Eclipse of the Moon 2: Purification Day
Chapter 6
All other chapters are available at http://www.execulink.com/~stryker
What has gone before: Lots of violence, sarcasm, and girls in short
skirts. Not necessarily in that order.
-- Attached file included as plaintext by Listar --
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-- Desc: Chapter 6
It has been suggested by many that Kino Makoto was by
far one of the, if not the, best cooks in Juuban Middle
School. It has also been suggested that Kino Makoto was
also one of the most violent girls in Juuban Middle School.
Admittedly, those purporting the second view will accede
without argument, she apparently changed her ways. By the
time she and Tsukino Usagi became tight friends, the fights
that had plagued her early life were in the past and
appeared to be remaining there. Her culinary abilities had
not suffered any similar decline by her acquaintance with
one particular blonde. In fact, now that she had a properly
appreciative audience, her abilities in preparing
sustenance had excelled almost as if they were trying to
replace her prior behavior with something more people
considered lady-like.
Before her introduction and rapidly following
friendship with Tsukino Usagi she had still been an
accomplished chef. Similarly, afterwards, her fighting
skills had suffered no serious decline. They were merely
funneled towards different pursuits. Instead of being a
terror in the hearts and minds of those willing to subject
the less powerful in the schools, the unusually tall and
yet still decidedly feminine student's combative energies
had been reallocated towards the life and death struggles
she engaged in with those who wished to subject the world
to their dark whims. It was, all things considered, to her
a change for the better.
This is not to say she was not willing to reach into
her past and lay the proverbial and occasionally literal
smack down on someone who needed it, even were they not a
consummate servant of evil. Nay and nay again, for she
still possessed the ability and willingness to allow
certain habits and aptitudes of her past to resurface. To
the three boys who were fleeing from her in fear and
cowardice, this final statement was only too clear in their
minds. They departed the scene of West Snow Street Public
Park with a great deal of haste and a small amount of
injury, for sometimes it is necessary to demonstrate one's
ability to cause serious impairment to another to persuade
him, or in this case them, to depart and thus avoid
actually causing such injury.
In short, three wanna-be-bullies ran like hell, crying
for their mothers as Makoto snorted in disgust. "Sheesh.
The nerve. Picking on a little kid like that for just
seventy five yen. Not even greed, just being nasty."
Shaking her head in disgust, she reached down and assisted
a small child, some eight years of age, to his feet. "Are
you all right?"
"Yeah. I coulda taken 'em though." The boy, abashed at
his bleeding lip and nose, stared at the ground sullenly as
he tried to dig a hole in the sand with his shoe toe.
"I'm sure you could have. I apologize for
interrupting. Let's just say I was not protecting you, I
was just having a disagreement with those three boys."
Makoto, trying desperately not to laugh, bowed to the young
man.
"Yeah. But, man, now everyone's gonna say I'm such a
wimp. I needed a girl to fight for me, not the other way
around." Flushing in response to the expected slights, the
boy shrank a little farther back into himself and licked
the blood from his mouth and lips.
Makoto forced herself not to laugh again. It was
becoming a very difficult struggle, certainly much harder
than smacking a few kids four years younger then her once
or twice. They had thought themselves very tough and
strong, able to resist anything. That had ended when
someone actually told them forcefully enough to stop. "You
know, I don't see anyone around at this park. You could
just say I was just watching."
The child looked up excited. "Really? That would be---
oh wait. What about them?" The boy indicated four girls
standing not fifty feet away and smiling among themselves.
"I can assure you they won't say a word. Now run home,
you probably want to have that lip looked at."
The young man smiled o