There was something to be said for switching things up if they weren't working. Nausikaa knew this intimately. Things weren't working in the White Moon for her, so she had switched to the Dark Mirror Court. In truth, there was more to it than that, but that was the gist of it. Just a few days ago, too. The last couple of days had been spent establishing her new life, both as a civilian and as a Dark Mirror Senshi, but mostly as a civilian. So much paperwork to do! But the Mauvian that Prince Remarque had contacted got everything sorted and now she was set. Chloë Albritton, assistant appraiser of antiques and grad student at DCU majoring in Ancient History and Archaeology. That was who she was in her civilian life.

But right now, she was Nausikaa, Dark Mirror Senshi of Empathy. And she was having a blast.

Vibrant turquoise eyes gazed out over the lights of Destiny City as they had when they were brown. Everything looked the same… yet everything looked different too. Everything definitely felt different. The smattering of White Moon auras Nausikaa could feel were totally different – where she once just let them wash over her, now they grated against the back of her mind. She could feel Chaos agents running around too, but where they once irritated and made her skin crawl, they just felt different than her own Dark Mirror aura. Not bad, just… different. This was going to take a little getting used to, but not in a bad way.

She stood tall in her now-black outfit and pulled her blue hood up over her head with a smile. First thing she'd done after getting everything arranged in her new life was get a haircut; where once her dark dark auburn hair was worn in a simple bob with heavy fringe in her face, now it was in a shaggy "wolf cut" – took a little getting used to, as she'd always worn it in that bob, but she felt it was time to change things up a little with her look too. When she looked in a mirror, she didn't see the girl she had been, she saw who she was now, and that pleased her no end. At her core, she was still the same person she had been – the orphan who'd lost her mother to cancer at a young age and her dad to a broken heart not too long ago, the car-crazy owner of a miniature sports car, the history buff who loved antiques, the lifelong vegetarian who loved animals more than people. She'd been a little surprised that she'd remembered everything, and a lot pleased. She didn't want to lose those memories, they were at the core of who she was.

Nausikaa leapt across the alley below to an adjacent rooftop and began running, smile still firmly on her face. She was going to have to play around with the whole collecting energy thing sooner or later – keeping Mirrorspace full of energy and happy was the top priority moving forward. The more energy Mirrorspace had, the more it would open up, with new places to explore, new mysteries to discover. Plus there was the whole saving-humanity-from-itself aspect of this. Frankly, she couldn't imagine a safer place to go than Mirrorspace, even though it was still moderately unstable now with its ever-changing rooms and limited access to the Mirrorscape (which she couldn't wait to explore!). But energy was key to stabilizing Mirrorspace.

Maybe she should try it now.

Spotting a couple making out in the shadows of an alley, Nausikaa stopped and removed her new mirror shard from subspace. Now, how had she been told to summon the mirrorwraith? Ah, right. She concentrated for a minute, and a thin, nearly-transparent wisp emerged from the shard. Pointing at the couple and nodding, she watched the mirrorwraith drift down lazily to the couple and float right through both of them. It did this a few times, growing increasingly more material in appearance, until it seemed nearly solid. As the hapless couple slowly sank to the ground, the wisp returned to the mirror shard in Nausikaa's hand. Was that it? It seemed so simple, so painless for all involved…

She sent the shard back to subspace. This was going to be so easy.

The sudden presence of a White Moon signature got her attention. That's right, they were the enemy now. She focused on it, and was able to discern that they were stronger than she was. Time to get out of here! She retreated back the way she came at full speed, laughing lightly as she ran. Hopping down to a lower building, she kept to the shadows and ran to the other side of the rooftop before jumping down to the ground below, in another side street. Behind a dumpster, she powered down, hoping that would be sufficient for the White Moon to lose her trail, then strolled out onto the street like she was just minding her own business, just another dumb civilian out later than she should be.

Chloë let the gentle spring night breeze waft over her as she walked, a subtle smile playing over her lips. Piece of cake.

Hopefully there wouldn't be any youma out tonight – that would ruin her mood just a little, but not too much. She still intended to continue dusting any youma she came across, but it was more for fun than anything else now. As she had been told, there was something of an uneasy alliance between the Dark Mirror Court and the Negaverse; everyone basically kept out of everyone else's affairs, only interacting when they had to. For her part, she intended to hold to that. It wouldn't do to get the Negaverse on the Court's bad side – they were much bigger than the Court was, and not very nice people in general. And some of the youma belonged to the Negaverse.

Walking down the street, Chloë decided to make her way toward where she parked her car. Maybe she'd hop in her car and go on a nighttime drive through the hills… or maybe she'd just drive up to Gertrude's for a nice vegetarian quiche before bed. Either way, it would help to establish herself in her new identity around town. Chloë Albritton, the new kid in town who wasn't so new.

And it was all so wonderful.

(wc: 1074)