Creation began on 11-04-20

Creation ended on 11-19-20

Neon Genesis Evangelion

My Hero, Shinji Ikari: Arrogant Failure

A/N: After checking the poll several times, the vote is in, and the name of Shinji's Quirk shall be known as Guardian. Information on the Quirk shall be added as the story continues.

It was like something out of a comic book turned into a type of film or cartoon series. The way he was facing his father, how he held onto his frightened daughter, his own convictions, everything. Except that the only difference between what was thought of and what was currently occurring…was that the latter was actually happening…and any wrong move could spell trouble for those involved. And this is what made Shinji cautious as he faced Gendo, wearing all that debris like a giant suit of armor.

"You can't stop me, boy," Gendo told him. I killed him once, and I'll kill him again if necessary.

He was willing to give up his life for his daughter, thought Shinji as he felt raw energy continue to course through his veins. My other self practically died a hero trying to save Shado. I owe it to him and everyone else not to let this lunatic get his hands on Shado a second time.

The police and civilians were down below as these three were up in the air. It was anyone's guess as to who would make the first move in whichever way the situation went.

I will break you… I will break you… Gendo thought, and charged towards the teen father and his daughter. "I will break you!"

Gendo made the first move, and Shinji reacted.

Shado hid behind her father's back as he lowered towards the world below, landing on the rooftop of a four-story building and running across several more rooftops.

I never felt this way before, Shinji thought as he ran across a six-story rooftop. But it feels good. Trying to protect someone without the Eva, not having to face an Angel, even though the danger still exists. There will always be danger around…but so long as there are those that stand up to face it… the danger is reduced by such a measure that it can be overcome.

Then, turned right and leapt into the air again, making a huge leap across a street to another rooftop…and evading his father's right arm made of debris.

That was too close, he realized. "Are you okay, Shado?"

"I'm fine," she responded, looking back and seeing that the man was looking at them, further enraged by their fleeing from him. He's so scary.

-x-

"…You guys are not going to believe this!" Minoru yelled as he was watching the news on television in the dorms, getting the other classmates' attention. "Something big is happening right now in Sapporo!"

Everyone got in front of the TV and saw several news helicopters filming whatever they could, but it looked like something out of a previous situation that they had been involved in slightly, seeing a large, humanoid monster made of debris from a building or street chasing after a glowing man carrying a little child on his back. The man was evading every attempt the monster was making to either hit him or grab the child, but he could only evade it for so long.

"This is an intense chase going on, people," a woman's voice uttered into a microphone. "The monster made of parts of the NERV building has been identified as Gendo Ikari and the young man and little girl he's chasing after have been identified as his only son and granddaughter, Shinji and Shado Ikari, respectively! Both children had been believed to be missing, presumed dead for over a year until it was revealed that Gendo had been keeping them prisoners within NERV, and now they are out in the open and engaged in a chase where it appears that Gendo is trying to reclaim his granddaughter from his son, who is doing all that he can to keep her away from him!"

"Look at him," said Ochaco, referring to Shinji. "He's kinda like you a little bit, Deku, only…"

"I know," Izuku responded, though he was uncertain about how similar this Shinji's Quirk was to One For All; his reactions from using his Quirk were almost similar to the way Shinji's seemed to work, but he had several doubts that the boy's Quirk was entirely the same as his. It's almost like when I was with Eri, except this is against his own father, not some man that wanted to weaponize a little girl's Quirk because he hated Quirks.

Then, they saw as the young father jumped and land on the street where his father had picked up three cars with people in them.

"Aaaurgh!" The man in the monster yelled. "You drove me to this! You and that pathetic child!"

"Is he for real?!" Bakugo demanded; there was no way that this man would…actually endanger people that had nothing to do with their family drama. "What a jerk!"

-x-

Shinji knew that there were people that would intentionally threaten the lives of others around them, either for money or for intimidation tactics, but Gendo, he seemed to want to hurt others to pressure him into surrendering his daughter to him.

"This is totally unnecessary!" He told Gendo.

"People die every day," he responded from inside his debris husk. "What's a few more deaths compared to what's at stake here?"

Shinji looked at the number of people inside each car, totaling a family of four in a minivan, a couple in a truck and a pair of women in another car, all frightened by what his father was willing to do if it meant regaining Shado for his own twisted purposes. And all around them were people on the sidewalks, either running away or trying to record the scene on their phones.

"I kill them, it'll be on the both of you," Gendo told them, leaving no hint that he was willing to cross the line if it meant winning this. "Surrender now."

But Shinji… Shinji knew that even if he did surrender, there was no way that the police would let Gendo walk away from this with what he has done now that he was exposed. And Shado was just released from a dark place and he refused to let her go back to that cruel life his father put her through.

The glow his body gave off decreased and he was more visible, even Shado could see that he was feeling a bit conflicted. She feared that he would make a decision neither could live with. Even if there was a chance that these people could be saved in the process, she didn't want to go back to being a prisoner of her grandfather, who was not in his right mind, not that he ever was to begin with.

"Shado," she heard her father say, "you know I put you before all else, yes?"

"Yes, Daddy," she answered him, and then he lowered her to the ground.

"Can you do one thing for me right now?"

Shado nodded that she would, having to believe that he was making the right choice.

"Run," Shinji told her; he wasn't going to let her go back to that horrible place again, but he wasn't going to let Gendo hurt these people, either. "Now."

Shado then ran as fast as her little legs would take her, getting onto the sidewalk on their left and running into the crowd of people that hid where she went, making it impossible for Gendo to track her.

"Do you really think hiding her from me will stop me from finding her?!" Gendo yelled at him. "I'll find her and put her back in a cage!"

Time seemed to slow down around Shinji, with his father's reaction time being the slowest. He could barely hear the voices of people around them, and then he charged towards his ugly husk.

"Why All Might, Rumiko?" He suddenly recalled a memory belonging to deceased counterpart as he raised his right arm up to punch his father's giant left leg that threatened to smash the minivan with the family inside.

"All Might is basically the stereotypical hero," she had told him. "I mean, he's the most human in terms of abilities. Strength, speed, durability and stamina, all of which were heightened to incredible levels. Other heroes, they could fly, manipulate the elements to a degree, possess some type of mental ability or even shrink things or make them grow larger, but that almost made them not as human as All Might was. You remember that video we saw together on the Internet where he rescued those people?"

It was almost as though he were actually there that day with her, watching as this giant of a man with large muscles and an obscured face, carrying a huge load of civilians away from the scene of danger. Based on the way his counterpart felt, it was as though this man, this hero…was a walking pillar of hope…and there had to be over a dozen or so people around the world that wanted to be just like him. Just another hero in a legion of heroes, but one that was among the most grounded in history.

"What would you do if you were one?" He heard himself ask Rumiko.

"If I could use my Quirk better? I'd be a skilled tracker. I'd be able to help find lost or missing people. I'd prove that a Quirk that can find people would be extremely reliable. I mean, I…I helped find you." She had explained.

"You didn't just help find me," he heard himself tell her. "You were the heroine that came looking for me when the police took their time doing so. I kept waiting for help to come…even when it all seemed hopeless. I kept thinking about you."

And yet here was Shinji, different from his counterpart in so many ways, stranded here in a world that was not his own, with just bits and pieces of memory belonging to his other self; he didn't have much faith in the possibility of having a complete memory of his other self to fall back on. And among those changes that he came to accept in less than an hour was the fact that he had a little girl that needed him. He was in a world where the majority of the population possessed strange powers, divided between heroes and villains, and his father was clearly a villain that tried to play the role of a tragic victim just because he blamed a little girl for the death of his wife, something that was beyond anyone's control because the Quirk she possessed was unanticipated and one he refused to have her trained to control so that a similar incident wouldn't happen again. One thing he knew for certain was that his father wasn't so much a victim right now than he was as an insane individual that demonstrated absolutely no humanity, willing to cross the line…and has crossed the line…just to profit off something he saw worth harming others for.

SMASH! He shattered the fake leg, fracturing it into dust and pieces.

Then, he ran up to his husk's left arm and punched it, reducing it to dust and pieces, just like the leg. And he finished with the right arm, enabling him to move both vehicles to the ground.

How am I doing this? He wondered; it was as though his body knew exactly what needed to be done, despite the impossibility of everything he was facing. Is this because I know what I'm doing is right? I have never felt this strong…or capable. Even inside the Eva, I never felt this way. Ever.

The world still moved in slow-motion, as if this were a different plane he was on that only a rarity among people can enter and leave. Maybe his body was moving faster than his mind could send signals to, or he was just going mad, but he was doing something good.

"You can do it, Daddy!" He heard his daughter's voice, and turned back to the crowd, seeing her looking at him; she stood out among the people due to a glow her body gave off, and she was moving in regular time.

He nodded in the positive, but still had one more thing to do.

"No!" They heard Gendo's voice, and the world seemed to return to its normal speed. "Damn you, boy! You have no concept of what you're doing! You really think that…that anyone will just let you both walk away from this?! Do you really think that…any of them (Gendo gestures with his debris-comprised exoskeleton's arm stumps at the people them) will ever understand either of you?! They believe in heroes, which we're not. Your daughter is nothing more than a killer who has no control over what she does! You are nothing more than an overprotective brat that thinks she's some precious gift when she's just a waste of space that was forced on you by your rapist when she decided to look for a good time! She killed my wife and you still see her as being innocent when she's just as guilty as her mother! The only good she's worth is as a lab rat! Both of you!"

Shinji felt his rage boil at how his father could just…say these heartless things to them. He could just…be so cold and cruel, never kind or humane. Even his counterpart understood this! And the worst part of knowing this…was that he ate that crap because it was just his old man's opinion, his accursed belief, knowing that nothing anyone else said or believed would make him reconsider it…and because it wasn't true.

But unlike his counterpart…he wouldn't take this crap from a man that was just too dead-set in his hatred of a little girl and of heroes. He couldn't take it, not when the guy was more dangerous than anyone else he had seen in his life; the guy's attitude and his Quirk made him more unstable than even someone whose behavior bordered on insanity due to a crippled brain or poor upbringing. A man that would use his hands to inflict pain or death upon others if they so much as expressed their disagreement with him was a tyrant that needed to be stopped before he could escalate beyond control.

"I'll only give you this warning once, Father," he told him. "Stop your madness…or I will stop it for you."

Gendo's head emerged from his armor of debris, a look of scorn on his face.

"What did you just say to me?" He demanded of him.

Crack! The ground in front of Shinji split in half, right in front of his feet, but he didn't react in any way.

"This time, I'll rip you apart into so many pieces, your own ghost won't be able find you!" Gendo yelled, making his intentions heard by everyone, and changed his exoskeletal stumps into new claws, lunging them towards Shinji!

Shinji charged forward, feeling the impact of the claw where a leg once resided…and breaking it into pieces like it was nothing more than small, building blocks!

What?! Gendo thought, watching as it looked like his son was flying towards him. What…is…he?!

Even through the intensity of the glow he gave off, Shinji could be seen as some sort of man on fire, seemingly untouchable, with his right fist raised.

"What kind of hero would you be, Shinji?" Rumiko had asked one time.

"Me?" He responded. "I'd…I'd want to be the hero that you three can rely on. Not invincible or immortal… Just the kind you know you can depend on, no matter what."

"That's…not such a bad hero, Shinji."

Yeah, he thought as he felt his fist breaking away at his father's armor, leaving him exposed. That's not a bad hero at all.

Smash! Gendo had his face punched in by Shinji, sending him falling backwards, like every bone in his body was shattered by the punch, all save his head and torso, meaning his limbs had been totaled, with his hands receiving the worst of the damage, exploding into pulp.

No! He realized; without his hands, he couldn't use Wrath to break his limbs apart and rebuild them. "Aaaurgh!"

He crashed onto the ground and was limp, unable to move. All around him was nothing but smoke caused by the destruction of his debris armor. In front of him, he could see Shinji, looking down upon him like a man disappointed in his actions, his choices…and himself. There was no hint of fear, of regret or sympathy.

"You…will never hurt or threaten anyone again, Father," Shinji told him, and the boy walked away from where he had fallen.

"Grr…come back here!" Gendo ordered him. "Come back here! I killed you! How did you come back?! It's not possible! I killed you! I killed you! I KILLED YOU!"

-x-

Shado walked into the smoke, despite the people's fears of what could be lurking in it. In her mind, there were only two people that could've been in the smoke: The monster that was Gendo…and her father that came back for her after being gone for such a long time.

"You're being harder on her than you are on anyone else, sir," her memory of someone telling Gendo after an experiment when he pushed her too far and ripped her up and put her back together again. "Is this really necessary?"

"Daddy…" She had uttered, laying on the floor, feeling like her insides had been ripped out of her and then shoved back into her.

"She doesn't deserve sympathy," he heard the man say. "She's a blight of nature, nothing more and nothing less."

And throughout the entirety of the abuse at her grandfather's hands, her only desire…was just to be with her father again. Even after having a small fear that he might've been…reduced to less than a person by her grandfather's power, she still held onto the hope that he was around, just kept away from her and Rumiko and Toya, trying to find a way to escape.

"Sir, how can you be so cold to her? She hasn't even done anything to anyone."

"You don't know what she did."

Daddy, she hoped as she saw a silhouette within the smoke as it thinned out.

When it completely cleared, she saw Shinji, looking like he had walked away from something so bad, so painful, that he needed to get away from it all. She looked up at him and noticed something different about him that she hadn't noticed because of his clothed upper body: The star-shaped scar that she had seen numerous times before was no longer there. In fact, it looked as though it was never on his chest at all, meaning he either recovered from it…or something else was up. She remembered Gendo once threatening to hurt him if she even tried to run away from him, but she had hoped that he wouldn't. But the fear of such had a way of lingering.

Shinji looked down at her, seeing her expression become fearful, as if some new dread came upon her.

"Shado?" He asked her.

"Your scar is gone," she pointed out, raising her left hand at his bare chest, and he looked down at himself.

"Yeah," he responded

"Are you…are you… Are you my Daddy?" She wanted to know.

He lowered to his knees in front of her and nodded in the positive.

"Be her hero," his counterpart had urged before his soul left the limbo they were both in.

"I am now," he told her. "I promise you…no one is going to hurt you, anymore, Shado."

She saw no scar…but she didn't have to, anymore. The scars were deeper than they had ever been, both on the outside…and the inside. She nodded her head in acceptance and ran into his arms, feeling safe and protected. Rescued by her father, her hero, her whole world.

Shinji, now feeling the aches of the fight between himself and his father, put on a proud face in front of Shado; even when racked by pain, it had to be a hero's duty to never let the people in distress fear the likelihood that something was wrong. Sooner or later, he knew that help would come for them both; they had been through the worst of what his father had done to them and would need medical attention and whatever else was necessary to get them back on track in a world they had been cut off from. And he also needed to see Rumiko and Toya, the other two that he needed to look after. He had just accepted this job…and he was still on the clock until further notice.

To be continued…

A/N: What did y'all think? Shinji had more power to him than he knew he had, and Gendo was beaten in full view of the public after revealing his true nature for all to hear. There was probably a minor attempt to compare Shinji to All Might and Izuku Midoriya, but not by so much that one would actually mistake them for being completely alike. And then, there was Shado's discovery that Shinji lacked the scar she knew her father possessed because she had seen it, which led her to suspect that he was different from before, but comforted by the fact that he was here for her and wouldn't let anyone harm her again.