Zaboru chuckled and casually pulled the empty chair closer before sitting with them. "Relax, Yuuya. It's just me. Weird, isn't it? You see me around ZAGE all the time." He smiled as if nothing unusual had happened, which only made Yuuya look even more embarrassed.
Yuuhi immediately grinned and leaned toward Zaboru. "Boss, he's just shy. Usually he never shuts up about working at ZAGE. Seriously, he brags about it all the time. He even has photos with you."
Yuuya's face immediately turned red. "Yuuhi, you bastard…"
Zaboru laughed while reaching for another piece of karaage from the enormous plate in front of him. "Photos with me? Damn, I didn't know I was collectible now."
Takata chuckled, while Yuuhi laughed openly at Yuuya's suffering. Yuuya simply covered part of his face with one hand and muttered something incomprehensible before returning to his food.
It was already well known among some members of Team IZAN that Yuuya was one of Zaboru's biggest fans. Before joining ZAGE, he had followed nearly every major release, watched Zaboru's interviews, read his development discussions, and even attended several public events. Working at ZAGE had technically placed him much closer to the man he admired, but somehow that had made him more awkward rather than less.
Zaboru did not mind.
He had always preferred employees treating him normally. He never demanded people stand straight when he walked into a room, never demanded unnecessary titles, and certainly never expected employees to behave as though he were royalty simply because he owned the company. Whatever respect existed inside ZAGE had been earned over years of working beside developers, solving problems personally, improving working conditions, and defending his teams when something went wrong.
That did not mean employees treated him exactly like another coworker. There was still a natural restraint. Zaboru was their boss, the founder of ZAGE, and arguably the most talented developer inside the company. Even comfortable employees occasionally became more careful around him without realising it.
Takata watched Zaboru continue eating and shook his head. "Still can't get used to that, Boss."
Zaboru looked toward him. "What?"
"The amount of food."
Yuuhi glanced toward the nearly empty plates Zaboru had already consumed, then toward the mountain of karaage that somehow still remained. "Yeah, seriously. Where does all of that even go?"
Zaboru shrugged casually. "Good metabolism."
Takata laughed. "That explanation stopped being believable several years ago."
Zaboru smiled and continued eating anyway. His Enlightenment Body demanded an absurd amount of energy, and hiding that behind the explanation of an unusually powerful metabolism had become one of the longest-running excuses of his second life.
After another moment, Takata became slightly more serious. "Still, Boss… are we actually in trouble?" He glanced toward Yuuya and continued, "I mean, this idiot said the thing out loud. That project is still completely secret outside ZAGE."
Yuuya immediately protested, "Why do you keep calling me an idiot?"
"Because you shouted an internal project name inside a public restaurant."
"I didn't shout!"
"You were loud enough that I heard you from the other side of the table."
"That's because you're sitting right there!"
Zaboru chuckled at their argument before waving one hand dismissively. "Relax. It's fine. The games are getting closer to release anyway, and besides…" His smile slowly became more mischievous. "Do you guys honestly think those are the real titles?"
All three employees became quiet.
Yuuya blinked first. "Wait."
Yuuhi tilted her head. "They're not?"
Zaboru laughed softly. "Nope."
Yuuya immediately leaned forward with wide eyes. "Boss, please. What's the real title?"
"No."
"Boss!"
Zaboru grinned. "Wait for it, okay?"
Yuuya looked genuinely wounded. "That's evil."
"Thank you."
Takata laughed while Yuuhi stared at Zaboru with obvious amusement.
Yuuhi had never been particularly subtle about the things she liked. She had a habit of openly complimenting attractive actors, musicians, and game characters without the slightest embarrassment. Naturally, Zaboru was no exception. He was already considered handsome by most people who met him, and Yuuhi had been a huge fan of his old band Zankoku long before the group eventually changed personnel and continued under the name Zaraki.
Now that Zaboru was sitting directly across from her, eating karaage like a starving animal while casually talking about secret ZEPS 4 games, she had been staring at him for several seconds longer than necessary.
Takata eventually noticed and sighed. "Yuuhi."
She blinked. "Hm?"
"You're staring."
"I know."
Yuuya looked toward her in disbelief. "At least pretend to be embarrassed!"
"Why?"
Zaboru raised an eyebrow but only laughed. "You guys really are comfortable, huh?"
Yuuhi smiled. "You told us not to be scared of you."
"I did. I didn't say stare at me like I'm a museum exhibit."
That finally made Yuuhi laugh and look back toward her food.
The real titles of the two Team IZAN ZEPS 4 projects remained known only by Zaboru and the highest-ranking project leaders. Most ordinary developers were intentionally given internal codenames instead.
The Red Devil referred internally to what would eventually be revealed as Devil May Cry , while Big Hunting Expanded referred to Monster Hunter.
Zaboru had gone ridiculously far to protect those titles. Even inside active development builds, the names could be replaced instantly through internal commands. Menu titles, debug interfaces, test screens, temporary loading pages, and several other visible areas could all switch between development codenames and actual titles depending on permissions.
It had required some additional coding, but for Zaboru the result was worth it.
Partly because it protected secrets.
Mostly because he found it funny.
Around ZAGE, developers had already begun placing bets on the actual names of upcoming ZEPS 4 games. Some theories were strangely accurate. Others were completely insane.
Zaboru personally enjoyed reading all of them.
After they finished eating, Zaboru stood and stretched before looking toward the three Team IZAN employees. "You guys heading back upstairs?"
Takata nodded. "Yeah. Mikami-san is probably still there."
Yuuya sighed. "Of course he is."
Zaboru smiled. "Okay then. I'll walk with you. I haven't checked Team IZAN directly today anyway."
Yuuhi raised an eyebrow. "You're going to work again after eating all that?"
"I need to use the calories somehow."
Takata muttered, "That man is not human."
Zaboru heard him perfectly.
He chose not to comment.
The four left ZAGE Tavern together and crossed back toward ZAGE Tower. By this hour, the building had become considerably quieter, although the floors assigned to major ZEPS 4 projects remained active. ZAGE did not encourage unnecessary overtime, but certain development periods naturally required longer days, especially when teams were approaching major internal milestones.
When the elevator doors opened onto Team IZAN's floor, Zaboru immediately realised something had gone wrong.
The floor was chaos.
Not disaster-level chaos.
Developer chaos.
Shinji Mikami was moving rapidly between several workstations while holding a stack of documents under one arm. Shinji Owara was arguing with two programmers near another monitor, while Shinji Suiyoko stood beside a group of designers comparing several gameplay builds. Hideki Kamiya, who was normally one of the more relaxed senior developers in the team, was currently staring intensely at a combat prototype with his arms crossed.
Yuuya sighed the moment he saw them. "See? This is what I was talking about."
Takata nodded. "Yeah. Definitely worse than when we left."
Zaboru did not look worried.
If anything, he smiled.
He walked onto the floor with his hands casually inside his pockets. Several developers noticed him and acknowledged him with simple greetings rather than immediately stopping everything they were doing. Zaboru answered them naturally as he walked toward Mikami.
Mikami finally noticed him approaching and exhaled. "Zaboru-san. Good timing."
"That sounds dangerous," Zaboru replied with a smile. "What happened?"
Mikami immediately handed him several reports. "Nothing catastrophic. We're just hitting problems with both projects at the same time."
Zaboru quickly skimmed the documents while Mikami continued explaining. The first issue involved The Red Devil. The team had successfully created an extremely fast combat system, but they were struggling to balance the game's responsiveness with the heavier animation quality expected from ZEPS 4. Certain attacks looked beautiful but felt too slow when chained together, while making animations faster sometimes caused the movement to lose impact.
Zaboru nodded slowly. "So it looks good when you watch it but doesn't always feel good when you play it."
"Exactly."
Zaboru handed the report back before walking toward the nearest test machine. "Then gameplay wins."
Mikami looked at him.
Zaboru smiled and continued, "Not completely. I'm not saying throw away the animation quality. But Red Devil is supposed to feel stylish. If the player presses something and the character feels like he's waiting for permission from the animation before moving, then we already failed."
Kamiya immediately turned toward them from the nearby workstation.
Zaboru picked up the controller and played the build briefly. The character launched an enemy upward before attempting to transition into another attack. Zaboru immediately noticed the hesitation.
"There."
Kamiya nodded. "Exactly."
Zaboru played the sequence again, then explained, "Shorten the recovery window here, but don't simply speed up the entire animation. Let the next input interrupt the final portion when the player meets the timing requirement."
Mikami's eyes narrowed thoughtfully.
Zaboru continued, "Basically, let skilled players cancel into the next action earlier. Beginners can still watch the full animation. Experienced players gradually learn how to chain everything."
Kamiya's expression changed almost immediately. "That could work."
Zaboru smiled. "It should feel like the player is creating the choreography."
That sentence immediately caught Kamiya's attention.
Zaboru handed the controller back. "That's the core. Don't make combat look stylish by itself. Make the player feel stylish because they learned how to control it."
Kamiya grinned.
"Okay. I like that."
Zaboru nodded casually. "Try it."
There was no enormous speech.
No dramatic intervention.
Within seconds, Kamiya was already discussing implementation with the programmers.
Mikami then guided Zaboru toward the second problem.
Big Hunting Expanded.
Monster Hunter presented an entirely different challenge.
The team had created large monsters, detailed environments, weapon systems, crafting, tracking, gathering, and cooperative play, but the amount of interconnected systems was becoming increasingly difficult to organise.
One designer explained, "Every weapon changes how the player approaches the monster. Then we have different monster body parts, materials, environments, equipment progression, gathering systems, and multiplayer coordination. We're worried new players might get overwhelmed."
Zaboru crossed his arms and stared at the gameplay footage for several seconds.
A large creature moved through a forest while four hunters followed from different directions.
Zaboru smiled.
"Don't simplify the hunting."
Mikami looked toward him. "Then what should we simplify?"
"The learning."
Several developers became quiet.
Zaboru pointed toward the screen. "The depth is the point. Big Hunting Expanded should feel like the player is actually preparing for something dangerous. Different weapons should feel completely different. Monsters should have behaviours players gradually recognise. Materials should matter. Preparation should matter."
He then tapped the development document. "But don't throw all of that at players in the first hour. Early missions should teach one idea at a time."
Zaboru continued casually, "First teach movement and basic attacks. Then gathering. Then crafting. Then tracking. Then introduce a monster that forces them to actually use what they learned. Let the complexity arrive naturally."
Mikami slowly nodded.
Zaboru smiled slightly. "And make the monsters feel like animals, not boss arenas with legs."
That immediately drew several looks.
"They should move around," Zaboru continued. "Eat. Rest. Fight other creatures sometimes. Run away when injured. Become angry. Protect territory. If the player loses track of one, they should actually have to find it again."
One designer asked, "So the hunt itself is part of the gameplay, not just the fight?"
"Exactly."
Zaboru pointed toward the four hunters on the screen. "And multiplayer should make people feel like a hunting party. One guy carrying a huge sword should behave differently from someone using a ranged weapon. If everyone is just attacking the same ankle, we fucked up."
Several developers laughed.
Mikami rubbed his chin while staring at the build. The chaos from several minutes earlier had already begun transforming into actual discussions. Programmers started reorganising combat tasks around Zaboru's cancel-system suggestion, while Monster Hunter designers began restructuring tutorial progression.
Zaboru glanced around the room and smiled.
This was exactly why he liked visiting development floors personally.
Most problems were not caused by bad developers.
Sometimes talented people simply spent so long staring at the same problem that they stopped seeing the simplest direction forward.
Mikami looked toward him and sighed. "You make it sound obvious."
Zaboru chuckled. "It's only obvious after someone says it."
"That doesn't make it less annoying."
"Hehehe."
Yuuya, Takata, and Yuuhi watched from nearby.
Yuuya quietly whispered, "See? This is why I'm a fan."
Yuuhi smiled teasingly. "You're still never getting the real titles from him."
Yuuya sighed.
Unfortunately for him, Zaboru heard that too.
Without even turning around, Zaboru smiled and said, "Correct."
Yuuya stared at him. "Boss, your hearing is ridiculous."
Zaboru finally looked back with an innocent expression. "What?"
Nobody believed him.
But within less than an hour, the atmosphere on Team IZAN's floor had changed completely.
The workload had not disappeared.
Devil May Cry 3 was still enormous.
Monster Hunter was still one of the most complicated games Team IZAN had ever attempted.
ZEPS 4 remained the biggest development transition ZAGE had faced.
But the panic was gone.
Everyone once again had a direction.
And for Zaboru, that was enough.
He smiled at Mikami and said, "Okay then. Keep going. But don't keep everyone here until sunrise."
Mikami gave him a tired smile. "I was about to tell you the same thing."
Zaboru paused.
Yuuhi immediately laughed.
Takata looked away, trying not to.
Even Yuuya grinned.
Zaboru stared at Mikami for a moment before finally chuckling. "Fair."
To be continued.
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