Tsugiharu had been hoping to spend another morning soaking the baths. But a certain programmer had wanted to show him her pride and joy first thing in the morning, and Katsuo would be more impressed with spending time with her, than how long Tsugiharu could soak in a hot pool.

And there was a little warmth, he thought, that had nothing to do with the water that day.

And so he'd gotten a bubble tea, and some light treats, easily shared and sat outside the tea sharp, inside the mall.

It was early enough that most of the stores were still closed, and it was primarily the domain of the mall walkers, but just as the planet came to life, so would this little world within a world.

It didn't take long for Shizuku to show up in her eagerness to show off one of the few games she'd made for the most part from beginning to end. She was dressed casually for the morning, but at least less casually than when they'd first met. She wore a white off the shoulder top layered over a tanktop with black shorts. The airiness of the outfit matched the weather. Over her shoulder hung what was obviously a carrying case for her computer.

She grabbed a tea for herself before coming out to join him. "Good morning, Kuchiki-san! I know it's early, so I extra appreciate you coming." Just like the previous day, she seemed bright and energetic despite the early hour.

Tsugiharu rose and bowed.

"Think nothing of it Daidoji-san. A miai is a busy time, I'm honored that you would choose to start your day sharing something with me that you are so passionate about." he said.

And truth be told, her energy was just a wee bit infectious.

"Hai, it really is. It's like the lead up to a General's visit, but with fewer guidelines as to what one should be doing. Though I admittedly haven't seen one before." She replied with a chuckle. Rather than sitting across from him, she sat to the side to make it easier to share the computer. She opened it, prompting a pleasant series of musical chords to indicate it had woken up. "Let me just get this going real quick."

Tsugiharu took a moment to admire the computer's aesthetic.

"It's a nice computer Daidoji-san. New model?" he asked.

"Yup!" She replied brightly, apparently pleased he noticed. The computer, while tough enough to be practical for the military, was clearly designed with Crane users in mind. "I got it this year... one of the lightweight models. The twelve pounders don't exactly put the 'portable' in portable computer."

After a moment of fiddling, she slide the machine over to him where a title screen was was lit up, the animation basic but well done and clearly made with care, but no music.

He nodded.

"Some of those older models give an interesting slant on the words, 'Computing power' as in, 'How strong do you have to be to carry this monster around all day?" he joked.

He looked over the opening screen.

"It looks very nice, Daidoji-san. Is there a story behind the game, or is it just 'nameless protagonist' tries not to get hit by shots from unseen antagonist?' he asked.

He wasn't going to fault her if that was the case, but he did like the idea of their being a backstory behind games.

"You definitely see the antagonist. They're the origin point for the enemy attacks," she replied. "There's a story. The general idea is that the main character lives in a village where there's a story that every 100 years during a full moon, the spirits in the woods beyond the village hold a big festival. It's dangerous for humans to be out of their homes that night, never mind in the woods themselves. But their brother goes missing, so they have to venture out to retrieve him, picking up bits and pieces of the spirits skills as they go to make it through."

Tsugiharu nodded fairly enthisastically.

"Seems solid. So just two more questions. What are the controls like, and what's the protagonist's name?" he asked.

She pointed to buttons on the keyboard. "These keys move your character around. This one sets off a spell that clear the screen of the bullets currently on the screen. This is the shoot button - you can basically just hold it down. Holding this one puts you in focus mode, which changes your shot shape and slows you down. It makes it easier to dodge really thick patterns."

"Their name is currently Rei, but I haven't settled on too much about them yet."

"Well then, let's see what Rei and I can do." he said, hitting the buttons to start the game.

It was clear that Tsugiharu had at least played this style of game before, moving well along the screen, and making decent use of focus and the clear function.

Still, it was his first time playing THIS game, so he didn't know the patterns yet.

When the giant flying wolf spirit appeared, Rei struggled, but got eaten, leading to the Game Over Screen.

Int/Games: Bullet Curtain 17

She watches over his shoulder as he plays, not commenting until his run ends. "Yeah, that one's a pain, with the broad beam type attacks combined with the staggered diagonal bullets still coming at you."

Tsugiharu nodded.

"But he's beatable. It'd take some effort to learn the exact pattern, but it's definitely doable." he said, sure of this fact. "How many stages do you have currently?"

"Six stages plus an extra stage at four difficulty levels currently," she explained.

Tsugiharu grinned a bit.

"And however many secret levels the talented programmer thought to slip in as a surprise. It's good Daidoji-san. Still a work in progress unless the no music is a style choice, but it's a really strong start. Care to show me how the master plays?" he offered.

"There might be one or two," she chuckled. "Well, I don't know anyone good at composing yet who's willing to do the music."

"Pfft, master." She pulled the computer over. "I'm way better at making them than playing them... which makes them a little hard to playtest, but whatever. I'll do my best."

Fluff Games/Intelligence: 3d10 19

As promised, she got past the boss he died on and up to the next, but she didn't do a huge amount better than he did.

Tsugiharu nodded at her explanation and watched her play.

"That makes sense. Your game definitely deserves a suitably epic score." he said referring to the music, not her performance.

He took a sip of his bubble tea.

"I'm curious, Daidoji-san, were did you get the inspiration for the game? I assume your brother wasn't actually kidnapped by evil spirits and this game isn't based on your true story." he asked.

She leaned back in her seat and considered the question. "Well... I think the story ideas are just kind of a patchwork of people I know, things I've encountered and stories I've read or heard. Sometimes I see something cool, like a really spectacular but of nature or a serial play I enjoyed and take inspiration from there. Sometimes I get excited about a bit of gameplay first and come up with a story to fit it. It just depends, but I think it's like the knowledge gathering - it's just a mental habit after a while of thinking what kind of game something could be, or how could a program solve that problem."

Tsugiharu chuckled a bit.

"So it's merely that you fantasized about your younger brother being kidnapped?" he teased. "Being the second of five children, I can understand that fantasy from time to time."

She laughed, but shook her head. "Nothing like that. I don't have any younger siblings to fantasize about being kidnapped, anyway."