Chapter 4:

　　I underestimated the dire need for clothing. Cotton had been planted but of course that would be of no use until half a year from now. The only clothing God had given us was a bridal suit and gown and a change of clothes into everyone's most iconic storyline outfit in a backpack. I got to keep the clothing I had died in as my second pair. Even with the fully modern laundry room in the mansion it should have been obvious that this did not constitute a full suite of clothing options. When the wives complained to me at the long dining room table (still eating Meals Ready to Eat ala Riko) that they had nothing to wear I gallantly suggested we become a nudist colony. Since we were all married anyway there shouldn't have been a problem, but my plan was decisively rejected.

　　That meant the city development plan had to be put on hold so that Sakura Kinomoto's Appear card could be used for seven changes of ordinary wear plus seasonal outfits for all 100 wives. All of them insisted it was an emergency and I couldn't very well play favorites so I ceded Sakura to the clothing industry.

　　The magical girls had had it easy, transforming into their magical costumes as often as they liked while washing their regular clothes, but as much as I loved magical girls that still left 84 in the lurch.

　　I decided to borrow Rydia and Rin Tohsaka in the meantime to find a suitable place for mines. Rin would douse for precious metals, which at this point included copper, iron, zinc, magnesium, tin, or really anything. Rydia would fly us there on the back of Bahamut, and then rip open the earth with Titan, taking giant globs of whatever we needed back to town on the back of our summons as raw material for Mikoto to work with. If we could at least get some basic dinnerware the severe unrest in the evenings might be alleviated. It felt like we should have a forge somewhere, but Mikoto could melt and twist metal freely into whatever shape she wanted already, so I left it all to her.

　　After we had forks, spoons, knives, pots and plates the mood improved a bit, but then new problems emerged just as soon. "Even if we have clothes, we still don't have changes of sheets, pillow cases and blankets. There are no towels in the bathrooms, and we live near the beach but no one has a swimsuit." Isara detailed.

　　Can't we at least skinny dip at the beach?

　　"The foraging party brings in meat and fish but no eggs." Haruka Saigusa reported.

　　Aren't eggs just inferior versions of meat?

　　"Life isn't livable without eggs. Eggs should be an ingredient in virtually every meal ever served." Haruka Saigusa insisted.

　　But without domesticated chickens where would we get eggs from? And with domesticated chickens wouldn't we be stealing away Makina's work?

　　"There's no milk." Menma pointed out.

　　Without domesticated cows where would we get milk? And with domesticated cattle wouldn't we be stealing away Makina's work?

　　"Even though it was my birthday you didn't say a word to me." Kirino harrumphed.

　　But it's always somebody's birthday all year round, sometimes multiple people's?

　　"I want ten cats." Rin Natsume complained.

　　"Strelka and Belka." Kudryavka nodded in vehement agreement.

　　Without cats and dogs where would these be coming from? And if we did have domesticated cats and dogs wouldn't we be stealing away Makina's work? Umm, I'd better not say that.

　　Mitsuki was continuously churning out new bottles of shampoo for everyone's hair via dark matter, but apparently the means to create a legitimate supply were still distant. Makina needed a continuous resupply of bullets too, since she was hunting for 101 people on a nigh daily basis. At least the girls were all young enough they had no need of makeup or perfumes.

　　The school had a series of sports grounds for soccer, baseball, kendo, tennis and track but there weren't enough interested people to form full teams so everyone was petitioning the mayor to draft the other wives into their games.

　　The musicians had no instruments to play on because Sakura and Mitsuki were way too busy and complained that their skills were getting rusty.

　　Even with all these magical powers life wasn't easy starting from scratch. There weren't enough people, the base materials were lacking, and entire skillsets were missing. I of course, just being a normal otaku, could offer nothing of assistance to anyone.

　　But when I thought to myself how impossible it would have been for our commune to have fit in to any existing order, how wretched life would have been under anyone else's law code, how much of our efforts would have been stolen away as taxes, how some of my girls could have come to harm from criminals or rude sexual harassers every time they stepped outdoors, I still considered our position the best of all possible eventualities.

　　In older cultures women weren't allowed to go outside, show their faces in public, work, own property, marry whom they pleased, give their opinion on a subject or even learn how to read and write. The idea of somehow getting along in a world like that just so we'd have eggs for breakfast was ridiculous.

　　Earth would have been just as bad, just in different ways. Not only would we have lost all our magic powers, but the legal right to marry all my wives would have been stripped away, even when we loved each other. Property taxes would have been monumental for any structure that could house us all, and none of us had the proper degrees and licensing requirements to work, even though many of us were unparalleled geniuses. It would have been impossible to earn our keep, and we would have been split up and given away to various foster homes. Even looking at the majority of my wives would have placed me directly in jail.

　　This virgin world, let's call it Eden. Eden was home. It was our only possible home. The miracle of just being left alone to do as we pleased together, to be what we pleased together, was enough to distinguish this world from any other. When looked at this way, it was a marvel that anyone could live anywhere but here. How much were people enduring on other worlds, and in exchange for what? What could possibly make up for the freedoms lost? Here in Eden, no one had to waste their time worshiping pretend Gods. We knew the Goddess on a personal level and treated her as a good friend. We did not beat our heads against the ground five times a day and then load our chests with dynamite to blow each other up.

　　No one had to learn trigonometry or other useless crap. We were concerned with survival and applied ourselves to things that could directly improve our lives. We were allowed to work. The land was ours to do with as we pleased. And we could go to sleep at night knowing no intruder was going to smash in and burglarize the place, rape our women or slit our throats in our sleep.

　　Best of all, no one had to lie. Random shibboleths offered to the God of political correctness no longer needed to be mouthed to stay a part of the financial and social network. If you wanted to say something nasty about any group on Earth, no one was here to stop you or punish you over it, it would just be taken as the good natured venting it had always been. And if you just wanted to say something true, when nastiness wasn't even your intent, no one would fire you over it or expel you from University. If you wanted to stand up for what was true, good, beautiful, just or right -- you could. Here you could even be praised or applauded for it.

　　There was no such thing as a conspiracy theory or an establishment narrative on Eden. With the Record card, combined with Louise's portals that could take her to the appropriate spot on Earth, Sakura Kinomoto could check with her very own eyes exactly what happened across all of history. Here the truth was freely and indisputably available to all.

　　The freedom to admit that young girls were beautiful and indulge in that beauty would only ever be found here -- even though every damn boy and girl in the world knew full well it was true. That's why they were so desperate, so adamant to silence anyone who said otherwise. If it were a silly belief like the sky is orange, no one would have cared. But the moment you say flat is justice -- here come the sirens!

　　There were cases where 80% of the people in a country could believe something and yet it was social death to say it out loud. It made the death penalty for apostasy from Islam look moderate. It made China's arrests of political dissidents look like child's play.

　　In Eden you could say anything, even stupid things, even vicious, evil things, and everyone would laugh it off because they knew and trusted you. Regardless of what you thought, they knew you meant well and would do well when the time came. But outside of this bubble, every conversation was a minefield waiting to blow up, because no one trusted anyone and everyone assumed malice was behind the smiling polite mask of each other's faces.

　　I would exchange a dozen bath towels for the right to breathe the sweet air of freedom. Asa always said that she couldn't breathe in heavy atmospheres where everyone was watching what they said and ready to condemn what anyone else said, like fencers waiting for an opportunity to exploit a weakness. If it got bad enough she would straight out faint. But how far away was I, or anybody, from that level of pressure? That claustrophobia of being surrounded by complete strangers who hated you and were out to get you the moment you let the mask slide even a little?

　　How did it feel to know that if anyone knew who you really were they would try to hurt you as best they could? Was it really fun owning ten tons of junk in a place like that?

　　There were other benefits to living in a primordial world. It was much quieter, no beeps, no train whistles, no car alarms, no planes roaring overhead, no loud music from a neighboring apartment, no barking dogs -- and the sounds that did arrive were infinitely sweeter. The burble of passing brooks, the wind passing through the mountain valleys, the lapping of the sea, the calls of wildlife across the woods. There was a strong smell of wood in the air, no chemicals, no gasoline, no fumes, no tar. Flowers abounded. The world was more green and less gray and black. You could see all the way to the horizon. And the sky above at night was so clear you could reach out and touch it. There were thousands of stars in the sky. It never got very cold even at night, so anyone who wanted could stay out stargazing at any time of the year. There was so much woodland around that camping fires, with the beautiful play of the flames and snapping of wood, could be celebrated freely. And if spending a night together in the mansion wasn't good enough, taking a tent together to a nearby mountain or lake and watching the fire and stars together was always within direct walking distance.

　　If people wanted to read or write, it had to be on electronic devices. No one could figure out how to make paper on a mass scale, and it simply wasn't worth the effort. On the other hand, you could go to sleep and wake up whenever you wanted, because no one in the entire world could boss you around about anything. If you didn't want to go to work that day, no one would tell you otherwise.

　　Between the two, who wouldn't make that trade?

　　And the way Earth was headed, every single problem that existed right now was trivial compared to what was coming. Just wait until all the diseases had grown resistant to antibiotics or vaccines, the wrong Muslims got their hands on the small pox virus, there were four billion Africans looking for a new home, 50% of newborns had mental or sexual disorders, old people claimed 90% of young people's work in taxes just to take care of their aging carcasses, servicing the debt cost more than food and rent, and on and on and on.

　　There were no positive trends on Earth. There were so many ways the planet was self destructing it didn't even matter how it would finally be put out of its misery. Here in Eden, the slate was fresh. There were no incoming comets set to explode everything. Here you could build a home, you could start a family, and know it would all still be here tomorrow, because there was nothing on Eden that could take it away. Any investment you made now would deliver a return the day after. There was justice. If you built something it would stay built, and no raving mob would come to tear it down.

　　We lacked butter and cream. But at least we weren't all 200 pound land whales gibbering about equality. We weren't discussing why something that had happened hundreds of years ago was somehow our fault and it was our job to pay restitution to the non-existent victims. No one was cutting off the parts of other people's genitals.

　　In one primordial stroke, order and sanity -- basic human decency -- logic and common sense -- trust and loyalty -- kindness and respect -- reciprocity and mutual love -- everything came rushing in like a whirlwind, and for the first time in God knows how many years people were allowed to live as human beings again.

　　Many of my wives had lived in worlds better than the one I was born into, some worse, but none could compare to this little patch of land we could call our own.