Leaving DC had been good to her. Returning home had helped stabilize her more than she thought it would. She’d reconnected with her culture and even managed to make one or two friends who weren’t intimidated by her scars and eye patch she wore.

Rin managed to hold down a normal life there. The pull to transform was gone, the weight of the world finally felt a bit lighter…

And then she had to return back to Destiny City. She told herself she was going to keep her head held high and attack her problems head on instead of hiding out and hoping someone would come and save her. That’s what she’d been doing since she was corrupted. Just hiding in a shell of a human, in the shell of a senshi, lost without a true purpose.

Well, she might not be as devoted as some to the cause, but she could definitely do better at her job than she had been.

The first thing Rin was going to do, however, was get a hair cute and dye. She’d been growing her hair for too long, hiding behind it, using it like some kind of comfort item because it had been there with her.

“It’s just hair,” she told the woman cutting her hair when asked if she was really sure. She was donating nearly three feet of hair after all. “So I’m sure. I’ll just grow it back if I miss it.” The waver that threatened her voice didn’t happen.

The first cut had Rin feeling lightheaded already, but that anxious pit in her stomach wasn’t there. This was the right decision, she decided. It wasn’t going to be a crazy hairstyle, but for her to have hair above her shoulders was a big step for her. So, taking a big, deep breath, Rin let the technician continue the cut.

A few hours later, after a lightening job, Rin stepped out of the hair salon dizzy but buzzing with some sort of adrenaline she hadn’t felt in a long time.

In the days that followed, Rin cleaned her entire house from top to bottom and decluttered. She got the second bedroom set up as a sort of ‘den’ of sorts, with a desk, some shelves, her computer desk and computer, a small coffee table with some chairs. It was better than staring at it as a bedroom and reminding her how alone she truly was.

The next thing she tackled was her clothes. It only took one glance for her to realize that much of her closet was black and that wasn’t good. Not for the ‘new’ Rin. She needed some muted colors in there! Blues, grays, greens. She loved soft, muted colors versus bold and bright.

So, while she settled back into her bookkeeping routine for Romano, she ordered herself some new shirts and skirts to play around with, including more things she could wear to work.

Sometimes all it takes is a change of scenery to open you up to how miserable you were making yourself. Yes, she’d had a hard time of it, but she didn’t have to dwell on it anymore.

Change is good. Embrace it.

(Word count: 531)