Deep blue, as far as the eye can see.

  Meg drifts peacefully through the water, as though it’s the most natural thing in the skies. No fears, no anxieties, just feeling the rays from the sun shine down into the sea from far overhead, not a single thing for her to worry about.

  After continuing like this for some time, she sees a shiver of sharks swim by overhead, and a number of unnaturally shaped objects on the water’s surface travelling alongside them. For one reason or another, she feels a strange sense of duty to watch over the sharks, and changes course to join the group.

  Upon surfacing, a sense of relief washes over her when she sees that the strange shapes were in fact a fleet of fishing boats. She recognises these boats quite well in fact, despite the fact that they seem much more rudimentary than the kinds she’s used to seeing, and that they don’t actually seem all that familiar to any she’s seen recently. In addition, why do the boats, and the people on them for that matter, seem much smaller than they should be? Now that she’s closed the distance, the other sharks around her aren’t as rge as she expected, either, or maybe she’s imagining it? It almost feels like they were always this size. A part of her also seems to recognize that these sharks are missing something as well, aren’t they meant to have wings? No, that can’t be right…

  Regardless, the people on the boats wave to her after she surfaces, and feeling an odd camaraderie with these people she apparently recognises, she waves her arm - At least she’s pretty sure it’s an arm? - in return. She checks behind her as she swims with them, and while she’s having a hard time making out her own body, the view of Auguste’s main isnd is unmistakable, just how it used to look. Wait, how did it used to look?

  Anyway, the fishermen must be heading out for the day. Meg supposes it’s only fair that she tag along and assist them in their hunt, she’s about due for a meal herself anyway. She picks up speed, pushing ahead of the pack so she can lead them to where the fish have gathered today, like she has so many times before. A feeling of fulfilment, of contentment, fills her heart, like this is as good as things can get, before the world around her suddenly starts to go blurry, fading out of existence as a familiar headache returns in full force.

  The warm, fuzzy feelings are quickly repced with a cold emptiness, and just when panic starts to take over, everything goes completely dark.

  “Nghhhhh… whuh…?” Slowly, Meg starts to wake as her headache continues to pound. It takes a few moments for the drowsy woman to recognise her surroundings as she slowly sits up, but she’s in Mari’s bed, just as she should be. Small amounts of natural light stream into the room from behind the door and curtains, indicating that it’s probably time to get out of bed.

  She rubs her eyes, trying to wake herself up. “Urrgh, must've had a rough sleep. I think I had a strange dream as well…” She looks around again as the fleeting memories of her dream fades away, and her consciousness gradually returns to her. She barely even registers how much tighter her top is on her, but manages to ignore the pounding in her head, and the mild grumbling of her stomach, for long enough to finally notice something important is missing.

  “Marri… arre you there?” She groggily calls out. “...Marri?”

  No one responds to her call, however. Meg would be quite worried right now if she wasn’t so out of it at the moment. Regardless, she’s at least aware enough to be intent on figuring out what’s going on, so she wearily gets up, and trudges out into the living room. She’s having trouble thinking straight, and could swear she hears a strange noise when she walks through the doorway, but she presses on nonetheless.

  The living room is much brighter than the bedroom, and once her eyes adjust she scans the room to see if anything is wrong, but aside from the continued ck of a particur Erune, one that should be rather hard to miss at her size, everything seems perfectly normal. She steps further into the room as her mind finally starts to catch up to her body, and she sees a note on the dining table. Meg picks it up, and in between a mass of hand drawn love hearts and other cutesy scribbles is a message.

  Hi, Meg. I hope you slept well~

  I’ve stepped out to grab some supplies, we can’t have you going hungry on me again like you did st night! I’ll be back soon to cook you up a yummy breakfast <3

  P.S. That captain of yours stopped by, we’ll be meeting her and the others at a cafe ter to talk about what to do about those sharks

  P.P.S. I hope you don’t get too lonely without me! ;-;

  “Oh, that’s nice of her. I thought something might have happened to her for a second there.” Meg scratches her head, still not totally lucid, but closer to feeling properly awake. “I guess I am pretty hungry, now that I think of it. I’ll just-”

  Meg tries to take a seat at the dining table while she waits for Mari to return, only for the wooden chair to snap to pieces in her hand when she pulls it out from under the table. The surprise of the sudden breakage catches her off guard in her compromised state, causing her to stumble backwards and fall to the ground.

  “H-Huh…? Why did the chair…” Meg tries to process what just happened as she gets back up, but when she pces a hand on the table for support, her arm goes right through the wood the moment she puts any weight on it, somehow snapping the table legs in the process and sending her to the ground once more, along with what remains of the table as well.

  “...What the heck?” Two shocks in a row do a great deal to break her out of her stupor, even her headache becomes much less intense as she comes to her senses, and this time she gets up much more carefully, making sure not to lean on anything at risk of it also breaking. She takes in the sight of the broken furniture before her, not even sure why they broke so easily. “They should’ve been stronger than that, right? How did I…” She turns around, only for the scene leading from the bedroom to stop her train of thought in its tracks.

  The bedroom door is lying on the ground, broken into several pieces. Part of the door is still attached to the frame, hanging on to the one hinge that hasn’t been torn right off, but the rest has been shattered into an uncountable number of pieces. It looks like something crashed right through it, but she could have sworn it was still in one piece when she got up, wasn’t it? She’s fairly certain the door was closed, and very much attached to the doorframe, it would have been much brighter in there when she woke up, otherwise. Wait… Meg can’t really remember opening the door when she walked in here, but if it was closed… then…

  “Was… Was that my fault? I just… walked right through it without even noticing? I guess that expins the sound I heard, the door just… snapped to pieces like the furniture out here did. Oh no, how do I expin all this to Marri?”

  Suddenly, before she even has a chance to worry about the situation all that much, she hears the sound of the front door opening. “Meeeg, I’m baaack~ I hope you slept well~”

  Meg turns around in shock to see Mari enter, carrying several bags filled with groceries. “I’ve got plenty of stuff here, so you can eat as much as you-” Mari’s eyes go wide when she looks at the scene before her, dropping the bags right on the ground.

  “M-Marri! I-I don’t know what happened! You weren’t here when I woke up and then I-” Meg stops talking when she realises that Mari isn’t even looking at the destruction in the room. Her eyes are squarely fixed on Meg herself.

  “Meg… Look at you…” She says slowly with a look of disbelief on her face, it’s as if even forming a simple sentence like that is the most she can handle. This only makes Meg more anxious, as the unusual reaction isn’t at all what she would have expected.

  “L-Look at me? W-What about the…” Then, Meg finally notices something. While the change in the pair’s height difference after the shark attack yesterday was quite subtle, she’s finding herself looking at a measurably lower angle to meet Mari’s gaze today.

  “D-Did I get taller again?” She eventually asks.

  “Uh-huh...” Mari says breathlessly, her eyes almost popping out of her head. “Not… just that though…” Failing to find the words, she simply points at Meg’s left arm.

  “My arrm? What arre you-” Meg holds her arm out in front of her, her attention finally brought to something that has escaped her notice from the moment she woke up.

  “...Oh no…”

  A while ter, Djeeta, Lyria, and Vyrn continue to pour over their precious pcemat at a local cafe. This venue is a little higher end than the one Meg and Vira found themselves in the day before, and the dispy cases at the counter near the entrance to the establishment contain all manner of fancy pastries.

  “Umm… We’ve already checked pretty much every pce we can think of on the west side of the isnd.” Lyria mulls over the map of Auguste. “Maybe we read the hint wrong?”

  “I dunno, the compass Captain Jimmy’s holdin’ in this picture is clearly pointing west, what else could it mean?” Vyrn asks, and the three of them look intently at the map, deep in thought.

  Suddenly, Djeeta, who is sitting opposite to the other two, almost jumps out of her seat as her eyes go wide. “I’ve got it.” She then proceeds to turn the map around, so that it appears upside down to the other two.

  “Hawawa! That’s it!” Lyria calls out. “He’s facing us, so we have to look at the compass from his point of view! If we turn the map upside down, it’s actually pointing east!”

  “Good thinkin’, buddy!” Vyrn flies over to pat the captain on the back. “Now, if it’s actually the east side of the isnd we gotta explore, we’ll need to rethink the co-ordinates we got from the crossword and cross-reference ‘em with the connect the dots puzzle, which should let us triangute…”

  “...How did that restaurant manage to fit so much on one pcement?” Vira, sitting next to the trio with a cup of tea and a croissant in front of her, says to herself as they continue to discuss the next steps of their treasure hunt. She then looks to the two vacant seats remaining at the table. “I wonder what’s taking them so long, I hope nothing happened.”

  Then, as if on cue, Mari practically bursts through the doors of the cafe with an almost feverish expression. She looks around for a moment before spotting the crew, and hurriedly walks over.

  “Mari, are you okay? You look to be in quite the state.” Vira asks with concern.

  “Oh me? I’m just fine! Hehehe… hehehehe…” Mari replies with a delirious smile on her face, barely able to stop herself from giggling. “I just wanted to check where we were sitting before I bring Meg in.”

  Vira raises an eyebrow. “Bring Meg in? Can she not enter on her own?”

  “Oh no, no no no no. Not right now, Meg’s much too…” Mari freezes for a moment, before shivering and sighing deeply. “Ahhhhhh, Meg…”

  “What’s going on, Mari? You’re making even less sense than usual.”

  “Lemme grab her, it’ll all make sense then.” Mari says before rushing back out the door. All Vira can do is look to the other three in confusion, who only offer shrugs in response.

  A few moments ter, Mari opens the doors once more, but this time she holds them open before calling out to someone outside. “Okayyy Meg, let’s head insiiiiide~”

  Meg then enters the building with an anxious smile, and Vira’s jaw drops as she suddenly understands why Mari is so worked up.

  “O-Oh my! Meg… she’s…”

  There’s a lot to take in when ying your eyes upon Meg in her current state, beyond just looking a little disheveled, but the most notable thing by far is her left arm. The grey and white sharky skin that was contained to just her hand yesterday has expanded its territory, now covering the entirety of her arm, and a good chunk of her shoulder, to boot. The other major change is most noticeable as she passes Mari, who can barely hide the blush on her face as she stares at her. Less than twenty four hours ago, Meg was only slightly taller than the Erune, as long as you didn’t count the ears, anyway, but now she stands almost a full head taller. Whatever change to her height she experienced yesterday afternoon was so little that only Mari could tell the difference, but now anyone could tell how much she’s grown from just a gnce.

  The st thing of note is more of a symptom of that second change, and one that Mari clearly doesn’t mind, practically drooling as she continues to stare, but the pyjamas Meg is wearing are clearly a couple sizes too small. Her tank top in particur sits very tight on her and exposes part of her stomach, doing little to hide the bulging, defined muscles that she’s developed over the years. Muscles that only appear even rger now thanks to the previously mentioned shift in scale. The woman awkwardly walks over to the group, doing her best to avoid bumping into things she wouldn’t have had to worry about previously, and Mari pulls a seat out for her, making sure that Meg doesn’t y a single finger on the chair herself.

  “H-Hey guys… What’s up?” She says timidly.

  “Meg, what… what in the skies happened to you!?” Vira asks, struggling to comprehend the sight of her as she sits at the table.

  “Yeah, how’d you get so huge?” Vyrn adds.

  “It’s crazy, right!?” Mari says as she puts her hands on Meg’s shoulders. “She’s so big, and strong, and… and big now!” Mari appears to start hyperventiting for just a moment before reigning herself in. She doesn’t take a seat herself though, instead opting to stay where she is, keeping her hands on those bulky shoulders.

  “But… how?” Vira’s sheer befuddlement comes across in both her face and voice. “We suspected you would continue to see changes as a result of the shard, but this much in just one night? Did something happen to trigger such an extreme acceleration of your condition?”

  “I don’t know, honest.” Meg answers apologetically. “I… kindar just woke up like this… My headache was really bad this morning as well, but… I feel fine now.”

  “How long ago did you wake up? Honestly, you should have let us know about a development like this the moment it happened. What if it keeps getting worse?”

  “I know, and I did want to tell you all right away, but… I really needed to have breakfast first, and Marri had to help me with that so I couldn’t arsk her to go and find you all. Then we tried to figure out which of my clothes still fit so we could come here, but… it was just my pyjamas. Everything else was farr too small…” Meg motions to her outfit, the motion of her arm causing the tank top to ride up a bit, revealing even more of her powerful midsection, much to Vira’s astonishment.

  “W-Well, I suppose I can understand, especially considering what we saw of your appetite yesterday.” She says, unsure if it would be ruder to avert her eyes while Meg’s in this state, or to keep looking at her.

  “Yeah, if anything it’s only getting worse, but I carn’t just let myself go hungry, not when that’d also affect Ursur…”

  “That’s right! Meg’s a big, big girl, and a big girl’s gotta eat!” Mari suddenly calls out as she sps Meg on the back. “Speaking of which, how about I order you some food? With how long we spent trying to find you something else to wear, you’re probably, like, starting to get hungry again, right?”

  “J-Just a bit, yeah…” Meg says bashfully.

  “Shouldn’t we be talking about how to help Meg with this issue, and stopping the shark attacks, first?” Vira asks.

  “Don’t worry, it'll only take me a few minutes to order, so we can do all that when I get back.” Mari gives Vira a thumbs up. “Besides, if we leave it too long, Ursu will start causing a scene again. What would you like to eat, Meg?”

  “Well… Uhhh…” Meg looks down anxiously. “They’ve mostly just got pastries here, so I guess I don’t really mind… Just… m-make sure it’s a lot, okay?”

  “Sure thing! Don’t go anywhere, Meg, I’ll be right back~” Mari gives Meg’s arm a quick squeeze as she leaves, only to turn back around again after taking a few steps. “Really, don’t go anywhere. We’d better be careful not to break anything.” She says before heading to the counter.

  Vira looks to Djeeta and the others, seeing that they’ve already returned to discussing their treasure hunt, leaving just her and Meg to talk to each other. “...Why do you need to be so careful about breaking things?”

  “Yeah, so… I’m not sure if it’s just because I’m bigger, or if it’s another effect of the core, but apparently I also got way stronger overnight. I… already wrecked a bunch of Marri’s furniture earlier, so I’m trying not to touch anything else if I can avoid it. That’s why she got the door and the chair for me earlier.” Meg scratches her head in embarrassment, and Vira can scarcely believe how much even a simple movement like that causes her bicep to flex.

  “I… s-see…” Vira takes a long sip of her tea before continuing. “Mari did mention that you had some difficulties controlling your strength even before this all began. But how are you holding up though all of this? I can’t imagine it’s been easy for you.”

  “I dunno, like, the arrm is definitely a big shock, but aside from the headaches, I guess I feel fine. I’m mostly just worried about what people will think when they see me like this, and, you know, accidentally breaking more stuff…”

  “I can understand how that could be causing you stress, hopefully we can discover a solution quickly so you won’t have to deal with this for long.” Vira gives her a sympathetic look.

  “Thanks…” Meg looks down again for a moment before speaking up once more. “Actually, there is something I wanted to arsk about while we’re here, Virar.”

  “Of course, I’m happy to help, but I do believe we are going to discuss your current situation once Mari gets back.”

  “Oh no, it isn’t about… this…” Meg gestures at her left arm, “or the sharrk stuff at all. It’s more… retionship advice again. I’ve realised something that I’d like to do for Marri, but I’m not sure how to actually go about it.”

  Vira looks at her with curiosity. “Oh? Well I’m sure I can provide some assistance with that as well, assuming you’re in a state to act on it.” This might be promising… Perhaps this situation has caused her to think about what’s really important, and made her realise she wants to confess to Mari as soon as she can. There might be a silver lining to her plight after all. She thinks as she takes another sip.

  “Yeah, well… this is a little different to what we talked about yesterday. I’m not sure if this is something you’ve got much experience with, and honestly it might not be the best timing with everything else right now, but… how do I hug someone?”

  Vira’s eyes go wide as it takes every ounce of willpower in her body not to spit her tea out right then and there, leaning forward on the table for support. She eventually manages to swallow, and looks back to Meg incredulously. “I’m sorry, you need help doing what?”

  SyntaxSpeedway