Amagi Brilliant Park - Volume 7 - Chapter Aft

Afterword 

Last issue was a pretty heavy story, so this one is about... the four girls who played a big part in the anime but haven’t had much screentime in the books. Also, it was annoying me, so I changed their attraction from Aquario to Elementario! It’s fine! This series flies by the seat of its pants! Now, some notes about each episode. 
That Time the Spirit of Fire Got Back From Work and Found Her Apartment in Flames 
I’m sure you’ve all been a rubbernecker to a house burning down (maybe it was even your own house). I have, too. 
One night in mid-winter, a residence in my neighborhood completely burned down. I just watched, feeling like, a writer has to see these things! (Apologies to the people who suffered damages, of course.) But while they fought the fire, a whole lot of water from the torrent got away from them and hit us rubberneckers! Many of them tried to run, but I just stayed where I was, steeling myself for divine retribution. 
I was soaked in an instant. The weight of that water... It was freezing. The scene of a fire is cold. It was very educational. 
I’m Not All Rotten, Okay? 
This is all about how Kobory is an unsung hero. 
I don’t know if people really ever did lighting controls with the PC-98, but that’s based on a story a car-loving friend of mine once told. He was a street racer type, and he loved tuning up his beloved old car. It was a model with a first-generation electrical system, and the factory settings included a limiter, so he had to change the programming in order to improve its specs. But you could only access the car’s system with a machine that ran DOS/V, which is very rare nowadays, so there were probably only a few people left in Japan who could mess with the car’s programming (as I write this, I still don’t know if he ever actually changed it!). 
I guess that as time passes, the number of people who can work with these old machines grow fewer and fewer. It almost seems to go without saying that hackers in fiction will be young gamer types, but I often think it would be great if one was a sixty year old man. Too bad I don’t have any chances to put one of those in my stories. Maybe someone else is doing it somewhere. 

An Unusual Combination 
“The Passion of the Muse” is what this basically comes down to. 
The people who control the purse strings at jobs are always respected by everyone. I’ve always been self-employed (like a green grocer), so it doesn’t fully resonate with me, of course. 
Speaking of finances, my supervisor Morii-kun often takes me out drinking to a place called “Ofuro” (it’s your typical dining pub). Morii-kun always takes the check and hands it over to the accountant at his company. When he does, the finances person always says loud enough for everyone else to hear: “Morii-kun, did you go to Ofuro (the bathhouse) with Gatou-san again?! You sure like that, huh?!” 
The people around me must get the wrong idea. It’s embarrassing. And Fantasia Bunko doesn’t cover expenses like those, just so you know. And I’ve never been to a bathhouse like that, though I go to saunas and communal baths a lot. I mean it. 
Sylphie Channel! Exciting Reviews 
Erm. Yes. Sorry for the weirdly hyper story. 
Sylphie is still a total mystery even to me, and I’m not sure I could write her sober, so I got falling-down drunk before I wrote that. She’s probably the kind of person who has dancing sunflowers grooving in her head at all times. Such optimism! It’s a mindset that a pessimistic old-timer like me can’t even get into. We could all learn a little from her. Just a little. 
I knew what to make it about immediately after watching a famous toy review program on a certain video site cover some bug spray that just happened to show up at their job. It was so ridiculous, but it was really funny, so maybe they’ll keep doing reviews of weird items like that. 
Next volume, I want to do a long-form story, but I don’t know how it’ll turn out! Anyway, thanks to everyone who was involved, and sorry for all the trouble!