On a Godless Planet:Volume3A Chapter 11
Chapter 11: Gargoyles[edit]
–A failure to protect is the wavelength of trouble.
●
Word of the danger having passed reached the library at 3PM.
The game club members had gone to Sumeragi’s apartment to greet him after he rolled back.
Scarecrow had been trying to figure out where to shelter all the library books, so this was excellent news. However…
“This will delay the meeting of the gods in the club building.”
“But it keeps us safe, so let’s overlook that part.”
“That said,” said Shamhat, looking out the window to the rain. “Isn’t that meeting of the gods mainly for the creator gods? Since it takes a god on that level to do all this. But how many of them are there in the school?”
“The obvious ones would be Yomoji-kun, Kunugi-kun, and Touto-san.”
“Are there non-obvious ones?”
“These things are never so cut-and-dried. Also…”
Scarecrow also looked out the window.
The rain was pouring down. And past the schoolyard…
“Some other gods who might be involved will be attending.”
“Hee hee. I sense a ‘but first’ coming.”
“Of course there is. The human needs to attend the meeting too. And that human just rolled back.”
●
The game club was glad they didn’t need to tow along a boat laden with supplies.
“Shifu, I’ll go grab something to eat with Poseidon. You head over to Sumeragi’s place.”
“Yeah, splitting up like that’s a good idea.”
●
And so Shifu decided what her job should be.
“Let’s see. We’ll be greeting Sumeragi-chan, which means making the initial adjustments for his rollback, right? Should we try to recreate what happened this morning as much as possible?”
Balancer appeared and simulated a nod.
<Correct. His rollbacks begin with him waking up in the morning. His memories of today will be gone, so you don’t really need to worry about what happened after he woke up. Still, there could be some discrepancies or interference, so mimicking what happened before is a jinx for ensuring stability.>
“I get the discrepancies part, but what’s this about interference?”
“For example, it’s possible another god could have intentionally or carelessly affected the idi- Sumeragi immediately after he rolls back.”
“Oh, so like our Loki-chan?”
“Right,” agreed Kuwajiri. “Balancer can make some adjustments just before the rollback begins, so even if someone is lying in wait, we have the advantage when it comes to timing, giving us a chance to eliminate any interference. But we are talking about gods here. You never know what could happen.”
“So you want me with you just in case something might happen there?”
“I always feel a lot safer with you around.”
“Yes, although Douhai-san and I are absolutely, positively, unquestionably necessary to recreate the original situation.”
“Kido-san! Kido-san! Calm down!”
“All I did was add a bit of emphasis.”
“Dealing with her mood swings can’t be easy for Senpai-chan.”
“I-I started noticing that this morning!”
“S-sorry for any trouble I’ve caused.”
“But I do appreciate you accompanying us, Shifu-san. We at least need someone to look after the boat while Douhai-san and I start the rollback.”
“And we’ll be back here doing business as usual. Like helping the other clubs carry supplies or expand the pier.”
“I will be in the clubroom reading.”
Everyone looked Tenma-chan’s way. And eventually…
“You aren’t coming with us, Tenma-san?”
“Eh? I’d rather not!”
“W-well, that was a blunt rejection!”
“Wait, wait, wait. There wouldn’t be anything for me to do there. And you already have Norse Knowledge God-senpai.”
“Unfortunately, I will be the only Norse god available here while Raidou-senpai is dealing with Poseidon. And…”
“Kuwajiri is in charge of the rollbacks, so she needs to be ready to begin the process again if anything happens.”
“I have my laptop with me, so I should be fine there as long as I have a power source. Which I won’t have if I’m traveling in that boat.”
In other words…
“C’mon, Tenma-chan.”
“Ehhhh!? But the ending of the missions to Tang China left me never wanting to ride a boat again.”
“That is a terrible excuse.”
“Do I need to take this up with your boss?”
●
“Ha ha ha. Get going, Sugawara-kouhai! You need to take a ton of boat trips if you’re going to make up for all the ones you missed when the missions to Tang China ended!”
●
After seeing that group off at the pier, Kuwajiri returned to the club building.
The building was already regaining its calm and Raidou and Poseidon were eating retort curry below the makeshift roof in front of the clubroom.
Was that a second lunch? But…
…We Norse gods do eat a lot.
Norse mythology was known for its unusually frequent depictions of eating and drinking. Whenever anything happened, they would eat, go hunting, and hang out…which seemed to inevitably lead to trouble. She also remembered she was an alcohol-based god. She had forgotten that recently.
…Because that idiot is causing me so much trouble.
Yes, she had been looking forward to the ‘90s Japan culture of drinking parties, but they had barely had any.
“Raidou-senpai.”
“Oh, Kuwajiri-chan. What’s up?”
She was surprised he remembered her. She was a little honored, given who he was. So she let her guard down a bit.
And if something did happen, one of the strongest thunder gods was right here. With that in mind, she responded.
“I was just thinking about how I haven’t had a chance to do any real drinking since I got here.”
“Yeah, I haven’t either.”
He immediately agreed with her. She hadn’t been expecting this at all.
“–––––”
So she couldn’t immediately find anything to say. But…
“Because they sell it here.”
●
“Oh…”
Raidou’s explanation made sense to her. In fact, it verbalized one of the causes of the problem.
“Hm? What’s this? They sell what here?”
“Poseidon, do you drink?”
“Of course I do. I am an Olympus god, after all.”
“How have you been drinking since coming here?”
“Eh? There’s really only one way here, right? You can buy alcohol at the supermarket or a liquor shop, but there are these big shops where it’s really cheap.”
“What big shops?”
Kuwajiri answered Raidou’s question
“Like the Tachikawa Topos.”
“Okayyy.”
Apparently this required more explanation. Oh, is this why I was needed here? she thought as she continued.
“He means discount stores.”
●
“Raidou-senpai, how would you define a discount store?”
“A supermarket that keeps things cheap at the cost of interior decorating and product variety?”
That was more or less correct. But to be more precise…
“They are shops that systematically purchase large quantities of major brand and private brand products and then use a nearly self-service system to sell them. They do this to bring down the price considerably. For example, the Tachikawa Topos sells alcohol and snacks in bulk for cheap.”
So…
“Your concept of a cheap but badly decorated supermarket is the end result of that business plan.”
<In Japan, large chain stores with their own private brands are known as ‘discount stores’ while privately managed stores that sell dead stock and other products acquired through private routes are known as ‘discount shops’. The latter used to be known as batta-ya.>
Correct. But it didn’t end there. As if to prove Kuwajiri right, Poseidon tilted his head at that explanation.
“Hmm? The place I went to was more like a really big liquor store.”
“Um, yes. That was also a discount store. Recently, there have been discount stores that specialize in selling alcohol.”
This was annoying to explain, so she glanced over at Balancer.
The screen looked to Poseidon and Raidou before speaking.
<In 1989, a law with the overly long name of Outline of the Handling of Alcohol Sales Licensing and Related Matters was amended, leading to the creation of alcohol discount stores. Due to leisure demand and other factors, they first opened in the suburbs and their numbers continue to grow. Most were opened in unused warehouses and bowling alleys that went out of business after the boom passed, so they do look a lot like giant liquor stores. Poseidon likely visited one of those.>
“That sounds kind of interesting… But we already have the Tachikawa Topos.”
<You are benefiting from the amendment to that long-named law regardless.>
“Why’s that?”
“Because before the amendment, it was extremely difficult for convenience stores and such to sell alcohol in this country. Selling alcohol required permission, so if a convenience store sold it, you could be pretty sure it had once been a liquor store.”
<That is why the law was relaxed, but the requirement for stores that sell alcohol to be a certain distance apart remains. Even so, the relaxation changed what products were sold at convenience stores and also changed what kinds of people shopped there. And to provide some advance information, this legal relaxation continues in the future, leaving very few restrictions.>
“So the way Shifu and I stop by the convenience store and buy some drinks on a whim wasn’t possible until last year?”
They had started this world in 1990. There were probably some other benefits they hadn’t noticed, but…
“That’s why, isn’t it?”
Kuwajiri more or less understood what Raidou-san had meant before.
“That’s why the selling of alcohol is the problem.”
●
“Eh? I still don’t get it.”
“How long has it been since you got here?”
“Around a month and a half, I think?”
“Then,” said Raidou. “We did have our lives In the divine world on our previous planet, but it’s been around 3 months since we arrived in this divine world. We’ve had that long to get used to life here.”
And…
“This new life is made out of conveniences and inconveniences. That can be a bit of a pain. Kuwajiri brought it up in terms of drinking, so how did you drink during your virtual manifestation?”
Poseidon’s virtual manifestation would have been in the world of Greek mythology.
How the main gods lived in their local myths was more or less a given.
“I could just drink whenever I wanted. In fact, I don’t think I ever drank anything without alcohol in it.”
“And how has it been since you got here?”
“Well,” said Poseidon, thinking about it. But he found his answer quickly.
“I have to go buy it, but they’re always selling a ton of it in all kinds of varieties. It’s a lot of fun.”
“And that’s what we mean. Right, Kuwajiri?”
Kuwajiri answered Raidou’s question with a nod. She wrinkled her brow a little and then sighed.
“Yes, that is what we mean. We used to drink whenever we wanted and held parties for every little thing, but here we can’t drink whenever we want and we can’t have parties all the time. But we can buy alcohol whenever we want.”
●
“Honestly,” said Kuwajiri, hanging her head and sighing.
That was it. She had even done it herself when the idiot rolled back before.
“In this divine world, alcohol has become a reward.”
“Yeah. In our virtual manifestation – in our myths – we drank it like it was water. I mean, we had springs flowing with alcohol and we made and stored tons of it. But…”
But…
“Here, there are no springs of alcohol and we don’t own any fields to grow wheat for beer, so we can’t make it or store it. But there’s actual potable water we can drink instead of alcohol and we can buy alcohol whenever we want it, 24/7.”
“Oh,” said Poseidon. He appeared to have figured out the issue. The sea god set his curry spoon down in the container and clapped his hands for no real reason.
“You’re right. I didn’t even notice, but alcohol is now something I go out and buy and I’ve started to enjoy the act of shopping for it.”
“It’s so exciting when you realize you can buy it here, so you look for a store and then find a huge liquor store, isn’t it?”
“Right, right!? I didn’t have anywhere near that much stored up in my virtual manifestation and it was all underground, which is so boring, right? But here there’s just a huge warehouse full of drinks!”
And…
“You have to choose! Cause you’ve only got two hands to carry it all home. So you have to choose, buy it, and head back home. It’s, y’know…like hunting? Even though we’re not hunting anything!”
Yeah, this guy gets it, thought Raidou. Shifu didn’t seem to dislike him exactly and her concern about him may have been related to his hunting senses.
“It’s weird, isn’t it? In our virtual manifestations, alcohol was just what you drank, but when you buy a case of beer here and put it on the table at home, it feels like you need a specific reason to drink it.”
“Yeah. In my virtual manifestation, we did have drinks for different seasons and ones for special occasions like after a big hunt, but because there are so many types and so much of it here, it’s more about small occasions like what to drink with dinner or because you worked especially hard that day. Tooru-chan, you even drink because you’re ‘with Shifu-chan’ that night, don’t you?”
Yeah, I do. You don’t need to nod too, Kuwajiri.
Anyway, Poseidon had more or less given the answer. And Kuwajiri had mentioned it before.
“We can’t drink just all the time in this world and the special occasions for parties aren’t the same as in our myths. But we can find small occasions in our daily lives to enjoy a drink. Or we make it into a reward like you mentioned.”
“Right…”
Kuwajiri’s shoulders were drooping again. Like she felt defeated.
“Part of it is because I’m used to it, but I can’t decide if it’s a good thing that I find myself enjoying this new kind of life.”
●
“Yeah,” Kuwajiri heard Raidou say.
“But enjoying it is better than not, so isn’t that fine for now? If we want a special occasion for a party, we can participate in some of the Shinto festivals, but it’s also true we haven’t been having any parties lately because of all the Sumeragi stuff. How about we have something like a victory party with the game club?”
“S-sorry for making you plan all this because of me!”
“Hey, we do need a way of showing an issue really is over. Shifu and I have done that by discussing it over drinks, but while it has helped us get used to things here, maybe it isn’t enough for you as our subordinate. …I’ll think about finding something better.”
Now she felt like she was making her superior plan even more for her.
She shrank down in embarrassment, but then she heard a voice.
“Beisu! What have you been doing!?”
●
TJ had seen this a million times before.
“We could have solved this problem a lot faster if you would only recover quicker, so what are you doing!?”
“Waiiiiit! You sent me flying away! You did!”
“Only because we were both careless! But how quick you recover is all on you!”
She’s really letting him have it, thought TJ. And those two were gathering some attention.
“Are they alright?”
“Yes, they are. They’ve been like this a lot lately, but they actually get along well.”
“They do?”
“Um, aren’t we in the same class?”
“To be honest, I spent the first term researching this divine world without feeling any interest in any of the other gods.”
“Yeah, that sounds like a knowledge god alright.”
I thought we’d spoken a fair amount, though, she thought. I guess everyone sees things differently.
When a knowledge god was absorbing knowledge, it was crass to try to barge in on that.
But back to Funto-shi and Seito-san…
“…!”
“––––––”
Kuwajiri-kun kept her voice down while watching those two argue.
“They are both participating in the argument, but it looks like the husband has the weaker position.”
“It does. And this time Funto-shi kind of was responsible.”
“He was? From what I heard, he didn’t have much say in the matter.”
“Seito-san wouldn’t be so angry if that were the case. They’ve known each other for a long time.”
“I see,” said Kuwajiri-san nodding and beginning to think. She was probably predicting those two’s future based on this interaction. And…
“Excuse me.”
The door behind TJ opened and a face poked out.
“I hear a lot of yelling. Is everything alright?”
●
Who is that? was Kuwajiri’s first thought. And her second…
…Of course I wouldn’t know when I’m so uninterested in others.
But accepting that as an answer wouldn’t help here. And she could make one guess based on the circumstances.
“A manga club 1st year?”
“You got it. Souka Souko. Candidate for the next club head.”
“Eh!? Touto-senpai, won’t you be doing it next year too!?”
Her panic seemed legitimate. She was the perfect image of an underclassman troubled by an upperclassman’s actions, but TJ was a creator god who could also do art. So…
“Does she show promise?”
“That’s right. I really wanted to have her make a book for this summer’s Comiket to give her a rapid skill boost.”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I couldn’t make up my mind!”
“But she didn’t finish it in time, so it’ll have to wait for Winter Comiket. Still, she should have the summer book done soon, so-”
TJ stopped there.
After a moment, she held a hand to her mouth, looked up into the rainy sky, and spoke.
“But…could it be…?”
“Could what be?”
I keep asking questions, noticed Kuwajiri with an inward bitter smile, but asking questions was standard procedure for knowledge gods. And the creator god answered.
“Well, I might make a small request at the meeting of the gods. …Anyway, Kuwajiri-san, care to see my new book and Souko-kun’s previous book?”
●
I don’t know, thought Kuwajiri.
Would reading these creations – these manga – lead to knowledge? Uncertain, she looked to her superior.
“Why not? Getting along with the neighbors is important.”
“I have wondered if the time I spend gathering knowledge alienates me.”
“You’ve changed a lot.”
“How so?”
“Before summer break, I think you would have concluded the time you spend gathering knowledge alienates you…and stopped thinking about it there.”
She thought about that. Was it true? But…
“––––”
She understood now.
The fact that she even needed to ask herself if it was true meant it was.
●
…I can’t believe this.
She knew how this had happened.
She had only just solved the mystery while speaking with Raidou and Poseidon.
…I’m living an easier life than I was in my virtual manifestation.
She was now willing to accept spending time not acquiring knowledge.
Or to put it another way, she didn’t feel a need to be pursuing knowledge at all times.
The version of her in the myths would have found that hard to believe. That version of her might have even rebuked her current self. But…
“––––”
This divine world was the problem.
Even when she wasn’t pursuing knowledge, so many things – many of which she didn’t already know about – would appear before her. She could honestly acquire plenty of knowledge just by leaving the TV on in her room.
And now she had a major Shinto knowledge god as an underclassman and the terraforming with the idiot was starting to come together.
How would she describe her current situation?
…It’s like I’m living “inside” a dizzying amount of knowledge.
She sighed without saying anything. But she couldn’t stay silent forever. She had to provide an explanation as a knowledge god.
“I feel like I am becoming more passive as a god with authority.”
“What’s wrong with taking it easy? …Oh, Souko-kun, I’ll be showing them your previous book later.”
“Wait, don’t do that! That old one is so embarrassing I’d die! Yours is so much better, so show them that! Please!!”
That Souka underclassman was extremely reluctant. But Kuwajiri had her superior’s approval, so if it didn’t happen, it would affect the Norse gods’ reputation.
So Kuwajiri turned toward Souka and spoke to her.
“I look forward to it.”
“Please no! You can’t! …Wait, you’re not listening to what I want at all, are you!?”
Just as she protested some more, another shouting voice arrived from the club building’s entrance.
“Hey! Stop ignoring me! Can someone please free me from this bond breaking trap!”
Oh, we all completely forgot about her.
●
Kidou was working.
The yellow poncho she had been issued was synthetic and it had felt a little chilly at first, but once she got to work…
…It’s like a greenhouse!
The occasional passersby with steam coming from their poncho’s armholes were probably fire or heat gods, or maybe that sort of spirit. There were enough of them Ki had to assume several mythologies were present.
Everyone had been given jobs and posts based on their authorities and they were working at those posts.
And she had made a surprise discovery through this.
“When working in a group, I find different uses for my abilities.”
Specifically, her spells. Her Auth Spells were specialized for attack and support. She knew that was because Bilgamesh was her partner, but…
“The gravity spells can be used for transport and leveling and the fire spells can of course be used to start fires.”
“Right. I thought I would be using my healing spells more, but since they don’t do much against exhaustion, it’s better to use that ether on something else.”
She had had ideas like this before too. She did in fact use Heat Body for cooking. But…
“Back home in our virtual manifestation, we had predetermined ‘roles’. We couldn’t have worked at a construction site because we were too important and the lower earth gods and spirits wouldn’t have let us.”
“I planned, designed, and managed projects, but this is more or less my first time actually working on site.”
Bilgamesh was wearing a shoiko borrowed from the hiking club and it was loaded with a stack of stone materials taller than he was.
He was carrying materials back and forth, which he would certainly have had a subordinate handle during his virtual manifestation. But…
“Here we might consider each other’s divine rank, but we are generally equals.”
“It’s easy to forget since it’s summer break, but we are technically students.”
Schools – or at least, places of learning and training – had existed in their time. This institution was a concentrated version of that.
When enrolling, they had only thought of it as “a place of learning”, but now they could see the most important thing that institution provided.
“Equality.”
●
“Yeah, that’s right. We’re all equals.”
Kidou nodded at her partner’s words.
They were all working together now, with no concern for who was a king or a hero.
They were equals.
Everyone accepted it now, but that hadn’t happened overnight.
The groundwork had already been laid.
“It’s because of the everyday lives we’ve lived – the shopping, the food, and all that.”
They could go where they liked and buy what they liked, but they had to line up at the supermarket register. And for food, they could either make their own or pay money to eat what they wanted and chat about whatever.
Some of that had existed in their virtual manifestation, but it had been a privileged thing they only received for being at the top.
That wasn’t how it worked here.
There was some extra inconvenience now, but what had previously been a privilege was now ordinary.
“Although we have to pay taxes and fees to make up for it.”
“But in exchange, our privileges have been developed to the point that they are available to all, albeit with some inconveniences.”
As a king, he must have had some thoughts about that. But that aside…
“Oh, I’m being called to the club building. I’ll be back.”
“Did something happen?”
“The knowledge god wants me to bring Eshtar some clothes so she can leave the bond breaking barrier.”
“I forgot all about that.”
“You know, this is why-”
“No, forget it,” added Kidou with a bitter smile.
“I should probably bring her some of her snacks while I’m at it. I just know she’ll complain about being hungry.”
Kidou looked up into the sky.
The rain was still falling, but…
“I wonder how the human’s doing? I hope that all works out.”
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