Kari took a deep breath as she entered the convention hall.
She did not belong here, though right now she certainly looked the part. The smart skirt suit and blouse allowed her to mingle with the businessmen and women who were roaming the halls, looking for the talks they were interested in.
She only had one goal though.
Luckily for her it was well sign posted and as she followed the VIP arrows towards her intended target, her nerves ramped up.
She had tried to apply for a job at one of the most prestigious games companies in the world and had not heard anything, while Industrial Illusions had replied to her e-mail stating that they were not taking on students, or their projects, at the current time, despite the fact she had graduated already.
This was her last chance to get her game made legitimately.
If she could not get Industrial Illusions or Kaiba Corp to take her on, or at least back her personal project, she would be at risk of a Cease and Desist from one, or both companies and everything she had worked for over the last three years would be at risk.
As she reached the doors labelled 'Guests only' she paused and straightened her suit, dusted herself off and tightened her ponytail.
"Okay Baker. Here we go."
She pushed open the door and was pleased to find that the only one in the room was her target.
The CEO of Kaiba Corp, Kaiba Seto, watched her carefully as she approached, eyes narrowed. "You're not meant to be here."
Kari froze, surprised he had been able to tell so easily.
"You're shaking and you snuck into the room." He listed off, ill amused, "I don't do autographs so I suggest you leave."
"I'm not here for an autograph." Kari balled her hands into fists as she gathered her courage and stared him down. "My name is Kari Baker. I have something to show you that could be valuable to your company."
There was a moment when she could see him making up his mind whether to call security or not. Then he nodded, "You have five minutes before I call security."
Kari quickly opened her briefcase, pulling out a pair of the latest mobile phones, handing one to the CEO. When he turned it on, the only app available was one whose icon was the back of a Duel Monsters card, labelled 'DuelStream'.
Curious despite himself, he tapped the icon, to find that it opened a 'profile creation' page. One that took him a matter of moments to fill in with a dummy account. Once in, his eyes widened. The app was connected to the public version of the Kaiba Corp network, meaning he had access to every card currently in the system.
"If you need…"
He held up a hand and scanned through, easily finding the deck creation system. The app was simply enough laid out that even a fool like Wheeler could operate it and within a couple of minutes, he had built a deck.
"I'm assuming this system can be used for duels?" He asked, raising one eyebrow.
"Right now, you need the other player's code for battles, but I plan on having online matchups available as soon as possible for worldwide duel opportunities." Kari nodded, "May I?"
When she held out her hand for the phone, he handed it over and she entered her own player code and handed it back. When he tapped on his 'friend list' he got the options for messaging and 'Duel'.
Tapping duel sent a challenge to Kari's phone, which bwipped. Her acceptance brought up a screen that was meant to represent two duel mats. When summoned, the monsters on the screen were unimpressive 2d images, but already Kaiba was able to see the value of a system like this. Deck testing was only one of several hundred uses he could think of for it.
Not that they got more than three turns in. An event organizer, upon entering the room to tell Kaiba that his room was ready, spotted the girl and had her escorted out by security.
Despite the eviction, Kari was ecstatic. Kaiba Corp's CEO had been interested in her app…
And he still had her test phone.
Her mood crashed as she realized she had just given the young man a way to create the system without her input. With that phone and a little reverse engineering and data mining, he would be able to build his own version of the system and she would be left out in the cold.
The messaging system in her app pinging made her jump and she quickly checked the phone still in her hand. What she saw made her squeal in delight.
"Bring your development notes to the Ibis Hotel tonight. 7pm. Meet me at reception."
Kari could not believe she had made it as she carried her suitcase and carry on baggage into the Kaiba Corp employee apartment complex and headed for the elevators, only to find that it was not working and have to take the stairs.
It had been a long journey and she was tired, but the view as she glanced out of the window halfway up to the sixth floor where her new apartment was, was worth it. The Headquarters of Kaiba Corp was just down the road and she could see the busy, bustling streets of Domino City below her.
Too weary to properly translate the sign on the door, she was grateful for the giant numeral six on it and she pushed her way through into the hallway beyond, where there were four more doors, one for each small apartment on the floor. Kari pulled out the piece of paper and key she had been given when she had arrived at Kaiba Corp, and headed for door three.
Opening it revealed a small kitchenette and living room combined. Shutting the door behind her allowed her to drop her bags before she looked around, suddenly glad that she had refrained from shipping a substantial amount of her things over to Japan, instead leaving most of it in storage as there was very little room. She did, however, have a tiny bedroom which was only big enough for a bed and a night stand and a bathroom with a shower and a bath, which she was pleased about.
Not even bothering to kick her shoes off, she collapsed onto the bed, jet lag and travel exhaustion hitting her hard enough to send her tumbling into sleep within seconds.
Moments later the Orb glowed and the body rose more gracefully than it had slumped down. It let out an amused huff before shaking its head. It headed out into the living room and pulled the blinds, blacking out the setting sun before fishing out one of the night dresses in the suitcase and changing, being careful to not dislodge the Orb shaped pendant around its neck.
Then it checked the fridge and grimaced as it realized that there was no food to be found and the only thing it had to eat was the half-eaten snack bar in the carry on. Settling for that for now, it devoured it quickly before putting itself back to bed.
"I guess that will do for now." A woman's voice breathed with a sigh before settling the body back in bed, where it drifted off again within moments.
"Aaaand I'm lost." Kari grumbled to herself as she tried to work out which floor she had ended up on and whether she was in the programming department. She was pretty sure she had followed the directions she had been given correctly, but she could not see a room 7-e anywhere on this floor. In fact most of the rooms on this floor seemed to be for product testing, not programming.
Checking the paper again, revealed that she was correct, 7-e was where she was meant to be going, and she searched towards the back of the floor for a few moments longer before knocking on the door of 7-a, where hologram testing was in progress.
The technician inside was unamused to be disturbed and when she tried to explain the problem, he hissed out, "I don't have time to babysit a gaijin rookie. Programming is on floor five, you were pranked. Probably by Himuro. He's still bitter his son lost out on a job, now get lost."
Kari winced as the door slammed in her face.
"Great start to a new job." Kari muttered to herself before wheeling around and bolting for the elevator, already late for her first day and not wanting to get into any more trouble. As it was, her new boss, a Himuro Jun, possibly the same Himuro as the one who had possibly pranked her, glowered as she finally reached her station.
"Baker, I don't care how much you paid to get your job, over workers with real skill, but if you're late again, I'll fire you myself."
Fear crashed through Kari at the thought of losing her position. With everything she had spent to get here, she could not currently afford the return flight. Even if she could, returning to the UK would be the confirmation her mother needed that she was not as successful as her twin brother could have been had he not…
Her train of thought was broken as a hand slammed down a log in and password onto her desk. "Here's your username and password. Lose them and the boss'll have your head. You're an hour late so you'll be staying an extra hour, got it?"
"Yes sir." Kari replied without thinking, then winced and switched to Japanese, "Yes, Himuro-san."
The man just glowered and stalked off, without giving her any sort of instruction of what she was supposed to be doing. The frustration that rose in her made tears come to her eyes, but she tried to clamp down on the feeling. She had been through worse. She could handle a bad boss.
The colleague at the desk next to her gave her a sympathetic grin, "Hey, I'm Takahashi. Want me to go through things with you?"
"Thank you." Kari breathed, relief pushing back the anger. "Thank you so much."
"Hey no problem, Himuro's being a prick. Now, get yourself logged in and we'll get you going…"
Himuro was in a foul mood as he stalked down to the car park underneath the Kaiba Corp building.
It was bad enough that his son had been denied a good job at the company despite having gotten decent grades and had ended up looking in other cities for work in the games industry. Having to accept a gaijin girl who had bypassed the proper hiring procedures and been brought straight in by the CEO himself was infuriating.
If Kaiba wanted the girl as part of the company, why had he not hired her into Kaiba Corp Europe? Why waste a space in KC Japan that an actually hard working staff member could fill.
The lights flickered as he moved away from the elevator that had taken him down, making him pause and then grumble. "The maintenance team is slacking again."
And then the lights went out, dropping the entire car park into darkness.
"What the…" His voice trailed off as wil-o-wisp like balls of smoke like light lit up in front of him, guiding him off of the main floor of the car park and over to one corner, where a female figure that was mostly hidden by darkness was waiting for him. "Baker?"
"No." The voice was accented, but not the same way as Baker's, making him believe her. "But someone who wants to play a game."
"I'm not playing a game with a lunatic." Himuro hissed out and tried to turn to leave.
Only to find that his feet were glued to the floor.
"I didn't say you had a choice." The woman's voice chuckled, a dark, dangerous sound that made Himuro shiver. "You'll play with me and if you win, you can leave. If I win, well, you'll learn a lesson."
"Let me go!" He tried to force his feet to move but they were not budging. "Alright, alright I'll play."
"Oh good." The woman sounded like she was smirking, "Let us begin."
Seto Kaiba was no fool.
When the Head of the Programming Department turned up insane in his parking lot, the first thing he did was section the security footage and watch it. Either Mutou was on a rampage again, or he had someone else he needed to clamp down on before they decided that the rest of his company was a viable target and he needed to know which it was and handle it.
He did not bother watching Himuro. There was no point when the lights went off just moments after he left the elevator. Instead he rewound the footage further, to before darkness swamped the car park and tracked everyone going in and out.
And it was not long before he had what he was looking for.
The new girl, the English one with the app he wanted released under Kaiba Corp's brand, who would not yet have a vehicle here in Japan, entered the area, her eyes narrowed and her expression irritated. He paid close attention to her movements, noting the odd shine off of the pendant around her neck as she headed for the corner of the car park that Himuro had been found in.
Just ten minutes after she was in position, the Head of her department had fallen into her trap.
Kaiba pursed his lips as he called up the staff clock-ins, checking if the girl was still in the building and noted, with a very droll amusement that she had clocked out late, but had, in fact, been off the clock when she had faced off against her boss.
At least she had not been throwing magic around on company time.
He sat back, considering his options.
He could let the girl go and send her back to England, which would remove the threat from his building and his life, but ran the risk of an angry magical attacking him. Not something that was as unusual as it should be, but certainly not an appealing option.
He could confront the girl directly, but he did not have enough information to confirm how her magic worked, so could not be certain of the safety of such an action. After all, he did not want to end up in a coma again.
Or there was option three.
Mutou.
His magic had acted similarly to what was on camera during the early days of the Puzzle's completion. Kaiba could direct Mokuba to give Yugi a heads up that magical was in the area and Yugi could either make the problem go away, or show the girl how to control her temper and not lash out.
Either way it would be dealt with and he could get on with what was important.
That sounded like the best option to him.
He reached for his phone to call his brother in.
Now to get Mutou pointed in the right direction without having to talk to him.
Kari let out a sigh as she left the supermarket with her shopping bags.
It had been essential to pick up food on the way home, so she had something to eat both tonight and in the morning that was not take away from the place three doors down from the apartment block, but it had been a long day and tomorrow was looking longer.
Not that things had been so stressful on day two. Her teammates were much more friendly now they realized that she was willing to work hard and the Head of the department had taken an unplanned vacation, meaning that he was no longer glaring at her like he wanted her to spontaneously combust.
These facts were allowing her to enjoy the fact that she had basically managed to acquire her dream job.
An exhausting dream job that required her focus for a greater portion of the day and left her mind reeling, but one that she would fight tooth and nail to keep.
That did not mean that she would not prefer to just head home after her shift, rather than have to make stops to places where her already exhausted mind had to translate Japanese to English so she could understand what the heck she was purchasing.
Still at least she remembered getting home today. Yesterday she had been left so exhausted that she still did not know how she had gotten from the clocking in machine to her apartment. She was half-wondering if she had wandered into anywhere else in her, apparently, sleepwalking state.
An impact with another person made her stagger and drop her bags. It took her a moment to process that she had walked into someone, rather than the other way around and she quickly bit back the curse word that she had been about to use and settled instead for, "Sorry."
"It's okay. Let me help." Her victim chuckled, bending down to help her pick up her scattered shopping. She caught a glimpse of blonde, black and red hair but it was not until she straightened and saw the spikey outline of his hair and the wide, amused, purple eyes that Kari realized who she had collided with.
"Yugi!" She squeaked, then clamped a hand over her mouth for a moment, before wincing and lowering the hand, flushing a deep red in her embarrassment, "Sorry, sorry Mutou-san. That was rude. I shouldn't… I'll just be going now…"
"Don't worry about it." The King of Games waved it off with a small smile and an expression that suggested he was getting used to that reaction, "You okay?"
"I'm fine." She promised, just wanting the ground to swallow her whole and not noticing the slight head tilt as his eyes rested on her pendant, "Thank you for helping. I hope you have a good evening."
"You too."
She bowed and fled, still blushing and wishing she could vanish into a hole.
"Congrats, Kari. You just looked like an absolute klutz in front of the King of bloody Games." She scolded herself as she entered the apartment block, wanting to just get away from the scene of her shame.
She completely missed the set of eyes watching her as the door closed behind her.
The weekend was a blessing when it finally arrived.
Kari did not even open her eyes until past midday on Saturday and felt much better for it. Around the middle of the week she had realized that she should have arrived in Japan more than twenty hours before her first shift and allowed herself some time to recover from the jet lag.
Thankfully her colleagues had been understanding once she had explained and the overtiredness seemed to have sharpened her memories somehow. Her Japanese was certainly coming easier, even if occasionally felt like she was being felt the right words through a translation system, and she was getting to remember which stores existed between her flat and her place of work.
She just hoped she was just as capable now she had finally had a chance to rest properly.
It was late afternoon before she finally pulled herself out of the apartment and went for a proper walk around Domino to try and get her bearings on the city outside the one street she had walked up and down to get to and from work.
The business district of Domino was bustling with people as she wandered up and down the streets, getting rather more lost than she had intended and the sun was setting as she found herself outside a small game shop with a turtle on the sign outside.
Stepping inside revealed the sort of card game and board game store that she had often frequented when she had been studying at university and she was pleasantly surprised to find that the store's owner recognized her accent as English and could speak her own language, allowing her to have a lively conversation with the man while picking out several new booster packs and a couple of board games for when she finally managed to make some friends here.
The store closed up behind her, having allowed her to stay past closing, and she tried to trace her steps back to her home. A feat that was made much harder when she realized that everything looked very different after dark and without the hundreds of people wandering around.
As the night deepened and the world quietened down, the creepiness factor started to rise. A feeling that was unhelped by the feeling that someone was following her. She bit her lower lip and glanced over her shoulder as she hurried down the street.
There was no one there, which did not help in the slightest.
"Calm down." She breathed, the hands clutching her shopping bags shaking enough to make the plastic rustle. "Just because walking around after dark is dangerous back home, doesn't mean…"
The sounds of something moving in the alley just behind her made her bolt down the street, fear nipping at her heels and she did not stop until she was meters away from the Kaiba Corp building, by which point the feeling of being followed had abated substantially.
She leaned against the stone of the KC tower, catching her breath, feeling slightly foolish but also much safer now she was somewhere she knew. And where she could find her way home.
"Note to self," She gasped out between breaths, "Next time, take a map."
She knew the body needed to sleep, but she honestly thought that after a week of helping her sleep deprived Bearer to survive at work, she was allowed an evening to herself and she certainly wanted to check in on what she had sensed while her host had been speaking with the interestingly intelligent gentleman at the game shop earlier.
She was still cautious. While there was not any who had more magical knowledge than her, thanks to the Orb, her host was young and untrained and as such did not have a large pool of magic to draw from. Not to mention her millennia old library of memories was exactly zero help when she had not visited a city before.
Fishing through the latest additions to the library she served as guardian for, allowed her to find the location of the shop in question easily and she paused as she realized that she had made a mistake. The building was locked up for the night and while she could still feel the power of a member of a certain set of Items, she could not exactly knock on the door and ask questions without getting her host into trouble.
Just the confirmation was enough to trouble her though. One of her previous Bearers had run into the devastation caused by the Millennium Items in Egypt, while another had butted heads with the Spirit of the Millennium Ring during the Roman age. Just one of them being in the city made her uncomfortable.
But it had been here before she had and hence, she would just have to try and keep her latest Bearer safe.
A window opening in the side of the roof made her pause momentarily. When someone slipped out of the opening, slid down the tiles and slid down the gutter pipe, her eyes widened as the sight of tri-colored hair matched up with not just modern memories, but ancient ones of a tablet with a carving of the young man wandering up the road towards Kaiba Corp, carrying the item she was pretty sure was the Millennium Pendant.
She considered him for a few moments. There were memories of this young man, alive and well and dueling against modern opponents. However there were also memories of a Bearer supporting a Pharaoh through his grief at losing family as a stone was hewn to provide those of the future with news of the past.
But did she trust him?
Trust was dangerous. For every memory stored in the Orb of someone who had a loyal friend and protector, there were thousands of those who had been betrayed before or during their tenure as the Bearer of the Orb of Memories.
Finally, as she followed, curious what he was up to, she made up her mind.
She did not know the real person behind the face that was so famous in this age and until she did, she could not risk her host's safety by outing herself to him.
Even if it meant that, for now, she was unable to talk to anyone.
Author Note: So I'm pretty sure no one remembers or still cares about Kari Ironhide and Ombre from my Clanverse series, but while I was writing them in that universe, they were getting their own backstory and history that were quite separate from what was being made up on the spot in Clanverse. This chapter explores some of the new backstory (and names, for example Kari is 'Baker' rather than using the name of a Transformers character, and due to her additional age and history, Ombre is no longer Ombre by name but something and someone else). I may continue with this story as the ideas hit me, but I may not, I just felt like getting this out there.