Epilogue
A few days later, they held a meeting between the various department heads. Seiya hadn’t told them about the three million attendance requirement yet, but the executive-level cast seemed to have grasped an inkling of the situation. There was probably some harsh condition affixed to the sale of the second park. That’s the only reason Kanie-kun looks so depressed despite the numbers we’re pulling, they were probably thinking.
Rumors were starting to spread among the cast that backed up that theory. Even the three million attendance number came up from time to time. The rumors didn’t seem to have originated from the park, so they must have come from someone at either Amagi Development or the Digima Group—at any rate, they had been started by someone outside of the park, for some purpose.
Of course, Seiya had known that this would come out some day. He was just glad it hadn’t come out in August, when group morale was crucial; perhaps the cast members who’d heard the rumors had intentionally chosen not to speak about it, at that time. Then, after summer vacation was over, they’d relaxed a little, and become more loose-lipped.
“Are you going to tell them everything?” Isuzu asked Seiya on their way to the conference room.
“Yes,” he responded. “There’s little to be gained in hiding it, anymore. I need people to get ready to act.” There was a tension behind Seiya’s voice; his vaguely laissez-faire tone from the past week was completely gone.
When she’d gone with Moffle to pick up Seiya that night, he had appeared out of the dark ruins like a ghost, face gaunt and pale. He didn’t meet her eyes, and his voice sounded hollow. Isuzu and Moffle were both worried about him, but he barely said a word. They ate at a family restaurant, then dropped Seiya off at home.
The next day, Seiya arrived at the park, looking completely rejuvenated. He looked in the mirror in his office and went through his usual ritual, telling himself “Yes, looking good today!” and such. With some uncertainty, Isuzu had asked him what happened that day in the ruins. Seiya’s expression saddened for a moment, and then he shrugged. “I saw a vision of hell.”
“What?”
“I just... met someone else in the business,” Seiya clarified. “I didn’t get to know him long, but I’ve decided to believe his last words.” On his left wrist, Seiya was wearing an expensive-looking watch.
Is that a Rolex? Isuzu wondered. When did he buy that?
“We need to stay on the attack,” Seiya said. “I’ve thought of a way forward.” The watch was still on his wrist as they headed for the conference room now.
Later on, Isuzu heard that, apparently, Seiya had withdrawn from managing the culture festival at school. He’d gotten a lot of blowback from his classmates over his abrupt withdrawal—rumors swirled around the school, even reaching Isuzu, who was in another class. (Incidentally, Isuzu’s Whole Cucumber Yakisoba idea had been shot down in a heartbeat.)
He was awful, they said. So irresponsible! He never should have offered if he was just going to drop out! But Seiya didn’t care about the rumors; his focus now must be solely on the question of how to win. Isuzu started to wonder if he had even forgotten the night they shared together. It was a sad thought, but also reassuring. Well... more reassuring than sad.
The two of them entered the conference room. “Sorry for the wait! I will now explain the situation!” Seiya said, facing Moffle, Tricen, Ashe, Kenjuro, and the other department heads. Then, he started to explain the major points in play.
He came clean about the unreasonable three million attendance number. Then, just as morale seemed about to plummet, he said, “I’d been thinking about moving the park to get around it—that if we could get away from Amagi City, we could relax how we do things a little bit. I’ve been sent several candidates for the move.”
The others looked uneasy. Where were they going to go? Would a move really be okay?
“There was one plot of land among the candidates that I think might just do the trick.” Seiya stuck a blown-up copy of a piece of paper to the whiteboard behind him, slamming the board as he did so. “We won’t be moving! But we will be buying up the remains of this old theater in the middle of Shibuya!”
Everyone’s eyes went wide. What could he be planning?
“We’ll make a second gate here!” Seiya went on confidently. “An AmaBri expansion! It’ll be indoors, so we can pack guests in, even during the winter! And it’ll be in the heart of the city, so we can rack up attendance even on weekdays! By my calculations, if we work our asses off, we can maybe bring in three or four hundred thousand!”
The entire group was shocked.
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