Yuri's PoV
In the midst of a Salmon Run, the dark-skinned inkling found himself running away from a Steel Eel, clanking its jaws as it lumbered on towards him. In his hands he clenched some Splat Dualies, one of his least favorite weapons. Considering he was running straight towards the water, his chances of surviving looked slim. As he covered his face, preparing to be splatted, the Steel Eel suddenly came crashing down, leaving behind some golden eggs in the end. When the rubble cleared, he saw his savior—an inkling with the ends of her hair chopped off. Yuri recognized her as Lori from Perry's photos, despite her not introducing herself.
"Grab these eggs and let's finish this round," the grey-eyed inkling commanded. The dark-skinned inkling nodded and swiped one of the eggs left behind and started running back towards the egg basket. When they returned, however, more salmonids began to close in on them. Backs up against each other, they gave each other a worried glance.
"Where are the others?" Yuri asked.
"I don't know, but they have to be somewhere," Lori replied. At that moment, two inklings started to cry for help. "…Or not. We're going to lose this round."
"Not with that attitude!" Yuri started to shoot the Chums lumbering towards them. "C'mon, you have the Sploosh-o-matic! I heard it's a pretty good weapon."
"Not in my hands," the grey-eyed inkling grumbled.
"Don't ya just hold down the trigger and boom, enemy splatted?"
"I'm used to weapons that take time to charge up," she explained. Pressing down the trigger, a few salmonids coming her way were splatted. "I'm not used to being on the front lines."
"Honestly? Same," the yellow-eyed inkling agreed. "But… it's what we got. We just have to push forward."
Lori simply nodded, and the two took a few steps forwards, trying their best to clear a path through the salmonids and reach the inklings on the beach. They had to fall back sometimes, as the salmonids became rather overwhelming at some points. However, by the time they got to the beach, time ran out, and the salmonids started heading back towards the water. Lori cursed and threw her Sploosh-o-matic to the ground.
All four inklings super-jumped back to the boat, where the two splatted ones recovered. However, one boy, an inkling with spiky hair like himself, was holding something peculiar.
"Anyone want this?" he asked, holding the record up. "I found this on the beach and grabbed it before I splatted."
"Oh, me!" Yuri exclaimed, jumping up-and-down. "I'll be glad to take it."
"Then it's yours." The inkling tossed the disc to the yellow-eyed inkling, who then inspected it. The sticker on it depicted a group of salmonids with instruments. It was in greyscale, too.
"Thanks," he said. "I'm gonna go listen to this now!"
"Can I join you?" Lori asked. "I'm kinda curious."
"Sure, but first, let's get off this boat."
After the boat returned to Inkopolis, the two inklings stepped off the boat and changed back to their normal ink colors. Though Yuri's ink was obviously yellow, Lori's was teal. Record still in hand, the two walked out of Grizzco's and started walking down the street, towards Yuri's house.
"It sucks we have to walk to your house," the teal-haired girl commented, adjusting her cycling hat. "A car would be much better."
"I dunno, the scenic route is nice," the yellow-haired inkling pointed out. Lori simply shrugged, and they continued on their way.
Yuri's house was a townhouse closest to the school the Rainbow Squids attended, which was convenient for him, as he could just walk to school. As far as townhouses go, however, his was on the bigger side, accommodating for himself, his mom, and his siblings. The two inklings were immediately granted with the sight of one them when they opened the door.
"Is that your girlfriend?" asked Yasmin, Yuri's younger sister of roughly twelve years of age.
"No, sorry," the spiky-haired inkling replied. "She's just gonna listen to this record we found with me."
"Oh, okay," she simply said. The young inkling stepped out of the way to let the two older ones through. "I'll tell Mom you're here."
"Great." Winking, he gave a thumbs up, and the two then rushed up the stairs. Once they arrived at the next floor, where everyone's rooms were located, they walked over to the room with a Squid Sisters poster plastered on its door. Yuri informed Lori that it was his room, and he opened the door for her before walking in himself. He closed the door and opened his closet, pulling out a record player.
"Out of all things, why do you have a record player?" the teal-haired inkling asked, who was cleaning the dirt off it.
"Well, my dad owned a lot of records," he explained. "…When he passed away, my mom allowed me to keep the records instead of throwing them away." Despite happening many years ago, he still hated discussing the details surrounding his father's death. It hasn't bothered him as much as it did in the past, but it was still a touchy subject for him.
Lori simply dipped her head in respect and solemnly responded, "I see."
"In the end, though…" Once the girl was done cleaning it, she gave it to him, and he put the unknown record into the player. "Let's take a listen to this." Closing it, the record began to play. The two inklings pulled up beanbags and sat back in them, listening to it. The first track was rather soft, with a lot of timpani and electronic beats, but a cello started playing in the background after a while, getting louder overtime. It eventually faded out.
"You know, for something with salmonids on the cover, this isn't that bad," the inkling with grey eyes commented, putting her arms behind her head.
"You think the salmonids made this?" Yuri asked.
"Probably."
"Would records even work underwater?"
"I'm sure they found a way." She smirked as a louder piece started to play. "Time for the next one." In this piece, the cello and timpani were heavier and much more prominent, but it still had the same general tune to it. "What the heck! It's basically the same thing!" she cried out in the middle of song.
"Wait until the end, it could have a surprise change to it," the spiky-haired inkling tried to assure. Alas, he was wrong, as there was still no major difference.
Lori let out a long sigh. "If the next one is relatively the same, I'm leaving." The next song started playing, which started with electronic sounds getting higher and higher before resetting a few seconds later. This repeated a few times until the cello and timpani became more prominent. Hearing it glitch from time to time unsettled Yuri; it was like he was out in the battlefield, but his life was on the line. The teal-haired inkling seemed to have felt the same way, as he noticed an uneasy expression on her face.
"This is creepy, for eel," he muttered.
"I know." She closed her eyes and shook her head. "And it's tense…"
When the song finished, the two collectively let out a sigh of relief. The next song that played wasn't any better, however. The first few measures of the next song started with a frantic cello, which continued to be prominent through the piece. The timpani continued to bang in the background as usual, though it seemed to be louder when the electronic jingles played from time to time. Towards the middle, the piece seemed to get more solemn, as the cello became quieter. However, it quickly reverted to the previous tune after a while, and back to the solemn theme in the end. The song faded out, and the record stopped spinning.
"Only four songs? That's lame," Lori jeered.
"Even if it's only four songs, they were still pretty good," Yuri remarked. And creepy, he wanted to add.
"Anyways, I guess I'll go." The grey-eyed inkling got up from her beanbag and started walking towards the door.
"Wait! I never asked you for your name!" In a sense, it was true, since he actually never asked for her name. On the other hand, he already knew her name, but he figured it would be weird if he said it out loud before asking.
"Lori, what about you?"
"Yuri's my name. …I guess I'll see you later."
"Maybe I will, maybe I won't." The teal-haired inkling winked and left the room for good, leaving Yuri alone. Once she was gone, he took out the record and got up from his seat, too. Walking over to his record collection, he looked for a spare sleeve to put it in. Finding a green one, he slid it in there and set it next to a Chirpy Chips record.
It's safe there; I don't think anyone else wants it anyways.
A/N: In case you were wondering, Lori and Yuri were listening to w-3's music. It's pretty obvious, considering they did find the record during a Salmon Run. Regardless, I hoped you liked this rather short chapter! I didn't really have any other ideas, so... here you go. Next chapter is a Hero Mode chapter, like you'd expect. Branchwing, out!