NOVEL NEXT [To the President of the Student Council at Gehenna Academy, Ms. Sorasaki Hina.]
I wish for peace and well-being for your academy and you. This is Trinity T-party Host Misono Mika sending my greetings to the Student Council President of Gehenna through this letter.
I believe we both agree that writing meaningless prose and reading it is a waste of time, right? So, I will plunge straight into the point, disregarding any formalities.
I am deeply concerned about the escalating conflict between Gehenna and Trinity academies, which seems to show no signs of resolution. Therefore, I have taken the liberty of writing this letter in hopes of discussing potential solutions through our exchange.
It may take time to build mutual trust and conduct extensive discussions and preparations, but I confidently believe this will lead to beneficial outcomes for both academies.
I look forward to a positive response from the Student Council President.
[Wishing endless growth for your academy, Trinity General Academy T-party Host, Misono Mika☆]
*
[To Trinity General Academy T-party Host, Ms. Misono Mika.]
I agree with your sentiment that meaningless formalities and prose are unnecessary for both parties, T-party Host. Therefore, I propose that we omit greetings in our future correspondence.
To speak frankly about the issues you raised, I must say the effort required is quite substantial. While the potential results would certainly be worth the effort if everything goes well, we also need to consider the risks involved in case of failure.
However, this is merely the stance of Gehenna Academy. Personally, I view your proposal positively.
If some tension between our academies is alleviated, it will surely lessen the burden placed on the Student Council, which leads me to conclude that it’s worth the attempt, as the Student Council President.
Thus, I will spare no effort to devise a meaningful way to conduct thorough discussions with the senior administrator regarding this matter. If Trinity has any plans in mind, please feel free to share them without hesitation.
[Student Council President of Gehenna Academy, Sorasaki Hina☆]
*
[Dear President of Gehenna, Ms. Sorasaki Hina☆.]
Hmm, why the stars…?
Firstly, I will accept your suggestion to omit greetings from here on.
I do have some ideas, but I haven’t consulted anyone else on this matter yet. Therefore, I ask for your understanding regarding the lack of preparation on my part.
First, we could consider a student exchange program between the two academies.
This system would allow selected applicants to experience each other’s academy for a set period as exchange students, aiming to diminish mutual hostility to some degree. Implementation of this system seems feasible, provided that Gehenna’s Student Council and Trinity’s Justice Realization Department actively protect the exchange students. I hope this will significantly help improve the long-term relationship between our academies.
However, this also opens up a pathway for each other’s informants to infiltrate the other academy, so we will need to establish separate safety measures regarding that matter.
…to be continued.
If you’re okay with it, I’d like to arrange a meeting for an open and honest discussion. Given the political nature of this matter, I believe it should take place in a neutral zone—preferably in an autonomous district that does not belong to either Gehenna or Trinity.
If you’re interested, I will do my best to accommodate your convenience.
[T-party Host, Misono Mika☆]
*
[To T-party Host, Ms. Misono Mika.]
…It seems my senior administrator has been playing a little prank behind my back. I extend my sincere apologies for that.
Upon reviewing your previous letter carefully, I have concluded that the system you mentioned is well within the realm of possibility. However, regrettably, the other proposals do not appear easy for us to accept.
This is a suggestion from our senior administrator. By hosting a joint event between the two academies, we aim to neutralize animosity into more of a competitive spirit. I’d like to hear your thoughts on this proposal.
We think it would be ideal to model the approach after the Grand Colloquium, but we can certainly discuss that further at a later time.
…to be continued.
I believe the discussion you mentioned should indeed take place at D.U. Holding it in the Gehenna autonomous district would likely aggravate the relationship between our academies should any issues arise, making D.U., a completely neutral zone, a better choice for both of us.
By the time this letter reaches you, I will likely be away due to important duties.
For the sake of convenience for both parties, I suggest using Momotalk for our future conversations.
My Momotalk ID is HINA0219, and I look forward to your contact there.
[President of the Student Council, Sorasaki Hina.]
*
I pondered this over.
What could I do to alleviate the conflict between Trinity and Gehenna even slightly? And what measures could I take to clear obstacles on the path towards signing the Eden Treaty?
Unfortunately, my brain doesn’t seem to be extraordinarily brilliant, as I couldn’t think of any suitable answers.
If there were only one or two issues, it might be manageable, but the multitude of problems scattered everywhere was far beyond my personal capacity to handle alone.
Gehenna looks down on Trinity with disdain.
Trinity, on the other hand, regards Gehenna as foolish and has a profound mistrust towards it.
While direct confrontations had decreased significantly compared to the past, the emotional rift was far from resolved.
And just to make matters worse, the Manma Battle was already in the clutches of Hanuma Makoto. Yes, that Makoto, who is known as the “bigtongue” of Blue Archive.
When it comes to the three major “bigtongs” of Kivotos, there might be some debate about the third one, but the first two are set in stone: Gehenna’s Hanuma Makoto and the Red Winter’s Renka and Cherino. This is an undisputed fact.
This Makoto character despises Trinity. Just like Mika once hated Gehenna, he has planned to backstab Trinity from the very beginning regarding the Eden Treaty.
Having that Makoto already seated in the chair for the upcoming Manma Battle is not great news for me. I need proactive exchanges to soften the relationship between Gehenna and Trinity, but Makoto wouldn’t allow that.
Despite the dark clouds looming over us, the sun would still shine at times, and thankfully I had the undeniable strongest ally of Gehenna and the embodiment of light, Ms. Sorasaki Hina, by my side.
I believed Hina would be likely to cooperate with me. After all, she was the one who had proposed the Eden Treaty, exhausted from the continuous incidents with Gehenna.
With no idea how long she would have to remain the Student Council President, an opportunity to significantly reduce future incidents related to Trinity seemed like an offer she couldn’t refuse. And fortunately, my prediction turned out to be accurate.
Hina and I exchanged several letters, and at one point began communicating via Momotalk, eventually leading to an actual meeting in Kivotos’ central district.
[Sorasaki Hina]
[I’ve just arrived near Sanctum Tower.]
The agreed meeting place was in front of a small fountain three blocks west of Sanctum Tower. Sitting modestly on the bench in front of it, I was drafting a reply to Hina.
About five minutes later, I spotted a girl, unmistakably Hina, approaching from a distance.
Both Nana and Hina were dressed in casual clothes, not their uniforms. While she might not mind being seen since she had established her position, my situation was a bit different. If the leader of the Pater Faction was caught in a private meeting with the Student Council President of Gehenna, it wouldn’t end up being mere controversy.
I, at least, could get by with casual clothing and a slight change in hairstyle thanks to the mystique maintained by T-party. But for Hina, being the President of Gehenna, her face was quite widely recognized. Just her presence alongside the Student Council President would surely draw attention.
Maybe that’s why Hina was dressed in a black graffiti t-shirt with “Warning” printed on it, tucked into blue shorts, wearing a black baseball cap and even a mask.
Truth be told, I’m not sure how effective this disguise will be, with those unique wings and halo just above her butt. But I suppose we’ll have to trust in the convenience of the situation.
Even if students could be recognized by their halos, in a world where nobody actually uses halos to identify people, it should still hold true even if it were to become a reality, right?
Rising slightly from the bench where I had been sitting, I walked toward Hina. Her striking lavender eyes, with their devil-like vertical pupils, glared frostily at me. Whoa, already intimidating.
“Student Council President Hina. You must be Misono Mika—”
“…Ahahaha, how cute.”
Considering the discussions we’d had up to that point, I should have been using formal language and avoiding an introduction like that. In that moment, Hina smoothly introduced herself and used her usual tone before realizing her blunder, already showing signs of fluster.
Of course, Hina shot me a fierce look after hearing what I said, but surprisingly, it wasn’t as intimidating as I had anticipated. It made no sense to engage in a fight within D.U. while the Student Council President had not gone missing, and besides, I hadn’t just been sitting around doing nothing either.
Which was all the more true since at the T-party shooting range, I had managed to score an impressive tie with Mika’s original drill scores. By that measure, I wasn’t that far behind the original Mika’s skill and could hold my own against Hina. That said, asking if I was confident in winning would be a different matter altogether.
Anyway, that’s that and it’s not a particularly important topic. First, I needed to defuse this atmosphere a little.
“If casual speech is more comfortable for you, feel free to use it. Yeah, I’m the same way!”
For me, it was just a matter of my tongue rejecting formal language, but Hina, with her position often commanding others, was used to casual speech, so I completely understood how that slip occurred. She’s a character who uses formal language when necessary, so there’s no doubt that it was indeed a mistake.
“…If it’s comfortable, then I’ll do that. Is calling me Misono okay?”
“I’d prefer if you called me Mika-chan, but if that’s difficult, just Mika is fine too☆”
“Understood, Mika. Let’s first move to a nearby cafe and talk. We’d both be in a bit of trouble if the students from Kronos School catch wind of this.”
Whoa, that was the first time Hina called my name without any hesitation like that. Truly, the Student Council President is quite bold.
“Yeah, let’s do that, Hina-chan.”
“You know, I thought you’d be all serious and formal based on just the letters, but in reality, you’re completely different.”
“Well, that just means I can distinguish between public and private matters☆”
But, honestly, Hina’s demeanor was particularly revealing for a top-tier devil. Her response to my mystique here was significantly bothersome.
The direction seemed different from her usual approach; could this be called a sense of competition?
…I really don’t want to have to fight her. So please don’t make me do that, I beg you.