(Untitled)

[are_too_holmes]

"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?"

Comments

[is_not_watson]

And here, Conan, is your Ran, pinged by the shouts for his name in a very familiar tone. He sticks his head around the corner and blinks. It sounds like him, but...

"...Shinichi?"

[are_too_holmes]

Conan held out the school bag mutely. He was still trying to work out whether the marble lobby was a very convincing optical illusion, or if Mouri had renovated and he'd missed it.

"Your Dad redecorated?"

[is_not_watson]

It was his Shinichi. And he must have just gotten here. Ran grinned broadly from ear to ear, immensely relieved, and crouched down in front of his friend.

"Do you want the short weird version, the long weird version, or the really long, really weird version?"

[are_too_holmes]

Ran -- seemed far too happy. Conan set the bag of karate gear down. "No non-weird versions?" He asked, feeling he already knew the answer. "Give me the short version."

[is_not_watson]

"We're in some kind of giant endless mansion between dimensions, and there's a bunch of alternate versions of us here," Ran said promptly. Shinichi was going to think he was crazy, obviously, but he'd already figured that that was unavoidable at this point.

"I think I've been stuck here about a month," he added thoughtfully, folding his arms over his knees. "Nothing happened back home, right?"

Though he suspected it hadn't, given that Shinichi had been hollering about the same tournament that Ran still remembered having to go to.

[are_too_holmes]

Conan stared at Ran wordlessly. He hadn't seemed that stressed about the tournament -- maybe it was the pressure of keeping Conan's true identity finally getting to him? "Giant endless mansion between dimensions," he repeated. "How did you come to that conclusion?"

[is_not_watson]

"Nobody's been able to find the back of it. We either wind up in the lobby or the hallways just keep going forever," his friend said with a shrug. Despite what he'd been saying to the ghost Shinichi a while ago, he had gotten rather used to this place's weirdness.

...Now how had they figured out it was between dimensions? Ran paused as he tried to remember. "Everybody here is someone we know or who knows us, only they're from a world where things happened differently," he said, adding helpfully, "You should see the version of you that decided to become the Kid. It's kind of creepy."

[are_too_holmes]

"That would be more convincing if your sense of direction was better," Conan pointed out, going on tip-toe to press his wrist against Ran's forehead -- no obvious temperature. Not a fever then, but that didn't rule out head-trauma.

"Version of me that decided to become the Kid?" he echoed, walking around his friend to see if there was any damage apparent from the back. "What is the longer version of this?"

[is_not_watson]

"Oi!" Ran swatted at Conan's hand with a scowl. "I'm not sick! You'll see what I mean when you see who's here."

Of course, it figured that when it would be most convenient to have someone else in the lobby, it was completely empty. Ran sighed and just sat down on the floor, figuring this was going to take a while.

"There's more than enough bedrooms for everybody here, and food keeps showing up in the kitchen and dining room, but nobody knows where it's coming from," he grumped. "None of us brought it, but we haven't seen anyone like a worker bringing it in."

He paused again, trying to figure out what Shinichi would want to know and in what order. "I think Hattori-san's been stuck here the longest. She said she'd been here for three months when I showed up. A few people have gone home and come back again, but they said they don't remember this place when they get back."

[are_too_holmes]

"No signs of trauma," Conan agreed, having finished his inspection. "But you can't have been gone a month. You only ran out of the door a minute ago. And I got a mail from Hattori just last night."

He paused and went back to the door. It was a two-door affair, in a grand style designed to be entirely in keeping with the luxuriously decorated lobby -- and not even remotely kid-friendly. Conan struggled against the inevitable but the door handle wouldn't budge. "Ran, can I have a hand here?"

[is_not_watson]

"And when I ran out the door it brought me here," Ran reiterated, getting to his feet again. He grinned at Conan's struggle with the door handle (his mental tally bumped up to Conan: 2, Doors: 187), but didn't comment on it beyond that as he pulled it open for the tantei. "What mail?"

[are_too_holmes]

The door opened out onto a scene that was nothing like the Mouri's apartment and Conan stared a long moment at the misty outdoor scenery, before climbing down the steps. The atmosphere was cool, with the sort of freshness you only get outside and he added that to his mental list of things wrong with this situation. "It's supposed to be summer," he protested, reaching the bottom of the steps and examining the ground closely. Brick and asphalt could be transported, but not in a matter of minutes and not without give-away sound -- and there was moss growing on these stones. No traces of footprints or work vehicles on the grass either -- could they have been kidnapped

[is_not_watson]

"It's been winter since I got here. There was even some snow on the ground before," Ran pointed out, following Conan with his hands in his pockets. He hadn't had much opportunity to explore outside of the mansion, so his half of the conversation was almost as distracted as he examined the house.

"And something from Hattori-san is never 'just a mail'. Was it for Conan or Shinichi?"

[are_too_holmes]

Snow on the ground? That put them North of Tokyo then, at the very least. And the mist -- Gunma-ken? But that was more autumnal ... A sudden gust of wind reminded Conan that he was dressed for Tokyo summer and he decided that it might be politic to continue his investigations inside.

The lobby was just where they'd left it -- Conan wasn't sure whether that was a relief or a disappointment. "How long ago was that? Are there any calenders around here?" He retrieved the bentos, leaving Ran to take the karate gear, while he debated telling Ran it wasn't any of his business who the mail was for. "Shinichi," he admitted reluctantly, "But it was just about a case."

[is_not_watson]

Well, at least Shinichi seemed to be taking this in stride so far. Ran held the door open for them again as they went back inside, then picked up the karate gear and slung it over his shoulder. "Not as far as I know. We just kind of keep track ourselves."

And oho, that was interesting. "It's never 'just a case' with Hattori-san, either," was the lofty reply, and Ran shot Conan a grin. He couldn't wait until his friend met the version of Hattori that was here. She was a lot more fun when she wasn't accusing him all the time, and it was bound to be entertaining.

...Just as long as she didn't bring up anything to do with magical girls. That, Ran could do without.

[are_too_holmes]

"So we can't be sure," Conan pointed out before a thought occurred to him and he dug in his pocket for his celphone. No reception -- that was a given, he thought sourly, expectations dashed by too many camping trips with Agasa -- but the date was the morning he'd just come from. "You'd need my pin to alter the time settings," he said. "And it's only a couple of bars away from needing to be charged. No one could hack it in that time. Let's look at yours."

Shinichi answered Ran's grin with a sour look and tried to pretend he wasn't slightly pink. "This was purely professional."