Saturday is here and with hell week over for Squid Academy, Coach Octavio thought now is the right time to reward them for the tremendous progress made in that short span by giving them the weekend off. Ever since that first day of their hellish training, they've grown an incredible amount and now resembled a team with a fighting chance at Nationals-at least better than previously. The days spent reforging their lost skills through scrimmage finally paid off as the crippling rust no longer hindered them, and to make matters better, the countless simulations practicing the various game modes also gave the team enough practice to understand what to expect at the tournament. Not only did their bodies get stronger through their dedication to their personal menus, but their minds were far sharper thanks to the hours of studying their group stage opponents on film all under the watchful eyes of Coach Octavio, who did her best to point out every detail she found relevant to the report. After such a hectic and draining week, it made sense to let them off the leash for a bit and enjoy some peace before they get back to the busy preparations for their departure.
Kosami spends her day off by visiting the Haibaki Strip for the first time ever, deciding to cross a goal off her bucket list; a long shopping strip, Haibaki is the home of vast electronic retailers and department stores with a clutter of small stalls and vendors along the streets. The prime destination for anyone who enjoyed video games, comics or anime, the culture of Haibaki has a deep root in Inkopolis as the place where many pop idols got their first start or big breaks. Kosami made sure to visit an electronic store as her first stop, she could feel her wallet already getting lighter after entering the store. All of the latest tech just a touch away, she began salivating at the thought of being able to purchase some cool new gadgets! Surfing the seas of electronics in each aisle, Kosami walked out with a cool new phone case with an artistic design that she got from the neighboring vendor after struggling to make up her mind. After applying the new case to her phone, she notices a gacha machine in the distance, and immediately a light shines in her eyes-having heard the legends about these machines. A test of her luck, she had a go at it! Only to fail miserably with E luck. To recover from the trauma, she figured the next best thing to do was spend more money-the arcade and gaming shop next on her list of venues. While browsing the selection, she hatches a bright idea. Since she's in Haibaki, why not buy some gifts for Squidcom as a show of thanks? She knew what most of them liked for the most part and could likely find anything in this town, so why not? A peek at her purse, she wanted to make sure there's enough spending money-all thanks to working her part time job.
"Alright, I know Azule likes games. Violet loves books, Jory's big on fashion, and Fuchsia's tastes line up with mine. But what about the others…?" she wonders, unable to figure out what else to buy. Maid cafe! Street food! Novels! Video Games! Respect! Kosami went on an expedition throughout the jungle of entertainment, and soon found herself in a wild encounter with a cosplayer dressed in a mech suit! Just the inspiration she needed, she figured that Reice would like mechas. After buying a smaller scale model, she had the hot hand and continued on to buy two new games for Azule, a smart watch for Fuchsia, an entire collection of novels of Violet, a vinyl of Hatsunika's first ever album for Sally, a bag full of Toni Kensa gear for Jory, a bedazzled chopstick hairpin for Tangie, and a katana and sheath key chain for Cobalt. "M-maybe I went a bit too far…" she laughed, carrying all the bags with a little struggle.
At a raceway nearby the famous Fugu International Speedway…
"Honestly, you have a strange taste for date spots." Aaron laughs, holding Sky's hand as she snacks on some cotton candy.
She looked at him with a tease, "Not up for getting your heinie kicked?"
"Oh how vicious, that cotton candy on your cheek really frightens me." He says in a sarcastic tone using his finger to brush to stray piece off her cheeks and into his mouth; "Mm! Tastes just like you."
Sky narrows her eyes in disgust, "Lame." she utters in a matching tone with her chin raised.
Aaron can't help but give a smirk, "If I'm lame, then that makes you just as lame for loving me. Tell me I'm wrong." he said with such a sure tone, asking for her to deny; Sky's disgusted expressed shifts to a flustered one as she's caught for once, and looking away to save face, she can't hide the fact that he was right. Unaware that they already reached their destination, their moment is cut short.
"Ewwwww gross!" Pastelle taunts, holding her nose and making a gesture to suggest it stunk.
"Get a room-oh wait, then we'd be stuck here. Never mind, carry on you love birds!" Parker added, snickering afterwards.
"It takes a strong level of love and admiration to tolerate the two of you." Pearl said while leaning against a wall with her hands in her pocket, miffed that she's spending her weekend here instead of on her own time.
Ollie chuckles, "No need to be all sour, Pearl. We all agreed to come together and have some fun."
"I agree with Ollie on this being a good change of pace since lately you all have been working really hard. What better chance to burn some excess energy than this?" Cannola said, joining in on the group.
What seems like an obscure spot for a date is actually a hangout spot for the Elites and Kidvel, who are together to do some go kart racing. A group decision made between Sky and Pastelle, they believed it to be a good opportunity to burn some steam from the past week and for the team staff members, a good chance to a break from researching future opponents and just have some fun. When they all met up at the station and heard of the stories from Sky about her time racing at the track, they had a new level of enthusiasm. Since their party was quite large with a whopping total of 13 people, they were sent to a different part of the facility where they had several road courses just for the occasion. After hearing from the staff about Sky's previous visits, it turns out that Sky is well known around the area and at this specific venue for putting up one of the fastest lap times ever, and the specific course they're about to race on is the only one she had yet to burn rubber on. A chance to get the jump on her, Pastelle wanted to beat her at her own game and challenged her to a grand prix, which she accepted happily. At this specific venue for bigger parties, they held a grand prix package where the guests could decide on the type of road course and races they wanted with varying types from circuits to sprints, to even time attack and a relay race. Since Pastelle wanted all the smoke, Sky declared a grand prix of 3 races and capitalized on the cheeky challenge by testing Pastelle's resolve. Aware that of what Sky was planning, Pastelle stuck her ground and showed her resolve by accepting the challenge (at the expense of everyone else there who just wanted to race a couple times and have fun). A huge track with 18 turns and a few straightaways, the key part of the track to watch out-as explained by their guide-were turns 4-7 since they followed a long straightaway and turns 10-16 since they not only preceded the longest straightaway, but were consecutive like a coiling snake; if they weren't careful they would veer off the track and into the gravel pits and astro turf.
In a grand prix, points are tallied up based on where a driver finishes, and in this case, the winner gets 20 points and descends by 2 from there; finishing outside the top 10 meant no points, so that made the race far more competitive. The races went in this order: Team Circuit of 5 laps, Team Relay of 1 sprint, and then a final circuit of 20 laps. The teams were uneven with 13 people total, but Sky insisted on Pastelle getting the extra person in exchange for her getting to pick first. As a result, Team Sky for the first few events are: Aaron, Apollo, Pearl, Taylor, and Cannola. Pastelle in turn got Parker, Austin, Nelson, Chlora, Gileslie, and Ollie, aware that Sky pulled a wild selection in taking Taylor to throw them off. Both sides put on their helmets and got into their karts awaiting the start of the first race, placed randomly on the starting grid for the first event with the sprint race's starting positions decided by where they finish; since they were the team captains, Sky and Pastelle will start in the pole positions on the starting grid. Though she didn't know too much about cars and racing for that matter, she was aware that in road course racing, whoever takes the lead on the first turn usually wins the race with barely any position changes happening throughout the race, so all she had to do was take the lead on the first lap and leave them in the dust, right?
"Wrong!" Sky shouts, reading her thoughts easily; "While you're not far off, that type of thinking is poor."
"When did you read my thoughts!?"
"You think too loud." she said, flicking down her visor.
No time to continue the conversation, Pastelle also flicks down her visor and waits for the start of the race. Five bright lights are cast up high on a banner, directly above the start/finish line. The engines hum as the red light shines, growing louder by the second until it shifts to yellow, and then...green! Immediately, the karts are off and at the front of the pack guiding them is none other than Sky, who's refusing to allow anyone to catch her going into the first couple turns. Pastelle, and the others close behind her going into turn 1, but by the end of turn 2, the gap has already formed as Sky did a perfect job of following the line through the s-curve and as such widened her lead right away. Shocked by how easily she went through the corners, Pastelle understood what Sky meant earlier; driving had quite the level of technique to it, and despite never once driven on this specific course, she already knew the line to follow that'd give her the best speed. She braked amazingly, and was even better on the acceleration! She has no time to admire her rival however as right behind her are Aaron and Pearl in 3rd and 4th place. Pastelle's grip gets sloppy as the drag between their karts pull them in closer for a few bumps that slow them down going onto the straightaway. Just the type of start Sky wanted, she was already 4 seconds ahead of everyone as she burned through the next turns easily to widen the gap; the rest of the pack is also separated now thanks to the little bump and grind of a few drivers. By the end of the first lap, Sky has a great lead over 2nd place Nelson, who sneaked by the others to steal the spot, 3rd belongs to Pearl-managing to recover and still put up a fight, in 4th is Ollie-another driver who managed to get into the mix thanks to that costly bump by Pastelle, Pearl, and Aaron, and in 5th place is Cannola, who did well in hovering around until she could slip and swap positions with Pastelle. The circuit continues with constant changes occurring towards the rear of the lineup as the group of Taylor, Austin, Parker, Apollo, Chlora, and Gileslie swap the spots making up 8-13th. There's also been a constant battle for 4th between Pastelle, Cannola and Ollie, and the top 3 were practically secured as Sky had nearly an entire lap's lead over everyone and Nelson and Pearl managed to create some space of their own though it was already a done deal. By the final lap, it's not even competitive anymore…
"Woohoo!" Sky shouts, holding up one arm for victory despite clearly having the skill advantage over everyone; since the next race was a team relay, the results of this race determined the starting grid for the final race.
After everyone crosses the finish line, they are given some time to discuss a placement strategy for the team relay while they organize the unofficial results. Since Sky had one less person than Pastelle's team, she decided to carry the baggage of proceeding without a baton change on her own since she clearly demonstrates the most skill and appearance. Whoever had accumulated more points for their teams within the top 10 would decide on the placements of the baton passes since they drove a few times on the track to know where would be a good place to transition, and after a few minutes of some chatter do their results get displayed on the board. Sky won the first event quite handily, Nelson held off Pearl to secure 2nd place, 4th place goes to Cannola, Ollie just barely beat out Pastelle for 5th, finishing in 7th is Aaron, 8th is Chlora, 9th is Parker, and 10th is Gileslie. Team Sky has 58 points after the first race and Pastelle's team has 52 points, giving the advantage to Sky for the next event since she can decide on placements. For the relay event, the teams line up along the track at different parts the way Sky designated. In a total of 6 pairs, she scattered the duos at different turns. Since there are no true batons, the way to continue the relay was for the new driver to go as soon as their partner parks next to them. The lineup for the relay is as followed, For team Sky: Pearl is the first driver, Apollo is the second driver, Taylor is the third driver up and then followed by Cannola; to round them up, Aaron is the fifth driver, and the final driver is Sky, who chose to race the last two legs. Team Pastelle's lineup is Nelson, Gileslie, Chlora, Ollie, Austin, Parker and then Pastelle as the final driver. A relay sprint across the twists and turns of the track, it starts with a bang as the first pair of drivers are off to a swift start burning rubber with a cloud of smoke in the rear. Pearl and Nelson are neck and neck coming to the first few turns with their teammates awaiting them at the mouth of the straightaway, and right away they test the others resolve by refusing to lower their speed going into the corner. A risky move as they both drag to the outside, Pearl is more at risk since she is just a little distance away from clipping the traps while Nelson also finds himself joining her, which leads to a last minute pull on his part to avoid a disaster. A key moment for the two them at the start already, their actions are the opposite: Nelson's caution gets the better of him and he brakes suddenly-entire body rocking within the seat belt before he can recover, Pearl instead sticks to the daredevil instinct and mashes the gas without fear of hitting the trap-her steering turned as far the opposite direction as she can manage. Right away she dances her hands around the wheel to recover on the immediate turn and then straightens to survive the S-curve and Nelson in the process. A lead created, Pearl arrives at her teammate first and delivers, in turn allowing for Apollo to carry the momentum.
"Sorry!" Nelson shouted regrettably on the stop beside Gileslie, who smashed her gas pedal immediately after timing how many seconds passed.
A gap of about 3 seconds, she figured there wasn't much of a chance for her to catch up since her leg will mostly be run on the straightaway with the next driver handling turns 4-7. A simple drag race, Gileslie believed it impossible to beat Apollo on the straight in a go kart, finding it only imaginable to beat a driver through the corners and by running the perfect line. Even though she'll gain momentum, she's running behind the dirty air of his kart. While he takes all the clean air to get faster, she's taking in all the dirty air and too far behind to even draft, and if she attempts to break the line, she'll only face a worse fate with no buildup. On their way into the next drivers who sat in mid turn for turn 4, Apollo slows down coming into the turn and stops right before Taylor, who in turn takes off. Gileslie arrives a moment later, able to shave a couple seconds off to make up for what Nelson ruined. Chlora floors it, aware that since they are in the turns, this is the critical point in the relay where they can make the comeback. Turn 4, and then turn 5, Chlora managed to make use of Gileslie's efforts and caught up to Taylor, who was driving far more carefully whereas she drove with desperation. On the stretch heading for the next set of drivers, it's an even race.
"Go on!" Chlora shouts full of adrenaline.
"I'll leave it to you!" Taylor said putting her foot on the brake arriving at her stop.
Right away, Cannola and Ollie are off to an even start-the momentum surging on Pastelle's side as they manage to not only come from behind to even it up, but also in a position to overtake them. Anxious sitting on the receiving end in wait are Aaron and Austin, who felt the tension of the race starting to creep on their shoulders as the 5th legs in the relay. A critical point in the race once the baton is passed to them, they take turns 8 and 9 but have to pass on the baton to the legs who will run the toughest part of the track, and in the case of Aaron, the final leg. A short but crucial point, neither side can afford to get off to a bad start. A few seconds pass and they can hear the screaming motors of the karts approaching them, feeling the asphalt vibrate as they near; surprisingly, it's an even race still as neither of them allow the other to escape and stay side by side. On the exchange, both of them are off as their tires screech.
"Awesome start!" Sky comments, hearing them from afar and ready to start her leg-a run of two to be exact. Beside her is Parker, who was shivering a bit from the fear of failure, stunned by how serious everyone got about a simple race. Somehow someway, the tradition of rivalry between the Elites and Kidvel spilled into a friendly day on a race track with even loyal members literally throwing out their support to settle their personal hunger for competition with one another; instead of either side seeing the red of Kidvel or the white of the Elites, they only saw their opponents next to them. "Got cold feet, Parker?" Sky taunts, finding it amusing that the joker was unusually mute.
Parker gives a nervous laugh in response and looked at her with darkened visor, "If I lose to you, it'll be the end of me. But on the upside…" a powerful burst of air puffs from his nostril and flicks up his visor to show his heart eyes; "It'll be heaven! Just imagine-"
"No thanks." an exasperated Sky responds, holding her hand up to stop him in his tracks; any moment now, they'll arrive at the backstretch.
Aaron and Austin are quickly approaching the backstretch where their teammates are, ready to pass the baton onto them in hopes they conquer the difficult set of turns awaiting them. Both karts hum a consistent tone on the way, beginning to lower as they notice Sky and Parker's silhouettes in the distance; they look to another-not as members of the same teams, but as independent drivers who had pride and knew the only way to end this was to hit the top end and test for themselves who is the fastest squid of the east. Roaring furiously on the straightaway, Sky's surprised by the sudden change in the sounds of the karts with some concern showing; if they stop their karts suddenly, they'll feel a terrible sensation of inertia, but if they were going that far that meant they resolved themselves to such a terrible fate. With a glance over to Parker, who still looked excited and lost in his fantasies, she knew there is no way she can allow herself to lose this relay, especially when Aaron's placed an overwhelming level of trust in her to see this relay through.
The pair come down the straight and slam their brakes at the same time with a screech, and almost in sync, Sky and Parker are gone. In an instant, there is a cloud of smoke and some tire marks as the pair rush into the turns. A difference in class, Sky follows the line and makes her run, careful not to understeer or oversteer. Parker is quick on the follow and keeps close to her, aware that if he tries to go on the offensive she'll escape him easily. Awaiting them for the final run is Pastelle, who was anxious to begin knowing this is her big chance to stick it to Sky and beat her at her own game. The one thing she's never been able to do since becoming a student of Squid Academy was outperform Sky: In the rank wars, she always lost to Sky both in team competition and individual performance, and then there was their jobs as agents where Sky showed brilliance similar to her mother while she was more so of an extra addition than a primary agent. Either way she found it humiliating to live in her shadow despite being only a year younger-didn't help that she also lost to her little brother as well. Her quick recollection gets broken hearing a kart on the way, but when she looks behind, her heart sinks-it's Sky, and Parker is nowhere behind her. A swift pass, the pair lock a glance that only lasts a millisecond but is a telling story enough. This relay was over before she could ever make an effort, a telling indicator that no matter what she'll do, she'll always be a step behind...
From that moment, the grand prix was spiritually over. Parker not only got there too late for her to make an effort, but her confidence was crushed heading into the final event. 20 laps of racing felt like 200 with the way Sky plowed, punishing everyone by lapping them a couple of times to put the race away. After wrapping everything up, there's a somber silence with everyone as what was meant to be a fun event turned into a heated competition with an unfortunate end. Some of them were unsure if it was a wise decision to take it so seriously based on the way Sky and Pastelle responded to the landslide victory. As the two looked at another with long expressions, everyone held their breath wondering if there was about to be a confrontation. But instead, Pastelle held out her hand for a shake, to which Sky not only shook it but brought her in close and whispered something that prompted Pastelle to not only wrap her arm around her, but also laugh. Surprised by how she's able to laugh after such an intense showdown, they all realized that it was fun after all, and that nothing will change between them as classic rivals. A bittersweet memory to make with time dwindling, the seniors of the Elites understood that this was likely the last time they could look at Kidvel like this before Nationals. After the summer, it'd be time for them to graduate, and the second years would have to begin thinking of graduating themselves as well. As a military affiliated school, there was a likelihood that they would all take the next step of joining the military following graduation, which meant this was likely the last time they could ever share laughs like this. With Nationals serving as their last chance to make their time unforgettable, Sky and the Elites made one final request from their bitter rivals: play without any regrets and enjoy the tournament to its fullest.
Over in Inkopolis Square...
"How does this look?" Sandra asks, modeling an outfit consisting of a colorful top and patterned skirt with a twirl.
"I love it!" Audrey claps.
"Suits you nicely, Sandra! Would you like to share your thoughts, Todd?" Hannah said, looking over to a blushing Todd who struggled to maintain eye contact.
"You look great…" he mumbles, beyond embarrassed to be in the department store with them like this.
"D'aww! He's blushing." Hannah teased with a smug grin.
"I'm not blushing!"
"Then you're crushing?" Audrey adds with the same expression.
"No!"
Sandra narrows her eyes, "Way to be, blunt." she said plainly, storming into the changing room.
"N-no, Sandra! I don't mean it like that!"
"Humph!" her tone turn spiteful and her gaze unforgiving with a scorn, looking away from him and rounding the corner to the changing rooms.
Audrey flicks him on the arm, "Nice going, she's mad now..."
Todd gives a tired sigh, as this has been the day so far with the four of them exploring the underground mall and checking out some of the new shops that opened up and doing a run through some of the clothes in season for the summer. Constantly dragging their captain along with them, the girls wanted to do their best to tease him today and help him loosen up, witnessing just how far he was willing to push himself under the title of being one of the starters for the upcoming game. They watched him pour in sweat and even a little blood at times, his eyes distant as he looked weeks ahead to the opening game; The respected him more than anyone else, but they were also worried about his overworking and in this case hoped he'd relax for the day, though they forgot he wasn't the most comfortable of people when away from turf wars, especially when his only company are girls. Todd rather be elsewhere right now, finding the thumping in his heart and endless pit in his stomach to be more than just embarrassment, finding this to be a step below mental torture. He didn't know why they were doing this, and the entire time he was trying to figure out their motive. Was there some sort of tension going on? Was it possible one of them liked him and got the others on board to help or were they possibly...
"Honestly, you're too adorable." Hannah chuckles.
"Are we really that pretty? Go on and be honest..." Audrey adds with a snicker awaiting his humorous response.
"Pretty? Ohhh you're a pretty big pain in the as-"
"-suming he thought so, he's too dense to put it into words. A girl could confess to him and he'd think it was their crime! Honestly, I'm worried for your sake." Sandra shrugs, putting the little conversation to rest and finding another location to explore.
After spending the entire day with them doing careful observation, he finally confronts them under suspicion that they were planning something, but once he spoke his thoughts into existence, he realized he was under a huge misunderstanding. It started with a laugh from Sandra that spread to Hannah and then to Audrey, all three of them pointing and laughing at him for thinking that way; embarrassed, he started to shrink and look around, noticing they were drawing too much attention. Afterwards, the girls sat him down and explained the reason behind why they dragged him to the mall, expressing that they were worried about him lately, finding it difficult to watch how hard he was pushing himself without even expressing how he felt. They were there for him, as his teammates and as friends. They admitted it was a little too far to tease him the way that they did since they knew he wasn't comfortable with certain things, but once he spoke his mind, they couldn't help but find it funny that they thought quite the opposite of the situation.
"The bottom line is, you're our captain. You're family. It'd be weird for us to be crushing on you…" Sandra said, speaking for the others who were still struggling to contain their laughter.
"R-right! I also thought it strange for that to be a possibility. I'm glad we're on the same page."
"Buuuut just because we don't see you that way doesn't mean we'll deny you're quite the guy. I'm surprised you don't have a girlfr-"
"STOP!" he interrupts, covering his ears with a reddened face, prompting them to laugh even more. As they spend the rest of the day hanging out, also at the underground mall is Evelyn, who is at a spa getting a manicure and pedicure followed by a massage to help her calm her nerves for the battle ahead and recover from the stress of the previous week. As for the rest of Squid Academy, Sally is back at the music store she worked at and on the hunt for some rare finds for her grandparents-accompanied by Violet who was interested in seeing what Sally loved so much about music. Violet's chance to immerse herself into the mind of a musician doesn't go well since the entire time, Sally tries to seduce her into becoming her songwriter, which Violet has to politely decline several times since she was still fresh in the world of writing and rather learn her way into music than jump in without any experience. Tangie and Cobalt on an art tour enjoying the various works from aspiring artists and drawing similarities to what they saw in Ikayumu, joined by the likes of Reice and Jory who tagged along once the couple offered-saved by their generosity since neither had any plans for the day and dreaded the idea of being alone with nothing to do; the plan was to visit all the art institutions nearby on a "grand tour" and compare the works of each. As for Zaneki and the Rebels, they were at the Inkopolis Square doing league battle to let out some frustration, deciding that there is no rest for the wicked, and to also practice some of what they learned from Hell Week to get a head start for the next Rank Wars. And over at Wahoo World, Azule and Fuchsia are just about to go on their first date-finally able to take a break from their lives as a coach and captain. The thrills and agony of warmth under the guise of Summer quickly approaches, and though the days may be long, they aren't plentiful for Squid Academy-these remaining weeks serving as the last bit of fun they can enjoy.
