Chapter 39:

　　"So there you have it." Kagome, Cute-sama's oracle, informed the secret dormitory gathering of wives. It was the year 70 E.T., so their youngest children were fourteen to 23, all looking after themselves in their own rooms. The wife currently slated to hang out with Christopher had asked for a one day postponement so for the first time in a long time he would just have to spend a night alone.

　　"Cute-sama thinks this is the best of all possible worlds, so has descended to our plane in order to join us?" Chiwa marveled. She knew God was real and all, but to think Christopher had somehow lured this beautiful 14 year old omnipotent angel to abandon her duty as administrator of the multiverse and instead hop into his bed. . . did he have any limits?

　　"Plus we really were just figments of the imagination until Christopher interceded with God to give us the spark of life." Haruka Haruno repeated the most important point.

　　"Which means all of us owe Cute-sama, as well as Christopher, everything we have." Lafiel dutifully acknowledged.

　　"Which means we can hardly begrudge her our husband." Rosa concluded.

　　"Louise had already told us about the Earth's sudden destruction, but now we know why." Asuna said. "I know none of us actually came from Earth, but I still feel pretty bad for Japan. They didn't do anything wrong and were just randomly obliterated anyway."

　　"Japan lives on in us. Tempura-Sushi-Fuji-yama!" Sakura Yoshino beat her petite chest to engrave Nipon's spirit into her soul.

　　"The best of Japan is gathered here in this room." Kirino agreed, hugging the girls to her left and right.

　　"Sayonara, Japan. We'll make our own anime now." Yukino sniffed as two solitary tears ran down her face. As president of Japan she somehow felt responsible for its destruction, even though there was absolutely nothing she could have done.

　　"I became Ryuuou long ago so I had nothing left to learn from them anyway." Ai bravely put her internet pals behind her.

　　"Child number six coming up." Cheria predicted glumly.

　　"Isn't it fine? Soon enough even our fifthborns were going to start their own families and stop talking to us. We only get to talk to Christopher every now and then, so another child would enliven things. With everything so automated, it's not like we can't spare the time." Haruka Saigusa responded.

　　"There's even a perfect slot for her. In the tenth year we've always been servicing nine mothers-to-be, but now it can have its proper allotment of ten." Sakura Mamiya pointed out fastidiously.

　　"Wait, so I have to wait ten years before I can sleep with Christopher?" Cute-sama puffed out her cheeks in dismay.

　　"We'll let you go first!" Kagome waved her arms and glared death at Sakura Mamiya.

　　"Then, who's going to move down a slot for each year to make room for Cute-sama?" Sakura Mamiya asked patiently.

　　Mirajane got out her iPad and opened up their birth order list that had served them so well ever since the chaotic firstborns. "According to this, Chiwa should drop down to year 2, Aoba to year 3, Hozumi to year 4, Urara to year 5, Mitsuki to year 6, Akane to year 7, Ai to year 8, Louise to year 9 and Iris to year 10. Is everyone okay with that?"

　　"Hai." Everyone chimed in cooperatively.

　　"Of course we'll need to have a wedding ceremony." Kudryavka opined.

　　"The entire town will have to be there. After all, we're all alive thanks to Cute-sama and Christopher, so we should all celebrate their union." Sophie said.

　　"We'll need a wide open space then. . . how about the flower meadow we all got married in?" Aerith clapped her hands together happily.

　　"Ohhhhh." Dozens of girls agreed with the idea appreciatively.

　　"That's perfect. The meadow flowers can provide the decoration as-is. Then we'll just need to bring some picnic baskets for the feast. We can have the summoned beasts carry us to and fro in a single day so they can still sleep together in the mansion's giant bed." Lyria offered.

　　"The summoned beasts are enough for us, but the population is too big to carry all of them." Nozomi gently reminded Lyria. "We'll need helicopters for the rest."

　　"Aren't helicopters dangerous?" Louise asked. She certainly didn't want anyone dying over a wedding.

　　"On Earth they're dangerous. But here we have AI autopilots that never mess up, plus in case of some natural disaster the entire interior can be puffed into fluffy cushions that can shield us from the impact. The AI senses when something is wrong and activates immediately, plus they're made of flame retardant material so even explosions aren't a problem." Nozomi went into lecture mode.

　　In seventy years no one on Eden had died of accident or illness. There had been a couple suicides and murders, and obviously some resulting executions, among the grandchildren and great-grandchildren, though thankfully not among their five hundred children. It was hard to make absolutely everyone good on Eden, but the percentages were all in their favor.

　　Since criminals would always be caught via Sakura Kinomoto's all-seeing Record spell, and Christopher as Mayor had decreed the penalty for all crimes to be death via cliff tossing, crime either didn't happen at all or immediately escalated to murder. There was no benefit in something inbetween.

　　"Has anyone else realized what this means?" Azusa asked in breathless amazement. "Out of every possible system, every possible future, Christopher chose the best one, for all of us. This really is paradise, so much so that God came to our heaven instead of us to Hers. And he was the only one with the wisdom to create it. Haven't we been underestimating him?"

　　"Ohhhh?" Aoba smiled impishly at Azusa. "What's this? Is someone finally admitting her feelings for her dearly beloved?"

　　"It's not like that!" Azusa blushed. "Christopher is just a sexual harasser who was bad at the guitar. He forced me into his bed and threatened to name our son Tonton. . .who would love someone like that?"

　　"But at some point it started to feel good, right? Maybe the fifth time, or the tenth?" Aoba leaned towards her leeringly.

　　"I think George Washington is an admirable fellow too. That doesn't automatically make me enamored with him. There has to be a sweetness, a gentleness, a romantic connection, mutual understanding, a tingling of the fingertips before it's love." Azusa protested.

　　"But maybe that came 'round about the fifteenth time, or the thirtyith?" Aoba put her hand lightly on Azusa's knee.

　　"Azusa already told me she loves Christopher so much it drives her crazy. When it's not her turn she likes to come to my room and cuddle with me, calling me "Christopher, Christopher" as she hugs me tight until she falls asleep." Yui held her arm up and volunteered to the crowd.

　　Azusa blushed scarlet and didn't know where to hide her eyes.

　　"Tsundere!" Cute-sama gave a giant thumbs-up as her wings flapped excitedly to see it for the first time in person.

　　"Cute-sama, it's best not to point these things out even when they're true, for the sake of the sister-wife's dignity." Kagome patiently explained to her Goddess.

　　"I'm sorry!" Cute-sama cupped her hands together in prayer. "Azusa, forgive me?"

　　Azusa sighed and gave up, feeling stupid. "There's nothing to forgive. I fell in love with Christopher after he held our child in his arms and named him Kenichi, and not Tonton like he'd originally planned. It all started to feel real then. Like he really was my husband and the father of my child, and what we'd shared together up until now was all for this moment. I had to look up the source of the name later, but it turns out he was a regular boy who tried abnormally hard to impress his lover and saved the world on the side. I think Christopher's and Kenichi's stories are very similar. He's always tried his best for all of us, even the ones who responded coldly to him. I thought that was really good of him, and it was my turn to try my best to love him too."

　　"I have to confess I almost killed Christopher, but he never held it against me and was still propounding his love to me even as I beat him down." Haruka Haruno admitted.

　　Azusa rolled her eyes. "It didn't take rocket science to figure out. He went out with you and came back without a pulse. We just went along with his version of events because that's what he wanted."

　　Sakura Kinomoto held up her hand apologetically. "Actually I've shown the Recording of the event to everyone here. We wanted to know if he was safe around you anymore so we all eavesdropped in. . .you were angry on our behalfs so there was nothing we could say. We pronounced you innocent seventy years ago."

　　"I'm really sorry!" Haruka Haruno bowed to the entire assembled crowd. "I almost took away the best thing to ever happen to the multiverse. Hontouni, hontouni gomen nasai!"

　　"Just don't do it again okay?" Tifa implored, and everyone laughed.

　　"That was really gallant of Papa, wasn't it?" Makina remembered back to the scene. "I got wet just watching."

　　"Kobeni fainted in terror when she saw all that blood." Rin Natsume tattled.

　　"I'm tired of my lover having near death experiences. . ." Kobeni replied helplessly. "I just want a quiet life where the only important decision is what to cook for dinner today."

　　"Cute-sama, do you eat and drink? Would you like some sweets?" Kobeni gestured to the basket in the middle of the room holding all sorts of good things.

　　"I have never eaten or drunk before, but I can certainly do anything, including eat and drink. Plus I'm a goddess so it all just radiates away as holy light afterwards." Cute-sama put her nose up proudly.

　　"Ii-na." The crowd of girls sighed morosely. When Cute-sama reached for the offered snack bowl Sherria quickly withdrew her hand as though escaping from a hot pan.

　　"You can go first." Cute-sama gave Sherria a perplexed look, worried she had somehow violated good manners twice in a row.

　　"No, I mean, you're a God and I'm a God Slayer, so I was worried if we touched you might dissolve or something. . ." Sherria blushed nervously.

　　Cute-sama gazed at Sherria with wide-eyed shock, and then broke into laughter so fierce she had to clutch her stomach.

　　"Oh but don't worry!" Sherria waved her arms defensively. "I was only raised to slay warui kami! Cute-sama is our Cupid, in other words ai, so I'd never harm you!"

　　Cute-sama looked like she was taking critical damage already. She wiped a tear from her eye and seized Sherria's hands in hers, looking directly into her face to show there was nothing to fear. "It appears Gods are taken a little too lightly where you come from, so it might help to think of me as a reality programmer instead. Reality is exactly what I've made it to be with each passing second, the world is newly created according to my blueprint with each tick, so it's impossible for any power to go against me. In fact, every power every one of you possesses is actually your minds sending a prayer to me for the world to be changed in x manner, after which I remake the world such that the prayer is granted, so long as it's in accord with what your source works say your powers should be able to do. Otherwise the paradoxes from clashing laws of nature would multiply endlessly."

　　"So that's how it works." Sophie nodded to herself satisfiedly.

　　"In that case, yoroshiku onegaishimasu!" Sherria bowed deeply to her Maker who was still holding her hands.

　　The other wives saw the wisdom of Sherria's gesture and joined in chorus. "Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!" Everyone in the gathering was bowing deeply towards Cute-sama like she'd suddenly become the Kaaba.

　　"Yoroshiku." Cute-sama bowed back uncertainly, not knowing which way to point.

　　"Getting back on track, how are we going to introduce Cute-sama to Christopher? Should we arrange some sort of surprise party for him and then have her emerge from the crowd in the swing of things?" Chiwa asked.

　　"Let's wait until he prays at the shrine next time. Cute-sama is living there so she can ambush him right after. He'll get his wife in exact relation to how much he loves her and wants to see her again. It's only just." Kagome replied.

　　"My miko speaks truly. Ask and the door shall open -- Christopher has to come see me, I won't come begging to him!" Cute-sama announced.

　　Sae raised her hand hesitantly. "If you'd like, I'll tailor your wedding dress. Let's go get your measurements now. If the rest of you will forgive me."

　　"Take her." Haruka Saigusa approved. Everything that had needed to be said had been said already. Marriages shouldn't be entered into lightly, but there was none more deserving than Cute. No one could possibly complain if she wanted to join in on the fun. Christopher wasn't cheating on them because they had already given their approval, nor had he tempted her or seduced her behind their backs. He had simply made Eden great, and she had followed like a lost puppy. There was no blame to apportion anywhere. Rather than making them wish they could cheat too, gaining the hand of a Goddess only made Christopher look more handsome and cool than ever before. If she had scoured the universe and decided on Christopher, then didn't that make all of them blessed too? He'd already been theirs for seventy years. Even God couldn't say that.