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Chapter 378 - Chapter 378: Summer Vacation

As both a gamer and a developer, Yagami Kou was of course just like Eriri—she loved Nintendo's games.

The moment she heard they could visit Nintendo, she lit up with excitement.

"When are you leaving? I'm coming too!"

As soon as Kou declared she was in, Rin, Aoba, and Hifumi all crowded around as well, staring at Utaha with hopeful eyes.

"Ehhh~~ this is getting a little crowded."

Utaha quickly pulled out her phone and messaged Ichin. This was something he had to decide.

Before long, Ichin stepped out of his office. Seeing the group surrounding Utaha, he chuckled.

"What's this? You all want to tag along to Nintendo?"

"Of course we do!" Kou crossed her arms, full of anticipation. "We grew up on Nintendo games—getting the chance to see it in person, no way we're missing that!"

Her words made Aoba, Rin, and even the usually-shy Hifumi nod in agreement.

Ichin hadn't expected even Hifumi to be so eager. Clearly, Nintendo's pull was stronger than he thought.

After rubbing his chin in thought, Ichin said, "Hmm, I suppose I can take you guys. But not too many. I'll have to check with them first. Hold on while I make a call."

With that, he returned to his office and dialed.

Watching the door close, Aoba nervously whispered to Hifumi, "Do you think we'll be allowed?"

"I'm not sure," Hifumi murmured, shaking her head. "But considering how well Ichin-kun's been working with them, I doubt it'll be a problem."

Kou, on the other hand, was certain. "No way it's a problem. Persona on Switch has already sold close to three million copies—it's made Nintendo a ton of money. Something like this will be easy."

Among Nintendo's third-party collaborations, Ubisoft had Mario + Rabbids, Capcom had Monster Hunter, Bethesda had Skyrim, and then there was Minecraft. All million sellers. A few other third-party games had gotten close to that mark too.

But overall, the Switch sales charts were dominated by Nintendo's own first-party titles—or long-running exclusives like Pokémon.

Even so, Ichin's past two titles, Hollow Knight and Slay the Spire, had both passed one million on Switch this year. And Persona? Its sales were even crazier—topping the weekly charts for the entire first month after release.

Even now, sales of Persona on Switch were steadily climbing.

With the console already past 100 million units sold, its long-term numbers would only go higher.

Five minutes later, Ichin came out of his office.

Before he could even speak, Kou rushed up eagerly. "It's fine, right? Definitely fine?"

He pushed her head back lightly and looked at everyone.

"It's fine. When they heard you were my dev team, they immediately agreed to let me bring a few extras. But listen—no huge groups. Besides Utaha and Eriri, I can only take three or four more at most. And we're going on a weekday, so you'll need to finish all your work in advance. If you don't, you're not going. Understood?"

The group exchanged glances before Kou declared decisively, "Alright, then it's settled. Me, Rin, Aoba, and Hifumi. Just the four of us!"

"Wha—! I want to go too!"

Nene, who had just come out to grab coffee, looked frustrated.

"I wanted to meet the Mario dev team and learn from them!"

"Don't worry," Ichin reassured her. "It's not like I won't be going again. There'll be plenty of chances. Next time, I won't bring Kou and the others—I'll bring you instead. Deal?"

That instantly cheered Nene up. She nodded happily. "Okay, it's a promise!"

With her spirits lifted, she carried the coffee back to work.

Glancing at the calendar, Ichin told the group, "Next week I've got finals. After that, vacation starts, and then we'll head to Kyoto. So push a little harder these days and get extra work done, otherwise you'll just have a pile waiting when we get back."

With that, Ichin left for the programming department to hold a short meeting.

---

The first university finals arrived on schedule.

Ichin and Utaha had both prepared thoroughly, and the few days of exams passed without a hitch.

Since it was his first finals, Ichin didn't hand in early—he finished his papers and patiently waited for time to end before submitting with the rest.

After the last test, he stretched and exhaled in relief.

"Finally done. Summer vacation starts now."

As he packed up, a few male classmates came over, asking about his plans and if he wanted to travel with them.

Ichin smiled and declined. "I do have a trip planned, but since I've got a company, it's with my team—a kind of company retreat. Plus, I've got a business trip and then I need to go home, so I can't join you guys this time. Maybe in the future. Thanks for the invite."

The guys knew about his business, so they weren't surprised or too disappointed.

After saying goodbye, Ichin left the classroom and headed to the literature department's exam hall, where Utaha was waiting outside the building.

They met up, and Ichin took her hand as they walked toward the parking lot.

"How was the difficulty, Ichin?" she asked.

"Not hard," he replied with a grin. "First-year computer science is stuff I already know. Just had to review some theory. What about you?"

"Not hard either," Utaha leaned gently on his shoulder with a smile. "I should get a scholarship if nothing goes wrong."

"Same here, I think."

Leaving the school by car, they drove straight to the company.

With vacation underway, the next step was getting ready for their trip to Kyoto.

Kou and the others had already gone the extra mile to finish their work early, and now they were buzzing with excitement for their Nintendo visit.

*

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