Servant(s): [Caster] Helena Blavatsky

Promises were meant to be kept. If there was one thing their Master should have remembered, it was that.

“Olcott, help me out here. Brings these to the cabinet.”

Helena Blavatsky was one of the most social Servants in all of Chaldea. Willing to discuss and explore so she could learn more on her quest for knowledge, she was a patient and understanding woman in a youthful Servant body.

“Let’s see… Huh? Lord El-Melloi’s papers and notes were all here? I completely forgot to return them.”

She was known for frequently descending into long winded lectures about Mahatmas, for being the cause of the Chaldea staff calling out UFO sightings, and for breaking up AC/DC arguments between Tesla and Edison.

“There are just so many things to clean up. These books are everywhere.”

She was a bibliophile who could befriend a great detective, inventors, Magi of old and modern times, and even an alien Destroyer of Civilization. Among the staff at Chaldea, she was a bit of an idol with how bright and easy-going she was.

“Now for the Homunculus Baby experiments… Urgh… I couldn’t even get those started today...”

But even Helena’s patience had its limits.

“I can’t believe I have to do all of this myself. Today of all days? You’ve got to be kidding me,” the purpled haired Caster tapped her feet in frustration.

Being unable to perform her planned research had disappointed her. She had been waiting since early morning for her contracted Master and Mashu to come, but they never did. She would have liked to scold them on the principles of being punctual. Despite her young appearance, she was still a mature woman inside, and she appreciated the value of keeping one’s appointments.

“Urgh. Unbelievable… “ she sighed as she slunk down in her personal armchair. She slowly turned to the adjacent side table where there was an upturned glass cup. Narrowing her eyes, she looked at it. “Hey, are you doing fine in there?”

Though she was frustrated, the reason why she wasn’t storming down the halls of Chaldea to remind her Master was because she couldn’t exactly fault them from not coming. She was well aware that they had a reason. Something peculiar was going on within Chaldea and there was no doubt he had gotten involved in it.

“Hey, Edison! Tesla!”

The key evidence to that was right underneath that upturned cup. At 1/100th normal size was a certain gentleman genius and a certain Presi-king. Having been in the same room as the Mahatma-dedicated Caster that morning, they had been collected and placed in a safe place on Madame Blavatsky’s table. Unfortunately, due to an electrifying argument that sparked between the two, they had been trapped under the glass cup for the past hour while Helena was busy with her work and cleaning.

“This blunder is clearly yours, you mangy, DC furball.”

Zap!

“Me? It was certainly your faulty AC that’s to blame.”

Zap!

A bout of fisticuffs and lightning had broken out between the two men for the seventh time since they had been reduced in size. Despite the 145 cm occultist having enclosed them with her emptied glass of iced lemon tea to give them some time to reflect, there was no possibility of either men refraining from their honest disdain for one another when left to their own devices.

“I’m telling you, my System Keraunos is the solution for this predicament.”

Zap!

“Leave this to the REAL genius. Once I get out of here, I’ll resolve this incident before you can even say ‘King of Inventors’.”

Zap!

Diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!

“Gah!” “Khrk!”

For all their boasting and arguing, both men were knocked down where Helena gently tapped onto the glass they were trapped underneath. The ringing sound of Blavatsky’s cup was louder than being inside a bell when it was rung, forcing Tesla to his knees, and the slight motion of the cup when it was hit was a sudden and heavy impact on their level, knocking Edison down.

“You two… are you still fighting each other?” Helena’s voice, though slightly muffled through the glass, reverberated through the enclosed area.

“No, Ma’am!” “Not at all.” The two of them immediately straightened up and declared.

Unfortunately for either of them, their voices were too miniscule to be heard. Even if Helena removed the glass, their words wouldn’t reach her ears. They stared up at the titanic occultist who took off her thick coat to relax and stretch her arms.

“What am I going to do with you two?” she frowned. “The others are probably off fixing this right now. I’d join in because I sense something Mahatma-like, but if I’m right, I might be putting other victims in danger unknowingly. They’d be better off if I stayed cooped up in here.”

This was one thing both men knew deep down. The fact of the matter was that on their scale, everything normal sized was certainly more dangerous. Tesla saw that clearly. Despite having Servant forms, their physical stats weren’t exactly very high when compared to most of the other servants. Edison would admit to that in a heartbeat. That fact that neither Servant could break through the glass wall despite all of their electricity-heavy combat was telling how much their powers had been reduced.

“I was hoping you two would settle your differences since you were stuck together, but I guess that wasn’t enough,” frowned Helena as she placed her hand atop the cup. “I’m letting you two out of there, but I’m going to get mad if you get into another fight, alright?”

They had no say. The cup was lifted up before either had a chance to discern what she had been saying through the echoes in the glass.

“Uwooh! Sweet fresh air. I was getting sick of the smell of tea,” roared the Presi-king as he raised both arms into the air.

Tesla closed his eyes and tried to subtly conceal his enthusiasm but he couldn’t hide his smile. “It certainly was muggy in there. As much as I enjoy a cup of tea every now and then, being trapped in that smell was a bit too much.”

“You two seem energetic,” Helena’s voice boomed down from above, bathing them in the same aroma of tea they had been encased in previously. Her words called both men’s attention immediately. Tesla nearly lost his balance taking a step back when he realized how close the occultist’s tower-high face was to them. She had leaned over on her armchair to get a closer look at them. Her eyes alone were as tall as they were.

“This is some situation we’ve got ourselves in, Tesla,” Edison grit his lion teeth. “She’s finally let us out, but this is a bit beyond expectations.”

“I hate to agree with you, but we certainly did not get this perspective drilled into our heads while under that glass.”

Though Helena was currently big enough to take up their full view, they had been looking at her mainly through a glass wall the entire time, so both Servants were more than a little intimidated by being up close to a 145 cm Caster who was 145 m in their perspective (475 feet - the Presi-King quickly converted to his preferred units).

“Hahahaha! Well, no matter. Now that we’re free, I can go ahead and build us a- Whah!” Edison laughed to calm his own nerves, but he was unable to finish his sentence as a thin hand slid across the table at breakneck speeds. Their freedom was only relative. Both he and Tesla were pushed off the table by Helena’s palm so that they would fall into her other hand. They were immediately shrouded in darkness by her closing her palm and subjected to 4 g’s of acceleration as she adjusted herself on her chair to a more comfortable position.

“I’m sorry I left you two in there when you’re in this state, but you two should know better than to fight when something strange is going on again,” Helena half-apologized and half-lectured while casually forcing them to go where she wanted. Holding two people less than 2 cm in the palm of her hand was an odd feeling, but she couldn’t help her need to scold the two like she usually did for their antics.

Neither Tesla or Edison were in state to listen to her even after she opened her palm again, however. Due to having been brushed off the table and held down in the occultist’s grasp, both of them had been pressed together uncomfortably to the point where Tesla’s hair stuck to Edison’s mane.

“Hey, you boisterous animal, get off of me already!” Tesla tried to untangle his hair and pushed away.

“I would if I could, you tight-suited imbecile. Your split-ends are stuck in my beautiful beard!”

“What beard? That’s fur!”

Their arguments went unheard by Helena who simply saw the two of them in close contact with one another. Though a misunderstanding on her end, the sight made her feel warm inside. A giggle escaped her - a powerful giggle that caused their miniscule bodies to shudder.

“Well, you two sure are getting close,” she told them as her free hand’s finger approached them. The pillar of an index finger pushed down on Tesla’s torso, pressing his face into Edison’s chest.

“Mmff!” the lightning Archer couldn’t speak while breathing in lion hairs.

“Gah! Stop slobbering! You’re getting your AC drool all over my beautiful coat!”

Thankfully, it was only for a brief moment. Immediately after pushing down, Helena released her finger. Unfortunately, she was not done. Her nail then pushed in-between the two men. With a gentle motion, the two were separated by force. Gentle was from Helena’s perspective in any case. Tesla was slammed in the stomach and lifted upwards along with Helena’s fingertip while Edison had been smashed down into her palm.

“Kwah. Bleck! Hair! Hair in my... mouth...,” the gentleman spat out as much as he could while dangling on the occultist’s fingertip. He soon stopped when he realized he was being held directly in front of Madame Blavatsky’s right eye.

“I must say. Whoever is the cause of the incident is quite something,” Helena remarked. “I never would have considered reducing the size of your [Spirit Origin]. You look like you’re around the size of a button, Tesla, and as cute as one like this too.”

Helena swiftly pulled her finger to the side and brought her palm up in its place. “Edison, you too. I wasn’t thinking about it earlier, but now that I’m taking a closer look at you, I’ve got to admit the two of you look very vulnerable.”

There was no denying that while being stared down by the giant girl. They weren’t exactly willing to deny Helena in the first place, but in this situation, she clearly overpowered both of them to the point where the option was off the table.

“I’m more than a little curi- worried about your conditions,” Helena changed one word last minute. She lowered Tesla back down onto her palm where Edison was. She then closed her palm, entrapping them again, and stood up. She began to walk over to her research desk which is crowded with books and papers even after having cleaned up the room.

“Whoah!” “Grk!” the two innovators grunted at being dropped onto the table.

“Let’s go research a way to change you two back. There may be a simple answer,” Helena informed them and called over her partner, Colonel Olcott. She gestured for Olcott to go grab some materials for her. With an upbeat smile, she sat down on the desk and opened a drawer to pull out a magnifying glass. With it, she could get a better look at the two shrunken Servants. “Besides, I can’t let this opportunity slip by.”

As expected of Madame Blavatsky, her unabashed interest in the unknown was only matched by her enjoyment of it - though them being the subjects of her research made them a tad uneasy.

“Gahahahaha~! Looks like we’ve gotten some fine support, Tesla.” A loud laugh escaped the lion-headed Servant. Edison wasn’t one to remain intimidated easily however. He was a forward thinker after all. “Though I can’t say I’m happy to be stuck working with you, now we can actually get to constructing a solution.”

“Constructing? With what?”

“All of Helena’s unused scraps of course,” the proud Presi-King gestured to the literal mountain of miscellaneous items Helena had yet to clean up. “Size difference or not, supplies are supplies. I’ve built better with worse. Allow me to show you the greatness of mass production and American R&D charged with the power of DC.”

The mere mention of DC flipped Tesla’s switch. “There’s obviously a better solution. I can create it myself with my AC. Out of the way, furball.”

Heading on over to Helena’s scattered pile of paper clips, broken lanterns, grease, and NYARF! bullets, the shrunken pioneer of electricity set off to work and outdo the Caster class Servant.

They could hear a giggle up above observing their actions from a God’s eye view.

“Ah, I see. You two just can’t stand still, huh? Okay. I guess it’ll be a race between all three of us to see who can find a solution. You two do your best. I don’t know what you two can pull out with that trash, but good luck,” Helena spoke to them like they were children, but there was a spark in her eyes that was far more childish in their opinion. “I hope you don’t mind I pry into your Spirit Origins as you do.”

Waving her hand in the air, a mystical circle of unfamiliar letters formed in the air. Helena then used two fingers to shift the location of the magical glyph and place it on her magnifying glass. Ready to play investigator like a certain detective she was acquainted with, Helena leaned in and covered the entire table in shadow.

The male servants paused to look up at their enormous comrade. The fact that her head blocked the ceiling light was more than a little unnerving to them. As nice as they knew Helena was, it was clear that her switch had been flipped. Much like a certain magical girl and her love of cute things and maids, Helena became a bit too forward when something mysterious needed investigating.

“L-Let’s get through this as soon as possible,” Tesla voiced his opinion.

“Y-Yeah… Who knows how long it’ll take before she starts getting pushy,” Edison nodded and began to rummage through the scrap.

So the two of them set off to design and build. All the while, their 145 cm ally peered down at them through a magnifying glass. They could hear happily humming while jotting down information in a notebook with her free hand. The sight of their beloved companion so happy somewhat calmed them down - at least enough to get to work.

However, while both Edison and Tesla were the skilled inventors who had built Helena’s summer ride in a short span of time, it was difficult for them to work at full speed under Helena’s giant gaze. They could hardly move in the first place, being too small to safely get off the desk without issue even if they needed to get more materials. They were limited to what was on the desk and what they could carry. As such, their progress was slow. 

Considering their competitive nature and their poor resources, their impatience sparked yet another argument between the two.

“You long-haired idiot! I need that piece to run the DC-QP energy converter!”

“Get your own, you stubborn animal. There’s no way that pathetic device will work. Might as well make something useful with my AC.”

“Don’t be stupid! The schematics you came up with are completely ineffective. Using that AC power is not going to be efficient enough to get us back to normal!”

Their shouting contest did nothing to help their progress. Lightning began to fly. It would soon be the time for Helena to civilly come break up their argument, angry and disappointed that they were fighting again.

Well, that would be true if she could hear them. When they got into their verbal argument, Helena was looking through her notes while chewing on the tip of the pen she was using. She was not as satisfied with her analysis as she would have liked. Compared to their pace of building a solution to their problems, Helena’s investigation of their Spirit Origins had gone by much more quickly and already concluded. She was simply going over her observation notes to confirm her findings, and unfortunately for them, she was disappointed by what little information she could gather. When she looked up to see them arguing, her frown deepened. 

“Hey! How many times do I have to tell you guys to stop fighting?”

Their argument ended, but not through Helena’s words. She physically ended it to stop the electricity from being shot about. The occultist took out her frustration and disappointment on them. A shadow cast over the two miniscule servants. They had just enough time to close their mouths and look up to see the 145 cm woman’s palm falling down to them like a meteorite.

“WHAT!?” “Incoming!”

Slap!

A resounding crash split the ear drums of both men’s ears as a violent force slammed their bodies into the table. Like swatting a fly, Helena had struck them down with a single blow as swift as a bolt of lightning. The two of them were flattened, pressed down with the weight of a hundred spriggans, by Helena’s petite hand.

“G-grk…” “Gak… My suit is...” 

“Well, that quieted the two of you down quickly,” spoke the giant caster. She seemed content after getting most of her frustration out with that single blow. “Honestly, you two never change. What’s the point of fighting at a time like this? I won’t have any lightning being shot in my room without my permission, got it?”

Helena’s scolding held a lot more power over the two men than ever before. Both Edison and Tesla had that physically beaten into them. She had simply swung her hand down, but that strike would have broken the bones of any non-servant.

A sigh escaped Helena. “We need to find a solution, you two. If you’re not going to be of any use, I’ll have to do all of the work myself. Unfortunately, my results from just observing aren’t as useful as I would have liked. Guess I’ll have to be more direct.”

Direct?

Pluck!

“W-Whoa!”

Seeing as the two of them were not in any state to converse with her, Helena planned to take matters into her own hands. Without any warning she unceremoniously pinched Edison between her thumb and index finger and pulled him off the table. The lion headed Servant had the air squeezed out of him when Helena’s fingers pressed down onto him. What she had thought was a light and gentle attempt at picking him up was in reality as heavy as feeling the brunt of Passionlip’s crushing attacks.

“Alright, Edison. Let me confirm this real quick,” she apologized while tightened her grip on him to hold him still.

“Gah… There’s not really much of a choice, is there?” the little lion grunted, his body’s endurance having already hit its limit.

“Mmm… Yes, like I thought. It’s surprising, but it doesn’t look like there are any significant changes to your Spirit Origins at all… I thought I’d be able to see something peculiar or interesting, but you both seem to be unchanged aside from your heights,” Helena sounded disappointed that their conditions seemed fine. “I’ll have to think about a solution from a different perspective.”

“You mean ‘we will’, right? Not just you?” Edison’s question fell on deaf ears as his voice came out as squeaks to the occultist’s ears. The sound of which forced her to stifle her laughter by holding her other hand to her mouth.

“Y’know, for someone with a lion’s head, you sound a lot more like a mouse, Edison,” she remarked. “I know it’s rude to say this, but I might like you two better like this. I don’t need to hear your boisterous shouting contests.”

Madame Blavatsky seemed to be having far too much fun with their predicament, both Tesla and Edison grimaced. While they enjoyed the idea of her cutting loose, they did not want to be the center of her interest. Was the fact that she couldn’t hear their protests the cause of her attitude or was it something more?

Unfortunately for Edison, he couldn’t ponder these questions any further as Helena dexterously maneuvered her fingers so that both of his arms were spread out while she held him between four of her pillaresque fingers. Helena saw no need to ask for permission because she wasn’t going to hear him anyways, so she took the liberty of examining him while the iron was hot.

“H-Hey, Madame Blavatsky, what do you think yo-” The Presi-King started to ask before the petite (on normal standards) girl’s fingers twitched. Though Helena herself did not realize it, she had shut Edison up immediately while she brought his bug sized body up to her person-sized eye. 

“Hm… I wonder if your parameters were scaled down with your size too. Unfortunately, your strength rank is E, Edison, so I’m not sure how that would work,” Helena told him. Glancing down at the frozen stiff Tesla on the table, Helena sighed again. “Tesla, you’re rank D, but that still isn’t very notable...”

The men would feel insulted if they weren’t intimidated. Edison was not appreciating being manhandled by Helena. Being at her mercy really put their predicament into perspective. Tesla, on the other hand, was pale from Madame Blavatsky’s unconcerned attitude. He stiffened when her gaze looked down on him like nothing more than a guinea pig.

“So this is what it feels like to be under the knife,” the master of lightning shuddered.

Both servants were grateful when Helena put Edison back down. She wasn’t exactly gentle, however. Instead of putting him back down, she let go of him while her hand was still above the table, causing the helpless Caster to slam face first into the ground.

“Oof!”

“Sorry, boys,” Helena apologized, but not for dropping Edison. She rubbed her eyes as she spoke. “I’m not exactly sure what I can do to help you out. It’s not like I can dissect either of you to find the truth. I’m not that zealous to find out… Though for some reason, I can’t say I’m not interested...”

Hearing Helena’s opinion on dissection sent a chill down Tesla’s spine.

“Oh. Maybe we can run a few tests instead! That’s an idea…,” the Caster-class servant was suddenly hit with a burst of inspiration. She turned to her floating doll to make a request. “Olcott, can you get me the box over there?” 

Tesla grimaced as Helena started humming a happy tune. She was willing to experiment on them.

“Please remind me never to do anything that will match up with Madame Blavatsky’s research quirks again...” he mumbled, speaking formally. “That slap earlier was something fierce.”

“I’ll do that if you do the same for me,” Edison groaned as he tried to stand back up. Just getting on one knee was difficult. “Something is odd with Helena. She’s not her usual se… No, that’s not entirely true. But she’s more gung-ho than usual.”

“It must be this incident. Not only have our spirit origins been tampered with, but hers as well,” Tesla hypothesized. “I believe something similar happened when magical girls were involved some time back.”

“Well, that’s not good. I doubt we can finish our restoration devices while Helena’s in this state,” groaned Edison. “Though she’d hate me for saying this, it’s like she’s a young boy who just got the newest toy for his birthday.”

“Then do you suppose we should go into hiding then?” Tesla suggested, looking up at Helena who seemed to be fighting a headache. Had she developed a Migraine skill or was she resisting whatever influence was affecting her personality? It seemed that influence was winning, unfortunately.

Edison looked out into the distance which was just the rest of Helena’s room. The floor was also a long way down. They could survive the drop, but the door was an impossible distance away, essentially off in the horizon. While they were Servants, it was not to be a simple task at 1/100th their normal size. “It’s not like a Presi-king to run with his tail between his legs, but ‘he who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day’ isn’t that right?”

“Do you even have a tail? That hideous spandex outfit of yours doesn’t even show it. Still, at the risk of becoming a test subject, I cannot argue with that philosophy,” though he insulted the Presi-king at first, Tesla outright agreed. The two of them were of the same mind in getting out of the room before Helena would be able to run her tests. 

While Helena was sifting through a cardboard box, the Wizard of Menlo Park and the Modern Prometheus abandoned their projects and chose to flee. Their path was, of course, an electrical one.

“Hey, hurry it up already. You’re slowing us down, you lout,” Tesla hurried Edison while slowing his descent to the floor using the power over his electricity to gently float down. The lion-headed servant was slowly pulling, sliding himself down the wire of the desk lamp on Helena’s table and hadn’t even made it a foot down the wire. 

“Shut up. Slow and steady is the safest option, you know?” Such a comment felt odd coming from the mouth of a strong believer of the power of mass production.

While a slow descent was indeed physically safe for the two of them, time was not on their side. It wasn’t long before Helena noticed that they were gone. She turned back to her work desk by the time they made it to the floor.

“Okay, boys. Now we can get star...ted? Huh? Where did they get off to?”

“Curses. You see? She’s already realized we’re gone, and we’re none closer to our destination,” the electric archer complained.

“Stop your whining. She’s still searching the desk,” the caster pointed out. “It’s not as if she can find us easily at this size. This is dangerous enough as is, so playing it safe guarantees our survival. I didn’t take you for a reckless coward, Tesla.”

“Grr...” the gentleman scowled. His impatience was getting the best of him, but he didn’t like his rival pointing it out. He did have a point, though. The normal sized Caster was carefully looking around her messy desk to see if she had simply overlooked them. 

“Edison? Tesla? It’s not easy to spot you guys on this table.”

She was completely unaware they had fled the desk.

This was definitely the opportunity for them to sneak their way to the exit.  Despite not being Assassin class Servants, Helena was not the neatest person, so there would be plenty of places along the way for them to hide out of view from her. Now that they were on the floor which was cluttered with scattered research materials, boxes, and mysterious gadgets, it would require an effort on the barelegged Caster’s part to spot them.

The barelegged aspect, though, was their next concern. Madame Blavatsky was a surprisingly free-spirited person for someone who enjoyed calling herself an old woman. Perhaps it was because of her youthful appearance in her Servant form. She enjoyed the freedom of removing her boots and socks when in the privacy of her personal quarters. Though she herself admitted she wouldn’t be so showy in front of their current Master, she was more than willing to undress in front of the two of them. Whether that signified how close they were or how little she viewed them as men, the two inventors weren’t sure, but they honestly wished Helena was tidier at that moment.

“Edison… how is your beast-like nose managing? Is this sour odor as torturous on you as it is me?”

“You tell me, Tesla. Does it smell worse than wet fur dipped in brine and vinegar? Also, can you see a dirty haze in front of you like I do?”

“Yes, and it stings my eyes…” Tesla squinted.

Though they were on the floor by Helena Blavatsky’s work desk, they were also beside her boots and thigh high socks which she had taken off and tossed to the side. A hill had been formed by the girl’s two used thigh high socks while one of Helena’s boots had fallen over, exposing an intimidating darkness that had a hot, dank air pouring out of it.

Not having been on the floor the entirety of the time they had been shrunken down, the two male Servants were stunned by the sheer size of their surroundings. Her knee high boots were a cave they could enter and explore if they so pleased (which they certainly had no desire to).

What was more worrisome to the pair, however, were they heavy thuds they heard when Helena’s bare feet hit the ground heavily. At 1/100th their height, Helena’s small steps made the ground tremble. She stood up to search her table and scratched her head in frustration.

Slam! Slam!

“Where are you two? Can you walk out where it’s clear?” she requested. “I should’ve cleaned up my desk better.”

Tesla was glad she did not. She was still thinking they were on her table because there were just too many things on there for her to look through. The Mahatma-minded caster was patient enough to not just shove everything off in order to find them. That at least bought them some time to sneak around Helena’s socks. Unfortunately, that was all they were able to do before she got impatient.

“This isn’t funny, you two. Did you two not want to do the tests? You could have just told me.”

Wham!

“Uwoaah!” Edison wailed when Helena’s colossal foot crashed into the ground. She stomped her foot, realizing the two of them were nowhere to be found. “It’s time to get out of sight, Tesla. She’s no longer looking only at the table.”

“Our speed has been severely reduced along with our size,” frowned the Archer Servant. He was not about the lack of progress they made nor was he happy with the closest location they had for a hiding place. “But I’m not fond of the smell, but there looks to be no other option.”

With little time to consider another hiding place, the two less than 2 cm Servants dashed into Helena’s fallen boot before her foot stepped on the sock hill they had went around. They kept themselves hidden, pressed against the cave wall that was the entrance to the black boot, while Helena checked the small gap behind her work desk.

“Where did you two go?”

Peaking out to see what she was doing, Tesla and Edison immediately pulled their heads back. An inappropriate view entered their gaze when they saw an enormous peach colored rear end taking up a majority of their vision. 

“Gah. She’s going to kill us if she finds out what we’re seeing,” Edison covered his eyes from the sight of Helena’s black underwear.

“Let us not speak of this again then,” Tesla agreed, trying to keep out of sight because Helena was fervently searching for them. He strained himself to not breathe in the musty odor surrounding them. The inside of Helena’s boot was warm and damp with sweat. The air was heavy and muggy. “Now let’s wait until she walks away and we can head over to that pile of books.”

Being hidden from Helena certainly put them in a position that would make the degenerate Blackbeard envious. For a petite body, the purple haired caster’s legs were surprisingly long and shapely, and without her stockings and boots on, they were in full view. Ever since summer, she also seemed to have gotten more accustomed to entering more provocative positions naturally. If they peered out of her boot, they could see the soles of her bare feet while she was on her knees while her butt was stuck up in a way that made the frills of her dress do nothing to hide her black panties. Sure, she had worn less before when she chose some of her summer outfits herself, but the cutesy Caster who could fit as a magical girl was extremely mature in her tastes.

Patiently, the two men waited while Helena closely inspected the gap between her table and the wall. 

“I swear, you both never listen,” complained Helena. “It’s not safe if I don’t know where you two are, you two. I don’t want to accidentally step on you. I swear, when I find you two...”

They were grateful Helena had some concern for them, but were nervous to consider why she drifted off at the end of her sentence.

There was no need for them to wonder, though. There were no benefits to hiding in Helena’s boot. The duo had known that, but had no choice earlier. When Helena stood back up, she turned around to see her stockings on the floor.

“Ah… forgot to put these away.”

Shake!

“Uh oh! Hey, lightning boy, hurry up!” Edison realized Helena’s intentions in time for her hand to come down to also pick up her stockings and boots. Immediately as they started moving, the boot began to tilt.

“It’s a bit too late for that!” the lion-headed Caster quickly saw the floor beneath their feet become the wall. Helena pulled up the boot they were in, and the shrunken Servants fell the remaining distance down to the bottom.

Now deep inside the female Caster’s boot, the two servants were in a sticky situation, literally at that. They had landed in the crater that was formed by heel on her insole, but both were in different locations after Tesla bounced off of Edison from his continued momentum. Edison found the sweat absorbed by Helena’s insole clung to his Mystic Code and his fur. His nose was pressed into the shoe and he struggled to pull himself up. 

“Urgh… I could have predicted this, but we were a few seconds too late to realize. Now it looks like our escape’s been cut off,” groaned the King of Inventors.

Tesla on the other hand had rolled past the middle end of Helena’s boot and was nearly at the toe. He was not stuck to the insole like Helena, but he was in the dark because he was away from the lone opening.

“Gak… Of all the luck. To end up here, what am I, the cafeteria Archer?” Tesla remarked. He held one hand over his mouth and nose. The lingering salty odor of Helena’s foot was stronger inside her boot and choked him. He generated a low amount of electricity to act as a light to look at his surroundings. He paled when he saw five craters in the ground around his own size. They were Helena’s toe imprints.

Heading back to the opening of the boot which was the only place light was shining down from above, Tesla helped pick his rival up. However, the two of them were in a grim mood as they looked up to see nothing but a completely vertical climb.

“Tch. Now we’ve got to climb out of here. I told you to hurry up, you slow oaf,” complained Edison.

“Hey, you weren’t able to get out in time either,” Tesla scowled. “In the first place, you’re the slow one. We could’ve gotten a lot further before she got here if you hadn’t been so slow climbing down.”

“Oh, so you’re sayin it’s my fault, you AC-spouting monkey?”

“Of course I am. Was that not obvious enough for you, you DC buffoon?”

The moment they had a reason to argue, the two geniuses had a falling out. It was in their nature. Though they had been cooperating to escape, their hair trigger tempers were quick to sour their collaboration. Their foul mood from seeing another arduous task to escape from Helena in front of them exacerbated their poor relationship, and they began their vocal argument.

The only positive aspect of the situation the two Servants were in was that Helena was still completely unaware of where they were. Their shouting contest which evolved into a lightning throwing contest went unheard and unseen. As their goal was to avoid the research-happy Helena, that had been reached the moment they climbed down from the table. However, as time passed and the 145 cm Servant continued searching for them, it was inevitable she would make contact with them if they remained in one place. Such was the folly of the two geniuses. They were too preoccupied with one another to realize their careless mistake.

If only Helena had actually spotted them before making contact with them.

Knock! Knock!

“Hm…? Who could that be?”

“Madame Blavatsky, are you in here? Something strange is happening, and we could use another Caster to investigate.”

“That voice. Is that the Witch Medea? I’m aware of what’s been going on. Of course I’ll come.”

Investigations of other servants were happening outside of the closed room. Though she had tried to be cautious and not leave earlier, with an invitation from a legendary Caster from the Age of Gods, there was no way Helena would refuse.

“Just let me get ready and I’ll be right out.”

In order to head out, though, that meant getting dressed. As Helena only had her sleeveless dress on at that moment, she had to put on everything else. That included her stockings and boots. And her boots, of course, where they presently were. A shadow quickly blocked out the only source of light entering the boot they were in when Helena approached.

“This is…?”

“Oh, this is bad.”

It absolutely was. Looking up, the two Servants spotted a glimpse of Helena’s body before she started to lift up her leg which was clad in her used stocking again. With Helena grabbing her shoe, they were both suddenly knocked over when the boot jerked towards her.

“Brace yourself, Tesla!” warned the Wizard of Menlo Park as he brought up his guard as Helena’s foot entered the cavernous boot. As it was made just for her, there was not going to be any open space for them to run, so he opted for defending. Tesla agreed. His Inherent Wisdom was suited for finding a proper method to protect himself from the multi-ton foot, but it was clear that defending against it was not going to be enough.

“Here we go~!” Helena slipped her foot into the boot gently, but to the two shrunken Servants, they were forced into the sole by the tremendous pressure and weight.

“Graph!” “Mmmpf!” Neither genius could speak when pressed down on all points beneath Helena’s black stocking. Dirt and sweat coated Edison’s furry beard and lint entered Tesla’s mouth. It was a disgusting and painful feeling being treated as pebbles underneath Helena. Perhaps they made a mistake trying to evade her earlier. The two of them had been completely silenced by the sheer mass pinning them down unknowingly.

“Edison, Tesla. If you two are going to keep avoiding me, I’m just going to head out,” she announced with a pout and a huff. “You two stay safe here, okay?”

Safe was not what they were, though. She was still completely oblivious to their presence despite the fact that they were pebbles in her shoe pushing against her foot. The moment she put her foot back down onto the floor, they felt the painful impact of her full weight. Helena was ready to leave with them in tow.

But these two genius innovators were strong at working on the pressure, even literal pressure before. Despite being unable to open their mouths and having their bodies ‘spread eagle’ under a dirty used sock, there was still something they could do as Servants. 

“Damnit… There’s no other option. Some light…”

“Grk… Lightning… I have to use my arm...”

Shine! Bzzt!

“Hm? O-Ow!”

With no other option, a collaborative attack ended up emerging. Edison and Tesla did not need to communicate with each other to use their last resorts. They were only thinking about themselves, but the double-upped combination was made with each man’s efforts. Though they did not want to hurt Helena, this was their only choice. A brilliant light began to shine from Edison while lightning surged from Tesla.

A dual strike of simultaneous [Noble Phantasms] - [World Faith Domination] with its ability to expose mysteries and what was hidden and [System Keraunos] the human-harnessed lightning was able to slightly hurt Helena.

“Kyaa!” The godly lightning Tesla harnessed and the mystery revealing light Edison used combined and felt like a brief electric shock to Helena. Though it was only a tingle, this came from a sensitive Caster girl. Helena was so surprised when the static jolt ran through her foot, she froze up and turned her head down to her boot. She could then see a dim light pouring out from the few gaps there were between her foot and it. “What in the world?”

Taking off her boot, Helena saw two small figures drop to the heel deep inside. She had to turn it upside down to have them fall out. Her eyes shrank when she had them back in her palm.

“Edison? Tesla? So that’s where you two were! You imbeciles!”

The two men were gasping for air in the palm of their normal sized acquaintance.

“To think my lightning couldn’t even scorch her stocking… I didn’t think I’d have to go full power like that...”

“At least we made it out… Gah… My body… That took my endurance to its limits.”

Both Edison and Tesla were worse for the wear. Meanwhile, Helena looked down on them with both anger and concern.

“That in the world were you two thinking? Getting out of my sight? Ending up in my boot? I could’ve crushed you, you know!” she scolded them. They were in no mood to listen to hear a deafening voice, but its loudness forced them to. “Honestly, you two are insufferable. I can’t believe how crazy you are.” 

Knock! Knock!

“Miss Helena, is everything alright?” a softer voice asked through the doorway. Helena still recognized it as the Witch Medea, however, it was the Lily version.

“Ah. It’s good that you’re here, Miss Lily. Hold on. Wait just a moment!”

Turning back to Edison and Tesla, Helena could only sigh. Her two companions had gotten themselves into trouble so easily. They were just too vulnerable at their present size. She hoped their Master would get things back to normal soon, but at least there was somebody nearby who could heal their injuries. She didn’t think she’d find them so hurt just from a single step. Actually, she was surprised she even felt them. They must have had to deploy their Noble Phantasms to get her attention…

“You guys, I hope you understand how dangerous that was. If you act up again, you could end up back there. Actually, maybe I SHOULD do that if you do that again.”

A chill ran up both Tesla’s and Edison’s spines. No. They wouldn’t fight again. They wouldn’t try to run away again. They did not want to experience being stepped on another time. They tried their best to vocalize this with their miniscule voices and movements.

Looking down at the two bug sized Servants in her hands, Helena shivered. To think their strongest moves didn’t even hurt her. It worried her and made her angry they had put themselves in danger stupidly. Still, for some reason, she couldn’t argue that she felt it was amusing to think they had tried and failed to get away from her. They had probably been fighting, but she never knew. And she had ended it with a single step.

“I’m glad you two get it now,” Helena smiled. “Still, it seems your parameters were more affected than I thought. We’re going to have to thoroughly analyze this later, you two.”

Their Mahatma-minded ally had her inquisitive mind directed to them again, but at the very least she was putting supporting the investigation with the Medea pair outside as her main priority.

Helena called Colonel Olcott over who held a small pouch. She immediately tilted her hand so that they fell inside. They tumbled off her palm and into the leather bag.

“Huh? Where is this?”

“Where did we end up this time?”

Click!

The answer came after the pouch closed shut. Though that darkened their environment, there was a small opening in the leather pouch for them to look through. They could also feel themselves moving. Helena had put them in a belt pouch and strapped it on the belt she wore around her sleeveless dress.

“Let’s continue investigating, boys. Get comfy in there, okay? I sense Mahatma and a solution to this outside.”