Tokyo Soft Rice King.

"How could it have degenerated? If Black Tail is such a powerful deity, how could it have become so weak as a cat? Even if the old man hadn't helped gather faith, Black Tail shouldn't have become so pathetic, right?"

"Well... the situation is a bit complicated. In short, it's because of my old man's mistake that Kuroo has suffered a very bad influence. It's like repaying kindness with ingratitude... My old man also said before he passed away that he had been fair to everyone, but he had wronged me and Kuroo the only one..."

Grandma Kobayashi seemed a little dejected. After briefly explaining the reason, she spoke to Kuroba Akira.

"In short, my old man asked me to take you in because he hopes that the next agent can fulfill his duties as an agent and help Black Tail gather faith so that she can regain her human form."

Reverting to human form...

Blacktail is a female cat.

In other words...

It really can turn you into a catgirl!

And she's a catgirl of the gods!

Chapter 271 The Ability to Rewrite Fate

However, it's still uncertain whether it will be a catgirl.

Ultimately, cat ears and tails are just superfluous additions based on human preferences. Even if a god could truly transform into human form, they might not necessarily be a catgirl.

It's also possible that it will look like the Palico from Monster Hunter, and Fury and the like can be considered humanoid to some extent...

Of course, there's no need to guess here; just ask the old lady in front of you who has seen this before.

"Old woman, have you ever seen what the Black-tailed Humanoid looks like? What does it look like?"

"I've never seen it either. Kuroo has never transformed into human form, but she used to be able to talk. Her voice sounded like that of a little girl around ten years old."

"No, you haven't seen the old woman, so why do you say she can transform into human form?"

"Powerful gods eventually take human form, because only in this way can they leave offspring."

"Huh?! Huh? Wait, leave behind offspring?! Can gods have children too?"

Kuroba Akira was stunned. Could a god really teach and train humans?

In other words, there are actually second-generation gods in this world!

This is ridiculous!

"Otherwise, why do you think gods would bother to take human form? If it's just to communicate with humans, there's no need to transform into a human, right?"

That's quite in line with the nature of mythology.

Think about it, aren't the gods in Greek mythology just scumbags who went down to earth and messed around with innocent women?

"But not every god does this. Generally speaking, only gods whose divinity is gradually decaying will choose to have offspring with humans."

"The divine essence decays... Since the divine essence is a concrete object, it will indeed decay one day."

"Yes, for a god like Kuroo, whose divine essence is based on the land, unless the entire Shikoku Island sinks, its divine essence will not be affected. Even if it is weakened to the point of being similar to an ordinary cat, it will not disappear. However, some gods do not have such a magnificent divine essence, so they need to 'transfer' their divine essence, and some gods will choose to 'transfer' it to a human."

"After all, people are objects too..."

Good grief, a Jinchūriki, huh?

“That’s right. Families that maintain a relationship with the gods and serve them generation after generation are called ‘God Clan.’ We’ve met some of these large families before. It was shortly after I gave birth when my family went to Sapporo, Hokkaido, and we were received by the ‘Ame-no-Hana’ clan…”

"Ah! The Tenyu clan! I just heard about them yesterday! It seems they're related to Susanoo's sword?"

"That's right, it's related to Susanoo-no-Mikoto, but the deity served by the Tenyu clan is not Susanoo-no-Mikoto, but his wife, Kushinada-hime..."

"Didn't Susanoo slay the Yamata no Orochi in Izumo Province? I think Izumo Province is in Shimane Prefecture, right? Why is it in Hokkaido...?"

"If that's the case, then Ame no Habakiri and Futsu no Mitama should be kept at Ishigami Shrine in Nara Prefecture. It's impossible for them to be left in a 'wild and uncivilized place' like Hokkaido, right?"

"That's true..."

“We haven’t delved into the reasons either. The shift in faith is very complicated. It’s possible that local people moved north and settled there due to war, famine, or other reasons, and then established new shrines there. Just like Kuroo, it’s because its branch is in Tokyo that it is now active in Tokyo.”

"By the way, why doesn't Kuroo go back to Shikoku? He's supposed to be the land god of Shikoku, but he's wandering around Tokyo. Isn't that strange?"

"Now that Shikoku Island also belongs to Japan, people's geographical concepts have changed with the times. There's no longer the restriction that the gods of Shikoku must remain in Shikoku..."

At this point, Grandma Lin also showed a slightly puzzled expression.

"However, I'm not entirely sure why Kuroo stayed in Tokyo. Logically speaking, she could have gone back to Shikoku to take over the local faith... I guess it might be for the same reason that people from other places come to Tokyo to make a living. Rather than staying in the countryside as a local minor deity, it would be more promising to come to the capital to grab territory and become a great deity who gathers the faith of the whole country."

"That's a really practical reason..."

It seems even the circles of gods are quite complex.

"Have you ever heard of Kuroba, old woman? She's from a branch of my family."

At this moment, Kuroba Akira remembered his background and asked about it.

"No, there is no one with the surname Hei Yu in their family. In any case, I have never seen him."

That's the same as what Miss Niwa said. She said that Kuroba is a 'non-existent surname,' which is probably similar to how Uchiha corresponds to Konoha.

"In short, we did see the 'god' in person there, a young girl with silver hair... very peculiar."

"Is she strange-looking? Or ugly?"

"No, she has no physical flaws. She's a fair-skinned and beautiful girl, much like I was when I was young... You probably don't know much about her, but she's probably about the same level of beauty as Shion-chan. However, if we're just talking about temperament, she might even surpass Shion-chan. I mean, Shion when she first came to our house."

She's just as beautiful as Shion, another goddess-level beauty, or rather, a true goddess.

However, Granny Kobayashi frowned as she recalled the deity she had seen.

"I really dislike that kind of temperament. It's cold and emotionless, like a finely crafted doll, giving off a kind of inhuman and strange feeling."

Now she truly is a goddess with no status, no connections, and no resources.

However, Akira Kuroba felt that the temperament of a god was mostly related to the god's personality. For example, Kuroo's gluttonous and lively personality made Akira Kuroba think that she would be emotionless after transforming into human form.

However, we'll only know what it looks like after Kuroba helps Kuroo return to human form.

Thus, Kuroba Akira gained another new main quest.

That means raising a catgirl... no, raising a god.

To put it simply, you need to make more use of your abilities.

After all, Kuroba Akira couldn't be as awesome as Old Master Shilin, who could gain the followers and faith of the masses without relying on his abilities.

Speaking of which, Kuroba Akira just happened to want to test his abilities, and Granny Kobayashi was an ordinary person without any special talents, but she also knew about things related to gods, so it was perfect to use her to test his abilities.

After explaining the situation to Grandma Kobayashi, she cooperated by extending her hand.

Kuroba Akira's right hand now holds a copy of Takanashi Mirai's A-rank talent, which was accidentally copied in Takanashi's bathroom. After all, he and Mirai had 'that' kind of interaction in the bathtub, so it was inevitable that their palms would touch.

Grandma Xiaolin placed her arm on the dining table as if she were taking someone's blood pressure, and said with a slightly incredulous expression.

"But it's quite a strange ability, to be able to see talents... This is somewhat different from what my old man said before. Perhaps Kuro-o gave you a different ability?"

"Is the old man's ability the same as mine?"

“I’ve never seen him use it, so I don’t know exactly what he can do, but he did tell me what he can see.”

"Oh, the observation part, right? What can the old man see?"

He said he could see 'karma'.

"Huh? That's great!"

Kuroba Akira raised his hands and placed them beside his cheeks to make a V sign, almost sticking out his tongue and hanging his eyes.

Grandma Kobayashi rolled her eyes at him, and couldn't help but get up and punch Kuroba Akira on the head while scolding him.

"Fool! The 'karma' I'm referring to is the 'karma' of business!"

"Ah... the 'career' in 'business'... wait, career?"

When Kuroba Akira heard this word, he thought that maybe Kobayashi's grandfather saw the same thing as him. After all, they were both Kuroo's agents and should have been given the same abilities.

Grandma Kobayashi took Kuroba Akira's question as a doubt and explained it to him.

"That's right, he said he can see karma. Bai Zi, do you know what karma means?"

The word "business" is very common when used in words, but it is rarely seen when taken out of context.

Homework, studies, family business, career, profession, occupation, industry, and so on...

When considering a single scenario, the only one that Kuroba Akira could think of was karma in Buddhism.

"Is this... a Buddhist concept? Like karma and what..."

"Yes, pretty much. He said karma is a force that compels people to do something, and that an individual's actions will affect that individual's future."

"!"

"He said this ability helped him a lot. It was because he could see karma that he was able to find like-minded people more quickly and gather a lot of comrades."

So that's how it is. So the right hand isn't actually a talent, but rather karma?

The more Akira Kuroba thought about it, the more he felt that Grandpa Kobayashi's idea was probably correct.

Given his personality, upon seeing the words appear on his hand, he certainly wouldn't judge them based on appearance alone. Instead, he would investigate thoroughly, eliminating incorrect options step by step, and ultimately determine what the words on his right hand truly represented—a very rigorous 'conclusion'.

It's much more reliable than the 'inferences' that Kuroba Akira drew based on his own observations.

In other words, only now does Kuroba Akira realize that his deduction was wrong... Actually, it can't be said to be wrong, it's just that his understanding was slightly off.

Akira Kuroba previously thought it was talent, interpreting the characters on his right hand as 'the ability to do something,' but in reality, no one is 'born with' these abilities.

Furthermore, if we classify it as a talent level, the difference between A and S doesn't seem to be that significant, which makes me feel like something is a bit off.

But now we know that the word on the right hand is not 'the ability to do something' but 'the drive to do something'.

This also explains why Akiko's talent changed from "voice acting D" to "motherly voice actress EX".

EX stands for Extreme, the limit, and reaching the limit means 'completion'.

Her career is 'finished'.

This also explains why some geniuses' words represent a kind of 'skill,' while others' words represent a kind of 'profession.'

The phrase "future online streamer S" actually implies that she will eventually develop in the direction of becoming an online streamer.

In other words, is this actually a kind of 'fate force'?

A person whose right hand has no writing on it is not lacking in talent, but rather that they are free from karmic burdens, so they can "do anything".

Those burdened by karma will inevitably walk down this path, regardless of their own will. But this isn't entirely a bad thing, since strong karma also means a greater probability of success.