Amagi Brilliant Park: The Lazy Daily Operations Log
The park is dying. Twenty-eight thousand visitors a month, a target of one hundred thousand, and only three months to pull off a miracle. For Kanie Seiya—former child star, current acting manager, and self-proclaimed genius—the solution is obvious: a TV documentary. Free advertising, nationwide attention, and he'll play the perfect leader in front of the cameras. There's just one problem. The last thing he wants is to become the person he used to be.
But the cameras aren't the only thing he can
Amagi Brilliant Park: The Lazy Daily Operations Log - At rock bottom, before the collapsed set pieces
Morning light bleached the windows of the administration building white.
Seiya sat at his desk, phone pressed to his ear, utterly still. His fingertips trembled, just slightly.
"...As of today, the broadcast is cancelled."
The voice on the other end belonged to the same man as yesterday. But there was no heat left in it anymore.
"Wait. There has to be another way. We can fix it in editing—"
"I'm sorry. The company's decision is final. The footage from this shoot is simply too damaging to the brand."
"Then I'll fix it. Just give me one more chance."
"...Kanie. Your proposal was excellent. But the production team couldn't keep up with it. This is our judgment call."
"That can't—"
Click. The dry sound of the line going dead.
Seiya gripped the phone. Squeezed. His knuckles went white.
(I'll fix it.)
The words just spun uselessly in his head.
Then the ringtone again.
He saw the name on the screen, and the blood drained from his face.
"Doujima Kenzo."
Senior managing director of Amagi Tourism Development. The man pushing hardest to shut the park down. His greatest enemy.
Seiya let out one deep breath, then pressed the call button.
"...Good morning."
"Well, Kanie. Up bright and early, aren't you. Sounds like that TV thing fell through."
Doujima's voice was strangely cheerful. As if he'd known all along this was how it would end.
"...Nothing's been decided yet."
"Ha. Don't bluff. The production company sent us formal notice of cancellation. Word gets around."
Seiya bit his lip.
"Your little project failed. Time to step aside, don't you think?"
"...I still have three months until the deadline."
"Time? You don't have any. Whatever you do, the park's not going to pull in more guests. Face reality, Kodama Seiya."
The moment that name left Doujima's mouth, Seiya stopped breathing.
"I've already lined up a buyer for the land. I'll make it worth your while. You should start looking for your next job, too."
Seiya tried to say something.
Tried to fire back.
But the words stuck in his throat and wouldn't move.
"Well. Think it over. You don't have much time left."
The call ended.
Seiya set the phone down on the desk.
His hand was shaking.
With anger, with frustration, with shame—his whole body trembled.
(I couldn't say a thing back.)
(I couldn't do anything.)
The morning light was painfully bright.
——
Morning assembly.
The cast had gathered in the center of Brilliant Town, in front of the Brilliant Stage.
Seiya looked over every face.
Moffle. Macaron. Tiramy. Salama. Isuzu.
All of them watching him in silence.
"...There's something I need to tell you at today's assembly."
Seiya forced the words out.
"The TV shoot is cancelled. The show is cancelled too."
Silence.
No one spoke.
"...I see."
Macaron muttered under his breath.
A silver pocket flask had somehow appeared in his hand.
He flipped the cap and brought it to his lips.
The smell of liquor mixed into the morning air.
"Guess that's that, then. I'm out."
Tiramy drifted out of the lineup.
He reached to put an arm around a nearby female cast member's shoulders.
"Hey, you. We've got free time now. How about tea, just the two of—"
"Eek—!"
The girl flinched away.
Tiramy didn't seem to care. He moved on to another cast member.
"...Can I post about this?"
Salama clutched her phone in both hands and spoke quietly.
"Can I post that the TV thing got cancelled?"
No one answered.
Salama stared at her screen, trembling slightly.
Moffle stood with his arms crossed, glaring at Seiya.
Nothing readable in those black eyes.
But his mouth moved, as if he wanted to say something.
Isuzu stood expressionless, a security plan clutched to her chest.
Her gaze was fixed straight on Seiya.
Seiya looked away.
"...That's all. Dismissed."
He turned his back and left.
Behind him, nothing.
No one followed.
——
Adventure Zone.
At the foot of Sky Brilliance, the wreckage of the collapsed set pieces lay scattered.
The flying-saucer float.
Yesterday it had still held its shape. Now it was bent beyond recognition, jutting into the ground.
Seiya stood before it, motionless.
(I ran off on my own.)
(I ruined everything.)
The same words looped in his head.
The wind blew, and the broken metal of the float gave a faint creak.
A grating, ugly sound.
"...What are you doing?"
A voice from behind.
He turned. Isuzu stood there.
Her flaxen ponytail swayed in the wind.
In her hands, something wrapped in white cloth.
"...What do you want?"
Seiya looked away from her.
"I found this."
Isuzu unfolded the cloth.
Inside was a silver tool.
A wrench.
"I found it wedged in the wreckage of the broken sound equipment."
"...A tool?"
"This isn't park property. Someone from outside brought it in. Highly likely."
Seiya took the tool.
It was heavy.
Unfamiliar black oil stains.
"...So that's how it is."
Seiya gripped the wrench.
(Doujima's doing.)
(That man would absolutely go this far.)
"With this, we may be able to prove the board was behind the sabotage."
Seiya shook his head.
"...No. A single tool isn't proof."
"But—"
"Who can prove this belongs to Doujima? That man doesn't leave openings like that."
Seiya set the tool on the ground.
A hard, dry clink.
"...If only I'd noticed sooner."
Isuzu's voice trembled, just barely.
Seiya looked at her.
Those large eyes, impossible to read.
But somewhere behind them, he saw something like regret.
"...It's not your fault."
He said it shortly.
"It's all on me. I charged ahead on my own."
"Seiya..."
"That's enough. Go."
Seiya turned his back on her.
After a while, her footsteps faded into the distance.
Alone, Seiya looked up at the broken float.
The sky was a cloudless blue.
——
Night.
Seiya stood before the castle.
The castle where Latifa lived.
A quiet place, wrapped in a barrier.
"...Latifa. You in?"
"Seiya. Please, come in."
A soft voice answered from inside.
Seiya dragged his heavy feet through the door.
Latifa sat in a chair by the window.
Blind as she was, she couldn't see the night's darkness or the moonlight.
But the moment Seiya entered, she smiled, softly.
"You sound so tired today."
"...Yeah."
Seiya sat across from her.
"You don't have to push yourself."
Latifa spoke gently, as always.
Seiya sat in silence for a while.
Then, slowly, he opened his mouth.
"...You said something before. That when I'm enjoying myself, your body feels lighter."
"Yes."
"What did you mean by that?"
Seiya looked straight at her face.
Latifa laced her fingers together, as if hesitating.
"...My body is linked to whether you're enjoying yourself at the park."
"Linked...?"
"When you're not truly enjoying yourself, I grow weak like this."
Seiya was speechless.
"So when you smile, it eases me so much."
Latifa continued quietly.
"You loving the park—that becomes my strength."
Seiya clenched his fist.
(I was running from letting myself enjoy it.)
(I was making Latifa weak.)
"I don't want to force you. But when you smile, it makes me so happy."
Her voice was endlessly kind.
Seiya couldn't say anything.
He could only clench his fist.
——
Seiya left the castle and walked through the dark park.
Moonlight painted the ground pale blue.
Without realizing it, he was standing in front of the broken set pieces again.
He pulled a flashlight from his pocket and switched it on.
The beam lit up the ruined float.
Then his eyes locked onto a single point.
The broken section of the float.
There was an unfamiliar screw there.
A new, silver screw.
Something that hadn't been there yesterday.
Someone had tried to repair it.
Seiya crouched down.
He brought the flashlight close to the screw.
Tightened carefully.
"...So you're not done yet either."
He murmured, softly.
To no one in particular.
The night wind blew, and the broken float creaked faintly again.
Seiya stared at that screw for a long while.
——
That night, back home, Seiya pulled a file from his desk drawer.
His own proposal.
He started reading from the beginning.
Page by page, carefully.
(Where did I go wrong?)
(Where did I mess up?)
His hand stopped turning pages.
The security plan section.
The flawless plan Isuzu had written.
Seiya stared at that page for a long time.
Then he picked up his pen.
He began writing in the blank spaces.
Ways to use each cast member's strengths.
Moffle's mechanical skills.
Macaron's music.
Tiramy's unexpected talent.
Salama's reach on social media.
And Isuzu's security expertise.
As he wrote, Seiya realized.
(I was trying to do everything alone.)
(When I had allies from the very start.)
The pen raced across the paper.
In the dead of night, that sound alone filled the room.
——
The next morning.
Seiya stood in front of a small prefab hut behind the park.
Moffle's place.
He took one deep breath, then knocked.
"...Moffle. You there?"
A noise from inside.
Then the door opened.
A white, fluffy rodent-like figure.
Moffle stood there, looking thoroughly annoyed.
"...What. It's you, Seiya. What do you want this early?"
Seiya looked him straight in the eye.
And bowed his head.
"I need a favor."
"...Hey."
"Help me repair the set pieces."
Seiya's voice didn't waver.
Moffle stared at him for a moment.
Then snorted.
"Obviously. I'm not quitting till you tell me to."
With that, Moffle stepped out of the hut.
A toolbox gripped in his hand.
Seiya lifted his head.
He looked at Moffle's face.
There was the usual combative grin.
"But let me say one thing."
"...What."
"Don't you dare crush my park with your own self-righteous bullshit."
Seiya gave a small laugh.
"...Yeah. I know."
The morning sun stretched their two shadows long across the ground.
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