Disclaimer: I don't Evangelion, but you know that already don't you? Provided I am not in fact Anno in disguise, all I own is this story.

Author's note: So yeah. Had this'n in my head for a while, it was a full moon tonight, and I thought, "Hey. Why not?" It felt right to do the first chapter the night of the full moon. And, just cause I'm me, I'll be doing werewolfism a little differently from the norm in this story. Enjoy.

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There was once a man, several hundred years ago, who happened to be a knight. He lived with his beautiful and loving wife in the countryside. He lived a comfortable life, as he was on very good terms with the King.

Now, as it happened, the Knight would disappear regularly for a few days each month. His wife, though she loved him, was somewhat suspicious of this, and also grew quite worried when he would leave. Many times, she begged him to tell her where he went, but he would not out of fear of her reaction. This went on for a long time.

One day the knight's wife finally managed to wear him down. The knight told her where he went. He said that he had been bitten by a wolf many years ago, and that each month, he became a werewolf for a few days at a time. During this time, he went off into the woods to be by himself. He told his wife that he had to put his clothes away somewhere as well, because if he lost them he couldn't change back into a human once the time was up.

His wife was absolutely horrified by this, but she didn't show it. She kept up a front of compassion, innocently inquiring where he kept his clothes. He did not tell her at first, but she eventually got him to reveal that as well. He said that when he went into the forest, he hid his clothes in an old ruined church.

The next time he went out, his wife immediately got a hold of another knight- her husband's rival as well as a man who loved her. She told him about her husband, and they set out and followed him. They saw her husband take off his clothes, hide them, and then transform. As soon as he ran off, his treacherous wife and his rival grabbed his clothes and took them away, hiding them themselves. Days later when the wolf returned, he knew that his clothes had been stolen, and woefully knew it must have been his wife.

While the good knight spent the next year in the forest as a wolf, his wife got married to the knight who had helped her. She had no guilt about what she had done, as she now only thought of her husband as a beast.

One day, the King and his royal party came to the forest. The kings dogs picked up the scent of the tragic wolf, and eventually cornered him. The wolf thought he was going to die, until he saw the King. The wolf ran between the dogs and knelt beside the King's horse. He lifted his head up and licked the King's hand. The King and his men were shocked to see the wolf begging for his life. The King then ordered that the wolf be spared, and he took the wolf home with him.

The wolf was a great wonder at the royal court. He proved to be a most intelligent animal, and was the King's constant companion. One day, the King decided to hold a feast in honor of his best knight, who'd disappeared a little more than a year earlier. Among the guests was the knight's wife and her new husband. The second the wolf saw her, he attacked her, biting off her nose.

The King was shocked, but ordered the men who had drawn their weapons to spare him. Instead, he had the wolf dragged off and locked inside the King's chamber. The King and his men had never seen the wolf act this way before, and so decided they had to question the woman who'd been attacked. When asked if she knew anything about the wolf's strange behavior, she confessed.

She told the king everything about her husband, to which the King reacted with shock and anger. He sent some men to go and retrieve the knight's clothes. They returned shortly, and went up to the King's chamber. They left the clothes in the room and left, and advisor warning that the wolf wouldn't change with others watching.

They came in later and found the missing knight sleeping on the King's bed. The King was overjoyed to see his friend alive and well. He accepted the knight, werewolf or not, and let him live in the castle. As for his wife, she and her husband were banished from the land. They went on to lead their lives outside of the kingdom. However, as a constant reminder of what the two had done, every woman born in their line was born without a nose.

888

Shinji put the book down. 'What a strange story,' he thought. 'What exactly was the moral?' He turned the page. Only some can love the beast for the man inside. Huh. He put the book back on the shelf. He was running late, and really didn't have time to read anymore. He went to the front of the store and payed for the cookbook that he'd gone there to find, and headed out.

As he walked back to his apartment, he had to take a shortcut through the park. 'I'm late enough as it is,' he thought. 'I can't afford to stick to the sidewalks.' As he ran through the park, he slowly became aware of something. It felt like he was being watched. He slowed to a stop and looked around. He didn't see anything. Except trees and bushes.

Just as he was about to start running again, he heard a growl. A large animal leapt from the bushes, knocking Shinji to the ground.

"Ah!" he cried, raising his right arm to protect himself. The animal bit his arm, clenched its jaw, and then ran off. Shinji looked after the animal in confusion. "What the hell...? Was that some kind of dog? Ah!" He looked down at his arm, which was bleeding. "Oh crap." He tore of some of his shirt and began wrapping up his arm. "I hope I don't get rabies or something horrible like that."

He hurried home, wincing as he ran. He had been almost home already. He figured it would be smarter to go home to treat the wound, it being closer than a hospital. He reached the apartment and entered.

"Shinji, there you are," said Misato as he came in. "I was getting wor- What happened!?" Misato rushed over to Shinji.

"What's going on?" asked Asuka, coming in from another room. She saw Shinji's arm. "Whoa! What happened Shinji?"

"I don't know," said Shinji, wincing as Misato grabbed his arm to inspect it further. "I was cutting through the park on my way home, and this big dog thing came out of nowhere and attacked me! It bit my arm, and then just ran off."

"Oh boy," said Misato. "We're going to get you to a doctor, then. That animal might have had rabies." Shinji nodded in agreement, putting down his bag.

"So much for dinner," muttered Asuka.

888

They were all back home about an hour later, Shinji having been given a clean bill of health. Misato cooked dinner to give him a break. Shinji's arm was now in clean bandages. The animal hadn't done any more damage than the puncture wounds, so Shinji's arm was working fine.

Still, it bugged him. What on earth had possessed that animal to just bite him like that? And where had it come from anyway? It looked more like a wolf than a dog, and there weren't really any wild wolves in Japan. At least, not that Shinji knew of. 'Oh well,' he thought. 'It was just a bite. That thing probably could have killed me if it wanted to. I guess I should be thankful.' He went to sleep that night, not really thinking about it much.

The night had been strange, to say the least. Little did Shinji know that things were going to get much, much stranger.

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And there it is. First half of the chapter is actually an old folk-tale/mediaeval legend. I've read it so many times that even though I haven't read it in like two years I still remember it almost perfectly.

So yeah, the first chapter isn't much, but this is just the setup. The real story starts next time. Stay tuned!