"You're gonna go out there and don't ever come back until you give us some cash prize! Do you understand, young lady?"
"Yes, mama. I'll do my best."
14015 May 28th
Inkadia
Sleeping, a girl is being taken on the back of the pickup truck as a fellow inkling driver is turning his head towards the equipment full of paint and a single inkling girl.
Opening her eyes, the inkling girl that has 2 long tentacles for sidelocks (hippie) coloured silver, is witnessing a city that is a few miles away.
"Woah…"
"Hey, kid, so why are you going to Inkopolis?" The inkling man asked.
"Oh! I was just signing up for turf war. I heard you can get paid so huge that I don't even know how much money they're giving out!" The girl answered.
"Turf war? Kid, do you know the risks of being there?"
"Not really."
"Your funeral." The inkling man sighs while driving forward.
After their chat, an inkling girl is watching the blue sky and relaxing with a cooling breeze of air.
Why is she sent out to participate in a turf war?
Inkopolis
A city inhabited by those called inklings, humanoid squids that are made out of paint, even their hairstyles vary with some tentacle cuttings.
Considering this inkling girl, Rei, is silver, she's one of the few to have that kind of colour.
With inklings having style and fashion, Rei appears to wear a t-shirt with 'woomy' written in their language and brown shorts as if she's just an average inkling girl who was new to this city.
But Rei doesn't care, she's just doing her own thing for the family after waving to an inkling man.
"Thanks, mister!"
"You're welcome. Make sure not to get in trouble, considering you're fourteen." The inkling man sighed.
"Nah, I'm actually thirteen. But thanks anyway! See ya!" Rei giggles and runs off before the inkling man exclaims.
"Wait! You're thirteen!? H- Hold on a minute!"
Unfortunately, she left him without even listening.
"What the heck? Who sent her out there?"
"Ohoho, you don't know? Well, I don't either." The old bearded inkling man laughs as he arrives next to an adult.
Both inkling men are watching an underaged girl running straight through the lobby without any knowledge.
"So why is this kid entering a turf war?" The old inkling asks.
"Dunno. Probably getting some money for her family, I guess."
Inside a lobby, Rei is signing up as she's waiting for her teammates to be added except they're all strangers to her.
While waiting, her opponents are inklings that are well equipped and are full of stylish get-ups and their hair colours changed to purple.
"Cool!"
Afterwards, Rei's teammates appeared as they appeared far different to her, especially in style.
"Wow! I get to work with the cooler team!"
Rei has a group that are Mikage, Damien and Junko.
"Yo. You're Rei, right?" An average upper ponytailed (topknot) inkling boy, Damien, asked.
"Woah… So cool!" Rei couldn't help but fangirl about everything around her.
"What's wrong with the kid?" A hipster cut inkling boy, Mikage, asked.
"I think she's new here." Said the bob cut inkling girl, Junko.
"Of course she is, that's why we're welcoming her." Damien laughed.
Rei not only was glad to have some teammates, but her teammates were very welcoming towards her, making her gleeful.
"So what's your weapon, kid? Mine's Splat Charger." Damien asks while holding out his splat charger, a sniper rifle made out of ink. "Mika's Splat Roller and Junko's Splat Dualies."
"Oi, Damien, quit calling me Mika. It makes my name sound like a girl." Mikage slaps the back of Damien's head while blushing which led Junko to giggle.
"Woah! That's awesome!" Rei is still too hyped for her first match with those who're well equipped.
"I know right? We trained so much and helped those who're beginners." Junko giggled.
Before they continue, Rei hands out a gun from her bag. "That's all I got. A Splattershot Jr."
"It's alright. When you're in trouble, call us and we can take down anyone who's about to splat you." Junko pat Rei's shoulders while grinning at a fellow inkling girl.
"Sure!"
Afterwards, their colours change to yellow as the match says yellow vs purple.
To Rei's surprise, her tentacle hair colour changes as the match starts.
Standing in front of them are a group of inkling boys and a girl that appears more punky and intimidating.
"So, you're the new kid?" The buzz cut inkling boy, Rindou, asks while looking straight at Rei.
"Wow! So cool!"
"Huh? Is that new kid brain dead or what?" A slick haired inkling boy, Taylor, asked.
"Hey! Leave her alone! She's just new to this stuff!" Junko snaps while standing in front of Rei.
"I know. Sorry about Taylor, he's just curious to know this kid." Rindou apologises.
"So why are you challenging us?" Mikage asked.
"We should ask you the same. But enough talk. I'm Rindou and this is Taylor."
"Sup." Taylor waves nonchalantly.
"Over there is Ayato, the same hair as your leader, Damien and the one with the mask on and has a straight banger cut is Mia."
"Mm." Mia pulls a peace gesture whereas Ayato waves with a positive attitude.
Afterwards, 8 inklings are being led to a floor that is taking them to an arena, leading them to vanish and Rei gasps in surprise.
Urchin Underpass
[Ladies and gentlesquids! Welcome to the turf war, the battle that you've all been waiting for!] A black and purple inkling girl, Callie, cheers.
[That's right, in the west we have a purple team called 'Ink Reapers!'] A white and green inkling girl, Marie called with a calming tone.
[And in the east, we have a yellow team known as 'Splatterhouse!'] Calling yelled with excitement.
After their announcement, the crowd cheers as many inklings are rooting for either side to win.
The humanoid and non-humanoid sea creatures are watching in the bar, the inklings in the lobby and outside are watching, even Rei's mother is at home watching to see how well her daughter does, despite Rei lacking any knowledge as well as training.
Back to the arena, Urchin Underpass, team Splatterhouse are group hugging as they're preparing to start their fight.
"Okay, remember, go stupid and splat everywhere you can, got that?" Damien whispers as his group nods. "Good. Now, go easy on the new kid."
After 4 yellow inklings are separated, they hold out their weapons, readying themselves to spread their paint.
[Ready!? BEGIN!]
The battle starts as Damien, Mikage and Junko rushes forward by painting the underpass everywhere.
"Ooh…~ Okay! Here I go!" Rei then moves forward while firing her Splattershot Jr and moves forward.
While moving forward through the alleyway, a purple inkling is behind Rei with a Splat Roller, making sure that Rei is unaware that she's about to be splattered.
Before a Splat Roller rises to splat, a laser is pointing at a slick cut inkling until it fires and SPLAT!
Taylor is now splattered into yellow paint.
"Hm?" Rei halts and turns behind herself out of curiosity before seeing her progress being painted over. "Aw man. Well, time to paint it over ag- eh?" Stopping what she's doing, a laser has caught Rei's attention, leading her to realise who's targeting her.
Mia then pulls a trigger which causes Rei to leap backwards and land on a wall.
"Eh!?"
"Tch." Clicking her tongue, Mia misses and signals Ayato to ambush Rei.
As Ayato lands right in front of Rei, Ayato puts his Inkbrush on his shoulder and sighs with disappointment.
"WOO! Hey, kid, sorry about that, but you're gonna get splatted."
"Wait what?" Rei halts before she makes a run for it.
While Rei runs away from Ayato through the arena and avoids her opponents, many people cheer for more splat and the purple side are cheering even louder.
Behind the crowd are a couple of inkling men as they finally caught up to Rei.
"That girl… What is she doing fighting like this?"
"Oh, but you haven't seen how fast she runs. She had quick reflexes after almost being shot. I say she had the potential to join us." The old inkling man chuckles.
"What?" An inkling man raises an eyebrow out of confusion.
The old man is right about Rei's running speed as she's able to outrun Ayato, despite being shorter than him.
As for Rei and Ayato, Rei is painting all over while running until… She's all out of ink.
"EEH!? No ink!?" Even though she's all dried up as well.
"H- How are you so fast! Get back here!" Ayato pants as he yells.
"NEVER!" Rei yells while running away.
After she's gone, Ayato grunts as he leans on a purple painted wall.
"You cocky little runt!" Ayato knows what to do as he morphs himself into a purple squid while putting himself on the wall and climbing up.
As Rei safely finds a yellow puddle of ink, she can finally fill up her ammo.
"Hehe! If they can swim like squids, so can I! I may be a kid, but I sure as shell am a squid!"
Diving, Rei is happy to refill her Splattershot Jr until….
Crash and roll, Rei unfortunately lands on a purple painted ground which means she's been ambushed, making her covered in purple paint.
"It… Stings! IT BURNS!" Rei can feel agonising pain as she's trying to crawl her way out of the purple ground before they widen the circle.
Landing in a square position, 4 purple inklings are marching towards Rei as she's crying out in pain.
Rindou has something to say: "Poor child. You should've read the conditions of turf war. Unfortunately for you, we already won and you're gonna pay the price. Fire."
SPLAT!
"Aw come on!" Rei's yellow squid ghost moaned while she's moving towards her team's respawn post.
Afterwards…
A whistle made a sound as it stopped the inklings from painting the stages.
[Time's up! Judd, give us the results!] Callie calls out.
Onscreen, Judd the cat holds both flags and then reads the result and finally…
Raise the purple flag.
[Team Ink Reapers wins!] Callie and Marie cheers as well as many inklings.
With the whole crowd cheering, 4 purple inklings celebrate their victory together while 3 yellow inklings are disappointed.
"Damn it!" Mikage grunts.
"Great… At least we tried, right, kid?" Damien turns around, only to witness nobody at the respawn point. "Rei? Oi, Rei!"
"Where did she go?" Junko asked.
"Probably ran off after our loss." Mikage answered.
"But she's our fourth member!" Junko exclaimed.
"I know. Ugh, now what do we do?" Damien sighs.
With 3 yellow inklings leaving the arena together, many celebrations didn't rest as the trio were dragging their weapons down along with them.
Behind the stage, Callie sighs and turns towards Marie who was doing her nails.
"You seemed impressed by a certain inkling that lost the match."
"Hm? Well you could say she reminded me of a certain inkling who used to work out there." Said Marie.
"Yeah, but he's gone and will never come back! If he's a ghost." Callie thought that a ghost of a certain inkling would visit them again.
"Oh? Do you believe in ghosts?" Marie asks with a smug smile.
"N- No! Why should I be!?" Callie exclaimed.
"Although, this girl there seems to lack something."
"Like what? Style? Uniqueness? Anything that's sexy?" Callie asks.
"Yes, yes and yes. Although, gramps sent us a photo of the girl we talked about. Her name is Rei and she's… Thirteen? What?" Marie's eyes widened after witnessing the age of a certain inkling girl.
"Huh!? Normally, they're fourteen, but thirteen!? How!?" Callie too is shocked to see what's going on.
"Only one way to find out." Marie pulls out her phone as her phone beeps. "Gramps, it's me."
[Hm? Ah yes! Do you need anything?] The old inkling's voice called.
"Bring the girl to our apartment and meet us there."
[Of course.]
Beep. Marie sighs while putting her phone down.
"Hey, will she survive?"
"Hm? Why do you ask?" Callie asked.
"Because of how many of our new recruits splatted without respawning, this girl will be the next victim to the octarians' unavoidable attack." Marie holds out a scrapbook that is full of photos of inklings with many names and are scribbled and crossed out meaning they're all dead.
"Of course she will. Why? Because she's the little speedster that managed to outrun her opponents in her first turf battle." Callie is optimistically certain of Rei's survival.
Marie lowers her head as the casualties of the inklings are slowly getting higher and neither of them succeeded.
Callie then leans and hugs behind Marie while closing the book and puts her and Marie's cheeks together.
"It's alright, sister, we can do just as our motto says."
Marie sighs and then smiles as she and Callie at the same time said: "Stay fresh."
"Yeah. No time to be a moody fish and lighten up. But there are too many things to process and we couldn't protect our world."
Callie couldn't help but agree as she's still comforting Marie, leading the duo to soothe each other's sorrows.
Thus starts a recruitment with a single inkling who appeared in Inkopolis and failed the turf war.