Mount Nantai
Inside an empty school building, Marie can feel something tingling all over her body after she was shocked by Sheldon's taser.
With Marie waking up, she found herself bound in bed at the nurse's office, leading her to look at Cap'n Cuttlefish, Hachi, Pearl, Sheldon and Big Man.
"Ngh! Damn it…"
"There's a reason why we keep you here. Not only are you attacking the members of the NSS, but your own grandfather." Sheldon is serious about Marie's actions as he's leaping off the bed and marching by the door. "Thank goodness you're still yourself. Pearl told me you have something similar to her. And here I thought the survivor was the only one who had an inner demon inside."
"You mean Empress? I knew you could say that." Marie sighs and then turns towards Hachi with a glare. "So tell me, octoling. Why are you here?"
"Um…" Hachi is struggling to think as Marie is going at her with hatred, leading Hachi to take a few steps backwards in fear and does a hand sign for Marie. 'I don't want to hurt you. I wanted to survive like you guys. Miss Hotaru, you're scary.'
"Am I? Good. Even if you octoslobs don't want to fight, I still won't forgive you for everything you did." Marie's tone is as sharp as a shark's tooth, causing Hachi to shiver in fright while holding her own neck after she remembers what Marie did earlier. "You murdered those who didn't participate in any form of events, took away my cousin, broke my daughter and took the Great Zapfish from Inkopolis."
"You mean that big guy Marina and I reported?" Pearl asks.
"Yeah… And here you are, the audacity to have the title Agent 8? Don't make me laugh." Marie snorted. "You octarians deserved to be sanitised… You reap what you sow."
Hachi gasps as she hyperventilates, remembering the horrors of Deepsea Metro and Marie is putting her down due to her own kind.
"Oi, Hotaru! Stop!" Pearl snaps.
"Hotaru! That's enough!" Cap'n Cuttlefish orders in a bitter tone as he bangs his Bamboozler cane on the floor. "What in the world is going on with you? You were never like this in a while."
Marie halts after realising what kind of drama she caused.
She can see Hachi down on her knees as she corners herself away from Marie, only for Marie herself to witness that she let Empress get the best of her as well as her partial sanitisation.
"Gramps… I…"
Then Cap'n Cuttlefish pulls Marie up as he hugs her, whispering to her. "Pearl told me that it's this dreadful train station that's messing with you, especially the sanitised octarians. How would Aori feel if she saw you like this?"
"B- But Aori's… She's right, I'm not Marie, Marie is gone… I don't deserve to have an idol name like Marie…" Marie blubbers after the sins she committed which led her to become like this.
"Bullshit. You are Marie, one of the Squid Sisters. Without you, Callie will be left incomplete. Think about it. I have a couple of little brothers back at inkopolis and if anything happens to them, Marina and the agents, then they fuck with the wrong inkling." Pearl points out before punching her own palm, knowing that Marie is still herself and always will be. "What I'm saying is don't abandon your life. Bring it back no matter how hard it becomes. Hell, and that's coming from someone who hates Inkopolis and their lifestyles."
"Pearl, you…"
"She's right. We'll bring Aori back. I'm sure Mirai will improve someday." Said Sheldon as his smile rises a little.
Marie lowers her head and then goes back down on her back as she's still tied up.
"I want to speak to the octoling. I promise I won't attack." Marie requested, leading Sheldon to unstrap the belts and let Marie move freely.
"Okay, but remember, I'll taser you again if you do." Sheldon warned.
"No promises." Marie then stands up and stretches her arm and marches past Pearl and Cap'n Cuttlefish and approaches Hachi at the corner of the room.
Marie stops as she can hear a whimper from an octoling. Then she squats down and pokes her.
"Eh?"
"Hachi, is it?" Marie asked.
Hachi nods.
"Despite not trusting the octolings, I'll make you an exception. When we work together, heed my orders and you must never betray the NSS. Understand?" Marie offered.
Hachi gasps after seeing Marie's change of behaviour from being a threat to a reluctant ally.
"Mm!" Hachi nods as her behaviour becomes a little positive.
"Then it's settled. Welcome to New Squidbeak Splatoon. Make sure to be loyal to us, Agent 8."
Afterwards, Marie and Hachi grab each other's hands and lift themselves up as Hachi is now the official member of the New Squidbeak Splatoon.
"Well, now that it's settled. Maybe you can introduce the young lassie to us." Cap'n Cuttlefish chuckles.
"Yeah. Who's the new kid?" Pearl asks as she puts her hands behind her back head.
"Oh her? The one you saw is Mirai, Agent 4." Marie calmly confirms.
"Agent 4? Looks like this girl's going to work with an octoling. Interesting. I'm hooked." Pearl pulls a sinister grin while imagining Mirai and Hachi that mirrors Pearl and Marina from Off the Hook.
"Now, I want to talk about him." Marie pierces a glare at Big Man who was busy playing a video game with his fins.
"Oh Mantaro? He's working with us after he's being used by the Deep Cut members." Cap'n Cuttlefish answers.
"But isn't he one of those who attempted to murder innocent people?" Marie asks as she's not only confused, but shocked to see why her group allows to spare a killer and let him work for them.
"If I were you, I'd kill him on the spot too. But since old man retard over here refuses to kill him, we have no other choice but to keep him as our ally." Pearl sighs.
"Please refrain from calling Gramps a retard."
"Fine. Suit yourself." Pearl shrugs her shoulders.
With that out of the way, Cap'n Cuttlefish, Marie, Pearl, Hachi, Sheldon and Big Man are in full agreement that they're working together.
"Ay ay! (With more friends combined, we will save the world!)" Big Man cheers.
"We're not really saving the world, but we're saving those trapped in Deepsea Metro." Said Pearl.
"Looks like we're fighting against the insanity that is Deepsea Metro. Sheldon." Marie called.
"Yeah?"
"If my Hero Charger 0 gets upgraded, how much charge will it be to stop Aori's roller from ricochet?"
"You mean… But it will kill her!"
"But it won't when it hits her roller. Aori is a lot quicker, even when she's distracted."
Sheldon slowly contemplates, knowing that it's do or die as he pulls out his own notepad.
"Are you willing to take that risk?"
"Yeah." Marie nods.
"Hotaru!?" Cap'n Cuttlefish exclaims.
"I know, Gramps, but we can't leave Aori like that forever. I'm already walking on thin ice." Marie turns towards Cap'n Cuttlefish as she's clenching her fists with determination.
"Good point…" Cap'n Cuttlefish slowly realises what the results will be if Marie succeeds.
"Then it's settled. Hachi, your Roller looks impressive. Might need some minor tweaking and you'll be unstoppable." Sheldon holds Hachi's Octo Roller 0 while testing its durability.
"Mm!" 'Thanks, Sheldon.' Hachi gestures while giggling.
"Haha, you seem to be more spirited. I'm sure you and Mirai will get along well." Sheldon chuckles.
"Speaking of Mirai, where is she?" Pearl asks.
"That's a good question. Maybe she's still asleep. Mantaro, don't move." Marie orders as she lets Pearl, Cap'n Cuttlefish, Sheldon and Hachi come.
"Ay! (No problemo!)" Big Man salutes and continues gaming.
With the group leaving Big Man, Marie tumbles as she's fully on her 2 bare feet.
"Hotaru…" Cap'n Cuttlefish raises his arm.
"It's alright. I'm just exhausted, that's all." Marie raises her arm to her grandfather and then moves forward.
5 minutes later, the door opens as Mirai is talking to a familiar one who helped Marie.
"Mirai." Marie called.
"Hotaru! Hm? You're Pearl from Off the Hook!" Mirai exclaims as she points at Pearl.
"Sup. Huh? What happened to your face? Half of your face is covered." Pearl halts after witnessing Mirai's face covered in bandages.
A hand was raised which caused Pearl, Hachi and Cap'n Cuttlefish to gasp in shock and raise their weapons.
"Wait. Hold your fire. She's one of us." Marie orders.
"A sanitised!? One of us!? Hotaru, what kind of drugs are you sniffing!?" Pearl is pointing one of her Hero Dualies at a sanitised octoling in a baseball cap.
"Hotaru, explain!" Cap'n Cuttlefish exclaims as Hachi nods.
"Guys. This is Mizuta Ahato, also known as Dedf1sh, our saviour and was in control of her sanitisation." Marie introduces Dedf1sh to her group.
"Dead fish? Weird name. Why the hell are you called a dead fish?"
The only difference is that Dedf1sh's hair is blue and red rather than blue and green.
Dedf1sh waves and then marches towards Hachi as she can tell by that appearance.
"Shiki… You're… Alive…" Dedf1sh's soft and slow voice called as she can tell who subject 10008 was.
"Shiki?" Pearl halts.
"Shiki? So that means Hachi's name is…" Cap'n Cuttlefish had come to a realisation who Hachi actually is.
'Now I remember my name. It's Shiki.' Hachi gestures her hands as she's finally getting her name from a fellow octoling but was sanitised.
"Shiki, huh? Well, You're lucky to have me as your teammate! I'm not the greatest, but I can still fight!" Mirai then stands in front of Hachi while pulling a grin. "I'm Mirai, I'm sure we'll get along as agents!"
"Mm." Hachi nods and grasps onto Mirai's hand and shakes it.
"Not much of a talker, huh. Can you write?" Mirai asked as Hachi wrote on a notepad.
'Yes.'
"Woah! And you can write our language!? Man, you octolings are really good at these kinds of stuff." Mirai groans.
"Hotaru… Mirai… Your friends?" Dedf1sh asked.
"Yes. The old man that is my gramps is Atarime Yoshio, but we usually call him Captain Craig Cuttlefish." Marie starts with Cap'n Cuttlefish as Cap'n Cuttlefish approaches Dedf1sh with hesitation.
"Cap… Tain…"
"Indeed. Thank you for saving my granddaughter's life." Cap'n Cuttlefish bows as he can tell that this octoling isn't trying to harm anyone thanks to Hachi's (Shiki) statement.
Dedf1sh nods and then holds out her DJ set while playing music on her disk. The music plays a peaceful yet ambient style of a DJ song.
"Hm? What's this?" Pearl asked out of curiosity along with her group.
"#8… Regret…" Dedf1sh answers.
After the answer, Hachi gasps as her memories flashes in her head.
What's in her head is a group of octoling along with her senior Zen and a familiar octoling who has the same hairstyle as her.
A group of octolings are facing the sanitised Octo Samurai in Whack-Fu Station and most of them apart from her senior, the other octoling girl and her are splatted as they're 3 of the 16 survivors.
After that, they come across an inkling who has a cloak as she turns towards Hachi herself.
"So you're her sister. There's one thing I need you to do… Run. Run away with your sister."
While heeding the survivor's words, Hachi and her older sister are near the train as her sister just pushes her inside by saying her last words to her.
"When you reach the surface, wait for me at Inkopolis Square. See ya, Shiki."
After that it flashes back as Hachi hastily writes down a note.
'I was looking for my big sister. Her name is Serika.'
"Serika!? That octoling from before…" Marie grunts.
"Serika?" Mirai turns her head as it's the first time she heard that name.
"Ah yes. That lassie who squidnapped me along with her team and her leader. But why her?" Said Cap'n Cuttlefish.
"Before this event, Marina and I raised her and Shiki like how you and Aori raised the survivor. Let's just say Shiki lost her memories which is why I pretended to have met her."
"So that's why you're quick to help her and guide her."
'So Pearl is my mother?' Hachi notes as Pearl smiles.
"You used to call me Papa Hime on notes, which I'm obviously a girl. It was after your aunt died." Pearl revealed the answer as it had Hachi remembering her memories.
Then Hachi embraces Pearl as Pearl did the same.
"Yeah… I'm glad you're okay. Now we need to not only find Serika, but destroy the octobosses and overthrow this sad excuse of a CEO." Pearl said in a calm tone.
"Mm." Hachi nods.
"Hold on a moment." Mirai calls out as she gets all the attention. "You look like the one who saved my life. Is that your sister!?"
Hachi halts and notes to Mirai. 'You're that inkling who lost an arm. My sister had to remove and regenerate her's just to save your life.'
"So Serika gave me that cool arm. I guess I need to thank her when we see each other!" Mirai laughs while raising her bandaged right arm, then Hachi giggles. "But there's another thing. Why is that manta ray here?" Mirai's tone drastically changed from cheerful to flat.
"Trust me. Ask the old man over here." Pearl points her thumb at Cap'n Cuttlefish while looking displeased.
Cap'n Cuttlefish chuckles while scratching his head.
Sheldon then clears his throat.
"I suggest we should rest for tomorrow. Hotaru, I'll hand over your new uniform when you wake up."
"Thanks. I'm more than surprised that Hachi was able to go out in the snow looking like this." Marie stares at Hachi as her appearance was in a black leather crop top with one long sleeve and the other sleeveless, a miniskirt and high heels.
"Good point." Sheldon agrees.
"Well, let's jus- Huh?" Pearl stops as she sees Frye's ID looking different as something happened to her. "Oh fuck… Guys look at this."
[ Subject 10009: Utsuho (Frye), Status: Dead, Cause: Lose her body and splatted in someone else's body]
"No way…" Marie gasps.
Fear arises in this room as Cap'n Cuttlefish, Sheldon, Marie, Pearl, Mirai and Hachi are shocked to see what is going on recently.
Then a speaker turns on as Marie answers it in public mode.
[This is Survivor 3. Frye is dead. Normally she's able to respawn back, but some body snatcher took over her life and killed the original host. And that was my target too… Dang it…] The inkling girl's voice sighs.
"I know. But she's gone now. Oh. I was giving you to Mirai." Marie called.
[Mirai!?] A boy's voice called with surprise after hearing her name.
[Calm down, 3.5. Let me speak to her.]
"Mirai." Marie tosses her headset to Mirai as Mirai puts it on her ears.
"Hello?"
[I know your brother. Maybe we'll meet each other… But it comes with a souvenir for you.] Survivor 3 sounded serious as she can tell what the results will become.
"Really!? That's awesome! I'll make sure to catch up to you and we'll see my brother!"
[Ngh… How old are you?]
"Eh? I'm fourteen. Why do you ask?"
[Heh. No reason. And I see Mama Hotaru is doing well too, huh.]
"Huh!? Hotaru!?" Mirai exclaims about hearing that Marie is actually a mother.
"Oh yeah. Aori and I raised this kid after the abuse she went through." Marie explains.
"I see. Man, you're lucky."
[N- Not really! I just hated my real mama after how she treats me.] Survivor 3 retorted. [Ahem! Anyway, I gotta go. I have a certain someone to pay a visit to. See ya guys.]
Beep.
"Huh. This kid has the guts to not reveal her real name." Said Pearl.
"That's because this telephone is a suspicious fella who wanted our identities for something malicious." Cap'n Cuttlefish rubs his beard as he remembers why Survivor 3 is keeping herself anonymous.
"And we walked right into his trap." Marie grunts.
"So what's her name?" Mirai asked as Marie lifted her head.
"Her name is Rei. As I said earlier about Aori being Agent 1 and me being Agent 2, Rei is actually Agent 3 and was the fastest squid around."
"And I thought you're the fastest."
Then Pearl appears between Marie and Mirai while clearing her throat.
"Yo. Are you two done? We need to rest for tomorrow."
"Ah. Goodnight, Ahato." Marie then leaves the room as Mirai is the last one to leave.
In Mirai's case, Rei is an interesting person and was a close friend to Daigo as far as she heard.
Finally Mirai and Marie are heading to the nurse's office to rest, Pearl, Cap'n Cuttlefish and Hachi are finding a room to sleep once they collect Big Man and Sheldon is preparing for tomorrow.
That means there's still hope to set themselves free from this madness.