like something extra in her teeth.
Or in her stomach afterwards…
… Or the weird fixation on it by the devices…
‘Oh.’
Sieglinde’s popcorn bowl dropped from her hands and almost on top of Tio.
And then she immediately screamed.
“W-What am I going to do!?” Sieglinde shouted, hands clamping onto her head in distress while looking at the two devices like it’d somehow provide answers. How did they even shrink that small? No, that wasn’t important, how tiny were they if she ate them without really noticing? She didn’t accidentally chew anyone up or dissolve them in her stomach already, right? No, she could just barely feel a little disturbance in her gut and the faintest trace of magic, even more subtle than ambient energy and she couldn’t tell apart the individual signature it was so small, and she would’ve missed it if Sieglinde didn’t know to focus on her stomach.
“Wait, I know!” Shaky hope seeping into her voice, an idea stuck the frantic girl. She was still at Victoria’s house. Maybe she’d have something in her mansion to help!
Sieglinde quickly turned and took a single step, preparing to sprint.
And immediately felt something bite her other ankle.
Abruptly stopping, Sieglinde looked behind her to see the source was Tio, of all things. Chris had joined in the protest by floating in front of her and trying to push her body back. What were they doing? They had to get help before everyone turned into energy for her training!
But Chris was trying to tell her something again, floating in her vision and moving around while flailing-
… Wait.
Briefly yanked from her panic, the girl’s mind was able to think clearer. If the girls were inside her, then all the motion of her body sprinting would throw everything around her stomach. It was one reason exercise right after a meal was bad, it was helpful to give the food time to settle, even if not digest completely, beforehand.
Her friends were trying not to melt into calories now, so a sprint would be like an earthquake and make it infinitely worse at whatever size that had to be. Even that one step must’ve tossed them around violently…
“Oops…” Sieglinde nervously muttered, looking down at her gut with worry, hands on the sides of it. “S-Sorry everyone!” The champion at least hoped they could hear her apology, very gently poking her stomach like it’d give some kind of signal.
“C-Chris! Teo! Go get Victor f-”
“Sieg! What’s wrong? I heard you shouting!” Like a ray of light in the darkness, her friend's voice yelled out before Sieglinde could finish her words, coming alongside the rapid steps of her approaching.
Relief washed over the worried girl’s face as she turned and saw Victoria’s own concerned one, her waist length, fluffy blonde hair swaying with the movements, alongside her short sleeved dress with a white top and royal purple lower half. She was saved! “Victoooooooor! I ate Vivi-chan and Haru-nya and don’t know how to get them out!”
Victoria stopped dead in her tracks a few paces from Sieglinde, her worried face instantly shifting to one of sheer confusion. “You… what?” She blinked a few times, slowly.
“They somehow got really small and, and must’ve gotten in my popcorn, and t-then I ate them with it!” Sieglinde babbled rapidly, time was ticking!
Victoria’s face fell to a completely blank one. “Sieg… You haven’t eaten anything st-” The blonde paused upon finally noticing Teo and Chris, eyes darting between them as a flash of understanding begin creeping up onto her.
“I didn’t eat anything weird! I ate my friends!” Sieglinde interjected, resisting the urge to flail in a mix of panic and frustration to punctuate her point. “They’re all stuck in my stomach and we have to get them out before they get digested! Victooooooor, I don’t know what to do!!”
Victoria stayed silent for a few seconds, hand going to her mouth in pensive thought as he gaze went down to Sieglinde’s stomach. “Ah…” Some recognition came across her after some moments with a click of her tongue, perhaps she sense what Seiglinde did too. “I’m curious how this even happened…” Some emotion Sieglinde couldn’t quite place briefly flashed over Victoria’s face, a bit curious if she had to place one, perhaps? “But we need to act fast then.”
Some relief started replacing the panic in her mind, Sieglinde knew she could always count on Victoria!
“Sieg, have a seat in the chair beside you and don’t move. I’ll call someone who I think can help. I’ll send someone out with some antacids in case it takes some time.” Prepared and composed as ever Victoria quickly started issuing orders, pacing back toward her house all the while.
“R-Right.” The girl carefully took her seat again, keeping her movement to a minimum to not further endanger the people trying not to become part of her popcorn snack.
Tio immediately jumped up into her lap with a concerned mewl and Chris floated around her stomach with some worried gestures.
“I-It’ll be fine, you girls. Victor’s, um, figuring something out!” Awkwardly, Sieglinde spoke to her gut with another small poke at it. If they could hear her, some good news would be appreciated.
This was going to be an agonizing wait, having to sit here and do nothing while some of her close friends were frantically fighting to stay alive against her unconscious bodily functions. The martial artist could only imagine how terrible it must have been inside her, the total darkness of her belly, the bits of popcorn she’d eaten and any earlier meals totally turned to mush, if anything was even still there anymore. Constantly being thrown around by the organ doing it’s best to churn what it saw as stubborn morsels into the soup her digestive system would absorb into the body as energy and fat. Sieglinde didn’t want any of that and to dissolve her friends, but she couldn’t control her stomach only saw food to break down! She just had to hope her fast metabolism didn’t work against her wishes this time.
This was going to be the most anxious wait of her life.
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Vivio had no idea exactly how much time had passed inside of Sieglinde’s cavernous stomach, but however much it was too long! The organ had grown even more violent in its churning over time, violently shaking everything in an attempt to break down whatever resistance remained into the mushy soup. And it was succeeding.
Everyone’s platform of chewed popcorn had long since been shaken apart, tossing everyone into the lake of stomach acid to fend for themselves. The raging rapids of Sieglinde’s churning stomach held even more power over the group without the safety of land as in short order everyone had been scattered by the huge waves, single sloshes capable of carrying the tiny girls well past several meters at a time. Even with the aid of magical lights, any attempts to see beyond several body lengths were useless as the darkness swallowed up any illumination into its endless expanse. Trying to listen to her friends was almost as useless, the constant gurgling sounds of digestion and sloshing liquid that enveloped the entire world drowned out nearly everything, with only faint cries Vivio had trouble telling who they belonged to briefly audible before vanishing.
Even her own endurance was being taxed. Vivio was a strong girl who regularly trained and had magic to further bolster her abilities, but without Chris to aid her and the environment making focusing near impossible, her potential was a fraction of what it could’ve been. Much like the stomach acids were doing to her body, bit by bit her energy and spirit was melting away under the relentless determination of Sieglinde’s body to dissolve Vivio into nutrients. It was a battle of attrition she had no hope of winning when the champion’s gut was every bit as powerful as she was.
The girls had heard some shouting that sounded kind of like Sieglinde and acknowledging she ate the group, though it was hard to make out everything inside her body, so that had inspired hope of rescue. But then where was it? Something had to be coming eventually, Sieglinde wasn’t going to leave the 4 girls to dissolve away into part of her, but would it even come in time at this rate? Vivio was already feeling parts of her clothes starting to become mush and disintegrating.
“W-Woah!” Vivio yelled as she felt the world tumble. She was getting caught up in another wave! But the realization came too late to do anything, a surge of bile crashed onto the girl, burying her beneath it in a furious spin. It wasn’t the first time it’d happened, but each time it was getting harder and harder to surface. If something didn’t happen soon, everyone was going to end up digested! But Vivio couldn’t get up, she had to swi-
Vivio was suddenly surrounded by air and touching something soft, like cloth.
“W-What the heck, where are now?!”
‘That’s Rio’s voice!’ Vivio’s eyes flew open to let her other senses give a clue where she was, but the girl was only met with further confusion.
The first thing she noticed was she even could see again, it was bright out and she was no longer in the darkness of Sieglinde’s stomach. This resulted in Vivio’s eyes soon turning toward some movement in her peripheral. To her immense relief, the girl saw the rest of her friends were surrounding her. They all looked exhausted and in the same state she felt, slime covering part of them, bits and pieces of clothes entirely melted off, and in general ready to take a long rest, but they were all still okay!
‘But then where are we?’ Naturally, that was the very next question in Vivio’s mind and prevented her from pulling everyone into a hug to celebrate escaping somehow. With her friends confirmed safe, her senses started picking up the rest of her surroundings. Judging by what she saw in the distance, it appeared they were back in the front area of Victoria’s house. But there was also some kind of dark platform, such a deep shade of purple it was almost black, yet the former color would’ve been a more accurate description. It was soft, definitely some kind of fabric one would find in a glove, with a measure of warmth coming from beneath it.
Vivio tried to stand and get her bearings, but a slight shift abruptly raised a fold of the material to the height of Vivio’s waist, sending her barreling over. The same result happened with some of her friends, who likewise were jumbled around by the landscape rising and lowering itself.
A loud, booming explosion came from above that rumbled the landscape as it further shifted about and rocked gently, like a subtle earthquake. Not enough to violently toss everyone around, but nobody wanted to try standing during it. It was almost… Like a laugh?
“Hehe, Looks like I got everyone out in one piece still. Everyone’s sure even smaller than I thought. No wonder you just gulped them all down without noticing, Sieg.”
Vivio’s eyes went wide. She knew that voice, the friendly and outgoing demeanor, yet with some playfulness laced within it all. She didn’t even need to see anymore, she knew exactly where they were, exactly on whose hand her, Rio, Corona, and Einhart were on.
Her gaze, along with everyone else’s, bolted upwards and Vivio was greeted with the exact sight she expected.
Like the side of a supersize billboard, a gigantic face rested with a grinning mouth right below two shining reddish eyes that matched the teasing grin, yet like with a billboard Vivio could see every little detail and twinge of emotion written over the massive expression and relief was clearly evident alongside the cheery expression. Atop the eyes was a forehead itself large enough to be like small building, its size amplified by the girl’s lavender hair being mostly swept to the sides in the form of longs bangs that extended well below Vivio’s view, but there were four strands across the otherwise clear area, with the individual strands of hair coming together to make each segment look like a thick rope to the tiny girls.
“Wah! Lulu’s huge too!”
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Lutecia Alpine had no idea what to make of the situation when Victoria had given had a call to rush over for assistance. Sieglinde having somehow eaten Vivio and Einhart was ridiculous, but even though she was young, Lutecia had seen magic accomplish plenty of things those less experience with it would’ve deemed absurd, so she didn’t question it much. It had taken her a while to get there and Lutecia was worried the martial artist’s stomach would’ve made a meal out of them, but to the girl’s relief, her senses had been able to detect the girls after some focusing. It wasn’t just Vivio and Einhart either, Rio and Corona were also inside the fighter’s gut.
Being a talented mage specializing in summoning magic, it had been easy to whisk everyone to the safety of her palm with a little effort once she found them. What Lutecia had not been expecting was how puny the chyme covered, shrunken girls were. Lutecia was a bug summoner, but that didn’t mean the people she summoned were supposed to be the size of a small bug! Each one of them had to be less than half the size of her fingertip. All four of them could’ve probably fit on it if they huddled together even.
Still, now that everyone was confirmed safe, Lutecia couldn’t help the little light hearted snicker at some of the squeaky voices coming from her palm, alongside how her merely laughing or a stray twitch of her hand barreled the tiny girls over. It was weirdly cute. She could still make out at least some of the words despite the high pitch, but a few got lost in shouting, or at least she thought it shouting from the pitch. If not for the fact they just got out of nearly being digested and were half the size, Lutecia would’ve been tempted to try petting them with her fingertip in exchange for a headpat.
“Are they okay?” Sieglinde immediately bolted up from her seat and leaned close to Lutecia’s palm, making its residents stumble back from the abruptness of what had to be a whole building’s, a very distressed looking building, worth of face taking up their whole field of view. “I’m so sorry I ate you with the popcorn! I didn’t mean iiiiiit!” Eyes a bit watery with guilt yet relief, Sieglinde shouted an apology with a deep frown.
“Hey, hey. Keep your voice down, Sieg.” Lutecia gently scolded, moving her hand a little away with Sieglinde’s face almost on top of it. “If they sound like this to us, then we have to sound much louder to them too.”
And indeed, Lutecia could see some of the girls flinch or cover their ears in her palm. She could only imagine how anything beyond a slightly raised voice must’ve been like screaming in the ear.
‘… If they’re that squeaky to me, I wonder if I sound like some booming monster to them…’ Maybe she could have some fun with that later.
“Oh!” Sieglinde interrupted Lutecia’s thoughts again with a raised whisper, taking a few steps back as an extra precaution. “Sorry…!” The poor girl looked so guilty and with a desire to make it up somehow, but not the faintest clue with such an immense size gap. After all, how could you even give so much as a comforting hug when a single finger tip could squish the person?
“It’s sure easy to lose track of how much even little things affect something that small.” Lutecia suppressed a dry chuckle. She had a little growth spurt, a lot more than Caro for sure, but was still on the younger side and so used to being short compared to most while she grew. So there was something amusing about holding four girls normally only slightly shorter than her in a single palm.
Further adding to Lutecia’s cute feelings, she noticed one of the crumbs on her gloves, Rio she was sure, started to walk over toward her finger, it looked like she was already leaning forward in anticipation of viewing the edge of her palm. It became even harder to suppress a snicker once the girl began climbing up her finger, visibly needing to account for the incline of her almost straight fingertips.
“I know I’m big, but don’t use my hand like a jungle gym yet, Rio.” Lutecia suddenly spoke up as Rio froze on the first segment of her finger. “Stay back in my palm, we can’t have you falling off.” Leisurely raising her finger upwards so that it quickly went from a horizontal line to a slope, Rio grabbed onto the fabric by instinct and let out some squeaks of protest. The sight was finally too much for Lutecia to endure and she let out a soft giggle, the vibrations from it proving too much for Rio and finally sending her tumbling down Lutecia’s finger and back toward her palm. Any further high pitched whining was drowned out in Lutecia’s ears by even her mild chuckling.
“Anyway, it looks like they’re trying to say something.” Lutecia murmured to herself as she quieted down to make out the helium overdosed words below. From her current position however, it was hard, but not impossible to make out what was said. If she put her ear closer, perhaps that would make the tiny girls more understandable.
Feeling playful, Lutecia leaned her head down, tilting her head to put an ear close to the group in her palm with her other hand cupping the ear in an exaggerated motion while she spoke with an almost equally playful tone. “You’re gonna have to speak up, hard to hear anything but the squeaking when you’re almost as small as Caro is.”
“Caro-san’s short, but she isn’t this short!”
“I said thank you, Luu-chan!”
“We almost got turned into a snack!”
Lutecia’s smile only grew wider. At least everyone was taking it in good spirits despite half their clothes being part of the popcorn in Sieglinde’s stomach.
“It’s great to see that everyone is fine, but there is still one major question.” Victoria’s voice drew Lutecia’s eyes over to her. “How did they get so small in the first place? It would make returning them to normal easier to know.”
“Oh, I’ll explain!” Vivio’s high pitched voice made Lutecia raise a hand to give a signal for nobody else to speak. “What happened is…”
Lutecia listened closely to, and reiterated for everyone else, Vivio recounting meeting Hayate, agreeing to drop off a Lost Logia as a favor for some device tune ups, then accidentally dropping it and triggering the artifact and being what shrunk them, before some wind picked up the group and carried them to Sieglinde’s bowl of popcorn where everyone knew the rest. Sieglinde grew even redder in the face and fidgeted nervously upon getting to that section, looking down at her stomach in guilt.
As the story finished, Lutecia raised her head again. “Well, at least it’s over now. If we find the Lost Logia, then Commander Yagami should know how to fix this.” Lutecia turned a subtle smirk over toward Sieglinde, eyeing some of her softer parts, like the chest and thighs, up and down. “It’s a good thing Victoria gave you those antacids and called me when she did. From how everyone looks, if it had been much longer then you’d have some extra calories jiggling on you right now.”
“P-Please don’t say it like that!” Sieglinde whined loudly.
‘’Don’t worry, Sieg-san! I’ll tell Nanoha-mama and Fate-mama it wasn’t your fault!”
“Oh, and Vivio says she’ll tell her mothers it wasn’t your fault.”
Sieglinde turned into a statue as all the color rapidly drained from her face.
Lutecia was glad she wouldn’t be the one facing Nanoha.
Giantess World
Author's Chapter Notes:
Made this as a long overdue gift for a friend and forgot to post it here. May have rushed the beginning a bit since I originally had longer plans, but lost the opening bit due to a file mix up. Still pretty satisfied with how the story turned out in the end!
Text editor still doesn't work like it used to for me so hope the linebreaks don't look too odd.
Primary characters featured are Vivio Takmach, Corona Timil, Rio Wesley, Einhart Stratos, and Sieglinde Jeremiah from Nanoha Vivid.
Text editor still doesn't work like it used to for me so hope the linebreaks don't look too odd.
Primary characters featured are Vivio Takmach, Corona Timil, Rio Wesley, Einhart Stratos, and Sieglinde Jeremiah from Nanoha Vivid.