After spending what seemed like forever, the Ouroboros took a quick break at the Namba Mound Camp to clean their clothes and enjoy some of Manana’s cooking. Night was beginning to fall across the desert, which meant it was the perfect time to debrief themselves about the mission they were given. Lanz and Sena got to work setting up the fire for tonight, while Eunie and Taoin got their sleeping arrangements ready.

“So first thing in the morning, we need to find out where Colony µ is and answer their distress call.” Noah was the first to speak up, already having pulled up a chair and enjoying the warmth of the twigs beginning to incinerate.

“I still don’t get it. I thought Colony Mu was somewhere completely different.” Eunie spoke up, playing with her feathers on her head, still not entirely sure just what exactly they were doing, or even why.

“That’s the new Colony Mu. Apparently, this one we’re looking for disappeared a long time ago and thought to have been completely wiped out.” Taion explained, pushing his glasses up as he joined the rest of the group, all now gathered around the campfire.

“But if we’re getting a call from them on our Iris’, that means they’re still out there somewhere. And the records from then showed that around this area was where that colony once was.” Mio chimed in, delivering cups of tea for everyone to sip on as they listened.

“But what if it’s a trap set up by Moebius?” Sena asked worryingly, taking a sip of that tea to calm her nerves.

“Then we go in and beat the snuff out of them like we always do!” Lanz answered confidently without even skipping a beat.

“Riku agree. Is win-win case no matter what happen.” Riku nodded, fully trusting the Ouroboros power to stand up to anything in their way.

“Manana will help too! Just say the word and Manana will give anyone a bad bitey-bitey.” Manana cheerfully added, boosting the morale of the whole group. Everyone laughed, relishing in the company of one another. As the night went on, the group shared other anecdotal stories about each other, having a merry time before the group had finally decided it was time to get some shut-eye.

When morning came around, the crew packed up their belongings and gathered around in a circle one more time to discuss the plan for today.

“The desert is a pretty large place, and we still don’t know what this colony actually looks like. For now, I believe our best course of action is to split up into pairs and cover more ground. If you get into trouble, don’t fight. Contact us and we’ll all come over to you.” Noah delivered the speech to the group. With no one having any complaints, they all broke off, forming groups on their own. Noah and Lanz would search to the north. Eunie, Taion, and Riku would check to the east. That left Mio, Sena, and Manana to search the southside. Their teamwork was flawless at this stage, almost as if they could read each other’s minds. But there was a lot of work ahead for all of them. The desert is a vast and punishing landscape, cruel to anyone who came unprepared.

“If no one finds anything, let’s all meet back up at camp at 16:00. The sun will start to set by then, and it’s too dangerous for us to explore at night.” Taion noted on to the group’s expedition. Waving each other off, everyone got into their respective groups and parted ways for the time being, hoping someone would at least find a clue to this mysterious colony.

Noah and Lanz had the most ground to cover out of the rest of the groups, but with their physical prowess, they could still overlook more area than the rest of the group - especially compared to Mio, who hated the heat more than anyone else. Without the rest of the team to provide support, the two of them had no choice but to avoid the aspars and kapibas loitering the area. For the time being, the duo decided to stay close to the cliffs, hopping up rocks and taking longer routes just to avoid any confrontation. Even though the two of them knew they could take those creatures on by themselves, causing a commotion could alert and nearby Keves or Agnes troops nearby, which would be the worst case scenario. Only about half a mile from where they started did Lanz finally spot something interesting sitting beside a cactus.

“Whoa, got a rare doo-dah right here!” Lanz exclaimed, bending over to pick up the mysterious object. His face quickly turned to confusion as he had never seen anything like it before. Noah noticed Lanz just standing there not saying a word now, and quickly rushed over to his side to inspect this thing as well. The object in question is a blue sphere, about the size of a baseball, with a big indigo X in the middle. Other than that, there are no other unique characteristics about this foreign object.

“You think someone from Colony 4 lost this?” Lanz asked, turning his face towards Noah.

“It’s possible. For now, let’s hold onto it. We still need to be on lookout for Colony µ.” Noah responded. But after he spoke, the X symbol on the weird item began to glow. A small humming noise emitted from it, and also started to rumble in the muscleman’s hand. “Lanz, toss it now!” Noah cried out, but it was too late. Before Lanz could do anything, that bright purple light enveloped their bodies. The two of them let out a haughty scream as the power of the mysterious ball completely overtook them without even giving them a fighting chance.

When Noah and Lanz eventually came to, the two of them looked at each other, surprised to see that both of them were unharmed. But looking around the new area they appeared in so suddenly, it was like entering a desolate world, even more barren than the desert the two of them were just in. Surrounding them on all sides are walls of green that seem to expand for several miles. The floor beneath them was solid and jagged, and large, beige boulders scattered around them as well.

“Noah mate…where the snuff are we?” Lanz shouted, feeling a bit panicked from this sudden strange method of teleportation the two of them had gone through.

“No idea. But keep your guard up. I’ll try contacting the others.” Noah responded as calmly as ever, keeping up his appearance as a leader. He tapped his head, activating his Iris to try and get a response from any of the other members of his team. The ponytailed hero stood there for a few moments in silence before eventually setting his arm back down, turning his attention over to his friend. “I can’t get hold of them for some reason. For now, let’s search the place and see if we can find any clues.” Noah commanded, deeming that the best course of action. Lanz looked down at the mysterious object, still in his hand, with a scowl on his face.

“This is all your fault.” He whispered to the strange device before tucking it away in his pocket.

With nothing better to do, and no help arriving anytime soon, the two men pushed forward to see if they could find anything helpful to their current situation. But as time marched on, the scenery never changed. The green walls never left their field of view, and the boulders they kept passing along the way looked so identical it was hard to tell if they were even going in circles. But there was one ray of hope - an actual ray of light shining down on them. They were thankful the sun was still out at least, but they did need to figure out a way out of here to rendezvous back with the rest of the team at sunset.

“Ugh, just where the spark are we? We haven’t even seen any monsters either. It’s like some bizarro land we’re in right now.” Lanz complained, following a few steps behind Noah during their journey. But Noah stayed silent, piecing things together in his head. It was weird that neither of them have even spotted a bunnit, one of the most common creatures in the land. A sudden noise stopped his train of thought, his attention turning to his right. The swordsman pulled out his weapon, his partner doing the same a few seconds later, catching on that a threat may be approaching. The sounds grew closer, creeping up on them. From the shadows of one of those tall, green pillars, a mysterious man emerged. His hair was silver and slicked back, with a scar on his left cheek. His chest was buff and had visible muscle across his arms showing this man was incredibly strong. The symbol on the side of his neck showed that he was pretty late into his tenth term. But the most notable feature on his body was the Agnes military clothes he had on.

“So, you’re the Ouroboros. Well, some of them it seems. Sheathe your weapons, I’m not here to fight.” His voice was gruff and rigid, as if he was used to this kind of thing happening. Noah and Lanz once again glanced at each other, nodding silently before doing as instructed. “I’m sure you have a lot of questions. But I’ll answer two of them for you right now. My name is Leeda, the commander for Colony µ. Follow me, I’ll take you there.” Not saying any more, the commander turned around, expecting the two others to follow behind. Noah and Lanz, figuring they would get the answers they had been looking for this whole time, took Leeda up on his offer and followed him into the darkness he had emerged from. Slowly in the horizon, the two came across an actual Agnes camp, larger than any of the others they had encountered before. The three men approached the gate, Leeda saluting his soldiers before stepping foot inside.

“I suppose I should start with our history.” Leeda announced, still striding forward. The place was like any other camp, really. Some soldiers were practicing their drills out in the yard, some were having some show at the canteen, everything felt very ordinary. “We were once the strongest colony in all of Aionios, even securing the highly coveted Gold rank. But the day after we reached what we’ve been working so hard for…Moebius attacked. However, instead of destroying us, it let out a purple light, just like the one you two went through.” Leeda proudly proclaimed. He then stopped in the middle of his tracks and turned around to face the two following him.

“Do you know what µ stands for? It’s a unit of measurement for a micrometer. That Moebius must have thought it was pretty clever, and decided to make our colony more fitting to that name. And now we stand at Dirt rank. And what’s worse, our entire colony only takes up one micrometer in square area…” Leeda looked down, a bit disappointed by all that had happened.

“So what you’re saying is Colony µ never vanished, but got shrunk? Well if I weren’t standing right now I’d never believe you.” Lanz exclaimed, feeling a bit bewildered by all this.

“If the camp is that small, then that means…” Noah spoke up, quickly getting interrupted.

“We’re smaller than that. Each of us here is about a hundredth of a micrometer.” Leeda cut him off. “But enough about that, I bet you’re wondering why I contacted you. Right now we’re going through a bit of a food shortage. All we’ve had for the past few days are cooked fragments of grass we had to chop with our axes to get. If you can get us a berry, we’ll let you get back to normal. A fair trade, is it not?” Leeda crossed his arms, looking smug as he looked down on the two of them.

“Are you out of your mind?!” Lanz yelled out of anger. “We’re stuck like this and you’re holding us hostage because you want some dumb fruit?”

“Lanz.” Noah held his arm out in front of his friend, preventing him from doing anything stupid. “We agreed to help Colony µ no matter what. And if they can help us out, all the more reason to continue what we came here to do.”

Lanz balled his hand into a fist, ready to let loose his anger on something. But after hearing what Noah had to say, he loosened his fingers up, exhaling to let out the rest of his steam. “Right then. Guess we don’t have much of a choice.” He admitted. Once all that was settled, the three men continued walking for a short while, gathering at the canteen to sit down so they can continue their conversation.

 Leeda sat at the table across from the other two. He crossed his arms across the tabletop, ready to speak again. “I’m sure you two saw that cactus before you joined us. But to us, we call that the World Tree. It protects us from any monsters and any other forces of nature. If it weren’t for that, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation right now.” Leeda let out a hearty laugh, enjoying talking about all this. It’s rather rare to get any visitors, so it feels nice to share the history of his colony to those willing to listen. Noah looked up, trying to spot this cactus. But it was impossible. He couldn’t even see the tops of the blades of grass, and everything beyond that is a complete blur. He turned his head back to Leeda, as he noticed something peculiar about the colony.

“So what happened to the Flame Clock? How are you all still able to fight?” Noah asked, which was quickly followed by another chuckle from the commander.

“You’re holding it, musclehead.” He turned his attention to Lanz. Confused, he pulled out that strange object from before and set it on the table. “This used to be our Flame Clock before one of the thorns from the World Tree fell off and broke it clean off. One of our engineers took the parts from it and constructed it into this thing here. We call it the Mini-X, and with this anyone can enter our colony.”

“So how were we able to get a hold of it? Shouldn’t this be at your scale?” Noah questioned even more, curious to learn about the forgotten colony.

“We tossed it into the transporter. Another device our engineer developed to let anyone or anything back into the normal world.” Leeda answered.

“So if you got the technology for all this stuff, why don’t you all grow back to normal?” Lanz blurted out.

 “Because we’re proud of our colony. Sure, we may be small, but we’ll never abandon it.” Leeda kept his proud expression on his form. But before they could continue their conversation, the ground began to shake and rumble, growing heavier every second. The sky grew dark in an instant, and a siren sounded across the colony. The soldiers of the colony got into formation, ready to defend their home against whatever was going to threaten them.

Before they could finish exploring the part of the area they were assigned to, Sena and Mio returned back from the way they came. Mio was slumped over on Sena’s shoulders, with the girl using her incredible gall to carry her friend around until she could find a place for the two of them to take a breather. With Taion having the camping gear, Manana rushed ahead to find the others so she could start preparing a meal for them all to regain their strength. With no campground yet, the tired group had to keep pushing a little longer.

“Need…wa’ah…” Mio’s raspy voice muttered. She hated the heat, so knowing she had to come out here for the mission didn’t excite her, and this was the reason why. Sena, on the other hand, didn’t mind the heat at all, but the weight of having to drag her best friend around across the uneven sand was starting to get to her.

“Just a little longer, Mimi…Manana will get you something soon. Just hang in there.” Sena proclaimed in a cheerful manner, keeping up hope for both of their sake. They didn’t have to travel that far past the camp, however, as just up ahead was a flat boulder right next to a cactus. The cliffs behind the setting provide an ample amount of shade, perfect for Mio to cool her head for a moment. In just a few more steps, the two of them arrived, with Sena helping her friend down first before taking her seat right beside her.

“Mmm…thanks, Sena.” Mio drowsily stated, slowly gaining her energy back. She stretched her arms out and forward, almost as if she could take a nap right here. But sleeping on a rock would cause more problems later. While Mio was getting refreshed, Sena bent over, tugging on her friend’s boots.

“Here, let’s get these off, too. That should make things easier on you.” Sena said as she pulled off Mio’s right boot, setting it off to the side. She reached over for the other one as well, repeating the process so her best friend’s stocking-clad feet could air out. Once that was taken care of, Sena turned back towards herself, doing the same thing for her own shoes as well. Although Sena took great care not to get her friend’s footwear too dirty, she wasn’t that particular about her own getting messed up, causing her right shoe to end up turned over on its side. Once all that was taken care of, the two girls stretched their legs out, enjoying the most of this little breather that they can. “Don’t worry, Mimi. Everything will be alright!”

Down in Colony µ, things were starting to take a turn for the worse. The air, which was once pleasant from the sandy breeze, was immediately overtaken by a strong, musky scent in the blink of an eye. The sky grew even dark as well, as four black walls eclipsed their whole camp, that also seemed to have intensified the atmosphere around them even harder. The whole army of twenty-thousand men and women was quickly taken aback from how powerful this new foe was, but after raising their heads from that quick intoxication, they all steeled themselves, gripping their weapons even tighter, ready to take action.

Leeda crossed his arms, standing behind his troops as he stared up at the monolithic towers before him. It had been a while since the camp had faced such a threat. Normally, the strongest enemies his soldiers ever faced was a stray ant, and even that was an imposing titan compared to them. High above, the tops of these pillars wiggled back and forth, thus showing that there was some sentience to this new creature. But Leeda didn’t get to be the commander for nothing. When faced with a crisis, it was up to him to guide his troops to victory. And this was no exception.

“Colony µ, our new enemy may look threatening. But don’t let that strike fear into your hearts. Our foes can sense that, and we don’t want that. Our only weaknesses is our size. So let’s give this sucker a true showing of our heart and might!” Leeda roared into the crowd, quickly followed by shouts and chants of approval coming from the rest of the army. “Now roll out! Show no mercy!” The commander hollered, giving the signal for the rest of the colony to march forward. Some were on foot, while others were controlling Levnises for more firepower. Noah, smiled, also boosted by the speech given from the colony’s commander, but then his eyes widened as he realized something very important. Those dark pillars were no ordinary pillars. All of them had such intricate designs that almost looked like they were woven. Between the stitches, he also realized something else…a second layer hidden beneath. Two of them were pale, while the other two looked more tan. Noah gasped, putting the pieces together as he took a few steps forward in desperation.

“Wait, stop!” Noah cried out, but it was too late. The colony had no reason to listen to an outsider, and they were already too riled up in combat, doing their best to defend their home turf.

In only just a few short moments after taking a break, Mio had almost regained all her energy back. Her breathing vamped up to normal, and the ears on top of her head perked back up. She smiled and turned her head to face her friend, unconsciously lowering her left foot down on the ground beneath her.

“Thanks Sena, I don’t know what I’d do without you. And the rest of you all for that matter too.”

The army of Colony µ already arrived at the base of one of those towers, hitting it with everything they got. But all the blades and firepower they had weren’t even enough to put it a dent in one of the fibers of this incredible being. As they were fighting, Noah raced over to Leeda’s side, frantically placing his hand on the commander’s shoulder.

“Call them off. That’s our friends Mio and Sena they’re fighting!” Noah exasperated, trying his best to save everyone. But it was too late. Before Leeda could make the call, the wall before them all swiftly came down on top of them. Even though they all were small enough to fit between the fibers of the stocking, mixed that with the sweat the massive Mio built up over the course of the day and the obvious millions of tons of weight being applied, the entire army was wiped out in an instant from an unsuspecting girl’s foot. Leeda just stared, not knowing what to say. All of his allies were gone just like that, and after he gave that powerful battle cry too. This whole time, he felt that his colony was invincible if they can survive that long with that big of a handicap against them. But it was foolish to think that now, as that one display of action showed just how truly weak he was. Lanz was the one who stepped up next, placing his hand on the unoccupied shoulder of the downtrodden commander.

“I’m sorry, mate. If only we saw that sooner, we could have stopped this whole thing.” Lanz apologized, taking responsibility for this to mend the wound a bit. But Leeda stepped forward, freeing his body from the hands grasping at him. He turned his head to the ground and sniffled before turning around, facing the other two men in the face.

“So those are your allies, huh? I apologize for holding you up like this. I’ll show you the way back so you can rejoin your allies. I don’t want you lot to suffer the same fate I just had to witness.” Leeda spoke, his tone more somber than before. He had seen loss before on the battlefield, but nothing like this.Without saying anymore, he turned and walked towards a different part of the camp, with Noah and Lanz following right behind.

The colony was now a complete mess, not including the massacre that just happened. Tons of heavy machinery and and light posts were all turned over from the tremendous shockwave of Mio’s foot simply touching the ground. Repairs would take forever now, especially given the lack of manpower the colony now had. All that remained was Leeda, as well as the few troops who were stuck in the emergency bay too sick or injured to fight. What was once a flourishing population was struck down to less than twenty. The commander is charge of the diminished colony took the two small Ouroboros members into a tent filled with all sorts of high-powered technology and nifty gadgets that other colonies could only dream of operating. Leeda approached a computer in the back, only to be met by a disappointed sigh.

“Well…the bad news is that earthquake your friend gave us knocked out a bunch of bolts and components from our teleporter. So I’m afraid I can’t get you boys back for now.” Leeda’s voice grew deeper with each new word, his body constantly filling up with every new failure thrown his way.

“So you’re saying we’re stuck like this? How long is it gonna take to fix?” Lanz asked, preventing himself from raising his voice as a sign of sympathy for the commander. While the two of them talked back and forth about the intricacies of such a device, Noah was thinking to himself of a new plan. Soon enough, he did as he tapped into his Iris to try and contact Mio and Sena once more, but still nothing happened. Curiously, he turned his attention to Leeda, cutting off their conversation.

“You were able to get in contact with us, right? But no matter how much I try I can’t get to them even though they’re right beside us.” This questioning from Noah caused Leeda to raise an eyebrow, impressed by such a sharp eye. The commander moved over to the side of the room and dug into a toolbox, pulling out two little antenna-like devices that are shaped to fit around the ear.

“These are Iris Extenders. As you can guess, our engineer made these too. With these, the signal you can cast becomes a lot stronger.” Leeda explained, putting a device on each of the other two’s ears. “They also act as a sensor or some sorts. As long as you keep those on your bodies, those you’re in contact with can detect where you are.” With the explanation given, Noah and Lanz step outside, ready to try out this new tool of theirs. Both of them activated their Irises, trying once more to get in touch with their looming friends close by.

“Mio, Sena…can you hear me?” Noah asked, hoping to get an answer this time.

Sena and Mio just watched the world around them go by as they continued their extended break from their mission. It was taking everyone else a long time to find what they came here for, making the two of them start to wonder if it was true this whole thing was a prank. But no one had said anything yet. But just then, the two girls jumped as they both got a call from their leader.

“Yeah, we can. Is everything alright?” Mio asked, a bit concerned. If it was a prank like they were starting to believe, then maybe this was about Moebius after all. But her fear turned to confusion as Noah spoke more.

“This may sound like a weird question, but can you two see anything by your feet?”

“Uhh…” Sena spoke up, now puzzled as well by whatever was going on. But the two girls know that Noah wasn’t the type to make jokes, so they followed his instructions and looked down at the ground. Through the Iris, both of them spotted two, glowing red dots down in front of Mio’s toes. “Yeah, we see something…but what is it?”

“Don’t be alarmed. But it’s us.” Lanz responded. “We shrunk, and it’s a long story.”

“For now, can you lower your fingers? We can talk more later when we’re not stuck down here.” Noah finished up. The two girls looked at each other and nodded silently. If what they said was true, then they needed help more than ever. Bending over, the two girls lowered their arms down, palms turned over face up as close as they could to the two dots without actually overlaying their nails on top of one another. Through their eyes, the dots were about as small as a period. But Noah and Lanz were much, much smaller than that, meaning it looked like those dots down below were hardly making any progress towards their digits.

Finally after all the tribulations the two men had gone through, they let out a sigh of relief, glad that they were no longer invisible to their allies. They split off for the time being, with Noah approaching the pale finger and Lanz taking the tan one. But one more obstacle waited for them. Each of their nails were incredibly thick and tall compared to the microscopic men. It was like scaling an entire cliff side with how rough and jagged it looked. But that didn’t stop either of them as both of them grabbed hold of the minuscule uneven surfaces that couldn’t be detected at a normal size. The two titanic ladies stayed motionless, staring down at their fingertips as those two red dots.

“Um…are you two alright?” Sena asked, worried about their friends as the sheer size discrepancy was difficult to judge.

“Totally fine. Just…this is a much tougher morning workout than usual…” Lanz panted, only halfway up the edge of the nail by now. As Sena was more of a brute than her best friend, her hands were more course, making those minute imperfections more amplified for the tiny musclehead. Noah, however, struggled a bit more as he lacked the muscles of his best friend - but also the fact that Mio was more careful with her appearance, making her nails more prim, thus less ridges to grab onto.

It was a tough climb, but several minutes later and both of them had made it to the surface of the nailbed, now surrounded by huge boulders of dirt also larger than them. It was a new experience being this size, but still neither of them faltered now. This was a sign of hope.

“Okay, we’re ready to go now.” Noah signaled, allowing the two behemoths of slowly stand back up, steadily raising their hands along the way until their fingers were parallel with their bodies. The two mites held on tight at the sudden change of elevation, taking extra care to not get thrown off now. Off in the distance, the two girls could see Manana cooking. The others were also out somewhere in the desert too. Wanting to keep this a secret for now, both of them gathered their boots and fastened them back on with their free hands and headed west, trying to find a place to hide out, and figure out what to do next.

After a brisk walk around the corner, Mio and Sena stood behind a cliff, looking down at their two allies down on their fingertips. At such a scale, the tips of their nails was high enough to shield Noah and Lanz from the desert winds. Yet they still remained latched to a groove in their skin, as each step their colossal friends took felt like an elevator constantly rising and falling, with no way to tell when the trip will end. The two boys had only been this small for a couple of hours, yet they were completely exhausted. With the rough climb from earlier, as well as their minds still adjusting to the size of everything - including their best companions - their physical and mental fortitude was growing weaker.

“Alright, this should be a good spot.” Sena proclaimed, taking one more quick glance around to make sure they weren’t followed. “Now then…just what happened to you guys?”

“Noah, you tell ‘em.” Lanz commented, all four of them having to communicate through their Iris, as the smaller of the group was simply way too puny to be heard through normal means. Noah nodded, doing his best to recap the events that led up to this point. He explained the weird device they found that caused them to be shrunk, as well as meeting up with Leeda and finding Colony µ.

“So it actually is real…” Mio interrupted, finding the whole thing baffling. If it weren’t for the two of them appearing at this size right before her eyes, she never would have believed it at all. Noah continued the story, explaining just how small they actually are, as well as what the colony had requested of them in the first place. The only thing he omitted from the tale was the total massacre that had occurred under Mio’s foot, not wanting to scar the poor girl.

“Wait wait wait…you said you two are a hundredth of a micrometer? That’s like…super itty-bitty. I think the grains of sand around here are bigger than you two!” Sena blurted out, also completely shocked by the revelation. She tried to picture in her mind just how small that actually is, but the girl had more gall than brains, and didn’t really know how to visualize something that could only be normally viewed through microscopes.

“But that does explain what we saw earlier…” Mio spoke aloud. “To us, you guys actually appear as those little grains. But really, you guys aren’t even close to that size. That explains why it took so long to climb up our fingers.” A faint smile appeared on her face after speaking, personally amused by that little factoid.

“Yeah yeah we get it, we’re puny. Can we just move on from that now?” Lanz shouted, feeling a little flustered by all of this. Among the group, he’s known as the big, strong lunk. For him to be talked down to in such a manner really put a blow to his ego. But for now, he just had to toughen up and deal with it for the time being.

“Anyways, due to an…accident…” Noah picked up where he left off. “We’re stuck like this for now until Leeda can fix the machine.” Once again, he left out the fact that the fault in the accident was also Mio’s, but bringing up that fact wouldn’t change anything. But with that all taken care of, there wasn’t much the two shrunken adventurers could do now. They had already proven just how much of a task it was to climb up a single finger, so trying to do anything on their own would be a task only a fool would attempt.

“So for now, we can just get them that berry they asked for. I don’t think we’ll be able to find any parts for their machine out here though…” Mio spoke up, trying to figure out the best plan of action. Her mind thought about taking a detour to Colony 30, but the people and Nopons living there most likely won’t have any special parts for anyone that tiny. Just then, a smirk appeared on Sena’s face. She crept closer to her best friend, whispering within earshot of her.

“Hey Mimi…we don’t have to do that right away.” Sena playfully teased. “Think about it. It’s just one little berry, that shouldn’t be too hard to get. And since we have the boys like this literally in our hands, why don’t we have some fun with them?” A quick little giggle escaped her lips, just thinking of the prospect. Mio thought about it for a moment, quickly glancing down at her fingertip. There he was, her man completely at her mercy. If she wanted, all she would have to do is shake her finger and he’d fly right off. All that power started to flow inside her mind, her cat ears perking up as a sign of visible excitement. The giddy catgirl glanced back to her friend, an even bigger smile forming on her face.

“You’re right, Sena. How about you and I split up for now so we can have our own fun with them?” Just like that, Mio’s tone shifted completely. One second she was concerned, and now all she wanted to do was have some fun with her special someone that was in no position to decline. Sena cheered, bouncing her shoulders in excitement as well. Now that the two of them had come to a mutual agreement on what to do next, Sena walked off even further west, while Mio stayed behind, her sly smile perfectly content as she glared down at her fingertip holding her microscopic partner.

Once Sena was out of view, Mio found a flat rock nearby, one roughly the size of a queen bed, and sat down on her knees on one end of it. Still holding that playful smirk, she slowly lowered her hand down carrying her little friend as close as possible to the rock. Then in one quick, swift motion, Mio twisted her wrist, turning her finger upside-down. She giggled to herself, watching that teensy red dot fall down to the surface in front of her. What delighted her even more was now knowing just how extreme the fall actually is, given his actual size. But knowing her Noah, something like this won’t be too much to handle.

For Mio, the distance between fingertip and ground was barely a centimeter. For Noah, it was like being pushed out of an airplane without a parachute. He could feel the wind crash against his body as he reached terminal velocity before even making it down a quarter of a centimeter. All his military training up until now could not have prepared him for this. Instinctively, Noah clenched his body, tucking himself into a ball as he flipped himself around mid-air so his feet were facing the ground. Upon impact, he rolled forward, using the momentum to lessen the blow. Thankfully because of his size, the rock was more like a grittier version of the desert they were already in. The color of the sand was more maroon, and the grains were more uneven than usual due to erosion. Once again, Noah was shocked at the unfamiliar landscape around him. But at least he still wasn’t alone. Way high up in the sky was his friend, who loomed what seemed like hundreds of miles above him.

“So Noah…why don’t we play a little game?” Mio cooed, winking down at the little red speck before her. “We’ll play some cat and mouse. You run around, and I’ll chase you down. And just to make things fair, I won’t even use my hands.” The whole time the catgirl was smiling to herself, amused with every single aspect about this whole situation. But for Noah, he was petrified. He could not believe what he was hearing. How could one of his best friends find this whole thing amusing? Just a single breath is more than enough to whisk him away at this state. “I’ll even let you get a ten second head start. Better start running, my little Nano-ah.” Mio teased, giving him a more fitting nickname.

“Mio?! What’s gotten into you?!” Noah yelled furiously up to the sky, his monolithic friend taking up his entire field of view. But all Mio did was slightly tilt her head and smile, her cat ears twitching as if they were waving down at him. Seeing as this game was serious now, Noah gritted his teeth and sprinted in the opposite direction as fast as his little legs could carry him. The minuscule boy felt like he had never ran so fast in his entire life, constantly running around boulder-sized grains and hopping over minute cracks in the floor. If it weren’t for the dangerous threat peering down at him, he would have felt proud of his physique.

Mio watched with blissful anticipation as that little red dot scurried around in front of her. What shocked her the most was seeing Noah actually moving around, despite his current size situation. But just like that, those ten seconds are up. “Better watch out, Noah. If you’re not fast enough, this will suck for you.” Mio teased as she slowly bent her back forward, her breasts shaking as she descends down. In less than a second, Mio had caught up to the little sprinter, her titanic face glaring down at the red dot before her. The force of her blinks were strong enough at Noah’s size that he could feel the breeze flowing through every time that happened. But Mio had a much bigger plan. Internally giggling, she leaned just a smidgen bit forward, and then…

SNIFF SNIFF

There was nothing Noah could do from the hurricane gale force that was Mio simply inhaling. He felt his whole body rise up into the air much faster than he was going when falling earlier. Little microscopic grains of dust joined him along for the ride, showing Noah just what he truly was now to the rest of the world. In less than a millisecond, the barren wasteland was replaced now by a dark, foggy cave. Noah grunted as he felt his body smack against something hard, but he couldn’t move as the surface was rather sticky too. He tried to get a better view of the surroundings, but there was only one source of light at the entrance to the tunnel. Using his Iris, he was able to enhance his vision a bit to get a better view, but he couldn’t believe what he was seeing this time either. In front of him was a gigantic black pillar that was swaying back and forth. Turning his head, he could see that it was similar to the structure his body was stuck to as well. But there was a slimy liquid holding him in place, restricting his movement - a huge glob of mucus that secreted from the walls of the chamber he was trapped in.

“Mio! This isn’t funny anymore!” Noah roared out. He could hear his voice echo from the nasal chamber he was strapped into. All the little soldier could do now was squirm around to try and break off any of the bits of snot confining him.

Mio sat back up, satisfied with her performance. Looking back down at the surface of the rock before her, she noticed that red dot was now gone. “Heh, I thought you would have put up more of a fight than that.” Mio stated, feeling superior after such a one-sided fight. Through  her Iris, she could hear the displeased noises her petite pal was making, which pleased her even more, much to his chagrin. “Oh, is the mighty Ouroboros losing to a little nose hair? We’ve defeated Moebius, surely that won’t be a problem for you?” Her voice was condescending now, really feeling this huge shift in power as her partner was literally inside of her now.

Noah continued to struggle. Seeing as he wasn’t going to be getting any help from the outside world anytime soon, it was up to him to save his own day, less he make a cute, petite nose his resting chamber. With the two hairs so close to one another, they blocked the constant airflow of Mio’s subconscious inhales and exhales. From the mite-y warrior’s perspective, these humongous nose hairs were now a new enemy, and he knew the best way to take care of his enemies. Noah tightened his hands into fists, focusing all his effort into his right arm, grunting and straining himself trying to free his arm. After much painstaking effort, he was rewarded as his arm was now free from the sticky surface, allowing Noah to call forth his blade. With an actual weapon in hand, Noah carefully sliced through the wall of snot, freeing himself from captivity.

But now he needed a way out. Trying to walk out of the nose at his size would be nigh impossible, given the currents flowing through the chamber. But he did have one option available now. Noah unsheathed his secret weapon from his blade, calling forth Lucky Seven - a weapon that can slice through any surface. He had destroyed many Flame Clocks before with this thing, so a strand of hair should be no problem. He took a quick breath in and steadied his focus before going in quick, slicing the base of the pillar he was formerly attached to. The tower fell, landing in front of Noah with a heavy thud, causing the small fighter to land on his butt.

The drastic change happening inside Mio’s nose caused her to feel a strange tingling sensation. She wiggled her nose, leaning her head back, tensing up her shoulders for what was about to happen. Mio gasped, then gasped again, until finally…

ACHOO!

Mio jerked her head forward as she let out a sneeze, glancing down at the ground. For Noah, he once again yelled out in agony as his body went sailing through the air again. Like last time, he wasn’t alone as little specks of mucus joined him for the ride, sticking to his body once more as he plummeted down to the ground. But since it was Mio, there was one roadblock in the way between him and the floor. Once again the tiny hero braced himself, but was shocked to learn his landing was softer than before. Standing up on his feet, he looked around and notice the area was as pale as Mio’s fingertip.

Mio stood up to wipe her nose with her arm, shaking her head after that ungraceful display. “Noah, you okay?” she asked, looking around to try and find him. But a quick glance down dispelled her worries. Right on her right breast was a little red dot. And in that little red dot was an even littler Noah stuck in one of the canyon-like ridges of her skin. All Mio could do was giggle at his little plight. “Well, looks like you got out of that cave in one piece. Come on, let’s go rest up a bit.” She whispered happily down at her little speck, slowly strolling back to the campsite. The ground slightly shook beneath Noah, causing him to hold on tight the whole trip back to base. With her man in tow, she wondered if Sena and Lanz were having just as much fun as she did.