Numi Back In Time

Prologue

It was late Autumn. Numi and her class have been staying in mountains for the past week. They were on an 'educational' trip, which in reality was an excuse given by their main teacher to go to the mountains. The class was rather small if compared to the average. In fact, this class was a result of merging of three different classes into one. The reason for this was that legally, mandatory education ended at the age of 14, and the majority of inklings preferred battling in turf wars than continuing their education. This left many classes with just a fraction of students, so for the sake of efficiency such classes usually were merged together. Numi and her friends, or Team Muffin, chose to continue their education.

The afternoon sky was cloudless. Gentle breeze caused the leaves on nearby trees to lazily sway with it in a rhythm. Occasionally a leaf would detach and fly away from its home, carried by the breeze for its greatest adventure. Numi, her friends and a small group of other students were hanging out around a crystal-clear mountain lake, surrounded by a large forest on one side and by steep, rocky mountain side on the other. Some people had bags or backpacks with them, most people were wearing casual clothes, others wore more fitting clothes. The two things that everyone had was a survival kit and emergency protective specials. The specials included bubbler, stronger variant of baller and better ink armour.

Numi was currently regretting her choice of clothing. Although her short beanie, jacket, scarf and boots were perfect for this trip, her skirt was a completely different story. Her legs were freezing and she couldn't do anything about it. Aside from that annoyance, she was enjoying the 'magical' views, taking many photos with her pink squidphone. "This is the best view!" she beamed to no one in particular as she took another photo. Her tentacles were a bit longer than usual, because she decided to try getting a tentacle style like her mom, even if only for a bit. And never having really long tentacles before, she was curious about them.

"You say that for every view, Numi." Tal replied and stretched.

"Because all views are the best!" Numi replied with a smile. Arlie was beside her, holding a proper camera, and Coco was reading a book next to Tal. Suddenly Numi exclaimed "Oh! I've got an idea! Group selfie!" and did a 180° turn on the spot. The lake was now behind her. "Come on, it's going to be great!"

Arlie snapped a photo and turned around. "You sure like selfies. What if I never told you about them?" she said in a joking manner, putting her camera back in its pouch.

Numi gasped. "If you never told me about them, I wouldn't have many good photos of us!" she exclaimed in a single breath, getting Coco to look up from his book.

"What's the noise about?" Coco asked, looking at Numi and Arlie with a confused expression.

"Numi declared selfie time." Tal replied as he walked over to Numi, helping Coco get up along the extremely short way. The four friends grouped closer together and everyone smiled brightly as Numi took the selfie. Numi brought her squidphone closer and they all looked at the selfie. It was perfect.

"This is the best selfie!" Numi beamed happily.

Arlie nodded and added "There's something magical about this one."

Numi admired the selfie for a few minutes before putting her phone away. She was about to say something, but something stopped her. "Did I hear something?" she thought and started listening closely. She could faintly hear... music? Her expression became puzzled, there shouldn't be any music around here. It was forbidden. But there was also something about it that seemed odd.

"Are you alright, Numi?" Arlie asked a moment later, sounding somewhat worried.

"I hear music." Numi replied and started walking in the direction of the forest.