Granted, there are good things that stem from the bad. Our invasion of the Animal Realm is a prime example. Had the invasion never happened, the cerulean ceramic chair I am sitting on now would have not existed, and the sunlight from the fancy window would have not shone on me either. Had it never happened, I would have no chance to enjoy the forest on my current view.
We would have never settled on the surface had the invasion did not happen.
Can I even call it an invasion, though? The whole incident started due to the many calls for help coming from the trapped human spirits in the animal realm, and my goddess, Keiki Haniyasushin, manifested to answer those calls. Seeing the condition of those poor souls, Keiki initiated making an Idol for them to pray on, which is an ingenuine play on her part because, with her unlimited creativity, she managed to make a living haniwa with just the faith of those humans.
Many people glance over the process of figuring out the design for the Haniwa, which is a shame since it is the most fascinating part of the story. Keiki managed to make a solid structure for her creation by using references from the anatomy of the human body. Starting from the framework, the sculpture goddess created a perfect one for our kind by replicating the human skeleton, with the most notable part being the thorax. Using hardened clay, she designed our chest with twelve pairs of costae, seven of them directly sticking with the sternum—referenced as true ribs—while five of them fused and adhered in the same anterior bone—called as false ribs. For the spine, she made small individual bones called vertebrae which consisted of a body, a foramen, a laminae, and articular processes that function as joints for each bone with each other.
Speaking of joints, Keiki also managed to make wonderful mechanisms for us to move freely. Rather than sticking our bodies together, Keiki put a simple connector for each of our limbs that granted us the freedom of movement. She built hinge-like joints for both our arms and legs so that we could flex and extend them, pivot joints on the neck for rotations, and ball joints on our hip and shoulder so we could move them freely like a living creature. In order for the joints to work, our model needed a free space in between our joints and, as a result, most of our joints were not covered under a layer of skin, leaving a hidden yet noticeable gap upon our skeletal framework.
She used fiber-like threads as replacements for our muscles. The best example of this is its usage in our upper extremities. Imitating the work of the biceps and triceps muscles, she assembled the string to work in synergy so that it would extend when the other string was contracting. All of which is proof of her intellect as the goddess of sculpture.
For the skin, my goddess used porcelain clay so that we would look appealing, replacing the human's flexible integumentary system. But, because her focus on figuring out the design was mainly on the function, the first models did not look as humane as later haniwa. This would lead to our face only having limited facial features such as the three holes that represent the eyes and mouth of a man.
The first idol became the main model for the next haniwa to come. However, upon finishing her work, she realized the need for more workers to help produce her creation, a group of helping hands that specialized in clays and anatomy for sculpture purposes. Thus, the first Pawn was created, blessed with the mind of a broad, general thought process whose main motive was to help proliferate more haniwa. The first pawn succeeded in civilizing our kind.
As time went on and the production steadily increased, the spirits of the animal realm saw us as a potential threat, and in order to fight back, Keiki made her second Pawn, blessed with a narrow, specific thought process with the purpose of designing haniwa specialized in offense, warriors that will strike the beast spirits down. The second pawn succeeded in creating an unstoppable Haniwa army.
After taking control of the animal realm, Keiki started to experiment more with her creation, and she asked for ideas from her pawns. However, she soon realized that their suggestions were either too broad or too narrow. So in order to solve that problem, she created another Pawn, blessed with a thought process that prioritizes exclusions and eliminations, a thought process whose results were not as broad as the first pawn and not as narrow as the second. The third pawn was created.
I was created.
Not wanting to lose with my predecessors, I chased for more ambitious tasks. Perhaps, my biggest achievement as of now came when the animal realm incident occurred, when the possessed humans were fast approaching our area. It was an emergency, and with the lack of actual weapons to fight back those humans, Keiki made an urgent announcement for the pawns. We were asked to think of a new design with at least one being submitted in the next hour. Other pawns, understandably, backed their head upon hearing such a ridiculous order.
I, on the other hand, went straight to work. From simple deduction alone, I concluded that the humans were swift, but their strength could not exist without sacrificing other aspects, such as their defense. A regular haniwa would have been outsped by the humans. However, a warrior with bulky exteriors would work to fend them off. In addition, the epidermal layer of their skin was only covered with keratin, a substance not as durable as opposed to a haniwa's porcelain cover. If we use the strength they do not have and use it to polish our own, we could have a better chance to strike back.
After finishing my design, I gladly submitted it twenty seconds after Keiki finished her urgent announcement, and it was mass-produced right after.
Despite losing in the end, my design could be considered a success. It even managed to chase them out, even if just for a while. After the incident, the Haniwa Army Corps—which did not suffer massive financial loss after its defeat—settled into the Forest of Magic and civilized a village of our own. Keiki even held a mutual partnership with the local puppeteer due to their love of craftsmanship. Had the invasion never happened, I would have not been sitting here recalling my past.
…
How long have I been waiting here?
My current order is to wait for more instructions, so I choose to spend my time glorifying history. It is certainly more productive than doing nothing. I take a view from the window and see the people of our kind busily working together. One of the retired soldiers is helping other haniwa in our village, bringing heavy logs and materials for the construction of our village. That soldier is one of the more infamous ones since she was known as the head of the Haniwa Army Corps in the past. Mayumi is her name if I recall it correctly. Her face had the human aesthetic of later haniwa, which I am not jealous of since I lack the capacity for such emotions.
From the window view, I see Keiki approaching the retired soldier before the goddess confronts her. The retired soldier halts her activity and listens closely before she nods and salutes in respect to her. She then leaves elsewhere, leaving my vision from the window. But before I can wonder what she is on about, the door of my room creaks open.
"Pardon?" The elite soldier, Mayumi, enters the room. "Keiki ordered me here."