Okay. Sorry again. I haven't updated my other story with another improvement. It's just that I'm trying to get back into the swing of things and relax after finals.

…and definitely not because I've been playing Xenoblade Chronicles 2 in my free time.

*cough*

By the looks of things, Jacob and I had come to an unspoken agreement—he'd use the couch at night with his normal, inferior sleep schedule, and I'd lock myself up in my room while everyone else was going about their lives. So, on that day, I woke up at sunset.

Yay me.

I lay in bed as everything sank in. It wouldn't have taken a genius to figure out I was going way too fast with Annie. Even more so, considering my six-month isolation period. It had only taken the better part of a couple of days for me to dump my life story on her.

I tore open the curtains, if only to look at the night sky. The thing was practically a void, now, with how black it was. I let my head drop and sighed into my windowsill.

I really asked Annie to go to Deepsea right after telling her the Sanitized would come after her, huh?

Part of me was glad I'd have someone with me on my little excursion. And… she was the only person I could have asked, really. Jacob had already been attacked, I didn't have the best connection to Agent 3, and the captain… he wouldn't have done me much good. All he did the first time was talk.

And speaking of the captain…

The communicator thing was holed up in my drawer, like always. I turned it on, unlocked it, and found that he had sent a message at about midday telling me to visit him.

I stared at it for a moment. It was no longer midday. But it wasn't that late yet… right? With some luck, I could catch him before he went to bed. Whenever that was for someone like him.

And so, I peeked out of the window then dove out again.

"Sorry. I was asleep. Did you find anything?" I said, as casually as possible.

He stared at me with his gigantic eyes. I stepped back. "Aye," he said. He pulled the flash drive out of his pocket and handed it to me. "I told them that Agent 3 found it. It took a while, but they… uh… decrypted it."

One would think that he of all people would be at least a little computer literate, having to run this sketchy secret agent business and all.

Not to say I was any better. I'd just quoted Annie when I told him the problem.

"All of it's either out there already or couldn't hurt a minnow," the captain said. "So ye can have it back. Where did ye find this, bucko?"

"At the end of the big hole in the forest."

He straightened his back… a little bit. "Didn't strike ye as the kind of octo to snoop around."

I stuffed the drive into my own pocket and very ungracefully changed the topic. "And about those green Sanitized girls we saw down in the subway… I saw some. Lurking up here." I left Jacob out of the story. I didn't want him to get mixed up in this.

He shifted his weight to his cane. "You did, eh?"

"I'm trying to find a way back down there to stop it."

"Hmm…" He scratched his beard, and I'm pretty sure something fell out of it. I stepped back again. "Would it be fine with ye if I called over Agent 3? See if he can help ye… soon."

"Ah." I turned my gaze, previously fixed on his hat, to the floor. The thought wasn't appealing, since the last time we met, we kind of shot each other.

…and the time before that, we supposedly shot each other.

But regardless, Agent 3 seemed to have gotten a good idea of the subway's layout. He'd been on the outskirts of the subway the whole time… probably. "Fine." I said. "He'd be giving me a message on this thing, or…?"

The captain nodded.

"Okay." I put my hands behind my back and took a third step back. "Thank you, Captain," I said flatly. I turned around, the door shut, and immediately, my phone in the other pocket buzzed. Annie. I jogged out onto the sidewalk and picked up. "Hey," I said as I started to walk back.

"Just to make sure, we're both nocturnal now, right?"

"Mm," I hummed. "Actually, did you ever find out what happened to the guys that collapsed the whole tunnel?" I warily rounded a corner, keeping alert as I went.

She paused. "…That's what caved it in?"

"You didn't know?"

"Nope. Just happened to be nearby. I thought it happened on its own. It looked pretty shaky before." She stopped again. "But to answer your question, the guy that nearly found us probably got them. We'll probably see the media get ahold of it sometime soon."

"Sure."

"Anyway," Annie started again, "about that flash drive…"

So that was why she called. How convenient.

"Yeah, just got it back. I… ran it through with somebody I knew. I'll head over to your place now. Is that fine?"

"Perfect. Meet you there… here. Bye."

She hung up, and I stopped in my tracks. The closest jump point to her place would be… the center of the city. Inkopolis Square. I shut my eyes, focused on it, and jumped.

And the doors were visibly locked.

Sighing, I walked back to the side of the building, where the dumpster was still where I had left it. I hopped on and prepared to climb the rest of the way, but before I could, the sound of a window opening came from behind me. I turned around, ready to sprint, but it was just Annie poking her head outside. I relaxed and awkwardly waved, still on the dumpster.

"Ahh, so that's how you got up here!" She looked across. "Whoa, that's a wide jump. Did you really…?"

"Not looking forward to doing it again," I said, "but here we are."

Annie laughed and put her elbows on the windowsill. "Wait there a moment, I'll bring you something." Saying that, she turned back into the unlit hall.

I got off the dumpster and leaned against the wall of the neighboring building. Almost instantly, I found my head tilting back. The moon wasn't overhead quite yet, but there were a couple of stars that were particularly bright. Again, I asked myself, why were there so few, when there were so many before Sharktown?

I put that aside and turned to the window Annie had disappeared into. It had really taken me this long to make a legitimate friend. I had my reasons, but they were all gone now. But hey, if it had happened this fast, things were looking up for me.

"Hey!" Annie called. She threw one end of a rope out of the window and looked to me expectantly.

I stared at it for a second. "Why… Why do you have a rope this long?" I said, grabbing it and planting my feet on the wall.

"I have lots of things," she said as she helped pull me up. "It helped, didn't it? Now what's on the flash drive?"

"Haven't seen it yet."

She led the way into her apartment, in which I noticed that a total of one new box was open. As soon as Annie walked in, she tossed the rope inside.

"Here," I said, handing her the flash drive.

Without a word, she snatched it and plugged it into her computer. "Alright, what do we have here?" she said, scrolling through the files and opening one. "This," she said, "is a lunch plan. Huh. I guess it makes sense it was there, but why the heck was it encrypted?"

I pulled over the spinning office chair again and jumped into it. "Secret recipes?"

"Oookay. Next."

And this one caught my attention.

"Eileen Octrope." Annie read. She had opened a soldier's profile. One of the big ones, the daughter of Akash Octrope. Her name had come up a lot between the attack on Inkopolis and Sharktown, but I'd only ever seen her briefly, from a short distance, before someone else splatted her.

Annie kept reading through it, but I couldn't tear my eyes from the image that wasn't there before, at the top right corner of the document.

Eileen Octrope was there, facing forward and wearing a pair of sunglasses. Though visually identical to Hypno-Shades, they were, I assumed, the fake, non-functional ones that nearly all Octoling soldiers had before the existence of Hypno-Shades went public. With those on, I couldn't see her eyes.

So why did I feel like I had seen her before?

The feeling, this sensation… it was stronger than it was with Annie's voice. Much stronger. Something was itching in the back of my mind. Like if I just kept staring at it…

As I sat there, wide-eyed, Annie clicked away from the file. I blinked at the screen and shook my head. "Hey, I know I just gave it to you," Annie said, "but can I keep this for now? I feel like I need to look at these a bit more."

"Huh?" I processed what she'd said. "O— Oh yeah, go—"

I stopped right there, and my vision went blurry for a fraction of a second. I blinked at my lap, then at her. "…ahead."

"You okay?"

"Y— Yeah, I'm okay." I masked my stammer with a cough. "Sorry, I forgot I had to do something. I'll see you."

"Hold on—"

I stood up and walked out the door. As soon as it closed behind me, I ran to the window, slipped outside, and aimlessly ran away.

Somewhere, sometime, I found myself looking upwards at Eileen Octrope. I must have been on the ground. Sitting down, maybe. Or perhaps I'd fallen. I was very young at the time, though I don't know the exact age. She was kneeling, reaching her hand out to me as if trying to help me up. Her eyes were covered by the shades, her hair tied and flowing over her shoulder. And her mouth was curved into the faintest, almost invisible smile.

And that was all.

This was the first clear pre-wipe memory I had ever had. I'd spent half a year alone, wondering what kind of person I was, and at last, staring at an image had forced something from my subconscious.

But of all the things it could have been…

Annie wasn't a rare name among Octolings. That fact was the only thing that kept me from being absolutely convinced of my connection to the Octropes.

I had no doubts anymore.

I had some tie to Eileen Octrope. But what was it? What did I do in the underground?

Who was I?

Hoo, final Splatfest next month, huh? I must prepare myself for the lore dump that will almost certainly ruin some things I'm planning.