Amagi Brilliant Park: Volume 3 (Premium)

by Shouji Gatou

  Moffle started walking, weaving through the crowd, and Seiya rushed to follow him. They had just passed the ticket window at the end of the southern concourse when Seiya suddenly realized that the hustle and bustle around them had died off.

  “Seiya. This way, fumo.”

  “...? All right...”

  The passage kept going. He felt sure there had been no passage here before... Then, at the end of this impossible passage, he saw a sign for Platforms 11 and 12. They walked down the stairs onto a completely empty platform; it was old-fashioned, and looked especially desolate in the red setting sun.

  Naturally, he could see Platform 10 for the Shonan-Shinjuku Line across from it, and beyond that, many other trains were coming and going. For some reason, though, none of the noise from them seemed to reach Platform 11, where they were standing.

  “You won’t notice these platforms if you’re just a mortal human, fumo,” Moffle explained. “Now, we do occasionally get mortals who see them and wander in. Kids in particular, fumo. But it’s not exactly top secret, so apparently when that happens they just give them some candy and send them back.”

  “Hmm...”

  Because he’d been dealing with magical phenomena day in and day out lately, Seiya found nothing suspicious about this explanation. It was more or less like H*rry P*tt*r, anyway. “I’ll avoid commenting on the magical gimmick, but do they have JR’s permission for this?”

  “I wouldn’t know, but I expect so?” Moffle offered. “I heard Maple Land helped finance the station when it was built.”

  “I see...” He’d thought JR was a respectable company. Was it all right for them to be accepting investments from some magical realm? It wasn’t really his business... but still, Seiya worried.

  “This platform is where I took my first steps in the mortal realm,” Moffle reminisced. “That was a rough time... I took the Toyoko Line right to Shibuya and it was a madhouse there, fumo. I finally found the Inokashira Line, but when I tried to take it to Amagi, I ended up all the way out in Kichijoji, fumo. Then I missed the last train and had to spend the night on a bench in Inokashira Park. A man’s first time in the big city is never easy, fumo.”

  “Hmm... I suppose I can sympathize. I went to Umeda in Osaka once, and I found it impossible to navigate. That place is a dungeon.”

  “And people who are used to Umeda get lost when they come to Shinjuku, fumo. You mortals should put more care into planning your stations.”

  “We can’t,” Seiya explained. “They expand over time.”

  “Moffu. Well, fair enough.”

  Seiya looked at the timetable: One train ran each hour. The direct train to Maple Land’s capital, Mapleburg, should be arriving shortly.

  “It’ll be here soon, fumo,” The train pulled into the platform the moment Moffle said the words. It was a real live steam train. Smoke billowed out of the smokestack, mixing with the steam as it gradually slowed and entered the platform. The engine was delicate, painted with high-quality green and red paint. “It’s got Sasuraiger’s colors, but it’s a proper direct train, fumo.”

  Seiya had no idea what a “Sasuraiger” was, but the train certainly was beautiful. He typically thought of steam trains as being coarse and black.

  The passengers began to crowd off. They were all superdeformed animals: rabbits, cats, goats, pigs, and even some rodents that resembled Moffle. They all seemed to be coming to the mortal realm from Maple Land. Even as they passed him by, they didn’t seem to pay Seiya the slightest mind.

  Suddenly, one of the disembarking animal-people addressed Moffle.

  “Sir? Is that you, sir?!” Seiya looked to see a pink bear, two heads tall, lumbering up to them. “It is you, General! General Moffle Mel Mosenas! It’s been so long!”

  “Oh... is that you, Master Sergeant Griber?” Moffle seemed to know him, too.

  The pink bear, “Master Sergeant Griber,” walked up to Moffle, came to attention, and gave him a sharp salute. Moffle returned the salute swiftly. “It’s an honor to see you again, kuma. I’m taking a little trip to the mortal realm with the family—that’s my wife and children over there, kuma.” Griber indicated behind him. A family of bears, standing a little ways off, all bowed politely to Moffle.

  “I see. I’m glad everyone’s doing all right, fumo.”

  “We’re planning to hit up the Atagawa Hot Springs in Izu, kuma.”

  “Ah, that’s a nice place. I recommend Bananawani Gardens, fumo.”

  “Kuma, kuma, kuma!” Master Sergeant Griber laughed. “...Might I ask where you’re going, sir?”

  “Oh, just to Mapleburg, on an errand. Need to get something stamped for approval, fumo.”

  “I see. But if it’s for that, just say the word. I’ll send someone from the division to your aid at once, kuma.”

  Moffle just waved a paw dismissively. “Stop that. I’m a mascot at an ager now, no more and no less.”

  “But you’re still our general, kuma. Just say the word, and the soldiers of the division will be at your side, all right? Even if it’s the Mapleburg Palace that you’re—”

  “Griber, don’t say such things, fumo.”

  “Ah. Well... excuse me. But it’s still true, kuma. There are still a lot of soldiers out there waiting for your return, General.”

  “I’m happy to hear it, but it’s off the table, fumo. You know what I’m doing now, don’t you?”

  “The princess, you mean? Yes... I completely understand.”

  “Sorry, Griber, but I want you to pretend you never saw me here. I don’t need anyone starting any rumors... That wouldn’t be good for the division, either.”

  “Yes, sir. I’ll just be going then, kuma.”

  “Moffu. Be well.”

  Griber took his family and left.

  Seiya had been standing just behind him, watching the back-and-forth in amazement. But Moffle just turned back as if nothing had happened and said, “Sorry for the wait. Ready to get on, fumo?”

  “Hmm? Ah, yeah...” Seiya followed Moffle onto the train, which was waiting to depart. The passenger seats were retro-style booths. The floors and benches were made of wood, and the walls were decorated with intricate patterns. They grabbed a random set of seats facing each other.

  “How long will it take the train to get there?” Seiya asked. “To this... capital city of yours.”

  “About an hour, I’d say? Departure’ll be in about ten minutes, so if you have to use the bathroom, now’s the time, fumo. There aren’t any on the train.”

  “No, I’m all right. But who was that Griber person?”

  “An old subordinate of mine, fumo,” Moffle said, gazing out the window. “A long time ago, I was in the army. Your basic desk jockey stuff, fumo...”

  “But he called you ‘General’...”

  “Ah, that’s basically desk work, fumo.”

  “Um, I’m pretty sure it’s not...” Isuzu had called Moffle “General” a few times before, too, Seiya recalled. As dubious as this magical realm of theirs seemed, was Moffle actually a person of importance there?

  “Moffu. Just forget about it, fumo.”

  “I’m not sure that I can.”

  “Hrm...”

  After thinking a moment, Moffle spoke again. “...I suppose, given all we’ve been through, it wouldn’t be right not to tell you. Maybe I’ll explain a few things, just in case.”

  “What kinds of things?”

  “Just things, fumo. Here, eat this first.” Moffle took a plastic case out of the vinyl bag he was holding and offered the snack croquettes within to Seiya.

  “I don’t want any.”

  “Take one, they’re good.”

  With no other choice, Seiya picked up one of the snack croquettes and ate it. He didn’t like getting grease on his hands, but... “Hm. This is...” Delicious. Extremely delicious. On par with Latifah’s croquettes, at least...

  “Good, fumo?”

  “Yeah... But that’s not what we were talking about!”

 
“I know, fumo. Let’s see, what should I make sure you know...” Moffle thought as he crunched on his snack croquettes.

  He never ended up speaking, though, so Seiya took the lead. “Let’s start with the part where you’re a general.”

  “Well, that’s just what it sounds like, fumo. I was a general in the Maple Land military—I started as a second lieutenant out of officer school, then after executing a bunch of tricky operations, I moved up in the world, fumo.”

  “Hmm.” Seiya didn’t know how old Moffle was, but shouldn’t it take years to advance from second lieutenant to general? That’s the way it was in the mortal realm, at least.

  “...It was a swift rise, even by Maple Land standards. I don’t like admitting it, but it’s because of my family.”

  “Family?”

  “We’re Maple Land nobility, fumo. A barony that serves in the military, generation to generation. But we didn’t have much standing in court, so not many of our men make it up to the rank of general...” Moffle let out a sigh. “My big sister was the king’s consort, fumo.”

  “His what?”

  “Consort, queen, bride, wife. Clear enough for you, fumo?”

  “R-Right...”

  “As her little brother, I might be biased on the matter, but she was a really beautiful woman. The king fell in love with her at first sight at a banquet, then spent years and years at wooing her. She ran from him at first, but well... he was the king, after all. You can’t exactly turn him down. In the end, they married, fumo.”

  “Ah-hah... No, wait. So if your sister married the king, that means their child would be...”

  “Yeah, Latifah. That’s why she sometimes calls me ‘uncle,’ fumo.”

  “I see...” Seiya mused.

  “The queen’s little brother couldn’t just be some special forces captain, so for political reasons I was kind of half-dragged up the ranks to general, fumo. I was given command of the third division, the strongest and most famous in all of Maple Land. A lot of things happened after that... Griber, back there, was NCO attached to the division, the one who kept the lower officers and soldiers in line, fumo.”

  “A real veteran type?”

  “Yeah. He really hated me at first. But, as you can see, he eventually warmed up to me.” For some reason, Moffle smirked, like a child who’d gotten away with a prank.

  “Hmm...” Before this, there had been quite a few things Seiya had been hazy on; why Isuzu referred to Moffle as general, why Latifah referred to him as “uncle” before correcting herself... He’d found himself thinking of Moffle as being on another level from the rest of the cast, and—“Now I get it.”

  “Moffu. Glad to hear it.”

  “But... if you’d made it to that kind of lofty position, why do you do what you do now?” he pointed out.

  Moffle let out a self-recriminating “moffu” in response. “Well... Latifah got cursed. I wanted to help my niece. And I was kind of sick of the military nonsense, so I quit the army and came here. That’s basically it, fumo.”

  “The former general doing juggling for children?”

  “Yeah. It’s fun, fumo. And it’s a better fit for my personality.”

  Seiya felt deeply conflicted. He’d hated Moffle the first time they’d met, but he’d begun to develop a grudging affection for him. He had his own reasons for working at the park. In fact, it was possible that, just like Seiya, he—

  “Although... it’s odd that we haven’t started moving yet, fumo,” Moffle muttered, checking the time on his smartphone. Seiya also found it suspicious. They were past the time indicated on the timetable, but the train hadn’t left yet.

  “Is this typical?” Seiya wanted to know.

  “No,” Moffle told him, “our trains are about as punctual as your mortal ones.”

  “Hmm?”

  Just then, an announcement came over the car. “Baa, baa. ...Erm, thank you for riding Maple Dentetsu today, baa. ...At 5:50 p.m. today, an accident occurred that placed an obstacle on the tracks near Mapleburg Station. Trains are currently running behind schedule, baa. We apologize for the delay and appreciate your understanding, baa.”

  “An obstacle?”

  “Ahh, not again, fumo!” Moffle moaned in annoyance. “It happens all the time on this line... Some idiot jumps on the tracks and jams up the works!”

  “Y-You mean suicide by train?!” Seiya was surprised. All this stuff about magic and fairies, and people still threw themselves on the tracks? It hardly seemed wondrous.

  “Yeah. Well, they usually don’t die. As I recall, a friend of Macaron’s jumped on the tracks after the ramen chain he managed went bankrupt. He got sent flying three times in a row—even set a distance record.”

  “What the hell?”

  “Apparently Maple Dentetsu gave him a trophy after the hospital discharged him, fumo.”

  “The train company encourages it?” Seiya asked incredulously.

  “...But all the safety checks and such really throw the trains’ schedules off. They’d be able to bounce back right away in the mortal realm. We might need to settle in for the long haul here...”

  “...How much longer do you think we’ll have to wait?”

  “I don’t know, fumo. It could be an hour at the soonest...”

  “I guess we just wait, then...” Seiya started messing with his smartphone. Moffle did the same.

  Over an hour passed, and the train still showed no sign of moving. Occasionally, the announcer would say “We are working at resolving the issue, baa” but that was it.

  “...Hmm. I’m thinking this is a wash,” Seiya commented. Even if the train started moving right away, they’d be getting to Maple Land around 9:00 p.m. Then, even if they found Isuzu and got the stamp... “We might not be able to get back today, right? Maybe we should give up on the trip.” To be honest, after getting this far, Seiya really wanted to take the train and get a look at the ‘magical realm’ Maple Land himself. But there was nothing to be done about it. He had a lot of meetings to get to in the morning, after all.

  “Maybe so, fumo... yeah. Let’s get back to Amagi.” Moffle put in a call to Taramo, chief of the Mogute Clan, as they got out of their seats. He explained the situation as they disembarked, then hung up.

  “How’d it go?”

  “He’s willing to make an exception and wait until tomorrow,” Moffle said. “Though, I wish he’d just said that from the start...”

  Just then, a whistle blared. The green locomotive shot out a piercing shriek of steam.

  “We apologize for the long wait, baa. The direct train to Mapleburg will now depart, baa.” Shortly after the announcement, the locomotive’s heavy wheels began to move, and the train started out. Slowly, slowly, it picked up speed. Trailing smoke and steam, the retro-style train left the magical Platform 11.

  “There it goes,” Seiya sighed.

  “Yeah... Well, let’s head home, fumo.” He’d actually neglected work for this—for nothing, apparently. If Moffle hadn’t taken that detour to the croquette shop, this probably wouldn’t have happened. He thought about snarking at him for it, but he held back. Even so—if not for that, they wouldn’t have run into Griber, and he wouldn’t have had the chance to ask about Moffle’s past. When he looked at things that way, it wasn’t a completely pointless excursion, at least.

  “What is it, fumo?”

  “Oh, nothing...”

  “If you’re feeling disappointed, I’ll take you there some other time, fumo. I mean, it’s just your standard magical realm...”

  “What exactly is a ‘standard’ magical realm?” Seiya wanted to know.

  As the other train left, an eight-car train arrived, probably the inbound train from Mapleburg. It must have been stopped for a while due to the accident, as well. The train stopped on the platform and the passengers began to disembark.

  “Moffu...?”

  “What is it? Oh... it’s Sento.”

  Surprisingly, Sento was one of the people getting off the train. She was w
earing a long red coat and fur hat and carrying a leather bag. She was dressed like a high-ranking member of the army.

  “I thought you were staying the night there,” Seiya commented.

  “I was able to get an appointment sooner than expected, and I left once it was done. What are you doing here?” Isuzu asked, surprised.

  “Well, the Mogutes had been bugging me about some documents, fumo. We wanted you to stamp them...” Moffle responded awkwardly. He explained the circumstances that had brought them there that day, and Isuzu nodded in understanding.

  “Ahh... That makes sense,” she said, “but why is Kanie-kun here, too?”

  “Um, well. I needed a pick-me-up,” Seiya explained. “And I was curious to see it, I guess...”

  “Maple Land?” she clarified.

  “Mm... yeah.”

  Isuzu hummed, her expression blank. “It’s a surprise to hear that you’re so interested in our homeland.”

  “I was curious. Something wrong with that?” Seiya responded in annoyance.

  Isuzu paused, tilting her head. “Well... no. I was just... genuinely surprised.”

  Things suddenly felt a little awkward for some reason, so Seiya cleared his throat loudly and turned to leave. “W-Well, never mind. Let’s just go home. This was a huge waste of time.”

  As he walked down the now-empty platform, Moffle and Isuzu whispered to each other.

  “...What’s with him?”

  “I don’t know. I think he’s upset he didn’t get to go to Mapleburg, fumo?”

  “He didn’t look upset to me...”

  “Well... you know, fumo. He’s got that tsundere personality.”

  “I’m sorry,” Isuzu said, “I’m unfamiliar with youth slang.”

  “Quit babbling already and let’s get going! We’ve got another busy day ahead of us, understand?!” Seiya barked in annoyance, and Moffle scowled.

  “Ah, that’s boring, fumo. As long as we’re in Yokohama, why don’t we grab a meal?”

  “What about your croquettes?”

  “I already ate them all, fumo.”

  “When?!”

  Isuzu raised her hand. “...Actually, I am quite hungry. I’d like to request chili shrimp stir-fry from Saika in Chinatown.”