Underneath Inkopolis.

0100 hours.

While the days for the Inklings above ended, their day was just beginning.

They had to complete their routine, go out and scavenge for materials or food, steal them, if necessary. They needed a restock, they couldn't feed as many people as there were with what they had left.

"Junko, what's the status outside?"

"Empty, the shops aren't 24/7, thankfully, so we can probably get something from them."

"What about the security cameras?"

"What do you mean? We can just block them out like we've done before."

"Right."

"Go tell Ken about this, we'll split up into two different groups, one for food and one for materials, we're probably gonna need some maintenance on our guns soon."

"Roger."

Junko kept watch. Her vantage point wasn't the best, admittedly, as it was in the middle of Inkopolis' plaza, but it had been working for the past few months.

Junko slid down the ladder when her partner signaled her, making sure to cover the entrance back up.

Ken was standing at the bottom, Junko waited for his plan.

"Junko, we're going to send you out with Rin, you two are going to find as much food as you can, this is top priority."

"Right." She glanced to the girl standing beside Ken. Rin had never been one Junko liked to work with, but she needed to get some cooperation going between them, their mission was of the utmost importance.

After readying their weapons, Junko and Rin climbed up the ladder and exited into hostile territory.

The night was still. The moon was not visible, clouds had rolled in, obscuring its light. The two had to turn on the night vision on their goggles. They pulled out their weapons. Junko signaled to Rin on where to go, who followed without question.

The two were able to get to a restaurant, this one had been marked as a valuable site, their first raid on the place went perfectly, giving everyone enough food to last for a while. They went to it first, hoping to have as easy of a time as they did before. They were successful in picking the back door open.

Ever so slowly they walked into the restaurant. Junko did multiple takes around the place until she spotted a security camera, thankfully, they were out of its line of sight. Junko hand signaled its presence. Rin nodded and brought out a suppressor for her gun and attached it. When the camera was pointing away, Rin took aim and shot. The ink fired caught onto the camera's lens, blinding it.

The two passed the camera and entered into the main kitchen. Rin caught sight of another camera and blinded it as well. Signaling to Junko, the two continued on to the storage room.

Junko hushed her voice when speaking "I'll go find the freezer, you get as much food as you can from here. Make sure to get some salt so we can keep the meat fresh."

Rin nodded knowingly, the two split up.

As Rin pulled out a trash bag and grabbed food off of the shelves, Junko got to the back of the storage room. Finding the freezer, she opened it up. The cool air drifting out in a cloud, making Junko shiver. She spent as little time as was possible in there, her clothing not helping her stay warm. She lifted up multiple small boxes of packaged meat. When she was done, she saw that Rin had a nearly full bag of food. She handed Junko a box of multiple salt containers.

The two got out of the restaurant as quickly as they could, making sure to keep as low of a profile as they could. Their hearts nearly jumped out of their throats multiple times when the occasional Inkling who was out late walked by.

Arriving at the entrance, Junko tapped on the cover with her foot, in a pattern that gave permission to enter. The Octoling who popped open the cover took the boxes and climbed down ahead of Junko and Rin. Rin, finally fitting her bag into the shaft, slid the cover back over.

At the bottom the Octoling handed Junko the boxes of food back. Ken was waiting as the bottom.

Addressing Junko and Rin he said "Good work you two. You've helped a lot of people today. Take the food to the main room, please."

In the main room, Junko saw what she could never get used to seeing.

Tons of Octarians sat in the large expanse, their clothes dirtied, many were sick. There were whole families, the parents worried if their children would continue in the conditions. These were the ones who didn't continue following DJ Octavio after his defeat, they were run out of Octo Valley, forced to live with everyone else right under their enemy's noses, with only the ones who stayed faithful to Octavio being allowed to stay.

Junko and Rin gave tonight's findings to the resource managers, who began passing around the food in equal quantities to all of the individuals. After eating, many came over to thank the two for their work, calling them saints. Junko simply nodded in response to the praise.

Living here wasn't easy, but making everyone's nights better helped Junko to keep going.

'One day.' She thought, 'One day we'll be able to get out of here, everyone's lives will be better then. All the trouble will be worth it.'

Three new chapters in one day, that's something unusual, isn't it?