Chapter 20 - Because You Were Here

Kai’s proposal began development as a joint venture between the Meikun High School Social Game Club and Tsukigase’s Rondo team.

Kai was a planner, Aya was a programmer, and Eru was a graphic designer. Nanaka was also entrusted with graphics, but since it was undeniable that she was lacking in some aspects, she also held a secondary role as the project sub-manager to support Akane, who was participating as the project manager.

The project manager oversaw the entirety of development. If the director was responsible for the quality and fun factor of the game, then the project manager could be said to be responsible for the environment in which it was made. They supervised the budget, scheduling, member allocation, and more in order to keep things running smoothly and achieve the best results; all of that was the project manager’s duty. As a sub-manager, Nanaka shouldered a part of that burden. She was in sole charge of communications between Meikun and Tsukigase.

Basically, the two teams made their own progress in Niigata and Tokyo respectively, and then they would use phone calls and messaging apps to stay in touch. Aya and Eru’s skill was a cut above even the talent at Tsukigase. Thanks to their help, development progressed at a brisk pace (similarly to when they had overhauled their own UI).

“Oh, summer break is starting tomorrow,” Aya pointed out.

“...Shut up,” Eru hissed.

“Geez, what’s with the attitude? Are you overheating because your chest is retaining too much heat?”

“...It’s too hot for this. Be a dear and stop pestering me.” Eru really did seem like she was suffering as she slouched over the table. Her long, black hair fanned out like kelp floating in the ocean. Kai thought that maybe she felt hot due to her lengthy hair, rather than her figure.

Niigata was heading into summer, and the day after they finished their semester exams was terribly humid. Their club room, unfortunately, did not have any air conditioning. The four of them had lugged in a bunch of electric fans and placed them in each corner of the room. They made a nice vwooooosh sound as they turned from side-to-side, but the moment the breeze faced a different direction, the people relying on them returned to being boiled alive.

“Nana-sen, when are we getting our AC unit...? My PC’s gonna fry... God, I’m so glad we finished everything already...” Aya groaned.

“I sent a request to the student council, and they said they’d get us one... early summer break...” Nanaka replied faintly.

“...So all I need to do is slap the daylights out of that Student Council President?” Eru asked.

“No... Violence is out of the question,” Kai couldn’t help but interject, when there was a click and the door opened.

“—Heat, oppressive. I had thought this place would offer shelter from the intense heat outside... but it appears it is just as terribly hot here.”

“Akane-san?!” Both Nanaka and Kai shouted out in surprise, but all Aya and Eru did was lazily look her way.

“Wassup, Akanecchi?” Aya greeted her.

“...What are you here for?” asked Eru, who was less hospitable.

“E-Eru...! Don’t say it like that!” Nanaka scolded her.

“I don’t mind. I was the one who appeared without forewarning. Here,” Akane lifted a convenience store bag onto the table with a light rustling sound. “I bought you ice cream as a gift.”

“Nice one, Akanecchi!”

“Oh my, not bad.”

The pair’s attitudes did a quick 180 as they shot up, both of them reaching to get to the ice cream first. Kai and Nanaka looked at each other before joining them and picking up some ice cream for themselves.

After cooling off with their frozen treat, Akane pulled out a laptop and opened up a web page. This was the School Social Game Link, which was a site dedicated to accumulating information on all the social game clubs in the country. Just like the BOX, it was run by the government, and you could use your account to comment on news posts.

Akane opened up one of the most recent articles, which appeared to be a page detailing the news of Tsukigase’s Rondo, and it featured the game’s return to the top of the rankings that had followed the update they pushed out a few days ago.

Akane must have announced part of the situation in advance, because the article mentioned all of the Meikun High School members by name. Kai was listed as having spearheaded the project in place of Ginjou, who had stepped down from his position and been removed from the Rondo development team. Scrolling to the bottom of the article, the user comments were full of people in shock at having seen the name ‘Shiraseki Kai.’ There were so many comments from people who flip-flopped, and now were heralding their work as “God-tier management,” that all the abuse he received before seemed like it had never happened at all.

“I made sure to discuss this matter with your student council beforehand,” Akane admitted, “but now there is no need to worry about your reputation.”

“...Thank you very much,” Kai replied.

“No, we are the ones who ought to show our gratitude. You really saved us this time,” Akane told him. “As the representative of the Tsukigase High School Social Game Club, allow me to formally thank you once again. In fact, that was the reason I came here today.”

“You came out all this way, just for that...?” Nanaka seemed shocked.

“Of course,” Akane said with a nod. “Nanaka, I am indebted to you, as well. Without your communication skills, there would certainly have been more difficulties in our correspondence.”

Akane was completely right. Aya and Eru were, as you could tell from looking at them, oftentimes unwilling to compromise with someone else’s point of view. That part of them did have its merits, but it also meant that butting heads was a regular occurrence for them. Nanaka had effectively been traffic control, constantly mediating between Tsukigase and Meikun’s branches to make sure that communication wasn’t delayed and relations wouldn’t become strained.

“You managed to keep these three obstinate fools in line,” Akane said. “You should hold your head high as the president of this club.”

“That’s righ—” Hm? Kai stopped midway through his nod. “Three? You mean, me too?”

“—Awareness, lacking. That has long since been your greatest flaw.” Akane’s words were accompanied by an affirmative laugh that burst out from all of his clubmates.

Kai objected to being lined up with Aya and Eru on a number of different levels, but it seemed that the common consensus disagreed with him.

After chatting for a while longer, Akane’s day trip came to a close. The four Meikun students followed her to Niigata Station in order to see her off on her bullet train to Tokyo.

At the very end, Akane told Kai she needed to speak to him, so the two split off from the rest and faced one another right in front of the ticket gate. “I said I needed to speak to you,” she admitted, “but this is about myself.”

“About you... Akane-san?” Even as he asked for confirmation, Kai felt slightly uncomfortable with the way her name sat on his tongue. When Akane found out that he referred to Nanaka and Aya by their names, she had requested that he do the same for her, as well. He felt something was out of place when he called her that while they were developing the new patch, and, frankly, that feeling had not gone away.

“After I graduate, I’m going to work at Tricolore’s development team,” she told him.

“Wha—Really?!” Kai exclaimed.

Tricolore Games was a powerhouse studio that had several titles within the top 50 sales rankings. It was a meritocratic company that only took the best of the best, so this would mark the first time a student would be hired straight out of a social game club.

“Do you plan on going to university?” she asked next.

“I... probably won’t receive any offers from the industry,” Kai admitted. “So I’ll probably go to college.”

“...We’ll see about that.”

“W-What?”

“Once I begin working,” she said, “I’ll talk to the HR scouts about you.”

“You mean...”

Teasing him now, Akane squinted her eyes ever so slightly and said, “I look forward to the day when we make a game together again.” With that, she gave a small nod to Nanaka and company and passed through the ticket gate. She didn’t look back a single time, and Kai saw her off until her long, swaying, black hair was no longer in sight.

When he returned to the other three, Nanaka was filled with indignation. “Kai-kun!” she exclaimed.

“Y-Yes?! W-What’s wrong...?” Kai was worried that he had done something, but that didn’t appear to be the case.

Nanaka thrusted her phone in his face. On it was the comments page from the article they were viewing earlier. “‘The news got me curious about Meikun’s social game, but it wasn’t anything special...’ Can you believe that?!” she demanded.

“I mean, well...” There were parts that definitely didn’t match up against Tsukigase’s Rondo, in his opinion.

“I think we’re miles better just because we have a gacha,” Aya argued. “Senpai, the fact that you stopped me from sneaking in a gacha system is the greatest defeat of my life.”

During the development of Rondo’s revamp, Aya had attempted to quietly slip in a gacha system. By enacting a specific sequence of hidden inputs, you could make a gacha screen pop up. Thankfully, Kai stumbled across it, but she’d almost managed to lay a fatal landmine.

“Leave this idiot to her own delusions,” Eru suggested. Then, turning to Nanaka, she said, “However, you should start by getting good enough at drawing to stand your ground before you go around picking fights.”

“Th-That’s true, but...!” Nanaka groaned as if she couldn’t quite accept that truth. Then, without warning, she looked up in epiphany and grabbed Kai by the hand. “Let’s go!” she exclaimed.

“Huh? Wh-Where?!” he asked.

“Duh!” said Nanaka, who had a brilliant smile on her face. “To our club! Let’s go!”

Kai was dragged into a run, but he nodded in agreement. That’s right. That’s all we can do. If people said their work was boring, then the only thing left to do was create something fun.

“Nanaka, hold on a moment,” Eru said.

“There’s no point in going back to school now. School hours are almost done, so it’d be a waste to head there just to get forced out,” Aya added.

“Whaaaat?!” Nanaka nearly tumbled over with how hard she ground to a halt. She whipped back to the two of them and asked, “Are you telling me you’re okay with how things are now?!”

“Of course not, dear,” Eru protested.

“Of course not, Nana-sen,” Aya echoed. Then, she pointed behind her with an outstretched thumb. “Let’s just go to that cafe over there. We all have our laptops, right?”

“...If all four of us are here, then it won’t matter where we go,” Eru concluded.

With that, the two of them began walking toward the cafe. Their confident strides seemed to beckon them, saying, ‘Hurry up and join us.’

Under her breath, Nanaka whispered their names. Then, she turned to Kai and said, “Us too! Let’s go!” and promptly took off.

Running behind her, Kai had something he wanted to say. He didn’t need her to hear him as he muttered, “...Thank you.”

I’m glad I met you.

This hand... was everything.

When I announced I would step down from the club...

When I quit Tsukigase and left Tokyo...

I never thought a day like this would come.

You were so different—I thought you were in a faraway land of sunlight. You brought me with you.

Nanaka happened to hear him and asked, “Huh? What for?” Kai thought about how he should reply for a second, but then overtook her with a burst of speed, tugging at her hand as he did so. He ran in front of her so she wouldn’t see the happiness and embarrassment plastered all across his face.

Kai was sure that they could go anywhere together, just the way they were.