“I don’t know who any of you are, so it’s hard to tell you apart...” I muttered. Unfortunately, this just started the commotion up all over again.
“Whoops, I forgot to make it so that Tenma could see us! Sorryyyy! Ehehe!” I was a bit annoyed by that comment, which came from the light who’d been shoved by the others. It was probably the same light who had brought me here, and who was now being beaten to a pulp by the ones who had shoved him.
In the meantime, the most feminine-sounding light placed her hand—or hand-like appendages, at any rate—on my temples and said, “Hold still for a minute, okay?”
She began to chant under her breath, and my temples immediately began to grow warmer until they felt a little hot.
Then she let me go. “All done!” Even though she had only touched me for a couple of minutes at most, it had brought about a drastic change.
I could now see a beautiful woman standing in front of me, wearing a soft smile. And she was also extremely well-endowed, so naturally my gaze traveled down to appreciate it.
“You can see us now, right? I’m so sorry about that! He can be such an airhead sometimes!” With a wry giggle, the beautiful woman apologized. Another beautiful, slender woman—the one who had hugged me—was standing next to her. Then there was a stout woman who looked like an innkeeper or something, and a little girl of maybe ten years old peeking out from behind her.
A short distance away was a young man of about fifteen years old getting pummeled by a muscular guy—the old dude from before—and then an animal that looked like a wolf... No, wait, it was just a guy wearing a wolf skin. Then there was a guy who was so good looking that even I wasn’t ashamed to admit he was handsome, although the way he moved was a little weird. Suspicious, even... Uh-oh, we made eye contact! As soon as our eyes met, he winked, then blew me a kiss. Wait, it’s him! He’s the pervert! Hey, I’m disappointed in you!
After I’d looked around for a while, two more of the men came up to talk to me. One was an attractive middle-aged gentleman, and the other had a hood pulled low over his face like some kind of magician.
“Hello, Tenma. I am the god of destruction, and this man in the hood is the god of magic. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“Likewise.” I greeted them in turn. They had names that were kind of disturbing, but I figured it would be fine as long as I was polite and didn’t make them mad. After that was done with, the girls came over.
“It’s so wonderful to meet you, Tenma! I’m the goddess of love!”
“I’m the goddess of nature! Nice to meet you!”
“Hey there, Tenma! I’m the goddess of life!”
“I’m the god of death... Nice to meet you.”
The beautiful slender woman, the beautiful woman with the soft smile, the innkeeper, and the little girl introduced themselves to me in turn.
By then the three guys must’ve gotten sick of beating the god who looked like a young boy, because they came over next.
“Hey! I’m the god of skill! Nice to meet ya, Tenma!” The old dude whacked me on the back again. It hurt pretty bad.
“...I am the god of beasts...” The wolf—I mean, the guy wearing a wolf skin—came up from behind and started sniffing me again. Well, I guess I get why he’s sniffing me so much if he’s a wolf... Wait, no! What if he eats me?! I’m scared!
“Hiiii! I’m the god of war! It’s so nice to meet you, Ten-MWAH! Eheh!” A Wild Flirty Guy appeared! Flirty Guy used “Blowing Kiss”! Tenma avoided the attack. Wild Flirty Guy looks disappointed... Phew, that was a close one!
“Ahem! Nice to meet you, Tenma. I’m the one who brought you here. I’m the god of creation,” the guy who looked like a teenager said to me. There were about eight big golf-ball-sized lumps on his head, just like the ones you’d see in a manga. Actually, it was kind of impressive that those were the only injuries he had after being beaten to a pulp.
“Nice to meet you, everyone. I’m Tenma Otori. Do you think you guys could tell me what’s gonna happen to me, and what I should be doing right now?”
“That’s a good point. I’ll explain things. First, just have a seat.” The boy who called himself the god of creation snapped his fingers. A chair appeared next to me, and then ten other chairs appeared, forming a circle around me. The boy straightened up and went on, “Once again, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Tenma. And welcome to our world, Phantasma! Though we’re the only ones who know its name...”
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Go ahead.”
I waited for permission to speak before asking him the one thing I was the most curious about. “You keep saying you’re the gods and goddesses of such and such, but you haven’t actually told me your names.”
The god of creation gave me a blank look. “Names? We don’t have any. I guess if I had to pick, our names would be the God and Goddess of Such and Such.”
Now it was my turn to be surprised. “Isn’t that a little inconvenient?”
The god of creation seemed to understand what I meant. “Yeah, I guess from your perspective it might seem inconvenient for us to not have individual names. But the names of gods change with the times and the sovereigns in charge, so we don’t really like being called by the names that humans come up with. It’s kind of a pain.”
I had the feeling that the last thing he’d said was the most important reason, but I decided not to say that out loud.
“Setting that aside, the first thing I want to tell you is that just because you’re being reincarnated into this world doesn’t mean there’s something specific we want you to do for us. That’s because the moment that you’re reincarnated, the reason we called you here ceases to exist. You may live freely. Well, we’ll probably intervene if you try to destroy the world or go around massacring people, though,” he joked—although it didn’t actually sound like he was joking.