"Huh? I was sleeping all night," Kagaku informed the next morning as they sailed up to the dock. "The pulley wasn't even set up." Harmony sighed, rubbing her eyes, "Maybe I was sleepier than I thought..." Julio patted her head, jokingly saying "Or the blood loss fried your brain." She stuck her tongue out, "Ma brain been fried!~" she laughed, the ship pulling up to the dock and anchoring. The crew all hopped off, taking in the view. All the houses looked like they were built out of interconnected logs, and the people were going about their days. "I'll set us up at an inn, I'll wait there for your wood errand," Zii stated as she walked off. "Alright, we're gonna need a lot of wood for this lil' Nakama makeover," Kagaku stated, "So let's go find the carpenter~"
A while later, they found their way to the town center; the entrance to the catacombs housing the trees. An angry mob had formed in front of it, and a rather well toned man stood before the way inside with his arms crossed. "Everything will be fine! Once Frank drives the pirates out we will continue production!" he yelled, but nobody was listening to him. "My house isn't finished!" "If this goes on any longer, our livelihood is threatened!" "Just let the navy inside!" He just scoffed, and stood there unwavering. "So we just gotta let these guys deal with a problem," Julio started as he turned to the crew, "so let's go find an inn to stay... Where'd Harmony go?" Minx pointed towards the entrance, and they could just barely make out a tiny girl sneaking between the man's legs. "God damnit..." Julio sighed, putting his palm to his forehead.
"So... we mean no harm, I just wanna go get our captain before she makes a mess." Julio, opting to just say the truth, stood before the man blocking the entrance. "Eh, Frank'll probably grab her too, but you guys don't seem intent to break anything... Bring her back out quickly, then come back," he said, stepping to the side, "But if Frank finds ya, just say Lloyd sent you." They nodded, heading inside. "Wow, I didn't think that would work. I figured Harmony was just gone," Kasai admitted, and Minx beamed joyfully, "The truth is always the best option~" The floor below them suddenly gave out, leaving them in the air for a second. "Oh crap-" Julio cried as he, Kagaku and Minx fell to the lower level; a huge chasm with huge oak trees with dark leaves, as these ones don't feed off sunlight but darkness instead.
Kasai shifted to his hybrid form and was about to fly after them before something grabbed his tail, yanking him away from the hole. "Excuse me, what are you doing in here!?" asked a man who looked a lot like the guard outside. He had some snoring old man on his shoulder, and Kasai quickly stated, "Well, Lloyd sent us in after our captain, who snuck in cuz she wanted to help." Frank dropped him, and chuckled, "Well then, howdy. I'm surprised Lloyd let you in considering he won't even let those navy men help. Say, this isn't your captain is it?" he asked, showing Kasai the old guy he had captured already. "Well first off captain's a she- Wait a second I know that guy!" Kasai exclaimed once he looked closer.
Julio caught onto a tree branch as they fell through one of the massive oaks, Minx started flipping between the branches and made his way down, and Kagaku landed on Minx. "Oops, sorry," he said as he helped the mink up, and Minx just rubbed his back. Julio made it down, and looked back up at the hole. "There was a battle down here. Those impact craters weakened the floor," he stated, pointing at the various cracks on the ceiling. "There's the stairs back up," Minx pointed out seeing the stone stairs leading both back up and further down. "Kagaku, head back up and regroup with Kasai," Julio ordered, to which Kagaku followed as he ran up. "Guaranteed the captain made it deeper," he continued to Minx, who chuckled, "Probably yea." A sound of a footstep caught their attention as both reached for their weapons.
Harmony; indeed deeper down a few levels, dashed around staying small. 'I can drive them out, I got this~' she thought confidently, looking for whoever is causing the trouble, before suddenly running into someone and knocking her down. "Ah, sorry miss- wait, I'm small right now-" she stated, jumping back as Meg tried to kick her. "The hell are you doing here!?" she cried out as she started to grow before a still-tiny kick to her neck knocked her down. Returning to normal size, she noticed up ahead the captain and other sister, who also just noticed her. "What the hell!? She's after my fruit! Mimi protect me!" he demanded, running ahead as she doubled in size, but she stopped when Harmony vanished. "Where'd she go!?" Mimi cried out, Ballgoon also looking frantically as he felt a hand on his shoulder, and a chill went down his spine. "Are you guys doing bad stuff again?" Harmony asked, smiling brightly.