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Made for Me

Summary:

Gods are not exempt from love.

Chapter Text

Made for Me

Author’s Note: Enjoy the story and R&R.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to or of By the Grace of the Gods.

Pairing: Developing Ryoma x Kufo.

Summary:

Gods are not exempt from love.


Chapter 1

The god of life allotted centuries toward the observation of human traditions, yet few traditions stuck with him as stickily as the custom that a bride and groom should not see each other before the wedding.

In secret, Kufo watched Takebayashi Ryoma grow: A boy (and later a man) who spent every day taking beatings, be they from his abusive father or the unreasonable bosses at the company where he worked himself to death.

Bit by bit, Kufo realized he was falling in love with Ryoma.

A god and a human!

Kufo consulted Gain again and again whether he could intervene. The god of creation was resolute they not interfere in affairs of the non-divine.

Still, he wanted to save him.

Seilfall’s magic was waning. Their plan to revitalize it rested on opening a tunnel to funnel off Earth’s stockpile, but they’d have to wait until Ryoma died.

Meanwhile, Gain created a new body into which Ryoma’s soul would reincarnate, eight years old so he and Kufo could “begin” on even terms, as far as the age Kufo chose to appear.

Kufo hadn’t been previewed the body. This was his bride and groom moment. Would Ryoma wake up the same kid he remembered?

Certainly, he’d be less of a doormat. A child with skills in all magical styles and the physical hardiness to split trees could no doubt do a better job defending himself than a son resigned to his parent’s mistreatment or an exhausted salaryman.

After the Forest of Gana, Ryoma visited the church. There, he did what the trinity advised, rousing his oracular ability to contact them.

Gain and Lulutia offered blessings.

Kufo sat on the altar, swinging his sandaled feet, wearing that perpetually lax, gently mischievous expression and his laurelled hair gold as a field in a braid.

Ryoma was literally made for him.

“This may be forward of me, but can I kiss you?”

His request didn’t phase Ryoma, just as none of the otherworld mysticism phased him. Manga and anime weren’t Ryoma’s only points of reference. He’d gotten into BL light novels as well.

They parted sweetly, the monster tamer tugging the god’s triangle-checkered scarf.

“Lulutia.”

“Yes, Kufo?”

“Give it to me straight. This thing between Ryoma-kun and me…Were you involved?”

“You’re asking if the goddess of love had anything to do with your puppy love? My, it’s a mystery!” she chuckled. “Teach him to evolve poison slimes. Then watch your babies multiply!”

Chapter Text

Made for Me

Author’s Note: Enjoy the story and R&R.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to or of By the Grace of the Gods.

Pairing: Established Ryoma x Kufo.

Summary:

Gods are not exempt from love.


Chapter 2

Once he’d finished feeding himself and his slimes, Ryoma went to the room in the back of his bucolic forest cave.

It’d been three years since Takebayashi Ryoma died and was reincarnated Ryoma Takebayashi, in the body of a young boy. Three years since his soul migrated over to the magical world of Seilfall. Three years since he first shared a kiss with a god.

The shrine he earthcrafted celebrated his benefactors: Gain, the creator; Lulutia, curator of love; and Kufo, Ryoma’s partner.

Of the three statues, Kufo’s had a crooked nose. The god of life swore it was intentional (not that gods normally swore). Gain gave Ryoma the capacity to master every form of magic, a rare feat indeed. While there’d been bumps along the road, through trial and error and reading the manual, the real man-child became a master tamer, performing sorcery so effortlessly mages would stop and balk if they met him.

But Ryoma had yet to meet another human. And as a talented spellcaster, there was no way he misrepresented Kufo’s nose by accident.

Those he crossed were animals or monsters, such as the goblins who tried robbing him.

Mostly, Ryoma interacted with the slimes he made contracts with, evolved, and crashed with. His and Kufo’s “babies.”

Under Lulutia’s romantic wisdom, Kufo taught Ryoma everything there was to know about slimes. How they left behind their cores when their lifespans ended. The different varieties, from the bone-dissolving acid slimes, to the useful-for-housework cleaner slimes, to the fast-multiplying poison slimes.

Even about scavenger slimes, which supplied fertilizer by converting waste.

Yes, a subset of the slimes acted as Ryoma’s toilet.

As Kufo learned, nothing phased Ryoma. Nothing. His eyes filled with wonderment, but his consumption of all things manga and anime in his previous life helped him immediately accept the fantastical.

In time, their “family” numbered hundreds. Almost a thousand.

Like all days, today was a good day. Ryoma was living his best life, and in exchange, Seilfall’s dwindling magic burgeoned sponging up Earth’s.

His adventure carried no stakes. He wasn’t a “chosen one” fated to battle an evil force, playing out a self-insert power trip dominated by the more egregious isekai tropes he initially anticipated.

No, he lived a simple rancher, hunter, and homemaker. Powerful, yet apart.

The effigy Ryoma sculpted worked the same as the spiritual purity surrounding the church. An oracle and the gods could commune at either location.

“Good morning, everyone.”

“Just me, you.”

“Kufo…Where are Gain and Lulutia?”

“Indisposed. Deities aren’t all about drinking tea and eating osenbei in the sky. We have jobs too.”

“Except you’re here. You must love your job that much.”

“You really have attained enlightenment, huh?”

“Don’t get pouty. I’m happy you’re here.”

“Would you like to go into town?” Kufo surprised him.

“Um, I haven’t been anywhere near civilization except the church.”

“Do you want to be?”

Ryoma twinkled.

A couple days out with the kids.

Chapter Text

Made for Me

Author’s Note: Enjoy the story and R&R.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to or of By the Grace of the Gods.

Pairing: Established Ryoma x Kufo.

Summary:

Gods are not exempt from love.


Chapter 3

When Ryoma entered the church three years ago, he danced around the sisters there. Fresh out of the forest, he had yet to wholly absorb the manual the gods left him. Out of a lack of common sense toward how this world functioned, plus the importance of manners (since he didn’t take any business cards into Seilfall), Ryoma decided to start off his new life an ascetic.

The church doors were of course open to all who’d pray. Ryoma simply waited until nobody was using the baptism crystal, so he could get a word in – and a kiss in – with Kufo.

Funny how the clock’s revolutions just breezed by. He befriended and lost his first familiar Tabuchi-kun to age, trained up his magic, and breathed the ways of the wild. All without killing himself through overwork, as he had done in his office job.

Then again, Seilfall’s calendar differed from Earth’s.

These past few exciting days, he was similarly productive. He met and conversed with real people for the first time in three years, booked a room at the local inn, and the big-hearted altruist he was, accepted side tasks while experiencing the sights and smells, fascinating himself and a good deal of the townsfolk.

Ryoma straightened on the church’s inmost pew, mellowly pondering the statues of the gods. The mining hub of Gimul commissioned licensed artisans to chisel the gods’ full-body replicas, what Ryoma felt were accurate images of Gain, Kufo, and Lulutia.

By their account, other gods existed. The central trio participated more actively, whereas standpatters like the god of magic and god of war held warier or mistrustful views about humans (particularly transferees), resembling the erratic personalities from Greek myth.

That’s not how my nose looks.

It was him having a chuckle at Kufo’s reaction to the statue of him with the crooked nose at home, except Kufo legitimately manifested to repeat the same critique behind the boy’s ear.

“See that, Ryoma-kun? That’s how my nose should look.”

“Gain said things aren’t created perfect.”

“I imagine he told you?”

“That before I came here, scavenger slimes and cleaner slimes weren’t actual species? He told me. So you peeked into my mind and extracted a potential I didn’t know I had and would’ve possibly achieved on my own?”

“I hope you’re not upset.”

“Upset? Kufo, thank you for drawing it out! We made those slimes together! They’re really ours!”

“I suppose we did. Did you enjoy your day today?”

“Yes. I added another skill on my status board! Everyone’s animated!”

Their joined, minimized slimes jiggled inside Ryoma’s basket.

“It’s a perky nose, by the way, Kufo.”

The god of life rubbed his knees.

“Ryoma-kun, Lulutia might’ve set us up. But I can say this: That potential in you…You would’ve placed me under your spell anyway.”

Chapter Text

Made for Me

Author’s Note: Enjoy the story and R&R.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to or of By the Grace of the Gods.

Pairing: Established Ryoma x Kufo.

Summary:

Gods are not exempt from love.


Chapter 4

“You merit my praise for your originality.”

Ryoma was back at the inn, bare soles soaking in a wooden wash basin.

“I don’t believe we’ve ever had a transferee as creative with his use of magic as you.”

Ryoma flushed, not considering his aptitude impressive. The god of creation made it so.

Here, Kufo dissented. Gain granted Ryoma capacity, not capability. The sharpening of each trait – the intensity behind each Fire Arrow or the speed at which an Earth Needle emerged from the ground – that was Ryoma’s spartan talent.

Why, just today he passed the membership test to join the Adventurer’s Guild! And the Gimul chapter’s master, Worgan, tolerated no mistakes!

“It’s serene having you right next to me,” Ryoma exhaled into Kufo’s scarf.

Space magic was tougher to execute. As with disciplines he’d built in the past, he cast Warp pretty much on his first try. However, Dimension Home required he continuously butt his head against a wall. None of it into a genuine wall, thank the gods! The last worry they needed was Ryoma dying of a second brain hemorrhage.

An entire morning and afternoon had gone by when he stabilized the spell. Leading up to that, the circles he called forth kept running down his fingers like dirty water.

The payoff was great. Dimension Home exposed a larger pocket than Item Box. It also contained air, so Ryoma could now carry their slimes without his pack.

This is where things got “creative.” Starting with Create Block for the raw material, Ryoma kneaded a scaled-down statue of Kufo from bricks he crushed himself then sealed using the strong compound spun by sticky slimes. This meant he wouldn’t have to rely on the church or the shrine in his cave, and could pull the statue out of Dimension Home at any point during his excursion if it was Kufo alone he wanted to talk to. Seilfall’s version of a cellular phone.

Neither Gain nor Lulutia took offence (he requested permission at the church beforehand).

An unevolved slime among the multifarious blobs on the floor bounced onto Ryoma’s stomach. Rubbing its rubbery surface, something extra magical happened.

A fuzzy shudder, and its nondescript roundness shifted permanently to transparent pink. Pink like Lulutia’s hair, suspending a red core.

“Wow! Another new species of slime! What can you do, little guy?”

Wobble. And release yellow shimmers, apparently.

They noticed the more attention they showed it, the more shimmers it released.

“I’m dubbing you a love slime!” Ryoma cradled their new baby, as Kufo cradled Ryoma.

Happiness shouldn’t be taken for granted. It was a miracle they found it with each other.

One would think, to a god, miracles would be nothing special.

But seeing this slime their love gave life to.

Seeing all the slimes their love gave life to.

Seeing the boy who obtained happiness after such a tiring life.

Kufo reached the clearest understanding of the miracle bestowed on Takebayashi Ryoma, the man picked up by the gods.

Chapter Text

Made for Me

Author’s Note: Final chapter! I plan on writing other By the Grace of the Gods fics, so keep an eye out. Enjoy the story and R&R.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to or of By the Grace of the Gods.

Pairing: Established Ryoma x Kufo.

Summary:

Gods are not exempt from love.


Chapter 5

Many months passed. Moved by his experiences in the wider world, Ryoma concluded it was time to give up being a recluse, and made a permanent move from Gana to Gimul. Under Serge Morgan and Glisella of the Merchant’s Guild, he opened a laundry business with the slimes.

Bamboo Forest Laundry Service!

Adventuring gear covered in goblin grime? Regardless of how dirty or smelly, Bamboo Forest promises to eliminate stains and odours, just as advertised! No more throwing away your armour after a difficult campaign!

A slogan like that, the business began building a steady clientele. With the money he was earning, Ryoma generated sufficient income to handle expenditures and support himself and his slimes, saving enough to pay for an extension on the plot to construct a house.

“Mist wash!” Ryoma sprayed down the sheets on the line, whereupon the cleaner slimes attached to digest the garbage off them.

“Ryoma-kun?”

“Yes, I’m Ryoma Takebayashi. Good morning! Would you like your clothes cleaned?”

The customer stared at him for a second, then relayed, “It’s me, Ryoma-kun.”

“I’m sorry. I’m afraid I haven’t memorized everybody’s faces yet.”

“It’s me!” the stranger repeated excitedly. “Kufo!”

“Kufo…Wait, KUFO? Wha-what happened to you? Y-you’re here? I don’t have your statue out! An-and you’re a brunette? Wh-wha…H-how?”

It’s true his form was different. As a matter of fact, his present anatomy bore very little resemblance to what Ryoma was used to.

Kufo hoped Ryoma didn’t mind. Although Gain could have created Kufo’s new human body to look exactly as Kufo did before, it’d be pretty shocking for the people of Seilfall to see one of their gods stroll into town and enter a laundromat.

“I’ve done the immortality thing for a long time. And it’s been fun and fulfilling. But watching you succeed in Seilfall has inspired me. I realize now there’s something more important I must attend to.”

“Something more important?”

“You, Ryoma-kun.”

Ryoma had a lapse of “infantile regression,” spotting him red. A mess for the jack of all trades who prided his poker face on Earth.

“So you won’t be a god anymore?”

“I’ve relegated my duties as the god of life to a minor god. And because of Gain, the me that stands before you is 100% human. If you’ll have me, I’d like to live out the rest of my natural life with you, here in this town. I’ll put in the work.”

Hot tears accompanied Ryoma’s gratitude at Kufo’s proposal. “Thank you! Thank you, Kufo!”

Their one love slime released a bevy of shimmers.

“Ryoma-kun…We were made for each other.”