"I do not shout weird things! What if Senpai were to hear me!? That"s why I always shout it outside of the audible range!"
"Are you some kind of monster?"
"Even more concerning is the thought of what happens if Senpai-san is on the opposite platform at the train station."
"Yeah! Leaping out in front of train sounds like an awful way to die!"
"I was more thinking of the hundreds of thousands of Tokyo residents whose commute would be delayed."
"Waiiiiiiiiiiit, Kuwajiri! You"re not doing this right! You"ve gotta be clearer about what you mean or I sound like an idiot!"
"Is it always like this here?"
"I"m so sorry."
Everyone seems to be having fun, thought Tenma while everyone squabbled behind her.
But she had a job to do, so she had said what had to be said.
…The human dies easily.
That meant two things for the G.o.ds.
First, it meant humans were weaker when compared to the G.o.ds.
Second, it meant that humans were weak creatures in and of themselves.
The former was a simple matter.
While the G.o.ds could descend to the real planet during the terraforming, humans would be killed instantly if the environment was not adapted to them the instant they appeared.
Phase compatibilities could make it hard for the G.o.ds at times, but they would not be killed instantly. It helped a lot that their very existence was a phase and a mold, so they automatically erected their own field.
They were a lot more physically durable.
G.o.ds were weak at first when their divine rank was at Empty, but once they reached Hidden or above, they rapidly grew stronger.
The existence of a phase was what mattered most. G.o.ds had one and humans did not.
Then there was the latter meaning.
…Humans are weak creatures.
She could tell that much when comparing her life as a G.o.d to her life as a human. She would no longer die if she was. .h.i.t by a dump truck. She might be sent flying, but she would just roll around for a bit and be fine.
The rules were different.
And that comparison said that humans were effectively weaker.
The DC did not understand that fact.
They lacked the experience.
So how would the DC handle this?
Tenma heard Es.h.i.ta speak after placing a hand on her chin and thinking for a moment.
"We already knew humans were weaklings, didn"t we?"
"Yes, but it was worse than expected."
She had to explain this so the DC would recognize that the weakness of humanity was greater than expected and so she could justify the delays to the terraforming.
"The human has already died and been rolled back twelve times. A simple calculation tells us that twelve times in four months means dying once every ten days. Also, the human loses some of their memories with each rollback. They must be reeducated about the terraforming each time to prepare them."
"I have a question out of simple curiosity."
Es.h.i.ta made it clear this was not an official question.
"Can"t you change the settings there? How about giving them some divine protections so they"re more durable?"
"Then they would exceed the bounds of humanity. The human a.s.sisting with the terraforming can be created by the G.o.ds, but they cannot exceed the bounds of humanity."
"What would happen if they did?"
"Any changes at a fundamental level would mean they no longer count as human. At best, they would be considered half-G.o.d, half-human."
I noticed Senpai had fallen silent.
No, she had already been silent, but what was this? It was like her presence had shrunk. Her b.o.o.bs were still as big as ever, but it was like she had a flat-chested presence now. Like she had grown more docile.
"What"s wrong, Senpai?"
"Oh, um, it"s nothing."
Just as she replied, Mr. Bil raised his hand. He somehow made it look like a solemn act. It was honestly impressive.
"What would happen if divine protections or whatever caused the human to no longer count as human?"
"Temporary buffs from divine protections or authorities count as a blessing given from their G.o.d based on their worship. Those are accepted as normal. Otherwise, no human could ever descend to the planet for the terraforming."
Kuwajiri explained.
"But if the divine protection or authority is more powerful and it permanently changes something about that human, they will have become superior to the rest of the species and will count as a half-G.o.d, half-human."
"That"s what we are. We were given power, so we don"t count as truly human," said the busty girl. "You can"t do that with every human. There"s no going back after that change, right?"
"Correct," confirmed Omokane-senpai. "So we have some insurance in place just in case."
"Insurance?"
Tenma nodded at Eshtar"s comment.
"The partner system. Everything is set up so the partner G.o.d"s divine protections and authorities will only affect their individual partner and that partner"s actions. Thus, if the partner G.o.d does give the human power exceeding the bounds of humanity, it only means the end for the partner. It will not affect the rest of the humans sleeping until the terraforming is complete."
The human remained normal so far.
And with that explained…
"The human must partic.i.p.ate in the terraforming as a mere human. The partner system is being used to ensure they remain in that position while the work is completed, so the current level of progress is in fact according to schedule."
"Is that so?"
Eshtar smiled in a way that showed no emotion.
And then she spoke.
"But you are in fact behind schedule."
"Listen." Es.h.i.ta looked to all of them. "No matter how you try to excuse it, you are behind schedule according to the initial predictions you sent us. I don"t care what your reasons for this pace are."
So she asked a question.
"Do you have a solution for this problem?"
"Are you suggesting we strengthen our human past the bounds of humanity?"
"Can you do that?"
"We could if we wanted to. We just do not want to."
The Shinto Representative gave an oddly bright smile.
"Listen. I doubt we will ever decide to do that, but if we did, our terraforming here with the human would effectively be a failure. So…"
Es.h.i.ta looked to the human behind her.
"Yessssss! I will always be meeeeeee! Wait, what was that!? Some weird expression of adolescence!?"
She ignored her.
That idiot was not who she had to focus on. Omokane was.
Noticing her gaze, Omokane nodded.
"If we ended up failing like that and we received approval from the DC, we would make a new human and redo it all. And if we did not receive approval…well, the entire terraforming project would count as a failure and we would probably have our rights stripped from us. I just want to make sure the other mythologies are aware of that."
Yeah, I thought. What are we even supposed to do?
So that"s what they"re doing, thought Es.h.i.ta while munching on some Karamucho. They"re taking the human hostage.
Terraforming with a human introduced several advantages and problems.
The most direct was the leveling up provided by the human"s worship.
On their own, G.o.ds could only train themselves up, but respect from humans could improve them from the outside. That doubled their efficiency and broke through the upper limits.
Es.h.i.ta was from the 5th generation. Her generation was effectively the top of the currently existing G.o.ds, but it was true some of the later generations were catching up. The support of a human would provide an advantage there.
The DC had wanted to run an experiment on a human"s effects using Shinto since they were not strictly part of any generation and had a low divine rank.
And that was what they had done.
But Shinto was taking advantage of that.
"If that human ceases to be human, the introduction of a human will be deemed a failure, huh?"
"Yes, the human"s frequent deaths are one cause for the terraforming delays. But if the human"s partner boosts their power more than necessary, they will cease to be human."
So…
"We have no intention of doing that. Even if we are technically falling behind schedule, we view it as the unavoidable result of the circ.u.mstances."
The negotiator made her point.
Es.h.i.ta thought using the partner system as insurance was a good idea.
It prevented all of humanity from being made partially divine either by accident or by some mischievous G.o.d.
But that allowed Shinto to make another claim.
"So you"re saying you can"t be blamed for the delays because you need to protect the human while terraforming?"
"Yes. Asking us to strengthen the human to speed things up would be mixing up our priorities."
She was a bold one.
To put that another way…
"The delays to the terraforming schedule are due to the human"s frequent rollbacks. Are you implying this is the human"s responsibility?"
Es.h.i.ta understood where this was headed. She knew what Shinto was trying to say.
"You"re using the human as a shield to protect Shinto"s terraforming, aren"t you?"
She directed the question at Omokane, who did not respond.
She took that as confirmation, so she said more.
"But what if the DC tries to take the human from you?"
"Take them from us? Are you sure you can do that?"
"I"m saying I could challenge you to a duel right here."
"Not what I meant." The Shinto Representative waved a hand dismissively. "Remember the partner system? Sumeragi-kouhai"s partner - and thus the target of her worship - is that girl right over there. Taking Sumeragi-kouhai from us will not change the target of her worship. And if you were to try to cancel the partner system…"
"I"d flip out!"
Es.h.i.ta heard a voice.
"Huh!? Do you wanna know what happens if you try to cut my bonds with Senpai!? I"d go ask some G.o.d for a sensory transfer spell and transfer the feeling of using moxibustion in my a.s.shole to your a.s.shole!"
"Are you sure you want to do that? I"m pretty sure that would leave a mark on your a.s.shole."
"Eh? Um, um?"
"What are you even talking about!?"
"I see," sighed Raidou. "Omokane is really only after one thing here."
"Is it that Shinto wins in the end no matter what?"
Exactly right.
If it did end in failure, Shinto"s losses would be kept to a minimum.
And the partner system provided insurance for Shinto on top of that.
If need be, she was willing to use Sumeragi as a shield to pull it off.
"So no matter what happens, she"s using the human"s presence like she was given a hostage."
"So if you change your point of view, this double bind that forces them to sacrifice someone can also be seen as a double bind that protects that someone?"
Raidou was not sure about that.
Could this really be seen as protecting Sumeragi?
"A double bind!? What"s that!? Is it when you do bondage on the top and bottom!? Ahhhn!"
That idiot needs to shut up.
"This is the worst thing about Omokane-san."
Scarecrow was lost in thought.
…Using the human"s presence as insurance for the human is fine, but she feels a need to add more nastiness on top of that.
She used it to protect Shinto.
She used it to guide Shinto to victory.
Because Shinto was so powerless, she would use every means available to them.
Those were all advantages Omokane had planned for by introducing the partner system.
The DC and the other G.o.ds had not tested to see what actually happened when a human was introduced to the terraforming, so Shinto had a lot of authority on the subject.
They were the only ones who could determine through direct experience if the experiment had been a success or a failure.
What if?
What if the time came to make that decision?
…No matter what the DC says, we can say quite clearly that it was a failure.
It did not matter if the DC rejected that.
There would be mythologies that opposed the DC and there would be those who used Shinto"s decision as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the DC.
If that happened, Omokane would do everything she could to convince the other mythologies that terraforming with a human was dangerous and an abject failure.
Then the DC could not use the terraforming as an excuse to claim the human for themselves.
Omokane was currently threatening to do just that.
She had also used the partner system to fix Sumeragi"s worship on a specific G.o.d.
The DC could try to remove that worship, but it was unlikely to go well. After all…
"Sumeragi-kun is a serious worshiper of Senpai-san."
She felt like maybe she should not smile while saying that.
But all of this was unfair to Sumeragi.
"Our strategy here is to proclaim we are throwing out the human while also protecting both the Shinto terraforming and the human."
She had to wonder why they were doing something so risky, but that was just how Omokane was.
Was it possible Omokane was actually an evil G.o.d?
Now, this is evil, thought Es.h.i.ta in awe. They"re trying to bind us with our own words.
The trick here was to restrict the DC with the DC"s own demands.
If they demanded that Shinto hand over the human, Omokane would claim that using the human was a failure and thus humans had to be eliminated from all future terraforming work.
But Es.h.i.ta had a question about that.
So she asked about it.
"One question," she began. "If things go south for you, you plan on declaring the human a failure in order to protect everything for yourself, right?"
"No, not at all."
She really was a bold one.
But Es.h.i.ta decided to ask further.
"Let"s see if I have this right."
Es.h.i.ta chose to restate things, including the concessions that had been made.
"The delays to the Shinto terraforming were due to protecting the human, right?"
She would accept that reason.
Otherwise, they would use the human as a shield.
The DC only wanted the human, so it was best not to make any choices that would harm the human.
So she made a concession there.
The delays to the Shinto terraforming was not enough reason to take the human from them.
But, she thought.
"There is one thing I must ask you."
"What is that?"
Oh, this was a simple matter.
"You said the partner system is a safety measure to avoid turning all the humans into half-G.o.ds, right? But that"s the thing."
She asked her question.
"That G.o.ddess there has a really low divine rank, so I doubt it"s even possible for her spells or divine protections to permanently strengthen that human beyond the bounds of humanity."
"Eh? Um, uh."
"Well? Am I right?"
"Hey! Mucho! Don"t bully Senpai! You think I"m letting you get away with that!? Okay, Raidou-senpai! Go get her!"
"While that is my role here, try to think more politically."
"Who are you calling Mucho!?"
"Calm down," said the human"s partner G.o.ddess. "It is true I do not have that kind of power at the moment."
"A good response."
She implied things would change in that regard.
Nothing could sound more wonderful coming from the one and only G.o.d with a human worshiper.
Es.h.i.ta had been like that in her memories of her nonexistent life in the Earth Age.
But that line also established something.
"Answer me this."
She asked a question.
"That partner G.o.d cannot strengthen the human very much at the moment, so why do you claim the partner system functions as a safety measure?"
"Why do you think?"
That was not an answer, but she was pretty sure she knew the answer already.
"That G.o.ddess has some kind of divine protection or authority that could affect all of humanity, doesn"t she?"
She had to check on this.
If it was true, then this was a double hostage situation.
"The rollbacks are to blame for the delayed schedule and the partner G.o.d"s power could affect all of humanity. …You are not making these negotiations easy for me."
"What is so difficult about this?"
"If we try to take the human from you over the delays or any other reason, the partner G.o.d"s power could activate and render all the humans unusable. It"s like negotiating while holding a bomb."
"Indeed, indeed," said Omokane while gesturing toward the G.o.ddess who Es.h.i.ta had considered recruiting as a Karamucho G.o.ddess. "Do you want to know what her power is?"
"I would. So what is it? Is she really that powerful a G.o.d?"
"Yes." Omokane nodded. "As you have guessed, her power can affect all of humanity."
And…
"The partner system only limits her divine protections and authority in regards to humanity. Those things can still reach us G.o.ds. Otherwise, she could not protect herself if another G.o.d attacked her and she could not receive support from other G.o.ds either."
That meant her authority could affect Es.h.i.ta.
After making that point clear, the Shinto Representative spoke with a smile.
"If she is serious about it, then it does not matter who her opponent is. It could be me, you, anyone else on the DC, or even a 0th generation G.o.d. That is just who she is."
This whole topic was not fun for me, but Sumeragi-kun turned toward me with a light in her eyes.
"Senpai!? Do you have the authority to make all of humanity busty!? If so, can you make me busty so I can simulate feeling your b.o.o.bs!?"
"Eh? Eh?"
Shifu-san was standing behind Sumeragi-kun, so she slapped her on the cheek.
Es.h.i.ta saw the human roll about 70m along the ground and then run back over with a huge grin.
"Yahoo! Standing between two busty G.o.ddesses and getting slapped from behind is the best! This makes the whole life thing worth it!"
What was she even talking about?
But regardless, this was dangerous.
"I"m going to keep this simple since I"m getting fed up with it all, but what if I said Shinto"s methods were unacceptable?"
"Yes, I can see that you feel that way. But as long as it remains a warning, we will still have permission to continue. So I must determine what exactly you mean when you say this is "unacceptable"."
Simply put…
"We will use a j.a.panese negotiating method since j.a.pan is the homeland of Shinto. How "regrettable" do you find this turn of events? That is the fastest way to confirm the seriousness of your statement and for us to find a compromise."
Es.h.i.ta nodded at that.
…I said I wanted to keep this simple, so why is she making this way more complicated!?
This was part of her strategy.
This younger girl was acting as the actual negotiator, but this must have been set up before the negotiations even began.
She was discussing the supplementary topics to see how much she could steer this in Shinto"s favor.
That meant "negotiating" with her was meaningless. It would only wear away Es.h.i.ta"s own footing.
So she knew what to say.
"Then let"s establish some common ground here."
"What might that be?"
"The terraforming has been delayed, hasn"t it?"
"It has."
She accepted that much. That settled it.
"I"m sure you have your excuses, but you had our trust when you began terraforming, didn"t you? First, you must take responsibility for breaking that trust."
"She"s shifting the blame again," said Scarecrow in her own library.
The Shinto strategy was the one Omokane had thought up: ensuring that Shinto won in the end.
So whenever they ran into trouble, they had to arm themselves with arguments that would leave Shinto blameless.
They would place responsibility on someone other than Shinto and negotiate from that perspective. However…
"She is treating the issue of responsibility as separate from our excuses."
Shinto was not at fault.
It had been an unpredictable accident.
But their failure nevertheless remained.
Eshtar"s voice arrived via divine transmission.
"Shouldn"t a businessperson predict what could happen and submit a schedule that accounts for the worst case scenario? Even if that means they submit a slower initial schedule than the others?"
And…
"You failed to contact us when you ran into these delays. …Although I will admit contacting us would have led to an inspector like me being sent out immediately. But that was a bad move. This means you knew about the delays yet you failed to report them."
"And what, pray tell, is wrong with that?
She knew the answer. It was very simple.
"That qualifies as a breach of trust with the DC. Shinto has committed a serious betrayal against the other mythologies, so I simply cannot overlook it."
There it is, thought Shifu.
Es.h.i.ta had turned it around.
"She"s not even talking about Sumeragi-chan anymore."
"Yeah. We figured they wanted the human"s worship and that"s why we used Sumeragi as an excuse and a threat, but she"s narrowed her focus down to the issue of Shinto"s responsibility."
"So she is focusing on Shinto"s behavior instead of whether or not humans should be used in the terraforming?"
Exactly. But how will this play out? wondered Shifu just as Sumeragi-chan stood up next to her.
"Eh!? What!? The world no longer revolves around me and everyone"s ignoring me!? Not on my watch! Tell them to pay more attention to me! Kupaaaaaa!"
The background noise was getting irritating, so Shifu tugged on her skirt to get her to sit back down.
Anyway, Shifu knew this was going to be a pain.
"She is ignoring our explanations and excuses and instead focusing on our responsibility and failure to report. Unfortunately, that is something we cannot deny."
"Th-then what do we do?"
"Apologize, I guess."
"I mean," said Shifu. "We did something wrong. If they can define it as a breach of trust, then it means they were the ones harmed, not us."
"Wait, when did you harm them?"
"By betraying their trust. You could say it harmed their reputation."
En-chan seemed to get that, so she must have initially interpreted it more literally since that was the way her mythology tended to do it.
"Well, let them cry about being a victim all they want. They"re not actually wrong, after all."
"The DC seems to be having a tough time of it too."
"They are. Now, it might seem like they have us dead to rights, but we still have some wiggle room here."
"Wiggle room?"
Kuwajiri-chan nodded at that. The summer night and the intensity of the meeting must have gotten to her because she wiped some sweat from her brow.
"Yes. We do still have some wiggle room here. Because even if Shinto does apologize, the DC cannot say what it is they want from them."
Kuwajiri could tell the negotiation was approaching a conclusion.
…Both sides are searching for a way to end it.
The tension of the exchange was making her sweat. Or maybe it was the heat of the summer night.
Whatever the reason, she took a sip of the orange Fanta she had set down next to her.
"If the DC directly demands Shinto hand over the human, Shinto could go to the other mythologies saying the DC is abusing their power."
"Because the DC was using the human as a bargaining chip?"
Exactly. That would be the best way to get the other mythologies riled up.
"We could justify our actions by claiming that the G.o.ds are meant to protect humans."
Then what would they do?
"So we know the DC won"t ask for Sumeragi-chan, but will they have Shinto come up with the apology method and try to guide Shinto into handing over Sumeragi-chan themselves?"
That sounded like trouble.
"If Shinto fails to apologize here or tries to shift blame elsewhere to dodge responsibility, then the DC can go to the other nations claiming to be the victim."
"Something like, "Shinto isn"t doing their job and they won"t even apologize!" perhaps?"
"Wow." Senpai-san opened her mouth in a troubled way. "I"m having a hard time deciding whether we or the DC are worse here."
"That just means we are evenly matched. So we need to focus on what factors remain that could tip the scales."
"Whether or not Shinto apologizes. And if they do, how they do it."
Kuwajiri nodded at Raidou"s answer.
"If Shinto can dodge the responsibility issue while not having to actually hand over the human, then the DC loses any means to attack them. Shinto is from j.a.pan and no one loves apologizing more than j.a.pan, so this should all come down to how they pull off that offensive form of defense.""
"Now," said Es.h.i.ta. "How will Shinto apologize for breaching the DC"s trust?"
"I love having Sugawara around to apologize for me. It makes things so much easier."
"It isn"t supposed to be easy!"