Celia dragged Ethel, herself, and her own tears toward the train.

"Sir!" Celia shouted in a hoarse voice whilst breathing heavily. "Takes us to Bluefin Depot! Now!"

"I'm sorry," the conductor replied. "The Inkopolis Metropolis is undergoing maintenance. We started early because not much people were playing the 5PM rotation today."

"But–"

"Luckily for you, Bluefin Depot isn't far from Inkopolis Plaza… If you can run across 3 blocks this direction…" The conductor then points down one street. "You may arrive in Bluefin Depot within ten minutes."

Without warning, Celia takes Ethel and takes off.

"Nanami… please be safe…"

Orbee perfected his aim upon Nanami. Before he could pull the trigger though, Nanami says something that catches Orbee's attention.

"You know, Orbee–… You were a great mentor. I know you hated me, and I hated you too… But you taught me well… you're like the big brother I never had… and I'm your little sister."

Orbee lost it at "little sister". Hearing that one word made him flash back to the times with his "family". In his thoughts he saw a yellow squid… one he never saw in a long time. The delicate voice calling him "onii-chan" started to haunt him. Within seconds, he fired a shot from his Kelp Splatterscope, missing Nanami very slightly to the right. Nanami saw this shot right in front of her. Nanami very slowly looked up at Orbee.

"O-O-Orbee… d-d-did y-you f-f-f–"

A very disturbing face was on Orbee's head. He then pointed his Kelp Splatterscope directly at Nanami's face.

"If I'm a good teacher…" Orbee muttered without mercy. "Here's your final test… Nanami Avers."

Nanami was petrified. She couldn't move. She was filled with fear as Orbee pointed the charger filled with a dark aura, as dark as Orbee's, pointed at her. She didn't want to move. She knew her life was over either way...

"Promise…"

"Agh!" Orbee gave out a scream, seemingly in pain, as he fires his Kelp Splatterscope slightly away from Nanami again, but still barely slicing through her left ear. Orbee found himself covered in a thin layer of lime green ink.

Lime green ink… Ethel?

The two inklings stranded on Bluefin Depot gazed up. They saw a trail of green and pink colors in the sky. And within the blink of an eye, Celia and Ethel landed near the mint green spawn point.

"N-n-nee-s-san…"

"Nanami! Y-you're ok…" Celia wanted to cry again. She ran towards Nanami to hug her, when Orbee placed a Splash Wall right in front of Celia. Celia took minor damage, but her face was covered in ink, minor scorches, and tears. She looked at Orbee, who had an evil grin on his face, and took out her Luna Blaster. She points it at him.

"What is wrong with you!?" she screams, ignoring her nearly hoarse voice already hurting her throat along with the dark blue ink on it.

"Why, absolutely nothing…"

"Then why would you want so splat Nanami… she's my sister!"

"Heh, so? She may be ten, and she did somehow gain humanoid control at that age, but do you think she's even experienced?"

"That's why I trusted you. To train her to be experienced. But I was wrong… What possible reason can you find in the entire Calamari Country to explain the need to splat a newbie related to your friend!?"

Celia's voice got so hoarse that she couldn't scream clearly anymore. She was being a salty squid – like how she always was whenever she gets a losing streak. Ethel and Nanami just watched the drama unfold, comforting each other in a hug.

"Just…" Celia whispered. "Let Nanami go. Take me instead…"

Orbee saw the sadness in Celia's eyes. Nanami was her sister… Orbee always wanted to get rid of Nanami. Then his memories started returning. He snapped out of it and decided to go all-out ruthless. Orbee walked towards Ethel and tried to take her grip off Nanami.

"You're so dead."

"Nee-san! Help!"

"Nanami!" Celia shoved Orbee. That was the wrong choice. Orbee successfully took Nanami in his hands. "Orbee! Let go!" Orbee wouldn't listen. Celia was infuriated and pushed Orbee near the edge of the bridge near spawn. Orbee nearly fell. Once again, Celia made the wrong choice. She realized that as she saw Orbee's evil grin.

Orbee let go of Nanami.

Nanami fell into the cold, sandy, rusty, salty water of Bluefin Depot.

"NANAMIIIIIIIIIII–!"

"NEEEE-SAAAAAAAAAN!"

Chapter 4: (In)Valid Reasons

The clocks all over Calamari Country struck 9PM. Late-night Turf War and Ranked Battle players who stay in Inkopolis Plaza at such a late time were kicked out of their games once finished, to hear the announcement of the new stage rotations. They all turned their eyes toward the giant TV screen by the east building, next to the Battle Dojo. It shifted from a Tentatek commercial to everyone's favorite voices–

"Hold on to your tentacles…"

"It's Inkopolis News time!"

It's the Squid Sisters. They're literally every inkling's favorite idols.

"Before we reveal tonight's 9PM rotations…" Callie, the inkling standing on the left with dark long hair and pink tips and a huge smile on her face announced.

"We've got a new feature to show you all!" Marie, the inkling on the right with short, gray hair and a soft, serious tone announced.

"We've been working on the stage announcements."

"Rather than just still images, like before…" the screen behind the two changes to a rather still image of Kelp Dome.

"We've placed live cameras in the stages to show a more in-depth view of the map." As Callie says this, the still image starts to move.

"I guess this is helpful for those who haven't seen the map before."

The news carried on pretty normally. The Turf Wars rotation and the Ranked Battle: Splat Zones rotation were given, because there wasn't any other news aside from that.

"Hey, Callie." Marie said, looking quite puzzled. "Is it just the late night, or are there inklings loitering around Bluefin Depot?"

"What?" Callie replied, just as shocked as Marie. "Lemme see that."

The stage camera pans towards a mint-green spawn. Near it was three inklings. There was one male, and two females. One pink inkling seemed to be reaching out for something below the bridge.

"This is odd."

"It's too late for us to check what's going on…"

"Callie, you're just trying to make an excuse so you can sleep again, aren't you."

"Duh! We always have to wake up even at 1AM!" Callie said, sighing. She noticed that they were still on air. "Oh well… Until next time…"

The two then stand on one foot, putting their hands out, one higher than the other; this was their signature pose, before their signature phrase–

"Staaaaay fresh~!"

The news program ends, and the TV switches back to a Squid Squad album promotion commercial. The inklings carried on with their late-night battles.

Celia was obliterated on the inside. Her own teammate just killed her little sister.

"What… reason… can you give… to kill… her…"

"She was a barrier that stood between the two of us." Orbee said, still bearing his seemingly evil grin.

"Now." He said, dropping his Kelp Splatterscope on the hard rusty ground.

"Are we good?"

That response made Celia furious. "Y-you're a crazy squid." She muttered angrily. She takes out her Luna Blaster again. "You kill my sister. And you think we can be friends again…"

"Celia…" Ethel said, wiping her own, salty tears. "Please calm down…"

"Calm… down!? My sister is dead, dead for Judd's sake! And you just want me to calm down!? Sure, let's just splat Callie and Marie too and no one will care! How about that, huh!?"

Celia's shouting covered all the noise in the map. Ethel was the only one who heard a rippling noise from the mint green spawn.

"But Celia–"

"Shut your squidbeak up! Do you wanna get splatted too!?"

Celia's threat just silenced Ethel. She wouldn't dare speak another word. Celia looked really serious about splatting. The only time she's ever this serious is when she's been on a salty losing streak.

"Now leave me alone." Celia muttered. I've got something to take care of." She turns to Orbee.

"Ch-chill, C-Celia…" he said in fear, an expression never really seen in this usually serious, arrogant inkling.

"Like Challenger's Deep Hell I'd chill." Celia muttered one more time, sounding just as merciless as Orbee. Ethel and Orbee were frozen stiff. Celia nearly pulled the trigger when suddenly–

"ENOOOOOOOOOUGH!" – a voice cried out from the mint green spawn point.

It was Nanami.

"What reason do you have to splat him!?" Nanami shouted in anger, but also in slight mockery.

"I tried to say she respawned." Ethel said also in mockery.

"Why so dramatic?" Nanami said. The mood in the map dies down to its original aura. The place was covered in awkward silence for a few seconds.

"I-I'ts nine…" Celia said, catching her breath. The tone of her voice tells her she isn't mad anymore. "a-and Bluefin Depot's in the rota…tion…" she continued. She was trying to hide her laughter, but in seconds she burst out. Ethel and Nanami joined the laughter. It was just like a cliché in modern shows. Then the laughter was interrupted when Orbee gave another punch to Celia in the ink sac.

"What is wrong with…" Celia started to cough out pink ink. The map returned to its dark and dramatic state from a few minutes back.

"I've tried to get rid of my rival, then this happens…" Orbee responds, as tears can be seen flowing down his face through the 18K Aviators.

"Orbee-kun is crying…?" Nanami said to herself quietly.

"Wait, rival? Wha…" Celia looked at Nanami for a few seconds before facing Orbee again. "Nanami is your–"

"I just think it's unfair that she likes you more!" ORbee blurted out all of a sudden. "Especially when it's your little sister! You know, ever since I've set my eyes on you for the first time, I've lost my heart. But in a good way. And you didn't even bother to return it…" he continued.

Celia just figured what was going on with Orbee. "Orbee…? You–"

"Just go away! Keep my heart! I'll just be another loser for the rest of my Ranked Battle career!" He dashed into the recon gates, slipped out of the map and left nothing behind…

…or not?

Celia found something on the floor and took it home.

A small snowglobe, with ancient English written on its base. Celia was always a clever girl, knowing up to three different ancient dialects. Orbee however, just knows ancient English. He wrote the snowglobe himself anyway…

"A symbol of my unseen love.
"A crypt only our shared intelligence could solve.
"An E in an orb, covered in gauze.
"It sits on a chair, held by a dove."

Those last two lines describe what was inside the snowglobe. Celia figured it all out… Why was Orbee so bitter towards her?

Author's Notes

This seemed pretty rushed. I warned you that this would've sucked!

Don't worry, this story is based around Nanami. I just wanted to experiment multi-arc stories.

Also GigaSquid I tried not to make similes here, so be happy?

- o.O