justonetruth | (no subject)

"So we can't be sure," Conan pointed out before a thought occurred to him and he dug in his pocket for his celphone. No reception -- that was a given, he thought sourly, expectations dashed by too many camping trips with Agasa -- but the date was the morning he'd just come from. "You'd need my pin to alter the time settings," he said. "And it's only a couple of bars away from needing to be charged. No one could hack it in that time. Let's look at yours."

Shinichi answered Ran's grin with a sour look and tried to pretend he wasn't slightly pink. "This was purely professional."

"Sure it was," his friend retorted, laced with the easily-recognizable tones of one who doesn't believe that in the least. But then it was Ran's turn to flush as he realized he hadn't even thought to check his cell phone. Of all the stupid...

The karateka dug in his pockets for a few seconds before emerging triumphant with his own cell phone. He flipped it open, blinked at the screen for a moment, then smirked and turned it so Conan could see the time and date. "See?"

It hadn't been quite a month since Ran had stepped outside of the Agency, according to the phone, but it was definitely getting close.

Conan took the phone and frowned at it, running through all the various possibilities. "No one but you has used this that you know of?" he asked, sure of Ran's reply. Whatever was going on here was deep and Shinichi grinned suddenly, wide and brilliant. "Interesting."

He noted the date of the celphone into his book before handing the phone back to Ran. "Hattori's been here three months you said? And -- another me?"

"That's what she said. And there's a ton of yous, both as Conan and Shinichi," Ran said, putting his phone back in his pocket. For a lack of a better direction to go in, he headed for the stairs; might as well put his karate things in his room. "And everyone thinks I'm supposed to be a girl for some reason."

He couldn't help sounding sullen about that, but Ran thought he had every right to.

"As Conan and Shinichi?" That was really interesting. He'd been impersonated before, that was nothing new, but only ever as Kudou Shinichi. This new development was -- unexpected to say the least.

"Any sign of them?"

A girl? Conan blinked at that and then sniggered. "What, haven't they seen you?"

"Not today. It's weird, usually I'm running into them all over the place." Especially the ghost Shinichi, but Ran thought it would be prudent to save explaining him until later. "There's at least two of you that are actually Conan. And I know at least one Shinichi who has Conan as a little brother."

He shot Conan a flat look for the snigger. "Just wait until you meet the girl you. Then we'll see who's laughing."

"Actually Conan? So -- really seven and Shinichi is an entirely different person?" That was an entirely unsettling thought. His highschool-self felt far away enough sometimes, that he wasn't sure he wanted to meet any real Conans, no matter whose brother he was.

"I'm sure we will," Conan shot back, still amused at this. He wasn't sure whether or not he bought this alternate's thing yet, but Ran obviously did and that was entertaining enough.

Ran decided to leave that alone and let Minori speak for herself when they ran into her. The look on Shinichi's face would be worth it.

"Right. Except for one Conan who got fed the poison and turned into seventeen-year-old Shinichi Edogawa," he replied, his expression darkening. That Conan had been one of the weirder ones, and also one of the most unsettling, after ghost Shinichi and 1412. Just the fact that the Organization would be willing to give the poison to a little kid who was actually a little kid...

Ran shrugged roughly, as if trying to dislodge the thought, but it only brought another. "There's a few versions of the Kid, too," he added reluctantly. "Do you have your watch with you?"

Conan shook his head. That was -- weird. And coming from a guy who'd found himself shrunk and forced to return to life as an elementary school student, that was saying a lot. He caught Ran's expression and frowned -- no need to ask if these duplicates were convincing them. They'd obviously convinced Ran. And trusting as the school's reigning karate champion could be, he could be trusted to know his best friend -- hell, he'd known who Shinichi was at once after the initial shrinking incident. Which left them with a very unpleasant possibility.

Ran was right.

"Of course," he said. "You know what your fanbase is like."

"If you run into a version of the Kid calling himself 1412, and you're alone, don't fight him," Ran said, his tone flat but with an undertone that matched the worry in his eyes as he glanced at Conan. He knew all too well how much of a penchant his best friend had for getting himself into situations bad enough to be considered suicidal. "Not unless you don't have any choice. He's dangerous."

Conan stared at Ran. He couldn't be serious --

He was and that was somehow the most worrying development so far. "Ran," Conan pointed out reasonably. "Stopping dangerous people is what we do. Besides, we know Kid--"

"Not this Kid," Ran interrupted, fixing his friend with a serious look (and in the meantime, completely failing to notice that they'd passed his floor). "I don't like it any more than you do, Shinichi. But everyone who's met him says he's crazy. He likes breaking bones, and he already seriously injured Hakuba."

That -- was not Kid's MO, they both knew that. Ran's seriousness impressed Conan but what really got his attention was that last bit. "Seriously injured Hakuba? He's here too?" The idea of Hakuba allowing himself to be injured by anyone ...

"I think who isn't here would be a better question," Ran snorted, then paused. "...Though I haven't seen Toyama-san at all. Or Mom and the old man. Yukiko-kaachan was here a few days ago, though."

They were reaching the fourth floor now -- which Ran mistakenly believed to be the third, and he turned into the hallway without a second thought.

"Mum's here?" Conan was rightly horrified -- and then relieved. "Are we sure they're not the one's behind this?" he asked. "You know they've got no idea of how far is too far."

Ran wholeheartedly agreed with that sentiment, but had already discarded the possibility.

"I haven't seen your dad anywhere," he pointed out. "Or Agasa-hakase. And your mom seemed pretty confused to be here too. Besides," he added, as he grabbed the door handle of what he thought was his room, "I don't think even your mom can freeze time."

...Though with Yukiko, you could never really know.

"And Dad's a lot more obvious than Mum," Conan agreed bidding sad farewell to that particular theory. "And if she has, you'd think we'd notice. She'd never be able to resist using it to stop herself ageing."

"Yeah..." Ran agreed, opening the door. "Anyway, I haven't seen her since then. And she probably wasn't your mom anyway, since she was surprised that I was a boy."

The last was said in a quick mutter; Ran was getting tired of having to explain that, and he'd seen the way Shinichi was grinning about it before. He turned into the bedroom, then blinked at the unfamiliar furnishings.

"...Oops."

Conan was grinning about that all over again, but paused as Ran came to a complete halt, peering past him to look at the bedroom. It had something of the same, unoccupied look as a hotel bedroom and Conan smirked.

"Wrong turn?"

"Shut up," Ran retorted, not unfriendly, and backed up to look at the door. 402.

"...Wrong floor," he admitted, hunching his shoulders and turning around to head back to the stairs. He had been a little surprised that he hadn't been pounced by the ghost Shinichi yet. Where was everybody?

"I wonder where everyone is. It's almost never this empty," he commented.

So that was what -- Ran 3: Basic Geography 81? Conan's smirk was not going anywhere any time soon. "Don't tell me you've lost them too."

He got a smack on the head for his efforts -- though Ran always made sure to hold back enough to not seriously hurt 'Conan'. "They're here somewhere! Maybe they're all sleeping."

Not particularly believable, but more reassuring then 'Maybe they're all off dealing with 1412 because he went on a rampage'.

...Or maybe there'd been a murder. Considering who was occupying the hotel, that could easily gather together well over half the local population.

Conan figured that he had deserved that. Trailing after Ran as they went down the stairs again, he eyed the corridor they'd just left curiously -- it was big, but endless ... ?

"What would you say the population of this place is?"

Ran looked thoughtful. "Good question. I still haven't met everyone here, so it's hard to tell.

"There's Hattori-san, your mom, Sonoko, the Kid-you, the two real Conans, Kuroba, at least one Hakuba, 1412 and his Conan, at least two other girl-mes--" he grimaced slightly, " -- Minori, two more Conan-yous..."

"Seventeen, including you and me," Conan finished. "Sonoko's here? Can't imagine that the head of your fan-club will be taking the female you's very well."

As they turned down yet another empty corridor, Conan raised an eyebrow. "Where do you generally meet them?"