“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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