justonetruth | (no subject)

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There is, in a hallway, a small child. He looks to be about seven years old. He looks to be a Kaito. He also looks rather confused and lost and startled.

He isn't going to introduce himself as Kuroba Kaito though, and he isn't going to be performing any magic tricks for you.

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Except Ran's pretty sure she knows who he is already. After all, she and Kuroba-kun were both affected by the community virus that turned people into children.

Still, with how the mansion works, this Kaito might very well be a child, so she approaches him as neutrally as she can, hands folded behind her back and a pleasant smile on her face.

"Kuroba-kun?"

There are a host of emotions on his face as he whirls around. Fear, bewilderment, relief. No recognition of the name, but he obviously knows her.

"Ran-neechan!" Running to her, grabbing her around one leg in a tight hug. "What's going on? Where's niisan? What is this place?"

Why was she calling him by that name? She shouldn't know that name. But worry and confusion are easy to hide behind Poker Face, as is the flight-or-fight reaction that comes from that worry.

"Niisan?"

Ran blinks. Kuroba-kun doesn't have a brother, does he? And he seems like a child... (Though she's not sure she can ever take that for granted again after finding out Shinichi's secret.)

"Ah... this isn't your home. A lot of people just call it the mansion, or the dressing room." She crouched down to meet his height and gave him a reassuring smile. "It's kind of strange, but it isn't too bad."

He pulls away from her quickly, obviously unnerved. "Edogawa Conan. My brother." A pause, childish wariness underlaid with something else, something older and more paranoid. "I know you keep telling me to wear my glasses more, but I know you can recognize me without them."

...Well, this is confusing.

"Conan-kun is your brother?"

Confusion, then well-practiced fumbling in the pocket of his cargo shorts for a pair of black-rimmed glasses, identical to Conan's, which he slides smoothly onto his face. His eyes never leave Ran, but he backs away, wary.

He doesn't say anything.

Ran stares back, caught in a disturbingly eerie sense of déjà vu.

Easy, Ran. Don't go jumping to conclusions yet.

She takes a deep breath, lets it out again.

"Has anyone told you about this place yet? Or did you just get here?"

"Just got here."

Ah.

"This is going to sound really weird, Edogawa-kun," she cautions him, making sure to meet his eyes so he knows she isn't lying, "but I can prove it if you want me to. This place isn't your home. It's kind of a place in between worlds, with different versions of the people we know."

How to make this easier for a seven year old to understand... ah! She smiles. "You know, like that Kamen Yaiba episode where he met the blue Kamen Yaiba from another universe? It's like that. I'm Ran-neechan, but not the Ran-neechan you know."

Mild confusion, until that final explanation. "Oh! That's really cool! So..." a pause "you don't know me?"

"No." She shakes her head apologetically. "Conan-kun doesn't have a brother where I'm from."

Though Haibara-chan is also shrunk... I shouldn't discard the idea just yet.

He does look an awful lot like Kuroba, after all.

"He might. He never talks about me, usually. Our parents usually had us stay with different people."

Frown. "Why? That's cruel."

"Me and Niisan in the same place would just be too much pressure on the people we're staying with. So they split us up, usually."

"Still! You shouldn't break up brothers," Ran insists.

A sudden grin. "You really are Ran-neechan! She says the same type of thing!"

The karateka is quiet for a moment, trying to think of a way to verify whether she is his Ran or not. There is a chance she just hasn't met him yet.

"How old is your Ran-neechan?"

"She's seventeen. So, ten years older than Niisan and me."

Hands in his pockets, smiling up at her. Ran-neechan, yay!

An apologetic smile, and Ran shakes her head again.

"I'm going to be nineteen this year, Edogawa-kun. I've never met you."

"... ... But... you'll still be nice to me, right? Even though you don't know me?"

She's surprised by the question. "Of course! Why wouldn't I be?"

"I dunno." Edogawa Maurice was the one who asked all the (occasionally odd) questions.

Ran gave him a bemused look. "You can come to me if you ever need any help here, okay, Edogawa-kun? I'm sure all the other mes wouldn't mind helping you, either."

"How will I know if it's you?"

"Well..." Hm. "One of the mes here is a boy, and the other me is a bit... paler and thinner, and a little younger. But if you ever want to make sure, just ask me if I know about an internet community that connects different worlds."