The situation really was complicated. Neither Jean nor Nadia wanted to surrender that easily, especially not to scoundrels like Grandis and her henchmen. But Nadia was in a moral dilemma, because if she chose to fight for Blue Water and herself, Jean would have been in grave danger, and Nadia could not guarantee for his safety. Jean, on the other hand, didn´t worry that much about himself. He knew how important Blue Water was to Nadia, and no matter what decision she would have made, she could count on Jean. A man - or boy - cannot refuse to help a girl in need, and of course he can´t let down the girl he loves. He would have down everything in order to help Nadia protect something that´s really precious to her. Somehow Jean failed to realize that he himself was incredibly dear to Nadia as well, far more than the Blue Water. Blue Water is just a lifeless item, although it might hold the key to the mysteries surrounding Nadia´s past. Jean on the other hand is a living and breathing person, and protecting a person´s life is quite possibly the most important task Nadia could think of. Especially if the person is the best friend she ever had. Jean, the boy that showed her love and friendship for the first time in her entire life, the boy who was now a helpless tiny person, and the only thing he could count on was Nadia´s protection. And she would have never let him down. Never. Protecting him was the least thing she could do for him, after he had already done so much for her. That´s why making this decision was so tough for her. Because either of the options were dangerous for Jean. If she chose to refuse to cooperate with these evil-doers, Jean would have been threatened by a fight with the thieves. And if she decided to go with them, she had no idea what could have happened to poor Jean, and she didn´t even want to think about possible results. Thankfully, Jean once again made Nadia´s grief fade away.
"Nadia, don´t worry about me. Don´t let these guys take away Blue Water. I know hoe important it is to you." he whispered.
"But Jean, your safety is far more important!"
"Nice of you to think so. But I assure you, no harm will come to me! Just hide me inside your stomach again while you fight them. It might be bumpy, but what can you do?"
"All right!"
Everything could have turned out to be so wonderful. Nadia could have hidden Jean inside her once again while fighting off these scoundrels, and everything would have been all right. But alas, that was not the case. Shortly before Nadia could even attempt to carefully put Jean into her mouth, she realized that Grandis already jumped off her strange aircraft and was about to land directly in front of Nadia. Surprised by this sudden move of Grandis, Nadia stumbled backwards as Grandis impacted on the steel of the platform she was standing on. Nadia lost her balance and fell onto the ground, and unfortunately, her right arm, along with the hand Jean was standing on, made a strange movement upwards as Nadia fell onto her butt. This unexpected movement of Nadia´s arm and hand was too much for Jean, as he found itself lifted high up in the air due to the sheer force of this movement. He could only feel that he was being thrown through the air, not knowing what his destination would be. To his dismay, he would find out soon. Grandis, standing in front of the surprised Nadia - who was lying on the ground and oblivious to Jean´s "flight" - had closed her eyes and opened her mouth wide as she laughed hard, like female villains normally do. So she did not realize that there was a tiny, almost insignificant object flying through the air, heading directly for her mouth. Jean on the other hand noticed that quickly as he saw the gaping maw of Grandis coming nearer and nearer, with all the details of her incredibly red mouth getting more and more visible. Her perfect white teeth, her huge tongue, her red lips and her uvula, dangling over the entrance to her esophagus like a bad omen. It seemed like an eternity as Grandis´ mouth was getting bigger and bigger the nearer his helpless body was thrown towards it, but in reality, it lasted only seconds. He knew that he could not avoid landing inside Grandis´ mouth, since he had no control over the force that sent him flying through the air whatsoever. He could only gasp as he finally passed the impossibly huge teeth and landed on the wet, slimy and gigantic tongue of Grandis. The red haired lady herself did notice the appearance of a tiny passenger inside her mouth at first, still laughing. And the laughing caused this monstrous red cave to shake violently, and Jean on her tongue felt like an earthquake was going on, with he massive fleshy tongue bouncing up and down. Once again, this movement was too much for poor Jean, since he found himself rolling down the tongue as it bounced upward. Unwittingly sliding down the slimy flesh, he could not see much, only the uvula dangling over a huge, dark tunnel; Grandis´ esophagus. There was no way Jean could have reacted, he could only wait for the inevitable. In a matter of seconds, he finally fell into the large tube of Grandis´ throat, surrounded by reddish walls. He felt hot air being inhaled by Grandis all around him, and such a stream of air drew him near the entrance of her windpipe, and he shortly hit the flesh of her windpipe before getting sucked into her esophagus again by a more wild wind. That wind was probably the result of Jean hitting her windpipe.
And one could see that outside. Nadia was surprised to see Grandis coughing and grabbing her throat with both of her hands. Moments before, she was laughing triumphantly, but now, it seemed like something got stuck in her trachea. Hanson and Sanson were also perplexed to see their boss in such a state.
"Hey, Boss, what´s wrong?!" Sanson yelled from his seat in the aircraft. Grandis did not answer as she felt something going down her esophagus. Seconds later, she could hear a slight plop as something fell into her stomach. She grabbed her tummy as she heard a loud growling sound.
"Ugh..."
Grandis had no idea that it was Jean who finally arrived inside her incredibly and scarily huge stomach. The fear he felt as he saw the valve that was the entrance to her stomach could not be described with words. Amidst these "ocean" of sad feelings in that moment, Jean did not scream. He knew Nadia would do anything to save him. He knew it. As the valve had opened to welcome an unexpected guest for Grandis´ stomach, Jean just wanted to close his eyes, hoping he didn´t have to see anything. He was sure that the acids would not hurt him, as he experienced inside Nadia´s stomach. He would be able to survive inside this supposed cavern of sorrow, he just had to wait for Nadia, his heroine, to come and save him from this ordeal, not knowing how she would be able to accomplish that. Jean finally squeezed through the valve, and he landed inside some pile of masticated goo with a loud plop. He had not yet dared to take a look at his surroundings, but he felt that the chamber of Grandis stomach he was now in began to shake violently in a strange and sudden upward-movement. It lasted for a fraction of a second, then the stomach went back into its former position, only to be "thrown" upward again. That movement caused Jean to be thrown out of the pile of goo and at the soft walls of Grandis´ stomach. He first did not know what this strange movement of the stomach meant, but hearing a weird noise coming from far above him, from Grandis´ lungs, he realized that she was having hiccups, most likely because of him having landed inside her stomach.
Nadia looked at Grandis with a curious expression as she saw the woman having a hiccups and making these strange noises a person makes when he or she is hiccoughing. After some seconds she began to pound on her chest with the fist of her right hand a few times, and it vanished.
"Uh, boss? You all right?"
Still coughing, Grandis gave a command.
"Retreat! *cough*"
"Retreat? Why?"
"*cough*, *cough* Severe case of indigestion and hiccups!"
"All right, boss! Hop on!"
Grandis turned away from Nadia after she looked one last time at the dark skinned girl.
"We will meet again, be sure! You and your tiny friend will see!"
Not knowing that she had accidentally ingested poor Jean, she jumped onto the aircraft, and it must have been another bumpy situation for Jean, as he was being thrown around inside her stomach due to impact after her jump once again. Hanson looked at his boss as Grandis grabbed her stomach, obviously having felt something in there.
"Boss? Are you sure you´re all right?"
"Yeah, yeah! Prepare for immediate take off!"
"Aye aye!"
That moment, Nadia finally realized that Jean was gone. Looking at the aircraft and then at her right palm again, she noticed that Jean was missing! She didn´t even have to think about where he was, she knew immediately where poor Jean had landed.
"JEAN!" she screamed, having realized that her tiny friend must have landed inside Grandis belly earlier after she fell onto the ground. So Jean was the one responsible for Grandis coughing, and the woman was completely oblivious to the tiny guest inside her stomach. She quickly stood up and ran toward the balustrade of the platform she was on, hoping she could do something to prevent Grandis´ aircraft from leaving.