I have nothing up here for once... Let's write this up and get back to the splatfest...

Chapter 2: Convincing

A few weeks had passed. Master Hand, who was originally understanding about Ika's apprehension on accepting the invitation, was now getting a bit annoyed. He had answered any questions that she had to the best of his ability, but even now she was still hesitating.

"I just don't know." She repeated once again.

Once again Master Hand was sitting in her kitchen, just silently drinking tea across from her. The hand knew that he couldn't force the decision, and that she had to accept it herself, however he was on a deadline and was getting nowhere fast. He decided that he had to speed up the process somehow.

"How about this." Master Hand said. "What if, you come to an open house and see what its all about."

Ika thought about it for several moments. "Actually... maybe that would be a good idea. I can see what it actually is..."

"Excellent!" Master Hand said. "How does this weekend sound?"

"Well there's that Splatfest for the Chicken or the Egg..." Ika said. "And my squad was hoping to do several matches together and..."

Master Hand just let off a heavy sigh. "Just, what day is free for you?"

Ika just paused and thought about it for a few moments, even pulling out her cell phone and checking her week. "Well, there's season 5 of that one show being released tomorrow and I was planning on binging it so I didn't stumble across spoilers online... There's also that Squid Sisters reunion tour. Off the Hook's new songs are dropping... Yeah I'm booked until the end of the month."

Master Hand had lost control of his inkling disguise, becoming a liquid squid, before eventually regaining his composure and returning back to the humanoid appearance. He just pulled out his cell phone and began to scroll through various pictures. "I should have gone with that Rex person." he muttered, eventually looking back up at Ika. "Well, Ika, I understand that this is not an easy choice. And that you're busy, and you have your own schedule. Just... I can't keep delaying this, and if you continue to push it off, I'm going to have to pass over you."

He turned the cell phone right towards Ika, so that the she could see the image. On it was a brown haired boy dressed in blue diving gear with a diving helmet that currently was just hanging off his back. The only other notable thing about him was a green X gem in his chest. She just looked at the photo and stared at it for several seconds taking it in.

"Wait... what?" was Ika's first reaction. "What is this? They don't look like an inkling!"

Master Hand was actually a bit surprised by this reaction. The script that he had mentally prepared for what he was going to say next was immediately lost.

Up to this point, he had sensed that she was feigning interest. But now, Ika was genuinely curious about the boy in the picture.

"This boy's name is Rex." Master Hand said, he paused for a few moments but when Ika didn't interject he continued. "And this tournament, I don't think I described it that well. I am not from this world. This form that I'm currently in is just a disguise."

He got off the chair and stepped out into the open kitchen. A moment later he reformed into a giant white glove. "This is my true form."

Ika was speechless. She had just put down her tea cup and was shaking, either in fear or excitement. Either way, Master Hand couldn't tell.

"Your opponents won't just be other inklings, they will be others from across different worlds. Such as Rex here." Master Hand explained.

He reverted back to his Inkling disguise and just sat down once again. Ika was just sitting there trying to process it. "However, your only chance of knowing these other worlds are if you accept." He had also failed to mention that if she declined, then her memories of this offer, and of him and the other worlds would be erased.

"All right." Ika said. "Let's do it! I wanna go to this open house! I can do it after the splatfest."

Master Hand just looked at her rather shocked. "Excellent! That's good! However, between then and now you can't tell anyone."

"Alright!" she said.

"I'll contact you with further details on how you're getting to the open house." Master Hand said.

The two walked away from that meeting rather happy. Master Hand being glad that some progress had been made, and looking forwards to the future and hopefully not worrying about finding another Inkling after he had already directed so much time to Ika.

Ika was just suddenly excited and interested with who were these other combatants in this tournament? What kind of worlds were they from? So much that she was having difficulty falling asleep at night. She tossed and turned in bed as her mind was just constantly jumping around, wondering just who these people could be.

Ika, and her squad had just finished a battle. The four of them just made their way out to some vending machines and they got some drinks. After they drank them, they just rested on some benches to recover their stamina before they decided to go in for their next Turf War.

"You're unusually focused today!" One of her teammates said.

"Yep." Ika replied.

"Why though?"

"I just want to be in tip top shape for the Splatfest."

"You're that excited for a Chicken VS The Egg Splatfest?"

"Yeah. I guess."

"You weren't even pumped up for Money VS Love. How could this Splatfest actually interest you?"

"Let's face it, white ink." Another teammate chimed in.

Ika just shrugged. "Well, no... not that... Wait, I thought we agreed on Team Egg?!"

They just laughed. "Yeah we are. But still, why the sudden interest in Splatfest?"

"I just need something to distract myself since I guess that sponsor had passed over our team." Ika replied.

The others looked down defeated. "Oh yeah... right..."

"So, let's place high in the Splatfest!" Ika said. "If we're in the Splatfest top 100, maybe they'll notice us!"

"You sure?"

"Well, yeah, you haven't heard of anyone being signed on to a sponsorship deal and a professional team right?" Ika wondered.

"No... Although those things would be under a NDA until an announcement is made..." One pointed out.

"Well, even if another team was signed on under that, there are always more sponsors looking, so I think we're fine." Ika laughed. "Besides, I think I was too focused on that, that it was impacting playing! Let's just have fun out there!"

"Yeah!" the squad said in unison, getting up off of the benches and towards the tower ready to enter into their next turf war.

Ika paused for a moment, just staying behind as her friends walked ahead. Deep within her mind, she was pondering something, but quickly shook it off. "Yeah, let's just enjoy the time that we have together." She said to herself.

The character mentioned in this chapter, Rex, is from Xenoblade Chronicles 2. And is one of the characters I'd like to see in the next Smash. Just I have no idea if that's too recent since it only came out last year at the beginning of December.