Splatoon Manga: NightRoad

Chapter 78: End

⭐️Chapter 78: End

Except...

They didn't.

They didn't lose their memories.

When the light cleared, everyone looked around, remembering what had happened but forgetting where it was, not that it mattered. But the squidbeak...still remembered where it was. When Ebony dismissed everyone else, the squidbeak went up to him as fast as they could. Luckily the crowd cleared for them. Ebony saw the concerned look on their faces and grew concerned as well. What had happened? When the crowd lessened enough, the squidbeak spoke.

"We...we haven't forgotten where you live like you said the spell would do!" Hachi exclaimed.

"We don't know why either, it's all just so...strange but concerning..." Ebony mumbled the last part.

"If we were supposed to forget, why didn't we?" Nana asked.

"Huh...well then, I suppose it's because you all are magic!" Ebony replied.

Well, they did have trait magic, to be fair.

"Well..." Rider said, pausing to think, "Maybe."

"But...now that that's over with, I believe that will be all? There's nothing else to clear up?" Ebony asked everyone.

"I don't believe so?" Jet said, thinking to himself, trying to remember if anything needed to be cleared that they had forgotten.

"Should we do one last round of apologies? Just to be sure?" Prince offered to the groups.

"Well, I suppose if we have the time for it..." Emperor said, looking around to see how the others felt.

"I think we do!" Goggles said with a smile.

"Alright, then."

And so, once the shadowlings had found Seira (who was still in inkopolis, checking to make sure everything was still good), everyone stood together. The squidbeak asked why Seira needed to be brought in, Ebony responded with something along the lines of "just in case". Once everyone had settled down, they went in a circle.

"I'm sorry brother. For the troubles I've caused" Prince said as he turned to Emperor.

Emperor turned back to his brother and smiled gently in understanding. Prince nodded, confining he was done. Gloves, seeing the nod, turned to Siera.

"I'm sorry for being a little reckless and letting slip that we knew where your home was."

"It's okay. It wasn't your fault, really" she assured him.

"I'm sorry for splitting away from the maze like that" Hachi said after the few seconds of silence that followed Seira's apology. He turned to Nana, since he knew that that affected her most. She turned to him and nodded in acknowledgment, smiling.

Emperor turned to Prince, having turned to Hachi to hear what he had to say.
"I'm sorry for doubting you, Prince. I never should have from the start. You went through too much for me" he said simply.

"It's okay, brother" Prince replied.

Nana turned to Hachi.
"I'm sorry I split from you. I should have stayed with you, even if you wanted to go into the maze."

"No, you shouldn't have! You fought Kuro as you left, right? It would've been a bit more pressure on the both of us!" Hachi said, surprised Nana had wanted to stay with him instead of continue on the mission.

"But still! Heck, I even broke Kuro's nose, I think I-"

"Nana!" Hachi exclaimed.

She raised a finger to say more, but Rider stopped her.

"Nana, it's okay."

She withdrew her argument.

"I'm sorry for being stupid and letting loose secrets..." Goggles murmured, but still loud enough that everyone could hear.

The squidbeak turned to look at him, knowing that he'd caused a LOT of trouble, but hey. He was an idiot. They'd lived with him for a few months now. They should be used to it. They turned to Rider when Goggles confirmed he was finished.

"I'm sorry for...well...letting my anger get the best of me sometimes" he said.

Flip waited patiently for him, and took the chance when it came.
"And I'm sorry for...uh. What did I even do wr-oh! I'm sorry for not going down your path, Gloves. When we were separated...I had the chance to, but I was too late to make the decision."

"Ah, it's no big deal. We met up in the end anyway, right?"

Flip sighed.
"Yeah, I guess..."

The shadowlings, sensing Flip was finished, shuffled around in nervousness. They didn't really know what to say. After all, this was a wild ride, going from obeying orders to slacking off when the boss wasn't there, to back to fighting, and ultimately teaming up against the boss. They weren't sure how the others would feel or react. Ebony could tell they were nervous, so he spoke up to them.

"Perhaps we should apologize for a simple misunderstanding?"

The shadow six nodded, and apologized. Ebony then turned to his brother, who he had brought back solely for this. His facial expression became serious.

"And YOU-"

"Sorry for trying to take over Inkopolis because I was only trying to help out my species" Noir grumbled before Ebony could finish his sentence.

"There we go!" Ebony said happily, backing off from it.

"It's okay. We know how stubborn you are" some of the shadowlings said, turning to Noir.

"Wait! Are you guys actually going to punish him?!" Prince exclaimed.

"D-Don't worry, we're not going to punish him by physical harm or anything!" Ebony said quickly, before Prince could fly into a hysteria.

"I hope so...he never murdered or anything..."

"Oh, speaking of punishment, you're going to take us home" Ebony said, turning to Noir.

"Urgh, fine..." he grumbled again.

"Before he does that however, any last words?" Ebony asked the groups.

A bunch of variations of "no" went around the group.

"Alright then! I guess...it's time to go, then."

And with that, Noir shifted into his shadow form, which wound up being a sea serpent with legs like Ebony, but WAAAY larger. The squidbeak stared in shock, glad they didn't have to fight this form. The other seven flew onto him (and helped Seira up), and he summoned shadow wings in preparation to take off.

Ebony turned around to face the squidbeak.

"Welp! Goodbye everyone!" he called.

The other shadowlings also said their goodbyes as well. A combination of "bye","see you!" and other variants of the phrase were shouted amongst the squidbeak.

And with that, the shadowlings flew away as the squidbeak waved...