Creation began on 03-26-24

Creation ended on 03-29-24

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Demon Slayer Evangelion: Final Selection

If he had met the twins earlier in his life, Shinji might have been more unlikely to believe any of this. If he had met anyone like this long before he ever went to Tokyo-3 to meet his father, he might've been inclined to believe that gods walk among mortals. He never once thought of there being other worlds, different lifetimes, different versions of other people that lived different lives from the one he used to have. But he met a version of himself that was dead…walking around, talking, knew more than he could ever know…with a twin brother that followed him in his afterlife upon his own death…and they had taught him what he needed to get here, to this place where people came to test their skills and ascend to the service of Demon Slayers.

"Final Selection is held every season on Mt. Fujikasane," Death had informed him. "Depending on the number of participants, the selection process weeds out the people that can and will survive from the ones that can't and won't survive. Because of the wisteria flowers that bloom there all year, the mountain is a perfect prison for the demons that were gathered by Demon Slayers in the past for the purpose of serving to test the participants. I help every now and then by capturing a handful of demons for the corps to use for Final Selection. The process is simple: If you can survive on the mountain without the protection of the wisteria for seven consecutive nights, killing any number of demons you come across in the process, and make it back to the shrine at the mountain where it begins, you will be considered a member of the Demon Slayer Corps. Once you achieve that, you work up the ranks to grow stronger and more capable against demons. If you make it, you'll start at the lowest rank of the ten ranks in the Demon Slayer Corps: Mizunoto."

"Among the benefits of being a Demon Slayer, you're given a uniform that is lightweight and durable to protect yourself against lesser demon attacks," Mako had told him. "Depending on the type of ore you choose for your Nichirin Sword, you'll be able to decapitate demons to kill them permanently to keep them from regenerating their injuries. In addition, each Demon Slayer is assigned a special breed of crow to facilitate communication and orders from other higher-ranked Demon Slayers, wherever they may be. Since you're still starting and haven't passed the selection process, it's okay if you don't recall all of this right away. In the meantime, just focus on surviving the Final Selection. If you can survive seven nights in the midst of demons, you'll have time to make sure you can recall everything else."

But Shinji had no idea how he was going to survive something like this. All around him, there were at least fifteen other people that seemed to know more than he did, and some of them older and more experienced with the use of a sword. Still, part of the selection process was to be able to survive seven nights with demons without any aid from anyone, using only your survival skills picked up from those that taught you what you need to know in order to make it to the end. All Shinji had to do was survive on his own…after six months of training from Death and Mako.

It was a feeling of minor accomplishment that he had been able to achieve some degree of skill during the time he spent with the twins. Particularly, the breathing techniques that they had picked up when they arrived earlier in their time. He learned that there were five styles of breathing that originated under an original style that isn't in use, anymore, but because of his horseman counterpart not being alive, it had been up to Mako to help instruct him on the exercises and find the right type for him to use against demons. Because Shinji had a less-aggressive approach, even when faced with adversity, his breathing techniques had to be what the twins considered unorthodox; by controlling his breathing, he would employ whichever sword technique fit his requirement at that time.

He wasn't a rare case, just another random exception; most participants usually train for more than a year, but he trained for six months, and by two former horsemen of a heavenly faction. How well he did here would be up to him.

"That's an unusual sword you have there, sir," he hears a girl next to him say, getting his attention. "I've never seen a sword like that before."

"Thank you," he says to her.

"May we meet again at the end of the selection."

"Yeah."

It wasn't something he expected to hear from anyone, but he really did hope to see this girl at the end of the selection. He rarely met anyone that didn't know him at all and just had hope to see him again. Not to mention that this was the first girl he met since ending up in this world. Around his height, probably a little older than himself, with shoulder-length amber-colored hair and purple eyes.

-x-

"Do you think he can pass?" Mako asks Death as they sat in front of a fire in the cave.

"For his sake, I hope that he does pass," Death replies; it wasn't really an answer, but just an expectation from the Grim Reaper to see his living alternate get through seven nights of horror after six months of training him to fight and survive. "We still don't know why he ended up here to begin with. Either some force is at work…or he was just a random shot in the darkness, I hope that he lives long enough to find out why and try to find his way back…if he can."

"You'd rather not have to see someone like him suffer over something like this."

"I despise anyone that forces people like him to suffer. They just make me want to put them in their graves and leave them to waste away."

Mako looks out the cave at the sky above, uneasy because of the night. There was no doubt that Shinji was undergoing the Final Selection right now, just trying to survive his first night on his own with no protection.

Death gets up and grabs his shotgun scabbard.

"There's no rule that says we can't observe," he expresses. "I shall observe only from a distance, not to interfere. Not to save him or anyone else, no matter how much I want to in the moment."

Mako knew he didn't like it, but Death had to follow the rules of the Final Selection. Those that couldn't survive for seven days were as good as dead at the hands of demons.

-x-

It was only the first night…and Shinji was already wishing it was over as he hid atop a tree. Not even two hours had passed, and his first encounter with a demon didn't go well. He didn't expect for demons to be like that, like…her. He knew that demons were once humans, but he didn't expect a demon like this girl he met to have been one for over thirty years…and still looked like a little girl with fangs and claws and a temperament. What bothered him was that she couldn't have been more than six years old when she turned…and her appearance had caught him off guard because of it.

"You're not the one that brought me here sometime ago," he recalls her saying to him when she tried to attack him, "but I have always despised anyone that so much as resembles him! I'll kill you! You can run, but you can't hide, boy!"

Okay, next time, don't underestimate the desperation of people who are much older than they appear, Shinji thought as he looked around from atop the tree he was in. I can rest during the day, but right now, there's no such thing as "safety" in this place. That girl is going to come for me. I won't have any choice but to face her.

"Aaaaahh!" He hears a scream from nearby.

He knew it was not his place to get involved, but how could he live with himself if he didn't try to do something? Slowly, he climbed down the tree and ran towards the source of the scream.

Clang! The sound of a sword clanging against something could be heard by him as he ran onto a small, open space, seeing a young man with a sword…and the little demon girl that hated his dead counterpart…with long, snake-like arms floating in the air.

"I figured you'd come to someone's aid if I was to attack them," she states, baring her fangs. "You two are very much alike."

Shinji looks at the young man, scared beyond his wits, his sword less than a feet away from his left arm, and then he looks at the girl again, who looks at him with conviction.

"Young man," she says to the frightened person, "unless you want to enter the next world with my actual target, you'll pick up your sword and take a hike."

"I'd listen to her if I were you," Shinji tells the guy. "If you value your life, leave now, live to fight another day."

The man grabbed his sword and ran off; he didn't know what was going on between these two, and he didn't want to know.

"Who are you?" Shinji asks the demon as her arms return to their original shape.

"My parents, the rotten scum they were, called me Maya once upon a time. I call myself…Disgracia."

"Disgracia?"

"Watashi wa teki o hazukashimeru tame dake ni sonzai shite iru (Because I exist only to disgrace my foes)."

Shinji unsheathed his sword and took up a defensive stance with the blade in front of himself.

"You're afraid," she tells him. "That's good. It means you'll die soon. Ha!"

She dashed forward, her arms held high and her eyes glaring at him.

Shinji, simply because he didn't react the way he would've normally did, which was to flee, jumped up and swung his sword down, surprising the girl with his response.

Slit. The blade didn't make contact with her face…but her nose received a small cut that caused a drop of blood to spill from it.

"Aaaahh!" She gasps. "You cut me!"

Her arms stretched out at him from opposite sides, grabbing him on his head from the left and his right leg, lifting him up into the air.

"I still have the phantom scars that the dead one gave me before he brought me here to this despicable mountain that I can't leave from!" She tells him, her face contorting into that of an older woman's, only hers was wrinkled and full of malice. "I was on my way to becoming one of the most feared and powerful of demons! One of the Twelve Kizuki! But then he showed up and hunted me down! Him and some talking baby he introduced as his brother! Didn't even get my fill of human flesh! Almost ate sixty when I met him! I've only had a total of seven humans since I've been trapped here! You'll be my eighth victim! I'll get even with him if it's not the last thing I do! Ah-ha-ha-ha!"

Shinji couldn't believe how malicious she sounded right now. Not only was she dangerous, but she was also twisted, outside and inside!

"Human or demon," Death had told him, "if they make a conscious decision to harm others, they're not innocent any longer or deserve to be pitied. If they make any attempt to take a life, you have to be willing and able to defend that life."

"It may go against your conscience to do so, Shinji," Mako had added in, "but you may need to leave your comfort zone and perform acts that you wouldn't consider because you don't think of the worst-case scenario. Until we know for sure what to do about your predicament here, you're not bound by any moral obligation to pilot an Evangelion for anyone against some monster you were barely informed about. Therefore, you have to do whatever it takes to survive here in this world. Demons may be former humans that gave up their humanity in exchange for something superficial or to escape from something in their past, but if they did so willingly, whatever fate awaits them…is on them. It's all on them. I know it sounds like a cruel fate to expect, but ask yourself this: If you were faced with having to kill your father and he was a demon out to get you because he wanted to take you out, would you let him kill you…or would you defend yourself against him to live?"

I…I don't want to die here, Shinji thought as the girl was starting to pull at his head and leg, wanting to tear him in half. Disgracia…I am sorry you ended up here…but that's on you. I am not Death or Mako. I am alive…and I must survive this grueling ordeal to find out what I'm going to do with my life!

He inhaled a breath…and the blade of his sword glowed brightly.

"Silence the world," he utters, raising the sword up, "and silence the noise!"

Slice! He cut her wrists, freeing himself as he dropped to the ground.

Disgracia looks to him, seeing the look of determination on his face, in his eyes. She hadn't seen that before in any that came after. Not even the one that called himself Death! This was a conviction that reminded her of her own when she was once human.

"Water Breathing," she hears him say as he runs toward her. "Seventh Form."

Her eyes widen, fearful of the end to come.

Thrust! His blade made contact with her nose again…and her head exploded in front of him.

The last thing she ever saw…was the look of a young man that despised the fact that he was going to kill a little girl…but had to in order to stop her from hurting others.

He saw me as a girl, she thinks as she finds herself in the darkness, alone. If only my parents had seen me as a girl instead of what they truly desired.

Shinji, for just a second, saw a little girl in rags that made up a kimono, her face covered in bruises, standing in front of a pair of adults whose obscured faces hid no hint of some measure of contempt towards the girl.

"If you had only been our son," the woman told the girl, "instead of our disappointment."

"What did we do to get cursed with you?" The man questioned.

"Why?" He hears the girl's voice, watching at the couple turned away from her. "Why did they hate me for being a girl? Not once in the time we were together, not once…did they ever tell me that they loved me."

Shinji could sympathize for the girl; not once did his own father ever tell him that he was loved by him. Walking over towards the headless body of the girl, he lowers to his knees…and hugs it.

"Such a…warm embrace," he hears her voice say. "I see this stranger. I don't know his face or his voice…but he holds me in the cold of the night. It was the first time I ever felt deserving of some sort of comfort. It was the first time…anyone saw me as who I was. I was grateful to them, whoever they were. Thank you…whoever you are. Thank you."

He feels the handless limbs of the corpse raise up to hold him as it disintegrates. Was this the memory of the girl before she became a demon? Was this her life before she ended up down the darkest path? Did she…still hold onto her humanity, her soul, her…longing? All he really understood…was that this demon had once been a girl…hurt by circumstances she was never in control of…and all she longed for…was acceptance.

Maybe you'll get a second chance…Maya, he hopes as her body is no more. I hope you get a second chance.

-x-

In the shadows of the trees, Death and Mako had witnessed Shinji slay the demon girl they had encountered and brought here for the Final Selection. It didn't cease to amaze them that Shinji, a young man who was often always condemned, in one way or another, to serve some sort of cruel destiny by his parents, had shown room for a different sort of personal growth that hadn't been provided by said parents. He showed compassion towards a demon that he was able to see as someone lost in the darkness, hurt and alone. He didn't see her as some sort of monster…and that was what made Death smile at him. As they watch him sheathe his sword and run off into the night, the Grim Reaper looks to his infant brother.

"If he can still see them as people instead of monsters," Death states, "he may become stronger as a result of that compassion."

"And he saw her past of hurt, the same as us," Mako adds. "He may have the gift, too. Still, it's just right now. If he survives tonight, he will still have six more days to face. I hope he makes it in the end."

"Yeah. I hope he does, too."

Until the final night of Final Selection, the twins would watch in the silence and the shadows of the night. They would watch and wait for Shinji to succeed. In their silence, they hoped he would survive and become a Demon Slayer.

-x-

Running through the forest, his sword hilt in his left hand, Shinji was prepared to face any demon that came his way.

"Huh!" He hears a grunt as he sees someone run onto the path he was taking. "You're still alive."

It was the girl from earlier before the selection began.

"So are you," he responds.

"That's good. I hope you succeed."

Shinji smiles at her and responds, "You, too."

"I heard from another participant that a young man fought a demon that looked like a little girl. Was that you?"

"She wasn't so much a demon as she was a little girl that was condemned for simply being a girl instead of a boy. In the end, she was just a little girl that was full of anger and loneliness."

"Did she go peacefully?"

"In a way."

"That's good."

While Shinji didn't necessarily say that he was the one to kill the demon, the girl had to believe that he was the one who killed her.

"I'm Shinji," he introduces himself to her. "What's your name?"

"Uta. Nice to make your acquaintance, Shinji."

They reached an open space in the forest and came across a large man that had a horn jutting out of his head on his left side.

"Well, what do you know?" He expresses, raising up his arms, flexing his fingers, which resemble claws. "I get two for the price of one tonight!"

Shinji unsheathed his sword and glared at the demon.

"If you want to devour the both of us," he tells him, "you're going to have work for your meal."

Uta unsheathed her own sword and held it defensively, the blade in reverse.

"Yeah," she adds, "what he said."

The demon charged towards the pair, and they retaliated.

To be continued…

A/N: What do you think? Since this is just another crossover, it gives us the possibility of Shinji having a new love interest as he continues to live in the Demon Slayer universe.