justonetruth | (no subject)

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"Oi, Ran!" Here, Dressing Room, is a very aggrieved Conan, waving a school bag packed with karate paraphenalia and holding a lunch box. "You can't go to the tournament without your stuff! ... geez, do I have to do everything around -- here?"

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"I meant more the friendship," Conan said, relaxed enough to smile at last. "But that's true too."

Conan hesitated then shook his head. "Fumiyo's an alias of Mum's," he said slowly. "But they're no more real than you are. Sorry."

"Huh? I thought you didn't trust him to help," Conan said, looking confused.

Conan didn't often prepare himself to hide his expressions in front of people who weren't criminals. So the actual hurt and almost lost look was quite obvious on his face when Conan said that.

"That's different," Conan said immediately.

Conan hesitated then reached out to put a hand on the other's shoulder. "I don't know if this means anything," he said quietly, seriously. "But I believe you're who you think you are. We'll find the explanation eventually. Until then -- try not to worry about the differences."

"It is? How?" Conan asked.

Conan looked away. "Of course I am who I think I am...it just...makes me wonder...what that means in other worlds where I'm not around. And Ran-neechan still doesn't know..."

"It just is." And Conan should recognise this tone as final too.

"It means that Ran's going to be very unimpressed with me when he -- or she -- does find out," Conan complained.

"But-" He paused. It was obvious he wanted to ask more. After all, it was easier to give into asking for the annoyed final tone than the kind of traumatized one.

"...I think...it's more than that," Conan muttered. "Ran-neechan keeps getting this idea in her head I'm him..."

"And some versions of us are."

"But do they admit it?"

"I don't know. I haven't met them yet."

"...they better," Conan said. "To let her suffer like that, for her to realize the truth and not to..."

"If they're a Conan, they're living with Ran," Conan pointed out. "I'm sure they're just as aware as you are of how he -- or she -- feels about this. In those circumstances, don't you think I -- he'd call?" He couldn't imagine not calling.

"He always calls," Conan said. "...but how does he call when he..." Conan paused.

"...oh, if he uses the bowtie, I'm going to kick a soccer ball right at his head! That's a detective tool!"

"..." Conan glanced to see if the other had the bowtie, managed to just stop himself from taking a step back in time. Ran knew -- so hopefully his counterpart wouldn't think he had a reason to misuse it. "Keeping other people from getting suspicious about Kudou Shinichi's absence is a valid use for the tool," he pointed out.

"But not to lie to Ran-neechan!"

"Well, obviously. That's just asking for trouble."

"But other than the niichan...all the Ran's thought I was Conan..."

"How many Rans are there?" Conan is rapidly feeling out of his depth again.

"At least two, not counting niichan. But there's probably more," Cnan said.

"Probably more." This was -- what on earth were you supposed to do with that many Rans?

"And a ton of 'me's' too," Conan murmured.

"Why on earth would someone want to gather so many of the one person?" Conan wondered. "Unless it's like the Sunset Mansion case--"

"There's been no rumors of blood or bodies. Well, unless you count people who got hurt by 1412, but otherwise, nothing that says something happened before hand," Conan said.

"And nothing you've found in your explorations that would suggest foul play?" Conan didn't wait for an answer to that, confident he knew the answer. "How much of this place have you seen?"

Conan shook his head. "No, nothing so far. The only dead people here is the ghost Shinichi-niichan as far as I know," Conan said. "It's hard to say how big this place is. There was a day I tried to reach the top of the stairs. I walked for two hours and never reached the top."

Conan refrained from commenting on the Dead Shinichi. He was already getting very sick of him. "Two hours? Was it the same coming down?"