Minor Recap:
Previously on Half Inch High: Alternative! Megumi, Rentaro, Furyu, and the rest of their class were forced to share the gym with a neighboring class. However, after noticing that Makoto Masumi (a bully the micro-rep support squad had previously dealt with) was being bullied herself, Megumi decided to intervene. Following her out onto the court, she tried to talk things through with Makoto but before any more progress could be made, Megumi was hit in the head by a rogue volleyball and taken to the nurse’s office by Makoto. While all that was happening, Rentaro met a shy but mysterious person from the other class but, after getting a little too ambitious, he was caught red-handed sniffing their feet. Instead of being reprimanded, though, the mysterious student bashfully grabbed Rentaro and brought him into the gym’s storage room…
Megumi's eyes slowly opened. With a blood-soaked tissue stuffed in her nose and a painful bump on her head, she struggled to remember what happened. Looking around she saw white curtains surrounding her, but she definitely wasn't in the hospital. Upon closer inspection, the gears in her brain finally began to turn. It was clearly the nurse's office. Yawning, she rose from the bed and the memories of what happened came rushing back. While it wasn't the first time (nor was it the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, or 6th time), it was probably the hardest she’s been hit with a ball. Sighing, she looked around some more before realizing something was missing. Feeling the back of her head, it was immediately clear to her that someone had removed her bow. Having her hair in a ponytail was the norm so it felt weird to have her hair down for once. Looking around her pillow all she could see was an ice pack that was probably for her head. Searching around the bed some more it wasn't long till she noticed something she probably should have seen a while ago…
It was Makoto. Fast asleep with a strand of drool running down her face, and her head resting on the side of the bed. Megumi began to wonder just how long she’d been out. Not only was her memory still hazy but her phone was still in the gym's changing room. It was only when she looked at Makoto’s arm, which ever so gently supported her sleeping head, that she could glance at the time on a very trendy-looking watch. On its face was the same popular fairly local mascot that was stitched onto the handkerchief Makoto handed to her. A building-sized cartoony cat, often called KyojiNeko. Megumi found her fondness towards the mascot very charming, but eventually, she stopped letting herself be distracted and finally looked at the time. 10:00 am on the dot. Megumi was surprised that she’d only been out for a little over half an hour. After finding her bow and tying her hair back, she felt slight relief that she didn’t miss out on an entire day of school but also wondered about how Rentaro and Furyu were…
Back laid flat on the bleachers, Furyu was doing whatever made her most comfortable for her this early in the morning: sleeping. Though as much as she wanted to rest her eyes, the constant noise of the gym made it more than a little difficult for her. Gritting her teeth she finally had enough and jolted to her feet. Stretching out any tiredness she looked down at the space beside her and absent-mindedly started to talk.
"Man, all this damn noise is so annoyin'! Wanna ditch class and head the club early Ren—" It took her a second to notice, but it was clear as day. Rentaro was no longer there. Of course, this in and of itself wasn't too worrying but for some reason, she had a bad feeling about it. Rushing down from the bleachers, Furyu started to ask around the gym if people had seen him. First, she tried talking to the group of perverted boys he always hangs out with, and despite their scared and nervous ramblings at the sight of Furyu, they had no idea where he was. After that didn't work out she decided to use her head and decided it'd be a good idea to check if any of the girls were acting weird. Whether it was due to them being suspicious and knowing where he was, or acting strange in the sense that they might have had a tiny Rentaro stuck between their boobs.
Aside from looking like a weirdo, staring at tits yielded no results for the worried delinquent. It was after giving up that idea did Furyu notice a group of girls hanging out by the door of the gym's storage room. One girl from her class and two from the class they were sharing the gym with. The girl from her own class had a somewhat angry or anxious expression, while the two from the other class seemed like they were up to no good. They reminded her of how the boys would look whenever they waited for Rentaro to return from the girl's locker room after completing whatever perverted mission he had been sent out on. That alone gave her more than enough reason to investigate, but her suspicions were further reinforced after realizing that the girl from their class almost certainly had a crush on Rentaro. It was before Megumi transferred to Hanichi but Furyu could’ve sworn she’d seen her staring at him from afar or murmuring to herself whenever the girl who sat next to him struck up a conversation. Furyu began to wonder why she even paid attention to such details but her sense of urgency quickly stopped her from thinking too deeply about it.
Running to the gym storage room, she wanted to question the girls, but they quickly fled the scene as soon as they caught sight of her. With no other leads to follow, Furyu had no other choice but the check inside. Normally this room is off limits, but with no teachers around that rule wasn't exactly enforced. A myriad of thoughts entered Fury's head. "What would Rentaro be doing inside a place like this?" She asked herself. Maybe he was being tortured by some bullies. Or maybe something even worse. More and more dark thoughts entered Fury's head as she reached for the doorknob. These thoughts continued to fester until she slowly opened the door…
Ten minutes earlier. Slamming the storage room door shut, Nozomi held Rentaro in their hand. Heart rate and body temperature rising, she looked at the tiny student with a flustered expression. Slightly heavy breathing caused her glasses to fog up as she nervously brought herself and Rentaro onto some soft padded mats. Taking their shoes off, Nozomi sat down before placing the tiny student near her feet. Feeling the residual heat wafting off of them, Rentaro also started to become increasingly nervous. Looking up, he saw an extremely flustered Nozomi. Their entire face was red and their gaze would constantly shift back and forth between Rentaro and some other direction.
"G-Go ahead." Nozomi stuttered, scrunching her socked toes and soles before bringing them slightly closer to the now flustered Rentaro. Ideas conflicted in tiny's brain about whether it was really alright for him to take advantage of the situation. On one hand, this kind of thing was super inappropriate, but on the other hand, this was almost a once-in-a-lifetime situation. No other students, aside from some of his closest male friends, knew about his foot fetish. Admittedly it wasn't exactly a rare fetish to have among tinies, but Rentaro was pretty confident in his ability to keep "that side" of himself hidden from others. He had always thought if anyone ever learned he had such a fetish he would be made fun of or called creepy. Never in his life did he think that someone would not only have a supposedly positive reaction but actually allow him to indulge in said fetish. And while Rentaro didn't know much about Nozomi, he was explicitly given consent so, in the end, he made the obvious decision.
Rentaro approached Nozomi's socked toes timidly before slowly plunging his face and body into the slightly moist fabric. While he had gotten up close and personal with several normal-sized student's feet in the past, this was the first time it was mutually consensual. Nozomi's feet were nowhere near as overwhelming as Chihiro's, but that was to be expected. Unlike the rough and tumble athletic tomboy, Rentaro's impression of Nozomi was that she was a very meek and soft-spoken girl who had generally good hygiene. As Rentaro inhaled more of her scent, he started to make more comparisons in his head. Disregarding memories of his maid or sister's feet, he thought back to his relatively brief encounter with Megumi's foot a day or two ago, he'd say they probably had even less of an odor oddly enough. While that was slightly disappointing for him, Rentaro guessed that Megumi’s feet must have been extremely soft just like hers— Stopping mid thought he plunged his face deeper into Nozomi's sock to hide his embarrassment.
Shifting his thoughts to when he accidentally fell into Sekira’s shoe, he noted that Sekira’s socks had a very distinct and strong odor. While nowhere near as strong as Chihiro's, it was odd for someone who didn't seem that athletic. It was almost like she had avoided washing, or used a pair of already-worn socks. Thinking it was due to laziness, Rentaro then fantasized some more. Moving towards the sole of Nozomi's foot, he noticed a slight tear. Not thinking too hard about his actions, he stuck his face into the hole, pressing it against the skin of Nozomi's barefoot. As the slight moisture of her sweat coated Rentaro’s face, the urge to lick Nozomi's foot grew stronger and stronger. Trying to distract himself from such thoughts, he started to think about Fury's feet. Remembering a time when he had seen her at the shoe lockers, Rentaro thought back to a vivid memory of how her socks looked. Heavily worn with several holes and supposedly stained with sweat, the thought alone made him even hornier than he already was. After his thoughts had gotten the better of him, Rentaro took a deep (foot-scented) breath and anxiously slid his tongue out of his mouth. Before he could get a taste, the sound of the door knob turning shocked the two of them. As Rentaro scrambled to get away from Nozomi's feet and Nozomi scrambled to get her shoes back on, the door flung open…
"Oi! I'm lookin' for a tiny. Seen him anywhere?" Furyu called out, looking at Nozomi with a confused and slightly threatening expression. Thankfully she didn't have to do much looking as the Nozomi and Rentaro sat right next to each other. Each of them was averting their gaze with extremely flustered looks. Not really one to ask questions, she grabbed the nervous Rentaro and started to carry him out of the room. As the tiny boy stared back at the flustered Nozomi from the safety of Fury's hand he spotted something shocking. Pressing against Nozomi's tight gym shorts was an unmistakable silhouette. He froze up as his brain slowly began to piece things together. When he finally realized that this supposedly soft-spoken and shy girl may have actually been an effeminate, soft-spoken, and shy guy, his heart sank. This revelation had caused Rentaro to soon after, much to the delinquent's confusion…
Still not understanding why he fainted, Furyu just tossed the little guy into one of her pockets and moved on to the next order of business: Finding Megumi. A tiny going missing made sense since they're so small, but Furyu was a tad bit annoyed at the fact that Megumi had seemingly disappeared despite being normal-sized. Hoping she wouldn't have to exert too much effort she asked around once more. While the delinquent had found an answer pretty quickly, whether or not she was satisfied with it was another story.
"In the nurse's office with WHO?!" She asked, slamming her hand against the wall beside the person (otherwise known as a kabendon) she was questioning. A look of terror appeared on the boy's face as he re-explained the situation to her.
"A-After I accidentally spiked the ball against her face, the rest of us playing volleyball wanted to take her to the infirmary but Makoto grabbed her hand and ran off with her before we had a chance! That's all I know! Please don't hurt me!" The boy said, his knees shaking in fear as Furyu stared at him with a pissed-off expression.
"Crap!" Taking her hand off the wall, she headed towards the exit leaving the startled boy to collapse to the floor in fear. Checking that Rentaro was still safely secured in her pocket she ran to the nurse's office, worried about Megumi. Her worries would go to waste though, as after waking up, Makoto was more than comfortable enough to have a casual conversation with Megumi.
“You like cats?” Megumi asked.
“Ehhh, “like” is kinda an understatement. I love cats! They’re kinda like the epitome of cuteness, you know?” Makoto exclaimed, showing Megumi a photo of herself hugging a cat.
“Woah!! So cute! I’m more of a fish person, but cats are super cute too! Is that one yours?”
“No way! My mom’s hella allergic, so I’m not even allowed to be near cats half the time. I used to work part-time at a cat cafe but I had to quit since the cat hair on my clothes would cause her allergies to freak the hell out. It sucks but it’s whatever.” Makoto shrugged, sighing as she put her phone away. Staring sadly at Makoto, Megumi couldn’t help but feel a little conflicted. While she did think that cats were cute, her view of them was pretty negative. With cats being a danger to micros and the sworn enemies/predators of fish, it wasn’t easy for her to trust them. Of course, she wouldn’t directly express this distaste to Makoto, but the thought lingered in her mind nonetheless.
“I guess that explains all the cute cat merchandise you own~!” Megumi smiled, thinking back to her watch and handkerchief.
“Cat merchandise? Ahhh, you mean KyojiNeko? He’s seriously awesome! I’ve got, like, 5 plushies in my room and a buttload of merch. I’m kinda his biggest fan, heh!” Makoto boasted, smiling smugly before rambling on some more about some of her favorite characters. Since Megumi recently moved, it was endearing to hear about all the city’s cute mascots. Despite once seeing her as a cruel bully, the dissonance created by her nerding out was endearing. After a couple more minutes of talking, Megumi had an idea.
“I know this might be a weird thing to ask but would like to join—”
SLAM!
The forceful sound of the door sliding open echoed throughout the room, interrupting their conversation. Breathing heavily in the doorway, stood Furyu who undoubtedly sprinted all the way from the gym to the nurse’s office. After locking eyes with Makoto the two instinctively stared at each other with looks of absolute disdain. Before either of them could even berate each other with insults, Makoto was practically ready to get up and leave. Before she could, though, Megumi instinctually grabbed her hand. Surprisingly, this was enough to stop her from leaving and Makoto just stood there without struggling despite maintaining the same annoyed expression.
“What the hell is this all about?! First, you and your dumbass lackeys kidnap and almost kill our friends, and now you’re actin’ all buddy-buddy and shit? Don’t think for a second Megumi’s dumb enough to fall for whatever crap you’re trying to pull!” She yelled, angrily walking up to the two of them. Taking one look at Megumi’s confused face put a dent in her confidence, but that didn’t stop her from further threatening Makoto. “We already put a stop to your crap the first time, was losing your reputation not enough? Need to lose some teeth too?” Furyu said, cracking her knuckles to intimidate Makoto. As threatening as she may have been, Makoto remained practically unfazed by the delinquent's harsh words. She didn’t even feel that mad or offended, she wanted to snap back at her but for some reason, she didn’t feel like she needed to.
“We don’t need to get violent, please!” She looked at Furyu with pleading eyes. “Makoto doesn’t have some ulterior motive, she brought me—” Before she could finish her sentence, Megumi was cut off once again, this time by Makoto.
“Sorry, Megumi. I don’t need someone to defend me. You can keep the handkerchief, I’m gonna get outta here.” Pulling her hand away, from Megumi, Makoto shot one more angered glare towards Furyu before walking towards the door. A feeling of regret began to pool up in Megumi’s stomach, and before Furyu could even ask if she was okay, Megumi yelled her request at Makoto before she could leave.
“Please join our club!!!” Megumi yelled, leaving both Furyu and Makoto speechless.