Chapter 29

Shinji gawked at Rei as she sat down on the bed next to a still very nude Misato and wrapped her arms around Misato's neck. Shinji stuttered awkwardly as Misato returned the embrace and kissed Rei lightly on the lips. The two women looked over at Shinji, twin smiles adorning their faces.

"What's the matter, baby?" Misato asked, "Are you surprised?"

"To say the very least," Shinji replied faintly, "What happened between you two?"

"You did," Rei answered.

"Excuse me?"

"You happened between us," Misato said, repeating Rei's statement, "You left us, Shinji."

"I had no choice," Shinji replied, though he suddenly felt uncertain about his decision, "I…I couldn't stay here with all the lies…"

"We could have worked it out," Misato said emphatically, "Rei and I were more than willing to come clean for you, Shinji. Matter of fact, we were in the process of coming clean for you when you stormed out of our lives. We didn't know when or even if you'd come back."

"It didn't start out as much," Rei said, picking up where Misato stopped, "I just asked to stay over for a couple of nights because I thought she should have someone here with her to stave off some of the pain. She asked me if I would be willing to sleep in bed with her, because…what reason did you give me again, Misato?"

"I was lonely and I was hurting," said Misato, "I didn't want to sleep in bed alone, and I didn't care if I was sleeping with another girl, as long as I could have my arms around someone that I cared about. Rei was so obliging. I think she needed to feel like someone still loved her as much as I needed the same. This all happened in the first two weeks after you left."

"After that, things started getting a little closer," Rei said, taking control of the story again, "At first, Misato had slept in a nightie or her underwear. After a week or two, usually only a couple of nights a week, she started sleeping in the nude with me, and encouraged me to do the same. She said that it would make us feel closer and more…what was it? 'In touch', I think, were the words that you used, right Misato?"

"That's right," answered Misato, with a touch of shame, "Rei and I slept in a spooning position together. One night, about…oh, six months ago now, she and I happened to move at the same time in such a way that my hand touched her breast. I expected that Rei would pull away, but she didn't; quite the opposite, in fact. Her hand came up and wrapped around mine, and guided it further up onto her breast, encouraging me to squeeze it. That kind of touching and groping satisfied us for another few nights. Then, she and I decided that more was needed."

"More…" Shinji whispered, hardly able to believe what he was hearing.

"Yeah," Misato sighed musically, "so much more…I'll never forget the first time I felt her tongue in my—,"

"Oh-kay," Shinji cut in, a little louder than he meant to. Seeing the slightly hurt looks on Misato's and Rei's faces, he continued:

"Sorry. I, uh, think it's…great…that you two were able to find ways to, uh…comfort each other. I just…wasn't expecting to hear about any…I don't want to use the word 'lesbian' encounters…but, uh…"

"I thought guys liked hearing about girls who had sex with girls," Rei asked playfully, "I hear that it's a big turn-on for them."

"Yeah, sweetie," Misato added, "And…if I recall correctly…you said, on your birthday, that if you ordered me to, I was to seduce another girl for you; 'willingly and without hesitation', I think were the words you used."

"Oh, he did?" Rei asked, sounding overly surprised and clearly rubbing it in for added teasing effect, "Well, Shinji, it looks like your order was filled. Too bad you weren't around to see it…"

Misato and Rei began to giggle heartily at the shocked look on their man's face. Shinji was having a hard time functioning. His breathing was almost non-existent, his pulse felt like it had stopped, and all the blood in his body felt like it had pooled in his groin. What had started out as a standard "morning wood" was now a raging hard-on. Shinji's brain couldn't form a coherent thought or sentence to make any reply. All he could do was slump forward and hug his knees. Doing this exposed his back to the morning light in the room. Misato's and Rei's laughter stopped dead as they saw the large, jagged scar that crossed diagonally down his back from his left shoulder to his right hip.

"What the hell?!" Rei gasped.

"Shinji, your back--!"

"Yeah, pretty, isn't it?" Shinji asked, coming back to his senses.

"What happened?" Misato asked, tentatively running one of her smooth hands over the raised, white scar tissue, "Does it hurt?"

"Not on the surface," Shinji said calmly, "As a matter of fact, it feels kind of good, the way you're rubbing it. Deeper in, though, I can feel it when it comes time to rain. As for what happened, that's a longer story."

"Well…we're not going anywhere," said Rei.

"Yeah," Misato added, "Plus, you said you'd tell us about your trip today anyway."

"Oh, and what a trip it was, too," Shinji began.

Shinji talked for another forty-five minutes, recounting the tale of his expedition across the United States and Europe. As he talked, Shinji got up and got dressed. He found himself smiling about some of his more horrifying experiences because, as he told them, Rei gasped with terror in all the right places and Misato seemed almost ready to cry when Shinji talked about how close he had come to dying. When Shinji told them about the trap the vampires had led him into, Misato just looked at him in disbelief.

"You trusted them?" she asked, "A bunch of soulless, blood-sucking devils, and you trusted them?!"

"I was getting desperate for leads by that point, honey," Shinji answered apologetically, "I was willing to trust just about anyone who said they knew where the Council was. Anyway, when I reached the warehouse that the gang members led me to, they said: 'All right, kid. They're in there waiting for you.' I didn't think that they meant it literally and walked right into an ambush. There were about twenty-five, maybe thirty of them, and they were all armed to the teeth and loaded for werewolf. I fought them off; killed most of them. While I was fighting, one of them drew a sword and slashed at me. The scar you see on my back is where he got me."

"I thought your werewolf powers let you heal completely," Misato asked.

"Except, I guess, when silver is part of the weapon that inflicts the wound," Shinji replied, "I remember a burning sensation that had nothing to do with the slash after the wound was inflicted. It felt like fire racing through my veins, almost like snake venom. I figured that it was the silver having a semi-toxic effect on my body. It threw my adrenal system into overdrive. I fought harder and faster than before, disarming the sword-swinger and ripping his throat out."

"Your bloodlust again," Misato said, a worried tone lacing her voice.

"More of a controlled berserker's rage now," said Shinji reassuringly, "Months of time, training, and self-discipline have honed most of my senses to incredible levels. Even in the daytime now, I can see farther and hear better than a normal man. Even blindfolded, I can almost 'see' perfectly, using my sense of smell, touch, and hearing all at the same time as a sort of tactile radar sense. I can also run faster and jump higher than a normal human."

"That's so cool," Rei said in awe, "It sure beats the hell out of my ninja training."

"Oh, I don't know," Shinji said competitively, "I might be able to see in complete darkness, but that doesn't compete with ninja invisibility. At some point today, I'd like to see just how good you are with those throwing knives you talked about last night. On the subject of ninjas, who's teaching you?"

"An old man down in Chinatown," Rei answered, "His name's master Ryuji Teng. His school has been teaching the art of Nin-jitsu for nearly a century."

"How did you meet him?" Shinji asked.

"Pure chance," Rei replied with a smile, "I was out with Misato having lunch at one of her favorite Chinese restaurants and he walked over to me. He smiled down at me in an almost grandfatherly way, and said:

"'I sense promise within you, Luna Moth. Come here in two days.' And he handed me a slip of paper with a Chinatown address on it."

"So, I assume you went there," Shinji prompted.

"I did," Rei agreed, "What I found was a large, gymnasium-esque space that was filled with all sorts of training equipment. They had climbing nets and ropes, heavy bags, target dummies, sparring mats…everything! There were about fifty guys in the warehouse, all dressed in ninja uniform. When I opened the door, all of them stopped dead in their tracks. Awkwardly, I tried to introduce myself, only to hear one of the higher-rank students demand:

"'Who allowed a woman to find our school?'

"'Yoshi!' snapped master Ryuji, emerging from the center of the sneering crowd, 'Ten back flips for your disrespect! The Luna Moth is here by my personal invitation. She will be studying with us from now on. Is this understood?'

"'Yes sir! the students all replied in unison."

"So, from that point, you've been a ninja," said Shinji.

"More or less," Rei responded.

"That name that master Teng gave you, Luna Moth," Shinji said thoughtfully, "What did he mean by it?"

"I wondered the same thing," Rei said back, "so I asked him one day while he was training me. For the most part, he trained me personally and he treated me like a daughter. When I asked him, Master Ryuji told me that he sensed the moon's quiet spirit in me. He said that I was drawn to the power of the moon like a luna moth to the flame."

"Ah," said Shinji, comprehending, "Makes sense, given how much you hang around me."

"Mm-hmm," Misato hummed in agreement.

"So Luna Moth," Shinji said, "how about you two get dressed, and we go train a little bit? I could use a little bit of a workout myself."

"Sounds good to me, Shinji," Rei replied eagerly.

A few minutes later, the trio walked out to the back yard, dressed in workout clothing. Shinji walked over to the large oak tree in Misato's yard and jumped up into its branches; no mean feat, considering that the lowest branch on the tree was nearly twenty-five feet straight up. From that branch, Shinji started to jump up through the branches until he found one high enough up to suit him. He dropped down and hung from the branch and started to do chin-ups; sixty feet in the air.

"Show off!" Misato shouted from the ground.

"You're just--huff, huff--jealous that you can't come up here to--puff, puff--join me!" Shinji shouted back between chin-ups.

"She can't," Rei called. Then, she took a running start towards the tree and walked up the trunk until she reached the branch that Shinji had started on. From there, she scaled the tree almost as quickly as Shinji had, scurrying up its trunk and branches in such a way that someone might have thought she was a large squirrel. Rei landed lightly on the branch next to Shinji and said:

"but I can."

Shinji laughed heartily, nearly losing his grip on the tree branch. Rei decided to test to see just how good Shinji's reflexes were. Producing one of her throwing knives from a small holster on her belt, Rei stabbed at the tree branch near Shinji's fingers. She wasn't trying to hit his fingers, of course, but she wanted to make it appear as though she were going to stab him.

Shinji moved with the speed of thought, letting go of the branch and dropping five feet to the one below him, landing with the agility of a cat. Rei leaped down after him, continuing with the feinting attacks. She and Shinji leaped and glided through the branches of the oak, attacking and blocking each other, until…

"Whoa—oh!" Rei lost her balance and started to fall.

Shinji didn't hesitate. He dove out of the branches after her and caught her arm with one of his hands and an out-stretching tree limb with the other. He felt a sickening snap as his left shoulder dislocated from the sudden stopping force. As soon as their downward fall had been arrested, Shinji looked down at Rei and said through gritted teeth:

"You—okay?"

"I think so," Rei replied, "Are you?"

"Let's get—back to—ground," Shinji responded, trying to block out the pain that was like a thousand red-hot knife blades in his shoulder.

Rei nodded and let go of Shinji's arm and dropped to the next lower branch, then worked her way down the rest of the way to the ground. Shinji's climb down was much slower, owing to the fact that his left shoulder could not be trusted to hold any weight. Shinji finally dropped to the ground, collapsed and lay there, clutching his shoulder in abject agony.