Meanwhile, halfway across the island, a fly buzzed across the island. It was a simple, purple fly, no different from any other fly as it just tried to survive in a cruel, harsh world. That is, until a seemingly giant red foot stepped on the fly and rendered its existence moot.

"Chihiro," Wham-Shell called as he stormed across the sandy shores. "I'm not sure if you consider this a game or not, but it's not funny anymore! You can come out now!"

Silence. Piercing silence.

"Come on, this is getting annoying!"

Wham-Shell stopped short as he heard a rustling from the bushes, then twisted around to find a crab as it bustled about on its own business.

Wham-Shell only heaved a sigh. "Just a crab, Wham, just a crab." Wham-Shell pulled himself up and looked ahead. "I'd better go find Chihiro before this place gets the better of me."

As Wham-Shell dashed off on the track, another person darted through on the left—and as nature would have it, a crash collision happened next! The other person shook their head and groaned as they rubbed their aching cranium while Wham-Shell fell back into the beaches,. Wham-Shell peered up, and found that staring him in the face was none other than Gill Grunt!

"Oh, hi Wham, didn't see you there!" Gill Grunt chirped as he waved at Wham-Shell.

"Neither did I," Wham-Shell replied as he rolled his eyes. "Onto serious matters, have you seen Chihiro yet?"

"'Fraid not." Gill Grunt's smile turned to a frown as he shook his head. "She's a little too good at getting lost for her own good."

"Took the words right out of my mouth." Wham-Shell stood up and dusted himself off. "Next matter of business, have you seen any trace of the Eternal Water Source?"

"Not a sign, I'm afraid. Just a bunch of sand, insects, the occasional pirate or two, oh, and these weird statues."

Gill Grunt pulled out an obsidian statue shaped like a face, and in response, Wham-Shell pulled out a similar-looking one from behind his back.

"How many of these are there, anyways?" Gill Grunt asked as he glazed over the statue once more.

Wham-Shell didn't answer Gill Grunt's question—instead, he focused on the pathway ahead of him as he frowned.

"Did you hear that, Gill?" Wham-Shell asked as he looked back at Gill Grunt.

Gill Grunt rocked up his nonexistent ears and tilted his head. "Hear what?"

A little ways across from where they currently stood, something that almost sounded like someone moaning out of pain resounded!

"It sounds like someone's hurt!"

The two of them nodded and rushed across—however, they didn't bother to see where they were going, and it lead to Wham-Shell accidentally stepping on a peculiar thing that stuck out from the sand!

"Ouch!" exclaimed someone from underneath a pile of golden sand grains.

Gill Grunt and Wham-Shell backed up to find a hand stuck out from the heap of golden sand. That hand was joined by another hand, and then two arms, and finally a head and torso as Chihiro pulled herself out from the pile she dug her way into.

"Chihiro?" Wham-Shell and Gill Grunt exclaimed in unison as Chihiro shook the sand out of her hair.

"You guys always have the ruin my plans, don't you?" Chihiro asked with a playful look on her face as she chuckled. "So, did I look like I was buried alive or what?"

Chihiro pulled herself out of the sand and wiped down her clothes from any lick of sand, but frowned as she was greeted by a notable lack of laughter.

"Yeah, yeah, I know, pretending to be buried alive isn't actually that funny." Chihiro rolled her eyes before a thin smile broke across her face. "But you gotta admit, I got you pretty good there, didn't I?" Chihiro crossed her arms and huffed as Gill Grunt and Wham-Shell rolled their eyes and smiled. "Sheesh, where'd your sense of humor go?"

Wham-Shell just rolled his eyes and cleared his throat. "All pranks aside, we still need to find the Eternal Water Source," Wham-Shell said as he crossed his arms, "and lollygagging around won't do us any good."

"Yeah, yeah, but what will?" Chihiro retorted as she flopped back onto the sand. "'Cause I've searched all over this darn island and I haven't found a thing!"

"Did you really?"

Wham-Shell gave Chihiro a fairly humorous gaze, one that only grew more suspicious as Chihiro squirmed and giggled nervously.

"Well, maaaaybe I spent more time on a wild imp chase and turning a palm tree into my personal fortress, but that's not really important." Chihiro was struck by an idea as she sprang back up with stars in her eyes. "Unless my lead's correct…"

"Unless what lead's correct?" Gill Grunt echoed as he drew closer to Chihiro.

Chihiro rummaged around inside her pockets, pulled out an obsidian statue and showed it to Wham-Shell and Gill Grunt. "Do you guys recognize this statue?"

"Oddly enough, yes!" Wham-Shell said as he pulled out the statue he had and allowed Chihiro to gaze over it. "Tripped on one of those darn things earlier."

"And for that matter, one of those statues knocked me on the head too," Gill Grunt added as he pulled another identical statue out from behind his back, "and got me chased by a pirate mob, but that's another story."

"Good!" Chihiro chirped with glee, then giggled and scratched the back of her head. "About finding the statues, I mean, not getting hurt by them." Chihiro snatched the statues from their hands, made a saddlebag out of magic and stuffed them inside. "Now, I heard this weird mob of pirates talking about how Kaos wanted to keep these statues out of anyone's hands, and if he doesn't want us getting them, then surely there's something important about them."

"And you're sure their word is reliable?" Gill Grunt asked as he raised an eyebrow. "For all we know, they could just want to sell them for a pretty penny."

"Well, I did hear some pirates say somethin' like that when I found that thing," Wham-Shell remarked as he cast an aside look at the ocean.

"Maybe these things are the keys to getting the Eternal Water Source!" Chihiro tightened the magic saddlebag's strap. "Looks like right now, collecting these things is the best chance we've got!" Chihiro looked over at the others and urged them with a nod. "Come on," Chihiro turned around and readied herself for a run. "I was chasing some imp that had one before it got—"

Chihiro stopped short as everybody heard some kind of gibberish cackling, and looked ahead of the path to find a red-skinned imp that looked vaguely like a cartoon devil not that far off! It was small and round, and within its skinny arms it caressed an obsidian statue with ruby eyes!

"THERE IT IS!" Chihiro pointed at the imp with all manner of urgency. "AFTER IT!"

As Chihiro jabbed her finger frantically towards the imp's direction, the imp took one look at her and scrambled! Its little legs ran off in such a fury that all one could see was the gigantic cloud of dust and disturbed sand it left behind.

Not one to be easily stopped, Chihiro zoomed off once more—though in the dust cloud, she couldn't see a thing and ended up tripping on a stray vine! While she fell on her face, her saddlebag's flap flew right open and tossed the statues into the air, and each one conked Chihiro right on the head in succession.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch!" Chihiro sat up and rubbed her aching head. "Why do these kinda things always happen to me?"

§

"I think it went this way!" Chihiro shouted as she pointed ahead and ran with Gill Grunt and Wham-Shell still hot on her heels.

Her breath was heavy as Chihiro sprinted across the sand and kicked up dust wherever she went, and her eyes trained on the track of imp footprints before her. The island's paths seemed to sprawl on forever and ever, and the rows of palm trees were completely identical in tune no matter how far she went, but Chihiro wouldn't let that stop her; she had to get that imp!

Chihiro stumbled forward and just barely dodged a stray vine, then stopped short as she heard a shrill scream! The scream faded into the atmosphere moments afterwards, so Chihiro only shrugged and ran forwards. As she did, the trees around slowly dispersed now that she got further into the path. Soon enough, they cleared completely—and so did the imp's footprints! They just abruptly stopped at a pair of worn leather boots that sat devoid of ownership.

"Where'd that imp go?" Chihiro asked as she knelt down and examined the boots. "For that matter, where am I?"

Chihiro spread out her arms and gazed about. Of course, Chihiro's arms were full of statues, so as soon as they shot out, the statues dropped to the ground once more! As she heard a loud clank, Chihiro looked down and giggled.

"Heh, don't mind me, just getting these statues, doo de doo de doo~" Chihiro scooped up the statues, and gazed back over at the area.

The area before her was simple and much different compared to where they were before; it was a stone platform that held a cubic, black shrine posed with four square holes and not much else. No trees or any other kind of vegetation, no pirates, and other than one short dock that lead to an equally-small island… In summary, pretty much nothing. However, the shrine caught her intrigue nonetheless—something about it felt so, so, mysterious.

"This thing's missing something," Chihiro mused as she walked over to the shrine and gazed at its holes.

"Like whatever's supposed to go in those slots, bright eyes?" asked a familiarly gruff voice.

Chihiro turned around, and watched as Wham-Shell walked up to her with Gill Grunt close behind and pointed towards the empty slots.

"Ah, yeah."

Chihiro picked up a statue and examined it as she hovered its base above the shrine's slots. It seemed to be the perfect size—what if? Chihiro levitated all three statues she owned, slowly slid them into the slots, and it was a perfect fit! Like a key in its proper lock, the statues slid into the holes and stuck themselves tight with a magical whooshing noise. But, there was still one slot open.

"That's gotta be the last statue," Chihiro remarked as she glazed over the empty slot, "but we have no idea where it is now." Chihiro heaved a sigh and looked over the ocean's cascading waves. "Okay, Plan A didn't work, time to go Eternal Water Source hunting—"

"Uh, excuse me? Were you talking about a statue?" asked a familiarly whiny voice as all three heads turned to face a certain seafoam green gillman!

"Gurglefin!" Chihiro exclaimed as she furrowed her brows. "How'd you get here?"

"I took the back way." Gurglefin pointed his fin towards the side of the island, where another dock stood with Delilah parked next to it. "Didn't you know there was a back way?"

"Not really." Chihiro shook her head then turned her confused expression serious. "Now, what do you know about a statue?"

"Well, it just so happened that I saw some pirate carrying some strange onyx statue onto a boat!" Gurglefin turned around and gasped. "And would you look at that, there's the boat!"

Gurglefin pointed towards the ocean as everybody else gasped,! There, a brown oakwood pirate ship with black jolly roger sails cruised away as gentle waves caressed its hull. It seemed like it was awfully far off, too!

Chihiro's smile turned sour as her eyes glazed over the ship, and she took a deep breath as she gazed down at the sea.

"Swimming lessons, don't fail me now!"

Wham-Shell grabbed her by the back of her shirt before she could dash off once more, and pulled her down to his height.

"Hey!" Chihiro turned back to Wham-Shell and frowned. "What was that for?"

"Think this through, Chihiro," Wham-Shell said as he stared her down. "There's a giant fish with a taste for flesh swimming in that water. Do you really want to go for a dip?"

Chihiro gazed to the side with tear-stung eyes. "No." Chihiro shook her head and balled his hands into fists. "But what can we do? Those guys have the last thing we need to get the Eternal Water Source!"

Chihiro stopped and looked down at the sack of marbles she still had tied to her sweatpants. "Wait, I know!" Chihiro opened up the sack and dove her hand inside, but felt nothing other than felt. With a sigh she closed the bag and tossed it aside. "Dangit!" Chihiro stomped her foot in frustration. "I must've used up all those marbles chasing that imp! Now what?"

"We could shoot it down," Gill Grunt suggested as his eyes trailed off from Wham-Shell and Chihiro.

"With what, Gill?" Wham-Shell asked as he crossed his arms.

"For starters, we have an empty turret right over there."

Gill Grunt pointed all four sets of eyes to an empty wooden turret in prime condition that was stationed a little ways away from the statue.

Wait, when did that turret get there? Chihiro frowned and crossed her arms as she examined it; she sure was missing a lot of things today. Oh well, bygones are bygones. Chihiro gained a mischievous smile on her face, the kind of smile she got whenever she felt like causing trouble, and made an equally-mischievous giggle.

"That will work just swimmingly, Gill!" Chihiro exclaimed as she grabbed both Gill Grunt and Wham-Shell's hands.

Gill Grunt and Wham-Shell looked at each other and gulped, as if they knew full well what a look like that from Chihiro entailed—and it wasn't good.

Chihiro dragged them towards the turret, let go and slammed glowing cyan hands against the top of the turret. With a mechanical whir, the turret spun around before it clicked and fixed itself on the ship! With that said and done, Chihiro grasped her hands around the wheel of the turret and piloted! Chihiro trained herself on the hull of the pirate ship as the crosshairs popped out and focused further.

"Ehehehehe!" Chihiro's eyes narrowed and a hyperactive grin spread across her face. "RAPIDFIRE MODE GO!"

Chihiro slammed her fingers against the handle's buttons, and cackled as spheres of magic screeched toward the ship! Despite their relatively small size, they were fast and they were many as they crashed against the side of the pirate ship. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to compensate for strength. When the dust had setttled, they hadn't even made a scratch on the ship itself!

"No way!" Chihiro exclaimed as her face fell, "Not even a dent!" Chihiro shook her head and pushed the wheel further. "What am I doing? They're getting away!"

Chihiro sent rows after rows, battalions after battalions of those magic spheres towards the ship as it sailed further into the horizon, but it was no use! They were still far too weak to damage the ship! Chihiro winced and clenched her teeth as she held the wheel as tight as she could with her sweaty hands. She had to think of something, fast! That pirate ship was going to be out of shooting range if she didn't! But, no matter what her mind was at a complete blank.

She looked to her side, and loosened her jaw as she saw Gill Grunt whisper something, to Wham-Shell. What were they possibly talking about?

"Desperate times call for desperate measures, I suppose," Wham-Shell sighed as he pounded his mace against his fist.

Wham-Shell walked over to the turret, pried its top open, and gestured to Gill Grunt. The two of them hopped into the turret with no words spoken, and Wham-Shell pulled the turret's top back down! As he did, the two large, silver knobs on the turret's roof glowed a bright blue in color while lighter blue Water Element symbols shone in their centers. A new power, perhaps?

Chihiro smiled as she slammed her fingers against the buttons once more. Time to test this out!

"EAT THIS, YOU SCURVY DOGS!"

Out from the turret shot an entire gigantic barrage of gigantic, glowing water spheres that crashed into the ship's hull! By the time the assault had cleared, a sizable hole formed while the ship slowly sank into the calm waters! Looks like they'd be joining Davy Jones in his locker.

Satisfied with her work, Chihiro jumped out of the pilot's seat and rapped against the top door of the turret. The door opened by itself to reveal a very exhausted Gill Grunt and Wham-Shell, who both panted and looked as if they were about ready to fall asleep.

"Sorry guys, I didn't mean to wear you guys out too bad!"

Chihiro giggled and gently patted them on their heads. With that said, Chihiro skipped off and peered over the island's edge, fully ready to start swimming. That is, until she noticed something float closer in the distance.

"Now, what could that be?"

Chihiro knelt down as the object floating closer to her position, and revealed itself to be none other than the statue she had been looking for! Chihiro scooped up the statue and twirled it around. "Guys, I've got the statue!"

Gill Grunt groaned and peered up with a still-tired gaze on his face as he fruitlessly tried to keep his eyes from closing.

"That's great, Chi, now if you'll excuse me," Gill Grunt said as he flopped back down on the wooden floor of the turret. "I'm gonna get some sleep."

However, Gill Grunt was not going to get his wishes today, for Chihiro dashed over and grabbed him by the collar of his wetsuit.

"You can sleep when you're dead!" Chihiro exclaimed as she yanked Gill Grunt out of the turret and ran off. "For now, we've got a source to get!"

As they ran off, Wham-Shell groaned and opened his tired eyes as he climbed out of the turret.

"Wai, wait up, you two!" Wham-Shell half-exclaimed as he stumbled across the shrine.

Chihiro sprang and leaped all the way through the shrine's island while she hummed a tune to herself, and slowed down as she arrived at the empty slot's spot. Chihiro twirled around on the heel of her foot and fit the statue into its slot.

"And here we are!"

Gill Grunt and Wham-Shell groggily followed behind her, for they were still clearly tired. As they groaned and looked up, something finally brought them back to alertness! Both their eyes grew wide as they pointed behind Chihiro and tugged on her sleeve.

Chihiro yanked away her sleeve. "Geez, don't you know that it's rude to point?" She scoffed for a moment, turned around, and gasped!

"There it is!"

There, right behind her was none other than the Eternal Water Source! It wasn't much larger than maybe a dinner plate, but it seemed to radiate with so much raw power, the kind that made Chihiro soaked to the bone even though she was mostly dry. Just being next to it made her feel so small!

Chihiro dashed onto a rickety wooden boardwalk, and paused to gaze at the Eternal Water Source's majesty some more. The Eternal Water Source carefully hovered down as she watched it with sparkling eyes, and it nestled itself tightly in Chihiro's grip.

"And now that we've got this baby, let's head back to the island." Chihiro smiled as she looked back at Gill Grunt and Wham-Shell. "Between the three of us, I'm pretty sure Gurglefin's gonna panic if he stays here any longer."

But as Chihiro walked back to their side, a mighty rumble shook the entire island and sent everybody on it to their knees! Gill Grunt and Wham-Shell pushed themselves back up while Chihiro shuddered as she clung to the Eternal Water Source.

"Did you guys feel that too?" Chihiro asked as she hugged the Eternal Water Source tighter than before.

Gill Grunt and Wham-Shell didn't have time to respond, for another earthquake forced them down on the ground. While they struggled, the quakes grew more and more violent, and not to mention more and more loud, until they couldn't even hear their voices.

Chihiro rolled over and peered over the side of the dock and proceeded to gulp.

"Guys," Chihiro gulped once more, "I think we have a problem."

Chihiro looked under the docks once more, where a giant, blue fish swam all around and crashed into the island—was that the Leviathan? Probably. The Leviathan roared, and jumped out as they scrambled to their feet and gazed it over. They couldn't help but freeze in sheer awe and fear as they watched it; after all, it was as big as a small island!

"Yeah, on second thought, the fish in the marketplace weren't nearly as big as that thing."

Before Chihiro could make one more smart remark, the Leviathan screeched down and swallowed her, Gill Grunt, and Wham-Shell in one gulp.