“And that’s the schedule for today. You will be having an early lunch. We will end classes early so you can meet with Ra-  Ahem… The Department of Alteration,” Sasakura-sensei coughed as she finished discussing the day’s agenda with the class. I noticed she coughed when she realized she was about to say her sister’s name. “For now, please bear with us as we go through the mandatory trainings and methods to allow you girls to legally be allowed at bigger sizes.”

When it came to Magnification Week, one of the biggest necessities for the boys and the girls was safety. Safety was a major concern when the girls were many times normal size. The DL Field could only do so much to protect us, and it was not going to be around forever. The girls had to understand how to act cautiously to not damage anything or hurt anyone, and the guys also had to understand how to move around so they wouldn’t get accidentally injured.

While Yae and I had gone through a lot of these training sessions over the summer because we signed the forms, there was one that we couldn’t do unless we were with an entire class. Even I wasn’t sure exactly what it was, but it seemed worrisome that Sasakura-sensei chose not to tell me a single detail of the session. 

Me and the other guys were told to climb up the stairs to the second level walkway, but that wasn’t it. If it had been, we would only be around level with the girls’ thighs at best. Hirose had us line up because there was actually a ladder leading up higher to a third level where Sasakura-sensei and Yagi were waiting.

I glanced at the height of the third level. It wasn’t a third floor exactly as the warehouse sized ‘gym’ didn’t have an actual third floor. What it had was more like a balcony, and height wise, it was around chest level to the girls. Whatever we were going to do for this training session required us to be that high up. I wondered if we were going to have to talk to the girls from a similar height or something.

In any case, I opted to be the first one up and climbed the ladder before anyone else could. Hirose stopped the other guys from following, so it was just me when I reached the top.

“Here. I got you, Kirishima,” Yagi extended his hand out to me to help me stand up. I accepted it gratefully.

“Thanks, Yagi-san,” I told him before turning to the infirmary nurse who was fiddling with a remote control. “Sensei, what are we doing for this training?”

Sensei glanced at the railing I had put my hand on. She spoke, and because her microphone was connected to the speakers, everyone could hear her. 

“Careful, kiddo. While the girls are definitely still taller than this height while Magnified, this is close to a four-story drop given the size of this place,” she warned. “If you fall from here the wrong way, you’d probably break your neck, so do be careful while getting close to the railing, alright? Don’t grab onto it.”

That was not a pretty thought. The girls really were giants if even at this height, we still had to look up at them. I let go of the railing and stepped away from the edge.

“Kirishima, you and Asano already went through the first half, so we’re shuffling the order around,” she prefaced her explanation. “So that you two can go early, we’ll have everyone start with the second training. That way, you’ll all be new to it and we can see which of you are the type to act when push comes to shove. Will you sink or swim?”

“Sensei, you look a little too happy. Don’t tell me this is a way of relieving stress for you?” I squirmed when the infirmary nurse’s normally neutral expression curved up in what could only be called a smile, or perhaps a smirk. Just what was the second half of the training course? 

“Well, I have been doing too much paper work lately,” Sasakura-sensei didn’t deny my accusation. “I’ll give you all fair warning. If you aren’t careful for this test, someone could get hurt or worse even with the DL field on. It’s not the be-all-end-all of protections, so you have to be wary, okay?”

That didn’t fill me with hope. And as for the others, it served to make them all concerned about what the training was about if Sensei had to give such a warning.

While I and everyone else were imagining what was going to happen, Sasakura-sensei gestured to Yagi. The guys gave me a ‘gentle push’ so that I was close to the edge of the second story on the part of the balcony that protruded out. As Sensei had warned earlier, I tried not to touch it.

“Huh? Yagi-san…?” Despite Sasakura-sensei’s warning earlier, it seemed I actually HAD to be by the edge.

“Sorry, Kirishima,” Yagi sighed as he looked down to the other boys waiting below at the ladder. He shouted down at them. “Everyone, stand against the wall and watch. Kirishima will be going first so you know what you’re in for.”

“Asano, you’re up first too!” I heard Sensei call Yae up. 

“Me? Okay, Sensei.”

“We’re starting you all off with an important lesson,”  Sensei addressed all of us. “Asano, I want you to do what comes natural to you first just to start things off. Kirishima, stand with your chin to your chest and hands at your side. Girls, boys, please pay close attention to what is going to happen.”

Us being first up made sense. I understood, but I was not a fan of being made the example. Being shoved near the railing, I didn’t want to look down, but being told to put my chin to my chest forced me to. The part of the third-story platform seemed to protrude out like a pirate ship plank. Though the fall to the floor wasn’t as great as Yae’s current height was, I recalled being put on the roof earlier that morning. I did not like how high up I was.

That was when I noticed it.

When I looked down towards my shoes, I realized there was blue colored tape in a square directly around my feet. The ominous difference in the color of the floor there made me pale.

“Wait… Sensei… Don’t tell me…,” I gulped. This wasn’t a gymnasium, I realized. It was a ninja-trap filled castle designed to look like a school gym.

“You’re quick to realize. I hope Asano will be too because it would be pretty bad if she didn’t react,” Sensei stated as she held up her remote for everyone to see. 

Beep.

“Whoah!” Without giving Yae any warning, Sensei hit a button and the floor beneath me disappeared. The trap door gave way and caused me to suddenly fall.

“Huh?” “What the-” “Kyaah!” 

“...!!! Touya!”

Amidst the shocked shouts I heard from my classmates, I could clearly hear Yae’s panicked cry of my name. I watched as her and the rest of the world flipped upside-down with my body. She was frozen in place from the shock. She wasn’t going to be able to catch me.

“Grk!” Something tightened around my leg. Suddenly, my body jerked and started to bounce up and down. I didn’t hit the ground head first. I was stopped before that even came close to happening. Somehow, before I had actually fallen, something had latched onto me. From the bright lights and sleek white polish, it looked like a futuristic bungee cord.

Bzzt!

“Asano. Out.” A buzzer sounded as Sasakura-sensei spoke through the speaker. It was too reminiscent of a comedy gag with how she said it right after the buzzer. This really was Sensei’s stress relief.

“H-Huh? W-What?” Yae was stunned and shocked at the rapid fire buzz of events that just happened. 

“Whoa. Kiri, are you okay down there?” “Kirishima-kun didn’t hit the ground.” “That scared me.”

“I didn’t think that was going to happen.” “Sensei, what the hell?” Our various classmates were making a ruckus. It was to be expected considering it probably looked like I nearly got hurt. Sensei was smart to have mentioned we were still in danger even with the DL Field. She had gotten everyone to think about the vulnerability of us boys and then preyed on that line of thinking.

“It’s not like he was actually going to hit the floor. We are a school after all, however, this was something that has to be done,” Sensei asserted with very little to back up her statement after what had happened. She then fiercely pointed at my childhood friend many times her size. “You girls are being too lax thinking this is like Reduction Week. If you aren’t able to react to everything around you, people will get hurt when you’re that big. The fact that I had to treat some injuries this morning already shows just how lightly you girls have been treating this week! I’ll be dropping each and every one of the boys until you all can get this right this morning!”

“Eeeeeeeeeh?” was the unanimous chorus from practically all of us, especially us boys who were going to be taking the brunt of the trouble.

“So that’s what kind of lesson this was...” I sighed while hanging upside down. This was a venting session as much as it was a practical course. It made sense for this to be the training session, especially considering how the girls had been treating the boys all morning.

Reaction Training - That was the actual name of the session Sensei wanted to put us through. As Yagi lowered the cord and got me down safely, I listened to Sasakura-sensei’s explanation. To force the girls to actually think of the boys, she had made me fall right in front of their eyes. It was definitely impactful. 

This was what Sensei was planning to have us do. We boys were going to be made to bungee at a moment’s notice and the girls were going to have to react accordingly to try and catch us in time; however, they were also going to have to quickly think and act in a way that would safely grab us. Otherwise, she would deem it as a failure like Yae had failed by not being able to react.

“This is going to a rough course,” I frowned as I checked my ankle for any marks from the cord. This was a really harsh type of mandatory training.

Harsh was an understatement when it came to the Reaction Training session we had to go through. Sasakura-sensei was being as strict as she could be this time. She tried to make it difficult for both the guys and the girls to predict when she would release the trap door. Then, when she evaluated the girls, she would eye a slow motion recording of the entire scene. Even the slightest stumble or unsteady motion from the girls meant they would fail and they would have to get back in line to do it again.

What she ended up doing was pairing one boy with one other girl… for the most part. Since we had more girls than boys in our class, Fujimoto and Eguchi were the unlucky duo who had to experience bungeeing more than once. 

There were plenty of differing opinions on the training session. Some guys like Itou and Aikawa didn’t mind the idea of bungeeing. In fact, they were enough of a pair of daredevils to be willing to volunteer in case Fujimoto and Eguchi weren’t up for it. Everyone else, though, had enough common sense to be reluctant. They didn’t trust Sensei as much after the first scare even though they had to go.

This was another part of the lesson though - the need for anyone normal sized to trust the Magnified girls. Sensei seemed to have gotten enough data about our classmate relationships with one another to be able to pair most people up so there was some mutual trust.

Ryou and Tsujimoto were the first to succeed and on the first try. Though Tsujimoto said it was all because of her quick reflexes, Ryou enjoyed teasing her about how she was concerned about him because she caught him before his body even flipped over. I didn’t know if it was because he was always a gutsy guy or if he trusted Tsujimoto that much, but the guy didn’t even flinch when Sensei dropped the trap door on him.

Nakano and Honda, though they were embarrassed still after this morning, were close enough to actually succeed in being caught in the second try. The first time, Honda’s massive bust actually ended up shaking a bit too much that although she caught Nakano with both hands cupped together, it literally swung down onto him and buried him between her hands and chest.

For Eguchi… he had been paired with two of his admirers. Yamaguchi took three tries, fumbling with his body the first two times. She was apparently so nervous, the sweat on her palms made him slip away from her. The poor guy was moist with sweat when it was Shima’s turn. She wasn’t an athlete for no reason. Shima succeeded on her first try… though in her joy of passing, she tried to hug Eguchi which did tempt Sasakura-sensei into failing her for dropping her guard.

There were groups with not much trust at the start, sadly. Shiina and Saeki, for example, didn’t know each other at all. Well, not many of us knew Saeki well honestly. He didn’t talk much. But not being sure about Saeki made Shiina hesitate and she missed him a couple of times. The guy got annoyed and glared at her, which made the gyaru snap back.

And considering Tokiwa’s personality, I expected her to have trouble as well when she and the Class Rep were paired with Fujimoto. I was completely wrong though. Tokiwa caught him gently in an instant and was rather proud of it. Yoshikawa on the other hand was a bit clumsy and actually tripped, slamming her head into the wall. The impact of her sheer mass shaking the gym nearly made the other guys by the railing fall.

There was a lot to be concerned about, but that was why the Health Committee was around to help out. Yagi and Hirose were helping the guys while Yanase-senpai and two other health committee members were assisting the girls. While I was worried for them all though, someone else was worried for me. Way too worried.

“Touya, are you sure, you’re okay?”

“Yes. I’m fine… Um.. Yae, I can’t really go anywhere like this.”

“Don’t go anywhere, Touya. Again, are you sure you’re fine? You're not hurt, are you?”

Of course it was Yae. We hadn’t gone up a second time yet. While the impact of seeing someone fall would be lessened for the other girls after having seen it happen to me, the fact that my childhood friend, who was definitely in love with me, had seen me plummet and she had been unable to do anything about it had rattled her.

She was so concerned about me that I was trapped, flanked on both sides by Yae’s hands which pressed against the wall. Yae kept asking the same question to me like a broken record.

“If we don’t go up, we won’t be done, Yae,” I looked up at her face as her head blocked the light from the rafters and cast me in shadow. I wasn’t intimidated, but I was a little nervous. a two-handed wall slam like this was not at all heart-pounding in a romantic sense, it did offer a rather lewd view I tried my best not to look at for Yae’s sake. Her leaning over made her breasts hang rather loosely despite the fact that she had a bra on.

“Uuuuu… Touya, I’m sorry,” she apologized. “I didn’t think that Sasakura-sensei would do that.”

“That’s what the training session is for. It’s not like you were supposed to get it on the first try,” I tried to reassure her. My childhood friend never was the stablest of minds, but it wasn’t like she was ‘menhera’ and describing her as a ‘yandere’ was more of a joke than anything else nowadays. She was, however, someone who could react poorly to something unexpected. The fact that she froze up seemed to have shaken her to her core.

“I was scared you would have gotten hurt because of me.”

“You’ve kind of already hurt me before. A bunch of times actually,” I bluntly pointed out. There were plenty of instances during Reduction Week where Yae was a bit too gung ho over my smaller stature, and during Magnification Week, her being willing to play along with some of the girls had been troublesome. “If you’re freaking out about it now, I don’t know what else I can say.”

“Touya, that’s mean,” Yae didn’t appreciate my brutal honesty but hearing my casual tone did cause her to brightly up just slightly. She slowly started to straighten up, giving me enough room to maneuver and duck under her right arm to get away. “I was worried, you know? Aren’t you taking this too lightly? I was supposed to protect you there, and I screwed up.”

“When did I need protecting?” I asked her as I stretched and breathed in the air of a freer space.

“I mean, you’re so small like that,” Yae told me. “Remember Reduction Week? You needed my help for everything.”

I laughed and bounced, walking further away from Yae so she didn’t have to strain her neck to see me. “Just because you’re bigger doesn’t mean you’ve got to protect me. What are you, Meteor Heart?”

Cough!

Referencing Yae’s beloved anime (that she denied enjoying in public) got her to choke on her own saliva since she didn’t see it coming.

“But I mean… during that we-”

“During that week, I definitely needed you while I was Reduced. Yes. That’s true,” I interrupted her. “But I’m not Reduced this time. You need me to help you out while you’re Magnified. I’m the normal sized one here now. Not you. This is definitely why Sensei wants this training session. You all have to realize this isn’t Reduction Week. It’s something else entirely.”

“Y-You have a point.” My reasoning was getting through to Yae.

“Besides. You shouldn’t be feeling sad, Yae. If anything, I thought you’d get angry. Getting tricked by Sensei like that, normally anybody would be,” I tried to lightheartedly joke around and redirect any troubles towards Sasakura-sensei. It was enough of a joke that it actually got Yae to giggle. I could feel the shifts in her weight through the floor as took a proper seat, landing her rear end right on the floor. 

“You know I don’t get mad, Touya,” she told me, hugging her knees apparently unaware of her own self.

“Uh… No. You do,” I vehemently rejected her statement. “There’s a reason why Takahashi is still scared of provoking you. You freaked her out earlier, remember? And that’s not even talking about how you were back then. Remember cram school?”

“I-I’ve improved since then,” Yae declared. Her body reflexively leaned back, but there was only the wall behind her. I took the opportunity to approach, climb up onto her shin, and take a seat there, looking up at my childhood friend’s long legs. “Touya? What are you doing?”

“I’m showing you how much I trust you,” I answered her. “Getting all depressed like this after Sensei’s trick isn’t any good. I’m worried about you everytime you act like this.”

“O-Ok. Fine, you win. Can you please get off, Touya?,” Yae pushed her skirt down, knowing I had a clear view of what was inside it if she didn’t. She was embarrassed enough to want me to get off, but she didn’t want to hurt me so she stayed still.

“Sure,”  I nodded while still straddling Yae’s leg. Before I hopped off, however, there was one more thing I wanted to tell Yae. “Let’s get back in the line for the training then. I want to pass as soon as possible. Remember what I said before class started? Senpai said they’d let us out of the building after we were done. Don’t you want some alone time?”

“Alo-” Yae’s interest was piqued but she was also flustered thinking of the two of us alone together. “Really?”

“Well, if we ignore the rest of the health committee, then yes,” I crushed Yae’s delusions with my honesty as I climbed off of her leg. “Though I think I can convince Kamiya-senpai if push comes to shove.”

“Then let’s do it then,” my childhood friend stood all the way up to her foot height, leaving down beneath her knees. It seemed our little chat had cheered her up. “I’m ready, Touya.”

I hoped she was. Motivating Yae was easy for me, but the fact that she could so easily be demotivated was indeed tough. 

I followed Yae’s longer strides back to the rest of our class. From the looks of it, about half of the girls had succeeded by now. Though we would have to wait until the rest of them had another turn, this time I was pretty sure Yae could pass.