That seemed odd. I thought he was going to say something about the corrupted god being displeased with the others.
“That’s right,” he said quietly. “The major gods favor people n’ animals, but they detest monsters. Think they’re dirty. But our god says monsters are equal to people. Says all life is equal, an’ it’s not fair to support one species over another.”
I swallowed. If what he said was true, then the corrupted gods were less evil than I thought.
“Same thing happens on Earth, right? They say history’s written by the victors. Notice how it’s always the good guys who win? Still, if I was human, I’d probably wanna side with the major gods, too. They’re the ones favorin’ me, see?” the man murmured.
I studied his face. It didn’t look like he was lying, but I had no evidence that he was telling the truth either.
“Your face’s gone all crinkly, Yoshio.” Carol beckoned me. I crouched down so I was at her level. She poked a finger to my brow, rubbing as though trying to smooth out my frown.
“Don’t worry. I was just thinking.”
It was a waste of time trying to figure something out that was beyond my understanding by its very nature. I decided to ask Sewatari or Nattyan about it later.
“She’s adorable, huh? Just lookin’ at her calms me down.” The shady god smiled at Carol. An almost lazy grin, with none of the solemnity he’d shown moments ago.
“Anyone would think you’re creeping on her, Gen.”
“Shuddup and get outta me hair.”
A woman with a short, rounded hairstyle appeared. If I recalled correctly, the hairstyle was called a “bob.” Sayuki’s favorite model had the same haircut. This woman had almond-shaped eyes and bright red lips. She wore a suit similar to Sewatari’s, a rare choice of dress around here.
“Aren’t you supposed to be working, Gen?”
“I’m busy admirin’ this little girl, aren’t I?” Gen replied.
“You should be careful saying things like that with how you look. Any reasonable person would call the police.”
I almost nodded my head to agree but quickly stopped when Gen glared at me.
“You’re always so serious, Un-chan. No matter what world we end up in!”
“I’ve told you time and time again not to call me that.” Her low, threatening voice was almost drowned out by the sound of wind.
It blew against my bangs, so hard I had to close my eyes. I pried them open again and froze. Un-chan’s foot was pressed against Gen’s throat. She must have kicked out in the split second I had my eyes closed.
“Way to overreact! Gods aren’t s’posta fight each other, remember?” Gen wrapped a hand around her ankle, keeping her from choking him.
“We’re quarreling, not fighting. I was simply kicking you for getting on my nerves.” Un-chan stared at him coolly, not bothering to lower her leg.
As a human, I was at a loss to diffuse this situation. All I could do was watch in silence. I put Carol behind me and began to back toward the stairs. Just then, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned to find Sewatari frowning past me.
“Un-chan! Gen-chan!” Sewatari stepped forward and flicked both of them on the forehead. “You’re embarrassing yourselves in front of the humans!”
Un-chan’s face flushed red. “I’m sorry, Senpai. That was improper of me.” Un-chan’s face flushed red. She slowly lowered her leg and smoothed down her skirt. The violence had completely vanished from her demeanor.
“You’re only actin’ like a goody two shoes now ’cause she showed up!” Gen growled. Sewatari had called her “Un-chan,” and she didn’t correct her. In fact, she looked happy about it.
“I know you’re a hard worker, Un-chan, but you need to make more of an effort to get along with your coworkers.”
“Yes, ma’am. I’m sorry, Gen…even though you’re a pedo.”
“B-bitch!”
Not much of an apology, really.
“Glad you two have made up,” Sewatari said “By the way, Gen-chan…Yoshio-kun and Carol-chan are my dear friends, so I trust you won’t cause them any trouble.” She smiled as she spoke, but it didn’t reach her eyes.
“Y-yes’m,” Gen grumbled, paling. Going by appearances, he shouldn’t have been afraid of the slender Sewatari, but she was a god of the highest rank. She most likely outranked him, too. As he slunk away silently, I honestly felt a little bad for the guy.
“Is this your player, Senpai?” Un-chan asked sweetly as she fidgeted. I couldn’t believe this was the same god who’d just kicked Gen.
“Yep. You got it.”
“Your player…” Un-chan looked at me, and I froze at her icy gaze. For a moment I felt a flare of intense hatred focused on me, before it disappeared. “I ought to introduce myself. I’m the god in charge of fortune. Treat me as a friend, just as you do Senpai. You can call me Un-chan if you like, or whatever you want.” She smiled warmly and offered me her hand.
I couldn’t forget that death glare. I stretched out my hand cautiously, only for her to grab it and pull me forward.
“Don’t get too familiar with Senpai. Understand?” she whispered into my ear.
“Y-yeah…”
Wow, forget calling her Un-chan. More like Un-sama. Was she really the God of Fortune? Speaking of, Sewatari had said she played the God of Fortune when we first met, right?
“I’m glad you two get along. Do you mind keeping an eye on these two, Un-chan? Make sure no one bothers them?”
“Of course, Senpai. Anything for you!” She immediately let go of my hand as though it were filthy and rushed to take Sewatari’s.
I can smell yuri…
Un-sama definitely didn’t appear to like me being around Sewatari. It seemed like she would do anything for the God of Fate.
“If you would excuse me, I must be getting back to work.” Un-sama retreated to the second-floor office, glancing over her shoulder ruefully several times along the way.
Wait…the second-floor office? I was sure she worked for the major gods. After all, she was on good terms with Sewatari and hostile towards that one corrupted god.
“Sorry you had to see that, especially from gods. Like I said before, you need to be careful of the workers on the second floor. No matter how nice they seem, they’re still our enemies.”
Does that include Un-sama? I wanted to know, but I kept my mouth shut. No point in sticking my nose too far into the affairs of gods. Even if they looked as human as me, or showed me kindness, I had to remember that they were beings from a different dimension altogether.
✦ ✦ ✦
We managed to work without any further interruptions, and by noon we’d finished cleaning. I packed away the tools and got changed in the cleaner’s staff room. Then we headed to the third floor to report in.
Carol and I found Sewatari sitting at a desk by the back window, hard at work. I still couldn’t get over how huge the office was. Nattyan had explained that the divine aura twisted the space, which was how it managed to be so big. I just nodded and pretended I understood. I’d tried to count the number of workers in here, but I lost count around twenty and had to start over. I never did make it to the end.
“We’re done cleaning.”
“Nice work. You can go home for the day then.” Sewatari waved her hand at me, eyes glued to her computer screen.
Carol and I bowed our heads and left her to her work. We stopped in front of the office door to pick up Destiny, who was curled up under the heater. I stashed it back in my bag.
Outside the building, I breathed out a long plume of white fog. We’d arrived in Hokkaido five days ago, and I still wasn’t used to the cold, though seeing snow every day made it lose its novelty. The white-blanketed scenery seemed perfectly normal now.
“Let’s have a snowball fight later, Yoshio!” Carol was still enamored with the snow, racing around excitedly. I supposed she didn’t have much time left to enjoy it. Sewatari had said it should only be four or five days before Carol could return to her world. We’d arrived at Isekai Connection three days ago, so that was tomorrow at the earliest. This was Carol’s final night in the snow. I could put up with the cold.
“All right, let’s drop our stuff off at the hotel, then we can snowball fight.”
“Yay!”
My remaining time with Carol was limited. I decided I would play with her as much as I could, until I ran out of energy or she got bored.