A new day, Axel, Belzerg Kingdom.
This city, hailed as the 'number one newbie village in the world', slowly awakened in the morning light.
In the hall of the Adventurer's Guild, there weren't many people yet.
A few night owls who had been taking quests all night were sleeping on the tables. The bartender was wiping glasses behind the counter. The receptionist Luna was yawning and organizing yesterday's quest lists.
Suddenly, a roar exploded.
"You useless goddess—!"
A furious shout exploded like thunder in the hall. The people sleeping were startled upright.
Everyone's gaze simultaneously turned to the center of the hall—
A young woman with shoulder-length brown hair was baring her teeth at a blue-clad girl. Her usually cold, aloof face was now flushed red, the veins on her neck bulging.
If Makoto were here, he would recognize these two at a glance.
The one with short brown hair was Miyano Shiho, a former researcher of the Black Organization, the developer of APTX4869, the originator who turned the Genius High School Detective into the Grim Reaper elementary school student.
And the one across from her, with blue hair, a blue dress, colored thin gauze draped over her shoulders, exuding a kind of intellectual disability aura from head to toe—
Aqua, the Water Goddess, the incompetent goddess specifically responsible for guiding fat shut-ins who had hit the jackpot in Japan to reincarnate into another world.
After the outburst, Shiho completely lost her usual cold, aloof persona, flailing her hands as she charged at Aqua, aiming directly for Aqua's neck.
"Calm down! Calm down!"
Several hands reached out simultaneously, some pulling arms, some hugging waists, forcibly separating Shiho and Aqua.
Shiho initially tried to struggle, but when she turned her head and saw that the person holding her was her sister Miyano Akemi, she bit her lip.
The force of her struggle noticeably weakened, and even her breathing slowly changed from angry gasps to reluctant deep breaths.
It wasn't just Akemi. Hattori Shizuka and Toyama Kazuha, also from the Grim Reaper elementary school student universe, were holding her from left and right.
As for Aqua, she was completely surrounded by the three beauties of the Uzaki Family.
Uzaki mother Uzaki Tsuki, Uzaki eldest daughter Uzaki Hana, Uzaki second daughter Uzaki Yanagi.
Tsuki gently acted as a mediator, softly reasoning: "Why are you so angry? We're all in the same team. We should help each other."
Her family had been transported to this world for some time now.
At first, the family was very nervous. After all, without a man around, suddenly being in a strange environment, they really had no sense of security.
Not to mention that all three of them were very pretty.
It wasn't until they met Shiho and the others at the Adventurer's Guild and learned that everyone were players transported from the same world that the two sides hit it off and formed an adventurer team.
Aqua was the cheat power chosen by Akemi.
Akemi's experience was exactly the same as Kazuma's... she died in the carpet nuclear bombing of Japan by the United States.
At the time, she was planning the 1 billion yen robbery mission assigned to her by the 'liquor factory'.
And after death, unlike Natsuki Subaru who was directly thrown into another world, she stole Kazuma's script, was chosen by Aqua first, and descended as a 'Brave Hero'.
At that time, Aqua used her standard spiel... you can choose one benefit to bring to the other world, weapons, skills, special abilities, pick anything.
Akemi didn't even think. She pointed at Aqua and said, "Then please, Goddess, come with me."
After all, in Akemi's view, this blue-haired girl in front of her, who looked a bit silly, was still a goddess no matter what.
No matter what weapon you brought or what skill you learned, how could they be stronger than a goddess?
However, after actually bringing Aqua to the other world, Akemi learned the true value of the phrase 'if stupidity had a color, it would definitely be blue'.
It was even more exhausting than when she was undercover in the Black Organization.
The silver lining in the misfortune... Akemi met her sister, Shiho, in this world.
Shiho, like Makoto and the others, had been chosen by the Reincarnation Game to come to this world.
When the United States bombed Japan, she was being monitored by the Black Organization and staying on American soil, fortunately escaping the disaster.
She should have been continuing her research on APTX4869 in the lab, completely unaware of everything happening outside.
The organization had always kept things from her... the bombing that destroyed Japan, the man named Makoto who was eating away at the old era's sphere of influence at an alarming rate, the explosive growth in the number of Anomalies worldwide.
Several years passed, and the Anomalies outside were rampantly committing evil everywhere.
Remnants of the old era like the Black Organization simply couldn't survive under the combined attack of Makoto's superpower kingdom and the monsters.
Eventually, a group of Anomalies happened to discover and overrun their base.
Shiho, watching through the monitor in the lab as that short, pitch-black Anomaly with only a striking white uncle face appeared, was completely terrified.
'Was that an experiment of the organization? An alien?'
Just as the monster broke into the lab, about to kill her, the Reincarnation Game chose her and transported her to this world.
She hadn't known what to do initially, but with her intelligence, she should still be able to make a living in another world.
But what made Shiho happiest was being reunited with her sister in Axel.
At that moment, Shiho could no longer maintain her usual aloof image. She hugged her sister and cried uncontrollably, like when she was little and fell, throwing herself into her sister's arms, her voice muffled as she said, "Let's never be apart."
Akemi wasn't much better off. The two sisters hugged and wept under the gaze of a group of bewildered adventurers.
After reuniting, they naturally formed an adventurer team.
Initially, Shiho felt that as long as she could live with her sister like this, she wouldn't be afraid anywhere.
However, after spending one day with Aqua, she couldn't take it anymore.
Akemi had a gentle personality and had always been like an older sister... no, more precisely, like an old mother... taking care of Aqua.
But Shiho was different. Her tolerance for Aqua was probably on the same level as Kazuma's. She even cursed Aqua out more harshly than Kazuma did. If she went three minutes without cursing Aqua, she felt uncomfortable.
"What gives you the right to say that about me?"
Aqua, held back by the three Uzaki beauties, was still unconvinced, flailing and crying, "I am a goddess! A goddess! I volunteered to join your team. You should be grateful, you know that? You know that!?"
Shiho's entire art style changed.
Her face, always calm in the lab, was now flushed red, her eyes wide as bells. She reached out and poked Aqua's forehead.
"What kind of goddess are you? You can't do anything right! Seriously, how can there be a goddess like you? Goddess disqualification! Goddess disqualification!"
"Waaaaah!"
Aqua's tears fell like beads on a broken string, "Shiho, you're going too far! Boohoo—"
Her face was covered in tears, and snot came down with them.
The scene was complete chaos.
Luna, the receptionist of the Axel Adventurer's Guild, had to come over, showing a forced, professional smile.
"Dear guests, if you cannot remain quiet, I will have to put you on the Adventurer's Guild blacklist."
As soon as she said this, Shiho had to suppress her inner rage, take several deep breaths, and swallow the rest of her unspoken curses one by one.
Aqua sniffled and barely sucked her snot back in and shut her mouth.
Seeing that these two nemeses had finally stopped their ruckus, Akemi, Mrs. Shizuka, and the others finally breathed a sigh of relief.
…
Rewind to a few days ago.
When Shiho and the others came to the Adventurer's Guild to pick up quests, they encountered Mrs. Shizuka, Kazuha, and the three Uzaki ladies, who had also been transported over. They recognized each other.
The main reason was that Hana was barely a celebrity.
Since that Hawaii trip, she often went to play with Chika, Yotsuba, and the other Mrs. Nishikawa, and had appeared on entertainment headlines several times.
Some netizens had even opened betting pools online, gambling on when this 'big-breasted loli' would officially join Makoto's harem.
After the three parties exchanged information, they decided to form a team and survive together in this other world.
Tsuki asked again, "What happened exactly? Shiho, why are you so angry?"
She actually knew Aqua's personality... well, how to put it, she was pretty useless, but not bad by nature.
After spending these few days together, Tsuki felt that Aqua was the type who 'wants to help but always makes things worse'. So she still wanted to try to mend the relationship between these two.
Mentioning this, Shiho wanted to hit someone again. She gave a cold snort, her index finger pointing at Aqua's nose.
"This stupid goddess took all our savings and gambled it away. Not a single coin left."
The women widened their eyes and simultaneously looked at Aqua.
Eight gazes, like eight knives, stabbed into Aqua.
Aqua guiltily stepped back half a step, lowered her head, and muttered, "I-I just wanted to do something for everyone... How could that little bit of money be enough? Eight people crammed into one room, you can't even turn over..."
If Kazuma from the original work heard this, he would probably cry himself unconscious in the stable.
After all, Shiho, having to deal with a liability like Aqua, could still stay in an inn. While Kazuma and his group couldn't even afford an inn and had to sleep in a stable every day.
Kazuha had practiced Aikido in the real world. Now the veins on the back of her hand were bulging one by one. She wanted to hit someone too.
Tsuki and Mrs. Shizuka had been mothers for many years and had the best tempers in the group.
After both letting out long sighs, they stood left and right in front of Aqua. One spread her arms like a mother hen protecting her chicks, the other reached out to vaguely block in front of Aqua.
"Alright, alright, Shiho, calm down."
"From now on, Aqua is forbidden from touching money." Mrs. Shizuka announced with a serious face.
Even Aqua, who had been about to pull out her goddess status to oppress them, didn't dare to refute and could only obediently nod.