Only now did Makoto remember where she’d seen those eyes before.

Nephrite?

She turned around, raced back to the alley’s entry, but he was gone.

*

A minute ago

Makoto remembered the green eyes. There’d been something there. A deep knowledge of her, of her past, quite possibly of her future, too. That man had pushed all her buttons, acting like he knew her from forever.

Forever.

The word was nothing but a whisper in the wind, but Makoto held it with all her strength. Forever was a promise, often unfulfilled and always a little tragic before it lead to any happiness. Forever was a word which scared her, unsure whether this half immortality was a gift or a curse. Forever was a word the gipsy had used, and his eyes had softened beautifully as he said it.

Those eyes. Those green eyes. Makoto knew they had drawn her further into the alley. How persuasive they looked, how focused in her. How fitting for the man who’d given her back some of her old confidence. Those eyes which wore the same shade as her fuku, Makoto had been too curious not to answer the stranger’s call.

Close up, his look had seemed to expand long beyond her as he handed her the cards. There’d been a universe trapped in those eyes.

Makoto’s heart beat a little faster as she considered that last observation.

The universe and green eyes. Stars and persuasive eyes.

Her breath stopped.

She’d never told him her name.

*

five minutes ago

“I see,” he’d said. But she wasn’t sure of what she was seeing. Two out of three were completely right. The Tarot cards laid face up on the small table, except for the one at the end. Even though Makoto couldn’t read them, she shivered at the breaking tower in the center.

Makoto looked up at the stranger in awe. She didn’t care about the weird clothes anymore, or that he’d chosen her instead of the other way around.

“You are scared,” he said, and his voice sounded sympathetic even through the headpiece.

Makoto shook her head, even though she knew she was lying. Scared and lost, what a great duo. But how to avoid it? The years had passed by and the time for Crystal Tokyo was so close. But for Crystal Tokyo to be born…. She shook her head again, this time at her own thoughts.

He nodded, and she thought he sounded a little amused as he continued. “There’s nothing to be afraid of.” His finger pointed at the card in the centre. Again, Makoto licked her lips nervously at its significance. The tower falling to pieces, the people screaming as they fell to doom. Then his finger moved, and Makoto saw the final element of the tower. His chuckle wasn’t amused anymore, but maybe a little proud. “You’re the lightning,” he pronounced.

She almost jumped out of her seat. This had stopped being fun a while ago, but now she was shaken by the eerie coincidence.

His green eyes bore into her, not allowing her to escape as he kept on. “Sometimes you have to destroy to change the world.” The little she could see of his expression now looked self-deprecating. “Sometimes it won’t work. But you, you have the key to the future. Would you really throw it away?”

Once more, she shook her head. Once more, she knew she lied.

“There’s nothing to be afraid of,” he repeated, a little more forcefully than the last time. “Everything will be for the better, little one.” This time, it sounded more like an endearment. Makoto wondered at that, especially as the words tugged at her heart like an echo her soul had missed.

But she was distracted as he turned the last card around.

Rebirth.

“The phoenix rises from its ashes,” he told her. “So will your life.”

Makoto stared at him, for the first time she was angry at that annoying headset which wouldn’t let her see all of him. He wasn’t nearly as old as he wanted to appear, she was sure of that; those green eyes gave him away.

He retrieved the cards and reached out to place his hand over hers. He fixed his eyes with hers and finished: “So will the world.”

Makoto was on her feet before she knew it, glaring at the stranger. “Who are you?”

His voice was sad as he answered. “If you don’t know then I can’t tell you.”

Those eyes. Those green eyes. A part of her recognised him, felt safe with this man around. But that part was mostly sleeping and now it barely managed to hold back her instinctive attack. Instead Makoto drew a deep breath and studied him carefully. “You do not wish me harm,” was her conclusion.

He nodded.

“Then I do not wish you harm either.” With that, she turned around and headed outside the alley.

“But I wish you luck, Mako-chan. Forever.”

That was the last she heard of him before she joined the rush of people on the avenue.

*

seven minutes earlier

Makoto sat on the precariously balanced chair. Between her and her unseeming host stood a small table which barely reached to her knees. She looked at the stranger – a gypsy? – and tilted her head. “So?”

“I could show you the truth.”

Cryptic. Makoto shrugged. Cryptic was part of his job, she guessed.

“You’ve lost your focus. You’re walking on your path because you’ve seen your destination, but you’ve forgotten why you’re fighting for it.”

The words chilled her. Yes, that was exactly how she felt. She could still remember those first years when everything seemed so clear. They’d fight, they’d survive, they’d build Crystal Tokyo and live happily ever after. How naïve a group of sixteen-years-old could be.

“You don’t know what to do.”

Makoto refused to answer, even though that was true. Sometimes she just wanted out. To throw her henshin pen at Luna and escape to some five-star European restaurant where she didn’t have to worry about what she’d have to do, or how fast her time of a normal life was running by.

“But you won’t run away.” His green eyes bore into her. “Because you know there’s no option. The stars have written your future already and you've caught a glimpse of it.”

She frowned. It didn’t sound like he was just doing the usual guess-work others in the trade did. How could he know?

And then a deck of cards practically materialized before her face.

“Here,” he said.

Tarot cards, Makoto recognized them. She looked at the stranger questioningly.

“Choose.”

Without being told, she chose three cards, placed them facing down and then, in a whim, flipped the first one.

Grief stared up at her.

“Ahhhh…” he said. Then he reached for the second.

Makoto bit her lip at the result.

He left the third card untouched. Instead he studied the two cards, then her expression. Makoto felt as those green eyes took every detail in and categorized them. Finally he nodded to himself. “I see.”

*

five minutes earlier

“You look lost.”

Makoto stopped abruptly in the middle of the street. She checked right and left, but nobody seemed responsible for those words. She shrugged and made to keep on. She could have sworn that the words had been directed at her, but possibly she’d just overheard a passing conversation.

“Come in.”

That kept her from a single step forward.

The voice came back. A strange was. As if muffled. Distorted. “In the alley," it said. "Why don’t you come in?”

The alley? Yes, Makoto saw one a couple of steps behind her. She hadn’t even noticed it as she passed by. She walked to the entry and peered inside. “Hello?”

“Hello, little one.”

She frowned. At twenty-two, she hardly thought she counted as a ‘little one’. She stepped inside, and was a little surprised when she noticed her interlocutor. Not more than a shape against the dark background, he was looking straight at her and Makoto felt both repelled and attracted at the intensity of those eyes. It wasn’t the first time, a part of her whispered, but her conscious drowned the words as it struggled to comprehend her current situation. “You said I looked lost?” she finally asked bravely.

His eyes were green. The greenest of greens. And they eyes flashed briefly with deep concern. “Aren’t you?”

Wasn’t she? Makoto had never thought to use that specific word. But yes, that was how she felt. Lost. She nodded at the stranger.

He waved her further into the alley, and she advanced fearlessly. A stranger in an alley, how cliché, and yet Makoto felt no fear at this man. She hesitated when she discovered why his voice sounded distorted. Most of his face was hidden under a headset, leaving only his eyes and a bit of his cheeks to her view.

The greenest eyes she’d ever seen, indeed. They invited her in, and once she’d reached him, the stranger lifted his hand and motioned to the chair in front of him.