Utaha's soul-piercing question instantly made Eriri's face turn bright red.
"Ugh, I… that… um…"
She struggled for a long while, stammering and stuttering, but when everyone turned their attention toward her, she finally gave up.
"I had been keeping my identity hidden really well… but somehow, she spotted me at the doujin event. Then, with just a few words, she tricked me into exposing myself."
…That's it? Sounds more like you were just being dumb.
Everyone had the same thought pop into their minds, but no one said it out loud. They were all considerate enough not to hurt the poor girl's pride.
"Don't worry. We're strong enough now. We never had any intention of cooperating with her anyway."
After offering Eriri a couple of comforting words, Ichin sent her back to work.
He then told Utaha to return to writing the script, and went to Hazuki's office to discuss the situation with Akane Kosaka.
If it were just a regular doujin circle, Ichin wouldn't pay much attention. But if Akane Kosaka was steering the circle toward merging with her own licensed production company, then combined with the industry connections she had built up over the years, things could spiral out of control very quickly.
For now, they wouldn't cooperate—but if Kosaka's company truly took off in the future, Ichin didn't mind the idea of working together.
Of course, before that, he needed to thoroughly investigate this potential future partner—or rival.
A week later, Ichin received word from Eriri: the reorganization was official. The former doujin group had transformed into a legitimate multimedia production company, with work spanning light novels, games, and animation.
"Well, that was fast."
He pulled out his phone and did a quick search—sure enough, there it was.
The news was a bombshell in the doujin world, on par with the retirement of Eri Kashiwagi and the disbanding of Lily.
Ichin even spotted some comments claiming this marked the beginning of a "dark age" for the doujin scene.
Honestly, that made him laugh.
From his perspective, no matter how talented a doujin group was, without transitioning to a formal structure, they would forever remain just that—a doujin group. It might be a decent platform for members to train and gain experience, but to truly grow and become strong, commercialization and professionalization were inevitable steps.
Akane Kosaka's rapid action clearly showed her confidence.
Ichin wasn't afraid of competition. In fact, he welcomed it. To him, new blood in the industry was a good thing. There were too many people just coasting by these days.
Take Battlefield 2042, for example.
At launch, players who pre-ordered the game got early access. Their lead developer, Umiko, had also pre-ordered it, and as soon as the timer hit zero, she dove right in.
During those first few days, she kept convincing herself the game was just in early access, that there would be patches and updates soon to fix the problems. But Ichin could tell—she was already starting to panic.
After the game had been out for half a month, the situation only got worse—cheaters running rampant, bugs and optimization issues left unaddressed. Eventually, Umiko snapped and angrily deleted the game from her system. She followed that up with a string of colorful curses—courtesy of Ichin's own repertoire of profanities—directed squarely at EA and DICE.
After venting, Umiko stormed over to Ichin, visibly annoyed, and asked if he had any ideas for a shooting game. Clearly, the big studios had worn down her patience.
To be honest, Ichin wasn't much of an FPS player himself, but after watching Umiko play Battlefield a few times, even his blood pressure started rising.
Cheating is pretty much unavoidable in competitive shooters—but the devs were flat-out ignoring it. Umiko ran into cheaters multiple times. Even when she reported them, it was useless. The next day, she'd jump into a match and run into the exact same "immortals" again.
As for optimization and bugs… let's not even go there. Just straight-up incompetence.
Ichin didn't have much firsthand experience in dealing with cheaters, but when it came to game design, that was his turf.
So, during his spare time, he had quietly started working on a project plan inspired by Apex Legends and Titanfall.
But he never showed it to Umiko. After all, they were still in the middle of developing Persona, and dropping an entirely new FPS proposal—especially one in a genre Umiko loved—could easily distract their lead programmer.
Instead, Ichin decided to take his time with the concept, polishing it little by little. Once Persona was close to completion, then he'd bring it up with her.
Umiko might have been in the dark, but as Ichin's girlfriend, Utaha knew everything.
That night, watching Ichin dive deep into crafting the worldbuilding of Titanfall, she asked curiously, "So after Persona, you really plan on making a shooting game?"
"I do," Ichin nodded. "But there's no rush. It'll take at least another year. Maybe by then, I'll have opened a local branch office back home. Not just that—if things go well, I might even expand and run two projects at once."
Dark Souls was still a dream he really wanted to realize.
"Running two projects, huh~~" Utaha leaned closer, watching him sketch out the sci-fi lore for Titanfall.
"Hey, Ichin… I've just about finished the script for Persona, and all my drafts for The Metronome in Love have already been sent to Sonoko. Don't you think it's time I started planning a new book?"
"A new book? Yeah, I think it's about time." Ichin smiled and nodded. "I've been looking forward to your next one."
Ichin hadn't intervened at all in the later writing of The Metronome in Love. Utaha had done everything herself—every scene, every word. He didn't even peek at it until the printed copies were ready, when he got an advance copy to review.
Compared to the first two volumes, Utaha's writing had improved tremendously. The latest volume even skyrocketed to #3 on the bestseller list, surprising everyone.
Her success also boosted the career of her editor, Sonoko Machida, who saw both her salary and status rise within the publishing house.
With the anime adaptation already in the pipeline and international releases on the horizon, the publisher was clearly positioning Utaha as one of their star authors.
So yes—starting a new book now made perfect sense.
"What kind of theme are you thinking about?" Ichin asked.
Utaha paused, then replied, "I've got some rough ideas. Even though I wrote the Persona script, I don't plan on including any supernatural or fantasy world elements in the new novel. Once I've drafted the theme and outline, I'll show it to you!"
"Sounds good. I'll be waiting."
As they chatted, Ichin picked up his phone, unlocked it, and handed it to Utaha.
"Also, besides the new book, take a look at some car options. Once you get your license, we can go buy one together."
The driving test was just around the corner, so it was about time to start thinking seriously about the car.
...
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