Servant(s): [Alter Ego] Kiara Sesshouin, [Caster] Nursery Rhyme

Hans Christian Anderson, one of the world’s great three fairy tale authors, was a man of many misfortunes.  As a pessimistic and gloomy Servant, the Curses of the Readers plagued him with the Innocent Monster skill which gave him the same wounds his stories’ characters had. His young childlike form was riddled with scales and burn scars from his depictions of “The Little Mermaid” and “The Little Match Girl”. He often secluded himself away to continue working on manuscript after manuscript, not wanting to get involved with any funny business that came with saving the world. Despite this, he was known around Chaldea as the Man who lives on the Deadline, the Bad End Lover, and That Erotic Voiced Shorty who Burns with his Tongue.

He was also an acquaintance of Kiara Sesshouin, much to either of their disdains. 

“Welcome to the tea party, Master. Are you enjoying this ludicrous adaptation of that crappy old work of mine? What was it called again: Thumbelina? Though I’m fairly certain even she’d be looking down than us at our current state,” the lab coat clad Caster greeted the tiny Master and Lord El-Melloi II when they were placed down on the glitter covered tea party table that had clearly been conjured up by Nursery Rhyme. He stood on the edge of a teacup saucer, soaked to the bone in black tea but still very much in love with the sound of his own voice.

“Anders-” the small master started to speak, but was quickly interrupted by the sight of a hand descending from the sky and plucking the bespectacled servant by his lab coat and picking him up.  From the black, puppet-like hand, it was clear that it was Nursery Rhyme who did it. She had taken a seat at her special table along with the other giant ladies who now surrounded the three of them.

“Mister Anderson, what did I tell you about getting off of the plate? You’re getting the table cloth all wet,” the gigantic girl scolded.

“Put me down already, you happy ending addicted book girl!” the miniscule author was not afraid of being dangled in the air by the little girl servant who was 100 times his height. “Just let me get back to my manuscript in peace alrea-”

Despite his shouts, none of Anderson’s words made it to Nursery’s ears. Not only was he too small for her to hear any more than unintelligible squeaks but he was also interrupted when Nursery Rhyme unceremoniously pushed him into the warm up of tea he had been sitting next to. She held him under for several seconds with just her forefinger.

“Hmph. That’s another punishment for you,” Nursery Rhyme stated. When she was content, she pulled the tea-soaked author out of the tea cup and back onto the saucer.

“Anderson!” he and Lord El-Melloi II ran over to the collapsed servant who was coughing out tea.

“Guh… Blargh… Too much… sugar…,” they heard Anderson spit out as he tried to recover.

“Here he is, Mashu!” Nursery Rhyme smiled up above, talking to the titanic Shielder across the table. “Mister Andersen’s finally joining our tea party, but he’s still being so rude and making a mess.”

“I-Is that so?” Mashu tried remaining passive, biting her lip. She was noticeably uncomfortable being near Kiara, as was Serenity. She took the tea cup in front of her and took a sip. “I can’t actually hear any of them except Senpai, so Senpai will have to talk to Mister Andersen. Could we just give them some time?”

“So you can actually hear Master. Well, if it’s only him, then that’s fine. I’d feel sorry for you if you could hear Andersen. It feels quite liberating to not have to hear his abusive insults,” Kiara had one of Nursery’s cookies.

“These are… delicious…,” Serenity mumbled as she ate.

So the girls were going to leave dealing with Andersen to him. It made sense, considering he was the same size as the Caster class servant, but he would have appreciated some support. If Mashu could distract Kiara by talking to her, however, that would be good enough for him.

“Looks like those girls are leaving it to us, Master. I suppose that’s for the best. Let’s just ask Andersen and get out of here,” El Melloi II believed this was the best form of action.

“Well aren’t you two an optimistic bunch,” Andersen chuckled as he squeezed the tea out of the sleeves of his white coat. “I would’ve expected the Lord strategist here to have thought up with a more well-rounded plan. Did getting younger knock a few points off your IQ?”

“This whole day’s been too crazy, Andersen. Spare me the critique. I’m sure you’d be hard-pressed for inspiration in this state,” the young Lord El-Melloi II. “There aren’t many viable strategies when you’re the size of a coin.”

The child-like, deep voiced Caster’s remarks continued. “Making excuses, boy? Even in this state, there are at least two and a half dozen things stories I can write if those two aggravating cats would just let me go.” 

“We’ll have to leave our exit strategy to Mashu,” the tiny Master knew. He looked up at his giant kouhai who glanced down towards him. He could see her nod, but her frown told him she was having trouble thinking of an idea.

Their main goal was just to find out if Kiara was the culprit in the first place. They didn’t need any strategies outside of an escape plan. Unfortunately, he was certain that there was no way out unless Mashu and Serenity were to take action. Both he and Lord El Melloi II were resigned to that fact.

Sigh!

“It’s not going to end this absurd story early, but I guess you two did come for answers.”

He was thankful that Andersen was understanding enough to give them what they came for. He had his suspicions considering the behavior of the giant Alter Ego who was happily enjoying a cup of tea above them. The woman’s attention remained off of them, but he remained wary, 

“Well, let me assure you then, Master. As absurd as it sounds, that cosmic lust-filled cow woman is as innocent as a newborn fawn.”

That was not what he wanted to hear.

“What?”

“I can’t even begin to describe the look on that melon ridge witch’s face when this happened. She was as dumbstruck as that golden king when that Rider-Class Spriggan kicked him to kingdom come,” Andersen shook his head. 

“Looks like you can describe it pretty well. I suppose that means you’re certain about this,” Zhuge Liang’s pseudo-servant frowned. Andersen’s honesty stung. 

The author servant continued to spit venom as was natural for him. “A child’s unadulterated bliss at finding a new toy would be something I expect from that book. On that hussy, it’s vomit inducingly hideous enough to break mirrors. This whole day, the two of them have been fooling around with me as payback. It’s been torture, but they have an honest alibi.”

“Then I guess we came here for nothing,” the shrunken master sighed. He didn’t like the idea of once again picking the wrong person, but he had to admit he was oddly relieved Kiara was not the perpetrator.

“It would’ve been too simple of an ending for either her or that happy end loving fairy tale to be the antagonist,” Andersen commented while shaking his head and shrugging. “You should’ve expected this from the start, Master.”

“After BB, I don’t know what to expect,” he answered.

“Bah. Cockamamie. That love-struck virus girl may string you around like a dog, but here in this frozen base, she’s harmless at the end once she’s had her fill. It’s this insatiable woman you need to worry about. You stepped into the spider’s web when you thought to check her, Master.”

Didn’t he know it. While they had gotten the information that had come for, now they had to get out. Mashu was listening to him, but it was clear by the shadow over them that she was not going to be able to get them out immediately.

“Hey, hey. Master~,” the loud boom of Nursery Rhyme’s voice directly behind him deafened his ears. At his size, the little girl-type servant’s mouth opened up to over twice his height. Just by calling his attention, the force of wind from her slightly ajar mouth sent the less than 2 cm tall Master tumbling forward. “Oops. Teeheehee.”

“Master, you may want to hold on,” Lord El-Melloi II began to brace himself. At the same time, he saw a ball-jointed hand reach towards them.

“Whoa!” the little Master wailed as the dish all three of them were on tilted. They tumbled down the plate towards Nursery Rhyme’s palm. Unfortunately for him, only he rolled off the plate. Before the two Caster class servants had the time to turn their heads, he was rapidly raised up so that he was directly in front of the servant’s enormous, sparkling eyes.

“Master, let’s play!” the childish servant smiled.

Play. To be playing with the youthful Caster was something he would have been happy to do at regular size, but knowing Nursery Rhyme’s childish fervor, it was a danger to him.

He opened his mouth to refuse, but Kiara was one step ahead of him and plucked his miniscule form off of Nursery Rhyme’s hand. He was dangling by the stretching fabric of his Mystic Code, directly in front of the Alter Ego servant’s lips.

“Ooh. That’s a splendid idea,” Kiara’s hot breath blew past her pink lips and battered him. “Nursery Rhyme has been quite lonely lately since nobody else was joining her tea party. We’d appreciate if you play along, Master.” 

“W-While that’d be fun, we still have a mission to complete. Senpai has to go,” Mashu countered. She stood up and placed her hand on Serenity’s shoulder.

“Awww. Just for a bit? Jack and the others haven’t been here all day,” Nursery Rhyme pleaded, tugging on Kiara’s sleeve. He could feel the woman’s arm jerk. He was unfortunately in the middle of the argument between the titanic women. Mashu and Serenity had to put their feet down if they wanted to leave.

Unfortunately, Kiara and Nursery Rhyme had the upper hand. While he wanted to speak his mind to talk to Mashu, he couldn’t because Kiara began rubbing her fingers around the tiny master’s body. 

He couldn’t speak while being ground under the pressure of the Demonic Bodhisattva’s fingers. She was not rough, but neither was she gentle. She wasn’t satisfied with simply holding him. Her finger dexterity was frighteningly skillful. She effortlessly changed how she held him from dangling him to squeezing him to restraining him so that she could rub her nail against him. Kiara’s long nail caressed his chest, his stomach, and then even lower. At 1/100th his original size, he was helpless as the woman toyed with his body.

“Ack…!”

“Master is...”

“Senpai!” Mashu could hear and see him being manhandled by the Alter Ego servant. She was quick to relent. “I-I suppose one game wouldn’t hurt.”

There really wasn’t a choice in the first place. They all knew that. An opportunity to give into temptation was one Kiara would not let slip by, and Nursery Rhyme also would raise a ruckus if they refused her. Since he and the other male servants were in an ever-present danger, agreeing to play was all Mashu and Serenity could do.

“Yay!” Nursery Rhyme clasped her hands together in excitement. “What should we play? Hide and seek? Tag? Ooh, how about musical chairs?”

“My my. They all sound fun,” Kiara’s smile remained unchanged as she enabled Nursery Rhyme’s ideas with her applause. She then released her tight grip on the little Master, causing him to plummet down to the center of her palm. The little Master shuddered at a familiar and traumatic sight of the Alter Ego’s [Beast]-like gaze. “I wonder which one Master would like best?”

As if the sight of his trembling form wasn’t enough to satisfy the Demonic Bodhisattva, her free hand reached down onto the table and swept across it. In an instant, the other two shrunken victims were grabbed from the table and dropped onto the same palm he was on.

“Whoa!”

“Consarnit! Not again!”

The more the merrier, he realized was on Kiara’s mind. She was enjoying being able to move them along to her whims. From his conversations with Kiara since she entered Kiara, no matter what she said, her true nature was still hidden. While she said she was ‘restraining’ herself, she would be happy if he fell victim to temptations. 

“Well, if this isn’t a fine kettle of fish you’ve gotten me in,” Andersen rubbed his pained shoulder. “Master, you better treat me to the finest alcohol when we make it out of this.”

“When? Sounds like you’re confident we’ll make it through this,” Lord El-Melloi II remarked, clutching his side. “What are we going to do - knock them out?”

He wondered if that was even possible, but he also agreed Lord El-Melloi’s opinion that Andersen believed they’d make it through. Andersen’s Human Observation skill let him critically see how Nursery Rhyme and Kiara behaved. Though he did not have that skill himself, the shrunken Master believed that, with Nursery Rhyme around, Kiara wouldn’t go too far.  At the same time, it also seemed as though the Alter Ego was only enabling her. She was supporting the book-type servant instead of playing the starring role so she could have her fun by tagging along.

The question as to what game was going to be played was what worried them. Kiara lowered her palm, and thus all three of them, down to her stomach. They had a good view of Nursery Rhyme pondering what to play and Serenity and Mashu facing each other.

“Hm… What would be a fun game…?” the Caster girl mumbled to herself.

Nursery Rhyme’s previous suggestions already worried the Master. Hide and Seek sounded safe, but it would end up as a game of cat and mouse, or rather, cat and bug. Tag was equally as bad and made him recall the Gorgon sisters. As for musical chairs… he really did not want to think about how that would work on their scale.

“... this then...” a few words in Mashu’s voice entered his ears.

Looking up, the tiny Master could see his bespectacled, eggplant kouhai whispering to her Assassin class partner. Was she planning something? He then turned around to look at Kiara’s face, though he found it obscured by her voluptuous bosom. How was she going to react?

“Um… Nursery Rhyme… would you mind if I decide the game?” Mashu spoke up with a red face. It seemed Mashu had thought of something.

“Oh? Mashu has a game idea? How fun! How interesting! What is it? What is it?” Nursery Rhyme was excited to hear Mashu was willing to join in.

“What is that young lady planning?” Andersen wondered.

“Hopefully, our escape route,” Lord El-Melloi answered. “But considering the flustered expression on her face, I believe we may end up having to endure a little trouble before it succeeds.”

Considering how Mashu had been getting taken along for the ride all of the previous times, he would be grateful if she could succeed in getting them out of harm’s way. Of course, knowing how straightforward Mashu was, he had his concerns.

“So what is this game, Miss Mashu?” Kiara inquired. “I’d appreciate it if it allows all of us to play.”

“Erm… Can we give at least Mr. Andersen and Lord El-Melloi a break?” Mashu nervously requested. “You’ve been tor- playing with Mr. Andersen all day, and we just had a run in with BB...”

So it would just be him? Only him?

“Ooh. That’s a request I’d happily accept. Master, must suck to be you, but go tell the lass that I’ll happily write that crappy sequel she wants,” Andersen was quick to throw him under the bus upon hearing Mashu’s words. 

“Sounds like we’d be in the way of her plan,” the young pseudo-servant of Zhuge Liang raised an eyebrow.

“That’s fine,” Nursery Rhyme accepted the terms before Kiara could. “I want to play with Master and Mashu. The other two can watch. Mister Andersen would be a spoilsport anyways.”

“Aww...” Kiara was clear to express her disappointment. “Well, I suppose having an audience watching us from a distance may make things exciting in its own way as well. This will be a good game, right Mashu?”

“I-it will… I think...” Mashu answered. The demi-servant then sat back down and gestured for Serenity to do the same. “I just thought this up, but this may work.”

“Oh? An original idea?” By the bemused tone of voice, Kiara’s interest was piqued. She was curious.

Mashu prefaced her explanation by taking one tea cup and its saucer. She placed it in the center of the table and scooped six large spoonfuls of sugar into the empty cup. She then picked up the white and violet teapot and poured until it was completely filled to the brim.

“I-It’s not a typical party game, but we could play like this,” Mashu gestured at the cup. To the shrunken master’s dismay, she looked not at him but at Kiara, as though waiting for something.

The lewd nun seemed to understand Mashu’s intentions and the hand the three of them were on began to move. First, descended down to the teacup’s saucer. It then tilted so that all three of them tumbled off her palm and onto it. Before he could get his bearings, however, he was quickly pinched back up off to the saucer, separated from the two Caster class servants.

“M-Mashu?” he nervously uttered his kouhai’s voice as Kiara held him above the full cup of tea. He could see the concern in Mashu’s face, but it did nothing to calm his nerves as Mashu glanced at Kiara and nodded. That was the signal for Kiara to let go. “Whaaah!”

Splash!

He landed into the lukewarm tea with a tiny splash. His less than 2 cm body being so small, the filled teacup did not overflow even with him inside. He was treading water in the light brown liquid, looking up at the four giants seated around the cup.

“Let’s divide into teams. The two of us against the two of you.” Mashu began her explanation. “The goal will be to be the last person to empty the cup.”

Empty the cup? So they were going to be drinking from the teacup he was in?

“Sorry, Senpai, but please bear with it,” Mashu apologized before returning to the explanation. “We’ll take turns drinking from the cup. And so nobody drinks Senpai, we will only be taking sips.”

“Oh, I see. So we’ll be trying to work with our partner to make sure someone on our team finishes the tea,” Kiara understood the intentions of the game.

“Wouldn’t that mean indirect kisses? Kyaa~! How lewd,” Nursery Rhyme covered her eyes with her hands but left enough space to be able to see through them. Though she sounded embarrassed, there was also excitement in her voice. “How many sips can we take each time, Mashu?”

“One to five,” Serenity interjected with the answer.

Mashu nodded. “That’s right. The game may take a while if we just do one to three, but it’d be more fair to give more options when we’d be down to the last bit of tea.”

“Oh. A way to set the pace and keep things fair. Not bad,” Kiara complimented.

“Is this a good game?” she asked the other participants.

“I’d certainly like to give it a try with our little Master going along for the ride,” Kiara accepted while licking her lips.

Nursery Rhyme nodded and clapped. “Yes! Yes! I’m so happy, Mashu! Jack and the others will be so jealous I that get to play such an adult game!”

“A-Adult?”

Well, it was adult enough to appeal to Kiara at least.  For an improvised plan, Mashu’s idea was certainly elaborate. As he floated within the tea, he couldn’t help but compliment her. 

“Good job,” he said. He could see he heard her when her cheeks flushed pink for an instance.

“Hm… So it’s essentially a game of Nim,” he heard. It was Lord El-Melloi II who was standing outside the tea cup.

“Nim?” he could hear Andersen questioned.

“Well, there are several variations of the game both in Europe and China among other places. The common name should be Nim,” the tactician explained. “Essentially it’s a game where you take from a pile but try avoiding being the last one to take from it. Essentially it is a mathematical strategy game. I believe I used a version with sticks with Miss Mashu and Master some time ago to teach them strategy. I recall Professor Babbage and that Archer from Shinjuku being involved as well. Looks like the girl’s made a version of her own for the tea party. ”

“Well I’ll be. Some practical application for a math lesson. You may be an overworked bean sprout, but you’re capable enough to make sure your lessons stick with your students,” Andersen complimented with a mild insult inserted as was natural for him.

If the Lord from Clock Tower had done so, he had completely forgotten. At least Mashu remembered.

With the game ready to occur however, the young Master couldn’t just listen to commentary from the bystanders who had been saved thanks to Mashu’s request. With the game explained and the participants all ready to go, the tea cup he was in was lifted up. The sheer gravity from the speed of the cup lifting up pulled him down into the water. He struggled to fight against the current until he finally surfaced again, out of breath.

He was greeted by the sight of a deafening announcement right from an open mouth directly in front of him. “I’ll go first. Then Nursery Rhyme. Then Serenity. Then Kiara.” Mashu spoke with her mouth right next to the tea cup. The brief burst of warm air from Mashu’s mouth was powerful enough to send him floating like a piece of driftwood to the otherside of the cup, but that wasn’t the end, of course.

Mashu pursed her lips and pressed them against the cup. Her enormous face extending higher than a cliff face, the slight opening she made with her small mouth to take a sip of the tea cup was like a cave to them. He could easily fit inside Mashu’s mouth, and it was clear that such a thing could happen.

Sip.

With a single sip, his body was pulled towards her with incredible force. He was pulled halfway towards her with her first sip. One sip certainly wasn’t much, considering the tea in the tea cup did not seem to lower a centimeter of depth, but to him, it felt as though there had suddenly been a rip current.

“Mashu?”

Sip. Sip.

Two more sips. He was almost directly in front of Mashu’s upper lip, a bit taller than his torso, with the first sip and then slammed into it with the second. Mashu, whose eyes were closed, turned red immediately, but she continued.

Sip. Sip.

Five sips. She went for the maximum amount. The little Master was pressed against Mashu’s rosy upper lip. When he was the size of a tea stalk in her drink, could this be considered a kiss? To have his upper body and face stuck to his gigantic kouhai’s lips? Though it had been a hectic day, Mashu had freshened up that morning, including using a honey scented lip balm which he could smell clearly over the scent of tea. Mashu was big enough to swallow him whole, and with the suction force of her sips, he had to hang on for dear life to her upper lip to avoid being sucked into her mouth. 

Finally, Mashu’s lips left the cup. For a moment, his body was stuck, clinging to her upper lip and dangling in the air, before gravity forced him off, causing him to land back into the tea that had gotten slightly shallower.

“S-Senpai,” Mashu’s powerful voice made waves inside the teacup. She was touching her lips with her free hand. “Please don’t mind it… I-It doesn’t count when you’re so small...”

Mashu was clearly flustered and trying to convince herself to calm down after having him on her lip, but it stung a little to have been told it wasn’t a kiss because of how miniscule he was. 

The shrunken Master did not have the luxury to think about Mashu’s words however as next was Nursery Rhyme. The doll-like Caster Servant held the teacup he was in with both hands.

“Kyaa,” she smiled. “Master, you should hang on tight. We’re going to win this game.”

That childlike innocence would be refreshing at any other time, but Nursery Rhyme was playing to have fun and to win. Being a child, Nursery Rhyme was not as composed of a drinker as Mashu was. She placed the teacup to her mouth and tilted it up. The bug sized Master swam upwards in vain as the young servant drank.

Sip. Sip.

Two powerful sips pulled him down under water. He could feel the suction like a whirlpool threatening to drown him. Nursery Rhyme may have taken two sips in her perspective, but she due to how much she sucked, she drank more than Mashu had.

Just millimeters away from being pulled into Nursery Rhyme’s mouth, the 1/100th scale Master was freed when the teacup was tipped back to its original plane and was lowered back onto the saucer.

“Fufufu~ Master was really struggling,” she remarked, apparently having enjoyed his flailing about inside the teacup.

Next was Serenity. The Hassan servant gently picked up the cup with no useless movements. She was stealthy and had a steady grip. Being held near the dark skinned servant’s face, the tiny Master wondered just how many sips Serenity would take. She was holding the cup he was in with one hand and her other hand was pulling her hair behind her ear.

“Master… Don’t worry…,” she reassured him with a gentle blush.

Hassan of Serenity’s dark lips approached. A non-Zabaniya kiss against the rim of the teacup was what Serenity performed. She tilted the cup ever so slightly so that he would drift forward and onto her rich upper lip. His arms and torso pressed against it as Serenity began to drink.

Sip. Sip.

He was used to Serenity’s gentle(-ish) affection at regular size as well as Serenity’s assassination technique of kissing her opponents, but at this size, it certainly was a sight. With her attempt to disable Kiyohime before, Serenity had been extremely forceful to free him, but as she drank, there was an elegance to her movements despite how massive she was.

And with those two sips, she was done. The assassin was quick. Serenity put the cup back down on the saucer as silently as she had picked it up.

Last but not least for the first cycle, however, was Kiara. The little Master swallowed his saliva, awaiting what she would do. Much like Serenity, the Alter Ego picked up the teacup gently. She was incredibly still as she held him directly in front of her face. He was slowly getting used to the sight of seeing giant faces looking down on him as he swam in their drink, but he would never be rid of his fearful chills.

“Fufufu… Master, you really are the most adorable little insect aren’t you?” Kiara complimented/taunted. “I wonder what you must be thinking right now, looking up at all of us. All you can do is go along with whatever we decide. It’s fine if you enjoy it even just a little.”

Enjoy his situation? Even if he did, there was far too much danger with his current height to even think about it. Just like now, all he could do was try and survive as he bore witness to Kiara Sesshouin’s titanic, glossy lips descending onto the cup that the girls had drunk one third of. No more than a tea stalk that could easily be pulled into her mouth, he could do nothing but be strung along by the giant woman’s actions.

“Well, it’s my turn,” Kiara’s voice echoed into the cup as she pulled her hair back with one hand and tilted the tea cup with the other. Immediately, his world was darkened as the cup’s opening was enveloped by the lower half of Kiara’s face. His tiny body floated down towards the Demonic Bodhisattva’s plump, pink lips.

Sip. Sip.

Kiara sipped very slowly, but as he was already so close to her lips when she tilted the teacup, the tiny Master was pressed into the woman’s pillowy lips by the second sip. The woman took her time to enjoy the sensation of him clinging onto her upper lip.

Likewise, he was given ample time to experience the sensation of being pressed against Kiara’s lip. Unlike Mashu’s firm lip, the Demonic Bodhisattva’s were softer and more rounded - like he was being pressed against a down mattress. Of course, the plushness could not be enjoyed easily as a wave of warm tea splashed into him. The liquid sloshed like river rapids as Kiara continued her turn.

Sip.

Slurp.

“Huh? U-Uwah!” he knew it was coming, but he couldn’t stop himself from being shocked by it. With the third sip, Kiara stuck out her tongue. Much to his terror, the pink serpent pushed his lower body up away from her lip. His upper body joined it as he was knocked off his safety ledge. Like a rider and an uncontrollable mount, he was atop Kiara’s tongue, held just millimeters above the tea inside the cup.

“Fufu~...” A breath of warm air choked him inside the teacup as a giggle escaped Kiara. Blood drained from his face. He knew what was coming next.

Sip.

The insatiable nun pulled her tongue back with speeds that rivaled Astolfo’s hippogriff. He didn’t even realize it had pulled away until he dropped back into the pool of tea. Now without anyplace to hold onto, he was pulled with the current caused by the Alter Ego servant drinking and slammed onto the surface of the teacup. The tiny master found himself spun about by the current until his legs were directly inside the gigantic nun’s mouth while his body was plastered onto the very tip of the teacup. With just one more sip, she could pull her into her cavernous maw just like that.

“No. Please no,” he hoped. Kiara had one last sip she could take.

She did.

“Wha-gghgh!” the shrunken Master’s wail was cut off as the last sip pulled a towering wave of tea directly onto him. He was carried along with it past Kiara’s lips. As his body tumbled in the torrent of tea, he saw the tea cup he had just been flung off of on one side and a wall of white on the other side. The wall was Kiara’s teeth. He was barely as taller than one of them, meaning he wouldn’t even amount to a snack to her - more like a grain of rice or a piece of cereal.

Was he going to be eaten? Kiyohime had essentially done the same thing before, but with Kiara, there was no telling how far she would take things. He could picture her toying with him in her mouth - the devilish tongue making his bite-sized self bend to her every whim. He could also picture her just swallow him whole, his tiny body too small to even wriggle down her throat in resistance. If that was her way of making him descend into pleasure, she at least succeeded in making him capable of picturing it before it would even occur.  

But to his surprise and relief, it didn’t happen. Just like her sips had their powerful suction, Kiara released him by blowing out with her mouth. He was flung off of the woman’s teeth and back into the pool of tea with a simple breath. Dazed, he floated with his back against the water as the teacup was put back down in the center.

“Kiara, please don’t actually drink, Senpai,” he could hear Mashu scold.

“Fufufu. But it couldn’t be helped, could it? He’s so small, you almost forget that he’s there.”

“Ah! I know! Master is so cute when he’s so small. I could just eat him up. Teehee~!”

“... Agreed...”

Mashu was working to get him out safely, wasn’t she? From the sound of the conversation above, she seemed to be fitting in with Nursery Rhyme and Kiara perfectly.

“Oho… Master, you may want to keep a better eye on that lass,” Andersen’s voice entered his ears from outside the teacup.

“Don’t tell me that girl is actually enjoying this,” Lord El-Melloi inserted his two cents into the conversation.

“It looks like all of them are to me,” the author Caster affirmed. “‘Eat him up?’ ‘Couldn’t be helped?’ I swear, these ladies must have gone mad to become so blatantly assertive. What aphrodisiac did that book lace her tea with to make them all go feral and awaken some ruthless tendencies.”

“I believe Master might be that aphrodisiac you’re talking about, but isn’t that typical of him knowing the company he attracts?”

“Oh, so the great tactician hasn’t realized it? Well, you may want to brush up on your people skills there, King of Conquerors fanboy,” laughed Andersen. “Even for that cow woman, this isn’t her typical nature. Someone’s rubbed off on them.”

Andersen seemed to have come to some sort of conclusion. Had he figured out something just from watching the four giants? The tortured Master would have loved to ask the writer right then and there, but the second rotation came about again. He was lifted back up into the skies by Mashu.

“How many times is it going to be?” he grimaced.

The answer to his question was the point of the game. He helplessly struggled to stay afloat and to avoid being sucked in by all four of the giants. Mashu took small sips, but seemed to take her time after pulling him close to her. Nursery Rhyme added another spoonful of sugar directly on top of him, weighing him down dangerously in the deep pool of tea until she licked it off of him with a rough, cat-like smile on her face. Serenity continued to take few, but deep sips. He could tell she was hesitant to let go of the cup when he was sucked toward her dark lips.

As for Kiara, the woman was a wild card. She purposely took all five sips each time, but she was certainly enjoying watching him writhe about when it was her turn. She used a spoon to create a small whirlpool that yanked him around and around the cup. She alternated between sudden, strong sips and long, drawn out sips. All the while, she was more than willing to toy with him with her tongue stuck out of her mouth - even though she made sure to not anger Mashu by drinking him again.

How many rounds would it take? The third round came and continued much like the second. Mashu and Nursery Rhyme took their turns. The water level of the tea cup had gone down so that a quarter of the tea was left. It was still deep enough that his feet still couldn’t reach the bottom of the cup, and now, the sides of the teacup became an insurmountable slope that kept him trapped like a boar in a pitfall.

“... Done...” Hassan of Serenity announced as she finished another two deep sips.

That meant that it was going to be Kiara’s turn next. The Alter Ego servant picked up the tea cup to drink. To the young Master’s surprise, he was being shaken about from the very start.

“Eh? Kiara, are you alright? Do you need to pick some flowers?” Nursery Rhyme expressed her concern.

“N-No…,” Kiara stuttered, as though she was struggling. Had something happened? “It’s not that… Though it appears I may have lost this match...”

What? “Eh?” “Fufu...”

Nursery Rhyme expressed his exact reaction while another voice let a chuckle escape. It was Mashu.

The teacup reached Kiara’s lips for an instance. She held the cup with both hands and tilted the teacup so that just a little bit of tea could enter her mouth. She did not take the time to savor it nor play with him. The woman was forced to place it back down on the saucer.

“Mashu, what did you do?” Nursery Rhyme wanted an answer.

“Me? I did nothing,” his bespectacled kouhai answered honestly. “I just drank like normal. Serenity, however...”

Serenity? Poison. That was it. That was why Mashu wanted to prevent Andersen and Lord El-Melloi from joining the game. He was the only one of the three immune to poison. Mashu had decided the order of play and placed Kiara right after the poisonous Hassan. The poison left over from Serenity’s lips must have made its way into the Alter Ego slowly.

“I expected some kind of trick... but this was too fun to pass up…,” Kiara admitted. The poison built up in her. “Master’s poison immunity concealed it well...”

“I placed only enough poison for one person, but Mashu made sure to drink the rest so not as to affect Nursery Rhyme...” Serenity elaborated. That was why Mashu drank all five sips. Since his poison resistance came from her, she made use of the passive skill. It had been a clever ploy. Had Mashu been listening to that Archer in his fifties again? The man seemed to have rubbed off on her. Or was it someone else? Mashu had never been so willing to poison someone before let alone do it all with her usual smile.

“I see… To show concern as well… You were targeting me the entire time…,” Kiara giggled at the circumstances, having enjoyed taking part. “I concede then.”

“Mashu, you meanie!” Nursery Rhyme shouted.

Mashu’s response was to take her turn. With one hand, she picked up the tea cup with him inside and looked down into it. He stared dumbfounded at his giant kouhai’s success. “Don’t worry, Nursery Rhyme. The game isn’t over yet. And actually, I think I may have backed myself into a corner here.”

Taking all five sips, quickly and as deeply as she could, Mashu attempted to drain the entire tea cup with her turn. She tilted the cup as steep as she could, causing him to fall out of the nearly vertical waterfall of tea and land right above Mashu’s lip. His damp body was sprawled out in the space between her nose and mouth.

And just as quickly as Mashu had attempted to finish the cup, she leaned her head forward. He slammed right back onto the bottom surface of the teacup.

“As I thought…,” Mashu frowned. “It wasn’t enough.”

Not enough? That was when he realized it. There was still tea in the cup. The pool of tea had been drained into what was essentially a puddle for him.

“Eh?” Nursery Rhyme was astonished when she was handed the cup. Her vibrant eyes looked down at his limp body, kneeling in what was just a few drops of tea.

“The point of the game was to make it so that we could empty the entire cup… I was hoping I could finish everything on my turn, but...”

“Master...” Serenity revealed what Mashu hadn’t been able to do. If the rules of the game were to empty the cup, that included him. With the amount that was left after Kiara’s weakened sip, Mashu couldn’t finish all of the tea and drink him too in just five sips.

“Ufufufu~! Then that means it’s our win!” Nursery Rhyme was quick to change gears and regain her confidence and enthusiasm when she realized the truth. With those words, the ‘little’ girl servant lifted the teacup up to her face and tilted it so that he and the remaining drops of tea came tumbling and dripping down towards her open mouth.

“Whaaaah!” the little Master wailed as he landed on Nursery Rhyme’s tongue. He was once again inside another servant’s damp mouth. Turning around, he looked outside the book servant’s open mouth to see Mashu’s face in the distance. It was out of focus from how far it seemed to him. That sight quickly vanished as Nursery Rhyme closed her mouth.

“Mmhmmm~!” the sound of joy from the embodiment of nursery books reverberated inside the cavern that was her mouth. Nursery Rhyme was relishing her victory and him. Her tongue slammed the tea-soaked Master onto the roof of her mouth with incredible force and continued increasing the pressure as Nursery Rhyme cheered. It was only when the girl was satisfied that the tiny Master was released from the roof of her mouth and then pushed forward and out of Nursery Rhyme’s mouth. The little girl did not open it all the way, however. Her tongue forced him to squeeze through her pursed lips until his head was freed and exposed to the outside.

“Senpai,” he heard Mashu as his eyes readapted to the light of the world outside of Nursery Rhyme’s mouth.

The tiny Master was then completely pushed out through the narrow opening of the Caster Servant’s lips and plummeted down onto her palm. Soaked in saliva, Nursery Rhyme held him out for Mashu to take.

“That was a fun game, Mashu, even though you cheated in the end,” Nursery Rhyme thanked with a giggle.

“It wasn’t cheating. There weren’t any rules against it. You could probably make your own rules if you tried this yourself,” Mashu tried to act like a proper sister figure to the child servant. To his chagrin, Mashu did not pick him off of Nursery Rhyme’s hand immediately. She took out a handkerchief and plucked him off of it with an expression as though he were a piece of garbage she didn’t want to touch. The saliva was the cause, he knew.

He was then completely muffled as the handkerchief was balled up and stuffed into Mashu’s chest pocket again.

“Well, I certainly had my fun...,” he could hear Kiara admit, still with a weakened voice. “I suppose we should let them go off...”

“Yup. And as a reward, they can take Mister Andersen too.”

“... Oh? Are you sure…?”

“Yes. Yes. I need to go find Jeanne and the others to tell them about this new game. If he’s around, he’ll just be a spoilsport about it.”

“Well, if that’s what you desire… Ufufu~!”

“This game’s going to spread, huh? I should be prepared for a lecture from the Chaldea Onee-san’s and Emiya...” he heard Mashu sigh.

She would deserve the scolding too. It was going to be hectic when everybody got back to normal and the children servants of Chaldea were playing a game that Kiara had approved of. At the very least, it seemed as though they had survived the ordeal. He would have to talk to Mashu after this was all over regarding how and why she had come up with such a plan in the first place, but until then, he had bigger fish to fry.

Andersen and Lord El-Melloi the Second joined him in Mashu’s chest pocket, although the two of them were on the other side of the balled up handkerchief that he was still trapped in. Mashu had gotten both of them back from Nursery Rhyme and placed them where she considered safe along with him.

“Let’s get out of here, Senpai. We can figure out our plan of action later.”

“That sounds like a suitable course of action,” Lord El-Melloi remarked.

“Anywhere but here would be Heaven. And no, I do not mean that walking ecstasy-filled sow’s Heaven’s Hole,” he heard  Andersen spit.

Heaven’s Hole? He shuddered. The thought made him thankful the ordeal was now over.

“Well, Master. Since I’m here now and away from that Beast woman’s clutches, I guess I’ll offer you an author’s helping hand. Let me just say this first though: I’m a writer, not a character in this thin book story of yours. You deal with all of these troubles yourself. I’ll just offer my critiques and take your suffering for my own inspiration.” Andersen was as charismatic as he always was. 

He couldn’t retort. To have gotten Andersen to join them after rescuing him was much needed. He had heard the man earlier. He seemed to have figured out a more likely culprit than Kiara. That was going to have to be their next destination.

“Mashu… thank you...” he told her.

“Don’t mention it, Senpai… And um...really… those weren’t kisses, okay? They didn’t count.”

“Don’t count, she says. They all seemed to have been enjoying it more than that King of Knights does her meals, Master.”

He was thankful Andersen’s words went unheard by his 100x sized kouhai, or he was certain she’d move more erratically to silence him. He left those flustered words as the last ones Mashu would say before she opened the door out of the room to flee the hedonistic servant and her childish ally. 

Tea time was finally over.