On a Godless Planet:Volume2A Preface

Inner Cover

Local Snacks

“Snacks?”

“That’s right, that’s right,” replied Shifu while they shopped in Will’s basement. “When you’re camping out in a tent, you’ve just gotta gather around the campfire, eat snacks, and chat or gather in the girls’ tent, eat snacks, and chat, right?”

“Don’t ask me. I never followed that sort of custom.”

“Custom?”

“I’m pretty sure it’s not that local a thing. How about you, Senpai-chan?”

“Eh? I lived with my sister in the mountains, so we pretty much never interacted with anyone else.”

“…”

“Do I need to say it again?’

“Um, if you don’t want to talk about it, you don’t have to.”

“N-no, this is something I kind of want to complain about! Not only did my marriage fall through, but I was never allowed to develop any communication skills!”

“But your sister turned out all right.”

“I wonder why that was.”

“W-well, it really comes down to the other person’s tastes and your compatibility with them.”

“I know I brought it up, but I think continuing with this conversation will make Senpai-chan go wild.”

“Then let me ask you this: how were things in the Norse regions?”

“Hmm. We had our chief god’s castle – or hall, I guess you’d call it – so we’d go there to chat when we were bored. Back at home, Tooru would always be in that hall and the other gods would visit and stay there a lot.”

“The snow really accumulated during the winter, so the custom was for everyone to gather in the one large hall. That cut down on fuel costs, but it also kept us safer from disasters.”

“Yeah, like that. So we knew a ton of ways to kill time when we were bored. We would tell stories, play games, go hunting, and even play sports.”

“Yes. Our indoor games were especially well developed. We had a lot of gambling methods using tokens made of bone or stone and we also developed a lot of different foods.”

“…”

“No fair, Norse Mythology! All Shinto has are poor communicators whose schtick is giving over-the-top reactions to everything!”

“Not sure that counts as a schtick.”

“Anyway, in regions that get closed off by snow, the local groups have to be friendly or they will die out. I think you can see remnants of those customs and ways of life in the mythologies there.”

“Weren’t we talking about snacks? How does Shinto stack up there?”

“Oh, I’m from the mountains, so I do pretty well with snacks. We have fruits and honey and things like that, but Shinto also has the ultimate weapon known as mochi.”

“Isn’t mochi that ultimate weapon that always causes a stir around New Year’s by choking a ton of people?”

“Figuratively speaking! It’s a weapon figuratively speaking!”

<Mizuame existed back when the Kojiki was being compiled, so you have plenty of options when it comes to sweets. At the time, there were a lot of dairy sweets, so it is fascinating to see what they used as preservatives.>

“Would it be cheesier when they used salt and creamier when they used mizuame?”

“That makes sense to me, but we won’t actually be making these on our training camp like it’s a field trip or something, will we?”

“I should hope not. …Anyway, you never mentioned what Izumi’s favorite snack is.”

<He is a big boobs worshiper, so wouldn’t it be big boobs?>

“Then based on the Shinto stuff we were just discussing, should we buy him one of those giant cheeses they’re selling over there? Since it is a dairy product, I mean.”

“That does make some amount of sense, but…you’re planning to eat that with your drinks, aren’t you?”

Who let her know that’s what we Norse types mean we talk about snacks? wondered Shifu.

Divine Chat Zone

“Okay, let’s talk about some novels for younger readers. Specifically, the labels that sold them in the 80s and 90s. We can define them as labels that specialized in publishing novels with manga or anime style art for the covers or illustrations.”

“Then we’ve gotta talk about Asahi Sonorama’s Sonorama Bunko. When they had a green spine, they would have ‘SF’, ‘mystery’, or some other genre written at the top, so they had a real hodgepodge look in the bookstore.”

“They originally didn’t have that genre labeling and were just an ordinary novel label, right? When you see their novels lined up in release order on the shelves, you can really see them getting more and more specialized as time goes on.”

“But in ’89, the green spine was changed to white and they eliminated the genre labeling in an attempt to look more refined. Instead, they put a lot more information on the back cover. They updated the illustrations for a lot of their novels then too, so I think that was the first time you were faced with the choice of rebuying things you already owned.”

“I know this is ignoring the time period we were discussing, but what about Dengeki?”

“You may think that’s ignoring the time period, but Dengeki Bunko’s parent company Mediaworks started in ’92, so it isn’t that far away from what we were discussing. Sneaker Bunko and Fujimi Fantasia Bunko were both established in ’88 and they picked up speed with their involvement in games, TRPGs, and animes.”

“Looking at these, the design of the spine differs a lot. And there sure was a lot being established around that time.”

<But a couple of decades later, they were releasing too many books and it really looked like they needed to slow it down some!>

Table of Contents

This is a world modeled after Tachikawa in 1990. The only human and the many gods there have begun the terraforming needed to create a new world for the humans, but all they end up doing is chatting a lot, getting into fights, getting sidetracked, and playing board games. Now, a truly unpredictable story awaits you. Or maybe it doesn’t. Whatever.

Story

“Here is a guide to the story so far. It’s full of spoilers, so be careful if you were thinking of reading the earlier books later.”

On a Godless Planet: Planet Crafting with Senpai and Me (1-A) (1-B)

The Story so Far:

It is 1990 in Tachikawa. While the possibility of terraforming extraterrestrial planets is being investigated, Sumeragi Izumi, a 2nd year in high school, has enjoyed his summer break. A beautiful and busty “Senpai” moves in next door and he ends up meeting her again in a new VR game where Senpai and a guide AI called Balancer informs him that Tachikawa and the rest of the world are a VR space created by Balancer. Humanity has already entered outer space and an AI-run terraforming has begun while humanity is in cold sleep.

But the other planets are already occupied by data entities known as “planetary spirits” and only the Earth-born data entities known as “gods” can resist those spirits. Currently, the gods created by Balancer are working on the terraforming, but the gods and Balancer created Sumeragi as a human worshiper to strengthen the gods. In other words, Senpai and the other club members are all gods. This revelation excites Sumeragi, but then an inspector from the Divine Council (DC) arrives to take control of the terraforming. Sumeragi and the others manage to reject the inspector’s demands, but Sumeragi himself is killed. He is resurrected through the terraforming system, but he has lost a portion of his memories and has forgotten all about Senpai.

Meanwhile, it is discovered that Senpai’s true identity is Iwanaga-hime, who shortened humanity’s lifespan. Since she might shorten Sumeragi’s lifespan, she hides at the Terraforming site where the planetary spirits are running wild.

While she awaits her forced return, Sumeragi regains his memories, reaches her, and convinces her to work with him once more. Through his faith, Senpai “manifests as a god” for the first time and repels the flame dragons that are the planetary spirits. The terraforming will now be centered on those two.

Word

• Terraforming

“Modifying a planet to be livable for humans. Humanity wants to do this to planets out in space now that Earth’s environment has worsened.”

• Rollback

“The act of resurrecting Sumeragi from a backup when he dies. As a special bonus, I’ve made it so he changes sex when he eats a banana.”

What?

• About the Terraforming

“So far, the terraforming work has included understanding how this star system came to be and figuring out what to do about the planet’s rotation and revolution. This is all foundational stuff, including the reason why we can’t let the planet freeze or overheat.”

“The next task is to hold a lecture on how the planet will change based on the exact actions and decisions made.”

• About Mythology

“Mythologies were not created individually. They spread and changed over time as humanity migrated around the world and various cultures spread with them. We also discussed the Pangaea Mythology, the foundation of human myths that began the various ancient mythologies.”

• About Other Things

“The Norse group and the one true god were working with Shinto to begin with, but our Mesopotamian group joined them later.”

Newcomer!

• Game Club Members

Sumeragi’s upperclassmen and classmates belong to the game club. They are mostly Norse gods, but there is the one true god and other gods as well. These are the “original members”.

• Mesopotamians

They arrived to inspect the terraforming or take certain privileges, but they joined after some fighting and negotiating. Inspector Eshtar continues to work as an inspector so she can act as an intermediary with the DC.

Character

Sumeragi Izumi

Protagonist. High School Year 2. Game club member. Main consoles are the Mega Drive, the PC-98, and the MSX2. Big boobs worshiper. Has no filter whatsoever. Seriously, none. Tends to make strange noises. Background noise on legs. Is something of a problem, but isn’t a bad person. It’s fine.

Senpai

Senpai. High School Year 3. Game club member? Has difficulty saying no. 175cm tall and busty. Seems like the gentle type but actually has an odd amount of energy. Seems to use her flustered expression more than the normal one. Is a Shinto god and is actually Iwanaga-hime.

Raidou Tooru

High School Year 3. Game club member. 195cm tall. The reliable big brother type. Surprisingly intellectual. Gets worked up playing games, but isn’t very good at them. Main consoles are the Famicom and the X68. A real fighter. Big boobs worshiper. Is Thor, Norse god of war, and primarily handles the fighting.

Shifu Saku

High School Year 3. Game club member. 185cm busty blonde. Raidou’s wife. The accepting mom type. Thor’s wife Sif from Norse Mythology and also his other wife Jarnsaxa. A harvest god.

Kuwajiri Tsubomi

High School Year 2. Game club member. 155cm tall. An intellectual with a sharp tongue. Something like a little sister to Raidou and Shifu? Good at games that don’t require reflexes. Kvasir, Norse god of knowledge. Has fairly high blood alcohol content.

Yomoji Shinsei

High School Year 3. Game club member. 205cm tall. Club leader. Stretches his words when he talks. Crazily tolerant yet intolerant. Absurd. Monotheistic god. The four letters one. Harsh with his believers.

Balancer

An AI made by humanity and a 30cm square. Currently works as a manager for the terraforming. However, most of their authority has been transferred to the gods, so he ignores an awful lot for a manager. Gets into a lot of insult battles with Sumeragi. Also provides exposition. This 90s world is a data world known as a Divine World that Balancer created.

Omokane Yatsui

High School Year 3. Shinto Representative in the Divine World. 170cm tall. Is Omoikane, Heavenly God of knowledge. Is also the Library Committee Head and works behind the scenes for Shinto. Maybe a little too much.

Kubiko Scarecrow

High School Year 3. Library Committee member in glasses and Kuebiko, Shinto god of knowledge and security. 175cm tall. Is only at the Earthly God level, but acts as Omokane’s overseer. Busty.

Sugawara Tenma

High School Year 1. 150cm tall. Is Sugawara no Michizane, Shinto god of learning, and also a lightning god and negotiation god, so she is multitalented.

Shamhat

Temple prostitute god from Mesopotamian Mythology. Originally human. 160cm tall. Down for anything if the price is right. More of a worrier than you would think and likes to help out. Busty.

Bilgamesh

Half-god half-human from Mesopotamian Mythology. 190cm tall. Tucks his shirt in. Later known as Gilgamesh, which is the better known name. DIY’d his equipment, created laws as a king, and did a lot of other stuff while doing a lot of “stuff” with Enkidu.

Kidou En

Busty. Enkidu, a half-god half-human from Mesopotamian Mythology. Also known as Ki. 180cm tall. Is Bilgamesh’s partner and is about as powerful as him, but she currently uses spells more often. Was originally a guy, but made herself into a girl.

Eshita Inana

Eshtar, a major god from Mesopotamian mythology. Shinto Terraforming Inspector and Karamucho lover. So she’s also known as Mucho. Insta-killed Sumeragi and fears Senpai.

Interlude

“Um, Senpai! What were doing today, again?”

“Well, we’re going to a river in Fussa, past Akishima to the west of Tachikawa, for a job Balancer asked us to do. The others are already there, so we’re catching up with them. Oh, and it’s August 12, making it the middle of summer break.”

“Stop expositioning and get over here.”

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