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Helen climbed out of her cab and paid the driver, shelling out a hefty tip before she walked away. She had the slightest sensation she was being watched, but shrugged it off as she made her way to the store. IKEA was and always had been her favorite, but without one around she was going to have to explore a new style of decoration...

Helen walked through the doors and was greeted by a very zealous salesman. "How can I help you today?" he asked enthusiastically. Apparently Helen exuded either sucker mentality for cute men or exhorbanent wealth.

"Well, I just moved here from..."

"Let me guess, Ireland?" he asked. *Smartass,* Helen thought.

"What gave it away?" she said instead, laughing slightly. "Don't answer- I'm looking for pretty much everything- do you deliver?"

"I'll bring it to your house myself," he laughed in response. Helen rolled her eyes.

Two hours later Helen left the store having purchased a sofa, dining room table (she decided to give the whole sitting on the floor to eat a try and bought a low sitting table and floor cushions), a few lamps... and a phone number sat in her left jeans pocket. She smiled slightly and hailed a cab- she had a lot more unpacking to do... namely of her phone.

Barel's post

"You already know why I am. I want those things."

Helen waited for the delivery truck; it was early the next morning and most of her boxes were unpacked with nowhere to put their contents. Helen stood in the middle of her bedroom in a pair of green velour lounge pants and a black t-shirt, ready for another day of work. Once she'd unpacked and gotten her place situated enough she decided she would start looking for a job; she had plenty of money but it wouldn't last forever... plus she needed to establish herself somewhere so when fighting demons got to be more full time she could take some time off.

Her doorbell rang and Helen jumped, her breath sucked in as a gasp. She calmed down moments later and realized it was her furniture arriving. Opening the door, Helen saw two delivery men standing there with the bellhop, who tipped his hat and walked away. One of the men held out a clipboard; Helen signed and they proceeded to, through a series of trips, bring in her furniture.

After the delivery men had brought in all her furniture, they tipped their hats and left. Helen let out a sigh of relief as she saw a sofa, tables, and lamps sitting around her.

"Now I just wish I had help moving all this stuff around..." she added, reaching into her pocket. She felt the scrap of paper furniture guy's name and number were on.

"Matsuo Makoto," Helen repeated aloud. She had a little difficulty with the name. "I hate being so foreign sometimes. Still, I bet he'd love our first date to be helping me move furniture..."

Barel's post

"My message was the attack on the city." he said.

Helen lingered in front of the phone, the reciever in hand. She quickly dialed, then waited until the other end picked up.

"Um... hello," she said, her voice shaking. *I must sound so horrible with my accent,* she thought. "Matsuo Mokoto, please."

"He is not in right now," the femaled voice on the other end replied. "Do you have a message for him?"

"Y-yes, this is Helen Shannon- I was a customer of his at his place of work yesterday."

"And he should call you?"

"N-no, no- I'll try him later. Just let him know I rang him up."

"I will. Goodbye."

"Bye..." Helen trailed off, hanging up the phone. *What a mess I am; I really need to get this place in order so I can start looking for my fellow senshi- I hope they know who they are; I'm not going through the discovery phase again like I did with Agrona... that was such a nightmare.*

It was days later and Helen had, sadly alone, put together her apartment. She had been unable to get a hold of Matsuo Makoto, who had called her back only for her to miss him once again...

She sighed and looked around before locking up and heading out. She had investigating to do so she could find her allies... or enemies, whichever happened first.

Barel's post

The small camera probe continued to follow Helen. It took pictures every five minutes.