At 2 PM on Sunday afternoon, Ichin, Utaha, and Hazuki~ arrived at the café where they had arranged to meet.
As soon as they stepped inside, they spotted Sayuri Sawamura and Eriri already seated in one of the booths.
"Good afternoon, Aunt Sayuri. Eriri."
"Good afternoon, Ichin-kun," Sayuri replied with a warm smile. "Eriri told me your game has been selling really well. Congratulations."
"Thank you."
Ichin smiled and sat down, calling a waiter over to order coffee and cake. Then he turned to Sayuri and asked, "Eriri should've already mentioned the collaboration proposal, right?"
"She did," Sayuri nodded. "Sounds like your new project is quite ambitious if you're looking to outsource work to us right from the start."
Even though Eriri was her daughter, she hadn't told Sayuri much about the specifics of the studio's project—only that the scale was pretty big and would require external support.
Coincidentally, their circle had already finished everything they planned to release at the upcoming winter doujin convention, which meant they were free to take on some outside work.
At that moment, the coffee and desserts were served.
Once the waiter had left, Ichin continued, "As far as outsourcing goes, I'm mainly looking for help with map and monster modeling. Of course, I need to assess Lily's capabilities first. I can only delegate tasks if I'm confident in the quality."
"Absolutely," Sayuri agreed without hesitation.
She clearly knew her way around professional discussions—she'd negotiated multiple outsourcing deals in the past.
Pulling out a laptop she'd brought with her, Sayuri opened it and turned the screen toward Ichin and his team.
"Take a look. These are samples of our work—both 2D and 3D."
Nodding, Ichin took the laptop and started reviewing the content alongside Hazuki.
Meanwhile, Utaha turned to Sayuri and asked about something else.
"Aunt Sayuri, since your circle makes doujin games, do you have any writers on your team?"
"Yes, we do," Sayuri replied confidently. "One of our members is a writer—she was a junior of mine in university. While she's not a top-tier professional, her skills are solid. She even published a novel before. But after getting married, she left the industry and now just writes scripts for our doujin games in her spare time. Why do you ask, Utaha? Are you looking for someone to learn from?"
"Yeah, that's exactly it."
Utaha nodded. "I can't reveal the project details just yet, but I've joined as the lead writer. According to the outline Ichin-kun provided, the script is going to be massive. I'm a little worried I won't be able to handle it all on my own, so I want to learn as much as I can from fellow writers."
"Oh, in that case, we'd be happy to help!"
Sayuri agreed immediately. "I have a lot of faith in our team. I'm sure Ichin-kun will decide to outsource some work to us, so when that happens, I'll arrange for our writer to connect with you."
Just as they wrapped up that conversation, Ichin and Hazuki had also finished going through the demo works.
Ichin returned the laptop to Sayuri Sawamura, then pulled out a stack of documents from his backpack.
"Aunt Sayuri, your circle's technical skills are indeed impressive. As long as you can maintain the quality shown in these samples, I'd be more than happy to outsource part of the project to you. These are the outsourcing contracts I had drafted this morning with the help of a lawyer. Please take a look. The pricing and other terms are all included."
"You came well-prepared."
Sayuri took the documents and immediately began reviewing them. While the earlier conversation had been lighthearted, contract discussions had to be handled with care.
Even though the two parties knew each other and had a good relationship, business negotiations required professionalism and clarity.
She took about ten minutes to read through the contract carefully, cover to cover.
"Mm, everything looks good," Sayuri said with a nod. "This is a standard commercial outsourcing contract, and the quoted prices are in line with industry norms—actually, they're even a little above average." She looked up at Ichin with a smile. "So, Ichin-kun, does this mean you're confident our circle can meet your expectations?"
"That's not quite it," Ichin replied, pulling out another contract from his bag.
"If Lily's capabilities fall short of what I need, then I'll go with this second contract. The pricing here is lower, and the assignments will be simpler parts of the game."
"Ah, I see now," Sayuri said, lightly tapping her chin with her slender finger as she considered it. Then she nodded. "Alright, we'll take the project. Let's sign the contract. Tomorrow after school, come to our circle's office with Eriri so we can introduce you to everyone and confirm the next steps."
"Sounds good."
Just like that, both parties signed the contract and sealed it—solidifying their collaboration.
With some of the work outsourced, the development team could finally breathe a little easier. Tasks like regional design could now be split, with simpler parts handed off to the external team. The in-house staff could focus on the most critical and complex areas.
With the meeting done, Ichin and his group prepared to head back. Eriri didn't go with them to the studio—instead, she left with her mother. It had been a while since she last visited her circle, so she figured it was a good time to check in.
The trio returned to the studio in Hazuki's car.
On the way back, Hazuki asked, "Ichin, how much of the map work are you planning to outsource? I know you're handing off the real-world maps, but what about the Palace areas?"
"I'll select one or two that don't have particularly strict style requirements. Once we've made a few ourselves to serve as templates, I'll let them try replicating the style. Mainly, I plan to outsource monsters, NPCs, and parts of the cognitive world. The cognitive areas don't need to be handled by us—they're mostly used for side quests, so there's no need for complex level design."
As for the main characters—whether it was the protagonist group, antagonists, romanceable side characters, or key figures in the story—Ichin planned to have all of those done in-house. However, a large number of background NPCs and some standard monsters would be outsourced.
Modeling could be handled by the external team, but what about the music?
Sitting in the back seat with Utaha, Ichin couldn't help but start pondering.
He couldn't get Shoji Meguro, the original composer for _Persona 5_, and he didn't have a suitable candidate in mind.
So for now, maybe he'd study music theory on his own and try to recreate some of the game's iconic tracks.
But… he'd never studied music before, and wasn't confident he could pull it off. He wasn't even much of a singer.
Maybe tomorrow, when he saw Sayuri again, he could ask if she knew any music companies or composers.
With such a large-scale project and such a small team, it really was a lot of work…
This year, they'd focus on finishing the initial stages of the project. Once the New Year passed and they returned to Japan, it'd be time to think about expanding the team.
There was no way around it—they had to speed things up.
...
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