On a Godless Planet:Volume1A Chapter 17

Chapter 17: SimEarth 04

Round and round it goes

Often in unnecessary directions

“Okay, Sumeragi-kun. The other gods have agreed to help, so how do you want to do things now?”

I considered Senpai’s question.

She was referring to the terraforming.

We had to make the planet’s environment habitable for humans in the end.

But this star system and planet had molds that rejected us. Because there were no myths about this place, there was something like the formless “original divine molds” here and those were our enemy.

“Hey, screen. Was what you showed us a summary of how this star system was formed leading up to now?”

<Yes. That was the small-scale division of the star and the creation of habitable planets in similar orbits. That altered the position and orbit of the star system as a whole, but it will stabilize in about 300 million years. There have also been orbital changes from the alterations we have made to the planets’ movement and composition, but you can think of that as what happens when the star system’s mythology is altered via the molds.>

This was the same as the previous conclusion.

<This star system’s mythology has the star as the mother and the sibling planets having control mostly taken away by the mother’s children. …So most of the planets will oppose us while viewing that mother as their leader.>

“But thankfully, the few planets we’re interested in have an orbit that gives them a habitable environment, so we don’t have to worry about changing their orbit, right?”

That left one question on my mind.

“Senpai, is this planet rotating?”

●

This made me feel a little happy as an upperclassman.

“Well done noticing that, Sumeragi-kun.”

I praised her and felt a little proud myself. This meant Sumeragi was a partner capable of coming up with ideas and noticing things herself and I was her upperclassman and partner.

But as for everyone behind me…

“Sure tooook her a while to notice thaaaat.”

“I’m glad I don’t have to praise someone for being that stupid.”

“I honestly thought she was never going to notice. Sorry for underestimating you.”

“Moving ahead without altering the rotation would’ve been interesting, though!”

“Okay, can we not be so mean!?”

This was tricky, but they had the higher divine ranks. I wasn’t sure if I could talk back to them, but I was in charge of Sumeragi, so I decided to do my best. That said, what was I supposed to do?

<I mentioned that the planet had destroyed and stopped itself during the terraforming and that is what led to its current state. The rotation was also stopped as part of that. …Thinking back, it probably did not stop its revolution around the star because that could lead to collisions with the other planets and “they” did not want that much destruction.>

“It’s like a venomous animal spewing its toxin to say ‘stay back’.”

“Yeah, you can’t let your guard down about that, Tooru.”

“Sumeragi? Do you understand? This planet does not want to rotate and you have to do something about it.”

“That means it isn’t going to move easily. So what will you do, Sumeragi-kun?”

When asked what she would do, she turned toward me.

“Senpai, can you get it moving?”

●

I decided to give Sumeragi’s question a proper response.

“I can’t right now, but I will be able to in the future. At the moment, I only have a small territory on this planet, but if I expand that to the point that I can control the planet, I should be able to control its rotation.”

Most gods were bound by the same conditions. That was why they increased their level and their divine rank. Even the puniest god had a chance. That was what made it worth doing.

However…

“If you take too long, the bigshot gods come to complain, right? So you outsource that to the gods who can do that stuff and reclaim your rights afterwards.”

“Have your memories returned?”

She (or he?) paused and then tilted her head.

“I don’t remember anything like that, but I can make some guesses. Oh, but does that mean there’s precedent for how I’m thinking about your boobs right now!? Incredible!”

“I’m pretty sure that’s just who you are as a person.”

“Hey, stop interrupting! I was going to use that to have her let me praise them at close range! Give back my opportunity! Give it back!”

“Okay, I got that out of my system.”

“That was fast! And are you okay? Are you sure you didn’t forget to put something in between there?”

Sumeragi tried to put her hand in between her breasts but it would not fit.

“Dammit! And when you gave me the perfect setup too! I’m so useless!!!!”

“D-don’t worry, Sumeragi-kun. It’s the thought that counts!”

“Only if we’re going to take a really spiritual view of things…”

“W-we’re gods, aren’t we!? Aren’t we!?”

Kuwajiri-san could be quite strict.

●

I felt like we needed to hurry this along. Oh, but any delays caused by me saying too much didn’t count. I had to mentally prepare myself after all. If someone suddenly put a nice pair of titties in front of you and told you to grope them, could you just do it!? Wouldn’t you assume it had to be some kind of crime or setup or something!? I’d still do it, though. No matter what happened afterwards, that grope could never be taken away from me. And no matter what happened afterwards, I knew how to play the victim. Yes, and to prepare, I needed to practice the ideal finger movements.

<Um, stupid? Why are you muttering to yourself and groping the air while staring at me?>

“Huh!? Who are you calling stupid!? Do you really think I’d ever ‘stoop’ to using my ‘id’!?”

<I have the common psychological concepts of the Divine World’s time period installed to help make it more realistic, so I can say confidently that you function almost entirely on id.>

“Ahhhh! This AI knows more about being stupid than me!”

“Upset about it?”

“Not at all. Anyway, Senpai, I need to study up on psychology so this dumb AI doesn’t know more than me.”

“Eh? Oh, um, you want to study? We can do that later. Sure.”

I expressed my joy by jumping around and running in a 100m-radius circle. And…

“How about that, Balancer!? Jealous!?”

<Sure, sure. Now can we please get on with the terraforming?>

“You are jealous! I can see it on your face! Um, so what am I supposed to do!?”

“Don’t shout. Rotate.”

That sounded like some kind of motto, but the blatantly scornful look on Kuwajiri’s face told me not to say so out loud. Yes, I was all about not rocking the boat. …Occasionally.

“So we need to outsource the rotation, but who can do that for us?”

●

After I asked that, Raidou-senpai gestured toward Yomoji-senpai.

“Planetary movement generally goes to Yomoji. In fact, he’s the only god of any mythology that can safely do the rotation at this stage.”

“Well, therrre is a problem for meee too.”

“The problem isn’t with Yomoji-chan himself, so don’t worry.”

This was apparently tricky. But…

“What does that mean?”

<If the world-creation myth has the god do something that can be interpreted as planetary rotation or if that is later accepted as part of the god’s job, then that god or the gods of that mythology can control planetary rotation as part of their authority.>

“Planetary rotation in a myth?”

Hm? I wondered.

“How many of these myths were made after they knew the earth revolved around the sun?”

“I’m impressed, Sumeragi. The absolute bare minimum of world history knowledge remains in your brain.”

“Yesss, that is one hell of a compliment! A compliment about knowledge from Kuwajiri is the best! Oh? What’s this, Kuwajiri-kun? Is that a ‘I am going to kill her’ look you’re giving me, hmmmm?”

<Her skill at provocation is next to none, so I would be careful with sarcasm if I were you.>

You got that right. I haven’t spent life as a small fry without learning a thing or two!

But Shifu-senpai laughed a little.

“It’s true the rotation would be pretty much impossible for us.”

“Yeah, for us, the sun and moon are chasing after each other in a rather negative way where the world tree took root.”

“If only Jormungand was spinning the world for us…”

It was apparently time for the Norse group to complain. But…

“So Yomoji-senpai can do the rotation?”

I was pretty sure there was a story that worked against that. Y’know, that one. Um…

“Galileo, was it? Um, that whole thing with the earth revolving around the sun. Yomoji-senpai’s thugs or whoever were against that, weren’t they?”

<Are they a gang or something?>

“No, no,” said Yomoji while waving his hands side to side.

“That one was a realllly bad move. I don’t like rejectinnng more developed ideaaas. You need to be more flexible.”

But…

“Myyy people actually took that one baaack in 1992, so it’s accepted nowww. That means the heliocentric theory is under my controlll now.”

“For realsies!?”

Oh, I realized.

“It’s 1990 right now, isn’t it?”

<It is actually past 3000 CE, idiot. But…>

“Do you get it? It’s about politics.”

“…”

“What is it, Sumeragi-kun?”

“Oh, um, that line sounded familiar.”

“––––––”

Yes, I remembered it.

I had never heard it before, but I hadn’t forgotten it. That meant I just had to speak the thought that had popped into my mind.

“Some people had this world set before ’92 so Yomoji-senpai wouldn’t be given too much authority, right?”

And…

“There are a lot of things like that and if the terraforming gets delayed, then (for example) Yomoji-senpai can do the rotation without worrying about all that. And that’s a problem for some gods and a plus for others!”

●

<That is correct. I doubt you would understand if we explained everything to you at once, so how about you start with the terraforming? If anything you do would be a problem, we will respond appropriately. We will do what we can to prevent that and even act in your stead if necessary. …That is what this means.>

“I see,” I said with a nod. But…

…Huh?

“Um, Senpai? Can I ask something?”

“Yes, what is it?”

“I get now why Yomoji-senpai can do the rotation. But why would Shinto be able to do it? Isn’t Shinto mythology fairly old?”

“Oh, I’d like to know that too. How does that work?”

Everyone was really interested in this. Although Kuwajiri must have already known because she simply placed a hand on her chin. Senpai blushed a little as everyone’s eyes gathered on her.

“Um, there is a bit of a theory about Shinto mythology.”

She went on to explain.

“This world was created out of chaos…um, and the world in this context is not the entire universe. It means the stage on which people live. It’s usually interpreted as a planet or a country. …Now, that world was created when the divine couple of Izanagi and Izanami worked together and used a spear to stir up the white stew of chaos.”

And…

“That stirring created some islands and that is how the country was created according to Shinto.”

“So that stirring is interpreted as the planet’s rotation? That is a bit of a stretch, but it is definitely an act of the gods. The divine couple rotated the world to create the land there…and you have defined that as the planet’s rotation.”

“Also, the Shinto sun goddess of Amaterasu Okami does not move across the sky everyday like you would expect with the geocentric theory. Instead, she remains in the world of the gods, which is known as Takamagahara, where she acts as the center of politics, so that is interpreted as a rejection of the geocentric theory and an indication of the heliocentric theory.”

“Who let those super forced interpretations go through?”

●

Tenma spoke at the library counter while reading the book and gradually figuring out how to flip through the train schedule.

“Omokane-senpai really seems to be a step ahead of us, but how did that happen?”

“To be blunt, Amaterasu Okami is indebted to her, as are the other gods, so she can do pretty much whatever she wants.”

●

“But that’s the thing,” I heard Shifu-senpai say.

“Shinto is a later mythology, so it’s not really fair.”

“Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. This is all the result of coincidence and forced explanations!”

“And they stuck a spear into a white stew and stirred it up to create a country? Sounds pretty dirty to me.”

“No, no! It’s symbolism! Not a euphemism! Symbolism!”

I should remember this, I decided.

But then Kuwajiri raised her hand.

“By the way, the heliocentric theory did exist well into the past.”

“It did?”

“Yes. Similar concepts could be seen in different parts of the world even in BCE times. It’s one of the ways of thinking that developed when people observed the astronomical bodies. In Europe, Aristarchus of Greece proposed it at around 200 BCE and the idea was established at around 400 BCE in China. …Although in China’s case, they only had the general concepts of ‘heaven’ and ‘earth’, so they weren’t talking about astronomical bodies. And in CE times, Middle Eastern astronomers realized it at around the 7th Century, but it didn’t spread far since it didn’t mesh well with Islam’s teachings.”

“Another case where myths like ours just get in everyone’s way.”

“Perrrsonally, I don’t care eitherrr way.”

“But don’t those things eventually get reverse-imported into the myths like with Yomoji-senpai?”

“The heliocentric theory was spread by the Jesuits, so that would be the…15th or 16th Century? That puts it past when the myths came about, so the later mythologies don’t even have that in them. And with the existing myths, there was no real need to incorporate the heliocentric theory into them. In fact, it was best to avoid that since it might conflict with their teachings. …At times like that, they tend to take a divided view where the teachings determine the extent of the gods’ abilities and the scientists determine how things actually work. But…”

“That makes the myths and the gods something separate from the human world, doesn’t it? They’re a little too good at segregating us away, aren’t they?”

“And that is why myyy advantage shines so bright.”

●

It seemed to me like the authority deck was stacked too heavily in certain gods’ favor.

Yomoji-senpai was probably well outside the norm. He was blatantly OP.

And he also had the ability to, uh, “create” humans like me in his myths, so…

“The authority is all focused on certain gods, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, that’s why we use politics and other dirty tricks to get around that.”

Come to think of it, this whole outsourcing thing was an example of that.

<But what should we do about the angle and speed of rotation?>

“Can you make it rotate 120 times a second?”

“Going the house or techno route, huh?”

“It’d be hilarious if there were eruptions and lightning strikes giving it a nice booming beat to go with it.”

“Pff…”

Imagining that seemed to tickle Senpai’s funny bone, so she was out of commission for a bit. But…

“Is it bad to make the speed rise and fall?”

“How fast do you think it is rotating right now?”

“About 35km/h?”

“In 1990 terms, the earth is rotating at 1674km/h on the equator.”

“Man, we’re zooming along!”

“Oh? But it’s slowed quite a bit. The speed drops by 8km/h every 10 million years.”

<The balance between the moon and the ocean water on the earth’s surface acts as a stopper. When the earth was formed 4.6 billion years ago, it was rotating fast enough for a day to be 5 hours long. …Now, if you did want to make it faster, the earth’s gravitational pull and centrifugal force enter equilibrium when the speed surpasses 25,000km/h at the equator. That is approximately 15 times 1674km/h, so a single rotation would take a little over 90 minutes.>

“Is that at all relevant for the terraforming?”

“With a faster rotation speed, the lighter gasses in the atmosphere are flung out into space. If you could control that well, you could create a planet with only the gasses you wanted. …In fact, the original earth’s speedy rotation tossed out the unnecessary gasses to create the environment it later had.”

To sum up, a fast rotation had its uses.

●

When Sumeragi started to think, Raidou spoke to Kuwajiri.

“Kuwajiri.”

“Yes?”

“Sumeragi doesn’t tease you when you’re explaining things for her.”

“…”

“That does not change my opinion of her.”

That was fine, so he patted her on the shoulder and said one last thing.

“There’s a lot we couldn’t manage without you. You’re doing a good job.”

●

There really are a lot of possibilities out there, I thought. So…

“Any other reasons why a fast rotation would be good?”

“I would really prefer not to say it, but politics.”

“Politics? How so?”

“Well,” said Senpai.

“If the rotation is sped up to a 90-minute day with the gravitational pull and centrifugal force in equilibrium at the equator, the natural environment would be a complete mess. But if gods like us terraform it and create phases and molds, I think we could create areas that would remain safe even without us. In that case, the planet would be habitable and reaching satellite orbit would be quite easy. I mean, you could ignore the pull of gravity at the equator.”

“Oh, so it would be a ridiculous terraforming that showed the later humans that they could use that planet for resources.”

“More than resources, you could also make a resort out of the natural environment. You could also dock spaceships and whatnot without using much fuel going in and out of orbit.”

“So your imagination’s the limit…”

“With a god creating phases and molds to support you, you really can have pretty much anything you imagine. Of course, the bigger things would need to be outsourced.”

“Hmm, but, um…isn’t this planet’s composition almost identical to earth’s?”

<The volume is extremely similar. The mass is not an issue either, so it can be used to create an environment almost identical to earth’s.>

“Then,” I said.

“I think that’s a good enough answer as to what would happen if Senpai and I worked on terraforming this planet and didn’t ask for any outsourcing.”

●

Even I understood some of this.

“If Senpai and I just kept working at it, we could create the land, the sea, and the mountains together. We could do pretty well on the surface.”

But…

“But if we sped up the rotation, that surface might break. I mean, we’re imagining a world like the Divine World which is based off of 90s earth, so…”

“You want the same rotation speed as the 90s earth?”

“Yes. The 90s, or the earth from that period, is what I want to create with you and where I want to be with you afterwards.”

How would that work? My thoughts here were kind of complicated. After all…

“That Divine World is only based on the 90s, so I don’t really know that era. I mean, I’m a created being. But…”

I decided to say it.

If that was all I knew, then that was fine with me. And…

…If that 90s world is where Senpai is, then that’s fine with me too.

That was more than enough, so I started to say so.

“–––––”

But Senpai pulled me close and hugged me.

●

“Ohh,” gasped Shifu.

This was sudden.

Without warning, Senpai-chan hugged Sumeragi. She went at it pretty forcefully, so a certain thought came to mind on reflex.

…She’s eating her!!

But that was not what this was. This is one way of expressing herself.

Yeah, that’s right.

This is the right way of doing it, she thought.

“What is this about?”

“I’m don’t know the details, but Senpai-chan was an estranged god. She may have been removed from the main lineup for some reason. She is still worshiped, but only as a family member, I guess? If not for that, I think she would have been an unworshiped god.”

But…

“Then Sumeragi-chan found her and said they could work together.”

And…

“Sumeragi-chan is a created being and most of her memories and everything are preinstalled lies. Since she’s a human, she truly is all alone. She just became aware of that. She’s saying a lot of stuff, but she knows she doesn’t really have anything of her own. …Only Senpai-chan really understands how that feels, so she wants to show Sumeragi-chan that she has a partner who will work with her.”

“…”

Kuwajiri said nothing. It could always be doubtful whether or not she understood everything.

But Shifu hoped it had gotten through to her.

Because Kuwajiri was also a being created by the gods.

“…Ridiculous.”

“Right?”

“You aren’t going to deny it?”

“Why would I?” she said with a smile.

“Hugging someone and holding them close isn’t very efficient. It uses up both hands, narrows your field of vision, and keeps you from moving.”

But…

“That kind of ridiculous stuff is the best.”

●

“I really, really want to run away right now.”

“You’re luuucky I’m the only other guy here.”

“Norse gods base our pride in battle and victory, so the only real romantic relationships in our myths are about conquest and kidnapping. Normal romances tend not to turn out well…”

“Tooru! I can hear you!”

●

…I can hear all of you too!!

I’d done it.

But I regret nothing! Well, I actually regret a lot. And I would probably come to regret a lot more.

…But anyway.

I had wondered earlier what would happen when Sumeragi-kun learned my identity, but that was a tough question to consider. The way I was pushed away in the past came rushing back to me.

When he originally chose me, he had known that when he did it.

So I wanted to think it would be fine.

But…

…He forgot all about that during the first rollback.

That meant he did not know my identity.

But he still said he wanted to be with me. I was going along with that, but what would he think when he learned the truth again?

I didn’t know.

I wanted to trust in him. So…

“S-Sumeragi-kun.”

I could sense something in him…well, her now. That one and only human was feeling lonely.

That reminded me of when I was unchosen and alone. It was so much like how I had accepted that and acted like it was unavoidable.

But I did not have to accept it and it was not unavoidable.

This person here had wanted me.

So I wanted to convey the same gratitude and feelings she had given me.

“If you are ever feeling lonely, just remember that I am with you now.”

“Yay!”

I can hear you!

But had I gotten through to him…no, her? Had I shown her that I would be with her just like she said she would be with me?

“Sumeragi-kun?”

Sumeragi suddenly went limp in my arms.

“Eh!?”

Her knees gave out and I quickly tried to support her, but I was too slow. She fell to her knees and then collapsed to the side. I had no idea what had happened or how to respond, so Balancer spoke up.

<Perhaps she suffocated?>

“Mediiiiiic!!”

Sorry, but that’s my job.

●

I apparently passed out for around seven minutes.

Senpai grabbed my shoulders and sat me up.

“Waaahhh! Are you okay!? Are you okay, Sumeragi-kun!?”

“I’m the one who has to fill out the rollback form for Kunugi-senpai, so please don’t make me write ‘suffocated by boobs’ in the cause of death field.”

I more or less understood what happened.

“I had a valuable experience!”

I looked back in my memories. Yes. Senpai had hugged me and I was all like “More! Do it more!” while breathing in to fill my lungs with boob air.

“It smelled really good…and then I passed out.”

But the pressure had been incredible. They were really firm and there was so much…volume to sink into, I guess you would say? Also, the high body temperature and dampness made it all seem more real.

I tried groping my own boobs to see if I could reproduce the feeling, but…

“It’s just not enough…”

“Eh!? Eh!? Do you want to feel mine!? Is that it, Sumeragi-kun!? Do you need to feel them to recover from the brain damage!? That’s it, isn’t it!?”

“No! Senpai, if you let me do it now, it would be out of sympathy for nearly killing me! Sumeragi Izumi is not the type to accept a pity grope! That would be wrong!”

“I think she’s gone completely insane now.”

“Yeah, is it like having some corrupted cache stuck in memory?”

“Heyyyyyy! I’m perfectly sane!””

Everyone but Senpai gave me a highly skeptical look, but that just meant Senpai was on my side.

<Since we are done discussing the rotation, let’s move on to the planetary axis.>

“Aren’t you a little too businesslike!?”

●

“So what’s a planetary axis?”

You don’t even know that? I thought while displaying a diagram.

<A planetary axis is the central axis on which a planet rotates. Think of it like the central stick of a top.>

“Oh, that stick you stab through a roast chicken!”

That was not a central axis at all, but this was getting annoying, so as an AI, I decided to let it slide.

<The question is what angle to put it at.>

“What angle? What’s wrong with straight?”

“Um,” cut in someone else. It was Kuwajiri.

“It would still depend on the rotation and revolution, but a straight axis would almost entirely eliminate any sunlight to the poles, leaving them completely frozen.”

But the idiot did not seem to understand, so I displayed a diagram.

First, a circle. That was the planet.

Then I drew an axis through the center. Vertical was fine.

<Let’s say the sun is shining on the planet from…the right. Yes, right is fine. So what would happen then?>

“It’d be nice and toasty?”

Kuwajiri gave a blatantly irritated look. Yes, my image processing skills were perfect. I could even tell she was realizing how long this would take to explain.

But this was part of my job, so I spoke in her stead.

<This is a small sphere, so it is true the entire thing would grow warm. But an earth-sized planet is quite large. The poles look curved on this diagram, but they are actually almost entirely flat. Also, the sun looks small from earth, so thanks to the curvature of the earth, the equator can block the sun from reaching the poles.”

“What does that mean?”

“If the earth is a lifted boob and you’re viewing it from the front, can you see the top?”

“Oh, now I get it!”

That irritated me, but I decided to accept it as a testament to Raidou’s skill.

<So with a vertically straight axis, the curvature of the earth blocks the sun and creates frozen areas. When that happens, the movement of the atmosphere and seawater would stagnate around the poles, the density convection around the equator would rise, and climate change would become more intense.”

“The climate-related gods would have to create phases and molds to reduce the global climate stress.”

“In that case,” said the ape.

“What if we pointed the axis toward the sun?”

●

That’s a fairly interesting idea, thought Kuwajiri.

“What do you think would happen then?”

“Eh? Well…”

Senpai-san drew up a diagram of a planet with a horizontal axis pointed toward the sun.

With roast chicken, this would be like cooking it from the side with the handle for turning it. That was inefficient, but at the same time…

“One side would always be daytime, so the sun would warm it, but the other side would always be night and it would get cold?”

“You would think so, but not really.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? Hmm?” said the idiot, so Kuwajiri explained. She really does listen when she’s interested, she thought while doing so.

“Planets do more than rotate. They also revolve around the sun. So if this…right pole would you call it? Well, if this side was always daytime, when the planet revolved to the other side of the sun, that would reverse. The side that was always night would now always be day and vice-versa.”

And that was not all.

“That is only considering the times when the poles are facing the sun. The planet is actually revolving all the way around the sun, so the front and back sides of the roast chicken will also get cooked. There would be a time in the revolution when the front and back were pointed at the sun and the right and left poles both ended up frozen just like with the previous vertical axis.”

●

“What would happen with a planet like that?”

I couldn’t even imagine it, so I immediately threw in the towel and asked. The answer came from a surprising source.

“Iiin this case, you would have a planet where the frooozen region moves arrrround with time.”

“Really?”

“Reallly, really. It would keep channnging which side was always night, so the freezing cold and scorching heat would swaaaap out over the course of a year. And at the miiidpoint, both poles would be frozen.”

What would happen then?

“The movement of water during the freeeezing and melting process would erode away the land at the poles and the large ocean currents would get rid of all otherrrr land too. You would end up with an ocean planet full of intense currrrents.”

That was incredible.

“Just out of curiosity, what good would a planet like that be?”

“Well, that would be a planet with currents that moved according to set rules over the course of a year. If you could secure some kind of mobile land there and used it as a habitable zone, you could harness the current’s great power and gather the ocean resources that came from what should have been in the land.”

“Mobile land?”

I realized what she meant after saying it.

“The frozen icebergs at the poles!”

“Oh, you’re sharper than I thought.”

“Of course I am! An ocean planet sounds great! Everyone could wear swimsuits, Senpai could wear a swimsuit, and I could wear a swimsuit! No boy swimsuits allowed! Do you get it now, Kuwajiri!? What’s that look for!? Your face sure changes a lot!”

“Well, there are a lot of ice and land gods, plus lots of ocean gods. If you placed molds on the currents, you could create routes and recovery areas for the large iceberg.”

“You can do whatever crazy stuff you want if you’ve got a god helping you, huh?”

<That is why they are gods. Divine intervention greatly changes what is possible in terraforming. To be honest, sending in the gods was meant to deal with the resistance from the star system and its planets, but the secondary effects may actually be more important.>

●

“So how did all of you set your axises?”

“You knowww that horizontal one we talked about? III tried that once.”

“You created…a water planet?”

“Only temporarilyyy. I mean, my myths have a great flooood, right? So I wanted to give that an exciting test run even iiiif I’d do the real thing differently.”

Yeah.

“Aaand that ended up drowning the people from competing myths. Oops.”

“You’re an evil god…”

“Flooding an entire planet for a test run?”

“Now, now,” interrupted Senpai. And…

“So how did you Norse gods set yours?”

“Ours is tilted diagonally with a bit of a wobble to the axis itself.”

“Our home is at a pretty high latitude, so creating an identical environment reduces the area we can use. So by adjusting the tilt and adding an axial wobble at a set period of time, we expanded the area with a climate similar to the Norse regions.”

“Then we just had to establish a frozen region phase along the boundaries of our myths. The rules say if none of the competing myths come to the boundaries of our myth in a set period of time, those boundaries expand further, but then we might end up outside the frozen region.”

“Well, if that does happen, we can create more frozen region by controlling the others. Although creating mountains to obtain higher land might require asking the Jotunn for help.”

“We’re basically at a good stopping point for the time being.”

●

“So, Sumeragi-kun, what do you want to do about this planet’s axis?”

I thought about that, but…

“What’s the most important natural environment in Shinto mythology?”

“Eh?”

“I want to know what environment would most make you go ‘oh, this is nice’ when you step outside.”

“Oh…” said Senpai while looking up into the sky. And…

“It’s too soon to reward me.”

“Huh?”

“Oh, just speaking to myself. But…”

“Shinto is all about the four seasons. Very distinct ones at that.”

“In that case, you should tilt the axis, although not as much as ours.”

“Tilting it makes the seasons good?”

“It depends where on the planet you’ll be living, but if you’re thinking of Japan like in the Divine World, then tilting the axis will make the seasons more distinct.”

“The planet will be tilted as it rotates and also revolves around the sun. That means the position along the revolution will change how long the sun hits a specific area during a rotation and that causes the seasons. …That horizontal axis from before was basically an extreme version of the seasons.”

“Oh, and maybe we were cheating a bit here.”

I wondered what that meant, so I thought about it for a bit.

…Oh.

It hit me. How was it unfair for the Norse group to push me to tilt the axis?

“If we tilt the axis, it’ll give us Shinto-style seasons at Japan’s latitude, but you’ll have a Norse environment if you go further north!”

●

Yes. They had said before that the planet was round, so the poles didn’t get as much sun. So you normally couldn’t give the entire planet the same environment. Which meant…

“Creating seasons suited for Japan will create a different environment outside of that, and that gives you land to live in too, doesn’t it?”

“Even if you all would have a hard time living there, we can do it with ease. And if you can’t live there, why not give it to us, right?”

“I pointed this out with our later relationship in mind, so make sure you think about this.”

So telling me was a special service. And…

“By wobbling the axis to adjust it and by having the gods apply phases to the land, you can expand the range of Japan’s seasons. Of course, the mythology’s territory is not restricted to that environment, but there is more you have to deal with the larger the compatible environment is. … I could calculate all that out, so how about it?”

“Hmm.”

Was this worth thinking about then?

Expanding the environment would give us what we wanted, so it sounded like a good idea. But…

“Can I wait a bit to answer that?”

“Huh? Why?”

Something about this bothered me for some reason. But not because I was afraid the Norse group was pulling a fast one.

“I’m wondering what…or how much I actually want.”

“How much?”

“Yeah. If I’m thinking of living in a place, how much land would I want?”

“C’mon, we’re talking about the land for Shinto believers, so just take a whole ton of it.”

Everyone realized there was a difference between what we were talking about.

And after some thought, Shifu-senpai clapped her hands together.

“Oh, I get it! We’re gods, so we’re all about snagging as much land for our believers as we can get, but Sumeragi-chan is human, so she’s using how much space she would live on and using that to figure out how much land the Shinto humans would need.”

“Humanityyy has a way of growing. It’s best not to beee too stingy.”

I understood that, but for some reason…

“Saying this is my place and that’s yours is fine and all. But…”

●

I was a created human.

But I could work with Senpai.

And I liked having fun in the club with the others.

●

“I feel like it would be better if everyone could be together and just have a blast.”

●

Yes, I thought.

…I wish we could do that too.

As an estranged god, I chose to believe him.

I really hoped that would be possible.

●

<I see. Then let us put that problem on hold and call it a day.>

Balancer felt an odd sort of satisfaction.

The only actual accomplishment today was establishing the star system’s mythology.

They had made no terraforming progress at all. A decision had to be made on the rotation and revolution before anything could be done there, so everything was on hold until that decision was made.

But there was a reason why Balancer felt satisfaction.

…Everyone together, hm?

The gods used the terraforming to compete over territory for the people of their mythologies to control.

But this human – created though she might be – had rejected the gods’ way of doing things.

What did that mean?

She only had that hope for harmony because she believed in everyone’s good nature. But…

<First of all, I must ask that everyone considers what this ape descendant just said. …I very faintly sense a new possibility there.>

“Hey, if you’re gonna praise me, really go for it, AI!”

<I was not praising you. I was noting that you had given us yet another problem to deal with.>

This may have created new meaning in introducing humanity to the equation.

Interlude

<That said, I am a well-made AI, so it is possible I am simply ‘imagining’ it.>

“What!? Is this some new form of tsundere!?”

“Was that word even a thing in this era?”

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