"Master, Master!"
Little Gui squeezed through the crowd, holding a candied hawthorn skewer, her red satin qipao's slit letting soft snowy skin brush against Caelus's foot as she pulled him toward herself:
"I'll share half my hawthorn skewer with you — can I nuzzle your little cheek?"
"There are eight people here, five of whom got the grow-big kind — Caelus-baby, you are not one of them!"
While everyone else was busy squishing and squeezing and cuddling Caelus-baby, Stelle moved with the desperate, full-body intensity of a player scooping up an SSR drop in a gacha game. Hands and feet both working, she swept every last one of the grow-big and shrink-small candies into her spatial ring.
They might not offer a single combat stat bonus, but as far as Stelle was concerned, these were worth more than any food that temporarily buffed attack power, crit rate, or speed.
Strategic-tier resources. The rarest of the rare.
The one unfortunate thing: the Universal Synthesizer had no templates, no guaranteed outcomes — the product was entirely random.
As they say, no two leaves in the world are alike. Even if Stelle fed in a torn fishnet stocking, a red dress, and a Heliobus again next time, she could never synthesize grow-big-shrink-small candies twice — not unless she had ten-pull, four-gold, astronomical luck on her side.
Luckily, one synthesis batch had yielded a generous haul. Stelle had collected two full jars, stuffed to the brim.
Rainbow-colored as the glass marbles she'd played with as a child. Flavors running the full spectrum. Effects limited to exactly two things — physical 'growth' and 'regression' — with potency varying by the size of each candy sphere.
"Brother Caelus~ Do you want some milk~?"
The voice was warm and gentle, laced with a silken thread of coquetry. To all outward appearances there was no sign — but as 'Seele,' Caelus knew perfectly well that the one dangling a glass of milk in front of him was Black Seele.
White Seele was sending shy, flustered queries through their shared mental channel.
"Okay, enough, all of you."
Feet dangling off the ground, the life completely drained from his golden eyes, Caelus lay cradled in Little March's arms — Little March, who was herself at roughly six-year-old height. She held him like a soft, fluffy little raccoon plushie, padding along with cheerful, bouncy little steps, exactly like a big sister who had just caught the most adorable little brother in the world. Her short pink hair kept tickling his face.
Stelle sidled over, brandishing her blue camera, angling for a photo of Caelus and March 7th. Caelus shot a tiny hand out and grabbed her sleeve:
"Stelle! Give me a grow-big candy right now! I want to go back to normal!"
"Heh heh~"
Stelle pressed the shutter with one fingertip. The camera's LCD screen captured Caelus's predicament in full. The corners of her eyes swept upward, flooding with mischievous light.
Click~!
Album locked. Stelle leaned down at a leisurely pace, her figure all ripe summer curves, her elegant silver hair cascading like a waterfall of moonlight.
The qipao she'd managed to half-fasten looked ready to pop open at any moment. Her collarbones caught the morning light, glowing with a soft, disarming warmth.
Her eyes were bewitching, coyly lifted — and yet she pressed her lips together in a smile, creasing out a playful little curve, where mischief and allure knotted together at the corner of her mouth into something utterly dangerous.
"What are you planning now?"
Caelus executed a tactical lean-back, pressing the back of his head firmly against March 7th's torso.
Little March had been a touch shy about all this — but thinking back on the form she was currently in, and everything she'd already been through, this was nothing.
"What's the little Caelus-baby hiding from~?"
Fast as a striking snake, Stelle's knuckle hooked under his soft, pudgy little chin — the way you'd coax a kitten nestled in your palm — and forced his gaze back up to meet hers:
"Say Mama~ and I'll give you a candy!"
"Oh, you just wait."
Caelus smiled and raised a small, tender, utterly chubby middle finger. The problem was that, given the face currently attached to that finger, it carried absolutely zero intimidation whatsoever.
Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't have minded calling the Stellaron spirit 'Dad' or 'Mom' — they'd both been known to call the other that whenever they needed a favor. But in this particular state, something told him that going along with it would only make things so much worse...
"Not going to say it? Then there's nothing I can do — just wait for the effect to wear off on its own~"
Stelle gave a careless shrug, then took a large, unrepentant bite of his cheek, leaving half his face slick with saliva.
"Could you at least wipe that off him? It's going to get all over me!"
Little March, still cradling her living stuffed toy, complained in a mildly aggrieved tone and pulled out a tissue to dab Caelus's face.
There was, remarkably, something approaching genuine maternal energy radiating off March 7th right now.
"Stop struggling. Accept your fate, Sensei."
Haxxor Bunny had also, through a combination of eating too many candies and the catastrophic bad luck of drawing nothing but shrink-small ones, regressed to the same genuine-age-three state as Caelus. She wobbled on her feet, struggling to rearrange her oversized bunny-ear hood.
At least she had the gender advantage.
Everyone here was a girl — and their collective interest in an absurdly small, soft, adorable little boy was obviously several times higher than in her, an absurdly small little girl.
Also, Haxxor Bunny had only known Guinaifen and Sushang for a short while — they weren't close enough yet for them to start manhandling her just because she was cute. Caelus was a different story entirely...
Being kneaded and squeezed by a whole crowd of people — I'll remember your sacrifice, my adorable little Sensei!
"Outside of teaching hours, just call me by my name."
Mainly, Caelus was worried that if Haxxor Bunny kept saying 'Sensei,' she might inspire the others to join in.
If he'd somehow ended up in Kivotos Academy as a teacher instead of on the Star Rail, and got turned into a three-year-old adorable little boy there — probably half the student body would have completely lost their minds.
Seeing that Caelus still looked thoroughly deflated, Haxxor Bunny offered a word of comfort:
"You get used to it, honestly. Back in the day, when Theresa first put on the magical girl dress, she had exactly the same expression as you — and then she just... got very comfortable with the business model pretty quickly. Besides, right now, you're the most dazzling little cub of the Xianzhou Trailblaze Squad!"
"Here, want a chocolate bar?"
Haxxor Bunny's soft little hand extended a chocolate bar toward Caelus, who was entirely unable to move from within March 7th's arms.
"Sweets are good for lifting your mood."
"I'd argue they lower it. Sweets are the root cause of all of this!"
Caelus accepted the chocolate bar anyway. The fierce little expression on his face made Stelle, March 7th, and Seele's eyes simultaneously light up — their gazes growing more and more scorching, the atmosphere slowly crackling with barely-suppressed mischief.
Feeling the pressure bearing down on him, Caelus immediately smoothed his expression into total blankness. Haxxor Bunny stifled a snicker, then raised her phone screen toward him with her little hand.
"Then I'll have to speak up for sweets — here, try this."
"What is it?"
March 7th's arms wrapped up from under his armpits and crossed over his chest, keeping his feet off the ground. He leaned forward slightly, tilting his head down to look. On Haxxor Bunny's phone screen was a gacha pull page.
It was a game he'd recommended Haxxor Bunny get into.
Caelus looked Haxxor Bunny in the eyes. Blinked. Haxxor Bunny blinked back — then went pink in the cheeks and turned her head away with the tiniest, most indignant little click of her tongue.
This face really was playing dirty.
Caelus caught on to what she meant quickly enough. He reached out and tapped ten-pull. Nothing. Tapped again. Nothing. All the way to pity — and only then, finally, did something come out.
He opened the pull history and took a look.
...Wow.
That is spectacularly bad luck.
"I think that might be the real reason."
Haxxor Bunny took her phone back.
"...Fair enough."
Caelus clamped one end of the chocolate bar between his teeth.
The probability of eating three shrink-small candies in a row was one in eight. He'd hit the one-in-seven against, no contest — textbook bad luck.
"Whatever. I need to save my luck for when it actually counts. A little misfortune in daily life is just building up my good-luck reserves."
"That's... a very specific luck-farming philosophy."
Haxxor Bunny blinked those big, dewy, disarmingly cute eyes — painfully endearing.
"It's the law of balance. Fortune and misfortune are two sides of the same coin; luck and bad luck are a conserved quantity. As long as a person burns through all their bad luck, what's left is pure good fortune."
Caelus stated this with great gravity and authority.
"There's actually a theory like that?"
Little Haxxor Bunny tilted her head in confusion, bunny ears swaying.
"Of course. For example — you just had terrible luck on that pull. That means you're owed a lucky break right now."
Caelus raised one pudgy little fist and stuck his thumb out to one side. Haxxor Bunny looked puzzled.
Because her line of sight had been partially blocked by her suddenly smaller field of view, she'd fallen half a step behind — and now she saw Stelle, eyes absolutely blazing, staring directly at her.
"Bronie, let big sis give you a hug~!"
Some little gesture Haxxor Bunny had made unconsciously during her conversation with Caelus — done in the body of an itty-bitty little girl — had apparently been unbearably cute, and had naturally drawn the Stellaron spirit's full attention.
"Hey! Stelle, wait — wait for — me — Caelus! You set me up!"
The target of Stelle's enthusiastic kneading and inhaling shifted: Haxxor Bunny was now the one getting thoroughly mauled.
"So — still think the law of balance doesn't work?"
Caelus said this with absolute sincerity.
Never mind how the misfortune got there in the first place.
Besides, being small wasn't entirely without its perks.
Case in point: Caelus deliberately wriggled his tiny body deeper into the crook of March 7th's arms. He kept one end of the chocolate bar between his lips, tilted his head back, and looked up.
"What is it~?"
Little March let out a tone of voice Caelus had never once heard from her before — something genuinely, effortlessly gentle.
His golden eyes pooled in the warm light, filling up like cups of amber honey. His head tipped sideways into the softest, most devastatingly precious angle. Caelus's voice came out silky and milky:
"Sister March... eat together~!"
His acting had already been award-caliber to begin with — add in the amplifier of the Persona Mask, and right now Caelus was the living, breathing embodiment of the words 'innocent' and 'adorable.'
March 7th, who had always had a critical weakness for anything cute, was shattered by this single skill activation. The arms holding Caelus began to tremble. Her mind went white and buzzing — exactly like taking a direct hit to the heart — and for a moment she felt she could float straight up to heaven.
Almost without thinking, she bit down on the other end of the chocolate bar. They finished it together.
If Caelus were in his normal state, March 7th would absolutely never eat a chocolate bar with him like this.
Something warm lingered at the corner of his lips, gone in an instant. When Little March came back to herself, she was greeted by the sight of the adorable little boy beaming up at her in radiant delight — and her head spun even harder. Her arms went limp. Caelus dropped to the ground.
Hah. Too easy.
A mere Little March — defeated with a single casual move.
Freed at last, Caelus kicked his tiny legs into motion and prepared to make his escape.
Based on prior experience, even with stacking, the candy effect shouldn't last more than three hours.
A gentleman's revenge waits no longer than three hours — and three hours is more than enough!
Once he turned Stelle into a tiny little girl, he was absolutely taking her to every children's clothing store on the Xianzhou and making her try on every single adorable outfit in the place!
"Caelus-baby~"
A voice like still water, gentle as moonlight. Caelus felt an arm loop around his body — and then his feet were off the ground again.
"Where do you think you're running off to~?"
At nearly 180 centimeters of tall, model-worthy poise, Stelle had scooped him up one-handed like plucking a kitten off the floor — one arm hooked around his waist and he was airborne.
Hadn't she been fixated on Haxxor Bunny? Why was she back for him?!
The answer arrived the moment Stelle tucked him under her arm.
"Bronie, you absolute traitor!"
Caelus hissed through clenched teeth, reaching over to grab the collar of the gray-haired tiny little girl Stelle was holding against her right side with her other arm — and shook hard. Haxxor Bunny didn't even try to resist.
"You're the one who said outside class hours you don't need to be treated like a teacher — so right now, we've both been caught by Stelle. Seems pretty fair to me~"
She was also very good at redirecting the disaster.
And she played the Pike very smoothly.
— Drag them all down with me.
Haxxor Bunny flicked a series of significant looks at Caelus. Because he was 'Bronie,' the two of them had a considerable degree of unspoken understanding.
— Right now we scatter her attention, stick together for warmth. Later when you go steal the candies, we turn all of them tiny!
Caelus read the rough meaning from those lively, silver-grey eyes.
He did have every intention of turning Stelle and the others into three-year-olds — he just didn't particularly want to share the heat with Haxxor Bunny.
Let Haxxor Bunny take the punishment now, and he'd get his revenge later — wasn't that the better arrangement?
"Two little cuties~ Mhm~"
While the two of them were exchanging glances, Stelle produced a chocolate bar with great enthusiasm, clamped one end between her own teeth, and angled the other end toward Caelus.
"Caelus-baby, want a taste~?"
"Make me."
And yet — he bit down on the other end and started eating. What Stelle had said about 'giving him a taste' wasn't about the chocolate. It was about performing the cute-little-boy act. Putting on a show for her.
Caelus had no intention of giving her the satisfaction.
"Okay, guys, hello — you're still doing this even now?"
Haxxor Bunny stared at the scene before her, eyes wide as dinner plates. If any outsider wandered by and saw this, they would call the police, and Stelle would get hauled away one hundred percent of the time!
"Does Bronie want to try too?"
Stelle didn't bother to address that directly. With one arm curved like a cradle, she gathered tiny Haxxor Bunny and tiny-tiny Caelus together against her chest, both of them squished into one armful. She twirled the chocolate bar between her fingertips, the corner of her eye dancing with smug, provocative light:
"Here — one bite each from opposite ends~"
Before either of them could react, the dark brown stick was slipping past Caelus's barely-parted lips. The other end pressed against the corner of Haxxor Bunny's dazed, frozen mouth.
This move defied the laws of logic harder than the game engine itself.
Yep — Haxxor Bunny could not begin to understand how Stelle's brain was wired.
She even pressed down on Caelus's head. Deliberately.
Forcing their breaths to mingle — the chocolate melting between their teeth into a thread of clinging sweetness — Stelle looked on with an expression of deep satisfaction.
Haxxor Bunny tried to dodge. Couldn't manage it. Stopped struggling.
After all — this body wasn't really hers. It belonged to another version of herself. Bronie liked Caelus, so kissing him in this particular body, in this particular state... it was fine. More than fine, even.
Caelus's expression was rather stiff — but not because of Stelle pressing his head down. It was because:
"Everyone. Get your things together. We need to leave. Now."
"What's the rush~?"
"Obviously — we need to get Caelus-baby to the children's clothing store before he turns back to normal!"
Same brain cell. Same conclusion.
The moment those words landed, every girl in the courtyard's eyes went from zero to full-brightness lightbulb in an instant.
"D-don't any of you come near me!"
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