A portly woman was now sitting on the throne of god, a bed of flowers at her heels. Blue bells were intermingled with vibrant orange Oriental Poppies and pink Begonias. Flowers were all around the seat, forming a garden that consumed the new Cathedral of Causality.
The floating half-orb in which Deus had been sitting for countless centuries had been disowned, at the whim of the winner of the survival game. All but the chair had been swapped out for a new look, but rather than look out of place, the white throne stood proud among the array of colors.
Formerly known as the 8th competitor in the survival game, Uedshita Kamado was now sitting as the god of a new world. The events that led to her ascent of power, along with the effects of Deus' decay, had brought such wreckage to the world that it had to be reborn. At first, the sudden arrival of these powers unsettled 8th, who felt as though she were somehow intruding upon another person's role and playing with things that ought not to be played with. However, she changed her mind when she realized that if she did not create this new world, no one else would be able to.
Kamado tapped her thick fingers at the arm of her chair. She started with her index finger and then went successively to her pinky, her eyes moving from each of the screens before her. All of the world was visible from this command seat, and at first, she was doing all she could do just to keep up with it. The task was daunting.
A wide, golden chef's hat sat on her head, and her apron had the same sheen to it. Her normal clothes had been replaced by a long, white robe. Were she to walk about, the end of the robe would trail behind her for several feet. Around her neck was a necklace adorned with heart-shaped diamonds.
"You can take a break, you know!"
Kamado turned her head, to recognize Murmuru's approach. While 8th could not enter the world she had so articulately created, Murumuru was able to enter on her behalf, just like she was able to be that link with Deus. However, the change of management wasn't just a swapping of faces. This new god was utilizing Murumuru quite differently.
The tiny demon donned clothing that mirrored Kamado's, except the color scheme was inverted. Her apron and hat were white; her robe was golden. Murumuru was wearing thick oven mittens, which were balancing a baking sheet. A dozen chocolate chip cookies were placed evenly along the pan, and the smell quickly reached Kamado, who softly chimed, "Oh, they're done! That was quick."
"Well, I am a demon," reminded Murumuru, as she carefully made her way toward Kamado. The first few days with the robe had proved troublesome, as she kept tripping over herself and getting tied up in the long garment. She enjoyed lying down and getting in lost in the robe, but walking always made her nervous. "With my magic, we can make as many cookies as you like in no time!"
Kamado watched Murumuru's approach; she looked so tiny surrounded by all the flowers. The god was smiling and felt the warmth overtake her body. The throne drew in heat, and it was the ideal amount, too, never enough to cause her discomfort.
"Then we'll have to make more!" Kamado cooed, reaching out her hand. "But first, let's see how these taste." The tiny servant with the long white hair scurried up to Kamado and held out the pan. Neglecting to notice the outstretched hand, however, she placed the pan of cookies directly onto 8ths lap.
"Murumuru!" Cried Kamado, while large blobs of tears were forming out of the corners of her eyes and spilling down her cheeks. "The pan is still hot! Pick it up, pick it up!"
Mirroring her master's panic, Murumuru was shaky when she grasped both sides of the pan. In her nervous fit, she not only lifted the pan off Kamado, but launched the whole thing into the air. The cookies disappeared into the thick array of flowers, and the pan landed nearby with a thud.
"I'm sorry!" Murumuru cried out, rushing to pick up the pan. "Please, forgive me!"
Kamado lifted up the bottom of her apron and used it to dab at her eyes. She brushed at her lap and then, while watching her servant, said, "It's okay, it's okay. Don't worry about it. Why would I get worked up over a little mistake like this? These things happen."
Mururmuru had the pan in her hands when she looked back up at Kamado. Her eyes were also watery, and a large, open-mouthed grin was stretched over her face. "You mean it?" She asked.
"Of course," Kamado answered, sweetly. "Deus would not have reacted much differently, I'm sure."
The demon satisfied an itch by rubbing her chin against her arm. "I don't know about that," Murumuru answered plainly. "I was very careful not to upset him. You know how fickle gods can be."
In the moments that followed, Murumuru left and promised to whip up another batch of cookies. Kamado, despite her initial decision not to do so, indulged in some reminiscence. The memories were not so beautiful. She recalled the bloodshed that had led to the elimination of the other 11 competitors. When she thought back on the entirety of the survival game, she found herself stuck on the question of how she ever managed to win.
"Everyone else wanted to win so badly," she thought aloud. "They wanted to win so much that they were willing to kill each other. My orphans fought to protect me, but as far as I know, I was the only one who didn't try to win. And maybe that's why, in the end, I was the one who won. I was the last one standing, because I did not fight."
She sighed and focused on one of the screens. A boy was holding the hands of two other children, a male on his left and a female on his right. They were walking to an ideal spot, where they could go look at the stars.
"Amano Yukiteru and Gasai Yuno were bad people," she whispered. "But they were good children, once. I am sure of it. Everyone starts out so good and innocent, and then they corrupt, as they age. Something had to have happened to them, to make them who they were. I am sure the same is true for the others, whether they became a terrorist or a serial killer or anything else bad—they can be fixed."
She suddenly realized that Murumuru was standing in front of her, with another batch of cookies. "I maximized my power and whipped these up super-fast!" The demon explained, offering up the cookies now on a safe-to-handle platter. Kamado took the cookies with a smile.
Murumuru hopped down and plopped into the garden. She began to lay flat against the soil and made "angels" in the flowers with the moving of her arms and legs.
"Oh, yeah!" Kamado said, suddenly. "I was watching Ai and Marco today. They looked just like they did, all those years ago. Still…" The god's voice dropped into a more quiet tone. "Maybe I'm still used to how they were during the survival game, but they seemed different."
Murumuru's ears perked up. "Oh?" She asked, looking up. "I thought you knew."
Kamado's expression softened, yet it was not the sign of relaxation. "What do you mean?" Her voice had a strict sense of importance to it.
Murumuru knew she could not avoid answering, and so she explained, "Being god doesn't mean you can just do anything. There are a few rules, and one of the big ones is that you can't bring back people who've died. I mean, you can bring back their bodies—but you can't bring back their souls. They are going to be different, even if put in similar situations."
Looking back to the screen, Kamado watched as the child known as Reisuke Houjou dropped the puppets he had been given as a gift from above and instead gravitated toward playing with a toy train set. Kamado leaned her head back, pressing it against the back of her chair, began to sob, and closed her eyes.
In this darkness, she envisioned the world she had created. It was laid out in her head perfectly, even when she was not looking at the screens. An entire world, mirroring the one that had passed, populated only by children—she had developed a place where innocence could not be lost. War did not exist, because the children had no desire to fight. Everything was placed for them just right, so that they could play all day and in any manner they chose.
Using Murumuru, the new god of this world made her presence known. All the children knew Kamado's name, and she was there Mother from above, invisible but always there. When a child was close to falling in a river, Kamado would send out Murumuru to save him. Everyone was wrapped in her arms, safe from any form of harm. There were no diseases. There was no such thing as wild animals. Every creature was a friend to this young humanity.
Kamado felt a tug on her robe. She saw Murumuru standing there, with a handkerchief in her hand. Kamado took it and wiped away her tears. "When I am too old to do my job," she announced, still clearly emotional, "I won't do what Deus did. I won't start a new diary game. When the time comes, we are going to decide which child in the world is the most kind-hearted and loving and grant him the title of god. That is how it will be."
Murumuru nodded but quickly added, looking away, "That will be a while, though. No need to worry about something like that…"
Kamado chuckled quietly. "Oh, yes," she started up. "I know that. We still have more work to do. We've created a world that does not have selfish adults in it. The survival game proved to me that growing up is the root of all the wrongs in the world—even Ai and Marco were willing to kill other people, for the throne I'm now in. I must make sure that sort of fighting doesn't happen again, in their memory."
"Yeah," Murumuru said. "But if people can't kill each other, people can't get sick, and people can't even get old in die… What's going to happen in the future?" She crossed her arms and eyed the screens. "You have fixed what looked like some big problems with the world. Deus could have stopped people from killing each other. But he didn't. When people fought wars in his name, saying they were fighting on behalf of God, he allowed it to happen. You are changing things. But violent as his system might have been, he knew, I think, that if people were not allowed to die, they'd get bored being alive."
She turned to Kamado and asked, "What are you going to do when that happens? They'll run out of things to play with. They'll run out of things to discover. Children, everywhere, will feel like they have nothing left to live for. Millions all over will try killing themselves, but find that they can't even do that."
Murumuru lifted herself into the air and landed gently on Kamado's right shoulder. She placed her hand on the god's head. "What are you going to do, when that happens?"
Kamado shrugged, almost causing Murumuru to fall. "We will figure that out if that happens," she explained, before heaving a deep sigh. In her bright green eyes, a screen was reflected, in which a young Ai and Marco were going down a slide together. "This world is not yet perfect," she murmured, taking a warm cookie into her hand. "But I am making a promise to everyone down there and to everyone from the world before—" Kamado took a bite out of the chocolate chip cookie. "I will make this a better world for the children."