Standing in front of her mirror in the privacy of her bathroom, Gently examined the long bruise on her hip, the scuff marks and the street burn. All in all, not a terrible result after falling from the top of the library. Her face was bruised, but that would heal. Her hands were red from washing blood off of them a few too many times to make sure every trace was gone. She had already taken a shower, her short hair wet and sticking to her head and neck, towel dried and forgotten. Her eyes lingered on the reflection in the mirror.

She had won tonight. The fight, in simple terms. She had defeated that senshi. Her trap for the man had worked, and he ended up surviving what she had thought for a few moments in the midst of it all had turned into a murder. It was strange how far what had started as a game, a challenge she took up in her own mind, had gone. How it had twisted and changed, and gave her too much to think about. Too much to understand and sort.

Running her hands through her hair, she shook her head and tried to snap herself out of her reverie.

“Come on, Gently. You’re fine. You’re fine. You won, you survived, and you did awesome. Your plan worked, your hard work paid off. It went just like it was supposed to,” she locked eyes with herself again, eyebrows lifting as if she were really trying to convince that person in the mirror of her point. “Even the stuff you didn’t plan.”

The reflection looked skeptical.

Pulling on her clothes, careful of the painful injuries, she wandered out into her living room and took up residence on her very comfortable sofa. There were pillows all around her, each one with a different image from famous movies depicted on it. She had a bottle of cold beer and the dvd player’s remote in hand, browsing her collection of DVDs on the shelf across the way as she was very used to doing. She had to pick something to watch, to keep her mind light and calm. Normal. She just had to slip back into her normal routine.

Taking a long drink from her beer, she looked at the bag sitting on the coffee table. The torn remains of the outfit she had made, looking miserable and useless now, though the theory had been good. Maybe there was more in that, dressing as a senshi. There was the javelin-like spear she had made for Mr. Saddles. Now that she was sure she could do more with. It had worked much better than the bat she had tried before. Pointy was probably better anyway. For battles, at the very least.

She got up and wandered listlessly into the kitchen. Wandering through the house, it seemed. Leaning on the sink, she finished the drink and moved to the fridge for a second, though it seemed it was her last one. She would have to remember to pick up some more some time. Tonight was probably the most in need of alcohol she had been in a long while, and even though she was being a lightweight about it. She looked at the refrigerator, the sticky note clinging to it with a list of things she needed to remember to buy. She added beer to it, sighing and moving back out into the living room.

This time she drew closer to DVD shelves, looking at each title slowly. She read them in her mind, as it kept her thoughts full of easy, simple words, and the attached images of movies she remembered, scenes she had experienced before. Familiar. Simple. She didn’t pick one to watch again, though, instead deciding to go over to the couch and switch from the DVD to the television.

She would have to be more careful.

Making plans included picking the right targets. They included picking the right reasons. To do her work, she needed to stick to the end result: serving. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes for a moment as she cleared her mind. What happened tonight was important. She could learn from it. About how to fight senshi, how to treat humans, how to do her duties accurately and still keep true to herself. The difference between taking necessary and unnecessary risks. Of making choices that could do herself good or do everything wrong. She might not yet know what all those things were, down to a science or fact, but she knew that she had given herself a jumping off point, quite by accident.

She was willing. Adaptable. She sighed, relaxing back into the sofa and settling on a movie she found on television, though it had already started. That didn’t bother her, she could just catch up and figure out what had happened. It was what was going to happen that was important.

In the end, that was always the most important part. The end.