by Shouji Gatou
Of course, that stood to reason.
Sento Isuzu had been dispatched here one year ago by the king to serve as Latifah’s adviser and executor, yet the fact that they were now in this situation made it clear that she hadn’t done one lick of good. “Elite member of the royal guard” was a grand title, but at the end of the day she was a soldier, and nothing more. There was no way someone with her background could understand the business of running a theme park, or the ins and outs of the entertainment industry.
It wasn’t that Isuzu wasn’t trying. But with the tyrannical way she’d ordered everyone around, it hadn’t taken long before she’d lost the support of the cast. She interacted with guests while standing at attention, threatened slacking cast members with her gun, and made no excuses to the investors. She was an excellent officer, to be sure, but those qualities weren’t what made a park function.
All people had their strengths and weaknesses. Isuzu wasn’t cut out for this kind of work, but in a job where barking orders was called for, she’d surely have been quite at home.
“In the name of all the spirits—Your Highness! We await your words!” Sento Isuzu’s ceremonious manner was quite unlike her usual indifference.
Of course, that’s a soldier for you, Moffle thought, being a former soldier himself.
Latifah appeared from the back of the terrace. Her body was so frail, it was painful to see. Her beautiful dress and her closed eyes— Moffle suddenly felt the urge to take her place, to explain the situation to the crowd himself.
Latifah borrowed Isuzu’s hand at first, then placed her fingertips on the rail of the terrace. Then, after managing to hold herself up under her own power, she spoke.
“Thank you for coming, everyone,” Latifah said in a cheerful voice.
They all knew what was coming. She was just trying to tell them in her own way, with a smile, to spare their feelings.
“I fear that the tidings I have to offer are sad ones. Two weeks from now, Amagi Brilliant Park will be torn down...”
The response was a collective sigh from every corner of the garden.
“The reason for this is that we failed to meet our guest attendance quota this year. Our contract states that if we fail to meet this quota five years in a row, we must give up administration of the park, and transfer control over the facilities and land to the property management company, Amagi Development.”
A painful silence hung over the garden. Everyone knew the story.
“The time limit is nearly upon us. I have determined that, in the park’s current condition, and with only two weeks remaining, it will be impossible to achieve the attendance we need. That is why... everyone...” Latifah hesitated for a moment. “...We must say goodbye to this park at once. I shall do what I can to find employment for you beginning in April. I know that this will be a trying time, but...”
“Trying? Trying, pii?!” a member of the real cast squealed from the crowd. All eyes fell on the speaker of the protest.
It had come from a lizard-like mascot named Wanipii. He was a character who worked in Wild Valley, the area next to Sorcerer’s Hill. He wasn’t “cuddly” like Moffle and his friends; he had sunken features, and a big mouth that had a long tongue dangling from it. He had a comical, so-ugly-it’s-cute appearance, and he was mainly popular with foreign park-goers.
“Latifah-sama! Don’t you know how hard it’s gonna be for me, pii?! I got almost no name recognition! There’s no way I’ll get popular somewhere else, pii!”
“You cannot know that for certain,” she replied earnestly. “If you would apply yourself—”
“Applying myself won’t do squat, pii!” Wanipii’s voice was close to a shriek. “I’ll get stuck handing out tissue packs at some station somewhere, pii! People will forget me, I’ll run out of animus... and then I’ll disappear, pii! It’s monos, pii!”
A stir ran through the cast. It seemed the others shared Wanipii’s fear. Mascots who lost their popularity in the mortal world couldn’t return to the magical one; they just disappeared. It was a phenomenon they referred to as monos.
“It’s not just me, pii! We’re all going to disappear! What’re we gonna do, pii? Someday, I thought that I’d get to go home for a comfortable retirement, and now... Now it’s over... it’s all over, pii!”
“Shut your mouth, Wanipii.” Moffle said, sharply.
“Moffle! But—”
“How many years have you been here, fumo?”
“T-Twelve years, pii...”
“Then you’ve had your chance, fumo. So-ugly-it’s-cute was popular for a time, but did you ever work on improving your art? No, you got lazy, and let the park carry you instead of securing regular customers when you could. Don’t go losing your head about it now, fumo.”
“But, but...!”
“Now, calm down, fumo. I’ll hand out tissues with you. We’ve done a few bits on stage together, haven’t we? If we can recapture that energy, we’ll find some popularity with the local kids, and that’ll be more than enough to get by.” He shook Wanipii gently by the shoulders.
But Wanipii, his eyes pointing down, spat out his retort: “...You can only say that because you’re a first-stringer, pii.”
“What was that?” Moffle demanded.
“You can only say that because you’re Moffle, pii! Because you’re part of the top cast! You could easily get a job at some other amusement park if you wanted, pii!”
“Stop that right now, Wanipii. I—”
“Everybody knows it! You’re friends with Mackey, the big star of Urayasu Digimaland! You’re good friends, pii! He’d get you a job if you wanted one, pii!”
Mackey was a top-shelf mascot who worked at Digimaland. There was no one in the world who didn’t know his name. In mortal human terms, he’d be like an Oscar-winning Hollywood actor.
“I told you to lay off, fumo!” Biting back a few other things he wanted to say, Moffle grabbed Wanipii by the collar. Wanipii let out a choking sound. “You listen to me. He and I aren’t friends. We’re old acquaintances, that’s all. There’s no way I’ll ever ask him for help, fumo. The next time you insult me like that... I’ll pluck your scales off one by one! You’ll wish you’d never manifested in the mortal realm, fumo!”
“I’ve been wishing that for a long time... ow! Hey, that hurts, pii! I’m sorry! I’m sorry, pii!”
“Both of you, stop it, ron!”
With Moffle threatening, and Wanipii crying and screaming, Macaron tore them apart from each other.
“Latifah-sama’s right there, ron! She’s the one who’s gonna suffer the most here! You know that, ron!”
Those words snapped Moffle back to his senses. Latifah stood stock still on the terrace, face turned down wordlessly.
Indeed, she would surely be the one hurt most by witnessing the cast fighting amongst itself. Moffle had known that, and yet, he had let his anger get the best of him in front of a large crowd of people.
“...I’m sorry, fumo.”
“Not at all...” Latifah gave him a sad smile, and signaled Isuzu to lower her rifle. She had probably been intending to shoot Moffle and Wanipii with her magic bullets before things came to blows.
“But there’s one thing I don’t get, mii...” the previously silent Tiramii said. “Why did you decide to tell us all of this today?”
Latifah’s shoulders stiffened at Tiramii’s question. “Ah, you see... the candidate I saw in my revelation officially refused us today.”
“Candidate... you mean, to be manager?”
“Yes. We entreated him as earnestly as we could, but...”
“It’s my fault,” Isuzu interrupted. “I’m sure you can imagine how it went. He was an ordinary mortal, and I acted like a member of the royal guard around him. I’m sorry.”
The cast was silent in the face of this apology.
“I was too overbearing, I suppose,” she continued. “He grew enraged with my manner, and left.”
Recognition immediately dawned on everyone, Moffl
e included. They knew what kind of person Isuzu was. But even if he was chosen by the revelation, the man was still just a mortal. Of course he wasn’t going to go out of his way to save some run-down old theme park.
“We don’t know if things might have worked out under him or not, but the man from the revelation was our last hope. Now that he’s refused us, our options are exhausted. That was my judgment, and that’s why we gathered you all here.” Isuzu hung her head, and let out a small sigh. “That’s why things have turned out this way. Everyone... I’m sorry.”
It was unusual to see Isuzu acting so humble. But at the same time, the mascots were all thinking, Asking some mortal for help was never going to solve things this late in the game. Rumors had already gone around as to what kind of mortal had been chosen by the revelation.
He had just been some ordinary high school student. He had no particular business education; he hadn’t even held a managerial position in his past part-time jobs.
“I recognize how hard this is for all of you...” Latifah continued for Isuzu. “But as long as we are living in the mortal realm, we cannot avoid being bound by financial concerns. I am truly sorry, everyone. I wish that I could apologize more...”
This time, nobody voiced any objections, and a heavy atmosphere of silence hung over the night-shrouded garden. Everyone just stood in place, limply, working to accept the sad truth before them. Some turned their eyes to the ground, some to heaven; some held back tears...
“Everyone, I am sorry...” Latifah repeated. “I am truly sorry.”
And that was that. No matter how they lamented it, no matter how they cursed it, the park’s fate would not change. They seemed to come to that conclusion all at once, and were just about to disperse—
When suddenly, a new male voice spoke up. “It’s a little early to be apologizing, don’t you think?”
The speaker was Kanie Seiya, who was standing at the entrance to the garden.
The truth was that Seiya had been hesitating the whole way to the garden.
What can you possibly accomplish? he’d kept telling himself. This is insane. Stop being a fool, and go right home. But despite all that, he eventually made it to the garden, where he’d stood behind a tree, hearing everything that Latifah, Isuzu, and the large crowd of cast members had to say. He could have just left and forgotten that he’d heard anything. No one had even known he was there, after all.
And yet, Seiya came out. He came out in front of all of those heartbroken people. Even knowing that it would likely accomplish nothing more than taking that girl’s absurdly heavy burden for himself, he stepped out.
He had no reason, save one, which was that he couldn’t bear to watch her stand in front of that crowd, holding back tears, any longer. That was his one... his one and only reason.
This isn’t like you at all, idiot, he thought to himself.
Nevertheless, Seiya raised his voice. “You people are pathetic! Before you go around moaning and feeling sorry for yourselves, at least do absolutely everything you can first!” It was very clear that what he said had struck a nerve.
There were a large variety of people there: some were covered in voluminous fur, some in scales; some had wings, and some had forbidding fangs. Some even looked entirely human, aside from the gaudy costumes they wore. And they all had their eyes fixed hard on Seiya.
“Kanie-kun?” Isuzu looked down at him from the terrace, eyes wide.
Latifah, standing silently in place, let out a small sigh. The expression that appeared on her face was one of gentle relief.
“Who’s that? What’s an ordinary mortal doing here, mii?” asked a Pomeranian-like mascot—Fairy of Flowers, Tiramii.
“Is he the one chosen by that revelation she mentioned? He left, didn’t he? What’s going on here, ron?” asked a sheep-like mascot—Fairy of Music, Macaron.
Seiya had read through the pamphlet, so he was more or less aware of the names and appearances of the mascots who worked in the park.
These cast members really were from a magical realm, so he had also more or less accepted that the mascots weren’t just people in suits. Given all the extraordinary things he’d experienced the last few days, it would feel a bit silly to keep insisting that “they’re just costumes.”
When Isuzu had said “there’s no one inside,” she had meant exactly that; there really wasn’t anybody inside these mascots. They were real fairies, from a magical land. Of course, the details of these extraordinary phenomena didn’t matter at the moment—he was here now, so he had to do what he had come to do.
As Seiya strode toward the terrace where Latifah and Isuzu were standing, someone blocked the way. It was the Fairy of Sweets, Moffle, the mascot with whom he’d fought before. His button eyes glared at Seiya with open suspicion. Somehow, it felt reminiscent of a sheriff in a Hollywood western.
“All right, boy,” the mascot snarled. “You’d better tell me what you’re here for, fumo.”
So he can talk, too? When I met him before, all he’d said was “moffu”...
“Get out of my way,” Seiya demanded. “I want to talk to her.”
“She doesn’t have anything to say to you. Turn around and go home, fumo.”
“I can’t do that. I’ve made up my mind to help, so that’s what I’m going to do.”
Moffle let out a snort, and narrowed his eyes threateningly. “We don’t need some mortal’s help, fumo. This problem is ours to solve.”
“And what a brilliant job you’ve been doing of it,” Seiya replied sarcastically.
“What did you say?”
Seiya cast his eyes theatrically across the crowd gathered in the garden. “Look at you, standing around, helpless! You can’t attract customers, you can’t make money, and now you’re about to have your workplace snatched away. Yes, you’ve done a brilliant job of solving the problem yourselves, haven’t you? And now you’re going to pretend that you’re not incompetent?! That you don’t need my help?! ...You know, the man from that Amagi Development place said something funny to me today. You want to hear it?” He cleared his throat. “‘Anyone who comes to this park is an idiot!’”
The air among the cast members stretched taut in an instant.
“Because they could be doing anything, yet they come to this lousy, boring, worthless amusement park! They spend their hard-earned money to bring themselves an absolutely miserable time! By God, it’s a sound argument! I couldn’t think of any way he was wrong!”
He could feel a silent anger filling the garden—a silent, but powerful, anger.
“And what are you doing about it? Nothing! You’re just standing around, having yourselves a pity party! It all makes sense now! They’d really have to be idiots, to give money to people like you!”
“Why, you...” Moffle’s voice trembled. “You shut your mouth, mortal. What would you know about this park, fumo?!”
“Everything!” Seiya raged. “I spent a day walking around here, and it’s clear to me that you’re all incompetent losers!”
“You bastard! I’ll shut that smart mouth of—”
Moffle reached for him, but Latifah stopped him with a penetrating cry. “Enough.”
The round, plush paw halted in mid-strike. “Moffu...”
“Moffle-san,” she lectured him, “it was I who invited Kanie Seiya-sama here. He has chosen to return to my garden, despite the offense that Isuzu-san has given him. Do you now seek to deepen our disgrace?”
“I... well...” Grudgingly, Moffle yielded the way. “Fine, fumo. ...Go on then, mortal.”
Though stunned for a moment by Latifah’s steel, Seiya passed by Moffle and headed for the stairs to the terrace. He could hear Macaron behind him, chiding Moffle in a whisper, “You’re always stuffing your face in the station’s street shops. What’s with the high-and-mighty ‘mortal’ stuff now, ron?”
Sullenly, Moffle replied, “Shut up, fumo.”
“Kanie-sama, I apologize on behalf of everyone here. Please forgive us,” Latifah said
to Seiya when he reached the terrace.
“Oh, well...” he trailed off, unsure of what to say.
“I... I was sure that you would come.” There was a hint of warmth in her lovely voice.
“Ah, um... Well...” Seiya flapped his mouth uselessly, suddenly at a loss for words. Though usually capable of maintaining his pompous and superior air around anyone, he always seemed to lose his cool whenever he was near her.
“Kanie-kun. Can we assume from this that you’ve had a change of heart?” Isuzu asked.
“Well... I...” he started, then steeled himself again. No, no. I came out here picking a fight. If I vacillate now, that all goes to waste...
“I don’t believe I’ve introduced myself yet. I’m Kanie Seiya!” he proclaimed to the crowd gathered around the terrace. Then he cupped a hand to his ear, making a theatrical show of listening to them.
“Hmmm... I think I can hear what’s going through your minds,” he mocked. “The first thing I hear is... yes, you all hate me!”
He hadn’t used that “power” of his. That much was patently obvious, given the way most of the cast was glaring at him right now.
“Ah, but there’s more than just hate. I’m getting a few other things... ‘This impudent brat.’ ‘Who the hell does he think he is?’ ‘Are we just supposed to leave the park in his hands?’ ‘What difference can he make in just two weeks?’ ...I believe that just about covers it. No, wait, there’s one more thing; I’m making out a bit of ‘Our idol Latifah-sama chose this guy? Argh, I can’t stand it!’” Seiya smiled down at them defiantly.
Nobody laughed.
“Don’t like that, do you?” he jeered. “Hitting a nerve, am I? ...That’s good, because I’m not here to ask politely for anything. I’m here to rule you with an iron fist!” He slammed a fist of his own down upon the terrace railing. “Starting now, you’ll all do exactly as I say! One word of backtalk, and you’re gone! If this lousy park is getting closed either way, then I’m free to run you ragged in the time we have left! But... I can also tell you one thing. In two weeks’ time, this impudent brat you hate so much is going to make a miracle happen! That’s right, I’m going to bring 100,000 people to this park!”