Chapter Text
Somewhere unknown, in a large black room, laid unconscious a great number of people, amongst them teenagers, adults, elderly, and even young children. One of the latter, a boy wearing a pair of glasses, abruptly began stirring, frowning a bit, then opening his eyes to find himself in an unfamiliar place.
“W- Where am I…?” - wondered the boy aloud, still looking over the dark room. - “It looks like a cinema…”
“Conan-kun?” - called a familiar female voice to the boy.
“Ra- Ran-neechan? You too?” - asked the six-year-old.
“It seems so…” - muttered the girl, searching around. Her eyes widened when she saw many friendly faces waking up in the same room. - “Father? Sonoko? Sera-san and Kazuha-chan?”
“Heiji-niichan, Hakase, Haibara and the others… even Jirokichi-ojiisan?” - enquired Conan, raising his eyebrows in question.
“And we’re not the only ones.” - said the long-haired girl. At her surrogate brother’s query, she pointed towards a group of unfamiliar faces.
Just as Conan was about to pose another question, Sonoko and Ayumi went to them, along with their families and friends, who just woke up from their slumber.
“Ran, do you have any idea of what this place is?” - asked Sonoko while looking around, Kogoro right behind her. The aforementioned shook her head.
“Conan-kun? Where are we?” - the little girl also wanted to know.
“I don’t know, Ayumi-chan…” - answered the boy.
“It’s even odder when you remember you went to sleep in your pajamas, and yet here we are in our usual clothes.” - Ai commented, which caused everyone to look down at they were wearing, seeing that she was in the right.
“They better not have touched our bodies! Creepy perverts…” - shouted Sonoko, hugging herself.
“I don’t think so… I’m actually a light sleeper and yet I fell well rested…” - thought Conan aloud.
“How ‘bout we leave this for later, and focus on something more important. Where da hell are we?” - wondered Heiji, stopping them from digressing.
“Hopefully we will find the answer soon.” - offered Masumi.
“For now, how about we find out who the others are?” - suggested Ran, the others agreeing with her.
The first group they approached fortunately was waking up at the moment.
“Chaki-keishi?” - called Ginzou the second he saw the face of his boss.
“Nakamori-kun?” - Shintarou looked as confused as him at seeing him.
“Do you know where we are?” - asked the Inspector.
“No. No clue.” - the Superintendent shook his head after looking around.
“Guess we are not the only ones here too…” - said the younger of them both when he caught sight of the crew getting closer.
“Oh! It’s been so long, Nakamori!” - exclaimed a voice behind them, both men recognizing it right as the familiar man of big complexion came up to them.
“Ah!- Megure!” - cried out the leaner of the three.
“You three also have no idea of what place this is?” - questioned them another male, making all three turn their heads towards the nearing party.
“Mouri!” - bellowed the Inspector of Division One, then narrowed his eyes skeptically at him. - “You better have not been investigating another case and somehow gotten us involved without warning us…”
“Uh… Not that I am aware of…” - replied Kogorou, him and all the other detectives sweatdropping at the not-entirely-unfounded accusation.
“We three were at our home. The second we woke up, we all were in this strange place.” - explained his daughter.
“The others too?” - everyone around them nodded their heads.
“Who is this おっさん?” - asked the Osakan boy. [1]
“Hey! Don't be rude to him!” - admonished the sleeping detective.
“He is the Superintendent of the 2nd Division.” - introduced Jirokichi to the others in the circle.
“Chaki Shintarou. Glad to meet you all. Especially the Kid Killer.” - nodded the man, the last part directed to the glasses-wearing child.
“Heheh…” - Conan stroked his nape in bashful delight.
“How lucky…” - muttered the three children, wanting some of that attention.
At that instant, they heard a groan coming from the group farthest to them.
“Aoko!” - screamed Ginzou, to everyone’s shock, while running to where they believed the sound came from. - “Are you okay? What about your friends?”
“We all seem fine…” - answered Saguru after a fast examination on the ones in the group.
“Who are they? Do you know them, Nakamori-keibu?” - asked Ayumi.
“Yeah… she is my daughter Aoko.” - Ginzou briefed them on the blue-eyed girl firstly.
“よろしく！ Aokoです！” - the messy-haired girl jovially presented herself. [2]
“かわいい！” - exclaimed the Teitan girls, Kazuha, Genta, Ayumi and Mitsuhiko. [3]
“Eh? What is cute?” - asked Aoko, confused.
“You!” - said Ayumi, pointing at her, to her surprise.
“Everything!” - added Kazuha, the other girls and the two boys nodding in agreement.
“Ah- Hehe, thank you…” - answered the blue-eyed girl, flustered.
“And childish.” - muttered Kaito under his breath. If someone paid enough attention to him, though, they would have spotted a tiny dust of pink on his face.
Unknown to them, he had actually woken up some minutes before them and had begun inspecting the room for any available, as well as to find anything amiss inside it. So far, the only thing he saw was a huge screen, many cushioned seats of different levels, and a table full with quite a large number of snacks and other dishes. There was also a door, but it was locked, which wouldn’t have stopped him had it not been for the strange fact that there was no actual lock on the door.
Right now, he was leaning on one of the dark walls, witnessing the conversation in the shadows.
“I am Mouri Ran! And this is my father, Mouri Kogorou.” - presented said girl.
“よろしく。” - nodded the man. [2]
“Sleeping Kogorou!” - exclaimed the blue-eyed female, pointing at him.
“Eh- yeah… haha…” - the moustached man replied, bringing a hand on his nape in embarrassment.
“This is my best friend Suzuki Sonoko, and my other friends Tooyama Kazuha and Sera Masumi!” - waved Ran to the mentioned girls, who nodded to the messy-haired.
“よろしく！” - said all three girls at the same time. [2]
“こちらこそよろしく！Wait, Suzuki?“ - questioned Aoko, looking at the first girl. [4]
“Ah! This is my uncle, Suzuki Jirokichi, senior advisor of the Suzuki Financial Group.” - explained Sonoko while bringing her uncle to the front.
“The wealthiest of all Japan, second only to Karasuma Renya.” - commented Conan inside his head, frowning.
“すごい。。。” - whispered the girl, astonished. [5]
“よろしく。” - nodded the elder man. [2]
“Nice to meet you! My name is Yoshida Ayumi! And these are Kojima Genta and Tsuburaya Mitsuhiko!” - introduced the little girl to the group.
“Nice to meet you too, Ayumi-chan! Same to you two, Genta-kun! Mitsuhiko-kun!” - smiled the blue-eyed female.
“よろしく。/！” - answered the two boys, one more enthusiastically than the other. [2]
“And here we have the professor Agasa…” - the glasses-wearing man grinned. - “… the tsundere Haibara Ai-chan…” - said girl looked baffled at the comment. ‘Tsundere?’ - “… and our leader Edogawa Conan-kun!” - nodded the ‘short teen’.
“Leader?” - wondered Aoko aloud.
“Yeah! We are the Detective Boys!” - presented the three kids together, all while posing, much to the shrunk adults’ chagrin. Shaking his head in exasperation, the boy with glasses decided to continue with the formalities.
“And he is Hattori Heiji, high school detective of Osaka.” - introduced Conan.
“よ！” - saluted the darker-skinned teenager. [2]
“よろしくな！” - beamed the messy-haired. [2]
“The half-english boy I’m sure some of you met him.” - explained the Inspector Nakamori.
“Hakuba Saguru, nice to meet you. And good to see you four again, Edogawa Conan-kun, Hattori Heiji-kun, Ran-san, Kazuha-san.” - he bowed to the mentioned ones.
“Call me Conan-kun, you don’t have to use my full name all the time, Hakuba-niichan.” - requested the ‘little’ boy.
“Then call me Saguru, Conan-kun.” - solicited the teen.
“Okay, Saguru-niichan!” - at his effervescent voice, the boy cringed internally.
“Call me Hattori then! I’m sure it gets tiring having ta use ma full name all time.” - insisted Heiji.
“Sure. That or 熱血くん。” - that nickname brought some chortling out of the Detective Boys (Ai and Conan included), the girls and Kaito, all caught by surprise with Hakuba’s comment. Of course, it also ticked off said hot-headed detective, trying to control his anger to answer. [6]
“Just stick to Hattori…” - demanded the high school Detective, gritting his teeth.
“Sorry, I just had to.” - smiled the british one, apologetically. Who knew Hakuba had such a humor.
“Anyway… this girl is Momoi Keiko, my daughter’s best girl friend.” - said Ginzou, continuing with the formalities.
“Nice to meet you, everyone. Call me Keiko.” - saluted the girl with twin pigtails.
“And here we have the beautiful Koizumi Akako.” - introduced the Inspector, bringing the aforementioned forward.
“Glad to meet you all. Please, call me Akako.” - bowed the red-haired.
“Since when does she say please?” - muttered Kuroba, narrowing his eyes at her from his place.
“きれえええ。。。” - exclaimed the three young kids in awe of her beauty. [7]
“すっげ美人。。。” - added Masumi, the other girls nodding in agreement. [8]
“She’s really beautiful…” - expressed Hattori in a low voice.
“What? Are you interested in her, Heiji?” - asked Kazuha, internally agreeing with him, something which she won’t admit to him anytime soon.
“What!? No! I already like another girl!” - answered the Osaka native truthfully, due to his bafflement at the question in such a sudden manner.
“Really? And who is she?” - questioned his childhood friend in curiosity, silently hoping it was her.
“I-It-It’s…” - stuttered the male, trying to find a way to get out of this situation without confessing his feelings.
Conan, taking pity of his fellow detective and friend, decided to save him.
“Okay, I’m going to interrupt this love talk…” - in the background, you could hear two flustered teenagers spluttering. ‘Love talk!!??’ ‘Love!?- Kudou!?-’ , the second earning a nasty glare of a certain scientist - “… because there are seven people left to introduce yet.” - those words, however, puzzled a great number of the people in the group.
“Seven? But there’s only the two men and the little boy.” - inquired Mitsuhiko for the other children.
“That’s right, brat!” - the Suzuki heiress reproached him.
“Ah!- No, there’s-” - Jii tried to explain, Hasura and Phillip looking at him strangely. However, someone went ahead before he could.
“And what about the boy there, Sonoko-neechan?” - interrupted Conan, pointing at the wall where Kaito was. - “And the aunties there?” - this time, he aimed his finger to the nearest corner at their position. Realizing he just interrupted the elder man, he sent him an apologetic glance, who shook his head with a smile as a semblance of forgiveness.
“Eh?” - expressed Ran in surprise.
”Aunties…?" - Genta questioned.
Aoko, identifying the boy he was referring as her childhood friend, called him over: -“Oi, Kaito! What are you doing there? Come here and present yourself!”
Said boy just sighed and walked over to them, standing beside Jii. “Hopefully they don’t associate my voice to Kid so fast…” thought Kaito as he was presenting himself, showing a carefree expression. “Poker face… Poker face…“.
“よろしく。Kuroba Kaito だ。This old man here is a close friend of my family, Jii Kounosuke.” - saluted the magician, all while presenting his family’s friend as well. [2]
“Nice to meet you. You can call me Jii if you want.” - although some of the people hadn’t actually registered his words, as they were still fascinated by a certain something from the messy-haired boy’s appearance.
“He- He looks just like Shin’ichi…” - whispered the karate girl in astonishment.
“Heh?” - quaked the boy in fake surprise.
“Aoko looks a lot like you too, Ran.” - commented Sonoko, though she was still flabbergasted at the first fact. “First Okita and now this guy!? There better not be a thousand doppelgangers of that Mystery Freak!!”
“Now that mention it, she does!” - exclaimed Masumi with a toothy grin.
“And this gentleman here is a friend of mine from a hobby of my younger years, Hasura Tsuujirou.“ - this time it was Jii who went on.
“I would call myself more your rival though, but it’s nice to know you consider me as a friend. Pleased to meet you.“ - expressed the man sheepishly, with gratitude.
“Wait, you said seven people, right, Conan-kun?” - recalled the aforementioned’s pseudo-sister.
“Here there are one, two, three, four… only four. And the other three?“ - counted Kazuha.
“Oh! 母さん！Ruby-san! Oh, Jody-san, you too! Come here!” - having seen them already, Kaito called them out. [9]
“あら, and here I thought I could surprise you before you could see me… what a shame…” - sighed Chikage in disappointment. [10]
“If I caught a glimpse of you the moment I rose, I believe your son could find you in 5 seconds top.” - deadpanned Jody.
“Same.” - agreed Ruby.
“More like when I looked around in the first second I woke up.“ - grinned the son.
“So… this auntie is your mom?” - wondered Ayumi, continuing the introductions.
“That’s right! My name is Kuroba Chikage, and I’m the mother of this troublesome boy!” - teased the woman as she put her hands on her son’s shoulders.
“H-Hey!” - he stuttered, baffled.
“I mean, you are troublesome.” - countered Aoko with a blank expression.
“That doesn’t mean she has to go about saying it everytime we introduce ourselves.” - grumbled Kaito. The interaction, however, got some giggles from everyone present. - “Anyways, the blond woman is Jody Hopper, granddaughter of James Hopper and owner of the Hopper’s Troupe of magicians.” - choosing to carry on with the formalities, Kaito changed of topic.
“Nice to come across such renowned names in Japan.” - the blonde bowed in appreciation. Most of those people blushed at the recognition.
“The other lady is Ruby Jones, an Investigator from an Insurance Company in America.” - he kept going with the dark-skinned woman.
“Pleased to meet you all.” - nodded the french native.
The little boy left, knowing the attention was on him now, went behind Kaito’s leg, nervous.
“And you, little boy?” - asked Ran, bending down to be on his level.
“C’mon…” - nudged Kaito, noticing his nerves, giving him the courage he needed to introduce himself.
“Glad to meet you. My name is Philip Maximilian of Ingram.” - the boy presented himself, with more confidence than he actually felt.
“I-Ingram?” - blurted out Hattori, befuddled.
“Wait… isn’t that the name of…” - recalled Masumi, remembering about some news from a few months ago.
“The prince of the Kingdom of Ingram!?” - exclaimed Conan, finishing for the female Detective, also perplexed. Then again, at those words, everyone who hadn’t met the boy yet, had their jaws open in awe.
“So cool! I’m Ayumi, nice to meet you!” - the little girl reintroduced herself, wanting to be his friend.
“Hm! I heard you! Same, Ayumi-chan!” - expressed the prince, her enthusiasm contagious.
“Good to see everybody awake and getting to know each other fine!” - said a female voice. At the new sound in a sudden manner, almost everyone stood in guard, except those who analyzed the room thoroughly beforehand and already saw them, surprising the current arrivals.
The strangers were three girls, around their late teens-young adulthood, who seemed foreign. The one on the left, who just spoke, was a brunette who had her hair in a high ponytail, green eyes and was sporting a loose beige shirt over a dark purple tank top, sport black jeans and purple and black trainers with white socks. The second female, on the right, had her dyed-blonde hair in a low messy bun, brown eyes and was dressed in a burnt orange sleeveless top, brown flared pants with a white belt, and black sandals. The last girl, in the middle, also had brown eyes, and was wearing a dark blue headband with her wavy dyed-bluish black hair loose, a white sleeveless crochet-like top, short jeans, with a light brown braided belt and matching wedges. All of them had a necklace and some bracelets with unknown designs on them.
“Who are you three.” - questioned Conan, speaking for everybody.
“Eh?” - the girl with the ponytail voiced in surprise.
“I think we should introduce ourselves first before anything else…” - suggested the blonde girl in an attempt to dissuade any tension that was beginning to build up.
“あら？” - blurted the witch in surprise, sensing an immense power coming from the three females. [10]
“What is it, Akako?” - asked Aoko, noticing her outburst.
“How do I say it… I feel there’s something wrong around them…” - tried to explain the red-haired while trying not to expose herself, the first thing without much success.
“Huh? What do you mean?” - interjected Sonoko, entering the conversation.
“Ah- I think I know what she means.” - pondered the girl on the left.
“Knowing what she is, it doesn’t surprise that much she caught up to that.” - stated the one with her hair loose while giggling.
“What she-” - Saguru began to say, not comprehending what was going on.
“Wait-” - started Kaito, his eyes widening .
“You know!?” - finished Akako. Her sudden outburst surprised almost everyone in the room, since from first impressions, she seemed quite calm herself.
“Yeah! But don’t worry, we won’t say anything.” - replied the one that just talked. - “After all, it will be revealed to them eventually.” - she ended mysteriously.
“What!?” - exclaimed the witch, indignantly.
“Again, don’t worry. Nice to meet you, by the way.” - greeted the brown-eyed girl on the right, not noticing or outright ignoring the aggravated expression Akako was displaying.
“Okay, can someone tell us what the hell you five are talking about!?” - snapped Hattori, everybody deciding to ignore his swearing, children included.
“Five?” - asked Kazuha, not understanding who he meant.
“I think he is talking about Kaito-niichan, since he seems to know what you are talking about.” - mentioned Conan.
“Oh, it’s nothing that concerns the others right now. Just… a certain something we will touch while reacting.” - the one with the headband continued with her confounding clarifications.
“Reacting?” - queried Keiko.
“Yeah… We brought you here to react to a show of our world where you are all part of.” - the female with the ponytail was who responded, while dropping a bombshell too.
“We- What!!??” - screamed Kaito.
“We are part of a TV show!?” - cried Aoko at his side.
Each and every one then began shouting over each other, making it impossible to hear anything. The one in the middle then jolted, covering her ears, due to all the noise and confusion they were causing. Noticing her friend’s headache, the dyed-blonde chose to interrupt and finish with all the shouting.
“Yeah, of two actually.” - the only question she could hear was the blue-eyed’s.
“Except specific people because the creator doesn’t want to mix too much the stories.” - added the dyed-bluish-black girl.
She also grumbled something under her breath which sounded suspiciously like “more like everything is too mixed up already…”, yet everyone chose not to comment on it.
“For some reason, they do get right the characterization to animate it, as well as your stories and how your world works, and yet they never visited it. It’s kinda like the imagination is connected to what actually goes on.” - she was deliberating something under her breath. No one knew if they should interrupt her or not, and although the topic seemed interesting, many were trying to keep their remaining sanity intact for the time being.
“And only you seem to have access to that.” - commented the girl at her left, effectively cutting through her thoughts.
“Not by choice, actually…” - pouted the first one at that.
“So… we are here only to react to one of those shows we are a part of?“ - Masumi carried on with the conversation.
“That’s right!” - the one in the middle happily told them, her mood apparently high again.
“Oh! I just remembered!” - blurted Ran, bringing her hand in front of her mouth.
“Hm?” - voiced the girl with the low bun.
“What are your names? We kinda got sidetracked while talking about this whole reacting thing.” - recalled the karate expert.
“Oh true! My name is Jessica, again, nice to meet you. These two are Michelle, one of my best friends, and June, my other bestie.” - introduced the aforementioned one, starting with herself and going from her farthest.
“Some of our other friends, Miru, Cece and Nere are here too.” - interjected the brown-haired female, now known as Michelle.
“Hello!” - shouted the three girls from their respective places behind or by the side of the seats, the others nodding in acknowledgement of their presence.
“And there’s Daniel and Indigo, but they will come later. They are still getting some things ready ‘outside’.“ - she continued.
“I kin~da am the one who brought you here.” - the girl with the headband, June, raised nervously her hand. - “And if you are wondering whether you are going to lose time from your lives and all that, again, don’t worry. Time in your world has been stopped indefinitely, …” - she began explaining, ignoring the fact that she dropped another bombshell.
“What!?” - shouted everyone in the group.
“… as well as your body age. In case we might stay too long, something which is not this specific display’s case at all…” - June kept on going with all the new information. - “… the time of your bodies’ cell reproduction related to growing up has stopped while you’re here. You can still move of course, as you can see.” - she then gestured to their bodies, referring to their motion.
“B-b-bu-but how!?” - questioned Conan, overlooking his stuttering for the sake of his slipping sanity. Haibara looked no better than him.
“I think it’s best if we say magic… right?” - she clarified unsurely, questioning the other two with her eyes.
“Well, even if we don’t call it like that, I think it works.” - Jessica shrugged.
“Quite a generic word though…” - commented Michelle, tapping at her chin.
“It’s not like we’re not familiar with it.” - the dyed-blonde added, sighing.
“Magic is not real though.” - remarked Hakuba. Akako stiffened, while Kaito just rolled his eyes in amusement, all while trying to keep himself from grinning.
“In our world, what you know as magic is actually very real. And it’s a part of our everyday lives so…” - trailed off Michelle in her explanation.
“And not only ours.” - began June, before being cut by Jessica’s intentional coughs. - “Right, sorry.” - she turned to the other side in embarrassment.
“And you were the main proposer of that rule!…” - said blonde shook her head in amused exasperation. At their confused faces, she gestured to her other friend to continue.
“We will explain later.“ - smiled the green-eyed.
A knock from the other side of the weird door was heard, making the people who had their mouths open in order to ask more things to close them.
“Seems they are finished.” - commented Michelle, looking at her friends.
“扉、彼らのために開け！” - uttered Jessica with her hand raised to the door, said hand being surrounded by a green light, the same as the door a few milliseconds later. [11]
The only ones whose eyes were only looking curiously were Kaito’s, Akako’s and Jii’s, being the more familiar with the concept of real magic, reactions which some people noted but chose to keep that data for later. Everyone else had their eyes entirely open, flabbergasted at the nonchalant show.
“All done!” - exclaimed Indigo. Being the only female entering made the others connecting the names easier.
“Thanks, guys!” - June animatedly expressed her gratitude, Michelle nodding and smiling as well.
“We will leave the door open for anyone who needs to go to the bathroom. It’s the first door you see after getting out, right in front.” - acknowledged Jessica, lowering her hand, both glows decreasing fast in intensity.
“More like ‘YOU will leave the door open’. Seems like you’re the only one here who can even do that.” - Heiji pointed out in a matter-of-fact voice, the other shrugging nervously.
“On a sidenote, Ayumi-chan, Genta-kun, Mitsuhiko, Hattori-san, Tooyama-san, Agasa-san and Sera-san won’t appear in this display…” - informed the loose-haired girl, some of the aforementioned not liking the news.
“Eh!!?? Why!!??” - all three children shouted indignant.
“Then why are we here?” - enquired the professor.
“The more people, the merrier, and plenty of reactions! Plus you might be a tiny bit more interesting than a certain sleeping detective…” - quite a few people snorted at that, including two shrunk teenagers and a phantom thief. The aforementioned person though, didn’t appreciate the joke at all.
“Between episodes, we can have a break for anyone who needs to go to the bathroom, to talk about the one we saw, get something to eat or anything else you like. But please, be all here by the time another episode begins.” - requested June, both of her hands in a praying manner.
“Do you have eel?” - wondered Genta, raising his hand.
“I think we brought some… maybe it's in the kitchen...” - tried to recall Michelle.
“I believe some of the snacks here are made with eel, girls!” - shouted one of the girls by the table, apparently the only one wearing glasses, her hair chestnut colored too.
“Oh, thanks Cece!” - appreciated the other brown-haired.
“How much!?” - demanded the biggest child physical wise, his fists in front of him in craving.
“Genta!” - his friends shouted in admonishment at him, the boy .
“Hopefully enough…” - muttered Jessica under her breath.
“Whenever someone starts talking, the episode will pause, giving you time to discuss whatever you want. It replays automatically when you finish the conversation or whenever we believe it’s better to continue it.” - notified Michelle.
“How convenient!” - clapped Jody, Phillip nodding along.
“When you say ‘we believe it’s better to continue it’, do you mean…?” - Sonoko trailed off in suspicion.
“And that's how we introduce our next rule!” - gestured the ponytail girl towards the one with the headband.
“Spoilers aren’t permitted! Wait until it’s shown so that you can confirm what you want. Revealing you knew something all along is fine, as long as it was shown. However, you don’t say when, unless it was by deduction while watching this, then you can explain the process if everyone’s fine with it.” - demanded June, crossing her arms to form an X.
“That kinda makes sense.” - expressed Keiko, many nodding in agreement.
“It will be like a show after all.” - commented Aoko to her friend.
“It IS an actual show though…” - grumbled Kaito, his childhood friend shutting her mouth in embarrassment.
“Oh! Before we forget, Jess?” - June suddenly remembered something.
“I was kinda hoping you would actually forget about that…” - sighed Jessica in disappointment.
“Do you even know me?” - the bluish black-haired girl teased, arms crossed and eyebrows raised.
“Fortunately yes. Your memory doesn’t surprise me anymore. Anyways… Daniel! I need your help!“ - the only boy of their own group went to them with his own eyebrow raised.
“We’re still doing it?” - he asked to the three girls, the others present lost.
“Yep. It’s not dangerous after all.” - the one with the headband affirmed. At that sentence, a few began to feel suspicious again of their intentions.
“You say it because it won’t happen to you.” - those words got him an annoyed scowl from June.
“Will you two stop? Anyhow, Daniel, please?” - at Jessica’s petition, he joined his hand with hers. A purple shine that came from him went to her just like that. She then brought both hands in front of her, towards the others. - “어른들, 야기의 주인공의 과거에서 고통의 일부를 공유. 주인공 체험!” - now the glow that emerged from her hands was teal-colored. Some kind of ray then went in the direction of their group, all of them attempting to cover themselves from it with their arms. [12]
“W-What was-” - Kaito began questioning, lowering his forearm from his face, although he didn’t need to.
“Thank you, Daniel!” - June gave him a smile, which he returned before going back with the others. - “With this you should feel half the pain of the main character.” - informed the one wearing shorts, many starting to get scared of the situation they got themselves in.
“And that’s because…” - Kogorou narrowed his eyes at them.
“We…” - started June, stopping because of her friends’ anticipated interruption.
“… And by that you mean ‘you‘…” - briefed Jessica.
“… want for your experience to be as intense as it was for the protagonist of each series, all while protecting them and make you understand them better. In certain scenes the pain is actually too dangerous, and distracting, that’s why as a safety measure, this won’t affect anyone physically younger than 15, as well as the said protagonist. Did I miss anything, Jess?” - the aforesaid shook her head.
“Why the protagonist though?” - wondered Ruby and Tsuujirou.
“Having to endure all that discomfort again… would you?” - having flashbacks of their own experiences in life, they shook their head, understanding the reason. - “They will already have to relive everything on screen, better to spare the second-hand pain from them.”
“At those specific scenes though, Jess will lower the percentage of pain you will feel.” - soothed Michelle.
“Right now it’s at 50%, so nothing to worry about.” - stated June.
“If you say so…” - many muttered in resignation.
‘Safe~.’ - thought Ai and Conan, looking at each other in relief.
‘Damn it, Kudo and the little nee-chan…‘ - Heiji’s angry thoughts went for them though.
‘Just because of that, I kinda wish for my secrets to be the ones revealed…‘ - prayed Kaito inside his head.
“Also, we will try to watch twelve episodes today, and the last 12 ‘tomorrow’. If not and you are too tired to continue watching and believe we should go to sleep, feel free to say it. We can continue the next day. The door where Daniel and Indigo came from leads to a bunch of bedrooms equipped with some video games and books from your world, in case the others actually aren’t too exhausted yet. They also have wardrobes with some of your clothes, pyjamas included.” - informed Jessica to the bunch.
“It feels kinda creepy to know you went through our own wardrobes without our permission.” - remarked Kazuha, her body more guarded, the others blocking themselves as well. The three girls opened their eyes in surprise at those words, and raised their hands in a placating, trying to appease the situation.
“Don’t worry about that! We actually didn’t. Just an automatic charm so as to pick something fast without having to look around.” - exclaimed June.
“June and Jessica, especially June, are quite picky with fashion.” - Michelle told them, her thumb to the two girls. The former aforesaid shrugged, a tiny bit shyly.
“A charm?” - Aoko tilted her head.
“A spell.” - Akako caught her up, the blue-eyed thanking her.
“Didn’t you say time was stopped here?” - questioned Conan, not understanding something.
“The one related to growth and aging. The body clock, which goes with eating, going to the bathroom and/or being tired, in other words, energy related one, is still going.” - replied the girl wearing white.
“And the whole today and tomorrow thing?” - the glasses-wearing boy further inquired.
“Oh, right! Like I was saying, our body clock, even if we won’t age here, is still ongoing, and we will still feel like time, a minute, an hour, a day, has passed, thus tomorrow. I even prepared a clock and alarms for it.” - June answered as thoroughly as she could, hoping that helped him understand a bit.
“I see…” - murmured the shrunk teen, trying to get the gist of her explanation.
“Hopefully it doesn’t affect us after we leave…” - wished Ran, thinking outloud.
“Oh! That reminds me.” - Michelle then blurted, being reminded of something important. - “All memories you make here will be forgotten when you leave this place, and remembered the second you are back here.” - that shocked everybody in the room.
“Excuse me!?” - screamed Jirokichi, his rage, and everyone else’s, beginning.
“You’re the one taking care of that, you should have remembered.” - added one of the other enigmatic girls at the back, Michelle scratching her nape in chagrin.
“Why!?” - shouted Sonoko incensed herself.
“We don’t appreciate people manipulating our minds, you know?” - Haibara was looking daggers at them three, expressing the general opinion.
“Relax! I know it sounds bad, but it's not. It’s so that what’s going on here doesn’t affect your lives.” - the one with the more sporty outfit tried to placate the situation, again.
“We don’t want to mess with the timeline right?” - the girl they recognized as Indigo, from the back, posed this question.
“The timeline?” - wondered Phillip. A few people considered the idea.
“You could see it as a ‘What happens in Las Vegas, stays in Las Vegas’, am I right?” - suggested June jokingly. At that saying, almost everybody who understood, except for the actual children, who didn't know the meaning behind that saying, snorted, a few giggling.
“True!” - after calming down, they all agreed.
“Where did you learn that line?” - questioned Michelle, since that saying, from her knowledge, doesn’t exist in their universe.
“Wanna talk about alternate realities, paradoxes and everything related to it? Believe me, if we begin, we are not going to start this any time soon…” - her friend inquired, crossing her arms another time with a questioning look.
“Yeah, better not…” - the athletic girl trailed off with a grimace.
“Okay… then, let's sit down!” - clapped Jessica, finishing the explanation and signaling the beginning of the session.
“At least let me get my eel first!!” - Genta then ran towards the table full of snacks, his friends and the three mysterious girls sweatdropping before everybody else joined him to get something to eat, since they have just woken up and haven’t eaten anything yet.
Sitting arrangements (after getting their ‘breakfast’):
Sonoko — Ran — Masumi — Kazuha — Heiji
Genta — Mitsuhiko — Ayumi — Ai — Conan — Phillip
Tsuujirou — Hiroshi — Jii — Kaito — Aoko — Keiko — Akako — Saguru
Ruby — Jody — Chikage — Ginzou — Chaki — Jirokichi — Kogoro — Juuzou
The female trio will be walking around, sometimes sitting by their side.
Daniel and the other four girls will stay behind to take care of the projection, although they might change places with the main three intermittently.