All Phoenix could do for the moment was look up uncertainly from his restrictive position.

Maya had straightened up, and was doing her best impression of his signature finger-pointing pose. Had she practiced…?

“Sorry, but we can prove it without that dusty old notebook!” she said.

“Uhh… we can…?” Phoenix suddenly noticed Maya’s other hand. She was fiddling with his microphone again. “W-wait, Maya…!”

Too late. She’d switched the mic off, this time very deliberately. Her hand approached him next, pinching him from his spot in her robes and lifting him away to move him down to the defence bench, on top of the scattered papers there. What was she doing…?

Maya lowered her other arm, circling around the bench. Without his microphone close enough to ask, Phoenix had no idea of what she was planning.

Maya stopped in front of him, resting her hands on the bench, behind her back.

He suddenly got a horrible feeling.

“W-wait, wait, hold on, Maya…!!”

Maya shifted on the spot, like she was bending her knees. Phoenix’s eyes widened in alarm, and his mouth dropped open partway. He felt frozen to the spot.

Maya’s huge body rushed into motion as she pushed off from the bench, hopping from the floor. Staring in horror, Phoenix had no time to move before his assistant’s colossal rear hurtled down toward him, eclipsing the light above.

“O-OBJEC-“

-WHUMP-

The world went dark.

--------

Settling down on top of the defence bench, her legs dangling from its side, Maya could hear startled and alarmed reactions from the gallery behind her, as well as the group opposite her, behind Franziska’s bench.

“M-Ms. Fey! Wh-what in the world are you doing…!?” the Judge stammered. “Mr. Wright could be crushed like that, you must get back off of that bench immediately…!”

Maya waved a hand in an airy, casual motion.

“Don’t get all worked up, Your Honour – Nick’s fine! … Well, he’s kinda squirming a bit, but still…” she said, adjusting herself on her new seat. Phoenix was moving an awful lot underneath her, and his position down there made for a number of sensations that were considerably more awkward than she’d expected.

Across the courtroom, Franziska made a frustrated noise. “This entire idea is ridiculous!” she exclaimed. “Have you forgotten that the victim was not two inches tall, like Phoenix Wright, when he was found? Even if your scenario had happened, he would have been discovered in exactly that same shrunken state!”

Maya was about to respond, but paused, feeling another movement from the shrunken lawyer beneath her backside. Nick’s tiny legs were squirming around against her, and the way she’d landed on him, they were right between her thighs…

--------

What the hell was Maya thinking…!? She liked to mess with him sometimes, but even for her, this seemed ridiculously reckless.

Phoenix could barely budge, the immense weight of his gigantic assistant flattening him into the solid floor of the defence bench, pinning him on his back.

This was a much more direct method than they probably needed to prove his point.

(I appreciate the thought, Maya, but did you forget that we’re trying to prove someone died in exactly this same situation…!?)

He struggled. It took a whole lot of effort, and got him very little in the way of results. It was hard to identify exactly which part of Maya’s body was weighing down on him, but given her position, the list of possibilities wasn’t that long.

(This is either her butt that I’m feeling, or her… oh jeez, please get off of me, Maya…)

--------

(N-Nick, do you know exactly what part of me you’re poking around at down there…?)

Maya bit her lip, trying not to blush at the feeling Phoenix’s wriggling was causing. After clearing her throat, she responded, “Well, OK, sure. But weren’t you listening before? Nick-… uh, Mr. Wright said that the shrinking effect lasts about twenty-four hours. That’s what it said in that notebook. So… maybe, if the doctor accidentally shrunk himself on his chair a day earlier than we were thinking…”

“Ah!” the Judge exclaimed. “At such a small size, it would have been quite a scary thought to try and jump down from a chair all the way to the floor!”

Maya nodded, smiling. “I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what happened! The doctor accidentally shrunk the day before, and got stuck on his chair, waiting for it to wear off. He was probably getting close to the end of the twenty-four hours when Ms. Flatt came in, and if she didn’t notice him…”

“Objection…!” Franziska called out, clearly losing her cool. “That’s… th-this is…”

The Judge shook his head. “Overruled, Ms. von Karma. I believe the defence’s theory makes as much sense as yours does. If the victim really did die as a result of the witness unwittingly sitting on him until he suffocated, it’s entirely plausible that he could have returned to his normal size post-mortem, when the effect wore off afterward.”

“B-but there still isn’t any proof of this shrinking effect’s time limit!” Franziska argued. “No such notebook was ever presented as evidence!”

“Well, we can just wait, can’t we?” Maya suggested. Finally, she hopped back off of the defence bench, turning around to check on Phoenix. His struggles underneath her had been starting to fade, so this was probably a good time to let up on him. “Nick shrunk at about noon yesterday, and we’re getting pretty close to that time now.”

Franziska clearly wanted to argue back, but didn’t appear to be able to think of anything.

“Very well.” the Judge said in her place. “The court will have a fifteen-minute recess. Ms. von Karma, use this time to have forensics check the pattern of bruising on the victim’s body and compare it to the witness’s clothing. Ms. Fey… please refrain from sitting on Mr. Wright again, in the meantime.”

Maya laughed. “Alright, fine…”

--------

“Better move you down to the floor, OK, Nick? Sorry if it’s dusty down there.” Maya said, picking her shrunken friend back up from the top of the bench.

Phoenix groaned, clutching at Maya’s thumb as she moved him down.

“I’m pretty sure you didn’t need to actually sit on me to prove our point, Maya…” he said wearily.

“What? Aw, c’mon, Nick. Not even a little 'thank you'? How else were we gonna prove it?”

He hopped from Maya’s palm and onto the courtroom’s floor. To his surprise, he could see Franziska approaching, the sound of her heeled boots clicking in his ears. Wasn’t she supposed to be on the phone with the forensics unit right now…?

“So, Maya Fey.” she said, stopping directly in front of them. This position left Phoenix in the middle of the small space between the two colossal women, both looming unbelievably high over his head. “This notebook you keep foolishly mentioning. It says that a person becomes much more durable, in addition to shrinking when that machine is used on them?”

“Yep.” Maya said. “Nick’s doing just fine, even with me sitting on him back there!”

Phoenix felt rather concerned at the moment. Franziska’s tone was sounding a bit dangerous, and Maya didn’t appear to be getting the point. He wondered whether it might be a good idea to move closer to Maya, and away from the short-tempered prosecutor questioning her.

“Ah.” Franziska said shortly. “In that case…”

Phoenix felt his stomach drop to somewhere in the vicinity of his shoes. Franziska had lifted one of her high-heeled boots from the floor, and before he could try and run, she brought it straight down toward him.

-WHAM-

He hit the floor, face-first. Franziska’s boot had slammed down on him like a meteor, pasting him into the tile floor instantly. For a few seconds, his senses were knocked completely out of whack. Once they recovered, he half-expected to spit out a broken tooth, from how hard he'd crashed down.

"H-hey, don’t do that…!” Maya’s muffled voice could be faintly heard protesting. If he wasn’t mistaken, Franziska was actually twisting the toe of her boot around on top of him, grinding him into the courtroom floor for a second or two.

Mercifully, Franziska moved her boot away again, apparently satisfied. Maya immediately crouched to the floor, a huge and shaky hand approaching Phoenix.

“N-Nick, you’re OK, right…? She didn’t break anything…?”

Franziska was leaving, her heels clicking against the floor as she went.

“Oww…” Phoenix groaned, still prone on the floor. The pain he was feeling was similar to that of Franziska’s whip, except that it covered his entire body.

Maya gingerly scooped him up, taking a seat on the floor. “Um… maybe I should just watch you until the recess is over…?” she offered.

--------

Phoenix was left alone on the floor, a couple of feet in front of the towering defence bench, when the fifteen minutes came to an end.

He heard the gavel echoing across the vastness of the enlarged courtroom.

“Court will now reconvene.” the Judge said. “Ms. von Karma?”

Through gritted teeth, Franziska replied, “I have the results of the test. The victim’s bruising is a rough match for the stitched pattern on the witness’s jeans.”

A rumble was heard from the gallery. The Judge clapped his gavel down once more.

“I see. Ms. Fey, shouldn’t Mr. Wright be returning to his original size fairly soon?”

Down on the floor, Phoenix was starting to worry that he might not. By all appearances, he was right about how Dr. Smalls had died, and he had returned to his original size sometime after, but what if the machine didn’t always work quite right…?

“Yep! Any minute, I think.” Maya answered from behind the defence bench.

They waited. A minute passed, and then two.

Finally, Phoenix felt a strange sensation beginning to creep over his body. It wasn’t quite the same as what he’d felt when he first started to shrink, but similar enough. At last, he watched as the impossibly vast courtroom seemed to shrink in size all around him. He wanted to let out a laugh of relief, but this wasn’t really the time.

He heard the gallery rumbling with noise once again as he finally reached his original height again. Maya was grinning widely at him, and after dusting himself off, he walked back around the bench to join her.

Another strike of the gavel.

“Well, it appears that there is no further doubt in this case.” the Judge said. “Unless anyone has any further objections, I will hand down my verdict.”

Across the court, Franziska was positively seething, but she didn’t say a word, just leaning over her bench with an expression of outrage on her face.

“Very well.” the Judge went on. “I hereby find the defendant, Dr. Airie Xemple…”

NOT GUILTY

“Court is adjourned!”

--------

The immediate aftermath of the trial had been strange for Phoenix. He had spoken with grateful clients plenty of times in the past, but he rarely felt so incredibly relieved for himself. Just seeing the world at its appropriate scale again was almost overwhelming. This entire ordeal had put an unbelievable strain on his nerves.

--------

After leaving the courthouse, he had expected to walk straight back to the office, but Maya had grabbed his shoulder and redirected him, saying that they needed to make a stop back in the very same basement where he had accidentally activated the machine that shrunk him in the first place.

He had objected immediately, preferring to stay as far away from that building as possible, but Maya had been insistent, telling him that she had forgotten something important of hers there in all her panic over finding him shrunken down and struggling to escape from inside of her burger. So, with great hesitation, he had agreed, and now, the pair found themselves walking down the same staircase from the day before, returning to the dingy basement all over again.

Maya darted past him as he paused at the bottom of the stairs.

"I’ll check this side. You check the other one, OK?"

“Alright.” he said tiredly. “As long as we’re out of here in a hurry.”

Crossing the room, he approached the area where the bookcase was lying on the floor.

(Wait…)

Maya hadn’t actually bothered to tell him what they were looking for. He was willing to help her look, but he needed to know what he was actually searching for in the first place. He turned around.

“Hey, Maya? What’d-…”

He froze. Maya wasn’t searching the opposite side of the room, like he’d expected.

She was right next to the machine that had caused him to shrink a day ago, and it looked like...

“M-Maya…!?”

Before he could move, a loud, familiar noise split the silence of the room.

He was shrinking again.

“Maya, wh-what the hell are you doing…!?”

She hadn’t left anything behind down here at all. Phoenix staggered forward, but the same strange feeling from the day before was already settling in all over his body. He was shorter than Maya was now, and the process was speeding up.

When it stopped, Phoenix was once again left in the middle of a vast stretch of floor, staring around in complete disbelief. His breaths came out in stunned gasps.

Booming footsteps approached as Maya walked toward him, her sandals clapping down hard against the cool floor. She stopped, towering over him all over again.

His whole body shaking a bit, he looked up to see her grinning at him from high above, her face partially in shadow with the dingy lights impossibly far away casting only limited light down toward her.

This couldn’t be happening. Maya couldn’t have really just decided to shrink him again, completely deliberately.

“Surprise, Nick!” she said cheerfully, stooping down toward him. Her robes billowed around her knees as she moved downward. She reached a hand toward him, grabbing him off the floor.

“M-Maya, why…?” he asked once he was hovering in front of her face, too stunned and exasperated for a louder response.

She giggled. “Because it’s super-fun to have you around at this size, but we were worrying about a trial all afternoon yesterday, so there was no time to have any fun with it!”

He couldn’t believe this.

“You can handle one extra day, can’t you, Nick? You’ve got me taking care of you!”

Held in Maya’s palm again, he was staring down at the ground, slowly shaking his head in defeat. It was a bit late to argue.

“Maya, just… promise you aren’t gonna make me run around on the floor, dodging your feet again, OK…?”

Maya didn’t immediately say anything, and Phoenix looked up to see her again. Her expression had changed.

“Uh… Maya…?” Was she blushing…?

“Actually, Nick, I’ve got something kinda different in mind for you to do this time…” she said. Her tone sounded… weird. Very un-Maya, if that made sense.

She stood up, and Phoenix noticed her other hand moving around. His stomach lurched as his gigantic assistant untied the large sash she wore around her waist. Her robes loosened as the sash fell free in her grip. Staring in disbelief, he next saw her slip one of the folds in her robes away from her midsection, and when it had moved away, he found himself staring, mouth agape, at her exposed lower body. The very same set of violet panties he’d seen her wearing the day before was now left in plain view, Maya’s pale legs totally exposed.

“We can head back to the office now, Nick, but I’ve got a different seat picked out for you. See you later!”

His mouth felt very dry. Maya’s other hand moved toward her waist, and to his ever-growing disbelief, she used one fingertip to tug her panties away from her skin slightly, in the front.

Maya was moving him toward the opening she’d just created in her underwear. A tiny, trimmed patch of black hair was visible against her pale skin, just inside.

“Maya…!! MAYA!!”

She didn’t listen to his cries. Tilting her hand, Maya tipped him straight out of her palm and down toward the open front of her panties. He yelled in blind panic, tumbling straight into her underwear with nothing else to catch him.

--------

“Ngh~…!!”

Maya released her panties, letting them snap back into place. Her thighs shifted and twitched in response to the new sensations she could already feel down south. Nick was inside of her underwear now, pressed right up against her skin, and he was squirming around just as much as when she’d taken a seat on top of him, back in the courthouse.

“N-Nick, settle down in there~…” she groaned, pressing a hand gently against his position to try and calm him down.

It had the opposite effect, and Maya felt a heavy blush creeping up her cheeks as her tiny friend was pinned between her fingertips and the sensitive area he was now in direct contact with.

“H-hey…!” she said firmly, pressing against him more tightly. The contact was getting her very excited already. “You’d better stop squirming around in there! I mean it, Nick! I’m moving you into the back instead, if you keep that up!”

--------

Registering what Maya had just said, Phoenix froze, settling on his back against the interior layer of his colossal friend’s panties.

Was she serious…? He supposed there wasn’t much reason to doubt at this point, given that she’d already dropped him straight into her underwear in the first place. Still...

His breaths were slow and heavy. Just coming to grips with exactly where he was in the first place had been incredibly surreal, and he still wasn’t fully over the shock.

He forced his eyes closed for a second, collecting himself.

He was inside of Maya’s panties, sharing the limited space with her privates. Her labia dominated his view, and with every breath he took in, her scent filled his puny lungs. It was almost overwhelming on its own.

And she’d been pressing him directly against her lips, just a few seconds ago. He could’ve ended up inside of her entirely…

Maya’s sudden move had shocked him, but… as bizarre as it was, he didn’t feel the urge to turn it down, or fight. He waited, the warmth of her huge body swirling all around him.

--------

Maya sighed, her face burning up. Any longer, and she would’ve started to get wet down there already. She didn’t need those sorts of feelings swirling around in her head while she was walking home to the office. Her dream from the night before, coupled with the feelings Nick had been causing with all of his squirming under her back in the courtroom had been what gave her this idea in the first place, but now wasn’t yet the time for them, either.

She hastily retied her sash, adjusting her robes back to normal, and headed for the stairs.

On the first step, she felt Phoenix being accidentally pushed up against her crotch again, and she bit her lip, taking the stairs more slowly. She just needed to keep a cool head until they got home. After that, she had all kinds of fun ideas for her shrunken bestie.