The New Hero Club

Y: Yuuki Yuuna, now arriving at the Hero Club!

T: Tougou Mimori, arrived as well.

I: Good morning to the two of you.

Y: Good morning, president!

T: We'll be counting on you, president.

I: I just can't get used... To being called that.

Y: That's right, now that Fuu-senpai's enrollment into high school has finally been decided, Itsuki-chan is the new club president!

T: Congratulations, Itsuki-chan.

Y: And Karin-chan is the vice-president.

K: I'll do my best assisting you, Itsuki. Have some supplements. Here's some water.

I: gulp. I'll be in your care, dear vice-president.

K: Sure. But you have to work hard too, Itsuki.

K: Let's turn you into the best club president there is.

T: A Yamato Nadeshiko raising project, then... I'm in, Karin-chan.

I: Awawawa...

S: Ittsun, you're in for some trouble.

I: If that's the case, I wouldn't mind switching...

S: Huh? You mean me becoming the club president?

I: You were the leader of the previous team, after all.

F: Nope. No way, no way, that's not happening.

I: Ah, Onee-chan.

K: Morning. You sure surprised me, popping out of nowhere like that.

F: A good woman likes both surprising others and being surprised herself.

Y: Fuu-senpai, that sounded like something a popular person would say!

F: Naturally. Now that I'm nearly in high school, I have attained the pinnacle of girl power.

Y: The super girl power that surpasses ordinary girl power... And what lies even further beyond that is the pinnacle of the girl power!

F: At that point, you start emitting pheromones without even noticing.

K: I have no idea what you're talking about.

F: I guess this conversation is on too high of a level for Karin to understand.

Y: I hope I can reach it one day, too. The very height of girl power.

F: The secret is to eat udon every day.

Y: In that case, Yuuki Yuuna's going to be fine!

I: Say, Onee-chan, am I really going to be the new president of the Hero Club?

F: That's the twentieth time you've asked that.

I: But...

F: Well that's just how it is. Nogi and Karin get called out by the Taisha all the time.

S: I'm going there tonight as well.

F: Yuuna has medical examinations from time to time.

Y: Thanks to everyone, Yuuki Yuuna's got no problems with her health!

T: You being in good health is the most important thing, Yuuna-chan.

Y: I really learned to treasure being healthy over the last year.

F: And Tougou is Tougou.

T: If I was to become the president, Itsuki-chan would be a better choice.

T: Leading people is a hard task... When I was in elementary school, I foolishly believed I was capable of that, but...

F: It probably sounds like you're just the only one left, but I really do believe in your talents, Itsuki!

T: In fact, once you get used to it, we'll be able to graduate without any worries.

F: That being said, since I nominated a relative, I have a lot of responsibility too. I'll be watching you to see if you're doing a good job or not. Closely. From nearby.

I: Do you have to watch from this close, Onee-chan?

K: And that's why you're still showing up in the clubroom every day?

F: That's right. Karin, you'll have to do your best with your tsukkomis.

K: Ugh, you're right. There are way too many boke here.

F: You have to evolve into a tsukkomi monster that won't lose to any boke, Karin!

K: What kind of monster is that meant to be?

F: That's right, keep it up! You have to react to every single thing in the world! There, a crow is crying outside!

K: What's with that "Caw"!? Do you really have to cry right now?

F: Look, Nogi's drinking water.

K: She's drinking perfectly normal water!

S: I like mineral water.

F: Ah, Tougou just took out some self-cooked sweet potatoes!

K: Western-style sweets, really? Shouldn't it be botamochi?

T: Yuuna-chan asked for it, so it's alright.

Y: Tougou-san, sweet!

K: What's that supposed to mean!?

I: Karin-san's doing her best... She's a tsukkomi monster.

K: Well, I am the vice-president!

K: But aren't those more like obnoxious nitpicking than tsukkomi?

F: I can't believe you noticed.

K: Hey.

F: That's just proof that the accuracy of your tsukkomi is still too low, Karin. Put more kung-fu into it.

F: Well, you don't need to worry, new president and vice president. I'm starting high school soon, but I'll still be coming occasionally. And even after it starts, I'll still be coming occasionally.

F: I bet you're happy to hear that, Karin.

K: Uh, well, I guess.

F: Now hold on, you're not supposed to agree there! Don't embarrass me like that!

K: It'd be uneasy without you around.

F: Yeah, that's how you're supposed to do it. Phew, now we're talking.

T: It's hard to relax when things don't go the way they usually do.

Y: It still feels like everyone is a little tense, though.

T: That's natural... The Shinju-sama disappeared, after all.

K: (That's right. The Shinju-sama disappeared.)

K: (The chaos after that was something else.)

Reporter: A week has passed after the large-scale fire broke out, but the firefighting efforts are still ongoing. Living in the shelters is causing a buildup of stress in the citizens, who are anxious to know how the government will deal with the situation.

A different reporter: Please take a look! Ruins! Ruins! And more ruins! There is no human presence in Honshuu at all!

I: The sight of the ruined Honshuu in the news was terrible.

K: I had no idea it was wrecked to such an extent.

F: It makes me realise that stuff people from the Christian Era had to deal with went beyond just "bad".

Y: But the sea of fire has finally disappeared!

T: The Heavenly God used the same principle as the Shinju-sama's Forestization on a large scale outside the wall... And so, when it withdrew, the Shinju-sama was able to rewrite the logic of the world back.

K: If everything was physically destroyed and became a sea of fire, rebuilding would be impossible, so in a way we're lucky.

F: Hm? Hold on. When the Forestization wears off, people return to their lives as if nothing happened...

F: So going off the same logic, if there were people still alive when the world turned into a sea of fire, would they have returned to normal now?

S: It's said that the world outside Shikoku was pretty much entirely eliminated even before that happened. So surviving in those conditions would be... pretty hard.

S:But it's not as if there's no hope. I hear they're researching whether there are birds or fish outside the wall right now.

Y: Maybe there could be some different place that's been protected by some different god all this time?

K: Apparently, they're going to start slowly returning to Honshuu from now on, to find people like that, too.

S: "Scrap and build! Let's build it anew!" is the slogan from now on!

F: It's good that the chaos has finally settled down.

S: I think them saying the infrastructure can be somehow managed for now is pretty big. Since they apparently can extract a lot of stuff from the Shinju-sama's remains.

F: I guess it kept being the ally of mankind up until the very end.

I: It's going to be tough from now on, but it's a happy end... Right?

I: I hope the Heavenly God doesn't appear anymore.

F: About that...

T: I talked about a person from the Taisha about that.

F: From the Taisha? The woman that was with us when Yuuna was being sent to the Shinkon, right?

T: Yes. Aki-sensei, who used to be my and Sonocchi's homeroom teacher.

A: Thanks to your efforts, the Heavenly God was driven away.

A: We were this close to being doomed... Since the Shinju-sama's lifespan was coming to its end and little time was left, we created a system called the Sentinels, and aimed to tip the scales with the Kuni-Zukuri plan...

T: Kuni-Zukuri... A form of sympathetic magic, or so I've heard.

A: It was a ritual to enshrine one of the Earthly Gods making up the Shinju-sama on a sacred mountain in the former Kinki region, just as the ruler of the Earthly Gods has done back in the Age of Gods.

A: And thus the land became that of plentiful reeds and bountiful rice grains - Toyoashihara-no-mizuho-no-kuni.

A: And so we've decided to imitate the legends, and recreate what happened back then. Which was, to turn the land outside the barrier into "a land of plentiful reeds and bountiful rice grains".

T: The ruler of the Earthly Gods... The one serving as the core of the Shinju-sama, right?

A: You've known a lot from the start, but it looks like you've studied this subject even further.

T: How could I not, when my friend got cursed?

T: And when I went to retrieve Yuuna-chan from inside the Shinju-sama, I considered a lot of things, such as escaping with some sort of magic.

A: We've gotten off-track. In the face of the shocking revelation that the Heavenly God itself was going to manifest, the Kuni-Zukuri project came to a halt.

A: But aiming for the general's head has long been a way of turning the tides of an unfavourable war.

A: The Heavenly God got infuriated by the Shinkon and let itself be lured deep into our territory, where it was dealt a massive blow.

A: With the defeat of their leader, the enemy retreated. And using that opportunity, the Shinju-sama returned the world to its normal state.

T: When you say that, it almost sounds like everything was going according to plan... But it must just seem like that because of how things turned out.

A: Yeah... The Taisha did decide on the Shinkon as the final measure, after all.

A: But humans chose to live as humans.

A: The Heavenly God has not disappeared. Similarly, neither have the Earthly Gods.

A: The Heavenly God must still be watching us from above. And if we incur its wrath again, it's possible that it will attack again.

A: The Earthly Gods, in return, must still be watching over us from the wind, the sea, the land and everything else around us.

T: The reason the Heavenly Gods were angered was because humans came too close to divine powers, wasn't it?

A: Seeing how furious it got about the Shinkon, that must've been the case.

T: What should we do to stop it from attacking again?

A: I think all we have to do is live properly, like humans should.

A: The one carrying the powers of both a Hero and a Miko shall become a saviour and liberate us all... It seems that the ancient legends came true.

T: All I did was save my friend. My precious friend, who would always save me...

A: And that is fine. We're going to take our masks off.

A: And from now on, it's us adults' turn to take responsibility.

T: Sensei...

T: And that's how it went.

S: When she talked to me, she was kind of like that, too.

S: But we talked about this too.

A: Would you mind if I asked you a question?

S: Sure thing! Ask anything you want!

A: There was one time I was suddenly ordered to eat a lot of food containing bell peppers as "a part of my duty".

S: Ah. That was back when I was enshrined and couldn't move. I thought I'd send my hard-working teacher some refreshments.

A: Nogi-san, was your image of me simply "teacher that hates bell peppers", by any chance?

S: Of course not. For example, back when we went to the hot springs training trip with Wasshi and Mino-san, you were using a massage chair late at night...

A: Aah... I can feel it...

S: I can clearly remember you saying stuff like that.

A: Y-You saw that, then?

S: And back when Mino-san brought a kitten to school, you took care of it in the faculty office until the classes ended, right? You thought there wasn't anyone around, and...

A: What a cutie you are...

Kitten: Meow.

A: Meow. Heehee.

S: I remember you saying that, too!

A: Y-You saw that too?

S: See? I know you properly.

S: We talked about stuff like that, too.

T: I had no idea she had that kind of side to her.

F: You know, if we ended with Tougou's speech, it would've been a cool ending about how adults are going to take responsibility from now on.

I: I wonder if those other people who were carrying out a hard duty are doing fine?

K: The Sentinels, you mean? They went through a lot of trouble, but they're all alive, including the Miko who was supporting them. They're doing fine.

T: I was deeply relieved when I heard that.

K: Apparently, when the Heavenly God descended, they were busy in a different place from us.

K: Although they weren't directly fighting like we were.

I: The last enemy covered the entire horizon, after all.

F: They must've had it rough, too.

K: Next time we meet, I'll have a proper chat with her..

I: It's great that we've finally shifted to more pleasant topics.

T: It was way too hard up to now. It just has to be pleasant from now.

F: Alright, and to remind ourselves: Hero Club, Six Tenets!

I: Give a good greeting!

K: Try not to give up!

F: Sleep well, eat well!

T: If you're troubled, talk to someone!

S: You're likely to succeed if you try!

Y: Don't push yourself and make sure you're happy as well!

F: Okay! Now then, president, give the orders for today! I'll help out as well.

I: cough Well then, today we'll be volunteering for the reconstruction efforts.

Hero Club: Yeah!

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Pub: 26 Dec 2020 16:31 UTC
Views: 549