Chiyo Shrinks

Chiyo Mihama, a girl who had skipped five grades in one go and made it to tenth grade at the age of ten, had invited over her friends from school to her home. One of them, Sakaki, liked small and cute things and would rather be short and cute, but was really tall. She had taken in a wild cat and named him Maya after he somehow crossed a water barrier to get to her, and when there were no other girls there, Sakaki played with him. Chiyo had gotten coffee, and she walked into that. Somehow, Sakaki and Maya both snapped to a dignified position.

That night, Sakaki was sleeping on the floor of Chiyo's room. The tall girl said, "I like small and cute things. But since I was always tall, even when I was younger, I was never cute."

Chiyo, who was tucked into her bed, replied, "That's not true."

This caught Sakaki's attention. Chiyo said, "When you were playing with Maya, you were very cute."

"Y-you think so?" Sakaki said.

"Yep! Maya probably thinks of you as his mother."

That morning, Chiyo woke up to a surprising amount of comfort below her. Looking around, she appeared to be in her bedroom, but everything was massive. She looked down and saw that she was on a giant pillow. At first, she assumed that everything else had gotten bigger, but seeing Maya and Sakaki still asleep, she realized that she had shrunken when they were so much bigger than her.

The young girl was now scared that Maya would try to eat her. She wondered if she should try to wake up the tall girl, but Sakaki woke up on her own. Chiyo said, "Miss Sakaki!"

That got the tall girl's attention, and the shrunken girl made eye contact with the tall girl. Sakaki said, "You're even cuter that size, Chiyo-chan! Wait... You shrunk! How?"

Chiyo shrugged and said, "I don't know. I woke up like this. It must have happened in the night."

She saw Sakaki put her hand next to her for comparison. Sakaki realized that Chiyo was now the size of her hand.

Chiyo saw Maya look at her, but even though she was small enough for him to eat, he didn't look like he wanted to do that. Even with that, the shrunken girl asked, "Miss Sakaki, can-can you hold me? I want to experience what that's like."

Sakaki was caught off guard, but put her hand in front of the girl that she considered the little sister she never had. Her hand was flat, and the palm was facing upward.

Chiyo got on, trusting Sakaki even though she knew she was putting herself at the mercy of someone who was now massive to her.

Sakaki looked happy when she held Chiyo in a single hand. She said, "You're so adorable, Chiyo-chan!"

Chiyo knew that Sakaki always found her adorable, so she got comfortable in Sakaki's hand. It was softer than she expected.

Chiyo asked, "So... what do we do now? Do you think I can go to school this size?"

Sakaki nodded and said, "Can I take you to our school?"

Chiyo said, "Of course! I'd feel safer with you around."

She thought about how poorly she performed in physical activities and asked, "How will I get through PE now that I'm tiny?"

"M-maybe Miss Kurosawa will make an exception for you?"

Chiyo said, "For some reason, I feel that I may be more agile this size than I was at my natural size."

Sakaki held Chiyo the whole way to school. Osaka asked Sakaki, "You brought an action figure of Chiyo?"

Chiyo replied, "No. I just shrunk."

Osaka didn't seem to register this, saying, "And your action figure talks!"

Miss Yukari, their English teacher, came over and said, "What's going on-" but saw how tiny Chiyo was. She said, "What the hell is going on?!"

Chiyo looked up at her teacher and shrugged, saying, "I don't know how or why I shrunk."

Chiyo shrinking made her feel less safe when she wasn't around Sakaki, so she had to give up her plans to study in America. Given that it was much easier to obtain a gun there than in Japan, she wondered later if not going there may have saved her life. She never found a way to return to her natural size, either, though she accepted this.