justonetruth | (no subject)

You know what else is getting old? Running into versions of himself and having no idea what is going on.

At least, Conan thinks, lowering the novel he's reading to watch the other search, it'll be easier to distinguish this one. He's taller. "You're sure of that?"

Conan turns around to face the person who spoke and...

Well, all he could think of was to stare. After a moment, he scowled. "Oh, very funny. I'm aware you can hide as a kid already, and no, that's not funny either."

Hey, easy to hide the rest of the body in the chair he was sitting in. Or at least that was this Conan's thought.

Conan stared back. Had he just been mistaken for --?

Seriously?

Wordlessly, Conan stood up.

Kaito is nuts. He'd do it.

The standing up part though...

Conan looked really surprised at that. "...okay...he's not that good."

"Well, that's something at least," Conan grumbles, approaching the new arrival. He's taller, and Conan tries to gauge his age against the memory of family photo albums. "10?" he guesses hopefully.

"Eleven, actually. So, I'm guessing this isn't some trick of Kaito's?" Conan asked.

He was a bit more open minded about the weird after his first logical assumption gets shattered.

"I wouldn't rule that out yet," Conan said. "But no one's really sure what's going on. We've got a lot of impossibilities, a lot of 'alternates' and no real facts." He hesitates. "That's four years and no--" He stops himself on the point of saying 'cure.' This could be an actual Conan--

"Kaito is a magician, not a god. Besides, he's not the kind of guy to go on a mass kidnapping if there's more than just us here," Conan said, looking around. "Where...is this place anyway?"

Impossibilities. Impossibilities were so common, it was kind of sad.

But that cut off. "...yeah. She didn't find any. And after this long, it's a question of would it really be a good idea."

"A good question. Somewhere that gets snow and mist in January, has a climate suitable for growing pine trees, and attracts versions of people from different dimensions. I've heard it described as a nexus."

Conan's expression was blank. He really didn't want to contemplate that. "What's -- changed?"

"A nexus? What kind?" Conan asked. "Or is it just that?"

He's silent for several moments, studying his counterpart to determine his age and what might or might not be good to reveal.

"Rann married. Rather happily. Eisuke's a good man." A bit of a sore spot, but he manages to keep a straight face. "Haibara kept trying to make a cure, but nothing was working. The time was getting shorter and shorter."

He didn't mention Kaito. Yet.

"No one's told me. It's possible the person who came up with that theory is no longer here." Conan frowned -- he really didn't like having this little information to go on but what options did he have?

Conan's face at his counterpart's explanation is a picture. "Eisuke? But he's--" Understanding dawned. "Oh, Ran's a girl where you're from."

Conan frowned. Well, that was worrying. How could a counterpart have so little information?

"..." He opened his mouth. Then closed it again. "...so does that mean you're gay too?"

"I've been here a matter of days," Conan said, correctly reading the look -- he was feeling his failure to find out anything of real interest.

-- failure and case totally forgotten at Conan's next words. "-- not me too. Augh. It's like a conspiracy--" He shook his head. "No. We're just -- really good friends."

"Hopefully we can find out more with a few more days."

A blink. "Oh. Huh...well....I guess that's possible, actually. I mean, I moved on, so that could mean there's a me who never fell in love with he-him?"

"Don't hold your breath," Conan warns. "Hattori's been here three months."

This is--

Conan lets the words go over his head, trying vaguely to make sense of them. "Yes," he says firmly. "Very much possible." Ran's his best friend. It's impossible to think of him as anything else -- definitely not in the same category as Heiji. He pauses. "So that means you--?"

"And he didn't know more than that?" Oh, great. Today was just getting better and better.

"I was in love with Ran. But...after this...well..." He looked away, shrugging his shoulders sheepishly. "I told Eisuke...if he could make her happy, if she'd go with him willingly...then to take the chance."

He wasn't in love with her, this was true, but it still stung.

"She did add one interesting incident -- but as it was isolated, it's hard to determine how exactly it fits into the bigger picture."

Conan stared, then shook his head. "I don't know what's weirder. The idea of Ran being with Eisuke or the idea of being separated. We've always done everything together--" He paused, a thought occurring to him. "There are Rans here. A few of them apparently."

"What was the incident?" Conan asked. Even if it seemed insignificant, it was better to know.

"We've been separated since I turned like this...even if I didn't want to look at it like that," Conan said with a sad tone and shook his head. "But she's happy. That's..the important thing."

He frowned. "Well, if there's more of me, that's only logical." As much as this sort of situation CAN be logical.

Conan hesitated. "Everyone suddenly found themselves in pyjamas in the same large room where a pillow fight had obviously taken place." He really hoped his counterpart could explain that because he couldn't.

That -- still didn't make sense to Conan, but he nodded. Ran's happiness was the main thing.

"You should be prepared," he cautioned. "Some versions of us are -- surprising."

One blink. Two blinks. Three. "You sure it wasn't a Kaito? You didn't blink at me saying his name."

He could see Kaito kidnapping everyone to throw them in a room for an epic scale pillow fight. That was a very Kaito like thing to do.

"How surprising?"

"Not enough data. I wasn't there at the time."

He paused. "There's a Conan who -- really is Conan. And seeing Ran as a girl was hard for me, though I don't know if that's because she didn't recognise me or because she was -- a girl."

"I'll ask around. Someone has to have a hint."

Conan looked surprised at that. "An actual...Conan? Jeeze, I hope he doesn't go through everything we do." A little kid going through all that...not even the shonen tantei had been through as much as Conan would have gone through.

"She didn't recognize you?"

"Good luck with that. I've been collecting data, but I don't see a pattern yet." Which reminds him. "What day have you come from?"

"She thought I was Conan."

"Day? March Third," Conan said. "Why?"

A long, long pause. "...your Ran knows?"

"So far we've got three August's, one October, a cluster of December's and January's -- you're the first March. It's the end of January here, by the way."

Conan's surprised by that. "Best friend," he said. "No way he wouldn't."

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*snerks.* Matching icons~

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snerks. Matching icons~