The Bushido, a splatoon fanfic

To be frank with you guys, I don't have a WiiU much less play Splatoon before in my entire life. I do however, am exceptionally interested in the game's overall concept. Hence, why I'm writing this story just for the gigs. After all, tentacles, squids and octopus are some of the very few things that ends up being a bad combination especially when it's made by the Japanese.

Just to be safe, I sincerely apologize if I made any errors in terms of game lores. I tried my best to match up with the original game while at the same time making it more 'Slice of Life' type of story.

With that said, I hope you guys enjoy!

The Bushido

What exactly is a Turf War?

While there are no official explanations available, Turf Wars can be easily defined as some sort of battle between two opposing teams whose objectives are to ink the most of the turf area in order to win. The turf arenas are elected by the well-known Squid Sisters idol, Marie and Calie on a daily basis, both for Regular and Ranked Battles alike.

Following the final judgement made by the referee cat, Judd, the result of a single Turf War may vary from time to time. Some battles would be one-sided from the very start till the very end while others would conclude in a 'inky' stalemate due to the unrivalled ferocity between the two teams.

This kind of problem usually arise either when the team members are selected in an unfair manner (particularly in the level and ranking aspect) or when the Inklings lacked the proper weapons that suited the designated Turf War arenas. Hence, it is always difficult to pre-determine the outcome of a particular Turf War.

That was not the case for today however. For today, a certain Inkling has joined today's Turf War.

"Hey, hey, hey, have you heard the news lately?" A pink-tentacled female Inkling cried out giddily as she skipped alongside her friends at the Inkopolis.

"What is it this time, Pinkette? This better not be another one of your yuri gossips again." The Inkling with purple-tentacle inquired in an exasperated manner.

The third female Inkling with orange-head nodded in agreement. "Yeah, do you have any idea how much of a ruckus that gossip of yours made last month?"

"No, no, no! This is an entirely different kind of thing!"

"Well, what is it then? Spill the ink out already!" Her two friends cried out in unison, already growing impatient from the constant delay.

"I heard she's here in Inkopolis."

"Who? The Squid Sisters?"

"Not to be rude, Pinkette, but we kinda see them everyday up there on the first floor."

"No, not them! Her! The Bushido!"

Almost instantaneously, the whole Inkopolis Plaza fell into a complete and utter silence upon the declaration. Everyone immediately averted their gaze in their direction. Even the ever-so-secluded Spyke from other side was peeking his spiky head out from his favorite alleyway in curiosity. Luckily for them, her two other friend were too shocked to actually notice this.

"…you're joking, right?"

"Nope, I'm not joking at all." She chirped in giddily. "In fact, I actually saw her heading to the Turf War arena a while ago!"

"B-B-But why now? The last time we've seen her was during last year's Splatfest! Why did she choose to appear now of all times?"

"I don't know, I really don't." She replied earnestly. "One thing for sure though, things are definitely going to be different for today."

…

Just as what the Inkling predicted, things have certainly gone different within the Turf War.

From a spectator's perspective, they would only see two sets of Inklings – one side cyan while the rest being pink – fighting in a regular Turf War. However, what they didn't realize was that instead of the usual competitive vibe that lingers during said match, the whole arena seemed to be blanketed in a rather ominous aura that spelt nothing but death.

It didn't help that two-third of the field was already covered in cyan ink despite being only a minute through the match.

Even Judd himself had a look of absolute concern as he maintained a close eye on the arena from his vantage point for any possible foul acts. Not that he needed to do such thing anyway considering the current circumstances. Currently, the cyan were taking the lead and managed to push the pink team back to their home turf. The pink team tried to resist as much as they can but they were losing ground very rapidly.

"Tango coming in on the right!" One of the pink Inkling alerted upon seeing an opposing cyan taking sniping positions on an elevated area. Not bothering to hear any response from his teammates, he hastily lobbed a pyramid-shaped object in the general direction. "Splatterbomb out!"

Although the Splatterbomb didn't landed as close as he thought it would, it served as a good deterrent for the enemy, prompting him to turn into Squid form and jumping off the spot. What he didn't notice was that by jumping off the point, he made himself an exposed target midair and was immediately vanquished by a N-ZAP '85 by the same Inkling. "Ha! You're not gonna jump us that easily!"

Just when he was about to celebrate his kill, the male Inkling caught a glimpse of a cyan on the peripheral side of his vision. "Illona, look out, you got a roller on your twelve!"

"I'm on it! Thanks for the heads up, Soap!" Taking aim with her Splatterscope, the female unleashed a torrent of deadly cyan ink in his way. The roller tried to evade it but was proven to be too slow took the blast head on and exploded in a pool of cyan ink. She clicked her tongue in distaste. "Geez, they just keep on coming, don't they!?"

"We can see that!" A third pink Inking acknowledged as he launched an Inkstrike on the enemy's turf, having heard her rant as clear as the day. He muttered a curse to himself when he got no signs of splattering any enemy Inklings and glanced behind him. "Kyanna, what's the situation with the Echolocator!?"

The question was directed to another female Inkling in the group. Contrary to the rest of the three who were taking care of the frontlines, she was busy patching up any blank spots in their home turf with her .96 Gal while at the same time keeping a lookout for any enemy Inkling that managed to sneak up behind their backs. Occasionally, she'd sunk herself into her own ink in order to reload her Ink tank since her choice of weapon consumed a large amount of ink for every shot.

Jumping out of an ink puddle for what seemed to be the umpteenth she did today, the female Inkling by the name Kyanna let out an exasperate sigh before responding, "Almost done! I just need a little bit more to fill up the gauge!" Turning her back slightly, she jerked a thumb to a nearly-filled gauge tube located just beside her Ink tank.

"Then make it quick! We need that thing before she comes!"

Kyanna got visibly annoyed by that. "I'm trying, Mitchel! Do you have any idea how much I have to—"

"AAAAAAAAH!"

Shock written all over their faces, the two stopped ranting at each other and averted their gaze in the direction of the source of sound, only to see not their friend, Soap, but his N-ZAP '85 lying on a pool of Cyan ink; a solid indication that he was splattered by someone.

Not too soon after that, the two heard another gargling scream from their right flank. This time, it was Illona's Splatterscope lying on another pool of Cyan ink.

"She's here." He said, his face gone considerably pale in a matter of split seconds.

"Mitchell, look out!"

"Huh?"

Blinking in absolute blankness, Mitchell instinctively glanced up when a shadow suddenly loomed over him. The last thing he ever saw was a cyan Splatterbomb thrown midair before his vision went blank.

…

Kyanna evidently cursed to herself when Mitchell was eliminated by an enemy's aerial Splatterbomb. With him gone, it was all up to her to clutch the game…in which she doubted she'll be able to do when against her. Sure, their 'spiritual residue' will spawn back in their respawn area but she highly doubt they'll be able to get here in time.

Running over to their last position, Kyanna quickly took cover behind the wall with her .96 Gal prepped and ready. She wished she could take any of her teammates weapon over her current one but that would make her a bad sport. She'll need to make do with what she had at the moment, regardless how disadvantageous her situation was.

Speaking of disadvantageous, where was she?

Provided that her teammates' assailant wasn't using a Splat Charger type of weapon for long distance then she was definitely close. Way too close for comfort.

Taking a slow yet shaky breath to steady her beating heart, she tried to reassessed her current predicament. First off, she had her .96 Gal as a primary that was already low on ink, Sprinkler as a secondary and finally an Echolocater that was nearly reaching completion.

If she can, she could risk it and ink up any last remaining spots available to fill up the rest of the gauge but that would make her an easy target. Another solution was to retreat a few steps back so that she recover herself but doing so would result in her team losing ground even more.

All in all, the odds were not in her favor…though she supposed she should've expected this.

But she won't give in that easily. It'll take more than just this to take her out.

"Come on, where are you, Bushido?" She muttered to herself as she surveyed her surroundings. "I know you're here somewhere. Just show yourself already."

With her already low on ammo, she'll need to take her first few shots correctly.

Splash!

"Aha!" She cried out, taking aim at a particular puddle of cyan in which she heard the sound from. "Found you!"

Pulling the trigger, Kyanna fired a barrage of pink ink blasts at the cyan pool. Her weapon may not have enough to ink a decent amount of space but it definitely packed enough punch to splatter an Inkling regardless how tough they were.

Unfortunately, as packed-a-punch her .96 Gal was, the assailant was proven to be faster than she thought as she swiftly jumped out of the pool before any shots could even touch her. On the bright side, doing so had resulted in her emerging out of her hiding hole. But that's not all…

She grinned. "I've got you now."

Without any cyan ink pool nearby, there was no way for her to turn into squid form and pull off any agile tricks she was rumored to be specialized in.

"You're not getting away this time." With that declaration made, she pulled the trigger.

Click!

Silence.

"Huh?" Glancing at her primary in puzzlement, Kyanna pulled the trigger a few more times when nothing happened.

Click!

"W-What the, it can't be—" She stuttered in utter disbelief, her .96 Gal refusing to comply with her demands which can only mean one thing. "I'm out of ink!?"

As mentioned a while ago, she needed to take her first few shots carefully. Now that she had wasted it, she was now officially an exposed target. Not even her Secondary and Special could do anything about that.

Meanwhile, the Bushido has yet to move from her spot even after she pulled her trigger, which means she herself was aware of her shortage of ink. Which also meant that she was merely pulling her tentacle the second she emerged from her hiding spot.

Her victory now assured, the Bushido rushed towards Kyanna at a blinding speed, her Roller glimmered sharply under the sunlight as it was raised high for the finishing blow.

Just before the blow hit her however, Kyanna had a look of utter distaste on her face and was able to mutter one last sentence, "Damn you."

Splat!

You have been Splattered by a Replica Hero Roller!

…

"A complete loss." Soap said as he slumped himself on the shutter walls. "I never thought I'd lose a Turf War so bad."

"It can't be help, Mitchell." Illona beside him ushered. "We were dealing with the Bushido, one of the strongest Inkling here in Inkopolis."

"Still, it was a bit intimidating seeing the Bushido out of the blue like that." He involuntarily shivered when he got a brief flashback of himself getting wrecked by said Inker's Roller.

"Yeah, what was that anyway?" She inquired. "I've never seen Gears like that being sold in the shops before."

"Me neither." The owner of the N-Zap '85 admitted before turning to the rest of his allies. "Do you think we'll be able to get one as well?"

"I doubt it." Mitchell responded, effectively earning his teammates' attention. "From what I gathered, his Gears aren't exactly the kind of things that would be sold at the shops. So it must be something that she got from somewhere else."

"What about Spyke? Can't we order it from him?"

He shook his head. "A lot of Inklings had tried asking but got nothing as a result. Apparently, even Spyke

himself doesn't know how it get it." He replied. "Our best option is to ask the Bushido herself and we all know how she is when it comes to crowds."

"Is that the reason why there's a tension going on in between the Bushido and Spyke? Because he couldn't find his particular Gear?"

"Definitely. Heck, I'd be angry myself if I couldn't do something that I'm supposed to be specialized at."

The whole group couldn't help but nod in agreement at that. The Bushido was a total enigma. Ever since she made her debut here in Inkopolis a year ago, the allegedly-unbeatable Inkling had made quite a huge reputation of herself. Heck, she even managed to get herself into the highest possible ranking in Turf War in a few weeks' time in which regular Inkers would take months to accomplish.

Not only was she strong but she was also the slickest too. With her ever-so-climbing popularity, multiple press medias tried to strike an interview with her but to no avail. No matter what kind of methods they used to catch after her, the Bushido would always find a way around it. It was a wild squid chase!

Heck, she even refused to make an appearance when she was offered to have a personal one-on-two meeting with the Squid Idols. What kind of Inkling would do such a thing!?

"Yeah, you got a point there." Said Inkling look like he still has plenty of things to say but immediately put whatever dissatisfaction he had when he realized what time it was. "In any case, it's getting late now. I should get back home soon."

Eventually, other Inklings agreed as well one after another, each voicing out their own reasons for going home.

"Yeah, me too. The last train arrives in about an hour and I can't risk missing it." The other male Inkling agreed.

"Hey, you coming, Kyanna?" One of the male Inkling when he realized that one of them has yet to move away from her spot.

"Oh, you Inklings go on ahead," Kyanna spoke, her feet still dangling as she sat on the railing. "I'm gonna stick around the plaza for a bit."

"Alright then, you better not stay out for too long. We got another Turf War tomorrow."

She rolled her eyes at the remark. "Yeah, yeah, I know."

Waving her tentacle away, Kyanna watched as her team members left one by one. Some preferred to casually walk away while others ran at a quick pace for the sake of catching up with time. Finally, she was left all alone in the corner of the Inkopolis Plaza. Though that didn't seem to bother the blue female Inkling one bit.

…

"I think the coast is clear."

Glancing left and right, the female Inkling made sure all her team members were gone for good. Once done, she hopped off the railing and jogged into a nearby alley, one that was definitely not meant for Inklings to go through.

As she goes deeper into dark alleys, the environment ever so slowly turned dirtier and more sinister. It was so horrible that it made Spyke's little hideout corner comparatively clean. With its current condition, you'd thought no Inkling in the right mind would be here. Yet, here she was, walking through one of them like no squid's business.

"Of all the places she had to choose from, she had to pick the most sketchy one of them all." Kyanna commented to no one in particular, mild annoyance creeping up in her tone of voice. "Here I thought being a Hero Agent and travelling through disgusting pipelines to the Hero area was bad enough."

Before she could say anything any further, Kyanna inadvertently stopped within her tracks when she heard a particular cheery voice from above her.

"Kyanna-chan!~~~"

Without any warning of some sort, a blur of cyan suddenly appeared above the unsuspecting Inkling and was heading towards Kyanna fast.

SMACK!

At least, she was supposed to be unsuspecting of it until she spun around and kicked it aside under the speed of lightning.

As it turned out, the blur was in fact an Inkling. The Inkling didn't seem to be too surprised by the counterattack and professionally somersaulted her way to the ground. She did however lost balance afterwards, prompting her to stumble on her butt.

Not only that, her so-called 'assailant' was in fact the Bushido herself, complete with her custom-made Samurai armor, exactly like how she looked in the Turf War match a while ago. Though there seemed to be something off about her.

"Ow, that hurt!" The Bushido cried out as she rubbed the spot where she was kicked. "Why did you do that, Kyanna-chan?"

"That's what you get for being a creep, Bushido." She said with a smirk. "Or should I say, Iris."

"Ehehehe, I guess I am." The Bushido, or Iris for this occasion, commented as she scratched her cheek. "Say, you're not angry, are you?

Kyanna crossed her arms. "I don't know, what makes you say that?"

"Uh, because I eliminated your whole team?"

Once again, Kyanna sighed. As much as she wanted to deny such statement, she kind of did.

"Tell me, Iris, why did you think we lost?"

"Uh, because you're cute and that I like you a lot?"

Flames erupted behind Kyanna's back as her glare on Iris intensifies. At this point, it was safe to say that any complimentary means would be rendered useless. Had the combatants weren't too focused with the Bushido throughout the whole match, they probably would've noticed that the S+ ranked Inkling was the least of their worries.

"Okay, okay, okay! It's because you're not good enough and you're still an C- rank!" She finally admitted as she raised both her arms in defeat and defense.

The flames receded and she stopped glaring at her. "Exactly. It's because of that reason that you were able to beat me so easily." She agreed. "It also means that I've still had long ways to go before I can actually be as skilled as you are."

"Don't worry about that, Kyanna-chan, you'll get S+ soon enough. I just know it!" To make her point, the Bushido flashed her one big fat thumbs up with the silly grin still plastered on her face.

Said pink Inkling sported an amused look for that. "What makes you sure? Do you have a plausible reason that made you believe on such thing?"

"Nope, I don't. I just do!" She yipped. "Now come on, let's go out and eat something. I'm starving right now!"

"For once, I actually agree with you."

"Great! There's actually this one sushi place that was opened just recently. Let's go there!"

"Alright then, lead the way, Bushido-san." Kyanna requested in mock respect. Unfortunately for her, the infamous Bushido was too engrossed with the thought of eating sushi to actually pay attention and was already skipping ahead of her. "Oh, and by the way, you'll be paying this time."

"What!? That's not fair!"

So much for the infamous Bushido

And that's it for the Bushido! What do you guys think? Is it good? Is it bad? Is it meh? Leave a review on what are your thoughts! If I'm lucky, I might buy myself a Nintendo Switch someday and play the so-called Splatoon 2 everyone kept on talking about in Deviantart!