Inkopolis

Near a building where strangers live together, Rei and Neku are waiting for a certain someone to answer as the doorbell rings.

Both inklings then stand still as the door opens.

"Neku? A guest?" An inkling woman's voice moves her one eye as she sees an inkling girl covering her head and her whole body with a cloak even when covered in a few bits of snow.

"Yeah. We want to see Sora. She has something I'd like to help a guest with." Neku said his piece.

"I see. And who might you be, girl?" A woman asked.

"The survivor. I worked in a place where Neku formerly worked. I hope I didn't disturb you guys." Rei asks, leading the inkling woman to move the locks and then open the door.

The inkling woman appears pale and sports a single tentacle hair that's covering half of her face, which shows one of her eyes being brown, as there's scars behind it and her grey tentacle hair length at the back is at the shoulders to the arms.

She dresses in a black turtleneck sweat jumper and grey jeans as she looks average for a woman who's obviously an adult.

"Come in."

With Rei and Neku entering the building, they then take off their shoes and march inside as they see some inklings and octolings hanging out, which surprises Rei.

"Yep. This is the place I live in. Welcome." Neku chuckles as Rei is fascinated.

Then footsteps arrive as a little octoling boy appears humanoid as he excitedly jumps over to Neku.

"Big bro!"

"Yo, Wade! I see you managed to control your morphing ability, huh?" Neku laughs.

"Yeah! I can become an octopus like this!" Wade, a green octoling boy, morphs himself into an octopus and then back to his humanoid form. "Pretty cool, right!?"

"Awesome!" Neku is bringing the positive vibes in a house, though he was depressed earlier.

"Wait. How old is that kid?" Rei asked out of curiosity, considering that regardless of age, the inklings can morph as the average age of possible completion ranges from 13 to 14.

"Oh? He just turned eleven a few days ago. When did you first gain the ability to morph?"

"When I was five. And I was uneducated until recently." Rei answers.

"That quick? Seems smart to me, I was able to make myself humanoid when I was twelve and my siblings did it younger than me." Neku isn't complaining, but was surprised to see why someone who has no brain cells was able to do it at an early age.

"It's a long story." Rei nervously chuckles.

Afterwards, Rei and Neku take off their black coats after Rei takes her cloak off, revealing as Neku wears a black vest and Rei in her sport bra.

The agent duo then takes a seat at a dining room as a grey inkling woman takes a couple of inkling toddlers to a muscular inkling boy with a brown buzz cut, leading him to take them to his room, followed by Wade and an octoling girl with a ponytail.

Finally, the inklings and octolings are gone to their rooms, leading the inkling woman to take a seat and look at Rei and Neku.

"Neku, are you sure about this? I mean you left the New Squidbeak Splatoon years ago and you're coming back? Especially at a place where you'll never come back from,"

"Yeah. My sister is there and I can't risk losing her. Not even after my brother being splatted. I'll survive, trust me." Neku answers with a serious tone.

"And you're Rei, right?"

"Eh? Yeah."

"I know Ryu. He's been working with me at Grizzco Industries. Same could be said about Emperor." The woman said as it had Rei leaning forwards with surprise.

"You know him too?" Rei asked.

"Neku also knows him after he formerly worked with him." The woman answered.

"Y- Yeah. But this squid is terrible at listening to his superiors." Neku points out.

"I'm not a member of the New Squidbeak Splatoon, but I do support you guys. Now as for Sora, she's usually busy in her room. Maybe we can talk to her about your situation." Said the inkling woman.

"Thank you, ma'am." Rei bows which led the woman to raise her hand.

"No need to be formal. We're inklings after all." The woman then puts her hand onto her own chest. "I'm Elsa, the caretaker and the one in charge of this house. I'm not sure why you're here, but let's work together."

"Yeah. Thanks, Elsa." Rei pulls a smile towards Elsa after thanking her.

With the trio standing up, Elsa is leading Rei and Neku upstairs to a door that is Sora's, despite Neku knowing this place for years.

Then a door knocks.

"Who is it?" A soft inkling woman's voice called from behind the door.

"It's me. We got an important guest along with Neku." Elsa answers.

"Is there no one here?"

"Just no one. I'm sure the guest keeps it a secret." Elsa nods at both Rei and Neku and makes sure nobody is awake at night time.

Then a door opens as Sora appears to have a straight banger cut mixed with hippie tentacle sidelocks that are yellow.

"Come in."

With Elsa, Neku and Rei entering the room, it's messy with art, bits and pieces for engineering and a PC that's showing an RPG game on screen.

"You still didn't put your pants on…" Neku sighs, pointing out that Sora is wearing nothing but her pink vest and white panties as if she's being lazy.

"Yep. She's not wearing pants." Rei agreed.

"Now's not the time for such trivial matters. Sora, this is Rei, the agent of the New Squidbeak Splatoon who's here to see you." Elsa explains.

"Oh? Is that so?" Sora then turns to her bed and sits on it. "Tell me. Why are you here?"

"I need this one upgraded." Rei hands over the upgraded hero headset to Sora as Sora tests the headset by scanning the room.

"Hm. Looks like Sheldon did a lot to get it working. If I'm not mistaken, it's going to take a while to get this thing updated. Maybe I'll tweak the headgear and start all this from scratch with some help from Sheldon and my knowledge." Said Sora.

"How long?" Neku asked.

"I'll start tomorrow when I'm fully refreshed. I was in the middle of my drawing." Sora points at her art tablet which shows a drawing that is for adults.

"Oh." Rei lowers her head.

"But I can see how you feel. I got some sort of a project that Sheldon and I worked on. Where are you going exactly?" Sora asked.

"Deepsea Metro, but we need a back door to get there." Rei answers while holding out her phone and shows her the map to Deepsea Metro by the main entrance and a location that has holes, knowing she's going to the latter.

"A place of no return. Yet you got out there?"

"I was forced out by those three." Rei then shows 3 IDs that are the Deep Cut trio, Frye, Shiver, Big Man.

Elsa and Sora remain quiet as they can tell what Rei and Neku are chasing them down.

Elsa then halts as she recognises an octoling that is blue hair.

"Fuuka. I remember her as an octarian soldier. But why go after them if they freed you."

"Because they killed my brother! Rei lost her friend and I lost my brother! If I can't stop them and the sanitised from getting to Mirai, then she'll die!" Neku snapped out of worry.

Sora then rubs her temples as she's got an idea.

"Tomorrow, I'll lend you our project. Also I'll make sure to get your signal larger and fix some bugs so you two can see things functionally."

"For eel!?" Rei gasps as she and Neku are surprised to see Sora agreeing.

"Mm. I got plenty of coffee to keep me up. I'll have Elsa and me navigating you two to your true freedom." Sora then moves to her chair as she's holding 2 headsets and starts messing with them.

"Thanks, Sora! I knew you're an awesome friend!" Neku laughs.

"Yeah. Thanks, Sora!" Rei sighs with joy.

After Sora puts her thumb up, Elsa then pat both Rei and Neku's shoulders.

"Now then, let's get you two to your rooms. Rei, you're sleeping in Neku's bedroom tonight."

"Yeah. Thanks." Rei nods in acceptance.

"Looks like we're roomies for the time being, huh, kid?" Neku groans while stretching himself.

"Yeah." Rei then follows Neku to his room.

10 minutes later.

Rei is sleeping on a futon that is warm and comfortable while sleeping next to Neku's bed.

It's all peace and quiet.

Downstairs, Elsa is looking at herself through a cup of coffee as she's looking at herself in the mirror.

"So Hime went there earlier?" Elsa asks.

"Yes. Her connection is also cut off after she screamed. I'm worried that she'll get herself killed." A dark skinned octoling girl nods.

An octoling appears in a turtleneck cropped vest and green jeans with a headband and a necklace that resembles her cephalopod pupils.

"Iida, aren't you worried that you're targeted by a fellow octoling Fuuka?" Elsa asks another question.

"Fuuka… I'm aware of her. She's been committin' genocide on us octolings recently and was targetin' me and senpai." Marina answered.

"And how will you defend yourself?"

Marina holds out her Hero Brella as a response.

"I see. Inkopolis is still hostile towards the octolings, huh." Said Elsa.

"Yes. I heard they're liftin' the law so that us octolings can be a part of Inkopolis."

"Heh. Now I won't have time to hide some octolings from the outside world anymore. They'll make an easier future for themselves."

"But aren't ya an inkling?" Marina asked.

"Of course I am. But I treat you guys equally with respect. Why else did Octavio and I have a deal with each other?"

Marina kept her mouth shut and then stood up from the table.

"Hm? Off to Deepsea Metro?" Elsa asks calmly.

"Yes." Marina takes her leave by putting her trainers on and her helmet before going outside and starting her motorbike.

After leaving the building, a bike engine revs as Marina takes off and turns towards the direction opposite to Inkopolis.

As Elsa closes the door back inside the building, Shiver appears once again as she sees Marina leaving.

"Iida. Ufufu, I found you. Now what to do with this brat for tomorrow?" Shiver giggles while looking into Rei, knowing that she'll kill the one who constantly chases her and her crew.