by Shouji Gatou
Hey, hey. What’s with this conversation? He’s so formal but so clingy... Macaron gazed up at the man, lapping at his near-empty wine glass. Did he know her well enough to be able to check her smartphone location data? And there were a few different restaurants in this building, so he might have been searching each floor. Either way, they seemed a bit more than just friends.
“You’re not exactly working right now,” the man named Shuichi hissed. “I’m responsible for you, you know. Look at you, in this trashy establishment, drinking cheap booze with heaven knows who, like you’re the best friends in the world...”
“Please stop,” Eiko begged him. “They’re coworkers.”
“I’m taking you home. Come with me right now and I won’t tell your parents about this.”
“Please, just listen...”
“I don’t have to listen to you. Come on.” The man seized Eiko’s wrist, while Biino and Shiina tried to stop him.
“Hey, hold it, buddy.” Macaron said at last, unable to stay silent through his subordinate’s manhandling. “I don’t know who you are, but you can’t treat her that way, ron. We just finished a job and we’re blowing off steam, that’s all. Forging our bonds as coworkers. Right?” He looked to Biino and Shiina for agreement.
“Well, we weren’t blowing off any steam...”
“And we’re not really any closer than we were before...”
“That’s mean, ron!” It was true that he had probably been a little hard on them. But still! “A-Anyway...” Macaron cleared his throat. “Eiko-san came here on my invitation, ron. I’m paying, too, of course. So if you have any complaints, you should say them to me.”
“Oh, is that how it is?” The man, Shuichi, nodded, pulled out his wallet (not the bi-fold kind!) and dropped five 10,000 yen bills on the table. Fifty thousand yen! “Will that cover it? Yeah, given the kind of place it is, I’m sure it will. Keep the change, if you want. We’re leaving now.”
The man tried to leave, dragging Eiko with him. Biino and Shiina were both freaking out, but it wasn’t out of concern over Eiko. It was—
“Hold it right there, punk,” Macaron said in a threatening tone, eyes half-lidded and upper lip curled. If this were an old-fashioned delinquent manga from Shonen Magazine, the others would be emitting “?!” speech balloons.
After all, despite his appearance, this woolly white mascot was an ex-delinquent. He had a low boiling point. His temper could be so bad that even Moffle, who frequently hit customers himself, would from time to time nervously say things like “He kind of puts me off, fumo.” Macaron could handle a few light blows, but he couldn’t take this kind of verbal disdain. And on top of that, he was currently quite drunk.
“Um, um, Macaron-san...” Shiina said nervously.
“I understand how you feel, but we can’t have bloodshed here!” Biino hissed.
Shiina and Biino both quickly tried to restrain him. They must have either witnessed or heard about Macaron’s tendencies in their few months at AmaBri.
“Ron...” Macaron stood up, grabbed the five bills on the table and threw them at Shuichi’s feet. “Pick ’em up.”
“Er?”
“I said pick ’em up, ron. Then I won’t hafta kill ya.”
“What the—”
“Shut your freakin’ hole and pick ’em up, dumbass!” He grabbed the man’s lapels and shook him back and forth.
“Hey... urk!”
“I don’t like the way you gave ’em to me! Now, you pick ’em up an’ you offer ’em back on your hands and knees, ron!”
Shiina muttered, “You mean you still want them?” but he ignored it, his glare locked on the man.
“C-Cut it out!” Shuichi stammered.
“You gonna do it or ain’t ya?!” Macaron jeered. “Quit pissin’ your pants, ya little shit! You want a beer bottle up your ass to make you come first? Izzat it?!”
“Macaron-san, stop!” Eiko interposed herself. The man looked terrified. He was clearly a chicken when the chips were down, and suddenly the entire scene felt like a farce.
Macaron released him, and Eiko knelt down to pick up the scattered 10,000 yen bills. Her charming yet put-upon aura immediately cooled Macaron’s head. “Ron...”
“Shuichi-san... I’m going to apologize to them for your behavior,” she told him. “Could you please just go for now?”
“Uh... but...”
“Don’t worry. I’ll go right home immediately after.” She folded up the bills neatly and placed them in the pocket of his suit. “Please,” she pressed him.
“S-Sure...” After a moment’s hesitation, the man straightened his tie and left.
A member of the wait staff, who had heard the fuss and come running, was glaring at Macaron. “Sir, we can’t have this.”
“Yeah... I’m sorry, ron. Er... check, please.”
“Yes, sir.” The server left.
“Please forgive me, Macaron-san. Your anger at his boorishness was entirely justified,” Eiko said. “I promise to thoroughly scold him for it...”
“No, I’m the one who’s sorry, ron,” Macaron said shamefacedly. “But who is he even, ron? He was acting pretty handsy with you...”
“Well, he’s...” Eiko hesitated for a moment. “My fiancé.”
The next morning, before opening, backstage at Sorcerer’s Hill...
“Amazing, mii! An arranged marriage in this day and age! How feudal, mii!” The eyes of Tiramii, Fairy of Flowers, shone with curiosity upon hearing Macaron’s words.
“I’m surprised too, fumo. So Adachi’s a true heiress, eh? I’ve never met one before, fumo.” Moffle, Fairy of Sweets, seemed deeply impressed.
“You know, you guys are from a magical kingdom...” Acting Manager Kanie Seiya muttered. Seiya often held conferences in his office or a conference room, but he’d managed to hear the story from Macaron while he was out and about on patrol. “You also hang out with a princess. Why is this shocking to you?”
“Kanie-kun, you aren’t shocked, ron?” Macaron asked.
“Well, it’s a surprise to learn that she has a fiancé,” Seiya remarked. “But even that’s not as bad as her work history...”
“Ahh... about that,” Tiramii said.
During their interview, Seiya had been so shocked by the “former AV actress” revelation that he hadn’t asked her anything else. Although, her manners and comportment day-to-day had led him to believe she was likely from a fairly good family.
“It turned out she wasn’t an AV actress after all, mii. I was so disappointed, mii.”
“Disappointed?” Seiya was actually relieved.
Apparently the others had only recently learned that her actual former profession was work on “Animal Videos.” This had been common knowledge among the female cast for some time, but they’d kept it a secret to amuse themselves. Recently, Tiramii had heard it from Muse, and he’d spread the info among the male cast. (Tricen, an AV enthusiast, had insisted from the beginning that there must have been some kind of mistake.)
Incidentally, it was apparently Seiya’s secretary, Sento Isuzu, who had learned about the misunderstanding first.
Damn you, Sento... why didn’t you let me know right away? Were you trying to spite me for some reason? Seiya thought to himself angrily, but he didn’t ask her directly. Dredging the subject up again would just be awkward at this point.
“More importantly... what’s an heiress doing working at an amusement park, fumo?”
“No clue, ron. You interviewed her, didn’t you? Didn’t you ask her about it?”
“Moffu. The AV thing hit us too hard.”
“It’s a good question, though. An amusement park is a strange choice of job for someone looking to get married, mii.”
“If she were my daughter, I’d never let her loose in this gangster-filled environment, ron. I’d have a heart attack worrying about her getting deflowered somewhere, ron...” Macaron guzzled down his can of coffee and looked up at the ceiling. Then suddenly, he slapped is knee,
as if remembering something. “Oh, right! Speaking of daughters!”
“...? What is it, fumo?”
“Lalapa! I get to see my daughter! We finally reached an agreement on the child support thing, see? So I get to see her this month, ron!” Macaron was on cloud nine. His expression was beatific. Seiya wished he’d look like that onstage more often, but decided that bringing that up now would be more trouble than it was worth.
“Also! Also! She wants to see my workplace, ron! It’s my chance to earn real dad points, ron!”
“Oh, Lalapa, eh? Haven’t seen her in a while, fumo. How old is she again?”
“Twelve years old, ron! Try to remember!”
“That’s right, fumo. Time sure flies, eh? But... I wonder why it’s so easy to forget the names and ages of your friends’ kids. It happens a lot, doesn’t it?”
“Don’t ask me,” Seiya said, simply confused by the question Moffle posed to him.
“I wouldn’t know either, mii. I’m a bachelor for life! So let’s can the old man talk already, mii.”
“You’re an old man, too,” Seiya told him.
“Mii! I’m only in my 20s in mortal terms! Kanie-kun, you’re so prejudiced, mii!”
“Oh, shut up.” Brushing off Tiramii’s complaint, Seiya turned to Macaron. “Macaron. You can bring the kid here if you want, but try to request the schedule change ASAP—by the end of the day if you can. I’ll need to adjust the shifts and arrange a backstage pass.”
“Of course, ron! I’ve got it handled, ron!”
“I hope you do...” Seiya just shrugged, then took his leave.
As he returned to his office in the general affairs building, he found Sento Isuzu waiting for him. “What is it?” he asked.
“Seiya-kun,” she greeted him. “Adachi-san needs to speak with you.” He looked up and saw Adachi Eiko, waiting in the room’s reception area in the back. When she noticed Seiya, she immediately stood up and bowed to him.
“Hey,” he said. He specifically did not say, “Macaron told me everything. It sounds like yesterday was pretty rough.”
It occurred to him, in fact, that today was Eiko’s day off. It was strange to see her here so close to the park’s opening time dressed in her everyday clothes. Her expression was gloomy. She was wearing almost no makeup and her face was pale, as though she hadn’t slept. He’d never seen her like this before.
“...Kanie-san,” she said. “I’m sorry to interrupt your work like this.”
“No problem. What did you need to talk about?” Eiko was in college, while Seiya was in high school. But while she was the older of the two, he invariably ended up speaking casually with her. It wasn’t that Seiya didn’t understand social hierarchies, and he could use polite language where necessary (he wouldn’t have landed the Mal-Mart deal if he couldn’t). But while inside the park, he couldn’t help but treat everyone as his inferior. Everyone in the cast was used to it, and Eiko didn’t seem to mind it, either.
“This is very difficult to say, but I’m having a problem...”
“Just say it already,” he told her.
“All right. The truth is...” Eiko cleared her throat softly. “I never told you this before, but my family runs a hospital.”
“Oh?”
“Are you familiar with Amagi Hospital?”
“Yeah. That’s where we send people who get really sick in the park, I think. It’s along the bus route on the way here... wait, Amagi Hospital?” he asked incredulously. “Are you serious?” That was no mere local hospital; it was one of the biggest hospitals in the entire region. Amagi Hospital had all the latest equipment, and the facilities included a convenience store and a dining hall. The lavish modern ward it added last year had been the talk of the town for a while.
“Yes,” Eiko said shortly, “Amagi Hospital.”
“You didn’t put that on your resume,” Seiya said dryly.
“Forgive me. It isn’t as though I was trying to hide it... The application didn’t have a place to list our parents’ professions...”
“Well, that’s all right...” He’d hardly talked to any of the cast about his own previous employment. The only people who knew about it were Isuzu, Moffle, and a few others. That’s not to say he was actively hiding it, so there may have been rumors going around, but...
“That’s right. Their director and board chairman is named ‘Adachi Eizo.’ It never occurred to me that he could be Eiko-san’s father,” Isuzu said as she manipulated her tablet. “And he isn’t simply the director of Amagi Hospital; he’s on the boards for the Amagi Medical Association and the Minami-Tama Medical Association. He also serves as adviser to the Fujimi Association, the city council’s most powerful faction.”
“Hmm...” Seiya mused. A powerful man. This smelled like trouble.
“He also plays a significant role in city politics. In some respects, he’s more influential than the mayor.” As Isuzu explained, Eiko’s expression remained gloomy. It was easy to assume she wasn’t fond of her father.
“So what?” Seiya asked.
“Well... My father... he’s extremely angry.”
“Angry? At who?”
“At... Amagi Brilliant Park.”
“Huh? Why would he be angry at us?” Seiya asked.
Amagi Hospital wasn’t exactly in competition with them; it was the main place they sent people who got seriously ill in the park, but that hardly ever even happened. As far as Seiya knew, they hadn’t done anything to get on the facility’s bad side.
He looked to Isuzu, who had been in the park a year longer than him, but she just shook her head in response. Nothing seemed to come to mind.
“I truly am sorry. It’s all my fault, you see...”
Eiko explained the situation. As they had imagined, Eiko’s family was very strict. She’d quit her last part-time job at a talent agency primarily due to her father’s wishes. He’d only let her keep her current job because he thought that a local amusement park would be harmless.
But then came the incident with her fiancé yesterday; apparently, Macaron had lost his head and threatened assault.
Seiya didn’t know all the details, but he knew Macaron, and it was easy to imagine how it had all gone down. He’d probably said something like, “I’ll shove a beer bottle up your ass and make you cry” (which was close, if not quite accurate).
That same fiancé—the heir apparent to some medical device manufacturer, she said—had conveyed this to Eiko’s father. Her father had been outraged. Not only had he insisted that she quit her job, he also started talking about forcing AmaBri to make reparations for hiring such a “delinquent employee.”
“Hmm... That’s rough,” Seiya considered. “So your father wants us to fire Macaron?”
“Yes. There are other things, too... but that alone is unacceptable!” Eiko, who had been stammering out her explanation, now spoke with great vehemence. “It was my fiancé who started it. He used his money to look down on others, and that’s wrong. Macaron-san’s anger was completely justified.”
Hints of loathing for her fiancé flitted in and out of Eiko’s words. It was strange to see her this way, when she was usually so nonchalant. Apparently, despite their engagement, there was very little true affection between them.
Noticing Seiya and Isuzu’s curious gazes, Eiko snapped back to reality. “Ah... er. Of course, I’m the one who’s most at fault. Please... forgive my outburst.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Seiya told her. “I understand what it’s like to deal with selfish parents.”
“Ahh...” said Eiko, unsure of what to say.
“By the way,” he added, “we appreciate you coming here on your day off to let us know.”
“Well... actually, I thought about sending an email much earlier... But my head was such a jumble... and so, I ended up coming here directly.” She must have been tossing and turning all night, trying to compose the email in her mind. It really was a sad image. “I truly... I truly am sorry,” Eiko told them.
“But...”
“But I’m sorry to say, there’s no way we’re firing Macaron,” Seiya said firmly. “Firing a vital member of the cast because of something some stuck-up old geezer—sorry—says would tank our morale.”
After all, summer vacation was about to begin. Losing Macaron now would be like losing your five-hole hitter during a tight pennant race—completely out of the question. He still didn’t know exactly how he was going to deal with Eiko’s father. But, Seiya thought, let him do his worst.
“That’s an admirable stance,” Isuzu began, “but you should recall that we are vulnerable in a number of ways. The name of our bus stop, for instance— We’ve laid considerable bureaucratic groundwork with the city and we’re about to finally have it changed.”
“Ngh,” he winced.
She was referring to the fact that the “Amagi Brilliant Park” bus stop actually sat in front of a nearby love hotel. Through a combination of Seiya’s magic and Tricen’s hard work, they were finally on the verge of having the name changes approved. But a man with influence—like Eiko’s father—could easily gum up the works.
“Well,” Seiya said shakily, “losing the bus stop won’t hurt us that badly...”
“There’s also the issue of our operating hours,” she pointed out. “We’ve been keeping the park open until 9:00 PM, but that’s right on the line of what’s allowed by city ordinances. One could interpret them in a way to suggest that we’re operating illegally.”
“Grr...”
“Fire standards are another factor. As you know, the park contains a number of old attractions. The city has the right to conduct a surprise inspection at any time.”
“Grrrr...”
“They could also send health inspectors, or run a tax investigation. They could even choose to do these things during operating hours,” Isuzu pointed out. “I don’t think this is a matter on which we can afford to be inflexible.”
“I get it! I get it!” he shouted.
Isuzu was right, of course. Seiya could easily imagine a whole mountain of troubles this man could bring to their doorstep. Their interactions with the local government already had to go through the third sector agency Amagi Development, which was an enemy of the park. With their allies already few and far between, picking a fight with a powerful voice in city politics was the last thing Seiya wanted to do. If possible, he’d prefer to resolve it amicably, with a heartfelt apology... But firing Macaron was also not an option.