Anime Multiverse: Building a Pantheon from Scratch

Inoue Takina stared blankly at the ruby in Luo Shu's palm, its blood-red surface housing a vertical pupil. For a moment, she was stunned, before abruptly recalling the information on that item—Heart of the Demon, a demonic abyssal artifact capable of hypnotizing women. Realizing this, Takina quickly turned her gaze away from the ring.

In contrast, Chisato Nishikigi, whose eyesight was far keener than Takina's, kept her eyes locked on the gem, her mouth letting out a string of surprised exclamations: "Eh?! Eh~?! No way..."

She circled around Luo Shu, tapping her chin with one finger. "Is that the real deal?"

"No way..."

Then she gasped again and clapped her hands on Luo Shu's shoulders. "You didn't just win her over in one night, you even found the ring?!"

Luo Shu thought about her words for a second and replied with a strangely complicated expression, "As misleading as your phrasing is... factually speaking, it's not wrong either."

Got the Heart of the Demon? Check. Won the girl over? Well, she did join the Astronomy Club, so that kind of counts... In that case, Luo Shu had truly made a clean sweep of both the person and the artifact!

"Amazing! So, this is what the power of a 'super rookie' looks like!!" Chisato clapped exaggeratedly, her tone a bizarre mix of admiration and jest.

Meanwhile, Takina, still avoiding eye contact with the artifact, gave Luo Shu a complicated look and said, "In a way... I suppose 'super rookie' fits."

To complete such a mission in just one night—it was undeniably impressive. Though it seemed like his specialty lay in... dealing with women. The thought made Takina uneasy. Given the ring's hypnotic power over women, she found herself hesitating to meet Luo Shu's eyes.

The fact that Luo Shu had not only managed to handle the young heiress but also brought back the abyssal artifact safely led Takina to mentally tag him as "possibly dangerously charming." Maybe—just maybe—he was more dangerous to women than the Heart of the Demon itself...

While Takina was caught up in her uneasy speculation, Chisato suddenly grabbed her arm and chirped, "Oh right! Luo Shu, you haven't met her properly yet right?"

"This is Takina, Inoue Takina—our SDS ace!"

"Chisato!" Takina flushed slightly at the praise, clearly unused to such open compliments.

"And by the way, her height's 160 cm, she's 16 years old, and her weight is—"

"We don't need that much detail!!" Takina lunged forward and clamped her hand over Chisato's mouth, who panicked and tried to wriggle free.

"Wait, wait! I won't say anything more—calm down, Takina! Calm down!!"

As the two of them wrestled playfully, Luo Shu could only sigh, slipping the ring back into his pocket. "You two really do get along, huh~~"

"Hey, hey, don't just stand there watching—come help me!" Chisato whined as she struggled against Takina's headlock.

But after Luo Shu's comment, Takina's face turned redder. She shot Chisato a warning glare and finally let go, scolding her in a low voice, "Stop going off-topic when it has nothing to do with work."

"I just wanted to help us bond a little faster as teammates~" Chisato explained, as if that made everything okay. She sighed, walked over to the table, pulled a burger out of a KFC bag, and tossed it to Luo Shu. "Catch~"

Luo Shu caught it instinctively and looked at her, puzzled.

"It's oily and salty, sure, but decent for a quick bite," Chisato said while glancing out the window. Seeing no suspicious figures near the apartment, she shrugged and added, "Looks like we're not being watched. And since we've got the Heart of the Demon, there's no need to keep monitoring Tsubakihara Mira anymore."

With that, she began dismantling the sniper rifle she'd placed nearby, moving with practiced ease. "Takina, pack it up. We're moving out."

"Understood." Takina immediately got to work, efficiently tidying up their "contraband" scattered around the room—Swiss Army knives hidden under pillows, pistols taped beneath the bed, threads wrapped around the doorknob... Luo Shu watched, dumbfounded, as they quickly stowed it all into violin cases.

Watching this organized chaos, Luo Shu twitched at the corner of his mouth and looked at the ring again. He turned to Chisato and asked, "Shouldn't this be submitted for a side-effects check?"

"Oh, that can wait. Just swing by Lycoris after school." Chisato chuckled behind her hand, giving him a teasing look. "But whatever you do—don't use that abyssal artifact at school, okay~~?"

"I mean... I want to say I won't, but—are you guys seriously letting me carry this around at school?" Luo Shu shook the ring slightly, clearly baffled.

"No need to worry. It's all under control," Chisato reassured him with a smile as she zipped up the violin case. "A specialist in abyssal artifacts is transferring to Toyosaki Academy today. She'll find a chance to contact you on campus. And if not, she'll join us later at Lycoris anyway."

"Oh, and she's also your future occult studies instructor~"

She wagged a finger playfully, her grin radiant. "And beyond that, having you go to school as usual helps us keep things clean. Even though the 'neighbour upstairs' let us off the hook, we still need to maintain appearances. Gotta keep up the illusion, after all~"

With that, Chisato and Takina slung their violin cases over their shoulders. Chisato handed Luo Shu a small stack of twelve talismans. "Here~"

"They're basic sealing charms for abyssal artifacts. Should be enough to suppress it for about two days, according to our support team."

Luo Shu took the talismans, drawn with vermilion symbols, and muttered, "This... really doesn't feel reliable at all."

"Just roll with it, okay~?" Chisato giggled and patted him on the shoulder. Then, with her hand on the doorknob, she added, "Don't forget to come by the café after school!"

"Good luck. You've got this," Takina said softly as she passed him and caught up with Chisato.

Once the room was empty again, Luo Shu let out a long sigh of relief. He picked up the counterfeit ring he'd exchanged from the system and muttered:

"I really don't know if I passed the test... or totally failed."

"And now they want me to go to school?"

"What a headache..."

He sighed deeply, having hoped today might be an excuse to skip class.