#mizushipping

It didn’t make any sense.

But it did. It made perfect sense and that was the part Mokuba was having trouble with as he stood in the centre of KaibaCorp’s largest hologram lab and looked up at the looming Blue-Eyes White Dragon. It didn’t matter how many times he reached up towards the massive Duel Monster, or charged the development technicians to bend the parameters of the hologram’s abilities; he couldn’t recreate what he had seen.

But he knew he had seen it.

“I don’t know why you want that action, but it’s not in the code, Mokuba.” Rebecca shook her head with absolute decision and took her hologram headset off with all the gravitas of a judge bringing a gavel down on a judgement. It couldn’t be done. It wasn’t possible. They were almost a week into this venture of Mokuba’s and she had bitten her tongue the entire time and never questioned his odd requests to dive into Solid Vision’s code and programming, even if she had reservations. Seto didn’t like her poking around his coding and secured documents, and she knew that. He had made that quite clear the first few times she had stretched her technical legs.

A week into bending, pushing and downright puncturing the limits of the holograms and she was convinced this was a fruitless mission. And if she poked around in the hologram coding any more, she risked annoying Mokuba’s older brother. That was something Rebecca didn’t want; as grouchy and scary as she knew he could be, Seto allowed her into his personal circle more than most. And he was the organiser of the largest dueling tournaments in the world, which she would still prefer to be invited to in the future.

Standing in the centre of the massive hologram lab, Mokuba took his headset off too. This was cutting edge KaibaCorp technology. A headset that would sync to the Duel Disk and give the duelist a wholly immersive experience. The marketing and development teams were working closely with the technical labs to develop this so-called ‘dimensional’ experience. It was a few years away from getting anywhere even close to the public market yet, and even this new tech couldn’t give him the result he was searching for.

Running a hand over his face and letting out a sigh, he walked forward a few steps and looked up at the familiar Blue-Eyes White Dragon, willing it to lower its snout towards him.

“It has to be possible.” The words were as low as a breath as he reached a hand out to the dragon and it phased through the massive realistic hologram. The scales faded in the air as his hand went through its snout, becoming pixelated before re-forming around the disturbance thanks to their maximum-strength hologram sealers. It made no sense.

The Duel Disk Seto had used was the standard model; the same design from Battle City, just upgraded software. Its field sealers were solar-powered, self-contained. No external energy source, unless docked to the Duel Disk for recharging. No hidden tricks. The lab generators, by contrast, were the best KaibaCorp had; high-density renderers used for global marketing. They were far more powerful than any of the market-versions.

 If any system could simulate what he had seen from the balcony, it was this one. And still, the dragon wouldn’t move the way he wanted it to. The massive dragon cycled through all of its programmed movements; firing White Lighting across the lab, roaring into the air and the generic idle movements of breathing and snorting, moving its wings or turning its head. But not once did it look at him. Not once did it reach down to him like it had done with Kisara.

Rebecca fidgeted with the headset and watched Mokuba’s hand pass through the hologram. He was completely lost in the dragon, so much so that she saw how alike Mokuba was to Seto for that instant. Standing in front of his brother’s signature Duel Monster, surrounded by the tech lab and staring up at the wonders their company could create. She let out a sigh and the headset was abandoned. Standing up from the desk she had commandeered, she stretched and slowly walked towards the hologram too. “Mokuba, why are we doing this?” She reached out and touched his arm, pulling his attention away from the dragon finally.

Blinking at the oddness of the physical touch after hours of just phasing through the pixels of the hologram, Mokuba turned to face Rebecca and he faltered for the tiniest of moments. He wanted to tell her about the Millennium Rod, about what he had seen and how scared he was that all those things from years ago were going to happen again. Shadow duels, magical items that didn’t adhere to the laws of reality and dangers that couldn’t be understated.

I saw something, Bec.