Hello, everyone. First and foremost, I really want to apologize for not updating the story within the past five months. To be quite honest, I had lost my passion to continue this story for quite some time, so I didn't really commence typing this chapter until mid-December when my passion was rekindled. Now, I didn't update this story until now because of the sheer fact of how overwhelming and extensive this chapter was to type. This chapter took almost 46 pages to complete – 15 pages longer than the previous chapter. This is currently my longest chapter, but I'll try to refrain from creating such long chapters so I can try to update the story more frequently. I'm sorry if the end seems rather rushed, but I wanted to update the story as soon as possible.
One last thing. I have changed the profile picture for this particular story to display my own depictions of what Chiro looks like. I included both an anime-style illustration along with one that closely resembles what the normal Inklings look like. Personally, I'm more partial to the anime version, but all of you are free to refer to either one when reading.
Enjoy!
Splatoon: Pure White
Chapter 9: Splatfest: Milk Tea v. Lemon Tea
The previous two days of physically and mentally preparing for the extensive time that Splatfest would consume had taken a minor toll on Vivi. Her entire body ached severely from even the minutest movements as she shifted in her bed. Unfortunately, she didn't recover from her exhaustion by sleeping as she thought she would, and she couldn't resist groaning in anguish while her muscles were virtually screaming at her to remain motionless.
"Ow, man. My body hasn't ached this much in a while," Vivi whined as she struggled to sit up, "Maybe I should have been more conscience of how I was performing during those matches."
As suggested, Vivi had just awoken from her much desired slumber and groggily wiped her eyes to help alleviate her drowsiness and expedite the process of her vision focusing on her room. She reluctantly released her hold on her hug pillow and propped herself up from behind on her elbows.
To put the size of her room into perspective, it is approximately twice the size of Chiro's room, which would be expected since her home was specifically designed to accommodate an Inkling family. Courtesy of her father's career earning him an exorbitant amount of funds, he requested that the apartment be expanded into the one next door and two above to have more comfort and have the interior be completely refurbished.
She was resting on a large queen size bed adorned with silk green covers and a white silk comforter with a gold squid designs stitched into it. However, her sheets were disheveled as a result of her always being a restless mover in her sleep. One of her pillows was somehow lying on the other side of the room near the door, and the other ended up on her desk.
"Ugh, Splatfest had to be today of all days now, huh? My examination is along with it, too." Vivi griped as she rubbed her sore shoulder and begrudgingly got out of her bed. Shivering at the contact of her bare feet with the coldness of the hard-wood floor, Vivi slowly trudged over to her walk-in closet, nonchalantly removed her white, fleece pajama shirt and pants until she was in nothing but her small, white bra and green boxers.
Her current condition is, to reiterate, attributed by over-exerting herself during her practice matches from the past two days. Under normal circumstances, she would never have been so reckless…..but she did it nevertheless because she was trying to impress Chiro. At every opportunity possible when she was in his line of sight, she executed her most flamboyant or refined moves as quick as possible.
It seemed to have the effect she desired.
Chiro always praised her and kept encouraging her to do more because he claimed he wanted to see her do more. Of course with his innocent smile, the sparkle of yearning in his eyes, and the innocent expression on his face, she couldn't refuse….bad decision on her account.
Now she was paying the price for trying to boast in front of Chiro.
Vivi slowly strided further in her closet until she caught sight of herself in front of her wall-mounted mirror and commenced evaluating her slim physique. It may be because of her grogginess still impairing her thinking, but she couldn't discern exactly why she was engaged in examining her body.
"Huh….I guess I'm still not used to how I look now?" Vivi commented to herself. Considering that Vivi obtained her humanoid form almost two weeks ago, it would be natural for her to still be astonished by her appearance. To be self-indulgent, she was fond of her lightly tanned skin and how smooth and soft it is. Vivi shifted her body around to attain a view of her backside.
If there was one aspect of her body she was overtly fond of, it would be her butt. It wasn't too large nor to small like some other girls. She didn't mean to be insensitive, but she found behinds that were too large or small unattractive, but she supposed that was her own perception.
"Chiro was enjoying the time he spent examining your butt, Vivi." Vivi recalled Carla telling her the night they stayed over at Chiro's apartment.
Vivi's cheeks reddened at the memory. Her attention slowly transitioned to her rather…..uh….flat chest.
She loathingly reminisced to when Tsuki belittled her for her rather small bust, even though she had done so in a some-what bantering manner.
"I hate you sometimes, Tsuki." Vivi muttered disdainfully as she planted her hands her chest and sighed depressingly.
"Why is it that I am one of the unluckiest girls that were disposed to having a small chest? For squid's sake, even San has a bigger chest than me, and she's almost like a board." Vivi groaned. Well, not really; Sanae is barely B-Cup size, while Vivi is has an A-Cup. She was only saying that to feel better about herself. Her thoughts transitioned to her friend, Sanae – or "San" as she prefers to address her as - and how blatantly flirtatious she was behaved towards Chiro the last few days.
Indeed, Vivi was extraordinarily conflicted about the whole predicament, but in retrospect, she should have anticipated it to an extent. She knew Sanae was attracted to hot, shota-like boys, and Chiro definitely fulfilled that description.
Vivi couldn't resist blushing intensely. Vivi sighed contently, "Chiro is pretty hot for someone our age." Vivi's blush intensified when those words escaped her lips, and she shook her head vigorously to regain her sense of reality before going into one of her fantasies she is prone to going in sometimes.
The prior few days were a great opportunity for the girl to truly get acquainted with the white-haired boy she found to be attractive in many regards. When she pondered over her previous relationship with Chiro, they really didn't know much about one another. All she knew about him were that he is rather timid and shy around most girls, kind, embracing, cute, and a great cook.
However, the last two days provided her the chance to obtain a significantly better understanding of Chiro. She was able to confirm many of her speculations about him. She found that Chiro was uniquely distinct from many of the other Inkling boys. For instance, most of the boys in Inkopolis seemed to be solely inclined to gawking at girls and speaking about nothing but how they could get with them. Yes, Chiro has been stated to occasionally admire girls' bodies, especially hers, but not excessively like most other guys. Also, he doesn't incessantly talk about how he could try to woe females….he treats them with actual respect….and fear.
She also discovered that he is actually quite intelligent, except in regards to girls, has a passive sense of humor, embracing of others, caring, sweet, has an adorable laugh, and much, much more.
His favorite flavor is vanilla, which didn't appeal well to Vivi because she's more partial to chocolate; his favorite color is turquoise, score for her because of her color, and he absolutely adores pumpkin pie. Unfortunately, that's all the minor indulgences she could glean from her interactions with him from the last couple of days.
Their relationship as friends progressed very well. Chiro seems to be significantly more comfortable around her than he was when they met, and occasionally, he would tease her. Initially, Vivi misunderstood his teasing as flirting and would overreact sometimes. It got so severe that she performed a repeat of what she did to him at Ammo Knights by almost suffocating him to death. Luckily, she did realize her crude action and let go of him sooner, but Chiro, naturally, would frantically cower away from her and use Sanae to shield himself from her.
That made their relationship slightly regress, but it recovered rather quickly.
She and Chiro would start talking with each other again like they were best buddies.
During their exchanges though, Sanae would occasionally interject and act flirtatiously with Chiro, which annoyed Vivi to an extent.
During their Turf War matches, Sanae would manage to always meet with Chiro and stay as close as possible to him. Of course, Sanae would also exploit any opportunity to "trip" and land on him while uttering a provocative quip. Thankfully Momo would be there on coincidence to scold Sanae and tell the two to concentrate on the battle.
That was even the half of it. Every time they decided to take a hiatus from Turf Wars and eat out together, Sanae would always take the initiative to sit as close as possible to him. They would be virtually touching shoulders – or to be even more descriptive, she may as well be practically sitting on his lap. Chiro would sometimes be courageous enough to gripe, but Sanae would just hush him as soon as he tried to speak and tell him to just deal with it.
What aggravated her even more was the fact that Chiro wouldn't look too opposed to her advances despite his whiny protests and phobia of other girls. Vivi swore she saw him actually let her feed him one time.
"Damn it, San. You had to get attracted to the boy I like a lot…..and to add lemon juice to the cut, you try to force your way into second base with him, and too, "Vivi whined to herself, "I'm barely into first base!"
Vivi vividly recalled accosting her close friend concerning the matter the other day…
Flashback
"San, since Chiro and Momo went to go purchase our lunches; I think this moment would be the best opportunity to talk to you about something that has been bothering." Vivi stated to her friend who was happily sipping on a juice box.
Sanae contently finished her small beverage and gracefully tossed the now crumbled package over her head to a nearby recycle bin. Both of the girls were sitting on a bench situated near the Booyah Base as they waited for Chiro's and Momo's return.
Sanae smiled innocently and responded, "Sure, Vivi, what do you wish to speak about?"
Vivi momentarily averted her gaze from Sanae's and awkwardly looked everywhere but at her. An awkward silence permeated the atmosphere around them before Sanae grew uncomfortable and started shifting slightly in her seat.
"Uhhhh, Vivi, is something the matter?"
Vivi sighed and inhaled a large breath of hair to calm her rather unsettled nerves. Vivi timidly said, "What's your relationship with Chiro?"
Sanae blushed furiously from the inquiry and turned her body to directly face Vivi.
"W-W-What?!" Sanae screamed.
"I-I-I'm asking you if you and Chiro are dating." Vivi nervously and slightly grumpily asked.
Sanae frantically waved her hands in front of her defensively. "Why did you come to that conclusion?! I mean, do we really look like a couple? Do we look cute as one?! Am I keeping the correct difference when walking next to him? Am I too close? Do l look cute next to him? How about him when he's near me? Did it appear as though I was hugging his arm too close to my body?"
"Why even bother asking me to confirm whether you two resemble what a couple would look like if you're going to ask questions on the premise that you are one?!" Vivi bellowed as she pinched her temples to calm her frustration.
Sanae chuckled sheepishly, "Sorry."
Vivi sighed dejectedly, "It's fine, and so what is your relationship?"
"Oh…..right. Unfortunately, we're not dating. That would be great, though." Sanae smiled happily; earning a very audible whine from Vivi.
"What's wrong, Vivi?" Sanae asked with very sincere concern.
"What do you think?!" Vivi grumbled while a slight blushed adorned her cheeks.
Sanae pondered over her words for a brief period of time before she gasped in realization, "You like Chiro, too?!"
Vivi blushed from embarrassment as a result of how loud she exclaimed her inquiry and immediately extended her hands out to cover her mouth before she said anything else.
Vivi sharply whispered, "Yes, yes, don't be so loud! If Chiro and Momo return soon, I don't want Chiro to overhear our conversation."
Sanae managed to muffle out a quick "okay" before Vivi released her hands from the girl's mouth.
"So….when did you start liking Chiro?" Vivi questioned.
Sanae smiled meekly.
"I actually got interested in him when we had our meeting at his home. The moment I saw him, I thought he was extremely hot and wanted to get intimate with him as soon as possible, but I had to restrain myself since we were involved in a very important meeting. However, I couldn't help but get very…physical with him when I saw him earlier today." Sanae began explaining.
Vivi raised her brow curiously and questioned, "Would you care to elaborate on what you meant by 'get intimate?'"
Sanae shrugged her shoulders sheepishly.
"You know….lye on his lap…..cuddle with him…..maybe steal a quick peck on the lips." Sanae muttered flirtatiously….more than she desired.
As Sanae continued to explain the implications behind her words, Vivi's face grew redder from the shock of how far Sanae wanted to go with Chiro and from slight frustration.
Some of her desires were borderline erotic for their age.
"….and fell asleep in his arms after we finished….." Sanae said dreamily as she grinned from ear to ear while staring absentmindedly into the plaza.
She was slowly engaging herself in a tangent.
"San! STOOOOOOOPPPPP!" Vivi bellowed with excessive embarrassment.
She recovered from her fantasizing and returned her attention to her best friend.
"Hahaha, I'm just kidding, Vivi. We didn't engage in anything of those things. Vivi? You okay? You look rather red." Sanae asked while softly placing her hand on the girl's forehead to see if she was developing a fever.
Vivi slowly but swiftly moved Sanae's hand away from her face and plastered a fake smile on her face.
"I appreciate that…inappropriate explanation, San. So, you want to date him?"
"Yeah, I presume you want to date him as well, right?"
Vivi didn't respond immediately, but she eventually nodded shyly.
Vivi sighed, "Oh, man, this is quite a predicament we're in, San. What do you propose we do about our affections for Chiro?"
Sanae responded almost instantaneously, "I have a simple solution. I get to date him, and you have to resign to finding another male that's almost as good as Chiro."
Vivi narrowed her eyes and stared at her best friend incredulously.
"What?" Vivi managed to muster the energy to ask.
"What? It's a flawless plan."
"Would you care to enlighten me as to what part of that plan benefits me?"
"I get Chiro." Sanae answered with a hint of nonchalance.
"I asked how it benefits me! I want to date that squid!" Vivi stated with slight irritation as she crossed her petite arms.
Sanae exhaled as she shifted her attention towards the plaza.
"You've previously been in two relationships. Can't you just be a considerate cousin and let me date him?" Vivi asked in an almost pleading tone.
Sanae shook her head.
"Where's the sense of accomplishment in that? 'Let me date him'. Yeah, I've been in two relationships, but the two guys I dated before were immature and merely wanted to get in my shorts. Chiro is genuinely a good-hearted squid, and he appears to be the type that would be constantly concerned with appeasing his girlfriend rather than trying to satisfy his own wants. You have to agree with me on that." Sanae responded.
Vivi couldn't help but agree with her perspective on the white haired boy. As their relationship progressed over the last couple of days, both Vivi and Sanae came to the realization that Chiro was essentially a pure-hearted squid who was ignorant of many of life's proceedings and how individual squids operate while going through it.
"Yes, I concur with your perception encompassing him, and that's precisely why I want to be with him. He and I would make a good couple, right?" Vivi responded.
Sanae uncomfortably averted her gaze away from the turquoise haired girl and scratched at her cheek with her finger. A severely discomforting silence pervaded the air around them, and time seemed to pass very slowly. It felt like hours before Vivi grew upset and finally asked Sanae why she responded the way she did.
"What?"
"Uhhhh…..I didn't want to say this, but I don't know if your being with Chiro would be okay for his mental and physical health." Sanae tentatively remarked while wincing.
Claiming that Vivi looked appalled couldn't accurately describe the over-whelming amount of offence she took from that comment.
"WHAAAAAT?!" Vivi screeched. Sanae slightly retracted as she winced from how high her scream was. "What do you mean my dating him would be bad like that!?"
Sanae uncomfortably clasped her hand on her own shoulder before sharply exhaling. "Well, I privately spoke with Carla about how you two first met Chiro, and what she told me was rather…uncouth of a girl trying to pursue a squid." Sanae said.
Vivi raised her brow from both curiosity and apprehension. "What did Carla relay to you?"
"She relayed the events of your first meeting with meticulous detail. Carla told me how you impulsively started strangling Chiro the instant you laid your eyes on him at Ammo Knights, and he almost died."
Vivi groaned in embarrassment and shamefully rubbed the back of her head in an attempt to alleviate the feelings of regret she was feeling. In retrospect, she could have handled the entire scenario in a much more calm fashion…..but…Vivi genuinely didn't know exactly why she acted so crudely, but that doesn't mean she didn't immediately regret doing that…after a few hours passed.
Sanae sighed disappointedly, "Look, I know you're extremely shy when it comes to anything remotely intimate with boys, and you tend to resort to being hostile as a sort of….." Sanae paused momentarily to find the right word, "….emotional defense mechanism, but come on! Strangling?! You choked a precious boy like him because he accidentally knocked you to the floor?"
Vivi raised her hand defensively. "Okay, okay, I get it; I was wrong, but Chiro and I are cool now. Besides, that alone doesn't mean I shouldn't get to date him," Vivi said irritably before pointing her finger at Sanae, "What about you?!"
Sanae looked shocked.
"What about me?"
"I can't allow someone as corrupt as you date an innocent kid like Chiro."
"'Corrupt?'"
"Yes, corrupt, I've seen what you've been doing around Chiro over the last few games. Constantly rubbing up next to him…..getting flirty and trying to steal a kiss while also doing some other….stuff! For squid's sake, San, you're FOURTEEN! Where did you learn some of the stuff you've been doing? It's not healthy for Chiro." Vivi inquired.
Sanae grinned at the question while making a peace gesture with a twinkle in her eye.
"I learned them from some of the dirty magazines I borrowed from Kori, but don't worry…I won't do anything too lewd until Chiro and I are married! We're still underage after all, and I have my principles!"
Vivi sweat dropped at her friend's casualness.
"How can you proudly say that without any shame?"
Sanae laughed, "I'm a complacent pervert. I'm not as bad as Kori, yet I have no shame left in my body."
An awkward and long silence filled the air between the two girls.
My lord, I'm friends with the female version of that pervert…..and my sister is in love with the one that corrupted my friend, too…..why me? Vivi cried internally.
"Anyway, would you explain how me dating Chiro is bad?" Sanae beckoned.
Vivi recovered from the ridiculousness of what just happened and recomposed herself. "You just validated the point I was going to make. You know too much weird stuff, and I have a bad feeling that you'll start teaching that stuff to Chiro and make him a pervert, too."
Sanae crossed her arms as she deadpanned at Vivi's reasoning.
"What's so wrong with passing on my knowledge to a boy who's oblivious to life's wonders?"
"I wouldn't consider the stuff you know 'wonders'."
Sanae smiled slyly. "It depends on how and when I teach him. The magazines were very informative."
Vivi blushed at the things she thought Sanae might be insinuating.
Sanae couldn't resist chuckling at Vivi's reaction, and she eventually began laughing hysterically, earning questioning gazes from Vivi and other Inklings walking by. "I'm just being facetious, Vivi…..well….mostly." Sanae managed to utter.
"Okay…..I highly urge you to stay away from Kori for a little while. I can't deal with this constantly."
"No promises."
Vivi sighed while pinching her temples, "Ugh, of course not."
The two of them didn't exchange any words for quite some time. Only the sounds of the music projecting from the enormous speakers at the base of Inkopolis Tower and the overlapping chatter of other conversations could be heard.
Realistically, only twenty minutes passed by during their little squabble, but it seemed as if it was hours. The two young girls sat on the bench while patiently waiting for Chiro and Momo to return with their morsels from the nearby burger chain restaurants, Squid Burgers.
Sanae dispelled the silence by sighing, and Vivi rotated her heads towards her.
"Look, Vivi, We're not going to make any progress in our situation by continually throwing insults at each other…..no matter how right some of them might be." Sanae said calmly.
Vivi nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, what do you propose we do about Chiro?" Vivi asked seriously.
Sanae pondered over the inquiry for a few minutes before snapping her fingers in realization.
"What?" Vivi asked.
"How about we make this a friendly competition. Let's compete over Chiro's affections and see which one of us becomes his girlfriend. That's the only fair solution I could conceive under these circumstances."
Vivi gave her a skeptical look at first, but eventually started liking the idea the more she considered it.
"Okay, that could work," Vivi said while stretching her arms, "Should we establish some rules to abide by?"
Sanae blinked with surprise.
"What do you mean by establishing rules?"
Vivi enunciated, "You know rules such as not interfering with each other's attempts to court him, not jeopardize each other's advances, not interrupting each other too much when we're trying to talk to him, etcetera."
"Oh, now I understand. I can agree to those conditions." Sanae exclaimed.
Vivi smiled triumphantly. She believed that now she had a viable chance at attaining Chiro's interests since Sanae is now inhibited from being too eccentric and distracting whenever she tried to speak with Chiro.
"Great. Now, let's agree that no matter what, there won't be any ill feelings toward one another after this is over." Sanae gleefully said as she extended her hand out to Vivi, which she graciously accepted and shook it vigorously.
"Yep, this should be interesting, San." Vivi said excitedly.
"What's going to be interesting, Vivi?" A familiar voiced suddenly interjected.
Both girls jumped high in their seats from shock and surprise at the sudden sound of his voice. Sanae clasped her hands around her forehead to try and calm her nerves while Vivi tightly clutched the fabric of her hoodie over her heart.
Chiro and Momo eyed the two girls oddly at their reactions and waited for them to recompose themselves.
"For tentacles' sake, Chiro, stop doing that!" Vivi bellowed at the white haired squid.
Chiro tilted his head slightly to the side while quietly asking, "What shouldn't I do?"
Sanae settled down enough to respond in Vivi's stead, "Stop appearing out of nowhere and scaring us like that. Gods, I commend you for at least possessing good stealth skills, but the problem is you do it too much unintentionally. I'm going to have a heart attack before Splatfest."
Chiro couldn't quite determine what Sanae was referring to, but he didn't feel like it was in his best interest to pry into what she was talking about and dismissed her words.
"Okay…um, sorry? Momo and I bought the food you two wanted." Chiro said as he timidly held up one of the food bags in his hands relinquished it to the two of them.
Sanae and Vivi beamed at the site of the food and viciously tore open the seal and removed the contents of the bag. Vivi quickly took out her double dog-fish cheeseburger, large fries, and large Dr. Squid soda while Sanae gratefully accepted her special cat-fish salad.
"Finally, I was on the verge of starving to death. What took you two so long?" Vivi asked as she started ripping the wrapper off the burger and took a large bite.
Momo sheepishly rubbed the back of her head and adorned an apologetic look on her face.
"S-Sorry, a group of boys and girls approached Chiro and me while we were waiting in line and requested autographs from the both of us. Luckily, I didn't get surrounded by most of them, but Chiro here got bombarded by a bunch of the girls." Momo began explaining.
Vivi and Sanae shifted their attention to the aforementioned boy and glared at him, earning a wince from the boy.
"How many girls were there?" Sanae asked in a slightly annoyed tone.
Momo cupped her hand around her chin as she tried to recall the exact number of squid girls.
"I think there were about twenty-eight of them, but there may have been more….." Momo said doubtfully, "Ah well, It doesn't really matter. You're getting pretty popular with the ladies, Chiro. If Sora saw how many girls were around you, he would go into a tantrum." Momo playfully elbowed Chiro in the chest, causing the awkward boy to blush from the sudden contact.
Both Vivi and Sanae didn't really feel like voicing their bitter feelings and just sat on the bench eating their meals violently as they watched Chiro get flustered from being touched by Momo.
Both Chiro and Momo eventually took out their own meals and sat down in the vacant spaces on the bench. Chiro nervously sat down between Vivi and Sanae while Momo sat to the right of Vivi. The four of them ate in comfortable silence as they enjoyed their delicious fast food.
After a few moments, Chiro looked over to how much of her food Vivi had already devoured, and couldn't help but chuckle. The three girls looked at him suspiciously from how abrupt he started laughing.
"What are you laughing about?" Vivi asked.
Chiro chuckled for a few more seconds before saying, "It's just that you like to eat a lot, huh, Vivi?"
Vivi was taken aback by the remark, and Momo and Sanae inhaled sharply and looked away in discomfort.
Chiro sensed the uneasiness in the atmosphere and looked back and forth between the girls.
"Did I say something wrong?" Chiro asked innocently
"I-It….It's n-not l-l-l-ike I…." Vivi started stuttering.
"Hm?"
"It's not like I eat like this all the time, Chiro! I'm not a glut!" Vivi practically screamed in his face while blushing furiously.
Chiro retracted from her bellowing and leaned closer into Sanae.
The one time I decide to disregard my diet, and Chiro here just sees me eating a lot like a pig! Now's he going to think I have no etiquette while eating. Vivi thought while panicking.
"I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to make you angry!" Chiro yelled in terror as he maneuvered around to the other side of Sanae to try and shield himself from Vivi's potential rampage.
Vivi only stared in shock at how terrified he looked, but what bothered her the most was how he was staying extremely close to Sanae while she started rubbing his back to comfort him.
"Hey, come on, Chiro, you have to admit what said was kind of insensitive." Sanae said soothingly.
"I don't even know what I did wrong!"
Sanae couldn't help but snicker at his behavior and pat him on the head.
"Don't worry about it too much. Vivi just gets cranky when someone looks at her eatinglike that."
"N-No I d-don't…" Vivi began, but she was hushed when Sanae held her hand up for her to stop talking, which bothered her little.
"Come on, Cutie, eat up before you're food gets cold so we can get right back to playing Turf Wars." Momo suggested enthusiastically.
Chiro hesitantly complied and returned to his seat next to Vivi and started eating his burger, which was the same as Vivi's burger.
The previous silence between the four resumed for a while. Momo had quickly consumed her food and was quietly waiting for the three fourteen year olds to finish their food. Vivi was next to finish eating while Chiro and Sanae were almost done with their food. Before Sanae took the last bite of her salad in her mouth, she looked over to Chiro and got a devious look on her face.
"Hey, Chiro, would you like to try a bite of my salad. It's really good." Sanae offered as she practically raised the last bits of her lettuce on her fork close to his face.
Vivi gasped in surprise while Momo started to look interested.
Chiro gave Sanae a quizzical look before a swallowed the bit of the burger he was previously chewing on.
"I'm fine, Sanae. Besides, I'm sure you want to enjoy every last bite of your lunch….." Chiro started saying.
Sanae quickly interrupted, "No, I'm full right now, and I don't want to waste food, so…." Sanae scooted closer to Chiro to where their arms were touching, "I insist you eat this."
Chiro blushed a deep shade of red from her touch and worriedly looked down at the fork.
"B-B-But…..won't y-y-you g-get mad i-i-if I get my d-drool on your f-f-fork?" Chiro managed to stammer out.
Sanae pouted. "Did I not just say I'm finished eating? Hurry up and take a bite before I get mad and change my mind." Sanae groaned as she pressed the fork closer to his mouth.
Chiro looking embarrassed would be the understatement of their entire specie's lifetime, and stating that Vivi was flabbergasted wouldn't do her fury justice either.
Eventually, Chiro meekly nodded and slowly opened his mouth.
"Huh." Sanae said.
Chiro looked at her curiously.
"What's wrong?" Chiro asked.
"Well, I know it's expected, but the inside of your mouth and tongue are a nice white color." Sanae cooed while childishly looking at the insides of his mouth.
Looks tasty….Sanae thought, but quickly shook her head in surprise after she realized the provocative thought that processed in her mind.
Momo coughed gruffly which brought Sanae out of her….unusual fascination with Chiro's mouth.
"Oh…..oh, sorry. Now, Chiro say 'ahhhhh'"
Momo sighed, "He's not a baby, Sanae."
"Don't ruin the moment for me!" Sanae whined as she pushed the food in his mouth and made him bite.
Chiro nervously started chewing Sanae's food and swallowed it down. Chiro looked surprised at how delicious it was and leaned over Sanae's platter to see if there was any remaining left, but sighed depressingly when he remembered that she stated that was the last of her meal.
Chiro sadly said, "Ahhhh, that was really good. Ah, well, I think we should return to playing Turf Wars."
Chiro stretched as he lifted himself from the bench and quickly disposed of his leftover garbage. Momo nodded in agreement as she followed suit and pulled Chiro with her as they ran towards the base of Inkopolis Tower.
Sanae giggled contently as she skipped her way toward them as well. Vivi on the other hand was absolutely livid. She just witnessed Chiro and Sanae share an indirect kiss, and she couldn't do a thing to prevent it since she was bound to the agreement she and Sanae made prior to Chiro's and Momo's sudden return.
Vivi went into a small tantrum before tiring herself out and clumsily making her way to one of her drawers and opening it. Vivi intuitively reached for her shorts before tiredly shimming into them.
"Vivian, honey, is everything quite alright in there? Are you going into another one of your tantrums? At least eat some breakfast before you do it so you have more energy." A soothing voice called out to Vivi from the other side of her door.
Vivi groaned internally before turning her head toward the door, "Yeah, sorry, mom. I'll be out in a few moments."
"Alright, dear, but try and refrain from being too rambunctious so early in the morning. Your father isn't feeling particularly well since he had to chastise your cousins for arriving late to the recording session and having to work extremely late last night." Vivi's mom advised from the other side of the door.
Vivi sighed in annoyance. Vivi's dad was always prone to being grumpy after being around her cousin's company for extended periods of time. His feeling that way wasn't attributed by any ill feelings toward them; it was just that her cousins were very irresponsible and uncooperative exclusively when having to record their albums. They constantly gripe about being confined to a recording room and singing the songs they themselves wrote.
"Absolutely fan-squidtastic. Why can't Callie and Marie behave more maturely around dad? They know for a fact that he gets so aggravated with them with anything pertaining to their careers and how irresponsible they are about keeping up with their obligations." Vivi sighed.
The turquoise haired girl tiredly stumbled out of her room to be met with the bright radiance of the early morning sunlight illuminating her home through the windows.
She couldn't help but hold her arm over her eyes to shield them from the bright light.
Her family's abode is far more reminiscent of an expansive condominium than what a five star apartment would appear as.
Vivi slowly descended the steps from the second floor of her home and made her way to the dining room table to be greeted by her mother, father, older sister and little sister. Her family all looked up and nodded at her simultaneously before returning to what they were previously doing before her arrival.
Vivi's mother was preoccupied with trying to convince her little eight-year-old sister, Asada, into eating the remaining vegetables on her platter, but since the little pre-humanoid absolutely loathed eating what she described as 'waste byproducts', Asada would only shake her head. Consequently, her other would get infuriated and tried force feeding her the vegetables.
Her mother was a rather petite and attractive adult squid. Well, it's to be expected since she is only 36 years old. Her hair was a comforting baby blue color, and her eyes are vibrant yellow. She was currently wearing doctor's outfit with a few splotches of food stains around her shirt, possible due to her Asada's messing eating habits. Considering Asada's young age, she still had yet to obtain a complete humanoid form, so her entire body was a navy blue color. Also, Asada was rather short in stature, so all she wearing was a large Anchor Sweat.
Vivi looked over to her 38 year old father just despondently sitting at the head of the table while scrolling through his SquidPad and sipping down his Squid coffee. His navy blue hair was tied back in the common pony tail other boys have their hair in, and he was wearing a slim black suit over a light-blue dress shirt and white tie.
Carla was wearing her normal clothes and eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Vivi tiredly took the empty seat next to Carla and strained to eat the breakfast that was already laid out in front of her. Initially, none of her family seemed to acknowledge her struggling to even move, but after a few moments, her father looked away from his SquidPad to her painstakingly try to eat.
"Vivian, you okay?" Her father asked.
Everyone turned to look at Vivi with concern as they waited for her to respond to her father's inquiry.
"Yeah, dad, I'm as good as ever." Vivi fibbed as she winced through the pain that came from raising her arm and gave him thumbs up.
Her father stared at her incredulously and softly placed down his cup of coffee,
Her father sternly, yet comfortingly said, "Drop the façade, Vivian. You know better than to try and deceive me."
Vivi slightly panicked, "No, I'm not lying to you, dad, honest."
Her father gave her a deadpanned expression.
"Vivian….after dealing with Callie and Marie for years now, I've learned to easily discern when I'm being lied to. Again, I'll repeat myself, 'what's wrong?'"
Vivi sighed in defeat as she resigned to her father's pestering and pouted.
"I'm severely sore right now. It requires a lot of effort for me to even move a muscle." Vivi explained.
Her father smiled for a fleeting moment in satisfaction before he recommenced donning the serious and concerned expression he previously had.
"Why are you so sore, Sis?" Asada asked.
A sparkle twinkled in Carla's eye as she grinned ear to ear.
"She's been busy trying to impress a boy that caught her interests, and she overdid it by a lot." Carla said mischievously.
Vivi whined in annoyance and glared at her older sister while the rest of the family stared at the young Inkling in disbelief.
Carla on the other hand was snickering excessively at the reactions from her family. Carla thoroughly enjoys exploiting every opportunity possible to tease her younger sister, and creating situations where she would be subjected to absolutely embarrassing circumstances.
Their mother squealed in delight, "Oh, you're trying to impress a boy?! That's adorable! My little girl is becoming a woman and has a boyfriend."
Their father groaned in exasperation, "Sinon, please, don't encourage that kind of behavior. She's still a kid after all; she shouldn't even have a boyfriend."
"DAAAAAD!" Vivi whined.
If there was one aspect about her father that she detested the most, it was his overt overprotectiveness of her and her sisters in regards to boys. Whenever she or Carla mentioned anything that may have involved boys, he would instantaneously begin getting defensive and start lecturing them about how dangerous boys are, and that they would resort to any means necessary to obtain what they desire from girls. He said all boys only care about themselves in a relationship express no concern for the girl's happiness.
"Kazu, stop right there before you go off in another tangent. It's too early in the morning, and I have a long day of demanding appointments today, so I would greatly appreciate it if you didn't start preaching your unjustified opposition to our daughters dating boys. Besides, you should be happy for Vivian. She's in love!" Sinon cooed.
Kazu sharply exhaled as he clasped his hand around his face.
"And I would appreciate it if you weren't so exuberant so early in the morning as well. You know I have a headache from dealing with those two devils all day yesterday."
Sinon narrowed her eyes at her husband.
"Could you not call our nieces 'devils'? You know as well as I do how incorrigible they are, and you should be used to it by now." Sinon sighed.
Kazu sighed as well, "I know I should be accustomed to it, but sometimes they never cease to amaze me at how they manage to formulate so many creative ways of explaining why they're late to recording sessions, and how even when they're there, they constantly complain and try to take so many intermissions."
Sinon couldn't disagree with her husband, but she still attempted to argue in Callie's and Marie's defense.
"Yes, but you know they don't mean anything by it."
Kazu stifled a chuckle, "Yeah, I guess if being blatantly lazy and disrespectful doesn't mean anything, then I agree with you. At least Sanae is there most of the time to scold them. Why is it that the younger generation is wiser and more mature than their superiors?"
"Just how low do you think of them? And wait…didn't you just insult yourself?" Both Carla and Vivi asked in their subconscious.
Kazu returned his attention to the daughter in question.
"Now, back to you, young lady. I will not permit this relationship with this boy you're trying to impress. I absolutely forbid it!" Kazuto firmly proclaimed.
Vivi lightly blushed and yelled, "HE'S NOT MY BOYFRIEND! HE'S JUST A REALLY GOOD FRIEND!"
Carla murmured, "He's not her boyfriend yet."
Vivi sneered at her older sister.
"You're not helping!"
Sinon looked at her daughter in astonishment and disappointingly said, "Oh, you don't have a boyfriend? Ah, I was getting more elated for no reason then."
Carla seized another opportunity to tease her sister.
"No, mom, if she had a boyfriend, she would be severely sore for an entirely different reason." Carla nonchalantly averted her gaze from her sister's flustered expression and desperately tried to stifle her laughter from their parents' reactions.
Kazu narrowed his eyes towards his eldest daughter; a slight twitch accompanied it primarily in his left eye.
"Carla, please refrain from making such sexual innuendos at the family table, especially in the presence of Asada. I don't want her to be exposed to such inappropriate notions at her age yet. In fact, I have no desire for you to think in such a manner either." Kazu scolded Carla.
"Too late, daddy." Carla smirked tauntingly at her father, who sighed dejectedly.
Asada prodded her cheek with her small stump on a hand and alternatively looked between Kazu and Carla.
"Mommy, what did Carla mean by Vivi would be sore because of something else?" Asada asked with childish innocence.
"Well, you see, Asada, Carla was implying that Vivi would be sore because she had se-"
"SINON! Don't explain that stuff to her! Did I not just state I don't want her to get familiarized with the lewd stuff that has corrupted our other two daughters?!"
"We're not corrupted." Both Carla and Vivi said monotonously while looking offended.
Sinon pouted childishly while crossing her arms. "You're no fun, honey," Sinon leaned down to whisper in Asada's ear, "I'll tell you later before your father comes back after work, sweetie."
Asada knew whenever her mother would whisper something secretive about anything her father would be opposed of her to know; she would just nod and humor her father until he departed.
"I'm sorry, daddy. I won't ask about it anymore." Asada said while making a deceivingly adorable face.
Kazu sighed in relief, "At least I have one daughter that's still pure."
Kazu rotated his head to get a view of the clock and nearly choked when he ascertained the current time.
Kazu hysterically gasped, "Oh, NO! I'm close to being late for the rest of the recording session. The last thing I need this morning is to be berated by Callie and Marie about the thing I criticize them about."
He quickly and painfully chugged the remaining amount of his hot coffee down his esophagus before swiftly making his way to the sink and rinsing out the miniscule amount of coffee left in the cup.
"It's the day of Splatfest, and we're still in the midst of recording their new single. We're significantly behind schedule since it's supposed to have been released today, but we had to delay it because of them. And because of their affiliation with the Elite 10, we won't be able to record for long because they need to assist the others for the last minute preparations for the event. Also, I hear they excommunicated two members and have two members participating in the Turf Wars, so they'll have more responsibilities to fulfill." Kazuto complained loudly while indiscreetly looking at Carla.
Carla held her hands up defensively. "Hey, Kori and I are participating because we're evaluating two candidates that may join the Elite 10. One of them happens to be Vivi, and the other one is Vivi's boyfriend."
"HE'S NOT MY BOYFRIEND!" Vivi interjected.
Carla wagged her finger. "Not yet, at least."
Vivi blushed furiously in both anger and embarrassment.
Kazu and Sinon looked towards their daughter in surprise.
"Oh, really? So they finally acknowledged your skills as a player and decided to test you as a worthy contender? I'm proud of you, Vivian." Kazu said proudly while Vivi blushed from his praise.
"Thanks, dad." Vivi said gleefully.
Sinon gasped in realization, "Is that the other reason why you're extremely sore right now? Is it because you were practicing really hard?"
Vivi nodded in slight affirmation.
"…and she was trying to impress a boy." Carla reminded them.
Vivi sneered at her sister.
"WOULD YOU SHUT UPPPP?!" Vivi screeched at her sister, prompting the rest of the family to shield their ears from the pain her extraordinarily high scream.
Kazu groaned at the reiteration, "Look, I'm not in the mood to handle this issue right now. I have to deal with more pressing matters with my career as you're irresponsible cousin's producer. I have to leave now."
Sinon lifted herself up from the table and walked over to kiss her husband on the cheek.
"Have a great day, Sweetie. Hey, after the kids leave for Splatfest tonight, I can give you a little present for all the hard work you've done this week. After all, it seems you need a much needed reward." Sinon said seductively as she winked suggestively.
Kazu smiled shyly as he slowly leaned down to passionately kiss his wife.
"BLEEEH," Asada spat in disgust at the sight of her parents getting too intimate in front of her with what she thought was a repulsive. Hey, she's still a kid after all and thinks the things couples do is disturbing.
Carla leaned back in her chair with a sigh, "I have to agree with Asada. You lecture us about the weird things boys might do, which is probably why we're 'corrupted' in the first place, yet you and mom do something like that in front of us, especially Asada. It's hard for us to heed your words when you and mom are getting it on."
Kazu and Sinon looked away from each other in embarrassment with a deep shade of red tinting their cheeks. Even as a long time married couple, they still act like newlyweds sometimes.
Kazuto stammered, "H-H-Hey, my relationship with y-y-your mother is d-different."
The three sisters looked at their father smugly, which prompted more embarrassment from him.
"You know what?! Ink all of you! I'm going to work." Kazu grumbled as he quickly made his way to the front door as he tried to ignore the audacious laughter from his daughters.
"Language, dad!" Carla managed to chastise through her laughing fit.
Sinon looked annoyingly at Vivi. "That's not nice you three. Anyway, this boy you two have been talking about? What's his name and what does he look like?"
Vivi turned her attention to her mother.
"Oh, his name is Chiro. He's the same age as me, and he's Tsuki's little brother. You won't believe this mom, but he has a unique hair color, too. His hair is white, and he's capable of shooting white ink. He's a bit timid, but he has an interesting personality and much more affable than other Inkling boys." Vivi relayed to her mother, but was caught by surprise at her reaction along with her father's.
Kazu had stopped abruptly on his way to the door and looked back to her in shock, and Sinon donned a similar expression before worriedly turning to her husband.
The uneasy silence that followed was quickly dissipated after Kazu gestured for Sinon to come over to him so they were out of their daughters' hearing range. Both of them could be seen whispering to each other while occasionally looking back at them.
Carla and Vivi exchanged unusual looks between one another before shrugging their shoulders and dismissing their parents' unexpected response to Vivi's description of Chiro.
Kazu quickly looked over his shoulder to ensure that none of his daughters were eavesdropping on their conversation before returning his attention to Sinon.
"Do you think she's talking about Saiba's kid?" Sinon asked concerned.
"No, no, Vivian may be talking about another boy that has white hair." Kazu immediately attempted to dismiss the suggestion.
"Sweetie, you're going into denial." Sinon said softly.
Kazu rudely retorted, "No, I'm not."
Sinon blankly stared at her husband.
"Kazu, we're talking about a kid that's most definitely Saiba's child. Vivian just confirmed it by saying that he's Tsuki's little brother, and we both know those two are his kids."
"That doesn't confirm anything."
Sinon sighed in exasperation, "Kazu, we're talking about the child of the only Inkling in history to have red hair. That child somehow is the only one to possess white hair, which is another first to be documented in recorded history. If there was another squid with white hair, it would have been addressed and recorded in a medical document, and it would be a great coincidence that they're both named 'Chiro'."
"But they didn't do that with Saiba or his kid. There's no way that the boy she's talking about is Saiba's son. Now, I have to go." Kazuto countered as he tried to make his way out the door, but was intervened by Sinon.
"That's because Saiba's family effectively concealed his existence, and Saiba followed his parents' example and did the same. Our family and friends are acquainted with every prominent family in the world, and I have authorized access to every Inkling's medical records. Trust me; I would know if there was another white Inkling. Stop being stubborn and accept the fact it's him." Sinon counter-claimed.
Kazuto sighed in defeat because he knew she was right.
Sinon slowly placed a comforting hand on her husband's shoulder.
"Look, I know you don't want to talk about anything pertaining to Saiba, especially after what happened to him years ago. Ever since then, our friends and we became more withdrawn from each other, particularly Philia. I mean, we can't really condemn her for that since she lost her husband, and was left to raise two kids on her own while simultaneously taking up the mantle of owner and CEO of the largest weapons manufacturer in the world. However, he was your best friend, your brother pretty much, and you promised him before he died that you would watch over his kids in his stead. Are you honestly just going to walk away right now from this conversation? If it wasn't for Saiba…." Tears started to accumulate in the corner of her eyes, which startled Kazuto.
"…..You would have been the one to die, and our daughters would have grown up without a father. You owe your life to him and Philia by fulfilling your promise…."
"I know!" Kazu interrupted, "But it still doesn't change the fact Tsuki and his son are growing up without theirs'. It's always difficult for me to even look at Tsuki in the eye without feeling guilty, and now there's the possibility that I have to face his son, too. It's just…..I really don't feel like discussing this right now, Sinon. We can do this another time. I have to go."
"But….." Sinon began.
"We'll talk about this later," Kazu stated sternly while glowering at her, "I'm not mentally prepared for this ordeal right now. Damn that Philia. She could have at least notified one of us that she was sending her son to Inkopolis. I know she now prefers to stay reclusive from us and the others, but she could have at least been courteous to inform us."
Kazu fixed his suit with minor frustration and stormed out of their home without even looking back to his wife.
Sinon looked depressingly out down the hallway towards her husband until he quickly turned the corner and looked back to her daughters.
"I suppose I should leave as well. Vivian, I suggest you apply some of the muscle relieving patches we have stored in the upstairs hallway cabinet to help alleviate the pain. You don't want to remain this way for the rest of the day and throughout Splatfest, right? Carla, watch over Asada, and make sure she doesn't cause any mischief." Sinon remarked as she quickly waved goodbye and closed the door.
"Well, that was unusual. What do you speculate mom and dad were discussing?" Vivi inquired of her older sister.
Carla replied, "I don't know. However, whatever it was, it must have been significantly serious because I've never seen them look so….forlorn and dejected. I think it's best if we don't try to pry into this matter. My intuition is telling me that we may trigger a sensitive issue."
Vivi nodded at her suggested action and recommenced struggling to ingest her morning meal. Carla easily finished eating her meal while Asada begrudgingly nibbled on her vegetables until they were gone. Normally, Asada would have disposed of her vegetables without her parents' knowing, but recently Carla took the responsibility as an older sister to ensure that she receives her essential and natural nutrients from veggies, so she made it her point to make sure she eats every last bite, which aggravated Asada.
Vivi continued to struggle raising the portions of food on her fork to her mouth, and approximately half an hour transpired before she finally finished eating as well.
"You okay, sis?" Asada asked concerned.
Vivi smiled comfortingly at her little sister as she gently patted her on the head.
"Yeah…..I think I'll manage."
Asada giggled contently at the touch of her sister and smiled in response before jumping down from her seat and lunging her way over to the large living room couch. Asada had fumbled around for a few seconds to locate the remote before successfully finding it between the cushions and turned the 100" flat screen HD TV on. She proceeded to continually change channels until she decided to watch a recording of Callie's and Marie's morning show.
Whilst their little sister was enthralled by their cousins' program, Carla tilted her head to Vivi and commented, "I recall telling you to be cautious with how you perform in Turf Wars. You may be some-what exceptional, but your new body is still developing, and straining it will only accomplish stifling your growth and causing you to frequently tired. I know you want to attract Chiro, but don't overdo it."
Vivi frowned slightly in defeat.
"I'm sorry. I know I overexerted myself over the last few days. Tonight's going to be quite grueling when we start playing. Man, I can't believe how reckless I was to exhaust myself before my exam. Do you think Kori might more lenient towards me if I tell him I'm not feeling well?"
Carla gave her a doubtful look. "I wouldn't expect it since this is an imperative examination. None of the current Elite 10 members received any special treatment when we strived to obtain a position in the group. You and Chiro have evidently been the only exception up until this point. However, Kori and I will strictly abide by the pre-established procedures set by our predecessors in regards to examining potential members."
Vivi exhaled sharply, "Okay. I appreciate the drawn out explanation, sis. It was just a facetious question anyway."
Vivi winced as a sudden, sharp pain shot through her body.
"….But I'll see if I can come to a compromise by talking with Tsuki. Be grateful that I'm best friends with her to even have the possibility of requesting that."
Vivi smiled thankfully at her sister.
"Besides, Tsuki will most likely make such accommodations anyway. I presume Chiro may be just as sore as you since he just started playing Turf Wars, and was compelled to overexert himself too in order to keep up with you, Sanae, and Momo. He may be in a worse condition than you. She may ask us to slightly reduce our standards for Chiro's sake, and I can ask her to squeeze you in that as well." Carla claimed.
Silence permeated the room for a moment as Vivi trudged her way to the large window of the living room and looked toward the main Plaza. The sun had ascended further into the sky, and the overwhelming rays of light basked all of Inkopolis with warmth and sunshine. Inkopolis Tower was emanating the typical music it blasted from the speakers equipped at its base, and she could ascertain a few Inklings beginning to enter for early morning sessions. Simultaneously, a multitude of older Inklings were assisting one another in situating the large vans on which Callie and Marie would be performing for the occasion and establishing the individual food and game stands for the younger squids to enjoy while the older ones played in the Turf War aspects of Splatfest.
"I hope so…." Vivi muttered solemnly as she looked down at her bare feet depressingly.
Splatfest is a well renowned, celebrated occasion that a plethora of young Inklings eagerly await to indulge in. Many Inklings highly anticipate the festive atmosphere the event invokes as it adorns Inkopolis Plaza with a vast array of neon signs, festival stands offering either traditional games or themed cuisines, and fireworks that illuminate the beautiful night sky with the colors. Others simply look forward to incessantly and strictly participating in Turf Wars with friends at night while utilizing neon versions of the colors employed in normal Turf Wars.
Of course, whichever events kids decided to partake in, the atmosphere is wonderfully accompanied by the pleasant sounds of the Squid Sister's singing.
However, this Splatfest in particular could only evoke apprehension and anxiety in a certain young squid girl constantly striving to achieve the same position her sister once occupied when she was undergoing a similar exam.
Vivi was currently standing with Chiro and the other members of the Elite 10 in Callie and Marie's studio. Each of them was adorning the themed t-shirt of their respective teams along with the colors.
To be self-indulgent, Vivi actually adored Chiro's white ink coloring her tentacles. The pure white coloring was absolutely endearing, and she could discern a small amount of Chiro's scent accompanying her new Splatfest colors.
She could smell the sweet aroma of vanilla and mint.
Tsuki, Sanae, Marie and Carla were casually sitting on the floor playing a poker game while intermittently chuckling at one another and groaning as they drew an unfortunate hand and lost a brief match. Despite how frantic Callie and Marie were prior to now, she was sincerely astonished that they were quite carefree.
Kori, or the 'Pervert' as she refers to him as, and Momo were begrudgingly mocking and comforting Sora as he was sulking on the floor and whining about seeing an extensive number of couples affectionately snuggling with one another before Splatfest commenced.
Chiro and Vivi were contently leaning against the wall far from the others, enjoying the comfortable silence surrounding the both of them….well Chiro was anyway.
Vivi, preoccupied with fretting over her temporary and horribly timed physical ailment as a result of her stupidity, couldn't comprehend how composed or despondent Chiro is. Other than liking how he looked in just a white t-shirt, she was anticipating him to be enduring the same condition like her as suggested by Carla, but he wasn't at all, or didn't appear to be exhibiting any indications to being in pain, nor did he seem to be anxious about the examination. He is nonchalantly sipping on a bottle of milk tea, which he seemed to be overly enjoying, and admiring the interior design of the studio.
"Chiro….." Vivi beckoned.
Chiro disengaged himself from his previous activity and turned to his friend.
"Yeah, Vivi?" Chiro responded happily.
Vivi slowly pushed herself off the wall and sighed, "…are you doing well? You don't seem to be nervous about our examination, nor do you seem to be tense. Is everything alright?"
Chiro donned a quizzical expression before smiling and responding, "I really appreciate your concern, Vivi, but nothing is wrong at all. On the contrary, I couldn't be more elated. Considering that this is my first ever Splatfest, I can't wait to start playing. Tsuki told me the other day that Turf Wars are even more spectacular at night, with all the vibrant colors, fireworks, and miscellaneous games. I'm especially excited for the fireworks since I've never seen them before."
Vivi looked incredulously at the adorable boy. "You've never seen fireworks before?"
Chiro shook his head in response.
Vivi chuckled and playfully pushed him, which prompted a blush from the boy.
"Hehehe, it's honestly shocking how much you don't know, but that's one thing I really like about you, Chiro." Vivi sheepishly rubbed the back of her head.
The blush lining Chiro's cheeks intensified from the embarrassment of Vivi pointing out his ignorance, but what he was blushing more from how Vivi openly said she liked something about him.
Considering how he perceived his skills to be subpar and that he thought he was being nothing more than a nuisance for her, he believed she would be annoyed with his presence at this point now. Fortunately, she was acting completely opposite of what he was expecting.
Chiro meekly said while pouting, "I know a lot of stuff, Vivi."
Vivi humored him and exaggeratedly raised her brow with pseudo-curiosity.
"Ohhhhh? You know a lot of stuff, huh? Okay then…..," Vivi pondered over her thoughts before mustering the courage to say, "Do you have a better understanding of girls, you socially awkward mess?"
Vivi had tenderly wrapped her arms around Chiro's free arm and tightly brought it closer to her body.
Chiro's face was tinted with a deep crimson from the abrupt contact while he looked surprised at her features. Her body's warmth instantaneously permeated his arm, and he could smell her scent. She smelled sweet – like peaches, and he absolutely adored her smell.
Chiro mentally dismissed the brief obsession with Vivi's scent and refocused on the events at hand.
Vivi's seductive expression made it extremely difficult for him to process her inquiry, but nevertheless, he reflected over the information he read in the Understanding Girls book he received from Momo, courtesy of his older sister's prodding into his personal life. Regardless, he still read the contents of the novel in order to not disrespect Momo for sacrificing her time to buy it for his sake.
If he recalled correctly, the first chapter specifically encompassed the appropriate responses to a girl's flirtatious advances and sly remarks. One suggestion was to simply play along with her and subsequently tease her.
Is that the most appropriate thing to do, though? Would she get upset with me if I did something so crude since she's been getting rather tense whenever I do something along the lines of teasing? Chiro briefly fretted over the thought but eventually resigned to carrying the books suggestion out.
Chiro recomposed himself and mischievously eyed the cute girl clinging to his arm. Vivi was caught by surprise by his reaction and felt sudden sensations of anxiety and curiosity bellowing in her.
Chiro nervously said, "Not really, but there is this one cute girl that I understand much more than others, and I'm grateful that I do."
Vivi was taken aback by the comment and fretfully looked at Chiro. "Who is the girl you're talking about?"
Is he going to reveal that the girl he thinks is cute is Sanae? Vivi pondered frantically in her thoughts as a solemn expression started forming on her features. Her thoughts shifted to how much his relationship with Sanae had progressed significantly faster than his with hers despite her knowing him longer. Tsuki and Carla have constantly been reassuring her that Chiro displays an obvious attraction towards her; however, she has gradually been doubting that information.
Vivi acknowledged that Chiro has progressively shown indications of being fond of Sanae more than her. Initially, Chiro was very timid around Sanae, but he eventually started acting similarly towards her as he does Vivi. On occasion when Sanae isn't being flirtatious with him, Chiro initiates his own endeavors of teasing her, and Sane suddenly turns into a nervous wreck. Even though she claims to be an open pervert and attempts to seduce Chiro every opportunity she has, Sanae is no better than Vivi in regards to being 'wood' by an attractive squid.
Chiro seems to attain a sense of encouragement to do it more frequently to Sanae since she doesn't react aggressively like Vivi does when Chiro musters the courage to tease her.
Chiro slowly inhaled and uttered, "It's you, Vivi."
Chiro swiftly turned his head away in embarrassment as he sheepishly scratched at his red cheek. Vivi on the other hand stood motionless and astounded by how flirty that sounded coming from him.
Yes, Chiro lightly teases her; however, she has never once witnessed him being bold enough actually flirt. Actually, she honestly believed he wasn't capable of even committing something many of the Elite 10 and she considered him completely ignorant about.
But what was more exciting to her was that Chiro basically complemented her by calling her cute.
"W-W-What?" Vivi stammered out the question.
Chiro tensed at the sound of her desire for him to repeat his previous remark. It took all the boldness he possessed to resolve himself into saying that to her.
The book made….uh…..flirting was it? Yes…..it made 'flirting' with girls sound quite easy and satisfying, but that was the most awkward moment in my life! I mean, that is how I genuinely feel, but to actually have the audacity to say that to her directly was so nerve-wracking! Was there a step I overlooked while reading the book? It never conveyed the guy feeling so embarrassed! Chiro internally screamed as he managed to shift his free hand to the back pocket of his shorts and pulled out the pink book.
He quickly flipped through the first pages to find the section he consulted for doing what he did.
Oh, squid! Where is the inking page?! I definitely must have screwed that up. Oh, man, Vivi must have perceived that as another one of my horrible attempts at teasing. She's probably going to assault me again. Chiro's heart sunk at the mere mention of the instance and shakily looked back over to Vivi to see if she was prepared to pounce at him.
To his astonishment, Vivi wasn't as furious as he was anticipating. On the contrary, her expression seemed to coincide more with a girl that was struggling to find an appropriate response to a person telling her some news.
For Chiro, he couldn't discern whether the analogy pertained to good or bad news. Vivi's face may be red, but from his experience, that could be attributed by embarrassment or fury.
"Uh…..Vivi?"
The sound of his voice broke her from the depths of her own thoughts, and she couldn't help but slightly tense from his beckoning of her.
"Huh? Yeah? What? What? Is something up? Do you need something, Chiro?" Vivi stupidly stuttered out before immediately clasping her hand around her mouth to prevent herself from uttering anything else that may make her sound stupid in front of Chiro.
"Uh, you've been clinging to my arm for quite some time now. I think I'm starting to lose ink circulation there." Chiro said while gesturing to his limp arm in her embrace.
Vivi gasped and frantically removed herself from him.
"Ahhh, I'm so sorry, Chiro. I didn't mean to hang on to you for that long." Vivi groaned as she worriedly looked at his arm to see if she may have caused any other anomalies.
Chiro rotated his arm to expedite the ink circulation and waved his other hand at her calmly.
"It's alright, Vivi." Chiro chuckled slightly in an attempt to reassure her that she didn't do anything wrong. In actuality, he was rather fond of her closeness to him while affectionately holding on to his arm, and he was honestly kind of sad when she let go. Yes, he did say he was losing feeling in his arm, but he didn't consider her actually letting go. Indeed, he would have preferred if her grip on his arm was less intense, but nevertheless, he enjoyed the close contact of their bodies and wouldn't mind doing it more frequently.
Then again, I think it might be really selfish of me to ask her to always do that. Wait, why am I suddenly more concerned with the urge to be really close to her than fretting over how I close I was to her to begin with? Chiro mused over in his mind.
His thoughts reflected over his little exchange with Sanae in the alley behind the studio a few days ago. She mentioned how his reaction to her teasing was more tamed than she anticipated, and he distinctly remembered himself thinking that was probably because he spent so much time with Vivi and Carla.
However, he still is a little tense around Carla, but not as much as he was initially. He's definitely still terrified around other girls, but now he can hold at least some eye contact before losing his composure and running off. The other females in the Elite 10 don't bother him as much either. He's gradually getting more and more comfortable with all of them, especially Sanae. But, the only girl he doesn't seem to have any issues being around at all anymore is Vivi.
Chiro scratched the back of his head as he intently pondered over why that is.
In the meantime, Tsuki had consulted her phone to assess the time and grinned when the clock registered it to be two minutes prior to midnight.
The slender inkling rose form her seat on the floor and coughed into her fist to gain the attention of the others in the studio.
"Okay, everyone, it's currently two minutes before Splatfest commences, so we need to depart and tend to our stations to ensure that the event occurs smoothly without any issues arising. The last thing we need to happen is to put the occasion on hiatus because someone didn't fulfill their responsibilities accordingly." Tsuki announced to the others to which they nodded and ceased doing what they were doing to congregate around her.
"Since Carla and Kori won't be able to tend to theirs' because of my little brother and Vivi, Momo and Sora will have complete their portion of the tasks." Tsuki ordered, earning displeased groans from the aforementioned duo.
"Why does it have to be us, though? Why can't Sanae or you handle their roles?" Momo whined to the girl as she directed an annoyed look at her.
Tsuki donned a smug look on her face as a sparkle twinkled in her eyes. "Simple. It's because I'm the highest rank out of all of you, and that grants me entitlement to make such selfish decisions without your consent."
"You're abusing your power!" Sora griped.
Tsuki waved her hand dismissively at them. "It's fine. Besides, I know for a fact I don't want to do it since I'll be helping Judd with judging Splatfest matches, nor does Sanae. Callie and Marie are going to be singing and dancing for 24 consecutive hours, so they obviously can't be inconvenienced with it, and Sanae is in charge of coordinating all of the events established for the younger Inklings."
Momo pinched her temples and said, "Yes, we're aware of that, but I'm in charge of assisting other volunteers with making and distributing food for those that are attending, and Sora is responsible for maintaining our supply of fireworks and making sure they're detonated periodically. How can you expect the both of us to those while simultaneously handing out prizes for game winners and assisting the technicians with the Turf Wars?!"
Tsuki innocently yet coldly responded, "You'll figure it out. I have some faith in you two."
Silence…
"Ouch." Vivi remarked while Sora and Momo sighed in defeat.
Tsuki's more assertive and commanding behavior always helped her in a multitude of ways in winning arguments and getting things to happen according to how she desired. The others still struggled to get accustomed to it, but since Chiro was already used to it because of their relationship, he couldn't help but laugh to himself about how Momo and Sora reacted.
However, Tsuki is aware that her actions do tend to cause some discomfort and burdens on others, and she does feel guilty when she sees how upset her friends become as a result of her self-centered decisions.
Tsuki sighed worriedly, "Okay, Sanae and I could assist you two intermittently to help alleviate the frustrations that come with the additional workload."
Mom and Sora exchanged quick glances at each other before crossing their individual arms across their chests as they contemplated over the minor compromise.
"Hmmm, how about you treat the both of us to lunch and dinner on Sunday, then we'll accept that." Sora immediately suggested.
Momo beamed at his additional requests and nodded ecstatically. "Yeah, and both the meals must be homemade by you. After all, you always gloat about being a spectacular cook because your mother taught you."
Tsuki tensed after that and hopefully shifted her attention toward Chiro, who sighed dejectedly and nodded.
Tsuki soundlessly thanked him and nodded to Momo and Sora in affirmation.
"Yes! Alright we should go now so we can start all the events on time." Momo gleamed as she sprinted out the studio before the others could respond.
"Ah, wait, Momo, wait for me!" Sora whined as he quickened his pace in an extremely futile attempt to catch up to her.
Carla sighed in exasperation as she whimsically walked next to Chiro.
"Oh, for goodness sake, sometimes Sora can be extremely hopeless. His shyness won't help him accomplish anything in regards to an actual relationship." Carla commented absentmindedly as she rested her elbow on the white haired kid's shoulder.
Chiro winced from the sudden contact before cocking his head towards her and eyed her curiously.
"What do you mean, Carla?" Chiro asked innocently.
"Sora really likes Momo, but he's too insecure to even attempt to confess his affections for her, out of fear of being rejected of course." Carla answered.
Chiro responded in surprise, "Really? Well, I guess I can see why he would be adamant about not confiding something like that in her. I mean, if he was rejected, he would start sulking and Momo might get tasked again with trying to cheer him up, which might hurt his pride even more."
Carla nodded in affirmation and was surprised Chiro gleaned that conclusion from how he saw Sora gripe about his luck with girls a few days ago.
"Yep. However, I doubt that might even occur. Momo is very proficient about concealing any romantic feelings, but I've seen her express some interest in him despite how subtle it may be." Marie interjected.
"Sora doesn't know?" Chiro asked.
Marie shook her head.
"Wow, he must be really oblivious as well. If I was in his circumstance, I probably wouldn't be unaware of a cute girl really liking me." Chiro remarked nonchalantly.
Unbeknownst to him, Vivi and Sanae slumped their shoulders and stared at him incredulously.
Has he really not fully understood what we've been doing the last few days? Or is he also stupid? Both Vivi and Sanae thought to themselves.
Tsuki and Carla sighed disappointingly at the boy while Callie and Marie just shook their heads while chuckling.
"Okay, you five should start leaving as well. We're about ready to kick start Splatfest with a brief news flash, then we'll head out to the stage trucks to sing…for 24 hours straight." Callie almost spat the last part of her sentence out with a lot of disdain.
Chiro could understand her dismay. Despite being world renowned pop stars, even having to sing for an extensive period of time must be truly exhausting.
Marie groaned at the mere mention of it.
"Don't remind me, Callie. It's bad enough that we have to do it, but I don't need you constantly being bitter about it by complaining. You're only making it worse for me." Marie chided.
Callie huffed and retorted, "Oh, drop the facade, Marie. Before the others arrived, you were doing nothing but whining. You're worse than I am!"
Marie took that as a personal affront.
"Hey, at least I can drive!"
Callie gasped in shock and offense.
"What the squid does that have to do with what we were just discussing?!" Callie bellowed before she gasped in realization, "Oh, since I just addressed a fact, you feel it's right to attack my own personal issues?!"
Marie screamed, "Yes, I do!"
A heated exchange transpired between the two as the others slowly made themselves scarce while ignoring the ridiculous family quarrel.
Tsuki quickly closed the door and sighed in exasperation as she pinched her temples and looked worriedly at her younger brother's concerned expression.
"What's wrong with you, Chiro?" Tsuki inquired.
Chiro shifted his attention from the closed door to his older sister and uncomfortably rubbed at his white tentacles. Callie and Marie's bickering, though muffled, could still be heard.
"Shouldn't we stop their squabbling? I mean, it's a minute before Splatfest, and their fighting. Wouldn't it be bad and embarrassing for them to be seen fighting as soon as the broadcast begins?" Chiro asked worriedly.
Tsuki only smiled fondly at her little brother's natural inclination to worry over others' well-beings, and lightly flicked his forehead.
Chiro slightly yelped at the abrupt impact of her finger, and before he could voice his minor irritation, Tsuki had tightly embraced him. She tenderly yet roughly ruffled his tentacles and planted a loving kiss on his forehead before releasing her hold on the slightly confused Inkling.
Chiro's cheeks were tinted red as he shyly looked at the others to see mix reactions.
Kori looked to be rather envious of him to receive a kiss from a squid as attractive as Tsuki, but he smiled nonetheless at his friend, while Carla cooed at their sibling affections. Sanae and Vivi on the other hand seemed to be on the precipices of jealously and frustration. However, they both only instilled that impression for a few moments before Chiro looked back at them. Afterwards, they immediately offered awkward smiles, which he found strange but dismissed the thought before he returned his attention to his sister.
"W-Why did you do that so suddenly?" Chiro said with as much anger as he could muster, but it may as well have only sound as light whining, which Tsuki found adorable.
Tsuki chuckled, "What? Can't I give my little brother a kiss every now and then?"
"Not in front of other people! It's embarrassing! Actually, you shouldn't even be doing that. There's only a two year gap between our ages. By now, siblings shouldn't even be expressing their love in such a manner. " Chiro whined.
Tsuki sighed, "That shouldn't matter. Nothing should prevent a sister from exhibiting her love for her brother, whom I haven't seen for two years if I might add."
Tsuki glared expectantly at her little white-haired brother as she crossed her arms, but she also looked to be a little hurt by what he said...
Chiro tensed from her glowering and mentioning of their lack in each other's presences. Now that he reflected on it, he was being rather selfish while he was whining, so he couldn't help but slump his shoulders in shame and regret.
"I'm sorry…..I…..didn't mean to hurt your feelings." Chiro meekly said.
Tsuki only smiled and kissed him on the nose this time.
"It's fine. I'll try to refrain from doing that in public if it still bothers you, but I can't make any guarantees," Tsuki giggled as she checked her phone to see it was now midnight, "Alright, Sanae, we have to go to our stations. Make sure the events for the kids go smoothly, and don't shirk your duties by asking someone else to do them again."
Sanae held her hands up defensively and nervously laughed.
"H-Hey, I've only done that maybe…." Sanae stopped to contemplate over the number, "…once."
"Five times." Carla quickly corrected, earning a glare from the fourth seat of the Elite 10.
Kori stifled a chuckle, "I concur with Tsuki, Sanae. There's no need to increase the burden of maintaining Splatfest for the others that are working tonight. So, please abstain from being lazy again like you did for the last seven Splatfest."
"Why did the number increase?! Don't speak to me about shirking my responsibilities, pervert. I at least attend the weekly meetings and do what I'm supposed to for other things." Sanae said spitefully.
Vivi monotonously commented, "San, I don't think you have the leverage to call him 'pervert', especially when you're one as well."
Sanae said in realization, "Oh….yeah….right."
Chiro eyed her curiously and inquired, "What's a pervert?"
Carla frantically waved her hands in front of her and hysterically said, "AHHHHH, YOU DON'T NEED TO KNOW SOMETHING LIKE THAT!"
Chiro was caught by surprise by her abrupt screaming and retracted slightly out of fear.
"Okay, okay, can we just go already? I think I've had enough of just talking." Chiro timidly said as he coward behind Tsuki for protection.
Tsuki nodded in affirmation.
"Yeah, we need to go. Splatfest just began, and we're already a minute behind schedule," Tsuki said before looking at Carla and Kori, "Please, take care of my precious little brother."
Tsuki started to walk away before she stopped as she mused over a single notion.
"Oh, and please refrain from flirting with each other, Carla, Kori. Chiro's future is solely riding upon this examination, and I don't want the results to be inaccurate as a result of your carelessness and blatant flirting with each other." Tsuki said sternly before finally walking off with Sanae.
Kori and Carla blushed furiously at the possibility and looked everywhere but one another. An awkward silence pervaded the atmosphere around the remaining four until Vivi gruffly coughed into her petite fist, regaining the attention of the two older Inklings.
"Huh? Oh, right. Um, before we depart for the first battle, I need to debrief you two about how we'll be conducting this particular evaluation and the rule we'll be strictly abiding by as determined by the precedents established for examining new, potential members." Kori stated as he regained his composure along with Carla.
Chiro and Vivi nodded and intently paid attention to the older squid.
"There's no need to concern yourselves with too many rules. Essentially, all four of us will be playing together. As ordered by Tsuki, I'll be overseeing Vivi's performance, and Carla will be handling our little Whitey here…"
Chiro groaned at the absurd nickname originated from his hair color.
"…You two are restricted from requesting more than five breaks during the examination process and neither of you are allowed to sabotage each other during the process either, but I highly doubt you two would do that to one another anyway."
Chiro and Vivi exchanged quick glances at each other before smiling comfortingly and returning their attention to Kori.
Kori smiled at the two before continuing, "Lastly, in the event that one or both of you sustain an injury at all, the exam will cease and be postponed to a later date until you recover. Any questions?"
Chiro and Vivi shook their heads, and Kori and Carla nodded their heads in satisfaction.
"Alright, then, let's go!" Kori said enthusiastically before draping his shoulder around Chiro's shoulders and leading the way out of the studio.
Vivi was about to follow them until she felt Carla place her hand on her shoulder.
"Are you going to be fine tonight? As Kori said, if you don't feel capable enough tonight to play, we can postpone the exam." Carla said worriedly.
Vivi was still afflicted by her severe soreness, but she did a spectacular job at suppressing her pain; however, Carla could still tell she was still suffering significantly.
"No, it's fine, sis. I think I have the capacity to endure the exam for the next 24 hours. Besides, when I start to feel exhausted or overwhelmed, I can request a break to try and recuperate before we recommence." Vivi reasoned with Carla.
"But-" Carla started
"Sis, please, don't pester me into doing that. I've been aspiring to attain a position in the Elite 10 for some time now, and now that I have the opportunity to do so, I don't want to wait any longer than I've already have. Please, Carla, let me do this." Vivi almost begged her older sister.
Carla stared at her incredulously before sighing and nodding her head at her sister's resolve.
"Alright, let's go." Carla gestured toward the exit where Kori and Chiro were patiently waiting. Both could see that the radiant lights of the fireworks going off intermittently outside, and they could hear the festivities of the event and the Squid Sisters' singing resonating through the hallways from the open door of the exit.
Vivi nodded and followed her sister out.
For the next twelve hours, both Chiro and Vivi intently performed to the best of their abilities in the matches they participated in. The maps scheduled for Splatfest included Mahi Mahi Resort, Arowana Mall, and Moray Towers. The pair of four had on occasion encountered some competent players, but nevertheless, they would emerge victorious in all their matches, and they all achieved the highest ranks of Splatfest ranks almost instantaneously.
Chiro's dual-wielding ability enabled him to tackle foes in quick succession and cover a large amount of area to contribute greatly to attain victory for their team – and his advantage of being able to employ two separate special weapons made engagements being resolved much quicker and efficient. Vivi's use of her Inkbrush Nouveau allowed her to quickly traverse the maps and dispatch enemies first before the others. On occasion, she stayed close to Chiro and provided support when he appeared to be overrun by some of the competent players.
Yes, Carla and Kori were just as aggressive at times, but they primarily remained passive throughout their matches and defended their bases from all opposition and merely observed the two young Inklings perform.
One of the requisites of being considered for possible induction into the committee is possessing the ability to dispatch a full team of four players independently. Fortunately, Chiro and Vivi were able to fulfill that criterion with absolute ease. Early in the examination, Chiro was tasked with exclusively keeping enemies at bay while the other three covered the map with white ink. Chiro didn't struggle with that at all. Vivi was next to do it. She didn't do as well as Chiro due to her physical ailment, but according to Kori, she was exceptional.
After fourteen hours, Chiro and Vivi began to exhibit minor and extreme fatigue, respectively, and requested their first break for the entire session. Chiro had resigned to taking a quick nap along with Kori, which made it look as though they were two brothers resting together, while Vivi pleaded Carla to let her apply some muscle ache patches and sleep for an hour.
After recuperating for an hour, they proceeded with indulging in Splatfest matches.
Our fellow four Inklings had equipped their weapons for the upcoming match, and readily stood on the start pad and transformed into their squid forms. In a flash, they were teleported to Moray Towers.
Like previous matches, they spawned at the home base of the map and Chiro would instinctively focus his attention on assessing the enemy team and determining what weapons they would be utilizing in the current match. Chiro could see the entire opposing team was comprised of girls and were all utilizing Duel Squelchers.
Vivi was still using the Inkbrush Nouveau. Kori appeared to be using the Custom E-liter 3K Scope with the Kraken, which greatly complemented a long range and CQC playstyle, and Carla had the Carbon Roller. No matter how much time had passed, Chiro still felt a little cheap since we was wielding the Tentatek Splattershot and Splattershot Jr. but he pushed the thought to the back of his mind.
As the counter gradually decreased and all four of the Inkling eagerly prepared to lunge into battle, they could see the girls on the enemy team waving toward them in excitement.
The four exchanged quizzical glances before returning their attention to the girls and giving them curious looks.
"HEEEEEY, CHIIIIIRO!" One of the girls exclaimed at the top of her lungs.
Chiro eyed her with surprise at her deliberate beckoning for his attention in particular before he pointed to himself to confirm if she was actually referring to him.
The girl nodded enthusiastically, and the other girls joined her.
"Hi, Chiro!" Another girl yelled.
"Please go easy on us!"
"Are you busy after this?!"
"Can I be your girlfriend?!"
The incessant questions were uttered for the next few seconds, almost to the point that both teams almost missed the countdown timer reaching zero. Chiro was blushing furiously from the attention while Carla and Kori were desperately trying to stifle a few chuckles. Vivi on the other hand was glaring daggers at both the girls and Chiro before deeply inhaling and calming herself.
The clock counted down.
5…4…3…2….1…..GO!
Vivi and Momo were quick to ink the surrounding area around the base and swiftly swam off towards the center of the map. Kori quickly charged his weapon and fired, leaving a long white ink trail that lead directly to the middle of the map and swam in it. Chiro learned to take advantage of the trail Kori initially placed down to traverse to the middle instantaneously as well.
The next two minutes transpired rather quickly and victory seemed assured like all their other matches. Chiro was currently preoccupied with discharging his ink on the ground before he decided to consult his map and assess where the others were located. Kori was stationed one of the small platforms fastened on the walls to the sides of the map, and Carla was aggressively spreading ink in the center. However, what caught his attention was Vivi pushing into the enemy spawn; leaving a narrow trail of their ink behind her, but he noticed the trail quickly disappearing under yellow ink.
He deduced that at least one of the enemy girls was tailing her and was preparing to possibly ambush her since two of the Lemon Tea players were splatted and ready to spawn in.
Chiro took the initiative to click on the icon that represented Vivi and immediately transformed to his squid form and super jumped.
Vivi's exhaustion had finally caught up to her, and now she was struggling to even move a foot at a time. Her performance this game was severely inadequate; her movements were brutally sluggish, and she was merely dragging her Inkbrush instead of pressing forward with it in front of her.
She stopped in her tracks to try and recover. Vivi was sweating profusely and panting hard as she collapsed to her knees in a path of white ink.
"Oh…crap…I….can't…even….move….anymore…" Vivi gasped between her panting as she struggled to wipe the sweat away from her brow. After a few moments, she managed to catch her breath and slowly lifted herself up while using her Inkbrush as support.
Prior to continuing her assault on the enemy base, Vivi heard the distinct sound of sloshing behind her and caught sight of an enemy squid girl closing in on her position. Vivi gasped before looking forward to also see two more quickly approaching her as well.
"Oh, no! I can't lose now. I haven't been splatted yet! If Kori sees me get splatted, he'll dock me a substantial amount of points." Vivi screamed in terror as she frantically looked back and forth between her aggressors and tried to lift her Inkbrush, but to no avail. It wouldn't even budge.
All three of the Lemon Tea girls donned toothy grins as they all took aim and prepared to unload their ink on the defenseless girl.
Vivi tightly closed her eyes and anxiously awaited for the inevitable carnage that would unfold.
Just as all three of the enemies applied pressure to the triggers of their weapons and the first streams of their bullets propelled out of the barrels, Chiro had loudly landed next to Vivi and activated his Bubbler, shielding the both of them from the onslaught of yellow ink being fired upon them.
Chiro's sudden appearance startled the enemies, and before they could react, Chiro quickly splatted all three of them and discharge some white ink on the surrounding area to provide some maneuvering room for his and Vivi's escape.
Chiro holstered his Tentatek Splattershot and extended his right out to Vivi.
"Hey, Vivi, are you alright? You were in severe trouble and would have been brutally splatted if I hadn't come," Chiro asked with concern as he looked around to see another enemy was converging on their position, "We need to retreat for a moment so you can recover."
Vivi didn't verbally respond to his recommendation and sat in her location motionless with a disgruntled expression plastered on her face.
"Vivi?" Chiro asked again. He consulted his map once again to see that the three girls he splatted had respawned and were quickly closing in.
The normally turquoise haired girl sneered at the white haired boy's hand and swiftly slapped it away from her face.
The harsh impact alarmed Chiro, and he slightly retracted as he clutched at his hand and stumbled backwards down the inclined path they were on.
"I don't need your help, Chiro," Vivi bellowed at him, "I could have done that myself, and I don't need a noob such as you to lecture me about the best course of action in Turf Wars!"
Chiro shrugged his shoulders as he winced from her screaming.
"V-V-Vivi?" Chiro whimpered.
"What! Would you cease with being so timid and just go somewhere else and leave me be?! For ink's sake, you idiot; I don't need you to help me!" Vivi essentially screamed in his face.
Vivi's exhaustion and frustration with her inadequate performance has finally shattered her patience as she ventilated her rage at her crush. The heated screaming continued for a minimum of thirty seconds before she had finally calmed herself down and intermittently inhaled and exhaled gruffly to alleviate her remaining anger.
After her breathing had settled, Vivi regained her awareness of the situation as she apprehensively looked up to meet Chiro with minor tears accumulating at the corners of his eyes.
"Chiro?" Vivi gasped at the sight.
Chiro tensed and shakily backed away from her.
"I-I-I'm s-s-sorry, V-V-Vivi." Chiro choked as he quickly pressed the icon representing the base and super jumped away.
Vivi still urgently tried to reach out to him before he jumped, but it was too no avail. He was gone just as she touched his trail of white ink.
"Wow." A feminine voice said.
Vivi turned to see one of the girls from the enemy team staring with wide eyes and clasping her mouth over her mouth.
"That outburst was rather unnecessary, don't you think?" the girl asked.
Vivi didn't respond to her at all.
The instant she witnessed Chiro starting to tear up, she experienced a sick, sinking feeling in the pit of her gut, and that feeling didn't subside at all. On the contrary, the sensation only intensified as she plaintively looked back to her base and tried to see if she could catch a glimpse of Chiro.
As she focused her vision, she could only discern a blurry figure sitting with its arms around its knees with its back towards the map.
Vivi presumed that was most likely Chiro, and from what just happened, he was most likely crying, too.
She felt so guilty. She just made Chiro cry because she couldn't restrain her anger. She didn't intend on doing that, but her temper got the better of her, and now she knows her relationship with Chiro had just suffered a severe setback in regards to getting intimate.
The match soon concluded with the Milk Tea players winning with a score of 90.1% to 5%. After they were teleported back to the main lobby situated below Inkopolis Tower, Vivi instantly tried to speak with Chiro, but he would immediately avert his eyes and turn away from her every time she tried to reconcile.
This particular behavior continued for the remainder of Splatfest, with Chiro looking depressed while deliberately maintaining his distance from the girl. Eventually, Kori and Carla acknowledged this behavior and constantly asked why Chiro had suddenly started acting so distant. Vivi couldn't bear to tell them, especially Carla, so she would lie and claim she didn't know.
Chiro didn't utter a word for the rest of the exam and only did as he was instructed by Carla. At times, Carla and Kori would try to talk with him, but he would just put on a fake smile and shake his head, gesturing that he didn't wish to speak and be left alone.
Soon, Splatfest had finally ended, and all members of the Elite 10 had gathered back at the Squid Sister's studio at 12:00 AM on Sunday.
"Ugh, finally!" Callie exclaimed with joy.
"Yeah, my throat is so sore from all that singing." Marie complained a she tenderly rubbed her throat to ease the irritation.
Sanae groaned, "Hey, at least you didn't have to cope with kids for twenty-four hours. I swear, there were at least fifty kids that kept sticking their chewed gum to my shorts. I had to change ten times."
Sora sighed heavily, "At least you didn't have to deal with twice the work load. I was on the verge of collapsing so many times that I lost track of what I was doing."
Momo nodded in affirmation. "Yeah, you two owe us as well. While you two were having fun, Sora and I were working our tentacles off."
Momo said that as she pointed to Kori and Carla.
Tsuki clapped her hands to get everyone's attention before saying, "Good job, everyone. This Splatfest went extremely well from what I read online and heard in the streets around other Inklings."
She shifted her focus to Kori and Carla. "So, how did my brother do?"
Kori and Carla exchanged worried glances before looking towards the back of the studio to the aforementioned boy leaning against the wall alone with a solemn look on his face. The others noticed how unusually he was acting and gave him looks of concern.
"He…..did really well," Carla finally said with an awkward smile, "He's definitely on par to what an Elite 10 member."
Tsuki eventually nodded in satisfaction and looked over to Vivi.
"And how did your sister do?"
Kori answered, "Uh….she did well, too. She did struggle a few times, but they're not really anything too notable to consider when we deliberate later over whether we should induct both Chiro and Vivi into the group.
"Okay," Tsuki responded, "I guess we can all go now and get some much needed rest. Splendid job everyone."
Chiro perceived that as the cue to finally leave and quickly made himself scarce as he presumably was making himself home.
Unfortunately, he had left before Vivi could try to talk to him again, and said girl only looked shamefully at the vacant spot her crush once occupied.
"Hey….." A voice brought her attention back. It was Tsuki.
"What's wrong with my little brother? Did something bad happen? I haven't seen him look so depressed in years?" Tsuki asked with hysteria evident in her tone.
Vivi hung her head and responded, "I…I think I really hurt his feelings."
Please Review. Also, which girl are you guys wanting to be with Chiro. Your answers won't impact the story; I'm just curious. :)
