Yutaka had run down the street, made it to the train, ridden it, and arrived back home. When she did, she had dropped her Splatling in her room, dashed into her bathroom and stared at her face in the mirror. She was a mess; her eyes were puffy and red, and the black markings around them only served to emphasize them. Her clothes had a bit of rice stuck to the coller. She picked it up with a finger and examined it.

She nibbled at it.

The word "bucket" drifted across her memory, and she winced. To review today, she had: 1) insulted someone on their birthday about their birthday present, 2) won her match only because of that person, and worst of all, 3) run to his house on accident while upset and told his mother everything.

And he had forgiven her.

And he had tried to apologize to her himself.

"Urgh...I really wish I hadn't said that."

She glanced at her Splatling. 12,000 coins worth of power that had done absolutely nothing compared to a kid and a bucket.

"Slosher." She corrected herself.

For a kid to win with a bucket-

"Slosher."

-it was unthinkable. How had he won? Did he cheat? No, Judd would have seen that. So how did he do it?

She paused.

"It would be incredibly embarrassing to see him again." She decided as she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

And in the middle of the plaza the very next day, two Inklings stared at each other.

One was a cyan-colored girl carrying a large Splatling. She wore a Tricolor Rugby and Squid-Stitch Slip-ons with a squid hair clip on her left side.

The other was a green-colored boy carrying a Slosher. He wore a torn anchor-tee and a pair of white shoes that didn't quite fit right.

Sorui's stare was interrupted by a rather loud series of whispers from his right. He winced and clutched the handle of his Slosher tighter. It hurt now, but eventually he'd save up enough money to...

"...something." Yutaka burst into his thoughts.

"Huh?"

"I said i-it's ridiculous to have th-the person who helped me in such a scrub outfit!" She announced. She grabbed his hand and started to drag him to the shops. "I'm going to buy you something better."

Sorui didn't really resist as he was dragged along the walkway. He briefly wondered what the other people in the plaza were thinking about this, then wondered exactly what he should think of this, but gave a mental shrug and let himself be strung along.

Yutaka pulled him into the clothing store and parked him on the bench in front of the changing rooms. She stormed off into the racks of shirts and pulled out several shirts, throwing them in a pile on top of Sorui.

Sorui peeked at the tags.

"T-these are a bit outside my budget...and really, I'm fine with-"

"I'm buying them." She announced. "I'm buying them and you're going to wear them because I r-refuse to be helped by someone dressed like a scrub."

"Huh?"

"I-if you're wearing those then you're not a scrub. S-so therefore if you wear those, y-you weren't a scrub yesterday when you h-helped m-me w-win." She reasoned. "N-now try those on!"

"H-huh? O-okay..."

Sorui did as he was told. As he took his torn anchor-tee off he wondered exactly why the girl was doing this.

"She kind of has a point, the clothes make the Inkling..." He thought.

Still...

"She's kind of cute."

Sorui shook his head as he pulled on one of the outfits.

Nah.

"She wouldn't go for a guy like me."