|Returning Warrior Arc|
Shinji Ikari has unknowingly been under the watchful eyes of two of the strongest Devil clans ever since his rejection of Instrumentality at the height of Third Impact. Enjoying his peaceful, day-to-day life, he is completely unaware that events are in motion that will propel him to take up the sword once more… if he doesn't run away.

Three years. It's been three years since-

"Please, tell me that's not how you're starting this story."

Wait. You can hear me?

"Of course I can," a silver-haired bishounen sighs as he scratches at his scalp. The street he's walking down isn't exactly deserted though, so his random outburst garners him more than a few stares. "What are you all staring at?!"

For that matter, haven't we had this exact conversation before? I mean, even that gothic girl over there looks kind of familiar.

"That you have, Author-sama. In fact," a feminine voice purred, "I wouldn't be surprised if you were almost straight copying some of your other words to pad your word count." A voluptuous, pale woman with long, crimson hair and ruby-red eyes stepped out of a nearby alleyway, twirled a purple and blue pawn piece around the fingers of her right hand as she looked up to the sky. "Don't worry, though. None of us three will hold it against you. Oh!" She tilted her head slightly to the right, a soft smile gracing her lips. "Hello reader! I do hope you are doing well. Been a while."

Umm… us three?

"Frankly, I'm more than a little annoyed that I only look 'kind of familiar' to you, old friend." The gothic ravenette from before smirked as she stepped over to stand beside the other two figures. The slight glint in her eye was matched by the reflected light hitting the small blade she was holding in her hand. "You and I go back how many years now? At least as long as you've known that scaredy cat you're calling the 'Forgotten Messiah' in this silly little story of yours, for Tartarus's sake."

Oh… It's… It's been a while, Maria. I do hope time has been kind.

"Yeah, yeah, look. I doubt your readers came here to read a story devoted to you getting back in touch with your personal muses," the crimson-haired woman said with a laugh.

"Pretty sure that reader is already thinking about writing a review to complain about it as well," the silver-haired bishounen grumbled. "Yeah, you! Just because I'm talking from the screen doesn't mean I don't know what you're thinking!"

"Now, now, calm down you two." Maria gently patted them both on the back. "Our dear Author has just been in a bit of a funk these past few years. You both know there's another that should be standing with us right now." Her voice dropped from conversational to barely audible. "Even if they did take all his time and attention."

Guess that means it's time we get this show started, huh?

"Yeah. But don't worry, we've got a few ideas for you. Should keep you writing longer, but we'll try not to be too flaky this go around," Maria said with a repentant chuckle.

"Speak for yourself, boss!"

=/\= =\/= =/\= =\/= =/\=

First Contact
Circles Never Stop Themselves

~Do do do, good morning… Do do do, good-~

*Click*

Shinji Ikari awoke with a groan as he turned off his morning alarm. Back in middle school, he would awake before the sun of his own volition. But now that he was in his second semester at high school, there was just something about the joy of sleeping in that was too tempting to pass up. Besides, it wasn't like he had to make his meals anymore. Gone were the days of rice porridge gruel given to him by his uncle. The days of having to worry about that toxic waste his old guardian called food had flittered off into the aether.

"Shinji! Are you up yet?" a motherly voice enquired.

After all, if there was one perk of this world reset known as "Third Impact", it was the fact that he actually had a family life again. Not a surrogate family, but a loving mother in the form of Yui Ikari and a, surprisingly, caring father in the form of Gendo Ikari.

"Yeah, I'll be down in a second, mom!"

Of course, that was probably the only real perk that came from the whole ordeal. First off, no one seemed to even remember anything about the world that was. When he first woke up, he'd been so shocked to see his parents, both of them with genuine care in their eyes, that he broke down into tears. They tried to console him, telling him that it was naught but a nightmare.

While, on the surface, it would appear that a world without the Evangelions would be a good thing, it also meant that those few good things that happened to him during his months at the Tokyo-3 First Municipal Junior High School were also gone. Without Yui's absorption into Unit 01 as well as SEELE's plan for Human Instrumentality, there was no reason for Gendo to bother creating Rei. Furthermore, without the Evangelion project as a whole, Asuka was likely sitting with her parents in Germany, unaware that he even existed. Without SEELE or Adam around, even Kaworu would never have been created to come into his life.

For now, however, none of that really matters. Going about his morning routine, he headed down the stairs to enjoy breakfast with his family.

"So, how goes the conquest of the girls of Kuoh Academy, Shinji?" Gendo asked, glasses just barely visible over the top of his newspaper.

Shinji did a quick spit take while Yui smacked her husband. Maybe 'enjoy' wasn't quite the right word. Even after all this time, Shinji just could not reconcile the image of "The Bastard King of Tokyo-3" with the lazy pervert of a father sitting before him. Although, that might explain why there seemed to be a disproportionately high number of women that worked at NERV. And the whole thing with the Akagis…

A shiver ran down Shinji's spin at the thought. "N… No. There's no conquest going on. I swear."

"Good boy," his mother said with a smile that could have stopped even Zeruel in his tracks as the familiar horn of an Alpine A310 sounded from the front of the house.

"I… I think I should be heading to school now…" Shinji said, slowly gathering up his things. Sure, he still had more than enough time to finish his breakfast and make it to class… especially with Misato's driving. But he had no desire at all to continue being in that house when his mother had that look on her face.

"Make sure to give young Miss Katsuragi my - OW!" was the last that Shinji heard his father say as he hurriedly shut the door.

"Trouble in paradise, Shin-kun?" Misato said with a laugh as she practically lay across the front passenger seat to hold the door open for him. Easily the greatest change from Shinji's earlier life was his old guardian. For some reason he simply could not explain, she had gone from the twenty-nine-year-old childish Major of NERV to an eighteen-year-old flirty third-year high school student. In fact, she was considered by many to be one of the Four Great Onee-Sama of Kuoh Academy.

Shinji just chuckled softly to himself as he took a seat. "Good morning, Misato-senpai. Dad sends his… Ow? I guess. He didn't really manage to finish his words before Mom smacked him. At least, I hope that's what she did."

"Yeah, that sounds like your old man. No matter, let's go!" Three seconds before Shinji's seatbelt clicked into place, Misato threw her car back into gear and set off fast enough that the momentum alone was enough to slam his door shut for him.

Yui watched the two drive away from the kitchen window, starting to wash the morning dishes. When she spoke, her voice came out in a measured tone. "Gendo, darling… It's been three years."

The man started to swear a bit, shrinking a bit behind his newspaper. "Y-yes dear..."

"Today is the last day of the Armistice, correct?"

Gendo swallowed nervously. "Um…"

"You've had three years, did you ever find a chance to tell him?"

He just sat there, perfectly quiet, eyes never leaving his morning paper.

=/\= =\/= =/\= =\/= =/\=

"It's simply a question of who will make the first move. This isn't exactly chess, I'm afraid." Student Council President Sona Shitori's finger gently pressed against the pawn on the board before her as she considered her next move. "There is no turn order in this game, Rias. If we move too soon, we risk reigniting the Angel War. If we move too late, we lose out on one of the single greatest assets the Underworld has ever known."

Rias Gremory let out a sigh, looking at the board with a certainty that she was losing. Chess, more specifically tactics and finesse, was always Sona's strong point. Rias tended to prefer the brute force method. "Then you should just make your move already! The Armistice ends at midnight anyways. A few hours are not going to matter much in the end. Not after three years."

With a small shift in posture, Sona's hand went from the pawn to her knight, capturing Rias's last bishop with her move. "I'm not so sure why you are so stressed about the pace I move at, Rias. You've got your eye on that other second year. Shouldn't your concern right now be focused on him?"

"You mean Issei?" Rias made a quick counter move, advancing her rook behind Sona's pawns to try and take some pressure off of her queen. "Koneko is already watching over that pervert. I have no doubt I'll find a chance to make my move soon. But, I have until graduation to worry about my choices. You're not so lucky."

Sona just smiled as she took Rias's queen anyway, placing Rias in check. "I wouldn't be so sure… However, I fear we will have to continue this game later as it seems I have a visitor."

As soon as Sona spoke those words, there was a knock at the student council room door. "Come in, Kirishima-san. We've been expecting you."

=/\= =\/= =/\= =\/= =/\=

Shinji took his seat in the back of the class with a sigh, dropping his bag while the other was placed over his mouth. Somehow, the age regression has made Misato's driving even worse. Even though she'd been driving him to school for the past few months, he still hadn't quite figured out to keep from feeling the need to revisit breakfast as he waited for the first bell to ring.

"Yo, Shin! Ma man, ya don look so good. Too much uva good time wit dat Great Onee-Sama?"

"Come on, Toji. Give him a break, I doubt spending time with that angel of a senpai would make anyone look sick," Kensuke said with a smile. "If anything, I suspect our dear friend has finally learned the truth behind who funds his parent's Advanced Human Evolution Laboratory. After all, if anything could turn stomachs and make faces green, it would be the discovery that a shadowy organization known as the Grigori were secretly using the lab as a front to enact their devious scheme of Human Instrumentality!"

Both friends looked at the bespeckled nerd like he'd grown a second head. Though, for vastly different reasons. Toji was simply convinced that Kensuke had simply found the newest conspiracy theory of the week, but Shinji was genuinely shocked to hear the word 'Instrumentality' used so freely. Still, he couldn't bring himself to break them of their notion that Misato was God's gift to mankind, so… "N-No, nothing like that, Ken. Just feeling a bit under the weather this morning is all. I'll be fine."

Fortunately, Shinji was saved from saying anything else as the bell rang and Ritsuko-sensei walked into the room.

"Rise. Bow." Hikari called out as the class went through the motions of respect for their teacher. "Sit."

"Thank you, Horaki-san." Ritsuko started. "Now class, I realize this is a bit unusual for the middle of the semester..."

Try as he might, Shinji simply had no interest in paying attention to class at the moment. So what if they had a new student, it's not like Asuka was going to come waltzing in from Germany for no reason. And besides, there were more important matters to think of right now. Someone out there knew of Instrumentality. At the very least, they understood the word. Three years. It had been three years and he'd not heard a single word that even hinted at the world remembering the events before Third Impact. But there is was, plain as da-

"SHIN-TAN!"

"Ooof!"

Mid-thought, Shinji found himself barrelled over, looking up into the grey eyes of a woman he had no memory of having ever seen before. Most of the glass was gasping in shock, others choosing to express themselves more vocally with shots of 'WHAT?!' His own mind raced, trying to figure out who this woman could possibly be. Instead, he simply asked…

"I… I'm sorry, who? Who are you?"

"Mou… Shin-tan, were you not even listening when I was introduced? It's me! Mana! We grew up next door to each other, remember? Come on, you have to remember! We were best buds, right? Right?!"

=/\= =\/= =/\= =\/= =/\=

Life. 01
The Day They Come

"It would seem they're making their move a bit early." Ryoji Kaji lit another cigarette as he spoke into his phone. "With their agent on the board at long last, all five sides are finally in play. Question is, who's going to flinch first."

"..."

"Yeah, yeah, I know." He took a drag from his cigarette. "Keep quiet, keep low. You know as well as I do we should be the ones taking him."

"..."

"Look boss, I'm not talking about The Rules here. Kid's done enough for Japan… No, for the whole damn world. He'd get to keep the peace he thinks he has if we stepped in and took him for ourselves."

"..."

"Fine, fine. Keep your shirt on. Actually, on second thought-"

*Click*

Kaji just chucked to himself, pulling the SIM card out of his phone as he dropped both his phone and his cigarette to the ground. "Touchy, aren't ya, boss? Sorry kid, you're on your own with this one. Wish I could help ya." He turned to walk away, crushing his phone under his heel.

=/\= =\/= =/\= =\/= =/\=

Shinji stood on the roof of Kuoh Academy, looking down at the students below him enjoying their lunch break. He smirked as three of the male students ran for their life away from some of the girls. On any other day, he likely would have been down there with them. But today, between the surprise of someone claiming to be his childhood friend and EVERY student wanting to know how he knew the newest babe of Kuoh Academy, he just wanted some privacy. I mean, it's not like yet another woman was going to fall out of the sky on a parachute, right?

Right?

Shinji looked up. The way his luck was going today, he wouldn't be surprised if something that out of the ordinary happened.

"I realize it is a common trope in many school-age stories, Ikari-san, but the rooftop is actually off-limits to our students. Even at lunch."

Shinji jumped slightly, turning around to see Sona Shitori standing by the rooftop access door. "I… I'm sorry, Shitori-kaichou. I just, I needed to get away."

With a slight smile, hauntingly similar to one that Rei might have made were she still around, Sona let out a small sigh. "I understand, Ikari-san. But that does not excuse you breaking the rules like this. If you really need to space, might I suggest accompanying me to the student council room? We don't accept contracts over our lunch break, so it's generally quite there this time of day."

Shinji's head tilted to the side in confusion. "Contracts?"

"C-Contracts, requests, assignments. I simply chose the first word that came to mind, think nothing of it." Sona stuttered slightly as she tried to cover her minor slip. "Either way, I'm afraid I do have to ask you to leave the rooftop, but my offer does stand."

Shinji considered it for a moment, before nodding. "Sure thing, Kaichou."

With that, the two left the roof for the student council room, the student council president in the lead as they descended the stairs..

"Umm… Kaichou?"

"Yes Ikari-san?" Sona looked back slightly over her shoulder as she stepped onto the landing.

"If the rooftop is off-limits to students, what were you doing up there?"

She stopped in her tracks for but a moment, unsure what exactly to say now that she had been caught. "I… uh… I was checking to make sure there weren't any delinquents that had decided to break the rules. It's… It's my job as a member of the student council, after all."

"Oh, well, I guess that makes sense."

"I-Ikari-san…" Sona stuttered out, uncertainty coloring her voice as she debated the outcome of her next statement. "It's not the place of the student council to dictate platonic, inter-student relationships. And I do realize she may genuinely be a childhood friend, but I would advise you to keep your distance from Kirishima-san."

"Wonderful, so that rumor has even made it to the student council?" Shinji growled out his words. "That's the exact reason I was trying to get away from everyone!"

"Then I will say nothing more on the subject, Ikari-san. Fear not, you will find your sanctuary in the student council room, as I promised."

Shinji's jaw unclenched as he sighed. "Thank you, Kaichou."

=/\= =\/= =/\= =\/= =/\=

The remainder of Shinji's day went fairly calmly. Sona had offered him an open invitation to use the student council room for a reprieve, should he feel the need to do so. She'd even given him her personal contact information, promising to 'bring the full might of her family name down on any that disturbed his peace', before blushing and begging him to forget she ever said those words.

Of course, what confused Shinji the most was that she even seemed to have any interest in him. All anyone in this world knew of him, he was just an everyday, average high school student and the son of two key researchers at the Advanced Human Evolution Laboratory. He was nobody worth getting so worked up over.

In his confused daze, he continued his walk home. A part of him was actually glad that Misato's club was meeting today. He wasn't all too sure that his stomach would have been able to handle another of her "calm" rides between his family residence and the school. Plus, the walk would give him more time to try to think things out.

"Hey, kid. Are you… Ugh… You're Shinji Ikari, right?"

Shaken from his thoughts, Shinji looked up to see a tall woman with long, navy blue hair flowing down to her thighs. Shinji couldn't help but think she could have easily swapped clothes with his old guardian.

"You are him, right? Shinji Ikari of Kuoh Academy?"

Shinji nodded nervously. "Y- yeah, that's me. What can I help you with?"

The woman pulled slightly at the bangs covering her right eye. "Look, I… I know this is awkward but… Are you, maybe… seeing anyone right now?"

The former Eva pilot's mind stopped. There was no way this woman was trying to ask him out on a date… was she? It took all his will power simply to shake his head no.

"Great! That's… uh…. That's great. Cause, I was wondering… Might you want to go out? With me, that is?"

"I'm sorry, miss… But, I don't even know your name."

"It's Asa… Asa Rino." She looked at him with a nervous smile.

"S-Sure… I guess." Shinji rang his hands together as he talked. "A… A date would be nice, Rino-san."

With that, her whole face lit up. "That's great! Would Saturday afternoon work for you? Say… meet at the mall around… two o'clock?"

Shinji nodded in agreement. "S-Sure. See you there."

As the two left to go their separate ways, Shinji never noticed a familiar blue car parked across the street, with its windows rolled down.. Its sole occupant had her legs propped up on the dash, a mug of coffee in one hand and a pair of binoculars in the other. However, the most striking aspect about her were her slitted eyes and the pair of cat ears turned towards him.

"Well, this is certainly an interesting development…"

AN: So… It's been a while, hasn't it? I'm not certain if I mentioned this before, but the USB drive that held all my plans and notes for my stories got corrupted ages ago, so I'd lost most of my prep work for where I wanted to take my stories. So, as much as it hurts me to do so, I'm actually just going to leave my older works abandoned. But, I think I might have something for how I actually want to take this story, putting a vastly different spin on it from my original plan. The original had a Shinji x Rias plot as was supposed to pull in a bunch of other stories, even beyond the little bit of Panty and Stocking you saw in what I managed to share. I'm going to be pulling the story a lot tighter to the two crossover stories. Other than my OCs, it's going to be sticking pretty much exclusively to characters from High School DxD and Evangelion. Hopefully you'll get to see more of the story this time around. I've switched to using Google Drive to store my notes, so I hopefully won't have a repeat of the USB failure that destroyed my original notes and drive.

Until next time, everyone. Enjoy and I should see you soon.