justonetruth | That's why I say hey man nice shot

[To those who were anywhere near the lobby of the Mansion roughly a month and a half ago, the loud and echoing sound of gunshots and yelling in the hallways may be... worryingly familiar.

On the upside, there are no cracking or shattering noises accompanying them. There's the occasional clack and clatter of a reload or a weapon swap, apparently amplified by the acoustics of the place, and there's the sound of heavy breathing between shouts, but it seems like the damage is currently being confined to whatever room it's originating from.

Those brave enough to track the gunshots to their source will find themselves at a plain, mostly-closed door, located a fair distance down the third floor hallway. By this point the gunfire is loud enough to imply that any innocent bystanders are risking bullets whizzing past their heads, and the voices of a Shinichi and a Kaito arguing are clearly discernible]

"Would you stop using the grenades?!"

"You're just mad because they're working!"

[Push the door open, and what you'll see is actually not a firestorm in progress, but rather two tomb raiders, parked in front of two televisions with Wiimotes in hand, playing a rather spirited mission runthrough of Quantum of Solace -- or something that looks very much like it. The sound system in the room has been turned up to eleven, which explains the vividness of the gunshot echo (though why the boys aren't deaf is anyone's guess), and it looks like Kaito is winning]

"Because you're using a cheat to get them! If you were using a normal account you would have run out of them ten minutes ago!!"

"What, were you counting?"

"Yes, actually."

"Well, hey, you know what they say: all's fair in love and war, Kud--" [there is the particularly sharp retort of a gun] "--hey!!"

"Sorry, what was that you were saying?"

"You sonuvva..."

[Or, well, it looked like he was winning]

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"One on one that I'm winning," Kaito pointed out cheerfully as he wandered around the area to pick up some more supplies, "After this round I will be, anyway."

His gaze flickered away from the screen briefly toward Conan. "Yeah. It's the same one we met one our first day here," he answered before the shrunken sidekick could, "You haven't seen him since then?"

Well, if Kaito had already put it out there, no point in trying to deny it. "The same," Conan agreed, transferring his attention to Kaito, player of the sole remaining PC. "He's seen me, but as he was trying not to be seen I didn't really want to bug him."

"I wasn't trying that hard to not be seen," Shinichi retorted, just a little miffed that he'd been spotted so easily. His gaze flicked back to the screen as his character respawned, and he promptly divided his attention between the game and the conversation. "So you got caught by our friends in black, I'm guessing?"

Having added his part to the conversation, Kaito focused most of his attention on the game. He kept one ear trained on the conversation next to him, just in case.

Conan poked idly at the sofa. He never liked this particular train of conversation much. "We thought that if I avoided the scenario where most of us got poisoned, I might be able to escape it altogether. We were wrong. They ambushed me in Dad's study."

The raider was silent for a moment, the loud and continuous roll of sound effects from the game taking over as he mentally examined the implications of that.

"Do you know if anyone else tried to avoid it?" he finally asked.

Once again, Kaito found himself glancing over at Kudo, one eyebrow quirked.

"Worried?" he asked.

Conan shook his head 'no', not looking at his counterpart. "I don't know anyone else who came here before it happened to them," he said, leaving Kaito's question to his counterpart. Worried? He should be ...

"Well, except the ghost. But he's different."

Shinichi glanced back at his sometimes-partner. "Maybe," he admitted. "It doesn't hurt to know all the details."

Like whether to watch out for repeat attempts.

And then Conan spoke up with something else to wonder about about.

"You've met the ghost?"

Kaito wouldn't admit it, nor did it show on his expression, but he was a bit worried himself. If it's happened to every Kudo so far, then it might happen to this one too... And he definitely didn't want Kudo to be a casualty in his fight with his enemies.

He didn't say anything about this, though, as he awaited Conan's response.

"Yeah. Remember when we skipped out on lunch the first time we met? That's his place." Conan frowned. "He went to tropical land where the poisoning took place for most of us, survived that intact. They caught up with him a few months later -- didn't bother with the poison at all."

The implications aren't good -- but its got to be put out there.

The implications weren't good, and Shinichi's frown was a mirror for Conan's.

"So even when we get away, we don't really?" Shinichi paused to snipe an undefended member of Kaito's team (ironically, given the topic), and then resumed the conversation. "Are there any versions of us where they didn't show up at Tropical Land?"

He hadn't been there in well over a year, after all.

Kaito let out a muffled curse as one of his men went down (but then again, it was only one, and he had several others still up and running).

Other than that, he continued to remain silent, ears wide open for any new information on the situation, just like Kudo's were.

"I don't know," Conan said, taking his attention away from the game and Kaito's actions with difficulty. "Kuroba's going to win."

That's why I say hey man nice shot

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