In the sewers, it's been hours and the sky above is orange, knowing how long will Agent 2 come over and find them.

Rei, a silver inkling girl, is sitting at the corner looking dead whereas Callie, a black and magenta inkling, is trying to search her way out.

But the sewers are so dark and maze-like that it's nearly impossible to go outside away from the putrid scent all over the room.

Still no exit.

Even Callie herself has claw marks and teeth marks under her hero coat which is after Rei resisting Callie's comfort.

"Huh. Great… Looks like there's no way out of this joint." Callie sighs while trying to turn on her speakers again, but the sounds are nothing but static. "Stupid headset. Hey, Rei, how are you holding up?"

No response as Rei is still sitting at a foetal position.

Callie groans while stretching her arms and back and then sits back down while trying to repair her Hero Roller which is too difficult for her to handle.

"You know. I remember when I stressed out during the mission. Gramps told me this, 'Young and impressionable ones always have their own reasons for joining there, even those who know nothing about it.' Well… You joined there because of your enthusiasm for adventures." Said Callie as she's not wrong about Rei's reason for joining the New Squidbeak Splatoon, even if it's against her will.

"We're always put into things that we never choose. For example: my cousin and I are told to raise you as adoptive parents, Daigo was thrown into the New Squidbeak Splatoon after he said no, Hitomi was given a job when she's in the middle of her mission, Sayaka is taken to Inkopolis without her own sister, even you're put in a turf war by your own mother." Callie laughs bitterly.

Callie then tests to see if her roller is still functioning as she paints the floor magenta.

It worked.

Callie then places her Hero Roller on the wall and approaches Rei by bending her knees down and looking closer.

"We're not here to hurt you. Just a little angry that you ran off without our permission. We should've locked the door and then come back and given you our keys. We don't know much about other inklings." Callie admitted. "Although, you did hurt me a lot."

Callie then got her hands in her own personal bag which was hidden inside her Hero Roller, only to give something out for Rei.

"You hungry?"

"Mm…" Rei makes a sound as she's got nothing to say.

"Just to keep things fresh, get it 'Stay fresh,' hehe, I kept it in a tightest bento box for you. Rice and toast." Callie opens the box as steam is coming out which reveals to be a cooked meal that's been made a few days ago. "Time to eat!"

While Callie is eating her meal, Rei slowly picks up her chopsticks and then takes a small bite of a single rice.

This brings back how she first lived with Callie and Marie which brings her backwards to her 3 year old self enjoying her breakfast with her parents to her loss and so little to have at the age of 10, all because of her own mother.

Her blind love for her own mother has faded as she finally understood how inklings behave differently. Some are good and some are scumbags.

Then tears are plopping on Rei's bare legs.

"Hm? You don't like it anymore?" Callie asked.

Rei shooks her head horizontally as she's weeping.

"It's good…"

Then Rei instantly clings onto Callie, sobbing for her lost happiness as a child.

"Mama never wanted me anymore! I don't know what to do anymore! Mama! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Wailing, Rei is being embraced by Callie who was there to keep her safe.

Repeatedly apologising, Rei regrets trying to shoot Callie and Marie.

"It's okay. The world is a scary place. We'll make sure to take care of you for now on." Callie whispers as she's soothing Rei from all the things she went through.

"Th- Thank you, Callie!" Rei cried.

"You can call me Aori."

"Eh? Your actual name?"

"Yeah. Marie is called Hotaru. Callie and Marie are the names of the Calamari Squid Sisters. They only see us as Callie and Marie rather than Aori and Hotaru." Callie answered.

Rei had come to a realisation that Callie and Marie are doing this to protect her after how many casualties they suffered through.

Then she lowers her head and smiles.

"Yeah. Mama Aori."

Callie exclaims as she blushes about being called Rei's mother.

"W- Well… I guess I kinda won you over, huh."

Afterwards, Callie had finally snapped Rei out of her despair and then ate with her.

10 minutes later.

Both bento boxes are emptied and Callie is getting another item out as she reveals a book.

"Rei, do you read?"

"Eh? Only a little." Rei answers as she couldn't read that many words.

Her tone is a lot calmer than before.

"Well, we're doing a thing called 'history lesson' featuring yo' gal, Callie!" Callie cheerfully holds out a book that appears to be a scrapbook.

"His-… Tory?" Rei tilts her head in confusion.

"Egh! It's the sunken scrolls. They tell stories about the world before and after you were born." Callie explained.

"Oh? So like gramps?"

"Yeah! Gramps was a part of this history and he forgot about that, despite remembering a few things in his time. He needs to get on with the times." Callie sighs as she can tell why Cap'n Cuttlefish is way behind. "Not really a fan of history lessons, but hey! It'll help you get some knowledge about us and the world!"

As the duo are looking into the mystery files together, Rei's soulless eyes have witnessed something she never learnt before which managed to interest her.

"Turf war? If this is serious, then why is it a sport?" Rei asks.

"Good question. I don't know either. Hotaru and I usually roll with it."

"I see…"

A few moments later, Rei is still reading the sunken scrolls as Callie tries to get the connection working.

Then sounds are finally coming through the speaker as it surprises Callie.

"Hello?"

[...1… Callie, are you okay!?] It was Marie calling.

"Relax, Hotaru, Rei is okay and we're safe." Callie chuckles.

[Huh? You revealed our identity?]

"Don't worry. Rei won't tell, I promise. Right, Rei?" Callie is quick to notify Rei not to leak their true identities as Rei agreed in a monotonous tone.

"Mm."

[I see. You need to leave now!]

"That's what we're planning on doing, but we're trapped there." Callie laughs nervously.

[Huh? What you're saying is…]

"I can't find a way out." Callie picks up her Hero Roller and looks above her.

[Ngh… Wait here and don't die, okay?]

"Heh. I'm Agent 1. Don't worry, Hotaru, I can make it out alive." Callie chuckles while preparing herself.

[Good. Be on your guard, same goes for Rei.] Marie warned.

Rei is too busy reading the sunken scrolls as she gets the memo with a simple but monotonous "Mm."

After the speaker hangs up, Callie is looking up as the sounds are incoming, leading her to change her colour to green.

Rei then closes the book, stands up and picks up her Hero Shot while glaring upwards while turning green.

"Come here, Octomaw." Rei calmly calls, only to see a large silhouette diving towards her dull cyan eyes.

To Callie's surprise, the Octomaw is actually behind her as it's diving towards Rei with its jaws open.

"Rei!"

CLANG! SPLASH!

A puddle of purple ink instantly spreads as Rei vanishes along with the Octomaw.

Callie halts, witnessing Rei standing next to her with a purple inkstained Hero Dualie which was missing earlier.

Callie is left with awe that Rei's reflexes never failed to avoid a single octarian.

"This belongs to Saki and I'm not giving it back to you, you murderer." Rei's tone starts to get bitter to the point that things are getting serious with her.

The Octomaw screeches as it hastily swims towards Rei and Callie.

"Mama Aori, break its teeth." Rei calls out.

"Heh. Sure thing, kid!" Callie pulls a grin while raising her Hero Roller.

Afterwards, the inkling duo charges forward with Rei firing her Hero Shot rapidly and Callie slides and swings her roller like a bat only to smash half of its purple teeth.

"Heh! Not so tough now, are you!?" Callie gloats as she holds out a Seeker and then chucks it into its broken jaws.

After the Seeker enters the Octomaw's jaws, an explosion happens on its insides as it releases more than 1 tentacle as the red one being the centre.

"What the!? Orange? No… They're yellow!?" Callie exclaimed.

Rei gasps as it's giving her flashbacks about what happened to Daigo as it fueled her rage even harder.

"You… You did this! I will never forgive you! This is for Dai, Saki, Sayaka and other inklings you killed!" Rei growled as the tentacles charged towards her.

Before Rei was captured, Callie slices it apart with her roller by splitting many tentacle arms with 2 yellow squid tentacles going directly towards both inklings.

"Rei. Get the zapfish." Callie orders while holding a Seeker.

Rei nods, morphs into a squid and follows the Seeker as the tentacles miss both inklings as they move at a hasty pace.

With Callie distracting half the tentacles, Rei is zooming forward by dodging and firing the tentacles as well as scattering the Splat Bombs to blow the incoming tentacles.

Finally, Rei super jumps towards the red tentacle with a scar, which is at the centre of Octomaw's opened mouth, leading her to chuck a single Splat Bomb downwards and yell while firing at the tentacle centre.

Then many yellow tentacles are zooming towards Rei, causing Rei to spin around and slide on some of them as she still fires at the tentacle at will.

Then the tentacle pops as the Splat Bomb rolls into a hole and Rei land on an Octomaw's opened jaw, only to be surrounded by tentacles.

"Hmph. Game over."

Game over indeed.

The tentacles went from yellow to green as they felt an explosion inside the Octomaw, causing them to splash everywhere and then…

BOOM! The end of the Ravenous Octomaw as parts are scattered everywhere along with green ink, revealing 2 zapfishes that are free from their captives.

Standing in the middle, Rei takes a deep breath and sighs after avenging those that are killed in action.

"I did it. There's no need to worry anymore."

Finally, Callie appears and hugs Rei out of excitement.

"Ah." Rei gasps.

"You did it! I know you can do it!" Callie cheers.

"Indeed she did." A familiar voice sighs with a smile.

Callie halts as a voice becomes too different, leading her to believe that Zero appears out of nowhere.

"You." Callie gasps and then readies her Hero Roller after seeing Rei's eyes go from cyan to orange.

Rei, or 'Zero,' raises her hand and closes her eyes.

"The reason why I'm here is to give Rei a sense of reality. Her cluelessness and delusional behaviour is what manifested me as her inner demon. In other words, I was testing her to see if she's worthy to live on as herself." Zero explained.

Callie remains silent as she can tell why Rei was in denial of her own life.

Then Zero gasps as Callie raises one of her eyebrows.

"Are you sure? Isn't it too risky?" Zero asks as the invisible one is obviously Rei who was actually telling her something. "I understand. You know you're facing your own consequences. Then defeat the octarian leader. I'll give you the results of your trials. Good luck."

After Zero's conclusion, Rei blinks as her pure orange turned to soulless cyan eyes, leading her to turn towards Callie.

"Mama Aori. Let's get out of here." Said Rei.

"Rei… Hm! No problem! I'm glad Zero is sparing you, even though we should be careful with her." Callie agrees and then turns towards the sky.

"Mm." Rei nods and then searches along with Callie.

10 minutes later, BANG!

"Eh!?" Callie exclaims as Rei raises her head without a word.

A wall is now broken through and arriving through is the one with a Hero Charger.

"Freaking maze… Hm?" Marie stops as she can see Rei and Callie reading the sunken scrolls together. "Oh? Studying together, are you?"

"Hotaru!" Callie gasps with excitement and then hugs her.

"Mama Hotaru!" Rei did the same as Marie was surprised and surrounded by a couple of inklings who're both glad and hurt at the same time.

With Rei weeping, Marie took a few seconds to think and then wrap her arms around her cousin and her adopted daughter.

"It's okay… We're here. Rei, you did something we should've done a long time ago. I'm proud of you." Marie coos.

"Thank you, Mama Hotaru!" Rei cries out, remembering that Callie and Marie are out to protect her from any harm.

Rei, Callie and Marie are finally together again as a trio like how she first entered the New Squidbeak Splatoon.

An hour later.

With the sky getting darker, Rei, Callie and Marie are sitting together with the sunken scrolls as both Callie and Marie are snoozing with Rei.

With Callie and Marie around, Rei can finally sleep in peace.

Even Callie and Marie can finally rest after searching and chasing Rei for a long time.

Tomorrow will be the end of their mission.