On a Godless Planet:Volume3B Chapter 42
Chapter 42: Monster World 02[edit]
–How long has that thing been in this world?
●
I woke up to find no flood outside.
“Yahoo! I didn’t wet the bed like crazy!!”
For real though, the rain wasn’t something else. The sky wasn’t covered by super dark clouds.
When I opened the window, raindrops didn’t give me a powerful facial shower and I didn’t feel like reciting one of those weird poems included on sexy pinup photos.
“The sky doesn’t weep. Your sunny summer days are gone in a flash!”
No, that’s no good. It’s a little too well made. It doesn’t quite fit that natural niche market of poems that might as well not be there but go for it anyway.
“Hey, wait! This open window isn’t letting any rain into my room!”
After all that, I noticed something.
“It’s kind of cloudyyyyy!”
That’s right. It wasn’t raining.
It wasn’t sunny either, which felt wrong, but why had I thought it would be rainy?
I turned on the TV with the remote. It was nearly 8 AM. They were just barely still doing the weather forecast, so I checked it.
“Today will be a cloudy morning in Tokyo. The clouds will clear out before noon allowing enough sun for a high of 30 degrees. The low will probably be 24 degrees. And for those of you on a pilgrimage…”
“It’s gonna be sunny!”
I switched off the TV after hearing what I wanted to hear. I hurried to the balcony to check for no real reason and…
“Hot! It’s super hot on the balcony!”
It was late August now. Even on a partly cloudy morning, it was pretty hot. The cement balcony felt like it had a heater on and I looked over toward Senpai’s room.
“So quiet…”
She wasn’t there. Not that that was weird. She was active in the mornings, what with buying groceries at the convenience store or at the supermarket that had an early morning market.
I tried doing three sets of ten prostrations, but her poor environmental settings didn’t cause any level up Revelation Boards to appear from through the wall.
That meant she wasn’t there.
“Um, what about below?”
There was no sign of human life – divine life? – in Kido-senpai’s room either.
I guessed they were out shopping together. And this was about the time when Kido-senpai would show up for breakfast, but…
“The kitchen!”
No one there. I realized my porn hadn’t been stacked up on my desk, which meant Kido-senpai hadn’t been in my room.
This all led to a single conclusion…
“I’m alone for once!”
●
Oh, this is rare, I thought while also appreciating just how blessed I was.
I had Senpai.
And for about a week now, I had mom.
“I’m never lonely.”
I was blessed. After all, both Senpai and Kido-senpai were goddesses and busty and the best. The were always around and like family. A normal high school guy would never have that.
“It really wouldn’t happen normally!”
But today Senpai and Kido-senpai weren’t around. I had a feeling they might not be back until lunchtime.
“So I can head out on my own!”
●
But where should I go?
…I bet I’d find someone at the game club if I went.
Today was Monday. Or was it Tuesday?
“Huh?”
I felt like the day of the week was off.
I thought it was Monday, but…
“It also feels like it’s past Monday.”
It was like when you stayed up late. Midnight had passed and it was the next day of the week, but for you it still felt like a continuation of the previous day.
Curious, I went back to my room and checked the bed clock. The digital numbers and letters said…
“0819…SUN?”
It was Sunday.
●
Huh? I thought. My lack of confidence in myself was one of my better traits. After all, I had a literally deadly special move called rolling back. Although it was deadly for me since I had to die to activate it.
“Maybe I could have a special move like in Toaplan’s vertical scrolling shooters where I hold a bomb that blows everyone up when I die.”
I really, truly hoped I could do that.
But as I thought about the day of the week issue…
“Did I roll back?”
I thought back. Yes…
“Yesterday, I woke in the evening and saw it was raining outside and Swimsuit Senpai, Kido-senpai, and the others took me to the school for shelter.”
Then we had discussed the terraforming and stuff with the gods and returned to the club building to have a game tournament.
If I had rolled back, my memories of that day would be gone.
So since I remembered what had happened until midnight…
“I didn’t roll back?”
No, my memories of what happened before that evening were gone, so I must have died once before the evening.
And my last memory before that was…
“Oh, right. I was playing Shadow Blasters for the Mega Drive. I bought it on Friday at Will’s Sato Musen and it just wasn’t doing it for me, so I was trying to decide what to do.”
As I spoke to myself, I made an odd realization.
“Today isn’t Tuesday?”
●
I thought. My memories were fuzzy, so it was hard to say for sure, but…
“I bought Shadow Blasters on Friday.”
Yes. I bought it. And put the receipt in my wallet…yes, there it was. I had bought the game.
“I played it all weekend, but I wasn’t feeling it and the same had happened with Rastan 2, so I was wondering if there was something wrong with me.”
And…
“On Monday, it flooded. …Shouldn’t I be in the club building?”
●
But, I thought. I can’t seem to pin anything down in my mind. Also…
“Time to turn on the TV!”
I checked NHK. They were showing…
“A Short Journey Through Kantou’s Koshinetsu Region.”
Was that a special on the Miura Peninsula? It was 8:07. This was probably a show that came on at that time. But…
“Isn’t NHK Morning Wide on NHK at this time on weekdays?”
At 15 after, Renzoku Terebi Shousetsu would come on. Right now, they were doing Wakko no Kinmedaru.
I remembered that because Senpai and Kido-senpai were watching it every morning recently. It came on too late for them to watch once school started, so I remembered them saying they hoped something big would happen in the two weeks until then.
“But what’s this travel show? It doesn’t look like it’s going to end in another 7 or 8 minutes for Renzoku Terebi Shousetsu.”
Plus, it wasn’t Morning Wide.
That meant it really was Sunday. But that didn’t make sense.
“At this time on Sundays, I always watch Special Rescue Police Winspector.”
That’s right. This week, Senpai and Kido-senpai had started eating breakfast and dinner in my room. Sometimes lunch too. That meant they saw how I lived my life and that of course included my taste in TV shows. Both of them were originally from myths with no TV, so they were curious and didn’t know how culture had changed.
So while they would watch the news or a drama, they didn’t know the history of different shows or how they were connected.
That’s why I had to explain Special Rescue Police Winspector to them while watching the opening.
●
“Special Rescue Police Winspector is a tokusatsu hero show and, as you can see, the hero wears full-body metal armor. That’s called a Metal Hero and this is the 9th entry in the series.”
“The 9th entry? What do you mean?”
“They make a new one every year and this is the 9th year they’ve done it.”
“Eh!? You mean they change everything each year!?”
“In mythology terms, is that like when a new age arrives and the ‘realm’ changes? But they do it every year and this is the 9th year in a row!?”
“Yeah. But there are series that are complete monsters like Mito Komon, so it’s a big world out there. Is that airing right now, or not?”
<Currently, the 1990 Mito Komon continues to appear on National Theater like it has since 1969, but Season 19, which acted as the 20th anniversary, ended in April of ‘90 and Season 20 begins in October.>
“Season 20? There are dynasties that don’t last that long.”
<It doesn’t run year-round though. It has an irregular schedule usually composed of 3 cours and it takes about half a year off between seasons.>
“The lead, Nishimura Kou, is kind of cool.”
<He is. He took over as lead in 1983’s Season 14, but there are a lot of people who think of him first when it comes to Mito Komon. Also, the National Theater version of the Mito Komon TV series is the most well known, but a Brother Theater version aired for a year starting in November 1964 using the same TBS slot and the National Theater version was made because that one was well received.
<Also,> continued Balancer.
<Before that, TBS aired a half-year series called Mito Komon Manyuki starting in March of 1957. 1957 is the same year as the Sunagawa Incident and the launching of Sputnik, but I bet it would give you a better feel for the time period if I tell you it was the year Coca-Cola officially went on sale in Japan. The history of the Mito Komon series goes back that far. But…>
“You’re really interrupting my love for Winspector with this, but it’s interesting, so I’ll hear you out. But what?”
<1957, the same year as first Mito Komon TV series, was also the first year of an extremely long-lived series that Kido and Senpai-san are probably familiar with.>
“Really!? Wh-what series? Could it be Waratte Iitomo?”
<How old do you think Tamori is? The show that has been running for 33 years here in the 90s is the NHK educational program Kyou no Ryouri.>
●
“That show’s been running for that long!?”
“I record it because the real cooking footage is so valuable.”
<Yes. Kyou no Ryouri actually started as one section of an everyday know-how show called Home Library that began in 1953 and it became its own independent show in ‘57. It was popular before breaking away, so in ‘56, Osaka TV began Ryouri Techou. And ‘62 marks the beginning of Kewpie 3-Minute Cooking, which is known for its opening music.>
“Kewpie goes back that far!? Wow…”
<For some advance information, Kyou no Ryouri becomes the longest running show in Japan in 2006, so it really is a big deal.>
“Kyou no Ryouri uses a nice balance between cost and nutrition as a selling point, so it’s a must-watch for me when coming up with something to make for Izumi.
“But,” said Kido.
“Last Friday’s Kyou no Ryouri really hit us with a surprise.”
“Um, yes. It was like, ‘wait, they’re really doing this?’ ”
“Hm? What was it?”
<It was Tiramisu.>
●
“Remember a while back when we discussed tiramisu’s arrival in Japan and its relation to espresso? It started in Denny’s in ‘86 and its popularity exploded in the 90s after a magazine talked about it.”
<NHK has a scarily good nose for these things… And the episode on August 17, 1990, was actually a rerun of an April ‘89 episode. That means they weren’t following the trend – they actually got in before the trend. And because it hadn’t caught on yet, they called it Teramisu Cheesecake.>
“That’s amazing… And how did we get from my Winspector to Mito Komon and then Kyou no Ryouri?”
●
“Well, to get back to Special Rescue Police Winspector, the previous tokusatsu shows had an ‘evil organization’ as the villain, but Winspector wanted to focus on the ‘reality’ of the current age and to eliminate the ‘strange and grotesque’ aspects, so they got rid of the customary villain position. Instead, each episode has its own case and drama which ties into some kind of social problem.”
<The drama was well done and it was made to appeal to adult viewers as well, which helped sell the toys to children. Its popularity rivaled that of Fiveman which aired the same year. As for why, you must remember that it introduced the idea of ‘fusing with a weapon’ that was introduced to later tokusatsu team shows and it had Japan’s first voice chips in the toys, letting the action figures say their catch phrases.>
“The DX Winbadge toy lets you make different noises by inserting different voice cards and it can be folded up by hand, making it just as cool as in the show. Really makes me want one.”
<Working to make the toys “just like in the show” really became noticeable in Mobile Cop Jiban, the previous show in the series, which began a trend that continued from there.>
●
“So anyway, that’s what I remember happening yesterday.”
After that, we watched Winspector and they told me what they thought.
“It was really watchable and the explosions were exciting!”
“That white motorcycle… It was an off-road one, but it was nice. Brought out my horse-riding spirit a little.”
“Those gasoline fires really make the show, don’t they!? And I think you would look great on a white motorcycle, Kido-senpai, so please try it sometime!”
Overall, they liked it.
“So that means today can’t be Sunday.”
Sunday had already happened. It was at least Monday, or maybe Tuesday.
It seemed crazy, but…
“Did I dream all that?”
●
Could that be it? I wasn’t too confident there. But it was Sunday on TV. They were showing Winspector.
“Then what about this?”
I opened a Revelation Board. The basic data gave the date and time and today was…
“August 19?”
It was Sunday.
●
Weird.
I mean, the Winspector episode airing in front of me was familiar.
“The case happens while they’re bug collecting.”
Right. But what did that mean? I hadn’t dreamed my memories. So could it be…
“Is this right here the dream?”
I didn’t know.
There was a way to find out. I knew the fastest way.
“I’ll contact Senpai by Revelation Board!”
You could use it like a phone or like sending an email on a computer.
So I tried to contact Senpai. But…
“What the hell? I’m not getting through?”
No, that wasn’t it. Instead of not getting through, I was getting a weird message as a response.
●
“That individual is not part of the story.”
●
“Hey, Balancer!”
<What is it, ape? Did you want to speak with me to see if this world is real or a dream?>
“Hm, I bet you’d say that in a dream too.”
<I am glad to hear that my clever personality has permeated your subconscious. …Well? Did you have something you wanted to ask me?>
“Oh, right,” I said.
“Is there something wrong with this world?”
<I don’t like how you phrased that, but I will still answer. …Everything is correct.>
Oh. I nodded and accepted that. I decided to head out, so I opened my closet and pulled out my summer uniform.
Balancer followed me, so I looked back.
“What, did you want to see me change!? O-oh, dear. I have no intention of starting that sort of relationship with you, but I suppose I can at least give you a look. Here: sproing.”
<Ew. This is the worst clever AI cognitive test I’ve ever seen. …But, monkey, what do you consider the “correct” answer to your question?>
●
“What’s ‘correct’?”
That was an easy one.
“There are three things you would consider ‘correct’ about this divine world. First, matching history from the Earth era. In other words, Mito Komon on Sundays, the Teramisu Cheesecake, and Winspector were all true to history.”
That was the first form of correct. As for the second…
“Correct for the divine world you created. For example, things that aren’t part of history or things used to preserve the divine world. Yes, like those combat spell fields you make. Those are ‘correct’ in terms of your management of the divine world.”
And last, there was one other form of “correct”.
“The actions of the gods.”
●
“When Raidou-senpai and Shifu-senpai were fighting Apology Man and Busty Mesopotamian on the riverside and they caused that big lightning strike, you didn’t stop them. Same with Mucho at the Okutama dam. You accept whatever the gods do. When something happens, you check to see if you can deal with it and, if you can, you make the necessary adjustments. It’s like…how should I put it?”
I considered it and found an answer.
“Like you’re an overprotective mommy?”
<Wow, two ‘ews’ in one day.>
But Balancer didn’t deny it. So I had my answer.
And I gave that answer while showing Balancer the message on my Revelation Board.
“I more or less get it, but I think this divine world has become a ‘story’ told by a certain god. No, the flooding that happened yesterday – or tomorrow on Monday, I guess – was probably a part of that story.”
<What makes you think that?>
“You’d have to ask that god. But they had an idea.”
Namely…
“If you want to bend a world full of gods to your will, you just have to get a human to tell it as a story.”
Meaning…
“Since I’m the only human, if I don’t move, this world won’t move. Yeah. When I turned on the TV they were showing the news and then Winspector. When I went out on the balcony, it was hot and the sky is a little cloudy. But…”
“But?”
“I feel like all of it only started moving – only happened – after I noticed it.”
<Oh? That sounds like quantum physics or like you’re being overly self-conscious…but fine, let’s say that’s true. What about it?>
I showed off my answer.
At my apartment’s entrance, the terraforming books I had borrowed from the library were stacked on top of a refrigerator box. There were five of those library books. And next to them was a thick book.
“The Comiket catalog.”
C38. The refreshing cover showed an androgynous person gazing out at the sea and sky.
“But I don’t have any memory of buying that catalog.”
●
In Tachikawa, it was probably sold at Kotobukiya or Orion Books.
…Both of those are in the Daiichi department store!
But I’d probably meant to buy it eventually but never did. With Senpai and Kido-senpai and my part-time job in Ishikawa, I’d completely forgotten.
But if it was here…
“It’s an invitation.”
A god was calling me, the human. They were telling me to tell their myth.
<Just to check, you are planning to visit Makuhari Messe, where Comiket is being held?>
“Yeah, I am. What, did you want more attention? Well, if you insist. Come over here and I’ll pet you. …C’mon, boy! Come! What, are you scared!?”
<That started of creepy, but you realized that wasn’t enough and just started saying things toward the end, didn’t you?>
“If I don’t get more creative, I can’t live up to Senpai and the others’ expectations! So what did you want?”
<If you go, you will be going alone. Are you okay with that? The story cannot begin if you stay here, but since that also means Senpai-san and the rest can’t do anything, wouldn’t it be better to stay put and try to come up with a solution?>
“True, if I stay here, the world will continue under my supervision and Comiket will eventually end.”
But…
“If I don’t follow this invitation, the god behind this will lose their myth. Because then I wouldn’t have given them a story.”
What would happen then?
“I’d find myself to be really boring and Senpai and Kido-senpai would say they were glad I played it safe, but they’d really be disappointed.”
●
<That god does not meet the standards of your faith. They are neither Shinto nor your relative, so you do not need to create a story for them here. You cannot become their believer, so nothing you say will be an official myth.>
“Oh, c’mon.”
I pulled out a terraforming book and opened the first page. Yes, because this book said…
“Wait, wrong book. It’s in this one.”
<What are you doing, idiot?>
“Sh-shut up. Um, not this one either, so this one! Yeah, this is it! I knew that! It’s on this page!”
Learning about terraforming began with studying planets. It started with an explanation of the planets in the solar system. It had the usual size comparison with Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Pluto, and Neptune lined up.
“The planets are named after Roman gods, right? Look, Neptune here is Mr. V’s alternate name.”
<Real name. That is his real name.>
Eh, close enough. And this told me something else.
“I’m not Mr. V’s believer, but I still know things like that.”
Right. This was that thing Temanko talked about last night.
“When I…that is, humans ‘simply tell’ stories about the gods, we expand their territories through ‘culture’.”
Listen.
“I think Senpai’s mentioned it before, but Japanese mythology is the mythology of kotodama. So I’m gonna tell the stories. Shinto is lenient, so I can tell stories about any myth or god I want. And by telling those stories, the gods can live in all sorts of worlds and stuff – including video game weapons and magic. Also, the god who caused this isn’t asking me to become their believer. They just want me to tell their story.
“So,” I said.
“If I start moving, so will the gods whose stories I’ve told. Because those are my stories. Senpai, Kido-senpai, Raidou-senpai, Shifu-senpai, Yomoji-senpai, Kuwajiri…I’m sure they’ll all help out. And then there’s Apology Man, Busty Mesopotamian, Mucho, Temanko-kouhai, and, um…”
<Mr. V.>
“Oh, yeah, him! I nearly forgot. And Scareko-senpai, Library Committee Head-senpai, the ones I met yesterday, and everyone else too. Just everyone whose story I’ve told.”
So…
“I just have to eagerly wait and see how Senpai will come running. And wonder if Kido-senpai will blast Yamanashi all the way here. Stuff like that.”
Right.
So after I finished changing, I got my bag, my wallet, a drink to deal with the heat, a towel, and so on. Finally, I opened the door.
“And I’m off!”
“–––––”
●
I saw a bird.
“–––––”
A bird. A big one. Or maybe tall would be the better word? About 3m tall? But the most interesting part was its shape. It looked like an oval with two stick legs. The legs went straight down. The beak was basically a stick too.
“What a lazy art style…”
“–––––”
The thing looked lost in thought. But what was this bird doing in front of my apartment? Could it be?
“Are you going to take me to Makuhari Messe?”
The bird puffed out its chest. The lack of boobs on that chest was disappointing, but it looked motivated. But…
“Can you fly?”
The bird ascended. It floated about 3m up, kicked its feet around, and finally landed with more force than I expected. Then it tilted its entire body to look at me.
“Looks like you’re trying to say ‘see?’, but you didn’t use your wings just now, did you?”
“–––––”
It ignored me.
<It is supposed to be a roc. You would be familiar with the one at the beginning of Final Fantasy III, although it is called a Rukh there.>
“Oh, yeah. Wait, don’t confuse me like that! This is nothing like the bird in the game!”
<But if the Amano Yoshitaka art style were applied, it would have to be applied to us as well.>
I tried imagining that.
“That’s kinda interesting to think about, but Senpai would probably have a real tragic heroine design.”
<And Kido would look ready to leap at you.>
For once, we agreed. We needed to discuss this more later.
Meanwhile, someone grabbed my collar.
I looked over to find it was the bird. The bird lifted me up with its really long beak.
“Eh? What? You’re carrying me to Makuhari? So you’re going to fly!? With me on your back!?”
The bird took off running. It was speedy.
“Heyyyyy! Birds are supposed to fly!!”
No one was listening.
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