We managed to find our way to Granate, with Anzeel telling us about the time she trained a cat to answer and send emails. While I couldn't be sure, I couldn't help but shake the feeling that this was the beginning of our Meofficer Corps program. As it turns out, we'd all been so engrossed in the tale that we'd nearly walked right past it. Fortunately for us, an eagle-eyed Yorktown had caught it and brought it to the good doctor's attention.

"Doctor, Professor, I believe the entrance to Granate is over there," she said, pointing over at a small, unassuming restaurant with a flower above its entrance in lieu of a name.

"Huh? Let's see…" Anzeel stopped in her tracks and looked where Yorktown was indicating for a half second before she excitedly nodded. "Anzeel Yeah, this is it! I'm glad it's still here. Looks like they've modernized quite a bit. Guess they've been doing well for themselves since I last visited." She shrugged and gestured for us to follow her. "Anyhoo, let's talk inside. You can't come by this campus and NOT pay a visit to Granate!"

We all filed in after Anzeel, with Yorktown and I bringing up the rear. I couldn't help that she'd been…well, not quite by my side, but she was certainly spending more time in my general vicinity than with the other shipgirls. Was it due to some unspoken attraction she and I(or at least, the "me" that inhabits this simulation), was it the Reality Lens reading my love and devotion for her and having this Yorktown respond in kind, or was she simply staying behind to make sure none of the group got lost along the way and her proximity to me was merely coincidental?

If you asked me two hours ago if would I have been happy just to see her again, I would have immediately told you yes. And yet this is almost torturous. She was here, right in front of me, in arms reach, and I had to exert every single ounce of self-control I had because if I just declared my undying, eternal love for her, I could have broken this simulation. And considering I was currently trapped in it, that wouldn't bode well for me. So all I could do was watch from afar. And it was killing me.

I sighed quietly as I followed everyone in. Perhaps having a quiet meal with everyone would help me figure out where I stood with everyone. Or at least one person in particular. In retrospect, I should have been more specific with that wish.

While I don't know how Granate looked back in Doctor Anzeel's college days, to us, it was a rather upscale, but cozy restaurant. She flashed a card to the woman at the door, and we were all ushered into a private room, which was elegant, bordering on luxurious.

As we gawked at our surroundings, Anzeel slipped the card back into her jacket and grinned. "I'm amazed they still accept my old membership card! Now this is why shops that've been around for a while are the best."

I couldn't argue with that, but still…"Doesn't it seem a bit too high-class?" I could hardly picture a struggling college student affording a place like this, emailing cat or no.

"Hmmm?" Anzeel glanced over at me, snapping out of the memory she seemed to have been caught up in. "Well, that's exactly what it's supposed to be. Or so I think, anyway…" She shrugged helplessly as she began checking around the table, even the back of her chair for something. "By the way, umm... does anyone know where the menu is?"

The rest of us begin to look around, trying to help her find it. After searching for a few seconds, I mutter, "You'd think with a place as posh as this they'd have enough funds for-"

Without warning, a loud, metallic, monotone voice blared across the table. "GOOD EVENING. DO YOU NEED SOMETHING?"

All of us let out a general cry of surprise and alarm as we looked at the robot that seemingly appeared from nowhere. Doctor Anzeel was the most startled out of all of us, clutching her chest as she tried to catch her breath. "Whuah?! Where'd this thing come from?!"

Unbothered by our sudden shock, it proceeded to hand us each a menu as it continued to boom out its greeting. "WELCOME TO GRANATE. I WILL BE YOUR WAITER THIS EVENING. PLEASE HAVE A LOOK AT OUR MENU."

"Well, it's dressed to look the part…" Northampton remarked as she eyed it up and down.

But no mere vest and bowtie could placate Anzeel, who gave it a long hard look. "Sheesh... Modernizing the shop is one thing, but this is ridiculous." Her eyes narrowed as her stare intensified. "I think I've seen you guys before. Aren't you, like, the fourth generation of E-Cube-powered service bots?"

The waiter-bot's response was less than helpful. "THANK YOU FOR YOUR COMPLIMENT. YOUR PRAISE MOTIVATES US TO CONTINUE IMPROVING OUR SERVICE."

"That wasn't a compliment in any... Meh, whatever," she sighs as she looks down at her menu. "At least they've kept their uniforms the same."

I glance over at the robot, eying it up and down. "I hope the human waiters wore a bit more than a vest and tie…" I quipped, much to the amusement of the shipgirls.

Anzeel shot me a brief scowl before she returned her attention to the menu. "To hold on to tradition, or to embrace modernity... Looks like the owner has thought about both." A small, nostalgic smile crossed her face. "Coming here again sure brings back some fond memories. So I'll have the usual for old times' sake. Seafood paella and a cappuccino, please."

"COMING RIGHT UP. WOULD YOU LIKE ANYTHING ELSE?"

The shipgirls began their orders as I waited my turn. Yorktown surprised me with an order of pub fries and an herbal tea, something I don't think I've ever heard her express an interest in. When it came to my turn, I couldn't decide to just…follow the doctor's orders. Or order, in this case. "I'll have a seafood paella and cappuccino as well."

The waiter-bot gathered up our menus as Yorktown smiled over at me. "Scallops still your favorite food, Professor?"

I was stunned by the question. How could this Yorktown have possibly known that? "Y-yeah," I weakly smiled back. "A rare treat-"

"-growing up," she finished, again, to my great surprise. Her smile grew even further, and I felt a blush cross my cheeks.

Time to see how much of this Yorktown is like my Yorktown. "And what about you, is your favorite still Beef Wellington?"

A soft gasp escaped her lips before she could get her hand over her mouth. "How did you know, Professor?"

Oops. Guess I wasn't supposed to know that yet. "Uh, must've heard it from Enterprise," I muttered.

Fortunately, Yorktown seemed to accept this answer. "I don't know why my favorite meal came up, but yes, that's correct. And I'm impressed you remember something trivial like that."

My next words came flying out of my mouth before I had time to realize their implications. "Anything about you isn't trivial to me."

There was a pregnant pause, followed by a chorus of oooohs led by Hornet, and Yorktown and I flushed beet red. "Not like that!" I snapped, trying to backtrack and failing miserably. It was exactly like that. Nothing about Yorktown was trivial to me because she was so unbelievably special to me.

In an unexpected twist, it was the waiter-bot who rode to my rescue. "WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO ORDER, MA'AM?" It barked at Yorktown, distracting us all with its booming query.

"Oh, uh, I'll have the loaded pub fries and an herbal tea," she said as she handed back the menu.

The robot gathered up our menus and bowed. "THANK YOU FOR YOUR ORDERS. THEY WILL ARRIVE SHORTLY." With that, it left us to our private room. Before anyone could say anything else, Hamman piped up from across the room.

"Hey, come check out the flavors on this ice cream machine! They've got everything, even pepperoni and jalapeno!"

All of the shipgirls got up and crowded around the machine, talking to themselves excitedly. I decided to stay seated and try and collect my thoughts, but then I noticed Anzeel sitting and watching them as well. "You're not going to take a look at the ice cream machine?"

"Did you know that it didn't always use to be a self-serve? You used to have to wait for people to bring out your ice cream." She sighed and shook her head before she shrugged. "But, that's one thing I don't miss about this place. Those flavors aren't something you come back for. Like, pepperoni and jalapeno. Who came up with that anyway?"

While it didn't sound like my cup of tea, I wasn't going to knock it. "I don't know about you, but that sounds like it could work. There was that chef who made fish ice cream taste good, after all."

Anzeel shot me a look that suggested I had gone completely crazy. "Are you serious?" she asked. When I simply nodded, she shrugged and said, "It's your funeral. At any rate, only kids would get fired up over an ice cream machine. Do I look like a kid to you?" As I opened my mouth to answer, she dropped her bombshell. "...Or, should I ask, how does the current 'you' perceive me?"

Uh-oh.

Her carefree demeanor vanishes as she leans in, becoming the serious scientist that had always been there. "You've been acting odd this whole time. Something about you just doesn't sit right with me Maybe you're just having a bad day. Maybe I'm just having a bad day. Or maybe…" Her eyes narrowed. "You've been replaced by aliens."

At first, I was trying to keep my poker face up, to make sure she didn't realize just how close to the mark she was getting. I had no idea what would happen to this simulation if someone pulled back the curtain, but I wasn't ready to take that chance just yet. And then she mentioned aliens and I let out a raucous laugh. I may have had a burgeoning identity crisis, but I knew I wasn't an alien. "Oh, come on, isn't that a bit far-fetched?"

She simply gave me a fatalistic shrug. "It's a non-zero possibility, so it could theoretically happen. Heck, it'd take an alien to enjoy pepperoni and jalapeno ice cream. So... Let's have a little pop quiz just to see if you're an alien imposter or not…"

I stared at her for a long moment, waiting for that grin to split her face again as she tells me it was all a prank. "...Are you serious, or are you just messing with me?"

"Do I look like I'm messing with you?" she shot back. Honestly, I had no idea if she was or not, considering I knew next to nothing. When I didn't answer, she pulled out the chair next to her and patted the seat. "C'mon, just take a seat right over there!"

That nervous feeling suddenly returned, and I could see no easy way out of this. If I objected, she'd know something was wrong. But when I inevitably get the questions wrong, she's going to realize the same thing. However, as I sat down, I got this…strange tingling sensation in the back of my head. Almost as if something had…awakened inside of me.

Either oblivious to or ignoring my growing nervousness and confusion, she begins her interrogation. "First question. Who am I?

The words came out of me automatically, as if it were a natural reflex. "You're Dr. Anzeel. You discovered Wisdom Cubes and pioneered their application, and now lead the Oceanic Federation's Wisdom Cube Research Team..."

Wait.

Her eyebrow raised up as she gave me a concerned stare. "Uhh... I said I wasn't messing with you, but you also don't need to recite my whole CV…Next question. What am I currently researching?"

"Practical applications of Wisdom Cubes, and the effect of nurture on KAN-SEN."

How do I know all this?

"What's the reason I came back to my alma mater?"

"To test the effect of Type II hull-fusion rigging on KAN-SEN combat capabilities."

What the hell is going on?!

"Who's the general I talked about earlier?"

"The vice-admiral of the Eagle Union Navy, head of Division 13, and supervisor of Cube weaponization research."

WHO AM I?!

"Finally, who is Dr. Aoste?"

"Your colleague at the university, a leading expert in the fields of Energy Cubes and artificial intelligence, as well as head of the 'Antiochus' project." Wait. I knew that name. Antiochus. That was the name the Ashes Enterprise said, that we were all Antiochus' pawns or something like that. Before I could ruminate any further, I was startled by Anzeel's laughter.

"You actually answered everything!" she cheered, almost as surprised as I was.

"We good?" I asked as I caught my breath. "No more questions?"

I immediately regretted that as she began to tap her stylus against her chin. "Hmm... Actually, I have one more question, but my gut tells me it's not a good idea to ask it right now."

Despite my earlier reluctance, I couldn't help but wonder what she meant by that, and despite my better judgment, I pressed her. "No harm in being extra thorough…"

Her eyes bored into me for a few more seconds before she shook her head. "Forget I said that. You're in the clear. I can safely say that you have not been abducted by aliens. We all have those rough days, huh?"

"Yeah…" I chuckled weakly as I tried to wrap my head around what the hell just happened. How did I know those answers? Some, like Dr. Aoste I recalled from the events in the Northern Parliament, and others I knew them in name only, but this level of detail…was this the Reality Lens overriding my brain and answering for me, or…or was this something else? Were these my memories? Was I really this…Professor? If I was, then…who am I now? Or…me now when I'm not trapped in a simulation created entirely in my brain. God, this was getting insanely complicated.

"Guess who's back with ice cream!"

The sound of Hornet's voice derailed my train of thought, and I looked up to see the girls returning with ice cream in their hands, and in Hammond and Yorktown's case, two ice cream cones in each hand.

"We got something for each of you as well!" the carrier beamed as the others giggled and whispered behind her. Although not so quietly that I couldn't hear them…

"She's really gonna do it?"

"If Yorktown said it's fine, no harm to it, right?"

"Oh boy...I suppose it'll be fun to see how they react."

Anzeel's nose wrinkled as she already knew what was coming. "The colors on those cones... Ugh, those are nasty flavors."

Hornet grinned as she doffed her hat and motioned to the ice cream cones as if she were a carnival showman. "Allow me to tell you your choices! The one with the yellow cone is yogurt beef flavor. And the red cone, that's pepperoni flavor!"

"Pepperoni?" Anzeel chimed in, fixing me with an impish smile. "Wow, that's the Professor's favorite!"

Hamman looks surprised, but nevertheless thrusts it out towards me. "I-it is? Okay, it's yours!"

I reluctantly take the ice cream cone from Hamman before shooting Anzeel a dirty look. Her impish smile broadened as she playfully patted me on the back. "Come on, chow down! Don't let perfectly good food go to waste!"

I was about to say something biting and acerbic until my eyes fell on the other ice cream cone. "Of course, but before I do, dear Doctor, I hope you realize your fatal mistake…" When she fixed me with a puzzled look, I smiled wolfishly and said, "You've got to eat the yogurt beef flavor."

Anzeel's eyes widened as she realized she'd just played herself. "I-you-we…ah, drat…"

I took a triumphant bite of my treat and immediately learned two things. One, pepperoni ice cream is not, I repeat, NOT, a good flavor. And two, eating really bad food will not eject you from the Reality Lens.

After rinsing my mouth out repeatedly to get the taste of that awful ice cream out of my mouth, we all finally sat down to a delicious meal. Anzeel had been spot on, that seafood paella was delicious, and it seemed like the shipgirls all enjoyed their lunch as well.

As I looked around the table, I saw Yorktown put her phone down and she addressed Anzeel. "Random question, Doctor, but I just looked up the name of this café. Apparently, it comes from granatum, the pomegranate flower. Do you think that has any special significance?"

Doctor Anzeel pursed her lips and let out a long sigh before she answered. "I mean, the meaning of a flower changes from country to country, so it depends on who you're asking. That said, I have heard the granate symbolizes 'yearning for happiness' and 'a chance about to be missed.' It also symbolizes abundance and the blessings of life. Put that together, and you probably have something like 'a hearty meal not to be missed out on.'" She shrugged. "It's been around for a long while, and their food is the best for miles around. Then again, I can't remember the last time I ate at any other café or restaurant in this area…" Suddenly, her eyes went wide and she began pawing at her coat pockets. We all looked strangely at her until she fished her phone out of her pocket and stood up. "...Hang on, I'm getting a call."

Her jovial expression had vanished, replaced by that serious, almost brooding look as she walked out of earshot of us and put the phone to her ear.

With Anzeel temporarily out of the conversation, Yorktown turned her attention to me. "What about you, Professor? Are you very knowledgeable about flowers?"

I chuckled softly as I shook my head. "Not at all, I'm afraid. Just a few rose colors, and that's about it. Never been one for horticulture, on the grounds that I've killed just about every plant I've ever had."

"You do get pretty wrapped up in your work sometimes," she acknowledged with a soft smile. "I remember days where you'd forget to feed yourself, so it's no wonder you'd have problems with plants."

"Getting better at feeding myself," I grinned.

"And plants?" she asked with a teasing smile.

"One miracle at a time."

The table broke out into laughter until Anzeel came striding back, her face still serious. "I'm back. Sorry that took so long."

"Big news?" I asked.

She let out a long sigh and nodded. "Yup. Change of plans – General Garfield is going on an urgent mission tonight, so our meeting has to happen now."

There was a chorus of disappointment. Hornet was the most vocal, putting words to the general discontent. "Now? But we're not done eating yet…"

Anzeel looked pained but stuck to her guns. "I know, but there's nothing I can do. It's an emergency situation. Must be pretty serious too, because he sounded like he was in a pretty bad mood." She glanced over at me, looking at me as if she was still weighing me up. "Professor, I was originally planning on bringing you along. But I don't think I should put you in front of the general's fury while you're still…'not fully awake.'" So she must have realized I wasn't truly the Professor on some level but still trusted me. Maybe because I'm that one percent, whatever that meant. "I'll deal with him myself. In return, keep these girls busy, will you? Oh, and take my credit card. Take them on a shopping trip and go watch a movie or something. I'll go take care of the bill first. Enjoy your day off, girls!"

She tossed me her card, and I barely managed to snatch it out of the air before I turned to the assembled kansen, all of whom were looking expectantly at me. "So…where to, ladies?"

A/N-Don't mind Max, he's just having an existential crisis while trapped inside a computer simulation that may or may not be based on his own memories of himself from either the past or an alternate dimension. We've all been there. Until next time, fair winds and following seas!