Author's Note: I do not own any of the characters in Shinrakyu Ika Musume. I have no authority whatsoever in the literary world...Now that the formalities are out of the way, I do have plans to create a plethora of Original Characters, including new Fish-Hybrids. Near the end of the story, I have a question to pose to the readers. Please consider it in the reviews. This is not the first story I've ever written, but it is the first time I've ever tried to put something online. That's all I have to say, so please enjoy this Squid Girl FanFic!

"The Invasion Grows"

By: pyrotornado

Chapter 1

Won't you stay out of my home?

The waves can be heard softly crashing into the beach outside, and the Lemon Shack is almost void of customers, save for Sanae and Goro. Ika Musume sighs as she brings Goro his third helping of fried rice. "Don't you have anything better to do today?" She remarked irritated. "You've been here all squidding day! Why aren't you working, degeso?" Goro shrugged lazily.

"Izokawa wanted to get some extra time on the clock, so I let him have my shift today." He dug into his rice. "I don't have any other plans so I figured I'd waste time here until dark." Ika-chan shook her head and cleaned up his plates. Walking over to the sink, she layed the dishes into the soapy water, where Eiko began to clean.

"Why doesn't he leave, geso?"

"If he wants to waste his paycheck here, I'm not complaining," Eiko shrugged. "Besides, since autumn is right around the corner, the beach should be coming to a close soon. That means we'll have less and less customers every day until we'll have to close shop for the winter. We'll need his money more than him soon!" Eiko clenched her fist, her financial spirit flaring. Ika-chan stared blankly at her ranting.

'Is the money all that she squidding cares about, geso?' She thought to herself. 'Humans can be so selfish at times.' As she walked away, one of her tentacles slithered into the pan with the shrimp they use for the rice. As she slyly walked towards the door, her appendage eased into the chilled container.

A sharp pain hit the squid as she quickly retracted her tentacle, or what was left of it. "You shouldn't be dipping into the food, Ika-chan…" Chizuru politely scolded as she worked the grill. "We wouldn't want you getting mixed up with the ingredients, would we?" She said cheerfully as she began to grill the recently acquired tentacle. Frightened, Ika Musume ran out the door in shame.

"Wasn't that a little harsh, aneki?" Eiko shook her head and sighed. "You didn't have to chop off the tentacle to stop her from stealing the shrimp." She looked down at the grill. "More like, why are you cooking it?"

Ika Musume ran all the way to the other end of the beach. Panting and out of breath, she realized that Chizuru had been messing around with her, although whether that was really the case was something she didn't really want to find out. As she plopped down in the gentle surf, she looked up at the sky and began to think.

'It's been almost a year since I came to the surface to invade, but what am I doing still working in the shop?' She thought back to when she first arrived on the surface, and about how little she had been prepared for what was waiting for her. Eiko, a human that treats her like a child; Takeru, a child that treats her like a toy; Sanae, the human that treats her as some kind of cute animal or pet; and Chizuru, the unstoppable warrior that is more of a predator than anything else in the ocean. Ika-chan shivered as she tried to compare the fear she felt from Chizuru to the fear she has of her natural enemies. 'She's not all bad I suppose…' She thought. 'At least she isn't as bad as…' her thoughts trailed off as she became lost in her memories of her life below the sea. Back to when she was no more than a little squid growing up with her family…

A tear fell from her eyes, and she shook her head. "No…I'm not going to think about it anymore, geso…" She stared out into the ocean she loved so much, trying to forget her past and focusing on the future that she's trying to make for herself now. Once again she laid on her back to watch the clouds roll by.

"Are you thinking about your home planet?" A particularly rude question to ask someone. No other person would ask her that.

"No, because I am not a squidding alien, geso!" She exclaimed as she sprang to her feet. She glared angrily at Cindy.

"Right, right…" Cindy shook her head, not really listening. "You were just forlornly watching the sky because you were hungry…" She put her hands on Ika's shoulders. "More importantly, it's fantastic that I saw you down here. We were just on our way to the Lemon to see you!"

Ika-chan took a step back. We? Only one group hangs out with this space lunatic, the idiots from the lab. 'The ocean's right there! If I can get out deep enough, I might be able to -' Her thoughts were cut off as she was dragged by her arm. "Geeessssooo!" She cried out.

"So what is it this time?" Ika-chan sighed as she gave into the idiocy. "Another failed attempt at trying to prove I'm an alien, geso?" She stared judgingly at the supposed scientists.

"Not exactly," Harris replied as he rapidly punched in some computer code onto the console of their latest creation.

"We've actually decided that since it's been a while since we last tried to find aliens other than you, we would give our oceanic radar another try!" Martin explained as he wiped the sweat from his forehead. "This time we're absolutely certain we'll find other fish-alien creatures like you!"

"Even though the last one exploded and almost sucked you and Miss Aizawa into a whirlpool, this time we're making sure that nothing like that happens again…" Clark grinned as he polished the surface of the machine.

"So there you have it," Cindy closed nonchalantly.

"What do I have to do exactly, geso?" Ika-chan asked cautiously.

"When we salvaged the machine last time, we discovered the dish hadn't been secured on the ocean floor. So we need someone to take it down and strap it to a level surface." Cindy explained. "That way, the machine won't spin out of control like last time."

Ika Musume looked disbelievingly at the Three Stooges and Cindy. "Let me get this straight, degeso…" Her face shadowed over and her aura turned dark. "Are you asking me to actually help you pollute my home with more of your trash, you lowly humans?" Her tentacles began to wave around like snakes. "I let it go last time because it helped me regain the use of my squiblilities, geso…" She eyed them with the gaze of a viper. "But I clearly told you what would happen if you did anything like that again, didn't I, degeso?"

"Alright! Alright, just calm down…" Cindy put her hands up. "We didn't mean any offense, Ika-Seijin…"

"I AM NOT AN ALIEN!" She exclaimed as she swatted them off into the distance. As soon as they were out of sight, she sighed. "Other fish-people? What is that about anyway, geso? I'm a normal squid, not some alien or hybrid, gesso…" She took one last look at the machine before running back to the Lemon Shack.

One week later, Ika and Eiko were moving some boxes to the dumpsters when a slight chilly wind blew through. "Autumn is right around the corner, after all…" Eiko rubbed her arms for warmth. She took a look at Ika Musume, who was still wearing her normal clothes. "I've been meaning to ask, aren't you cold at all?"

"Eh?" She looked confused. "Not really, I think I'm more worried about drying out that I am of freezing…" She replied normally. "The humidity in the air is much lower when it gets colder…"

"Where did you hear that?" Eiko stepped back, wondering where she got her information.

"The guy on the television said so…" She answered. Before she could continue, however, a loud crash interrupted her. "What the kraken was that, geso?"

"It came from the beach, let's go!" Eiko ran towards the beach, with Ika-chan close behind her. As they got to the beach a crowd of onlookers had stopped to stare at the sight from the street above. "Pardon us!" Eiko pushed her way through the crowd, pulling Ika-chan with her. As they reached the stairs, they realized what the commotion was about.

"Yahoo!" A voice rang out. The three idiots had another of their monstrous contraptions sitting there on the beach. It looked like a supercomputer with legs, and it was connected to an array of screens. "We've done it! The system is up and running!"

"What are you stupid 'geniuses' up to now?" Eiko sighed as she cautiously made her way towards them, with Ika-chan right behind her. As they got closer, they saw on the monitors what seemed to be a map of some kind.

"Hmhmhmhm!" Cindy chuckled. "This our Ocean-Creature Alert System, or OCAS for short. We've designed it to only respond to Ocean-Beings like the Ika-Seijin."

"Huh?" Eiko eyed her accusingly. "Again? Didn't you already try this?" Ika-chan started to narrow her eyes, starting to suspect something she didn't want to hear.

"Yes, but we can't be deterred by one mistake," Clark replied. "We've set up an entire network of relays to give us signals and a supersized radar pulse inducer to give us locations." He motioned to the screens. "This entire stretch of beachfront is lined with our relays, which will-"

Before he could continue, a loud crash interrupted him. Ika Musume had pierced the monitors with her tentacles. "So you did pollute the ocean again, didn't you gesso!" She snapped, eyes engulfed in rage. "I told you bozos last week I didn't want you doing this, but you went ahead and did it anyway, gesso! Well, I won't be letting this slide, degeso!" Ika Musume dashed towards the ocean, diving headfirst into the waters.

Eiko whistled, impressed with Ika-chan's outburst. "Boy, are you three going to get it when she gets back." She teased, but the three stooges had already run off, leaving Cindy and Eiko on the beach. "Ah, they ran away."

"Why is she so adamant about this anyway?" Cindy questioned. "I could understand if we tried to dump garbage into the ocean, but this is in the name of science."

"It doesn't matter," Eiko explained. "Ika Musume doesn't like it when humans put their stuff into the ocean. Whether they have good or bad intentions doesn't matter, she just wants to preserve the ocean as it is." Cindy looked over at Eiko.

"I'm impressed, Miss Aizawa," She smiled. "You seem to know more about the Ika-Seijin than I do!"

Eiko blushed and scratched her head, "It's not like that, she just won't shut up about her mission and world conquest…" She paused. "Personally, I wish she would talk a little about her own past. When we celebrated her birthday, she didn't even know how old she was."

"Considering what little knowledge she had of the human world, it's safe to assume that contact with the Lemon Shack was her first time interacting with humans." Cindy thought aloud. "Her coming to the Lemon Shack might have saved the world, you know?"

"How so?"

"Consider this; she has a multitude of fantastic abilities, including ten tentacles that could easily destroy an unprepared city." She smirked. "If we also take into account her learning curve, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that if she ever seriously tried to learn a fighting style, weapon development, or political empowerment, conquering the world wouldn't be that far of a stretch." Cindy nodded, feeling like she was on a roll. "If she had come ashore anywhere else I doubt anyone would have been able to stop her like Chizuru-san did."

"You've got that right…" Eiko chuckled lightly at the memory of when Chizuru struck fear into Ika-chan for the first time. As she did, the squid herself returned from the ocean, dragging behind her the device, or what was left of it.

"Take this trash back to the lab with you, degeso…" She said grimly. Using her tentacles, she dropped the heavy pile of wreckage onto the beach. "Tell those three sardines that I won't be as merciful on them as I was on the machine the next time they try this, degeso…" She strutted away, proud of how menacing she sounded. Eiko, however, didn't buy her tough girl act for a minute, but she was impressed at how thoroughly trashed the machine was.

She and Ika-chan headed back to the Lemon, while all but one of the onlookers dispersed. She wore a puffy, red hat, a flowing red sundress, and a pink jacket. She stared with a melancholic look in her eyes out into the ocean. "If only these days of peace would continue forever…" She sighed drearily. Her gaze turned to the figures of Ika Musume and Eiko Aizawa as they walked down the beach. "The door has been opened, and now it is time for you to step through it, Kanabe-san…"

Okay, here's my question. I'm having a little trouble coming up with a name for Ika-chan. Ika Musume isn't necessarily hard to write, but for the sake of my story, she has a true name, like Tanabe Kozue (Tako Musume). I am particularly fond of Isumi Kanabe, but I'd like to hear what my readers have to say. I'll try to work on the story when I can, but my job and schoolwork might keep be busy later on. Thank you for your support.

*UPDATE* The names has been set in stone. No more suggestions will be listened to.