(60) Day 4 Inn Wrap-up (54.2 m < 54.3 m)

Heading over to the other side of the inn wasn’t difficult at all to Yae. The large inn would’ve taken me ages to travel by foot, but because Yae was now three times the size of the building, she circled around the complex the same way just like she was going around a house’s backyard.

“Careful now. We don’t want you bumping your head.” “It’s already too late for that, Senpai.”

“Okay, on the count of three, we take it off, okay?” “One. Two. Three!”

“Isuzu students, please follow Saeki-san to the left! Sakuragawa girls, please follow Fushimi-san to the right! Kogei students please follow me this way!”

We still took our time though. The sight before our eyes was just too strange. The health committee girls were doing their best to escort the other students out of the now relatively smaller building while carefully taking down its walls. It looked like they were taking down intricately decorated cardboard instead of actual building walls. It was like the end of a cultural festival – all of the amazing sights and displays we had seen the day before were being taken down.

“It looks like we’re not going to be staying here tonight,” Yae remarked, taking slow steps so I wouldn’t fall out of her hands. “Touya, is it me or do the walls look even more fragile than yesterday? I know I’m even bigger now but it looks like they’re going to break when those girls are carrying them.”

“Senpai said something about Ranko-san weakening the strengthening effect,” I relayed what I had heard to my childhood friend. “That’s strange though. I never saw anything that looked like a DL field generator when we walked around. And it doesn’t look like there’s any on the roof either. Maybe it’s something else.”

Yae pondered what it could be. “We didn’t really go around too much yesterday, but I don’t think I saw anything either. Maybe it’s in the walls… or maybe they have one big one that’s just Magnified.”

“I wonder if that would even work.” I considered the idea of DL field generators being hidden inside the giant walls as well, but Yae’s second idea… would a field generator work the same way if Magnified? The science behind Alteration technology was something I had very little knowledge of.

“Sadly, the answer is no.”

“Kyah!”  “Uwomfff!”

To my surprise, Yae’s reaction time had gone sharply up. Her two hands clamped together reflexively in an attempt to guard me. My body was then quickly jerked up as Yae then pressed her hands against her chest, shoving me against her bosom. The person who had surprised us didn’t have any ill intentions, thankfully. In fact, she was a person who could answer our question.

“Despite us refining things for years now, we still haven’t worked out all of the kinks with the technology yet. Still, we’ve made good progress, haven’t we?”

“Huh? Y-Yurika-san?” Yae got a good look at the woman’s face before she released her protective pressure on me. I found myself clinging to the yukata fabric for a second before falling onto her palms again. “M-Ma’am?”

We were looking around for Morino because she was supposed to be near Ranko-san, but the other government employee we had met the night before, Yurika-san, had suddenly appeared behind us – Magnified.

“Good to see you kids again, Yae-kun, Touya-kun,” the woman spoke to us somewhat casually. Despite us only meeting one day ago, she had been getting more and more casual with us. It caught me off guard, but, when I was able to get a look at her, I found myself more surprised by her choice of clothes rather than her sudden Magnification or her way of speaking.

The previous day, I had seen Yurika-san in a lab coat over a dress shirt and pants, so I had associated her with a formal and scientific appearance, but this morning, she was wearing boots, shorts, tights, and gloves. More distinctly, though, over her tie and dress shirt, in which she had rolled the sleeves up, she had a vest strapped on her that made me think of military tactical gear. She still had somewhat formal clothes, but she looked more ready for a combat than lab work. What she’d have to fight when over 50 meters tall was beyond what I could imagine though.

“N-Nice to meet you again, Ma’am,” I stuttered. Even Yae stood up straight because of Yurika-san’s ‘commander-like’ uniform.

“Hah…” A sigh escaped the government worker that reminded me of what her actual personality was like. “No need to call me that. I’m just wearing this to help Ran out today. Hey Ran, the two of them are here now.”

Of course the reason why Yurika-san would be dressing up was Ranko-san. The woman in question was nowhere to be seen, though. Was Yurika-san talking to her through her headset?

“Yeah. Yeah. I can see,” another voice answered out of nowhere. It was nowhere near as loud as the Magnified Yurika-san’s voice was to me, though. In fact, it sounded muffled.

Looking around, I realized that, among the strapped and belts on the Yurika-san’s vest, there was a knife holster-like item that had something on it that was far thicker than a knife. A flash light? No. A grenade? No. A sleek white container with a blue cage-like frame was clipped onto Yurika-san’s vest. It resembled a shark cage but with any gaps in the cage filled in by some transparent material. At its relative size, it might as well have been a shark cage because it could certainly hold people in it.

Well, as it turned out, that was precisely what it was used for.

Popping up out of the top of the container, a familiar face waved out at me. Clad in a lab coat, Ranko-san greeted us energetically. “Hey, kids! Hope you had a good rest last night!”

“Ranko-san?!” Yae and I were surprised.

“Oh, that’s a good reaction,” grinned the woman. “Do you like this? It’s our Co-Size Harness. I can hang out in here while Yurika does all of the heavy lifting.”

“…” Yurika-san said nothing, but to our surprise, she brought up one finger. With it, she started poking Ranko-san back into the container.

“Hm? Mgff! Hey, Yurika!”

“I don’t like being Magnified, but if I can shut you up with just the tip of my finger, I’ll do it,” Yurika-san still had an annoyed expression on her face, but she seemed to be satisfied forcing her partner back down. “If there’s one thing about having to keep you under watch that I like, it’s the fact that you have a Magnification ban.”

Ranko-san was shoved completely back into the container. I could still see her through the transparent material of the cage. She wasn’t actually angry. In fact, she was laughing as she pressed some button on a panel inside.

“Heh. I don’t mind the ban. It’s pretty warm here right next to your tits, Yurika.”

“Eh?” “R-Ranko-san?” Yae and I were stunned when Ranko-san’s voice came out of the device as though she was on a megaphone.

“Ran, you idiot…” an embarrassed Yurika-san gripped the cage on the Co-Size Harness and tried to smother it. It received no damage and only served to make the woman inside laugh more.

“Haha~! Well, before Yurika figures out a way to strangle me, let’s get to business, shall we? Morino-san, can you help Yae-chan get dressed?”

“Morino?”

Following the government employee’s orders, the occult club/health committee member arrived with a pile of clothes in her hand. Curiously, she had the same vest on that Yurika-san was wearing. There was nobody inside her Co-Size Harness, though. “Morning, Yae-san. Touya-san. Did you two sleep well?”

“No.” “Not at all.” Yae and I were straightforward in shaking our heads.

“Yup, same here,” she laughed weakly. “I lost a card game with Kasumi-chan so I had patrol last night. Had to deal with some girl from crazy Kogei girl wandering around past midnight.”

“Hgrk!” I forced my mouth closed to refrain from spilling any details.

“A Kogei girl?” Yae repeated. She didn’t look at Morino when she asked that question. She glanced down at me, thinking I had choked. I shivered, fully aware who that likely was. Sumire must’ve gotten spotted heading back.

“She was way too energetic even though it was after midnight,” our classmate shook her head. “You’d have thought the sleeping pills would’ve knocked her out.”

“Well, the Kogei girls have been very crazy from what I’ve seen,” Yae giggled at Morino’s look of exasperation. I was bit more relieved when Yae stopped turning her gaze to me and relaxed even more when Ranko-san gave orders while strapped onto Yurika-san’s chest.

“Yae-chan, can you put Touya-kun down by those trucks there? Morino-san will take you to a place you can change.”

“Trucks?” Yae glanced around at her feet. It took her a while to find the ten white blocks down below. “O-Oh. I didn’t even realize those were cars.”

“Don’t worry. I didn’t realize either earlier,” Morino nodded. “It’s kind of scary how our shoes are bigger than them now.”

“Oh, they are. This is super surreal.”

Morino was right. When Yae lowered me down to where around a dozen trucks had been parked, I saw that her loafers were actually longer than the full length of the bigger trucks. It was certainly intimidating to be staring up at her long legs from below and even worse when Yae raised her foot slightly just to compare. Seeing the bottom of her slipper made me concerned of getting stepped on.

“Well, let’s get changed, Yae-san. We can’t have you going around in that yukata all day.”

At the very least, Morino was one of the saner Magnified girls. She grabbed Yae and started to take her away, leaving me with Yurika-san who removed the cage from the Co-Size Harness and lowered it to the ground.

“Oh wow. This thing’s bigger than a water tower,” I realized there were ladders around the transparent cage because it was over two meters tall. I could see Ranko-san climb up a ladder inside to open the hatch and get out.

Plop!

“Gffh?” Ranko-san’s first order of business was to throw something at me.

“There you go, Touya-kun: Your set of clothes for today. It’s just a spare uniform I asked my sister for, but you can change in one of the trucks that they took my equipment out of.”

“Equipment?” I took the pair of pants that had been covering my face off. I didn’t mind changing, but I was curious as to why so many trucks were around. I didn’t have much time to look around more though as a shadow descended over both of us. “Uwoah!”

Wham!

Tired of standing, Yurika-san sat down on the dirt and gravel. Her sheer weight actually dipped into the earth, shoving things either down or to the side.

“Hahaha~! And you said my ass was fat, Yurika.” Ranko-san laughed as she adjusted her glasses.

I wasn’t sure if making Yurika-san angry was a good idea on Ranko-san’s part. There were enough vehicles to make a truck yard, but compared to the giant woman, they looked like had a bunch of toys in front of her. Even the biggest truck wasn’t as long as the thinnest part of her legs. In fact, because Yurika-san was bending her legs, she was actually also created an underpass they could go under.

“Geh, you idiot,” Yurika-san was also surprised by the butt print she had made in the ground. We’d have another hot spring if it ended up being filled it with water. “Did you weaken the field generator by that much already?”

“I set it to gradually weaken over the course of the morning,” Ranko-san jumped down and ran over to one of the trucks. Following her to the other side, I saw numerous different devices set up on a tarp on the ground attached to a generator. Ranko-san didn’t hesitate to change some of the dials on the machines when she approached. “Guess the rate was too quick if you ended up creating a Butt Bath.”

This was the equipment Ranko-san was talking about. They looked like the machines that were connected to a Magnification Platform. They were a lot more stream-lined than the ones our school had been given though. Complicated numbers and words were flashing on the display screens as the government employee typed on one of the three keyboards. As I peeked at the monitors, I could only understand a few terms like ‘Field Strength’ and ‘Magnification Scale’.

“Are you curious, Touya-kun?” smirked Ranko-san.

“Well, sci-fi is a man’s romance after all,” I couldn’t deny how interested I was. “Is this all for the inn? Actually, since the girls are all over the place now, I guess you have to make sure the environment’s safe from them.”

“Oh my,” Ranko-san blinked. She whistled, impressed. “You sure are sharp, Touya-kun. You’re right. The day’s about to begin, so we have to make sure to put away this inn and get everyone ready for the day’s itinerary.”

“Put away?” I was aware of the itinerary, but I wasn’t sure what Ranko-san meant about putting away the inn.

“Heh. Let me show you,” Ranko-san’s eyes were sparkling after she heard my question. Stepping to the right most machine, the woman pressed a few buttons. On one of its screens, I recognized it as a map of the area; only, it had numerous colored dots speckled around it. “Alright. It looks like your committee girls work fast. The walls were put back properly, and the tracker’s showing me no life signs so everybody’s been evacuated. I guess we’re good to go.”

“Trackers? Ranko-san, you can track us?” I realized the implications of the map in an instant.

“Don’t start being surprised yet, Touya-kun. Why don’t you get a load of this too?”

Ranko-san opened the glass lid sealing up a big red button on the machine’s console and pressed it.

Vrrrrrr!

In an instant, before my eyes, the gigantic inn that all of the Magnified girls and I had been inside the night before vanished.

“Huh?!” “What just happened?” “The inn!?”

I could hear the exclamations of shock from the girls around the area. It was obvious that they would be surprised by the sudden disappearance of the place they had been staying the night.

That wasn’t the surprising part though. Even I, who was normal size, couldn’t see the inn anymore. All there was remaining was the empty plain created by the inn’s disappearance. “Teleportation? Didn’t the Magnification just get undone?”

The Magnification did get undone, but not in the way I expected. Because walking would take too longer for her, Ranko-san had Yurika-san lift her up and bring her too the center. It wasn’t too far distance for the Magnified woman at all – Yurika didn’t even have to move from her seat.

When Ranko-san came back, I saw something was in her hands, or rather, just in her palm. The inn didn’t just get its Magnification undone. It had been Reduced as well. If anyone had been inside, they would’ve been no bigger than a millimeter tall.

“Oh, I love hearing everyone’s surprise so early in the morning,” the woman laughed as she pocketed the miniscule inn into her lab coat’s breast pocket. The entire building we had once slept was kept tucked away against her chest. “Come on, Touya-kun. It’s time for us to start the program for today.”

(61) Day 4 Magnification Occupations (54.3 m < 54.4 m)

The program for Day 4 of Magnification Week was something that had been decided from the start by the government. Unlike Reduction Week’s adjustable curriculum, Magnification Week had a set plan because our trip had to be regulated by the government.

“Aah… Aah… Is this thing on?”

Although the Department of Alteration was lacking in staff on the island, Sakuragawa’s health committee was filling in the gaps. In the expansive grass field a quarter of a kilometer away from where they inn had been, roughly 50+ Magnified students from three separate schools had been instructed to stand for assembly just like whenever we had to do whenever our principal gave speeches to the school. My school’s Magnified health committee members as well as government employees were stationed in a square around the area to keep an eye on everyone.

“Oh good, it is. Gooood moooorning everyone~!” Ranko-san’s voice came out of both Yurika-san’s holster and a set of Magnified speakers. “I hope you had a good night’s rest! The morning probably could’ve left a lot to be desired, but that’s just how it is!”

It was certainly nerve-wracking to be standing up front with Ranko-san, but the woman’s carefree attitude was successfully calming my nerves now. The glass-like wall of the container I was in also gave me a sense of separation from the outside. After all, the one who was actually standing in front of the crowd was Yae.

“Today’s the start of Day 4. That means your free roam day on this school trip is over! It’s time for you all to get a proper understanding of how Magnification works and what it’s used for!”

However, I was a bit uncomfortable with how much it swayed. Unlike Yurika-san whose Co-Size holster was more like a military vest, Yae’s was closer to suspenders that she wore over her summer uniform so there were fewer places to clip on. Also, because Yae’s chest size was bigger than the older woman’s, it stuck out more. Her glass chamber pressed against her chest, unnerving me in a different sense.

“… Are you okay in there, Touya?” Yae whispered as Ranko-san continued her explanation.

I pressed a button on the panel inside the container. I made sure this one was the button to speak into her headset rather than out loud to everyone. “It’s a bit shaky. You’re a bit too bouncy, Yae.”

“T-Touya,” Yae blushed. “It can’t be helped. They gave me a uniform that was a bit too small so it’s a little uncomfortable.”

I could see that the uniform was tight on her for… obvious reasons. Yae had to wear the bodysuit underneath her summer uniform that hugged her figure enough already. Adding the Co-Size Holster on top must have been rough on her, especially under the heat of the sun.

In any case, the reason we were here up front was to be one of Ranko-san’s examples.

“You girls and the boys over by Kiku-nee will be together all day today. As you can see from where I am, we’ll be giving all of you a Co-Size Holster when we let you change clothes. If you’re fond of looking cool, we’ve got the JSDF military style. If you’re into something simpler, the suspender-type vest Asano-san here is wearing is available too.”

Yae was being used as a fashion model. She didn’t seem too embarrassed about it, but that might have been because she was concerned about me. I couldn’t see through the glass when Yae grabbed onto it and held it tightly. Even so, I could hear what was going on outside.

“That looks cool.” “Suspenders? Lame.” “Wait, are we keeping the boys in them?”

There was a mix of reactions and questions from the girls as Ranko-san continued giving a rundown on how the holster container could be placed and operated. She was gushing about it. It took some time before Yurika-san’s patients grew thin and she encouraged Ranko-san to go to the main topic of her speech.

“Ran… The time.”

“Gwaah! Hey, don’t stick your finger in here! I thought it was a snake for a second!” Ranko-san’s sudden shout and reaction came through the speakers. Yurika-san was taking advantage of being bigger than Ranko-san as much as she could. From how Ranko-san normally behaved, I thought she couldn’t be taken off her pace, but the size difference was too much even for her.

“…”

After a long pause, Ranko-san realized everyone had heard and tried to recompose herself. “Ahem. Sorry. That’s right. I should probably tell you what you are all doing today. Today’s itinerary will be Magnification Occupations.”

Magnification Occupations. There it was. Much like how Reduction Week gave us guys a chance to see a few Reduced jobs, the main reason why we had been moved to an island for Magnification Week was for this part of the itinerary. To learn about different jobs in how Magnification could be used, the girls would be taking part in trying out these giant sized occupations.

“We’ve got a variety of tasks for you girls to all go through so we’ll have you group up and then rotate through each area on the island throughout the day. At the same, the boys will be joining in while inside the holster capsules. Construction, demolition, development, support, since you’re all big girls, there’s plenty you can do, but don’t take things lightly.”

That was the general plan. As Ranko-san lectured everyone on the itinerary, I looked out to see groups being formed by the health committee members. It seemed the girls weren’t going to get to choose their groups so that the schools could be mixed together.

“Touya, are we going to be in one of those groups too?” Yae asked me. She didn’t have to turn her head or anything because I could hear her easily when literally attached to her.

Presing the button inside the container, I answered. “We’ll be moving around apparently, so we won’t be staying in one group. You’re still getting the full experience, though, Yae.”

“Oh, so we’ll be seeing a lot of people then.”

“Yeah,” I responded, letting go of the speaker button. I kept my eyes focused outside. Because groups were being formed, I was searching through the crowd for one person in particular. “Sumire…”

Yae had a better view of the area than me, but she wasn’t actively searching the crowd, so she must not have noticed. I spotted the girl hidden behind her friend, the delinquent, Reina. Kamiya-senpai seemed to be doing her best to keep her away because the group Sumire was being put in didn’t seem to have any Sakuragawa students. Seeing that, I hoped things would be okay for me and Yae.

It certainly helped to have people working behind the scenes.