I, Snowy The Sky Wolf, do not own Splatoon, or any of its characters.
The Inkling's feet landed gracefully on the paved road of Inkopolis Plaza. The Octoling, with no experience of Super Jumping whatsoever, required assistance from the Inkling to land safely on the ground.
"Welcome to Inkopolis," Aoiko whispers, smiling.
Supotca was amazed at the sight before her; the buildings were crisply built and well decorated, towering over her form. None of the buildings had a single crack or deform in sight. The ground beneath her feet was not dusty, but rather clean as it was paved into cement for sidewalk. The most prominent figure that caught her eye was the large tower that rose up past the rest of the buildings, its design so complex that the Octoling got confused just looking at it.
"Inkopolis Tower," The Inkling began. "Before I left, on that day… I didn't remember the Great Zapfish being there…"
"Huh?"
The girl took another look at the large tower, now spotting the serpentine catfish wrapped around the complex building. It seemed to be staring directly at the two with an intense glare.
Supotca swore she almost saw it wink at her as well.
"Hey… Doesn't that guy look familiar?" A different Inkling whispers to another one next to him.
"Yeah," The other Inkling, this time a female, agrees. "He kind of looks like that missing Inkling from a year ago..."
A loud gasp sounded from behind the two whispering Inklings, causing them to look towards the source of the noise.
"It's Aoiko!"
An uproar of confusion erupted throughout the plaza, the area increasing in volume.
"The missing Inkling Aoiko is here!"
"He's back!"
"Call the defense force!"
"Well," Aoiko laughs, looking down towards Supotca. "Looks like I'm more famous than I thought."
Supotca simply gave him a blank stare.
"What's all the commotion about?" An older female Inkling with dark head tentacles asks, walking out onto the balcony of the second floor of the plaza.
"They're shouting something about a boy named Aoiko being back," Another feminine voice announces, this time one with short white head tentacles. She held a small poster in her hand.
"Aoiko? That boy that went missing a year ago? He suddenly came back?"
"Take a look at the person that everyone is surrounding, Callie," The second older Inkling says, directing her attention to the Inkling boy. "And now take a look at this poster."
"Let me see that, Marie," Callie snatches the paper out of Marie's hands, staring at the picture displayed on the paper. "Yeah, it looks exactly like him!"
"I think it's time to broadcast a breaking Squid Sisters newscast," Marie exclaims, briskly walking back inside the room that she came from.
"You seem very calm about this, Marie! A missing boy just appeared out of nowhere!"
"Mom, there's something going on outside!" A young Inkling girl calls her mother from the window of inside a shop.
"What is it, sweetie?" The mother of the young girl asks, walking over to her daughter to view the scene of the Inkling boy and a strange girl being surrounded by younger Inklings.
"That boy looks just like big brother!"
The adult Inkling took a long look at the returned Inkling boy, before gasping and calling out for her husband. "Honey! Look! I think... I think Aoiko came back!"
"Aoiko?!" The father roars.
The crowd of excited Inklings continued to get closer to Aoiko and Supotca, their faces showing signs of a mixture of joy and confusion. Aoiko reached his arm out to shield Supotca behind him, effectively repelling the Inklings.
"What is going on here?" Supotca harshly whispers.
"Aoiko!" A voice boomed through the plaza, catching the Inkling boy and the rest of the plaza by surprise. Aoiko saw three figures running towards him.
"Mother! Father! Little sister!" Aoiko calls out, recognizing the figures by heart.
The female adult Inkling dispersed the younger Inklings and ran up to Aoiko, enclosing him in a tight hug. "You're home… You're finally home…"
"Mother…"
"Big brother is home! Big brother is home!" Aoiko's little sister cheers.
Supotca felt her heart sink. Seeing Aoiko reuniting with his parents only reminded her of her own. But she smiled.
I'm happy to see Aoiko with his parents like this…
Being separated from Aoiko, Supotca was suddenly surrounded by many young Inkling girls, their eyes filled with curiosity.
"Are you an Octoling?" One of them asks.
"Y-yes," Supotca hesitates. "Yes I am."
"That's so cool!" Another shouts, jumping into the air. "I've never seen an Octoling before!"
"I love your hair! It's so fresh!" A girl squeals.
"T-thank you," The Octoling blushes, not used to being complimented. They… accept me!
An electronic billboard on the side of one of the buildings suddenly flashed, playing some music along with it. This action silenced everyone, as if they were anticipating what was going to occur next.
A logo appeared on the screen, announcing the arrival of breaking Squid Sisters news. Two female Inklings appeared on the screen.
"Hold on to your tentacles..." Callie greets, waving at the camera.
"It's Inkopolis News time! We have some breaking news to share!" Marie announces. "News travels fast! The Inkling that disappeared approximately one year ago has returned! This is a shocking turn of events!"
"We can all figure out how he came back later. For now, let's celebrate!"
"That's it for the breaking Squid Sisters news!"
The two girls then did a pose, ending the broadcast. "Stay fresh!"
Supotca suddenly felt her hand being grasped by someone, her attention returning back down to ground level from the screen.
Aoiko pulled the Octoling girl away from the crowd of Inkling girls, bringing her to his side again. "Supotca…"
He pulls out the red rose he had been storing in his bag from the flower garden and tucks it behind her ear. Brushing a blue octopus head tentacle out of her eyes, Aoiko presses a kiss onto her lips, completely taking the Octoling by surprise. A round of applause and cheering was heard from the crowd.
The Inkling boy broke the kiss and stared at stunned Supotca, her eyes wide with surprise. A bright smile appeared on Aoiko's face.
"Welcome home."
And so, on this day... One certain Octoling learned that there was more to this world... Than just beneath the surface of Inkopolis.
…
Fifteen years have passed since the return of Aoiko and the arrival of the newcomer Supotca.
"Kids, come on, it's almost time for school!" Aoiko calls out, rounding up his two children to his side. One was a pretty Inkling girl with violet eyes and the other was a handsome Octoling boy with blue eyes.
"Dad, can I ask you a question?" The Inkling girl requests. Her brother quickly nods, apparently knowing exactly what she was going to ask.
"Sure, what is it?"
"What were Mom's parents like?"
"Yeah," The Octoling boy says, extending on her question. "You've always told us about your parents, but you never told us about grandma and grandpa on Mom's side."
Aoiko hesitates. This was a strange question to hear out of his children.
Supotca, who overheard the difficult to answer question, hid herself behind a wall to listen to what Aoiko might have to say about her late parents.
"Well," Aoiko began. "Your mother's parents were very sweet. I've never known them personally, but I know that they took care of your mother very well."
Feeling her heart warm up, Supotca couldn't help but smile.
The sound of several vehicle honks echoed into the house, alerting Aoiko that the school bus was here.
"The school bus is here, it's time for school."
"Aw, man," The Octoling boy sighs. "I wanted to hear more of that story!"
"Me too," The Inkling girl agrees with him.
"How about we make a deal," Aoiko says, dropping down to his children's eye level. "How about you do good in school, and when you come home, I'll tell you the rest of the story?"
"Yeah!" The two shout, their moods lighting up again.
"Then a deal is a deal. Have fun at school, kids."
"Bye dad!" The duo says simultaneously, racing each other out the door towards the school bus.
"I'm going to beat you!" The Inkling girl shouts to her brother.
"No you won't!"
Supotca laughs, catching Aoiko's attention. She snuck around the corner to meet with her husband. "What are you going to tell them about my parents?"
"I'll come up with something," Aoiko chuckles, suddenly feeling nervous. "I have a few hours to do so."
Supotca sighs, watching as the school bus drove away.
"They're going to be great in turf war someday, I know it."
"Speaking of turf war," The Octoling says, crossing her arms over her chest. "We're probably too old to play turf war now, huh?"
Aoiko glanced at Supotca for a moment before running briskly to a different part of their home.
"Where are you going?" Supotca calls in confusion.
He soon returned with a turf war weapon in his hand. This weapon, however, was one Supotca recognized instantly.
Aoiko grabbed both of Supotca's hands, placing her special Splat Charger into her possession. The smile that Supotca always knew and loved was displayed on his face.
"Nobody is ever too old for turf war."
Beneath Inkopolis - The End
Wait, wait! Don't leave yet! Next time, on Beneath Inkopolis... The bonus chapter! Stay tuned!
...
Hello everyone, and welcome to the behind the storyboards edition for Beneath Inkopolis! This section is similar to a behind the scenes special in a film, where I, the author, will cover various topics regarding the inspiration and storyline of this FanFiction.
First of all, I would like to thank everyone who has read to the end and supported the story throughout its chapters. I'm happy to see that people take the time to read and enjoy my writing when there are thousands more out there. Without further ado, let's get started.
While the storyline for Beneath Inkopolis is partially inspired by the single player campaign of Splatoon (as seen by Aoiko, the pseudo "Agent 3"), the whole idea and basis of the story was heavily inspired by the (spoiler alert?) "creepy sounds" easter egg. The rumblings and occasional shrieks in the easter egg is reminiscent to the train wreck in Chapter 1-2, and is mentioned again with Supotca's fall in Chapter 12. Perhaps take another listen and imagine the two scenes in your head, and you might just hear it.
For many of the main areas that Aoiko and Supotca traverse through in the story events, they are based off of various Splatoon multiplayer maps. In order, the areas are Urchin Underpass (old version), Port Mackerel, Blackbelly Skatepark, the Final Boss arena, and the tutorial area.
The name "Aoiko" is composed of the Japanese words "Ao", meaning blue, and "Ika", meaning squid, which makes sense since he is an Inkling that wields blue ink. "Supotca", on the other hand, is just Octopus backwards. How very uncreative of me. xD
Aoiko and Supotca's weapons, which are the Tentatek Splattershot and the Splat Charger respectively, actually show up in Splatoon's splash screen (the startup loading screen) as a Splattershot and a Splatterscope together. This coincidence surprised me as I had chosen their weapons long before I noticed the similarity.
Again, thank you all for the support and I hope you enjoyed! Happy reading!