My Playlist Is the Best in the World!

Content warning: This story includes excerpts from song lyrics. I'll keep the quoted material to a minimum, but I'm not padding the word count on purpose. If this bothers you a lot, please feel free to leave.

P.S. Paragraph comments are enabled. You're welcome to leave your valuable thoughts.

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"What should you do if a flower won't bloom?"

"Wait for it to bloom."

"That's a common answer."

"But before that, I'll cut off my enemy's head, use the corpse as fertilizer, and then wait patiently for the flower to bloom."

"...That's an awfully fanatical answer!"

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Hanikawa Oto is an ability user.

She can hear other people's BGM and wield the unknown powers hidden within it.

There are always people in this world who are different from the rest, and the music of their souls is just as beautiful.

A passionate music fan in the advanced stages of her condition, Hanikawa Oto has no choice but to set off on a journey of friendship, collecting other people's BGM wherever she goes to fill up her nearly empty playlist.

After all, her playlist is the best in the world!

At first...

The immortal Ghost King: "Stop! This is outrageous! I'm not even dressed!"

Her childhood friend who inherited the Book of Friends: "We slept side by side, and now you're telling me you were only putting your hand on my shoulder?"

The leader of the Phantom Thieves: "We hugged for over an hour this time. I can't help suspecting you have ulterior motives."

Even some of her deceased friends were shocked: "Seriously, why won't you leave ghosts alone either?"

Faced with one accusation after another from her friends, Hanikawa Oto can only explain helplessly: "Quit talking and hand over your BGM. Let me hear it!"

But later, more and more people start inviting Hanikawa Oto: "My BGM is really fun. Don't you want to try it?"

A woman's sobs echo through an empty, low-rent apartment. A spinning pencil slowly draws bloody lines. The shoes of someone following a person through a nighttime alley splash through puddles. The urban legends about missing people persist... Beneath all the hidden conspiracies and injustices, one last tiny note remains.

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This story is also known as Demon Slayer: Heisei Strange Tales, Sunny and Cheerful High School Girl, My Friends Are Urban Legends, This Really Isn't a Ghost Story!, A Second-Year High School Student Has to Save the World Before Time Runs Out, or She'll Miss Her Exam Prep, Everyone Gets a Bright Future (Including Ghosts)...

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1. The pairing isn't decided yet, but it'll probably be one-on-one.

2. The author, A Tian, is illiterate when it comes to music. I can't read music, I'm tone-deaf, and I know absolutely nothing about music theory!

3. This is just a big playlist dump of songs I personally enjoy. It's highly subjective, so readers are welcome to politely and kindly recommend songs and share their thoughts in the comments. However, writing advice and unkind comments are not welcome.

Third version of the blurb. Screenshot saved. Note from 2024.3.21.

New story up for presubscription: [Cyberpunk] Good Morning, Night City!

It's 2074. What decent person would still go to Night City?

As it happens...

Guided by fate, outsider Lei Zhe unexpectedly visits this free city bathed in neon lights and light pollution.

And so Night City never turns back from its glorious path toward earning the title of "North America's Worst City of the Year."

"Hello, do you have any spare rooms tonight?"

"How many people are in your group?"

"Let me see. We've got a Wild West gang cowboy gunslinger, a Greek master assassin, a chief scientist from a doomsday tech company, an ancient vengeful spirit from Hokkaido, the fourth president of the Republic of Sordland, a vigilante hacker, a fallen noble and detective from Warsaw, an expert from a wasteland logistics company, a berserker from Hell..."

"Ah! I know this joke. Those are all different identities of the same person, right?"

"No, there really are that many people outside."

"Then we're full."

This story blends characters from many video games with my own understanding of the cyberpunk world. It takes place in Night City in 2074.

Theme: Love music, love life