On a Godless Planet:Volume3B Chapter 48
Chapter 48: Nostalgia[edit]
–Seeing things now
I realize my colored pencils as a kid were monochrome.
●
Kuwajiri sighed.
She leaned back against the club building’s wall and found it was warm. The wall must have been pummeled by yesterday’s rain, but it had managed to absorb heat this sunny morning.
Sensing that warmth on her back and hips, she checked her Revelation Board.
“Team 2 has reached TJ.”
Then she opened another Revelation Board. This one displayed a map of Tokyo, but…
“If they reach a river, they can use Poseidon’s authority to travel through the river phase, right? From here, would that be the Tama River? But does the Tama River even reach Tokyo Bay?”
“It does. It just does so on the west side of the bay. About in the middle.”
Salacia tilted her head as if to ask what he meant by that, so Kuwajiri explained.
“Tokyo Bay is stretched long from north to south. The mouth of the Tama River is located on the west side near Kawasaki, Kanagawa. And our objective today is Makuhari Messe, which is located about 10km from the mouth of the Tama.”
“10km further south? So it would mean moving farther than necessary?”
“The ideal route would be to leave the Tama at around Chofu and continue east from there. Team 1’s route is similar to that. It shortens the distance by about 6km compared to to the Tama mouth route.”
“Then what did Team 2 do?”
“They used an authority. A combination of them, actually.”
●
Athena cautiously observed the giants watching them from a distance and used her god of war’s sight devices to look behind her.
…That was incredible.
She meant the goddess holding TJ: Anne.
She was from an island nation’s regional mythology. Her mythology had survived in a region of the British Isles which had long ago been invaded by Roman mythology, which in turn had been influenced by Athena’s own Greek mythology.
But at the head god level, they really were different.
…She used the fog.
The fog had been covering the sea all morning in this divine world.
“She interpreted the fog as a mountain phase and used her spiriting away for transportation.”
●
The idea had come from the harvest god who was the thunder god’s wife.
“Dan-chan, can you use this fog for a spiriting away?”
She had been worried that the fog before them was part of the story and thus not real. But everyone watched as Anne disappeared and emerged from behind the north side of the club building, proving there wouldn’t be a problem.
“Wh-what was that? I could get in and out so easily. It’s a little uneven, though.”
“Hm? So is this a mountain fog?”
Then a hand went up. Shifu looked over to see it was the guard god.
“I think this fog was drawn by shaving down screentone.”
“Oh, that explains it.”
“What is screentone?”
“Isn’t that the thing used for shading in manga backgrounds and stuff?”
<Yes. Specifically, I suppose you could call it a pre-printed adhesive film. A transparent adhesive film is printed with dots, cross-hatching, or patterns meant to indicate gradation. The artist cuts it to the shape they want, pastes it to the image or diagram, and modifies it if necessary. It omits the effort of having to draw it yourself and can increase the precision and expressiveness of the image.>
“So…the image had a printed sheet pasted to it and that was all crumpled up?”
“Right,” said the thunder god.
“In this case, screentone with the dot density for light gray was probably pasted to the manuscript paper and a craft knife was used to shave it down to indicate the fog’s density and its overlapping and flowing nature. Demeter, in your culture that would be like covering a white wall with a gray fresco and then shaving that down to let ‘a white fog show through’.”
“Shaving through the plaster sounds difficult…but I know that isn’t your point. I more or less get what you mean.”
“So it’s like shaving down a stone to make a carving of clouds? Humanity has some clever ideas.”
“That said, applying the adhesive smoothly to the transparent film requires a fair amount of skill. I believe it wasn’t invented until this century.”
“Right,” agreed the knowledge god.
“In America, large companies began producing a version to apply decorations and shading to blueprints in 1937. The dot density indicated the gradation, so the product names included words like ‘tone’ or ‘chart’. That then inspired the Japanese ‘Amitone’ released in 1952. It was already being used for manga by 1954.”
“Um, then what about this fog?”
“I can only guess, but I think it’s based on a manga drawing style.”
●
“Wait, that’s a thing? Is there a textbook or something?”
“Yes. Too many in fact. There are also specialized magazines for drawing doujinshi and pamphlets on tone application techniques put out by the companies that sell tone. If you want that information, you can find as much as you want.”
“There’s that much?”
<The full story is too long to provide here, but ever since World War Two manga artist has been one of the top jobs children aspire to in Japan. And thus, countless guide books have existed for quite some time.>
“That’s different from being a painter or sculptor, right?”
<Correct. The price increases after the end of the war made it more common for people to check out books from the library than to purchase them, but the visual style and intuitive entertainment of manga became a form of entertainment easily within most people’s reach. That has increased the demand for manga artists. Even now that the economy has stabilized and people are using bookstores more than libraries, manga remains a major form of entertainment.>
And…
<As Kuwajiri said, countless guides have been released and manga magazines will include articles on the topic. The definitive examples would be 1977’s ‘How to Draw Manga: From Portraits to Full-Length Works’ by Tezuka Osamu and 1979’s ‘The Manga Drawing Encyclopedia’ by Katakura Youji, who worked as Fujiko Fujio’s assistant at the time. The former is primarily meant for adults. It is a comprehensive guide to drawing manga while showing how to present things in an entertaining way and write stories with depth. The latter was part of Korotan Bunko’s Encyclopedia series, so it provided kid-friendly lessons on drawing while teaching them the importance of creativity. They both taught how to use tone.>
“So,” said the guard god.
“TJ’s underclassman probably learned how to represent fog with tone in a book like that, but I bet the book was teaching how to add fog to a mountain background.”
Even as he said that, Anne touched the fog that had drifted close and she disappeared.
“Over here.”
Down below, she was waving from a fairly distant commercial building rooftop. Then she disappeared again and…
“I think this…will work.”
She reappeared by their side and they all nodded with their Team 2 decided.
●
Poseidon exchanged a quick high five with Anne.
“Nice one!”
“Eh heh heh…”
She could guide them to anywhere the sea fog was drifting. But they still had to deal with the issues of transportation and speed. That was why he was helping out.
And so this exchange happened before they left.
“If I control the fog using my river authority, I can do what I did in yesterday’s duel, can’t I?”
“So because fog is a mountain thing and hovers over rivers, it can be used as multiple phases?”
“Eh!? You can do that!?”
“Only if you are at Poseidon and Anne-san’s level, correct?”
“Right. We have a good feel for each other after yesterday’s duel. And I really respect her. So yes, we can do it.”
“Nh. …If he sends me down the current…it will work.”
“Then,” said Bilgamesh, raising a hand.
“Take us to the nearest station on the Odakyu Line. The diversion teams will be taking routes north and south of the Chuo Expressway, but if we do the same, we could get in Team 1’s way.”
So they would first head south from Tachikawa. Near Noborito, Poseidon would ride the Tama River to transport everyone, but Anne would take over at around Chofu.
The problem was Tokyo Bay, but…
“I am accompanying you as a guide, but this is Japan and I believe these words are necessary.”
The Shinto knowledge god spoke into the blowing rain and the powerful wind.
“When the autumn wind blows
“The plants and trees do wither
”Thus the mountain wind
”Is known as the storm.”
A breath.
“In 90s Japan, this is still a little early for autumn, but autumn began in the seventh month under the old calendar. And in this country storms are a mountain phase. The way the Irish representative controls the wind and Poseidon controls the sea is also possible in Shinto.”
“Can a poem really define the weather like that?”
“Oh? The Kokin Wakashu was complied in 905. I ceased to be human and began my life as a vengeful spirit in 903, so that poetry collection holds a lot of real-time memories for me. One of the core aspects of Shinto is the Kotodama. Once a poem has survived as long as a god, how can it not carry power in this divine world?”
“And you used that Kotodama to define things here?”
“Yes. Because I am smart.”
●
“I see,” replied Poseidon.
So he began to move.
He raised his hand toward the stormy sky.
“Triaina Steno.”
With those words, something was launched from the heavens down to the ocean surface.
It was a 50m trident. The blue and white weapon was thrown by an identically colored god of war arm that appeared from the same space as the trident.
The trident pierced the sea without producing a single wave.
There was no splashing sound and it rapidly lost speed and stopped like a buoy.
“That should do it.”
He clapped and the sea became a flat plane.
A diameter of about 5km – an even larger space than Athena had cleared out – was now sunny and calm.
“There, all held back.”
●
Athena was astonished by her fellow Greek god’s power.
…This is how it always is when they’re at the level of a head god.
This god had enough power to be named alongside Zeus and Hades. His power was rumored to rival Zeus’s and he really did use brute force as a combat “technique”.
But that didn’t mean he was weak. His stepfather, the Titan Oceanus, ruled the oceans at the ends of the world, so he literally had the power to flip over the world.
They had worked together several times in the Gigantomachy and he was speaking here.
“Do you need any help?”
“Simply keeping this area calm will be enough for the giants to focus on you.”
With a shared parting comment, Athena turned her god of war to face east while Poseidon, Anne, and the Shinto knowledge god turned the other way.
“I’ll be going.”
●
TJ saw Athena’s god of war walk out onto the sea.
TJ had recovered some, but she still couldn’t fly.
She was worn out. That was probably why Athena was moving out ahead, but…
“Wait! What are you thinking!?”
She had to ask.
“Doing this won’t accomplish anything.”
“Are you sure about that?”
Athena answered. And added a “you see” before continuing.
“If everything functioned wholly based on what accomplished things, we would have stolen the human away and returned to our virtual manifestation world. We would currently be negotiating with the DC over our reward. And I would be in the virtual manifestation world reminiscing about the ancient Mediterranean summer.”
But.
“For some reason, I am here at this filthy and stormy non-Mediterranean bay accomplishing nothing and I haven’t even managed to visit TDL. Or something like that?”
“Yeah, I know all too well what you mean.”
She really did. But the war goddess had more to say.
“Last night’s drinks were wonderful, the Echidna was being a mother for whatever reason, and my aunt and I enjoyed the grilled chicken sold at the small restaurants around the city.”
What was she getting at?
“Sometimes happiness matters more than accomplishment.”
●
Athena thought, I am a god of justice.
This city of Tokyo in 90s Japan was too disorderly for her liking.
…What is with this world?
The tokusatsu shows that aired on Sunday mornings were also known as “hero” shows, so she had assumed they were about heroes doling out justice, but they instead told stories about the troubles found in society and within people. But at the same time, they aired samurai stories late at night that were simple morality plays.
Which was correct?
Was it all just entertainment? No, if she was to take a lesson from all this, it was that this world’s concept of “justice” did not come from justice. Instead…
“–––––”
●
Athena swallowed the words she had been about to say.
This divine world was based on Shinto. Saying something out loud could make it come true.
…That’s right.
She couldn’t say it.
…Those things do not come from justice. Justice comes from those things.
She had just about blurted out something that placed herself in the inferior position because she had spent about two weeks in this place now.
It was a frightening world. And…
“Your name is TJ, correct?”
“Yup.”
“You are correct that what we are doing may not accomplish anything.”
But one thing was clear.
“When the human tells this as a story, our actions will become who we are.”
So she took a fighting stance. Directed out ahead. No, the enemy was all around her. But they had a destination to reach, so…
“I will not betray myself.”
With that, she started forward.
●
Seito nodded at the god of war that walked up alongside them.
After confirming it was time to go…
“Funto! Let’s go! You carry TJ!”
“What!? I’ve touched a woman other than you less than five times ever, but you’re asking me to do that!? Keep in mind I’m the guy whose voice cracked when thanking Shifu-senpai for handing me a drink when she was at the arcade with Raidou-senpai!”
“Wow, you’re just making yourself sound like a creep now.”
“I-I’m only asking you to realize how much this bothers me!”
“Well, okay,” said Seito.
“That’s fine…just come with me.”
He must have picked up on what she meant.
His power was fading. She hoped they could restore it by the second term, but…
“Hm, well if you’re willing to help.”
Oh, she’s trying to be make this easier for us, thought Seito, but this was a creator god from their own mythology. As outsider gods of the people, they would be reluctant to refuse her without good reason.
Funto kneeled and TJ climbed onto his back, or really lay on his back.
“Oh? Oh? Are you alright!? This isn’t a problem for you!?”
Then he looked to Seito. She looked to him to ask why.
“Don’t worry. She doesn’t have enough for it to be an issue.”
Seito hit him with a roundhouse kick.
●
Raidou and the others ate an early lunch.
That mostly meant the bentos he had bought at Ueno, but with the food Shifu had acquired added in, it was a fairly heavy meal.
“The ham would be awkward since it’s pork, so I got the chicken bento they were selling at the train station.”
Shifu produced a wide bento box. The sections of the box were connected at the center and…
“One half has chicken rice and the other has fried chicken? The red and yellow coloration looks interesting.”
“How cute! I love things like this!”
<The chicken bento is a station bento that the railway-run Nihon Shokuhin began selling in 1964. Tokyo Station generally sells station bentos from all over the country, but this is a rare example of one that began at Tokyo Station.>
They expressed their interest while eating.
The station was quiet around them. There were trains arriving and bells coming and going, but…
“The giants are gone.”
●
“They aren’t just watching from a distance or hiding – they’re actually gone, aren’t they? My guess is the story says the line of pilgrims is gone now that Comiket is open.”
“This story is detailed in the weirdest places.”
But that fit well with their plan.
“The idea was for us to draw the attention of the pilgrims in the city and eliminate them all at once. And Poseidon’s team would do the same with the pilgrims in Tokyo Bay.”
“Right. There are plenty of ways to keep the enemy from growing, but one of those is to keep them from understanding how they were defeated. That was the point of our major tricks and of exterminating them with our first attack. And by keeping them busy here at the beginning, the Tokyo Bay team will have an easier time. Because they won’t have pilgrims pushing in from the west. Oh, that sushi is Kuwajiri’s.”
“Eh? Am I in trouble?”
“Ki, I will eat half. That way we can share the blame and reduce our individual hit rates.”
“Oh, then I’ll join you.”
“Me too, me too.”
“Eh!? What!? But I just ate a bag of Wasabeef for dessert! Let me join your criminal conspiracy!”
“They should sell it at Tokyo Station too, so you know what to do. But…”
“No response from Team 2?”
“Yes,” came her reply via divine transmission. Along with the obvious sound of a drink can being opened.
“It happened right before Makuhari. In a way, the barrier is thickest there. I just hope they’re up to the task.”
●
Athena was impressed by what she saw in the blowing wind and pouring rain.
“Not bad at all.”
Beset. She went by Beisu Seito, didn’t she? That guard god worshiped by the people was…
“…!”
She showed no fear of the giants. She knock one of the tall enemies straight up and…
“Right here!”
She primarily targeted its chest and head as she delivered kicks that were like stomping it from the air. And…
“…!”
The giant collapsed with its tentacle arms stiffening.
It was strange how the scattering ether light made the rain and spray sparkle. So Athena recorded a question with her voice device and cast it to the other god in their high-speed perception.
“How did that work?”
“We are festival gods!”
Athena didn’t know what that meant. But that appeared to be the full answer as far as she was concerned.
A festival.
Ares had always liked war festivals. He was originally a god of the north Black Sea equestrian peoples like the Scythians and he had a bad reputation in a number of ways, but…
“That really is what this is!”
She used Dory Piesis. The rain was too heavy to use it as a shield. And Prota – Phloga Basileus at her hip was poorly matched with the rain too.
Most likely, this had been created as pure “rain”.
It had a nature phase, so anything that would be influenced by Tokyo Bay’s natural environment would be easily influenced by it. Thanks to that her left hand remained empty.
“Fine by me!”
She swung her arm out and a small figure landed on it.
“Good thinking!”
“I can predict your actions to some extent using my high-speed senses and my god of war’s OS.”
She then swung her left arm in the direction Seito pointed. Seito jumped, bounced again, and…
“…!”
The enemy collapsed.
Athena also threw her spear to clear a path. And…
…Behind us!
Her god of war senses could see the full sky and the full ground simultaneously, so she could see the guard god husband following after her and TJ on his back. The rain was bad, but the husband appeared to have decent stamina. He must have also had the willpower to back it up because he was running without ever slipping.
So Athena moved out ahead. She released the dealer of destruction in her hand and then continued on.
“This should work!”
●
Athena saw something soon thereafter.
…A dark cloud!?
The color black was spreading out beyond the enemies. It was so dark she couldn’t see through it.
She thought the storm was worsening, but…
“Above!”
She hurriedly reacted to the voice from behind.
She poured as much power as she could into Dory Piesis, directing it straight up.
●
Poseidon saw it from a distance.
Athena’s group was already buried within the enemy. When they went to support them, they would have to confirm their location first. That was just how deep their attack had gone.
But something arrived that could ignore all of that.
“That’s a big one.”
Their defeat of the previous giants must have told the story that it needed a countermeasure. This new one wasn’t humanoid in shape, but nor was it serpentine.
“An octopus?”
That’s the Anguipede Goddess. Well, maybe she’s not a goddess.”
Her lower half was made up of snakes and her upper half was humanoid. The water monster Salacia turned into was like that, wasn’t she? But…
“I think she’s more than 300m tall. Isn’t that a little much?”
●
Athena shouted. Her Dory Piesis attack had severed two of the enemy’s legs as they swung down from above, but…
“Stay near me! More attacks are coming!”
Come they did. And it took Dory Piesis to endure them.
She repeatedly released the weapon to intercept the enemy’s attacks. The blows from countless legs reminded her of the Gigantomachy. There, she had been surrounded by countless attacking giants, but…
“Victorious Empress!”
Her god of war’s OS instantly autonomously activated its high-speed senses and scanned the enemy’s actions. Predictions of which legs would be arriving next were displayed along with the time lag. It also automatically suggested an optimal response based on the position of the god of war’s arm and the overheating of its weapon, so she authorized a few of the suggested patterns.
“Honestly.”
She had the coast back home set as Victorious Empress’s virtual cockpit.
She collected shells from the beach and cast her gaze out across the sunny sea.
“When will the opposite coast come into view?”
●
Beisu watched the god of war’s actions.
That was an anti-giant weapon piloted by a super-major god. The feminine machine used its right arm and spear to perfectly defend against the barrage from the sky.
“…!”
It was an umbrella. The spear umbrella opened again and again to repel and break the powerful rainfall.
It sounded like splashing water. The destruction became ether light which scattered and sounded like rain in the light.
The rain rejoiced.
The goddess met the countless attacks with just enough power to destroy them and not a bit more.
“Wow…”
It was like playing a shoot ‘em up game without firing a single wasted shot. It seemed impossible, but didn’t a god of war OS give you high-speed senses? That probably let you do this. And more than that…
“That’s experience.”
Um, yes, he thought. She didn’t seem at all intimidated. It had seemed so much like a shoot ‘em up game to him because she looked like she seemed to have practiced this.
But then something else happened.
Out ahead, the giant – the Anguipede giant, was it? – launched an attack that was like a high-speed jab from dead ahead.
Athena’s god of war was focused overhead, so the horizontal attack got through. Had the enemy planned this? Or had she just gotten frustrated with her overhead attacks not working? Hard to say.
But the attack did look effective, so Beisu…
“…!”
“Beisu-shi!”
TJ’s voice was unexpectedly loud, stopping him just as he started to step forward.
●
Oh, right. I’m weak right now.
●
A moment later, he saw a divine attack.
Below the space protected from the devastating rain by that umbrella, Athena’s god of war roared in her voice.
“Prota – Phloga Basileus!!”
She made a rapid horizontal swing of the short sword she held backhand on her left. The blade opened and the pressure within compressed the air. The superheated blade sent a flare several meters horizontally out from below the umbrella.
She counterattacked.
This wasn’t like the previous destruction. Instead of burning, this shrank the target after igniting it. The pressure was applied to the target itself.
“…!”
The horizontally incoming leg burned away in an instant, flying up into the air as ether light.
Light scattered, leaving behind a space void of enemies.
It wouldn’t last long, but they had secured a safe spot.
Or so Athena thought.
Until something arrived without warning.
Directly ahead, past where she had just swung Prota – Phloga Basileus, stood a giant of about 100m tall.
| Back to Chapter 47 | Return to Main Page | Forward to Chapter 49 |
