Amagi Brilliant Park: Volume 1 Read online

  “This may be a bit sudden, Kanie-kun... But would you join me at an amusement park this Sunday?”

  Indeed, it was sudden.

  A transfer student he barely knew was pointing an old-fashioned musket at his head in their classroom after school. It was nothing if not “sudden.”

  Kanie Seiya froze up for precisely three seconds, then whispered back:

  “Amusement park?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  “I can’t tell you yet.”

  “And... why the musket?”

  “So that you can’t run away.”

  It was a beautiful gun, white and lined with intricate metal ornamentation. It should have been quite heavy, yet she held it steadily, muzzle pressed firmly against his head.

  The transfer student—Sento Isuzu, wasn’t it? He had a vague recollection of her from the way the other guys in his class talked about her. She was slender, with glossy hair and large eyes; flawless skin; quiet, cold features; and full, soft lips.

  She was a faultless beauty (or would be, if not for the musket).

  She was the kind of girl any man would jump at the chance to date (or would be, if not for the musket).

  It was flattering to have a girl who’d been the talk of the school since her arrival propositioning him (or would be, etc.).

  “Ah... First, I want to make sure we’re on the same page on a few things,” Seiya said.

  “Proceed.”

  “Are you using that weapon and its implied lethal force in an attempt to pressure me—Kanie Seiya—to fulfill your request?”

  “Yes,” she affirmed.

  “And if I refuse, you kill me?”

  “Yes.”

  “Your request, then, was ‘join me at an amusement park.’ In other words, you’re asking me on a date, under threat of armed retaliation. Is this interpretation valid?”

  Sento Isuzu kept her gaze locked firmly on Seiya and gave him a short nod. “Correct. Your response, if you please?”

  “Well, I’ll need to give it some thought...”

  A gunshot rang in his ear. The musket ball put a radial fracture in the wall behind Seiya. She fired again, and a second shot pierced the wall. So it’s not a toy; it’s real? And how can she fire a muzzle-loading gun like that multiple times? As Seiya stood there, shaken, he felt the hot muzzle press hard against his temple once more.

  “Your response, if you please.”

  After a pause that felt like forever, Seiya concluded, “...I’ll go.” After all, what choice did he have? What other answer could he give?

  He’d been in the third term of his first year of high school when this mysterious, beautiful girl had transferred into his class. She’d been swarmed by guys asking her out from the start, but she’d rebuffed every one of them—to choose, in the end, the honor student, Kanie Seiya.

  In theory, he should have been pleased about the situation, but that only applied if the girl in question was normal. The musket was a deal-breaker.

  Seiya loved being popular with women; it added to his reputation. But he hated the idea of being tied to any one woman because it clashed with his personal style.

  In truth, Kanie Seiya was a narcissist; a tried-and-true egomaniac. Given the circumstances, it was practically inevitable that he would be arrogant: He had a keen mind that put him, academically, at the top of his class. He was naturally handsome, with refinement to spare. He was also incredibly athletic, had a wide array of talents, and could generally succeed at anything he set his mind to.

  It was bad enough that whenever he was out in town, if he happened to catch sight of himself in a reflective surface, he’d find himself nonchalantly running his fingers through his hair and telling himself: “Still looking good, Seiya.”

  If a boy in his class told him, “You’re lucky, Kanie. Your grades are so good,” he’d respond, “Of course they are. I have a superior mind, after all.”

  If a girl in his class told him, “Kanie-kun, you’re so handsome,” he’d respond, “I don’t need you to tell me that. It’s a well-established fact.”

  That’s why I have no friends and no girlfriend. I’m not lonely, though. Not lonely at all, dammit—for a genius(?) of my caliber, solitude is inevitable.

  So why, now, was he—the great and brilliant Kanie Seiya—being forced on a date with a dangerous, unstable woman like her?

  1: The Archetypal Awful Dating Spot

  Sunday arrived.

  Amagi Station on the Toto Line was the meet-up spot that Sento Isuzu had dictated to him. As Seiya passed through the ticket gate, he caught sight of a nearby police box and paused in front of it, considering. A middle-aged patrolman noticed, and addressed him: “Something bothering you, son?”

  “No...” Seiya shook his head. For a moment, though, let’s imagine what would have happened if he had told the officer what was bothering him:

  “This weird transfer student asked me on a date under threat of musket fire! Yes sir, she had a musket. Yes, like the guns from ‘The Three Musketeers.’ They’ve also become rather famous as magical girl weapons these days. Please, you have to arrest her!”

  There was no way he would have been taken seriously.

  It wasn’t just the police, either. Over the past three days, Seiya had wavered over and over about whether or not to tell his teachers or his aunt what had happened. Each time he did, though, he arrived at the same conclusion, and ended up saying nothing.

  “......?” The officer was starting to peer at him intently. Overcome with a feeling of awkwardness, Seiya distanced himself from the police box, walking instead towards the small convenience store that stood next door.

  He casually checked his attire in the reflection in the glass. Oh, yes. Look at you, handsome!

  He was wearing a simple dark jacket and pants, with an equally plain white v-neck; the outfit emphasized that he was slender, with a defined musculature. His hair had been precisely waxed to give it just a slight illusion of motion. He had long, slender eyebrows and eyes, and his face was held at a perfect 45 degree angle that boasted of intelligence and refinement.

  Ahh, even I’d fall in love with that man in the mirror! With my spectacular looks, plus the best grades in the whole school, it’s no surprise at all that some transfer student I’ve never even talked to would want to ask me out...

  ...The issue was with the “If you refuse, I’ll kill you” threat. That girl... yes, that’s what she was—one of those “yandere” types I’ve heard so much about! Her overwhelming love for me has caused her to snap emotionally. A woman in such a wretched mental state deserves pity more than anything...

  (No, no, no...)

  Like hell I’m going to pity her when she’s swinging that dangerous gun around. If it were a fruit knife, a carving knife, an icepick—the kind of weapon you see in sleazy suspense-thrillers—maybe then I could understand...

  But then, come to think of it... where had she pulled the weapon from? She’d been empty-handed when she’d first addressed me, Seiya realized. It was only when I’d asked her, “What is it?” that the gun had appeared in her hand as if from nowhere. Maybe that’s the first thing I should be wondering about...

  “There you are,” said Isuzu.

  “Hngah?!” The sudden voice from behind snapped Seiya out of his train of thought.

  Panicked, he turned around, steeled for whatever was coming, but Sento Isuzu had arrived at their meeting spot unarmed. And the outfit she was wearing was absolutely unremarkable—in fact, he might even call it appealing. She’d painted an attractive figure in her school uniform to begin with, and this was even better.

  Wonderful! And most wonderful of all, she isn’t carrying the musket!

/>   “Let’s get going,” Isuzu said, apparently skipping the pleasantries.

  “Where?”

  “AmaBri.”

  “Er?” Seiya was confused.

  “AmaBri,” Isuzu explained, “Amagi Brilliant Park.”

  Amagi Brilliant Park. It was an old theme park, about ten minutes from the station by bus.

  “The bus leaves from the second terminal. Follow me.” Isuzu began swiftly walking away, but he stopped her.

  “Wait, Sento—”

  “Stop stalling,” she demanded.

  “—just hang on a minute. Why are we going to that amusement park?”

  “It’s not an amusement park. It’s a theme park.”

  “Like I care. Would you just tell me what’s going on already? Why do two people who barely know each other have to go to some dodgy amusement park together?” Seiya asked, frustration rising.

  “Dodgy...?” In the blink of an eye, Isuzu had produced the musket in question from beneath her short pleated skirt, whipped it around in a precise 260 degree arc, and pointed it at Seiya’s crotch.

  A nearby woman, out with her child, stopped and stiffened.

  The child said, “Mama, that lady’s got blue striped panties. That’s standard equipment...” To which the woman replied, “Hush! Be a model member of society and pretend you don’t see!”

  Seiya wasn’t at the right angle to identify whether the child’s statement was accurate or not, but seeing him dismiss blue striped panties as “standard equipment” made Seiya fear what he might grow up to be. But... no, no, never mind that now...

  Instead, Seiya spoke up: “Why are you angry?”

  “......”

  “...There’s a whole lot of things I want you to explain,” he said, “including where you keep pulling that bizarre weapon from.”

  “Let’s go.”

  He was ignored.

  Isuzu stowed her musket away, making use of whatever inexplicable law of physics she’d used to bring it out in the first place, then began walking towards the second terminal.

  Located in Amagi, a commuter town in the western part of Tokyo, the theme park in question might require a bit of explanation:

  Amagi Brilliant Park. What idiot was it who had thought up that painfully lame appellation—“brilliant?” Amagi Brilliant Park (aka AmaBri) was built during the 1980s, an amusement park (they insisted on the term “theme park”) riding the wave of the greatest excesses of the bubble economy.

  The 1980s. It was an era in which delinquents had haircuts like the bows of space battleships; idols with mushroom-cap haircuts were all the rage; and anime was heavy with streaky black shading and characters striking extreme-perspective poses.

  AmaBri’s reputation was quite negative compared to that of the world’s best theme parks. People called it a lot of things. Some called it, “The dubious legacy of the bubble economy.” Some called it, “A surefire relationship wrecker for couples who go there on a date.” Some called it, “A relic sure to baffle future archaeologists who happen to dig up Amagi City.” And among the young people of western Tokyo, AmaBri was known as “The archetypal awful dating spot.”

  Seiya had a feeling he’d gone there once with someone when he was little, but now that he was in high school, he barely remembered it at all.

  They’d been on the city bus for about five minutes. They had passed through an unremarkable residential area and come out into a hilly region covered in the greens of early spring, and now a castle could be seen beyond the trees. It was an attractive castle, all done in pastel blue.

  Wow. More impressive than I’d anticipated... Seiya thought to himself. He’d been expecting the old amusement park to be rather run down, but even the coloring had a nice, modern sensibility to it. Much to his surprise, the place really looked legitimate.

  The castle in the distance gradually grew closer and closer.

  “The next stop is Amagi Brilliant Park. Disembarking passengers, please—” Seiya was just about to press the buzzer when Sento Isuzu, sitting beside him, grabbed his sleeve tight.

  “What is it?”

  “One more stop,” Isuzu answered.

  “Huh? But we’re going to Amagi Brilliant Park, aren’t we?” Seiya asked. “Isn’t that castle the front gate?”

  “......tel.” Isuzu murmured something, but he couldn’t hear it under the noise of the bus’s engine.

  “I can’t hear you.”

  “...hotel.”

  “I said I can’t hear you.”

  With a sense of deep resignation, Isuzu finally leaned in close to Seiya and spoke into his ear in a whisper that was barely more than a breath. “It’s a love hotel. It has no connection to the theme park.”

  “I... I see,” he stammered.

  “It’s a common mistake. AmaBri is the next stop down,” Isuzu explained. “The front entrance used to be here, but it was moved during renovations about ten years back. The bus station remained, though, and they built this, ah... ‘castle’ nearby.”

  As they got closer, a large sign next to the castle came into view; it read “Hotel Alamo.” Beside it was an electric sign clearly proclaiming “Rooms Available.”

  ...Alamo? That’s absurd! Seiya thought. The Alamo isn’t a castle, it’s a fort. And it’s not some baroque structure, either; it was a defensive structure, specialized for practicality during the showdown between the Republic of Texas and the Mexican Army. It was a place of blood and gunpowder smoke, not some pastel fairy-tale castle that could host the kind of ball where a domestic abuse victim stupidly loses a glass slipper!

  Ugh, so misleading. And it was forcing him to go down a really awkward train of thought. You’d better make this up to me, you stupid castle!

  But Seiya managed to bite back his various internal objections, and simply state, with utmost calm: “How annoying. Why don’t they change the name of the stop?”

  “The park has been petitioning Amagi City for a change for some time, but it keeps getting put off for one reason or another,” Isuzu answered. “A lot of guests accidentally get off here and end up having to walk to the next station down.”

  “Guests?”

  “The park’s visitors. Most theme parks call their visitors ‘guests’ and the employees ‘cast.’ Remember that.”

  “Oh, really? That’s an odd thing to know...”

  Isuzu didn’t respond to his observation—she just ignored him once again.

  The city bus passed in front of Hotel Alamo and arrived at the next stop, “West Futomaru.” He hypothesized that this must be the name of the local residential area.

  “We’re here,” Isuzu announced.

  He followed her off the bus.

  Their destination was roughly 80 meters from the bus stop, up a gentle incline, and as they neared the top, the amusement park’s front entrance could be seen. The sidewalk was cracked. The gate was faded. A rusty sign read “Welcome to the Land of Wonder, Amagi Brilliant Park!”

  There was nothing particularly welcoming about it, though, Seiya thought. It felt more like the elderly owner of a run-down ramen shop saying, “Is that a customer? Well, if you want it, I’ll make it... but, are you sure?” To be frank, the love hotel from earlier had had a far more wondrous feel to it.

  He took the all-day pass that Isuzu had prepared for him, passing through the front gate and into the park. Beyond the gate, he was greeted by a large fountain plaza.

  “......”

  The basin in the plaza’s central fountain was all dried up. There was no water shooting up from it... in fact, there was no water at all, just a bunch of round sculptures covered in a dingy brown moss.

  In the distance beyond the plaza loomed a large citadel—not a castle, a citadel. There was no sense of fairy tale wonder about it at all. It felt more like the kind of thing built in the Kingdom of Jerusalem during the Crusades; a place that smelled of death, staffed with soldiers ready to give their lives to repel heretic armies.

  Visitors were sparse too, he notice
d; strange, given that it was Sunday. Seiya didn’t exactly frequent amusement parks himself, but even so, he’d never seen such a deserted-looking front plaza. It didn’t even look like they were cleaning it properly.

  “There sure is a lot of trash on the ground...” Seiya was whispering to no one in particular when suddenly, Isuzu turned around and spoke.

  “Where shall we go?”

  The turn caused her pleated miniskirt to rustle. It would be an appealing enough sight if they really were here on a date, but—

  “You’re the one who brought me here,” he grumbled. “You choose.”

  In response, Isuzu put a hand to her chin and considered. “...Let’s go to Sorcerer’s Hill, then.”

  “Sorcerer’s Hill?”

  “It’s one of AmaBri’s five themed areas. It’s a fairy-tale kingdom of wonders, home to the mascots from the magical realm, Maple Land.”

  “Your monotonous tone doesn’t exactly portend wonder ahead,” Seiya observed.

  “Follow me,” she instructed, and began walking towards Brilliant Park’s northern area—labeled “Sorcerer’s Hill” in the pamphlet.

  “Sheesh...”

  She was cold as ice. How, exactly, was this a date? “Full of himself” was Seiya’s default setting, but at this point, even he was starting to catch on to the fact that Sento Isuzu had no romantic interest in him at all.

  Why, then? He worked the thought over in his mind, but nothing came. Still, it seemed he had no choice but to wander around with her for a while.

  Around this dodgy amusement park...

  Just as Isuzu had described, Sorcerer’s Hill had a sort of fairy tale theme: Everything in it was fairly by-the-book, from the pastel color scheme to the various attractions, coasters, and merry-go-rounds.

  Isuzu’s first stop was the “thrill coaster” attraction. Seiya cringed slightly at the sight, and she shot him a dubious glance.

  “You aren’t scared, are you?” she asked.

  “...Of course not,” Seiya scoffed. “I was just thinking, it doesn’t look like something a grown man should be riding, that’s all.”