Subject 10003

Takaoki Serika

Octozon Agent, Agent 8.5?

I'm Takaoki Serika. 16 years old and the oldest sister of my family.

I have no purpose in life, even before and after my mother disappeared, leaving me to be with my aunt and my father.

I mean they're very caring and supportive of me and my sister, even after I became a soldier at 13 years old.

But I had nothing in life until I met her, an inkling girl who always follows me, even calling me Seika after my name was called.

She's an idiot, but I like her a lot for it.

My little sister, Shiki and I were separated after I worked and reunited again, then split off again but in Deepsea Metro this time.

Before that, I lost my aunt to the inklings, but she chose it herself, even my old friend Ryu told me and was there.

After having no family, Shiki and I are raised by the famous Off the Hook duo, Houzuki Hime and Marina Iida.

It's nice.

Rei, are you okay?

We're still alive.

Click!

Abyss

A spawn point is now silver which shows an inkling girl with a hippie haircut and a hero jacket lying on it in an unknown world.

After waking up, she's in a dark underground cave with a train track on the ground.

Is she back in Deepsea Metro?

"Mama Hotaru? Mirai? Pearl? Marina? Neku? Ryu? Shiki? Gramps? Anyone?" Calling, Rei is now all alone while trying to find her way out after picking up her spawn point.

But where is she?

There's no sanitised octarians, no octolings and no inklings.

Just a lone little inkling who couldn't use her inner demon.

"Zero? Zero? What's going on? Zero…"

Alone in this miserable world, a fitting end to a foolish one who always makes terrible decisions.

But something is making a sound.

"Huh?"

A drone that carries a box and it lowers itself in front of her.

"Sheldon? Hm… What's this?"

To Rei's surprise, she has witnessed what Sora had promised.

A hero headset that was made from scratch.

This had Rei grinning like an idiot while putting them on and preparing herself.

The UI is updated and is now showing the Ammo Knights and Sora's logo as a welcome sign.

"Ooh!~"

With the drone flying away, Rei hastily follows it while taking the box with her.

Where the drone leads her to is a train station larger than usual as Rei climbs up to the surface and then stops after witnessing those familiar to her.

"Ah! Seika, Mr. Takowasa… Mama Aori!?" Rei exclaims with excitement and then hugs Serika.

"Rei! Thank god! I thought you're gone…" Serika rejoices after seeing her rival alive.

"I thought you were splatted earlier!"

"Heh. I thought, but you can thank my old man!"

"Hmph! Well, I can't afford to lose mah gals. One is my fan, the other is my soldier and this one's my friend and idol!" DJ Octavio folds his tentacles while making sure his former enemies are okay.

Serika, DJ Octavio and Callie are found alive and safe and Rei is one of them.

Speaking of Callie, she, Aori, was found cocooning herself on one of the seats.

"Callie's okay. She's just as confused as we are." Serika said.

"But Mama Aori looks scared." Rei sounded serious after seeing Aori in this state.

"She is scared. After some idiot sabotaged the hypnoshades, Callie's mental health worsened and this is what happened." Said Serika.

"She didn't speak to us, even before you came to us. Maybe her brain was remixed harder than I anticipated." DJ Octavio had a feeling this ended up in a horrible scenario.

"And whose fault is that?" Serika growls while glaring at her own leader.

"Hey! Don't blame me! Some inksquirt related to the Deep Cut, whatever they are, was the one that did this to splat us!"

This had Rei's head snap after seeing Shiver and her unusual behaviour as she's been told what happened to her real persona.

"That demon… She's the one behind all this." Rei grunts.

This stops Serika and DJ Octavio from arguing and then realises what happened to Serika earlier.

"Of course… It's her… But how do we reach Fuuka? Someone like her is about to become the victim of losing herself to the demon." Said Serika.

"Losing herself? Oh. I remember." Rei stops after knowing Zero's warning.

Then she turns towards Aori while reaching her arm towards her adoptive mother.

"Mama?"

Slap! Aori crawls backwards away from Rei as she shrieks.

"Rei's not real! Y- You can't be real!"

"Mama?"

"I killed Rei… Hotaru's gone… Everyone's gone… What have I done? P- Please… No more. I don't want that!" Aori weeps in fright, thinking that she's hallucinating with illusions of fear.

"Mama…" Rei whispers while lowering her head.

"It's all my fault! It's all my fault…"

"It's not your fault, Callie. Rei's real. She's with us. Everyone's still alive. Hotaru's still out there somewhere." Serika calls out with a calm tone, only to convince Aori what she sees.

"Eh?" Aori gasped.

"She's right! Serika's here, yo boy Octavio's here, even Rei's here to help ya!" DJ Octavio booms while doing the same as Serika.

This had Aori moving her eyes and then sees Rei, Serika and DJ Octavio right in front of her and then slowly moves her arm by touching Rei's hand.

"Is it really you?"

"Yeah. I'm still here." Rei pulls a soft smile while embracing Aori from the things she went through.

This led to Aori sobbing while hugging Rei with joy, fear and sadness.

"Rei! Rei! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

"It's okay, mama. I know you didn't mean to do it. I'm glad you're still alive." Rei coos for her mother while staying calm, reminding her of 2 years ago that Aori did the same for her.

Serika chuckles and DJ Octavio sighs while watching a reunion with 2 inklings.

Later.

"Are you feeling better?" Rei asks while wiping the tears from Aori's eyes.

"Yeah…" Aori sniffles and then stands up while looking around. "So this is Deepsea Metro?"

"Was Deepsea Metro, but we're falling into this world below." Serika answers with worry.

"What? What do you mean, Serika?" Aori asks.

"I don't know either, but their languages are different to ours. Even my boss's decipher couldn't be understood. But that language is called Japanese and we're in Japan." Serika points out.

"Japan? What is that?" Rei is curious to know what Serika's knowledge is.

"One of ancient being's languages. Looks like we're in the world of origin." Serika answered.

"Also. Knowing their history, those humans are the only thing's populatin' the world a long time ago before we're born." DJ Octavio continues while making a sigh of boredom.

"I see. So I guess we're lost, huh?" Rei assumed.

"Not really." Serika chimes in.

"Eh?" Both Rei and Aori turn towards Serika as Serika herself points at the spawn point that Rei is carrying.

"You can still find your way out. Also Japan resembles Haikara. So in other words, we can still find a different train station that could lead us back."

With Serika motivating the group, Rei then helps Callie and hands out a spare hero headset, leading Callie to prepare herself, even though the Hero Roller 0 was also handed back.

"Thanks. But where's Hotaru?" Aori asked.

"We're about to find her, so…" Before Serika finishes her sentence, Aori exclaims while looking at herself in a different getup.

"Also what the heck am I wearing!? And is that a tattoo!?"

"Oh! Um… Well… You see, I thought it'll look cool on ya for a fresh soldier of mine! Hahaha!" Laughing nervously, DJ Octavio is guilty of Aori's fashion.

Rei and Serika are blankly staring at DJ Octavio, unimpressed with his behaviour towards Callie.

"What!? Can't an octoling have his fun!" DJ Octavio whines.

"Relax! I'm still pure and safe! Callie told me earlier!" Aori laughs.

"Fortunately. Now, Rei, the reason why we're keeping the spawn points with us is to survive. We can't afford to lose each other. Shiki…" Serika grunts, thinking about her little sister's fate if she doesn't make it out alive.

"I see… But I'm caught… I'm no longer anonymous." Rei lowers her head.

"I know. Something tells me that this telephone is not as stupid as we made it out to be." Serika can tell by Rei's moody expression.

"Exactly! So cheer up, guys! If I can stand back up! Maybe you guys should too!" Aori stands on the chair while shouting.

"Callie…" Serika whispers.

"Callie?" DJ Octavio grunts with surprise.

"Mama." Rei smiles again after seeing Callie's cheerful side again.

"That's right! From now on, I'd say we should 'stay fresh!'" Aori poses like her usual idol self, leading the trio to raise their heads.

"Stay fresh… Seika, Takowasa. Mama Aori is right. If we stand up, we can still make it. Seika, I know Ryu and Shiki are still out there looking for us." Said Rei.

"Ah! You're right. We need to leave this place and find them." Serika is now determined to find her friend and her sister and protect them with her life.

"Takowasa, I know the sanitisation wasn't your doing, but we have to splat them to make them rest. That includes your family." Rei holds DJ Octavio's tentacles while telling him.

"Ngh… I guess you're right. I don't wanna watch my people sufferin' pain and misery." DJ Octavio closes his eyes and then opens them by slithering his way to one of the pieces. "On the plus side, we have this."

"The last of the four thangs." Serika confirmed as the group stands by a large item.

"Four thangs?" Aori tilts her head out of curiosity.

"It's the trials that we faced in Deepsea Metro. But what on earth is that thing doing in Japan?" Rei asked.

"Baiting us. That thing knew we're after them to escape this hell." Serika answered.

"Argh! When I get out, I will strangle that body snatcher of a telephone! No one messes with my children!" DJ Octavio roars.

"Yeah. Revenge will be ours once we splat the body of an inkling and prevent her from reviving at her spawn point." Serika pierces a glare at the exit while clenching her fist on an Octo Charger 0.

Rei raises her Hero Shot 0 while standing by Serika's side.

"I'm with you on that one. I'm still not done with avenging Dai. I'll never forgive that telephone for murdering my friends." Said Rei.

"Don't forget about me. I'll stay by your side once we escape this place together." Aori arrives while putting a Hero Roller 0 on her shoulder while pulling a smirk.

It's obvious that Aori's smile is a fake.

"Excuse me! I saved y'all asses! Shouldn't I get any credit!?" DJ Octavio shouted.

"Eh? You mean you made the spawn points for us to survive?" Rei asked.

"Yeah! Look at Serika, Callie and mine! It's obvious that you're carrying one yourself. But they're limited since both of you are splatted once. You got two lives left and then you're both dead." DJ Octavio points at 4 spawn points as Rei is one of the 4 to have one.

"Thank you." Rei bows and then puts it on her back.

"Hm? That box." Serika points at it which has Rei remember what she's carrying with her.

Opening the box, inside it contains needles, cans for special weapons and a badge that is from Ammo Knights which could be useful for something.

"Needles?" Serika is confused about a box full of needles.

"Yeah. Sheldon gave us a warning about sanitisation. We're at risk of becoming one of them if we don't get out and find an antidote." Rei explains while handing the needles over.

"The needles that could prevent us from sanitisation, huh. Looks like we do have some hope on our side." Serika sighs with relief and then jabs her own shoulder.

"Looks like we don't have a choice." DJ Octavio jabs himself in the back of his head and then throws away the needle.

Aori then looks at the trio after Rei jabs her neck and then looks back.

"Mama. I know the needles are scary, but bear with it." Said Rei.

Aori then whines while jabbing her arm and adding some fluid into her body to stop the sanitisation from getting to her.

"Use them daily. They don't last forever. So we need to find a way out." Rei said while marching forward with Serika, Aori and DJ Octavio.

The box was taken and was now kept for the needles usage.

"Why do I have to take them?" Aori complains.

"Do you wanna be like them?" DJ Octavio asked.

"Not really…"

"Then there ya go." DJ Octavio is behind 3 girls with their weapons while following them and carrying the 4th thang.

Where they're at is a colourless world that appears to look similar to Inkopolis.

Tokyo

"What the…" Rei gasped.

"No way…" Aori gasped in shock after waking up to a world like this.

"Aw… Shuck…" DJ Octavio can see what's going on as it leads him to drop his gear and a thang and stare at a city like this.

"This is…" Serika slowly clenches her Octo Charger 0 and then loosens it while looking shocked.

This is hell they're in.

"Is this Inkopolis?"