Anime World Game Developer

"I'm Suzukaze Aoba, nice to meet you... I'm Suzukaze Aoba, nice to meet you..."

"You done with your ritual yet?"

"Kya~!"

Aoba couldn't help but scream when she was snapped out of her own thoughts by a familiar voice. Snapping her head to the side, she saw none other than Kurai looking at her with a deadpan.

He was dressed rather casually, with a pair of sleek black jeans, white and black running shoes, and a simple light-grey t-shirt that displayed his lean but athletic physique. Aside from clothing, he also looked to have a dark colored backpack hanging over his right shoulder.

"Kurai?! You didn't need to scare me like that!" Aoba scolded the male who, in response, merely shrugged his shoulders. "Stop sneaking up on me all the time!"

"It's not even intentional, you're just not aware of your surroundings." Kurai responded before glancing down, he then gave a small snort. "Heh, this is the second time I've seen you wear that, and it still looks like a school uniform."

True to Kurai's words, Aoba was currently wearing a fancy formal outfit consisting of a dark blue skirt suit that she had over a white dress-shirt that had the collar tied with a pink ribbon.

Despite the fact that it was supposed to be a suit, when it was now being worn by Aoba herself, it honestly looked more like she was about to head on over to the nearest school down the block.

"It's a suit!"

"Whatever you say. Anyway, what are you doing in front of the building?"

As Kurai asked this, he glanced up and to his right where he saw the company building that he was soon to be working at. How did he know it was this building? The big fucking words that spelt out 'Eagle Jump', that's how.

Hearing his question, Aoba took a deep breath before also glancing up at the building. The longer she stared, the more nervous she seemed to become, evident by her expression. In fact, she even made an audible gulp.

"Th-This is our first day, of course I'm nervous!"

"I'm not."

"Good for you..."

"See, Toyama-san? What'd I tell you?"

"Eh...?"

Aoba took quite some time, but she had finally noticed that there seemed to be a third party amongst them. Coming in the form of a woman a few years older than the two of them, with shorter dark purple hair and a pair of lighter purple eyes.

"Well, it is quite normal to be nervous on your first day, isn't it?" The woman known as Toyama responded with an awkward smile accompanied by a small laugh. "It's a pleasure to meet you, I'm Toyama Rin, an AD. We'll be working in the same team."

"N-Nice to meet you, my name is Suzukaze Aoba." Aoba nervously introduced herself once again, and despite her constant practice not too long ago, had still stuttered noticeably. Though, she soon gained a look of admiration. "Amazing, a real professional...!"

"Professional, that's a bit much..." Toyama gave a nervous smile in response as sparkles seemed to be flying out from Aoba's eyes. Her face returned to its normal genuine smile as she continued. "Kurai-kun told me about you beforehand, I look forward to working with you."

"Y-Yes, I'll be in your care..."

"He also mentioned that you're rather easily flustered, but I can assure you that there's nothing you need to be concerned about, just relax and you'll be completely fine."

"...? ( º ▾ º )"

Aoba seemed to freeze for a moment before instantly rushing over and grabbing Kurai by the collar of his shirt, she then began to vigorously shake him back and forth. Aoba's face had gained a healthy red color of embarrassment.

"What have you told her?!"

"Hehe~."

"Don't just laugh!"

<>-------------------------------<>

After finishing their antics out in the front, both Kurai and Aoba followed Toyama into the elevator where the latter offered to guide them to their new workplace.

As of right now, Kurai could be seen struggling to hold in his laughter while Aoba was glaring at him with an embarrassed blush on her face. As for Toyama, she was unlocking the door that acted as the wall between them and their new workspace.

"Y-You needed to see your face, that was hilarious!" Kurai shouted in a whisper as he wheezed a few times due to his laughter. "You couldn't even make that face again even if you sucked five lemons at the same time!"

"Sh-Shut up!" Aoba glared even harder, but it didn't exactly have any desired effect on Kurai who continued wheezing. "It was an honest mistake! How was I supposed to know whether AD referred to assistant director or art director?!"

"I have no idea, but I do know that it was hysterical!"

"Y-You...!"

"You two are very close, aren't you?" Toyama couldn't help but ask rhetorically as she gave them both an amused look, seeing Aoba lightly hitting Kurai repeatedly with her fists. "Have you known each other for a long time?"

"Indeed we have, Toyama-san. We've been through countless adversities, braved numerous trials, and have essentially gone guns blazing through countless wars together (￣ー￣)ゞ."

"(⩌ _ ⩌)... We met each other as freshmen in high school."

"I-I see..." Toyama gave a small laugh after hearing both of their responses. Although their interactions were interesting to say the least, she could tell they were close. As for how close, she wasn't sure. "Please follow me, you two. I'll take you both to the design booth."

"Design booth?" Kurai blinked as he and Aoba walked into the office with Toyama. "If I wasn't mistaken, wasn't I supposed to be assigned to work over by the music booth for the first week? I wasn't aware of any changes in the schedule."

"Is that so?" Toyama asked in surprise as Aoba gave them a confused look as they walked. "The music booth is currently still under maintenance, therefore we had to change your schedule around a bit. I apologise for any inconvenience."

"Nah, it's all good. Do we know when it'll be up and ready?"

Kurai's role within the team, from what he had been explained, could best be described as scattered. He did not work in one single booth area, instead shifting around to a different area at the beginning of each week.

That wasn't set in stone though, his schedule may change depending on what group was currently short-handed, and another example of a reason was what Toyama had just mentioned. Overall, the team was making full use of the skills he had.

"As far as I know, it should be completed before next week." Toyama answered, although there was a bit of uncertainty in her tone. "We have always hired composers for our music, we've even worked with record labels in the past. However, we figured having our own music specialist could be a good idea."

"I'm actually curious about that, Toyama-san." Aoba spoke up. "If the company didn't have a music team before, how come you decided to hire Kurai?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I-I meant it as in since you're a fresh graduate, wouldn't it be better to hire someone who is more experienced in that field?" Aoba quickly explained after hearing Kurai's words, even if those words were said lightly. "It just makes sense, doesn't it?"

"It's mainly because Hazuki-san seems to have taken a particular liking to Kurai's talent. In fact, I have as well." Toyama smiled as she answered, earning a curious look from both Aoba and Kurai. "As a game company, it is natural for us to keep an eye out for any potential competitors and employees. A certain game contest led us to Kurai-kun."

"Game contest? Oh, I see!"

"If it's a game contest, then you must mean the one from two years ago!" Aoba seemed to have a spark of realisation, and Toyama merely nodded in response. "So, does that mean Eagle Jump had their eyes on hiring Kurai for a long time?"

"That's spot on." Toyama nodded her head. "Unfortunately, he was still in high school, but now it's different. We were quite surprised when Kurai had applied to join on his own volition. In fact, many of the employees and even the company's owner are fans of Hollow Knight."

Hollow Knight, a game created by Team Cherry back in his old world.

The game not only possessed incredible and unique visuals, but also an incredible soundtrack. Kurai had decided to recreate the game here in this world as a submission into a competition, one which he had dominated the rankings in.

Although Kurai can say for certain that his version wasn't a perfect recreation of the game, it was still close enough to do the original game justice. The beautiful and no doubt unique art style were certainly one of the elements that made the game stand out in the competition.

"It wasn't only Kurai-kun, but also you, Aoba-chan." Toyama added as the girl in question blinked her eyes in surprise. "We recognised your name from the credits as well. If I'm not mistaken, you were responsible for the game's visuals, were you not? They truly are eye-catching."

"O-Only a small amount was done by me..." Aoba confessed, though she couldn't hide the happy smile on her face from showing after being praised. "Although I and a few others contributed, most of the entire game was done entirely by Kurai."

"She was responsible for a number of the character designs." Kurai decided to give a further explanation as Toyama looked at him to continue. "I gave her a few concepts and sketches, then let her do some rendered designs for me. She did me proud."

"Ehehe~."

"Truly, I wouldn't have entrusted the task to anyone else. She was absolutely perfect."

"W-Well, that's a bit much..."

"Honestly, I'd marry her right no-."

"Stop right there! Y-You're just teasing me, aren't you?!"

With that, the two began 'arguing' again as Toyama merely watched on over her shoulder in amusement as they continued walking through the office floor. Eventually, the group soon arrived at one of the particular booths.

Looking inside, they saw that the first area seemed to consist of four office desks, each placed at one of each four corners of the space. One was heavily decorated with action figures and other props, another with a rather strange classy aesthetic, the third looking like a normal office space, and the final one looking like a blank slate with the bare essentials.

Although they couldn't really make anything out, there seemed to be another square space that made up the booth further in. As for whatever the desks over in that area looked like, they couldn't exactly tell.

"Alright, you two. Welcome to the design booth."