Anime Multiverse: Building a Pantheon from Scratch

"Are you alright?"

Tachibana Kirika rushed over, her expression tense as she looked Luo Shu and Inoue Takina over. Once she saw that neither of them was seriously hurt, she finally let out a breath of relief.

"Chief," Takina greeted her at the entrance, but after a moment of hesitation, she lowered her head apologetically. "I'm sorry. I couldn't stop the enemy. I wasted the opportunity Luo Shu created."

"Stop her?" Misaka raised an eyebrow at Takina's guilty tone, and after a brief pause, chuckled. She reached out and patted Takina's shoulder.

"Takina, just surviving an encounter with someone at that level is already a miracle. And you're still thinking about stopping her?" she said with a wry smile. "If Sharon the Pure, one of the Seven-Star Demon Hunters, were that easy to deal with, I wouldn't have been so panicked when I heard the report."

"You should really cut yourself some slack."

After another comforting pat, Misaka walked up to the doorway and looked at Luo Shu. Though he had calmed down by now, his face was still pale. She raised her hand and lightly tapped his chest.

"Good job, Mr. Ace."

"I'd rather be paid than praised," Luo Shu replied, rolling his eyes. "I only wanted to play the slacker, so how did I end up becoming the main force?"

While he grumbled inwardly, Kirika laughed and clapped him on the shoulder.

"I'll make sure the Division approves your special bonus. And if not, I'll pay you out of my own pocket!"

With that, she leaned in gave him a hug, kissed him on the forehead, and gave a wink. "Consider this an advance."

"Now cooperate with the on-site investigation. I'll send you home to rest afterward."

She brushed past the dazed Luo Shu and stepped into the entranceway, surveying the scene—the bullet holes, the discarded nun outfit and weapon, and the bloodstains on the floor. Her eyes narrowed as she crouched down, touched the now-coagulating blood, and glanced at the corridor.

"Can you reconstruct the events for me?"

"Sure," Luo Shu responded as if already prepared for this. "I acted on instinct and used my gun to cover Takina's retreat. I managed to get her out of the area warped by an abyssal artifact. Then Sharon and I were pulled into a space surrounded by dense white mist."

He paused, then began weaving a fabricated account.

"Inside the mist, we faced off for a bit. I used the fact that she's a woman to my advantage—acted weak, drew her closer. Then she used the artifact that created the mist to conjure a fog clone. While I was distracted, she appeared behind me and locked me in a chokehold."

"Just as she tried to snap my neck, I managed to get her to see the [Heart of the Demon] on my finger and used it to hypnotize her."

"I can picture it," Kirika nodded, affirming his version of the story. "After all, out of everything in your arsenal, only the [Heart of the Demon] would have been effective against Sharon."

Originally, she had decided not to requisition the Level 2 abyssal artifact from Luo Shu, both to keep things civil and to avoid pushing him further away from her or the SDS. But she hadn't expected it to turn out to be a winning move—one that delivered such surprising results.

She also understood why Luo Shu hadn't used his wind-based abilities. He was still a newly awakened sorcerer with little control over the element. Against a melee powerhouse like Sharon, wind magic would've been less effective than a gun. After all, no wind spell could match the speed of a bullet.

Seeing that Kirika accepted his explanation, Luo Shu's eyes flickered slightly before he continued, "I used the hypnosis to make her strip off the nun's outfit and disarm herself. Then I shot her once to ensure she wouldn't resist again."

Kirika frowned slightly as she visualized the scene. Based on her understanding, she reasoned aloud, "Sharon the Pure must've undergone training to resist mental control. Plenty of demons excel in mental manipulation, after all. A Level 2 artifact shouldn't have been enough to completely subdue her."

"So, what happened was—she resisted the hypnosis, managed to seize the [Demonic Scroll], and escaped with the abyssal artifacts?"

"Looking at the floor... it wasn't the nun outfit that was the actual artifact. That means the veil must've been the real body of the Level 3 sealed Artifact."

"That's why she took the veil."

"In a situation where she was under hypnosis, stripped of her weapons, and even shot, she still managed to break free and escape, probably gambling on the chance that reinforcements hadn't arrived yet."

"Cunning woman. And here I thought Sharon's physical stats were among the weakest of the Seven-Star Hunters…"

Kirika turned her head toward Takina. "Takina, when Sharon ran, did you see her take anything? The veil, or perhaps the [Demonic Scroll]?"

Takina lowered her head, full of guilt. "Sorry, Chief. She was too fast. I only caught a vague glimpse of her silhouette."

"I see… that's understandable. You don't have to blame yourself. Just the fact that we drove her away is already a decent result."

Kirika couldn't help but feel slightly regretful that it wasn't Chisato who had been on the scene—her observational skills were far sharper. Still, she was grateful that Takina hadn't gone head-to-head with Sharon.

The Demon Hunters were beings enhanced through unknown means for the sole purpose of exterminating demons. If Takina had fought her directly, she'd almost certainly have been killed. The fact that Luo Shu was able to reverse the situation through a well-timed mind game was a rare fluke.

Sharon might have gained her reputation among the Seven-Stars primarily because of her gear, but even so, neither Takina nor Luo Shu should've been able to match her.

Judging from the way she escaped despite being shot, Sharon's physical prowess must've been near-commander level, if not slightly below. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to flee so fast that even Takina couldn't react.

"We may have lost the [Demonic Scroll], but that's alright. You're both safe, and that's what matters. As for the loss, I'll deal with that brat Natsuki. That little rascal definitely knew something—otherwise, she wouldn't have been hinting things to me earlier."

At that thought, Kirika couldn't help but curse under her breath.

"Damn it, that loli teacher played me."

She wasn't the only one who played you, Luo Shu muttered silently to himself.

Of course, he wasn't about to share the full truth with Kirika. He wasn't some obedient little schoolboy who'd report every little detail to the adults. Much of what had happened during his reversal of Sharon involved his secrets—and secrets he wasn't planning to expose.

As for Sharon, the only other person who knew the truth… well, even though she'd fled, she hadn't truly escaped Luo Shu's surveillance. It was only because Kirika was present that he hadn't acted yet.

"Whatever. Things are already what they are," Misaka muttered with a sigh. "Only two Level 2 [Demonic Scrolls] recovered, and the best one—the Level 3—is gone. We didn't get the fattest piece of meat in this hunt."

With Kirika grumbling to herself, Luo Shu and the visibly conflicted Takina exited the villa. After assigning a team to continue the investigation, the three of them began the return journey.