“EMILY, YOU’RE NEVER GOING TO BELIEVE WHAT OUR NEXT ASSIGNMENT IS!” Liam screamed as he nearly busted the door down and ran towards Emily’s desk with some documents in his hands.

“Jeez, Liam, can’t a girl have a peaceful morning?” Emily asked grumpily as she snatched the documents and began reading them.

Meet Emily, a master female detective who, despite her young age, had already become the top detective in her entire city. In fact, her young, beautiful body gave her even more leverage as a detective as it allowed her to get horny men, and occasionally, horny women to spill secrets to her during her investigations. Typically, the only cases the police resorted to tasking her genius brain with were extremely dangerous cases that other detectives had either given up on, gotten killed on, or gone missing on. Hence why her apprentice (Liam) was always panicking and Emily was used to it.

Emily started reading the documents casually while sipping her coffee, but as she kept reading, her face slowly distorted from a disinterested, grumpy one to a puzzled, concerned one.

“There’s an illegal chain of restaurants that serve…shrunken people?” Emily asked, her eyes widening.

“YES!” Liam shouted.

Emily paused.

“Alright, come on, we’re going to Police HQ to get this straightened out.” Emily said grumpily as she grabbed the documents and Liam’s hand, dragging him to Police HQ.

When Emily and Liam arrived at Police HQ, Emily asked to see the chief in relation to the documents they had just sent Liam. The staff eagerly escorted the duo to the chief’s office and left them alone with him to get briefed.

“Emily, I know it sounds crazy, but please, you must believe us. You’re our last hope.” The chief begged, his eyes looking down in sadness.

“Chief, I’m not trying to insult you, but I’ve investigated hundreds of supposed fantastical cases and they all turn out to have explanations grounded in reality. Now, I don’t know what trickery was used by whatever criminals you’re after, but-“ Emily started explaining nervously before being shocked so hard she fell silent and jumped backwards with her hands over her mouth.

The chief had just placed a jar on his desk with a tiny man inside for Emily and Liam to see.

“Many of the women involved who we’ve arrested have had digested remains in their feces, but this is the only one we’ve managed to recover alive to date.” The chief explained.

“BUT THIS IS SIMPLY INCREDIBLE! HOW DID THEY MAKE SUCH A REALISTIC ANDROID AT THIS SCALE?! HE LOOKS SO CONVINCING THAT I WOULD THINK HE WAS A REAL SHURNKEN PERSON IF I DIDN’T KNOW ANY BETTER!” Emily shouted excitedly as she inspected the tiny man with her magnifying glass through the jar.

As usual, piquing Emily’s curiosity was the best cure to one of her bad moods. Then, in all the excitement, Emily’s stomach grumbled hungrily.

“NO, PLEASE DON’T EAT ME!” The tiny man begged.

Then, the chief snatched the jar back and held a toothpick near the tiny man.

“He’s not an android, Emily.” The chief corrected as he poked the tiny man with the toothpick to draw blood.

“OW! HEY, WHAT’S THE BIG IDEA?! YOU PROMISED TO MAKE SURE I DIDN’T GET HURT WHILE I WAIT FOR THE SHRINKING TO WEAR OFF!” The tiny man barked.

Emily paused before wiping some of the blood on her finger and bringing it to her mouth to taste it.

“Yup, it’s real blood.” Emily stated, still skeptical.

Emily’s stomach also let out another hungry grumble.

“NO! SHE GOT A TASTE OF ME AND HER STOMACH LIKED IT! PLEASE, DON’T LET ME DIE!” The tiny man begged the chief.

“Please, you must believe us, it’s a real shrunken person. Look, here are the x-rays.” The chief begged as he held up pictures of x-rays of the tiny man. “And if you still don’t believe me, feel free to tear him apart yourself and look inside with your own eyes.”

“WHAT THE HELL?! YOU CAN’T SACRFICE ME LIKE THAT!” The tiny man screamed.

Emily paused in deep thought for a few minutes.

“It’s true, isn’t it? This really is…a shrunken human being.” Emily thought as she stared in shock.

Emily gulped.

“So then there really is…a chain of restaurants serving these little guys as food?” Emily continued thinking as she felt an emotion she wasn’t used to: Fear.

Emily finally calmed herself down, took a deep breath, and sat down in the chair facing the chief’s desk.

“Okay, so the documents said to meet you for more instructions, what are they? Tell me everything” Emily asked.

“Thank God, you believe us! And I didn’t even have to resort to letting you kill him!” The chief shouted happily.

Liam, the most terrified of the three, sat down next to Emily and the chief began with his instructions and the history of the case.

“Okay, it all started when the police put a woman in jail for possession of drugs. Nothing unusual until she had a meltdown in her cell and started trashing it. The guards proceeded to subdue her and take her to solitary confinement, but one of the guards noticed her dirty toilet bowl which she hadn’t bothered to flush while they were subduing her and noticed tiny human skeletons in her feces. Laboratory analysis revealed that the bones were indeed real human skeletons and we offered to drop all charges on the woman if she told us how tiny people ended up in her stomach. She agreed to the conditions and alerted us to one of the restaurants, which our forces stormed the same day. However, all the officers who entered never returned, and by the time we got serious military forces in to surround the building, everyone was gone.

After a few more attempts that simply resulted in losing more officers, we started putting detectives up to figuring out who was behind the chain of restaurants, but they eventually all ended up disappearing as well without rescuing so much as a single shrunken person. The only reason we got our hands on this one is because his psychotic girlfriend apparently noticed him for sale at one of the restaurants after she stormed off because of a fight and decided to use drugs to empty her stomach contents as soon as she swallowed him as to allow him to pass through her alive. …She then proceeded to empty her waste in front of a large crowd while screaming: “Look, now everyone knows you’re just my shit!” Anyways, he told us that he overheard one of the waitresses at the restaurant say that the shrinking effects wear off after a few weeks, so we’re keeping him safe here before he grows back.” The chief explained.

“LIKE HELL YOU ARE!” The tiny man shouted angrily as he punched the glass.

“G-gosh, Emily. I-I would l-love to help you on this dangerous…er, EXCITING adventure, but I just remembered…I’m late for a family vacation…to Mars! Never to return!” Liam excused as he tried to run away.

However, Emily firmly grabbed Liam’s hand to prevent him from running.

“Everyone before me was killed? I wish I had a dime for every mission I survived like that. So, what do you want us to do?” Emily asked, now eager to bring these criminals to justice.

“Alright, here’s the plan: Emily, I know you have excellent acting skills, so I want you to pose as one of their customers and try to gather information. Of course, you’ll have to eat many shrunken people to blend in, so that’s why we’ve prepared this.” The chief explained as he set a pill on his desk.

Emily picked it up and began inspecting it curiously.

“That pill will neutralize your stomach acid for long enough to allow everyone you eat to pass through you unharmed, so you won’t have to kill anyone in there.” The chief stated.

Suddenly, Emily blushed.

“W-wait, c-can’t I just…throw them up or something?” Emily asked.

“Emily, please, I know it’s very embarrassing, but you need to fill your entire digestive tract with as many people as possible. We’re talking about saving peoples’ lives here!” The chief begged.

Emily paused, but her heart eventually won over her pride.

“Goodbye, dignity…” Emily responded as she looked down in sadness.

Meanwhile, Liam was trying to tiptoe away, but the chief noticed him.

“AND AS FOR YOU!” The chief barked as he signaled Liam to come back.

Liam reluctantly returned to his chair and listened nervously.

“You are to let them shrink you and pose as one of the willing “snacks,” and try to gather information from the kitchen. Now, under ideal circumstances, Emily will be the one to eat you, but just in case she doesn’t get to and another woman does, I have a pill for you too, one that makes you temporarily immune to stomach acid.” The chief ordered as he shoved a pill in Liam’s hands.

Liam stared at the pill in fear.

“B-but…what if the woman notices me in her dirty toilet bowl…or I drown in the sewer?” Liam asked on verge of having a meltdown.

“Then you’re screwed, but you agreed to be Emily’s apprentice and I’m sure you knew that would involve risking your life many times.” The chief replied coldly.

Liam fainted, but Emily felt a surging need for justice.

“We’ll do it! What’s the address?” Emily asked.

“That’s the spirit!” The chief responded with a smile.

Later, at lunch, Liam was barely eating.

“Liam, please eat. I promise I’ll make sure I’m the one who eats you, so you don’t have to worry.”

“I-I can’t…you don’t understand what it’s like, Emily. Knowing I’ll have to let myself be shrunk down to a size where I’m utterly helpless and get eaten alive. It’s absolutely terrifying.” Liam responded as he looked down at Emily’s naked tummy, exposed by her belly shirt as she had already gotten dressed casually in preparation for her visit to the restaurant.

Emily’s stomach rumbled hungrily right as Liam stared at it, which sent him into a state of panic.

“Really? I think it’s actually…kind of cool. I mean, think about it, how many people get to experience a digestive tract and live?” Emily asked as she gave her belly pats, trying to lighten Liam’s mood.

“NO, NOT COOL! And why aren’t YOU eating anything?! Your damn growling stomach keeps reminding me of my dreaded fate!” Liam shouted.

“Liam, I told you, I need to have my guts as empty as possible for when we go to the restaurant. Each person I can cram in is another life saved.” Emily answered.

“Great, AND it’s going to be crowded.” Liam mumbled grumpily.

“You’ll get a good look at my sexy ass too.” Emily giggled, still trying to lighten Liam’s mood.

Liam simply rolled his eyes and continued trying to eat his lunch, his frustration taking the place of some of his fear to help him out.