2614/Kasekuchen

Kasekuchen
Date of Scene:	14 June 2025
Location:	Mamoru's Apartment
Synopsis:	Ami, a little battered and bruised following her troubles at the museum, seeks out the comfort of Makoto and cake.
Cast of Characters:	Ami Mizuno, Makoto Kino
Tinyplot:	Black Moon Clan
Tinyplot2:	BMC: Wicked Ride

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Ami Mizuno has posed:
It was a warm and gentle evening, as sun settled behind Tokyo's skyline where it set fire to the underside of clouds and shadows drew long across roadways and alleys. The club had ran a little later than she would have hoped at first, but Ami was now rushing her way to meet with Makoto. From school to Mamoru's apartment, she'd made the journey quickly, called the elevator, and was very soon slipping her way in.

Shoes were replaced by appropriate slippers for someone's home, but the senshi was otherwise still dressed in school uniform with backpack set over shoulders. Ami was in through stained glass doors with just a peek, silently glad that it was mostly empty just now. She really couldn't do another meeting with Takashi just yet.

Or, at least, that's what she'd say aloud. Another part of Ami--the much more certain nugget of intellectual capacity--dared him to try her.

Still. She was here for someone.

"Hello?" Ami called into the room tentatively.

Makoto Kino has posed:
"Hey!" Makoto's voice calls back from the direction of the kitchen. "I'm here!"

When Ami reaches the kitchen, she'll find Makoto busy with a silicone spatula, carefully working excess batter off the beaters of her mixer to join the contents of the mixing bowl. "Hi, Ami-chan," she greets her friend cheerfully. "Don't worry, it's safe for now. Most of the guys are out... although Saitou-kun might be lurking over his bank of monitors, I haven't checked. How's it going?"

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami couldn't help but let her eyes drift around the room in search of the cameras through which Kazuo may presently be watching them. She wasn't about to knock the idea of good security, but it was a little bit unnerving if she thought about it too directly. So, she forced herself not to with a shake of her head.

"That's good to know!" Ami responded with a smile. "Oh, you know. The usual. People struggle to apply themselves and then I feel like I'm being their external memory for easy details."

The smile was decidedly more relieved than cheerful, as she shrugged backpack free to set at her feet.

"How is everything coming along?" Ami was now leaning forward a little in an attempt to spy the batter, though baking was definitely not her area.

Makoto Kino has posed:
If Makoto has any opinions about Kazuo's hobby, it doesn't show. Maybe she's just gotten used to the idea.

She offers a sympathetic smile, not without a bit of a wince to it. "Suddenly I feel like I should apologize to you myself," she says. "Just splash me with some cold water if I start doing that to you?"

Setting the spatula against the rim of the bowl, she pops the beaters out and offers one over. "Anyway, it's coming. I'm doing a small test batch right now, since I haven't worked with any of this stuff from magic pony land before."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Managing a short laugh, Ami waved a hand. "No, no. It's fine. We know that we've got extra things on our plates at the moment. It's probably all just making me a little less patient than I should be."

And there was truth there, but not the whole of it.

Ami started to bend over but winced quietly and then crouched instead, to unbuckle backpack with a wiggle of plush bluejay. From amidst her own books and electronics, Ami lifted one out that clearly hadn't come from the Radiant Hearts library.

"I don't know much at all about magical pony baking, or anything of the sort." Ami said as she rose to stand again. "And neither does this book."

But, it did appear to be a book on German baking--tarts, breads, and pastries--that she was holding.

Makoto Kino has posed:
"Everyone's pretty stressed, but that doesn't mean it's okay to put extra stuff on you either," Mako points out.

Her eyebrows lift a little at that wince. Shifting the batter-coated beater to her other hand, she leans to look at what Ami's doing, but her interest is not especially on the book at first. "Are you okay?" she asks instead.

It takes her another couple seconds to actually get a closer look at the cover and the title on the book that Ami has pulled out. "Is that - that's not English, is it?"

Ami Mizuno has posed:
"There's a lot happening." Ami agreed regarding stress and followed it up with a sigh. "I went to the museum for some quiet time and then there was New Moon and a stegosaurus..."

Among other things. The sigh came again, a little heavier this time. "Sometimes deescalation is a very alien concept to some people."

The book, though, took her attention again and Ami offered Makoto a sheepish little smile now.

"No, it's in German." She clarified, perhaps unhelpfully. "I missed--well, everyone actually. But, I was in a book store one day and came across this."

The book was lifted a little in indication.

"I realised I missed your cooking, so I bought it and tried to bake some myself." A terse grimace. "That didn't work out so well. And I thought you should have it instead, even though you probably already know everything it had to say."

Should Makoto open the book at all, she'd notice that, despite it being entirely in German, it was littered with a very neat hand. Ami had already made notes to annotate, translate and convert measurements. Because, of course she had.

Makoto Kino has posed:
"Oh, geez," Makoto says, her eyes widening. "An actual dinosaur? That sounds like a mess."

Ami holds up the book, and Makoto offers her the beater again. "Here, trade you. Taste this and tell me if it's edible." She will, indeed, open up the book, expecting to at least find some interesting pictures even if she can't understand the text. When she sees the careful notes in Ami's handwriting, she makes a small noise of surprise.

"Oh, wow. This must've taken you so much time." Looking up from the pages, she smiles affectionately. "We missed you a lot, too," she says. "Tell you what - if there's something in here you want to try, I'll make it for you. Though I bet you could pick up baking pretty easily with some practice. It's very methodical."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
"Well, I suppose I can't do worse than Usagi." Ami simply observed.

The beater was accepted with a very cheerful smile, and some of the sweet, gooey batter was nibbled clear. Coming to see Makoto had been a very good idea.

"Honestly, I didn't really have all that much else to do when I wasn't in classes or the lab." The senshi shrugged, as though translating culinary manuals were a perfectly normal pastime. "When in Munster, right?"

A short nod followed and Ami glanced to the book again. "The kasekuchen would be nice to try with you. When you're not baking multiple cakes for a moon-wedding, of course. And, also, this is delicious, Makoto-san!"

Makoto Kino has posed:
"Usagi-chan does okay if she has someone giving her instructions," says Mako, still paging through the book with interest. "It's just that she gets distracted, and then if something goes wrong or she realizes she made a mistake, she panics. I don't think you'd have those kinds of problems at all."

She hums thoughtfully, eyes skimming over the notes Ami's made in the pages of each recipe. "Kase... kasekuchen... oh, this one?" She turns the book for Ami to look. "And thank you. We'll see how it bakes up. At least with Chiyo-chan's help I've figured out what we're doing for both cakes, so it's just a matter of getting it all put together and decorated and everything."

'Just,' she says.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
At the very least, Ami didn't panic often and, if she did, she did her best to not show it. That came with it's own set of problems, of course, but they were decidedly different problems. And, of course, it was nice that Makoto had faith in her.

It encouraged faith in herself.

"Yes, that one." Ami agreed at the image of a light, baked cheesecake. "I've no doubt that your cakes will be the centrepiece for the whole celebration and I know Masato-kun is already prepared to do everything in his power to keep them safe once they're made."

Yes. Just the wedding. Ami furrowed her brow.

"There was one thing I noticed, when La Licorne hit New Moon with her purification." Ami said slowly, now that her memory had been jogged. "I still have to go through the data--hopefully with Rashmi-san's help--but, as her Dark Energy dipped she seemed to get stronger."

Makoto Kino has posed:
"Hmmm, so it's a kind of cheesecake! That'll be fun. As soon as we're not all buried in wedding prep, I'll make it with you." There's a tone of decision to Makoto's statement that makes it into a promise.

Closing the cookbook again, she looks up to meet Ami's eyes, surprise widening hers a little. "She got stronger, really? Isn't that backwards, for a Dark Energy user? It's the Dark Energy that makes them so much trouble to deal with, right?"

Ami Mizuno has posed:
"I thought so too, at first." Ami agreed. "But, then I also thought of all the times I've ever touched her."

She didn't know whether anybody else had been on the receiving end of New Moon's physical affection, but Ami certainly had. And there were clues even in there for her to pick at.

"She's so warm to the touch. Hot, even." Ami explained. "Like a fever. Whoever she is, the Dark Energy disagrees with her and losing a little bit of it may be alleviating some of that sickness."

Ami shrugged. "I'll still have to go through the data, but that's my current hunch. If its right, though, it is going to mean that the efforts at the wedding will need to be coordinated. Purifying her piecemeal is only going to make her harder to overcome."

Makoto Kino has posed:
Makoto frowns slightly, her forehead creasing as her brows draw together in thought. This sort of thing is not really her area of expertise - Sailor Jupiter is not often one for theories and analysis, and in moments like this she definitely feels the lack.

"That makes sense," she says after a moment. "It sounds like we're really going to have to nail the timing, between that and needing to keep Wicked Lady pinned down long enough to purify her."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
"I'll be focused on that and coordinating with others who can provide further barriers to hold her in place." Ami confirmed, before licking at the beater again.

It really was quite delicious, met with a happy little hum.

Whatever thoughts ran through Makoto's mind just there, it was clear Ami certainly thought enough of her to keep her informed where she could. To Ami, this was Makoto. Tall, beautiful, and strong--she could handle anything.

Ami smiled tersely. "Based on what I noticed at the museum, keeping people focused on the important tasks will be the hard part. It's one of those times it'd be nice to have Rei-chan to yell at people. Unfortunately, it'll probably fall on you to try to corrall people, all trying to do different things, in the moment."

Her nose wrinkled a little and there was an apology in her eyes.

Makoto Kino has posed:
The wordless apology is met with a warm smile and a little shake of Makoto's head. "I can't promise I can get people to listen to me," she says easily, "but I'm pretty good at grabbing people by the scruff of the neck and turning them where they need to be facing. And I might not be Rei-chan but I can still yell really loud. You point me the direction, Ami-chan, and we'll make it work."

She says it with the simple confidence that Ami will know precisely what to do and when, and her own job will simply be to ensure that it happens.

"In the meantime," she adds with expansive cheer, "if you've got some time to kill, you can stick around and try out this test batch once it's baked." So saying, she steps back and turns to the mixer, collecting the second beater and putting it in her mouth before she picks up the bowl.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
There was relief, once again. Makoto had a very direct way with words that Ami very deeply appreciated. Honest, caring. She really had missed her friends.

"Thank you, Makoto-san." The senshi offered the beater back with a smile. "I won't just try the samples with you, I will categorise and track every minor change and tweak you make so that you've got as much data as you could ever need."

Which, of course, was a very round-about way for Ami to accept the duty of spending the rest of the afternoon with Makoto and cake.