➥ first

[asmallamoroso]

[ When the video of the device flickers on, the face of a child with strawberry-blonde hair is peering at it curiously. She turns it over in her hand, giving a brief shot of the ground as she talks to herself. ]

It’s simple enough to work out the functions. How it ended up in my pocket, let alone waking up here, is beyond me. …I would say this is a

Comments

[video]

[modernholmes]

[When Conan went to check the communicator he hadn't expected to see anything different. After all, in the past week he'd seen Kazuha, Ran, and someone he strongly suspected of being KID all arrive. Why would the scientists bring any more of his acquaintances here? And so, when he hears that very familiar voice he nearly chokes.]

H-Haibara! What- When did you get here?

[video]

[asmallamoroso]

[ Oh look, a familiar face. Upon seeing him on the video feed her calm expression slipped for a second for her usual deadpan one. She's tired, annoyed and still concerned about the latest turn of events back home. ]

About ten minutes ago. What exactly is here? [ She pauses before adding. ] And how did you get here?

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[modernholmes]

[He slams the highest security lock he could manage on this conversation.]

The same way you did. A large number of people have been brought here by a group known as the scientists for an unknown reason. The operation has been going on for at least three years.

The long-term victims all claim that the purpose is to rebuild an abandoned city called Discedo. But I've been working on the assumption that their statements are unreliable. Among other things, they also claim that this is another planet called Fortuna. And the scientists may make use of memory alteration techniques.

According to my count, I arrived here over eighty days ago. Hattori arrived approximately a month later. We found Ran and Kazuha only a few days ago. And none of our memories match up.

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[asmallamoroso]

[ For the duration of the explanation she's quiet. The deadpan expression remains but then again when does it not? It isn't until he finishes does she speak up. ]

Memories aren't matching up? You mean to tell me that everyone is being pulled here from out of the blue from different points in time?

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[modernholmes]

No, I'm saying that's what they want us to believe. The entire thing is ridiculous.

[He scowls irritably. He did not enjoy thinking about his own decision that his memory had been compromised.]

But the truth remains that Ran does not remember anything that happened after that night at the Beika City Hotel. And that Hattori knows details of cases that I have never seen.

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[asmallamoroso]

[ She hardly found this bit of news enjoyable either. With a frown she thought back to the last thing she could remember before all of this. Which, in retrospect, only made her frown even more. ]

The apartment building fire is the last thing I recall.

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[modernholmes]

[He'd been halfway expecting something of the sort, but that didn't make him any happier at the news.]

That happened about a month before I found myself here again.

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[asmallamoroso]

[ The longer this conversation went on for, the more she wanted to learn about these 'scientists'. It could be considered a morbid sort of curiosity, but sharing a similar profession as them has her wondering. ]

'Again'? As in you somehow left and was brought back?

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[modernholmes]

When I was first brought here the last thing I remembered was the Blue Wonder heist. Then something strange happened. According to Hattori and other acquaintances here I vanished for a week. In that time I believed myself to be in Beika for the length of several months. I had no memory of the situation here. And I returned as Shinichi, in clothing that exactly matched Hattori's memory of a certain incident.