Amagi Brilliant Park's
V1 - Chapter 3 Part 1
CHAPTER 3: There Are Facilities Not Used For Decades
...----------------...
When the cast came to work in the morning—day Tuesday they found a big announcement posted inside the gate.
The announcement said three things:
The park will be closed for the day.
Each cast had to clean and repair their respective posts.
Posts that do not show progress at the end of the day will be closed for an undetermined time.
This was followed by a little extra information, which was then followed by signatures from ‘Manager’ Kanie Seiya and Latifah Fleuranza, who authorized the notice.
It was addressed to ‘All Players,’ which means that it applies not only to the cast, but also to everyone who works in this park, including the people who run the attractions, guides, etc, shop owners, food vendors, security, and ticket sellers. That was not only true for those from magical realms like Maple Land, but also for human servants.
“What... What the fuck is this, fumo?!” Moffle, coming for his shift as usual that morning, shouted at the sight of the announcement. He turned around and ran and put his head into a nearby security post.
“Okuro-san! Oh okuro-san! How can you let someone put up that prank?! You should keep a better eye, fumo!” Moffle scolds Okuro, the morning shift security guard. He then realizes that Okuro is tidying up his office using a broom.
“Oh, Moffle-san,” Okuro greeted him. “It wasn't a prank sign. It was installed by the managing manager and Isuzu-san this morning.”
“Manager executable? That boy, fumo?”
“Yapc. He told me to clear the security post as well. Well, I doubt he'll shut down security anyway, but even so, I thought I'd do my job right. Not that I have more things to do right now.”
“Where is it now, fumo?”
“He said he would walk around to the stage area. Wait a minute, hmm. ah, it's there,” Okuro said, using his security connection to check wherever Seiya had used his ID card. “He entered your Sweet Home three minutes ago.”
“Moffu..!” Moffle ran, not even pausing for a moment to greet the familiar co-workers he passed by.
He jumped onto his electric train and set off through the underground passageway. It was so slow— was so slow that the fast road was even faster. He quickly jumped out and walked chirping down the corridor. Once he reached the Witch Hill area, he returned to the ground, then entered the Moffle Sweet Home, his usual post.
Kanie Seiya stood at the entrance, rubbing her fingers along the wall decorated with pieces resembling fresh cream. Isuzu was not with her; he was alone.
“What are you doing?!”
Hearing Moffle's roar, Seiya turned around. He did not seem surprised to see it. “Well, at least you're not late.”
“Bokah, this is my place of work, fumo. I don't like an amateur putting his hands all over the place.”
“...I didn't notice it when I came Sunday, but the decoration here is amazing,” Seiya commented. “It's like the work of a real craftsman.I think it's urethane foam, but it's not. I don't know what this material is.. It can't be hand carving, right?”
“You get away from there, fumo.” Before Moffle could storm and capture her, Seiya stepped away casually from the wall. Then, with silent footsteps, he began to pander around the entrance.
“I officially accepted the position as managing manager from Latifah yesterday,”. “I think I can at will go anywhere in the park, right?”
“So you came to bother me, right so, fumo?”
“You really think I have time for that? I'm busy preparing for miracles.”
“Still talking about it, alright, fumo.” Moffle stared at the young man for a long time, but Seiya just shrugged while smiling indifferently. “But that's not why I'm here.. It's about the announcement, fumo! You can't close the park without warning! During these 29 years, we never did that, fumo!”
“Oh, so it's about that?” Seiya directed his gaze upwards, narrowing his eyes against the light flowing in through the window on the roof. “Our number one priority is to develop the appearance of the garden. Rubbish everywhere, dust everywhere. This is an important job that will spend a full day to work on.”
“That's great indeed,” Moffle argues, “but we can't close the park without warning, fumo! How are you going to explain to the guests who came here all the way, assuming we're going to open?”
Seiya scowled. “Today is Tuesday. We won't get many people, however.”
“But we will still get some!” Moffle roaring. “Even if only one family, leaving the gate open and welcoming the guests in is a basic courtesy for any garden!”
It is certainly true that any facility in the entertainment business must operate year-round in addition to the pre-establishment closing day. This garden has kept that promise for 29 years; to deny it now would destroy all the trust they have built up over the years.
The boy just doesn't know anything. There are some businesses that only close on Tuesdays; beauticians, for example, and select bars. For kids with parents who have that job, Tuesday is the only day they have for family fun.
“While your amusement park is this bad,” Seiya commented, “I'm not sure ‘basic courtesy’ it applies..”
“How dare you!” Moffle growling.
“But. I've been going around looking at this attrition of yours, and—” Seiya suddenly stopped walking. “It looks like this doesn't need any cleaning. It's like a strange and obsessive person already cleaning it every day.”
“…?”
“In other words, mouse.. After the morning apple, you will have a lot of free time. I'll open the front plaza, and you can entertain our less fortunate guests there.”
“What... fumo?”
“Do some juggling, some dance—whatever you like. Entertain the guests, and send them home happy,” Seiya told him with help. “Then, we will at least be able to say that we are open. That will be your job today.”
It was incomprehensible, Moffle thought. In the empty plaza that was just inside that gate, what should he do for dozens of people—it's for sure people are not happy—what can they expect for today?
“You can do it, right?” Seiya. “You're a veteran, right?”
“Moffu. Yeah..”
“Then you can't?”
“I... I can, fumo!” Moffle finally managed to say without thinking.
“Good. I'll send another cast when they're done with their cleanup. Anyway, I'll die you it.”
...----------------...
Seiya walked away from the Moffle Sweet Home as well as the less optimistic and astonished Moffle he left there. Even so, he really took good care of her, he thought. He didn't lie when he said the house didn't need cleaning.
It was a rather large attraction, but it looked like it was cleaned daily, with all of its mechanical parts preserved in good condition. Because the park only has minimal finances, used for maintenance, Moffle certainly take care of it himself. Based on attendance card records, Moffle overtime passed midnight several times a week. It may remain after closing for cleaning and repairs.
Given his attitude when they first met, Seiya had assumed that Moffle was the lazy type, but it turned out that he was doing his job quite seriously.
The problem was his stubbornness, and his total inability only to trust me. Well, I can't blame him. I don't trust the rat either. If the park can swap actors like baseball swaps players, Moffle would be my first choice to be eliminated. Anyway, what would Moffle do with the orders I gave him? Time to see his abilities…
(Now, the next thing on the agenda.) Seiya stifled yawns, and climbed onto one of the garden-specific bikes he kept backstage. He had scheduled a meeting with the head of the department at 9:00 in the morning, but there was a facility that he wanted to personally check.
He had already driven to the east side of the backstage area and checked the employee guide map when he was accosted by an employee walking to work.
“Ah... Kanie-san! Good morning!”
He still hadn't checked in, so he was still wearing his traveling outfit: down jacket and jeans, with a fur hat covering his silver hair. She was a beautiful girl, and at first glance looked like an overseas person, but there was an indescribable surprise from the way she bowed to him and smiled.
Who else is he? Seiya wondered. There was something familiar about him, but he could not remember it.
“Ah... forgive me! My name is Muse,” he introduced himself. “I'm a cast member of ‘Aquario’..”
“Ah.” He remembers now. She is ‘peri’ who asked her the questions she needed during her grandeur at the meeting last night. She wore an open dress with large wings at the time, so she has not made contact with her more mundane appearance to date.
This Muse girl was also definitely a resident of the magical realm— Seiya realized, although, at this moment, she looked like a preparatory school student who was on her way to simulating her exams.
“Pas once,” said. “How do I go to south area?” It points to a location called—a wide spot on a barely empty guide map.
“Oh. The southern area was across the highway,” he told her after looking at the map. “You must use a pedestrian bridge or underground road. Even if we are using the underground road, so it may be difficult to pass by bicycle.”.
“Hand pedestrian bridge, yes? Alright.” Seiya was just about to get on his bike when Muse stopped him.
“Wait, I'll show you the way!” he exclaimed. “Easy to get lost.”
“Consider that,” he told him, “but.. aren't you on your way to work?”
“Oh, I still have time. This way!”
He finally let Muse be his guide. Despite her earthly appearance, she seems to be very good at speaking. ‘Aquario’ is a musical theater, so maybe that trait naturally comes to her who is a stage performer?
On the way there, he asked. “Have long been here?”
“What?” he asked, not understanding the question.
“I mean, working here,” Seiya explains.
“Oh... well, it's only been about a year! Previously, I was a background dancer at Highlander Fujimi!”
Highlander Fujimi is an amusement park on the banks of Kanagawa. He hears more about tension than songs and dancing routines.
You know. she thought. For all the talk about this magical land, they still have a workplace shift and a cast hierarchy. Not entirely a fantasy, when you worked there.
“Um, Kanie-san. Can I ask you?” Muse asked.
“What is it?”
“Um... can you really bring all those guests?” he asked with doubt. “Seratus thousand... in just two weeks?”
“Sure I can,” Seiya instantly reply. It was a lie, of course, but he couldn't let any doubt rest in his mind. “This is the basic part I put down for it. After all, this will require a lot of preparation.”
“S-Really!” Muse's tone was like the tone of someone who didn't fully believe, yet was still happy to rely on unseen expectations.
“So, what happened last night?” Seiya asked, directing their conversation to a safer topic. “Did you all gather to insult me afterwards?”
“Oh, of course not..” he immediately replied. “Well, it's true that many of them are not happy with you, but we all know that we are in a very urgent situation. And many of them are willing to give you a chance.”.
“So.”
This Muse girl seems to be incapable of strategic disappearances, or really, in doing anything other than speaking her mind. He would never need to use his magic to know what he was thinking.
…In fact, Seiya hasn't used much of her magic since yesterday. He even delayed using it to Kurisu Takaya from the Amagi Developer; realizing he could only wear it once per person meant he had to choose his time carefully.
Ah, but even so—
—my way of using my magic feels like that.
“Lewat here.” Muse was right about the pedestrian bridge that was hard to find. He paddled his bike onto the wheelchair road, then over the highway, heading south.
Even with the viewpoint of the pedestrian bridge, he still could not understand very well what the contents of the southern area were, thank you very much, he said, on the growth of pine creeping and high that covers the land like a sheath. Behind the trees, he could only see a kind of large structure and a giant low—shadow that looked awkward with untouched greenery from the hills surrounding it.
“This southern area... rarely used, am I right?”
“Yes, that's what I heard,” Muse agreed. “They said the place had a campground and adventure game area, but it is now closed.
There are asphalt roads, but they have been abandoned in nature, with withered grass growing through cracks here and there. Statement “Light here to Earth Camp Excitement!” and “Join us at Plaza Naughty!” it remains almost legible on the rotting mark, which is covered in vines. There was a deep sense of loneliness when looking at such a phrase in a secluded place like this.
“I don't really know why this was left out for so long, but..”.
“It seems that they will use their land for expansion,” said Seiya, recalling one of the documents Isuzu gave him last night.
“Expansion?” Muse asked.
“One time, this park did a great job,” Seiya explained. “This happened during the economic bubble of the 80s to early 90s, when they were flooded with money. Before the bubble broke and finances became chaotic, they had plans to build a second park in this southern area.”
“Oh? —Wait, you mean, um..”
“.....?” Seiya waited for him to finish his question.
“Do you plan to build that second park now?!”
“Huh? In just two weeks?” Seiya looked at him confused. Muse quickly waved his hand.
“M-Sorry. You said you'd make a miracle happen, so I guess I thought it might be something that big.”.
“I don't know about you guys, but I'm not a witch,” Seiya told her flatly. “Do not get it wrong.”
Muse lowered his head. “You are right.. You are human, after all, Kanie-san. I'm really sorry.”
“……? After all, the plans for the second garden did not seem to have materialized after the bubble had broken. They used the remaining money to build a rather miserable campground, and when it failed to become popular, they closed it down. The southern area has been abandoned since then.”
That's the only thing Seiya knows. The documents he read last night were somewhat limited to their information, which led to why he needed to come here personally; to find out more about the southern area.
Back then, he saw nothing that might help him resolve his needs. But—as soon as they reached the open ground in the trees, they found themselves standing in front of an enormous structure.
At first, he thought it was a shipwrecked oil tanker that was left here by someone for some reason. The structure had a tall, gently curved outer wall that extended far into the distance, and an intricate steel frame covered by vines.
“What is this..” Muse whispers.
“I think this is a stadium,” Seiya responded, looking at that big building. “It was one facility they completed ahead of the second park project.”
“I always see it from afar,” Muse commented. “I didn't know it was a stadium. I didn't even realize it was part of our garden.”.
“It seems never used, but it's done. What I can't understand, from what I read, is why our predecessors built stadiums like this.”
“The theme of the second park used to be sports.” said a new voice from behind. It was Sento Isuzu, walking towards them, wearing a bright red uniform.
After putting an announcement on the gate of the employee, he said “I will take a shower,” then leave. She must have just finished; her skin was strangely shiny.
“What, you followed me here?”
“You may not know this, but..” Isuzu said as he passed them, “...Muse is a very popular member of our cast. When a young man, having just gained his power, takes him to a deserted park area.As the assistant managing manager, it is my duty to protect him from the threat of sexual abuse.”.
“Stop making it sound so despicable,” Seiya sneered. “...And keep that gun! Stop trying to hurt me!”
Isuzu aimed his usual rifle at him. When Seiya shouted at him, Muse blushed, and started trying to swing his hand.
“Um, um, Isuzu-san! I-It's not like that. I'm just trying to do good.. I mean, I do think that Kanie-san is handsome, it seems... But I just showed her the way, um, and I was curious.”.
“Appreciate your efforts to protect me, but you don't have to say that I'm handsome; everyone knows it.”
“Ahh?”
Seiya looked at it with a glance, and folded his arms as Muse lost his confidence. “. Keep your weird shotgun.”
Isuzu obediently kept his rifle. “What a pity... It will be a good opportunity to try ‘Paradise Lost.’”
“What is it?” tanyakanya.
“It was a bullet that made you lose your reproductive function forever,” he answered.
“Don't try that on me!”
“Um... back to topic..” Muse interrupted timidly. “I'm sure you told us the concept of the second park..?”.
That's right; they're talking about how the stadium got here.
“Ya, that's right,” Seiya justifies. “You said it would have ‘sports theme.’ What exactly does it mean?”
“I don't know more than that,” Isuzu admits. “All I know is they plan to go in a very different direction to the park at the moment, and this stadium was built as a marker.”
“Hmm..” Seiya looked at the stadium again. It doesn't have an all-weather roof, but it's quite a big—maybe one of the largest in the Kanto area. Even as the rest of the economic bubble, all his waste was enough to give him a headache.
“Why not use after more than twenty years?”
“It seems, Amagi City and Amagi Developer will not give permission. They mentioned various reasons.. notifications from the fire department, issues about health services.. Just like bus stop.”.
“Ah.” He recalled his own confusion about the names of his stops when he came here on a bus with Isuzu on Sunday. The stop at the old entrance remains inscribed with ‘Amagi Brilliant Park,’ which makes it easy to confuse the local love hotel with the park itself. At that time, Isuzu told him that they had petitioned Amagi City to replace it, but they did not give permission.
This may be the same spiraling rejection from local authorities and the shareholders who are holding back the full potential of the stadium to be aware of.
“I admit that the location is indeed uncomfortable,” Isuzu admits. “The nearest station is Amagi Station, and it's ten minutes bus ride..It will be difficult to bring enough people to fill it.”.
“...True,” Seiya agrees. “If I was in charge here back then, I would have deleted the idea of the stadium since the planning stage.”
“I heard that Developer Amagi wants to turn the southern area into a golf course or housing complex,” Isuzu said. “So this stadium building is like a rejection action against it.”
Seiya has gained a more or less solid understanding on what intentions various companies and local governments have for this park. It's a troublesome situation.
Amagi Brilliant Park operates with funding from a number of entities. Latifah's allies consisted of a company called Maple Real Estate and several other sponsors. ‘The enemy that Isuzu calls is the Amagi Developer, which is funded by Amagi City and Toto Train.
Maple Real Estate itself is funded by the magical nature of Maple Land. Obtaining your funding from the fantasy land seems like a pretty dubious possibility, but the money that comes from it is washed entirely through foreign banks and companies, and when it comes to Maple Real Estate, everything is clean. However, Maple Real Estate is a representative for Maple Land, which means they are interested in keeping the park running.
Their enemy, the Amagi Developers, is a third sector organization run by the humans of the human world. It was a pragmatic management company, funded with investments from Toto Trains (a company with great power in western Tokyo) and other legal entities, as well as the Amagi City government.
In a sense, the history of Amagi Brilliant Park is the history of the rivalry between Maple Real Estate and Amagi Developers. In the twenty years since the bubble burst and funding has become less and less frequent, alignments on both sides have only become deeper.
Maple Real Estate, working hard to keep the park alive—Amagi Developer, trying to turn it off.
Their situation now feels like a continuation of it all, with the Amagi Developer utilizing the terms of that contract as his settlement attack.
“There's something you want to do here?” Isuzu asked.
“No... I just want to see it, as a reference.”
“So. It's almost time for a meeting. We have to go back.”
...----------------...
The meeting starts at 9:00. It was attended by heads of various departments, including: general affairs, accounting, maintenance, HR, food service, security, planning, and marketing, as well as heads of each area of the park. There were about 25 people present, and they all varied in terms of age.
Most of them are what Isuzu and Latifah refer to as ‘real cast’—people of the magical realm—real facts even among the behind-the-scenes staff who rarely interact with guests. Some looked like cute animals that posed as good as humans, others were like fairytale world creatures; some looked like they were coming out of an anime.
There seemed to be ordinary humans as well in some departments, but even so it was a strange sight.
Moffle was there too. He holds the title ‘pactor’ leader for the cast in Witch Hill, which means he is the coordinator for the cast who interacts with visitors in the area.
All the heads of the department must have heard the rumors about Seiya. Although they looked at him with high suspicion, they still listened quietly to what he said— until he stated “from tomorrow, everything will be completely free.” It was met with an explosion of objections and insults.
Making everything completely free is the best way for them to increase their arrival. No price for anything. Entrance tickets, attractions, food and drinks—all free.
“I oppose it, fumo.” Moffle.
“...And why it?” Seiya asked.
“We are professional, fumo. Under no circumstances can we entertain guests for free. That will make the entertainment-for-compensation system crumble, fumo.”
“Given the standard of entertainment you provide, I will not worry.” Seiya replied sarcastically, referring to their interaction on Sunday.
Moffle let out a choking sound, then looked at Seiya again. “...I was wrong to act like that and I'm sorry, fumo. The quality of the entertainment is no problem. Once you make it ‘free,’ customer will never receive ‘not free’ again, fumo.”
“Hmm, so.” Seiya could understand what Moffle meant.
“In addition, what about our working capital, fumo? Even at these times, it costs around 3 million yen per day to keep the park running. Over the course of two weeks, it grew to 42 million. Who will pay for it all, fumo?”
“We owe what it is,” Seiya tells. “We can think of that later.”
Moffle was gobsmacked by his careless spending. “Thinking about 42 million—”
“You owe 400 million if you close now,” Seiya sneered. “What's wrong with adding a few more million? Don't worry.”
“Tapi—”
“If your ship crashes in a storm and you drown, will you be picky with a board that keeps you afloat? Are you gonna worry about who gets the board?”
“Mgh..”
“This park is sinking,” Seiya announced flatly. “Our top priority is getting out of the water. We can worry about what beach we're stranded on later. Still...”
He could understand what Moffle said—that as an expert, he could not tolerate the thought of working for completely free.
“But... yeah, I get it. If we can't make it free, we'll make it close to free; 30 yen to enter.”
A commotion occurred in the group.
“...Why 30 yen, fumo?”
“Because next year will be the 30th anniversary of the park. It's a good reason, and it'll get people talking about it.”
Another commotion ensued in the group, marked by a variety of admissions and suspicions.
“We should start advertising it soon,” Seiya decided. “Anyone responsible for that, stay here; others can return to their respective posts. We're done here. Disperse.”
...----------------...