Sakaki Shrinks

Sakaki was spending the night at the home of Chiyo Mihama, a friend of hers. She had taken in a wild cat she named Maya after the cat's mother was run over. When morning came, Sakaki had shrunken, and her clothes shrunk with her. She had wanted to be small and cute, but didn't think she would become less than a foot tall.

Maya recognized her as who he thought was her mother, so he didn't attack. Sakaki was shy, so she didn't want to yell. She got on Maya and convinced him to climb the bed Chiyo was sleeping in so the shrunken teen could get her attention. The claws in the blankets made noise that woke her up.

Chiyo looked over the side of the bed and saw Maya before she noticed Sakaki. It took her a couple of seconds to realize that her once tall friend had shrunken. Chiyo said, "Miss Sakaki, may I see how big you are relative to me now?"

The teen said, "What do you have in mind?"

Chiyo reached out for her, and Sakaki did not cower from it. The child prodigy was gentle when she grabbed the shrunken teen. She held an entire person in her hand and said, "Wow... You're the size of my hand!"

Sakaki said, "Good thing Maya still thinks of me as his mother and not as food."

Chiyo said, "I didn't think about that! Now I'm glad that's not the case!"

Chiyo and Sakaki went to the same classes in the same school. Chiyo asked, "Miss Sakaki, may I hold you as we go to school?"

Sakaki replied, "Yeah. I'm still more agile than I expected, though."

On the way there, Chiyo asked, "Do you want to hide the fact that you shrunk from the school? Or should we be open about it to prevent trouble down the line?"

Sakaki said, "The second one."

At school, it was easy to notice that Sakaki wasn't what she used to be. Osaka said, "How did Miss Sakaki shrink?"

Chiyo said, "I don't know, and neither does she," looking at the tiny girl she considered the older sister she never had and said, "Right?"

Sakaki nodded. Chiyo said, "It happened when both of us were sleeping at my house," and she decided to not add that they were in the same room because she didn't know if Sakaki wanted her true personality to be known to the whole school. Granted, the illusion that she was cool and aloof was something Sakaki didn't mean to happen, but she was shy and that somehow reinforced the illusion.

Sakaki shrinking threw a wrench in her plans for what she would do after high school. Chiyo became closer to the once tall girl, but her agility meant that she didn't need Chiyo in particular to accomplish tasks. She never found a way to return to her natural size, so she accepted that she was going to be tiny for the rest of her life.