Over in the Programming Team, everyone was also playing through the prologue of the ga. But unlike the others, their main focus wasn't just on the experience—it was testing the ga's performance and stability.
Since they had access to internal builds, their progress was a bit faster than everyone else's. When Ichin walked over to Ruri Gokou's desk, he noticed her screen was playing the scene where the protagonist awakens their Persona.
Her eyes were wide open in excitent as she stared at the awakening animation, practically trembling with enthusiasm. It felt like her long-suppressed chuunibyou spirit was about to explode again.
Clearly, she hadn't even noticed Ichin standing beside her—she was completely imrsed in the story.
Ichin had already seen this animated cutscene before, but watching it again still filled him with satisfaction.
Money well spent, he thought to himself. The animation quality this ti was way better than he rembered—it exceeded all expectations.
Not wanting to disturb the overwheld Ruri, Ichin quietly moved over to where Umiko was.
As the head of the programming team, Umiko was also playing the ga, but she wasn't focusing on the story—her attention was on a series of performance test trics.
Ichin sat down in the chair next to her and asked, "So, how's the testing going?"
After listening to her report, he nodded with satisfaction. "That's really good news. Once the final build is ready, it should et the system requirents for most gars out there. Next step is optimizing for the Switch."
"Ah, the Switch…"
Umiko scratched her head, clearly a bit troubled. "That thing's a pain to deal with. But luckily we don't have to release a demo version, so we've got so ti to work on optimization."
"No rush. We'll take it step by step."
Glancing at the current CPU and GPU usage, Ichin decided not to bother Umiko any further. He left the programming team area and returned to his office to continue working.
Aside from his daily responsibilities, there was one more thing in May that Ichin had to take part in: the school's sports festival.
"Sports festival, huh…"
In the classroom, Ichin looked down at the registration form in front of him and scratched his head helplessly. "Do I really have to participate?"
Last year, he had completely skipped it. That was when the studio had just been ford, and he had zero ntal bandwidth to care about any school events.
The class sports rep patted Ichin on the shoulder and pleaded, "Co on, just sign up for at least one sprint."
"Sigh… alright, fine. Just one sprint."
After writing his na in the 100-ter dash section, he handed the form back to the class rep.
Whatever, I'll just have a bit of fun. Ichin wasn't expecting to win or anything—it was senior year, and he was just showing up for the sake of participation.
He turned to the side and asked, "Utaha, you're not joining anything?"
"Nope~" Utaha smiled and shook her head. "I'm not athletic at all. If I got injured, it'd be a huge hassle. I'll just be a spectator."
Fair enough—getting hurt wouldn't be worth it. Ichin glanced at the event list again and saw there was a three-legged race, but decided there was no need to draw attention.
He'd run the 100 ters, then spend the rest of the day relaxing with Utaha as a spectator. Sounded like a good plan.
"Oh, by the way," he suddenly rembered, "since it's the sports festival, Utaha, will your parents be coming to watch?"
Toyogasaki High's athletic field was huge, and during the sports festival, students' families were invited to attend and watch the events.
Utaha thought for a mont and then said, "Let's not bother. I'm not participating in any events, and you're only running one race. There's no need to trouble Mom to co all the way here. As for Dad, he'll definitely be working on the day of the sports festival. They did co once during middle school, but after that, I told them not to co again. There's really nothing interesting to watch. What about you, Ichin? How was it during your middle school days?"
"? Sports festivals were just for fun. At my school, we didn't have parents attending or anything like that. Well… except maybe during kindergarten."
Propping his chin on one hand, Ichin smiled. "Sports festivals are always lively though. There'll be tons of people."
---
At lunchti, Ichin and Utaha headed to the Service Club as usual to eat with Yukino and Eriri.
While eating her bento, Yukino pulled out her phone to check on the cats at ho using her ho surveillance cara.
Ever since the little kitten had arrived at Yukino's house, it had beco noticeably more energetic over the past few days. The mont the mother cat wasn't paying attention, the kitten would sneak out of the bed to explore and play.
Watching the scene on her phone where the kitten got picked up by the scruff and carried back to the nest by the mother cat, Yukino had a constant smile on her face.
Ichin leaned over to take a look and said in surprise, "That big cat looks a bit rounder now. Looks like you're doing a really good job, Yukino."
Yukino nodded. "She's nursing, after all, so I've been preparing specially balanced als for her every day."
On the other side, Eriri, chewing on a fried shrimp, asked curiously, "Yukino, have you decided on nas for the two cats yet?"
"Nas…" Yukino's cheeks turned slightly red. "I've been thinking. I've co up with a few options, but I can't decide. How about you guys help out?"
Then she started listing so of the nas she had in mind.
Things like Big White, Little White, Snowy, Elizabeth, Mochi, and Sesa—a mix of serious and silly ones.
Ichin listened and then suggested thoughtfully, "How about Mochi and Sesa? The big cat's getting rounder under your care, and she's pure white, so Mochi fits really well. And the little one's so tiny, Sesa suits it."
Both Utaha and Eriri nodded in agreent.
When Yukino had said Elizabeth, both Eriri and Ichin had imdiately thought of Elizabeth from Gintama.
As for the rest, they just didn't stand out much. Mochi and Sesa were cute, easy to rember, and had charm.
After considering it for a while, Yukino finally made up her mind and officially nad her two cats Mochi and Sesa.
---
Once the cat talk ended, the group moved on to the topic of next week's sports festival.
Eriri was the first to groan and complain, "So classmates roped into signing up for the three-legged race. We tried it once during PE class this morning, and it's so hard!"
Yukino took a sip of her miso soup and calmly said, "I signed up for the high jump and the 50-ter sprint."
"I can't compete with you at all, Yukino," Eriri said, looking depressed. "My physical fitness is the worst. Asking to do any kind of sports is like a death sentence!"
Utaha, on the other hand, was beaming smugly as she said, "You better do your best then! I'll make sure to record everything for you!"
"Eh?! You're not participating?"
"Nope~"
Eriri really wanted to back out, but unfortunately, her na had already been submitted. No way to undo it now.
Turning to Yukino with a look of desperation, Eriri pleaded, "Yukino, can you help ? I really don't want to embarrass myself out there!"
Good grief. Looks like all of the Service Club's requests co from within the club itself now.
...
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