Game Developer in the World of Anime

Peppa's behavior really left Ichin at a loss—eating so much but refusing to exercise. The moment he tried to make him run a bit for his own good, the little thing just humored him for a few steps before darting away.

"Sigh... I'm doing this for your own good, you know. What if one day I try to find you a mate and you're too fat and they're not interested?"

Unfortunately, the little cat had no idea what Ichin was talking about. He simply lounged atop the cat tree, looking utterly relaxed.

Giving up on the idea of forcing it to exercise, Ichin continued with his own morning jog.

After a bit of running, he headed back to the bedroom to grab a change of clothes and gently woke Utaha before heading into the bathroom to wash up.

A dozen or so minutes later, he emerged from the shower to find Utaha and Umiko both sitting lazily on the living room sofa, looking half-awake.

Ichin chuckled and said, "Alright, it's getting late. You two go wash up. I'll make breakfast. Umiko, how about wontons this morning?"

"Sounds good. I'm not picky."

As she stretched, Umiko's pajama top lifted slightly, revealing her toned midsection.

Utaha, noticing it, reached out and poked her side enviously. "Umiko, your waist is so slim… Is this the result of consistent training? And it's really firm too."

"Well, I work with programmers all day," Umiko replied. "Sitting in front of a screen that long will mess you up fast if you don't take care of yourself. Gotta stay fit to last in this industry. But you shouldn't be envious—your figure is amazing too."

With a laugh, she stood up and stretched before walking over to the treadmill.

"You already exercise regularly. As long as you stay healthy, that's enough. If you ended up with a body like mine, I doubt you'd even like it."

"That's true."

Utaha nodded in agreement. She took great care of her figure—not just because she liked it herself, but because Ichin liked it too.

With her looks and figure, just standing next to Ichin was enough to make most girls with bad intentions back off.

The conversation from last night about college might've been a joke on the surface, but Utaha knew she needed to stay sharp. College life was very different from high school. Even at Tokyo University, you could easily run into someone who'd try to steal your boyfriend.

Green tea b*tches didn't care about location.

By the time Utaha and Umiko finished washing up, Ichin had breakfast ready.

"Though calling it breakfast might be a stretch—it's already 10 a.m.," he said with a smile, glancing at the clock in the living room. "Well, whatever. Let's eat first, then we'll go out. Umiko, tonight Utaha, her parents, and I are going to have dinner with her relatives, so we won't be able to spend the evening with you."

"No worries, no worries."

Umiko waved it off, slurping down a wonton. "I'll figure something out myself for dinner."

After the not-so-early breakfast, Ichin and Utaha changed into their outdoor clothes while Umiko returned to her dorm to put on a thicker outfit. The three of them then headed out.

Driving out, they picked up Aoba, Nene, and Shinoda—who all lived in Tokyo—and the group made their way to Sensō-ji Temple in Asakusa.

Originally, they'd wanted to invite Kō Yagami too, but she was busy doing the family rounds today and couldn't make it. They'd have to wait until the 3rd when they all left together for the trip.

After parking, the group looked at the massive crowds on the street.

Aoba sighed in relief. "Thank goodness I didn't listen to my mom and wear a kimono. I'd be dying in this crowd."

"What?! You own a kimono?" Shinoda exclaimed in surprise.

"Well," she added with a grin, "Considering your height, a single set would probably last you forever!"

"I didn't choose to be this short!" Aoba cried.

Standing on her tiptoes and pouting, Aoba huffed, then turned to Utaha. "But Utaha, if you wore a kimono, you'd definitely look gorgeous. Why didn't you wear one?"

"Too much trouble," Utaha replied bluntly. "It takes forever to put on, and the only kimono I have is from middle school. There's no way I can still wear that. If I wanted to wear one, I'd have to get it custom-made. Honestly, I didn't even consider it."

With Utaha's personality, there was no way she'd be satisfied with just buying a ready-made kimono off the rack. She'd want it custom-tailored from a proper shop.

At the moment, the street was filled with women in kimonos, some of them wearing rather luxurious ones.

After a moment of thought, Utaha looked to Ichin and said, "Ichin, do you think I should get one custom-made for next year? Wearing a kimono for New Year's every now and then might be kind of nice."

"Sure," Ichin agreed readily. "But I don't know much about kimonos or where to get them tailored. You'll have to find the place. I'll just come along with you."

Just imagining Utaha in a kimono… yeah, she'd absolutely steal the spotlight walking down the street like that.

They didn't linger too long chatting—everyone headed into Sensō-ji Temple.

Though it was crowded, the flow of people was still moving.

After lining up for nearly half an hour, they finally made their offerings and wished for good fortune in the new year. Then they headed over to draw omikuji fortunes.

Once they each got their fortune slip, they stood in a circle, glancing at one another. No one wanted to be the first to open theirs.

Ichin raised his hand and said, "Alright then, I'll go first."

He opened his fortune slip, and the others immediately crowded around.

"Oooh!!! Daikichi—great blessing! That's awesome!"

Nene looked surprised. "Looks like you're gonna have some amazing luck this year, Ichin-kun!"

"Not bad at all," Ichin smiled as he looked at the slip, then turned to the others. "Mine's done, your turn."

Everyone exchanged glances and then, on a quick count of three, opened their slips at the same time.

Utaha: Daikichi (great blessing), same as Ichin.

Umiko: Chūkichi (middle blessing).

Aoba: Chūkichi as well.

Nene and Shinoda: Shōkichi (small blessing).

Overall, pretty good results—no one pulled a bad fortune.

Looking at her small blessing, Shinoda Hajime grinned, "Mm-hmm, shōkichi isn't bad! I just hope this year I can actually snag those limited-edition preorders online!"

Everything else was fine, but that was definitely a challenge.

Even though Ichin didn't buy as many figures these days, he still kept up with the news online. These days, scalpers didn't just flip tickets anymore.

And when it came to highly popular items like the RG Hi-Nu Gundam, the God Gundam, or the PGU RX-78-2, there wasn't a single release that scalpers weren't drooling over.

And it wasn't just a China problem—Japan had scalpers too.

All one could wish for in the new year was… for all scalpers to explode, preferably as a family.

***