Your Mementos

One

Aloha felt the plaza surrounding him. Inkopolis was a place where the sky twinkles at night and where the best splatfests were held by none other than the roaring celebrities, Marina and Pearl. It was a place that never allowed the deafening silence to enter his mind and a place where constant motion forbade him to wallow in his own self-pity. A place where it had a million faces of cephalopods he has yet to know. A place that contained his wildest ambitions on the turf as an S4 member, and a place where he can hold the wildest parties that light up the side of the town that no one has ever seen. He's home.

So why don't I feel that way, he thinks. His thoughts were interrupted when a heavy hand slams on the metallic table he was sitting at and sends him in a panicked tone to balance himself on top of his now wobbling chair.

"Alohaaaa," Mask says, lifting up his hand steadily off the table. "This is the third time this week you've been sitting here, staring at the city and moping around like a creepy shmuuuuuck."

Aloha adjusts his golf visor, tilting it left to right before firmly adjusting it forward. He lets out a happy laugh, "What do you mean~? I'm always rearing to go!"

Mask pauses and sits down on the table. Aloha raises an eyebrow, but still keeping up the cheery expression on his face. "You haven't hosted a party for dayssssss... There's no annoying squids and octolings at our house since the day that..." He trails, his voice growing quieter and quieter.

"Since my girlfriend went missing. I know," Aloha finishes. Although he remained happy, Mask can tell his voice was portraying something else. "I know I have to move on, but I wish I knew what she was thinking of me when she hasn't responded to me..." He stops to lower his golf visor down to cover his eyes. "Sometimes, as selfish as it sounds... I really wish that time would somehow let me forget about her, but... it's hard to."

Mask closes his eyes and leans back in his chair. It's been a few weeks since you went missing. No posts of yours were uploaded to Inkstagram and not to mention, a huge earthquake occurred that happened to show up a few days after. It seems that the whole town was mourning, evident or not.

"Anyway, thanks for the talk Mask! What a trooper!" Aloha suddenly says in a sing-song voice, getting up from his chair. "I knew you were worried about me, despite 'deessspisssinggggg' me."

Mask glowers at the mock of his language, before sighing as Aloha begins to walk away. For such a happy squid, his tenacity to pull through is admirable. Though I wouldn't say it doesn't make me annoyedddd, he thinks.

"Aloha, you don't want me to hook you up with a Triple-Fried Galactic Shwaffle?" Crusty Sean's voice echoes from the food truck, catching Aloha in his tracks. Aloha turns around and points at Mask.

"What can I say?~ I lost my appetite! But my buddy Mask didn't! Mind making him one this time around? I owe ya one!" He clicks his tongue and sprints off once again.

"That'd be a food ticket homeslice," Crusty Sean says as he set the plate down in front of Mask.

Mask widens his eyes before cursing at the running squid, balling his hand into a fist. "When I catch you after this, I will wipe that smile right off your faaaaace!!"

Aloha looks back at him and shrugs his shoulders innocently while running backward. Once Mask turned away to ease his way out of the situation with the confused prawn, Aloha swiftly plants the sole of his foot in the ground to whirl right back around to meet face-to-face with Marina.

"Ah, Marina! I haven't seen you in a while!" Aloha scratches the back of his neck nervously. "Did you report that earthquake? It seems like a big scoop!"

"It's a big scoop alright," Marina raises her hand to her mouth and laughs lightly, playing along to Aloha's playfulness.

"Which is why we're here to talk to the S4 about it privately," Pearl sidesteps into view and reveals that she was behind Marina. Aloha grows confused and looks around. They were to the right of the lobby, and near the Deep Sea Metro with no one to hear their news.

Skull and Army walks side by side toward the metro, Skull's arms crossed as he looked wistfully toward the trio when they entered in their private spot. "Tch... This better not be meaningless..."

Marina smiles softly, completely ignoring his comment. "I'm glad we almost have everyone! Now, where is Mask?"

At the mention of his name, Aloha sweats profusely. "Oh! Uh... about that..."

"Aloha!!!! You shmuuuuckkk!!!!" Aloha seizes up at the mention of his name on a particular voice. He meekly turns around to see Mask running straight towards him with the tempura. "Here's your tempura that you made me pay!" Mask forcefully thrusts it into his hands and whacks the back of Aloha's head, already making Aloha drop it onto the ground.

"It was just harmless fun!~" He whines, rubbing the back of his head. Marina coughs, sending everyone back to attention to why they were here in the first place.

"Now that everyone's here ready to rock, I can say that the earthquake here is something that isn't actually something that should've happened," Pearl says. "You see, we've enlisted a few squids and octolings who were in a high rank enough to check out some strange patterns that we've spotted down in Deep Sea Metro before the tremor..."

"But they haven't made it back... and the tremor down there right after is worrying," Marina puts her hand to her mouth, contemplating with a worrisome expression. "Pearl and I, both have bad intuition about this. And we'd like you guys to see if there is anything that is fishy, and find the squids and octolings we've entrusted."

"It is right that you entrust your faith into us! We S4 always prevail!" Army shouts proudly, having some of the squids look away from his gaze, only to meet the glowering eyes of Mask's.

"Yeah... Anyway! Marina! Show them the laptop!" Pearl jumps, her crown bouncing atop her head. Marina nods, giggling at Pearl softly, before showing them her laptop screen. "These are the squids and octolings that volunteered to keep the strange patterns secret so there's no crazy chaos in the plaza."

Aloha and the S4 looked at the screen for the few cephalopods. It showed their status as all were disconnected. Their eyes continued to scan their identities before Aloha's stopped dead in their tracks.

"Wait! That's..." Out of reflex, Aloha grabbed the laptop and stared at the picture of none other than you, who made your hands form a heart in the picture. With a matching Takaoka visor, your favorite color attire and shoes, there was no doubt that was you. It even had your full name and initials to prove it, and Aloha couldn't help but smile faintly when he remembered how much you disliked him calling you by your middle name.

"Oh! The rank S+! She was one of our most rockin' skilled octolings with her main weapon. So it was a no brainer she was one of the first we asked! Although she didn't like not telling you about it, she agreed pretty quickly when she believed she was protecting you," Pearl explains.

Even though you said you were going to protect me because you were the better turfer, looks who protecting who now, Aloha couldn't help but smile even wider. He raises his head from the laptop and tosses it over to Mask, who smackes it up in the air out of surprise. "When can we start leaving?"

"Early morning would be the best!" Marina exclaims in a sing-song voice, intertwining her hands together and holding them up to her cheek cheerfully. "We'll stay up in Inkopolis to keep the town from widespread panic! We can't thank you enough." Mask frantically looks for the laptop in the air and feels the relief when it bumped onto Army's head, knocking him into a near concussion as Skull skillfully caught it in one hand.

"You can count on us! We will never let whatever happens in there get the best of us, for we have... The Inkling Army Manual!" Army utters starstruck, rocking back and forth sideways on his feet.

"You can expect the freshest effort from all of us!~" Aloha tips his golf visor and winks.

"That settles it then! Meet us here in the morning then!" Marina chirps, taking back her laptop. She starts walking away, and Pearl follows suit before walking side by side with her as they make it back to the station.

"Aloha..." Skull begins to say, worried about what the 'unavailable' status could mean. Aloha turns to look at him, with a cheerful and hopeful expression; Skull, off-guard, rethinks as he looks away from his gaze. "Tsk... Just don't come crying to me when your girlfriend would rather kiss her weapon than you when we find her."

Aloha lets out a sigh and stretches his arms. "Now that you've brought her into the conversation..." Aloha smiles widely at the S4. "That already makes me even more excited for tomorrow.~"