Isane rolled over in her sleep, grumbling and pushing away a hand that tried to shake her awake. The shaking stopped for a moment and she tried to drift off, only receiving a much stronger shaking after that. She growled as her dark eyes opened slowly, glaring up at the one that had disturbed her slumber. Momo smiled above her, waggling her fingers in greeting. Isane frowned at the younger woman, groaning as her own sharp hunger became immediately away.

Beams of bright light stabbed into her eyes as the sun stood high in the sky, signaling that it was at least noon. Her stomach growled once again, a loud and very vicious sound that Momo smirked at. Ever the impertinent retainer that one. Obedient when it counted but possessed of a lip that would get her into trouble with others. Honestly the samurai was surprised the young woman had lasted so long as a commoner with how she acted around her born betters.

"Momo-san, it is not exactly proper to mock your mistress right when she wakes up. Fetch me some water, I can't remember the last time I was so thirsty." Isane croaked.

The young woman inclined her head respectfully and shuffled off to carry out Isane's command. She returned with a gourd of water and a strange pink fruit. The samurai lifted her brow and turned her gaze towards her retainer her smiled a rather satisfied smile. "I went for a walk and spied some in the tree over there. I already tried one, they are pretty good."

Isane frowned as she bit into the fruit, chewing thoughtfully before letting out a low moan. After a diet of fish it was perhaps the most delicious thing she had ever eaten. She bit at it ravenously and drank deeply of her water, finding Momo ready to supply her with another. The samurai grunted in thanks as she stuffed her face without shame. Her retainer giggled at the sight behind her hand. It was rather like the woman had never eaten anything before. After the second one she took the third fruit slowly.

The samurai devoured her meal with relished, looking around to see Momo had already set out most of the supplies they had within the boat on the ground. Spare clothes, Momo's strange western trinkets, Isane's weapons and armor, their remaining food stores, their remaining water, flint and tinder for fires, and tarp and pegs for a large tent. Among various other odds and ends. Honestly Isane gave Momo her leeway mostly because of how good she was with her duties, that and her company was somewhat enjoyable when she wasn't being sickeningly optimistic.

With a rather unladylike belch Isane tossed the remains of her meal aside and looked at around, noting the cliff in the distance. "Did you make it up there last night?" She asked.

Momo shook her head. "No, I figured looking if there was something you could eat took precedence."

"And you are afraid of extreme heights."

"And I am afraid of extreme heights. I figured you would be better suited for it anyway. It would be a great way to get back into shape, Kyoske-sama." Momo said with a toothy smile.

Isane rolled her eyes and stood, brushing herself off. She supposed that took priority then. Look around from the cliff and see what she could see on the island. She didn't even know how large this place was. Certainly pretty big as she couldn't see the other side from her current position. The samurai opted to keep her ruined and tattered kimono on for now as the climb would be for a ways no doubt. However she did slip her toes through the straps of her sandals, setting her katana and wakizashi upon her obi.

With that done she jerked her head towards the direction of the cliff. "Come. If I break my neck I would rather you were there to tend to me. The place doesn't look inhabited from the looks of things so I doubt we need to worry about thieves stealing anything."

Momo dipped into a polite bow and shuffled after her lady. She grabbed her compass for good measure and they were off towards the cliff. Isane looked down at her feet as she started crunching through the ground. That was some strange dry moss. She shrugged it off and kept on going, unknowing about the destruction each step wrought upon the land so far below. Momo didn't seem overly bothered by it so it was probably some new type of moss.

When it had been one of them at a time romping across the island it had been destructive enough but with two crushing and stomping their way across the countryside it was as though a natural disaster had hit. The slap of both of their sandals, one against fabric and the other against flesh, sounded for miles around heralding their approach. Those settlements upon their path would see a wild haired goddess with a pair of blades upon her hip and a smiling and kindly looking one directly at her side.

"Hmm... do you think Testu-sama will be sending men after us?" Momo inquired, the shadow of her sandal being cast over a small farming community before slapping down upon them, instantly splintering buildings and grinding people into paste.

Isane snorted, bringing her foot down angrily upon the other side of the community, the screaming of those fleeing brought to an abrupt end as the sandal pounded them between earth and straw. "Doubtful. Testu is a coward at heart. Chasing us off is enough for him."

"A pity he backed out of your duel, Kyoske-sama, his head would have been a mighty prize."

"The head of a coward is worth nothing at all. If there hadn't been so many assassins I would have carved my way to him and sliced open his gut to show him how weak his heart truly was."

Their voices thundered across the land, their words reduced to mere noise to the insignificant specks fleeing from their steps. They couldn't comprehend the noise nor could they really comprehend the intentions of these goddesses. As far as the common man would think they were vengeful creatures descended from the heavens to punish them for some transgression. In actuality the women were simply walking from one place to another, likely never to know about the countless lives snuffed out under their steps.

Momo shook her head at the bloodlust in Isane's tone. When a duel went south like that it tended to have the samurai brooding for months. The retainer herself disliked violence, preferring to talk things out before blades were drawn. Her disdain was rather offset when her foot was brought down upon a travelling caravan, crushing the back end of the line of travelers abruptly. The step kicked up earth and splintered trees, sending some men tumbling into the impression left behind by her sandal.

Their path quickly took them to the cliff where Isane removed her sandals and her weapons, handing both off to Momo. The young woman set them down upon the ground as she watched the samurai carefully, biting her lower lip. It was a tad ridiculous to think Isane's journey would be brought to a halt from a neck broken from a fall but stranger things had happened. The retainer's worry must have shown upon her face as Isane simply smirked.

"If I break my arms and legs I expect you to carry me around and wait on me hand and foot. Just thought I should tell you."

Momo cracked a smile. "If you break your arms as well it's not like you could make me do anything!"

Isane's smirk widened to a tooth smile. "I would just have to bite you until you agreed. Or get someone else to discipline you for me!"

The retainer chuckled. "Try not to fall at all, Kyoske-sama. That will solve the whole dilemma."

"I will indeed attempt not to horribly shatter all of my limbs. That might put a dent in my attempt to become the most renowned warrior in the entire world."

With that Isane found her first handhold and hoisted herself up the cliff face. She reached up with her foot and curled her toes around the ridge, getting a good grip. Once she was certain she had her bearing she started her climb in earnest. Momo could handle climbing trees but Isane had seen what extreme heights could do to her. It was certainly not pretty. Waiting for her to wake up was a good call and she was right about Isane needing the workout. Already she could feel her muscles shaking off the long days of disuse.

Little did both know was that at the base of the cliff itself was a rather large township. It made its profits from mining and trading with neighboring daimyo. The people stopped whatever they were doing in their day to day lives, staring upwards in awe as this wild haired goddess ascended. She was unto a mountain in and of herself really. Her and her companion, who had seated herself across the way and was watching the climb carefully.

However soon enough this town learned what many other had, the dangers of even being near such large beings. Pebbles stuck to the little ridges Isane used for handholds descended from above, smashing into homes and crushing those foolish enough to remain. The samurai climbed higher and higher, unconcerned with a few pebbles being shaken loose though the ones that got stuck on her foot were somewhat uncomfortable. Below however even the smallest debris was hell.

The samurai tried to keep order, however it was a futile task as the townsfolk panicked. Many ran into the rocky and open plains, some fled into the mines while other attempted to gather their belongings first. Debris continued to fall upon the town regardless, a constant and stead rainfall from above as the unaware woman climbed on, drawing closer and closer to her goal with each passing moment.

Momo meanwhile, confident Isane had a good hold on things, opened her compass and checked it. She watched in wonder as the needle remained pointed exactly towards the magnetic north, just like the traveler had said! Western trinkets were rather fascinating to the common born Momo, like they came from an entirely different world. The compass was her favorite though she also liked looking through the magnifying glass and telescope she had. Isane brushed them off as worthless as they had nothing to do with combat use but Momo knew differently.

She giggled as she turned this way and that, the needle always returning to the same direction so she always knew where she was directionally. No need to use the sun's position in the sky with something like this on hand. As she turned once more her loose grip shook the thing from her fingers and sent it rolling upon the ground. Momo dove after it, swiping and missing it at first. It rolled towards the cliff wall and the retainer crawled after her, alarmed that it might have been broken.

For those fleeing they had likely not expected the arrival of the compass. The strange metal object rolled quickly upon its path, heading straight for the town. The looming shadow was cast over many as they were crushed under the trinket. It smashed through the town walls, splintering wood and crushing homes all the way along its path. The daimyo's home was caught directly upon the path, the lord barely having time to blink before he and his home were smashed to splinters and paste under the compass.

All of this paled in comparison to Momo's advance however. The woman crawled on her hands and knees towards the compass, her expression almost panicked. A young man had just enough time to look up as he noted a shadow looming over him, the creases of her soft hand taking over his vision of the sky. The hand quickly descended and he barely had time to start screaming before Momo's hand squished him between soft flesh and unyielding earth.

The worried goddess's hands crushed many of those that were fleeing and some were caught up in her kimono, joining those remaining from yesterday in the pink prison of fabric as a permanent addition to Momo's attire. Either as red paste or as a struggling and writhing prisoner. A few that avoided her hands and her kimono counted themselves lucky and continued fleeing, only to find a last obstacle.

___________________________________________________________________

Rika could feel her heart pounding in her skull as she watched the floral patterned blanket pass over her and a few of her friend. Her breath came out in great heaving puffs as she doubled over, sweat pouring down her body. How she had managed to make it past the massive pounding hands of the massive woman AND that pink hell was beyond her. It was nothing short of a miracle. She thanked the spirits for their mercy, though her mind turned to what she had just seen not moments ago.

As the blanket of pink had passed over she had been treated to a good long eyeful of what was upon it. Far above her she could see their forms interspersed in the fabric. People. Their limbs tangled and trapped by pink bindings. She saw a cluster of them stuck in a design of a lily, all grouped together and squirming. They had moaned and screamed, arms trying to reach out to those running below them. They were trapped in a prison, unable to escape or even die should they have wanted it.

Rika knew she wanted no part in that. The thought of that... of being trapped like that was too much. She had made it despite the odds however. So many of her own people had been smashed to paste or, worse had been scooped up to join those poor souls. However Rika had made it. She and a few others from the looks of things. She allowed herself a moment to catch her breath, after the day she had today she felt she deserved it.

"Rika-san! We need to move! Now!"

Rika turned her head, looking upon the slightly older woman next to her. Asami. Odd to see her running about instead of gossiping at the well. She looked frantic. Panicked. To be fair so was Rika but the danger had passed so she didn't see the immediate urgency. At least that was until she saw what Asami was pointing at.

Her eyes bugged out as she saw the white fabric fast approaching. Her tabi. That was her tabi. The same kind of tabi that Rika wore upon her own feet. She thought nothing of them when she slipped them on in the morning, they were just socks. Calling the tabi she was looking at just a sock however felt a gross understatement. It took up her whole vision of the sky, replacing it with nothing but white fabric. Most of the town could probably fit inside of that tabi. It wasn't just a sock. It was her new sky.

The young woman felt Asami pulling her along, trying to get her to run as the white fabric descended upon them. Rika stumbled, unable to take her eyes off of the sight of it speeding down to meet them. The next few moments were a complete blur of motion as Rika watched her world darken and felt herself jerked. She thought she screamed though maybe that was just the wind. Her vision blacked out but came back into focus seemingly moments later, her ears ringing and her head pounding as her head lolled from side to side.

She felt alive. She wasn't dead it seemed. Rika couldn't believe that another miracle had come her way. She was alive. She hadn't been crushed by the massive cloud of soft fabric that had descended upon her. A peel of joyful laughter escaped her as she lay out upon the ground, tears leaking from her eyes. She was actually alive. It was amazing to her. Despite the odds, Rika had survived the massive woman.

Her laughter died down as she pressed her head back against the ground. It was... strangely soft. Her eyes opened and she saw strings of white reaching all around her. She could see a shroud above her in the distance. It was blocking out the sky. It was also quite pink from what she could see.

Immediately her heart stopped and she tried to move. Thick white cords of fabric bound her in place, wrapping around her body like thick vines. No. No, no, no! Rika squeezed her eyes shut. She wasn't there. This wasn't happening. She wasn't trapped and bound where she thought she was trapped. She was asleep in her futon, snoring enough to wake her mother. Any moment now she was going to feel a pitcher of water overturned on her face and a voice telling her to get her lazy bum to work. Then she would work in the little teashop, she would wear a smile and flirt with that cute samurai that always came in and asked for her to serve him. She would live life happily as long as she wasn't where she was.

Her eyes opened and stretching before her was nothing but white. A whimper escaped her lips as actual tears formed in her eyes. This was actually happening. This was real. The strands trapping her were real and the thing that they were attached to was also real and the being that wore them was unquestionably real.

She felt a squeeze on upon her right hand and she turned her head, meeting the fearful dark eyes of Asami. "H-Hey... R-Rika-san?"

Rika swallowed hard, sniffling. "Y-Yeah?"

"We... we aren't where I think we are... are we? P-Please tell me I'm wrong."

There was a pleading in her voice, a broken kind of tone that told Rika that she already knew where they were but needed to hear it spoken allowed. The younger woman licked her lips, the lump in her throat threatening to cut off her voice. She needed to say it too. She needed to say it for it to properly sink in. Rika didn't want to acknowledge it. She didn't want to believe it. She wanted to continue to delude herself. Still, she did say it.

"We are stuck to her tabi."

That was when Rika lost it. "We are stuck to her tabi. We are stuck, wrapped up in the forest of fabric on her tabi. We are pieces of lint stuck to her sock! No, we are less than that! We are dirt, like the kind of dirt that gets stuck between your toes after you walk around too much and you have to wipe it away! We are tiny flecks of fucking dust she will never fucking see! We-!"

"Stop! Rika-san, just fucking stop! Stop talking! Stop fucking talking!" Asami screamed.

The young woman did stop. She stopped talking but it was still running through her mind how trapped they were. She started hyperventilating as she thought of just how insignificant she was compared to the goddess that wore these tabi she was stuck to. Did she even know they were down there? Would Rika have noticed? What if Rika been doing this to people unknowingly all her life? Her eyes looked at her own tabi, trying to imagine a pair of dirt speckles trapped in a sea of white.

She struggled against the fabric, screaming and thrashing as she tried to break loose. She couldn't be trapped like this! She had a job, friend, and family! She wanted to own her own shop or inherit the teashop from her grandmother! She wanted to find a husband and have kids to take care of her when she was old! Rika couldn't be imprisoned like this, she couldn't be just another bit of dust to this massive goddess.

Eyes skyward, she screamed curses. "Fuck you! Look down here you giant bitch! See me! Notice me! You fucking bitch! You murdering daughter of a whore! You goat fucking cunt! You-you fucking... Oh spirits..."

Tears sprang to her eyes once more as she sobbed bitterly, tears staining the fabric. She felt Asami's hand grip hers again. Rika turned her gaze to her and saw tears in the corners of her own eyes. The younger woman wanted to hug her, to cry into her shoulder. She couldn't however. She couldn't hug her because she was stuck. She was trapped to this giant woman's sock and would be until she died.

"Shhh... Rika-san, stop crying. Please just stop crying." Asami said, blinking back her own tears and sniffling.

The young woman slowly stopped. "We are going to die here... aren't we?"

Asami bit her lower lip. "Don't think about where we are. Think about something else."

Rika actually chuckled at that. "What? What could I possibly think about?"

"Tea. You work at a teashop, don't you? Tell me all the kinds of tea the shop carries. I've never visited it myself."

Rika sniffled miserably. She struggled to turn her thought towards tea. It was hard to think of something so mundane when they were trapped in the snowy fabric of a sock. However she did try and she managed to get her voice under control enough to talk.

"W-Well... we carry g-genmaicha." She started.

Asami smiled encouragingly. "Go on, what else? Keep talking."

"A-And Aracha, and Kukicha, and Hojicha." Rika continued, feeling a bit better as she wracked her brain for more blends of tea. She hadn't entirely forgotten about the situation she was in but it was more tolerable this way.

"And Sencha, and also Guricha but Grandma charges a fortune for it."

Asami chuckled. "She seems the type."

Rika actually managed a weak smile. "Y-Yeah..."

It vanished a moment later however she managed to refrain from panicking when Asami squeezed her hand. "Listen. You aren't alone, Rika-san. I'm a minute away from pissing myself in fear but we can't break down. It will be alright. Not it might, it will."

Rika clung to that assurance just like she clung more tightly to Asami's hand. She nodded her head slightly at her words. They were stuck on this massive woman tabi but they weren't dead. Maybe the strands binding one or both of them would be shaken loose as their captor walked around more. It was too early to just give up hope. Asami was beside her at least. She wasn't alone.

___________________________________________________________

Momo looked at her compass, turning it over in her hands with a frown. No chipping and the needle seemed to be working just fine. The glass also wasn't cracked mercifully. The young woman smiled, brushing off a bit of dust that had gathered upon it. Her brushing gesture sent the remains of homes and people crushed by it to the wind. It wasn't broken and that in and of itself was a small blessing.

She didn't know who Rika and Asami were. She didn't know there were two knew flecks of dirt upon her tabi. Maybe if they had been her size and if they had met they might have gotten along. As it was however she knew nothing about their despair. She was just happy she had gotten her compass back. She brushed her kimono off a bit, sighing at how dirty it was. There really needed to be a lake here so she could wash up. This was her favorite kimono!

"Hey! Momo-san! Up here!"

Momo turned her gaze skyward and smiled brightly as she saw Isane leaning over the edge of the cliff. She could see the whole island from there no doubt about it! Quietly she was thankful that she had made it up there in one piece. Honestly she didn't know how the samurai managed to handle being so high up. Just looking down over the landscape and knowing that with one wrong move she could plummet to her death... it was nerve wracking.

"What do you see, Kyoske-sama?" Momo yelled up.

The samurai stood and started looking all around. She pointed behind where the cliff lay. "There is a grove back here! A pretty big lake as well. I think there it a path around the cliff we can take."

She pointed outwards to the north. "Waaay over there I think there is a mountain of some kind! More trees... The island is pretty big from the looks of things! Could take a while to explore it fully!"

Momo let out a sigh of relief when Isane mentioned a lake. The other bits weren't as important to her as a source of fresh water and a place to bathe and clean their clothes. After fourteen days at sea they both could certainly use a bit of scrubbing. Of course... there was also the additional enticement that she always helped Isane bathe. She was her retainer after all. Scrubbing every inch of her toned and tanned body was her duty. Among other things when Isane permitted. Hopefully both being made tolerably human again would put her in the permitting mood. Her toes curled in delight at the thought, rocking the world of two little flecks of dust below.

The samurai took her time to climb down from the cliff, seeing very little reason to hurry. Down below in the remains of the mining town the survivors watched with slowly creeping horror as Isane climbed towards them. Few rocks fell this time though that was not the main worry. Slowly the bottoms of the woman's bare feet grew closer and closer. Those still remaining in the town started running as their doom grew closer by the second. It was unfortunately too little too late.

Isane's foot slowly moved towards the ground at the base of the cliff face, her toes pointed downwards. Her dirt and dust caked foot loomed above and some watched in awe as five wriggling digits slowly descended. Buildings cracked and splintered beneath the sole of the woman's foot, her toes curling and smashing up more of the town. That was when the second one loomed over the town, descending much quicker this time.

Bits of dirt and the odd pebble heralded its fall, the pad of her sole grinding out buildings and people without a feeling being register by Isane. In fact the samurai lifted one foot and casually wiped at the bottom with the back of her hand, brushing off what she saw as dirt and filth and what was actually wreckage and broken bodies. She repeated the process with the next, and then finally with her tattered and faded kimono. Momo set her sandals onto the ground and Isane stepped into them, letting out a pleased sigh from the workout.

"Right. So let's head back to the boat and get ready to move base camp." Isane said with a smile, setting her weapons in their proper places.