(…Huh?)

I thought I’d fallen asleep, but for some reason I was standing in a pure-white space. It seemed I was having yet another dream, a different one this time. Neither warm nor cold. A strange sensation where the boundary between myself and the surroundings gradually blurred.

It felt like being underwater yet still able to breathe, with no sense of body weight at all. It was so pleasant I thought I could stay in this dream forever.

“Nagi.”

“Uheya!?”

A sudden voice from behind made me let out a weird yelp. I turned without any caution whatsoever, because the voice belonged to the person I felt most at ease with in the whole world.

“Onii-chan.”

I grinned goofily in my half-asleep state.

My brother, wearing his usual hoodie and worn-out sweatpants, looked exactly the same as when I’d seen him before falling asleep. He always bragged, “No matter how much I eat, it never turns to muscle,” like he was picking a fight with every girl alive. His lanky limbs seemed too much for him as he walked in that lazy, unmotivated way.

Mom was always scolding him—“Walk properly!”—but I actually liked that listless style of his.

“What’s up? It’s rare for you to show up in my dream.”

I walked closer as I asked. I hadn’t really expected an answer, but he folded his arms, tilted his head, and spoke.

“I see… a brother, huh. Right now we should appear to you in the form of the person you trust most… So you’re a brocon?”

“SUDDEN VERBAL ABUSE!”

That was completely out of left field. I was having such a nice dream, and now this?!

“Okay, yes, I’m a mild brocon! But a surprise body blow is just cruel! So as punishment, I’m changing your ringtone to a conch shell!”

“…Why a conch shell?”

“Imagine it going off on the train—everyone would stare.”

And it sounds kinda fun.

My brother gave a small laugh and nodded.

“I see. Too bad you’ll never get the chance. Your soul has already completely settled into that body as a native of this world. You can no longer travel back and forth between worlds like before.”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

He looked at me with round eyes and continued.

“The universe is multilayered, and all things flow. Our job is to keep that flow smooth and prevent the collapse of worlds.”

“Nooo, sudden chuunibyou!”

“Don’t call it chuunibyou.”

He sighed deeply, then spoke again.

“Skipping the details… Human souls also flow across every universe. When necessary, we intervene in certain souls to manage the worlds.”

“…Huh? Now you’re gonna say you’re a god or something? Stop, that’s scary.”

I gave him the most suspicious look I could muster. He looked utterly exasperated.

“God? That’s just a convenient concept humans made up. At the very least, there’s no physical god in the world you’re in now, or the one you lived in before.”

At least, meaning… not zero?

“Wait. So in some worlds, actual gods really exist?”

“Very rarely—astronomically rare—when multiple humans with exceptionally strong souls are born in the same generation in the same world, their collective thoughts crystallize into a core and a new higher-dimensional being is born. But once the humans who created that ‘god’ die, it gradually weakens and disappears.”

“…Gods can die?”

He answered casually.

“If the faith’s doctrine is properly passed down, they can last a bit longer. But it’s more pitiful for a god to linger pointlessly after the people who loved and needed it are gone.”

Gods are born from people’s wishes. A god born because people needed it will vanish when that need disappears.

“Anyway, back on topic. You and the child you call ‘Rio’ were originally the same single soul. Souls grow by flowing through many worlds. It’s not uncommon for a powerful soul seeking new encounters and possibilities to split into multiple parts.”

“Sorry, I don’t get it.”

I raised my hand with a straight face. He thought for a moment and rephrased.

“It’s like a fertilized egg splitting into twins in the womb. In other words, soul twins.”

Soul twins.

I gave him a pitying look.

“As I thought, chuunibyou—”

He flicked my forehead with two fingers—thwack. The impact made me jerk back, clutching my head with teary eyes.

“Ouch! What if I got whiplash!”

“Relax, nothing here affects your real body. Anyway, because you were originally the same soul, even though you were born in different worlds, you were tightly connected through the mental realm—dreams. That’s why your souls and bodies were always slightly out of sync. Both of you were terrible at moving your bodies, right?”

I was stunned.

“Our motor clumsiness was because of that!?

“Yes. But that’s minor. Your bad luck was that Rio was this world’s Saintess Seed.”

Saintess Seed. Saintess species. A type of Saintess. A race.

I gaped.

“Saintesses are a different race? Not human?

“They’re basically human. They can reproduce with humans and bear human children. We are not allowed to interfere with already-born life. When a world faces potential catastrophic damage that would disrupt soul circulation, we scatter factors to counter it. Those factors are World-Tuning Factors—in this world, they’re called Saintess Seeds. Rio’s birth mother happened to take one in.”

“Seed…? A seed?”

A grotesque image flashed in my mind: a pulsing, ominous seed burrowing into a pregnant woman’s belly. I paled. My brother half-glared.

“It’s just phrased that way so you could understand. We don’t literally plant seeds in wombs. Humans can’t perceive our interference.

“Thank goodness! Horror avoided!”

I was deathly afraid of horror; I’d happily yeet every horror thing into deep space.

“Even with a seed, the germination rate is low. Out of 12,000 seeds scattered, only five have successfully sprouted in this world.”

“Lottery-level odds!”

So there are only five Saintesses in this world right now. Five living strategic weapons that can save the world from destruction. Too few.

“Why so inefficient?

“If we raised the germination rate any higher, mortality for seeded children would exceed 90 %. The current rate is the absolute limit that doesn’t affect human birth and death rates. We interfere as little as possible with the laws of the world.

“I see…”

But that means—

“Only exceptionally strong souls can germinate the seed. And one of those five was Rio—now your body. The Saintess Seed absorbs energy from the host soul to grow, eventually fusing completely and remodeling the body. That’s why Saintesses can affect the world just by touching or singing—their bodies have been rebuilt that way.

I grimaced hard.

“So you take a normal human child and turn her into a living weapon without permission?! That’s not god-level, that’s demon-level!

“Interpret it however you want. But this is the reality you must face now.

He looked at me with a gentle yet sad expression.

“You and Rio were the same soul, but because of the seed, Rio’s body became Saintess. Your soul was pulled here permanently. Your soul has now fused with that body. You are now the Saintess of this world.

I froze.

“…Eh?”

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