Having been away for so long, I was sure that someone must have missed my awesome cooking, and so chose to wake up much earlier than usual to prepare breakfast for the three of us. The clock struck five A.M. as the kitchen came to life with the sounds of oil frying in a pan just before a bowl full of raw egg yolk was dumped into said pan so they could be turned into scrambled eggs. Before the yolk could fully solidify in the heat, additional ingredients, such as ham, a bit of shredded cheese, scallions, and onions were poured into the frying pan to give a much needed extra 'zing' to the normally bland breakfast. Though I regretted adding more scallions than I had intended—since they were intended to be used in the making of handmade flower buns—the eggs tasted much better with spring onions in it, so there wasn't any harm done in creating this ultimate "flavor explosion", though, in retrospect, the scallions made the eggs taste saltier than I—or the Chinese friend I had made and learned to cook from while abroad in Japan—would have liked.

Someone had planned ahead, knowing I would be eager to make more delicious Chinese food for him and Kristy as soon as I got home last night, because the refrigerator was stocked with all the ingredients I would need and usually asked for if it was not my turn to do the shopping. It was not yet clear who had actually gone through the trouble of making the half hour drive to the local Asian Food Market, though the presence of many red colored foods in the fridge made me believe it had been Ankh who had done the shopping. As it turned out, it had been him. Kristy had sent him off on his own about two days before to take advantage of a sale going on at the store, and he had taken the opportunity to buy himself a lot of peppers (thankfully not the very spicy kind), which were quickly becoming his new favorite food.

A little digging in the fridge later, I was suddenly hit with inspiration and stuck my entire head and arms into the freezer so I could retrieve a package of pork and lettuce pot stickers. Though they were supposed to be easy to cook, being frozen and all, Hua Li, my friend, had shown me otherwise. The trick was to add a bit of water at various intervals to keep the top of the dumplings moist, but too much water, which had to sit on top of a thin pool of oil, could ruin the taste and the look of the things. There was also a need to make sure that the pot stickers did not live up to their namesake and actually stick to the bottom of the frying pan, because while the bottoms of the dumplings were meant to be burnt, they could not be unpalatable, or the entire meal would be ruined.

Pot stickers by themselves are not very nice looking, but I managed to arrange them all in a circle on a large plate after taking them out of the pan one by one so that they looked like they were protecting a pile of eggs I had dumped onto the center of said plate. According to Hua Li, Asian people say that the best dishes appeal not only to the tongue, but to the eyes and nose as well. It makes sense, because who wants to eat a dish that looks bad on first sight? If the eyes can't stand the sight of a dish, then it would make sense that a dish might not taste very good as well. There are exceptions of course, but it's logical to want to make food appealing to the senses.

The smell of food must be working its "appealing to the nose" magic, because as soon as I put my finished breakfast on the table the door to Kristy's room opened and she came out, still in her pajamas, to sniff the air and ask what I had been cooking for the past half hour or so.

"Mm, smells good." She said. "Eggs for breakfast at last. You won't believe what Ankh usually makes in the morning."

"What does he make?" I wanted to know.

"Definitely not scrambled eggs, that's for sure. Apples. He gives me warm apples. Sometimes he has them sliced and served with dip, but they're always never chilled."

"Apples are good."

"Not when they always come to me feeling like they've been sitting over a heating vent all night. What did he do, roost on them beforehand?"

Hearing this I fought the urge to express my mirth. But the thought of Ankh squatting over a bunch of apples and occasionally standing up to turn them over before going back into "roosting mode" was too much for me to bear, and I couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"Oh god, I can't imagine that. But anyway, come and eat. There's plenty for everyone."

"Pot stickers? That's…that's my favorite food! Save some for me." Kristy said happily as she came forward to pick up a pair of chopsticks so she could select a dumpling for herself.

Ankh was still asleep when Kristy and I left for Greenwich Aquarium an hour later, since he was going to join us at the place later after he had gotten an extra hour or so of sleep. According to Kristy, Ankh had stayed up late a lot recently since his work required him to do so, and was a lot more amicable—if Greeeds can be described as amicable—toward people if he had had his rest. He would join us at noon, just in time for lunch, and since he knew the way to the aquarium and had my Ride Vendor at his disposal, there was no need to worry about him not being able to find us later.

The aquarium was housed in a newly constructed building, which made it appear new from the outside, though in a way it was old because it had everything the old aquarium—long since demolished to make way for this one—had, and not much else. It did, however, feature a glass tunnel with a moving walkway, which visitors could go into if they wished to see fish and other various marine animals swim over their heads. It was this tunnel that Kristy steered me into first, as she wanted to see the sharks and manta rays that had just been added to the exhibits before the dolphin show began after lunch.

"There's another tunnel on the other side of this building." I pointed out as my friend pushed me past a colorful coral reef—whether it was real or not I did not know—and took out her camera so she could snap a photo of a passing tropical fish swimming next to a diver cleaning the glass above us. The diver waved to her in response, and the two of them exchanged thumbs up signs before I was forced to stand beneath the guy so Kristy could snap a picture of both me and him holding up 'v for victory' signs. "You had to do that, didn't you? In case you haven't noticed, he's got a job to do, and you're holding him up."

"Oh no, please don't tell me you're turning into Ankh #2." Kristy replied. "He obviously didn't mind me taking a photo of him. Now could you give me another smile and a v sign so I can get a proper picture of you—Hey, that was fake! Do it again!"

"Aw." I answered, but decided to lighten up and let Kristy snap a better picture of me. After telling her to not distract more divers, I then reminded her once again of the other tunnel, and had to chase her when she heard me say that there would be rare fish there and rushed off to see if the description in the guidebook I had purchased at the information desk back at the entrance was true.

As Kristy had predicted, Ankh showed up just in time for lunch. Because we failed to inform him of our exact whereabouts, he had to search through five of the fifteen fast food restaurants in the food court area of the aquarium before he found us, but the three of us were reunited in the end. Having already ate before his arrival, both Kristy and I were not interested in the food he had brought from one of the fast food vendors in the area, though both of us found we still had room for a small platter of fries and half a fried fish sandwich each.

Many people tend to make small talk when they eat with friends and family, but Ankh chose to go a different route. Instead of catching up on the latest gossip, he suddenly went on this rant about human nature and our existence in general. He was particularly interested in the theory of human evolution, so we naturally talked about Darwin and his theory of survival of the fittest. Ankh believed his race, the Greeeds, also followed Darwin's theory to a certain extent because they did evolve to survive after the destruction of their tenth Cores. He also commented that it was a miracle that humans, being supposedly weak because they lacked defensive mechanisms, such as fangs and claws, had managed to survive for thousands of years.

"And you humans are crazy." He said with a mouth full of pizza. "You're like the guy who kept bugging me to go see 'AVATAR' with him until I actually went along with his stupid plan to hit the movie theaters."

"You saw 'AVATAR'?" I yelped after nearly choking on my piece of fish, and my eyes practically bulged out of their sockets when he confirmed that he had indeed seen the movie. Even Kristy's jaw dropped at this time, and she nearly let go of the soda bottle she was in the process of opening.

"Yes, and I don't know why people think it's such a great film. Who's this James Cameron I keep hearing about?"

"Well, James Cameron's a famous director because he directed another blockbuster film called 'Titanic.' That film made history when it first came out, so that's why people literally flocked to the theaters again recently when they heard he was coming out with another potentially award-winning film."

"That would explain why the theater was so crowded my co-worker and I could only find seats in the last row. Anyway, so I went to see the film, just to shut him up, but the movie just got him even more excited afterward. It was hard trying to restrain myself from punching him in the face when he handed me the last of the popcorn to take home after the film was over."

"Sorry to hear you had such a negative experience at the movie theater." I answered, then looked at my watch and noted the time. "Well, if it makes you feel any better, how about letting me buy you some ice cream before we head out to watch the dolphin show?"

A cute blond trainer in a blue and black swimsuit waved pleasantly to the audience as she stepped up onto a platform laid out over the large pool next to her. Beside me, Ankh grumbled to himself as he turned on the digital camera to commemorate our trip with a couple of memorable photos and carefully made his way down to the first row of seats so he could get a better photo of the dolphins frolicking in the water. Due to the noise of the crowd, I couldn't hear him very well, though it wasn't hard to guess why he was so upset. Despite being a bird Greeed, Ankh did not have a drop of waterfowl blood in him, so I could understand why he disliked anything to do with water—the undrinkable kind, of course.

The trainer smiled as she saw that camera bulbs were flashing on all sides of the arena, since she liked the publicity she was getting from being one of the main stars of the show. While turning to wave at the spectators, she scanned the audience, hoping to find a volunteer for her little performance, since she usually started the dolphin show by having her co-stars give a lucky person a friendly tail slap that left them all soaked to the bone.

"Hi, my name is Emily, and welcome to the Greenwich Aquarium!" she announced loudly soon after she had mentally picked out a volunteer for the dolphins, Lulu and Henry, to enjoy splashing. "Today, we will be showing off some relatively new residents of the dolphin exhibit, Lulu and Henry!"

Emily now blew a whistle, and the dolphins leaped out of the water upon command to wow the audience by jumping through two hoops suspended from a beam hanging over the pool. Unable to get out of the way in time, I saw Ankh yelp in indignation as the dolphins splashed back into the water, causing him to get a bit wet.

"My, my, who is this? An enthusiastic volunteer?" Emily now turned her attention to Ankh, who was in the process of wringing out his shirt. The camera was waterproof, so there was no worry about our film getting ruined, but his shirt was no longer dry and clung to his skin a little, even after he had wrung out the excess water. "Lulu, Henry, say hello to him, quick!" Emily then blew her whistle twice, and the trained dolphins swam up to Ankh at once. They then hauled themselves onto a little platform just below the surface on the side of the pool before turning around to slap their tails on said platform, causing a small but powerful wave of water to drench Bird Boy. "Good job, guys! Way to go! Now you've just made a new friend! Say hi back to Lulu and Henry, good sir. You can pet them if you like!"

Ankh didn't want to pet the dolphins, but because the audience expected him to do so, he went up to them and gave them a few rubs each before backing off and returning to his seat beside us. Luckily we were not sitting in the splash zone and so our benches were still dry and warm from having been exposed to the sun still shining overhead. The warmth of the sun was a welcome thing, because by the end of the show he was back to being perfectly dry, and this improved his mood. He was still a little peeved about having been splashed though, so we brought him another popsicle after the show before sending him home. This was a satisfying way to end the day (for Ankh at least), and as soon as he had finished eating he was off to the parking lot, leaving Kristy and I alone once again to enjoy the rest of the programs and exhibits offered at the aquarium.

Edith White shook her head as she went through the year's budget charts and financial reports. The year had not gotten off to a very satisfactory start, and she wished there was more to offer the visitors.

"We need more dolphins and seals." She said to herself. "Maybe an extra tropical fish or two. And a shark. And lots and lots of eels. People want to see more exotic species."

Mrs. White, having made up her mind about what to do with the rest of the money still in the organization's bank account, now went to her laptop to fill out a couple of request forms for various animals from other aquariums and zoos nationwide. But at the last minute she erased all the data she had entered into one of the forms and closed the application, since she was beginning to doubt the results of this spontaneous expansion of exhibits. The owner of the aquarium had put her in charge of managing the financial aspects of the place, and she wasn't ready to ruin his trust in her by spending every little hard earned penny they had raised over the years all at once. Expansion was, after all, a time consuming process. Firstly, they had to make sure the public was ready to see new animals at the aquarium. Before acquiring any animal, they also had to get approval from the town council, since they were the ones who decided how much of the state budget would go into maintaining this attraction.

But alas, Mrs. White's desire had attracted the attention of a young Japanese girl pretending to be interested in an octopus currently entertaining visitors through its attempts to open a jar full of chopped fish. It was Mezuru in disguise, though no-one knew that yet. Even I was not yet aware of her presence, since not only had she not assumed her Greeed form to deposit a single Cell Medal into her latest victim, but Ankh was no longer around to alert us.

Unaware of the danger behind her, Mrs. White hummed to herself as she picked up a binder with the entire year's financial statements and began going over them once again to track the flow of money starting from last January. So engrossed was she in her job that she barely felt the tingling sensation of a Cell Medal going through the back of her head. She even ignored a sweet sounding voice telling her to unleash her desire and set it free.

But someone had seen what was going on. Kristy had been in the process of walking past the financial officer's office, which was behind a door labeled 'for employees' only on her way to the stingray exhibit, when she heard a muffled voice coming from behind said door. She had almost ignored it, but Mezuru had been talking in Japanese when she told Mrs. White to unleash her desire, and her voice was loud enough to be heard by Kristy.

"Michelle, come quick!" she immediately said into her phone a few seconds later, and I was soon by her side.

"What's up, Kristy? You sounded all panicky all of a sudden. You okay?"

"I think there's a Greeed in there." Kristy replied, and we both watched as the door opened, revealing Mezuru in her human form.

Of course, having never seen Mezuru in person, I did not have any idea who she really was. I was therefore about to chastise Kristy for raising a false alarm, but it was here that the Greeed made her first mistake.

"You're that human Ankh's chosen as the next OOO, aren't you?" she asked. Her eyes narrowed as she looked up at me. Having chosen the form of a pre-teen, Mezuru was currently a head shorter than me, so I had a hard time believing that she could be a threat at first. "You had better watch where you step, girl, or it might be the end for you. I'm not going to go down that easily."

"Um, what?" I asked, confused. "How do you I know I'm OOO?"

"Gamel told me about you." She answered, and rolled her eyes as my jaw dropped in surprise. "You humans are too easy to catch off guard."

"Let me guess, you're here to make a new Yummy." Kristy told her, and Mezuru nodded.

"Of course. We need Cell Medals, after all. Our bodies are incomplete. But I just might have the latest Yummy destroyed to save you a lot of trouble…if you'll give me back my Unagi Core. When Kazari returned four of the Medals Ankh had stolen from me, he did say that Ankh must have secretly kept one of my Cores, because last I checked, I was missing five Cores. That dratted boy—Hino Eiji, I believe—used Kazari's Medals to get them back in Japan, and I want them all back."

"Sorry, but I don't have it on me." I answered after regaining my composure. "And even if I did, I wouldn't give it to you. No offense, but I think we'll be keeping the extra Unagi because according to Ankh it's the only thing besides Gatakiriba that can stand up to your offspring. And since I don't even have Gatakiriba Combo at my disposal at the moment, it would be bad if I gave up the remaining trump card—I mean Medal, right?"

Hearing this, Mezuru stamped her foot in anger when she realized she wasn't going to get her way and considered raising her arm up to send a powerful jet of water in my direction, but by now a crowd was gathering around the three of us, and she didn't want to attract more attention than was necessary. "You wait. I'll be back. You better watch your back, because sooner or later I will come again. The Unagi Core is mine, and you'll do well to remember that, girl."

"Give my regards to Kazari." I answered just as hotly. "Tell the cat that I'm willing to fight him as many times as possible until he gives back the Cores he stole from us back in May. He's given us enough grief. Could you tell him he now owes me a new tent? He ripped the last one."

"Kazari won't do you any favors, but I'm sure he will be more than happy to get his claws on you and Ankh." After pausing to take a deep breath, she glared at me before continuing to speak. "I'll let you keep the Unagi Core for now, since a fight in this place will just attract attention, but bask in your victory while you can, because there's no way I'll let you keep it in your possession for long."

"Just…go away, okay? We're on vacation here, and you're ruining it. C'mon Kristy. We'll come back later for the Yummy."

With that, I turned around to follow Kristy to the stingray exhibit without so much of a backward glance at Mezuru, who was now biting her lip in frustration. Then, as spectators watched, she turned back into a pile of Cell Medals and, in this form, flew up into the air to fly out of the room as fast as she could in her haste to report what had transpired to her fellow Greeed.