Maize had went with Aureolin to the cafe nearby. The place was still quite crowded. No one enjoyed the rain, it appeared. The two had taken a seat near one of the windows away from the crowd. They both had gotten a cup of coffee each.
"Okay. Where do you want me to start?" Aureolin sighed. This seemed like a really hard topic for her to handle. The yellow boy felt bad to be forcing her into recalling such clearly painful memory like this. He pondered on where to start this conversation. There was no real good area to tackle first, so it made sense to start simple.
"So are you the mother of the squishie?" Maize asked. That felt like the calmest place to start building the conversation on.
"Bondi," she said.
"Huh?" he raised an eyebrow.
"His names Bondi… and no, I'm not his mother. I was supposed to be, though," she answered. Already he was lost in this conversation, starting to think that maybe the old metaphor of everything was complicated was true, or at least everything was for him lately.
"Did you adopt Bondi?" Maize asked. That sounded like what she was referring too, but she shook her head, taking a chug of her coffee.
"I used to have a boyfriend, you see. We were a great duo in the ranked area. After two years of dating, we decided we wanted to have a squishie. A month later of trying, I find out I'm not able to carry one, so we had someone else to carry our squishie," Aureolin explained. She was not able to get pregnant, so she had to use a surrogate to help fill in that void. She seemed to grow even more depressed each passing moment as she remembered it all.
"I thought it would be the happiest moments of our lives. Yet, when we had Bondi, I felt nothing. No love, no joy. Just every day that passed, me and my boyfriend grew more and more apart," Aureolin continued. She had no connection with the squishie emotionally or genetically. She had tried everything to find that joy that every mother had, but she could simply not acquire it.
"What happened to your relationship?" Maize hesitantly questioned, wanting to know what happened to Bondi's father. It was at least simple to know that her boyfriend was the actual father to the squishie. Aureolin looked like she had a nerve struck and was ready to break down.
"H-he… Basil became obsessed with ranked turf wars. We broke up a month ago. I insisted he take Bondi because he always brought him back to reality. One of the times I tried to visit, he set me up so that I appeared like a complete lunatic. Now I can never be around Bondi," Aureolin stated. Maize suddenly recognized the name. Basil had fought him a few times before, but that was when he was around the regular B rank that was going to take some effort to get back. He thought this sounded insane. If it wasn't for the look in her eyes, he would never have believed it in a hundred years.
"That's… horrible… what can I do to help?" Maize brought up the biggest question on his mind. The yellow squid girl sniffled, looking to him. As a Special Squid Services member, he looked so reassuring. No matter what, he would get the job done in some way. There was only one real thing she could think of.
"You're an honest squid with a good mindset…" Aureolin smiled. She felt her vocal cords fighting against her.
"Please… find Bondi a better home. A family that will love him," Aureolin requested. Maize looked at her, gaining a smile. He walked over to her and dug around in his pocket before pulling out his cellphone, pulling up the picture of her son and presenting it before her.
"I think I know the perfect someone," Maize told her. Aureolin looked at the picture of Bondi being held in the other agents arms, tears welling in her eyes. She never could get emotionally attached to her squishie like a mother, but she still cared deeply and knew she would miss him.
"Ca-can you send me the picture?" Aureolin asked, putting her phone number into his contact list. The yellow inkling nodded, taking his cellphone back.
"Of course. But first, I have to find your ex," Maize responded. She looked concerned about this.
"What ar-are you going to do?" the yellow squid girl nervously asked. There seemed to be little reason to find her ex-boyfriend, especially if Bondi was now safe. There was a new determined look in Maize's eyes as he sent the photo to her phone.
"I promised to find both of Bondi's parents. I still have one more to find, and I want the whole truth from him," Maize exclaimed that promise, one of his many that he made with little hesitation or forethought, but Agent 3 took each one just as serious as the next whether they were small or large. Aureolin admired that the search for the truth was driven by a promise. It was nice to know good squids like him existed.
"You take care, Aureolin. The Special Squid Services won't let you or your son down. I promise," Maize gave a thumbs up, and he began to make his way out of the café. When he stepped outside, the rain seemed to have begun to come to an end. The only thing left was a light drizzle. The young squid boy made sure his splatterscope on his back was ready as he left the plaza. If Basil was not battling in the tower, then he had to be somewhere else.
"Huh?" he heard his phone begin ringing with a special tone that he recognized easily. He pulled it out of his pocket, before putting it to his ear.
"Y'ello?"
"Maize! Hey I have great news!" it was Marie, and she sounded ecstatic. Maize hoped it was something good.
"What is it?" the yellow inkling asked her to continue.
"I found the squishie's father. He was at Arowana Mall," the squid sister happily said.
"Really? That's perfect! I found the mother," Maize smirked. His luck once again shined through for him.
"Wow! It must be that squishie's lucky day," Marie said, "You bring the mom over to…"
"Nope. Those two should not be near each other. I'm on my way and make sure he doesn't go anywhere…" Maize sternly ordered. Agent 2 was confused, having never heard that tone from him before. It did not sound like anger, but it sounded like pure focus and determination in his voice. He had something on his mind. He hung up the cellphone before making a run for Arowana Mall, which was not too far away from here.
Maize had ran most of the way, dodging the occasional traffic. He was beginning to arrive to the huge mall, where he could see a lot of inklings in it today. Nothing out of the ordinary, but the items on sale here did not nearly match the quality of the shops around the plaza. The mall was more of a hangout spot than anything. The yellow squid saw the white tentacle haired girl standing near the entrance, still dawning her disguise.
"There you are," Marie greeted him. He continued walking so she followed alongside him.
"Where is he?" Maize immediately cut to the point as the automatic doors slid aside, letting them inside. She grabbed his arm. Maize looked down at her gloved hand.
"He was at the food court a few minutes ago. Maize, what's going on?" Marie asked, worried. Agent 3 reached down and gently removed her hand from his arm.
"I'm fulfilling a promise… and I need to find out the truth for Bondi's sake," Maize nodded while pulling his splatterscope and ink tank off his back, handing them to his close friend.
"Bondi?" she tilted her head, confusedly.
"Oh! That's the squishie's name," he stated. That was a cute name, she thought. She was hoping he had learnt a lot from the squishie's mother in turn.
"Please don't do something stupid," Marie requested, seeing that optimistic grin of his.
"Now that is something I can't promise!" he apologized, beginning to approach the food court. She pointed out one inkling to the centre of the food court. There was a nice fountain in the centre, with pure water spraying out of it.
"So that's Basil…" Maize muttered the name of the inkling Marie had pointed to. He had short dark green tentacles for hair that were covering one of his red eyes, and he was wearing a baseball cap facing backwards and a green leather coat. He had a tentatek splattershot dangling off his side, a fast shooting weapon that could cover a decent amount of ground in a turf war. Marie watched her yellow friend approach him.
"Hey! Are you Basil?" Agent 3 asked, seeing an ink tank behind on his back full of light green ink. He tilted his head upon seeing him.
"If I said no, would that get you to shut up sooner? I'm busy, what do you want?" Basil all too crudely greeted him. He sure did not appear occupied though, as if just standing here was classified as busy.
"I'm Maize of the Special Squid Services. What are you busy doing?" Maize responded, brushing the insult aside uncaringly. The green squid was quiet for a moment, as if he was doing his best to unsubtlety tell the agent to just buzz off.
"If you really must know, I'm looking for teammates to tackle ranked. I'm a fresh A+ squid, ready to hit the tops," Basil explained. He was looking for similarly ranked inklings to join him, but so far that had been lacking any results. Maize pulled out his cellphone and showed the picture of Bondi to the squishie's father.
"You recognize him?" the yellow inkling demanded an answer.
"Get that out of my face," Basil huffed, turning his gaze away. Maize did not like that response one bit. He put his hand in the fountain beside him and splashed some water on the green inkling. It irritated him, but gained his attention.
"Answer me. Are you this squishie's father?" Maize further demand. He was irritating the other inkling.
"Yeah. What about it? Why does everyone want to know about my brat today?" Basil asked. Marie had already inquired with him about his son earlier. It did nothing to calm down Maize's building anger.
"I know what you did. Now I want you to be very honest with me. Why did you dump your son in a pile of junk?" Maize demanded. The high ranked squid gained a cocky smirk.
"My girlfriend is supposed to be watching him. I had no idea…" Basil's incomplete lie did nothing. Maize shoved him against the fountain, startling him.
"I talked to Aureolin already."
"Y-ya did?" the green squid nervously responded. He sighed, giving in. He was getting sick of being hassled like this.
"If it'll get ya to leave me alone, fine. I'll tell ya the truth." Just what Maize wanted to hear. He let go of the shirt, pocketing his phone while crossing his arms.
"I need to focus on my career, you see. If I wanna become a professional turf war player, I'll never get anywhere close to S+ ranked in my life with that brat weighing me down. His mom's not allowed to be near him anymore, so I figured there was only one option, so I tossed him somewhere that I knew another squid would find him easily," Basil explained. Things got silent between the two of them after Maize had heard that. Marie was just watching from afar, seeing her friend looking down, biting his lip.
"Now get outta here, you low ranked mess," the green inkling insulted, grabbing his tentatek splattershot.
"You… messed up loach!" Maize tackled Basil, grabbing his wrist and his splattershot. The two struggled for a brief moment until Maize headbutted Basil, making him let go in pain. He got his grip on the splattershot, pointing in the face of the green squid. Maize had almost knocked his own glasses off doing that. Basil was on the floor and seemed stunned, seeing the anger conveyed in Maize's eyes.
"You didn't put that squishie anywhere near safe! Let alone where it could be found! Instead you threw it in a pile of trash and left it in the cold rain! If my friend had not found him, do you know what would have happened to him?" Maize demanded an answer. Marie never had seen her friend like this. He normally was so resilient when it came to withholding his emotions, but now he was just losing it.
"H… he would have got sick," Basil gulped.
"And what if no one found him after that?" the yellow squid insisted he continue.
"He would ha-have… went through the cold night, and that would make him sicker…" he kept answering. That glare from Maize alone wanted him to finish this train of thought.
"And th-then… Bondi could have died," Basil finished. It seemed to be sinking into him. Maize pulled hard, ripping out the splattershot from the green ink tank on the green squids back, causing the ink to flow out onto the floor before he smashed the ink weapon.
"That's right! You almost killed a squishie, one that you helped be birthed, and all for a letter and some bragging rights! You had an actual life, and a family… and what did you do?! You threw it all away because you're obsessed with something fun, and you made it very competitive for yourself! I don't know about you, but this… this is a crime of a fool!" Maize exclaimed in fury. He looked ready to rip out the now terrified Basil's throat. This anger was piercing that obnoxious attitude he had.
"Now you listen well… I made a promise to your ex to find Bondi a loving caring family. I hope you enjoy getting into S rank, because when you get that little letter, you'll know what all you lost just to get it!" Maize panted, having finished his rant. That really had drawn attention from a lot of inklings from not just the first floor of Arowana Mall, but also from the second floor. They really had made a dramatic scene. Maize brushed his tentacles back to normal and fixed his glasses before beginning to walk away.
"Let's go. We've finished our mission," Maize told Marie as he came to her, taking his splatterscope back and tossing it over his shoulder, making sure it got on his back. She looked awestruck, covering her mouth with one hand.
"You alright, Marie?" Maize quietly questioned so no other squid would realize she was the famous squid sister herself. They didn't need a mob rushing her for autographs right now.
"Yes… I mean… just, wow. I've never seen you so angry," Marie claimed while handing his ink tank back to him that he also put on his back. He let out a sigh of relief, looking at Agent 2. His usual smile came back.
"It was just that one squid. The truth sometimes does that," Maize disappointingly said. He was glad to know he was going to help a squishie's life. He had come up with a great idea already in his mind. The two walked out of Arowana Mall.
"Mind if I come to your place?" Maize requested. He saw her look unamused. He seemed happy and cheerful like his old self like that moment of rage was nothing.
"Why? There's only gonna be Callie and the squishie," Marie asked, wondering what he wanted to come with her to the Squid Sisters' home for, but she was aware that Bondi was there, but she could just call her sister up to meet them somewhere else in Inkopolis.
"I'll explain when we get there. Can you just trust me with this? It's really important," Maize answered. Marie thought on it for a second. She and her sister would soon be swamped in work on preparing for the splatfest that was coming soon.
"Okay. But only because you keep asking a lot lately," she gave in, accepting to have him over at their home as a guest for the first time ever.
"Great! Lead the way," Maize hummed. Marie was glad to have the Agent 3 she knew back to normal, possibly even cheerier now. They just had to head all the way over to the Squid Sisters' home. After all the hard work the yellow squid did, he was hopeful he could help improve a family's lives. He just hoped for Basil to snap out of his narcissistic mindset, but it was seemingly going to be unlikely. He felt bad for Aureolin, but he had to fulfill his promise to her. He followed Marie off to get to the Squid Sisters' home.