Divine Calendar year 20, Area 11, New Tokyo.
Across the distant urban skyline, colossal vertical, tree-shaped buildings rose in overlapping ranks like dwellings for giants. Maglev trains glided soundlessly along elevated tracks, darting past like lightning; streamlined aircraft of every size rose and descended.
At the city's edge stood a magnificent space elevator, piercing the clouds like the Tower of Babel and dividing the sky in two.
In this Age of Gods, when nations had become a thing of history, everything beneath the sun and moon, whether land or sea, and even outer space, belonged to the empire.
Even on the islands, the word Japan was used less and less, replaced by its imperial administrative designation: Area 11.
Under the new era's urban planning, the academy district in western New Tokyo encompassed hundreds of universities, high schools, and middle schools.
At a morning meeting in a first-year classroom at one of those middle schools.
"Ms. Mamiya, what was the Supernatural Era before the Divine Calendar like? I'm really curious!"
The female teacher, around forty, with a small beauty mark at the corner of her left eye, blinked, unsure how the morning meeting's topic had inexplicably veered in this direction.
"Your father came to school yesterday to bring you something, Ms. Mamiya. I recognized him! He was one of the Twelve Divine Generals from the Supernatural Era!"
"To think your generation would still be interested in the Twelve Divine Generals."
Somewhat surprised and a little troubled, the teacher pressed her palms together.
"Unfortunately, I never experienced the Supernatural Era myself, so I don't know what to tell you."
"But, Ms. Mamiya, your age..."
"Ahem!"
Age was a minefield for any older woman, and the teacher hastily interrupted.
"During those three years of the Supernatural Era, I was seriously ill and stayed