Chapter 1 – The Shuttle Ride
Toda looked around the shuttle excitedly. First trip to Inkopolis. Who wouldn't be? She turned her head, well, tried, as the shuttle made a sharp turn to see the other passengers. Her heart jumped as she noticed a member of a famous ink battle team, the Vampire Squids. The inkling was wearing a shirt that said it, and had his name, team logo, and some weird tiny writing on the back. He held an inkbrush that was colored dark pink (which is considered red ink) and dripped onto a mat on the floor.
How convenient, Toda thought.
The shuttle stopped, and she watched as the Vampire Squid team member hopped onto the station, only to frantically squid away as a bunch of fans crowded him. Toda laughed to herself.
Must be hard being famous, or did he have a little stage fright?
She gripped the pole as the shuttle began to move again, and looked outside at the bay they were passing. A robotic voice came on.
Please head to the nearest pad and link yourself to the spawn point, it said.
Toda knew why. She learned it in school that once a shuttle crashed into the ocean and all the passengers went missing. This was why every time a shuttle was about to cross deep water, everyone had to link themselves to a spawn point.
Toda got up to the pad. It was like a small computer, but touchscreen and other cool stuff. She pressed the buttons and entered in her ticket number and ID.
Underage squids had to ride with their guardians. The max age when you were considered 'adult' was when you turned 14. That was because that's when you could fully control your humanoid and squid forms.
Toda peered outside the window and gazed at the water full of wonder. She knew of the rumors of the giant squids in the water, and the possible existence of the feared whale, an extinct predator of the inklings ancestors. Toda's relatives in her peer group said it was just a bunch of splattalk. Splattalk was a term used by inklings for stuff that was just junk.
Toda looked around for a free seat. After a few seconds, she sat down next to a male inkling playing on his ISquid. She felt uneasy around him, she didn't like being with strangers.
Might as well get used to it, you're gonna meet a lotta squiddies during turf war.
But this was a different uneasy. It reminded her of when her grandmother told her of the inkline of fate, where there is a chance where in the future you'll meet a certain person again. Why? She didn't know. But she tried to scooch away from him without it being obvious. Unfortunately, the inkling noticed, but that was soon interrupted by the sudden appearance of two boys squidding down the interior of the shuttle, one as a kraken, the other riding him. A few inklings took out their ISquids and began to record the event, laughing when the pair eventually crashed at the end of the shuttle.
Toda couldn't help but laugh herself, it was funny, this feat the pair came up with.
The inkling next to her eventually looked up from his game, chuckled a little, and went to the game again. Toda tried looking sideways seeing what he was playing, but darted eyes away as the robotic voice came up again, this time saying, Arriving at Inkopolis Plaza, please watch your step, and no squidding out the doors.
This was it. The moment Toda had been waiting for. When she took her first steps, onto the fresh, new, soil of Inkopolis.
Author's Note: This is my first story, all Splatoon NPCs (Non-Player Characters) appearing within the story belong to Nintendo. All dialogue terms (e.g. 'splattalk') are made up, and are most likely not used in the game.