September arrived — the start of a new semester.
After just two days of classes, Ichin heard the news that the collage would soon be holding its autumn sports festival.
"Hey, Ichin, are you joining this year?" the class sports representative came over to ask.
Ichin shook his head. "Sorry, not this year. Things are getting busier with the company — I probably won't have the time."
Back in his first and second year, Ichin had always signed up for at least one event at the sports festival. But now, as a third-year student, he had no plans to participate. It simply took too much energy.
"I see. Well, can't be helped," the sports rep said with a helpless smile. "Your company's getting bigger every year anyway. I was hoping to pull you into a basketball team with us, but I guess I'll go ask someone else. Thanks anyway!"
And with that, he went off to "recruit" other victims.
Fortunately, there were plenty of guys in the computer science department, so finding replacements wasn't a problem.
During lunch, Ichin ate with Utaha and Yukino, who were also chatting about the events their own classes were planning for the festival.
Utaha took a bite of her salad and said lazily,
"Sports festivals have nothing to do with me. Besides, I'll probably be spending most of October on set — no time for that. What about you, Yukino?"
Yukino nodded slightly. "I signed up for the tennis event, so I'll be competing. I've been sitting in lectures most of the time lately, and between that and everyone dragging me into gaming sessions, I really haven't been getting much exercise."
That was true. Yukino often went to Ichin's company, where almost everyone was a gaming fanatic. She'd long since been influenced and could now be considered a gamer herself — though she had her preferences. Horror games and dark fantasy titles weren't her thing. Even with Dark Souls, she'd only watched videos and streams, never actually played it herself except once during internal testing when she tried a boss fight.
Ichin smiled. "You're entering a match, huh? Then make sure to tell us the time — we'll come cheer for you."
Utaha nodded too. "Though… if you're playing, Yukino, I imagine there'll already be quite a crowd watching."
At that, Yukino sighed in defeat.
She stirred her ramen with her chopsticks and frowned slightly. "Honestly, I already kind of regret signing up. But the registration's done, so I'll just have to go through with it. I heard several members of the school's tennis club are joining too, so I'll need to practice hard this month — otherwise, I'll lose miserably."
With Yukino's prideful personality, surrendering easily wasn't an option. And tennis happened to be one of the sports she was genuinely good at.
It's just that she hadn't played much since high school, so she definitely needed a bit of "rehabilitation."
"Rehabilitation, huh…" Ichin stroked his chin thoughtfully.
That afternoon, once he got to the office, Ichin mentioned the matter to Kō Yagami and the others.
"So, how about it? Interested in some weekend tennis? I happen to know, Kō, that you haven't worked out in ages. You even bought a treadmill, but according to Rin, it's been collecting dust for months."
"Ahaha… well, about that…" Kō scratched her head awkwardly. "It's not that I don't want to work out, it's just… time! I never have the time!"
At that moment, Rin put a hand on Kō's shoulder and smiled sweetly. "Kou, you do remember our company doesn't work weekends, right? Saturday's settled, then. We're going to play tennis! Aoba, you in?"
Aoba's eyes lit up as she nodded eagerly. "Yeah! I've never played tennis before, but I've watched Prince of Tennis! I want to experience it too!"
(Murder tennis, though? Let's hope not.)
Besides Kō, Rin, and Aoba, Hifumi, Hajime, Nene, Ruri Gokou, and Kirino Kousaka all agreed to join the weekend tennis outing.
Only Momiji Mochizuki and Narumi couldn't make it — they already had weekend plans to go out together. Yun Iijima was taking her younger siblings to an amusement park, so she was out too.
"Ah, tennis, huh?"
Later, when Hazuki came to report her work and heard about Ichin's Saturday plans, she laughed. "Sounds fun! I'll come too."
And just like that, another member joined the roster.
"Perfect," Ichin grinned. "Let's all get some exercise for once."
After confirming the Saturday plans, Hazuki finished her work report, and the two continued chatting in the office.
"Umiko's coming back next week, right?"
Ichin nodded. "Yeah, her flight's next Saturday. Are you coming with me to pick her up?"
"Of course," Hazuki smiled. "We've been friends for years — of course I'll go welcome her back. Oh, by the way, what position and tasks are you planning to assign her once she's back?"
"The Programming Director position has always been reserved for her," Ichin explained. "Her office is ready, too. Once she's back, she'll join the Tales of Berseria project. That'll free me from the coding side a bit so I can focus more on the script and music."
Although Ichin had already finished writing the script for Tales of Berseria, the main plot pacing, event direction, and side-story design still needed work — and he was personally handling the music arrangements.
With Umiko's return, he'd finally have time to focus on those areas properly.
Still, there was a little over a week left, so he'd have to wait.
And so, time passed quickly until Saturday arrived.
After his morning workout, Ichin went to wake Utaha, who was still snuggled under the blanket.
"Didn't we agree to go play tennis today? Don't sleep in now — or that new sports outfit you bought yesterday will be wasted."
Sitting up on the bed, Utaha yawned, running her fingers through her messy hair. "I know, I know… I'm getting up."
She threw off the blanket, slowly got out of bed, then leaned forward and flopped onto Ichin's back.
"Carry me out, Ichin~"
Feeling her weight press against him, Ichin just laughed, nodding as he stood and carried her out of the room.
They were heading to an indoor tennis court, with the group scheduled to meet at 9:30 a.m..
The plan was to spend the morning teaching the beginners, then play proper matches in the afternoon.
Meanwhile, Yukino's tennis practice hadn't gone unnoticed — Haruno had found out too, and naturally decided to tag along.
After Utaha finished washing up, she and Ichin walked over next door.
Breakfast had already been prepared — by Yukino herself.
Since everyone was going to help her train as her practice partners, she'd volunteered to handle breakfast for everyone.
Perfect — that meant Ichin didn't have to cook today.
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