Amagi Brilliant Park - Volume 2

Part 10

Seriously… why must I, the head of public relations, be the one who has to do this…

Tricen sighed as he stood in front of a meeting room full of formally-suited men. He was wearing the Lala Patch that gave him the appearance of a normal human being, though that did not relieve him of his uneasiness.

From left to right, the attendees of the meeting were: the representative and head of a real estate agency, a representative from an incredibly huge bank, the director of Amagi Development and a finance lawyer. Standing in front of a group of these VIPs was enough to scare any person. However, there was one more—on the right, was the CEO of Mal-Mart.

Mal-Mart!! Isn’t that the huge-ass American retail corporation that generates billions of dollars in sales!?

It appeared that this meeting would involve Mal-Mart and Amagi Brilliant Park.

Tricen was aware that Seiya, Isuzu and Ashe had been sneaking out for confidential meetings and sending out sketchy emails every now and then, but the scale of this ‘magic’ was clearly over the top. Just the thought of the world’s biggest corporation bothering to meet with Japan’s lousiest theme park would blow anyone’s mind away.

(This is insane! How am I supposed to chair a meeting with this many big shots!? Furthermore, I’m monolingual, so how am I supposed to understand any of the things they say? I’m so screwed!!!)

Tricen recalled the argument with Seiya earlier this morning, who had asked him to prepare for the meeting.

(I’m just a high schooler. No one would treat me seriously in that meeting. Don’t worry, just smoke something out as our ‘acting’ manager. Isuzu and I will help you out.)

There was no way Tricen could decline without sounding unreasonable.

It was currently 10 minutes into the meeting, which was started at 1600 hours. They’d completed their (rather awkward) exchange of name cards a while ago, and Tricen was left struggling to conjure up random topics like tomorrow’s weather to ease the deathly silence.

It also went without saying that the attendees were beginning to wonder why they were even called here in the first place.

“Ahem…it seems like the low air pressure is resulting in high chances of rain in east Tokyo tomorrow. Morning will mainly be cloudy, but there’s an 80% chance of rain in the afternoon. Don’t forget to bring your umbrellas tomorrow! Not to mention, the temperatures will be 8 degrees below average—”

“Tride-san, can we cut to the chase already?” The head of Amagi Development interrupted. By the way, ‘Tride’ was Tricen’s public name.

The head of Amagi Development was an old man in his 70s. Looking at his fierce, bulldog eyes and thick eyebrows, no one would be surprised that he used to be a bureaucrat in the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

For a while now, Amagi Development had had their eyes on turning Amagi Brilliant Park into a golf course. Nonetheless, Tricen doubted they’d come today just for a showdown. He was probably a slacker who played online mahjong all day while thinking he could crush the park anytime he wanted to.

In other words, this was just another man who leeched off society.

“You have gathered us all in this room for a ‘special request’, but we’ve discussed nothing apart from the weather. Let’s just get straight to the point, shall we?”

“Of course. My manager…I mean secretaries…were busy printing documents necessary for the meeting and they should be here any time now…”

However, Seiya did not appear.

Tricen had tried to contact their mobile phones countless times before the meeting, but to no avail. It was as if they didn’t even have reception. He could have sworn he saw them in office this morning, so where could those two have gone?

He snuck a glance for help at Ashe, who could only reply with a shrug.

“We can look at the documents and notes later. Perhaps you could brief us on the whole matter at hand?”

“Very well. Allow me to share the recent achievements of our theme park—”

“Please, cut that nonsense. Everyone knows this park doesn’t have anything but spider webs.”

“Excuse me? Our park has improved drastically in an incredibly short time frame.”

“Tride-san, do you think we’re stupid?”

“Of course not…I just…”

The attendees of the meeting were becoming impatient. Seeing that, Tricen’s face turned pale. He was mentally preparing himself to do silly things like talk about his favorite pop idols when the door swung open.

“Pardon our intrusion.”

Seiya and Isuzu walked into the room, panting. The two of them had business suits and had some documents and tablet PCs in hand.

“I apologize for the delay, boss. Here are the documents you requested. Would you like to have a look before I distribute them?”

The two of them lowered themselves and handed Tricen the folder.

“Hmph. Make sure to be punctual in the future.” He grabbed the folder and peeked inside. There was nothing apart from a few supermarket leaflets.

What am I supposed to do with that!?

Sensing Tricen’s distress, Seiya took the stage and faced the crowd with a smile.

“Good day, everyone. If you don’t mind, may I handle the briefing of the situation in place of Tride?”

The people nodded reluctantly. At the very least, Seiya knew they’d listen to his words now. Strangely, it did not seem like it was their first time meeting Seiya. They even forgave his lack of self-introduction.

What on earth is going on!? Seiya, are you really gonna do this?

“Thank you. Let us begin the discussion on the sale of Amagi Brilliant Park’s 2nd park.”

Tricen would have screamed his lungs out if not for Isuzu’s choke.

Although Seiya mentioned “discussion”, most of the concrete details had already been gone through during the past few weeks. As such, this meeting eventually became a confirmation of fine details.

Amagi Development objected strongly to the sale, but it seemed like head of Mal-Mart was interested. Apparently, they’d tried to break into the Japanese market once, but failed. This time, they were looking for a good deal so they could try again. They planned to build a huge supermarket that would house many brands and products. Thus, they’d need a big plot of land.

(I get that they were searching for land. But how did you know about this?)

Isuzu asked this very question three weeks back. Seiya might have been the acting manager of the park, but ultimately he was a high school student. He shouldn’t be aware of matters within Mal-Mart.

(I originally didn’t expect to be able to work with Mal-Mart on this.)

Seiya began his explanation.

(I simply wanted to sell the 2nd park for some quick cash. Any company would do the same. I was even mentally prepared to sell it to Amagi Development for them to build a golf course, if necessary. However, at the very least I’d like the new facility to gather a lot of people.)

And so Seiya began his quest on finding an appropriate company to sell the land to. He first targeted a discount furniture shop. He traveled all the way to their main office building, walked in, and spoke to the receptionist. And from there, he managed to be hooked up with the CEO.

(I’m guessing you used your magical powers?)

(Obviously. I doubt I could manage with just a smooth tongue. In exchange for keeping the fact that the receptionist is cheating on her spouse a secret, she brought me to her supervisor. It just so happened that the supervisor had a similar affair, and so he hooked me up with his manager in exchange for a vow of secrecy. After promising not to tell anyone about the manager’s previous acts of embezzlement, he introduced me to the head of the department. I must admit that the head’s membership in an SM club was hard to deal with…)

(I get it, I get it. You basically threatened all of them, didn’t you?)

Isuzu was appalled by how low Seiya would stoop to get what he wanted. It was only then that she was thankful she baited him to use his power on her, so that her thoughts could never be read again. Otherwise, there was no way she could be at ease while at work.

(Your usage of words twists my benevolence, Sento. I merely took advantage of their weaknesses to gain their cooperation.)

(A.K.A., threatening?)

(Whatever. Anyway, making use of an individual’s weakness isn’t enough to manipulate a company. I went through all that trouble only to find out that the company had no intention of opening new branches. And so I gave up.)

Although Seiya gave up trying to convince them, he was treated to some shogayaki at a nearby restaurant.

(At least this guy knows some social skills…)

(I know, right? Nonetheless, he kept telling me to come back after I’ve graduated from university. I get the same response for every company I tried. There were also times I mistimed my powers. It was then I had a taste of a student’s job-search.)

(So what did you do?)

(I decided to gun for the biggest shopping mall in Japan. I figured surely they’d at least set up a branch around here.)

(Did it work?)

(In the end, I realized their business prospects were pathetic. Not only were they not intending to set up any new stores, there were planning to downsize instead…)

Nonetheless, during the discussions, the manager questioned Seiya, asking if he was one of their rival company’s spies.

(And that rival happens to be the Japanese branch of Mal-Mart?)

(Bingo. There was a rumor spreading around that Mal-Mart was planning on expanding to other countries. And so I rushed over to their main office in Shinjuku.)

It so happened that Mal-Mart was looking for a suitable piece of land in east Tokyo to set up a new store. In fact, they’d gotten several offers, but rejected them all because of various unfavorable factors such as high cost of land and poor traffic in the area.

(I’ve mocked Amaburi as a terrible theme park, but I must admit that it has its merits—especially its location. It takes less than an hour to reach our park using public transport from Shinjuku, or about 10 minutes by car using the highway. The area around us is hilly, meaning there aren’t many residential and shopping areas nearby. I’d say we have the perfect location for a shopping mall.)

And so Seiya made use of his contacts to hook up with the relevant staff and made an offer. Of course, Seiya couldn’t say the talks went smoothly from there. There was an unquestionable amount of doubt concerning the abnormally cheap offer that Seiya gave. He also had considerable difficulty timing his magical power given its limited nature.

(At any rate, the negotiations on the prices are proceeding smoothly. Our biggest concern should be Amagi Development.)

Amagi Development has been setting their eyes on us, waiting to kill us for a while now. I really doubt they’ll allow this deal to proceed as smoothly as that.

(They will, because they’ll get a share of the profits. I bet Amagi Development’s finances are about as shaky as ours.)

(I can’t say the same if Takaya Kurisu were present. He’d do anything to stop this deal.)

Takaya Kurisu, who had previously been setting his eyes on Isuzu and gang, revealed his true nature a while back and suddenly disappeared. Until now, they’d yet to figure his true intentions, but then again, thanks to his disappearance, there weren’t any formidable foes left in Amagi Development.

In other words, this deal was heading to a good conclusion. They should succeed in completing the transaction as long as the two of them didn’t mess anything up.

(…Are we really sure we want to do this?) Isuzu asked Seiya again, in their office on the night of their discussion.

(Deserted or not, the 2nd park is still part of Amaburi. It even houses the stadium we worked so hard to save…)

Isuzu couldn’t find any more words to describe her grief.

(I didn’t know you’d be so concerned about this. Don’t worry, I’ll talk to the cast members before we seal the deal. Honestly, though, I can’t think of any other way to save our park if we don’t get the approval from them…)

Seiya spoke his true feelings. He had already gone against his morals to achieve this. Nonetheless, he understood the feelings of his cast members. The 2nd park was as big as the 1st, so wouldn’t selling it be equivalent to losing half of Amaburi?

(I’m sure many of them believe that one day Amaburi would get popular to the point where they’d need to use the 2nd park again. Won’t your actions be betraying their dreams?)

Moffle, in particular, would definitely slam Seiya’s door open, shouting “Another one of your selfish acts! I’ll never approve of this!” and start a fight with him. This was the reason why Seiya had not spoken a word to Moffle about this—at least not yet.

(Revival of the 2nd park, huh? I regret to say we’re years too early to even hope for this,) Seiya said.

(Our park might sink before that even happens. I remember telling them that a drowning man cannot be picky about the plank he clings to dear life on.)

(That’s true, but…)

(We simply don’t have the luxury of worrying about matters so far into the future, you hear me?)

(…I guess you’re right…)

(Look at the bright side. If we make it through the next one or two years, we’d have a huge supermarket right at our doorsteps. I’m sure you know what that means.)

It was a win-win situation. Shoppers of Mal-Mart could hop over to Amaburi to enjoy their holiday, and guests of Amaburi could do some shopping after a day’s worth of fun. This was certainly a benefit the managers of Mal-Mart couldn’t ignore.

(So cut it out with that sullen face. If everything goes as planned, the park would eventually coexist with Mal-Mart, without the need for my supervision. Even if I were to leave this place, you guys wouldn’t need to worry about a thing.)