Leaving Utaha in the office to focus on her novel, Ichin stepped out and went to sit beside Yagami Kō.
"Kō, are you busy?"
Yagami Kō wasn't wearing her headphones at the mont. She set down her pressure-sensitive pen and looked at Ichin. "Not too bad. What's up?"
"I just wanted to talk to you about the next PV3."
The mont Ichin said that, a delighted smile lit up Yagami Kō's face. "So that ans PV2 passed?"
"Of course. Kō, you did a fantastic job—I can't find any flaws in it. It's good to go as-is."
"Hehe, well of course! I spent a lot of ti learning for this PV, you know!"
She wasn't exaggerating. Ever since she took on the task of making the PV, Yagami Kō had been using a lot of her after-work hours to study video and promotional editing.
Even though it was new territory for her, she had watched the process of Ichin and the others making the Hollow Knight PVs before, so she had a basic idea of what to do. And with Ichin pointing out key content to highlight, as long as she stayed focused, it was hard to go wrong.
Noticing an open bag of chips on Kō's desk, Ichin snagged a couple and said, "So I'll leave PV3 and PV4 to you, along with the rest of the 30-second videos for the main character group."
"What, you're not doing them yourself?"
"Hehe, the most difficult work for the art team is already done. What's left is mostly collaborative and relatively simple tasks, so I'll be shifting my focus back to the programming side. So I'll be counting on you to take over PV production."
Yagami Kō nodded, then raised her right index finger at Ichin. "Hmm~ I'm okay with it, but I have one small request."
"A request? Don't tell you want a raise? I was already planning to increase salaries next year—what's the rush?"
"It's not about the salary!"
After shooting down his joke, Kō looked around cautiously, then leaned closer to Ichin and whispered, "For the upcoming ga promotional livestreams… can I not be one of the support staff?"
Ichin imdiately understood. So that's what it was about.
Seeing her pleading expression, Ichin agreed without hesitation. "No problem. If you don't want to participate, I'll assign soone else. I think Haji and Umiko would be happy to help. But Kō… you sure you want to give up the livestream overti pay?"
"Nope, nope! Let them take this opportunity instead!"
Yagami Kō knew she wasn't the type who could speak well in front of a cara—let alone promote a ga live on stream alongside voice actors. It just wasn't her thing.
"Alright then, settled. Let brief you on the requirents for the next two PVs."
"Wait, let grab my notebook!"
Kō quickly opened her notepad. "By the way, when are these two PVs due?"
"No rush. Just finish PV3 by the end of December. And even if it's not ready in ti, it's fine—we're not releasing the ga until next year, so it's totally okay to save PV for a release next year too."
After walking Kō through the key content for the remaining PVs, Ichin headed over to the programming departnt to join Umiko in testing related systems.
As the workday neared its end, Kuroneko finally wrapped up her tasks.
She took off her headphones, stretched, and looked around—only to see Ichin and Umiko huddled together, deep in discussion over the program.
Rembering the conversation she had with Kirino Kosaka the night before, Kuroneko took a deep breath, summoned her courage, and stood up to approach him.
"Um… Ichin-kun."
Hearing Ruri's voice, Ichin turned around with a smile and asked, "What's up?"
"Well, it's like this…" Ruri said a bit shyly. "Once the ga is nearly finished, won't we need to bring in so testers to do the final round of testing?"
"Yeah, we'll definitely hire a few," Ichin replied after giving it so thought. "Probably around ten people. Why? Do you have soone in mind who wants to do part-ti testing?"
Ichin's quick guess didn't surprise Rin at all—after all, her question had been pretty straightforward.
She nodded. "That's right. I t an old friend yesterday, and she really likes our ga. She asked if she could join in if we ever start recruiting part-ti testers."
An old friend of Ruri's?
Ichin wasn't sure if Ruri had gone through the original Oreimo storyline, but that didn't really matter. She was soone Umiko had personally recognized as a valuable mber of the programming team, and Ichin had no reason to be stingy about sothing like this.
"We were planning to put out a public announcent for part-ti testers anyway. Since you have a recomndation, and it's soone who genuinely enjoys our gas, then of course I'd welco her. When the testing phase starts, if she's still interested, just bring her over."
Ichin's straightforward answer made Ruri very happy.
"Thank you so much, Ichin-kun! I'll tell my friend!"
Watching Ruri happily return to her seat, Umiko whispered, "You agreed?"
"It's not a big deal. We're hiring people anyway, aren't we?"
"Fair enough." Umiko rubbed her temples. "There's still a bit of ti left. Let's finish checking this last section. I'm getting a little hungry. Oh right, can I co over to your place for dinner tonight?"
"Rin isn't cooking?"
"She went out to eat with Ko. I didn't want to be a third wheel."
Ichin took a breath and looked at the subtle smile on Umiko's face. "So coming over to my place isn't being a third wheel?"
"I'll pay for the groceries."
"That's more like it."
Ti passed, and mid-October arrived, bringing with it Toyogasaki's midterm exams.
The day after the exams ended, the results were quickly released and posted on the first-floor bulletin board of the academic building.
In the third-year section, as always, Ichin and Utaha's nas claid the top two spots in the grade rankings—unchanged as ever.
When other students saw the two nas, they couldn't help but comnt in awe.
"Looks like no one's going to shake their rankings until graduation."
"Forget Ichin—he's a notorious academic beast from China, that's to be expected. But why are Kasumigaoka's grades getting more ridiculous too? She's acing all her sciences, and only trails Ichin by a few points in the humanities."
"These two… they're both aiming for Todai, right?"
"Why even take the exam? I heard from a reliable source that they've already secured recomndation slots and are just waiting to go for interviews."
"Whoa!!! That's amazing!"
As for the two protagonists everyone was talking about, they were currently sitting in Shizuka Hiratsuka's office.
***
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