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Kelly reached her own yunomi, as she picked it up and drank it at moderate speed. She lowered it after a few seconds.
"Hhhmmmmm…!" Her smile grew, her mouth rose and her closed eyes flattened. "This tea is so good, once you drink it fully…!"
She spun once, while holding her yunomi upwards.
"I'm so happy now, not even Mirii can make me mad! Tee hee hee!" She moved around, spinning occasionally and humming a small song.
"Hmpf!" Mirii's head rose, frowning a bit. "I wouldn't touch a beverage that manipulates my normal senses…"
"Ooooh, I should make some tea for Mirii!" Kelly sprinted towards the shoji, while still holding her yunomi. "That would take away all her frowns!"
"You are going to waste that tea!" Mirii growled, pointing her forefinger at the running girl. "I will leave it on the table!"
"Kelly, have a control over yourself!" Fara sighed, chuckling a bit. "Come here, please!"
"Aaaaass you wish, Master Fara!" Kelly changed her direction, now moving over the little girl.
She stopped, in front of the other ladies, while chuckling and moving her feet in place.
"Tee hee hee! Do you want to run around the Shrine? Or drawing some quick paintings?!" She grins, as her eyes went large.
"As I said repeatedly, I'm here to reach the Happy Squid Land building!" Some veins popped out from Mirii's forehead. "My only hope to reach it immediately is to utilize the transportation paper system!"
"Then, let's all run over theeeeerreee!" Kelly spun rapidly, going around Mirii and hitting her face with her long tentacles.
"Grrrrrrr!" Smoke was coming out of her ears, her face was full of red line stamps. "I'm going to remove that ridiculous mood you have…" Her hands raised and opened.
Fara's hands went on Mirii's stomach, as they held her in place.
"Keep your calm, Mirii…" Fara was smiling at her. "Kelly doesn't mean any harm."
"That beverage is making you crazy!" Some sweat appeared on Mirii's forehead, as her irises shrunk a bit. "I-I must call for help…!"
"We are sane." The little girl made a neutral expression. "Just incapable of getting angry…"
"Theeeerreee iiissss a wwaaaaaaayyyyy, to reeeeaaaaaaach that plaaaaacceeee…!" Kelly was dancing in place, swinging her yunomi in the same direction. "… stay here!" She dashed over the shoji. "Maybe I can find him and bring him to the room!" She opened it and released a ricochet sound, leaving dust behind her blazing feet.
Mirii's right hand went on her forehead, as her head shook. Fara chuckled loudly, while holding her own stomach.
"This is not funny, Fara…" The older girl sighed. "In fact, we should check Kelly's behavior and hope she doesn't commit any more trouble…"
"She's going to be fine!" The little girl grabbed Mirii's hands and waved them up and down. "Let's dance together, while we wait for her!" She chuckled.
The girl pulled her hands from Fara's grasp, growling loudly. Her right hand went backwards, opening-
"NO!" Mirii's face went paler, as her own hands clasped and took some backward steps away from the small lady. "What are you doing?!" Her eyes squeezed. "CALM DOWN!"
"What were you doing…?" Fara's mouth formed a small dot.
"I-I!" Opening back her eyes, Mirii grinned a bit while sweat covered her forehead. "I-I was simply pulling back my arm… s-stretching it, basically!" She nodded twice. "I-I did it too much and… I-I left an insignificant yelp!"
"Ah… aaah ah ah!" Fara chuckled, as her hand went on her mouth. "No wonder you made that funny face!"
Several veins popped out from Mirii's forehead.
"Her laughs are even worse than Bars'…" Her fists clenched. "… ah, right." Her mouth opened a bit, easing her grip. "I was almost forgetting that event…!"
Her face went neutral, staring at Fara and folding her arms.
"Fara, listen… an Inkling man witnessed your departure over the Shrine." Her eyes closed. "I'm afraid he's going to utilize this information for the wrong purposes…"
…
"Pffff!" Fara kept her mouth sealed, as her cheeks puffed. "Oh, mmyyyyy…! B-big bro is going to ink himself so badly…!"
"Fara!" Mirii's hands went on the little shoulders. "Snap out of such trap! You must do something to stop that Paparazzi!"
"I-I will do something!" Instantly, dust was in Fara's place while a ricochet sound rung in the air. "Pfffff! It's just that… ih ih iih!" She left the room, sprinting over the hallway. "That big bro reaction is sooooo funny!"
The little lady kept chuckling loudly. Mirii's irises were following her constant running, as her eyelids went on the middle.
"… that tea should be banned and censored for the eternity." Her eyelids went fully down. "I will make sure to report such terrible source, once I have fully dealt with this Happy Squid Land case."
Her hand was hovering over her jeans.
"… Happy Squid Land… I wonder if I can find anything else from their website." Her hand brought a smartphone in front of her face. "From now on, I will make sure to gather as much information as possible."
Her thumb pressed on her smartphone screen, multiple times.
"The only strategy that truly makes me happy…"
Mirii was sitting on her knees, while swiping the screen with her thumb. A sweat drop grew out of her head, grimacing just slightly.
"… what kind of advertisement am I looking at?" She frowned a bit. "'Enjoy the ultimate Squid experience'…? 'Touch the deep meaning of being a Squid'? 'Become a happy Squid, so you can spread happiness to the whole world'?! This is beyond idiotic!"
She snorted, swiping the screen upwards.
"Aside from their ridiculous marketing strategy, they generally seem to be a recreational-type of company, which uses spa elements such as saunas, hot baths and massaging sessions…" Her head rose.
"… judging from the photos, I can see high-quality machines and furniture of this generation. I can safely conclude that such place tends to keep up with the current times… which is kind of a relief, since I'm not looking forward to interact with anything obsolete!"
Her eyes squeezed a bit.
"At the same time, such investment could be easily connect with Project Neo, considering how the experiments would need the most efficient machines currently available for reaching their results."
Her eyelids went fully down.
"Once I enter inside this building, I must take photos and videos of anything that truly catches my eyes. Once I have enough material, I can return home and store the evidence inside my laptop… and that would be another important step for taking down Project Neo."
Opening her eyes back, Mirii frowned a bit.
"I just need to be careful about any security cameras I might encounter… but considering how Happy Squid Land is nothing more than an undercover Project Neo lab, then I will probably find them at the entrance: it would be too risky to let employees manage internal recordings… especially if they want to escape from such terrible organization."
The girl stands up, while still staring back at her smartphone.
"There is one more website tab I have to check…" Her thumb swipe on the screen.
The small monitor was showing a photo on the top-right side and a large group of sentences. Her irises were tilting left and right, aiming at the lines of words. Slowly, her thumb was slowly sliding upwards, as more text was coming from down below… until the phrases on the bottom returned down and her thumb tilted upwards.
"… interesting." Her hand caressed her right tentacle. "This activity was funded 9 years ago by a group of researchers. Their primary goal was to ease the anger of Turf War players… from there, they expanded their objectives into a business, which is aimed exclusively to Squids."
Her head nodded slowly, as her thumb pressed on the screen: several rectangles popped out from the bottom, as the girl pressed on the top one that was saying 'Save this page'.
"I need to copy the link too…" Her thumb slid rapidly, as the text scrolled incredibly fast.
Quick steps were heard from the distance, as Mirii's ears rose.
"Tee hee hee! I'm baaaaaaaack!"
The girl groaned, as her irises went up: Kelly was holding a yunomi, while smiling and closing her eyes. A faint smoke was coming from it, as well as a nice smell.
"NO!" Mirii frowned a lot, showing her teeth. "I told you to not"
"I brought the person who can help us!" Kelly walked in place. "He's right here!" She jumped on the right.
Mirii was staring at the open shoji.
"… that tea is destroying you." She frowned at the dancing girl. "If I don't do something to"
"Aaaaah, called it!" Kelly chuckled. "You are too stressed to see him!" She nodded twice. "Only calm Squids can see him!"
"How dare you implying that I'm stressed?!" Mirii showed her teeth. "You utter fool!"
"Tee hee hee!" Kelly's arms stretched towards the girl, as her mouth formed a small 3. "If you were calm, you would see him waving his hand at you… soooo, that's whyyyyy I brooooouuugght this chamomile teeeeaaaa for yyooooouu!"
…
"Not only you are fool… but you are also a complete idiot." Mirii's arms folded. "That tea is the 'happiness' variety you served to yourself and Fara."
"No no no!" Kelly's head shook. "This one is chamomile! Have you ever tasted it before?"
"I could already tell from the smell." Mirii's eyes closed. "But that wouldn't prove anything, considering how it's possible to manipulate anything, thanks to the various Shrine powers."
Kelly bounced towards the girl.
"Stop on your feet!" Mirii frowned a lot, as her fists clenched. "I will never believe that tea is"
"Come on, don't be a seachicken!" Kelly grins, while stopping near the lady and stretching her arms towards Mirii's face. "Give it a great sniff! It's chamomile!"
Mirii's head pointed at the yunomi, as her nostrils began capturing the smell coming from it. She kept staring at the beverage for a brief while… before she put her smartphone away and took a step closer to the yunomi.
"… I don't know what kind of powers you used…" She sniffed once more. "… but I have never smelled anything this brilliant."
"Tee hee hee!" Kelly grins a bit. "So, the recipe book wasn't lying at all…"
"Give me that tea, you insolent!" Mirii snatched the yunomi out of Kelly's hands, carrying it closer to her nose. "I need to examine such wonderful scent!" She sniffed near its surface. "It feels so familiar… yet new."
"Angry Squids are easily attracted to the tea's scent!" She chuckled. "Almost hypnotized by it! Tee hee hee!"
Mirii began shaking, as her mouth waved.
"I… … it-it's obviously that ridiculous tea… bu-but… …" Her hands were trembling even more, as they moved towards her mouth. "Th-the scent is so… m-magnificent… I-I think I will take a quick sip out of it…"
She blew on the beverage, as her lips went on the edge. The girl was gently sipping tea, as Kelly's hands went down.
Mirii lowered her yunomi… as a smile grew on her face.