Splatoon: Under Inkopolis

Who knew Katsu could be such a bad influence?

An alarm abruptly sounded at precisely 6 o'clock, but Tide was already awake. He'd been awake for the past three hours dreading today, for it was the first day of school. A week had passed in what felt like a blink of an eye. As the orange inkling predicted Tide did not make any teams. He passed the last of break fighting Octarians in the caverns below, but didn't make much headway. As much as he'd like to spend all his days hiding in a literal hole Tide knew he had to attend school. Afterall, he didn't want to be called home in disgrace-- no closer to fulfilling his dream of being a pro turfer than when he left. Tide rolled out of bed and slowly prepared to leave. He scowled at his plain clothes; the stuck up clothing outlets of inkopolis had deemed Tide not fresh enough for their wares. He pulled on his most inconspicuous plain, yellow T-shirt and grabbed his bag. As he started walking to school Tide noticed most inkling walked in groups. As he got near he picked up bits of conversation.

"I can't wait for the turfing tournament to start!"
"Yeah! We're going to dominate this year!"

Ahh yes, thought Tide, the annual competition amongst teams to see who is the best. No doubt the groups of inklings were newly formed teammates already getting psyched even though the competition was still a few months away. Too bad Tide was already disqualified from competing being teamless and all. Suddenly Tide spotted a pair of lone, vibrant orange tentacles. Despite being a team captain the orange inkling girl walked alone. Before Tide realized what he was doing he found himself walking alongside her.

"Er, hello again", Tide stammered. The girl looked up, "Hey".

"I don't think I've heard your name yet", Tide continued.

"Katsu"
"Come again?"
"Call me Katsu"
"Like Kendal Katsu? The pro turfer? That Katsu?"
"Yes", she answered vehemently and started walking faster.
"Any relation?", Tide called after her.
"He's my brother", she said flatly as the pair arrived at the school gates. She continued through the gates and quickly headed inside. At the gate Tide stopped to fish his class schedule out of his bag. He looked up what his first class was: history, and headed towards it.

Upon arriving he found most of the seats had already been filled up by an assortment of students including jellyfish, urchins, crabs and other creatures, but the majority of the students were inklings. Afterall, the school was famous for producing pro turfers, which caused an influx of squid kid applicants. Tide slide into a neutral spot on the outskirts of the desks; out of the spotlight, but not quite in the back row. A middle aged anemone strolled briskly to the front of the class.
"I am Miss. Mona, your history teacher. This school year we will be covering everything from the evolution of the first sea creatures to the establishment of modern day inkopolis and much, much more. Now in order to get to know eachother please write your name and what historical event or time period you most hope to learn about on a piece of paper and pass it to the front when you are finished".

Tide free loaded a sheet of paper from the jellyfish sitting next to him and pulled out a pencil. The first part was easy. He scrawled Tide Awl on the paper then paused. What historical event did he want to learn about? Tide's first thought was pretty apathetic; he didn't find any historical event particularly engaging and found history class rather dull where students only memorized a list of dates that were supposedly noteworthy. Until the memory of the past few days struck him: Shatter, the other Octarians, the underground cavern. There was an entire world underneath their feet and Tide was the only one in the class who knew it existed, but how much about it did he really know? Before Tide met Cap'n he was relatively oblivious to the Octarian's existence. Perhaps he could learn more. Below his name Tide scribbled seven words: I want to learn about the Octarians. He passed his paper up to the front, and spent the rest of the class half listening to the teacher, who in light of current events passed out sheet on zapfishes and guided a class discussion on what might have happened to the Great Zapfish.  Octarians weren't mentioned at all.

The rest of the school day went by uneventful until Tide arrived at his last class: battle oriented physical education. Originally it was the class Tide looked forward to the most, but ever since he failed tryouts for turfing teams his enthusiasm waned. Unlike Tide's other classes bop-e was made up of entirely inklings. Tide looked around, and recognized three inklings- Shoal, Lime, and Katsu. Shoal cleared her throat and stepped to the front of the class.

"Alright, welcome to battle class. I'm Shoal, your TA, and this is Lime. We'll be in charge of teaching you lot, so if you have any questions bother Lime-- not me. Now pair up and come get a ball. We'll be practicing our aim today".

   Tide quickly shifted his eyes around the room.  Almost all of the inklings already gravitated towards a partner; only one remained unsociable and stiff.   Katsu was apparently unwilling to condescend and ask another squid kid to pair up with her.  Tide plucked up what was left of his fragile confidence and asked Katsu if she wanted be partners.

  "Fine", was her brusque reply.  She briskly strode to Lime and retrieved a ball.  The "ball"  didn't look like a ball at all.  It was shaped like a pyramid and made of foam.  Shoal called out directions.

  "You'll be practicing tossing and sliding the ball to your partner.  Now can anyone tell me the practical application of this drill in a turf war?"

  A kid safely hidden behind the crowd muttered, "It'd spruce up a squid party".
Lime snickered and Coach Shoal unable to spot the perpetrator focused her glare on Lime.  Katsu, likewise, was unamused and lifted her hand to reveal the correct answer.

  "Throwing the bomb will make your opponent clear the area before it detonates, while sliding it with proper technique gives your opponent no time to escape before it explodes"

    "Not bad, newbie", Lime commented.  Then Shoal gave the order to get to work, so Tide and Katsu began their tossing.  The drill was dull and repetitive, and most of the other inklings started chattering in between throws.  Tentatively Tide tried to break the silence between him and Katsu.

    "So what classes did you have today?"
"Math, inklish, bio-history, and first aid", she replied rather robotically.
      "Wow, first aid, that sounds ... interesting", personally Tide thought Katsu was way more likely to be the squid kid who caused someone to need first aid, not the one administering it.  He paused to see if she'd reply, but as per usual Katsu had no comment.  Tide switched tactics, "You seem really skilled at battles and stuff.  I guess it runs in the family".  The comment aroused a response.

  "Skills come from practice not parents, or even brothers for that matter", Katsu answered pointedly.

    "So your saying you family didn't help you at all in becoming the turfer you are today?"

Katsu sighed, "No, I just said that if you want more skills you need to put in the work", less harshly she continued, "Although, my family did guide me through my practice.  I suppose having someone to show you the ropes helps a lot, and mentors can come from anywhere", she admitted.  "But you're not going to learn much from those two", she continued turning a baneful eye towards Lime and Shoal.  It looked like Lime was up to some sort of antic which completely absorbed Shoal's attention.  "They're way to focused on eachother to be of any use", Katsu grunted indifferently.

  "So how am I supposed to get good if there's no one to teach me?", Tide pondered.
      "Hmm, well that sounds like a you problem", was Katsu's unhelpful response.

   Their conversation stayed in Tides thoughts the rest of the class.  It continued to persist after the bell rang and all the inklings except Tide headed to practice turf wars.  Instead, he walked down to the squid hole and prepared for an afternoon of recovering zap fish.  The Cap'n could show him a thing or two perhaps, but he was very old and if his teaching methods were anything like his tips and directions Tide was bound to get confused.  Katsu was way too unapproachable to be his teacher and seemed uninterested in his plight at school.  Tide pulled the hero jacket over his head and patted it down to make sure he had everything.  To his initial suprise he felt the crackle of paper.  He pulled it out discovering the beautiful illustration of the great zapfish and remembered the encounter when he obtained it.  Shatter.  The easygoing and highly competent octoling.  Then Tide got an idea; an idea that would make Cuttlefish pull his own beard off.  Unless the Cap'n never finds outs, contemplated Tide .