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The trainer's office that rainy, humid afternoon felt quieter than usual, weary and heavy with stillness. Stacks of documents left over from a finished meeting, notes still scribbled on the edge of the whiteboard, the air conditioner humming low in the corner of the room—every part of it was an ordinary scene I knew well.
And then, in the middle of it all, something sitting on the edge of my desk suddenly caught my eye.
“...Hm?”
It was about the size of my palm: a simple little bottle with a rounded lid. Inside was only a single candy, carefully wrapped and resting there in silence.
Had someone else left it behind?
Trainers exchanged little treats all the time, and it could easily have been a thank-you gift or a whim. Just the other day, a trainer from another team had handed me cookies saying, “This is to thank you for before.”
“...I was just in the mood for something sweet, too.”
I had been run ragged by my morning schedule and lunch had been nothing more than a convenience-store rice ball. Now that things had finally calmed down, surely I could allow myself a brief rest. I reached out, picked up the candy still in its wrapper, and caught a gentle scent drifting from it—something faintly nostalgic, sweet like flowers.
“...Huh. It smells nice...”
I slowly unwound the paper with my fingertips and slipped the transparent red candy into my mouth. It wasn't the sort you crunched down on. Instead it melted slowly across my tongue, soft and sweet.
“...Ah...”
As the taste spread through me, the tension left my shoulders.
Sweet. Warm. Somehow it felt like the center of my chest was growing lighter—
“...”
Before I knew it, my eyelids were growing heavy.
My thoughts turned airy and indistinct, and I leaned back into my chair.
My consciousness melted away. As though dissolving into the sweetness of the candy, I sank soundlessly to the bottom of a dream.
And then—
I fell asleep.
I don't know how long I slept.
A little later, I felt the air-conditioning against my skin as colder than before, and slowly opened my eyes.
What I saw was the same old trainer's office.
And yet something was wrong. The chair felt strangely huge, the desk oddly high and far away. Even the chair against my back seemed to be swallowing me up.
“...Huh?”
When I sat up, I noticed the change for the first time.
My arms were thin. Short. My hands, my fingers—everything looked like that of an elementary school child.
I scrambled to my feet and nearly knocked the chair over behind me with a clatter. I couldn't balance properly. My viewpoint was too low. My stride didn't fit.
“No way... what is this...?!”
My heart jumped. This had to be real. I remembered it clearly—that candy's taste, that scent, the sudden drowsiness. And now this impossible situation.
I rushed to the mirror attached to the locker door.
Reflected there was the face of an unfamiliar child.
No—not unfamiliar. There was resemblance there. It was unmistakably me. A small child who looked strikingly like my younger self stood in that mirror.
“W-wait... calm down, calm down, me...!”
Even my voice was high and childish. My shirt sleeves swallowed my hands whole, and my skirt looked ready to slip right off.
Even trying to steady my breathing, I couldn't stop the panic rippling through my chest.
I felt on the verge of breaking into tears if I relaxed even a little, and I braced myself against the desk, forcing out long, deep breaths.
“...It's okay. Stay calm... I have to do something.”
Right. First of all, I couldn't let anyone see me like this.
Especially not Journey. What would she think if she saw me in this state? She wasn't the sort of girl who would laugh at something like this—but I knew for certain that it would make her worry in all sorts of ways.
I didn't want that. She was in the middle of an important stretch of the Twinkle Series. I didn't want to burden her with anything extra unrelated to racing. Before she found out, I had to do something myself.
Around this time every afternoon, she usually stopped by after class. In just a few minutes, I would probably hear her knock.
“...Contact her...!”
I hastily searched for my smartphone.
The phone felt bigger than ever, and I practically had to cradle it in both hands while tapping at the screen. Even entering text was clumsy and frustrating. My fingers just wouldn't move properly.
(Please, don't let her think anything strange...!)
I opened Journey's contact and typed out a message with trembling fingers.
“My health's a little off today, so could you handle the afternoon training as self-practice...? Ugh, this is so hard to type!”
I grumbled at my own tiny fingers, hit send, and turned the screen facedown. My throat was bone-dry, and the sound of swallowing rang ridiculously loud in the room.
“...That should be okay... maybe.”
I just wanted it to work. That was all.
If the candy had caused this, then maybe there was another medicine somewhere. I needed time to look into it. There had to be a way to turn back, surely—
“...”
I was in despair.
Even if I wanted to track down where the candy had come from or search for a way to reverse it, I couldn't in this body. And the biggest problem was my clothes. My jacket, my shirt—everything was adult-sized. On a child's body they were far beyond baggy; the hems dragged on the floor when I tried to walk.
I tried opening my locker at least to see if my casual clothes would help... but of course everything in there was still in my original size. Nothing could stand in as a substitute. Even the towel I wrapped around myself kept slipping off my shoulders.
“If I go outside like this, it'll be a full-on incident...!”
Even to my own ears, the protest sounded pitiful. I paced the room from side to side, but no matter how many times I circled it, the situation didn't improve. I couldn't step outside the door. I didn't even have the courage to open the window.
There was nothing I could do.
“What if I never turn back...”
At that worst-case thought, panic and humiliation piled higher inside my chest. The corners of my eyes grew hot. I wanted to cry—like a child—
No. In my current state, I literally was a child, so maybe crying would not have been strange at all.
But even so, I couldn't allow it.
“...This isn't the time to cry. I have to hold it together.”
I muttered it to myself and scrubbed at my eyes hard with my arm.
Then—
Knock, knock.
That quiet, gentle rhythm at the door again.
“...Trainer?”
The voice that came through the door was unmistakably Dream Journey's.
My chest tightened painfully.
“Are you all right? I saw your message, but... are you crying?”
There was worry in her voice, and hesitation, and confusion—and kindness. I darted to the door on instinct and held my breath.
(Please... go home... just for now, please...)
But my prayer did not reach her.
“Excuse me. Just let me see your face for a moment.”
Then I heard the click of the doorknob turning.
“...!”
I couldn't even manage to say don't come in. I snatched up the spare blanket from the corner of the room and hastily wrapped it over my shirt, trying to hide my body as best I could. It wouldn't cover me completely, but even so—even a little—I wanted to conceal this form.
And then, the next moment.
The office door opened quietly.
“...”
Journey stepped inside, those same gentle eyes as always.
But the instant her gaze found me, confusion visibly shook them.
“...Are you... Trainer?”
At Journey's question, I opened my mouth—
but no sound came out.
It felt as if something had clogged up in the center of my chest.
And instead—
“Fweh—”
A tiny sob spilled out.
After several deep breaths, the soft touch of a handkerchief, and her calm voice repeated over and over—
I didn't know how long passed like that. By the time I noticed, I was being soothed in Journey's lap. My eyes were swollen hot from crying, and the back of my nose still stung, but the tears had stopped.
“...Have you calmed down?”
Journey's voice as she looked into my face was the same gentle, polite voice as always. Yet in the depths of her eyes there was confusion, worry, and above all earnest concern.
“...Yeah. Sorry, Journey... I really surprised you...”
“No. I certainly was surprised, but more than that... I was much more worried that you were in a situation painful enough to make you cry.”
Journey's words went straight into my chest. Before I knew it, I was clutching a little at the hem of her uniform.
“...I'm pathetic, aren't I? Ending up like this, crying like a child, unable to do anything...”
Saying it out loud only made the humiliation surge harder, and the ends of my words trembled. But Journey did not deny it. She only quietly stroked my head. Her large, warm palm combed slowly through my hair, and with every pass the agitation in my heart softened a little more.
“Pathetic? Not at all. If anything, you did remarkably well keeping yourself calm on your own this long. You sent me a message, and you stayed shut up in this room so no one else would find you like this—every one of those was a wise decision.”
“...You don't think I'm just being needy?”
“I do not.”
Journey answered in a crisp, decisive tone. There was no hesitation in it. For some reason that made me absurdly happy, and I sniffed softly.
“...Thank you, Journey... really...”
“No need. I am your trainee, after all. I'm only doing what ought to be natural.”
Her voice was quiet and yet dependable. It was the kind of voice that made me feel certain that even if the whole world was shaking, Journey alone would still remain beside me unchanged.
I leaned a little more of my weight into her, resting my forehead against her chest.
“...What do I do now? I don't know how to turn back... and I don't even know who to ask about the candy...”
“First, let us prepare clothes that can hide your body properly. I have a tracksuit in my things. I'm rather small myself... so why not try that on?”
“...Really?”
“Of course. For now, the first priority is putting you in a state where you can at least go outside if necessary.”
So saying, Journey started to stand.
But I caught her wrist before I could stop myself.
“...Can we stay like this just a little longer?”
“...Yes. Of course.”
Journey smiled, then gently gathered me back into her lap. Her slender, supple arms curved around my shoulders as if to envelop me. The usual perfume she wore made the center of my chest grow warm.
In those arms, for the first time, I felt like maybe it really would be all right.
A stretch of silence followed. All I could hear was the ticking of the clock and my own small breathing. My heart had calmed so much it was hard to believe I had been crying only moments earlier—
and then—
“Hehe...”
“...What?”
At the sudden laugh, I tilted my head. Journey was still smiling faintly as her fingertips brushed softly across my cheek.
“No, it only reminded me a little of the past. When I was about this same height as you are now, I used to sit my younger sister in my lap and soothe her just like this.”
“...!”
That single sentence sent a bolt of lightning down my spine.
I could picture it instantly: this perfectly composed beautiful girl gently bouncing and soothing that particular younger sister of hers when she was small. And worse, I then became aware of the fact that right now—the one playing the role of “little sister” was me.
“W-wait a second...! Okay, maybe I've leaned on you too much, I'll get down!”
Unable to bear the embarrassment, I tried to get up from Journey's lap—
but—
“That won't do.”
With those words, her arms slid back around me and effortlessly returned me to where I'd been. Startled, I looked up to find Journey still smiling in that same serene way.
“Your face is still red. If you go walking around in that condition, you might give yourself a fever.”
“Ughhh...!”
Her voice was soft, almost coaxing. She wasn't angry at all, yet every word slowly tightened around my chest. I could only look away in misery.
“...S-stop it, Journey! I was an adult until just a little while ago, you know...!”
I protested in a near-tearful voice—
but—
“Hehe. There's no need to panic so much. Though the look on your face when you're embarrassed is adorable too.”
With a gentle laugh, Journey softly patted my back. The motion was like a mother soothing a baby—no, to her it probably really did feel like holding her little sister.
But from my side, that did not help at all.
After all, here I was with this tiny body laid across her lap, held in a way that felt almost childishly dependent. If I lifted my eyes even a little, her collarbone was right there. We were close enough for our cheeks almost to touch. Her scent, her warmth, even the tiny tremors in her breathing all reached me—
“Be a good girl and let yourself be held properly. All right?”
The words whispered beside my ear were soft, and yet left me no escape.
Her breath brushed me.
My earlobe trembled faintly.
“W-wait, seriously, I can't handle this...!”
I tried to wriggle upright, throwing out excuses as I went. But every time I did, her arms floated around me again and held me fast, gentle but sure.
“Right now is the time to listen to your big sister. ...It's all right. There's nothing to be afraid of—okay?”
She said it with perfect composure, in a voice sweet enough to tickle, her smiling face far too close for me to meet her eyes.
Even when I wanted to run, the arms wound loosely around me were so comfortable that security and embarrassment came rushing over me at once. Every time she lightly rocked me there in her lap, the reality of being treated like a child sank deeper and deeper into my awareness.
Being in her lap at all was embarrassing enough, and on top of that she was stroking my hair, patting my back, cooing “there, there” and indulging me. She was soothing me like a baby.
And then, as if to finish me off, that low, sweet voice fell once more at my ear.
“...You're sweating. How awful. I wonder if you have a fever.”
The way she said it so deliberately, the warmth of her breath brushing my ear, melted my ability to think.
I was done for.
Crushed entirely by embarrassment, face burning bright red, all I could do was sit there small and motionless in Journey's arms and endure it.