After leaving the hospital and getting into the car, Utaha buckled her seatbelt and said with a smile, "I didn't expect you, Ichin, to use Peppa to win over girls."

"You make it sound bad," Ichin replied as he started the car. "Akane Akasaka and Umi Boshima were the only two there, and I'm more familiar with Akane. It was my first time meeting Umi. She's an illustrator, and we don't share many common interests. But I noticed she really liked cats, so I just let Peppa keep her company while I chatted with Akane about game development."

"I know, I was just teasing. But still, I didn't expect that Umi Boshima is only 14 years old. At 14, I definitely didn't have that kind of figure. Are kids these days really this outrageous?"

Hearing this, Ichin chuckled. "Probably just genetics. She's not short either—already about the same height as Eriri. Besides, Utaha, you're only four years older than her, right?"

"Four years is a big gap, okay? And that girl looks so young—if you were to walk down the street with her, I swear a cop might stop you for questioning."

"Ehh, it's not that bad…"

Ichin quickly skipped past the topic of body types and appearances and moved on.

"If I remember correctly, Umi Boshima has a brother named Iori Boshima. He was the second president of their doujin group. Since Umi is now training as an artist under Akane Akasaka's company, I bet Iori's probably there too. That pair of siblings are definitely talented."

"Hmm? Feeling a little threatened?" Utaha teased.

"Not at all. I don't know how strong the rest of Akane's team is, but our own crew is definitely no slouch."

Especially the founding members who started the studio with him—their skills were top-notch. Even Aoba, Ichin believed, was already nearing the level of a first-rate illustrator. With experienced seniors like Ko Yagami and Hifumi around to mentor her, Aoba had grown significantly.

"Our game... I'm looking forward to the showdown next year when both our games are released."

November and December were relatively peaceful for Ichin. He didn't stir up any new drama, focusing solely on attending classes and quietly progressing with game development at the company.

Although Ichin kept a low profile, other big events were unfolding.

Pokémon: Legends Arceus had finally confirmed its release date—January 28. Not far off now.

This game was truly "highly anticipated."

It marked a major gameplay shift from Game Freak (GF), and was vastly different from past generations of Pokémon games. As such, it attracted a lot of attention from players the moment it was announced.

However, after the controversial Sword and Shield and the outsourced Diamond and Pearl remakes—despite their commercial success—the public reputation of those games had taken a hit.

So, Legends Arceus sparked a polarized reaction.

One group of players remained cautiously optimistic—new gameplay, a fresh world map, and setting… all good signs.

The other group? Absolutely dismissive. They were convinced GF couldn't make a decent game anymore. If Arceus still sold well despite that, then Pokémon as an IP was doomed in their eyes.

As for Ichin himself, he didn't really care whether the game was good or bad. The fate of the Pokémon brand wasn't his concern either.

He had already pre-ordered the game. Once it released, he'd try it out for himself. There wasn't enough info yet to judge its true quality.

At the company, with the year winding down, Ichin hadn't assigned much work, so the atmosphere was pretty relaxed. People were working, chatting, and enjoying the downtime.

Ichin wasn't in his office either. He was hanging out with the art team, chatting and checking on their work.

"So, are you guys planning to play Arceus next month?"

"Of course. Why wouldn't we?" Ko Yagami replied without pausing her work, eyes on her screen. "I'm not the type to judge a game just by watching streams or forum posts—unless a game is so awful it's universally condemned. And Arceus hasn't reached that point yet. I'll decide whether to 'bury it' after I actually play it."

From the other side, Aoba chimed in, "I feel the same. From what we've seen so far, Arceus probably won't be that great, but I still want to try out the new mechanics."

After finishing a model, Momiji Mochizuki stretched her neck and said, "Sure, the gameplay has evolved, but from the promotional videos, GF's current dev skills seem lacking. I doubt it's just the Switch's limitations—they probably haven't upgraded their development tools in ages. Or if they have, it hasn't been anything major."

Game Freak's development environment, huh?

Ichin hadn't looked into it in detail, but he knew this much: despite holding the rights to the world's top IP, Game Freak had never had more than 200 employees.

That scale? Absolutely ridiculous.

Just his own teams in Shanghai and Tokyo combined already had around 100 people—and that number would grow next year. Once his third studio opened, he planned to expand to 200 staff.

Leaning back with his hands behind his head, Ichin asked, "So, what do you guys think—if you got to develop Pokémon, how far could you take it?"

"Huh?"

Everyone on the art team immediately turned to look at him—even Umiko and Sakura Nene, who had come over to refill their drinks, walked over curiously.

Sakura Nene even shook his chair and said, "Ichin-kun, don't tell me you're thinking of snatching the Pokémon dev rights?"

"Pfft, no way. I'm not that delusional. GF still holds exclusive development rights to Pokémon. Unless the entire franchise collapses, there's no way I could ever get it—no matter how much money I had. And even if GF did go under, the rights would probably go to Nintendo. A third-party studio like ours would still have almost zero chance of getting it."

"Fair enough," Umiko said, leaning on the back of Ichin's chair and sipping his coffee. "But if Nintendo did take over development… now that might be worth looking forward to."

Of course, this was all just banter.

That kind of scenario was unlikely to ever happen.

*