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Encounter Kino Makoto quickly locked the door behind her as she entered her apartment. She flipped the light switch, wincing as the florescent bulbs flickered to life. Letting her eyes readjust, she headed into the kitchen.
When she came home, she realized just how much she valued the time she spent with the Senshi. The loneliness of the apartment had intensified in the absence of the latest squabble between Usagi and Rei or Minako’s constant chatter. With a smile, she put her purse and jacket on the table and headed to the fridge. She poured herself a glass of milk and grabbed a couple of cookies from a platter on the counter. Makoto never knew when Usagi would decide to drop by for a visit, but she knew that she had better have something sweet available. Thinking of Usagi, Makoto made a mental note to try that new cake recipe she found the other day. She sat down at the small kitchen table, thoughtfully chewing a bite of cookie. After a couple of bites, she decided that the recipe was fine. However, she would try some variations later. With a sigh, Makoto decided to start her homework. While she did not possess Ami’s genius, she was a fair student, her grades much better than Usagi’s and Minako’s. However, the homework assignment tonight was for her physics, a subject she hated. She got her school bag and pulled out her physics textbook and notebook. Taking note of the assignment, she dutifully turned to the page and started the reading. Within moments she was forcing herself to read the next word. The current topic in the class was quantum physics, the branch of physics dealing with matter at the atomic level. Despite all her effort, Makoto couldn't make herself care about objects so tiny that humans would never be able to see them. Tonight’s reading was about the wave/particle duality of the atom. “Why can’t they make up their minds?” she muttered, rereading a paragraph for the third time. She slammed the book closed in frustration. It was getting late and she was tired. Tackling the physics assignment was not helping her mood at all. It was too late to call Ami, she realized, surprised to see how late it actually was. She took her glass to the sink and rinsed it out. After tidying the room back up, she turned off the light in the kitchen. She paused in the living room, noticing the effect the moonlight had on the room. Since she had become a Senshi once more, the moon held different meanings and distant memories for her. Still in a state of reverie, she picked up a small frame picture. The picture was the last one she had been in with her parents, just a week before the fateful flight that had taken their lives. She traced their faces with the edge of a fingernail, allowing herself to feel the aching absence their loss had created in her life. “It was so unfair,” she whispered. A tear splashed on the frame’s glass. Makoto hugged the picture to her chest before setting back on a table. Heading to the window, she wiped viciously at the tears. In her dreams, she sometimes saw shadows of people that she knew that she was suppose to know. They were from her past, quite possibly from the Silver Millennium. However, Luna and Artemis could not give her any answers or even clues to how they might be. ‘Are there other Senshi out there?’ she wondered, pressing her forehead against the cool glass. ‘Are there others like me and my friends?’ Suddenly, something felt wrong. Goosebumps appeared on her arms as Makoto turned to her front door. Without warning, the door flew off its hinges and landed in her living room. Two women entered the room, stepping around the battered door. “Who the hell are you!” Makoto demanded, taking a defensive stance. The taller woman swept a glance over Makoto. “Please,” she muttered. Placing one hand on her hip, she used the other to hurl a ball of energy at Makoto. Makoto dove out of the way, only to roll to dodge a similar strike from the woman’s shorter, purple hair companion. Getting to her feet quickly, Makoto ran in a crouch to the kitchen, heading for the fire escape. “Come back here!” one of the women yelled. ‘Like hell I will,’ Makoto thought. She hurled a couple of the kitchen chairs behind her and then reached into her pocket for her communicator, the whole time heading toward the fire escape. She needed to put some distance between her and the attackers before she could transform. ‘And,’ she realized glumly, ‘I need help fast.’ She kicked the window, not wasting the time trying to open it. She ignored the pain as the shards of glass tore at her leg. She was absently grateful that she was wearing pants. “I don’t think so,” the taller woman called when Makoto was halfway out the window. As Makoto made it to the landing of the fire escape, she felt something exploded behind. She pulled herself into a ball in a desperate attempt to protect herself from the hurling debris and the erupting flames. Makoto forced her protesting body to rise. She stumbled to the stairs of the fire escape as the two women emerged unscathed from her apartment. A series of energy balls sent Makoto into the metal guardrail of the fire escape and then into the alley below. She landed in a pile of trash before bouncing unto the pavement a few away. She could hear the two women coming leisurely down the fire escape after her. Knowing that she could not fight in her present condition, she managed to open the communicator. She smiled as Ami’s concerned voice crackled from the communicator and then the whole world faded black. |
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