Maniko was furious; no he was more than furious, what made her think he was such an easy target for her actions? What made her think she could just waltz in and stuff her face with his hand-crafted sweets like he was running a charity? He had half a mind to march out there and give her the telling off of a lifetime. A sudden crash coming from back on the shop floor brought him out of his thoughts, and in a swift movement, he made his way out of the back room. There he found Tsuki, still tied to the counter, happily munching on a lollipop. Shards of glass lay close by, and on top of those lay a rainbow of multi-coloured lollipops, likely both the cause of the sound, and the sudden acquisition of her sweet treat. She looked up at him and gave him a devious grin, a look that told Maniko that she’d got much more devious plans in store. Maniko sighed and returned to the back room to fetch a broom to clean the mess. Already she was being a nuisance, and she’d only been here less than two hours.

Upon his return, he noticed something odd, it wasn’t the silence in the room, he expected that after he closed up and sent everyone home, no, it was something else. His eyes skimmed over the room, looking at the contents of his shelves, keeping his eyes peeled for anything that seemed to look out of the ordinary. He could feel a mischievous aura filling the room, and yet he couldn’t even see anything that would cause such things. Well, apart from the young woman standing dead centre on the shop floor. Strange, he hadn’t let anyone else into the shop, in fact the only person that was in the shop besides him, was Tsuki. Of course it couldn’t be her; she was still tied up next to the counter. Maniko turned to check, and his heart nearly leapt out of his chest at what he saw. The rope he’d used to tie her to the counter was sitting on the floor, split and frayed. The glass was still there, along with the lollipops, but Tsuki wasn’t there. She couldn’t possibly have escaped in such a short time, and he guessed that she was still here somewhere.

“You still in here?” he asked, completely oblivious to the other female in the room.

The other female approached him, making soft sucking noises as she walked, as though her feet were made from suction cups. Maniko continued to look around and tidy up, scooting the glass away from the shop floor and closer to the back door to be cleaned up later. Once he’d shoved it to the side, he turned around and come face to face to the very female he was looking for, except now she was taller than before. The rabbit gasped in surprise, his eyes focused on that toothy grin and the lollipop stick pinned between her teeth. The broom clattered to the floor, and Maniko took a shaky step backwards, unsure of how to take this whole situation. One moment ago he was detaining a child thief in his shop, and now he was facing off against the same thief, except she appeared to have undergone some sort of miraculous transformation. She was taller than before, almost as tall as the shopkeeper himself. Her ears gave her the extra height she needed to stand over him, but her actual physical body was a fair few inches away from standing over him. Her peach coloured fur stood out against the sunlight coming from outside, occasionally darkening as her large brush of a tail swung behind her happily. Her azure blue eyes twinkled with an air of deviousness, she knew something Maniko didn’t, and oh boy was she going to have fun showing it to him.

“What happened? How did you-?”

“Heh, slim wrists, easy to get out of ropes. Or did you mean something else?” She giggled, clearly aware of what he meant, but deciding to tease him instead.

“But it’s frayed and cut! Like something strained it to breaking point!” yelled the bunny, not pleased at her response.

Tsuki held up her wrists, and looked at them as they were now a fair bit thicker than they had been at her previous size. “I dunno then…”

Maniko pressed his hand up against his forehead, still taken aback by just how calm she seemed to be about the whole thing. It was all just so impossible, a child suddenly growing like that, had he missed something important? Tsuki was visibly delighted at Maniko’s confusion, and cracked a smile in response to his worry. She allowed the lollipop stick she had kept in her teeth to clatter to the floor, and then appeared to bend down to pick it up. Of course, that wasn’t her plan, she was simply refreshing her sweet capacity. She popped another lollipop into her mouth and stood up straight, making soft ‘mmm’ noises as she enjoyed the treat. She took a few steps back, before sprinting off to the far end of the shop.

“Look at aaaallll the sweeties! Have you ever tried to eat all these yourself?” she asked, her serious tone seemingly a thing of the past.

“What? Of course I haven’t! What are you doing? Get back here at once!”

“Don’t be such a meanie-pants! I just wanna try some of your sweeties….Oooo, what’s up there?” she asked, pointing up to a jar, two shelves higher than she could reach.

Maniko stormed over to the child, her footfalls stomping into the floor, each one tinged with the anger he felt at that moment. He reached out a hand to grab her by the shoulder, but as he extended his arm, he made a second discovery. She stood taller than him now, not just by the ears, her head and shoulders literally stood over his head. When had that happened? It didn’t make any sense, the bunny stood at 5’5, and now this fox kid stood around six inches taller than him. He hadn’t even noticed her sudden growth as he approached. But there was still one more discovery to be made; she wasn’t done growing just yet. Maniko watched in surprise as the fox continued to grow larger, her hands making little grabby motions as she ascended towards the shelf. Inch by inch, Maniko felt himself being dwarfed by someone much younger than him, and it honestly scared him. There was something about her new childlike enthusiasm that just seemed to spell disaster for the poor bunny, both him and his business.

Maniko stepped back, he half expected the blue dress that she was wearing to split apart under her expanding frame, but it seemed to be holding up rather well. He was certainly thankful for that, it was bad enough that he had some kid with a growth problem threatening to wreak his shop, but if that dress gave out, then it just opened another can of worms. His eyes looked her up and down, her hands clasped firmly around the jar that she was so curious about. Luckily for Maniko, her growth appeared to cease at that point, meaning that she was left awkwardly clasping onto a jar. She took a step clumsy step backwards, practically tripping over her own larger feet. Much to the disdain of Maniko, she lost her balance, and spiralled to the floor. The jar flew into the air, sending multi-coloured balls of sugar cascading into the air. What happened next went by in slow motion for Maniko. The balls spiralled in the air, light screening off their sugary coat, creating a marvellous display that even fireworks would envy. Of course gravity soon took effect and brought them hurtling towards the Earth or in this case the wide fox maw. Tsuki appeared to embrace the sweet rain that poured down upon her, taking large mouthfuls of the sweets and gulping them down hungrily. Maniko hadn’t seen anything like it before, this child was demolishing his stock like it was nothing, most kids would have been sick by this point.

Tsuki downed around eighty five percent of the contents of the jar, and even managed to avoid taking the plastic container to the stomach. Almost immediately her body reacted to the sugary treats, and her head surged towards the ceiling. Where she had been around six foot previously, her body exploded past that. Inch after inch, growing by two inches in the space of thirty seconds, this was getting ridiculous quickly. As Tsuki expanded at an alarming rate, giggling wildly as the whole thing became like a game to her. Maniko stumbled backwards, tripping over his own feet as he tried to escape Tsuki’s onslaught. The fox on the other hand, just seemed content with stuffing her face with the contents of Maniko’s shelves. She shovelled down sweets like there was no tomorrow, much to the horror of poor Maniko.

“H-hey! Quit eating those! You’re going to run me into the ground!” protested the bunny, as he reached the back wall again.

“Aww, stop worrying, the place is still standing isn’t it?” replied the cheeky fox.

Maniko was at a loss, he couldn’t take on such a rapidly growing problem alone, in fact, he wasn’t sure he could ever regain control. Tsuki’s now eight foot body had the exit covered, and he hadn’t gotten around to installing a rear exit, so he was practically stuck. He slipped into the back room and looked for anything he could use to shoo Tsuki away and save some of his stock whilst he was at it. He skimmed over the piles of boxes, he could use those as a disguise and probably turtle his way out of there. Then again, he didn’t know what size Tsuki would end up reaching, and she could easily mistake the box for more of his stock. He shuddered at the thought of being mistaken for sweets by a giant fox. Every possible outcome that he came up against whilst imagining that scenario, was truly terrifying. He shook his head and moved on, coming to rest on the spare broom he kept in case of emergencies, though the emergencies that he had in mind didn’t even come close to the scene unfolding right this second. There came another crash from out the shop front, much like the one that had started all this, minus the sound of glass shattering.

“Ow!” cried Tsuki.

Maniko blindly hurried out into the room, and before he could even look out onto the shop floor, the ground shook beneath him. He stumbled forward, glass shattering all around him and sweets cascading down onto the floor. If he had the time to look and wasn’t staring at his feet, he’d probably be able to see one of the most beautiful sights to ever be seen inside his shop. Light danced off the many coloured treats as they hurtled towards the floor, creating a visual rainbow of colour, all around the shop. The ground shaking soon subsided, and Maniko was able to regain his footing, as he looked up to see that damage that had been done to his business, his vision was suddenly, and unceremoniously filled with a lush brown fur. He was forced back against the wall, pinned between the wall itself and the soft fluffy paws of the fox. The scent of strawberry, raspberry, apple and orange, amongst other fruits penetrated his senses. She’d been stood around or on those sweets for far too long; her paws were picking up the scent. Maniko gagged as the paws encroached over him, slowly inching their way over his body, all the while pressing harder into his body. His breath came in short, ragged pants, the wall behind him starting to crumble under the intense pressure. Tsuki splayed her toes to get a better look at the distressed bunny.

“Are you having as much fun as I am?” she asked, gleefully.

“What? I’m about to be crushed!” whimpered Maniko, meekly.

Tsuki giggled in response as her head started to break through the ceiling. Bits of plaster, wood and dust sprinkled down onto the pair. Maniko felt awful, in-between the crushing and the wanton destruction, he felt his life’s work slipping away. All that time and effort he had put into this place was crashing down around him, and it was all because of this fox. He felt terrible about this whole scenario, or at least he did, up until the wall behind him gave out, and he was sent crashing into the back room. His breath came back quicker than he had anticipated, and he still had enough sense to roll aside, as the giant paw burst forth and broke out into the street. The whole foundation of the building started to rumble, and Maniko didn’t want to wait around to see if that turned out to be as bad as he thought it would be. He scrambled forwards, climbing up Tsuki’s leg fur and running down towards her paw. He ducked through the gap it had made and took his first few breaths of fresh air. It was still daylight outside, and the light blinded the bunny briefly, before his eyes had a chance to adjust. Once they did, he wasted no time in running around to the front of his shop, just as Tsuki stood up to her full height. She towered over the bunny, and despite her increased size, that blue dress remained as comfortably on her as it had when she was smaller. That alone was truly a miracle. Upon seeing Maniko hopping up and down below her, she turned and flashed him a cheeky smile.

“Well that was fun, what d’ya think?” she asked, innocently.

“My shop is ruined…” sighed Maniko.

“Yeah, say how about we make a deal?”

“What kind of a deal?” asked Maniko.

“We partner up. I’ll help you rebuild it, if I can live with you and eat all the sweets I want.”

“That doesn’t exactly sound like a deal, more of a one sided partnership too…” he replied, matter-of-factly.

“Do you want a new shop or not?” she asked, looking at him sternly.

“Fiiine. I’m Maniko, and you are?”

“Tsuki,” she replied.

“Well Tsuki, let’s get to work…”