Miraphon was practically bouncing with joy! She had realized what Kaori was trying to make and had a soft spot for mermaids. Those being one of the few cryptids that God, the Mysterious Old One, had allowed to remain on Earth. She wasn’t sure what Kaori’s version would look like but it had to be better than the originals because the old mariners were nuts when they described them as beautiful. Real mermaids, or at least the ones on Earth, were ugly in the worst way. They were however a very nice and mellow people.
Kaori tried replacing the type of fish several times but to no avail. She then thought to try replacing the human with an elf. She still had absolutely no luck and was getting frustrated because mermaids and variants were an intrinsic part of her plans. Miraphon came up to her and suggested using the essence of water. Kaori looked at her uncomprehending for a moment but then it occurred to her that that had to be a thing as part of certain magic systems, like in various anime.
Kaori summoned her book and had no idea where to look. Einoro pointed the spot in the phenomena section out to her and Yaju grinned from the side. Kaori was profoundly happy to have so many competent and helpful people around. She purchased the essences that were available which were gas, liquid, and solid.
Kaori then substituted the liquid essence for the fish and miraculously when she hit the green glowing equals button, what sat in the other slot was unequivocally a mermaid! Kaori then got curious and stuck the human woman back into the first slot and hit the button that glowed green again. The creature that sat in the third slot was a blueish green skinned woman with long flowing fins coming off of her head, arms, and legs and had gills in the sides of her neck. The long talons on her hands and feet looked quite formidable. In short, Kaori had found the formula for a triton!
Kaori immersed herself in discovering new formulas and found hundreds of combinations. She was busy picking the features she wanted to take from a frog to add to a dwarf and was almost certain she would get a Kapa! Suddenly there was thunderous applause from behind and to her left. Kaori whirled around wondering why one of her deities had decided now was the time to clap.
Standing there with an admiring look on his face was Descartes Malefecto! His gaze roamed back and forth across the many new species but he was clearly having a hard time keeping his eyes from fixating on the felinoid women in the lineup. He wasn’t even trying to hide his fixation on the shorter of the two even though it was obvious that he had eyes only for the taller one. Kaori couldn’t blame him. If what Tozenna said was true, the short one was an entirely new species of cat-anthromorph.
Finally, his gaze settled back on Kaori and he had a big disconcerting grin full of needle sharp teeth. “I knew you would be perfect for this job! I first want to say how wonderful of a job you and your impressive, and very loyal it would seem, team are doing on the redesign of the planet below. I have read through your report and I could scarcely believe all of the reforms and changes you had implemented.”
“Actually, I asked some of your lesser deities and they got VERY defensive towards you. I can scarcely believe how loyal of a team you have assembled in such a short time. That’s the mark of a great leader. When I asked them to show me some of the things that you had reported, I half expected them to be simply plans or fanciful ideas. If not that, I was expecting that you would be the only one who knew anything about most of it.”
“What I found shocked me. Almost every deity here knew all the details of your plans and could readily show and explain in further detail how everything worked. In fact, they all seemed to have access to some kind of information source that I could scarcely believe existed! I would dearly love to have that in the office at large and I doubt there is a deity who wouldn’t be willing to pay for that item.”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“And then there was you. Standing there engrossed in the development of species never even seen before in all of the multiverse as far as I know! Where did you learn to make such creatures?”
Kaori was practically beaming and then came the last question and her smile almost slipped. Descartes looked at her pointedly before continuing. “That brings us to another point though. I’m afraid I have to give you a writeup for going through the files in my office and for going into another god’s domain without permission. Fortunately, the oaf didn’t realize you were there or it would have been a much bigger ordeal than…”
Descartes’s words died in his throat as he looked at Kaori. The formerly exuberant woman was now covering her mouth and trying in vain to hold back tears. Descartes tried to smooth it over. “I do have to give you a writeup and that does mean a small deduction of worship points but it’s only a first offense so it won’t be that much! Besides, I dare say that you will be making loads of worship points if you list your innovations in the god’s catalog. You could…”
Kaori cut him off short. She was devastated about getting a writeup since she had never once gotten one during her entire working life. There were some things that she couldn’t let stand though. “Fine, I accept my writeup but you’re going to listen to me first! Do you have any idea of what that creep and his cronies do to the beings that he creates? The things they do to those poor women? They, they…”
It took her a while before she could tell Descartes what she had overheard. He went from pale white to livid before a look of determination settled over his face. He was just about to say something about what he would do to correct the situation when Kaori turned on him. “And you! Do you have any excuse for how poorly you equipped or educated the previous god of this world? I found out that he had been dropped here without even being told that he had a deific catalog to make purchases from! Then you came here just long enough to tell him that he was doing a terrible job but never explained a damned thing to him! That is the worst kind of management I could think of!”
Descartes looked sheepish and abashed. He couldn’t even look her in the eyes as he tried to think of words to defend himself but he knew he had dropped the ball. Instead he turned to Yaju. “Yaju, god of the hunt, I apologize for my earlier oversights. I will reinstate you as a full-fledged deity as of now but I have to put you in charge of a different world. Surely you can understand the wonderful work that I would upset if I left you in charge and moved Kaori to a new world instead.”
Yaju smiled a big smile and had tears in his eyes. To think that Fujiwara-sama would go so far as to scold Descartes on his behalf. “I appreciate the offer but I will be staying right here under the service of Fujiwara Kaori-sama. I have never had a friend so true nor a leader so brave and I would be a fool to forsake that. Besides, Fujiwara-sama introduced me to my greatest joy.”
As Yaju turned, he also turned forms and so did the angel next to him that he was looking at. Descartes was doubly shocked to see the two gold and silver lupine forms touch noses. He turned to look questioningly at Kaori and just say her shaking her head. Descartes was dumbfounded. He had had people turn down being a deity before but never had one voluntarily stayed subordinate to another deity. Further, he had never seen the form of lycanthropy that the two of them had nor had he ever seen a werewolf god or goddess! This woman was going to be one that he would have to keep a very close eye on from now on!
Descartes studied Kaori for a moment before speaking to her again. He considered his words and though he knew there could be problems, he spoke anyway. “You know, I suppose it worked out in your favor anyway. If you had gone to one of the elder gods, they would have told you that you were too young to be able to create life yet. By sidestepping the rules this time, you saw the process and came up with a different version that you could do and are now doing something that most don’t have the ability to try for thousands of years. Just don’t make a habit of skirting the rules. The punishment for the writeup goes up each time. This time it’s only 1000 worship points but next time it will be four times that many. I’ll be going now but keep up the good work, you are definitely someone I will have to keep an eye on in the future, a close eye. Don’t forget to submit your reports for everything periodically.”