by Shouji Gatou
“No flair as an announcer, eh, fumo?”
“Be quiet,” Isuzu ordered. “...It’s coming, Shiina-san.”
Okay, I thought. While the intro was playing, I cleared my throat.
The PA booth sat halfway up Maple Castle, looking down on the stage. The front window was one-way glass, so I could look out over the guests gathered in front of the stage. They were looking pretty rowdy. Some had left their seats in boredom, but there were still a huge number of people there.
So many people—a thousand, at least. I saw a few people with large video cameras, too. They had probably come from TV stations. Now, I had to sing? In front of all these people? It was a bit late to turn back now, but I found myself trembling in terror over what I’d agreed to do.
I wanted to cry. My legs were shaking. I wondered if maybe I could just apologize and run away.
...But just then, Moffle-san spoke up from his place by my side. “Sing, fumo. Pretend your father is listening.”
In that moment, my mind cleared. I didn’t know how Moffle-san knew about my father, but his words made my chest feel hot, and my urge to run away vanished. Moffle-san’s voice became the voice of my father, which I’d never hear again, encouraging me on. The feelings I had sealed away inside for so long began to strain at the seams, looking for release.
“......” For a moment, I hesitated. But then the words poured from my throat—like a retch, like a scream.
O wonderful, wonderful, wonderful park.
Ridiculous! This park wasn’t wonderful at all! Why was everyone running themselves ragged over it? It was so stupid, I thought.
But I kept on singing. My lips moved smoothly. My throat felt clear. I could even feel the vibration of air molecules around me. It felt better than my best night at solo karaoke. I kept singing.
Sento-senpai sat there, dumbstruck. Moffle-san stood perfectly still, his brow furrowed. The crowd in the venue had fallen silent. Eyes shut tight, fists clenched, I drew out every note I sang.
O Amagi Brilliant Park. We’re happy to be here, wonderful park.
The song’s ending was greeted with sporadic applause, which gradually grew louder. At first, I couldn’t even process it, but within seconds, it had become the wildest applause I’d ever heard. I even heard whistles and cheers. What were the guests so happy about? Well, common sense would dictate...
“You’re... kidding,” Isuzu-senpai whispered.
“Moffu. You got me beat this time, fumo,” Moffle-san said. He sounded satisfied. “That’ll be a hard performance to follow.”
After that, they had me sing a few more songs. It was all so touch-and-go, I don’t even remember what they were... But it made the guests happy, and the repairs to the sound system finished before I was done. Moffle-san had patted me on the shoulder a few minutes before, then returned to his station.
“We apologize again for the extended wait. We will now commence our special live show, ‘A (AmaBri) Fight Begins! The Moffle that Fell to Earth!’” Isuzu-senpai announced.
Immediately, a BGM started playing on the main stage, and confetti began to fly. Macaron-san, Tiramii-san, and other major members of the cast appeared one after another. They flew, jumped, danced, and sang.
Sorcerer’s Hill is all about dreams! Songs and smiles and so many things! Always so many fun things to do! Oh? Oh? Aren’t we missing something? That’s right! There’s no sweets at all! Let’s all call to Moffle now! Fairy of Sweets... Moffle!
...And that’s when Moffle-san appeared. A flashy fireworks show erupted behind the stage as he jumped down onto a waiting trampoline. He did a somersault, landed, then joined in with the dancers. Naturally—I suppose, since he was a professional—his moves were sharp and on point. It was beyond what any normal mascot in a costume could handle.
At points during the song, he’d stagger back as if exhausted, and someone would put a towel around his shoulders. Then seconds later, he’d bounce back and go on singing and dancing. It was kind of a JB knockoff and I don’t know what he was going for, but the show was certainly invigorating.
I continued to watch it, feeling numb.
“Shiina-san.”
“Yes?”
Isuzu-senpai stood up and embraced me tightly.
“U-Um?!”
“Thank you. You saved us. I can’t thank you enough.” My face was pressed against her considerable chest, so I couldn’t see her expression, but I could hear deep emotion in her voice. “We worked so hard for this, and it all nearly went down the drain. We’re in your debt today.”
I didn’t know what to say.
The evil dragon was so intimidating that some children started to cry. But otherwise, the show ended just fine. The evening show also went on with no trouble, with double the spectators from before.
After the park closed, they had a cast party at AM. Dornell-san, the director, gave a toast, with nothing but praise for everybody.
Macaron-san and Tiramii-san spoke to me, their large eyes shimmering.
“Whew... you got me beat today, ron. Starting today, you’re the Fairy of Music.”
No, thank you, I thought.
“You really shocked mii! Let’s go to Alamo and sing there after all!”
No, thank you, I thought.
A number of other people came up to me, offered thanks, shook my hand, or hugged me. It was a pretty overwhelming experience, overall.
I didn’t know what to do. I knew I wasn’t a very special person, and I didn’t do anything all that amazing. I just sang a few songs to buy us time. It was really more embarrassment than I could bear.
My colleagues, Adachi Eiko-san and Bando Biino-san, came up and congratulated me, too. I was genuinely happy about that one—I was hoping we could be friends.
Kanie Seiya arrived in the dining hall “fashionably late.” It was my first time seeing him since the master control room. He looked pretty awkward as he approached me. His expression couldn’t settle on one single emotion, but it mostly looked like frustration and embarrassment.
I loved it!
“Um... hello,” I said to him.
“What’s that expression?” he asked stiffly. “You think you’re pretty hot stuff after showing me up like that, hmm?
“Gack...”
“Bullseye, eh? Also, who actually says the word ‘gack’?”
“S-Sorry...”
Kanie-senpai let out a sigh. “Well, it’s fine. Anyway... you know. I’m sorry. You did a good thing. I was surprised, I was moved, I’m grateful, et cetera.”
“...That didn’t sound very sincere,” I said accusingly.
“Sh-Shut up. I’m not good at this kind of thing. Anyway, let the others make a fuss over you for today!” With that, Kanie-senpai turned to leave. But he stopped and said one more thing to me. “Oh, and Chujo.”
“Y-Yes?” It was his first time saying my name out loud. So surprising!
“I’ve decided to make a CD of your songs. It’s to sell in the shops. So start practicing!”
“What?! Huh... wh-what the...”
He didn’t even ask for my approval; he just told me his intentions and then walked away. He moved on to speak to Isuzu-senpai, who was sitting in a corner of the cafeteria and offered him a few words of reply. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but it seemed to me that Isuzu-senpai was happy to see him... I could sense that, somehow, even though she never smiled. Was there some kind of intimacy between them after all? I really was curious.
Ah, but it was rude to stare at people, so I headed for the soda fountain to refill my orange juice.
“Moffu?” Moffle-san happened to be there too. I hadn’t talked to him since the show, either.
“Um, hello,” I said.
“Ahh. Good job out there, fumo.” He said nothing more as he dispensed oolong tea into his mug. They’d be doing daily performances starting tomorrow, so there was to be no alcohol at the cast party tonight.
I dug down deep and found my voice. “Um, Moffle-san. Thank you for
today.”
“Moffu? For what?”
“Um... for what you said about my father...”
“Ahh, that.” Moffle nodded. “Join me on the terrace, fumo.”
Moffle-san headed for the terrace outside. Actually, it was so small and old, it was probably more like a veranda—and in practice, it was really just a place people went to smoke. Once we were outside, Moffle-san pulled a cigarette from somewhere or other. It was his usual brand, ‘Hope.’
“There’s something I need to apologize for, fumo,” Moffle-san said. He lit the cigarette, took a long drag, then blew a plume of dark smoke into the night air. “The truth is, I knew your dad, fumo.”
“......” I had thought that he might. It was the only way he would have known to mention it, then. But why?
“Has it been five years since he passed away now? ...That’s not to say we had much of a relationship, fumo. We were just drinking buddies at a bar I like.”
“You were... drinking buddies?” I asked.
“Yeah. There’s a little place on the outskirts of the shopping street near Amagi Station. We met there, fumo. Of course, we only saw each other about once a month... but we got along, for some reason, so we usually ended up talking, fumo.”
This was the first I had heard about it, of course. My father didn’t drink very often, and as far as I knew, he hardly ever went out to bars. But now that Moffle-san mentioned it, I remembered how, once a month, he’d come home from work a little late, and when he did he’d be a little tipsy. I was usually in bed by then, though, so I almost never talked to him when he was drunk.
“Well... he told me about you too, fumo. He was worried about his daughter’s social anxiety. What’d he say again... ‘she’d gotten nervous during a school play, locked up and couldn’t say her lines.’ And then he...”
“...I remember. He shouted out to encourage me.”
It was a school play in fourth grade. My father had called out to me in a big shout that resounded throughout the gymnasium: “Go, Shiina!” Everyone was so surprised. Of course, I was just playing “Forest Rabbit C,” a side character with only one line...
“Thanks to him... I managed to say my line.”
“Yeah, that’s what he told me, fumo. He was a tight-lipped man, even when drinking, but that was one story he told with pride. I still remember it, fumo.”
“I... I see...” It was a strange thing, imagining the pudgy little Fairy of Sweets and my father, side by side in a bar, swapping stories. Although everyone in AmaBri wore an item called the Lalapatch Charm, which let them appear to be ordinary people to the outside world... so my father probably thought he was talking to any ordinary guy.
“He showed me a picture of you too, fumo. ...You were in elementary school at the time, but you don’t seem to have changed much since.”
Hey, butt out! I thought.
“...A few months passed after that, and I didn’t see him again. I had just started to wonder about it when the bartender told me, fumo. One of his colleagues had come in to say he’d passed in the line of duty.”
“...Yes.” The world around me suddenly looked a little blurry. I thought I’d gotten used to thinking about it, but...
“I’d missed the funeral, and I didn’t know him well enough to pay my respects to his family. I’m sorry to say that all I’ve ever done was pay one visit to his grave.”
“I see...”
“Now, it might just be a coincidence, but when you came here, it felt to me like destiny in motion, fumo. Or, well, maybe it was the goddess Libra who brought you here...” Moffle-san planted his cigarette in one of the nearby ash trays. “That’s all I have to say. See you around.”
“U-Um... wait a minute, please,” I said as Moffle-san turned to go back into the cafeteria.
“What is it, fumo?”
“Moffle-san, were you...” I debated with myself for a minute over whether or not to ask him. But I decided I had to do it. “Um... were you hard on me because you knew my father?”
Moffle-san looked at me for a while in silence, but eventually turned his back on me and responded, “That’s ridiculous. I’ve got better things to do than that, fumo. I got mad because you’re a klutz.”
“I... I see...” Maybe I shouldn’t have asked. So embarrassing...
“But... watching you today was a real relief, fumo.”
“Huh?”
Moffle-san didn’t answer. He just walked away. He was such a sourpuss, it was hard to know what he was ever thinking, but that one statement seemed to take a burden off my shoulders. Moffle-san was probably just a very modest person.
I returned to the cafeteria, where Isuzu-senpai approached me.
“Shiina-san.”
“Ah... yes?”
“Your email this morning said that you had something to talk about. I think I can imagine what it is, of course...”
“Ah...” I had completely forgotten that I had been planning to quit at the end of the day. That was what I was going to tell Isuzu-senpai, but...
“I know you’ve never felt at home here in the park,” she said. “Kanie-kun and Moffle clearly have plans for you... but we can’t force you to stay if you don’t want to.”
“Yes...”
“Even if you do stay, not every day will be a good one. It might all be bad days, in fact. But...” Isuzu-senpai said.
Did she have a feeling about what was to come? I hesitated. I wondered.
“No, I won’t say it,” she finally said. “It might not even be my place to say.”
“......” I had no answer to that.
“Anyway, tell me. What do you intend to do?”
It was true that it felt nice to sing and be praised for it, but that wasn’t the most important thing. Over the past few weeks, I had met all kinds of adults that I never could have met at school. They weren’t impressive, they weren’t noble, they had all kinds of problems... yet they were all scrambling desperately for a singular goal. I wanted to scramble with them for a little while longer.
“I’m sorry for being so selfish all the time,” I said. “But if you don’t mind, I think I’d like to...”
After she heard the next words out of my mouth, Isuzu-senpai smiled just a bit, told me when to report in tomorrow, and just before leaving, said this: “All right. I’m glad to be working with you.”
Yes. I’m glad to be working with you, too.
The Magic App
It was evening on a normal business day. Izusu was walking down one of the underground employee corridors when she heard the Fairy of Water, Muse, addressing her from behind.
“Isuzu-san! Isuzu-san! I found the most interesting app!”
“App?”
“Look at this! It’s called Magic☆Photo V1, Snap the Truth! It’s a camera app!” Muse held out her smartphone.
“That’s a rather dubious title...” Isuzu observed.
“Of course it is! It’s made by a small developer in Maple Land. They need the name to stand out as much as possible.”
“Is that how these things work?”
“Yes,” Muse affirmed. “Anyway, this app uses a magical camera that shows you the ‘human form’ of whoever you take a picture of! For instance... oh, perfect timing!”
Wanipii had come around the corner and was just passing by. As his name suggested, Wanipii was a two-heads-tall crocodile mascot. Naturally, it wasn’t a costume—there was no one inside.
“I’ll take a picture of Wanipii-san with the app.” Muse took a snapshot of a yawning Wanipii. He just walked on, not even noticing the attention.
There were a few minutes of processing time, and then the picture appeared. It showed a gangly, ordinary-faced man yawning. For some reason, he had a pompadour hairstyle, and wore an 80s-era varsity jacket over distressed jeans. He was also wearing alligator skin shoes.
“Is this Wanipii?” Isuzu questioned.
“I guess it must be!” Muse gushed. “At least, according to this app...”
“It seems
difficult to accept.” Just because an app was magical didn’t mean it was trustworthy. Such programs were frequently fraudulent.
“Incidentally, it doesn’t seem to work if you’re already in a human form. If you take a picture of me with the app...” Muse took a picture of herself, and the subsequent picture looked exactly like her. “...It looks like this. Most of the people in my family look like humans... Oh, but my little brother is a fairy, you know?”
There were generally two kinds of people living in the magical realms: those like Isuzu and Muse, who looked almost exactly like mortals, and the obvious “fairies,” like Wanipii. These appearances weren’t set in stone; many people swapped between one or the other as children, with most choosing their preferred form by the end of puberty. Their decision would be made based on family, environment, and personal preference—in general, men tended to choose fairy forms, while women chose human forms.
Changing forms was a fairly simple process even far into adulthood, so there was no systematic prejudice against either form. It was more like changing your hairstyle to make a personal statement. But to change your form did cost quite a lot of money, and in many cases, it left you under the weather for about a week. It was also believed to have adverse effects on your health and appearance, so few people did it frequently.
“...It’s just human forms, then,” Isuzu observed.
“Looks like it! Isuzu-san, will you come take pictures of all the cast with me?!”
“Why would you want me along?”
“Oh, no real reason! It’s just more fun to see things with someone else,” Muse answered nonchalantly.
Izusu wasn’t especially busy at that moment, so she decided to go along with her to clear her head. “...... Well, all right. Let’s go.”
With that, the two began wandering the underground halls with no particular aim in mind. Wrenchy-kun from general affairs passed. He was pushing a cart full of paint and lumber, and seemed to be heading for the Wild Valley area.
