Chapter 109. Can You Make A Cooking Pot?

If you’ve never tried it before, you might as well give it a shot.

And so, after our meal, we headed back to that nostalgic old abandoned mine.

The one we’d used before — where explosions aren’t a problem.

Hopefully, Mr. Rock Turtle won’t show up today.

Midorikawa-kun set up a barrier around a random rock. It’s just the right size for one person to fit inside.

“For visibility — physical type, ‘color’.”

He muttered an explanation in a low voice. Oh, I see — a half-transparent green dome had been created.

“Can I touch it?”

He nodded, so I did.

I can actually physically touch it. When I tapped it — kon kon — it didn’t feel particularly hard.

The color and the feel when you hit it make it seem like plastic.

“So if you can change the color, does that mean you can change the texture too?”

Midorikawa-kun thought for a bit, then conjured another barrier next to it — this one with a metallic sheen.

Amazing! It’s so shiny it almost reflects the surroundings like a mirror. Couldn’t this be used like a convex mirror to remove blind spots? Well, probably not how anyone would use it

Still, since you can’t see out from inside this one, it’d be a bit unnerving to be in there.

I feel like if I went inside, I’d probably feel like I was the main dish at a fancy restaurant, covered with one of those silver domes.

“For everyone too,”

As Midorikawa said this, he created a large, highly transparent barrier that covered all of us.

He also summoned a floating shield-like barrier above Akagi-kun’s head, like an umbrella.

As expected of a cheat-tier barrier. He could make all sorts of types and shapes — impressive.

“Let’s do this.”

When Akagi-kun saw that Midorikawa’s preparations were complete, a pair of swords appeared at his waist — one long, one short, sheathed in a black belt. Just as I’d heard. Seeing them appear on Western-style clothing, it felt a little strange; gave off a bit of a “samurai demo class at a cultural center” vibe.

He loosened the koikuchi and drew his blade, holding it in a proper stance. The blade glints sharply-beautiful, yet slightly intimidating. Even to my untrained eyes, it was clear he was strong — and well-trained, with a strong core. His straight, taut back is imposing and dignified.

“Then—let’s begin.”

The sword came down in a flash. For a moment, it looked like the blade had stopped against the green barrier. But then it bit in and sliced clean through it.

The barrier vanished — and the stone inside was cut right through and even some of the ground beneath it, perhaps due to the excessive force of the blow.

“Oh.”

That was… decisive. No explosion, no struggle — I kind of expected a clash of equals, not a clean win.

Akagi-kun swung again, this time at the metallic barrier. This time, he didn’t put as much force into it as before. Perhaps he was holding back a little— the barrier held up for a few moments. Then Akagi must have put in some strength, the sword slowly cleaved through it as well.

Hmm. it seems the “cut-anything” cheat sword beats the “block-anything” cheat barrier.

Although… since Midorikawa-kun can make many barriers, maybe numbers would matter too?

“I lost…”

Midorikawa-kun looked genuinely frustrated. But something else caught my attention.

“Midorikawa-kun, that barrier you used to cover Akagi-kun earlier — the shape was different. Can you change the form freely?”

He nodded.

　

“Then… could you make a pot?”

Everyone froze. “Huh!?” their faces said. But come on — if you can freely shape a solid material like metal, you could make pots, pans, plates, cups—And apparently, I said what I’d been thinking out loud. Midorikawa-kun took it literally, and made them.

I was amazed at the intricacy of the items that were created right before my eyes — pots, ladles, spoons, forks, and even knives.

“Wow! So convenient!”

Wait—a knife!?

This looks like it could become a new form of attack, actually,”

Momose-san said with a graceful smile — though it sent a chill down my spine.

Although it would lose to a sword that can cut anything, if a barrier with such incredible defensive power could be shaped into a weapon, that’s terrifyingly strong.

Or,

“Actually, if you can adjust the size of a physical barrier, couldn’t that alone be a weapon?”

Imagine trapping an enemy inside a barrier and then shrinking it smaller and smaller until—pop.

Or, if not that, just contain them, and let Akagi-kun cut through both barrier and foe in one strike.

I said as much.

“That’s… quite the brutal idea. But isn’t it easy to get out of the barrier from the inside. I remember Kino could teleport out.”

Aoi-kun pointed out to me. Is that so, Kino-kun?

“Oh yeah. I could teleport out, but not in.”

“it has a direction.”

 Midorikawa muttered.

Ah, I see. so the barriers have a direction?

Midorikawa-kun, you know all about that stuff. Tell me more!

From what I can decipher from Midorikawa’s short, mumbly explanation, I gathered that there are two kinds of barriers: double-sided and single-sided. The single-sided ones are quicker and easier to set up, so I always use the single-sided ones.

Double-sided ones are basically two single-sided barriers fused back-to-back.

So the direction of the barrier is kind of like the difference between the front and back of parchment paper… or maybe like a one-way mirror?

In short: his usual barrier protects those inside from outside attacks, but lets things from inside pass through freely. Wait, can you really get through something that’s that hard?

Like a super high-tech raincoat that’s waterproof but also incredibly breathable!

In other words, with that barrier, Kino-kun can teleport out but not in.

If the surface of the barrier is stretched inward, it reverses and it seems that Kino-kun will be able to enter but will not be able to leave.

That’s interesting. So if it’s a cheat barrier versus cheat teleportation, the cheat barrier will win.

“So the current ranking is Akagi-kun > Midorikawa-kun > Kino-kun?”

We couldn’t test Akagi vs. Kino directly — since you can’t exactly “cut” teleportation.

“Now that I think about it, I couldn’t appraise everyone’s abilities…”

 Aoi-kun suddenly said.

So does that mean Aoi’s appraisal ability doesn’t work on the other members’ abilities? It would be easier to use if we knew more about them.

So the tentative ranking is: Akagi > Midorikawa > Kino > Momose > Aoi-kun, maybe?

I was curious where Momose-san actually stood in all this, though.

“Momose-san, you don’t really have offensive power, right?”

Holy magic’s probably for healing?

“I do have attack spells.”

Wait—you do!?

“Since I borrow divine power, I can use healing, buffs, barriers, and attacks — reasonably well across the board.”

Wow, Momose-san is amazing. Eh, maybe she’s the strongest of all!?!

Apparently, the effects vary depending on which god she invokes.

Right — “faith-based holy magic.”

“So, which god do you pray to?”

Probably the one from this world, right? What’s his name?

“Of course, I tried that first.”

She explained that the local god — the one worshipped here — is the Creator God Kafan.

“But, well… how should I put it…”

Eh, that God isn’t worshipped very much here?

Turns out she got far better results praying to *Japanese* gods.

Ah, maybe it’s simply population? Isn’t Japan’s population about 120 million? If we just consider popularity, it’s possible that Japanese gods are more well-known than gods from other worlds due to their population and education.

Or maybe it’s about Momose’s level of faith that is influencing this. Or both.

Anyway, for now, it seems like praying to Amaterasu Omikami seems to give the best results. Makes sense — She’s well-known, and as the supreme god, she’s sure to be powerful.

So Momose-san put her all into chanting the prayer to the Shinto altar, and set up a new barrier.

It shimmered with pure, divine light—radiant and sacred.

Kino-kun could freely enter and exit.

Akagi-kun sliced through it instantly.

…Wait. Amaterasu-sama?

Then, as an offensive test, Momose-san summoned a bit of lightning to strike Midorikawa’s barrier. The barrier held.

…Huh? So the “Momose being the strongest” theory just collapsed.

After testing, we concluded the current ability ranking seems to be:

Akagi-kun > Midorikawa-kun > Kino-kun > Momose-san > Aoi-kun.

Does that order mean anything to you?

“That’s the order we made our wishes to that god, right?”

“Ohhh. So that means… Aoi’s glasses—”

I see. Ah, that’s right. I think there’s a good chance that those unbreakable glasses could be broken by the abilities of the other four.

　

And that also explains why I had just a little of resources left over.

It’s a bit strange when you think about it — if I were in charge, I’d have used it all up on the last person. Use the full budget or risk getting cut next fiscal year, you know?

So that god must have split their “resources” into five equal parts, slightly reducing the amount for each subsequent person, starting with the second one — maybe it was to prevent catastrophic mutual annihilation if two contradictory powers clashed. As a result, he ended up leaving just a few resources. 

Meaning… Akagi-kun’s ability really is the strongest after all.

“By the way, Akagi-kun’s power—Since his sword can cut anything, and it appears and disappears with a thought…If he throws it, can’t he just make it vanish midair and re-summon it? He could throw it infinitely.”

And once again, everyone looked at me with a surprised “What did you say!?” I wasn’t trying to say anything strange, though. I swear.