Splatoon Manga: NightRoad

Chapter 76: Tie

⭐️Chapter 76: Tie

Prince gasped.
Was.
WAS THAT ALL A DREAM?!

He looked over by his door.

No locks.

He began to panic. Oh boy, if that was all a dream, then that was the most wild one he'd had ye-

"Prince! You up?"

His brother.

"Yeah!" He shouted back.

"Hurry up and get ready, the shadowlings are gonna leave soon!"

Oh.

It wasn't a dream.

Quickly, he got out of his PJs and into his usual wear, going as fast as he could. He quickly did his morning things and rushed to see his brother after making sure everything was good. The two then left via vehicle towards the square, since they lived a little further away. When they got there, the squidbeak were waiting there, as well as the shadowlings. The two quickly got out after thanking the driver and walked towards the group. Prince took a good look at everyone.

The thing that stuck out to him most was that there was a collar and cuffs made out of light purple energy, and all of them were on Noir. The chains of said restraints were all being held by Ebony. He could only guess how the arguments went down. The other squidbeak caught up with Emperor on what had happened (though it wasn't much) and Prince walked over to Ebony. He didn't really didn't know what to say...

"Well, uh. I guess this is goodbye then? Though I really hope it's not..." he mumbled.

"Hey, I thought you were going to help us rebuild our home!" Ebony said with a smile.

"Oh yeah, that."

"WHAT?!" Rider yelled.

"REBUILD THEIR HOME?!" Goggles shouted.

"Wait did you guys seriously forget that one part where Noir explained that their home was crumbling?" Prince asked.

Gloves thought for a few seconds before quietly saying "ah" and nodding his head as he remembered.

"Oh. Guess we did..." Flip mumbled.

"All they've wanted was to fix their home, but Noir dragged them along in his own gremlin plans" Prince said with a sigh.

Ebony nodded.

"But now he's chained up, and he knows what will happen if he tries to break free..."

Prince could've sworn he sensed an evil vibe from Ebony, but he could've been wrong.

"So now that we've corrected that I'm capable of doing things without help and that they only wanted peace so they could rebuild their home, is there anything else that needs to be straightened up?" Prince asked.

"Actually, yeah. Why can't they just stay here? Wasn't there something Marina said about living here that Noir kicked away because he didn't want to live with "lesser species" or something?" Hachi asked.

"Black Forest is our true home. If it's able to be restored, then we'd prefer it restored over moving to a new location" Kuro explained.

"Oh...I see."

Yeah, the group had to admit, they'd feel pretty bad if they had to move away from inkopolis and stay in a new place forever. They'd miss it a lot.

"So the question is, do we help them?" Emperor asked.

"What do you mean THAT'S the question?! Of COURSE we do! The REAL question here is "should we go bring back the people that hid away this entire time?", sheesh" Rider said.

Oh right.

People were still in hiding.

Oops.

"Yeah uh...we forgot about them, haha..." Gloves said nervously, scratching the back of his head.

"Well, at least Inkopolis Square is in good enough condition to live in again. It'll be fine!" Nana said.

Pitch remembered the snack bags that were still left where he put them. And there were uh. More than he'd like to admit.

"Uuuuuuuh-"

Nana sighed.
"Okay fine, go clean up the trash you left behind..."

The shadowlings left to do that. In the meantime, the squidbeak began talking amongst themselves about the best course of action from here. Noir made a move to fly the direction he had left his stuff, but Ebony stopped him by tugging on the chains.

"I've already told the others to put away your stuff. You're not going anywhere" Ebony said calmly.

"Wh-I thought you were coming with me!" Noir fake whined.

"Well, yes, but I think it's safer here, where you don't have a chance at escaping from me via some convenient alley thing."

"Ugh fine, you're no fun..." Noir grumbled.

The others soon came back, having finished their work. The squidbeak decided that they would rescue the people first, and then see who wanted to help build the shadowlings's home. They also decided that they would need another smokebomb to exit the place, as they still didn't trust the shadowlings with knowing where octo canyon was (better safe than sorry in case Noir did something again). They told the Ebon 8 what they were doing (leaving out the smokebomb and octo canyon) and the groups nodded. The squidbeak then left to go tell the others.

When they got to octo canyon, they were greeted with cheers and hugs from their teammates. Apparently the rest of blue and yellow team had already come back and told them after watching Omnoir fall. The S4 came up to them as well, along with the rest of their teams. They all shared a moment of happiness and relief before realizing they had to get to the point. Their allies understood, and quickly quieted everyone down.

"Okay, so, we know you all are glad that we've finally brought the shadowlings down, but we need your help" Rider said.

"Do you remember what they said at the party? That their home was crumbling?" Nana asked. She wasn't about to specify it was Noir, since most people probably hated him by now.

Murmurs spread through the crowd. Some remembered, some didn't. Those who remembered it reminded the ones who didn't remember that it had indeed happen. There were some exchanges of "oh?"s and "ah"s around the group, and the squidbeak could hear them. They gave them a minute or so before quieting them again.

"Well, we're going to fix it for them, together! To show that we truly haven't done anything wrong, and that we can be allies instead of enemies!" Gloves announced.

"So who's with us?!" Emperor yelled out to the crowd.

The crowd cheered in excitement. Prince smiled. Finally, the thing that he had wanted to do all along was being done. The peaceful option that should've been taken from the start. Hachi and Goggles gave him a smile and a thumbs up, and he returned it. It was time to put this plan into action.

"Okay everyone!" Flip shouted, "Let's go help rebuild the shadowlings' home!"

And with that, all of them dove into the exit of Octo Canyon as Marie watched them from the side.