It was a dark and stormy night. No, really, it was. It was three in the morning, and there was a mother of a thunderstorm in full force when Mizuki Mimura entered the world on July 13, 1979. The only child born to a Korean mother and Japanese father, she was their "miracle child," as Mizuki's mother had had considerable trouble conceiving. The Japanese kanji for "hope" is in Mizuki's name, symbolising the culmination of the couple's hope resulting in their beloved child. The girl grew up well cared for, and provided for on her parents' modest income. She attended public school, where she learned to defend herself from the typical school bully. This prompted an enrolment into aikido classes, where Mizuki would learn to neutralise her opponents in ways that didn't involve breaking noses or sucker punches to the kidneys.
It's very rare for a child to truly know what they want to do with their life at a young age - or at least it's rare that a child will stick to the first thing they decide they want to do. Little boys want to grow up to be a police officer or fireman, and little girls a ballerina. Mizuki wanted to be a nanny, and someday, a wife and mother. It started with babysitting in junior high and high school, and moved on to a position nannying for wealthy families in New York City.
Mizuki met her husband while walking home from a movie one evening. Standing at an intersection, just as the sign had lit up to indicate she was clear to cross, a man yanked her out of the street and back to the sidewalk. After dropping him to the pavement, Mizuki realised the stranger just pulled her out of the way of a car that had pulled out of an alley and ran the red. Astonished and grateful, Mizuki asked the man to coffee to make up for manhandling him. His name was Archie Rasumussen, and they were married six months later, much to the chagrin of her parents. They had hoped she would marry a boy with Asian heritage like her, but they supported her decision. Mizuki quit nannying and instead went to work at a daycare where she could enjoy regular hours and time with her new husband.
After two years of marriage, Mizuki and Archie, now twenty-seven and twenty-eight, respectively, decided it was time to start their family. Much to the young couple's dismay, Mizuki was experiencing the same troubles as her mother when it came to conception. They kept trying, however, even as Archie started to become increasingly distressed as summer turned to fall. It was a feeling he had never really accurately explained to his wife before, but it was the same feeling he had the day they met when he pulled her out of harm's way. Just… on a much larger scale. The agitation grew until Archie told Mizuki that the two had to leave their home on Staten Island and get out of the city. He wouldn't say why, just that he knew it was what they had to do. Taking a long weekend, the two went upstate. Out of the city, Archie began to feel relief, and three hours after checking into their hotel, news of the bomb broke. At first, Mizuki suspected her husband had some sort of knowledge that a bomb would go off in Manhattan. Her suspicions prompted Archie to come clean about his ability - an uncanny knack for sensing danger.
Knowing that her husband was Evolved, the same as the person who annihilated Midtown, couldn't change how Mizuki felt about Archie. It did, however, change how the Mimuras felt. They threatened to cut all ties with their daughter if she didn't immediately seek a divorce. The decision was hard, but Mizuki chose her husband over her parents. Despite everything, the Rasmussens kept to themselves and still maintained a happy marriage. In 2009, their prayers were finally answered when after three years, Mizuki was finally pregnant.
Everything came crashing down five months along, when Archie was murdered. With Humanis First! targeting the Evolved and their families, and the possibility of her child being Evolved, Mizuki initially turned to her parents to ask for safe harbour. She was turned away, despite desperate pleas for the safety of her unborn child. With very few friends in the city and no one willing to take her in, Mizuki fabricated a story and sought refuge at a shelter for battered women in Manhattan. Now calling herself Pandora, she spends her time laying low and trying to find out if there's any truth to the rumours that there's a secret organisation out there that hides Evolved individuals from the government.
