Amagi Brilliant Park: Volume 6 Read online

  Prologue

  “I love you, zo! Moffllllle!” the evil pirate Ironbeard cried from the deck of his burning ship.

  “Moffu...” Across from him stood Lord Moffle, the Fairy of Sweets. In his hand was a cutlass, a curved sword popular during the age of exploration.

  In the midst of a chaotic battle, this destined showdown had manifested. Incidentally, the “I love you” that the pirate Ironbeard shouted wasn’t meant romantically or homoerotically; it was the kind of “I love you” that you shout to your mortal enemy during their final battle. It was just the sort of “Hah! That was a fun battle!” that a boss shouts to the hero while riding a bloodlusty adrenaline high, so it’s important not to get the wrong idea.

  Anyway, here’s how Moffle responded: “Enough, Ironbeard! Your evil deeds end today, fumo!”

  Ironbeard replied: “Har! I’ll make fish food out of you, zo!”

  The swordfight began. Moffle and Ironbeard clashed, slashed, guarded, dodged, and leaped. Thrilling music played; sound effects enhanced the action.

  “Moffu!” Moffle was beaten back.

  Ironbeard was a large-bodied mascot based off of an elephant seal (zo-arashi in Japanese, hence his “zo” speech tic). His beard was indeed made of iron (for some reason), and he could use his tail to attack. “Zo! Zo! Zoooo!” He held a sword in each hand and one in his tail; three swords in all. His attacks came from left, right, and above. They were powerful and relentless.

  “Moffu!” Moffle dodged, skirted, and jumped. But before long, he was forced back to the prow of the ship. It was a desperate situation.

  “Heh heh heh,” the pirate cackled. “Nowhere left to run, zo!”

  “Grrr...” Moffle growled. There were man-eating sharks in the water below.

  Even now... ah, look! The evil man-eating shark Jaw circled, maw open to devour any soul unfortunate enough to fall! “Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarsh, feeeeeeme! Feeeeeeeeeeeeme feeeeeeeeeeeeeme! Ryaaaaaa, neeeeeefooooooo!” Jaw shouted incomprehensibly. These were his only lines in the battle, so he was chewing the scenery like mad. That said, he was still a real shark, so he was automatically terrifying.

  Though he was the Fairy of Sweets, Moffle took the form of a mouse— He probably looked like a tasty treat to Jaw. An elephant seal in front of him, a man-eating shark behind him... Danger all around! What will become of our Moffle?!

  “Ngh... is this the end, fumo?!”

  “Moffle!” Ironbeard jeered. “Prepare to die, zo!”

  “Halt!” Just then, the dolphin samurai, Kenjuro, dove in. He wore a black lacquered samurai breastplate with vermilion trim, and a helmet with a dolphin-shaped crest. He blocked the strike directed at Moffle, then sent Ironbeard’s sword flying with a brilliant twist of his sword.

  “Ngh... zo?!” Ironbeard was too shocked to react.

  “Moffu!” Moffle cried with relief. “Kenjuro?!”

  “Moffle-dono! This unworthy Kenjuro has come to thine aid!”

  “Much obliged! Now let’s go, fumo!”

  “Indeed!” Kenjuro agreed.

  The battle resumed. It was a grand spectacle, brimming with special effects.

  “Zo!” Ironbeard was driven back to the central mast. Kenjuro cut through some nearby rigging, which caused the course sail to come loose. It fell and struck Ironbeard’s tail. “Zo?!”

  “That’s the power of justice, fumo!” As Ironbeard reeled over in pain, Moffle kicked him, roped him, and then cut another line of rigging. The yard fell on top of him, and he was bound up in the shrouds.

  Moments later, the great bulk that was Ironbeard was hanging suspended over the deck. “Zo! Zo! I... I surrender, zo!” Ironbeard cried in terror. The fur seals that worked for him immediately surrendered to Moffle’s allies.

  “Moffu! Have you learned your lesson, fumo?!”

  “F-Forgive me, zo! I’ll never do wicked things again, zo!” the now-helpless Ironbeard shouted to Moffle and Kenjuro. “I’ll go straight, zo! I’ll dedicate my life to keeping peace on the oceans, zo! Please spare me, zo!”

  “That’s what all villains say!” Moffle announced. “But your desperate please won’t save you, fumo!”

  “Zo...”

  “Your crew will be beheaded! Then you, Ironbeard, will be tortured, leading to a public execution as an example to all, fumo!”

  “Eek!”

  “You pirates have troubled mortal children for the last time!” Moffle finished. “Let your sad end be a message to future generations! Prepare to die!”

  The stage went black, and a pleasant narration played: “And so the evil pirate Ironbeard and his crew were executed. Splash Ocean ran red with the blood of the pirates, and peace and prosperity returned. Thank you, Moffle, Fairy of Sweets! Thank you, Kenjuro the Dolphin! The seven seas belong to you!”

  A beautiful melody played. The good guys returned to the stage, illuminated by cutting-edge lighting techniques. They bowed to the audience and launched into a happy dance. Moffle held up Ironbeard’s (prop) head, while Kenjuro and his ocean friends held up the (also prop) heads of the fur seals. A triumphant fanfare played, fireworks popped, and the show was over.

  “Um, so...” Kanie Seiya muttered as the rehearsal came to an end. “The ending still feels a little off...”

  “How dare you, fumo! You’re the one who told us to simplify it for kids!” Moffle, who had been standing there confidently after the rehearsal ended, suddenly flew into a rage. “Justice triumphs, evil is punished! There’s no more basic expression of morality, fumo!”

  “Still... executing enemies that beg for their lives, then parading their heads around...” Seiya said. “You don’t think it would be a little traumatizing?”

  “Wickedness must be punished! That message is important, fumo! After all, these guys—” Moffle pointed behind him. The villains (Ironbeard, and his fur seals, and the shark Jaw) were just standing there blankly. “—are evil pirates! They’ve attacked cities, killed men, raped women, stolen gold and food, fumo! You can’t show them mercy!”

  “Hmm. Well, we may be ex-pirates, but we never did anything that bad, zo,” Ironbeard said uncomfortably.

  “Shut up, fumo! I mean in the show!”

  Ironbeard and his crew were indeed pirates who’d once ravaged the shores of the magical realm, Maple Land. They’d raided port towns on the shores of the states of Fumorida and Moxas, stolen loose change from vending machines, snatched lunches out of convenience store dumpsters, swiped paper recycling off the curb and sold the still-readable manga to Book-Off—all quite wicked deeds.

  They’d been apprehended by Maple Land’s coastguard this year, and they were about to be thrown into the state penitentiary when they worked out a deal to perform at Amagi Brilliant Park, instead.

  They apparently qualified for the Plush Program, which was a criminal rehabilitation program enacted by Maple Land law. (One of the park’s headliner mascots, Tiramii, had also come to AmaBri under this program.) That’s how Ironbeard and his fur seal crew had ended up performing in Splash Ocean’s live show this summer.

  Jaw, the man-eating shark that had threatened to eat Moffle in the show, had been a member of the cast for longer. While on land, he looked like an adorable two-heads-tall shark mascot, in the water he had the ability to transform into a highly realistic, enormous Great White. He looked so scary this way that he frequently made children cry; and, on top of that, he had a bit of a speech impediment. Apparently even in Splash Ocean, they never quite knew what to do with Jaw.

  Seiya and Moffle continued to spar over the plot of the show.

  “You don’t think their crimes are a little excessive?”

  “You mean stealing trashed manga and selling it to Book-Off, fumo?”
>
  “Not that. I mean in the show!” Seiya critiqued. “Pillaging and killing... it’s too gruesome.”

  “Realism and impact is important, fumo. And it’s more exciting when the bad guys are powerful and cruel.”

  “Umm...”

  “Besides, the original script had more nuance, fumo. What is good? What is evil? Can justice truly exist? Is not the true enemy the weakness that exists inside of man? ...It was full of themes like that.”

  “That’s all well and good,” Seiya argued back, “but it was so complicated that people got bored!”

  In the original version of the live show, “The Pirates’ Grave,” Ironbeard’s family had been slaughtered in a previous war, and he was taking revenge against the people responsible. The dolphin Kenjuro was an elite soldier who’d been involved in the killing, and was tormented by guilt over his crime. Moffle was a lawyer with the navy’s legal department, who was dispatched to investigate, despite grappling with a secret alcohol addiction. There was no flashy action; the most intense scene came when Moffle, representing Ironbeard in court, asked the jury, “how do we define the crimes of war?” The show ended with Moffle standing before the grave of Kenjuro (who had taken his own life) and renouncing alcohol. It was very moving and deep, but Seiya had rejected it immediately.

  “All that social drama and angst between silly mascots...” he scoffed. “It was two hours long! And it showed our headliner mascot as an alcohol addict!”

  “That’s why we simplified it, fumo. ‘The bad guys are bad! Let’s set things right by killing ’em all!’ Isn’t that what you wanted, fumo?”

  “Now it’s too simple!” Seiya objected.

  “Then what do you want from me, fumo?!”

  Just then, Ironbeard interrupted. “Wait, zo! If it’s complaints we’re voicing, we’ve got a few of our own, zo! I want a scene where we flirt with the women we’ve captured, zo!”

  “That’s not what we’re talking about, fumo!”

  Kenjuro also raised his hand. “If I might join the proposals. I believe that I, Kenjuro, have ascertained the heart of the problem!”

  “Oh?”

  “The final scene should be not a beheading, but seppuku!” he announced.

  “That’s not the heart of the problem at all!”

  The shark Jaw then weighed in. “Yeeaaaaaahlikthat! MaaaryIoughta eatemall!”

  “You need to do something about your diction first!” Seiya told him.

  “GraaawellI’lldomybest!”

  “Enough of this jabbering, zo!” Ironbeard threw his pirate hat onto the deck. “I say we have a brawl and adopt the idea pitched by the last man standing, zo! Then no one can complain, zo!”

  “That’s so stupid—” Seiya began.

  “Moffu! Bring it on!”

  “Stop—”

  “A battle royal?!” Kenjuro opined. “I am in favor!”

  “Wait—”

  “Ryeeeeahgotit!” Jaws roared. “I’mmmagonnadomybest!”

  A brawl broke out. Seiya tried to stop it, but he ended up being swept into the violence. Then the fur seals joined the fray, adding to the cacophony of jeers and shouts of rage. It was far more intense than the swordplay in the show; kegs and cannonballs were thrown about, and countless mascots fell into the pool.

  Sento Isuzu heard the commotion and came running, and it took just over a minute for her to shoot every person there to death with her musket. This meant that Isuzu was declared the winner, and her ideas were adopted: Ironbeard’s gang would no longer be plunderers and murderers; their evils were limited to stealing treasure and the like. The execution was also scrapped; the pirates would apologize, and be forgiven.

  “Is everyone in agreement?” Isuzu said, holding aloft the magical gun Steinberger, its barrel red hot from firing. Of course, nobody argued with her. Even Seiya, who had been shot in the confusion, just moaned in response.

  1: Hard Working Man

  Guests poured through the new entrance gate; families, couples, groups of friends. Nearly all of them were smiling in delight.

  The front plaza, Entrance Square, had undergone a complete transformation. It was now a wide-open, breathtaking space. There was a grand fountain that resembled the Trevi Fountain, which was surrounded by carefully-textured cobblestone paths. All around, chalk-white buildings shone like the villas over the Aegean Sea, standing out brilliantly against the cobalt July sky. It was a perfect portal from the everyday to the wondrous.

  The instant they passed through, everybody forgot that they had come here by bus or car and bought an entry pass in yen. They truly believed they were in a magical realm. The guests familiar with the old Entrance Square were especially dumbfounded by the sight: This is that AmaBri? they seemed to think. Amagi Brilliant Park, the poster child for crummy amusement parks?

  The cast met the guests with pride and confidence. Fairy of Sweets Moffle, Fairy of Music Macaron, Fairy of Flowers Tiramii—all put on magical performances. A live drum and fife band played. Mascots took souvenir photos. The stalls were no longer “Treat Stand” and “Gift Shop”— they had been redesigned to match the setting, bearing more fabulous titles like Concessions Stand and Souvenir Store.

  After bathing in the magical mood around the entrance, the visitors would filter out into the five areas: the magic-themed Sorcerer’s Hill; the adventure-themed Wild Valley; the ocean-themed Splash Ocean; the scifi-themed Astro City; and Etceteland, with its miscellaneous fun.

  None of these areas could be seen from Entrance Square; the new white buildings were designed to block them from view, which meant that guests couldn’t see the attractions until they entered the appropriate area. In other words, you wouldn’t have one area’s theme ruining the fantasy by intruding on another. It was unlikely that most guests would notice, outside of fanatics and industry types, but it was still an ingenious design.

  Seiya sat in a small room on the second floor of Entrance Square, looking down and reading the guests’ minds, one after another:

  «I don’t know what they did, but it’s impressive.»

  «Wow... is it based off of Santorini?»

  «I haven’t been here in ten years. Was it always this great?»

  «Wow! Wow! Wow!»

  «What construction company did this? I’ll have to look it up later...»

  «The kids are so excited. I hope they don’t trip and fall...»

  «Maybe I’ll bring a date here some time...»

  «What’s this? What’s this?»

  «Wow! But I kind of liked the atmosphere of the old version...»

  It was about 90% positive reactions. There were inevitably dissenting opinions here and there, but people were definitely overwhelmed by the view from the entrance. Yes! A success! Seiya thought exultantly, and found himself pumping his fist.

  Sento Isuzu was standing beside him. “Are you using your mind-reading magic?” she asked, perhaps having taken note of his gesture.

  “Yeah,” he admitted. “It’s more reliable than a survey... I took a random sampling of twenty or thirty, and the response is very positive overall. Of course... you hardly need magic when you see smiles like those.”

  “Well... I’m glad to hear it.” Isuzu let out a sigh of relief. Her concern was only natural; the Entrance Square revamp had cost a lot of money.

  Thanks to the maniac speed and tireless work of the Mogute Clan, they’d finished construction in only a week (though it had been inconvenient for the guests in the meantime, having to use a seedy-looking makeshift gate). But of course, it hadn’t been free. They’d managed to keep labor costs down significantly, due to the speed of construction and using their own construction workers, but the fees for the building materials and machinery rentals were considerable. It had literally cost hundreds of millions of yen.

  “If the renewal failed,” Isuzu said, “it would have been a bad blow.”

  “It was never going to fail. It was my idea!” Seiya bragged.

  Most of it had indeed been Seiya’s idea,
from the overall concept to the layout, color choices, and lighting. Taramo, Dornell, and Wrenchy-kun had applied themselves to the execution of his vision, taking into account his every request. This planning portion had actually taken longer than the construction.

  “Did you expect me to come up with anything less than perfection?” he scoffed. “From the flow of traffic to the sight lines, it’s all just as I planned it!”

  “Still, it took you a lot of time to settle on the overall concept,” she commented.

  “Mm.”

  “Back in April, you said that you wanted to renovate the entrance, but it took you until the end of May to finish the proposal,” she pointed out. “And you only completed it here, at the end of July. You kept us waiting for quite a long time.”

  “I... I was busy with other things!” Seiya said defensively.

  “You should really have left the task to someone else,” Isuzu told him. “Isn’t your job to worry about the park as a whole?”

  “For important things like these, I should be in charge. I’ve told you that many times.”

  “Yes. And I’ve argued against it many times.”

  “Mm.”

  For some reason, Isuzu was extremely strict when it came to things like this. Perhaps, as his secretary, she didn’t like him taking time away from administration to do an art director’s job.

  “But...” Isuzu hesitated for a moment, then continued. “I do think it’s a wonderful design. Almost professional. Where did you learn to do this kind of thing?”

  “Heh. The library,” Seiya admitted. “I read several books about it. And I already knew the basics, so things went quite smoothly.”

  Isuzu’s eyes widened. “Really?”

  “Of course. I know, to accomplish such a masterpiece after reading a few books... my genius terrifies even me.”

  “You would be perfect if you didn’t brag like this,” she told him.

  “What choice do I have? I really am that amazing! Bwahahaha!” he cackled. Seiya was feeling a bit inflated by the guests’ positive reception, but Isuzu didn’t share in his laughter.

  “Yes. You truly are amazing,” she whispered. Isuzu didn’t sound impressed; there was something sorrowful and guilty in her tone, a sigh lingering around the corners of her words.