London.
Inside a suite in a high-end hotel.
A vibrant young woman with a playful short haircut and a fit physique that couldn't be hidden even in a thin T-shirt was pacing anxiously around the room, almost wearing the carpet to shreds.
"Why isn't Mom back yet? We agreed to meet at this time." The girl glanced at her watch, her brow furrowed. "Could something really have happened? Was that 'dad' really a trap?"
She felt an impulse to rush out and help immediately, but reason told her that doing so might disrupt her mother's plans and only cause more trouble.
Just as she was debating whether to count to ten and then rush out—
"Knock knock knock".
There was a gentle knock on the door.
The girl's eyes lit up, and she rushed to the door, excitedly shouting as she opened it, "Mommy! You're back! Do you see Daddy? He's not dead..."
Her words came to an abrupt end.
Because the entrance was completely empty, not even a ghost in sight.
"Huh? Where is everyone?" The girl froze, peeking out the door in confusion, looking around the empty hotel corridor. "Nobody's here? Who knocked? A prank? Or am I hallucinating?"
Just as she was muttering and preparing to turn back and close the door, a weak but somewhat familiar voice came from below her feet, from an angle she would never normally notice:
"So pure..."
This voice... sounds a bit like my mother's, but it's also a bit... too childish?
The girl was startled by the sudden sound and instinctively looked down—
A little girl, soaking wet, with short blonde hair sticking to her cheeks, and bright blue eyes like a lake, who looked only seven or eight years old, stood silently in the doorway, looking up at her.
The little girl was wearing an extremely incongruous high-end trench coat that was far too large for her petite frame and clearly belonged to an adult woman; the hem of the coat dragged on the ground, making her look disheveled and pitiful.
"Who...who are you?" The girl's eyes widened, completely bewildered. "How do you know my name?"
This statement also inadvertently revealed her identity.
Sera is pure.
Mary Akai's youngest daughter.
A vibrant girl who is female but has a boyish personality and appearance.
Hmm... he's a detective (as he calls himself).
The little girl raised her head, looking at her with those blue eyes that were completely out of place for her small body, filled with a calmness beyond her years and a deep weariness, and uttered a shocking statement in her childish voice:
"It's me... I'm your mother."
She paused, as if gathering her strength, and then said in a clear tone, tinged with a hint of helplessness, "They gave me a strange drug... which caused my body... to become like this."
She emphasized again, her tone leaving no room for doubt: "I am your mother, Mary Akai."
Akai Marie!
Sera Masumi was struck dumb, her mind going blank for a moment.
The adorable little one in front of her, who could be lifted with one hand and whom she had to squat down to look at... is that her agile and powerful mother?!
What kind of international joke is this?!
Is today April Fool's Day? Or is she still half asleep?
This shock was ten thousand times more outrageous than the news she had just learned that her father, who was thought to have died seventeen years ago and whose grave was overgrown with grass, might still be alive.
However, Sera Masumi's nerves are obviously much thicker than those of ordinary people, or rather, her thought process and ability to accept things are different from ordinary people, and she has the passive skill of "quickly accepting surreal settings".
After the initial shock, she quickly crouched down, placing her hands on the little girl's... no, on the "mother's" thin shoulders, and scrutinized her closely like a scanner, her face filled with disbelief and exclamation: "Holy crap, this is so cool!"
"Really?! You're really my mom?! This...this is amazing!"
She pinched her chin, striking a thoughtful pose she'd learned from a famous detective in the Kanto region, though it looked rather odd.
She observed carefully: the little girl's oversized, soaking wet coat was indeed the one her mother had worn when she went out that day; her dazzling blonde hair was exactly the same as her mother's; and despite being such a tiny little girl, there was a faint, inappropriate bulge in her chest...
Yes, that familiar, enviable curve is indeed very much in line with a mother's style, even if it has shrunk, it still stands out from the crowd.
With so much evidence before her, she had no choice but to believe it.
That awful mom! She's already turned into a little girl, and she still has to criticize her figure!
This damn genetics!
"This is unbelievable..."
Sera Masumi muttered to herself, but the next second, she accepted this absurd reality very decisively and without any difficulty. There was no embarrassment or awkwardness on her face. She changed her words very naturally, and her tone was even a little curious: "Mom, come in quickly. You will catch a cold if you wear wet clothes. Your little body can't withstand the cold."
As she spoke, she led the way into the room like a reliable older sister, even trying to carry her mother in, only to be glared at by Akai Mary with a cold look.
"Um......"
Mary Akai responded softly, feeling an unprecedented weakness from her shrunken body and a sense of unease at the increased size of everything around her. With her short legs, she struggled to cross the threshold, which was a bit too high for her.
"Cough cough... cough cough..."
She couldn't help but cough twice more, covering her mouth with her small hand and frowning slightly.
Sera Masumi was about to go to the bathroom to get a dry towel and hair dryer when she heard the cough. She immediately turned around with concern, her voice filled with the worry of a mother: "Mom, why are you coughing? Did you fall into the river and catch a cold? I told you the river water wasn't clean!"
Mary Akai frowned, puzzled herself. She checked her body and said, "I don't know... I don't have a fever or any other discomfort, but my throat is a little itchy and I can't help but want to cough."
Based on her extensive experience—though that experience didn't include shrinking—she speculated, "It's probably a side effect of that strange medicine..."
After all, it has already managed to make people young again, so it seems reasonable to add a cough debuff as well?
"Oh, really? Side effects of the medication..."
Sera Masumi nodded as if she understood, instantly accepting the surreal thing that drugs could transform a mature woman into a cute little girl overnight. The mere side effect of coughing was simply insignificant, like a free gift with a buy-one-get-one-free offer.
A sickly beauty can sometimes be more attractive.
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