“Watching them move around like that is pretty weird, isn’t it?”
“It's more gross than anything. We should pick them up.”
“So.”
“So?”
“Go get them.”
“Ugh, no? They're naked.”
“Grow up. You’ve never seen a naked guy before?”
“I don’t want my finger to brush past their gross cocks.”
“But we can’t just leave them on the floor.”
“I don't know. You've seen how easily they popped, right?”
“So you're worried you'll break them?”
“I don't know. Maybe?”
“Fair enough. Once broke my sister's seashell by accident. One of those tiny ones. She wouldn't stop crying about it for hours.”
The rest of the men and I looked up at the giantesses. It wasn’t out of any perversion or an opportunity to sneak a peek at their panties. Nobody except me was in the mood for that after what happened.
No. It was human nature for one's eyes to wander ever upwards. Toward the tallest mountain. The tallest building. The tallest man. Was this caused by our fascination with the heavens? Or simply a mechanism to find the vantage point for spotting danger? I couldn’t tell.
The only thing that I knew was that we would find neither in the giantesses.
I watched a few of the girls balancing precariously on the sides of their heels, absentmindedly exposing their grimy soles. Their skirts swayed as they shifted from leg to leg. It was like staring up at a skyline of black fabric—one that could collapse at any moment. And if their skirts were the sky, then the panties hugging their pale thighs must have been the technicolor clouds.
There is something beautiful about watching the female figure from this point of view. The first thing every person sees upon entering the world is not the heavens, but the face of a woman looming above them. This must’ve been why men had always carved statues of women towering above them. Even before civilization, primitive humans must have looked up. To their mothers. Their sisters. Their goddesses. Maybe this is the natural order of things.
SNAP.
There it was again. The familiar hum of the projector, which we’ve all learned to twitch at the sound of, like Pavlov's dogs. Instead of white numbers, however, the screen was bathed in a grainy glow, a circle, and a cross. Together, they formed a symbol—one used to represent the female sex. But that wasn’t all. At the top of the circle, there was a distinct crescent shape. It must’ve been something from alchemy or astrology or whatever else. I couldn’t tell. For me, it looked like the symbol had horns.
The next part was a lot clearer for us to understand. Instructions. They were simple, clean, and bold—like the ones in the manuals you would get for assembling furniture.
[DO NOT REMOVE THE REDUCED INDIVIDUALS FROM ROOM C-3]
[DO NOT CONSUME THEM]
[DO NOT DAMAGE THEM UNNECESSARILY]
[ALL MALICE WILL BE RECORDED UNDER THE HIGHEST PENALTY]
“Consume?”
As if to answer my question, one of the unused lockers on the other end of the classroom buzzed. Since this was a modern school, it was locked with a 4-digit PIN instead of a key. I never considered it anything more than a convenience. I once lost one of those tiny keys in my old school and had to pay ¥2000 to get a new one made.
Since Chō was the closest, she reached for the handle. It slid down with ease, meaning that someone had opened it remotely.
“Bara-bara!” she whistled, reaching for something heavy inside. Then, she slowly turned around to the rest of the room like Santa Claus taking out gifts on Christmas Eve. What Chō held in her hands was a small cage. It reminded me of one you would get for a hamster, made from a much too shiny metal and bedded with paper pulp.
But it wasn’t the idea of putting us all in a cage that excited Chō. She was a simple woman. Instead, she was whistling because the cage was filled to the brim with food. You had plastic-wrapped sandwiches and salads standing side by side with cups of instant ramen and chips. After feeding on stale bread like ducks the day before, it was a welcome sight.
“Do you think this is for us?” Rika asked, helping Chō carry the bounty over to the table.
It was an innocent question—sure—but only on the surface. ‘For us’ means not us humans or us classmates, but rather us women. Was this food for them? Maybe the guys should eat the paper pulp. Maybe that’s what they deserved for shrinking. That’s what you were thinking, wasn’t it?
Chō only responded by cracking one of the chip bags open and shoving a few in her mouth. Her crumbs rained down on us like salty snowflakes.
Kaede looked at the podium again, but that felt excessive. It was already excessive when there were 13 of us here. Now that this number dropped down to 10, it was even more so, especially since only half of those 10 were human-sized anymore. “We should try making it last.”
Rika reached down into the cage through the open door, grabbing an egg sandwich for herself. “I think it should be alright if we all had our fill, Kaede.” Opening it, she took the tiniest of bites of the pale bread. “There is plenty in here.”
Kaede nodded. “For now.”
“Come on, prez!” Chō pressed the bag of chips against her chest, with Kaede looking repulsed—like a vampire that had garlic shoved in its face. “Eat up. Don’t tell me that you aren’t hungry.”
Watching the girls eat makes it so that the burning acrid pit in my stomach is even more noticeable. I hadn’t eaten anything before the shrinking process, almost like I was preparing for surgery. When I was young, I had a friend who would scare me by saying that the pain you feel while hungry is your stomach eating itself. This is exactly what I feel like now.
Emiri helped the rest of the girls empty the cage, filling one desk with the treats while placing the cage on the other. “Do you want some soda with that?” she asked, offering a can to Chō.
“Don’t know that brand.” Chō grabbed one of the cans, squinting at the writing on it. “Hope it’s nothing too sweet. That stuff from the vending machine tastes like diabetic piss.” Then, she noticed the percentages. “Beer. Nice.”
Kaede’s ears perked up like those of a hunting dog that heard its master’s whistle. “Absolutely not.”
I was with Kaede on this. Being around giant women is bad enough. Pouring alcohol onto that fire can’t end well. Of course, I am pretty sure she’s only thinking about the rules that prohibit drinking on school grounds.
Chō swirled the can in her hand like a wine taster would a glass. “Thought you could use a drink after you offed Sayaka.”
The president didn’t even pretend to indulge her. She just snatched this can—alongside every other one—and handed them over in a bundle to…a girl for safekeeping.
That’s right. A girl. That girl.
I know Emiri and Rika and Kaede and Chō, but I genuinely have no idea who the fifth girl is. Judging by the red armband, she must also be from the student council.
She’s actually very pretty—falling into my ethereal beings category—so I am not sure why I don’t remember the second-tallest person in the room right after Rika. Her hair also had a nice black-blonde gradient to it, with a braided ponytail. The only part of her that was boring was her face. It formed a straight line, lacking the intensity of her superior and making it look like someone forgot to animate it.
But then again, she didn’t try to make herself stand out in the early stages of the game. That girl just kinda stood by the side of Kaede like a bodyguard. Even now, that’s what she’s doing—cans in hands and all.
“Let's at least get these little guys off the floor,” Emiri suggested, squatting above us. “I really don't want to squish them by accident.”
Even without touching me, I could feel the warmth radiating from her slender fingers. It was like standing too close to a sunbaked wall. And then there was the smell—not anything artificial, but the scent of skin and sweat.
I closed my eyes and prepared myself for the inevitable pressure of her fingers wrapping around me…but that sensation never came. Opening them up again, I found Emiri hesitating. Her huge hand hovered as if there was some invisible force stopping her from touching me.
That face. I've seen it before. I remember finding a nice-looking beetle once as a kid. It was red and shiny. When I showed it off to Emiri, she made the exact same face as she’s making right now. I can't blame her. I don’t think Emiri is trying to be rude. I don’t think she even knows that it’s me down here.
Emiri inhaled deeply, steeling herself before reaching down again. Then, just before her fingertips could make contact, she pulled away again. “Maybe we should…use something to pick them up?”
“Come on, Emi.” Unlike Emiri’s warm hesitation, Rika's touch was absolute. “You do it like this.” Her fingers pressed around my torso a little too tightly, securing their grip while putting pressure on my lungs. She lifted me with the same ease you would a stray marble—my stomach lurching as if I were on a rollercoaster. “See?”
But that wasn’t the only cause for the nausea that washed over me. Her single finger clamped down on my balls, making it hard to breathe. What made it worse was the bouncing of her hand. It wasn’t anything you wouldn’t see during a normal gait, but my tiny cock rubbed against the ridges of Rika’s fingerprints.
Human extremities are sensitive, so I am sure that she could feel me poking her; from within the tiny gap between her fingers, I could even see her grinning. Rika flicked her wrist as a reward for getting turned on by her hands. Thinking about it as a handjob was less pathetic than realizing that I am getting off by rubbing my dick against the folds of a girl’s fingertip.
“Just like that.” Rika’s fingers finally uncurled, letting me drop into the bed of paper pulp.
Standing up, the world outside of the cage was filtered through its bars. I walked up to them, resting my hand against the metal like prisoners do in cartoons.
Chō was the next to move. She plucked one of the shrunken guys between her fingers, pinching him as he kicked and thrashed.
“This one's kinda feisty,” she grinned. “Pretty funny, right?”
Without hesitation, Chō tilted her hand, letting him tumble through the cage door; by now, I could tell that it was Daiki. He landed hard, groaning as he curled up beside me.
Emiri, still hesitant, tried to scoop one of the guys up with both hands as if handling a bird that had fallen out of a nest. When she finally placed him down, she pulled her hands away like she was afraid of contamination.
And this was how Kaito joined us in the cage. I heard Daiki laughing slightly as he stumbled over to the paper like a puppy in tall snow.
One by one, the others followed.
Kaede looked up from her phone for the last time. Since she had last glanced at the board, only 12 minutes had passed out of the total 240—i.e., how long the projector wanted us to wait for the next round. There were no instructions. Only the timer.
Standing up, Kaede shot a glance over to the cage before bending down to take her black boots off, placing them in line with the rest of the ones the girls had left in the class. With one hand on the door handle, she tugged on her thighs, fixing the drenched black fabric around her foot.
Maybe she thought that keeping an eye on the girls was more important than having them watch the trapped boys. Maybe she was bored (or hungry or both). Either way, Kaede left the classroom to join the rest of her kin in the teacher’s lounge.
This left the five of us here.
We were all naked, but nobody tried to cover themselves anymore. We were teammates sharing a changing room, or soldiers sharing barracks. I thought that we were more like cattle in the same pen, but I held my tongue.
I took a look around the cage.
Daiki took a corner for himself.
As did Kaito.
Across from them was Renji. He wasn’t angry. He wasn’t scared. He just looked...thoughtful. The way his head tilted slightly. The way his fingers tapped rhythmically against his knee. I didn’t like it. From what I knew about Renji, he was probably praying to…something.
I didn’t have to look far to see the last member of our group. Sitting cross-legged near the middle of the cage—looking as composed as ever—was Tomoya. “Well,” he sighed, resting his arms on his knees. “That was an experience.”
THUNK.
It all happened so quickly. The cage rattled as Daiki’s body collided with Kaito’s. The two of them tumbled across the paper pulp flooring like wild animals over a meadow. Kaito yelped, trying to shove Daiki off him. But Daiki was stronger, and a fist connected with Kaito’s ribs.
“Hey—hey!” Tomoya stood up, showing his palms. “Come on, man. Allow it.”
“This is all Kaede’s fault. She was the one who herded us into this classroom,” Daiki said while continuing to pummel Kaito’s bruising body. “You remember Satoshi, don’t you? You remember. She insisted we go in. She knew.”
I reached down to pat my trousers again, but only found bare skin there. “I suppose…” Did Kaede herd us inside on purpose? She was insistent, but it seemed like something a normal Kaede would do.
Kaito struggled—his face contorting with pain. “Please! Please, stop!”
Daiki slammed Kaito’s head against the paper pulp floor. He then yanked him up by the arm, dragging the man toward the door of the cage.
Tomoya searched the room. “Listen. We’re all very hungry and stressed out. None of us is thinking clearly.”
Kaito struggled again. His body was weak, but the adrenaline flooding his brain gave him strength. Like an animal caught in a snare trap, he twisted in Daiki’s grasp and—with a burst of force—landed a kick against his knee. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to loosen the grip on his arm.
“Satoshi!” Kaito made a break for it, dashing toward me like a drowning man reaching for a raft. “Help me!” he gasped, falling to his knees. “Please!”
Cracking his knuckles, Daiki limped towards the two of us. “Hold him in place, Satoshi.”
“Daiki. My man.” Tomoya shook his head, forcing a chuckle. “What are we doing here? What's the plan? What’s the end goal?”
I assume Tomoya waited for Daiki to come up blank and calm down once he realized that his bloodlust was pointless.
But no. He had it all figured out.
“We knock this bastard out, throw him into Kaede’s boot, and then watch her get eliminated for ‘unlawful termination.’ You know. The shit that happened to Sayaka.”
Kaito clung to my arm—nails digging in. “He’ll kill me!”
“Nope. Kaede is going to be the one who kills you.” Rubbing his knee, Daiki looked back up at me. “Come on, Satoshi. Grab the freak.”
I let out a slow breath and relaxed my muscles. Kaito must have taken that as a sign of reassurance because his grip on my arm loosened.
That was his mistake.
I immediately shoved Kaito straight into Daiki’s waiting fists. He barely had time to scream before hitting the floor like a KO’d boxer.
Tomoya sighed, rubbing his temple. “Shit, man.”
I expected a little more. If anyone was going to try to keep the peace, it was going to be Tomoya.
“Daiki is right.” I exhaled, shaking out the tension in my arms. “This is the only option.”
There is no need to justify my actions—to myself or anyone else.
I don’t want to die.
No human really ever wants to die, and we’re three deaths past the “nobody has to die” stage.
“Help me.” Daiki huffed, lifting Kaito’s limp form and making me focus on the present. “Before they come back.”
I nodded and followed orders. The thing about lying is that you need to keep lying to keep the lie alive. Otherwise, you create an illogical reality.
Opening the cage’s door was the easy part. There was no lock on it. If an average hamster were as smart as a human, it could have figured it out.
Dragging Kaito across the classroom was another story. It felt like traveling through a dead birch forest, with the legs of chairs and desks as our trees.
But in the end, Daiki and I managed.
With one last heave, we threw Kaito’s body into the dark cavern of Kaede’s boot. The black leather swallowed him whole, and—for a brief second—I thought I saw his eyes open in dazed confusion.
…
I stared into the depths of the president’s boot for a while longer. It was the closest I’ve ever been to witnessing the abyss—a darkness so dark that nothing else seemed to exist. All that I could see was the vague contour of her foot imprinted into the dirty foam and a human being curled up in a fetal position.
And to think this was only one of her boots…
“Let’s go back, Satoshi.”
Like a storm, we heard the pounding of their feet before we ever saw them.
Rika swung open the door, flooding the classroom with laughter. “It’s okay, Kaede. We should still have ten minutes before the next announcement,” she said with a grin. Then, turning toward the cage, she waved at us boys.
Leaning against the bars, I waved back. She probably couldn’t even see it, but responding to Rika felt natural. No. More than natural. Required. As instinctive as saying bless you after a sneeze or washing one’s hands after a meal. It’s just what you did when a giantess gave you attention.
Sauntering over, Rika drummed a finger against the metal lock, making it rattle. “Are you little guys hungry?” she hummed, reaching into her pocket. She pulled out a piece of egg sandwich wrapped in a tissue. “Here,” she said, flicking her leftovers inside.
We swarmed the bread instantly. It was marked with Rika’s teeth and softened by her saliva. I knelt, grabbing a chunk for myself. As it touched my lips, I caught the faint sweetness of her spit.
Then, with a piece of egg in my hand, my attention turned back to Kaede—Kaede and her black boots.
I knew she was going to put them back on. It was inevitable. They were already lined up neatly at the edge of her desk.
The moment Kaede turned her back to us and reached for her boots, Kaito realized it too.
Her fingers curled around the shaft of the boot, lifting it effortlessly from the floor. A boot taller than my entire body. A boot that had swallowed Kaito whole.
In one smooth motion, she slid her foot inside.
Kaede flexed her toes absently while pulling at the laces. I could picture the way Kaito’s body was mangled between them—smeared and soaked until all that made him human had become just another layer of grime lining the imprint of her foot.
She tied the knot.
And then she walked toward us.
“Where is Kaito?” asked Kaede.
And Daiki said, “I don’t know. Am I his keeper?”
The president leaned in—her massive face close to the bars. Her eyes were huge: two bright ponds swallowing everything in their gaze. At this scale, I could see the fine texture of her iris, not just two oversized marbles.
“None of you know where he went?” Her warm breath washed over us—a stark contrast to the cold steel. “I find that hard to believe.”
We shrank back, pressing ourselves against the bars. But there was no escaping the weight of her gaze.
I swallowed. A lump of half-chewed bread clung to my throat, but I forced it down. Taking a step forward, I waved at the president. She turned toward me, and I waited for her to stop moving as if she were an industrial machine in motion rather than a girl I was talking to.
“The truth is…” I started. “Kaito got out.”
Kaede’s brow arched. “Got out?”
I nodded, folding my arms. “He was near the shoes. Snooping around. I don’t know.”
“Mhm!” Daiki nodded in agreement, clapping a hand on my shoulder. “Pretty sure I saw him climbing inside one of them. Shouted for him to get back, yeah? But he didn’t listen. Went mad, that guy.”
The good thing about being tiny is that you essentially always have your poker face on. The big ones couldn’t pick up the subtle twitch of your lip, and your voice was already so distorted to their ears that any stutter was impossible to detect.
Kaede groaned, clapping her hands. “Everyone. Check your shoes.”
Rika, disappointed to find no bloodied corpse in her flats, shrugged. “Nothing here.”
Chō flipped her sneaker upside down, tapping the heel. A few specks of lint fell out, but nothing else. “Empty.”
Emiri and the bodyguard followed suit. Again, nothing.
Then it was Kaede’s turn. The moment her thighs touched the floor, a smeared imprint of blood streaked the laminate. “Ugh,” she groaned, tilting her boot to reveal a pulpy pink mass bouncing inside.
“No way.” Chō covered her mouth in amusement. “Don’t tell me the little fucker climbed into your boot.”
Kaede’s nose crinkled in disgust. “I am going to wash off. Natsumi, watch the room.”
The ponytailed girl—Natsumi, I assumed—gave a firm nod before leaning against the wall.
Daiki and I exchanged glances.
He shrugged.
I shrugged.
We both shrugged.
For some reason, Kaede wasn’t getting eliminated. Did killing someone by accident not count? I suppose that makes sense. You couldn’t even logically call it manslaughter; there was no negligence. No one should be expected to check their shoes for tiny men.
If the system only recorded intent, at least that meant the girls couldn’t weaponize this against us. After all, logic dictates you can’t intentionally do something by accident.
[FORM PAIRS]
[1 GIANTESS + 1 TINY]
[FAILURE TO COMPLY WILL RESULT IN ELIMINATION]
“Pairs?” Kaede returned to the classroom a few minutes later—just in time to see the next challenge projected on the screen.
Chō tapped her chin, counting on her fingers. “Well… there are five of us and four of them. Can’t exactly form pairs, can we?”
“So…” Emiri reread the three lines carefully. “If we’re teaming up, maybe we should let the guys decide who they want to go with?”
Kaede shook her head. “That’s not fair to them.”
For the first time since the game started, I caught a flicker of genuine annoyance on Rika’s face. “And why is that? They’re big boys. They can vote.”
“You’d be asking them to choose who gets terminated,” Kaede explained. “That's not fair.”
Rika folded her arms, glancing at the screen. “We’ve voted before.” Then, looking over her shoulder, she added, “Surely, we’re not about to start wrestling for them like little girls fighting over dolls.”
Kaede’s response was immediate. “Hide and seek.” Such innocent words, yet she said them like a challenge. “We give the men time to hide. The woman who returns to this room without a tiny is disqualified.”
“That’s…” Rika trailed off, glancing around the room like she was looking for a hidden camera. “And you just came up with that? Hide and seek?”
Kaede shrugged. “It’s fair. Everyone gets a chance. And it keeps the decision in our hands, not theirs.” The way she said it sounded strange—like she was reading from an invisible script.
A pause. “Alright.” Then Rika stepped up to the cage, placing her hands on top. “Hide and seek.”