Something Like a Quiz
Something like a quiz.
Having Blue Archive characters come face-to-face with the gutter-like City of the Project Moon world is a theme I have been turning over in my mind for a long time, and that is why I began writing this story.
The novel’s progress is rather slow, though, and my writing schedule is irregular, so it takes time.
So I have pulled out a few of my favorite scenes from what I have planned and written them down—try matching them!
The difficulty is easy.
1.
The girls could not speak a word.
They had heard about it, but seeing it with their own eyes made the reality far more horrific.
A comrade who, mere seconds ago, had been trading silly jokes now lay murdered on the floor.
Once again the girls understood.
In that City, whether you were a beggar or a rich man, strong or weak, you could be snuffed out in an instant like a bug crushed underfoot.
2.
“On a day when everyone ought to be happy, to dare do something like that… and looking like that on top of it… this is an insult to us!”
Hinata, who always wore a bright smile, was expressing anger unlike anything she usually showed. Ui understood completely. The one they were looking at had committed unspeakable acts while glorifying himself. And there was one more thing.
“Ui, can you hear it? That singing…”
“Yes. I hear it.
It’s pure and clear—almost like the hymns you sing during Mass, Hinata. But it doesn’t match the scene in front of us at all. It’s so mismatched it sends chills down my spine.”
3.
“Ugh, this is killing me… aaaaah…”
“…You’re telling me that man truly has a human heart? That he isn’t a demon?”
Hearing the villain’s words, Ui finally clutched the back of her neck, while Hinata’s eyes went round and she covered her mouth with both hands. In all their lives the girls had never met anyone so skilled at sophistry. Even among the City’s villains—who were diverse to the point of eccentricity—he easily ranked at the very top.
If things continued this way, just how wicked a person might be waiting for them at the end? Deep down, the girls began to feel afraid.
4.
“…So this is how it ends. If only there had been one honest conversation… hngh…”
“H-how am I supposed to put this in the newspaper… uugh, waaaah…”
Hinata and the uninvited guest who had become an audience wiped away their tears. The story of those two, which had transcended all common sense, had drawn its curtain in tragedy. Ui’s heart ached as though it were being torn apart. With difficulty the girl took up her pen.
The two of you… you really are so very alike. Far too much so.
5.
The two of them unleashed their final battle. The girls could only watch in silence, unable to utter a word.
They clashed, and the tension reached its absolute peak—
Bang!
Brilliant fireworks painted the sky, and in the same instant Ui and Hinata, who had gasped and held their breath, felt tears spill down their cheeks.
They knew exactly what those fireworks meant.