Chapter 21: Don’t mess with a shrink ray!

Sena
When I wake up in the morning, I get out of bed and open my eyes, but as I stand up I suddenly widen my eyes in shock when I realise I’m not standing in the middle of Nanoha’s bedroom, but on her bedside table. “Oh, right…” I say to myself, remembering what happened. After Aoko and Yuu left, I was allowed to be 1m tall for the rest of the day, like Fate promised. But just before I went to bed, Fate jumped me and shrunk me back down to just 5cm tall. “I hope one of them is awake…” I say as I look around the room, “I don’t even fit into the clothes they bought me. Not that I’m complaining about that…”

Fate
I’m already awake since I got up a while ago and get back into Nanoha’s room to bring her and Sena something to eat, when I see that Sena is already awake. “Oh, you’re up already.” I say and smile down at her when I drop something to eat right next to her doll bed. “I’ll shrink some clothes later so they’ll fit you.” I just say before I move one of my hands over Nanohas cheek to slowly wake her up.

Sena
“Oh, thank you so much…” I say up to Fate, a little sarcastically about the clothes, as I start to eat some of the food she sets down in front of me.

Nanoha
“Mmm…wha?” I say as I wake up from Fate touching my cheek, and I roll over as my eyes open, “oh, hi babe!” I jump up and say good morning to Sena as well and eat some of the food Fate has laid out. “Mmm, how nice of you to make us breakfast, thank you!” I say to Fate as I continue eating, “what did you want to do today?”

Fate
“That was nothing, really.” I say when they thank me for the food, and I don’t really know what we should do today. “I dunno, we could do pretty much anything with that gun.” I answer when I walk over to the gun and use it to shrink a nice princess dress for Sena, and place it down next to her bed. “There, your dress for today my pet!” I say and smile down at her, knowing that she wouldn’t like that dress at all.

Sena
“Thanks…” I say, forcing a smile up to Fate as I pick up the princess dress she shrinks for me, and start to put it on begrudgingly.

Nanoha
I think about what Fate is saying. She is right, we could do anything with that gun… “Babe, is it okay if have a go with that?” I ask her, putting my hand out with a smile on my face, “And in case you’re worried, I promise you, I will not shrink you. You’ve made it very clear that if I do that…well, it’ll be one of the last things I do.”

Fate
Nanoha asks me to give her the gun. Well she said she won’t shrink me, or at least I’m pretty sure of it, so it should be okay. “Uhm..sure” I just say before I give her the gun and sit down on the bed next to her. “And what are you donna do with it?”

Nanoha
“Well, I wanted to look at some of the other settings…” I say as I jump up from the bed and play around with the gun a little. I point the device at Fate and smile as I shoot her. I set it so that she would turn into a 9 year old, and giggle as I watch her fall inside her clothes.

Fate
“Okay” is all I say when she takes the gun. When she gets off the bed I look back at her as she points at me, confused. “Wha..” is all I can say before she gets slowly bigger and I notice my breasts are gone after a few seconds. “AHHHH!!” I scream when I see that I’m only about 9 years old, “what did ya doo?!!!?”

Nanoha
“I made you younger!” I say, laughing, “You’re 9 years old, to be exact. You said I couldn’t shrink you…you said nothing else about the other settings!” I hide the gun in one of my pockets and sit down on the bed, hugging Fate tight. “And you look adorable!”

Fate
I try to keep up my clothes and yell up at her “make me older again!!!” and try to get the gun back when she hugs me. “Stop it! That’s not fair!!!”

Nanoha
“Don’t be like that…” I say as I let her go, seeing her trying to get the gun off me, so I push her as I get off the bed again. I go to a high shelf in my room and place the shrink ray on it, so that Fate can’t reach it. “I’ll make you older again later! Come on, it’ll be fun…”

Fate
Nanoha pushes me away from her when she noticed I wanna get the shrink ray, so I end up falling backwards a little when she does. She stands up and places the gun somewhere high. “Hey, that’s not fair!!!” I yell at her while I try to jump to reach the gun but obviously I couldn’t reach it even if I could jump twice as high as usual. Afterwards, Nanoha tells me she would make me older later. “Fun, yeah?!? I’m your girlfriend, how can this be fun?!” I say and cross my arms infront of my….chest….which makes my skirt and panties fall down cause I don’t hold them up anymore.

Nanoha
I smile and point towards her clothes as they fall to the floor, “well…I’m definitely having lots of fun! I just want to play with you for the day, you get to be a kid again, this could be great!” I can see she’s quite mad at me though, so I pat her on the head and smile. “Look, I’ll shrink your clothes down to fit you for now, provided you agree to just enjoy being like this for now…or, you can stay naked. Your choice!”

Fate
“Yeah you better do that!!!!” I scream when she pats my head, which definitly doesnt makes it better. I’m very angry at her but I don’t wanna run around naked so I take off my clothes and lie them on the bed so she can shrink them to fit me.

Nanoha
I take the shrink ray back off the shelf and point it at the clothes. After a few moments, I shrink them down so that they should fit her. “There you go…” I say, smiling down to her.

Fate
“Yeah..thanks…” I just say and get dressed again before I sit up on the bed. “And what shall I do now?” I ask her.

Nanoha
“We can play some games of course!” I say as I sit down next to her on the bed, “get some toys out, go to the park…maybe play with Sena, she’s kinda like a doll!” I reach over to the table and grab Sena, offering her to Fate with a smile.

Sena
I was watching the antics unfold as Nanoha teased Fate at her new age, when all of a sudden I’m picked up and held in front of Fate. “Wait, what? Isn’t wearing this silly dress embarrassing enough?!”

Fate
I look up at Nanoha when she sits down next to me. “Uh…I can’t go out like this! And I’m definitly too old to play with dolls!” I say even though I take Sena from Nanoha…at least to take care of her. “Anyway, what would you do if she got lost or someone broke her?!?”

Nanoha
“Hmm, I guess you’re right, maybe we shouldn’t take her outside…tell you what, I’m going to get washed and stuff since I just woke up, and you two can work out a fun activity we can do!” I say as I get off the bed and head into the bathroom to get ready for the day.

Sena
I look up at Fate, a little scared since she’s still so much bigger than me, despite being only 9 now. “You…aren’t going to torture me or anything, right?” I ask her, considering the stuff that has happened before.

Fate
“What…hey that isn’t fair!!!!” I scream at her when she leaves the room, and look down to Sena. “No don’t worry, I definitely won’t play with you like a doll or anything.”

Sena
I smile when Fate says she won’t play with me like a doll, and ease up a little. “Thank you, that’s very kind of you. But…what should we do?” I ask her, “I mean, we could try to play something…or maybe, you could try and get the shrink ray off Nanoha?”

Fate
“I..dunno…I mean it has been a while since I was 9..” I say, and lie down on the bed, with Sena on my belly. “But what would we do? And if I was going to get the shrink ray, how would I get it back?”

Sena
“Hmm…” I say as I sit up on Fate’s belly, looking towards her face, “I suppose you just need to convince her to pull it out. Pretend you want to change my size or something, and while she is holding it out you can jump at her when she isn’t expecting it!”

Fate
“Hmm maybe, but before something happens I think I should place you where the shrink ray can’t hit you.” I say and pick her up again, to place her in an open drawer that has Nanoha’s underwear. “It’s best if you stay there.” I say and walk around the house a bit, waiting for Nanoha to come out of the bathroom.

Sena
“I guess you’re right…” I say as Fate picks me up and drops me into a drawer, with Nanoha’s underwear… “…you could have picked a slightly less embarrassing place though..” I look around the drawer and sigh, lying down on a pair of panties after a little while since all I can do is wait.

Nanoha
After a little while I’m finished in the bathroom, so I come back out to see how Fate and Sena are doing. “Fate, where are you?” I ask as I start to look around.

Fate
After a while I hear Nanoha coming out of the bathroom and asking where I am. “I’m here, in the living room!” I say with a slightly louder voice, and add “would you mind bringing me the shrink ray, I would like to shrink Sena a bit.” I say.

Nanoha
I make sure I’ve got the shrink ray on me, and make my way to the living room to find Fate. “I brought the shrink ray…” I say as I pull it out and show it to her so that it’s within her reach, gently holding the shrink ray in my hand, “…where’s Sena?”

Fate
I see that she comes back with the Shrink ray and also see my chance to strike. When she asks where Sena is I try to get the gun out of her hands, but I accidentally turn the settings to the smallest possible size when I do so…

Nanoha
“Wait, what do you think you’re doing?!” I shout as she grabs the gun off me. I jump at her, trying to get it back as she messes with the settings. The shrink ray ends up being wrestled between us, and in the fight I accidentally pull the trigger at such an angle that we both end up hit by the beam that fires out of it.

Fate
I try to get the gun from Nanoha but then..everything happens so fast and I find myself on the floor….so tiny that the gun next to me looks like a whole building. “Oh..oh no!!!” I scream and fall onto my butt.

Nanoha
All of a sudden I’m tiny on the floor, everything absolutely gigantic around me as I try to find Fate. I see the shrink ray nearby and realise that there is no way I can grow myself back at this size, considering how massive it is now. I hear Fate screaming and run in her general direction. “Fate?! This is all your fault!” I yell as I reach her, tripping and falling face first in front of her, “Look how small we are!!”

Fate
Suddenly I can hear Nanoha yell at me and see that she falls near to me. Upset, I hug my legs and dunno what I should do. I’m seriously frightened right now, not only am I this size, but I’m also a child as well. The fact Nanoha yells at me doesn’t make things any better….

Nanoha
I sit up and notice how Fate is so scared. Although she tried to get the gun off me, we are both in this bad situation and she is only 9 at the moment, so I shouldn’t be so hard on her even if I am mad. “I…I’m sorry, Fate.” I say as I shuffle over next to her and offer her a hug, “I’m sure we’ll find some way to get back to normal.”

Fate
Nanoha tells me that she’s sorry and offers me a hug, so I just jump at her and hug her as good as I can, taking a deep breath to calm down. “What do we do now? I…I know whe have to find a way, but how?!” I ask.

Nanoha
I smile as she hugs me tight, and slowly get up. “Well, I got Aoko’s number on my phone when she last came to visit. And she’s normal sized, so maybe we could call her!” I try to feel my pockets for my phone and then realise I must have dropped it earlier. I look in the distance and see it lying on the ground, still normal sized. “My phone is over there! Why don’t we try going over to it?” I suggest to Fate, pointing towards it.

Fate
I look up at Nanoha when she tells me her plan, calling Aoko is a pretty good idea, even Sena won’t be able to use the gun right now so it’s our only hope, so I just nod. “Yeah okay…” I say and stand up yo walk over to her phone. Or, at least I start too…after a few, to me, meters I suddenly fall into a gap between two wooden floorboards! I scream and try to hold onto the edge as well as I can.

Nanoha
“Fate! Hold on!” I yell as I bend down, “take my hand!” I lower one of my hands down in front of her as I kneel next to her, hopefully able to pull her up from the gap in the floor.

Fate
I totally panic and try to hold as good as I can, I also try to grab Nanoha’s hand when she reaches for me, but when I do I lose my grip and fall down. Everything happens so fast, but when I hit the ground I don’t feel too hurt. It’s pretty dark and dusty here, and it looks like I’m on grass or earth or something…

Nanoha
I gasp as I watch Fate fall between the gap in the planks. She just about holds onto my hand as she does so, but as her grip slips I lean too far forward and fall down as well. It’s almost pitch black when I hit the bottom, all rough and dirty. “Are you alright?!” I shout out for Fate as I fumble around to try and find her.

Fate
When I look up I see Nanoha coming down too, at least she doesn’t land right on top of me. When she hits the ground I look in her direction and try to get to where I saw her last. “Y..yeah I’m fine, my butt just hurts.” I say. After a little while, my eyes adjust in the darkness so I find Nanoha and hug her. “What do we do now? We can’t get back into the house now…”

Nanoha
I hug Fate back as I get to my feet, “I guess we’ll just have to walk until we get outside of the house…I’m sure someone will find us.” I release my hug from Fate and start to walk, taking one of her hands in mine as well so we don’t lose each other.

Fate
I feel better when Nanoha also hugs me and takes my hand afterwards, she said we should just walk in one direction to get outside…well…seems like that’s the best plan… “Okay…maybe we can head for where the front door should be?” I suggest while we start to walk.

Nanoha
“Sure, that sounds like a good idea!” I say, working out roughly where the front door is and starting to walk towards it. ‘I hope it doesn’t take us too long to get there, Fate’s little legs might not last that long…’

Fate
We walk as hard as possible in that direction and reach it soon enough, which is lucky for me cause I’m already pretty exhausted. “Finally..and…now we have to get out there somehow….” I say, and sit down to try to rest a little bit.

Nanoha
“You rest for now, I’ll look for a way outside.” I say to Fate as I walk up and down the wall we’ve reached. After a few minutes I come across a gap, just wide enough to fit us. “I can see a way out!” I shout to Fate, running back over to her so I can help her up and we can finally get outside.

Fate
I get a bit of time to rest now, even though it is only for a short time. After a few minutes, Nanoha comes back to get me and tells me that she found a way out. “…o…okay” I just say and get up again, so I can walk out with her. After we’re out we can see giant flowers towering above us. “Looks like we’re in your flower bed..”

Nanoha
“Yeah, looks like it…” I say as I look around, “I guess we’ll just have to wait near the road and see if we can get the attention of someone passing by. Without getting stepped on of course…”

Fate
“And how do you plan to do that? I mean..waiting..would be good….but how shall we get their attention? I mean, they won’t hear us and might step on us…” I say and try to walk through the flower bed, “I hope we don’t meet any bugs…they will definitely be bigger than us now…”

Nanoha
“Yeah, I hope we don’t see any bugs too…but don’t worry, I’ll protect you if there are any!” I say as I follow after Fate through the flower bed, “and as for getting people’s attention…we could try taking down some plants and lying them on the ground so that people will notice us?”

Fate
“And you think you are strong enough to move a leaf at this size, huh?” I ask her and point at the flowers above us and how giant the leaves are compared to us.

Nanoha
“…I guess you’re right…” I say as I look up to the flowers as well, “What do you think we should do then?”

Fate
“I don’t know, I’m even smaller than you, I wouldn’t be able to do much…” I say and finally get out of the flower bed.

Nanoha
“Hmm, I suppose.” I say as I get out of the flower bed with her, “I had another idea that we could try climbing a flower and putting pollen on us so we stand out…but it’s a little crazy. We may as well rest for now, we only just got outside after all.”

Fate
“I..realy don’t want that….. we could fall off the flower, or even worse. Let’s just see if we can get to Aoko. I know it’ll be a long way, but it’s the best we’ve got right now.” I say and start to walk along the street, while staying near the flowers so we wouldn’t get stepped on or anything..hopefully…

Nanoha
“You have a point, it is our best option…” I say as I walk alongside Fate, “I hope Sena is alright. I know she’s bigger than us now, but she is sort of trapped in the house by herself.”

Fate
“Yeah..she should be fine, at least she can find and use your phone.” I say and keep walking. After about half an hour, we should’ve made about a km or two at our usual size…I look back and see that we’ve barely made a few meters from normal size. “Eugh…”

Nanoha
After what feels like ages I see Fate looking back, and I soon realise how little distance we’ve covered. “I’m….gonna rest a sec…” I say as slump down onto the ground. I had been walking since we fell between the wooden planks, and it just came to me how tired I am.

Fate
“Yeah..me too..” I just say and sit down next to her, before leaning against her. “It’ll be dark soon. What are we gonna do? We have to hide somewhere.” I say and look up to her.

Nanoha
I hug her a little close as she leans against me. “Yeah, we’ll just have to find some kind of shelter…maybe we’ll get lucky and find some fast food cup or something lying around here.” I say as I look around to see if there’s anything we can use.

Fate
I feel a little better when she hugs me and I look around myself too. “Well there is a wall behind us and infront of us is the street that we can’t cross…maybe we cound get into the garden of one of your neightbors?”

Nanoha
“Yeah, if we stay close to the wall there’s a lot less chance of being attacked by bugs at night. I don’t mind staying up to make sure we’re safe, you need more rest than I do after all.” I say as I slowly get back to my feet.

Fate
“Yeah true, but it’s very cold at night, we should still find something to cover us up.” I say when I also stand up with her, ready to walk again.

Nanoha
“Hmm, hopefully there will be some fallen leaves. Even if there is only one, it should be more than big enough for both of us…” I say as I walk into the nearest garden to us, staying close to the wall.

Fate
I just nod and walk after Nanoha when she walks into the garden and stay close to the wall too, when I look up I can see these giant grass leaves above us. “It’s so pretty when you look at it…if only it wasn’t just so dangerous here….” I say, but then I notice that Nanoha isn’t in front of me anymore, and I’m not at the wall! “Wha…Nanoha?!?” I yell and look around. ‘How did I get here!? I thought I was at the wall with her….’ I think and try to get back to her somehow.

Nanoha
I walk along the wall for a while, and eventually come across a nice spot where we can stay, with a small dip in the ground and a couple of fallen petals from nearby flowers for shelter. “Hey Fate, what do you think of….this?” I say, pausing and startled when I turn around and find Fate nowhere to be seen. I run back the way I came, screaming out her name as I look between the blades of grass and towering flowers to try and see her. “Fate?! Where are you?!?”

Fate
I start to panic when I can’t find her anymore, and as if that wasn’t enough when I start to run I bump into a mantis that’s more than twice my size and I fall onto my butt. ‘Oh no….’ I just think when I stare up at it and try to crawl backwards, just to see that it’s pincers are hanging just above the ground near my feet, which makes me scream and nearly scares me to death.

Nanoha
As I’m running around looking for Fate, I suddenly hear her screaming in the distance. I dive in between the flowers, following her voice, and then get close to see a gigantic mantis around the corner. “No…way…” I gasp, sprinting towards it as I see it moving forwards.

Fate
I’m so fixed on the mantis that I don’t notice that Nanoha is around here now, but maybe that’s good cause I manage to move away again when it smashes it’s pincers right next to my leg, even if it cuts me a little, it’s still better than if it really got me. But still, I’m way too scared to run away, and while I crawl backwards I suddenly feel something at my back which should be the bottom of one of the flowers around here.

Nanoha
I run behind the mantis, immediately seeing Fate caught directly in front of it. “Fate, get out of here!” I scream, hoping to get the creature’s attention, “Just run, I’ll distract it and you get away!” I glance my eyes left and right to see if I can find a weapon, making sure to look back frequently to make sure Fate is okay.

Fate
I finally see Nanoha more or less next to the mantis and calm down a little, and start to move away. Well…at least I try to, when I move to one side I can barely stop before one of the pincers slash into the ground infront of me, and makes me scream again. It doesn’t look like it’ll let me go that easily…

Nanoha
I can’t bear to see Fate like this, terrified for her life. There’s no way that she’s going to be able to escape with that thing in front of her… I notice what looks like a large rock nearby, probably nothing more than a small clump of dirt, but it feels pretty heavy when I lift it, so I raise it above my head and charge at the mantis, slamming it into one of it’s rear legs to hopefully cause some damage.

Fate
Nanoha starts to attack the mantis and it turns right to her, which gives me the chance to run away. I hope Nanoha is save too, but she probably can get away easier than me. I run as long and as fast through this grass leave jungle until I trip over something and fall down again. Finally, I notice how much my leg hurts when it was hit by the mantis’ pincers. What’s..maybe even worse, is that the leg not only hurts but is bleeding a bit too much to be just a scratch…

Nanoha
I watch Fate run away and smile, which is quickly followed by fear as the mantis tries to attack me. I throw the rock I was carrying in its face, which seems to blind it long enough for me to get away. “Fate?! Are you alright?!” I scream as I run in the direction I saw her escaping in.

Fate
After a little while I can hear Nanoha’s voice, and scream back so she can find me “I’m here!!” hoping she would follow my voice while I try to clean my wound as good as possible. It isn’t easy, cause my clothes are all dirty now.

Nanoha
I run towards her voice and find her on the ground, tending to a wound from the mantis. “Oh my god, you’re bleeding!” I exclaim in shock as I rush over to her. I don’t even hesitate to take off my top, wrapping it around her wound and applying some pressure to hopefully stop the blood a little, “I’m so sorry! I should’ve kept an eye on you when we were walking. I was so careless- I…” I’m crying quite badly, holding her leg tight and feeling awful.

Fate
“You don’t say….” I just say with a bit of sarcasm when she says I’m bleeding, and look to her, but she is eo nice to rip her top into pieces to stop the blood a bit. “No…it’s okay..it was my fault…you’re the one who saved me…thank you..” I say and try to hug her when I notice that she’s crying.

Nanoha
I smile as she tries to hug me, trying to stop crying as I finish tying up my top around her leg. I move over a little and hug her tight, breathing deeply for a moment since I’m so out of breath. “…do you think you can walk?” I ask as I look towards her wound, “I managed to find somewhere we can stay for the night.”

Fate
I’m kinda happy when I see that she trys to stop crying and finishes the bandage. “Y..yeah…I’ll try.” I say as I slowly stand up, lucky for us I can see something that looks nice not too far away. “How about that?” I ask, pointing to the place I’ve spotted.

Nanoha
“That looks good, let’s head over there.” I say to Fate as I hook one arm around her, and hold her up as I start walking, so that she doesn’t have to put too much pressure on her damaged leg.

Fate
Nanoha helps me a bit with walking as we move over to the place I found, it is kinda like a tent for us. Two leaves lie against each other so that only one end is open. “Seems save, when there isn’t too much wind.” I say and look up to her. “Good enough, right?” I ask her.

Nanoha
“It’ll be good enough for the night, definitely.” I reply with a smile as I help her sit down under the leaves, “I’ll look out for any more bugs, but you just try to rest, okay?” I sit next to her, in the sort of tent, but give her space in case she wants to lie down even if the ground isn’t all that comfortable.

Fate
“You should get some rest too….okay?” I say as I hug her, and cuddle into her to keep her warm as well as me. “Hold me tight okay…I don’t think I can sleep if you don’t hold me..” I just say and lie my head on her chest.

Nanoha
“If that’s what you want…” I say with a smile as I kiss her lightly on the head and hug her close to my body, “I’ll get some sleep, I promise. But I’ll wait until I’m sure you’re sleeping, okay?” It’s rather comforting to have Fate close to me in this terrifying situation, and I relax very easily with her body against mine.

Fate
“Okay.” I just say when she kisses my head. It’s realy scary to be a child, and this size again..but as long as Nanoha is by my side I can definitely survive this…. I cuddle into her a bit more, and fall asleep pretty quickly.

Nanoha
I keep her close as she cuddles into me and falls asleep shortly after. I try to keep my eyes open a little longer, but I can’t even hear anything dangerous near us, so soon enough I drift off to sleep as well with Fate snuggly against my chest.

Sena
A few hours have passed, and Nanoha and Fate still aren’t back yet and I can’t hear them anymore, which makes me worry a bit. So, I start to climb out of the drawer and walk around the house, look in a few rooms for them and make my way down into the living room. When I get to it I see the shrink ray on the ground. ‘Why is that here…oh no! They didn’t, did they….?!’ I just think and dash to it to look at the settings…down to one centimeter… “Nanoha!!! Fate!!!! Are you here somewhere?!?” I yell, but there’s no response. “What shall I do….” I say to myself, and see Nanoha’s phone in the distance. ‘Maybe I….could call someone…doesn’t Nanoha have Aoko’s number now?’ I think, and walk over to it. I look through the numbers until I do find Aoko’s number, luckily. “Thank goodness….” I say to myself before I call her.

Aoko
I had been playing with the girls for a little while, Sinon had been showing Yuu a few flying tricks in my bedroom, when suddenly I get a call from Nanoha. “Hi there Nanoha, is there anything I can do for you?” I ask as I pick up the phone.

Sena
“Aoko? It’s Sena. You have to come over, I can’t find Nanoha or Fate anywhere! I think something happened to them when they used the shrink ray…” I say and she should easily hear that I’m panicking a bit.

Aoko
“Seriously?! That’s terrible, I’m on my way!” I say, alerted by Sena’s panicked tone. I let the girls know that I’m popping over to Nanoha’s house quickly, skipping the details about what might have happened, and promise I won’t let them shrink me or anything. After I’ve made sure they won’t do anything crazy, I bolt out of my house and head straight to Nanoha’s. I get to her front door, confused as to how I should get in. I search around the house for a moment, and then come across an open window by the living room. “I came as fast as I could!” I say to Sena who I spot on the floor, panting slightly, as I try to slide myself into the living room via the window.

Sena
I have to wait a few minutes, but at least I know Aoko is on the way, and stay next to the phone as I wait. After a little while, I can hear Aoko’s voice. “I’m here, on the floor!” I yell and wave at her when I see her coming through a more or less open window.

Aoko
I climb through the window and make my way over to Sena, kneeling down in front of her. “So, what happened?” I ask Sena as I look to the shrink ray, “do you have any idea where they could have gone or what they could have done with the shrink ray?”

Sena
“I..dunno…I just know that Fate wanted to get the shrink ray back after Nanoha made her a child. She wanted to snatch it away from her but…I think she had to fight for it…maybe they were shrunk then or something…it would explain why the shrink ray is lying here. But…I can’t find them in the house….” I explain to her, from what I know, or at least what I can work out…

Aoko
“I see…they were seriously messing around with this then…” I say to Sena as I pick up the shrink ray, “…if you can’t find them in the house, is it possible that they somehow ended up outside of the house?” I try to hide the worry that makes me feel, since it isn’t a pleasant thought, after going through that myself.

Sena
“I…dunno..but what should I do now? Even if they find a way back, I can’t grow them back myself..and what if they don’t come back? …I….I wouldn’t be able to live like this alone…” I just say and try to look up at her.

Aoko
I think for a moment, concerned for the missing girls just as much as Sena in front of me. “You can stay with me at my place, if you like?” I offer as I look down to her, “obviously we’ll try our hardest to look for Nanoha and Fate in the meantime, that is our top priority.”

Sena
“Huh? T..that would be nice, thank you!” I say, and try to smile a little, even if I have to force it. “Uhm…would you be so nice and pick me up? My neck is starting to hurt a little.”

Aoko
“Oh, yes, I’m sorry…of course.” I say and carefully pick her up with one hand as I put the shrink ray safely into a pocket with the other, “I know you must be worried about the girls, but I think we might have to search for them tomorrow. It’s getting quite late, and we’ll be able to find them easier in the morning. Is that okay?”

Sena
Aoko is pretty careful when she picks me up and is right about that, it’s so late… “Yeah…maybe you’re right.. I just hope we find them soon…the settings were on 1cm….I dunno if they can survive for long out there..even more if Fate is still a child…”

Aoko
“1cm? That’s pretty scary…and Fate’s only a child too?” I say to Sena, worried. I didn’t realise the shrink ray was capable of that, but at this point I’m not too surprised. “They’ll be okay. They love each other, and as long as they’re together I’m sure they will keep each other safe.” I walk around Nanoha’s house for a little bit, finding some spare keys in case I need to come back here, and then leave the house by the front door after locking the window I came in by. After that, I head back home, holding Sena carefully in my hands as I do so.

Sena
“Thanks for keeping me safe until they get back.” I say and lie down in her hands for a bit while she sorts out some things and leaves Nanoha’s house.

Aoko
I get home with Sena, and am greeted by Yuu and Sinon straight away since they want to know what happened. I let Sena and Sinon chat for a bit, since they haven’t met before, and then make a meal for everyone since the day has already gone by so quickly. Soon enough, we’re all sleeping in my room, the fairies sleeping on my body since they seem to like that, and Sena sleeping on a bed made out of any soft material I kind find on a nearby table. And as soon as they’re all settled, I’m off to sleep as well…