Gods’ Games We Play, Vol. 5, page 1
Copyright
Gods’ Games We Play
Volume 5
Kei Sazane
Translation by Kevin Steinbach
Cover art by Toiro Tomose
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
KAMI WA GAME NI UETEIRU. Vol.5
©Kei Sazane 2022
First published in Japan in 2022 by KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo.
English translation rights arranged with KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo, through TUTTLE-MORI AGENCY, INC., Tokyo.
English translation © 2025 by Yen Press, LLC
Yen Press, LLC supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.
The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact the publisher. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Sazane, Kei, author. | Tomose, Toiro, illustrator. | Steinbach, Kevin, translator.
Title: Gods’ games we play / Kei Sazane ; illustration by Toiro Tomose ; translation by Kevin Steinbach.
Other titles: Kami ha game ni ueteiru. English
Description: First Yen On edition. | New York, NY : Yen On, 2022-
Identifiers: LCCN 2022033520 | ISBN 9781975348496 (v. 1 ; trade paperback) | ISBN 9781975348519 (v. 2 ; trade paperback)
Subjects: CYAC: Fantasy. | Gods—Fiction. | Games—Fiction. | Competition (Psychology)—Fiction. | LCGFT: Fantasy fiction. | Light novels.
Classification: LCC PZ7.1.S297 Go 2022 | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022033520
ISBNs: 979-8-8554-0059-5 (paperback)
979-8-8554-0060-1 (ebook)
E3-20250602-JV-NF-ORI
Contents
Cover
Insert
Title Page
Copyright
Prologue: How Dare They Eject Mineself Twice!
Player.1: Vs. The God-Tree Guardians —God-Tree-Fruit Basketball—
Intermission: That’s Why I Am Undefeated
Player.2: Vs. The God-Tree Guardians —God-Tree-Fruit Basketball—
Player.3: Mind Over Matter
Intermission: The Era of the End of Humans and Gods
Player.4: What He Saw That Day
Player.5: Vs. Li’l ’Don —And Then There Were None—
Intermission: After All, I Am Hugely Popular
Player.6: Vs. Li’l ’Don —And Then There Were None—
Player.7: Enjoy!
Afterword
Yen Newsletter
Chapter
Prologue
How Dare They Eject Mineself Twice!
Gods’ Games We Play
1
The sun rose in the sky, reflecting off the buildings of the Ruin skyline and making their dull silver glow.
The time? Seven AM, an hour when most of Ruin’s citizens were at home getting ready for the day, leaving the town suffused with silence…
“Grrr! Now they’ve gone and angered me—the Undefeated!”
Silent except for a voice that bellowed from the Arcane Court building, a voice that was like an explosion and a child throwing a tantrum all in one. It was so terrible that it passed straight through the building’s concrete walls and shook the glass of the private residences in the vicinity.
What had happened?
The answer to that question lay in the Dive Center beneath the Arcane Court.
“To think! I dove in there to play the gods’ games with Tiny Human, and they booted me out! How dare they?!”
In the Dive Center was a Divine Gate, a statue shaped like a dragon’s head, and on top of the Divine Gate sat a girl with her arms crossed in front of her. She had a captivating face, with large ruby-colored eyes.
Yes, she was so lovely that one might describe her with words like enthralling or enchanting, but beyond her looks, her most distinguishing feature was her outfit. Specifically, her T-shirt, on which the word Undefeated was scrawled in enormous letters.
“Well, I am undefeated! I guess I can’t really blame them for ejecting me out of sheer terror. But that means I can’t take part in Tiny Human’s game! Oogh, who did this?!” She clawed at the solid wall of the Divine Gate, grrr’d again, and then frowned. Suddenly, she snapped, “Human!”
“Y-yes, Lady Uroboros?!” Chief Secretary Miranda said, straightening up when the god-girl addressed her. Miranda might have run the entire Arcane Court branch office, but at that moment, she was thoroughly outranked. The silver-haired girl sitting on the Divine Gate was a bona fide deity. And not just any deity: She was the Undefeated God Uroboros, who for so long had instilled fear into humanity as one challenger after another attempted her game and failed. Charming, sweet, and adorable she might have been, but if she really got angry, she could level the city in a matter of seconds. When she wanted something done, people did it.
“Wh-what do you need?” Miranda asked.
“This Divine Gate kicked me out. From what I saw, it was the doing of four different gods, and I want to investigate the perpetrators. I’m going to list the things that I need for my ritual, and you’re going to get them for me.”
“A ritual?! I m-mean, uh…what do you…?” Miranda asked with a gulp. Whatever Uroboros wanted, it was something important enough for an all-knowing, omnipotent god to specifically request. Obtaining it would no doubt be a monumental challenge, a Herculean labor. “What shall I prepare for you, ma’am?”
“Two pizzas with extra cheese and five chocolate bars. Also, a choco-banana crêpe sandwich, and some salted-seaweed potato chips. To drink, I’ll have a ginger ale!”
“……”
“……”
For a very, very long moment, Miranda didn’t speak. Finally, she simply said, “…I’m sorry?”
“Arrrgh! Did you not hear me, human?” The girl, who had begun studying the Divine Gate intently, turned around once more. “Two pizzas with extra cheese, five chocolate bars, a choco-banana crêpe sandwich, and salted-seaweed potato chips. Plus a ginger ale!”
“May I ask, uh, what for?”
“For my lunch, of course!”
“Er… Oh.”
Uroboros sounded quite serious. Miranda stared at her, as confused as one could be when confronted with the supernatural.
“I didn’t realize spiritual beings needed to eat, too.”
“We don’t.”
“Then why…?”
“Because I am undefeated!”
This wasn’t getting them anywhere. It dawned on Miranda that gods didn’t operate by human logic, and she decided to just go along with it. “That makes perfect sense,” she said humbly.
“Doesn’t it, though? After all, I am undefeated!” Uroboros was very pleased with this conclusion.
Miranda bowed to her, then took out a communications device and called one of her staff upstairs.
“It’s me. I’m going to list a few items. I want you to get them for me right away, no questions asked.”
Chapter
Player.1
Vs. The God-Tree Guardians —God-Tree-Fruit Basketball—
Gods’ Games We Play
1
The gods on high beckoned people, chosen by standards only the gods knew, to play the gods’ games. Such people became apostles, able to traverse the superior spiritual realm known as Elements—where, at that moment, Fay found himself looking at a sprawling forest: a sea of green made of trees so tall, they seemed to pierce the heavens.
“This game of God-Tree-Fruit Basketball is about to begin!”
A meep’s declaration reverberated through the woods. “Before we start, let’s review the rules. This is the forest of the God-Tree, Yggdrasil. The trees you’re looking at are all young sprouts born from Yggdrasil—and you may use this entire forest to enjoy the game to your heart’s content!”
At that moment, loud voices could be heard from somewhere behind the meep.
“Kya-ha-ha! We can finally play! Humans never come to this forest! Not ever—but here are some now! At last!”
A group of small, winged beings appeared—fairies called nymphs. They were members of the gods’ team. They floated right about the height of a human head on their glittering, butterfly-like wings, and despite their size, the sound of their voices was immense. There were three nymphs, and each spoke the same words at the same time, resulting in t hree times the volume!
“Better brace yourselves, humans—we’re gonna make punching bags out of you! Aren’t we, Dryad?” the nymphs said.
“Perish the thought.” The response, a woman’s measured tone, came from a dryad, a humanoid tree whose whole body was green. Instead of hair, it had living vines on its head. There were three dryads as well, each of whom had a gentle smile on its face. “If I can enjoy a pleasant game, that’s all I want. Greet the humans with a mild manner to put them off their guard, then lavish my attentions on them slowly… Heh heh! I might dabble in imagining it, but I would never actually…”
“Dryad, you are twisted!” The nymphs burst into cackling laughter. Including them and the dryads, Fay saw six figures, but behind them were yet three more, which looked like massive tree stumps walking around on their roots.
“…………”
They were silent, for the tree spirits called treants didn’t speak any human language.
These nine formed the gods’ team.
“Okay, hold on just a second! This ain’t right, Meep!” shouted a tall, slim young man with handsome, charismatic features. Ashlan Highrols, the leader of Team Blaze, stalked toward the meep where it floated in midair. “It’s us against nine gods?! I’ve never heard of so many gods on one team! The gods’ games are supposed to be one deity versus a bunch of humans!”
“They are not nine gods. They’re a single god team!”
“What’s the darn difference?!”
“The difficulty level,” the meep said succinctly. “If there were nine gods, the game would be nine times as hard as normal, but that’s not what’s going on. As explained, they compete as a divine team, making the difficulty level just right!”
“…Sounds fishy to me.”
“Nope! It’s juuuust right!”
“You’re not making me feel better! Well, you heard the man—er, meep. What’s your take, Fay?” Captain Ashlan asked, turning. “If you think we can do this, that’ll count for a lot.”
“I don’t have any idea yet myself. Using this whole forest for a game of basketball…?” Fay looked around again.
Undergrowth everywhere, tree roots, vines overhead, and the ground is completely uneven. I can only assume all those things are going to factor into the game somehow.
They were supposed to use the terrain.
That was as close to a hint as the neutral meep could give them.
“I’m happy with anything if it means I can play a game!” said a confident young woman with vermilion hair.
She was the Dragon God Leoleshea—a beauty with amber-colored eyes who had descended from the superior spiritual realm three thousand years prior. A genuine former deity.
“This game called basketball—it’s a human sport, right?” she said. “Does that make this forest the court? And I guess we, like, run around it or something?”
“Blech!” said the first of two young women standing beside Leshea.
“Ah, sports. Yes, those I can handle,” said the second one. They couldn’t have reacted more differently.
The distressed-looking blond girl was Pearl. The one nodding enthusiastically was Nel, a slim, toned girl with black hair. Both were members of Fay’s team.
“The day I feared so long has finally arrived,” Pearl said, biting her lip. “I knew it would come eventually. The gods’ games have so many forms. Not just contests of wits, but battles that test us in combat against the deity, and even games modeled on human sports. Now, at last, I stand face-to-face with that great terror…a sports-based game!”
“Huh? What’s so terrifying about it?”
“You’re the athletic type, Nel! You wouldn’t understand!” Nel looked earnest and ready, whereas Pearl looked like she might burst into tears. “I’m not tall, and I have terrible balance—I fall over just walking down the street! I am not happy to see a game where we play sports!”
“Oh…I see, Pearl. With that huge chest, you probably can’t even see your feet, can you? I can’t claim to understand your experience firsthand, but I can understand that it bothers you deeply.”
“Gee, your sympathy means so much to me!”
“Just let me handle it. This is my specialty!” Nel was full of vim and vigor. She started doing some stretches. “Master Fay, leave this to me!”
“Good point. This game definitely sounds like it’s up your alley, Nel. How’s that sound to you, Captain Ashlan?”
“If she’s got your referral, Fay, I’m not gonna object.” Captain Ashlan had begun bending and flexing, too.
This was a team battle. Human basketball usually involved teams of five people, but they expected the gods’ version to be a bit different. The nymphs, the dryads, and the treants—three of each—made up a team of nine.
So this is going to be nine on nine. If we really have this whole forest for our “court,” it’s more than big enough for eighteen players.
If they had to pick nine people, then they would have to start by choosing an overall leader to be their basketball team captain.
There were three apostle teams present. If each of their captains gave their own orders, they wouldn’t be able to coordinate tactics, and they might even end up arguing. They needed a single leader who could command everyone on the nine-person team.
“You need a basketball captain? Leave it to me!” a pink-haired girl said, her hand shooting into the air. “As founder and leader of Empress, the garden of maidens, I, Anita, nominate myself as head of this operation!”
Anita Manhattan. At fifteen years old, she was one of the youngest apostles at the Arcane Court, but almost as soon as she joined the Ruin branch office, she had founded her own team and distinguished herself by displaying excellent leadership skills.
“All right, then,” Anita said. “By my authority as basketball captain and overall leader, I will now choose the members of our team. Treasured sister Leshea, treasured sister Pearl, treasured sister Nel! You three are with me. As for the rest of the team, we’ll just—mrrpfhh?!”
“No one said you could choose anything yet!” snapped Captain Ashlan, squishing Anita’s cheeks with both hands. “The overall leader should obviously be either the person with the most wins or the person with the largest team!”
“Y-yes, that does make sense…”
“So, Fay? Who is it? Who’s gonna be in command?” Ashlan asked without releasing Anita’s cheeks. “Personally, I’d feel better if you were handling things.”
“You know, if it’s okay with you, I’d rather you do it, Captain Ashlan.”
“Well…since you asked.” Ashlan scratched the back of his head and smiled sheepishly.
Naturally, Fay hadn’t pressed the position of overall leader on Ashlan just because he didn’t want to do it. He’d judged that this gave them the best chance of success.
I’m thinking about the difference in our team sizes. Captain Ashlan’s Team Blaze has twelve people, by far the most out of the three groups present.
He had experience managing twelve different personalities and Arises. He was surely the most capable of bringing out everyone’s individual strengths in this game.
“All right, I’m the leader. So give me some details. If this is basketball, then there must be a ball and a net, right?”
“That’s correct. For this game, you’ll be playing with Yggdrasil’s own fruits!” The meep pointed to the four balls that lay on the ground—or rather, the tree seeds they would be using as balls. They had fallen from overhead a moment earlier, and they consisted of:
A green one about the size of a coconut.
A blue one about the size of a coconut, which had nudged some earth aside when it hit the ground.
A yellow one about the size of a coconut, which had made a crack in the ground.
And a red one larger than a person that had slammed into the earth with the force of a meteor, creating a crater.
They had varying weights—especially that last one. The red ball was clearly different and much heavier.
“The fruits have fallen smack-dab in the middle of the basketball court. Fifty meters away from where you’re standing is the god team’s goal, and fifty meters the other way is the human one.”
In other words, they had a one-hundred-meter space in which to play, and the balls marked the very center of it.
