"I think we should try to be maids." Kyonko said.
"What? Are you nuts?!" Cloudia squeaked, which in fairness was all she could do with her current size issues.
"Think about it. None of us want to be statues again. You're not worth much, and if we're having to get money for something, we might need a lot. So if we're maids for a little while, we earn money and stand a good shot of all of us getting out."
Rinoa nodded.
"It makes sense. There's a risk we get other people selling us, or buying us... But it's better than trying to sell someone else or one of us."
Rydia agreed also.
"Sounds good to me. I actually kind of wanted to be a maid when I was little..."
The other three looked at her.
"What? It's a good job where I come from. Well paid, you get to live in the castle... If I hadn't been from a village of summoners I'd have tried to move to Baron as soon as I could."
Kyonko blinked.
"I just realised none of us know anything about where the rest of us come from..."
Cloudia sighed.
"We can figure that out later, let's just face the music... I don't know how I'm going to last as a maid this high."
"Okay, so... How long can we risk it?" Rydia asked.
"Well... I think if we get a round five hundred million, that's a hundred and twenty-five million each or we can club together?" Rinoa responded.
"It seems kind of random but... I'm okay with that."
"...You're the most valuable." Kyonko pointed out to Rydia.
"Only by one million."
"Well, fine. It only lets us pick maids, doesn't have a day limit here so I guess that's sorted out later..." Kyonko said, pressing the buttons on the small screen for the maid option.
The door then slid open, and the machine printed out a warning. Rydia grabbed it.
"...Please ensure all shrunken group members are not going to squash anyone. What does that mean?" She asked.
A yelp from Kyonko answered.
"Cloudia's getting bigger!"
She was quick to gently grab Cloudia, despite the protests from the blonde, and place her on the floor.
"W-wait! I'm going to grow out of these clothes!" Cloudia realised.
"Uh, clothes aren't a problem..." Rydia noticed.
All four now had their clothes morphing and shifting. Cloudia's doll-dress was growing with her, turning into a black French Maid outfit. The machine printed another ticked.
"...Shrunken workers will be normal size whilst on duty but charged by actual size. I guess you're only worth nine million then, Cloudia..."
The blonde sighed.
Inside there was a small room, and another door leading to the actual vault.
"Okay, so... there's a price list here." Kyonko noted as they entered.
The list had two sections. Statues and Items.
"...It just says numbers. Statue One, three, four, six, ten..." Rinoa sighed.
"And it doesn't explain the items well. But they're kind of obvious." Rydia noted.
"...Genderswap. I think we need two of them." Kyonko smiled.
"Only ten million... And it costs us ten to get to the next area. Twenty to go back and..."
"Rinoa, we can read." Cloudia snapped.
"Hey, calm down."
"...Sorry. But we can see it costs all five hundred million for just one of us to escape with our partner."
Rinoa blinked.
"...Damn. That's a hundred days each. Unless we want to escape alone, that's only a hundred?"
No one said anything.
"Didn't think so. I kind of wonder what a clue machine is too..."
"Hey... Look, there's a third list appearing." Rydia noted.
It was listing maids. Value as statues, value for sale, and a flat rate of twenty million to hypnotise a maid into remaining totally loyal to their new owner.
"Great. "
The machine printed out a small ticket. Cloudia read it.
"...Maids will now enter the vault. Maids will be compelled to work for twelve hours per day. Maids will be assigned shifts and different roles including cooking, polishing statues. All maids will greet visitors..."
She sighed.
"And I bet we'll be hypnotised slightly into walking into the vault and probably not notice we're..."
She noticed they were now in a different room with four doors, not counting the one they entered by, which locked behind them.. One was marked "Staff Quarters". One said "Treasury". One said "Golden Art". The last said "Exit". A small screen nearby the exit door said it was the sales point to redeem cash for items or statues.
"So... What do we do now?" Rinoa asked.
"Staff room, to read our shift schedule." Rydia said.
"...How did you know that?" Cloudia wondered.
"I'm reading over your shoulder. And this is going to sound weird but your maid outfit seems to come with perfume..."
"I think all of them do. I wasn't wearing it before." Rinoa nodded.
In the staff room, there was a bathroom, four beds, and a door that led into a kitchen, with its own door leading out into a cafe.
And then Cloudia noticed something. There was a roster of up to five days.
"Uh... the roster says there's a maid cafe. I guess that's the one out there"
"And it wants two of us to work there at a time... One cook, one waitress." Kyonko noticed.
Rydia groaned.
"And the first part of the says we have to go move two statues of at least thirty million in value total from the vault into the cafe... All four of us. Then we pick who does what job when it needs done according to this, and if we plan to be here a set amount of days we need change what we do. But the statues stay there a month unless sold . Value doesn't change on display... What does that mean?"
Cloudia sighed.
"So in short... After we move two statues out there, we have to share our responsibilties. I hope they're not too heavy..."
The four made their way to the statue room, and immediately, Kyonko gasped.
"Haruhi?!"
One golden statue stood wearing the same uniform as Kyonko, remarkably not gold.
"Well... You found her. Anyone else recognised?"
The others seemed to be Eiko Carol, a young girl who seemed to be no more than a golden head in her pink and red clothes. Nel Zelpher, gold and black. Refia, another statue with little gold on show. And finally...
"...This one's a guy turned into a girl." Kyonko noted, looking at a statue in a green and yellow shirt, wearing a bucket hat and a green skirt.
"How can you tell?"
"Her name is listed as Takeru. That's a boys name."
They examined the statues. Eiko and Takeru were smaller so probably weighed less, but cost ten and eighteen million each. Refia, twenty-four, Haruhi, thirty-seven, and Nel, thirty-five, indicating the lighter Haruhi was newer.
"It says they lose a million in value every five days. It doesn't list original values, or weights." Rinoa said.
"So we've no idea who has been here longest. Fine, guess we just need to get the right prices... So not Eiko and Takeru." Cloudia noted.
"We could just risk it..." Rydia grinned
"No, I don't want something else happening to us. I got shrunk not obeying the rules..."