Heading through the garden may not have been the best choice for the three of them, but they had little choice. There was a horde of beasties in the path between the garden and the school building, right where they needed to go, and they didn't have much time to reach Zuika's Tree. So, to save themselves a lot of struggling on getting through that big group of baddies, they cut into the garden, about half-way up. They came in on a dirt path, two giant walls of plants on either side of them. To the south were the lines of cabbages. To the north, where they needed to move, were lines of green beans and wax beans.
The lines at the west side of the garden were covered in plants, almost no space between them. They took a look at their surroundings and tried to think their way through this situation. Zuika's Tree was just north of the very middle of the garden. To have the shortest route, they'd need to find the middle point of the garden, and then head straight north until they got out, past all of the beans, onions, berries, and everything else that was planted here. Once there, they'd be able to easily get through the plants, and they should also have a clear view of their goal.
They also needed to reach the middle because there was more spacing between the plants there. They couldn't just shove their way through these plants, at will. The students and professors regularly sprayed the plants in the garden with toxins to kill off any bugs that try to climb on and eat them. They needed a way to get through the garden without touching any of the plants, just in case that same substance was toxic to them, being the size of bugs right now. After deciding where they needed to go, they started heading east, towards the center of the garden.
The ground on the garden was definitely easier to move through, for them. Even soft soil was hard to them, and there was no grass here, at all. The garden was maintained well, so they couldn't even see weeds growing up anywhere. It wasn't perfectly flat, but it was an easy walk, no challenge at all. They were able to pick up the pace on this turf, nearly making it to the halfway point before they discovered that the garden wasn't exactly the safest place around, either. Despite there being dozens of fly corpses around the area, and all the bug-killer on the plants, the garden was still home to a few bits of wildlife.
Out from the gap came a swarm of flies, buzzing around the tops of the bean plants. They were looking for something, but instead, they went after the wrong prey. Upon seeing the four shrunken students walking around, down below, they started dive-bombing them, as the fly at the shrine had done. As soon as they got close, however, Izoku dispatched them, along with a few leaves from the plants with a quick Jigoku Raijin. With the path clear, the four of them stood on top of a leaf, right in between two of the plants. They looked forward, seeing their destination. Past what looked like a forest of garden plants was a towering spire, a leafless tree known as Zuika's Tree.
They all grinned, seeing it in sight. They just had a little bit more of this gardening wasteland to trek through until they will have reached their goal and could take a rest from the battles. Or, rather, Izoku could take a rest. Hitoshi, Tarou, and Sei still got to use their skills every once in awhile, but Izoku was using the most energy, of all of them. They left the leaves, together, seeing the path mostly barren, wanting to make sure they got to the tree before all of the students came out and provided them with yet another problem.
This place was truly like a wasteland, of sorts. Aside from the giant clods of dirt and the tree-like plants, they encountered and had to step over small pieces of garbage, as well as endless corpses of flies, beetles, ants, and other insects who had made the mistake of eating from the plants, only to become victims of the toxins the people of the academy sprayed on them every day. It was like they'd exited the wonderful, beautiful environment of nature and had run into some barren monster-ridden land of a post-apocalyptic world, the beacon in the distance their one clue to where they needed to go, like some sort of huge casino tower or something.
About an hour and a half, and dozens of flies and beetles later, they finally came out of the barren wasteland that was the garden and found bright-green grass again. They looked forward and realized they were close. They didn't see any other wildlife in the way, and they made a B-line for the tree, thinking they were going to make it there. Little did they know they weren't going to make it there. Not all the way, at least. They ran with excitement, and stopped as soon as they landed in the dirt, at the base of the tree.
About halfway through the field of dirt, Izoku stopped and began to 'address' the three students, speaking about his past experiences at this tree. Apparently, he had attempted this a few times before, and failed. “We are lucky there's no wind today. I've tried to climb this tree in the past, always foiled because of being the victim of strong gusts of wind. You need to be ready for anything.” Sei smiled and chuckled at this statement, despite just how serious it was. “I'm sure the rule “Be ready for anything” could be applied to just about every conceivable scenario at this size.”
Hitoshi agreed with them, but had something else on his mind. He didn't understand why Izoku needed their help, being so much stronger than any of them. “You're so much stronger than we are, Izoku-san. Why have you asked the three of us for help?” Izoku looked at Hitoshi and smiled. He had a good feeling about these three. “You guys remind me a lot of myself at your age. I think you could be capable of great things if given the right opportunity. That, and...”
They were all caught off-balance and silenced as they felt a small quake in the ground, then another, and then another. They all looked to the side as they saw something that scared them all to death. A blue-haired girl in mage robes was approaching, and fast. She wasn't shrunken, either. Her towering form was approaching and quickly casting them all in it's shadow. They all freaked out as her foot came closer and closer, it's shadow coming closer and closer, until it was right on top of them...