Demon Slayer Evangelion

by Traitor of All Traitors

DJexe suggested this idea. Suppose that Shinji ended up in an alternate universe, in an alternate timeline, where demons exist in the night? Suppose that he had a sword that used to be Unit-01, and he could use it to fight against demons? And what if he met someone that was like himself from another universe where he became more than a man after he died and helps him to survive?

4. First Mission Jitters

Creation began on 04-03-24

Creation ended on 05-10-24

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Demon Slayer Evangelion: First Mission Jitters

A/N: The votes at the last second have been gathered, and this is the result of the voting.

According to Death, the first mission of a member of the Demon Slayer Corps was usually expected to be the most brutal because it wasn't like the ones encountered during the Final Selection, as Shinji, now wearing his uniform, along with a purple, blue and red haori that, according to Mako, was representative of the three women from his past as an Evangelion pilot, and how he would keep them in memory as he tried to navigate through his life without them for the time being, was following the crow assigned to him as he was instructed to head west towards a train. It was only because of the breathing techniques he picked up from the twins that Shinji was able to run a lot faster than he thought he could. Though, for practical purposes, Death had instructed him to run along straight and semi-straight routes that were the least obstructed.

"All breathing techniques help improve one's speed," Death had told him during a lesson, "but if you run for a prolonged period of time, covering a vast distance, then your lungs and muscles will be oxygen-deprived, and you'll require several minutes to recover from the excess fatigue. For a mortal, any and all forms of power…doesn't come from the muscles or the mind, but from the breath. The breath becomes the energy necessary to turn thoughts into actions. The breath and energy flows through the body's limbs…and becomes the force needed to turn those thoughts into actions. Without proper breath control, each technique you wield will become insufficient against any demon you face, whether it's to defend yourself or the lives of others. Practice regularly, and Total Concentration Breathing becomes second nature to all that you do."

When Shinji stopped running to let his lungs and muscles recover from the taxing work he put his body through, he found himself looking up at the back of a train that looked very elegant and alluring. He couldn't have seen such a beauty with regular trains from his previous past because they were so modern, but this one…was just a sight to behold. As his leg muscles recovered from the running, he went over to a nearby station platform and noticed a trio of young people that seemed puzzled to be near the train, but since they were too far away from him, he couldn't engage them in conversation. All he could do right now was get on the train and get a ticket.

-x-

The scent of demonic energies was present in the air as Death, unbeknownst to Shinji, sat atop the train he was on. Both he and Mako, while not interfering with Shinji's first mission as a Demon Slayer, were also on the job to capture or kill demons, and if there were demons after this mission was accomplished, they would gather them and send them to be held over for Final Selections in the future.

Mako manifested beside Death on his left and floated to his head.

"How many demons do you suspect?" He asks him.

"Based on the energies emanating from this train, there's gotta be three or four demons," Death responds. "Some are likely from the Twelve Kizuki, but they're masking their location. I can't tell where they are, but I know they're nearby, watching, waiting."

"The first mission, though… It's a rite of passage for those that begin the path. And the unspoken rules of the Demon Slayer Corps are always that some of you will not make it."

"But one of the best qualities of the Demon Slayers is their humanity, which makes them greater than any demon they face. To forfeit your humanity is to forfeit your soul, your sense of hope."

"What do you see that is yet to come?"

"I can't see the future or the possibilities. All I can do is hope that Shinji survives his first mission. If he survives, then he has a chance of success along with survival."

"Can you smell him on the train?"

"I can."

"And?"

"He's about to meet those that have been at this longer than he has. First impressions will decide his involvement with other Demon Slayers in the future."

-x-

"…I didn't expect to meet other Demon Slayers," Shinji states as he met with the three men he saw from a distance…and an older member of the corps that was said to be in a different class. "It is nice to make your acquaintance."

"You just started?" The young man with a strange box and the hanafuda earrings, Tanjiro, questions as he notices that Shinji seemed out of place here.

"Yes," he answers. "Mizunoto."

"Huh?" The other young man, who seemed clueless, Zenitsu, asks. "Mizunoto?"

"As in the lowest rank of a Demon Slayer upon passing Final Selection. What is your ranking?"

"They're Kanoe," the man that appeared to invoke a sense of fiery passion, Kyojuro Rengoku, answers Shinji, "the fourth rank in the corps."

Shinji bows his head to them; since they were of higher ranking than himself, it was only right to show proper respect…until he didn't need to.

"So, what made you decide to become a Demon Slayer?" The third youth, the boar mask-wearing, bare-chested Inosuke, asks Shinji. "Was it for vengeance? For power? Personal grudges? What motivated you?"

"It's…complicated…and just for the sake of a simple goal that anyone would have as they get older," he states his reason for joining, keeping it to himself.

"Anyone would have a simple reason for joining," Tanjiro accepts as Shinji moves over to an empty seat on the other side of the car and sat down. "What do you want to do with your life later on?"

"Become a chef. A simple goal. Nothing fancy."

"I've heard worse goals," Rengoku says, and resumes eating his bento. "Tasty!"

Shinji gives a small smile and then looks out the window beside himself. This was his first mission, and he was only following a report of demons on this train. So far, he had encountered no demons, but he had to be on his guard in case they appeared. If he survived his first mission, he would at least live to see the next mission. He hoped that he would live to see his next mission through…as he wondered what Uta was doing.

I hope she'll be alive when I see her again, he thought as he saw nothing but darkness outside the train, where the demons could thrive because the sun was on the other side of the planet for several more hours.

-x-

"RRRRRRRRAAAAURGH!" Unit-02 roared as it devoured the Angel that had breached NERV HQ, ripping off sections of its own armor. "RRRRRRAAAURGH!"

Gendo, having survived the Angel's invasion of the base at the cost of his left leg, couldn't believe that the red Eva had been the one to devour the Angel, again solidifying the fact that his scenario was no longer in effect since Unit-01 and the Third Child were gone.

"What have we done?" Fuyutsuki questions.

Out on the grounds of the base, Kaji watched as Unit-02 continued to roar in the background and wondered how SEELE was going to treat this issue.

-x-

"…Shinji…Shinji…Shinji…" Shinji was hearing his name being called by someone as he stood in the streets of an empty city he recognized as Tokyo-3.

"What am I…doing here?" He wonders, walking down the street. "Hello?!"

His voice echoes and reverberates.

"You idiot," he hears a female voice say to him as he turns and sees a display case with a mannequin resembling Asuka, dressed in her yellow sundress. "Why'd you have to try and show me up?"

He walks over to the display.

"Asuka?" He asks…and the head of the mannequin moves slightly, looking at him. "Aah!"

"Shinji," it speaks in Asuka's voice, "where are you?"

"I…you wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Are you…dead?"

"No. My heart still beats. What happened to you?"

"An Angel attack. I don't know what happened afterward."

"So, they're still showing up? What about everyone else? How's Misato and Ayanami doing?"

"I barely speak with Misato now, and as for Wonder Girl, she doesn't say anything. Not even to your old man, who people rarely see of at any time of the day."

"Am I listed as being dead or just missing?"

"Pretty much both; NERV bombed the Angel in an attempt to salvage the Eva, but it didn't pan out. Neither you nor the Eva was recovered."

Shinji looks down at his swords at his left side where he held them, and sighs. The sword that offended his dead counterpart was the Evangelion he once piloted, that his mother practically gave up her life to make, something he could never forgive her for doing because of how it aided in tarnishing his soul that was condemned by the rest of the Ikari family long before he ever died, and he was starting to understand why the twins had warned him that the Evangelion was more damnation than salvation due to the nature of its own existence. Anyone that was made to operate the Evangelion were, in effect, condemning themselves and the world they lived in to a dark fate if there was no way to deviate from what had been planned before their time.

"Asuka," he tells the mannequin, "if you can…if you're able to…you have to walk away from the Eva. It's not what you think it is or what you've been told by others. It's not meant to save anyone, no matter what they think or believe in. Walk away from it."

"Why? Without the Eva, the Angels will eradicate the human race."

"What do you think the people are going to do with the Eva after the Angels are all gone? There's no sugarcoating this thing with the Evas. It causes more pain than anything else that can be tolerated. Please, for once in your life, just listen to me when I say that no good can come from the Eva. It doesn't matter if people say that it's meant to protect the world or something, because it doesn't exist to protect anyone from anything. It only exists to do the exact opposite, and the people responsible for making it are in on what it's supposed to do."

"And how could you possibly know this?"

"People that know more than I do tell me what I didn't know and why the Eva is not a good thing for most others."

"And you believe them?"

Shinji then unsheathed the sword that used to be the Eva he piloted and showed the mannequin what it represented.

"This sword right here, Asuka," he starts, "this used to be Unit-01, and it's not something I'm proud of having! My mother gave up her life for this damned thing when I was too young to recall, and I met a dead version of myself from a different life where he was condemned by the world because of his parents! He told me everything about why the Eva is not a good thing! Anyone that devotes their life to those monsters is condemning the world they live in to an inescapable fate that has to be avoided at all costs! Even if I found a way back to the world I was taken from, I don't know if I could continue piloting the Eva after learning what it means. No, I could never continue piloting after learning of its true purpose. It's probably the same with your Eva! Your mother gave up her life for it! That's the only reason you were able to pilot it. It's the only reason any of us are able to pilot any of them! It's a shitty deal! A shitty deal, Asuka! Which is better to you than the other: A life with your mother involved in it…or a life without her at any point? If I could, I would trade away the Eva and all things associated with it just to have a normal life! I would rather have a regular life than any associated with the Eva."

"Shinji…none of us are allowed to have a life like that, no matter how much we want it."

"Is that truly what you believe in, Asuka? Honestly?"

Honk-honk! A horn, like the kind you would hear from a train, went off, and Shinji looked behind himself, seeing a train approaching them.

"Why do you believe that the Eva is a harbinger of ruination?" Asuka asks Shinji, seemingly unaffected by the incoming train. "Why do you choose to believe that the Eva is wrong?"

"Either you don't know…or you just don't care about it…but I have seen the horror behind the Eva. It can't promise happiness when the cost to give it life was worse than the price paid by the people that saw opportunity after the chaos they created. My parents…are heartless…soulless…monsters."

Honk-honk!

"I can't imagine a time where I could ever forgive them for their transgressions, to the world, to the people…or me."

Honk-honk!

"They chose a cheap escape from what should have mattered more than anything else in their empty and meaningless lives. For a time, I thought I could make sense of what I was told by a guy who once lived under similar circumstances as myself…only he died from a lot more than just a series of injuries and lack of medical care afforded to others that were older than he was. He died from a lack of affection, a lack of love that carried no price tags, and a broken heart that lingered long after death because he made a choice to continue living in a state of existence where his pain and acceptance of death became a source of power and freedom for him…and he practically lives more than any living person can imagine doing so."

The train sped closer to the young man as he unsheathed his Nichirin Sword and faced the train that slowly turned into a monstrous head.

"If you want to continue embracing the Eva, that's on you, Asuka!" He yells as he brandishes the blade in front of himself against the train. "That's on everyone that views it as salvation when it's not! I don't even know if I'll ever even find a way back! But if I ever do, I'll never pilot the Eva again! Never again! Never again! Haaaaurgh!"

He dashed forward and swung his blade at the train's inhuman head, causing the entire construct to evaporate into smoke.

"Shinji…you're probably the lucky one if you're not here, anymore," he hears Asuka say to him. "Things just seem to be getting worse and worse for those of us that remain."

Shinji resheathes his sword and turns back to the mannequin with Asuka's features…and sees instead a grotesque version of Unit-02, stripped of much of its armor and its head possessing four eyes and two mouths, one where a human jaw would be and the other where a forehead should have been, looking at him.

"What has become of us?" Asuka's voice questions as the grotesque Evangelion melts away.

"I…don't know the answer yet," he replies. "I hope that I do find one…someday."

-x-

Death, closing his eyes for only a minute, opened them again and felt the agony of his living alternate from a distant existence. If Shinji had been dreaming about something, it must've been something that only he could have imagined of having played out differently. As he still recalls, even long after he had fulfilled his duty to the Restorative, ever since that redhead used her Eva to step on him, he would lose consciousness at random moments when he wasn't doing anything else…and would peer through all manner of existence. Through time, space, flesh, blood, souls, learning new things or revisiting what had been overlooked. Oftentimes, he saw the darkest side of all manner of human nature, the worst of people's tastes and desires that ruin the lives of other people that don't deserve to have their peace wrecked by those with guilt and sin in their hearts.

Sniff. He sniffed the air…and his eyes frowned at the demonic scent that permeated the cold air.

"Shinji, you better live through this night," he utters as he gets up and walks up the cars.

-x-

Shinji awoke and saw his left hand being picked up by a young girl…with a small, needle-like blade…aimed for his chest.

"Gaaurgh!" He gasps as he shoves her away from him, knocking her down…but nearly yanking his own left arm with her; a rope was tied to his limb, connecting to her right arm. "Who are you? Why did you try to attack me?"

The girl got up and rushed towards him with the blade again. He grabbed her wrist and disarmed her of the weapon. Looking around the car, Shinji saw that the other Demon Slayers were asleep and had their hands tied with ropes to some young people that were asleep, too. The girl reached for the rope with her left hand…and Shinji pulled her towards him.

"Grrrurgh!" He groans as he head-butts her, knocking her out. "Aah…I guess the mission's already started."

Creak. He hears a sound like a cabinet door being opened and turned to see the case that belonged to Tanjiro opening up and seeing someone emerge from it.

"Huh?" He goes as he sees a little girl with long hair and some sort of mouth guard tied around her head, looking around and then approaching Tanjiro.

She turns to face him, seeing him wide awake.

"Hmm!" She grunts, pointing to his head.

Shinji reaches for it and finds some blood from where he head-butted the other girl.

"I'm fine," he tells her. "Are you…with him (he points to Tanjiro)?"

"Hmm!" She grunts again, nodding her head in the positive.

"Are you…Nezuko? Are you his sister?"

"Hmm!"

"It's nice to finally meet you. I'm Shinji. Your brother mentioned what happened to you. I am sorry for your current situation and for what happened to your family. I hope that you both come out of this alive."

"Hmm!"

Shinji unties the knot around his left arm and uses the rope to restrain the girl that nearly stabbed him as Nezuko approaches her brother…and burns the rope off his arm, causing him to awaken.

"What?" Tanjiro utters. "What…Nezuko?"

"How do you feel?" Shinji asks him.

"I was…dreaming about my family. It felt like I was home and…they were all fine."

"I'm sorry that it was only a dream."

Shinji could sympathize; there were times where he wished something was only a dream and where some dreams were more than the sum of their heart's deepest desires that would never come true. Oh, how there were times when he just wanted his time piloting the Eva to be nothing more than a terrible dream he wanted to wake up from, and how the absence and negligence of his parents was also a terrible dream and he would wake up somewhere and be greeted by people that waited for him to open his eyes. Except that such small requests of those horrible realities were the kind that could never be answered by forces beyond their control…and it wasn't the gods that were cruel to those that suffered. It was the people that chose to commit these wrongs to other people that were cruel…and would need to answer for it all, one way or another.

-x-

"Hmm?" A man in a strange suit, standing atop one of the train cars reacts and turns to see Death. "So, it's true, then. What the others had mentioned. You're the one that walks among the living, but your soul is that of the dead. You're the one they call Death. How nice of you to finally grace me with your presence."

Death, glaring at the strange man, saw the mark on his eye, stating his rank among the Twelve Kizuki, unsheathed his kama.

"You know who I am, but I only know of your ranking," he tells the man. "What is your name? Since we're getting so acquainted with each other."

"I am Enmu of the Twelve Kizuki."

"Enmu. May the best of the forsaken prevail."

"By all means, try to prevail."

Dash! Death moved faster than the eye could blink…and Enmu's head was severed from his neck, falling from his body and rolling across the roof of the car.

Death turns to face the headless body…but wasn't satisfied with the results.

"No way," he utters. "I know better than to feel pride when I kill someone that deserves it, but decapitating a demon that simply stands there and doesn't try to evade when they know they should? Either you're underestimating me…or you're simply playing with me, Enmu. Which is it? If it's a game to you, you're playing with the wrong person."

"Oh, how perceptive are you!" Enmu utters as a viscous, blood-like fluid gushes out from his severed neck and connects to his head, raising it up into the air. "You may have a loose affiliation with the Demon Slayers, but you're not the one I'm after here! I was ordered to kill one of them that wears these earrings. Your presence here was unexpected, as it always is. Oh? Who is that?"

Death looks past the demon's body and sees two men running atop the car roofs, one of whom bore a slight resemblance to himself.

"Wait, there are more of you?" Enmu questions, seeing Shinji coming closer. "No, wait… This one is different from you. He's mortal. But he looks like you…except he's not you."

"As the ripples created from the stone thrown into the water fade, so, too, do the ripples of one's reflection. As a mirror is cracked, the reflection is fragmented…and you see yourself in pieces. Each reflection is you, but not you at the same time. There are the questions that surround the biggest question in one's existence."

"The question always being…'what if'? What if…there was another version of yourself? Another you that lived a different life? What if…you went down the path of pins instead of the path of needles? What if…you made different choices?"

Enmu had heard of these questions before, but never believed that they could actually come to bear results once a choice was made. But now…now, he was seeing one that was real…and it amused him. He had become a witness to the question of what if there was a living person in the world that was like Death…and not like Death…and the answer had come to him in the dead of the night aboard this train.

-x-

Shinji saw Death on the roof of the car in front of a demon with a strange neck made of what he assumed to be blood, indicating that the demon's head had been severed, but was confused by the mere fact that the demon was still active.

"His head was severed," went Tanjiro, "but he's still alive?"

"The stronger the demon," Shinji realizes, "the harder it is to kill them."

"I never thought it was possible for such beings to exist," the demon utters, looking at them, "but you're right here in front of me! You! You're another version of this walking damned!"

Tanjiro looks at the guy up front…and sees his face was almost a dead ringer to Shinji's own face, except…he was paler and lacked any trace of hope that the young man he met earlier this evening possessed.

"Do you know that guy that looks like you, Shinji?" He asks him.

"It's complicated," Shinji tells him. "If we survive this…I'll explain what I know."

"I'll hold you to it."

With their swords brandished, the two Demon Slayers prepared to face a member of the Twelve Kizuki alongside Death. While Shinji was very nervous about going up against this particular demon, he knew that if he lived past this night, he would become more experienced and would learn from this encounter.

-x-

"…The damages to Unit-00, Unit-02 and the base are over the Hayflick Limit," Maya Ibuki informs Ritsuko in the aftermath of the battle with the Fourteenth Angel.

"Fortunately, the MAGI were undamaged and can be transferred to the secondary base installation," Ritsuko responds as they were surveying the damages done to the base. "But for now, we'll have to operate from there without the MAGI."

"This time," went Shigeru Aoba as he was with them, "we really screwed the pooch."

"How so?" Ritsuko questions out of curiosity.

He looks at her and responds, "You figure it out, egghead."

Meanwhile, in the Eva pens, Misato stands in front of the heavily damaged Unit-02 that was restrained and wondered if it would reactivate, despite being inactive. It was the first time that Unit-02 acted up without power…and behaved in a manner that was disturbingly similar to how Unit-01 behaved the first time against the Third Angel. It made her worry that the Evangelions were more dangerous than they appeared half the time…and what NERV intended to do with them after the Angels were defeated. Worse, she didn't know what Asuka's current state was because she had yet to be removed from the Entry Plug.

"This is a nightmare," she hears Makoto Hyuga say to her.

"Yes," she agrees with him, "it is."

-x-

Calling Unit-02's behavior an accident was probably something Kozo Fuyutsuki could not support after this madness, but to not know the current status of the Second Child was another matter altogether. While NERV was batting a major loss when it came to the pilots, he wasn't sure how much more of these insufferable outcomes he could take. First, they lost Shinji and Unit-01, then Unit-03 and the Fourth Child, and now they were left with the First Child if the Second Child couldn't be retrieved from the bowels of Unit-02, which now possessed an S² Engine of its own from the Fourteenth Angel, providing it with unlimited power Even if this wasn't part of Gendo's scenario, the mere knowledge of Unit-02's newfound position as a complete Evangelion was not going to earn them any graces from SEELE if they found out about this turn of events.

"Saved by a prideful girl," he says to himself as he walks down the hallway away from Gendo's office. "What the Hell are you thinking, Ikari?"

To be continued…

A/N: Okay, we have the first mission Shinji's involved in with his Horseman of Death counterpart also involved as a result of the polls being split evenly, so we're going with the Mugen Train before the Entertainment District. And then, we have NERV facing different dilemmas without Shinji and Unit-01, with the status of Asuka being in place of Shinji and her situation is unknown for now. I hope you'll enjoy the next chapter when it comes. There's more to adapt and get over in the future.