Author's Note: I do not own Ika Musume...I seriously don't have any more to say other than enjoy the story.
"The Invasion Grows"
By: pyrotornado
Chapter 2
Is it really you?
Ika Musume stretched her arms out, cracking her joints as she returned to the Lemon Shack. Chizuru, who had been chopping lettuce, turned to greet them. "Welcome back," She smiled. "Did we manage to get the trash thrown out in time to be picked up?"
"Yeah, there wasn't any problem," Eiko answered. As she did, her gaze fell upon a white device over the kitchen area. A red light was flashing on and off in quick succession. "Oh, did you install a new smoke alarm, Aneki?" She questioned. "I think it would be more useful away from the stove."
Chizuru looked to where Eiko had mentioned. "Oh no," She laughed softly. "That isn't a smoke alarm. The scientists from the lab asked if I would keep it in the shop as part of their research." Eiko stepped back, stunned.
"And you let them?" She yelled. "Who knows what that thing is! It could be a bomb for all we know!"
"Now now…" Chizuru waved it aside. "I don't think they would put something like that in my shop." She opened her eyes slightly. "If they value their lives in any way…" She took another look at it. "Funny thing, though…" She said worriedly.
"What is?" Ika-chan asked as she cleaned off a table with her tentacles.
"It wasn't flashing like that earlier; I wonder what it is…" A piercing scream resounded from the beach. Ika Musume rushed outside to see what was happening just in time to crash into something.
"What is it, degeso?" She rubbed her head and turned to see her attacker. She saw a girl wearing a wetsuit scared out of her mind.
"Nagisa-san?" Chizuru strode over to the two. "I thought you took the day off to go surfing?" She asked as she helped her up.
"I-I-I-I was! I mean I did!" She stuttered as she tried to form a sentence. "I was out in the ocean when something brushed my leg and tried to pull me under!" She looked accusingly at Ika Musume. "I know it was you, you Squid Person!"
"No I didn't!" She answered reflexively. Then she realized that she could use this as an opportunity to scare Nagisa again. "Just so you know," She said haughtily. "If I wanted to pull you into the ocean, I wouldn't have allowed you to scream the way you did, degeso…" She laughed evilly, relishing Nagisa's scared reaction.
"That's enough Ika Musume!" Eiko scolded. "You were with me the whole time…wait a minute…" She narrowed her eyes. "Didn't you just go out into the ocean to destroy that thing the Three Stooges made?" Ika-chan now realized that her plan had backfired.
"I didn't mess with her, okay!" She defended. "I only went to the machine and brought it back, geso! I couldn't fish her leg from that distance if I wanted to, degeso!" She crossed her arms in defiance.
Eiko sighed. "There you have it," She turned to Nagisa, who still wasn't convinced.
"I saw the Squid Person's tentacles!" She retorted angrily. "Even though it wasn't as clear as usual today, I saw a blue tentacle grab onto my leg as I was surfing a pipe!" She shuddered as she remembered. "The surprise caused me to wipe out, and I had something tugging at my leg as I tried to swim to the surface." Nagisa was adamant today.
"I didn't grab your squiddle leg, degeso!" Ika Musume replied insulted. "Why would I go out of my way to harass you on your day off, anyway?" She shrugged her shoulders.
"That's right," said a voice. Everyone turned to see Sanae strut in carrying a magnifying glass and a camera.
"What are you doing, Sanae?" Eiko asked blankly.
"Hmhmhm!" She chuckled. "It seems as though someone is trying to frame Ika-chan for the murder of Nagisa-san…"
"I'm not dead, though…." Nagisa cried softly.
"But I, Detective Sanae, intend to solve this case and win Ika-chan's undying love!" She fantasized aloud. Ika sighed.
"No…It ain't gonna happen, degeso…" Ika Musume just waved her off as she went back to cleaning the tables.
"First of all," Sanae continued unhindered. "Nagisa-san!" She got close to her face with a serious look. "Are you absolutely certain that it was a tentacle that grabbed you, and not just a piece of trash?" She inquired.
"Of course I am!" She snapped. "It was slithering and moving…" She shivered in disgust. "And it actually gripped onto my leg!" She brought her leg up to show where she had been grabbed. Right above the ankle was a light red mark that circled her leg and part of her foot. "See? It even bruised it!"
"Hmm…" Eiko looked closely at the mark. "Ika Musume," She called. "Let me see one of your tentacles for a sec."
"Eh!" She groaned, but complied as she extended one over to the tables, while Nagisa tried to cower back away from the appendage.
"Hold still for a second, Nagisa…" She placed the mark and the tentacle side-by-side and compared them. For almost a minute, Sanae, Eiko, and Chizuru examined the marking before they finally let the tentacle go. "It's a tentacle marking alright…"
"I knew it!" Nagisa shrieked.
"Just not Ika Musume's tentacle…" Eiko concluded. The Lemon Shack went silent.
"What do you mean?" Nagisa quivered, about ready to burst into tears.
"Ika-chan's tentacles are larger than the markings on your leg," Sanae explained. "Even if we take shrinkage due to the water temperature and the time it took you to get here, the evidence doesn't match up."
"The evidence doesn't…" Nagisa started to get angry. "The Squid Creature is the only one who has tentacles like that!" She yelled. "Who else could it possibly be?" She was about to reach her breaking point, even Ika-chan realized that. But all that anger, all that confusion, instantly dissipated in a second…with the utterance of one voice.
"Um…excuse me?" piped a shy, quiet voice from the entrance of the shack. All eyes turned to see who it was. Hiding behind one of the shack's support posts was a little girl in a white dress. She didn't look to be a day over six years old, and she had the face of a little scared angel. But that wasn't what surprised everybody. On top of the little girl's head was a white hat that looked exactly like Ika Musume's….and ten tiny blue tentacles…
Dumbfounded, Eiko was the first to say anything. "No way…." She muttered.
"My my my!" Chizuru smiled widely at the sight of the miniature Ika Musume in the doorway.
Sanae collapsed onto the floor, blood gushing from her nose at an alarming rate, while Nagisa fainted on top of her.
"Um…I'm very sorry if I was interrupting anything, geso…" The timid girl cowered further behind the post. "I…just wanted to…um…apologize for scaring that onee-san from before, geso…" She blushed bright red as she tried to get her words out.
"Hold on," Eiko shook her head and tried to collect her thoughts. "That was you?" She tried to wrap her head around the thought that yet another Ika Musume has come to shore and she just so happened to bump into the one person in town that would actually be scared of her.
"It's alright," Chizuru casually made her way towards the little Squid girl, trying not to frighten her off. "No one is mad at you…" She cooed as she got closer to her, getting on her knees about five feet away from her. "That's a very good girl for being so polite…" She smiled as the girl gathered the courage to come further into the Shack.
"Well what do you know…" Eiko scratched her head. "So you weren't the only one of your kind, huh Ika Musume?" She turned to see how Ika-chan would react. Knowing how she had reacted every other time to what she thought were her brethren, Eiko thought that she would instantly get excited over meeting another Ocean-Dweller. Like when Takeru tried to pretend to be another Squid Person, or when the Southern Winds guy tried to market the fake Ika Musume heads as a mascot.
None of those reactions were on Ika-chan's face. Tears dripped from her widened eyes as she cautiously made her way closer to the little girl. Sanae and Nagisa regained consciousness just in time to join the rest of the group in witnessing this spectacle as Ika Musume collapsed to her knees in front of the girl. Ika Musume shakily reached her hand out to pat the girl on the head, tears continuing to flow like a faucet. "Are you…" She managed to choke out. "…Erika?"
The little girl's eyes widened as a sudden realization hit her, and she began to cry too. Her tentacles reacted to her emotions and softly squeezed down on Ika Musume's arm. "Isumi onee-sama?" She asked, scared that her mind might be playing a trick on her.
No more words needed to be said. In that instant, the two sisters embraced each other, crying out in fits and sobs as the truth set in: They were no longer alone.
Well, how about that? Looks like the Lemon Shack is about to get twice as crazy now that the Squid Sisters have been reunited! But why does this little one seem so scared when her sister was so confident her first time on the surface? And why did she attack Nagisa to begin with? All shall be revealed during the next chapter!
