[MashUp] Ch 21: Takuma's Speech

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The courtyard was so quiet that a pin could have been heard.

No—quieter than that.

Even the wind seemed strangled, dying mid-breath in the air.

J-Janitors?

The six hundred fairies stared blankly, minds grinding to a halt.

"So..."

Takuma ignored their shell-shocked faces. His voice remained steady, detached, as he issued commands.

"By sunrise tomorrow," he said, "I want every stone tile shining so bright it mirrors your ugly faces. Every window so spotless that birds mistake it for sky. And the toilets…"

He chuckled. "Every corner cleaner than your filthy little souls."

His hands slid casually into his pockets.

"You won't be selling fake dreams anymore. From now on, you'll use your own hands to build something 'too perfect to be real.' A world where even the air holds no impurity. An absolutely spotless paradise."

"That's the only thing left for you to do. The only thing you should do."

"Understand?"

Takuma leaned against the railing, looking down with a gaze that said 'I'm done speaking—now go ahead and make fools of yourselves.'

"Hmm..." he asked lightly, "who's in favor? And who's against?"

His words fell like knives, his aura pressing like a mountain.

But silence didn't last long.

When survival itself gets flipped upside down, pride becomes the last weapon of defiance.

"I object!"

Moffle the mole was the first to shake off the dragon's suffocating pressure. He jabbed a paw toward Takuma, voice shrill with rage.

"What's the point of scrubbing this place clean?! Guests come to play, not admire shiny tiles! You're dragging us to ruin!"

"That's right! We're proud performers, not janitors!"

"No guest will ever come for this nonsense!"

A scattered chorus of resistance followed—not as loud as before, but desperate, clinging to scraps of dignity.

Isuzu Sento's face drained of color. Her magic rifle shimmered into being, ready to fire warning blanks at the crowd, but Takuma stopped her with a single glance.

He wasn't angry. In fact, he laughed. "Ruin?"

"No. You're already standing in ruin."

He raised a finger and wagged it lazily.

"Why do you think guests come to a theme park? For those rusted piles of junk you call attractions?"

"Wrong."

"They come to buy dreams. To taste a world cut free from reality. And you—" his smile turned razor-sharp, "—can't even offer them a clean bathroom. Who are you to speak of dreams?"

"What you've been selling are cheap illusions. Sweaty, greasy, reeking of disappointment."

Then his voice flared, hot and compelling, a spark thrown into dry tinder.

"What I'm asking for is the first step toward a miracle! You will turn this place into an absolutely pristine domain. When a place is so clean it feels unreal, so flawless that not a speck of dust dares exist—"

"That cleanliness itself becomes the spectacle. The fantasy. The first dream we'll sell."

His heretical gospel of purity left the fairies reeling in even deeper confusion.

At that moment, a frail figure stepped out from behind him.

Princess Latifa.

Her face was still flushed with an unnatural pink, but her eyes carried the resolve of royalty.

Slowly, step by step, she walked to the edge of the terrace. To Takuma's side. And in front of six hundred stunned fairies—

She extended her trembling, silk-gloved hand.

And took his.

That gesture was nothing less than a coronation.

"My people," she said, her voice echoing across the courtyard through the castle's amplifiers, trembling but clear, "I know Takuma-sama's decision sounds outrageous. But think. Every method we've tried until now has failed."

Her gaze swept across her lost, anxious subjects, eyes glistening with unshed tears.

"The Oracle brought him to us. He… he is our last, and only hope."

She turned, gazing up at Takuma's profile. Her blue eyes shone with trust so absolute it bordered on worship, with a devotion she herself didn't yet recognize.

"So I beg you—trust him as you have trusted me. Place the future of Amagi Brilliant Park, and all of our fates, in his hands."

Her plea froze the crowd.

Takuma felt the trembling warmth in his palm, glanced at the princess who had staked everything on him, and for a fleeting second, his smile softened.

He tightened his grip on her hand in silent reply.

Then his gaze dropped back to the crowd, voice cold once more. "Looks like your princess has more guts than the lot of you."

"You all know about that, don't you? If we don't hit half a million visitors in three months—this park, and all of you, vanish."

The doomsday countdown laid bare sent every heart plummeting.

"Three months? Half a million?"

Takuma let out a mocking laugh. "Lucky for you, I don't even need that much time."

He lifted one finger.

And under six hundred disbelieving stares, declared words that shattered their world.

"I'll do it in one month."

"One month to reach half a million."

The courtyard sank into an even heavier silence.

Every fairy gawked, convinced their ears had broken along with their sanity.

One month? Half a million?

"That… that's impossible!" a ticketing fairy shrieked.

"One month means about sixteen thousand seven hundred guests a day (16,700/day)! Our all-time record… isn't even three thousand!"

The numbers crushed what little hope they'd been clinging to.

They no longer looked at him as a madman. But as a tyrant they couldn't comprehend.

Takuma looked very pleased with their dumbfounded expressions.

He tossed them their last choice like scraps thrown to beggars.

"Here's what you've got. Two paths."

"One: cling to your pathetic pride, wait three months, and rot into forgotten trash."

"Two…"

He paused, voice dripping with dark allure.

"Hand me your lives. Throw away your stupid doubts. Go all-in for one month. And then, with me—witness a miracle."

He didn't wait for their answer. Instead, he drew the trembling princess closer against his chest and turned away, leading her from the terrace.

Six hundred petrified souls watched his back as his voice echoed one last time over the courtyard.

"Now, make your choice."

"Rot away like cowards. Or gamble everything—"

"And live gloriously."

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