The first time they called her “Tank Goddess,” Anastasia Shimizu was holding a crumbling overpass on her back like a patient Atlas. Morning traffic had been pouring through Shibuya when the portal split the sky above the scramble crossing—a round wound of violet glass. The city’s public alarms wailed; AR warnings cascaded across every phone and billboard: **BRONZE-CLASS GATE: SHIBUYA WARD. EVACUATE.** Commuters slowed to look up, then hurried faster. That was Tokyo—curious, then precise.

Anastasia jogged into view from the station stairwell, not so much armored as *properly dressed* for the end of the world. There was a modern utility to her gear: matte-black composite plates under a white haori-style jacket trimmed with gold script; a collapsible tower shield slung across her back; a carbon-ceramic baton that telescoped into a radiant maul; a waist charm of wooden prayer plaques along with a sleek guild-signal earpiece. Her black hair was braided into an efficient crown. Her expression was soft, almost motherly. Her eyes, when they lifted to the threat, were calm.

“Good morning,” she said to the clustered city officers at the barricade. She bowed, polite despite the sirens. “Shimizu Anastasia, Paladin. S-tier, affiliated with Suncrest Guild. I’ll anchor frontline. Please keep evacuation channels open.”

Officer Takada blinked, then saluted. “Goddess— I mean, Ms. Shimizu. Suncrest’s already on scene?”

A voice chimed in her ear. **[SUNCREST COMMS//Raina]:** *We’re two minutes out. Don’t start the party without us, Nana.*

Nana: the way her guild said her name. Anastasia smiled. “Two minutes is perfect. I’ll warm them up.”

Above, the circle widened with a sound like glass breathing. The first things through were *Kudzu Wolves*—vine-sheathed, low to the asphalt, braids of chlorophyll coiled around muscle. Bronze-class monsters: ten times stronger than a D-tier human, so roughly a hundred times stronger than a normal person. They hit the pavement and left clawed divots in city stone.

Anastasia’s shield thumped down, locking into the street with magnetic teeth. She glanced left; a line of high schoolers pressed behind the police tape, filming in wide-eyed silence.

“Eyes on me,” she said to the wolves, as if chiding unruly pets. “We don’t run in crosswalks.”

She stepped forward—and the street seemed to step with her. The air hummed.

```

[STATUS — ANASTASIA SHIMIZU]

Class: Paladin (Tank)        Tier: S (x1,000 Human baseline)

Guild: Suncrest (Tokyo Chapter)

Vitals: HP 100% | Stamina 100% | Resolve 100%

Mitigation: DEF +320% (gear), RES +65% (baseline), Block 45%

Threat: +120% (passive), +300% (active taunt)

Auras: Sanctuary Field (–30% enemy ATK, +2% HP/sec ally regen) [Ready]

Passives: Perfect Guard (First hit/5s → 0 dmg + Radiant Counter, 5s ICD)

Oath: Mother’s Aegis (Redirect lethal hit on ally within 15m; 60s CD)

Actives:

• Divine Bulwark — Deploy radiant barrier, 10s, 90% dmg reduction to allies behind. [Ready]

• Provocation of the Saint — AoE taunt, 15m, forces target focus; grants Fortified (+20% DEF). [Ready]

• Radiant Maul — Charged strike; scales with DEF; stuns Bronze/Silver reliably. [Ready]

• Aegis Surge — Sprint + shield rush; creates lane of safe passage. [Ready]

Equipment:

• Aegis Mk.II Riot-Paladin Tower Shield (Relic Core) — +2.0x effective HP, absorbs 15% ranged.

• Hikari Laminar Vest (Nanoweave) — +1.6x HP, shock dispersion.

• Miko’s Prayer Locket — +10% healing received; small chance to cleanse debuffs on block.

```

The first wolf lunged. She moved a half-step, let its momentum spend itself on her shield, and used the rebound to corkscrew her maul up under its jaw. Something like sap and steam burst; the beast crashed at her feet. Two more bounded from opposite angles.

“Left flank!” an officer shouted.

“I see them,” Anastasia said, tone warm. “And I’m not letting them past me.”

She slid the shield, caught both attacks, and her passive flared—a bell-clear *chime* as *Perfect Guard* rendered a bite to zero. The returning counter flashed *Radiant* across the wolf’s chest; it tumbled into the barricade. Her comm pinged.

**[Raina]:** *Snipers on-spot. Goddess, duck your halo. Kana and Miyu with me.*

**[Kana]:** *I brought onigiri. Also a rocket launcher. Guess which I’ll share first.*

**[Miyu]:** *Please do not fire the launcher in a residential ward unless absolutely necessary.*

Anastasia laughed softly, even as she kicked her shield into a knee-scoop that toppled another wolf. “Raina, darling, put your pretty bullets where my shield isn’t.”

*Pop-pop-pop.* Raina’s rounds were surgical whispers. Three wolves collapsed mid-sprint, strings cut.

A second wave poured from the portal—larger forms, bark-armored boars with antlered helms. Bronze still, but heavier. From somewhere behind the tape, a teen breathed, “They *talk* like this while fighting?”

“They always do,” a friend whispered back, awed. “They say it keeps the fear away.”

Anastasia rolled her shoulders and toggled comms to open channel. “Civilians of Shibuya, keep calm, keep filming if you like, but keep distance. We’ll close the gate and you’ll be teleported home if you’re accidentally drawn in. Officers, you’re doing great. Deep breaths.”

“Goddess,” Officer Takada said, “if it upgrades—”

“We adapt,” she said. “We always do.”

Kana clipped past her with a grin, hair in a messy ponytail, sleeves rolled. A-tier brawler—three hundred times a normal human’s power, but always treating it like a gym day. She winked at Anastasia and flexed. “Mom’s here, kiddos. You brought the big lunchbox?”

Anastasia arched a brow. “Language, Kana. And yes, I brought snacks.” She patted the pouch at her belt. “Emergency mochi.”

“Marry me,” Kana said automatically.

“Get in line,” Raina muttered over comms.

Miyu, their healer, skidded to a halt behind the shield wall, adjusting her glasses. Her hands glowed with steady, antiseptic warmth. “Sanctuary Field when you’re ready, Nana. I’ll thread heals through it.”

“Now,” Anastasia said.

A soft golden dome unfurled from her like sunrise. The boars hit it and slowed—*just enough*. Kana stepped in, planted, and sent one spinning. Raina tracked the stagger and set a bullet into the exposed eye. Miyu’s radiance stitched a frightened rookie officer’s shallow cut before he even winced.

“Money check!” Kana sang, because Suncrest did logistics in motion. “What’s the bounty on Bronze today?”

“Eight thousand yen per subjugation,” Miyu said primly between heal pulses. “Plus materials. Boss bonuses scale.”

“Eight thousand—” a junior officer breathed, like he’d never done that math aloud. “And there are—there are dozens—”

“Do your jobs well,” Anastasia said gently. “And you’ll see those numbers keep the city standing.”

The gate brightened. The air picked up an iron taste. The *sound* changed—deeper, a double heartbeat. Raina hissed. “Upgrade. Reading… Silver-tier pull. Big body.”

Anastasia lifted her chin. Shibuya Crossing was a clock—so many angles to keep safe. She didn’t move backward; she stepped *forward* to the foot of the crosswalk stripes and set her shield. “Everyone behind me,” she called, voice carrying—not a command so much as a promise. “When it looks worst, that’s when you tuck in.”

The portal spat out a *Basilisk of the Vine*, silver plates under living ivy, eyes burning like sake lanterns. **Silver:** four hundred times stronger than a D-tier human—forty *hundred* times a normal person. It reared, hissed, and the hiss was a *wind* that sent trash flyers spinning.

“New price check,” Kana said under her breath. “Silver boss…?”

“Five million base,” Miyu said, and then, deadpan: “Hazard pay to the goddess who plans to eat the breath for the team: priceless.”

Anastasia’s smile tilted, flirtation threaded through a battlefield. “If you keep flattering me, Doctor, I’ll ask you out for tea in front of the entire ward.”

Miyu blushed so hard her healing light wobbled. “F-focus front.”

“Front,” Anastasia echoed, fond. She breathed in, long and steady, and her aura *tightened* like a drawn bow. “Raina, eyes. Kana, anchor on my left. Miyu, three steps back, set your circle just inside mine. Officers—down.”

The Basilisk’s throat bulged. Vines along its jaw crackled with static. It *exhaled*—a beam of viridian corrosion that could have melted rail steel like noodles.

Anastasia slammed her shield into the street. **DIVINE BULWARK** unfurled: a rectangular curtain of layered light. The breath struck, and the world turned to green fire. Numbers scrolled across her inner view.

```

[INCOMING: SILVER-CLASS CORROSIVE BREATH]

Base DMG: Catastrophic

Mitigation: Bulwark (–90%) + DEF scaling (–62%) + RES (–65%)

Overflow: 0.9% per tick → Converted to Heat (Aegis Core)

Status: Perfect Guard primed → First contact nullified.

Result: Team receives negligible residual.

```

Her boots carved twin furrows in painted crosswalk; asphalt bubbled around them. She did not budge. Behind her, Kana whooped. “*That’s* my captain!”

The breath cut off. The basilisk blinked in reptile puzzlement that its best card had been snatched. Anastasia flared the Bulwark outward like a door, using the last of its force to *push* the line forward.

“Switch,” she said, and her team moved like a good sentence reads—inevitable and satisfying.

Kana slid under a sweeping tail and planted her palms to launch a double-kick into the jaw hinge. Raina’s shot lanced the basilisk’s left eye, blinders on. Miyu’s circles pulsed steady regen across officers who couldn’t stop trembling at the sight of melted street. Anastasia took one gorgeous, balanced step and *rammed* with the shield, turning a tail-whip into a glancing kiss against reinforced composite.

The basilisk coiled to strike. Anastasia’s **Provocation of the Saint** rang like a temple bell. Threat numbers spiked.

```

[PROVOCATION] → Targets: 1 (Silver Basilisk)

Aggro secured. Fortified (+20% DEF) gained for 10s.

```

“On me,” she told the monster like she was telling a toddler where to hold hands while crossing the street. “On me, darling. Everyone else is busy.”

It bit. *Perfect Guard* chime; zero damage. The radiance that bloomed out of her block climbed her maul. She answered with **Radiant Maul**—not strength, but leverage; not rage, but geometry. The stun punctuated the street like a judge’s gavel.

“Window!” Raina called.

“Open,” Anastasia said, and tilted the world—her shield angling up, just so, to expose the underside of armored throat.

Raina’s bullet whispered. The basilisk shuddered, then *fell* across Hachikō-dōri, shaking the ramen shop windows.

For a beat, there was only the sound of alarms and settling dust. Then the AR text that every bystander lives to film:

**BOSS SUBJUGATED. CLAIM REWARDS TO EXIT.**

The basilisk dissolved into pale motes. Loot notifications sparkled in everyone’s vision.

```

[REWARD // TEAM: SUNCREST TOKYO]

• Silver Basilisk Core (1) — Allocated: Guild storage

• Ivy-Scaled Plate (x12) — Allocated: Crafting (Kana)

• Basilisk Eye (1, pristine) — Allocated: Marksman (Raina)

• Gate Bonus (Shibuya Ward): ¥5,000,000 → Split per contract terms

• Civic Hazard Bonus: ¥1,200,000 → Officers on-scene (Shibuya Police)

• Public Safety Merit +2 (All Suncrest members present)

```

A *pull* like elevator drop lifted everyone’s stomachs. Particles brightened. Teleport confirmed. Civilians who’d crept too near the line vanished, returned to safe zones with breathless laughs and already-editing videos.

The street was street again: scorched patterns like calligraphy, a faint smell of ozone, traffic lights confused and blinking. The portal pinched down and *popped* closed.

Officer Takada’s shoulders slumped in relief. He approached with both gratitude and shock crowding his face. “I—thank you. All of you. Ms. Shimizu, you—you didn’t move.”

“I like this crossing,” Anastasia said, pristine courtesy back in place as she clicked her baton down to its tidy baton-self. “It’s a good place for first dates. It should be safe.”

Raina muffled a laugh. Kana just *stared*. Miyu looked like a kettle about to boil dry. Anastasia turned, head tilted, playful concern warming her voice. “Doctor Miyu, are you overheated? I can fan you.”

“I’m fine,” Miyu said, very not fine. “Excellent field performance. I—thank you for the tea offer, earlier. If it was not a battlefield joke.”

“Oh, I don’t joke about tea,” Anastasia said, eyes softening. “Or about spending time with people I admire.” She offered her a hand—gloved, steady. “This afternoon? There’s a shop in Ebisu that does yuzu matcha chiffon.”

Miyu made a noise like a small animal discovering sunlight. “Yes,” she said, surprising herself with the ease of it. “Okay.”

Kana fanned herself with both hands. “I hate it here,” she announced cheerfully. “Anyway, who’s carrying the plate? It’s heavy, and by *who* I mean Anastasia, because she hates when I pretend to be delicate.”

“I would never call you delicate,” Anastasia said, amused. “Your heart is a freight train.”

Kana grinned like she’d been handed a medal. “That’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me.”