Chapter 1: Kaoru Itokonoue(1)

“Y-You! Put that down right now! I’m confiscating it, confiscating!”

“…”

I was currently in a very troublesome situation.

“D-Don’t underestimate me, I’m an elite of the Justice Task Force! So hurry up and hand it over! If you keep ignoring me, I’ll give you a real lesson!”

Anyone would find it troublesome when a small high school girl with a cute face threatens them with a ‘gun’ of all things, her face taut with tension.

“Justice Task Force…”

“…Hmph, th-that’s right! I’m Shimoe Koharu of the Justice Task Force, you’ve heard of me, right? If not, you’d better remember it from now on!”

When I unintentionally uttered the affiliation I had just heard, the small, pink-haired girl somehow blushed slightly and hastily added her name.

To be honest, I was just as bewildered, but from the words the girl just said, the firearms that she and the other female students watching from a distance held so naturally, and above all, from her very familiar appearance and name, I could be sure of at least one thing.

This was the world of the game I always enjoyed, ‘Blue Archive’.

That alone was enough to make me faint, but what was confusing me even more right now was another factor.

“Wh-Where are you looking! Don’t ignore me!”

As I turned my head to reconfirm the fact that was still hard to believe, the girl who introduced herself as Koharu blushed even more and shrieked.

But I paid her no mind and turned my gaze to look at the mirror-like sculpture next to me.

Seeing the phrase ‘In Commemoration of the Trinity-Wild Hunt Cultural Exchange’ engraved on its side, it seemed to be a sculpture gifted as some sort of art piece, but thanks to one entire side being made of a gorgeously decorated mirror, it was the object that allowed me to see my reflection as soon as I came to my senses.

…She’s beautiful.

It was a foolish thought, but that was the first thing that came to mind upon seeing ‘my’ reflection in the mirror.

“…”

Beyond the mirror, a beautiful girl with an indescribably mysterious aura was smiling back at me.

Her light purple hair was tied up with an antique-style hairpin, and though slightly disheveled, it didn’t feel messy at all, with a slender halo floating above it.

Paired with long eyelashes, a pair of gray eyes held a mysterious smile that looked somewhat precarious yet made it hard to look away.

And for some reason, completely unrelated to my own feelings, a faint smile was playing on my lips, one that could charm anyone in an instant.

The appearance of the female student, who also possessed an excellent figure wrapped in a modern-design school uniform, was nothing short of unrealistically beautiful.

However, at the same time, realizing which character I had become in the world of ‘Blue Archive’, I couldn’t help but scream in my mind.

Why, of all things, did I have to possess a character from Project KV!

Let me say this first, the body I have possessed is definitely a character I know well.

As a fan of Blue Archive who has indulged in fan art and other derivative works, as well as the various stories behind the game, it’s a character I could never not know.

The problem is that this character is not from Blue Archive, but an announced character from a new company founded by some former staff of Blue Archive.

It was a game… no, a game development plan, Project KV, which was embroiled in numerous controversies including plagiarism right after its announcement and vanished, leaving only a few illustrations behind.

Why was I possessed by a character from a canceled game that was never even developed, one that wasn’t an original character and was almost in a very awkward relationship with the original work, and was canceled less than a month after its announcement!

“Fufu, this is a bit… troublesome, isn’t it?”

Faced with a situation unheard of in the countless possession stories I’ve read, I was about to scream but couldn’t hold it in, yet what came out of my mouth in a soft voice was a sentence with a completely different tone than I intended.

No way, is my way of speaking fixed like this too? In the first place, this character only had one single line of dialogue revealed!

“Hmph…!”

Click.

While I was wrestling with my own body like that, Koharu, her patience finally at its limit, pointed her gun at my head again and shouted.

“Th-This is your last warning! Hand over that sword peacefully!”

She was pointing at the long tachi, its blade running from the hilt above my head down to below my waist, firmly fixed to the black bag slung on my back.

…Right, this was supposed to be the key element of Project KV. It was also one of the reasons it got heavily criticized, for essentially just replacing guns with swords.

“…Are you talking about this child?”

“Y-Yes! According to Trinity school rules, possession of swords on campus is forbidden, forbidden!”

After some effort, I finally managed to get a proper response out of my mouth, and Koharu, though a little annoyed, repeated the reason.

Honestly, the idea that swords were forbidden in a world where everyone carries a gun was a bit absurd, but thinking that de-escalating the situation was the top priority, I tried to comply with her words.

‘Okay, I’ll give it to you now, so could you please help me?’

“Fufu, I’m sorry, but I cannot give you this child. It is a precious thing.”

…Huh?

This time, words that were the complete opposite of my intention came out of my mouth.

Don’t tell me, is this also part of this character’s ‘setting’?

While I was frozen blankly at my body’s sudden action, governed by a setting that was never even revealed, Koharu, who was rejected to her face, put her finger on the trigger with a furious expression.

“Hmph…! I warned you, prepare yourself!”

W-Wait, won’t I die if I get hit by that? Since I’m a sword-game character, I’d probably survive being hit by a sword, but there’s no guarantee for a gun!

Although it might be a commonplace tool by this world’s standards, as the strike I never wanted to experience was about to be aimed at me, I fell into a panic and tried to resolve the situation somehow.

“Oh my.”

“Wait a moment, Koharu.”

“Huh…?”

Thankfully, due to a new voice that chimed in at just the right moment, I was saved from becoming a bullet sponge right after being possessed.

“H-Hasumi-senpai? And…”

It was thanks to the appearance of a character who, like Koharu, was from Blue Archive and was her senior.

“I received a report from the students. Thank you for your hard work in holding the suspicious person here, well then…”

The vice-president of the Justice Task Force, who had a very impressive figure, calmed the surprised Koharu and then immediately turned to me and continued.

“Originally, I intended to subdue you immediately, but there is someone who heard the situation beforehand and wishes to speak with you.”

Hmm…? With me…?

The new question that immediately came to mind after hearing her words was answered by a woman’s voice that followed from behind Hasumi.

“Thank you, Hasumi.”

This person is…?

Unlike Koharu or Hasumi, whom I had constantly seen in the game, the owner of the new voice was someone I was seeing for the first time in my life.

A young woman in a neat white uniform, quite similar to that of the General Student Council.

A hint of fatigue was in the eyes of the woman with long, flowing brown hair, but it couldn’t hide her considerable beauty and the natural smile she wore beneath it.

Overall, she had a tall and voluminous figure similar to my current self, but at the same time, I could clearly feel a decisive difference between this woman and the other figures I had seen so far.

This person was an ‘adult’.

“Hello?”

While I was mentally still reeling from the successive appearance of characters, she took a step closer and greeted me with a gentle smile.

“Let me introduce myself first. I’m the faculty advisor for the federal investigation club, Schale.”

As I thought… then this person is…

From the introduction that made it clear she was the player character from the original ‘Blue Archive’, the ‘Sensei’, I asked back in a dazed state.

‘Are you… Sensei?’

“Fufu, so, you must be the Master, then?”

…Ah, that was the title used in the work this character came from.

“Uh… well, I suppose so?”

Perhaps because it was a title she had never heard before, the teacher from Schale answered while tilting her head slightly in confusion.

To this Sensei, I, still with a peculiar tone of voice unrelated to my own will, told her my name, or more accurately, the name of the body I was possessing.

“I am Itokonoue Kaoru, a third-year student of Manyoshu Dormitory, here to offer my greetings to you, Master.”

The name of the student who, thanks to one uniquely attention-grabbing illustration, became almost the sole legacy of the work she was supposed to appear in after it vanished less than a month after its reveal.