The bell rang to signal the end of classes for the day. Hiroshi didn’t move from his desk though, as he wanted to finish writing out his notes while the lesson was still fresh in his mind. As he checked over his math for obvious errors, he spent a passing thought pondering what he should do this evening. Studying for entrance exams was an obvious idea; with his parents on vacation he’d have the house to himself so he could work in peace. Before he could decide however, someone approached him with their own ideas in mind. 

“Hey Hiroshi.” It was Natsuki, one of Hiroshi’s few friends. He turned to face the familiar purple haired girl, her green eyes shining behind her glasses with a look he knew all too well. “I’d like your help in the Science Club room today.” Natsuki was president (and sole member) of the Science Club, and not to mention some kind of genius inventor. They’d been classmates since the first year of high school but didn’t really hit it off until they got paired together for an assignment. He was impressed with her intelligence and determination while she could appreciate his considerate personality. Hiroshi’s grades in science shot up considerably since she had agreed to help tutor him and in exchange, he’d offered to help her with testing her inventions. He didn’t always make it out of the experiments unscathed, but he hadn’t been scared off yet.

“Sure Prez,” Hiroshi responded with a slight smile. I owe you one-or several- already. I just want to finish up some work here and then I’ll be right over.”

“Thanks Hiroshi, I’ll see you there. Don’t keep me waiting!” Natsuki was clearly excited. Hiroshi wondered what the experiment could be. One thing he could assume from the look in her eyes though, was that it was going to be huge.

Hiroshi’s musings were broken by another voice, the stern voice of his teacher. “Hiroshi, I need to speak with you. This last paper marks three assignments in a row you’ve neglected to hand in.” Takahashi said.

Hiroshi was dumbfounded, “Huh? But I placed it on your desk with the others…”

Takahashi-sensei did not look convinced, “I don’t know Hiroshi. It wasn’t in the stack when I graded them.”

Hiroshi saw out of the corner of his eye that someone else in the class was watching this chiding, his least favorite person, Maria. The blond twintail was, in Hiroshi’s honest opinion, a stuck-up bitch who loved to bully him whenever she could. She knew she was untouchable thanks to her family’s wealth and donations to the school. The biggest problem though was that for some reason, she loved to mess with and talk down to him every chance she got. Based on her favorite insults, it was due to his height. Hiroshi was the shortest guy in the class at barely 5 feet tall in shoes.

“I think Maria took it again Sensei,” Hiroshi accused.

His teacher was unimpressed. “That’s enough Hiroshi. Stop trying to blame others for your tardiness. I’m giving you a zero, try to do better. Try to do… anything next time.”

As soon as Takahashi-sensei walked away, Maria sauntered over looking displeased. “I heard that! What the hell are you doing cockroach? Trying to blame your ineptitude on me?”

Hiroshi didn’t back down as the smug girl stood over him, “I know you took it Maria. Just like the last million times!”

Maria smirked at the challenge. “Is that so? And just what are you going to do about it? Is the cockroach going to hurt me?” She was smiling now, the two of them had done this dance hundreds of times before and this was the part where Hiroshi had to back down.

“I… I’m not going to hit a girl.”

Obnoxious laughter filled the classroom. “Hahaha yeah, I’m sure the reason you won’t hit me is because I’m a girl. Nothing to do with the fact that you're practically a speck, and even someone as petite as me could beat you into a pulp.”

Hiroshi didn’t know what to think about that last point. Sure Maria had a few centimeters on him but he’d never been in a fight before, nor did he have any interest in being in one. Whether Maria thought it was true or she secretly knew martial arts, it was clear she wanted him to lash out so she could crush him in a more literal sense. Hiroshi was smart enough to not give her the satisfaction. And so he could only grumble in frustration to himself, “Petite my ass…”

“What the hell did you just say?!” Maria glared down at him. 

“Just give me my assignment back Maria!” Hiroshi responded, his voice raising along with his own anger.

Maria shrugged and turned around to leave, “I have no idea what you’re talking about cockroach. Have a great day!” 

Hiroshi sighed as Maria left the classroom with one of her friends. He needed to do something about the disappearing papers or he might be at risk of getting held back a grade. But that was something for later, he’d wasted enough time with Maria and Natsuki was still waiting for him. He packed up his notes and walked out into the hallway.

There were still several students around even though school had let out. Some on cleaning duty, others getting ready for clubs, and some just chatting with friends to decide on evening plans. One such group he spotted was Maria’s posse. Hiroshi took a detour into the cafeteria to avoid getting spotted and subjected to further mocking. 

The tables were mostly empty save for one girl with long green hair gouging herself on leftovers. Hiroshi silently chuckled to himself as Reiko turned from her midday meal to wave at him. “Hiiii Hiroshi!” 

“Hey Reiko,” Hiroshi replied as he approached her. “Fancy seeing you in the cafeteria again. Didn’t you already have a big lunch earlier?”

She smiled, food staining her teeth and lips, “They usually have leftovers which they sell after school for cheap! I can’t resist trying the other lunch set meals, and I need to keep my energy up!”

Hiroshi patiently shook his head, wondering what she possibly needed all that extra energy for, as Reiko returned to her feast. She was another one of Hiroshi’s few friends though they truthfully didn’t do that much together. It seemed like every time he saw her she was eating, or trying to get food. Still, she was fun, friendly, and good company as long as you didn’t mind sharing. Hell, watching her shovel in food was almost a show in itself. Reiko was not fat by any stretch of the imagination and yet she regularly put away three times the food that Hiroshi could stomach. 

Since he was already here, he figured might as well see what discount foods the lunch lady has on hand. They were out of meals but they still had a few melon buns leftover. Hiroshi had just enough change in his pocket leftover to grab one before returning to sit with Reiko for a minute. Maria shouldn’t be there for long… he hoped.

As soon as he sat down, Reiko put down her fork and let out a sigh of contentment “That was delicious! But to be honest… I’m still hungry.” Hiroshi expected as much and held up his own bun to share. “Oh! Is this for me!? I love melon buns! Thank you so much Hiro!” 

Before Hiroshi could clarify he wanted to split the bun, she was already eating it straight out of his hand. He froze as Reiko helped herself, and practically inhaled the sweet pastry. She was so close that Hiroshi could hear her gulp it down, something that made him blush. There was just something mesmerizing about the way she eats. 

Reiko was smiling as she let out another content sigh, “That was so satisfying. My stomach is warm and happy now. Thank you Hiroshi! As much as I’d like to hang out, my mom is giving me a ride home so I need to get going. I’ll make it up to you next time, maybe we can hang out over the weekend?”

Hiroshi turned and mumbled something in embarrassment as Reiko turned her lunch tray back in. “Can you tell me if Maria is still out there?” He managed to call out before she left. She gave a patient smile and peeked her head outside the door. After looking both ways, she gave a thumbs up and ran off before he could thank her. With the coast clear, he returned to the school hallway and resumed his journey to the Science Club.

“Ahah! There you are!” A familiar voice cut through the chatter. Before Hiroshi could get out a response, a blur of red hair and blue uniform swept over him and he was enveloped in a warm embrace. His face was nestled in a mound of soft flesh and his nose filled with a perfume he knew all too well. “Hiroshi!! I’ve been waiting forever for you! Where have you been?!”

Hiroshi tried to respond, but his mouth was buried in the affectionate girl’s cleavage. She let him go with a giggle and Hiroshi gasped for air. “Can you please stop tackling me in the hallway Minori? It’s embarrassing… And why were you on your tiptoes anyway? You’re already taller than me as is!” 

Minori was the last of his peers that he’d really consider a friend, though she was easily his closest. They’d been friends ever since childhood though they always seemed to end up in different classes. She also loved to tease him over his height, though unlike Maria it was out of affection and no malice. 

Minori giggled, “I admit, it’s just fun to look down at you Hiroshi. Growing up you were always taller than me! Anyway, nevermind that, let’s walk home together today!”

Hiroshi frowned, “Oh I’m sorry Minori but you’ll have to go on without me. I promised Natsuki I would help her out with something in her club room today.” He did feel a bit bad about leaving Minori hanging though, they hadn’t had many chances to hang out in a while.

Minori’s cheery expression immediately soured. With a pouty glare she cried out, “Fine then, be that way! You always turn me down for one reason or another!” She immediately turned and ran out the front entrance. 

Hiroshi’s heart felt heavy and he knew he’d have to find some way to apologize to her later, however he had to hustle. He’d been wasting far too much time and Natsuki was still waiting for him! With an increased pace and no more distractions, he threw open the door to the Science Club less than a minute later.

The club room was as big as any classroom and Natsuki used the space to the fullest. Bookcases of research notes and graduate level science texts, locked cabinets with chemicals you could barely pronounce, a powerful computer with multiple monitors, a half dozen other electronic devices of various sizes that did Natsuki knows what… but the most striking thing in the room was something new; a giant glass tube with a door on it.

“Oh, Hiroshi, there you are,” Natsuki’s voice snapping him out of his wonder. She sounded slightly annoyed, “Sure took your time getting here, didn’t you?”

“Sorry Prez,” Hiroshi replied chastened. “You know how Maria treats me, and today was no exception.”

Natsuki shook her head, “Hiroshi, you’ve gotta start sticking up for yourself. You can’t let people like Maria walk all over you.” 

“I know but-”

“But nothing,” Natsuki interrupts, “or else you’re going to end up in situations like this one again; where you end up owing me for covering for you for all the shit Maria gets you in.” She was right. Natsuki’s help on his exams was the only thing keeping him from failing due to all of Maria’s homework sabotage. She seemed to be finished scolding him as her expression softened. “Speaking of which, you’re just in time. Are you ready to see what I need your help with today?”

Hiroshi sighs, “I am at your service. I just hope it’s not anything too crazy this time.” Hiroshi thinks back to the last time one of her experiments left him deaf for the weekend. “What are you working on here anyway? What’s with this giant tube?”

Natsuki smiled as she transitioned into presentation mode. “I’m glad you asked! You get the exclusive privilege of assisting with the next of humanity’s greatest scientific breakthroughs!” 

“Oh god… not again,” Hiroshi shivered as he thought back to the ill-fated jetpack that nearly got him killed.

“Hey! You should be grateful to have been able to participate in those past projects!” Natsuki shouted defensively. “I don’t let just anyone in here you know.” She shifted back into professional mode to resume her pitch. “Anyway! It’s no secret that the world is facing severe resource and overpopulation issues. And it’s only looking to get worse. Of course, it was inevitable that it falls to someone like me to come up with a solution for it. As such, I am nearing completion on my work on the device before you. It’s capable of reducing the mass of anything placed inside of it. I call it… The Minimum Project!” She makes a grand gesture to the pod and pauses to let her words sink in.

Hiroshi, having seen these presentations plenty of times before, is incredulous. “What..? You’ve got to be kidding me. That’s not even possible! Don’t tell me this is another one of these crazy ambitious disasters waiting to happen Prez…”

“Hmph, you lack faith. Well guess what, I’ve already tested it quite thoroughly on numerous subjects, and I’ll have you know it works flawlessly,” Natsuki stated matter-of-factly. 

Hiroshi was still skeptical. “Even if it does, how does shrinking things help people? I thought you said you were trying to address resource concerns.”

Natsuki shook her head and smiled smugly, “The possibilities are limitless my feeble-minded friend. It could be used to reduce the mass of goods in shipping, saving on fuel. Eradicate the emissions from polluting energy sources, eliminate nuclear waste! The greatest potential… would be in reducing humans themselves!” Her eyes were sparkling as she looked at Hiroshi. “Prisoners could be reduced to lessen their burden on society. And it could be applied to populations at large, which would eliminate the resource consumption problems of humanity entirely!” 

“This sounds like it has human rights violations written all over it.” Hiroshi wasn’t convinced.

Natsuki sighed, “I just need your help in testing it. All tests on living organisms thus far have been a complete success.”

And there it was. “Wait a second, you want to test this thing on me?! Isn’t approval for human testing of things like this supposed to take ages?” As brilliant as Natsuki was, she had no patience for things like bureaucracy or peer review. And of course, Hiroshi was her favorite lab monkey. 

Natsuki met Hiroshi’s legitimate concerns with a wink and stuck out her tongue, “Yeah, it’s not exactly legal. But I have full confidence, and I’m sure as long as we keep this between the two of us, there won’t be any issues. The school doesn’t know what this thing is either. I told them it’s an incubator for my guinea pigs.” She smirks, “Which I guess isn’t too far from the truth.”

Hiroshi stood there stunned. Could shrinking really be possible? Was it really safe? 

Before he could formulate a response, Natsuki approached him, “Don’t forget, you owe me!” Then her expression softened and her voice took on a sincere tone. “I promise you this is entirely safe. As I said, I’ve already conducted countless tests on living things with absolutely no issues. It has to be you! You’re the only one I trust well enough to do this. Not to mention, I wasn’t originally intending for this to be used on people, and you’re kind of the only one small enough to fit in this tube.” That last part she muttered a bit embarrassed. 

Hiroshi sighed in defeat, “And this is reversible, right?”

Natsuki perked right back up, “Hahaha, of course it is! I wouldn’t ask you to do this if it wasn’t.”

“Alright Prez, I trust you I guess.” Hiroshi still had his reservations, but between her assurances and his own desire to help a friend he’d go against his better judgment. “I’ll do it.”

“Great! Thanks Hiroshi.” Natsuki was beaming now which did make Hiroshi feel a bit better about his decision. “Just promise me that you won’t tell anyone about this okay? It’s really going to complicate things if anyone finds out.”

“You got it Prez. You have my word.” Besides, the last thing he needs is a rumor going around school that he was even shorter than before. He didn’t even want to imagine what Maria would have to say.

“Well, no sense wasting anymore time. Go ahead and step into the tube.” Natsuki unlatched the door and beckoned Hiroshi in. It was a bit tight, but his small frame fit without any real issue. She closed the latch behind him and moved to the nearby computer. “Ok… just give me a moment to get everything setup. Calibrating the device to your physical specifications… uploading biometrics data…” All the while, the machines surrounding him made strange noises while Natsuki typed away. Hiroshi’s heart rate started to speed up a bit as the reality of the situation was starting to sink in. Perhaps he should have asked the Prez how much smaller she was going to make him… “Close your eyes, Hiroshi. It’s best not to have any unnecessary sensory stimuli during this next part.”

Ominous command heeded, Hiroshi closed his eyes. He couldn’t shut his ears though and the noise was getting louder as the tube itself started to hum to life. Then, everything went silent as if he had blacked out. It took a moment for him to come to as his brain turned back on. He opened his eyes but the room seemed a lot darker than he remembered it. Did the test work? Was he dreaming? 

A tremor shook him from his trance as his eyes started to fully take in the scene before him. He was still within the glass tube in the Science Club, but it was more than just a little bigger than he remembered it. The same could be said about Natsuki who was pressing her head to the glass to look down at him from… very high up. “W-what in the hell…Is that… Natsuki?” Was all Hiroshi could stammer out as his purple-haired friend towered above him like a skyscraper. Just how small did she shrink him? What the fuck had he gotten himself into?!

“Hiroshi, can you hear me?” Her voice was muffled by the glass but even the familiar feminine tone of his bespectacled friend carried a new level of bass to it that he could feel in his bones. “Come on, come forward and step out of the tube.” She undid the latch and opened the colossal door before kneeling down and extending an open palm. “Step onto my hand, Hiroshi.” Though she was smiling down at him, it was impossible to not feel intimidated by his friend. She stood above him like a goddess, one who had just issued a command. Without fully thinking things through, Hiroshi obeyed. If he wasn’t so shook by the experience, he might have been a bit more flustered about how easily he could see Natsuki’s panties from this low angle.

When he got to the offered hand, he finally had a better idea of how small he truly was. He was able to hoist himself onto Natsuki’s finger without issue, his body feeling lighter than he was used to. He scrambled over the soft, warm, feminine-scented flesh until he was at the center of her palm. Then he went rushing up into the air as his handler simply stood up and brought him to her face.

“You’re positively adorable~” Natsuki was clearly pleased with the situation, a lot more pleased than Hiroshi.

“I’m flattered, but… this is all very overwhelming for me. You have no idea what it’s like to see you… to see everything at this scale.”

“I can tell… You appear to be a bit shaken up. I can only imagine what it must be like.” Natsuki’s expression turned wistful. “But it must be fascinating too. I look forward to hearing about your experiences in detail!”

Something about that hit Hiroshi the wrong way, his anxiety morphing into frustration. “Don’t tell me that’s why you shrank me! Just to get a first hand account of what it’s like to be a dustmite?! Natsuki… I had no idea you were going to shrink me to this extent. I thought I was going to be knee high or something! What if I can’t change back? I could get eaten by a rat! Someone could crush me without even knowing it! If you or anyone else were to so much as slip while holding me, it’s the end of me! This is fucking insanity!”

“I understand this is stressful for you Hiroshi… But as I said before, the effect is entirely reversible. And I’ve made sure I have measures here to keep you safe.” Natsuki’s expression hardened, “And you’d better rethink how you talk to people. It might not be wise to anger someone whose palm you’re currently sitting in…”

The threat was obvious, but it was enough to snap Hiroshi out of his downward spiral. He looked scared for a moment before mustering up an apology, “I-I’m sorry Prez. I’m just really freaked out by this right now. Forgive me.”

The tension left Natsuki’s face in a moment as she held back a sigh so as to not blow away her tiny test subject. “No… Hiroshi. I’m sorry too, I should have given you a better warning about what was going to happen. Tell you what, I was going to leave you here overnight to monitor your condition but you look like you could use some friendly company to get your spirit back up. How does a sleepover sound?” She was smiling softly.

“That… that sounds nice,” Hiroshi replied. Staying all night in the Science Club would probably be spooky even at regular size. 

“Great! We can do some simple tests and maybe have some fun too. And then I’ll unshrink you first thing tomorrow morning before the first bell. It’s a shame though, really. You’re so cute I feel like you were meant to be this size!” 

Hiroshi blushed but reflexively shivered, “Please don’t say things like that. Not right now.”

“Ok Hiroshi. Got any ideas for dinner? I want to know how regular sized food tastes for you…” Natsuki continued to ramble and Hiroshi was a captive audience. She lowered him into a clear plastic box, something she insisted would take more biometric readings from him passively. With that, she picked up her friend, locked the lab doors behind her, and began the walk home with tiny companion in tow. Her mind was buzzing with possibilities both scientific, and personal. Little did they know, this sleepover would be the first of many in a new chapter in both of their lives.