[center][color=silver][h3]Shogo Tatsugami[/h3][/color]
[color=silver]Location:[/color] Gateway
[color=silver]Skills/items used:[/color] None[/center][hr]
Shogo hadn't intended for it to be a late night in the office, but as he found himself waking up in his chair with a mess of documents still laid out in front of him, that seemed to be what he'd ended up with.

Pulling himself into an upright position and groaning lightly as he brushed a few strands of hair from his face, he tried to recall what exactly he'd been looking to accomplish. The day trickled back to him slowly, an early start as he met with the new lead manager of one of their manufacturing plants (he'd never really been a car person, but the man had seemed genuinely passionate), into an afternoon of talking to the marketing team at that plant's office (did any of the commercials they put out actually tell you anything about the cars?), before a run of the mill board meeting. Neither of the twins had deigned to make an appearance, and nobody else seemed to appreciate that he'd made the time to come and talk to them about the problems they brought up, but that was nothing new; and at least it gave him an idea of what he was looking at for the next week. Now, if only he could figure out how he'd ended up here instead of going home and cracking open the bourbon.

He ran a hand over the documents on his desk, trying to pick something- [i]anything[/i]- out. Concerns about how much budget was going to one site, concern how [i]little[/i] was going to another... something about a VR project that was hitting critical snags close to launch.

It took a moment, but awareness crashed in as that sliver of information kicked out the floodgate. The project had been picked up from elsewhere after a spike of interest in the technology, and a shift in direction from the original concept had opened up and exposed a bevy of problems that threatened to have it dead in the water on release or- worse yet for the investors- delay it past the point of demand. Shogo couldn't remember when he'd last spoken to the lead, though he did remember being assured that everything was under control as the project changed teams; no doubt he'd be looking to make an example of someone to save his own skin before he next spoke to any of the Tatsugami siblings.

Oh, Shogo was looking forward to having [i]that[/i] conversation, Yamazaki could be sure of it. But fortunately for him, he had bigger problems to worry about for now; namely, the sheer amount of crunch they were looking at to get these problems fixed in a reasonable timeframe. The question of the moment, though, was whether there was likely to be anyone else about and available to follow up?

Shogo remembered it had already been getting dark when he got here, but with the window running the length of the office that overlooked the city from its vantage point atop the Tatsugami's building in Marunouchi, it only took a moment to confirm that the sun had long since dipped beneath the horizon, the streets below swallowed up in an ocean of neon light as most sidelined business for pleasure. Checking his watch to get his exact bearing, the big hand had almost made its whole way round; well, if he was already here, he supposed it was too late to worry about the time. He could at least check his inbox to see what was going on with it, maybe kick a few emails along to the relevant teams to try and get things under control before he had [i]words[/i] with the man in charge... and this time of night on this day of the week, maybe it wasn't too late to catch the tail-end of a stream?

A few minutes later and he confirmed as much, the colourful figure on his monitor going from jabbering excitedly to [i]screeching in rage[/i] as the boss in the game they were playing got back up for a surprise second phase after being decapitated. [i]Oh, Vep.[/i] Well, seemed like she was going to be winding down on the game soon, one way or another, but having her on in the background would make the end of the day go down a little easier.

That and some coffee, he thought to himself, as he pushed his chair out from the table and got up to his feet. He held out a hand to steady himself as he felt the sudden headrush, before making carefully for the machine atop a cabinet on the opposite side of the room. Nonetheless listening carefully for any notification alerts, or any announcement that the stream was wrapping up early, he stood there for a few minutes rifling through the pods- not his preference, but unless he felt like going however many floors down, it'd have to do- as his blood pressure slowly returned to normal. Finally settling on a blend and popping it in, he let the liquid drain into his cup, topping it up from the electric kettle next to it, before he turned back to his desk-

The rush hit him again, not enough to send him keeling over, but enough that his mind went blank to everything but the sensation for a moment. He felt himself stumble, splaying an arm out as he did his best to stay standing and not spill his drink; and he squeezed his eyes shut as he tried to force himself back to focus. Come on, keep it together, he thought to himself, as he opened them once more-

He blinked. The scenery beyond his office window was gone, the neon sea replaced by a warmer, flickering light that seemed closer than the cold buzz of before. And as he looked from side to side, his office was gone too, the glass and his desk replaced by an open space carved from sandy yellow stone. Claustrophobia set in a little, however, as he perceived how much smaller this space was, and how [i]crowded[/i] it was in spite of its lack of furnishings: every edge of the room that he could see was taken up by a series of alcoves, all of which, as his vision came back into focus, seemed to host someone... or [i]something.[/i]

"..." Either his habits were catching up with him, or he'd somehow left his office without knowing it. He looked from side to side, the voices around him feeling distant as his mind struggled to catch up with his vision. A tall figure stood in the center of the room, humanoid but just a bit too tall for that to be the case. Unable or unwilling to process that at this precise moment in time, his vision shifted instinctively to the others present, four of which seemed up and at attention. The first was a young man of about average height who seemed about as lost as him, the second a tall woman in a school uniform who was pointing to some odd ornament on her person, the third a slightly shorter woman who was convinced she was drunk (and with [i]that[/i] cadence, he wouldn't be surprised either), and the fourth a significantly shorter woman yet who-

Shogo didn't quite make out what she was saying, but he certainly felt how [i]loud[/i] it came out. Fortunately, whether it was the sheer volume and pitch of her voice or the odd familiarity, it was the final thing he needed to snap back to reality-

[i]"Pull yourself together, damn it."[/i] His own voice didn't come out as loudly as hers, but there was force behind it all the same as he forced himself back to awareness. He took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose as he let the impact of his words settle, before looking back up past the others to the center of the bizarre chamber, where the tall man stood. Disregarding anything else about him that wasn't immediately reconciling itself with his perception of reality, he carried himself like he was important. 

"You. [i]Explain.[/i]" Time to see if that was warranted. The words 'Digital World' and 'Index City' percolated in his mind, perhaps from something the figure had said while he'd been trying to gather his bearings; but without any real context for what was going on, they were meaningless, just proper nouns being thrown around without any care to explain them. And so Shogo levelled a glare at him, eager to find out exactly what all this was about... 

But he found his expression softening a little, however involuntarily, as something began to tug at the side of his vision. He'd noticed the flames upon the walls as soon as he'd regained partial focus, even if he hadn't immediately identified them, but the flickering light that greeted him now was different. The colours were colder than those that adourned the chamber, but their warmth was unmistakeable, doing a remarkable job of setting him at ease in spite of the exhaustion, anger and confusion running through his mind; it didn't seem to be purely psychosomatic or palliative either, as he felt a voice reach out to him, words more felt than heard but no less soothing for them as they washed over him. He paused for a moment, allowing his attention to shift slowly from the man in the center of the room to the source of the sensation-

"... Hello?" He offered cautiously to the strange entity floating besides him, trying to keep his expression neutral even as he grappled with both the calming influence of their warmth and his amazement at the sight of what was undeniably a small, fiery ghost wearing a knight's helm.