Voice; Request

[singlefaith]

[Ran's not sure she's comfortable with being seen for this one, as it's a subject that's touching a little deeply for her, so for the moment she just sticks to voice.]

[She pulls in a soft breath.]

I . . . need some help.

I know a lot of you have met Conan-kun. He's been here for a while. There's another girl here from my world now too -- Ai-chan. If you haven't met them yet, I hope you get to soon.

What I need help with . . . They're both seven. They're both smart -- really smart -- for their age, but. They're both seven. And not fighters. The train doesn't seem to discriminate about who it takes, and yet the missions that it sends us on are dangerous.

[A pause, wrestling with her words.]

I need them both to be safe. This past time Sera-chan and I were able to be with them. But what happens if we're not able to do that? How does their safety get guaranteed?

I need a better guarantee. Please help me figure out how to keep two kids safe so I can get them back home? I'm teaching both some simpler self-defense, and that will help, but . . . I already know it's not enough.

Comments

[singlefaith]

Because knives are dangerous! [How is this confusing, what.] And because they're children. You don't give children weapons! Aside from them possibly hurting themselves, you can't expect a child to have to stick a knife in something, let alone kill anything!

[nocawsforconcern]

Knives aren't weapons.

[She says something like that as if it's obvious...]

Knives are tools. If you need to, sure, you can use it to kill something. But it also can cut ropes. If your kids get stuck in the wilderness, it can cut wood to make fire. It can cut food from trees. Even if they don't fight, it can scare off some bad guys. It can carve other tools you need, too, and if it's made of good metal, it can even give off sparks if you're really desperate for a fire.

If they're going into danger regardless, it's better to have that than to have them unarmed.

[singlefaith]

If you can kill someone with it, it's a weapon!

[Huff.]

The rest of what you say might be true, but that doesn't negate that it's still a weapon. The train seems to give the rest of the things we need during different missions, so I'm not as worried about them just getting lost in the wilderness or needing to cut wood.

[Though she probably could start to worry about that if she tried.]

Other tools are fine. But no knives.

[nocawsforconcern]

That's dumb. You can kill people with almost anything. A hammer isn't a weapon, but if I hit someone with it, they'd still die.

[Enna folds her arms.]

[singlefaith]

I'm not having this argument.

[Ran probably has her arms crossed too.] Still no knives.