On a Godless Planet:Volume2B Chapter 24
Chapter 24: Mega-Lo-Mania
–You come from somewhere
And you can go anywhere.
●
Kuwajiri noticed how loud the cicadas had become.
It would be evening soon. But she and the others sat on the riverbank and exchanged words. They were discussing…
“I can’t tell you much. So many people and interests are involved it would only mean trouble for you if I got you involved.
“Now, hold on! I was already nearly killed by this stuff!”
“I am sorry about that.”
“Oh, you don’t have to apologize, Kido-senpai! This is between me and Mr. Vomit! See, he was trying to keep me out of trouble by becoming a ‘divine shield’ for me and it hit him right smack in the solar plexus, which directly lead to me dubbing him Mr. Vomit! Meanwhile, you threw a water spear for a big win, which was super cool and thus correct!”
“Correct how?”
The idiot dying did mean more work for Kuwajiri, so she agreed that Kido’s methods were better than Mr. V’s. And…
“What should we do about that water monster?”
“Eh?”
Kido’s confusion made Kuwajiri second guess herself. Had she phrased her question poorly? Her focus on knowledge could cause problems at times. Because she had been so certain her question was accurate.
This is what she had wanted to say.
“Kuwajiri-chan is asking if there’s anything we can do to help.”
“Correct.”
“Well…”
“It would cause trouble for you if you got involved.”
“I am well aware of that.”
She thought back to the incident with Senpai-san.
“I do not know what kind of trouble you mean, but trouble caused by the gods can sometimes be a lot more devastating than the word ‘trouble’ suggests. With us gods, it’s possible to come across someone whose name kills you if you so much as learn of it. But…”
But…
“There are many different ways of being involved in things. So please keep an open mind and think about it. Besides, we are an outside force called in to assist with the Shinto terraforming. We were outsourced.”
“You could say much the same thing about us.”
“Don’t you mean ‘Mucho the same thing’? Or is simple wordplay enough to ‘Scare-a-Mucho’?”
That Kido and Senpai-san had to turn away suggested they were too susceptible to bad jokes.
A hand went up.
It was Raidou. He leaned forward and kept his voice low so only the present group could hear.
“I’m sure there are some tricky circumstances involved.”
●
“For example,” continued Raidou, looking to Neptune. “I get the feeling it’s significant that you say you don’t want to get us involved, but you don’t say you won’t get us involved. That tells me there’s an aspect to this water monster incident that could involve us.”
He opened a Revelation Board and called up a map of Japan. First, he pointed at the area covering Kansai, Hyogo, Okayama, and Kure.
“Based on the Divine States-World Correspondence, the base of Greek mythology and Roman mythology would be around here. That would mean the water monster was born here.”
Next, he pointed at Tokyo. With a full map of Japan, he couldn’t point that precisely, but it didn’t matter.
“She probably traveled along the coast and rivers to arrive here.”
“That was a long journey.”
“As a spirit-like being, she could freely travel through any corresponding phase, so she would be able to move more quickly than we can with our real manifestations. So even if we do narrow down the water monster’s location to an extent, I doubt we would be able to capture her.”
Two beats after the underclassman’s comment, Neptune slowly nodded.
“That is correct. Salacia has become a water monster, but she started out as an authority split off from me. I can sense(?) her location to an extent. You should probably be aware of that.”
“I am also generally aware of her location thanks to my water god authority and my familiarity with her.”
“So it’s like the spiritual bonds spoken of in Shinto.”
Those later mythologies have so many different concepts, thought Raidou.
After that, he turned his gaze first toward Kido and then toward Neptune.
“So were you at Okutama Station because the water monster is here?”
“Yes. I sense her in the general area we discussed earlier.”
“Then,” said Raidou, looking to Kido again. “Kido, you two can handle the water monster on your own, can’t you? You wouldn’t have been acting on your own if you couldn’t.”
●
I answered Raidou-san’s question with a nod.
“That was the plan. I have the higher divine rank.”
“Then that’s fine. But…”
“But what?”
“We’ll still have to take action if something unexpected happens. Our job is to assist the Shinto terraforming, but that includes eliminating hindering factors and providing protection.”
“Norse mythology is kind of known for getting into fights.”
I understood what Raidou-san and Shifu-san were saying.
I wasn’t exactly in top form. I had a bandage around my right wrist, for one. But…
“I tricked her into fleeing a few times, and this was the result.”
“Not bad.”
“Eh? Eh? Tricked her?”
I understood why Senpai-san was confused. I resigned myself to explaining.
“Our goal is to return Salacia to her true form while keeping her out of Olympus’s grasp.”
●
I didn’t need to explain why. The knowledge god had already shown they understood the risk inherent in knowing the meaning behind trouble between the gods.
So I only described what would happen in terms of the result.
“A lot has happened, so once summer break began, I visited the Olympus gods’…home, would you call it? Regardless, I went there to gather intelligence, focused on what needed attention, and learned about Salacia’s incident.”
So…
“I got ahead of Mr. V while he was pursuing Salacia and set some things up her in Okutama. I stabilized the phase in this upstream area to make the water monster more easily calmed. I then had to lure her here, but that proved difficult against a spirit when I have a real manifestation. I had trouble capturing her.”
“And in that time, the water monster moved further downstream?”
“–––––––”
I could not answer that. They may have already realized the truth, but I could not say it out loud. Putting this part to words would be too dangerous. So…
“If the answer would be too much trouble, you can ignore our questions.”
“Oh, did I go too far?”
“You can’t do that, Apology Man! If you go too far, you’ll move out into the passageway and get hit!”
“What is he talking about?”
“A video game. We can show you in the clubroom later if you want.”
<Kido, you must find the courage to ignore the things he says.>
“I am so sorry.”
“That’s the spirit, Apology Man! Nice apology! And since I can complement people when they do the right thing instead of just pointing out their mistakes, I’m a nice human! Right, Senpai!?”
“Yes. You sometimes change gears so quick I can’t keep up, but what you’re saying is correct.”
“Kido-chan? You can ignore all this background noise.”
“Eh? Oh, okay. Anyway…”
I felt like I no longer had to worry only saying what was strictly necessary. These people had helped put me at ease about that. Or to put it another way…
…One of them must have a trickster god’s authority.
Was it Eshita-san, perhaps? But she hadn’t been a part of this conversion, so it was clear whose presence was at fault.
I thought of that person as I continued speaking.
“The Olympus gods are attempting to capture Salacia as a water monster. But we want to capture her first and return her to normal. So…”
I turned to look at Shifu-san and nodded.
“I ran across all of you after I had her escape so she wouldn’t be captured. And while my divine rank is higher, turning her back into Salacia requires Mr. V’s power. So when I find the water monster on my own, I am forced to have her escape.”
“And letting the wild water monster escape was how you got injured?”
“I thought I was accustomed to such things, but it is a lot more difficult with someone else.”
Only after speaking did I realize I had said too much.
●
I sensed a vague awkwardness around Kido-san here.
She fell silent in a way that wasn’t quite what I would call “shy”. That placid-looking blank expression was probably a wall erected to keep anyone from inquiring further. But…
…What was so wrong about what she said?
She said she was accustomed to such things.
A water god would naturally be accustomed to wrangling rampaging water spirits.
She said it was more difficult with someone else, but the spirits in a god’s territory were a lot like a part of her family.
…What about that does she think is a problem?
I knew I shouldn’t inquire further and I had a feeling I knew what this was about.
If she told us more, it would bring some kind of trouble onto us. So if I were to pursue my questions about that statement…
…It would bring trouble onto Sumeragi-kun?
●
Senpai-chan realized something, thought Shifu.
Shifu had more or less realized the same thing, but…
“I’ll let your Sumeragi-chan threat sensor make the decision here, Senpai-chan.”
“I-I don’t have a sensor like that!”
“And you still act like this?”
“Wait, wait. Like what exactly?”
●
Kido decided to choose her words differently from here on.
Before, she had played it safe by saying as little as possible. But she changed tack a little bit. Now she would say as much as she could without getting Izumi involved.
“If things go bad, I will ask you all to intervene. But…”
She turned toward Douhai-san.
“Douhai-san? You are in charge of Izumi, so if it comes to that, can you make sure he escapes and stays safe?”
“Oh, yes! I can do that!”
●
“Yeah, but Senpai-chan? You should also keep your distance while doing it.”
Kuwajiri-san nodded in agreement with Shifu-san’s divine transmission.
“That water monster is actually Salacia. If something happened that caused you to hate the water monster and your authority activated, it would destroy Salacia.”
“Oh, that’s a good point.”
“Don’t worry! That just means I have to avoid rolling back if we do have to fight the water monster! I’ll try my best!”
Everyone looked to Izumi. I inwardly smiled at how brave he was to say he would stand up to a formerly-divine water monster, but everyone else…
“It would be best if you didn’t try.”
“Yeah, he’d roll back the instant he tried.”
“I have two spares stocked up, so I can manage.”
“Glad to see everyone has exactly zero trust in him.”
“Ah ha ha! What an idiot!”
“That last one was just a random insult.”
“I am so sorry.”
“A-anyway, I’ll plan to get Sumeragi-kun away to a safe place.”
Exactly what I wanted from her.
“If you ensure that before intervening, it should be safe. Also…”
“If the Olympus gods intervene, I will handle Athena.”
●
…Oh?
Ki thought this was unusual for her partner.
“What makes you say that?”
“She picked a fight with me but we had to stop before we finished.”
“Oh, so like you put a coin in an arcade game and it got jammed?”
That wasn’t a relatable analogy for Ki, but she figured it was close enough. And…
“Then you’ve gotta settle things with her, huh?”
“Exactly. Is that alright?”
“She picked the fight with you, not me.”
“I’d love to see what Bil-chan can do.”
“Are you sure about this? We are talking about one of Olympus’s Dodekatheon.”
“Dodo-katheon?”
It didn’t take much to make Senpai-san laugh.
“Dodekatheon means the Twelve Gods and it refers to the main twelve Olympus gods. The Roman equivalent is the Dii Consentes.”
“I am aware she is powerful. And she has that annoying machine called a god of war.”
“You mean that thing that’s giant but not so giant I’d be willing to call it a giant robot? What was with that anyway?”
“An early story in Olympus mythology tells of the gods fighting and defeating the giants who are like their ancestors. But they go on to live with some of the giants.”
“I swear I’ve heard a similar story somewhere.”
“In our Norse mythology. But for us, we fight a climactic war with the giants which leads to our mutual destruction and the end of the age of the gods. …Which then leads to now.”
“That’s right.” The knowledge god continued from there. “Many mythologies include a giant god or a group of giants in an ancient time or as some people’s ancestors.”
●
Kuwajiri saw Sumeragi’s hand go up.
“Does that mean there were giant-like beings in ancient times and people fought a war with them?”
“If that were the case, giant fossils and ruins would have been found all across the world. Think carefully about what it means that none have been discovered.”
“So,” she said. “This is most likely an issue of mythological strata.”
“What does that mean?”
“When you compare mythologies, you find some things in common between most giant stories.
*The giants are from an age before the current gods.
*Most of the giants were defeated by or replaced by the current gods.”
“Um, but what about Shinto?”
“Shinto was much more heavily ‘designed’ for political reasons, but I believe the Heavenly Gods fit the giant pattern fairly well. Since Izanagi and Izanami created the islands of Japan, they must have been fairly large beings at the time.”
“In our mythology, would that be the generation that includes Anshar, the original god of heaven, and Tiamat?”
“If so, I think I know what the giants are.”
“Yes, in most cases, they are nature gods and they are generally conceptual beings. The younger gods defeating or replacing them likely comes from the religion being updated in ancient times and the older religion living on as the story of the giants for some reason.”
“Also,” Kuwajiri continued. “Most of the mythologies with giant stories are Laurasian mythologies starting in the 5th generation.”
Everyone responded in confusion to that.
Eventually, Shifu raised her hand.
“If so, when did the whole giants thing start?”
What did she mean by that? This was the question everyone wanted to ask.
“The Laurasian mythologies spread across the world, right? If the story of giants being replaced by the current gods is found in all those places, doesn’t that mean the original form of that story was around before the Laurasian mythologies spread?”
●
“I see,” said Kuwajiri. “So you want to know which generation the giants were from if they were from a past mythology? Figuring that out will tell us what level of god Olympus mythology’s gods of war are designed for.”
She felt like she was getting sidetracked, but this was meaningful. So she decided to say it anyway.
“Let’s work out what generation of gods the mythological giants belong to.”
●
“That said,” continued Kuwajiri. “We cannot be certain about the giants’ origins. But humanity would have had a primitive mythology, or mythological view of the world, before they migrated out of Africa and spread across the world. I think that could be the mythology of the giants. And after leaving Africa, advances to their culture and civilization made in their new homes required updating their mythology as well. So it was leaving Africa that led to the myths of the giants being defeated by or coexisting with the current generation of gods.”
What did that mean?
“The mythologies created upon leaving Africa were the 4th generation out-of-Africa mythologies. One of those was the original form of the Laurasian mythology that eventually led to our Norse mythology and Olympus mythology.”
But that wasn’t the end of it. There was still more.
“You said that was a mythology with both the giants and the new gods. What about the mythology of just the giants?”
He was sharp.
“Correct. Even the 4th generation was only the mythology where the giants coexisted with the current gods. From that, you can guess which mythology had the giants as its gods, can’t you?”
She spoke as if to challenge everyone else’s silence.
“Most likely, the oldest existing gods, and the gods of the Pangean mythology, were from the preceding 3rd generation. That would mean Olympus’s gods of war are designed to slay the 3rd generation gods.”
●
What were the giants the Olympus gods were prepared to defeat?
Kuwajiri worked backwards to an explanation.
“We know the 3rd generation gods – the gods of Pangean mythology – are likely conceptual beings, but we do not know what exactly they might be.”
However…
“If the giants of Laurasian mythology are a remnant of the gods preceding the current gods, then they are like a mark left by the 3rd generation’s ‘mold’.”
●
Tenma nodded once.
The 3rd generation.
Those were the unknown gods at the foundation of all mythology.
Mentioning them made it difficult for anyone else to speak up, but Tenma ignored that difficulty.
“In an age before writing and when even spoken language was uncertain, humanity found a way to pass down their beliefs in some form. By the time later cultures and civilizations were developed, all that remained of these ancient beliefs were the reproductions we know as the giants. Do I have that right?”
“You do. That is how people believe it happened, anyway.”
“Are you saying the giants are anthropomorphized versions of those conceptual things and they were seen as big, important beings ever since ancient times?”
“I think they were also used to show that the current gods are powerful for defeating such great things.”
“Hey, I’ve gotta ask. Do we find any of this in the Gondwanan mythologies?”
“Yes. The Gondwanan mythologies also show a few different patterns, which probably also link back to the 3rd generation. But the Gondwanan mythologies have less social structure to them and don’t include as much of a concept of inheritance, so you don’t see a clear hierarchy between the giants and the current gods and you don’t see the current gods taking over from the giants.”
“Hm, that’s not very fun.”
Tenma raised her hand there.
“Then do you mind if I provide another theory regarding the giants legend?”
●
Tenma tensed a bit when Kuwajiri looked her way in interest.
“Based on Japanese knowledge?”
“I went to see the Tokyo National Museum in Ueno the other day.”
“Yeah, that place is great. Tooru and I were planning to go see the pandas on our way back, but we had so much fun looking at the giant fossils and taxidermies we didn’t even get to see everything in the museum before closing time.”
“And I really wanted to buy a shell fossil in the giftshop.”
“Yes, it is a great place.”
That earned Tenma an icy look from the upperclassman knowledge god. But I was only going along with what your superiors said.
Regardless, she refocused her mind and called up a map on a Revelation Board.
The map was of Africa and Europe with the Mediterranean a bit above center.
“This builds on what Scarecrow-senpai explained about human migration at the Nam 1975 bathhouse.”
She placed a red dot in eastern Africa.
She raised a finger while everyone watched curiously.
“I have a theory that approaches the giants story from a fairly unusual direction.”
Interlude
“All this talk of giants makes me think of Giant Gorg.”
“I guess you would need a ‘legendary’ in front to think of Ideon.”
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