Consciousness started returning to Wakaba as she rose from the black abyss of sleep, yet even as her senses began the slow process of adjusting to the waking world, something felt off. Wakaba tried to stretch her limbs as part of waking herself, but instead of waving through the open air, Wakaba’s limbs merely touched more fabric, regardless of how high or wide she stretched them.

The rest of her senses rising to alertness, she noticed a few other odd sensations. There was something oddly heavy pressing down upon her whole body, as if someone had dumped a truck load of blankets on top of her, similarly causing a sweltering heat to have built up. But the fabric covering her body wasn’t like her blanket, soft and fluffy, it was more course, yet not quite rough. The sensation was oddly like the shirt of her pajamas?

‘What’s going on?’ A worrying thought crossed Wakaba’s mind, eyes opening to try and make sense of the problem. However, it was of little help. Instead of the faint rays of sunlight trickling through the sides of her curtain, providing a hint of light to her otherwise dark room, it was now almost completely pitch black, just barely better than having her eyes closed. Only a faint glimmer of light, like that which normally peeked through her curtains, shone from behind her. And not only that, her body felt… Naked?

Alarm blasting Wakaba’s mind into alertness much quicker than normal, the Hero pushed herself into a crawling position. She had tried to stand, but the ground was soft and squishy, sinking beneath her and making it hard to get any stable footing. Coupled with the immense weight squeezing her, there wasn’t much she could do aside from crawl. With no other leads, Wakaba slowly shuffled toward the faint light, hoping it might give her some clue of what had happened

After a short time of crawling, the weight upon Wakaba quickly vanished, and with it her vision suddenly became far better, the layer of fabric over her rising far more easily to see the rest of this weird ‘cave’ she was in. But what she saw only confused her further. It was still somewhat dark, but there was a circle shaped exit to this cavern. And just past it, there was a giant wall of white, almost resembling a pillow? No, that couldn’t be right.

Moving again after her short pause, Wakaba finally reached the clothy hole, where he hands touched a new fabric that was suspiciously like that of her bed. Pulling her body out of the cave she’d been stuck in, Wakaba was finally able to stand upright and look around. Her eyes shot wide at what greeted her sight.

She was in her room, but it was all wrong. Everything was huge. On one side, there were those ‘white walls’ which were simply pillows. Even one of them looked nearly five times longer than Wakaba was tall. Behind her, her oversized blanket stretched forth like a lake, the top part of her shirt, sleeves also a few times longer than her and wide enough Wakaba could’ve crawled inside them, laid over the bed.

Somehow, some way, she had been shrunk.

‘H-How did I shrink!? How small am I!? What am I going to do!?” Panic flooded Wakaba’s mind with the realization. She had to do something, she had to get someone, just looking over the side of her bed made her feel dizzy from the height, looking like a small cliff. While possessing the power of a Hero while transformed and able to leap immense distances, staring at the great drop, it felt surreal to Wakaba that she could just sit down on her bed side before, not even needing to so much as hop.

“Wait… My phone!” Wakaba suddenly spoke to herself with the idea. If she could get her phone, then maybe she could contact Hinata and get some help! Even if tiny right now, she didn’t feel small enough that using a phone would be impossible, even if it was probably was almost the size she was. She simply had to get the phone on her dresser, at the… other… side… of her room…

Her optimism fading almost as quickly as it had been stirred, Wakaba glanced over the gap with unease. The distance, which normally was less than her normal height of 163cm, was an entire chasm. How was she supposed to get up there to her phone? Even if she somehow managed to get down to the floor, which stretched on like a road, she would have to climb the sides of her desk, a sheer surface with nothing to grab onto. If she were transformed, this would be trivial at even such a diminutive size, but outside of that…

With a sigh of defeat, Wakaba sat back down. Hinata would often come and check on her in the morning anyway. It would be a much safer bet to simply wait for her to arrive. Wakaba’s plan had been to call her anyway, and she didn’t expect to get around the now mega sized Marugame very fast on her own. Still, it was a weird feeling for her own room, on the smaller size, to now feel big as a whole house…

Unsure of how long it had been, Wakaba finally heard footsteps outside her door, footsteps that sounded less like a person walking and more like them stomping.

“Wakaba-chan? Are you alright?” Hinata’s similarly loud, almost echoing voice, came from the other side of the door with a few ‘gentle’ and polite knocks. No, gentle was the wrong way to describe it. To Hinata’s, that may have been what they were, but to Wakaba, the booming ‘thump’ of her knocks was greater than a hammer smashed into a wall at full force. But, it was what she had been hoping for.

“Hinata! Come in!” Screaming as loudly as she could to ensure her voice projected, Wakaba yelled, bolting up right with a few waves of her arms.

“Wakaba-chan, what’s wrong?” The door to Wakaba’s room slide over, revealing Hinata’s form, concern plastered over her face. Dressed in her pink shirt with a white under layer and black skirt, seeing her was even more surreal than the rest of her room to Wakaba. Looking at Hinata now was like she were looking at a building. Her legs alone rose up from the ground like towers, leading into the rest of her titanic body. Even the biggest Stardusts Wakaba had fought wouldn’t have even come up to Hinata’s knees now. If the living skyscraper wasn’t her best friend, it might’ve been unsettling a sight. Just how small had she really become?

‘Never mind, I have to get her attention!’ Shaking the thought away for the moment, Wakaba started waving her arms and called out again. “Hinata! Over here on my bed!”

Hinata scanned over the room, initially perplexed at not seeing Wakaba, until her eyes locked dead center upon her form and went wide. Slowly, Hinata took a few uncertain steps closer to Wakaba’s bedside, the difference in scale only becoming more apparent with each step closer. “W-Wakba-chan? W-Why are you so… small?”

“I don’t know! I woke up and was like this...” Having been noticed, some of Wakaba’s earlier unease was washed away by her best friend’s presence and her voice relaxed. However, her worries returned almost immediately upon remembering she was naked. Trying to preserve some modesty, Wakaba crouched down and covered herself the best she could with her hands, embarrassed blush beginning to heat up her face.

Gingerly, Hinata crouched down beside Wakaba’s bed, bringing her face down to eye level with the shrunken hero. Despite being the second shortest of their group at only 150cm tall, Hinata’s face now covered much of Wakaba’s vision, appearing nearly wide as she was tall. Every little detail and feature of her face was greatly magnified at this size and perspective. The long deep purple and silky hair, even her almost perfectly smooth and well cared for skin. The only blemish upon it was the small mole under her right eye, which now was big enough to fill Wakaba’s entire palm, possibly being even bigger. It was enough that Wakaba had to fight the instinct to shuffle backwards at something so big approaching her.

“But what could’ve done this...” Hinata mumbled, brow furrowing while she wracked her mind for possibilities.

“I don’t know, maybe it was something with the Vertex. The first attack happened yesterday...” Wakaba answered with a sigh. Almost as soon as the words left her mouth, she stiffened in worry. “We need to check on… Hinata?” Worried about the sudden realization the other Heroes could’ve been like this, Wakaba had started with a worried, resolute voice, but the words had died off when she had noticed a shift in Hinata’s expression. Her friend’s concern had morphed into disapproving exasperation, the same expression she’d worn when lecturing Wakaba last night about her unusual choice of a meal.

“Wakaba-chan… I think you shrunk because you ate the Vertex.” Hinata’s disapproving voice sounded ten times more intimidating from this perspective.

“Er...” Wakaba tried to think of some kind of answer for defending herself, they ate her friends in the past so returned the favor, but now she wasn’t able to argue like last night. It was ridiculous to think just eating part of a Vertex would cause such a ridiculous thing, but, then again, the idea of being shrunk to what felt like the size of a medium doll was equally ridiculous.

“I told you eating weird things was a bad idea!”

Hinata’s voice erupted from her mouth like an explosion, her yell rattling Wakaba’s bones and almost blowing out her ears. Purely on reflex from the horrible pounding in her head, Wakaba’s hands shot toward her ears with a grimace of pain, her entire head already starting to ring.

“A-Ah. I’m sorry, Wakaba-chan. Are you okay…?” Her voice lowering immensely, what likely would’ve been slightly above a whisper for a normal sized person but sounded like normal volume to Wakaba, Hinata asked shakily.

“Y-Yeah… Don’t talk… So loud, Hinata.” Slowly lowering her hands, Wakaba forced out. She still felt like something was trying to smash its way out from her skull with the lingering ringing of her ears, but she didn’t want to worry Hinata. The weight of a mere blanket, the height of her bed, and now someone merely raising their voice too much… How dangerous was the rest of the world going to be at this size?

With a response, Hinata let out a gentle breeze of a sigh. “We should speak with the Taisha. If it’s some kind of curse from the Vertex, maybe they’ll know a way to fix it...”

“I guess we should...” Wakaba wasn’t feeling overly excited about having to face everyone like this, but there wasn’t much of a choice. However, there was still one major issue that had to be solved before anyone else could be seen.

“But first, we should find something for you to wear if anyone else will see you. But what can we use...” Thankfully, Hinata was on the same page and voiced Wakaba’s concerns before she did, starting to hum while she thought.

“Maybe we could cut some cloth out of some clothes and I could wear that...” It wasn’t a flattering idea, wrapping some cloth around her body like a towel to preserve modesty, but Wakaba wasn’t sure what else would work when even Tamako’s clothes would’ve been several times her size.

“Wakaba-chan, you deserve better than a few scraps like that! There has to be something...” Hinata trailed off as an idea struck her, the gears visibly turning in her head. “Ah, I know! We can try some doll clothes.”

The idea and worrying glint that appeared in Hinata’s eyes from it sent a chill down Wakaba’s spine. Had she not been embarrassed enough? She knew where this would go with that expression on Hinata’s face! “D-doll clothes!?”

“It’s perfect, Wakaba-chan! We’ll need to measure how small you are to see what fits… But maybe I have some old ones that would work.” Much of the initial shock of the situation having worn off, Hinata’s more typical demeanor started to shine through with a wide smile.

“Urk...” Wakaba was already feeling dread, but at the same time she couldn’t find much to protest. It wasn’t like anything else would fit her and maybe it would preserve her modesty better, but her dignity was another question. None of the dolls Hinata had really suited her style!

“Then, it’s settled!” Hinata made the decision for her tiny friend. “But you can’t get there on your own… Wakaba-chan, I have an idea.”

“Huh?”

“We don’t want anyone to see you right now, so I think I could carry you in one of my pockets.”

In her pockets? Had she been reduced so much her whole being could be carried around like an accessory? “W-Would I even fit in there?”

“We won’t know if we don’t try. Here, climb onto my hand.” Rising half upright, Hinata lowered her hand like a platform, placing it next to Wakaba expectantly.

“Hinata suggested doll clothes, but I’m starting to feel like a doll with these ideas...” Muttering to herself, Wakaba slowly stepped onto the palm. The ‘ground’ of it was warm to the touch, but not quite unpleasantly so. While not being quite stable, her feet still sunk into the skin of Hinata’s palm, it was far more steady and easy to find her footing on than her oversized bed was. It was almost a relief to have something smaller than her nearby too. Hinata’s fingers were roughly about 2/3rds her size. Still uncomfortably close. Maybe she really would fit in Hinata’s pocket.

However, instead of being brought over to her side, Wakaba was daintily lifted upwards in time with Hinata herself rising to standing fully upright. Like she were a fragile, precious object, Wakaba was brought up toward Hinata’s curious face, where her giant friend looked at her with wide eyed intensity.

“You’re so light in my hand...” Hinata muttered in wonder. Bringing her other hand up, she absent mindedly pet Wakaba’s head with a gentle touch using a single finger.

“Hinata...” Wakaba whined, her head delicately getting rocked back and forth with the motions of Hinata’s finger.

“Ah, I couldn’t help myself, Wakaba-chan. You’re normally so much taller than me, but now you fit in the palm of my hand like a doll~. Your voice is so squeaky too...” Hinata answered with a cheerful, almost teasing giggle, retracting her finger. “I need to take a picture of this for my album.”

“Eh!? H-Hold on a second!” Wakaba protested with a few waves of her hand, already feeling a sense of dread and burning embarrassment within her face. Having Hinata mention how squeaky her voice was was humiliating itself, Wakaba could only imagine how high pitched it was, but now she was bringing out her camera? She could have at least waited till Wakaba had some clothes!

Her squeaky protests seemed to only further amuse Hinata, as the girl was visibly trying to restrain a few more giggles while pulling her phone out from her other pocket. Pulling the object almost Wakaba’s size up in front of the girl, Wakaba futility tried waving her hands, only to hear a few depressing and loud ‘clicks’ coming from the device and Hinata’s smile only grow wider.

“Ah, I haven’t gotten expressions like these in a while.” Hinata hummed contently at her prize, stowing her phone for now.

“C-Can we get going...” Wakaba groaned sheepishly. She knew this would be only the beginning of the photography and trying to protest suddenly felt far more daunting when Hinata was ten times her size.

“Alright, let’s see if I have anything that fits.” With the same care she used in picking Wakaba up, Hinata lowered her palm down to her waist, coming to a stop with it at the side of her skirt. Just in front of Wakaba, there was the dark cavern of Hinata’s pocket, ominously waiting for Wakaba to enter it.

‘Well, I guess it’s better than being dumped inside...’ Cautiously, Wakaba inched forward on Hinata’s palm. Slowly, she placed her hands on the side of the entrance, prying it open to stretch her legs inside the waiting abyss. Her friend had placed it directly against her skirt to minimize any danger, but that didn’t make the whole thing any less bizarre feeling.

Unsure of what to expect, Wakaba had been entirely unprepared for how unstable Hinata’s pocket was. The moment she thought her legs had touched something solid, Wakaba had tried putting some weight on it, only for the soft fabric to give way and suck Wakaba right inside the darkness with a startled yelp. She only fell for a moment before coming to a stop, resting on her side.

The environment of Hinata’s pocket was an odd one. The overall size was more than enough for her to comfortably sit in, but it still felt small enough she could’ve poked her head out the top if Wakaba could somehow stand. All around her there was soft cloth, somewhat like a blanket, but arranged in a manner that made it feel like she was stuck in an oversized hanging sack or hammock that had been wrapped up. Trying to shuffle around, the fabric contorted to her body thankfully without much resistance and allowed some movement. The only obstruction was some large, almost soft wall just past the edge of the fabric, where a great amount of heat radiated. 'If this was her pocket, then is this… Hinata’s thigh?'

“It feels like you fit, Wakaba-chan.” Hinata’s loud voice was punctuated by her finger once again gently prodding Wakaba a few times before retreating.

“H-Hinata, careful!” Wakaba complained, but anything she said went unheard with no response.

“Okay, I’m going to start walking now. I’ll go slow.” With one warning, Wakaba’s world started rattling. The first step Hinata made jiggled her around inside the pocket, not quite a bounce, but more intense than simple rocking. The second one was much less intense, until Hinata lifted her leg and took another step, repeating the process.

“Can’t forget Wakaba-chan’s phone either, just in case...” Hinata said to herself, briefly giving pause to Wakaba’s shaking while she must’ve been retrieving the device. It was only a momentary break, however, as the jiggling began once more.

All Wakaba could do was sit and wait between her world shaking, sitting in Hinata’s pocket like a hammock and occasionally bumping into her thigh. Standing would’ve been completely impossible right now, nor did it appear she could do anything to try and get Hinata’s attention if needed. She was completely and utterly stuck inside her best friend’s pocket, like some kind of toy, until Hinata would eventually come to a stop and get her out.

Ready for a long day, Wakaba did the best she could to get comfortable in the warm cavern.

It had been a bit of an ordeal for Wakaba, but she had finally managed to get some clothes. Expectantly, the clothes had been a more girlish looking long dress that went against Wakaba’s usual tastes, but at least it had been blue. It was a small consolation after being measured and finding she was only around 13cm tall. Maybe it had also just been her imagination, but Hinata’s fingers looked a little bigger when she had been gently plucked by her pocket. Her middle finger now was almost the same size as she was, but wasn’t it a little smaller earlier? Maybe she just hadn’t noticed earlier? This whole situation was disorienting.

Hinata had contacted the Tasha about the situation, but not before adding quite a few more photos to her photo collection of Wakaba. It had been a lengthy phone call, during which Hinata had received an oracle that gave her most of the answers anyway. Wakaba’s current situation was indeed some kind of curse from eating the Stardust. The Taisha stated they would look into way to fix it, but had advised the Heroes to stick together just in case and due to the fact Wakaba would have problems going about the day when the size of a small doll. The scheduled post-battle exam had even been delayed for the day while they figured out how to best sort the new problem. And that had brought them to the next difficult hurdle to cross.

Meeting the rest of the friends.

At least she was dressed and on Hinata’s shoulder instead of in her pocket now.

“It’ll be fine, Wakaba-chan.” Hinata’s head turned sideways toward her with a reassuring expression. Maybe it was because of sitting on her shoulder now, but Hinata’s face looked even more massive than before.

But, the words couldn’t completely quell the nervousness in her heart. Everyone had just come around to accepting her as the team ‘leader’ and not simply because it was what the Taisha ordered. But now, here she was, small enough to fit inside the palm of everyone’s hand and because of her own doing, sort of. Of all the times something like this could happen, right now had to be one of the worst and most frustrating. Still, she appreciated the sentiment. “Yeah… Let’s go, Hinata.”

“Good afternoon, everyone. I’m sorry for making you worry. I thought this would be easier to believe in person...” Carefully, and using the arm not connected to the shoulder Wakaba sat on, Hinata opened the door to their classroom with a greeting. She had gotten some messages wondering about her and Wakaba’s delay, and had instead opted to show them the problem in person with how unbelievable it was.

With the door’s motion, the gazes of all the Heroes inside the room were immediately drawn toward it. Tamako and Yuuna’s expressions were ones of relief and cheer with a little confusion upon not seeing Wakaba’s full sized form with Hinata, while Chikage held a mostly neutral, yet somewhat curious stare pulled from her game console. Of the four inside, Anzu looked the most surprised. Her gaze lingered on Hinata for a moment, before switching to look directly at Wakaba and her eyes went wide, the book she held slipping from her hands onto her desk with a dull thud.

“Hey! Hinata! Where’s Wakaba? Tama wanted to show off they finally got here first!” Tamako was the first one to speak up, racing toward Hinata energetically and with thunderous stomps that sounded like explosions to Wakaba. Though she was competitive in her words and attitude, there was worry laden beneath it all.

“Huh? Didja get a doll made of Wakaba or something?” Before anyone could reply, Tamako’s eyes drifted over to Wakaba, her eyebrows raising in a perplexed stare as she leaned in closer. Normally the shortest of the bunch at 147cm tall, despite being on the older end of the group, Tamako now stood almost an entire body length, from Wakaba’s perspective, above her even with sitting on Hinata’s shoulder. Never did Wakaba think she would be needing to look up at Tamako like this.

“T-T-Tamacchi-senpai. I-I don’t think that’s a doll.” Dripping with disbelief in every word, Anzu shakily managed to get out, pointing an unsteady finger toward Wakaba as if it would make the sight before her more believable.

“Eh?” Tamako’s head whipped over back to Anzu, pausing the finger that was only a meter or two away, or more likely it was mere centimeters away and this perspective had tampered with Wakaba’s sense of distance, from poking at Wakaba curiously.

“Tamako, don’t poke me...” Leaning back instinctively, Wakaba dryly commented, preemptively raising her hands in defense.

In an instant, Tamako’s head whipped back to Wakaba, sheer disbelief written across every centimeter of her face, then back to Anzu, then back to Wakaba one more time, where he gaze lingered with a slowly widening mouth.

'Oh, no.' Wakaba knew where this was headed.

“Tamako-san, no yelling, it hurts Wakaba-chan’s ears.” With the scolding voice of an authoritative parent, Hinata clamped her free hand over Tamako’s mouth the instant before a shocked scream could escape it, muffling it just enough to avoid more ringing in Wakaba’s ears, if sounding still loud.

“E-Eh!? T-That’s Wakaba!? B-but, how the-” After only a second to recover from the forceful mute, Tamako stepped back and started sputtering half coherent thoughts, just barely keeping it at a volume that wasn’t painful to hear.

By now, the other three had started shuffling over and crowding around the door, similar looks of shock now on Yuuna and Chikage’s faces.

“It’s… Actually Nogi-san.”

“How’d Wakaba-chan get so tiny?”

“Did something happen because of the attack?”

The burning questions of her team assaulted the two by the door, all of them having their eyes fixed upon Wakaba intently.

“It’s because of the Vertex, Anzu-san.” Hinata answered with a small nod. “Because Wakaba-chan decided to eat part of a Stardust, she’s been cursed. The Taisha are trying to think of how to solve this. But we’re not sure how long she’ll be like this...”

“What kind of a curse is that!?” Turning her head, a baffled Tamako answered, until her perplexed face shifted into one of mischievous lechery. “Tama can think of a lot a ways to use this, maybe I should grab a bite of a Stardust next time...”

Anzu crossed her arms defensively over her breasts, a little redness appearing on her face. “T-Tamacchi-senpai, don’t do that! What if there’s more curses?”

“Wakaba’s lucky! She has a once in a life time chance to see those mountains and demonic lumps like real mountains! How could Tama not take that chance?” With a tone that was far too proud for the perverted antics she was implying, Tamako declared.

“I’ll have to make sure the Taisha can prevent any further curses like this...” Exasperated, Hinata commented with a weary face.

Tamako’s gaze shot back over to Hinata in horror. “Gah! You’re gonna ruin Tama’s fun before I even get a chance!?”

“Tamako, being this small isn’t fun, it’s dangerous. I can’t even fight like this.” With a deep sigh, Wakaba shot back. With how often Tamako ended up grabbing at Hinata or Anzu’s chests, of course she would be excited at the idea of ‘exploring’ them while much smaller…

Instead of getting a reply, Wakaba was met with only silence. Tamako soon started visibly trying to restrain herself from chuckling.

“Wakaba-san sounds so… squeaky...” Anzu commented, making Wakaba’s face flush in embarrassment. To her, it was everyone else who sounded weird and much louder, like a booming echo. With everyone commenting, she was starting to wonder if asking someone to record her so she could hear it for herself was worth it, but the small girl was questioning if that knowledge would make things better or worse.

“I think Wakaba-chan looks cute!” Yuuna declared with a soft giggle, leaning closer with an inquisitive grin on her face. “Can I… Pick you up?”

“Eh? Err...” Wakaba flinched back at the request. Getting handled like a doll was such a surreal experience for her. But at the same time, Yuuna had an excited glow in her face like a child who just got a new toy. With how friendly and positive she usually was, Wakaba didn’t have the heart to say no. She had a feeling they might need to get used to this anyway. “Uh, sure. Just be careful...”

Smile only growing wider, Yuuna carefully reached up to Wakaba, delicately pinching the girl’s waist between her thumb and index finger, just enough to hold her in place and not be painful. But, even despite that, Wakaba couldn’t help the uneasy feeling in her stomach. She hadn’t stopped to look down until Yuuna began bringing her over to their waiting palm and only then did it hit her just how high up she was. From Hinata’s shoulders, it couldn’t have been more than 120 to 130cm off the ground, but now it looked like a 15 meter drop straight down. She had been much higher up fighting Vertex before and trusted Yuuna to not drop her, but she wasn’t transformed with the comforting power of the Shinju flowing through her and assuring all would be fine, she was only slightly less fragile than a normal person at best now. All this while she possessed zero influence over the situation and her legs having absolutely nothing to stand on while she moved through the air triggered some kind of instinctive anxiety over such height. Everything was literally in Yuuna’s hands.

Thankfully, the ordeal was over in a matter of seconds when Wakaba was carefully placed upon Yuuna’s waiting palm, where he giant friend started inspecting her more closely, curiosity glinting in her massive eyes.

“If Nogi-san is this small, what are we going to do if there’s another attack?” Interrupting the moment, Chikage questioned with her arms crossed. The gaming console so often in her hands had been stowed away for now.

At this, everyone’s expressions turned downcast, Tamako being the first one to speak up from the ensuring silence. “That’s a problem. Tama thinks the Stardust would probably eat Wakaba whole now for revenge.”

That was not an image Wakaba wanted to entertain. Although, maybe she could slash her way out from the inside at least...

“Hrm… Well, it was the first attack we’ve had to fight off, so it’s hard to say if another one will come so soon or not. But I don’t think we’ll need to worry about another attack immediately, at least. If they could keep attacking endlessly, I think they would have done it by now. We should have a little time to get Wakaba-san back to normal...” Musing aloud, Anzu spoke with a finger to her chin.

“An-chan’s right. It’ll be fine!” Yuuna cheerily agreed with the optimistic smile and attitude she wore so often. “While the Taisha are looking into this, I think I know something Wakaba-chan will really like right now.”

“Huh?” Wakaba tilted her head curiously at Yuuna’s optimism. So far, she hadn’t been having such a great time at this size and something to improve it would have been welcomed.

“Let’s go get some food!”

‘Thank you, Yuuna.’ Staring at the plate of food larger than an entire room, Wakaba knew Yuuna had made a fantastic suggestion.

Following her idea, the group had headed to the cafeteria for a meal. It immediately became apparent that Wakaba couldn’t eat normally and some adjustments would be needed. The solution decided upon had been for Hinata, who had started becoming very insistent she be the one to carry Wakaba around, to get a plate herself while picking out a couple things Wakaba would eat, but in very small portions. They had gone first to give Hinata some time to cut the food up into more accessible sizes for Wakaba, being she wasn’t going to have an easy time trying to bite into and eat a chunk of meat comparable to her entire body in size. It had been a little degrading to require the food handled as if she were a young child, but that had been washed away by the prospect of a normal lunch turning into a grand feast. Thankfully, this area was reserved exclusively for the Heroes, and the person serving lunch that went on break once meals were dished out, so Wakaba could eat at the table without worry.

“How is it, Wakaba-chan?” Gazing down at Wakaba, perched on the table right beside her, Hinata asked with a hopeful smile.

Wakaba paused to finish the chunk she’d bitten out of some meat before responding. “It’s very good, Hinata! I don’t know if I’ll be able to even finish all of it though...” Once more, she glanced over the bits of food before her. By any normal standards, the meat, udon, and bit of fruit before her would’ve been almost crumbs, yet to her even the smallest parts Hinata had given were bigger than her head. While she didn’t consider herself gluttonous, she had a sizable appetite, there was no way she could possibly finish her own bodyweight in food. The task had felt harder from having to use her bare hands and needing to take chunks like some kind of animal. No utensils would ever fit her now.

While busy with her meal, Wakaba couldn’t help noticing that her sleeves were getting in the way so much she had to roll them up past her wrists. The dress wasn’t this baggy before, was it?

“I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen you unable to finish your plate.” Teasingly, Hinata let out a small giggle that interrupted Wakaba’s thoughts. Having a bit of her own food, Hinata devoured a mouthful of udon that was larger than a city bus for Wakaba. After spending a few moments chewing it, she swallowed it with a slight bulge in her throat briefly appearing as the meal traveled down to her stomach. It was a little detail Wakaba never even spare a thought for at normal size, but it was suddenly hard to not notice when the lump in Hinata’s gullet didn’t look much smaller than her body was.

Picking up and eating a ton worth of food in one bite, crossing immense distances in single steps that’d take minutes for her, and even literally carrying her whole body with two fingers. It was a little disheartening how many simple and unassuming actions by her normal sized friends created effects orders of magnitude greater than anything Wakaba could accomplish now. Hopefully, this would get solved soon. ‘I can’t fulfill my duty as a Hero and leader like this. I can’t give the Vertex what they deserve...’ At least the buffet before her helped Wakaba feel momentarily better.

“Anzu, don’t start reading while you’re eating again.”

“Eh!? B-But Tamacchi-senpai, I lost my place after what happened earlier!”

The sounds of Tamako and Anzu’s voices grew louder while the two approached the Heroes' table. Wakaba turned to greet the two as best she could, but before a single sound could be uttered, she felt something big and soft slam into her back, like she were hit by a squishy pillow bigger than her body. But unlike a pillow, this object smashed into her so hard Wakaba was sent airborne and flying right over the edge of the table.

“Wah!” Wakaba screamed as the tumbled through the air and her vision blurred together. ‘What just hit me!? I have to-’

Wakaba painfully slammed onto something leathery, back first, before she could even begin to try getting her bearings. Whatever she hit wasn’t entirely solid and depressed with her impact, cushioning it somewhat, but a dull throbbing pulsed through her body at the landing.

With a groan, Wakaba opened her eyes, slowly pushing her body up to a sitting position. Looking skyward, Wakaba saw the likely culprit of what hit her. Having the same thought to greet their friends, Hinata had turned their direction, but her large chest leaned far enough into the table, her breasts had barreled right into Wakaba and knocked her onto the chair beside her.

“Hinata!” Wakaba yelled out, trying to get her attention, but her tiny voice was completely drowned out by the casual exchange she was having with Anzu and Tamako. Perhaps she could jump over to Hinata’s leg from here to get noticed.

As Wakaba tried to stand up, the ground suddenly moved like an earthquake and knocked the girl straight back onto her back with a startled noise. Before she could recover, an immense shadow blotted out the sky and all light like an eclipse. Looking at the source of the obstruction, panic started flooding into Wakaba’s mind as she saw the ruffled black skirt of Anzu coming closer to the chair. The chair Wakaba was currently right in the middle of. She had to move or else Anzu was going to crush her!

“A-Anzu, I’m down here!” Wakaba screamed in to an attempt to be heard. Frantic, the shrunken Hero tried to scramble backwards as fast as she could, more having to pull herself using their arms instead of standing and running. But it wasn’t fast enough. Anzu’s white panty clad butt descended upon Wakaba like a giant meteor. The underwear tightly clung to her two well defined cheeks that were squished together by it, pinching parts of the fabric between the valley of her butt crack and giving a perfectly clear image of where Anzu’s ass would squish her. It was too late to do anything but await the inevitable collision, the sheer size of her butt covered almost the entire chair and getting away from it would’ve been impossible. Wakaba’s life flashed before her eyes just as the enormous butt buried her into the chair like she was part of the cushioning, enveloping her in darkness.

With such a massive object aiming to flatten her and Anzu’s full body weight on the seat, Wakaba had expected the impact to be far more painful or even crush her instantly. But instead, while there was a weight pressing down on her chest, it was more squeezing her from the sides than directly atop her, even if there was some pressure there. It felt more like she was pinned by something rather than getting crushed. It was also quite soft and plush, sort of like whenever Wakaba would rest her head on Hinata’s lap.

Unable to see anything in the blackness, only the sounds of her friends making some muffled small talk above she couldn’t focus enough to make out, Wakaba tried to struggle and move, only for her to barely be able to so much as wiggle her body. Everything from her shoulders down was tightly secured and the movement allowed could barely be called squirming.

The adrenaline over Anzu sitting on her starting to fade with the immediate danger, Wakaba started piecing together where she was. She had been on the seat Anzu was using, near right in the center of it, and there was a warm, soft fabric that enveloped her from all sides, with something plush and pillowy beneath it that was responsible for the weight pinning her.

She had been buried into Anzu’s asscrack.

The thought immediately set Wakaba’s cheeks on fire in embarrassment. But, humiliating as this was, at least she was still alive. She had no intention of dying in the line of duty, but if she was to meet her end, Wakaba would have rather it been protecting Shikoku and not squished into a red stain on her friend’s panties. Being this small was dangerous…

‘Maybe I can get myself free...’ While momentarily safe, Wakaba didn’t want to take any chances. She had been ‘lucky’ once, but if Anzu adjusted her seating it could’ve easily grinded Wakaba beneath her rear. And it would’ve been much more preferable to get discovered in any other way than something like this.

Starting to squirm once more, Wakaba began wiggling her body, particularly her shoulders, trying to pull her hands free from the soft bindings constricting her. The soft flesh of Anzu’s butt contorted around her being, enveloping all her motions into a warm embrace that practically absorbed all her struggles. But slowly, Wakaba’s right arm started sliding out of the canyon she was stuck in. If she could just get her arms free, then perhaps she could get better leverage to push and force the rest of her body out. ‘Just a little more…!’

A second before she could free her arm, the pressure on her momentarily vanished, both her hands shooting backwards over her heads. And in near the same instant, the pressure returned, this time moving further up, devouring Wakaba’s entire body into the valley between Anzu’s butt cheeks, enveloping her deeper within it. But, the torment didn’t end there. The cushioning surrounding her shifted and moved, compressing Wakaba into it until the soft feeling turned painful, grinding and rubbing her against Anzu’s panties, pulling Wakaba deeper between the abyss until she could barely feel the seat cushion beneath her. Every centimeter of her sensations had instead been replaced by Anzu’s plush and pillowy ass squeezing every bit of her body, grinding her like dough between a person’s hands.

Mercifully, the motions stopped before Wakaba felt something would break, but it was of little consolation. She was even more stuck now. Arms raised above her head and squeezed on all side with Anzu’s weight, even wiggling was an ordeal. In trying to get free, Wakaba had only caused the outcome she was worried about, now helplessly stuck and overpowered by her friend’s rear. She had to have been felt in some manner if Anzu had to shift around, but how was she small enough to get absorbed into her butt crack and seen as a mere itch? She had to be bigger than this. Regardless, Wakaba resigned herself to her current position with a frustrated groan. Trying to wiggle free had only made her situation worse and she was even more securely lodged between Anzu’s ass now. She would have to wait till she was noticed.

“… Wakaba-ch-” The sound of Hinata’s casual voice quickly turning into a mortified gasp came not long after Wakaba had decided to wait and drew her attention, lighting a spark of hope she would be found soon.

“W-Where is Wakaba-chan?”

“Wasn’t Wakaba right next to y-, eh!? She’s gone!?”

Several concerned voices broke out alongside the sound of uncomfortable shuffling, including slight motions from Anzu that jostled Wakaba around. She could only guess at what was occurring outside of her prison, sound was her only clue with all light swallowed up by Anzu’s skirt and rendering sight useless. Even if she could see though, the only thing Wakaba could imagine greeting her right now would be the white walls of Anzu’s panties surrounding her from all sides.

“C-Could she have fallen off the table?” Anzu’s worried tone was accompanied by more movement and a sense of going upwards. This was it, Anzu was standing back up and it’d mean Wakaba could get out of this situation!

Except, this wasn’t what happened.

Instead of the pressure lightening with Anzu’s body lifting off her, Wakaba instead felt herself moving with Anzu’s form. Standing up, Anzu’s butt clenched together as a consequence, squeezing Wakaba even more tightly, the softness of her cheeks beginning to turn firm from the pressure they were now crushing Wakaba’s body with. The fabric of Anzu’s panties similarly started wrinkling up and competing with Wakaba for space, a small bit of fabric even forced itself over her face and suddenly made breathing difficult. Folds of her underwear started conforming to her body’s shape in various wrinkles. It was every bit like she were wrapped in pillows that were firm yet soft at the same time, Anzu’s panties like the slightly rougher outer layer shielding the bare softness of her skin beneath it, but she was being squished so compactly, it was almost impossible to discern any difference between the two blending together.

Instead of being freed, Wakaba was now trapped in a wedgie between Anzu’s butt!

Every small shuffle of Anzu’s form, particularly her legs, merely compounded Wakaba’s suffering. Jiggling her around or intensifying the weight squishing her, only to relax a second later and then return the next.

“W-Watch your step!” Hinata nearly screamed at everyone, panic within her every word.

“I’ll start looking on the ground!” Yuuna’s near equally worried voice stated alongside a chair moving and small thump.

Anzu continued unintentionally squeezing the life out of Wakaba with her plush rear end while she searched, but slowly, Wakaba felt herself started to get loose from the tight grip it held over her. Every time Anzu leaned over, the squeeze lightened and Wakaba started to slip, she could even start to see the outside world again. Before, this would have been great, but now Anzu was standing upright, meaning the area beneath them was a straight drop to the rock hard floor. ‘This just keeps getting worse!’

With one what she assumed was a steep lean, Anzu’s ass cheeks parted and released Wakaba’s body, nearly dropping the girl. Wakaba only barely managed to grab a fistful of fabric before she began to fall, legs frantically kicking at the air and reflectively trying to find some kind of platform, only to meet nothing. No longer sandwiched, enough light filtered in through Anzu’s skirt that Wakaba could see again, but it wasn’t of much reassurance.

Above and all beside her, Anzu’s white panties covered her rear and surrounded Wakaba, each cheek of her sizable charm point feeling like a small house and ready to envelop her once again in their soft confines at a moment’s notice, curving downward from her ass toward her legs.

Below her, Anzu’s towering legs stretched downward like the foundations of a mighty building, furthering the illusion were her pure white panyhose almost touching her rear that masked the pale skin that would’ve made identifying the massive pillars as part of a ‘person’ instead of a structure. Past that were her dark brown shoes shuffling about the floor, each motion careful and slow, never raising her shoes and opting to instead slide them over the floor. It was hard to tell among the chaos, but the drop had to be at least 15-20 meters from Wakaba’s perspective.

This was bad, if she fell here that floor was hard. While also not making any outright steps to avoid squishing her, Anzu’s shoes were the size of a large bus and Wakaba had come to be painfully aware even light movements by her full sized friends were something she couldn’t fight against. Even the motions of those shoes looked dangerous, never mind a straight drop from this height causing injuries on top of that. All Wakaba had wanted to do before was get away from this spot, but now she was trying so hard to stay here her knuckles were turning white from the death grip she held the fabric with. She had to do something and fast no matter what.

First, she had to get out of Anzu’s butt crack before her super sized friend stopped leaning over and the plush prison took her again. With all the strength and agility she could muster while still maintaining a grip, Wakaba scrambled upwards like she were rock climbing. Fueled by more adrenaline, Wakaba’s feet were able to easily dig into the cloth of Anzu’s panties to provide much steadier grip, enabling her to climb with great speed despite being worn down by this taxing ordeal.

‘Almost there! Anzu should feel me if I get somewhere with less padding!’ The girl optimistically thought to herself while climbing. She may have been small, suspiciously small, but no way would she not be felt crawling close to Anzu’s back. She only hoped the bookworm didn’t mistake the sensation for a bug and start panicking. The blonde usually let out a shrill scream whenever Tamako teasingly showed off a bug to her.

“Eeep!” Anzu’s high pitched voice accompanied her body swinging back upright cause her rear to clench together, trapping one of Wakaba’s legs in its grasp just before she could pull it out.

“Anzu! Don’t move, it’s me, Wakaba!” Ignoring the pain in her leg, Wakaba pleadingly yelled with some hope she would be heard. She had moved up a little, out of the abyss between the twin cheeks, and could feel part of Anzu’s skirt resting against her, surprisingly heavy, so she had to be noticed.

“Anzu, don’t move!” Tamako’s stern, tomboy voice yelled out, thankfully halting any further movement from Anzu. Continuing, her voice suddenly turned much more sheepish, almost embarrassed. “Tama… Thinks they know where Wakaba is...”

Far above her, silence hovered for seconds till Anzu sputtered out a few noises resembling an attempt at forming words before she could force out anything coherent. “I-I’ll g-get Wakaba-san. D-Don’t look…!”

Following her declaration, a slowly, shaking hand reached into the darkness of Anzu’s skirt, carefully wrapping Wakaba in its gentle palm before retreating.

Being found had brought some small comfort to Wakaba, but the leader knew there was going to be a long, very embarrassing conversation about this.

“I’m so sorry, Wakaba-chan...”

“I’m sorry, Wakaba-san...”

After Anzu had retrieved Wakaba and sputtered an apology alongside asking if she was okay, the group had elected to end lunch early. The person running the cafeteria wasn’t going to be gone forever and the less people saw this, the better. To that end, everyone had headed to Hinata’s dorm for the moment, which was somewhat of a tight fit with 4 normal sized people. Partially so Wakaba could explain herself, and partially because there was something else bothering her she wanted to check. And that had brought her to standing atop Hinata’s bed while the girl in question and Anzu were seated in front of her.

Both Hinata and Anzu were crimson faced, for perhaps slightly different reasons, at the story and muttering their apologies, while both looked equally mortified, Anzu even half hiding her face behind her long, fluffy blonde hair.

“Tama knew the demonic lumps were a dangerous weapon, but I didn’t think Anzu would be so much more lethal without using her mountains...” Second hand embarrassment leaking into her voice, Tamako deadpanned.

“T-Tamacchi-senpai!?!” Facing turning so scarlet any deeper would’ve caused it to become a tomato, Anzu shrunk away in horror at the comment.

“W-Well, at least Wakaba-chan is okay, right?” Trying to ease the tension and flustered mood of the room, Yuuna spoke up.

“But what if something else happens?” Palpable fear in her words, Hinata countered, looking directly at Wakaba with a level of worry, and touch of guilt, Wakaba had rarely seen from her. “I put Wakaba-chan in so much danger without even realizi-” Hinata’s words died as she tilted her head, leaning closer to Wakaba for better inspection. “Wakaba-chan, are you… Getting smaller…?!” Terror quickly jumped into Hinata’s words with the final sentence.

Everyone leaned closer now with Hinata’s panick striken words, Chikage being the first to speak up. “I don’t remember those clothes looking so loose this afternoon...”

Hand trembling, Hinata reached down her index finger and placed it next to Wakaba for a comparison. After only a moment, she let out a sharp, horrified gasp and retracted her hand. “Y-You are! This morning you were 13cm tall, but now you’re only about 9cm...”

“That’s the other matter I wanted to check...” Wakaba, likewise having unease dripping into her voice with just barely more control, spoke. She had been somewhat suspicious, especially after her sleeves were particularly loose, but it had been hard to say for certain with how out of scale the entire world around her was. Practically everything to Wakaba was simply ‘huge’ right now and difficult to make a comparison with. She hadn’t wanted to believe it, but now there was no denying it. She was getting even tinier. But the lingering, worrying question was how small was she going to shrink?

“What are we going to do… What if Wakaba-chan keeps shrinking until we can’t see her and before we find a way to fix this...”

The level of concern, almost panic, coming from Hinata made Wakaba frown. She hated seeing her closest friend since childhood worry so much, especially when she was the cause. She would’ve liked nothing more than to be able to comfort and assure Hinata, but her current stature made the task, especially when this condition had just been found this morning and was highly unknown, a daunting one. But she hadn’t let daunting odds stop her before.

“Hinata, we’re figure something out. Maybe I won’t even get much smaller. But, even if I do, that won’t stop me from returning to normal size no matter what. We’ve already found a way to fight them and beaten the Vertex once. If we can do that, then I can’t let some curse stop me! No matter how small I get, I’ll still be here and won’t leave you, Hinata.” She didn’t care if she would sound ridiculous due to being 9cm tall and her voice shrill, Wakaba meant every word of it. Even if she was reduced to a microbe, they had figured out how to fight what appeared to be an unstoppable enemy by all conventional means. If it had been accomplished once, then there must have been a way to do it again.

Thankfully, her attempt at an inspiring speech had the intended effect. Some traces of Hinata’s worry ebbed away, not gone entirely, but the dark haired girl didn’t look on the verge of losing it anymore. “Thank you, Wakaba-chan.”

For her speech, Wakaba earned another gentle rub on her head by Hinata’s finger, which was now roughly twice the size of her head, but she took extra care to ensure the touch was gentle, not rocking Wakaba too hard in the process.

“Um.” Anzu cleared her throat, drawing everyone’s attention. “I’m not sure if it will help with the curse, but I might have an idea to make sure Wakaba is safer.”

Everyone’s gaze shot over to Anzu expectantly.

“We’re not supposed to stay transformed outside of certain situations, like attacks, but maybe Wakaba-san could use her terminal to transform and stay like that until we find a way to deal with the curse? It shouldn’t be a major drain on the Shinju-sama’s power while she’s like this and she should be safer in case any, uh, anything else happens...” The flustered coloring briefly returning to her face as she trailed off, Anzu hopefully spoke.

The power of the Shinju was an important, sacred thing. It was not to be used frivolously as one wanted, only for use during their divine duty to protect Shikoku. Even during training, the Heroes only sometimes used the power which granted them the ability to fight that which modern weapons could not scratch, as to conserve the Shinju’s power and out of respect for their mission. However, Wakaba could see the rational behind Anzu’s words. Aside from the encounters with the Vertex that had only happened a few times in her life, Wakaba had been through more dangerous situations just today than she had her entire life. She had already nearly been squashed by her friend unintentionally sitting on her, and if she would get even smaller, who knew what further risks there would be.

“I agree with Anzu. The Taisha will understand.” Wakaba wasn’t going to mention the incident of getting trapped by Anzu’s butt to them, but girls who could be Heroes were rare. They would not want to risk losing one of them over an accident like that.

Sifting through one of her pockets, Hinata removed Wakaba’s phone and set it atop the bed, activating the lock screen with the press of a button. As if Wakaba needed another reminder she was shrinking, the device which had before been roughly her size, if not even a little smaller, now was the larger between them by more than a head’s worth.

Moving beside it, Wakaba pressed the first number for her password, but a problem quickly became apparent.

“Hinata… Could I have some help, please...” Sheepishly, Wakaba called out with her pride dwindling as much as she had. The slight tap Wakaba had applied failed to registered on the phone, forcing her to continue applying pressure till she pounded on the button like she wanted to break it. Only then, after applying all the force she could summon with a single arm, had her phone finally accepted the input. A little petty it may have been, she couldn’t wait to transform.

“Ah, sorry, Wakaba-chan. Here.” Wrapping her fingers around it, it was like Hinata were picking up an entire car to Wakaba, yet she did so without even the most minute of effort or strain, unlike what it took Wakaba simply to press a single button, the first in a whole sequence. Her fingers danced over the touch screen for a moment with several delicate tapping sounds, before the now unlocked device was placed beside Wakaba again.

“Huh? You know the password for Wakaba’s phone?” Tamako raised a questioning tone toward Hinata.

“Of course, I know everything about Wakaba-chan with how close we are~.” Though her tone was prideful, Wakaba still couldn’t help the mild embarrassment at stating something with such a bold face. They had known each other since childhood and were the best of friends, so it wasn’t that abnormal, was it?

Tamako slowly glanced toward Anzu expectantly. “Hey, Anzu, what’s your phone password?”

“Tamacchi-senpai, now’s not the time...” Tamako’s question received an exasperated, almost embarrassed, reply from Anzu.

Ignoring the dejected whine from Tamako, Wakaba scanned her phone until she found the Hero app. Touching it, the application opened up to the simple screen with a blue Kikyou in the middle. It was almost shocking how easily it had opened, requiring only a small touch instead of the smash required earlier.

Tapping the flower, Wakaba felt the familiar divine strength flooding into her body, a light enveloping her clothes for a brief instant. When it faded, the dress Hinata had put her in before was replaced by the comfortably familiar Hero outfit she fought in, matching her proportions perfectly. Puffy, blue sleeves with white and red highlights around her exposed shoulders. The shoulders were connected to a similarly blue colored tunic that trailed off to black tights that left the sides of her upper thighs exposed, before trailing completely dark to her high heeled shoes. But this wasn’t the most important part to Wakaba.

She had her sword Ikutachi sheathed and ready at her hip.

Wakaba traced a hand over the hilt with a smile growing on her face. She wasn’t sure how or why her weapon had been reduced with her, but her weapon of choice for Iaido felt like an extension of her own limbs, bringing a sense of security and comfort with her hands wrapped around it.

“Hey, it worked!” Yuuna’s enthusiastic voice carried Wakaba’s mind back to the present.

“How do you feel, Wakaba-chan?” Hinata looked at her expectantly, hopefully.

Smiling, Wakaba braced herself against the soft ‘floor’ of Hinata’s bed, before sailing skyward with one mighty jump. With ease, she crossed a distance many times her body length in a single bound, flying until she gracefully landed atop Hinata’s right shoulder. “Much better.”

Hinata turned to look toward Wakaba, flashing a relieved smile nearly lengthy as Wakaba’s entire height. From Wakaba’s position on Hinata’s shoulder, she could physically feel the tension deflating as Hinata relaxed.

“Hey, I was thinking. It’d be easier to sleep knowing Wakaba-chan’s okay ourselves and keep an eye on her, so why don’t we all have a sleepover together tonight?” Optimistic as ever, Yuuna suggested eagerly, glancing around for an indication of approval.

“Eh? It might be a little hard to fit everyone else into my room.” Hinata said.

“Well, I was expecting I’d probably use your bed and sleep beside you since I can’t use a normal one, Hinata. That’s one less person to make space for.” Wakaba spoke up. Having everyone else around in this situation did sound reassuring, and if it helped them rest easy like Yuuna said, then she was for it.

“On second thought, I think it’s a great idea!” In record timing, Hinata had a positively glowing smile across her face. “We should be able to get some bed rolls before it’s time to sleep.”

“Well, if that’s the plan, leave it ta Tama!” Rising to her feet, Tamako proudly declared, a few similar sentiments coming from the remainder of the group, Chikage only after Yuuna expressed her eagerness.

“I’ll stay here with Wakaba-chan, while the rest of you get what you need then.” Hinata beamed, waving at the departing group.

Not long later, the room was left to just the two of them.

“Hold on, Wakaba-chan.” Gingerly, Hinata rose up and changed from sitting on the floor to her bed. Now transformed, the process was far easier for Wakaba to cling to her shoulder through. “I wonder what we could use as a blanket for you...”

“I’ll be fine, Hinata. You’re beds comfortable enough to sleep in as is. But, I wonder where I should sleep...” Jumping off Hinata’s shoulder, Wakaba landed off the side of her pillow, a now utterly enormous wall of white that Wakaba couldn’t even reach the top of despite standing straight up. It was hard to believe she had seen this same sight at the beginning of the day, yet it now was so much bigger from her continued shrinkage.

“Right there seems perfect.” Hinata answered. Getting back into earshot of Wakaba again, the girl shifted sideways and leaned over, gently placing her head on the pillow. “I can keep an eye on you like this.”

Even despite Hinata’s slower movements, her climbing over the mattress and dropping her head onto the pillow caused a small shockwave across the landscape, bouncing Wakaba like she’d taken a low jump on a trampoline. Fortunately, she was able to regain her balance well enough to land on her feet, even with the awkward ground swallowing her shoes up. “Although, it might be a little hard to sleep if I get thrown around that easily.”

“I won’t move then. I’ll be sure to sleep soundly with you here, Wakaba-chan.” The light hearted tone Wakaba was used to back in her voice, Hinata proudly declared.

Now on her side, it was must easier for Wakaba to see how truly huge Hinata was next to her. Her body stretched across the entire expanse of her bed, which was akin to looking over a white horizon to Wakaba, as if she were some kind of monument adorning the landscape. Each leg thicker than Wakaba’s height and long enough to be sideways buildings, shifted occasionally with such casualness it seemed probable Hinata barely registered the action consciously, despite covering a length perhaps dozens of meters to Wakaba. Her arms were almost equally impressive, sinking into the ‘sea’ they rested upon and depressing an outline over it. Individual fingers equal or greater in size to Wakaba, save only her smallest one, pressed down on the bed, naturally creating individual depressions deeper than Wakaba’s entire body could, simply by resting. Adding the feeling of Hinata being nearly a landscape unto herself right now, was her bountifully sized chest. Already the biggest of their entire group by far, now its size was magnified 15 times over. It was not as if Wakaba intentionally drew attention to Hinata’s breasts or put emphasis on them like Tamako did, but they had gone from ‘large’ to actual ‘hills’ now in the feeling inspired when gazed at. The rise and fall of the tremendous and soft mounds with each breath Hinata took, an entirely unconscious and automated action, simply reinforced the absurd difference in size. It was hard for Wakaba to not notice when such a thing when an apt comparison would’ve been seeing one of the many hills in Shikoku’s remote regions suddenly began rhythmically rocking. One’s eyes would naturally be pulled to the absurdity of an entire landscape shifting around. But, no matter how impressive it appeared, even if it looked as such from Wakaba’s diminutive perspective, it was nothing absurd as a landscape moving by itself, it was all simply one of the many automated processes of Hinata’s body sustaining itself. Even the processing of exhaling her breaths, at such a close distance, could’ve been compared to a gentle breeze for Wakaba.

Even transformed, it was a mystifying experience seeing her normally 13cm, a thought that gave Wakaba a moment of mental pause and merely highlighted the scale difference more when she realized the height difference between them normally was now nearly an entire third more than her present height, shorter friend in such a manner.

“Well, when you say that, I’ll have to trust you, Hinata. I hope I’ll be able to sleep well since I can’t have you clean my ears right now.” Wakaba finally answered. The gesture was always a relaxing one that could calm even her worst nerves, but with the idea of sleeping not far away, the realization struck her. Along with the absurd mental image of attempting as such when the q-tip used was probably only slightly shorter than herself right now.

“Ah. I guess I’ll have to make up for it when you’re back to… normal.” There was a slight pause before the word ‘normal’, almost like Hinata was taking a moment to convince herself with certainty it would happen.

“With a promise like that, I’ll have to be sure it happens.” Trying to comfort her friend, Wakaba stated the words as confidently as she could. At the back of help the question of how small she would get arising again, something she tried to force away for the moment.

For a while, Wakaba talked with Hinata, just like they so often did and if there wasn’t a gap in size 15 times over. Wakaba could only hope she wouldn’t shrink much further over the night and would still be visible once they woke up.