What is your major malfunction?!
Harem Protagonist: CHYOA
Chapter 4
Meh, whatever. You were find waiting a few more minutes for your friend to show up. Knowing an early bird like her, you wouldn't have long to wait.
And as it turned out, you were right.
Not fifteen minutes had passed before you heard your friend's excited voice outside her lab.
"Shujin? You in there already?"
"Yup! You were the one who called me out here this early, remember?"
Slamming the door open, Hotaru dashed inside before skidding to a stop in front of you. There was a flushed but excited look on her face, a mixture of pride and nervousness. You'd seen the look many times before- whenever Hotaru had finished building some gadget or device and was finally ready to start with the practical trials.
"O---Kay, so what's this all about, Hotaru? You must have something really special waiting in the lab if you've kept it a secret from me for all this time." It wasn't like Hotaru to keep secrets from you in regards to her various science projects and experimental prototypes. In fact, you alone had the high honor of being pretty much the only person she trusted around her various gizmos.
"In here, c'mon, Shujin!" Hotaru stated excitedly, seizing you by one arm and pulling you along. Despite the fact that Hotaru was a rather slender girl (and several inches shorter than you) she had no problems yanking you along behind her.
Whisking you over to the still-covered object, Hotaru yanked the sheet covering it off.
"It's... um, actually, I don't know what this is..." You trailed off lamely. Before your eyes, resting on the long table in front of you and Hotaru was a pile of scraps, wiring, and other electrical components.
But standing out among at the top of the pile was... some kind of odd, old-timey ray gun? What on earth had Hotaru made this time?
Beaming excitedly, Hotaru practically skipped over to the strange gun and picked it up.
"Ta-da! I've been working on this in secret for a while, and I finally have my very own shrink ray!"
A... what? A 'shrink ray,' like something out of that old American movie you'd seen years ago?
Well, knowing Hotaru, she'd probably wanted to replicate something she'd seen in the movies.
:So, uh... a shrink ray. That's... pretty impressive." You weren't sure what else to say, here. If it worked, then Hotaru was holding a genuine piece of science-fiction in her hands. If it didn't work... well, it looked like the whole 'incredible shrinking person' gimmick was still part of the cheesy sci-fi era.
Hotaru had made more than a few duds in her young career as an inventor, and this was one invention that you'd need to see solid proof of before you believed what you were seeing.
"What? Do you not believe me? It works, I'm telling you! I ran the numbers myself, did all the internal wiring, made sure the chemical mixtures were balanced properly... it'll work, I just need to find something to test it on!"
You couldn't help but smile at the way Hotaru's face lit up in an indignant blush at your apparent doubting of her technological genius. But what was she going to test her ray gun on? Hopefully the damn thing wouldn't explode in her hands- she was much better with electronics and wiring stuff than she was with anything related to chemistry or biology.
Hotaru might've been a genius, but she was an inventor at her core, not a chemist or biologist.
"Come on! I'll show you! Remember that big rock next to the lab? I'm going to turn it into a tiny pebble with my shrink ray!" Hotaru stated, already preparing to march off. Unfortunately for whatever plans she may've had; Hotaru had apparently been in such a rush this morning that she'd neglected to tie her shoes this morning. And while she'd gotten away with that up till now, her luck ran out at the worst possible time.
Trailing behind Hotaru, you had a split second to see and hear your friend yelp in shock, her arms pinwheeling as she tripped on her own untied shoelaces, the shrink ray flying out of her hands as she went down!
The ray gun landed on the floor with a loud clatter and rattle, and you gasped in shock as a bright flash emitted from the device's nozzle!
Abruptly, the room seemed to spin around you before all of a sudden everything went black...
---------------------
"Ow... I can't believe I tripped over my own shoes... Shujin? You could've caught me, you know," Hotaru grumbled, straightening up and brushing herself off.
"Wait... the shrink ray! What happened to the shrink ray?!" Hotaru gasped, realizing that the flash of light behind her must've been the ray gun going off.
"Oh crap, if it hit something in my lab... Oh, Hotaru, you dummy! Tie your shoes next time, won't you?! Ugh... Shujin, can you pass me the shrink ray? I need to make sure dropping it didn't damage anything. ....Shujin?"
Her longtime friend remained silent. That wasn't like him. He was always quick to tease her when she fumbled something, but always rushed to help her up when she (quite literally sometimes) wound up on her own ass. Why was he being so quiet?
"Shujin, you dummy. Don't play games with me right... now... Shujin?
Hotaru finally turned around, and her face went pale at the sight before her eyes.
----------------------------
"Ow... my head... Hotaru, why does it seem like every time something malfunctions, I'm the one who takes the brunt of it?" You groan out, putting one hand on your forehead. The whole room still seemed like it was spinning, and your mouth felt really dry.
"Hotaru? What's... going... on?" You trailed off, realizing that something was really, really wrong.
Hotaru was leaning over you, a worried expression on her face and her pretty, amber eyes wide with concern. Something about her looked... different. But you couldn't quite put your finger on it...
"SHUJIN! Thank God you woke up! I- I was really worried. B-but you're awake now, so t-that's good!"
Oh boy, you barely ever saw Hotaru looking this upset. She didn't even act like this when an invention of hers broke or failed to meet her expectations.
The last time you'd seen her like this was when an invention had malfunctioned seriously badly and exploded, and you'd shielded her from the small explosion, ending up with some severe burns...
As your thoughts swam back into place, you tried to focus on more than just Hotaru's concerned look. Had something happened to you?
That was when it clicked into place.
You realized what exactly was off with Hotaru's appearance. That, plus the last thing you remembered prior to waking up on the floor was...
"Oh, damn it. Hotaru, your 'shrink ray' hit me, didn't it?"
It wasn't that Hotaru's face looked different- nothing about her had changed.
Well, except for the fact that she was way, way bigger now.
Or rather, she wasn't any bigger than her normal (fairly short) height. You were just way smaller.
Slowly, you rose up off of the floor and looked around. Sure enough, everything else in the lab looked way bigger.
"Oh hell... Hotaru, please tell me you can fix this. You can fix it, right?"
Now it was your turn to be met with an awkward, uncomfortable silence.
"Dammit. Hotaru..."
"I'll think of something, I swear! It's just... Falling on the floor like that must've knocked something loose internally in the shrink ray! It's totally dead right now! And, um... please, please, PLEASE don't be mad, but... um, I never, eh... planned out how to 'unshrink' the stuff I was going to use the ray to shrink! Seriously! This thing wasn't ever meant to be used on anything living- I was going to shrink a bunch of the junk and debris around the lab! I thought it'd make cleaning and getting rid of unwanted stuff way easier! I have no idea what it'll do to living matter, much less a person!"
"Hotaru-"
"I'm really, really sorry, Shujin! This all happened because I got careless! I promise, I'll find a way to fix this- I mean, fix your, um... condition..."
Goddammit, what were you going to do now? Hotaru had just turned your life upside down in the space of five minutes. Out of all malfunctioning inventions you'd seen/experienced around her, this was by far the worst.
Looking around at the rest of the lab, you tried to judge just how much the now-broken shrink ray had reduced your height.
------------------------
1) You're absolutely tiny! Like, you can't be more than two or three inches high... Before you can stop her, a nervous Hotaru gently picks you up with one hand...
2) You're maybe a foot high at the moment. How're you supposed to go to school like this?
3) You look like a grade schooler! You can't be any more than three and a half feet tall! You're going to be an absolute laughingstock at school now...
And as it turned out, you were right.
Not fifteen minutes had passed before you heard your friend's excited voice outside her lab.
"Shujin? You in there already?"
"Yup! You were the one who called me out here this early, remember?"
Slamming the door open, Hotaru dashed inside before skidding to a stop in front of you. There was a flushed but excited look on her face, a mixture of pride and nervousness. You'd seen the look many times before- whenever Hotaru had finished building some gadget or device and was finally ready to start with the practical trials.
"O---Kay, so what's this all about, Hotaru? You must have something really special waiting in the lab if you've kept it a secret from me for all this time." It wasn't like Hotaru to keep secrets from you in regards to her various science projects and experimental prototypes. In fact, you alone had the high honor of being pretty much the only person she trusted around her various gizmos.
"In here, c'mon, Shujin!" Hotaru stated excitedly, seizing you by one arm and pulling you along. Despite the fact that Hotaru was a rather slender girl (and several inches shorter than you) she had no problems yanking you along behind her.
Whisking you over to the still-covered object, Hotaru yanked the sheet covering it off.
"It's... um, actually, I don't know what this is..." You trailed off lamely. Before your eyes, resting on the long table in front of you and Hotaru was a pile of scraps, wiring, and other electrical components.
But standing out among at the top of the pile was... some kind of odd, old-timey ray gun? What on earth had Hotaru made this time?
Beaming excitedly, Hotaru practically skipped over to the strange gun and picked it up.
"Ta-da! I've been working on this in secret for a while, and I finally have my very own shrink ray!"
A... what? A 'shrink ray,' like something out of that old American movie you'd seen years ago?
Well, knowing Hotaru, she'd probably wanted to replicate something she'd seen in the movies.
:So, uh... a shrink ray. That's... pretty impressive." You weren't sure what else to say, here. If it worked, then Hotaru was holding a genuine piece of science-fiction in her hands. If it didn't work... well, it looked like the whole 'incredible shrinking person' gimmick was still part of the cheesy sci-fi era.
Hotaru had made more than a few duds in her young career as an inventor, and this was one invention that you'd need to see solid proof of before you believed what you were seeing.
"What? Do you not believe me? It works, I'm telling you! I ran the numbers myself, did all the internal wiring, made sure the chemical mixtures were balanced properly... it'll work, I just need to find something to test it on!"
You couldn't help but smile at the way Hotaru's face lit up in an indignant blush at your apparent doubting of her technological genius. But what was she going to test her ray gun on? Hopefully the damn thing wouldn't explode in her hands- she was much better with electronics and wiring stuff than she was with anything related to chemistry or biology.
Hotaru might've been a genius, but she was an inventor at her core, not a chemist or biologist.
"Come on! I'll show you! Remember that big rock next to the lab? I'm going to turn it into a tiny pebble with my shrink ray!" Hotaru stated, already preparing to march off. Unfortunately for whatever plans she may've had; Hotaru had apparently been in such a rush this morning that she'd neglected to tie her shoes this morning. And while she'd gotten away with that up till now, her luck ran out at the worst possible time.
Trailing behind Hotaru, you had a split second to see and hear your friend yelp in shock, her arms pinwheeling as she tripped on her own untied shoelaces, the shrink ray flying out of her hands as she went down!
The ray gun landed on the floor with a loud clatter and rattle, and you gasped in shock as a bright flash emitted from the device's nozzle!
Abruptly, the room seemed to spin around you before all of a sudden everything went black...
---------------------
"Ow... I can't believe I tripped over my own shoes... Shujin? You could've caught me, you know," Hotaru grumbled, straightening up and brushing herself off.
"Wait... the shrink ray! What happened to the shrink ray?!" Hotaru gasped, realizing that the flash of light behind her must've been the ray gun going off.
"Oh crap, if it hit something in my lab... Oh, Hotaru, you dummy! Tie your shoes next time, won't you?! Ugh... Shujin, can you pass me the shrink ray? I need to make sure dropping it didn't damage anything. ....Shujin?"
Her longtime friend remained silent. That wasn't like him. He was always quick to tease her when she fumbled something, but always rushed to help her up when she (quite literally sometimes) wound up on her own ass. Why was he being so quiet?
"Shujin, you dummy. Don't play games with me right... now... Shujin?
Hotaru finally turned around, and her face went pale at the sight before her eyes.
----------------------------
"Ow... my head... Hotaru, why does it seem like every time something malfunctions, I'm the one who takes the brunt of it?" You groan out, putting one hand on your forehead. The whole room still seemed like it was spinning, and your mouth felt really dry.
"Hotaru? What's... going... on?" You trailed off, realizing that something was really, really wrong.
Hotaru was leaning over you, a worried expression on her face and her pretty, amber eyes wide with concern. Something about her looked... different. But you couldn't quite put your finger on it...
"SHUJIN! Thank God you woke up! I- I was really worried. B-but you're awake now, so t-that's good!"
Oh boy, you barely ever saw Hotaru looking this upset. She didn't even act like this when an invention of hers broke or failed to meet her expectations.
The last time you'd seen her like this was when an invention had malfunctioned seriously badly and exploded, and you'd shielded her from the small explosion, ending up with some severe burns...
As your thoughts swam back into place, you tried to focus on more than just Hotaru's concerned look. Had something happened to you?
That was when it clicked into place.
You realized what exactly was off with Hotaru's appearance. That, plus the last thing you remembered prior to waking up on the floor was...
"Oh, damn it. Hotaru, your 'shrink ray' hit me, didn't it?"
It wasn't that Hotaru's face looked different- nothing about her had changed.
Well, except for the fact that she was way, way bigger now.
Or rather, she wasn't any bigger than her normal (fairly short) height. You were just way smaller.
Slowly, you rose up off of the floor and looked around. Sure enough, everything else in the lab looked way bigger.
"Oh hell... Hotaru, please tell me you can fix this. You can fix it, right?"
Now it was your turn to be met with an awkward, uncomfortable silence.
"Dammit. Hotaru..."
"I'll think of something, I swear! It's just... Falling on the floor like that must've knocked something loose internally in the shrink ray! It's totally dead right now! And, um... please, please, PLEASE don't be mad, but... um, I never, eh... planned out how to 'unshrink' the stuff I was going to use the ray to shrink! Seriously! This thing wasn't ever meant to be used on anything living- I was going to shrink a bunch of the junk and debris around the lab! I thought it'd make cleaning and getting rid of unwanted stuff way easier! I have no idea what it'll do to living matter, much less a person!"
"Hotaru-"
"I'm really, really sorry, Shujin! This all happened because I got careless! I promise, I'll find a way to fix this- I mean, fix your, um... condition..."
Goddammit, what were you going to do now? Hotaru had just turned your life upside down in the space of five minutes. Out of all malfunctioning inventions you'd seen/experienced around her, this was by far the worst.
Looking around at the rest of the lab, you tried to judge just how much the now-broken shrink ray had reduced your height.
------------------------
1) You're absolutely tiny! Like, you can't be more than two or three inches high... Before you can stop her, a nervous Hotaru gently picks you up with one hand...
2) You're maybe a foot high at the moment. How're you supposed to go to school like this?
3) You look like a grade schooler! You can't be any more than three and a half feet tall! You're going to be an absolute laughingstock at school now...
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March 23
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