A few days later, Hina left Ankh with Gotou and Eiji at Cous Coussier and returned to the antique store for her order. It was better than she had expected-rather than the plain metal creation she had envisioned, the store owner had embedded scraps from his ring-making into its surface.
The crimson gems refracted and reflected the light, making them appear to glow from the inside. She delicately turned the replica medal over, admiring the way the jewel scraps shone; it was easy to understand why they were called "magic stones", and how the counter worker could mistake a medal for one. She just hoped Ankh wouldn't make the same misidentification.
"What do you think?" The store owner interrupted her trance, chuckling. Hina was still visibly starstruck by the work when she answered.
"It's beautiful." Behind the counter, the boy with the handprint belt buckle smiled.
Chaos greeted Hina when she entered Cous Coussier; Chiyoko seemed to be in a standoff against three policemen, shielding Eiji and Ankh behind her.
"What's going on?" Something about the officers felt off to Hina, and standing near them was making her uncomfortable.
"These guys are trying to make Eiji and Ankh leave." Chiyoko growled, not even breaking eye contact with the officers.
"He's been seen sleeping in parks and under bridges in the past-" one of the policemen pointed at Eiji, "-and he-" they gestured at Ankh, "-was spotted climbing in the window here in the middle of the night." Hina blinked in surprise-when had that happened?
"But Eiji has been living here for months now." Hina responded instinctively, "how far back are you going for this?"
"We can't allow such suspicious people in the neighborhood." The policeman continued; Hina frowned-they weren't listening at all. No wonder Chiyoko sounded so frustrated. A second policeman spoke up,
"If you continue trying to shelter them, we will close this place down."
"Fine." Chiyoko snapped, raising her head defiantly, "just try it, you sleazy, shit-brained-"
"We'll go!" Eiji cut his manager off, trying to move between her and the officers, "it's okay, we can go, you don't need to close this place-"
"Over my dead body, maybe." Chiyoko grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him back, stepping in front. "You two aren't going anywhere, and no one's closing anything."
"No, no-" Eiji frantically headed towards the door, open hands raised as if to gesture the situation to resolution, "we'll go, it's fine, don't worry about us-right, Ankh?"
"Huh?" If the situation had been less serious, Hina would have laughed-the Greeed hadn't been paying attention at all.
"We. Are. Going. Ankh." Eiji muttered through gritted teeth, grabbing the Greeed by the wrist and pulling him out the door. As he passed by her, he gave Hina a nod to promise that they'd rendezvous later.
The policemen turned to leave, but Chiyoko stopped them by placing her heeled foot on the closest one's crotch.
"Not so fast."
"If you resist..." The officers let the threat hang in the air as they brandished their batons.
Chiyoko turned to her worker, "Hina, go tell those two to come back. I'm going to-" she kicked the officer back and tossed her hair over her shoulder, "-talk to these policemen for a bit longer." The other two men raised their weapons and charged Chiyoko as their comrade fell backwards.
Within seconds, the two men were disarmed and on the floor; the third quickly met a similar fate at Chiyoko's trained reflexes. Despite her own victories against the inhuman, Hina stood in awe of her boss's prowess.
"So cool..." the other woman flipped her hair out of her face and grinned.
"Hurry up, you can still catch them!" Hina returned Chiyoko's smile with a nod and dashed out the door.
Opting to leave the neighborhood, Eiji led Ankh to the small river that ran through town. They sat around for a few minutes before the Greeed became bored and started throwing rocks at the shallow waters. Eiji couldn't tell if he was trying to skip them or if he even knew what skipping was, but they infallibly plunged under the surface. Occasionally, one would ricochet off the rocky riverbed and burst out of the stream, but never more than once.
"So," Eiji began after watching Ankh sink another stone, "what are we going to do about the rest of our kin?"
" 'Our kin'?" The Greeed whipped his head around to scowl at Eiji, "there's no 'our' in this, human."
"We don't have a way to remove these medals." He placed his hand on his chest, "Even if I'm not a Greeed now, I will be later. I might as well start thinking of myself as one."
With an irritated noise, Ankh stormed towards Eiji, grabbing a fistful of his shirt and hauling him up with it.
"Don't get so full of yourself," he growled, close enough for Eiji to feel his breath, "You're nothing like a Greeed." He released his ally roughly, practically shoving him away.
"I'm more of a Greeed than you." Eiji stated calmly. Ankh's expression darkened, and Eiji continued, "you have Shingo's human senses, people you care about-"
"I only care about myself." Ankh snapped.
"You're pretty protective of Hina."
"That's only because she's OOO."
"Oh?" Eiji spotted something behind Ankh and smiled. A chill shot down Ankh's spine when Eiji's expression didn't reach his eyes. "then you won't mind if I-" Eiji moved to pass Ankh, but the Greeed grabbed him by the upper arm, digging his talons into Eiji's skin. Eyes like hellfire met Eiji's cool gaze.
Ankh didn't know how much of "Eiji" would be left after his transformation, but he was sure of one thing; the Greeed in front of him was dangerous. And it was a Greeed in front of him-Eiji's masklike smile had practically walked out of Ankh's nightmare.
Hina was within earshot now, but Ankh wasn't going to hold back for her.
"I could kill you all if I needed." Hina's paced slowed to a shocked halt.
"I don't think that's true, Ankh." Eiji didn't seem to hide the ease with which he dismissed the Greeed's claim.
Rather than reply, the Greeed strode over to Hina; she had fear in her eyes, but she stood her ground, even when Ankh wrapped his taloned hand around her throat and squeezed.
Shingo fought back on instinct, and Ankh couldn't tighten his grip to a lethal one. He shoved his host's consciousness down deep, where he couldn't interfere, and tried again. He glanced from his hand to Hina's eyes, as though one of them held the reason his fingers wouldn't move. What he saw in her eyes shook him; not even a trace of nervousness was left of her terror. He could feel his body trembling from anger-it was anger, wasn't it?-and Hina's racing pulse beneath his palm, contrasting to the calm beat in Shingo's hand-or was it the other way around? He suddenly became aware of his breathing, and how fast it was, and how he couldn't tear his gaze from Hina's. Ankh was sure, in that moment, she could see every cell medal that composed his body and where the core that held his consciousness was.
Yet, somehow, when she closed her eyes and trusted him with her life, he felt even more vulnerable.
Revolted, he let go of her roughly and stormed further down the river, unable to look at Eiji as he went by. The two humans watched him go; Eiji broke the silence with an uneasy chuckle.
"Maybe we should postpone the party." Hina shook her head gently, still able to feel the warmth of Ankh's scales on her neck.
"After what just happened... Now I'm sure the party is a good idea."
"Ah." Eiji's smile melted away suddenly, "We can't leave Ankh alone right now."
Hina frowned, "Did something happen?" They started walking briskly after the Greeed.
"A Yummy attacked me this morning. Gotou and Ankh showed up and chased it off. Gotou's been patrolling for it since, but he hasn't seen it again."
"What kind?"
"Bird."
Hina groaned, "I really hate those..."
"Mmn. We were trying to figure out what its food was when those policemen showed up."
"What was with those guys, anyway? They seemed a bit..."
"Controlled?"
"The Yummy?"
"We think so."
They caught up to Ankh-he was standing in place, staring at the sky. Hina scanned the region he was watching-it was a flock of birds. Hina smiled and continued toward him, taking Eiji's left hand when he hesitated. Ankh pretended to not notice them, even when she slipped her fingers into his right hand. She stole a glance at his expression; upon seeing the red tint in his cheeks, she squeezed a bit with her left hand. The muscles in his neck tightened as he swallowed, and skin and calluses turned to talons and scales under Hina's touch. She adjusted her hand to a more comfortable position and returned to watching the birds in flight.
"E-ver-y-o-ne!" Minutes later, an excited voice ended the group's silence. The boys let go of Hina as the three of them turned; Chiyoko stood on the side of the road, behind and above them, grinning and waving energetically next to a cart full of decorations and the Cous Coussier sign. "They said I had to close shop!" Eiji looked concerned, but Hina beamed and started walking up to the cart; they would have Ankh's party right here.
By the time the cake arrived, the decorations were put up, and the candles were lit, the sun had begun to set, and Ankh was still disgusted with himself for not leaving so much as a scratch or bruise on Hina's throat; Shingo smugly telling him that that's what caring about someone felt like hadn't helped his mood. He similarly hadn't figured out what the point of throwing him a birthday party was, or why they were all so obnoxiously chipper about it.
When the humans were satisfied with their impromptu setup, they dragged Ankh over, sat him down in front of the cake, put a stupid-looking hat on his head, and sang him Happy Birthday. His sulking only seemed to fuel their joy, turning the song into an uncoordinated musical number. In the middle of the song, he made the mistake of catching a knowing glance from Hina; the memory of her hand in his came flooding back. He remembered how his skin becoming scales had not only failed to scare her away, but made her grip firmer. The warmth he had felt at the time returned and spread it through his body. He redoubled his efforts to frown as hard as he could, glaring at the cake as if to intimidate his name off of it.
Even so, when his hat fell from his head, he put it back on its perch-with the most disgruntled expression possible, of course-and blew out the candles when the song ended. Whether the Greeed secretly enjoyed the party or not could have easily become a debate topic among the humans, but no one doubted that he liked the cake. Ankh devoured a third of it singlehandedly, then, unable to eat another bite, he tried to store another slice in his hand when Chiyoko wasn't looking.
The party began to wind down once everyone had eaten their fill, and one by one they left for their beds. Hina offered Eiji her apartment, but he turned her down, saying it had been a while since he last got to sleep under the stars-the situation was temporary, anyway, as it was the Yummy's doing. Hina and Ankh were the last to leave, taking a casual pace back to their home-the OOO user was fairly sure the Greeed was queasy from the unholy amount of icing he had downed, and either didn't understand the feeling of nausea, or refused to let it control him. Regardless, she didn't want the night to end with him finding out what his cake tasted like coming up.
Ankh was quiet the whole trip back; it was a tired silence rather than his usual irritated one, and Hina decided the night had gone well. She changed into sleepwear when they got inside-the Greeed wasn't the only one worn out. She emerged from her bedroom with her wrapped present to find him sitting at the table normally for a change, staring into space and nibbling on a stick of cinnamon; he had taken to sampling the spice rack recently. He looked up when Hina took the seat next to him.
"Happy birthday, Ankh." She placed his gift on the table in front of him, along with his hawk medal. "And this is from Chiyoko." Hina set a small memory card next to the wrapped package. If he didn't immediately realize that Hina's present was a locket, he'd figure it out once he saw the card's contents; Chiyoko took photos of her workers like a doting mother, and the card contained everything since Ankh's arrival. The Greeed stared at the two objects for a few seconds, bewildered, and the OOO user took it as her cue to retire to her room.
Once Hina's door had shut behind her, Ankh tentatively picked up the package, slit the paper gently with a talon, and peeled it away with human fingers. If it was something edible, the last thing he needed was it to be scattered on the floor from his carelessness, and if it was a piece of technology, accidentally damaging a wire or screen would be disastrous.
Even if the Greeed had expected the necklace, he couldn't have dreamed of the design. His eyes widened slightly as the blood-red jewels caught the apartment light, glowing in their metal holdings, and the reason for Hina getting the hawk medal out became clear as he turned her gift over in his hand, examining it. The red fragments had been carved, sanded, and placed carefully to make the medallion identical to his medal, the details outlined in copper, and hung on a fine chain of the same. The sides were done in reverse, metal strips that revealed slits of red, and-He narrowed his eyes; he wasn't sure if the slight ridge was what he suspected, but...
Tentatively, Ankh pulled the opposite side of the replica medal apart; it opened smoothly on its carefully disguised hinge, revealing an etched copper interior of several thin metal circles with glass plates, accented with tiny shards of red and twinkling with embedded jewel dust. He closed it, examining the sides again-even though he knew it was there, he still couldn't see where the two halves pressed against each other.
After turning his gift over a few times to admire the way the light moved through such vividly red stones, he turned his attention to the memorycard. He could guess at what might be on it, but he wouldn't know the contents without the computer in Shingo's room. He left the table for the night, taking his gifts with him.