Welcome to my new fanfic! Before I get to the actual story, four little disclaimers I'd like to give!
1. I am aware that there is a very popular fic featuring a gun-wielding demon slayer, so my gimmick of a marksman slayer isn't exactly unique. I did not read this fic, prefering to go in completely blind with my own writing instead of desperately avoiding any similarities with that fanfic, however it might be that some concepts end up similar to that one in regards to the gunfighting against demons!
2. Though I definitely don't want my writing to be needlessly edgy, this fanfic will deal with some generally sensitive and serious topics, hopefully in a somewhat nuanced way. Regardless, a bit of reader discretion is advised!
3. I did my best to see if I could pinpoint the exact years in which the story of Demon Slayer takes place, but the narrowest description I could find was just the general Taisho era (1912-1926). With this in mind, in the canon of this fanfic the events of the main story begin to take place in 1919, after World War One has finished, in order for this fic to make sense. Though the story will mainly follow Paul instead of Tanjiro, of course him and the regular cast of characters you know will make plenty of appearences as the story goes on!
4. This is my very first piece of fanfiction writing! As such please don't expect the highest quality writing haha, but feedback on both the writing and the story so far is always welcome!
With these points out of the way, I hope you enjoy the fic!
Chapter 1: A New Leaf
The blaring horn of the passenger ship shook Paul awake with a scared jerk. A small gasp escaped his lips, quickly followed by a grunt of pain as he bumped his head against the top of the bunkbed. The man on the bunk bed above him did not seem to care, still idly snoring away even through the noise of the horn. Slowly rubbing the painful spot on his forehead and sighing as he felt his heartbeat calm down, Paul opened his eyes, looking towards porthole of the cabin. Through the window he could see the first light of the day on the horizon, and with it, the silhouette of a new land: Japan. The new land he would make his home, for now at least.
Though it probably sounded like a madman's journey to most, going all the way to the other side of the world, away from everything you ever knew, travelling to a country you had been at war with less than a year ago. But at this point Paul couldn't care less if people thought of him as a madman. When recieved his uncle's response telegram right at the end of 1918, it was the last push he needed to leave Germany, probably for forever. While a job as a bodyguard for the German ambassador and his diplomatic entourage wasn't the most glamorous task, for Paul it offered a way out. A way out of a world he had grown completely detached from.
He knew he wouldn't get more sleep than he had already gotten at this point, so he stepped out of bed, trying his best to not wake his cabinmate as he began to dress, but it seemed the man wouldn't be waking up quickly. Though he would quickly find out the average Japanese person dressed with a somewhat more simplistic elegance, Paul wasn't exactly overdressed for a western man.
Putting on a white dress shirt stuffed in his grey trousers, suspenders, and a long grey woolen overcoat, he inspected himself in the mirror for a moment, light grey eyes staring back at him. He hadn't shaved since he started travelling, and at this point his lower face was covered by a short but scruffy beard, a mustache above his upper lip, the hair a similar dirty blonde colour as the thick messy hair on his head. It was pretty clear to see he hadn't slept all that great, noticable dark circles under his eyes, his long face in a somewhat sullen expression. But it was about as presentable as he could probably make himself to his uncle at this early hour.
Putting on a simple flat cap and grabbing the suitcase hidden under his bunkbed he made his way out of the cabin, towards the restaurant to eat a small breakfast, and thenup to the upper deck of the ship. The early morning air was cool on his face, but if anything it was refreshing rather than uncomfortable as he sat down on a bench, opening up his suitcase. In the suitcase were some extra clothes, a Luger pistol he had managed to keep to himself after the war, and a couple books he had stolen from the library of the university he used to study at before he joined the army. Grabbing the books, he opened the first one and began to read.
The books were dictionaries and guides on the Japanese language and writing system. He found the language to be incredibly complex and utterly alien to his native German, but had made it his mission to learn as much of it as he could. Though his concentration wasn't what it used to be compared to his years in university, he had little else to do on the ship besides study, he did seem to have a knack for languages during his years in school so he hoped it wasnt an impossible task to learn the language.
While the phonetic writing systems of hiragana and katakana were fairly straightforward, the immense amount of kanji he needed to learn to properly read Japanese were still too much for him. Pronounciations of most words, the grammar and the proper sentence construction were also incredibly foreign to him, but eavesdropping on several of the Japanese passengers in the ship's restaurant helped him understand a little more which each passing day. Though he was fairly certain he could hold a basic conversation at this point reading especially was far out of his reach.
The sun slowly began to climb higher into the sky as the landmass ahead of him began to appear bigger and bigger as the ship approached its port, Yokohama, not far from Tokyo. Paul closed his book as the vessel aproached the harbour, getting himself ready to disembark. Quickly inspecting his pocket watch hidden within his coat, it was almost 8 in the morning, at least the ship seemed to be arriving on time, hopefully his uncle would be too. Walking onto shore, it quickly turned out it wasn't hard to find his uncle waiting for him at the harbour.
Being a rotund giant of a man with a bushy mustache almost wider than his round face, he was impossible to miss in the crowd of considerably shorter and thinner Japanese people. "Paulie? My god! Is that really you?" The man said as he approached him, "I remember when you were practically still a young boy in your mother's lap, look at how you've grown!" He laughed as he went in for an enthousiastic hug, which Paul accepted somewhat reluctantly.
"It is good to see you, uncle Heinrich. I see you haven't changed much from what I can remember." Paul replied with a small smile. He did not smile much these days, but Paul couldnt ignore the infectious positivity that always radiated from his uncle. His uncle had been in Japan as part of the German embassy for many years now, and the times he came back to visit his family were rare, it had been quite a few years before the war that Paul had last seen him in person. "You really are a grown man now, look at you." His uncle said as he broke the hug. "I can see you even have a few scars, probably from your heroic deeds in France no?" Though Heinrich wanted to chuckle, he quickly let his smile drop as he saw his cousin's chilly expression, his gaze piercing through him.
His uncle cleared his throat for a moment, before the familiar cheerful expression returned to his face. "...Anyways, come. Let's hurry to the station before we miss the train." His uncle beckoned Paul to follow him into the busy town, and he couldn't help but stare all around him as they began to make their way into the busy city of Yokohama. Even with Yokohama being a port for many western powers, everything was completely different to the Germany he was used to. The buildings, the people, the clothes, the sounds, the smells, everything was new. Heinrich seemed to notice Paul's staring, and chuckled a little. "You're not in Hamburg anymore Paulie, try not to stare too much, it's rather impolite." He said with a grin. For the amount of staring Paul sending out he was recieving it back in equal measure, with plenty of Japanese people staring back at the lanky European with equal looks of curiousity and confusion.
As they entered the local train station he was relieved to see the train was still present at the platform, and after buying a ticket for the both of them, Heinrich led Paul into one of the carriages. With a content sigh the chubby man sat down on one of the seats, Paul seating himself opposite of his uncle. "Well Paulie, soon we will be on our way to Tokyo, where we'll get you installed as the new honour guard." Heinrich explained as the whistle of the train filled the air, the carriage shocking as it slowly started moving.
"I'll be very honest with you, while I am happy to see you after all these years I do not understand why you did not resume your engineering studies now that this damned war is all over with. You're a bright kid, you easily could have gotten an apprenticeship at your father's arms factory to help you with your studies. I had to pull quite a bit of strings at the embassy to convince the Japanese that we had need for an armed German guard. With the Kaiser's abdication, the current unstability of the German government, and the fact we were fighting the Japanese less than a year ago, I luckily had enough reasons to request a position for a German who would act as an independant guard." His uncle said. Paul opened his mouth for a moment as if to say something, and after a quick pause he simply replied, "I'm happy you could help me out, uncle."
Paul's eyes began to wander towards the window next to him, the Japanese countryside slipping past him as the train picked up speed. It was beautiful and unlike anything he had seen before, no doubt about it. Compared to the mud, trenches and burned forests he had to stand watch over for the last 3 years these lands seemed oddly...untouched. Modern technology, like the train he was currently riding, was certainly present. But it did seem like the modern world hadn't entirely catched up yet as his eyes wandered over the large rice paddies and small farming villages.
It seemed he fell into somewhat of a daydream, as he suddenly found the train slowing down to enter Tokyo station, the brakes of the steam train screetching to a halt waking him up again. His uncle chuckled a little at Paul's sudden confusion. "You seemed so lost in thought I was afraid of disturbing you, but our ride is at an end, follow me Paulie." Heinrich said as he got up, Paul following him out of the train. Though Yokohama was incredibly busy, Tokyo was in it's own league entirely. Busy crowds of people filled the streets, chatter of all kinds filling the air. And even if it seemed like the Japanese countryside was stuck in the past, the modern city of Tokyo lacked none of the technological comforts he was used to back in Germany. Though Paul did his best to listen in on conversations to test his Japanese knowledge, with this amount of noise he wasn't going to be able to make out much.
"Come, we can use one of the trams to get to the embassy, it shouldn't take long." Heinrich said as he led him to a rackity electrical tram cart, already stuffed with plenty of people. Buying a ticket for the both of them, his rotund uncle pretty shamelessly wriggled his way into the tram, much to the annoyance of some of the Japanese passengers. "Apologies..." Mumbled Paul in his first Japanese as he followed his uncle into the tram, which quickly set off in the direction of the embassy.
The German embasssy was located in a large and ornate building in traditional Japanese style, and Paul noticed the black-red-gold flag now flying from the flagpole instead of the imperial black-white-red he had been used to. A Japanese policeman guarding the door nodded at the pair of men as they approached the front door, recognizing Heinrich and opening the door for them. "Morning Hitoshi." Heinrich said with a nod, the policeman letting him in with a slight nod. Even if the outside of the building was rather traditional, the interior was decorated in a clear western style, furniture that wouldn't be out of the ordinary in Germany filling the rooms.
"I'll lead you to mr. Hanagazawa, the retired army officer in charge of our security detail, he will be your boss, you'll report to him from now on. How is your Japanese?" His uncle asked with a smal grin. "I've studied..." Paul simply replied, following his uncle into a room where a small moustached Japanese man was sitting at a desk, bowing over some paperwork. The man looked up, his wrinkled face raising towards Paul before getting up from his desk.
"Good morning mr. Hanagazawa, I hope the night has been quiet." Heinrich said as he switched over to Japanese, though a clear accent could be heard it seemed the man understood him rather effortlessly. "For a change it actually was, mr. von Stappen. Who is this?" He said, nodding to Paul. "This is the cousin I had told you about, Paul." Doing his best to listen in on the conversation, Paul knew this was his cue to introduce himself. "Paul von Stappen, a pleasure to meet you." He said in basic, but correct Japanese, as he reached out his hand. The man looked at his outstreched hand, then back to Paul, before reluctantly shaking it briefly. "Right." He murmured before turning to his uncle. "You vouch for his capabilities?" the policeman asked.
"Oh yes sir, Paul here survived a whole three years on the Western Front while fighting in the trenches, the occasional criminal or political activist won't stand a chance against him!" His uncle bragged while Paul stayed silent. "And he knows how to handle weapons like an expert, right Paulie?" Heinrich said as he turned towards Paul. "O-of course." He stammered out after recieving the sudden question. "He'd be eager to give a demonstration, mr. Hanagazawa." Heinrich said with an eager nod.
The old man stayed silent for a moment, before walking to a door at the back of the security office. In the backroom were a couple of locked cabinets, and with a key hidden under the desk he unlocked one of the cabinets, opening the doors and taking out a long rifle, a stripper clip of amunition and a long, swordlike bayonet. "I made sure to get you a German-made Gewehr 98, like the one you used." His uncle whispered with a nod. Placing the different items onto the desk, the officer gestured to Paul. "Load the rifle, fix your bayonet and present yourself. I want to see how you handle yourself. Cycle the bolt, but I dont think I have to explain that you cannot fire in here." The man commanded, and though Paul did not understand every single word he knew what the man meant.
Paul froze up for a moment as he looked at the gun, which indeed had been the exact type of firearm he had been carrying the last couple of years. But pushing through his hesitation, he quickly placed his suitcase down and walked over to the desk. Firmly gripping the rifle he opened the bolt, and with a clockwork-like efficiency, trained in many occasions, he rapidly pushed the clip of ammunition into the weapon, closing the bolt again. Without hesitation he grabbed the long bayonet, effortlessly fixing it onto the end of the rifle. Aiming the rifle at a window, he effortlessly cycled the bolt action of the weapon multiple times in a row in a couple seconds, the unspent cartridges falling to the floor. After quickly checking that the gun was indeed empty, Paul shouldered the rifle, standing at attention and looking the officer in the face.
The Japanese man looked at him for a moment, and nodded. "Better than most recruits when I was still drilling the army...You'll do. You will have some personal quarters upstairs, I will make sure to deliver your uniform there. Clean yourself up, you'll be on guard duty this evening. The ambassador is hosting a dinner for the minister of Foreign affairs, so I expect you to make yourself presentable. Your uncle will give you a tour of the grounds." The man quickly spoke, making it hard for Paul to properly follow along. But in the end he nodded, and allowed his uncle to show him the way.
His new life had begun, but what Paul didn't realise that this new unfamiliar world would soon become even more outlandish than he could imagine...