[Justin712]

Hi! I'm kinda new at this, and I only recently enrolled in a formal Japanese class, so my apologies in advance if this question seems a bit obvious or simple. (or I completely mistranslated it. There's always that.)

I already know about some of the uses of the te form and the bases, and also that the -tte particle is used as a sort of verbal quotation mark etc. My problem is that I've seen some cases where the tte comes before a ru, and I'm pretty confused by this. I figure it's probably because I'm only beginning to scratch the surface of how these endings are formed, so I could really use some help getting pointed in the right direction.

That aside, here's an example from the intro of Phantom Hourglass:

どうせ　どっかのあくどい海賊が　わるさをしてるに決 まってるよ！

douse dokka no akudoi kaizoku ga warusa wo shiteru ni kimatteru yo!

I'm pretty sure it says something along the lines of "Anyhow, vicious pirates doing bad things (it's) settle(d)" or in other words "Anyhow, it's probably just some pirates up to no good", but I'm more concerned as to why that tte is in the middle of kimaru and how it affects the tense of the verb.

Thanks in advance!