Author's Note: Where we last left our shrunken hero he was stuck in Mimiko's room, unable to reach the lock to the door. Will he be able to get help? Let's find out now.
Jiro kept banging on the door, hoping to alert somebody that he was trapped. Jiro stopped his incessant pounding when he heard a growl. He looked around carefully, his little heart pounding so rapidly it might burst through his chest. Jiro let out a sigh of relief before hearing the growl again, looking down he realized it was his own stomach crying out for some food.
'Honestly, I'm such a glutton. I used to be able to go a few weeks without a proper meal a few years ago. I didn't eat much of anything when I lived on the streets as a child. The Special Zone spoiled me, having a plentiful supply of both human food and blood has made me weak,' Jiro thought as he slid down to a seated position. He looked at his hands again, tracing the soft skin on the back of his hand with his now tiny finger. He couldn't help but marvel at how small he was. Usually the world was so much smaller due to his very noticable height, but now everything was much larger than he was. Jiro stood before walking over to Mimiko's bed, his height matching the height of the side of it. Jiro tried to climb up it, but slipped on his overly long pant leg, sending him to the floor and leaving him in his black underwear. On the fall to the floor Jiro had cut himself on a sharp corner of the bed frame, the angry, red scratch standing out against the pale skin of his leg.
'Don't you dare start crying you baby! You were impaled before without shedding a single tear and here you are almost bawling over a little scrape! So pathetic!' Jiro mentally scolded, wiping the tears from his eyes with a scowl on his face. He stood, his shirt looking like a dress on his lithe form, and walked over to a corner of the room. He sat down and buried his face into his folded arms. He felt hot tears leak from his wide, gray eyes and stiffled a sob.
"D-damn it, I'm a man. A-and men don't cry! W-we don't cry!" Jiro choked out before sobbing into his arms. He flopped onto his side, completely lost in his misery.
Kotaro woke up to hearing someone crying, something that he found very unusual. At this time in the morning Mimiko was at work, Bluefire went off to the local highschool to take art classes, and Jiro was either still asleep or up making breakfast. The young blonde smelt the air, not detecting the usual delicious scents that permeated the air when his brother was cooking.
'He must still be asleep. Maybe I should wake him up,' Kotaro thought as he climbed out of bed and started for Jiro's room. He entered after a quick knock on the door, taking in the sight before him. The bed had obviously been used, but Jiro's clothes for the next day hadn't been laid out. Kotaro could never understand why Jiro picked what he would wear the next morning before going to bed, but supposed it was how his older brother was raised. Kotaro looked at the bed, not seeing the messy bed head of his eldest sibling there so he decided that his brother's coffin was the next best bet. Upon lifting the lid Kotaro saw that it was empty, no sign of Jiro ever being in there from the night before.
"Brother? Where are you? I don't like it when you hide Brother! Its scary being alone!" Kotaro called, hoping that Jiro was merely hiding and trying to pull a prank on him. Normally Jiro wasn't mischievious, but he had his moments when he would do something out of the ordinary or simply dupe somebody into doing his chores so he could do lord knows what in his room. Kotaro seldom went into the Old Blood's room for he feared that he would find some sort of horrific thing in there or some sort of hobby Jiro had to keep from getting easily bored like Zelman did.
Jiro had stopped crying a few minutes ago and tried to find a way to occupy himself, his mind, and more importantly his hands. Jiro felt the need to see how well the coordination in his hands was now, only to see how young he truly was. Height was never something he could go off of seeing as how he was always tall for his age, and his behavior was much more mature than most his age as well. Jiro tried scaling the bed again, managing to drag himself up the bed at a cost of making his cut much deeper and causing blood to bubble up to the surface of the wound. Jiro then did something he would never do if he was an adult, jump on the bed. It started off when he fell and bounced a bit before landing flat on his bottom. Jiro giggled a bit at the sensation of his stomach jumping in his abdomine and decided to do it again to feed this new child-like mind that clouded his judgement. Jiro laughed as he jumped, experiencing joy for the first time since a few months ago.
Kotaro heard the laughter coming from Mimiko's room and decided to investigate. He knocked on the door, hoping to gain the attention of whomever was occupying the room. The laughter stopped, Kotaro then knocked again.
Upon hearing the knocking Jiro stopped jumping, appauled by how childishly he was behaving.
'W-what's happening to me!? Is my mind regressing as well?!' Jiro thought before the instincts took over again, hiding under the bed in a dark corner. Jiro's gray eyes gave off an eerie glow, the only thing that gave away his hiding place.
Kotaro tried the door knob, unable to open it.
'It's locked! Maybe I can use that thing Sister taught me to get it open,' Kotaro mused before taking the bobby pin Bluefire kept taped underneath the side table in the hall way. He used it to pick the lock and opened the door, closing it silently behind him.
While Kotaro was picking the lock Jiro shrunk again, his rational mind almost gone, mostly replaced by his juvenile one.
Kotaro heard whimpering from underneath the bed, looking under it. He was astonished by what he saw, a little boy about three years old huddled in the corner of the bed, tears streaming down his cheeks. What was the most shocking was the fact that he resembled Jiro and was even wearing his shirt.
"B-brother?" Kotaro choked out. The toddler looked at the older boy, crawling up to him quickly before leaping into his arms.
"Tawo!" He cried, holding onto Kotaro's shirt with his chubby little hands. "Tawo I scareded!" Kotaro was in shock, not only by the fact that this little boy responded to him, but also by the fact that he was his older brother. What shocked him the most was the way he spoke, that high voice and the clumsy words didn't match the person Kotaro was raised by. He was used to his brother being very well spoken, using words Kotaro barely understood and having a deep and alluring voice.
"I-its okay Brother. You're okay," Kotaro cooed, running his fingers through Jiro's hair, which now reached a little past his ears. Jiro nodded, wiping his nose on his gigantic sleeve before Kotaro could stop him.
Jiro sat on the couch, the entire cushion being much larger than it was before. He was waiting for Kotaro, who promised him food if he sat still. Jiro curled up on the cushion and fell asleep, completely drained from all of the regressing he experienced.
Author's Note: Hope you enjoyed this new chapter of Again, Really? Teehee, toddler Jiro is so very cute. You know you want to make him laugh and the only way to do so is to either favorite or review this story.~Bff#3
