Dusk had encroached the city of Inkopolis, and in one of its many avenues, a lone inkling woman strode about. She held a cellphone to her ear, and judging from her face, she looked to be tired about something.
While she continued to listen to the caller's chatter over the phone, Nephrys' thoughts wandered...
"Do you understand the situation we're in?!" Constantine yelled frantically over the phone.
Nephrys cringed. "Of course I do, you overgrown fish. I saw it with my own eyes."
"Grizz needs results! He needs visual proof of the fruits of our labor! He cannot find us empty handed in return for all he's provided, lest we wish to incur his wrath!" The eel's protests continued.
"He really should calm down. I don't care if his job is at risk, panicking like this won't help either of us figure a way out of this mess. Oh, Nephrys.. You've really gotten yourself into a sticky situation, haven't you?
If I knew that upon taking this job, I'd have to put up with the whining of some smart-aleck eel, I would've declined the offer. Then again, everything was on short notice, so it wasn't as if I had a choice.
Whatever, what's done is done. The sooner I can turn that salmonling in and be done with this, the better.
Thing is.."
"I can't deliver the salmonling if I don't know where it went. You know that as well as I do," Nephrys responded aloud over the phone.
"Surely you and your troops must have found some trace of it in the sea with the generous amount of time given to you," the eel replied.
"Two days is nowhere near the 'generous' range, Constantine. Not with the space we're covering."
"The waters occupied by salmonids are miniscule compared to the rest of the sea. If the amount of ships at your disposal are incapable of searching through it efficiently, to find just one individual—who, might I add, is wholly unique—then perhaps your workers are not as skilled as I might've believed," Constantine argued back.
"Still can't drop that insufferable 'smarter than thou' tone of his, can he?
First he's berating me, then he chews out my men? Just what is this guy's problem?
No, wait. I already know the answer."
"You're welcome to join the search yourself if you want that salmonling so badly," Nephrys snarked dispassionately, as she turned a corner in her walk.
"Tempting, but grunt work is beneath me. Right now, I have other priorities to attend to."
Nephrys scoffed. "There he goes again with that vague nonsense. I'd ask him what he meant by that, but I'm sure he'd only reply the same thing he said last time we talked. Which was the equivalent of a whole load of nothing."
The woman had been walking around in the city for the entire time she was in the call, and before realizing it she'd already reached her apartment's doorstep. "Inkopolis can be a large city, but I often get this feeling that it might be smaller than it really is. Maybe I'm just good at memorizing the route to my home."
Opening the door and stepping inside her room certainly didn't end the call for Nephrys, however. "Seems I can't relax just yet..."
"If you have anything else to say that isn't complaining, say it now. I'm just about ready to hang up," The inkling woman stated.
"Yes, well, seeing as how your efforts to find the beast have been less than effective, I would like to give a piece of information that might help you in this game of hide and seek."
Nephrys raised a brow.
"Constantine being helpful? I thought I'd never see that again."
"Do you recall the report you gave me on your previous raid? It mentioned the salmonling was often accompanied by a smallfry, curiously enough," Constantine recounted inquisitively.
"What about it? Salmonids are almost always in groups."
"Of course, which is why if one were to, say, drift into the shores of our city, the other would be sure to follow."
In that moment, Nephrys unwittingly held her breath and her eyes went wide.
"Hold on. How can you be sure? You're not saying…"
"Indeed I am. See for yourself, miss Nephrys."
Right then, Nephrys received a new notification on her email once she reached her desk, sat down and booted up her computer. It was a message from a Grizzco address, yet it had no subject or comment in it. Only a video.
"Recorded footage of a security camera? Strange, but it's here for a reason. There doesn't seem to be much of anything going on here, so…
Wait. I see something."
It looked a blurry smudge at first, lurking just out of frame. As the recording continued, however, it skittered erratically from one end of the frame to another. Nephrys could only see it for a few seconds, but she recognized what that thing was:
"A smallfry...
And it's snuck into Inkopolis."
"Well, I'll be.." Nephrys muttered incredulously, her violet eyes glued to the screen.
"Not so unlikely now, is it?" Constantine chuckled smugly.
"Wait a second, the smallfry being here doesn't guarantee anything about the salmonling."
"Oh miss Nephrys, use your head. The beasts were on the same spot, pushed off onto the same waters, and carried by the same currents away from your ship. It stands to reason that they would land on the same island, would it not?" Constantines scolded.
Nephrys turned around in her chair, looking away from her computer, and put a hand to her chin. "But to wash onto different shores…"
"Presents an opportunity to us. It may be frail, but that blight still presents a danger to the city. Moreso if it reunites with its larger kin without us knowing."
'Without us knowing'? Why would we want to know when the smallfry reunites with the salmonling? We could take them out one after the other when they're separated. Unless…"
"You want to use the smallfry as bait," Nephrys surmised.
"You catch on quick, Miss Nephrys!" Constantine praised. "Indeed, holding the smallfry hostage would make it all the easier for the salmonling to come out of hiding, right into our hands. It only takes half the effort, too!"
"Makes sense," The inkling woman commented.
"I would be lying if I said the plan didn't have some merit at least, and could work if we played our cards right. Judging from what I saw during the raid, it seemed that the salmonling and the smallfry held some sort of companionship, strong enough to the point that they were unwilling to leave each other's side during their escape. The salmonling's kindness toward the smaller fish would likely take priority over her need to hide if something were to happen to it.
And that kindness would be our trump card."
"I'll tell my crew to pull back to the mainland and keep watch over the coasts, in case the salmonling tries to smuggle herself off the city again," She added.
"A sound idea, but I'd recommend not doing so just yet. Wouldn't want our little specimen to be scared into hiding further now, would we?"
Nephrys merely gave a grunt in response, "That fear would only be to our benefit."
"It doesn't matter to me either way. I'd be damned if I made the same mistake again.
I guess all that's left to do is let the others know about the plan. Actually.."
"Does Grizz know of this?" Nephrys asked, taking the moment to briefly stretch her legs.
"W-well, err.. No. Not yet, at least," Constantine stuttered.
"..Does anyone else know?"
"Just the two of us, for now."
"What?!"
"You mean to tell me that two salmonids are lurking right under our noses... and no one in Grizzco has been notified?!" Nephrys yelled into the phone, her every word laced with rage.
"Not so loud!" He screeched in a haggard voice. "I can't do that just yet! He'd only order you and what other subordinates he has to search the city in a mad scramble, causing what I just mentioned a few seconds ago!"
"A flimsy excuse if there ever was one..."
"Just tell him your plan like you did to me! He'll understand then."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that…"
Nephrys already had a hand on her forehead once it began to throb.
"Seriously, What's stopping him from divulging his idea? Mr. Grizz is not the impulsive, trigger-happy brute he thinks he is. He might be stubborn at times, and.. sure, he can get a bit desperate when a stash of golden eggs is at risk. But he can also be methodical if he chooses to, as long as it gives him the best results."
"Look, Mr. Grizz won't bite you for giving a suggestion," Nephrys tried to reason with a sigh.
"Ha! Easy for you to say. You're not walking on thin ice like I am."
"Ugh… He's still hung up about the time Grizz chewed us out for our failure, isn't he?"
"But seeing as how you've done nothing but cooperate thus far, I'll take your word for it and try. I do hope this serves as enough motivation for you to not cause any more blunders in your job. Good night, miss Nephrys."
"Wait—"
Before Nephrys could utter any word, he'd already ended the call.
"Slippery dastard couldn't even let me get the last word in, huh? Next time I speak to him, I'll give him a piece of my mind.
But for now, there's the matter of what to do next regarding what I just heard."
After a quick bath and some dinner, Nephrys sat on her bed. Hand on her head, the woman began to ponder.
"As far as absurdity goes, this takes the salmonids, on this very city. That alone presents many problems, and I'm not sure if I can even solve them all in time before things get out of hand. People are in danger, but… we can't simply tell them that the salmonling is back— That would only cause panic.
But why would she stay here? Obviously, she's looking for the smallfry, but what then? There's nothing in Inkopolis for her, no further reason to hide and wait. Surely she can recognize that the longer she stays here, she'll be in more danger.
Or.. perhaps it's because of something else?"
Nephrys sighed and sat up. "If I keep thinking like this, I'll be stuck running in circles. I need more information."
She stared at the computer screen, still displaying Constantine's mail.
"Maybe Grizzco's database has something.."
So she went over to her desk once again, logged onto the private server she utilized often and began to wade through all kinds of information. Anything and everything that could possibly be related to the salmonling or outright mentions it was analyzed.
"Let's see here… accounts from witnesses, employee logs, my report of the last raid, archive footage from various sources, different files on the salmonling… A lot of coverage, but most of it hardly mentions anything of note. C'mon, there has to be something that I don't already know."
She continued to look further and further, until eventually she uncovered a file labelled as 'RESEARCH'.
"Research..? That's Constantine's file. I suppose it won't hurt if I take a glance at whatever it is he's been researching about the salmonling. Seeing as how he's managed to interact with the salmonling before anyone else— or so he says—, there's bound to be some things here that aren't written anywhere else.
And if he complains about me seeing it, oh well. His fault for putting it out in the open, and for not telling me everything when he had the chance."
And so she opened the file and began to comb through its contents.
"This… was far less helpful than I thought it would be," was Nephry's first thought after having examined the first few pages of Constantine's report. "I thought by looking into Constantine's logs, I might be able to find more details about the salmonling that aren't available anywhere else. A real dive into their inner workings, you know?
How silly of me to expect anything great out of that eel.
Anyways, let's see here…"
'The salmonling's behavior can change depending on when and how it is encountered. At times, the subject may appear docile or display intelligence. It is even capable of engaging in conversation and displays a curious personality—not unlike that of an inkling youth— during this state, if an individual were to approach. In fact, if one were to remain by it's side for extended periods of time, the subject can be quite amicable, from my experience!
This is merely a ruse, however, with the function of luring prey in without them suspecting anything.'
"A ruse..? I know a liar when I see one for long enough, and everything that came out of that salmonling's mouth didn't sound deceitful to me. There's no mention of the affection she displayed toward the smallfry, either. She was my enemy, and she did fight back to a stubborn degree, but to speak to me as a person, to display her emotions the way she did, all just to deceive?
Somehow, I find that hard to believe. Anyways, moving on..."
'During a full moon, or under the thrall of a pack of glowflies, the salmonling enters its true feral state. All rational thought vanishes, and any attempts to reason with it will surely end in failure. Relying on pure instinct, it sticks to the shadows and creeps around its environment in search of prey. Instead of facing their opponents head on or in a group like its more primitive brethren, the salmonling prefers to strike out on its own, sneaking up to whatever victim it finds and seizing them before they get a chance to react. It's strikes are swift and strong, and can either scratch the victim with its claws or bite them with it's row of sharp, mismatched teeth.'
"The wording here is odd, but this first part is accurate so far, not that I've seen her go berserk with my own eyes. Everything else here, while informative, isn't necessarily useful to me. I already know how fierce she is.
There has to be something I don't already know. Some piece of information here regarding where she came from, or who she is.
Wait. Who is she? Humanoid salmonids are never born naturally, as far as I know. So how come one appears out of nowhere, skulks through the city at night, vanishes back to salmonid territory, and somehow managed to drift back here? I don't even know what her goals are, or why she even came here in the first place!
Come to think of it, there weren't any sightings of her until that night she went on a rampage. And nearly all sightings were in the city; none whatsoever in salmonid territories beforehand, and the time it was in one of their lands, she had already fled Inkopolis. And yet, she returned and seemingly remained here for a few days.
Almost as if she…
No. It can't be what I think it is... "
"This makes no sense. Everything I've heard about this salmonling doesn't entirely corroborate to the way I've seen her act. She's still a threat, but.. could one such as her really be as monstrous as she's made out to be?"
Nephrys swiveled in her seat to face the monitor again, as she looked over the report once more. "Something's not adding up. I don't know whether Constantine is keeping some things to himself or if he actually doesn't have a clue, but there's more to this salmonling than what we already know. What I know is so little— I need answers."
Her gaze fell on the blurry picture of the salmonling embedded in the document, and in her mind prevailed a single, pressing question.
"Just what are you hiding?"
Author's Notes
Hello all, back with another chapter. This is an interlude chapter, but you might notice that things are structured a little differently compared to the last time I wrote this kind of chapter. I do hope it isn't an awkward read, but it probably is.
If you were confused reading this, know that:
"This font means the character is speaking"
"This font means the character is thinking"
Updates will likely slow down again as well, with another semester coming on my end. Nevertheless, I hope this chapter is to your liking.
Stay safe, and until next time.