Preface:

Hi there! My name is dbluewillow, and you're reading my first complete work of fiction. I started this project right before my final semester of studies as a university undergraduate and completed it five months and thirty-six thousand words later. The Reluctant Hero is a re-imagining of the Splatoon 2 single-player "Octo Canyon" mode, and its primary purpose is to answer the question, "Why did Agent 4 come to Inkopolis?" My motivations for writing this story stem from both my love for the game and my disappointment with its story.

The original Splatoon's "Hero Mode" is a compelling but relatively small portion of the whole game. The star of that show is the player character, the so-called Agent 3, a new kid on the block who wanders down the wrong alley and accidentally becomes a secret agent. The story takes place behind the scenes, but it does a nice job of touching on modern, real-world themes like discrimination, power, and sustainability. I especially enjoyed how Splatoon hinted at a much larger setting, a sprawling, mysterious world chock-full of secrets.

Then Splatoon 2 comes along with its own single-player mode, which retreads familiar ground. This time, however, the generic, self-insert story is restricting and disappointing. We, the players, learn nothing new about Splatoon's fascinating world. The conflict is boring, the characters are weak, and the potential for further exploration is squandered. I also came away with many questions. What are Agent 3 and Cap'n Cuttlefish doing on a trip? How is Octo Valley doing without a leader? And why did Agent 4 come to Inkopolis in the first place?

While I understand that the single-player mode is not the focus of the game, I still felt unsatisfied after completing my initial playthrough. I wanted answers. So, I set about writing my own story, one that would answer my questions and give our hero a reason to come to the city. I wanted a serious story, a conflict with higher stakes, characters with purpose. I wanted something that I myself would have found engaging and interesting, and I hope to make The Reluctant Hero into exactly that.

Thank you for choosing to read The Reluctant Hero, and without further ado, please enjoy.

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"Many travelers find themselves in Inkopolis at some point in their journey. Youth from far-flung seas gather in this colorful hub of comings, goings, meetings, and farewells."

—Sunken Scrolls 2:7 (2.4)

Friday, 7:52 p.m.

Inkopolis

Cole checked his phone again to make sure he was walking in the right direction. Everything seemed to be in order: Teuthida General Hospital, seven blocks to the west, ten minutes until arrival. There were so many hospitals in this city, and all within walking distance too. Inkopolis was a completely different world from his quiet hometown of Razorback Falls, where going anywhere practically required a vehicle. The city was so bustling and animated, with things going on everywhere he looked. A glowing storefront sign advertised a big sale. A food truck on the other side of the street attracted a long line of customers. Crowds of people came and went as Cole did his best to weave his way through them. It was a bit distracting. He had never been around so many strangers at once.

This was the fourth hospital that he was visiting today, and he had gotten nowhere so far. It was already late in the evening—the sun was starting to set, and the clear sky's bright orange hues gradually turned dark blue. He checked his phone one last time to make sure that he wasn't going the wrong way. Cole trusted his sense of direction well enough, but he still didn't want to risk getting lost.

Back home, he actually liked taking walks. They were not this noisy or stressful. They were peaceful and contemplative. Going on a walk gave him a chance to think about things. Right now, he was thinking about how Natalie had not called her family in almost a month and how his messages to her hadn't gone through. Her poor parents were sick with worry. They had filed a missing person report, but their unfamiliarity with and general distrust of government services meant that sending Cole to conduct his own search was more reassuring to them. And so, here he was in the city, feeling rather out of place.

His first stop was Natalie's apartment. She lived downtown, near the famous Plaza and right by the train station. That made his job of physically getting to her address nice and quick, but no one was home. Her neighbors were incredibly unhelpful, too, giving him noncommittal, ambiguous responses to whether they had seen her recently. It was as if the residents on Nat's floor didn't even know who she was. That was odd, because the Nat that he knew from two years ago was friendly and talkative, if maybe a bit stubborn. Perhaps the people of Inkopolis simply didn't talk to their neighbors.

Next, Cole began asking for a Natalie Tilus at every hospital in the area. He expected to find her as a current patient somewhere, with maybe a head injury or a broken leg. If she got injured, then the city hospitals should have some sort of record of her stay. But he kept finding nothing. There was no Natalie Tilus anywhere, and all these empty leads were starting to try his patience.

He should have gotten involved earlier, when her mother had started complaining. Natalie had stopped answering the phone. Cole had barely noticed her silence himself, or that his last message had failed to reach her at all. It was a one-word "cool" in response to her two-day-old video link. Even after later seeing the send error, he brushed it off as nothing. He wanted to kick himself for that.

He sent her text updates on this little quest, hoping for a reply like "What are you doing I'm just at home" to suddenly appear from her. He'd tell her how concerned everyone was. He'd berate her for making them worried. Then he'd go home, and everything would go back to normal. But Natalie remained silent, and Cole's messages kept returning errors. Failed to send. Failed to send. Failed to send. Her phone was off the grid. Nat had been silent for at least a month. She could have gone anywhere in that time. What if something had happened to her?

He stared at his phone for a while longer before heading out the door and back into the night. Teuthida General also had no patients by the name of Natalie Tilus. If the hospitals had nothing, then he would check with the city jail tomorrow. Maybe she got into trouble with the law, somehow. As unlikely as that seemed, anything could have happened to Nat at this point.

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