Anime Multiverse: Building a Pantheon from Scratch

Inside a small, refrigerated truck parked in the lot at District 3 of Beika Town, Kirika Tachibana sat in the front passenger seat. In front of her was a laptop displaying six surveillance feeds—footage of surrounding streets, an overhead satellite view, and first-person views from Special Operations Team members who had already breached the apartment building.

"A-Team, fifteen members, continue your push. Move in teams of three, sweep each floor, and force the target to higher levels. B-Team, fifteen members, secure all exits. Include the sewer system in the surveillance scope. C-Team, report once you've reached your designated sniping positions."

After issuing those instructions, Kirika turned to Mizuki Nakahara beside her, who was wearing a headset, and asked, "How's traffic control coming along?"

"It's already been coordinated with the transport department. The surrounding roads are now sealed off," Mizuki promptly replied.

"Good," Kirika nodded in approval, then rolled down the window and leaned out toward Chisato Nishikigi and Takina Inoue, who were stretching outside in the parking area. "You two ready?"

"OK~ OK~!" Chisato gave a cheerful double-handed OK sign and asked with a bright smile, "So, do we head out now?"

Kirika rested her arms on the lowered window and looked at the building wrapped in green safety netting. "Not yet. Wait until the Special Ops team flushes her out."

Just as she finished speaking, a calm male voice suddenly crackled through their earpieces, accompanied by the sound of gunfire.

"A7 has visual on the target! Third floor, second room on the right—agh!"

"A7, report status! A7, report status!" Mizuki urgently repeated the call but got no response. She immediately turned to the comms, yelling, "Kurumi!"

"On it!" came Kurumi's languid voice through the headset. At the same time, the surveillance feed on Kirika's laptop rapidly cycled through views until three live feeds appeared.

The slowed-down footage showed Sharon suddenly burst from a room, her movements a blur as she zigzagged and feinted to dodge the bullets fired by three agents wielding submachine guns. In mere moments, she closed the gap, landed a heavy punch to one agent's abdomen—sending him flying—then leapt up, spinning mid-air to land a sweeping kick to the second agent's head. After landing, she delivered a solid kick that knocked the third agent unconscious.

All three agents collapsed, and Sharon swiftly exited the area, vanishing from the camera's view.

"Wow!" Chisato, who had at some point clambered up to hang outside the truck window, let out an impressed whistle as she witnessed the scene.

"She's pretty capable, huh..." Kirika remarked with a faint smirk as she reviewed the footage. "Her physical stats are way beyond normal human standards. Her combat technique is highly refined. The way she moved through that concrete hallway, it might as well have been tofu. She completely overwhelmed the Special Ops members."

"But this demon hunter seems to specialize in close quarters combat. Strange… with that kind of fighting style, why couldn't Natsuki deal with her? Her abilities should be a hard counter."

Kirika narrowed her eyes, considering the possibilities. "There must be a special Abyssal Artifact on Sharon that prevents Natsuki from taking the initiative."

"Should I request intel support from HQ?" Mizuki asked while typing rapidly on the laptop.

"Go ahead. At this point, they'd be more than happy to let us clean this up for them," Kirika replied casually.

Soon after, Mizuki received a response from the superior officers in the chain of command above Shirō Maki and frowned as she read it aloud: "Confirmed. Sharon bears a stigmata somewhere on her body. It grants her demonic suppression abilities. In short, if she activates the stigmata during the use of demonic powers, she can forcibly bind and temporarily nullify the demonic abilities."

"I see. So that's why Natsuki was suppressed. But a seven-star hunter of the Demon Hunters having a stigmata? That means Sharon's probably from some kind of church faction?" Kirika mused, now understanding why Sharon had managed to escape from Natsuki.

As one of the few privy to Natsuki's secrets, Kirika knew well that her powers were drawn from a contract with a demon. Because of that, her abilities carried strong demonic attributes, making her highly vulnerable to someone wielding a stigmata. If Sharon struck at the right moment, she could deal serious damage to Natsuki.

Ironically, Kirika realized that the person she had assumed would be the biggest threat to Sharon—Natsuki—was perhaps the easiest for her to deal with.

"No wonder that warlock with demonic heart with multiple demon incantations was taken down by a woman like Sharon. So that's what happened," Kirika sneered, recalling how Sharon, after all that, had still been outplayed by Luo Shu.

She imagined Sharon's failure: failing to activate the stigmata in time and getting reverse-killed by Luo Shu. Truly disgraceful.

"Well, now that we've got the target's intel, this'll be easier," she said, unbuckling her seatbelt and opening the truck door.

"Ahhh~" The moment the door swung open, Chisato, who had been standing on the truck's step, was the first to hop down.

"Don't just cling to the doors like that—it's dangerous," Kirika scolded with a glare. Then, turning her gaze toward Takina, who was quietly standing by, she added, "Can't you be more like Takina? At least she knows how to behave."

"Ah..." Takina looked a bit guilty, knowing full well that if Chisato hadn't jumped first, she'd have been the one hanging on the door.

"I just wanted to understand the situation better..." Chisato mumbled while flexing her arms.

Meanwhile, Kirika made her way to the truck's rear, opened the back doors, and retrieved the Kusanagi Sword from the icebox—a weapon that looked like it was crafted from a white spine. Turning to the two girls, she shouted, "Chisato, Takina—time to work!"

She slung the Kusanagi Sword over her shoulder. Strange white runes began to appear on her arm, a sign that the sword's activation process had begun.

"Frontline assault. Take Sharon down within ten minutes!"

"Yes, Boss (Big Sis)~!" both girls replied in unison.