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15. Goddess’ story
The group at the high school was the same as in middle school, and it wouldn’t change for a year.
Therefore, the selection of group members was a very important event.
“I, would like to be in a group with girls outside the special ward, but I don’t know any of the girls here, and so I thought it would be too late tomorrow.”
“Too late?”
“Yes. Since I’ve become a classmate of girls outside the special ward, I’d like to know them better. So, I’d be happy if you could write something like a common self-introduction. Tomorrow, I’ll read it, and choose the member of the group.”
I had been thinking about it ever since I heard that it was about deciding on the group.
In elementary school and middle school, no student came from outside the Special Ward. Well, it was a compulsory education, so it was natural.
In other words, for the first time, I would study with students outside the Special Ward.
And, I wanted to know them.
I thought about what to do for that. Even if I asked them directly, it wouldn’t be easy to get an answer.
Even the girl from outside the Special Ward I bumped earlier fainted so fast.
So, I thought that if it was a letter, there should be no problem.
And, with one night to think, they should be able to write one or two sheets of paper. After all, it was about themselves.
“… Okay. Then, for any girls from outside the special ward, please write a self-introduction for Souya-kun. It’s not compulsory, but everyone comes to study in the special ward, right? So, please think about your actions carefully.”
Although the teacher said that it wasn’t compulsory, I felt that it was compulsory, but surely, everyone could at least write a simple self-introduction.
After all, this school was one of the most difficult to get to in Special Ward Tokyo.
By the way, when I talked to Atsushi about the group, he said,
“I only choose from within the special ward, so I don’t need it.”
Of course, Atsushi would do so.
◇
After school, I didn’t go straight home, instead, I headed for the shrine of the Goddess.
Finally, I was able to sort out the memory of the “Taketo Souya”.
Although his physical ability wasn’t as good as my original body, his brain was incomparably better.
So, to be honest, I was pretty worried that I would ruin the reputation he had because of the exchange.
“Goddess, are You here?”
『”What’s with that rude way of calling! What if I don’t reply to that rude calling?“』
“Please don’t misunderstand, I didn’t mean to be rude… Oh, right, this. The offering. It’s bota-mochi. I saw it was sold at a convenience store, so I bought it.” [TN: Bota-mochi, mochi (rice dumpling) covered in red bean paste, it’s so sweet]
『”Thank you. I’ve been waiting for something like this. I wish there was tea too. Ah, this is just a ‘request’.”』
“Just a request… Okay, okay, I understand. I’ll bring some tea next time.”
The Goddess picked up the bota-mochi and put it in her mouth.
『”So, MUNCH!! MUNCH!!…… what you want to know, MUNCH!! MUNCH!!…… about this world?”』
The Goddess asked, without cleaning the bean paste on the edge of her mouth.
“The society in general, even in school…… it’s pretty distorted.”
The girls’ behavior is restricted, more than I expected…
『”Humm humm, MUNCH!! MUNCH!!…… even inside MUNCH!! MUNCH!!…… the school?”』
“I felt that the patience of girls was being tested, or rather, that patience was expected.”
『”Aah, I see. Well, there aren’t enough men who are essential for the prosperity of descendants here. So, to some extent, it can’t be helped that here is so different from your original world .”』
There aren’t enough men, so first-come-first-served… but if you allow that, the society will be in turmoil.
To keep order, rules are needed.
It might be distorted because to bring order to society, the women were made to put up with it.
“I wonder… if it can’t be helped…”
The faces of the girls bumped into came to mind.
If it wasn’t me, they would have really been expelled.
After all, this world allowed that.
『”What happened?”』
“…Not that big of a deal. More than that, I’ve something to ask. What kind of place is outside the special ward?”
『”Did you fail to inherit the memory?”』
“No, that’s not the case. Just that, feelings are different from knowledge… In the memory, it looks like a city that is, in a way, more developed than here. But in terms of the caste of the class, the students outside the special ward are the lowest. And they, also aware that they are at the lowest? It’s hard to understand all that… “
To compare the Special Ward with a place in the original world, would be like, ‘Shinjuku Gyo-en’. [TN: The largest park in Tokyo, it’s really big.]
A wide green area that was empty in the city. From above, the Special Ward should look like that.
『”Is that so? The special ward was created about fifty years ago, but long before that… for more than hundreds of years, men’s place of residence has been, roughly decided.”』
“Right, that’s something in the memory. What is it again, the place where the men lived was divided by the river and the bridge was a kind of a barrier, is it?”
To compare it with a place in the original world, it would be like Edo (Old Tokyo).
Being wary of rebellion, the word “outing woman, men in a gun” was born. [TN: In Japanese, it’s called, Irideppō ni de-onna, basically, any women who want to go out of the place and men with a gun who want to enter the place, would be checked before passing the bridge]
There, it was called so, here, it was the other way around.
『”Thanks to such isolated settlements, many women have long been far from men. And as times progressed, artificial insemination succeeded. Now, women are able to have children if they wanted, thus men become more and more valuable than before.”』
“Hmm? Isn’t it the other way around?”
If you can have a child without a man, the value of a man will decrease, right?
『”That’s, not the case. Having a father is the best status here. With the explosive growth of the population, the number of women seeking men has increased, so the value of men has increased relatively.”』
I don’t really understand, but is it something like this?
For example, the more salmon bred in the world, the higher the value of wild salmon.
The more children born with artificial insemination, the more valuable it is just to have a father (Natural process).
I can understand the population explosion somehow.
Participating in ‘Koushien’ is more of a big deal than participating in minor competitions or the ‘Inter-High’. [TN: Both, are competitions between high school. But, ‘Koushien’ is special for baseball because Baseball is the bigger sport in Japan. Inter-High is for the other sports.]
It’s the difference in popularity and the competition population, but the “population parameter” is really that important.
Artificial insemination may have given birth to more women than men, and thus the ones who come to seek men, are more than before.
Must be so…
“…Isn’t the special ward created after the value of a man has risen in that way?”
『”Right. But, originally, men and women had been living in the same place. Just, it’s not documented clearly. It seems that because there were many men living in this area, many women were living here even without a residence permit. What whipped to a scar that long-standing practice was the Unites States’ male preferential policy. By deliberately making that policy a law, it provided an absolute sense of security to men. Thus, many men from Japan also went to the United States, and it seems that Japan had a very bad relationship with the United States for a while.”』
Some people, like the female teacher who approached me at the stairs, were still hostile to the United States.
This way of thinking was especially common among the elderly.