The Return of Lan Fozi

On the shell, Lan Fozi saw distorted shapes resembling little jellyfish and fish chasing and playing across the screen. The images were simple, their colors limited to the pearly white and pale blue glow of the shell itself, but the sense of a story unfolding still held her spellbound.

In the days that followed, the music box that could make all kinds of sounds and the shell screen that could show stories in light and shadow became Lan Fozi's best companions against loneliness.

Of course, during that time, the human world Ursula had described did drift through her mind now and then.

A place with real lights, cities, and gatherings took shape in her heart alongside the bustle from the music box and the stories on the shell screen, its outlines hazy but alluring.

Yet even the most novel things eventually grew tiresome.

The music box could simulate only a handful of sounds. After hearing them dozens of times, Lan Fozi could even predict what would come next.

The stories on the shell screen were simpler still. The same few shapes moved back and forth, never doing anything new.

She stopped channeling Soul Power through her fin. The light and shadow on the shell screen faded, leaving it an ordinary giant shell once more.

The music box happened to finish a cycle as well. The nest instantly returned to its old deathly silence, broken only by the slow movement of the currents.

A familiar emptiness and boredom welled up in her heart once more.

I'm bored of them.

Lan Fozi swished her tail fin and circled the spacious nest. She looked at the two toys she had once been unable to put down, but now they seemed utterly dull.

Ever since visiting Ursula, seeing those strange and fascinating things, and