[Third Person POV]
After visiting her shrine in Itose, Amaterasu called a meeting of Takamagahara's most important gods to reveal the interesting news she had learned.
"What did you call us here for, sister?" Susanoo said, lackadaisically entering the hall late.
"Would you stop being late, then? You've already made everyone else wait!" Amaterasu complained before getting to the point of the meeting.
"A few hours ago, one of my shrines and the town around it were nearly destroyed.
I went down to see the damage myself. I estimate it will take a few months to repair everything."
The few gods who thought this was going to be a simple meeting perked up.
It was rare for such a level of destruction to occur.
Even rogues wouldn't cause this much damage normally, since it would be like shining a spotlight on their actions. If there was something to gain, then sure, but when they heard Amaterasu mention Itose, most of them were lost.
While they generally knew where all their shrines were, they knew only the major shrines of other gods.
Still, for her to call a meeting, something big must have happened.
"During my investigation, I learned two supreme-class beings fought."
If anyone hadn't been paying complete attention before, they were now.
Ultimate-class beings rarely fought nowadays because of the devastation their battles could cause. One ultimate-class alone could wipe out a city, so two of them fighting could easily wreak havoc. That was why most fights took place in other dimensions or warded fields.
While no supernatural faction feared humanity, they knew exactly what humans were capable of.
With a short reproduction rate, a love of creating bigger and bigger weapons, and a natural curiosity that bordered on suicidal at times, humans were a sleeping giant that nobody wanted to awaken.
Most humans remained unaware of the supernatural, even though others could easily spread it, because they were selfish. Those who knew magic didn't want everyone to know it, or they wouldn't feel 'special'.
However, if a threat capable of destroying them all arose, they would band together and unleash chaos.
Those who already knew magic would become leaders of a new era and use their existing knowledge to damage the supernatural in untold ways.
That was why this was so concerning. A fight between two supreme-class should easily make headlines, yet it seemed Japan was completely unaware.
"Were the fighters anyone we would know of?" Tsukuyomi spoke.
He was one of the quieter ones at these meetings, only chiming in if he needed to. This event was so shocking, though, that he felt he needed to know more, even if he figured his sister would've said something.
"No. According to the people running my shrine, one of the combatants was a supreme-class gashadokuro, sealed away centuries ago. The other was apparently a kid."
"A kid?" Susanoo asked for clarification. "That's all you know?"
"They gave a description, but it could literally apply to most of the country. They also described some of the magic he used.
He had a companion with him whom they could describe more clearly; they even knew her name."
She passed around copies of their descriptions and a recreation of what they looked like.
"Umm.. Ama? Are you sure about his companion's information?"
"Why wouldn't I be? I got it from the people who saw her in action."
"I believe she's going by an alias, and there could be more information we don't even know."
"What do you mean, Uzume?"
"Well..." Uzume wore an awkward look. As one of Amaterasu's closest friends and a god of the arts, she was usually invited to keep things light, as well as her unique takes that the others wouldn't dare to give, but even this was something she considered beyond her.
"It's just that his companion looks exactly like a One Piece character from the previous arc."
As she spoke, she pulled up an image of Monet on her phone.
Seeing how close it was to the descriptions she was able to get, Amaterasu was both shocked and confused.
Did that harpy woman decide to mimic a character because of their similarities? Maybe, but even then, the similarities are too close.
It's not just her name that's similar; it's her looks and powers, too. Names and looks can easily be changed, but magic takes years to practice. She would've had to be already learning snow magic to be at such a level, given how the character was only a few years old.
Amaterasu snatched the phone from Uzume's hands before vanishing in a small flash of light, leaving the rest of the gods stunned by her actions, with one god fuming that their phone was taken.
Minutes later, Amaterasu reappeared and handed Uzume's phone back to her.
"I showed the image to a few people in Itose. Everyone confirmed she looked exactly like the picture."
It was at this point that Fukurokuju spoke up. "Lady Amaterasu, I believe we should look into these two after the meeting. While this woman is imitating a story character, her associate is a child capable of going up against a supreme-class being. If we could recruit them, we might be able to remove other factions from Japanese soil.
We don't have any supreme-class fighters we can spare or use publicly, but if a child were to act, it would just be seen as a reckless kid believing they're the strongest."
"I don't believe it will be that easy. Aside from what I've mentioned, there were also faint traces of holy energy at the site."
"Even if he could somehow use holy energy like an angel, how would he have enough power to kill a gashadokuro?" Susanoo said.
"What if he wielded a holy sword?" Tsukuyomi proposed.
Everyone turned to him.
"Holy energy could injure gashadokuro, but unless the child is the next Sirzechs, the odds that he would have enough reserves to kill such a creature are dubious. If he were to use a holy sword, energy would be much less of a problem, not to mention that all of the Church's holy swords would enhance the wielder's strength. Maybe the sword is a prototype artifact or an experiment to upgrade the holy swords, or reforge Excalibur, or even the True Longinus.
If that were the case, it could explain why they didn't stick around afterward."
As the gods sat and pondered it, the more reasonable it felt, yet Amaterasu felt there was something more to it, though she couldn't put her finger on it.
The discussion about what to do lasted for hours.
Hachiman, the god of war, personally asked to go down and search for them himself. Amaterasu immediately declined, though.
If he weren't hostile to them, sending down a god of war, even one of the less violent ones, would send the wrong message.
Kagatsuchi, the leader of the Principal Clans' gods, suggested they alert their worshippers to keep an eye out, but once again, the proposal was rejected to avoid angering him.
While they did wish to recruit the unknown child, they were also well aware that children could have very short tempers and get upset over minor things. Even if a child who had reached supreme-class were likely more mature than most their age, that would only demand more caution.
They weren't scared of such strength. Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi, and Susanoo were transcendent-class and could easily win any fight against him. Still, they also knew that if they themselves had to descend to fight a child, or if one of their supreme-class gods fought and lost, they would likely struggle in any future political discussion over their perceived weakness.
Who would care to listen to gods that struggled to fight a child?
Even if their gods weren't weak, if Takamagahara lost a fight like that in their homeland, they would struggle to project strength to other factions.
For now, it was decided to gather more intelligence on the mystery child.
After all, he took the entire gashadokuro's corpse.
The only parts he left behind were the small shards of bone that probably chipped off during the fight. Those shards, while part of a supreme-class gashadokuro, were scorched beyond belief by holy energy, becoming almost completely useless.
They already had dozens of questions about him, and now he'd taken what would be considered one of the best crafting materials.
Even if they couldn't get any, as leaders, they needed to keep an eye on potential threats.
As the meeting ended, most of the gods left to do their own things. Only Fukurokuju, Tsukuyoki, and Uzume stayed behind. Susanoo was one of the first to go.
"Now that everyone is gone, what do you guys really think about this incident?" Amaterasu asked. She knew that in the presence of other gods, certain opinions had to be held back to maintain their image.
Tsukuyoki was the first to speak up. "I believe you are looking into this too much, sister. While a child of such caliber is... unusual, to say the least, he wasn't there to cause trouble, since he had stopped the gashadokuro before it reached the town. If anything, we should be thanking him for stopping such a creature from rampaging before things got out of hand."
"I'm inclined to agree with Lord Tsukuyomi, my Lady. Thanks to the child's intervention, things didn't get out of hand. Whether we can recruit him or not, this child is someone we should try to build good relations with. As for his goals and reason for being in Itose at that time, until we know more about him, we can only speculate."
Uzume looked exhausted from all the political talk, and Amaterasu was pretty sure she'd fallen asleep in the meeting at one point.
Excusing herself, Amaterasu went to her room to ponder the incident.
-----
Over the next few days, large shipments of materials, several of which were magical in nature, quickly caught the attention of many clans in the area.
After sending some informants to learn what was happening, people were shocked to learn that a fight between supreme-class beings had occurred without anyone realizing.
Information on the fight quickly spread. As more people looked into the incident, other clans realized something had happened and sent their own to investigate, drawing even more attention to the whole thing.
With all of Japan in a tizzy, larger factions quickly took note. Some, like the Greeks and Hindus, couldn't be bothered since they lacked influence in Japan. Others, like the Biblical factions, quickly investigated; the Church, especially, once they learned that a holy weapon might've been involved.
Yasaka also received a notice on her desk. She sighed once she read it, immediately knowing the culprit behind the incident.
It seems she would have to talk to him soon. Both to scold him for fighting such a dangerous yokai and to attempt to buy pieces of it for herself.
Meanwhile, the culprit behind the whole thing was at his base, resting, still unaware of the political storm he had created.
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Author's Note:
I hope everyone has had a great 2025.
When I started writing at the beginning of the year, I just decided to start writing on January 1st. I'd been reading fanfics for the past few years by that point and had dozens of stories I wanted to read, brewing inside my head, so I just jumped in and made it my resolution.
While I know this story isn't the best out there, I'm proud of myself for putting it out into the world, flaws and all.
Back near the start of the year, I messed up the chapter order when posting, which kinda killed my motivation to save extra chapters for later. I had about 11 saved chapters, but to fix my mistake, I ended up losing 2 or 3, and then I kind of just sat around for a few weeks, thinking I could increase the saved total anytime.
That's why, for 2026, I plan to do two things.
First is my New Year's Resolution. Since this year, I'd resolved to post 1 chapter a week; next year, I plan to write 1,000 words a day for my stories. Whether it's more Telos Karma Meta Gacha or something I have in the works, I want to get more into a writing headspace. That's also why I'm sharing this resolution: in hopes that the silent pressure of the internet judging me will keep me sticking to it, though I need to find something more physical to keep at it, too.
Second, I plan to take a hiatus in January. I've been posting once a week, and while I do love working on my story, I want to take a short break from it and save up a few chapters in case I get too sick to procrastinate like I usually do. That said, I won't just leave for a month with nothing to show. Once I return, I plan to alternate between posting chapters for TKMG and a new story.
I won't spoil too much, but I don't mind giving a few hints to hype it up. It's another DxD story, based on a fanfic plot I've seen a few times. I plan to give the MC an interesting system tied to who he is that will make him very strong, but it comes with a high cost that won't make him too OP.
Lastly, kinda funny to end the year with chapter 69, LOL. Completely unintentional.
Thanks for reading; I'll see you next year!