14017 July 23rd

It's early in the morning and Hachi, Cap'n Cuttlefish and Pearl have finally entered a certain station after hours of walking.

"Finally!" Pearl rejoices as she, Hachi and Cap'n Cuttlefish are climbing off the track and then let Hachi through to open the door with her CQ card.

"Well now, ain't we lucky?" Cap'n Cuttlefish chuckles.

"Hell yeah we are! Now we can get out of this joint, because this place is creepy." Pearl sighs.

Finally, the trio are now accepted to leave as they ended up in a forest as it's still snowing.

'Where are we?' Hachi writes in a notebook as she's confused about the trio's whereabouts.

"Dunno. But this place looks familiar." Pearl is curious to know that the forest looks like the one she and Marina used to be in.

"Hm… Oh, look at this!" Cap'n Cuttlefish shows off his phone which shows a map that surprised both Pearl and Hachi.

"So we're here. Mount Nantai." Pearl chuckles after being outside of Inkopolis and Deepsea Metro just to be in a place she used to be in.

'Mount Nantai?' Hachi writes.

"I gotta admit, your writing is awful, but your spelling is excellent. I guess that you learned our language." Pearl is on point as Hachi nods, leading Pearl to continue answering. "Also, you're right. Now let's find shelter."

"Indeed." Cap'n Cuttlefish nods along with Hachi.

The trio then continues to move forward with Pearl leading them.


Mount Nantai

Pearl holds out her Hero Dualies as if there's something coming from the sides, Hachi carries her Octo Roller 0 to defend herself and Cap'n Cuttlefish is still preparing his Bamboozler if anything happens.

The trio are moving through a snowy forest as there's less fog, fortunately.

Little did they know, green and yellow electric goop ink with marks on Deep Cut is under the trio as something is burning.

"Huh? Hachi! Old man!" Pearl exclaims while leaping off the ink hastily.

"Eh? Ah!" Hachi pushes Cap'n Cuttlefish as well as jumping off and then…

SPLASH!

"AY! (Damn it!)" A voice shouted.

"Good heavens! What on earth is going on!?" Cap'n Cuttlefish exclaims while pushing himself up on a cane.

"Huh?" Hachi gasps.

"You're one of those hooligans from before!" Cap'n Cuttlefish shouted.

"Ay. (So inklings and octolings do join together.) Ay. (And here I thought they still fight each other.)" Said Big Man.

"So, manta ray, since you ambushed us, I can't wait to beat the ever loving shit out of you with my own two hands!" Pearl growls as she glares at Big Man with malice.

"Ay! (Then you leave me with no choice!)" Big Man shouts as he raises both his fins and leaps towards the trio.

"Prepare yourselves!" Cap'n Cuttlefish called.

"Mm!" Hachi nods.

"You don't have to tell me twice, old man!" Pearl shouts.

3 on 1 and the fight against 1 of the true targets is about to begin.

Then…

Thud!

"AYYYY! (PLEASE TAKE ME WITH YOU!)" Big Man yelled as he bows down on his… 'Knees?'

Then silence…

"Wut?" Pearl is the first to react while dropping her arms.

"Eh!?" Hachi exclaims after hearing what Big Man said earlier.

"Excuse me?" Cap'n Cuttlefish also stops after seeing what he and the girls are seeing.

"Ay! (I did it because Shiver and Frye will get angry if I don't!) Ay! Ay! (You gotta believe me! I was being used!)" Big Man cried as the trio were flabbergasted.

"Bullshit!" Pearl snaps.

"Ay! (But I'm telling the truth!) Ay ay ayyy! (Even I love the Calamari Inkantation and I was forbidden to listen to it and love it!)" Big Man wailed while singing his head on a snowy ground.

"ALSO BULLSHIT!" Pearl yelled as she raised her Hero Dualies.

"AYYYYY! (NOOOOOO!)"

"Wait! Hold your fire, Pearl!" Cap'n Cuttlefish ordered.

"What!? But he's one of them! I wouldn't let any of 'em go near Marina!" Pearl shouted out of refusal.

"I know, but give him a chance. Any fan of the song is a friend of mine in my hearts." Said Cap'n Cuttlefish while holding his chest.

"Eh?" Hachi stops as she doesn't know whether to shoot or spare Big Man.

"Bro, you know your priorities are skewed if you spare freaks like that. They might use it to their advantage." Pearl is staring at Cap'n Cuttlefish out of disbelief.

"I'm sure you're mistaken, young lassie. Any good folk loves the heavenly Calamari Inkantation. He wouldn't do any harm to us." Said Cap'n Cuttlefish.

"Ay! (That's right!) Ay ay! (Why would I hurt you guys!?) Ay. (I'll do anything to protect you guys.)" Big Man agrees and then bows as he prays.

"You're retarded, old man." Pearl spat out in anger. "Fine! But don't even think about tricking us. Got that!?"

"Ay! (I have your word, Pearl!)" Big Man salutes.

"Cod damn clowns… Hachi, keep an eye on this fucked up manta ray." Pearl ordered.

"Hai!" Hachi salutes and then looks at Big Man, making sure he doesn't attack or anything.

"I'm glad that's settled! Mantaro, you're one of us! Welcome to the New Squidbeak Splatoon!" Cap'n Cuttlefish shakes Big Man's fin as a respect.

"Ay. (Thanks, mr. Cuttlefish.)" Big Man laughed.

Finally, the trio are continuing forward with their 4th member, Big Man.

With that out of the way, even the sanitised weren't even around which is lucky for them.


Unknown

The room is warm…

It's quiet… Too quiet.

An amber bob cut inkling girl, Mirai, groans as she finds herself in bed in a completely different room.

"Where am I? Hm? What happened?" Mirai turns her head around as she's without a coat and bandages are wrapped around her right arm clearly and another on half of her face that's wrapped around her forehead to cover the burn scar on her right side.

She then picks herself up out of bed and straightens her shorts and pulls down her sports bra to keep herself comfortable.

What she appears in is a school building outside of Deepsea Metro.

"What is this?" Mirai is looking around the faculty before she leaves.

After checking for the things in the room, Mirai enters a corridor and then walks out while keeping her guard up.

"H- Hotaru? Hotaru!?" Mirai called and then looked into a different room that is a nurse's office.

Inside the nurse's office, Marie is getting her blood checked as the screen shows 20.6% sanitised.

"How was it?" Marie asked a different person.

An unknown figure nods and then jabs Marie with a needle that prevents the sanitisation from getting to her.

"Thanks. Sorry we made you come over to save us." Marie sighs.

A figure shakes a head and then stands up.

"I wanted to apologise to Mirai. I yelled at her, even though she didn't do anything wrong." Marie grunts while lowering her head.

On Marie's side, sitting next to the one who's aiding her is her other self that appears to be in a similar kimono as her, except Marie's is torn apart which led her to appear in a patient's dress.

The figure begs to differ and then hands Marie her Hero Charger 0 back and finally leaves the nurse's office as Mirai hides.

With Marie alone, she then stares at her other self who actually has green eyes, the eyes Mirai had seen as well as a similar grey tentacle hair with green ink like her.

They're eerily similar, except for the eyes.

"So. Why are you here?" Marie asks, glaring at her other self.

"You know why I'm here, Hotaru. Why are you letting this brat go and suicide like that?"

"It's not suicide. She decided it for herself."

"And you accepted and let her go. Hotaru, you do realise you're making yourself a liability if you keep doing this!"

Marie actually agreed with her other self but was trying to stop her from attacking Mirai like yesterday.

"Empress…"

"Speaking of which, why didn't we contact Zero? It's been two years and she's been letting the other kid live her life to the fullest and disappeared without anything to say." Empress asked.

"She has something we don't have. I just… Need some time to process." Marie then lies down on a bed while struggling to answer.

Empress clicks her tongue and then leaves through the door, glaring at Marie.

"Remember, Hotaru. If you fail to bring Aori back, then your body will be mine for the rest of your life."

"Hmph! I'd like to see you try." Marie spat and then stared at the ceiling by cooling herself down.

Afterwards, Empress vanishes as Marie holds out her headset that is now unusable, leading her to toss it in the bin.

Before she closes her eyes, a door slides open which catches Marie's attention.

"Hm? Mirai?" Marie halts with surprise after sitting up.

"Hotaru! Hotaru!" Mirai cries while diving onto Marie and hugs her after yesterday's battle. "Thank goodness you're okay!"

"Mirai…" Marie then pats Mirai's head. "You should've run while you had the chance. But here you are trying to save a fellow agent."

"I told you, I don't wanna be weak! I wanted to show my brother that I can still fight." Mirai sniffles, sinking her fingers onto Marie's patient dress.

Marie then embraces Mirai, who was sobbing on Marie's chest.

After Marie calms Mirai down, Mirai's bloodshot eye is looking onto Marie's lifeless yellow eyes and then she turns around.

"Who is that with you earlier?" Mirai asked.

"Just a carer who saved us earlier." Marie answers in a calm tone.

"And are you talking to yourself?"

"It's… A long story…" Marie is quick to keep the inner demon topic to herself.

Mirai then looks down after hearing what Shiver said earlier.

"Hotaru, is it true that you're Marie from the Squid Sisters?"

Marie slowly realised that there's no way in hiding the truth from Mirai, especially when she dressed outside her idol clothing.

"It's true. I am Marie, but my real name is still Atarime Hotaru."

"Is that why you call Callie Aori? Is that her real name as well?" Mirai is curious about Callie before Marie confirms the truth.

"Yeah. Aori is my cousin. You saw my movements earlier, yeah?"

"Yeah."

"That's because we had years of experience before the survivor and this said survivor managed to surpass us despite being uneducated and having a lack of experience about the outside world and lifestyle. Anyway, Aori is Agent 1 and I was Agent 2." Marie reveals the truth about herself which fascinated Mirai. "You told me earlier that she's been brainwashed, right?"

"Right." Mirai nods.

"Then we'll have to get her to come to her senses and remove those hypnoshades off of her." Marie is looking into her phone to search for brainwashing tools.

Then stops looking into her phone as Marie rubs her temples and thinks about the solution to save Callie.

Mirai's brown eye is moving towards the window as she can see more snow coming down.

As both Mirai and Marie are looking down together, they witness 4 individuals from afar which resemble 2 inklings, 1 octoling and 1 manta ray.

"Gramps? He's with MC.Princess and… An octoling." Marie's tone has gotten from soft to bitter as the sight of an octoling is giving her the urge to shoot her down.

And there's the worse of them all, a manta ray that is one of the 3 murderers.

"Hotaru…" Mirai whispers out of worry.

"Stay on guard. We have troubles." Marie raises her Hero Charger 0, glaring at the octoling girl with a roller and an unarmed manta ray.

"Yeah…" Mirai doesn't know what's going on, but accepts Marie's orders.


On the other side, Pearl, Cap'n Cuttlefish, Hachi and Big Man are marching through the snow while keeping their guard up.

Hachi halts and pokes Cap'n Cuttlefish's arm and points at a building from afar.

"Good catch, Hachi. Pearl! Mantaro! We found shelter!" Cap'n Cuttlefish called as he pointed at the building.

Pearl then analyses the building as she can confirm the threat level.

It's empty and safe.

"Good call, you two." Pearl chuckles while patting both Hachi and Cap'n Cuttlefish's arms. "HEY! MANTA RAY! Get your ass over here! We found shelter!"

"Ay! (Coming!)" Big Man shouted.

"Ehehe." Hachi giggles while rubbing the back of her head.

"Let's go!" Pearl ordered.

Then the 4 are moving faster as Cap'n Cuttlefish is moving less quicker than the other 3.

What they see by the building is a horseshoe crab who was carrying a box of scrap.

"Sheldon!" Cap'n Cuttlefish shouted.

"Yo! Sheldon!" Pearl boomed.

"Captain? Hime!?" Sheldon rejoices as he's dashing towards the 4, realising that they're able to return to the surface.

Before Sheldon reaches the 4…

BANG!

"Woah! H- Hotaru!?" Sheldon instantly turns towards a window towards the direction where it's fired from.

"Hotaru!?" Cap'n Cuttlefish exclaimed out of shock.

"Hotaru!? What the fuck!?" Pearl exclaimed.

Out of the window at a higher floor building, Marie added a scope to her Hero Charger 0 while targeting Hachi as the first due to being an octoling.

"Disappear!" Marie hissed and then fired her charger.

Hachi shrieks as she dodges and then dashes forward by avoiding green ink that's charging towards her.

"Hotaru! That's enough!" Cap'n Cuttlefish shouts while blocking Marie from trying to shoot Hachi down.

"MOVE! Don't you know that's an octoling you're with!?" Marie yells at her own grandfather while directly targeting an octoling behind an inkling.

"I know, but she's not doing any harm so far!"

"M! Mm!" Hachi instantly nods, agreeing with Cap'n Cuttlefish and then covers herself with another loud bang that missed her.

"Squit! Damn you! You cost me my cousin, you octarian bastard!" Marie screamed out of rage.

Before Hachi makes a run for it, she hastily writes a notepad and raises it behind Cap'n Cuttlefish.

'WAIT! We don't want to fight you!'

"You can't speak? You liar! Do you think I believe in your lies!?" Marie called out, thinking that Hachi, as an octoling, is about to cause more harm towards her and Mirai.

'I don't think it's working!' Hachi shows Cap'n Cuttlefish a sign which led Cap'n Cuttlefish to sigh out of disappointment.

"Then I guess we have no other choice. Sheldon, where's Pearl?" Cap'n Cuttlefish asks after he saw Pearl disappearing out of nowhere.

"Um…"

BANG!

Inside the building behind Marie, Pearl is prepared while marching towards Marie with her Hero Dualies.

"Hey, bitch! I suggest you stop what you're doing, otherwise you'll be hurting your old man!" Pearl warned.

"Hime… Why am I not surprised to see you? I guess you wanna join the octoling and a manta ray." Marie glares from her behind as her eyes are flashing from gold to green.

"I guess there's no choice." Pearl sighs and then zooms towards Marie by firing her Hero Dualies.

This causes Marie to morph into a squid and super jump out of the window by diving towards Hachi and CRASH!

"Gah… Haa…" Hachi has found herself getting her neck squeezed by Marie's brute strength, making it harder for Hachi to breathe.

"Hotaru!" Cap'n Cuttlefish shouted.

"Quiet, old man! This octoling's corpse is mine to eat!" Marie's tone changes as she's pointing her Hero Charger 0 at Cap'n Cuttlefish and then to Hachi. "Good. Make her pay! Make that octoling suffer! Kill her! Splat her! Make sure she's no longer living."

It was Empress that caught Pearl's attention as she can tell by Marie's unusual behaviour.

Even in octoling language, Pearl actually heard what one of the octolings said about Deepsea Metro itself; 'Deepsea Metro is causing those to go against each other, this place is pure insanity.'

"Oh shit… Oh fuck me!" Pearl knew something was wrong.

It all started with Callie and Marie splitting up as well as the survivor, then Marie hadn't come in contact with Callie for a while, then witnessed what she became as DJ Octavio kidnapped her and brainwashed her into being one of them, finally losing her and was being manipulated by her inner demon.

This resulted in Marie's inability to compromise with others and even worse: she knew that Mirai was going to die.

"You better do something. Empress is on the loose and is trying to kill your ally." Chaos whispers as Pearl grunts and then leaps out of the window.

Pearl lands on 1 hand and 2 feet after holding a single dualie on her mouth and the other on her hand.

"Empress! That's enough!" Pearl ordered.

Marie is shaking after witnessing an octoling's tears as she's trying not to cry.

"Why are you crying?" 'Marie' asked. "It's because she's innocent… I can't… WHY!?" Marie snapped as her finger was shaking from trying to pull a trigger. "She's an octoling! Why can't I shoot her!? Damn it!"

"Coward!" Empress hissed.

Then an electric sparks Marie as it causes her to scream and then pass out.

It was Sheldon with a taser that stunned Marie for a while.

"Sorry, Hotaru. But I have to do it." Sheldon solemnly sighs and then puts the taser on his back and looks at the group. "I should've warned you guys about Hotaru's condition…"

"I can see that. Deepsea Metro is fucking with some people's minds, even those who escaped are suffering." Said Pearl while she and Cap'n Cuttlefish are lifting Hachi up as she coughs.

"Not only the sanitised originated from there, but it caused a lot more harm to those in this station. But who in the right mind would do such a thing?" Sheldon asked.

"I don't know, but if something happens to the survivor, then how will Hotaru react?" Cap'n Cuttlefish asked.

"Worse. She'll spiral out of control and her inner demon will take advantage of her psychological behaviour." Sheldon answered as he can tell what Marie is going through.

"AY! (HELP!)" A voice yelled.

What's happening now is a half faced Mirai standing on Big Man while pointing her Hero Dualies at Big Man's head.

"Don't move."

"AYYYYYYY! (NOOOOOOO!)"

Then another electric sparks are all over Mirai as Mirai herself screamed and then landed on the snowy ground, passing out.

It was Sheldon again.

Then he halts as he witnesses who Mirai is attacking earlier.

"Oh carp! It's you! You're one of those thieves that robbed my store! Oh man, I knew I shouldn't have tasered Mirai earlier!" Sheldon exclaims.

"Ay! (No need! Thanks!)" Big Man owes Sheldon some gratitude.

This had Sheldon turn towards Pearl, Cap'n Cuttlefish and Hachi out of shock, confusion and worry.

"Why?"

"Do we have a choice!? We had to keep him with us because some dumb shit happened to him in the past!" Pearl growled.

Hachi fiddles with her hands as she's guilty for letting Big Man come with her friends.

"I'm sure he won't betray us." Said Cap'n Cuttlefish.

"Let's hope…" Sheldon can tell this won't end well for his crew. "Anyway, let's take them back. I'm sure things'll cool down."

Afterwards, the group are dragging both Marie and Mirai back to an empty school building, leading Hachi to realise that something horrific is going on back there.

This morning was almost a disaster with a couple of inklings attacking a group of 4, especially the octoling and a manta ray.