Consciousness started returning to Wakaba as she rose from the black abyss of sleep, yet even as her senses began the slow process of adjusting to the waking world, something felt off. Wakaba tried to stretch her limbs as part of waking herself, but instead of waving through the open air, Wakaba’s limbs merely touched more fabric, regardless of how high or wide she stretched them.

The rest of her senses rising to alertness, she noticed a few other odd sensations. There was something oddly heavy pressing down upon her whole body, as if someone had dumped a truck load of blankets on top of her, similarly causing a sweltering heat to have built up. But the fabric covering her body wasn’t like her blanket, soft and fluffy, it was more course, yet not quite rough. The sensation was oddly like the shirt of her pajamas?

‘What’s going on?’ A worrying thought crossed Wakaba’s mind, eyes opening to try and make sense of the problem. However, it was of little help. Instead of the faint rays of sunlight trickling through the sides of her curtain, providing a hint of light to her otherwise dark room, it was now almost completely pitch black, just barely better than having her eyes closed. Only a faint glimmer of light, like that which normally peeked through her curtains, shone from behind her. And not only that, her body felt… Naked?

Alarm blasting Wakaba’s mind into alertness much quicker than normal, the Hero pushed herself into a crawling position. She had tried to stand, but the ground was soft and squishy, sinking beneath her and making it hard to get any stable footing. Coupled with the immense weight squeezing her, there wasn’t much she could do aside from crawl. With no other leads, Wakaba slowly shuffled toward the faint light, hoping it might give her some clue of what had happened

After a short time of crawling, the weight upon Wakaba quickly vanished, and with it her vision suddenly became far better, the layer of fabric over her rising far more easily to see the rest of this weird ‘cave’ she was in. But what she saw only confused her further. It was still somewhat dark, but there was a circle shaped exit to this cavern. And just past it, there was a giant wall of white, almost resembling a pillow? No, that couldn’t be right.

Moving again after her short pause, Wakaba finally reached the clothy hole, where he hands touched a new fabric that was suspiciously like that of her bed. Pulling her body out of the cave she’d been stuck in, Wakaba was finally able to stand upright and look around. Her eyes shot wide at what greeted her sight.

She was in her room, but it was all wrong. Everything was huge. On one side, there were those ‘white walls’ which were simply pillows. Even one of them looked nearly five times longer than Wakaba was tall. Behind her, her oversized blanket stretched forth like a lake, the top part of her shirt, sleeves also a few times longer than her and wide enough Wakaba could’ve crawled inside them, laid over the bed.

Somehow, some way, she had been shrunk.

‘H-How did I shrink!? How small am I!? What am I going to do!?” Panic flooded Wakaba’s mind with the realization. She had to do something, she had to get someone, just looking over the side of her bed made her feel dizzy from the height, looking like a small cliff. While possessing the power of a Hero while transformed and able to leap immense distances, staring at the great drop, it felt surreal to Wakaba that she could just sit down on her bed side before, not even needing to so much as hop.

“Wait… My phone!” Wakaba suddenly spoke to herself with the idea. If she could get her phone, then maybe she could contact Hinata and get some help! Even if tiny right now, she didn’t feel small enough that using a phone would be impossible, even if it was probably was almost the size she was. She simply had to get the phone on her dresser, at the… other… side… of her room…

Her optimism fading almost as quickly as it had been stirred, Wakaba glanced over the gap with unease. The distance, which normally was less than her normal height of 163cm, was an entire chasm. How was she supposed to get up there to her phone? Even if she somehow managed to get down to the floor, which stretched on like a road, she would have to climb the sides of her desk, a sheer surface with nothing to grab onto. If she were transformed, this would be trivial at even such a diminutive size, but outside of that…

With a sigh of defeat, Wakaba sat back down. Hinata would often come and check on her in the morning anyway. It would be a much safer bet to simply wait for her to arrive. Wakaba’s plan had been to call her anyway, and she didn’t expect to get around the now mega sized Marugame very fast on her own. Still, it was a weird feeling for her own room, on the smaller size, to now feel big as a whole house…

Unsure of how long it had been, Wakaba finally heard footsteps outside her door, footsteps that sounded less like a person walking and more like them stomping.

“Wakaba-chan? Are you alright?” Hinata’s similarly loud, almost echoing voice, came from the other side of the door with a few ‘gentle’ and polite knocks. No, gentle was the wrong way to describe it. To Hinata’s, that may have been what they were, but to Wakaba, the booming ‘thump’ of her knocks was greater than a hammer smashed into a wall at full force. But, it was what she had been hoping for.

“Hinata! Come in!” Screaming as loudly as she could to ensure her voice projected, Wakaba yelled, bolting up right with a few waves of her arms.

“Wakaba-chan, what’s wrong?” The door to Wakaba’s room slide over, revealing Hinata’s form, concern plastered over her face. Dressed in her pink shirt with a white under layer and black skirt, seeing her was even more surreal than the rest of her room to Wakaba. Looking at Hinata now was like she were looking at a building. Her legs alone rose up from the ground like towers, leading into the rest of her titanic body. Even the biggest Stardusts Wakaba had fought wouldn’t have even come up to Hinata’s knees now. If the living skyscraper wasn’t her best friend, it might’ve been unsettling a sight. Just how small had she really become?

‘Never mind, I have to get her attention!’ Shaking the thought away for the moment, Wakaba started waving her arms and called out again. “Hinata! Over here on my bed!”

Hinata scanned over the room, initially perplexed at not seeing Wakaba, until her eyes locked dead center upon her form and went wide. Slowly, Hinata took a few uncertain steps closer to Wakaba’s bedside, the difference in scale only becoming more apparent with each step closer. “W-Wakba-chan? W-Why are you so… small?”

“I don’t know! I woke up and was like this...” Having been noticed, some of Wakaba’s earlier unease was washed away by her best friend’s presence and her voice relaxed. However, her worries returned almost immediately upon remembering she was naked. Trying to preserve some modesty, Wakaba crouched down and covered herself the best she could with her hands, embarrassed blush beginning to heat up her face.

Gingerly, Hinata crouched down beside Wakaba’s bed, bringing her face down to eye level with the shrunken hero. Despite being the second shortest of their group at only 150cm tall, Hinata’s face now covered much of Wakaba’s vision, appearing nearly wide as she was tall. Every little detail and feature of her face was greatly magnified at this size and perspective. The long deep purple and silky hair, even her almost perfectly smooth and well cared for skin. The only blemish upon it was the small mole under her right eye, which now was big enough to fill Wakaba’s entire palm, possibly being even bigger. It was enough that Wakaba had to fight the instinct to shuffle backwards at something so big approaching her.

“But what could’ve done this...” Hinata mumbled, brow furrowing while she wracked her mind for possibilities.

“I don’t know, maybe it was something with the Vertex. The first attack happened yesterday...” Wakaba answered with a sigh. Almost as soon as the words left her mouth, she stiffened in worry. “We need to check on… Hinata?” Worried about the sudden realization the other Heroes could’ve been like this, Wakaba had started with a worried, resolute voice, but the words had died off when she had noticed a shift in Hinata’s expression. Her friend’s concern had morphed into disapproving exasperation, the same expression she’d worn when lecturing Wakaba last night about her unusual choice of a meal.

“Wakaba-chan… I think you shrunk because you ate the Vertex.” Hinata’s disapproving voice sounded ten times more intimidating from this perspective.

“Er...” Wakaba tried to think of some kind of answer for defending herself, they ate her friends in the past so returned the favor, but now she wasn’t able to argue like last night. It was ridiculous to think just eating part of a Vertex would cause such a ridiculous thing, but, then again, the idea of being shrunk to what felt like the size of a medium doll was equally ridiculous.

“I told you eating weird things was a bad idea!”

Hinata’s voice erupted from her mouth like an explosion, her yell rattling Wakaba’s bones and almost blowing out her ears. Purely on reflex from the horrible pounding in her head, Wakaba’s hands shot toward her ears with a grimace of pain, her entire head already starting to ring.

“A-Ah. I’m sorry, Wakaba-chan. Are you okay…?” Her voice lowering immensely, what likely would’ve been slightly above a whisper for a normal sized person but sounded like normal volume to Wakaba, Hinata asked shakily.

“Y-Yeah… Don’t talk… So loud, Hinata.” Slowly lowering her hands, Wakaba forced out. She still felt like something was trying to smash its way out from her skull with the lingering ringing of her ears, but she didn’t want to worry Hinata. The weight of a mere blanket, the height of her bed, and now someone merely raising their voice too much… How dangerous was the rest of the world going to be at this size?

With a response, Hinata let out a gentle breeze of a sigh. “We should speak with the Taisha. If it’s some kind of curse from the Vertex, maybe they’ll know a way to fix it...”

“I guess we should...” Wakaba wasn’t feeling overly excited about having to face everyone like this, but there wasn’t much of a choice. However, there was still one major issue that had to be solved before anyone else could be seen.

“But first, we should find something for you to wear if anyone else will see you. But what can we use...” Thankfully, Hinata was on the same page and voiced Wakaba’s concerns before she did, starting to hum while she thought.

“Maybe we could cut some cloth out of some clothes and I could wear that...” It wasn’t a flattering idea, wrapping some cloth around her body like a towel to preserve modesty, but Wakaba wasn’t sure what else would work when even Tamako’s clothes would’ve been several times her size.

“Wakaba-chan, you deserve better than a few scraps like that! There has to be something...” Hinata trailed off as an idea struck her, the gears visibly turning in her head. “Ah, I know! We can try some doll clothes.”

The idea and worrying glint that appeared in Hinata’s eyes from it sent a chill down Wakaba’s spine. Had she not been embarrassed enough? She knew where this would go with that expression on Hinata’s face! “D-doll clothes!?”

“It’s perfect, Wakaba-chan! We’ll need to measure how small you are to see what fits… But maybe I have some old ones that would work.” Much of the initial shock of the situation having worn off, Hinata’s more typical demeanor started to shine through with a wide smile.

“Urk...” Wakaba was already feeling dread, but at the same time she couldn’t find much to protest. It wasn’t like anything else would fit her and maybe it would preserve her modesty better, but her dignity was another question. None of the dolls Hinata had really suited her style!

“Then, it’s settled!” Hinata made the decision for her tiny friend. “But you can’t get there on your own… Wakaba-chan, I have an idea.”

“Huh?”

“We don’t want anyone to see you right now, so I think I could carry you in one of my pockets.”

In her pockets? Had she been reduced so much her whole being could be carried around like an accessory? “W-Would I even fit in there?”

“We won’t know if we don’t try. Here, climb onto my hand.” Rising half upright, Hinata lowered her hand like a platform, placing it next to Wakaba expectantly.

“Hinata suggested doll clothes, but I’m starting to feel like a doll with these ideas...” Muttering to herself, Wakaba slowly stepped onto the palm. The ‘ground’ of it was warm to the touch, but not quite unpleasantly so. While not being quite stable, her feet still sunk into the skin of Hinata’s palm, it was far more steady and easy to find her footing on than her oversized bed was. It was almost a relief to have something smaller than her nearby too. Hinata’s fingers were roughly about 2/3rds her size. Still uncomfortably close. Maybe she really would fit in Hinata’s pocket.

However, instead of being brought over to her side, Wakaba was daintily lifted upwards in time with Hinata herself rising to standing fully upright. Like she were a fragile, precious object, Wakaba was brought up toward Hinata’s curious face, where her giant friend looked at her with wide eyed intensity.

“You’re so light in my hand...” Hinata muttered in wonder. Bringing her other hand up, she absent mindedly pet Wakaba’s head with a gentle touch using a single finger.

“Hinata...” Wakaba whined, her head delicately getting rocked back and forth with the motions of Hinata’s finger.

“Ah, I couldn’t help myself, Wakaba-chan. You’re normally so much taller than me, but now you fit in the palm of my hand like a doll~. Your voice is so squeaky too...” Hinata answered with a cheerful, almost teasing giggle, retracting her finger. “I need to take a picture of this for my album.”

“Eh!? H-Hold on a second!” Wakaba protested with a few waves of her hand, already feeling a sense of dread and burning embarrassment within her face. Having Hinata mention how squeaky her voice was was humiliating itself, Wakaba could only imagine how high pitched it was, but now she was bringing out her camera? She could have at least waited till Wakaba had some clothes!

Her squeaky protests seemed to only further amuse Hinata, as the girl was visibly trying to restrain a few more giggles while pulling her phone out from her other pocket. Pulling the object almost Wakaba’s size up in front of the girl, Wakaba futility tried waving her hands, only to hear a few depressing and loud ‘clicks’ coming from the device and Hinata’s smile only grow wider.

“Ah, I haven’t gotten expressions like these in a while.” Hinata hummed contently at her prize, stowing her phone for now.

“C-Can we get going...” Wakaba groaned sheepishly. She knew this would be only the beginning of the photography and trying to protest suddenly felt far more daunting when Hinata was ten times her size.

“Alright, let’s see if I have anything that fits.” With the same care she used in picking Wakaba up, Hinata lowered her palm down to her waist, coming to a stop with it at the side of her skirt. Just in front of Wakaba, there was the dark cavern of Hinata’s pocket, ominously waiting for Wakaba to enter it.

‘Well, I guess it’s better than being dumped inside...’ Cautiously, Wakaba inched forward on Hinata’s palm. Slowly, she placed her hands on the side of the entrance, prying it open to stretch her legs inside the waiting abyss. Her friend had placed it directly against her skirt to minimize any danger, but that didn’t make the whole thing any less bizarre feeling.

Unsure of what to expect, Wakaba had been entirely unprepared for how unstable Hinata’s pocket was. The moment she thought her legs had touched something solid, Wakaba had tried putting some weight on it, only for the soft fabric to give way and suck Wakaba right inside the darkness with a startled yelp. She only fell for a moment before coming to a stop, resting on her side.

The environment of Hinata’s pocket was an odd one. The overall size was more than enough for her to comfortably sit in, but it still felt small enough she could’ve poked her head out the top if Wakaba could somehow stand. All around her there was soft cloth, somewhat like a blanket, but arranged in a manner that made it feel like she was stuck in an oversized hanging sack or hammock that had been wrapped up. Trying to shuffle around, the fabric contorted to her body thankfully without much resistance and allowed some movement. The only obstruction was some large, almost soft wall just past the edge of the fabric, where a great amount of heat radiated. 'If this was her pocket, then is this… Hinata’s thigh?'

“It feels like you fit, Wakaba-chan.” Hinata’s loud voice was punctuated by her finger once again gently prodding Wakaba a few times before retreating.

“H-Hinata, careful!” Wakaba complained, but anything she said went unheard with no response.

“Okay, I’m going to start walking now. I’ll go slow.” With one warning, Wakaba’s world started rattling. The first step Hinata made jiggled her around inside the pocket, not quite a bounce, but more intense than simple rocking. The second one was much less intense, until Hinata lifted her leg and took another step, repeating the process.

“Can’t forget Wakaba-chan’s phone either, just in case...” Hinata said to herself, briefly giving pause to Wakaba’s shaking while she must’ve been retrieving the device. It was only a momentary break, however, as the jiggling began once more.

All Wakaba could do was sit and wait between her world shaking, sitting in Hinata’s pocket like a hammock and occasionally bumping into her thigh. Standing would’ve been completely impossible right now, nor did it appear she could do anything to try and get Hinata’s attention if needed. She was completely and utterly stuck inside her best friend’s pocket, like some kind of toy, until Hinata would eventually come to a stop and get her out.

Ready for a long day, Wakaba did the best she could to get comfortable in the warm cavern.

It had been a bit of an ordeal for Wakaba, but she had finally managed to get some clothes. Expectantly, the clothes had been a more girlish looking long dress that went against Wakaba’s usual tastes, but at least it had been blue. It was a small consolation after being measured and finding she was only around 13cm tall. Maybe it had also just been her imagination, but Hinata’s fingers looked a little bigger when she had been gently plucked by her pocket. Her middle finger now was almost the same size as she was, but wasn’t it a little smaller earlier? Maybe she just hadn’t noticed earlier? This whole situation was disorienting.

Hinata had contacted the Tasha about the situation, but not before adding quite a few more photos to her photo collection of Wakaba. It had been a lengthy phone call, during which Hinata had received an oracle that gave her most of the answers anyway. Wakaba’s current situation was indeed some kind of curse from eating the Stardust. The Taisha stated they would look into way to fix it, but had advised the Heroes to stick together just in case and due to the fact Wakaba would have problems going about the day when the size of a small doll. The scheduled post-battle exam had even been delayed for the day while they figured out how to best sort the new problem. And that had brought them to the next difficult hurdle to cross.

Meeting the rest of the friends.

At least she was dressed and on Hinata’s shoulder instead of in her pocket now.

“It’ll be fine, Wakaba-chan.” Hinata’s head turned sideways toward her with a reassuring expression. Maybe it was because of sitting on her shoulder now, but Hinata’s face looked even more massive than before.

But, the words couldn’t completely quell the nervousness in her heart. Everyone had just come around to accepting her as the team ‘leader’ and not simply because it was what the Taisha ordered. But now, here she was, small enough to fit inside the palm of everyone’s hand and because of her own doing, sort of. Of all the times something like this could happen, right now had to be one of the worst and most frustrating. Still, she appreciated the sentiment. “Yeah… Let’s go, Hinata.”

“Good afternoon, everyone. I’m sorry for making you worry. I thought this would be easier to believe in person...” Carefully, and using the arm not connected to the shoulder Wakaba sat on, Hinata opened the door to their classroom with a greeting. She had gotten some messages wondering about her and Wakaba’s delay, and had instead opted to show them the problem in person with how unbelievable it was.

With the door’s motion, the gazes of all the Heroes inside the room were immediately drawn toward it. Tamako and Yuuna’s expressions were ones of relief and cheer with a little confusion upon not seeing Wakaba’s full sized form with Hinata, while Chikage held a mostly neutral, yet somewhat curious stare pulled from her game console. Of the four inside, Anzu looked the most surprised. Her gaze lingered on Hinata for a moment, before switching to look directly at Wakaba and her eyes went wide, the book she held slipping from her hands onto her desk with a dull thud.

“Hey! Hinata! Where’s Wakaba? Tama wanted to show off they finally got here first!” Tamako was the first one to speak up, racing toward Hinata energetically and with thunderous stomps that sounded like explosions to Wakaba. Though she was competitive in her words and attitude, there was worry laden beneath it all.

“Huh? Didja get a doll made of Wakaba or something?” Before anyone could reply, Tamako’s eyes drifted over to Wakaba, her eyebrows raising in a perplexed stare as she leaned in closer. Normally the shortest of the bunch at 147cm tall, despite being on the older end of the group, Tamako now stood almost an entire body length, from Wakaba’s perspective, above her even with sitting on Hinata’s shoulder. Never did Wakaba think she would be needing to look up at Tamako like this.

“T-T-Tamacchi-senpai. I-I don’t think that’s a doll.” Dripping with disbelief in every word, Anzu shakily managed to get out, pointing an unsteady finger toward Wakaba as if it would make the sight before her more believable.

“Eh?” Tamako’s head whipped over back to Anzu, pausing the finger that was only a meter or two away, or more likely it was mere centimeters away and this perspective had tampered with Wakaba’s sense of distance, from poking at Wakaba curiously.

“Tamako, don’t poke me...” Leaning back instinctively, Wakaba dryly commented, preemptively raising her hands in defense.

In an instant, Tamako’s head whipped back to Wakaba, sheer disbelief written across every centimeter of her face, then back to Anzu, then back to Wakaba one more time, where he gaze lingered with a slowly widening mouth.

'Oh, no.' Wakaba knew where this was headed.

“Tamako-san, no yelling, it hurts Wakaba-chan’s ears.” With the scolding voice of an authoritative parent, Hinata clamped her free hand over Tamako’s mouth the instant before a shocked scream could escape it, muffling it just enough to avoid more ringing in Wakaba’s ears, if sounding still loud.

“E-Eh!? T-That’s Wakaba!? B-but, how the-” After only a second to recover from the forceful mute, Tamako stepped back and started sputtering half coherent thoughts, just barely keeping it at a volume that wasn’t painful to hear.

By now, the other three had started shuffling over and crowding around the door, similar looks of shock now on Yuuna and Chikage’s faces.

“It’s… Actually Nogi-san.”

“How’d Wakaba-chan get so tiny?”

“Did something happen because of the attack?”

The burning questions of her team assaulted the two by the door, all of them having their eyes fixed upon Wakaba intently.

“It’s because of the Vertex, Anzu-san.” Hinata answered with a small nod. “Because Wakaba-chan decided to eat part of a Stardust, she’s been cursed. The Taisha are trying to think of how to solve this. But we’re not sure how long she’ll be like this...”

“What kind of a curse is that!?” Turning her head, a baffled Tamako answered, until her perplexed face shifted into one of mischievous lechery. “Tama can think of a lot a ways to use this, maybe I should grab a bite of a Stardust next time...”

Anzu crossed her arms defensively over her breasts, a little redness appearing on her face. “T-Tamacchi-senpai, don’t do that! What if there’s more curses?”

“Wakaba’s lucky! She has a once in a life time chance to see those mountains and demonic lumps like real mountains! How could Tama not take that chance?” With a tone that was far too proud for the perverted antics she was implying, Tamako declared.

“I’ll have to make sure the Taisha can prevent any further curses like this...” Exasperated, Hinata commented with a weary face.

Tamako’s gaze shot back over to Hinata in horror. “Gah! You’re gonna ruin Tama’s fun before I even get a chance!?”

“Tamako, being this small isn’t fun, it’s dangerous. I can’t even fight like this.” With a deep sigh, Wakaba shot back. With how often Tamako ended up grabbing at Hinata or Anzu’s chests, of course she would be excited at the idea of ‘exploring’ them while much smaller…

Instead of getting a reply, Wakaba was met with only silence. Tamako soon started visibly trying to restrain herself from chuckling.

“Wakaba-san sounds so… squeaky...” Anzu commented, making Wakaba’s face flush in embarrassment. To her, it was everyone else who sounded weird and much louder, like a booming echo. With everyone commenting, she was starting to wonder if asking someone to record her so she could hear it for herself was worth it, but the small girl was questioning if that knowledge would make things better or worse.

“I think Wakaba-chan looks cute!” Yuuna declared with a soft giggle, leaning closer with an inquisitive grin on her face. “Can I… Pick you up?”

“Eh? Err...” Wakaba flinched back at the request. Getting handled like a doll was such a surreal experience for her. But at the same time, Yuuna had an excited glow in her face like a child who just got a new toy. With how friendly and positive she usually was, Wakaba didn’t have the heart to say no. She had a feeling they might need to get used to this anyway. “Uh, sure. Just be careful...”

Smile only growing wider, Yuuna carefully reached up to Wakaba, delicately pinching the girl’s waist between her thumb and index finger, just enough to hold her in place and not be painful. But, even despite that, Wakaba couldn’t help the uneasy feeling in her stomach. She hadn’t stopped to look down until Yuuna began bringing her over to their waiting palm and only then did it hit her just how high up she was. From Hinata’s shoulders, it couldn’t have been more than 120 to 130cm off the ground, but now it looked like a 15 meter drop straight down. She had been much higher up fighting Vertex before and trusted Yuuna to not drop her, but she wasn’t transformed with the comforting power of the Shinju flowing through her and assuring all would be fine, she was only slightly less fragile than a normal person at best now. All this while she possessed zero influence over the situation and her legs having absolutely nothing to stand on while she moved through the air triggered some kind of instinctive anxiety over such height. Everything was literally in Yuuna’s hands.

Thankfully, the ordeal was over in a matter of seconds when Wakaba was carefully placed upon Yuuna’s waiting palm, where he giant friend started inspecting her more closely, curiosity glinting in her massive eyes.

“If Nogi-san is this small, what are we going to do if there’s another attack?” Interrupting the moment, Chikage questioned with her arms crossed. The gaming console so often in her hands had been stowed away for now.

At this, everyone’s expressions turned downcast, Tamako being the first one to speak up from the ensuring silence. “That’s a problem. Tama thinks the Stardust would probably eat Wakaba whole now for revenge.”

That was not an image Wakaba wanted to entertain. Although, maybe she could slash her way out from the inside at least...

“Hrm… Well, it was the first attack we’ve had to fight off, so it’s hard to say if another one will come so soon or not. But I don’t think we’ll need to worry about another attack immediately, at least. If they could keep attacking endlessly, I think they would have done it by now. We should have a little time to get Wakaba-san back to normal...” Musing aloud, Anzu spoke with a finger to her chin.

“An-chan’s right. It’ll be fine!” Yuuna cheerily agreed with the optimistic smile and attitude she wore so often. “While the Taisha are looking into this, I think I know something Wakaba-chan will really like right now.”

“Huh?” Wakaba tilted her head curiously at Yuuna’s optimism. So far, she hadn’t been having such a great time at this size and something to improve it would have been welcomed.

“Let’s go get some food!”

‘Thank you, Yuuna.’ Staring at the plate of food larger than an entire room, Wakaba knew Yuuna had made a fantastic suggestion.

Following her idea, the group had headed to the cafeteria for a meal. It immediately became apparent that Wakaba couldn’t eat normally and some adjustments would be needed. The solution decided upon had been for Hinata, who had started becoming very insistent she be the one to carry Wakaba around, to get a plate herself while picking out a couple things Wakaba would eat, but in very small portions. They had gone first to give Hinata some time to cut the food up into more accessible sizes for Wakaba, being she wasn’t going to have an easy time trying to bite into and eat a chunk of meat comparable to her entire body in size. It had been a little degrading to require the food handled as if she were a young child, but that had been washed away by the prospect of a normal lunch turning into a grand feast. Thankfully, this area was reserved exclusively for the Heroes, and the person serving lunch that went on break once meals were dished out, so Wakaba could eat at the table without worry.

“How is it, Wakaba-chan?” Gazing down at Wakaba, perched on the table right beside her, Hinata asked with a hopeful smile.

Wakaba paused to finish the chunk she’d bitten out of some meat before responding. “It’s very good, Hinata! I don’t know if I’ll be able to even finish all of it though...” Once more, she glanced over the bits of food before her. By any normal standards, the meat, udon, and bit of fruit before her would’ve been almost crumbs, yet to her even the smallest parts Hinata had given were bigger than her head. While she didn’t consider herself gluttonous, she had a sizable appetite, there was no way she could possibly finish her own bodyweight in food. The task had felt harder from having to use her bare hands and needing to take chunks like some kind of animal. No utensils would ever fit her now.

While busy with her meal, Wakaba couldn’t help noticing that her sleeves were getting in the way so much she had to roll them up past her wrists. The dress wasn’t this baggy before, was it?

“I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen you unable to finish your plate.” Teasingly, Hinata let out a small giggle that interrupted Wakaba’s thoughts. Having a bit of her own food, Hinata devoured a mouthful of udon that was larger than a city bus for Wakaba. After spending a few moments chewing it, she swallowed it with a slight bulge in her throat briefly appearing as the meal traveled down to her stomach. It was a little detail Wakaba never even spare a thought for at normal size, but it was suddenly hard to not notice when the lump in Hinata’s gullet didn’t look much smaller than her body was.

Picking up and eating a ton worth of food in one bite, crossing immense distances in single steps that’d take minutes for her, and even literally carrying her whole body with two fingers. It was a little disheartening how many simple and unassuming actions by her normal sized friends created effects orders of magnitude greater than anything Wakaba could accomplish now. Hopefully, this would get solved soon. ‘I can’t fulfill my duty as a Hero and leader like this. I can’t give the Vertex what they deserve...’ At least the buffet before her helped Wakaba feel momentarily better.

“Anzu, don’t start reading while you’re eating again.”

“Eh!? B-But Tamacchi-senpai, I lost my place after what happened earlier!”

The sounds of Tamako and Anzu’s voices grew louder while the two approached the Heroes' table. Wakaba turned to greet the two as best she could, but before a single sound could be uttered, she felt something big and soft slam into her back, like she were hit by a squishy pillow bigger than her body. But unlike a pillow, this object smashed into her so hard Wakaba was sent airborne and flying right over the edge of the table.

“Wah!” Wakaba screamed as the tumbled through the air and her vision blurred together. ‘What just hit me!? I have to-’

Wakaba painfully slammed onto something leathery, back first, before she could even begin to try getting her bearings. Whatever she hit wasn’t entirely solid and depressed with her impact, cushioning it somewhat, but a dull throbbing pulsed through her body at the landing.

With a groan, Wakaba opened her eyes, slowly pushing her body up to a sitting position. Looking skyward, Wakaba saw the likely culprit of what hit her. Having the same thought to greet their friends, Hinata had turned their direction, but her large chest leaned far enough into the table, her breasts had barreled right into Wakaba and knocked her onto the chair beside her.

“Hinata!” Wakaba yelled out, trying to get her attention, but her tiny voice was completely drowned out by the casual exchange she was having with Anzu and Tamako. Perhaps she could jump over to Hinata’s leg from here to get noticed.

As Wakaba tried to stand up, the ground suddenly moved like an earthquake and knocked the girl straight back onto her back with a startled noise. Before she could recover, an immense shadow blotted out the sky and all light like an eclipse. Looking at the source of the obstruction, panic started flooding into Wakaba’s mind as she saw the ruffled black skirt of Anzu coming closer to the chair. The chair Wakaba was currently right in the middle of. She had to move or else Anzu was going to crush her!

“A-Anzu, I’m down here!” Wakaba screamed in to an attempt to be heard. Frantic, the shrunken Hero tried to scramble backwards as fast as she could, more having to pull herself using their arms instead of standing and running. But it wasn’t fast enough. Anzu’s white panty clad butt descended upon Wakaba like a giant meteor. The underwear tightly clung to her two well defined cheeks that were squished together by it, pinching parts of the fabric between the valley of her butt crack and giving a perfectly clear image of where Anzu’s ass would squish her. It was too late to do anything but await the inevitable collision, the sheer size of her butt covered almost the entire chair and getting away from it would’ve been impossible. Wakaba’s life flashed before her eyes just as the enormous butt buried her into the chair like she was part of the cushioning, enveloping her in darkness.

With such a massive object aiming to flatten her and Anzu’s full body weight on the seat, Wakaba had expected the impact to be far more painful or even crush her instantly. But instead, while there was a weight pressing down on her chest, it was more squeezing her from the sides than directly atop her, even if there was some pressure there. It felt more like she was pinned by something rather than getting crushed. It was also quite soft and plush, sort of like whenever Wakaba would rest her head on Hinata’s lap.

Unable to see anything in the blackness, only the sounds of her friends making some muffled small talk above she couldn’t focus enough to make out, Wakaba tried to struggle and move, only for her to barely be able to so much as wiggle her body. Everything from her shoulders down was tightly secured and the movement allowed could barely be called squirming.

The adrenaline over Anzu sitting on her starting to fade with the immediate danger, Wakaba started piecing together where she was. She had been on the seat Anzu was using, near right in the center of it, and there was a warm, soft fabric that enveloped her from all sides, with something plush and pillowy beneath it that was responsible for the weight pinning her.

She had been buried into Anzu’s asscrack.

The thought immediately set Wakaba’s cheeks on fire in embarrassment. But, humiliating as this was, at least she was still alive. She had no intention of dying in the line of duty, but if she was to meet her end, Wakaba would have rather it been protecting Shikoku and not squished into a red stain on her friend’s panties. Being this small was dangerous…

‘Maybe I can get myself free...’ While momentarily safe, Wakaba didn’t want to take any chances. She had been ‘lucky’ once, but if Anzu adjusted her seating it could’ve easily grinded Wakaba beneath her rear. And it would’ve been much more preferable to get discovered in any other way than something like this.

Starting to squirm once more, Wakaba began wiggling her body, particularly her shoulders, trying to pull her hands free from the soft bindings constricting her. The soft flesh of Anzu’s butt contorted around her being, enveloping all her motions into a warm embrace that practically absorbed all her struggles. But slowly, Wakaba’s right arm started sliding out of the canyon she was stuck in. If she could just get her arms free, then perhaps she could get better leverage to push and force the rest of her body out. ‘Just a little more…!’

A second before she could free her arm, the pressure on her momentarily vanished, both her hands shooting backwards over her heads. And in near the same instant, the pressure returned, this time moving further up, devouring Wakaba’s entire body into the valley between Anzu’s butt cheeks, enveloping her deeper within it. But, the torment didn’t end there. The cushioning surrounding her shifted and moved, compressing Wakaba into it until the soft feeling turned painful, grinding and rubbing her against Anzu’s panties, pulling Wakaba deeper between the abyss until she could barely feel the seat cushion beneath her. Every centimeter of her sensations had instead been replaced by Anzu’s plush and pillowy ass squeezing every bit of her body, grinding her like dough between a person’s hands.

Mercifully, the motions stopped before Wakaba felt something would break, but it was of little consolation. She was even more stuck now. Arms raised above her head and squeezed on all side with Anzu’s weight, even wiggling was an ordeal. In trying to get free, Wakaba had only caused the outcome she was worried about, now helplessly stuck and overpowered by her friend’s rear. She had to have been felt in some manner if Anzu had to shift around, but how was she small enough to get absorbed into her butt crack and seen as a mere itch? She had to be bigger than this. Regardless, Wakaba resigned herself to her current position with a frustrated groan. Trying to wiggle free had only made her situation worse and she was even more securely lodged between Anzu’s ass now. She would have to wait till she was noticed.

“… Wakaba-ch-” The sound of Hinata’s casual voice quickly turning into a mortified gasp came not long after Wakaba had decided to wait and drew her attention, lighting a spark of hope she would be found soon.

“W-Where is Wakaba-chan?”

“Wasn’t Wakaba right next to y-, eh!? She’s gone!?”

Several concerned voices broke out alongside the sound of uncomfortable shuffling, including slight motions from Anzu that jostled Wakaba around. She could only guess at what was occurring outside of her prison, sound was her only clue with all light swallowed up by Anzu’s skirt and rendering sight useless. Even if she could see though, the only thing Wakaba could imagine greeting her right now would be the white walls of Anzu’s panties surrounding her from all sides.

“C-Could she have fallen off the table?” Anzu’s worried tone was accompanied by more movement and a sense of going upwards. This was it, Anzu was standing back up and it’d mean Wakaba could get out of this situation!

Except, this wasn’t what happened.

Instead of the pressure lightening with Anzu’s body lifting off her, Wakaba instead felt herself moving with Anzu’s form. Standing up, Anzu’s butt clenched together as a consequence, squeezing Wakaba even more tightly, the softness of her cheeks beginning to turn firm from the pressure they were now crushing Wakaba’s body with. The fabric of Anzu’s panties similarly started wrinkling up and competing with Wakaba for space, a small bit of fabric even forced itself over her face and suddenly made breathing difficult. Folds of her underwear started conforming to her body’s shape in various wrinkles. It was every bit like she were wrapped in pillows that were firm yet soft at the same time, Anzu’s panties like the slightly rougher outer layer shielding the bare softness of her skin beneath it, but she was being squished so compactly, it was almost impossible to discern any difference between the two blending together.

Instead of being freed, Wakaba was now trapped in a wedgie between Anzu’s butt!

Every small shuffle of Anzu’s form, particularly her legs, merely compounded Wakaba’s suffering. Jiggling her around or intensifying the weight squishing her, only to relax a second later and then return the next.

“W-Watch your step!” Hinata nearly screamed at everyone, panic within her every word.

“I’ll start looking on the ground!” Yuuna’s near equally worried voice stated alongside a chair moving and small thump.

Anzu continued unintentionally squeezing the life out of Wakaba with her plush rear end while she searched, but slowly, Wakaba felt herself started to get loose from the tight grip it held over her. Every time Anzu leaned over, the squeeze lightened and Wakaba started to slip, she could even start to see the outside world again. Before, this would have been great, but now Anzu was standing upright, meaning the area beneath them was a straight drop to the rock hard floor. ‘This just keeps getting worse!’

With one what she assumed was a steep lean, Anzu’s ass cheeks parted and released Wakaba’s body, nearly dropping the girl. Wakaba only barely managed to grab a fistful of fabric before she began to fall, legs frantically kicking at the air and reflectively trying to find some kind of platform, only to meet nothing. No longer sandwiched, enough light filtered in through Anzu’s skirt that Wakaba could see again, but it wasn’t of much reassurance.

Above and all beside her, Anzu’s white panties covered her rear and surrounded Wakaba, each cheek of her sizable charm point feeling like a small house and ready to envelop her once again in their soft confines at a moment’s notice, curving downward from her ass toward her legs.

Below her, Anzu’s towering legs stretched downward like the foundations of a mighty building, furthering the illusion were her pure white panyhose almost touching her rear that masked the pale skin that would’ve made identifying the massive pillars as part of a ‘person’ instead of a structure. Past that were her dark brown shoes shuffling about the floor, each motion careful and slow, never raising her shoes and opting to instead slide them over the floor. It was hard to tell among the chaos, but the drop had to be at least 15-20 meters from Wakaba’s perspective.

This was bad, if she fell here that floor was hard. While also not making any outright steps to avoid squishing her, Anzu’s shoes were the size of a large bus and Wakaba had come to be painfully aware even light movements by her full sized friends were something she couldn’t fight against. Even the motions of those shoes looked dangerous, never mind a straight drop from this height causing injuries on top of that. All Wakaba had wanted to do before was get away from this spot, but now she was trying so hard to stay here her knuckles were turning white from the death grip she held the fabric with. She had to do something and fast no matter what.

First, she had to get out of Anzu’s butt crack before her super sized friend stopped leaning over and the plush prison took her again. With all the strength and agility she could muster while still maintaining a grip, Wakaba scrambled upwards like she were rock climbing. Fueled by more adrenaline, Wakaba’s feet were able to easily dig into the cloth of Anzu’s panties to provide much steadier grip, enabling her to climb with great speed despite being worn down by this taxing ordeal.

‘Almost there! Anzu should feel me if I get somewhere with less padding!’ The girl optimistically thought to herself while climbing. She may have been small, suspiciously small, but no way would she not be felt crawling close to Anzu’s back. She only hoped the bookworm didn’t mistake the sensation for a bug and start panicking. The blonde usually let out a shrill scream whenever Tamako teasingly showed off a bug to her.

“Eeep!” Anzu’s high pitched voice accompanied her body swinging back upright cause her rear to clench together, trapping one of Wakaba’s legs in its grasp just before she could pull it out.

“Anzu! Don’t move, it’s me, Wakaba!” Ignoring the pain in her leg, Wakaba pleadingly yelled with some hope she would be heard. She had moved up a little, out of the abyss between the twin cheeks, and could feel part of Anzu’s skirt resting against her, surprisingly heavy, so she had to be noticed.

“Anzu, don’t move!” Tamako’s stern, tomboy voice yelled out, thankfully halting any further movement from Anzu. Continuing, her voice suddenly turned much more sheepish, almost embarrassed. “Tama… Thinks they know where Wakaba is...”

Far above her, silence hovered for seconds till Anzu sputtered out a few noises resembling an attempt at forming words before she could force out anything coherent. “I-I’ll g-get Wakaba-san. D-Don’t look…!”

Following her declaration, a slowly, shaking hand reached into the darkness of Anzu’s skirt, carefully wrapping Wakaba in its gentle palm before retreating.

Being found had brought some small comfort to Wakaba, but the leader knew there was going to be a long, very embarrassing conversation about this.

“I’m so sorry, Wakaba-chan...”

“I’m sorry, Wakaba-san...”

After Anzu had retrieved Wakaba and sputtered an apology alongside asking if she was okay, the group had elected to end lunch early. The person running the cafeteria wasn’t going to be gone forever and the less people saw this, the better. To that end, everyone had headed to Hinata’s dorm for the moment, which was somewhat of a tight fit with 4 normal sized people. Partially so Wakaba could explain herself, and partially because there was something else bothering her she wanted to check. And that had brought her to standing atop Hinata’s bed while the girl in question and Anzu were seated in front of her.

Both Hinata and Anzu were crimson faced, for perhaps slightly different reasons, at the story and muttering their apologies, while both looked equally mortified, Anzu even half hiding her face behind her long, fluffy blonde hair.

“Tama knew the demonic lumps were a dangerous weapon, but I didn’t think Anzu would be so much more lethal without using her mountains...” Second hand embarrassment leaking into her voice, Tamako deadpanned.

“T-Tamacchi-senpai!?!” Facing turning so scarlet any deeper would’ve caused it to become a tomato, Anzu shrunk away in horror at the comment.

“W-Well, at least Wakaba-chan is okay, right?” Trying to ease the tension and flustered mood of the room, Yuuna spoke up.

“But what if something else happens?” Palpable fear in her words, Hinata countered, looking directly at Wakaba with a level of worry, and touch of guilt, Wakaba had rarely seen from her. “I put Wakaba-chan in so much danger without even realizi-” Hinata’s words died as she tilted her head, leaning closer to Wakaba for better inspection. “Wakaba-chan, are you… Getting smaller…?!” Terror quickly jumped into Hinata’s words with the final sentence.

Everyone leaned closer now with Hinata’s panick striken words, Chikage being the first to speak up. “I don’t remember those clothes looking so loose this afternoon...”

Hand trembling, Hinata reached down her index finger and placed it next to Wakaba for a comparison. After only a moment, she let out a sharp, horrified gasp and retracted her hand. “Y-You are! This morning you were 13cm tall, but now you’re only about 9cm...”

“That’s the other matter I wanted to check...” Wakaba, likewise having unease dripping into her voice with just barely more control, spoke. She had been somewhat suspicious, especially after her sleeves were particularly loose, but it had been hard to say for certain with how out of scale the entire world around her was. Practically everything to Wakaba was simply ‘huge’ right now and difficult to make a comparison with. She hadn’t wanted to believe it, but now there was no denying it. She was getting even tinier. But the lingering, worrying question was how small was she going to shrink?

“What are we going to do… What if Wakaba-chan keeps shrinking until we can’t see her and before we find a way to fix this...”

The level of concern, almost panic, coming from Hinata made Wakaba frown. She hated seeing her closest friend since childhood worry so much, especially when she was the cause. She would’ve liked nothing more than to be able to comfort and assure Hinata, but her current stature made the task, especially when this condition had just been found this morning and was highly unknown, a daunting one. But she hadn’t let daunting odds stop her before.

“Hinata, we’re figure something out. Maybe I won’t even get much smaller. But, even if I do, that won’t stop me from returning to normal size no matter what. We’ve already found a way to fight them and beaten the Vertex once. If we can do that, then I can’t let some curse stop me! No matter how small I get, I’ll still be here and won’t leave you, Hinata.” She didn’t care if she would sound ridiculous due to being 9cm tall and her voice shrill, Wakaba meant every word of it. Even if she was reduced to a microbe, they had figured out how to fight what appeared to be an unstoppable enemy by all conventional means. If it had been accomplished once, then there must have been a way to do it again.

Thankfully, her attempt at an inspiring speech had the intended effect. Some traces of Hinata’s worry ebbed away, not gone entirely, but the dark haired girl didn’t look on the verge of losing it anymore. “Thank you, Wakaba-chan.”

For her speech, Wakaba earned another gentle rub on her head by Hinata’s finger, which was now roughly twice the size of her head, but she took extra care to ensure the touch was gentle, not rocking Wakaba too hard in the process.

“Um.” Anzu cleared her throat, drawing everyone’s attention. “I’m not sure if it will help with the curse, but I might have an idea to make sure Wakaba is safer.”

Everyone’s gaze shot over to Anzu expectantly.

“We’re not supposed to stay transformed outside of certain situations, like attacks, but maybe Wakaba-san could use her terminal to transform and stay like that until we find a way to deal with the curse? It shouldn’t be a major drain on the Shinju-sama’s power while she’s like this and she should be safer in case any, uh, anything else happens...” The flustered coloring briefly returning to her face as she trailed off, Anzu hopefully spoke.

The power of the Shinju was an important, sacred thing. It was not to be used frivolously as one wanted, only for use during their divine duty to protect Shikoku. Even during training, the Heroes only sometimes used the power which granted them the ability to fight that which modern weapons could not scratch, as to conserve the Shinju’s power and out of respect for their mission. However, Wakaba could see the rational behind Anzu’s words. Aside from the encounters with the Vertex that had only happened a few times in her life, Wakaba had been through more dangerous situations just today than she had her entire life. She had already nearly been squashed by her friend unintentionally sitting on her, and if she would get even smaller, who knew what further risks there would be.

“I agree with Anzu. The Taisha will understand.” Wakaba wasn’t going to mention the incident of getting trapped by Anzu’s butt to them, but girls who could be Heroes were rare. They would not want to risk losing one of them over an accident like that.

Sifting through one of her pockets, Hinata removed Wakaba’s phone and set it atop the bed, activating the lock screen with the press of a button. As if Wakaba needed another reminder she was shrinking, the device which had before been roughly her size, if not even a little smaller, now was the larger between them by more than a head’s worth.

Moving beside it, Wakaba pressed the first number for her password, but a problem quickly became apparent.

“Hinata… Could I have some help, please...” Sheepishly, Wakaba called out with her pride dwindling as much as she had. The slight tap Wakaba had applied failed to registered on the phone, forcing her to continue applying pressure till she pounded on the button like she wanted to break it. Only then, after applying all the force she could summon with a single arm, had her phone finally accepted the input. A little petty it may have been, she couldn’t wait to transform.

“Ah, sorry, Wakaba-chan. Here.” Wrapping her fingers around it, it was like Hinata were picking up an entire car to Wakaba, yet she did so without even the most minute of effort or strain, unlike what it took Wakaba simply to press a single button, the first in a whole sequence. Her fingers danced over the touch screen for a moment with several delicate tapping sounds, before the now unlocked device was placed beside Wakaba again.

“Huh? You know the password for Wakaba’s phone?” Tamako raised a questioning tone toward Hinata.

“Of course, I know everything about Wakaba-chan with how close we are~.” Though her tone was prideful, Wakaba still couldn’t help the mild embarrassment at stating something with such a bold face. They had known each other since childhood and were the best of friends, so it wasn’t that abnormal, was it?

Tamako slowly glanced toward Anzu expectantly. “Hey, Anzu, what’s your phone password?”

“Tamacchi-senpai, now’s not the time...” Tamako’s question received an exasperated, almost embarrassed, reply from Anzu.

Ignoring the dejected whine from Tamako, Wakaba scanned her phone until she found the Hero app. Touching it, the application opened up to the simple screen with a blue Kikyou in the middle. It was almost shocking how easily it had opened, requiring only a small touch instead of the smash required earlier.

Tapping the flower, Wakaba felt the familiar divine strength flooding into her body, a light enveloping her clothes for a brief instant. When it faded, the dress Hinata had put her in before was replaced by the comfortably familiar Hero outfit she fought in, matching her proportions perfectly. Puffy, blue sleeves with white and red highlights around her exposed shoulders. The shoulders were connected to a similarly blue colored tunic that trailed off to black tights that left the sides of her upper thighs exposed, before trailing completely dark to her high heeled shoes. But this wasn’t the most important part to Wakaba.

She had her sword Ikutachi sheathed and ready at her hip.

Wakaba traced a hand over the hilt with a smile growing on her face. She wasn’t sure how or why her weapon had been reduced with her, but her weapon of choice for Iaido felt like an extension of her own limbs, bringing a sense of security and comfort with her hands wrapped around it.

“Hey, it worked!” Yuuna’s enthusiastic voice carried Wakaba’s mind back to the present.

“How do you feel, Wakaba-chan?” Hinata looked at her expectantly, hopefully.

Smiling, Wakaba braced herself against the soft ‘floor’ of Hinata’s bed, before sailing skyward with one mighty jump. With ease, she crossed a distance many times her body length in a single bound, flying until she gracefully landed atop Hinata’s right shoulder. “Much better.”

Hinata turned to look toward Wakaba, flashing a relieved smile nearly lengthy as Wakaba’s entire height. From Wakaba’s position on Hinata’s shoulder, she could physically feel the tension deflating as Hinata relaxed.

“Hey, I was thinking. It’d be easier to sleep knowing Wakaba-chan’s okay ourselves and keep an eye on her, so why don’t we all have a sleepover together tonight?” Optimistic as ever, Yuuna suggested eagerly, glancing around for an indication of approval.

“Eh? It might be a little hard to fit everyone else into my room.” Hinata said.

“Well, I was expecting I’d probably use your bed and sleep beside you since I can’t use a normal one, Hinata. That’s one less person to make space for.” Wakaba spoke up. Having everyone else around in this situation did sound reassuring, and if it helped them rest easy like Yuuna said, then she was for it.

“On second thought, I think it’s a great idea!” In record timing, Hinata had a positively glowing smile across her face. “We should be able to get some bed rolls before it’s time to sleep.”

“Well, if that’s the plan, leave it ta Tama!” Rising to her feet, Tamako proudly declared, a few similar sentiments coming from the remainder of the group, Chikage only after Yuuna expressed her eagerness.

“I’ll stay here with Wakaba-chan, while the rest of you get what you need then.” Hinata beamed, waving at the departing group.

Not long later, the room was left to just the two of them.

“Hold on, Wakaba-chan.” Gingerly, Hinata rose up and changed from sitting on the floor to her bed. Now transformed, the process was far easier for Wakaba to cling to her shoulder through. “I wonder what we could use as a blanket for you...”

“I’ll be fine, Hinata. You’re beds comfortable enough to sleep in as is. But, I wonder where I should sleep...” Jumping off Hinata’s shoulder, Wakaba landed off the side of her pillow, a now utterly enormous wall of white that Wakaba couldn’t even reach the top of despite standing straight up. It was hard to believe she had seen this same sight at the beginning of the day, yet it now was so much bigger from her continued shrinkage.

“Right there seems perfect.” Hinata answered. Getting back into earshot of Wakaba again, the girl shifted sideways and leaned over, gently placing her head on the pillow. “I can keep an eye on you like this.”

Even despite Hinata’s slower movements, her climbing over the mattress and dropping her head onto the pillow caused a small shockwave across the landscape, bouncing Wakaba like she’d taken a low jump on a trampoline. Fortunately, she was able to regain her balance well enough to land on her feet, even with the awkward ground swallowing her shoes up. “Although, it might be a little hard to sleep if I get thrown around that easily.”

“I won’t move then. I’ll be sure to sleep soundly with you here, Wakaba-chan.” The light hearted tone Wakaba was used to back in her voice, Hinata proudly declared.

Now on her side, it was must easier for Wakaba to see how truly huge Hinata was next to her. Her body stretched across the entire expanse of her bed, which was akin to looking over a white horizon to Wakaba, as if she were some kind of monument adorning the landscape. Each leg thicker than Wakaba’s height and long enough to be sideways buildings, shifted occasionally with such casualness it seemed probable Hinata barely registered the action consciously, despite covering a length perhaps dozens of meters to Wakaba. Her arms were almost equally impressive, sinking into the ‘sea’ they rested upon and depressing an outline over it. Individual fingers equal or greater in size to Wakaba, save only her smallest one, pressed down on the bed, naturally creating individual depressions deeper than Wakaba’s entire body could, simply by resting. Adding the feeling of Hinata being nearly a landscape unto herself right now, was her bountifully sized chest. Already the biggest of their entire group by far, now its size was magnified 15 times over. It was not as if Wakaba intentionally drew attention to Hinata’s breasts or put emphasis on them like Tamako did, but they had gone from ‘large’ to actual ‘hills’ now in the feeling inspired when gazed at. The rise and fall of the tremendous and soft mounds with each breath Hinata took, an entirely unconscious and automated action, simply reinforced the absurd difference in size. It was hard for Wakaba to not notice when such a thing when an apt comparison would’ve been seeing one of the many hills in Shikoku’s remote regions suddenly began rhythmically rocking. One’s eyes would naturally be pulled to the absurdity of an entire landscape shifting around. But, no matter how impressive it appeared, even if it looked as such from Wakaba’s diminutive perspective, it was nothing absurd as a landscape moving by itself, it was all simply one of the many automated processes of Hinata’s body sustaining itself. Even the processing of exhaling her breaths, at such a close distance, could’ve been compared to a gentle breeze for Wakaba.

Even transformed, it was a mystifying experience seeing her normally 13cm, a thought that gave Wakaba a moment of mental pause and merely highlighted the scale difference more when she realized the height difference between them normally was now nearly an entire third more than her present height, shorter friend in such a manner.

“Well, when you say that, I’ll have to trust you, Hinata. I hope I’ll be able to sleep well since I can’t have you clean my ears right now.” Wakaba finally answered. The gesture was always a relaxing one that could calm even her worst nerves, but with the idea of sleeping not far away, the realization struck her. Along with the absurd mental image of attempting as such when the q-tip used was probably only slightly shorter than herself right now.

“Ah. I guess I’ll have to make up for it when you’re back to… normal.” There was a slight pause before the word ‘normal’, almost like Hinata was taking a moment to convince herself with certainty it would happen.

“With a promise like that, I’ll have to be sure it happens.” Trying to comfort her friend, Wakaba stated the words as confidently as she could. At the back of help the question of how small she would get arising again, something she tried to force away for the moment.

For a while, Wakaba talked with Hinata, just like they so often did and if there wasn’t a gap in size 15 times over. Wakaba could only hope she wouldn’t shrink much further over the night and would still be visible once they woke up.

Going to bed, Wakaba had undeniably been nervous. She had shrunk down to less than 1/10th her height upon waking up the previous day and only gotten smaller from there, being almost 30x smaller by the time she had fallen asleep. She had only managed such a thing after assuring Hinata’s worries and helped her progressively larger friend fall asleep with a few safeguards in place. Those being a dim nightlight to help Wakaba herself get around more easily if needed, and that if Wakaba actually did shrink to a similar level as last time, she’d find a place on Hinata’s body to wait, such as her hair. That way, even if she became so small the others couldn’t see here, they could at least know she was there while trying to find a solution. Wakaba had hoped she would reach some kind of limit to her shrinking and not actually become a microbe, but even her dreams were haunted with the images and nightmares her situation had brought about. Becoming small enough to be inhaled, falling down to the floor with individual boards kilometers wide, to even being reduced to living life as one of the many microscopic things upon Hinata’s body, too tiny to have any existence separate from her childhood friend. It kept her sleep restless, until a gust of wind slammed into Wakaba, jolting her mind free from the black void of sleep.

Wakaba’s eyes flung open in the same second her form was sent rolling what felt like hundreds of meters in only a couple seconds. The girl would’ve flown back even more, if not for her trained instincts kicking in and grabbing a fistful of cloth to bring herself to a stop.

“Nrgn… What was that?” Wakaba groaned to herself while trying to stand, still gripping the fabric with one hand. Her alertness had been raised to max awakeness from the sudden manner she had been woken up. The only thing she could immediately make out was how the white horizon stretched almost endlessly in almost all directions.

Before Wakaba could take in anymore of her surroundings, another great wind came over her, but instead of pushing, this one pulled at her. The suction effortlessly lifted Wakaba off the ground. With a scream, Wakaba gripped the bit of fabric she had for dear life, the powerful suction of the wind yanking over her entire body for several seconds and slowly eating away at her grip. Despite her best efforts, some of the cloth was starting to slip between her fingers, the vortex that felt like the tug of a violent tornado hungrily trying to pull her to the source. She didn’t even dare look back for fear of lapsing focus even for a second and losing her grip.

With only a tiny section of fabric pinched between her thumb and index finger left, grip only maintained from her transformed state’s super strength, the wind released Wakaba from its hold and she dropped onto the soft bedding below in a heap.

Fearing for another assault, Wakaba spun around toward where the gust had come from, but seeing the source only made her entire body freeze up in a horrible combination of awe and fear.

Casually resting on a large landmark of white, there was an immense monument before her. It was circular in shape and cream colored, with two large black looking forests lined up over the center area. Below, was a large and triangular protrusion which rested above a slightly open slit of a cave, which lead to a pitch black abyss beyond it, the entrance at least the size of a large building, hundreds of meters, from top to bottom. On the right side rested an immense wall of purple, seemingly thousands and thousands of strands coming together and stretching off in one direction for at least a few kilometers.

But this was nothing so grand as a monument, a literal mountain watching over the landscape.

It was simply the mindbogglingly huge resting face of Hinata. Those ‘forests’’ were her closed eyelashes. The ‘protrusion’ was her nose, looking like a small hill. The ‘cave’ was her mouth, and the kilometers long strands was Hinata’s silky hair.

Wakaba’s mind ground to a screeching halt in an attempt to comprehend what was before her. Glancing down the side of the bed, there was an entire mountain range under a wall of white, with the furthest and narrowest edges once more the cream color of skin. Her mind immediately jumped to ‘mountain range’, but it was truthfully Hinata’s pajama clad body, now impossibly huge. Yet no matter that she knew what was truthfully there, Wakaba’s head struggled to accept it. Struggled to accept the idea of something living being comparable to the largest mountains in the entire world in scale. To look at Hinata’s entire body now was as if Wakaba were looking out at an entire prefecture in Shikoku. She was an entire island unto herself.

‘How… How small am I…?’ Fear pricked at Wakaba’s mind with the thought. Before gong to bed, Hinata’s entire body couldn’t have been more than a few dozen meters from head to toe in Wakaba’s perspective, maybe close to 100 at the worst. Yet now, the simple height of her open mouth was several times greater than what her whole being was before. Just one side of her peacefully sleeping head inspired a feeling akin to staring at an entire mountain side now.

‘Was that wind Hinata’s breathing?’ A shudder went through Wakaba at the idea. Her friend, not more than 150cm tall in reality, was so monstrously gigantic now that the simple act of her soft breathing, an automatic reaction of the body that wasn’t even a conscious motion, was like being in a hurricane, even with the fact Wakaba was transformed. Those ‘few hundred meters’ she felt flung upon waking up couldn’t have been more than a few centimeters at a normal scale, if that . This was simply too absurd. How tiny was she? She had to be far under a centimeter, maybe even well below a single millimeter in size. ‘Am I… actually a microbe now?’

Another gust of wind came by, yet this one only caused Wakaba to unsteadily sway instead of barrel her over. Hinata had exhaled out her nose this time, fortunately pointed away from Wakaba. But even without being directly in its path, the mere fact she felt it from what looked like hundreds of meters away was of little reassurance. It was fortunate, however, as in her shocked stupor over Hinata turning into a living landscape, Wakaba’s grip on the bed had relaxed. If she had been in the path, they certainly would have gone flying.

‘Wait, she’s going to in-’ Alarms blared in Wakaba’s mind as she realized what came next, but it was too late. In mid thought and motion to grab a handful of fabric as an anchor, Hinata took another deep breath through her mouth. And with nothing anchoring her, Wakaba started flying right toward it!

“Ahhhh! H-Hinata, WAKE UP!” Managing to subdue her screaming for just a moment, Wakaba pleadingly screamed at the top of her lungs, helplessly flying towards the abyss of Hinata’s waiting mouth. Yet her sleeping giant of a friend showed no signs of stirring, blissfully resting while she inhaled Wakaba like a dust particle.

Despite the suction ceasing as Hinata paused her breath for a moment, Wakaba still flew like a ragdoll from inertia, but the change was just enough for her to start falling off course from the center of Hinata’s mouth. Instead of sailing into the dark cavern, Wakaba instead slammed face first into Hinata’s upper lip.

The impact was like hitting some kind of thick water. Wakaba splashed into it like a rock, before tumbling straight into a soft material beneath nearly immediately. Instinctively, Wakaba started moving and trying to push herself back to the surface, yet this ‘water’ was completely unlike normal liquid. It was sticky and thick, resisting her attempts to push it. Trying to swim in it was less like treading water and more akin to moving in syrup. Slow, heavy, weighed down. Even when the reached for the air and felt the top of the ‘pool’, the liquid moved up with her hand, the surface tension holding fast unlike water would. Had she not been transformed, Wakaba would have been helplessly stuck in place to drown, like a fly in honey. But with the enhanced body of her Hero uniform, Wakaba gave one might whip of her hand and felt it breach the surface. With another push against the soft ground, Wakaba shoved herself upward, pushing the top half of her body back into breathable air and leaving the microscopic Hero sticking out sideways. The consistency of the liquid kept her firmly in place.

‘Why is there a pool on Hinata’s lips?’ In no danger of falling, Wakaba glanced around to try making sense of her surrounding and plan their next move, but it was of little help. At her scale, the land of Hinata’s lips looked almost alien. Small bumps and crevices lined the entire surface for hundreds of meters, coming in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Some were so massive as to look like a large ditch, deep enough Wakaba wouldn’t have been able to see out the top standing directly in them. Others were vastly smaller, sometimes only a few of Wakaba’s body lengths. Even at normal size, Wakaba had seen lines and cracks over the surface of lips before, but this was entirely different. The entrance of Hinata’s mouth looked less like a solid object or piece of flesh, and more like some jagged and rocky landscape. If not for the pink color and knowing exactly where she was, Wakaba could’ve easily mistake it for some remote, rocky wilderness instead of someone’s lips.

Just how different was the world from a microscopic perspective? Seeing even more of the world and how something as unassuming as this looked like a desert made Wakaba even more uneasy about seeing the rest.

But it didn’t answer the question of what this pool she was in was. Worryingly, it was so deep Wakaba couldn’t even feel her feet touch the skin anymore with her chest up surfaced. How sticky and adhesive it was became even more apparent when Wakaba did a quick test by raising her hand, only for a wall to rise from the liquid and stick to her hand, yanking it instantly back to the surface like glue once she stopped putting any strength into it.

With another exhale, which didn’ do much aside from slightly shift Wakaba around from the pool she was in, a thought struck the tiny girl. Now that she had some time to look at it, there was a slight shine to Hinata’s plush lips. The liquid, in addition to how sticky it was, also had a weird scent to it, Hinata’s breath permeating every bit of air Wakaba could take in. This ‘pool’ was a faint layer of saliva! And it was still deeper than Wakaba was tall!

But perhaps, perhaps she could use this. It wasn’t the most comforting knowledge to know what it was, but Hinata’s sticky spit kept her completely sideways. With her strength as a Hero, she could use it to swim to more solid ground not near an entrance to Hinata’s body, from which she could then leap to somewhere safe on her to rest until they discovered a way to grow her back. Maybe she could even take refuge in Hinata’s ear. She was literally a speck right now, the possibility of even being visible to the human eye up in the air, but maybe, just maybe, she could at least give some sign she was still alive and be heard there. Even with the backup plans put in place and assuming Wakaba would rest somewhere on her body, Hinata would still worry herself sick not having absolute certainty.

Slowly, Wakaba started wading upwards. Her entire uniform and body was utterly soaked in Hinata’s spit not even a minute into the venture, but at least she had something to go with. She just had to make it the mid section of her upper lip. From there, Wakaba could jump past her nose and be clear of any risk of inhalation. Hinata would never knowingly put her at risk like this, but at a guessed size which made her a bug among bugs, so much of Hinata’s body posed a terrible danger by her simpy existing, regardless of her intent. Having so narrowly avoided going into Hinata’s mouth by a stroke of luck, Wakaba couldn’t help feeling uneasy at the pitch black valley which loomed to one side. With how her lips were, going there would’ve meant almost certainly drowning inside a lake of saliva. Or something far worse which Wakaba quickly brushed aside. ‘I’ll be fine. Hinata won’t… Eat me...’

Wakaba couldn’t be certain how long she trudged along, the process was slow and she barely moved, but she did eventually start making some progress. She didn’t want to risk jumping anywhere close to Hinata’s nose or mouth while she was breathing.

Without warning, Wakaba’s entire world moved like an earthquake, Hinata’s lip shifting with motions that were unlikely to be even consciously noticed by a normal person, but were like being in a landslide to Wakaba. Before the movement could even settle, more motions heralded a terrifyingly huge, slimy pink pillar erupting from the chasm of Hinata’s mouth. It was like watching a skyscraper suddenly appear out of the ground. A sheen of saliva coated the entire side facing Wakaba, numerous bumps and dots lining the whole structure, giving it a look of a mass of dots instead of a solid object. But none of the physical characteristics were the most fear inspiring, it was the skyscraper sized tongue coming directly for her.

Wakaba didn’t even have time to start moving or scream before the fleshy tower impacted like a wet building collapsing on her, squishing her into the soft embrace of Hinata’s plush lips on one end and the many ridges of the tongue on the other, burying her inside a torrent of spit. Barely even a second into the torment, Wakaba felt herself moving downward. She couldn’t even scream inside the puddle of liquid she was trapped in, helpless as Hinata’s tongue claimed its prize and retreated back into her mouth with a new snack.

Frantic and desperate for anything so survive, Wakaba flailed her hands around till they touched some kind of bump with a tip roughly the size of her palm. Without hesitation, Wakaba gripped one in each hand as she started to slide down. It was like standing under a waterfall with the constant stream crashing and sliding over her, but Wakaba held firm with her will to live.

Mercifully, not long after her lungs started to burn and beg for air, the crashing waterfall ceased, leaving Wakaba with barely enough room to stick her head out and relieve her lungs. The air she breathed was damp, hot, every bit carrying with it Hinata’s own breath, but it was something.

Panting, Wakaba tried to look around, only to be greeted by a pitch black and humid location. Not matter which direction she looked, only the sounds of Hinata’s body greeted her. When pulling her tongue back in, the girl’s mouth had clamped shut, robbing its new prisoner of any light, as if to further try and hammer in Wakaba was gone to the outside world and could become a morsel at any second.

At least she had these bumps to hold onto, bumps which rubbed against every centimeter or whatever was like a centimeter now like a squishy rock climbing wall. The sticky grip and being mostly buried in spit was yet another mixed blessing, as it aided in staying attached, but it was slowly rising in concentration. The liquid was beginning to irritate her skin though, almost like an itch. What was she holding onto anyway? It was difficult to tell with no light. ‘If this is Hinata’s tongue, are these her taste buds? They feel almost as long as my legs...’

Determined to do something, but unsure of what, Wakaba’s world was once more interrupted by a massive shift, the force of gravity aligning in such a way she could tell Hinata had now rolled onto her back. That only made Wakaba’s nerves intensify. If Hinata was on her back now, it meant that it wasn’t a row of teeth or her cheek now below Wakaba, it was the most dangerous thing in the huge cave, something from which would’ve been near certain doom if her grip were to falter.

Hinta’s throat.

She had to do something to get out of this, but what? She was beyond too small to be heard from here but already more saliva was being made in response to Hinata’s tongue tasting Wakaba’s whole body with only a few taste buds. The coating of it was now so thick to Wakaba she had to stick her neck out to avoid being submerged. Worse still, the amount spilling into Hinata’s tongue and filling the gaps on her tongue was starting to very slowly push Wakaba outward. There was always it was from her continuing to shrink yet even more, or a combination, but the girl rapidly brushed the thought aside. She didn’t want to think about growing even tinier, not now.

Even the few signs she wasn’t still entirely imperceptible to the macro world only made her situation worse though, from being effortlessly licked up by Hinata’s tongue and then the flood of spit over it savoring Wakaba’s flavor. If she wasn’t much bigger than a single taste bud, yet still sizable enough to be felt, could she go anywhere without this pink leviathan licking her back up? No, that didn’t matter for now. She just had to get somewhere else. Anywhere would be better than becoming a snack, if she could even be called such at this point. Calling herself bacteria felt like a closer comparison.

Making the decision to jump for one of Hinata’s cheeks and pray, Wakaba held her breath and used her unsteady grip on the taste buds to pull herself into the rain of liquid, bracing her legs against the ‘ground’ best as she could.

The world reacted to her squeezes, violently rattling about once more and summoning another waterfall. But this time, the extra motion combined with downward pressure robbed what remained of Wakaba’s grip. Panic gripping her mind, the Hero felt rapid downward motion overtake her. Again, she desperately flailed for something to grab and stop her, but nothing came. All her struggles were entirely powerless against a single strand of spit which had absorbed her so far inside it, there was no hope of touching anything else in such rapids. How could a single twitch of one tongue make her so helpless?

GULP.

Even among the chaos comparable to a whirlpool, that one, horrifically loud and terrifying sound rang out, turning Wakaba’s blood to ice at the implications.

Hinata had swallowed her. She had been eaten.

She hadn’t even felt herself physically pass or even touch Hinata’s throat. She was so small, so insignificant that the ‘tiny’ portion of saliva currently making Wakaba its captive was infinitely more noticeable to her body than the microbe of a person inside it. And as a microbe, Wakaba couldn’t do anything now. All she was capable of doing was waiting to be deposited into Hinata’s stomach as the motions of the waterfall quickened.

But it was starting to look unlikely Wakaba would even make it there. Her lung were already beginning to burn and desire oxygen she couldn’t give, her head was starting to spin, thoughts were growing scattered. However, in the pitch black of Hinata’s gullet, she couldn’t remotely tell how far she’d gone, especially not with her sense of distance utterly shattered. What might have been dozens of meters in her view, likely wouldn’t be more than the width of a single fingertip to anyone else. But no matter what the distance was, if she wasn’t granted freedom soon, she would seriously start drowning! ‘Have... to… get out...’

With her vision starting to go black and spotty, Wakaba was suddenly assaulted by a shockwave which felt like an explosion, tossing her body through the air and giving a fraction of a second for respite till she slammed into more liquid once more.

She may have only gotten a moment of air, but that was all Wakaba needed to regain her senses, yet something new greeted her. This new liquid felt thick and slimy, not entirely dissimilar to the saliva from earlier, it was like some kind of bile. Much more worryingly though, was that where the saliva had started to itch after a while, this one almost burned to be in.

With the slight strength returned to her, Wakaba kicked upward and surfaced with a hungry gasp for air. It was even more unclean than the air in Hinata’s mouth had been, but it was better than suffocating. But it was of little comfort in seemingly delaying the inveitable. With her clarity of mind beginning to return, the true nature of how dire her situation was begun dawning on Wakaba.

She was now in the depths of Hinata’s body, consumed by the sleeping giant and now inside her best friend’s stomach like she were a piece of food instead of a person. But it didn’t matter what Wakaba thought of herself, what the world even thought of her, or even what the very body that had eaten her thought. Human, Hero, bacteria, Wakaba’s classification was irrelevant. She was simply ‘food’ like anything else which entered the rumbling chamber, food to be broken down into nutrients for the body it belonged too.

And already trying to break her down it was. Being inside her friend’s gut, that meant this burning liquid was Hinata’s corrosive stomach acid, already getting to work digesting the new speck in it. At her current scale, the juices acted horrifically fast. Thinner sections of her outfit were already beginning to lose shape and melt off her body from the acidity, the burning feeling progressively intensifying with it. Even with her transformations added endurance, she would barely last a few minutes before being dissolved at this rate! Had she not been in her Hero state, the ocean of acid would’ve likely melted her into part of the soup instantly at this size!

Pain and rapid death lingering over her, Wakaba’s limbs found new strength to try swimming to anywhere safe, but she was in nearly an entire sea, cloaked in perfect darkness that only grew more oppressive with the rumbles of the dangerous gut which sounded like roars, gurgles and groans so loud it nearly made Wakaba unable to hear herself think. The most gentle sways caused by its churning creating tsunamis which threatened to submerge Wakaba and knocked her in random directions even when she didn’t. Even with her refusal to give up, there was not a single spot of hope to look for.

‘I can’t fail here! But what can I do…?’ Was this how she would meet her end? Not to the Vertex, but to the one she was closest with in the whole world, as nothing more than some dust they unawarely inhaled while sleeping? She would never even know what fate had been dealt by their very body. Hinata’s stomach acid would finish dissolving Wakaba into nutrients shortly. From there, she would be processed and turned from friend to body fat for her growing form.

Tamako joked about all the fat going to Hinata’s chest, maybe Wakaba would end up absorbed as part of her bountiful breasts forever, yet not even adding any noticeable amount to them with her microscopic form. No matter what part of Hinata’s body she ended up as though, at least she would always be with her as some small consolation. She could only hope the rest of the Heroes could protect Shikoku without her…

A colossal wave of acid swept Wakaba up in its embrace, ready to bury Wakaba in its depth and finish turning her into food, but no crushing pressure came. Instead, the burning over nearly her whole body lessened drastically, replaced instead by another slimy substance wrapping her up, leaving just enough of her body out of it to breath.

Wakaba blinked a few times as the pain dulled. She wasn’t in the stomach acid anymore, but she had no clue where she was now, she could still hear the waves not far beneath. Reaching behind her, she could feel some kind of fleshy wall past the almost meter deep slime. With it, inspiration and hope struck Wakaba.

By a stroke of luck, she’d been splashed into one side of the stomach walls and stuck in the sticky coating around it. She was slowly sinking back into the lake below, but for now she wasn’t a risk of melting! She had to act fast before anymore acid dragged her back in or she sunk into it though, but already the girl started forming a plan, if desperate.

From this spot, just maybe, she would be able to jump back up Hinata’s gullet. With Hinata on her back, how microscopic Wakaba was, and how things went earlier, she probably wouldn’t trigger any swallowing reflexes. From there, she could use her strength to jump back out of her body, even using her breathing as a springboard to get out. But there would only be one shot for this. If she missed, Wakaba would fall right back into the digestive juices and she doubted luck would work with her a second time. However, there was also the possibility of only hitting another side of the stomach wall, which even if it got her out of harm’s way, would only delay the inevitable at best. She couldn’t try climbing around to look for the way out, that would take far too long and exhaust her too greaty, especially with her stamina already starting to run low after her ordeals. It was a long shot, but Wakaba swore she hear some kind of squelch from above that must've been the esophagus. Any hope, no matter how small, was better than certain death. A Hero didn’t give up when even the faintest hope existed. She was not going to die like this today!

Stomach acid starting to rise and lap at her legs, Wakaba knew it was do or die. With a deep breath, she invoked the power of her trump card, Yoshitsune. A great power washed over her entire body as her clothing transformed. Her half dissolved blue and white uniform was now a clean white loose dress in a style reminiscent of a samurai. Around her mid section rested a deep blue metal armor with maroon and gold highlights. Lastly, around her neck was a long maroon scarf. What she needed now was speed and jumping strength, which was exactly what this even stronger form focused on.

With not a moment to spare, Wakaba shifted through the slime and positioned her body. With a final deep breath and self affirmation, the girl braced her legs and kicked off with all the strength her body could muster.

Launching like a rocket, Wakaba flew through the air tremendously fast. The darkness prevented any sight and with how overpowering every sound made by the stomach was, it was difficult to tell if she made any progress. But all at once, all the groans became muffled, focusing on one single area behind her. Not a second later, Wakaba landed in thick mucus with a dull splash, sinking nearly to her waist.

For a second, Wakaba froze, at full alertness and expecting some new disaster to befall her, but nothing came. No title wave of spit or stomach acid, no swallowing reflex, nothing. She had actually done it, she had managed to escape Hinata’s stomach and land back in her throat! However, the girl refused to allow herself more than a momentary sigh of relief and relaxation. She was not in the clear yet, she still had to get back out of this giant cave, probably a good several kilometers long at least. And she had to do it fast, for it Hinata shifted again in her sleep then who knew what could occur. Ordinarily, she could have crossed that distance in one, maybe two jumps, but fatigue was starting to catch up with her and the mucus along the gullet added resistance in jumping. It’d take her a few, but once high enough Hinata’s breath could carry her the rest of the way out. She only had to hope Hinata would’t swallow another mouthful of saliva, or else it’d drag Wakaba right back where she started.

Pushing her already aching body even further, Wakaba soared up the tube, not even coming close to touching the top between her long jumps that covered easily several hundred meters, each one growing more difficult. She could start hearing the sound of rushing wind from ahead replace the gurgling stomach behind her. Close to her goal, Wakaba slowed her jumps, moving more cautiously. Honed her senses were, she still had only hearing to rely on and estimate where the tornado started. If she got swept up with an inhale instead of exhale, she would get lost as bacteria in Hinata’s lungs, unable to even be felt as an irritant. ‘I have to wait for her to exhale and get pushed out.’

Closing her eyes to focus, Wakaba listed intensely for Hinata’s breathing, how her drawing in air first started as a rushing wave in the distance, only to rapidly grow in intensity before entering the larynx, the rumbling becoming a muffle above her. When she released the held breath, it was the reverse, a rumbling coming from above before exploding in front of her, and then fading. Hinata’s mere breathing was even more unsettling to listen to from inside her body like this. It sounded like a terrible hurricane being generated by every breath in and out. At the normal scale, the sound would’ve been soft, barely audible, even cute from the few times Wakaba had heard it. But now it was far from ‘soft’ as could possibly be. Wakaba had thought her friend’s scale was absurd back at doll size, but it was nothing compared to this. Even now, part of her mind still grappled with trying to understand something like this being an unconscious process in living, a process she herself did with this scale at normal size, and not a great natural disaster. It simply didn’t feel real that she could be capable of this even at normal size. It was similar to being told an impossibly large number and knowing it was enormous, but unable to truly comprehend the scale in one’s mind’s eye.

‘No, enough of that. I can’t get distracted. Need to focus and get this right.’ With a shake of her head, Wakaba refocused herself. She had it down now, she could predict the patterns and see when the flow of air would be rushing outward. She only had to wait for this inhale to finish and…

‘NOW!’

A second before the exhale started, Wakaba jumped, sailing through the air. Timing when the wind would come, Wakaba tensed up and braced her body exactly when it slammed into her back and swept her up in the center of it. It was exactly like being caught up in the world’s most powerful hurricane, sending her tumbling like dust in the wind, an apt comparison with her size unlikely to be far from a speck of it. Wakaba had no control in the slightest as she was carried up Hinata’s throat and to what she hoped would be freedom. Her only indication of going anywhere was the faintest trace of light starting to filter into her blurred world, but it was impossible to make sense of anything with her entire vision one giant blur, other than the light was getting closer and more intense.

Vertigo overtaking her, light instantly flooded Wakaba’s whole world from nearly all direction instead of focused from one. With it, came something Wakaba was able to use in anchoring her sight. Growing ever closer, there was a giant, round and white mountain she was spinning toward. Mountain was the only proper way to describe it. Aside from the lack of a clear peak, the sheer size was every bit matching one of the many rocky formations that dotted Japan’s landscape. In her daze, nothing came to mind of what this mass could’ve been, but all Wakaba knew is it looked infinitely safer than the inside of her friend’s stomach had been.

Almost close enough to crash into it, the ‘mountain’s’ features started taking on an unusual look to them. Uncountable lines wove together in a cross pattern, giving the illusion of a solid object from afar, yet revealing the true nature of many much smaller objects stitched together as one massive structure. Yet, it was imperfect. She couldn’t be certain with how disoriented all her senses were, but were there holes between the cross sections? They were small, not too different in size from Wakaba herself, but there were gaps in the thread looking material. And she was heading right for one!

Trying to orient herself, Wakaba reached out to grab anything and stop her descent, but her hand met only air as she dove right through the slight gap. White and… pink? Overtook all sides of her vision, till she passed through another hole and one direction turned a dark pink with similar composition as the white mountain of before, while another side in her spinning vision was of skin color, with something also pink briefly visible on it that she was barreling right toward!

Even with the wind pressure behind her gone, the leftover inertia and her already confused senses made it impossible for Wakaba to right her posture before the pink pillar came close. All she could do was brace herself before slamming down into it.

The impact wasn’t quite soft, but it wasn’t hard. It wasn’t like the skin of Hinata’s lips or her tongue, but it wasn’t solid, almost like some kind of soft rubber. The impact sent Wakaba tumbling, where she could feel several cracks beneath her as she rolled, one in particular stopped Wakaba and send her rolling down it before she finally came to a stop

Groaning, Wakaba carefully, unsteadily, pushed herself to stand, using her sword as additional support. She felt dizzy, injured, exhausted, but she could not stop yet, not until she was certain they were safe. Even as her head spun and she felt her body swaying in multiple directions, ready to fall over, she refused to succumb to darkness yet. ‘But where am I now…?’

To the best her shaky vision could provide, Wakaba surveyed her surroundings to make sense of them. There was enough light filtering though the ‘sky’ to observe the landscape was bright pink and she appeared to be in some kind of ‘valley’, large walls with cracks and lines running over them blocking out any way to see the sides. The ground also had several holes larger than Wakaba was at various points, including one directly beside her she had almost fallen in. The whole place looked almost rocky with the cracks, yet the ground was warm and flesh like.

The entire world suddenly rising caused Wakaba to stagger sideways, barely staying standing with the aid of her precious weapon. Gears started spinning in her head with the sudden action, the pieces of the puzzle piecing themselves into a clearer picture of her location.

She had been ejected out of Hinata’s mouth or nose while she was on her back. That put her at an angle directly toward her torso. Then there was the round ’mountain’ she had barreled toward, which in retrospect was covered by the same color as Hinata’s sleepwear and Wakaba swore there had been a second, equally large ‘mountain’ directly beside it. Then there had been the skin colored mountain underneath the layers of what had to be fabric. Wakaba’s face started flushing instantly with the realization dawning on her.

This massive pink ‘canyon’ was Hinata’s nipple! Wakaba had become so small, she had fallen straight through the individual threads of her shirt and bra, then right into the crevice of her nipple! How impossibly tiny was she!? This one tiny section of Hinata’s body was an entire landmark right now, akin to being inside some mega stadium even. Those ‘holes’ were ducts leading into the depth of her breast, and they were bigger than Wakaba was!

More flustered than she had been in her life, Wakaba tried to stand and jump again. She couldn’t stay here. It was far too embarrassing, invading Hinata’s personal privacy, and would get her killed upon discovery. She didn’t want to exist as some perverted speck part of her friend’s nipple, but her body didn’t listen to her. She had used the power of a fairy to give her the strength to escape Hinata’s stomach, but it’d come with the price of draining her stamina even quicker.

Legs like jelly, Wakaba’s balance was effortlessly stolen by the landscape suddenly depressing from an exhale and she tumbled to the side-

-directly into the closest hole.

With her consciousness fading, Wakaba reached out an arm to try grabbing onto the outside ring of the hole, but it was too late, her hand only snatched air and the girl plummeted like a rock. She barely had the energy left to let out a scream as the only source of light grew ever distant while she once more plunged into the depths of her best friend’s body.

She didn’t know how long she fell, everything blurred together with blackness starting to overtake her willpower, but eventually Wakaba slammed into something solid, providing a brief jolt which temporary kept the void at bay. But all she could do was lie there, not even able to muster the energy to push herself back upright. So low was her energy, her advanced form faded in a shimmer of petals, leavinlg her original Hero uniform behind.

The only thing left for her was to contemplate the situation with her remaining thoughts, the faintest light from the distant outside world providing the bare minimum of illumination to avoid total blackness.

‘I’m… inside Hinata’s chest...’ The glum thought slammed what remained of her thoughts with the realization of the situation. Despite escaping from her body once before, fate wasn’t content to let her stay gone for long. Even inside one of the ducts of her chest, Wakaba could still tell she was massively outsized. It was difficult to be certain, but this one chamber had to be bigger than an entire large house for her. Had she avoided becoming part of Hinata’s breasts as body fat, only to end up as a pathetically small microbe living inside it instead? Just one of the many similarly sized things over Hinata’s body, too small to be seen as anything distinct from her body. To any normal person, they could be looking directly at her and Wakaba would be entirely impossible to see or distinguish and may as well been some foreign bacteria in her nipple, not anything so lofty as a normal person. One way or the other, Hinata’s body was effectively her world now. She may as well not of been a human anymore, just one of billions of microbes living on Hinata.

Darkness was rapidly overtaking Wakaba’s thoughts, only temporarily stalled from her rough impact. Maybe things would change once some of her energy had returned and she had the strength to move again, but if she kept shrinking would it even matter? With how dangerous the entire outside world had been already, inside Hinata’s breast might’ve been the safest place she could reach, if she could even get out of it. In a twisted way, Hinata was still unknowingly doing what she could to keep Wakaba safe, even if it was only keeping her as a microscopic part of her.

On the verge of passing out, Wakaba clutched her sword tightly for some sense of comfort, letting sleep over take her with the soothing company of Hinata’s heartbeat washing over the entire room. She would try again after rest, but she only hoped that her friends could find some kind of solution before something like the immune system targeting her dwindling self happened. She had to trust in her friends…

Eventually, Wakaba felt herself returning to the waking world. The first thing she noticed was the squishy, almost damp ground beneath her. The entire room was also dark and surrounded by weird pink walls. ‘This isn’t my ro-’

Memories of earlier events flooded Wakaba’s mind as it fully awoke, drawing a large frown from her. Part of her had hoped the events of the previous night were all just a dream, that she would awake in her bed, get ready for class like normal and greet all her friends, her all normal sized friends. Or, at the very least, she would wake up with Hinata’s large but not impossibly so form beside her. But, reality was not so kind, she was still nothing but a speck, she was still inside of Hinata’s nipple, and no different than bacteria.

‘I wonder how small I am now?’ With a sigh, Wakaba thought while pushing herself up. Did it even really matter if she got smaller though? She was already in the depths of her friend’s breast and even before had been so insignificant the mere top of her breast appeared as a whole canyon with hills. She was already in a completely different, microscopic world from everyone else and far from being able to consider a human by anyone’s view but her own. Anything part of her old world was all mind mindbogglingly big

But, even as depressive as the situation was, she couldn’t just sit here and mope. Maybe she could go back up the duct she slipped in, catch a small glimpse of the world, maybe even hear her friends talking about something. Her perspective was part of Hinata’s now, so if someone said something around her, perhaps she could hear some ray of hope that was desperately needed. She could have even sworn Hinata’s voice had called to her, but that had likely been only a hopeful dream already fading from her mind.

Thankfully still transformed, had she not been her fate as a microbe would’ve been certain, Wakaba jumped over to the hole in the chamber, now thankfully sideways. Right away, she could see this single duct was much larger than before. It looked like an entire cave, maybe even cave network would’ve been a better term with how other holes were in various places. The ‘roof’ of it had to be the height of a small building, tens of meters high. The landscape was filled with bumps and slopes disrupting the landscape, many of them easily several meters tall if not more. Once more, the world looked like some alien landscape removed from reality. If not for knowing her exact location and the last two days, Wakaba could not have possibly believed this was the inside of her friend’s nipple. Just one tiny passage way, one of many which came together as a small protrusion on a massively larger orb, which itself was also simply one part of an even greater body. Even the smallest bits were all several orders of magnitude beyond what was currently Wakaba’s existence. Was this even moving? If it was side ways, then Hinata was likely awake as moving, but Wakaba didn’t even notice any significant movement. It was as if she was finally part of the breast, moving with it when it did instead of trying to go against it.

‘Is that… Water?’ After several jumps, Wakaba heard a peculiar sound coming from far ahead in the outside world, now that the sounds of Hinata’s body weren’t drowning out anything else. There was some kind of raging water ahead, sounding like some mega waterfall if Wakaba had to guess. It didn’t just sound like one, however, there were numerous coming from all over, but by far the closest was nearly right in front of her.

Spurred on by curiosity, Wakaba quickened her pace, until she reached the exit of the nipple and stood at it to see what the commotion was. In front of her was a wall of white, comprised of endless stitches and threads of fabric thicker than whole buildings. But past it, there did appear to be some kind of waterfall. It was difficult to make out, and simply staring at it and merely attempting to comprehend the scale made Wakaba’s head hurt, but it was most certainly a waterfall, not that she would look up at its full height to make sure. ‘What’s Hinata doing at a waterfall?’

Some impossibly loud sound came from behind Wakaba, appearing to echo through the entire chamber at once, but all it sounded like was a bunch of noise to Wakaba. Some part of her gut told her it was Hinata’s voice, trying to speak to her, but the difference in scale was just too far beyond her. Hinata was in an entirely different world, one which Wakaba couldn’t even understand and properly make out the words to.

Still trying to comprehend what was being told, Wakaba noticed the waterfall grow immeasurably closer as Hinata must’ve stepped into it. The raging waters suddenly became significantly closer, entire lakes worth crashing over the part Wakaba resided in alone in a fraction of a second., rocking and shaking the area unsteadily, nearly knocking her over.

‘What’s Hinata doing!?’ Searching through her mind, Wakaba recalled her friend bringing up some ‘purification’ rituals mikos like her undertook at times, namely before important events, such as seeing the Shinju. But what was the point of that?

‘Wait, is this place getting… Smaller!?’

At first, the microscopic Hero thought perhaps she finally snapped, but no, the inside of her friend’s nipple was actually getting smaller. No, it wasn’t getting smaller, Wakaba was getting bigger. It was gradual, but she could feel it. Her body had a strange feeling coming over it, somewhat like being pulled on or stretched, but she was actually growing! She had almost doubled in height! Somehow, her friends had actually found a way to remove this curse!

Caught up in the euphoria of realizing she could return to normal, Wakaba's eyes went wide upon realizing what growing larger here meant. She had to get out of here before she got too big to get back out! She could worry about Hinata’s reaction to this later!

‘I hope Hinata isn’t as embarrassed as I am...’

Hinata had been fearing the worst possible outcome upon waking up earlier, the outcome which had seemingly come true. Wakaba was absolutely nowhere to be found. The entire group had searched high and low, yet there was not a single sign of their friend. It had taken all of Hinata’s willpower to not start having a panic attack on the spot, slapped in the face with how Wakaba very well could have shrunk out of existence or too small to ever recover. It had only been Anzu’s quick witted reminder of the backup plan, that if Wakaba became too small, she would stay somewhere on Hinata’s own body, that it had been averted. Her friend had continued to calm Hinata’s nerves by suggesting to contact the Taisha, as they appeared to be capable of at least telling if a Heroes’ vital signs were functional or not. A quick call had revealed Wakaba was indeed alive, but they couldn’t be more specific than that. It wasn’t much, but simply knowing Wakaba was alive helped Hinata regain her composure. As long as she was somewhere, a chance still existed.

However, that had then brought up the question of what to do or if any plan had been made. To Hinata’s relief, they had come up with an idea since Wakaba had gone somewhere on Hinata’s body. They were going to try the waterfall purification ritual of cleansing bodies which mikos often did, under the hope it would in some way ‘purify’ the curse, or at least mitigate it enough to return Wakaba back to a visible size. They did give a few caveats to the plan, however. Firstly, was how Wakaba would only grow if she was somewhere safe, that it may only work up to a certain point and may need time to fully ‘wear off’, and of course it would be useless if the Hero hadn’t managed to stow away on her body. They were working with many unknowns and it was a long shot, but Hinata would do anything for the most important person in the world to her.

It had been a long process preparing and getting to the location, especially as Hinata was extra slow and careful in every one of her movements just in case it was where Wakaba rested, but they had eventually arrived and Hinata donned her traditional robe before moving to the waterfalls alone.

“Wakaba-chan… If you can hear me, wherever you are, hold on tight. We’re gong to try and lift this curse.” Hinata loudly spoke, partially to herself. She didn’t know if Wakaba had heard any of the previous discussion or even could hear her words now, but just in case, she had to try.

With a deep breath, Hinata stepped into the ice cold mini waterfall and started praying.

“Hrn!?” Hinata let out a shrill squeak not more than several seconds into the ritual. She had gotten some kind of answer to her prayers, but not in any way she was expecting. Something around her right breast, in particular right at her nipple. The frigid chill of the water sometimes had a natural reaction on her body from the cold, it wasn’t the first time her nipples hardened during this and she had long since learned to tune out earthly pleasures mid ritual, but this was different. Something was grabbing the most sensitive area of her chest, tightly clinging onto and shuffling over it in some desperate attempt to stay on it, rubbing against and further exciting her to where it was difficult to ignore.

Briefly stepping out of the waterfall, an awkward hope filling her alongside the flushed feelings of this sensation, Hinata pulled aside both ends of her robe and exposed her bare chest, where her eyes went wide.

“W-W-Wakaba-chan!?” Hinata shouted at near full volume, unable to contain her relief at the sight before her. Clinging to her fully erect nipple with both hands tightly wrapped around it and legs straddling the pink part of her chest, was the tiny form of her best friend. She wasn’t much bigger than the object she clung to like her life depended on it, and was missing several sections of her soaked to the bone Hero uniform, but her previously microscopic friend was now in front of her and visible once more.

Before they could even respond, Hinata, rapidly yet with all the care one would use handling a great treasure, pinched Wakaba off her sensitive spot and gingerly deposited them in her palm. “Wakaba-chan, a-are you okay?” Remembering to restrain her volume this time, Hinata delicately asked.

Slowly, shakily, she saw Wakaba rise to her feet, coughing a few times till she could finally speak. “H-Hinata! You did it!”

Hinata felt like her face would split open from how wide her current smile was, happy tears starting to freely fall down her cheeks. “I’m so glad you’re okay, Wakaba-chan!” Unable to help herself, Hinata went for the closest replacement for a hug that could be done with Wakaba’s size, gently placing Wakaba and her palm against her cheek with a warm embrace, taking extra care to restrain her strength and keep the hold painless for Wakaba.

She refused to end the hold for a solid several seconds, feeling all of Wakaba’s tiny body delicately pressed into her cheek and applying the faintest rub to help warm her from the cold water that must have been immensely worse at such a size. However, all things had to end eventually, especially when there were still important issues to address and Wakaba had yet to grow back to full size. Daintily lowering her palm, Hinata rested it just before her eyes, near enough to keep a close eye on Wakaba, while also letting her friend’s voice be heard despite the scale difference. But with the initial excitement wearing off, there was one odd, embarrassing question raised upon in Hinata’s mind.

“Um, W-Wakaba-chan. W-What were you doing on.. there?” Feeling her face starting to flush with embarrassment, Hinata asked awkwardly. Wakaba could be somewhat… Dense, so she would never expect her to do anything so bold like that. “W-Weren’t you going to go somewhere like my hair?”

Even with her small size, Hinata could see the red instantly overtake Wakaba’s entire face. “E-Er, um, l-long story! C-Can I g-grow back to normal f-first?”

“Ah! Sorry, Wakaba-chan. Of course...” Carefully, Hinata raised her hand upwards, letting Wakaba step off it and onto her hair. “Try hiding under my hairband and hold on."

“Alright, I think I’m ready, Hinata!” After some shuffling on her scalp, Hinata received her squeaky answer from her passanger.

“Ah, but one thing, Wakaba-chan. I don’t know if you heard, but the Taisha said that you might only be able to grow back a little bit this way, and that it may take a day or two to fully grow back while the curse wears off, but we’ll still try.” Slowly turning back around to face the waterfall, Hinata stated.

She heard a faint, adorable grumble come from Wakaba in response. “Well… That’s still better than continuing to shrink. But, even if that happens, I know I can trust you to take care of me until I’m back to normal.”

Hinata could help a suppressed giggle coming from her at the affirmation, reaching up to carefully stroke Wakaba’s head with her index fingertip. “Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if this lasted for another day or so, if we know you’ll be fine. That’s enough time for me to fill up a memory card with unique photos for my album~.”

“L-Let’s just see if I grow anymore!” Wakaba quickly answered with a suddenly nervous voice.

It had been a long and taxing ordeal, but at least the end was in sight now and everyone was safe once more.