Chapter 24: Hikigaya Hachiman gets the news
"Important things must be said three times." Hikigaya thought this phrase was absolutely correct.
Because he truly couldn't remember what he had forgotten.
But it probably wasn't something too important anyway—after all, no matter how important it was, it couldn't possibly be more important than a god who had nothing better to do than descend just to farm reputation points.
Right? It definitely wasn't important, right?
Comforting himself like this, Hikigaya patted his butt, and simply swept this forgotten matter—which he really couldn't recall—into the trash bin of memory.
What mattered was the now—the present moment, this very time and place.
The Hexi Corridor, once fiercely contested centuries ago by the Tubo, Uyghur, and Tang people, now lay in ruins.
Di Jun, that insufferable reputation farmer, was unbearably troublesome. Even after death, he couldn't give people peace of mind. Without someone equally powerful to fix this mess, this land was pretty much done for.
Not only had the land been scorched into a burnt crust, but the aura of plague filled every grain of soil. Forget ordinary humans—even normal creatures would die the moment they came here. Saying "not even birds will poop here" would be a compliment—those birds were probably scared off from afar, let alone feel relaxed enough to come poop here. If they dared come, they'd probably just turn into poop themselves, right?
Standing on the charred earth, Hikigaya looked around and, for once after a battle, he actually felt a strong sense of guilt.
Ugh, he had to clean it up!
So Hikigaya began carefully checking his own condition—since the time limit of the "Chasing the Sun" authority had ended, the simulated power of the ten suns had already disappeared. Now, the power flowing through his body was his own authority.
But the power gained from killing Di Jun was still unknown—this was strange. With Osiris and Kuafu before, he had pretty much understood the power right after defeating them, but with Di Jun, there was no clear sensation at all... Seems like gods can be unreliable, and their powers are just as shady. Oh well, he decided to ignore it for now.
Anyway, his existing powers were enough to deal with the situation.
Considering that Kuafu was a foodie—the kind that could literally eat herself to death—he couldn't count on her at all. And Set? Even worse. That one only showed up to cause chaos… So it was up to Uncle Osiris's power to save the day.
To his pleasant surprise, although he hadn't used Osiris's authority much in the previous battle, the absurd upgrade system of god slayers worked like a charm, and he'd gained a lot from it.
At this point, he had further mastered Osiris's powers over resurrection, rainfall, and crops—symbols of Osiris as the god of fertility.
As the saying goes, strike a pose before acting cool.
Hikigaya raised his hand.
Then he looked at the sky.
Then he said, "Hurry up."
The next moment, a fine drizzle began to fall from the sky…
Soon, the drizzle turned into a downpour. The gullies in the land quickly filled with water, gurgling as it flowed, and the scorched earth sizzled under the rainfall.
In Hikigaya's eyes, the plague energy that permeated the land was rapidly dissolving.
Osiris's water represented life. The ancient Egyptians called the Nile's water "the water of life." When the flood came, they would shout that Osiris had been resurrected.
And the water of life would cleanse death and desolation from the land—plague was no exception.
Under the nourishment of this water, the lands began to flourish again. The power of life and reproduction was being reborn within the earth.
Over time, he walked through this land, and the rain of life followed him, erasing all traces of Di Jun's deathly power.
Only a god slayer could restore life to a land ravaged by the divine.
One had to admit, modern civilization, with its highly developed technology, had largely suppressed the influence of god slayers. In ancient times, a god slayer who wielded the power of fertility and desolation like Hikigaya could decide the rise and fall of nations with a whim. Concepts like royal and divine authority would be nothing but jokes before him—hilariously ridiculous even without embellishment.
But this suppression also meant modern god slayers were all shut-ins, unknown to the public. Yet once they acted—it was always a catastrophic event.
Unaware that he had done something very "non-mainstream," Hikigaya felt quite happy.
It was the first time he had used his authority not to fight, but to heal the land, which made him feel especially good—he was filled with positive energy, even felt a bit adorable.
During this time, he once again tried to recall what he had forgotten. But since he still couldn't remember, he decided that since he hadn't said it three times, it wasn't his fault. So he decisively moved that memory from the trash bin to the shredder in his heart, vowing never to think about it again.
Afterwards, feeling things were more or less settled, Hikigaya stopped the rain and headed east until he saw the surging waters of the Yellow River.
This river, with a maximum sediment content of up to 46%, had a deeper influence on China than any other river, including the Yangtze. It was honored as the "mother river" that nurtured Chinese civilization and significantly contributed to the idea of a unified China.
Before crossing over, Hikigaya had always thought the Yellow River's muddiness was the result of centuries of overdevelopment. But after coming to this world and becoming a god slayer—a reading fanatic—he discovered from books that it had always been muddy.
In fact, the Yellow River and Nile were quite similar. Although the former wasn't as long, they both had clear upper streams, picked up mud and sand in the middle, and caused chaos downstream—frequently flooding and changing course.
The difference was, the ancient Egyptians were pretty chill about it. They let the Nile flood as it liked, while they just sat on high ground, watching the country go underwater. Then they'd remeasure the land the following year—somehow, this "carefree" method actually worked, and the Nile Valley never had to worry about soil fertility or salinization, unlike other farming civilizations.
By contrast, the ancient Chinese were very particular, and not nearly as carefree. When the Yellow River flooded, their unified reaction was "we must control this thing."
Before the Qin unified China, there were over a hundred states along the Yellow River. One of them, Qi, even launched the famous "Covenant of Kuiqiu," where the kings of the Yellow River states swore to abandon national borders and unite to control the mother river.
A "mother river" this disliked was truly rare. Clearly, this old lady had never behaved—since ancient times, she was a professional at leaking sand and changing course. It really wasn't the ancient farmers' fault.
So sure, you could say they turned the Loess Plateau into yellow sludge, but blaming them for creating the Yellow River was just unfair.
Now, Hikigaya stood by the turbulent Yellow River. The section he was at was far from calm—the terrain dropped steeply, and the roaring water crashed out giant waves.
One of those waves splashed all over him. Fortunately, there wasn't too much sediment here, or someone might mistake him for having pooped himself…
But because of that, Hikigaya no longer dared pose by the riverside. With a grumpy face, he moved away from the shore. Heat radiated from his body, drying the river water, and the sediment baked into flakes and fell off.
Failing to act cool was so embarrassing. If someone had said to him now, "The waters of the Yellow River descend from Heaven," he would've dunked their head into the Yellow River for half an hour—straight to Heaven to meet their ancestors.
Now in a sour mood again, Hikigaya didn't waste time trying to pose anymore. He quickly crossed through several regions, heading into more densely populated areas.
As expected, he was soon found by agents stationed in China by Yomi
And at that moment, he received a piece of news he couldn't ignore.
Kusanagi Godou—the person he had been having watched—had taken the slate that decided his fate in the other world's anime and headed for Sardinia, Italy!
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Important Announcment
Hello everyone! I'm VarieTL.
As always I hope you are enjoying my works!
I wanted to announce that I published a New Fanfiction!
Natsuki Subaru's Journey to Strategically Capture the Female Version of Reinhard
Summary:
Natsuki Subaru was transported to another world.
He arrived in a parallel world where Reinhard is a woman, and was rescued by her from three thugs.
In that moment, as he saw the girl who seemed like a chosen one, an inexplicable emotion stirred within Natsuki Subaru's heart.
Thus began Subaru's difficult path of conquest.
This is the story of a self-destructive high school student growing up once again.
This is the story of an absolutely righteous saint being redeemed.
And this is also the love story of two people, who in countless worlds, love and fight each other.
And as always You can read ahead (60 chapters) by supporting me on Ko-fi or Patreon with the name VarieTL
There you can also read 5 other Novels and 6 other Fanfiction of Oregairu