+++++ Kirijo Manor. (Thursday, August 26th, +5, Waning Gibbous 4/4)

Shinji drew in a shuddering breath, reality reasserting itself over his senses. The dining room was far emptier than he recalled it being, the lights far more subdued. The one constant between 'then' and 'now' was the incredibly comfortable weight of Rise Kujikawa sleeping on his lap and in his arms. Her immaculately groomed mane of burgundy hair was artfully mussed, her breath coming in and going in a soft, even, rhythm. Part of his mind told him that he really ought to get her off his lap with all due haste, another part attempted to reassure him that if she was sleeping as calmly as she was that he need not be concerned. Opting to heed the latter half for the moment, he looked around the room for a hint as to either the time or the course of events that had followed his apparent…relapse. The room was mostly empty, save for a woman he had expected would likely be waiting for him to recover.

"Somnamory," Tae whispered softly, "is the act of engaging in intimacy with someone while unconscious. It is also something you apparently do not suffer from. I'm pleased to know that I haven't misjudged you. Too many men waking to find a former Miss Japan in their lap would have either taken liberties with her, or at least fought with their conscience about it. You continue to prove yourself a good man."

What had been done to him would never be repeated, if he had any say in it. In hopes of not waking Rise, he looked meaningfully down at her, then back to Tae with the question clearly written on his features.

"She and I had a chat, while you were suffering from this bout of dissociation. She was comfortable where she was, and you were calm with her where she was, so I left her where she was. Think you can lift her? We should get her in bed, so that you can find your own."

Lifting the diminutive former idol was as easy as lifting a book. Carrying Rise anywhere would be far more gratifying than it had been when he had carried…. Shinji closed his eyes, standing stationary for a second as he beat back the foul comparison between a charming young woman and the monster he'd lived with for nearly all of his life.

"Easy," Tae's hand settled on his lower back, "you're not there anymore. You're here."

With a quiet grunt of recognition for her support, he moved towards the door out into the main hall. He was going to be 'there' forever. It's just what was. Once Tae had the door opened for him, one of the non-Yuko/Chiaki maids in the house spied them and quickly motioned for him to follow her towards Rise's assigned room. A few other maids joined and moved ahead of him along the way, preparing everything so that he didn't have to stop moving until he was placing her down upon the bed. He covered her over himself, pressing the comforter down lightly to ensure she was properly warm, then quickly exited the room.

The Maid Brigade dispersed after closing the door behind everyone and offering appropriate courtesies to both Shinji and Tae, leaving the doctor to urge Shinji towards his own assigned room. When he shook his head, she frowned. "You need to sleep."

"I need to work off some anger, or all I'm going to do is lie in bed and seethe at the world." He scowled at the world outside one of the hall's windows. "I…never got to be angry, before. If I ever began to even seem angry, she'd…."

Tae nodded, understanding the theory if not the practice. "Fancy a walk around the grounds? As long as we don't stray too far, I doubt your guards are going to get uppity."

Another thing he'd never been able to do. "Sure." Fidgeting with his hands as they approached the door, he halted when Tae turned quickly to take one of his hands and hold it steady.

"Nerves, pain, or habit?" Her fingers probed the hand for possible injuries, her eyes on his with clear concern.

There was something very pleasant about the way she asked, and the way she worried. It shamed him to feel so happy about something so simple. "I…uhm, I usually have a deck of cards to fidget with. I've never known what to do with my hands if they aren't occupied."

"Catch." A voice from near the front door called, a deck of cards tumbling through the air towards him. The woman responsible for tossing them towards him was employed by the Kirijo Group, and she grinned at him with a playful wink. "We've all been ordered to keep one on hand for you, so if you lose one or have to rush out without one, just ask one of us and we'll take care of you."

Having secured the projectile with the hand not in Tae's grasp, Shinji looked it over and nodded in recognition of the manufacturer. "Thank you, Agent-san." A polite bow to the woman who'd saved him discomfort was itself paired with a grateful smile. "I will try not to lose them too often."

"No charge. I heard you were heading out for a walk, and wanted to warn you against straying too far east. The ground there is still pretty much slushy mud, and I don't want anyone getting hurt. Stay near the hedge wall, you'll be on secure footing. Any problems, please listen to the trio that will be nearby at a discrete distance. My kids won't intentionally listen in on your conversation, nor will they speak about anything they've heard. Also, I'm Shiori Miyashiro, Chief of Security for Kirijo-sama, but you my friend will just call me Shiori."

Putting her face and name securely in his mind, he nodded his understanding and acceptance of her demands. "Yes ma'am. We'll be careful around the eastern side." With the hand Tae had grabbed back in his control, he freed the deck of cards from the packaging and began working through the practiced motions that stopped his hands from feeling awkward. By the time they were out under the darkened sky, he was already performing various tricks.

Once they were away from the house, Tae broke the silence with the reason for her concern over his hand. "So, you don't feel any pain from where you were cut?"

"No." He had actually forgotten about the incident, owing to his fugue. "Most of my old injuries have stopped hurting too. Whatever this thing in my neck is, I guess it's started to actually change me into…."

She knew what he'd censored, but refrained from directly challenging it to maintain the peace. "All of my tests have come back indicating you're still human. Your stem cells are hyperactive, though thankfully they aren't encouraging the growth of cancers. I don't have enough data to speak to how you're trending, but I'd say that you're going to be ok so long as you have someone keeping an eye on you medically."

Performing an elaborate balancing act with four sections of cards, he smirked. "At least you have job security, I guess."

"Bah," she snorted out. "My 'job' was to make sure kids with skinned knees weren't given too much medicine, or to confirm cancer diagnoses in elderly survivors of Second Impact. You aren't my job. I'd much rather think of you as my ally in pushing the limits of medical care beyond the horizon."

Collapsing the deck back into a single unit, he looked askance at her. "What horizon?"

"It's a figure of speech, smartass." She returned his smirk. "So…what's got your dander up?"

"…Can you keep it to yourself?"

"Nobody will hear a word of it from me, so long as it's not actively threatening someone's health. I'm a doctor, and I can't sit on my hands with regards to anyone's health or safety."

The proviso was sensible, and something he respected. "I don't like the decision to move everyone to the school, or here into the manor. I don't like that I'm responsible for protecting everyone, but I'm the last to find out about decisions like this. I've never had responsibility, never had to make decisions, and never been asked for my input…and I've never cared about that until this point in my life! Meroko-sama made all my decisions, and the only input she ever asked for was…." He swallowed, both the rest of his statement and the bile that rose in his throat.

"Ok." She could understand his concerns, and so she tried to help him as much as he'd allow. "Do you want to vent, or do you want me to offer advice?"

"Yes?"

"Fair enough," she laughed out. "What don't you like about the moves?"

Feathering the cards, he shrugged. "They probably have parents that love them. The ladies here had their mothers, or guardians, show up in person. They cared what was being decided. I…."

"You've never had someone care, before recently. You think that's being taken from them, because you've never heard about remote dorms." Tae made a grouping motion with her hands. "It's pretty common, in Japan. Every year hundreds of thousands of students are sent to live in dorms closer to the schools they qualified for, whether that's high secondary or post-secondary, they only see their parents occasionally, but they keep in touch via MAGI-mail. To you, it's a bizarre notion, and a condemnation of the parents that you can see clearly love them."

"…Yeah." He sighed. "It's frustrating. It's…hurtful. They're making it easier to kill the other students, by clustering them together."

"How so?"

"It'd be the first place I'd aim, in their position. Eliminate the younger generation, and even if you can't manage to kill the older generations you've created a massive bottleneck in population growth. If they aren't clustered, they aren't as easy a target."

"I see." The ease of his answer brought up another question, "Do you often find yourself thinking of how best to eliminate humanity?"

"Only after I found out I was responsible for stopping it," he replied with a weak shake of his head. "I've spent my life trying to figure out Meroko-sama's motivations so I can…could, I mean, try and subvert them. It's a habit to think like she does…did. To try and plan what she'd do, so I…."

"So you weren't caught off guard." She filed that bit away for later. "Do you dislike surprises?"

"Only bad ones." He smiled as he remembered how Maya constantly gave him pleasant surprises. "I only recently found out that there could be good ones, though. I'm never sure of how to respond to the good ones."

Reaching over, she put her arm around his shoulders. Walking side-by-side, she smiled brightly as he looked over in confusion. "With gratitude. As for the bad surprises, my advice is to endure the problem until you're calm enough to explain yourself. You did a pretty good job tonight of letting me know why you were angry, and all without yelling. Take the time you need to sort out your thoughts, your feelings, and only then approach the issue. People you want to have around will be patient while you figure it out."

+++++ Kirijo Manor. (Thursday, August 26th, +5, Waning Gibbous 4/4)

Shinji made his way back to his room just after 0120, feeling better after having vented to and listened to Tae. She was a good person, in his mind, who honestly sought to improve his life without demanding he do anything. The farewell hug he gave her was pleasant, which certainly didn't hurt, and gave him that slight rush of joy that he'd begun noticing growing stronger each time someone he preferred hugged him. When he closed his door, he felt the presence of his otherworldly ally before he saw her. "I'm sorry for…losing where I was."

"It happens," Pixie danced across the foot of his bed, her tiny frame twisting and turning playfully, "especially after a decade and a half of enforced trauma. I'm just glad you caught the knife, the lady with the strange name probably wouldn't have appreciated what I would have done to her had she hit me."

Crossing over to the bed, he knelt down and sat on his heels to bring his head closer to even with her own. "You're smaller than you were…is that normal?"

"I can be any size I want," she teased, halting her dance and growing in size to match him. Seated on the foot of the bed, her feet on either side of his legs, she was leaned forward with her face a hair's breadth from his. "I just tend to prefer being smaller, it makes it easier for me to be mischievous."

"…I can't see your emotions." What had been bothering him subconsciously was now made easier to see clearly with her so close to him. "And your breath smells nice."

"See! Compliments are good!" She placed a kiss on the tip of his nose, sitting back contentedly. "You can't sense my emotions because your connection with the Firstborn is limited to humanity. The Seelie Court is of the Otherworld, and so the Firstborn wouldn't know what to look for." Motioning around her lips, she winked saucily. "And I avoided mint, since it bothers you so much."

His eyes lowered, a pleasurable shame growing in him that Pixie would take his problems into consideration. "Thank you…cinnamon definitely suits you."

Lifting his chin up with her fingertips, she clicked her tongue disapprovingly. "Uh uh uh, no breaking eye contact. It's unbecoming of someone as important as you to demure so much." His eyes flashed yellow for the briefest of moments, prompting her to giggle. "Oh? Do you like what you see?"

Instead of averting his eyes again, he stood and walked away from the stimulating presence. "I'm sorry."

"I'm not," she scoffed. "You're supposed to like what you see."

Looking at the various items on the desk, he shrugged one shoulder. "That's not what I meant." Knocking over one of the paperweights that reminded him a little too much of something Meroko used, he turned his head slightly towards her. "I'm not someone who's important. I'm sorry if I led you to believe I was."

"Let's see…." disappearing from the bed, she reappeared in front of him with her legs wrapped around him and her hands on his shoulders. "You're the only demi-human capable of defeating the Soldiers of the Great Will, the only male left in this Branch, the chosen of Qodeshah, and those are just the less important things."

His body began to respond to her presence against him, despite his attempts to prevent it doing so. "P-please…."

"Two choices, big guy," she purred. "First choice, you tell me 'No' and I let you find someone else to romp with. That'd make me kind of sad, all things considered, but I'll respect your decision. Second choice, and the one I really hope you go with, we go lay down and I show you all the things you can do with someone who can change size at will."

The overt seduction had, as it tended to, cruised right past him. With the option placed before him, he shuddered in anticipation of the joy he'd feel at being with someone else who wanted him to be with them. "Wh-why?"

Her demeanor shifted towards deadly seriousness. "Because you and I joined our spirits together in Tartarus. I'm with you to the end of everything…." Slowly lifting herself up to once more place her face near his, she challenged him directly, "So whoever else you might choose to have some fun with, I'd like to know that I have a reserved spot on your dance card."

Unlike with Yuko, who took the lead rather than force him to choose, the woman asking for his touch was clearly placing the yoke on his shoulders. He could either plow or not, and it was his decision to make. "Y-you…should kn-know…."

"Oh, you're someone with a vast amount of need," she pushed against him with the word. "Trust me…I'm your girl."

Prompted by her understanding, it took him another few hours before he managed to make it to bed.

+++++ Tokyo-3 High. (Thursday, August 26th, +5, Waning Gibbous 4/4)

A series of unintended conversations placed Shinji's class in the Music Club's space, with both Sadayo and Isako encouraging him to display his talent for the ladies so that they could understand his perspective better. His first choice was to play something comfortable, and so he sat behind one of the school's cellos and performed "Liebesgruss", before shifting over to the piano and playing the accompaniment of the same, then taking up a violin and repeating the song a final time. After several proddings, he picked up the electric bass guitar, checked its tuning, and then becoming far more animated as he begun a fast-paced song that took everyone by surprise.

One young woman, however, was both pleasantly surprised and enthusiastic in providing vocals to a song she recognized instantly. "If you love to gamble, I tell you I'm your man. You win some, lose some, all the same to me!" Yuka began to dance as she continued on with accompanying Shinji's playing.

A further surprise was garnered when, with a huge grin, Shinji also began to sing along. The pair made enthusiastic use of the just shy of three minute long song, the performance ending with him slamming down on the chords one final time before catching Yuka as she cheered and jumped at him to hug him. Laughing quietly, he couldn't hide his smile. "I didn't expect anyone to know the lyrics."

"I love that band!" Standing at his side with her arm around his waist, she bounced with giddy hopefulness. "Like, please tell me you totally know more stuff like that?"

Sadayo had to tamp down her own enthusiasm, having a fondness for heavier music herself. "How many instruments can you play, Ikari-kun?"

Shinji disconnected the guitar from the amp, a tinge of embarrassment coating his reply of, "More than a dozen, at least at a skill level that matches what I've done already here." Forcing his face to remain as positive as possible, he appended, "She forced me to practice at any point that I wasn't supposed to be doing anything else while she was awake. I had to play whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted it."

"I hope that you do not feel put on the spot here," Isako hedged. "We appreciate the opportunity to experience what you are capable of performing. It is very nice to be able to diversify how we spend our time some days."

He shook his head, his smile returning. "No, no. I'm…happy. I got to play instruments for people who care. That's not something I've ever really had the chance to do."

The sound of the bell ringing indicated that the period had come to an end. "Ok, ladies. I want you changed and out on the field before the next class starts. The Kirijo Group has hired a specialist to work with you on your conditioning, which means that I am going to be helping you in the pool, Ikari-kun. That is, of course, if you're ok with having me there with Kawakami-sensei."

There was a groan from many of the ladies as they shuffled to the door. They had, at some point, been informed of the change in their physical education teacher and were not enthusiastic at the requirements being elevated for them in particular. Shinji shared a smile with Yuka as she squeezed his side, letting her go and slipping free of the strap holding the guitar on. "I…uhm, I don't have a problem with you helping, Toriumi-sensei." He glanced at the door, and waited for it to shut before asking, "Have…have I made you feel…you know…like I don't like you?"

Her sigh was paired with a slight grin, and she shook her head in denial. "No, Shinji, you haven't. But I'm aware of your problems with both change and unwanted attention. I helped Kirijo-chan push Kashiwagi out of our group, and I've helped craft our class' schedule so that you're exposed to the other students as little as possible for the time being. I made it an offer, instead of a demand, because I respect your boundaries."

The amount of positive attention he'd received within the last twenty four hours was a huge shot in the arm for his confidence. Radiating that confidence outwards, he dipped into a polite bow. "Please take care of me, Toriumi-sensei."

"Great," Sadayo enthused. "Because today, we're going to try flip turns. With two of us there to help keep you safe, we'll be able to get you used to correcting your position underwater." The teacher poked him in the side playfully. "After seeing that video of you hitting the pool, I realized that teaching you to float and crawl weren't going to be enough. But you're a bit too big for me to teach to tumble in the water, and I can't be both above the water and under at the same time."

"…Ok." He bounced his shoulders, screwing down his courage. "You're right. I can't let fear get in my way. I'll go get changed, and meet you by the pool." His rapidly growing familiarity with the layout of the school allowed him to move towards the male locker room unerringly. What he forgot, however, was that the course he was taking was not the usual one and that the other students in the school had no reason to expect him to come that way. Rounding one corner, he slowed his pace dramatically when confronted with a hallway full of young women that all seemed to turn and look at him as one. "Oh…uhm…excuse me." Every effort was made to give everyone as wide a berth as possible, though several times he ended up having to turn sideways to slide past clusters of young women. The entire affair passed in silence, save for the shuffle of his feet and the sounds of his clothing brushing up against theirs from time to time. Once he was on the far side, he turned back to the dozens of fellow students and bowed politely, "Sorry for bothering you."

One voice out of the crowd followed after him as he hurried towards the lockers, "You can bother us any time you want, Ikari-kun!" The statement was followed by a wave of girlish laughter and calls that were supportive of the statement.

Shinji's cheeks were aflame when he reached the locker room, though he had a small, happy, smile on his lips. None of them had been upset at him being where he 'wasn't supposed to be', and nobody had felt as if they were afraid of him. Stripping quickly, and showering off the dirt and sweat he'd accumulated through the day, he tugged on his swimsuit and allowed a small flame of hope to burn that he might actually be someone people wanted to have around.

+++++ NERV. (Thursday, August 26th, +5, Waning Gibbous 4/4)

"And here you see our problem." Yui Ikari tapped the portion of the monitor displaying the offending issue. Sitting back to allow Miyuki Kirijo room to lean in and frown at the same point, she continued, "The equipment was rated for the Challenger Deep. It was designed with the intent of drilling into the crust there, to return samples for study."

"Not exactly something that would fail easily," Miyuki agreed. "The bit won't go any further into the floor there?"

"At less than half of the depth, into basalt. It should be sliding through it with ease, and yet the bit simply stops moving down and spins. Sixteen different locations, all the same result. As soon as we reach five thousand meters below the surface of the water, it goes no further." Changing the picture to a mosaic, she sat back and once more allowed her guest to see what she'd seen. "It goes no further, because at five thousand meters below sea level…there is nothing more to go towards. No void, no vacuum, no wall of light…nothing."

While the findings were not surprising to the head of the Kirijo Group, they were not what she had anticipated. "This doesn't match with our predictions at all. There should be measurable, visible, energy there preventing this. Can you show me the spectroscopy?" After Yui clicked twice, the screen went completely blank. "…I presume this is true across all wavelengths?"

"Yes."

Miyuki sat down on Yui's desk, her eyes growing distant. "We're all that's left."

"That is the most likely situation, yes."

"Then…Gendo is…." She could now understand the anger she had felt growing inside of Yui since she entered the room. Reaching over and setting her hand atop her wrist, she offered what comfort she could. "I am sorry. I had truly hoped your scenario could return him to you."

"This at least explains why there is no barrier between Shinji and Unit-01." Yui's face remained flat, despite her wrath. "I appreciate your offer of sympathy. I would recommend you reserve it for those members of SEELE I'm still able to lay my hands on." Only then did her eyes begin to show her true emotions. "And for that monster I called a sister."

+++++ NERV. (Thursday, August 26th, +5, Waning Gibbous 4/4)

In Naoko Akagi's laboratory, a conversation along similar themes was being held. "The only people aware of the results of this at the moment are the Prime Minister, the Commander, Miyuki Kirijo, and those of us in this room. The experiment was undertaken by Kyoko personally, with my assistance in maintaining the veil of secrecy. We have been asked…begged might be a better term, to not allow this information to disseminate to the general population just yet. The government is likely clinging onto our usage of 'intensely improbable' to give hope for some sort of Black Swan."

Maya had spent the last half of the presentation with her mouth buried in her hands and tears threatening her eyes. Muffled as it was by positioning, her statement nevertheless managed to be clear to the three other women present, "This is an Outside Context Problem. This…might be the last OCP."

"It's certainly a reason to take greater care with Shinji-kun," Kyoko agreed with a huff. "I haven't been hearing encouraging things from NTD's Medical Faculty. Every IVF specimen that was going to be male vanished along with all of the samples of tissue from male donors. If we're going to attempt gynogenesis, we're going to at least require the presence of his gametes."

Ignoring the protocols that made it inappropriate, Ritsuko hugged Maya from behind. "We're not giving up. Standing in this room are four of the smartest people mankind has ever known, and we have the support of the largest political and economic bodies possible. Life might have just punched us in the gut, but I refuse to let it win."

"Could you two do me a favor and go acquire a 'sample' from him?" Kyoko had a soft smile on her face as she looked at the way Ritsuko held Maya, though her tone demonstrated that they needed to not waste time being 'human' at the moment. "Contact Takao-san, and tell her that if she needs an explanation of the urgency to call me. Keep your response to the standard 'cannot confirm or deny', I don't want you getting in trouble trying to dance around everything."

Naoko's response to the plan was immediately negative, "I believe that might not be the best course of action. He has stated specific barriers exist with regards to the traditional methods of gaining that kind of specimen. I have no reason to doubt his honesty."

"It's a medical procedure, mom." Ritsuko glowered at her mother. "If he's comfortable with someone in particular, I'll seek their help. If he'd be fine with Maya or I, we'll get it done. I'm positive he's mature enough to understand that we're not just asking him for no reason."

"It is a medical procedure that puts you in a rather compromising position," she challenged. "You are my daughter, and Lieutenant Ibuki is my subordinate. We can-"

"Naoko," Kyoko interrupted smoothly, "Primum non nocere is in play here. He knows Ritsuko and Maya. He has proven to be comfortable around them while naked. We have no small amount of evidence that the BNST readings are, while valid, not indicative of a sudden loss of morality. If we ask someone he doesn't know to help acquire the sample, we're not only risking harm to someone in his circumstances, but we're also risking introducing unknowns into a controlled situation. He has made a connection with Maya, and he shows demonstrable joy whenever she's around."

The elder Akagi scowled at her friend and colleague, "Lieutenant Ibuki is still my subordinate, and I will not-"

"Fine," Ritsuko snapped, throwing her hands up and walking towards the door, "I'll go get it by myself."

"Ritsuko, you-"

"Not your employee," she called over her shoulder. "I'm assigned to Sensei's Division."

Maya remained where she was as the door closed behind her ladylove, looking down at her clasped hands as she engaged in the long-tenured practice of ignoring a 'heated disagreement' between superiors. She wasn't certain if she wanted to be there to 'help', or to help. Psychological reassurances that she could provide, coupled with medical reassurances, would prove invaluable to Shinji. She knew she could trust Ritsuko to be careful with him, but that didn't mean that he might not respond…better if she was there too.

"Lieutenant, I want you to go prepare the necessary equipment to analyze the sample." Naoko's voice was set to 'Antarctic Blast', "Thank you."

Kyoko watched Maya leave with as much dignity as was possible under the circumstances. After the only two in the room were her and her former college roommate, she took her own mask off. "Was ist dein verdammtes Problem?"

"Why are you so hellbent on pushing them towards him?" She pointed towards the door, taking a step closer to Kyoko. "They have a perfectly comfortable dynamic as they are. They love one another, they support one another, and they're good for one another."

"Because they also took an immediate liking to Shinji. Maya has been afraid of men ever since that incident, and the first time she sees him she overcame all of that to fight for him." Kyoko crossed her arms, unimpressed with the limited thinking of her friend. "You know they would all be good for one another, if they hit it off. Your daughter is the type of woman to push anyone she's with in the right ways to encourage them to reach their maximum potential. Maya is a living, breathing, warm blanket. She's the woman anyone would love to hold while she told them that everything would be ok. Why on Earth do you have a problem with them possibly hitting it off with a young man who isn't that much their junior?"

"Because I want them nowhere near the Ikari Curse." The statement entered the fray with violence. "He might be a good man, despite everything that's happened to him. He might be kind. But he can't help that he was born into a family that's been the cause of most of mankind's suffering for hundreds of years. I want them nowhere near that."

Kyoko's frown was born of both disgust and confusion. "Ein Fluch? Wirklich?!"

"Yes, really." Naoko slapped her hand down on the table in emphasis. "That is my daughter."

"Our, Liebste, not just your." It was her turn to take a step closer, her crossed arms the only barrier between her and her friend. "I have spent more than one sleepless night with her, myself. I changed her diapers. I consoled her after breakups. I taught her right from wrong. You may have given her life, but I have been involved as much as I possibly could in her life. We argued with Yui up to the moment that she met her sister at the train station. We argued every time we had a chance to discuss him with her. We have been the mothers that she could not be, and we both have a responsibility to do what is best by our kinder. Shinji is not tainted with some ridiculous curse, or some twisted form of 'Original Sin'."

Her face shuddered, a string of invectives being swallowed before they could escape her throat. Naoko knew that Kyoko had been there for both her and Ritsuko ever since the two met decades ago. She knew that if it weren't for Kyoko's support, she likely would have gone chasing after any number of powerful men that would have used and abused her. She also knew that she'd served the same purpose for Kyoko. She was scared…and Kyoko knew it. "She's going to get hurt…by his son."

Taking a deep breath of her own, she uncrossed her arms and hugged her friend tight. "Nein. Whatever may have come before, whatever he lived through, he lived through it." Her lips curled into a happy smile when Naoko returned the embrace. "We will be here to guide them. To nurture them. And, if necessary, to apply kinetic solutions when verbal instructions fail."

Naoko barked out a laugh. "…Thanks." With her face not exposed to Kyoko, she struggled to keep the grin of success from growing broader. Everything is going according to plan.

+++++ Author's Note:

Once again, I have been asked by several people to see if there is any interest in visual depictions of various characters and/or scenes from my stories. If you are interested in helping, feel free to PM me.