Volume 1 - CH 4.4

Part 4

It was Thursday morning. Tiramie was on the bus to work where he did his everyday ritual of surfing the net and reading news articles on his smartphone.

As he scrolled through articles with money-laundering scandals, traffic accidents in some unknown countryside, bombings in other nations, and some stupid statement made by an arrogant prick from a business federation, he came across a tiny article on local news.

“Fire Breaks Out at Kajinomoto Stadium”

Kajinomoto Stadium was a famous soccer stadium located beside Amagi Town. Since that was the home ground for the soccer team Melody Shibasaki, Tiramie frequently went there to spectate matches. He clicked the link and read the article.

(Early this morning, a small fire broke out at Kajinomoto Stadium, located in Choufu. The Choufu fire department was dispatched and the fire was extinguished promptly without any casualties. The police are investigating the cause of the fire, but it is believed that it was due to a faulty electrical appliance inside the stadium.)

It was a considerably short article. And that was forgivable, for the essential details were that a small fire broke out in the middle of the night and nobody was harmed.

It was an old stadium, so there was bound to be faulty equipment in there.

“Mi…?”

Wait, hold on a sec. Today’s Thursday, the 2nd week of March. The first match of the J League between Melody Shibazaki and Kurawa Metz was supposed to be held in the stadium this Saturday. There’s no mistaking it; I even swallowed my tears working in this dying park because Macaron said he’d get me good tickets.

To think that a fire occurred with such bad timing…Would they be okay?

*

“This is definitely not okay!” said the representative of administration in the emergency meeting with the various department heads. “While it’s true that the fire wasn’t that big, the firefighters used a lot of water. I know that we shouldn’t blame them for it, but because of that a lot of electrical equipment in the stadium and from our neighbors is wet.”

The projector in the meeting room displayed the terrible sight to illustrate the extent of the damage. A worker was busy using a pump to drain the water out of equipment that was almost fully submerged in water. A firefighter who stood in front of the charred electric generator was yelling at the photographer to leave the area.

“We’ll have to replace all of the generators. The parts aren’t expensive, but because this is an old facility we have to order them from the old supplier, and that would take more than a week. Also, in order to prevent this from happening again in the future, we’ll have to get specialists to inspect the facilities, but they are limited in number.”

“So what does this all mean?”

The representative from their biggest shareholder rubbed his temples and said, “We won’t be able to host the match on Saturday. The match will be held at 5pm, so adequate lighting is essential. The problem is that our current power supply won’t suffice. Even if we barely manage to bring the brightness levels to acceptable standards, we won’t be able to do anything else. The snack stalls won’t even be able to heat their products.”

“What on earth…”

“So it seems like this is unavoidable. We have done this several times in the past because of typhoons and earthquakes, though. Prepare an announcement for the postponement.”

“But this is the opening match! This is important for those who have made it past the preliminaries. Our opponent was last year’s champion too; we’re sure to get lots of spectators. Is there something we can do about this?”

Gloom hung over the meeting room. All the tickets had already sold out. An abundant amount of resources would have to be used to control the disorder and refund their supporters. It definitely wasn’t something their disaster insurance would cover.

“All we can do now is contact the league manager and request a reschedule for our match. I’m sure there have been instances of matches taking place over consecutive days.”

The meeting room burst into activity.

“No way…that’ll put a lot of stress on the players! We shouldn’t force them to do this!”

“The people might accept this if it were a typhoon, but this is just a tiny fire!”

“And we’re giving too short of a notice! We can’t just…!”

The representatives began arguing among themselves, hurling whatever comments they pleased.

“Erm, may I?”

Amid the chaos, the representative from one of the sponsors raised his hand. Normally he would be what people would call the yes man, agreeing to everyone’s opinions without voicing his own. And it was this precise reason that nobody took notice of his attempt at voicing his own opinion.

“E-Excuse me!”

The others stopped their arguments and diverted their attention towards him.

“What is it?”

“I remember there should be an old contract regarding situations like this. Give me a moment—”

Saying that, the man silently started up his tablet computer. The older members gave displeased looks at his behavior, but those that were of a similar age to him tried to sneak a peek at the applications he was using.

“Ah, here it is. It’s a contract signed in 1993 involving Kajinomoto Stadium, Choufu and Amagi, together with this ‘Maple’ agency…”

“A ‘Maple’ agency?”

“It refers to the management of Amagi Brilliant Park. I’m sure everyone is aware that it’s the old amusement park beside Amagi…”

Half of the members gazed up at the ceiling and nodded, as if remembering the glory days of the park.

“Ah, that amusement park.”

“It’s still running? Impressive…”

“Actually, we should still have old posters of it in this stadium.”

“Come to think of it…”

As they were discussing among themselves, the man continued, “This is part of what the contract says. Apparently, there is a stadium in Amagi Brilliant Park itself, and according to the contract, the stadium in Amagi Brilliant Park will provide aid in times like this. In exchange for bearing the costs incurred for the usage of the stadium, they will be allowed to put advertisement posters on the park around the stadium during the match at lowered rates…”

In other words, they could use the amusement park’s field for free. The representative from the league checked with the authorities, and surprisingly enough confirmed that this was allowed. There are strict regulations on the state of the field for such official matches like this, but the park had been maintaining the stadium every year.

Nonetheless, the executives of Kajinomoto Stadium voiced their concerns.

“Wait a minute, our stadium can hold around 50,000 visitors, and we’re expecting it to be close to full capacity. There’s no way an amusement park’s stadium can hold so many people.”

“But the attached documents say otherwise…”

“Nonsense! I never heard of such a large park in our neighboring town! They must have fabricated this.”

The executives’ suspicions were understandable. But then again it was still a possibility. The manager of the soccer team raised his hand.

“Nonetheless, we’d be grateful if we are really able to use it. We should head over to take a look right away. That’ll ease our suspicions. At any rate, let’s contact the Maple agency…”

“…Y-You’re right. Hey, get to it.”

The secretary nodded and searched up the telephone number before making a dial. The secretary briefed the person on the phone about their plight and explained the contents of the contract. The room was dead silent apart from the echoes of the secretary’s voice.

Shortly after that, the call ended with words of gratitude exchanged.

“I’ve spoken to the manager of the park.”

“And?”

“We can use the stadium anytime. They are also able to accommodate our crowd…”

An hour after the phone call, 10 representatives from Kajinomoto Stadium arrived at Amagi Brilliant Park.

Because it would be unbefitting for a high schooler to show them around whilst claiming to be the manager, Seiya appointed Wrench-kun, a cast member, for the job instead.

Wrench-kun was a real cast member who was born from the mechanical realm Zora. His role in the maintenance crew was to take charge of the repairs and maintenance of the attractions and facilities in the park. Throughout the week, Seiya had ordered Wrench-kun to clean and prepare the humongous stadium for use.

As his name implied, Wrench-kun took the form of a wrench with limbs growing out. Despite that, the people from Kajinomoto Stadium took no notice of that. It must have been due to the magical charm used by the real cast members whenever they went out.

Seiya and Isuzu took the role of random receptionists and followed behind Wrench-kun. A tool-shaped figure leading a group of businessmen in suits was definitely something you didn’t see every day. Although Wrench-kun had an adorable appearance, he did not smile one bit. Perhaps out of professionalism, he briefed the representatives with a straight and composed expression.

“This big entrance is split into 4 big areas. The seat allocation display should work with some minor adjustments…”

Wrench-kun explained every detail: from the seating plan, quantity of catered food, and number of toilets to the route vehicles delivering equipment and supplies should take. He also showed them around various facilities like lockers for the teams, rooms for the commentators and equipment like the display projectors, advertisement printers, lighting system, and, of course, the condition of the soccer field.

“The usage of portable antennas should provide ample reception. Also, it would be best to hire some temporary shuttle bus services because walking on foot from either of the two nearest train stations would take more than 30 minutes. This concludes the tour of the stadium.”

Wrench-kun wrapped up the tour that took slightly more than an hour.

“This definitely isn’t perfect, but still…” the general managers pondered over the matter. “…Excuse me. Then again, shouldn’t we be able to make something out of this?”

“I agree that the facilities here are sufficient. But having the players use a field they aren’t used to would certainly be messy…” said the league representative who tagged along for the visit.

Everyone voiced their concerns and hesitated in coming to a decision.

“Maybe we should discuss this back in our office. There’s no way we can decide here.”

“Very well. We appreciate your prompt response on this matter,” Wrench-kun said with an expressionless face.

The representatives from Kajinomoto Stadium expressed their gratitude before rushing back.

“Hey, kid. I don’t know much about what’s happening, but…”

After sending them off, Wrench-kun took out a cigarette from seemingly nowhere and lighted it up. His behavior would come off rather odd to anyone else, but Seiya had become desensitized to anything magical throughout these 10 days.

“…Were you anticipating this to happen?”

“I said it at the garden, didn’t I? I received a magical power from Latifa.”

“Hmph. The ability to tell the future, huh? Whatever, I’ve got some preparations to do, so I’m off.”

Wrench-kun spun around and walked away.

“Wasn’t your power to read people’s minds?” Isuzu questioned, making sure that they were alone.

“Yeah.”

“Then you shouldn’t have been able to predict this.”

“I wonder if that’s really true?”

Spewing his emotionless remark, Seiya headed towards the administrative building. In less than an hour, they received a phone call from Kajinomoto Stadium.

“We’d like to use your stadium. Let us discuss the details soon.”

*

Muse finished her second performance of the day and was just about to have lunch at the staff canteen. As she was walking through the underpass, Tiramie came running over shouting in excitement.

“Breaking news, mi! Breaking news, mi!”

He bumped into the other cast members by accident, spinning in circles before knocking on the wall and falling over. The look on Tiramie’s face as he rubbed his head while saying “Mi! Mi!” gave off a mischievous impression, but it was also quite cute. Nonetheless, Muse learned of Tiramie’s hobby of sexually harassing girls during her first year in Amaburi, so she decided not to extend too warm of a greeting.

“Are you all right, Tiramie-san?”

“Thanks, Muse-chan. Actually, my stomach is hurting more than my head, can you give it a rub? Not here, a little lower…”

Eww.

Muse faked a choke in an attempt to conceal her disgust and continued, “So what is the breaking news?”

“Don’t just ignore me, mi. Anyway, breaking news, mi! Melody Shibasaki’s playing at the 2nd park’s stadium for the opening match!”

Muse did not have much interest in soccer, but it was still shocking to hear.

“That’s the team participating in the J league, right? Why?”

“They can’t use Kajinomoto Stadium because of a fire last night and according to some old contract, Amaburi’s stadium would be used in this case instead! In other words, we’re their pinch hitter, mi!”

“Right…”

Now that I think of it, Tiramie’s a huge supporter of Melody. He must be elated to hear that they’re playing here.

Seeing how this wasn’t ringing her bell, Tiramie snickered.

“Muse-chan, you don’t get it, mi. The spectators who turn up for the match need to enter the park first. And it’s the season opener, so we’ll be expecting tens of thousands of guests, mi!”

“Wait, then doesn’t that mean…”

“That’s right, mi! We might just be able to hit our target thanks to this!”

It was then, Muse recalled the word “miracle” that Seiya referred to at the sky garden.

*

The backstage was in total chaos in the afternoon.

They were busy making reservations with the shuttle bus companies, planning out the route for the spectators, and revising the staff roster to handle the increasing demand for manpower. Furthermore, the representatives from Kajinomoto Stadium had arrived for negotiations.

It could be said that none of these tasks were easy. They had an outstanding lack of time. Nonetheless, they had to have everything ready to go within 48 hours.

The cast members onstage were performing relentlessly, while those in the backstage were running to and fro carrying out the tasks they were assigned to. The cast members worked with the other staff members to handle the small matters one at a time. When complex problems arose, Seiya would step in to issue directions, telling them to “do this”, “do that”, or to “keep this in view for follow-up measures”.

Throughout these few days, Isuzu had been assuming the role of Seiya’s secretary. And because of that, she had noticed something about him.

Doesn’t he seem unusually mechanical today?

It was already very close to midnight when Seiya inquired, “Wait, I almost forgot. How’s today’s visitor count?” And that was strange, as Seiya had always been worrying about the visitor count before.

“2,087 people. Not much difference from yesterday.”

“I see,” Seiya responded without shifting his focus from the legal documents he was reading. Not a single trace of emotion leaked out from his tone of voice. He was neither at peace, nor was he discouraged.