"Yahoo. Sumeragi-chan and Senpai-chan. I think we'll be joining you here."

s.h.i.+fu had some thoughts on this matter. They were "other G.o.ds" like Balancer had mentioned, but…

"Explaining all the rules and other information would be a giant pain. How much are we going to tell him?"

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't explain more than I understand."

"Yeah, but you understood quite a lot of it. In fact, you understand more than me in places, so by that standard, we'd have to explain everything."

"IIII am probably the siiiiimplest example. So call me oooover for that part."

She really appreciated that. Or rather, it was now up to her how easy this would be. But for now, she just came out and said it.

"Balancer? Could you introduce us as much as you deem necessary right now?"

"So we're going with what's 'safe', huh?"

Well, there were parts of this that made that sound like a good idea.

I noticed Senpai looked nervous standing next to me.

I could guess what this was about, but I didn't know if I was right. She had the look of a child who had been caught goofing off and she had her fingers intertwined in front of her waist, but there was no way she could see them past her b.o.o.bs! While staring at her fingers intertwined like a cat's cradle, I started imagining myself as some Sanuki udon caught between her fingers. Ah, ah, ahhhh! Senpai, you really know how to work some udoooooooooon!

"Nice…"

"Eh?"

I slapped my own cheek. The left and right slapping counters had reset when s.h.i.+fu-senpai's group arrived. And they seemed to have reached an agreement with Balancer because s.h.i.+fu-senpai raised a hand and Balancer approached us.

"Hollllllllllld it! I need more of an introduction than that! Don't you need to tell me which G.o.ds of the Big b.o.o.bs Basilica or t.i.tan t.i.tties Temple they are!? Or do I need to make you fondle my chest!?"

Kuwajiri watched the idiot shove Balancer inside his old style uniform s.h.i.+rt and start doing pushups on the rocky ground.

"Oh? Ohhh? How about that? How do you like that? Is this what you like?"

"…When did they become such good friends?"

"I'm surprised Sumeragi-chan can do so many pushups."

"He has his hips lifted a little, so he's cheating. Yeah."

"Shut up! Well!? Learned your lesson!? I'm not afraid of some pleasant muscle exhaustion if it lets me hara.s.s someone!"

I struck a pose and Senpai gave some halfhearted applause while unable to look directly at me. Yes! She's cheering me on! I need to work out more in the future!

"So what are you going to do?"

"Yay! This AI can't say no when a low intelligence ape breaks out the pushups!"

s.h.i.+fu-senpai consoled Balancer and I realized I was only causing trouble for a busty girl here. I had to stop.

Then Balancer sighed, floated in front of me, and spoke.

"Eh? So the thing about them being obsessed players was accurate?"

"You could say that. We've more or less gotten our planets to the point that the habitable percentage of the planet is in the safe zone. That's why we're here to help out."

I nodded while noticing how incredibly nervous Senpai was next to me.

"Um, Senpai?"

She was nervous enough to jump when I talked to her. I was worried, but personal temperament was a factor in these things, so it was what it was. However…

"Don't worry, Senpai. With me around, your divine rank will just keep going up."

"Eh?"

Despite the usual reaction, this was not the time to slap my face.

"With my big b.o.o.bs wors.h.i.+p, your divine rank can continue rising indefinitely."

I nailed that line. I just knew it. If you were making a marriage proposal, you couldn't hope for nailing it better than that. Yeah, I was so glad the system was directly influenced by my fetish. So very glad…

"Sumeragi-kun, you joke around a little too much, but I trust you."

When had I ever joked about anything? Oh, she meant about Balancer. That was definitely a problem. I wasn't easy to rile up, so I needed to respond to that talking screen with a witty comeback. A normal person would just get mad, but not me.

"Yoooooooooou! You!!"

"Sumeragi-kun, stop acting so angry and calm down."

"Acting angry!? Like what!?"

She looked confused, but she finally clenched both her fists and…

"Hmph! Hmph! …Like that."

…You know the hit is coming, but it's still too much for you. I kind of like the feeling.

I just about died there.

Come to think of it, Senpai was a G.o.d, so of course a human was no match for a direct hit from her.

But anyway, I understood why Senpai was so nervous.

…A difference in rank, huh?

The others had a higher divine rank.

Of course they did. If they were free to leave their terraforming to help us, they had to be a lot further along. Their rank would be far higher than Senpai, who could only create 30m chunks of land at a time. Also…

"Are you all s.h.i.+nto too?"

"No, we're not."

s.h.i.+fu-senpai glanced over at Raidou-senpai who nodded.

"s.h.i.+fu, Kuwajiri, and I are Norse. And Yomoji here…"

"Yesss," said Yomoji-senpai while elegantly spreading his arms.

"I ammmm…you knowww, the One True G.o.d of that monotheistic faith. That is who I ammmm."

"Am I just supposed to ignore that this means the One True G.o.d exists alongside other G.o.ds?"

"Ha ha ha ha. There are actually a looooot of One True G.o.ds. I don't really get along with my younger siiiiblings."

That made sense to me. Then s.h.i.+fu-senpai raised her hand and pointed at her group.

"Okay, I'll introduce us."

This is kind of embarra.s.sing, thought s.h.i.+fu as she spoke.

"Tooru is the Norse war G.o.d Thor. Have you heard of him? Y'know, like with Thor's Hammer."

The undercla.s.sman thought about that and finally clapped his hands together.

"Oh, that thing in LotGH!"

She was not sure what he meant, but as long as it made sense to him. Tooru crossed his arms and nodded.

"I actually know that one. There were novels and an anime too, but I played the PC game at Heisu's place. I tried attacking it to see how strong it was and got wiped out. Sounds about right for my namesake."

"Why are you losing to your own weapon?"

"Hey, that game's tough. Changing direction takes up a turn."

Boys do love their games, don't they? she thought while dodging the issue with "calm down". And next…

"Kuwajiri-chan here is the Norse G.o.d of wisdom Kvasir."

"Eh? Shouldn't you introduce yourself before me? And I'm not so much a G.o.d as-…"

She dodged the issue with a "calm down".

"In a way, Kuwajiri-chan is the more important one to you, Sumeragi-chan. She is in your year after all."

"Eh!? s.h.i.+fu-senpai! I don't judge people by their appearance, but my brain has a tendency to not even notice flat-chested girls in my field of view! Are you sure I should focus on someone like that!?"

"You…! You…!?"

"Calm down, calm down. He doesn't run on logic. Humans are just animals that gained intelligence after the fact."

"I hate that about humans…"

s.h.i.+fu was glad she was so understanding, but it was stressful for her. s.h.i.+fu decided to take her to a family restaurant once they were back in the Divine World.

"Anyway, that leaves me. I'm Thor's wife Sif and I'm also Jarnsaxa for a double divinity."

"…Hm?"

I heard something odd at the end there.

"Hey, Balancer. I don't dare directly ask someone as busty as s.h.i.+fu-senpai, so can you explain that for me?"

So…

"I was originally just Sif, but since Jarnsaxa hadn't manifested yet, I put in a request, right? Now, being a multi-divinity makes it harder to increase my divine rank, but it gave me Thor all to myself, so I was totally doing it."

"Wow, didn't expect that to get so sweet all of a sudden!"

Only after saying it did I notice Senpai blus.h.i.+ng next to me. And when she glanced over at me…

"Um, I…tend to chicken out of doing things, so I don't think that will ever happen with me."

"No, don't chicken out! Just go for it! Go for whatever it is you want! I'm weak to a.s.sertive girls! And my defense drops by 120% when she has big b.o.o.bs!"

I did another lying-on-the-back prostration to beg her.

"Pleeeeeeeeeeeeease!"

"Whoa, hold on, Balancer. You believe in me enough to think I can pay attention while doing this!? I misjudged you… You're a good talking screen!"

"Okay," I said.

"Can we leave the terraforming to all of you while we go over there and have some tea?"

"Sumeragi-chan, where does that confidence come from?"

"Hmm," groaned Raidou-senpai with his arms crossed. After a moment, he tilted his head.

"You're working here without making any progress on the foundational stuff, aren't you?"

He asked that of Senpai and she immediately nodded.

"I need to increase my divine rank if I'm going to accomplish much of anything on my own, so I'm working on expanding the ground to earn experience points."

"What's that mean?"

"Your partner's divine rank is too low to manage the foundational work that really should be done first. Not that we can manage that either."

"…? What? But the terraforming has already started, hasn't it?"

"That's true," said Raidou-senpai, which caused Senpai's shoulders to fall a bit.

I didn't get it.

The terraforming had started and she was creating land. We had discussed the rain and whatnot earlier. In that case…

"So what's this foundational work?"

"Hm, how about we show you a bad example?"

"A bad example?"

"Hey, Yomoji, come over here."

"Whaaaat do you neeeeed?"

The One True G.o.d casually walked over.

And s.h.i.+fu-senpai led us over to the edge of the land.

"Yomoji-chan, can you show us what you can do real quick?"

"Surrrre thing."

Yomoji-senpai turned toward the lava and then bent his hips to the side to form a Y pose.

"♪Absurrrrrrrrd♪"

With a singsong voice, a world appeared there.

"Eh?"

It was a world. A world was created as if rus.h.i.+ng out from right in front of us.

I saw a field, a forest, a mountain, a river, some more rivers, and an entire mountain range towering up beyond that. There was even an ocean in the distance and a blue sky rose up.

…Wait, wait, wait.

The weird thing was how the ground below us did not change. But what you could only call "nature" appeared all around us.

"Mmmm! Thaaat should do it. Or do you want the rest filled in?"

"You idiot. This is way too much!"

The war G.o.d slapped the One True G.o.d on the back of his bald head.

It made a nice sound and the bald guy jumped. s.h.i.+fu-senpai cackled at the sound and movement.

"Huhhh? This iiiiisn't what you wanted?"

"No one told you to create a world."

"Now, now," said Kuwajiri while waving her hands side to side.

"I expected something like this since we asked for a bad example, but this is more than I expected. You jumped way too close to the end."

"No, no, no. This isn't anywhere cloooose to the end. It takes time for it to all settle into plaaace."

Yomoji relaxed his shoulders and placed a hand on his forehead.

"Even IIIII take 7 dayyyyys to create a world."

"Yeah, but you spend one of those days resting."

"Eeeveryone needs to take a break soooometime."

"Ah ha ha ha ha! Yomoji-chan is great!"

Beyond the laughing busty girl, the world was probably still expanding beyond my view. I could hear that world being created unbelievably quickly, but I also heard something from Senpai next to me.

"U-umm?"

She seemed taken aback, so this must have been an extraordinary achievement.

The other uppercla.s.smen and Kuwajiri formed a scrum and discussed something until s.h.i.+fu-senpai turned toward us and raised both hands.

"We're calling for a do-over!"

"I mean, what other option do we have here?"

"Okayyy."

Yomoji-senpai faced the verdant nature spreading out around us and once more bent his hips in a Y pose.

"♪Absurrrrrrrrd♪"

The created world vanished.

"That really is absurd…"

"Yes, yes. My powerrrr is to do the absurd."

The One True G.o.d struck an exasperated pose, so I asked a question.

"What kind of absurdities do you normally do?"

"Hmmmmmm. I did a looooot when I was younger, but not so much now that I'm in high schoooool."

"Um, then what kind of absurdities did you do when you were younger?"

"Hhhhhhhm. One of my believers was going ooooon and ooooon about how great their faith was, so I tolllllld them to make a baby with that sheep over there."

"b.e.s.t.i.a.lity!?"

"Ohhh, Yomoji-chan, I hadn't heard that absurdity story before."

He apparently had a lot of different stories.

"How was the power of their faith supposed to overcome the DNA problem?"

"Should G.o.ds really be talking about DNA?"

"I'm not really-…"

The flat-chested girl started to say something, but then she sighed.

"I am in charge of wisdom, so I have to think about everything that could be a topic of consideration. That includes the G.o.ds and every part of the world. That is what I mean."

"So is b.e.s.t.i.a.lity okay in Norse Mythology?"

"Probably!?"

"Not you too, s.h.i.+fu-senpai!!"

The wisdom girl bared her teeth, but eventually hung her head instead.

"It is… Unfortunately, that is how Sleipnir came to be."

"So it is, huh?"

s.h.i.+fu-senpai and I shook hands. Then I chose my words carefully as I asked Senpai a question.

"Is furry stuff okay in s.h.i.+nto?"

"Eh? are you into that?"

"I am!"

I did not hesitate to answer.

"Whether it's a sin or not will be a major factor when I fantasize about you in a bunny girl costume!"

She fell into silent thought.

This undercla.s.sman is great, thought s.h.i.+fu.

"Tooru, would you like it if I dressed up as a bunny girl?"

"I'm 1000% okay with dressing up as one myself as long as it means you're doing it too."

"I love that side of you."

She slapped him on the shoulder. Then Senpai-chan finally answered the undercla.s.sman's question. Her whole face was red and she was clearly sweating.

"In s.h.i.+nto, it is…o-okay!"

Yes.

"In s.h.i.+nto, bunny girls are love! They are not a sin!"

Senpai-chan is pretty good too.

I see, I thought. I've got work to do tonight.

Then I turned toward Balancer.

"Hey, Balancer! What kinda animal do you wanna do some b.e.s.t.i.a.lity with!?"

"Wow, you can't even come up with a clever response to that and you expect me to trust what you say about the entire world?"

I thought back on that absurdity.

It had definitely been absurd. It had ignored all the rules. But…

…Was he rewriting the ether with direct control?

That made sense.

But something felt off. I mean, the whole thing was crazy as h.e.l.l, but that's not what I mean.

"You said that wasn't done, right? Even though it looked pretty complete."

"No, nooo. That was nowhere nearrrrrrr complete."

"Right," I said. Yomoji-senpai had said it would take him 7 days, even though he could create such a complete-looking world in an instant.

In that case…

"Is the issue not the part you can just create like that?"

That made her happy as his uppercla.s.sman.

…Good job!!

He had caught on. He had been given several hints and she had worked alongside those hints, but it meant a lot that he had found his way to the answer on his own. Because…

…The terraforming is his job, not the G.o.ds' job.

He was in charge and he had figured out what needed to be done. And in this case, that meant…

"The planet!"

He sounded certain.

"The planet's rotation and maybe even its position and, uh, the stuff in it or whatever."

"Its composition, you mean."

"Thank you very much! Um, all of that looks done, but it really isn't, is it!?"

This is what that meant.

"This planet's size is about the same as earth, but its rotation and composition aren't so much. However, Senpai doesn't have enough power to do something about the planet as a whole. So she's ignoring the rotation and stuff for now and instead repeating what she can do to level up. And once she's levelled up enough to do the big stuff, she hopes to fix everything up."

But…

"We can get help from the other G.o.ds to sort of outsource the big stuff. Then Senpai and I can do the…land preparation? Fine tuning? Well, whatever you call it, we can do the rest of the terraforming. …Is that it? Well, is it? Say something, Balancer!"

"You…! You…!!!!"

When I threw a fit, Balancer looked up into the sky and then spoke.

"Based on how it went with our planet, this is like being handed an unstable planet with the crust somewhat hardened but still a lot of hotspots on the surface."

What did that mean?

Kuwajiri glanced over at me as I thought about it.

"We are simply given the 'location', so we first need to format that location into something usable. It is a lot like being given an uncultivated forest or wasteland when you want some farmland."

That kind of made sense to me.

"Senpai, do you mind if I ask how many adjustments like that we need done?"

"Eh? Um, well…"

"Do you really think you can address me like that!? Huh!?"

"Generally? So are there exceptions?"

"That's the strength of outsourcing."

"Then," I asked.

"Kuwajiri, what are we missing?"

Kuwajiri looked to s.h.i.+fu-senpai, who nodded, so she pushed up her gla.s.ses.

"What you are missing is simple: everything."

Kuwajiri recalled when they had done this part.

…We went to a lot of unnecessary effort, didn't we?

The Norse G.o.ds were split into factions and they did not get along in the slightest. Most of the factions were not very sociable, but hers was the rare diplomatic group. That was why they were here, but…

"Even if G.o.ds like us create the planet with our authority, the planet will have to exist with the 'insufficient physical laws' of this world's ley lines. So unless we constantly supported the planet with divine protections, those 'insufficient physical laws' would fail to maintain the planet and it would fall apart. However, we can't just continue supplying divine protections to support the planet forever. That is not realistic."

So…

"When creating the planet with our authority, we must adjust the planet's position, rotation, revolution, and composition so it can exist without our help."

"In that case," said the idiot.

"Can't we just outsource the location, rotation, and revolution stuff to Yomoji-senpai?"

"Ohh, I like the way you think."

"Hmmmm. But that isssss why I'm herrrrre."

That was right. Which left…

"Do you know what to do about changing and adding to the planet's composition?"

"Umm…"

After a while, he clapped his hands together.

"I just saw that! Senpai made some water and panicked! It was really cute!"

Senpai-san blushed and Kuwajiri felt really bad about asking that question.

I heard Kuwajiri speak while spreading her mouth horizontally.

"There are several methods. For example, if the planet is short on water, you can alter the ether to create water, but that isn't very efficient. So do you know what to do instead?"

"Umm, remove the moisture from the lava?"

That was a surprisingly interesting answer. I decided to think more about it later. But this was about efficiency.

"This is only hypothetical, but you could also use a star G.o.d to summon the ice out in s.p.a.ce and perform a meteor strike with it."

"You G.o.ds don't mess around, huh!?"

"Every mythology has a lot of dropping ice and fireb.a.l.l.s on people."

Was that really true?

…I need to visit the library and research both terraforming and mythology!

I could see why people called summer break a time for research. Not that I'd ever heard anyone call it that. But taking the untraveled path is what really matters. Oh, but the path of big b.o.o.bs is pretty well traveled, isn't it!? And I don't really want to end up with a more underground interest.

But anyway, I had a few questions.

"Can I ask a few things?"

"Would you do it with a rabbit?"

Silly AI. Why are you taking my jokes so seriously?

But now was the time for maturity, so I had to keep an open heart.

"Okay, I'll forgive you just this once."

"Listen," I said.

"Okay. Earlier, you told me humanity came to a 'habitable star system', right?"

I spread my arms to indicate our surroundings.

"But how is this place habitable? Raidou-senpai said you three terraformed your planet, but that means it wasn't habitable either, right? What's up with that?"

s.h.i.+fu heard Balancer thinking with a vocalized "well".

"Balancer, I've known you for a long time, but…how should I put it? You act like an old man sometimes."

But that question was one they had had as well. Why had humanity chosen to move somewhere that required not just building the house and not just building the foundation but also creating the land for the house to sit on?

However…

"…Huh?"

That was not much of an explanation, so s.h.i.+fu helped out.

"The planet itself entered combat mode. It 'fought back' when some outsiders showed up and tried to live here and change the environment."

"You mean…?"

"Yes," said s.h.i.+fu before Tooru took over.

"This planet is really p.i.s.sed off right now. It was the same with ours, but with things the way they are, even if the terraforming did go well, ether stagnations would form pretty easily and you'd have monsters appearing like crazy. You need to suppress all that while you continue."

"…That's crazy…"

That response was understandable. And…

"Well, there are some other factors too. You can't make any progress unless you find some kind of compromise there. So for now, you can look at it as the planet being your enemy."

"I see," I said to the words of my elder. However…

"So are you saying Balancer took things too far?"

"You could call it an active Gaia theory."

This sounded like a pain, but I did kind of get something now.

…That's what that was.

I had a vague memory of it.

"I remember there being a dragon in this lava area."

Senpai gasped. What did that mean?

"You remember that, Sumeragi-kun?"

"Eh? Well, sort of. Although I thought it was how I died in the previous game. …Y'know, the time I died and was booted from the game that you all knew about."

A question occurred to me while I was talking.

…Huh?

I was pretty alive for someone who had died, so what was that "death"? And what was the "previous game" for that matter?

"Am I mistaken about something?"

"No, you are not. It's just…"

For once, she looked straight at me as she spoke.

"It's actually a good thing that you remember. Now, you have another question, don't you?"

I felt like she was dodging the issue, but it was true this only meant that I remembered it.

I tilted my head, wondering what that had been, but I also asked one of the other questions I had.

"If we let Yomoji-senpai do the terraforming, wouldn't it all be done in a week? If outsourcing is okay, why not just do that?"

"That's right," replied Raidou.

Balancer tilted in a nod, so this was apparently okay to say.

"The thing is, Sumeragi. It's about politics."

"Politics?"

"Yup. You know humanity moved to this star system, right?"

"Yes, that I understand."

Raidou nodded and looked to s.h.i.+fu. She had her usual expression, meaning she was leaving this with him. So he took a breath and kept going.

"Humanity made a plan when they abandoned earth and moved here. A plan requires supporters and a leader. And in the end, well, all the countries supported the plan. But you know what?"

This was the important part.

"Humanity was not united even when they abandoned earth and moved here."

That was right. But there was a more troublesome side to this.

"There was one condition everyone agreed to when all of mankind abandoned earth."

"What was that?"

"How to split up the star system."

What did it mean that humanity was not united?

…They wouldn't be united after the move either.

So they had made a plan before leaving.

"The countries that existed on earth were allotted different parts of this star system. They already had some idea of the planetary environments and topographies based on long-distance observations and AI estimations, so they knew the total land area. It was that a.s.surance that convinced everyone to approve the plan."

Why?

"On earth, there was conflict between different religions and nations, so they couldn't come together. But this star system is much larger than earth. So even if they can't come together, they figured they could live in peace without all that conflict. They were all promised much more territory than before."

"Um, wait just a second."

He's pretty sharp, thought Raidou. Did he actually catch on?

Yes. It looked like the world's countries were being invited to a peaceful land, but there was one exception to that.

"Well? Did you notice something?"

His junior in the church of large b.r.e.a.s.t.s nodded.

"Yes. The world's countries were allotted land on this star system's planets, right? At the time, the planets were still untouched and the different continents or whatever were promised to different countries."

Sumeragi continued with a "but".

"What happens to those promises now that the planets are p.i.s.sed and they need to be terraformed?"

And…

"It's the G.o.ds who are doing the terraforming. And the G.o.ds are from the mythologies of different countries and regions. If the land terraformed by a G.o.d becomes that G.o.d's divine territory and that mythology now owns that land, then countries with weak G.o.ds will lose their land and countries with powerful G.o.ds will be able to take over everything! The original promise goes out the window!"

s.h.i.+fu heard Raidou respond.

"That's where the politics come in."

He told the undercla.s.sman boy to listen.

"The land we've already acquired on another planet is far larger than what earth's Norse region was promised. So to make up for that, we're here to help you. To be clear, we have other reasons too, but we don't need to take over your land. We already have enough, so expanding your territory is fine with us."

"The other G.o.ds - such as the Greek ones - told us to come here and help you. Which really means they want us to wear ourselves down to maintain the power balance."

"Wow, what a pain."

"Yeah, but we don't mind helping out. Then again…"

There was a problem here.

"If we help out too much, we'll 'take over' this land whether we want to or not. The land's phase will become that of our own divine territory."

"Each G.o.d's power creates their own unique phase, you see."

"Ohh… So it's like having a craftsman make something instead of making a ma.s.s-produced version. They'll leave their mark on the final product."

"Yes. So borrowing too much of their power will transform the land's phase into that of the worker G.o.d's divine territory. And purifying that away is very difficult. That is why getting help with anything on a large scale should be avoided whenever possible."

That was exactly right. And that also answered Sumeragi's question.

"This planet's land was mostly promised to the s.h.i.+nto G.o.ds, but if we help out too much, it'll become Norse and One True G.o.d land."

"Yeah, that sounds bad. Senpai and I don't want our love nest to belong to a bald guy and a buff dude."

"Ah ha ha. Well said. But with you two, it would be a good idea to let Yomoji-chan adjust the planet's rotation and position."

She really did think that.

"Get too far behind on that and the other G.o.ds might show up and 'lend a helping hand'. Now, I'm not saying we're on the side of justice or anything, but we're like lenders who don't feel the need to put you in too much debt. So I recommend keeping that in mind while you work with us."

"s.h.i.+fu-senpai, trying to make yourself look bad isn't going to work. Not for you, anyway."

But I've always wanted to be a bad girl. But anyway.

She could not say it here, but this was not going to be easy for those two.

"The introduction of the first human. …It isn't going as well as with the other G.o.ds like us, but the more prideful of the others are sure to want Sumeragi-chan's 'wors.h.i.+p' pretty badly."

"It really is a pain. The G.o.ds are fighting over territory for the humans to eventually live on. It's like we're fighting a proxy war for humanity."

Yeah, it's all a lot of trouble, but that's politics for you.