Tokyo Soft Rice King.

Blacktail bristled and barked, its tail standing upright.

"What did you say, meow! I'm not rotten, meow! You willful and rude brat! Get out of my way, meow! Shirako is mine!"

No, no, no, I'm not yours... Kuroba Akira thought to himself as he saw Kuroo pounce on him, preparing to unleash his Frenzied Scratching attack.

Then Kuroba Akira saw Ame no Hikaru raise the katana in her hand, making a slashing motion.

Wait, is she really going to kill the cute little kitten?

That won't work!

To stop the girl, Kuroba Akira used a Dragon Claw Hand to sneakily attack her soft breasts.

"...!"

Tenyu Hikaru trembled, his whole body went limp, and the knife in his hand slipped from his grasp, grazing Kuroba Akira's cheek.

Ouch... That's dangerous.

Seeing that the girl had lost her weapon, Kuroo temporarily retracted his claws in mid-air and used his rocket headbutt to attack the girl's C-cup that had just been ambushed by Kuroba Akira, pushing Amehiro off Kuroba Akira's body.

After falling to the ground, Ame no Hikaru lost consciousness.

"Huh? Did she faint? Did she hit her head?"

At this moment, Black Tail licked its paw and explained.

"It was me who put her to sleep temporarily, because she still has some 'human part' left, so it's easy to affect her body, meow."

As Kuroba Akira, now free, stood up, he asked Kuroo, who was standing on Amehiro's stomach like a victor.

"The part that makes us human?"

"Literally, she's not a pure god, nor can she be considered human; she's more like a 'half-human, half-god,' meow."

Half-human, half-god...

"Hmm? But can't gods possess human bodies?"

"That's right, directly possessing a person is obviously not possible, meow, nor can you directly use a living person as a god, meow. But choosing a part of a person is possible, meow, but there must be a connection, meow, such as 'bloodline'... Gods whose divine essence has decayed will choose to combine with humans in order to continue their own existence. You should have heard of this, meow?"

"Oh, I heard the old woman mention that's why the gods chose to take human form."

It sounds so cheesy that they transformed into human form specifically to have children.

“Yes, meow. Then the child born by the god can inherit the godhood… But there are many drawbacks to doing this. For example, if a relative is used as the vessel for the godhood, it needs to be replaced generation after generation. In this process, the god will no longer be pure, meow.”

"No longer pure?"

"Hmm... Don't you humans have a story, meow? It's called The Ship of Theseus, meow."

"Oh, I got it."

As mentioned before, this refers to a ship whose parts are constantly being replaced until all parts are replaced with new ones. At this point, can the ship still be considered the original ship?

If this question were asked of a deity, the answer would probably be 'no'.

It seems that for gods whose divine essence is decaying, choosing to unite with humans and have offspring is merely a way to 'extend their lives,' until their divine essence is diluted to the point of almost disappearing by the blood of mortals, at which point the gods will die conceptually.

Indeed, nothing in the world is immutable; even gods will face their end.

"Why is there such a strong tension between you two? Have you had any conflicts before?"

"No, meow. This is the first time I've met this brat meow. But it's probably because of our divine names that we don't like each other, meow. We're just incompatible, meow."

"Isn't she Kushinada-hime? What does she have to do with you? Oh, you're Izanami, your son is Susanoo, and Kushinada-hime is Susanoo's wife... So she's your daughter-in-law? Mother-in-law and daughter-in-law don't get along?"

"That has nothing to do with meow! I've never had kittens, meow!"

That's true. They were simply given the name of gods, and the myths and legends people made up are not actual historical events.

"But there is indeed some connection, meow. If I am a legitimate god, then this brat is an anomaly among anomalies, meow."

Numa Kuroo stepped on her body, came near her head, and pressed a paw against her forehead, saying something.

"Originally, she was indeed Kushinada-hime, meow, but now, she's 'not just Kushinada-hime' anymore, meow... something else has mixed in... um, she has a faith in swords, and she also carries a bit of the swords' owner's aura... the aura I hate the most, meow... and an aura that makes me want to take care of her, meow..."

After identifying it, Kuroo said, quite puzzled.

"What a mess! What's wrong with this kid, meow? Frankenstein, meow?"

Bio-engineered monster, oh no, bio-engineered god?

"Does that mean she has multiple divine entities within her?"

"No, there is still only one divine essence, but the divine essence that was about to be extinguished has been strengthened by 'filling in other parts'. I don't know how it was done, meow. It seems that you humans have conducted some rather dangerous experiments with gods again, meow."

Kuroba Akira shrugged. It seemed that the Tenyu family had conducted some kind of dangerous experiment, and they even used their own deity as a conduit. It was truly disrespectful.

"Do you know why Kuro-o is here?"

"As I just mentioned, she was called over to help, meow."

"Help? Help with what? If she's here to help you, why is she being so unfriendly?"

"Of course not to help me... rather, I'm here to help too, meow."

"Oh?"

"Anyway, you should carry that brat on your back first, meow, there's always a need for her, meow."

"Oh……"

Following Kuroo's instructions, Kuroba Akira carried Ame no Hikari off the ground. Her body was quite light, feeling only slightly heavier than Mirai's, with the difference in weight probably being in her chest.

"Anyway, come with me, meow."

"Alright, I'll follow you."

In this godforsaken place, we still have to rely on our own deity. We definitely can't get out on our own, so let's be polite and not make Black Tail angry.

Kuroo began to lead the way, heading straight for the worship hall. The key point is that she actually walked right through the building!

Kuroba Akira's eyes widened immediately as he exclaimed.

"Wait, wait! I can't walk this path! Don't suddenly use your wall-penetrating ability!"

Blacktail turned around and poked its cat head out from the wall.

"Idiot meow, this is not my ability, but the nature of another world meow. Because it is separated from the original world, it cannot touch the matter of the original world meow, so you can do it too meow, Shirako."

"oh oh?"

Kuroba Akira tried taking a step towards the wall and actually passed right through it into the worship hall.

Wow! I really went through it! That's so interesting!

Then he asked, puzzled.

"But why doesn't it pass through the ground?"

If you could pass through the ground, you'd probably fall straight to the Earth's core.

"It seems that it's because the earth doesn't accept those born filthy? I don't really understand, and I'm not interested in studying it, meow. The other world is a mess anyway. We can study its rules after you humans have a way to freely enter and leave the other world, meow."

"Can't humans get in? But I got in anyway, didn't I?"

"You came in at the invitation of the gods, meow... or you could say you were tricked in by that brat, meow."

Kuroo turned around and glanced at Ameyu Hikaru, who was sleeping peacefully on Kuroba Akira's back, and said.

"She probably brought you in unconsciously, probably because she sensed a familiar aura from you, meow."

"Oh yeah, she just told me that she thought she knew me, but couldn't remember. Maybe Kuroba and Tenyu have some connection... Do you know Kuroo?"

"I don't know, meow."

It seems she knows, but just doesn't want to tell me.

Because given Kuroo's personality, if she really didn't know, she would say, "Go look it up yourself, I'm not interested, meow," instead of directly saying she didn't know.

"Speaking of which, Kuroo, why didn't you tell me how to identify a deity? It was Kobayakawa-sensei who told me... By the way, do you know which deity Kobayakawa-sensei is an agent of?"

"I don't know, but her ability... is really good, I want it too, if I had that ability, even you could easily gather faith, meow."

What do you mean, "Even if it's me"... Do you dislike your agent that much?

"Oh, you mean the ability to attract attention? That's certainly very convenient."

"Attracting attention? Her ability isn't just about attracting attention, it's about 'gathering people's hearts,' and it can even influence the relationships between people... But now that she's weakened to this extent, she can only attract attention, and the god above her must be about to fall."

"Huh? Is it really going to be too late?"

"What's so strange about that, meow? In this day and age, most gods are having a hard time, meow. People are becoming more and more shrewd, and the benefits that gods can give are being replaced by technology, so faith is getting harder and harder to earn, meow."

"That's really realistic..."

Although Akira Kuroba wanted to ask more questions, Kuroo had already lost interest in the topic and started talking about the ability to distinguish gods.

"As for why I didn't teach you how to identify the gods, it's because if you learned it, you would definitely abuse it, meow."

Are there any side effects?

"There are no side effects, meow, but for gods, if you can see the other person, it means that 'the other person can see you too.' If it's some mischievous god who suddenly decides to pull you into another world and then abandons you, that would be terrible, meow."

"Indeed... I don't even know how to get out."

"It's not just a problem of not being able to get out. There's 'miasma' in the other world, cat. If you don't leave the other world and return to the real world as soon as possible, you will slowly be assimilated into a constitution that is suitable for survival in the other world."

"Oh? What problems might arise from assimilation?"

"It's like a sugar cube falling into water. If you wait until it completely dissolves, there's no way to separate the sugar from the rest. So, people who stay in another world will sink deeper and deeper over time, and once they reach a certain point, they can't come back, meow."

"That's dangerous!"

Was this place originally a swamp?! That means now is no time for leisure! Life is counting down!

"Well, at this depth, we can stay here for about a week without any problems, meow."

Hearing that there was still such a long period of delay, Kuroba Akira breathed a sigh of relief. No matter what, he wouldn't stay in this godforsaken place for a week.

"Don't think a week is a long time, meow. I found you very quickly, but if we were further apart, I don't know how long it would take to find you, meow."

"Huh? Is it this difficult for you to even find Kuro-o?"

"Because the deeper you go, the more bizarre and fantastical it becomes. You lose all sense of time and weather. The surrounding environment is filled with darkness and fog. In some places, I don't even know what they look like. Trying to find someone is like looking for a needle in a haystack."

Blacktail said, flicking its tail.