Chapter 7

At the same time as Kou was realizing what her true feelings were, and trying to blow them off as a simple crush, our protagonist had finally arrived at the meeting.

*Click* "I have brought her." Umiko announced as she closed the door behind herself.

"I apologize for taking so long, I had to show Aoba, the new hire, around." Kobayashi said formally.

"Hmmm! It is alright I am the one who told you to show Aoba around, and then scheduled a meeting directly after." Hazuki took the blame while giving Kobayashi happy smile and wave.

"Right. What is this meeting about anyway." Kobayashi asked as she sat down, and scanned the room to see who all was participating.

Other than herself there were only four other people. Shizuku Hazuki the director, Rin Toyama the assistant director, Umiko Ahagon the chief programmer(A/N: While lore wise Umiko is not the cheif programmer during 'Fairies 3' I have no ideawho was sooo it is Umiko now yeah!), and Christina wako yamato the producer. Including Kobayashi herself, the art director, there were only five people.

Umiko Ahagon is a tan skinned girl with dark brown hair that has a single hair strand hanging over her face, with an above average love for air-soft guns.

While Yamato has long olive green hair that is often tied into a single ponytail with bangs hanging on the left side and green eyes.

But without a doubt they were both beautiful women who could easily become a model with a little practice.

"Very well, there are currently only three issues but they are all fairly important so I decided a meeting was in order to nip these problems in the bud." Yamato said, starting off the meeting.

"The first issue was something presented by Umiko so I'll let her handle that." Yamoto said passing the torch to Umiko.

"Yes. While it is not really a current problem if we don't fix it soon it will become very troublesome during crunch time." Umiko stated.

"The problem is the art team's speed. They are taking way too long to design the character's. Eventually at this pace the programming team will catch up and have to temporarily stop working. While normally it wouldn't be a problem. We are currently about to enter a 'Death March'." Everyone grimaced at Umiko's mention of a 'Death March' getting flashback's of sleeping under their desk's for weeks on end.

( For the term death march there are a lot of definitions, the one they are talking about her is where they are at the end of their game and the time for release is coming out. So they work harder and longer than normal, trying to finish anything that is not done, or working out any problems.)

Umiko's worries were not unfounded, after the 'Death March' started the programming team would catch up in a little less than a week and then they would have to start debugging. Which, while very helpful, would be wasting the final moments they have left to polish the code's before the games launch.

"Sigh! I know. Kou's pickiness with her team is slowing us down, and while I could reprimand her it would just lower the teams moral overall. Additionally her pickiness is effectively making the game better overall, so I couldn't even if I wanted to!" Kobayashi said frustratedly.

"Fufu~ Luckily I saw ahead and hired some helping hands." Hazuki said proudly.

"Oh yeah Aoba! If we could get her up to speed before the 'Death March' we could easily pull ahead. That would give Kou, Hifumi, Yun,and myself enough time to work on the more important charecter's while leaving the background charecter's to Aoba!" Kobayashi said excitedly.

"Hmmm. I guess that will have to do for now, forcing Kou to rush would only backfire in the long run. Strangely enough though Kou is already working much quicker than normal." At those words from Yamato everyone turned to look at Kobayashi.

"E-Eh what is it?" Kobayashi was confused about why they were looking at her.

As for everyone else though they couldn't believe how dense Kobayashi was. Rin was almost crying out at the unfairness though. I mean, she has spent her whole life trying to get Kou's attention and Kobayashi did it unknowingly!

"Anyway that solves our first problem. The next thing is the sudden increase in expectations from the public torwards 'Fairies 3'. While the sudden increase could be dangerous for some people with lower quality, I believe 'Fairies 3' will blow them away so it is not the problem. The problem is that from those expectations more and more people are getting intrested in 'Fairies 3' causing a sudden growth in pre purchase's and potential buyers." Yamato announced stunning everyone present.

"While it is amazing news. I fail to see how it is a problem." Hazuki stated.

"When I said more and more people are interested in it, I didn't just mean consumer's. Rival companies or independent companies, heck maybe even news channels will start wanting a pece of the cake. So are we going to share a slice or not?" Yamato announced seriously.

After a few moments of pondering Kobayashi gave her input.

"Well I am against selling out to another game companies , but I believe that a alliance with the media will be beneficial. We will have to buy ads and other stuff to promote 'Fairies 3' anyway so getting on their bad side would be counter productive." Kobayashi stated.

"....." Hazuki, Umiko, Rin, and Yamato.

"W-what is with the awkward silence?"Kobayashi asked.

'I-Isn't that way to straight forward!?' They thought until Hazuki started to laugh.

"Pfft Hahahaha t- that is just great Kobayashi! I agree!" Hazuki.

"Umu, I see no reason to over complicate it. I agree!" Umiko.

"Haaaaahh. Well less conflict is good I guess. I agree!" Rin.

"Well then I guess Kobayashi's bluntness helped speed this up. I agree! And that makes all of us so we officially agree to Kobayashi plan." Yamato announced.

After a short bathroom break it was time for the last stretch of the meeting.

"Now then the final subject would be....the decision on how to decide the next game we make after 'Fairies 3'." Yamato said ominously.

"Sadly the 'Fairies' has probably reached the end of its line. So we have decided that our next gane will be an original. We have already decided on a gerne just not a format and the background." Hazuki said with both sadness at the end for 'Fairies' and excitement for what's next.

Feeling surprised that they had been planning for an original even before 'Fairies' ending Kobayashi asked what was on her mind the most.

"What is the genre for the new game." Kobayashi said leaning over and with such seriousness that it gave everyone else chills.

She couldn't help it though, because even if it was the last thing she did, she would make sure 'PECO' never comes into existence.

Don't get her wrong she has nothing against Aoba or 'PECO' for that matter. It's just that in 'New Game' by beating Kou, Aoba had crushed her confidence. Although Kou said she was fine, having been her freind for seven hand a half years, Kobayashi knew better. Kou had never lost and she believed she never would lose when it came to drawing. And when she finally lost? To someone with 8 years less experience? Of course she lost confidence in herself and moved! Broaden her horizon? Lies! While she may become a better artist by moving from place to place and gaining new experience, she ultimately just wanted to escape and have time to collect herself. Because even with Rin with her, Kou saw herself as alone. Kobayashi would make sure that never happened, even if it meant she had to lower Aoba's rise to fame. So the genre was a deciding factor between her win or loss against Aoba.

(A/N: Foreshadow, sorry 'PECO'fans but for Kobayashi x Kou to happen, kou kinda has to be there lol)

"U-Um we decided it would be a RPG game where you would need to battle and c-collect monsters." Yamoto said a little freaked out from the sudden seriousness from Kobayashi.

"I believe we should do what we usually do. The artist will come up with a background and draw their main character's." Kobayashi said still deadly serious and a sudden grin.

As for everyone else they felt a sudden pressure coming from Kobayashi that made it impossible to disagree with her so they could only shake their head's dumbly.

What was Kobayashi herself thinking during all this? Well battle and collect monster's? Although she would have to do a little background checking to see if it exists here(although she doubts it as Kobayashi's a big otaku and hasn't heard of it), she already knew of a game from that genre that dominated the gaming world before she transmigrated. One that she would love to remake with her new artist spirit.

She could do it! She would beat both Kou and Aoba! And if Kou still gets depressed she will smack it out of her!

As for why Kobayashi was going so far to make sure Kou dosen't leave? Well she didn't even realize she was doing it more for herself than for Kou.