All the agents had went a very long distance in Inkopolis from Maize's home. They all wanted to be supportive for this attempt at hypnotism. Everybody was thinking the same. It seemed impossible for their best friend to be a murderer, but he insisted he was, from what he could remember, and some of the agents were mentally preparing themselves if they were wrong, some trying to come to terms. Imagining taking a murderer as a close friend, it would make each action more afraid and everything more timid.
"Are you sure this hypnotist is good…?" Maize half-heartedly asked the group, the Squid Sisters keeping particularly close to the now one tentacle squid. Callie had left Bondi with Captain Cuttlefish in the meantime.
"I've been to him twice in the last three months, mostly so I could relive memories. He's the best I know," Marie nodded, reassuring that this hypnotist was completely reliable. She loved reliving younger memories. The hypnoses was so great that it made her feel like she was actually there, experiencing everything all over again. She could never convince Callie to try it, however. She was too afraid to allow someone to hypnotize her.
"We'll wait out here," Octoronia claimed. She seemed more concerned about her robotic sister ever since she saw her emotional cortex light turn purple. Even if it was gone now, there was still a worrying sign.
"You'll do fine. Just go in and your memory will refine!" Fallow hummed in rhyme, Maize smirking. He thought this would be a waste of time, but if the captain believed he was not the murderer, it was at least worth investigating the case being closed or not. The yellow inkling was unable to be put on trial again for it due to double jeopardy. A sentence already had been given and completed technically for the crime. Maize was thankful though that he had his friends with him for this horrid delve back into his past. He began to step inside the building, the door closing loudly behind him.
"Hello?" Maize chimed while approaching the front desk. This place looked like nothing special. It was a generic wooden interior for an empty waiting room. Eerily, there was no one behind the desk either. He pondered if it was closed and the main workers had just forgot to lock the door and turn out the lights. He suddenly heard a loud snapping of fingers, followed by the sound of the calm ocean around him.
Maize barely had closed his eyes for a few seconds when he opened them again. He looked around he found himself sitting on a sandy beach. There was nothing but the sand, a few trees around and the ocean calmly drifting in and out, slowly getting closer and closer with each passing second. All the inkling felt like doing was sit there. The wind blowing across his body felt great. The ocean water began to reach him, splashing against his lower body before receding.
"Good evening! Welcome to my office," Maize suddenly heard a very high pitched voice ring out. He looked to his left. There was an older squid standing beside him who had dark green tentacles that were tied up behind his head. The inkling was wearing a pair of glasses and a black business suit, with a form of clip on bow tie.
"…huh?" Maize saw the older inkling offer his hand to him. He extended his hand and grabbed it. Suddenly, everything changed. Agent 3 was no longer on this beach he had a vision of now, but instead on a very relaxing chair he was in a regular office that was plastered in tons of photos and paintings
"I said welcome to my office, mister Maize. I'm Ao," Ao introduced himself, his hands still on Maize's. Maize pulled back his hand in confusion.
"He-hey! How'd you know my name?" Maize was surprised. He felt like he had been injected with more of that medicine Cornell had on him, but oddly there was no numbness to his body, but just a calm sensation with a lacking pain.
"Why, you told me it of course. You last visited that beach when you were six, correct? In Seaside Hill," Ao claimed. Maize went wide eyed, looking at this odd man before him, unsure of what to think. He had no idea where he was at the moment.
"Are you a psychic?"
"No, I'm a hypnotist. My methods insist on my patients not just opening their mouths but their minds for me" Ao the squid happily hummed. He had already hypnotized Maize and gathered information from him while he was out of it. The Special Squid Services member wondered how long he had been spaced out for.
"…wait, of course… that place, right? My parents would take me and my sister to that fresh beach all the time. It was one of the only fresh water beaches around," Maize answered, not wanting to fight against the hypnotizing methods. If relaxation was the best way to access memories, then he was ready for it. He had not gotten a real rest in quite some time. Fresh water beaches were quite rare nowadays, but they were great to him. All of those fun memories he had on the vacations soothed his brain.
"And what are your parent's names?" Ao requested.
"…my mom's name is Apricot. Dad's was Arylide," he responded. The hypnosis specialist got up from his chair and walked over a nearby desk, beginning to rummage through it.
"What is it you want to be reminded of? A faded cherished memory? Some peace to settle your mind? Where you left your keys?" Ao questioned, wanting to know what specifically his patient needed to find out about. Maize opened his mouth. Initially he wanted to say the age when he was fifteen and what had happened with Cyan, but he hesitated. Being offered the chance to have one of his more cherished memories revisited sounded great.
"…can you help me see my mother again?" Maize asked, aware that there was some psychiatry involved with this, considering this was his mental state being perused.
"Apricot is deceased?" Ao quirked, holding a super sea snail shell, the green slime within it being safely contained so it would not spill out.
"No, it's just… I haven't seen her since I was really young," Maize shook his head. He hoped his mother was still alive, but none of the family had any form of interaction with her since she left. He watched the hypnotist open the container and grab a few other odd things from jars off his shelf. He was beginning to mix into the slime.
"Mhm… you're yearning for an era that has been long gone, but it is not healthy for you. It can lead to depression which can be very hard to treat," Ao warned while approaching holding the super sea snail shell, its mixture being quite strong in scent that it smelled like overcooked vegetables crushed together into one. He held the shell out to the yellow inkling.
"If you wish to, then I ask you allow me to give you this. It will help you keep more conscious in your memories, but you must follow my exact orders," Ao claimed, Maize taking the mixture. He was unsure what to do now. He was becoming afraid at how serious the psychiatry specialized hypnotist was sounding.
"Now then, Maize. Drink it and we can begin. Lucky that I have no other patients today," the hypnotist insisted. Maize always knew how much Spyke the sea urchin wanted this slime, but he had no idea why. He complied, tilting the shell back and beginning to drink the mixture. It felt like a cocktail of poison to his taste buds. He gagged and coughed, holding his throat once he finished, gasping for breath.
"Good! You did not even vomit. Usually it takes a few sips before anyone gets used to it," Ao laughed, enjoying that look on his patient's face. Maize began to notice the odd feeling beginning to overwhelm him again like back in the waiting room. He was noticing everything around him in the office beginning to fade out.
"Now, blow into the shell like it is a mighty horn for war with all your breath," he added. Maize nodded, slowly taking in a deep inhale and then putting the shell to his lips. He let out a huge exhaust of his breath, hearing the shells noise echoing loudly. Maize opened his eyes, continuing blowing the shell horn, seeing odd lights coming from the shell that kept getting brighter, and brighter, until the room was engulfed by it. Maize found himself standing in a completely white room.
"…Ao?" Maize panted as he called out. The shell was now gone. Everything was bleak and empty, but when the yellow squid turned around, he notice another place. A place that he could describe as a home. He was standing on a wooden floor in a nice kitchen. Everything looked very big, twice his size, but something was not right.
"Huh?! I-I'm a squirt again!" Maize gasped in awe. His voice was a lot different now. He looked to the oven, seeing his reflection in the reflective material. He was back to his very young self, seeming only nine years old. Squirts were toddler squids, who then became fully grown inklings at the age of fourteen, and no longer were considered squishies when they reached five.
"I… looked like this?" Maize had both of his tentacles again. It felt like it was never bit off, but when he was this age, he never expected to see what his older self would become or what would happen. No one could predict that kind of future, but he was mostly happy with his adult self. The young squirt was wearing a brightly colored orange shirt that had lion-like black stripes on it in random places. Maize was missing his glasses, but his vision felt fine. Suddenly he heard footsteps behind him on the wooden floor.
"Little bro! You know you can't be in the kitchen alone! You could hurt a bone!" an all too familiar voice rhymed. Maize turned around, looking up to see his older sister standing before him. She looked to be her same, rhyming self. She was still dawning the same bag on her side, carrying an oxygen tank and the same machine that forced her heart to pump. She was wearing a black shirt that seemed to be promoting a rock band called Dubstomp, which sounded silly, but they used to be quite popular. They would inevitably wind up falling out of style years later.
"Sorry…" Maize said, Fallow coming over and picking him up, holding him happily in her arms. The light red squid had only recently turned fourteen, and now was a full-fledged inkling. It was nice, considering how long it took to just become one. Now she just had to work on her changing to her squid form easier.
"Mom would be alarmed, if you were harmed," Fallow smiled while carrying him. The yellow inkling was so astonished by everything. It was perfectly detailed. Every last thing he remembered of his old home was here. This hypnotism was working quite well. He felt like he was having a very lucid dream. Maize had been carried to the living room, seeing all of his old toys. His older sister put him down, being left to the task to try and entertain him while their mother cleaned up. Maize saw the familiar stairwell leading upstairs. There was quite the mess for a living room, seeming like spring cleaning had just rolled around.
"Where's mom?" Maize requested. He wanted specifically to see his mother, which was why he drank that nasty super sea snail slime mixture in the first place.
"She is trying to clean the upstairs hall. She means to finish it all by nightfall," Fallow answered, rubbing her little brother's head. His sister had not changed at all, maybe because of the forced rhyming that kept throwing him off. He looked up at her, putting on his best upset expression he could. His sister sighed, going off to get their mother, not wanting to deal with him crying. Maize wanted to continue enjoying his memories while he could, but he was aware that it had to be brief. He had to look into the day of Cyan's murder, but for some reason, this was a key moment in his memory that refused to leave. He finally heard footsteps coming back down the steps that began to give the yellow squirt a bright smile, seeing Fallow walking alongside the one who Maize missed for the longest of time. His own mother, who he was so desperate to see again that he resorted to hypnotism, just to see her in his memories, the one place she could never vanish from.
"I want to fulfill that promise..."