I have a bad feeling. It fills my entire being, from the tips of my toes to the top of my head. It especially hits my stomach, which starts churning uncomfortably. I idly realize that the only food I've eaten since breakfast today was one piece of Howalon candy.
After Natsume, code name 'Shin' in this operation I suppose, disappears through the door, Toshiyuki follows afterwards, letting the door swing shut. Moving on instinct, I rush to the cellar door and jam the crowbar I had hidden behind the crates into the doorway before the door can fully close. When I realize what I've done, I silently pray with all my might that Toshiyuki has already gone away far enough to not notice that the door didn't shut all the way.
"HEY, YOU!" I jump for what seems like the millionth time today. I turn my head around to see a large burly man holding Mitsuki and Hana like sacks of flour in each arm. He's brought two more buddies just as burly, if not burlier.
"Oh my god." I gasp at how ineffective Mitsuki's struggles are against the man. Poor Hana is knocked out completely. Is the jig up? If Mitsuki and Hana are captured, what happened to Kumiko, Daichi, Hikaru, and Yamaguchi-san?
"Is this another little mouse trying to sneak into our lair?" The man smirks at me as his buddies fan out to surround me completely. I'm backed up against the wall, with only a crowbar stuck into the doorway to defend myself. My eyes widen as I assess the possibilities of me possibly winning this fight alone. All simulations in my mind are not looking good…
"RUN, KARIN!" Mitsuki hollers, for she had seen before me the thug on the left about to tackle me to the ground.
I use the crowbar to forcefully open the door and let the crowbar slip from my hand to crash into that thug's face. I bolt through the doorway and run with all my might, fear and adrenaline fueling my legs. "Get her!" A masculine voice bawls to his comrades. Loud, pounding footsteps sound behind me.
I'm gasping for breath by now, trying to keep my fear at bay. Mitsuki is shrieking like crazy, the high-pitched sounds of her voice echoing through this corridor that I was running down. I can only hope that she won't get gravely injured by that man three times her size.
I'm reaching the end of the corridor, with a turn, and as I turn the corner, a foot comes out of nowhere and trips me over. To save myself, I tuck my body into a ball and roll, but this mishap is enough to slow me down considerably. As I move to get away, a heavy mass tackles me from behind. I frantically kick the man who has my lower body pinned to the ground, but he has such a tight grip on me I begin to despair ever escaping. Almost scared out of my wits, I wiggle like a worm, but my arms and legs get pinned down as well. With horror, I see a rag approaching my face. Oh hell no! It's probably chloroform. They cover my entire face with that rag and clap a humongous hand over my mouth and nose. If I don't get knocked out from the chloroform, I will most certainly pass out from the lack of oxygen.
"Damn, she keeps on squirming." One man seethes.
"KARIN!" Mitsuki screams.
"Hey, shut her up! Toshiyuki-san hates the sound of screaming girls!"
"Give her the rag too."
"ERHMPH!"
My vision begins to flicker, and my brain thinks hazily that the world is starting to look like a television with poor reception. My brain seems to do flip-flops inside my head, and…
I groggily wake up, trying to open my eyes as wide as I can to take in my surroundings. Apparently, I've been put into a dull, grey room. I try to stretch as well, only to find out that both my hands and feet have been tied together tightly while I was unconscious. Great.
"Toshiyuki-san. The captive is awake." I swerve my head in the direction of the voice quickly. There is a burly man sitting in a folding chair talking into a walkie-talkie, never letting me out of his sight.
"Affirmative." A voice squawks out from the communicator.
My heart thumps wildly as I stare wide-eyed at the door. Trying not to draw attention to myself, I search for a weakness in my bonds. No such luck, sadly. I'm certain that my wrists and ankles are bruised.
Within minutes, the door bursts open. "Hahaha!" A loud pompous laugh rings out. I know that this is no situation for sarcasm, but I just can't help rolling my eyes. Toshiyuki steps into the room, putting on airs like he's some big shot.
"OW!" I scream as he yanks me up by a lock of my hair.
"I thought I'd seen you somewhere, but you acted so dumb earlier, I didn't recognize you!" Tears come to my eyes as he yanks a fistful of hair with each word his putrid mouth pronounces. Pulling me closer by the hair, he guffaws into my face, "Nice to meet you, Agent Sakurai Karin."
A wave of relief rushes through my body. I had thought he knew my real identity, but turns out he only knows my Japanese identity. Thank goodness. But either way, I'm still in a tight spot. I silently generate a small ring of fire around my wrists and burn the ropes off.
"Let's turn you into a more manageable form." He nods to the bodyguard, who moves forward to cut my bonds apart with a small pocketknife. I use this moment to jump up and rush for the door, and the man falters a bit, surprised by my sudden escape. However, he regains his wits quickly after Toshiyuki bawls, "Don't let her escape!" and restrains me with his arms before I can open the door. Toshiyuki takes a candy out of his pocket and starts to unwrap it. From the wrapper, I can tell it's Gulliver's Candy. However, his stupid fat fingers are covering the number on the wrapper. "Open up!" He smiles evilly.
I stubbornly keep my mouth closed. I'm torn between using my Alice to escape and waiting for a better opportunity. If I use my Alice now, I'll give away a crucial secret, but I'll be able to escape. My moment of indecision is all Toshiyuki needs to take action himself. Toshiyuki grabs my face and squeezes my cheeks together until my mouth unwillingly opens with a loud POP!
"NO-umph!" Toshiyuki crams the candy into my mouth before finally letting me go. I immediately spit the candy out before any changes can happen to my body.
"Ha!" I cackle hysterically. "You can't alter my appearance if I refuse to dissolve the candy in my mouth!"
The same feeling of dread from earlier forms in my stomach again when Toshiyuki smiles evilly. "You think that after months of having the candy in my possession, I wouldn't figure out ways to solve all its shortcomings? You think I want to sell my customers faulty merchandise?" He clutches his heart with a face of mock hurt. "My dear agent, I am slighted by you. I cannot believe you think so lowly of me."
"Shut up." I snarl. "You have some trick up your sleeve, so stop wasting time and just tell me what you did!"
"It has already started." He begins chortling infuriatingly. I clench and unclench my fists, wanting to smack his face so badly. His fat ugly face seems to get farther and farther away. I look down at myself. With a surprised jerk, I see my body begin to shrink closer to the ground.
"What?" I gasp, listening as my voice goes up several pitches when I breathe out the single word. My body shrinks down to the size of a three year old's body, and I'm swimming in my work uniform that's now like a circus tent on me. "What's happened to me? I spit out the candy already…" I jump listening to my voice. I sound like one of those anime characters!
The stupid man laughs some more after hearing me say this. "I've managed to further develop the candy so that only a taste of it will change you into the desired age for…you know what?" He starts chuckling like he's just told a funny joke. "I won't tell you how long the effects last!" He starts moving towards me menacingly. "So I'm going to get rid of you for a while so I can complete this transaction."
I frantically try to generate some fire to throw at him, but my now too-baggy clothes impede my way. Toshiyuki bundles me in my own clothes and begins carrying me to some unknown place. I try to burn him with my fire through the clothes, but he merely giggles and says, "No use trying to burn me, cute little girl. I'm wearing fireproof clothing."
"Damn!" I swear. "Who told you so much about me?" Toshiyuki chooses not to reply to my question, instead tossing the bundled-up me onto the cold, hard ground. I hear a door slam shut as I struggle to find my way out of my uniform.
"Oh no." I examine my body, the feeling of dread knotting in the pit of my stomach. Chubby arms, legs, and round belly. Tiny feet, tiny hands, even my hair has become a fine, curly, smooth mass of baby hair. Obviously none of my clothes fit anymore, so to preserve what little dignity I had left, I grab my shirt and fashion it as best as I can into some sort of strange dress around my body.
After I've solved my fashion emergency, I run to the door and try to turn the door handle. It's placed a bit too high for a three-year-old to reach, so I have to tiptoe to grab the handle. Obviously it's locked. I give a loud sigh as I rev up my engines and throw a fireball at the metal door in an attempt to melt it. Damn that fireball was tiny. I hate being three. I place my hands on the door and try to increase the temperature of my fire. The damn metal won't budge at all. I'm sweating from the heat myself, but my efforts bear no fruits. The door must be made from tungsten, the metal with the highest melting point ever, and my now-tiny body just can't generate fire at that temperature.
Being back to chibi size means my stamina goes back to chibi size. After half an hour of trying to weaken the door and other parts of my cell, I flop down to the cold floor, slightly dizzy and out of breath. I probably wasted an entire year of my life already. "Damn it!" I hiss as I slap the floor out of frustration.
About an hour later, I jerk upwards as I hear the door open again. I quickly stand up, expecting Toshiyuki to return to make me feel worse about myself. Instead, a familiar-looking man with dark circles underneath his eyes begins to walk in. He turns around to listen when a high-pitched voice says, "Wait, Tamotsu-kun! Take this tray in to her too." Before he fully enters the room, I quickly try to find a place to hide. My heart is beating so fast right now, and for some reason I have yet to decipher, I feel really, really scared. In a moment of pure genius (I'm totally being sarcastic right now) and with a lack of anything to hide behind or in inside this empty room, I duck back into my pile of discarded clothes and hug a now-too-big sock tightly for comfort. I start involuntarily shuddering as I hear footsteps coming closer and closer to my hiding spot.
"I know you're in there." The footsteps stop in front of me. "Clothes don't shake." I squeeze my eyes shut. Come on, girl! I tell myself. You're braver than this! Stop being such a coward!
After taking a deep breath, I burst out of the pile of clothes and jump up in what I hope is an intimidating fighting position. I may not be a martial arts master like Hana, but I did take some self-defense. I ignite fireballs in my hands for extra oomph. "Stay back!" I shout, hoping I sounded brave and confident. "I won't tell you anything!" Okay, that sounded more like scared little girl. I bet it would have sounded better if I didn't have a voice like Pikachu.
"I didn't ask you to tell me anything." The tired man replied with a deep sigh. Upon closer inspection, I recognize him now. He is Aragaki Tamotsu, from the briefing from Persona. He looks even worse off now than he did in the picture in his profile page, with dark, dark eye circles underneath his snake-like eyes. He holds in his left hand a tray of food and a blanket, while his right is scratching his shaggy head. "I'm not going to hurt you." Tamotsu says, seeing my guarded expression and pose. "I just brought food and a blanket." I'm still not going to trust him, so I don't relax my guard.
Tamotsu sighs again, and then sits down where he stands, setting the tray and the blanket on the ground and sticking his hands in the air. "I surrender." He says limply. "So come and eat."
I slowly release my fists and let my arms fall to my sides, extinguishing my fire. Squinting my eyes suspiciously at him, I take teensy baby steps toward the tray on the floor. As I progress, I ponder my options carefully in my head. I could refuse to eat, but who knows when backup would come for me. There's always the possibility of poison…I figured I should try to eat and save up my energy for my eventual escape. Yeah, that's what I should do. It was an awful long time since dinner already…
By this time, I've already reached the tray, and Tamotsu is staring at me with an unreadable expression. My eyes flicker back and forth between him and the tray of food. "Eat." He enunciates, eyes not moving from my face. I reach down and take an apple, turning it back and forth, staring at the smooth tawny skin. With my height right now, I am eye level with the sitting Tamotsu. I step a little closer to him warily and shove the fruit in front of his mouth.
"You first." I say quietly. My heart is thumping wildly with the thought of dying from poison.
His eyes flicker between the fruit in my hand and my face. He reaches up and grabs my wrist, making me jump. I watch him with terror as he guides my shaking hand to his mouth and takes a big bite of the apple. He chews very slowly, and when he finally swallows, he asks me with a smirk on his face, "Have you sentenced me to mortal death, Eve?"
"I'm not Eve." I say automatically, watching him carefully. His lame biblical reference won't convince me to trust him. He still hasn't let go of my wrist.
"Don't worry." He says, staring into my eyes. "I was joking. There's no poison. The cook, Tanaka-sensei, is a good person. She wouldn't poison a baby like you."
"How can I trust you?" I ask. "You people work for that man who captured me. That man wants to kill me." Tears start forming in my eyes, even though I'm trying desperately to hold them back. For some reason, as a little kid, tears are harder for me to control. "I don't know what he's done to my friends either. I don't know if they're dead or if they're also captives somewhere else."
I gasp as Tamotsu pulls me easily to his side and plops me on his lap, resting my head against his chest. He starts patting my back awkwardly. "Quiet, Eve-chan. Don't cry. Toshiyuki-san might come back if he hears you crying."
"Toshiyuki?" It's time to test whether he has assessed me as a true threat yet. I push myself away from him and look up at his angular profile. "Is that the name of that man that imprisoned me in here?" I bat my eyelashes for added effect to my charade.
With a slightly surprised expression, Tamotsu says, "You're a precocious little girl. Yes, you're correct. Toshiyuki-san is the one in charge of distributing Gulliver's Candy to any nation willing to pay the price. Since it is such a lucrative market, he will not permit anyone to stand in his way."
It's starting to get colder, so I grab the blanket and wrap myself in it. I'm wondering why Tamotsu is telling me all of this. He is the liaison between the manufacturer and the distributor, yet he seems to be willing to reveal a lot of information to me. Even though I'm not sure if the things he's telling me are true or not, I suppose I should milk as much information out of this as I can.
"Tell me who and where the manufacturer is." I prod, wondering if he'll answer me this time.
"I'll tell you if you eat." He suddenly grabs my chin, pulls my face closer to his, scoops me a spoonful of fried rice and taps the spoon against my closed mouth. "Come on, kid. You won't grow if you don't eat." My face becomes so hot that I think I could possibly fry an egg on it. I scrunch my eyes closed to avoid looking at his sharp brown eyes. Stop blushing! I scold myself. The man is like, forty! You're like, three right now. That's disgusting!
"Um, Eve." Tamotsu snaps me out of my frenzied thoughts. When I open my eyes, he's staring at me again, but with small eyes opened wide. The rice comically plops out of the spoon back onto the tray. "You've GROWN."
"What?" I quickly yank my chin from his grip and stand up. Tamotsu quickly stands back up as well. I'm closer to his face now, about shoulder level. I look at my hands and feet. They're normally sized again. I run my fingers through my hair. It's back to being long and coarse. I sneak a quick peek into the blanket I draped over myself and quickly close it again. Yep, my boobs are back as well.
"I'm back to normal!" I exclaim, giving a jump of excitement. I turn back to Tamotsu. "I'm back to-YOU'RE YOUNGER." My jaw drops open.
"Shoot, the candy dissolved." Tamotsu scratches his head in vexation. He starts fumbling in the pockets of his now-slightly-baggy pants, taking out a piece of candy. I stare at Tamotsu, trying to finish processing his new appearance before he changes back into old-man mode. His hair no longer has those large streaks of grey, reverting back to a glossy black. He doesn't have any wrinkles anymore, or any sagging skin, revealing a sharp, thin face with a pointy chin. His body appears to have lost fat and gained a bit of muscle, and he became a bit taller than before. All in all, he looks like he lost twenty or so years. I refuse to let the thought that he's even better looking now linger in my head.
"You are definitely not forty." I declare, looking at him suspiciously.
"And you are definitely NOT three!" He shoots at me indignantly, unwrapping his candy. We look at each other with narrowed eyes. "Gulliver's Candy?" He asks me as he pops the candy into his mouth. The change with normal Gulliver's Candy appears to be gradual. I observe Tamotsu's hair slowly start becoming grey.
"Force-fed to me by that Toshiyuki bastard." I scowl, answering his question. "Now do you mind? I'd like to continue our previous conversation before the both of us began shape shifting. And I would like to do this CLOTHED."