Formaldehyde.

Antisceptic.

Raw meat left out.

Iron, or something similar - a tool? Blood?

Burnt, cauterized fat.

Bone dust, they had learned over the week, smelled of corn chips.

Green tea and black tea, wet and warm.

Faint scents. Restless, distant rattling. Mechanical whirring. This was the background against which the six shrunken patients existed. Not all of them could be said to still walk, talk, breathe, or think clearly. None could be said to sleep. At this point, the people merely existed inside the transparent confines of glass containers. Existed, and perhaps, despaired - but they did not live there. This was not life. These bodies, these procedures, these terrors - these couldn't be what life was.

They'd changed over their stay. Mutated, curled, ripped and rebuilt anew. And yet, she remained. She was the same. That immense creature who swayed and wobbled through the door; white lab coat's tails trailing behind her confident, booming steps; blonde hair in the sky drifting around thick bolts in her cranium. Her wide, glazed, yellowish eyes looked at them with the same detatched, sleepy intrigue as when they'd entered the mansion. When they were full-sized.

"Pulses still within acceptable range of 500-600 bpm. Gas exchange increasing, resize airway lumen and recalibrate humidifiers to regulate diaphragm's oxygen. Fine motor control evaluation show jitters and spasms, though outside the conditions for dysdiadochokinesia. Verify peripheral nerve connections, clear cerebrospinal fluid ventricles, prepare dexterity training. Cellular mitosis remarkably energetic and reactive to cyclins - good work, little bacteriaaaa~"

She used her left hand to hold a medical chart; and her right hand to scrawl notes in it; while her other hands tapped and brushed the jars holding her specimens, or adjusted dials as she walked by their enclosures. Stitches ran down the joints, as if some fingers or phalanges had fallen off, and been replaced. Between them, every bit of skin was clean, spotless and smooth as a porcelain doll.

Except that porcelain dolls didn't move. Porcelain didn't have sinews, veins, aortas; flexing, pumping, bulging, popping, crackling, breathing beneath thin wafers of flesh in an excited frenzy. Porcelain couldn't have that smile, that knowing smile that ripped past her lips and across her cheeks.

That was Fran Madaraki.

Anderson sobbed in a corner, holding his knees. His fluids pooled and spilled around his seat. "Kill me..."

Fran's head rotated to him. "No."

Pedro scratched at his neck, hunched over, hacking up bile. His nostrils flared. "Kill... me...! You sick... fuck...!"

The doctor's forefinger rubbed fog from his glass. "You'll live."

Tessay's garbled, minuscule voice barely left millimeters before his face. "K... kggk..." He struggled to get the smallest bit of air in his flooded, tiny lungs.

"You all agreed to my conditiooons..." From above, the unsteady colossus wrote notes with the speed of a typewriter.

In the largest enclosure, Hadi and Bello shrieked over each other with a singular, hysterical voice: "Kill us! Oh God - kill us!"

Fran's neck tilted sideways at the shivering shapes within. "Why?" She glanced with genuine confusion as they sunk into each other.

The last of the hall's five containers held Liu. Words and motion were distant memories within. If she could, she would flail out and beg as soon as Fran's majestic medical smock came into view, draping around her legs. But the subject was motionless, frozen.

In the corner, there stood a spectre - only half a head smaller than Fran and imposingly quiet. A bucket hat over her short, dark hair. A winter coat sightly covering her scarred, blood-drenched hands. Veronica Madaraki, younger sister and bodyguard of the household, loomed perfectly still, besides the occasional twitch. She'd been there the whole time; yet sunk in as a background element, part of the horrifying scenery stretching out sickening distances and curving through the glass like a hall of mirrors.

Turning back one more time, as she finished her notes, the titan-scale surgeon held one of her index fingers up. "The Hippocratic Oath. My Professor has taught me its intricacies. I'm sure you all know it, even though few physicians still swear by Apollo Healer." She closed her eyes, and clasped her fingers in nostalgia. "Hold your teacher equal to your parent. Divulge no secrets from your patients. Administer no poison. And of course, most famously... Do no harm."

Her silhouette sunk into the doorframe, Veronica swiftly trailing like a shadow against the wall. "So don't worry, any of you. I will nurture you. I will keep your secrets safely shut in this room." She made a zipping motion across her friendly, grinning scars. "And as long as you're within my care, none of you will die. That is my solemn promise. These hands exist to keep you alive and safe."

Fran's eight palms reached out to them, open and welcoming. The hopeless shrinkees' shaking, pained arms struggled against the glass, gripping desperately, as she shut the door behind her.

One Week Earlier...

Appropriate. The Madaraki household's gates already looked gigantic.

Even tucked amid taller mountains veiled in vast forests and harsh rainfall, the Gothic-style mansion stuck out. In a sense, it stood out more here; for a sleepy, out-of-the-way part of the Japanese countryside, that kind of structure seemed extravagant.

Then again, from what they'd heard of Dr. Naomitsu Madaraki, he was an extravagant person.

The population at the town outskirts were wary. Aging, hunched over, tucking into small spaces. Pretending not to understand when Anderson asked for directions in English. Pretending to have hearing problems when Liu asked again in their mother tongue. Silently praying not to get involved. Between them, it had taken longer to arrive at the manor then anticipated. Dusk set in, people slowly closing away for meals that the travelers couldn't afford to stop for.

Closer in, around the "radius" of the household, the town seemed to gradually grow livelier. Younger. Friendlier. Taller. Shorter. Wider. Bonier. Toothier. Spikier. Fashion choices that made the wildest tattoos and piercings look quaint. The exact same faces right next to each other. People in what looked like mascot or monster suits, without a fairground or convention in sight. They were all too happy to point to the visitors' destination, right over this road and that slope. One formally-dressed man with the face of a basset hound offered a ride in his Rolls-Royce, in case this was some urgent life-and-death matter. When Hadi and Bello hesitated, he just bowed, and murmured:

"I understand fully. Do not let me pry. Doctor-patient confidentiality is of upmost importance to us."

Though as the rain began, they started to reconsider how hasty they'd been to reject his services.

The twin, tall doors of the household swung open. With convenience-store umbrellas and newspapers over their heads, the eight of them rushed in. Women first, Hadi, Bello, and Liu; then Aliev; followed by the men, Laghari, Pedro, Anderson, and finally Tessay. As they dropped their suitcases to the doormat, and wiped their traveling boots, a small rabble of faces in surgical wrappings and masks gathered around.

Near the floor, a handsome boy's face with reddish-brown hair appeared, rubbing up against a corner. "Ngh... lost tourists coming in from the rain?" He wandered closer, stretching his cat legs and tail out, mewing slightly.

Clad in a black bucket hat, Veronica scanned them from the staircase above. "Don't be fooled, Okita. They're hiding something. Spies, saboteurs...? CIA, FSB, MSS? Black Lotus? Gavrill's gang?" Her legs leaned inwards and she readied a blade in her cloak. Her hand gripped tighter when Liu took her jacket off - and lifted her head up to the younger Madaraki's wide eyes.

"No, didn't I tell you? These are patients from overseaaaaas~"

A set of stitched hands clapped, slight wet noises coming from between them. They gave Veronica a firm shoulder-pat, pushing her along; and scooped Okita up away from the mud puddles, with an ergonomic posture that made the doctor coat and skirt dangle. With a hurried bow, she directed a set of muscular, hazmat-suited attendants to dry everyone off with towels and fans. She bowed and curtseyed to the eight of them, and they exchanged introductions.

"Dr. Madaraki?" Aliev briskly shook her hand. "We've heard so much about you."

The blonde woman pulled away slightly, her stitched mouth holding back chuckles of embarrassment. "Ah, no, the Professor is still away. Working on the betterment of mankind. I'm Fran, I've been keeping the lights on in his stead. You're...?"

As Fran looked back, she realized that her forearm had fallen out of its socket, in the visitor's palm - revealing a bloody stump. The others stood in shock for a second. Veronica twitched. Aliev started laughing, and handed it back. "Ahh, pranks to lighten the mood. What *fun* we'll have."

Pedro, much dryer now, looked at the hulking creatures around - circling the doctor and her protégé. "She's quiet, but that Fran has a way of giving orders..."

"That's good." "Yeah..." Bello and Hadi whispered among themselves.

As Veronica patted them down with her worn palms, checking for weapons, Liu commented: "Uhm, you all... You have excellent English, if I can say so... Our, erm... *community* is primarily Anglophone, but your intonation is... a-a lot better than mine."

The small shape in shadowy gear grunted. "Skip the flattery. I guarded the doctor around the world, so I picked up some words from other languages. He's also had my dear sister study piles of stuffy foreign medical texts, in the comfort of this big house..." She clicked her tongue. "And Okita watches too many American horror films."

Okita grinned smugly. "Guilty. Elvira has her ways."

Fran shook her head, quietly reconnecting her lost hand with stitches. "Ah, I'm not good with English at all. I still have trouble pronouncing such simple terms as, 'Ulcerative Colitis'~ It's embaaaaarrassiiiiing..."

She led the group down long hallways, with flickering, yellowy lights on mahogany. Strange, sloshing sounds erupted from behind doors - and they kept turning at shadows in the cracks, peeking in between doorframes or rotting documents and burnt medical charts.

Okita, with his tail waving high, trotted around them. "So, this *community*. What's it about?" He lapped at his paw.

They started exchanging glances among themselves. Hadi and Bello curled into each other, mumbling. Laghari coughed.

Anderson crossed his arms. "We're people of culture."

Liu looked away, hands in her back pockets. "I'm... something of an... illustrator."

"Archivist," Tessay tapped his chest in pride.

"Writer." Pedro lowered his eyes to Fran's slippers, and how she shifted weight on her soles along the halls.

"Web design." "Voice actress, freelance." Hadi and Bello concluded, hands held, mouths close.

"Photographic manipulation. Professional artist." Aliev marched firmly.

"A regular patron of all these people," Laghari finally managed.

Anderson continued as they entered a warm guest room with embroidered portraits. "None of us are prominent or wealthy. But that's because, like Dr. Madaraki, we're brave. Brave enough to stand up to short-sighted moralizers." His teeth clenched. "There's no shame in what we do. We channel our most natural instincts to create beauty."

Liu blushed, taking a seat. "Just like... just like Dr. Madaraki created beauty."

Veronica grimaced her way, the gears of her internal weapons clanging. "What did I tell you about flattery? It'd just take one slice now. I could crush you all like cockroaches..."

Most of the guests awkwardly smiled at that threat. She noticed some of their pulses racing, and hands sweating - almost like anticipation. Pedro stole peeks at her tall, white boots. Some sat cross-legged or with arms in their laps so as to cover their groins.

Okita's fur stood on end, as he slinked among the guest room decorations. "Still doesn't explain why you're here. Medical tourism... There are cheaper places for it, probably closer to your homes."

Fran flipped through notes. "Ah, yes, that's right. When you called about this arrival, you said you'd explain in private... But you brought up a past patient. Mr. Kim, right?"

Liu nodded back, gazing upon the medical tomes lying around. "I got in contact with him... thank goddess."

"A man who was a strapping 6 foot 5 inches..." Laghari almost looked lost in a dream. "...Who gave it up to make his girlfriend less intimidated."

Aliev clutched their knees. "4 foot 9. When he finished the operation."

Bello murmured: "And Dr. Madaraki worked on that whale woman, too."
Hadi nodded. "The Kannon, and Yasuko, at those gigantic sizes."

Sipping a cup of tea brought in from a squat servant, Fran sighed. "Ah, yes, I was involved with Mr. Kim's case. He had lot of questions for The Professor. Very bright man! The couple consummated their relationship afterwards." She tilted her hand such that the brown fluid wobbled in waves. "And those girls living with belugas, splashing in the seas... I still see them on the news sometimes, they look so happyyyy... Like a fairytale ending..." Her misty eyes visibly teared up, wetness building. "So... *sob*... a height operation... This is for which of you?"

Pedro looked around. "All of us. We've each saved up and pooled our money for this..." His fingers curled against his pants. "Procedure."

Anderson took a deep breath. "Just. We'd like smaller. Can you make me exactly 2.5 centimeters?"

Silence. A brief, cutting silence.

Bello lifted a hand. "I'd prefer being 3 inches tall."

Hadi followed: "Then I'll be a few millimeters."

Tessay laughed awkwardly. "Can you please do micrometers for me?"

The doctor took a long sip of her tea. "Hm." She let her head tilt, rubbing her chin.

During the discussion, Veronica didn't sit, just loomed. The shadow finally spoke. "When the subject of shrinking came up... Your temperatures all soared. You're nervous. What's going on? Is one of you forcing the others into this? Who's in charge here?"

Hadi started: "Well, Bello's the site's administrator, but..."

Bello continued: "We all decided on our own."

Laghari shifted in place. "This is actually my first time meeting most of them in-person... We just shared our common interest online."

Liu lay back. "I'll... gladly let any nice woman take charge. I'm a real pushover."

Bounding to the largest chair's armrest, Okita put a paw up, hiding his worried mouth, and whispered: "Fran... This lot gives me a bad vibe. Like the ski lodge case..."

"Ski loo~oodge..." Her eyes bluged for a second. She stroked the catboy's fur and hair, looking over the foreign guests seated around the old wooden tables. Slowly, she got up, with her feline housemate at her slippers. "Okaaay~ There's many of you, so this may be difficult. But if this operation is to continue, then I'll need you to be honest with me. Please trust me, this is crucial information about your health." She put a hand to her hip. "How, exactly, did you develop macrophilia?"

Veronica sputtered, back going up against a bookcase. "M-m-macro... philia? What?"

Okita's jaw dropped, his body practically hiding behind Fran's legs. "So you're accusing them of... a fetish for..."

Fran kept staring. "I will try not to judge. But I need your cooperation."

Anderson flung his arms up. "Look, if you'll deny us like the rest of the world, it's fine. We'll go. But... Speaking in evolutionary terms, it's only natural to want bigger mates with a better chance of survival. It's the normies - it's everyone else who's mentally wired wrong."

Pedro thought. "It probably leads back to events in my childhood... But I've heard many writers are into feet, so it could be genetic?"

Laghari grinned. "So that there's more girl to hug! Really, I don't know. But I like the role reversal of someone small and dainty messing with me."

Tessay smiled sadly. "All these choices I have to make, everything I do, I keep doubting and regretting and overthinking. I want a strong woman to utterly dominate me and make those choices for me."

Hadi hugged Bello. "It's because I want to be totally, fully, 100% held in another person's warmth."

Bello cuddled back. "I'm actually into being bigger - having some control over things, for once. But I've learned to love shrinking and still dominating someone..."

Aliev grunted, arms crossed. "Society is going to hell. I want someone cute to destroy it all."

Veronica had to stare to Liu before she answered, folding her chin down, carefully stepping on each word. "I've always felt... guilty... about sex. Like... I could be... hurting someone with my thoughts. I want to give my beloved, the person I dream about... full power. Over me. Over the world. So she'll never get hurt."

"Uhhm..." The dark-haired girl slowly covered her mouth with a bandaged hand. "Th-that's pretty... extreme..."

Okita had a Cheshire Cat smile. "So you're all internet perverts. Ain't the worst fetish, but... Look at you." His front paw fanned out. "You traveled to one of the most brilliant surgeons of this century, to whack off to her."

Pedro rolled his eyes. "Says the catboy in her arms... I bet you were reeeal into yiffing, huh?"

Veronica suddenly stomped the ground. "Hey, watch it! He's leaner and more agile like this... and that head is as human as any of you - you narcissistic, dirty freaks!"

Just as she was about to pounce, Fran signaled to Okita. The cat quickly pulled a spray bottle off the floor, and squirted Veronica's red face. She panicked, wiping it off her cheeks and wringing out her cloak.

Okita helped as best he could with his paws. "Thanks for the defense, anyway."

Tessay let out a sigh. "Well, she's right. In the end, we're all weirdos... Nobody would really miss us if we died in a sexy crushing accident."

Fran's eyebrows lowered briefly. "I would." She lifted them again, pacing in slow circles as her head bobbed. "But my little sister is right on the other point. Mr. Kim, and Okita himself, have had little to no cranial alterations. They're still using normal human heads. Reducing most body parts is possible, with the right stem cell cultures and nervous system reconnections. Bones, digestive systems, respiratory systems, circulatory systems, even tongues and jawlines, I've downsized them before. But packing a brain in a small space is another story." Her steps got frantic, ignoring the world around - while pondering. "Each area does so much independent work. Beyond left and right hemispheres. Beyond frontal, parietel, temporal, and occipital lobes. Beyond cortical areas. The human brain is a precious, precious piece of machinery that we know scarcely anything about. Body parts crushed underfoot or chewed off can eventually be replaced. It's harder to restore language, or memories, or facial recognition, or personality. Even insect and rodent brains are arranged far differently, especially their more sensitive olfactory bulbs." Her own head looked ready to fall off. "A run-of-the-mill researcher like myself can't reliably jam a human brain in a space less than 1000 square centimeters. Hmm..."

She smiled suddenly, widely, facial stitches ready to pop. "Unleeeeesss~"

Now absorbed with her monologue, everyone stood straight.

Laghari coughed again. "Money? If it's money you need, we can find more."

Trotting around them - seeing them all looking up to her - Fran shut her eyes. "Zero cost. You'll be doing a service to science. That's your payment."

Bello looked in confusion: "You're not charging us?"
Hadi shook her head. "We could've visited a year ago if we knew..."

Liu shifted in place. "And what... what's this service, Doctor Fran?"

The labcoated woman thought. "I would be interested in testing your strength under pressure - such as force under a foot or backside. See if you can retrieve information on the process of digestion from within. Perhaps, with the right discretion, exposing you to various smells or bodily fluids as a measure of sensitivity."

Pedro stared blankly for a second, trying not to drool. "And... and we don't have to pay for any of that?"

Veronica, approaching her sister, was shaking enough to ripple her coat's fur, and tilt her hat. "Sis, why?"

"How can I put this? Sex, lust, reproductive urges..." The woman leaned against surgical diagrams, tracing her finger around illustrated muscle. "Frankly, it's not something I can claim personal interest iii~iin. But as a natural part of human behaviour, their kinks' development, and their reactions to various types of stimulation, are worth study. Provided the right boundaries, and the appropriate protective measures, of course. This stimuli will double as rehabilitation for your shrunken bodies." She turned to the ceiling. "What really makes me happy - is seeing so many people joined together for a common 'love'. I'll do what I can to help that 'love' flourish... perhaps learn a little, myseeeelf~"

Laghari started to get up. "So, you'll shrink us?"

Anderson rubbed his hands. "I knew you were one of us."

Fran turned suddenly, lifting a stitched finger. "I'll operate. But. I have a condition. Namely, you'll live through this. Masochists though you may be... nothing I do will kill you, and I'll take all measures to keep you from dying. Life is sacred and beautiful, even if it's imperfect. No matter how large or small the person experiencing it."

Aliev facepalmed. "Aw, dammit."

Liu breathed in. "It's fine... This is the life we want..."

Okita, having listened passively for a while, finally spoke up. "Hey, I'll say this as a service... If it isn't critical surgery, you probably don't wanna go through with this." His tail bobbed about his head. "Fran's the best, but it'd be easier for you to visit a sexologist."

Veronica, having gotten herself together, nodded. "Yeah. Even I don't know how it'll turn out. Not like I care what happens to you freaks, but..."

The visitors sat tight, and discussed privately.
"Hmm, no going back..."
"The one with the boots. She's great."
"There's something oddly calming about how the doctor talks about it."
Slowly, one after another, they answered.

Habi clutched Bello. "A-anything, as long as it's with her."
She got a hug back. "We'll pull through, this is our ultimate fantasy."

Liu smiled. "Please give me your worst. I-I'll just ask you to go harder."

Laghari shrugged, defeated. "Look. Now that I'm here, you know. I want to have kids some day. I wanna travel with them. It just won't work for me. Good luck." Escorted out by a servant with mummy-esque wraps, he tossed a friendly wave to his companions.

Pedro got up. "There's no way I'll sit out... a chance to be with smelly feet. I'm finally gonna live my dream, aww yeah..."

Tessay just squirmed in place. "I've got nothing to lose. I'm a dirty bug inside. I'll crawl out of this mansion a dirty bug on the outside, too."

Aliev sighed. "This is not it. This is not what I imagined. If I can't get snuffed here, it's not worth it." They also were escorted out.

Anderson didn't move. "This is a test, a test of our resolve, isn't it? All great men stare at the abyss and feel small at one point. I look in, laugh, and get a boner." His jaw tensed. "Fuck me up, Doctor Fran."

And as such, there were six patients.

Each of them had paperwork to fill out. Medical information. Previous conditions. Allergies to penicillin or latex. Signatures. And, curiously, two hastily-added sections for "desired height" and "favorite fantasy".

Pedro jotted down, almost drooling. "Is this for real? I bet the doctor has... these succulent, STEAMY feet... Fuck, she was halfway zombified. I wonder if she even cleans those dirty, juicy sweat machines... Ahah..."

Hadi nudged Bello, pointing to the fantasy spot: "It's okay if I put you in here? I really want you to... y'know..."
Bello held her pen, and licked her ear. "I hope so, I want to put you right in, myself... Little snackling."
Hadi breathed heavily. "Getting vored... Getting vored by Bello..."

Tessay delibrated, fiddling with the writing device. "Hhhhm. I really just wanna shrink to nothing. I'll probably go with, 'milkers', just in case that doesn't work."

Anderson was already pacing with his paper. "You know this is once-in-a-lifetime, you can't waste it on weak shit. The Madarakis have made serious messes outta people, you know? That's the kinda damaged brain I want handling me." He held the document like an actor would hold a Shakespearian manuscript. "I've made it abundantly clear, no limits for me."

It took a lot of effort for Liu's hand to move across the page. "Y-you know, she SAID we wouldn't die, but if there's... say something goes wrong..."

"Then it'll be doing what we love," Bello murmured.
"With who we love," Hadi quickly chimed in.

Anderson crossed his arms. "I've written my will already. Revised it a hundred times. EVERYONE will know what I stood for."

"I've already picked out the music to play at my funeral." Tessay grinned for a moment, looking around furtively.

Pedro pointed a thumb to himself. "I'm insured, anyway..."

Finally, Liu managed to keep her pen moving. "If she's around, then... You... you know, I just want to tell you how great it is to be here, with you guys. We haven't been together much, but, uhm..."

They exchanged glances, none of them really answering for a while.

Tessay finally coughed. "Yeah, you... what was your username, again?"

***

"Good work, the stretchers are set at the correct positions and angles." Fran stretched her mask over her nose, and used other arms to point around the claustrophobic open chamber. "Call Adorea to Experiment Room Five with a smaller portion of gauze. Lay more tarp across the northeast!"

She strutted and wobbled between untouched medical beds, each out in the open - no privacy sheets, only a few large CRT monitors flashing static between dead pixels. An assortment of scalpels, knives, and lasers lay on the tables, staff sterilizing them. The only decoration on the windowless walls were fresh reference charts, showing incision points.

The doctor called to the ceiling: "Okita, we'll need to keep power consistent. Are there any rodents or bugs up there that could chew the wires?"

He peeked out from a loose tile. "No. I've arranged a truce with all of them."

She smiled behind the mask, tying her hair into her medical cap. "Good work, but keep an eye out."

"And you keep your eyes in."

Veronica wandered in the expansive room, so used to these procedures that she easily weaved through the bustling equipment. "Sis, you've put in way too much effort for those sexual deviants... and her."

Fran turned to her, a smile lifting her cheeks behind her mask. "Well, aren't you putting it a bit bluntly~~y? Some of them might call us 'monsters'."

The younger sister shuffled in place, her boot laces dangling. "Not all of them would."

"Exactly, they've shown proper courtesy." Fran explained. "So it's only right that we take the time to understand and work with their needs."

"But that's no reason for them to use my body--!"

As she was speaking, the doors behind her creaked. Veronica practically leaped to the corner, shivering. In walked the patients, entirely clotheless. Their bodies reflected on the walls, and in the small peeks of tile beneath rustling papery tarps below their bare feet.

"Nhg-aaah--" Veronica looked as if she were electrocuted.

Her pace quickening, exhilaration in her yellowish eyes, Fran tugged them in. "Perfect, perfect. No need to worry, this won't take long. There'll be more private quarters soon. Please, sir - move your arm..."

A small crowd of assistants, none of their faces discernable behind full-face masks, pressed cold measuring tapes across the twitching legs, shoulders, and backs. The patients were then guided single-file through electric scales.

Bello murmured. "First time, I've seen you naked..."
Hadi's pulse quickened. "Scary..."

The doctor seated each of the visitors into one bed. She dexterously stretched elastic bands around Liu's arm to make a vein swell. The girl winced at the snap. Fran punctured it with a needle - before moving to the next patient, and the next, like punch cards. They hooked into a single container of misty liquid, dangling high above.

Anderson grunted. "Anaesthetic? Sleeping gas? But I wanna... experience the... uhn..."

Liu used the last of her energy to hold her chest. The shadows of eight gloves passed over them, along with the sheen of clean, flat metal.

"Begin the operation!"

Taking steps in spirals, Fran grabbed a knife in each hand. The sound of cutting - but nobody was sure what it was she cut. Every lengthy, slender arm appeared to blend into each other. "This process will take roughly eight hours. We'll start, in simple terms, by cutting the bone marrow, then into a few nerves and aortas, extracting unnecessary blood from each of you." The limbs unfolded like a fan.

Tessay started halfway rolling in bed, before losing control of his lower body, then his torso. "You don't... have a... shrinking ray?"

The surgeon gently patted her client's slacking jaw with a cloth, wiping drool away. A thread of her blonde hair was visible, nestled beneath the looming bolt in her skull. "Such a thing doesn't exist, to my knowleeee~eedge. The correct process here is to compress your bodies manually."

A moaning noise. Bello wasn't sure if it came out of her own mouth. Already, thanks to the pumping, pulsing medication, the figure of Madaraki Fran seemed impossibly huge and dizzyingly far away. Her glossy pupils were unblinking pools that were easy to sink into.

Pumping pulse. Thumping steps. Green monitors. Bulging lumps.

"Analysis... the antiseptic... Yes, Adorea, these lungs are no longer in use, they can be donated to... Surprisingly diluted, signifying... from Room 4, please, the other one is... ah, your blood pressure... Your file didn't list Haemophilia, did it? So it will clot and... Phantom limb sensation..."

The details of her words trailed into the clouds, lost amid mechanical beeping and increasingly pounding, frenzied pacing. Yet, the gloved hands seemed insanely clear, right down to the viscera of their own immobile bodies gushing into the ridges and flexing imperfections. The heave of her bosom, in surgical garbs, splattering. Irony tastes settled in their mouths. A pumpkin getting carved out, its seeds stickling down, unhealthy amounts of stringy tendons clinging to the cracked shell of stained orange skin - only the pumpkin was their chest. Their own fingers grew further away.

A wipe of sweat off her brow. The forehead ridges above her eyelashes, lifting. A worried look. The very edge of her eyes, pink palpebral commissures, above the tent her small nose caused in the mask. Despite that, the cool chill of Fran's breath tickled their marrow and their livers. A noise at the door. A woman wrapped in bandages, dark hair behind her, face twisting into streamers.

What was that snap? Could it grow back?

Was that black hatted figure moving their numb arm a hallucination - a sleep paralysis demon - or Veronica looking over them, her stitches seemingly ready to pop apart in disgust?

Every blink lasted hours, and transported them through time. A smaller and smaller slit of fluorescent light shone through their eyelashes, closing despite resistance. Fran said something that seemed important and reassuring, leaning over with a gentle caress -

and tugging out the heart in a swift movement

aortas pumping and gushing lavender and crimson before them.

Panting.

Awakening.

Pissing.

Laid naked, each of them rose in turn. The ground was soft beneath their bare feet. Tessay's eyes fluttered and jolted, forcefully battling against the all-too-powerful light warming his scalp - his pupils struggling to reach the correct size.

Liu felt on her stomach to make sure it was still there - and winced. Not only was it raw, but she had trouble managing finger movement. It was hard to tell from touch alone whether the lingering pangs and aches were from her stomach, or her hips - she'd lost track of where one ended and the other began.

*PINGG*

The piercing, dissonant chime was immediately followed by gutteral moans. "OW! Sh-sh...ghn..." Pedro's mouth opened, but the words to express the pain of bumping his nose against a wall didn't come out. He had his hands flat against the glassy barrier. It was cold and smooth like a thick aquarium tank. Light refracted through it to show more enclosures - five of them, on wooden tables, facing each other. There were no windows, and faint lines of grime in warped gaps between floor and wall tiles. "So... We're stuck."

Bello took tentative, mismatched first steps - then fell forward under her own weight. A small murmur and stirring beneath her dark skin made her dart back up.

Hadi.

Hadi - she was between Bello's legs. At a height where she would be handheld. She had to rub her eyes. Something was off. Maybe it was the sheer size of the surrounding room... Maybe the medicine having a lingering effect... Or maybe just seeing her affectionate, sweet little thing so far BENEATH her set off an uncanny valley effect. Bello scurried back, keeping her arms close. A slight pressure from her leg knocked that small thing over - that thing that looked like Hadi, in the nude, swimming on solid ground.

"Bel... Bello is so... Huge..." She looked up, croaking.

Anderson swallowed. "Come on... What's going on? It tastes... stale."

Liu could finally see them. Other bodies flopping loosely many feet away - or at least, it seemed like feet? From this perspective, it seemed as if Bello was gargantuan - while Anderson and Pedro were close enough in height. Only, Pedro was a little shorter before, and had an inch or two above him now... And Tessay, he was absolutely tiny. Was he? The uneven layout of the tables below, and the reflections on the glass, made it hard to tell what was a trick of perspectives.

But she could tell, her own "tank" had a mattress - was that there before? A mattress, a hay bundle, small tubes... A flat bowl with oddly fine sand in it...

And gigantic, black masses. Blinking masses, blinks that cut the air. Eyes, peering in. Scars between them.

"AGH!" She turned away, gasping. "How did you... Veronica?"

Veronica jumped back, rushing a blade out. Her unconscious breaths fogged the glass. The small shifting in her balance below made the walls rumble. "Ah! L-Liu? I was... Putting the essentials in. I didn't think..." A small blanket dangled off her bandaged finger - which she placed in the roofless enclosure, on the bed.

With senses slowly reawakening, the patients could make out bits of Veronica's hat, or shoulder, or back, passing by the window.

Bello lay, astounded - looking up and down at Hadi, and the much larger figure. "So... she's gotta be, astronomic..."
Hadi kept her neck up, eyes sparkling. "I can barely take her all in... Unlike you, I can see all of you."
"How dirty..."

Pedro mumbled. "Can feel her heat."

Anderson slammed the edge of his glass. "Hey! Here, let me see you!"

Tessay was still staring at his own hands. "Wow..."

Inside, the tiny girl panted. "So it really worked. Thank you. I can't believe how quiet you were... This is really efficient work."

Veronica averted her gaze, and  hobbled to the door - leaving many of the spaces less furnished. "Fraaaan! The weirdos are awake."

"I thought I too~oold you, don't call them thaa~at..."

Thump.

Thuump.

Thwuuuuump...

Like guards at a palace changing posts, as soon as Veronica's hasty boots left from the door, Fran's spindly legs entered. Tessay, who was closest to the immense door, could see a peek of nurses moving behind her - and hear a *scritch* as the doctor moved a stitched hand across her blonde hair. From a low angle, with details of every flutter and bob, she looked just as sluggish and unbalanced as the shrunken patients. A long nightgown fluttered around as she entered, bowing over each space in turn.

She raised a finger up, preparing an announcement. With everyone's attention, Fran yawned, and stretched.

"A successful procedure. I'm grateful the staff put in the extra hoooours... Though it took less than I thought." Sleepy, wet claps echoed in the room. "Congratulations. You've been reborn."

Hadi suddenly rushed against the glass, pounding on it. "What? You didn't - you didn't tell us you'd - COMPRESS our bodies like this!"
Bello's hand pulled her back. "Shh. It's okay... It's over now."

Fran rubbed her eyes, getting sleep out of them. "Yes, this should be a very happy time. But it's not quite done. Remember, you'll need time for testing and rehabilitation. So you can't quite go and show your new height to the world..." She pointed to a waist-high terminal, with several wires, dials, and vents. "It's hard for people your size to manage low temperatures, or impurities in the air. So this, ah, device will ensure life support until your bodies are adapted. You'll need to remain in these culturing tanks for one week, at the very least."

Tessay rubbed his arm. "I feel... weird. Did..." He looked down. "Did my left foot... get bigger?"

Something shifted in his peripheral vision. "We did our best to measure and reconstruct every minor detail. And your cellular makeup provided important help. But..." The next second, Fran's pale face occupied the side of his tank, with her hands cupped in apology. "... It's so finicky when working with tiny fee~eeatures. And couldn't just copy the same mold, when you each have very different traits. For example, I may have made your eyes too narrow or wide. Besides, you seemed so eager to get up and moving. If you're unhappy, I can always make some adjustments..."

"NO!" His blood froze, and he found himself panting. "N... No thanks, Doctor Madaraki..."

Fran's head swayed, her hair sweeping like a cape. "Though that reminds meeee~ This would be a good time for a brief reflex test." She rummaged through a cabinet, and lifted forceps up from it. "If I could please have a volunteer..."

Instantly, Anderson raised a hand. "Here! Gimme the best you got."

She shrugged, as if waiting for others to jump in. After four seconds, her left arm stretched out over his glass cage, and the forceps closed around Anderson's ribs. He winced slightly as it took him up - feet dangling. The details of the other faces looking to him grew abstract and distorted, the floor a disorienting drop below. In constrast, every detail of Fran's face became perfectly clear, as if a fog was lifted from it - the individual stitches across her forehead and smiling cheeks almost touchable.

"Oh yeah, I'm - I'm really doing it. I'm the first. One small step for me, one giant step for you! One giant step on mankind! Man, Fran, you're so beauti--"

Her right arm pulled out a surgical knife.

His right arm dropped off.

"Huh..." It made a wet noise on the ground. Fwip. Blood dripped across the knife - on Fran's gown - on his cold nipples. He found everything below the shoulder gone - a flat surface with bone peeking out.

"Hy...AAAAGH! JEE! ZUS! FUCK FUCK FUCKKKK..." His left arm held the wound, more and more of the life fluids gushing from the dismembered limb. "Why... whhhhy...!?"

Fran maintained her neutral smile. "Understandable. That's the reaction most people have to laceration. Which means the nervous system and nocinceotors are perfectly aligned! What a triumph... At this size, too!" The smile slowly, sickeningly grew to what could only be called a swoon.

"I'll..." Anderson whined. "I'm not... This isn't... I thought you would..."

Fran patted his remaining shoulder. "No limits for you, right? And you didn't want anesthesia earlier, either~"

With the shoulderblade pinched, she tugged. The entire left arm slipped from its socket - and from the torso, removed. Torn ligaments dangled out like streamers, and the flesh remaining had a zigzag pattern.

"AAAHG! MOTHER--" Anderson, armless, shook and swayed his head - unable to shut his eyes, but unable to look at either missing arm or Fran. Especially not when it wiggled like a gummy worm in her index and thumb.

"So the subject has a similar reaction when pulling. Hm, it's slightly more muscular... Do you masturbate with this one?"

"Give it back... GIVE ME MY ARM BACK!" His neck extended, trying to bite at it.

Fran tilted her head, scanning the wound - skeptical for a moment - before pressing the removed limb back in place against the viscera-coated stump. "Okaaay..." Supporting it with the forceps, and sighing as Anderson squirmed in agony, she pulled out a small, sharp needle. A few swipes, quicker than anyone could make out, and she'd reattached his left arm.

Anderson panted. "Burns... Itches... A-a...Ah...!" Everything felt limp, unresponsive. His sweating face turned to where his right arm should've been. To his shock, something was sprouting there. Like a timelapse video of a tree growing. A new arm rose up, bony and short at first - but within a few fuzzy, painful blinks, it now looked as if the arm hadn't been removed at all.

He clenched the new fist, and the tiny knuckles crackled in response.

Fran smiled, and felt along the edge of the regrown arm. "Surprised? Much of your new body is made of general cells, or stem cells. The same which fetuses have, before they settle into specific cells to make up muscles, blood, bone... In the case of a limb injury like this, they will swiftly grow a replacement." She beamed, holding an arm out to the wordless spectators. "That's my little gift~"

Anderson froze. "So you mean, the other..."

Pain shot through his left elbow - left armpit - his entire ribcage felt ready to shatter. He tried to grab the painful region, but his right arm was still raw and wet. He didn't know where to focus. Bloody chunks broke out from his left hand - corners, bones, entire fingers blasting out at high pressure. He swore, as a "replacement" arm grew out, bursting through the "original" limb Fran had sewn back on. The tips of fingers clawed unwillingly out of broken wrists, as useless blood vessels inflated like balloons and popped out to reveal fresh muscle. It kept pounding and acheing even as the process finished.

From below, Tessay peered at the bloody clumps descending in a waterfall past his container. "We were just reborn, but it's as if... He's dying again and again."

Watching the screaming man as if he were a wall of drying paint, the doctor next applied her touch to the left leg. "Let's ensure limbs grow back, not just from laceration or detatchment, but twists..."

Fran wrung his left leg out like a washcloth, red breaking out of twisting flesh wrinkles. By now, his face was drenched with cold sweat. "Can't you... argh... please, please just... numb our pain receptors..."

"Hm." She fidgeted with the twisted leg, which looked the size of a toothpick in her fingers. "There have been cases of that. People naturally resistant or immune to pain. They can have injuries without even noticing them. One such woman burned her hand on a stove, and only noticed because of the smell... now isn't that unfortunaa~aate?" Her finger hovered curiously over the remaining limb, which he struggled to keep away with frantic kicks. "Pain is a crucial message from body to brain. We can't ignore what our bodies say. Besides, isn't it much easier to appreciate pleasing moments, with this intense counter? Though it's strange. I thought for your group..."  The thumb finally pinned his foot in place. "Pleasure and pain might be the same."

Like a button on a remote, she pushed his right leg in.

"AAARRRGH!" It crumpled in, a single messy heap.

*Pssht.*

Involuntarily, his penis released cum. It barely made it halfway to Fran's face. The rod flopped between missing thighs.

She blinked. "It's a bit yellooo~oow."

Pedro screamed and crossed himself as she took a step back. The others could only stare dumbfounded while she put her "subject" back in. The full details of Anderson's body came into view - all limbs having grown back, and curled in, as he took a fetal position. Though he was a hefty man when he came in, he looked starved and gaunt from the experience. His eyes kept pointed to the flooring, taking quick breaths, eyes twitching at any noise. He didn't even crawl to his mattress.

"What's... What did we... get into...?" Hadi murmured.

"Okaaa~y!" Fran yawned again, using a duster to clean up some of the blood and dismembered parts on the floor. "Thank you, Anderson! You were the perfect control group. Thanks for being a placebo case."

Liu covered her mouth. "PLACEBO?"

Fran's nod stunned the diminished patients, seeming large and energetic enough that her head might flop right off. "In other words, Anderson was kept relatively free from external stimuli. His test may have looked a little dull, but it was necessary for my measuremee~eents."

She turned away from the open door, and waved to the shocked faces. "There's other work I need to get to, but I'll be sure to spice up the next test. Over the week, you'll each receive the treatments you requested. Please take some time to prepare..."

Shrieks rang out behind her, even after she shut the door.

Okita, having finished scratching himself, followed. "They sounded excited in there."

"Well, of course they would." Her arms crossed, while her head flopped to the side. "This is their fantasy~"

"It's a litter box."

The first clear words from Anderson's mouth, after immeasurable time of blubbering and faint gasps, was such. He held one of his new, regrown fingers out to the loose stack of hay-like buildup in the corner of his container. "That's where we're supposed to, where we have to shit. Fuck. Fuck, that's what they want from me... I'm not an animal! I'm not shitting in there!"

Pedro called over the side of his tank: "Yeah, we can tell you aren't. Smells like ass."

Tessay kept covering his groin with the corner of the mattress, the smallest amount of privacy provided. "I... Uhm, I think ass doesn't smell that bad..."

"Girl ass, sure." Pedro paced about, swinging his arms. "I didn't come here to sniff just ANY FUCKER's bod - unlike some people here."

Hadi shivered. "Bello is not any fucker."
Bello quickly covered the smaller girl with her hands. "And you are not just some person."

"Piss off. Just, piss off..." Anderson moaned.

In response, Pedro's fist slammed the walls. "Where to? We're in here together."

Liu took another sip from the small amount of liquid provided via tubes. "You guys... Come on. Anderson... We saw what happened to him. He's had it the worst."

Pedro's foot tapped. "Asked for the worst, too. If you've commissioned anyone in this fuckin' community, you know that you don't just say 'give me anything', and you know that nobody's really 'no limits'. He had his head so far up his fat ass, he didn't bother thinking about what to ask the doc for."

With a head peeking out, Tessay chuckled dryly. "Well, I hope I was specific enough... I'm nowhere near as small as I wanted to be."

Holding her "tankmate" close, Bello nodded. "Don't worry. We're together, no matter what. This will be great."
"It's already great..." Hadi nuzzled in closer. "Your arms are so warm... I know you understand me more than anyone..."
Bello tapped her back. "We really are like one here."

Liu stirred. "I'm still not sure..."

STOMP.

The swift, pounding steps of high boots made the slight droplets of moisture across the life-support system stir and drop. A thin ray of light cut across it, with the shadow of a bucket hat - a shadow that approached the shrunken patients' area, with louder steps each time.

Veronica's nose twitched as she entered. Her palm was stretched out, with her black jacket swaying from her wrist; enough room for two people in the space between fabric and scarred, stitched skin. Even with the strength in her stride, it was evident that she was trying to be careful with whatever she carried.

"Huh... the weirdos got quiet as soon as I came in." With a "free hand", she held her hip.

On instinct, Anderson rolled away from her looming shadow. A bit of soft, fluffy cotton landed on his twitching, cold back. A shirt - the stitches and seams were all over the place, but it was his size. Even a better fit than many of his older clothes in the closet, once he got his head through the slightly-too-narrow opening. Next to it, pants, similarly made from whatever was lying around. His legs still complained as he slid them in.

By the time he looked back up to the giant room's visitor - (or were they rather visitors in HER room?) - Veronica had already turned to the adjacent enclosure. "There. No one wants to see you pervs' tiny parts, and Fran wouldn't let me cut them off. So I made a cover."

Tessay finally came out from his spot, and obediently slipped into the clothes - which were roughly proportional to his own scale. "Woah."

Hadi had quickly scurried into Bello's shirt before her own had even been plopped in. "It's warm..."
"That should help with your body heat..."

Pedro grunted, looking at the small piece of clothing that fluttered in as if it were a discarded tissue. "Really. We've been left for DAYS now, and that's all we get?"

The tower of Veronica glared back. "It hasn't even been eight hours! Someone your age, getting this impatient..."

The robe that Liu received fit her perfectly - and the white hue complimented her, when she looked at her reflection in the glassy wall. It was like wearing a minuscule cloud. "You made these yourself? That's... well crafted. Those are..." She swallowed, looking to the palms. "... Precise hands."

Said hand clutched her dark-clad chest on instinct, while she sweated. "Yeah, I... I'm good with needles. Why wouldn't I be?!"

Behind her, Anderson moaned. "Needles...! Needles, don't hurt me...! No, don't de-limb me again! Fuck, fuckfuck fuck..."

"I'm not gonna." She squeezed her collar, appearing to duck into it. "Look. Don't lump me in with Fran. We both share a debt to The Professor... But I really can't get her most of the time."

"Yeah, don't lump them together. They're different." Liu called out.

Veronica leaned over the tank, her dark hair fluttering a little in the windless room. "Even you freaks shouldn't suffer. Better to have a warrior's death than all that pain, right?"

"Exactly... You get exactly how we feel." Sniffling a little, Liu trod carefully in the new clothing. "That's why a lot of, uhm, us people are focused on such violent stuff... we want the best way to go out without regrets or agony." She hid her hands behind her back.

With a quick blink, Veronica averted her eyes. "Uh, it... It looks good on you. Hah, almost like a doll." She stepped away. "It'd be cuter if you weren't going on about all this depraved stuff."

There was only a fleeting moment of peace after the younger Madaraki left. It was as if she knew her older sister was coming - and didn't want to be caught talking with the subjects.

This time, Fran was in full uniform: a blood-red ribbon around a smock, with lab coat fluttering behind. What was much stranger was the person trailing on the coattails - if that bipedal figure could be called a "person". Like an Egyptian mummy, bandages covered everything from the cautious feet, to noticeably large breasts, to her scalp. No eyes, mouth, or nostril appeared, simply swaying tufts of silky black hair, done up surprisingly well. She leaned over the surgeon's shoulder and peeked at the chart.

"Yes, Adorea..." Fran patted her wrapped hand. "These are the same people from the resizing operation. Everyoo~oone, Adorea." She held a floppy, stitched hand, to present the mummified assistant. "You might've been too sleepy to notice, but she was there to help you and me in the operating room."

In response, Adorea bowed silently, and gave a shy wave, holding the cloaked approximation of what would be her cheek.

When he stopped shivering, Tessay lifted a hand up to wave back. "Hey."

"Some kinda bandage babe...?" Pedro didn't lower his voice.

"Please..." Anderson kept clutching to his shoulder and calves.

"She's been so very busy helping around lately, so I'm so~orry this couldn't happen earlier. Now, I think it was Pedro who signed for this..." Fran started unwrapping the pure white rolls surrounding her leg. "You specified, time with odorous feet?"

The man nodded, stepping up. "Yeah, that's me alright. I'm sure those smelly feets'll be worth it, after all this time."

Continually working down the leg, peeling more of the covering off, Fran had to look up to see him - the bolts on her head brushing against Adorea's knee, making her flinch. "This is very unscientific, but I have to admit... I'm excited to study the effects strong scents can have on a body at prolonged exposure. Especially with this unique cellular structure, and your current... state of mind."

Seeing more and more pale thigh emerging, the man within the tank couldn't help but let his hand wander around his naked groin. "Ooh, baby, THAT'S talking my language. Man, Adorea's feet must have some real funk, right?"

"Yes, precisely~" She nodded.

"Nice 'n warm soles?"

"Warmth is very importaa~ant." Fran smiled.

"And her legs, they..." Pedro squinted down at the shapes exposed from the unwrapped cloth. "They have... zippers?"

Just as he said, a zipper was installed right on Adorea's leg. She kept standing straight as Fran pulled on the slider, peeling back the skin as if it were another layer of clothing. A wet mouth opened below.

Pedro felt himself fling back seeing the flash of pink and red within. "WH-Okay... Okay, okay, you got me. Shit. That's a nice trick, but her feet, man..."

"Her feet are in here. Zipper Number 27, if the records are consistent..." Fran reached her hand into the leg, and sounds rang through the room somewhat like macaroni stirring in a pot. In the enclosure to the side, Anderson hunched over the "litter box", and started vomiting.

The doctor continued: "Thanks to the Professor giving her unique gifts, Adorea's interior forms a perfect storage for spare organs. Her body temperature is regulated to keep them preserved. And one of those organs she holds..." Her face lit up, like an old woman reaching in a basket to give out Halloween candy. "...is a particularly infected foot~!"

*PLOMP-splat.*

The Foot made a wet noise as Fran flopped it out of the "container", and next to Pedro. It landed on a filth-coated heel; buckled; and fell over on a bunion, the twisted large toe hovering right over the minuscule man. Its whorls were prominent, sagging so much they looked like they were about to drop off onto him. Every wrinkle across it was like a trench. Bits of brown residue had built up on the second and pinky toes, from the tip to the too-long nails - which appeared to have a yellow-green polish. Plump flesh had bloated all across the flattened sole, showing prominent, worming wrinkles.

"Ah. Achck..." Pedro kept reeling back. "That's... what the hell... is this... thing?"

Adorea turned her head away, covering her mouth in embarrassment. She hastily wrapped the bandage back around her leg zipper.

Fran paced around the glass room, the very edge of her finger tracing its roofless walls. "It's quite interesting. I will withhold her name for purposes of confidentiality, but... This foot comes from a retired woman, fond of travel. She was lost in a rainforest for two weeks and three days, before being found with this. She requested an amputation... Or maybe 'begged' is the proper word? Adorea's been keeping the foot safe since, for further evaluation."

Coughing emerged from below, as Pedro struggled to take it all in. He instinctively crawled back until his spine was against the other wall - where Hadi and Bello could see his naked, quivering backside.

Putting on a surgical glove, Fran's other hand poked at the sole - which oozed at the slightest pressure. "Before the trip, our anonymous patient suffered from toenail fungus, and compulsive skin picking and peeling urges - dermatillomania. Due to rainfall, and the area's naturally damp climate, she spent much of the time with her ankles submerged. This led to her developing immersion foot, also known as trench foot. Look here! Notice the arch, and the ball... There's severe tissue loss."

Flakes of the dank, pungent skin peeled off from a soft brushing. They revealed even more and more layers of damaged flesh, around the hillocks of fetid corns and calluses.

"Now after some time of this, the flow of blood and oxygen was cut off, and the skin developed gangrene. But that's where my expertise ends. There's another infection I still haven't been able to identify... Maa~aaybe one of you can help! Thanks to your fetish, you're much better acquainted with feet than I aa~am."

From the outside, Liu could barely see what was happening. The container was fogging from the intense change in temperature, simply by the sole being exposed.

With his hands on his chest, Pedro lifted his neck. His eyes stung from the stinking presence. "I thought... I thought you'd give me a foot... attached to a fucking leg...!"

Fran blinked, rubbing below her lip with her wrist. "Ah. I knew I was missing soo~oomething." She turned to her assistant. "Adorea, give me a leg from Zipper Number 12. Pedro wants me to stitch it on."

The assistant shrugged, and reached down.

"NO! No more of that--!" Pedro coughed. He started losing control of his mouth, saliva dripping down either end of his lip. "I didn't come here for... for anyone's foot! I want... I want your... your feet! Fuck, Fran, give me your foot!"

The doctor peered down at her shoes. With a shrug, she removed one - showing the glossy surface below, stitched together with uneven toe lengths.

"Yeah! Caah... That's the good shit, that's... NO!" His eyes went bloodshot.

Fran twisted her ankle, as if taking the lid off a thermos, and removed her own foot, a bloodied stump behind it. She dropped it right next to the existing one, such that the toes were barely brushing each other, forming a roughly triangular area. It was damp and clammy, with a slightly bloated heel. The occupant of the glass house was entirely surrounded, and could no longer stand on his own feet.

"Fucking..."

The older Madaraki sister leaned onto Adorea for support, placing a lid with minuscule air holes on it - which closed the speck in. "We'll continue examining how your body reacts to these severe, though nonlethal, conditions. This gives me lots of interesting information, so plee~ease enjoy yourself to the fullest~"

Pedro began calling after her, but his voice was muffled by the enclosure - then by mucus building up in his throat. It smelled of vinegar, corn, deep cheddar, fish, sulfur, and filthy washrooms, mixing together in a salty cloud above him. A stinging sensation flared at his nose. As he plugged his nose, it assaulted his tongue. Tears trickled down him - or it may have been sweat, or oozing drool. His fists slammed at the floor, whimpering.

As she left the door, she turned back for a final thought, to the other subjects frozen in shock: "You're having a fairly strong reaction. Usually, mucus and nose hairs are enough to defend against bacteria entering the sinuses. I reduced the size of those to facilitate respiration, so maa~aybe it's especially potent for you. However, I wonder..." She waved a hand in front of her nose. "Rats are known for their strong olfactory epitheliums, giving hightened senses of smell. Perhaps your nose is collecting even more data than the computers right now!"

"Wonder where... Laghari? Wonder where Laghari is now." Tessay had sat back on his mattress, after taking a few steps around - moving halfway to the food intake tube before circling back. The surface felt larger than before, too big for him.

"That commissioner dude?" Hadi perked up, but kept her eyes on Bello.
"With Aliev, I guess." The largest of the shrunken women sighed, and peered down to her own feet, beyond her new dress, rubbing a cramp out. She dared to give a peek at the fogged, silent expanse of Pedro's glassy enclosure for just a moment. "Maybe they had the right idea."

Anderson didn't respond beyond a quick groan, rubbing his thigh. "Still smarts..."

Staring at an imaginary window on the smoothed, polycarbonate walls, Liu quietly mumbled. "It's weird... I think Laghari had dreams for the future or something."

Tessay nodded. "And Aliev... Didn't want a future at all." He shook his head. "Can't imagine them getting along if it weren't for this... Y'know, this thing where we all wanted to be shrunken down."

"They got in arguments all the time in the chatroom, didn't they..." Bello kept running her fingers through Hadi's hair.
She tilted her small head, letting it follow the strokes. "It brings together the weirdest people, doesn't it."

Liu still kept turned away from them, looking to the door. "Still not sure which of them I want. A future with someone... Or an end...?"

This time, Veronica's entrance was swifter than before - a shadowy specter slamming the door open. The glide of her jacket through the doorway was like watching a low-flying black jet, complete with a sonic boom effect. She had a gargantuan, gleaming scythe that waved high in the air - right above the roof of Pedro's cage. It cut down, straight, surely.

The very tip pinned down a cockroach's leg. The dark-haired girl tried to keep her expression safe, but it was evident she kept letting out fast, heavy panting. "I... I heard a bug had gotten in here. I didn't want to..." She clenched her teeth. "Anything that could mess up that life support system would... just ruin my sister's experiment."

Everyone in the room had to take a moment to recover from the lingering shock. Veronica plucked the insect in her fingertips, by the wings.

"Wow..." Liu kept gazing at the small shape against the massive span of flesh. "Those weapons are sooo cool." She kept looking up and down. "Do you... have more?"

"Huh? Uhm, I've got..." The edge of Veronica's gargantuan hand rubbed the back of her hair. "Uh, some poisons, a bunch of blades... Really, the Professor made my whole body a weapon."

Liu wiggled in place. "And you're still so gentle with it... The very image of a noble warrior."

The swallow from Veronica's lips was audible through the whole room. "You really think? I, I've heard people saying they respect my fighting skills, but it's kinda different... hearing it from someone like you. It really doesn't scare you? All these scars I have, all this, metal stuff?"

"It feels..." She struggled for the right word. "...safe. Like nothing could hurt you. Like you're looking out for us."

Veronica held the blade dangerously close to her chest, the touch of its cold blade making her spine shiver. "Of course. Of course I'm keeping you safe... I'm keeping the lab safe, The Professor's research safe. That's my job..." She choked slightly, while vanishing from the small room. "...It's my fate..."

Minutes passed, with few subjects coming up to occupy their minds. There were a few false starts where Tessay would suddenly crouch down as loafers passed the door; only for the doctor to be going to some other patient, or stopping for a brief discussion.

"Soo~oo, Okita, are you keeping to that exercise routine?"
"Fran, you know that cats can't do tricks like that."
"Hmm, but the other day, you told me you were still human... does that mean I should feed you cat food?"
"Feh, come on, I can cook for myself."

Finally, after a period of silence in the room, listening to whatever passed by, Fran entered the door. She brought a small syringe in one hand, and a bright smile on her face. "How are you all doing? Getting used to your smaller selves?"

"Another... another out-of-body experience last night." Anderson commented to himself, and rolled over, scratching his stomach.

Liu shook her head. "I can't get used to anything with all these people around. It feels like they're watching me, even when I'm sleeping..."

"Sleeping's been hard." Bello rubbed her eyes.
Hadi crawled over her. "Internal clocks are all off..."

Pedro kept coughing and hacking.

"That's unfortunate. In terms of adaptation to this state," Fran rubbed her chin, "Tessay should be getting much more comfortable with his size soon." She pointed the syringe to him, the white lab coat lifting over the edge of the wall.

Tessay instantly shrunk down, covering his long dark hair. "No, no, I'm... I'm good. No need to experiment on me... Or anything..."

"Ah, now that... is a bit of a predicament." She rubbed her brow, sweat droplets the size of boulders descending off. "See, I've already adapted your food and water dispensers for Heat Shock Protein 60 release..."

He stared up wordlessly for a minute.

Her neck, meters and meters above, swayed back and forth in disappointment; large enough that he could see each stitch traversing it. And they only got bigger. "Tessay, I couldn't make you the size you wished for initially... But through this manually-adjusted cellular structure, you have an excess of capillaries for your scale and particularly active mitochondria. With the correct heat shock protein regulation, then..." She shifted, one leg hiding behind the other. "...The process of mitosis will have progressed too far to turn back now."

"You've. Uh, Doctor Madaraki... You poisoned my water?" Tessay rushed to the edge of his cell, trying to get close to her to be heard. And yet, it took more steps than he remembered. And her shirt buttons were larger than he remembered, able to fit his whole body through each of the eyes - and they kept shifting and bobbing with her breaths... Her loud, booming breaths.

"...I've adapted this based off the principle of large, full fat cells reforming into smaller, healthier ones through stimulation. Your internaa~al structure has already begun folding on itself. In other words,"

A gargantuan index finger SLAMMED against the glass, showing off the minuscule dust particles caught in her fingerprint.

"...You're shrinking to the microscopic size you requested!"

Tessay peeked to the other containers. There were voices from the girls - but he could barely understand them with the distance. He reached up, but felt as if his limb was weighed down. The air was thicker, putting up increased resistance against his flapping arms. It was like treading through water, with none of the buoyancy.

"Why... Why didn't I notice..." His jaw fluttered. He tried to look away from the massive shape overlooking his tank - but the doctor's coat, her hands, her presence seemed to stretch further and further. Not only were the individual fabric threads she wore more evident, down to a slight fraying; he could see the stomata on her hands, mismatched and patternless as they breathed.

Her skin breathed. It took air in as she kept cutting her hands through that heavy air, like it was nothing.

"The effect is exponential, on a parabo~olic curve. Two cells shrink, then four, then sixteen, then two hundred and fifty-six." Each number was a louder thunderclap, and the demonstrative swing of her fingertip peachy cloud formations shifting. The smallest imperfection on her skin seemed comparable to the container he had been in a minute ago - the container itself, a world.

"Thankfully, I can still hear you, due to the..." An agonizingly long pause. "...Life support system's sensors. Very usefu~ul. Any first impressions?"

Continually struggling with his own weight changes, Tessay felt his feet leave the ground. He was light enough that simple breaths began making him fly. He tried to go higher, but the continual turbulence of rapidly-shifting molecules next to him sent him tumbling left to right. "Why the... Why the syringe? How can you... inject me, Doctor Fran?"

"Ah, I forgot all about that! I'm ree~eally out of it today..." Her chuckles now evoked tectonic plates shifting, as if there were volcanic eruptions in her vocal cords. "You also said you wanted 'milkers', so that's what's in here. Purchasing breast milk from lactating mothers can be an arduous process, but don't worry~" It was impossible to see, but the sound of her lips moving evoked a reassuring smile. "...It's only a small portion, so it wasn't that expensive."

"Wai-"

*drip.*

Meteors of white, viscous liquid fell from the unreachable vial above. It hurdled down faster than he could outrun it, a shifting globe of juices rotating multiple times in midair. Upon landing, it exploded upon itself, and tendrils of its wet surface began consuming the ground. It absorbed Tessay, the active molecules clinging around him and overpowering his squirms, hundreds of microscopic hands pulling him in.

Lactobacillus - delbrueckii, acidophilus, and helveticus. Massive bacteria that resembled fuzzy, colourful pool noodles crashed into him. They choked out his last few attempts at resistance, attacking him. As he tried to push them off, he found his arms frozen - the milk surrounding was impossibly heavy. The sensation was like trying to push back a hundred roaming, rapidly-moving skyscrapers. Even taking in breaths was next to impossible, with the weight of oxygen putting a strain on his shrinking lungs. All that kept him alive was the continual background hum of the life support device.

Fran mused, as he disappeared before her - and her presence slowly faded from the culturing tanks, too. "Even if I can watch... Taking the Uncertainty Principle into account, the machinery needs to expend more and more energy into observing you the smaller you get. The same power regulating the air and temperature regulation that your companions all need. So I'll have to stop babysitting you now... But I'm ever so eager to see you report all the details of your journey through breast milk oceans~"

The door shut once more behind her.

"It's 1984." Hadi murmured quietly.

Liu looked up for the first time in a while, at the tiny shape past the distant wall. "Look, it's bad. It's constraining. But complaining about it will get us nowhere."

The minuscule neck shook. "Not what I meant. I counted 1984 tiles. On the walls. And floor."

"OK." Liu turned away again, moving to make sure she still could. "That's... precise. You know, I... I keep hearing the guys' voices. As if Tessay and Pedro aren't... But I didn't tempt them here. We all came of our own will, right?"

"It's 2024." Bello's voice had a slight boom.

Liu jumped again. "What? It can't have been that long. When we came in it was... September?"

"No." She stretched herself out. "I mean, there should be 2024 tiles. Counting the ones below our rooms."
Hadi suddenly jumped on her. "They're cages. These aren't our rooms. This isn't our home!"
"Anywhere with you is home." Bello stroked her hand with one finger, for the third time since they'd heard footsteps past the halls outside.

Anderson bashed his arm against the wall. "I've done terrible things. They don't know, my mother... She was the model for that story... I, I sold my own mother to the internet for views..." He kicked it, even knowing nothing would budge - inside or out.

Bello whispered, "He's lying. He said he was raised without a mother, last time he went on and on about his life story."
Hadi covered her mouth. "It's like he confesses to a new thing every hour. As if he's saying something to a torturer and hoping they'll stop."
"Wonder if that thing about the bug crush video was true."
"It wouldn't line up, there'd be too much evidence. That one about hiding small cameras, though."
"He didn't say anything about hidden cameras."
"He didn't? I thought I heard..."

As dampness continued to build across Anderson and Pedro's chambers, Liu felt her own sweat droplets carving their way across her thin, pale neck. She kept her breathing in sync with the incoming pace of steps, hoping that this would be the time...

Veronica. Once more. The small girl relaxed, letting herself sink down. "I'm so glad you're here again."

The massive head looked over her black collar. The array of stitches leading up over her nose tilted in confusion. "You're glad...? I... You don't even know what I'm here for."

She looked to the folding hands, in pale gloves - and her own palms rested together as well, right over her chest. "It's just so good to have someone to talk with again. Everyone here has, they've kind of sunken into each other. You seem so... Like you're the one normal person here."

"Normal?" With widening, dark eyes, she kept looking in quizzically. "Me, a walking armory... Normal?"

Liu blushed, and fell back. "Well... Y'know, you... You don't go on about stupid things. Dumb... fetish stuff that probably can't be... The things they say aren't real..."

Veronica was about to respond, when another set of legs followed her in. Fran. Her presence made Anderson return to his confused screams and fetal position. Presumably, Tessay and Pedro did the same, though nobody could hear him anymore. She scratched the back of her head, scribbled notes on a pad, and reached the remaining arms out to her sister.

"Si~is..." Fran's stitched hand landed on her shoulder. "You really should be running security. The next client needs to be restrained. I can't do that myself..."

Sparking up, Veronica turned back. "Hey, Fran. Can't you just fix them?" She swung her finger around the room. "Rewire the part of their brains that makes them... freaks? Make them stop saying weird things? Then you could... let them go?"

Fran tapped her chin. "Veronica, these aren't our toys to tamper with. They're patients who put their trust in us. The Professor taught us, we should be respectful to each patient's sensibilities~"

"There's nothing SENSIBLE about how they act! Or what you do to them!" She swung her hands out, pulling on Fran's coat. "Come on. We've seen a lot. This isn't normal. They're sick. Just... Make them STOP being sick!"

Fran had a long, delayed reaction, only slowly shrugging her shoulders. "They're mature adults who can take responsibi~lity for their choices."

"And there's nothing RESPONSIBLE, either!" She choked up, collapsing to the ground. "Please. Please, Fran, you said you would help them."

Fran stepped to the side. "Veronica, you're full of love. And that's good! But you have to recognize... these two have their own kind of love. Don't you, love buu~ugs~?" She fluttered forward with a cheerful smirk, tapping her fingers against the glass - closely enough that they could see some detached stitches. "Are you two being gentle with each other~?"

Bello took a stand, curling her fist up. Hadi was against her chest. "I'm not going... I'm not going to let you take her."
"We don't agree to any weird experiments!" Hadi shrieked.
"She's perfect this way!"
"I like her like this!"

Veronica, from below, shook her head rapidly. "Don't..."

Still looking in, Fran's yellowed eyes blinked once, and she let out a relieved sigh - holding her heart. "Oh. Thank goodness. I had no idea what I was going to try with you two..."

The two of them blinked. Hadi scurried and made herself small into Bello's belly, feeling her beating heart. "You're lying. You have to be lying. You've been - you've been ripping us apart..."

"I wii~ish I had more time with you." Fran rubbed her temples. "But patients keep coming in and out. I have two video conferences to attend just today... Assistance with appendectomy, rhinoplasty, eosinophilic esophagitis, achalasia or cardiospasm... Three men with strange symptoms I need to diagnose... Ah, and a general checkup on the latest Sentinel." She patted her clipboard to her forehead. "Really, I just came here to check on your condition. And get Veronica back."

At that, the larger of the two quickly breathed in, and glanced back down to her cellmate. "Then we can... We're... free?"

"There's still three more days for rehabilitation. But you can do whatever you wa~ant. Everyone's happy that way... Right?" Her blonde locks fluttered down as she reached for her sister.

Veronica gulped, and covered her face. "Yeah. That's right, why should I care?" Gradually, she shuffled across a few of the 2044 tiles, boots leaving a faint trail. "Why did I even come here...?"

After a quick wave, Fran followed - the door slamming shut.

Hadi murmured, hiding away from the sounds outside. "There's so much happening in the rooms above."
"The world really does keep going on without us..." Bello made heavy, desperate mouth-breaths, as if she were peeking her head above water.
"My world can't without you. I'm so glad... So glad I could be... Here... With your breaths..."

"I want you to always be part of me... Is that weird?"

"No. Everything around here is weird. Everyone else... I just want to sink into you. Your lips. Your chest..."

"You're perfect. Let me... Let me protect you, Hadi."

"Bello, this..."

Hadi was small enough. Small enough to be easily lifted parallel to her companion's face. Small enough that gravity gave only minimal resistance. Small enough that the smile before her was like a billboard. Small enough that she could fit in perfectly.

It was just a moment of pressure. A moment of pleasure. A moment of flavor. A moment of lost breath.

And then, Bello had her meal. Her lover slid down her internal passageways, lovingly masticated by the powerful, gushing walls around her. This couldn't last long - so Bello made it endure. She drank in as much of her girlfriend as she could for the brief, intoxicating moment she descended. Her finger slid down her esophagus, giving Hadi one last, loving stroke in her nethers - before she joined the rest of the bolus in her churning stomach.

A moment where she could fully be in control...

A place where she could finally rest...

Bello and Hadi were able to sleep in peace that night, in a mutual gurgle. The same could not be said for Liu, covering her head with her dress.

***

Through their walk down the halls, Veronica kept staring down. "Fran. Do you ever wonder... If the Professor is happy with us?"

"What's brought this on?" Fran circled to the other side.

The younger sister played with her gloves. "Nothing. I just keep thinking that if he came back... maybe he'll say that I haven't been doing my job well."

"Hm. Well, I do keep wondering about him. What he would waa~aant..." The older sister scratched her hair. "...He would want us all to hold hands and be smiling for him. As long as the people in this house are happy and healthy, you're doing all he asked for."

She murmured. "That's what I'm afraid of... Are they really happy, Fran?"

"Hey, that reminds me!" Suddenly, Fran's cheeks perked up. "I'm busy today, but if my little sister wants to be stronger, I could still pencil in a few upgraa~aades!"

"Gah! Did I touch a sore spot--!?"

"Urgh... I'm happy... Hurts..."
"Hah... Getting vored... Getting vored...!"

In a foggy state of mind, Bello kept rubbing her head. Her moans had echoed through the night - or day, maybe longer. The taste of that strange, spam-like flesh kept bubbling in her mouth. She lurched once more to the canister dispensing wet, watery droplets.

Hadi could feel this. Somehow, even amid chambers of twisting, stretching reddish-pink that she churned away in, she could share the sensations. She could sense the touch of flooring under hobbling steps. There was a cool pang of refreshment when water fell down a throat that wasn't hers.

Every movement dragged on further. Pedro had attempted to scrawl a message on the glass wall's greenish fog; though it was reversed, and in a language neither understood, so it must have not been for them. Anderson's teeth had been filed down from trying to bite and chew at his regrown limbs.

Regrown limbs...

The hum of the life preservation machine gave white noise that blotted out all other sounds. All except gurgling, and moaning. Something else shared between them.

Liu stared on in horror. "That's... No, that shouldn't be..." She finally hid her eyes.

The next step Bello took, something that wasn't a leg reached out.

Hadi's face looked up at her from below, eyes rolled back into... her skull? No. Skulls did NOT grow on legs. Yet the shape of her lips was clearly there, locked in an agonized, horrific stretch, molded into her left foot.

"GYAHHH!"

When Hadi tried to scream, it came out of Bello's mouth. Bello attempted to move an arm down to swat the visage of her lover - to find still more face-like warts growing across her elbow, up her bicep. They stared at her, sharing agony, looking everywhere. Around each of them, Bello's dark skin transitioned into a gradient towards Hadi's paler, sickly complexion.

"Get it off, get her..."
"Get me out of here..."
"I'm trying, I-"

Bello stumbled backwards towards the bed, and began slamming the foot into it. She stomped harder and harder, until the nose upon it bled and twisted.

"Hah... She's... Step on me, step on me...!"

Her own face felt the impact and smelt its slight odor. The welts around her arm began spewing out bile, vomit from tiny faces rolling down and staining her shirt. Beneath her dress, her stomach had arms and legs the size of bugs reaching out and grabbing. Even if she could stomach ripping the mutated face of Hadi off her, those would be left.

From multiple sets of eyes, Bello and Hadi's glass chamber felt like a hall of mirrors - from which they could see their shared, singular body. In the distance, behind several wires, an all-too-familiar shadow loomed over them.

"You...!"
"Where... What did you..."

Fran's face, above seemed slightly bemused at the results. "Ah. I understood that one of you eating the other was a shared fetish... But you should remember, nobody here can die under my watch, right? Not even by digestion."

A single finger intruded what little remained of their privacy, and prodded the dress up, revealing yet another unresponsive face jutting out of Bello's back. She tapped at it while speaking. "General cells, they'll keep reforming no matter what in this environment. But since Hadi so kindly donated her nutrients to Bello... The two of you have essentially become one." Fran reached for a tissue, wiping tears from her giant eyes. "I have experiences with duplicating clone bodies, but... *sniff*... Bringing two bodies together is always special. You two have fully accepted each other into your hearts at the deepest biological level. This is the ultimate consummation of your love... Or is the word, consumption?"

Hadi's multiple lips panted for oxygen, with no connection to lungs. Bello kept trying to look away, even as every angle showed new parts she was unfamiliar with.
"This is wrong-"
"I'm sick..."
"We're going to be stuck in this sick, misshapen..."

After she wiped her hand with the tissue, Fran composed herself with a breath. "That's a valid concern. But thankfully, you won't get sick. Hadi has Type O negative, universal donor blood - so Bello's antigens will still accept her. As well, consuming the brain of another person often leads to Kuru, the disease where one slowly loses control of emotions... limbs... bodily functions..." She smiled. "Not to worry, though... None of you tiny people have brains, so it's fi~ine."

Bello whined.
Hadi pleaded.

"That's not... This isn't a joke..."
"Help me..."
"Get me away from her-"
"-I can't stand this, I can't..."

Fran moved away from the multiple grasping arms of varied sizes. "You can't take this back. This union was something you both agreed to, something unbreakable. I can't get in the way of that~ Anyway, I'll be happy to keep testing your new shared love. In fa~act, this could provide information for revolutionizing organ donation." She opened the door and shot one last wave - Veronica's shocked expression barely visible in the slit in the door. "Your love has birthed new scientific breakthroughs~"

Shut once more.

While Fran left for the adjacent room, Veronica kept still - shifting her boots before the experiment room's entrance. "Love... Love, huh... Sis won't get in the way of love..."

Fran looked over her shoulder, smiling, saying nothing.

"It's kinda scary..." She hid in her coat, trying to forget what she saw.

Okita strutted by, his tail swaying gently. "Yeah. People do scary things for love, don't they?"

They needed news.

They needed solace.

They needed time to slow down to a halt for the rest of their lives.

Of course, they had felt pain before in those old lives. Suffering. Anguish. Loneliness They would trade anything for a return to that agony. Another chance at the stagnant, dull, throbbing aches of not knowing another's touch; rather than running decapitated with the invasive, piercing intimacy of knowing another's pain.

Every activity in the cages tied back to the moment one of the sisters may appear again. Bargaining with the universe. "If this water droplet stays in place, She won't arrive." "If I can still crawl six laps around the tank without dropping, I'll be free soon." "If I can count to four breaths, with timed inhales and pauses and exhales, I'll be asleep when She comes."

She came anyway.

Now, when Fran's trodding, lumbering legs came in, the patients waiting for the door to swing behind her, Anderson began laughing. He choked on blood from regrowing arms, lips bloody. "God. I finally understand now." He flopped over and faced her curious eyes. "This woman is God, right? God is punishing me. My punishment from casting away the love of my family, my friends, in pursuit of this twisted forbidden fruit... For my lust, for the others I've dragged into hell... I'm an insect before God. A filthy insect undeserving of love--!"

As Fran was about to open her mouth, a pained voice from another tank interrupted her. "Shut up..."

Bello groaned, along with Hadi.
Tessay sucked air molecules in.
Liu remained frozen, with drenched eyes.

Pedro repeated, barely able to hack out: "Shut up, shut up. *Cagh...* Again... You go on this whole tirade. You ALL do. *F-f...fugh...* You keep acting like you're special, like you're some kind of tortured Byronic hero... Just because you have a fetish? Come on. You're not above or below any of those 'normies'... *KHKKK*... You're not making a statement or rebelling... you're masturbating to weird porn. We all were. You're not even using your own words, just... a fucking movie quote." He swallowed, throat dry and sore from the fumes. "I hope you're happy. Happy with these weird-ass victim fantasies where you keep jerking off about the world being out to get you... Happy that you finally got what you fucking asked for..."

For a moment, the doctor looked to Pedro, then back to Anderson. Her blonde hair swayed. Finally, she covered her mouth. "Ah, I'm sorry! I'm making this discussion rather awkward, just standing here, aren't I? Forgive my intruuuusion~" She kept moving. It passed the other broken bodies, towards the final girl - her shadow growing over her, until the fluorescent lights cast no more illumination into the thin glass walls.

Liu stammered before her bosom, taking a few shallow, hurried breaths. The sway of the blood-red ribbon on her uniform was hypnotic, like a pendulum counting her time down. She shook her head, covering her ears from the growing noise of shifting steps and groaning patients around her. She was the last one, it was her turn.

"Veronica..." Liu finally managed. "Please, Veronica..."

The doctor scratched the back of her hair - while looking over a clipboard. "That's right... You wrote that down, you wanted your experiment to be with my younger sister." Her yellowish eyes peeked back up from it, head tilting. "Is that still what you'd prefer?"

Liu nodded. "Y-yeah. Veronica... V-Veronica's the only one who understands." Her small hand instinctively went for her chest, in her white, stitched dress. "You just keep people alive, even if it tortures them... And the others, I can't stand... I can't stand their bickering, I can't keep up with these voices from all over. It has to be her... No one else can take me out. I thought about it again and again, but I still want her." She swallowed, closing her fist.

With a nod, Fran tapped her lip. "For the sake of my curiosity... Actually, for the sake of our sisterly bond..." She started putting a pencil to a paper. "...What parts of Veronica appeal to you?"

"Veronica's... Strong. She's a perfect, unstoppable, quiet masterpiece who stays dignified, even when things get bad. And she understands, she understands that a quick, respectful death, a warrior's death... Is best." The small shape, between Fran's outstretched arms, stood defiantly. "The kind of girl who can't ever hurt... She'll free me from this."

"Well, it's an interesting request. I still believe that your natural human survival instinct will win out." Fran's hand reached into the glass, the folding palm around two forceps. "But I hope you know the consequences..."

"Yes! I-I mean..." A blush crossed her cheeks, and she shut her eyes as the metallic touch on her ribs lifted her. "With this body, with these people... No matter what... I want my last moments with her."

The next thing she knew, she was out of the glass room - looking up. On one side, the chamber she had spent the better part of eternity in. On the other, Fran's swaying coattails making a whooshing noise through the air.

And Liu did nothing. None of the other shrunken people around could raise their voices high enough, to drown out the slow, certain shake of incoming boots. It felt as if they paced back and forth for another eternity, giving her time to think back.

Back to when she first came in, back to when she first discovered these fetish sites...

Her rushed, stirring mind told her that she should have finished that book, spoken with that friend, been better - and told her to do nothing and lie. Every one of those old events, every moment of her life seemed, in retrospect, escapism from this grim reality - being in that cage, in this cursed body, on the floor here. This was real.

Liu kept on her back, arms raised in acceptance, as the door opened.

As the boot treads came into view.

As a deft move compressed her face into her neck into her spinal cord into her lungs.

As Veronica stepped on her.

*SCRUNCH.*

Veronica froze. That noise - that couldn't have happened. It was like a cymbal against her eardrums, and the slight resistance to her step sickened her. Her hands at either side of her coat, she scanned the cages. "No, no. I came in for... I wanted to talk to her... If one of them got out, Fran's gonna be so..."

She instinctively lifted her leg to walk towards the containers and examine which ones had missing subjects. The drip of blood from her boot sole told her otherwise - not another step. So from there, on one leg, she scanned the enclosures.

Bello and Hadi were louder than ever, and she couldn't bear glancing at them.
Anderson was, of course, hunched over and sobbing, begging to nobody.
Pedro's container was too foggy to make out. It might be him.
Liu... No. It was empty, but her eyes darted away.
Nobody in Tessay's spot, and his outfit was left there. Another option. She didn't want to consider what was underneath her, but...

At this point, she could do nothing else. Veronica slowly, with both hands, lifted her boot up, to see if she could recognize the shape compressed on the bottom.

Beneath a twisted mangle of ripped-open flesh, broken bone, and eyes plucked from snapped sockets, tufts of black hair... And a dress. A dress that was white, pink from the stains of ripped red muscles.

The dress she had sewn for Liu.

"No, that isn't... Come on, Fran said you couldn't...! Liu, you didn't... How did you...!?"

Without thinking, Veronica took her gloves off, and used her index finger to peel through the viscera, scooping as much as she could. Blood soaked into her scars. It felt like burning lava in her clumsy hand. She rushed towards the glass container, putting the ruined, mashed mess of Liu back in.

"Here... This container, this place... is directly connected to the life support machine, right? It's going to... It's going to bring you back, like with the others, right?"

She stared directly at the unmoving lump, blue eyes wide and uneven.

"Right?..."

In her reflection, her scars looked menacing and brutal, like in a mugshot.

"...R...Right...?"

Her bucket hat began blocking out her face. A single hand rested on the hard, cold glass, sliding down. When her stitched, scar-ridden fingers parted, she could almost still see a smiling, shy face ducking in those sleeves, she could almost pretend there were still legs coming from the dress' lower opening.

"RIGHT!?... r-ri-...ght...?"

A piercing squeaking noise. Both hands clutched to the glass.

*SLAM*

Veronica pounded on it.

*SLAM - SLAM - SLAM*

Her fists flew onto the container, desperately pounding, while the giantess took quick, loud breaths.

"Why... Why didn't I sense it? If you said anything, a single word, if you breathed, I would've... I would've heard...! WHAT was I even thinking of? I was thinking of... I was thinking of..."

Her cheek pressed to the tank... And she continued hitting it, face red.

"Why didn't I listen... Why didn't I listen to what you were saying, about... about death... No, come on, no... Liu. Why did I do this to you? Not like this, you didn't deserve to..."

*SLAM -* *CRNNNKkkklll-*

The glass was now shattered. Shards pierced in, splintering, forming new scars in her hands. Gashes drawing blood, mixing with Liu's. It didn't matter. She hadn't nearly began to suffer enough for the destruction. Veronica kept pounding at the empty air. Wailing out. Clenching her teeth. Lifting one bit of footwear up.

"Liu... I... This shoe did this to you..." Her boot slammed, before she stepped back in horror at the shaking from it. "No, no..."

Her knees collapsed.

"I did this... I did this, all alone... This monster... I really am..." She sniffed. "I really am... a monster, Liu..."

Throughout the panic, Liu heard.

By some cruel miracle, she still maintained consciousness. The life supporting machine continued to fulfil its role. Fran was right. Nothing could truly kill her. Nothing except the expression on Veronica's face, twisted in pain. The same pain Liu wanted to protect her lover from. She rested in the cell, less than an insect; with no will to live, but no way to die.

She had wanted to feel small. Like she was nothing. Like the tiniest wrong move could break her. She did. She felt so, so small.

The echoing cries grew louder, then quiet, breathless.

Uncountable tears later, Fran entered the room, hands behind her back. Even to her sister, crouching down to the side, she seemed a lumbering tower.

"Heeey, I heard you were feeling down, so gueeeess what?" Fran pulled out a small, smiling doll, offering it before Veronica's face.

The younger Madaraki sister kept her head bowed. "I'll break it. I'll shred it to pieces. I ruin everything..." Her forehead went to her knees.

Quietly turning to the remaining cell, and looking over the mess that was Liu, Fran seemingly spoke to herself. "Such a gentle-hearted girl, isn't she?... Veronica's had a rough life. It's made her cynical, and she's pushed people away... Even me. But in a way, it's also made her desperate."

Her fingers squeaked against the edge of the container. The red dot remained still for a moment. Fran stopped speaking, as if waiting for a response. None came. Even if Liu had anything to say, Fran wouldn't hear it.

"Veronica is quick to cling to people who show her kindness... then, she has trouble letting people go. Since she has such trouble finding real friends. Well, I wouldn't be pessimiiiistic~" She smiled. "She'll probably find a real friend someday."

Liu tried to speak. She tried to move. Give a sign of life. Apologize. Tell Veronica how wrong she was about herself. Go back. Punch Fran in her smug face. Give her companion a hug...

...But she could no longer. She could no longer contact the black, silent specter in the corner, or the doctor who had welcomed her in with many hands.

Like the rest of the people in these glass cages, she could no longer walk. No longer talk. No longer breathe. No longer think clearly. She did not die, but she did not live. She only existed, hated herself, and despaired, from within the broken glass walls. Listened to the painful sobs and groans, the whirr of life-supporting machinery. Sensed the faint, lingering smells drifting into the room.

Formaldehyde.

Antisceptic.

Raw meat left out.

Iron, or something similar - a tool? Blood?

Burnt, cauterized fat.

Bone dust, they had learned over the week, smelled of corn chips.

Green tea and black tea, wet and warm.

The next thin flake on Pedro's foot peeled off, fluttering - revealing yet more rawness beneath. His sanity peeled away with each one.

Tessay's choking spasms and grasps brought him another fraction of a nanometer to the south, before another strain of bacterium pulled him back.

Bello thought she saw a rib peeking out, and she didn't know if it was hers or Hadi's. Hadi herself felt as if her brain was barely hanging on by a few tendrils, but with each snapping transformation she found a new spot on Bello that throbbed and bubbled.

Anderson rested in a mess of gnarled limbs that were once his, feeling as if needles rushed through his regrowing joints.

Liu was alone, a pile of nothing in broken walls.

"Kill me..." Among the mess of unvoiced, chaotic thoughts in the blackened depths of their collective subconscious, these two words kept returning.

The very faintest shifts in atmosphere once brought some hope for escape; now they only brought despair. What would the world be like outside, at this scale? Without Fran's cold, uncaring mercy, what kind of lives would they have... or what kind of deaths? As the hour came closer, more fears arose - and the once-shocking mansion's experiment room seemed to numb their pain, with its banal order. Would they even survive the trip home? Would there even be a trip home - or would they be left to live among carnivorous insects? Could they even still use these twisted mockeries of legs?

And... when?

Their reaction when Fran's steps approached once more was delayed by anywhere between thirty seconds to a full minute. None of them even had the energy to be terrified anymore. With each of their bodies and hopes having been plucked away in turn, they could only wait.

"Well..." Her voice remained as calm, careful, and curious as when they first entered. "We've reached the end of the week. The time I allotted for rehabilitation... The moments we've spent together... Over." She showed a clipboard with incomprehensible graphs, as a child might show a finger painting to a parent. "There's so much interesting data I've collected throughout! The power of olfactory functions on the mind, the exact patterns of hydrogen molecules through milk, the ways new organs can be accepted with open, microscopic arms..."

The only answers were agonized moans and vague begging.

"In fact, these readings merit further investigation. I believe that the field of microbiology could greatly benefit from continued testing." Fran rubbed the back of her hair, like always. "As well, it would be just mean of me to rip all our friendships apart so quickly! So you'll be happy to know, after much deliberation... I've decided to continue this shrinking experiment."

The life support machine let out a dissonant CLUNK.

"Indefinitely."

Everyone who had cheated death died once more inside.

"Someday, we might have miniaturized surgeons noninvasively helping patients in need... So your bodies and interests will be used for the benefit of mankind. Please look forward to it."

The final steps from the room echoed through their chambers, like a rocking boat.

"Aaa... Others?" Bello murmured.
"No one else... Nobody else should..." Hadi's mouths struggled.
"Can't... Not one more... minute!" Pedro choked.
"No way... no way... out..." Tessay's voice didn't penetrate the lingering milk puddle.
"Pain, it's the only thing real now..." Anderson lay back in defeat.

"Veronica..."

The blood from Liu's cell leaked through the crack. A crimson droplet, with only a few minuscule cells. It traced its way down, from her few remaining senses of touch, towards the flooring.

The others noticed. Slowly, in voiceless accord, their bodies shifted painfully to the north of their tanks. Like redistributing weight on a boat.

The blood drop crawled, growing smaller and smaller as it irrigated the floor tiles.

Towards a wire.

A wire on the life support machine.

It reached out...

*Krrrt... bzzz...*

Upon contact with the liquid, the carefully-controlled currents shorted. Exacerbated by the room's controlled temperature and lingering fumes, an electrical fire broke out. It burned away. Flames ate at the device, swallowing them.

*FWOOOSH.*

At last, they'd be able to rest.

*pssss...*

The infernal machine that barely kept them together exploded. No more random movements from helpless bodies. Their remaining consciousnesses faded in the cooling floods of automated sprinklers.

No more...

***

"HOLY SHIT."
"Hah... F..."
"Did I... Did I just..."
"OW OW OW."
"My nose..."
"Was that... real?"

Panting.

Awakening.

Pissing.

There were no more glass cells holding them. No giant feet. No liquids. They were on hospital stretchers, looking at an unfamiliar ceiling - an uncomfortably close, low ceiling. The walls weren't kilometers away.

Hadi and Bello looked below their blankets, to find normal, healthy torsos. They peered up to find themselves in separate beds. Nothing of flesh joining them.

Anderson no longer felt raw in his arms - a bit of numbness, but they were recognizably his.

Liu could actually move, actually feel her fingers... And brush them across a small scar around her stomach. "Oof. What was..."

Every other patient had similar scars, at their chests, limbs, some on their backs.

Besides that, it was as if nothing had changed for the patients. It wasn't comfortable, by any means. They had rashes. Their legs had fallen asleep. The continual droning beeps from machinery irritated their ears. And strange domes rested on their heads.

But they were halfway normal.

*Creeeeaaakk*

"Ah, no! This isn't what was meant to happen! Such a traa~aagedy..."

At the sound of a door opening, and at Fran's voice, they all froze once more. But she entered through a normal-sized door, at a normal scale. Her wobbling form was shorter than most of them. Veronica and Okita followed cautiously, with similar looks of shock.

"What?" Anderson coughed. "Was that... a dream?"

Liu shook at the sight of the younger sister.

Fran held her forehead in agony. "It was real. It was going to be such a boon... If the brainwave reading system didn't short out."

They stared.

"Brainwaves?" Tessay blinked in confusion.

Pedro lunged for her, grabbing Fran's collar. "Explain! Explain, you bitch- what the hell did you do to us?"

Veronica reached for her blade, until Okita calmed her by petting her leg.

With a disappointed sigh, the doctor bowed her head in shame. "Many body parts work effectively at miniaturized sizes. I was able to take out and recreate most of the organs from samples." She pointed to the scar across his chest. "And I had no issues manually connecting and configuring them into functioning, smaller replicas of your original bodies. Except for one mystery... The brain. I can't reliably place the lobes in such a small space and have them work correctly. The Professor definitely could, thooooough~"

She then moved that index finger to the dome around Pedro's head, which connected through wires in a wall to a terminal. "So, I simply had this machine transfer your brainwaves into the miniature, brainless bodies I made. From there, they could communicate senses of sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing back - and receive instructions. It was a temporary measure while I researched how to miniaturize your brains... Which I couldn't manage to do with the time I'd given myself. I tried, but everything that came out was too volatile, too big, or too simplistic to hold your unique personalities and tastes."

Fran clasped her hands, looking at them in dismay, before continuing her monologue. "That's why you had out-of-body experiences; why you could survive so many extreme conditions; and why I kept leaving you without supervision. I lii~ied. I told a little fib. It was necessary for the experiment, to make sure there were no biases in the brainwave data I read. Sooorrryyy~ I was very mean to you."

She tilted her head, with a bright smile.

As Pedro dropped her, unable to control his old arms, Veronica rushed in - now taking her turn to grab Fran's neck. "Sis, what the heck? You could've told me!" Her artificial teeth grit. "That would've saved me - that would've saved a lot of worrying!" She shook the medical smock quickly, glaring in her eyes.

Fran shrugged. "You seemed to dislike these patients. I wanted to make sure you calmed down on them first, before you could do anything rash to these full-sized bodies. Especially since, if I managed to get the brains shrunken, I planned to give their spare parts to Adorea... There was no reason to expect they'd use these larger bodies again."

Bello clutched to her body in defense, to make sure nothing major was missing. Hadi, too, looked over Bello for anything taken out.

With her face still boiling, but her concern stronger, Veronica turned her head towards a confused, uncomfortable groan from Liu. She carefully stepped over, not daring to put her bandaged hands on the resting shape. "It's... It's really you, is it?"

"No, I..." She swallowed, rubbing her head, and the mark on her body. "I feel... t-totally different. That... that changed me. But if you're okay..."

Veronica shook her head. "I... I don't know. I might need some time. When I look at you, I keep thinking... I keep thinking about it... And I can't live with myself..."

Springing up suddenly, Liu peered directly into her blue eyes. "Please, no. If I'm hurting you, then I'll leave." She whispered. "The more we try and protect each other, the more we hurt each other..."

"You're not... hurting me." The dark-cloaked girl bit her lip, and blinked to the other faces staring in on them. "It might take a while. Maybe we can meet again sometime... When there aren't so many damn pervs peeping in on us."

Liu smiled, despite herself.

"Ah!" Fran clapped her hands, breaking a silent moment. "Right, right. Since this experiment's over... Please fill out these questionnaires on your experience. I'd still like all the details before you leave. Thank you for your contribuu~uutions~"

***

The mansion looked small as they left.

It was raining again. Pouring, even.

Aliev and Laghari greeted them as they crossed past the gates, into the night.

"Tch... The hotels here are not comfortable. Spaces are so tight." They crossed their arms.

"I'm just lucky I found some friends to lodge with. We got to talking, and talking... Great to be with pals, huh?" He grinned into the distance.

"You should thank us for arranging a return trip."

"Hm? So come on, what did we miss? Did you get cold feet?"

"I would not have chickened out so easily."

Though the two fetishists kept speaking around them, they got no response. The patients simply held their heads to the road, rubbing the permanent scars on their chests, and peeking back to make sure that nobody was following. Dark rainclouds floated above them. The rain was piercing.

Bello held an arm over Hadi. "It... It might be time for a break... from the community. I'm thinking... Of how I'll announce it."
Hadi clutched to her. "S-sure, but... Give me your SFW profile. All I have is you, and this kink... And I... I don't even know if I have this kink anymore."

Pedro kept kicking dirt around him. "If it weren't for their security... For my body still recovering... Fuck them. I'm going to sue those shits for everything." He flung a middle finger back at the old mansion.

Anderson laughed grimly. "If that makes you feel better. If yelling in a court about what a pervert you are will help you get over this, go do it. I don't think..." He hid in his sleeve. "I don't think that'll work for me. Doesn't... Does't she care about our feelings? All that insanity, just... Just so she could have a test run for some experimental doctor procedure?"

"No." Liu looked over her hands. "I think doctor Fran was trying to tell us... Our lives don't have test runs."

Again and again, the events repeated in their heads. The pleasures that had been so long out of reach now felt disgusting, and made their hands reel back. The broken glass remained trapped in their brains - and the most painful part was the reflections of themselves and their desires that bounced off it.

And yet, despite the blinding clarity, questions remained.

Liu looked around the hunched backs surrounding her. "Hey... Didn't... Tessay come out with us?"

An alarm sounded in the manor they left behind.

"INTRUDER - ALL STAFF TO LOCK DOORS - VERONICA REQUESTED IN ROOM 11 -"

Tessay pushed and ripped past beasts towering over him. His legs were still numb, and he didn't feel any of the scratches or bumps as he sprinted back to the room.

The boy panted, looking around. "Please, pleaseplease, I can't live like this... I need to go back! Life as a human --- I don't deserve it! Put me back in that shrunken body. I don't care if it's fake, just take me back! I was - so close! So close...!"

Knocking Okita away, and stumbling around a butler with the face of a basset hound, he opened the door to the room with the brain-reading device once more. Placing the dome on his head, he hit buttons at random, and lay back, gasping.

***

When he opened his eyes again, Fran entered the room, and calmly removed the dome from his head. A sci-fi ray gun rested in her left hand - which she shot at him. Slowly, from the beam's effects, he shrunk before her - watching in awe, as she once more become the beautiful giantess he remembered. No, even more stunning. He felt the hospital bed below quake and rumble from her incoming, booming steps.

"What is it those doctors on TV say? Things like, 'you have six months to live'..." She turned around, showing her generous backside - twin cheeks casting a shadow above. "Tessay, you have ten seconds left~"

It SLAMMED upon him, compressing him into the sheets below the mass of juicy flesh.

***

Tessay opened his eyes again. He was laying in a soft, pillowy - with fingers lifting like heavenly pillars on either side. Past the palm, Veronica's enormous, stitched face stared at him in disgust.

A city below - his size. A crowd of cockroaches cheered her on, raising their legs in jubilation.

"That's him!"
"The menace to bugkind!"
"Show him no mercy!"

Veronica stared blankly at him. "For all the bugs you crushed... Payback time." She closed her hand into a fist - covering him in overwhelming darkness and touching him on every end.

***

When the darkness subsided, Tessay was in old, white cloths, wrapped in a cocoon. Adorea was looking down upon him. He could almost make out a shy smile past the bandages covering her face; very nearly see a beautiful eye peeking out. They lay together on a bed with pink curtains.

Slowly, sensually, she stripped the cloaking paper from her waist down. A sweet smell emerged, fluttering into the air, pulling him in. He was naturally drawn in towards the meaty, pink pocket that opened on her groin, swallowing him...

***

It was light again. The fluorescent lights of the experiment room were glaring on Tessay. He couldn't see any of the other containers...

...But he could feel something approaching, galloping quickly on all fours. Gavrill, the wolf. Her hair curled around her ravenous grin, as she fished into his tank, licking her fangs.

"Hah! Thought I could smell your fucking jizz. Reeks the same as at your parents' shithole basement. So, can't help from whacking off even here, huh, you sack of shit?" Lifting him before her snapping jaws, she let out a dry, spiteful laugh. "Well, a shitty snack's still a snack - so in ya go, fucko!"

And he dropped into the open, musty chasm that was her throat...

***

...He landed on a floor. Heels, everywhere. Looking up, police uniforms. All identical. All women with a short cut wearing glasses. Officer Rumiko Kuhou - dozens of her - stomping on him in unison, listing every petty crime he'd committed in private, as his life left...

***

...Between the bountiful breasts of Shelly, still in her habits. He could vaguely hear the chants behind the titflesh, whispering, "mea maxima culpa", as she squeezed them in...

***

...Flashes from the camera of Injuuin the journalist, capturing Tessay's confused face against her foot, immortalizing it - and exposing his online handle...

***

...The Madarakis' hands, silently scraping through his city...

***

...Becoming next to nothing on an endless plane of flesh he didn't recognize, hearing a voice too loud and booming to understand, as a planetary hand lowered to swat him...

***

"Hm. Tessay seems to be in a coma. I'm not sure if the brainwave device induced it, when he activated it incorrectly... Or if that's a defence mechanism he entered naturally."

In reality, Fran, Veronica, and Okita gathered around the mansion's experiment room. Tessay lay in the stretcher, dome around his head, jaw hanging open. His arms didn't respond to poking or prodding.

Veronica looked over him. She held to her doll, clad in the tiny pink-stained dress. "Rushing in like that... What was thinking?"

Okita observed a stain at his groin. "Looks like he's thinking happy thoughts." He licked the back of his paw. "Guess that dude really did end up shutting away reality for a fantasy."

Veronica peeked to a window, watching the other patients leave into the rainstorm - like dejected children who'd squandered their Golden Tickets to a chocolate factory. "And they're gonna have to live with their realities. Wonder who has it worse here..."

"In any case." Fran patted his limp cheek gently with the back of her hand, some drool falling on it. "We should enact his last request. He asked to play this song at his funeral."

She pulled out an old cassette player, and deposited it by the comatose patient. After she pressed the play button, the Madaraki family walked away to the beat of the beeping, funky synth music:


I finally made it through med school
Somehow I made it through
I'm just an intern
I still make a mistake or two
I was last in my class
Barely passed at the institute
Now I'm trying to avoid, yeah I'm tryy~yying to avoid
A malpractice suit

Hey! Like a surgeon!
-"Weird Al" Yankovic, Like a Surgeon