World Isekai

Mori looked around, everything was in quite a mess.

For one, the desks were not aligned properly, and they all had tons of things piling on them.

From empty cardboard cups of coffees to takeout boxes.

Piles of paper were around too, surprisingly, and piles of data tablets.

The paper had to be his mother's doing.

It wasn't used anymore. Tablets could hold a lot more data than paper could.

In comparison, filling the whole building with paper wouldn't be as much as how much those tablets could hold.

They had all kinds too, and some that weren't even out to the public yet. Some of them were even custom made by engineers, so they could play with them in their spare time.

His mother liked things 'old school', however. Her floor was one of the only ones with a printer.

Nobody dared question her choices, she was the 'protagonist' of that company. If she asked for a fax machine they would give her one.

It was a perk of being indispensable. Reaching a level where your skills mattered so much that the company would shape things around you.

There had been close calls, where she thought she would leave, but it never got that far.

Mori sighed again, heading across the open floor, looking at all the meeting rooms on the way, hoping to find where she was.

Surprisingly, they weren't all empty.

He awkwardly smiled at the people he saw through the windows, but quickly realized all of those who were around were too busy to even notice him.

Some of the meeting rooms even had more than a couple people in them, all sitting around the table on computers that were integrated in it.

"I guess it's not Christmas for everyone..." muttered Mori.

As he approached the other side of the floor, he realized his mother was in the room straight across.

She was in a meeting room with some other people he recognized, coworkers and a guy that must've been higher in the chain, with how clean his suit was.

"Alright..."

Mori slowed down, trying to think of how to play this.

Whatever he did, it mattered little. Maybe if he started complaining like a kid she could pin her leaving on his behavior. Or perhaps he could ask people around the room why he was spending Christmas alone.

Yeah. That's the one.

As he approached the room, he was getting ready to shamelessly put them on the spot, but noticed his mother's behavior was... erratic?

She looked upset, waving her hands around and even slapping the whiteboard behind her (something else she insisted on installing in meeting rooms).

The man in a suit was sitting down with the other coworkers, he seemed to be slightly upset as well.

Both of his palms were facing up, as if he was begging for something.

His facial expression did pile onto that feeling Mori had.

He got closer, finally hearing words getting through the door.

"It's immoral. It's unethical. Whatever your twisted concept of 'Good' is, this is the opposite!" she yelled.

"Please, listen, this is-"

"No! There's no way! How crazy are you all?"

"We've made our decision. This is the path we're willing to walk."

"You're already rich beyond your dreams! What more can you possibly need?! You have everything you need, you want to be so rich you can buy rockets? Countries? You already can! What the hell?

There's no next step with the amount of wealth DiveCore has! This is immoral, and unethical, and will ultimately have no positive impact on this company or the world."

"It's not about money, we're changing the world, here. To change the world some things can't stay the same, however much you hold onto them."

"Explain to me how this makes the world better?!"

"Listen, like I've already said..."

Mori knocked on the door.

Surprise written on everyone's face as they looked at Mori, who was on the other side of the slightly opened door.

They all looked at each other, his mother the first to break the silence.

"What are you doing here?"

"I'd like to ask the same thing..."

"We're working-"

"These people are making you spend Christmas at work, and making me spend Christmas alone?"

Mori entered the room, looking at everyone while they avoided eye contact, uncomfortable.

Only the man in a suit was unbothered, staring at his mother, who was staring right back.

The atmosphere was heavy.

The sound of the pen of a stressed employee tapping against the table was the only thing echoing in the room.

"Alright. We'll talk about this after Christmas. But we need you to give it some thoughts. We need a team player," said the man.

His mother didn't reply, a fiery look in her eyes as she quickly turned and headed toward the door, next to which stood Mori.

"Let's go," she said.

Mori waved at the few employees he knew, and turned around ready to follow her, before noticing the white board.

Was it always there?

He slowly approached it, extending his hand toward it.

The tip of his finger touched it, while his eyes went left to right trying to grasp everything that was on it.

"Wait..."

He took a few steps back, his hand slightly shaking as he kept looking over what was there.

"This is... insane..."

"Isn't it?"

Mori quickly turned around, at the table everyone had disappeared.

At the end of it, only one person remained seated, Maël. She had both legs on the table, while her arms were crossed on her chest.

She slowly clapped her hands, while nodding.

"Wasn't so hard, was it?"

Mori turned away again, looking at the white board.

"Did I actually see what was on this board?"

Is tone was one in utmost disbelief. As if he tried to convince himself it was true.

"This is your memories," said Maël. "I didn't create them. You just never bothered to pay attention."

Mori let himself fall into the closest chair, his eyes unable to break away.