The moment when you go from being a god to being reborn as a human and then return to godhood again—only at times like this does the sensory memory of your previous life refuse to fade, leaving you feeling sentimental. Especially this time around, since the reincarnations of people I'd first met when I came to this world were all gathered here, the emotional swings felt even more intense.
"I'm settling down... Looks like I'll be fine at this rate."
For a while—about half a day in human terms—I sat perfectly still without moving, and my emotions finally settled. Other gods probably go through this sort of thing more often than you'd expect, but I doubt any of them get this worked up, so I suppose I'm still immature compared to them.
Thinking that, I stepped out of my room—the space granted to the God of Reincarnation—and
"Secured."
"Heeey, Tenma-chan. Long time no see! But let's save the joy of reunion for later—for now, just be a good boy and stay put, okay?"
"He's the God of Reincarnation, War God. But it would be best to stay put."
"That's right. We have quite a few things we want to ask you... yes, quite a few."
Before I knew it, I was surrounded by the God of Beasts, the God of War, the God of Destruction, and the God of Magic. The moment I stepped out of the room, I was sure I'd done a quick check left and right—so I had no idea what principle they'd used to hide themselves. But with the inherent gap in power, the numerical disadvantage, and being boxed in from every direction, resistance would be nothing but futile. Or rather—
"I figured you'd be on my case about this sooner or later, so I'm not going to resist... but whether I actually feel like talking is up to me, right?"
I hadn't exactly expected such a rough welcome, but everyone wanting to hear my story was well within expectations.
"God of Beasts, God of War, God of Destruction! Escort the God of Reincarnation to the others! Stop this nonsense at once and show some proper respect!"
The God of Magic quickly realized that if this continued, he'd lose his chance to ask his own questions. Adopting a stance that distanced himself from the other three as fast as he could, he took the lead and started walking—as though he were the one guiding me.
"The God of Magic was the one who said he was going to capture Tenma, wasn't he?"
"Tenma, don't be fooled. That one's the most scheming of them all. He'll use anyone and anything to satisfy his own curiosity, and he'll discard the companions he's gathered just as easily as he's doing right now."
"That's right. What the War God said is true. We had no intention of treating you roughly even without being told... Well, that first line was just—you know—going with the moment."
I figured that was about right, given everyone's personalities, but the God of Magic—who'd been casually betrayed by his own companions (though, to be fair, he was the one who'd betrayed them first and planned this whole kidnapping, so he'd brought it on himself)—showed absolutely no sign of being bothered by it and just kept walking.
"Ah! You're finally back! Nice work dying and coming back to life—how many times is that now?"
When we arrived at the room everyone always used, the God of Creation was the first to call out to me. He came over, grabbed my arm, and tried to guide me to a seat—but that seat was obviously set up for interrogating me. As proof, all the other seats were arranged in a semicircle around it.
I figured that was about right, and was about to head for the seat—when—
"God of Creation, isn't that a bit rude? The God of Reincarnation has only just returned. He must be exhausted. Why not offer him some tea first and let him rest?"
The God of Magic stepped forward to shield me, lodging a complaint with the God of Creation.
The God of Creation and the other gods (all except the God of Beasts, the God of War, and the God of Destruction) looked surprised at this, but—
"The God of Magic betrayed us because he was worried about souring Tenma's mood before we could get anything out of him… even though he was the one who suggested this whole thing in the first place."
When the God of War ratted out the God of Magic's betrayal, everyone immediately switched to exasperated expressions.
"Well, I suppose that's just like him. In any case, the God of Magic's scheming doesn't really matter. The fact remains that the God of Reincarnation has only just gotten back, and we're the ones who want answers. So maybe we jumped the gun a little with the whole 'interrogation room' setup."
At those words, the God of Creation and the others retrieved the chair that had been prepared for me, as well as their own seats that had been arranged around it in a semicircle. In its place, they brought out a round table and rearranged the chairs. Incidentally, the God of Magic had tried to grab the seat right next to me, but the God of Beasts, the God of War, and the God of Destruction blocked him and forced him into a seat at an angle. In the meantime, the God of Creation and the God of Death slipped into the seats on either side of me.
"So, I'm sure you already know what we want to ask… but let me be direct. Is it possible for us to be reborn the same way the God of Reincarnation was?"
The moment everyone was seated, the God of Creation dove straight into the main topic, catching everyone off guard. Well, if he'd let the conversation proceed at its usual pace, they definitely would have gone off on some tangent and—worst case—ended up taking a break before ever getting to the point. So it was the right call, I had to admit… or so I thought—
"That's right, that's right! C'mon, spill the secret about Tenma already!"
The loudmouth who'd been lurking in the corner of my vision this whole time might end up making the God of Creation's decisive judgment go to waste.
"Now, now, Namitaro, why don't you behave yourself for a bit? It'd be terrible if Tenma lost the will to talk."
Sensing this possibility, the God of War chided Namitaro and gestured at me with her eyes to continue.
"Well, I guess you could say it's possible, but it might be quite difficult. Besides, even though it's technically called reincarnation, what actually happens is that a portion of my consciousness and soul is temporarily separated from the divine body. So it's not quite the same."
Unlike a normal soul, I don't actually die and move on to a next life—it's a bit different from true reincarnation. On top of that, in my case, there are descendants from my time living as "Tenma" and from the life after that, so at least once every few generations, a compatible "body" will appear.
When I explained all that—
"Then it should work for me, the God of War, the God of Skills, and the God of Death."
The God of Destruction looked pleased. I'd heard something like this before—the gods of Destruction were once mortal humans who ascended to divinity, just like me, so there was a chance that if you looked hard enough, you could find descendants still living somewhere.
"I'm not sure about the God of Destruction and the others, but my descendants have definitely survived, so we should be fine."
Even so, the God of Death was puffing out his chest with full confidence, apparently still knowing about his descendants to this day.
"Well, going by the conditions the God of Reincarnation mentioned, the God of Death would certainly be able to be reborn, wouldn't he?"
The Creation Gods watched the God of Death with envy. But I had no idea what any of it meant, so all I could do was stare blankly at the God of Death and the others.
"Now that I mention it, the God of Reincarnation doesn't know about the God of Death's descendants, does he?"
One of the Creation Gods noticed my confusion and—
"The God of Death's descendant is that Amour who became Tenma's wife. So if the God of Reincarnation can be reborn, it's extremely likely that the God of Death also meets the conditions for reincarnation."
—that was probably the most shocking piece of information I'd received since becoming a god. For the record, even Namitarou was caught completely off guard—his already round eyes went even wider, and he was so stunned he couldn't even make a sound.
"Yes. Technically, she's a descendant of my sister... or was it my younger sister, back when I was still human, but the blood of someone who was extremely close to me still definitively lives on."
It had been so long that even the God of Death himself didn't remember the details of his family structure, but it was apparently beyond doubt that Amour was a descendant of his sister. Incidentally, the God of Death and all his sisters had been human. One of their children or grandchildren had married into a beast-tribe family, and one of those descendants had married the Bandit King.
"Come to think of it, Amour did have something of the God of Death's likeness about her. Though the God of Death's sister... Ah! Amour's ancestor was someone who, unlike the God of Death and Amour, actually had a great figure! Hebuu!"
And so, the Creation God explained the relationship between the God of Death and Amour, but because he just had to add that last unnecessary remark, he took a right straight from the God of Death to the face and went flying along with his chair. Then Namitarou slid into the vacant spot, so even if the Creation God came back, there'd be nowhere for him to sit.
"Does that mean, unlike the God of Death and the others, we won't be able to go play on the surface?"
The Goddess of Love was talking about going to play, but there were actual reasons behind my being reborn, so I'd better explain that first.
"The main idea is that by being reborn and dying, I can verify whether the souls of the dead can properly reincarnate. Also, when I die, I'm directly purifying the world's impurities, even if only a little. And on top of that, if there's a malfunction anywhere in the reincarnation system, the soul at that point shouldn't be able to return to the body stored in its room, so I'd have to stop all reincarnations temporarily and make adjustments."
The God of Death was cooperating with me on this, so I'd assumed the others might have heard about it from him—but judging by the expressions on the God of Death and everyone else's faces, it seemed he hadn't explained anything. Well, I hadn't told anyone either, so maybe I was more to blame than the God of Death.
"I have a question, if that's all right? If you were unable to come back... wouldn't that mean even a god could die—no, that there's a possibility of your very existence being erased?"
The Goddess of Life's question made everyone else look concerned about the danger as well, but—
"No, only a portion of the soul used for reincarnation would be lost. The consciousness is set to return to the stored body the moment the physical body dies. And even if part of the soul is lost, what gets divided during reincarnation is the kind of thing that returns to normal given enough time, so the risk is virtually negligible. At the very least, your existence should never be erased."
"I see. If that's the case, then it seems fine. But something that involves 'lives' like this—at the very least, I would have liked you to report it to me directly."
"That was... well, my bad. Sorry."
"I'm sorry."
To the Goddess of Life, the God of Death and I offered our apologies in earnest.
Before I became a God, the system worked roughly like this: the souls collected by the God of Death were passed to the Goddess of Life, who would then place them into bodies scheduled for new births. However, with that method, any irregularities in the collected souls would be used as-is, and if those piled up, they would become dregs in the world. To counteract that, we adopted a method of bringing souls from other worlds, like my own. But by me intervening and purifying the souls, we became able to minimize those dregs to almost nothing without needing to call for souls from other worlds. That said, even with that method, dregs still accumulated—albeit more slowly than before—so to revitalize this world, it remained necessary to call for souls from other worlds. However, thanks to the slower accumulation rate, the frequency needed had dropped dramatically.
Incidentally, the otherworldly soul that was called forth after I became a God was done only once, and it was the soul of a cow (or a cow-like creature) from a place different from the world where Namitaro and I had lived.
"Well, fortunately, no problems have arisen up to this point, so let's just consider this matter of reporting and communicating closed. As long as we're more careful from now on, it should be fine."
When the Goddess of Life said this with a smile, the matter was considered settled.
"Now then, let's get back to the topic. So, what about the others besides the Gods of Death—how can they be reincarnated?"
When the Skill God steered the conversation back, the other Gods, excluding those with a high chance of reincarnating themselves, became serious all at once. Into that moment, Namitaro tossed a comment:
"Hey, hey, I was kinda wondering about this, but when Tenma first came to this world, everyone helped create his body, right? If that's the case, then in a sense different from the Gods of Death, couldn't Tenma's descendants be considered everyone's descendants? In a way, you could say Tenma's birth parents are the Gods gathered here."
Following this, the Goddess of Earth issued instructions with a rare, serious expression, dropping her usual elongated speech pattern:
"Goddess of Life, can you confirm that right away? And you too, Goddess of Love."
The Goddess of Life and the Goddess of Love, upon receiving their orders, immediately began examining my body.
"Mmm... Namitaro is right. It's very faint, but I can sense the same presence from Tenma's body as we have. It might be because when we created Tenma's physical form, we mixed in some of our own Magic Power."
"On my end, I've confirmed a thin, but existing, connection between us and Tenma-chan's descendants."
When the Goddess of Life and the Goddess of Love reported back after finishing their examination, everyone let out cheers of relief.
"It's not important, but everyone occasionally calls me not 'God of Reincarnation,' but just 'Tenma.' Is that really okay?"
"Well, your appearance is the same as Tenma's, and 'God of Reincarnation' is more like a job title, so there shouldn't be any particular problem, right? Besides, as far as I can tell, even after becoming a God, you're still Tenma. Also, at this point, if we don't reincarnate at least some of them, there will definitely be a riot."
The other Gods ignored my muttering and were already discussing who would be reincarnated first... even though I hadn't actually said I would reincarnate anyone yet...
Namitaro seemed to read my thoughts with his words, but he and everyone else seemed to be forgetting the most important point.
"All right! I'm going first!"
"I call second!"
"I'll be third."
"Fourth for me~"
And just like that, the order was decided one after another, but...
"Looks like everyone's forgotten, but just because you've decided the order doesn't mean a compatible body will appear in that sequence."
My words silenced everyone in an instant. In particular, the God of Skills, who had claimed first place, and the Goddess of Love, who had claimed second, were frozen with expressions more dumbfounded than I had ever seen from them.
"Come to think of it, that's right. Tenma had been saying that all along, hadn't he? We all completely forgot because the possibility of being reincarnated suddenly seemed real."
Unlike the dejected God of Skills and Goddess of Love, the God of War—who had ended up last (excluding the non-participating God of Creation)—seemed somehow pleased about the whole thing.
"So then, God of Reincarnation. When do you think my turn will come around?"
The God of Magic, who had likewise been competing with the God of War for the last spot, pressed forward with an expression that said he could barely contain himself.
"Give me a moment... First off, the one with the highest probability right now is... the God of Death."
"When? I'm fine starting right now!"
The God of Death, who had jumped from third to first, was overjoyed, but...
"Just a little before my previous self died, a new life had just taken root in a certain woman's womb. The soul hasn't entered it yet, so technically you could go in right now, but... there are a number of things to explain and prepare, so give me a bit more time. I'll make sure no soul other than the God of Death's can enter."
He could go in immediately, but doing so would cause work to pile up during the God of Death's absence. Apparently it wouldn't resolve itself in a hundred or two hundred years, and if something came up with no one knowing what to do, the worst-case scenario would be forcing the God of Death back—so preparations were needed to prevent that. On top of that, there were some circumstances regarding the body compatible with the God of Death, and the God of Death himself might not be too happy about it, which meant I couldn't just send him off to be reborn as things stood.
"First, the mother of the body compatible with the God of Death is a human, though she has some beastkin blood from a few generations back. The father is a tiger beastkin. Health seems to be no issue, and the sex is female. However, well..."
"What is it?"
"The candidate for the God of Death's reincarnation... is actually my previous self's great-niece."
"I see... No problem. Even if she's that one's great-niece, she's a completely different person. Besides, that one got into some trouble after being reincarnated, but never caused any critical issues."
In my previous life, that person had been my sister, and since I had no memories of this place at that time, I had doted on her quite a bit—so I was grateful to hear him say that.
"Besides, being the younger sister of the God of Reincarnation from the last cycle means that while I can't say for certain what kind of family she'll be born into, her bloodline will undoubtedly fall into a rather high-class category... She should be able to live a comfortable life without having to do much of anything, really."
It sounded like a pretty materialistic way of thinking, but he wasn't wrong—she would indeed be born into one of the most prestigious noble families in that world, so as long as nothing went terribly wrong, she'd be able to live a comfortable life right up until the day she died, just as the God of Death had said.
"So then, God of Reincarnation—when is my turn?"
"There's no one ready to be reborn right now. And even if there were, I wouldn't keep sending gods off one after another. If we sent several at the same time and something went wrong, it'd be a huge disaster. The earliest we'd send the next one would be several decades from now, after the God of Death returns."
In truth, suitable bodies had already been found for both the God of Destruction and the God of War, and sending them along at the same time as the God of Death probably wouldn't cause any operational problems... But even if it had all come about rather haphazardly, now that every god here had decided to be reincarnated, they needed to establish at least some basic rules. Just because something seemed like it wouldn't have consequences was no reason to immediately make an exception.
"At the very least, make the order clear for when we happen to find suitable bodies at the same time. But understand that the order may be changed depending on circumstances, and that I may jump in ahead of everyone else's agreed-upon positions—and don't complain about it. Also, once someone has been reincarnated, they go to the back of the line unless there's a compelling reason not to, with the exception of me. I'd like these to be our foundational rules."
The God of Magic objected that under these rules, he himself could end up being reincarnated back-to-back in certain situations. But when I explained that this reincarnation was part of my work as the God of Reincarnation, and that everyone being reborn was fundamentally acting as my proxy, he didn't say anything further. Well, in this particular matter, there wasn't actually any need for a proxy in the first place right now, so he probably understood that complaining would only work against his own interests.
(Still, maybe I should try to find a way to move the God of Magic's turn up a bit... It'd be a pain if he went off the rails for some reason.)
I should probably consult someone about that—maybe the God of Creation. He was a pretty unreliable fellow, all things considered, but among the gods he had the highest rank, so it'd be better than deciding on my own. Plus, if things went south and the other gods started blaming me, I'd need someone who could serve as a scapegoat in my place.
"So, Tenma—er, I mean, God of Reincarnation. What should I do until it's time for me to be reborn?"
I didn't really understand the criteria for when the name changed, but there wasn't anything particularly special he needed to do, so I told him to just be ready whenever the time came. Then he started saying things like, "Well then, let's go now," so I told him to wait until the God of Death's handover was complete.
And a few days later—
"The special room is ready—a place where the body can rest during the reincarnation process. God of Death, please lie down on the bed in there. I'll call you once everything's prepared, so just wait until then."
"Understood."
This room had been hastily built after I explained the situation to the God of Creation, who had returned following that earlier meeting. Except during emergencies, the door could only be opened from the inside when someone was in the room, and even during emergencies, it required three or more gods present to open it—so there was virtually no chance of anyone tampering with things during the reincarnation. Well, if three or more gods were to conspire together and pull something, all bets were off... but in that case, the victim (victim god) would probably be the God of Creation. Of course, in my case as well, if I didn't rotate turns to everyone, there was a possibility of being tampered with during my own reincarnation, so I'd have to be careful about that.
"Alright, preparations are complete. Now, close your eyes and relax your body. You should feel drowsiness coming on soon—just let yourself go, and the reincarnation should take place. However, even after being reborn, you won't have memories from your time as a god. And even if any fragments remain, they'd be vague enough to dismiss as fantasy. Also, the timing of when your sense of self awakens varies from person to person, so there's no way to predict when that'll happen. Well, saying all this right now is kind of pointless since you won't remember any of it after being reborn, but still. So then, the next time we meet will be when the God of Death returns. Have a good life."
"Thank you, Tenma. Well then, see you later."
With those words, the God of Death went still, like a corpse. Just to be safe, I checked on her reincarnation target and confirmed that her soul (or a part of it) had successfully anchored itself in the new body without any issues. If the God of Death lived out a full natural lifespan, it might be nearly a hundred years before she returned here as the God of Death.
"So this is what it's like... watching over the God of Death's growth from this side. Is this how everyone felt while I was gone?"
I stepped out of the special room, confirmed the door was locked, and for some reason I couldn't quite explain, felt my cheeks relax into a smile.
"Tenma, if you're done, come back already... Just to be safe, you weren't messing with the God of Death, were you? Pinching her cheeks or drawing the characters for 'meat,' 'middle,' or 'rice' on her forehead — I'll let that slide — but any sexual harassment through physical contact is absolutely off-limits!"
"As if I would! Honestly... When your turn as the God of Creation comes around, maybe I should just deliberately see you off?"
"No! I'm sorry, so please don't — see? I'm looking forward to my own rebirth too!"
I burst out laughing at the sight of the God of Creation desperately pressing their palms together and bowing. And for some reason, it brought back a vague memory of when the God of Creation had scouted me in my previous world.
"Hey, God of Creation."
"What?"
"Thanks."
"What? That came out of nowhere."
"Just felt like it."
"You're such a weird one, Tenma."
"Not as weird as you."
I realized I'd said something pretty random myself, but then again, this was well within the range of our everyday banter in this world. Sure, when I'd come back, my smile had made everyone suspicious, but they'd probably chalked it up to the God of Creation being their usual silly self — and the conversation quickly shifted to where the God of Death had been reborn.