“DimSoft?”
Kari sounded surprised, “Why?”
“Invite.”
He passed it back so she could see it.
“Huh.
I didn’t think they were ready for something like this.” Kari answered him,
sounding thoughtful, “I know they were badgering my Head of Department for help
at Christmas, but I thought he told them where to go.”
“Dimension
are a bunch of hacks.” Kaiba snorted as Kari passed the invite back, “Who are sponsored
by SharpShade Incorporated. They only got the rights to use Duel Monsters in their
games from Industrial Illusions because Pegasus has ties with SharpShade and
they put SharpShade’s logo on all their packaging alongside their own. Anything
they’ve built that isn’t just a re-hash of my company’s stuff will probably
explode at some point.”
“Is
that jealousy I hear?” Joey taunted, “Because they’ve figured out the holotech
too?”
“Not
even slightly, Mutt.” Kaiba snapped, causing Yami to blink, unused to Kaiba
letting his irritation show so quickly, “Holotech is old news. Anyone who can
reverse engineer a duel disk already has and is probably working on a way to
improve it.” You could hear the smirk as Kaiba continued, “Unfortunately for
them, my company will always be better at it than they are.”
“So
Dimension’s new game they want to beta...” Yami prodded.
“Probably
some rip off of my Spirit Hearts virtual reality games.” Kaiba sounded bored at
that, “Just using the projection system that they’ve supposedly come up with
that doesn’t require projectors.”
“Umm.”
Joey butted in, sounding confused, “Not for nothing, but I thought you couldn’t
have holographs without the projectors.”
“You
can’t.” Kari agreed, “Which means there’s probably a trick to it.”
“There
is.” Yami agreed, reading the invite further, “The island is going to be laced
with DimSoft’s VirtualNet system. It’s apparently the VirtualNet that will be
providing the holograms, rather than projectors the players have to carry around.”
“The
VirtualNet system wasn’t anywhere near ready the last time I had anything to do
with DimSoft’s virtual technicians.” Kari informed the Pharaoh, “So they must
have had a massive breakthrough in both the programming and 3d departments to
be ready for a massive competition now.”
“Whatever
it is, I’m not going.” Yami shrugged, finding himself amused when he could
practically feel his friends staring.
“Are
you feeling alright?” Joey asked, “They have some cool new toys and they’re
inviting you to play with them.”
“No,
they’re inviting Yugi to play with them.” Yami countered, “And it’s too soon
for him to be recovered in time. I’m not going to take advantage of Yugi’s
illness in order to vanish off to some island in the middle of the ocean. It’s
not fair on him. If we were still sharing a body it wouldn’t have mattered,
because Yugi would be there anyway, but it’s not fair if I go and enjoy it and
he can’t.”
None of the others really knew what to say to that. Yami had a point. It wouldn’t be fair to Yugi. Kari couldn’t help but wonder though, if Yami would have found another excuse to not go if Yugi had been whole and well. The Pharaoh had always been protective of his lighter half and she could well imagine that this latest scare would only make it worse.
They
arrived into Domino International Airport rather late and all of them were glad
to get to their assorted homes and beds. Yugi and Yami, who had tried to
explain the situation to their grandfather via letters, found themselves once
again explaining everything, this time to his face.
The
questioning continued until Yugi started to list sideways and Yami had to prop
him up, at which point Solomon sent Yugi to bed and got a promise from Yami for
more answers once Yugi was settled. It was long gone midnight before Solomon
finally ran out of questions and when Yami awoke the next morning, it was to
find he had overslept and Joey had already started helping the elderly man in
the shop.
While
the Joey and the Mutous settled back into life at the shop, Kari was in the
middle of a disaster at work. The Head of Virtual Design and Development had
quit the moment the Kaibas had walked into the building, stating that he had
been offered better money elsewhere just that morning and that he was taking
some of his team with him.
The
remaining members of the staff in that department had no experience in leading
a team and the closest that anyone could come was Kari’s experiences during her
time in education. Not only that but she was the longest lasting member of the
team with just over two years with the company. This meant that, for the time
being, Kari was in charge of the team while Kaiba scrambled to hire people back
or get new employees.
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