Decisions (1.1 mm)

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(Side - Taku: Takumi Endou)

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“... As I thought. The order wasn’t right in the code. If I switch the places of these two lines here then maybe...” a voice who’s owner Takumi couldn’t see spoke from outside the white colosseum sized cup he was stuck in.

“... Please, Mayumi-san. I’m counting on you,” Takumi tried to remain hopeful. Normal. Back to normal. If that was actually going to happen soon, Takumi could finally be done with all of the craziness that came with being Compressed. From start to finish, he hadn’t been able to be truly comfortable since the size change made the entire world feel alien to him. If the older Komiya succeeded, he’d finally get some semblance of normalcy again.

“Um… Taku...”

Well, at least things could get more normal physically. To be honest, he wasn’t sure yet just what was normal about Makoto anymore. Her inferiority complex and pessimistic attitude were things he knew of, but he never expected things would have ever become so extreme. If not for his sudden vulnerability, the love-sick Makoto might never have acted the way she did.

“...”

He said nothing. The fact that she was 50 times her size meant he couldn’t easily respond to her to get her to hear him anyways. He was aware there was a roughly 5 cm tall Makoto looming over his millimeter sized body. It was hard to miss the noticeable change in temperature that came with being in her shadow. The presence of her house-sized foot mere meters away both intimidated him and made his nose scrunch up from the odor.

“I… I’m sorry. You probably… You probably don’t want to talk to me at all, do you?” Makoto’s voice was cracking.

Makoto was hesitant trying to work up the nerve to speak. What happened to all of that bravado she had before? Even when she wasn’t deluded, Makoto was never the type to sheepishly approach him. She was always a girl who could snap at him, retort at him, and speak to him casually. The size difference between them had been what gave her the opportunity to take advantage of him in the first place, but all of that boldness had just disappeared. Because Mayumi said it was up to him how he wanted to deal with Makoto, she was now trying to appeal to him.

“... I get it. I’m a terrible person. I’m a horrible person for getting off on what I did...”

Even after Mayumi had lectured her, Makoto still hadn’t fully come to her senses.  Her eyes seemed to be looking far past him rather than at him. Her breathing was erratic and short, and it was clear that her tone of voice was filled with self-loathing.

“Mayumi-san really did a number on her…,” he mumbled quietly, seeing Makoto’s knees shaking, causing the ground to tremble like a weak but consistent earthquake. It was unbelievable to him that the giant girl who had asserted so much power over him had become so meek. Compression weakened Makoto both physically and mentally, even beyond what it did to him, in his opinion. “Neko...”

It was strange. Even after being tricked, abused, and violated by Makoto, he was able to think clearly. Maybe it was because of how alien the entire experience felt - like a dream. No, not a nightmare. Just a dream. As frightening as everything had been, now that Makoto’s pheromones had run their course through his body and he was able to have time to think to himself, his brain somehow came to the conclusion that as bad as it was, it could have been worse. Makoto could have tossed him deeper into her rather than just at the edge. Just how would he have turned out if his miniscule form was inside her warm privates? Recalling how he was too small to escape her panties reminded him that he would have likely been trapped inside her, and the idea made his body shiver.

His optimism might have been the source of his sturdy mental state unlike Makoto’s pessimism. However, even though he was trying to look on the bright side, he couldn’t deny that his body was still feeling the after effects. He couldn’t stand straight because his lower body was upright from the blood flowing there. 

“Makoto-sa…. Really? Body… how are you still enjoying all of this?” his entire body shuddered. He had to bite his lip to stop himself from relapsing. It seemed not all of the pheromones had actually left. Had Makoto successfully ‘trained’ him? Just looking up at her giant form threw his body into a frenzy. He couldn’t see Makoto normally anymore. It was like his mind and body were disjoint - the forced physical attraction made him fearful. What was going to happen to him if he chose to forgive Makoto?

“Please, Taku. I know I messed up now. Give me another chance. I don’t want you to hate me. Don’t cut ties with us.”

Cutting ties. Hating. Those were the words that drove a nail into Makoto’s heart. She had said it herself - everything she had done was because she loved him. The fact that he hadn’t properly realized it until she had to outright tell him revealed to him just how bad it must have been for her to hear his constant admiration of his mentor. In addition to everything she had done, now that he was aware of this, he was certain their relationship couldn’t possibly go back to normal when Mayumi restored their sizes.

“Don’t leave me...” Tears were clearly welling up in the girl’s eyes.

Just how did he feel about her? Makoto’s definition of love was far different and more twisted than his own.

“What am I going to do?“ he ground his teeth. Was forgiving Makoto or cutting ties really the only choices he had? He wasn’t heartless enough to abandon Makoto after all of this, but he wasn’t a saint who’d be willing to let what she had done pass either. Being forced to make the decision was cruel. His mind raced, trying to comprehend the entire situation.

As Takumi contemplated his choice, however, his habit of speaking and thinking to himself and not to Makoto left the girl without an answer. Without any response or assurance, the broken love-sick girl was on her last legs, scraping the back of her mind for some way to convince Takumi. The only ideas she had left were from the bottom of the barrel. It was only when her shorts hit the floor that Takumi returned her focus to her.

Thud!

“Whoa! Huh?” Takumi was surprised by the sudden gust of wind from her bottom wear’s impact with the ceramic. Looking back up, he saw Makoto was chaotically trying to strip. “N-Neko! What are you doing?”

“I know. I did everything wrong to you, right?” The girl wasn’t listening to him properly as she started to take off her green hoodie. Only her camisole and panties remained, but she was preparing to take those off too. “Then you can do whatever you want to me. That’s only fair, right?”

No, that wasn’t correct, but Takumi couldn’t say a word as Makoto pulled off her camisole and threw it to the side, revealing her bare breasts which bounced above him. 

“This is the only thing I have to offer, Taku,” The girl said as she started to slip off her panties. With a kick, they flew off, revealing her nude body which climbed into the sky like a monument of a goddess. But she did not stay stationary like some statue. The giant girl started to get down on all fours. Her building sized orbs nearly swung into him. Even without doing so, the air pressure alone was enough to send him stumbling back.

“N-Not again,” he reflexively uttered. Was he intimidated as Makoto crawled to get closer to him? Of course he was. His body was reacting before his mind could think. His arousal spiked. Even though he was fully dressed, Makoto would have clearly seen his erection. “Damnit, Takumi. Focus. Don’t… Makoto-sa… Neko, don’t!”

But Takumi didn’t have to do anything to get his message across to Makoto. As her deep brown eyes locked onto his fallen millimeter tall body that was centimeters to her relatively, they widened. She saw his frightened crawl backwards and his wincing face. Immediately, a devastated expression crossed her face as the realization kicked in.

“...!” for a moment, Makoto said nothing. Then, she pulled back, immediately covering her privates and nipples with her arms as best as she could. “... No… S-Sorry… I … I didn’t mean to… You.. You probably hate this body now...”

He couldn’t reply. Makoto didn’t give him the time to. Tears started to fall from her eyes as she ran away from him. Just two steps towards her camisole and panties put her leaps and bounds away from him that even if he ran he would have failed to catch up with her.

“That’s right, there’s nothing I can do…,” Makoto did not have enough energy to put on anything after the underwear before she curled up into a monument-sized ball in the corner of the teacup. “I’m disgusting… I raped you, and I thought I could fix things by doing this… Just what kind of perverted criminal am I?”

“Hey, Neko, that’s...” Takumi was regaining his composure to try to speak to her again, but he had to navigate to the other side of the teacup, which at his small stature, was a long trek. “Goddamnit...”

As he ran, Makoto was tormenting herself with her self-loathing.

“It’s hopeless. I’m worthless...”

He heard her cry into her knees. Her voice echoed through the entire tea cup.

“I… I can’t do anything. I’m not as smart as Mayu-nee. I’m not as pretty as Mayu-nee. I’m not as great as Mayu-nee. I can’t get as close to Taku as Mayu-nee. If even this stupid ero-shorty body makes Taku scared of me, what good is it?  What good am I?”

He finally made it to her, or rather, Makoto’s butt. It was intimidating being in the shadow of her body that dwarfed most skyscrapers but he persisted. He tried waving and shouting, but he couldn’t get the depressed girl’s attention.

“Mayu-nee, I was wrong. I don’t deserve to be locked up. I don’t even deserve to be turned back… ”

Takumi couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Makoto was so broken up, she was putting herself down even more than before. Her inferiority complex was in full gear. She had felt she had lost it all. This was clearly her comeuppance for her actions. 

“Just leave me like this- a perverted bug good for nothing more than getting squished...”

It stung. Takumi honestly wanted to forgive her seeing how she had finally realized and was now horrified with what she had done.

“... Yeah… That’s right. I can’t even compare to her. She’s too far beyond me to even be my sister. I’m on the level of a bug compared to Mayu-nee. The best I can hope for is for Taku to be the one to squish me when he gets back to normal. Just let me die…”

She had nothing left to stand on without Takumi. Her entire life, she was consumed by being in her sister’s shadow. She had been able to keep going because she thought she had a chance at being with him, but now, because of his fear of her, she was ready to throw away her life.

Takumi was Makoto’s crutch. The millimeter sized boy came to that conclusion while listening to his 1:30 scale classmate. 

“Damnit…,” he ground his teeth and clenched his fist. An eye for an eye? Leaving the decision to him? Mayumi didn’t realize just how rough Makoto had it. And as for Makoto - just what was she thinking? Self-loathing, self-deprecation, self-destruction just after seeing his expression? Just how much of her life did he make up?

If he didn’t forgive Makoto, her depression would only deepen until she self-destructed, but if he forgave Makoto, he’d just be acting as her crutch from then on and condoning what she had done. It was clear from how she was acting now that she’d become dependent on him. In either case, he wouldn’t forgive himself for reducing Makoto to such a state. He was not just frustrated. He was angry- at Makoto, at Mayumi, and at himself. There had to be something he could do - Something to save Makoto.

Was there even a way? He wasn’t sure if there was one with a probable chance of success, but there was no more time for him to think. He had to act.

“Grrrraaaaggggh!” He saw red. There was nothing he could think of except to strike at the giant figure of Makoto. He bit onto her butt - just past the edge of her green panties.

“Gyaaah!” Unlike before, Takumi bit down on a sensitive area and literally struck a nerve, leaving a red mark on Makoto’s building of a rear end. He forced Makoto to push herself back and to look down to see him on the base of the tea cup, waving his fist angrily. “T-Taku?”

She leaned in close enough to him to hear. He was not intimidated by her close presence to flinch this time even though she was still mostly naked. It is said that a cornered rat would bite a cat, and this was clearly the time for Takumi to make use of his bite.

“You bit me? Why did you come?”

“Damnit… Neko! Calm the hell down already!” he demanded. 

“Huh? But I-”

“Just what the hell are you saying?! The next time you say something like wanting to die, I'll bite you until you bleed!” He cut her off as loudly as he could shout. He never thought he had ever gotten this angry before to threaten her. “It doesn’t matter whether she’s the same size as you or if she’s huge - stop caring about what your sister says!”

“But I don’t deserve to- You hate m-”

“When did I ever say that?!” he roared. Though his voice was squeaky to the girl 48 times his size, she was actually intimidated by him. “Just stop assuming. You and Mayumi-san both are putting words in my mouth just because it’s hard to hear me! I’ll make my own decisions so listen to me properly, dammit!”

She was listening. Without Mayumi directly paying attention to them and with Takumi being the one person in her life she ever truly focused on, she was listening to him intently, as though ready to obey whatever he said But Takumi didn’t want just that. He knew if things stayed as they were, Makoto would just be like a baby duckling following its mother.

So he forced her to get closer to him and bit her again, right on the nose.

“Kyaah!” she yipped, pulling back while covering her nose. “T-Taku, why did you bite me again? No, actually, why are you even here? Don’t you hate me?”

“Grrr… This is just the worst,” Takumi groaned. After all of this time enduring it, he finally had the chance to properly talk to Makoto again. He didn’t think the opportunity would only present itself when the two of them were both shrunken down inside a tea cup after Makoto had hit rock bottom. There was only one solution he could think of that he felt would have a happier ending than either of Mayumi’s black-and-white choices. “Just what the hell am I supposed to say at a time like this?”

“To say?” Makoto repeated, showing she was listening.

He had her pick him up. She carefully cupped her hands together and held him in her palms as she slowly brought him up. They needed to talk. This was the only good way for her to hear him.

“Neko… No, Makoto,” he called her by name without any formalities. He racked his brain and tried to force himself to calm down. “Just why do you think I had that photo of you and Mayumi-san on my phone?”

This was a proper question to trigger Makoto’s thoughts. The hot topic that had caused Makoto to break down was something he had to bring up. He had been hiding it as best as he could, but the fact that its discovery had led to all of this meant their current predicament was also partly his fault.

“Why are you asking me something like this? Do you want me to say it? That you like Nee-san?” Though it hurt for her to say it aloud, she actually did say it. He tried to slowly calm his tone of voice so Makoto could become more comfortable answering him even though he knew she was wrong. 

“You said it before that you thought I was impotent because I never reacted to your boobs and everything. Why did you think that?” he asked without properly responding to the previous answer.

Makoto gulped as she tried to think. She was hesitant but she was readily answering every one of his questions. “Because you were only looking at Mayu-nee, right?”

Of course, she was wrong, but they were actually conversing together finally. There was one last question he had to ask. “Hey, Makoto. How did you normally feel about perverts ogling our body again?”

“Huh?” Makoto blinked, trying to think about the question. This was less related to him so it took her a moment to give her response. “I-I hate them. But what does this have to do with anything?”

“It has everything to do with it!” 

His furious shout actually startled the giant shrunken girl. She visibly jumped, which sent Takumi flying upwards a few centimeters. He caught himself when he fell back down to Makoto’s palm. He was starting to get used to his small stature.

“Grk… Listen,” he prefaced his answer by pointing up at her boldly. “I do not like Mayumi-san if that’s what you’re thinking. I admire her as an inventor, but that’s it. As for you, you’re the only person who could even put up with me. Do you think I’d want to show you a sneaky shot of you in a swimsuit? Do you think you’d enjoy being ogled by someone you called a friend? It’s not like I never paid any interest in you, alright? What kind of asshole would I be if I kept checking you out perversely every time we met? I had to hide it as best as I could.”

It was an obvious thing, but it was something Makoto, in all her delusions and self-loathing, had overlooked. 

“Hide it? Then you… You actually saw me like that?”

“If you mean I found you attractive, yes,” he bluntly shouted. He turned away, scratching his nose. He didn’t want to look straight forward because he was right in front of Makoto’s chest. Due to her cupping her hands, her cleavage line was clearly visible and a literal jump away. “I’m sorry you thought I was looking at Mayumi-san. Girls in swimsuits… I couldn’t resist, okay? But that’s just it! Wouldn’t you find it disgusting if some other guy tried to make friends with you because he was interested in you sexually? I like you more than just for your body!”

“L-” Makoto froze. She couldn’t believe what she just heard, and Takumi was well aware of that. Before she could properly recover, he had to explain properly or else she would take it the wrong way.

“Sheesh,” he groaned, his palm smacking himself in the face in aggravation. “Goddamnit. I’ll say it out right. I’m just as bad as those other guys. I took that sneak shot and kept it because I find your body as sexy as everyone else does. I’m having trouble keeping my gaze focused here because I see you as a woman, alright? Did you think I wanted to just up and tell you that, though? Of course not! I thought that’d mess up our friendship so I said nothing this whole time!”

He wouldn’t lie to himself. He wasn’t sure if reciprocating Makoto’s feelings was the correct answer, especially when he, himself, wasn’t sure of how he actually felt.

“Makoto, I’m sorry. I never realized it until you actually said it yourself. Forgive me. I’m an idiot for not realizing you were in love with me. I don’t get romance, alright? I’ve got so much science on the brain so much; I didn’t think anybody would ever fall for a guy like me, so I never even considered it. I’m still not sure what to think about it, especially after all of this…”

Those last words triggered Makoto’s panic. “I-It’s my fault, isn’t it? You hate me because of that, right?”

“No! This is my fault too. If I had only realized earlier… I don’t hate you. Even after all of this, I can’t hate you,” he was sure Mayumi would say that he was too nice for his own good. “I won’t be calling the police like Mayumi-san suggested. Who would believe this story anyways? But that doesn’t mean I’ve forgiven you just like that, Makoto. I really don’t know how I feel right now. My body… it’s not acting the way it should be. Give me some time, okay?”

This was his answer, as pathetic as it was. He couldn’t say he loved her confidently yet, but he knew he didn’t hate her. Makoto was his friend. That’s why he wanted to stick with her even after all she had done to him. To go from friend to lovers though… that was a jump in their relationship he couldn’t start while his mind was still hazy. He just wanted to reassure Makoto that the worst wasn’t coming even though it wasn’t the best. She was looking too far into the extremes that her sister had suggested. 

“It’s not the best answer, I know,” he groaned. He was being an indecisive anime protagonist wasn’t he? The adrenaline from his anger was starting to leave his system, so his traumatized body was shivering uncontrollably near Makoto’s presence. “If you really regret what you did, then just live with that regret for just a little longer. Then, when this is all over, maybe I can give you a proper answer to your confession. Just please, I don’t want to hear that you want to die.”

“…” 

Makoto could say nothing. She was still trying to process everything Takumi said. She tried her best to collect her thoughts. Weakly, she opened her mouth to speak.

“So you don’t hate me?”

“I never have. I never will. But I won’t deny you went too far.”

“… So you don’t love me?”

“I told you. I don’t know how I feel right now. I never thought about romance before, and being shrunken isn’t really a good way to receive or answer a confession either, is it? I won’t abandon you, though. I promise.”

“But Mayu-nee… you don’t love her?”

“Not the love you’re referring to. I never saw her that way.”

Makoto had love on the brain, but with every answer he gave her, he could see the fogginess of her eyes start clearing up. Was she cheering up? Was she calming down?

“… So there’s a chance?” was Makoto’s final question.

“There’s a chance,” he nodded.

Though he couldn’t give her what she wanted, Takumi gave her a hope to cling on to. To not send her into despair, but not out-right invalidate her wrongdoings, he took the middle ground. This was his solution. This was his choice. 

Drip! Drip!

“Whoa!” Takumi had to dive from the center of Makoto’s palm to her fingers to avoid a flurry of tears.

“… I… I’m sorry,” Makoto cried. These were not tears of sadness anymore though. Takumi could see a grateful smile as Makoto removed half of his footing to bring her other hand up to wipe her eyes. “I regret everything. Even after all of this… you’re still so nice to me… Thank you… I really… Really love you Taku…”

He knew she did, and quite honestly, he felt he would feel the same too if the circumstances weren’t what they had been. Perhaps he actually did love Makoto, but he didn’t want to say it yet when he wasn’t sure if it was the pheromones talking or him. Now all that was left was for the two of them to be turned back to normal. He was counting on Mayumi for that.