On a Godless Planet:Volume2A Prologue
Prologue: Cool Spot[edit]
I will lead you to the hottest place to cool down.
●
The summer sky sat overhead.
There was not a cloud to be seen. Only the sunlight shined down in direct rays.
The sun was shining on a body of flowing water.
It was a large river.
There were too few residences around to say it flowed through a city, but there were woods and hills nearby as it flowed between its ample banks.
The sign atop one of the banks labeled it the Tama River.
But that was not all.
“I never knew it joined the Aki River in such a hidden place! I have no memory of coming this way, so this is really weird, Senpai!”
“I made it so we can walk across the river’s surface, but move too far away and you’ll fall in. So be careful, Sumeragi-kun.”
“Okay!” I replied while moving from the slope of the bank to the flat riverside. The riverside was in the shade of some trees and the pampas grass that was starting to grow in the summer.
Senpai walked a little out ahead of me on the side.
“From what I’ve heard, our job here is an extension of our usual club activities.”
“Yes, the screen told me about it yesterday evening. There’s some river or water spirits that are a little out of whack and we’ve got to…tune the bigger ones? Or something like that?”
“That’s right. Omokane-san told me the ley lines in Okutama have been unstable recently. Isn’t that right, Balancer?”
A glowing screen popped into existence next to her. That was Balancer and the screen followed us as we walked.
<Correct. I have been monitoring it, but I cannot provide that information since I must keep a neutral stance with all of you. I can however confirm that there is a ley line ‘disturbance’.>
“What’s wrong with a disturbance?”
<It could, for example, hinder the effects of techniques like Raidou’s phase manipulation. Also, this Divine World exists in another phase from the real planet, but it is linked by the ley lines. That means a disturbance here can affect the real world.>
“Do you know what is causing it?”
<No comment is all I can say.>
“Hey! Senpai asked you a question! While twisting her body a bit like this and tilting her head like th-this! Well, assume I’ve got boobs here! Imagine them! Ah! It’s creepy when I do it, but I’m doing a virtual Senpai simulation right now, so don’t let it bother you! Anyway, I just want you to know how hard it is to express Senpai’s perfect beauty!”
<Sorry, I stopped listening after the “hey”. Who were you talking to?>
“You!”
Listen.
“That perfect Senpai just asked you if you know what’s causing it and all you gave her was a businesslike response!”
<What else were you expecting from an industrial AI, you idiot?>
“I was expecting love! What else!?”
●
“Did you just hear something?”
“Oh, sorry. I’m working, so I didn’t hear anything even if I did hear it.”
“What a confuuuusing answer.”
●
<Yes, yes, yes.>
I listened to what Balancer said while tilting a bit.
The screen asked me a question.
<You just want me to make Senpai-san look good, don’t you?>
“You better believe it! You’ve gotta make her look good! That way we can lift her spirits! Lift them like you’re grabbing at her underboob and…dammit! How could I be so careless! I forgot to bring a banana with me today! Chiquita!”
<Calm down, idiot.>
“Y-you aren’t even trying to calm me down, are you!?”
<You are sorely tempting me to register you as a strange new creature known for having a short temper when called an idiot. …But I can resist. If you wish me to make Senpai-san look good, then you must first ask me the same question, ape.>
“Do you know what is causing it?”
<Keh.>
<At least say please, idiot.>
●
“How…how dare you!”
<Don’t you get it? I was making Senpai-san look good in comparison by making you look bad.>
“Huh!? You really are dumb! Then you’ve gotta pull out the big guns! Don’t just say ‘keh’! You at least need to mimic chewing me up and spitting me out, totally ignore me afterwards, and then do the ‘oh, are you still here?’ thing a bit later! You can’t half ass it when you’re trying to make Senpai look good!”
<Incredible logic! If there was a road leading here, I would have called an ambulance for you!>
“You two are such good friends.”
“Senpai! Don’t even suggest something so frightening! But since you said it with a smile, I’ll accept the humiliation and become pen pals with the screen! I’ll ask for some specification changes in Letter #1!”
<Yes, yes. Just keep walking. You have work to do.>
Senpai laughed and resumed walking since she had stopped to wait for me.
The greenery around us was very tall as we walked along the stones piled up along the riverside. Eventually, we could no longer see the Fussa-side riverbank we had climbed down or the large park that had been there. The opposite bank was the same. We could see the Tama River, the sandbank, and the Aki River flowing in from the other side of the sandbank, but beyond that we could only see another wall of trees and other plants overgrown in summer.
“I can tell where we are because I’m viewing the phase while I walk, but it’s amazing how much the plants here have grown.”
<Yes, the Tama River flows down from Okutama to the west and the Aki River flows in from the Akigawa Valley to the south. The Tama River has traveled 80km at this point and the Aki River 40km.>
“80km!? It keeps going a long way upriver of here!”
<It does. However, finding the source of the Tama River is not easy. After all, it starts from Lake Okutama. The Kosuge River flows into Lake Okutama, so I have determined that would count as its source.>
“Wow, fascinating!? But we’re not going that far upriver, so why are you wasting our time blathering about it!? Are you okay!? Oh, I know! It’s so hot you’ve finally overheated, haven’t you!? Do you want me to dunk you in the river to cool off!? How about it!?”
<Hm, it would seem my knowledge is wasted on an ape like you. And I was just about to tell you about the leisure options in Okutama and the Akigawa Valley.>
“Leisure? Like what?”
<Summerland is known for its indoor wave pool and they have built a new outdoor roller coaster and freefall, but the discount tickets are sold out of Haijima Station.>
“Haijima, huh!? I’ve been there a few times, but those memories are all fake anyway.”
“What kind of memories?”
I answered Senpai while making sure I didn’t slip on the loose stones on the riverside.
“Four our elementary school field trips, we would go to Mount Mitake and Mount Otake in Okutama. At my school, I’m pretty sure we went to Mount Takao in our 4th year, Mitake in our 5th year, and Otake in our 6th year, so it was kind of like a series of coming of age ceremonies.”
I still had these memories with me.
“There was a rule that we could only buy a snack worth 300 yen, but when I went to buy mine, I saw the Dougram gum that I was really into at the time. It came with a plamo, so of course I had to buy it. I used my leftover money to buy some cheap snack and ate that on the summit of Otake while building Soltic – oh, that’s the enemy mecha! Man, I’m talking fast! And I didn’t have any nippers with me, so I tore the parts out with my teeth!”
“You went all the way to Otake’s summit to build Soltic?”
“Oh, thanks for the divine transmission comment! Anyway, my canine tooth must have been too effective because I tore the dowels off along with the gate, so I couldn’t attach the armor to the arms and legs. When I saw that smooth and weak Soltic without any armor up there on Otake’s summit, I swore to myself I would always bring nippers with me when I went to the mountains. Then when we were doing our reports on the field trip, someone said they saw me eating a plamo on the summit of Otake, so I made sure to correct them: ‘I wasn’t eating it! I was just biting it! And now it’s all smooth!’ ”
<What a stupid boy.>
“You created that memory!”
“I didn’t understand any of that, but I’m sorry that happened to you…I think?”
It was wonderful how Senpai tried to hard to understand but still ended on a question. Such a difference from that screen. Oh, and the way her boobs bounced as she walked along the rocky riverside was also wonderful.
“Hey, we’re over here!”
Shifu-senpai called over to us, so I looked up to find her on the sandbank. She and Kuwajiri had laid out a leisure sheet behind the long pampas grass. A basket full of lunch sat on the sheet and Senpai was also carrying a basket. I could guess what that meant.
“We’re having a bit of a picnic.”
“Yes! That’s right! A picnic! A picky nicky for my nicky picky! Oh, and don’t worry! I have no idea what that means either!”
Shifu-senpai was tilting her head, but I chose to ignore that.
Then Senpai stepped off of the riverbank and onto the river itself.
I followed.
●
After the first step, I could only say that we were walking.
We were simply walking on top of the river.
“Can you walk, Sumeragi-kun?”
“Yes! Just fine!”
Walking on the river’s surface felt a lot like walking on a blanket that didn’t slip below you. It was a really weird feeling and I couldn’t help but wonder what it felt like to do barefoot.
The river had a gentle current, but that didn’t matter.
“Senpai, we walked across that small stream earlier too. What is this?”
“This is thanks to the river spirits, not one of my Auth Spells.”
“Really?” I said while looking around, but the river was just a river. The spirits were not making themselves seen, so I had no way of seeing them.
So I kept walking. Once I crossed to the sandbank, I could see the Aki River on the other side. And…
“Oh? The human is coming too?”
“Huh? Are you working this job too, Apology Man-senpai?”
“The best part is how accurate that nickname is.”
The earnest boy thought for a bit before nodding and turning toward Raidou-senpai.
“Isn’t this dangerous?’
“It’s our first time dealing with Shinto river spirits, but we beat up the local spirits on our planet all the time. And the ones attacking the terraforming site won’t always be dragons, so this will make for good practice.”
“And if the human is caught in the crossfire?”
Raidou-senpai paused before answering.
“Kuwajiri will have another job to do.”
“Sumeragi, you’re not allowed to die, okay?”
“You’re only saying that cause you don’t want to do any more work, aren’t you!? Aren’t you!?”
Meanwhile, something appeared where the Aki River and Tama River’s currents met.
<I’m here, ver.>
●
“A snake?”
I thought it looked big, but it was only about 30cm thick and I couldn’t tell how long it was since it was in the river. At any rate, it looked a lot like a snake and a closer look showed it was made of water.
<They’re coming, ver.>
“A-are you a river spirit?”
<Yes, ver.>
<They’re coming, ver.>
Does it go ‘ver’ because it’s a river spirit? I wondered before something else happened.
<I’m here, ver.>
A bigger one – or at least, a more exciting one – suddenly appeared.
●
Here it comes, thought Shifu. Several serpentine bodies were probably connected at the base to make a Hydra-style beast 30m long, meaning it was a little bigger than midsized, but it did have a fairly clear and exciting color.
Water splashed into the air as several serpentine forms hopped upwards.
<Ver!>
<Ver!.>
The river spirits of the Aki River and Tama River tried to escape, but they rushed too much, ended up heading up the wrong river, and panicked. They hurried back again and got all jumbled up.
“Um, what do we do?”
“Hmm, I guess leave the big one to Tooru’s group while we guide the panicked little ones. If they overheat and get mad, they could join that one. There’s a river branch over there, right?”
“This is coming from the Tama River, so let’s guide the Tama River spirits into the branch splitting off toward the park. Senpai-san.”
“Um, yes! What is it?”
“After guiding them there, we want you to block up the branch’s entrance so they can’t accidentally escape back out of it. Can you do that?”
“Um, if I make it from stone, we’ll have to break it afterwards to get rid of it.”
“Eh? That power of yours isn’t reversible?”
“I can only alter it while creating and transforming it.”
That was a lot less convenient than Shifu had expected. In fact, if she had created that stone hut’s furniture like that, she was quite the craftsman. Her personality shines through there.
“Hey, Shifu! Guide them away, will you!? We don’t have time to mess around right now!”
“You got it. Okay, everyone, come this way!”
●
Raidou watched as Shifu clapped her hands and the roiling river’s surface noisily burst into spray. The river spirits turned her way in response, so Raidou figured her guidance was going to work just fine.
“Okay, let’s get started here!”
He tapped his belt and struck a pose.
“Thor’s Hammer!”
“Isn’t it named Mjolnir in your homeland?’
“Remind me again the name of your primary weapon.”
“The White Sword.”
After a pause, Bilgamesh nodded.
“The name is a trivial matter.”
“Glad you understand.”
He held the hammer in his hand and the striking portion extended vertically to create a 3m sword-shaped hammer.
And with that…
“I strike the spirit…well, scatter it really. Once they’re divided up small enough, they’ll go through an adjustment that calms them down. If you don’t smash them up small enough, the emotion will remain and that can be a pain, so make sure you do it right.”
“Understood.”
Bilgamesh went on to speak the usual words.
“White Sword.”
●
Ki saw her partner’s mistake.
“Oh.”
A valley instantly appeared in front of Bilgamesh. His “sword” was drawn the instant it was spatially ejected, so it was divinely fast even without the speed boost of the gauntlets.
A slash with a distance of 300m and a depth of 25m hit the convergence of the Aki River and Tama River and continued on downstream. And at the very tip….
“Hey, that was the Showa Weir!”
The topmost third of the blade had bisected the large weir taking in water.
The power arrived after the fact. The supersonic spatial ejection instantly turned the split river into mist and the riverbed was blown away with an explosive blast.
The river water was compressed into steam and the stones on the riverbed flew north and south.
The entire river was split.
Then the explosive blast expanded its attack. The riverbed was made of stone so the damage did not continue too deep, but the stones to the left and right were shaken and lifted up in a wave.
“Riverbeds are made of sand where we’re from, so this is pretty incredible.”
Meanwhile, the stones flowed into the bottom of the newly formed valley like a receding wave. The dull sounds of the stones soon became sounds of destruction.
“Looook at ‘em go.”
The rebar and other reinforcing structures inside the weir were torn apart as it was broken open. The burst river water began to pour into there, and…
<Okay, okay, okay, okay! All fixed now!>
Everything went back to normal.
●
…That was amazing.
She meant Balancer’s power. Balancer had created this virtual space modeled after 1990s Japan from human history. There was a limit to the amount of usable ether, but it could still be repaired like this.
All of Bilgamesh’s damage had vanished before her eyes. And at the same time…
“What were you thinking, idiot?”
Raidou struck her partner on the back of the head. It made a nice sound.
“Ow! How dare you strike a king’s head!”
“Shut up and show some restraint.”
The thunder god pointed out ahead. None of Bilgamesh’s mess remained, but…
<That was a surprise, ver.>
<We were split, ver.>
“There’s two of them now?”
“They were split.”
What did that mean? Ki’s partner brought a hand to his chin.
“My White Sword may have been too sharp.”
“Why do you insist on taking a positive view of every single thing?”
That was just his personality. But…
<We’re mad now, ver.>
<We’ve lost our temper, ver.>
A sudden attack arrived.
●
To me, it looked like large trees collapsing
“Th-they’re surprisingly fast!”
The two river spirits had fewer serpents each, but their size was no different from before.
“River spirits will usually have as many snake bodies as the river has branches.”
“Th-that’s fascinating! But it doesn’t help us much right now!”
Both of the spirits were probably targeting Bilgamesh-san, which meant the trees were continually collapsing on the point of the sandbank they were on.
<Rapid fire, ver.>
As the water trees bent like whips and crashed down, the stones flew and scattered. The angry red snakes sent out spray as they changed direction.
“This is pretty refreshing on a hot summer day, Raidou-senpai! Like a shot of energy from an Alinamin Inryo!”
“You’re getting your names mixed up!”
“What are you talking about?”
“He was aiming for Tekkotsu Inryo!”
It was amazing Raidou-san’s group could discuss that while dodging all those attacks.
●
They could walk on the river’s surface, so Raidou used that wider field to move around.
He moved from the sandbank to the river itself.
Bilgamesh and Kidou followed.
“Do they split apart if you cut them?”
“They’ll split apart, join together, and even draw in other spirits to recover. They’re a real pain.”
“What if I froze them with one of my Freeze spells?’
“That won’t work either. It just freezes them.”
Kidou paused to think and then looked up again with an “oh”. They all ducked below the water serpents to dodge them as she spoke.
“So you just get a ‘frozen water spirit’?”
“How was it in your homeland?”
“Well…” she said while shaking her hands side to side. Bilgamesh nodded in a similar fashion.
“Mesopotamia’s spirits are very nearly gods. Instead of serpents like this, our water spirits are half-human, half-fish.”
“Eh? Your spirits are different?”
“Yes,” cut in Kuwajiri. “What exactly the words ‘god’ and ‘spirit’ entail can differ based on the language used for each mythology, so that can be tricky. For example, Mesopotamian water spirits do exist in spirit forms, but they have no name. They simply exist to control the water. But in Shinto…”
“Spirits are everywhere in the world…by which I mean, they’re everywhere just not in a visible form. And their lands are ruled by named gods and nameless local gods or dosojin.”
“So in our case, we don’t have spirits with a fluctuating form modeled after the part of nature in which they reside. And even if we did, there would still be a spirit with a concrete form that existed as their superior.”
“Yes. Whereas Shinto has the gods act as the local managers of the more symbolic spirits.”
“Why are we limited to spirits with definite forms while a later mythology like Shinto includes the formless ones too?”
“I can only theorize, but gods and such were originally created to help humans understand nature. In that sense, the 5th Generation Mesopotamian Mythology created more concrete symbols of nature to help overcome the humans’ fear of nature. The indefinite spirits evolved into clearly defined spirits and those were said to control the rivers and such.
“But as time passed and the land grew more developed, I think that symbolism must have faded and a more systemized society led to the creation of occupational local gods that managed the spirits that existed as more basic symbols of nature. To sum it up:
“Mesopotamia: Spirits control the rivers.
“Shinto: Local gods control the spirits and the spirits control the rivers.
“So it went from a direct control over nature to an indirect one, allowing your spirits to evolve into Shinto’s local gods.”
“Yeah, that’s probably what happened. So…”
Raidou calculated out the timing of a few attacks and gradually moved closer as he looked around him.
He could see some shapes on the river’s surface and atop the long pampas grass.
Those were the nameless Shinto local gods.
●
Shifu was a harvest god.
Pampas grass did not count as a crop, but she still had power over the growth of plants and water also counted as a part of harvest. Thus, she could sense a total of four beings atop the grass and on the river’s surface.
She could see them.
All four were very small and wore Japanese-style inner suits with a cloth hiding their faces. They looked young, some were male and some were female, and they kept their distance.
“Are you local gods?”
She called out to them, but they did not respond. Which meant…
<Shifu, your divine rank is so much higher than theirs that they will not respond to your call. If they did, they might be controlled by the ‘connection’ it created.>
“Yeah, but I wouldn’t do that.”
“Being friends with a harvest god would probably help them out, but it’s probably a combination of caution and ritual. A very Shinto decision. Also, they can lose their power as a local god if their identity is revealed, so they are likely hiding their faces to avoid a higher-ranked god like you from seeing them.”
“Wow, am I really that scary?”
“You’re absolutely terrifying! Oh, no! Your boobs are so scary! Keep those scary boobs away from me! And definitely don’t scare me to death by forcing me to see them in a swimsuit!”
Her karate chop sent the idiot rolling 70m across the riverside.
“Woo hoo! You’re the best for playing along with my jokes, Shifu-senpai!”
“Um, what about me, Sumeragi-kun?”
“Your boobs aren’t scary – they’re awe-inspiring! Which means I mustn’t look at them directly! So the correct way to look at them is to hide myself from your view and try to catch a glimpse when you aren’t looking!”
The idiot prostrated himself before Senpai-chan, rolled closer to her, and then looked up at her from below.
“Ahhhh! I beseech thee, Great Boobs Master!”
“Um, Shifu-san, what am I supposed to do when he does this?”
Kuwajiri-chan whispered “White Sword” behind Shifu, but she chose to ignore that.
“I dunno. Kick him, I guess?”
“Eh? W-would you be okay if I did that, Sumeragi-kun?”
“Yes! I’d be A-OK! Harsh treatment from my god is just another kind of reward! So, um, do it here! Right here please! But not here! That would be too exciting for me!”
He was annoying, so Shifu kicked him instead. He doubled over and flew over into the river.
“Oh, right. He can’t fall in the river.”
He bounced off the river’s surface and then something crashed into him from below.
<What do you want, ver?>
He bounced right on back the way he had come, crashed into the stones of the riverside, and noisily rolled along.
“D-dammit! I feel like the ball in a sea lion show!”
“That was kind of cute.”
“Eh? Really!? I’m glad, Senpai!”
<I’m glad, ver.>
“Well, I’m not glad with you! …Anyway, I want Senpai to kick me next time!”
That’s an awful lot of background noise, thought Shifu while looking atop the pampas grass.
The local gods were averting their gaze from hers.
“Look, they’re ignoring us after Sumeragi-chan’s little show.”
<Um, you still have a job to do elsewhere, so can you hurry it up?>
“What do you mean?”
Balancer displayed a map of the area on a Revelation Board.
<This point where the Aki River and Tama River converge is at the midpoint between the cities of Akikawa, Fussa, Akishima, and Hachioji. The disturbance in the river spirits is coming from upstream on the Tama River, which puts the problem upstream of Fussa, so the local god of Fussa is essentially causing problems for the local gods from the other three regions. Of course, the problem in Fussa is in fact being caused further upstream in Hamura, Oume, or somewhere like that, so the Fussa local god will be less than pleased to take the blame.>
“Well, river management is all about collective responsibility, so Fussa will have to take the initial complaints when a problem occurs at this convergence point.”
“Middle management jobs can’t be fun.”
At any rate, Shifu understood what Kuwajiri meant.
“Tooruuuu! This is causing trouble, so hurry it up!”
It came down to this:
“It was the local gods and spirits from Fussa to Okutama that helped us out in the battle against the Mesopotamian pair, wasn’t it!?”
●
I see, thought Bilgamesh as he opened a Revelation Board and searched for a useful weapon.
He moved forward while dodging the rampaging river spirits’ attacks.
“So if we do not help out here, the local gods and spirits will not provide assistance like they did in the battle against us?”
“More or less. We’d better show them what we can do!”
With that, the thunder god raced across the river’s surface.
He charged right at the collections of snakes.
●
The convergence of the two rivers could not be seen from the bank.
But the voices of several boys and girls and some violent splashes and crashes could be heard from there.
Some kind of commotion was clearly underway.
A single form sighed below the summer sky after hearing that.
A tall girl stood atop the bank with a parasol in hand. She wore a new style uniform and brushed back curly black hair that almost looked blue.
“They are second to none when it comes to causing a scene, that’s for sure.”
She sighed again and began to walk. Following the bank west would take her to Fussa Minami Park alongside the Tama River. Continuing north from there would bring her to JR Haijima Station.
That was a decent distance from here, but it was the closest one. There was a bus from the park entrance, so she would not have to rely too much on the parasol to keep the summer sun off.
She turned in that direction, but then she noticed something.
She saw two people standing in front of the pampas grass near the unseen convergence of rivers.
One was a black-haired girl and the other a boy hopping around. She focused on the boy and opened her mouth.
“Izumi. I’m glad to see you are doing well.”
She sighed.
“Even if I can no longer be anywhere near you.”
●
She began to walk once more. Toward the park entrance. To the west. She took a brisk pace so the two by the pampas grass would not see her. However…
“Oh?”
A white form approached at her feet.
It was a pure white weasel. Or was it a ferret?
“Shitaharu? Is that what his is about? …Omokane.”
She called the name to no avail. But Omokane was not the type to obediently show herself, so…
“Understood. You are somewhere in the park, aren’t you? Guide me, Shitaharu.”
She smiled bitterly.
“Tell your master that Kido Abinae is back from her trip to Kurashiki and ready to tell Izumi’s boss all about it.”
A terrible noise reached her ears as she spoke.
The tuning of the spirits in charge of the Okutama river had begun.
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