There were no further incidents or close calls since the two boys had crossed paths with Kuki Shinobu. Although, that may have been due to their decreased ability to view such self-indulgent consumption and toying of shrunken individuals. Since their eyesight extended a far lesser degree than a normal-sized human. Regardless, the pair had reached the inside of the Raiden Shogun’s domain. Albeit, to the Wanderer’s chagrin, they were not back to their original size. 

Both the Wanderer and the Traveler could tell they were a much greater size. Possibly the length of a foot, heel to toe, rather than a hand. 

“Great! At this height Ei should easily be able to tell who I am.”

Aether said with much more confidence than the Wanderer had. The doll simply didn’t have the same optimistic proclivity that the traveler had. After all, his experience with his biological mother was much more lacking than the time that he spent with his adoptive mother. Nahida.

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

Why?

Nahida pulled her hand back with a shocked expression. The Dendro Archon half-believed of what she just witnessed. However, it had to be true. There was no way for a fabrication to enter the Irminsul. Thus, Nahida tried to focus her mind and contact the Electro Archon. It was a great distance, but it shouldn’t be impossible.

Ugh. It almost feels like there is something blocking me from contacting her. Is there another side to this mysterious phenomenon that I don’t know about? Should I keep watching?

Nahida’s anxiety had only risen once she saw the Wanderer and the Traveler’s loss of size. Especially, due to the actions that the Inazuma residents took towards similarly sized individuals. 

Why? Why did they treat them as no better than a cookie or an insect? Weren’t they the same human just like them before shrinking?

As much as the inquisitive side of Nahida wanted to know the truth, her motherly nature overpowered such desires. 

No! Maybe if I continue observing the recent past of the Wanderer and Aether, I can find out what is going on.

Thus, Nahida reached out towards the Irminsul once more…and she was given a troubling sight. 

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

“Ouch. Dang Wanderer this is one way for us to take a break. I guess now I know not to ask why you didn’t want to be named Aang again.”

Aether commented about his attempt to lighten the somber mood of the silently pensive doll. The Traveler was currently rubbing his back from the unexpected landing. 

It seemed as if the Wanderer had overestimated how much strain his body could take. As the continuous use of the doll’s Anemo vision had sapped his physical strength such that he accidentally lost his hold of his blonde-haired partner.

Dang it! Don’t you think that the last thing that I need is your levity.

The Wanderer internalized as he drifted lazily in the sky with a disapproving glare. Despite the doll’s repudiation of Aether’s nonchalant treatment of having fallen from such a high height, he was gladdened to see that the Traveler wasn’t worse for wear. Although, the Wanderer’s attempts to lock up his true thoughts of relief, for an individual he once considered an enemy, just so happened to be an accurate appraisal. As the pair had greatly overestimated how easy it was to sneak into the Raiden Shogun’s personal residence. Even if they were most likely just the length of a foot from heel to toe. An estimate that was confirmed instantaneously.

CRRRAAASSSHHHH

Her foot appeared over Aether before either of them could react. Then it descended with an earth-shattering rate. Giving the Traveler, who was barely accustomed to such speeds thanks to Yae Miko’s training in the past, enough time to defend himself. If the woman was wearing her usual footwear, then it would have been meaningless. Aether would have become a thin smear of blood on the underside of her brown sandals. Instead, the Traveler bore witness to Ei’s scowling face. Her purple eyes blazed down at the shrunken man with a derisive fury.

Did she sense us—

The hormones swirled within Aether’s hot blood. In a circulatory system that pumped much too slowly. As he was not able to spare another moment to thinking with the descending underside of Ei’s foot. It was a heavy mass covered in a purple tabi sock. A meaty plane that possessed a great amount of heat. Emanating from the vast width was sweltering warmth that the Traveler was became acquainted with. As the wrinkled underside of the tight and thin purple stocking replaced the Electro Archon’s aggravated visage. Aether was able to appreciate the fine wavy wrinkles of the divine being’s sole mere milliseconds before it impacted him. The Traveler’s bones creaked before the scent of the Raiden Shogun’s natural foot odor could be fully transmitted to his olfactory nerves. 

The first cranial nerve delivered the information to Aether’s cranium just as he felt the dampness of Ei’s stocking. A result of a light volume of briny foot perspiration that seeped through the Raiden Shogun’s tabi. The stringent liquid was smeared and pressed against the crevices of his body, as the fabric covered flesh conformed around his being. Thereby robbing Aether’s natural perception of the outside world. The Traveler’s overwhelmed smell and touch were soon accompanied by an invasion of his gustatory and auditory senses. As the young man’s jaw gasped out for oxygen. Providing an ample gap for the salty foot flesh and svelte fabric of the stocking to bulge out into his mouth. His ears vibrated from the nearby thumping of Ei’s wriggling toes. The precise movements of the sinuous muscles within Ei’s foot were only interrupted by the stretching of the stocking’s individual fibers. Her whorled digits that soon clenched down and towards the top of his scalp. The ridges of the Raiden Shogun’s toes scraped against the Traveler’s scalp. Aether was essentially pocketed within the space between the floor and Ei’s meaty sole.

It was through this thorough envelopment that Aether was robbed of his vision. The entirety of his body only reached from the heel of Ei’s foot, the pressure against his legs were numbing, to the balls of her feet. The rounded curve of the front end of the Electro Archon’s foot pressed down against the Traveler’s face with a pressure equal to the middle of Ei’s foot on his chest. For the young man’s rib cage tried to expand with oxygen. The small dredges of atmosphere that Aether was able to diffuse his body with was tainted by the miasma that radiated off the Electro Archon’s sole. This pungent aroma was supplanted by an increasing temperature. A heat that baked the young man with an ever-escalating intensity even as he tried to resist the force of the woman’s weight.

Come on Ei! It’s me. Just look down before you—

The fleshy world that encompassed around the Traveler soon collapsed over his being. His ability to discern the end of his body and the beginning of the giantess’s feet was lost. As an overpowering flow of energy battered his form and compounded a pressure that fractured several bones in his body. Aether’s thoughts, that he gathered under the building weight of the towering woman, dispersed. Like atoms cast away into the universe by the ever-increasing entropy of reality. As it seems that the Electro Archon had a predilection for being thorough. It was a simple action. One that barely required any thought as the muscles in her body momentarily stiffened. 

The muscles going down from her trunk and hips and down to her thighs and calves, expanded and contracted in a period of milliseconds. The burst of mitochondrial activity coincided with a surge of electrical current. It was distinct from the electrochemical communication between Ei’s synapses. (A neural network communicated the delightful dominance she had over the existence that writhed underneath the might of the lowest part of her body). 

Rather this electric current that traveled was necessitated by the Raiden Shogun’s sense of duty. To punitively address invaders to her home. Thus, even though it cut short the sense of power that she had from squishing a helpless gnat under her sole, Ei activated her Electro abilities and focused a surge of electric energy over Aether’s form.

“Nooo!!! You bitch!”

The Wanderer yelled. All the doll saw was a few sparks from the ends of Ei’s stockinged foot. His mother’s expression unchanged as the toes of her foot scrunched and curled. However, the mother’s son was able to tell that was enough to deal a deathly blow to the Traveler.

“He was mine to take down!”

The Wanderer pointlessly howled as he flew towards the mother, who finally focused her gaze on him. Towards a son that she could not even remember existed. From her perspective, the doll looked to be the size of a large dragonfly. Albeit much slower. Giving the mother plenty of time to clap her hands together over the intruder’s flying body.

SMACK

Before the Wanderer could react two walls moved towards him at breakneck speeds before slamming into him. The doll was compressed by a concussive force and caught between two walls of flesh. He felt his frame creak as the soft palm of Ei’s hand became firm. Her skin wrapped around him in what could have been a warm embrace. Instead, the mother’s palm was an unforgiving surface that tried to push him into the crevices of the opposing palm. 

Hm. These shrunken individuals are more resilient than I expected. Could they be remnants of the Fatui that tried to influence this country?

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

The Raiden Shogun was made aware of the shrunken individuals that had appeared in Inazuma. How, despite their best efforts, it seemed impossible to revert whatever change brought this shrunken status in the first place. Surprisingly, instead of welfare being the primary focus of these physically diminished individuals, Ei observed how the populace had grown greedy and selfish with their desire over these tinies. What had started as meaningless and uncalled for servile labor—painting nails, massaging feet, rubbing a normal sized individual’s genitalia—had escalated. 

The Electro Archon surmised that this social change was brought about by the casual dismissal of a tiny prisoner after he was incidentally swallowed by Kujou Sara. As the female tengu had him tending to the gunk that was lodged in between her teeth. The criminal’s great physicality, polished by a life of bad deeds, was deemed suitable for labor in service of General Sara’s maw. Alas, his betters might have overestimated how well the criminal could place his feet on the damp and slimy environment of a woman’s mouth. All it took was a misplaced step, after he pulled out the last of the food detritus from Sara’s posterior molar, for him to fall on the molar. An event that might have knocked him out before the sudden change of movement triggered an impulsive swallow from the General. The tengu didn’t even have the chance to retrieve him before he descended into the next step of Sara’s brutal digestive system. Her stomach analogue known as a gizzard. A floss meant to remove food from a past meal had now become a meal himself.

The General may have been inclined to put greater effort. However, after the several tasks that she had put him through, demeaning tasks that fed into Sara’s sadistic and powerfully cruel side, she attained a growing belief that this was just the position that the criminal deserved. Thus, a growing normalization of the callous dominance of these tinies had pervaded the lands of Inazuma. As the information of how the state officials utilized these tiny individuals had spread to the greater populace. Ei would have to admit that she also contributed to this shift in social norms. As she had let out an unintended giggle after hearing from Sara that she had convinced the tiny prisoner to floss her teeth by threatening to chew him up instead. 

This was a story that the General shared with the Raiden Shogun as her tummy was busy shredding the subject of the conversation. The tiny prisoner’s remains would spill out into the female tengu’s intestines as Ei agreed with her General. That it may have been a more just fate for the tiny to be swallowed down into the beautiful General’s muggy depths, instead of becoming a pulpy paste in between her teeth.

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

So, it was unsurprising that the social environment had become increasingly accepting of minimizing the plight of these minuscule humans. The progression was organic yet rapid. From children using them as toys for a bout of curiosity and fun, to teens violating their identities to accrue social capital with their peers, to adults using up their lives for their own comfort. Thus, it was natural that Ei, who had recently been trying to familiarize herself with the people that venerate her, would have her interests piqued.

Therefore, after the Electro Archon felt the slightest movement of life under her foot and between her hands, her disappointment at not immediately extinguishing the life of the intruders was ephemeral. Soon to be replaced by a voracious need to indulge in these new minuscule delights that had become an Inazuma specialty.

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

The Wanderer felt the walls of flesh separate. His body incapacitated on one of his mother’s palms as they separated. Through the sharp pain, that became more pronounced after each breath, the Wanderer forced his head up towards his mother’s face. The fresh breaths of air that weren’t laced by the salty flesh residues of her hands were of little comfort. As the mother’s countenance was without any sign of motherly affection. Her purple eyes bore a focused gaze. One that drilled through the Wanderer’s being and made him feel exposed. 

Ei’s eyes searched for any details that she could place. The shrunken individual’s attire held some resemblance to an Inazuma citizen’s clothing, but there had been no reports of someone from Inazuma shrinking in the region. A fact that resolved the contemplating giantess in her speculation that these were intruders that meant harm to her country. The mother didn’t realize that she was holding in her palm…a son that she once knew. However, their identity didn’t preclude them from the selfish acts that she wished to inflict on them.

“WHAT COMPELLED YOU TWO TO COME TO MY RESIDENCE?”

The Wanderer’s body shook from the forced and choppy exhalations of wind that flowed out of his mother’s mouth. Wind that blasted his body like forceful gusts. His skin stung from the warm climate that betrayed the piquant qualities of the Electro Archon’s mouth. However, the doll refused to speak at the moment. Rather, the rage that he bottled up. The anger that the Wanderer tried to come to terms with only boiled within him. Without Aether to act as an intermediary, the son was about to fall back into his penchant for focusing his resentment at his mother. A smoldering rage that was received and given back by Ei. Her visage shifting from a placid expression to the edges of her lips turning down.

“IF YOU WISH TO HOLD YOUR TONGUE, THEN I’M AFRAID THAT YOUR FRIEND WILL BE GIFTED AN EXPERIENCE WORSE THAN BEING REDUCED TO PULP BETWEEN THE WRINKLES OF THE UNDERSIDE OF MY FOOT.

Aether…is he still—

Before the Wanderer could voice his concern, his mother’s fingers wrapped around his body. An action taken by the Electro archon so that he wouldn’t fall while she shifted her body. As she scrunched her sole over the Traveler’s body several times beforehand. To ensure that she had attained a firm grip. 

Aether’s barely cognizant mind registered the firm pressure from the stalwart bottom of Ei’s foot. He felt the flesh of her foot ponderously wrap around his limbs as she lifted the weighty mass up into the sky. Her foot carrying him up with him. The rough ridges of the underside of the Electro Archon’s foot could be felt by the Traveler through her stockings. A transient sensation before he felt a foreign object bulldoze and wrap around him.

Ei lifted her foot up after creating the small stocking folds from scrunching her foot. She then reached to pick up the shrunken human that was squeezed into said small folds of the stocking. Tattered scraps flew off the shrunken human’s body leaving him unrecognizable by his attire. His hair was burned into a shortened a splotchy black mess. Several deep red burn streaks were left on his body. A sight that would have made Aether’s twin sister, Lumine, sympathetic to her brother’s plight. Not that the Traveler could appreciate the damage done to his body. He was only able to bask in being released from the sweaty and pungent domain underneath Ei’s foot. His half-lidded eyes barely able to maintain contact with the Raiden Shogun’s grimacing face.

Ei…

“Wait…that is the Traveler. I’m a friend of his. We just came to…”

Shit. Will she believe that I’m her son?

Ei waited to hear the next surprising thing the intruder would say. Her eyes looked toward the twitching and charred body of the Traveler. Although, thanks to Raiden Shogun’s thunder-charged pressure, she couldn’t recognize the quivering and baked mass as the individual that had stood in battle against her.

Please. For a Fatui agent I would expect you to come up with a better lie. Let alone come up with better reasoning to back up your claims. To think that the traveler wouldn’t even be able to handle my dainty foot is preposterous notion if I ever heard one.

It was that reason that Ei held true to her threat. The son tried to pull his arms out of her hand’s grasp to cover his ears as the Electro Archon opened her mouth once more. As he believed that his mother’s voice was about to boom in his ears once more. Instead, the doll’s eyes widened as he saw her tongue extend out and smeared over the charred Traveler’s frontside.

“Wand—”

Aether’s voice was silenced after Ei closed her plump lips over his body. The pink pillows wrapped around his shoulders…

Slllppp

…before she sucked him up to his upper torso.

“What…no…you can’t. Weren’t you listening?!”

Aether couldn’t hear the Wanderer’s cries for his safety. He would have been reassured by the fact that his former enemy had opened his heart to him. But the muggy environment stung at his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. A relative deluge of viscous slime doused the Traveler upon entry into the space between Ei’s sodden jaws. It was an agonizing sensation as he felt more of his body dragged in. An unwilling motion assisted by the “gentle” movement of the Electro Archon’s muscles and teeth. Working both a suctioning pressure and furtive grip to drag his long, yet shrunken, body into her mouth. Aether’s skin would tear from the force and expose the underlying muscular tissue and trace amounts of blood. Supplanting the natural flavor of his Electro-cooked skin with the exotic tang of his underlying meat. An injury that would take a couple weeks to heal if casted properly. However, it seemed the only cast that the Traveler’s body would be wrapped up with was the drool that filled up Ei’s mouth. A veritable flood of saliva that soured the maw’s air with an odious miasma of funk. A prelude of what laid ahead of Aether as his body was pulled further over the length of the Raiden Shogun’s tongue. His head passed underneath the fleshy bag of her uvula before he was given a glimpse, or lack of, at the precipice that led to her throat. 

MMMHHHH~

The chamber shook and jostled his weakened body. Aether, still recovering from the attack from the full-sized Electro Archon, could do little against the hold of the muscular walls that pressed on his sides and gravity. It would be a smooth drop for him all the way to Ei’s stomach.

What a profound flavor. It would go well with something sweet.

“Hey! Are you listening to me! I’m your son! I’m your freaking kid you bitch. I came back here with Aether to get some closure from you. The person who made me.”

The Wanderer’s statements had become increasingly pressured and made with little thought. As he watched Aether’s lower torso, his hips, and then his thighs vanish in between his uncaring mother’s lips. All that was left were the Traveler’s limp calves and feet. The Electro Archon’s cheeks bulged slightly as she dragged her tongue over the crevices of the formerly blonde-haired individual’s figure. The woman simply was enjoying the zesty tang of her Electro-fried meal. Although, her eyes nearly rolled in aggravation as she continued to hear the intruder prattle on with his lies.

After all, the information that the intruder was saying could have been known by a Fatui operative. Thus, since the intruder in her grasp had nothing else more substantive to say, the Raiden Shogun remained unconvinced to the end.

Slip

She puckered her lips, and then Aether’s legs and feet were sucked in. Completely out of sight from the Wanderer and out of the outside world. As the Traveler was now being pushed down into a place of greater intimacy.

No…

Aether would become closer to Ei then he had any other woman. As he couldn’t stop from sinking down the velvety walls after the Electro Archon elevated her tongue. The woman formed an incline with her drool-covered organ. A veritable water slide that gradually pushed Aether’s twitching figure down into her esophagus’s hold. The esophageal lumen would expand before the walls he passed would contract. A muscular lining that worked with the saliva smeared on the Traveler’s body, and the superficial esophageal mucosal lining, to sink him down the length of the esophagus. With only the most minimal of efforts from the Raiden Shogun’s part. A woman who had once gone on an awkward date with Aether. One where she first learned of the pleasures of a beverage known as Dango Milk. Except now he was moving down nearly as smoothly, but just as deliciously, as the Dango Milk…down Ei’s alimentary tract.

Gluck

The Wanderer’s eyes widened as he looked on with an aghast expression. The nondescript protuberance that was imprinted on his mother’s neck was the last sign of Aether in the outer world. A curved oval bulge that extended the length of the Raiden Shogun’s neck. The prominence of the curvature would vanish as it descended past the Electro Archon’s clavicle. Aether’s form was obfuscated by the woman’s ponderous breasts before filling out her sizzling stomach.

Haahh~

She exhaled. The moist warm air that blasted the son was one that was laced with the mother’s self-indulgent pleasure. As it was thick with the stringent droplets of her drool and the fumes of a charred and violated body.

“Now…why would you say something so foolish.”

Ei said without punctuating. As if she were to follow up with a bout of laughter. Instead, the doll was greeted with the taunting gesture of his unforgiving mother sweeping her tongue over her lips. Undoubtedly searching for any taste leftover from the Traveler that she unknowingly devoured.