When Inori gave the location, Souta imdiately sensed trouble.
She looked at him calmly, as if confident that just naming a place was enough for him to know exactly how to get there.
"Can you be a little more specific?" Souta raised his hand, pointing upward. "Like, which direction? How far is it from the bridge above us?"
He was planning to teleport there directly.
What kind of god wastes ti walking?
Inori tilted her head, thought for a mont, and then handed the rice cooker over to Souta.
"Fyu-Neru will take us there," she said softly.
With her clear, bell-like voice, the top of the rice cooker—ahem, 'chanical pet' flipped open to reveal a screen. An electronic map popped up, with a red dot marking the destination.
After glancing at it a few tis, Souta suddenly felt the urge to take this gadget apart.
Just how many functions did it have?
He vaguely rembered it being able to cook rice in the original series...
But the details were fuzzy. He'd need divine power to fully recall everything.
"Alright, let's head out."
Staring at the map, Souta gauged the direction and distance, preparing to teleport.
But right before he could—
Growl.
Inori's stomach rumbled.
The pink-haired girl froze for a few seconds, then quickly turned away, a faint blush blooming on her cheeks.
She was actually embarrassed.
Souta was surprised. It was the first ti he'd seen the idol girl show emotion on her face.
"Hungry?" he asked.
Inori didn't reply or look at him, clearly avoiding eye contact.
"I'll take that as a yes." Souta smiled. "In that case, let's eat before we go. But..."
The shift in his tone made Inori turn back to look at him.
Souta continued:
"I won't give you food for free. After you eat, you have to sing a song."
"You like music?" Inori asked.
"No. I like your voice."
After the first Apocalypse Virus outbreak, Tokyo was devastated.
For Japan, losing Tokyo was like losing the entire country.
In the wake of the outbreak, riots spread. The nation descended into anarchy.
That's when the global organization GHQ arrived, suppressed the chaos, and took control of the archipelago.
GHQ ruled through terror, barely treating civilians as human. At one point, they even ordered the complete extermination of all virus-infected people in an entire district.
If this were a zombie movie, such a move might make sense.
But the Apocalypse Virus didn't spread through human carriers—massacres didn't stop the infection.
Under such brutal rule, further unrest was inevitable.
Especially in the outbreak's epicenter 'Roppongi', where the streets were filled with vagrants, starved citizens, infected people unable to afford vaccines, and local thugs.
Fyu-Neru's map had pointed them to a small park in Roppongi.
The place was crawling with shady characters.
Souta surveyed the area carefully. He realized that he and Inori had teleported to the very spot from episode one of the ani, where Shu first t Gai.
He even spotted the sa bald thug Shu had encountered.
The guy, leading a gang, approached Souta and the mont they saw Inori, their faces turned vulgar.
Crude laughter echoed across the park.
Souta sighed. What a ss.
He recalled how, later in the ani, thugs had tried to assault Inori in a scene that was very much not PG.
Of course, by then, Inori's true soul had awakened, and those thugs t a grisly end.
Realizing they were surrounded, Inori instinctively tensed, slipping into a combat-ready stance.
Souta, on the other hand, looked as relaxed as a tourist.
As the bald thug stepped closer, Souta casually slapped him—sending teeth flying, cracking the pavent, and knocking him out cold.
The rest of the gang dropped instantly under the weight of Souta's divine aura.
Propping his chin up with one hand, Souta fell into thought.
Inori relaxed, then glanced at him, confused.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"I suddenly rembered this bandit trope in novels—authors love to use the 'kill or not kill the bandits' dilemma to show if soone's a bleeding-heart."
Souta looked down at the unconscious thugs, considering whether he should finish them off.
If he let them go, they'd just hurt soone else eventually.
But killing them all on first eting... felt a bit excessive.
Not long ago, he was still a regular person. Now that he was a god, he was starting to treat human lives too casually.
After thinking it over, Souta cast a permanent ntal suggestion on the gang.
If they ever tried to harm anyone again, they'd be forced to slap themselves silly and run ten kiloters naked.
It barely cost him any divine power.
Sha spiritual distortion couldn't produce faith—otherwise, he could've gotten seven or eight new zealots.
Inori didn't understand a word of what he was mumbling. She just stared at him, blank-faced.
Souta didn't explain further. Instead, he led her to a bench, and they sat down to wait for the Funeral Parlor mbers.
During the wait, he kept checking his system phone, @-ntioning Kurumi in the chat or sending her DMs.
Still no reply.
The system didn't warn of any life-threatening danger, but Souta was still deeply uneasy.
What if her evolution went wrong?
"I'll have to check on her later," he decided, frowning at his phone.
And while I'm at it, I'll grab the Path of Peace mythology archive from the Aka world and tweak it for this one.
Though he'd made up his mind, he didn't leave imdiately, not while Inori was still with him.
At the very least, he'd wait until soone from Funeral Parlor picked her up.
"Seriously... they're taking forever. One al and a song's worth of ti, and they're still not here?"
Souta looked around. Other than the unconscious thugs, the park was empty.
Inori sat beside him, hugging Fyu-Neru, softly singing another nursery rhy from Mother Goose.
Souta noticed a pattern—when Inori was alone, she either zoned out or sang. Very simple, very quiet. As if singing was the only thing she knew how to do.
"Inori, let take a look at the Void Geno."
The pink-haired girl paused her song and handed him the sealed tube without hesitation.
There was no distrust in her eyes.
Souta had already shown her enough divine power to expand her worldview.
To a god, sothing like the Void Geno held no value.
Inori believed he had no reason to covet it.
"If Funeral Parlor accepts my help, the Void Geno won't even be necessary," Souta said as he examined it.
"It's for Gai," Inori reminded him.
"No," Souta shook his head. "If I can help it, I don't want anyone to use it."
"Why?"
"Because I don't want to see you being... pulled apart by others."
Souta said it bluntly.
Inori looked at him, still puzzled.
He didn't explain further.
How could he? The truth was awkward.
Guilty Crown was his gateway ani. Inori had once been his goddess.
From an outside perspective, it was just fiction.
But to watch his goddess, now flesh and blood, being pulled apart by other n 'from her chest, no less', it made his chest tighten uncomfortably.
Maybe it was a man thing. That irrational possessiveness.
If he had no power, he'd have swallowed it.
But now that he was a god?
Why put up with what he didn't like?
If it bothered him, he'd stop it. Simple.
Just as he was thinking that, beams of light pierced the darkness.
TL Status: Mildly Irritated but I'll continue
Reasons: PIC
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