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Mirii was stepping on marble-type stair steps, as her head was slightly tilted down.
"I still can't get over this…" She frowned a bit. "Museum d'Alfonsino… involved into such smuggling acti-no no, the museum is also involved in one of Project Neo's affairs!" She frowned a bit more. "Ridiculous… if I had in front of me all those crooks, certainly I would had forced them into following a full course of perfection… with me as the teacher."
Mirii's head rose.
"Actually… I could see myself teaching perfection to those ignorant Squids…" Mirii smiled a bit. "Seeing my students follow my teachings would mean that I will witness more places of perfection. A perfect park… a perfect café… I wouldn't know which one is more perfect than the other!"
Mirii's feet stepped on the last stair step: her shoulders turned right and then left. Her eyes were seeing Hun running towards her direction: the girl's eyes grew, as her mouth opened and smiled widely.
"Hunley?!" She dashed towards him.
"Mirii?!" Hun's eyes grew, as his right foot stepped forward.
Both his feet were sliding on the floor, gradually coming to a stop. Mirii jumped on Hun, hugging him tightly.
"I-I'm so glad to see you!" Mirii's back went backwards.
Her face was red, her eyes were sparkling a bit, pointing at Hun's eyes. Her irises pointed down for a moment, before moving back up.
"Are you alright?" She sighed quickly, as her arms returned back.
Hun nodded twice, smiling and blushing widely.
"You?" His eyes closed.
"I'm fine too…" Mirii giggles, as her eyes closed for a brief moment, before opening up. "I was looking for you, after I stopped those crooks…" Mirii's eyebrows went a bit down, as her irises went on her right side. "No, actually… me and our friends stopped those crooks."
Her irises returned to the center, as she smiled a bit and her eyebrows went a bit up.
"And you, Hunley? How did you escape?"
"Well… I just woke up earlier inside a room… and I used my Squid ability to bring down the door and run as fast as possible!" Hun nodded.
"You woke up?!" Mirii's eyes expanded, as her irises shrunk and her mouth opened a bit. "Oh my… is your head hurt?!"
"No, no…" Hun shrugged, as his head shook. "I can't remember why I was asleep…" His head lowered, as his eyebrows went up. "I'm sorry, Mirii… I-I always try my best to remember, but"
"Sorry for what?!" Mirii's mouth opened wide. "Hunley, I'm not even thinking to force your mind into remembering the reasons… instead, I'm wondering where your headset is!" Her mouth downturned.
"Ah, I remember that!" Hun smiled. "I found it in the trash can… broken down into different pieces."
Mirii frowned a bit.
"Hunley… let's go." She turned behind, as her feet began walking. "We must reach the others and see if the situation is finally solved."
Hun went on Mirii's right side.
"There is still trouble?" He frowned a bit.
"Yes, unfortunately…" She sighed. "Scientists were behind the smuggling activity… turning innocent Squids into paintings."
"That's terrible!" Hun frowned even more. "Where are the responsible?!"
"I received a notification from Aga: Miss Libera is under arrest, now held inside the van." Mirii nodded. "Surprisingly, she wasn't working for Project Neo… she wanted to conquer it all for herself."
"… really?" Hun's mouth opened.
"Hmpf… don't make me think too much about it." Mirii grimaces a bit. "I don't see why anyone would ever be the leader of such criminal organization… I would rather read Dog – Story of a seadog than ever being associated with Project Neo!"
"Dog…?" Hun's right eyebrow rose.
"Yes, one of the most terrible fiction story I have ever seen…" Mirii's eyes closed, as her face frowned. "So terrible, I couldn't read past the Prologue: my mind couldn't stand the terrible grammar and the nonsensical nature of the story!"
Huh… why I'm not surprised?
"… excuse me, Aga?" Mirii's head rose, as her eyes opened.
Nothing to be mad about: considering your "smart" nature, it's only natural you would also read stories.
"Of course I would." Mirii nodded. "When I have some free time, I pick my phone and look for the story I was reading… I try doing that every night, since I have so much to do, I can't think of any other way for reading the story much sooner."
Guess it's all related to Project Neo…?
"Various reasons." Mirii's eyes squeezed a bit. "Aga, is there something in particular going on, right now?"
No no, everything is going great…
"Ok." Mirii's eyelids lowered to the middle. "Now that you are talking to me… I would like to ask you two questions I had in mind, before."
Hmm?
"I was wondering the reason why you and your husband wanted to stop Project Neo this much…" Mirii's eyes closed.
Oh… … Stella, could you do me a favor? … yes, take those coins and use them on the nearest vending machine: buy a bottle of Inkling water and nothing more.
"Aga…?" Mirii's eyebrows went down a bit.
Wait a second, Mirii…
"Wait?" Mirii's eyes squeezed a bit.
Stella, don't rush throughout the hallways, ok? Watch carefully the directions you are taking! … … sigh… ok, now I can speak.
"Is the reason involving… Stella?" Mirii's head rose.
… Stella is the reason why I'm still an Agent, Mirii.
Mirii's mouth opened.
A long time ago… us three visited the museum as simple visitors. We explored almost all the rooms and seen a large number of masterpieces… I still remember that day as if I'm still living in it.
Hun bended forward, with his left ear near Mirii's right earpiece.
After exploring and seen for so long, we decided to leave the museum… we were walking in the same hallway you and Hun did earlier… and Stella, all the sudden, stopped by a painting and watches it without saying anything or even doing anything else.
Mirii and Hun's eyebrows went up…
I walked towards her, pulling her a bit… that's when she began making weird noises and crawling down on her knees. M-My first thought was that she was joking as usual! But… she kept doing that, even hissing in front of Harry! She was unable to quit this terrible behavior, even when in front of her favorite show or friends!
Mirii's teeth gritted.
"Oh no…" Hun's eyes closed.
The days were passing… and Stella kept acting as if she was some sort of creature. I wasn't sleeping well at nights… and often I visited her room, checking if things were going well. Around that time, my husband found some rumors about the museum… learning that similar events happened in the museum. From there, we decided to investigate a bit… obviously, without letting the HQ know about it.
"That's when you began discovering even more information about the supposed smuggling activity…" Mirii's mouth downturned a bit.
No, not just that… we also wanted to run a true investigation in that area. Agents cannot decide which place can be investigated or not, nor requesting to conduct personal tasks while using the Agent equipment or even refusing mission duties… that's why we wanted the museum workers to create a request of investigation, coming up with the idea of a smuggling activity going on behind the scenes.
Mirii's eyes expanded.
"YOU WERE THE ONES WHO DARED TO SAY" Mirii's mouth flattened, as her eyes squeezed. "Nnnnngghhh, w-wait… I-I'm sorry for saying"
Sigh… obviously we pointed out a few hints, before letting them claim that such smuggling was taking in place… like the fact that a certain color feels off compared to the official information. We wanted to get to the bottom of this, don't get me wrong… but the chiefs would had stripped us our Agent rank and kicked us three out, if we were caught. I was literally living in fear, at the idea of being caught… because of Stella.
"Did the Headquarters cured Stella…?" Mirii's feet stepped on the last stair step down, turning then to her left.
Yes, a year ago actually… seeing her talking and acting like a young Inkling, made me… … quit being so cold towards others.
"I see…" Mirii's head lowered. "What about Tonna?"
She applied for the mission without hesitation. She acted very… fired up, as I recall. She was looking around the museum, collecting all sorts of data… no offense, but she was dragging us down a bit. Eventually, we learned that she wanted to investigate into her hope to find her older sister. She quit when she thought that Ursula wasn't involved or present at all… … when instead, Ursula's full name was on the museum employees' list.
"WHAT?!" Mirii's irises shrunk.
Not only she was working in that museum… we found some evidence that she counterfeit one of the paintings, in collaboration with other two Inklings.
"But… how…" Mirii's jaw dropped a bit.
I preferred not showing a photo of her to Tonna… I was afraid that she might had spilled the beans to the chiefs, ruining our chance of stopping this terrible activity. However… recently, she claimed her intentions to stop Project Neo.
At that point, I thought to let her know the truth… Ursula was one of those Project Neo employees who were forced to participate in this huge smuggling activity, so she would still fight against the project like now.
"Actually, I'm thinking she might want to investigate the museum more…" Mirii's head rose.
No, she will not: I'll tell her that this is all we have found of Ursula. I'm sure she already knows the consequences for conducting personal investigations or not being present at the job: just like Agents, chiefs cannot create missions based on their personal needs.
"I see…" Mirii nodded. "Uhm… I do have quite to do, once I return inside the Headquarters. Considering the current time and the estimated ones for each task… I'm afraid that it might take all the afternoon to finish all of them. Adding also the possibility to be sent for a newer mission… I might not even finish within this very day! I would probably be too tired to even think of the remaining task…"
Mirii sighed, as her eyebrows went up for a moment.
"I would better think carefully all my moves, so I will be able to do everything perfectly and without wasting too many resources… the sooner I gather the information, the sooner I can truly attack Project Neo and stop it once and for all."