Chapter 12:

The Truth Comes Out

While the band was rehearsing in the grassy field, now with Meggy joining them, Senbo and Aibo were preparing for their new lives as runaways. It was late in the afternoon when both of these events were going on, and the memorial service was at 6:00 p.m. For Saiko and her band, this was plenty of time to prepare. For Senbo and Aibo, no time at all.

The couple's parents were at work, so they figured they should be temporarily safe in either of their rooms while they packed their things for their new lives on the run. They agreed to pack Senbo's belongings now, and Aibo's later. His room still had the unflattering modifications of Saiko that he made to his "Darkest Hour" poster, which he still felt were an accurate depiction of his feelings toward her. Sort of. They enjoyed making her suffer, but the more they thought about the impending consequences, the more they wondered if her tears were really worth it.

But of course, it was too late, and their number one priority was to get away with as many supplies as they could. Clothes, food, money, games, you name it.

"First my stuff, then yours," repeated Senbo as he was getting everything ready. "First my stuff, then yours. First my stuff, then yours."

On the would-be musician's end, the only missing link was which of two shirts to take. The suitcase he planned to use for clothes could only fit so many from his closet, so he had to decide which shirt to leave behind to give room for the suitcase to close all the way.

"We don't have a lot of time, Senbo," reminded Aibo. "Your parents will be home from work soon."

"I know," said Senbo anxiously. "Don't worry, I'm almost packed. I just gotta decide which shirt to take."

Not wanting to waste another second waiting, Aibo decided to forcefully put one of the shirts Senbo was eyeing into the suitcase, while uncaringly leaving the other one on the floor.

"Take this one," she said.

With the decision made for her boyfriend, the bespectacled girl quickly closed and zipped the suitcase.

"You're all packed," she said.

"Thanks," said Senbo quickly as he grabbed both his clothes suitcase and his suitcase for everything else.

"No problem," said Aibo quickly as she opened the door. "Now, let's go!"

With that, the couple departed to Aibo's house.

It was time for Meggy to put her police skills to good use.

Still wearing the outfit Mr. Monitor gave her, the former Inkling had been drumming with the rest of Saiko's band for about two hours, but she still had a murder case to solve. The band came to an agreement that she would spend two more hours at Saiko's house looking through the footage of her security cameras, then come back to rehearse some more once she had all the evidence.

Meggy was quite confident that the guy who was fixated on a certain instrument had something to do with Tari's murder, but she wouldn't know for sure until she had video footage of Senbo in Saiko's house to present to Mr. Monitor.

As she stood in front of the house in question, she checked her phone for a refresher on the entry code Saiko gave her. Then she walked up to the house, didn't flinch at the giant guns that were pointing at her, and entered her credentials, allowing access to the house. She remembered that the guns went back in once your credentials were filled, having seen it firsthand.

Soon, Meggy was inside the house, but wasn't quite sure where the security system's computers were. Based on the directions Saiko gave her during the rehearsal earlier today, they were in the second story, in front of a huge window. This made sense, Meggy thought, since Saiko liked to look down on the world while she was doing computer stuff. With this resolve, Meggy went up the stairs, checked a few doors, and lo and behold, there was the computer room in the third door she checked. And it was on, saving her the trouble of waiting forever for it to turn on.

Now all that was left was checking the security system's files for recorded footage. She contemplated calling Saiko to help her, but she figured she had enough experience with computers to find it herself.

Sitting on the computer chair, Meggy recognized the security system's app, and figured that was where to start. She double-clicked the app's logo—a Teletubby's head, of course—and a logo screen displayed. Above it was a drop-down menu that was entitled "view". The cop-in-training clicked it, and as luck would have it, there was the "footage" option. After clicking that option, she then clicked the day of Tari's death, making sure to leave the option of all the angles of the security cameras checked.

Soon, footage of the insides of Saiko's house began to play. It didn't start with anything special—just Saiko lounging on the couch staring into the ceiling, which made her kind of bored.

But then, something came up. More specifically, the phone ringing. Meggy watched as Saiko answered the phone, listened in, reacted with shock, and bolted out the front door, leaving it open. The cameras couldn't carry sound, but the horror on her face was made clear.

Shortly after was the moment she had been waiting for. Capitalizing on the unarmed defenses, an intruder walked in the house, the smug look on his face signifying cockiness and confidence that he could get away with it. And not just any intruder—the very one that she was expecting. The one she recognized from that picture Saiko showed her back at the emergency meeting.

Senbo.

After some inspecting, the intruder eventually concluded that what he was looking for was in the recording studio. And yes, there were cameras there too. From then on, he began playing on Saiko's precious guitar and singing—or at least trying to. Meggy should consider herself lucky that she couldn't hear him—but she did gasp in shock, unable to believe what she saw.

Yet, despite the hard evidence that a crime was committed, the former Inkling didn't stop there. She kept watching as her target continued to play the guitar and sing, wanting to see if he was going to touch or break anything else. God forbid he got into the fridge and ate the chicken.

This was the beginning of the end of Senbo & Aibo's career.

Tari and Belle have finally finished their playthrough of Ultra Jump Mania's Lost Island mode after spending basically the entire day on it. The initial intent was to see who could get the most tokens, but they eventually forgot about their competition in favor of just enjoying the game for what it was—a good game, regardless of difficulty. Their forgetting of their competition was helped by the fact that both players shared the same number of tokens, and number of lives. Meaning throwing your partner in a lava pit just to get a token or two was not a good idea.

Throughout the entire playthrough, Tari was playing as Coconut Boy, while Belle was playing as some kind of red-clad copy of him created specifically for co-op. The redhead kind of liked this palette swap. He almost looked like he could be Coconut Boy's Spanish cousin. She would have liked him even more if he had evil red eyes, but what can you do?

The new additions they added were nothing to sneeze at, but what motivated the two gamer girls to finish their playthrough was the complete ending players earn once they collect all 100 tokens and defeat the final boss. Turns out, the new villain was a giant tiki head modeled after Derek Lucks.

Tari wasn't kidding when she said the Lost Island mode was a more challenging version of the main game, while still remaining fun and fair. She also wasn't kidding when she said the 100% ending tied the game together. It was the perfect way to make players feel like they accomplished something, right down to the beautiful shot of Coconut Boy overlooking the titular island from his own island in the sunset. Accompanying him were the friends he made throughout his journey, including the recently reformed Crab King.

The girls enjoyed this ending very much, feeling like they earned it. Tari even shed a few tears over the sunset shot, which hadn't gone unnoticed by Belle. Prior to their bonding, the redhead wouldn't have cared about the crying at best and made fun of it at worst. But the more Belle got to know her, the more she got to like her. She put her human hand on the weeping android's shoulder to comfort her.

"Stop crying, you big baby," she said playfully.

"I can't help it," sniffled Tari. "That was just such a beautiful ending. The stories about how good it was…were true."

"And you have me to thank for it," boasted Belle, "since bosses are easier to defeat with two people."

"Goes to show that the developers of this game believe in teamwork," said Tari, the tears now slowing down.

"True that," concurred Belle.

With the gamer girls' Ultra Jump Mania playthrough finished, Tari shut the game and TV off and put the controllers away. The process of wrapping the controllers up with their chords and putting them in one of the drawers was just long enough for Belle to look on her phone. While doing so, the redhead came across something that made her look at it with shock, which Tari noticed.

"What's wrong?" the android asked her rival.

"I was gonna brag on Twitter about achieving that awesome ending," said Belle, "but then I saw…you gotta see this."

The redhead showed her rival the page she was at on her phone, which was currently displaying an art piece of Tari. She thought the drawing was nice and that the artist had talent, but below it was the words "Rest in peace, Turbo Artificial Rapid Intelligence".

"What?!" the android asked, shocked. "I'm not dead!"

"Well, that's what everyone thinks," said Belle, still in shock over what she was seeing.

"Everyone?" asked a confused Tari.

The android kept swiping through Belle's phone and realized that hundreds upon hundreds of people thought she was dead, and were very sad about it—including SMG3, of all people. And if there was one thing Tari hated, it was other people being sad.

"There must be some mistake!" she said. "How did this happen?"

"Beats me," replied Belle.

The android was still processing what was happening. This was all so overwhelming. She couldn't remember what happened that made everyone think she was dead, at least nothing that wasn't in a dream. The very thought of everyone thinking she died made her hyperventilate, which made Belle worried. She was usually the one prone to hyperventilating, due to her short temper.

"If these people think I'm dead," said Tari while hyperventilating, "then all my friends…"

"Tari, calm down," said Belle as she put both her hands on her rival's shoulders. "You can straighten this out. One of those Twitter posts showed the building where the memorial service is being held. We'll take my car, drive there, and you can tell everyone you're not dead. Okay?"

The redhead's reassuring words helped Tari calm down and cease the hyperventilating. It truly says something when two rivals can become close to the point of reassuring and willing to help each other. The android appreciated this very much, and let Belle know.

"Okay," she said. "Thank you for—"

"I call shotgun," interrupted Belle.

Tari scoffed at this. Even when they're friends, everything's a competition with Belle.