Where was Yae by now? I wondered along the way, but it was impossible to tell or see. While inside her pocket, I was cut off from the outside world. It was after the eighth instance I had enough time to think ‘Is it over?’ that the pocket I was in opened up, letting cool, fresh air enter my cramped location.

“Uwah!” I reflexively shouted as Yae’s powerful fingers entered the small pocket and enveloped me. I had the breath squeezed out of my chest when her thumb and index finger pinched me. They had noticeably more strength than before, though I believed it was because I got gotten slightly smaller along the way instead of Yae being rougher.

Before my brain could process being picked up, I endured a rapid ascent and then a sudden stop. When the pressure on my body released, I found myself in a giant metal cave looking out at Yae’s face. Where was I? Yae’s shoe locker.

“We’re here, Touya,” she smiled, ignorant of what I had endured. “It was a bit boring of a trip without being able to talk to each other, wasn’t it?”

It certainly wasn’t boring, but it wasn’t exactly enjoyable. I had to take a moment to catch my breath and recover. Yae saw this and frowned. “Was it that bad? I thought I felt you the whole trip and you didn’t move at all.”

So she could feel me. I wasn’t sure what to think about my entire body and all of my (lack of) motions being detected through Yae’s chest.

“Well, it was soft at least!” I shouted. She didn’t need to know how stuffy it was.

“Fufu…,” Yae giggled. Her booming voice echoed in the shoe locker. “I guess I should be happy you enjoyed it. Touya, you pervert. Then again, I guess that’d be me for putting you there.”

Yae was getting daring. I didn’t know whether to be worried or enthused. 

“Yeah. I’m surprised you did that. And then there’s what you asked last night too.”

“F-Forget about that,” Yae blushed. “I know my limits. I promise I won’t go too far.”

Was putting me against her breasts not too far compared to asking me to sleep in the same bed as her? I didn’t really understand women, let alone Yae. It seemed she was going through her own struggles now that I had gotten so small.

“Ok. Let’s put on our shoes and get to class then,” Yae told me, showing me her indoor shoes which she had removed from her locker before putting me there. I watched as she bent down to put them on the floor. I couldn’t see below unless I walked forward, so I relented to putting on my own indoor shoes…

Which I didn’t have...

“Ah,” I and Yae seemed to realize at the same time as we both had the same open-mouth reaction.

I remembered where Yae had placed my shoes the day before: in her own. She had wanted to see how they’d get the next day, but we had both forgotten.

“It’s… Where is… Huh?” The nervous smile on Yae’s face when she stood back up and turned to me told me more than enough about what happened outside my view. “Um… Touya… I think I may have...”

I approached the edge of the shoe locker Yae bent back down for a moment and saw her scratch her head when she looked down. I jumped back when I saw her stand back up, rising dozens of meters in height until her face filled the open locker again.

“You may want to see if you can find them,” Yae had an apologetic expression on her face.

Without asking me or giving me any time to prepare, Yae’s hand scooped me out of the locker.

“Wait, Ya-” was all I was able to shout before my body rapidly fell. When it stopped, I found myself dangled over Yae’s right indoor shoe. Yae had bent down so she could lower me into it. “Oh, I see what’s going on here.”

“Sorry, Touya. It should still be there.”

“So you want me to go grab them myself? Don’t tell me they’re stuck in there.”

“I think they are.”

“Waaaah!” The 15 cm drop from Yae’s hand to her shoe was not large from Yae’s perspective, but it was for me. I fell on my stomach, groaning from the unceremonious fall. I struggled to get back up, and when I did, I turned around and looked up.

Instead of seeing Yae, I saw the bottom of her sock clad foot. 

“It doesn’t look like they’re stuck on my sock,” I heard Yae say. “They should still be there, but I couldn’t see them, Touya. I’m sorry. I didn’t realize they’d get so small. Can you see if they’re in there? I didn’t see anything.”

I didn’t realize I’d get so small either. I covered my mouth and nose as I looked forward. I was inside of Yae’s indoor shoe. The smell of Yae’s feet and her sweat had built up and collected in the musty shoe.

“Did Yae seriously just put me here?” I couldn’t believe where I was. At 9 cm tall, her petite shoe was essentially a sweaty smelling tunnel. I had to crouch down to enter it, but the fact that I was waking in her shoe itself was unbelieveable in its own right. The stitching was thick enough to see, small loose threads of Yae’s socks were easily visible, and the imprint of Yae’s foot on the insole made a shallow crater I was walking in.

“Touya, are they in there?” I was spooked when I heard Yae’s thunderous voice from all around me. That reminded me that Yae was waiting, and that this cave was just her shoe. It was difficult to imagine her just standing at the shoe lockers waiting for a tiny person in her shoe to come out, but this really was happening.

“There they are,” I found my indoor shoes at the very end of the indoor shoe in the toeprint left by Yae’s big toe. They were safe because they had fallen to the very edge where Yae’s foot couldn’t reach. I put them on and returned my other pair to my sports back. I tried my best not to think about the fact that my shoes had been lost in Yae’s shoes and survived only because they were too small. I was still trying to ignore the fact that the entire tunnel that I was in was typically filled with Yae’s foot. I had to admit, though, that now that I was the deepest in, the odor was thick. I was getting coated in it.

“Let’s just get out of here,” I decided and began to walk back out to where the light was pouring in from the opening of the shoe. When I made it, I was greeted by the sight of Yae kneeling down over her shoes and a lavender pair of underwear that filled my view. At the very least, I wasn’t being greeted by the black stockings around her foot.

“Did you find them?” Yae asked.

I nodded. I was about to shout up at Yae, but at the sight of my confirmation, Yae’s hand descended and plucked me out of the shoe. She kept me in her hand and slipped her feet into where I had just been.

“You were taking so long, I was getting worried,” Yae opened up her palm to speak to me as she began walking. “We’re almost late for class, you know?”

“It’s your own fault for putting them in there,” I blamed Yae.

She accepted fault. “Yes, I’m deeply sorry. I’ll try to remember next time.”

I hoped there wouldn’t be a next time, but given there was still one more day, I honestly wasn’t sure. Resolutely, I decided I would take everything with me and keep it in my bag.

“Well, let’s hurry, Touya. If you’re this small, we’ll probably get to sit together in class today.”

“Sasakura-sensei, what are you doing out here?”

“Oh, there you are, Asano. And good. You’ve got Kirishima-kun in your hands. Perfect. The exception came before everyone else. Takahashi, you’re up,” Sensei was expecting us. She ordered Takahashi to bring the ruler and the sleepy girl placed it on Yae’s palm, instructing me to stand against it. Rather than give me a chance to do it myself, Takahashi used her hands to pick me up off my feet and pressed me against the wooden ruler.

“... 86 mm… 8.6 cm for now, Sensei,” Takahashi rubbed her tired eyes and told the nurse after getting the exact measurement.

“That sounds about right. The reduction rate should be slower now, though I’m sure for these boys, even a millimeter is going to make a difference in scale to them. Okazaki, put down Kirishima-kun for 8.6 cm.”

“8.6 cm? For Kirishima-s... Senpai? Kirishima-Senpai? I got it! Senpai came? Hold on!”

Yae held me close to her chest and pulled away from Okazaki as my 145 cm kouhai leaned in close with a beaming smile on her face. I nearly broke into a cold sweat as the girl’s meteoric face rapidly came at me, stopping a literal centimeter away from my body.

“Kyaa! You’re so small and cute!” her shrill voice was even more deafening at close range and coming from her titanic body. I had to cover my ears. “I’m so glad I volunteered to help this morning. Senpai, how do I look from your size?”

Yae was worried for me. “O-Okazaki-chan, what are you doing?”

“I was looking forward to this all week. Asano-Senpai, can I please take a look at Senpai? I want to see just how big I am to him.”

I would prefer it if she didn’t. Okazaki was more excited than a kid in a candy store. She had already tried intimidating me before with a wall slam, but that was when I was still one-third of my normal height. Now, I was much smaller. My underclassman was twenty times larger than normal. If Yae wasn’t holding me close, I was certain she’d snatch me up.

“Kukuku~! Senpai, what’s the matter? Are you getting scared looking up to your gigantic, cute kouhai?” Okazaki boasted, attempting to emphasize her height by stepping closer to Yae and me. “Maybe I’ll be the one to teach you a few things n- Gak!”

“You’re thirstier than I thought. Maybe I should change who’s helping me tomorrow if you’re going to keep acting like this,” Sasakura-Sensei sighed. To my relief, she yanked my energetic kouhai with her grabby hands away before she could do anything. “Sorry, Kirishima-kun. I’ll deal with this girl. She seems to be a bit too enthusiastic about being taller than others.”

“I’d appreciate that,” I shouted, though I think nobody heard me through Okazaki’s struggles.

While Sensei scolded Okazaki, Takahashi filled us in on the details with a yawn.

“Sheesh, everyone is just so energetic in the morning. You owe me for making me do all this work, Kirishima-kun,” she frowned, having gotten the sand out of her eyes. She looked down on me in Yae’s palm with a half-lidded gaze. “Sheesh, you’re tiny. I guess that means the other boys will be your size too when they get here. Well, let’s make sure you understand the rules then, Mr. Opted-Out-to-Play-with-His-Not-Yet-Girlfriend.”

I didn’t appreciate Takahashi’s nickname for me, but listened nonetheless. It seemed that although we were somewhat late, the boys still hadn’t been brought over from the Reduction Dorms. Since I was part of the health committee, Takahashi opted to give me just a brief summary.

The rules Takahashi spoke of were instructions from the Reduction program. She gave advice on how to stay safe. At such a small height, we boys were now in a lot more danger than we were the day before. I understood already that an unnoticeable breeze could send me flying so what Takahashi said wasn’t anything new at the start. Then came the instructions for how classes would go for the day. That was where I was most surprised. I hadn’t been told this in advance by Sasakura-Sensei.

“Asano, put him down there. Okay, that’s good.”

“Is this really safe, Aoi-chan?”

“Not at all, but there are countermeasures.”

Yae had put me down on the floor when she entered the classroom as instructed. Additionally, Aoi-chan had made her add a pink outsole to her indoor shoes - apparently to reduce injuries in case they happened. I looked forward at Yae’s and Takahashi’s truck sized shoes and then looked up and up and up.

“W-Wow…”

This was my first time really being on the floor since getting so small. I hadn’t had a good view that morning because Yae had put me on her desk immediately after she pulled me out of her sleeping bag. Yae looked impossibly huge, even more so than the previous night. Her legs clad in her black thighs just went on and on. I hadn’t seen her at full height when I was in her shoe, but now I was able to wander around literally at her feet. She had to be over 30 m tall. I had to bend my neck back as much as I could to get a glimpse of her face, and even then, it was so distant, my eyes had to refocus just to get a clear view of her.

Is this what a mouse’s eye view was? The ceiling, walls, and whiteboard were all out of focus, and I couldn’t see the tops of any of the chairs or desks. Everything just stretched higher and higher into the sky.

Stomp!

“Uwaaah!” I screamed from the explosive force of a pink indoor shoe landed behind me. The wind pressure alone blew me away.

“Kukuku~! Senpai! You need to be careful. You’re up against a bunch of giants right now,” the culprit, Okazaki teased, having been done being scolded. “Rawr! It’s Nao-jira!”

“Okazaki-chan!” Yae shouted, angry, but she didn’t move from where she stood because Takahashi used her hand to pull her back.

“No. That’s the right example,” Takahashi told her before turning her gaze down to me as I tried to pick myself up again after the impact. “This is how class is going to be going today.”

“Eh? What?”

To simulate how Reduction worked in various office jobs, classes today were apparently going to be very different. While we were still expected to learn the same material as the girls, we’d be doing so on the floor for the entire day. With the Safety Soles added, Takahashi said we’d be fine even if we were accidentally stepped on. I felt like I was being thrown into a lion’s den with how dangerous it sounded.

“Does this really happen in companies now? I know Okaa-san mentioned it before but this still sounds ridiculous, surreal even.”

“That’s what I’ve been told at least, though they’re normally bigger, I think. Who knows?”

“Oh, I know. I looked it up the other day! Here, it’s on my phone.”

“Is it, Okazaki-chan? Eh? Seriously, how is any of this legal?”

“Yawn… It’s commonplace now apparently.”

“Asano, I get how you feel, but this is part of the program,” Sensei tried to calm my worried childhood friend. 

“Whoever thought of this is amazing. I can’t wait for tomorrow, Sensei.”

“Okazaki-chan… what do you mean by tomorrow?”

“Don’t worry about it, Asano. I think Kirishima-kun will be safe… Maybe...”

Despite being part of the topic of conversation, I was being ignored entirely by the titanic women. As they talked, they didn’t even look in my direction. I could tell that this was the introduction to how all of us boys were going to be going through all day.