On a Godless Planet:Volume1A Chapter 14

Chapter 14: SimEarth 03

Let’s try doing this somewhat seriously

Balancer decided to be stubborn.

The planet had yet to be terraformed. In reality, the sky gave a view of the stars, but it was stormy with heat and smoke. On the surface, there was only a narrow foothold’s worth of land. That land did have a stone hut on it, but…

<Today, I must ask for all you gods and this one ape to terraform.>

“Hey, I hate to interrupt right away, but tear-a-form? What kind of form are we supposed to tear? Also, who are you?”

<Terraforming is…>

Balancer looked to the gods seated at the table. They all looked the other way, but…

<Weren’t you supposed to explain that kind of thing to the ape and guide her to the library?>

“Yeah, but then you showed up and started talking about inspectors from the DC.”

“What’s the DC? Don’t use abbreviations before explaining what it stands for.”

“Let’s not get too meta, okay?”

“DC stands for Divine Committee. It is a place for the gods of different mythologies to speak together and discuss which mythologies should be assigned to what based on the progress of the terraforming of each planet.”

“Does this talking screen have something to do with that?”

“No, Balancer is one of the world’s managers, but they cannot directly interfere in who is sent to handle the terraforming.”

The idiot tilted her head and groaned in what may or may not have been understanding.

Then she spoke again without warning.

“What do you mean by gods?”

●

Balancer shuddered.

How much of her memories had that idiot lost? The situation was troublesome enough with gods from the DC here, but now they had to figure out how far to roll her back. However…

…A-an AI as skilled as me might shudder, but I will not lose my cool!

Balancer looked over to see Kuwajiri holding her hands together and bowing her head at the far end of the table. It made sense that she felt responsible since she was in charge of the rollback, but…

…Isn’t that the Buddhist or Shinto way to pray?

Had she learned that while living in this Divine World? The mixture of different cultures did feel like the Japanese way of doing things. At any rate…

“So where are these gods?”

<Well, they’re actually sitting right next to you.>

The ape looked over and Yomoji raised a hand.

“Hi.”

“…”

“Hey, screen. Did you not get enough sleep last night? Nap rooms are only 7000 yen for 2 hours.”

<I have no idea what you mean, but they are indeed gods.>

“Eh!? Then I am too!? You’re saying I’m a magical god descended from some fancy foreign land in the clouds!?”

<You are an evolved ape. Do not be ridiculous.>

“Huhhhh!? What the hell is this!? Some new form of bullying!? It is, isn’t it!? You’re trying to exclude me by creating a discriminatory environment where you’re gods and I’m a human, aren’t you!? I’ll never forgive you for this one! You’re dumb! You’re stupid! I mean, sure, I love big boobs so much that I hurt my trapezius muscle turning my head too fast after passing by a busty girl in town the other day! And sure, I enjoy the view of the new style uniform from below, so I follow the other girls up the stairs while jumping back and forth saying stuff like ‘Oh, I can see it! Ahh! No, I can’t!’ But you still shouldn’t do this to me! Okay, do we all see who was in the wrong here now? Then let’s all head home for today.”

<Can we move on please?>

“Waiiiiit! Where’s my reaction!? I need a reaction! Tease me! Tease me more!”

Wait a pain, thought Balancer while looking over at the gods, but they only looked away. That left Balancer with no choice but to speak to the idiot.

<Excuse me, ape. Do you understand the language I am speaking?>

“D-dammit, now you’re trying to provoke me, aren’t you!? Aren’t you!?”

<Just listen. I am willing to compromise. What must the people around you do to convince you they are gods?>

“Huh? Well, something godly, right?”

“Okay, Sumeragi, come on outside. I’ll hit you with a bolt of lightning.”

“Wait just a second! Sumeragi-kun will die again!”

“Lighting strikes are actually pretty survivable. I mean, she might end up hemiplegic, but she’ll survive.”

“Okay,” said Kuwajiri while raising a hand.

“I am a god of wisdom, so I can answer any question. Ask me something. It might be boring and time-consuming, but that should show I am a god.”

She must have felt responsible for this situation, so she pointed at herself.

“Now, ask me anything.”

“Anything!?”

The idiot asked a question.

“Then tell me your measurements! When was it that you really became aware of yourself as a girl!? And what do you do when you’re alone and feeling too horny to resist!? Yeah, this is crazy levels of sexual harassment, but it’s okay because you gave me your consent first, right!? Thank you, Kuwajiri!”

●

“Huh? I thought you were a god of wisdom. What’s wrong? Why so quiet? C’mon, answer me. C’mon, c’mon. How about saying something, hm?”

“H-how dare you!!!”

●

Shifu consoled Kuwajiri while the underclassman buried her nearly tearful face in her large chest.

“Sumeragi-chaaan, Kuwajiri-chan takes everything seriously, so don’t joke around like that with her, okay?”

“A word of warning, Sumeragi. Ask Shifu something like that and she’ll knock you to the ground with a smile on her face.”

“For real!? Please do!”

She gave her what she wanted

●

…Wow, he…no, she really flew…

Sumeragi would be fine since her body was covered by my divine protection. Probably. Shifu would have been holding back too, but she still flew a lot.

It had to have been 70 meters.

Sumeragi flew out of the open entrance, bounced a few times on the ground, and then did a weird caterpillar like movement with her butt in the air for a while. But then she hopped back to her feet.

“Wow! A punch from a busty girl is a reward! That was fantastic!”

She ran right back.

Meanwhile, Shifu turned toward me with an awkward smile.

“Sorry about that. I messed with your charge.”

“Oh, um, no, well, uh.”

“C’mon, you’re supposed to get mad and say something like ‘Sumeragi-kun is mine’.”

“Um, but, I…”

“I know you want to keep some distance from Sumeragi-chan and us and I know nothing I say is going to change that. I mean, gods have all sorts of different authorities and it’s not uncommon for one of us to die if someone calls our name. But still…”

She got to the point.

“Keeping some distance between you means you can’t be together.”

“…Right…”

I knew that was a problem, but this had to do with my personality, which made it hard to change. Although that itself seemed like another excuse I had made for myself. Anyway…

“Thank you so much! Punches are so much more powerful with the boobs inertia added to the equation! Wanna go try the punching machine at Tachikawa Oslo sometime!? I’ll be making a mental recording of how your boobs move!”

“You are incorrigible, aren’t you?”

Shifu sounded like she had half given up on Sumeragi, but I was actually thankful for Sumeragi’s weirdly positive interpretation of things. It did bother me that Kuwajiri was looking at her like she was absolute filth, but I decided to assume something else would improve Kuwajiri’s opinion of her. However…

“So. Why am I supposed to believe you’re gods?”

●

Are you serious? I thought while asking a question.

<That punch just sent you flying. Doesn’t that seem like godly power to you?>

“Huh!? That was a giant boobs punch! It was a reward! It doesn’t count!”

“Um, then what would it be if I punched you and sent you flying?”

“Violence?”

Kuwajiri sucked in a deep breath, so that god of wisdom must not have liked the double standard there. I agreed. But Raidou responded with a smile.

“Nice! It’d be messed up if a god of thunder wasn’t violent, right!?”

“Hey, Tooru, you’re just weirdly happy that my punches are being called rewards, aren’t you?”

“That’s not weird,” said Raidou.

“Humans are given trials by the gods. They might be painful, but they’re ultimately accepted with joy. This just means you’ve established that god-human relationship, Shifu. I’m proud of you.”

“If only it was about something less dumb.”

The divine couple laughed, but I did not really understand the rules they were following here. Regardless…

<So how do we get you to believe they are gods?>

That was a difficult problem. Was a live demonstration the only option?

<But when you provided live demonstrations during the previous rollbacks, didn’t he just assume it was an immersion game or special effects?>

I realized just how tricky this was going to be, but…

“Sumeragi-kun! Excuse me a moment!”

The god in charge raised a hand. And…

“What am I to you!?”

“Well! You’re a target of my big boobs worship!”

“Okay! And what does that make me!?”

“Well! It makes you my god!”

After a short pause, the idiot gave an “ah” of realization.

●

”Eureka!”

●

Shifu saw the idiot underclassman reach a consensus with Senpai.

“Wow, Senpai! Such brilliant logic!”

“Yes, the two of us are terraforming partners. You are the human representative and I am the goddess you chose at some point along the way.”

Oh, realized Shifu.

This was the crucial point.

How would Sumeragi respond with her memories gone?

“Sounds great! If you were willing to be my partner, you must be a wonderful god! I know I can be a little odd, but I prefer being with you! Let’s do this together!”

●

That idiot never changes, thought Shifu.

●

…Well, whatever.

I felt it would be especially awful that Sumeragi had forgotten about Senpai after that, but I was partially to blame.

At least that idiot was still good for something. The two of us could not have been more incompatible, but if the others saw something there, then Sumeragi must have some value after all. That was part of wisdom, so I could accept it. However…

“Um, and the others here with us are gods with higher divine ranks than me. Do you understand, Sumeragi-kun?”

“Yes! I understand! You’re all gods! You should have just said so in the first place!”

Balancer gave the idiot an indescribable look of disgust, so that AI had to be more like me.

●

“So did the game club start terraforming?”

When Scarecrow asked that while rocking her chair, Tenma nodded while casually reading a book on the counter.

“Yes. Balancer reported to Omokane-senpai earlier and she decided there was something else she needed to do.”

“So Yatsui is doing something on her own again, is she?”

“Do you know Omokane-senpai very well?”

“Hmm,” groaned Scarecrow with her arms crossed.

“She is a Heavenly God and I am an Earthly God. Plus, scarecrows were modeled after me. We normally would not have much in common.”

“Do you mind me asking how you know each other?”

“Then can I ask why you are a girl?”

“Um, if you want,” said Tenma.

“That was what is commonly known as a Fortune Inversion. By taking a different sex than your original sex or taking on a disability during your real manifestation, that ‘bad fortune’ toward receiving your full authority as a god allows you to receive some other ‘good fortune’ in exchange. With Shinto, the other mythologies are keeping an eye on us, so the real manifestation itself counts as ‘good fortune’, so the DC’s regulations require us to accept a form of ‘bad fortune’ to perform the real manifestation. It can be a problem if it harms your divine rank too much, but you can’t avoid it unless you are an entirely worthless god.”

“Just to be clear, that is not why I have my cane.”

She made sure to say that since Tenma’s eyes had turned toward that tool.

“I have had this since my virtual manifestation and it comes from me being a scarecrow.”

“Really? I thought it was strange for a god to be disabled as a part of their nature, but that makes sense.”

And she had more to say.

“I am a girl because when selecting a form of ‘bad fortune’, I thought it sounded pretty good.”

“Why?”

“Well,” said Tenma while closing her book.

She read fast.

The book on the counter was an illustrated reference book. Scarecrow had left it there to have a terraforming book on hand to offer Sumeragi. Tenma had read the whole thing in about two minutes. And strangely enough…

“You did not flip the pages too roughly, did you?”

The book had 400 pages.

To read that in two minutes would require flipping a page every three seconds.

But Scarecrow’s eyes and other senses had not detected that.

“I am a god of wisdom, but specifically one of learning. I prefer to treat books with care.”

And…

“I became a girl because I thought it would give me an advantage where books are concerned.”

“What made you think that?”

Tenma nodded.

“In my era, women had a clear advantage over men when it came to books. Men had to go out and work, they had so much business to attend to, and they were always concerned with writing poetry and socializing. There was just so much noise there. But the women stayed behind in their rooms and read books.”

“But wasn’t it a man’s privilege to enter places like libraries? Surely that means they also read books.”

“True.”

Tenma did not deny Scarecrow’s question, but then she smiled.

“That is why women I knew where so often begging me to bring them books. While the men were so busy making a name for themselves for the sake of social status and for the sake of their clan, there were women using them to read everything they could get their hands on. Oh, I was so jealous. I swore to myself I would live like that in my next life.”

“And how are you liking things now?”

“It wouldn’t have mattered if I was a woman back then if I didn’t have a man to get books from! I completely overlooked how much work the women put into building connections like that. They all came to us because I, the lieutenant general, and the others had the connections to get them what they wanted. As for now…”

Tenma looked up at the bookcases towering up even from the counter and she nodded.

“Yes, this isn’t bad at all.”

Hearing that, Scarecrow pulled a book out from below the counter and placed it in front of the girl.

“What is this?”

“An entertainment novel. This should be the best way to get a wisdom type like you to slow down your reading pace.”

“You always give the weirdest recommendations.”

“Books like this are actually a lot of fun. This one uses a trick involving the train schedule and, if you try riding the trains in this era, you can see how the trains ran according to the same schedule during the Earth Age too.”

“I see. So that is another way to expand your knowledge. A schedule trick, you say?”

Scarecrow nodded.

“Yes, and the trick no longer works just ten years later because of the appearance of cellphones, automatic turnstiles, and automatic transfer guidance. So if you want to enjoy it properly, now is the time to read it! We have quite a few copies here, so read it now while you can fully appreciate it! And you can think about how the culprit wouldn’t have even considered doing that if they had lived just a decade later.”

“Scarecrow-senpai, that is a weird way to read a book!”

“Yes. I enjoyed it so much I wanted to buy a bunch of copies for the library, but you know what Yatsui said!? She said they would be meaningless in 10 years’ time! Can you believe it!?”

“Wow… And now you’re taking it out on me, huh?”

“Tenma-kun, you were originally a god born of a grudge, so now you have to deal with my grudge.”

“Okay.”

Tenma nodded and then raised her head to look straight at Scarecrow with curiosity filling her eyes.

“Um, Scarecrow-senpai? How did you and Omokane-senpai meet?”

“Tenma-kun?”

“Yes?”

“I just told you about some extremely valuable lost knowledge from this age and taught you how to enjoy it. …That is more than worth some information from you.”

“Hmmmmmm!”

The underclassman started groaning and leaning back, so Scarecrow decided to prepare some tea for her.

She pushed off the counter with her cane to turn toward the cabinet behind her. The shelf contained an English-style tea set she had arranged based on book knowledge. She wanted to visit there sometime. And while thinking about that…

“Now, I wonder if the game club is doing their job.”

●

“I-I brought a book! A book on terraforming!”

“Ohh, so did I!”

I nodded at Shifu’s response and pulled a softcover book from my back skirt’s carrier pocket.

“This book explains all about terraforming. It’s actually a bigger book, but I asked Balancer to create an abridged version.”

Meanwhile, Shifu responded with “ohh” again and pulled out her own book.

From her cleavage.

“…”

“…”

“Ohh, there it is. Mine has data on earth’s composition. I thought it was convenient when I saw it as a poster in Ueno’s museum. …Wait, why are you two staring at me like that?”

“I-I’ll win next time!”

“Great! I look forward to it!”

Now it was a request from my believer, so I had to really work at it. But regardless, this all had to be very sudden for Sumeragi.

●

“Um, are we going to start working while I read?”

“No, if we were bound by your reading speed, we would be here all day. Not that there are days here.”

“You sure are testy. What did I ever do to you!? All I did was try to get you to say some dirty things earlier!”

When I said that, I felt a sudden tap on my shoulder.

I turned around to find Senpai. She looked at the hand she had tapped my shoulder with, at her large breasts, and then at me.

“…Huh?”

“Eh? What is it, Senpai?”

“Oh, um, I thought maybe I could do the same thing Shifu-san did.”

●

Balancer saw the idiot run full speed for about 70 meters.

“Ooooooooaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!”

Then she tripped and fell.

She rolled thrice.

“Ohh, now that’s what I call youth.”

<It’s what I call idiocy.>

The idiot groaned a bit about the damage from the fall, but she finally hopped back to her feet and looked back with a smile.

“You’re the best, Senpai! Talk about a reward!”

“W-wait, Sumeragi-kun. Are you okay?”

She panicked while a few Revelation Boards opened and closed behind her. Her level had apparently gone up from the power her worshiper gave her from this exchange.

“What kind of cycle is this?”

“That’s some reeeeal self-sufficency.”

Raidou crossed his arms and looked to his wife.

“She’s such an idiot.”

“If only she wouldn’t do those things she does.”

At any rate, Raidou approached the ape. Senpai-san could apparently already use a low level of healing Auth Spell, so she started healing the idiot who was scraped up and bruised from the rolling. But…

“Umm, about the terraforming…”

“Yeah, I know. …That book’s just for show, isn’t it?”

●

“That is correct.”

I nodded my head in agreement.

“The terraforming is centered on you, Sumeragi-kun. That is why the rest of us cannot give you any advice on what to do about it. However…”

I hesitated but said it.

“If you have a book or documents like this and you ask us questions based on their material, we can answer you using your knowledge.”

“Eh!? Then I can ask questions like I did with Kuwajiri earlier?”

Kuwajiri tapped Sumeragi on the shoulder and then pointed 70 meters away.

“Go.”

“Huh!? It takes boobs inertia to move meeeeeeeee!!”

That left me with no choice but to hit her in Kuwajiri’s place.

●

“Oooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”

“Ohh, now that’s what I call youth. So what do you think, Kuwajiri-chan?”

“Well, um, sorry for making you go to the trouble, Senpai-san.”

“No, um, I…”

“You’re the best, Senpai! Talk about a reward!”

<Huh!? How did repeat material make her level go up again!?>

“I-It was really low to start with! Is that so wrong!!”

●

I opened the terraforming book to figure out what to do.

“So what am I supposed to do?”

I didn’t understand any of this. Of course I didn’t.

“Are you familiar with the Shinto creation myth?”

“No, what is it?”

“Ohh, we’ve gotta start from there, Senpai-chan?”

Senpai stepped forward.

“Right. I am a Shinto god. Although I cannot tell you my identity quite yet. …Anyway, this planetary field was already prepared for us, but this is a Shinto planet.”

“So the terraforming will be done under the Shinto Scenario?”

“U-um? Scenario?”

“Yeah, something like that. SimCity, huh?”

“Yup! The PC98 version!”

“I played the X68 version, but it’s pretty much the same thing. You’ll be making this field habitable for humans but in a Shinto way.”

That kind of made sense to me, so I turned toward Senpai.

“So what does the creation story have to do with the terraforming?”

●

…Oh, she’s really asking away.

This seemed to be part of Sumeragi’s personality. When she decided on a direction to take things, she would go all in on it. I liked that since I had a way of falling behind, but it could be a little overwhelming when directed my way.

“Um, it’s about consistency and figuring things out.”

“Consistency and figuring things out?”

I nodded.

“We want to recreate the creation story, but the planet already exists, right? So we interpret that as this place being created in the previous myths.”

“What does that mean?”

<The field has already been modified a little, but the planet’s ‘mold’ is in a state of chaos and is returning to its original state. In a way, that is similar to the state of the world shortly after creation.>

In other words…

“By terraforming this place, we can control that original state and the mold.”

That was Shinto. I wanted to find a good way of saying that, but I decided to keep going without it.

“Most mythologies have a ruler within them.”

“And the ruler creates myths convenient to them, right!?”

“Y-you understand that?”

“Yes! If I ruled this planet, I’d create a big boobs mythology where the world was born from a goddess’s cleavage!”

Shifu was gesturing at me from beyond Sumeragi, so I tapped Sumeragi on the shoulder.

●

In the time it took Sumeragi to run 70m and back, my level went up again. And…

“S-sorry about all the trouble, but Shinto came from a ruler as well.”

“That’s most of what Shinto is, isn’t it?”

Raidou was correct. Sumeragi tilted her head, so I explained while using a healing Auth Spell.

“Shinto mythology in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki is divided into a few different parts, but most of it is the stories that came from the Yamato Imperial Court mythologizing their conquest of Japan.”

“Um, then what are the Shinto gods?”

“There were earlier Shinto gods too, but a lot of the regional rulers that were destroyed or conquered by the Yamato Imperial Court were later worshiped as gods.”

“Hm? Why would their enemies become gods?”

“They were worshiped and made into local gods to avoid any curses or grudges.”

It was difficult to explain how people viewed things at the time, but I took a stab at it.

“At the time, people thought souls had nowhere to go after death and would remain in the land where they died. That meant a powerful leader’s soul would remain as a grudge and cause disasters. So instead of fearing them and treating them like demons, people instead worshiped them to calm their anger and made them a part of Shinto so they would protect that land. The people would purify them.”

“Quite a difference from our way of splitting their heads open and chucking them into hell.”

“So you recycled the regional rulers? Sounds economical.”

The others really needed to be quiet. But Sumeragi thought for a bit and then clapped his…no, her hands together. And she turned toward me.

“Umm, I know that! I do! Purification is that thing where the shrine maidens wear sexy costumes while banishing evil at the shrines! With lots of tentacles!”

“Umm, that’s not quite accurate, but let’s say it’s good enough! Yes, it’s all about purification!”

●

We were getting sidetracked, but this was an important topic.

“Shinto is a rare religion where purification takes the center stage.”

“You mean like getting rid of toxins and stuff?”

Close but not quite.

“Instead of getting rid of them, you return them to their original form.”

“An all-purpose cleaner.”

Where did that phrase come from? I wondered, but then Raidou spoke up behind me.

“The Cosmo Cleaner!”

It must have been something boys understood. I felt a little left out, but all-purpose seemed like a good word here. Because…

“In Shinto, using that cleaner is known as purification. It truly is all-purpose, so it can handle any kind of impurity, toxin, bad luck, or poor health.”

“Eh!? If you removed all your bad luck and stuff, wouldn’t you be unbeatable!? Let’s put out a late-night infomercial! Use our Shinto Power to suck up all the bad stuff! Suck, suck, suck! Shinto solves all your problems!”

“No, um, Shinto purification doesn’t make you stronger.”

This could be a little tricky.

“Purification only removes the negative elements, so it leaves behind the person in their natural state.”

“So they’re naked!? This is crucial information!”

“Umm…”

Balancer was gesturing at me with their frame from beyond Sumeragi, so I tapped her on the shoulder.

●

“Did she really need to hesitate on that one?”

“Senpai-san is too kind.”

<For real, though, you can just hit her right away.>

“I’m baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!”

●

I spoke after leveling up again.

“Anyway, Shinto is not all that ‘strong’ a religion because it’s foundation is in purification. But that purification allowed them to make gods out of the regional leaders after defeating or conquering them.”

“So by purifying the defeated leaders’ grudges and worshiping them as gods, the pure souls of the leaders ruled over the land? Was that also done so the people of the conquered lands would accept the new state of affairs?”

“Purification is no more than purification, but by acquiring gods that way, you can borrow those gods’ authority. That means the religion allows for the acquisition and expansion of indirect rule and indirect power.”

That was right.

It was not direct, but…

“If you look at it in a positive light, it is a religion that does not make waves and does not allow anything to be wholly lost. If you look at it in a negative light, it is a religion that remakes everything in its own colors.”

“Yeah, but I bet both sides were doing it at the time. By leaving something behind, they at least got to coexist afterwards.”

“You say that, but you’re focused more on the emotional logic than the practical logic. …They were just making sure the people of the conquered regions did not try to avenge their fallen leader.”

“Why don’t you try that, Tooru?”

“After I defeat someone, the next one shows up before I can worship the first one.”

Norse mythology sounds dangerous… I thought. But…

“Yes. I believe Shinto allows those things to live on in their myths.”

That came from the god of wisdom.

And then she looked to Yomoji.

“When Yomoji-senpai’s religions moved into other regions, they would incorporate parts of the indigenous culture as a way of spreading, but leaving behind the logic of the indigenous culture would allow those regions to return to their roots, so they would leave only an empty shell of the original culture.”

“Yeahhhhh, I like to use whatever’s available to me.”

“You savage.”

“Yes, and thanks to that, you end up with traditions across Europe where people burn things at festivals but have no idea why they do it.”

“Obsessive fans sure are scary.”

My shoulders shrank down as I spoke up again.

“Well, there are things that didn’t get incorporated into Shinto. They are known as the ‘unworshiped’ and they can be found as traditions and mythical creatures in different regions. I think those were the local gods and rulers who remained in the form of grudges.”

“The spirits and legends across Europe are pretty much the same thing. In fact, there’s a lot like that at our school.”

That was true. And aside from that…

“Let’s get back on topic now.”

How did all this talk of purification and local gods connect back to the terraforming?

I turned toward Sumeragi who had been nodding along with what we said.

“Sumeragi-kun, you understand all this about purification and the origin of Shinto myths, right?”

“Eh? Sorry, but I’m dumb and I don’t understand it at all.”

Please! Please understand it!

●

Shifu decided to help out Senpai while Balancer replayed the lesson.

“I thought you managed to stay real calm since you didn’t have any of your usual ‘vwooshing’ and whatnot.”

“Yeah, but it didn’t work!”

“It worked with the 4th Sumeragi, right? She just forgot way too much this time.”

“I am so sorry…”

“Sooo what is the Shinto creation myth like?”

Shifu was curious about that too. As fellow mythological beings, she was interested in how this world had been made.

“So what was it like?”

“Well. In Shinto, the creation of heaven and earth is the most common starting point, but the Nihon Shoki actually has some even older…backstory would you call it?”

“Later mythologies can be surprisingly systematic with that kind of thing.”

Shifu wanted to point out they were the same there, but she decided against it. Tooru knew that already and those things could be used to subtly insult other mythologies, so it could be a pain.

Meanwhile, Senpai-chan continued.

“In Shinto, the world began as ‘chaos’, the pure things rose to the top and became heaven, and the impure things sank to the bottom and became the earth.”

“Starting with chaos is pretty common, but the division of pure and impure becoming the heaven and earth is fascinating. That makes the place the humans live in a heavy and filthy place. Was that meant to be cynical or masochistic?”

“Is that why you need to purify things?”

“Perhaps so,” said Senpai-chan. And…

“Something like reeds grew in the heaven and earth and they bore gods as fruit. But…”

“But?”

“Those gods just kind of existed and nothing they said or did is known. Their names do tell us what their roles were and we tried to at least give them virtual manifestations, but we ran into some trouble.”

“What kind of trouble?”

“The original three gods of creation and the Kuni-Toko ones following them were ‘reserved’. Destiny or the ley lines or whatever had already decided what kind of beings they would be, so they couldn’t be given a virtual manifestation.”

<Oh, that. Sorry for interrupting, but during the Earth Age, there was a period when many different concepts joined together and collided. It seems some people interfered with the ley lines on a primitive level then. That turned those people into the gods of different mythologies and their presences are currently obstructing the manifestations within those mythologies.>

“Oh.”

“Oh.”

“Oh.”

“What is it, you three?”

“Well,” began Shifu.

“Our mythology had some gods that couldn’t be manifested because they were ‘reserved’ like that. We hadn’t realized Shinto had the same issue.”

“I-it’s trouble all around, isn’t it!?”

“Yeah, but we wouldn’t exist without that joining and collision.”

But there was more to say.

Senpai-chan and the Shinto group had to figure out the best way to prepare this field for their creation myth. Which meant…

“It’ll be the same as Shinto’s takeover of Japan, right? While terraforming the planet, you restrain the planet’s mold and spirits, purify that mold, and then worship it all, right?”

“Yes. We must act as Shinto creation gods by purifying this planet’s chaotic mold and then worshiping that mold as local gods. Then we will have it protect this planet as a guardian deity.”

What did that mean?

“Shinto is good at getting things to work out.”

Interlude

“Man, you are really good at getting things to work out first thing in the morning.”

“No, no, no, no! They didn’t work out at all!”

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