Shizuoka Prefecture, Shimizu Ward, Support Equipment Researstitute of the Mitsui Foundation.

  "It's about time you got here. Eh, who's she?" Dr. Tenma stood with his hands in the pockets of his white b coat, ready to pin when his eyes fell on the purple-haired girl behind Kaminari.

  "Girlfriend?"

  "Ah?!"

  Both Kaminari and Kyoka froze. Kyoka's face immediately turned bright red, while Kaminari sighed and shook his head with a small smile. "No, she's my cssmate, Jiro Kyoka."

  "H-hello, Doctor," Kyoka greeted, her face still flushed.

  "Hello. But even if she's just a cssmate, you 't fool me. Have you ever seen someone bring an 'ordinary' female cssmate out at this hour?"

  Dr. Tenma's usual serious demeanor had softened siderably. Perhaps it was because Kaminari had agreed to attend his son Tobio's birthday party, causing the doctor's favorability toward him to skyrocket. Whatever the reason, his tone was now warm, even pyful.

  "Uh… Doctor, didn't you mention before that you'd watched Pokémon with Tobio? You should already know Kyoka," Kaminari tered, gng at Kyoka, whose face had turned an even deeper shade of red. For some reason, he found her rea a bit amusing.

  "Hmm… You're right. She's one of those two girls from the band. That just makes your retionship all the more special, doesn't it?"

  "There aren't only two girls in your css, are there? So why did you choose them as the heroines? It must mean your retionship is closer than with the others," Dr. Tenma decred with a serious nod, his words leaving both Kaminari and Kyoka speechless.

  Especially Kaminari, who could barely believe the transformation in the usually rigid and straightforward doctor.

  "Well, we are close because we're in the same band," Kaminari admitted relutly. Not wanting the versation to derail further, he quickly redirected the topic. "Anyway, Doctor, I came here to discuss an idea for her bat suit…"

  Dr. Tenma raised an eyebrow and gave a meaningful g Kyoka.

  At that moment, even Kaminari couldn't help but feel like there really was somethiween him and Kyoka. Somehow, the way the doctor phrased things made it all sound logical.

  As for Kyoka, she was utterly flustered. What's going on? Didn't Kaminari say Dr. Tenma was a serious and professional guy?

  Yet beh her embarrassment, a hint of happiness bloomed. Deep down, she realized that pared to irls in their css, Kaminari did treat her a little differently.

  "Alright, show me what you've got," Dr. Tenma said, finally dropping the teasing. His expressiouro its usual seriousness as he gestured for Kaminari to expin.

  Kaminari let out a breath of relief and nodded. He turo Pikachu and instructed it to send the blueprints stored in its system to the doctor's database.

  "'Sadako,' dispy the cept," Dr. Tenma anded. Almost instantly, a detailed 3D hologram of the bat suit appeared in mid-air.

  "The design is as creative as ever," Dr. Tenma muttered, casually examining the suit, which was beled 'Bat Girl.'

  However, his attention quickly shifted from the aesthetics to the funality of the suit, particurly the micro sound-hole system.

  The room fell silent as Kaminari and Kyoka watched the doctor's expression grow increasingly impressed.

  Kyoka, who had been a little nervous earlier, began to rex. It seemed like Dr. Tenma approved of Kaminari's design.

  Ten mier, the doctor closed his slightly gaping mouth, let out a deep breath, and said, "I swear, even if you don't bee a professional Hero after graduation, your imagination alone will lead you to achievements far beyond ordinary people."

  "So… you build it?" Kaminari asked with a grin.

  At the same time, he began to wonder if he should start a bat suit design pany someday. Perhaps iure, he could produce support equipment inspired by various worlds.

  "Yes, the teology required for this desig exceed the capabilities of our researstitute," Dr. Tenma replied fidently. "However, the equipment team will ime to manufacture the micro and rger sound holes."

  The doctor paused, his brow furrowing slightly. "But this suit seems to require artificial intelligeo operate. How else would she trol the sound-hole system?"

  He smirked and added jokingly, "Are your family's assets rge enough to buy her an AI? Or is she secretly an unimaginably wealthy young dy?"

  "That's not it," Kaminari replied, unfazed. "I pn to have Pikachu trol her bat suit. With its capabilities, it shouldn't be hard to mawo suits at the same time, right?"

  "…Hmm."

  Dr. Tenma was momentarily taken aback, but after a moment of thought, he realized Kaminari's solution was entirely feasible. With suffit work ectivity and Pikachu's putational power, trolling even ten suits wouldn't be an issue, let alowo.

  "I have to say, your idea is ingenious. But this setup only works for people with a close retionship. Not many would be fortable letting someone else's AI trol their bat suit," the doctor remarked.

  As he spoke, he couldn't help but feel that Kyoka and Kaminari had a special bond. The se reminded him of his own youth and a certain girl he'd known back then.

  "Doctor, I actually have another matter to discuss," Kaminari said, cutting through the nostalgia and shifting the topic.

  "Oh? Go ahead," Dr. Tenma prompted.

  "My family is preparing to unch a sed IP, and there are some intriguing devices in the cept. I was hoping you could help build them."

  With that, Kaminari gestured for Pikachu to project the basic design of the Duel Disk.

  Dr. Tenma studied the proje briefly before nodding. "This isn't particurly difficult. Virtual proje teology is quite advanow. The main challenge will be miniaturizing the equipment for the Duel Disk."

  Of course, what Dr. Tenma called "not difficult" only applied to world-css researstitutes. Many facilities didn't even have access te-scale virtual proje teology, let alohe ability to miniaturize it.

  But Kaminari wasn't ed about the teical details. If Dr. Tenma said it could be dohat was good enough for him.

  "That's great! I'll inform my father and have him coordih Mitsui to start produ as soon as possible!" Kaminari said excitedly.

  Yu-Gi-Oh! cards in real life. The thought made him almost giddy. In his previous life, he'd only been able to py with paper cards on crude dueling mats, sometimes even using pirated ones…

  The mention of terfeits suddenly reminded him of something. "Doctor, ohe cards are digitized, their data be protected from theft or duplication?"

  Dr. Tenma frowned slightly. "That's hard to guara all depends oeical expertise of both parties. Even the U.S. military's defense systems aren't immuo hag."

  "What if an artificial intelligence mahe security?" Kaminari pressed.

  "That would make things more secure, but remember, AI isn't exclusive to you. Others use it too," Dr. Tenma replied. "Still, eleic cards are harder to pirate than physical ones. Paper cards be copied far more easily."

  "Good point," Kaminari admitted, nodding in agreement. Indeed, eleic cards, while not invulnerable, offered better prote than their paper terparts.

  ***

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