Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

( "Listen up! Cuz' it's going down."

Anarchy Splatcast, we're live!

"Ay! Ay! Here we go!"

"Shiver, Frye, and Big Man!

"Repping the splatlands! We're Deep Cut!"

"Ay! Breaking news! Extra, extra! Read All about It!"

"Ooooooh, let me guess! It's about the Carnival of Souls right? Only one more day before the festival begins! IS EVERYBODY HYPED??!"

"Calm down Frye! We know how much you love the Carnival of Souls. No need for news coverage on that front. Everybody's looking forward to it, after what a rough month it's been…so what's the real breaking news Big Man?"

"The Bullet Train Station S-I is officially open for business! Finally, going back and forth between our sister city is easier than ever!"

"Whaaaaaat?! Don't sound so excited about that!"

"Why wouldn't he? It's great news. The histories and culture of our cities have always been intertwined since the times of legend. Now there's a physical connection between us as well."

"Yeah but…that means Inkopolites are going to be coming over to our turf. What if they overrun us and take over?"

"Splatsville has stood strong through a thousand years of desert weather, wars, bandits, and a name change. There's nothing that can take us down! Have more faith in your hometown Frye!"

"Besides, if things really do get that bad, my sharks and your eels could easily show all unwanted trespassers the door. But I don't believe that too many people will come purely to cause trouble. Our city is the freshest that there is, who wouldn't want to be here?"

"Yeah…yeah that's right! Our city really is the freshest! We should be proud and show that off! Bring on the waves!"

"And that train station couldn't have picked a better time to open! Tomorrow is the first day of the Carnival of Souls!"

"BOOYAH! The freshest holiday of the year! Three days of dancing, partying, and spooky fun!"

"Ay! Ay! Ay! Don't sell the Carnival short now. Sure dancing and partying is great but we can't forget the real meaning of holiday; to celebrate and honor our ancestors!"

"Of course! Only a very young child, or someone reading this in a book without context, wouldn't know what the Carnival of Souls is really about. So take some time today to reflect on your own blessings…oh, and because it's a national holiday, the battle tower will be closed for the first and third day of the carnival. If you want to ink some turf, you better do it now!"

"And that's all the time we have, for now."

"Ay! Let's get out of here and get ready for the big day!

"From Splatsville, to you and all your families, that's a wrap!"

"Until next time…probably after the holidays."

"Catch ya' later!"

----

Yes, the Carnival of Souls. 

The sea folk of this world had a great many holidays. Some like Squidmas and Splatoween, were celebrated all over the globe, albeit stripped of the context that humans said once given it. Some holidays, like Dawnbreaker Day or Soup Fest, were incredibly local, normally only celebrated by one or two towns or cities. And some, like the Carnival of Souls, were very specific to certain continents and countries, like Inkadia.

To an outsider looking in, a festival that celebrates death would look very macabre. A wise outsider would know that life and death go hand in hand…and for that matter the festival isn't really about death at all. No, the Carnival of Souls was a three-day long festival of magic, ancient mystery, fun, and family. It was a festival to honor the spirits of those who came before, to celebrate those who are with us now, and to bless all those who will come after. 

The festival itself began on the eve of the summer solstice every year and ended the day after the solstice. And because it was such a massive deal with such a rich history, everyone had their own way of celebrating the holiday.

The Blue Star Bandits for example. Though they were united by their newly formed bond/team name, they all have very different ways of preparing for the carnival.

---

Aluna let out a depressed sigh, as she peeked into her brother's room. Piled high with dishes that he had forgotten to take back to the sink, a couple of trash bags that he'd forgotten to take to the trash chute, and all kinds of anime/gamer memorabilia and old computer parts. Right now he was laying fast asleep on his very small bed (though proportionally it was the perfect size for him) spooning with his beloved, tastefully nude body pillow of Loach Ackeefish. 

The poor little guy had been particularly depressed these past few days. He was coming out of his room even less often than usual. It frustrated Aluna to no end that every time it felt like he was making progress, he suddenly took two steps backwards…but in this case, she could understand.

The Carnival of Souls was a rough time for both of them. Most people saw it as a fun time with family to remember those you loved who you've lost. Aluna only had one person in her former family that was worth remembering, and she could grieve over him from the safety of this apartment. Everyone else in her bloodline could suck a lionfish Spike…and she hoped that that's what they were doing while they rotted in deep dark. Her brother had had a lovely family once that he missed every single day. He didn't need a special holiday to grieve for them. This entire holiday was all around unpleasant for the two of them.

As Aluna carefully moved around her brother's room, picking up the dishes and some extra trash to make things a little easier on him, she heard stirring from the bed.

"Aluna?"

"Hey bud," Aluna whispered. "Just grabbing the dishes. You can go back to sleep."

"What time is it?"

"About 11:00."

Her brother groaned, "So much for trying to wake up earlier, huh?"

"We live in Deeptown. Nobody gives a shit about mornings around here…shit, if it weren't for our phones, I'm sure most of us wouldn't even know the difference between daytime and nighttime anyway."

"Well, you would. You actually go to the surface."

"True…same plans as usual this year?"

He nodded, "Yeah…I'm sorry…the first day especially…just too much for me to handle."

"Don't be sorry. I understand…and it's not like I won't get to spend time with you at all. We're still on for dinner on the third night, right?"

"Of course! Do you think Uncle Chinook will join us this year?"

Aluna shrugged, "Beats the shell out of me, yesterday he told me he was caught up in one of his…whatever it is he does…so we may not see him for a couple of days. Whatever happens you don't need to worry about it. You can just chill in here with your husbando, and I'll hang out with Aggie in the world of online gaming."

Her brother hugged his pillow tighter, "Don't make fun of Loach! What we have is special! And when you're as smelly as I am and terrified to go outside, it's not like getting a real boyfriend is an option."

Aluna let out a quiet laugh, "I'll talk to you later, Hattori. Holler if you need anything."

Hattori let out a dull roar from the back of his throat, in a joking bid for his sister's attention. Aluna closed the door to give him some privacy, already feeling the melancholy of the holiday settling though it hadn't even started yet. 

It was going to be a long 3 days.

---

Wister's household was a stark contrast to the atmosphere at Aluna's. Already so much of his extended family had arrived at their home, bringing gifts, things to make food with, stuff to build costumes, and games to play. Rosie was super excited by all the new people to show off her favorite Tealy plushie! Wister was excited too, but for very different reasons. 

He sat on the couch staring eagerly out the window, keeping an eye out for a pale yellow taxi cab that would bring the people he was most eager to see. It was so rare that they could come to visit! And they were going to be staying for a whole 3 days. The neon reef Angel squid couldn't be more excited!

"Staring out the window, it's not going to make them get here any faster, bud."

Wister turned for a moment to face his father, a tan skinned and purple headed neon reef inkling named Helio. Although his tone sounded a little harsh, Wister could see in his father's gray blue eyes that he was excited as well. He doesn't get to see his moms very often these days.

"I know, but I've missed them!"

Right on cue, the taxi that Wister had been searching for pulled up. The second it did, Wister rushed outside, and tackle-hugged the taller of the two women that came out of it. Despite being tackled, the older Inkling hugged her grandson back as tightly as she could. 

"Hey Grandma Lilac! Happy Carnival!"

Lilac released Wister from her grip, "Happy Carnival Wister! I swear you're bigger every time I see you…and you're getting taller too!"

Wister laughed, "Eh, you're just salty because that means you're going to have to cook more. Hope you bought a lot of squid ink, cuz right now I feel like I could eat a thousand servings of your ramen."

"No love for the short people I see."

Wister moved around to the other side of the cab, and kneeled down to embrace his other grandma.

"Happy Carnival, Grandma Iris."

The old bobtail squid hugged her grandson back, "Happy Carnival, my dear. Say, is Rosid here yet? That old man still owes me 2000 gill for that poker game I beat him in last year."

Wister nodded, "Yep, he's inside talking to Mom. Don't worry, if he tries to dodge you again, I'll hold him down and you punch!"

Iris playfully slapped her grandson on the back, "That's my boy! Here, be a dear and take a couple of these bags?"

Wister took the suitcases inside while his dad went out to greet his parents. Unlike his Mom's family who are all staying at hotels in the area, on the rare occasion that Grandmas Lilac and Iris came to visit, they would stay in the guest room. It also meant that there would be a lot more to do around the house for the next couple days, such was the price of having a big family.

---

On the topic of big extended families, Kya was nervous as usual to see hers…and she could never explain why.

It's not like this was the first time meeting them, or even the first time they had made the journey see them.

Every year since moving to Splatsville, Kya and her parents would alternate between spending the Carnival with her mom's brothers in Inkopolis, and spending it with her Dad's family. 

This year, it was her dad's turn.

Tomorrow, after a few train rides, they will take a ferry to the beautiful farming community of Kingin Island. 

It was a gorgeous place filled with fields of flowers, orchards of fruit trees, as well as some wild areas that were the source of many an urban legend. And the ways they celebrated the carnival? Breathtaking, even if they didn't have the big extravagant budget of a major city like Splatsville. The thought of it almost made Kya forget about what happened the last time she was there. But maybe she will be okay this year. Maybe they weren't here.

"You okay Squiddo?"

Kya turned to her father, trying to hide her worry, "Yeah…I'm okay…just anxious…"

Hachi's expression tightened, "you know if anything's wrong you can tell me, right?"

Kya smiled, "Of course dad. I promise I'm fine. It's just…been a little while since I've seen Grandma and Grandpa. I'm worried what kind of embarrassing questions they are going to ask?"

From his expression, it was clear that her father could tell something was wrong, but he didn't press any further. A small part of her wished that he would. As he walked away, probably to continue packing, Kya just huddled herself more into the couch, hugging Licorice tight. This year she would be surrounded by loved ones…and still be so lonely.

She thought that she was doing a good job hiding how she felt from her parents, but the conversation that Hachi had with his wife in secret said otherwise.

---

Momo was dealing with her own feeling of loneliness. By all outward appearances, she didn't really have any reason to feel lonely. Her sister was doing some last minute work from home in the other room, and chilling on the bed next to her was her best friend Kiwi.

Yet it wasn't about who was there, it was about who wasn't there…or at least wouldn't be there. Momo looked wistfully at the most recent picture sent to her by her dad. She had been keeping her promise to him to send texts and updates at least once a week and sometimes in turn he would send her pictures about what was going on at home. Today's picture was a sweet photo of her step-mom Brazia, a tall and shapely big fin Inkling with one gray tentacle draping across her face, and warm green eyes. She looked very relaxed as she was stretched out across their couch, in some comfy blue plaid pajamas and sea bunny slippers. 

But what made the photo so sweet was her holding two tiny hatchlings. Momo's new baby brothers, Matsu and Ringo. They are about 5 months old now. Big enough that they had to be cradled, but still too little to develop limbs (those usually developed around a year). Warmth filled Momo's chest as she remembered the day that they hatched. When they finally came out of the egg, they were so tiny that one of them could fit perfectly in her dad's cupped hands…which was normal for their species. According to her dad, when Momo had hatched, she was tiny enough to sit in just one of her father's palms.

Size comparisons with a couple of newborns aside, Momo was feeling kind of sad. This would be the twins' first Carnival of Souls, and she would have to miss it. They were only babies so it's not like they would remember that she missed it…but she had sworn that she would be a good sister, damn the Gods! And yet…here she was. 

In Splatsville.

Miles away.

Having run off in the middle of the night without a word.

A knock at the door momentarily distracted her from her sulking. It was still an adjustment, going from having her own room to having a sectioned off chunk of a living room. Ume said she was looking into renting a two bedroom apartment, but Momo was fine with this arrangement. It was only temporary after all, and it's not like she didn't have any privacy. That was what the big ass screens and curtains were for. The only thing that was kind of iffy about it was being able to hear her sister's conversations whenever she answered the door.

"Oh no…what do you want?" Ume sounded irritated.

"I need to talk to your sister."

Momo knew that voice…but why was she here?

"Captain?"

"You don't work for me anymore, bucko. You can just call me Yuki."

"Exactly!" Ume snapped. "She doesn't work for you anymore, so you have no reason to be talking to her! Go away!"

There was the sound of someone walking across the living room to the screen and knocking on it.

"Can I come in, squiddo? I got a favor to ask you."

"Absolutely NOT!" Ume hissed.

There was a grunt from the Captain and the sound of a brief scuffle. Momo jumped off of the futon and peeked outside of her screen to see her sister had the Captain in a headlock. In spite of being in said headlock, the Captain looked unimpressed.

"Do you really want to do this doc? Remember what happened last time?"

"You caught me off guard last time. I wasn't expecting a firefly squid like you would be so strong. But I'm ready for you now! You won't…"

Ume didn't have a chance to finish her thought. Yuki changed into her squid form and wrapped her tentacles around Ume's wrists. The colossal squid didn't loosen her grip even as her captive changed sizes, but still found herself unable to hold the albino squid down. Yuki slowly pried the younger inkling's arms off of her body, then changed into her inkling form to escape. She pushed open the screen and opened her mouth to speak, only to be cut off by Ume forcing her face to the floor.

"Ume, stop it!" Momo cried. "You need to be careful! She's hurt!"

It had only been a couple of weeks since Mr. Grizz's defeat, and Momo could still remember the terrible condition that the Captain had been in at the time.

The captain just managed to wiggle out from under Ume's grip, "You don't need to worry about me Momo. They got tired of my stitches popping so they glued the wounds shut. I'm healing up much faster than before."

"That's lovely! Really it is! Now leave Momo alone! You promised our Dad…"

Yuki cut her off, "I promised your father I wouldn't have Momo do any more agent work. But what I've got to ask has nothing to do with my job at the New Squidbeak splatoon! Just let me say my peace and I'll go."

Ume growled, but still conceited, "Fine."

Yuki turns to Momo, "Okay, here's the deal squiddo. Every couple of years, we go as a family to Kingin Island to spend the carnival with my husband's family. It's a beautiful place, I love seeing them, but now Kya's super apprehensive and anxious about going. She won't talk to us about why, and she always plays it off like she's fine…but I was a teenage squid once. Something happened the last time we were there and I can see that she's hiding her feelings…but she won't talk to me or her father."

"But you think she'll talk to me?" Momo guessed. "I could try asking her about it."

Yuki shook her head, "I've already tried asking her friends to talk to her. Wister has tried talking to her about it, her school friends, her cousins. Every time she completely shuts down…so as sneaky and underhanded as it is, I have no choice but to take drastic measures. Momo, I need you to come with us to Kingin Island for the carnival, and help my daughter enjoy the holiday again."

Momo smiled, "A free trip to Kingin Island sounds fresh…and I wouldn't mind getting to hang out with Kya more. Ume, can I go?"

Ume scrunched up her nose, "Let me get this straight: you want to take my little sister to a remote island, for 3 days, with no supervision just so you don't have to parent your child? Absolutely not!"

Yuki's spots flashed briefly and her tentacles flared, but with a deep breath she got her obvious anger under control. Still she firmly grabbed the bigger inkling's wrist and started to pull her aside.

"You'll have to excuse me for a second, Momo. I think your sister and I need to have a conversation in private."

"Please don't hurt her."

"As long as Miss Yuki doesn't pose a threat, I'm not going to harm her."

"I was talking to Yuki."

Ume let out an annoyed gargle, as she was pulled into her own bedroom but a very angry firefly squid. Although she was putting on a brave face, she couldn't help but feel nervous. The squid may be a third her size, but previous encounters told her not to underestimate the captain.

"First of all, how dare you!" Yuki began her rant. "How dare you assume that I don't want to take care of my kid! I love my daughter more than anything in this life."

Ume took a breath and kept her voice calm,"I'm not calling you a bad mother, but you shouldn't be…"

Yuki cut her off yet again, "You didn't call me a bad mother. And you know what, if it makes you feel better, sure, call me a bad mother. I'm not delusional. I know that I'm not the greatest mom in the world. But I'm doing the best with what I got…and right now I got nothing. My little girl just won't open up to me…but if she is even the littlest bit like me I know she'll open up to a friend."

"What about her buddy Wister? Aren't they closer? Wouldn't you be better off asking him?"

"You know, for a therapist, you're not a very good listener. Wister's already tried…and it ended with them getting into a fight and not talking for a couple of weeks. For them, that's a huge deal. Whatever it is, I think it might be a girl thing…something only another girl can relate to…or maybe it's not, but I don't know what else to do. Besides, even if I wanted to ask Wister, his family already has plans."

"You didn't consider that me and Momo might have plans?"

"Do you guys have plans?"

There was a pause.

"No…I had something set up for the third day, but the other two days…I was just going to wing it."

"Well then come to Kingin Island for the first two days, and we can send you home on the 3rd. Were you under the impression that you wouldn't be coming too?"

"I don't know. I wasn't allowed to get involved in the agent thing."

"Well it's lucky this isn't an agent thing. This is just me, inviting some friends who don't have any family to spend the holiday with, just spend it with us!"

"I'm also thinking about Momo. If we use your cover story, and Kya finds out that the only reason Momo is there is to spy on her, it will not only damage your relationship with her, but Momo's as well."

"Then I won't spy on her!"

Both adults turned to face the bedroom door, and Ume opened it. Momo and Kiwi were sitting just on the other side, their ears and ear holes pressed up against it. Momo looked up, trying to look all innocent.

"Umeeeee…what are you doing here?"

"Squiddo, what do you mean by "you won't spy on her". I'm not asking you to spy on her."

Momo's expression tightened, "No, Ume is right about that. You're pretty much telling me to spy on your kid for you…and I want to help Kya but not like that."

"Oh? And you have a better plan?"

"Yeah. I will go with you, figure out what's going on with her, help her with it, and then you don't have to worry about it again."

"How am I supposed to help her then?"

"Maybe she doesn't want you to help her! Maybe she wants to figure it out on her own!? Maybe it's embarrassing or she thinks you won't understand?!"

A pause.

"Momo, is there something you want to talk about?" Ume asked.

Momo lowered her head with slight embarrassment, " No…I'm fine…but I felt like that before…maybe that's what Kya's dealing with?"

Yuki was surprised. Momo was extremely perceptive for someone her age. Not to mention ridiculously stubborn. It reminded her of how Almondo was when they were kids. Guess that old saying of the scallop never swims too far from the reef had some truth to it after all.

"I still don't know…"

Yuki sighed, "Okay I didn't want to have to do this but…"

Yuki suddenly pulled a nearby stool up to Ume so that she could whisper in her ear. Though Momo craned her neck to try and hear the conversation, she could only pick up tiny fragments of it.

"... Emerald…"

"...gated…"

"...talk to…"

Whatever the captain was saying, it made her sister's eyes go wide with shock. She stared at Yuki in stunned silence for a moment, before taking in a deep breath and turning back to her little sister.

"Okay Squiddo, get packed. We're going to Kingin Island."

Chapter Text

As the sun rose higher above the sea on the first day of the carnival, the island was even more beautiful than Momo had imagined. They may have had to wake up supremely early to make this trip, but this sight made it all worth it!

Kingin Island was well known all across Inkadia as one of the most prosperous farming counties on the entire continent. The entirety of the island was about as big as Splatsville itself, but was nowhere near as crowded or chaotic. In fact, ask anyone who would come from there and they would tell you that Kingin Island was the epitome of peace and quiet.

The farms that dotted the island were small but produced just about every kind of fruit and vegetable you could imagine, even some rare tropical affair was grown in special greenhouses. If you weren't a big fan of veggies, then maybe you could stop by the numerous fishing villages all over the coast that pulled in some of the best and freshest seafood. Not even mentioning all the little towns that were scattered across the island. All centered around Starsea Valley, the island's capital, each tiny town had its own special charm. Sure the locals could be very standoffish to outsiders at first, and there were numerous creepy urban legends about the old mines and uncut wilderness at the center of the island, but as long as you were respectful and had good money to spend, it was almost guaranteed that you'd find something here to like.

Personally, Momo would always be a city girl deep down in her hearts. To her, quiet and slow country life always sounded like something that would be nice to visit but not live in permanently. At least Kya seemed really excited. The moment that the Inktoling found out that her friend would be joining her, her mood had completely turned around. Now as the two families were riding the ferry to take them from the mainland to the island, Kya was talking Momo's oversized ears off about all the things she was excited to show her.

"I still can't believe you've never seen a chicken in real life…or at least one that wasn't dead."

Momo's expression tightened a bit, "I've lived in Inkopolis my whole life. In a big city like that there's not too many places for people to raise chickens. And even if they did, I don't think I would have sought them out. I've always heard that they're really mean and will chase you to the ends of the Earth if they think you're a threat."

Kya shrugged, "Eh, some are like that, but my uncle Vimmy is really good with his chickens so they're all super sweet…just steer clear of the geese and you shouldn't have any problems being chased by birds. Plus it's chick season, so maybe we'll get to see some babies."

Kiwi perked up a little bit at the idea of chicks. Momo roughly patted her on the head as if to discourage any thoughts she had of maybe eating them. A baby chick would be the perfect mouthful for the tiny small fry…who Momo was just now noticing had grown a little bit.

"Does your uncle have seahorses? Learning to ride one of those would be really cool."

Kya rubbed the back of her head, "He has a couple…and if you learn how to ride one you'll be a better inkfish than me. I've always been way too nervous to ride them."

"You get nervous around Cyclone?"

A tall, stocky and handsome blue ring octoling joined the conversation. Hachi joined his daughter and her friend in leaning over the banister looking down at the sea below. Momo felt a pang of envy go through her as both of them could easily look over the rail without having to stand on a lifeboat or something.

"It's not just Cyclone. It's seahorses in general," Kya clarified. "Uncle Vimmy once said he nearly lost an eye when one tail whipped him as a kid. And they can be such nervous animals. I don't want to spook them and make them hurt me or hurt themselves."

"Uncle Vimmy was a dumb 10-year-old when that happened, hun."

"I'm fine not knowing how to ride a seahorse."

"I want to ride a seahorse," Momo piped up.

Hachi chuckled, "Once we get settled, I'll talk to Vimmy about giving you a couple of lessons."

A terrible retching noise cut through the peaceful atmosphere, followed by Ume giving some comforting words. It was a noise that they unfortunately had heard many times since the start of the ferry ride. The captain was an Inkling who could handle just about anything, except apparently, for seasickness.

"Hang in there babe!" Hachi called out to his wife. "We'll be making landfall soon!"

---

As Hachi had promised, within the hour the ferry pulled into the docks. There were already some seafolk waiting for their loved ones by the docks, and Momo expected Hachi's family members to be among them. But she didn't see a single octoling. The only sea folk that stood out at all was a massive colossal squid Inkling, with his thick red orange tentacles tied back into a top knot, dressed in his finest flannel and work pants. What she did not expect was for Kya to run up and tackle and hug the extra muscular colossal squid.

"Uncle Vimmy!"

The colossal squid laughed, and returned the hug with a spin, "Hey there squiddo! Gods, it's great to see ya'll!"

"Happy Carnival, bro!" Hachi also hugged the colossal squid.

At last, Momo made her presence known, "Wait…this is your Uncle Vimmy? Like your dad's brother?"

"That's what an uncle is," Kya confirmed with a smile. 

"But…he's an Inkling?"

There was a moment of awkward silence, punctuated by Hachi scratching his head.

"Did Kya not tell you? I guess that wouldn't be something you kids would talk about, huh? I was adopted, Momo."

Momo held her hands up defensively, "Uh…no, Kya never brought it up…not that there's a problem with it. I was just surprised."

"Surprised me too when I learned about it."

Yuki was finally done throwing up and joined the group.

"I spent my whole life in Inkopolis being taught that peaceful coexistence with octolings wasn't possible after the great turf War," the white squid clarified. "And then I found out about this little farming Island, where an inkling family accepted an octoling as one of their own. It turned my entire way of thinking around."

Vimmy released his brother from his grip, and bent down to properly embrace Yuki.

"Good to see you again, short stack."

Yuki returns to the hug, squeezing much tighter than she probably should have, "Nice to see you too, towering stack."

Vimmy actually struggled quite a bit to get out of her grip. It forced him to change into his squid form just to make himself small enough to slip away. When he changed back, he still had a smile on his face, but was now rubbing his neck nervously.

"Phew…still got that killer grip, huh? Seriously, one of these days you need to share your workout regimen with me. My day's work would be so much easier if I was that strong."

Yuki flashed a quick and awkward grin before patting Momo on the back, "To save time on introductions, this is Momo and her sister Ume. They didn't have anyone to spend the holidays with so we invited them along…and I'm just now realizing we should have called ahead."

Vimmy shrugged, "Ah, don't worry about it. Mama and Granny always make enough to feed 10 armies anyway. We'll have plenty to go around and I'm sure we can scrounge for a place for them to sleep if need be."

The group followed Vimmy to the road, where a huge truck was waiting for them. It looked straight off the cover of a Farmer's almanac… but a bit more modern and fancy. Despite it being huge to compensate for its owner's height and size, the truck only had a driver and passenger seat, with two small seats in the back. At least it had a nice big truck bed, but right now it was full of hay.

It took a little bit of hemming and hawing, eventually Momo and Kya volunteered to sit in the truck bed, while the adults took the actual seats…though Ume changed her mind at the last minute, joining the younger mollusks in the back.

Seating arrangements decided, they at last began to set off down the countryside. They passed by countless green fields, acres of fruit trees, and the occasional random produce stand on the side of the road. Momo took in the peaceful surroundings. Except for the wind blowing in her ears, it was so quiet…in more ways than one.

She looked over at her friend, and then to her sister. Both have this look like their minds were A million miles away. Kya kept glancing out onto the fields, trees, rocks and anything else they passed with worry in her eyes, huddling into her green zipper hoodie. Was she expecting something to jump out of them? Looking back at her sister, Momo realized that Ume had barely said a word this entire trip. Even now she was staring off into the distance with a thoughtful look on her face. 

"Ume! Are you okay?" Momo called out.

Ume blinked a few times like she was snapping out of a trance, "Uh…yeah I'm good squiddo. I'm just taking in the sights. It's been a little while since I've gotten out of the city."

Why did Momo have a hard time believing that? Suddenly she felt a weight on her shoulder that made her squeak with surprise. While looking around nervously, Kya had absent-mindedly rested her head on Momo's shoulder. Momo felt a small blush creep its way onto her face, and it got a little bit brighter when Kya's tentacles gently gripped the back of her neck, as if asking for support.

Suddenly what her sister was doing didn't feel so important. After all she was here to look after Kya wasn't she? Couldn't let the captain down, right? Momo relaxed against Kya, and heard a quiet purr come up from the back of her throat. 

Kiwi poked her little head out from Momo's pink and white striped sweater, clearly eager to cause chaos. However, she took one look at what her big buddy was doing, let out the tiniest chirp of encouragement, and quietly hid herself again. Kiwi was many things, but a cod blocker would not be one of them. Unfortunately, Kiwi's mere presence was enough to freak Kya out.

"You bought Kiwi with you?!" Kya squeaked.

Momo looked surprised, "Uhh…yeah of course. Why are you shocked? I bring her everywhere. And it's not like I could just leave her back at the apartment. Even if we put out food she'd eat through all of it in one day and then start working on the sofa."

Kya went a bit pale, "Momo…my Uncle Vimmy? His wife pilots a crab boat during the winter. Do you know what their biggest threat is?"

"Other crab boats? Seawater? The cold?"

"Salmonoid pirates! Everytime they go out sailing, they risk being killed by salmonoids for their cargo. If she sees Kiwi, she'll freak out!"

Momo's ears drooped, "Oh shit…I had no idea. I thought it would be okay because…"

"Because the people in Splatsville are okay with it?" Kya interrupted with a growl. "Well I'm sorry to break it to you Momo, but this island is nothing like Splatsville!"

Momo blinked, "I was going to say, because Kiwi isn't like other salmonoids. I mean if you really look at her, she doesn't even look much like a small fry now.

As if to prove Momo's point, Kiwi jumped out and tried to cuddle against Kya's hand. Their time in Alterna had changed the little fish. When Momo had first found her she looked like any other small fry. Now after eating so much furry ooze, the little fish had a stripe of silvery blue fur the same color for scales running down her back, as well as a few see-through scales on her nose that could change color like an inkling's tentacles. Even what she wore was different from other small fry. Her little rubbery green pants had been destroyed in their battle with Grizz, but Aluna had provided them with a replacement: a blue wristband with their team logo stitched onto it, that was big enough for Kiwi to wear it as a scarf.

But nothing Momo said, nor anything Kiwi did seemed to console Kya. She nudged Kiwi away, and turned her back to both of them.

"Just do your best to keep her out of sight okay?" Kya grumbled.

Momo held Kiwi close and looked out onto the passing countryside with worry. They hadn't known each other long, but she had never seen Kya be so openly aggressive. The Captain had been right. Something was up.

---

The truck finally came to a stop in front of a beautiful orchard of citrus trees, with the sign "Wild Zest Farms" posted above the gate. The group followed Vimmy down a gravel path that cut straight through the trees, most likely leading to the house. As they walked, Momo passed a tree branch with a large succulent looking lime hanging off of it, which was just low enough for her to reach.

"I love limes," she chirped. "Do you think your uncle would mind if I took one?"

Kya grinned, "Go for it. Just don't take too many."

"I'm good, I only want one."

Momo plucked the lime, and tried to peel it so that she could get to the tart fruit within. Only to find that this lime had to have the toughest peel she'd ever come across. Her fingernails weren't cutting it, so instead she used her razor sharp beak to bite through the peel. It was unbelievably bitter, but the peel wasn't really meant to be eaten anyway. As she spit out the peel and bit into the fruit, almost no juice filled her mouth and what little there was was so incredibly sour and astringent it was unpleasant. She couldn't contain the gargle of disgust that came out of her throat.

"It's a bad. Bad lime," she coughed.

Kya laughed as her uncle explained, actually trying to contain his amusement.

"Hate to break it to you, but that there is an orange. A very very unripe Orange. They aren't the best for eating."

Momo felt her cheeks grow a bit warm with embarrassment. She looked over at Kya who was recovering from her laughter and still looking at her with a cheeky smile. Momo wrinkled her nose at the inktoling.

"I'm sorry," Kya chuckled. "I guess years of being around Wister have rubbed off on me."

The huge hand of Vimmy gently patted the smaller squid on the head as she hurled the half eaten Orange into the orchard.

"Not to worry, we've got a boatload of fresh ripe limes at the house."

As the group arrived at the homestead, they were greeted with a huge ranch style home, painted in a comforting pastel orange. A short walk away from the house was a small stable and corral area, where a trio of seahorses were quietly munching on grass. Much further away, you could hear the sounds of at least a dozen chickens living it up in their coop, as well as the angry honking of a goose.

Speaking of geese, a large white waterfowl with an extra long neck charged up the road and headed straight for Yuki. The white squid scrambled backward, holding the goose by its neck to keep it at arm's length as it honked with rage. Vimmy quickly separated the two of them.

"Damn the gods Lucy! Not again! Y'all go on into the house, I'll get Lucy settled down and we'll meet up before going out on the town."

The goose honked wildly and flapped its wings even as Vimmy was holding it back. Yuki hissed at the offending bird as it was carried away.

"I wish I knew what that goose's problem was with me! Every time I come here that goose wants to square up…one of these years the soul's feast menu should include stuffed goose."

Hachi comforted his wife, "It's okay babe. Literally nobody knows why geese do what they do."

Putting the angry waterfowl behind them, the group finally made their way into the house, and Momo had never felt so puny in her whole life.

Hachi's entire extended family was made up of giant and colossal squid inklings.

At first glance, there was little difference between a colossal squid Inkling and a giant squid Inkling. Both were very tall, with long powerful tentacles, and upside down beaks with two points on the bottom and one point on top. But colossal squids differed, in that they had more muscle mass than their giant counterparts, the bottom points of their beaks often stuck out like tusks, and the most striking difference of all was their hooks. The suckers on a colossal squid's tentacles were equipped with mean looking keratin hooks, which also gave them sharp hooked fingernails, similar to an octoling's claws but much broader and less sharp. All of these traits could be seen on Ume, with the added tentacle length of a big fin Inkling, and her massive wide ears, another big fin trait.

In this house there was a family of at least two dozen super tall squids(not even counting all the kids), sitting around tables playing card games, watching TV, eating snacks, and chatting. On the couch watching and yelling at reruns of pro clam blitz, Momo spotted one mollusk that was not like the others: an older blue ring octoling, his ocher yellow tentacles looking mostly gray.

Hachi walked up to the old octopus, "Hey Artemis."

Artemis smiled warmly and stood up to hug Hachi, "Hello my boy. Happy Carnival."

"KYA!"

The voice of a very excited woman came from another room at the end of a hallway, which given the wonderful smells coming from that direction, Momo could only assume was the kitchen. There was the sound of heavy footfall running down the hallway, before Kya was embraced and had her cheeks kissed yet another colossal squid. This one was an older woman with a thin face, kind blue eyes, and long graying tentacles that were styled to look wavy. She was covered head to toe with flour and a bit of powdered sugar, and smelled of orange jam and vanilla. Kya relaxed a bit into the embrace, squeezing the old woman tight.

"Happy Carnival, Grandma."

And that was a good summary of the next 20 minutes; going around and meeting all of Kya's extended family. The colossal inkling that had been hugging Kya was her grandmother Cara, the owner of the farm and the matriarch of the whole Tachibana family.

The random octoling was Hachi's bio dad Artemis, who lived and worked on the farm (and apparently had a very complicated history with his son).

They were her great grandparents, a pair of very kind, but heavily scarred ancient inklings who looked to be about as old as Cuttlefish. They were Great Turf War veterans named Meyers and Valencia.

There was Uncle Vimmy's wife, the crab boat captain Momo had heard about, a gruff, but jolly and loud giant squid Inkling named Pomela.

There was a whole bunch of extended family, and Momo's head hurt by the end of it trying to remember them all. Kya whispered in her ear not to worry about it. They were doing all of this for the sake of not being rude, but most of the squids wouldn't want to talk to her anyway, being an outsider. There was really only one person that Kya was anxious to see, so as soon as they had gotten through their mandatory greetings, the girls snuck out the back door, and Momo was led down the road a bit more to a clearing at the edge of a forest, next to an active chicken coop.

Just as Kya had predicted, there were a plethora of baby chicks following their mamas around, and sitting right in the middle of a big group of the yellow fluffs, was a young Inkling who was smack dab in the middle of puberty. 

Their bright violet red ink skin was being taken over by splotches of deep tan. Their long tentacles were done up messily in a style that looked like a mix between a high bun and a bed Head. They didn't have the freshest fashion sense, wearing very simple denim overalls with a soft yellow shirt, orthopedic gray sneakers, and a pair of square glasses that were so thick you couldn't see their eyes…but it just made them look cuter to Momo.

The little squidling looked hyper focused on their task of cuddling with the baby chicks, so much so that they didn't notice the girls until Kya tapped them on the shoulder.

"Diggs? Hey Diggsy?"

The squidling chirped and shot to attention. They turned to the Inktoling with a huge smile…though it faltered just a bit when they saw Momo.

"Hi Kya…it's chick season."

"I can see that."

The squidling very carefully stood up with the assistance of a walking stick that had been buried underneath the birds. Without a word, they thrusted an armful of baby chicks into Momo's hands. The chicks peeped and nipped at her fingers and Momo came dangerously close to dropping a few of them in surprise.

"Those there are silkie chicks. You can tell that they're silkies, because if you look at their feet you notice they have black skin and the distinctive five toes on each foot instead of four like most chickens. They aren't the best egg layers, but they're really gentle and broody, so my mama got a couple to help take care of the babies, but then they had babies of their own this year!"

Momo smiled awkwardly, "Uhh…that's cool…they're…cute. Very cute. And they're biting me."

"Oh…they probably don't like how you're holding them. You're holding them wrong."

Momo's expression tightened, "I've never held any kind of bird before. I don't know how they like to be held."

Kya gently started taking chicks out of Momo's hands, "You can just put them down. Momo, this is my little cousin Diggsy. Diggsy, this is my friend Momo."

Diggsy nodded awkwardly, "Okay. Nice to meet you…you want to see me feed the chickens?"

Momo looked around at all the chickens pecking at the ground, "They aren't eating already?"

"Foraging is an important part of their enrichment, but healthy poultry need protein and carbohydrates, along with the necessary vitamins and minerals to make good eggs. And that's exactly what the feed gives 'em."

"Diggsy knows a lot about chickens. Chickens are their favorite thing in the whole world."

"When I grow up I'm going to be a chicken farmer!" Diggsy proudly declared. "And I'll feed my chickens like this every day!"

Diggsy took hold of their walking stick, skipped their way back over to the coop, and disappeared into a shed on the side of it. When they came back out, they had two bags of feed hoisted over their shoulders that were as large as they were, yet it looks like it weighed nothing to them. They flopped the bags down onto the center of the clearing, tore them open with a claw, and dragged them about the clearing. The feed cascaded out of the bags and onto the grass where all of the chickens rushed to get at it. But Diggsy wasn't done. From the largest pocket of their overalls, the squidling pulled an iron bell which they rang with the fervor of a madsquid, then booked it back over to their cousin with a smile on their face.

At first nothing happened…then…came The horde.

Out of the woods, dozens and dozens of chickens came flying, running, and leaping from the trees and bushes. There was a cacophony of excited clucks, bucks, and crows, as they ascended on the food pile. In a matter of moments the entire clearing was filled with chickens.

Momo had to shout to be heard over the cluckling, "Wow…look at all those chickens! And they're all yours?"

Diggsy shook their head, "No, most of them belong to other farms. They just like to come visit cuz' I always give 'em extra food."

At the word "food", Kiwi jumped out of Momo's sweater and raced towards the feeding frenzy. Immediately Momo gave chase while Diggsy screeched like an angry sea otter at the sight of the little fish.

"IT'S A SALMONOID! IT'LL EAT MY CHICKENS! KYAAAAA!!!"

The squidling let out terrified sobs as they latched on to their cousin's chest. Kya hugged her little cousin tight and shot Momo at death glare.

"Damn the gods Momo! Now look at what you did!"

Momo pulled Kiwi out of the center of the feeding frenzy, the little fish's cheeks stuffed full of feed and possibly stray feathers. She carefully stepped over the hungry birds, to try and make her way back towards her friend, but Kya pulled away.

"No! Don't bring her over here! You're scaring my cousin!"

Momo felt all three of her hearts sink into her stomach. She looked at the squidling, who was trembling with fear while putting the death grip onto Kya's hoodie. Momo took a step back, and held Kiwi closer to herself.

" Okay Momo…really think about this," the big fin squid thought to herself. " You can salvage this. Just think of what Ume would do."

"Hey…it's Diggsy, right?" Momo began, keeping her voice low and calm. "Kya told me your mom fights salmonoids for a living. She's probably told you some scary stories about them, right?"

Diggsy said nothing and made no sound, but nodded very slightly.

"I don't know how much about salmonoid pirates, but I know this particular small fry very, very well. Her name's Kiwi, and she's my best friend. She not like other salmonoids…she's good."

Momo didn't come any closer, but held Kiwi out in a bid to present her. Kiwi swallowed her mouth full of chicken feed, and let out playful chirps as a show of goodwill. Suddenly, Diggsy released their cousin and got a little bit closer.

"She sounds like a bird."

A bird? Well now that Momo was thinking about it, Kiwi did act like a bird sometimes. Being constantly hungry, squawking at all hours of the day, going to sleep immediately when you put a sheet over her head, her love of sitting in high places and pooping on statues…maybe this whole time, Kiwi was actually a bird in disguise.

Diggsy approached carefully, and reached out a hand to the small fry. Kiwi stretched out to allow Diggsy to pet her. Diggsy very cautiously patted the little fish's head…then got more and more confident, until they scooped Kiwi out of Momo's hands and cuddled her like a stuffed animal. Kiwi was definitely enjoying the attention, and Kya looked floored.

"She's cute! And so soft! She's like a chick without feathers."

Kya suddenly pulled her friend aside, with such force and aggression that Momo swore she heard her shoulder pop. Kya's normally gentle orange eyes burned like a raging campfire…why did the pink headed inkling feel a bit warm all of the sudden?

Momo gluped, " Uh…what's up?"

"Diggsy is super impressionable!" Kya growled. "Don't let them get too comfortable with Kiwi, or else they're going to think every salmonoid they come across wants to be their friend!"

Momo glanced back at the squidling, "Do salmonoids invade this island a lot?"

"No they don't…but it's still not a good thing to teach them! They have a hard enough time fitting in with the seafolk of this island as it is. They don't need you coming along, and making it worse by filling their head with ideas about salmonoids actually being friendly."

Momo breathed in to keep herself calm and resisted the urge to growl defensively, "Okay…I'll try to keep a tighter leash on Kiwi while I'm here." 

Diggsy walked up to the slightly older cephalopods, already looking much happier. Even Kiwi looked happier, looking very comfy in the squidling's overall pocket.

"Can I take her bell hunting with me? I bet she would make me look extra scary, so I'd get lots of bells."

Kya's rings lit up in panic as she snatched Kiwi out of her cousin's pocket, "NO! No, no, no! Bad idea! People are going to have the same reaction you had to her, and they're going to think you're crazy. Trust me Diggsy, you don't want that kind of attention on you…also please don't tell your Mom about this."

Diggsy face fell, "Oh…okay."

Without another word to each other, the three teenagers walked back to the house. Although the home was full of seafolk, none of them spoke to the kids. Diggsy perked up again, and rushed off, presumably to go put on their bell hunting costume.

Kya sequestered herself to a small pile of pillows in one corner where a couple of farm eels were resting. Momo went over to try and speak with her, but was shocked when she was greeted with a low growl…not from the eels, but from Kya. A universal, nonverbal warning straight from the ancestors that told everyone "leave me alone or I'll bite you." With no better course of action, Momo awkwardly sat down on a nearby armchair, worrying for the normally kind hearted and shy inktoling.

This would be harder than she thought.

Chapter Text

If there was one thing that parents of small children learned very quickly, it's that the worst things could happen when you turn your back for just a minute. 

Though he was not a parent, and this wasn't exactly a terrible thing, Wister was starting to understand that sentiment. After all of the pre Carnival festivities, followed by a late night session of online gaming with Aluna and Kya's cousin Jericho, Wister had passed out on the couch.

Now on this fine morning, Wister had been shaken awake by his baby sister Rosie, and was greeted by the sight of toilet paper draped over his entire body.

"Rosie?"

The salmon pink toddler smiled sweetly at him, "Good mornin'! You all safe now!"

"Good morning to you too," he yawned. "What am I safe from?"

"Daddy's story said that paper keeps away the ghosties. I don' want ghosties to eat you, so I'm puttin' paper on ya!"

It was way too early for this. Wister had to really think hard before he remembered what she was talking about.

"Oh! You mean like the monk did in "The Peony Song?" That's a different kind of paper. And I don't plan on following any mysterious singing ladies to the beach anytime soon, so you don't need to worry."

He should have figured that telling Rosie some ghost stories (albeit the very watered down and super kid friendly versions) was tempting fate. Rosie had once caught the very end of a super cheesy horror movie, and for some reason (probably because she was only three) was so terrified of it. Now she was convinced that ghosts were real, and took anything having to do with ghosts very seriously.

"Can we go bell hun'ing now?"

Wister yawned, "Later…we got to wait for your cousins to get here first."

"When they comin'?"

"I don't know. When they wake up?"

A pause. Wister tried to get settled again and go back to sleep, since the sun was barely up.

"I'm hungry."

Wister sighed, "Then go wake up Mom and Dad."

"They sleepin'."

Wister sat up and pressed his nose against the toddler's squishy little face, "I was sleeping too."

"But they might be nakie."

"So?! You run around naked all the time. Suddenly you have a problem with it?"

"Grandma and Grandma are here. Mama says it's rude to be nakie around grandmas."

Wister fought the urge to hiss in irritation. With a groan, he conceited and got up from the couch. Still half awake, he walked to the threshold of the kitchen…and something got caught around his leg. He let out an involuntary scream and grunt when he hit the floor. He looked to see what caused him to fall, and saw his left leg was completely entangled by a red string in the style of a Shimenawa decorated with tiny golden shrine bells. Wister immediately recognized it as a warding rope, an extremely popular decoration put up in doorways to ward off evil spirits that passed through the home.

However, tradition dictates that they were to be hung across the top of the doorway, not at ankle height. Obviously someone tried to help with the decoration but she was too short to do it properly.

"Rosie!" Wister snapped. "What were you thinking? What if Grandma Lilac or Iris tripped over this? They're old! They might have gotten hurt!"

Rosie shrank back and covered her face, "I was just tryin' to keep the ghosties out."

Wister untangled himself, and allowed himself to calm down, "Rosie…no ghosties are going to come in here. Mom and Dad already took care of it. Besides, not all ghosts are bad."

The tiny squidling's eyes lit up, "Really? Some are nice?"

Wister gave his sister a soft smile, "Yeah, of course. The carnival isn't Splat-o-ween. It's not about scary monsters and evil ghosts. It's about welcoming the spirits of our ancestors when they come to see us, so they can bless us. If we bog everything down with wards and traps, they're going to think they aren't welcome."

"But…they look so scary…"

Wister finally stood up and embraced his sister, "Evil spirits are pretty scary, but that's why you dress up and go bell hunting. You got to be scarier than the scary ghosts! Show them you're not afraid! And if they still try to mess with you? Your ancestors will have your back…and so will I!"

This wholesome moment was interrupted by the sound of more ringing bells coming from upstairs. It was followed by the surprised and distressed yelps of an eel, and said zebra eel tearing down the stairs and through the house in an attempt to get away from the loud things that were tangled around him.

"Oh shhhh…shoot! Hydrox!" Wister cried out, just barely avoiding swearing in front of his little sister.

As the frightened old eel tried to speed past, Wister grabbed Hydrox and set to work trying to untangle him.

"Rosie, how many more warding ropes did you put up?"

Before the toddler could answer, there was even more ringing coming from upstairs. This time it was followed by the sound of a woman crying out in shock, and a thud as said woman hit the ground.

"WISTERIO HUETRA!!!"

"I swear, for once it wasn't me!"

---

After they have gotten all of the excess warding ropes cleared up, breakfast was eaten, and the youngest members of the household retired to their rooms to prepare for Bell hunting.

At long last, Rosie emerged from her bedroom in full costume and was greeted with the sight of her brother sitting just outside the door, petting something in his lap, and grumbling to himself.

The only thing he was wearing (aside from a simple white T-shirt, traditional sandals and baggy blue pants) was a White bed sheet heavily decorated with silver bells and images of ghostly flames that had been added on with fabric paint. It was a nice costume…whatever it was.

 Rosie decided she wanted to show off hers as well: a very cartoony and heavily stylized eel onesie based off of Rosie's favorite cartoon character, Tealy,  painted to resemble an eel skeleton.

"Wister! Look! I'm spooky Tealy!" she cheered, waving her tiny tentacles in the air.

Wister barely looked up, "Yeah, I know. I was there when you picked it out."

Rosie put her arms down in disappointment, "Why you so grumpy?"

"You woke me up at the aaah…at the break of dawn, tripped me with a warding rope…and then I found out that Hydrox chewed on my mask! All in all, this Carnival is not off to a great start for me."

To demonstrate his point, Wister donned the mask, and Rosie immediately let out a terrified squeal before rushing back into her room. Wister jumped back in surprise as his sister cried out for their parents to come save her. Immediately, his father and both his grandmothers were at the scene.

"What's going…GAH!" Helio cried out. "Good gods Wister! You…you really went all out with that mask."

Wister's mask was a huge, plastic seahorse skull (and a bit of the neck bone in the back) decorated with red and black ribbons hanging from the cheeks, empty Glass eyes in the sockets, and splashes of fake mollusk blood all over the top of the head and snout. It was a depiction of the legendary Bäcka Horse…plus a crooked, gnarled snoot, courtesy of one senior zebra eel.

Grandma Lilac let out an impressed whistle, "Great work squiddo. You going scaring this year?"

Wister nodded, "Yeah, that's the plan. I was going to follow you guys and Rosie around while they go Bell hunting…haven't even left the house yet and already I have my first victim!"

His Dad sighed, " Just…take it off until I can get your sister calmed down."

Helio weaved around his son to stand by the door and talk to his little girl. Wister took off the mask as a bit of worry crept its way into his belly. Was Rosie really going to find Bell hunting fun? She couldn't even handle the image of her brother in a spooky mask. How would she deal with strangers and spooky masks?

---

Once the rest of the family had arrived, costumed children in tow, the bell hunt could begin!  Being the oldest kid there, Wister led his sister and all his little cousins in a musical march around the neighborhood as a bit of a warm up, each of them dressed up in their spookiest and/or cutest ghostly costume. The adults of the family, we're following directly behind this parade of tiny monsters, most of them dressed in very simple, traditional clothing, taking pictures or videos of their children.

Turns out, as long as she was flanked by all of her cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and mother (Helio had stayed home, since he hated the idea of being jump scared all day), Rosie was handling strangers in spooky masks quite well. Or maybe she was just distracted by the song Lilac had taught them, all about the Bäcka Horse in a bid to help them be less scared of Wister's mask.

♪ "The Old Bäcka Horse

 The wisest of all,

He'll give you a ride from wherever you fall;

No matter how far

You stray from the shore,

He guides you to the waves forevermore."♪

It was an eerie song if you thought too much about it, but when sung by a quintet of elementary school kids (and one preschooler) it sounded really cute. And the neighbors must have thought so as well. 

As the procession passed them, seafolk who were out with their own kids, would pass out tiny baggies to each of the children. These baggies would contain a variety of things from little candies to tiny toys and most important of all; tiny little bells.

By the time the group had gone through half of the neighborhood, each of the kids had jingling bags that were about to get put to use. Out from behind some bushes, an elderly goldfish popped out, wearing some kind of long nosed, red ogre mask and making threatening bubbling noises.

The older kids sprung into action and immediately countered with their very best monster growls and roars. Even Wister joined in, stomping around and playing a sound byte of deranged horse neighing he had saved on his phone just for this occasion.

"Go bad spirit! Go away! Go bad spirit! Go away!" the little squids cried.

While growling and chanting, the squidlings made use of all the tiny bells that they had gotten. Each of them took a small handful and hurled them into the air, causing them to rain down on the masked fish. The old fish stopped bubbling and scooped up all the bells, before bowing his head.

"Such brave little spirits. You all deserve a reward for your courage! Line up, I have a taiyaki for each of you."

As the squidlings eagerly accepted the gifts, Wister walked up to the old goldfish and gave a small bow.

"Thanks Mr. Oro."

The fish smiled from under his mask, "No need for thanks. Being a scarer gets me moving and gives me a little time to myself. Besides, I'm always happy to do my part in keeping the old traditions alive.

Speaking of which, while the squidlings happily munched on their fish shaped treats and his Mom spoke with Mr. Oro, Wister slipped away from the group. He was eager to make his way to the town square, where there would no doubt be plenty of kids and adults that would allow him to go on his own scaring spree.

His mind was so preoccupied with all the possible ways he could terrify small children, he didn't even notice that there was one following close behind him.

---

Just as it was every year, the square was absolutely packed, as the searing hot rays of the Summer sun beared down on the macabre displays below.

There were massive crowds moving across the square, looking like a procession of monsters on parade. Strung across every rooftop, windowsill, balcony and doorway, was a rainbow of beautiful paper lanterns. Hundreds of them each decorated with the image of a different God or spirit from the sacred scrolls. Plastic statues of skeletal creatures and paper mache dolls of the departed hung alongside the lanterns. In every shop window there were stickers and decals for skulls of all kinds of seafolk, including inklings and octolings (of course it's more of a representation, as neither ink fish actually has bones).

The streets were littered with…well…litter unfortunately. This was Splatsville after all. But aside from the usual trash, the ground was also littered with ghost shaped confetti, discarded bells that Wister eagerly scooped up, and the occasional bit of change.

The air was alive with so many new things in celebration of the ancestors. More traditional music was playing from the massive stereos set up by the city, though it had been remixed to make it easier to dance to. Properly themed street foods were being prepared. Vendors were shouting out at the crowds trying to sell their trinkets and souvenirs. Puppeteers, dancers, singers, actors, painters, performers! All had taken to the streets to share the stories of the past in their own unique way. It was truly a sight to behold, and made Wister feel a little bit better about the fact that his first year as a scarer was not going too well.

There were issues like; not having too many places to hide, so not being able to jump out properly, overprotective parents, kids that were way too brave or thought they were too cool to take part in bell hunting, or kids just straight up not acting scared.

But by far the biggest hurdle that he'd come across? 

He didn't like scaring little kids.

The first time he had frightened a jellyfish kid, the way the poor thing ran and hid behind its parents in terror, guilt gripped his hearts. Playing pranks was one of his favorite things in the world, so he thought jumping out and scaring people would be right up his alley. If only his costume worked on the older asshole kids.

Well, he was taking a break from it now, sitting with his mask in his lap and watching a shadow puppet show about the god of fire trying to rebuild a village he had accidentally burned down.

"From the remains of his molted shell," the narrator, a red snapper in a traditional kimono, continued. "And with his own sacred fire, the great god Kokaku crafted three powerful warriors, Ahea, Pahoe, and Elnai! Each of these crustaceans had been blessed with a special gift."

The puppet representing Kokaku (shown as a lobster-esqe creature with an oversized claw and smoking an old fashioned war pipe) spawned in the silhouettes of a lobster, a shrimp, and a crab. 

Wister stopped paying attention to the play at this point. He had heard the bedtime story countless times when he was a little kid, and at the moment it seemed less entertaining than scrolling through his phone.

To his surprise, the moment he picked up his phone, his mother called him. She must have been wondering where he was, or wanted him to go pick up something before the Mako Marts closed (they always closed super early during the carnival). Wister picked up.

"Hey Mom."

( "IS ROSIE WITH YOU?!" )

Wister flinched. He wasn't expecting her to be shouting.

"What?"

( "I TURNED MY BACK FOR A SECOND, AND SHE'S GONE! IS ROSIE WITH YOU?! PLEASE TELL ME SHE'S WITH YOU!" )

The inkling's hearts sank. He frantically glanced around, desperately hoping for a flash of teal and pink in the crowd. When he didn't see one, he stared at the ground in despair…only for said flash of teal and pink to appear out of the corner of his eye, accompanied by an old black and white eel with a snaggletooth.

He stared at his little sister incredulously while she looked up at him with the biggest smile.

"Hi Wister!"

Breathing out, Wister got back to his mother.

"She's here Mom. She's with me... And so is Hydrox."

The older Angel Inkling let out a massive sigh of relief, (" Oh thank the gods! I swear between the two of you I'm going to have a heart attack. You can't just walk off with your sister and not tell me.")

Wister wrinkled his nose in annoyance, "I didn't walk off with her. I was going to go scaring in the Square…alone! I think she just followed me. I'll bring her back within the hour."

Hearing this, Rosie latched on to her brother's leg, "Noooooo! I wanna 'tay wit you! You been busy all summa. I miss you!"

Wister groaned but at the same time, realized that she was right. Between joining a rookie league team, the whole Alterna thing, and practicing for said rookie league, he'd hardly been there for his favorite little squid…no matter how much of a pain in the ass she could be.

"Okay…the eel has spoken. I'll look after her for a little bit. We'll be home this afternoon." 

There was some silence on the other end before his mother answered, clearly a little bit worried.

(" Okay. Be safe out there…both of you." )

With that Sakura hung up, leaving her son to feel a little bit offended. Why did she say it like that? Did she think that he couldn't care for his own little sister? He was a great babysitter! He was determined to prove it!

"Come on shorty!" Wister cried. "Let's go bell hunting!"

Instead of getting up to follow her brother, Rosie took a seat on the bench, "Can we watch the puppet show first?"

"Rosie, you know the story. Dad literally read it to you yesterday."

"But…Hydrox is tired."

Wister conceited, "Okay, for Hydrox's sake, we can watch the puppet show."

So watch the show they did…until Rosie asked:

"Are you still grumpy?"

Wister shrugged, "A little bit. Turns out even with a scary costume, I can't scare for shi….uh…for nothing."

"Well, of course you are not scaring. You are Bäcka Horse, yes?"

Wister looked to his left and saw a lovely flower hat jellyfish wearing multiple flower garlands and a simple white dress.

"Uh…yeah, I'm supposed to be the Bäcka Horse. But what does that have to do with scaring people? It's a terrifying monster."

The jelly gasped, "You are not knowing the tale of the Bäcka Horse? Do you not?"

Wister shrugged, "I know the nursery rhyme. But it's a horrifying skeletal seahorse that steals souls, right? How is that not scary?"

The flower covered jelly giggled, "I see. Well my break being over, my troop will be acting that story next. You want to be watching, yes? It very important!"

The jellyfish hopped off the bench and moved through the crowd, disappearing behind the stage where the shadow puppet play was taking place. The current story was already coming to a close, ending as it usually did, with the three warriors of fire hoisting up houses onto iron stilts to protect them from lava. It was a cool story but Wister always wondered why, if the fire god was so worried about burning his village, why didn't he just have them move anywhere but right at the base of a volcano?

Plot holes in millennials old tales aside, the play came to an end, the crowd applauded, and the music revved up for the beginning of a new one.

"For our next play, by request of our own manager, we will be telling the tale of the Bäcka Horse!"

The crowd applauded again, and Rosie snuggled into her brother's side in anticipation for this story. This one Wister would actually pay attention to, since he had never heard it before.

The puppeteers put up a new background of an ancient castle next to a  mighty river. The silhouette of a young eeling rose up from beneath the stage.

"Centuries ago, when Munder's breath still covered the sky, there lived a young prince named Toge, who was destined to become a great soldier like his ancestors before him."

The narrator paused, and the scene was changed to a stable with a seahorse giving birth as one of the set pieces.

"Every great warrior of his kingdom needed a great steed of equal strength and courage. And as his mother's own steed gave birth, Toge hoped that his own lifelong companion would be amongst the newborn fry."

A plethora of tiny seahorse puppets popped out of the big one, one of them standing out from the rest in that it was see-through.

"When the seahorse fry were born, there was one among them who the stable master wished to destroy immediately. One of the fry had been born white as the mountain tops. You see, in the old days, and even in some places today, sea creatures born without color were believed to be omens of death and misfortune, and were unfortunately destroyed or outcasted."

The puppet of Toge popped up again, as all the seahorse puppets disappeared, leaving only the white one. Toge hugged the seahorse fry and a heart appeared above them.

"But Toge saw something within the little seahorse. He declared that he would care for this horse, and raise it to be his mighty steed. Everyone advised against it, but he cared not for their omens, and named the little horse, Bäcka."

The scene changed again. This time it showed Toge riding Bäcka triumphantly through a battlefield.

"As the years went by, both the prince and his steed grew. Together they became the greatest warriors in the land, won countless battles, and protected their Kingdom from evil."

The battlefield turned fiery. All of the normal soldier puppets were replaced with more demonic looking creatures.

"But one day, a terrible curse was laid upon Toge's kingdom. From the deepest and darkest realms of the sea, demonic beasts of iron and Bone with the faces of long dead creatures called ningyos, rose up to destroy the land and burn all of it to the ground."

There was a brief action scene of different seafolk and monster puppets battling to the death with swords, bows and spears. It looked pretty ferocious for being represented by paper dolls. The battle ended, and the scene changed to show Toge slumped over his horse with a spear through his body.

"Toge's armies fought fiercely, and won the day…but at a great cost. There were so many wounded, and even more were dead. Not to mention, Toge himself had been fatally injured."

The scene changed to show puppets being dragged to the ocean by still dying Toge and his horse. Then even more puppets were put in a wagon, and towed back to a castle by the same horse.

"Even with his wounds, the king refused to leave his fallen soldiers to bake in the Sun. Together he and his Noble steed assured that each and every one of their bodies were returned to the Sea, so that their souls could find peace. Those that still lived were carried back to the kingdom, though it took the last of Toge's strength."

Most of the soldier puppets disappeared and were replaced by berobed puppets in mourning as the Toge puppet fell to the ground. The seahorse reared its head back as if it was neighing with grief.

"When the last wounded soldier had made their way home at last, Toge fell. The entire Kingdom mourned the death of their King who had sacrificed so much."

Another scene changes, this time to what looks like a coronation. A crown was placed on another eeling's head, and the seahorse galloped off with its Master's corpse on its back, while a bunch of other sea folk on horseback gave chase.

"The crown and the kingdom was passed on to Toge's daughter. She was supposed to inherit Bäcka as well…but Bäcka was a loyal steed to the very end. In the dark of the night, though even to this day it is a mystery on how, Bäcka retrieved his master's body, and carried it all the way into the Sea."

The very next scene showed the puppet horse riding into the ocean until it disappeared beneath the waves. When fully under the water, the horse met up with a being made of seaweed, tentacles, and fish hooks.

"The great god of death, Kromken, was so impressed by the horse's display of loyalty and selflessness, that he decided to blessed his soul with a very special gift, and gave the horse a very important job."

The normal horse puppet was changed out for a puppet of a bipedal seahorse with a skeletal face, wearing a dark robe, and carrying a lantern in its tail. The scene changed to show the newly transformed horse walking along rivers, retrieving Souls, and speaking to seafolk offering it prayers.

"Bäcka was transformed into a Spirit farrier. His new task was to travel through the rivers, streams, and creeks of the world, searching for Souls that never made it to the Sea, and bringing them home. He was also gifted with the power to see through time, so if you can find him, in exchange for a proper offering, he will answer any question you ask."

The scene was changed one final time, showing off the Bäcka Horse puppet with the smiling silhouettes of many sea creatures dancing around him, celebrating him.

"And that is why we call the great Bäcka Horse the wisest of all! So if you should fall far from the ocean, do not fear for your soul. The old Bäcka Horse will always find you, and will carry you back to the waves!"

The play came to close, prompting the audience to applaud. This time Rosie and Wister clapped along, the younger of the two inklings hugging her beloved eel with joy in her baby blue eyes.

"The Bäcka Horse is a good ghostie? Wish you told me, then it wudn't been so scary before."

Wister shrugged, "I didn't even know the story behind the Bäcka Horse. I just thought it was this River dwelling horse monster, that looked freaky, and stole souls. It was nice of that jellyfish to tell me about…"

Wister trailed off as he caught a glimpse of a street vendor selling little toy swords and other pieces of kids costume armor. He gasped as a realization came over him.

"Hey Rosie! I just got a great idea on how we can earn more bells!"

---

"Giddy up! Go horsie! Go!"

Wister pretended to neigh like a seahorse as he galloped along to the best of his abilities. After purchasing an adorable foam helmet and plastic sword from that costume vendor, Rosie's spooky Tealy costume had to become the ghost of King Toge riding their loyal steed (with a random eel following close behind). Even if he wasn't earning bells via scaring anymore, Wister was having a much better time now as impressed passerbys rewarded the joint efforts of the Huetra siblings with bells and other offerings.

And if they encountered a demon during their prancing? Driving the demon away was much easier than before. What evil spirit would truly challenge their combined might?

After a couple hours, the combination of dancing around in a hot costume, having to carry a toddler on his shoulders, and control a very slow but nosy eel, was starting to get to Wister. He called for a timeout, taking Rosie off his back and plopping down on a nearby bench. He didn't get a moment to rest before the most adorable ray pup ever came waddling up to him, dressed as a hopping zombie.

"Beeeeeeells…" the little ray groaned, holding out a pillowcase. "Beeeeeeells…"

Wister smiled warmly at the pup, took out a few of the parcels that he had received, and dropped them into the pillowcase. The girl immediately dropped her zombie persona to bow politely.

"Thank you sir!"

The little ray sped back towards someone who Wister assumed was her father to show off her haul…and looking closer at the father, he looked very familiar. A huge, dark gray, eagle ray with the cutest smile, a traditional oni mask that only served to cover his eyes, and a simple bed sheet draped over his wings and body.

"Big Man?"

The older ray straightened, and held up one of his fins to his mouth to make a shushing motion. He picked up the pup at his feet and trotted over to Wister.

"Ay! Keep it down!" He whispered. "I'm trying to fly under the radar here. I don't get to spend as much time with my Lil' Lady as I should. I don't want it to be bogged down by people asking me for autographs."

Wister took another look at the pup in Big Man's fins. Except for her coloring, which could be described as a perfectly browned pancake, and of course her size, she was the spitting image of Big Man. It clicked in his head what the relationship was.

"You're a dad?! Since when?"

"Ay! Ay! Ay! Since 7 years ago when she was born."

"But…you've never mentioned it in the Splatcasts, and in your interviews you said you lived alone?"

Big Man shrugged, "She lives with her mom on the other side of the city, but I visit whenever I can. Besides, the internet is a scary place for little kids and I don't want to be one of those parents who exploit their children for clout."

"I can be famous all on my own, ay!" Lil' Lady proudly declared. "I'll have my own Splatcast when I get bigger…and I'll become a great bandit, just like Papa"

Big Man tapped his daughter on the head, "That's not happening until you're much, much older!"

The big ray turned his attention back to the squid, "So how are you doing…Momo's friend? Who I'm just now realizing I never got the name of."

"Doing okay. And the name's Wister."

"Gott'cha! So, you're out here Bell hunting all by yourself Wister?"

Wister shook his head, "Nah, I'm not all by myself. I've got my baby sister with me. Say hi…"

When Wister looked back to talk to Rosie, only to be horrified when he realized she wasn't there. He shot to his feet, looking around frantically but not seeing any sign of her or Hydrox in the packed crowds!

"ROSIE!!!" Wister screamed!

There was a small flash of blue out of the corner of Wister's eye but he couldn't bring himself to care. He just lost his baby sister! He called out again but got no reply. He tried whistling for Hydrox (even though that eel rarely listened), and didn't even hear his distinctly gravelly bark.

"Oh gods this isn't happening! ROSIE!!!"

There was a faint cry of distress in the distance, followed by some defensive barking. He knew that scream. It was a scream of a toddler who had just gotten hurt. His sister had just gotten hurt!

He didn't waste another moment. Wister took off in the direction of the screaming, pushing, shifting into a squid form, and jumping around like a mad fish. Anything he could do to get through the crowds quicker, even if it earned him a lot of dirty looks and got him sworn at by just about everyone he bumped into.

At last, crowds parted just a little bit, revealing Rosie sitting on the ground with a small bruise on her cheek and a scuffed knee, crying in pain. A very old pencil urchin with thick glasses was doing his best to comfort her.

"Rosie!" Wister cried out. "Oh gods, what happened?!"

"WISTER!!!" the toddler whaled.

He ran over and scooped up his little sister, hugging her like she would float away if he didn't hold on tight enough. He would be mad at her later, right now we needed to figure out how she got hurt.

"Are you her father, young man?" the old man asked.

Wister blinked, "No sir…I'm clearly her mother."

The old urchin looked shocked, "Oh my! I'm sorry! You look and sound like a young boy…I swear youths these days are having kids younger and younger."

"Uhh…I was just joking sir. I'm actually her brother."

The old man took off his glasses for a moment, rubbed them, and put them back on trying to focus on the squid in front of him.

"Yes…yes! That makes much more sense!"

Wister decided to redirect the conversation, "Sir did you see what happened?"

The urchin puffed out his chest and his spines wriggled with anger.

"I did! I just handed that lovely young lady a nice parcel of bells, then some little hooligan came running up, pushed her down, and took them."

Oh shell no.

"Rosie…which way did the kid go?"

Through her sniffles, Rosie pointed to a pair of little inkling boys fighting over a bag of bells. The taller of the two kids got tired of wrestling with his victim and decked the other kid in the eye before running away. 

"Was it that kid in the cyclops shark costume?"

Rosie nodded. Wister knew exactly what he had to do. Luckily for him, the little brat didn't run too terribly far, just to the top of a nearby hill. The little bastard couldn't have been much older than 10, and stood out like a sore thumb with his neon green skin and expertly tailored costume. His parents must have been rich or at least had a lot of disposable income to buy him a costume like that that he would only wear once. He looked a bit distracted like he was looking for someone…probably another little kid to steal from.

Wister took the opportunity to sneak up behind him. He didn't bother trying to talk to the little snot or reason with him. In fact, it was a blur as Wister seized the handle of Rosie's stolen bell bag that the kid had hung over his shoulder, and tried to pull it away with all his might. 

To his surprise, the kid didn't let go immediately and hung on to the back just long enough to be tossed through the air when he did let go. Wister watched an abject horror as the 10-year-old went flying through the air and crashed onto the grass, tumbling like a barrel all the way to the bottom of the hill. For a tense moment, the squidling was completely motionless. Eventually he did push himself up, his costume dirty and his face bruised and muddied. The kid rightfully screamed and sobbed in pain, and out of the crowd, a muscular, red headed, young Inkling in a schoolyard boss jacket and a creepy mask that made it look like his jaw was made of metal.

"Milo!" The schoolyard toughboy cried out. "What happened?! Are you okay?"

"Ty! That stupid horse guy took my bells!" 

The kid (named Milo apparently) pointed at Wister and the older boy (presumably his brother) glared at Wister with a look of pure hatred.

"I am going to kill you!" Ty growled.

Wister held his sister close as if she was the one who'd been threatened, "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to yeet him down the hill. I was just trying to get my sister's bells back!"

Milo sniffled and snarled, "She didn't deserve those bells! She's a weak little baby!"

Rosie whimpered and hid her face in her brother's shoulder. Wister felt his blood boil. 

"Okay I take back my apology then. You're a little asshole and you deserve all the pain that you get!"

Milo wailed again, "Get him big bro! Beat his ass!"

Ty begins charging up the hill to do just that. Wister when a little pancake in a zombie costume zoomed in out of nowhere and got right under his feet. The boy tripped, and Big Man appeared out of the crowd like the ghost he was dressed as, and bear hugged the angry teenager.

"Run Wister! Run!" Big Man cried out.

Wister didn't have to be told twice. He scooped up Hydrox, holding him like a bag of rice (the eel was quite sluggish on a good day) and took off, disappearing into the crowds.

---

"You always find a way to get in trouble, don't you?"

Though her words were a bit harsh, Sakura spoke very gently to her daughter while bandaging up the scuffed knee and took a closer look at the bruise forming on her cheek.

"I'm sorry Mama…I wanted a dango."

"I'm sorry too Mom," Wister said. "I should have been watching more closely."

"The important thing is that you're both safe," Helio replied, giving his son a comforting pat on the shoulder.

"And at least you got your bells back from the little shit." Grandma Iris pointed out with a proud grin.

"MA! Watch your language in front of Rosie!" Helio hissed.

"Oh! I'm sorry dear."

There was a long intense silence. Little Rosie looked so down in the dumps about what had happened and no one knew how to console her. She just sat there quietly sniffling and whimpering to herself, petting Hydrox and hugging him like a stuffed animal.

"I don't even care 'bout the stupid bells no more. Why we even have 'em?"

Lilac got up from her seat next to her wife and kneeled down to be eye level with her granddaughter. She took out a small handful of the tiny bells from Rosie's bag, glimmering like golden eggs.

"You've been making lanterns with your mama and papa right?"

Rosie nodded.

"Do you know why we make lanterns?"

"Because they're pretty?"

"Well, of course they're pretty, but they're also magical. You see dear, every year during the carnival, our ancestors want to come visit us, but the ocean is vast and some of them get lost on the way. So we light these lanterns to guide them to the shore, and decorate them with the bells to give them sweet music for their arrival."

"So…the bells make the ghosties happy?"

Lilac smiled, "Very happy. We even give some of them to the sea herself. She loves their music, but it's our way of letting her know that we are thankful for all of her gifts."

Rosie frowned, "Oh, now I think I should have let that boy keep my bells. What if he don't have enough, and his ghosties are unhappy."

"He had a bunch of bell bags," Wister pointed out. "I'm sure he'll have more than enough."

Rosie suddenly yawned and let her head lull to the side, "I'm sleepy."

Sakura scooped her, "Looks like you need a nap. Let's get you into your jammies."

While his sister was sleepy after her long afternoon of bell hunting, Wister on the other hand felt a bit buzzed. The adrenaline of losing your sister, then fighting to defend her honor, then accidentally throwing a child, then having to run for your life from said child's terrifying older brother really got a guy going. Putting away his costume and changing into his normal outfit of a bream brim cap, sunny tee, and crazy arrows, Wister decided to take a quick walk to calm his nerves. After all, it would only be a few hours before the sun went down and the lanterns would be released. He didn't want to be wired that entire time.

There were still a bunch of parents and kids out bell hunting while he went on his walk. Occasionally, he'd be caught up in scaring attempts but he would gladly participate in those. Even without a costume, there was no reason to ruin the magic for the other kids.

A distinctive ping came from his phone. He took a look, and sure enough, it was some messages from Kya. The first couple of messages were just cute pictures of her little cousin holding some chickens and her uncle's farm eels…then came the ranting.

Kya: ("I swear Momo was going to get me in trouble! What was my mom thinking about letting her come along?" )

Wister: ("Momo is with you?")

Kya: ("Yeah…and I thought it'd be fun at first…but it turns out she has no idea how things work on this island. She even bought Kiwi with her! If Pomela sees her it will be a disaster!")

Wister: ("She brings Kiwi everywhere, and it's not like she knew about the salmonoid pirates, right?")

Kya: ("That's not the point! The point is…how am I supposed to keep a low profile if Momo starts drawing attention to herself.")

Wister was at a loss as to what to say to his best friend. Everytime her family went to that Island, her opinions of it flip-flopped constantly. One minute it was this beautiful place full of pristine wilds, lovely culture and good people. The next, it was a place that you didn't want to draw attention to yourself in, lest you face the wrath of bigoted locals. Even though he knew it would probably start a fight, the only thing he could to do was ask the obvious question:

Wister: ("Are you worried about Daiki? I swear you should just tell your parents about her.")

Kya: ("You know that won't do any good.")

Wister: ("Actually I don't know. Literally the only thing you've ever told me, is that she's this speciesist little psycho who torments you every time you go to Kingin. I know nothing else about her or why it wouldn't do any good to tell on her.")

Kya: ("I don't want advice, damn the Gods! I just wanted to yell into the void for a little while.")

Wister sighed sadly, then typed out his reply.

Wister: ("Okay. Go ahead and type away. Consider this a zero advice/judgment zone. I'll see you when you get home after the carnival.")

Kya: ("Thanks buddy. I'm sorry about this.")

Wister: ("No prob. But you owe me. I'll be expecting a whole pie from your grandma.")

Kya: ("I think I can swing that.")

Wister slipped his phone back into his pocket, letting it ping away as his best friend ranted and raved about how worried and upset she was. A small part of him hopes that Momo would have better luck helping Kya figure out her issues that he did. This was the best holiday of the year. The Inktoling didn't deserve to spend it putting on a fake smile while dealing with being terrorized by some racist little shithead.

The neon angle squid was so lost in thought, he didn't notice the trio of inkfish sneaking up behind him until they had grabbed him. He squeaked in surprise, which turned to trills of panic when he felt them putting their arms around his throat and chest, dragging him to a space between houses.

Even changing forms didn't allow him to escape. Instead it only caused him to slip out of their arms and right into the angry, waiting hands of a very familiar thug.

"Hey there! Remember me, asshole?!"

Wister's stomach clenched. It was Ty. That same guy from before whose little brother he had tossed down a hill. The same one who said that he was going to kill Wister. And from the rage burning in his eyes, it really looked like he was telling the truth. This squid was out for blood.

Wister changed forms again in a desperate attempt to get away. All it did was give Ty a chance to get a better grip on his victim before decking him twice in the face. Wister saw stars and his vision swam after each blow, briefly wondering how someone as small as Momo had dealt with this on multiple occasions.

"Nobody fucks with my little brother and gets away with it! So…tell me fat ass," Ty hissed with a cruel grin. "Which one of your limbs do you want me to tear off first?!"

Chapter Text

As the sun began to set on the streets of Splatsville a young Angel squid/neon reef Inkling was running for his life.

"QUIT RUNNING YOU FUCKING COWARD!!"

But Wister did not stop running. He hadn't stopped running for a while now and his lungs and gills were starting to hurt as they worked overtime to get him away from his attacker.

He had just barely managed to slip away from Ty the first time, but the son of an eel was relentless! Him and his buddies have been chasing Wister for at least an hour and a half now, throwing rocks, cans and whatever else they could get their hands on when they couldn't…you know, actually get their hands on him. He had bruises on his bruises and his eye was so sore and swollen It was getting hard to see anything in the dimming light.

As Wister rounded a corner, he spotted a sleeping banana eel curled up on the ground, the very tip of its tail right in his path. If he could just get a little bit of space between him and his pursuers…this might work but he would feel bad later.

The angel inkling sped past, and he put his full body weight on the eel's tail, causing the poor thing to jolt awake with a yelp of pain. Luckily for Wister, by the time the eel was awake and looking for it's attacker, Ty's posse was rounding the same corner providing the angry animal with a perfect target. The eel charged at the thugs, gnashing its teeth and barking like crazy. It stopped them in their tracks! 

Perfect! He had a chance to rest…and hide.

He jumped into what had to be the darkest alleyway he had ever seen, slipping behind an old dumpster and a pile of trash bags for cover. It smelled like death and old pizza dough (probably because this dumpster belonged to a pizza shop) but hopefully that would cover up his own scent and make it harder for the thugs to find him.

Out of danger for the moment, Wister leaned back against the filthy wall and tried to catch his breath. He needed to strategize a real escape plan. He sat and listened and watched for a moment trying to get his bearings. Before once he had escaped, he just started running and hadn't really thought about where he was going.

The sounds of the nearby train station, and the fact that the sounds of the city were much closer than before, he concluded that he had run all the way to the edge of his neighborhood where it started to bleed back into the main city. And there was a train nearby. Looks like he had his escape once he caught his breath.

Or maybe not.

The sounds of Ty and his thugs started coming closer. Guess that you hadn't been a great distraction after all. 

"Where are you fat ass?! Come out!" Ty screamed.

"This whole place smells like bad booze," one of the bullies complained. "I think even an eel would have trouble finding him here."

"With how fat he is there's no way he could have run far!" Another thug added. "You can go home but I'm going to stick with Ty! I'm pent up as shell! I need a good ass kicking!"

Very poor choice of words, but none of the thugs said anything. It also sounded like they were about to pass the alleyway. Maybe we still could get through this. As long as he was quiet, he could…

*ACHOO!*

"Bless you," Wister said.

There was a sniffle, "Thank you…"

"No problem…wait…"

Wister looked around frantically, straining his eyes to see someone, anyone in the darkness, but there was no one. Not even a vague silhouette of a sea creature. Was that in his head?

"Uhh…magic voice?"

There was no reply. Of course the idea of a ghost in his head sneezing was ridiculous but he couldn't think of any other reason…although…his magic voice didn't sound like that.

This mental puzzle was interrupted by a pair of hands grabbing him by the shoulders and hurling him into the dumpster. Wister could swear there was a new dent in the trash receptacle from how hard he was thrown against it. It was probably a nice new dent in his head too.

He didn't even have a moment to stare up at the stars dancing at his vision before he was face to face with Ty again. The red head squid looked even angrier than before.

"Looks like your allergies betrayed you, eh fat ass?"

Wister struggled the best he could, "Look man! I said I was sorry! I didn't mean to hurt your brother! I was just protecting my little sister! You can understand that can't you?!"

Ty nodded stiffly, "Yeah, I get that. My baby bro is my best little buddy. I'd move heaven and Earth for the little guy and do anything to protect him."

Another punch to the face for Wister, followed by a pair of hands gripping his neck.

"Which is why for every bruise, scratch, and scrape that you put on him, I'm going to give you 10!"

Wister closed his eyes and braced himself for another hit to the face as Ty raised his arm again…but no hit ever came. Instead, his assailant let out a pained shriek, and the arm around his neck withdrew.

"What was that?!" One of Ty's buddies exclaimed.

Wister opened his eyes just in time to catch the shadow of a clawed hand reaching out of the darkness and raking across the back of another one of the bullies. The injured thug howled in pain, gripping his injured back with one hand and wildly swinging with the other…but he never connected with anything.

"Shit! Something just fucking scratched me too!"

Wister looked over at Ty to see the big lug putting a death grip on his own wrist. The fingers and back of his right hand had some mean scratches on it. They weren't super deep, only oozing a tiny bit, but they were long…and disturbingly hand shaped. Those weren't inflicted by knives or thorns. 

Those were claw marks.

But from what? 

Wister wasn't going to find out. While his pursuers were distracted, the sunny orange headed squid started scooting backwards on his butt, hoping to subtly get enough distance between himself and the bullies so that he could super jump away. As soon as his back was away from the dumpsters however, a pair of hands with long, very sharp claws seized him. 

One hand gripping his middle.

The other in his shoulder.

There was little to no definition in either of them…like they were made of pure shadows.

A ball of ice formed in his stomach.

" Change to your squid form," a soft voice whispered.

"M-m-mep…" was the only sound coming out of his throat.

" Do it now." The soft voice demanded . "Hurry!"

Against his better judgment, Wister obeyed. Now in a much smaller form it was easier for the hands to completely wrap around his body, the claws coming dangerously close to poking his eyes. This time he found his voice.

"HELP! HELP ME! SOMETHING'S GOT ME!"

Desperately looking to his attackers for help, Wister could see that they were gazing terrified at something just above Wister's head. With what little flexibility he could muster, the angel squid looked up.

Floating above him, seemingly detached from any sort of physical body was a pair of large, ghostly, silvery-green glowing eyes, and a set of glowing razor sharp teeth. The eyes glared down at Wister, then the whole ghostly face lunged.

Wister screamed in horror as this whole shadowy Mass enveloped him and dragged him off into the darkness. 

This was it!

He was truly done for!

Goodbye cruel world!

" Stop screaming," the soft voice from before was back, even softer now. " Sorry I scared you, please try to stay quiet."

Wait…

He wasn't dead?

No, quite the opposite in fact. Even though he couldn't see anything through this inky blackness that had enveloped him, he could hear the thugs freaking out, deciding that kicking Wister's ass was not worth getting eaten by a Shadow demon, and we're High tailing it out of the alley.

It was a long few minutes sitting in the dark with…whoever this was…yes it was definitely a who…not a what like he had thought.

As his shadowy rescuer hugged him, Wister could pick up a few small details about the creature. As he breathed, there were tiny rushes of air coming from his neck, indicating external gills. A fish? Definitely a fish of some kind. The very sharp claws and teeth indicated a predator, the fact that it had fin-like arms and not just short fins, so it wasn't an eeling. The most damning evidence was the presence of only one very strong heartbeat. There was only one kind of fish folk that only had one heart: sharklings!

It was at that moment Wister began to wonder, where had all that info come from? He was no fish biology expert. Maybe he had paid more attention in health class than I thought he had?

No time to think about that now. The shadowy mass released him and backed up just enough for the littlest bit of light to wash over it. He had been right! It was a sharkling…but a kind he had never seen before.

The shark that had saved his life was quite tiny for a shark, barely an inch taller than Wister was, and thin as a twig. It was no wonder he blended into the shadows so well, since his skin was blacker than the night sky, making a stark contrast with his eyes and teeth. He was dressed very simply, wearing nothing but a midnight blue hoodie and black shorts that went down to the knees on his very thin (dog-like) legs. He had no real shoes on, just some velvety gray cloth wrapped around the soles of his paw shaped feet, and a cheap silver chain around his neck adorned with a multitude of keys and anime based keychains that one would get from a gacha machine.

In fact, now that Wister could see the little guy, he realized that the shark wasn't scary at all. He was actually really cute…and he looked scared?

"Are you okay?" The shark mumbled.

Wister changed back into his inkling form, "I might need a face transplant…but I think I'll live. Thanks for the save buddy!"

The shark laid on his belly, "You're welcome…goodbye."

With that, the little guy was scooting backwards on his stomach back into the shadows. He probably expected Wister to leave, but something kept the squid there. It was an awkward couple of minutes of listening to the noises of the city in front of that old dumpster before one of them finally spoke.

"So…do you like, live back here?" Wister asked.

"No…I live in Deep Town."

"Hey, I have a buddy who lives in Deep Town! That must mean you're a deep sea creature. What's your species?"

There was a pause, "I'm nothing special. Just a ninja lantern shark."

"There's such a thing as a ninja shark? That is the coolest thing I've ever heard!"

"I'm not actually a ninja. It's just because of my coloring…and I'm not really that special. There's hundreds of different kinds of us all over the world."

"I've never heard of you."

"Most surface dwellers haven't. Many deep sea folk like to stick to the underground…mostly because the surface is too bright for us."

Wister nodded, "Yeah, my buddy's always complaining about how bright it is up here. Even at night everything is too bright for her."

There was another period of silence.

"Say, by any chance do you see a red bandana over there?" The ninja shark asked quietly. "I was using it to protect my eyes but it fell off."

Wister stood up and took a quick glance around the alley. Sure enough, a few feet away there was a very dirty red bandana, muddied and covered in shoe prints, likely trampled when Ty and his thugs had bolted out of here.

"I don't think you're going to want it back. But no worries! They make shades that can fit over a sharkling's nose. I can run over to the train station and see…"

"No! No y-you don't understand," the shark whimpered, suddenly sounding very terrified. "I need to not be able to see. If I can't see that I'm outside then I'm not outside! If I'm not outside I don't have a reason to be scared! If I don't have a reason to be scared I can do this! Damn it! I was so close this year!"

Wister knelt down to get eye level with the shark, even if he couldn't actually see him.

"Hey, hey! Chill man, what's going on? Why are you freaking out?"

The little shark's voice became even quieter and more shaky, "I don't like being outside…but…I have to get to the sea. I-I-I…I have lanterns…but I've never been able to make it to the surface before…"

The shark trailed off into an incoherent jumble of sad and scared noises. Wister's hearts broke for the little guy. Then and there he decided he would help this shark with…whatever it was he was worried about. It was the least you could do after the ninja shark saved him from getting his head kicked in.

"You have lanterns? Like the ghost lanterns? Or the wishing ones?" Wister asked.

The shark sniffled, "No-no wishes…ghost lanterns…my sister and I…we've both lost people. She doesn't like to remember it…but I-I-I don't want them to think we forgot about them. We both miss them every single day. I-I just want to show them…but I can never make it to the ocean. I hate being outside."

Wister pondered for a moment before speaking, "You know it's getting dark. I was going to meet my folks down by the shore anyway. Why don't I help you get to the ocean so you can release your lanterns?"

"You don't have to do that. You don't even know me."

Wister shrugged with a smile, "Yeah but you saved my bacon back there. It's the least I could do."

"Oh…that was nothing. I was the one who sneezed and got you caught…didn't feel right to just sit there and let you take a beating…besides we sharks…got to stand up for the little guys, right?"

"Beats me. Honestly, you're the first sharkling I've ever really talked to. So, do you want my help?"

"Yes…yes, I would like your help. Thank you."

Wister smiled and hopped to his feet, "Awesome! Let me just text my folks real quick, find out where they're going, then we'll see about getting you some sunglasses."

The little shark finally creeped back out of the shadows. He was no longer on his belly, but still stayed seated like a gargoyle, cute little tail carefully tucked under him. He was covering his eyes, but looked to be in much better spirits.

"My name is Wister, by the way. You gotta name?"

The shark looked up shyly, "Hattori. My name is Hattori."

---

Aluna knocked on her brother's bedroom door for what had to be the fourth time that day. From the sounds of a Livestream playing and the sounds of relaxing music, Hattori was still taking one of his depression naps. He never left the apartment, but some days…especially during the Carnival of Souls, it would get so bad he wouldn't even come out of his room and didn't want to be bothered. 

Times like this, the only thing she could do was to make sure he didn't starve or dehydrate there. She would have actually opened the door to check on him but last time she did that, she had caught him in the middle of a…very personal time…and quite frankly she never wanted to see that again for as long as she lived.

"Yo Tori! I went out and grabbed a bunch of festival food, so if you want any it's sitting on the table…and if you wanna try these ube ice cream mochis I got, you better hurry cuz I'm about to eat them all."

There was no response. Typical of him. Only his absolute favorite foods could get him out right now. Unfortunately she did not have any honey-sesame roasted squid legs on her right now.

Aluna shrugged and went back to her spot on the couch. Netflims was asking if she was still watching…like she had been for the past four hours. 

Yes, she was. She was still watching Four and One Peace, and ironically, was on season 3 (of 5) episode 14, the Splatfest episode.

While it was true that the Blue Star Bandits had started watching this show to laugh at it, as they done more research online, it turned out the show actually had a cult following and gotten much better after the first season. 

And it did! 

It got so much better! The puppetry, the writing,  the new characters, the voice acting, the artwork, the overall story, all got better after the first season. It was still silly, over the top and light-hearted, but it also had a good mix of drama, suspense, and intrigue. It had become her guilty pleasure, and with nothing else to do around the house, it was the perfect thing to binge while waiting for this holiday to pass.

After an hour of the vampire Inkling watching her favorite fruit people battle to decide whether cake or pie was the superior dessert, a loud crash came from her brother's room.

This caused her to pause the anime and race to his door. He had so much crap hanging off his walls and he was so wiry. What if he'd gotten crushed?!

"Hattori? What happened?! Are you okay in there?!"

No response.

"TORI!!!?"

Still nothing.

"I'm coming in!"

Aluna opened the door, and his room looks exactly like it did when she had went in there this morning, but with two key differences:

One of the DIY shelves that he had made for his amiibo collection had come loose and fallen onto his bed (the source of the crash), and Hattori was no longer in his bed. The Marlino Kart live stream was playing to an audience of no one. A quick look around the room in all his usual hiding places, and the tiny claw marks all over the open windowsill told her that he wasn't there. He had left.

No. No, no, no. That wasn't possible. Hattori was agoraphobic. Sometimes even standing out in the hallway of their apartment building was a lot for him. There's no way that he could push himself to sneak out his bedroom window. And even if he did, where would he go?

"I'll just call him," Aluna assured herself. "He's on his phone all the time anyway. It's not like he would escape into the night and not take it with him."

She called his number.

The phone rang for a moment.

Hattori's phone sat ringing and glowing in the middle of his bed sheets.

---

"So you don't have a phone?" Wister asked.

"I do but…it's back in my room. I didn't want my sister to try calling me, not hear it ring and suspect something."

"Wouldn't she suspect something if she tried to call you and you didn't answer her…while you're in the other room?"

The shark clicked his teeth like he was thinking, "well…nothing I can do about it now I guess. I'm pretty sure I'll be back before she notices I'm gone…she looked really distracted with watching Four and One Peace."

Wister gasped, "your sister watches that show?! No way! My friends and I love that show!"

"It's not my thing, but I get the appeal. It's colorful and happy…and after everything she's been through, I think my sister needs something like that in her life."

*bing*

[ This is the H Line for Splatlands Tide Riders. Next stop: Crater Bay Station. ]

That was their stop. It was a pretty widely used one this time of year. It was the quickest way to get to the ocean so that lanterns could be released.

"Once we get out of the station it'll be a three block walk to the actual Bay," Wister chirped. "Are you sure you're going to be able to navigate with that blindfold on?"

They hadn't been able to find a pair of shark friendly sunglasses at the station where they first met, but they did have a stall that sold commemorative head scarves and bandanas. Hattori had brought a goofy purple scarf with a one-eyed goblin face on it, and had tied it over his face, almost completely covering his eyes.

"We lantern sharks mostly rely on our other senses to get around anyway, so I'll be fine. Besides, I can still see my feet…as long as I can't see the sky…or see that I'm actually outside I think I'll survive."

"Speaking of feet, how come you're not wearing any shoes? I mean, I'd go around barefoot too if I had cute little paws like yours, but in a place like Splatsville I'd be worried about stepping on something."

Hattori gurgled nervously, "Oh I know…but I didn't really have a choice. I don't go outside, so I don't have any shoes…at least none that haven't been chewed on."

"Awww…you've got an eel?"

"No."

Before any follow-up questions could be asked, they reached their stop. True to his prediction, Hattori got off the train no problem. In fact, Wister was surprised at how well the shark was keeping up with him, just based on hearing him and his smell. And apparently this wasn't even that astounding of a feat for this species. Sharks were so cool!

As they left the train station, Wister got a ping on his phone. His mom had just sent him a picture of their spot by the Bay where they were going to release their lanterns, the Pier number in clear view so that it would be easier for him to find them. With a smile, Wister shot a quick text back.

(" I'll be there as soon as I can. Just got to get my new friend to the ocean. Love you! ❤️")

Despite the massive crowds of people, the walk itself was very peaceful. The sun had set, the desert sands were cooling, the scent of rising warm air mixing with the salty wind of the ocean, the red and gold of the desert slowly giving way to seagrass and ocean waves. It was beautiful, made even more beautiful by the picturesque scene of the upside down tower in the distance, ehaving been professionally decorated for the occasion.

Wister's stomach turned a bit as memories of Alterna came back to him. The crater was only a few miles from here. It was baffling that an ancient civilization filled with unspeakable horrors was so close to all this celebration and merriment. Sure, centuries prior the crater had been a sacred place that only a handful of people were even permitted to set foot on, but now it sat mostly forgotten in the desert. Hopefully all the terrible things that happened there, would be forgotten too.

A distinctive ping came from his phone. It was a message from his mom.

( Mom: "Are you trying to help him find his family? If he's here by himself, he's welcome to join us.")

(Wister: "nah, he's just by himself. I'll ask him if he's up for meeting new people. He's super shy.")

(Mom: "Awww…poor thing. Well regardless we'll be waiting for you.")

(Wister: "you guys don't have to wait. I got my own lantern for Grandma Blossom, and I don't know how long this is going to take. Don't wanna keep Rosie waiting too long. I'll catch up with you guys when I can.")

"I can smell the ocean!" Hattori squeaked excitedly. "Are we close to the Bay?"

Wister looked up from his phone. Currently they were standing on one of the many boardwalks that would lead out to the piers…which were filled to the brim with hundreds and hundreds of seafolk.  According to the signs conveniently placed around the beach, the pier that the Huetra family stood on wasn't too far off.

"Uhh…hey Hattori? My mom says if you want to join us, you can. I don't know how you feel about meeting new people, but…"

Hattori cut him off with a yip,"Uhh, I'm sure your family's lovely…but right now…I think meeting new people would be too much for me."

Wister shrugged, "No problem my guy. I kind of figured it would be, but I had to ask."

Hattori shook his head, "I'm socially awkward…but phobia isn't connected to social anxiety…I just don't like how big and exposed the outside is."

After a bit of a trek, by the time the duo made it down to a pier, the last drops of daylight had disappeared. It was officially time to start lighting the lanterns.

"Okay Hattori," Wister said, turning to his new friend. "Let's get your lanterns ready! I've got a couple of spare candles, and we can ask someone for a lighter."

Hattori shook his head, "There's no need for that. I bought everything I would need."

The little shark emptied out his pockets and unzipped his hoodie. From his clothes, he produced a grill lighter, two dozen candles, and most disturbing of all, 16 folded lanterns still in their packaging.

All of them blue.

All of them ghost lanterns.

There were two kinds of lanterns that were released during the lantern festival: orange lanterns and blue lanterns.

Orange lanterns were used to represent the wishes and dreams of the one who released them. Normally you would write whatever your desire was on the inside (or you would use a picture if you were very young), and when the lantern took to the sky it would be seen by the Gods and they might Grant your wish, or so the legend goes.

Blue lanterns were a bit more common on this day of the Dead. You would write the name or even place a picture of someone in your life that was Departed. When it rose above the ocean, their souls would see it, and it would guide them to the shore. According to legend, even if a soul did not come ashore, it was a good way to let the spirit of your loved one know that they were not forgotten, and bring them comfort.

And this little shark had 16 blue lanterns in his possession.

16 people in his life who had gone out to sea.

Wister was speechless.

Hattori gurgled awkwardly, "I'm ju-just now realizing how this looks. I know it's a lot…but…there was-was-was a fire, and…"

He trailed off, his voice deflating as he struggled to speak. Wister patted his shoulder in reassurance.

"Hey, hey, hey. You don't need to explain anything. I'm not here to judge, just looking to get these lanterns in the air."

"Tha-thank you."

It took a couple of minutes to get each lantern ready to fly. Puffing them up, putting the candle in just the right spot so that the whole lantern didn't go up, writing the name on the outside, and arranging the bells so that they didn't weigh the lantern down. It was a bit of a process, but working together they sped through it.

As Wister was readying the last two lanterns, his phone actually started ringing. The ringtone was Aluna's, which was a surprise, because she had specifically told everyone not to disturb her during the Carnival. Wonder what changed? 

Wister picked up, "Hellooooo?"

" I NEED YOUR HELP! My brother is missing!!!"

Wister blinked, "Your brother is missing?!"

" What are you a parrot?" The long fanged girl hissed, clearly on the verge of hysteria. "YES! I went to check on him and he's not in his room! I'm sorry if I'm taking you away from your family Wister, but my brother's all I have, my uncle's not answering his phone, and you're the only one still in Splatsville! "

"Shit! This is a lot to put on a guy…but I'll do what I can? I'm all the way at Crater Bay. Where do you want to meet up? What's your brother look like?"

" Just come back towards Splatsville and we'll meet in the middle. You can't miss him. He's a little sharkling with black scales, glowing green eyes, green teeth, and his name is Hattori!"

Wait…

Wait a minute.

There was no way. What were the chances?

"Aluna…I think your brother's with me."

Aluna's hysterical panting suddenly stopped, " What? Are…are you sure?"

Wister turned back to the sharkling, holding his phone up to him. The little guy was trying to focus on writing out someone's name without actually being able to see it (yes, he still had his blindfold on), when Wister spoke up.

"Hey Hattori? Say something."

Hattori was caught off guard, "Uhhhh…what? Why? What's-what's happening?"

Wister put the phone back to his ear, "Did that sound like him?"

There was just silence on the other end.

"Hello? Cap? Are you still there?"

" Wis-I mean, Feathers…. Please put your phone on speaker."

That tone of voice. Wister knew it all too well. He had become very familiar with it in the handful of practice matches they had had as a team, whenever he was caught goofing off, or Kya was acting too skittish for her own good, or when Momo was being way too aggressive for a skirmisher. That was her lecture voice…but it sounded much more growly then it normally did.

Wister put the phone on speaker and braced himself.

" WHAT THE CRISPY FRIED FUCK NUGGETS, TORI!!!? " Aluna screeched with rage. " I JUST ABOUT HAD A FUCKING HEART ATTACK! HOW COULD YOU LEAVE WITHOUT TELLING ME?! HOW COULD YOU LEAVE PERIOD, MR. I'M TERRIFIED TO GO OUTSIDE?!!!"

Hattori was so caught off guard by the sudden screaming, he squeaked with panic and lept a good 3 ft into the air, crashing down onto the pier and just barely stopping himself from falling into the water. When recovered from the shock, a look of realization crossed his features.

"Aluna! Ho-how d-d-do you have Wist-Wist-Wis-GAH!" 

Hattori smacked himself on the nose, clearly frustrated by his stuttering. Aluna's voice softened significantly.

" Tori? Breathe…Just breathe…I-I'm sorry I yelled. I was just scared. This is the worst holiday of the year for us, and when I went into your room and found you gone…I didn't know what to think."

Hattori carefully took the phone from Wister, gurgling sadly, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you I was leaving. To be honest Lunnie, I don't actually hate the Carnival of Souls…but I know how hard it is for you, so I've pretended to hate it too. I…I wanted to release lanterns for our friends, and my parents…and your Dad."

" Why didn't you just tell me? If it was something you really wanted to do I would have gone with you."

"You got so upset last time. I just didn't want to hurt you again…but…I miss my folks…I don't want them to think I forgot about them…I…"

Hattori trailed off. Wet patches began to form on the scarf covering his face. Instinctively, Wister scooched closer to the little shark and gently hugged his arm trying to provide him comfort (something he and Kya had done for each other countless times). 

" Tori…I'm sorry…the wounds were still really fresh back then and I took it out on you. I didn't mean to get in the way of your grieving…go ahead and let your lanterns fly. When you're done, let's meet back at….um…Yellowtail Station. That's kind of halfway between here and the bay, right? I know it at least has a line directly to Deep Town."

"That…that sounds good. Thank you Aluna!"

" No problem buddy. Oh and Feathers?"

"Yeah, Lunnie?"

There was silence on the other end.

" First of all, only Hattori or my uncle get to call me that. If you ever call me that again or tell anyone else about that nickname, you're off the team. Second, if anything happens to him, I will destroy your entire bloodline. Got it?"

Wister gulped, "Yes Ma'am."

" Good. I'll see you in a bit, Tori. Love you."

Hattori smiled, "Love you too sis."

Aluna hung up and left with the two boys to wonder what the shell just happened.

"So…" Wister begins awkwardly. "You're Aluna's brother huh? She always said she had a brother, but I never would have guessed that you were a shark?"

Hattori awkwardly rubbed the back of his head, "Yeah, it's a long story…one I would really rather not get into. I think we should just light the lanterns. Don't wanna keep Aluna waiting too long."

All around them, lanterns were already taking to the sky. Glowing balls of blue and orange floating higher and higher as the wind carried them out over the sea. Wister got his own ready. Since Rosie already had their Grandma Blossom covered (the only dead person in their family that either of them personally knew) he had made himself an orange lantern, with the simple wish that the Blue Star Bandits would win this year's rookie league. How cool would that be to win their very first League? They'd be world famous! He released it into the sky, and it was quickly followed by a blue lantern with the name Feratu written on it.

"I'm guessing that's your dad?" Wister asked.

Hattori shook his head, "No, that's Aluna's dad. He was a good squid…basically saved our lives…but I wouldn't ask Aluna about him. It's a really sore topic for her."

Wister picked up another Blue lantern from the pile they had and lit it. The name "Sebun" was written on it.

"Are any of these for her Mom?"

A quiet growl bubbled up from the shark's throat, "Absolutely not. Her mother was a monster who deserved everything that happened to her. I…I don't want to get into it…I don't know if you'd believe me even if I did…but people like her don't deserve to be remembered."

Hattori picked up two more lanterns with the names "Tomoe" and "Kakashi" written across them. He gently kissed them both, whispering "I love you" to each of them, before releasing them into the sky.

"Those right there are my mom and dad…I hope…wherever they are…but they know I miss them…

One by one, the rest of the lanterns were released into the sky, each of them representing a friend that Aluna and Hattori have lost.

Niea, Dous, Mittsu, Niljä, Pesë, Liú, Sebun, Osmo, Devet, Deker, Leven, Chris, and Jason.

When the last lantern had been released, Hattori curled up into himself and started to audibly sob. Wister almost felt like joining him.

13 dead kids (at least he was assuming they were kids), all of them had been Aluna's friends. What a nightmare. What on Earth had happened to these two?

As Wister looked out over the sea, he spotted something that made him forget about the gloomy and horrifying implications of those lanterns. He kneeled down to Hattori and gently shook him.

"Hey. Hey, dude! You got to look at this!"

"I can't take my blindfold off," Hattori whimpered. "I shouldn't even be out here. I want to go home."

Wister softly sighed, "Okay…but a once in a lifetime thing is happening right now. I'd hate for you to miss it."

The little shark didn't move, but could hear gasps of delight and wonder from the crowd all around them. People were taking pictures, cheering to the Gods, and saying things like "they're so cute!" And "truly we've been blessed!"

Eventually, his curiosity got the better of him. Hattori faced the ocean, and little by little he pulled the blindfold up to uncover just one of his eyes. But the sight that he took in…it was nothing short of magical.

The night sky looked like it was filled with five times as many stars as normal, tiny reflections on the ocean glowing blue and orange. In the lanterns' light, you could see hundreds of something colorful, aerodynamic, and arrow-shaped leaping out of the water. 

It was an entire shoal of flying squids; the ancestors to the modern-day Inkling, leaping to the sky so joyfully and with such power that some of them were ending up on the docks. Anyone lucky enough to catch one of these little cuties would hold them aloft in the air to the applause and cheers of the crowd, showing off their beautiful navy blue mantles, shining yellow tentacles, and neon blue eyes, before throwing them back into the sea.

"This is so cool!" Wister squealed with excitement. "I'd heard on the news that these little guys were migrating to Crater Bay this year, but I had no idea they'd show up like this! And on the Carnival of Souls too! This has got to be a sign of something good."

Hattori said nothing. He just sat mesmerized by the display before him. His tail happily thumped on the wood of the pier.

"They are so cute! I wish I could keep one…not that I have anywhere to keep it."

"Unfortunately, I don't think you're allowed to keep it even if you had somewhere for it to live. Aren't they considered super sacred?"

Hattori shrugged, "Hey, a shark can dream. But honestly…I think I'd be happy just getting to hold one. Maybe if we sit here long enough we'll get lucky and one will jump to us."

Right on cue, in what had to be the funniest coincidence Wister had been a part of yet, a particularly large squid lept out of the water, and with missile-like precision, crashed into Wister, heading him dead center in the chest. It would have been a lot more exciting and funny, if the little guy had not been covered in highly corrosive salt water. Even the small splashes it made as it flopped around in Wister's arms burned at his skin and made him howl with pain as he dropped it. 

Hattori sprang into action, scooping up the squid to get it back in the water. Being a fish, he was not affected by the saltwater, but he was affected by the feeling of something sharp piercing his webbed hand. He had to fight the urge to drop the squid, thinking at first it had bit him. But no. A much closer look told him that the little fellow was injured, a rusted fishing hook was stuck just above its left eye.

"Oh…you poor thing," Hattori sighed. "Don't worry, I'll get it out!"

At first, Hattori tried just wiggling nothing out, but it was so rusted and crusty, that it was doing more harm than good trying to remove it that way. 

"You might be better off just using one of your claws," Wister spoke up. "Healing from a cut will be a lot easier for him than if any or more of that rust gets into his bloodstream."

"Are you sure he'll be okay?"

Wister blinked, surprised at himself, "Yeah…yeah he'll be okay…I'll make sure of it."

Going as gently and quickly as he could, Hattori raked a single claw across the bridge of flesh between the two halves of the hook. It was much closer to the surface that it first appeared, allowing him to pull it out with ease once it was cut away. Still the little squid flopped and wiggled in distress as a good amount of midnight blue blood oozed down its face.

"Easy little buddy!" Wister gasped, "It's okay!"

Using a corner of Hattori's head scarf, Wister carefully wiped up the excess blood and Gunk from the wound. Wister's wrist suddenly lit up, the swirly, moonlight patterns on it that had been almost invisible up to this point, glowing a bright blue. Wister watched as the squid's injury quickly became less and less severe until nothing was left behind but a small scar above the eye.

The glow faded, and the Little Squid became twice as lively. Hattori looked gobsmacked.

"Wh-Wha…what was that? How did you do that?!"

Wister nervously rubbed his wrists, "It's uh…that is a really, really long story. One I'm not even sure how to tell. Maybe ask your sister about it when you see her? She was there too."

"Aluna has a glowy healing tattoo?! For real?"

"No, I think she has something different…I think. I really don't know dude, this is all super new to me. Can we please try and just forget it happened? Go about having a normal night?"

Hattori's expression got super tight, opening and closing his mouth over and over like he was wanting to say something but couldn't actually think of what to say. Finally, the ninja shark let out a long breath and shrugged.

"Okay…I'll try and forget that something impossible just happened…I can do that."

Hattori gently chucked the little squid back into the ocean, watching it leap with joy further and further out to sea until it was out of sight. All at once, his heart rate and breathing started to pick up, and he found himself covering his eyes again.

"This ha-has been re-re-really nice, Wister" Hattori stammered out in between gasps. "Th-th-tha-thank you f-for your help."

Wister smiled at him, "No problem man. I'm glad I got to meet Aluna's mysterious brother before anyone else. I can rub this in Kya's face forever."

Hattori finally calmed himself down a little, "I'd…like to go home now."

"Do you want me to come with you?"

Hattori shook his head, "Nah, I can make it to Yellowtail Station. You should go meet up with your family."

Hattori started to trot away. Halfway down the pier, Wister decided he couldn't just let the little shark go and ran after him.

"YO! Hattori! Hold on a minute!" Wister cried out.

Hattori stopped and looked back at Wister (even though he couldn't actually see him). Wister had to catch his breath before saying his piece.

"Let me give you my number. I know you said you don't like going outside but maybe we can text? Or just talk? Or you can give me your friend code and we can play games online together. I'd like to hang out with you again."

The spots all along Hattori's body lit up and he purred happily as he recited his number to the squid. Wister punched it into his phone, and with a promise that he'd call, the two new friends parted ways.

---

The station was more crowded than Aluna had ever seen it and yet she had never felt so alone. She couldn't place why she felt this way. Maybe it was the fact that she was worried about her brother, or was it because she felt…exposed.

She had only known Wister for a couple of months, yet he knew something so personal to her. Even some of her longtime friends, like Renja, only knew surface level things about her. It was how she had survived all this time, keeping most seafolk at a distance. But Hattori was not nearly as guarded as she was. Sure he could barely set foot outside without having a panic attack (it must have taken years for him to build up to doing this), but he was a friendly soul. An open book compared to her. She started to worry what the two boys could have been talking about?

Her Dad?

Her Mother?

Their friends?

The fire?

Aluna shook her head violently, trying to shake away the bad thoughts. No…there's no way Hattori would do that to her. He would never share something so painful to someone he just met, even if that someone was as nice as Wister.

"ALUNAAAAA!"

A shrill cry rang throughout the station as she was tackled by a familiar shadow. 

"I'm so sorry I left!" He cried. "I should have told you from the start how I felt! I want to go home! Can we go home?!"

Aluna gently held the little shark who is currently curling himself into a ball in her lap. He looked so tiny even when in reality she was only a head taller than him. And yet, even as she was pissed at him for scaring her…she was proud of him. All this time she thought he wasn't making any progress, but for today he not only went so far outside, but he even made a new friend of his own. She couldn't wait to tell Chinook about this.

"Yeah, of course buddy. Let's go home…but you're going to have to walk with me. I may carry randos during Turf War, but I'm nowhere near strong enough to carry you."

The shark reluctantly uncurled and got to his feet with a sniff, "Thank you."

"Actually you might as well sit down. The train to Deep Town doesn't arrive for another 5 minutes. So what did you think of my teammate? He didn't drag you into any of his bull shark pranks or anything did he?"

Hattori chuckled, "Uh, no. He was actually really sweet and understanding…and funny…and cute."

Aluna patted her brother on the back but said nothing. Some sort of nonverbal understanding passed between them as they sat waiting for the train.

There was a ping on Hattori's phone and he had to fiddle with his blindfold just to be able to look at it. It was a text from Wister.

( Wister: "I hope you made it to Yellowtail station okay. I found my family, and I got there just in time to see another flying squid leap onto our pier. We had a shell of a Time trying to get Rosie to let him go. Happy Carnival man. To both of you.")

Attached to the text there was a cute group photo, of what had to be Wister, his parents, grandparents and other extended family, all crowded around a little squidling (probably Rosie) proudly holding the young flying squid she had caught high into the air. It filled him with a sense of longing, but also gave him butterflies in his stomach.

( Hattori: "I'm okay. I found Aluna pretty quick. We are waiting for the train now. Thank you for helping me. Happy Carnival to you too." )

As he slipped his phone back into his hoodie pocket, and followed the guiding hand of his sister as she dragged towards the train, Hattori felt really good for the first time in a long time…especially with those butterflies…traveling from his stomach to his heart.

Chapter Text

Momo was trying to sleep that night, she really was. But the events of the day, and her outrage over them was keeping her awake. She just kept going over them in her head, wondering what she was supposed to do? Did she talk to her sister about it? Being the kind of squid she was, Ume would probably suggest a talk through your feelings type of option…this was a problem that just talking about it couldn't solve.

The trouble started almost immediately. After putting on Bell hunting costumes, every kid in the Tachibana household was carried out to the town via hayride truck (except for Diggsy, who detested the idea of sitting on potentially itchy hay), their parents following close behind. Momo herself wasn't really dressed in anything special, just a simple great zapfish hoodie with skull and bone print replacing its usual patterns. Kya's costume was equally simple; a lovely red shawl with traditional white patterns stitched into it, draped over a golden yellow undershirt and black legging. 

There was only one part that was confusing to Momo. The Inktoling girl had carefully wrapped bandages around her tentacles, specifically over the suckers…as if she was hiding them. She was also wearing sunglasses even though it wasn't that bright out. Even now she looked extra worried as they rode into town.

"You okay?" Momo asked her friend.

Kya nodded stiffly, "Yeah…just thinking…"

"About?"

"Don't worry about it."

"Are you still mad at me?"

Kya straightened a bit and finally looked at Momo, "No…no, I'm not mad anymore. I shouldn't have reacted the way I did in the first place. It's your first time on this island, so obviously you wouldn't know how things work."

"I might if you tell me."

Although the big fin squid couldn't see her friend's eyes, her expression tightened. Whatever she was about to say was cut off by the excited voice of one of her other cousins.

"So, my daddy says you're from Splatsville? Is it really as dirty and crowded as they say?" One of the squidlings asked.

"Are ya' in a real gang?" Another one asked.

"Is it hard to sleep at night?"

"Is the food any good?"

"Have ya' ever been caught in a sandstorm?"

"My Mama says there are cactuses everywhere! Ya' ever kicked one?"

"Can ya' eat cactuses?"

"Ya' ever been bitten by a rattlesnake or a cone snail?"

"Have you ever stabbed anyone?"

The bombardment of questions were so much that Momo couldn't pick out any one voice among the sea of curious squidlings. She had to clap her hands to get their attention so she could talk.

"Guys! Guys! I've only lived in Splatsville for about a month. I still don't know much about the city. Why don't you ask your cousin? She's lived there a lot longer?"

Suddenly all eyes turned to Kya and everybody went quiet. No one said a peep and they all kept looking at each other nervously. Kya seemed to sense the tension in the air, and changed into her swim form, trying to hide herself under the hay. Now Momo was really confused.

"Uh…Am I missing something?" Momo asked with a bit of a growl in her voice. "Do you guys…have some kind of problem with Kya?"

For a long few minutes, no one spoke. The only sounds were that of tires on a dirt road, and the wind rushing by. At last, one of the youngest squidling broke the silence.

"Sorry…but all our folks don't want us talking to her."

Kya whimpered from her spot in the hay. An older girl sitting next to the little boy who had spoken up, slapped him on the back of the head.

"Nils! You ain't supposed to say nothing!"

Nils squeaked in pain, "But it's true! Except for Granny Cara and Uncle Vimmy, everybody thinks that Kya's a weirdo. Daddy even says she's a denomination!"

Another boy spoke up, "The word's abomination, ya idjit!"

Said boy immediately slapped his hand over his mouth the second the word left it. He glanced around nervously, like you just been caught doing something awful. Momo just stared at the crowd of extended family in disgust, then that look of disgust turned to anger.

"Oh…okay! That's how you little hicks feel?! Well how's this for an abomination!?"

Reaching into her hoodie pocket, Momo pulled out Kiwi, looked around and confused for a moment.

"Kiwi, act scary," Momo whispered.

The little fish chirped with understanding. Kiwi lunged in the direction of the kids, squawked, snapped her jaws and flailed her tongue around like a ghoul. Her squeaks of fury were drowned out by the horrified screams of the children, all of them climbing over each other to get to the other end of the truck bed and as far away from Momo as possible. It would have been funny if it weren't for the harsh tug she felt on her longest tentacle. It was so sudden it pulled her head to the floor, and had her come face to face with the pleading eyes of her friend.

"Momo, stop it! You're scaring them!" Kya hissed.

"After what they said to you?"

"They're just little kids! They don't know any better!"

Momo looked back at all the little squidlings. There was a look of absolute terror in all of their eyes, some of them shaking with fear while Kiwi pranced back and forth snapping her jaws. Kya was right. The eldest of them was barely 11 years old and the littlest one had to be at least four, though it was easy to forget because of their giant/colossal squid genes. 

Momo sighed, "Kiwi, come back."

The smallfry dropped the scary monster act and waddled back over to her big buddy. She paused for a moment to look at Kya, half buried in the hay, and cuddled up with her instead. Kya didn't reciprocate the cuddling but made no move to push her away. 

The rest of the ride was spent in silence.

----

And things didn't really get much better when they got to town.

The tension was finally broken as the small caravan of farm vehicles parked in an empty field at the edge of the city. The squidlings filed out of the hayride and ran to their parents. Since no one tried to question Momo about Kiwi, she was assuming that the kids kept quiet…probably out of fear. The thought made the bigfin's stomach turn.

Looks like intimidation and fear tactics really did run in the family.

She was pulled from her thoughts, by a nudge on the shoulder. It was Kya, looking a little bit more relaxed than she had in the car.

"Hey…I wish you had done it another way…but…" Kya said shyly. "Thanks for trying to stand up for me…also don't tell my mom and dad about it please?"

Momo looked surprised, "Why? Are you worried the little shit heads will get in trouble?"

Kya didn't react to the shit heads comment, she just shook her head, "It's not about them. My dad doesn't get to see his family very often because they live so far apart. I don't want to ruin the little time he has with them."

Momo decided to just accept that explanation, though there was probably more to it.

"My lips are sealed."

Followed by Pomela, who was dressed in a very detailed chum salmonoid costume, Diggsy walked up to the teenage girls, spirits high…though it was hard to tell through their costume.

They had really gone all out with it. They were dressed head to toe in dark green rain gear that had massive clumps of fake seaweed carefully sewn into it. Woven into the seaweed, was a cloak of fishing net entangled with fake fish bones and equally fake fish hooks. To complete the look, their visible skin was painted with muddy Brown makeup and their thick glasses have been replaced with goggles that were decorated to resemble leering red eyes. Diggsy was dressed as a night fisher; a monstrous cryptid known for laying out on the beaches at night, and stealing away any naughty children who would go up past their bedtime and mistake it for a lump of sea trash.

"Are you squiddos ready to go to Bell Hunting with a real  pair of sea monsters?!" Pomela cheered, raising the very real cast iron skillet she had bought with her High into the air.

"Mama's takes bell hunting very seriously," Diggsy whispered to Momo. "Grandpa was a bum and only came around during the carnival, so she always made it extra special."

Pomela quickly pulled the kelp covered squidling back to her side, laughing nervously and attempting to ruffle their tentacles underneath their hat.

"Diggsy! My darling! Light of my life! We don't talk about Grandpa in front of strangers!"

"Kya's not a stranger."

"I meant your new friend there, honey!"

Momo shrugged awkwardly, "Eh…sorry. If it makes you feel any better my mom's a bum too. She walked out when I was 4 and I have only seen her twice since then. And both those times she wasn't even there for me, so I get it."

Momo's intention had been to help Miss Pomela feel less awkward, but the giant squid did something Momo didn't expect; she walked over to Momo, knelt down, and hugged her warmly. It was nice…but so unexpected that Momo had no idea how to react.

"I'm sorry I had to deal with that, honey," Pomela said sweetly. "But no need to let that get us down now, right? We've got hunting to do!"

With that, they reunited with the rest of the family and moved into town. Momo had never seen so much sparkling White in all of her life, not even in Alterna.

Look up comfy mountain villages on any web browser and you would have a pretty good idea on what Starsea Valley looked like. Clean, charming, a reasonable amount of sea folk walking around, with lots of ancient world charm and beautifully decorated shrines and shops on every corner. There weren't even that many cars, most people were walking or riding around in wagons or on seahorses. It was a far cry from Splatsville or even Inkopolis, with the only thing marking it as a major city being the Great zapfish wrapped comfortably around a spire on the town hall.

Another thing that was different was how they decorated for the carnival. Most cities filled their streets with as much color and light as possible. And while the Starsea Valley was definitely bright and cheerful, there wasn't that much color.

From the lanterns, to the ribbons and decorations, even the food that was being served were all a stark, gleaming white. It was kind of pretty in a very ominous way. More superstitious seafolk saw a gleaming White like this as an omen of death, and this much of it was reserved for times of mourning. Sure, the carnival was all about celebrating the Dead, but this might have been a bit much.

"Creepy right?" Kya mumbled.

Momo nodded, "A little. Are you sure there's not a funeral going on?"

"Nope. It's like this every time we're here. Apparently this is the super traditional way of doing it. People of the island are really into old traditions."

Before any follow-up questions could be asked, a deafening crash came from one of the food stalls across the street. Naturally, everybody turned to see a very tiny pygmy octoling boy, wearing a tattered poncho and a skull mask speeding down the street with arms and tentacles full of money and Candy of all sorts. He was laughing like a maniac and had the biggest snail eating grin across his smug little face. Chasing behind him, hurling death threats and bags of bells was an old angel squid inkling with a horrifically scarred eye, probably the owner of the stall that that kid just robbed.

"SOMEBODY GRAB THAT THIEVING LITTLE SUCKER HEAD!" The old man screamed.

Immediately, a whole crowd of other inklings gave chase, screaming and cursing. In passing, Momo could overhear some of them talking about how they would brutalize the kid if they actually caught them. 

Personally, Momo was still reeling from what she just heard the old man say! That was one of the worst slurs an inkling could call an octoling, and that old fart had just sprouted it off like it was nothing!

"Did he just call that kid a…a sucker head?! Thief or not you don't just say shit like that!"

Kya just let out a depressed sigh, and pulled her friend off to the side, ducking into a nearby alleyway…though in a little town like this it wouldn't really provide much privacy.

"Momo…look around the city. Look at the people. What do you notice?" 

Momo looked around at the crowds parading about, though most of them had stopped to console the old street vendor. Most of them were wearing very generic costumes, like sheet ghosts, human skeleton outfits, oni, mystic monks, or generic horned demons. Other than that nothing stood out. Was she missing something?

"They…uh…aren't very creative costume designers?"

Kya blinked, "Oh…yeah, they're all in costume. But if they weren't in costume, you would see that there are no octolings."

Momo still looked confused. Kya growled in frustration.

"Do I really have to spell it out for you? Momo, there are no octolings here because…"

Kya was cut off by something slammed into Momo and knocking her to the ground.

She pushed herself up quickly to catch a glimpse of that pygmy octoling thief. It looks like the little shit had looped back around to get away from his pursuers, only to crash into someone. The crash had caused him to scatter his ill gotten gains all over the ground and the two girls who were unfortunate enough to get in his way. As if to add injury to insult, the bastard hurled a bag of coins right at Kya's face for literally no reason. The Inktoling squealed in pain and curled herself into a ball. Momo tried to charge at the little asshole, only for him to slip between her legs (little prev), and dash away…but not before throwing a taiyaki at Momo's back.

Momo groaned in disgust as she tried to rub the red bean flavored goo off her hoodie. The old angel squid finally rounded the corner to see that the thief may have gotten away, but had left behind most of the stolen merchandise. As the old man kneeled down to gather up his stuff he smiled warmly at the girls.

"Did you ladies try to stop that sucker head? Though I wish we'd caught him, I'm glad I got most of my money back thanks to you."

Momo's expression got extremely tight, "Yeah, don't mention it."

The old Angel squid lifted up some destroyed ghost cakes, "It's such a shame that this perfectly good food had to go to waste. At least the sucker head didn't get any."

Suddenly the entire crowd that had also been chasing the octoling finally caught up. A yellow headed Angel squid with extra large ears broke off from the group and helped the old man to his feet.

"The sucker head got away, huh, gramps?"

Nope. Momo wasn't putting up with this.

"Oh my gods! Stop saying that!" Momo shrieked.

All eyes turned to her. Suddenly she felt even smaller, but didn't back down.

"Stop saying that word! You can't just go around calling octolings…I don't even want to say it!" 

The younger members of the crowd were looking at her like she had just grown an arm out of her forehead, the old man seemed to understand, and knelt down again to get eye level with her.

"Judging by your accent, I'd say you're from the mainland right? I know over there it's all peace and love between squids and octopus, but out here sweetie, things are different. Out here we're real inklings. We never forgot what the octo slobs did to our people, so if they step over the line, we repay their inkshed tenfold, if you catch my cold."

Momo caught the cold alright. And she was starting to feel it in her stomach as it became painfully clear what Kya had been trying to tell her. 

"Excuse me miss?" A small voice suddenly spoke up. "You dropped your glasses."

A random squidling reached out to hand Kya back her sunglasses, then paused as he took a closer look at her.

"Hey…what's wrong with your eyes?"

Kya didn't waste a second. She sprung to her feet, seized Momo by her wrist and dragged her out of that alleyway, putting as much distance between her and that crowd of inklings as possible. The pair didn't stop until they caught back up with Diggsy and their mom.

---

The rest of the day had been completely soured by that experience. All throughout the festivities, bell Hunting, food, and merriment, Momo couldn't get what that old man had said over her head. 

"Real Inklings?"

"Repay their inkshed?"

Was he serious? The Great Turf War ended 150 years ago. It was one thing to remember the past, it was another thing entirely to stay stuck in it. Sure in Inkopolis, even after the Great octarian migration had settled down, there were all kinds of anti-octo and anti-squid groups running around, but those were the exception not the rule. 

According to Kya, this island had been a place that former soldiers and octarian refugees would come to escape the war, but they spent so much time fighting each other that they eventually just split the island with a line right down the middle, and neither side ever crossed it unless they wanted to make trouble. The idea was absurd to Momo, and it made her understand all at once why Kya had been dreading coming back to this place. 

In a place heavily divided between octarians and inklings, what would they do to someone who was both and neither? It was scary just to think about it. Momo couldn't imagine actually having to live it.

Even now as she laid down on the makeshift, but surprisingly comfy cot that Vimmy had been so nice to set up in their front room, it haunted her. Momo decided she couldn't just keep quiet about this. She'd promised herself she wouldn't spy on Kya for the captain…but she never said anything about talking to Ume, who was sound asleep on the couch next to her. Ume had gone to school just to have people talk to her about their problems right? She wasn't betraying her friend's trust in her…right?

---

While Momo was completely restless, Kya had passed out almost the moment her head hit the pillow. Today has been mentally and physically exhausting. So much had happened. Some of it is good.

After escaping the alleyway and reuniting with her aunt Pomela, they went about their Bell hunting. Thanks to her glasses and all the wrapping she had used to hide her suckers, nobody knew that she was part octarian. Once the initial pain of that entire situation in the alleyway faded, Kya was back to enjoying the little time she had with her cousin. 

They danced to the live traditional music, watched a play about how the day and night cycle came to be, and ate some of the most delicious seafood snacks that Kya had ever tasted. When night fell, they went to the beaches and released their lanterns. 

Her dad, uncle, and Grandma already had her deceased grandfather covered, so she had made a wish lantern, as had her mom. It had the same wish on it it did every year: "Keep my daughter healthy and safe." Kya's lantern was a wish on behalf of her cousin Jericho: "Help him find a real friend so that he stops being such an asshole." Momo had no lantern of either kind, mostly just helping her sister release a lantern with their grandmother's name on it…all the while looking like someone had just spit on her shoes. Was she really still upset about what happened in the alleyway? Or…was it the fact that Kya had begged her not to say anything to the adults. Kya was then distracted from her train of thoughts by quiet sobbing from Diggsy as they released a lantern dedicated to Kikuri, a small black rooster that had passed away last year. The little guy had been Diggsy's best friend (the Kiwi to their Momo as it were), and obviously his death was still hitting them hard. 

Speaking of Diggsy, Kya was suddenly shaken awake by the Giant/colossal squidling.

"Psssst…hey Kya? Are you awake?"

"I am now," she mumbled groggily. "What time is it?"

"Almost midnight," Diggsy said casually.

That woke Kya up, "What's going on? Could you not sleep?"

Diggsy shook their head, "I was asleep, but then my friend Croiss called me. He's calling an emergency club meeting."

"A club meeting? At…midnight?"

"We can't meet during the day. Technically, the clubhouse isn't a part of the woods that nobody's supposed to go in…but it's such a cool place to hang out! So we have to go at night so we don't get in trouble."

"Okay…and you want me to come?"

 "You were really sad when we came home. Visiting with the Cooler Tens always cheers me up when I've had a bad day, so I thought maybe it would help you too."

Kya's ears drooped, "Oh…you noticed that, huh?"

Diggsy nodded, "Yeah. Croiss is my best friend and the freshest squid I know! I want him to meet my super Fresh cousin from the city."

Kya's lights lit up slightly as she smiled. She and Diggsy didn't get to see each other very often, but when they did, little squidling always found a way to warm their cousin's hearts.

"Just give me a second to put some real clothes on."

----

You never realize how truly dark the night is until you get away from the city's light polluted streets. The dirt roads were so dark, only having the Moon and the flashlights on their phone to guide their way. Every whistle of the wind, waves through the grass, and rustling of the bushes that they heard as they walked was a lot spookier than it should have been. Now it made sense why darkness was such a primal fear to so many creatures. What she wouldn't give to have Aluna's night vision right about now.

After a 20-minute hike through dirt roads, overgrown fields, fallen trees, and knee-high leaf piles, Diggsy led the girl to a collection of boulders sitting right by the edge of a river. All of the boulders were natural in their shape but the way they were stacked and arranged to resemble castle walls definitely wasn't. With the neglected  Shimenawa tied around the whole base of the Tower, the faded blue painted ripples and carvings of some kind of animal, and the rotted remains of a wooden gate, it was clear that this place had once been a shrine. Probably to the local river god if Kya had to guess. 

The shrine looked abandoned, but if the lights, laughing, loud music, and foul smelling purple smoke coming from inside was any indication, it was not.

"Croiss! Hey Croiss!" Diggsy called out.

A dark skinned firefly Inkling wearing a brown leather jacket and a kilt of all things, peeked his head out of the doorway. From what little Momo could see of his face in the light of their glowing purple spots, he looked really annoyed.

"Oh damn the gods, it's you," the Firefly inkling grumbled.

Diggsy's expression flattened, "Hi Etzel. Is Croiss there?"

"Of course he's here ya' idjit! He's the one who called the meeting!"

"I brought my cousin," Diggsy stepped back a bit to show off Kya.

Kya didn't know what else to do so she simply waved at the annoyed squid. His expression shifted immediately.

"Ooooh! You didn't say you had a pretty girl with you. Don't just stand down there, come on up!"

Climbing the weathered stone stairs she could feel Etzel eyeing her up. Out of the corner of her eye she saw their hand reaching for her hips, and squeezed. She hissed and smacked his hand away.

"What the fuck?! Don't touch me!"

Etzel clicked his beak in anger, gripping his wrist, "Damn bitch! You need to cut your nails! You fucking scratched me!"

Diggsy growled, "Serves you right! You can't just go grabbing seafolk."

Etzel hissed, "Eh…you ain't my type anyway."

Kya rolled her eyes as they entered the shrine. She expected to find a bunch of squidlings sitting around drinking copious amounts of soda, eating junk food and messing with drugs that they had got from their parents that they had no idea how to actually consume.

And she was half right.

There was a lot of soda, junk food, and drugs…but there were no squidlings. Every squid there was an Inkling, the youngest being 14 and a couple of them being almost 20 at least. The interior of the shrine was heavily neglected and every tea table, bookcase and incense burner, was covered with burnt out cigarettes and empty beer bottles. There was a small campfire burning at the center of the shrine, but at least that was supposed to be there. It was a specially designed fire pit made for burning offerings, although now it was being used to toast marshmallows and light blunts. In one corner of the room, there were several TVs and a stereo hooked up to a huge gas powered generator that looked very unsafe, each of the TVs being used for various games, ranging from the light-hearted Marlino Kart to the violent and ridiculous Grand Auto Rouges. 

This whole place reminded her way too much of some of the dumps that the delinquents at her school hung out in. It was not a place that any squidling should be, let alone one as sweet as Diggsy…or…were they really as sweet as they appeared to be?

"Cool huh?" Diggsy spoke up. "We took it over after they built a new shrine further downstream. What do you think?"

Kya clicked her beak with worry, "Uhh…it's definitely not what I expected when you said we were going to visit your friends."

Diggsy rubbed the back of their head, "Yeah…I know how it looks, but I swear they're good squids…except for Etzel, but his sister normally keeps him in line. Croiss is a good squid. You'll like him."

The sound of an air horn ripped through the air, causing many inklings to scream and curse and Kya's hearts almost jumped out of her chest. From a side room, a blue headed, pigtail wearing, firefly inkling girl had stuck her head out. She looked down on the crowd with her striking yellow green eyes, and the biggest grin that Momo had ever seen. She held down the air horn for a few seconds longer, as if to deliberately cause everyone else pain. When she finally let up, the room was mostly quiet except for quiet plots of revenge and death threats.

The girl ignored the hostile atmosphere she had created, clearing her throat, adjusting her spiky silver wristbands, and pulling at the edges of her fluffy white coat to adjust it like she was getting ready to make a big speech.

"Thank y'all for comin' tonight! I know we're right in the middle of the festival but we wouldn't be bugging you if it wasn't important. Croiss? Baby?"

Another inkling, about 17 years of age, stepped out of the side room. This one was an angel squid with very long yellow tentacles and unusually large ears (part big fin maybe?). His eyes were incredibly sharp with the most intense shade of reddish brown. He wore a jacket that looked a lot like Aluna's, only off-brand and it was black instead of red…not to mention really beat up and dirty. The tattered howdy hat he had on had a Great Turf War medal pinned to it, and the heavy duty combat boots he wore made him look like some kind of renegade soldier, the look completed by a set of claw scars that have been raked across his right eyebrow.

"Hi Croiss!" Diggsy shouted, waving enthusiastically. 

Croiss' eyes swept across the room and landed on Diggsy. He smiled warmly and waved at squidling before putting on a serious face again.

"Good evening my fellow Cooler Tens. Hope your first day of the carnival was wonderful. Mine was almost perfect, until my grandfather was robbed, by a no good, eight armed delinquent."

There was booing and sneering all across the room. Croiss held up his hand and waited for everyone to go quiet before continuing.

"It seems that the Rebel Rings have broken the truce that I so carefully devised so that we could all enjoy the first days of summer in peace with our friends and family. I'm afraid that we cannot let this blatant disregard for our generosity go unpunished."

There were some cheers of agreement and a few slurs thrown in as everyone got riled up again. What was with the way this dude talked? He had a very thick country accent like most of the locals, but he talked like he was doing a presentation at an ultra fancy private school.

"Nevertheless, I do not wish to sully the beginning of our summer or the time with our loved ones with violence. Some simple sabotage will have to serve as a warning for the time being. Once the sun has set on the third day of the carnival, we can really plan to strike back."

Diggsy leaned over to Kya, "The Rebel Rings are our rivals. A group of octolings who go around bullying any inkling they find, breaking stuff that don't belong to them, and stealing things. They're massive jerks!"

Kya's stomach clenched painfully, "Yeah…I'm familiar with the Rebel Rings. Diggsy, why would you bring me here?"

"What do you mean? We're here to meet Croiss, I told you."

"You forgot to mention that he was an anti-octarian!" she hissed. "Or that you were a part of some anti-octarian gang!"

Diggsy looked shocked, "What?! No! No he's not! I'm not! It's not like that, I swear!"

"I'm leaving."

Kya tried to walk out, but Diggsy seized her by the wrist, desperately begging her to listen.

"Kya please! I promise it's not what you think! The Rebel Rings are a gang of thieves and bullies who hate inklings and hurt them for fun. Those are the only octarians we're against, not all of them."

Kya let out a heartbroken growl from the back of her throat. She had really thought that her little cousin was someone she could trust. Were her uncle and grandmother the only non-bigots on this entire accursed, backwater, beautiful and wild Island?!

As she pulled her arm away, Kya's gaze landed on a half busted mirror leaned up against the wall. What she saw in it caused her hearts to twist painfully. It was her, doing what she did best: hiding.

Whenever she came here, she would do her best to hide her octarian eyes, suckers and rings. Wearing gloves to hide her claws. Barely talking to hide her beak. Avoiding going into her swim form. All in an effort to look like an Inkling…but she wasn't Inkling. Even if she tried a disguise in the other direction, using makeup to hide her mask, wrapping up her tentacles to change their shape, and wearing headphones to hide her ears, it wouldn't change a thing. She would look like an octoling, but she was not an octoling.

She wasn't anything.

"Diggsy!"

A loud and cheerful cry snapped the Inktoling out of her depressing chain of thought. Croiss and the inkling that Kya could only assume was his girlfriend by the way she clung to him, had finished their speech (which Kya was just realizing she had missed most of in her attempt to leave) and came to warmly embrace the violet red squidling.

"I'm glad you could be here, my not so little friend," Croiss said with a loving smile. "I feared you would have to be filled in via text message…actually, you're looking a bit glum. What's wrong?"

Diggsy sharply breathed in, "Uh…I brought my cousin…she's from the mainland but…"

The squidling trailed off with a sniffle. Now Kya really felt like a piece of crap. Croiss placed his hand on Diggsy's shoulder to comfort them. His expression changed to a much more solemn one.

"Diggs, I've told you before. You can't just bring strangers, family or no, to the hideout without telling me. A lot of folks don't understand what we do here, and I'd hate for there to be a misunderstanding."

Kya felt her blood burn in a way it never had before. There was a faint flash of blue from under the sleeves of her jacket.

"What's there to misunderstand?" Kya hissed. "You're some gangster wannabe, who surrounds himself with bored hoodlums, and talks like a prick to sound smarter than he actually is!"

Diggsy flinched and wheeled around to gawk at their cousin. Croiss himself didn't look very angry, more surprised. His girlfriend on the other hand glared at Kya with murderous bloodlust.

"How fucking dare you!" The girl snarled, lunging at Kya to grab her hoodie and pull her down to her level. "Where do you get off talking to my beau like that!?"

Kya could only let out a fearful squeak, because she really didn't have an answer. She had no idea where that had come from…well obviously it had come from her own head but she would never say something like that out loud. What had possessed her to do that?!

Although it took her a great deal of effort (being a small firefly squid) the girl threw Kya to the ground. This caught the attention of the rest of the gang, as they started to gather around. Kya tried to scoot away, only to be thwarted by a boot in her stomach and multiple empty cans and pieces of trash being thrown at her head. She let out a deflating hiss of pain which made the girl above her giggle cruelly, punctuating her laughter by pulling out a small pocket knife.

Crap.

"Any last words before I mark up your pretty face, stranger?!" The girl hissed.

Kya tried to talk but no words would come out. She just closed her eyes and prepared for a lot of stabbing, until a weight smelling of hay and fruity cupcakes threw itself over her.

"NO! Kake, please don't hurt her! I'm sure she didn't mean it!"

"Move it Diggsy!" Kake snarled. "Family or no, I can't abide by anyone disrespecting my man like that!"

Diggsy was trembling but still didn't move, "I'm not going to let you hurt my cousin!"

Suddenly Kya felt someone grab her hand, carefully examining each finger. Another inkling seized one of her tentacles and pulled off the bandages. Yet another removed her sunglasses. Kya's insides turned to ice. She was completely exposed now.

"What in the deep dark is this?" One inkling sneered.

"Look at those claws! She could tear your throat out in your sleep," Another whispered.

"She's like an octarian, but not," At least that inkling's voice had more curiosity in it than malice. 

Croiss shooed the other inklings away, putting his hand gently on Kake's to calm her down. He carefully picked Diggsy up off the ground, whispered something to them, and pushed them back a bit as if to hide them behind Kake. To Kya's surprise, he held out his hand to her and pulled her to her feet with little effort.

"You're Kyanite, correct? Diggsy's talked about you a lot. Come with me."

Croiss didn't even wait for a response. He harshly tugged her away, exiting the shrine and leading her back towards the rotted out wooden gate. It was here that he let go of her hand, and looked out towards the river, although you could only hear it in the total darkness of the night.

"Now, Miss Kyanite…may I call you Kya?"

Kya swallowed, "Sure…that's fine."

Croiss nodded, " Now, Miss Kya. I don't want there to be any misunderstanding between us. I didn't appreciate the way you spoke to me in there, but I must admit I was a little bit impressed. Diggsy always spoke of you as being a soft-spoken, cowardly thing."

Kya internally bristled, clenching her beak so hard it felt like it was going to crack to avoid saying anything.

"You see on this island, we Cooler Tens see ourselves as the peacekeepers. The octarians don't like the fact that we live here, and we don't like them either. But for the sake of everyone to live a peaceful and happy life, we tolerate one another. They stay on their side, we stay on ours, nobody gets hurt…but far too often, delinquents such as the Rebel Rings break that treaty. If we allowed their transgressions to go unpunished…why, it would be chaos."

Croiss finally turned back towards Kya, harshly grabbing her arm, "Although, if you want to get technical, we aren't supposed to be doing what we do either, whether it be for the sake of peace or otherwise. Which is why I hope you won't be telling anybody what you saw here tonight? Am I correct?"

Kya nodded stiffly, but couldn't fight the growl that bubbled up from her throat, "Fine…I don't care what you're doing here anyway. Just leave Diggsy alone. They're a good squid who doesn't deserve to be lumped in with your bull shark."

Croiss' expression didn't change. He simply shrugged.

"If Diggsy wants to leave, that's their choice. After all, they came to me."

At last his expression changed, becoming very dark, "But you should be thanking your lucky stars that they are here. I'm very fond of Diggsy. They're like the little sibling I've never had and I care about them very much. And they care about you very much. That is the only reason that I am not tossing you into the river for what you said to me."

The words started flowing out before Kya could stop them, "I don't believe you! Diggsy isn't some anti-octarian hillbilly like you! They love my Dad and…"

Croiss' grip got painfully tight, and his breathing picked up, "you want to be that way?! Very well, let's talk about your father! The Tachibana family is quite well-known in these parts, for having adopted a poor orphaned octarian hatchling into their home…and raising it like one of them…but he's not one of them, is he?"

Croiss let go of her arm with a cruel smile, "And neither are you. There isn't a drop of real blood between you and Diggsy. You ain't really their family. You don't fucking belong here."

Kya's hearts sank into her stomach. She tried to come up with some kind of rebuttal but…she couldn't. He had just confirmed something that she had been feeling ever since she came here. Something that she had known since she was little.

Croiss' smile got a bit more sadistic, " Oooh, I hit a nerve there didn't I? I would say that your father and you would feel more comfortable on the octarian side of the island, but you wouldn't belong there either…because you ain't an octarian. You ain't an inkling. You're just some freak of nature. You don't belong anywhere."

Croiss then leaned in close and hissed in her ear, "Except maybe at the bottom of the sea. So get going before I send you there myself."

That burning feeling in Kya's chest was back, even stronger than before. No! She wasn't giving in to it. In desperation to keep it under control, she raced towards a nearby boulder and hugged on to it like a starving lamprey. She practically screwed her eyes shut as painful tears started to force their way out. Her claws were pressed against the rock with such force it felt like they were about to snap off, like they were burning. Even her mouth and beak began to fill with a familiar bitter taste as an iridescent indigo slime oozed out. She forced herself to take a few painful gasps of despair, trying hard not to wail like a hatchling. 

It hurt, it hurt, it hurt, it hurt! 

She swore she could almost hear her hearts cracking apart. He was right. Though everyone had been too afraid to say it, she knew he was right. No amount of sharing a last name with someone, or parents loving her, or being someone's best friend, or cute girls calling her pretty, would change the truth.

She was a freak. She shouldn't exist. She belongs nowhere. Just an abomination in the eyes of those who were supposed to be her family.

She finally stopped gasping long enough to look back at Croiss. He looked absolutely stunned and there was something in his eyes. Fear?

He cleared his throat, "So…we understand each other? You keep your mouth closed about this and stay out of our business, and I-I I don't kill you?"

Kya choked, trying to hold back her tears, "Deal. I'll go…I won't say anything."

Croiss nodded, "Good, good. I hope you have a pleasant evening, Miss Kya."

With that, the Inkling practically sprinted back into the temple. That last sentence really had sounded fearful. As Kya wiped away her tears, she understood why.

From under her hoodie, her arm was lit up like a neon sign. Her claws were glowing like the embers of a raging campfire, threatening to melt the rock she had gripped onto in despair…or at least what was left of it. As she loosened her grip on what had once been one solid boulder, it crumbled into tiny pieces, some of them tinted with Ash and glass as they fell away from her burning claws. She hadn't even noticed the damage she was doing.

She crawled away from the boulder's remains and pulled down her sleeve. Though the blue light was fading, the glow of her tattoo stood out like a beacon. A grand, swirling design of a draconic fish like creature (a bit like The Rainmaker, but longer) leaping in front of the sun with a flaming sword held in its mouth. Such a grand piece of body art…wasted on a pathetic creature like her.

★" What am I going to do with you?"★

Kya gasped, "You! My spirit! You're back!"

★" I've been here the whole time. I saw everything…and it worries me."★

Kya shrank back a bit, "I'm sorry."

★" The Gods have blessed you with the body and soul of a warrior Kya…and yet you have the hearts of a sardine. I've really got my work cut out for me." ★

"I'm sorry," Kya repeated.

★" Stop apologizing!" ★

"Sorry."

There was an exasperated sigh, before the spirit went quiet and Kya's arm stopped glowing. Kaya pushed herself to her feet, and began the slow and sad trek back to the farm.

Chapter Text

Damn the Gods.

Not this again.

Aluna was far too accustomed to this nightmare. 

Sealed in a small, dark, and cold room. No windows, the world's most pathetic mattress draped over an iron frame, and her only hope of escape being the heavy reinforced steel door. The nightmare was the same almost every time; she would race to the door and pound on it with all her strength, screaming and begging to be let out. Her cries would fall on deaf ears, if there was anyone out there at all.

She hated this feeling.

She hated the fact that some nights she'd end up as a helpless squidling all over again. 

And then the walls would start closing in. Her room would get smaller and smaller till she could feel the cold brick on her neck. She would kick and scream to be let out but no one would hear her. She would have no choice but to sit and wait to be crushed to death…at least then she would be allowed to wake up. 

But then the door creaked open.

What?

No…that's not how it goes.

The crushing walls pushed Aluna out of her confinement and into a pitch black expanse…a very slimy and wet pitch black expanse.

Please don't let it be blood and gore.

Thankfully it was not blood or gore…it was something way worse.

Aluna was ankle deep in an ocean of greenish black slime that flowed like oil, but was interlaced with veins of glowing copper, the thickness of Judd's whiskers, writhing like a colony of parasitic worms. 

The worms lapped and tickled at her feet. The air became so thick that she could hardly breathe. All of the worms began to convene to one point at the very center of the giant room. All around her as of rising from the sludge were various types of sea folk all wearing robes and masks but for some reason it was difficult to identify any of them. They were just all praying and singing in a nonsense language.

No way. Aluna was not tolerating this!

She trudged through the slime and shoved one of the robe figures as hard as she could. They offered no resistance and toppled over as if they had just been a statue, sinking into the slime. After that, all of them sunk into the slime…as something else rose from it.

The noises it made were deafening.

The screech of rusted metal, the cracking and popping of broken bones, the stretching of sinew and wire, the high-pitched blaring alarm. All of it made Aluna want to pull her ears off!

The source of the sound rose higher and higher out of the sludge, stretching endlessly towards an empty black sky, swaying like a hungry bobbit worm or a sick garden eel. All at once it moved towards her, leaning its gargantuan form so close to her she could practically taste it. Thousands of eyes appeared, each with an orange glow the color of rusted metal, glaring down at her, before they all melted away in an instant. In their place, standing in the rusty Orange spotlight was a creature.

Super tall. Long limbs. Proportionally small head, but she couldn't make out any finer details. Whatever it was, something about it felt familiar.

Aluna walked towards the being and gently pulled on its coat. She opened her mouth to speak to it, but no sound came out. Still it acknowledged her presence, turning to face her.

It had incredibly basic features that were almost blurry in a way. But that same black sludge that was at her feet was oozing from the vague outlines that made up its mouth, nose, and hauntingly blue eyes.

What in the deep dark was wrong with this thing?!

It did not look happy to see her.

"WHAt arE yOu DoiNG heRe?!" It screeched. "geT OuT! flIthY liTTlE moNStEr!"

Its massive hands lunged for her throat. It felt like she was about to be crushed! Its grip got tighter and tighter as its gross leaking face leaned in closer and closer until…it licked her face.

---

Aluna finally jolted awake, screaming and flailing her arms around to push away her leaky assailant. She definitely shoved something away, and it yowled in disapproval as it hit the floor with a thud. Aluna panted and frantically looked around the room, trying to get her bearings. Where was she?!

A decent bedroom, a comfortable bed half covered in squishy, marshmallow-like plushies, a floor with clothes and the occasional trashy magazine scattered across it, and the huge promotional poster for the Ningyo Slayer Academy movie that came out last year hanging proudly above her head.

Her heart rates slow down. 

She was okay. She was in the apartment. She was safe. They were safe.

A high-pitched meow caught her attention. On the floor, perched on a pile of discarded socks was a very annoyed dusky black, light green, and orange spotted nudibranch.

They did not have a nudibranch.

The vampire inkling turned her attention to the huge window she had left open the night before. Seems like somebody saw an opportunity and took it.

Aluna patted her covers to try and encourage the little slug to jump up. Surprisingly it did. The moment it was on the bed it curled up next to her as if she hadn't just thrown it across the room. Good to know the little guy didn't bear a grudge. As she petted it, she looked at the jingly collar hanging around the neck of the slug. Apparently her name was Midnight, and according to the tag she was not lost, just visiting.

Aluna lightly chuckled, "Thanks for visiting, Midnight…seriously. After that I needed some sluggy cuddles. I haven't had a nightmare that bad in a while. Actually come to think of it, I don't think I've ever had a nightmare like that. It was pretty vivid. I swear I can even smell it…"

She trailed off as she sniffed the air and came to a realization.

She could smell it.

It smells a lot like burnt bacon or/and pancakes.

Was someone cooking?

"Chinook?" She called out. "Are you home?"

"No, it's just me," Hattori answered.

Aluna glanced at her phone to see it was only about 9:00 in the morning. A pretty early start for her, and an extremely early start for Hattori. Unless it was for his online classes, the little shark almost never woke up before noon. Not to mention he was cooking…or attempting to cook? Hattori didn't cook unless you count heating frozen food in the microwave, normally buying cheap food, or otherwise living off of fish jerky. If cooking had to be done when Chinook was not around it fell to Aluna to make them some eggs, rice, or pasta (literally the only three things she knew how to make).

Aluna hopped out of her bed, and peeked out into the kitchen. A bunch of recently dirtied dishes sat forgotten in the sink. Very burnt sea pig bacon and extremely overcooked pancakes had been tossed out due to being completely inedible. There were a couple of box fans going, in an attempt to blow smoky air out the open window. The shark who made this mess was eating some takeout on the kitchen table.

"Mornin'," Hattori said timidly, through a mouthful of shrimp fried rice.

"Hey…did you try cooking?"

Hattori nodded, "Yeah. I felt bad for making you worry yesterday. I wanted to make it up to you, but uh…yeah that didn't work out. So I bought you some yakisoba."

"Uh…thanks man."

Aluna didn't really know what else to say, so she just sat down, and started digging in. It was impressive that Hattori was able to find a place that would deliver during the carnival, since except for the cheapest and most overly processed of fast food places, most restaurants were closed. Hattori always had a knack for finding the most obscure things.

"So…you're up early today. Did you have a nightmare?" Aluna asked carefully.

Hattori smiled slightly, "Nah, I got up to pee but…for once I didn't feel like going back to bed. I guess I just felt better today."

Aluna's hearts felt a little warmer, at the thought of her brother feeling better. A loud meow broke the quiet atmosphere, causing Hattori to flinch slightly.

"What the…where did that slug come from?"

Aluna chucked, "That's Midnight. She came in through my window. Apparently she's visiting."

The nudibranch creeped up to Hattori and rubbed against his leg, probably in hopes that he would share some of his fried rice with her. It worked, as her cuteness was rewarded with two small chunks of soy sauce covered crustaceans.

A string of pings came from Aluna's phone. It was a flurry of excited texts from Wister.

Wister: (YO! You guys are never going to guess what just happened! My mom's been chosen to play in the first dawning ceremony!)

Momo: (For real?! That's amazing, Wister!)

Kya: (Wish her luck for me.)

Aluna: (Isn't the first dawning ceremony just an extra fancy version of Rainmaker? Isn't rainmaker in general based on the first dawning anyway? Seems a little redundant to have a whole ceremony around it when they could just play rainmaker.)

Momo: (Well sure, if you want to be cynical about it.)

Wister: (Come on Aluna, I know you don't like the carnival but this is a massive deal for my Mom. Being a part of the new dawning ceremony is an incredible honor! Some of the best players in the world will be there. Apparently, there's a chance that last year's world champion team might make an appearance! My mom could be playing alongside champions!)

Aluna: (Are you serious?! Next time lead with that, man. When does the ceremony start? No way I'm passing up a chance to see the Fore Winds in action.)

Wister: (I knew that would get your attention. It starts at 12:30 today at the Mola Cola stadium. I'll wait for you outside the stadium so we can go in together. Family and friends get to sit in VIP boxes. 😎)

Momo: (Record everything and take lots of pictures! Wish we were there with you guys.)

Aluna: (They don't have a dawning ceremony on Kingin Island?)

Momo: (They do, but not with world class athletes.)

Kya: (Their new dawning ceremony is beautiful though.)

Momo: (After yesterday it's hard to give this place the benefit of the doubt.)

Wister: (What happened yesterday?)

Kya: (We are not talking about it.)

Wister: (Okay…well I'll see you at noon Aluna.)

Aluna: (See ya there, Feathers.)

Aluna excitedly slapped her phone back onto the table and began to scarf down her yakisoba. Hattori gave the device a curious look, and after receiving a nod of approval from his sister, the little shark took the phone and peeked at the messages. His tail thumped slightly as he read, like he was getting excited too.

"You're going to see Wister?" He chirped.

Aluna finished chewing before she answered, "Yep! To be honest, I'm more excited at the possibility of seeing my idols in person. That's why I'm speed eating these noodles. I gotta clean up and get ready. It's been a couple days since I've had a shower."

As she ate, she couldn't help but notice Hattori taking out his own phone and typing something into it. His tail thumped a bit harder and she could swear his breathing was picking up. It had been a while since she had seen him this happy and excited.

"I'm glad you're feeling better," Aluna said in between mouthfuls. "I really am…do you think you'll want to come with me to the new dawning ceremony?"

Hattori's expression immediately turned to one of slight terror as he wildly shook his head, "Oh! No, no, no! It took a whole year of psyching myself up just to go through what I did last night…even if it had some nice moments.There's no way in the deep dark I'll be able to handle going to a crowded stadium! But…I wish I could. Sounds like it would be fun…and I wouldn't mind seeing Wister again."

Aluna watched her brother for a moment, thinking hard as his Spirit seemed to lag a little bit again. He was furiously petting and cuddling their little slimy visitor, with his tail suddenly very still.

Aluna swallowed her last mouth full of noodles, "I have an idea on how you can be there without actually having to be there."

---

Across the sea, the vibe in the town square of Starsea Valley was very different from yesterday.

Yesterday, despite the incredibly morbid and grim decorations that the locals had put up, there was a sense of merriment and wonder surrounding the festivities, even if Momo had been in too sour of a mood to enjoy them.

Today, the air was still tingling with that same sense of celebration but now, as inklings ran around painted head to toe in various Sunny colors, it was haunted by something else.

Anger? Jealousy? Aggression? 

It was hard to pin down but right now the little big fin inkling was having a hard time caring. Her sister had gone AWOL (apparently to take care of the mysterious thing that Yuki had whispered into her ear to get her to come in the first place), Kya looked extremely downtrodden, and Diggsy was barely staying awake on their feet. 

As they yawned, a random humboldt inkling ran past, sounding an air horn and howling like a drunk kelpie. This woke Diggsy up with a start, causing them to instinctively cling to Kya in fear. To Momo’s surprise, the Inktoling let out a pretty aggressive hiss and jerked her arm away. Diggsy shrank back, clearly very upset.

“What was that about?” Momo demanded.

Kya’s only response was a very low growl. Clearly she was not in the mood to talk.

Neither the other kids nor the adults seem to notice the tense atmosphere between the three teenagers. Everyone was too excited for the new dawning ceremony.

“Do you think we'll beat the octos this year Daddy?” One of the squidlings chirped.

A giant squid, one of Vimmy and Hachi’s cousins that Momo didn't remember the name of, patted his son on the head.

“I sure hope so. It's been a couple years since our last win against ‘em. If only they'd let you play, Hachi. With a pro on our side, we’d wipe the floor with ‘em octos!”

Hachi awkwardly rubbed the back of his head, clearly uncomfortable, but still kept a smile on his face, “That's uh…that's sweet of you to say Keys, but I don't think that'd be a good idea. You know how some seafolk…er…how aggressive they are this time of year…”

Hachi trailed off as a school of drunk fish and inklings paraded past the family, singing a completely out of tune drinking song. Some of the family joined in, while the rest sat for a moment and clapped along, bringing their short journey to the coliseum to a complete halt. 

“At this rate, we'll get there by midnight,” Yuki mumbled, putting herself between her daughter and Momo as they sat on the rock wall.

Kya's great grandfather, Meyers, carefully sat down next to Momo, parking his wife's wheelchair within hand holding distance of him.

“There's no need to be so sour,” the old inkling croaked out. “This is a happy day…besides, around here if you’ve seen one dawning ceremony, you’ve seen them all. Not like we'll miss much.”

“Easy for you to say,” Valencia chimed in. “I haven't seen one since before the war. They could have added dancing naked ladies to it for all I know. Maybe that's why everyone gets so excited.”

The old couple chuckled warmly at each other as Diggsy tried once again to get close to Kya. She didn't growl or hiss this time but still pulled her arm away, clearly not wanting them to touch her. Diggsy sadly got up and cuddled up next to their great grandmother's wheelchair.

“What's the matter Diggsy?” The blinded old inkling asked, putting her hand on their shoulder.

Diggsy looked a little surprised, “How do you know it was me? I haven't been talking.”

Meyers chuckled, “She can read your mind, squiddo.”

Diggsy went pale, “Wait…re-really?!”

Valencia punched her husband on the arm, earning a mischievous laugh from the old man, “Don't listen to him. An octo sniper got him back in the day. Scrambled up his brains. I knew it was you because I could smell you honey. Your ears and nose work overtime when your eyes are out of the picture.”

“Oh…okay. That's good,” Diggsy sighed, almost sounding relieved.

As the old inkling was consulting her great grandchild from…whatever was bothering them, Momo turned her attention back to her friend. The inktoling had been extremely quiet this morning…more than usual. And prickly. A long spined sea urchin wasn't as prickly and abrasive as Kya's current attitude. 

Suddenly, Momo was roughly grabbed by Yuki and dragged away from the rest of the group.

“Hey squiddo, look at that mochi cart. Let's grab a few,” the white squid said hurriedly.

Momo tried to wiggle out of her grip, even though she knew it was fruitless, “Wha…I don't want any mochi.”

“It's a cover kid,” Yuki whispered. “We need to talk.”

In spite of the mochi cart just being a reason for them to talk, Yuki was kind enough to actually buy a mochi for Momo. An adorable, jam-filled dumpling decorated to resemble a white axolotl with long fangs, blue stripes, and a wavy blue tail. Apparently, it was meant to resemble a beloved local river God (named Urupa or something like that), and it was so cute, Momo was hesitant to let Kiwi eat it.

“So, tell me,” Yuki began. “What's going on with Kya?”

Momo grumbled, “I told you I wasn't going to spy on her for you.”

“You also said you were going to help her with whatever's wrong. You clearly haven't been doing that. Did you know that last night she and Diggsy snuck out for a couple hours, and when she came back she was in tears?”

Momo blinked, “I didn't know that. I was up pretty late but I didn't hear anybody go out the door.”

“They climbed out of the guest room window.”

“And you know this, how?”

“I was already up. Thanks to several past head traumas, I have chronic insomnia.”

That was quite a disturbing revelation to just drop so casually. Although, given the multitude of facial and head scars the older inkling had, it made sense.

Momo quickly changed the subject, “Uhh…okay. But I don't know what else you want me to do? I told her I wouldn't talk to anyone else about it, and I'm not going back on that promise…not even for you.” 

Yuki snapped to attention, “Wait, you do know something then!? Tell me! Do you want me to beg or something?!”

Damn. She sounded so desperate. Momo actually felt bad. Maybe she couldn't talk about it directly…but maybe she could point her in the right direction? 

“Okay…the only thing I'll say? Ask all the little kids what their parents think of Kya.”

Before the Firefly inkling could ask any follow-up questions, a cacophony of frightened and surprised shouting sounded, getting closer by the second. Momo wheeled around to observe the chaos, and saw a huge fish speeding away from a group of jellyfish in ceremonial robes (monks, no doubt). The creature resembled a Great zapfish, but it was yellow instead of its signature black. It was also much smaller, about half the length of the one in Splatsville, and extra skinny, with massive adorable eyes that darted about nervously as it zipped over the crowd. A few bystanders grabbed onto the ropes hanging off of its highly decorated harness, and were struggling to hold it still. The zapfish let out a panicked bubbling noise and small sparks of electricity shot from its whiskers (luckily not making contact with anyone). 

“What's going on?” Momo asked the captain, unable to take her eyes off the scene before her.

Yuki briefly bit her own lip, “I think Cara mentioned something about this. Starsea Valley’s great zapfish is getting old, so they're letting it retire. I'm guessing that young one is its replacement?”

“He looks really scared…” Momo mumbled absent-mindedly. 

As more and more sea folk joined in the effort to get the frightened young zapfish under control, it struggled harder and harder, wailing and groaning, and looking around desperately for…it's mother maybe? Yuki did say it was young. Poor fella. Suddenly, as its huge eyes swept over the crowds of people, its gaze locked on Momo. At last, if only for a moment, it stopped struggling. It's fear melted away into something else. Silent pleading?

The young great zapfish suddenly jerked so violently, it tore the ropes out of the hands, fins and tentacles of everyone trying to restrain it. With incredible speed it closed the distance between its former location and the mochi cart to float directly in front of Momo, staring down at her with its enormous dark eyes.

Momo was unsure what to do. She hesitantly reached out her hand and touched its nose. It immediately pushed itself closer, knocking her over in the process because of how powerful it was. As the massive fish nuzzled her, the electrical current running through its whiskers was so powerful Momo could actually hear it. Definitely something to avoid touching.

“My, my. Our little Moby seems to like you,” a gentle voice spoke up.

An inkling dressed to the nines in traditional yellow ceremonial robes, jewels, prayer beads, and his pale yellow tentacles done up in a shaved head style, stepped out of the crowd. His light purple eyes were equal parts peaceful and judgmental, and despite how soft he spoke, his expression was very sharp. The golden pendant around his neck bore the image of the legendary golden zapfish, announcing his status as a high priest to anyone he met.

Yuki gave the priest a proper greeting, putting her fist in her hand, and bowing her head. Momo attempted to do the same even with the great zapfish's head in the way. She was not a particularly religious squid but any other greeting would have just been rude…and this guy hadn't done anything yet to warrant her being rude.

The priest bowed back, “Good morning to you, my sisters. I apologize for our dear Moby's behavior. In spite of his great power, he is a very timid creature.”

The priest paused, then locked eyes with Momo, “Even in the hands of an experienced zapfish handler such as myself, he is so filled with fear for everything around him…and yet…he's cuddling up to you as if you were a long lost friend. How very strange?”

His tone was so kind and soft, but Momo could swear there was some underlying snark to it. Like he was annoyed at her? Maybe she was just imagining it. The older Inkling kneeled down and offered Momo his hand. He pulled her up, and the zapfish snuggled close to her, threatening to knock her over again.

“What is your name, little sister?”

Momo had to brace herself against another shove, “Uhh…Momo. My name is Momo, sir…er…father.”

The priest smiled, “Tell me Momo, by any chance are you training to become a zap fish handler? You're quite good with them.”

Momo blushed a bit, “Ah…nah. I'm sure he's just…hungry maybe? Do you want my mochi big guy?”

Momo heard a sad chirp come from her pants pocket, as if the tiny fish hadn't gotten the lionfish’s share of her oversized breakfast this morning. Momo offered her mochi to the big fish and it gobbled it down in one bite, nearly taking her hand with it.

The priest chuckled, “How sweet. I've never seen Moby warm up to a stranger like this before, even for food.”

“Father Arable!” An energetic, feminine voice, suddenly called out. “You've got to try this catfish Burger! It's the juiciest sandwich I've ever had!”

Out of the crowd of onlookers, an orange and black koi girl rushed up to the priest, holding a large and delicious looking catfish Burger in her fins. She was wearing the same sort of robe that the priest was wearing albeit much simpler and less decorated. The priest looked extremely upset.

“Sister Mai, you were supposed to be caring for Moby!” Father Arable growled. “And you once again abandoned your duties for the sake of your stomach?” 

The teenage fish shrunk back, “I-I I'm sorry Father! The attendants said they could handle it. I was only gone for a couple minutes. I thought it would be okay!”

The priest groaned and rubbed his eyes, “We will discuss this when we get back to the temple tonight. Please take Moby so we can continue to the coliseum.”

Keeping her head low, Mai grabbed a hold of the ropes hanging off of Moby and began to gently pull him along. He gave the young fish a loving lick on the cheek, but suddenly froze. He kept looking back at Momo, jerking his head towards her and gargling sadly.

“Awww…Moby. It's okay. We can come see your new friend later after the ceremony.”

Moby refused to move, moaning and howling, trying to go back towards Momo. It was a little baffling to her. Except for her zapfish rescuing back in the crater, Momo had little experience with these sacred creatures. She didn't understand why this big fella was so desperate to stay with her.

The high priest pursed her lips, like he was thinking. He turned back to Momo and smiled warmly, “Would you like to come with us, little sister?”

Momo blinked, “Wha-me? Why?”

“Moby seems very attached to you. This is the calmest that he has been since we came to this island. If his first dawning ceremony is to go well, we need him to be calm.”

Mai smiled and clapped her fins together, “Don't worry! This isn't some big city coliseum. As soon as Moby gets comfortable and plays his part, you can watch the new dawning ceremony with us! We'll be at the top row of seats so it'll be an amazing view!”

Momo thought about it for a minute. Moby's huge, adorable eyes were burrowing into her soul. He was clearly uncomfortable with this whole situation.

“Please come with…”

Momo's hearts jumped into her throat, and she frantically glanced around. That voice. Where did it come from?

“I miss my mama…you smell like her stories.”

What?

“Please…stay with me…Thunder King…”

The Thunder King? What did that old myth have to do with anything? And who was talking?!

Moby floated back over to her and nuzzled happily into her chest. His eyes immediately brightened again from just being near her. The big guy looked so happy all of the sudden. He purred as Momo gently patted his nose.

Yep. No, she was going with them.

“Hey Captain?” Momo said in a bit of a daze. “I'll catch up with you guys later, okay?”

Yuki shrugged, “Alright…have fun squiddo. Don't get shocked too badly…and thanks for the tip.”

With that, the group of sea folk parted ways. The Great zapfish never left the side of his new best friend as they moved gracefully through the crowds, the sun slowly rising to its peak overhead.

---

Aluna was not one to be overwhelmed by crowds or loud noise…but this situation was pushing it.

Mola Cola Stadium was a sight to behold; being the largest of its kind in the entire region. It was also very easy to get lost in it, but luckily after Aluna and Wister met up under the shade of an LED billboard advertising Monkey Puffs, a kindly jellyfish employee escorted them to the VIP section. The dimly lit tunnels that let out to the stadium itself gave way to blinding sunlight, and what had to be tens of thousands of spectators looking down on the field below. It was set up exactly like your typical rainmaker game, only with a much bigger playing field, fancy stage dressing, and…monster statues? What were those for?

Aluna chose not to worry about it. It was just like she'd predicted; the new dawning ceremony was just a fancier version of rainmaker. It sucked that she had to leave the apartment for this, but the off chance that she might meet even one of her idols more than made up for it.

“Wister! Over here buddy!” An older voice called out.

The teenage inklings quickly reunited with Wister's family, situated next to what Aluna could only assume were the families of the other chosen players. There was a family of three giant octolings, and the other two groups were made up of coconut octolings and pygmy inklings…none of these species were a part of the Fore Winds. Aluna looked out to the opposite side of the stadium with a look of pure irritation peeking out from underneath her tinted shades.

“You weren't lying about a member of the Fore Winds being here, just to get me out here, were you?” Aluna asked, her words carrying a bit of a bite.

Wister's ears drooped a bit, but he kept up his smile, “I swear I'm telling the truth. They probably just aren't playing on the same team is all.”

Wister desperately turned to his father, “Dad, someone from the Fore Winds is playing today right?”

Helio nodded, “Yep. Your mom and I spoke to Boreas this morning. Just keep your pants on squiddo, you'll meet him after the ceremony.”

Aluna's expression brightened, “You guys got to meet him?!”

Helio quietly chuckled, “Actually, I've already met him. He's an old friend of Sakura's from her rookie league days.”

Wister's eyes widened, “For real? I knew you'd met him before, but I didn't know you guys were friends.”

“Seriously Feathers! What other cool shit are you not telling me about your family?”

Wister never had a chance to answer the question, as Rosie raced over to the vampire Inkling and latched on to her leg with an excited squeal.

“Luna! Hi Luna! Yer’ here!”

Aluna raised an eyebrow, “Uhh…hi there…er…squirt.”

“I missed you!” The toddler chirped.

“You did? I…why? I barely know you.”

Rosie looked up at Aluna with shining blue eyes, “Yer’ very pretty.”

There was a pause, then Aluna gave the squidling a friendly smile.

“Awww…thanks squirt.” Aluna gave her a head pat. “You're very pretty too.”

Rosie's eyes widened even more as a little blush creeped across her tiny face. She covered her eyes and ran back to her father, burying her face in his hip and squealing bashfully.

“Awww! I think someone has a little crush on you!” Wister whispered, nudging Aluna with his elbow.

“Ew…gross dude. She's like two.”

Wister snickered, “Aw, lighten up. It's kind of cute. And for the record she's five.”

Suddenly, the air came alive! The sound of giant brass horns echoed and shook the walls of the Colosseum. It was officially high noon and the ceremony was about to begin! The cheers of the crowd were deafening as eight respawners flew into position on either side of the field. A huge pair of drones did an entire lap around the stadium before hovering over the ornate platforms on either team's side. The drones dropped off their loads before flying back to the dugouts (likely where the operator was). The items that had been dropped off looked like a rainmaker, but were twice the size of the ones Aluna had used. They were so big it looked like it had handles on the side so that two players could carry it at once.

Aluna was extremely confused,“What kind of rainmakers are those? Why are they so big? Why are there two of them?” 

Wister's grandfather looked at her in shock, “Young lady, have you never been to a new dawning ceremony?”

Aluna growled and bit her lip, “I…I grew up in underground towns completely populated by deep Sea folk. The Sun was not particularly important to them. But I had heard stories. I thought it was just a hyped up game of rainmaker.”

The old angel squid chuckled, “Those statues may look like rainmakers, but this isn't any old game of rainmaker. The whole point of this game is to honor the gods who put the day and night and seasons into motion so that we could have beautiful days like this.”

Aluna turned her head away, a little bit embarrassed that she didn't know what sounded like basic knowledge.

“Well…fine then. How do you actually play this game?”

“It's actually pretty simple,” Helio cut in. “The aim of the game is to be the first team to get your Shachi idol onto the center platform. Two players carry it, the other two defend them from the other team’s attacks, and from the demons.”

“Wha-demons?”

“Just watch squiddo. You'll get the idea.”

There was the telltale sound of giant motors roaring to life. Little by little, a massive dome was closing around the top of the coliseum. Within minutes, the entire stadium was cloaked in complete darkness.

Gigantic lights switched on, only illuminating the field just enough to see the darkened outlines of every ramp and wall. It was as if the entire field was caught in late Twilight. Along with the neon glow paint that was lighting up in the dimming light, it looks like something out of a dream. The respawners flickered to life. The players at last spawned in, and to Aluna's surprise, each one on either team was dressed as one of the four shimmering creatures: a spiky jellyfish, a lobster with extra long legs and whiskers, a long tailed sunfish with spots and armored scales, and a some kind of nondescript cephalopod with a shell on its head. They were extremely ornate and had this old world style to them, each armor set probably meant to resemble a god.

The crowd erupted into Earth shaking cheering. Maybe it was because he was right next to her, but Wister’s sounded like the loudest of them all, howling like a hunting eel.

“WOOHOO! GO GET ‘EM MOM!”

“Yaaaaaay! Mama! Yay! Mama!” Rosie cheered, not nearly as loud as her brother.

Aluna tuned it out the best she could as Hattori finally accepted her video call request. The tiny shark's face took up her entire phone screen, and surprisingly he seemed unbothered by the noise.

(“ Aluna? Did it work?” )

Aluna could barely hear her brother over the crowd. She felt she had to shout so that he could hear her.

“Looks good on my end! Can you see anything?!”

Aluna turned the camera around to let him look down on the field. There was an excited squeal on the other end.

(“ Oh my gods! It's beautiful!” Hattori chirped. “The resolution could be better…but it's still beautiful!” )

“Are you talking to Hattori?” Wister asked, sounding extremely excited. “Tell him I said hi!”

Aluna shrugged and handed Wister the phone, “Say hi to him yourself. I put him on a video call so that he could watch the ceremony with us.”

Wister happily took the phone from his friend and began chatting it up, showing off his sister and other family members to the device as if it was actually Hattori. Though it was hard to hear over the audience, the ninja shark spoke with more energy than Aluna had heard from him in weeks. Maybe this hasn't been such a waste of time after all.

The jumbotron, which has been previously showing shots of the crowd doing various things from making out to taking off their clothes, switches to a view of an old and extremely well groomed giant manta ray with a stern expression on his face. Aluna vaguely recognized him, since his mug was plastered just about everywhere during election season. The current mayor of Splatsville: Mobu Bonnaterre.

“Good afternoon, Splatsville! ” The ray bellowed into his microphone. “ As your mayor, it gives me great pleasure to welcome each and every one of you, to our annual celebration of the first dawning! Good luck to all of our specially selected champions, and may the gods smile as you represent them today! Judges! Take your places!”

From under the stage, two smaller platforms floated up. Each one was carrying a big eyed goldfish, dressed up in black overalls and a bowtie. Certified turf war judges, raising their flags in perfect sync with each other.

3

2

1

RAISE THE SUN!

The whistle was blown, and the cheers were deafening as the game began. The players launched off other spawn points, half of them racing to pick up their idols, while the other half of the team charged ahead. Soon the stage was covered in a pretty even split of yellow and bright magenta ink. The idols worked just like the rainmaker, but would let loose incredible blasts of ink with the coverage of a luna blaster, and as much range as an e-liter. The trade-off of this was an extremely slow charge time (about two full charges on a hydra splatling) and because it was so huge and heavy, progress was slow even with two players carrying it. But other than the new weapon and a bigger stage, Aluna was not seeing much difference from your average Rainmaker match.

Then…the “demons” came into play.

Although few others could see them, with the outside of the field being so dark, Aluna's night vision came in handy. An entire team of fish folk and jellies, each dressed head to fin (or tentacle) jet black, skin tight costumes, climbed into the backs of the monster statues that dotted the field. Said statues suddenly and quite literally, roared to life! The eyes, fangs, and tongues of these mechanical demons lit up in neon purple and green as they made a beeline for the nearest player. 

On the yellow team, one of the guardian players who was wielding a pro level charger was attacked by a serpentine robot with long claws and huge horns. It swung wildly as she just managed to dodge its attacks. Her partner, wielding a pro level sloshing machine, was battling a maggot-like robot. The maggot blasted out a stream of purple that punched a hole through the slosher wielding player, splatting him instantly. Its target defeated, the maggot immediately turned its attention to the team members carrying the idol, blasting ink and moving towards them with surprising speed. The charger squid rolled away from the claws of her serpent attacker, and had just enough time to get off a shot directly into one of the green spots on the maggot’s back before she was speared and splatted by one of the serpent's horns. The maggot let out a robotic roar and the neon purple LEDs that made up its eyes changed to the shape of an x. The beast was stunned for now, but it was a bit too late. With both guardians gone, a roller from the magenta team managed to splat one of the idol carriers just before he was obliterated by a blast from the Shachi idol. The other carrier was safe for now, but without their partner they had no hope of moving the idol on their own, leaving them to defend their position until their teammates could respawn.

“Holy crap…” Aluna said breathlessly.

This was amazing! She’d seen countless pro-League games where they bought in stage hazards, but nothing like fighting robotic demons while dressed as literal gods!

In the back of her mind, Aluna briefly wondered what Kya and Momo's ceremony would be like. It was probably just as magical.

---

“Oh Gods, how long is this woman going to talk?!”

Momo watched from the special platform at the top of the arena wall as Father Arable and an octoling priestess from the town on the other side of the island, stood high above the field on floating platforms, speaking out to the crowds…the priestess was at least. Father Arable had finished his speech 3 minutes ago, and now everyone was waiting for this beautifully dressed, overly dramatic Octoling of the gods to finish talking so that they could get on with the game.

Sister Mai gently patted Momo’s shoulder, “Lady Pura has always been a bit of a talker. We might be here a little while…but it's not so bad. Gives us time to get Moby calmed down.”

The Young zapfish had not stopped fidgeting since they got up here. He had practically curled himself into a ball with fear and would squeak anytime someone touched him. Momo rubbed his nose, trying to comfort him.

“Are you nervous, buddy?”

“ Yeah…miss my Mama…”

There was no more denying it. That was definitely Moby talking to her. An animal was talking to her. She was talking to an animal, somehow? Was it…an effect of blue powers? She thought they weren't working anymore.

She decided she would worry about it when this was all over. Right now, Momo would focus on doing what she could to make this little guy feel better.

“I uhh…I think he misses his mom,” Momo stated. 

Mai nodded, “Very perceptive, little sister. He only recently became old enough to be separated from her…he really didn't take it well, but Starsea Valley needed a new great zapfish.”

“And getting a grown-up one wasn't an option?”

“Unfortunately no. Great Zapfish are quite rare. The majority of the full grown ones in captivity are already in use in much bigger cities. Our little town simply couldn't afford the price of a grown one.”

Momo’s expression tightened a bit, unsure what to say. Moby nudged her again, actually succeeding in knocking her to the ground this time.

“ Thunder King…I want to go home.”

Momo stood up and dusted herself off, looking at the fish with pity, “I know you do, little fella. It'll be okay. They just need you to…Sister, why is the great zapfish here?”

Mai excitedly clapped her fins together, “Oh! He and Ocean Hearth's great zapfish are here to dance with me and the other sisters. It's our way of showing the gods our thanks for all they do for us!”

“And once that's over, you'll take him back home?”

“We return to the temple after the ceremony, yes.”

“Hear that? You'll be home soon.”

Moby didn't look any more soothed, curling himself up even tighter.

“ I don't understand any of this…what's it for?”

Momo never had a chance to explain the purpose of the new dawning ceremony to Moby. The octoling priestess had finally decided to stop talking. The bellowing of mighty brass horns echoed across the arena. The respawners flashed to life as players took their places. A small troop of sharklings and other large sea folk dressed in demon costumes took their places on the stage, placing idols of Shachi on either side of the field. The ceremony was about to begin.

Mai jumped up and squealed in pure excitement, “Yes! It's time! Come on Moby! It's time for our dance!”

The koi fish pulled on Moby's harness, but the young zapfish didn't budge. He groaned in fear, whiskers sparkling with electricity.

“ No no! I'm not ready! What if I mess up?!”

Momo petted the huge fish, “It's okay! You'll be okay Moby!”

“ I am too nervous! I want my mama! I can't do this alone!”

Moby tried to bury his face in Momo's chest, once again almost knocking her over. The big finned girl was at a loss.

“What if I went out with you?” Momo said desperately. “I’ll hold onto your back and cheer you on? That way you won't be doing this alone!”

Moby suddenly calmed down, “ you'll dance with us, Thunder king?”

Momo smiled, “Yeah…I'll dance with you, buddy.”

Momo shifted into her squid form, and clung on to Moby's back. Her bright pink stood out like a sore thumb against his Sunny yellow, but beggars couldn't be choosers. Moby already seemed more confident, so whatever it took to get him through this was fine with her and Sister Mai.

Father Arable’s floating platform returned to them. The inkling stepped off and Sister Mai stepped on. The priest gave his apprentice a respectful bow.

“Good luck to you, Sister Mai”

The koi fish girl bowed back to master, as the platform floated away, Moby following close behind. 

Now that he was alone, Arable could let out a slightly irritated sigh. As high priest, he was supposed to express compassion and patience in all things…but he was only mortal. He had spent his entire life training to calm even the wildest and most unruly of zapfish and yet a random girl off the street was doing a better job controlling the great zapfish fry than anyone in his Temple.

 Not to mention his new apprentice. She was very kind and dedicated to her role, but at the same time had to be one of the most airheaded and easily distracted students he had ever had. All he could do right now was pray to the gods that she would focus for once in her life, and nail the performance.

“Ahhhh…”

A tiny voice suddenly squeaked behind him. The old inkling turned to see that the voice’s owner was not tiny at all. In fact, she was quite tall and large, dressed in a simple yellow monk’s robe and sheepishly pushing around a cart filled with snacks of all kinds. He couldn't really see her face from behind her oversized hood, but her scent was unfamiliar. Still, that was one of his temple’s robes. Who was this child?

The priest bowed to the girl, “Good afternoon to you little sister. I thank you for bringing such a bounty of treats but I'm fasting until after the ceremony.”

The girl whimpered as she suddenly pushed the cart towards the priest. It wasn't with enough force to hurt him or knock him down, but still, dozens of delicious pastries tumbled to the floor from the disturbance. And speaking of disturbance…why were there so many eyes peeking at him from under the bread?

---

The platform came to a stop over the very center of the playing field. Floating next to them were five other platforms each holding a different kind of sea folk on it. One in particular, a little moon jelly, was being tailed by a massive great zapfish. The older zapfish extended its neck to Moby, letting the younger fish take in his scent. Moby gave a friendly hum before nuzzling the older fish.

“So cute!” Sister Mai squealed with joy.

Suddenly, the crowds went quiet. The opening instrumentals for some beautiful, traditional music began to play, courtesy of the band/choir stationed in a special VIP box in the crowds. Sister Mai’s jolly expression transformed almost immediately into one of complete focus. She kneeled down and curled herself into a ball. The jellyfish stretched and bent their body, settling on a crescent shape.

As the music ramped up, the choir sang, and their dance began.

♪ Sun and Moon at the dawn of time♪

♪Intertwined, love eternal, still in the sky♪

The acolytes leapt up, twirling, leaping, and flourishing in time with the music. The zapfish followed suit, intertwining with one another, and tying themselves around each other. Momo was holding on and doing her best to take it all in.

♪ War and Death, forced them apart♪

♪The Moon wept, the Sun would not♪

The judges took their places.

♪ Darkness came, oppressing all♪

♪Demons rose to embrace light’s fall♪

The whistles sounded.

♪ Cardinal gods from the four ways♪

♪Raise the Sun! Bring the day!♪

The ceremony had begun!

And…Momo was having a shell of a time seeing any of it. Who knew that watching a sporting event while flying hundreds of feet in the air on the back of a very wiggly fish, would be difficult? She just had to hang on until this was over.

Halfway through the dance, Moby suddenly froze, and looked back towards the platform. With amazing speed, Moby took off. It was so abrupt that Momo barely had time to cling on to the end of his tail.

“MOBY!” Momo screamed. “What are you doing?! Stop!”

“ MAMA! I hear my mama!”

Momo was having a hard time hearing anything over the roar of the wind rushing in her ears. But…she did see something.

The platform that they had bought Moby to earlier. Standing on it were a bunch of…inkling kids in hoods and robes? They looked like inklings from what little she could see of them but something was off. Each of the inklings were holding a sack filled with colorful balls. Burst bombs? But they had no ink tanks. How could they use burst bombs with no ink tanks? And where was the priest?

Momo knew she was supposed to stay with Moby, but a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach told her something was wrong. Abandoning Moby to his mission of hunting for his “mama,” Momo super jumped off of the zapfish’s tail. It was such a wiggly platform to jump off from that she ended up crashing to the ground when she landed, catching the attention of the intruding inklings.

“The fuck? Who’er you?” One of the uncanny inklings demanded.

Momo pushed herself up, “I could ask you the same thing! Where's Father Arable?”

A particularly tiny Inkling snickered, “Oh don't worry, he’ll be fine. He's right over there.”

Sure enough, the unconscious priest was being gagged and bound to the railing. The small inkling that had spoken, got a punch in the back of the head for his troubles.

“Damn the gods Bruckley! Shut your beak!”

“Sorry Daiki!”

“Don't say my name you idjit!”

Another inkling pulled out a burst bomb and hurled it at Momo. She ducked out of the way of it, but when it popped, instead of feeling the familiar sting of ink droplets hitting her neck, it really burned. Like getting stabbed with a hot iron kind of burn. She screamed and slapped her hand over the offending splash only for her hand to start burning as well. Momo looked at her palm, and noticed the substance had already begun to eat through the skin, turning it blue and raw. From the sharp smell of salt and sand, it became painfully obvious that these were not burst bombs.

They were water balloons. Filled with the most dangerous kind of water for an inkfish: seawater.

The obvious ringleader (Daiki apparently) let out a huff, “We don't got time for this. Suncho? Fuck her up.”

Momo instinctually backed up a couple of steps, only to bump right into a solid wall muscle. She looked up, and towering over her was an absolute unit of a girl, with only one of her sad, spring green eyes visible from under her Hood…wait a minute…that wasn't an inkling's eye.

In the blink of an eye, Momo found her face being forcefully driven into the platform. Her vision was filled with stars. All sound disappeared except for a distinct ringing. There was a crack of…something…probably wood…maybe her beak? It hurt bad enough, and she was already tasting blood.

Someone was talking but Momo was too busy fighting unconsciousness to really hear them.  Damn the gods, she hadn't been hit this hard in a while. It was actually kind of hard to breathe.

There was a familiar high-pitched squawking. Kiwi?

They were laughing now. The voices were getting louder. More frantic.

No…wait…

That was screaming…people were screaming!

Momo's vision came back, but only for a few moments.

There was an extremely heavy weight on her back, and an incredibly strong hand holding her head down, claws digging into her skin. Kiwi was squawking like a mad fish, but Momo couldn't see her anywhere.

Half of the intruding “inklings” were now hurling their deadly water balloons down onto the field below, while the other half used makeshift slingshots to hurl balloons into the crowd.

“Stop it!”

That was meant to be an enraged shout, but with her vision swimming, it came out more like a gravelly growl. Still it caught Daiki’s attention, but not enough to actually turn to face them.

“Suncho! Keep that fucking slimesack quiet!” She hissed.

“Ya got to look at her. Ya know she can't hear ya.”

“Buckley, shut the fuck up!”

Suddenly, the weight on Momo's back shifted a bit as her assailant screamed in agony. It was a harsh screeching, followed by the sound of a wet pop, and an all too familiar sight: Kiwi being thrown…off of the platform and onto a field of panicking and injured cephalopods…with guns.

Shit.

“KIWI!”

Momo's voice came back as her adrenaline finally kicked in. The muscular hand that was holding her down still made it impossible to move, so she wiggled herself just enough to get the thumb within biting distance. There was a sickening squish, ear splitting scream, and squirt of blood as Momo bit down with all her strength. This finally got Suncho to move, and Momo took off like a shot, rushing to go after Kiwi…only to be intercepted and bear hugged by yet another thug.

“Nuh uh uhh! Too slow slime ball!” The thug chirped, her voice surprisingly twinkly.

This girl was much smaller than Suncho, but with much sharper claws. She was also much more strategic about the placement of her limbs, as one of the attacker's arms was currently crushing her throat and chest. Thinking fast, Momo changed to her squid form, causing the thug to drop her. Before the thug could grab her again, Momo changed back into her inkling form, headbutting the girl right in the nose. There was a surprising clang of metal as their heads collided. The girl cried out and her head reeled back but otherwise she was mostly unaffected. 

Momo on the other hand, collapsed to the floor, clutching what she was sure was a brand new bump on her head. Was this girl a robot or something? Why was her face so hard?!

Her attacker dropped something. It looked to be a half broken mask. One specifically designed to look like an Inkling’s face. Her vision blurring again, Momo looked at the thug, currently clutching her injured nose, glaring at her with the bright orange red eyes of an octoling.

“You're an Octoling?” Momo mumbled, fighting unconsciousness. “But…why are…”

Momo never had a chance to finish her sentence. Daiki abandoned her task of throwing water balloons to once again drive Momo's face into the wood.

“Yammy! What the fuck?! You took your mask off?!” Daiki snarled.

Why did they sound so far away all of a sudden?

Yammy let out an annoyed gragle, “It…my damn nose ... .don't get mad……stupid squid!”

Damn it. 

Momo felt her consciousness fading. The last thing the petite squid heard before everything went black, were two little words: 

“Grab her.”

Chapter Text

Two minutes left on the clock. Both teams have reached their last checkpoints, and still neither was giving an inch. It could be anyone's game. The monsters were even more aggressive than before, stalking around the center platform daring anyone to try and pass. At this point over time seemed inevitable, and the crowd was getting more and more riled up.

Wister had stopped cheering for his mom quite so loud in fear that he would ruin his voice, and had taken to nerding out with Hattori about the demon bots. Aluna on the other hand, had her eyes on one inkling in particular.

On the magenta team, a particularly tall Inkling carrying a set of pro duelies was squid rolling and Dodge rolling with expert timing. Despite his huge size, he carried himself with such grace and his movements were so fluid. Even as he tackled straight into the chest of a salmonoid shaped robot, and pulled It to The ground by its fin, he still maintained an air of calm and cold calculation. Aluna would recognize that playstyle anywhere. THAT was Boreas Veter, a member of a world champion turf war team, The Fore Winds!

“YEAH!” Aluna cheered. “Come on Boreas! Blow them away!”

“Dude! Don't cheer against my mom!”

Aluna just chuckled, “Sorry Feathers, but your mom's got no chance. That's mother sucking Boreas Veter down there! He's one of my idols! Of course I'm going to cheer for him!”

Wister made an annoyed face but said nothing as the crowd collectively groaned in pain. The yellow team’s charger (most likely Sakura) had just jabbed the magenta team’s roller in the stomach with her bayonet, splatting him in an instant. She was immediately attacked by Boreas, surviving his assault by hair, thanks to the interference of a gangly seaweed demon. It gave her a chance to back off and heal up, but it also prevented her from directly attacking the idol carriers, and allowed them to progress.

They were right at the base of the pedestal. Was the magenta team about to win?

Not yet!

With a snake shaped robot hot on his tail, the slosher guy reappeared! The idol carriers were forced to stop and use its power to blow away the robotic demon, but it left them vulnerable to the slosher in the red crustacean mask. Instead of taking two or three shots and risking retaliation, the slosher instead opted to simply bash one of the carriers in the face with the bucket, sending his victim reeling backwards and smashing into the pedestal. With a groan of pain they were splatted. With a “veemo” of fury, the remaining idol carrier struck her attacker in the chest with two swipes from the distressingly sharp backside of her splatana. He fell to his knees and was finished off by a literal stab in the back.

But would it do any good? The yellow team had fought off their attacker and were climbing the pedestal. It was impossible for one player to carry the idol alone. There was no way magenta couldn't make up for lost time!

The Yellow team was only 10p away from the win! This was it!

* BOOM*

Unbelievable!

Against All odds, at the very last second, Boreas had come to the rescue!

He’d fought off the demon, and made it to the idol just in time to pick it up, and allow him and his fellow carrier to deliver a devastating blast! Both of the yellow team's carriers were splattered. The Magenta team had this match!

* POW*

Another upset! Sakura was still kicking and had taken out Boreas’ teammate, halting their progress. But would it buy her teammates enough time to respawn? Boreas wasn't going to take that chance. He activated his special: the kraken Royale, and barreled towards Sakura. But Sakura was ready for him. She also activated her special: zipcaster, and managed to keep herself just out of his reach, leading him right into a pair of robotic demons. The Kraken easily shredded them both, and continued to pursue its prey. These two were quite a pair, neither willing to admit defeat!

Suddenly, the whistle sounded! The judges called a game!

In the time that Sakura had been leading Boreas around, two members of the magenta team had managed to respawn just in time to finish carrying the idol to the top. A quick tally confirmed it.

Magenta team wins!

The crowd erupted with applause! After a quick respawn, each member of the magenta team rode their flying respawners up to the top of the dome as it opened. The arena flooded with light. Triumphant music blared from every corner of the coliseum. As the champions showboated and played to the crowd in celebration, Mayor Bonnaterre took the stage yet again.

“Congratulations to our winning champions! Thanks to your efforts, the gods will surely smile on our fair city!” the massive ray flapped his wings joyfully. “I want to thank all of you for coming out today to take part in this year's new dawning ceremony. If you are a VIP or part of a champion’s family waiting to greet them, a guide will be with you in a moment to take you to your champions. Good day Splatsville, and happy Carnival to you all!”

-----

This had to be the worst carnival ever. 

First that whole incident with the Cooler Tens, and now a bunch of little psychos had thrown saltwater balloons into the octarian side of the crowd on what was supposed to be a day of celebration and new beginnings.

The scene before Kya was an absolute nightmare. Cops and ambulances were everywhere. Crowds were scattering, everyone was pushing and fighting. Seafolk were hurting, whether they had been burned by corrosive seawater or injured in the panic.

What's worse, was that Kya had completely lost track of her parents. She had only turned away from them for a second, to look for her sunglasses after they had fallen off in the panic. When she looked back, her parents were gone. Should she just go back to the farm? It was an awfully long walk, and what if they were looking for her? She should probably just call her parents. Her mom was already so overprotective, she didn't want to worry the woman into an early grave.

* MEEP! MEEP! MEEEP! *

Wait…she knew that squeak.

Dashing between the legs, fins, tentacles, and claws of the trampling seafolk, was a familiar ball of scales in a tiny blue scarf. Racing to the fish, Kya scooped up Kiwi, immediately shoving her under her hoodie. Kiwi climbed up Kya's shirt desperately, squawking and chewing on a piece of tentacle in her mouth…wait, what?

No, Kya’s eyes weren't playing tricks on her. Kiwi had a piece of an octoling’s tentacle hanging out of her mouth, bright pink and still wriggling. It was kind of gross. Where did she get it? Although the inktoling had not known Kiwi long, the small fry had never struck her as the kind of creature that would just attack someone out of nowhere.

A high-pitched moan echoed through the air. The crowds went quiet for just a moment, as the zapfish fry from the ceremony was flying low to the ground, looking pale and gasping in pain, before crashing to the ground. In an instant dozens of seafolk surrounded the fallen zapfish in a desperate attempt to help it. The poor baby let out cry after heartbreaking cry, practically curling itself into a ball. Though it was hard to see anything through the crowd, Kya caught a glimpse of its tail, covered in distinctive numerous suction cup marks.

“Someone get Father Arable!” one inkling cried.

“It's okay little guy! You're going to be okay!” cried another, trying to comfort the fry.

“It looks like its tummy hurts. Has he been poisoned!?”

“Those marks…he's covered in them. The octarians…those sucker heads did something to the great zapfish!”

The mention of octarian suckers made Kya realize something.

Momo was with the Great zapfish wasn't she? And she never went anywhere without her beloved small fry…yet here both fish were, bearing signs of an octoling attack, with the pink headed, big finned Inkling nowhere in sight.

“Kiwi? Where's Momo?”

Kiwi whimpered with worry, before making a few hacking noises, spitting up a scrap of cloth. Kya hesitantly picked up the scrap with a groan of disgust. As she examined it, her hearts dropped into her stomach. 

The cloth was actually an iron on patch, with the symbol of a simplified octopus holding a sword in each of its arms was crudely stitched into it. It was quite tattered and covered in fish slobber, but Kya immediately recognized the symbol

“Oh…crap…”

---

Ow.

Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow.

Those are the only words that came to mind as Momo struggled to regain consciousness. Her head was pounding. Her face hurt like it had been hit with a brick. Her beak ached, and it was getting hard to breathe through her nose. It felt so swollen and the air felt stuffy because of it.

Maybe swelling was the reason why she was struggling to open her eyes. At least her ears were working, as she was able to pick up bits and pieces of what was going on around her.

“ What are we even going to do with her?”

“Daiki must have something in mind. Why else would she have grabbed her?”

“We can't let no one know that it was us. If that slimesucker goes yapping, talking about octolings, then what was the point in any of this?”

“Personally I still don't get the point. There had to be easier ways to get back at Croiss…”

That last voice was cut off by a loud smack, and a squeak of pain.

“ Shut the fuck up Bruckley! No one's talking to you!” a familiar twinkly voice scolded.

Another sad squeak, but this time it was from someone different. It was sadder and much higher pitched.

“Don't go feeling sorry for the idiot. And don't be feeling sorry for yourself neither! If you would have just held on to her, I wouldn't have lost my mask. This is gonna to be a whole damn mess because of you!”

Someone just walked into the room.

“You don't need to yell Yammy. Not like the moron can hear you.”

“She reads lips though, don't she? She's got to know she fucked up!”

“Hello?”

A word came out of Momo's mouth without her consent. In her delirious state, all she could think of was getting help for herself…forgetting that these bastards were the ones who put her in the situation.

“ Oh shit, I think the slime ball’s awake. One of y'all be a dear, and get her out for me?”

“Why don't you do it?”

“Because fuck you that's why! If you're going to mouth off Bruckley, you get her!”

That same sad squeak from before was back, this time sounding much more apologetic. The sound of heavy footsteps was coming towards her now. Shit.

Momo got a small burst of energy, just enough to try and struggle herself awake…only to find she could barely move thanks to the cordage tied around her. She tried shifting into her squid form, but the ropes simply tightened around her as she changed. Regardless of which form she took, she was bound. Damn it. This was ink based, swim proof rope. 

Everything came into focus. Her eyes were in fact not as swollen shut as she believed. She couldn't see because she was in a box. A wooden box of some kind if the sound it made when she kicked it was anything to go by. It also didn't seem to have air holes, due to the fact the air was so stuffy.

With an ear bleedingly loud creak, the box opened. Light from the room poured in, and towering over her was a wide bodied dumbo octoling, with a cute and chubby face, bright pink tentacles and one of her spring green eyes covered by an eye patch. This girl had such a sweet face with an expression that made her look like she needed a hug…although judging by the bandage around her hand, in the exact spot that Momo had bitten her assailant, the barely conscious inkling wouldn't be the one to give it to her.

It took the powerful young octopus almost no effort to lift Momo out of the box, holding her under her arm, as if she was a stuffed animal before being unceremoniously dropped on the ground. Momo was presented to a familiar face; that octoling girl with the red orange eyes and the twinkly voice, red tentacles currently done up in a ponytail style and a rainbow bandage across her nose. Momo had never seen a smile that looked so warm yet so sadistic. Equally deceiving was her get up: a bobble hat, a rainbow jacket, and  tetra sandals. What a creepy girl.

“Hey slime sucker!” The girl chirped. “Did you sleep well?”

“Who…who are you octos? Where am I?”

Momo suddenly felt a boot in her side that knocked the wind out of her. The kick was punctuated with an angry hiss.

“You speak when spoken to, squid!”

Momo coughed as she glared up at her assailant. Her attacker looked identical to the creepy girl, safe for her sunny yellow tentacles (done up in a swirly pompadour) and her outfit. A pair of old fashioned octo goggles sitting on top of her head instead of being properly worn, a tattered denim vest/midriff bearing sweatshirt combo, and steel-toed high heel boots that were currently being pressed into Momo's bruised side. Momo would have said she was gorgeous if it weren't for the look of utter hatred in her eyes.

“Technically…” Momo choked out. “She did -ack- talk to me.”

The thug simply shifted her weight onto Momo’s leg with a growl, “Shut your ugly face, you 10 limbed cretin!”

“So Daiki…what are we doing with the Inkling?” Another girl spoke up, looking utterly bored.

Daiki finally took her boot off of Momo, and lifted the small squid up by the back of her sweater, “You’ll see in a minute. Suncho? Carry her for me please?”

Suncho nodded silently, scooping Momo up like she weighed nothing. Momo found herself carried through a dark tunnel, lit up with simple construction lights and some very unsafe looking generators. Looks like an old mineshaft? 

There was so much graffiti carved into the walls of rock and dirt, it brought to mind the sketchiest of sketchy bathroom stalls. The humor and language was about as filthy as them. At least it smells better, like wet stone after a rainstorm.

The sounds of distant rowdiness echoed through the tunnel and got louder as they moved into a huge open chamber, lit up by even more construction lights and a massive bonfire at the center. The chamber was filled with several dozen octolings of all kinds, mostly female, with the small handful of males resigned to sitting by the bonfire pounding energy drinks and tinkering with ink guns. The rest of the chamber was filled with several game consoles, huge stereos with super loud techno music, workout equipment and what had to be stolen clothing store mannequins, which the octolings were all taking turns beating the crap out of. From the looks of the dusty furniture that was all over the room, if they couldn't get a turn at the mannequins, they would simply test their claws out on the couch cushions, leaving huge rips of fabric and bits of fluff scattered everywhere.

With octarian war and military memorabilia plastered across every available surface and weapons lying everywhere, this place looked like some kind of training camp for young soldiers…except for the fact that these girls were completely disorganized and acting like sea monkeys on bath salts. Every single one of them were shouting, hitting something, clawing at something, or throwing something in a bid to prove how strong and cool they were. 

Kombu had talked about knowing kids like these. Young octarian girls who had been fed so much post-war propaganda that they believed their only value in society could come from how strong or useful they were. So to prove that strength, you had to be as big and as loud and as aggressive as possible. It was a sad ideology that had thankfully become less popular since Queen Mazuma took over, but old habits die hard…especially in a place where a lot of seafolk were still stuck in the Great Turf War era.

Daiki cleared her throat, then let out the loudest scream Momo had ever heard.

“ ALL RIGHT MAGGOTS! TURN OFF YOUR SHIT AND STAND AT ATTENTION! ”

As Momo's ears rang from that banshee shriek of a command, all the octolings immediately obeyed. The music was cut off. Everything went dead quiet. The octos did in fact give her their attention, but most of them continue to slouch or even just lay around. Daiki seemed satisfied with the response anyway, turning back to Suncho and giving her a firm nod.

Momo was tossed on ceremoniously into the dirt, an action which was followed by Daiki pressing her boot into her back.

“Thank y'all for coming out today! I'll try not to keep y'all too long, in case your families get suspicious. Getting up to that stage was nice and easy. As far as everybody knows, the Cooler Tens attacked the ceremony. Croiss and his crew are as good as cooked!”

Everyone cheered so loud it practically shook the cave walls, and Daiki soaked it all in. Although Momo didn't have the best view, given that her face was in the dirt and it hurt to move, she felt the octoling take her boot off her back and was stomping around in a self-congratulatory manner. 

Just as suddenly, Daiki screamed, “ ALL RIGHT SHUT UP NOW! ”

The room instantly went quiet as Daiki continued, “But it looks like we can't celebrate yet. One of Croiss’ slimesuckers had somehow found out about our little operation and crashed the party.”

There was a brief bout of hissing and jeering from the crowd. Momo hadn't felt this much anger and bile directed at her since the very last time she'd spoken to Wakame.

Momo was suddenly turned onto her back and was pulled up by her sweater to get nose to nose with Daiki.

“Now because I'm such a nice girl, I'm going to give you one chance, slimeball. What's Croiss’ angle? I know I didn't go through all the trouble making that truce just for him to go and break it the very next day. So what's he planning?”

Momo’s brain was way too rattled for this, “I…have no earthly idea. I don't know any Croiss…I was just…” 

Momo was cut off by the sensation of being thrown back into the dirt.

“Don't fuckin’ lie to me!” Daiki hissed.

“I'm not lying you psycho!” Momo choked out. “I don't know who Croiss is! I'm just here for the Carnival!”

“You lying sack of sludge!”

Momo braced herself for another beating, but thankfully Daiki was stopped by a tall and lanky blanket octoling.

“Daiki, I don't think she's lying. She's got that Inkopolite accent that all the tourists have. Besides, I don’t believe there's any other big fins on this island except for Croiss' family…and clearly they ain't related.”

Daiki almost immediately calmed down just a little bit. She glared down at the bound inkling for a few moments, before breathing out harshly and making a disappointed growling noise.

“I reckon…you're right Ruta. The squid don't know nothing…but she still hurt my sister. That can't go unpunished.”

Daiki turned back to Suncho with a saccharine smile that was almost identical to Yammy’s, “Sunny? Be a dear and rip the squid's arms off for me? All of ‘em?”

Suncho’s eyes went wide with horror, and she shook her head wildly. Momo's sentiment exactly! The tiny big fin squid redoubles her efforts to escape, fighting even harder against her bindings. She was switching from kid to squid as fast as she physically could, but the ropes stayed on no matter what. At least the peanut gallery of octo thugs were amused, laughing hysterically at her panic, and throwing empty energy drink cans just to egg her on.

“What the fuck do you mean no?! You don't get to say no to me, you idiot!” Daiki screeched with rage, following it up by socking the poor girl in the ear. 

Suncho squeaked in pain, clutching her ear. She didn't even have a moment to try and endure the pain, before Daiki grabbed a hold of her shirt collar and yanked the girl down to eye level.

“Read my lips, you brainless nematode. I am your commander. You follow my orders without question. All this time I thought you were at least capable of that, but apparently all you are good for is yer’ muscle!”

“Daiki! Please!” The pygmy octoling, Bruckley apparently, begged. “I'm sure she doesn't mean to defy you! She just doesn't want to get in trouble when someone comes looking for the city slicker.”

Daiki turned her rage on to the pint-sized octo, kicking him to the ground and coming dangerously close to flattening him with her boots.

“Bruckley, unless you want to be picking up pieces of your beak with no fingers, I suggest you keep your mouth shut!”

“He does have a point, sis,” Yammy piped up. “If she's a tourist, she's got to be here with her family. Someone's going to come looking for her and if they find her without any limbs…that might be bad for us.”

Daiki let out a long, low growl before conceding, “Fine…someone go over there and fuck her up. Maybe take just one limb. The squid has to know what happens when you mess with the Rebel Rings!”

Ruta let out an annoyed sigh and rolled her eyes, “I'll do it. Get this over with so I can get on with my day.”

Yammy beamed, “Yeah! That's my bae! Fuck her up, Ruttie!”

There was a sea of mixed reactions from the peanut gallery, ranging from excited cheering to uncomfortable mumbles. Momo's hearts were pounding her ears as she watched the beet colored blanket octoling stalk closer, casually whipping out a small pocket knife.

“Look squid, don't fight me on this,” Ruta said. “Just sit there and take your lumps. I'll give you a few good bruises, maybe take off one of those tiny tentacles you got behind your head. Then we'll toss you out into the middle of the woods somewhere. You can go free, and we can all go home.”

An adrenaline rush of anger mixed with terror coarse through Momo's veins. She bared her beak and let out an angry hiss, desperately trying to scoot backwards.

“Fuck that! I'm not going to let you just sucker punch me and then walk away! You maniacs threw salt water at innocent people!”

“Not as far as the public knows. As far as they know, the Cooler Tens are to blame. The slime suckers need to know they crossed the line.”

“I'm assuming that the “Cooler Tens” are a rival gang? What could they possibly have done that was worth committing acts of terrorism?”

Daiki suddenly snapped, “Ruta, why are you letting the slimeball talk?! Fuck her up already!”

Ruta sighed with annoyance, and bent down to lift Momo to her feet (probably so she could more easily attack her). Momo took in a sharp breath. If she was going to get her ass kicked again, she wasn't going to just lay there and take it!

Momo started rapidly shifting between squid and kid form, as if she was squid partying. As the slightly concussed inkling flipped and flopped around like her life depended on it, Ruta froze. It was like she wanted to attack or do something but couldn't figure out what.

“What are you doing? Wha-what is this?” Ruta mumbled in confusion. “Are you trying to have a squid party or something?”

As suddenly as she started flip-flopping, Momo changed into her inkling form, shooting herself to her feet and biting down on the appendage nearest to her. Unfortunately, in her dizzy state, Momo had completely missed the arm she was aiming for (the one holding the knife) and instead bit down on Ruta's unprotected wrist. Still it had the desired effect, causing Ruta to scream in pain and shock, swinging the knife wildly in Momo's direction. Momo had to back off as much as she could to avoid being stabbed, but she still felt a cold metal blade slice into her arm, and more importantly, the rope.

Momo released Ruta, and received a hard shove to the chest for her troubles. It had enough force to knock her to the floor yet again, but this time the rope was loose. This time when she transformed into her squid form, the rope didn't change with her and she slid right out.

Yes! She was free…and bleeding a bit from a shallow slice on her arm, but more importantly she was free! A wiser squid would have attempted to escape, but after these thugs had been kicking her around for no reason, she wanted to teach them a lesson. Besides, given how the octos were forming a ring around her and Ruta, it looked like they weren't going to let her run even if she wanted to.

Momo raised up her fists, holding a guarded position, “So…we going to do this or what?”

Ruta’s previously bored expression, changed into something much darker and more serious. The blanket octoling used her knife to cut away a piece of her already tattered black hoodie, before sheathing the weapon and tying the scrap around her injured wrist.

“Okay. I guess we're doing this the hard way then.”

There was some more cheering from the crowd, encouraging Ruta to fuck Momo up, but Momo could barely hear it over her own racing thoughts.

“ Come on Momo! Think!” She screamed in her head. “ Blanket octolings. What did Sledge teach you about blanket octolings? ”

Blanket octoling were a very unique octoling species for many reasons. Females were on average twice the height of the males (some males even being compared to pygmy octolings in terms of height). Both genders had extremely long tentacles with beautiful iridescent webbing in between them. And compared to most octolings, they also had exceptionally sensitive hearing.

Okay! She remembered the basics…was any of that helpful? Not really…but this girl seemed pretty impatient. Maybe she could be egged on into making a mistake? 

Ruta took a couple of swings that Momo had to hop backwards to avoid. A couple more swings, followed by more dodging. Ruta was already getting annoyed.

“You just going to dodge like a scared sea slug?”

Momo said nothing. She just kept focusing on ducking, weaving, and hopping circles around her opponent to avoid getting socked in the face again. She just had to wait for an opening.

“For the Love of…hold still, ya’ Gods damned sand flea!”

Ruta abandoned throwing punches and charged forward, with a swipe of her claws. It looked more intimidating as an attack, but now she was more vulnerable. Momo ducked under her opponent's claws, and with all of her strength, popped her in the belly. Momo’s small size and lack of defined muscles prevented the attack from causing actual damage, but it was enough to make Ruta grunt in pain and bend down, putting her slightly upturned nose within punching distance.  Momo stamped on Ruta's open toed sandals, and slammed her open palm against the octoling's nose as hard as she could. There was a sickening pop as she felt the cartilage in Ruta's nose break. The blanket octoling let out a screech of pain, head reeling backwards as she crumpled to the ground, protectively wrapping herself in her own tentacles like…well…a blanket. Ruta made no attempt to get back up. Instead she simply shifted into her octopus form and laid there curled into a ball. 

Momo relaxed a bit. The fight was over? That was surprisingly easy.

“So…can I go now?”

The cave was dead quiet. Every octoling was staring wide-eyed and gobsmacked at what had just happened. The only expressions that differed were Yammy’s and Daiki’s

Yammy's face filled with shock and worry as she raced to Ruta's side with a squeak.

“Damn the gods!” she screamed, scooping Ruta into her arms. “Babe?! You okay?!”

Daiki on the other hand was even more enraged. Momo could swear she could see steam coming out of her ears from how angry she was.

“You…you scrawny little bastard!”

Daiki shoved Bruckley aside (even though he wasn't actually in the way), and stormed over to Momo. Momo got back into a defensive stance as her heart rate picked up again.

“First you hurt my sister, then my best friend!? If you think I'm going to just let you walk out of here without a few extra holes, you're as thick as sea pig shit!”

Momo growled in frustration, already fed up with this backwoods idiot, “Hey, all this is your own fault! You were the ones who decided to attack people and kidnap me! Just tell your goons to let me leave!”

Daiki exhaled sharply before turning to the crowd of very angry octolings standing right behind Momo.

“Ladies? Rip this squid a new one!”

In the blink of an eye, every damn octo in the cave pounced on Momo at once. It was a panic induced, adrenaline filled mess as Momo struggled her way through the sea of wannabe soldiers. Dodging claws, punches, empty soda bottles, hand weights, and whatever crap they could hit her with. In the confusion, Momo just managed to slip out of the crowd. Slipping out of her squid form, she sprinted away down the nearest tunnel. It wasn't the same one they bought her in from, but at least it would lead her away from these maniacs.

“ WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU IDIOTS? ” Daiki's voice echoed through the caverns. “ HOW HARD IS IT TO KICK THE SHIT OUT OF ONE LITTLE SQUID!? QUIT PLAYING AROUND AND GO GET HER! ”

Momo had to fight the urge to cry out as she ran deeper into these abandoned mines. Her mind was drawn back to the time when she had fled Inkopolis. She was beaten and bruised, tired and thirsty, running for her life after almost being killed by thugs for the simple crime of daring to get in their way.

Except this time she had no idea where she was! Even if she got out of this mine, where would it lead? 

Did anyone even know she was gone?

----

“Come on kid, pick up.”

Yuki was struggling to fight off a combination of worry and rage as she sat comforting her husband while he was tending to his injured relatives. Luckily, no one in the family had taken a direct hit from those sea water balloons, (since the majority of the balloons were thrown onto the octarian side of the crowd) so there were no serious injuries. But still, a few of the younger kids had gotten splashed, leading to the poor things having minor seawater burns. The little ones rightfully screamed and hollered in pain as the salt was carefully wiped away with clean water and ink.

They weren't huge or life threatening, but such injuries were incredibly painful even for adults. Yuki couldn't imagine enduring that as a squidling.

It made her worry about her own kids. She hadn't gotten a chance to ask Kya if she got hit or not, and she had no idea where Momo was. The girl had been where those terrorists attacked from. Has she gotten injured or worse? 

“ No Yuki…don't think like that. Momo's a tough little fish ball. She's probably okay.”

Once again her call went right to voicemail. Frustrated and fearing the worst, Yuki decided to try and get a hold of her daughter instead. By some coincidence, Hachi's phone began to ring. When he saw who it was, he picked up immediately.

“Kya! Thank the gods!”

The moment those words left his mouth, Yuki couldn't stop herself from going into overprotective panic mode.

“Is that Kya?! Is she okay? Where is she? Did she get splashed or attacked? Does she need me to come get her? Is she….?”

The snow white squid trailed off as her husband gently placed his hand on her forehead. She lets it sit there for a moment before pushing it off. It was an old game that the two of them had played since they were teenagers. They were both prone to getting freaked out, rambling and spiraling. So to help soothe one another, they came up with the concept of a mute button. Whenever one of them got too freaked out, the other one put their hand on their partner’s forehead. It was a signal for them to go quiet for a moment, breathe and reflect on what was making them panic. Usually it was pretty helpful, but right now his wife is not having it.

“Don't you mute me!” Yuki squeaked in frustration.

Hachi put his hand back on her forehead, “Yuki, you can't talk. You're on mute.”

In response, Yuki licked Hachi’s hand and nipped his pinky finger, forcing him to withdraw it.

“Ow! Also gross! Don't lick me in front of other people.” Hachi grumbled, following up his scolding by wiping his wet hand on the captain’s shirt. 

Yuki squealed with fury and probably would have retaliated, if Kya hadn't yelled loud enough for both of them to hear her.

“ DAD! Quit flirting with Mom! This is important!”

The pair immediately stopped playing around, and Hachi brought the phone back to his ear, “What's going on honey?”

There was a period of silence on the other end. When Kya came back, it almost sounded like she was fighting the urge to cry. 

“ I-I need your help…Momo's in trouble.”

Hachi's eyes widened with worry, “What do you mean? What's happened to Momo?”

There was another long pause, followed by the sound of her sucking in a sharp breath before continuing.

“ Promise me you won't get upset? ”

Hachi bit his tongue a bit, feeling anxiety well up inside of him, he pushed it down.

“I promise I won't be upset.”

Another pause followed by a nervous whimper, “ Okay…so…last time we were here…I went to the Octarian side of the island. I just wanted to see what it was like over there. I thought if I just hid my ears and my eye mask, styled my tentacles the right way, I could pass as an octoling…and I did for a little bit…but… ”

Kya trailed off again, an anxiety ridden squeak working its way out of her throat, causing her voice to shake, “ there were these girls. I don't know how but they saw through my disguise. They jumped me…”

Kya finally started to sob, unable to finish her sentence. Hachi felt all three of his heart's break in two, and at the moment he was wishing for nothing more than to be by his daughter's side so that he could comfort her.

After a moment, Kya took in a sharp breath and composed herself enough to continue, “ They jumped, dragged me to their hideout, and tried to throw me down a hole. I had to give them that necklace you got me for Squidmas so that they'd let me go, and they told me if they ever saw me again they’d finish the job…they called themselves the Rebel Rings…and I think Momo got taken by them.”

Hachi was quiet for a moment, trying to absorb what Kya just told him. Finally he breathed out again.

“Okay, I think I'm getting the picture? But wouldn't something like this be more up your mom's alley?”

“ No…I'm sorry Dad but it has to be you. I think I remember where the hideout is…maybe. Well, I know for sure it's on the octarian side of the island. If Mom comes with me, it'll definitely draw attention…with how on edge everyone is…” She trailed off again.

Hachi took a deep breath, “Okay. Where are you? I'll meet you there and we'll go get Momo back.”

Kya finally sounded a bit relieved, but her voice was still shaking, “ I'll wait for you at that old Metal god shrine by the wall ruins. Love you!”

He didn't have a chance to respond or say that he loved her back before his daughter hung up. She was probably nervous. He couldn't blame her. It had been years since he tried to venture onto the Ocean Hearth, he had no idea how it had changed over the years or how the people would react if they saw him. He and his family were unfortunately infamous on this island. 

But for his daughter he would do anything. Hachi filled Yuki in on the situation as quickly as he could. Naturally, despite knowing the risks, she still wanted to go in his stead, insisting that she could sneak along easily. It took reminding her of the fact that Momo had apparently hinted at something bothering Kya that involved the family to get her to stay behind. He would find Momo, and she could put her investigating skills to use here. 

With one last kiss, Hachi parted ways with his wife, making a mental note to stop by a coin press along the way.

--- 

It had taken Kya way too long to find the metal god shrine where she was supposed to meet her dad. Being such an ancient town, Starsea Valley was full of old shrines. If you didn't live here like she didn't, it was hard to remember which was which. 

But she had found it. A small, out of the way shrine to Ferrotogi, the god of metal; represented by the statue of a spiky ball of tentacles carrying around a huge sake bottle and every kind of armor and bladed weapon imaginable. The shrine itself was made specifically for prayer and not much else. It was so tiny, that it didn't even have a proper doorway or anyone attending to it. Mostly just a padded floor, a couple of donation boxes and an incense burner. Kya made sure to quickly slip off her shoes before going inside, and sitting on the ground to get a better look at the reflective metal sheets that decorated the walls.

Her disguise was a bit thrown together, but it looks pretty convincing. The ends of her tentacles were wrapped up nice and tight to get rid of the clubbed look. A little bit of concealer painted across the bridge of her nose to make her eye mask look more octarian. Courtesy of a nearby souvenir stand, Kya had also purchased a zapfish beanie that was two sizes too big and fit perfectly over her ears. To any passing observers, she would look just like an octoling.

But she wasn't an octoling…she wasn't…

Kya lightly slapped herself on the cheeks. No! Now is not the time to fall into existential despair. Her friend needed her!

Further pulling her out of her funk, her phone suddenly rang. There was no set ringtone, so she wasn't sure who it was until she looked at the caller ID: Diggsy.

The inktoling let out a frustrated sigh. She was still upset from last night and really wasn't in the mood to speak to them but…it would be rude just let the phone ring wouldn't it? After that attack, maybe they were worried?

Begrudgingly, Kya answered the phone and put it to her ear, “Hey Diggsy. Whatever you need, say it fast, because now is really not a good time.”

“ Are you okay? You didn't get splashed did you?”

Kya’s walls came down just a little bit. So they were worried about her.

“I'm fine, the water didn't even touch me. Are you okay? I'm assuming…I'm hoping…you didn't know that your friends were going to attack the ceremony today, right?”

Diggsy growled defensively, “ No! No Kya! It wasn't them! Croiss would never allow something like that. I don't know who those kids were but they weren't Cooler Tens.”

Kya felt a little bit of relief hearing that Diggsy had put it together so quickly. Even if she didn't approve of them hanging out with those thugs, they seemed really important to them. If they had believed the Cooler Tens were responsible, they would never forgive themselves for those people getting hurt.

“Well, I'm glad you weren't hurt Diggsy. I've really got to go. I'll see you tonight, okay?”

“ Wait! I…I really need someone to talk to.”

“Talk to our other cousins, I'm busy right now.”

“ But it's really important!”

Kya was getting frustrated again, “Well what I'm doing is really important too. Momo’s been grabbed by a bunch of octoling thugs, so I've got to get her back!”

Diggsy’s voice deflated, “ Wait…are you going to see the Rebel Rings?! Are you crazy!? They might kill you!”

Whether it was out of anxiety or frustration, Kya found herself yelling, “You think I don't know that!? Do you think I want to be doing this?! I don't have a choice, Diggsy! I know from experience how vicious they can be to anyone who doesn't look or act like them! But I will be damned to Deep Dark if I'm going to leave Momo to get ripped apart by a bunch of violent little psychos!”

Without waiting for a reply, Kya hung up the phone and buried her face in her hands. What did she get herself into?

A tiny squawk from her pocket broke her out of her despair. Kiwi peeked out of Kya's pocket, looking just as worried as she was. Kya gently patted the tiny fish on the head to comfort her.

“Sorry I've been so mean to you since we got here. You really are a sweet little salmon.”

Kiwi chirped and nipped at her fingers playfully in response. Kya let out a giggle, forgetting for just a moment the situation they were about to find themselves in.

“Kya?”

Kya turned to see her dad also removing his shoes and stepping into the shrine. As Hachi knelt down beside his daughter, Kya threw arms around him and squeezed him so tight you'd swear he'd float away if she let go. All at once, it was hitting her how messed up the situation was, and before she could stop it, her internal terror was coming to the surface.

“Dad! I-I’m so sorry I didn't tell you about this sooner! I…I just…”

Hachi squeezed his daughter just as tight, “Shhhh…it's okay. You don't have to explain anything. I…know from experience how frightening those little thugs can be.”

Kya released her dad to look at him, “What do you mean? Dad…don't tell me you used to be a part of that gang?”

Hachi's expression tightened as he stiffly nodded, “Heh, you put it together that quickly? You've got your mother's sleuthing skills. Unfortunately, yes Kya. When I was a teenager I was part of the Rebel Rings.”

“But…their whole thing is that they hate inklings…and…Grandma…and Uncle Vimmy…”

Hachi cut his daughter off with a deep sigh. “The irony is not lost on me darling. I was young, dumb, confused about who I was, and desperate to fit in. I'm not proud of it, at least now I can put it to good use.”

Kya was silent for a moment, then cleared her throat, “So…you know where the hideout is?”

Hachi nodded, lighting a piece of incense and placing it in the burner, “The old silver mines, and I’d bet gill that it's the same one down by the red Delta road. Celera always had a fascination with that busted elevator shaft. Always going on about how it was a portal directly to the Deep Dark or some shit.”

“And Celera is?”

“She was the gang’s leader back in the day. A violent little punk who thought she was the hottest shit to ever walk the island. At least her brother was cute.”

There was about 2 minutes of silence between them as Hachi let the incense burn, wisps of sweet smelling Blue smoke filling the air around them. He dropped a couple freshly pressed amphipod coins into the donation box, put his hands together and bowed his head so low it touched the ground.

Kya copied her father's movements, and joined him in bowing. She had never been super religious, and despite his devotion, Hachi had never tried to push it onto her. But even so, she had picked up a few things; like how Ferrotogi was also the god of mining, and how even to this day every time a new mine was created, the workers would still pour out a couple bottles of fine sake into the freshly dug tunnels so that the god wouldn't get mad at them for digging around on his turf and bury them alive. Sounded like a major overreaction, but who was she to question the embodiment of a force of nature that may or may not exist?

On the off chance that he did exist, and he had any control over what happened within his domain, Kya said a quick prayer.

“ Lord Ferrotogi, please hear me. Watch over Momo! Let her hang on until we get there.”

---

Damnit! No service. 

Of course there's no service! She was underground! Why would there be service?!

Momo had known from the moment she pulled up her phone that it would have been pointless, she had to try! 

Right now, her only other option was to remain huddled in this tiny crack in the tunnel walls for the rest of her life while a pack of bloodthirsty octolings hunted her down.

Even now, she could hear them yelling back and forth to each other…mostly Daiki throwing around orders…but there were other voices on occasion.

Momo wrapped her tentacles around her face in despair. It was a tight squeeze in here even in her squid form. She had gotten herself into deep shit once again but this time didn't even have Kiwi there to comfort her.

“Maybe Kiwi’s gone and found the captain,” Momo mumbled to herself. “Maybe they know I'm in trouble and they're coming to help…but how would they even find me?”

As she huddled there, head and body still throbbing from getting her face smashed into the ground, suddenly, a hand grabbed her and forced her out of her hiding place.

Momo squeaked in terror and immediately changed forms, wrenching herself from her finder's grip, and jumping into a defensive stance. It was Suncho, looking just as nervous and terribly sad as she had before.

Momo growled, “You again? You were able to sucker punch me last time, but I'm ready for you now!”

To add to the intimidation, Momo bared her beak, flared her tentacles, and punched her own hand.

“Come on! Let's go!”

Momo stomped forward a few steps, only for this absolute unit of an octoling to do something she never expected: cower.

Every time Momo got a little bit closer, Suncho would shrink back more and more, until she was on the ground in her octopus form hiding in her own tentacles and whimpering like the saddest, most neglected eel pup ever.

Immediately Momo relaxed a bit. Now that she was closer to the girl, she noticed there were multiple bruises around face and ears, probably from being hit by Daiki. Not to mention the bite wound on her hand that Momo had caused, and the fact she was missing part of one of her tentacles. That probably came off when Kiwi bit her and got flung. Although Momo hadn't noticed it before, Suncho actually had spots on the side of her head where cochlear implants would attach. But she wasn't wearing them now?

Maybe Momo could…

Momo knelt down to get more on level with her octopus form, and started signing.

<“Hey. It's okay. I don't want to hurt you. I just want to leave.”>

Suncho’s visible eye lit up as she shifted back into her octoling form and signed right back.

<“You know sign language?! Fluently?! I've never met anyone outside my family who can sign fluently!”>

<“My uncle is deaf, so my grandpa had me learn at a pretty young age.”>

Suncho raised an eyebrow, <“Really? That's surprising. I was always told that inklings were too lazy to learn much of anything, let alone another language.”>

Momo's expression flattened as she tried to ignore that dig against her species, <“So…you have spots for cochlear implants. Why not use them? Might be easier to talk to your friends that way.”>

Suncho whimpered, <“I only just got the implants, and hearing…it's super overwhelming sometimes. Besides, they're not my friends. Except for Bruckley, I don't think any of them even like me.”>

<“Then why do you hang around them?”>

<“Daiki’s family owns most of my family's land. If I don't help her with her schemes, she’ll go to her aunt and make life even harder for my folks.”>

Momo felt her temperature rise. So Daiki was one of those kinds of kids. Luckily Momo knew how to deal with brats like that.

<“Just kick her ass! You're really strong! You could flatten her no problem.”>

Suncho looked utterly shocked and horrified, so Momo explained, <“Kids like her talk a big game but if someone actually challenges them, they crumble. I should know; I've had to change schools twice in the past because of similar incidents.”>

Suncho's expression shifted to one of outrage. She stomped towards Momo, backing her closer to the wall and signing furiously the whole time.

<“What do you know?! You're just some no good City slicker Inkling! You might be able to run to the other side of the continent when you mess up, but on this island? If you screw up at all it follows you forever!”>

Momo shrunk back, trying to keep up with her sign language, < “Okay! You're right. I'm sorry. I shouldn't get involved in your business. I just want to I get out of here.”>

Suncho’s ears drooped, <“I'm sorry, but I can't let you leave. Daiki’s already so angry with me. I can't imagine what she'll do to me if I just let you go.”>

Momo's ears also drooped, but more so out of frustration, <“Please! Can't you just pretend you never saw me? You seem like a nice girl. I don't want to hurt you again.”>

Suncho whimpered, <“I don't want to hurt you either…I don't want to hurt anybody…this is so messed up.”>

Suncho sat in the dirt and began to cry. Momo knelt down next to her, putting her hand on her shoulder. The dumbo octoling took Momo's hand to comfort herself, and pulled off her eye patch to better wipe away the tears that had accumulated.

With the eye patch removed, Momo could see that her other eye was not damaged like she had thought. The only thing that was wrong with it was that it appeared to be stuck constantly looking up. Immediately Momo felt even worse for the octo girl. Of course these assholes would shame someone into hiding part of their appearance they couldn't control.

Momo was about to sign something to comfort Suncho, only to be slammed into and knocked to the ground yet again. Immediately a clawed hand grabbed her by her braid and yanked her onto her knees. Momo reeled her head backwards, hoping to hit her assailant in the face, only to be grabbed around the neck and squeezed so tight she swore she was going to pass out.

“Nice job, Sunny! You found the squid! Yo! Everyone! Suncho found the squid!”

It was Yammy, who had learned from her past mistakes and was not loosening her grip, even as Momo changed forms over and over. Very quickly every tunnel that she could possibly escape down was blocked by octolings looking to kick her head in, with Daiki at the front.

“Not bad Suncho. Guess you aren't so stupid after all.”

Suncho hugged her knees and looked down at the ground, refusing to meet anyone's gaze. Despite trying to make herself small and unnoticeable, the poor Dumbo octoling still found herself being smacked on the ear.

“Put your eye patch back on. That demon eye of yours is freaking me out.”

Momo growled, “Leave her alone, and let me go! I'm sorry I hit your sister and beat up your friend, okay? Is that what you want? Should I grovel and apologize?”

Momo got decked in the face for her troubles, head reeling back as stars faded in and out of her vision.

“I've had just about enough of your back talk scum sucker,” Daiki sneered. “I really was just going to have my girls kick your ass and then let you loose in the woods…but I think you deserve more.”

A cruel smile stretched across her face as she addressed her gang, “Ladies, I think this 10-armed degenerate has earned a nice friendly visit to Gordy. What do y'all say?”

The tunnels echoed with cheers and hollers of approval. The only ones who were even slightly apprehensive were Suncho and surprisingly Yammy.

“You sure that's a good idea sis? What is the whole point of just beating her up so we wouldn't get in trouble for murder or some shit?”

Daiki chuckled, “Sure, any other way there's a chance that this could come back to us. But with Gordy? As far as anyone will know, she got lost in the woods and disappeared.”

Suncho suddenly stood up, “No! Please don't! Not Gordy! Just let her go, please!?”

Daiki’s eyes flashed with rage as she shoved Suncho back, “Shut the fuck up, Suncho! Ain't nobody understanding you. You talk like a brain dead blobfish with a broken jaw!”

Momo hissed, “Fuck off! She does not! She's trying to articulate what she's never heard before, you ignorant slut!”

Momo received yet another attack to her head, this time enduring the feeling of Daiki’s claws pulling at her ear as the octoling laughed.

“Oh, I am going to enjoy watching Gordy rip you apart

Chapter Text

Is it possible for the sound of a pounding heart (or three) to be louder than a cab's engine? Right now, Marie was starting to think so. 

“ Why am I so nervous? I have faced down literal world ending threats before…why is this the thing that's freaking me out? ”

Maybe it was because if this went wrong, then she might lose one of the most important people in her life forever. Maybe it was because she was completely unprepared for what she was about to do. 

Whatever the reason, Marie had already gone to the trouble of coming to Filletown, all the way out into some of the most remote parts of the Calamari mountains, on one of the longest and possibly hottest days of the year just to do this. There was no going back.

Especially not with the constant pestering from her cousin. As Marie sat and tried to keep her normal cool level headed persona intact, she was getting bombarded with endless messages from Callie. Some of it was actually helpful advice. The rest? Well, it looks like Callie was just as nervous about this whole thing as she was. Ironic, given that Callie was the one who had pushed Marie into doing this in the first place.

(“ Callie you owe me your soul for talking.me into doing this.”) Marie texted.

In return, Marie received a crying face emoji, followed by, (“ Come on Marie don't be like that. When you're finally dating Jessy, you're going to be thanking me.”)

(“Don't count your salmon before they spawn. She could reject me.”)

(“Whaaaaaat?! No way! You're like the second most gorgeous squid in the world! She’d be out of her mind to reject you!”)

(“Second? Who's the first?”)

(“My Mom, duh. 🙄”)

Marie couldn't help but let out a little chuckle. It made her a little jealous. Even as she was getting older, Marie’s own mother traveled so much for her modeling career that they barely got to spend any time together these days outside of brief phone calls. At least they would be together for the feast on the third day.

The cab came to a stop and the driver spoke for the first time, pulling Marie from her thoughts.

“I think we're here ma’am…but are you sure this is where you want to get out? Outside of some old ruins, there's nothing out down that road but trees and rocks.”

Marie took a deep breath, and nodded before stepping out of the cab. Without actually looking at how much she was giving him, Marie handed the urchin cabby a fat stack of gill. It must have been a lot, if the excited trill he let out was anything to go by.

“Are you sure ma'am?!”

Marie smiled, “I'm sure. Considered a gift for working during the carnival.”

“May the gods bless you ma'am. Have a good day.”

With that, the cab drove away, and left Marie alone to stare down the dirt trail in front of her. The urchin was right, this road only led to some old human ruins and way up the road you would find a campsite. But if Marie knew Agent Four, human ruins what's exactly where she wanted to be.

---

“So are you seeing anything now?”

Wren pretended to strain his eyes, if only so he could be sassier, “No. Just like I said the other four times you've asked. I'm not seeing any spiritual presence here.”

Jessy whimpered, “But…there has to be something here. The ark…the map…”

“Maybe you misread it? Or maybe it's not a map?”

Jessy let out a small whine, taking a seat on a nearby log as she pulled out her notes. Among the notes was multiple pictures of that mysterious blue box that the new agent 3 had recovered from Alterna. Freshly cleaned of a lot of the erosion and rust that it was caked in upon recovery, it revealed so many mysteries, including what Jessy had theorized to be a set of coordinates leading to…something. The inscriptions she had found alongside the coordinates were very unclear about what they were actually looking for, as they read:

(In our last sacred home before our ?????? ?? ??? ??????, we leave a glimpse through Time beneath our bones. For the heirs to the Stars, may it be a guide to your past and to our future.)

At least that was what Dr. Weedler had been able to translate. The salmonling language was so intricate that it really did take an expert just to get the basics. If it weren't for the weedy sea dragon, they never would have found this place at all.

But there was almost nothing out here! With how old Calamari County was, you would think the people would have more knowledge about their own history, yet there weren't even local stories about these ruins. The only thing they knew for sure was that this place had once been a small salmonling village before the whole race suddenly disappeared over a thousand years ago. Since then, this tiny settlement had been left to erode, gather moss, and be messed with and taken apart by hikers. There was hardly anything left now except for a few crumbling walls, an old creaky bridge that went over the river that cut through the ruins, and load bearing columns for ceilings that had long since collapsed.

“If only there was an actual salmonling we could ask,” Jessy said with a sigh.

A frustrated growl caught her attention. Jessy looked back at Hazel, who was currently sitting on a mostly destroyed wall looking like he would rather be anywhere but here and glaring at Jessy.

“Uhh…you good Hazel?” Jessy asked awkwardly.

“Je passe cette journée sacrée assise sur de vieux rochers et à regarder les arbres,” Hazel grumbled. “J'espérais pouvoir passer du temps seul avec mon amour, mais vous, les calamars, me l'avez encore une fois volé.”

Wren’s expression tightened as Jessy looked to him for a translation. She had only gotten pieces of what he said since even after all these years her Octarian was still rusty.

“He's disappointed that he and I are not spending the carnival alone like we’d planned.”

Jessy’s ears drooped in shame, “Dude! If you already had plans you didn't have to come all the way out here. I'm sorry.”

Wren shrugged, “Ms.Callie already paid for us to come here. Who am I to deny a free vacation? Besides, this is important. If there's any truth at all to the warnings inscribed on that box, then time is of the essence. We need to explore every lead we have, even the small and unimportant ones.”

Jessy sighed and looked up at the tree line, “Well, since there's no spiritual presence here, it doesn't look like there's much you can do. Why don't you guys go back into town? I can handle it from here.”

Hazel leapt to his feet, “ Enfin! Je vais aller pisser avant de partir.”

Hazel turned his back on the other two mollusks and walked off a few yards away into the woods, briefly disappearing behind some trees.

“He says he needs to pee.”

“Yeah, I got that one.”

“I didn't.”

Jessy's hearts lept into her throat and she spun around towards the woman who had just spoken. A beautiful Inkling with gray and green tentacles and bright Amber eyes, dressed in a familiar green sweater, beanie, and face mask.

“Marie!” Jessy squealed joyfully and she ran to embrace her mentor.

“Hey Agent 4,” Marie hugged her back, though it was a little awkward when one of her arms was still sore.

“I can't believe you're here! What are you doing here?”

“I'm here for the carnival. Callie and I decided to go home to spend this carnival with our folks. After almost losing Gramps, it made us realize how important it is to make time for them…but I heard you were in the neighborhood, and I couldn't help but wonder why.”

Jessy’s sparkling pink eyes lit up in a way that Marie knew what was coming. She was about to go full archeology nerd and talk endlessly for maybe hours about everything she had come here to learn. Not that Marie minded. Her passion for discovery and learning was one of the things the pop idol loved about her.

Agent Four gently pulled Marie towards the little base camp they set up, and started digging around in the giant backpack she had sitting on the ground. Marie took a look around the sparse ruins, taking in the beauty of nature, and of Agent 8’s awkward glances.

Marie nodded at him, “Kind of surprised you're here, Eight. You're always getting on the captain's case about working too much, yet you're working during the carnival?”

The octoling’s expression brightened as he clapped his hands together, “Oh no! We've actually been having a lot of fun here. We went bell hunting and danced, and Filletown’s lantern ceremony was gorgeous. So many happy spirits reuniting with their families!”

“If you say so,” Marie shrugged, skeptical as ever (about the spirits, not about them having fun).

At last, Jessy pulled something large, blue, and very familiar from the backpack and plopped it down. It was the ark, looking much less beat up and rusted then when Marie had last seen it. Jessy flipped the metal box upside down, and pulled out one of her many sketches to compare the two.

“Okay, so I found these coordinates on the bottom of the ark that led here. According to the inscription, there is supposed to be…something about the past here? Perhaps a hint as to what the so-called “blue powers” are?”

“And have you found anything?”

Jessy sighed, “Nope. Not a damn thing…but I'm not giving up! I'll leave no stone unturned. Not until I find the truth!”

Wren nodded, “Unfortunately, there's no spiritual presence to be found here, so there is not much for me to do. Even the remains of the skull effigies had nothing. If there were restless spirits here they must have moved on a long time ago.”

Marie did a double take, “Wait…what was that last part? Skull effigies?!”

Jessy nodded, “Yep. According to Dr. Weedler salmonlings had a tradition of removing the heads of their departed loved ones, putting the body in the river, and making monuments out of the skulls when the flesh had decomposed. They believed that doing so allowed their spirits to watch over the living from the afterlife. Too bad that inconsiderate hikers have knocked over most of them.”

Marie was speechless. Only Jessy could make something so gruesome sound so wholesome. Maybe it was just her sweet, bell-like melodic voice that put Marie at ease.

Marie quickly changed the subject, “Uhhh…anyway, are you sticking around Eight? I have a private matter I need to discuss with Agent Four.”

Jessy looked surprised, but Wren? A knowing and cheeky smile stretched across his face, and he winked at the idol. Marie did her best to suppress your expression of worry. Did he know about her crush? Had Callie told him?

“Of course Ms.Marie. Once Hazel gets back, we will be returning to the town. You will have Agent Four all to yourself then.”

He knew! He definitely knew. Callie had definitely told him. Marie was going to have to plot her revenge now.

Before Marie could reply, a scream of horror and fear echoed through the trees. The cheeky smirk on Wren’s face disappeared in a flash.

“HAZEL!!!”

Eight took off like a charger shot in the direction of the scream. Seconds later there was the sound of shifting rocks and earth, followed by another scream from Hazel.

“OH GODS! HANG ON HAZEL” Jessy sounded equally terrified.

Abandoning their base camp but scooping up the mostly empty backpack, both of the inkling women ran deeper into the woods to rescue their octoling companion. When they got to the source of the scream, there was a field of dozens of barely intact skull effigies covering an entire clearing, but Hazel was nowhere to be found. Instead there was only Wren, on his knees screaming into the sinkhole that had opened up on the edge of the field.

“HAZEL!!!” Wren screeched in terror. “HAZEL! S'il te plait dis quelque chose! Rien! Faites-moi savoir que vous êtes en vie!!!”

There was a long and horrible silence, where nothing could be heard but the sounds of the nearby river. The entire time, Wren was making desperate gasping sounds, like he was struggling not to cry out in terror and despair. Jessy was frantically rummaging around through the backpack, looking for a rope or cord or anything that could be used for a potential rescue mission. Marie stood there, feeling utterly helpless to do anything. 

Suddenly, the familiar sounds of a beak-on came from the handsome flannel shirt Agent 8 was wearing. Anyone who had ever played turf war in their life recognized that sound. Somebody was trying to super jump to him! 

A blur of cyan shot out of the sinkhole, hung in the air for just a few moments, before falling back to Earth in the form of a transparent octopus. He plummeted into Wren's waiting arms with a shout before breaking into whimpers.

“Un de ces crânes a pris vie, puis la Terre s'est ouverte sous moi!” Hazel gasped out. “Cet endroit est maudit!”

Wren's eyes widened with shock, “Skull things? Like the effigies? You saw one of the effigies move? But I swear I checked every single one of them.”

Wren carefully set his boyfriend on the ground, and looked out intensely at the small piles of skulls on the other side of the hole. Hazel shifted back into his octoling form, and clung on to Wren's arm, still shaking slightly. Jessy's hearts broke for the glass octoling. He must be thinking about his time in the deep sea Metro. For all the stories that Wren had told of his time trapped in the facility, apparently they were nothing compared to the horrors that Hazel had endured…even if he would take any specifics to his grave.

While Jesse was worried about the mental state of her BFF’s lover, Marie was a bit more focused on his outfit. It was a pretty simple get up: a blue hoodie, black shorts, hiking boots, and a skull bandana worn around his neck, all of it now covered in mud and dust from having almost fallen to his demise. But there was something new to his outfit. Something that had tucked itself into his hood.

A very familiar shade of bright blue. 

Without a word, Marie reached out to remove the object from the hood very quickly and suddenly, prompting Hazel to pull away and hiss with rage.

“Que fais-tu?! Partir! N'ose pas me toucher!”

Marie immediately backed off, ears pulled back in shock, “Crap! Sorry! I'm sorry. I didn't mean to startle you. There's something in the hood of your coat.”

Hazel relaxed a bit, and turned his coat around just enough to get at the hood. Sure enough, there was something in there. A piece of stone, with bright blue markings paint it all over it. Wren gently took it from him, and looked it over. 

“Jessy…what do you make of this?”

Jessy examined the rock very carefully for a moment before her eyes widened in wonder. She put the rock down and once again began frantically rummaging through the backpack. Marie took the opportunity to examine the rock herself. 

It looked like a piece of a wall carving, with the chipped Stone having been filled with pigment the exact same shade as the mysterious blue powers. The carving itself depicted tiny fish swimming along a river with writing she had no prayer of deciphering herself written beneath them. The style of the carvings; that swirling design. It looked almost exactly like the designs they saw on Agent Three’s bracelet before it turned all muddy. 

At last, Jessy pulled out a small notebook, and opened it to a page containing a photograph of some more fish-based artwork, drawn in the same swirling designs. 

“Marie! Look! Those carvings! They're a match to the art style the salmonlings used. It's salmonling art!”

Marie blinked, “Cool…and that means?”

“ We leave a glimpse through time beneath our bones,” Wren whispered with awe.

“What?”

Jessy crouched down next to the sinkhole’s edge and looked down into the abyss. Despite everything that it just happened, her eyes lit up with the fires of adventure and discovery. 

“It means…we've just found what we're looking for.”

Chapter Text

It was official. 

This was absolutely the comfiest piece of furniture that Aluna had ever had the pleasure of relaxing on. 

The backstage area where the champions were meeting their families was immaculate. Signed posters, records, and the merchandise from countless pro turf war players and musicians from all over the world absolutely plastered the walls. The massive buffet tables they had set up were filled with a lot of really fancy snacks, the best one being the ube cream puffs with strawberry chocolate drizzle. And of course her favorite part; the furniture. Couches, armchairs, and even a couple futons were set up all over the room, many of them with some of the wackiest designs you could imagine. 

Currently the vampire Inkling was snuggled into the cushions of a huge five man couch that was in the shape of an orange arowana with googly eyes. While the adults mingled and Wister sat next to her still talking to Hattori, Aluna closed her eyes, just enjoying the relative quiet of the room compared to the sensory overload that was the crowds outside.

Suddenly, and without warning, her peace was interrupted slightly by the sensation of something fluffy and gooey landing square on her chest. A quick look told her it was one of the cream puffs she had been so obsessed with, dropped on her by an extremely tall octoling. 

“Aw crap! My bad, bro. Don't worry though I got it.”

The octoling bent over and scooped the cream puff up, leaving behind a substantial smear of delicious ube filling all over Aluna's shirt. 

A growl rumbled in Aluna's chest, “Thanks. Thank you so much for messing up my jersey. Do you at least have some napkins or something to help me get this shit off?”

The green eyed octopus stared at her completely blank for just a second. She swore she could hear the gears in his head grinding.

“Uhhh…yeah! Yeah, no problem. I got napkins.”

The octoling pulled a wad of cheap paper napkins out of his pocket and held them over her before letting go, causing the napkins to fall down like snow over her head. Aluna's glare of irritation became even more biting. It took another few seconds for the octoling to realize why she was mad.

“Oh…you probably wanted me to hand those to you, didn't you?”

“That would have been nice.”

“My bad.”

“Please go away.”

The octoling walked away without a word…only to immediately turn around and sit right next to Wister on the same couch and continue eating his platter of treats like nothing had happened. Aluna fully sat up and stared at him with a glare that would burn a hole through a steel plated door. He stared back at her dumbly for another moment. 

“Uh…what's up, bro?”

“I'm not your bro, and when I said go away, I meant go to the other side of the damn room or something!”

She swore she could hear the wind whistling through his ears before it finally clicked. 

“Oh! I get it! My bad, bro. I'll go sit with my dad.”

At last, the green eyed octoling with the cream colored tentacles finally left Aluna's sight, leaving her to deal with trying to clean off the ube cream stains.

“Gods, what an airhead. And look what he did to my shirt! Now Boreas is going to think I'm a slob.”

Wister patted her on shoulder, “Just button up your jacket, and chill out. If he's anything at all like my parents described him, he's not going to care.”

Aluna wasn't filled with confidence. Anxiety was bubbling in her stomach and making her feel a bit queasy…or maybe it was the absurd amount of cream puffs that she had eaten. Either way, she was starting to wonder if this was really a good idea. 

At long last, all of the chosen champions entered the lounge, most of them still partly in costume. Immediately they were all swamped by their families. Aluna's eyes locked onto a particularly tall inkling, still wearing the mask of his Ferrotogi costume as he hugged a fire anemone (who was his wife if she remembered correctly), as well as an older colossal inkling couple (probably his parents). He only removed his mask to speak to one of his fellow competitors, who was also still wearing their mask.

Boreas looked just as intimidating as his mask had. His strong, square jawline. His piercing soda blue eyes. His long bottom fangs that stuck out from behind his lips that looked more like tusks on a baby walrus than the beak of an Inkling. He was quite the imposing fellow.

Aluna whimpered, “Oh Gods this is really happening! I need a second to psyche myself up.”

Aluna got it from the couch and wandered over to a corner of the room to do just that. Meanwhile, Wister set down Aluna's phone to go greet Boreas himself. Maybe if he got the ball rolling, Aluna would calm down enough to actually meet her idol. Besides, who wouldn't want to say hi to a world champion athlete? 

“Excuse me? Mr. Veter?” Wister asked with a quick bow. “Sorry to bug ya’, but my friend is a huge fan…”

Boreas’ whole demeanor changed completely when he saw Wister. His smile became huge, and his eyes lit up with adoration. Completely out of nowhere, the colossal Inkling pulled Wister into a crushing hug.

“Little Wister! So good to be seeing you! You are so big now!”

“Uh…th-thank you?” He choked out, slightly confused and struggling to breathe. 

Had they met before?

Sakura lightly slapped the huge inkling on the back, “Boreas, please don't crush my son.”

Boreas set him down, “You must be forgiving me, little friend. You likely do not remember me, but I remember when you would have just a freshly hatched little larva, barely bigger than the palm of my hand.”

“You were there when I was a baby? I didn't know that! Hey Aluna…!”

Whatever he was going to say trialed off as he looked around the room and realized someone was missing. 

Aluna was gone.

---

“ Lunnie! Please talk to me!”

Aluna hated to ignore her brother but at the moment she didn't have time to stop and talk. She needed to get away. She needed to get back home.

“ Aluna! What's going on? This morning you were practically jumping out of your skin. You were so excited to see Boreas in action. Now you have a chance to meet him and you're running away?”

Aluna growled, “What, a girl can't change her mind?!”

“ Come on I know you better than that! Are you just nervous about meeting him? Is it because of the cream puff on your clothes? He probably has a lot of fans coming up to meet him. I'm sure he won't notice.”

“Exactly! He won't even care so what's the point?!”

At last there was a long period of silence. Aluna passed several other turf war fans and coliseum staff as she speed walked through the hallway. It got so quiet on the other end that she began to wonder if Hattori had hung up. Then he let out a deep, almost sad sounding sigh. 

“ It was the masks? Wasn't it?”

Aluna froze as it felt like there was literal ice in her veins. A feeling of panic started to set in as if all at once her anxieties were hitting her. She hadn't been able to name what she was feeling before but the moment the little shark had pointed it out, all of her fear came to the surface. 

“I'll see you at home!” Aluna cried out frantically as she hung up the phone. 

Aluna found herself unable to walk so she resigned to just leaning against the wall and sliding down into a knee-hugging crouch. She didn't know how long she stayed like that before someone finally spoke to her. 

“Are you alright little one?”

Aluna bristled a bit because she immediately recognized that voice. She looked up in complete shock at Boreas, who even as he was crouching, still loomed over her. 

The vampire Inkling was unable to form words, so she just nodded, squeaking out a quiet “S’all right.”

The massive inkling smiled, “All of those people can be overwhelming, yes? I have had many years learn to cope with such feelings, but for one so young it can be hard. Your friend Wister was worrying about you.”

Aluna swallowed hard, “yeah…it's just…the carnival wasn't that big of a deal where I came from. This is really the first time I've gotten to celebrate it…but it also reminded me how much I hate masks.”

Boreas nodded, with a look of understanding in his pale blue eyes, “I too found the customs of these Southern countries strange. Back in the frostylands, our celebrations of spring and summer are about flowers and love, not death.”

He chuckled to himself as he sat down next to Aluna, “But I got paid a lot to be here today, and this was a good opportunity to meet with my old friends, so who am I to judge how you celebrate your gods?”

Aluna huffed, “The concept of gods is such a load of eel crap. All it's ever done is get seafolk killed over vague unseen concepts of all powerful creatures that probably don't exist. It's stupid.”

Boreas said nothing. He simply and very gently patted her on the back.

“You are very upset. Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?”

It was at this moment that Aluna realized that she had been in such a rush to leave the apartment this morning that she had forgotten to bring the commemorative Fore Winds poster that she’d wanted him to sign. Thinking on her feet, Aluna presented the arm of her jacket to the colossal squid.

“Sign my jacket?” she said awkwardly.

Boreas gave her his biggest smile yet. Out from under his costume (which he was still wearing, sans the mask) he pulled out a thick jet black pen and wrote his signature across it. The line was smooth and the color was rich. It almost looked like it had been part of the jacket all along. 

“I have many fans who bring clothes for me to sign. So I have a special pen just for them. Give it 24 hours before you wash the jacket again, and it will stay on for a very long time.”

It took every ounce of willpower she had to not fangirl squeal, “Thank you! Thank you so much!”

Boreas patted her on the back, “Think nothing of it little one. Anything for a fan, especially one aspiring to become champion.”

With that, Boreas stood up and walked back down the hall to rejoin the other champions. Aluna felt as though her spirit had been rekindled, and some of the fear and stress that she had been under had melted away. All those years of dreading this holiday…and she still just wanted to crawl into a hole and hide. 

At least now, she finally had some good memories to look back on.

---

Ocean’s Hearth was just as he remembered.

Ocean’s Hearth, despite there only being a 30-yard gap between it and its neighboring town of Starsea Valley (which had previously been home to a wall), two towns couldn't have been any more different from each other.

It still has the cozy feeling of a little town in the countryside, but with many more floating buildings and artificial stone walls meant to resemble the cliffs of their mountainous homeland. It also felt much more industrial than its neighbor, thanks to its specialties of metalworking and smoked seafood. It would have made his mouth water if he wasn't so nervous.

Kya pressed herself closer to her father, feeling the tension of what had happened at the new dawning ceremony buzzing through the air. She wasn't fluent in octarian but she knew enough to understand that everyone was pissed…or afraid. 

“So…um…is the Red Delta road far from here?” Kya asked nervously, trying to take her mind off of the tension around her.

Hachi shook his head, “It's about a 2-hour walk from here, but we'll see about borrowing some horses to cut that travel time in half.”

Kya groaned, “I'm still scared of seahorses.”

“I know, but we may not have a choice here. The forest around the Red Delta is way too thick for a car or a saucer, and if the Rebel Rings are anything like they were in my day, time is of the essence.” 

A small procession of armed octolings in bluish black jackets and light armor marched by. Probably headed to the Town line to guard the border between the two towns. 

“You know I just had a thought. Why don't we just tell the police what happened? I didn't at the time when I was attacked because I was so scared but…if you're here….”

Hachi sighed sadly before cutting her off, “I doubt it would do much good honey. When I was a kid, as long as we didn't directly mess with any local businesses, the cops let us Rebel Rings do whatever we wanted. Heck, some of the older officers even praised us for it. Said we were doing the work of the gods.”

There was so much disgust in Hachi's voice as he uttered that last line, Kya couldn't help but purr at the absurdity of it.

“Acting like a street gang, and bullying inklings is the work of the gods?”

“To some psychos? Yes?”

At last, the pair of mollusks stopped in front of one of the many smokehouses that dotted the town, although this one stood out by having a small stable and corral next to it. Surprisingly the shop was actually open, one of the few that was. When they entered, Kya's mouth immediately started watering. The scent of Sweet smoke, fresh herbs, and cooked fish swirled deliciously in the air. It was a quaint little market, not too dissimilar from a family-owned seafood butcher that you would see in Splatsville. Still her hunger faded away just enough for her to realize something. 

“Dad, I thought we were in a hurry!”

Hachi nodded, “We are, but they don't just give seahorses away to strangers hun. So I need to ask a favor from an old friend.”

Hachi rang the bell sitting on the counter enough times that it clearly annoyed whoever was in the back.

“I hear the bell! I'll be out in a moment!”

Out of the back room came a doughy male octoling with a very robust and dark green mustache, wearing your typical butchers get up of gloves and an apron. Except for the old stains of what were most likely fish guts on the apron, he looked like a very jovial and kind fellow. Yet his red orange eyes, the structure of his nose, cheeks, and even his naturally thick eyebrows gave away to Kya who he was related to.

The moment the octoling laid his eyes on Hachi, his expression shifted from a friendly customer service smile to terror, as if he'd seen a ghost.

Hachi smiled awkwardly, “Hey, Zucch. Long time no see.”

Zucch immediately ducked into the back rooms again, “I'm sorry sir we're closed!”

“Zucch, come on man don't be like that.”

“As a business owner I reserve the right to refuse service, pal! Get lost.”

“I just need to cash in that favor.”

There was a moment of silence before Zucch just barely peeked out from behind the door.

“Favor? What are you talking about?”

“Back when we were kids? After I saved you from the stream, you said you would return the favor someday. I'm here to ask you for that favor.”

Zucch groaned, “Hachi, that was a long time ago…and besides I don't get around anymore. I'm a married man now!”

Hachi’s cheeks flushed a bit, “Wha-no! Not that kind of favor! I just need to borrow one of your horses.”

“My horses? What for?”

“I'm going to the Old mines down on Red Delta road. I got to get there fast, and a horse is my best bet.”

The color drained from Zucch’s face and his ears drooped so low that they were practically against his head.

“Oh no…please tell me…please tell me it's got nothing to do with the Rebel Rings.”

Hachi let out a frustrated breath, “What do you think?”

Zucch rubbed his eyes and sadly groaned, “Merde…okay…give me a moment.”

Zucch walked around the counter to put a sign in the window that said, “Sortir Déjeuner.” 

“We are closed?”

 Maybe? Kya really needed to get back to learning octarian. 

“Follow me.”

The octarian man led them through the back rooms of his shop, to an area directly behind it that housed a stable and walking area for a pair of seahorses. The smaller of the two seahorses was a very handsome fellow. Mostly white with some yellowish stripes and dark brown splotches over most of his spines. The moment the horse made eye contact with Zucch he happily trotted over, winning with excitement. Zucch reached out and gently stroked his steed’s very long snout. 

“Good boy Drago,” Zucch whispered as he hopped over the fence to get the horse saddled. 

“Why do you have seahorses back here?” Kya asked.

Zucch shrugged, “The only other vehicle we got is an old saucer, and my wife uses it for work on the farm. Without Drago, it would take me at least an hour to get into town.”

Kya hummed nervously, “He's friendly right?”

Hachi patted his daughter on the back, “It'll be okay hun. If this horse tries anything I'll set him straight.”

Kya nodded, but still wasn't filled with confidence, “I'm just going to wait until we're ready to get near him…I'll be…here.”

As Kya crouched down into a seated pose, Hachi went to help Zucch get the seahorse saddled and bridled up, in hopes of getting out of here quicker. The two of them hadn't exactly been on the best of terms when he left for Inkopolis, so this whole thing was just as awkward for him. 

“That girl is your daughter, oui?” Zucch asked.

Hachi nodded, but said nothing.

“I'm surprised you were able to find a partner over there. I thought the squids kicked our people out after the war.”

Hachi's expression tightened a bit, “You got kids Zucch?”

“I do. The gods blessed us with twin girls…if only my sister had been so lucky. Maybe then she would stay away from mine.”

“Celera is still a thug?”

“As far as I know, she has other people do the thuggery for her now. Mostly with intimidation and bull shark red tape. I try not to get involved in her crap.”

“What are your daughters' names?” Kya suddenly demanded. 

Zucch seemed a little surprised that she had said anything, “My girls, Uhhh…their names are Daiki and Yammy.”

Kya instantly sprung up and grabbed her dad's arm trying to pull him away, “I knew it! I knew there was something off about you! Dad, we can't trust this guy! The leader of the girls who attacked me last time I was here? Her name was Daiki!”

There was total silence for a few seconds. Zucch’s color was practically all gone, and he looked like he was about to throw up. Hachi's tentacles were flared, his rings went from a deep blue to an almost neon shade, and he looked 2 seconds away from punching out his old friend.

“Why am I not surprised?” Hachi said bitterly. “Of course you would teach your kids to be bigoted little thugs like you were.”

“I have taught them no such thing! Celera is the one to blame for their behavior! She's the one putting those ideas into their heads, not me!”

Hachi growled quietly, “And you still can't stand up to your sister. I guess I was wrong. Nothing has changed around here, not even the people.”

“That's not fair! You know what Celera is like! Not everyone had the option to run away to the big city! And don't act so high and mighty! You were part of the Rebel Rings too! You took part in tormenting inklings and destroying squid property, even as you shared a name with them!”

Hachi took a breath as if to calm himself, “You're absolutely right Zucch. I was a dumb, violent, and confused kid…but I grew out of it. And I've done everything I can to make sure that my daughter doesn't repeat my mistakes. You can't say the same, can you?” 

Zucch’s face turned blue with anger, then it deflated just as quickly. Hachi grabbed hold of seahorse’s reins and guided it out of the stable.

“I'll have him back as soon as possible. Kya, change into your swim form real quick. It'll lighten the load on this big guy.”

Kya nodded stiffly and transformed without a word, quickly hopping into her father's arms. After this conversation, she was hoping to the gods the other octoling didn't see the distinct arrow shape of her mantle mixed with shorter and more curly tentacles. 

“I don't hate the inklings, Hachi!” Zucch cried out, almost sounding desperate. 

Hachi didn't respond. He simply tapped on the horse's side with his shoe, and they took off. First a slow trot before transitioning into a much quicker gait. As the town slowly gave way to the surrounding forests, it dawned on Kya what they were actually about to walk into. She held on tighter to her father, bubbling nervously, reminding herself of what was at stake.

Time to face her fears.

Chapter Text

An octoling’s hand recoiled, narrowly avoiding getting her pinky finger bitten off by a very angry inkling.

“Damn the gods! You really don't know when to give up do you?!”

Nope.

The words “give up” had never really been in Momo's vocabulary and she wasn't about to add them now! Especially not when she was being dragged off by these thugs to meet…. something. 

They were worryingly vague about what exactly Gordy was. A giant eel? A shark? A sharkling that had gone feral from years of being trapped in underground tunnels? An old octarian weapon? 

Whatever it was, it was big, sharp toothed, and Momo wasn't looking to make friends with it. But it was starting to look like she might not have a choice. After her capture, they had yet again tied her up with the ink proof rope, but this time had also wrapped her in a huge towel as if she were a sea slug at the vet! Even if changing forms could allow her to slip out of the rope, she would just end up buried in the towel. 

The procession of octolings turned the corner, and the tunnels opened up into an intersection. Doorways that led even further into the mines were lined all along the walls. Some of them even had old and tattered signs hanging above them once meant to keep miners from getting lost.

One of these tunnels was notably much bigger than the rest, with what could be described as the remains of tool marks torn into the door frame. Not to mention it was the only tunnel that was locked behind a rusted metal door, though the lock has long since been broken away.

The door was pulled open with an ear bleeding screech of rusted metal on metal. They entered the tunnel, excited chattering and nervous whispers echoing off of the stoney walls. It was another minute or so of walking through the dark before a dim light could be seen at the other end. 

That's when the smell finally hit. 

Momo gagged almost on reflex. The stench was absolutely putrid! Like a mixture of burning plastic, fermented herring, black tar, and old coins! Even the hairy ooze didn't smell this bad! It was so wretched, it was actually making her dizzy.

From the sound of retching and squeaks of disgust coming from the peanut gallery, everyone felt the same.

“Man, I always forget how bad it reeks in here,” one octoling commented.

“What does it say about the commander or Yammy if they got no problem coming in here?” another whispered.

At last, the tunnel opened up into a huge circular room with a large hole in the dead center. The edges of the hole were covered with eroded tool (claw?) marks just like the ones on the outside. A black slime was painted all around the pit and splattered onto the walls, some of it having hardened into tiny crystalline structures. The majority of the room was taken up by a bunch of machines that vaguely looked like smokers…or septic tanks? Whatever they were, they were leaking even more of that black sludge. Momo could only hope to the gods that the bones scattered about the floor belonged to birds or at least animals. The only light in the room were a small handful of oil lamps hung precariously from the ceiling, giving the room a yellow-orange glow.

“Say hello to your final resting place, slime sucker,” Yammy said with a giggle. 

Chapter Text

Desperately racing across the ground, Diggsy was running as fast as they could. They passed through a crowd of terrified inklings. Past the border between Starsea Valley and Ocean’s Hearth, where a mob of enraged octolings were already trying to push past the police to hunt down the attackers themselves. As Diggsy left the limits of the town, they heard frightened whispers of people talking about the new zapfish having been poisoned by the octarians. 

How had this all gone so wrong?!

There was only one person who could give them answers. They just hoped he was there. 

Diggsy didn't stop running until they reached The hideout, familiar voices and loud music echoing across the forest. The pre-teen had to pause for a few seconds to take a breath and steady their nerves, before rushing inside. 

“Croiss!” Diggsy cried out desperately. 

Sure enough, the big eared Angel squid was sitting around partying with Kake and a couple dozen others, drinking beer and smoking…something? They didn't smell like normal algae cigarettes. It was probably that really smelly stuff that some of their older cousins used from time to time. Purple sea moss? Well, what did it matter?! They weren't here to talk to the other Cooler Tens about how drugs were bad.

“Croiss! Croiss! I need your help!” 

Diggsy pushed their way to the head of the group. Croiss looked a million miles away with a blunt hanging out of his mouth, but still had the wherewithal to realize Diggsy was there.

“There they are!” Croiss cheered. “The squid of the hour!”

Croiss stood up with a bit of a wobble and hugged on tight to the surprisingly taller squidling.

“You did beautiful, Diggs! The Rebel Rings are as good as cooked. But what are you doing here, friend? Unlike the rest of us, your folks might actually miss you.”

Diggsy carefully pushed Croiss off, “I really need your help. Everything's a mess back in town! Everybody is really angry and fights are breaking out, the great zapfish is getting really sick really fast, and Kya's in trouble.”

Croiss’ smile faltered slightly, “Now Diggsy, we've discussed this. Getting everybody wound up was the point, and that crabby cake barely had half a dime’s amount of Black Rock in it. A creature that big will recover no problem. Everything will work out fine.”

All the color drained from Diggsy as they were praying to the gods that they had misheard what he just said. 

“The-there was Black Rock in that crabby cake?! Black Rock?!”

“Only about a pebble’s worth. Chill out.”

“You said it was just supposed to give him a tummy ache! Why would you be messing with that stuff at all?! What in the deep dark does Black Rock got to do with the Rebel Rings?”

Kake giggled drunkenly, “Rumor has it that Daiki’s aunt makes a whole bunch of it to sell off shore. She probably has been paying off cops so they don't bother her, but they ain't going to ignore the fact that her family poisoned the Great zapfish!”

Diggsy gripped their tentacles, desperately trying not to panic. This was all getting to be too much…but…they had to be brave! 

“I…I need your help!” They repeated. “My cousin…her friend got grabbed by the Rebel Rings, now she's going to get them back!”

Croiss almost seemed to sober up a little, “That's not good. Which cousin?”

“Kya.”

Croiss’ expression was completely blank for a moment, for shifting to disinterest, “Oh. You're talking about the halfling? Now why in the name of the gods would I care about her?”

“Wha-because they'll kill her?!”

Etzel snickered, “Honestly? Good on them. Let those sucker heads do something right for once. That abomination shouldn't exist in the first place.”

Diggsy balked while Croiss glared back at him, “Hold your tongue Etzel…but he has a point, Diggs. I know that halfling is important to you, but the truth of the matter is that creatures like her are rare for a reason. They're an affront to nature.”

Diggsy’s heart rates started to pick up, “Bu-but she's still my cousin! I…”

Diggsy was cut off by another Cooler Ten. A bobtail Inkling named Cone, who despite being the shortest one there, was actually the oldest at 20 years old. 

“Can you even call her your cousin?” Cone stated. “I've seen her folks around town. Her mama’s a little old Firefly, and the octoling was adopted. I doubt that there's even a drop of blood between you and the halfling.”

“See? Cone brings up a good point. Why should you risk your neck for someone who ain't even really your family?”

That one sentence. It was so simple but it broke them. Diggsy couldn't fight their tears anymore. There was a tremor in their voice, barely a whisper that rose into a roar.

“Oh gods…she was right…my daddy was right…even those octo kids were right! You're nothing but A CROOK AND A BUM!!!”

Diggsy flipped and kicked over many of the nearby coffee tables and shelves in a fit of anger. This caused the ashtrays and empty bottles on top of them to dump all over the ground, scattering broken glass, unfinished liquor, and trash everywhere. Everyone nearby either jumped away in their swim forms, or forgot how to walk and just scooted out of the way on their butts. Everyone looked at the giant preteen with shock. None of them would have imagined, even in their doped up state, that the sweet kid their leader was so fond of could be so destructive.

Diggsy wheeled back around to face Croiss, “I don't care what you think of her! She's my family and I love her! Help me save her, or I'm going to the police! I'll tell them who really poisoned the zapfish!”

That got Croiss’ attention.

With a whistle and the snap of his fingers, every inkling in the room piled onto Diggsy, forcing them to the ground. Immediately, the squidling began to panic, screeching in terror as they found themselves squashed under all of these other squids! If only they could change forms.

“You think I'm nothing but a crook and a bum do ya’?” Croiss began, his inflections cold and dark. “You would do well to not make such ridiculous accusations. You see, as I recall, I was not the one who lured Moby to your location with a stolen great zapfish call, nor was I the one who fed him that tainted treat.”

Croiss kneeled down to be eye to eye with the terrified pre-teen, “whether you like our current situation or not, the fact of the matter is you're one of us Diggs. You took part in our plan to strike back at the Rebel Rings, so you are every bit as accountable for the consequences as we are…and if you go running your mouth, I will see to it that those consequences are paid in full. Do you understand me?”

Whimpering pathetically and eyes filled with tears, Diggsy nodded timidly. 

“There's a good bean,” Croiss said in one of the most condescending voices possible. “All right, let ‘em up fellas.”

The other Cooler Tens immediately released Diggsy, but they didn't move even with the weight off their back. They just laid there, crying softly and breathing really hard trying to calm themselves down. 

Croiss clicked his beak, “Well I can see that you need a moment, but unfortunately I am out of patience today. One of you drag them outside, and once you're done blubbering, go on home Diggsy. You ain't welcome here anymore.”

Diggsy managed to push their despair down just enough to stand up, and shoot their former friends one last death glare.

“I don't need no one to drag me out. I can walk myself.”

Kake chimed in, “Remember to keep your mouth shut! We all know where you live!”

Diggsy whimpered as they turned away, “I won't say nothing…I swear…”

And just like that, it was over. Diggsy had just lost all their friends. 

Squids that had helped them cope with the pain and grief of losing Kikuri. Friends who had helped them get revenge on the rotten chicken thieves who had killed Kikuri. Inklings that Diggsy had thought the world of, had just thrown them out as if they were nothing.

Now they were wondering what to do. Should they try to go after Kya alone? They weren't a good fighter and despite their height they weren't that strong. Would they be any help at all? 

Then, they heard the sounds of barking eels and a few patrol cars. Just a few meters from where they were standing, the sheriff of Starsea Valley and her posse had surrounded the abandoned river god Temple. 

“CROISS! I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE!” She shouted into her megaphone. “ALL OF YOU, COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS AND TENTACLES WHERE I CAN SEE THEM!”

There was a lot of panicked shouting and cursing coming from the temple as the Cooler Tens attempted to scatter like kelp spores in the tide. Some of them jumped out windows, some changed into their squid forms and tried to squeeze out from between holes in the wall, and a couple of them tried super jumping out of the hole in the roof.

Diggsy watched in confusion and terror as one by one, the extremely inebriated inkling thugs were rounded up. Why were there police here? Have they already figured out what they had done to Moby? Diggsy knew they should run but they felt frozen in place with fear.

The squid form of Croiss crashed just a few feet from where Diggsy was standing. It looks like he tried to super jump away, but was too stoned to actually jump properly. He was caught in an instant by a jelly cop, who blurbed out his rights the best it could through its thick jellyfish accent. 

“DIGGSY!” Croiss screamed. “You little ratfish! You can't have gone that far! I know you're still out there! Help me! Tell him I did nothing wrong!!!”

Diggsy ran.

They ran and ran and ran, lungs and gills wheezing in between their sobs.

“You never should have gotten involved with them!” Diggsy cried out in their mind, reprimanding themselves mentally. 

“You knew they were no good! You knew that they were a bunch of thugs who hurt other seafolk for the fun of it, but you went along with it anyway! Now a baby great zapfish is going to die, and you're going to spend the rest of your life in prison!”

Diggsy wailed out loud. 

It was all too much. 

At the moment not

hing else that they had done mattered. They would face it all later but right now…

Diggsy just wanted their mom and dad.

------

An octoling’s hand recoiled, narrowly avoiding getting her pinky finger bitten off by a very angry inkling.

“Damn the gods! You really don't know when to give up do you?!”

Nope.

The words “give up” had never really been in Momo's vocabulary and she wasn't about to add them now! Especially not when she was being dragged off by these thugs to meet…. something. 

They were worryingly vague about what exactly Gordy was. A giant eel? A shark? A sharkling that had gone feral from years of being trapped in underground tunnels? An old octarian weapon? 

Whatever it was, it was big, sharp toothed, and Momo wasn't looking to make friends with it. But it was starting to look like she might not have a choice. After her capture, they had yet again tied her up with the ink proof rope, but this time had also wrapped her in a huge towel as if she were a sea slug at the vet! Even if changing forms could allow her to slip out of the rope, she would just end up buried in the towel. 

The procession of octolings turned the corner, and the tunnels opened up into an intersection. Doorways that led even further into the mines were lined all along the walls. Some of them even had old and tattered signs hanging above them once meant to keep miners from getting lost.

One of these tunnels was notably much bigger than the rest, with what could be described as the remains of tool marks torn into the door frame. Not to mention it was the only tunnel that was locked behind a rusted metal door, though the lock has long since been broken away.

The door was pulled open with an ear bleeding screech of rusted metal on metal. They entered the tunnel, excited chattering and nervous whispers echoing off of the stoney walls. It was another minute or so of walking through the dark before a dim light could be seen at the other end. 

That's when the smell finally hit. 

Momo gagged almost on reflex. The stench was absolutely putrid! Like a mixture of burning plastic, fermented herring, black tar, and old coins! Even the hairy ooze didn't smell this bad! It was so wretched, it was actually making her dizzy.

From the sound of retching and squeaks of disgust coming from the peanut gallery, everyone felt the same.

“Man, I always forget how bad it reeks in here,” one octoling commented.

“What does it say about the commander or Yammy if they got no problem coming in here?” another whispered.

At last, the tunnel opened up into a huge circular room with a large hole in the dead center. The edges of the hole were covered with eroded tool (claw?) marks just like the ones on the outside. A black slime was painted all around the pit and splattered onto the walls, some of it having hardened into tiny crystalline structures. The majority of the room was taken up by a bunch of machines that vaguely looked like smokers…or septic tanks? Whatever they were, they were leaking even more of that black sludge. Momo could only hope to the gods that the bones scattered about the floor belonged to birds or at least animals. The only light in the room were a small handful of oil lamps hung precariously from the ceiling, giving the room a yellow-orange glow.

“Say hello to your final resting place, slime sucker,” Yammy said with a giggle. 

“There's nothing I can say to make you rethink this, is there?” Momo gulped, suddenly feeling a bit lightheaded. “You're really going to throw me in…whatever that sludge pit is?!”

“That there is Gordy’s house,” Daiki explained. “And if you had just been a good little squid and taking your beating, maybe I would have reconsidered. Besides, it's been a while since Gordy's been fed. Don't want him to get too hungry and climb out looking for food.”

Suddenly, the girl carrying Momo backed off slightly, squeezing her tighter as if hugging on to a stuffed nudibranch. A flurry of concerned chatter echoed around the room.

“Hold on a minute…Gordy can climb out? You never said that!”

“Are you sure the rest of us are safe? What if it doesn't like squid?”

“I thought it couldn't leave the hole! Has it ever gotten out before? Is that what happened to my uncle's sea pigs?”

“Don't be an idiot! You know those sea pigs were sold off to a butcher.”

“Can we be sure?! What if he just said that to cover it up?”

“My nudibranch went missing last week, and one of our farm hands before that!”

“ALL OF Y'ALL SHUT UP!” Daiki bellowed. “It's fine! We're all gonna be fine! My Aunt has been coming down here since she was my age, and she says Gordy has never left his hole. As long as we keep it fed, it'll stay put. The only one getting eaten today is that there squid.”

Daiki stomped over to the girl holding Momo, and snatched the bundle out of her arms. With a wicked grin, Daiki dragged Momo to the edge.

“Any last words, slime sucker?”

Staring down into the pit, Momo could see nothing but slimy blackness that stank worse than death. She swore she could hear the faintest of unholy growls rise up from the pit.

All at once, absolute panic and terror set in. She struggled and fought and changed forms faster than she ever had before, screeching with rage and fear.

“HELP ME! PLEASE!!! ANYBODY!!! HELP!!!”

Momo was surprised by how loud her own voice was…and by the fact that Daiki looked like she was actually struggling to hold on to her.

“All right! In ya’ go!”

“WAIT PLEASE!”

Daiki froze for just a second then turned back to the crowd with a growl. “Damn the gods Suncho, I'm going to kill you! I told you to keep your crippled ass quiet!”

“Wha-don’t…talk to her like that. Doesn't matter if she can't hear you! You don't talk to her like that!” Bruckley stammered out, looking extra tiny next to Suncho as he held her hand. “But I object too. I don't like the Cooler Tens any more than you do but…this is too far. This squid isn't even part of their gang. What is feeding her to Gordy supposed to prove?”

Daiki was fuming, “Do you two want to go down there with the squid?!”

Ruta, now sporting two nose plugs to stem the bleeding from her nose, interjected, “For once I agree with the short stack. I think she's got the message. Let's just let the squid go and go home.”

Now Daiki sounded legitimately hurt, “You too Ruta? How many of you feel this way?!”

There was a sea of mumbled agreements from at least half the girls. The other half of the girls were less than pleased, saying that the other half of the crowd were traitors. The sea of mumbling turned into an ocean of yelling and cursing as the two sides butted heads. In a matter of moments it came to blows and the entire cavern echoed with sounds of fighting. 

“YOU STUPID BASTARDS! KNOCK IT THE FUCK OFF!” 

Momo was unceremoniously tossed to the ground like a sack of moldy potatoes, as Daiki rushed to join in the impromptu brawl. Without anyone holding the towel closed, Momo was able to easily roll out of it, but quickly ran into the same old problem of being stuck in the accursed ink ropes. As she thrashed and wiggled about, trying desperately to free herself, she rolled dangerously close to the edge of the pit and right into a puddle of that sludge.

At first, she would have thought it was just a mud puddle. It only felt cold, wet and kind of chunky…then suddenly the pain started. 

Well…perhaps pain was the wrong word. She couldn't call what she was experiencing physical pain, but nonetheless it was agony! If anguished screaming and heart clenching terror could be turned into a physical sensation, that would be a good way to describe it! 

She was only exposed to the gunk for a few seconds, but those few seconds were so overwhelming, that Momo couldn't help but cry out and screech to the heavens, like an enraged beast. 

“LET! ME! OUT!”

That last word felt like an echo through Momo’s very soul as the lighting of the chamber changed from a grim, muddy orange, into a pale sky blue. The rotten stench of the sludge was replaced with the scent of a rainy atmosphere and heated metal as blinding flash after flash lit up the room. There was a lot of surprised and terrified screaming. An Earth shaking crash happened just a few feet from her as chunks of the ceiling were falling down. The ink ropes seemed to melt away and the inkling was finally free!

Momo jolted to her feet as her vision cleared just enough to take in the scene before her. The octolings have stopped fighting and are now staring at her with fear. The most surprising thing was now she could see the source of the Blue flashes…it was her. 

Small bolts of blue electricity were sparking off of her body, almost like a plasma ball but more sporadic. A Rush of energy was coursing through her as if the lightning had somehow entered her veins. She hadn't felt like this since they fought Grizz. Momo pulled down the sleeve of her white and pink sweater to look at her arm. It was almost blinding how bright the tattoo was glowing. These were definitely her blue powers.

“Why now?” She thought to herself. “After all the bull shark I've been through today, you really had to wait until I was about to die…again?! Is that really the only way to activate it?”

Right now, she didn't care. Momo was 110% done with this crap. 

“Get out of my way, or I will fry you!” The bigfin inkling commanded. 

No one tried to argue. Any octoling that was blocking the exit was practically pushing over their friends to try and get out of the way. As soon as the way was clear, Momo rushed for the exit…only to realize she had no idea which way to go. She was going to need a guide. 

< “Suncho?” > Momo quickly signed. < “Come with me. Show me how to get out of here.” >

Suncho’s eyes widened and she gulped, but still stood up and followed. Nobody dared pursue them, not even Daiki. 

The young mollusks walked in complete silence, with only the sounds of their shoes scraping against the rocky floor to break it up. Momo pulled down her sweater sleeve again to get another look at her tattoo, still glowing like the lantern on a deep sea fish. The soreness and dizziness she had been enduring this whole time was muted now. The blue light reflecting off of tunnel walls made everything feel so surreal…this entire situation felt surreal.

This was supposed to be a short trip to a pretty little island filled with farmers. How could it have led to this?

Momo was pulled from her thoughts when she had to stop herself from running face first into a dead end. It occurred to her that she should probably ask Suncho to lead the way. She tried to turn back to sign to the octoling…only to see that she was nowhere to be found. Just the endless darkness of the tunnels behind her. 

They had gotten separated. 

“Crap,” Momo hissed.

-----

It had gotten darker all of a sudden? How very strange…and frustrating. 

From within the pit of darkness it called its home, Gordy could have sworn it saw the sun. Or perhaps a flash of lightning?

Whatever it was, it was gone now. Nothing was left in the cave but the octopuses, their so-called leader shrieking and cursing her followers for their incompetence. They were nothing but dim flashes from the tails of a firefly compared to what it had just smelled, seen and tasted in the air. 

What power!

It needed it! For far too long it had been subsisting off of sparks and embers from the non sentient seafood and birds they threw down here. 

But with all that power? It would be an unstoppable soldier once more. Returning to its Master would be easy. They would reward it so handsomely! 

It had little strength at the moment, but it would sacrifice every last bit of its energy if need be. It would have it! It would tear it out of its host and swallow it whole, wriggling and pulsing. Maybe then it would at last feel whole again!

With relative ease, Gordy scaled the steep walls of its pit. The cavern was mostly dark, except for the dim orange light coming from Gordy's rusty eyes. Claws and hooks scraped against the ground as it steadied itself, sprawling out its limbs in an attempt to conserve its strength. With an angry gargling growl, it charged through the small crowd of octolings. There was screaming, and incoherent panicked chatter as Gordy trampled over anything in its way. 

There was a screech of agony, as one octoling hadn't been smart enough to get out of the way. She was now caught underneath it by the twisted scrap that jotted out from Gordy's body. It actually dragged her a few feet before stopping to peel her off. The scent of fresh blue blood that Gordy normally would have found so delicious was nothing but empty temptation to it now. It hovered its face mere inches from the octoling, more of the black-ish sludge that painted the walls of its former home dripping from its razor sharp jaws as she whimpered so pathetically. 

This one might have been the leader, or maybe the sister? Regardless, they were not worth the energy it would take to separate their head from its body. Gordy simply mumbled a curse in some long dead language, repayment for having slowed it down and wasted its time.

Gordy raced away, the cavern once again turning pitch Black as the glow of its eye got further and further away. No need to waste its time with those pathetic eight-armed cretins. 

It had bigger fish to fry.

-----

Despite having double the number of passengers he was used to, Drago turned out to be a particularly speedy seahorse. In just under an hour, the father-daughter pair had made it to the Red Delta mines. Gods willing that they’d made it on time.

Tying up Drago as quickly as he could, Hachi whipped out his phone to use as a flashlight and led the way into the mine. They made it most of the way down the tunnel before Hachi found a heavy lead pipe and threw it over his shoulder. 

“I doubt we'll have to use it,” Hachi explained. “If those girls are anything like their mother, they won’t fight against an actual adult. It's just best to be prepared.”

Kya nodded silently, keeping her head down and trying to steel her nerves. They were quickly approaching the center of the mines, passing the vulgar and hateful graffiti scribbled and carved into the rock when Kya froze. Her expression shifted from one of heavy anxiety, to primal terror.

“Kya? What's the matter?” Her father asked. 

“We need to leave. Something's wrong…” she murmured, her voice barely more than a whisper.

Before he could ask for clarification, Hachi's ears were assaulted by a screech of pain and an unearthly roar from deeper in the mines. Kya gasped as all at once a rush of energy pulsed through her veins. Her rings, cheek spots, and the tattoo on her arm lit up and bathed the tunnel in that starlight blue glow.

Hachi was beside himself as he ran to embrace daughter, “What in the deep dark?! What's happening to you?! Kya?!”

Kya pulled the sleeve of her hoodie down to look at her arm. Sure enough, the sword wielding fish was lit up, leaping in front of a blazing blue sun.

“My blue powers are back,” Kya said breathlessly.

“Your blue what?”

“Did Mom not tell you about this? What happened in Alterna?”

Hachi struggled to find the words, “I guess she left some details out?!”

Another unholy shriek of rage echoes through the caverns, followed by pleas for help and the angry barking of a very big eel.

“M-Mo-MOMO!”

Kya let out an involuntary squeak of shock. That high-pitched voice that had come out of nowhere…was that Kiwi? He had been under the impression that the fish couldn't talk. The small fry jumped out of Kya’s coat pocket and took off like a shot. Not wanting to lose Kiwi, Kya pushed past her dad and sprinted down the tunnel, following the sounds of terrified screams, and ignoring her own father's cries for her to wait up.

Kiwi was shockingly fast for a creature with no legs. Kya found herself struggling to keep up even at full sprint…or maybe she was just weighed down by how heavy the air was in here.

“Kiwi! Slow down! I can't…”

Whatever Kya was about to say died in her throat when she was hit by the most unholy odor. It took every ounce of self-control she had to not throw up right there. Kiwi suddenly screeched to a halt at the archway, making some extremely angry gargling noises. When Kya finally caught up to her, she immediately understood why. The smell was so bad, but not nearly as bad as the ache of terror that she felt when she saw the being that had produced it.

A beast, about 7 feet in length from the end of its tattered tail, to the tip of its sharp toothed, salmon-like snout, stood at the center of the chamber swatting at an angry giant Morey eel as if it were an annoying mosquito. The big eel lunged for its abnormally long, muscley neck and bit down with a sickening chomp. The monster barely looked bothered. It simply slapped the eel off, forcing it to the ground. The eel slithered in fear back towards the octoling it had been protecting, a large chunk of blackened green flesh still clenched in its jaws. 

Even if it's throat had been torn open there was no blood. Just an endless trickle of even more of the blackish-green, iridescent sludge that was already leaking from every orifice on its fish-like face.

It was unnatural in every sense of the word.

Its hollow chest with sharp rib bones, cradling a dim orange light. Its long gangly limbs ending in webbed feet and hands with inch long hooked claws. Its sunken, mechanical orange eyes that glowed like a car's headlights. Its twisted spine and tail that creaked, cracked and mangled every time it moved. A visage of body horror barely held together by bolts, wires and rusted frames.

There was only one thing it could be…but it couldn't…they weren't real! Things like it only existed in TV, movies, and anime. It was supposed to be just a legend! 

And yet here one stood before her. 

“Ni-ningyo.” 

Kya's voice had been so quiet it couldn't even be called a whisper, but the beast had heard it. Its eyes of unholy orange locked with hers. It screamed like a banshee and started crawling towards them. Kiwi immediately backed up clinging to Kya's pant leg in fear. Kya was frozen, as if every nerve ending in her body had seized up from panic.

“Oura!” The beast snarled, extending its claws. 

It couldn't have been more than an inch away from tearing Kya's face off before a familiar rusty pipe came crashing down onto its wrist. The limb crumbled and it was forced to withdraw its hand. Hachi then used that same pipe to crack it across the snout. The sound of its skull fracturing was very loud and sickening, but it hardly seemed bothered. After the initial impact, it simply turned its head back towards her father menacingly, glaring down with rage and bloodlust like its nose wasn't at a 90° angle now.

“KYA! RUN!” Hachi screamed.

The creature wasted no time smacking Hachi aside, sending him face down into the dirt. He just barely had time to turn himself over. The pipe had clattered just out of his reach, so when the ningyo lunged at him with his crooked Jaws, he could do nothing but dart to the side in his swim form. It barely missed taking a piece out of his body and bit straight through one of his tentacles as if it were made of freshly cooked sweet potato. Hachi screamed in agony, changing back to his octoling form and gripping the stub of his missing tentacle. The lost tentacles could clot quickly, but still droplets of blue dripped onto the ground and his face as he bled from the sudden loss of limb. The severed limb was still wriggling in the ningyo’s broken teeth as it was swallowed whole.

“Ytsat…” The monster hissed. “Eruoy luos si gnorts…a doog reziteppa…”

★“COME ON YOU LITTLE WIMP! MOVE!”★

Finally something inside of Kya snapped. There was no time to hesitate, second guess or panic. She sprinted towards the ningyo, bearing her beak, her claws, hearts and soul set ablaze with rage! Without thinking, she slammed into the beast’s side with all of her strength and to her shock she was able to move it easily. Even as it shrieked in surprise, and dug its claws into the earth to try and hold itself still, it was pushed along as if it were just a shopping cart with a stubborn wheel. The greasy sludge that covered its entire body popped and crackled as Kya's claws turned red hot, just like they had back on the rocket.

The ningyo screamed as its body was burned by the claws, slamming its malformed tail into her side. She wheezed painfully as the air was forced out of her lungs and gills, peeled away from its body and forced to the ground. Chunks of its fetid, burnt flesh were torn away as burning hot claws raked the body. The beast was barely bothered, its broken muzzle twisted with cruel delight. 

“Oura…” it spat.

The ningyo opened its shattered jaw as wide as it could go before it lunged. Kya shifted into her swim form to just barely bolt out of its grip. It went right for her, forgetting all about the much easier prey lying on the floor screaming for his daughter.

“I got to get it away from my dad,” was the only thought racing through Kya’s mind.

It was the only thing keeping her from freezing and panicking, as she tried to embolden herself. She picked up a rock and threw it at the beast. She had barely put any force behind it but it still left a sizable dent that once again the monster didn't even seem to feel.

“Come on you big ugly bastard! COME GET ME!”

With that final taunt, Kya took off down the nearest tunnel. An enraged screech resounded through the mines, the echoing of claws scraping against stone being a grim reminder that the ningyo wasn't far behind her.

It worked. The monster was moving away from her dad and…now what?!

★”Do you actually have a plan, or are we just winging it? Either way I'm not complaining. You're finally doing something.”★

The magic voice finally spoke again, sounding condescending and unhelpful as ever. Kya would have let out an angry growl if her gills didn't already feel like they were bursting from her full sprint.

“I just needed to get it away from my dad!” Kya cried out in her mind. “If you have any better ideas then stop taunting me and help me!”

The voice let out of frustrated breath, ★“Squiddo, I'm already lending you my power. What else do you want from me?”★

“Wha-maybe some actual advice?! I'm not a warrior! Outside of turf war, I've never been in a fight in my life!”

Their mental conversation was cut short by Kya nearly running into a dead end. Except for the blue light coming from her rings it was pitch Black. The only thing at the end of the tunnel was a slight crevice, easily big enough for her to slide into, and definitely big enough for the monster to fit a limb or two in. There was nowhere to truly hide, and the sounds of a very hungry ningyo were getting ever closer. Her hearts were starting to pound so loud in her ears, she could barely hear what the magic voice was saying. 

★ “I guess what you did on that rocket ship doesn't count…but whatever. My advice? Ningyos of beings that are driven by one thing and one thing only: the pursuit of oura. They rely on their Master to do most of their thinking for them, so there's little to no strategy in any of their movements. They're big and dumb bullies who rely on the fact that they are the strongest creatures in the room to get the job done. You want to defeat this one? Show it you are not afraid! Prove to it that you are stronger and it will ever be.”★

Great pep talk…massively unhelpful. 

“I meant like battle strategies or fighting moves I could do!” Kya cried out loud. “I am afraid of it! I'm very afraid!”

At last, the beast rounded the corner, the orange glow of its eyes lighting up the rest of the tunnel that Kya's own blue light couldn't reach from her hiding spot in the crevice. There was no way it didn't see her, it's broken face twisting into what could only charitably be called a smile. 

“Od ton edih elttil rats. Ym Drol sdeen ruoy thgil. Emoc tuo won.”

With no hesitation it lunged, jamming its head as far into the crevice as its overly long, crooked neck would allow to snap at its prey. Its teeth were mere centimeters away from biting her as Kya sucked in and pushed herself as deep into the crack as she could. The smell of the black slime oozing off of it and its putrid rotting breath was choking her. There was no way she wouldn't pass out soon, right into its jaws, but there was no other escape. Terror filled every cell in her body as it started to go cold with panic. Kiwi screamed and squealed in fear from her hiding place in the coat pocket. She was dead for sure.

★“What are you waiting for?! Fight back!”★

“I…can't…” Kya wheezed, fighting to stay conscious. 

★ “THEN YOU DIE HERE!” ★

At last, adrenaline overcame panic, and Kya could force her body into action. The next time the ningyo lunged, she grabbed a hold of its jaws. Her claws sank into the fetid flesh of the monster as it was forced to stop. It's claws scraped against the ground but surprisingly it struggled to pull itself free from her grip. Still it began to slowly drag her out of her hiding place as she held on to it. One of its giant clawed hands gripped the edge of the crevice and all at once it made Kya realize that if this thing got her out into the open again, it would turn her into sashimi. With a defiant scream, Kya pulled backwards as hard as she could.

An otherworldly roar tore through the ningyo's throat, and it was quickly followed by the gut-wrenching sounds of bones snapping like twigs, and flesh ripping like paper. It pulled backwards to try and free itself but it was too late. With a splatter of slimy blackness, when the ningyo pulled its face out of that crack in the wall, it's snout and entire lower jaw was completely gone.

As it roared with fury, gripping with little remained of its face, Kya was still huddled into that crack, shaking as the adrenaline continued to rush through her. It took a surprising amount of effort to unclench her fists and release the ningyo pieces she had gripped in her claws.

The spirit laughed heartily, ★“I knew you had it in you, squiddo! Just needed a big enough push, huh?”★

Kya could only squeak in response, her mind still reeling from what she had just done, the smelly black slime that had spurted out of it permeating every one of her senses. She swore she could even hear Kiwi gagging from her place in Kya's coat pocket.

“Please don't barf…” Kya mumbled, unsure if she was talking to herself or Kiwi.

★ “Save your vomiting until it's over. These bastards have the most obvious weak point ever! Find whatever you can that's long and sharp, and drive it into that glowing spot on its chest. When that's destroyed, it'll be dead in seconds!” ★

That snapped Kya out of her trance, “Wait, it has an insta-kill weak spot? Couldn't you have told me this before?!”

★ “I was trying to see what you could do on your own without me holding your fins.”★

In spite of herself and the situation she was in, Kya gargled in frustration. If she somehow escaped, she would need to talk to the others about their magic voices. Were they all this unhelpful and boorish? Or had she just been really unlucky?  

Pulling her from her plight of unhelpful spirits, was the sound of a metal pipe making contact with a very meaty tail. The ningyo wheeled around to face its attacker. Hachi was clutching that old lead pipe like his life depended on, bearing his beak and hissing with rage as drops of indigo dripped from his fangs. 

“DAD!” Kya choked out, barely containing her panic. 

Forgetting all about her nausea Kya rushed out and seized the beast's tail in an attempt to keep it from immediately tearing her father's head off. 

“DIE!” it roared.

The ningyo swung its shattered paw with all its might to do just that, but the blow never reached him. Instead the beast found itself pulled back several feet by its tail by an extremely angry, hissing cephalopod. This monster had hurt her dad once already. She wasn't going to let it hurt him anymore! 

“STAY AWAY FROM MY DAD!” Kya screamed. 

She twisted with all her might to hurl the ningyo as hard as she could into the stalactite covered ceiling. With a wall shaking crash, the demon’s slimy form was thrown to the side, boulders and dirt starting to pile on its head as it struggled to push its broken body back up. Time to finish this before it could! 

“Dad, the pipe! Throw me your pipe!”

With zero hesitation, he threw the pipe to his daughter as she raced forward in her swim form, jumping up into her inktoling form and quickly catching it. The ningyo lashed out blindly, narrowly missing her head, and unwittingly exposing its chest. The orange light nestled in its rib cage was like a beacon for her attack.

With a roar of determination, Kya slammed one end of the pipe into that spot with all of her strength. It was disturbing how easily it punched through everything. Through leathery skin, then flesh, then bone and metal, more flesh, skin again, until the other end of the pipe poked out through its back. 

Though it was not visible to the naked eye, Kya could feel a spark of that orange light course through her as the pipe pierced its body. It was only for a second, but in that moment her mind was filled with whispers of fear and anger. Imagery of blazing eyes and jet black teeth flashed in her mind. It was all so much! 

Kya released the pipe with a scream of panic, and was immediately thrown off the ningyo as it screeched with agony and rage. The beast weakly thrashed and pawed at the pipe sticking through its chest, the light it pierced growing dimmer and dimmer. When the light in its chest com,pletely went out, so did the rest of the creature. 

With one last puff of Blue smoke from its jaw, the ningyo completely stopped moving, like an animatronic having its power cut. The monster unceremoniously tilted over and collapsed onto its side, barely missing the curled up, shivering form of the terrified inktoling on the ground.

A tense moment hung in the air as the tunnel had finally gone quiet, no sounds except for Kya's quiet weeping. Immediately, Hachi rushed to his daughter's side, hovering over her and holding her close as if shielding her from a new invisible enemy. She changed into her swim form, as if to make herself even smaller. 

“Da-dad…” Kya whimpered, her voice barely more than a squeak. 

“Shhh…it's okay. It's dead. That…thing…whatever it was…. It's dead now.”

“Ni-ningyo…”

“What?”

Hachi never got any clarification. Already that bright starlight blue that had taken over his daughter's rings, was fading into its normal neon, and then slowly back into sapphire. Her quiet sobs quickly gave way to slight snoring. Without any more words, Kya immediately began to fall asleep in her father's arms, exhaustion washing over her like a tidal wave. 

★“Good job kid.”★ 

It sounded like the magic voice had one more thing on its mind before sleep completely took her over. 

★“I'll make a great warrior out of you yet.”★