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“M-Miss Makima…” the tiny, demure figure said, gently knocking the glass jar that entrapped her, to catch her boss’s attention.
Her boss, however, ignored her. That or she didn’t hear her well. Or maybe she was too focused on her work to pay any attention to the little devil hunter.
The clock in the room ticks on, reading past six in the afternoon, the sun begins to set. Its light painting the room in hues of gold. Bathing the wooden desk in the room, and shining on the little jar where Kobeni sat in, feeling guilty. Because of her, Miss Makima was working overtime.
If she’d been more careful in that encounter with the Reduction Devil, then her boss wouldn’t be there, stamping her seal and signing her signature and filling out forms.
“M-M-Miss M-Makima…” Kobeni said, knocking the glass a bit more strongly. Just a tiny bit. She was trying to figure out the adequate knocking strength she needed to draw Makima’s attention but also not sounding desperate nor annoying her.
Makima, in turn lifted her pen from the paper she was working on, and simply redirected her gaze towards Kobeni, just by moving her yellow eyes, without moving her head. This in turn made Kobeni emit a strange sound, a mix between a yelp and a gasp.
The expression of the head of Tokyo’s Special Division 4 was the usual. Despite her generally unnerving demeanor, Makima looked kind and gentle. So much so that Kobeni felt bad for being scared of her at this moment. But with their current size imbalance, it was impossible not to be scared.
While Makima was a woman of average build, Kobeni was a little under three inches at the moment. Specifically, she was seven-point-one centimeters, rounded up.
It was at this point that Kobeni realised she had been staring at Makima for a few seconds since they locked eyes, and hadn’t said anything. Her boss looked like she was waiting for her to speak first. Cursing the fact that she missed that cue, the tiny devil hunter spoke up.
“I-I… was wondering… uh, if… if I could get another hole in this jar… p-please?”
After her unfortunate encounter with the Reduction Devil, the Violence Fiend was kind enough to put her in a jar so that she wouldn’t be hurt before delivering her to Public Safety, where she was sent straight to Makima’s desk. He had also poked open three holes in the lid, so that she could breathe.
“Is the air there getting heavy?” Makima asked, with a smile.
“J-Just a bit, Miss Makima…” Kobeni answered.
Makima’s smile widened, slightly but still perceptible, “of course, well then, I’ll make another hole.”
Kobeni sighed in relief, just to yelp again as Makima’s larger than life hand picked the jar up, and with her along for the ride. She wasn’t used to the sheer difference in scale, and it was taking time for it to settle in. When Makima lifted the jar, it felt like a rollercoaster. Kobeni was pushed down by gravity and the quick shift in altitude made her lose her balance and fall on her back, despite Makima’s almost surgical care and pulse.
When she sat again, all she saw in front of her was a single, terrifyingly large yellow eye. It made her squeal, and she instinctively crawled until she hit the glass wall of the jar with her back. She was breathing fast, and sweating. Makima was watching her with a mix of curiosity and glee, like a child watching a funny-looking bug. She seldom blinked, and Kobeni felt pierced by that stare.
“You’re scared, Higashiyama,” Makima said, tilting her head a bit. Not a question, but a statement.
“H-How could I not be!” Kobeni said, finding herself yelling at her own boss, which just made her descend into a spiral of mumbled apologies.
“You’re right to be scared,” Makima said, “at this size, everyday objects and activities pose a deadly threat to you. Skewered by a toothpick, split in half by a butter knife, dismembered by a pair of chopsticks, eaten alive by little devils, crushed into a red stain by a boot… all of this could just happen to you now. All of that could have happened were you not sent to me.”
Kobeni thought of that for a moment. Her mind was now filled with gruesome scenes of her own death. She thought of being crushed the most. A simple step by someone who just didn’t bother to look down and that was it. She probably wouldn't even feel it. Just the immense pressure of something hundreds of times heavier simply unleashed on her minuscule frame. She wouldn’t be able to take it, not even for a second. Her body would be flattened, and a blink after that, it would burst. She would become a red stain, just like Makima said.
A bit of her would remain in the boot, another bit in the floor. But that would be it. Maybe her killer would feel her bones cracking and her inner organs exploding, and they would look at their shoes and see a gross fleshy lump of garbage. Then they would just do a grimace of disgust, and wipe her remains off their shoes.
That would be it. That would be the end of Kobeni Higashiyama. Gone from this world and her murderer wouldn’t even notice they took a human life, and her body not given the grace of a funeral. Just unceremoniously treated like trash.
“However, you’re safe here. Lucky for you, Power wasn’t around when this happened.”
Oh, oh God, what would be of her if the Blood Fiend was the one who found her? She would have gleefully stomped down on her, proclaiming the miserable state of the whole human species in the process. Or would she have humiliated her? She probably would have. Teasing her, playing with her like a cat does with a mouse, and—
“Kobeni,” Makima said, calling gently to her, and fortunately interrupting her train of thought.
“Y-Yes ma’am!” Kobeni squeaked.
“This isn’t working out at all.”
Kobeni couldn’t really tell, since all she saw was Makima’s eye, but the tone of her boss betrayed a slight twinge of disappointment.
“Devils are born into this world with a name,” Makima continued, “and the more feared the name, the more powerful the devil. Being reduced to this size, as a concept, is believed to be impossible by most of humanity. Shrinking remains the fear of a few insane people. Naturally, this would mean that the Reduction Devil would be a weak opponent, and yet Hayakawa, Denji and Power have been engaging it for a while now, to no avail.”
“Uh…?” Kobeni said, not really a question, but a vague gesture in the direction of an actual question.
“What I am saying is that the Reduction Devil appears to be almost entirely powered by the terrifying experience you’re going through right now,” Makima explained.
Kobeni simply nodded, she felt her jaw trembling and hard to control, making uttering even a single word impossible.
“Why is this, being tiny, so terrifying?” Makima asked.
That was a weird change of pace. She had just explained precisely why it was scary, she had even given examples of it. So why was she asking now? Curiosity? Maybe it was that. Her examples from before were abstract scenarios. Maybe they belonged more to the realm of thought experiments. What Makima was asking now was personal. She wanted to know from Kobeni’s own lips.
“W-Well…” she started, “t-to begin with, I’m weak, just like you said, Miss Makima…”
“Is weakness always such a bad thing?” She asked.
“Uh?” Kobeni said, once again vaguely gesturing at a question instead of asking one.
“The pups of every single species of mammal in this world are by definition weak. While some are born into this world with almost all the tools needed for survival, and others, like humans, are dependent on their families or herds, they have nevertheless thrived on this Earth for millions of years. Wouldn't they have succumbed to their anxiety and fell into extinction if weakness was such a terrifying thing?”
“I… no, I guess not…?”
“That’s right, Kobeni, you see, being weak doesn’t have to be scary at all.”
“H-How?”
“For starters, being weak means that you can rely on someone else for protection.”
“W-What do you mean, Miss Maki—” Kobeni said, until she interrupted herself by yelping and flinching again.
Makima was opening the lid of the jar.
Just like when she picked it up, the action was deliberate and surgical. Never did Kobeni feel the jar trembling or falling off balance. All it took was three turns of her wrist, and Makima removed the roof of Kobeni’s prison.
Then she felt her whole world tilting to the front of her. Once again she instinctively crawled, but it was impossible to stay put once the jar was this inclined. She lost her balance and fell again on her back, only this time she started tumbling down the glass surface, until she landed somewhere else entirely.
It was warm and soft. A stark contrast to the cold, hard surface of the jar. And it made Kobeni feel relieved just by being on it. But of course, once she started to orient herself, fear creeped down her spine. She recognised this surface. It was skin.
So she slowly turned her head over her shoulder. And there it was, that yellow eye.
But this time Kobeni didn’t yelp, squeal, or gasp. She didn’t have the voice to do it. There was nothing separating her from Makima now. The glass walls of the jar made their whole exchange from before have a degree of impersonality. Despite the closeness, they were in different spaces.
However, now she was in Makima's palm, completely in her grasp. Completely at her mercy.
Strangely, she… she felt it was better this way.
Makima herself presented a full sensory overload for the poor shrunken devil hunter. Her face was all she could see, and now that it was free from the slight distortion from the glass of the jar, Kobeni was well aware of all the little details.
That red hair of hers was vibrant, and frankly beautiful. Kobeni followed down, and noticed the yellow glow of Makima’s eyes. An unnatural color, impossible, yet filled with mystique. Makima was dashingly pretty. Even at this size, even up this close, she found no imperfections in her face. No wrinkles, no bags under her eyes, no sign of tiredness or stress. Just a young beautiful woman, smiling gently at her.
“Kobeni,” she said.
And that was the next thing. Her voice. Melodic and soothing. It instantly lowered all of Kobeni’s defenses. Not only that, but before, her voice was simply sound. Now it came with more stimuli in her senses. She felt the warmth of her breath in her skin, and the smell of the coffee she had been drinking.
Speaking of that, Makima’s smell… it was indescribable, but good. An alluring mix of sweet scents. It made her wonder about what perfume she used, or if she just naturally smelled like this. Whatever the case, it was intoxicating, and that along with the coffee in her breath made Kobeni just want more.
“Kobeni,” Makima repeated.
“Y-yes…?” Kobeni answered.
“How does it feel?”
“How does what feel…?”
“Me, of course.”
That was a hard question to answer. Kobeni still felt intimidated by her in all possible levels. And she wasn’t sure if this level of closeness helped it or just made everything worse. Besides, that question was broad. The poor shrunken devil hunter had millions of thoughts racing through her head now, and she found it difficult to distinguish the actual meaningful ones from the meaningless background noise in her mind.
“Nice,” she finally managed to say, “you feel nice, Miss Makima.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” Makima said, “now, why don’t we do some little exercises?”
“Exercises?”
“To address your fears, what was it that you were scared of the most? What part of being tiny terrifies you?”
Hard question too. ‘Everything’, Kobeni would have liked to say. But her mind went back to that horrible vision of being completely stomped into nothing, of her bones grinded into dust and her flesh liquified.
“B-Being crushed, Miss Makima…” Kobeni managed to say.
“Naturally,” said Makima, “I could end your life with little effort. Closing my fist on you and squeezing hard would make you pop. Like a little grape filled with flesh, bone, and entrails.”
With that, one by one, Makima’s fingers enclosed Kobeni. It was gentle, like everything Makima did, and not once did her smile fade. Kobeni thought of running away for a second, but where? Falling to her death? And it wasn’t like Miss Makima would just… actually crush her, right?
Then, Kobeni’s head was the only part of her left peeking out of Makima’s fist, her thumb hoovering over her. And then, carefully caressing her head, and gently squeezing her body. Even with Makima’s already mentioned surgical pulse and movements, Kobeni couldn’t help but to feel her lower jaw shaking.
“You’re scared, Kobeni,” Makima repeated, echoing her words from moments before.
This time, Kobeni didn’t feel like she had strength left in her to answer. This was far too much for her. Everything up to now was far too much, actually. But then, Makima’s thumb came to rest on her head. It was just a little bit of pressure. Just enough to keep her anchored to reality.
But then it felt… good, actually. The little pressure. That gentle squeeze. It was oddly comforting. Almost like sleeping under heavy blankets. Besides, Miss Makima’s skin was so soft that her hand felt pillowy and welcoming.
Now Makima’s smile slowly gave away to a confused expression.
“Are you not scared?” She said, this time actually asking a question. Kobeni felt it was her duty to answer but didn’t jump to it. She just explained herself, honestly.
“Your hand feels good, Miss Makima,” she said, “it’s true that you could crush me like a grape, and I could do nothing to prevent it, but you’re not doing that. You wouldn’t, so instead I feel… protected. I think protected is the word. L-like you mentioned….”
Makima’s smile returned, “you would say that your fear of dying crushed has gone away then?”
“A-A little bit… b-but… I still have some fears about being tiny…” Kobeni said.
“Oh?”
“Well… it’s about being mistaken for a bug. N-Not by people… but I’m slim, a-and finger sized now. Birds or rats or other small animals could just… take me for prey….”
“That’s not fear of being mistaken for a bug, then,” Makima explained, “it’s fear of being eaten. A terrible death, of course.”
Kobeni nodded.
“Do you have any idea what it would feel like?” Makima asked, tilting her head.
“W-what?”
“Being eaten.”
“W-W-WHA—”
Makima maneuvered Kobeni inside her fist. Just letting one of her little arms come out from within her fingers.
“There are many kinds of predators in this world. And many forms to eat prey. From the coldly efficient to the borderline comical. But isn’t it strange how some like to play with their food?” She said, holding Kobeni’s little arm with one of the fingers of her free hand.
And then enclosing it within her lips.
Kobeni yelped, and tried to pull it away, but not only were Makima’s lips stronger than her, she was also staring down. That look was all she needed to know she was being commanded to stop resisting. And so, letting out an almost inaudible ‘sorry’, she let her arm go limp.
Makima kept going. Her lips sucked the arm in little by little, until they were already on Kobeni’s shoulder. She couldn’t help it. She was trembling, and squirming. But again, there was nowhere to run. Having her entire arm inside someone else was an otherworldly experience. Without being able to look inside Makima’s mouth, her only sense available to assess the situation was touch.
Everything was wet with saliva, which at this scale, felt like a thick gooey liquid. It coated everything else she could touch. She stretched her fingers and found something hard and smooth: a tooth. It felt like touching a rock, those flat ones you can find on rivers. There was also her tongue. That one was harder to describe. A mattress? A living, warm, moist mattress?
That wasn’t a perfect analogy but then Kobeni found herself flying in the air.
She didn’t even manage to utter a small ‘uh?’ Makima’s fingers had let go of her at some point, and she was in freefall. It didn’t last long. Milliseconds maybe, and then she landed on her stomach, and on that living mattress.
“M-Miss Makima!?” she exclaimed, just before Makima’s mouth closed on her.
Darkness. Kobeni’s eyes couldn’t see anything. All that was left was her touch. The spongy, coarse surface she was laying on was definitely the tongue.. and her nose caught on the scent of coffee that lingered on Makima’s breath, but that was it. Deprived of the usefulness of her senses, Kobeni was now completely helpless.
Then it happened, Makima’s tongue rose, trapping her between it and her palette. The tongue moved back and forth, its spongy surface adapting to the shape of Kobeni’s body as it passed, capturing her taste. Kobeni gasped, and in doing so, got Makima’s saliva inside her mouth. She had to cough it up so as not to choke on it. But nevertheless, she swallowed some of it. It still tasted a bit like coffee.
Then, the tongue placed her between the molars. Kobeni panicked, but when the other pair from above came down, it was nothing but a gentle nibble. It actually felt like a massage. Even if the pointy ends of the molars hurt just a little bit.
Probably not content with just that, Makima then shuffled her around her mouth. Between her cheeks, under her tongue, and even that space between the lips and teeth. But Kobeni didn’t scream. A lot of it was just to not get more of Makima’s saliva inside of her, but also because she wasn’t that afraid of just a mouth, as it turned out.
Maybe there would be some pain in it. If Makima decided to chew her, then the pain of her death would range between horrible and merciful, depending on where she started. Guillotining her head would be the end of it, but if she started limb by limb… then it would be grueling. No matter where she started though, the ending would be the same. She would be torn, ripped, grinded into a wet, fleshy mush. Nothing more than mincemeat. No, actually mincemeat didn’t include clothes or hairpins….
But then a thought made Kobeni tense again. As Makima was shuffling her around, her upper torso came to fall on the back of her tongue, way in the back. So much so that she felt her arm dropping. She was one relative inch away from the throat.
For once, she risked crawling back as Makima toyed with her. Whenever she imagined being eaten, she always thought her end would be in the mouth. The possibility of being swallowed alive never crossed her mind, and now it was the only thing she could think about.
It would be like going down a waterslide, only much more cramped, and a straight vertical drop. Terrifying as that sounded, the drop wouldn’t be the worst, that was what came after. A pool of acid in a dark room with barely enough air to breathe. Digestion would take a few hours before what was left of her moved on to the intestines, but it would be painful. Slowly but surely melting away as every inch of her first grew irritated and then just started to come off her body. A mix of drowning and burning alive.
Well, that’s just how she always knew she would end. Devil hunters just died like these anyways. In unceremonious and humiliating ways.
But, this wouldn’t be her end. This was an exercise, after all. So even if she was still jumpy, even if she was still nervous, she decided to let her body go limp and just enjoy the ride. And soon she came to actually like it. Growing familiar with Makima’s tongue and teeth, and with her playful demeanour. That was it right? Playfulness.
It was just a little game. She was too scared to see it at first, but it was a game.
She felt her lips curving upwards. It was a little smile. Not accompanied by a nervous laugh at all. A genuine little smile.
And then light. Makima opened her mouth and stuck her tongue out, letting Kobeni slowly slide off it. She was back in the palm of her hand, just covered in a thick coat of saliva. Apparently it was also already evening, as the yellowish tint of the sunset was replaced by the artificial hue of the office’s lights. Makima didn’t say anything as she started cleaning her off with a napkin. She just looked at her. Still smiling, although Kobeni couldn’t quite tell what feelings that smile was supposed to convey.
“You seem to have enjoyed that, Kobeni,” she finally said, gently.
“It was… nice, once I realised you wouldn’t chew or swallow me…” she answered.
“Nice…?” Makima repeated, confused. It was rare to see her seemingly at a loss for words.
“I-I didn’t mean to offend you, Miss Makima!” Kobeni said, “b-but this was supposed to
make me less scared of being small right? So… you could say I passed the test… right?”
“In a way,” Makima said, her control over the situation reasserted, “but are you sure death is the only bad thing that could happen to you if you were small?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re thinking of this as a temporal situation. But what would happen if Hayakawa and the rest fail to subdue the Reduction Devil? What if it just slips away? Obscure phobias lead to obscure devils. Our opportunity to kill it is now, should it escape, the next sighting could be in years, if it happens at all.” Makima explained.
“M-M-Meaning…?” Kobeni asked, already knowing the answer.
“You’d have to live like this for the rest of your life.”
Like this. A few inches tall at most. For the rest of her life. Kobeni sat down and tried to process it. And then she started crying. All of her dreams crushed, without even being crushed by a boot herself.
“You’d be handed over to a Public Safety facility for further study,” Makima said, lifting Kobeni’s chin up with the tip of her finger, “they would try to find a way to reverse the devil’s power, so you’ll get passed down scientist after scientist. Each with a brand new idea, each with a fruitless and probably painful experiment.”
“And then you’ll be relegated to a small living space, a little cage, where you could live your life mostly the same as it was before” she continued, “only tiny, forever. And completely out of everyone’s sight. For your own safety and Japan’s, we can’t let your predicament go public. Fear of being shrunk would escalate, and the Reduction Devil would just go on a rampage. Victims would start piling up, and we can’t let that happen.”
“W-wait! C-Caged? For m-my own safety?”
“Of course, we can’t just hand you over to your family or some friend, I already told you how everyday objects and activities pose a lethal threat to you. It would be inhumane and dangerous to simply let you go to the outside world.”
Kobeni’s heart sank. She suddenly started feeling lightheaded. Caged, forever, in a cold sterile underground facility was now the best prospect at life. Death would honestly prove to be a better alternative than an existence that’s just that: existing.
“Although, I’m thinking of a better solution,” Makima said, “see… off the record, I’ve taken a small liking to you.”
“H-huh?”
“I already have plenty of dogs but I could make some space for a mouse.”
“H-HUH!?”
“You look startled, true it would be hard at first. I’d have to write you off as dead and sneak you into my apartment. You would not leave and would have to be confined to a repurposed hamster cage or maybe a drawer. But overall, it’s a better existence than becoming a specimen for Public Safety to study.”
Kobeni was speechless. Sure, living with Miss Makima would be much better than spending the rest of her days in a lab. But there was an implication to that. One that made her grow uneasy, and uncomfortable.
“B-but that… that would make me… t-that would mean I’d be… y-your… your—”
“Pet,” Makima said, finishing Kobeni’s sentence for her.
The word made Kobeni squeal. A pet? Miss Makima’s pet?
“You don’t look too enthusiastic,” Makima said, disappointed, “well, I’ll have to drop you off at the lab for your first examination.”
“W-Wait!” Kobeni squealed.
This was insane. Living in a hamster cage, away from everyone, spending the rest of her days in Miss Makima’s apartment. All of it was insane. It was denying her the most basic show of personhood to become someone else’s property. But….
But it was better than constantly putting her life on the line in Public Safety. It was better than risking death every day she went off to work. She wanted to quit multiple times, but what then?
“Is something the matter, Kobeni?” Makima asked.
“I… I want to be your pet!”
“Oh?” Makima asked, her tone was mixed. It looked like she wasn’t expecting Kobeni to go through with this, “you would? Voluntarily?”
“Y-you proposed the idea…” Kobeni answered, a bit on the back foot and doubting herself already.
“The complete loss of control of your own life doesn’t scare you?” Makima asked, tilting her head with curiosity.
“N-No… frankly it would be better that way… I’m always a mess, I’m always getting in the way of people… I almost killed my squadmates when fighting the Eternity Devil, and I was completely useless fighting the Bomb Devil… I can’t take it anymore!” Kobeni said, crying and desperate, “if I live as your pet it’ll at least be in a safe cage and with good food! I’ll be the best pet ever!”
Makima was still confused, not completely taken aback, but just looking at this strange development. Still looking at Kobeni like a child looks at a bug. Only there was something different. This time, Makima looked rather unamused.
And then something caught her attention. Something Kobeni couldn’t quite tell made Makima look to her side, towards the window.
“I see,” she said, dispassionately.
With that, she rose from her seat. The force of it relative to her size knocked Kobeni off her feet and pulled her down. Once again Makima closed her fist on her, but this time without leaving her head peeking out. This time she was trapped. Kobeni couldn't see anything, but she felt movement and heard Makima’s steps on the floor. Was she going to be shoved into a pocket? Or would Makima come up with another way to sneak her out of Public Safety?
Kobeni didn’t get the answers to these questions. Instead, the soft feeling of flesh against her body was replaced with something hard as the fist came open and she came falling down on her side. Not a big fall at all, just the natural result of Makima opening her hand just against the surface. She was sure it was wood, so was she back at Miss Makima’s desk?
She turned to lay on her back to get a better view, but all she saw was Miss Makima squatting in front of her, and then rising to her full height. It was frightening. Relatively speaking, Makima was the size of a small skyscraper now.
“Try to be still,” she said, more a command than a suggestion.
Oh God.
“D-D-DID I DO SOMETHING WRONG!?” Kobeni screamed, trying to be as loud as possible. She was sure that there was no possible way for Miss Makima to hear her from all the way down otherwise.
Her mind was racing now. Was she not supposed to take the pet offer? Of course she wasn’t. If Kobeni was to be handed down to a Public Safety facility then that would make her government property. Makima taking her to her apartment would be embezzlement. It was corruption! It was the most obvious test in the world now that she thought of it! Maybe Makima would have only spared her if she accepted her fate as a laboratory rat.
“I’M SORRY, I’M SORRY!” she begged, on her knees now, “I-I-I DIDN’T KNOW YOU WERE TESTING ME! I SWEAR! I S-SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER! P-PLEASE DON’T STEP ON ME!”
Panic settled in, and the images of her being crushed into nothing but a red stain rushed through Kobeni’s mind as she screamed. When she first imagined it some minutes ago, she never pictured a face wearing the shoes that would be her end. Now she didn’t dare look up. She closed her eyes and instinctively shielded her head. She smelled leather nearby. This was it. The end.
“Higashiyama, open your eyes.” Makima said, calmly and gently, her voice was normal now, devoid of that booming feeling from before.
“Uh?” Kobeni uttered, confused, but did as ordered. There was in fact leather in front of her, and it was in fact from Miss Makima’s shoes… but they were normal sized.
Actually, it was her that was normal sized.
“There’s nothing to worry about, the Reduction Devil was defeated some moments ago, and just before your outburst in the floor, so if that worried you, it didn’t have an impact on the fight at all,” Makima explained, returning to her seat and paperwork, “you can go home now.”
“W-what?” Kobeni asked.
“Apparently, the right set of stimuli will make you not be scared of becoming tiny after all,” Makima said, “don’t worry, besides some observations on the devil’s powers, none of what transpired here will go in the official record.”
Kobeni looked up. Still covering her head, but there was no threatening sole above her. Just the plain old roof.
“Is something the matter, Higashiyama?” Makima asked, looking down on her, only this time it was just because Kobeni was on the floor.
“N-No, not at all, Miss Makima…” she said, slowly standing up.
Makima looked at Kobeni, now standing at her natural height of a little over five feet. The girl was a mess. Not that she could blame her, after all she went through. She was overall, completely disheveled.
So she stood up, in another move that made Kobeni flinch. Then she fixed up the now normal sized devil hunter’s tie, hairpins, and jacket. And combed her hair with her nails until she looked at least a bit passable.
“Well then, take care,” Makima said.
“W-what about the-”
“Nothing transpired here, Higashiyama,” Makima said, cutting her off but still with her amicable tone.
“I… I see,” Kobeni said, without hiding the tinge of disappointment in her voice. Still, this was a relief, going back to normal.
But she had to go home now. Even with Makima’s little touch-ups, she still felt like she was hit multiple times by a train. So she went to the door, trying her best not to betray the fact that she was in a hurry to get out of there. Then she excused herself with a bow, and exited the room.
Once behind the door and in the hallway, Kobeni sighed in relief. But there was still something off. With an idea of what it was, she pulled her jacket closer to her and took its smell in.
It reeked of coffee.