Mikoto did not have a good relationship with trees, honestly.
Lindblum had been somewhat lacking in them. Most of the trees in the area had long been cut down for timber, and the parks in the city preferred shrubberies and flowerbeds. After all, as Regent Cid had said, wide open spaces were the best places to 'land airships in an emergency' (crash) and trees 'were impractical obstacles to such a thing' (made the crash worse).
Treno's parks had plenty of trees, however. And so Baku, having two of his gang with tails and a propensity for climbing up every gods-damned thing they could get handholds on like the little demented free-running monkeys they were, had reasoned maybe they could hide in trees for a spot of pickpocketing on the side while the others ran their scheme to snatch some valuables.
The first tree she tried had a beehive. The second an angry squirrel. The next three, weak branches. The sixth had a weak branch as well, so weak an angry kick from a small child caused it to fall off.
Of course, Baku had found it all hilarious as soon as it was clear she wasn't seriously hurt. Zidane had exploited the distractions every time and snatched purses from the crowds that formed around his screaming/groaning/crying sibling before going to try and help.
It had worked out in the end. Baku had bought her a stuffed Moogle with some of the proceeds. But when you're roughly six years old and your main memories of trees are bees, squirrels, and *Snap* 'WAAAAUGH!' it kind of sticks with you, earning a new toy be damned.
Even when breaking her fall from a crashing airship, Mikoto had very low opinion of trees. Especially since they were pine, and fairly solid all the same.
It was while she was dazed and sore from slamming into a number of branches (rather than the potentially-more terminal impact with the ground that may have otherwise occurred) and from something landing on top of her, she remembered just how much she hated trees.
Mikoto groaned, and then realised that something was lying on top of her.
She yelped and threw the shape off. Garnet yelped too.
"Oh, damn, uh... Sorry Princess. Didn't mean to have you land on me and I kinda freaked out there..."
Garnet shook her head, half to clear the haze and half to reassure Mikoto.
"It... it isn't a problem. You cushioned my fall, it seems. My apologies for landing on you." Garnet said.
"Yeah, but... You know. It's not proper. It's rude of me to have invaded a lady's personal space..."
Garnet looked up in confusion.
"Considering it was that or my personal space was wider and flatter I think I can tolerate someone being too close. Besides, we are both females..."
Mikoto nodded.
"True, just never let Cinna hear about... Oh crap, the ship!"
Mikoto bolted upright, and climbed a tree so fast Garnet barely saw a blur. A moment later, Mikoto dropped back down.
"The bad news is it crashed about three hundred meters away, but the good news is everyone seems to be off the ship. Very bad news is, it's on fire and some people look injured, so we had better move and help. You have White Magic, yeah?"
"Yes, but... how do you know everyone is okay?"
Mikoto produced a small spyglass.
"This and sheer dumb optimism. Everyone had better be okay. If anyone's dead, Boss will kill them..."
"I see..." Garnet said in reply, standing up and following the blonde.
Garnet and Mikoto made their way to the crash site carefully. Neither was really at home in the woods as such, but both knew that rushing would just result in tripping, or worse, alerting monsters.
"Just great. First we kidnap her, and then... Wait. She was with..."
Cinna panicked as The Boss came out, helping one of the injured.
"Hey, has anyone seen..." He began, but Baku merely pointed as he spoke. Cinna turned to see The Princess and Mikoto approach.
"Blondie! I could kiss you!" Baku grinned as Mikoto saluted.
"Everyone's okay, Boss?"
"Yeah, now you're here, just that knight and that kid missing... "
"Steiner! We must find him and Vivi immediately!" Garnet gasped
She almost ran off into the forest, halted by the blonde.
"Hey, wait! It's dangerous out there and you've no idea where they could be!"
Baku thought for a moment as The Princess was halted, predicting what his underling was about to say.
"Hey, Blondie. Take her and go look, but only take five minutes, then get your butts back here. We'll work the fire, you two go try find them, okay?"
Garnet bowed gratefully.
"Thank you, sir."
"Hey, just not wasting time, in five seconds Blondie would have been going out alone." Baku explained
Mikoto merely smirked.
"Am I that predictable, Boss?"
"Damn straight."
The blonde chuckled.
"I guess so. Stay safe, guys."
"You too, girl." Baku said back.
The two left, and Baku realised.
"...Damn, we left Ruby behind, didn't we. She never got back on board after she distracted those Alexandrian Soldiers..."
"Don't worry, boss, she was in disguise. I'm sure she's fine." Marcus noted.
Queen Brahne had made a fine mess of her own city.
"Shouldn'ta wondered what was gonna go wrong," Ruby sighed to herself as she followed the other Alexandrian soldiers.
"You, check that house there for anyone injured!" A Captain ordered her.
Ruby looked at the house in question. A chunk of airship had smashed into the roof.
"Yes'M!"
Ruby dashed into the house, trying to avoid officers like the plague. Officers had a habit of sniffing out fake soldiers.
No one downstairs, no one upstairs... but wooowee, that was a lot of jewellery and gil that had been spilled from the strongbox the bit of airship had burst!
"Did you find anything?" A voice behind her said.
Ruby jumped and screeched in shock, turning to find the captain.
"I, uh... No one injured in here, ma'am!"
The captain nodded.
"But a lot of valuables spilled... Guard this house against any looters!"
"Yes, ma'am!" She saluted as best she could.
The officer left, and Ruby groaned.
Why couldn't Alexandrian soldiers be more like Lindblumians? Lindblum uniforms had pockets, not these ridiculous leotards! And Lindblumian officers would have said to split the loot, not guard it!
"Where might they be?" Garnet wondered.
"It's a big forest, but I'm sure they're around here somewhere."
"Release me, foul creature!" A male voice roared.
"Okay, that was easy. Thataway!" Mikoto pointed, and rushed off.
"I-It's got him!" Vivi said.
The two came across Steiner trapped within what seemed to be a... walking lump of wood, with two vines and a cage of petals on its head.
"Okay, what in the actual crap is that thing?" Mikoto wondered.
"It seems to be some sort of plant... I've read about this, this is a Prison Cage! The Evil Forest is a living forest, these are some of the minions such places command to capture trespassers that near their plant brains!" Garnet said.
"Oh. Okay. Wait, what? The forest is alive and there are more like it out there?! Gods damn it, I hate trees so much!"
"Do not question the princess, knave! Release me from this beast, so I can arrest you all and return her to the castle!"
"Well, that's not a good incentive to rescue you. And the biggest thing I have is a knife, why not cut your way out yourself?"
"My sword is over there, fool!" Steiner pointed.
It was buried in a tree trunk.
"Okay, I'm impressed, I use throwing knives and even I can't get a sword to land pointy-end in. Especially not a rusty hunk of crud like that..."
"It is a fine blade, standard-issue! And I have maintained it to the required standards!" Steiner raged.
"Vivi, use your magic on the base of the creature," Garnet advised, ignoring the bickering pair.
"O-okay..."
"And... er... Blondie, isn't it? Use Steiner's blade to cut him out!"
"If I can pull it out... Damn trees..."
As Vivi shot a ball of flame at the Prison Cage, Mikoto dashed over to the blade. It was buried deep, but a few tugs released it.
"Alright, now, if I cut you by mistake, Rusty, it was probably an accident," She said as she leapt over to attack the creature.
It recoiled from the blows, and slapped Mikoto back with a vine.
"Okay, new plan, it doesn't like being cut."
The creature raised its vines, pointing at Steiner.
"What nefarious... GHA!"
"It's absorbing from him!" Garnet gasped.
"Crap, that's not good. Can you heal him? I'll try hand him the blade, he can cut his way out without being bashed back."
The princess nodded, and Mikoto charged again, dodging a flailing vine as Vivi hit the main body with another fireball. She thrust the sword, held by the blade, inside the cage portion just as she was slapped back.
"DAMN TREES!" She yelled as she flew into one.
"Taste my wrath, monster!" Steiner grinned as he grabbed his weapon, and stabbed downwards.
The Prison Cage shuddered, and the cage collapse. Steiner stood triumphant.
"And now to... Wait, what treachery is this?"
As Steiner had began to speak, the dead Prison Cage released a cloud of spores. He fell almost instantly.
"Steiner!"
"Wait, Princess, there might still be spores around there! Give it a minute and we- GHA!" Mikoto tried to say, only for a second prison cage to descend from above and snatch her up.
"Another one!" Vivi yelled.
"I can see that, Vivi!" Mikoto shouted back, hacking at the cage.
The creature raised the vines.
"Oh no nonono-OW OW! That hurts!"
"Blondie, stop attacking it, if we kill it, it shall release more spores!"
"I want it to release me, and now!"
The angry blonde began to glow, and appeared to change. Still seemingly glowing, she appeared to now have patches of purple fur around her body, and her clothing had been replaced by a simple top and a pair of shorts. The knife had elongated, and Blondie sliced away the cage petals in one blow. She jumped out as the two others stared.
"Alright, tree-boy. I've been nice, I've been here a whole five minutes and I haven't asked someone to burn this stupid forest to the ground yet, but you crossed the line!"
Snatching the fallen Steiner's blade, she leapt back towards the staggered monster, a whirlwind of blades. A vine came off here, a chunk of bark there. She leapt back a few moments later, leaving the prison cage a sliced and diced mess. It collapsed, releasing spores harmlessly with no one nearby.
She glowed again, and seemingly returned to normal, or as normal as an angry tailed girl covered in what passed for plant blood holding a dagger and a sword could be.
"W-what was that?!" Vivi squeaked.
"Was that... Trance?" Garnet asked, astonished but curious.
"I don't know. If me and my brother get annoyed or upset that can happen. I get faster when I do it, and... I don't really know what Zidane does but he seems to get like weird magic."
She looked at the prone form of Steiner.
"...Crap, we have to drag him back to the ship."
Steiner awoke to raised voices.
"...mn it Mikoto, we only just put one fire out, you are not askin' Vivi to burn the rest of the forest down!"
"It's the only way to be sure!"
"Stop buggin' me..."
"Hey, Boss, Sir Rustalot is wakin' up," An ugly creature beside him reported.
This was when he realised he was also tied up. He was outside the crashed airship, near piles of furniture and salvaged items. The group of thieves stood around, with the Princess sitting beside the golden-haired monkey that had kidnapped her.
"H-how dare you..."
"Good. Cinna, get back to salvage. Benero, Zenero, go lock him up in the instrument store room and give him that medicine."
"Lock him up? Why?" Garnet wondered.
"Princess! Fear not, as soon as I break these bonds I shall slay all these brigands and we shall flee!"
"Good answer," the thief who had started this madness said.
"Wretched whoreson! Untie me!" Steiner raged.
"Whoa, wait, whoreson?! You know how to cut deep, Rusty," the tailed thief fumed.
"This way," Benero prodded Steiner in the back.
"You can imprison me but you cannot imprison my will to fight!" The Alexandrian Knight proclaimed as he was led away.
"While he's out of our hair, we need to figure out a way out of here," Baku said.
"I must agree, this has gone somewhat..." Garnet began.
"Wrong?" Cinna suggested.
"You seem to know a little about the forest, Princess, from what you were saying," Mikoto said.
"Somewhat. I've read of similar places, though the Evil Forest is by far the largest of such places. They are living forests, grown from a central plant brain. Any intruders are captured and used as fertilizer for the forest."
"Which is a polite way of saying they shove seeds in you and let them burst out," Blank added.
"Indeed. Escape from this forest may be treacherous as the plant brain will no doubt halt our efforts the closer we get to any exit. The easiest way to defeat such a forest is to kill the brain... but this has a drawback. Upon death, the forest will begin to petrify, taking the whole forest and anything it it with it. It is a petrification so powerful no normal soft or stona spell can undo it."
"Just for the record? I hate trees even more now. Even when you kill them, they kill you!"
"Oh, it isn't necessarily fatal, Supersoft can reverse the process. And one can always outrun the effect, it takes some time to begin, and the larger the forest the longer it takes."
"Hm, well, we got people who can't run all that fast here," Baku reminded.
"Yes, and we can exploit that. If a small group attack the brain, they will attract all the forest's creatures. This may provide a diversion for the slower group."
"So, we need strong and fast guys to attack the brain while the others use them as a diversion, then we kill it and run before we're marble?" Mikoto said.
"Granite, actually, but that would be the best option," The Princess nodded.
"Well, I hate trees and I'm fast, so I volunteer to kill the brain."
"I'll help her too, Boss..." Cinna tried
"Bullshit you will, Cinna, you're slower than a month of Sundays. Besides, the two groups might haveta split up and no one else can cook worth a damn. Blondie, your group goes right to Treno and hauls Zidane's dumb ass out of jail, got it?"
"U-Um... I know I'm not very fast but my magic might be useful..." Vivi volunteered.
"Ah, what the hell, I'll go with Mikoto, carry Vivi if I have to," Blank offered.
"Alright, who else? Not you, Marcus, we might need a good hunter and tracker in our group," Baku told the pointy-eared thief.
"Hey, Boss, I know the guy's got a stick up his ass and all, but that knight could be useful. If we're gonna get swarmed we need all the fighters we can have," Mikoto noted.
"Sounds fine by me, the guy's a pain. Trouble is, he won't abandon the Princess will he? And he's not gonna play nice when her back is turned."
"...If I went with him, I could keep him under control," Garnet said.
"Uh, Princess, all due respect, we were trying to get you out of Alexandria, not potentially leave you as a lump of granite in the middle of it for all eternity."
"True, and yet, Steiner is indeed unlikely to fully obey any order I give for him to assist you if he feels it endangers me. You may also need healing magic. I would imagine the larger group will need to take most, if not all, of the first aid equipment."
"Damn, she's got a point there, Blondie. Alright, five in your group seems good. You and the Princess work on convincing Rustybutt to help out, see what Cinna can spare for your supplies, and we'll get this show on the road as soon as we can," Baku ordered.
"Alright, Boss, but, uh, doesn't that mean I'm taking the Princess to Treno? The opposite direction from where she should be going? Where she will inevitably have to encounter Zidane?"
"She looks smart enough to ignore your brother," Baku said.
"Okay, Boss, but I don't think this is gonna work out so well, just saying..."
"Don't just say, just do as I say, Blondie."
Steiner was furious.
"I shall not drink this poison, scum! Your plan is obvious, slay me, and then have your way with the Princess! That perverted monkey clearly plans to ravish her!" He cursed the two Nero Brothers standing outside.
"...He's not very observant. Don't worry, Princess, you're not my type," Mikoto sighed.
"He has a somewhat over-active imagination, I'm afraid."
She was about to open the door when Blank stopped her.
"Princess, tell him it's you, odds are he'll attack blindly."
"Very well... Steiner, it's me, the Princess. I'm coming into the room! Don't attack!"
The door was unlocked, and Steiner saluted.
"Fear not, Princess, I will soon devise a plan to escape and-"
"We have one, Steiner. We need you to join the group attacking the plant brain."
"...Pardon, Your Highness?"
As Garnet explained, Mikoto looked around the room.
"Hey, did no one move this out when the ship was on fire?!" She protested, pointing at a chest.
"It's locked and heavy. You're the master of unlocking... Why don't you pick the lock if there's something good in there?"
"Of course it's locked, you guys steal anything not nailed down! And besides, I have the key," She said.
"Oh, your gear. Should have known." Blank sighed, as Mikoto pulled out weapons and a small bag.
"Yup. Why the hell did I have to dress like Zidane for the play again?"
"Because his part was written for a male."
"Huh. Sexism," She muttered as she undid her belt.
"I understand, Princess, but I advise caution, these are thieves and they cannot be- HOW DARE YOU BEGIN UNDRESSING BEFORE THE PRINCESS, SCUM!" Steiner raged.
Mikoto, in the midst of trying to remove her top, turned in confusion.
"...Oh, I didn't know it was her turn," She snarked.
Steiner's rage-red face turned a different shade as new facts became apparent by Mikoto's efforts to change clothes.
"Y-you are... My apologies!" He blustered, and turned the other way.
"What's his problem?"
"Mikoto, I know you're gonna say you're wearing your shorts and a shirt of your own there, but that was kind of a stupid move," Blank sighed.
"Why are you changing clothes anyway?" Garnet wondered.
"'Cos I'm meant to be moving fast out there. I had to dress like Zidane would for the play because none of these idiots can write let alone re-write, but I normally wear stuff that lets me move better."
This consisted of shorts, a skirt over those shorts, a blue vest over a t-shirt, and a brown poncho. She had traded the larger weapons she had been wearing before for smaller daggers, including a brace of throwing knives.
"Why have you changed your weapons?"
"These ones here are Zidane's, apparently he was meant to wear them for the play too. Boss told me to do it, so I did it. I prefer smaller blades for real fighting..."
"She's kind of stabby," Blank warned.
"Also in a pinch I can throw a smaller blade like a throwing knife. They're not balanced as well but they can do the job."
"Oh. Steiner, she's finished dressing, by the way," Garnet said.
The blushing knight turned back around.
"Did you seriously not realise I was a girl, Rusty?"
"M-my apologies, but you were dressed and acted in a masculine manner..."
"She's a tomboy, Sir Knight," Blank snickered.
"The hell I am, Blank, I just don't conform to the regular standards of femininity in my day to day life is all!"
"You don't conform to regular anything, more like, Blondie."
"As amusing as this all is, I think we should get ready. Steiner is aware of the plan and he will help us..." Garnet sighed.
"Yes, Your Highness, though I council caution given..."
"Steiner!"
"...Yes Your Highness."
"Anyway, let's go get set up and see what's left when the others take what they're gonna need."
About an hour later, the larger group was setting off, and the five that planned to attack the brain were moving out themselves.
"Okay, Princess, you vaguely know what we're looking for, so point where we go. I'll take point, Vivi will burn the crap out of anything, and Steiner and Blank will beat out the flames so the whole forest doesn't go up as much as I'd like it to," Mikoto proclaimed.
"...Regarding that, thief, I have a request of Master Vivi. Do you think it possible to cast magic directly upon my blade to give it an elemental strike?"
"A magic sword kinda thing? Good idea, you're more competent than you look," Blank said.
"Um... I'll give it a try," The black mage nodded.
"Maybe that could work on your throwing knifes?" Blank asked Mikoto.
"Too small. I've got a few elemental blades anyway but they're one use only. I'll keep them for surprises."
"Okay. Sure you don't want an axe for all these trees?"
"Shut up and move, Blank..."