diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index e8a171da..9ffb4045 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -4,9 +4,9 @@ version = 3
 
 [[package]]
 name = "ahash"
-version = "0.8.8"
+version = "0.8.9"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "42cd52102d3df161c77a887b608d7a4897d7cc112886a9537b738a887a03aaff"
+checksum = "d713b3834d76b85304d4d525563c1276e2e30dc97cc67bfb4585a4a29fc2c89f"
 dependencies = [
  "cfg-if",
  "const-random",
@@ -62,12 +62,9 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "cc"
-version = "1.0.83"
+version = "1.0.86"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "f1174fb0b6ec23863f8b971027804a42614e347eafb0a95bf0b12cdae21fc4d0"
-dependencies = [
- "libc",
-]
+checksum = "7f9fa1897e4325be0d68d48df6aa1a71ac2ed4d27723887e7754192705350730"
 
 [[package]]
 name = "cfg-if"
@@ -274,27 +271,27 @@ checksum = "7ffc183a10b4478d04cbbbfc96d0873219d962dd5accaff2ffbd4ceb7df837f4"
 
 [[package]]
 name = "ryu"
-version = "1.0.16"
+version = "1.0.17"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "f98d2aa92eebf49b69786be48e4477826b256916e84a57ff2a4f21923b48eb4c"
+checksum = "e86697c916019a8588c99b5fac3cead74ec0b4b819707a682fd4d23fa0ce1ba1"
 dependencies = [
  "no-panic",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
 name = "serde"
-version = "1.0.196"
+version = "1.0.197"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "870026e60fa08c69f064aa766c10f10b1d62db9ccd4d0abb206472bee0ce3b32"
+checksum = "3fb1c873e1b9b056a4dc4c0c198b24c3ffa059243875552b2bd0933b1aee4ce2"
 dependencies = [
  "serde_derive",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
 name = "serde_derive"
-version = "1.0.196"
+version = "1.0.197"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "33c85360c95e7d137454dc81d9a4ed2b8efd8fbe19cee57357b32b9771fccb67"
+checksum = "7eb0b34b42edc17f6b7cac84a52a1c5f0e1bb2227e997ca9011ea3dd34e8610b"
 dependencies = [
  "proc-macro2",
  "quote",
@@ -303,9 +300,9 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "serde_json"
-version = "1.0.113"
+version = "1.0.114"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "69801b70b1c3dac963ecb03a364ba0ceda9cf60c71cfe475e99864759c8b8a79"
+checksum = "c5f09b1bd632ef549eaa9f60a1f8de742bdbc698e6cee2095fc84dde5f549ae0"
 dependencies = [
  "itoa",
  "ryu",
@@ -332,9 +329,9 @@ checksum = "a2eb9349b6444b326872e140eb1cf5e7c522154d69e7a0ffb0fb81c06b37543f"
 
 [[package]]
 name = "syn"
-version = "2.0.48"
+version = "2.0.50"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "0f3531638e407dfc0814761abb7c00a5b54992b849452a0646b7f65c9f770f3f"
+checksum = "74f1bdc9872430ce9b75da68329d1c1746faf50ffac5f19e02b71e37ff881ffb"
 dependencies = [
  "proc-macro2",
  "quote",
@@ -343,9 +340,9 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "target-lexicon"
-version = "0.12.13"
+version = "0.12.14"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "69758bda2e78f098e4ccb393021a0963bb3442eac05f135c30f61b7370bbafae"
+checksum = "e1fc403891a21bcfb7c37834ba66a547a8f402146eba7265b5a6d88059c9ff2f"
 
 [[package]]
 name = "tiny-keccak"
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 5f675fc9..d9626d02 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ no-panic = [
 yyjson = []
 
 [dependencies]
-ahash = { version = "^0.8.8", default_features = false, features = ["compile-time-rng"] }
+ahash = { version = "^0.8.9", default_features = false, features = ["compile-time-rng"] }
 arrayvec = { version = "0.7", default_features = false, features = ["std", "serde"] }
 associative-cache = { version = "2", default_features = false }
 beef = { version = "0.5", default_features = false, features = ["impl_serde"] }
diff --git a/script/develop b/script/develop
index 50568f63..33036719 100755
--- a/script/develop
+++ b/script/develop
@@ -2,10 +2,13 @@
 
 rm -f target/wheels/*
 
-export CC="clang"
-export CFLAGS="-O2 -fstrict-aliasing -emit-llvm -flto=full"
-export LDFLAGS="${CFLAGS} -fuse-ld=lld -Wl,--as-needed -Wl,-plugin-opt=also-emit-llvm"
-export RUSTFLAGS="-C linker=clang -C linker-plugin-lto -C lto=fat -C link-arg=-fuse-ld=lld -Z mir-opt-level=4 -Z virtual-function-elimination"
+export CC="${CC:-clang}"
+export LD="${LD:-lld}"
+
+echo "CC: ${CC}, LD: ${LD}, LD_LIBRARY_PATH: ${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}"
+export CFLAGS="-Os -fstrict-aliasing -emit-llvm -flto=full"
+export LDFLAGS="${CFLAGS} -fuse-ld=${LD} -Wl,--as-needed -Wl,-plugin-opt=also-emit-llvm"
+export RUSTFLAGS="-C linker=${CC} -C linker-plugin-lto -C lto=fat -C link-arg=-fuse-ld=${LD} -Z mir-opt-level=4 -Z virtual-function-elimination"
 
 maturin build "$@"
 
diff --git a/script/graph b/script/graph
index 401652e0..afd45ce9 100755
--- a/script/graph
+++ b/script/graph
@@ -89,6 +89,8 @@ def tab(obj):
         if not per_op_data:
             continue
 
+        clamp = 10 if operation == "serialization" else 5
+
         json_baseline = {}
         for each in per_op_data:
             if each["group"] == "witter.json":
@@ -97,7 +99,9 @@ def tab(obj):
                 json_baseline[each["group"]] = each["operations"]
 
         for each in per_op_data:
-            each["relative"] = each["operations"] / json_baseline[each["group"]]
+            each["relative"] = min(
+                each["operations"] / json_baseline[each["group"]], clamp
+            )
 
         p = pd.DataFrame.from_dict(per_op_data)
         p.groupby("group")
@@ -117,7 +121,6 @@ def tab(obj):
         pyplot.title(operation)
 
         # ensure Y range
-        clamp = 10 if operation == "serialization" else 5
         ylabels = set((min(v, clamp) for v in pyplot.gca().get_yticks()))
         pyplot.gca().set_yticks(list({1.0, 1.5}.union(ylabels)))
 
diff --git a/src/deserialize/cache.rs b/src/deserialize/cache.rs
index fdd75511..169712ad 100644
--- a/src/deserialize/cache.rs
+++ b/src/deserialize/cache.rs
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 // SPDX-License-Identifier: (Apache-2.0 OR MIT)
 
-use associative_cache::replacement::RoundRobinReplacement;
-use associative_cache::*;
+use associative_cache::{AssociativeCache, Capacity1024, HashDirectMapped, RoundRobinReplacement};
 use core::ffi::c_void;
 use once_cell::unsync::OnceCell;
 use std::hash::Hasher;
diff --git a/src/deserialize/error.rs b/src/deserialize/error.rs
index 92dc89e1..00e9dd02 100644
--- a/src/deserialize/error.rs
+++ b/src/deserialize/error.rs
@@ -51,9 +51,10 @@ impl<'a> DeserializeError<'a> {
     /// Return position of the error in the deserialized data
     #[cold]
     #[cfg(feature = "yyjson")]
+    #[cfg_attr(feature = "optimize", optimize(size))]
     pub fn pos(&self) -> i64 {
         match self.data {
-            Some(as_str) => bytecount::num_chars(&as_str.as_bytes()[0..self.pos as usize]) as i64,
+            Some(as_str) => as_str[0..self.pos as usize].chars().count() as i64,
             None => 0,
         }
     }
diff --git a/src/serialize/per_type/numpy.rs b/src/serialize/per_type/numpy.rs
index ee6bb599..d6515f98 100644
--- a/src/serialize/per_type/numpy.rs
+++ b/src/serialize/per_type/numpy.rs
@@ -10,7 +10,6 @@ use chrono::{Datelike, NaiveDate, NaiveDateTime, Timelike};
 use core::ffi::{c_char, c_int, c_void};
 use pyo3_ffi::*;
 use serde::ser::{self, Serialize, SerializeSeq, Serializer};
-use std::convert::TryInto;
 use std::fmt;
 
 #[repr(transparent)]