Powerful: A Powerless Story

Three days later, Makoto wakes Adena with a plate containing a sticky bun, as he has every morning since the night he left to find the men who harassed her. She does not like to think about what might have happened that night, as the look on Makoto’s face when he left was troubling to her. Adena snuggles into the sweater Makoto has loaned her, enjoying the way it smells of him. She wonders why, when he is “the least soothing person [she has] ever encountered,” she feels so peaceful around him and so able to share her worries and concerns about Paedyn (62). Makoto demonstrates some knives he is working on, and Adena is openly impressed, telling him that, although she herself is not a fighter, she can admire this ability. He suggests that she learn how to fight, holding a knife to her ribs and asking her what she would do if confronted this way. When she tells him she would try to reason with her attacker, he realizes that weapons training will not succeed with Adena.

Makoto insists on teaching her to defend herself in another way; as he teaches her to throw a punch, she finds his proximity distracting.