The Inklings were now in the spacious kitchen: Bars was walking nervously, with his hands behind, going back and forth. Grina was sitting on a rocking chair, while holding baby Mirii and cuddling her occasionally.
"All right… let me get this straight." The boy stops, trying to calm down, and looks at the girl."According to your assumptions, Mirii somehow got here before us and start looking for Hunter's parents."
Grina nods.
"She found something very important, in an unknown town… and you believe that whoever possess those black trucks, did something very nasty to her, so she couldn't reveal their secret. Am I correct here?" Bars asks.
The girl nods once more.
"However, like me, you also believe that there are certain things in this world, which cannot happen in the least. And in this case…" Bars looks at the little Squid, sighing loudly. "… some sort of rejuvenation shenanigans."
"Yes…" She replied.
"Then… keeping also in mind, how we found all those weird clues… I have the following question: are you sure that the baby is Mirii?!"
Grina stares at Bars.
"… what was your point, again?" The girl asks confused.
"The point? Eheheheheh… t-the POINT?! Hahahaha…!" He starts getting crazy. "M-man! My friend i-is a baby now! My female high-school "A perfect" friend i-is a little Squid, now! Eheheheheh… d-do you get it now?! A-and you're insinuating that t-this is not a dream! Ooohohohoh… y-yeah, sure… riiiiight."
"Stop it, now!" Grina blames him. "Get yourself all together: this is not the end of the world!"
Bars tries to cool himself down.
"Ok… ok, then… w-what are we going to do? How can we change Mirii to her old self?" He asks.
"To tell you the truth… I don't know." She said worried. "Maybe there isn't a solution…"
"DON'T SAY THAT!" Bars shouted in panic.
Baby Mirii starts crying again.
"Baaarrsss! Stop shouting like that, you moron!" She comforts quickly the little Squid.
"S-sorry!" He apologizes. "But… we have to do something!"
"Like what?" She asks, getting really serious.
"You know… … that's it! There might be an antidote hided from those crooks! We need to find those trucks and"
The little Squid starts crying again.
"Uuuuggghh, I didn't shout this time!" Bars goes forward with his back, leaving his arms motionless.
"No wait, it wasn't you… she's hungry!" Grina said, while looking at her.
"Oh great… now we have to feed her!" He does a facepalm. "Could this situation get any worse…?"
"Well… I don't think we have any equipments for that." She caresses baby Mirii.
"… man… I hate that moment…"
"But that doesn't mean we couldn't make one ourselves." The girl smiled. "Luckily, we are in a farm. Usually, there are cowfishes inside stalls, full of delicious milk to drink!"
"But babies can't drink that kind of milk! They need a special type, you know…"
Grina sighs loudly.
"Bars, you're getting confused with ancient cows. Their milk is said to be hard to digest… however, cowfishes possess a very nutritious formula, which is absolutely safe and even required for babies. So, all you need to do is to get some milk and bring it here."
"Wait, why I have to do this?! I don't even know how to get milk!" Bars complained.
"Bars… Mirii needs her mommy now. And besides, I'll try to get an alternative baby bottle from this house, while you're busy." She said responsibly.
"… did you call yourself mommy?" He gets surprised.
"Yes: for now, we got to act like her parents, ok? A baby needs a lot of care and attentions, especially from a mom and dad." Grina explains.
"B-but"
"Bars!" She looks at him, in a serious way.
Bars didn't continue talking and decided to follow the orders. Grina cuddles baby Mirii, trying to calm her down. Unfortunately, that wasn't working like before: the little Squid's hunger was too strong to bear, forcing her to ignore every comforting attempt, the girl was doing.
As a result, Grina starts getting more concerned about baby Mirii, at the point to feel a pressing hurry falling on herself.
"Ok ok. C-calm down, little star! M-mommy is going to prepare e-everything, ok?"
She was trembling, letting the fears overwhelm her mind. The girl leaves the baby on the rocking chair and dashes to the kitchen locker to find something even closely similar to a baby bottle. However, a fearful thought stops her right on her tracks: baby Mirii was left all alone, on a rocking chair!
Scared by the possibility for the small Squid to fall down and getting hurt, Grina rushes back to her and picks the baby up. She decided to create the bottle alternative, while holding her with one arm and operating with the other, despite the fact that there were better solutions to the situation.
The girl quickly becomes very cautious suddenly, as she was looking through lockers and other kitchen furniture. She occasionally comforts baby Mirii, trying to attenuate the situation a little and getting some time to think about what to do next.
Thanks to this improvised tactic, Grina found something extremely important: a real looking baby bottle! Its design seems rather old, but the conditions were looking good. The girl couldn't believe that those farmers did possess something so essential for babies, but she didn't got the time to investigate more on the matter.
Grina begins washing up the bottle, using a vintage sink, by opening a weird looking cap located to its back. The cleaning process was good enough to make the tool operable. However, she wasn't serene just yet: the girl inspects the ancient stovetop, trying to figure out how it works.
Meanwhile, in the stalls, Bars was holding a wooden milk bucket, while approaching near a cowfish. He nervously put the bucket under the animal's udder, hoping to not upset her in any way.
"Ahem. Ehm… nothing personal, dude… eeeh, I mean girl. I need just a bit of your milk, sooo… relax…" The boy grabs two teats. "And let Bars doing all the magic, ok?"
He starts to squeeze them, making the milk going right on the bucket.
POW!
The cowfish gave a huge kick to Bars, sending him to the ground: the boy looks at the stars for a while, before getting up again. Once he recovers, Bars becomes a bit upset.
"Hey! What was that kick for?! Hmpf…" He complained.
Luckily, the cow didn't kick the bucket too, so the boy's progress weren't wasted. He begins to squeeze the teats again, this time more gently…
POW!
Another kick was sent to Bars. Except this time, it was aimed low: he screamed in pain, while falling slowly down on the dirty field again. This time the recovery time was significantly longer than the first time and the anger was increasing in a pretty fast rate.
"YOU STUPID COW! Ooowww… GRRRR! I'M GOING TO TAKE YOUR STUPID MILK, NO MATTER HOW MANY STUPID KICKS YOU'RE GIVING TO ME! Uuuugghhh…"
Bars tries again and again, receiving more and more kicks from the cowfish, until he gave up and gets the bucket with the rather low quantity of milk inside. He walks back home, feeling still the pain coming from the down area…
"Grina, I can't take it anymore, man!" The boy places the bucket on the top of the wooden kitchen table. "The cows hate me so much and I'm starting to despise them in the same way!"
The girl, while holding baby Mirii, checks the content of the bucket.
"It's fine, actually. " She smiled.
"What?! Really? I thought that it wasn't enough at all!" Bars said surprised.
"Not enough? Did you really think to feed an entire bucket of milk, to a small Squid?!" The girl looks at him, while frowning.
"Oh, eeehhmm… well… eh eh, ya know… if Mirii gets to drink a lot of milk, she'd be a giantess when she gets older!" Bars tried to justify himself.
"Actually you can't overfeed babies… or force them into"
Baby Mirii starts crying loudly and Grina was thrown into the hurry again.
"Hold her, for a while!" She handles the little Squid over Bars.
The girl starts preparing the formula, seemingly knowing what she's suppose to do in such situation. Bars tried to comfort Mirii, but she appears to not like him in the least: the baby was looking at Grina, as she was tilting towards her.
"G-Grina! W-what I have to do with this baby?!" Bars asks, caressing the little Squid.
"Try shushing her!" She advices.
The boy shushes near Mirii, but that was making her even more scared than before.
"Softly, you idiot! Softly!" The girl keeps repeating.
"S-sorry!" He apologizes.
Bars tries again, this time correcting his mistake. Despite his shushing is now more appropriate, he was unable to calm down baby Mirii.
"C-come on, Mirii… chill out, princess! Please…" He said in a low voice.
"Done! The formula is ready!" Grina lifts up the baby bottle, like it was some kind of artifact.
"About time, mom! Take this baby, already!" Bars gives the little Squid to the girl. "Phew… man… babies can be such a pain to deal with…"
She ignores the last phrase: a big sense of happiness was wrapping Grina all over.
"Now is drinky-drinky time, angel!" She giggles a bit, while putting the baby bottle near Mirii.
At first, she looks at the object in an odd way… then she opens her mouth and starts sucking on it. While drinking, the little Squid was finally calm and clearly enjoying the milk.
"Aawww… she likes it!" Grina said with joy. "Isn't she adorable, Bars?"
"Weell… yeah, she's cute!" He said with a smile. "But, is it normal for a baby to suck that fast?"
The girl notices the baby's rather fast rate of sucking.
"W-wow, she must be really hungry!" Grina commented, surprised. "Little star, you can slow down a bit… … M-Mirii, slow down please… … Mirii!"
The baby wasn't listening in the least: she finishes the entire bottle, in record time! The two Inklings were left speechless.
"… I-I can't believe she didn't spit anything." The girl commented, while looking at the now empty bottle. "I bet Mirii didn't even seen food, for lunch!"
Grina starts massaging baby Mirii's back.
"Uhm, what are you doing now?" Bars asks.
"I have to make her burp, Bars. That's a normal thing to do, you know." Grina explains.
The little Squid does a loud baby burp, making Grina and Bars chuckle.
"That was a good one!" Bars raises his right thumb up.
"Bravaaa! Bravaaa!" She raises the baby up, making her laugh a bit. "You're so adorable! I think I'm going to eat you!"
Grina puts baby Mirii near her mouth and pretends to eat her: both were having a lot of fun!
"You know… I can't believe that Mirii is so pretty, as a baby." Bars commented.
"I know right?! All babies are like this: that's why I love them so much!" She hugs the little Squid.
Bars got near the baby and starts tickling her: Mirii was laughing a lot.
"Man… to think she'd become an ice queen, later… look how cheerful she's now!" He points the detail out.
"Yeah, that's true… unfortunately." She shakes her head.
Both didn't talk for a while: only the baby, which was doing cute sounds.
"Well, anyway." Bars starts speaking. "I guess we better get to town and start looking for"
"No Bars, we'll not go anywhere." Grina stops him.
"Huh?! W-what's that?"
"You heard me right: we are not going out of this house." Grina becomes serious.
"Y-you serious?! Did you already forgot about Hunter's parents? Mirii? E-Everything?!"
"I didn't forget… however, I'll not let you exposing our baby into a dangerous situation."
"Our baby?! S-she's not! And you know that!"
"She IS! We are her stepparents now and in this very moment, Mirii needs our care more than anything else!"
The boy looks at the girl, worried.
"Y-you're crazy… I-I'm not her father…" Bars starts walking backwards.
"No! You're going to be her father, whether you like it or not!"
"B-But"
"Bars, you're the only one I can trust in this lonely place. We're going to raise Mirii properly, without risking her life."
"Raise her...? … s-so you are really getting mad, dontcha?!" He was trembling.
"I'm not! You really think that there's going to be a definitive solution for this problem? Like you usually see on TV?!"
The boy didn't say anything…
"And what if we risk our butt, following those trucks and get NOTHING from it? Or even worse… losing something important? Do you like gambling with lives, Bars?! Betting an All in, like every moron would dare to choose?!"
He was still silent, looking at Grina. She shakes her head slowly.
"Face it, Bars: our lives are changed forever. And we can't do nothing, but to adapt into this new lifestyle."
"No… … no, that's not true…" The boy grabs the door entrance's handle.
"Bars, where do you think are going?" She asks getting visibly upset.
"Away from your shenanigans!" He runs away.
"BARS, STOP!"
Grina starts chasing him down, while holding baby Mirii tightly. Both friends were now outside, running through farm fields.