It was beautiful.
The crowd of Inklings stood, taking in the plaza. There were rows of colorful shops in a circle (the Squid Sisters' brand new studio clearly visible among them), and there were two giant animal statues of a fox and a tanuki looking down at the plaza from on top of the rooftops. The pavement was brand-new, and covered with the same painted ink blotches as the surroundings, and the freshly-repainted Inkopolis Tower standing tall over everything at the back. Something stranger, as well- two trucks with LED boards on the fronts and makeshift stages on the top, not unlike ones that were often used for live music at outdoor events.
And perhaps the oddest thing- eight squids, four magenta and four lime, each standing in identical formation on opposite sides of the plaza. They were dressed identically, in what looked almost like armor, with only the color differing. And… they all had weapons. One of each had a long, thin gun- snipers. One pair had what looked like an oversized bucket. Two had a giant paint roller. And the last matching couple held a weapon Fin recognized- a Splattershot, an ink-shooting gun.
There was a moment of tense silence.
Both snipers suddenly readied their weapons at the same instant, and each fired one shot of colored ink at something lying near the crowd, and there was a clunk- it was a spotlight, a set of two, and they turned on. Thanks to the ink, the usually white light coming from them was colored- one of them pink, the other green- but what was interesting was what they were illuminating. Set up on a ledge on Inkopolis tower was a set of unmanned instruments- a drumset, a keyboard, a bass, a guitar, and a mic.
The whole scene was frozen in place for a moment, people unable to comprehend why there were instruments there of all places, and then, with a slosh, a neon purpley-blue inkling dressed in baggy clothes and a whistle around his neck rose up behind the guitar.
Fin knew that face. Everyone knew that face.
The cheers were deafening as the lead singer of the Squid Squad picked up his guitar, waving at the crowd almost bashfully. The chants of "I-CHI-YA" were already starting, as well as "NA-MI-DA", "MU-RA-SA-KI", and "IK-KAN". Finley was not hesitant to join in, even though it seemed the shouting was slightly overwhelming the young musician. He raised his arm, looking around at the scene before him, and everyone fell silent, wondering in vain what was going to happen as if they didn't already know.
She'd often tried to play it on the piano in her house- she'd given up on lessons years ago, and only her mom ever used it, but it was an heirloom- and mostly failed, but she at least knew those four notes.
The four notes that Ichiya played a bit overdramatically, slowly, drawing out each note. C, Eb, F, C. (If her memory served her right). 'Splattack'. The crowd roared, and the orange Namida and purple Ikkan appeared in small bursts of ink behind their instruments as well. There was a pause, and then Murasaki popped out, waving his drumsticks around and grinning at the crowd. (The short urchin had probably just been crouching behind the bass drum, as opposed to hiding as a smaller squidnoid.)
The band greeted the intimidating sea of inklings with more waving, then looked down at the soldiers- those were soldiers, they couldn't be anything else, right?- down below.
A curt nod from their blue leader was all they needed.
They raised their weapons.
Murasaki started the drumbeat. Ichiya blew his whistle.
You could hear the crowd scream the first line of the song as one from anywhere in the inner city circle. "Fri Tsca!"
"Color War!"
The soldiers sprang into action.
Finley had never seen anything like it. The two teams of inklings started to fiercely battle it out on the pavement- ink was flying left and right, one moment the square was pink, the next it was green, back and forth and back and forth. Every time someone popped, they came back from a circle on the ground like it was nothing (gave Fin a heart attack the first time, but she got used to it after the first dozen instances). It was exhausting just to watch. The rhythm of the battle almost totally synced up with the rhythm of the blasting music, despite how shaky Splattack itself was live. (She looked up to watch Ichiya sing, and for the first time realized how this was affecting him- poor guy looked so nervous... but he was doing alright, minus a few stutters here and there. Besides, it was still breathtaking hearing them live, without all the sound overlays that normally gave them their trademark distortion.) The song went on, the battle went on, and they collectively abandoned prior chants in favor of cheering for either pink or green. Fin was particularly fond of egging on the green roller, and it seemed like Mari was favoring the pink bucket-guy. Umi was just aimlessly shouting.
And then the inkling realized something- this was Turf War. Turf War, the stupid game babies played with buckets, but on a whole other level. It looked exhilarating, amazing, thrilling... Why had they ever stopped playing it, if it looked this... fun?
The song was coming to a close already, and it was anyone's game still- if the objective was indeed to have more of your color on the ground, as she remembered. Green seemed to be pulling ahead a tiny bit, but it was so close...
The final moments of the song. Someone started a countdown in the crowd.
It was over.
Ichiya blew his whistle, and everyone froze. The noise dulled down to a low murmur, and a small, chubby, furry something walked out on two legs into the middle of the battlefield, standing in a small inkless patch and looking around. It held two flags, one in each paw, and after a tense moment, it held one up high.
The green flag.
It was a while before the cheer died down. (Fin had to mostly refrain, of course, from fear of her voice being gone in the morning, but she was joining in in spirit.) Once they'd slowed to a low roar, there was a noise as if someone was tapping a microphone, and then a familiar pair of voices rang throughout the square.
"Looks like I won this round, Callie~"
"Yeah, yeah. I won most of the rehearsals, don't get too cocky, Marie."
With a splash, two inklings landed on top of the trucks as if they'd been launched from somewhere up high, and confetti guns on the sides went off as the Squid Sisters themselves did their signature pose. The majority of their audience joined in, copying them as if it was instinct.
"Hello, Inkopolis!" Callie shouted, cheerfully waving at the gathering of inklings.
"How ya' doin'?" Marie grinned at the crowd, and another round of cheering was fired back at them. "Did you like what you just saw?" She gestured down at the battlefield. (A crew of people was already there to mop up the ink…) There was overwhelming approval from the viewers, jumping up and down and trying in vain to get into the plaza. "How'd you like to... give it a try?"
"This is Turf War, the game you all know and love, but to the extreme! We've got everything right here ready for you to play!" Callie pointed to a giant screen under the tanuki statue, and a video started to play.
It was mainly comprised of clips of turf war- battles being held in all sorts of locations, people with crazy-looking weapons, throwing ink-sploding bombs back and forth, even in what looked like some kind of special stadium made specially for turf war, stands filled with a huge crowd watching the eight figures duel it out. The music was similar to the one that had just been played- definitely the same band. (Hadn't she heard something about that…?)
When the video ended, the screen turned back off, and the spotlights focused on the two idols got brighter again.
"Time to give you the lowdown on what we've got you!" Callie pointed towards the green-and-black tower behind them. "Inkopolis Tower is where it's at, all day, every day! Just take one step inside and you're ready to play!"
"We've been working on this for a while, making sure it's the maximum amount of fun possible, and we know you're just gonna love it. We got just about anything you could ask for here! Y'all already saw how it works, and tomorrow morning, you can give it a hand yourself! How's that sound?" Marie raised a hand to one of her ears.
"A bit fishy..." Umi muttered, but no one could hear her over the other opinion.
"That's the spirit!" The green pop star laughed. "We're bringing Turf War back in style, baby!"
"But first…" Callie picked up a small remote from on top of one of the speakers on her truck, pressing the button. "It's time to party!"
All the barriers separating the inklings from the square suddenly fell flat, and the crowd surged forward, filling the square and surrounding the trucks. People who tried to get into the various buildings were met with locked doors, but this wasn't much a discouragement once the speakers scattered around the plaza came to life and the Squid Sisters launched into their trademark song- Calamari Inkantation.
Finley could not believe what she was seeing. She showed up to fall for a tourist trap, and ends up treated to a free Squid Sisters concert? This, she figured, had to be the greatest night of her life.
She tried to join the crowd, but her arm was grabbed by one of her companions, preventing her from going too far.
"Hey, what's the big idea?" She turned around, glaring at the offender.
"We're getting outta here." Jyugo announced loudly to the group as a whole.
"What, really? But... Squid Sisters... live..." Finley's face fell.
"No. It's already too late, and the little ones are gonna get themselves lost."
"This is the opportunity of a lifetime! We can't go home now!" Mari pouted.
"Sis, as much as I don't wanna break your heart, the next train is at 11:30, and Mom is gonna have my head if I keep you out much later than this."
"But… just a few minutes? There's a while before the train comes…" She stared up at him, sticking out her bottom lip for emphasis.
"…" Jyugo sighed. "Fine. But only until the train comes, and you're not going out of my sight. Got that?"
"Yesyesyesyesyesyes!" Mari grabbed Fin and Umi's hands, twirling them around to get a picture. "Can you believe this?"
"No, actually. What are the chances this just happened to occur…?" Umi sighed. "Fin, are you sure you didn't know about this?"
"I had no idea. Come on, I would have told you!"
"It's a holiday, Umi. Plus, what better time to announce this kind of thing than right before everyone has all the time in the world to play?" Mari laughed.
"Are we gonna?" Fin's eyes were practically shining. "Play it, I mean."
"I'm not one for sports, but I gotta admit, that did look pretty badass…" The blonde shrugged. "Maybe I'll try it out at camp first? I know they offer it."
"You got one day left! Come on, try it out tomorrow. I mean, I'm doing it." Fin grinned.
"If Fin's doing it, I guess I have no choice." The blue-haired squid looked up from her phone, giggling. "Plus, it's blog content if nothing else."
"Okay, fine. If we're doing this, we're doing this. But I am so gonna kick y'all's asses."
"Why, you little…" The three shared a laugh before joining the rest of the crowd jamming out to the sweet sounds filling the plaza.
Soon, however, 9:55 rolled around, and Jyugo started rounding up all his impromptu charges, instructing the older girls to help round up the younger ones. As soon as she found her sister and got her attention, Persimmon reluctantly took Finley's hand. Just before they left the crowd, the little girl reached up to get one last sister shellfie in front of the scene.
They escaped the gaggle of excited inklings, and soon, the whole set of kids were waiting for the 10:00 train. The station was pretty empty, seeing as the majority of the guests were still partying, and when the train arrived, Finley gave the concert one last sad look before boarding.
"How are we gonna get here tomorrow?" Umi asked, as soon as the train started moving. "It's not like you've been planning tomorrow for a month."
"I dunno… I'll just ask my mom, I guess."
"You think she'll say yes on such short notice? Really?"
"I mean, she's pretty chill. Besides, if I say you two are going, she won't want me to be sad…"
"So we'll just all say everyone else's parents already approved. Right." Umi rolled her eyes. "This isn't a movie, Fin, things don't work like that."
"It's the best chance we have, though." Mari pointed out.
"Yeah… Come on, don't be a downer. Let's just hope we get time tomorrow to try it out, huh?"
"If you say so…" The yellow girl couldn't help but smile.
The rest of the ride was mostly silent. The younger kids were almost asleep, the older ones didn't want to wake them, and Finley and her friends were too busy lost in their phones and their minds. (Mari, in particular, was going absolutely crazy with posting and research, and Fin had found someone livestreaming the concert on Beme, deeming it a worthwile use of her shell data. She'd much rather be there, of course, but she'd take what she could get.) As they returned home, their parents were all waiting at the station to drive them home- thanks to Jyugo- and on the drive home, Persimmon wouldn't stop talking for a single moment. That was good- it saved Fin from having to snap herself out of the daze she still hadn't broken out of.
She didn't realize how tired she was until she got back to her bedroom, flopping down on her bed. It took all her energy to just change into her pajamas… hopefully she'd be recovered in time for tomorrow's suddenly-planned sports outing.
She fell asleep as soon as her head touched the pillow, and the memories of the spectacle would invade her dreams that night.