Chapter 22

The Next Day…Inkopolis Square…

I was standing next to the Ammo Knights shop with my hood pulled over my head and a backpack with some CDs.

Alright…it's almost 8:00.

Aaand…Sylvia's here! She looks tired though…

"Inklings should not be up at this hour…" She groaned.

"Uh…" How to respond…Oh! "Well, if you don' want a repeat of the early stages of the Great Turf War, I suggest you learn so you're prepared."

"Is that a threat?" She tiredly looked at me.

"No, it…uh…never mind…" The joke was lost on her…was it a joke?

We then dove through the manhole.

We stopped when we got to the end to make sure the coast was clear. We saw a shack with a snowlgobe and a sleeping old squid.

"So how do we do this without waking him up?" I quietly asked.

"Oh!" She reached into her bag. "I still have my sleep-time earplugs!"

"Ew, used earplugs?" That was gross.

"It's better than nothing." She defended herself.

She then slowly crept over to the old squid and put the plugs in his ears.

"Alright!" She turned around. "That should do it!"

"Not so loud!" I scrambled towards her.

"Timmy, I can barely hear anything when I use those plugs and he's old." She told me. "His ears aren't as good as they used to be, I'm sure."

I needed to check.

"…AAAAH!" I yelled and waved my arms.

Nothing happened.

"Huh…" It worked. "Now let's-"

"Who's yelling?!" Another voice groaned.

We looked over to see a large Octopus in a kabuto with shutter shades floating in a snowglobe. He also held two sticks of wasabi for some reason.

"Oh, hey!" I walked over. "You're the DJ, right? George told me there was a DJ in a snowglobe."

…

"Gya ha ha!" He laughed. "That boy who had his fingers crossed? He immediately told someone! That's hilarious!"

"Yeah, he told me." I then pulled my hood down. "My name's Octim. I hear you're a DJ who can teach me?"

"Octim?" He looked at me. "Hey, you're an Octoling! Let me outta here!"

"Me being an Octoling means I should let you out?" I was confused.

"Are you blind?" He got close to the glass. "Don't you know who I am?!"

"No." I answered.

He paused a second, clearly dumbfounded.

"Boy, you must be an idiot if you can't recognize DJ Octavio when looking at him!" He told me.

"Name sounds familiar, but I'm not sure where I heard the name from." Sylvia remarked.

"Yeah, sorry sir," I said. "But I have no idea who you are."

He tilted to the left as if he was stunned by my answer.

"Who the shell are you that you don't know who I am?!" He shouted.

"I'm Octim." I repeated myself.

"Octim…" He looked like he was thinking. "Name sounds familiar…so what do ya want?

"Can you teach me to be a DJ?!" I asked. "It looks like so much fun and I love music and I searched all over for a teacher and couldn't find one until now!"

"Why didn't ya check the Splatnet?" He asked.

"…Because…I didn't think of that…" I admitted. "A-also, I've never used the Splatnet before, so I don't know how…"

"So sad…" He shook his head.

"B-but you're here!" I said. "Can you teach me?!"

"…No." He replied.

"Why not?" I wanted to know.

"I've got better things to do." He lied. "Splat off, loser!"

I clenched my fists and my hair-tentacles curled.

"Oh, come on!" I shouted. "I've spent weeks trying to find someone to teach me and you just don't want to?! What are you even doing that's so important, anyway?!"

"Things." He said, turning away. "Now go away. You're annoying."

"Tim," Sylvia put her hand on my shoulder. "Maybe we should-"

I then grabbed my goggles and threw them down.

"Listen to me, you wasabi-wielding jerk!" I pointed at him. "I didn't come to this city, almost starve, search for weeks, and almost get murdered for nothing! I'm not giving up just because some grouchy old has-been I've never heard of doesn't feel like it!"

"Woah, Tim!" Sylvia shouted. "Where's this temper coming from?"

Octavio then turned towards me again.

"Yeah," He said. "That's quite a-"

He then immediately got close to the glass.

"Wait…" He looked at me. "What'd you say your name was again?"

"Octim." I repeated again. "I was named after my dad."

"…Octim…I knew a guy who'd go by that name once…" He remarked. "Where're ya from?"

"…Cirrina countryside." I answered. "Born and raised."

"All the way out there, eh?" He seemed oddly curious. "…Who's yer mama?"

"My mom's name is Amphia." I told him.

"…And what does she look like?" That was…a weird question...

I reached into my pocket and pulled out my wallet.

"This is her." I pointed to the picture.

His eyes widened as he looked at the picture, then at me. He then he looked like he was thinking.

"…And your daddy?" He then asked.

"He died before I was born." I answered. "What's with all these weird questions?"

He was thinking for a bit, occasionally looking at me.

"…Alright…" He finally said. "Yeah…You've convinced me, boy."

"I…I did?!" I was surprised to hear.

"Yup, I'll teach ya in da ways of the DJ." He agreed.

"Yessssssss!" I did a victory pose.

"Alright!" Sylvia cheered.

"What's first, sir?!" I excitedly asked.

"Well, I can't teach ya to play some beats if I'm cooped up in here." He remarked. "Let me outta here and I can teach you."

"Wait…aren't you in there for a reason?" I hesitated.

"Bah! They just put me in here cuz they was jealous of my skills" He boasted.

"Wait, if Sarah's allowed here, isn't this their New Squidbeak Splatoon stuff?" Sylvia brought up. "You think it's okay for us to mess with this stuff?"

"Hm…" I thought about it. "Well, what if we just borrow him for a while? Take him, let him teach me, and then return him here."

"I mean, that could work…" Sylvia admitted.

"You wanna put me back in here?" He glared at me.

"Uh, think of it as a recreational activity." I suggested. "Get out and stretch your limbs for a while."

"…Sounds good to me!" He agreed. "Now, there's a keypad on the back that frees me. Don't know the passcode though…"

Sylvia then walked over and looked at the keypad.

She then typed something in and the snowglobe opened up.

The DJ then came out of his glass prison.

"What'd you type?" The DJ asked.

"His password was 'password'." Sylvia told him. "I guessed that since that guy was old that his password would be something simple. Old people do it all the time."

The Octopus DJ stared at her, wide-eyed.

"I…uh…need to make a few adjustments to my computer whenever I get home…" He said.

"Well, let's go somewhere you can teach me!" I decided.

"Wait…yeah…let's go somewhere in Inkopolis." He suggested. "They won't look there."

"Okay, let's go!" I started to move.

"Wait!" He stopped me. "Ya can't just take me through the city. I need to be hidden. I'm seen as a troublemaker, you see."

"Okay…" I guess that makes sense. "So how do we hide you?"

"Lemme see your backpack." He told me.

I gave it to him.

He then removed his helmet, which shrank as he set it down, then his shutter shades.

"Hey, your eyes are like mine!" I noticed.

"That's because talent's visible on the outside." He told me. "Now watch this."

He then somehow managed to squeeze himself into my backpack and closed it.

"You can fit in there?!" Sylvia asked, shocked.

"An Octopus can squeeze into lots of small spaces!" He told her. "Now let's get a move on! You'll have to carry my stuff though!"

I put the shutter shades in the side-pocket of my bag while Sylvia put the kabuto in a backpack she brought.

"Oh, my dad's goggles!" I picked them up and put them on. "I almost forgot."

"Won't they worry about him disappearing?" Sylvia brought up a good point.

"Oh!" I ran into the shack and found a pen and paper. "I'll leave a note!"

I wrote a letter explaining that we'd bring him back later…minus our names…

I then grabbed the backpack…huh…it's heavy, but not as much as I thought it'd be with him inside…and then dove back into the manhole to the square.

"Now where do we go? I wondered.

"Somewhere people won't look for us!" The DJ said. "Somewhere no one goes…"

I had an idea.

"How about...Inkopolis Plaza?"