Wait, wait, wait. That fairy, Bacross... could he actually be an agent of Kurisu—of the magician Idina? Seiya turned to Bacross and used his magic. “What... What are you planning?”
“Planning? What a rude question, baku.” At the same time, Bacross’s thoughts came to him: I’m not planning anything, baku. I just don’t want to see tragedy repeat itself in the amusement park where I’ve made my home, baku. It was Seiya’s first time using his magic on Bacross, so he didn’t lose any important memories about him.
“...Okay, I get it.” Seiya took another deep breath. He was starting to calm down a little. “Let’s assume... let’s just assume... that that was my real future. Is there any way to avoid that tragedy?”
“I don’t know,” Bacross admitted. “That’s the trouble, baku.”
“Now that I’ve seen the future,” Seiya asked, “can I use what I’ve learned to change it?”
“Normally, you could. That’s why I only show people dreams of the near future, baku. But you’re different. You might be able to change a lot of little details, but it’ll still come out more or less the same, baku.”
“What if I don’t move here? Will I avoid that future then?”
Bacross sadly shook his head. “You’d end up with a similar fate. Even if you don’t move, your amusement park will close some day. It’s going to close even if you find a new plot of land to move it to.”
Seiya remembered the email he’d gotten from the other real estate agent the other night; there were no other really good properties available. That dearth of options was the only reason Sanami Lake had even seemed acceptable. Taking one of the other candidates might end up driving them to an even more dismal fate.
“So, what should I do?” Seiya wondered.
“I’m telling you, I don’t know, baku.”
“Then why did you show this to me?”
“If someone was sick and didn’t realize it, you’d tell them, baku. I think your mana and my ability resonated, and caused a distant future I wouldn’t normally see to manifest, baku.”
“Is it set in stone?” Seiya wanted to know.
“The parts you’ve seen more or less are, baku.”
“More or less?”
“Yes. More or less.”
“Is that the... ‘you can make small changes’ kind of ‘more or less’?” Seiya asked.
“No, baku. It’s the ‘more or less’ that allows for different actions to lead to a totally different result, baku.”
“But then how—”
“I keep telling you, I don’t know, baku! You really are stupid, aren’t you?!”
Seiya didn’t have the energy for anger anymore, so instead, he folded his arms and racked his brain as hard as he could. He had no proof that this future was real. If Kurisu, otherwise known as Idina, could manipulate his own memories, then couldn’t he plant fake memories in Bacross, causing him to display a fake future?
Our enemies wouldn’t want us moving to Sanami Lake, after all, he reasoned. It wouldn’t be surprising to see them to try to stop us. On the other hand, what if this wasn’t one of Idina’s plots? That would increase the credibility of the future vision. The Seiya of six months ago—from a time before AmaBri—would dismiss it as being just a hallucination, but things were different now.
Seiya had just used his magic to learn Bacross’s motivation. He knew that the tapir wasn’t doing this to torment him, now, which also meant that he could put a certain degree of faith in Bacross’s explanation. Was it false? True? There was no way to be sure, right now—which meant he effectively knew nothing. The future vision was no help at all.
“You seem troubled, baku,” Bacross observed.
“...... I am. I also had a rough night last night, so I’m just really tired, anyway.”
“Was my aid unwelcome, baku?”
“Yeah... no. I don’t know.” Seiya heard a bell chiming nearby; it sounded like an alarm clock.
“Ahh. It’s time, baku.” Bacross, who had been sitting on a bench, now stood up.
“Time?” Seiya asked in confusion.
“Yeah. Time for my monos, baku.”
Seiya was shocked. “What did you say?”
“I’m part of the cast here at Sanami Amusement Park, baku. I stayed here even after it closed, baku,” Bacross explained. “I give dreams to the urban explorers and maintenance men who come here from time to time, and manage to get some animus that way, but I’m at the end of my rope, baku.”
“But... isn’t there something we can do? Come to my park,” Seiya offered. “We can afford to hire one more person, and—”
“Thank you, baku. But if I could do that, I’d have gotten hired elsewhere a long time ago. I can’t leave this place, baku.”
“Why not?”
“I’ve made too many memories with the guests,” Bacross told him. “If I leave, I’ll disappear on the spot, baku.”
“Wait,” Seiya protested, “I don’t understand.”
“It’s what happens when we stay in a place for a long time, baku. We ‘take root,’ as you’d say.”
“That’s ridiculo—hey!”
Bacross’s form began turning translucent, and sparks of light began to shed off of him. “It’s okay. I made a lot of joyful memories, and I got to be useful one last time, baku. I have no regrets.”
“Hey! Wait! You need to—”
“I believe you can change your future, baku. Fight,” the tapir advised him. “Don’t run.”
“Hey!”
“Bye-bye.” As Bacross faded away, his Rolex watch landed hard on the ground. That was the end. The amusement park was empty, and Seiya stood alone in its windswept ruins.
●
Despite his promise, Seiya hadn’t contacted Isuzu all day. By the time the sun was going down, she gave in, explained things privately to Moffle, and asked him to drive her out after the park closed. Even in one of the park’s company cars, they could make it to the site in a little over an hour.
As they drove down the Chuo Expressway at night, Moffle said, “We’re moving... to Sanami Lake, fumo?”
“Yes,” she sighed. “I’m sure you’ll be against it.”
“Well, actually... it might just be what we need, fumo.” Moffle’s response surprised her. “If that’s what he wants to do, I’ll go along with it, fumo. Not much else we can do, is there?”
“Yes... I agree with you,” Isuzu said.
“For now, we need to make sure Seiya’s okay, fumo. He still hasn’t contacted you?”
“No... Even though I told him to be careful. I’m worried...”
I really should have turned back and gone with him, Isuzu thought. If anything happened to him, I’ll regret it for the rest of my life. She hadn’t told Moffle about the previous night’s events. She’d fudged the timeline to say they made it back on the last train last night, and that Seiya had headed back for Sanami Lake that morning. She wasn’t sure if Moffle believed her lie or not; she had carelessly told Latifah they were spending the night there, after all. If Latifah had mentioned that fact to Moffle, Isuzu’s timeline would be proven false. A careless mistake, Isuzu thought mournfully.
“Moffu. That reminds me. Last night...”
Isuzu began to tremble. “Wh-What?”
“...? What’s wrong, fumo?”
“Nothing...” she told him awkwardly. “What about last night?”
“Right,” said Moffle. “Last night, I went to a mahjong parlor with Macaron, Tiramii, and Kodain, fumo.”
“I... I see.”
“Kodain’s a real hustler, see. You wouldn’t believe it. He cleaned us all out, fumo.”
Isuzu couldn’t imagine the statue-like Kodain even playing mahjong. “I was unaware that you played mahjong, Lord Moffle.”
“Just a little, fumo. Macaron’s awful at it. He’s awful, but he loves it, fumo. Tiramii is the type to step on land mines.”
“It’s still hard to imagine,” Isuzu said.
“Want to play with us next time? I’ll teach you, fumo.”
“No, thank you.”
“Thought not,” Moffle snickered.
Just then, Isuzu’s smartphone vibrated; it was a message from Seiya. 《I’m at the entrance to the ruins. Sorry to worry you,》 came the brief reply.