Splatoon: The Brush Thief (COMPLETED)

Chapter 2 - Pool of Magenta

"Hey! Get out of my way, squirt!" A rough female voice boomed in the field.

I didn't move, I didn't even flinch. I only glared into my rival's eyes and snarled at the dark violet colour of her hair and skin. "No way, Vivian! How about you leave!"

"That baby behind you needs to learn a lesson on staying away from our territory!" Vivian growled.

An inkling behind me sat there, sniffing and wiping her tears out of her eyes. No one but me was on her side, everyone else circled around us, anticipating a fight. We were only children, incompletely developed Inklings, no older than seven years of age, we didn't know any better.

"This place isn't even yours!" I yelled angrily. "Who said you were the boss? You're the dumb one here!"

That triggered Vivian to lunge toward me, grabbing the collar of my shirt, and pushing me down. She was strong for her age, but I had the same amount of strength. I threw a right hook with a hardened fist. She took it, but didn't lose her grip on me. As I punched and kicked, I managed to push her off and take the upperhand.

Our brawl kept rumbling, and the kids around us were chanting "fight" at the top of their lungs.

But in the midst of our fight, an adult Inkling, our teacher, broke us off. And we were sent to the principal's office. The school's doctor had wrapped out wounds with bandages; I had given Vivian a bad bruise to the head, and she had struck my hard on my arm.

"You young ladies know that violence isn't the answer." The principal sighed. "This is the third time this week I have to see you two."

Vivian and I stayed silent, but our anger towards each other screamed in the core of our being.

"You two better promise not to pick anymore fights, or it's detention for a whole month, understand?"

"Yes, Mr. Cephalo." We answered.

Then we were dismissed. Baachan would take me home from school. But unlike any other guardians, she didn't mind if I got into a fight. In fact, she'd ask me: "How was it?" "Did you knock her out?" "How many hits did you land on her?"

She was strange. But I went with it.

As I matured though, I learned not to get into fights so often. And isolated myself from the rest of the class to practice. I didn't mind being a loner, it was quiet and peaceful.

And my rival Vivian? I gave her grins as I passed by her, and she only played back with a snarl. Like always.

. . .

"Hehe, Vivi, ol' buddy." I mumbled. "Time with each other never gets old."

"Hey, Ayako!" Leuis hissed under his breath. "Sorry to interrupt your stroll down memory lane, but we're near enemy ink!"

I blinked myself awake and noticed the pool of dark magenta ink. We had just exited the dark underground hallway to a whole different scenery. There were many floating platforms in what seemed like the interior of a round fishbowl illuminated by thousands of screens that mimicked a starry night sky.

We were hiding behind crates, Leuis had slipped off my hat and I had lowered my brush. Peering over the crates, we saw the pool of enemy ink.

"No one's here." I whispered, a bit unsure but I wanted to continue my journey. "Let's get moving."

"Oh nonono." Leuis violently shook his head while pulling me back down as I began to stand up. "Octarians could be hiding in that ink."

"So what?" I cocked my head at my brush. "I got a weapon."

"You don't know what you're up against." Leuis blurbled. "It could be a giant Cthulhu."

I pouted at Leuis with a skeptical eye. "Yeah, I giant monster could appear from a puddle of ink no wider than two yards."

"W-well, something a bit smaller... We gotta hide."

"No, I'm not cowering from an ink puddle."

"How about another ink puddle? A quick and big one coming from your left!"

I spun my head to where Leuis was facing. A yellow blob of ink was coming our way from a distance. I didn't know what that was, but it was very unfamiliar. A sudden burst of panic struck me.

"Leuis, grab my arm."

Leuis did so. And I began sprinting across the floating platform, passing by the ink puddle which didn't move at all. But I did run into someone, two small Octarians with helicopter blades to keep them in air. I struck one of them with a swift blow from my Octobrush then continued sprinting. I hid behind a platform with a ramp leading upwards to it.

"Ayako, that's a visible mess you made there!" Leuis squeaked.

When I took down one of the Octarians, sky blue ink splattered all over the ground. I slapped myself in the face, feeling stupid. That thing is gonna find us.

Leuis and I peered from our hiding place. We expected the source of the yellow ink to inspect the blue ink, but to only see a trail of that ink pass by it. Before I could question, a figure leapt from the ramp platform to the one next to it. According to the shape, it was...

... An Inkling?