Maize had walked out of the hypnotist's office with a new perspective of his thought process. When he stepped outside, he saw his friends all waiting outside, and they looked to have a mix of slight boredom and worry.
"Finally! We heard screaming and tried to come in, but the doctor wouldn't us in," Callie claimed. She had grown quite worried for their dear friend. Agent 3 was not surprised, having presumed he had done quite a bit of screaming in his sleep, but none of them had any idea about what.
"He's a hypnotist with a minor is psychiatry," Marie corrected. He was very far from doctor and she had been to him multiple times before.
"Sorry. It was really crazy…" Maize apologized for worrying them, ECO pulling him into a hug. The robotic octoling was beginning to gain her sister's concern, but they had to focus on the mission at hand.
"Well? Do tell! Did you remember in great depth, about Cyan's tragic death?" Fallow requested, wanting to know immediately. Her younger brother nodded. It felt nice to see her again, especially after some of the nightmarish visions he witnessed inside the hypnotic trip. He broke the embrace with ECO.
"Yeah… I know one thing. I'm not the real killer!" Maize stated, immediately noticing a lot of smiles breaking out on the other agents' faces.
"Oh, that's such a relief," Marie let out a long sigh. It felt like someone had been holding onto her tentacles and freezing them. Her nerves had been bugging her for the longest time in doubt of it.
"I knew you couldn't have killed another squid!" Callie jumped in joy, gaining a sarcastic glance from her cousin.
"What? You cried a little back at his place," Marie reminded, embarrassing the black inkling who seemed to gain a slight blush, recalling how close she had come to breaking down.
"So who's the real killer?" Octoronia wondered aloud, the same thought on all the inklings' and octolings' minds. Maize did seem detoured. He had a pretty good idea on who the real murderer might be, and as much, as he hated to think of it. He had no choice but to presume it, as that was his only lead.
"We need to find Fulvous. I need to talk to her. She might be the only one left who knows where the real killer is," Maize claimed. Just mentioning that squid's name made him afraid. He imagined feeling her teeth still ripping through his tentacle like he was sushi. No one questioned his judgment on this, but he was aware they all had to be careful, considering that this inkling specifically was out for revenge.
"Wh-what if she bites off our tentacles?!" Callie squeaked in fear. Clearly she had thought that Fulvous did that as a main form of assault, when in actuality, it was just the result of a struggle gone wrong between Maize and her, though a few of the others could not help but have the same worry.
"Mine are too thick to be bitten through," ECO chimed blankly. Octoronia was now pondering about how her own tentacles tasted, beginning to grow quite curious.
"We could find her easily, if no one does mind splitting up?" Fallow recommended searching in separate groups. There were six agents, after all, so pairs of two would make it simpler to cover more ground. Maize nodded in agreement, but before they could go anywhere, he had another sudden reminder hit him.
"Oh, uh… Callie, Marie… err… I hate to ask, but… I can't cover the bill for the session," Maize sheepishly admitted, hating to use his best friends' coin cards for his own problems. The white inkling rubbed her head, seemingly all too aware of the cost of these herself, considering how she had undergone a few sessions as well.
"A million coins, right? …yeah, I'll cover it, don't worry," Marie volunteered from her own savings. That was why she did not do these hypnosis sessions often. Their price made it a little hard to balance the worth of reliving a cherished memory repeatedly.
"Wait-! You've been spending millions on hypnosis?!" Callie gawked at her cousin, seeing the disguised squid stick her tongue out in mocking retort.
"If you tried it back when there was a half off special going on you'd see why" she claimed. Maize rubbed his eyes, glad he had her covering the bill.
"I promise I'll make it up to you, someday. I'll do anything in return for this. But right now we need to figure out who's goin' where. I was thinking me and ECO should go start at Arowana Mall," Maize suggested they split off into random pairs of two, not only to try and adjust to cooperating with the other agents.
"Uhh, how about I go with you instead. We can let ECO and Callie go check out Hammerhead Bridge," Octoronia instead insisted to fill in for her sister. ECO cast her an annoyed glance, the light on her chest turning red in irritation. For some odd reason the metallic octoling wanted to be around the yellow squid more.
"Alright… and Fallow, you and Marie can go check out the plaza," Maize exclaimed. His sister nodded before happily hugging Marie's arm, much to the famous squid's irritation. The light red tentacle girl seemed all too happy to be with her.
"Yay! I get to spend part of the day with you!" Fallow hummed happily.
"Joy…" Marie sighed, forcing the brain damage squid to let go of her arm before she went into the hypnotist's office to pay off the bill. So the group seemed to scatter instantly, Maize leaving with the disguised inventor octoling. Callie went with a rather annoyed ECO which made her worried that the metal octopus disliked her. She just tried to act calm, not wanting to upset the emotional cortex octoling.
"Soo… why'd you want me away from your sister so bad?" Maize questioned confusedly. It seemed like ever since his last trip to Mollusk Metropolis, the inventor octopus had begun to grow more nervous of the two's interactions. She tilted her head, lifting up her goggles slightly.
"Maize, I don't think I should tell you at all. Not just as an inventor trying to hide some secret awesome technology, but as a sibling watching out for her little sister," Octoronia claimed she was trying to take care of ECO. She did not mean to insult Maize, but clearly she had done that, judging by his quirked eyebrow. Agent 4 felt really bad for it.
"You think I could hurt her? I'm pretty sure she could break my wrist if I made her mad," Maize grinned. That same joyful inkling she knew was back once again. She shook her head.
"Well… I guess you're experienced enough in the area… but look. ECO has five emotions; anger, joy, sadness, shock and embarrassment," Octoronia tried to begin explaining. She had to think briefly before she spoke, not wanting to lose her squid friend in all the talk of techno babble that she specialized in.
"Yeah?" Maize nodded, so far understanding as they walked. The day seemed pretty nice at the moment. There were a lot of other squids out and some that they passed gave him an odd look because of that one tentacle that looked quite rough at the moment, but he was still happy to think he was not a murderer anymore. That had been a big burden to him for years. That finally was relieved, but he still had to prove it true.
"But she has a sixth emotion, and it's too hard to remove a feeling, even if she is a robot. I couldn't do it and failed, but I turned it somewhat off. I'm worried she activated it again unintentionally," the octoling said while biting her thumb, worried from recalling what this sixth emotion had done before.
"What is it? Please tell me it's not loathing," he requested, not wanting to imagine what that would be like. Agent 4 shook her head, seeming embarrassed now to mention it.
"No, it's love…" she simply said. The two stopped looking at one another. The yellow squid had a confused look now. She said he was a specialist in this area, but he doubted that at all. Just because he had a marriage did not mean he was a specialist at it.
"So? Why would you turn off her love emotion? Doesn't she love you?" Maize questioned. It was confusing since the robotic octoling showed deep care for her creator.
"I turned its hard effects and personality changes off! But like I said, I can't simply remove it because of that. No matter how much it's off, the emotion begins to turn itself back on with or without her aiding it," Octoronia exclaimed further. The yellow squid had his own concerned look, worried what she was getting at.
"Wait… don't tell me…" he muttered, burying his face in his hands, not wanting to hear the answer.
"Yeah… I'm worried ECO might love you," Octoronia declared just what he thought she was going to say. The inkling threw his arms in the air.
"I should not really be surprised! I really shouldn't… no such thing as calm and simple anymore! Nope! Everything's crazy! I may as well be too!" Maize hysterically laughed. How ridiculous all these missions had gotten had really started to mount up. They all never were as simple as they seemed. But now it was seeming like even his best friends were changing from simple to crazy and complex.
"Hey, hey, hey! Calm down! I didn't mean to make you go nuts… you should be flattered. It takes a lot to get that emotion to target another," Octoronia stated.
"But why me? Why did she fall in love with me?" he requested her to at least explain that, but she shrugged, unsure, never having a main idea behind that but only a theory.
"Well you see, I turned her love emotion off because… she got TOO attached to them and her last boyfriend… Well… he took advantage of her in ways that made me feel sick," Octoronia hated to imagine it. Maize began to calm down, but he felt bad. He bit his lip, unsure what to do. He did the only thing that really would come to his mind. If this was just a matter of love, he had to handle it himself, as long as ECO had her circuit boards straight and did not go crazy too.
"You know I wouldn't do anything to her. I promise to make sure this gets straightened out," Maize assured. He was not the type of squid who would be desperate enough to need a robot to get some small pleasure. This topic had gotten too embarrassing for the inventor octopus to continue discussing. Just imagining it all was beginning to drive her a bit insane. The two resumed their walk.
"Can you tell me who this killer is now? Why do you think Fulvous would know? She thinks it's you after all…" Octoronia requested to be let in on that in trade for the prior conversation and how she opened up about her own robotic sibling. Maize nodded, aware that the orange squid claimed she had witnessed him choke her brother to death. He believed this was not true at all.
"Because… well, when I was younger my parents would fight a lot and dad would keep going away for weeks at a time," Maize started. He had to delve back into his own memory for this, though this time, his mind was quite fresh in recalling each detail. That session really had been worth the money.
"I don't see what your parents have to do with this, but alright…" Octoronia just let him continue. She watched the yellow squid pull out his wallet and present the photograph of Cyan.
"I never paid much attention to it… but look at this," Maize pressured her to look at the photograph closely. She did, and so far she was seeing nothing special about it at all.
"Why do you have a picture of him?" she quirked curiously. That was the same thought the yellow squid had for the longest time, but the same answer was what he kept getting.
"I found it in my dad's drawers. Mom had vanished a year before after a fight, and dad shortly did too. Fallow wound up raising me herself after that," Maize claimed. Ever since he found this lone image in that drawer he had always wondered what it meant. It was not that old, only about five years of age to it being kept safely within the yellow squid's possession. Cyan had been murdered when he was fourteen, only a year younger than Maize, and this picture was taken during that very fourteenth birthday party, the time he would officially be a fully grown inkling.
"…look at his eyes and his tentacles," Maize requested. Octoronia did just that, trying to view the picture more closely in the specific areas he pointed out.
"…Maize, he has the same tinge you do… and your eye color… oh gosh!" Octoronia almost felt like she was going insane herself upon realizing it. Cyan had the same darkish yellow tinge at the end of his tentacles and his eye color was the exact same as Maize's. If looked closer the octoling swore they had similar facial features too. It was quite a shock but easy to miss.
"Yeah… I think I know what my parents last fought about now before mom left…" Maize committed to this mystery to be solved, but each new piece seemed to just lead to an unwanted path that he did not want to imagine, but all the evidence was beginning to make him look less like a murderer, and now there was only one real squid left that could be the killer.
"…you had a half-brother, and you didn't even know… I can't imagine how you're handling taking this all in at once," Octoronia returned the photo of his half-brother back. Maize put it back in his wallet next to his coin card, pocketing it. He did appear annoyed knowing this though.
"Yeah… to think that me and Fulvous have been suffering. Not because of what I did… but because of what I let my dad do," Maize stated. He was somehow involved with this murder that much, he could not deny, but he was far from being the true killer. The only option left was his father. It was safe to assume his dad had been having quite the odd affair in the past. He had to presume that uncovering this was the final straw that sent his mother away. The two could see Arowana Mall in the distance, both planning to try and find Fulvous and talk with her rationally about this.
"Whatever happened was out of my control, but it was buried on top of confusion and pain," Maize added. This had become a lot more than just a mission of clearing his own name and prove to his friends that he was innocent. It had a lot of personal anger being put into it his mother vanishing one night, suddenly the murder of a brother. He did not even know what he would do if Fulvous decided to even help them. They needed to be pointed in the right direction toward Arylide, his father.
"What'll you do… if you see your dad again?" Octoronia had to inquire. She had no clue what he would do. She saw the yellow inkling ball his fist up angrily, trying to calm himself down.
"I need to follow my tradition, and keep my promises no matter how old they are, and whatever I say to Fulvous and whatever I do to my father, I promise to make sure it only reveals the truth," Maize swore. This promise was to no one but himself and frankly that was all he needed right now. Octoronia had to admire that determination and pure blazing soul he had always burning with nothing but his tradition's strength, though the octoling wondered what he meant by tradition. She hoped to one day learn more from him when things calmed down. As for right now, she was more concerned about her sister and Maize, but the yellow squid was just wanting the truth. So the two entered Arowana Mall in hopes of finding Fulvous.