World Isekai

"Hmm."

His creation was quite something.

Multicolored pancakes piled up in a plate. He used that rainbow glitter thing. His mom used it on muffins, but truthfully it didn't look that bad.

But where was the chocolate? He was sure he added cocoa powder.

"Well, there's already maple syrup, chocolate chips, and strawberries ready to be added on top. No need to overthink it."

He nodded to himself, proud of his work.

As he looked at his watch, it was already around 11:00. It had been longer than a thirty minute in-and-out.

He sighed, covering the plate with the pancakes on the table.

He walked to the front door, grabbing his jacket and boots.

He put them on quickly, he didn't need more than that for the short walk he'd need to do.

He grabbed a set of keys, and quickly went out in the hallway.

They were living in a penthouse, all their neighbors were somewhat important people in DiveCore. Key people in a lot of departments, some of them his mother knew personally.

They were all overworked by that same company, so understandably they all avoided each-other as much as possible.

He saw his mother wait in front of the door for a while before leaving, since neighbors were talking in the hallway. Weird, but he could understand.

The worst part was when management would call of of them to check up on the others, if they didn't answer calls. His mother faked checking if they were home by knocking on the bathroom door. The again, weird, but he could understand.

As Mori stepped out in the large and tall hallway, heading toward the elevator, a neighbor further down got out at the same time.

"Going down?" asked Mori.

"Ah, yes," replied the man, quickly locking his door while hurrying toward Mori.

"You also don't trust smart doors?" asked Mori as the man approached.

"Nobody smart would."

"I know that nancy uses the smart door features..."

"Yeah, what I said stands," sighed the man.

They both entered the elevator. Mori pressed the ground floor button, and the doors promptly closed.

"Josh, right?" asked Mori.

"Yes. You've grown a lot."

"My mother showed you pictures of me?"

"She brought you to work with her, when you were just a baby. A real workaholic. Then again, those days were better. DiveCore was still a small company, everyone knew everyone."

"Oh, really... Yeah, looking back I've been there quite often."

"Where are you going? Nothing's open."

"Ah, mom was called to work so I'll get her out of there?"

"Really?"

The elevator beeped, as they reached the ground floor.

They both exited it, then headed toward the revolving doors leading outside.

"Why would she be called?" he asked, once out.

"Hell if I know. I'll go check, maybe make a scene so they let her leave."

"Good luck. It must truly be important, they never make anyone come into work on holidays."

"Thanks, I'll need it," replied Mori, heading left while Josh went right.

.net

The whole area had so many buildings belonging to DiveCore, it was a real maze to anyone new to that company.

There was apparently talks of building sky bridges connecting them.

There were already underground tunnels connecting some of them, but while it wasn't a bad idea, it just wasn't as efficient.

As long as they didn't connect to residential buildings, his mother didn't care much about it.

Mori arrived at the corner of the street, snow slowly falling. He was waiting at the red light, where most would've just crossed.

There were no cars in the streets, but as a principle he would rather wait.

He looked up, the building was even taller than their residential one, towering above the ones around, yet not the tallest in the area.

The light finally turned green, he quickly crossed the street and got through the revolving doors.

Compared to their residential building, security was tighter there.

"Ah. Let me guess. You came to save your mother?" said the security guard as Mori approached.

He was a large man, and also the nicest person Mori had met.

His smile was always shining bright, so much so that Mori questioned if that man ever had a bad day in his life.

However, he needed to slow down on the food. He was saying so himself everytime they spoke, as he read on new diets to try.

"I made... Ah, shit. I should've brought you some. Some kind of rainbow pancakes with everything you can think of in them."

"Oh man... What the hell?! You're torturing me on purpose? You better bring me some. What's in them? Chocolate?

Fruits? Cheese?"

"Cheese?"

"What?! You never tried pancakes with cheese? You have to try it. Cheese and apples. You put syrup on top, never had anything topping that. Well, for now, it might change once you bring me some of those rainbow ones."

"I'll bring some later, if there's any remaining, no promises..."

Mori headed toward the elevators.

"Well it's fine. I am trying a new diet, maybe it's better if I don't stop this one the first week in..."

"There, you said it yourself! No takebacks," said Mori, as he entered the elevator.

The doors closed, Mori heading toward the top floor.

He would bring some pancakes later, just not too much. He didn't want to become a bad influence, he truly respected his tries at dieting, but it just didn't work out.

Living on nuts worked as a squirrel or as an internet troll, but there's no way he'd go through with that one.

Mori wasn't even sure if he should go through with that one.

The lights glowed on each floor, until it finally reached the top one.

The elevator dinged one more time, opening their doors to an open floor office space.

Mori had been there a few times, and knew his way around.

The 'unimportant' people, as he liked to think of them, had their desks right there, on the open floor in the center.

All around it were closed offices and meeting rooms, his mother's should be on the other side.