Sasami-san @ Ganbaranai Vol 1 Chapter 7
VOLUME 1
Chapter 7: Tsukuyomi Sasami’s Investigations (Part 1)
***What is an “Alteration”?***
This world (or more precisely, this country) is controlled by the “Myriad G.o.ds.” The “Myriad G.o.ds” belong to an ideology that is unlike Christianity, in which there is only one G.o.d, or Greek Mythology, which is filled with legends of many G.o.ds, but rather is a system of belief that rests on the idea that “G.o.ds” inhabit each and every thing in this world.
According to that ideology, everything from the pebbles by the roadside, to buildings and arts and crafts, to animals and weeds, and in the end to even grand-scale conceptual objects like the weather, the physical laws, and the cities… all of those things were inhabited by “G.o.ds.” The “Myriad” in “Myriad G.o.ds” meant “many,” and it makes sense; if even all the garbage over there had G.o.ds living inside, then the number of G.o.ds would surely be too many to count.
The word “G.o.d” may have a suspicious ring to it, but these G.o.ds have a sense of self. They are self-aware, they have their own hearts, and they have their own personalities. The “Myriad G.o.ds” have their own thoughts, emotions, and are so-called anthropomorphic G.o.ds. There is no exception, from the highest G.o.d who rules the sun, Amaterasu, to the G.o.d that rules that eraser over there. The G.o.ds are thus endowed with a sense of humanity, or at least what seems like it.
In the normal world we know, or rather, the world that we are led to believe exists through our “common sense,” the idea that G.o.ds inhabit everything is difficult to perceive. I will expand on this later, but the world that we take for granted is actually a world that was made convenient for humans through “alterations.” And as long as the humans are c.o.c.ky enough to act like they are the kings of their domain, the G.o.ds will cower and remain obedient (sometimes a more mischievous G.o.d will cause psychic or supernatural phenomena, but those are taken care of by special organizations).
It’s also not like all the G.o.ds get along with each other. It’s easy to understand if you compare them to a group of humans. Put many people with many distinct personalities together, and you will see love, hate, and factions forming. This gives rise to rivalries and even hierarchies of influence. After all, there are “Myriad” G.o.ds, so there’s no reason to expect all of them to be of one mind. In fact, the G.o.ds tried to push their own agendas at every given opportunity, and tried to craft a world that was most convenient for themselves personally.
Although, a G.o.d’s influence only extends to himself. The G.o.d of the pebble cannot change anything outside of himself, the pebble. And the other G.o.ds have their own senses of self, so of course they have no reason to do what he asks.
But there is still a hierarchy among the G.o.ds. For example, take a wooden desk. The desk is made from a collection of wood and screws. In that case, the desk, the wood, and the screws are all inhabited by G.o.ds. The G.o.d residing in the wood is in a sense the G.o.d of the wood, but in another sense is a part of the G.o.d of the desk. And then, the G.o.d of the desk is also part of the G.o.d of furniture (desks are a type of furniture, so you can consider desks as falling under the realm of “furniture”).
Like atoms and molecules, small G.o.ds can gather to form larger G.o.ds, becoming G.o.ds of more and more conceptual objects. For example, you can have the following progression: G.o.d of the desk -> G.o.d of the household -> G.o.d of the town -> G.o.d of the country -> G.o.d of the world. You could consider these G.o.ds that are lower in the chain to be nothing but a part of the G.o.ds they make up.
Consider, if you like, the relationship between individuals and organizations. Each and every member of the organization has their own sense of self, and are their own beings, but when you bring all those members together, you also give rise to the “corporate body,” which also has its own personality. And in most cases, the organization members cannot defy that corporate body. The corporate body has the right to give orders to its members, or you could even say that it has the power to force its members to obey. In the case of G.o.ds, this phenomenon becomes even more striking.
The bigger “collective G.o.ds” can force the smaller “const.i.tuent G.o.ds” to obey. It could be described as an absolute power of authority. The higher-up G.o.ds (said to possess “higher divinity,” or something like that) rule over the lower G.o.ds, and can change those lower G.o.ds as they please. These changes are called “alterations.”
I already mentioned this before, but because the G.o.ds have their own personalities, each G.o.d tries to change the world in a way that is convenient for himself. However, that does not mean that every G.o.d can just act how he wishes and throw the world into a state of lawless chaos.
If all the humans just acted as they pleased, then nations would fall. Or rather, nations were made in the first place because humans were so against such a state of disorder. The G.o.ds are the same way. There is an existence that regulates all the G.o.d so they do not go overboard in trying to satisfy their own desires. That existence is the King of the G.o.ds, the “Supreme G.o.d Amaterasu.”
Just as the t.i.tle of “Supreme G.o.d” would suggest, Amaterasu’s divinity ranks number one. All other G.o.ds submit to her. The world is defined however she wishes, and the other G.o.ds define their own forms based on that. Ultimately, the world changes itself to fit Amaterasu’s desires. From the pebble on the side of the road to the overarching physical laws.
For a while, a world convenient for the humans persisted, because Amaterasu had been captured by the humans and made to obey them. Humans occupied a bit of a unique position in the world, so they sealed the Supreme G.o.d, and used her as a tool for their benefit. They used her power and her authority to make and maintain the world in a state that was advantageous to them.
I will go into details later, but of all things, Amaterasu was now resting inside my brother’s body. Or rather, she had been a.s.similated into his body. You could even say that my brother was the Supreme G.o.d Amaterasu. This will probably make it easier to understand for a certain group of people, but my brother was Suzumiya Haruhi. But for various reasons, my brother was not aware of his divinity, and was just a blockhead who didn’t know how to use his powers. And like what happens when an incompetent king tries to rule over a country, the world was being thrown into disarray.
And well, that’s how things are now. How did things manage to get so screwed up? That is a question that I should probably wait until the next report to answer. But more importantly, we have to think a bit about the big mess the other day: the event which we shall temporarily call the “Valentine’s Day Tragedy.”
***In Regards to the “Valentine’s Day Tragedy.”***
Since the Supreme G.o.d Amaterasu moved into my brother’s body, the first large-scale alteration we encountered was the “Valentine’s Day Tragedy.” After that screwed-up episode in which it seemed the whole world had gotten turned into chocolate, I did a lot of thinking and researching, and I finally believe I understand the essentials of what had happened.
You could say my brother was born to be a manservant, but he desired nothing for himself. You could say that various events made it impossible for him to be greedy, or that he had no sense of self, but my brother usually did not think or feel for himself. He always hid his face precisely because he wanted to “kill” his sense of self, or because he didn’t want to be aware that he existed.
So, even though he was endowed with the power of the Supreme G.o.d, my brother did not use that power for his own selfish desires. You could say that such power was wasted on him, but if he used the Supreme G.o.d’s power seriously, he could destroy the entire world… so you could also say that this was a nice and safe situation.
And that’s precisely why I had let my guard down. I did make the Oniichan Surveillance Tool to check that my brother wasn’t doing anything strange or developing any troublesome selfish desires, and I made sure I kept a close watch on him (otherwise, why would anybody watch that d.a.m.n hentai around the clock?). But my brother just continued to live everyday out completely normally, making it seem that even keeping watch over him was a bit pointless.
But this time, my brother developed a selfish desire. It might sound a bit ridiculous, but that selfish desire was his desire for chocolate… after he had been told too much by the Yagami sisters about Valentine’s Day, he finally managed to wantsomething.
Please don’t misunderstand; it’s not like my brother gave out the order that the whole world should turn to chocolate. That was completely the action of the G.o.ds around him. The G.o.ds heard my brother’s wish for chocolate, and wanting to please the Supreme G.o.d, they changed their own forms into chocolate, urging him to “Please eat me, please eat me!” (Right now, my brother was completely equal to the Supreme G.o.d, and the other G.o.ds really couldn’t tell the difference.)
Everyone wants to be employed by a good company, and live in a country where they could live a peaceful and fruitful life. The G.o.ds are the same. If the Supreme G.o.d takes a liking to a G.o.d, then that G.o.d’s ranking increases. His divinity goes up. He will then be able to live a bit more freely, and to fulfill his own selfish desires more easily. So the G.o.ds tried their very best to fulfill my brother’s desires. In short, they tried to flatter my brother in an attempt to get into his good graces.
As a result, the G.o.ds turned my body into chocolate and also turned the world on its head, transforming it into a bizarre chocolate wonderland. Everything was for my brother. Everything was to make my brother happy. My brother definitely got more chocolate on Valentine’s Day than anybody else in the entire world.
In any case, the G.o.ds turned themselves into chocolate without thinking of the consequences, but the ones who took offense to this were the Yagami sisters. The Yagami sisters seemed to possess a divinity far exceeding that of normal G.o.ds, and what’s more, they seemed to occupy a rather special position in the hierarchy, and were able to forcibly intervene in even the alterations that happened because of the Supreme G.o.d.
Those girls tried to return the world to its original state. That was natural. I understood why they would want to. If you asked me whether I wanted the entire world to be turned into chocolate, I think I would have to politely decline. But their actions were judged by the other G.o.ds to be clearly hostile and subversive to their attempts at making the Supreme G.o.d as happy as possible.
That’s precisely why the G.o.ds which had turned into chocolate attacked the Yagami sisters when they tried to return the world to normal. That was the ident.i.ty of that brown torrent which had swept violently through my house. (The Yagami sisters had called the hostile G.o.ds who attacked them “evil G.o.ds”… but I’m still not sure what they meant, so hopefully I’ll have figured that out by the time I write the next report.)
Although, this time, a lowly G.o.d of substance had challenged the much more highly divine Yagami sisters and had been quickly reduced to dust (G.o.ds of substance are the lowest denomination of G.o.d, and were so-called “const.i.tuent G.o.ds.” G.o.ds that inhabited animals and plants were of equally low denomination, but they were called “G.o.ds of living things” and were treated slightly differently). And after they had disposed of the small fry, the Yagami sisters proceeded to resolve this “irregularity” (this is what they called alterations that gave rise to situations that they didn’t like).
In summary, this entire incident occurred because my brother wanted chocolate. So the only way to resolve the issue was to satisfy that desire. That’s why the three Yagami sisters were so careful to coat me with chocolate, and offered me to my brother. I was a living sacrifice.
And when my brother saw me there, almost like I was offering myself to him as the chocolate he wanted, he got completely the wrong idea and died from satisfaction. So, given that my brother’s desires had been satisfied, the other G.o.ds sadly saw that altering things more would be pointless, so they all returned to their original forms (my brother also did want to live a normal life, so once his other desires were quelled the world would pretty much automatically return to normal).
***Conclusion.***
But seriously, to think that a large-scale alteration could come from as trivial a desire as “I want chocolate”… the Supreme G.o.d’s power was just ridiculous. I think I should strengthen my surveillance of my brother so something as insane as this doesn’t happen again.
There are still quite a few things that I have yet to understand, like the true ident.i.ties of the three Yagami sisters. I will continue to investigate and think about these things so I can properly deal with them later. It’s really stupid that I have to do all these annoying things… but well, I can’t say that I didn’t have anything to do with how the world got to such a messed-up state, so I guess I don’t really have a choice…
Also, I don’t think I want to eat chocolate for a while.
END PART 1