There was a moment of awkward silence at the table, only broken by Pumi's rhythmic snoring. After another minute passed, Yasmin asked in almost a whisper "So, uh, your death was faked?" She felt rather awkward asking that question.

"No. There was no faking. It's only by luck that I haven't died back then." Kumi answered in a strange, cold tone.

"But how? You have been thrown into the sea by them." Yasmin continued in a whisper.

"Thrown, yes. But did I hit the water? No. There were some ropes hanging under the bridge and I managed to grab one. In the process my bag, which has opened while I was running away from them, slipped off my shoulder and fell into the water, which resulted in my spare clothing floating out of it. It created an illusion that I have hit the water and dissolved. I assume the ropes were left by some uncaring workers." Kumi explained, still with the same cold tone.

Julie then asked "Why did you hide then?"

Kumi gave her a look that said 'really' and replied "Do you think that they would take it kindly if they knew that I didn't die? They most likely will try to find and kill me if it becomes common knowledge that I'm alive. And I don't want to know what kind of 'revenge' they would think of."

"How were you able to hide your identity for so long?" Shelka asked.

Kumi answered in a completely different voice, her normal voice "Let's just say that I have a few contacts that have helped me get a new identity. Getting a mask, new tentacle style and darker ink colour wasn't difficult, and my ability to change the way my voice sounds also helped." This came as a shocker to Team Booyah. No one knew that Kumi could do that, except for her family and close friends, and it's extremely rare among inklings and octolings.

Loolee looked around rather nervously, gathering courage to ask a very tough question. After a moment she begun "D-did yo-" but was cut short by a glare from Kumi.

"Don't even mention that next to her." Kumi hissed while pointing at Numi, who wasn't paying any attention to the conversation and instead focused on watching birds. Kumi then said "I know what you were going to ask, and no, that was nothing more than an accident caused by a sudden change in the wind direction."

"How did no one figure out your identity?" Julie wonder out loud, which luckily wasn't heard by anyone outside the table.

Kumi chuckled and asked rhetorically "People sure are careless, aren't they?" and continued "Everyone thought I was dead, so they didn't pay much attention. In fact, Yasmin is only the second person to have even suspected anything." A moment passed, Team Booyah was processing what they have just heard and Nini was beginning to regain her consciousness.

"W-what happened?" Nini mumbled as she rubbed her eyes.

"You fainted." Yasmin said.

Before Nini could ask why she has fainted, she noticed Kumi. "Before you freak out and pass out again, allow me to explain." Kumi said, noticing that Nini looked as if she has seen a ghost.

After repeating the explanations to Nini, Kumi woke Pumi up, snapped Numi back to reality from her almost hypnotized staring at birds, and the group went to the lobby with Numi happily skipping ahead of the group. Before entering the lobby, Pumi and Yasmin told Judd and Li'l Judd about their dual, which made Li'l Judd excited. In the lobby, Kumi told Numi some turf war tips, while Pumi explained squid parties, squid bagging, the booyah rule and other fun parts of turf war. Kumi hit a button to indicate that her team was ready and Shelka did the same moments later.

The lobby sent the two teams to a launch pad, via lifts, and indicated the team colours on a screen nearby: Team Booyah was orange and Kumi's team was dark purple. Next it displayed the general battle info in the form of simplified turf profiles of all participants, the arena, which in this battle would be Kelp Dome, and a countdown. Both teams took positions on the launch pad, switched to their basic forms, and waited for countdown to reach 0. After a moment, a bell rang and both teams prepared for a super jump. Their super jump was boosted with a jet of air from the launch pad, and they were on their way to Kelp Dome.

After about half a minute they could see Kelp Dome, with two open dome sections for the two teams to land on their S.P.A.W.N pads. After a few more seconds the two teams landed in the ink of their S.P.A.W.N pads and waited for a signal. After a few seconds the signal sounded and both teams turned into their humanoid forms, soon followed by a second signal and music. The turf war has begun. Immediately, Pumi jumped down from the base platform and ran left, inking the entire path. Nini began inking the area around their base, while Kumi charged her E-liter 4K and inked a path to the right, turned into her squid form and swam through the ink path she made. She was followed by Numi, who was shooting ink with her Splattershot Jr. everywhere around Kumi's path. "Don't follow me, just continue forward!" Kumi told Numi, as she made her way to the catwalks. Numi did as told, ignoring the catwalks. Having inked a lot of turf, Numi turned into her squid form to refill her ink.

A moment later, Loolee charged her way to the catwalks with her bamboozler 14 MK I, only to be splatted by Kumi seconds later. Having refilled her ink tank, Numi reverted back to her humanoid form and continued forward, towards base of Team Booyah, inking the entire way without missing out much turf. After another ink refill, Numi reached the area under the base of Team Booyah and began inking the turf around, even throwing a few splat bombs onto the raised platform. Numi noticed a corner that hasn't been inked at all. She moved over to it, aimed and pulled the trigger of her splattershot Jr. Instead of ink, a sound could be heard, indicating that her ink tank was empty.

She turned around to go back to the turf she inked to refill, but instead she was greeted with Shelka looming over her, roller raised above her head. Numi, startled, fell backwards and hurried backwards into the uninked corner. Shelka stepped forward and slowly said "Booyah."

"Huh? Oh! Booyah!" Numi replied.

Shelka smiled and lowered her roller. "Good. You know the rule. I don't know how you managed to get here without getting splatted, but it doesn't matter." She said and added "Just this once I'm gonna let you super jump away." Hearing this, Numi turned into her squid form, prepared and super jumped to Nini, who was in the middle area. "Even in your basic form you're small. It's kinda cute." Shelka thought, before turning around to ink the turf that Numi has inked.

Nini and Julie were in the middle of a fierce ink fight, ink flying everywhere as the two dodged each other's attacks. Nini was astounded by Julie's dodging skills, as despite being only at freshness 6, Julie's dodging was better than of some turfers with freshness higher than 60. Her aim however, was near to non-existent. Julie threw yet another suction bomb, which for once forced Nini to jump forward, closer to Julie. Julie readied her attack, but before she could swing her slosher, Nini shot at Julie with her blaster, forcing Julie to dodge to the side which resulted in her attack missing Nini by a large margin. The two faced each other, anticipating each other's next move, so focused that neither of them payed attention to their surroundings. As a result, neither of them noticed a Super-Jump-Indicator pop up where Nini was standing.

A few seconds later "Weeeeee!" could be heard, rapidly becoming louder and clearer, but neither Nini nor Julie have noticed. Suddenly Nini collapsed, as something hit her head with great velocity, with the same happening to Julie seconds later. This attracted Kumi's attention, who was messing around with Loolee while giving her some subtle hints on how to improve. Kumi turned her head away from Loolee, who run past her without realising it, to face a Deja vu. Numi has once again messed up her super jump, turning it into a super headbutt as she has landed on top of Nini, hitting her head against Nini's head in the process. Kumi assumed that Julie was hit by Numi's falling splattershot Jr. Without looking she aimed behind her back, charged a shot and splatted Loolee, before jumping down and running over to the trio.

"Everyone ok?" she asked. The only answer she got was mumbling and groaning of pain. Numi and Nini sat up and rubbed their heads. Numi's fall was softened by Nini, who took majority of impacts force. Both were fine, with Nini just being a bit dizzier than Numi.

"Owie..."

"W-what happened?" Nini asked.

"You didn't move away from Numi's landing spot..." Kumi said and asked "Didn't you notice the S.J.I?"

"N-no..." Nini answered, her face turning slightly red from embarrassment.

"Where's my splattershot Jr?" Numi asked. Her question was met with a moment of silence, and in that moment quiet sobbing could be heard. The trio looked for the source of sobbing, which turned out to be Julie. She was on the ground, curled up like a ball while holding her left eye and quietly sobbing.

"What happened?" Kumi asked as she moved over to Julie. Nothing but sobbing. "Is something wrong with your eye?" she continued. Julie nodded, not even looking at Kumi. "Let me see it." Kumi said as she got Julie to sit up. Julie hesitantly removed her hand from her left eye and let Kumi take a look. For nearly a minute Kumi inspected the eye, giving Julie instructions relating to eye movement and where to look. Kumi reached for something from a small pouch, one of a few on her belt, and pulled out an eye patch from it. She took off Julie's squid nordic, tightly tied the eye patch around Julie's head, adjusted it and put the squid nordic back on Julie's head. "Don't remove the eye patch until tomorrow." Kumi cautioned.

"You know first aid?" wide eyed Nini asked.

"That and more. Much, much more." Kumi answered.

"What happened?" Pumi and Yasmin yelled from one of the passages to the middle area.

"A bad landing happened!" Kumi yelled back. After hearing this, Pumi turned to Yasmin and splatted her, but not before Yasmin dropped a splat bomb at Pumi's feet.

"Yes!" Pumi exclaimed, not realising what Yasmin did, which got her splatted seconds later. The sound of exploding splat bomb has overshadowed the sound of a curling bomb, which rapidly approached the group. When Kumi heard it, it was too late to dodge it. Knowing it Kumi instead of attempting to dodge fired an ink storm, which she has been saving, in the direction from which the curling bomb was approaching. Just when she did this, the curling bomb has reached them, splatting her, Nini and Numi, but before Numi was splatted she dropped a splat bomb by accident, which splatted Julie. A few seconds later the ink storm has splatted Loolee, the one who sent the curling bomb in the first place.With that, for a brief moment Shelka was the only person that hasn't been splatted, which naturally left her confused as to what has happened.

When everyone got de-splatted, there was only a minute left. Numi and Julie switched to panic mode, inking everything they could at astonishing speed. Only them, Nini and Shelka were inking turf. The rest were focused on splats. The timer nearing zero and fast paced music has caused Numi to get a super rush, as if she found the key to the candy cupboard. The result could be compared to a mini tornado. She used as many splat bombs as she could and at some point she accidentally activated her ink armour special.

She madly run around everywhere with no plan, inking everything she could see and even somethings she couldn't see. As she ran around, like a bowling ball she knocked over Pumi and Yasmin, causing yet another mutual splat, knocked over Kumi, Loolee and Nini which caused some confusion for the trio and finally Numi ran into Shelka, putting an end to the mini tornado. Numi fell on her butt and looked up after shaking some of the rush out of her system. She saw Shelka, looking at her with a friendly expression of confusion and slight shock.

"Hello again. Did you ink all that turf?" Shelka asked and showed Numi her automap. Almost the entire map was purple. "A moment ago it was an even split." Shelka added.

Numi was wide eyed. "Is all that because of me?" she asked.

"It seems like it." Shelka replied. At that moment the battle ended. "Welp, better get to your base." Shelka finished and super jumped to her base, which she could have just climbed back to, and Numi did the same a moment later. This time she did not switch to her humanoid form, which led to a perfect landing. When the S.P.A.W.N pads registered that both teams were in position, it signalled to super jump. With a great boost from the S.P.A.W.N pads, both teams super jumped back to the lobby, or more specifically, landing site.

Once there, both teams were led to a screen which displayed Kelp Dome. Judd and Li'l Judd were now judging. A few seconds later, Judd waved a purple flag. Kumi's team won 73.6% to 21.4% which was a knockout. Next were the team statistics. Numi has managed to ink the most turf out of both teams, has been splatted once and had only one splat. Nini was second in terms of inked turf, has been splatted twice and had one splat. Kumi inked the least turf, has been splatted once and had 14 splats.

Julie inked the most turf for Team Booyah, has been splatted twice and had one splat. Loolee had second best turf inked on Team Booyah, has been splatted 14 times and had 3 splats. Shelka has inked the least turf out of both teams, has not been splatted at all and had no splats. The dual between Pumi and Yasmin has ended in a draw. Both were third in their teams with inked turf, both have been splatted 35 times and both had 35 solo splats.

"WHAT?! REMATCH!" Pumi and Yasmin yelled in unison. Next were freshness level ups. Only Numi and Julie levelled up. Julie levelled up to freshness 7 and Numi, with a few bonuses granted because of a few factors, levelled up to freshness 3, although barely. After everyone's turf profiles received payment, Pumi and Yasmin decided to continue their duel, while everyone else exited the lobby.

"Ok, now that this turf war is over, what happened to your eye? And where did you get that eye patch from?" Shelka asked while pointing at Julie's eye patch.

"Numi's splattershot Jr. hit me in the eye and Kumi gave me the eye patch." Julie explained and added "Apparently Kumi knows first aid!"

"That's a rare skill." Loolee commented.

"A necessary skill when dealing with knives, don't you think?" Kumi replied in a half whisper. She noticed that Nini was tinkering with something, but payed no mind to it.

Shelka looked at Kumi with a worried expression. "How bad is her eye?" She asked.

"Could have been worse. She has to wear the eye patch for a day. If it isn't better by tomorrow, then she should go to see a doctor." Kumi answered.

Numi walked up to Julie and whimpered "Sorry." while looking down.

"It's not your fault. It's no one's fault." Julie beamed.

"I-I gotta g-go. I'm g-gonna be late for work." Nini stuttered. She was slowly feeling less shy around Kumi and Team Booyah, and she didn't feel shy around Numi anymore after seeing her somewhat childish personality. She walked up to Numi and gave her the autobomb that she was playing with earlier. "Keep it. I know you like it." Nini said, and noticing Kumi's glare she added "I removed all parts related to turf war. It's like a wind-up toy now." This statement was enough to wash Kumi's glare and suspicions away. Numi was star eyed. She hugged Nini while squealing "Thank you!" over and over again. After a minute she finally let Nini go.

"Bye." Nini said, turned around and walked away, on her way to Grizzco Industries where she worked as egg collector.

"Bye!" Numi replied, energetically waving her right hand while holding her new toy in her left hand. Everyone else just waved.

"We're gonna go too. If you ever want another match of turf war with us, just call me." Shelka said and gave Kumi a paper slip with her number.

Kumi took it and said "Will remember that. Thanks."

And thus, Numi and Kumi were left alone, and not wanting to stand around they took a seat at one of the tables near Crust Bucket. Numi was playing with the repurposed autobomb, which she named 'Lilly the bird', while Kumi was texting someone. A few minutes passed. Pumi and Yasmin could be seen, and heard, walking out of lobby, arguing over another draw before going back for another rematch. The two have attracted attention of the entire square with their arguing. Kumi looked up from her phone, and would have looked back down if someone wasn't missing. Before a panic attack could hit Kumi, Numi skipped back to her seat and continued to play with 'Lilly the bird'. "Where were you?" Kumi asked in a clearly annoyed tone.

"She was in my food truck. She was thirsty and asked if she could have a drink. One would have to be soulless to refuse someone as innocent as her. This one was on the house." Crusty Sean answered as he walked up to the table. "And here are two basic tickets for her." he added and handed Numi the tickets. For almost a year his new business model was in function, which resulted in higher profits. He now accepted payment with cash, be it physical or virtual, and newcomers are given two basic tickets for free.

"How did she get in?" wide eyed Kumi asked.

"I left the backdoor open, as it's smokin' hot in my truck." Crusty Sean said before going back to his food truck.

A moment has passed. Kumi was getting fed up by all the texts she was getting. "Numi, I need to make a phone call. I'm going to be over there, just for a minute. Don't go anywhere." Kumi explained after getting Numi's attention. She didn't like the thought of leaving Numi alone for even a moment, but this phone call could not be heard by either of her sisters. Numi just blinked as Kumi walked out of eavesdropping distance. She would go back to playing with her toy if something didn't catch her attention. Pumi and Yasmin walked out of the lobby again, however, this time they didn't argue.

---

Pumi and Yasmin walked out of the lobby, satisfied with how the last match went. Despite having a dual, the system set them on the same team and sent them to a tower control match. The enemy team was a formidable opponent, and the fact that the other two on their team weren't taking the match seriously wasn't helpful. At first Pumi and Yasmin continued their dual, but they soon were forced to abandon it because of how far the enemy team managed to push. By cooperating the two were able to push back the enemy and kept them at bay, while the other team members had a squid party on top of the tower.

"That was the best!" Yasmin exclaimed, still pumped.

"Shell yeah it was!" Pumi agreed.

"I want another match like that. How 'bout you?" Yasmin added.

"Same, but I gotta do something." Pumi said and a moment later asked "Wanna exchange numbers?"

"Sure." Yasmin said. The two exchanged their numbers, said their goodbyes and went their ways. Yasmin went back to the lobby, while Pumi turned right, walked past the only two cats in Inkopolis, and after making sure no one was looking, switched to her squid form and jumped down a manhole. However, she didn't notice a certain someone watching her from the other side of the square.

After about 15 minutes Pumi reached her destination: Octo Canyon. There were two inklings waiting for her and for what she was bringing next to a hut. One was light-grey tentacled, the other was black tentacled, both were slightly taller than her, and most inklings would be starstruck by them. They were agents 1 and 2, publicly known as Callie and Marie or Squid Sisters. Callie was first to spot Pumi climb out of the manhole. She waved, and once Pumi was close enough said "Hi Pumi." with a smile.

Before Pumi could reply, Marie sarcastically said "Agent Snore isn't sleep walking for once." with a smirk.

"Oh, I'm sooo sorry about that. I'm gonna go back and sleep walk back here then." Pumi sarcastically replied.

Callie, who didn't get the sarcasm, exclaimed in a single breath "No no no, there's no need for that!" Pumi had to hold back from bursting in laughter and Marie shook her head.

"Anyway," Marie begun "you've got everything you had to bring?"

"Yup. I even got something for you two and Licy." Pumi answered while patting her duffel bag, and then reached for two drink cans, one was lime flavoured, the other one was apple flavoured. She gave Marie the lime drink and tossed Callie the apple drink.

"Oooh, my favourite!" Callie squealed and immediately guzzled the drink. Marie opened her can. Seconds later the top of the can popped off, followed by an explosion of confetti, glitter which launched three squeaky eels at Marie. A mere few seconds was enough to get Marie's head and shoulders almost fully covered in confetti and glitter. Callie was desperately fighting back the urge to laugh, which has already overwhelmed Pumi. A moment passed. Normally, Marie would be irritated by such pranks, but this time she was more dumbfounded than irritated. Marie inspected the can, its top and the content, and what she concluded made no sense to her.

"H-how did you fit ALL that in such a small can? Not just the content, but the mechanism too. Did you make that mechanism?" wide eyed Marie asked.

"One, secret. Two, yes, I made it." Pumi answered while Marie shook off the confetti and most of the glitter, although she was still covered in a considerable amount of glitter.

"Marie, you sparkle like stars on a clear night sky now!" Callie chuckled.

Marie thought for a moment. "Sparkle like stars on a clear night sky... we could write a song like that." she suggested.

"Ooh, good thinking Marie! I'm gonna write that down!" Callie agreed.

"One of my pranks inspired a song... that's a new one." Pumi said to herself. "Oh, and here's the actual drink." Pumi said as she gave Marie another can. Marie hesitantly opened it, this time away from her, which only made her look dumb. This was not another prank. Luckily, nobody except Callie and Pumi could see it. Or so she thought.

---

After following Pumi, Numi was at a ladder. The ladder was located in a separate tunnel, which shot out of the main tunnel system. The tunnel had a few turns and was rather long, and it appeared to have been mostly forgotten about. Numi climbed the ladder and reached a manhole. Since the cover was very light, she carefully raised it with her head, only enough so that her eyes were above the ground level, or in this case base level, to take a peek. She could see everything, but couldn't hear a single thing that was said. A few minutes passed and she continued to peek. She had to fight the urge to laugh at Pumi's successful prank.

As she continued her peeking, Numi felt someone grabbing her left leg. Immediately after, someone started tugging and pulling her leg. Numi began to panic internally, not knowing what to do. She tried fighting the tugger, but no matter how much force she could muster, the tugger was stronger, and she was now getting pulled down. Numi grabbed one of the ladder steps and held on with all her strength. It seemed to work as she no longer was being pulled down.

However, this was only a pause. After a moment the tugger started tugging again, this time with even more force than before. With each pull Numi could feel her grip of the ladder weakening, until the final, strongest pull came. Numi lost her grip. She began to fall, but the tugger didn't let go. Numi was now being held by someone above a long fall and that someone could decide to let her go. Numi covered her face with her hands, not wanting to look below, and began to quietly sob. The tugger was now climbing down, while holding Numi upside-down by her leg. It took over a minute to climb down, but to Numi it felt like eternity.

She was dropped when low enough, which gave Numi an even bigger scare, while the tugger jumped down and immediately moved to block the only way out of the tunnel. Numi still had her eyes covered and she was visibly shivering. "Open your eyes!" a female voice demanded in a threatening tone, which only worsened Numi's shivering. "I won't repeat myself!" the voice said, still in the same tone. Numi felt something tap her head. She reluctantly looked up, to see a strange looking splattershot pointed at her. "Stand up!" the voice commanded, and Numi did as told. She took a step back, which almost caused her to fall backwards due to the panic she was in. The owner of the voice was a female inkling, with long yellow-green tentacles and orange eyes. "Who are you and what are you doing here!" the inkling demanded.

"I-I-I-I..." Numi stuttered, unable to get anything out.

"Don't make me repeat myself." the inkling said in an even more threatening tone and drew the splattershot closer to Numi.

"I-I-I'm... a-and I-I w-w-was..." Numi continued to stutter, which was clearly irritating the inkling. Her mind was a panicked mess. This was possibly the most serious situation she has ever got into and her mind had trouble comprehending what was going on. One thought kept racing across her head: "Run! Run! Run!", and it kept on becoming louder and louder. Numi mustered all the courage she could, before she bolted, hoping that she would get past the inkling and be able to run away. However, a swift punch to her face has dashed any hopes of that, as Numi lost her balance and fell backwards. She immediately covered where she was punched with her hands and her sobbing was now turning into a cry.

"Nice try, but it was predictable. Now since you won't tell me..." the inkling said in an irritated tone and raised her splattershot, which caused Numi to back away in fear. "Climb! I am going to interrogate you properly above." the inkling ordered. This has confused Numi. That inkling literally pulled her off of the ladder and now demanded that she climbs it again. "Are you deaf? CLIMB!" the inkling growled. Numi, after falling a few times, stood up and begun hastily climbing the ladder, almost falling in the haste. The inkling followed, however she climbed with one hand, while aiming her splattershot at Numi with the other hand. Due to the haste the climb was rather fast, but to Numi it felt like it was never going to end.

Finally, she reached the top of the ladder, and she was slightly ahead of the inkling. She pushed the manhole cover up and to the side, which clanged as it hit the metal base, climbed out and ran towards Pumi and the two other inklings, who were both shocked and wide eyed. Numi ran behind Pumi, hugged her tightly and peeked from behind her at where the manhole was with her teary eyes.

The Squid Sisters immediately started asking who Numi was, but Pumi didn't pay attention to them. "What are you doing here? ...Why are you shaking so badly? Did something happen? Why are you crying?" she asked. The only response she got was Numi hugging her even tighter. Pumi looked were Numi was looking, hoping that the answer was there. For a minute nothing happened. Pumi looked at Numi, and at that moment Numi tightened her embrace and hid behind her sister.Pumi looked back at the manhole, and saw a familiar figure climb out. It was Licy. Pumi still didn't know how Licy's cape didn't affect her while climbing or running, but there was one thing off about her. She had her heroshot drawn. As Licy approached, Numi's embrace tightened, which set off an alarm in Pumi's head.

"Hello." Licy said as she approached. No one said anything. Licy moved closer to Pumi. Numi's embrace tightened again and it was starting hurt Pumi, which set off even more alarms in Pumi's head. In a blink of an eye, Licy moved behind Pumi, grabbed Numi and dragged her away from Pumi after overpowering Numi's embrace, which wasn't a pleasant experience for either Pumi or Numi. "Now, who are you?" Licy asked Numi in her threatening tone. Numi couldn't take it anymore. She collapsed to the ground and mumbled something as her crying intensified. Licy was irritated, Callie and Marie were shocked and Pumi turned red with the unspeakable fury that stormed inside of her.

"HANDS OFF MY SISTER!" Pumi roared as she lunged towards Licy and kicked her in the stomach. Licy dropped her heroshot as she flinched in pain and surprise. Pumi took advantage of that and followed up her kick with an uppercut punch, hitting Licy in the face and sending her head recoiling back. Licy took a few steps back to try and regain her balance, but she ended up falling backwards, and Pumi wasted no time in taking advantage of that. She jumped on top of Licy to prevent her from getting up and begun peppering her with punches. Licy attempted to spit ink at Pumi, but a swift punch to the ink sac stopped her from doing that, and instead she violently coughed up ink. It was all happening in mere moments. Marie, who just got over the initial shock, rushed over to the two agents and begun to pull Pumi off of Licy. For a moment Marie struggled, as Pumi was fuelled by her fury, and would be ultimately be unable to do anything, had Callie not rushed over to help. Together, the two Squid Sisters managed to pull Pumi off of Licy. Marie immediately went over to check on Licy. Although not as violently, Licy was still coughing up ink and she was beaten pretty badly.

"H-hey!" Callie exclaimed as Pumi shook her away. Pumi glared at Licy for a moment, before turning to Numi, who was still crying and didn't seem to notice what just happened. Pumi walked up to her crying sister and hugged her, and Numi hugged back as she continued to cry.

"There, there. Everything's gonna be fine." Pumi comforted as she gently rubbed the back of Numi's head. A few minutes passed. Pumi's fury died down, Numi cried out her panic and Licy recovered enough from the beating she received to stand back up, however she was still coughing up some ink.

"Ok." Marie begun "Now that everyone calmed down, how about some questions, answers and explanations. I'm going to start with an obvious one: what the hell was that 3 and 4?!" Her question was met with silence. After a minute Marie sighed and said "Since neither of you want to answer, let's move onto the next question." Marie then asked "Who is she?" and pointed at Numi, who was still hugging Pumi.

"This is Numi, my younger sister." Pumi answered. Hearing her name, Numi looked up at Pumi with a questionable look.

"Wait, you have... oh, yeah. I remember now, you told us you have two sisters, but never shown any photos of them." Callie remembered.

"Why did you bring her here?" Marie questioned.

"I didn't! She must have followed me." Pumi replied.

"Why did you attack 3?" Marie continued.

"Are you blind?! Have you seen how she treated my sister? How would you react if someone treated Callie that way?" Pumi snapped. For a moment Marie didn't say anything. "She was shaking so badly that it was visible and her hearts were pounding so hard that I could feel them when she hugged me!" Pumi added.

While Pumi was explaining her reasons to Marie, Callie came closer to Numi and sat nearby. "Hi!" she said in a soft, cheerful tone.

"H-hi." Numi quietly replied, with some fear in her voice.

"Wait, you're scared of me?" wide eyed Callie asked. Numi nodded. "Why?"

"You're her friend." Numi said and pointed at Licy. Licy gave her a death glare, which caused her to hug Pumi even tighter.

"Does she really scare you that much?" Callie questioned.

"She hit me." Numi answered.

"But I've seen what happened, and she didn't hit you. Yes, she did grab you, but she didn't hit you or anything." confused Callie said.

"She hit me earlier." Numi said.

"What? Really?" Callie asked, slight shock could be heard in her voice. Numi nodded. "Can you tell us more?"

"But she will..." Numi begun.

"She won't do anything." Callie cut in and asked "Will you tell us more?"

Numi thought for a moment and said "Y-yes."

Callie stood up and said in a clear, loud voice "She wants to tell us something." Pumi and Marie stopped talking and looked at Numi. Numi took a breath to calm down and begun to explain what happened before she run out of the manhole, not sparing on details. It took her a few minutes. Licy was glaring at her, Callie and Marie were shocked, and Pumi turned even redder than before, and the only thing that prevented her from lunging at Licy again was Numi, who was still hugging her. Pumi then remembered something. She pulled her duffel bag closer and started to dig through it. Not even a moment later she pulled out a can of some fizzy drink. Licy's favourite fizzy drink. "HERE! KNOCK YOURSELF OUT!" she yelled and threw the can at Licy with all strength she could muster. Licy didn't react in time to catch or dodge the can, and got hit on the forehead with the can. Licy recoiled backwards and fell on her butt. She rubbed the spot where she got hit. It felt wet. Licy lowered her hand and took a look at it. Her hand was covered with some blue liquid. That liquid was her blood. The force with which the can hit her combined with the angle of the can was enough to give her a cut. She felt a small streak of blood run down her face. She reached into one of her pockets for a tissue, wiped the blood streak and pressed the tissue where the cut was.

"Agent 3... did you switch minds with Octavio... There is nothing to justify how you treated her. Do you treat everyone you don't know that way?" Marie said to Licy in a very disappointed tone.

"Agent? Octavio?" Numi pondered aloud. After a moment she gasped. She jumped up, clenched her fists in excitement, and with starry eyes she exclaimed in a single breath "ARE YOU SUPER SECRET SPIES?"

Marie mentally slapped herself. "Oh, no no no, we just call each other agents!" Callie quickly denied, and just then her phone rung. "It's gramps." she said after getting it out.

The moment she put him on, he yelled "OCTAVIO ESCAPED AGAIN!" which caused Callie to drop her phone. "AGENTS, YOU HAVE TO CAPTURE HIM PRONTO!" he continued to yell. He was yelling so loud that everyone could hear him.

Callie rubbed her ear, picked up the phone and said "Gramps, don't yell into your phone. Now, can you please explain what happened?" Numi crawled a bit closer to Callie, perked up her ears and listened closely

"So, I went to visit Octavio in Mudcrab Prison, to hopefully succeed at talking some sense into him, but he wasn't there when I arrived! And none of the guards knew where he was! His snow globe was smashed, and the outside wall of his cell has been busted inwards! Someone has helped him to escape! You have to find him before he steals the zapfish again or does something even worse!" 'gramps' explained.

"Gramps, we'll meet at your cabin." Callie replied. She had a worried look.

"Aye, on my way." 'gramps' said and hung up. Callie put her phone away and noticed that Numi was listening to the call. Numi's starry eyes gave it away that she heard the entire call.

"You ARE super secret spies!" starry eyed Numi pumped. Callie didn't know how to respond.

"Hey, Numi, I have a VERY important mission for you!" Pumi said, and Numi immediately turned to her. "You have to keep it a secret and not tell anyone. If you tell ANYONE, you will fail your mission. Got it?" Pumi said in a serious tone, which was very unusual for her.

Numi gasped. "AM I GOING TO BE A SUPER SECRET SPY TOO?!" she pumped in a single breath.

"Uh... yeah... you're going to be agent 7." Pumi replied, still in the serious tone. While Numi squealed out of excitement and joy, Pumi gave Marie a look that said two things: that this was a bluff and to change the topic.

"Don't you know it's rude to eavesdrop?" Marie asked.

"What does 'eavesdrop' mean?" Numi asked, and gave Marie a puzzled look.

"I'll tell you later." Pumi said. She then remembered something and asked "Are you able to go back on your own?" Numi shook her head. "Then I have to show you the way back. Come on." Pumi said as she got up.

"Wait! I just realised how small she is. Why is she so small?" Callie stopped them.

"This is possibly the most common question she gets... but to answer the question, her growth stunted." Pumi explained. She added "But you should see her basic form! Show her Numi."

"Why?" Numi asked.

"Just do it." Pumi answered. For a moment Numi hesitated, but switched to her basic form. "Now for a comparison. My basic form is about the average size." Pumi said and too switched to her basic form. Pumi's basic form size was like her humanoid, minus head and neck, but Numi's basic form was much smaller. Her basic form was only as big as the end of Pumi's larger tentacles, about the size of a baby inkling. She could be easily picked up by anyone. Callie's jaw dropped, Marie was wide eyed and Licy rubbed her eyes, not believing what she was seeing. Pumi switched back to her humanoid form and said "I bet she'll win any game of hide and seek." Not saying anything, Callie walked up to Numi and picked her up. The little squid blinked a few times.

"D'aww, she's cute!" Callie exclaimed and hugged Numi. After the hug, Callie held Numi forward, and Numi switched back to her humanoid form. Without a warning, Callie started spinning on the spot like a roundabout in amusement park, going faster and faster. While it surprised Numi, she liked it.

"Weeeeeee! Faster! Faster!" Numi rejoiced, and Callie went even faster. She spun around for about a minute before she stopped. She put Numi down and sat down. Numi waddled a few steps, fell over and faceplanted the ground. Marie walked over to her and sat her up. Numi had a very dizzy look on her face.

"She is indeed adorable." Marie said to herself. "I noticed that her mood and emotions change momentarily. A few moments ago she was terrified, then she was all energetic and excited, and now she's childish. Is that normal for her?"

"Yup. Same could be said about her attention. Sometimes she'll focus on something and won't stop thinking about it, other times she won't focus on anything for longer than a moment." Pumi replied. "Oh, by the way, never give her any sugar, unless you want a disaster." she added.

"Why's that?" Callie asked.

"She gets a ridiculously huge sugar rush from even a tiny bit of sugar. Although, for some reason chocolate doesn't seem to cause any kind of sugar rush for her. So, muffins and chocolate chip cookies are ok, but not too much." Pumi explained.

"Ok. And just how big can her sugar rush get?" Marie asked.

"Have you heard of the Widefin Junction incident?" Pumi questioned.

"The one which cut off electricity for half of Inkopolis and caused the largest recorded traffic jam?" Callie wondered aloud.

"Who hasn't?" Licy said.

"Well, it was caused by Numi during her biggest sugar rush, believe it or not." Pumi said in a serious tone.

"No way! You're squiddin'!" Licy exclaimed.

"Nope."

"What's going on?" Numi, who no longer was dizzy, asked.

"Nothing important. We should get going." Marie said.

"Oh, right." Callie remembered.

"Uh, where should I leave all the party  stuff?" Pumi asked, realising that her duffel bag still had everything she packet, ignoring her dualies and ink tank.

"Just put it inside." Callie said and pointed at the hut. Pumi nodded, went inside and came back a minute later.

"Wait, if Numi is here, then..." Pumi said, reached for her phone and turned it on. She had 3 missed calls and 8 unread messages. All from Kumi. "Well, carp." She checked the messages. They all were asking if Numi was with her and why she wasn't answering. Pumi texted "yeah she's with me. And I didn't answer because I had my phone off" and sent it, hoping that Kumi didn't start another great turf war yet.

While Pumi was checking her phone, Licy approached Numi. Numi immediately backed away. "Hey, um, sorry. Sorry for what I did." Licy apologised.

"Alright, let's go!" Pumi exclaimed as she put her phone away. The group went to the manhole and one by one climbed down. Licy was the last one, because she had to fix the manhole cover back where it should be.

"Ok, here's what we do. Agents 1, 3 and me will go to cuttlefish cabin, and agent 4 will take her sister back to Inkopolis Square and then catch up with us. We'll move slower than usual." Marie explained. "Numi, er, I mean agent 7, do you remember your mission?" she asked.

"Yes! To not tell anyone about any of this, to keep this all a secret!" Numi excitedly exclaimed.

"Correct. Off we go!" Marie said. The group followed the long tunnel back to the main tunnel system and parted their ways. Today Numi had her first turf war, received a new toy and believed that she became a super secret spy, making it one of, if not the best day of her life, and this day was just getting started.